Adam Green and Neal Bledsoe Star in Stephen Wadsworth's FIGARO PLAYS at McCarter, Now thru 5/4
By: BWW News Desk Apr. 01, 2014
He may not have money, he may not have power...but where there's a wit, there's a way. Figaro is a comic chameleon unmatched across history: clever, insubordinate, restless, lustful, agent of chaos, champion of love, jack of all trades, and man for all seasons. For more than two hundred years, this wily valet has spoken words that have incited revolution and performed deeds that make audiences fall in love with him time and again.
Now, McCarter Theatre Center is proud to present two all-new adaptations of Pierre Beaumarchais' comic masterpieces which inspired Rossini and Mozart's operas: The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. Filled with material rarely seen by modern theatregoers (due to being cut by censors for the operas), The Figaro Plays will contain fresh surprises, unexpected laughs, and new insight for 21st century audiences.
Performed in repertory in the U.S. for the first time in recent memory, The Figaro Plays mark the return of Stephen Wadsworth to McCarter Theatre Center. A master of 18th century theatre, Wadsworth's Marivaux trilogy is still remembered with wide-eyed admiration by all who experienced it. His new translations of The Figaro Plays bring a crisp and electric immediacy to Beaumarchais' words, proving battles amongst the sexes, classes, and friends ever relevant, risqué, and riotously funny.
About Figaro, Wadsworth adds: "[he is] a life-saving role model and friend. Irrepressible, resourceful, practical, empathetic and full of joy, he offered me strategies for survival in adverse circumstances....Beaumarchais' works present universal situations to characters with sharp minds and breakable hearts, and like all great classics speak truths no century has been able to shake off."
On working with Stephen Wadsworth, McCarter Theatre Center Artistic Director Emily Mann says: "I have a deep admiration for Stephen's work as a director (of both opera and theater) and his unmatched talent... As he made clear with his productions of three Marivaux comedies at McCarter in the 1990s (The Triumph of Love, Changes of Heart, and The Game of Love and Chance), Stephen has a singular ability to make period-specific plays feel alive and relevant to modern audiences. His dazzling productions always delight, and we leapt at the opportunity to welcome him back to McCarter."
Also included in the company are five local NJ actors in ensemble roles, including Andrew Clark (Lawrenceville); Zoe Mann (Jersey City); Jean Prall Rosolino (Princeton); and teenagers Kimani Isaac (North Brunswick) and Kate Weinstein (Pennington).
From the wooden boards and painted backdrops to the footlights and trompe l'oeil proscenium arch, The Figaro Plays will be a master-class in 18th century theatrical design. Both productions will have a detailed look and feel matching that of the Parisian theatres where Beaumarchais' work was first performed. The creative/design team includes scenic design by Charles Corcoran, costume design by Camille Assaf (design editor of CHANCE Magazine), lighting design by Joan Arhelger, wig design by Tom Watson (head of wig and makeup for The Metropolitan Opera), musical direction by Gerald Steichen, choreography by Daniel Pelzig, vocal coaching by Kate Wilson, and fight direction by Shad Ramsey.
About the Plays
The Barber of Seville - Count Almaviva has fallen in love with Rosine, but she's been locked in the house by her guardian, who has his own matrimonial plans for her. What's a Count to do? Fortunately, the crafty Figaro is on hand to help sort everything out-or maybe to complicate it further...
The Marriage of Figaro - Figaro, everyone's favorite troublemaker, is finally ready to settle down and get married. But when his master, the Count, starts eyeing Figaro's bride, this crafty barber must use all his wiles and schemes to save his marriage. Servant and master are pitted against each other in an exuberant battle of the wits, and the aristocracy itself is at stake.
About Pierre Beaumarchais (courtesy of dramaturg Janice Paran): Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a self-made man in a time and place where birth and rank generally determined a man's fortunes. Born Pierre-Augustin Caron in Paris in 1732 to a watchmaker and his wife, he pursued simultaneous and sometimes contradictory careers as a playwright, musician, diplomat, spy, gunrunner, supporter of the American Revolution, financier, journalist, crony of the King and champion of the oppressed. Like his fictional creation Figaro, he had an appetite for intrigue, a dizzying arsenal of skills, a rogue's delight in calling a spade a spade, and a sunny resilience that defied all odds.
Beaumarchais wrote witty and scathing accounts of his life while also struggling to secure his reputation as a dramatist with The Barber of Seville, the first of three plays to feature the crafty (and outspoken) servant Figaro as a protagonist. When The Barber of Seville finally opened on February 23, 1775, it was an unqualified disaster. Beaumarchais wasted no time overhauling it, and it re-opened three nights later to lasting acclaim. His other undoubted masterpiece, The Marriage of Figaro, was rapturously received when it debuted in 1784, following years of political opposition. Its resourceful hero, once again daring to speak truth to power, was the talk of the salons and the bane of the authorities. "For this play not to be a danger," Louis XVI had presciently said, "the Bastille would have to be pulled down first."
About Stephen Wadsworth: Stephen Wadsworth first came to McCarter with his 1990s trilogy of plays by Marivaux, which sparked national interest in this great French playwright. For McCarter, he also adapted and directed Goldoni's Mirandolina and Molière's Don Juan, and staged Coward's Private Lives and Design for Living as well as Fräulein Else, written by his wife, Francesca Faridany. A leading opera director, he has three productions in the repertoire of the Metropolitan Opera (Rodelinda, Boris Godunov, and Iphigénie en Tauride, all telecast in HD to movie theaters worldwide), and he's worked in Milan, Vienna, London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, and notably in Seattle, where his famous production of Wagner's Ring cycle last played in summer 2013. He wrote the opera A Quiet Place with Leonard Bernstein. For his work on Marivaux and Molière he was named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. He is the James S. Marcus Faculty Fellow at the Juilliard School, where he started the world's first and only intensive acting program for singers, and he has taught in the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program for over 30 years.
About McCarter Theatre Center: Under the leadership of Artistic Director Emily Mann and Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, McCarter Theatre Center is recognized as one of the nation's premier theater companies. Renowned for major contributions to the theatrical canon, McCarter premieres include Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play) and Miss Witherspoon (both commissions); Tarell Alvin McCraney's The Brother/Sister Plays; Will Power's Fetch Clay, Make Man (commission); Edward Albee's Me, Myself & I (commission); Emily Mann's Having Our Say; Danai Gurira's The Convert; Beth Henley's Ridiculous Fraud (commission); Regina Taylor's Crowns (commission); Dael Orlandersmith's Yellowman (commission); Athol Fugard's Valley Song; and Stephen Wadsworth's Marivaux trilogy. McCarter has also produced major new productions of Brian Friel's Translations, directed by Garry Hynes; Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics and Edward Albee's All Over, directed by Emily Mann; and Electra, directed by David Leveaux. McCarter is supported by Princeton University, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and over 3,000 individuals, corporations, and foundations. McCarter Theatre is located at 91 University Place in Princeton, NJ. For more information, www.mccarter.org.
SPECIAL EVENTS AND PROGRAMS
Full-Day Figaro and the scenic changeoverOn specific Saturdays, audiences can enjoy a full day of Beaumarchais with our marathon productions of The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. Special packages are available that include ticketing discounts and lunch provided by the Terra Momo Bread Company. Contact our Ticket Office at 609-258-2787 to purchase packages for a two-play experience plus extras. (Prices start at just $67.50 per person)
Full-Day Figaro Dates
Saturday, April 12 - The Barber of Seville to The Marriage of Figaro
Saturday, April 19 - The Marriage of Figaro to The Barber of Seville
Saturday, April 26 - The Barber of Seville to The Marriage of Figaro
Saturday, May 3 - The Barber of Seville to The Marriage of Figaro
Scenic Changeover
On Full-Day Figaro dates, experience one of the most challenging parts of mounting two plays on one stage-the scenic changeover. Watch McCarter's award-winning production team of lighting, scenic, prop, and sound technicians rapidly transform the matinee's stage and scenery for the evening play's performance. Artistic staff will be on hand to explain what's happening and answer questions from the audience.
The scenic changeover will take place on the Matthews stage after the 2:00 p.m. performances on April 12, 19, 26, and May 3.
The approximate start time for the scenic changeover will be determined in early April. Visit www.mccarter.org for more information after April 1. No RSVP or ticket is required to attend this event; it is free and open to the public.
Dialogue on DramaJoin us on April 13, immediately following the 2:00 p.m. performance on the Matthews Stage, for an exciting conversation between The Figaro Plays' adaptor and director Stephen Wadsworth and special guest Dr. James Steward, the Director of the Princeton University Art Museum and an expert on eighteenth-century European art. Wadsworth and Steward will discuss The Figaro Plays in their historical, social, political, and cultural context, and Wadsworth will reflect upon the joys and challenges of translating, adapting, and staging Beaumarchais' works for a twenty-first-century audience. The approximate start time for this Dialogue on Drama has yet to be determined. No RSVP or ticket is required to attend the discussion; it is free and open to the public.
Tickets for The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro start as low as $20, and can be purchased online at www.mccarter.org, by phone at (609) 258-2787, or in person at the McCarter Theatre Ticket Office, located at 91 University Place in Princeton.
Pictured: Neal Bledsoe, Adam Green, and Naomi O'Connell. Photo by John Baer.
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