A Noise Within to Host ANTIGONE Reading, 1/20

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, presents a free reading of Jean Anouilh's Antigone. Robertson Dean, a resident artist with the company, translated and directs the piece. Admission for the reading is free. Please RSVP via phone to 626-356-3100 x1 to reserve your seat.

For close to two thousand years, Antigone's perfect faith has forced each person watching the play to ask, "What would I do? Could I be that strong? How can I aspire to such heights?" Anouilh's Antigone is a modern young woman; but her faith is just as strong as that of Sophocles' original. In our secular age, it's a bit jarring to see a woman out of legend living and dying among us, disguised as a tomboy, in love, utterly and forever free in her perfect knowledge of what is right.

Jean Anouilh's play Antigone is a tragedy inspired by Greek mythology and the play of the same name, Antigone, by Sophocles from the fifth century B.C. Anouilh's version was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre de l'Atelier on February 6, 1944, during the Nazi occupation. It received its British première by The Old Vic Theatre Company at the New Theatre, London, on 10 February 1949. Laurence Olivier produced the production and Vivien Leigh portrayed Antigone.

The play is purposefully ambiguous with regard to the struggle between authority and individual conscience. Young Antigone's personal morality clashes with the "necessary" authoritarianism of the King, her uncle Creon. The parallels to the French Resistance and the Nazi occupation are clear.

The cast includes ANW resident and guest artists Jules Wilcox*, Joel Swetow*, Jason Dechert*, Alison Elliott, Rafael Goldstein*, Ann Marie Lee* & Lorna Raver*. *denotes member of Actor's Equity

Media Sponsors for A Noise Within's 2013/14 Season are Pasadena Star-News and KPCC 89.3 FM.

A Noise Within is located on the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue at 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107.

Robertson Dean, ANW Resident Artist. With ANW: The Critic in The Guardsman, Sullen in The Beaux' Stratagem, Narrator in A Christmas Carol, BB in The Doctor's Dilemma, Enobarbus in Antony & Cleopatra, Orsino in Twelfth Night, The Duke in Measure for Measure, The Count in The Rehearsal, King Henry IVin Henry IV, Part 1, Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, Walter Franz in The Price, Horace in The Little Foxes, Macbeth in Macbeth, Prospero in The Tempest, Arnolphe in The School for Wives, among others. Other Theaters: Broadway: Pygmalion and The Circle. Off-Broadway: Soho Rep, Playwrights' Horizons, Double Image, and a year's run in Simon Gray's The Common Pursuit at the Promenade. Regional: Yale Rep, American Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Actors' Theater of Louisville, Pasadena Playhouse, San Francisco's MagicTheater and Shakespeare Santa Cruz, among many others. TV: Recurring on 24, Enterprise, Frazier, Cybill, Star Trek TNG, and his7-year stint as Ned on The Young and the Restless. Film: Vanilla Sky, Money Talks, Disney's The Red Coat, Star Trek: Nemesis and Forgiving the Franklins (Sundance '06). Education/Training: B.A. Tufts University; MFA Yale School of Drama.

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