Yale Rep Presents AUTUMN SONATA 4/12-5/7

Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) presents the U.S. premiere of Ingmar Bergman's AUTUMN SONATA, directed by RoBert Woodruff, based on a literal translation by Wendy Weckwerth, at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street) April 12-May 7, 2011. Opening Night is Thursday, April 21.

The cast of AUTUMN SONATA is CAndy Buckley, Rebecca Henderson, Merritt Janson, and Olek Krupa. Paul Brantley is the cellist.

AUTUMN SONATA features music direction by Michaël Attias, sets by Riccardo Hernandez, costumes by Candice Donnelly, lighting by Jennifer Tipton, sound by Chad Raines, projections by Peter Nigrini, vocal coaching by Walton Wilson, dramaturgy by Amy Boratko and Hannah Rae Montgomery, and stage management by Lindsey Turteltaub.

ABOUT Ingmar Bergman'S AUTUMN SONATA

Director RoBert Woodruff, whose Yale Rep productions include Notes from Underground (2009) and Battle of Black and Dogs (2010), returns with the U.S. premiere stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata.

Charlotte (CAndy Buckley), a celebrated classical pianist who has forged a successful career at the expense of her family, attempts to reconcile with her daughter Eva (Rebecca Henderson), whom she has not seen in seven years. Over the course of one evening, they confront their darkest feelings and resentments. A tightly-wound psychological study of the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters, Autumn Sonata reveals that living and loving-like mastering notes on a piano-are skills that must be practiced every day.

Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Ingmar Bergman wrote and directed such landmark films as The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, and Scenes from a Marriage.

TICKET INFORMATION AND PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Tickets for Ingmar Bergman's AUTUMN SONATA range from $10-85, are available online at yalerep.org, by phone at (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Yale Rep Box Office (1120 Chapel Street, at York Street). Student, senior, and group rates are also available.

Friday, April 15 8PM

Saturday, April 16 8PM Grad Night reception begins at 7PM

Monday, April 18 8PM ALL TICKETS $10

Tuesday, April 19 8PM ALL TICKETS $20

Wednesday, April 20 8PM ALL TICKETS $20

Thursday, April 21 8PM Opening Night

Friday, April 22 8PM

Saturday, April 23 2PM Talk Back

Saturday, April 23 8PM

Tuesday, April 26 8PM

Wednesday, April 27 2PM Senior Reception begins at 1PM

Wednesday, April 27 8PM

Thursday, April 28 8PM Talk Back

Friday, April 29 8PM

Saturday, April 30 2PM Open Captioning, Talk Back

Saturday, April 30 8PM

Tuesday, May 3 8PM

Wednesday, May 4 8PM

Thursday, May 5 8PM

Friday, May 6 8PM

Saturday, May 7 2PM Audio Description

Saturday, May 7 8PM

ABOUT THE CAST

CAndy Buckley (CHARLOTTE) previously appeared in the Yale Rep production of Landscape of the Body. Her Broadway credits include Cabaret, After the Fall, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Ring Round the Moon. Off-Broadway: Shockheaded Peter, Make Me, Knives and Other Sharp Objects, Valhalla, Funnyhouse of a Negro, Wise Guys, Defying Gravity, View of the Dome, Two Noble Kinsmen, Communicating Doors, Bernarda Alba, and The Petrified Prince (Drama Desk Award nomination). Her regional theatre credits include God of Carnage, The Little Dog Laughed (Hartford TheaterWorks); Six Degrees of Separation, Travesties (Williamstown Theatre Festival); A Delicate Balance (Guthrie Theater); Doctor Cerberus (South Coast Rep); The Lady in Question (Bay Street Theatre); Scramble (Westport Country Playhouse); Silence Cunning Exile (Seattle Rep); Much Ado about Nothing (ALLIANCE THEATRE); Sweeney Todd (Casa Mañana); All the King's Men (Trinity Rep and Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Award nomination). Candy spent four seasons at American Repertory Theatre, where her many appearances included Macbeth, Misalliance, The Father, Hedda Gabler, and Caucasian Chalk Circle; and eleven seasons at Dallas Theater Center, where she appeared in The Cherry Orchard and Lady Audley's Secret, among others. Recent film and television credits include Home, starring Marcia Gay Harden, and Gossip Girl.

Rebecca Henderson (EVA) is making her Yale Rep debut. Most recently she was seen in Harold Pinter's The Collection and A Kind of Alaska at the Atlantic Theater Company. Her other New York credits include Sheila Callaghan's Roadkill Confidential (Clubbed Thumb); The Retributionists (Playwrights Horizons); Spin, U.S. Drag, Vengeance (stageFARM); Canary (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); Three Sisters (Nature Theater of Oklahoma); Scapin and The Misanthrope (Classic Stage Company). Regional: bobrauschenbergamerica (American Repertory Theatre). Film and television work includes CBS's The Good Wife (recurring), Compliance, Meskada, Loss Control, Little Horses, and A Lone Star State. MFA, Columbia University.

Merritt Janson (HELENA) made her Yale Rep debut in the world premiere of Notes from Underground and also appeared in the production at La Jolla Playhouse and Theatre for a New Audience, in association with Baryshnikov Arts Center. Her other theatre credits include Libby in Paradise Lost, Junia in Britannicus (IRNE nomination), and Bear Girl/Mute Girl in The Onion Cellar, at American Repertory Theatre; Chevalier in The Deception (La Jolla Playhouse, Theatre de la Jeune Lune); Viola in Twelfth Night, Desdemona in Othello (Shakespeare & Company); the title role in Eurydice (The Wilma Theater); and Emilia in The English Channel (Vineyard Playhouse). Her film credits include Mail Order Wife and Otto and Anna. Ms. Janson received her MFA from the A.R.T./MXAT Institute at Harvard University.

Olek Krupa (VIKTOR) Theatre credits include A Bright Room Called Day, The Ballad of Soapy Smith, American Notes, My Uncle Sam (The Public Theater); Soul of a Jew, The Time of the Cuckoo (Lincoln Center Theater); The Deep Blue Sea (Roundabout Theatre Company); The Irresistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Tower of Evil (Classic Stage Company); Division Street (Second Stage Theatre); Energumen (Soho Rep); The Yellow House (La Mama E.T.C.); Oedipus (The Wilma Theater); Dracula, A Country Doctor, Hunting Cockroaches (River Arts Repertory); Figaro Gets a Divorce (La Jolla Playhouse); as well as The Master and Margarita and Beauty and the Beast in his native Poland. His extensive film and television credits include X-Men: First Class, Salt, Whatever Works, Burn After Reading, The Italian Job, Miller's Crossing, 9 ½ Weeks, Blue Bloods, Life on Mars, Deadline, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Oz, and New York Undercover.

PAUL BRANTLEY (CELLIST) is a composer, cellist, and music director. His compositions have been performed at Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival and St. Bartholomew's; and by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas (Town Hall), Left Bank Ensemble (The Kennedy Center), Ethel (Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts), Excelsior Trombone Ensemble (Performance Today), Goliard Ensemble, Manhattan School of Music Symphony, Belladona, L'Opera du Village, and SONYC (The Kitchen). His theatre composition credits include The Swan (La Mama E.T.C.); Our Country's Good, The Maid's Tragedy (Syracuse Stage); Beauty and the Beast (Syracuse Opera); and Evolution d'Amour (Nashville Ballet). Paul has performed as cellist with Trey Anastasio, recorded for Béla Fleck and James Morrison, toured with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, gigged with Chester Thompson, produced for Roy "Futureman" Wooten, conducted for David Binney, and arranged for Ethel, Todd Rundgren, and Christian Scott. Residencies include MacDowell Colony, Banff Centre, and Gabriel Fauré Conservatoire. Publishers: Oxford University Press; Bill Holab Music. Paul teaches conducting at Manhattan School of Music. paulbrantley.com

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Ingmar Bergman (AUTHOR), 1918-2007, found bleakness and despair, as well as comedy and hope, in his indelible explorations of the human condition. Widely considered one of the greatest directors in motion picture history, Mr. Bergman made about fifty films over more than forty years. He centered his work on two great themes: the relationship between the sexes and the relationship between mankind and God. His films include Prison, Summer Interlude, Waiting Women, Sawdust and Tinsel (originally released in the United States as The Naked Night), A Lesson in Love, Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Virgin Spring (Academy Award, Best Foreign Film, 1960), Through a Glass Darkly (Academy Award, Best Foreign Film, 1961), Winter Light, The Silence, Cries and Whispers, Scenes from a Marriage, Autumn Sonata, and Fanny and Alexander (Academy Award, Best Foreign Film, 1984).

ROBert WoodRUFF (DIRECTOR) co-adapted and directed Yale Rep's 2009 production of Notes from Underground, which was also seen at La Jolla Playhouse in California and in New York at Theatre for a New Audience, in association with Baryshnikov Arts Center, and directed last season's Battle of Black and Dogs. He has directed over 60 productions across the U.S. at theatres including Lincoln Center Theater, The Public Theater, Brooklyn Academy Of Music, American Conservatory Theater, Guthrie Theater, and Mark Taper Forum, among others. Recent credits include Madame White Snake, a new opera by Zhou Long for Opera Boston, which was also presented in Beijing; Orpheus X for Theatre for a New Audience; Ifigeneia in Aulis with Toneelgroep Amsterdam; and Philip Glass's Appomattox for the San Francisco Opera. Internationally, his work has been seen at the Habimah National Theatre in Israel, Sydney Arts Festival, Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Hong Kong Festival of the Arts, Jerusalem Festival, and Spoleto Festival USA. Mr. Woodruff has taught at the University of California campuses at San Diego and Santa Barbara, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and Columbia University. He is on the faculty of Yale School of Drama. In 1972, he co-founded the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco, where he served as Artistic and Resident Director until 1978. In 1976, Mr. Woodruff established the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, a summer forum for the development of new plays that is still flourishing. From 2002 to 2007, Mr. Woodruff was the Artistic Director of American Repertory Theatre. He was named a 2007 USA Biller Fellow by United States Artists, an arts advocacy foundation dedicated to the support and promotion of America's top living artists.

WENDY WECKWERTH (LITERAL TRANSLATION) divides her time among new play dramaturgy, teaching, and translation. For the past decade, she has served as dramaturg for the New York City-based Voice and Vision's ENVISION Retreat, dedicated to developing Theatre Projects led by women. Since relocating to Minneapolis in 2009, she has frequently participated in workshops at The Playwrights ' Center. In recent years, she has been on the faculties of Dartmouth, Colby, and Mount Holyoke Colleges, and the Language & Thinking Program at Bard College. She holds an MFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from Yale School of Drama, where she was the associate editor of Theater magazine. She has recently completed translations of Strindberg's Erik XIV and Karl XII. Previous Yale Rep credits include dramaturgy for A Cup of Coffee and You Never Can Tell.

MICHAËL ATTIAS (MUSIC DIRECTOR) is a New York City-based saxophonist/composer. He has performed concerts in clubs and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Japan with musicians such as Paul Motian, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Coleman, Oliver Lake, and many others. A recording artist and leader of several ensembles, he has composed and designed for dance, theatre, and film, both in the U.S. and Europe. His collaborations with RoBert Woodruff include Theatre for a New Audience's production of Edward Bond's Chair (The Duke on 42nd Street); Yale Rep's world premiere of Notes from Underground, for which he designed sound, composed music, and in which he also performed (also seen at La Jolla Playhouse and Theatre for a New Audience, in association with Baryshnikov Arts Center); and Yale Rep's Battle of Black and Dogs by Bernard-Marie Koltès, for which he served as translator and composer.

Riccardo Hernandez (SCENIC DESIGNER) Broadway credits include this season's The People in the Picture; Caroline, or Change; Elaine Stritch at Liberty (also National Tour, London); Topdog/Underdog (also London); Bells Are Ringing; Parade (Tony, Drama Desk nominations); Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk (also National Tour, Japan); and The Tempest. His Yale Rep credits include 2008's The Evildoers and last season's Battle of Black and Dogs. Recent credits include Il Postino (Los Angeles Opera; Theater an der Wien, Vienna); Philip Glass's Appomattox, directed by RoBert Woodruff (San Francisco Opera); Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy (Second Stage Theatre, PBS Great Performances); Lost Highway (London's English National Opera/Young Vic); The Seagull (American Repertory Theatre); Julius Caesar (also at A.R.T., Festival Automne Paris); and Ethan Cohen's Offices and Almost an Evening (Atlantic Theater Company). He has designed over 200 productions in the U.S. and internationally at The Public Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, Brooklyn Academy Of Music, New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, London's National Theater, Old Vic, Royal Court, Centre Dramatique Orleans (France), and Det Norske Teatret (Oslo). He is a graduate of Yale School of Drama and a visiting lecturer at Princeton University.

Candice Donnelly (COSTUME DESIGNER) Credits include Hughie, Search and Destroy, Our Country's Good, Mastergate, Fences (Broadway); As You Like It, The Skin of Our Teeth, Fires in the Mirror, Love's Fire (The Public Theater); Hurrah at Last (Roundabout Theatre Company); Talking Heads (Minetta Lane Theatre); Moon Over Miami, What the Butler Saw, Fences, Chopin in Space (Yale Rep); The Wiz, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Little Night Music (CENTERSTAGE); Elektra (Getty Museum); She Loves Me (Westport Country Playhouse); Endgame (Brooklyn Academy Of Music); 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Happy End, The Circle (American Conservatory Theater); The Blonde, the Brunette, and the Angry Redhead (Cincinnati Playhouse); Buffalo Gal, A Body of Water (Primary Stages); Haroun and the Sea of Stories, La Finta Giardiniera (New York City Opera), as well as productions at the Guthrie Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Alley Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Berkeley Rep, and American Repertory Theatre, among others. Film and television: I Love You, I Love You Not; Frogs for Snakes; Fresh Kill; Dolley Madison; Alexander Hamilton; Benjamin Franklin; Liberty! The American Revolution; Central Park; Swinging with Duke; and Twilight: Los Angeles. Candice is a graduate of Yale School of Drama.

Jennifer Tipton (LIGHTING DESIGNER) is well-known for her work in dance, theatre, and opera. Her recent work in dance includes Paul Taylor's Three Dubious Memories and Alexei Ratmansky's The Nutcracker for American Ballet Theatre. Her recent work in theatre includes Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie at the Mark Taper Forum and the Wooster Group's version of Williams's Vieux Carré. Her most recent work in opera includes Daniel Cattan's Il Postino, directed by Ron Daniels, at the Los Angeles Opera, and Aida, directed by David McVicar, at the Royal Opera House, London. Ms. Tipton teaches lighting at Yale School of Drama. Among many awards, she is the recipient of the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 2001 and the Jerome Robbins Prize in 2003. In 2008, she became a United States Artist "Gracie" Fellow and a MacArthur Fellow.

Chad Raines (SOUND DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Jib (sound design and composition), Orlando (sound design and composition), and Baal (composition). He designed the sound for Yale Rep's production of Battle of Black and Dogs last season, for which he received the Outstanding Sound Design Award from the Connecticut Critics Circle. At Yale Summer Cabaret, he appeared as Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Tommy in The Who's Tommy, and also participated in Muse and Fly by Night. An associate sound designer at Yale Cabaret, his credits there include his original musical Missed Connections, in which he also performed, and sound design for Nijinsky's Last Dance and Language of Angels. He also occasionally performs with the electro-pop group The Simple Pleasure.

Peter Nigrini (PROJECTION DESIGNER) previously designed the projections for Yale Rep's world premiere of Notes from Underground, which was also seen at California's La Jolla Playhouse and in New York at Theatre for a New Audience, in association with Baryshnikov Arts Center. His Broadway credits include Fela! (also in London), 9 to 5, and Say Goodnight, Gracie. Other credits include the Grace Jones Hurricane tour; Der Ferne Klang (Bard Summerscape); Haroun and the Sea of Stories (New York City Opera); Blind Date (Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance); Wings, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity
(Second Stage Theatre); Fetch Clay, Make Man (McCarter Theatre Center); The Orphan of Zhao (Lincoln Center Festival); Sweet Bird of Youth (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Dido and Aeneas (Handel and Haydn Society); and Biro (The Public Theater). For Nature Theater of Oklahoma: No Dice (2008 OBIE Award), Romeo and Juliet (Salzburger Festspiele), and Life and Times, Episodes 1 & 2 (Burgtheatre, Vienna), among others. Upcoming projects include Becoming Helen Keller for PBS American Masters.

Walton Wilson (VOCAL COACH) is Head of Voice and Speech at Yale School of Drama. He was trained and designated as a voice teacher by Master Teacher Kristin Linklater and was trained and certified as an associate teacher by Master Teacher Catherine Fitzmaurice. He also studied with Richard Armstrong, Meredith Monk, and Patsy Rodenburg. His New York credits include The Violet Hour, Golden Child, and Victor/Victoria on Broadway; and the world premiere productions of The Laramie Project, Argonautika, and Endangered Species. Regional theatre credits include productions at Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Shakespeare & Company, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. At Yale Rep, he has served as voice and dialect coach on Battle of Black and Dogs, Notes from Underground, Boleros for the Disenchanted, The Evildoers, The Cherry Orchard, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, The Black Monk, Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella, Betty's Summer Vacation, The Birds, and Richard III.

AMY BORATKO (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is the Literary Manager at Yale Rep and has previously served as dramaturg on the Yale Rep productions of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Battle of Black and Dogs, Compulsion, Notes from Underground, A Woman of No Importance, Eurydice, and The Cherry Orchard. Other dramaturgy credits include The Time of Your Life, The Summer People, Romeo and Juliet, The War Is Over (Yale School of Drama); as well as Voice and Vision's ENVISION Retreat at Bard College. She has been a teaching fellow at Yale College and Yale School of Drama and was a managing editor of Theater magazine. A graduate of Rice University, she received her MFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from Yale School of Drama.

Hannah Rae Montgomery (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) served as dramaturg on The Servant of Two Masters at Yale Rep last season. Hannah is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where she has worked as a dramaturg on The Seagull and as a mentor with the Dwight/Edgewood Project. She is a recent graduate of Mount Holyoke College, where her dramaturgy credits included Suzan-Lori Parks's national 365 Days/365 Plays festival. A Colorado native, she has acted since age seven on professional stages in Boulder and Denver and appeared this past fall in Vaska Vaska, Glöm and Future Oprah Lovesong at Yale Cabaret. Hannah has had several staged readings of her original plays at Denver's Curious Theatre Company as part of the Curious New Voices program and the Playwright Showcase of the Western Region and was a finalist in the Front Range New Playwrights' Showcase.

LINDSEY TURTELTAUB (STAGE MANAGER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include The Seagull, Always Almost Something, The Tempest, and Man in Love. Other recent production credits include POP!, Battle of Black and Dogs, and Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance at Yale Repertory Theatre; New Works-In-Progress 2010 at New York Theatre Workshop, featuring works by Motti Lerner, Harrison Rivers, and Joan Vail Thorne; Readings Festival 1 at New York Stage and Film, featuring new plays by Yussef El Guindi, Theresa Rebeck, Julian Sheppard, and Bryan Delaney; Love's Labour's Lost, Pericles on the High Seas, Gulliver's Travels, and Carnage, A Comedy with The Actors' Gang. She received her BA in theatre arts from UCLA.
ABOUT Yale Repertory Theatre

Yale Repertory Theatre is dedicated to the production of new plays and bold interpretations of classics and has produced well over 100 premieres-including two Pulitzer Prize winners and four other nominated finalists-by emerging and established playwrights. Eleven Yale Rep productions have advanced to Broadway, garnering more than 40 Tony Award nominations and eight Tony Awards. Yale Rep is also the recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Established in 2008, the Yale Center for New Theatre is an integrated, artist-driven initiative that devotes major resources to the commissioning, development, and production of new plays and musicals at Yale Repertory Theatre and across the country. Professional assignments at Yale Repertory Theatre are integral components of the program at Yale School of Drama, the nation's leading graduate theatre training conservatory.