A Noise Within Announces RICHARD III As Opening Show Of 2009-2010 Season, Runs 10/3-12/12

A Noise Within (ANW), the critically acclaimed classical repertory theatre  company hailed by critics as "adventurous," "compelling and current,"  "ingenuity at work," and "what great theatre is all about," launches its  2009-10 season with Shakespeare's spellbinding Richard III directed by ANW  Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director Geoff Elliott, opening Saturday, October 3 and closing Saturday, December 12, 2009 (previews begin Saturday, September 26), at the company's theatre in Glendale. The cast includes ANW stalwarts Steve Weingartner (Richard), Deborah Strang (Margaret), Lenne Klingaman (Lady Anne). Susan Angelo (Queen Elizabeth) and Apollo Dukakis (King Edward).

William Shakespeare's compelling historic drama RICHARD III is one of three directed this season by Elliott, who sets the play in 1483, its intended late medieval period, the year of the battle of Bosworth. With an eye to the crown and a heart of flint, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, gleefully murders his way to the top. Fueled by unquenchable bloodlust and endowed with an uncanny ability to charm his victims, this "bottled spider" weaves a tangled web and inadvertently snares his own soul. Shakespeare blends ruthless ambition and a wicked sense of humor to create one of literature's most memorable villains - a man bent on seizing power, no matter the cost. "As one of Shakespeare's earlier plays, there is a raw sense of vitality and forward motion to the piece," Elliott says. "He was beginning to discover the real depth and full impact of his talent and power, and he shows it off with wonderful linguistic fireworks. The enduring popularity of the play is due to the principal role of Richard because he has such a contagious personality, delighting inthe mayhem he has set in motion and loving every minute of it. As an audience, we feel almost guilty about our secret fondness for him."

The production is part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national initiative sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest.

A Noise Within (ANW) was founded in 1992 and quickly established itself as one of the nation's leading theatre companies. It continues to maintain its celebrated status as the only classical repertory company in Southern California, attracting fiercely loyal audiences and high praise from the media for its productions of great works of world drama and also as a leading regional force in arts education. Since its inception, the company has presented more than 120 plays from the classics of world literature, each season producing a minimum of six plays from authors ranging from Shakespeare and Molière, to Ibsen, O'Neill and Shaw, to Miller and Williams. The theatre's consistent dedication to quality has been rewarded with 26 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards as well as numerous LA Weekly and Back Stage Garland awards. Among its highlights over the years was a collaboration in 2004 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen in a performance of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Hollywood Bowl. ANW's next chapter provides the long-awaited opportunity to sink deep and lasting roots when it moves in Fall 2010 from its long-time leased base in Glendale to a spectacular, permanent 35,000 square-foot home in a Pasadena mixed-use development in the historic Stuart Pharmaceutical building, located at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue. The facility is designed to expand A Noise Within's artistic possibilities, offer a greater scope of educational opportunities, meet ticket demand and allow the company to expand its role as a leader in the presentation and preservation of classical theatre.

GEOFF ELLIOTT (Director), co-founder and co-artistic director of A Noise Within with his wife, Director Julia Rodriguez- Elliott, has co-produced close to 100 productions and directed/co-directed more than 40 for the company. Elliott has also performed major roles for some of the leading regional theatres in America, including The American Conservatory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Arizona Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and California Shakespeare Festival. He has received three Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards and more than a dozen other awards for acting. His Shakespearean roles include Iago in Othello, Theseus/Oberon in a Midsummer Night's Dream, Coriolanus, Richard in King Richard III and Hamlet. He has also performed leading roles in classic plays by such authors as O'Neill, Miller, Ibsen, Rostand, Wilde and Williams. Last season, he directed Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and appeared in ANW's productions of Neal Bartlett's adaptation of Oliver Twist and Anouilh's The Rehearsal. Elliott holds a BFA from the University of Florida and an MFA from The American Conservatory Theatre.

STEVE WEINGARTEN (Richard III), an A Noise Within Resident Artist, appeared last season in the company's critically acclaimed productions of The Rainmaker (as Noah) and The Taming of the Shrew (as Petruchio). Previous ANW roles include Jake Latta in The Night of the Iguana, Worcester/Traveler in Henry IV, Part 1, Antigonus in The Winter's Tale, Governor/Innkeeper/Muleteer in Man of La Mancha, Oliver in As You Like It, Caliban in The Tempest, Cassius in Julius Caesar, Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Victor Chandel/Poche in A Flea in Her Ear, George in Of Mice and Men, Chris in All My Sons, Ariel in The Tempest, Straker in Man and Superman, and Brutus in Coriolanus. Other engagements of note include Caius Ligarius in Julius Caesar at the Mark Taper Forum; King Lear, Saint Joan and A Christmas Carol at American Conservatory Theatre; and Troilus and Cressida, Timon of Athens and Comedy of Errors at Berkeley Shakespeare Festival. Weingarten, a veteran of of the television soap opera Days of our Lives, also appeared in the animated film Terra, directed by Dane Smith and Meni Tsirbas, and the horror film Lord of Illusions written and directed by celebrated English author, filmmaker and artist Clive Barker.

DEBORAH STRANG (Margaret) has been a Resident Artist with A Noise Within for 17 years and has performed in more than 40 productions, including Ghosts and Hamlet last season. Other productions have ranged from Shakepeare to Tennessee Williams, and Chekhov to Alfred Jarry. Her favorite roles include Maxine Faulk in The Night of the Iguana, Mrs. Dearth in Dear Brutus, Paulina in The Winter's Tale, the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Nora Melody in A Touch of the Poet, Ma Ubu in Ubu Roi, Dolly Levi in The Matchmaker, Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, Mrs. Antrobus in The Skin of Our Teeth, Regina in Little Foxes, Alexandra in O Pioneers, Ranyevskaya in The Cherry Orchard, Rosemary in Picnic and as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream in a co-production with the LA Philharmonic at the famed Hollywood Bowl. Also at ANW, Strang co-directed Moliere's The Learned Ladies on the main stage as well as productions of Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night for the Summer With Shakespeare teen programs. She currently teaches Acting Shakespeare and coaches the interns in the ANW Conservatory and recently spent two weeks as a guest artist at the acclaimed Oklahoma Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain. Her film and TV credits include Cold Case, Close to Home, Numb3rs, Ghostwhisperer, Threshold, Carnivale, The X-Files, Deep Space Nine, Kiss the Girls, Things To Do In Denver, and the soon to be released Eagle Eye with Shia LaBeouf. Strang can be heard most Saturday mornings as the voice of Aunt May in the new animated TV series The Spectacular Spider-Man. Strang, a coal miner's daughter, was born and raised in Appalachia, Virginia.

LENNE KLINGAMAN (Lady Anne) made her ANW debut in last season's critically acclaimed production of Anouilh's The Rehearsal. She has also performed with Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare, ACT-STC, Intiman Theatre, and Southwest Theatre in such classics as Angeles In America, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo & Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, The Emperor's New Clothes, Execution of Justice and Cabaret. Klingaman can be seen in episodes of Cold Case on CBS, on which she guest starred as Annette. In addition, she was cast in the short film A Night in the Sunlight and the films How to Fly and Freak Like Me. She studied acting, improvisation, dance, stage combat, clowning and voice at The American Conservatory Theatre Summer Training Congress and holds an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle, and a BA from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

APOLLO DUKAKIS (King Edward) is a Resident Artist of A Noise Within and has appeared in more than a dozen productions with company, including Mr. Dimanche/A Poor Person in Don Juan, Brabantio/Gratiano in Othello, Horace Vandergelder in The Matchmaker, Cominius in Coriolanus, Elbow/Barnardine in Measure for Measure, Pantalone in The King Stag, Argan in The Imaginary
Invalid, Abbess/2nd Merchant in The Comedy of Errors, The Stage Manager in The Skin of Our Teeth, Dubois in The Misanthrope, Doctor Baugh in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Ragueneau in Cyrano de Bergerac (1998 and 1995), Baptista in Taming of the Shrew, Boss Mangan in Heartbreak House and Shepherd in Oedipus the King. Dukakis co-founded and served as associate artistic director, and resident actor at The Whole Theatre in New Jersey from 1973 to1990. Other credits include Homebody/Kabul at Trinity Repertory Company, Hecuba at American Conservatory Theatre, Nine Armenians at Mark Taper Forum, Anna in the Tropics at Pasadena Playhouse and Palo Alto's TheaterWorks, Pera Palas at Theatre @ Boston Court/Antaeus, which received LA Critics Award-Best Ensemble, Glengarry GLen Ross at Dallas Theatre Center, Lear in King Lear at Shakespeare Santa Monica, Rhinoceros at Antaeus, Shylock in Merchant of Venice at Pacific Repertory Theatre (Carmel), and Old Actor in The Fantasticks at Arizona Theatre Company, and he has worked at Denver Center Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, American Place Theatre, La Mama, George St. Playhouse, Provincetown Playhouse, among others. Active in film and television as well, he has appeared in American Heart, Last Action Hero, Shadow of the Blair Witch, Arrest and Trial, 7th Heaven, Seinfeld, L.A. Law, Life Goes On, Hunter, Dream On and Beauty and the Beast.

SUSAN ANGELO (Queen Elizabeth), who made her ANW debut last season in The Rehearsal, has extensive film and television credits that include Medium, Law & Order: CI, CSI: Miami, ER, Jag, King of Queens, The Truman Show, Apollo 11, and Fatal Instinct as well as a recurring role on Days of Our Lives. Also noted for her numerous theatrical appearances, she has played Inez in LifeX3 at Pittsburgh Public; Regan in King Lear at Indiana Rep & Syracuse Stage; Candida in Candida, Elmire in Tartuffe at American Players Theatre; Princess in Love's Labour's Lost at The Shakespeare Theatre; Christina in Ghost Mall, Angel in Daughters of Genius at William Inge Theatre; and at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum as Lady MacBeth in MacBeth, Lady Sneerwell in School for Scandal, Goneril in King Lear, Mistress Page in Merry Wives of Windsor, Portia in Merchant of Venice, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, and Titania in Midsummer Night's Dream. Angelo holds an MFA from George Washington University and a BFA from California Institute of the Arts.

Single Tickets are $44 (Friday and Saturday evenings, Sunday matinees); $40 (Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings, Saturday matinees); and $30 (previews). Groups (10 or more) are $25, or $30 on Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees; School Groups (10 or more) are $16, or $20 on Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees.

A NOISE WITHIN is located at 234 South Brand Boulevard, Glendale, CA 91204. To purchase tickets or for a full season brochure, call 818-240-0910 x1 or visit www.ANoiseWithin.org.

Photo credit Craig Schwartz