HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES Plays Central Square Theatre, 7/22-8/22

The game is afoot! Master sleuth Sherlock Holmes and trusty sidekick Dr. Watson unlock the mystery of The Hound of the Baskervilles this summer at Central Square Theater, directed by Thomas Derrah of the American Repertory Theater. Featuring three actors taking on more than a dozen roles, this laugh-out-loud farce, by Steven Canny and John Nicholson, was a hit in both London and Lenox (Shakespeare & Company). The Hound of the Baskervilles plays at Central Square Theater from Thursday, July 22 through Sunday, August 22. The press opening is set for Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 8 PM.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is a hilarious spoof of the classic Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which tells the tale of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a phantom hound. In this comedic retelling of the famous detective story, Remo Airaldi, Bill Mootos, and Trent Mills tackle the roles of 16 characters, both male and female! Sprinkled with visual and verbal gags, pratfalls and gaffs, it is a fast paced send up of Sherlock, Dr. Watson and the Victorian literary genre.

Remo Airaldi (Sherlock Holmes) has been a member of The American Repertory Theatre Resident
Acting Company since 1993 and has appeared in over sixty productions, including Romance, Endgame, The Seagull, The Communist Dracula Pageant, Cardenio, Julius Caesar, Donnie Darko, A Marvelous Party!, The Onion Cellar, Island of Slaves, Romeo and Juliet, The Miser, The Birthday Party, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Pericles, The Winter's Tale, The Wild Duck, Buried Child, The Merchant of Venice, Tartuffe, Henry IV and V and Waiting for Godot. He has performed with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, at Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, American Conservatory Theater, Walnut Street Theatre, Prince Music Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Serious Fun Festival, Moscow Art Theatre and The Taipei International Arts Festival. He received the 2006 Best Actor in a Large Company Award from The Independent Reviewers of New England for his performance as Arlequin in Marivaux's Island of Slaves at American Repertory Theater.

Bill Mootos (Dr. Watson) makes his Central Square Theater debut with this production. Bill has
worked with a number of Boston area theaters, most recently with Wheelock Family Theatre in A Tale of Two Cities. He has appeared in countless area productions over the past decade, at the Huntington Theatre Company, The Publick Theatre, Metropolitan Playhouse of NYC, Manhattan Theatre Source, North Shore Music Theatre, the Vineyard Playhouse, Gloucester Stage Company, The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Foothills Theatre, Boston Theatre Works, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Garage Theatre Group of NJ, the Barnstormers of NH, and many others. Bill's film credits include The Company Men, Locked In, Hard Luck, and Easy Listening, among others.

Trent Mills (Sir Henry Baskerville) is a rising senior at the Boston Conservatory of Music as a
musical theatre major. Last season, he was seen in Actors' Shakespeare Project's, A Midsummer Night's Dream. His Boston Conservatory credits include: Killer Joe, Falsettos, Machinal, Romeo and Juliet, and Cloud 9.

Director Thomas Derrah has appeared in one hundred and thirteen productions at American
Repertory Theater, and has toured with them through the U.S., Europe, Canada, Israel, Japan and in Taiwan and Moscow. He was seen on Broadway in twenty-seven roles in Jackie: An American Life, as well as off-Broadway, in regional theatres, including New Repertory Theatre, Boston Theatre Works, and Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. His directing credits include the annual children's theater production The Island of Anyplace at the A.R.T. among others. Awards include the 1994 Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence, 2000 and 2004 IRNE Awards for Best Actor, and the 1997 Los Angeles DramaLogue Award. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, an acting instructor at the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University, Harvard Extension School, and Harvard Summer School.

Scenic design is by Carlos Aguilar; costume design is by Mallory Frers; lighting design is by
Steven McIntosh; and sound design is by Nathan Leigh. The Hound of the Baskervilles plays at Central Square Theater, 450 Mass. Ave. in Cambridge, Thursday, July 22 through Sunday, August 22. Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM with matinees on Sundays at 2 PM. Tickets, priced at $40; $30 for seniors (ages 60+); $25 for students with a college ID; and $15 for youths (ages 12-18); can be purchased by calling (866) 811-4111, online at www.centralsquaretheater.org, or at the Central Square Theater box office. For box office hours, group discounts, and more info call (617) 576-9278 x210.

At Central Square Theater, a new state-of-the-art community-based theatrical arts facility, audiences find, under one roof, the distinctive repertoires of two award-winning non-profit professional companies, The Nora Theatre Company and Underground Railway Theater, as well as collaborative projects drawing on their creative synergy. Schools, families and community groups benefit from outreach and educational programs, and local businesses enjoy increased foot traffic and new customers. As the first permanent home for these two theater companies, Central Square Theater is a vibrant hub of theatrical, educational and social activity, where artists and audiences come together to create theater vital to our communities. The seeds of the Central Square Theater (CST) were sown in 1997, with a partnership between The Nora Theatre Company, Underground Railway Theater, and the Community Development Department of the City of Cambridge, which brokered a relationship with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT constructed the building and provided an extraordinary 20-year lease commitment at under $5 per square foot -- a contribution valued at more than $2 million over time. For more information, please call 617-576-9278 or go to www.centralsquaretheater.org.

Photo credit: Elizabeth Stewart