WHAT: CLYBOURNE PARK
WHERE: SpeakEasy Stage Company
Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street in Boston’s South End.
WHEN: MARCH 1-30
TICKETS: 617-933-8600 or www.SpeakEasyStage.com.
How would you like to see a play that won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the 2011 Olivier Award for Best New Play, and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play? You are in luck as the SpeakEasy Stage Company presents the Boston-area premiere of CLYBOURNE PARK.
Often Boston versions of New York or London plays miss the original finesse of the acting or directing but not so with this Boston premiere. I can’t imagine any actor doing more with the dual roles of Russ and Dan than Thomas Derrah. He didn’t play these men, he became these men. Joining him with excellent performances were Michael Kaye, Marvelyn MacFarlane, Philana Mia, DeLance Minifee, Paula Plum, and Tim Spears. This is a play that will have your brain cells milling about with more questions than answers. Another bravo shout-out to Cristina Todesco for her scenic design. The convertible nature of the set, set the mood for each act. Bruce Norris, author of Clybourne Park constructed a play that had depth, great dialogue, challenged the audience and was constructed perfectly.
Written by Bruce Norris, author of The Pain and the Itch, The Unmentionables, and A Parallelogram, CLYBOURNE PARK is a bold new work about race, real estate, and the volatile values of each. Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play A Raisin in the Sun, this acclaimed work explodes in two outrageous acts set 50 years apart. Act One takes place in 1959, as nervous community leaders anxiously try to stop the sale of a home in a white community to a black family. Act Two is set in the same house in 2009, as the now predominantly African American neighborhood battles to hold its ground in the face of gentrification.
M. Bevin O’Gara, whose recent local credits include You for Me for You, Love Person, Matt & Ben, and The Pain and the Itch, will make her SpeakEasy directorial debut with the production.
CLYBOURNE PARK premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on February 21, 2010, where it ran for one month. Directed by Pam MacKinnon, the cast featured Frank Wood, Annie Parisse, Jeremy Shamos, Crystal A. Dickinson, Brendan Griffin, Damon Gupton and Christina Kirk.
The play had its UK premiere in August 2010 at the Royal Court Theatre in London directed by Dominic Cooke, the theater’s artistic director. It later transferred to Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End, winning the 2011 Olivier Award for Best New Play.
After productions in Providence and Philadelphia, CLYBOURNE PARK opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre on April 19, 2012, for a 16-week limited engagement, which was later extended. The Off-Broadway cast reprised their roles. The play was nominated for several Tony Awards, winning for Best Play. CLYBOURNE PARK also won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2011 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play.
BRUCE NORRIS (Playwright) is the author of Clybourne Park, which won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2012, the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards (London) for Best Play, 2011, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2011. Other plays include The Infidel (2000), Purple Heart (2002), We All Went Down to Amsterdam (2003), The Pain and the Itch (2004), The Unmentionables (2006), and A Parallelogram (2010), all of which had their premieres at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago. Two new plays, titled The Low Road and Domesticated, will premiere in 2013 at the Royal Court Theatre, London and at Lincoln Center Theatre, New York, respectively. His work has also been seen at Playwrights Horizons (New York), Lookingglass Theatre (Chicago), Woolly Mammoth Theatre (Washington, D.C.), Staatstheater Mainz (Germany) and the Galway Festival (Ireland), among others. He is the recipient of the Steinberg Playwright Award (2009), and The Whiting Foundation Prize for Drama (2006) as well as two Joseph Jefferson Awards (Chicago) for Best New Work. He lives in New York.
M. BEVIN O’GARA (Director) has previously directed You for Me For You and Love Person (Company One), Matt and Ben (Central Square Theater), The Pain and the Itch (Company One, IRNE Award nomination for Best Director and Best Ensemble), Two Wives In India and Gary (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Elliot Norton Award nomination for Best Production), 2.5 Minute Ride (Downstage @ New Rep, IRNE Award nomination for Best Solo Performance), Othello and The Crucible (New Rep On Tour), Melancholy Play (Holland Productions), Bat Boy: The Musical (Metro Stage), Tattoo Girl, Painting You, and Artifacts (Williamstown Theatre Festival Workshop), and ANTI-KISS (3 Monkeys Theatrical Productions). Other companies include New Repertory Theatre, the Gaiety Theatre of Dublin, and the Actors Centre of Australia. Ms. O’Gara is Associate Producer at the Huntington Theatre Company. She has a BFA from Boston University in Theatre Studies.
About the Cast
THOMAS DERRAH* (Russ/Dan) returns to SpeakEasy Stage, having earlier acted in Red, The Drowsy Chaperone, and Fuddy Meers. He is a founding member of the A.R.T and has performed in 120 productions there. Mr. Derrah has performed on Broadway in Jackie: An American Life (23 roles) and Off-Broadway in Big Time, Johan Padan, and Oliver Twist. He has performed regionally in theatres in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Houston, and has toured extensively to theatres and festivals in Europe and Asia. Recently he has been performing the title role in Julius Caesar on several tours throughout France for the Centre Dramatique National d’Orléans. Mr. Derrah has also appeared locally at the Huntington, New Rep, Commonwealth Shakespeare, and ASP. He has several IRNE and Norton Awards for acting, including the Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence. He was also awarded the 2010 Brustein Award and a Los Angeles DramaLogue Award. Mr. Derrah appeared in Julie Taymor’s film “Fool’s Fire”, and several programs on CBS, A&E, and PBS. Other film credits include “Mystic River” and “Pink Panther II.” He teaches acting at Harvard and is a graduate of The Yale School of Drama.
MICHAEL KAYE* (Karl/Steve) is thrilled to be making his SpeakEasy debut with this production. Some of Michael’s regional theatre credits include appearances at the Huntington Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Lyric Stage, New Repertory Theatre, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, and Boston Center for American Performance. Michael is an Assistant Professor of Acting at The Boston University School of Theatre, where he received both a BFA and MFA in Acting and Theatre Education respectively.
MARVELYN McFARLANE (Francine/Lena) is thrilled to be back in Boston to make her SpeakEasy debut! She spent the past two years developing and performing ESL children’s musicals in South Korea. Boston credits include Huntington Theatre: A Civil War Christmas (u/s for Uzo Aduba); Wheelock Family Theatre: The Little Mermaid; Company One: The Good Negro; Voyeurs de Venus; Articulation; The Bluest Eye; and Our Place Theatre Project: Mother G; Feathers On My Arms. She is a three time IRNE nominee and is so grateful to the Boston theatre community! marvelynmcfarlane.com
PHILANA MIA* (Betsey/Lindsey) is pleased to make her SpeakEasy debut. Philana has appeared at Stoneham Theatre in I Capture the Castle; Central Square Theater in Matt & Ben; Company One in The Pain and the Itch; Apollinaire Theatre in The Wonderful World of Dissocia; and the workshop at Williamstown Theatre Festival in Far Away and Project: Identity. Her film credits include Whaling City, winner of the 2007 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Production Grant and the 2005 Alfred P. Sloan Screenwriting Award; and Silver Circle. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
DeLANCE MINAFEE* (Albert/Kevin) is excited to return to Boston for his SpeakEasy debut. Boston credits include: A Civil War Christmas at the Huntington Theatre; Donnie Darko at the American Repertory Theatre; and Trigger, Phoenician Women, and Pinter’s The Room with ART/MXAT Institute. New York credits include: Dust (u/s) (Off-Broadway), The A-Train Plays (Neighborhood Playhouse), and Cabaret Émigré (Negro Ensemble Company). Regional Credits include: Amistad Voices (Chicago Shakespeare), Death in Venice (Chicago Opera Theatre), HomeBound (Congo Square Theatre/Chicago), Holes (Walden Media/Denver), Smokey Joe’s Café (Playhouse on the Square/Memphis – Nominated for “Best Actor in a Musical” Ostrander Award), A Soldier’s Play, Dreamgirls, Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Anything Goes, Damn Yankees, Dracula, and The Wizard of Oz (Arkansas Repertory Theatre). He holds a BA in Theatre Arts, with Minor studies in Dance, from Henderson State University in Arkansas, and an MFA in Acting from The American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theatre-Institute for Advance Theatre Training at Harvard University. More info available at www.delance.net
PAULA PLUM* (Bev/Kathy) SpeakEasy: The Divine Sister, Body Awareness, Reckless, The Savannah Disputation, The History Boys and The New Century. Lyric Stage: 33 Variations, Blithe Spirit, Miss Witherspoon, Three Tall Women; The Goat…or Who is Sylvia?, The Heiress, and Sideman. A founding member of the Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Paula has played Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Margaret in Richard III, and Lady Macbeth. She has appeared in Wit for Lyric West; Faith Healer, Molly Sweeney, Happy Days, and Breath of Life for Gloucester Stage; and No Exit, Ivanov, Mother Courage, and Lysistrata at the American Repertory Theater. She has been honored with three Elliot Norton Awards, four IRNES and, in 2003, was named a Distinguished Alumna of Boston University’s School for the Arts. A recipient of the Fox Actor Fellowship, Paula is currently in the third of a three-year actor residency with SpeakEasy Stage. Her play, What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, will be given a staged reading at SpeakEasy on April 29. She is married to actor Richard Snee.
TIM SPEARS* (Jim/Tom) is excited to be making his SpeakEasy debut. Credits in NYC include A Question of Mercy (Potomac Theatre Project): Realism, JUMP! (The Exchange); Jasper Lake (NY Fringe Festival). Regional: Monster, House, Good, and A Question of Mercy (BCAP); Mister Roberts (New Rep); and In the Mood (Olney Theatre Center). Tim earned his BFA in Acting at BU School of Theatre where he is currently a staff member and a part-time graduate student.