Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA to Begin Today at Central Square Theater

The Nora Theatre Company is proud to present the Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA March 31 - May 1, 2016. ARCADIA is directed by The Nora's Artistic Director, Lee Mikeska Gardner. The press performance is Monday, April 4 at 7:30PM. Produced by The Nora Theatre Company, ARCADIA is a Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production.

Derbyshire, England, 1809: A brilliant thirteen year-old, Lady Thomasina Coverly, proposes a scientific theory with implications well beyond her own understanding while her tutor, Septimus Hodge, engages in romantic entanglements with the lady of the house, among others. Simultaneously, present day academics Hannah and Bernard investigate the scandals of Sidley Park in the early 19th Century, including a mysterious visit from Lord Byron and an elusive character known as the Sidley Hermit. Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA is a romantic and funny exploration of the heart, the sciences, and how history is miscreated.

ARCADIA plays at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Thursday, March 31 - May 1, 2016. Tickets may be purchased by calling 617.576.9278, at the Central Square Theater box office, or online at CentralSquareTheater.org.

About the Cast & Creative Team:

Harsh J. Gagoomal (Richard Noakes) is returning to Central Square Theater in ARCADIA, having previously appeared in A Disappearing Number (Underground Railway Theater). Other acting credits include An Octoroon (Company One/ArtsEmerson), Salomé (Bridge Repertory Theater), Quixote in Kabul (Instituto Cervantes/Boston University), and touring as an actor/educator with Speak About It. Harsh is a graduate of Emerson College's program in Theatre Studies ('13). He has had directing affiliations with Emerson Stage, the Huntington Theatre Company, Shotz Boston, and Centastage. Much love to Prashina and Anuja, and many thanks to Lee and The Nora Theatre Company.

Jesse Garlick (Captain Brice) is a Boston based theatre actor, devisor and educator. Previous Boston productions include Assassins (New Rep), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Classical Repertory Company), Salomé (Bridge Rep), Beowulf (Poets Theatre), Who Would Be King, Yellow Bird Chase and Talk to Strangers (Liars&Believers). Jesse holds a BFA in acting from Boston University as well as having attended the Academia Dell'Arte school in Arezzo, Italy. Jesse is also a movement teacher with the Boston Ballet where he teaches as part of the ECI on Location and Citydance programs.

Max Jackson (Gus/Augustus) is very pleased to be making his Nora Theatre Company debut in this production. He played Falstaff's Page (with Stacey Keach as Falstaff) in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's recent production of Henry IV part 2 in Washington D.C., where also played Peter Cratchit in A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre, Nathan in The Full Monty at Keegan Theatre, Bernie in The Water Engine at Spooky Action Theatre, and the devil-possessed Ronnie in Hellspawn at Active Cultures Theatre. Max also appeared in the independent films The Summer Before and Of Dice and Men. He is active in his high school theatre program and recently played Ken in Rumors. Also a musician, Max plays guitar, bass and cello.

Elbert Joseph (Jellaby) is so glad to be back for Arabian Nights' fifth year-happy anniversary, he is truly glad! He's just finished his role as Louis in The Trumpet of the Swan at Wheelock Family Theatre. He has done many, many, many productions at Wheelock, he's lost count. Last winter/spring, he did Susan Zeder's Trilogy Plays (Mother Hicks at Emerson, The Taste of Sunrise at Wheelock Family Theatre and last, The Edge of Peace at Central Square Theater) as Tuc. He has performed at American Reportery Theatre, Wheelock Family Theatre, Central Square Theater (The Nora Theatre and Underground Railway Theater) and beyond. Also, he is an ASL [American Sign Language] coach and interpreter for Boston Across America, Wheelock and others. He will be back .... in ARCADIA, he is looking forward to it! Thank you, Lee! Thank you, Debra! Thank you, Mimi! Thank you, Daniel! Thank you, cast and crew, and of course, everyone at CST!

Ross MacDonald (Bernard Nightingale) is a graduate of the University of Winchester and the London Academy of Performing Arts. His previous credit at The Nora Theatre Company was Horst Korsching in Operation Epsilon-IRNE Best Ensemble. Recent credits include, Othello, Henry Sixth Part Two, and Henry VIII (Actor Shakespeare Project), Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing (The Bay Colony Shakespeare Company), The Elephant Man (New Repertory Theatre), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Summer Festival Theatre). Before moving to Massachusetts, Ross worked in his native UK, for companies including The Oxford Shakespeare Company, The British Shakespeare Company, King's Head Islington, The Man in the Moon, Royal National Theatre and The Globe Theatre London. He is currently The Performing Arts Coordinator at Cape Cod Community College. His next project will be directing Noises Off at Priscilla Beach Theatre.

Will Madden (Septimus Hodge) is extremely grateful to play a part in sharing this brilliant and beautiful story. Some past credits include The Love of the Nightingale with the Hub Theatre Company, Julius Caesar with the Bridge Repertory Theatre, and Macbeth, Of Mice and Men, and A Midsummer Night's Dream with New Repertory Theatre's Classic Repertory Company. He is a graduate from Boston University's School of Theatre and studied for a spell at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Sarah Oakes Muirhead (Lady Croom) is thrilled to be making her Nora Theatre Company debut. Boston area credits: A Little Night Music (Huntington Theatre Company); 4,000 Miles, Spring Awakening (Gloucester Stage); The Human Comedy, The House of Bernarda Alba (Boston University). Sarah trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and is a proud graduate of Boston University's BFA acting program.

Celeste Oliva (Hannah Jarvis) is happy to return to Central Square Theater where she was previously seen as the Pilot in last year's production of Grounded, a one woman show by George Brant. Other regional credits include It's A Wonderful Life, a Radio Play (Merrimack Repertory Theater), Becky's New Car, Ch'inglish (Lyric Stage), Reconsidering Hanna(h) (Boston Playwrights Theater), and Shear Madness (Charles Playhouse). Look for her in the upcoming films Bleed for This and November Criminals.

Kira Patterson (Thomasina Coverly) has spent the past two years assistant teaching and working front of house at Central Square Theater, so she is delighted to make her onstage debut at a place she has come to know as home. She grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she spent most of her time acting and learning at First Stage Theater. Kira recently graduated from Tufts University with degrees in Drama and Psychology. Favorite Tufts theater credits include From Orchids to Octopi (Doctor, Tiktaalik), Or, (Aphra Behn), Circle Mirror Transformation (Lauren), andRichard III (Duchess of York), which travelled to the Grahamstown Arts Festival in South Africa. A huge thank you to all of the friends, family, and supporters who have made CST feel like home.

Alexander Platt (Ezra Chater) previous roles at The Nora: The Ballplayer in Insignificance. Other Theatres: Social Creatures, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Mourners Bench, Love Alone (Trinity Rep); Hedda Gabler, Far Away, Festen, Paul, Why Torture is Wrong..., Don Carlos (Gamm Theatre); Chinglish (Lyric Stage Company); Neville's Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -(IRNE Nomination) (Stoneham Theatre); The Forgetting Curve (Bridge Rep of Boston) The Etymology of Bird (Providence Black Rep); King Stag, Possible Worlds (Elemental Theatre); Bad Money, Falling Up (Perishable Theatre); The Pathological Passion of the Christ (La Mama Etc.) Other: Alexander served as the Artistic Director of Elemental Theatre Collective in Providence, RI from 2006-2012 and has an MFA from Trinity Rep Conservatory.

Jade Wheeler (Chloë Coverly) is delighted to make her premiere in Boston with the Nora Theatre. Recently Ms. Wheeler appeared in Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars with Washington National Opera. Favorite DC area credits include Debbie Allen's Alex in Wonderland (Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences), Metamorphoses ( Constellation Theatre), and Ruined (Everyman Theatre). Other credits include Race (Susan), Ruined (Sophie), and Vanya, Sonia, Masha & Spike (Cassandra) at The GableStage in Miami, Fl. Thanks to my loved ones for the continual support.

Matthew Zahnzinger (Valentine Coverly) is thrilled to be making his Nora Theatre Company debut. A Brockton native, Matthew's work in the 2015-16 season also included David Ives' The Polish Joke with Titanic Theatre Company at the Central Square Theater last October. Recent local credits include: Company (Harry), The Importance of Being Earnest (Lane), A New Brain (Mr. Bungee), Floyd Collins (Skeets Miller) - Moonbox Productions; 6 Hotels (Man 2) - Hub Theatre; The Singularity (The Nurse) - Science Fiction Theatre Company; Reader (The Man), Copenhagen (Niels Bohr) - Flat Earth Theatre. Additional companies worked with include the Longwood Players, Holland Productions, Riverside Theatre Works, Peterborough Players (NH), and Lost Nation Theatre (VT), and is also a contributing voice over artist with the Colonial Radio Theatre. Matthew studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland, and has a B.A. in Theatre and English from Northeastern University.

The production team includes Olivia D'Ambrosio (Assistant Director), Janie E. Howland (Scenic Designer), John R. Malinowski (Lighting Designer), Leslie Held (Costume Designer), Nathan Leigh (Sound Designer), Joe Stallone (Properties Master/Senior Dramaturg), Dominique D. Burford is the Stage Manager and Katherine Humbert is the Assistant Stage Manager.

ARCADIA plays at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Thursday, March 31 - May 1, 2016. Tickets may be purchased by calling 617.576.9278, at the Central Square Theater box office, or online at CentralSquareTheater.org.

About Tom Stoppard - Tom Stoppard's other work includes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tony Award), Jumpers, Travesties (Tony Award), Night and Day, After Margritte, The Real Thing (Tony Award), Enter a Free Man, Hapgood, ARCADIA(Evening Standard Award, The Oliver Award and the Critics Award), Dalliance and Undiscovered Country, Indian Ink (a stage adaptation of his own radio play, In the Native State) and The Invention of Love. His radio plays include The Dissolution of Dominic Boot, 'M' is for Moon Among Other Things, If You're Glad I'll Be Frank, Albert's Bridge (Italia Prize), Where Are They Now?, Artist Descending A Staircase, The Dog It Was That Died andIn the Native State (Sony Award). His work for television includes Professional Foul (Bafta Award, Broadcasting Press Guild Award). His film credits include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead which he also directed (winner of the Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival).

About Lee Mikeska Gardner - Lee Mikeska Gardner is in her third year as the Artistic Director of The Nora Theatre Company. In that time she has directed Her Aching Heart, Grounded, Saving Kitty (with Jennifer Coolidge) and ARCADIA and performed in Emilie: The Marquise de Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight, earning an Eliot Norton award for Lead Actress, Small Theatre. She also played Claudia in the IRNE nominated Chosen Child at Boston Playwrights Theatre. Hailing from the Washington, D.C. region, her work ranges from plays in development to the classics. An Artistic Associate for ten years at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Lee directed After Ashley (Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Direction); Fat Men In Skirts; Life During Wartime (Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Direction); Goodnight, Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet (Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Direction); Doug Wright's Watbanaland; The Chinese Art of Placement; the world premiere of The Gene Pool; Stop Kiss and Fuddy Meers. As an Associate Artist with 1st Stage Lee directed Blithe Spirit; The How and The Why; Humble Boy and Fuddy Meers. Lee served as the Managing Director for Washington Shakespeare Company for five years and for them directed the world premieres of Caesar and Dada and Learning Curves (both by Allyson Currin); Equus; A Midsummer's Nights Dream (with 7 actors,) and Deathwatch, a co-production with Actors' Theatre of Washington, with whom she directed the all-male Dangerous Liaisons. Other favorite directing projects include Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie at The Kennedy Center, Angels in America and Peristroika at Signature Theatre, T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party for the Washington Stage Guild (Theatre Lobby Award,) Bad Dates at the Olney Theatre Center, Golden Boy and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with the Keegan Theatre (Artistic Associate), The Butterfingers Angel..., Thom Pain (Based on Nothing,) Stones In His Pockets and Three Tall Women at Rep Stage, where Lee also served as Managing Director for two years. As a performer, Lee earned a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for the role of Mary in A House in the Country with Charter Theatre, where she also performed the roles of Carla in A Taste of Fire (Helen Hayes nomination), Fran in Short Order Stories, and Susanna in Of A Sunday Morning, all of which were world premieres. Lee originated the role of Hettie in Julie Jensen's Two Headed, which she performed at Washington Shakespeare Company and Mill Mountain Theatre. Other favorite roles include Terry in Sideman (Helen Hayes nomination) and Florence Foster Jenkins in Souvenir at 1st Stage; Patricia Preece in Stanley at Potomac Theatre Project (Helen Hayes nomination,) Kimberly Bergalis in Patient A at Freedom Stage (Helen Hayes nomination,) Clare in Tennessee Williams's The Two-Character Play at Spooky Action Theatre, Gertrude in Hamlet, Josie in The Show Off at The American Century Theater and Luisa in A Shayna Maidel (Best Actress, Baltimore City Paper) at Rep Stage. Lee spent seven years as Associate Artistic Director with the Shenandoah Playwrights' Retreat working on plays in development with such varied playwrights as Julie Jensen, Sean Clark, Peter Coy, Kia Corthron, Karim Alrawi, Hoang To Mai, Dana Yeaton, Tat Ming Cheung, Motti Lerner, Heather McDonald, John Walch and Jerome Hairston. She also works closely with emerging playwrights at The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival as an actor, director and mentor. As an educator, Lee has taught or served as a Guest Artist at Emerson College, the Catholic University of America, George Mason University, American University, Montgomery College, George Washington University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, UVA, Charlottesville, University of Maryland, College Park, Middlebury College; National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, and Summer Rep Company (Columbia, MO) and founded the Acting Classes at Woolly Mammoth and Washington Shakespeare Company. Lee has a B.F.A. in the Performing Arts from George Mason University and an M.F.A. in Acting from The Catholic University of America.

Central Square Theater (CST) opened in 2008 through a groundbreaking partnership between The Nora Theatre Company (The Nora) and Underground Railway Theater (URT). This collaboration has been called a model for the arts community (The Boston Foundation, Culture is our Commonwealth, and The National Collaboration Prize), as it has paired two like-minded performing arts organizations in a strategic alliance with the City of Cambridge and MIT, resulting in the development of a state-of-the-art performing arts center in the heart of Central Square. CST has a mission to support its two theaters-in-residence while maintaining a shared vision of artists and audiences creating theater vital to their communities. The Nora and URT have a combined track record of over 50 years producing award-winning theater. Located in Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and steeped in its multiracial, intergenerational, ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods, the CST theater experience exudes a democratic energy where classes, races and age groups come together to be inspired, entertained and energized.

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