[Capdist-announce] Wallace Shaw's "The Designated Mourner" premiers September 17-18, 24-25

[Charles Treadwell]

Wallace Shawn's The Designated Mourner comes to Albany
 
D & M Productions, continuing its custom of bringing area premiers to the Capital District, performs Wallace Shawn's The Designated Mourner at ZuZu's Café on September 17, 18, 24, and 25.
 
The company, founded by veteran actor Ed McMullen in 1997, specializes in two-and three-character plays. 
 
The Designated Mourner is set in an unidentified country run by a repressive regime, which is in the process of putting down a revolt from the long-oppressed underclass. The regime targets members of the liberal intelligentsia suspected of sympathizing with the rebels. The play is presented almost entirely in alternating monologues among its three characters: Howard, a revered intellectual and literary figure, whose history of dissident writings have put him in danger of retaliation from the regime; his loyal daughter and fellow intellectual, Judy, who shares her father's outlook; and her husband, Jack, once an admirer of Howard but now antagonistic toward the elitist or "highbrow" culture that his father-in-law and wife represent. As the government steps up its measures to quell the revolt, the consequences spill over into the lives of these characters, forcing either life-altering or life-numbing responses from each of them. 
 
F. Paul Dellio will be directing this rendition. He has directed several quality productions over the past 30 years. These include: The Actor's Nightmare, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Murder In The Cathedral, Lady Windemere's Fan, A Man For All Seasons, Duet For One, Wrecks, Faith Healer, and Molly Sweeney. In addition to directing, Dellio, a former professional dancer and actor, is also a playwright. 
 
McMullen adds the Jack role to a wide spectrum of characters he's played, such as Valmont (Les Liaisons Dangereuses), Frank Hardy (Faith Healer), Roy Cohn (Angels In America), Mr. Rice (Molly Sweeney), Donnie Dubrow (American Buffalo), Thomas Becket (Murder in the Cathedral), Henry VIII (A Man For All Seasons), Ed Carr (Wrecks), Tony Wendice in Dial M For Murder, and General Wallace (The Andersonville Trial). McMullen has also directed productions of Faith Healer, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Chinese Coffee.
 
John Stevenson and Linda DiVirgilio play Howard and Judy, respectively. Stevenson is the co-founder of Pentimento Playback, an improvisational theater company that specializes in performing the stories of audience members. He was also a professional actor in his twenties, focusing primarily on Shakespeare. Stevenson performed the role of Robert in the first Capital District production of Betrayal in 1982. Stevenson and McMullen worked together in a 1989 production of Inherit The Wind at the RPI Playhouse. DiVirgilio has performed with McMullen twice before, playing Grace Hardy in Faith Healer and Emma in Betrayal. She has also appeared as Chelsea in On Golden Pond, Harper in Angels In America, and Ruella in Communicating Doors, and Mrs. Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank. 
 
Each performance will be at 8 pm. Admission is $15. For additional information, call 518-522-7273. ZuZu's Wonderful Life Cafe is located on 301 Hamilton Street in Albany. 


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://capdisttheater.org/pipermail/capdist-announce/attachments/20100731/6afd7142/attachment.html>