ANew Hamlet For The '90's Opens The Public's Spectacular Season
"This is not museum theater," says Ron Daniels, director of Hamlet, which opens the Public's new season "It looks modern. Its feel is modern."
Daniels who directed the widely praised 1989 version of Hamlet for England's Royal Shakespeare Company, is out to change your perception of Shakespeare.
Daniels will team with Antony McDonald, designer of the RSC's Hamlet, for the Public's production October 10 through November 17. It will be an historic collaboration between PPT and Boston's prestigious American Repertory Theatre.
With McDonald's bold and creative set, and costume styles that range from Hamlet's time through the 1930's, 40 s and 50 s to fashions of today, this production of Hamlet is by no means the stodgy, aca-Oem ,c p1ay everyone thinks of when they think of Hamlet," adds Daniels "It is a modern story, hugely complex and resonant and it affects us all. It is amazingly contemporary and recognizable."
Daniels feels that most of Shakespeare's plays focus on the portrayal of family life and anxieties within the family. Since everybody has had their share of family problems and has experienced the trials of growing up and trying to find themselves , Daniels believes
that everyone can understand Shakespeare on a very basic level. "I hope that every child and parent will recognize aspects of the production with which they can relate.''
Hamlet a rebellious youth suspected of going mad by the Danish court, is described by Daniels as an adolescent undergoing severe domestic strains who intends to mock the system.
Played by such renowned artists as Laurence Olivier, Peter O'Toole Richard Burton, John Gielgud Michael Redgrave and Paul Scofield, the role of Hamlet is one of the most powerful and challenging in dramatic history.
Mark Rylance , who will play the title role at the Publ ic, accepted the challenge in 1989 when Daniels chose him for the Royal Shakespeare Company s production of Hamlet.
Daniels knew Rylance could aspire to such a role when he saw him as Ariel in the RSC 's production of The Tempest nearly nine years ago. " I realized Mark was at the stage in his career where his intel l igence, emotional life, technical capacity and power to enrich every moment of his life on stage was incredible."
Rylance, who received rave reviews as Hamlet in Stratford-on-Avon and London , admits the role is indeed intimidating, especially since "more has been written about it than the Bible."
Performing Hamlet over 190 times within the past two years, Rylance, who was born in England but raised in Wisconsin, first played Hamlet at age 16 in a high school production at the University School in Milwaukee.
Returning to England in 1978 for formal training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Rylance went on to work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing major roles in productions such as The Tempest, Continued on page 2
Mark Rylance stars as Hamlet at the Public.
Academy Award Winner Kim Hunter Will Star In The Cocktail Hour
Ask film or theater fans the world over what they think of when they hear the words ''.A Streetcar Named Desire" and most will affect a Brooklyn accent and scream "Stelllahhhhh!" They re calling Kim Hunter and they can find her at the Public March 5 through April 12 in A.A. Gurney's hit comedy The Cocktail Hour.
Hunter originated the role of Stella Kowalski opposite Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy and Karl Malden in the legendary 1947 debut of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire directed by Elia Kazan
Hunter won the Variety New York Critics' Poll for her stage performance of Stella, and went on to win the Oscar and Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actress when she reprised the role in the classic 1951 film version of Streetcar that co-starred Brando, Malden and Vivien Leigh
In The Cocktail Hour, Hunter portrays the wryly witty Ann, whose playwright son John rattles his upper -middle-class WASP family during one of their beloved cocktail hours with news that he's written a play based on their lives. Armed with a wellspring of zingers, it is Ann's job to placate her outraged husband Bradley, who thinks his son is out to publicly humiliate him in his old age: "Is it all right if he puts us in a book, Bradley?", and her insulted daughter Nina, who's been reduced to a relatively minor role" in the play : "Sounds like you're lucky, dear." Ann 's deadpan delivery and precise comic t i ming provoke continuous bursts of laughter throughout The Cocktail Hour.
Aside from Streetcar, Kim Hunter is widely remembered for her portrayal of the humane psychologist Dr Zira opposite Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowell in the 1968 fifm classic Planet Of The Apes and thesequels Beneath The Planet Of The Apes and Escape From The Planet Of The Apes Other film cred i ts include Stairway To Heaven with David Niven (released in Britain as A Matter Of Life And Death), The Swimmer with Burt Lancaster, and Two Evil Eyes with Harvey Keitel, which was filmed in Pittsburgh and is pending release later this year On television, Hunter has been seen in hundreds of programs from the early days of "live" TV through guest-starring roles on such recent shows as Murder, She Wrote. Hunter has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award : for her performances as Crazy Annie in Baretta and Nola Madison on The Edge Of Night.
In a stage career that has spanned over 40 years, Hunter has starred again and again on Broadway and in regional theaters across the country. Notable Broadway credits include Darkness At Noon with Claude Rains , The Children s Hour with Patricia Neal, and the comed ies The Tender Trap ilith Robert Preston and Two Blind Mice with Melvyn Douglas. Her many regional starring roles include Linda Loman in Death Of A Salesman at Ontario, Canada's renowned Stratford Festival, and Big Mama in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at the Coconut Grove Playhouse for which she won Florida's CarContinued on page 2
Mark Metcalf Claudius
The Taming Of The Shrew and Tartuffe and title roles in Peter Pan and Romeo And Juliet. In London theaters he starred as Percy Bysshe Shelley in Bloody Poetry, as Iago in Othello, as Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing and as Puck in A Midsummer Night 's Dream.
Rylance is currently co-starring as Ferdi- · nand opposite John Gielgud as Prospero in Prospero 's Books, director Peter Greenaway 's critically acclaimed new film version • of The Tempest
At the Public Hamlet's step-father/uncle Claudius will be played by Mark Metcalf, whose film credits include Oscar, The Heavenly Kid and Animal House. Performing at renowned theaters such as the Royal George Theatre, Primary Stages, the Roundabout Yale Repertory and Arena Stage, Metcalf has appeared in The Cocktail Hour, A Doll's House, Of Mice And Men , Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Tempest and the New York Shakespeare Festival product-ion of Hamlet At Princeton's Mccarter Theatre, he was featured as Crow in the American premiere of Sam Shepard 's Tooth Of Crime
Other me mbers of the supporting cast include many actors who belong to the American Repertory Theatre Company or have appeared on the A.R.T. stage under the artistic direction of Robert Brustein
Recently seen at A.R.T. as Regan in King Lear, Christine Estabrook, who will play Hamlet's mother Gertrude, was featured on Broadway in The Heidi Chronicles, I'm Not Rappaport, The Cherry Orchard and The Inspector General. She appeared in the films Presumed Innocent and Sea Of Love and in the television series L.A. Law and Tales From The Darkside.
The role of Polonius will be played by one of America's most distinguished actors, Alvin Epstein, former Artistic Director of the Guthrie Theatre and Associate Director of Robert Brustein's Yale Repertory Theatre
His many New York performances include the Fool in Orson Welles' King Lear, Lucky in the American premiere of Waiting For Godot and Mr Peachum in last season's Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera
Jeremy Geidt, a founding member of the Yale Reperto ry Theatre and A.R.T., will play Voltemand a nd the First Gravedigger Geidt has appeared in fifty-three A.R.T. productions including King Lear, Twelfth Night, Three Sisters and Major Barbara
Alvin Epstein Polonius
Stephanie Roth , who will play Ophelia, and Candy Buckley, who will portray the Player Queen, appeared at A.R.T. last season as Cordelia and Goneril in King Lear.
Roth , ~ho attended Carnegie Mellon Drama, appeared on Broadway in Tom Stoppard s Artist Descending A Staircase, with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and off-Broadway in Peter Brook's The Cherry Orchard Buckley, a member of the Dallas Theatre Center since 1978, originated the role of Sadie Burke in Adrian Hall's adaptation of All The King's Men and recreated it at Trinity Rep and Arena Stage where she was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award.
The role of Laertes will be played by A.RT. member Derek Smith, a 1984 graduate of the Juilliard School who appeared at A.R.T. as the Fool in King Lear. On television he has been featured in The Equalizer and the CBS miniseries Internal Affairs
Steven Skybell, who will play Horatio, graduated from the Yale School of Drama and appeared last season at A. R :r. as Edgar in King Lear and Tedd y in The Homecoming. Skybell, whose Bro adway credits include Ah! Wilderness and Cafe Gr:qyvn , road~ hi$ film debut in Arthur Miller's Everybody Wins
Royal E. Miller, who will play Fortinbras, Reynaldo and Francisco, was featured at the New York Shakespeare Festival in Richard Ill a11d The Ta.ming Of The Shrew.
Other members of the cast include Thomas Derrah as Rosenc rantz and Osric, Gustave Johnson as Marcellus, Jon David Weigand as Bernardo and the Second Gravedigger, Michael Rudko as Guildenstern and Miguel Perez as the Ghost of Hamlet's Father and First Player Eight of Pittsburgh's best actors will be cast for the remaining roles.
Claire van Kampen, who composed the music for the RSC's Hamlet, will perform it again on stage at the Public.
Superb acting, ingenious design and skillful d irection will contribute to a daring and innovative production of what Laurence Olivier called "pound for pound the greatest play ever written."
Monica Novak
BRITISH AIRWAYS
The worlds favourite airline ' 7 is the official airline for Hamlet
The Cocktail Hour
Continued from page 1
bonnel Award In November, Hunter will star with Jose·Ferrer in the new play Tete A Tete that will mark the inaugural production of Theatre Club of Palm Beach in Palm Beach, Florida.
Public Theater favorite Peter Bennett, who has directed such varied Public productions as 'night, Mother, My Children! My Africa!, Princess Grace And The Fazzaris and She Loves Me, will stage The Cocktail Hour. A longtime friend of Kim Hunter ' s , Bennett directed her as Mrs. Alving in Ghosts at Bill Gardner ' s Adelphi Festival Theatre in Garden City, Long Island and as Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst at the New Jersey Theatre Forum, a role Hunter recalls as one of her favorites.
'' Kim's uncompromising honesty is one of her strongest qualities as an actress,'' notes Bennett. ''She also has the capacity to use her voice with such variety which , with her great sense of comic timing , makes her a perfect Ann."
Nancy Gleason
Kim Hunter
Dudley Moore cast in L.A.'s lay Of The Land!
Dudley Moore, star of the comedy fi lms Arthur and 10, portrays the Husband in th e West Coast premiere of Mel Shapirds hit comedy The Lay Of The La nd , which had Its world premiere a t the Public T heat er las t s eason
Lisa Richa rds , who plays the Wife, and di rector Lee Grant reunite from the Publi c's pro duc tion for the L.A. prem iere at l..Ds Angeles Theatre Center October 3 through December 8.
HAMLET
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Ron Daniels
October 10 - November 17
Director, designer and star of Britain's acclaimed 1989 Royal Shakespeare Company production of HAMLEThailed by London critics as "the most thrilling ever seen'!..,_bring the greatest play in the English language to Pittsburgh. You'll be the first American audience to see it!
I DO ! I DO! A MUSICAL
Book and Lyrics by Tom Jones
Music by Harvey Schmidt
Directed by Maureen Heffernan
November 27 - January 12
The two stars from the Public's 1990 hit musical ELEANOR return for this Broadway smash hit by the creators of THE FANTASTICKS. An amusing, happy look at marriage from wedding night to fiftieth a Aiver.sary, this love duet of 20 son_gs, with dance, is a deTight for all!
THREE SISTERS
By Anton Chekhov
Adapted by Corinne Jacker
Directed by Bill Gardner
January 23 - March 1
Drama is mingled with humor in this universally-loved masterpiece by Russia's greatest playwright. Three sisters stranded in a small town long to return to the glamour of Moscow and the dreams they left behind.
THE COCKTAIL HOUR
By A.R. Gurney
Directed by Peter Bennett
March 5 - April 12
The author of the Public's hit THE DINING ROOM lets the zingers fly in this deliciously witty comedy about a playwright who rattles his staid, old-money family with news that he's written a play based on their lives.
AMOO Ml BG FOR THE
By Euge·ne O'Neill
April 23 - May 31
One of American drama' s most legendary couples share an unforgettable evening in the moonlight in this final play by America's only Nobel Prize- winning and four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist.
TO BE ANNOUNCED
June 11 - July 19
We 1 re talking to top actors, directors and designers about the perfect play to end our season. It may be a current New York hit, a contemporary comedy or drama, or an exciting world premiere!
Mondays and 10 :00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
3. By telephone. You may charge single tickets to your American Express, MasterCard, or Visa accounts by calling the Box Office at (412) 321-9800.