The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival Newsletter • Summer 2008 Allison McLemore as Roxane oet P with Greg Wood Panache as Cyrano By Catherine Pressimone Beckowski accomplished actors, Greg Wood. Last season Shakespeare Company came over with Derek marked Wood’s 19th and 20th roles for PSF Jacobi and Sinead Cusack in a double bill hen Cyrano de Bergerac debuted as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and with Much Ado about Nothing. I saw their on the Parisian stage in 1897, it Leontes in The Winter’s Tale. Other PSF roles production and it reconfirmed my decision to was a sensation. Like many popu- W range from the dashing Elyot in Private Lives be an actor. It hit on everything it was sup- lar Broadway shows today, the original pro- to the title role in Hamlet. posed to be—poetic, romantic, heroic, touch- duction at the Porte St. Martin Theatre was ing—and it has always stayed with me.” sold out months in advance and competing Earlier this year, Wood created the role plays struggled to attract audiences. Much of of Martin Luther in the new play Wittenberg Almost as famous as the title character the play’s success springs from its bold and at Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company; is Cyrano’s Roxane —a celebrated role for fluid mélange of story, conflict, and character. he and his wife also welcomed a baby daugh- women that has been portrayed by famous ter in March. Now, he is looking forward to actresses from Sarah Bernhardt to Jennifer And what a character! As one of the this summer’s challenge. Garner. This summer, PSF welcomes most beloved and daring roles in the theatre newcomer Allison McLemore to the com- canon, it is fitting that Cyrano should be “Cyrano is one of my favorite plays played by one of PSF’s most beloved and ever,” he says. “In the late eighties, the Royal continued on page 2 Cyrano, continued from page 1 tion. She is also responsible for constructing Notes from the Cyrano’s nose, a process that began with a pany. She recently played Eliza in Creede special “nose summit” in early May.) Producing Artistic Repertory Theatre’s production of Pygmalion and was also seen in Agatha Christie’s Black As if directing the entire production Director Coffee at Elizabeth Wallace Theater of the wasn’t quite challenging enough, Razze is The director of a Arts Center of Coastal Carolina. composing an original score. “Music is essen- local foundation, one tial in a play like this,” he says. “Because of of our funders, said McLemore readily identifies with the epic nature of the play, the music needs to to me recently, “The Roxane. “She is so smart and driven. She sees have epic proportions—large brass ensembles, Pennsylvania Shakespeare what she thinks is right and goes for it. She rich strings, and the percussive energy of bat- Festival signifies sum- is soulful and funny.” McLemore particularly tle. The music must also support the romance mer itself to us,” referring looks forward to exploring Roxane’s depth. and poetry of the play and not detract from to his family, who has “She grows a lot as the play progresses. I’m it. I’m inspired by the best film composers for excited to explore how her ideas about love been attending for years. Patrick Mulcahy this score—certainly John Williams among Another patron said, “The change and mature.” them. But the music must also have the flavor of the 17th century Baroque style of compos- Festival is the highlight of the year for our With the intimacy of the characters' ers like Jean Baptiste Lully and Charpentier, family.” That got me thinking about what inner lives so poetically illuminated, it may who both wrote scores for Moliére.” the Festival means to me, to those who be tempting to think of the play as a drawing work here, and to you, our patrons. room romance. The scale is huge: Cyrano de For all the opulence and epic qualities So, here’s the plan. I’ll share a few ini- Bergerac will be the largest production in PSF of Cyrano, at its heart lies an honest, human tial thoughts of my own, I’ll ask some of history, requiring a cast of 30 (playing more story. “It’s very iconic in many ways, and I the artists who work here, and I’ll ask you. than 60 characters). think the challenge is to maintain Cyrano’s humanity and not make him so grandiose Then, in the fall issue of The Quill, we’ll see “With 30 actors, you still experience the that people can’t connect,” Wood observes. what everyone had to say. pageantry and excitement of crowd scenes “Everyone in the play has something they and the intimacy of the play,” explains direc- My preliminary thoughts about PSF feel is a deficiency that makes them feel tor Dennis Razze. “Even though the play has are not just my personal feelings about what unaccepted. That’s what the story is about. a panoramic scope, the focus is really on the it means to me, but what I see and sense in It’s not about how good a swordsman you are intimate love triangle of Cyrano, Roxane, and the Festival when artists and patrons meet or how many ladies you uphold; it’s that you Christian.” (Christian, the handsome young in the same space, breathe the same air, and are enough just being yourself.” share in something unique and wonderful. soldier who uses Cyrano’s poetry to win the heart of Roxane, will be played by Spencer “It’s a beautiful story that has a little To me the Festival is freedom, a gift, Plachy, who played Freddy in PSF’s produc- something for everyone: danger, jokes, poetry, community, a veil between the worlds, a tion of My Fair Lady.) and love,” adds McLemore. “It’s also full of mirror for the life force, for beauty, and for such rich, colorful characters—people that Surveying the big picture, Razze the profane we must come to know. It’s are larger than life and compelling to watch.” inspiration, a peek under the rock, an hon- acknowledges that some of the greatest chal- est question, profound penetrating insights, lenges of presenting the play are technical. All of these attributes are skillfully ren- joy, a labor of love, a temple of invisible “The play demands a number of wonder- dered through Anthony Burgess’ sumptu- yet tangible transactions, a place where the ful 17th century costumes that have to be ous translation. McLemore is eager for the invisible becomes visible, magic, spontaneity, authentic and quite lavish. Every character challenge. “Working on a script like this is a the crackling now, the knife’s edge, Everest. is wigged, and some characters have to wear dream come true!” ■ multiple wigs, so we have someone specifi- It’s evidence that we are only here for a short Catherine Pressimone Beckowski is a 2006 cally in charge of that.” (Martha Ruskai, who time, and proof that we have not given up. DeSales University graduate working toward designed the wigs and makeup for Amadeus her master’s degree in Dramaturgy at the The Festival is freedom: to laugh last season, returns to PSF for this produc- State University of New York, Stony Brook. harder than you can perhaps anywhere else, to feel things we spend most of our day trying not to feel, to let the corners of our personalities soften just enough to let our Discovering Cyrano souls through, to see again what we have When it comes to Cyrano de Bergerac, poet of the age; I bind myself here and forgotten about ourselves. The Festival is a great actors and the great script have always now to take any play you write…without release into more and less: more life, vital- gone hand in hand. But which came first? reading it, to cancel any engagements I ity, authenticity, fullness, more joy, and less may have, and produce your play with the worry, constraint, deadening, metronomic It was actually the renowned French least possible delay.” Seeking a work wor- time, less rigidity. actress Sarah Bernhardt who discovered thy of Coquelin, Rostand found inspiration the unknown Edmund Rostand, and intro- It’s different for each of us, no doubt. in the writing of the real Cyrano—and the duced the famed actor Constant Coquelin rest is history. So what does it mean to you? E-mail me to his work. Coquelin was so impressed at [email protected]. We won’t use what you by Rostand’s writing that he made him an Qtd. in Church, Oscar and Henry Ward write without your permission, so write irresistible offer: “In my opinion, you are Kuhns. Introduction. Cyrano de Bergerac. ■ freely. destined to become the greatest dramatic New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1931. p. vii. 2 • The Quill, Summer 2008 610.282.will Left to right: Anthony Lawton, Erin Clare Hurley, Carl N. Wallnau, John Ahlin. Photos by Lee A. Butz TWELVE FACTS ABOUT TWELFTH NIGHT By Lisa Higgins VI. Shakespeare’s identical twins Viola Company (Barrymore nomination), and and Sebastian, a girl and a boy, are all but the Cleveland Play House. I. The title Twelfth Night refers to the impossible—identical twins share most, if twelfth night after Christmas, which com- not all, of the same DNA and therefore X. Carl N. Wallnau returns for his ninth memorates the visit of the three Magi and must be the same sex. season to portray Malvolio, the pompous the revelation of Christ’s divinity to them.