THE HOWARD J. AIBEL THEATER CENTER WHAT’S INSIDE FROM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MARK LAMOS 7 TITLE PAGE 11 THE CAST 13 PROGRAM NOTES 16 WHO’S WHO 23 ANNUAL CONTRIBUTORS 33 BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND STAFF 45 THOUSAND PINES ABOUT THE PLAYHOUSE 52 OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 17 BY MATTHEW GREENE DIRECTED BY AUSTIN PENDLETON WORLD PREMIERE FROM OUR NEW WORKS CIRCLE INITIATIVE The use of photographic or recording devices is strictly prohibited. For the enjoyment of all patrons, please silence mobile phones, tablets, FALL 2018 TICKETS ON SALE NOW! and other electronic devices. november 5 december 17 Contact the box office to reserve your seat today! JOIN THE CONVERSATION HERSHEY FELDER PRESENTS WestportCountryPlayhouse DECEMBER 5–22, 2018 @WCPlayhouse adapted and directed by HERSHEY FELDER based on the book THE CHILDREN OF WILLESDEN LANE wcplayhouse by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen WestportPlayhouse MAN OF LA MANCHA 3 WCP | FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Dear Friends, Man of La Mancha began its unusual and successful life more suited to a less upscale — and more youthful first as a program for live television’s “golden age,” an and daring — part of Manhattan. The thrust staging, era when classic plays, great opera productions, clas- unusual for a big musical in New York, intimately con- sical ballets, and Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s nected audiences to the turbulent action on stage. Concerts were routinely broadcast “live from New La Mancha was on the fault lines. In many ways, it York.” The dramas featured major stars of stage and pointed the way toward approaching serious issues screen along with prominent writers and directors of in musical theater. In just a few seasons A Chorus Line the era. In 1959, the “DuPont Show of the Month” pre- and Company would appear, continuing to change the sented Dale Wasserman’s teleplay, “I, Don Quixote,” popular perception of what the genre should be. “[La based on Miguel de Cervantes’ 1,000 page 17th century Mancha] looked back to the golden age of musicals Spanish novel, to 20 million American viewers. Thus such as South Pacific and Carousel… while it simulta- the seeds of the musical were planted in a Manhattan neously celebrated the value of eccentricity, originality, television studio, and the speech that would become and abandon,” writes theater scholar Robert Sennet. its most famous song, “The Impossible Dream,” was almost cut before air time — twice!— until the actor Man of La Mancha has since been performed in almost playing the title role (the great Lee J. Cobb) insisted it fifty countries — a story so beloved and universal be reinstated. that it resonates around the world. I hope it speaks to you tonight, and that you might even linger on its The show began its life as a musical just up the road relevance today, with a prison incarceration problem from Westport Playhouse in 1965. The refurbished of massive scale and a surging mass of desperate Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecti- humanity attempting to cross our borders to make cut had opened its doors as a home for musicals just impossible dreams come true. three seasons earlier. Wasserman’s retooled and retitled Man of La Mancha, now with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion, would be its first world premiere. In his 2003 memoir The Impossible Musical, MARK LAMOS Wasserman perhaps arguably suggested that, “All of Artistic Director [Goodspeed Opera’s] success and fame, stretching many decades now, is due to a venturesome new musical that opened in the summer of 1965 called Man of La Mancha.” When the show was ready for New York, the produc- ers decided it would be wiser to place it closer to the flourishing downtown”“ scene in Greenwich Village, with its counter-culture 1960s energy, instead of the more obviously commercial uptown Broadway. They felt its story of one man fighting the odds, ennobling all he sees, and dreaming impossible dreams, was Photo by Bruce Plotkin MAN OF LA MANCHA 10 WESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE | 2018 SEASON PRESENTS Man of La Mancha WRITTEN BY DALE WASSERMAN MUSIC BY MITCH LEIGH | LYRICS BY JOE DARION PRODUCTION DIRECTED BY MARK LAMOS SCENIC DESIGN COSTUME DESIGN LIGHTING DESIGN Wilson Chin Fabian Fidel Aguilar Alan C. Edwards SOUND DESIGN MUSICAL STAGING BY CHOREOGRAPHER Domonic Sack Marcos Santana & Mark Lamos Marcos Santana MUSIC DIRECTOR MUSIC SUPERVISOR FIGHT DIRECTOR / INTIMACY COACH Andrew David Sotomayor Wayne Barker Michael Rossmy PROPS MASTER CASTING PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER Samantha Shoffner Tara Rubin Casting Ryan Gohsman Eric Woodall, CSA Original Production staged by Albert Marre Originally produced by Albert W. Selden and Hal James Man of La Mancha is presented by arrangement with Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc., 560 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York 10022 SPECIAL FUNDING PRODUCTION SPONSORS PRODUCTION PARTNERS EDUCATION SPONSORS MAUREEN & EDWIN SCHLOSS BARBARA & JOHN SAMUELSON CAROL & PETER SELDIN THE GRAHAM FOUNDATION OF CT BARBARA & JOHN STREICKER THE DAVID & GERI EPSTEIN PRIVATE FOUNDATION CORPORATE PRODUCTION SPONSOR CORPORATE PRODUCTION PARTNER SEPTEMBER 25 – OCTOBER 13 12 WESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE | 2018 SEASON THE CAST IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER ALDONZA Gisela Adisa* PEDRO/PRISONER Ceasar F. Barajas* PADRE/PRISONER Carlos Encinias* PACO/GUARD/HORSE/PRISONER Michael Scott Gomez* CERVANTES/DON QUIXOTE Philip Hernandez* ANTONIA/PRISONER Paola Hernandez SANCHO/PANZA/PRISONER Tony Manna* INNKEEPER/TENORIO/PRISONER Michael Mendez* CAPTAIN/ANSELMO/PRISONER Ian Paget* MARIA/HOUSEKEEPER/PRISONER/ON-STAGE GUITAR PLAYER Lulu Picart* GUARD/JUAN/HORSE/PRISONER Jermaine Rowe* GOVERNOR/PRISONER David Sattler* DUKE/CARRASCO/PRISONER Clay Singer BARBER/JOSE/PRISONER Esteban Suero* *Member of Actors’ Equity Association SETTING A prison in the city of Seville and various places in the imagination of Miguel de Cervantes. Man of La Mancha will be performed with a 15-minute intermission This theatre operates under an agreement between The League of Regional Theatres and ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. The Director is a member of the STAGE DIRECTORS AND CHOREOGRAPHERS SOCIETY, a national theatrical labor union. Westport Country Playhouse employs members of the INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES, Local 74. The Scenic, Costume, Lighting, and Sound Designers in LORT theatres are represented by United Scenic Artists Local USA-829, IATSE. MAN OF LA MANCHA 13 14 WESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE | 2018 SEASON MUSICAL NUMBERS act I Overture I Really Like Him Orchestra Sancho Man Of La Mancha What Does He Want Of Me Don Quixote, Sancho Aldonza It’s All The Same Little Bird, Little Bird Aldonza, Muleteers Anselmo, Pedro, Muleteers Dulcinea Barber’s Song Don Quixote, Muleteers Barber I’m Only Thinking Of Him Golden Helmet Of Mambrino Antonia, Housekeeper, Padre Don Quixote, Sancho, Barber, Muleteers We’re Only Thinking Of Him To Each His Dulcinea (To Every Man His Dream) Carrasco, Antonia, Padre, Housekeeper Padre The Missive The Impossible Dream (The Quest) Sancho Don Quixote act II The Combat A Little Gossip Orchestra Sancho The Dubbing / Knight Of The Woeful Countenance Dulcinea REPRISE Innkeeper, Don Quixote, Aldonza, Sancho Aldonza The Abduction The Impossible Dream (The Quest) REPRISE Anselmo, Pedro, Fermina Don Quixote The Impossible Dream (The Quest) REPRISE Man Of La Mancha (I, Don Quixote) REPRISE Don Quixote Don Quixote, Sancho, Aldonza Man Of La Mancha REPRISE The Psalm Don Quixote Padre Finale Aldonza Aldonza Company MUSICIANS Ben Clymer Joseph Russo Trombone String Bass Nicholas DiFabbio Marshall Sealy Guitar French Horn Daniel Louis Duncan Arei Sekiguchi Trumpet Percussion Simon Hutchings Reeds MAN OF LA MANCHA 15 miguel de v ce®PROGRAM NOTES BY DAVID KENNEDY, ASSOCIATEa≠πes ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND LIAM LONEGAN, DIRECTING FELLOW orn outside of Madrid in 1547, the Battle of Lepanto. After his recovery, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, he was based mainly in Naples for the considered by many to be the following three years, making expeditions Binventor of the modern novel, is regarded as from there to places throughout the the greatest writer in the Spanish language. Mediterranean. It was in 1575, while His most famous work, Don Quixote, has sailing from Italy to Barcelona, that his been translated into more languages than ship was attacked, and he was captured any other book except the Bible. While the by Barbary pirates. Imprisoned in North adventures of the novel’s protagonist are many, Cervantes’ real-life adventures give [∏his] five-year captivity the title character a run for his money. left an indelible impression… In 1570 Cervantes enlisted in a regiment the traumatic experience of the Spanish Navy Marines, and was continuously speaks through wounded three times in October 1571 [Cervantes’] work. in the victory over the Ottoman fleet at MARIA ANTONIA GARCÉS Andreis van Eertvelt (1590-1652) The Battle of Lepanto, 1622. Oil on copper. Africa and kept as a slave, he made four Though Cervantes is known primarily unsuccessful escape attempts before he for Don Quixote, it is said that, above all, was ransomed by his parents in 1580 he wanted to be a dramatist. He penned and sent back to Spain. According to sixteen dramatic works: eight full-length Cervantes scholar Maria Antonia Garcés, plays and eight short farces. Most of them this “five-year captivity in Algiers left an are lost to history, but two survive. El Trato indelible impression on his fiction. From de Argel details his experiences in pirate the first works written after his liberation…this traumatic experience continuously speaks through his work.” That was not the last time Cervantes was imprisoned. Returning to Spain, he attempted to live a fairly modest life as a tax collector in the Kingdom of Granada. But, after successfully gathering funds owed Fortunino Matania (1881-1963) Cervantes Brought Before Hassan Pasha, King of Algiers. Color lithograph. Undated. the Crown, he deposited the money with a Sevillian banker who captivity and La Numancia depicts the went bankrupt soon thereafter, leaving tragic and violent events of the siege of Cervantes’ accounts unpaid.