LECTURE, WITH CELLO, by ROBERT MOULTHROP, is a one-person drama with absurdist echoes; a skewed version of music history becomes the platform for an exploration of the conjunction of madness, violence & art. KENT PAUL directs this AEA Approved Showcase Production, featuring TIMOTHY BABCOCK as "The Professor."
LECTURE, WITH CELLO begins as a lecture by "The Professor," who has brought his cello, but cannot, for the moment, take it from its case. Even though the musicians have not arrived, he begins his lecture & as he delves deeper into history, mystery & music, he comes increasingly closer to madness.
TIMOTHY BABCOCK studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts & composition at the Eastman School of Music. His credits include Bunny in
David Mamet's Romance (Wellfleet Harbor Actor's Theatre), Luke in Eugene O'Neill's The Rope (New Provincetown Playhouse), Mason in Kathryn Grant's The Wound of Love (Provincetown Repertory Theatre) & Carl in
Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz (Provincetown Theatre Company). Most recently he played Father Flynn in
John Patrick Shanley's Doubt & last summer played all 40+ roles in
Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (Counter-Productions).
Director KENT PAUL helped to launch Contemporary Stage Company in Wilmington, Delaware, working as Associate Artistic Director with Keith Powell, where he directed Donald Marguilies' Collected Stories starring
Lynn Redgrave & Joe Sutton's Restoring the Sun. In 2006, he directed The Island in that theatre's Athol Fugard Festival, with Keith Powell &
Sean Patrick Thomas as the two prisoners. Other credits include The Bird Sanctuary by Frank McGuinness with
Elizabeth Franz &
Hayley Mills (U.S. premiere, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival); Long Day's Journey Into Night with
Sam Waterston,
Elizabeth Franz,
John Slattery &
James Waterston (Syracuse Stage); The Glass Menagerie & Look Homeward, Angel (PlayMakers Repertory Company); Landford Wilson's The Mound Builders (Burning Coal Theatre Company); She Loves Me (choreographed by
Marge Champion) & Kiss Me, Kate (Berkshire Theatre Festival openers). His interest in new scripts led to his directing productions of The Double Bass with
Boyd Gaines (an adaptation by Eric Overmyer of the German play by Patrick Süskind); Peking Man by Cao Yu (the foremost Chinese playwright of our time) & Journey to Gdansk, which introduced the Polish playwright Janusz Glowacki in this country. His documentary film, Sanford Meisner—The Theater's Best Kept Secret, was broadcast on the PBS series "American Masters," had an extended run at the Public Theater & can be seen at film festivals around the world. Kent Paul is a graduate of Harvard College & the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.
ROBERT MOULTHROP is a playwright, novelist & the author of more than 25 short stories. LECTURE, WITH CELLO is his third play produced in the New York Fringe Festival. His full-length play Half Life (about a pedophile coming home to his wife, family & community after serving his prison sentence), won the award for "Outstanding Playwriting" at the 2005 New York International Fringe Festival, was a Top 10 Pick of the Fringe (New York Times) & was called "the best written and acted play at the Fringe" by New York Magazine. His one-woman drama, T.L.C. (about a mother who will do literally anything to keep her son from leaving her), was selected for the 10th Anniversary 2006 New York International Fringe Festival, where it won the "Outstanding Performance Award for Acting." His three-character comedy, Who Cares, had a reading under the aegis of Urban Stages in New York & another reading in Los Angeles. His political revue, Where We Are Now, about the effects of the Patriot Act on individuals & our liberties, is being considered by two San Francisco-area theatres. His short plays have been seen at Vital Theatre, the First Downtown Arts Festival & Mottola Theatre Company's Cherry Picking events. His short stories have been published in the journals San Jose Studies, Old Hickory, & The MacGuffin. He is a graduate of Brandeis University (BA, Music) & Catholic University of America (MA, Theatre).
Photo by Dixie Sheridan.
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