Two Gentlemen of Verona • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P1

39th Season • 378th ProductionSEGERSTROM STAGE / FEBRUARY 21 THROUGH MARCH 30, 2003

David Emmes Martin BensonPRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

presents

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Scenic Design Costume Design Lighting DesignDARCY SCANLIN JOYCE KIM LEE GEOFF KORF

Composer/Sound Design Vocal Consultant Production Manager Stage ManagerARAM ARSLANIAN URSULA MEYER JEFF GIFFORD *SCOTT HARRISON

Directed by

MARK RUCKER

Honorary Producers

HASKELL & WHITE, LLP

CAST OF CHARACTERS(In order of appearance)

Valentine ................................................................................. *Gregory CraneProteus .......................................................................................... *Scott SorenSpeed, a servant to Valentine ............................................. *Daniel T. ParkerJulia, beloved of Proteus ................................................... *Jennifer Elise CoxLucetta, waiting woman to Julia ...................................... *Rachel Dara WolfeAntonio, father to Proteus .............................................................. *Don TookPanthino, a servant to Antonio .............................................. *Hal Landon Jr.Silvia, beloved of Valentine ....................................................... *Nealy GlennLaunce, a servant to Proteus .................................................... *Travis VadenThurio, a rival to Valentine .................................................. *Guilford AdamsDuke of Milan, father to Silvia .......................................... *Preston MaybankOutlaws ................................................ * John-David Keller, *Hal Landon Jr.,

*Preston Maybank, *Martha McFarland, *Rachel Dara WolfeHost .................................................................................. *Martha McFarlandEglamour .................................................................................... *Erik JohnsonMusicians ....................... *Guilford Adams, Matt Demerritt, Phillip C. VadenEnsemble ......................................................................................... Katie HallCrab, a dog .......................................................................................... Blondie

SETTING Verona; Milan; Exile

LENGTHApproximately two hours and 30 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.

P2 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Two Gentlemen of Verona

Official Airline Media Partner

PRODUCTION STAFFAssistant Stage Manager ................................................ *Vanessa J. NoonCasting Director ............................................................... Joanne DeNautDramaturg ........................................................................... Jennifer KigerFight Coordinator ................................................................ Jamison JonesAssistant Director ............................................................... Deanna KeefeAssistants to the Set Designer .............. Melissa Ficociello, Ryan ScanlinAssistant to the Lighting Designer ....................................... Ben ZamoraCostume Design Assistant ........................................................ Julie KeenStage Management Intern ................................................. Amber ThomasAdditional Costume Staff ........................ Diane Camarrino, Pat Cavins,

Su Lin Chen, Merilee Ford, Tracy Gray, Conni Joslin, Sandra Kraus, Stacey Nezda, Peggy Oquist, Michael Pacciorini,

Cynthia Shaffer Thompson, Swantje Tuohino, Pamela Walt Deck Crew ........................................................... Jeff Ham, Bobby Weeks

Cellular phones, beepers and watch alarms should be turned off or set to non-audible mode during the performance. Please refrain from unwrapping candy or making

other noises that may disturb surrounding patrons.

The use of cameras and recorders in the theatre is prohibited.Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the theatre.

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Scott Soren, Jennifer Elise Cox, Nealy Glenn and Gregory Crane

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My love is as a fever longing still,For that which longer nurseth the disease;

Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,The uncertain sickly appetite to please.My reason, the physician to my love,

Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,Hath left me, and I desperate now approve

Desire is death, which physic did except.Past cure I am, now Reason is past care,And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;

My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are,At random from the truth vainly expressed;

For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

–William Shakespeare,Sonnet 147

My True-Love Hath My Heart

My true love hath my heart and I have his, By just exchange one for the other given:I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss;There never was a bargain better driven.His heart in me keeps me and him in one;My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:He loves my heart, for once it was his own;

I cherish his because in me it bides. His heart his wound received from my sight;

His heart was wounded with his wounded heart;For as from me on him his hurt did light,

So still, methought, in me his hurt did smart:Both equal hurt, in this change sought our bliss,

My true love hath my heart and I have his.

–Sir Philip Sidney

Some Things Never Change: Romance in the Age of Shakespeare

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To Sylvia To Wed

Let us, though late, at last, my Silvia wedAnd loving lie in one devoted bed.

Thy watch may stand, my minutes fly poste-haste;No sound calls back the year that once is past.Then, sweetest Silvia, let’s no longer stay;True love, we know precipitates delay.Away with doubts, all scruples hence remove;No man at one time can be wise and love.

–Robert Herrick

Julia, I bring To thee this ring,

Made for thy finger fit;To show by this That our love is

(Or should be) like to it.

Close though it beThe joint is free;

So, when love’s yoke is on, It must not gall,

Or fret at allWith hard oppression.

But it must playStill either way,

And be, too, such a yokeAs not too wide

To overslide,Orbe so straight to choke.

So we who bearThis beam must rearOurselves to such a heightAs that the stayOf either mayCreate the burden light.

And as this roundIs nowhere foundTo flaw, or else to sever:So let our loveAs endless prove,And pure as gold for ever.

–Robert Herrick

A Ring Presented to Julia

Love is too young to know what conscience is, Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?

Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove:

For, thou betraying me, I do betrayMy nobler part to my gross body’s treason;

My soul doth tell my body that he mayTriumph in love; flesh stays no farther reason,

But rising at thy name doth point out thee,As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,

He is contented thy poor drudge to be,To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.No want of conscience hold it that I call

Her love, for whose dear love I rise and fall.

–William Shakespeare, Sonnet 151

Critics may argue about the exact date Two Gentlemen ofVerona was written, but most agree that it is one of Shake-speare’s first comedies. In the following excerpt from theintroduction to the Signet Classic Edition (New York,1964), editor Bertrand Evans argues that this early effortbegan Shakespeare’s journey into a whole new genre: theromantic comedy.

Perhaps more than any other work of Shake-speare’s, The Two Gentlemen of Verona* needs tobe taken for what it is: a product of its time

written by a young poet-dramatist seekinghis way in what was for him a newgenre….

The genre was romanticcomedy, in the sense we meanwhen we mention the master-pieces that would follow inquick succession—The Mer-chant of Venice, Much Adoabout Nothing, As You Like Itand Twelfth Night. The dateof The Two Gentlemen ofVerona is uncertain; the playmay have been written as early as1590-91, or as late as 1594-95. Buthowever late or early, within these ex-tremes, it was for Shakespeare the first of akind….

Whether before or after Love’s Labor’s Lost and TheTaming of the Shrew, it was in The Two Gentlemen ofVerona that Shakespeare found the way that led to theultimate Twelfth Night. The basic stuff of romance, ofcourse, lay around him everywhere, in prose and verse,in English, French, Spanish and Italian, in medieval andcontemporary tellings and retellings. Long before TheTwo Gentlemen of Verona was written, the materials ofromance had grown enamored of specific themes and en-crusted with specific conventions. The theme of conflictbetween friendship and love was one that Chaucer hadused and that was used again and again, in various formsof romantic tales and in various countries; indeed, Shake-speare’s own sonnets play variations upon this theme, inthe shadowy outline of a story that they tell of friendshipbetween young men, of jealousy and separation occa-sioned by love of a third person, and finally of reconcilia-tion….

What Shakespeare undertook in The Two Gentle-men of Verona was the experimental task of adapting the

materials, themes, and conventions of meandering narra-tive romance (or of lyric verse) to dramatic form—to cre-ate action that might be contained in two hours, charac-ters sufficiently credible that they might be representedby corporeal actors on stage, a “world” of sufficient densi-ty to sustain both the action and the characters….

Julia and Silvia, Valentine and Proteus are the mostnotable human fixtures in the special world of romanticcomedy that was born with The Two Gentlemen ofVerona. They are light but durable fixtures, as that world

requires. If they are not wholly credible, yet theyare more credible than were their forbears

in the romances, and they are credibleenough, palpable enough, one may

say, for the world of romanticcomedy, the nature of whichwould be altered if it weremade to sustain creaturesmore solid. They are of akind with this special world.

The world of romanticcomedy, both as it was first

drawn in this play and as itwas re-created in each of the

masterpieces that followed, of course includes other fea-tures besides the heroes and heroines who invariably in-habit it. …Shakespeare’s introduction of [Speed andLaunce] into romance helped bring romantic comedy intobeing: the oozy world of romance needed their dryness.Their presence does not particularly help to make this in-credible world credible; but it does what is just as good—namely, helps to make the point that this world does nothave to be perfectly credible, helps to render its very in-credibility acceptable. In such a world as they inhabit,how can we reasonably balk at such a turn as the suddenredemption of Proteus, or Valentine’s magnanimous offerof Silvia? They are reminders that we are to keep ourperspective and not consider things too seriously….

Viewed thus, for what it is in part and whole, theplay needs no apology…. It transformed romance intoromantic comedy, and it founded a great line.

*The title as it appears in the First Folio (1623). Throughthe centuries, it has varied.

The First of its Kind

P6 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Two Gentlemen of Verona

A scene from SCR’s 2000 production of‘Much Ado about Nothing,’ with, from left,

Marika Becz, Julia Coffey and Nike Doukas.‘Much Ado’ is one of a long line of Shakespeare’s

masterpieces in the genre of romantic comedy.

Two Gentlemen of Verona • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P7

If Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard can be be-lieved, The Two Gentlemen of Verona was QueenElizabeth’s favorite Shakespeare play until, that

is, she saw that other play set in Verona, Romeoand Juliet. Near the beginning of the film Shake-speare in Love, Elizabeth is shown laughing herhead off at the antics of Launce and his dog Crabduring a performance of The Two Gentlemen ofVerona at court. “Love and a bit with a dog, that’swhat they like,” Shakespeare’s manager observesbackstage.

There is no real evidence that the historicalQueen Elizabeth ever saw either The Two Gentle-men of Verona or Romeo and Juliet, but Stoppardfollows the opinion of most Shakespeare scholars inassuming that The Two Gentlemen of Verona is oneof Shakespeare’s earliest plays.

In the late 1580s, the twenty-somethingWilliam Shakespeare was just beginning to writeplays, probably for Lord Strange’s troupe. Traditiongoing back to the 18th Century has it that the youngman from Stratford began his association with theactors by holding gentlemen’s horses outside theplayhouse, the equivalent of a parking lot attendanttoday. During the 1588-89 season Lord Strange’sMen were, in fact, paid for performing an unnamedplay at court. Could that play have been The TwoGentlemen of Verona, complete with dog act? In1590 Lord Strange’s Men amalgamated with LordAdmiral’s Men to form a new company that evolved,four years later, into the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, inwhich Shakespeare became a major stockholder….

The delights of The Two Gentlemen of Verona arethose of a verbal and narrative ballet. Two friends,two servants, two cities, two ladies: those symmetriesare constantly being underscored in the verse. In theplay’s opening lines the two gentlemen of the title,Valentine and Proteus, introduce themselves in a pairof speeches of almost exactly the same number oflines. No sooner is the symmetry set up than it seemsto be spoiled by the need of the two friends to part.Valentine plans “to see the wonders of the worldabroad” at the Duke of Milan’s court, while Proteus’ fa-ther resolves to send his son to Milan. The friends arereunited, restoring the play’s symmetry with avengeance when Proteus promptly falls in love withhis friend’s mistress, the Duke of Milan’s daughter Sil-via. Proteus’ predicament is exquisite:

I cannot leave to love, and yet I do. But there I leave to love where I should love. Julia I lose, and Valentine I lose. If I keep them I needs must lose myself. If I lose them, thus find I by their lossFor Valentine, myself, for Julia, Silvia.

(II.6, 17-22)

Indeed, Shakespeare takes up many of the con-cerns that occupy him throughout his career. First ofall, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, like most of Shake-speare’s comedies, is a coming-of-age play in which afantasy of social mobility looms large. In deciding tosend his son to the Duke of Milan’s court, Proteus’ fa-ther Antonio is doing just what fathers of all socialranks did in Shakespeare’s England. Even men of“slender reputation,” Antonio’s servant reminds him,

Love and a Bit with a Dog

Henry Compton asLaunce, c. 1850.

P8 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Two Gentlemen of Verona

“Put forth their sons to seek preferment out.” Anto-nio’s plan is to send Proteus to the Duke of Milan’scourt, where the young man will become a kind ofapprentice in the arts of gentility. Valentine, for hispart, deports himself with such “spirit” that the Dukeaccepts him as a son-in-law, “worthy of an empress’love.” In its fantasy of social mobility through mar-riage, The Two Gentlemen of Verona anticipates AsYou Like It, The Merchant ofVenice, Measure for Mea-sure and All’s Well ThatEnd’s Well.

The play likewise of-fers Julia as the first in a se-ries of female protagonistsin Shakespeare’s comedieswho secures the play’shappy ending by dressingup as a man and followingher lover out into the worldincognito. Rosalind in AsYou Like It, Portia in TheMerchant of Venice, andImogen in Cymbeline followJulia’s lead.

The play also sharesan escapist vision that lo-cates the resolution of life’sproblems in a greenwoodlandscape. The play’s geog-raphy extends from Verona(where Proteus and Valen-tine start out) to Milan(where they precipitate theplay’s crisis by falling inlove with the same woman). The turning point, how-ever, occurs somewhere between the two cities, in awilderness inhabited by exiled “gentlemen/Such as thefury of ungoverned you/Thrust from the companyaweful men.” (“Aweful” in this case means “awe-in-spiring.”) Operating as a gang of outlaws, these head-strong gentlemen accost Valentine and Speed withstrange politeness: “Stand, sir, and throw us that yehave about ye.” After hearing that Valentine is anexile himself, they persuade him to become their lead-er. Valentine and the outlaws figure as prototypes forDuke Senior and his exiled courtiers in As You Like It’sforest of Arden. As a place set apart from the lawsthat constrain human emotions amid the civilities ofcity and court, the wilderness in The Two Gentlemenof Verona functions much as the woods outsideAthens do in A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Belmontin The Merchant of Venice or Illyria in Twelfth Night.

Above all else, the recurrent concern that TheTwo Gentlemen of Verona addresses is the problem of

reconciling male friendship with marriage. In a patri-archal society like Elizabethan England, friendship be-tween men was valued as the highest of human ties,beyond the relationship of son to father, of brother tobrother, of husband to wife. Proteus and Valentinebegin the play as exemplary friends in this time-hon-ored tradition. Valentine’s imminent departure for thecourt of Milan inspires the two friends to pledge their

loyalty to one another inprecisely balanced speech-es: Valentine addresses “myloving Proteus,” Proteus re-sponds with a speech to“sweet Valentine.” Thatlanguage of mutual friend-ship continues until roman-tic love estranges the pairin the person of the Duke’sdaughter Silvia. In similarfashion, Portia separatesBassanio and Antonio inThe Merchant of Venice,Hermione separatesLeontes and Polixines inThe Winter’s Tale, andEmilia separates Palamonand Arcite in Shakespeare’svery last play, The TwoNoble Kinsmen.

How to negotiate theimpasse between friendshipand marriage? InMerchant, Bassanio gets hiswife and Antonio gets hisships. In Winter’s Tale,

friend is reconciled with friend and wife is unexpect-edly restored to husband after sixteen years of suffer-ing. In Kinsmen, friend kills friend in a tournamentthat decides the lady’s hand. In Two Gents, Valentinegraciously bequeaths Silvia’s hand to Proteus, who,suddenly struck with the constancy of Julia/Sebastian,returns Silvia’s hand to his friend. Two Gents closeswith the two friends and their wives joining togetherin “one feast, one house, one mutual happiness.” It isa problem that Shakespeare returns to again andagain, in tragedies like Othello, Macbeth, and Anthonyand Cleopatra as well as in his comedies.

In the last analysis, then, The Two Gentlemen ofVerona offers audiences much more than “love and abit with a dog.”

Excerpted from an article by Dr. Bruce R. Smith ofGeorgetown University, first published in Asides(2001). Reprinted with the permission of The Shake-speare Theatre, Washington, DC.

Caravaggio’s Amor Victorious

*GUILFORD ADAMS (Thurio) ismaking his SCR debut. Theatrecredits include Amadeus at Theatri-cal Arts International; A ChristmasCarol King, All’s Kool that EndsKool, Funky Punks w/Junk inTrunks at the Troubadour TheatreCompany; Love’s Labour’s Lost andBus Stop at A Noise Within; Romeo& Juliet at Will & Company; A Mid-summer Night’s Dream at GrandCanyon Shakespeare; The Tamingof the Shrew and Taming of Pan-talone at the Kentucky ShakespeareFestival; and Twelfth Night at TheGlobe Theatres. Film credits in-clude Boys Don’t Cry, Shooting LA,Equinox Knocks, Mouth Garden,Distinct Smell of Red and NaturalSelection.

*JENNIFER ELISE COX (Julia) returnsto SCR having appeared in ThePhiladelphia Story. Other theatrecredits include Be Aggressive at theLa Jolla Playhouse, Space Station 79

(which she co-wrote for the Come-dy Central Stage), It’s Our Time toShine (which she co-wrote for the2000 HBO US Comedy Arts Festi-val), Girl Talk for the 2002 HBOU.S. Comedy Arts Festival and LesLiaisons Dangereuses at the GroveShakespeare Festival. Film creditsinclude The Brady Bunch Movie, AVery Brady Sequel, Can’t HardlyWait, Dropping Out, Ed TV, Fearand Loathing in Las Vegas, ForeverFabulous, The Independent and theupcoming feature Clean Cut. Tele-vision credits include a series regu-lar role on the WB’s sketch-comedyshow “Hype,” “Sex and the City,”“Will and Grace,” “Murphy Brown”and “Greetings from Tucson.”

*GREGORY CRANE (Valentine) ismaking his SCR debut. Theatrecredits include The Merchant ofVenice at Fractured Atlas Produc-tions; The Razormen at Pulse En-semble Theatre; No Exit, Talk to Me

Like the Rain and Sincerity Foreverat New York University; Berlin/Berlin at Playwrights Horizons; Inthe Jungle of Cities at the Red RoomTheatre; and Diary of Anne Frank,A Midsummer Night’s Dream andAmbrosio at the Hangar Theatre.He is the creator of Love, 10, a one-man show about TennesseeWilliams. Film and television in-clude A Pig’s Tale, “Any Day Now,”“Boston Public,” “Undressed” and“The Big Easy.” Dedicated to mymother.

*NEALY GLENN (Silvia) previouslyappeared at SCR in the NewSCRiptsreading of Steven Drukman’s TheBullet Round. Her theatre creditsinclude Loose Ends at the GuthrieExperience; Realtime, Battle Hymnand The Book of the Dun Cow at theNew Harmony Project; and TheMerchant of Venice, The Comedy ofErrors and The Town of Ripton atShakespeare and Company. Her

Artist Biographies

JENNIFER ELISE COX

JuliaGREGORY CRANE

ValentineGUILFORD ADAMS

Thurio

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film and television credits includeGetting In, “Law & Order: SVU,”“Third Watch,” “Guilty Hearts” and“Chicken Soup for the Soul.” Sheattended the NYU Graduate Schoolfor Acting.

*ERIK JOHNSON (Eglamour) ismaking his SCR debut. Theatrecredits include Our Town (MichaelGreif, dir.) and Sheridan u/s (MarkBrokaw, dir.) at the La Jolla Play-house; King Stag (Andre Belgrader,dir.), Blue Room (Kyle Donnelly,dir.), Duchess of Malfi, Arcadia,Life’s a Dream, and Twelfth Night atMandell Weiss and Weiss Forum;Romeo and Juliet and Merry Wivesat the Dallas Shakespeare Festival;and Straight Jacket and Tie at theKitchen Dog Theatre. Mr. Johnsonreceived his MFA in acting fromUCSD.

*JOHN-DAVID KELLER (Outlaw) is amember of SCR’s resident actingcompany. He has been with thecompany since 1973 working asboth an actor and director. He hasdirected A Christmas Carol for itsentire 23-year history. He is re-sponsible for directing SCR’s Educa-tional Touring Production of IndianSummer, which opened in January2003. Among his directing credits

are Godspell, Jacques Brel, In Fash-ion, The Real Inspector Hound(SCR’s first Equity show), Peg O’ MyHeart and TomFoolery, to name afew. He has also acted in manyshows at SCR. He is the concerthost for the fifth grade concerts forthe Orange County PhilharmonicSociety. He has performed with theNational Symphony Orchestra andthe Sydney Philharmonic when theytoured in Orange County.

*HAL LANDON JR. (Panthino/Out-law) is an SCR Founding Artist whorecently appeared in Major Bar-bara, Getting Frankie Married—and Afterwards, The School forWives, Much Ado about Nothing,Entertaining Mr. Sloane, The HollowLands, True West, Play Strindberg,Tartuffe and Ah, Wilderness! Othercredits include Arcadia, Our Town,Sidney Bechet Killed a Man, BAFO,Six Degrees of Separation, An IdealHusband, A Mess of Plays by ChrisDurang , The Things You Don’tKnow, Faith Healer, Ghost in theMachine, Green Icebergs, Morning’sat Seven, Dancing at Lughnasa, TheMiser, Our Country’s Good andWaiting for Godot. He created therole of Ebenezer Scrooge in SCR’s AChristmas Carol, and has performedit in all 23 annual productions. He

appeared in Leander Stillwell at theMark Taper Forum and in Henry Vat the Globe Theatres in San Diego.Other resident theatre roles includeSalieri in Amadeus, Malvolio inTwelfth Night and Gordon Miller inRoom Service. Among his film cred-its are Trespass, Pacific Heights, Al-most an Angel, Bill and Ted’s Excel-lent Adventure and Playing byHeart. Television credits include arecent episode of “Frasier.”

*PRESTON MAYBANK (Duke ofMilan/Outlaw) returns to SCR afterhaving appeared in Much Adoabout Nothing. New York theatrecredits include Liars (The JosephPapp Public Theater), Sour Springs(Theatre for a New City), A Mar-riage Proposal (Rapp Art Canter)and Romeo and Juliet (Purchase).His regional theatre appearances in-clude Family Affairs (Dorsett The-atre Festival); Justice (Padua HillsPlaywrights Festival); The Impor-tance of Being Earnest (Long BeachStudio Theatre); The Elephant Man(Knightsbridge Theatre); School forScandal, The Three Sisters, MajorBarbara and Tartuffe (A NoiseWithin); and the European tour ofHucksters of the Soul. Televisioncredits include “Every Knee ShallBow,” “Cybill,” “Suddenly Susan,”

NEALY GLENN

SilviaERIK JOHNSON

EglamourJOHN-DAVID KELLER

Outlaw

“Pride and Joy,” “A.J. Time Travel-ers,” “Matlock,” “Tony and Tina’sWedding,” “Abductions,” “Shades ofL.A.,” “Days of Our Lives,” “One Lifeto Live” and “Ryan’s Hope.” Filmappearances include Puddin’ HeadWilson, Longtime Companion, Wed-lock and Nightmare Weekend, theHBO feature War of the ColossalBeast and Novocaine, with SteveMartin, directed by David Atkins.

*MARTHA McFARLAND (Host/Out-law) is an SCR Founding Artist whoserved as the theatre’s Casting Di-rector for 11 years. Most recentlyshe appeared as Mrs. Baines inMajor Barbara, Georgette in TheSchool for Wives, Ursula in MuchAdo about Nothing, Mom in TrueWest, Alice in Play Strindberg andreprised her role as Norah in Ah,Wilderness! Other roles at SCR in-

clude appearances in Our Town,Pygmalion, Private Lives, An IdealHusband, as Dr. Charlotte Wallacein Beyond Therapy and as part ofthe Drama-Logue Award-winningensembles of TomFoolery and Sideby Side by Sondheim. She also ap-peared as Pope Joan and Louise inboth the Second Stage and West-wood Playhouse engagements ofTop Girls. She has appeared in 17of the 23 productions of A Christ-mas Carol, having missed the firstyear when she was on a U.S. tourwith James Mason in A Partridge ina Pear Tree. Ms. McFarland is alsoa director, having staged Sly Foxand The Foreigner at the LagunaPlayhouse, Top Girls at UCI and theworld premiere of City with the Cir-cle X Company in Los Angeles. Sheis a teacher with the SCR Profession-al Conservatory and privately in the

L.A./Orange County area. Ms. Mc-Farland is also a popular voice-overartist, a published poet and theSouthern California Casting Directorwith the Oregon Shakespeare Festi-val in Ashland.

*DANIEL T. PARKER (Speed) ap-peared in the SCR NewSCRipts read-ing of Family Practice. He has ap-peared in numerous productions atThe Actor’s Gang in L.A. includingA Fairy Tale (Garland Award), Eu-phoria, The Imaginary Invalid(Ovation Award), Hysteria and TitusAndronicus. His Off-Broadwaycredits include Hedda Gabler atManhattan Theatre Club, StreetDreams at La Mama, Father Anony-mous at the Ensemble Studio The-atre and Gun Play at Naked Angels.Regionally he has been seen in HayFever directed by Anne Bogart with

HAL LANDON JR.Panthino/Outlaw

PRESTON MAYBANK

Duke of Milan/OutlawMARTHA MCFARLAND

Host/Outlaw

Two Gentlemen of Verona • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P11

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the Siti, Co. at the Actors Theatre ofLouisville, A Fairy Tale at the Hunt-ington Theatre, Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella at Yale Repertory, Picnicat Baltimore Center Stage, SheStoops to Conquer and A Midsum-mer Night’s Dream at ShakespeareSanta Cruz and five seasons at theWilliamstown Theatre Festival inWild Oats, Henry IV, Part I and II, AFunny Thing Happened on the Wayto the Forum and 1776. He ap-peared in the films Two Days, NeverGet Outta the Boat, Galaxy Quest,The Out-of-Towners, and WorkingGirl, and on television in “E.R.,”“Spenser for Hire,” “Tracy Takes On. . .” (recurring) and the movies-of-the week Thin Air, Crossfire Trailand Small Vices.

*SCOTT SOREN (Proteus) is makinghis SCR debut. Theatre credits in-clude Julius Caesar and A Midsum-mer Night’s Dream at Will & Co.; AsYou Like It at Palmdale; and TheCount of Monte Cristo, The Ken-tucky Cycle, The Merry Wives ofWindsor, Picasso at the Lapin Agileand Overruled at Asolo.

*DON TOOK (Antonio/Outlaw) is anSCR Founding Artist who recentlyappeared in The School for Wives,The Beard of Avon, Much Ado about

Nothing and The Countess. In previ-ous seasons, he was seen in TheHollow Lands, A Christmas Caroland The Philanderer. Other recentSCR productions include PlayStrindberg, Tartuffe, Ah, Wilder-ness!, Pygmalion, Our Town, Arca-dia, BAFO (for which he won aDrama-Logue Award), She Stoops toFolly, Three Viewings, A StreetcarNamed Desire, The Misanthrope andPterodactyls. He also appeared inthe world premiere of HospitalitySuite and the revival of ThePhiladelphia Story. Mr. Took isproud to be an SCR Founding Artistwith 37 years of experience in awide variety of roles. He enjoyedplaying the role of Greg in a record-breaking run of A.R. Gurney’sSylvia at the Laguna Playhouse; andhis latest venture is Shakesperience– a high school touring productionhe conceived and co-authored withHal Landon Jr., SCR’s residentScrooge – somewhat loosely basedon the Carl Reiner-Mel Brooks“2000 Year-Old Man” concept; Doninterviews Hal as Shakespeare andinvites the students on stage to par-ticipate in scenes from the Bard’sworks. Television credits includeappearances on “Roseanne,”“Cheers,” “General Hospital,” “ER,”and he can currently be seen in his

recurring role as the evil Agent Greyin the ABC spy series, “Alias.”

*TRAVIS VADEN (Launce) appearedat SCR last season in The Circle andA Christmas Carol. Last summer hestarred in International City The-atre’s critically acclaimed productionof Master Harold and the Boys.Other theatre credits include LightUp the Sky, The Private Life of theMaster Race, A Midsummer Night’sDream, The Pawns of Tiger Land,Lone Star and Spoon River Antholo-gy at the American Academy of Dra-matic Art. He is a graduate of SCR’sProfessional Conservatory and at-tended the American Academy ofDramatic Arts.

*RACHEL DARA WOLFE (Lucetta/Outlaw) appeared at SCR in theNewSCRipts reading of StevenDrukman’s The Bullet Round. Hernumerous credits with the ClassicalTheater Lab include Trelawny of the“Wells,” in which she starred oppo-site Alfred Molina, as well as Othel-lo X 3, A Month in the Country,Measure for Measure, The Iliad, Ce-lestina and The Deceived. Other LosAngeles theater credits includeDubya 2000, Crime Scene andIcarus and Aria with the SacredFools; Prometheus Bound and Tro-

SCOTT SOREN

ProteusDON TOOK

Antonio/OutlawDANIEL T. PARKER

Speed

jan Women at the Hudson Theater;Private Battle with Actors’ Gang;Troubadour Theatre Company’sShrew! and 12th Dog Night at theFalcon Theatre, for which she wona Back Stage West Garland Award;and Twelfth Night, Too Clever byHalf and The Double Dealer at theLondon Academy of Music and Dra-matic Art, of which she is a gradu-ate. Ms. Wolfe’s film and televisionappearances include Badsville,8MM, The Real Old Testament and“C.S.I.”

DIRECTOR & DESIGNERS

MARK RUCKER (Director) directedThe Dazzle and Hold Please lastseason. Other SCR directing creditsinclude Much Ado about Nothing,The Summer Moon, Amy’s View,On the Jump , Dimly Perceived

Threats to the System, Our Town,The Birds, Art, The Triumph ofLove, The Taming of the Shrew,Later Life, Loot, Intimate Exchangesand the world premiere of SoMany Words by Roger Rueff. Mr.Rucker directed the premiere ofAnna Deavere Smith’s play HouseArrest at Arena Stage in Washing-ton, D.C. For Yale Repertory The-atre he directed productions ofTwelfth Night, Measure for Measure,The Cryptogram by David Mamet,John Guare’s Landscape of theBody, a new translation by JamesMcgruder of Molière’s ImaginaryInvalid and Kingdom of Earth byTennessee Williams. Other pro-ductions include The Beard ofAvon at ACT in San Francisco,Romeo & Juliet at the CaliforniaShakespeare Festival, How ILearned to Drive and The Taming

of the Shrew at the Intiman Theatre,The Model Apartment by DonaldMargulies at La Jolla Playhouse andDracula at The Globe Theatres.His other credits include Shaw’sArms and the Man for The ActingCompany, On the Razzle by TomStoppard at Indiana Repertory andten productions for ShakespeareSanta Cruz. He is a graduate ofUCLA and the Yale School ofDrama. He recently directed hisfirst feature film, Die Mommie, Die,which won a special jury prize atthe 2003 Sundance Film Festival.

DARCY SCANLIN (Scenic Design)returns for her third season at SCR.In past seasons she designed TheDazzle, The School for Wives andBosoms and Neglect. She also de-signed Long Beach Opera’s Jenufa,and Euridice at the Getty Museum.She is currently designing theworld premieres of Don Juan inPrague for the Bard Festival andGuest From the Future, for NineCircles Chamber Theatre. Ms. Scan-lin was awarded the NEA / TCGCareer Development Program forDesigners and received an Individ-ual Artists Fellowship through thePublic Corporation for the Arts.She received her MFA from CalArts in May 2000. Her earlier stud-ies were completed at University ofthe Pacific Conservatory of Musicand Chelsea College of Art, as wellas apprenticeships at San FranciscoOpera and Santa Fe Opera.

JOYCE KIM LEE (Costume Design) ispleased to be returning to SCR,

TRAVIS VADEN

LaunceRACHEL DARA WOLFE

Lucetta/Outlaw

Two Gentlemen of Verona • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P13

In this funny and fast-paced story about love and self-respect,Jennifer designs a duplicate of herself, but matters get complicated

when "Jenny" begins to make her own decisions.

World Premiere Announced for the Argyros Stage!

the intelligentdesign of

jenny chowCall (714) 708-5555

or buy online at www.scr.org

the intelligentdesign of

jenny chow

by Rolin JonesApril 29 - May 18

[ ]

P14 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Two Gentlemen of Verona

where she and director Mark Ruck-er have previously collaborated onHold Please, Art and The SummerMoon. Other SCR credits includeSidney Bechet Killed a Man directedby Juliette Carrillo and Entertaining

Mr. Sloane directed by Martin Ben-son. Some of her recent WestCoast design credits include Underthe Blue Sky directed by Gil Catesat the Geffen Playhouse and TheHouse of Bernarda Alba starring

Chita Rivera at the Mark TaperForum. She has also designed cos-tumes for the Los Angeles Opera,Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La JollaPlayhouse, East West Players, theIndiana Repertory Theatre, Chica-go’s Court Theatre, Santa Fe Cham-ber Music Festival, Arena Stage, theBerkshire Theatre Festival Chil-dren’s Theatre, the Latino TheatreCompany and the Singapore Reper-tory Theatre. Ms. Lee is a recipientof the NEA/TCG Career Develop-ment Grant for Designers. Her de-signs for The House of BernardaAlba were nominated for an Ova-tion Award and will be exhibited atthe Prague Quadrennial this spring.

GEOFF KORF (Lighting Design) de-signed lighting for the SCR produc-tions of The Dazzle, Making It,Hold Please, Art, Entertaining Mr.Sloane, Amy’s View, The SummerMoon, References to Salvador DaliMake Me Hot and Two Sisters and aPiano. This past holiday season hedesigned the lights for CornerstoneTheater’s production of Erik Ehn’sMary Shelly’s Santa Claus. Mr. Korfis also a member of the ensembleof Cornerstone Theater where hehas designed almost 20 productionsover the past ten years. His de-signs have also appeared in pro-ductions at La Jolla Playhouse, TheGlobe Theatres, Geffen Playhouse,Seattle Repertory Theatre, ACT The-atre in Seattle, Long Beach Opera,San Francisco Opera, GoodmanTheatre, Trinity Repertory, YaleRepertory Theatre, Huntington The-atre, Actors Theatre of Louisville,

MATT DEMERRITT began his musi-cal studies at age 9 in Denverwhen he startedplaying saxo-phone in hisschool band. Byage 16 he wassitting in at clubsaround Denver,and earning firstchair spots incitywide and statewide jazz ensem-bles. In college he studied classi-cal and jazz saxophone, as well astheory, harmony, and arranging.He received saxophone and im-prov instruction from Joe Lovano,Gary Smulyan and Steve Wilson,as well as lessons in ensembleplaying from Rufus Reid, ToddCoolman and Jim McNeely. Hehas since recorded with GeorgeClinton and Gary Shider from Par-liament/ Funkadelic, the popularbossa nova group “Quitetto X,”The Jade Vincent Experiment andthe Breakestra. He has touredwith singer Macy Gray. That tourincluded jamming with Prince andperforming Coltrane's masterpiece,“A Love Supreme” with Carlos San-tana, as well as playing nightly tobig houses all over the world. He

has played regularly with “ActionFigure Party,” the quirkyjazz/rock/funk brainchild of key-boardist Greg Kurstin, and the be-hemoth hip hop orchestra,“Dakah,” led by Geoff Gallegos.He can also be heard supportingsingers Damon Aaron and JimBianco. He has led his owngroup, and frequently shows hisphotography around LA. In addi-tion to tenor saxophone, he playsflute, keyboards, percussion, andhis new favorite instrument, themelodica.

PHILLIP C. VADEN made his SCRdebut earlier this season in AChristmas Carol.Theatre creditsinclude Sticksand Stones, AMidsummerNight’s Dream,Scenes and Reve-lations, Love Let-ters, Waiting forGodot and Blood Wedding. He isa recent graduate of SCR’s Profes-sional Conservatory and has beenin readings for the Hispanic Play-wrights Project and Howard Kor-der’s new play.

MUSICIANS

2002 PPF reading of Intimate Apparel, with (from right to left) Karole Foreman, Erica Gimpel in foreground and L. Scott Caldwell and Jeff Allin seated in back.

Experience all that is exciting and cutting edge in American theatre!

SCR2002-2003 Season

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The Children’s Theatre Company ofMinneapolis, Stage One inLouisville, and on Broadway. Mr.Korf is a graduate of California StateUniversity, Chico and the YaleSchool of Drama. He is also amember of the faculty at the Uni-versity of Washington in Seattle.

ARAM ARSLANIAN (Composer/Sound Design) is pleased to returnto SCR where he designed LobbyHero and Hold Please last season.As a founding member of the Re-lentless Theatre Company he hascomposed and designed sound forAnd Baby Makes Seven, Skin, Hitand Run, The Crackwalker and astaged reading of Sonnets for anOld Century. Other shows includeCulture Clash’s Chavez Ravine aspart of the Mark Taper Forum’snext step series, the Lillian Theatre’sContentious Minds, the Open FistTheatre’s A Time Piece and Guerni-ca, the Gascon Center Theatre’sSun Dialogues and the Attic The-atre’s Just Society. He composedoriginal themes for ESPN’s Century’sGreatest Athletes series and hasscored numerous independentfilms. Also a songwriter andrecording artist, he has released twoCDs on the Surprise Truck Recordslabel (www.surprisetruck. com) andhas performed extensively acrossthe country. As a record producer,his credits include jazz harpist StellaCastellucci’s Lights and Shadows,Volumes I, II & III, the Hyperions’Howl and the Ethers self-titleddebut. Most recently he has beenworking as musical director and

guitarist for Capitol recording artistLisa Marie Presley.

URSULA MEYER (Vocal Consultant)has been teaching and coachingvoice and text since 1980. Her pro-fessional credits include, amongothers, La Jolla Playhouse, TheGlobe Theatres, the Guthrie The-ater, American Conservatory The-atre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz andnumerous seasons for the OregonShakespeare Festival where she wasmost recently resident Voice andText Director. She has taught Voiceand Text for U. C. Santa Barbara, U.C. Santa Cruz, the University ofMinnesota in Minneapolis, the Uni-versity of Washington, the YaleSchool of Drama, the Old GlobeTraining Program and is currentlyon the faculty at U.C. San Diego.She graduated with distinction fromthe Voice Studies Program at theCentral School of Speech andDrama in London and is a designat-ed Linklater teacher. This is hertenth show with Mark Rucker andshe is very happy to be back by hisside.

*SCOTT HARRISON (Stage Manager)most recently stage managed AChristmas Carol and served as As-sistant Stage Manager for MajorBarbara. He spent this summer’shiatus in Laguna Beach working onthe stage crew for the Pageant ofthe Masters and stage managed theworld premiere of Jon Maran’sJumping for Joy at the Laguna Play-house. He has stage managed over32 shows on the Mainstage, includ-

ing Mark Rucker’s stagings of TheTaming of the Shrew and Much Adoabout Nothing, stage managed theworld premiere of La Posada Mági-ca, and has previously served asAssistant Stage Manager on morethan 35 additional Mainstage pro-ductions. He has also stage man-aged at Seattle’s Intiman Theatre,San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts,Shakespeare Festival/Los Angeles,La Mirada Theatre for the Perform-ing Arts, Highways PerformanceSpace as well as several othersmaller theatres in the Los Angelesarea and is a graduate of Pepper-dine University. Mr. Harrisonwould like to take this opportunityto acknowledge and continuouslysupport his friends and colleagueswho are battling the fight of AIDS.

*VANESSA J. NOON (AssistantStage Manager) has been the Assis-tant Stage Manager on A ChristmasCarol and Proof this season. Previ-ously at SCR she stage managedMaking It, Nostalgia, The LonesomeWest and The Countess. Besidesworking at SCR, she has stage man-aged for the Mark Taper Forum’sNew Works Festival and P.L.A.Y.Tour, Shakespeare Santa Cruz,Shakespeare Festival/L.A., A NoiseWithin, Buena Vista Special Eventsat The El Capitan Theater and Uni-versal Studios Hollywood. She hasalso worked on the AcademyAwards, the Primetime EmmyAwards, “America: A Tribute toHeroes” telethon, the Pearl Harbormovie premiere onboard the USSJohn C. Stennis in Hawaii and the

Two Gentlemen of Verona • SOUTH COAST REPERTORY P15

Five works in development by playwrights includingPulitzer Prize-nominees Howard Korder (Sea of

Tranquility ) and Amy Freed (The Cotton Mather Story).

World Premiere on the Segerstrom StageIntimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage

World Premiere on the Argyros StageThe Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow by Rolin Jones

Exciting new work by a select

group of American playwrights

Theatre for adventurous audiences!

6th Annual Pacific Playwrights Festival

May 16-18, 2003

PL

US

Anaheim Angels World Series Victo-ry Celebration at Edison Field.

DAVID EMMES (Producing ArtisticDirector) is co-founder and Produc-ing Artistic Director of SCR, one ofthe largest professional resident the-atres in California. He has receivednumerous awards for productionshe has directed during SCR’s 38-year history, including a 1999 LosAngeles Drama Critics Circle Awardfor the direction of George BernardShaw’s The Philanderer. He direct-ed the world premieres of AmyFreed’s The Beard of Avon andFreedomland, Thomas Babe’s GreatDay in the Morning, Keith Reddin’sRum and Coke and But Not for Meand Neal Bell’s Cold Sweat; theAmerican premiere of Terry John-son’s Unsuitable for Adults; theWest Coast premieres of C.P. Tay-lor’s Good and Harry Kondoleon’sChristmas on Mars; and the South-land premiere of Top Girls (at SCRand the Westwood Playhouse).Other productions include the WestCoast premieres of Three Viewingsby Jeffrey Hatcher, The Secret Rap-ture by David Hare and New Eng-land by Richard Nelson; and Arca-dia by Tom Stoppard, Six Degreesof Separation by John Guare, TheImportance of Being Earnest byOscar Wilde, Ayckbourn’s Womanin Mind and You Never Can Tell byGeorge Bernard Shaw, which herestaged for the 1990 SingaporeFestival of Arts. His producing re-sponsibilities involve the overall co-ordination of SCR’s programs andprojects. He has served as a con-sultant to the Orange County Per-forming Arts Center and as a theatrepanelist and onsite evaluator for theNational Endowment for the Arts.He has served on the board of theCalifornia Theatre Council, the Ex-ecutive Committee of the League of

Resident Theatres, and as a panelistfor the California Arts Council.After attending Orange Coast Col-lege, he received his BA and MAfrom California State University, SanFrancisco, and his PhD in theatreand film from USC.

MARTIN BENSON (Artistic Director)shares co-founder credit and artisticleadership of SCR with his col-league David Emmes. As one ofSCR’s chief directors, Mr. Bensonhas directed nearly one third of theplays produced here in the last 38years. He has distinguished himselfin the staging of contemporarywork, most notably Paul Osborn’sMorning’s at Seven, the critically ac-claimed California premiere ofWilliam Nicholson’s Shadowlands,Athol Fugard’s Playland , BrianFriel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, DavidMamet’s Oleanna, Harold Pinter’sThe Homecoming, the West Coastpremiere of Peter Hedges’ Good AsNew and David Hare’s Skylight. Hehas won accolades for his directionof five major works by GeorgeBernard Shaw, including the LosAngeles Drama Critics Circle(LADCC) Award winners Misal-liance and Heartbreak House .Among the numerous world pre-mieres he has directed are Jon Bas-tian’s Noah Johnson Had a Whore...,Tom Strelich’s BAFO, and MargaretEdson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit,which he also directed at SeattleRepertory Theatre and the AlleyTheatre in Houston. He has direct-ed American classics including Ah,Wilderness!, A Streetcar Named De-sire, A Delicate Balance and All MySons. Mr. Benson has been hon-ored with the Drama-Logue Awardfor his direction of 21 productionsand received LADCC DistinguishedAchievement in Directing awards anunparalleled six times for the two

Shaw productions, John MillingtonSynge’s Playboy of the WesternWorld, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible,Sally Nemeth’s Holy Days and Wit.He also directed the film version ofHoly Days using the original SCRcast. Along with David Emmes, heaccepted SCR’s 1988 Tony Awardfor Outstanding Resident Profes-sional Theatre and won the 1995Theatre LA Ovation Award for Life-time Achievement. Mr. Benson re-ceived his BA in Theatre from Cali-fornia State University, San Francis-co.

PAULA TOMEI (Managing Director)is responsible for the overall admin-istration of the day-to-day opera-tions of SCR. A member of the staffsince 1979, she has served in anumber of administrative capacitiesincluding Subscriptions Manager,Business Manager and GeneralManager. She currently serves asPresident of Theatre Communica-tions Group (TCG), the national ser-vice organization for theatre whereshe also served a two-year term asTreasurer, and has served as theVice President of the League of Res-ident Theatres (LORT). In addition,she has been a member of theLORT Negotiating Committee for in-dustry-wide union agreements andrepresents SCR at national confer-ences of TCG and LORT; is a the-atre panelist and site visitor for theNational Endowment for the Artsand the California Arts Council(CAC); served on the AdvisoryCommittee for the Arts Administra-tion Certificate Program at UCIrvine; and has been a guest lectur-er in the graduate school of busi-ness at Stanford. She graduatedfrom UC Irvine with a degree inEconomics and pursued an addi-tional course of study in theatre anddance.

The Actors and Stage Managers em-ployed in this production are membersof Actors’ Equity Association, the Unionof Professional Actors and Stage Man-agers in the United States.

The Scenic, Costume, Lighting andSound Designers in LORT theatresare represented by United ScenicArtists Local USA-829, IATSE.

The Director is a member of the Soci-ety of Stage Directors and Choreogra-phers, Inc., an independent nationallabor union.

P16 SOUTH COAST REPERTORY • Two Gentlemen of Verona