THE FOLGER BOARD OF GOVERNORS
Louis R. Cohen, Chair Susan Sachs Goldman, Vice-Chair Roger Millay, Vice-Chair D. Jarrett Arp Simon Russell Beale The Lord Browne of Madingley Rebecca Bushnell Vinton Cerf Philip Deutch Peter Edwards Wyatt R. Haskell Deneen C. Howell Maxine Isaacs Edward R. Leahy May Liang Carol L. Ludwig Ken Ludwig Louisa Newlin Andrew J. Nussbaum Andrew Oliver Gail Kern Paster Stuart Rose Loren Rothschild James Shapiro Laura J. Yerkovich Ex Officio Michael Witmore
SENIOR DIRECTORS
Michael Witmore, Director Daniel De Simone, Eric Weinmann Librarian Melody Fetske, Director of Finance and Administration Janet Alexander Griffin, Director of Public Programs Eric M. Johnson, Director of Digital Access Kathleen Lynch, Executive Director, Folger Institute Essence Newhoff, Director of Development Peggy O’Brien, Director of Education
2
DIVISION OF PUBLIC PROGRAMS Beth Emelson, Assistant Artistic Producer David Polk, General Manager Charles Flye, Production Manager Rebekah Sheffer, Assistant Technical Director Emily Tartanella, Public Programs Assistant Kate Abbott, Audience Services Coordinator Maegan Clearwood, Public Programs Administrative Assistant Teresa Wood, Casting Assistant Adrianne Eby, Courtney Feiman, Kate Gifford, Emily Kester, Ben Lauer, Erin Simpson, Austin Wilt, House Managers Jennifer Bowman, Folger Consort Manager Teri Cross Davis, Poetry Coordinator Katharine Pitt, Humanities Programs Assistant Emma Snyder, Executive Director, PEN/Faulkner Foundation Peter Eramo, Jr., Events Publicity and Marketing Manager WiT Media, Graphics Designer and Advertising Agency Jeanne Krohn, Graphic Designer Barbara Shaw, Playbill Typesetter Jane Pisano, Publications Consultant Stephanie Svoboda, Ticketing Operations Manager Christina Pinnell, Box Office Manager Heather Newhouse, Box Office Lead Associate Kiersten Dittrich, Group Sales Assistant Francesca Chilcote, Amanda Duchemin, Jeff Gan, Annie Immediata, Emily Kester, Emma Poltrack, Leslie Putnam, Box Office Assistants EXTERNAL RELATIONS Garland Scott, Head of External Relations Esther French, Communications Associate
DIVISION OF EDUCATION Corinne Viglietta, Assistant Director of Education Danielle A. Drakes, School Programs Manager Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger, Visitor Education Programs Manager Katherine Dvorak, Education Programs Assistant Greg Armstrong, Education Administrative Assistant Maribeth Cote, Public Engagement Coordinator JC McElveen, Docent Chair Michael LoMonico, Senior Consultant on National Education Louisa Newlin, Senior Consultant OFFICE OF DEVELOPMENT Mary Zehe, Assistant Director of Development for Operations Winnie Harrington Robinson, Senior Development Officer for Major Gifts Connie L. Perez, Senior Development Officer for Institutional Relations Cari Romeu, Senior Development Officer for Annual Giving Tiffany FitzGerald, Membership and Annual Fund Manager Leslie Gehring, Development Services Coordinator Colleen Robinson, Development Associate for Major Gifts Elena Forbes, Development Associate for Corporate Relations DIRECTOR’S OFFICE Yvonne Barton, Executive Assistant to the Director Lari Lavigne, Administrative Assistant, Executive Offices
FOLGER THEATRE 2015/16 SEASON Janet Alexander Griffin Artistic Producer
Beth Emelson
David Polk
Assistant Artistic Producer General Manager
Charles Flye
Production Manager
Based on The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare Season Sponsors Helen and David Kenney and Family Neal T. Turtell Lead Production Sponsor Ann K. Morales Contributing Sponsors Judith Areen and Richard Cooper David and Margaret Gardner Associate Sponsors Louis and Bonnie Cohen Jeffrey P. Cunard Barbra Eaton and Ed Salners Wendy Frieman and David Johnson Andrea Kasarsky Julianna Mahley Daniel and Susan Mareck Peter and Mary Jay Michel Carl and Undine Nash William and Louisa Newlin Carolyn and Mark Olshaker Barbra Eaton and Ed Salners Tessa van der Willigen and Jonathan Walters Weissberg Foundation Folger Theatre’s open-captioned performances are generously sponsored by Vinton and Sigrid Cerf
Media Sponsor
Aaron Posner
Playwright
Michael John Garcés†
Director
Christylez Bacon Music
Tony Cisek*
Scenic Design
Meghan Raham Costume Design
Geoff Korf*
Lighting Design
James Bigbee Garver
Sound Design
Michele Osherow
Resident Dramaturg
Ayanna Thompson Co-Dramaturg
Daryl Eisenberg, CSA
Daryl Eisenberg Casting New York Casting
Roy A. Gross**
Production Stage Manager
Elisabeth Ribar**
Assistant Stage Manager
This production is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
†Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers *Member of United Scenic Artists **Member of Actors’ Equity Association
FROM THE DIRECTOR In The Merchant of Venice, “Love is blind and lovers cannot see/The pretty follies that themselves commit”; in District Merchants, the characters are granted the blessing (or curse) of seemingly seeing themselves, and each other, and yet still commit the pretty (and not-sopretty) follies of love and hate. We live in a knowing, self-aware (if not obsessed) time, and yet continue to make the same mistakes. And thus Shakespeare is our contemporary.
And, as our contemporary, he also has blind spots and prejudice—whether he was aware of them or not. This is nowhere more apparent than in The Merchant of Venice. Shylock the Jew may bleed, laugh, and die as in his beautiful monologue, an example of Shakespeare’s glorious empathy, but his actions are nonetheless extremely difficult to justify. Shylock is the object of scorn, loses everything, and, at the end of the day, although we might have some understanding of his situation, in the world of the play, he is “other” and does not have our sympathy. Shakespeare does not let us into his human soul to the degree he does Othello, who leaves us profoundly shaken because we see ourselves in him. If we see ourselves in Shylock, it is not because the writing has taken us there. Shylock’s loss and pain are not, in the play, tragic. The Merchant of Venice is a comedy, the lovers marry and all is well in the world in the end.
Shylock is “other” because he is a Jew.
Shylock is a problem.
Aaron Posner has taken on this problem, contextualizing his play in an America that is beginning the long process of recovery—of reconstruction—from the natural trauma of the Civil War. Reconstruction was a process of addressing our national problem, the original sin of slavery, the creation of an “other” that is crucial in our national 4
narrative and underpinned the creation of our unprecedented economic growth and power. For an American—for myself—it is hard to understand Shylock’s anger, and thus his actions. I wonder if it would have been so hard in Elizabethan England. Or Germany in the 1930s. I wonder if we’d have such a hard time understanding that anger, the rage and righteousness behind his actions if Shylock were a black man in America. In the antebellum South. In Compton in the ‘90s. In Ferguson today.
I believe it is impossible to be alive in contemporary America and not know, in our core, that some things are wrong: racism, sexism, anti-semitism, oppression. But, as well as we see ourselves, and think we see others, the problem persists. We can understand the anger.
District Merchants flips the script. Shylock is a Jew in America. Antoine, though prosperous, is an AfricanAmerican merchant in a post-Civil War Washington, DC. They are both proud, difficult, compromised, victims and perpetrators of prejudice. Anti-semitism and racism are in play, but do not define any of the people on stage.
What excites me about District Merchants is that no one is off the hook, no individual is pure. All motives are suspect. We are all merchants one way or another. The play’s characters negotiate morally treacherous terrain imperfectly, but none are reviled. I am deeply grateful to the actors, designers, dramaturgs, and the Folger for their willingness and courage in this exploration of Aaron’s brave and joyous—for all the darkness, for all the loss—play. –Michael John Garcés
CAST
(in alphabetical order)
Shylock Portia Lancelot Nessa Benjamin Bassanio Jessica Lorenzo Antoine
Matthew Boston* Maren Bush* Akeem Davis* Celeste Jones* Seth Rue* Dani Stoller* William Vaughan* Craig Wallace*
Understudies
Jenna Berk (Jessica) Adante Carter* (Benjamin Bassanio/ Lancelot)
Ross Destiche (Lorenzo)
Melissa Graves (Portia) Jeff Keogh (Shylock) Lilian Oben (Nessa) Jefferson Russell* (Antoine)
*Members of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. Equity’s mission is to advance, promote, and foster the art of live theater as an essential component of our society. Today, Equity represents more than 49,000 actors, singers, dancers, and stage managers working in hundreds of theaters across the United States. Equity members are dedicated to working in the theater as a profession, upholding the highest artistic standards. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. For more information, visit www.actorsequity.org. New Hearing Loop Technology (Telecoil) Our theater is now equipped with an Induction Hearing Loop for state-of-the-art assisted listening. If your hearing aid has a T-coil, please toggle to that setting to receive our audio signal directly without using the headset and only wearing the lariat. Headsets are available for those without T-coil technology. If you are using a headset, please help avoid the squeal of feedback by turning down your hearing aids.
Please refrain from using cell phones, cameras, or other recording devices during District Merchants. This production is performed with one 15-minute intermission. 5
FROM THE DRAMATURG Washington, DC in 1870 was a city coming to grips with the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction. The Washington Monument, which dominates the visual landscape of the city today, sat half-finished, a reminder of the reconstruction that still had to occur to heal the relatively new nation. The White House was badly overcrowded and in desperate need of repair. While it served as a vital public space during the conflict, after the war it became another reminder of the actual cost of war. And the original Eastern Market, which was damaged during the British attack of 1814, was all but abandoned during the Civil War. It was not rebuilt until 1873. Financially, the Panic of 1873 triggered a great depression in the US and Europe that lasted for over a decade. Rampant speculative investments about railroad construction in the US and post-Civil War inflation were two of the underlying causes for the panic, which left New York bank reserves depleted overnight by about 60%.
These are the complex waters into which Aaron Posner’s District Merchants wades so effectively. Eschewing representing the white male power brokers who set the terms for the future of the newly reconstructed country, Posner gives us the voices of those who have to navigate within those terms: Jews, blacks, women, and poor whites.
Inspired by Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Posner flips the script to give us a uniquely American version of the tale. Where Merchant is interested in conversions, which are more often than not forced on one by the state, Posner’s District Merchants is interested in “passing,” chosen and crafted identities that often conflict with one’s official identity. Thus, Benjamin passes for white, Portia passes for a male lawyer, Lorenzo passes for a young lover, and Antoine passes for a “race man.” Americans love stories of self-made men who manufacture their own identities (think, for example, of The Great Gatsby and Citizen Kane), and, in that narrative tradition, Posner shows us the costs and benefits of passing with immense humanity. There is a lot to love and loathe in these characters.
Finally, with the figures of Shylock and Antoine, the two patriarchal figures who have no access to the superstructure of power, District Merchants invites us to ponder the history of black-Jewish relations. What histories have been elided? What opportunities have been lost? What dialogues have been foreclosed? The subtitle for Posner’s play is “An Uneasy Comedy,” and the play invites audiences to engage in uneasy conversations about history, relationships, and the potential for radically different futures. Who could ask for more? – Ayanna Thompson 7
FROM THE DRAMATURG Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is a deeply disturbing play and its greatest disturbance is a Jew. Shylock is the play’s money-lending villain who insists in open court that he’s entitled to a pound of Christian flesh. He even packs a knife to help himself to it. His very name is synonymous with ‘loan shark,’ ‘extortionist,’ or, says the Oxford English Dictionary, is an offensive term for ‘Jew.’
I’ve never been called ‘Shylock’ as far as I know, but I almost wouldn’t mind. Some people find him unredeemable, repulsive. I’m not one of them. I am disappointed when audiences attack the play, claiming it perpetuates stereotypes and should not be read or staged. I think a play that exposes the hypocrisy of a world obsessed with cash and credit, that links love to merchandise, that confuses virtuous talk with virtuous action, is a play that deserves our attention. It reveals how misguided are our own priorities, and signals the danger of intolerance.
Shylock is more than a villain rejecting talk of mercy. He is more than his knife. His over-the-top excesses echo the kinds of racist propaganda to which Jews and others have been subjected. In Shakespeare’s time, members of “the Jewish race” were believed to have murderous impulses. Tales of Jews scheming against the lives of Christians abound in conversion narratives of the period, as though the slander might justify the violence inflicted upon Jews throughout English history. Too often, those crimes were committed to void debts due to Jewish creditors.
The England into which Shakespeare was born had barred Jews for centuries. It’s unlikely Shakespeare would have known
one. Still, he has his Jew do something remarkable: Shylock tells the truth. “The villainy you teach me I will execute,” he says (3.1). In this moment, Shylock does not just announce his vengeance toward Antonio and other Christians. He sets himself up as a mirror for their foul behavior. Shylock shows us how direct is the course from victim to victimizer; conversion occurs in record time. Our potential for malice is staggering if all avengers aim, as Shylock does, to up the ante on hatred: “it shall go hard,” he says, “but I will better the instruction” (3.1).
Shylock’s statement is a threat and a promise. His cruelty in seeking a pound of flesh from nearest his enemy’s heart exceeds Antonio’s offenses. The threat announces a kind of lesson, as if Shylock needs to see the man’s heart—to hold it in his hand, even—in order to confirm he has one. The choice signals what Kiernan Ryan calls “the heartlessness of Venice” (Shakespeare 19). The fact that Shakespeare enlists a Jew—described as having “a heart of flint”—to signal this depravity suggests that the play’s Christian hearts are that much harder, and that much more impenetrable (4.1).
Depraved behavior trails each character in The Merchant of Venice and Shylock alerts us to this. His caution that “it shall go hard” has implications beyond the stage. The play, though a comedy, can make us uncomfortable in its poking fun at stereotypes—not only of Jews, but also of blacks, foreigners, poor. Shylock insists on the value of that discomfort, unraveling our perceptions of those we think we know better, and those we should.
–Michele Osherow 9
FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT About a decade ago, an odd notion occurred to me while I was re-reading The Merchant of Venice. A stark passage of Shylock’s about slavery jumped out at me during the famous trial scene, and it made me wonder how this story would function in postCivil War America. But what started as a curiosity, a passing notion, stuck with me for a number of years and now… here we are.
The journey has been a highly collaborative effort. The contributions of my brilliant, inspiring dramaturgs— Michele Osherow and Ayanna Thompson—can hardly be overestimated. Many of the best and most fundamental and formative ideas in the play are theirs. This show would not be what it is without them.
Of equal invaluable assistance has been director Michael John Garcés, one of the most engaging, skillful, and dynamic directors in the American theater today… and last, but never least, my live-in truth detector, home dramaturg, and source of a wildly high percentage of all my best ideas—my wife, Erin Weaver. I’m also grateful for the wisdom and insight I have received from the entire team at the Folger, as well as from that Shakespeare fellow himself.
The Merchant of Venice is a fascinating, frustrating, and thorny play. It is a bee in your bonnet, a stone in your shoe. It defies your expectation, as well as any desire you might have for cleanliness, clarity, or unambiguous heroes or villains.
It bothers you. 12
And, in many ways, I’ve tried to emulate that irritation. I call my play An Uneasy Comedy, and I mean it. I hope it is funny, lovely, and hopeful at moments. More often, I hope it is complex, uncomfortable, disturbing and provocative. More than anything else, I hope it is truthful and even… worthwhile.
It is not—strictly speaking— an adaptation of Merchant. It is its own creation, though it could not exist without the original material. It is a variation on a theme or a theatrical exploration. I have tried my best to do what Shakespeare did when he found stories, histories, and other people’s plays which he found intriguing: He borrowed a foundation, a structure, a set of characters or situations, and then he made it very much his own. He wrote about other times and places, but he was always writing about his own world and his own life.
I’ve tried to follow suit. This play lives in Shakespeare’s day, America in the 1870s, and today. It is Shakespeare’s, it is mine, it is our collaborators’, and now it is yours. My hope is that this play will do what Shakespeare’s plays do so wonderfully: explore a unique world with integrity and complexity in an effort to provide us new ways of thinking about our lives, loves, struggles and concerns.
Thank you for joining the exploration. –Aaron Posner
CAST
Matthew Boston
Shylock Regional: Centerstage: The Rainmaker; Hartford Stage: Water by the Spoonful; American Conservatory Theater: The Beard of Avon, The Invention of Love, Arcadia, The Cherry Orchard, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, The Matchmaker, God of Vengeance; Berkeley Repertory Theater: Galileo, Cloud Nine, Pentecost; Huntington Theatre Company: The Real Thing; Intiman Theatre: A Thousand Clowns, The Diary of Anne Frank; Yale Repertory Theater: Black Snow; Two River Theatre Company: Intimate Apparel, What the Butler Saw; Dallas Theatre Center: The Violet Hour, All’s Well That Ends Well, Dancing at Lughnasa; Portland Center Stage: Opus, The Chosen; George Street Playhouse: The Seafarer. Off-Broadway: 59E59: The Body Politic; SoHo Rep: Magic Hands Freddie; The Working Theatre: Call Me Waldo, Disconnect. Film: In the Family, Ghost Ship, Into the Blue. Television: The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, Mysteries of Laura, Law and Order, One Life to Live, All My Children.
Maren Bush
Portia Regional theaters include: Guthrie Theater, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, La Jolla Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cleveland Play House, Geva Theatre Center, The Cape Playhouse, Florida Studio Theatre, Theatre de la Jeune Lune. Off-Broadway: Rattlestick: A Summer Day; 59E59: Wide Awake Hearts; La MaMa: Purge, Raven. Film: Reaching Home. Television: The Men Who Built America, Deadly Sins. MFA: UCSD.
Akeem Davis
Lancelot Regional: People’s Light and Theatre Company: All My Sons; Theatre Horizon: Lobby Hero, In the Blood (Barrymore Award nomination, Outstanding Supporting Actor); InterAct
Theatre: The Dangerous House of Pretty M’bane; Philadelphia Shakespeare Company: Henry V, Romeo and Juliet; Simpatico Theatre Project: The Brothers Size (Barrymore Award nomination, Outstanding Lead Actor). 2015 F. Otto Haas Award for Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist.
Celeste Jones
Nessa Folger Theatre: The Conference of the Birds. Regional: Centerstage: Gleam; Guthrie Theatre/Pillsbury House Theatre: In the Red and Brown Water; Ten Thousand Things Theatre: Life’s a Dream, Once on this Island; Mixed Blood Theatre: A Cool Drink of Water, Ruined. Film: Sally Pacholok. Television: House of Cards. celestejones.com
Seth Rue
Benjamin Bassanio Regional: Oregon Contemporary Theatre: Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea; The Portland Playhouse: The Piano Lesson (Drammy Award nomination); Profile Theatre: Blue Door, The Antigone Project; Portland Actors Ensemble: The Taming of the Shrew; Playwright: Cottonwood in the Flood; Hillsboro Regional: The Fantasticks!, Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Television: Grimm, The Librarians.
Dani Stoller
Jessica Folger Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 1st Stage: Bat Boy (Helen Hayes Award nomination), Blithe Spirit, The Italian American Reconciliation; The Keegan Theatre: Dogfight, Hair; Signature Theatre: Really, Really, Dying City; Kennedy Center Millennium Stage: Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s The Brontes; Studio Theatre: Carrie, Invisible Man. National tour: Big Nate with ATMTC. danistoller.com
13
CAST
William Vaughan
Lorenzo Folger Theatre: Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet (u/s). Round House Theatre: Ironbound; The Hub Theatre: Abominable; Signature Theatre: The Flick, Tender Napalm (u/s); We Happy Few: The Winter’s Tale, Romeo and Juliet; Lincoln Center Education: A Tale Told by an Idiot; Waterside Theatre: The Lost Colony; Theatre Carolina: The Three Musketeers. Film: Dreadful Sorry, Colonizing the New World.
Craig Wallace
Antoine Folger Theatre: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Mary Stuart, Twelfth Night (2003, 2013), The Taming of the Shrew, Cyrano, Much Ado About Nothing (2009), Othello (2002), As You Like It, Measure for Measure, Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare Theatre Company: Henry IV parts 1 and 2,The Government Inspector, Tamburlaine, Edward II, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet; Ford’s Theatre: The Guard, The Laramie Project, Our Town, Necessary Sacrifices, Sabrina Fair, Jitney; Arena Stage: All the Way, K2, All My Sons, The Great White Hope, Hot-n-Throbbing; Signature Theatre: Angels in America, Parts 1 and 2; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Last Orbit of Billy Mars, Tommy J & Sally, Our Lady of 121st Street, Starving; Round House Theatre: Father Comes Home from the Wars, Young Robin Hood, Permanent Collection, Tabletop, The Little Prince; Studio Theatre: F**king A (2nd Stage). Regional theaters include: Hangar Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
14
CREATIVE TEAM Aaron Posner
Playwright Posner is the author of the plays Stupid F**king Bird, Life Sucks, My Name Is Asher Lev, The Chosen, Sometimes a Great Notion, A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage, What Ho, Jeeves and many others. Folger Theatre: as director: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Romeo and Juliet, The Conference of the Birds, The Taming of the Shrew (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Resident Production), Cyrano (co-adaptor; Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Director), The Comedy of Errors, Orestes: A Tragic Romp, Arcadia, Macbeth (co-director and coconceiver), The Tempest (2007), Measure for Measure (Helen Hayes Awards, Outstanding Director and Outstanding Resident Play), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Director), Melissa Arctic (The Charles MacArthur Award, Outstanding New Play), Twelfth Night, Othello, As You Like It (2001). Regional: Arden Theatre Company (Co-Founder, Artistic Director, and Resident Director, 1988-2006): more than 35 productions. Awards: The John Gassner Award (Asher Lev), Outer Circle Critics Award (Asher Lev), Eliot Norton Award (The Tempest), Bay Area Critics Award (Comedy of Errors), Barrymore Awards for Best New Play (The Chosen) and Outstanding Direction (A Midsummer Night’s Dream); Eisenhower Fellowship.
Michael John Garcés
Director Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Lights Rise on Grace, We Are Proud To Present..., The Convert, Oedipus El Rey, Grace, Recent Tragic Events; Mosaic Theater Company: Wrestling Jerusalem; The Kennedy Center: red, black and GREEN: a blues, the break/s. Regional: Cornerstone Theater Company (Artistic Director): California: The Tempest, Plumas Negras, Café Vida, Making Paradise, 3 Truths; The Wilma Theatre: The Body of an American; South Coast Repertory: The Motherf***er with the Hat; The Guthrie Theatre: The Falls; Actors Theatre of Louisville: dark play, Finer Noble Gases; Huntington Theatre Company: Breath, Boom;
Hartford Stage: The Cook; The Children’s Theatre: Snapshot Silhouette. Off-Broadway: Second Stage: The Triple Happiness; Cherry Lane Theatre: Havana is Waiting; New York Theatre Workshop: Lights Raise the Roof. Princess Grace Statue and Alan Scheider Director Awards.
Christylez Bacon
Music Bacon is a Grammy® nominated progressive hip-hop artist and multi-instrumentalist. DC projects include: Washington Sound Museum (founder/performer); Washington National Cathedral (performer); Smithsonian Folklife Festival (performer); The Kennedy Center (commissioned composer/orchestrator). Honors: Washington Area Music Association Artist of the Year, 2013; Montgomery County Executive Award for Excellence in the Arts; Library Superhero from Friends of the Library, Montgomery County, 2012; Grammy nomination for Best Musical Album for Children Banjo to Beatbox. christylez.com
Tony Cisek
Scenic Design Folger Theatre: Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar, Richard III, Twelfth Night, Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew, Othello (2011), The Comedy of Errors, Henry VIII, Much Ado About Nothing (2009, 1998), 1 Henry IV, The School For Scandal, The Tempest (2007, 2000), Romeo and Juliet (2005, 1997), Melissa Arctic, Elizabeth the Queen, Twelfth Night (costumes), As You Like It (2001), Shakespeare’s R & J, Hamlet (1999). Other DC theatres include: Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, Signature Theatre, Theater J, Theater Alliance, The Kennedy Center. Regional theaters include: Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre, Alliance Theatre, South Coast Rep, Milwaukee Rep, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Cleveland Play House, Intiman Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Syracuse Stage, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Two River Theater Company, Delaware Theatre Company. Off-Broadway: Beyond Glory, columbinus. tonycisek.com (continued on page 22)
15
SUBSCRIBE TODAY CELEBRATING
25 YEARS
“THE GRREATTEST STAAGE AADAPTAATTION OF THISS NOVEL IN HISTORRY” —THE SOU URCE
www..folger..edu/subscribe 202.544.7077
Adapted by KATE HAMILL Based on n the novel by JANE AUSTEN Directed by ERIC TUCKER
SEPTEM MBER 13–OCTOBER 30, 2016 Reason and a passion collide in this beloved tale of sissterhood and romance. Sudden loss forces the Dashwood family into difficult financial straits, and the sisters become ensnared d in heart-wrenching romances.
CONNECT WITH US:
ON STAGE G NEXT SEASONN: CAROLINE STEFANIE CLAY
JACOB FISHEL
By WILLIAM SHAKESP PEARE Directed by GA AYE TTAAYL Y OR UPCHURCH
By WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Directed by ROBERT RICHMOND
JANUARY 24–MARRCH 5, 2017
MAAY 9–JUNE 11, 2017
Rosalind is banished to t the Forest of Arden and discovers a world of passion and possibility in one of Sh hakespeare’s most cherished romantic coomedies. When she disguises herself as a man, enchantment abounds b d and d blos bl soms into an explor l ation i off the beauty of young loove.
Timon is a wealthy and popular aristocr stocrat with one flaw—an excess of generosity osity. Sparing no expense on parties, giftts, and charityy, Timon later suffers a down nturn of fortune and friendship in Shakespeare’ eare’s sa s tire i about b the h fi ficklenes kleness off prosp perity.
MICHAEL GLENN
MEGANN GRAAVE VES
IAN MERRILL PEAKES
JAM MIE SMITHSON
KATHRYN TKEL
ERIN WEAAVER VER
CREATIVE TEAM Meghan Raham
Costume Design Folger Theatre: Romeo and Juliet (set), The Conference of the Birds (set). Studio Theatre: The Aliens (costumes, upcoming); The Kennedy Center: The Wings of Ikarus Jackson. Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center Theater - LCT3 at the Duke on 42nd Street: CLAY. Regional: Kansas City Repertory Theatre: Death of a Salesman (upcoming), The Little Shop of Horrors (sets and costumes), Circle Mirror Transformation, Broke-ology, The Borderland, CLAY; Center Theatre Group: Venice (sets and costumes, dual Ovation nominations); The Building Stage, Chicago: The Ring Cycle, NOIR, MobyDick (production design); Lookingglass Theatre Company: Fedra: Queen of Haiti; The Hypocrites at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago: Frankenstein (costumes); Victory Gardens: A Big Blue Nail (costumes); About Face Theatre: Wedding Play, PULP. International: Zero Point International Festival of Physical Theatre and Dance, Prague, Czech Republic: S/he is Nancy Joe (sets and costumes). meghanraham.com
Geoff Korf
Lighting Design Regional: Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Water by the Spoonful (also projection design), The Happiest Song Plays Last (also projection design), Animal Crackers; Seattle Repertory Theatre: The Brothers Size, Outside Mullingar, The Piano Lesson; Center Theatre Group: Different Words for the Same Thing; ACT Seattle: Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play; Cornerstone Theater Company: California Tempest, Love on San Pedro; Seattle Shakespeare Company: Richard II, Hamlet, Othello. Broadway: Two Trains Running. OffBroadway: New Victory Theatre: Robin Hood; Playwrights Horizons: The Shaggs. Huntington Library: Main Exhibit Hall, Dibner Hall of Science.
James Bigbee Garver
Sound Design Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Lights Rise On Grace; Signature Theatre: Sex With Strangers, Vini Vidi Vici; Round House Theatre: Stage Kiss; Theater J: Our Class;
Studio Theatre: Cock, Lungs, Mary Kate Olsen is in Love, The Walworth Farce, New Electric Ballroom, Moth, Contractions, Skin Tight, 2-2 Tango; Synetic Theater: Kafka’s Metamorphosis; Word Dance Theater: Once Wild, Faces Of Love. Regional: ACT Theatre (Seattle): Fail Better; Performance Space 122: Terrible Things; Atlantic Theatre Company: Three Sisters; Joyce SoHo: Self Evident; Japan Society: The Lady AOI. Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center: the Tiny Dance Film Series; Theater Row Studios: A Bicycle Country. Museum installations: National Museum of Natural History: Sound Lab; National Museum of American History: Mobile Audio Cart; American Museum of Natural History: Water=Life; Megapolis Audio Festival: Silosphere. bigbee.org
Michele Osherow
Resident Dramaturg Folger Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, texts&beheadings/ElizabethR; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet (dramaturg and actor), Twelfth Night, Henry V, The Conference of the Birds, The Taming of the Shrew, The Gaming Table, Othello (2011, 2001), Cyrano, The Comedy of Errors, Henry VIII, Hamlet, Orestes: A Tragic Romp, Much Ado About Nothing, Arcadia, The Winter’s Tale, 1 Henry IV, Macbeth, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2006), Measure for Measure (dramaturg and actor). Currently Associate Professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Ayanna Thompson
Co-Dramaturg Professor of English, George Washington University. Council of Scholars at Theatre for a New Audience.
Daryl Eisenberg, CSA
Daryl Eisenberg Casting New York Casting Folger Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Henry V. West End and Off-Broadway: New World
CONNECT WITH US
CREATIVE TEAM Stages: White’s Lies; Actor’s Playhouse: My Big Gay Italian Wedding, Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating, and Marriage, Gay Bride of Frankenstein, My First Time, The Awesome 80s Prom, F#%king Up Everything, Baby Case, Stand Tall, VOTE! A New Musical, Street Lights, Altar Boyz, Garage Band, Norwegian Cruise Line, Davenport Reading Series, Gotham Stage Company. Film: Hypebeasts, Sleep, Following Chase, The Last/First Kiss, Coffee & Pie. Television: Casting Associate on Gossip Girl and Cashmere Mafia. Web: Pipture: Characters, Guard of Dagmar, TheBatterysDown.com, JoeyAndDavid.com, Simon & Schuster Young Adult book trailers, Standard Deviants. decasting.com
Roy A. Gross
Production Stage Manager Folger Theatre: As You Like It. Adventure Theatre: The Happy Elf; African Continuum Theatre Company: Blood Knot, Buffalo Hair, From the Mississippi Delta, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, SPUNK, The Amen Corner, The Gingham Dog, Two Trains Running, Waiting to be Invited; Imagination Stage: Night Fairy, Petite Rouge; The Kennedy Center: Darius and Twig, Witness; National Geographic Live!: Bell; Signature Theatre: Crave; Theater Alliance: Mary’s Wedding, The Monument, Painted Alice; Theater J: Andy and the Shadows, After the Fall, Apples from the Desert, History of Invulnerability, Life Sucks: or The Present Ridiculous, New Jerusalem, Photograph 51, Something You Did, The Argument, The Call, Yellow Face; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Lights Rise on Grace. World tour: Beyond Glory. Chair, Greater Washington DC/ Baltimore AEA Liaison Committee.
Elisabeth Ribar
Assistant Stage Manager Folger Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pericles, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar. Olney Theatre Center: Dial ‘M’ for Murder, The Tempest, Bedlam’s Hamlet and Saint Joan, A Christmas Carol, Sleuth, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Sound of Music; Adventure Theatre MTC: The Jungle Book; Signature Theatre: Beaches; Ford’s
Theatre: A Christmas Carol; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Wallenstein, Coriolanus. Regional: Heritage Theatre Festival: Next to Normal, Annie Get Your Gun, Little Shop of Horrors, Oliver!.
Janet Alexander Griffin
Artistic Producer Director of Public Programs for the Folger Shakespeare Library since 1982. She has produced 81 plays, including 28 Shakespeare plays, for which Folger Theatre has been recognized with 140 nominations and 23 awards for excellence in acting, direction, design, and production from Washington’s Helen Hayes Awards. Among new work she has developed at Folger was Lynn Redgrave’s solo show, Shakespeare for My Father, which in final development toured internationally and earned Redgrave a Tony Award. Responsible for the Folger Shakespeare Library’s season of performing arts and cultural events, she has overseen the growth of the Folger Consort early music series and developed contemporary literature and lectures at Folger, including the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series and Folger’s partnership with the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, bringing the country’s most renowned writers to the Washington, DC area. She is the 2015 recipient of the Burbage Award from the American Shakespeare Center.
Beth Emelson
Assistant Artistic Producer Folger Theatre: since 2004. Off-Broadway: Producing Director, Atlantic Theater Company (OBIE and Drama Desk Award winner); Producing Director, Classic Stage Company (Lortel and OBIE Award winner). Broadway and Off-Broadway: Associate Executive Producer, Lincoln Center Theater (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics’ Circle, Lortel and OBIE Award winner); General Management Associate: Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Public Theater; Producing Director and Member, Naked Angels. She has also produced several short films, a comedy series for HBO and she produces for both the Nantucket and Tribeca Film Festivals as well as teaching producing for New York University.
Folger Theatre is a member of Blue Star Theatres, CultureCapital, Cultural Tourism DC, theatreWashington, Shakespeare Theatre Association, and Theatre Communications Group, Inc.
24
IN THE READING ROOM
PRODUCTION CREDITS Assistant Technical Director Humanities Programs Assistant Casting Assistant Assistant Director Production Assistant Props Master Assistant Scenic Designer Scenery Construction Wig Design Wardrobe Head Costume Construction
Assistant Lighting Designer Master Electrician Assistant Master Electrician Sound Engineer Assistants for Daryl Eisenberg Casting Advertising Agency Production Photography Pre-production Photography Promotional Video Archival Video Open Captioning
Rebekah Sheffer Katharine Pitt Teresa Wood Lila Rachel Becker Elizabeth Brodie Tony Koehler Paige Hathaway Bella Faccia, Inc. Anne Nesmith Cidney Forkpah Mariah Hale, Ansaldo Costumes, Adalia Tonneyck Kyle Soble James Neylon Amanda Kircher Brandon Roe Jon Farber and Sasha Pensanti WiT Media Teresa Wood Brittany Diliberto Lee Fanning, Mark Fastoso, APTV WAPAVA C2
Acknowledgements: Beth Blickers, Bluejacket Brewery, Jocelyn Callister, City Bikes, Moran Transportation, Wendell Pierce, Eric S. Riley and District of Columbia Public Library, Richard Schiff, Don Spradlin, World Travel Service, Xavier Hodge and the Capitol Hill United Methodist Church.
Folger Theatre would like to acknowledge the many actors who have been instrumental to the developmental process of District Merchants including: Jenna Berk, Shayna Blass, Jessica Frances Dukes, Ned Eisenberg, Amanda Forstrom, Rick Foucheux, Maboud Ebrahimzadeh, Renata Friedman, Kimberly Gilbert, Louis Alberto Gonzalez, Judith Ingber, Harry Lennix, Thony Mena, Lilian Oben, Jon Hudson Odom, Howard Overshown, Amanda Quaid, Adi Stein, Michael Tolaydo, Erin Weaver, Romell Witherspoon, Hannah Yelland. District Merchants was further developed as part of The New Harmony Project’s 2015 Conference – David Alan Anderson, Steffan Clark, Michael Emerson, Olivia Hebert, David Hudson, Celeste Jones, Oriana Lada, Owiso Odera, Jon Hudson Odom, Erin Weaver. 26
27
FOLGER THEATRE SPONSORS
Additional support for Folger Theatre comes from
Joan and Peter Andrews Mildred Grinnell Clarke Public Programs Endowment Wyatt R. and Susan N. Haskell Public Programs Endowment Fund John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Public Programs Endowment Fund Dimick Foundation MARPAT Foundation National Endowment for the Arts Shakespeare in American Communities Shubert Foundation Share Fund Theatre Programs Endowment With special thanks to the family and friends of Lily St. John McKee (1987-2015), recognizing the creation of the Lily St. John McKee Memorial Fund.
28
Corporate, Foundation, and Government Support
The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Dimick Foundation © Folger Shakespeare Library gratefully Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation acknowledges the kind support of the The Max & Victoria Dreyfus following institutional donors. The list Foundation, Inc. below includes gifts of $1,000 or more received between April 16, 2015 and The Lee & Juliet Folger Fund April 15, 2016. © indicates gifts made The Samuel Freeman specifically in support of Folger Theatre. Charitable Trust The Ann & Gordon Getty Anonymous Foundation AARP Graham Holdings William S. Abell Foundation, Inc. Heinz Family Foundation British Council Holland & Knight LLP The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Humanities Council of Foundation Capitol Hill Community Foundation Washington, D.C. Mark & Carol Hyman Fund Anthony & Anna L. Carozza iTunes Foundation KieranTimberlake Clark-Winchcole Foundation Lannan Foundation Council on Library & Information MARPAT Foundation © Resources The Nancy Peery Marriott Marshall B. Coyne Foundation Foundation D.C. Commission on the Mars Foundation Arts & Humanities, an agency Moleskine supported in part by the The Mosaic Foundation National Endowment (of R. & P. Heydon) for the Arts © Folger Theatre donor
SUPPORTERS National Capital Arts & Cultural Affairs Program & the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts National Endowment for the Arts National Endowment for the Humanities National Recreation Foundation Nepeni Foundation Overseas Hardwoods Company Pine Tree Foundation of New York The Nora Roberts Foundation Shakespeare in American Communities Share Fund © The Shubert Foundation © Weissberg Foundation ©
Individual Donors
Folger Shakespeare Library gratefully acknowledges the kind support of the following individuals. The list below includes gifts and pledges of $250 or more received between April 16, 2015 and April 15, 2016. © indicates gifts made specifically in support of Folger Theatre..
$50,000+ J. May Liang & James Lintott The McKee family in loving memory of Lily St. John McKee Stuart & Mimi Rose
$25,000-$49,999 Anonymous Susan Sachs Goldman © The Honorable Eugene A. Ludwig & Dr. Carol Ludwig Roger & Robin Millay © Herman J. Obermayer (deceased) Gail Kern Paster © Mark Pigott KBE & Cindy Pigott
$15,000 -$24,999 Louis & Bonnie Cohen © Neal & Florence Cohen Maygene & Steve Daniels © Helen & David Kenney & Family © The Honorable John D. Macomber Ann K. Morales © William & Louisa Newlin © Andrew Oliver & Melanie Du Bois Loren & Frances Rothschild Mr. & Mrs. B. Francis Saul, II Neal Turtell © Scott & Liz Vance © $10,000-$14,999 Jarrett & Nora Arp The Lord Browne of Madingley Twiss & Patrick Butler Heather & Dick Cass © Folger Theatre donor
Vinton & Sigrid Cerf © Nicky Cymrot © Peter & Rose Edwards David & Margaret Gardner © William L. Hopkins © Mr. & Mrs. Amos B. Hostetter, Jr. Deneen Howell & Donald Vieira Maxine Isaacs Jacqueline B. Mars John & Connie McGuire © Darcy & Andy Nussbaum Joanne Ruxin Mr. & Mrs. H. Axel Schupf Craig Pascal & Victor Shargai ©
$5,000-$9,999 Anonymous (2) Keith & Celia Arnaud © Judy Areen & Richard Cooper © Dr. Julian C. Eisenstein Ms. Denise Gwyn Ferguson © Stephen H. Grant Wyatt R. & Susan N. Haskell Colonel David E. Johnson, PhD. & Ms. Wendy Frieman © Andrea Kasarsky © Karl K. & Carrol Benner Kindel © Dr. Anne M. King Edward & Patricia Leahy Mr. & Mrs. John B. Magee Mr. & Mrs. Leander McCormick-Goodhart J.C. & Mary McElveen Carl & Undine Nash © Mrs. William F. Nelson Mr. Dusty Philip Mr. Ben Reiter & Mrs. Alice Goldman Reiter Gabriela & Douglas Smith The Steinglass Family © Louis B. Thalheimer & Juliet A. Eurich Tessa van der Willigen & Jonathan Walters © Tara Ghoshal Wallace © Drs. Michael L. Witmore & Kellie Robertson Ellen & Bernard Young $2,500-$4,999 Anonymous (3) D. James Baker & Emily Lind Baker Roger & Julie Baskes Bill & Evelyn Braithwaite © Ms. Marilyn Brockway Mr. & Mrs. Charles P. Brown Howard M. Brown © Susan & Dixon Butler Brian & Karen Conway
Jeffrey P. Cunard © Philip J. Deutch & Marne L. Levine Ms. Dorothea W. Dickerman & Mr. Richard Kevin Becker Barbra Eaton & Ed Salners © Marjorie & Anthony Elson Jeff Franzen Mr. & Mrs. Harold B. Gill Ruth Hansen & Lawrence Plotkin Ms. Deidre Holmes DuBois & Mr. Christopher E. DuBois Rick Kasten © Professor John N. & Pauline King Mr. Arthur Koenig Dr. David Eric Lees & Dr. Daniele F. Huntington Mr. Richard H. Levy & Ms. Lorraine Gallard Ken Ludwig & Adrienne George Patricia Magno Julianna Mahley © Drs. Daniel & Susan Mareck © Mark McConnell & Leslie Delagran Pam McFarland & Brian Hagenbuch © Peter & Mary Jay Michel © Martin & Elaine Miller Hazel C. Moore © Cullen & Anna Marie Murphy Dr. Rebeccah Kinnamon Neff Melanie & Larry Nussdorf Carolyn & Mark Olshaker © Timothy & Linda O’Neill Gail Orgelfinger & Charles C. Hanna Deborah C. Payne Drs. Eldor & Judith Pederson Mrs. Jacqueline L. Quillen Dr. Lois Green Schwoerer Robert J. & Tina M. Tallaksen Ayanna Thompson The Honorable Seth Waxman & Ms. Debra Goldberg Professor R L Widmann Nyla & Gerry Witmore
$1,000-$2,499 Anonymous (3) John & Nancy Abeles Gary & Mary Ellen Abrecht Dr. Robert S. Adelstein & Mrs. Miriam A. Adelstein © Ms. Lisa U. Baskin Mr. Peter England Blau Mr. & Mrs. Joseph S. Bracewell Ms. Gigi Bradford & Mr. Jim Stanford Mr. & Mrs. David G. Bradley Mrs. Adrianne Brooks ©
29
SUPPORTERS Mr. & Mrs. I. Townsend Burden, III © Dr. Rebecca Weld Bushnell & Mr. John David Toner Mr. & Mrs. Peter J. Callahan © William J. Camarinos © Professor Carmen A. Casís Mr. Richard H. Cleva Mr. Mark D. Colley & Ms. Deborah A. Harsch © Mr. Edwin P. Conquest, Jr. Mr. Eric Cooper Ronald M. Costell, M.D., & Marsha E. Swiss © Mr. Douglas R. Cox © Ms. Judith Matthews Craig Ms. D. Elizabeth Crompton Professor Adele S. Davidson Ms. Harriet H. Davis Dr. & Mrs. William Davis © Porter & Lisa Dawson Mr. Steven des Jardins © Mr. John F. Downey Nancy M. Folger & Sidney Werkman Mr. & Mrs. Bill Foulkes Carla & George Frampton Eric Friedenwald-Fishman The Folger Five Mr. & Mrs. Michael P. Galvin Brent Glass & Cathryn Keller Ms. Barbara Goldberg Ms. Patricia J. Gray Ann Greer © Dr. Martha Gross & Mr. Robert Tracy Dr. & Mrs. Werner L. Gundersheimer Elizabeth H. Hageman Martha Harris Mr. Joseph M. Hassett & Ms. Carol Melton Dr. & Mrs. Robert M. Hazen © Catherine Held Mr. & Mrs. Keith B. Hennessey © Ms. Anita G. Herrick Eric H. Hertting June & George Higgins © Mr. & Mrs. David H. Jones © Katherine & Duncan Kennedy Ms. Maria L. Kocylowsky Ms. Faith S. Lambert Col. Denny Lane & Ms. Naoko Aoki Mr. & Mrs. J. Ronald Langkamp Mr. Hiram G. Larew Dr. Robert Lawshe © Mr. Michael Lebovitz Dr. Carole Levin
30
Richard & Jane Levy Mr. Robert Liberatore Mr. & Mrs. Robert Case Liotta David Lloyd, Realtor Ms. Caroline Lopez Mr. & Mrs. Michael S. Lopez Abbe D. Lowell & Molly A. Meegan Mr. & Mrs. David J. Lundsten © Mr. & Mrs. Richard L. Lyon Mr. Thomas G. MacCracken Mr. Winton E. Matthews, Jr. © Ms. Catherine McClave © Mr. Christopher McKee Dr. Mary Patterson McPherson Ms. Barbara M. Meade Beverly J. Melani & Bruce E. Walker © Ms. Chloe Miller Jane & Paul Molloy Dr. Tina Morris Ms. Mary Morton Dr. Barbara A. Mowat Mary Muromcew Ms. Sheila A. Murphy Theodore & Mary Eugenia Myer Mr. & Mrs. Robert Nordhaus Mr. Christian O’Connell Mr. Ari Orenstein & Ms. Yana Kondakova Dr. & Mrs. George R. Packard, III Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Parr © Charles & Susan Parsons Anne Parten & Philip Nelson Ms. Rebecca Penniman & Mr. Louis Wittenberg Ms. Julie Phillips © Earl & Carol Ravenal Mr. & Mrs. Trip Reid Ms. Lola Reinsch Gerd & Duncan Ritchie © Mr. David Roberts & Dr. David Spencer Howard & Melinda Rubin Mary Jane Ruhl Lelia and Robert Russell John & Lynn Sachs Mr. & Mrs. K. Dudley Schadeberg Dr. Richard Schoch Christopher Schroeder & Alexandra Coburn Dr. Marianne Schuelein & Mr. Ralph M. Krause Angela Scott Howard M. Shapiro & Shirley Brandman Dr. James Shapiro Ms. Joy Shashy Joan Shorey
Shirley & Albert H. Small John & Alison Steadman © Dr. Ann Swann © Mr. Leslie C. Taylor Amy & Mark Tercek Mary Augusta & George D. Thomas Mr. & Mrs. Tim Thornton Mr. & Mrs. Peter D. Trooboff Mr. Nigel Twose & Ms. Priscilla Annamanthodo Toby & Stacie Webb Mr. Christopher White Webster Mrs. Eric Weinmann Gail Weinmann & Nathan Billig Mr. David Weisman Mr. Theron Westervelt Mr. Donald E. White & Ms. Betty W. Good-White Philip & Tricia Winterer Beverly & Christopher With Anne & Fred Woodworth Mr. & Mrs. Gerald Zarr
$500-$999 Anonymous (3) Dr. Peter J. Albert & Ms. Charlotte Mahoney Mrs. Jo Ellen Allen Ms. Jerrilyn V. Andrews & Mr. Donald E. Hesse © Bess & Greg Ballentine Mr. and Mrs. David B. Barefoot Ms. Kyle Z. Bell & Mr. Alan G.R. Bell Mr. Brent James Bennett Mr. Richard Ben-veniste & Ms. Donna Grell Dr. James E. Bernhardt & Ms. Beth C. Bernhardt © Drs. Robin & Clare Biswas Mr. James L. Blum © Mr. & Mrs. Richard J. Bochner © Dr. Jean C. Bolan Mr. Henry H. Booth © Mr. & Mrs. Richard Bott © Dr. Mary H. Branton Mr. & Mrs. James D. Bridgeman Capt. & Mrs. John Brownell © Kathleen Burger & Glen Gerada Ms. Maria Alexia Burke John Byrd & Lina Watson © Mr. & Mrs. Lewis R. Cabe Ms. Diana Carl Colonel & Mrs. Larry M. Cereghino Mr. Todd Christofaro Mr. Charles W. Clark Leslie & Ray Clevenger Linda & John Cogdill © © Folger Theatre donor
SUPPORTERS Mr. Eli Cohen & Dr. Virginia Grace Cohen Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Cohen © Dr. Anne Coldiron Mr. & Mrs. William D. Coleman © Mr. & Mrs. John J. Collins © Mr. Owen J. Costello & Ms. Erlin R. Webb Mr. & Mrs. Warren J. Cox James & Ann Coyle © Ms. Katheryn L. Cranford © S. Cudiner Mr. & Mrs. David J. Curtin Mr. & Mrs. Robert J. Daniels Ms. Sheri Dillon Dr. Ross W. Duffin & Dr. Beverly J. Simmons Mr. Craig G. Dunkerley & Ms. Patricia Haigh Mr. & Mrs. Charles L. Eater Dr. William E. Engel Louise H. Engle Mr. Douglas H. Erwin & Dr. Wendy Wiswall © Ms. Marietta Ethier Mr. Douglas Evans Mr. Gerald M. Feierstein Charles Fendig & Maria Fisher Melody & Albert Fetske Ms. Tracy Fisher © Mr. Gregory Flowers Mr. Robert Fontenrose © Mr. Roland M. Frye, Jr. & Ms. Susan M. Pettey Mr. William V. Garetz Jere Gibber & J.G. Harrington Mrs. Kenneth W. Gideon Ms. Michelle Gluck & Dr. Walter Smith Mr. & Mrs. Daniel L. Goelzer © Mr. Lawrence J. Goffney, Jr. & Dr. Betty J. Forman © Mr. & Mrs. Michael Goldstein © Professors Suzanne & Philip Gossett Mr. Bruce N. Gregory & Ms. Paula Causey © Mr. Harry Gutman Margaret & David Hannay Dr. Peter I. Hartsock Terrance & Noel Hefty Mr. Michael J. Hirrel Mr. David H. Hofstad © Ms. Linda Katcher Mrs. Margot Kelly Mr. Christopher Kendall & Ms. Susan Schilperoort Wendy & Robert Kenney Mr. Bruce Kieloch © Folger Theatre donor
Mr. & Mrs. George Koukourakis Mr. & Mrs. Terry Lenzner Ms. Nina Levine Ms. Rachel M. Lilly Mr. & Mrs. Jan Lodal Kevin & Sally Majkut Mr. & Mrs. Mark A. Mancini © Ms. Allison Mankin & Dr. Jim Carton © Ms. Gail McKee © Marilyn & Charles McMillion Dr. & Mrs. Andy B. Molchon © Mr. & Mrs. Geoffrey C. Morell © Mr. Terence R. Murphy & Ms. Patricia A. Sherman Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Myers © Ms. Essence Newhoff & Dr. Paul Gardullo Mr. Mike Newton & Dr. Linda Werling Dr. & Mrs. Malcolm B. Niedner Mr. & Mrs. Dave Nurme Mr. & Mrs. Kevin L. Pearson © Ms. Sheila J. Peters Mr. & Mrs. Carl F. Pfeiffer Mr. & Mrs. Paul W. Phillips © Dr. & Mrs. Warren S. Poland Ms. Gerit Ann Quealy Mrs. Donald Rappaport Mr. & Mrs. Joseph H. Reynolds © Mr. Jonathan M. Rich Mr. Peter Rogen Mr. & Mrs. Albert L. Salter © Mr. & Mrs. Cary H. Sherman Dr. Sherry Wood Shuman & Mr. Philip B. Shuman Marilyn & Hugh South Mr. & Mrs. Thomas P. Stanley Ms. Joanne M. Sten Mr. Carl Wesley Stephens & Ms. Catherine L. Moore © Mr. & Mrs. Donald Street © Mr. John M. Taylor Dr. Nancy Eve Thomas & Mr. Nick Olmos-Lau © Mr. & Mrs. Grant P. Thompson © Mr. & Mrs. J. R. Tonkel Ms. Kathryn M. Truex Mr. & Mrs. James T. Turner Mr. Scott F. Turow Mr. & Mrs. Robert F. Van Voorhees Ms. Jacqueline West © Ms. Carolyn L. Wheeler © Mr. Gerald Widdicombe © Mr. & Mrs. Kevin B. Wilshere © Ms. Nicole Winard Laura Yerkovich & John Winkler Phyllis Jane Young
$250-$499 Anonymous (2) Catherine N. Abrahams Professor Sharon Achinstein Ms. Monica Lynn Agree Mr. & Mrs. Charles T. Alexander © Dr. Boris Allan & Ms. Kathleen L. Pomroy Mr. & Mrs. Douglas J. Alspach Mrs. Philip Aspden Ms. Pamela Auerbach Mr. & Mrs. Robert D. Bachmann © Ms. Suzanne Bakshian & Mr. Vincent A. Chiappinelli Mr. Seymour Barasch Ms. Christina Baumel Mr. Donald Baur Ms. Alexandra Beatty Mr. & Mrs. David M. Beckmann Mr. D. Jeffrey Benoliel & Mrs. Amy Branch Benoliel Mr. & Mrs. Robert F. Benson © Mr. Kirke Bent Ms. Katherine A. Berry © Ms. Mary C. Blake © Mr. Michael C. Blaugrund Dr. & Mrs. David W. Blois Professor Jackson Campbell Boswell & Mrs. Ann C. Boswell Mrs. Anne Clare Bourne Ms. Gail S. Bower Mr. & Mrs. John R. Brinkema Dr. James C. Bulman Mr. Charles Burger & Ms. Nancy Broers Colonel & Mrs. Lance J. Burton Ms. Victoria Butler & Mr. Tim Carney © Professor Charles Butterworth Dr. & Mrs. Kent Cartwright Mr. Wallace W. Chandler © Mr. John Chester Mr. & Mrs. William Conrad © Mr. Robert W. Cover & Ms. Bonnie Lepoff Dr. John Cox & Dr. Lo-Ann Nguyen-Cox © Mr. & Mrs. Robert H. Craft, Jr. Ms. Ann Curley Mr. & Mrs. Paul Denig Mr. & Mrs. Daniel A. DeVincentis Mr. James B. Dinneen, Jr. Colleen Dougherty Dr. & Mrs. Josef C. Dvorak © Dr. Terry Dwyer & Dr. Marcy F. Petrini © Dr. William Eamon Rose & John Eberhardt Mr. David J. Edmondson
31
SUPPORTERS Mr. & Mrs. Michael Eig © Mr. & Mrs. Emerson J. Elliott Mrs. John Eustice Dr. Robert J. Fehrenbach Anne & Lucas Fischer Ms. Laurie Fletcher & Dr. Allan Fraser Mrs. Florence Bryan Fowlkes Mr. John Franzén © Mr. Douglas Freeman Mr. William K. Frymoyer Ms. Mary B. Fuson Mr. & Mrs. Francis M. Garrison Ms. Nancy C. Garrison Ms. Elizabeth H. Gemmill Mr. & Mrs. Timothy Gibson © Mr. Joseph J. Gigliotti, Sr. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Mr. Gregg H.S. Golden Ms. Ann V. Gordon & Mr. Martin Singer Mr. John E. Graves, RIA & Ms. Hanh Phan Mrs. Claire Gibson Green Sayre N. Greenfield, PhD & Linda V. Troost, PhD Neal & Janice Gregory Janet & Christopher Griffin © Mr. & Mrs. C. David Gustafson Dr. Nancy E. Gwinn & Dr. John Y. Cole Mr. & Mrs. Ridgway Hall Mr. & Mrs. Donald B. Haller © Col. Wesley P. Hallman & Dr. Silvana Rubino-Hallman Mr. & Mrs. Robert B. Hamilton © Mr. George Hayes Dr. Susan R. Haynes & Dr. Carl C. Baker Ms. Barbara W. Hazelett Mr. Robert Hebda © Mr. Mark E. Herlihy & Ms. Ann M. Kappler Dr. Heather A. Hirschfeld & Prof. Anthony Welch Larry & Amanda Hobart © Dr. Dee Ann Holisky © Dr. Mack P. Holt Mr. & Mrs. Stephen A. Hopkins © Dr. Henry Ridgely Horsey © Ms. Rosemarie R. Howe Mr. Gareth L. Howell Mr. Webb C. Howell Ms. Elizabeth M. Janthey Mr. Barry W. Johnson & Mr. John E. Chapman Mr. Herbert A. Johnson Mr. & Mrs. James Jordan Dr. & Mrs. Ralph J. Justus ©
32
Dr. Candace Katz & Mr. Hadrian R. Katz © Mr. & Mrs. David Kelly © Ms. Mary E. Kelly Dr. Arthur B. Kennickell Andrea & Joseph Kerr Ms. Judith Kimball Mr. Robert L. Kimmins © Mr. Michael Kolakowski Ms. Jennefer D. Kopczynski & Mr. Jonathan P. Adams Mr. Warren S. Kornberg © Mr. Edward M. Kovach & Mrs. Kathleen C. Kovach Kim & Elizabeth Kowalewski Mr. Richard Krasnow Mr. Michael Laird Mr. David W. Lankford David Larch & Deborah Roudebush Ms. Susan Lee & Mr. Stephen Saltzberg Mr. & Mrs. Marc Levinson Professor Fred J. Levy & Ms. Nancy Taylor Mr. & Mrs. Roger N. Levy © Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence H. Liden Lilly S. Lievsay Mr. Roy Lind Dr. Frances Litrenta © Mr. Joseph Loewenstein & Ms. C. Lynne Tatlock Ms. Charlene Longnecker Mrs. Stephen Lotterman © Dr. Kathleen Lynch & Mr. John C. Blaney Mr. & Mrs. Timothy Lynch Wes MacAdam Mr. William F. Maher, Jr. & Ms. Michelle M. Berberet Mr. & Mrs. Thomas R. Malarkey © Dr. Deborah L. Malkovich & Dr. William Freimuth Dr. Lewis Markoff & Dr. Caroline Samuels Mr. James W. McBride Ms. Anna Thérèse McGowan © Mr. Patrick J. McGraw Sean & Melissa McKenna Ms. Susan McNabb & Mr. Brent Hillman Ms. Nancy Elizabeth Meiners © Mr. Steven J. Metalitz & Ms. Kit J. Gage © Eric Minton & Sarah J. Smith Ms. Linda S. Moore Mr. Gerald J. Morris Mr. Jeffery Moser Dr. Klaus Nehring
Dr. Alan Nelson Ms. Martha Newman Ms. Diane Ney Ms. Alice L. Norris © Mr. & Mrs. Ernest T. Oskin Dr. Betty Ann Ottinger Ms. Patricia J. Overmeyer © Mr. & Mrs. Larry D. Palmer Mr. & Mrs. Richard J. Park © Ms. Barbara A. Patocka Dr. Hans S. Pawlisch Linda Levy Peck Dr. & Mrs. Joram Piatigorsky © Ms. Ann Portocarrero © Ms. Valerie Elizabeth Powell Drs. Maria T. & Thomas A. Prendergast Mr. Woodruff M. Price Mr. & Mrs. Anthony Quinn Mr. & Mrs. Erik M. Rasmussen Mr. Leon S. Reed & Ms. Lois S. Lembo © Dr. Joshua S. Reid Dr. Markley Roberts © Winnie & Alexander Robinson Ellen & Richard Rodin Mr. Leslie Rosenbaum & Ms. Debra Derickson Mrs. Betty Sams Ms. Janet A. Sanderson Mr. Thomas Glenn Saunders © Mr. Kurt R. Schwarz & Ms. Patsy G. Kennan Mr. D. Stanton Sechler © Professor & Mrs. Mortimer Sellers © Prof. Barbara A. Shailor Ph.D & Mr. Harry W. Blair II Mr. & Mrs. John L. Sibert Dr. Donna Sieckmann & Mr. Neale Ainsfield Mr. & Mrs. Paul A. Sieving Kay & George Simmons Mr. Joseph L. Smith & Ms. Cheryl S. Roesel Ms. Phyllis Smith Ms. Katharine Sodergreen Ms. Rose Solari & Mr. James Patterson Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Sollinger © Mr. Steven Solow © Mr. Steve Spaulding & Dr. Alicen B Spaulding Professor Richard E. Spear & Professor Athena Tacha Ms. Janet C. Stavropoulos Ms. Cathleen Ann Steg & Mr. Schuyler E. Schell Ms. Elizabeth Stein © Folger Theatre donor
SUPPORTERS Mr. Daniel Steiner © Allan & Kim Stypeck Ms. Theresa A. Sullivan Dr. Deborah F. Tannen & Dr. Michael Macovski © Mr. Jonathan Taylor & Ms. Diane Shaughnessy Mr. & Mrs. John V. Thomas Ms. Elizabeth Tobey Mr. Anand Trivedi James & Carol Tsang Mrs. Ellen Tunstall © Mrs. Katherine Wood Turner & Mr. William E. Turner © Ms. Julie Uno Mr. & Mrs. Stephen M. Vajs Dr. Arina van Breda Drs. Alden & Virginia Vaughan Drs. Betsy & Alkinoos Vourlekis Mr. Eliot A. Wadsworth Mr. Ronald E. Wagner & Dr. Ruth Scogna Wagner Ms. Wendy Wall Mr. Edward P. Washburn & Ms. Michele J. Orza © Mr. Thomas Weaver Mr. & Mrs. William J. Weinhold Dr. & Mrs. John R. Wennersten Ms. Katheryne H. West & Mr. Ralph W. West, Jr. © Ms. Dorothy B. Wexler Ms. Teresa S. Whiting Mr. James E. Whittaker Sandy and Jon Willen Gary & Josephine Williams Mr. & Mrs. Roy L. Williams Mr. Clark M. Wright Dr. Duncan Wu Irene & Alan Wurtzel The Yacobucci Family
The First Folio Society
The list below includes all friends who have included the Folger Shakespeare Library in their estate plans through a will commitment, a life income gift, or a beneficiary designation in a life insurance policy or retirement plan.
Anonymous (2) Professor Judith H. Anderson Ms. Doris E. Austin Dr. Carol Barton Ms. Mary Cole The Honorable Esther Coopersmith Wendy Frieman & David Johnson Dr. Elise Goodman (bequest will be in memory of Elise Goodman & Rolf Soellner) Mrs. Karen Gundersheimer © Folger Theatre donor
Dr. Werner L. Gundersheimer Dr. Elizabeth H. Hageman Dr. Jay L. Halio Catherine Held Eric H. Hertting Mr. Michael J. Hirrel Dr. Dee Ann Holisky Ms. Deidre Holmes DuBois & Mr. Christopher E. DuBois Susan Fawcett & Richard Donovan William L. Hopkins Ms. Elizabeth J. Hunt Maxine Isaacs Mrs. Robert J.T. Joy Dr. Elizabeth T. Kennan Karl K. & Carrol Benner Kindel Professor John N. King Pauline G. King Merwin Kliman Professor Barbara Kreps Dr. Carole Levin Lilly S. Lievsay Dr. Nancy Klein Maguire Pam McFarland & Brian Hagenbuch Mr. Gene B. Mercer Professor H. C. Erik Midelfort & Ms. Anne L. McKeithen Roger & Robin Millay Dr. Barbara A. Mowat Ms. Sheila A. Murphy Gail Kern Paster Linda Levy Peck Dr. Sylvia Holton Peterson Professor Kristen Poole Professor Anne Lake Prescott Dr. Mark Rankin Dr. Markley Roberts Dr. Richard Schoch Mrs. S. Schoenbaum Lisa Schroeter Dr. Lois Green Schwoerer Mr. Theodore Sedgwick Albert H. Small Drs. Alden & Virginia Vaughan Barbara Wainscott Dr. Barbara A. Wanchisen Dr. Richard M. Waugaman, M.D. & Elisabeth P. Waugaman, Ph.D. Professor R L Widmann The Honorable Karen Hastie Williams Dr. Georgianna Ziegler Every effort has been made to ensure that this list of donors is correct. If your name is misspelled or omitted, please accept our sincere apologies and inform the Development Office at 202.675.0321.
33
34
Photo by Jeff Malet
Photo by Teresa Wood
Photo by Teresa Wood
Photo by Teresa Wood
THE FOLGER
From left to right: Romell Witherspoon in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Adam Wesley Brown, Erin Weaver, and Betsy Mugavero in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Wayne T. Carr in Pericles; Michael Sharon and Deidra LaWan Starnes in Julius Caesar.
Home to the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, the Folger Shakespeare Library is an internationally recognized research library offering advanced scholarly programs in the humanities; an innovator in the preservation of rare materials; a national leader in how Shakespeare is taught in grades K-12; and an awardwinning producer of cultural and arts programs—theater, music, poetry, exhibits, lectures, and family programs, which connect broader audiences to our collections and support the living legacy of Shakespeare in contemporary life. A gift to the American people from industrialist Henry Clay Folger and his wife Emily Jordan Folger, this library opened in 1932. Folger Theatre is the vibrant centerpiece of the Folger’s public programs.
With a focus on Shakespeare, Folger Theatre produces plays reflecting the breadth of the library’s peerless collection. In this unique setting, with collaborations between artists and Open: Mon.–Thurs., 10am–5pm; Fri., 10am–8pm; and Sun., 12pm–5pm Gift Shop: Tues.–Sat., 12pm–5pm
experts, Folger Theatre produces innovative stagings that have been commended as “breathtakingly original… strikingly contemporary” (The Washington Post).
Led by Artistic Producer Janet Alexander Griffin since 1991, Folger Theatre has received 140 nominations and 23 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in acting, direction, design, and production. During the recent seasons, Folger Theatre has received the Outstanding Resident Play Award for its productions of The Taming of the Shrew (2013), Hamlet (2011), and Measure for Measure (2007).
Other highlights from Folger Theatre’s producing history include these Helen Hayes Award recipients or nominees for outstanding production: Romeo and Juliet (2013), Orestes: A Tragic Romp (2010), Henry VIII (2010), Arcadia (2009), Macbeth (2008), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (2006), Melissa Arctic (2006), She Stoops to Conquer (2002), Shakespeare’s R & J (2001), Much Ado About Nothing (1998), and Romeo and Juliet (1997).
Building & Exhibition Tour: Mon.–Sat., 11am, 1pm & 3pm; and Sun. 12pm & 3pm
Reading Rooms Tour: Sat. at 12pm; limited to 15 participants. Reserve 35 in advance at tours@folger.edu