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6 Cool Things to Know About Emilie du Châtelet

September 9, 2017

By Joan Cummins, Dramaturg

Emilie 4 R wide USE_150_dpi — Gabrielle Emilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet (1706–1749).

Born to a wealthy aristocratic family in Paris in 1706, Emilie du Châtelet was one of the few people in her time who could wrestle with the cutting-edge math of calculus. For a long time best known as the lover of Voltaire—the iconoclastic French dramatist, philosopher, and scientist—she was also extraordinary in her own right.

Having discovered the questions science posed about the nature of the universe, she never stopped searching for answers.

Click here for more information about the production. — Click for more information about Avant Bard’s production of the play.

She also worked tirelessly on behalf of those she loved. Contentedly married to the Marquis du Châtelet, Emilie lobbied on behalf of his military career, educated their son herself, and organized an advantageous marriage for their daughter into the court of Naples. She also did her best to keep Voltaire out of prison for his screeds against the Church. All the while she furiously corresponded with other intellectuals, worked through the principles of Newtonian physics from the ground up, and was the first woman published by the prestigious Académie Royale des Sciences.

In 1749 she found herself unexpectedly pregnant again by her new young lover Saint-Lambert, and continued to work on her translation and commentary on Newton into the wee hours of the morning. She died due to complications from childbirth at the age of forty-two.

6 Cool Things to Know About Emilie du Châtelet

1. Emilie tackled historic scientific problems.

The major scientific debate afoot in the 1740s was between Isaac Newton’s system describing the motion of the universe (including gravity) and Gottfried Leibniz’s opposing views on how space, time, and force worked. They disagreed on God’s role in the function of the universe, the fundamental nature of matter, and whether force was “living” or “dead.” The two men were also engaged in a furious dispute over who had first claim to the invention of calculus, an argument Leibniz lost in the 1700s but is now considered to have been right about all along. Emilie du Châtelet waded directly into these debates and provided new insights into the function of the universe.

2. Emilie had a secret love affair…with Voltaire.

As a poet, scientist, and public intellectual, Voltaire was a lifelong critic of the hypocrisy and corruption he saw among the clergy and aristocracy in France. He drew on themes from classical stories and the history of France in his vast oeuvre of writing. Always volatile, he spent much of his life fleeing condemnation or returning to Paris more famous than before. After losing Emilie so early, Voltaire would go on to live another thirty years, befriending Benjamin Franklin, writing his most famous work, Candide, and briefly joining the Prussion court before his death in 1778.

3. Emilie helped change what it meant to even do science.

She insisted on using experimental results to back up her conclusions, and implemented Leibniz’s principle of sufficient reason. In essence, this principle refused to accept easy answers, and required a scientist to continue to seek explanations for why something worked one way and not another until you really got to the bottom of it. She also advocated for scientists to come up with hypotheses and then test them to determine whether they were true, an idea controversial in her day that today is the foundation of scientific work.

4. Emilie was a lover of knowledge.

In the early 1700s, the kind of work Emilie and her contemporaries were doing was bigger than “just” science. People were trying to figure out how the world worked, and the fields we today call science, ethics, math, and philosophy all overlapped. Philosophes (or philosophers in English—which has its roots in the Greek for “lover of knowledge”) could weigh in on gravity, human nature, political structures, religion and any number of other things.

5. Emilie fixed Newton’s physics.

Emilie took Newton’s work on the universe and improved upon it, incorporating Leibniz’s insights and her own. She found additional experimental proof for some of Newton’s assertions, and did the extensive calculus to back them up further (Newton himself used only geometric proofs in his major opus Principia). Emilie’s translation of Principia, accompanied by her commentary, is still today the authoritative version in French

6. Emilie contributed to our modern understanding of energy.

She argued in favor of force vive, which squared the speed of an object to determine its force (energy), against Newton’s insistence on plain multiplication (F=mv² vs. F=mv). We now understand these two concepts to be kinetic energy and momentum respectively. This squaring of speed would reappear in Einstein’s famous formulation E = mc², which explained that all matter everywhere included an astonishing amount of energy and reframed how we understand the universe.

Joan Cummins is dramaturg for Avant Bard’s production of Lauren Gunderson’s Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight. A dramaturg, director, and teaching artist working in new plays and interactive theater, she is also a public historian, working to make history accessible to the public through interactive experiences and performance. Locally, she has worked with dog & pony dc, President Lincoln’s Cottage, The Welders, Signature Theatre, Pinky Swear Productions, the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., the Capital Fringe Festival, Ford’s Theater, and the Kennedy Center.

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“The Real Reason I Wrote About Emilie Is Because I’d Like to Hang Out With Her”

August 7, 2017

A Q&A With Playwright Lauren Gunderson

By Amy Holzapfel, Associate Professor of Theatre, Williams College

What inspired you to write a play about Emilie, Marquise Du Châtelet?

Lauren Gunderson

I read a great book called Emilie Du Châtelet: Daring Genius of the Enlightenment, by Judith Zinsser. Emilie’s life story encompasses so many riveting and profound subjects: love, sex, physics, feminism, history, what life means, what love means. I like writing about historical characters because there is such grandiosity to re-imaging and resurrecting a real person onstage. There is simple magic in listening to her journey, and rooting for her, and falling in love with her, all the while knowing that she is based on a real woman. So the real reason I wrote about Emilie is because I’d like to hang out with her.

What was your writing process like for Emilie?

Writing, for me, begins long before typing. I usually start writing a new play with a lot of reading and daydreaming. When I understand my idea enough to talk about to my friends (or my cat, who was christened Emilie La Marquise Du Châtelet, with all respect), I always start at the beginning. Emilie begins with her first monologue to the audience, her arrival in this space and time. She finds herself, she starts to remember her life, and then she pretty much starts her play for herself.

The rest of the play came to me sans filter. The rules invented themselves, and I pretty much just said “sure!” The play shifts when she meets Voltaire and we get their chemistry and romance. Then it shifts again when her heart breaks, and she must become her own support system. Emilie herself never lingers, never apologizes, never slows. In the end, I realized that I had to have the whole play turn against her as she approaches its end. She is not fighting herself or her society, she is fighting her medium. That was fun to write. How does one turn a play against its main character?

In the end, I realized that Emilie’s greatest proof of her value is herself. I had to craft an ending that lets her say goodbye to her world, her story, and her self with confidence and a full heart. That means that the play ends in a similar (though much deeper, truthful, satisfying) place where it ends—dark into light into dark.

What, for you, is the central story of your play?

It is a story of Emilie, who, looking back, wants to know if her bold life full of love and discovery actually mattered and how. She’s a scientist so she needs proof, even though it’s impossible to quantify a life’s meaning. The play starts when she is given one chance to “defend” her life and scour it for meaning. In the end she is met by two realizations: her science did matter to the world (she was right about squaring speed), and that the only person who needs to believe that she mattered is herself. We live (and die) best when we are sure of ourselves and fight for our truth.

What has Emilie taught you?

What a great question! So much so I’m stumped as to how to begin. I’d love to know what she’s taught others first…

In your play, what do you think Emilie gains from her relationship with Voltaire? What do you think he gains from her?

I think they both gain a best friend. Even though they were lovers they were, more than anything, friends, like minds, twin inspirations for each other. From him, she gained adventure and boldness and humor. From her, he gained an avenue into legitimate scientific discourse, a steady companion, and a person to look up to. I think they both allowed each other to live life fully, with all its complexity and curiosity.

Are you or have you ever been a “science geek”? What do you love most about science?

I accept the mantle of science geek! Though I’ve never been a scientist, I am definitely a science enthusiast. I discovered a love of asking big questions about life and found a home for that in science as well as art. What I love about science is that everything is up for debate all the time. You are never done with science. It’s always moving, expanding, confirming, re-confirming. Scientists are never satisfied, but ever hungry for the next technology to prove the next theory. Science continues to surprise us, upend us, challenge us to be better. Science continues to make impossible things possible.

What do you consider to be Emilie’s bravest act?

Her bravest act was probably the very first time she spoke up for her right to have an education. Her father acquiesced even when the idea of education [for?] women in the sciences was uncommon. As a girl being groomed for marriage and child rearing, something about Emilie made her speak up and ask for what she wanted: a tutor. She was ridiculed for her intellect, asked to be quiet when she had a pertinent thought to share, mocked for writing the first popular science book in Europe. But all of that bravery started when she was a child with one request

What do you see as some of the biggest challenges for women in our age?

A lot of the challenges we have faced in the past aren’t gone. Gender and racial discrimination within and without of the feminist movement, for one. Pervasive and excessive violence against women across the world. Extremism that continues to assume women’s abilities and thwart their natural rights and freedoms. Women in professional sciences, in politics, in business are still underrepresented in positions of power. Even in the performing arts, a generally progressive field, a play about men is considered a universal story, but a play about women is often a “women’s” play. We still see more male directors, writers, and even male roles than women’s. This all amounts to fewer women’s stories defining our half of humanity…. The power of women’s stories to inspire understanding and acceptance and empowerment for women (and men too) all over the world is vital.

Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight
By Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Rick Hammerly
Starring Sara Barker as Emilie
October 12 to November 12, 2017
Gunston Arts Center, Theatre Two
2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA 22206

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2020 Helen Hayes Awards Nominations

February 4, 2020

Last night was a banner night for all of us, as Avant Bard Theatre picked up nine nominations for Helen Hayes Awards, including Outstanding Production in a Play (Helen) for Topdog/Underdog, and Outstanding Original Play or Musical Adaptation for A Misanthrope by Matt Minnicino. The full list of nominations is below.

We’re so proud of what we’ve accomplished and grateful to all of you who contributed (and who continue to contribute) to our success. What a way to celebrate our 30th Anniversary Season!

Outstanding Production in a Play —Helen Topdog/Underdog, Suzan-Lori Parks
Outstanding Original Play or Musical Adaptation —A Misanthrope, Matt Minnicino
Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play (Helen) —Louis E. Davis, Topdog/Underdog
Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play (Helen) — Jeremy Keith Hunter, Topdog/Underdog
Outstanding Direction in a Play — Helen DeMone Seraphin, Topdog/Underdog
Outstanding Set Design (Helen) — Nephelie Andonyadis, Topdog/Underdog
Outstanding Sound Design (Helen) — e’Marcus Harper-Short, Topdog/Underdog
Outstanding Lighting Design (Helen) — Jonathan Alexander, Topdog/Underdog
Outstanding Choreography in a Play (Helen) — Casey Kaleba, Topdog/Underdog

Protected: Press Photos: Misanthrope

June 3, 2019

Adapting Molière When You Don’t Actually Like Molière. At All.

May 13, 2019

I never really liked Molière.

Hold on, don’t leave, this is going somewhere.

In early 2016 I was approached by Benita de Wit, a friend and talented director I’d met during graduate studies at Columbia. She wanted a Misanthrope. Maybe not THE Misanthrope. I’d whacked up a bit of street cred as a go-to for punch-ups of classic texts, but I balked at Molière. To me, this was puff and fluff, something I associated with Period Movement and broad, splashy commedia stylings. It also felt, dare I say, too surface—a lot of moralizing on a set of easy themes. Fake.

I was wrong. But we’ll get there. First, a field trip.

Oscar Wilde wrote, “We live, I regret to say, in an age of surfaces.” This was in The Importance of Being Earnest, about two centuries post-Misanthrope, but Molière would’ve had some thoughts. Born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Molière became Molière to save his family the shame of having an actor in the family, and dove into a world of surfaces headfirst.

See, French comedy at the time was mostly surface, based on Italian commedia dell’arte with stock characters and wacky hijinks.

Molière was having none of it. His characters existed in that Marx Brothers world of big schtick but displayed, in their exquisite language and action, an individualism that startled his bewigged and bodice’d audiences out of their wigs and bodices. It seemed that Molière was straddling two worlds in his work—the playful province of pure theatre and that of the squirmy all-too-real. Comedy was supposed to be just unreal enough to laugh at, expressions of le vraisemblable (a semblance of truth) but not just vrai. Some, like Jean Donneau de Visé, were miffed at Molière’s rule-breaking mix of the realism reserved for tragedy and the bawdry of farce: “When you paint heroes, you can do what you want.… But when you paint men, you must paint from life.”

But Molière made the critics eat their enormous feathered hats—his plays were real and funny. Audiences, it turned out, loved to laugh at the truth.

Now let’s be clear, when I say Molière understood surfaces, I also mean that he could play the surface game with the best of them. He loved to rouse a rabble, and his plays attacked the aristocracy, the church, the medical profession, academia, he had a whole (S)Hit List. But he never went after the monarchy, knowing that his best bet was to keep His Majesty batting for his team. Louis Quatorze (he of the gaudy furniture and frequent wars with everyone else in Europe) was a Molière stan of the first degree, and kept him from the teeth of detractors. Molière’s work brought him to verbal blows with a host of other writers and critics, some who attacked his style for being vulgar and inelegant, some who attacked his personal life. Molière sorta walked into that by marrying a famous actress 20 years younger who was also the daughter of a woman he might’ve had an affair with, so.

But Molière was a success! And unlike some writers who slipped into the canon after living obscure, Molière was #trending in his own lifetime. He went out in a fitting blaze, collapsing onstage during a performance of his own play The Imaginary Invalid—about a man who thinks he is dying of countless diseases. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin died on a punchline, and with his final breath he merged art and truth one last time.

So, let’s bop back to 2016 for a second.

I’m sitting in my closet-sized apartment in Upper Manhattan. I skim a few translations. Richard Wilbur’s is famously delightful and sparkly, if very old-fashioned. In-yer-face Brit dramatist Martin Crimp penned a ’96 adaptation that updated the setting to a world of media-slathered 20^th Century showbiz, with Misanthrope Alceste as a playwright dating an actress (Celimene-now-“Jennifer”) who has barbs ready for contemporary politicians, news networks, and other Real Life playwrights (including “Tom F*cking Stoppard”). Crimp’s version, scathing in the extreme, felt however like it had dated itself.

For a moment, I despaired that this was the only way in. It had to be about something REAL. Then Benita had some pretty sound advice (which I’m paraphrasing because this was three years ago probably over a beverage): “Just make it about real people, and make it fun.”

Oh. Alright?

Suddenly it was all, as Shakespeare says, “an art as lawful as eating”—the words flowed and the rhymes danced and, wow wow wow, I was having fun. No longer trying to figure out what the characters stood for, I fell in love with each of them. No longer panicky to freight each line with some Big Issue I wanted to take down, the sheer mastery of Molière’s words became a playground. The characters stumbled and bumbled over iambs and rhymes in a way that felt real. Or rather, it felt like real people faking it. Real people trying to sound like heroes.

The Misanthrope is about a world in which we all low-key follow the Kardashians on Twitter. It’s about how we watch those two Fyre Festival documentaries with horror and think: “That couldn’t be me. Could that be me? That’s not me. Is it me?” The reality is that Molière’s characters have the verve, intellect, wealth, and laissez-faire lives that we wish we had, but their foibles are our own magnified. We see in them both our ideal self and our worst iteration. They’re the High Comedy version of our own surfaces, our Insta handles and curated SoulCycle/juice cleanse selves and the masks we wear to apologize for being late to coffee or a meeting or not replying to a text.

And in this realism Molière takes pure joy. The satire may be as sharp as a set of stainless steel Cuisinart knives, but it’s also equal opportunity. No one is safe, so we might as well all laugh together.

By the time I was finished, I liked Molière. We did a few loosey-goosey “salons” of the adaptation by having friends assemble in apartment living rooms and serving French wine as actors blazed delectably over the words. It was joyful. The surface between Molière and me had gently crumbled.

I’ll admit, at mine own peril, that I still seldom see productions of Molière that tread this twanging tightrope effectively. Like a lot of the other classics, I think there’s a lot to be said for versions that embrace the vraisemblable (remember?) of Molière, big wigs and brocade coats and wide skirts and facing out and speechifying to the middle distance. But some of the vrai is what I miss. The truth under the surface. The us under the them.

When Martin Crimp’s adaptation was remounted in 2009 (with Keira Knightley fresh off Atonement), Crimp wrote a piece for The Guardian about his own crisis moment with Molière. In the article (you can find it here, it’s fun!), Crimp interviews Molière himself, who is bustling around modern London reading about David Cameron and staying at a budget hotel in Covent Garden. Crimp-as-Molière is worried that his play isn’t relevant. He’s worried that now people tell the truth too much, that the age of surfaces is over. He’s worried that there’s nothing for Alceste to be mad about. Crimp-as-Crimp reassures him. No there’s plenty to be pissed about. Politics. Social media. Theatre critics.

But the age of surfaces isn’t over. It might never be. I think Crimp probably would disagree with, oh, everything I’ve said? Good for him, he’s quite well-known. He and many others might argue that Molière was a man whose plays were angry shish kebabs of the things he hated in the world. They’d say that Molière himself was The Misanthrope who hates society, but I think a fella doesn’t write a play that tells people what’s wrong with the world because he hates it. I think he writes that play because he loves the world, and wants everyone to look at themselves and make it better.

Matt Minnicino’s work has been developed around the country. Besides Molière, he has adapted Chekhov (three times), Strindberg, Ibsen, Gorky, Genet, Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Homer, The Book of Genesis, poems by Rilke, art by Magritte, and more. He is an alumnus of Pipeline Theatre’s PlayLab, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, and SPACE on Ryder Farm and is the winner of the Arts & Letters Prize.

A Misanthrope begins previews May 30, 2019, and runs through June 30. Performances are at Gunston Arts Center, Theatre Two, 2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA 22206.

Tickets are $40 and available online or by calling 703-418-4808. Advance-purchase Pay What You Will tickets are also now available online for previews, and will be on sale online for all other performances beginning the Monday before.

Who’s Who in A Misanthrope

April 22, 2019

Meet the makers of Matt Minnicino’s side-splitting sendup of suckups and phonies.

THE WAGGISH WRITER

Matt Minnicino is a playwright, actor, teacher, and incorrigible tale-teller based in Manhattan. His work has been developed around the U.S. (and in Ireland). Along with Molière, he has adapted Chekhov (three times), Strindberg, Ibsen, Gorky, Genet, Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Homer, The Book of Genesis, poems by Rilke, art by Magritte, and more. He is an alumnus of Pipeline Theatre’s PlayLab, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, and SPACE on Ryder Farm and is the winner of the Arts & Letters Prize. MFA: Columbia. www.mattminnicino.com

THE FRISKY CAST

Sara Barker (Arsinoe) has performed in numerous Avant Bard productions including Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight (Emilie), King Lear (Edgar), Othello (Desdemona), Orlando (Orlando), Mary Stuart (Elizabeth), Six Characters in Search of an Author (Stepdaughter), The House of Yes (Jackie-O), The Cherry Orchard (Varya), The Mistorical Hystery of Henry (I)V (Hotspur), Lulu (Lulu), and The Miser (La Fleece). Other DC productions include Rainbow Theatre Project’s Clothes for a Summer Hotel (Zelda), Factory 449’s 4.48 Pyschosis, and Closetland; Rorschach’s A Maze (Oksana), This Storm Is What We Call Progress (Lily), and The Gallerist (Vanessa); Faction of Fool’s The Cherry Orchard (Madame Ranevsky); Scena’s A Woman of No Importance (Mrs. Arbuthnot), The Importance of Being Earnest (Algernon). NYC credits include The Brick’s King Lear (King Lear), Hipgnosis Theatre’s The Winter’s Tale (Paulina), and various devised works with directors Lear DeBessonet and Josh Fox. Sara is a graduate of St. John’s College and a company member with Avant Bard, Factory 449, Rorschach Theatre, and The Klunch. www.sarabarker.com

Jenna Berk (Philinte) was previously seen at Avant Bard in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She most recently appeared in 4615 Theatre Company’s Separate Rooms by Joe Calarco. She has performed across the DC region, including at the Folger Theatre, Taffety Punk Theatre Company, Constellation Theatre Company, Imagination Stage, and Brave Spirits Theatre (Artistic Associate). Jenna is a proud graduate of the University of Virginia and LAMDA.

Erik Harrison (Oronte understudy) is an actor/writer and cofounder of The Coil Project. Acting credits include Sing to Me Now (Rorschach); Adult Entertainment (The Klunch); ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, A King and No King (Brave Spirits); King Kirby, Completely Hollywood (abridged) (Off the Quill); Dead Dog’s Bone, A Bright Room Called Day (Nu Sass); #sexts, It Will All Make Sense in the Morning (Coil). His play A Slow Bullet was a 2018 DCMTA Best of Fringe.

Patrick Joy (Clitandre) is thrilled to be joining Avant Bard for the first time! He was last seen as Dylan Klebold in columbinus at 1st Stage. He’s also worked with Keegan Theatre, Rainbow Theatre Project, 4615 Theatre Co, and more. He holds a BA in Theatre and a BSc in Physics for some reason. www.PatrickJoyActor.com

Elliott Kashner (Alceste) is pleased to return to Avant Bard, having previously appeared as Pentheus in The Bacchae. Recent favorite credits include The Burn at The Hub Theatre and The Book of Joseph at Everyman Theatre. He is a grants writer and manager currently working for Everyman Theatre. He holds a BS in Economics from George Mason University.

Thais Menendez (Celimene) is a bilingual Cuban-American actress from Miami. Recent area credits include columbinus (1st Stage); Things That Are Round (Rep Stage); Richard III (Shakespeare Theatre Company, u/s); Don Cristobal (Pointless Theatre, Helen Hayes nomination Best Adaptation); Óyeme, the Beautiful (Imagination Stage); Señorita y Madame, Volcano, New Adventures of Don Quijote (GALA Hispanic Theatre); Neverwhere (Rorschach Theatre); What Every Girl Should Know, Dry Land (Forum Theatre); Abortion Road Trip (Theatre Prometheus). Thais received her BA in Theatre and English from Boston College.

Chloe Mikala (Eliante) is excited to be working with this crazy group of people! She was just recently seen in The Burn with The Hub Theatre. Locally she’s worked with Second City (Kennedy Center and Woolly Mammoth Theatre), Rorschach Theatre, NextStop Theatre Co., The Welders, Keegan Theatre, Pointless Theatre Co., Single Carrot Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Everyman Theatre, and others. When she’s not acting, you can be sure to catch her at an open mic doing stand up. She may or may not be funny. No promises. Training: Towson University, iO Theatre Chicago. Instagram: @chloe_mikala. www.chloemikala.com

Tendo Nsubuga (Acaste) is thankful to make his debut at Avant Bard. His previous credits include Native Son (Mosaic Theater Company of DC), The Farnsworth Invention and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1st Stage), and Looking for Roberto Clemente (Imagination Stage). Tendo holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Maryland.

Matthew Sparacino (Oronte) is thrilled to be back at Avant Bard after playing the mustachioed club owner Orsino in Illyria, or What You Will earlier this season. A native of the DC area, Matt has performed with many local theaters over the past decade. Select credits include The Farnsworth Invention (HHA nomination – Best Ensemble) and Lobby Hero (1st Stage); Six Degrees of Separation (Keegan Theatre); Don Cristóbal, Hugo Ball, Doctor Caligari, and A Very Pointless Holiday Spectacular (Pointless Theatre, with whom he is an artistic associate); The Winter’s Tale and Antony & Cleopatra (Folger Theatre); and Fever/Dream (Woolly Mammoth). Special thanks and lots of love to Kyra for sharing me with the stage in the month before our wedding! www.matthewsparacino.com

Hannah Sweet (Basque/DuBois) was most recently in Avant Bard’s remount of A Two Woman Hamlet as a part of its 2019 Scripts in Play Festival. Local credits include Faction of Fools’ Henry V (Dauphin, Boy), Don Juan (Charlotte, Don Louis), and Pinocchio! (Cat); Brave Spirits Theatre’s The Bloody Banquet (Roxana) and Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 in rep (Lady Percy, Warwick, etc.); Nu Sass’s A Bright Room Called Day (Zillah); Naked Theatre Company’s Bitch: A Play About Antigone (Antigone); Theatre Prometheus’ Twelfth Night (Maria); and Lean and Hungry’s Taming of the Shrew (Bianca). She is an artistic associate with Brave Spirits and a company member of Faction of Fools.

THE CRAFTY CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION TEAM

Megan Behm (Director) is delighted to be making her Avant Bard debut! Previous directing credits include To Tell My Story (Helen Hayes Nomination, Best Original Adaptation) and Switch (The Welders), 45 Plays for 45 Presidents (NextStop Theatre), Cymbeline (Virginia Shakespeare Festival), Safe as Houses (Pinky Swear Productions), The Comedy of Errors (Lean & Hungry Theater), The Campsite Rule (The Washington Rogues), Minus You and Edward Cullen Ruined My Mother’s Love Life (The Source Festival), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and According to Shakespeare (InterAct Story Theatre). Training: College of William & Mary, LAMDA, Studio Theater Conservatory. www.megan-behm.com

Megan Holden (Set Designer) is a longtime theatre lover from Harrisonburg, VA. She studied theatre design and film production at James Madison University. Recently, she has moved to Washington, DC, and been involved with several theatre companies, including Studio Theatre, Anacostia Playhouse, and Scena Theatre Company, either painting or designing scenery.

Alison Samantha Johnson (Costume Designer) is super pleased to be working with Avant Bard for the first time! Some previous area designs include Heisenberg at Signature Theatre, Hands on a Hardbody at Keegan Theatre, Cyrano de Bergerac at Synetic Theater. Up next: Little Shop of Horrors with ArtsCentric. www.alisonsamantha.com

Elizabeth Roth (Lighting Designer) is a DC transplant from Ohio. Elizabeth is currently the resident lighting designer for Washington International School, and some of her favorite designs were Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth and Treasure Island. Her selected credits include designs for Catholic University (Suor Angelica), Séber Method Academy, and the Welders (Switch). In her free time, Elizabeth also crochets tiny animals. www.ElizabethRothProductions.com

Kevin Alexander (Sound Designer)

Liz Long (Properties Designer) returns to Avant Bard having recently worked her magic for Topdog/Underdog and Ilyria, or What You Will. Other recent designs include Puffs, Coraline, and 1776 (Landless Theatre Company), The Man Who, The River, and Happy Hour (Spooky Action Theatre), and Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche (Monumental Theatre). When not making theater magic, Liz is the Production Manager for Encore Decor Event Design and Production.

Abigail Wasserman (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be working on her first show with Avant Bard! She is a Freelance Stage Manager in the DC Metro Area with a BA in Theatre from The University of Maryland College Park. She has worked with Monumental, Brave Spirits, Solas Nua, and Rorschach.

Ralph Derbyshire (Technical Director) is an Arlington native. He has worked throughout the DC region for the last 15 years, though most notably with The Smithsonian Folklife Festival (2002-08, 2010-15), GWU’s Lisner Auditorium (2007-12), as well as many local crewing companies setting up special events. He has held the titles Master Carpenter, Master Flyman, Assistant Stage Manager, and Shop Foreman. He also works and volunteers with the National Folk Festival as well as several other festivals locally and around the country. This is his fifth show as Technical Director with Avant Bard—following The Gospel at Colonus (2018), The Tempest, Illyria, or What You Will and Topdog/Underdog—and he is excited to bring his skills back to real theatre.

A Misanthrope plays May 30 to June 30, 2019, at Gunston Arts Center, Theatre Two, 2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA 22206. Ample free parking.For driving directions and easy public-transportation info click here.

Pay What You Will previews are May 30 to June 1 and June 3 at 7:30 pm. Opening/Press Night is June 4 at 7:30 pm. Saturday matinees are followed by Unscripted Afterchats with members of the cast and creative team.

Tickets are $40, and available online or by phone at 703-418-4808. For every performance, an allotment of tickets are Pay What You Will, which means you can name your price. You can reserve PWYW tickets online the Monday before each performance for a small service minimum, or at the door with no minimum.

Protected: Press Photos: Topdog/Underdog

March 18, 2019

Who’s Who in Topdog/Underdog

March 8, 2019

Meet the team of talents behind this explosive dark comedy.

THE PLAYWRIGHT

Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. Photo: Stephanie Diani.

Suzan-Lori Parks — a playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and songwriter — won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Topdog/Underdog. In 2001 she received a MacArthur Fellows “Genius” Grant. And in 2018 she received the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. She holds Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degrees from Mount Holyoke College and Spelman College. Her work is the subject of the PBS film The Topdog/Underdog Diaries, and her plays are published by Theatre Communications Group and Dramatists Play Service, Inc. Her first feature-length screenplay was girl 6, for Spike Lee. She has also written screenplays for Jodie Foster, Danny Glover, and Oprah Winfrey. Other screenplays include adaptations of Toni Morrison’s novel Paradise, Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, and screenplays for Miramax and Brad Pitt. Her plays include In the Blood (2000 Pulitzer nominee), Venus (1996 Obie Award), Fucking A, The America Play, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (1990 Obie Award), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, and 365 Days/365 Plays. Topdog/Underdog (2002 Tony nominee) has had successful runs on Broadway, in cities throughout the United States, and in London at the Royal Court Theatre. Additional recognition includes two NEA playwriting fellowships, a W. Alton Jones Grant, a grant from The Kennedy Center Fund For New American Plays, the Whiting Award, and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the CalArts/Alpert Award, the PEW Charitable Trusts, and The Guggenheim Foundation. Suzan-Lori is a professor at the California Institute for the Arts, where she heads the Dramatic Writing Program. Her first novel, Getting Mother’s Body, is published by Random House. www.suzanloriparks.com

THE CAST

Louis E. Davis (Booth) was a member of the Helen Hayes Award-winning ensemble in the Theater Alliance production of Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s hip-hop choreopoem Word Becomes Flesh. His other credits include Solas Nua’s The Frederick Douglass Project (Helen Hayes Award nomination, outstanding supporting actor in a play), Taffety Punk’s Don Juan, Avant Bard’s King Lear, Imagination Stage’s The Freshest Snow Whyte, Mosaic Theater Company’s Charm, and Folger Theatre’s The Second Shepherds’ Play. He recently appeared in Constellation Theatre’s The Master and Margarita.

Jeremy Keith Hunter (Lincoln), making his Avant Bard debut, is one of the dopest artists you’ll ever meet. Hailing out of the DMV, Jeremy is a multidisciplinary artist with a strong focus in theatre and film acting, writing, and graphic design. His previous theatre credits include The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek (Metrostage), The Farnsworth Invention (1st Stage); Rabbit Summer (Ally Theatre Company); Word Becomes Flesh (us) (Theater Alliance); Hooded, Or Being Black for Dummies, Milk Like Sugar, When January Feels Like Summer (Mosaic Theatre Company); Arabian Nights (Constellation Theater); and The Effect (us) (Studio Theatre). www.iammercury.com

THE CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION TEAM

DeMone Seraphin (Director) is founding artistic director of The New American Theatre Co. in New York City and is excited to return to Avant Bard, after appearing as Singer Oedipus in its hit production of The Gospel at Colonus (2017). Selected directing credits include The Exonerated, Dutchman, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Jitney, Split Second, Endangered Species (world premiere), The Mountaintop, Runaways, Winter’s Tale, and Barnum. DeMone is the recipient of a regional Emmy Award and the Joseph Jefferson Award.

Nephelie Andonyadis (Set Designer) has been designing scenery and costumes (and sometimes puppets) from coast to coast for more than twenty-five years. She is an ensemble member of Cornerstone Theater Company and has worked with Seattle Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater, SITI Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playmakers Repertory, and South Coast Repertory among many others. She has recently returned to Washington, DC, the city of her birth, after a long hiatus. Upcoming projects in the area include designs with Studio Theatre, Adventure Theatre, Urban Arias, and Theatre J. Nephelie earned her BS from Cornell University and her MFA from Yale University’s School of Drama and was a recipient of the NEA/TCG Design Fellowship. www.nepheliemaria.com

Danielle (Danie) Harrow (Costume Designer) is excited for her first show with Avant Bard. Recent designs include Mystery of Love and Sex, The Laramie Project, and The Rocky Horror Show, all for Iron Crow Theatre. When not focused on costuming, Danie also designs custom clothing for special events. www.seaminglydanie.com

John D. Alexander (Lighting and Projections Designer) is excited to return to Avant Bard. His recent designs include A Civil War Christmas by Paula Vogel (1st Stage), American Moor by Keith Hamilton Cobb (Anacostia Playhouse), the national tour of The Migration: Reflections of Jacob Lawrence presented by Step Afrika!, the national tour of Anne and Emmett by Janet Langhart Cohen, Marie and Rosetta by George Brant (Mosaic Theater Company), and Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau (TheatreSquared). Upcoming designs include HERstory by Goldie Patrick (The Kennedy Center).

e’Marcus Harper-Short (Composer and Sound Designer) received the Helen Hayes Award (2015) for Outstanding Musical Direction for Black Nativity by Langston Hughes (Theater Alliance); a Grammy Award nomination (1998) for Best Traditional Gospel Recording as Conductor for Love Alive V: Walter Hawkins and the Love Center Choir; and a Hollywood NAACP Theater Image Award Nomination (2004) for Best Musical Direction for Da Kink in My Hair by Trey Anthony. He was Musical Director and played Creon in Avant Bard’s 2017 production of The Gospel at Colonus (nominated for a Helen Hayes award for Outstanding Ensemble) and its 2018 revival. Other credits include Musical Arranger for Three Mo’ Divas (PBS Special National) conceived by Marion J. Caffey, and Musical Direction for Invisible Life (Apollo Theater, New York) based on a book by E. Lynn Harris. In 2017 he was named a United States Arts Envoy by the U.S. Department of State.

Liz Long (Properties Designer) returns to Avant Bard having recently worked her magic for Ilyria, or What You Will. Other recent designs include Puffs, Coraline, and 1776 (Landless Theatre Company), The Man Who, The River, and Happy Hour (Spooky Action Theatre), and Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche (Monumental Theatre). When not making theater magic, Liz is the Production Manager for Encore Decor Event Design and Production.

Casey Kaleba (Fight Choreographer) returns to Avant Bard having worked on previous productions of King Lear, Othello, Night and Day, and Lulu. Recent work includes productions at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (Henry IV), Signature Theatre (Billy Elliot, The Scottsboro Boys), and Rorschach Theatre (Reykjavic). www.toothandclawcombat.com

Keta Newborn (Production Stage Manager) is thrilled to be joining Avant Bard for her fourth production, having been the Stage Manager on King Lear and both the 2017 and 2018 stagings of The Gospel at Colonus. As a freelancer, Keta has worked in the world of theatre for over 10 years. She has held several titles including Stage Manaager, Assistant Stage Manager, Venue Manager, Production Assistant, Light & Sound Board Ops, and now Production Manager. Her past credits include The New Play Festival (Young Playwrights’ Theater), Little Thing, Big Thing (Solas Nua), Yellowman (Anacostia Playhouse), Black Nativity and Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea (Theater Alliance), Leto Legend and Failure: A Love Story (The Hub), Disgraced, Secret Garden, and Gidion’s Knot (Next Stop), and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, How We Got On, and Gidion’s Knot (Forum), The Flick and How We Got On (Company One). Keta would like to thank the whole Avant Bard cast, crew, and the Gunston Theatre for being a part of amazing shows! She thanks G_d for the opportunity to be used as one of His vessels, working to bring His work of art into the hearts of many while doing what she loves. www.newbornketa.com

Andrew Wilkinson (Rehearsal Stage Manager) is extremely grateful for this opportunity to participate in Topdog/Underdog. This is Andrew’s first show with Avant Bard. Previous credits include Catch Me If You Can, Side Show, and Les Miserables at Montgomery College Summer Dinner Theatre; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Alluvion Stage Company; Young Frankenstein, Newsies, Momma Mia, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Little Mermaid, and Gypsy at Toby’s Dinner Theatre; and Hairspray, Honk Jr., Blueberries for Sal, Pirates!, and Fancy Nancy’s Splendiferous Christmas at Adventure Theatre.

Krysta Hibbard (Associate Director) is a New York–based director and self-proclaimed “artist wrangler.” She is currently an Artistic Associate for Shrunken Shakespeare Company and previously served as the Associate Producer for the nonprofit organization Throughline Artists, producing the Summer Shorts festival at 59E59, as well as Stage to Screen. Past works include The Exonerated, Arrabal, For Hope, Acolyte, Seafarer, Dark Clothes of Night, Love Letters to a Dictator, Everybody Dies, Certifiable. Upcoming projects: Origin Stories, Belle of Amherst. www.krystahibbard.com

Ashley D. Buster (Assistant Director) is a DC Metro native from Silver Spring, MD. She is a member of the Actors’ Equity Association and is currently School Programs Manager at Shakespeare Theatre Company. She excited to be back at Avant Bard but this time as an Assistant Director! Ashley’s area credits as an actor include The Gospel at Colonus (Avant Bard), The Wiz and Freedom’s Song (Ford’s), Elmer Gantry (Signature), and Godspell (Infinity). She is excited to have her first experience as an Assistant Director with this team!

A. Lorraine Robinson (Dramaturg) is a freelance Director/Dramaturg. She received the Central Ohio Theatre Critics Circle Award: Best Director & Production in 2002 (The Laramie Project, Contemporary American Theatre Company) and 2017 and 2018 Tony Awards: Excellence in Theatre Education — Honorable Mention Awards for her directing work at Sitar Arts Center. She was formerly Co-Founding/Artistic Producing Director of MuseFire Productions. www.linkedin.com/in/arobinson4

Victor Vazquez (Casting Director) serves as the Casting Director/Line Producer at Arena Stage in Washington DC. Previous employment includes Center Theatre Group, The Pasadena Playhouse, Cornerstone Theatre Company, and DAQRI. Originally from Los Angeles, he now splits his time between DC, New York, and London.

Ralph Derbyshire (Technical Director) is an Arlington native. He has worked throughout the DC region for the last 15 years, most notably with The Smithsonian Folklife Festival (2002-08, 2010-15), GWU’s Lisner Auditorium (2007-12), as well as many local crewing companies setting up special events. He has held the titles Master Carpenter, Master Flyman, Assistant Stage Manager, and Shop Foreman. He also works and volunteers with the National Folk Festival as well as several other festivals locally and around the country. This is his fourth show as Technical Director with Avant Bard—his first was The Gospel at Colonus (2018)—and he is excited to bring his skills to real theatre.

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