McKean, Pantoliano, Chalke, Hoffman Cast for Williamstown Shows
McKean (B'way: Hairspray; Film: This is Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind, and TV's "Laverne and Shirley") joins Tom Stoppard's On The Razzle as Zangler, while Pantoliano ("The Sopranos"), Chalke (Modern Orthodox, "Scrubs" and "Roseanne") and Michael Chernus (Adam Rapp Festival, Rattlestick) make up the cast for the new Etan Frankel play, Create Fate. In addition, Hoffman (200 Cigarettes, Now and Then, and Sleepless in Seattle), Patch Darragh (B'way: Our Town), Tim Hopper (B'way: Present Laughter), and Betsy Aidem (Nine Months, "Law & Order") comprise the cast of The Sugar Syndrome, by Lucy Prebble.In addition to the new leadership of Rees (Nicholas Nickelby, Indiscretions, A Man of No Importance), the season also marks the much-anticipated debut of WTF's new performance venue in the '62 Center for Theatre and Dance at Williams College. The Festival's Main Stage is now housed in a new 511-seat tiered auditorium while the renovated Adams Memorial Theatre is the new home of the Nikos Stage, WTF's second performance space which is dedicated to new plays.The Main Stage productions comprise the following plays:
Lady Windemere's Fan by Oscar Wilde, directed by Moisés Kaufman (July 6 – 17).
"Determined
not to trust her husband when circumstances suggest he's been unfaithful,
the effortlessly desirable Lady Margaret Windermere – modern, independent
and deliciously free of self-doubt – resolves to leave him flat. But the
true nature of her husband's relationship with the "other
woman" is very different from what young Margaret assumes it to be. The
play is Oscar Wilde's first comedy and, more than a century later, a
provocative season-opener for WTF's 2005 season in the hands of
cutting-edge director Moisés Kaufman."
Top Girls by Caryl Churchill, directed by Jo Bonney (July 20 – 31).
"What kind of a victory is women's progress in the workplace? Or is it a victory at all? At a dinner party celebrating Marlene's promotion, five women, superstars of the golden ages of history, literature and art, weigh in on the personal sacrifices a woman makes to achieve success. More potent now than ever, Top Girls is the play that established Caryl Churchill as one of the late 20th century's truly important – and prescient – playwrights."
On the Razzle by Tom Stoppard, directed by David Jones (August 3 – 14). "While their boss is away, two store clerks have madcap adventures filled with mistaken identities, malapropisms and Tom Stoppard's trademark wordplay. Freely adapted from Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy's 19th Century farce, Einen Jux will er sich machen (which also inspired Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker), On the Razzle is high-octane non-stop fun."Bus Stop by William Inge, directed by Will Frears (August 17 – 28).
Create Fate by Etan Frankel, directed by Christopher Ashley (July 13 – 24).
"Love
can be a brutal game. When the deck is stacked against him, Nathan does the
only thing he can to get the love of his life to notice him: he calls in the
professionals. When is true love a product of fate, and when is it just a set
of well-choreographed accidents?"
"Seventeen-year-old
Dani surfs internet chat rooms searching for someone who is honest and direct.
What she finds is a man twice her age who thinks she is an eleven year-old boy.
With richly textured writing and humor, it's Lucy Prebble's play
that's honest and direct. And fierce. And devastatingly, disarmingly,
disturbingly funny. The Sugar Syndrome contains adult subject matter and is
intended for mature audiences."
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