PURE Theatre & Nomad Theatre Presents of Fool’s Lear

PURE Theatre in a Co-production with Nomad Theatre of NYC is proud to announce the World Premier of The Fool's Lear by Randy Neale. Directed by Grant Neale, and featuring Randy Neale and Grant Neale. The show will open on April 1st, and run through April 16th.

This funny and poignant new play tells the tale of King Lear and his Fool, as they leave the pages of William Shakespeare's famed play. Filled with hopeful plans, they enter into a stormy crisis of identity: The Fool desperately tries to hold on to the one power by which he has always defined himself, his ability to make the King laugh; The King abdicates his Kingship, ashamed of the tyrant Father he has become. Who are they after all? A Clown and a King, a Servant and his Master, a Father and his unacknowledged Son, or an Old Man suffering dementia and his reluctant Care Giver?

After a combined 70+ years in the theater THE FOOL'S LEAR represents the first full collaboration between brothers Randy Neale (Playwright/Actor) and Grant Neale (Director/Actor). Told through the eyes of a motley Fool, the magical world of this production emerges from a large moveable trunk, filled with surprises. When the box opens, look out! Here comes the peril and the valor, the tempest and the refuge, the friends and the foes, and the rubber chickens, swords, manacles and ukuleles that make any story worth watching!

"The Fool's Lear is our vision of the journey of Lear and his Fool as they travel alongside the path of Shakespeare's great play toward the king's inevitable end. It is a story of fathers and children, aging and death, and the folly of all those who think they rule their own lives. It is about the end of power and the end of life as lived by a clown, whether that clown is a fool or a king. It is never meant to be Shakespeare's Lear but, rather, Lear as the Fool sees him." - Randy Neale
PURE Theatre has garnered a reputation for artistic excellence, risk taking, and thinking outside of the box. The company's intrepid approach to the art and craft of theatre has garnered them numerous critics and audience awards, as well as a loyal following of patrons. PURE has been the recipient of Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Play, Best One-Person Play, Most Diverse Theatre Company critic and audience awards, and Winners of the 2010 South Carolina Arts Commission's Fellowships in the Playwrighting & Acting.

A Note from the Director:
Several things thrill me about THE FOOL'S LEAR, not least of which is that after two lifetimes in the theater it is the first major collaboration between my brother Randy Neale and myself. In my very biased opinion, the play Randy has written is excellent and a real pleasure to work on. The mind, heart, and soul of this play and the production are highly personal.

The mind is that of any child of the theater engaging with a seminal play like "King Lear" in a daring way by walking these well known characters off the pages of a Shakespearian text and imagining what becomes of them. For us it is a delight and has been fascinating to discover the myriad ways that we might personally connect with this King and this Fool. As director, the wonderful opportunity has been figuring out how on a visual level to share with the audience the idea of Lear and Fool's peaceful, ordered world turning to one of chaos.

The heart of THE FOOL'S LEAR is the theme of identity. How do we hold our place in the world in the face of major transition and upheaval? This of course is a strong theme in Shakespeare's play, and an important one for Randy and I both. As artists we are always struggling with questions of identity; Who am I if I am not creating? Is it right that I am still playing fools or acting at all? Do I exist if I'm not in a play? And is that enough? The fascinating thing for us is imagining the nature of Lear and Fool's transition away from their former identities, that as Lear struggles with dementia and becomes more and more childlike, Fool is forced to become more and more of a grown up.

The soul of the play is centered around that of parent-child relations and who "owes" whom. In our play Randy challenges the conventional idea that a child owes duty and affection to a parent. We have spotlighted this theme by imagining that Fool and Lear might be related by blood, thereby heightening Fool's dramatic struggle as he determines whether to care for this increasingly cantankerous and childish old man. Randy and I are two of seven children and like many people have had to face the effects of age on a parent. Unlike Fool we are lucky to be not alone with a suffering parent and have our wonderful Father caring for our Mother, but it was important to us that this conflict be included in the play. I certainly feel as though I have not done enough for my parents as I am very busy running around playing fools.

Randy and I are both showmen to the core so naturally we want the result of our collaboration to be enthralling for our audience. To that end we have not shied away from any old trick in the book either in the writing or in the staging. The joy of playing Fool is that there is no "over the top" for him in order to make-em-laugh, which has allowed me as director to utilize many theatrical conventions, and perhaps create a few new ones.

Fool's Lear Creatives

Randy Neale (Playwright/Actor) has appeared in previous PURE Theatre productions of Superior Donuts, Circle Mirror Transformation, Yankee Tavern, The Seafarer, Killing Chickens, and The Man from Nebraska. He has been a member of Actor's Equity since 1974. Throughout his career he has appeared in regional theatres in Providence, Baltimore, Rochester and Boston, and enjoyed a 20 year career in New York City. He is the Director of Fine Arts at the Charleston Collegiate School.
Grant Neale (Director/Actor) has performed in more than 200 plays, Operas and films. He was a member of the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre for three years where he performed in 15 Classical plays under the direction of Jonathan Bank, Robert Hupp, David Herskowitz and the late Eve Adamson. He also had the good fortune to be a member of the legendary Ridiculous Theatrical Company for five years under the direction of Everett Quinton. Since then, he has had the pleasure of playing many of New York's great downtown theaters including the Ontological-Hysteric, P.S. 122, LaMama, the Ohio, Walker Space, The Actors Playhouse, Dixon Place, and The Kitchen. Outside of New York, Grant's work in plays and Operas extends from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Santa Fe, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, New Haven, Phoenix, to London, Edinburgh, Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Bucharest, and Stockholm. He has had the honor of originating several roles for plays that have since been published including Lech in Georg Osterman's BROTHER TRUCKERS, which ran for six months Off-Broadway and subsequently at London's famed Drill Hall and Edinburgh's Traverse Theater (1993), Gabriel in Everett Quinton's LINDA with music by Mark Bennett (1994), Marius Mintsingue and Buck Arnge in MURDER AT MINSING MANOR by Michael and Richard Simon (1995), Monsieur in THE SHADY MAIDS OF HAITI by John Jahnke (2003), Solly Schmidt in a new translation of Bertolt Brecht's A MAN'S A MAN by Eric Bentley which originated at The Jean Cocteau Repertory(1990), Arlecchino in Julia Pearlstein's RAT BASTARDS, Nicholae Ceausescu in Saviana Stanescu's WAXING WEST produced by East Coast Artists at LaMama and subsequently performed in Bucharest, Sibiu Romania and Stockholm (2007), as well as Klingsor/King of Pain in the world premier of Susan Sontag's A PARSIFAL which had its first performance in 2006 at P.S. 122. As ever, Grant is most grateful to his lovely wife, LeeAnne, for her wisdom and support.

Nancy Keegan (Assistant Director) is an acclaimed NYC based stage and voiceover actress. She made her NYC theatrical debut in the Chelsea Rep Co. production of TOP GIRLS (Isabella Bird/Joyce/Nell), for which she received a special Best of the Year mention from Backstage NY. Other stage credits include: BY HANDS UNKNOWN (2010 International Fringe Festival), DR. FRITZ OR... (Chelsea Rep Co.), BABY WITH THE BATHWATER (Chelsea Rep Co.), A DAY IN THE DEATH OF JOE EGG (Currican Theatre), WHEN EXISTENTIAL THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE (Workhouse Theatre). Nancy is thrilled to be reprising her role as AD for Nomad Theatrical's POLANSKI POLANSKI at the soloNOVA festival at P.S.122 in May and on tour in Romania this June in Bucharest (Teatrul Odeon), Sibiu (Sibiu InterNational Theatre Festival) & Cluge/TIFF (Transylvania International Film Festival)

Oni Brown (Development Administrator) is a dancer and choreographer. She enjoys learning and incorporating the awareness of self discovery in the cultural dances of the African Diaspora into her experimental contemporary choreography and improvisation. Oni trained with The Connecticut Ballet Theatre, Miss Porter's School, Daniel McCusker at Tufts University, La Sorbonne and the Centre National de la Danse in Paris, France. While living in Paris, She began a small contemporary dance troupe, FARO, and in 2005 was invited to teach a master class at Costa Rica's Centro Nacional de la Danza's Mudanzas II festival in San Jose. Oni currently dances with and has choreographed for Sounds of Afrika, Afrikan Drum and Dance Troupe and has performed work with Gabrielle Lansner & Company, Emily Faulkner, and 8 Reales. Oni recently performed in the Ma-Yi Theatre Company's Off-Broadway production of Rescue Me and was an invited performer at The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab 2009 for the play, Ngwino Ubeho, directed by Rebecca Taichman. She also appeared in Shade Compositions 2009, by Rashaad Newsome, and Papo Colo's Trickster Theatre.

Katie Down (Music Composer) is a theatrical sound designer and composer working in the downtown NYC scene for many years. She has created sound scores for Nomad Theatrical Co., Ripe Time, Target Margin, Terra Nova, Ensemble Studio Theatre,

Hourglass Productions, New Georges, Epic Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre and more. She is currently working on a piece focusing on the music of Erik Satie. In addition to her theatrical pursuits, she is a performer with The Ukuladies and glass percussion group The NewBorn Trio. Katie is also a licensed music therapist working with adults and teens.

Ramona Ponce (Costume Designer) nominated for both the Innovative Theater and Henry Hewes Design awards, started her costume career at the Ridiculous Theatrical Company. She has long-standing relationships with a number of theater and film companies around town, including LaMama ETC, The T.W.E.E.D. Theatre Group, The Hotel Savant, Watson Arts and Flying Pancakes. She costumes and accessorizes individual performance artists such as The Fabulous LuLu LoLo and Poor Baby Bree. In addition to her costume work, she does specialty needlework for fashion designers, assembles sewn elements for projects for fine artists from around the world and styles visual elements for a variety of applications. Her own artwork has been on display in galleries in New York and Arizona. She lectures on specialty costume topics at LGCC and designs bridal and special occasion wear for both women and men. www.ramonaponce.com

Richard Currie (Lighting Designer) has designed for most of New York City's off Broadway theaters. Currently in New Jersey he is lighting Into the Woods and Almost Maine. He has designed Randy Neale's plays Playmates, Where Spirits Fly. A Light From the Mountain, How Long Can They Last? and The Incredible Adverntures of Electroman. He was for many years the resident lighting designer for Charles Ludlam's acclaimed Ridiculous Theatrical Company; Camille, Bluebeard, The Mystery of Irma Vep. et al.

Angela Lucido (Scenic Artist) holds a BA degree in Fine Arts from the University of Washington. She has been studied, taught and worked in costume and set design/scenic design for over 30 years. Angela has designed for theaters and ballet companies in New Hampshire and New York Ballet, and is a member of Beth Ann Ohara's New Thalian Players in New Hampshire. Angela was honored to have been given the opportunity to work with the talented and tireless Grant Neale. Collaborating with artist Ron Erickson for Nomad Theatrical Company's production of The Fool's Lear was a privilege. Bravo!

Ron Erickson (Scenic Artist) is a painter and sculptor who lives and works in Bogota, NJ, a suburb of NYC. Crediting Arts Students League as his only formal training after high school, and in addition to joining the U.S. Marine Corps in 1981 where he spent his enlistment stationed at Camp Pendelton at Oceanside, CA., he has worked in the display industry since 1989, beginning as a makeup artist with the Adel Rootstien Mannequin Company. Since 1994 he has worked as a set and display carpenter for Superlative Interiors & Creative Engineering, both of NYC. Ron has painted consistently for the last 20 years with various showings in NYC and his work is held in private collections internationally. He is happy to make his first foray into scenic painting for THE FOOL'S LEAR. www.ronericksonart.com

Jeff Duer (Technical Director/Master Carpenter)

Cory Antiel (Puppet Master) has recently danced/puppeteered for Dan Hurlin, Mabou Mines, David Neumann, Dan Froot and is performing all year at the Swedish Marionette Cottage in Central Park. He has designed puppets for several New York- and world-premiere shows (Astoria Performing Arts Center, Dixon Place). Cory has performed and taught at many venues in New York, including St. Ann's Warehouse, Danspace, HERE Arts Center, The Ohio Theater and La Mama.

Allen Spector (Graphic Designer) is a graphic designer who lives and works in New York City. www.allenspector.com

Stephen Jobes (Acting Coach/SDC) takes larger pleasure in working again with Grant Neale and for a first time with Randy Neale. By day he coaches actors on both coasts on all sorts of text.

TICKETS:

Phone: PURE Box Office: 866.811.4111

On Line: www.puretheatre.org

In Person: PURE Theatre Box Office - opens 30 Minutes before Showtime

Charleston Ballet Company

477 King Street

Charleston, S.C. 29403

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