New Rep Presents 'Eurydice' by Ruhl Starting 9/17

By: Aug. 19, 2008
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New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, is excited to present Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl.  From the acclaimed playwright of The Clean House comes this beautiful and devastating story about love and choice. Eurydice opens for the press on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 7:30pm and plays through October 5, 2008 at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in the Charles Mosesian Theater.

"I've always admired Ruhl's work, but I fell in love with her after directing The Clean House last season," said Rick Lombardo, New Repertory Theatre's Producing Artistic Director. "Her plays are told with such a fresh simplicity. Ruhl has a bright new voice.  I am confident that our talented cast and crew will make New Rep's production of Eurydice a memorable experience for our audience. They will embark upon a remarkable journey and see the magic of theatre.  For one thing, we're actually going to make it rain buckets of water on stage!"

In Sarah Ruhl's re-imagining of the Orpheus myth, Eurydice's tragic misstep on her wedding day sends her tumbling into the depths of the Underworld, where she is reunited with her father. Memories are forbidden and language is altered in this world of  the dead. Her father re-educates her, while her husband searches for a note she will hear. Will the three find the means to communicate across the divide between life and death?

New Repertory Theatre presents provocative and intelligent works of both established and emerging playwrights in an intimate setting that involves and engages the audience.  New Rep has earned a reputation for dynamic productions that honor the writers and feature talented professional actors from the New England theatre community as well as guest artists from around the U.S.  New Rep has received Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards for outstanding acting, scenic design, direction, and production.  Programming at New Repertory Theatre is supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Rick Lombardo (director, original music and sound design) is beginning his 13th season as New Rep's Producing Artistic Director.  He is honored to be a two-time recipient of the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director.  Last season, he directed A Streetcar Named Desire (IRNE Awards-Best Director and Best Production of a Drama), The Clean House (Elliot Norton Award-Outstanding Production), Dessa Rose, and A Pinter Duet: The Lover & Ashes to Ashes.  Recent season's productions include: Ragtime (IRNE Awards-Best Director of a Musical and Best Musical); The Pillowman;, The Wild Party; Bill W. and Dr. Bob (which he also subsequently directed Off Broadway); Romeo and Juliet; the multiple IRNE Award-winning Into the Woods; Quills; and the World Premiere of Approaching Moomtaj by Michael Weller.  Locally, he also directed Hamlet for Actors' Shakespeare Project, La Vie Parisienne for Opera Boston, and Ashes to Ashes and The Lover for Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre.  Other memorable New Rep productions include: The Threepenny Opera; the world premiere of A Girl's War; his new musical adaptation of Moliére's Scapin; Waiting for Godot (IRNE Award, Best Drama); the acclaimed production of Sweeney Todd (2004 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director, IRNE Award for Best Director, and Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Musical Production); The Weir (IRNE Award, Best Drama); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Elliot Norton Award, Outstanding Director); The Scarlet Letter; American Buffalo; A Moon for the Misbegotten; Twelfth Night; Beast on the Moon; Das Barbecü; Tartuffe; The Real Thing; and Moby Dick-An American Opera, among others.  Rick was previously the Artistic Director of the Players Guild in Ohio, as well as the Founding Artistic Director of the Stillwaters Theatre Company in New York City.  He has taught at several universities, including Fordham University's College at Lincoln Center, where he was also Co-Director of the theatre program.  Rick is currently President of NEAT, the Association of New England Area Theatres, and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of both Arts Boston and StageSource.  He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Ken Baltin (Father) has been performing on Boston area stages for the past twenty years.  Most recently, he appeared in Copenhagen at the Vineyard Playhouse, Leslie Epstein's King of the Jews, produced by Boston Playwrights Theatre, and in Arms and the Man at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston.  Other recent credits include: the premiere production of Permanent Whole Life by Zayd Dohrn at Boston Playwrights Theatre, which was awarded 2005 best new play by the Independent Reviewers of New England; and Brooklyn Boy at SpeakEasy Stage Company.   Past years' credits include: Waiting for Godot, Scapin, The Waverly Gallery, Twelfth Night, and American Buffalo at New Repertory Theatre; Glengarry Glen Ross, Lost in Yonkers, Laughter on the Twenty-Third Floor, and Shakespeare in Hollywood at the Lyric Stage; Art, Over the Tavern, Picasso at the Lapine Agile, Speed-The-Plow, Oleanna, The Illusion, Founder of the Feast, and A Christmas Carol at Merrimack Repertory Theatre; The Last Hurrah at Huntington Theatre Company; Haymarket at BPT; The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Beau Jest, Social Security, Yom Kippur at Danang, and I Ought to be in Pictures at Jewish Theatre of New England; Three Hotels at Gloucester Stage Company; and others.  Aside from performing, Ken is on the acting faculty at The Boston Conservatory.

Brian Bielawski (Orpheus) is thrilled to make his debut at New Rep.  He was most recently seen in New York and abroad performing his one-man show GAM3RS.  OFF-BROADWAY: The American Pilot directed by Lynne Meadow (Manhattan Theatre Club); and The Rules of Charity (Theatre By the Blind). REGIONAL: As You Like It, Comedy of Errors, Winter's Tale, Two Noble Kinsmen, Antony and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night, and Macbeth directed by Darko Tresnjak, Patricia Conolly, and Paul Mullins (The Old Globe Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream, Noises Off! (Brownville Village Theatre); and Mame, Light Up the Sky, Little Foxes (The Summer Place). SHORT FILM: Felix Culpa (Progress 22 Films). TELEVISION: Guiding Light (recurring). EDUCATION: MFA (The Old Globe/University of San Diego); BFA (The University of Evansville).  Brian is a proud member of Actors' Equity.

Zillah Glory (Eurydice) was last seen as Eliante in New Repertory Theatre's production of The Misanthrope after completing a 2-year stint as Barbara in Shear Madness, both in Charlotte, NC and here in Boston.  Zillah is the double-nominee and recipient of Charlotte's Best Actress In A Comedy and Actress of the Year 2006 (Metrolina Theatre Awards) for her work as Alex in On The Verge.  She is also known for the role of Carly in the film Conversations With God.  More recently, Z has been heard or seen participating in staged readings (Peter Snoad's Guided Tour at Boston Playwright's Theatre), commercials (Subway's "Absolutely Not"), local ads (Mass Lotto's Christmas series), web ads (www.savmedia.com), and voiceovers (iParty's "Charlotte O'Hara").  Zillah also teaches improv and theater via the Merrimack Rep's Y.A.A.P. program and credits the majority of her vocal maneuverability to steady training with teacher-mentor Gary Logan, head of the Academy for Classical Acting in Washington, DC.  She is a member of AEA and SAG.

Sarah Ruhl (playwright) Plays include: The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 2005; The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play, a cycle (The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center, a Helen Hayes Awards nomination for best new play); Dead Man's Cell Phone; Melancholy Play; Eurydice; Orlando and Late: a cowboy song. Her plays have been produced at Lincoln Center Theater, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory Theater, Yale Rep., Berkeley Rep., The Wilma Theater, Actors' Theatre of Louisville, Madison Rep., and the Piven Theatre, among others. Her plays have also been produced in London, Germany, Australia, Canada, and Israel, and have been translated into Polish, Russian, Spanish, Norwegian, Korean, and German. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. In 2003, she was the recipient of the Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award and the Whiting Writers' Award. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and recently won the MacArthur Fellowship. 

For more information please visit www.newrep.org



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