The Royal Line of Thebes - South Coast Repertory

For the ancient Greek audience, the fate ofAntigone would have been common knowledge.The tragic poets took their stories from mytholo-gy. The characters on the stage were the men,women and gods from a far-off time, but the an-

cient Greeks had an especially close relationship withhistory and an ap-preciation for theirown mythology.

Antigone wasborn into a great,but cursed family.Her father wasOedipus, son ofLaius and Jocasta, the rulers of Thebes, who werewarned in prophecy that their son would murder hisfather and marry his mother. Although they tooksteps to prevent it, the prophecy eventually came topass. Once he learned of his fate, King Oedipus

blinded himself and left the city of Thebes in disgrace.His sons, Eteocles and Polyneices were elected co-rulers of the city and agreed to reign in alternateyears.

As the story of Antigone begins, a bloody battlehas been waged in Thebes. Polyneices led an army

against Eteocles, whorefused to relinquishthe throne at the endof his first term.Both brothers werekilled in the battle,and Antigone’s uncle,Creon, declared him-

self King. As his first act of government Creon issuedan edict declaring Polyneices a traitor and forbiddingany person from burying his corpse. Antigone mustchoose whether to obey her King or bury her brother.

–Jennifer Kiger

Antigone • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P3

Ares m. Aphrodite

Harmonica m. Cadmus (Founder of Thebes)

Agenor

Labdacus

Polydorus

Laius m. Jocasta

Oedipus

Eteocles Polyneices Ismene Antigone

Semele m. Zeus

DionysusMenoeceus

Creon m. Eurydice

Haemon MegareusKing of Thebes in Italics

“Sorrows of the dead are heaped on sorrows of the living. Sorrows of the living are heaped on sorrows of the dead. Generation cannot be freed by generation. But each is undeliverable, stricken by some god.”

—Chorus, Antigone

The Royal Line of Thebes

m.

P4 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Antigone

by Brendan Kennelly

While writing Antigone I noticed that the char-acters seemed to come more and more alivewith each re-writing, as if, in this playwhere people are constantly judging othersand being in turn constantly judged, they

wish themselves and what they believe and do to beproperly understood, to be accurately evaluated, tohave justice done to them. Justice is of paramountimportance in Antigone and it is frequently in conflictwith reality. I would define justice as a vision of whatshould prevail; reality I would define as the knowl-edge of what does prevail. Antigone is in the grip ofher vision of justice and she wants to make it reality.Creon, too, is in the grip of his vision and he is deter-mined to make it prevail. But Antigone’s vision ofjustice, love and loyalty is not Creon’s.

We have a conflict of visions, a conflict of twopassionate people, two living hearts, brought about,perhaps ironically, by the dead Polyneices, or ratherby attitudes among the living to the burial or non-burial of the corpse. Behind these conflicting atti-tudes are a number of histories: histories of family re-lationships, of personal values, of civil stability, ofpolitical change, of the growth of power and effectivegovernment, of ideas concerning what actually con-stitutes civilised living. These histories are like insis-tent, vigorous ghosts haunting every word that thecharacters say. This is a truly haunted play; the pres-ence of the dead in the hearts and minds of the livingis a fierce, driving and endlessly powerful force. Thispresence haunts the language and makes it, at certainmoments, tremble with a peculiar intensity.

At the end, one is left with more questions thananswers. What is the deepest source of Antigone’spassion? What was Polyneices like? Why doesAntigone feel with such unquestioning and unques-tionable intensity about him? Are love and loyaltyone and the same? What is Creon’s concept of loyal-ty? What is Ismene’s? What is Tiresias’s? Haemon’s?What is the influence of the dead on the living? I’msure there are many people today who would reply—very little influence—very little indeed. But there areothers who would reply in a very different vein. Thisversion of Antigone tries to be true, to be loyal to myunderstanding of the Greek world; but it must also be

loyal to my experience of life in Ireland, in the mod-ern world. We are all both limited and stimulated bysuch experience. Family life. Brothers and sisters.Fathers and mothers. Moments of love and hate.Public life. Governments. Politicians. Rulers. Peo-ple making speeches. People interested in power.People whose hearts and minds are moulded bypower. People who betray, conspire and manipulatein order to achieve power.

So, in any serious, sustained attempt to “trans-late” a play like Antigone, the conflict between thepast and the present in the mind of the translator isas real as any conflict in the play itself. We are all, tosome extent, creatures of conflict and, when wecome to use words, we struggle to be true to our ex-perience and understanding of that conflict. Conflictis served by the language it creates.

The ancient, original Greek infiltrates life inmodern Ireland. In many ways, the past shapes anddirects the present. The past educates and enlightensthe present. The present selects from that education,that enlightenment, and makes its own way forward,as we all must, into a future that can be known onlyby experiencing it, and then only partially, dependingon our willingness to give ourselves with whateverpassion we are capable of into the arms of every mo-ment that is waiting to be lived.

Antigone lives with passion because of her loy-alty to, and love for the dead. But in living out herlove for her dead brother she loses her love forHaemon, her living lover, Creon’s son. There is aconflict between the claim of a dead brother and aliving lover. This conflict is resolved ‘in a black holeamong the rocks’. Or is it? Will the consequences ofwhat happens in that ‘black hole’ resonate among theunborn, the Antigones, Creons and Haemons of thefuture? The present is soon past. The future be-comes the present. The mills of consequence grindon.

Even now, after many re-writings, the more Ithink about this play the more questions presentthemselves. That fact is, perhaps, the truest testimo-ny to the strange complexity and enduring attractionof Antigone.

Excerpted from the end notes to Brendan Kennelly’s Antigone, pub-lished by Bloodaxe Books, Ltd., Northumberland, 1996.

Doing Justice to Antigone


The ancient Greeks had distinct methodsof burial, and it was often believed ifyou were not provided a proper burialalong with the appropriate rituals, youwere destined to suffer between worlds

until your rites of passage into the under-world were completed.

In classical Greece the burial ritualsconsisted of three parts. First there was

prosthesis, or laying out of the body. Thewomen washed, anointed, dressed,crowned, covered the body and adorned itwith flowers. Themouth and eyeswere shut to pre-vent the psyche(phantom or soul)from leaving thebody before re-ceiving the properburial rites and thecorpse was dressedin a long, ankle-length garment.The body was pre-sented so it couldbe viewed for twodays. At the view-ings, the mour-nersdressed in black inhonor of the de-ceased and thewomen stood at thehead of the couch togrieve and sing whilethe men stood withtheir palms out to the

gods. When it cametime for the burial,before the dawn ofthe third day, thebody was taken tothe tomb by cart.The men led theprocession and thewomen followed.At the internment,the corpse or asheswere placed in thetomb along withthe grave goods ofpottery, jewels,vases or other per-sonal property.Along with thesegifts, offerings offruit were madeand the mournerssang and danced.

Beginning inClassical times [inthe era whenSophocles wrote

Antigone ] therecame to be a concept of punishment afterdeath or a state of blessedness. The soul re-sponsible for a person’s personality andmoral decisions received eternal punishmentor bliss for the choices of the human form.The burial rituals perhaps spawned this be-lief that the soul must be guided to the af-terlife. If the body was not given a properburial, according to Greek ritual, the soulwould remain trapped between the worldsof the living and the underworld.

Excerpted from Kristina Bagwell’s“Burial Rituals and the Afterlife of

Ancient Greece”

The Funeral Rite: Family Duties and the Afterlife

Left, the Northeast wind and the West windcarry away the dead body of a young soldier tohis grave. Above, the goddess Athene stands insorrow over a monument to the Athenian dead.

I shall vanish and be no moreBut the land over which I now roamShall remain And change not.

—Warrior song of the Hethúshka Society


Antigone holds the pride of place for being thevery first Greek tragedy ever offered as a com-mercial venture in this country. In 1845 a NewYork businessman, hoping to inaugurate theproduction of serious drama in a city then de-

lighting in melodrama and spectacle, chose to mountSophocles’ play as his initial offering. Thus did Mr.Dinneford rent Palmo’s Opera House and open withAntigone on 7 April 1845.

In spite of the preshow publicity and anticipa-tion, the play did not delight its audience. Albion’s re-viewer, writingon 12 April1845, couldnot hide theshow’s failure.A l t h o u g hdone “in astyle of classi-cal elegancethat shouldhave insuredthe represen-tation perfectsuccess,” theplay was cold-ly received. The criticsuggested first of allthat the physical settingof the indoor chambertheatre was not suitedfor Greek tragedy,which was created tobe performed outside invast open spaces. Sec-ond, he blamed both the ac-tors, unused to speaking ina tragic style, and an audi-ence, unused to hearing it,for the show’s lack of popu-larity. Finally, Miss Claren-don, playing the title role, was disappointing. Shewas not able “to grasp the character of the noble anddevoted Antigone.” Thus despite Dinneford’s reduc-tion of the ticket price, the curtain fell on the produc-tion after barely two weeks. New York City was notto see another Antigone for well over a century.

At the 1946 staging of Anouilh’s Antigone, mostdrama critics were reluctant to recognize the possibili-ty that an ancient play could have modern politicalmeaning. While both brave and relevant to a Frenchaudience under Nazi occupation, Antigone’s protesthad no meaning to an American audience never heldby a foreign power and free of military concerns. […]Antigone, which was to become a viable statement forlater decades, did not appeal in 1946, or, at least, didnot appeal in Jean Anouilh’s updated interpretation.We cannot know if the Sophoclean text the critics

claimed they missed wouldhave had any greater populari-ty, for the play was not stagedagain in the commercial the-atres of the United States forsome twenty years.

It was not until the 1970sthat Sopho-cles’ script be-came a popu-lar text for thec omme r c i a lstage, but a1969 produc-tion on theUniversity ofSouthern Cali-fornia campusin Los Angelesby the LivingTheatre mightbe noted. ThisAntigone was“Judith Mali-

na’s version ofBrecht’s versionof Holderlin’sversion of Sopho-cles’ Antigone,”to quote Dan Sul-

livan’s review in the Los Angeles Times (1 March1969), which, despite its “layers of authorship [wasclose] to the original.” Sullivan continued, “[The play]may be the most effective weapon the company hasin spreading its message of revolution.”

In May 1971 the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln

‘Antigone’ in America

Walt Span-gler’s setmodels forSCR’s con-temporaryproduction ofAntigone.’


Center opened Antigone at the Vivian Beaumont asthe final offering in their season, and the critics viedin their praise of the production. What nearly everycritic found important to emphasize was the play’scomplete relevance to the modern world. RichardWatts (New York Post, 14 May 1971) claimed it was rel-evant and timely, while S.K. Overbeck (Newsweek, 24May 1971) elaborated on the theme: “Antigone…res-onates with so much contemporary relevance onefeels batted back and forth between antiquity andtoday’s headlines…Thoughts come crowding in of Sis-terhood, the Panthers, the Berrigans, Weathermen, etc.and you almost expect Creon to spread his palms andsay, ‘Let me make one thing perfectly clear’.”

Equally assertive was Stewart Klein (WNEW, 13May 1971), who announced:“Antigone burns with immediacy!Timeless in its wisdom, raw in itsrelevance. Its issues might havecome out of today’s newspapers.Should be seen by everyone, es-pecially, by every office holderin Washington!”

Echoes of Anouilh’s 1943version have reappeared inmore contemporary adaptations,e.g. Athol Fugard’s The Island(1973), wherein prison inmatesstage Antigone to point out theirharsh guard’s repression,or the version in Creole byHaiti’s foremost poet, FelixMorisseau-Leroy. AndAntigone Africanus [sic],created by Joseph Walkerand staged at Howard Uni-versity, transferred thestory to Africa, a conceptthat emphasizes its univer-sality.

In the 1980s, the ap-peal of Antigone lay lessin her battle againstCreon’s autocracy andmore in her assertion ofpersonal belief: the youngwoman is willing to diefor what she holds to betrue. In a world thatseems to have lost itsmoral center, Antigone’sproud struggle offers amodel not found in hero-ines of more contempo-rary scripts.

Sophocles’ Antigone has had relevance for theAmerican theatre when the national mood favored ei-ther political resistance or the expression of personalfreedom. While Antigone is a young girl, she is ableto speak for those who wish to highlight women’scourage and integrity. The cause for which she diesin Sophocles’ text, the right of burial, is no longer anissue, but her stand against political abuse of powerremains a burning concern. Creon learns through suf-fering in this play, but it is pain that recoils upon himfor his own actions, while Antigone’s suicide stainsthe ruler’s hands. Both mythic figures offer a messageto any world where basic rights are trampled underpolitical ambition.

Karelisa V. Hartigan

Excerpted from Greek Tragedy on the American Stage:Ancient Drama in the Commercial Theater, 1882-1994(Greenwood Press, Westport, CT: 1995).

The Living Theatre’s 1969 production of‘Antigone.’ Left, Judith Malina as Antigonemourning Polyneices. Below left, Antigoneagainst the system. Below Malina with Ju-lian Beck as Creon.


In the sixth and fifth centuries before the birth ofChrist an ancient civilization reached such heights ofintellectual and artistic achievement that every suc-ceeding period of Western culture, from the RomanEmpire to the twentieth century, has been heavily in

its debt, whether acknowledged or not. Those momen-tous years saw the beginnings of history and politicaltheory (as well as political democracy) and the devel-opment of philosophical thought. In those years archi-tects designed the temples which have dominated overour concept of physical building ever since, and sculp-tors imposed on us an ideal version of the human formwhich remains the point of reference even for thoseartists who turn against it. Not least among theachievements of this great age was the invention andperfection of an artistic medium which we take so un-thinkingly for granted that we cannot imagine civilizedlife without it—theatre. […]

The audience was, by our standards, immense;the theatre building of the late fifth century, to judgefrom its ruins, could seat between fourteen and fifteenthousand spectators. They sat on rows that rise oneabove the other on the rocky southeastern slope of theAcropolis and border, for half of its circumference, acircular dancing floor behind which stood a woodenstage building. This was the actors’ changing room,

where they could change masks as well as costumes, toassume a different role. […] The masks (which made itpossible for the male actors to play female parts as wellas play more than one character) were not thegrotesque caricatures we know from modern theatredecorations; contemporary vase paintings show thatthey were naturalistic representations of types—beard-

ed king, old man, young girl, andso on. The play of facial expres-sions we expect from our actorswas in any case ruled out in anopen-air theatre where the top rowof spectators was over fifty-fiveyards away from the stage area; in-dividuality of character had to becreated by the poet’s word and theactor’s delivery and gesture.

By the end of the century theparts were played by professionalactors, three for each tragedy, as-signed to the dramatists by themagistrate in charge of the festival.

A fragment of a crater, above, de-picting a costumed actor holding amask. The god of wine and the-atre, Dionysus, visits a dramaticpoet, left.

Greece and the Theatre


Aeschylus, the first great dramatist, actedin his own plays; Sophocles followed hisexample but then, we are told, aban-doned the stage because his voice wasnot strong enough. His younger contem-porary and competitor, Euripides, never,as far as we know, appeared on stage.

In addition to actors and spectators, therewas a third element of the performance, one older thaneither of these two. It was the chorus—aGreek word that means “dance”; thechorus of Greek tragedies sang, but itwas also and has been in origin a groupof dancers. The way Greek theatres arebuilt shows how central to the perfor-mance the chorus was; the rows of stone benchesone below the other all the way down the hillsidefocus the spectators’ vision not on the stage areabut on the circular dancing floor.

Drama as we know it was created when anAthenian named Thespis added the dance andsong of the chorus to the speech of the actor.With the addition of a second actor, theperformers could develop a sort of dra-matic narrative—actor to chorus—to adramatic relationship—actor to actor—or even dramatic conflict—actor againstactor. This second actor was intro-duced by Aeschylus, and it is this inno-vation that entitles him to be called, ashe often has been, the creator oftragedy. When Sophocles later addeda third actor, the complicated play ofrelationships between actors came todominate the scene, reducing the roleof chorus to that of commentator,where before it had been active partici-pant. But the chorus was always there,and it has an important function: it isan emotional bridge between specta-tors and actors.

The dramatist who composedand produced the new plays forsuch an occasion was in a situationunique in the history of the theatre.An audience of some fourteenthousand citizens, conscious of thereligious solemnity of the occasionand the glory it reflected on thecity and the individuals responsi-

ble, packed in the benches of the theatre to hear, as thesun rose, the first lines of the play. A modern readermight expect that a theatre such as this would producedrama that was, to use a cant phrase, “relevant, living

theatre,” based on contemporary themes—with noholds barred—in which prominent statesmen andindividual citizens were held up to ridicule in astyle that few modern states would permit. Butthe first three plays of the day’s performancewere tragedy, and here, with very few exceptions,

the figures who walked the stage, far from beingcontemporary were men, women and gods from

the far-off past, from the dim beginnings of theyouth of the race—an age of heroes andheroines, the legends of the beginnings ofthe Greek world. The stuff from which thetragic poet made his plays was not con-

temporary reality but myth. And yet it didreflect contemporary reality, did so perhaps in

terms more authoritative because they were not coloredby the partisan emotions of the time, terms

which were in fact so authoritative that theyremain meaningful even for us today.

–Bernard Knox

Excerpted from the Introduction to the Penguin edi-tion of Sophocles: The Three Theban Plays (Penguin

Books, New York: 1982).

Amphitheatre at Epidauros, built 400 BC.

Above, a carving depicting an ancient Greek “chorus,”dancers and musicians celebrating an offering or perhapswar. Below, these tokens seem to be the theatre ticketsof ancient Greece. The letters refer to the sections ofbenches.


*ALYSSA BRESNAHAN (Antigone)is making her SCR debut. She hasappeared in New York as LadyMacbeth in Macbeth at the ClassicStage Company, Iphegenia inIphegenia in Taurus at LaMaMa,and Madeline in The Clearing atBlue Light Theatre. At the Hart-ford Stage she appeared as Max-ine in The Night of the Iguana,Jalena in Necessary Targets andStella in A Streetcar Named Desire.Other theatre credits include TheRose Tattoo at the Goodman The-ater, Three Days of Rain at theWestport Playhouse and Tantalusat the Denver Theatre Center, UKtour and Barbicon Theatre, Lon-don. Film and television appear-ances include an American Mas-ters production of The Crucible (asElizabeth Proctor), a BBC film,Playing Shakespeare (oppositeKevin Kline) and a recent gueststar role on “Law and Order.”

*NAMBI E. KELLEY (Ismene/ Cho-rus) is making her SCR debut.She has appeared at SteppenwolfTheatre in Chicago in Nikki Gio-vanni: New Song for a New Dayand at the School at Steppenwolfin Come Back to the Five andDime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,The Marriage of Bette & Boo andBalm in Gilead. Other regionalcredits include Drowning Crowand Mirror of the Invisible Worldat the Goodman, The Old Settlerat Long Beach Playhouse andConcerto Chicago and TheSovereign State of BoogedyBoogedy at the Victory GardensTheatre. Film credits include BelAir, Whipped, Shooting Stars andSoul Food. Television credits in-clude “L.A. Dragnet,” “StrongMedicine,” “Early Edition” and“City of Angels.” She is also aproduced, published, and awardwinning playwright.

*HAL LANDON JR. (Tiresias/Cho-rus) is an SCR Founding Artistwho recently appeared in TheDrawer Boy, Two Gentlemen ofVerona, Major Barbara, GettingFrankie Married—and After-wards, The School for Wives,Much Ado about Nothing, Enter-taining Mr. Sloane, The HollowLands, True West, Play Strindberg,Tartuffe and Ah, Wilderness!Other credits include Arcadia,Our Town, Sidney Bechet Killed aMan, BAFO, Six Degrees of Sepa-ration, An Ideal Husband, A Messof Plays by Chris Durang, TheThings You Don’t Know, FaithHealer, Ghost in the Machine,Green Icebergs , Morning’s atSeven, Dancing at Lughnasa, TheMiser, Our Country’s Good andWaiting for Godot. He created therole of Ebenezer Scrooge in SCR’sA Christmas Carol, and has per-formed it in all 24 annual produc-

Artist Biographies

NAMBI E. KELLEY

Ismene/ChorusHAL LANDON JR.Tiresias/Chorus

ALYSSA BRESNAHAN

Antigone


tions. He appeared in LeanderStillwell at the Mark Taper Forumand in Henry V at the Globe The-atres in San Diego. Other residenttheatre roles include Salieri inAmadeus, Malvolio in TwelfthNight and Gordon Miller in RoomService. Among his film creditsare Trespass, Pacific Heights, Al-most an Angel, Bill and Ted’s Ex-cellent Adventure and Playing byHeart. Television credits includea recent episode of “Frasier.”

*ALLAN LOUIS (Chorus Leader) ismaking his SCR debut. He hasappeared in Los Angeles in Rag-time and in the Reprise! produc-tion of Hair, and in regional pro-ductions of A Raisin in the Sun(Milwaukee Repertory), Hamletand Rosencrantz and Gildensternare Dead (Florida Shakespeare),Exit the King and Black Star Line(Goodman Theatre) and Ain’tMisbehavin’ at M.E.T. His filmsinclude Unforgettable (as Nat KingCole), Tear it Down, Cool Crimeand Pro. He has appeared ontelevision in “NYPD Blue,” “Cityof Angels,” “Martin,” “Sparks” and“The Jamie Foxx Show.”

*HENRI LUBATTI (Guard/Chorus)is making his SCR debut. He has

appeared at the Old Globe as theDauphin in Henry V, at SeattleRepertory in An Ideal Husbandand An American Daughter, andat Intiman Theatre in Ghosts ,among others. His film and tele-vision work includes Last Ride,Nowheresville and Prefontaine,and as a guest star on “Provi-dence,” “24,” “Dark Angel,” “SpinCity,” “The Practice,” “E.R.” and“Strong Medicine.”

*RANDLE MELL (Creon) is makinghis SCR debut. He has appearedon Broadway in Scott Ellis’ stag-ing of The Rainmaker, in ZoeCaldwell’s staging of Macbeth andin Michael Blakemore’s Noises Off.Off-Broadway credits include TheCradle Will Rock (Drama DeskAward nomination), The Crucible,Savage in Limbo and WeekendNear Madison. Regional theatrecredits include Closer at the MarkTaper Forum, The GlassMenagerie at La Jolla Playhouse,Crime and Punishment at ArenaStage and The Three Sisters at theGuthrie Theatre. His films in-clude Cookie’s Fortune, The Post-man, Wyatt Earp, Grand Canyon,City of Hope, Eight Men Out andFearless. He has appeared ontelevision in “Dragnet,” “24,”

“Kingpin,” “Nash Bridges” and“Law and Order.”

*JACQUES C. SMITH (Messenger/Chorus) is happy to be makinghis SCR debut after having playedthe role of Benny in the Broad-way production of Rent. He wasalso featured in the HBO originalseries “OZ”, where he playedLeroy Tidd for two seasons.Other television credits include“ER,” “Law & Order,” PBS’sEmmy-winning American Mastersseries “Ralph Ellison: An Ameri-can Journey” (portraying the titlecharacter of Ellison’s novel Invisi-ble Man), “The Division” and thedocumentary Roots - Celebrating25 Years: The Saga of an Ameri-can Classic. Some of this otherstage credits include work atmany theatres around the countrysuch as Paper Mill Playhouse(NJ), Coconut Grove Playhouse(FL), La Jolla Playhouse, ArizonaTheatre Center, Pasadena Play-house, San Diego Repertory andIllinois Theatre Center amongothers. California theatre audi-ences saw him most recently inthe West Coast Premiere of Blueat the Pasadena Playhouse. Inaddition to his acting work, he isa charter member of the Broad-

HENRI LUBATTI

Guard/ChorusRANDLE MELL

CreonALLAN LOUIS

Chorus Leader


way Inspirational Voices. He is agraduate of Princeton University(BA) and University of California,San Diego (MFA). “I will lift upmy eyes to the hills...”

*ERIC D. STEINBERG (Haemon/Chorus) appeared at SCR in Ghostin the Machine , Ballad ofYachiyo and the Pacific Play-wrights Festival reading of 99Histories. He is an actor andartist originally from Washington,D.C. Mr. Steinberg received aB.A. in philosophy and literaturefrom University of Vermont andtwo years of an MFA fellowshipat UC Irvine. Since then he hasworked in repertory theatre, tele-vision and film internationally.Theatre work includes many per-formances at the Mark TaperForum, the Ahmanson, Actor’sTheatre of Louisville, the Intimanand ACT in Seattle among others.Currently shuttling betweencoasts, he is happy to return tothe west and SCR and to workwith Kate and so many talentedartists.

*DEBORAH VAN VALKENBURGH(Eurydice/Chorus) appeared atSCR in If We Are Women, OldTimes and Dancing at Lughnasa.

Other theatre work includes Hairon Broadway and projects forManhattan Theatre Club and LaMAMA in New York City; HelloAgain at the Blank Theatre Com-pany, The First Picture Show atthe Mark Taper Forum, Club Ter-mina at LATC in Los Angeles,

Jumping for Joy at the LagunaPlayhouse, The Beauty Queen ofLeenane at San Diego Repertory,Picasso at the Lapin Agile at ACTand many other productions fortheatres nationwide. Film andtelevision work includes “TooClose for Comfort,” The Warriors,Streets of Fire, Rampage, Free En-terprise, Fire Starter II, VenusConspiracy and Criminal forClooney/Soderbergh’s SectionEight.

PLAYWRIGHT,DIRECTOR & DESIGNERS

BRENDAN KENNELLY (Translator)is one of Ireland’s most distin-guished poets. He achieved inter-national recognition with hisshocking poem, Cromwell, follow-ing this with the even more noto-rious Book of Judas, which toppedthe Irish bestsellers list. Its sequel,Poetry my Arse, out-JudassedCromwell, sinking its teeth intothe pants of poetry itself. He haspublished over 20 other books ofpoetry as well as four verse plays,two novels and a substantial bodyof criticism. He is a renowned ed-itor and anthologist, and is Profes-sor of Modern Literature at TrinityCollege, Dublin.

JACQUES C. SMITH

Messenger/ChorusERIC D. STEINBERG

Haemon/ChorusDEBORAH VAN VALKENBURGH

Eurydice/Chorus

AARON MISAKIAN(Chorus) ismaking his SCRdebut. Theatri-cal credits in-clude The Tro-jan Womenunder the di-

rection of Mark Wing Davey, in as-sociation with the NYU graduateprogram; Angels in America(Louis); and Twelfth Night at TinaPacker’s Shakes & Co. Last winterhe starred in the American debut ofThe Belgrade Trilogy. Film andtelevision credits include “8 SimpleRules” and a new independent filmentitled Seafood Heaven. He holdsa Bachelor of Fine Arts with Hon-ors in acting from NYU/Tisch.

The role of Boy is played in alter-nating performances by MASONACEVEDO and CONNER THOMSEN, stu-dents in South Coast Repertory’sYoung Conservatory.

KATE WHORISKEY (Director) re-turns to South Coast Repertory,where she directed the worldpremiere of Intimate Apparel lastseason. She has served as anArtistic Associate at La Jolla Play-house and is currently Artistic As-sociate at Intiman Theatrethrough a TCG New GenerationsGrant. Her regional credits in-clude The Rose Tattoo and theworld premiere of DrowningCrow at Goodman Theatre, TheMaster Builder at AmericanRepertory Theatre, Lady from theSea and The Chairs at IntimanTheatre and Desire Under theElms at Perseverance Theatre.She has worked with writersRegina Taylor and Michael On-daatje. Upcoming projects in-clude Heartbreak House at theGoodman Theatre and the worldpremiere of Lynn Nottage’s Fabu-lation at Playwrights Horizons.Ms. Whoriskey is a graduate ofNYU-Tisch School of the Arts andART’s Institute for Advanced The-atre Training. A recipient of anNEA/TCG Director’s Fellowship,she has also acted as a visitingprofessor at UC Davis.

WALT SPANGLER (Set/CostumeDesign) made his SCR debut lastseason with Intimate Apparel.Broadway credits include Holly-wood Arms. Off-Broadway cred-its include sets for Boston Mar-riage, Twelfth Night and BlueSurge (The Public Theater/NYSF);Dublin Carol, The Water Engine,

The Hothouse, Mojo and An AdultEvening of Shel Silverstein (At-lantic Theater Company); and TheWax (Playwrights Horizons). Re-gional credits include designs forThe Pajama Game, Short Plays byThornton Wilder and for coloredgirls... at Center Stage; Ghosts,The Winter’s Tale, The Duchess ofMalfi, Hedda Gabler and Cori-olanus for The Shakespeare The-atre; as well as productions atThe Goodman Theatre, LongWharf Theatre, Actors Theatre ofLouisville, Yale Repertory Theatre,Dallas Theater Center, HartfordStage Company, Prince MusicTheater and Goodspeed Opera.Mr. Spangler is a graduate of theYale School of Drama.

SCOTT ZIELINSKI (LightingDesign) returns to SCR where hedesigned the world premieres ofIntimate Apparel and On TheJump. He designed Topdog/Un-derdog for Broadway. OtherNew York credits include produc-tions at Lincoln Center, PublicTheater, Theatre for a New Audi-ence, Manhattan Theatre Club,Playwrights Horizons, New YorkTheatre Workshop, Ontological-Hysteric Theater (with RichardForeman), Signature TheatreCompany, Classic Stage Companyand others. Highlights of his ex-tensive regional credits includeGuthrie Theater, Mark TaperForum, Goodman Theatre, Step-penwolf Theatre Company, ArenaStage, Baltimore Center Stage,

Hartford Stage Company, Ameri-can Repertory Theatre, TheShakespeare Theatre, BerkeleyRepertory Theatre, The OldGlobe, Seattle Repertory Theatre,Actors Theatre of Louisville, Hunt-ington Theatre Company,Williamstown Theatre Festival,and many others. Internationally,his designs have been seen atRoyal National Theatre of GreatBritain, Royal Court Theatre, andLyric Theatre Hammersmith (Lon-don), Edinburgh Festival (Scot-land), Adelaide Festival (Aus-tralia), Theatre Spektakel Zurcher,Theatre Neumarkt (Zurich), Rot-terdamse Schouwburg (Rotter-dam), Sommertheater Festival(Hamburg), INTRANSIT (Berlin),Schauspielhaus (Vienna), Theatre-Works (Singapore) and Fukuoka(Japan). His designs for danceinclude the Joyce Theater,Kennedy Center Modern DanceFestival, and American DanceFestival (with Twyla Tharp);American Ballet Theatre; NationalBallet of Canada; and the SanFrancisco, Boston, and KansasCity ballets. Mr. Zielinski’s operacredits include the BrooklynAcademy of Music; HoustonGrand Opera; New York, Min-nesota, Pittsburgh, Berkshire Op-eras; Opera Colorado; SpoletoFestival USA; and others.

ROB MILBURN and MICHAELBODEEN (Composers/Sound De-sign) Broadway credits includemusic compositions and sound


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for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’sNest, My Thing of Love, The Speedof Darkness and sound designsfor A Year with Frog and Toad,Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, KingHedley II, Buried Child, The Riseand Fall of Little Voice, The Songof Jacob Zulu and The Grapes ofWrath. Off Broadway includesmusic composition and sound forSpace; Boy Gets Girl; and Mar-vin’s Room and its productions inChicago, Boston, L.A., D.C. andLondon’s West End. Regionally,they have composed music or de-signed sound at the GoodmanTheatre and Steppenwolf Theatrein Chicago; the Kennedy Centerand Arena Stage in D.C.; theGuthrie Theatre and the Chil-dren’s Theatre in Minneapolis; theHuntington Theatre in Boston;the Manhattan Theatre Club, thePublic Theatre, New York Shake-speare Festival, Circle in theSquare, Second Stage, the UnionSquare Theatre, the New Victory,the Minetta Lane Theatre andPlaywrights Horizons in NewYork; The Brooklyn Academy ofMusic; the Alley Theatre in Hous-ton; The Old Globe in San Diego;the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta;the McCarter Theatre in Prince-ton; Center Stage in Baltimore;the Dallas Theater Center; Hart-ford Stage Company; La JollaPlayhouse; Rhode Island’s TrinityRepertory; Berkeley Repertory;Seattle Repertory; Arizona Reper-tory; Milwaukee Repertory; Mis-souri Repertory; the Repertory of

St. Louis; Long Wharf Theatre inNew Haven; Pittsburgh PublicTheater; The Philadelphia TheatreCompany; ACT in San Franciscoand the Mark Taper Forum andthe Ahmanson in L.A. Interna-tionally their work includes musicor sound for the Comedy Theatrein London’s West End, The Barbi-can Center, the National Theatreof Great Britain, the Cameri The-atre in Tel Aviv, the Subaru Act-ing Company in Japan, and festi-vals in Toronto, Canada, Dublinand Galway, Ireland and Sydneyand Perth, Australia. Projects thisseason include original music, tra-ditional arrangements and sounddesign for Beauty at La Jolla Play-house, sound and music designfor The Time of Your Life at Seat-tle Repertory and ACT in SanFrancisco, original music andsound for Top Dog/Underdog atSteppenwolf Theatre, the AlleyTheatre, Dallas Theatre Centerand Hartford Stage, and musiccomposition and sound forHeartbreak House at the Good-man Theatre.

RANDY DUNCAN (Choreographer)worked with Kate Whoriskeymost recently on Amadeus at theActors Theatre of Louisville andwill work with her again later thisyear on Heartbreak House at theGoodman Theatre. He has theunique privilege to be a three-time recipient of Chicago’s presti-gious Ruth Page Award for Out-standing Choreographer of the

Year. Most recently he receivedthe 1999 Artistic AchievementAward from the Chicago NationalAssociation of Dance Masters andthe 1999/2000 Black Theatre Al-liance Award for Best Choreogra-phy. Using elements of ballet,jazz and modern dance, he hascreated works for the Joffrey Bal-let, River North Dance Company,Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chica-go, Spectrum Dance Company(Seattle), Bat Dor Dance Compa-ny of Israel and the TennesseeChildren’s Dance Ensemble. Hismusical theatre credits includechoreographing and appearing inStreet Dreams, West Side Story,Carousel, Hello Dolly, Don’t Both-er Me, I Can’t Cope and Guys andDolls. His affiliation with theGoodman Theatre has helpedcreate critically acclaimed workssuch as Zoot Suit, The Rose Tattooand Drowning Crow. Mr. Duncanrecently completed his first majormotion picture choreography forParamount Pictures Save the LastDance starring Julia Stiles, whichearned him a nomination for theAmerican Choreography Award inthe Dance on Film category. Anavid supporter of HIV/AIDS caus-es, for the past ten years he hasdonated his time and choreogra-phy to Dance for Life, creatingworld premieres for Chicago’slargest dance benefit forHIV/AIDS. Mr. Duncan, anAfrican-American who grew up inChicago, began his dance studieswith Geraldine Johnson, followed


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by classes at the Sammy DyerSchool of Theatre, Alvin AileyAmerican Dance Center and Illi-nois State University (vocal musicmajor), but credits Harriet Rossand Joseph Holmes with much ofhis inspiration. His guest classesin jazz with an African influencehave taken him to England,France, Amsterdam, Israel andMexico. He teaches at colleges,universities and high schools na-tionwide. You can find him onthe faculty of the Chicago Acade-my for the Arts High School. Youmay also find him sitting on thepanels of the NEA, IAC and ArtsMidwest.

JENNIFER KIGER (Dramaturg)joined the SCR staff in 1999 andbecame Literary Manager in 2000.In that capacity she screensscripts for development and pro-duction and serves as dramaturgon half of SCR’s workshops andproductions each season. She isalso the associate director of thePacific Playwrights Festival. Re-cent projects include Nilo Cruz’sAnna in the Tropics, the worldpremiere of The Intelligent Designof Jenny Chow by Rolin Jones, Lu-cinda Coxon’s Nostalgia, AmyFreed’s The Beard of Avon andthe site-specific California Sce-narios, directed by Juliette Carril-lo. Previously, she served as dra-maturg at the American RepertoryTheatre in Cambridge, MA forseveral productions, including Inthe Jungle of Cities directed by

Robert Woodruff, Phaedra direct-ed by Liz Diamond, the worldpremieres of Robert Coover’sCharlie in the House of Rue andMac Wellman’s Hypatia directedby Bob McGrath, and RobertBrustein’s adaptation of The Mas-ter Builder directed by Kate Who-riskey. She completed her pro-fessional training as a dramaturgat the ART Institute at Harvardand taught acting and dramaticarts at Harvard University.

*RANDALL K. LUM (Stage Manag-er) is pleased to be part of SCR’s40th Season and well into his14th season with the company.This season he has worked onThe Last Night of Ballyhoo andTerra Nova. Last season he stagemanaged Major Barbara, Proofand Intimate Apparel. Two sea-sons ago he had the pleasure ofworking on Getting Frankie Mar-ried—and Afterwards, The Schoolfor Wives, The Homecoming andThe Circle. During his long asso-ciation as one of SCR’s residentstage managers he has workedon more than a dozen world pre-mieres and has been associatedwith over 65 productions. In1997, Mr. Lum stage managed theAIDS Benefit Help is on the WayIII at the Palace of Fine Arts inSan Francisco. Other stage man-agement credits include theAmerican Conservatory Theatre inSan Francisco, the Old GlobeTheatre in San Diego, BerkeleyRepertory Theatre, San Jose Civic

Light Opera, VITA ShakespeareFestival, Pacific Conservatory ofthe Performing Arts, Long BeachBallet, San Francisco ConventionBureau and Kawasaki Motorcy-cles. He would like everyone totake a moment to remember allthose who have lost the battleand all those still suffering andfighting the AIDS epidemic.

*SCOTT HARRISON (AssistantStage Manager) has been withSCR for fourteen seasons andmost recently stage managed AChristmas Carol. Mr. Harrisonwould like to take this opportuni-ty to acknowledge and continu-ously support his friends and col-leagues who are battling the fightof AIDS. This summer, alongwith Jamie A. Tucker, he will beparticipating in Paradise AIDSRide, a fundraising cycling tour ofHawaii.

DAVID EMMES (Producing ArtisticDirector) is co-founder of SCR,one of the largest professionalresident theatres in California.He has received numerousawards for productions he has di-rected during SCR’s 39-year histo-ry, including a 1999 Los AngelesDrama Critics Circle Award forthe direction of George BernardShaw’s The Philanderer. He di-rected the world premieres ofAmy Freed’s The Beard of Avonand Freedomland, Thomas Babe’sGreat Day in the Morning, KeithReddin’s Rum and Coke and But


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Not for Me and Neal Bell’s ColdSweat; the American premiere ofTerry Johnson’s Unsuitable forAdults; the West Coast premieresof C.P. Taylor’s Good and HarryKondoleon’s Christmas on Mars;and the Southland premiere ofTop Girls (at SCR and the West-wood Playhouse). Other produc-tions include the West Coast pre-mieres of Three Viewings by Jef-frey Hatcher, The Secret Raptureby David Hare and New Englandby Richard Nelson; and Arcadiaby Tom Stoppard, Six Degrees ofSeparation by John Guare, TheImportance of Being Earnest byOscar Wilde, Ayckbourn’sWoman in Mind and RelativelySpeaking and You Never Can Tellby George Bernard Shaw, whichhe restaged for the SingaporeFestival of Arts. His producingresponsibilities involve the overallcoordination of SCR’s programsand projects. He has served as aconsultant to the Orange CountyPerforming Arts Center and as atheatre panelist and onsite evalu-ator for the National Endowmentfor the Arts. He has served onthe Executive Committee of theLeague of Resident Theatres, andas a panelist for the CaliforniaArts Council. After attending Or-ange Coast College, he receivedhis BA and MA from CaliforniaState University, San Francisco,and his PhD in theatre and filmfrom USC.

MARTIN BENSON (Artistic Direc-tor) shares co-founder credit andartistic leadership of SCR with hiscolleague David Emmes. As oneof SCR’s chief directors, Mr. Ben-son has directed nearly one thirdof the plays produced here in the

last 39 years. He has distin-guished himself in the staging ofcontemporary work, includingHorton Foote’s The Carpetbag-ger’s Children and the world pre-miere of his Getting Frankie Mar-ried—and Afterwards, the critical-ly acclaimed California premiereof William Nicholson’s Shadow-lands, Athol Fugard’s Playland,Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lugh-nasa, David Mamet’s Oleanna,Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming,David Hare’s Skylight and theWest Coast premieres of PeterHedges’ Good As New and MartinMcDonagh’s The Lonesome West.He has won accolades for his di-rection of five major works byGeorge Bernard Shaw, includingthe Los Angeles Drama Critics Cir-cle (LADCC) Award winnersMajor Barbara, Misalliance andHeartbreak House. Among thenumerous world premieres hehas directed are Tom Strelich’sBAFO and Margaret Edson’sPulitzer Prize-winning Wit, whichhe also directed at Seattle Reper-tory Theatre and the Alley The-atre in Houston. He has directedAmerican classics including Ah,Wilderness!, A Streetcar NamedDesire, A Delicate Balance andAll My Sons. Mr. Benson hasbeen honored with the Drama-Logue Award for his direction of21 productions and receivedLADCC Distinguished Achieve-ment in Directing awards an un-paralleled seven times for thethree Shaw productions, JohnMillington Synge’s Playboy of theWestern World, Arthur Miller’sThe Crucible, Sally Nemeth’s HolyDays and Wit. He also directedthe film version of Holy Daysusing the original SCR cast.

Along with David Emmes, he ac-cepted SCR’s 1988 Tony Awardfor Outstanding Resident Profes-sional Theatre and won the 1995Theatre LA Ovation Award forLifetime Achievement. Mr. Ben-son received his BA in Theatrefrom California State University,San Francisco.

PAULA TOMEI (Managing Direc-tor) is responsible for the overalladministration of South CoastRepertory and has been Manag-ing Director since 1994. A mem-ber of the SCR staff since 1979,she has served in a number ofadministrative capacities includingSubscriptions Manager, BusinessManager and General Manager.She currently serves as Presidentof the Theatre CommunicationsGroup (TCG), the national serviceorganization for the professionalnot-for-profit theatre. In addition,she has served as Treasurer ofTCG, Vice President of theLeague of Resident Theatres(LORT) and has been a memberof the LORT Negotiating Commit-tee for industry-wide unionagreements. She represents SCRat national conferences of TCGand LORT; is a theatre panelistand site visitor for the NationalEndowment for the Arts and theCalifornia Arts Council; served onthe Advisory Committee for theArts Administration CertificateProgram at the University of Cali-fornia, Irvine; and has been aguest lecturer in the graduateschool of business at Stanford.She graduated from the Universityof California, Irvine with a degreein Economics and pursued an ad-ditional course of study in theatreand dance.

The Actors and Stage Managers em-ployed in this production are membersof Actors’ Equity Association, the Unionof Professional Actors and Stage Man-agers in the United States.

The Scenic, Costume, Lighting andSound Designers in LORT theatresare represented by United ScenicArtists Local USA-829, IATSE.

The Director is a member of the Soci-ety of Stage Directors and Choreogra-phers, Inc., an independent nationallabor union.


The Royal Line of Thebes - South Coast Repertory

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