The FSU/Asolo Conservatory Closes 2015-16 Season with NORA, Beginning Tonight

The FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training caps its 2015-16 season with multi Academy and Golden Globe Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Ingmar Bergman's NORA.

Originally produced alongside August Strindberg's Miss Julie and Bergman's own Scenes from a Marriage in a series on marriage, NORA, Bergman's stunning and vivid adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's iconic A Doll's House, pares the plot down to five core characters in a potent retelling that uncovers Nora's strength and conviction against a world of societal demands.

Directed by FSU/Asolo Conservatory first-year acting professor, Andrei Malaev-Babel, NORA previews in the Cook Theatre at the FSU Center for Performing Arts tonight, April 12 at 7:30pm with a special "Pay What You Can Performance," officially opens on Wednesday, April 13 at 7:30pm, and runs through Sunday, May 1.

Nora's husband, Torvald, has received a promotion to become the new manager of the Cooperative Bank, and Nora is elated with the anticipation of ending their financial struggles and living a life free of worry. However, when her husband intends to fire the lawyer Krogstad, who holds a secret from Nora's past, Krogstad blackmails her into begging Torvald to restore his position. Ignorant of Krogstad's threats, Torvald refuses, and everything is laid bare in an explosive climax revealing far more than Nora's secrets.

"Bergman did not consider his NORA an interpretation or an independent concept based on A Doll's House, " said director Andrei Malaev-Babel. "He considered it an insight into Ibsen's original intentions. His Nora is a conscious prisoner of the doll's house, and the entire action is nothing but Nora's nightmare-an oppressive dream with other characters popping in and out unexpectedly, like ghosts. The final scene was seen by Bergman as Nora's costly victory and Torvald's tragedy."

While Bergman has written and directed an extensive number of scripts for the stage, he is best known for his award-winning work as a screenwriter, director, and producer for film. Bergman won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film three times for The Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly and Fanny and Alexander, as well as seven Golden Globe Awards. Academy and Golden Globe Award-winning director Woody Allen considered him "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera."

"NORA is a brilliant distillation of one of the great plays of the 20th century - Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House," said Greg Leaming, Director of the Conservatory. "It captures all of Ibsen's intention with Bergman's psychological insights. The piece presents our students with a thrilling challenge, and promises to be one of the highlights of a very exciting season of plays."

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CAST:
(In order of appearance)

Torvald Helmer....................................................Mike Perez

Nora..............................................................Jessie Taylor

Mrs. Linde..................................................Danielle Renella

Nils Krogstad........................................................Rob Glauz

Doctor Rank............................................Jacob Sherburne

ANDREI MALAEV-BABEL (director) is the Head of Acting at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory. He co-founded and served as an Artistic Director for the Chamber Forms Theatre (Moscow, Russia) and the Stanislavsky Theater Studio (Washington, DC.). He is on the board of the Michael Chekhov Association in NYC, and on the advisory board of Stanislavski Centre (UK). Andrei's performances have been presented by the United Nations, the World Bank, the Kennedy Center and the National Theatre (Washington, DC). He enjoyed engagements at prestigious national institutions, such as the Smithsonian, The Kennan Institute of The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Stanford University. Andrei is also in demand internationally, conducting workshops, presenting and performing at venues, such as St. Petersburg Institute of Stage Arts (Russia), The Latin American Film Institute (São Paulo, Brazil), The Giorgio Cini Foundation (Venice, Italy) and The Odessa Philharmonic (Ukraine). Andrei was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award as an Outstanding Director for his production of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. His two groundbreaking volumes on the Russian theatrical innovator Yevgeny Vakhtangov recently came out from Routledge. He has co-edited and co-translated an English-Russian simultaneous release of Nikolai Demidov's theatrical heritage, scheduled to come out in the summer of 2016. Andrei is a graduate of the renowned Vakhtangov Theatre Institute in Moscow, Russia, where he worked and trained with Alexandra Remizova - one of Russia's leading directors, Stanislavsky's student and Vakhtangov's protégée.

The FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training is a celebrated three-year graduate program culminating in a master of fine arts degree. For more than 35 years, tens of thousands of actors from across the continent have auditioned for admission. A maximum of 12 students are admitted each year. In their second year, the students perform in the Cook Theatre, a 161-seat space designed to create an intimate experience for the audience and actors. Third-year students are seen on the Mertz Stage working with the Asolo Rep's professional actors in exciting and significant roles. For more information, visit www.asolorep.org/conservatory/welcome.

Tickets for NORA are on sale now at $28 for matinee performances and $29 for evening performances. To purchase tickets, call 941.351.8000 or 800.361.8388, visit www.asolorep.org, or visit the Asolo Repertory Theatre Box Office, located at 5555 North Tamiami Trail in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts. Box Office hours are Monday 10am-4pm, Tuesday-Thursday 10am-7:30pm, Friday-Saturday 10am-8pm, and Sunday 10am-2pm. The box office closes at 5pm when there are no evening performances, and phone lines close one hour prior to the start of any performance.

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