Karen Ziemba to Star in MASTER CLASS at Riverside Theatre

Riverside Theatre has revealed the first production of the 2024-2025 Waxlax Stage season, Terrence McNally’s Master Class starring Tony Award-winning actress Karen Ziemba in the role of Maria Callas. Master Class, part of the Bobbie Olsen Series on the Waxlax Stage, plays Riverside Theatre from February 4-23, 2025. 

Maria Callas has been praised by critics for her wide-ranging voice and dramatic interpretations. Her musicality and presence on stage led her to being hailed as “La Divina” (“The Divine One”). While her dramatic life on and off the stage was well publicized, her artistry is still hailed almost 50 years after her death at the young age of 53. In 2006, Opera News wrote: “Nearly thirty years after death, Maria Callas is still the definition of the diva as artist – and still one of classical music’s best-selling vocalists.”
Born in New York City in 1923 to parents who had emigrated from Greece right before her birth, Callas showed signs of her musical talents at the age of four. Due to tensions at home, her mother took Callas and her older sister back to Athens in 1937. It was there, under the tutelage of Elvira de Hidalgo, Callas’ talent was developed and she joined the Greek National Opera. Within a few years, Callas became an international star selling out opera houses all over the world. 

Throughout her career, Callas was often referred to as a temperamental prima donna. Her life and career blurred the lines between the drama on stage and the drama off stage. Her rivalry with other opera stars and impresarios, her contract demands, her opulent lifestyle, and her affair with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis while still married added to the speculation that Callas fit all the negative definitions of a prima donna. And yet, critics and audiences hailed her performances while newspapers and authors clamored for intimate, personal stories about her.

An aficionado of opera, Terrence McNally based Master Class on a series of real-life classes Callas delivered at The Juilliard School of Music between October 1971 and March 1972. Master Class showcases Callas and a group of opera students as she imparts her knowledge of technique and the complexities of the genre. While the play features incidental vocal music performed by the students as Callas critiques them, its main focus is on the larger-than-life diva as she relives her extraordinary life. 

Master Class opened on Broadway on November 11, 1995 and closed on June 29, 1997. The production starred Zoe Caldwell as Callas and featured Audra McDonald, Karen Kay Cod, David Loud, Jay Hunter Morris and Michael Friel in the cast. Master Class won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Play, Caldwell won for Best Actress in a Play and McDonald for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Patti LuPone and Dixie Carter replaced Caldwell in the Broadway run with Faye Dunaway playing the role on an extensive U. S. national tour. 

A 2011 Broadway revival starring Tyne Daly garnered excellent reviews including from Ben Brantley of The New York Times who felt Ms. Daly “transforms the script into one of the most haunting portraits I’ve seen of life after stardom.”

Master Class is directed by DJ Salisbury and stars Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics’ Circle award-winning actress Karen Ziemba as Maria Callas. The cast also includes: Jazmin Gorsline (Sophie De Palma), Tim Quartier (Anthony Candolino), Zina Ellis (Sharon Graham) and Julian Bond (Emmanuel Weinstock). 

The Production Team includes: Julian Bond (Music Director & Accompanist), Emily Luongo (Scenic Design), Kurt Alger (Costume Design), Genny Wynn (Lighting Design), Craig Beyrooti (Sound Design), Audrey M. Brown (Production Stage Manager) and Dane Urban  (Assistant Stage Manager). Casting was done in New York City by The Wojcik Casting Team. 

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