THE BEARD OF AVON

By Amy Freed
Direction – Doug Hughes

Set Design – Neil Patel
Costume Design – Catherine Zuber
Lighting – Michael Chybowski
Original Music and Sound Design – David Van Tieghem

Cast (in alphabetical order):
Walter Fitch; Earl of Derby…………………..Timothy Doyle
Richard Burbage; Lord Walsingham……………..James Gale
Anne Hathaway………………………....Kate Jennings Grant
Edward de Vere……………………………… Mark Harelik
Old Colin; Lord Burleigh…….……………………Tom Lacy
Henry Condel; Sir Francis Bacon….…………..Alan Mandell
Will Shakspere………..…………….……..Tim Blake Nelson
John Heminge……………………………….David Schramm
Geoffrey Dunderbread; Lady Lettice.………….Justin Schultz
Henry Wriothesley………………….…………….Jeff Whitty
Queen Elizabeth…………………….…..Mary Louise Wilson

Facility:
New York Theatre Workshop

Facility Address:
79 East 4th Street. Located between Bowery and Second Avenue in the East Village.

Prices:
All tickets, $60.00

Description:
Stuck in a filthy barn in Elizabethan England, a lowly bumpkin known as “Will Shakspere” longs to be an artist. Continuously thwarted by his hilariously chore-giving, homebound wife, Will takes off for London to pursue his dreams. Did the stage-struck Will then become a mere front-man for the likes of Sir Francis Bacon, the Earl of Oxford, and even Queen Elizabeth, all too proud to admit they scribbled plays for the unwashed masses? So the stage is set for The Beard of Avon, Amy Freed’s (a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Freedomland) deliciously witty and farcical play that brilliantly fashions the longstanding debate over who really penned the Bard’s canon into an examination of the mortality of artists and the immortality of their legacy. As Will comically struggles to become an artist in his own right, Freed, with a gleefully winking awareness of the intervening centuries, keenly reflects on artistic inspiration, the struggle to become an artistic master, and the very meaning of creativity.

Dates:
First preview, Friday, October 31, 2003; opening night, Tuesday, November 18, 2003;
final performance, Sunday, December 21, 2003

Performance schedule:
Tuesday - Friday, 8:00pm; Saturday, 2:00pm and 8:00pm; Sunday, 2:00pm and 7:00pm

Exceptions:
Saturday, November 1, no 2:00pm performance
Sunday, November 2, no 2:00pm performance
Saturday, November 15, no 2:00pm performance
Sunday, November 16, no 7:00pm performance
Monday, November 17, special 8:00pm performance
Tuesday, November 18, 7:00pm curtain (opening night)
Wednesday, November 19, no performance
Monday, November 24, special 8:00pm performance
Wednesday, November 26, no performance (Thanksgiving eve)
Thursday, November 27, no performance (Thanksgiving)

AfterWords (post-performance discussions):
Saturday, November 8, 2:00pm
Tuesday, November 11, 8:00pm
Tuesday, December 2, 8:00pm
Saturday, December 6, 2:00pm

Running time:
Approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes with one intermission

About the artists:
Amy Freed's The Beard of Avon premiered at the South Coast Rep and has been produced by the Goodman Theatre, ACT and Seattle Rep among others. Her play Freedomland was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1998, with productions at South Coast Rep, Woolly Mammoth, and Playwrights Horizons. The Psychic Life of Savages was the 1995 recipient of the Joseph Kesselring Award, a national award presented each year by the New York Arts Club to an outstanding new play. Psychic Life was also named the winner of the prestigious Charles McArthur Award for Outstanding New Play at the annual Helen Hayes awards in Washington, DC. The play had an extended run after a successful premiere at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre. An earlier version of the play was first developed and performed in San Francisco under the title Poetomachia where it was recognized by the Bay Area Critic's Circle and awarded an Outstanding Achievement Award for an Original Script. In its earlier version, it was also a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 1994. A native New Yorker and former actress, Amy Freed lives in San Francisco.

Doug Hughes directed NYTW’s productions of Peter Gaitens’s Flesh and Blood and David Rabe’s A Question of Mercy. He was the artistic director of the Long Wharf Theatre from 1997-2001, where his productions included She Stoops to Conquer, The Playboy of the Western World, The Importance of Being Earnest, Black Forest, The Model Apartment and Moliere’s The Bungler. He was the associate artistic director of the Seattle Repertory Theatre from 1984-1996 where his productions included Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night, Pericles, Julius Caesar, The Miser (also translation), You Can’t Take It With You, Waiting For Godot (with Bill Irwin and Stephen Spinella). His other New York credits include: The Public Theatre, Othello (with Keith David and Liev Schreiber) and Henry V; MTC, Shelagh Stephenson’s Experiment with an Air Pump; Signature Theatre Company, John Guare’s Lake Hollywood; En Garde Arts, Mystery School (with Tyne Daly); MCC, Tim Blake Nelson’s The Grey Zone. Awards: 1996 Obie Award and Drama Desk nomination for The Grey Zone.

Tim Blake Nelson is an acclaimed actor, writer and director. New York theatre credits include Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest at NYTW, Oedipus at CSC with Frances McDormand and Billy Crudup, Troilus and Cressida and Richard III at NYSF, The Innocents’ Crusade at MTC, An Imaginary Life at Playwrights Horizons and Mac Wellman's Dracula at Soho Rep. Recent film work includes Holes opposite Sigourney Weaver and Jon Voight, The Good Girl, Cherish, Minority Report, and the Coen Brother's acclaimed hit O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Nelson will next star in Wonderland, with Val Kilmer, Lisa Kudrow and Dylan McDermott, and The Last Shot co-starring Matthew Broderick, Alec Baldwin and Toni Collette and A Foreign Affair opposite David Arquette. Other screen acting credits include The Thin Red Line, Donnie Brasco, Amateur, and This Is My Life. As a playwright, Nelson's produced plays include the award-winning The Grey Zone, Eye of God and Anadarko. Nelson wrote and directed a film version of The Grey Zone starring Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Mira Sorvino, and David Arquette. The National Board of Review honored The Grey Zone with its prestigious “Freedom of Expression” award in 2002. Nelson also directed O, a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello starring Martin Sheen, Julia Stiles, Josh Hartnett, and Mekhi Phifer. O premiered at the 2001 Seattle Film Festival, where Tim was awarded Best Director. Nelson’s first film Eye of God, release by Castle Hill Films, appeared in competition at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win the American Independent Award at the Seattle International Film Festival (1997), as well as the Tokyo Bronze Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival (1997).