The Antaeus Company Announces First Full Season Of Classic Plays

The Antaeus Company, L.A.'s Classical Theater Ensemble, hits a milestone in company history: For the first time since the inception of The company in 1994, The Antaeus Company is proud to announce their first full season of classic plays! The season will include three full productions as well as Antaeus' wildly popular "ClassicsFest." To start, this Fall Antaeus presents the world premiere of Jeffery Hatcher's adaptation of the classic Honoré de Balzac's novel, COUSIN BETTE! Then, 2010 begins with Lillian Hellman's THE AUTUMN GARDEN and finally Antaeus is thrilled to present a production of Shakespeare's KING LEAR, starring Dakin Matthews, which will be the Centerpiece of CLASSICSFEST 2010. CLASSICSFEST 2010 workshops will be chosen from Antaeus ongoing staged reading series.

THE 2009/2010 ANTAEUS SEASON!

A WORLD PREMIERE PLAY!
COUSIN BETTE

Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the novel by Honoré de Balzac
Directed by Jeanie Hackett
Previews begin October 24th
Two Opening Nights! Friday October 30th & Sunday November 1st
Regular Performances run November 5 - December 20

Seductive, cunning, and deliciously wicked, Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation of Honore de Balzac's 1846 masterpiece, LA COUSIN BETTE, tells the story of the powerful Hulot family, who inspire hate and loathing in the heart of their poor relative, a spinster named Bette. Set in Paris in mid 19th century, Bette, under the guise of concern and compassion, plots her family's destruction with the aid of a beautiful, unhappy courtesan. A tale of revenge, sexual passion and the devastating effects of violent jealousy.

Jeffrey Hatcher (Playwright) His award-winning credits include: BROADWAY: "Never Gonna Dance" (book). OFF-BROADWAY: Three Viewings and A Picasso at Manhattan Theatre Club; Scotland Road and The Turn of the Screw at Primary Stages; Tuesdays with Morrie at The Minetta Lane; Murder by Poe and The Turn of the Screw at The Acting Company; Neddy at American Place; and Fellow Travelers at Manhattan Punchline. OTHER PLAYS: Compleat Female Stage Beauty, Mrs. Mannerly, Murderers, Mercy of a Storm, Smash, Armadale, Korczak's Children, To Fool the Eye, The Falls, A Piece of the Rope, All the Way with LBJ, The Government Inspector, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and others at regional theatres across the U.S. and abroad. FILM/TV: Stage Beauty, Casanova, The Duchess, and episodes of Columbo. GRANTS/AWARDS: NEA, TCG, Lila Wallace Fund, Rosenthal New Play Prize, Frankel Award, Charles MacArthur Fellowship Award, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and Barrymore Award Best New Play. He is a member and/or alumnus of The Playwrights Center, the Dramatists Guild, the Writers Guild, and New Dramatists.

HONORÉ DE BALZAC: (1799-1850) was a French novelist, journalist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815. Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. La Cousine Bette (1846) tells the story of "The Poor Relations." The conniving and wrangling over wills and inheritances reflects the expertise gained by the author as a young law clerk. It is believed to be a thinly veiled autobiographical telling of the author's own love affairs. Balzac died in Paris on August 18, 1850.

JEANIE HACKETT (Director) is the Artistic Director of The Antaeus Company, and she directed the workshop of Cousin Bette for Antaeus in ClassicsFest '08. As AD of Antaeus since 2004, Jeanie served as Artistic Coordinator for Antaeus' acclaimed productions of Chekhov x 4 and Tonight at 8:30 by Noel Coward, each a series of one-acts with a variety of directors, for which Jeanie orchestrated the whole. Also for Antaeus, Jeanie produced its acclaimed productions of Mother Courage and Her Children, Pera Palas, American Tales, as well as four festivals of classical plays. She has directed here in L.A. at The Classical Theater Lab, and with the 2nd company at the Williamstown Theater Festival. As an actress, Jeanie has appeared on Broadway as Stella in Tennessee Williams A Street Car Named Desire and in Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness. Other theater work includes several seasons with the Williamstown Theater Festival along with noted performances in classics and new plays off-Broadway, at South Coast Rep, the Geffen Theater, The Pasadena Playhouse, among others. She is the head of the Antaeus Academy, a training program for upcoming professional actors, and the author of two books on acting, "The Actor's Chekhov" and "Toward Mastery," both based on the work of the late director Nikos Psacharopoulos.

THE AUTUMN GARDEN
Written by Lillian Hellman
Directed by Larry Biederman
Previews begin January 30th
Two Opening Nights! Saturday February 6th & Sunday February 7th
Regular Performances -February 11 - March 28

 

"People change, and forget to tell one another."

A group of middle-aged Southerners come together in 1949 at a summer home on the Gulf of Mexico for their annual gathering. Compassionate and savagely funny, this is Pulitzer Prize winner Lillian Hellman's masterpiece on how, in spite of everything, human beings still succeed in living together. Introspective and emotionally honest, this is America's answer to Chekhov's sprawl of longing, loss, and the simple and comic tragedy of being human.

Lillian Hellman (Playwright) first gained success with The Children's Hour (1934) which shocked and fascinated Broadway audiences with its frank treatment of lesbianism. The Little Foxes (1939) is among Hellman's best-known works. Hellman's world views seeped into her writing as seen in such works as her antifascist play Watch on the Rhine (1941 where she criticized the naiveté of the Americans. Hellman was blacklisted from the late 1940s to the 1960s. Autumn Garden (1951) lacked the usual passion of her dramas but was a touching and revealing insight into a southern boardinghouse. The style of the play is sometimes compared to the Russian writer Anton Chekhov's work. In the 1950s Hellman adapted works from other writers for the stage, among them Jean Anouilh's play L'Alouette about Joan of Arc, and Voltaire's satire Candide, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Richard Wilbur, John Latouche and Dorothy Parker. Hellman's play Toys in the Attic (1960), about a Southern man obsessed with grandiose dreams, was filmed by George Roy Hill. In the 1960s Hellman began teaching and writing her memoir trilogy. An Unfinished Woman describes her childhood in New Orleans, years in Hollywood, and her relationship with Hammett. Pentimento (1973) dealt with her youth and early days in New York. The most popular section of the book, focusing on her friend Julia who was trapped by the Nazis, was the basis for the 1977 film adaptation. In "Scoundrel Time" (1976), Hellman returned to the 1950s when she was called to testify on Un-American Activities. Hellman was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She taught writing classes at the University of New York, Yale University, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1964 The National Institute of Arts and Letters presented her with the Gold Medal for Drama. In 1976 she was awarded the MacDowell Medal. Hellman died on June 30, 1984.

LARRY BIEDERMAN (Director) His acclaimed productions include Eric Overmyer's Dark Rapture at the Evidence Room, and the World Premiere of Sheila Callaghan's Crumble at LATC, Both enjoyed extended runs and wide critical praise, including Critics' Choice from the L.A. Times. Other world premieres include Keith Josef Adkin's Farewell Miss Cotton at the Black Dahlia and David Rock's Grand Delusion at the Lost Studio. He's also directed for The Antaeus Company, Theatre of NOTE, the Odyssey, the Black Dahlia, the MET, the Blank, and the Road Theatre, with the L.A. premiere of Mickey Birnbaum's Big Death and Little Death.

His direction of Death's Messengers earned him an LA Weekly Theater Award nomination. Mr. Biederman has also directed for Center Theatre Group's OTHER VOICES project. Biederman spent seven seasons with San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, directing and serving as Associate Director of their M.F.A. program, and currently teaches acting and directing, both privately and for training programs throughout the country from the Williamstown Theatre Festival to The Old Globe.

KING LEAR
Written by William Shakespeare
Starring Dakin Matthews
Directed by Jonathan Lynn
Previews begin June 12th
Two Opening Nights! Saturday June 26th and Sunday June 27th

Regular Performances July 2 - August 8

At the center of ClassicsFest 2010 will be Antaeus' much-anticipated first full production of a Shakespearean play, and will feature the renowned scholar, actor, and founding Artistic Director, Dakin Matthews, in the title role. Considered one of Shakespeare's great tragedies, KING LEAR is the tale of an aging king, a divided kingdom and a family in turmoil. Both an emotional and political tragedy, KING LEAR explores the most basic questions of human existence: love and duty, power and loss, good and evil.

Jonathan Lynn (Director) Filmmaker, Screenwriter and novelist, Jonathan Lynn's prolific career spans nearly four decades and includes directing, writing, producing and acting. He has directed numerous films, including "The Fighting Temptations," "The Whole Nine Yards," "My Cousin Vinny," and "Clue." From 1977 to 1981 he served as Artistic Director of The Cambridge Theatre Company, where he produced more than forty plays, directing twenty of them himself including a Macbeth with Brian Cox that toured both the UK and India, and played a special performance for the Prime Minister, Mrs Gandhi. The 1980's phenomena "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister," which Lynn co-created and co-wrote propelled Lynn to fame in his native Great Britain. Also an accomplished actor, his stage performances range from playing Hitler in The Comedy of the Changing Years at The Royal Court Theatre to Motel The Tailor in the original London cast of Fiddler On The Roof.

CLASSICSFEST 2010
Our biennial festival of classics!
Opens Tuesday July 6, 2010 through August 15th!
Regular Performance Days Tuesdays through Sundays

Workshops, readings, late night events: a different project almost every night of the week for six weeks for a $10 ticket price! Over 100 theater artists gather for a refreshing and invigorating summer splash of the classics, any way you like ‘em. Experience how a play comes to life as Antaeus presents its 5th biennial ClassicsFest.

 

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