Tennessee Shakespeare Company Ends Run of JULIUS CAESAR, 4/11

Tennessee Shakespeare Company, the Mid-South's professional classical theatre, will end its unique production of William Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar on April 11 in Germantown.

Featuring eight professional, classically trained actor/dancer/musicians from around the country, TSC's chamber production will play in-the-round inside Germantown City Hall's council chamber at the Municipal Center.

The script, restructured by director Dan McCleary, will feature dance and movement that will accompany the text and occasionally take the place of it. Assistant Principal Cellist of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Iren Zombor, will play live at each performance. Compositions will include those of Bach, Kodaly, Philip Glass, and her own.

Bruce Bui, resident designer at Ballet Memphis, returns to design costumes. Returning actors include Brittany Morgan (Portia), NYC-based Vanessa Morosco (Cassius), and Massachusetts-based Caley Milliken (Marc Antony). New to TSC are Memphian Emma Crystal (dance choreographer), Jennifer Drew from Illinois (Soothsayer), New Yorkers Elizabeth Raetz (Brutus) and Tracy Liz Miller (Caesar), and from Oregon Kerry Ryan (Casca/Calphurnia).

"We have been working on making this rare possibility a reality for over a year and a half," said McCleary, TSC's Producing Artistic Director. "There is an extraordinary combination of excitement for the play in the community, of women I've worked with from regional theatres in the U.S., of musical inspiration, and of site-specific place that I have never had before.

"Once again, the City of Germantown's Board of Mayor and Aldermen and the administration have proved more Elizabethan than most municipal governments might be. Shakespeare and his reduced company of all-male actors performed frequently at County Seats throughout England when their playhouses in London were shut down by law or disease. The City of Germantown is to be commended for opening its chambers and facility to students and patrons of classical theatre."

The City Hall council chamber will seat 164 patrons in-the-round, including the nine seats usually reserved for the Mayor and Aldermen when they are in session.

"Julius Caesar is so often defined as a political play framed in perfect dramatic form," said McCleary. "I can't imagine a more appropriate stage than City Hall for both a political drama and an immediate, visceral relationship between actor and audience."

The production will feature all women actors (playing the roles as women) who will remain in the playing space for the entirety of the play. Instead of the usual blood and violence associated with the story, dance and styled movement will support the text.

"I imagine if Shakespeare were able to write this story in our era, he would modify the cast heavily with more women," said McCleary. "He wasn't often interested in getting the facts or timelines accurate with his histories, and with Caesar he uses Plutarch's gossip-soaked accounting of the events and players to craft his play. Shakespeare's traditional two women are pivotal in his recounting of the story. If the men in the play would listen to them, we might never get to Caesar's assassination. Women are absolutely vital to the universality and healing power of his work.

"We have so many more women holding political, corporate, and social authority now that their voices are beginning to change the local and national agenda and dynamic. I want to hear the rhetoric of Brutus and Antony, the discrepancy of honor between the genders, and how women in the majority might face domestic violence and national war differently than a majority of men."

Julius Caesar is the story of a people divided by wealth and poverty - and political factions - in a Republic that recently has welcomed home its military and civil war conqueror, Caesar. When the Senate and patrician class become alarmed at Caesar's rising star and the citizens' deference to him, Cassius, whose motives are suspect, convinces the noble Brutus, much loved of Caesar, and other conspirators to assassinate Caesar for the good of the plurality of the Republic. Brutus' debate of the heart lies at the center of the story's dramatic conflict, but Caesar's protégé Marc Antony makes the conflict physical and public as he forms a triumvirate and sways the citizenry with one of Shakespeare's great pieces of rhetoric. Having fled Rome, Brutus and Cassius, at domestic odds with one another, find themselves and their armies at a strategic disadvantage and, in the field of battle against Antony, commit what Roman men considered to be honorable deaths: suicide. At home, Brutus' wife Portia swallows fire and Caesar's wife Calphurnia disappears. While Brutus is mourned by his conquerors, a paradigm shift in government (and the world) awaits as the conquering Caesar Augustus births the Roman Empire.

Season Sponsors are Nancy and Dan Copp, Milton T. Schaeffer, and Audrey Taylor. TSC's Media Sponsor is gomemphis.com. This project is funded under an agreement with the TENNESSEE ARTS COMMISSION.

Emma Crystal (Dance and Movement Choreographer; Understudy) is a native Memphian, but she has lived and worked as a performing artist in New York City for over 15 years. Musicals include Dreamgirls (U.S. Tour), Sophisticated Ladies (European Tours), Sweet Charity, and Hair. Since moving back to Memphis, Emma has choreographed and directed Sophisticated Ladies for Circuit Playhouse and serves as a choreographer for The New Ballet Ensemble, The Memphis Links Annual Debutante Ball, world-renowned singer Kallen Esperian, Al Green's benefit for the American Heart Association, and Opera Memphis (Porgy & Bess, Treemonisha, and Macbeth). At Hattiloo Theatre, Emma has directed and choreographed several shows and has played Elaine in The Last of the Red Hot Lovers. She wrote, directed, and choreographed There's Something About Big Women, which premiered in 2007. Emma recently choreographed a commercial for the Fred's Dollar Store, and she continues to direct, choreograph, and perform in the Memphis area.

Jennifer Drew (Cinna the Soothsayer, Trebonius, Antony's servant, Ensemble) is honored to join TSC on this exciting production. Originally from central Illinois, Jennifer has performed with the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival, and most recently with the Michigan Shakespeare Festival as Rosalind (As You Like It) and Miranda (The Tempest). Other favorite roles include Helena (All's Well That Ends Well) and Portia (Julius Caesar), performed using "unrehearsed" technique, with Barn in the Barn. She holds a B.M. in Music Business from Millikin University and an M.F.A. in Acting from Western Illinois University. Musically, Jennifer has performed on stage in such productions as Buddy with the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse and Smoke on the Mountain with Brown County Playhouse, and she was a violist for the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra, and Serenada string quartet.

Dan McCleary+ (Director; Founder and Producing Artistic Director) is a native Memphian and a Poplar Pike Playhouse graduate of Germantown High School and its Poplar Pike Playhouse. Dan directed and acted in TSC's inaugural production of As You Like It (Jaques) and last fall's A Midsummer Night's Dream. He also has directed critically-acclaimed productions of As You Like It at Orlando Shakespeare Theater, The Servant of Two Masters outdoors in downtown Atlanta and at Seattle Shakespeare Company, and All's Well That Ends Well at Georgia Shakespeare Festival. At the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, he has directed the world premiere of The Stone Face (about Buster Keaton and Samuel Beckett) and has played the title roles in Antony and Cleopatra and Richard III, Brutus in Julius Caesar, Porfiry in Crime and Punishment, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, and Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor. As Associate Artistic Director at Shakespeare & Company in the Berkshires, Dan acted in and directed over 30 productions, appearing as Coriolanus, Macbeth, Herman Melville, Stephano, Don Armado, Hotspur, Master Ford, Bertram, and Antipholus/Dromio of Ephesus. He directed S&Co's first production of The Servant of Two Masters, also his own adaptation of Anaïs Nin's Henry & June, Vita & Virginia (about Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf), My Own Stranger (poet Anne Sexton), and The Fiery Rain (Edith Wharton, Henry James, and Morton Fullerton). Other Regional/New York theatre: Merrimack Rep, North Shore Music Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, StageWest, Alabama Shakespeare, Arden Theatre, Studio 4-A, and Huntington Theatre. Dan is a published poet and teaches Shakespeare master classes around the country. Last autumn, Memphis Magazine named him among the "Who's Who in Memphis," and the Germantown Arts Alliance honored him with its 2009 Distinguished Arts and Humanities Medal for Performing Arts. Dan holds a B.A. in Marketing and Journalism from Temple University.

Tracy Liz Miller* (Julius Caesar, Cinna the Conspirator, Ensemble) is honored to be joining Tennessee Shakespeare Company in this exciting production. Tracy recently directed Italian American Reconciliation and adapted/directed/produced Titus Andronicus, both in NYC. She is also the Marketing Director of Vermont Shakespeare Company. Favorite roles: Almost, Maine at Chester Theatre Company, Night of the Iguana at Penobscot Theatre Company, Viola in Twelfth Night with The Improbable Fiction Theatre Company in NYC, The Creditors with The Miscreant Theatre Company in NYC, and Olivia in Twelfth Night with the Tulsa Shakespeare Festival. Next, Tracy will play Desdemona in Othello at the Northeast Shakespeare Ensemble in NH. She would like to thank Jackie Nichols and Playhouse on the Square for her eons-ago internship, and she is so thankful for this opportunity to return to Memphis with this brilliant new company.

Caley Milliken (Marc Antony, Lucius, Ensemble; Dance Captain) TSC: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Peaseblossom/Choreographer). Shakespeare & Company: Othello (Bianca), Cindy Bella (Tisbe), Ladies' Man (Marie), and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mustardseed, u/s Helena). Corning Classics: Much Ado About Nothing (Beatrice), and Antigone (Chorus). Caley received her MFA from the Purdue University PATP in 2007, where her credits include Richard III (title role), Noises Off (Brooke), The Winter's Tale (Hermione), Marisol (June), Arms and the Man (Catherine), Metamorphoses (Eurydice & others), A Funny Thing... (Philia), and Buried Child (Halie). Caley is also a classically trained dancer and choreographer. She has danced with the Deutsche Oper Ballet (Berlin, Germany), the Rafael Grigorian Ballet Company, the StudioWerks Dance Ensemble at SUNY Buffalo, and others. This past summer, she served as choreographer for KaTet Theatre's critically-acclaimed production of Road in Chicago.

Brittany Morgan (Portia, Decius Brutus, Caesar's servant, Ensemble; Education Artist-Manager) is embarking on her second season with TSC after playing Phebe in the inaugural production of As You Like It. This fall with TSC, she played Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream and began educating Germantown/Memphis young people on playing Shakespeare. Brittany received her BFA from Illinois Wesleyan University, along with the British American Drama Academy. She has been seen on stage in London (Opal Theatre), Chicago (First Folio Theatre), Orlando (Orlando Shakespeare Theatre; Orlando Repertory Theatre), and Massachusetts (Shakespeare & Company; Riggs Theatre). A few favorite roles include Cordelia in King Lear, Diana in All's Well That Ends Well, Juliet/Desdemona/Beatrice/Hermia in Wild and Whirling Words, Ariel in The Tempest, Iphigenia in IPH..., Louisson in The Imaginary Invalid, and Ophelia in Hamletmachine.

Vanessa Morosco* (Cassius, Ensemble) is delighted to be returning to TSC after playing Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream. She has performed steadily with the American Shakespeare Center, for whom she has performed over 25 roles in seven seasons, including the title role in The Duchess of Malfi, Helena in All's Well That Ends Well, Hippolita in Tis Pity, Princess of France in Love's Labor's Lost, and Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest. She now resides in New York, where she has appeared off-Broadway most recently as the Baron in Rape of the Lock (Judith Shakespeare Company), Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest (Theater Ten Ten), and the Woman in Wonder:lust (Beckett Theatre). Regionally, favorite roles include Peg in Way of the World (Yale Rep), Lady Teazle in School for Scandal (Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre), Elvira in Blithe Spirit and Molly in Smell of the Kill (Wayside Theatre), Helena in Midsummer Night's Dream (Virginia Shakespeare Festival), the Courtesan in Comedy of Errors (Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival), and Launce/Thurio in Two Gentlemen of Verona (Folger Shakespeare Theatre). She has trained with the British-American Drama Academy, Chautauqua Institution, Shakespeare & Company, and Siti Company. Vanessa holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Manhattanville College and an M.A. in Ethics from Yale University.

Elizabeth Raetz* (Brutus, Ensemble) is delighted to be working with TSC. Her theatre credits include Shakespeare & Company: Twelfth Night (Olivia), Hamlet (Ophelia); Long Wharf Theatre: The Tempest with Olympia Dukakis (Miranda); Shadowland Theatre: How I Learned to Drive (Li'l Bit), All My Sons with Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin (Ann); Artists Repertory Theatre: The Seagull (Nina); Chenango River Theatre: A Shayna Maidel (Lusia), Talley's Folly (Sally); A.C.T: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Cecile); and New Harmony Theatre: The Philadelphia Story (Liz Imbrie). Elizabeth has studied at The Public Theater/NYSF Shakespeare Lab and at the Upright Citizens Brigade. She is also a graduate of the American Conservatory Theater's M.F.A. Program in San Francisco.

Kerry Ryan (Casca, Calphurnia, Ensemble) is an actor, puppeteer, dancer, and physical comedian based in Portland, Oregon. Her regional credits include Futura, Paradise Street, and Pony at Portland Center Stage; Freud's Girls at Artists Repertory Theatre; and The Servant of Two Masters and The Tempest at Seattle Shakespeare Company. Kerry is a graduate oF Brown University and the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Program, as well as a former company member of Imago Theatre's internationally touring Extreme Physical Theatre Company. She is delighted to be making her Tennessee Shakespeare Company debut on such a fine project.

Iren Zombor (Cellist, Music Composer and Arranger) is a native of Miskolc, Hungary. After attending music college in her hometown, she lived in Bratislava, Slovakia, for two years, where she studied with the famous Slovak cellist, Joseph Podhoransky. She received her Masters of Music degree in cello performance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Iren has been a member of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra since the fall of 1996, where she currently holds the Assistant Principal Cello position. She has performed around the world with various orchestras, as far as Eastern and Western Europe and Japan. In addition to her busy performance schedule, her passion has long been private teaching. Iren has taught students of all ages at all levels and has served on the Rhodes College faculty since 2004.

Note: Cast is subject to change.

* Member, Actors Equity Association
+ Member, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers

 

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