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BAMbill January 2008

2008 Spring Season

Eddie Martinez, Intergalactic Go Fish, 2007

BAM 2008 Spring Season is sponsored by: 2008 Spring Season

Brooklyn Academy of Music Alan H. Fishman William I. Campbell Chairman of the Board Vice Chairman of the Board

Karen Brooks Hopkins Joseph V. Melillo President Executive Producer presents Approximate BAM Harvey Theater running time: Jan 8—12, 15—19, 22—26, Jan 29—Feb 2 at 7:30pm one hour and Jan 12, 19, 26 & Feb 2 at 2pm 40 minutes, Jan 13, 20 & 27 at 3pm one intermission By National of Great Britain Produced by Karl Sydow

Winnie Willie Tim Potter

Directed by Set design by Tom Pye Lighting design by Jean Kalman Sound score by Mel Mercier Sound design by Christopher Shutt Costume consultant Luca Costigliolo

American stage manager Jane Pole

Premiere: The National Theatre’s Lyttelton Theatre, January 24, 2007 Happy Days by Samuel Beckett is presented through special arrangement with Georges Borchardt, Inc, on behalf of the Estate of Samuel Beckett.

Supported by Laura Pels Foundation BAM 2008 Spring Season is sponsored by Bloomberg.

Major support for Happy Days is provided by Newman’s Own Foundation and David L. Klein, Jr. Foundation.

Leadership support for BAM Theater is provided by The Shubert Foundation, Inc., The SHS Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, with major support from Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and Rose M. Badgeley Residuary Charitable Trust. Happy Days

Happy Days by Samuel Beckett

“Ah yes, so little to say, so little to do, and the fear so great, certain days, of finding oneself… left, with hours still to run, before the bell for sleep, and nothing more to say, nothing more to do, that the days go by, certain days go by, quite by, the bell goes, and little or nothing said, little or nothing done. [Raising parasol.] That is the danger. [Turning front.] To be guarded against.”

Blazing light, scorched grass. Buried to above her waist and woken by a piercing bell, Winnie chatters away as she rummages in a bag, brushes her teeth, pulls out and kisses a revolver. Her husband, Willie, responds now and then, reads from an old paper, studies a pornographic postcard. A second bell signals the end of another happy day.

Written in 1960, Samuel Beckett’s extraordinary play opened the new National Theatre on the South Bank in London in 1976. The play returned to the National in 2007 with Fiona Shaw and Deborah Warner, one of theater’s richest and most enduring working partnerships (Richard II, Electra, The PowerBook, , ).

FOR THE HAPPY DAYS

Production Manager Katrina Gilroy Company Manager Sarah Ford Associate Lighting Designer Simon Fraulo Stage Supervisor Prad Pankhania Scenic Artists Victoria Fifield Charles Court

Producer Karl Sydow for Dance with Mr D General Management Nick Salmon and Imogen Kinchin for Act Productions

With special thanks to Nicole Richardson and Emma Cameron Pádraig Cusack for the National Theatre

The National’s workshops are responsible for, on this production: Armoury; Costume; Props & furniture; Scenic construction; Scenic painting; Wigs

FOR ACT PRODUCTIONS: Chairman Roger Wingate Director of Production Nick Salmon Producer Matthew Byam Shaw General Manager Nia Janis Production Administrator Janet Powell Assistant Producer Imogen Kinchin Production Assistant Amardeep Kamboz Production Assistant Despina Tsatsas Administrative Assistant Georgia Gatti Head of Finance Kerrie Cronin Production Accountant Kate Barraball Associate Producer Roger Chapman

www.actproductions.co.uk

The actors are appearing with the permission of Actors’ Equity Association. The American stage manager is a member of Actors’ Equity Association. On Happy Days and Beckett

by Alice Oswald

Happy Days is a very funny play. One approach to it, which I hope wouldn’t offend Beckett’s loathing of textual analysis, is to apply some basic topography to the script. After all, Beckett’s study, where most of Happy Days was written, looked out on the Sante prison—so that, just like Winnie, he had to raise his eyes to the zenith to remain cheerful: “I’ll learn to raise the eyes to Val de Grace, Pantheon and the glimpse of Notre Dame…” That kind of random, domestic detail will often flash up in a text, caught in it like a stranger in a photograph.

But the geography of a Beckett play is never straightforward. Fluent in three languages, Beckett wrote most of his plays in French. He wrote Happy Days in English, in Paris, incorporating bits of his Irish childhood. He then struggled to translate it into French, but having done so, Madeleine Renaud’s performance at the Théâtre de l’Odeon turned out to be his favorite.

Then there’s the imagery of the play, which is neither French nor Irish but recalls Dante’s Inferno, where people rise up half out of mud or ice to express themselves. To locate the Fiiona Shaw. Photo: Hugo Glendinning Shaw. Fiiona action and the author in the Uncountry of the their climate, their hidden tricks and traits, are Underworld certainly fits with Beckett’s own off- definitely lunar. hand explanation: “Well I thought that the most dreadful thing that could happen to anybody Think of . Inspired by a painting would be not to be allowed to sleep, so that just of two men looking at the moon, it’s been said as you’re dropping off there’d be a ‘Dong’ and that nothing happens twice in that play. But in you’d have to keep awake; you’re sinking into the fact one thing happens twice: the moon rises. ground alive and it’s full of ants and the sun is Each time it rises, the characters are, at least shining endlessly...” outwardly, transformed; which is why Beckett asked them in rehearsal “to speak as if with Paris, Dublin, Hell—any of those give useful moonlight in your voices.” grid references for a work by Beckett. But the map I most often take to his writing is a map of Ill Seen Ill Said (written nineteen years later) the night sky. Beckett was an insomniac and a has been described as a prose poem about a late riser. He himself observed that a writer will woman in black, who lives alone in a cabin inevitably make use of his sensory input, even surrounded by twelve figures and makes regular though that may not actually be his subject. He visits to a white tombstone. I haven’t anywhere also said that “the daylight world is a world of seen it described as a piece of writing about the blindness” and “on commence enfin à voir dans moon. But it is. Who else could a woman be le noir.” I think it could be argued that Beckett’s whose “long white hair stares in a fan. Above real topos was a nightscape, whose most familiar and about the impassive face,” who comes and landmark (or skymark) was the moon. His goes mysteriously: “as hope expires of her ever plays are first and foremost about people, but reappearing, she reappears,” “she re-emerges On Happy Days and Beckett

on her back”? All the furniture of her story—the out of someone’s eye.” I read Happy Days as a bowl filling and emptying, the hook on the wall, prologue to Ill Seen Ill Said, which far from being the tombstone—have counterparts in ancient a prose poem about a woman in black, is really myths about the moon. And her twelve aloof a silent play about the moon. A play reduced to companions are certainly the zodiac. stage directions because the central character has run out of words: “What would I do without them, Of course Beckett was against reductive when words fail? (pause) Gaze before me with explanations of his work. Whenever Brenda compressed lips.” (Happy Days) “Re-examined Bruce, who played the original Winnie, asked rid of light, the mouth changes, unexplainably. him some question about the text, he would Lips as before. Same closure.” (Ill Seen Ill Said) answer: “Tis of no consequence.” I wouldn’t want to imply that the moon is the meaning of The moon, as a Muse or a meaning or a Ill Seen Ill Said, (which probably has more to do map reference, is an intermittent thing and with Beckett’s dead mother than anything else), intermittence is a key ingredient of Beckett’s simply that it is visibly afloat in the writing. And if style. The text of Happy Days, every so often you read the words with moonlight in your voice, blanked out with the word “(pause)”, reads you begin to notice all kinds of connections with something like a lunar calendar with its regular Happy Days. patterns of blanked out nights. “The experience of my reader,” said Beckett “shall be between “Seated on the stones, she is seen from behind, the phrases, in the silence communicated by the from the waist up.” intervals, not the terms of the statement… his “Alone her face remains. Of the rest, beneath its experience shall be the menace, the miracle, the covering, no trace.” memory of an unspeakable trajectory…” “Ghost of an ancient smile, smiled finally, once and for all.” Beckett’s stage directions, taken to an absurd “Full glare now on the face present. Throughout extreme in Happy Days, are the trace of that the recent future.” trajectory. They are immaculately paced pieces of silence, in and out of which Winnie moves, trying Any of those lines from Ill Seen Ill Said could desperately to read her toothbrush. She is above just as well refer to Happy Days. Another line: all a victim of interruption. After a magnificent “wooed from below, the face consents at last” 118 pauses, having kept the audience on goes some way to explaining the bizarre courtship tenterhooks with her lack of concentration, appearance of Willie in Act 2. In the light of she finally comes out with: “fully guaranteed… those connections, maybe we can even make genuine pure… hog’s… setae.” By such something of Winnie’s odd little tale about her extraordinary and humorous means, Beckett took doll: “Milly rose… descended all alone the steep on the central challenge of poetry, which is not, wooden stairs… and began to undress dolly…” as in prose, to render everything into language, In Mesopotamian mythology, the waning moon but to express what lies beyond language. But ‘tis is said to go down the steps to the underworld, of no consequence. ) being slowly stripped of her clothes until she’s naked. © Alice Oswald, January 2007

In 1958, in the two year run-up to writing Happy Alice Oswald’s first collection of poetry, The Thing Days, Beckett turned back to his copy of Dante. in the Gap-Stone Stile (1996), won a Forward Suzanne Beckett recorded him: “poring over Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Beatrice’s explanations of the spots on the moon Prize. Her second collection, Dart (2002), won in the Paradiso.” Dante identified those spots with the TS Eliot Prize. In 2004, Alice Oswald was the figure of Cain. Whether or not Willie, with his named as one of the Poetry Book Society’s revolver, is a kind of Cain, Winnie, for whatever ‘Next Generation’ poets. Her latest collection, reason, finds herself in the moon’s predicament: Woods, published in 2005, was shortlisted for half vanished, then a quarter vanished: “I am the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection clear then dim then gone then dim again then of the Year). She recently won the 2006 Geoffrey clear again and so on. Back and forth, in and Faber Memorial Prize. Who’s Who Fiona Shaw (Winnie) was born Dublin; was awarded L’Officier des Arts et des and educated in Ireland, where Lettres by the French Government in 2000; and she gained a BA in Philosophy. made an honorary CBE in 2001. She moved to London and trained at RADA, where she Tim Potter (Willie) trained at received the Bancroft Gold Central School of Speech and Medal. Her theater work . His work in theater includes Medea which was includes: The Sea, Accidental seen in New York including Death of an Anarchist, and at BAM in 2002 (Tony Award Salome at the National; Julius nomination, Obie Award winner). Other work Caesar (directed by Deborah directed by Deborah Warner includes the title Warner) and Knight of the role in Richard II at the National Theatre; Julius Burning Pestle at the Barbican; Caesar at the Barbican; The Good Person of I Licked a Slag’s Deodorant, Sichuan (London Critics’ Award for Best Actress The Libertine, Man of Mode, and Hysteria at 1990); at the Playhouse from the the Royal Court; Tale of Two Cities at Glasgow , Dublin (London Critics’ Award Citizens; Victims of Duty at Exeter; Dog Beneath 1991); Electra at , in Paris the Skin and The Wizard of Oz at the Half Moon; and on UK tour (Olivier Award for Best Actress Victims of Duty at Theatre Space; and Streetcar 1990); The PowerBook at the National Theatre; Named Desire, Psycho, Citizen Kane, Fall of the Beckett’s Footfalls at the Garrick; Eliot’s The House of Usher, and Jack O’Dandy with Acme Waste Land at Wilton’s Music Hall, London, and Acting (Founder Member). TV includes Trial and on tour in Canada, New York, Paris, Australia, Retribution; According to Bex; Byron; Crime and Norway, and Germany, and in readings at the Punishment; Murder Rooms; The Infinite Worlds Théâtre National de Chaillot and in Rome. Other of H.G. Wells; Prince and the Pauper; The Bill; recent work includes Woman and Scarecrow Second Sight; A Christmas Carol; Bramwell; at the Royal Court and Lincoln Center; Death, Alice in Wonderland; Noah’s Ark; Beyond Fear; Destruction and Detroit III for Robert Wilson. The Pale Horse; Soldier, Soldier; Minder; The Work at the National Theatre includes The Prime Chief; Lovejoy; Kinsey; Witchcraft; My Sisterwife; of Miss Jean Brodie, The Rivals, Machinal Underbelly; Blood Rights; Wild Things; Ties of (Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Blood; ; Dead Head; I Woke Actress 1993), and Millamant in The Way of the Up One Morning; Angels in the Annexe; Luna; World. Work at the RSC includes Philistines, Les Video Stars; Walter and June; and Vroom. Films Liaisons Dangéreuses, Mephisto, Hyde Park, include Finding Neverland, Faintheart, Miss The Taming of the Shrew, New Inn, and small Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Cheeky, Lives scale tours of and The of Tomas Katz, Entrapment, Onegin, Fierce Merchant of Venice. Early work includes Mary Creatures, The Young Poisoner’s Handbook, Stuart at Greenwich Theatre and As You Like Salome’s Last Dance, and Fall From Grace. It at (Olivier Award for Best Actress Radio includes Hysteria and Tales from the Islands. 1990). Her TV appearances in America include Persuasion, Hedda Gabler, Gormenghast, and Deborah Warner’s (director) work in theater Fireworks for Elspeth. Her films includeMy Left includes The Good Person of Sichuan, Woyzeck, Foot, The Butcher Boy, Mountains of the Moon, , Measure for Measure, Catch and Release, The Black Dahlia, Anna and for Kick Theatre Company; Karenina, Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Titus Andronicus (Olivier and Evening Standard Stone, Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Awards for Direction), , and Electra Azkaban, Jane Eyre, The Last September, for the RSC; The Good Person of Sichuan, King The Triumph of Love, Three Men and A Little Lear, Richard II (French Critics’ Best Foreign Lady, London Kills Me, Underground Blues, Production), The PowerBook for the National The Avengers, and Skin and Blister. She has Theatre; Hedda Gabler (Olivier Awards for honorary degrees from the National University of Direction and Production) at the Abbey Theatre, Ireland, the Open University, and Trinity College, Dublin and , London; Who’s Who Beckett’s Footfalls at the , London; television, and film. Recent projects include Coriolanus with Bruno Ganz at ; Cyrano de Bergerac directed by David Leveaux Une Maison de Poupée at the Odéon, Paris; (Broadway), Il Tabarro directed by David Pountney Medea (Evening Standard Award for Direction, (Lyon), Les Noces de Figaro directed by Adrian three Tony nominations and two Obies) at the Noble (Lyon), Orfeo directed by Chen Shi-Zheng Abbey Theatre, Dublin and Queen’s Theatre, (ENO), Sinatra directed by David Leveaux (West London, also US tour including BAM and End), Cosí fan tutte directed by Adrian Noble Broadway; and three devised installation pieces— (Lyon), directed by Deborah The St. Pancras Project, The Tower Project for Warner (ENO), Measure for Measure directed LIFT, and The Angel Project for Perth International by Simon McBurney (National Theatre, world Arts Festival and Lincoln Center Festival. Her tour) for Complicité, and The production of The Waste Land with Fiona Shaw Glass Menagerie both directed by David Leveaux visited Brussels, Dublin, Paris, Montreal, Toronto, (Broadway), Fewer Emergencies directed by Brighton, Adelaide, Bergen, Perth, London—at James Macdonald (Royal Court), and costumes Wilton’s Music Hall (where it was the first live for two of the ‘8 Little Greats’ season ( theater event since the theater closed in the North). Other credits include (Aix nineteenth century)—and the , Festival, world tour) and costumes for The Magic New York (now hidden behind Madame Tussaud’s Flute (). Work with Deborah Warner and Applebee’s on 42nd Street) where it won two includes (Barbican, Paris, Madrid) New York Drama Desk Awards. She directed (Munich), The PowerBook Julius Caesar at the Barbican, starring Ralph (National Theatre, Paris, Rome), The Diary of Fiennes, Anton Lesser, , and One Who Vanished (ENO/National Theatre), The Fiona Shaw, which toured to Paris, Madrid, and Turn of the Screw (ROH), Medea (Dublin, West Luxembourg; and Readings with Fiona Shaw for End, Broadway, Paris, US tour), St. John Passion Fitzroy Productions at the Theâtre National de (ENO), La voix humaine (Opera North), The Chaillot, Roma Europa Festival, Italy, and the Angel and Tower Projects (installations staged Holland Festival. Opera includes La Voix Humaine in New York, London, and Perth, Australia), and for Opera North; Don Giovanni and and art direction for Richard II (film for TV). Fidelio at Glyndebourne; Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher Television credits include the Emmy Award- for BBC Proms; The Turn of the Screw (Evening winning Gloriana, Twelfth Night (Channel 4), Just Standard and South Bank Show Awards) for the William, and The Late Michael Clark (BBC). Film ; Diary of One Who Vanished credits include A Feast at Midnight and Christie for ENO at the Dublin Festival, Bobigny, Holland Malry’s Own Double Entry. Plans include Top Girls Festival, Lincoln Center New York, and at the directed by James Macdonald (Manhattan Theatre National; St. John Passion for ENO, The Rape of Club), and Major Barbara directed by Nicholas Lucretia for Bayerische Opera (Munich), Dido and Hytner (National Theatre). Aeneas for William Christie/Les Arts Florissants at the Vienna Festival; and Death in Venice with Jean Kalman’s (lighting designer) work in London for ENO. Television includes Hedda theater includes, with Deborah Warner, The Gabler, Richard II, and The St. John Passion. Wasteland, Electra, Hedda Gabler, and Julius Films include The Waste Land (Un Certain Caesar, and at the National Theatre King Lear, Regard, Cannes Film Festival) and The Last The Good Person of Sichuan, The PowerBook, September (Official Selection Director’s Fortnight, and Happy Days. Also at the National Macbeth, Cannes, Toronto, and Edinburgh Film Festivals). Richard III, White Chameleon (Olivier Award for She was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts the last two), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. et des Lettres by the French government in 1992 For the RSC: , Julius Caesar, and L’Officier des Arts et des Lettres in 2000, and Little Eyolf, and Pericles. For the Royal Court: was made a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours Blasted, Motortown, and Lucky Dog. In the West list in 2006. End: The Beautiful Game, Festen (from the Almeida; Evening Standard Award), The Crucible Tom Pye (designer) has designed sets and (RSC), and Cabaret. His work with costumes throughout the world in theater, opera, includes , The Mahabharata,

Who’s Who

Woza Albert, and The Tempest. He also works Award for Outstanding Sound Design for Not About extensively in opera all over the world. Nightingales and Mnemonic. Nominated for a 2006 Olivier Award for Coram Boy. Mel Mercier (sound score) is a lecturer in Music at University College Cork, where he specializes Luca Costigliolo (costume consultant) is an in Irish traditional music, ethnomusicology, Italian costume designer who specializes in Javanese gamelan, Indian classical music, and reconstructing historical clothes for the stage. He Ewe dance drumming (Ghana). He is the Director worked at Shakespeare’s Globe for several years of the UCC Javanese gamelan Nyai Sekar Madu on productions including Sari. As a Bodhrán and Bones player Mercier (1999), (2000), and Twelfth Night has performed and collaborated extensively with (2002). Designs at the Globe include Richard pianist and composer Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, II (2003), Richard III (2003), and Much Ado and with John Cage and the Merce Cunningham About Nothing (2004). His work on costume Dance Company (Roaratorio, Inlets, Duets). encompasses plays and films to opera and Music composition for the theater includes The ballet, in Italy and around Europe. He previously PowerBook (National Theatre, also in Paris worked with Deborah Warner on Purcell’s Dido and Rome); Medea (Abbey Theatre/West End/ and Aeneas for the Vienna Festival, as assistant Broadway/Paris/Rome—Drama Desk Nomination, designer to Chloe Obolensky. Other work includes US); Julius Caesar (Barbican, Paris, Madrid, Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Saint of Bleecker Street Luxembourg); Readings (Paris, Rome); Fewer for the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto and the Emergencies (Royal Court); and The Merchant Italian filmN, io e Napoleone, directed by Paolo of Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream Virzi, for which he made the costumes for the (co-composed with Linda Buckley, Corcadorca, Italian actress Monica Bellucci. Cork). Commissions include Telephone and Gongs (2004), Kelly and Andy (2005), both for UCC Jane Pole (American stage manager) Gamelan Ensemble; and Panarama (Signature Broadway: Tartuffe. Off Broadway: Evil Dead The Music for Cork 2005: European Capital of Culture). Musical; Burleigh Grimes; Measure for Pleasure; Almost Heaven; A Woman of Will; Coriolanus; Christopher Shutt (sound designer) for the ˇSvejk; The Oldest Profession; The Roaring Girle; National Theatre has designed sound for War Kiki & Herb: A Coup de Théâtre; Franny’s Way; Horse, Happy Days, , Chatroom/ Breath, Boom; This Thing of Darkness. BAM: Citizenship, Measure for Measure, Coram Boy, King Lear; The Seagull; Medea. NYSAF: The A Dream Play, Mourning Becomes Elektra, Boy Who Heard Music; Geometry of Fire; Jerry Play Without Words, The PowerBook, Humble Christmas; Dangerous Beauty; Defiance; Honor Boy (and Broadway), Hamlet, Albert Speer, and the River. RSC: 50 productions including A Not About Nightingales (and New York),and Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Broken Heart Machinal. For the RSC: Noughts & Crosses, Much (Michael Boyd), Antony and Cleopatra, As You Ado, King John. For Complicité: A Disappearing Like It (Steven Pimlott), Two Gentlemen of Verona Number, The Elephant Vanishes (Japan, London, (Edward Hall), Hamlet (), Julius New York, Paris); A Minute Too Late, Measure Caesar, The Gift of the Gorgon (Sir ), for Measure (National Theatre, European The Tempest (), , The Tour), Strange Poetry (with LA Philharmonic), Seagull (), Romeo and Juliet, ‘Tis Pity Mnemonic (London, New York, World Tour); The She’s a Whore (David Leveaux). Noise of Time (New York, London); The Street of Crocodiles, The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol, Karl Sydow’s (producer) current projects The Caucasian Chalk Circle. West End: All About include Ring Round the Moon by My Mother (Old Vic); The Bacchae (National and adapted by directed by Theatre of Scotland); Phaedre, Hecuba (Donmar); at the Playhouse, and Jenufa by Julius Caesar (Barbican); The Earthly Paradise Timberlake Wertenbaker directed by Irina Brown (Almeida); Humble Boy (Gielgud). Off Broadway: at the Arcola Theatre. Sydow has produced/co- The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (with Al Pacino). produced: Dirty Dancing at the ; Radio: A Shropshire Lad (BBC Radio 4); After Sinatra at the London Palladium (the spectacular the Quake (BBC Radio 3). New York Drama Desk multimedia production directed by David Leveaux Who’s Who

with choreography by Stephen Mear); And Then backstage tours, foyer music, exhibitions, and free There Were None with Tara Fitzgerald at the outdoor entertainment, the National recognizes Gielgud; the London & Sydney production of that the theater doesn’t begin and end with the Dance of Death with Sir Ian McKellen, Frances de rise and fall of the curtain. And by touring, it la Tour, and Owen Teale; Bea Arthur at the Savoy; shares its work with audiences in the UK and Auntie and Me, with Alan Davies and Margaret abroad. Tyzack at the Wyndham’s; Michael Moore, Live! Information: +44 20 7452 3400 at the Roundhouse; the West End premiere of Box Office: +44 20 7452 3000 Noel Coward’s Semi Monde; Kevin Elyot’s Mouth National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1 9PX to Mouth at the Albery Theatre with Lyndsay www.nationaltheatre.org.uk Registered Charity No: 224223 Duncan and Michael Maloney; David Mamet’s Chairman of the NT Board Speed the Plow with Mark Strong, Patrick Marber, Sir Hayden Phillips Director of the National Theatre and Kimberly Williams; Drummers by Simon Executive Director Bennet and Some Explicit Polaroids by Mark Nick Starr Associate Producer Ravenhill (winner of the Evening Standard Award Pádraig Cusack The National Theatre would like to acknowledge as Most Promising Newcomer) both directed by the support of US partners Bob Boyett and Ostar Max Stafford-Clark for Out of Joint; Macbeth with Productions. Rufus Sewell at the Queens Theatre; A Swell Party a celebration of Cole Porter at the Vaudeville Act Productions: General Manager Theatre; Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Act Productions is a Producer and General Good (nominated for six and received Manager in the West End and on tour, both the Olivier Award for Best Play and the New York nationally and internationally. Current and recent Critics’ Award for Best Foreign Play); Hysteria productions include Boeing-Boeing directed by (Best , Olivier Awards), and an adaptation Matthew Warchus (Comedy); A Midsummer of Sue Townsend’s novel The Queen and I Night’s Dream directed by Tim Supple which was Out of Joint’s inaugural production. (Roundhouse, UK tour); Whipping It Up starring Sydow continues to serve on the board of Out Richard Wilson (Ambassadors and UK tour); of Joint, the UK leading producer of new writing Frost/Nixon starring Frank Langella and Michael for the theater. He also served as a director of Sheen directed by (Gielgud and Renaissance Film Company. He continues to act Broadway); Office Suiteby starring as an independent film producer; projects under Patricia Routledge (UK tour); Edward Scissorhands development with David Parfitt, his colleague from choreographed and directed by Matthew Bourne Renaissance, include A Bunch of Amateurs by Ian (Sadler’s Wells, UK, Asia, and US tour); A Hislop & Nick Newman and the film ofCape High Voyage Round My Father starring by award winning writer/director Sean Mathias. (Wyndhams); Wicked (Apollo Victoria); Sinatra at the London Palladium directed by David Leveaux; National Theatre Epitaph for George Dillon starring Joseph Fiennes The National, founded in and directed by (Comedy); the Donmar 1963, and established on Warehouse production of Mary Stuart (Apollo); the South Bank in 1976, has three theaters—the Olivier, the Lyttelton, and the Don Carlos starring Derek Jacobi, directed by Cottesloe. It presents an eclectic mix of new plays Michael Grandage (Gielgud); The National and classics, with seven or eight productions Theatre’s production of Anything Goes directed in repertory at any one time. It aims constantly by (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane); to re-energize the great traditions of the British The National Theatre production of Humble Boy stage and to expand the horizons of audiences with Simon Russell Beale and and artists alike, and aspires to reflect in its directed by (Gielgud and Broadway); repertoire the diversity of the nation’s culture. At The National Theatre production of Noises Off its Studio, the National offers a space for research by Michael Frayn, directed by Jeremy Sams and development for the NT’s stages and the (Piccadilly and Broadway); with theater as a whole; and through NT Education, Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, directed by tomorrow’s audiences are addressed. With its David Leveaux, which won three Tony Awards extensive program of Platform performances, (Albery and Broadway).