Commonwealth Shakespeare Company Presents OLD MONEY By Wendy Wasserstein

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC) announces the second staged production of its 2017-18 Winter/Spring Season, Wendy Wasserstein's satire Old Money directed by Karen MacDonald at the Sorenson Center for the Arts, Babson College, 231 Forest Street in Wellesley, MA.

Performance dates: March 6-10, 15-17 at 7:30PM; March 11 and 18 at 3:00PM

Single Ticket prices:
Orchestra $45-$65
Balcony $25 (no senior discount in balcony)
Orchestra Seniors $41-$56
Babson faculty/staff and non-Babson students $15; Babson students-$5

Now on sale at CSC/Old Money or by calling 781-239-5880

A dinner party in a fashionable home offers a rich and witty look at social classes and issues of wealth and privilege from the Gilded Age of the early 20th century to the present day. A wealthy robber baron and his family, their descendants and assorted characters in their midst - an Irish maid, a Hollywood producer, a social climbing decorator, confused teenagers and eccentric artists - mingle in a contrast of old money and new.

The play offers dual roles for each of its eight actors, a suitable challenge for some of Boston's greatest talents, including Jordan Clark* as Penny Nercessian/Betina Brevoort, Amanda Collins* as Flinty McGee/Florence Deroot, Josephine Moshiri Elwood as Caroline Nercessian/Mary Gallagher, Ed Hoopman* as Sid Nercessian/ Tobias Vivian Pfeiffer, Jeremiah Kissel* as Jeffrey Bernstein/Arnold Strauss, Will Lyman* as Vivian Pfeiffer/Schuyler Lynch, Eliott Purcell* as Ovid Walpole Bernstein/Tobias Vivian Pfeiffer Jr., and Veronica Anastasio Wiseman as Saulina Webb/Sally Webster. *Member of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Set design is by Jon Savage, costume design is by Chip Schoonmaker, lighting design by Brian Lilienthal, and sound design by David Remedios.

Jordan Clark's recent credits include Road Show, Gypsy, Camelot, and Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (Lyric Stage Company of Boston); Significant Other (SpeakEasy Stage); Journey to the West and Arabian Nights (Central Square Theater); The Trumpet of the Swan (Wheelock Family Theatre); and You For Me For You and She Kills Monsters (Company One). Jordan holds a degree in Vocal Performance from The University of the Incarnate Word in her hometown of San Antonio, TX.

Amanda Collins has been seen at Gloucester Stage Company, Boston Playwrights', Wheelock Family Theater, Underground Railway, Nora Theatre Company, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT), Cape Rep, Publick Theatre Boston, Orfeo Group, Off The Grid, New Repertory Theatre, and The Modern Theatre. She has also worked with The Outfit in NYC and Philadelphia, American Stage in Florida, and was a founder of the Harbor Stage Company. She is a member of Theatre Espresso, performing interactive dramas exploring issues of social justice in American history. Television credits include Olive Kitteridge (HBO), Castle Rock (Hulu), Boston's Finest (ABC Pilot), and the film Sea of Trees.

Josephine Moshiri Elwood's Boston credits include Gabriel (Greater Boston Stage Company), Hand to God and The Whale (Speakeasy Stage), Othello and God's Ear (Actor's Shakespeare Project), Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew (Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare). She is a graduate from Emerson College, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting.

Ed Hoopman previously appeared at CSC as Edgar in King Lear, Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Nicholas in Taming of the Shrew. He has been seen recently in Boston as King Arthur in Camelot at Lyric Stage and as Ted in Ideation at New Rep. Other regional credits include Finish Line (Boston Theater Co./Boch Center); Peter and the Starcatcher, City of Angels, Dear Elizabeth, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Animal Crackers (Lyric Stage); A Midsummer Night's Dream, Taming of the Shrew, Mister Roberts, and Indulgences (New Rep); Dog Paddle (Bridge Rep); A Civil War Christmas (Huntington Theatre Company); Assassins, After Ashley, and A Clockwork Orange (Company One); and Shear Madness (Charles Playhouse). New York credits include Interior: Panic (NY Fringe Festival) and World's Fastest Hamlet (Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre); Jester's Dead (The Outfit); Foreign Wars (Random Access Theater). TV: "See Kate Run" (ABC), "Aftershock" (History Channel).

Jeremiah Kissel is a thirty-five-year veteran of Boston's professional theaters, and has appeared eight times previously with CSC, most recently in King Lear. Other recent appearances include Fiddler on the Roof, at New Repertory Theatre, Kol's Last Call, The Boston Pops Holiday Concerts, and an episode of the upcoming "Castle Rock" for Hulu. Screen credits include The Town, The Fighter, Joy, Stronger, and The Wrong Car. He has received numerous Norton and IRNE nominations, and has won several times, most recently or Best Actor, 2014, and most notably, the very first Norton Award for a Boston actor in 1990. In 2003 he was given The Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence.

Will Lyman's Boston credits include the title role of King Lear and most recently BECKETT IN BRIEF, as well as Prospero, Brutus and Claudius at CSC, Ulysses on Bottles, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Windowmen, Operation Epsilon, Long Day's Journey Into Night, All My Sons, Exits and Entrances, The Oil Thief, Nicholas Nickleby, King of the Jews. Off-Broadway he was seen in The Novelist, Passion of Dracula, Grinding Machine, The Dwarfs; on television in "Commander-in-Chief," "Threat Matrix," "Hull High," "Crossbow," among others. His films include Little Children, A Perfect Murder, The Siege, Mystic River, Welcome to the Dollhouse, What Doesn't Kill You. He is the narrator on Frontline, NOVA, American Experience etc. His many awards include the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Achievement (4 plays), Elliot Norton for Sustained Excellence 2013, IRNE, NETC Award for Contribution to American Theatre, Howard Keel, Best of Boston, Imaginaire.

Eliott Purcell previously appeared at CSC in King Lear and Two Gentlemen of Verona, and at the Strand Theatre in Dorchester in the CSC2 production of Romeo and Juliet. Recent Credits include The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time, Hand to God (Elliot Norton Nomination Best Actor), appropriate (SpeakEasy Stage); Our Town (Huntington Theatre Company); The Weird (Off the Grid]; Laura (Greater Boston Stage Company); A Measure of Normalcy (Gloucester Stage); The Song of Achilles, The Oresteia, Ethan Frome (Newton Theatre Company). NYC Credits: Jews on First (Piece of Tish Productions).

Veronica Anastasio Wiseman's recent credits include A Winter Gathering, Cleanliness, Godliness & Madness, 27 Tips for Banishing the Blues, Real Realism (Sleeping Weazel), The Last Schwartz (Gloucester Stage), Mrs. Packard, Mud Blue Sky, Salome (Bridge Repertory), Speech and Debate, The Goat or Who Is Sylvia - IRNE Nomination (Bad Habit Productions), The Edge of Peace (Central Square Theatre), Bully Dance (Argos Productions), The How and The Why (One Bird Productions).

Wendy Wasserstein (Playwright) was born in 1950 in Brooklyn, New York, and died in 2006. An MFA graduate of the Yale School of Drama in 1976, her first production, Uncommon Women and Others, was her thesis at Yale, displaying her signature wry, comical style, and was subsequently produced for television by PBS with Meryl Streep. Her other plays include The Sisters Rosensweig, An American Daughter, Isn't It Romantic, and Third. Her 1989 play, The Heidi Chronicles, won a Tony Award for best play and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. During her career, which spanned nearly four decades, Wasserstein wrote eleven plays, also winning a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award. In addition, she wrote the screenplay for the 1998 film The Object of My Affection, which starred Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd. Though lauded for its comedic merits, Wasserstein's work explored a deeper issue: the complex politics of independent American women living in a society that values traditional roles and expectations.

Karen MacDonald's (Director) directing credits include The Woman in Black and An Ideal Husband at Gloucester Stage and Dressed Up/Wigged Out at Boston Playwrights Theatre. She appeared on stage with CSC as Volumnia in Coriolanus, The Countess in All's Well That Ends Well, Gertrude in Hamlet, and Maria in Twelfth Night. She was one of the founding members of the A.R.T. where she performed 73 roles including Arkadina in The Seagull and the title role in Mother Courage and her Children. Other Boston area credits include Liz Norden in Finish Line (Boston Theatre Company), Kate Keller in All My Sons and Jean in Good People, (Huntington Theatre Company), Molly Ivins in Red Hot Patriot (Lyric Stage), Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey into Night (New Rep), Drowsy in The Drowsy Chaperone (Speakeasy Stage) Bernadette Spence in Home of the Brave, and Solo Performer in The Blonde, The Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead (Merrimack Repertory Theatre). Ms. MacDonald has worked for many years in the New England area, and nationally from The Wilma Theatre to Berkeley Rep., including understudying and performing the role of Amanda Wingfield in the Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie; off Broadway she played Mrs. Bumble in Oliver Twist at TFNA, Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience at Maltz Jupiter Theatre, and Estelle in No Exit at Hartford Stage. She has been awarded several IRNE and Eliot Norton Awards, most recently receiving the 2017 Eliot Norton for Best Performance by an Actress in Finish Line. She has received the Robert Brustein Prize for Sustained Achievement in the Theatre and the Eliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence. She is a graduate of Boston University and teaches at Harvard University.

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC), best known for its annual free performances on Boston Common, is a non-profit theater company founded in 1996, dedicated to artistic excellence, accessibility, and education. CSC's Free Shakespeare on the Common has served over one million audience members over its 23-year history and has become a beloved summer tradition enjoyed by nearly 75,000 people annually, including last summer's highly acclaimed production of Romeo and Juliet. In 2013, CSC became the Theatre-in-Residence at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. In addition to the annual Boston Common production, CSC now presents fully staged productions at the Sorenson Center for the Arts at Babson, including the recent world premiere of Our American Hamlet and Becket in Brief; "Theatre in the Rough," semi- staged readings including Fear and Misery in the Third Reich featuring Tony Shalhoub, Brooke Adams and local actors; as well as "Shakespeare & the Law," and "Shakespeare & Leadership." CSC fulfills its educational mission with actor-training programs for pre-professional and professional actors through the summer Apprentice program and CSC2. To learn more about these programs, visit www.commshakes.org.

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