Exit the King | Boston University CFA School of Theatre Program Book

EXIT THE KING WRITTEN BY

EUGÈNE IONESCO TRANSLATED BY

DONALD WATSON DIRECTED BY CLAY HOPPPER INTERACTIVE PROJECTION DESIGN BY PAOLO SCOPPOLA

MAY 4 - 7, 2022 STUDIO ONE, CFA 104 855 COMMONWEALTH AVE

Artistic Team Director Scenic Designer Costume Designer Lighting Designer Interactive Projection Design Graphic Designers Sound Designer Technical Director Stage Manager Production Manager

Clay Hopper Alyssa Jewell Danielle Bazan Max Wallace Paolo Scoppola Chen Lou Arjun Kumar Will Tinsley Lawren Gregory Katrina Ali Eric Sprosty

Cast Guard King Marguerite Juliette Marie Doctor

Charlie Berger Declan Schliesmann Charlotte Peartree Moon Rachel Harris Lola Kennedy Michael Ticknor

Special Thanks Special thanks to Susan Mickey, Dana Clancy, James Grady, Diana Marian, Diane Carroll and to Digital Learning & Innovation and the Shipley Center, its affiliated unit, for generously supporting the development of the interactive design technology used in the production.

A special thanks to Katrina Mae Ibasco for building the Guard’s costume!

Design & Production Teams Assistant Stage Manager Production Assistant Assistant Scenic Designer Paint Charge Assistant Paint Charge Properties Masters Assistant Technical Director Scenic Build Crew Run Crew

Assistant Costume Designer Costume Crafts Head Wardrobe Crew Projection Engineer Interactive Media Operator Projections Operator Assistant Lighting Designer Production Electrician Assistant Production Electrician Programmer Light Board Operator Lighting Crew Assistant Sound Designer Sound Board Operator House Manager Front of House Staff

Sienna Siciliano Maya Sabatini Marc Andrea Vento Noah Dunlap Emma Schmidt Anika Reichelt Nathaniel Crain BU Technical Production Department Jaden Bridges Jesse Kodama Julia Rothstein Alison Miranda Alison Miranda Emily Cady Massimiliano DiMartino Reshma Vijayan Ava Laroche Klara Ballay Molly Beall Noah Wrafter Noah Wrafter Emery Genga BU Lighting Department & Stagecrafters Katie Chen Cleo Brooks Blair Campbell Brandon Nnoli Jason Roblero Lana Sage Savannah Scott

“Exit the King” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com

A Note from the Director The production is an experiment.

We wanted to know: is it possible to use projected media in service of a play’s interior life, instead of competing with it? Could we use projections in a play that did not subsume the live performer, but instead augment the characters’ psychology as they moved through the play’s action?

To engage with this question, we selected a masterpiece of the absurdist tradition, EXIT THE KING by Eugene Ionesco. It seemed the perfect fit for this inquiry into the relationship between actor and the image. Because the play engages so thoroughly in symbolist modes, it is prime material for attempting to psychologize the space in which the actors are performing. King Berenger is in a play that is literally his own sentient, waking life. Its drama is his, and the supporting characters are extensions of himself. Its ending is his own.

Likewise, we are all Kings of our own conscious experience: a vast Kingdom with an intricate stage and story in which you are the main character. The fact that this story ends is something we all know, but very few have come to terms with. The finality of it simply does not compute.

It is my hope that this experiment bears fruit, and a new language of design can begin to emerge that allows us to examine the interior process of dealing with that finality, and in doing so, further reveal the exquisite depth of this play.

Ionesco called his play “a map for the death process.” It’s also a brilliant vaudevillian meditation on the absurdity of our human predicament, and the extremes to which we will hold onto a quandary which amounts to a huge cosmic joke.

A joke that is ultimately at our expense but is nonetheless actually funny.

Clay Hopper Director

Coming This Fall

Let The Right One In A Co-production with Actors’ Shakespeare Project Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre | 820 Commonwealth Ave Written by Jack Thorne | Directed by Christopher Edwards

Once Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre | 820 Commonwealth Ave Book by Enda Walsh with Music & Lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova Directed by Shamus

Mankind Studio ONE, CFA 104 | 855 Commonwealth Ave Written by Robert O’Hara | Directed by Rani O’Brien

More details coming soon to our website: www.bu.edu/cfa/theatre/season