BAM Announces the Complete Cast of Beckett's Endgame, Featuring John Turturro and Directed by Andrei Belgrader Running April
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BAM announces the complete cast of Beckett’s Endgame, featuring John Turturro and directed by Andrei Belgrader running April 25–May 18 Max Casella, Elaine Stritch, and Alvin Epstein to join cast BAM 2008 Spring Season is sponsored by Bloomberg Endgame Written by Samuel Beckett Directed by Andrei Belgrader Produced by BAM BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St.) April 25 & 26 at 7:30 Apr 29—May 3, May 6—10, May 13—17 at 7:30pm (note: Apr 30 is the press opening) May 3, 10 & 17 at 2pm April 27, May 4, 11 & 18 at 3pm Tickets: $25, 45, 65, 75 BAM.org or 718.636.4100 Brooklyn, NY/March 11, 2008—BAM announces the complete cast of its upcoming production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame. Joining John Turturro (Hamm) will be acclaimed TV, stage, and screen actor Max Casella (“The Sopranos,” The Lion King) as Clov. Veteran classical actor Alvin Epstein (Waiting for Godot, The Three Penny Opera, Tuesdays with Morrie) will play Nagg and the legendary Broadway actress Elaine Stritch will play Nell. The one-act play, originally published in 1957, is considered to be one of Beckett’s most important works. Endgame will be directed by Andrei Belgrader (American Repertory Theatre’s Ubu Rock, Yale Repertory Theatre’s Scapin). Twenty-four performances of Endgame will take place in the BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St.) from April 25 through May 18 (press opening: April 30). Tickets, priced at $25, 45, 65, 75, can be purchased by calling BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100 or by visiting BAM.org. Endgame 2 “Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that,” says Nell, in Endgame, one of Samuel Beckett’s most poignant and comical works. The play explores the relationship between Hamm and his manservant Clov. Mutually dependent in a world that seems to be coming to an end, Hamm is confined to a chair on wheels, unable to see, or stand up and Clov—can’t sit down. Joining the duo are Hamm’s parents Nagg and Nell who live in trash cans, occasionally raising their lids to speak. In spite of the indignities and routine inanities of daily existence the impulse to go on remains powerful for each of the four characters. A funny yet tragic work, Endgame examines the cruelty and tenderness of companionship and the unmistakable human drive to live. Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin in 1906 and graduated from Trinity College. He spent most of his life in Paris, where he died in 1989. Originally written in French, Endgame (Fin de partie) was translated into English by Beckett. One of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century, Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. His highly influential plays include Waiting for Godot, Krapp’s Last Tape, and Happy Days. He is the author of novels including Murphy, Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. Max Casella was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts where he honed his skills as an actor in regional theater in productions such as Tom Stoppard’s Night And Day and Cyrano de Bergerac at the prestigious Huntington Theater. Casella was a cast member of HBO’s original series “The Sopranos” starting with the show's third season; he played Benny Fazio, a loyal member of Tony Soprano’s crew who was featured in the final episode. He recently completed filming the new Sam Mendes feature, Revolutionary Road, with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and can be seen in the upcoming film Leatherheads starring with Renee Zellweger and directed by George Clooney. Casella was in the critically acclaimed mini-series “The Bronx Is Burning” with John Turturro. He also starred opposite John and Aida Turturro in Souls of Naples both off- Broadway and in Naples, Italy. Casella’s work on Broadway includes The Music Man, playing Marcellus Washburn, the wily partner-in-crime of Harold Hill. His debut on Broadway came in 1997, as Timon in the original cast of the Tony award-winning musical The Lion King for which he received a Theater World award for Outstanding Broadway Debut, as well as a Drama Desk nomination. Casella first became widely known in his role as Vinnie on the hit television series “Doogie Howser M.D.” Alvin Epstein’s Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include Orson Welles’ King Lear, the American premiere of Waiting for Godot (in which he played Lucky), the American premiere of Endgame, the world premiere of Sam Shepard’s and Joe Chaikin’s When the World Was Green, and the Ragpicker in The Madwoman of Chaillot. Roles at American Repertory Theatre include The Herald in Marat/Sade, Dr. Giannoni in Pirandello’s Enrico IV and Camillo in The Winter’s Tale. Epstein has received Most Promising Actor Award by the New York Drama Circle in 1956, an OBIE for his role as the Sergeant in Dynamite Tonight!, and the Jason Robards Award for Dedication to the Theatre. Epstein is the former artistic director of the Guthrie Theatre and A.R.T/Moscow Art Theatre Institute. Born in Michigan, Elaine Stritch studied at The New School in New York City under the direction of Erwin Piscator. Beginning her career in musical comedy on Broadway, she went from standing by for Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam to her Tony-nominated performance in the revival of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance. Her Broadway credits include Angel in the Wings, Pal Joey, On Your Toes, Bus Stop, Goldilocks, Sail Away (which she performed in both New York and London, and just recently in concert at Carnegie Hall to celebrate Noel Coward’s centennial), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (following Uta Hagen in the role of Martha), Company, and Show Boat. In London’s West End, she starred in Neil Simon’s The Gingerbread Lady and Tennessee Williams’ Small Craft Warnings. Other stage credits include the concert version of both Follies and Company at Lincoln Center and her appearance in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters with Jason Robards. Stritch made her film debut in the 1957 remake of A Farewell to Arms. She co-starred in the 1977 Alain Resnais film Providence and the award-winning BBC television series “Two’s Company.” Other film credits include Cocoon: The Return, Woody Allen’s September, Out to Sea with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, Krippendorf’s Tribe with Richard Dreyfuss, and An Unexpected Life with Stockard Channing and Stephen Collins. Stritch won a Tony Award for the Broadway production of Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, as well as two Drama Desk Awards, and she toured the show throughout the country. Other recent film roles include Monster-in-Law, starring Jane Fonda and Endgame 3 Jennifer Lopez, and Romance and Cigarettes, directed by John Turturro. Most recently, Stritch performed highly successful cabaret engagements at the Café Carlyle in New York. She also won an Emmy for her work on the television show “30 Rock.” John Turturro graduated from the Yale School of Drama. Onstage he has created the title role of John Patrick Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, for which he won an OBIE Award and a Theater World Award. He has also performed in Waiting for Godot; in the title role of Bertold Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui; and most recently in Eduardo De Filippos’s Souls of Naples, for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Turturro has performed in more than 60 films, including Martin Scorscese’s The Color of Money; Tony Bill’s Five Corners; Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing and Jungle Fever; Robert Redford’s Quiz Show (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe and a SAG Award); Peter Weir’s Fearless, Tom DiCillo’s Box of Moonlight; Francesco Rosi’s La Tregua; and Joel and Ethan Coen’s Miller’s Crossing, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. For his lead role in the Coen Brothers’ Barton Fink, he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the David di Donatello Award. For his work in television, Turturro was nominated for a SAG award for his portrayal of Howard Cosell in “Monday Night Mayhem,” and recently won an Emmy Award for his guest appearance on “Monk.” For his directorial debut, Mac, Turturro won the Camera D’Or from the Cannes Film Festival. His second film as director, Illuminata, also premiered at Cannes. His most recent film, Romance and Cigarettes, garnered critical acclaim. Andrei Belgrader is well known for his work with American Repertory Theatre productions Loot, We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!, Ubu Rock, The Servant of Two Masters, Rameau’s Nephew, The Bald Soprano, The Chairs, Waiting for Godot (for which he received the Boston Critics Circle Awards for Best Play and Best Director for 1982-3), Measure for Measure, and As You Like It. Since arriving from his native Romania in 1978, Belgrader has directed several Off-Broadway productions, including Scapin, Woyzeck, and Troilus and Cressida. At Yale Repertory Theatre he directed Molière's Scapin, which he adapted with Shelly Berc and Rusty Magee and which was subsequently performed at Classic Stage Company in New York and A.C.T. in San Francisco. His other credits with Yale Repertory Theatre include John Guare’s Moon Over Miami, The Miser, As You Like It, Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Rex, the American premiere of Dario Fo’s About Face, Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw, and Gogol’s Marriage. At the Goodman Theatre in Chicago he directed Beckett’s Happy Days.