THE HOWARD J. AIBEL THEATER CENTER WHAT’S INSIDE FROM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MARK LAMOS 7 TITLE PAGE 11 THE CAST 13 PROGRAM NOTES 15 WHO’S WHO 21 ANNUAL CONTRIBUTORS 28 THE UNDERSTUDY BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND STAFF 39 AUGUST 14 – SEPTEMBER 1 ABOUT THE PLAYHOUSE 44 BY THERESA REBECK DIRECTED BY DAVID KENNEDY THE SMASH HIT OFF-BROADWAY COMEDY! MAN OF LA MANCHA The use of photographic or recording SEPTEMBER 25 – OCTOBER 13 devices is strictly prohibited. WRITTEN BY DALE WASSERMAN MUSIC BY MITCH LEIGH LYRICS BY JOE DARION DIRECTED BY MARK LAMOS For the enjoyment of all patrons, WINNER OF 5 TONY AWARDS, INCLUDING BEST MUSICAL! please silence mobile phones, tablets, and other electronic devices. THOUSAND PINES OCTOBER 30 – NOVEMBER 17 BY MATTHEW GREENE DIRECTED BY AUSTIN PENDLETON JOIN THE CONVERSATION WORLD PREMIERE FROM OUR NEW WORKS CIRCLE INITIATIVE WestportCountryPlayhouse HERSHEY FELDER PRESENTS @WCPlayhouse DECEMBER 5–22, 2018 wcplayhouse adapted and directed by HERSHEY FELDER based on the book WestportPlayhouse THE CHILDREN OF WILLESDEN LANE by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen A FLEA IN HER EAR 3 WCP | FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Dear Friends, Welcome to this co-production between This kind of theater, which is almost like the Playhouse and the Resident Ensemble a ballet for actors as well as the director, Players, a professional resident company of became the inspiration for the great silent perfectly-trained actors that performs in a film comedies of Max Sennett, Chaplin, beautiful new theater on the campus of the Keaton, and Laurel & Hardy. The mad University of Delaware. REP Artistic Director mistakes and misapprehensions that lead Sanford Robbins and I had long wanted to to even more mistakes are all components find a suitable play for us to produce together of classic comedy, as is the conceit of with the marvelous company of actors he characters who look so much alike that even has brought together there. I’ve had the their spouses and lovers get them confused. great good fortune to work with them twice I hope you enjoy this joyously performed before, and it is a singular honor for us to be classic comedy as much as we enjoyed able to host them here at the Playhouse. bringing it back to life — on both our stages. The production was conceived for both theaters — no mean feat for designers and technical crews in both venues. But we achieved it. MARK LAMOS A Flea in Her Ear had an exhilarating premiere Artistic Director in Newark, Delaware, in March. I had a glorious time working on it with this company — a group of perfectionists who were determined to find the freshness of this 111- year old play! There is nothing in the theater like the energy of a group of like-minded artist/actors all working together to form a seamless ensemble. And if any play requires that, it is Georges Feydeau’s wind-up Swiss watch of a farce. Written at the turn of the last century, it has since held the stage all over the world. I’ve always longed to direct it, so the chance to create the production with these actors proved irresistible. Photo by Bruce Plotkin A FLEA IN HER EAR A FLEA IN HER EAR 9 10 WESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE | 2018 SEASON in a co-production with Resident Ensemble Players, University of Delaware PRESENTS A NEW VERSION OF GEORGE FEYDEAU’S FARCE BY DAVID IVES DIRECTED BY MARK LAMOS SCENIC DESIGN COSTUME DESIGN LIGHTING DESIGN Kristen Robinson Sara Jean Tosetti Matthew Richards SOUND DESIGN FIGHT DIRECTOR PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER Fitz Patton Michael Rossmy Matthew G. Marholin David Ives’ new translation/adaption of Feydeau’s A FLEA IN HER EAR was commissioned by Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the World Premiere was presented on March 10, 2006 at CST (Artistic Director, Barbara Gaines; Executive Director, Criss Henderson). A FLEA IN HER EAR was created with funds from the Prince Prize for Commissioning Original Work, which was awarded to David Ives, Gary Griffin and Chicago Shakespeare Theater in 2005. Additional production sponsorship provided by Gayle and Glenn R. Tilles. A FLEA IN HER EAR is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York. PRODUCTION SPONSORS PRODUCTION PARTNERS CZEKAJ ARTISTIC PRODUCTIONS JUDY AND SCOTT PHARES JULY 10 – 28, 2018 12 WESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE | 2018 SEASON THE CAST IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER ETIENNE/ENSEMBLE David Beach OLYMPIA/ENSEMBLE Deena Burke DR. FINACHE/ENSEMBLE Hassan El Amin VICTOR CHANDEBISE/POCHE/ENSEMBLE Lee E. Ernst EUGENIE/ENSEMBLE Laura Frye DON CARLOS/ENSEMBLE Michael Gotch RUGBY/ENSEMBLE Robert Adelman Hancock BAPTISTE/ENSEMBLE Wynn Harmon RAYMONDE CHANDEBISE/ENSEMBLE Elizabeth Heflin CAMILLE CHANDEBISE/ENSEMBLE Mic Matarrese ANTOINETTE/ENSEMBLE Carine Montbertrand ROMAIN TOURNEL/ ENSEMBLE Stephen Pelinski FERRAILLON/ENSEMBLE John Rensenhouse LUCIENNE HOMENIDES DE HISTANGUA/ENSEMBLE Antoinette Robinson setting Paris, 1900 ACT I The drawing room of Victor and Raymonde Chandebise ACT II The Frisky Puss Hotel ACT III The drawing room of Victor and Raymonde Chandebise, later that day A FLEA IN HER EAR WILL BE PERFORMED WITH TWO INTERMISSIONS 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. A FLEA IN HER EAR 13 14 WESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE | 2018 SEASON ARTISTIC NOTES BY DAVID KENNEDY, ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR; BETHANY GUGLIEMINO, ARTISTIC & MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATE; AND LIAM LONEGAN, 2018 DIRECTING FELLOW eorges Feydeau was born in Paris His 1899 play La Dame de chez Maxim on December 8, 1862 to Léocadie (The Woman from Maxim’s) is considered by Boguslawa Zalewska and novelist some to be his greatest work, while La puce Ernest-Aimé Feydeau, although he à l’oreille (A Flea in Her Ear, 1907), would go on G was rumored to be the son of Emperor to become his most popular play in English- Napoleon III or the Emperor’s half-brother, the speaking countries. At the peak of his success, Duke of Morny. Feydeau sometimes had three plays running concurrently in the theatres of Paris. Feydeau first attempted a career as an actor, but quickly turned to writing instead. He wrote Feydeau left his wife in 1909 and spent his first comic monologue, Par la the next ten years living alone, fenêtre (Through the Window), surrounded by his paintings, at age twenty. This was books, and a perfume quickly followed by two collection of around one-act plays that 250 different scents. were praised by His art collection the critics but sold included 136 works poorly. His first by renowned major triumph artists such as came in 1886 Renoir, Monet, with Tailleur pour and Van Gogh, dames (Ladies’ although these Dressmaker), but were eventually after that came auctioned off to seven years of only pay off the gambling moderate success. debts that plagued him throughout his life. In 1889, he married The couple formally divorced Marianne Carolus-Duran, the in 1916, further straining Feydeau’s wealthy daughter of celebrated finances despite his successful career. portrait painter Carolus-Duran. The next year, Feydeau began a two-year hiatus from writing In the winter of 1918, Feydeau contracted in order to study the great farces, including the syphilis, and in 1919 he moved into a work of Eugène Labiche, Henri Meilhac, and sanatorium for treatment. He slowly Alfred Hennequin. The outcome of this study, descended into madness, dying on June 5, 1921 1892's Champignol malgré lui (translated as at the age of 58. He left behind 39 published A Close Shave) became a popular hit. plays, many of which are still enjoyed today on French stages and internationally. A FLEA IN HER EAR 15 Georges Feydeau’s career spanned cabarets (such as the Moulin Rouge and much of the period in French history the Folies Bergère), the flourishing of the known as La Belle Époque, literally “the visual arts (Impressionism, Pointillism), beautiful era.” Named in retrospect and and the rise of Art Nouveau, a movement bookended by the end of the Franco- inspired from natural elements to create Prussian War in 1871 and the start of lavish curves and floral accents. Fashion the Great War in 1914, La Belle Époque became more luxurious and even more was a time of relative peace for France, exclusive. And the theatre thrived, as with unprecedented economic growth operettas, farces, and light comedies and the flourishing of art, architecture, dominated the boulevard venues. technology, and culture. It was also a time With the bourgeoisie basking in their of extraordinary inequality, imperialism, entertainments and luxuries, they were and deep domestic discontent. not difficult to lampoon for their excesses, The city of Paris boomed during these ignorance, or vanity. This was where years, increasing its population by Feydeau derived his greatest inspiration, almost two thirds and fostering the because he saw the upper classes as not development of a new moneyed class. only patronizing to the working class but Despite the overwhelming poverty of completely blind to their own privilege or the city’s slums, the new economic might lack of experience. It was not much of a of the Parisian bourgeoisie inspired a stretch to make their morals, ethics, and hunger for pleasures and diversions that behavior the subject of his farces. had to be met. This was the era of famous An Art Nouveau Metro Station depicted on a postcard, Bastille, Paris, ca.