6 minute read
CYRANO
from 2019 Season Program
by HVSF
artistic director Davis McCallum
managing director Kate Liberman
in a co-production with TWO RIVER THEATER, RED BANK, NJ
PRESENTS
by JASON O’cONNELL ANd bRENdA WItHERS
AdAPtEd fROM tHE PLAy cyRANO dE bERGERAc by EdMONd ROStANd dIREctEd by MEREdItH McdONOUGH **
Costume Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jessica Wegener Shay +
Lighting Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paul Toben +
Props Designer/Props Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Joshua Yocom
Stage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Janelle Caso*
Assistant Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Raz Golden ^
Voice and Speech Coach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alithea Phillips Casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Stephanie Klapper Casting
this production is supported in part by Mary Elizabeth and Jeffrey Bunzel Kimberly and Kim Engelbert Laura Jean Wilson and Mark Menting
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States . +Represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829 of the IATSE . **Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union . ^Recipient of the Drama League Classical Fellowship for Directors of Color .
My heart will still be beating, stirring the soil, spinning the earth, for you.
Cyrano, Act 5
Synopsis
A revered soldier in the French army, Cyrano de Bergerac carries a rapier-sharp wit, passion for poetry, and outsized confidence… in most things. The wordsmith’s greatest weakness — his embarrassingly prominent nose – keeps him from telling his childhood friend, the brilliant and beautiful Roxane, how he really feels about her.
When Christian, a handsome new cadet, joins Cyrano’s regiment, Roxane falls for him immediately and asks Cyrano to watch over the young soldier. Meanwhile, Christian—as inarticulate as his supervisor is eloquent — asks for Cyrano’s help in crafting love letters for Roxane. A third suitor, the pompous Count DeGuiche, is enraged when Roxane rebuffs him, sending both men off to war.
Months pass and, unbeknownst to Christian, Cyrano has continued writing to Roxane, criss-crossing the battlefield to hand-deliver notes. Roxane finds her way to the trenches, bringing hope and inspiration to the war-worn battalion. The men’s ruse is almost revealed in a moment of calm, but tragedy strikes, leading Cyrano to maintain the secret. Can the poet with panache ever find the courage to own his words?
Cast
(in alphabetical order)
Deguiche, Montfleury . . . . . .George Merrick* Cyrano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jason O’Connell* Christian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Luis Quintero* Roxane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Britney Simpson* La Bret, Duenna . . . . . . . . Nance Williamson*
Playwrights’ Note
Jason O’Connell I’ve always loved Cyrano. The notion of a hero whose brilliant wit and romantic soul are encased in a less-than-perfect physical package has always appealed to me. Perhaps this is because I was still a kid when I first encountered the character (via Derek Jacobi’s portrayal and Steve Martin’s Roxanne), and fantasies of taking out a hundred lesser men with gymnastics both physical and verbal were de rigueur for a teenage boy obsessed with superheroes and stand-up comedians in equal measure. I’ve always wanted to tell this story, and I’m so grateful the stars aligned to allow me and my dear friend Brenda to create our own small-cast, stripped down, gently irreverent, and deeply affectionate adaptation. So much of Cyrano is about the poetry of the individual soul, the artist inside each of us that yearns to create and express no matter our job, our background, or our appearance. Cyrano de Bergerac may have been a very real man, but Rostand’s (and Derek Jacobi’s, and Steve Martin’s, and our own) version of him is, at his core, Everyman. He contains multitudes – the power and beauty and insecurity and hope that lie within each and every one of our teenage fantasies.
Brenda Withers While putting together our Cyrano, Jason and I discovered that Edmond Rostand’s classic was an adaptation in its own right, a sort of fantasy biopic imagining the highs and lows of Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, a celebrated figure known throughout Paris for his satires, swordplay, and yes, unusually large nose. Rostand mixed certain fact with probable fiction to sharpen his play’s stakes — the real-life swashbuckler did fight valiantly with the Gascony Guards at the siege of Arras and met his end in the way the playwright suggests, but the legend of his hidden love is likely an invention (albeit one a romantic like Cyrano might have enjoyed!). If adaptation is, as famously suggested, the highest form of flattery, we’re hopeful our reworking is as faithful to Cyrano’s spirit as our predecessor’s, and as affectionately imagined.
Director’s Bio
Meredith McDonough was the Associate Artistic Director at Actors Theatre of Louisville for the past seven seasons where favorite directing credits included both parts of Angels in America, Peter and the Starcatcher, and The Last Five Years. In the Humana Festival, she directed the premieres of Marginal Loss, Dot, brownsville song (b-side for trey), and Airness, among others. Regionally, favorites include The Lily’s Revenge with Taylor Mac (Magic Theatre), Noises Off (Guthrie), Fair Use (Steppenwolf), Eurydice (Williamstown), the musical Summer of ’42, and the US premiere of NSFW (Roundhouse). She was the New Works Director for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. education: Northwestern; mfa: UCSD.
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2019 SEASON: APRIL 3–DECEMBER 8 WWW.STORMKING.ORG
Mark di Suvero, Pyramidian, 1987/1998. Gift of the Ralph E. Ogden Foundation. ©Mark di Suvero, courtesy the artist and Spacetime C.C., New York. Photo by Jacob Vitale
