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The Metromaniacs
January 30 - March 6, 2016
(Opening Night: Thursday, February 4)
A WEST COAST PREMIERE
Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage
Old Globe Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center
By David Ives
Adapted from Alexis Piron’s La Métromanie
Directed by Michael Kahn
Presented in Association with Shakespeare Theatre Company
Scenic Design by James Noone
Costume Design by Murell Horton
Lighting Design by Mark McCullough
Sound Design by Matt Tierney
Original Music by Adam Wernick
Casting Director, Laura Stanczyk, CSA
Additional Casting by Carter C. Wooddell
Production Stage Manager, Jess Slocum
In 18th-century Paris, poets are the rock stars of the day, and young people like Damis have gone métromanie—crazy for poetry. Damis has a serious case of verse-mania, so much so that he falls in love with his favorite poetess, not knowing that his idol is actually a middle-aged gentleman writing under a pen name! Soon we’re off and running in a breathless series of complications, plot twists, and mistaken identities that The Washington Post calls “a marvel of old and new, with punchlines that glisten with classical flair and contemporary savvy!” The Metromaniacs is a true find: one of the nation’s most exciting new plays, in its original production, directed by the legendary Michael Kahn.
Cary Donaldson as Dorante and Adam LeFevre as Francalou in the West Coast premiere of David Ives’s The Metromaniacs, adapted from Alexis Piron’s La Métromanie, directed by Michael Kahn, presented in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company, January 30 – March 6, 2016 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
(from left) Christian Conn as Damis and Cary Donaldson as Dorante in the West Coast premiere of David Ives’s The Metromaniacs, adapted from Alexis Piron’s La Métromanie, directed by Michael Kahn, presented in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company, January 30 – March 6, 2016 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
In honor of David Ives’s poetry-infused comedy The Metromaniacs, the Globe brings together a dynamic mix of poets and performers for a Free Weekend of Poetry, featuring two free public events to celebrate the power and artistry of San Diego poetry. On Saturday, February 13 at 4:00 p.m., as part of the Subject Matters series immediately following the matinee of The Metromaniacs, hear San Diego poets Gill Sotu, Karla Cordero, and Jim Moreno discuss the wide-reaching impact of poetry in modern society. And on Sunday, February 14 at 4:00 p.m., join host Gill Sotu, the neo-soul band Abstrack, and other area poets including Karla Cordero, Jim Moreno, Lizz Huerta, and Joe Limer for Poetry on the Plaza, a one-hour showcase of San Diego poetry. Joining in on Sunday will be Francalou from The Metromaniacs, Adam LeFevre; in addition to his extensive Broadway, Off Broadway, and regional credits, his third volume of poems, A Swindler’s Grace, was just published by New Issues Press. Both events are free and open to the public.
The Old Globe presents this Free Weekend of Poetry in conjunction with the West Coast premiere of The Metromaniacs by supremely clever playwright David Ives (All in the Timing, Time Flies). This uproarious new “translaptation” of a classic French farce, Alexis Piron’s La Métromanie,is directed by one of America’s most renowned stage directors, Michael Kahn, presented in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company. This smart, sexy new comedy will run on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, January 30 – March 6, 2016. Previews run January 30 – February 3. Opening night is February 4 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets start at $29 and are currently on sale.
Abstrack will perform at the Free Weekend of Poetry at The Old Globe, Feb. 13-14, 2016. Photo courtesy of The Old Globe.
David Ives (Playwright) is the author of All in the Timing, Venus In Fur (both the celebrated play and the Roman Polanski film), Time Flies, Lives of the Saints, New Jerusalem, Ancient History,and Is He Dead? (adapted from Mark Twain). Ives has also done what he calls “translaptations,” plays that combine translation and adaptation: The Liar, The School for Lies, and The Heir Apparent (translaptated respectively from Corneille, Molière, and Regnard). He is a former Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting and lives in New York City.
Michael Kahn (Director) has been the Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Theatre Company for the past 27 years. During this time he has directed award-winning classical theatre productions, instituted free Shakespeare performances, and led the theatre to receive the 2012 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Kahn has received seven Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Director. Kahn’s work in theatre and opera has been seen on Broadway, Off Broadway, in American regional theatres, and at international venues. Prior to joining STC, Kahn was the Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division at The Juilliard School, where he has taught since its founding in 1968. He served as the Artistic Director of The Acting Company, McCarter Theatre Center, and American Shakespeare Theatre. He also earned a Tony Award nomination for his direction of Showboat. In January 2013, Mr. Kahn was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. In April 2013, he was named an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.
James Noone (Scenic Design) is an Affiliated Artist at Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he has designed many productions, including The Metromaniacs. He designed the Broadway productions of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, A Time to Kill, A Bronx Tale, Come Back, Little Sheba, Match, Urban Cowboy, A Class Act, Judgment at Nuremberg, Jekyll & Hyde, The Rainmaker, Night Must Fall, The Sunshine Boys, Getting and Spending, and The Gin Game. His Off Broadway credits include The Persians, Three Tall Women, Fully Committed, Full Gallop, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Cowgirls, Ruthless!, Breaking Legs, The Boys in the Band, The Woman in Black, and others. Mr. Noone has also designed for national tours, opera and television. He has received a Drama Desk Award, Henry Hewes Design Award, Ovation Award, and two Helen Hayes Awards. He teaches at Boston University School of Fine Arts.
Murell Horton (Costume Design) is currently designing new versions of The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC. The productions will move to Guthrie Theater in February 2016. This is the first time Mr. Horton’s work has appeared at the Globe. He is the recipient of the 2007 Irene Sharaff Young Master Award for costume design. He has been nominated for a total of seven Helen Hayes Award nominations for Outstanding Costume Design, all for work produced at Shakespeare Theatre Company. These productions include a number of world premieres as well as the David Ives’s trilogy of The Liar, The Heir Apparent, and The Metromaniacs, all directed by Artistic Director Michael Kahn. Mr. Horton has worked in many places in New York, the East Coast, and around the country including New York City Opera, The Juilliard School, Houston Grand Opera, Guthrie Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Denver Center Theatre Company. Mr. Horton is represented by The Gersh Agency. MurellHorton.com.
Mark McCullough (Lighting Design) designed the lights for The Metromaniacs at Shakespeare Theatre Company. His Broadway credits include Outside Mullingar, The American Plan, Accent on Youth, After Miss Julie,and Jesus Christ Superstar (also national and U.K. tours). His Off Broadway credits include The Language Archive, Old Money, Mouth to Mouth, How I Learned to Drive, The Long Christmas Ride Home, This is Our Youth, and Lobby Hero. Regionally he has designed at La Jolla Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie Theater, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Mr. McCullough’s international credits include Whistle Down the Wind (Aldwych Theatre, London), Der Besuch der alten Dame (Ronacher Theatre, Vienna), Artus (St. Gallen, Switzerland), and Rebecca (St. Gallen and Palladium Theater, Stuttgart). His opera credits include The Metropolitan Opera, Bolshoi Theatre, La Scala, New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera House, Opéra National du Rhin, Dallas Opera, and Seattle Opera. Mark McCullough trained at University of North Carolina School of the Arts and received his M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama.
Matt Tierney (Sound Design) recently designed the Broadway production of Machinal (2014 Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk Award), Futurity (Ars Nova/Soho Repertory Theater), Appropriate (Center Theatre Group), The Tempest (The Public Theater), Gloria (Vineyard Theatre), and The Sound and the Fury (Elevator Repair Service/The Public Theater). His further Off Broadway credits include Our Lady of Kibeho (Signature Theatre Company), Pocatello, The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, Detroit, Kin, and This (Playwrights Horizons), An Octoroon, Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre for a New Audience), Generations, Uncle Vanya, A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney, and Blasted (Henry Hewes Design Award) (Soho Rep), and Luck of the Irish (LCT3). Mr. Tierney’s credits with Elevator Repair Service include The Sound and the Fury, Arguendo, and The Select (The Sun Also Rises) (2012 Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards). Regionally he has designed for Yale Repertory Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre Center, American Repertory Theater, Alley Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, The Studio Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Great Lakes Theater, Center Theatre Group, Chautauqua Theater Company, The Wooster Group, and Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company.
Adam Wernick (Original Music) has been composing theatre and concert music for 30 years. His recent projects include ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Red Bull Theater) and a co-production of The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound (Guthrie Theater and Shakespeare Theatre Company). Mr. Wernick has worked with many theatre companies including Guthrie Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Denver Center Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Kennedy Center, Royal Shakespeare Company, The Wilma Theater, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and others. His concert works include chamber music, works for voice, and an oboe concerto composed for Philadelphia Orchestra principal oboist Richard Woodhams. Mr. Wernick’s work has been supported by grants from The McKnight Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Independence Foundation, The Philadelphia Music Project, The Presser Foundation, The Jim Henson Foundation, and ASCAP. Mr. Wernick lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife and daughters.
Laura Stanczyk, CSA (Casting Director) has cast the Broadway, Off Broadway, and national tour productions of Side Show, After Midnight, A Night with Janis Joplin, Follies, Cotton Club Parade, Lombardi, Ragtime, Impressionism, The Seafarer, Radio Golf, Coram Boy, The Glorious Ones, Flight, Translations, Tryst, and Dirty Dancing. Her other New York credits include Atlantic Theater Company’s The Cripple of Inishmaan (also national tour), City Center Encores! Summer Stars’ , Damn Yankees and Urinetown (also national tour), and Lincoln Center Festival’s Gate/Beckett. Her regional credits include The Tempest, As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale, Strange Interlude, and Old Times (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Bull Durham (Alliance Theatre), Harps and Angels (Center Theatre Group), Gruesome Playground Injuries and The Monster at the Door (Alley Theatre), Side Show, The Guardsman, Follies, Master Class, The Lisbon Traviata, Ragtime, and Broadway: Three Generations (The Kennedy Center), Golden Age (Philadelphia Theatre Company), Don’t Dress for Dinner (Royal George Theatre), and seven seasons at McCarter Theatre Center. Ms. Stanczyk’s international credits include My Brilliant Divorce (Druid Theatre Company), The Shawshank Redemption (The Gaiety Theatre, West End), and Long Day’s Journey into Night (Druid Theatre Company, Dublin Theatre Festival).
Carter C. Wooddell (Additional Casting) is Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Resident Casting Director and has cast their productions of The Critic, The Real Inspector Hound, Kiss Me, Kate, Salomé, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Free For All), Tartuffe, Man of La Mancha, The Metromaniacs, The Tempest, As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale (Free For All), The Merry Wives of Windsor, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Merchant of Venice. Her other casting experience includes Broadway’s End of the Rainbow and High and Off Broadway’s Tribes, Our Town, Freud’s Last Session, A Perfect Future, The Irish Curse, and An Error of the Moon, among many others. Ms. Wooddell also cast Lincoln Center Institute’s Hamlet, Fly, and Sheila’s Day. Her national tour credits include The Acting Company and Riverdance. Her regional credits include Alley Theatre, Center Stage, Barrington Stage Company, The Broad Stage, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Crossroads Theatre Company, George Street Playhouse, Guthrie Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and TheaterWorks. Ms. Wooddell’s casting credits also include BBC Radio’s The Piano Lesson, the television shows “The Electric Company” and “27 East,” and the films Premium Rush and Junction.
Jess Slocum (Production Stage Manager) previously worked at The Old Globe on In Your Arms, Twelfth Night, Buyer & Cellar, Bright Star, Othello, Water by the Spoonful, The Winter’s Tale, A Doll’s House, Pygmalion, A Room with a View, Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, the 2011-2013 Shakespeare Festivals, Rafta, Rafta…, Robin and the 7 Hoods, Alive and Well, Sammy, Cornelia, Since Africa, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!,and The Glass Menagerie. Her Broadway credits include In the Heights. Her regional credits include Indecent, Side Show, Ruined, The Third Story, Memphis,and Most Wanted (La Jolla Playhouse) and Post Office (Center Theatre Group). Her San Diego credits include Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company, North Coast Repertory Theatre, and Lamb’s Players Theatre. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University. Proud member of Actors’ Equity.
Amanda Salmons (Assistant Stage Manager) has worked previously at The Old Globe on Much Ado About Nothing and All’s Well That Ends Well (Globe for All), Kiss Me, Kate, The White Snake, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Last Goodbye, the Summer Shakespeare Festival (2011-2013), Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Somewhere, Lost in Yonkers,
I Do! I Do!, and The Price. Her other credits include Blueprints to Freedom: An Ode to Bayard Rustin (La Jolla Playhouse), Kiss Me, Kate (Hartford Stage), The Foreigner, miXtape, See How They Run, The Music Man,and The Rivalry (Lamb’s Players Theatre), The Gondoliers, The Pirates of Penzance, Candide, and Trial by Jury (Lyric Opera San Diego), and SummerFest (La Jolla Music Society). Ms. Salmons holds a B.A. in Theatre from UC San Diego.
Laura Zingle (Assistant Stage Manager – February 9 to March 6) is thrilled to be back at The Old Globe after recently working on Arms and the Man and Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2014). Her La Jolla Playhouse credits include The Grift, Kingdom City, El Henry, Kamchatka (Without Walls Festival), His Girl Friday, and Hands on a Hardbody. At San Diego Repertory Theatre she was production stage manager of Detroit. Her other regional credits include a workshop of different words for the same thing (Center Theatre Group), AFI Fest 2013, Spoleto Festival USA, Opera NEO, and Palomar College Dance. Ms. Zingle is the stage manager of San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus. She has an M.F.A. in Stage Management from UC San Diego and is a proud member of AEA.
Shakespeare Theatre Company (Co-Presenter), winner of the 2012 Regional Theatre Tony Award, is recognized as America’s premier classical theatre company. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Kahn and Executive Director Chris Jennings, STC creates, preserves, and promotes classic theatre—ambitious, enduring plays with universal themes—for all audiences. In addition to a stable of arts education initiatives, STC has been proud to present the annual Free For All production, a remount of recent work offered to audiences at no charge, for 25 years and counting. Located in the nation’s capital, STC performs in two theatres in downtown Washington, DC: the 451-seat Lansburgh Theatre and the 774-seat Sidney Harman Hall. These spaces create a dynamic, cultural hub of activity that showcases STC as well as outstanding local performing arts groups and nationally renowned organizations.
