VENGEANCE IS THE LORD's Closes At Huntington Theatre Co 12/12

The Huntington Theatre Company continues its 29th season with the world premiere of Bob Glaudini's Vengeance is the Lord's, directed by Peter DuBois. The ensemble cast includes Larry Pine (Carol Mulroney at the Huntington; Angels in America and The Royal Family on Broadway) as Horvath family patriarch Mathew, Roberta Wallach (Off Broadway in The Diary of Anne Frank) as matriarch Margaret, and Lee Tergesen (television's "Oz") as elder son Woodrow, as well as Boston favorites Karl Baker Olson (SpeakEasy Stage Company's The History Boys) as youngest son Donald and Johnny Lee Davenport (Actors' Shakespeare Project's Hamlet) as Parcel Manning.

In Vengeance is the Lord's, a mother's call for mercy clashes with a father's need for retribution when their daughter's murderer comes up for parole. Sharp jokes, tough love, and foul-mouthed conversations drive this searing and darkly funny new drama, which unfolds at holiday dinners from Thanksgiving to Easter. As elements of the Horvath's criminal enterprises spill into their home, they are confronted with a classic moral question: what to do when "justice" is not enough?

With Vengeance is the Lord's DuBois and LAByrinth Theatre Company member Glaudini unite for a third world premiere production. Their previous collaborations were both LAByrinth Theater Company productions: A View from 151st Street 2007 and Jack Goes Boating also in 2007, starring LABrynth co-Artistic Directors Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz, who repeated their roles in the recent film version of the play directed by Hoffman.

"Peter was the first person I shared my play with," says Glaudini. "Coming off the experience of working with Peter on Jack Goes Boating, I knew he was the right collaborator for this project." Philip [Seymour Hoffman, star of Jack Goes Boating] has also been a champion of the play from the start, and was more than happy to hear that it had found a home here at the Huntington."

A number of LAByrinth company members and frequent collaborators unite on this production, including costume designer and LAByrinth co-artistic director, Mimi O'Donnell, lighting designer and LAByrinth member Japhy Weidman, cast member and LAByrinth company member Trevor Long, and composer David Van Tieghem (Jack Goes Boating).

Playwright Bob Glaudini's works include On Borrowed Time, Against the Sun (Theater Genesis), and The Claiming Race, Sickness of Youth, and The Poison Tree (presented in Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum's New Works Festival; The Poison Tree went onto be produced on the Taper main stage).The LAByrinth Theater Company, of which Mr. Glaudini is a member, produced his play Dutch Heart of Man at New York's The Public Theater, followed by productions of Jack Goes Boating and A View from 151st Street. The Identical Same Temptation and The Claiming Race were produced at New York's Theater for a New City. He wrote the script for the film Jack Goes Boating, which was released this fall. Mr. Glaudini also directed the world premiere of Sam Shepard's Mad Dog Blues at Theater Genesis and the premiere of Cowboy Mouth written by MR. Shepard and Patti Smith at The American Place Theatre.

Director Peter DuBois is the Artistic Director of the Huntington Theatre Company, where he has directed Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss, Gina Gionfriddo's Becky Shaw (after directing its Off Broadway run at Second Stage Theatre and its world premiere at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville), and David Grimm's The Miracle at Naples. This season, he will also direct the world premiere Stephen Karam's Sons of the Prophet. DuBois has previously collaborated with Glaudini on the LAByrinth Theater Company productions at The Public Theater of Jack Goes Boating with Philip Seymour Hoffman and A View from 151st Street. Prior to arriving at the Huntington, he served for five years as associate producer and resident director at The Public Theater, preceded by five years as artistic director of the Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska. He will next direct the London premiere of Becky Shaw at The Almeida Theatre. He recently directed the Off Broadway production of Paul Weitz's Trust at Second Stage Theatre. Additional Public Theater directing credits include Measure for Pleasure (SSDF Callaway Award for Excellence in Direction, Drama League Award nomination for Distinguished Production of a New Play); Richard III with Peter Dinklage; Adrienne Kennedy's Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles?; and Biro. Selected directing credits for Perseverance include The Seagull, The Winter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet, and The Glass Menagerie, as well as the West Coast premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks' In the Blood and the world premiere of Chay Yew's Long Season. Regional credits include a revival of Sam Shepard's The Curse of the Starving Class at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and productions at Trinity Repertory Company and California Shakespeare Theater. Prior to his work at Perseverance, Mr. DuBois lived and worked in the Czech Republic where he co-founded Asylum, a multi-national squat theatre in Prague.

"This will be the third play of Bob Glaudini's I have directed," says DuBois. "I love returning to his work. He writes with a muscular spare lyricism and creates deep, meaty roles for actors. This play is propelled by magnetic characters, and takes place at the holidays where the quirkiest dynamics of everyone's family come out at full tilt. Bob imbues this darkly comic domestic drama with a soul-stirring poignancy."

THE CAST
The cast of Vengeance is the Lord's includes:
· Larry Pine (Carol Mulroney at the Huntington; Angels in America and The Royal Family on Broadway) as Mathew, the patriarch of the Horvath family;
· Roberta Wallach (The Diary of Anne Frank Off Broadway) as Margaret Horvath, Mathew's ex-wife;
· Lee Tergesen ("Oz," "Weird Science") as Woodrow Horvath, Mathew's son and protégé;
· Katie Kreisler (Noises Off on Broadway, Our House Off Broadway) as daughter Roanne Horvath;
· Karl Baker Olson (The History Boys and Reckless at SpeakEasy Stage Company) as Donald Horvath, the Horvath's youngest son;
· Johnny Lee Davenport (Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing with Actors' Shakespeare Project) as Parcel Manning; and
· Trevor Long (LAByrinth Theater Company member, Unconditional and Pretty Chin Up Off Broadway) as Milo, Roanne's boyfriend.

PRODUCTION ARTISTS
The creative team for Vengeance is the Lord's includes Tony Award winning scenic designer Eugene Lee (Mauritius and The Cry of the Reed for the Huntington); costume designer Mimi O'Donnell (Pumpgirl for Manhattan Theatre Club); lighting designer Japhy Weideman (Prelude to a Kiss and How Shakespeare Won the West for the Huntington); sound designer Ben Emerson (A Long and Winding Road, Fences and The Miracle at Naples for the Huntington), and composer David Van Tieghem (Jack Goes Boating for LAByrinth Theater Company/The Public Theater). Production stage manager is Carola Morrone LaCoste; stage manager is Leslie Sears.

SPONSORS
The Huntington's Grand Patron is Boston University. The 2010-2011 Season Sponsor is J. David Wimberly.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR Bob Glaudini
"Few playwrights are better at conveying the day-to-day rhythms of the lives of deeply flawed characters. And it couldn't feel more authentic." - New York Post

"Bob Glaudini has an incredible ear for dialogue and a good sense of how modern people interact with one another." - East Bay Express

ABOUT THE HUNTINGTON
The Huntington Theatre Company, in residence at Boston University, is Boston's largest professional theatre company. Under the direction of Artistic Director Peter DuBois and Managing Director Michael Maso, the Huntington creates seven new productions each season featuring world-class theatre artists from Boston and Broadway and the most promising new talent. The Huntington has transferred over a dozen of these productions to Broadway, including recent favorites Noël Coward's Present Laughter and Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. The Huntington also runs nationally renowned programs in education and new play development, and serves the local theatre community through its operation of the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, which the Huntington built in 2004.

The Calderwood Pavilion, which includes the 370-seat Wimberly Theatre and the 200-seat Roberts Studio Theatre, houses most of the Huntington's new works activities and complements its 890-seat, Broadway-style main stage, the Boston University Theatre. The Huntington provides the first-class facilities and audience services of the Calderwood Pavilion to dozens of organizations each year, including some of Boston's most exciting small and mid-sized theatre companies, at significantly subsidized rates.

As a national leader in the development of new plays, the Huntington has produced more than 50 New England, American, or world premieres to date, with two world premieres scheduled for the 2010-11 Season. The Huntington's acclaimed education programs have served hundreds of thousands of middle school and high school students since 1982, and bring theatre to the Deaf and blind communities, the elderly, and other underserved populations in the Greater Boston area.

The Huntington was founded in 1982 by Boston University and separately incorporated as an independent non-profit in 1986. Its two prior artistic leaders were Peter Altman, (1982-2000) and Nicholas Martin (2000-2008). For more information, visit huntingtontheatre.org.

 

 

 

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