Passion and chivalry are alive and kicking thanks to Cyrano de Bergerac—he's poetic, charming, brave, and protective, and he's in hot pursuit of his smart and beautiful cousin Roxane. Just don't mention his rather impressive nose, lest you meet the sharp end of Cyrano's sword.
"This is one of the best male roles out there," says Gabriel Barre, the Tony-nominated director of the play who also stars in the title role. "It's hard not to have a good time with it."
Of course there must be unrequited love and character mix-ups in any good romantic tale: Cyrano has some competition in handsome but dim-witted Christian, who uses Cyrano as his ghostwriter of love letters to try to win Roxane's heart.
Although Cyrano is set in 17th-century France during the age of Louis XIII, Barre says the play's "humble approach to storytelling" is both "poignant and timeless."
Barre chose the Anthony Burgess translation of the 1897 French play for its clever and humorous rhymed verses and its "rich and beautiful imagery." It became the basis for the 1990 film starring Gérard Depardieu.
The performance piles on the romance with a live musical score, performed by actor-musicians, which adds a "beautiful layer," says Barre.
And what's a good love story without a fight scene or two? Under the direction of award-winning Broadway fight director Rick Sordelet, Cyrano's sword-fighting scenes keep things from getting too lovey-dovey. Tony Award-winning lighting designer Jeff Croiter (Peter and the Starcatcher) joins the company to lead the design team.
"This is theater of the senses," says Barre. "There's so much for audiences to experience."
Who will triumph in the end and win Roxane's heart? Only the nose knows.
Cyrano de Bergerac runs from Friday, November 15, through Sunday, November 24, 2013, at the Philip J. Levin Theater. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $25 for the general public, $20 for Rutgers alumni and employees and seniors, and only $15 for students with valid ID. The Philip J. Levin Theater is in the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center, 85 George Street (between Route 18 and Ryders Lane), on the Douglass Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in New Brunswick. For more information about any Mason Gross event, visit www.masongross.rutgers.edu or call the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center ticket office at 848-932-7511.
PHOTO: Back left to right, Kate Villanova and Dalton Gray, foreground Gabriel Barre. Photo credit: Larry Levanti.
About Rutgers Theater Company
Shamsuddin Abdul-Hamid (Le Bret - BFA IV) hails from Newark, New Jersey. His Mason Gross School of the Arts credits include: The Blue Room, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (also at Rutgers Conservatory at Shakespeare's Globe) and Alonedom: tuck-it-away and other stories. Abdul-Hamid is a recipient of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center/Star-Ledger Scholarship for Acting.
Shazi Akhtar (Citizen's Son, Page, Ensemble - BFA IV) is from Houston, Texas. Her Rutgers credits include Mercutio and Lady Capulet in The R&J Project, Speed in The Two Gentleman of Verona on the Mason Gross stage, and Sylvia in The Two Gentleman of Verona at Shakespeare's Globe in London; Cally in Scarecrow, and the Performance Ensemble production of Alonedom: tuck-it-away and other stories.
Shavonna Banks (Cuigy, Ensemble - BFA IV) is from Columbus, Ohio. After studying acting at Interlochen Arts Academy she began her training at Mason Gross School of the Arts. Mason Gross credits include: The Blue Room, Alonedom: tuck-it-away and other stories, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Shavonna recently returned from London after portraying Lucetta in The Two Gentlemen of Verona on Shakespeare's Globe stage directed by Tim Carroll.
Bix Bettwy (Citizen, Bertrandou, Ensemble - MFA III) grew up in San Diego, California. Rutgers credits include Much Ado About Nothing, Minnesota Moon, The Dispute, Under Construction, and Another Part of the Forest. Regionally, he has appeared at the Old Globe Theatre (with directors Jack O'Brien and Roger Rees), San Diego Rep, Cohoes Music Hall, Allentown Shakespeare in the Park, and Yale Cabaret, among others. New York credits include Metropolitan Playhouse, ICE Factory, The Well, and RATS Company. Bix received his BA in theater studies from Yale University and was a participant in the BMI Lehman Engle Musical Theater Workshop.
Danielle Blakeman (Foodseller, Ensemble - BFA IV) hails from Greensboro, North Carolina. Her Mason Gross School of the Arts credits include Silvia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Blue Room, and the Performance Ensemble's Alonedom: tuck-it-away and other stories. She was also seen as Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Shakespeare's Globe in London.
Sharod Choyce (Pickpocket, Sentry, Ensemble - MFA III) is from Dallas, Texas. His credits are Alan in Minnesota Moon, Marcus Lycus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Bobo in A Raisin in the Sun, Raymond Issac in Ain't Gonna Let Nobody and Jake/Ben Hubbard in Another Part of the Forest. He also wrote and performed a one-man show called The Life of Emmett Till.
Michael Donovan (Musketeer, Spanish Officer, Ensemble - MFA III) is from Buffalo, New York. He graduated from the University at Buffalo with his BA in theater. At Rutgers his credits include: Benjamin/Jake in Another Part of the Forest, Drum Major in Woyzeck, and various roles in The Dining Room. Other credits: Sebastian in Twelfth Night (Allentown Shakespeare in the Park), Jake in Adrift (Sam French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival) and Chief Noc-A-Homa in Chief's Last Day (Mile Square Theatre's Seventh Inning Stretch). Film: Deal (Permanent Inc. production) and A Way to Leave Your Lover (Omwag production).
Dalton Gray (Christian de Neuvillette - BFA IV) is from Cornwall, New York. His Mason Gross credits are The Aristocrat in The Blue Room, Launce and Turio in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Romeo in The R&J Project. He recently appeared as Dennis in The Love Song of Sidney J. Stein at the Fresh Fruit Theater Festival in New York City.
Alec Michael (Ligniere, D'Artagnon, Theophraste Renaudot, Capuchin, Ensemble - BFA IV) is from Los Angeles, California. He is one of the founding members of the Horde Theater Group based in Los Angeles. Horde Theater Group credits include Dog Sees God and The Shape of Things. Mason Gross credits include The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Alonedom: tuck-it-away-and-other-stories, and The Blue Room.
Kristen Harlow (Duenna, Ensemble - MFA III) is from Portland, Maine, and received her BA in English from Fordham University. Mason Gross School of the Arts credits include Much Ado About Nothing, The Author's Voice, The Dining Room, Dancing at Lughnasa, and Another Part of the Forest.
Midori Iwama (Sister Marthe, Ensemble - BFA IV) hails from Rumson, New Jersey. Mason Gross School of the Arts credits include Launce in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Kiley/Junko in 40N/70W, Nina in Night Swim, Rabbit Woman in The League of Semi-Super Heroes, and Sam in The Lord of the Rings Relief for Japan Suzuki Benefit. Film credits include Angela in The Killing Machine.
Shahar Isaac Katz (Vicomte de Valvert, Ensemble - BFA IV) was born and raised in Israel. TV credits include I.D Channel's Deadly Sins and Bio Channel's Celebrity Ghost Stories. New York theater credits include The More Things Change and A Story Conference at the Players Theatre, Glee Club at Roy Arias Theatre Center and 2013 Winner of the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Play Festival Dancing Turtle. Mason Gross credits include The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London and Alonedom, The Blue Room and The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Rutgers.
Sam Leichter (Ragueneau - MFA III) is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and holds a BA in theater from Bates College. Leichter recently appeared in Another Part of the Forest, Under Construction, Doubt, and Homemade. Other credits include: title role in Macbeth, The Steve Bartman Incident (Mile Square Theatre), Fuddy Meers (Marin Theater Company), Dracula (Center REP), and Antony and Cleopatra (Marin Shakespeare).
Rosalind Lilly (Brissaille, Mother Marguerite de Jesus, Ensemble - BFA IV) is from Brooklyn, New York. Mason Gross credits include The Blue Room, Alonedom, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, which she also appeared in at Shakespeare's Globe in London. She has performed in New York at Downtown Art, Theater for the New City, LaGuardia High School and recently appeared in the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Play Festival- winning play Dancing Turtle.
Angel Moore (Marquis, Ensemble - MFA III) is from Cincinnati, Ohio. She received her BA from Alabama State University. Her acting credits include Antigone (Isemene), Black Nativity (Mary), A Song for Coretta (Gwen), Intimate Apparel (Esther), A Raisin in the Sun (Beneatha), Under Construction (Ensemble), Chief's Last Day (Princess Winalotta), and Another Part of the Forest.
Brandon Rubin (Montfleury, Captain Carbon de Castel-Jaloux, Ensemble - MFA III) is from Sacramento, California. Mason Gross School of the Arts credits include Woyzeck, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Much Ado About Nothing, Fries with That, and Another Part of the Forest. He got his BA in mass media communications from Sacramento State.
Jeffrey Sanchez (Bellerose, Page, Ensemble - BFA IV) is from Jersey City, New Jersey. Mason Gross credits include The Cab Driver in The Blue Room, Alonedom: tuck-it-away-and-other-stories playing Alehd and Mr. Rodriguez, Thurio at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre's production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Crab the Dog, Eglamour, Outlaw 2 in The Two Gentlemen of Verona produced by Rutgers Theater Company.
Chelsea Spack (Lise, Ensemble - MFA III) hails from St. Louis, Missouri. She received her BA in theater and French from Oral Roberts University. Professional credits include: Izzy in Rabbit Hole, Lucille in House & Garden, Petra in An Enemy of the People, and Sophie in The Star-Spangled Girl. At Rutgers Theater Company she has been seen in: Another Part of the Forest, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Woyzeck, and Adrift.
Andrew Start (Comte de Guiche - MFA III) is originally from Spokane, Washington, and he earned his BA from The Evergreen State College in experimental theater. He appears as Paul in the film In the Night. Rutgers Theater Company credits include Another Part of the Forest, Mixtape 99, Dancing at Lughnasa, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Much Ado About Nothing, and Fries With That.
Sierra Tothero (Soubrette, Ensemble - BFA IV) was born and raised in Austin, Texas. Mason Gross School of the Arts credits include The Blue Room (The Au Pair), Alonedom: tuck-it-away-and-other-stories, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Proteus in the Mason Gross production and Speed in the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre production).
Kate Villanova (Roxane - MFA III) is from Montclair, New Jersey, and studied theater and psychology at Skidmore College. Mason Gross School of the Arts credits include Another Part of the Forest, Under Construction, The Dispute, and Monsters. Other credits include Macbeth (Allentown Shakespeare in the Park), Epona's Labyrinth (HERE Arts Center), and The Wind in the Willows (Berkshire Theatre Group).
Terralon Walker (Sister Claire, Ensemble - BFA IV) hails from Houston, Texas. Her Mason Gross School of the Arts credits are Irene in The Blue Room, Maxine in Performance Ensemble's Alonedom: tuck-it-away-and-other-stories, Antonio/Outlaws in London's Shakespeare's Globe production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Lucetta in The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Mason Gross.
Gabriel Barre (Director/Cyrano de Bergerac) is an internationally acclaimed director whose off-Broadway credits include the original productions of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party (nominated for 13 Drama Desk Awards including Best Director), Summer of '42, Son of a Gun, Stars in Your Eyes, Honky-Tonk Highway, john & jen and Almost, Maine. He also directed the national tours of Pippin and Cinderella, and his regional credits include the world-premiere production of Memphis at the North Shore Music Theatre, as well as Sweeney Todd, Finian's Rainbow, and many new musicals at Goodspeed Musicals. His international credits include the world premiere of the Frank Wildhorn musical Carmen, as well as Jesus Christ Superstar and Aida in Prague, Czech Republic; and the new musical Tears of Heaven in Seoul, Korea. He is currently directing the new musical Amazing Grace, due to open in Chicago next season, as well as a new musical based on the 1999 teen comedy film Jawbreaker.
As an actor, Barre was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for Starmites and won a Bistro Award as an original cast member in Forever Plaid. Other New York performing credits include - Broadway: Ragtime (final Toronto workshop), Ain't Broadway Grand, Rags, Anna Karenina, Barnum (first national tour); off-Broadway: The Tempest, The Mistress of the Inn, Return to the Forbidden Planet, The Petrified Prince (at the Public Theatre), Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (25th anniversary production at the Village Gate), which he also did the musical staging for, A Fine and Private Place, which he also directed, as well as numerous productions at the Roundabout Theatre, Mirror Repertory Company, Lamb's Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Jewish Repertory Theatre, INTAR, York Theatre, and LaMama E.T.C. His film credits include: The Amazing Floydini (Lead), The Gurneyman (Lead), Luggage of the Gods (Lead), Girl 6, Quiz Show, Summer of Sam, The Road to Wellville, and Stardust Memories. On television he has appeared on Law & Order, Fame, Kate & Allie, Nickelodeon, and a number of programs on PBS.
Ashley Cusack (Set Designer -- MFA III) is from Long Branch, New Jersey. She received her BFA in art and psychology from Caldwell College. Rutgers Theater Company design credits include: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Raisin in the Sun, Minnesota Moon, Lady of Fadima, and Pilgrims. Other recent design credits include: Legally Blonde, My Fair Lady, and Hairspray (Phoenix Productions), and Highway Blue (Random Access Theater, NYC). She is also a freelance scenic artist working throughout the tri-state area.
Peter W. Fogel (Costume Designer -- MFA III) is from North Babylon, New York. He received his BFA in theater production from Hofstra University. Design credits include: Intimate Apparel, Awake and Sing! (Hofstra University), Dog Sees God (Synapse Theatre Ensemble, NYC), The Chief's Last Day (Mile Square Theatre), Toxicity, Dead Reckoning (New Perspectives Theatre Company, NYC), Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Rutgers Theater Company), and I-Pod (United Solo and The Strawberry One Act Festival, NYC). Regional Assistant Design credits include: Radio Gels, As Bees in Honey Drown, and The Graduate (Cape Playhouse).
Jeff Croiter (Lighting Designer) Broadway: Newsies; Peter and the Starcatcher (Tony Award); A Time to Kill; Soul Doctor; The Performers; The Anarchist; The Pee-wee Herman Show; Next Fall; Kiki and Herb. Other New York City credits include: Love's Labour's Lost and The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare in the Park); Old Jews Telling Jokes; The Last Five Years; Clive; The Madrid; Silence; Love, Loss, and What I Wore; Meet Vera Stark; Rapture, Blister, Burn; A Lie of the Mind; Ordinary Days; Family Guys Sings; The Voysey Inheritance; The Internationalist; Jacques Brel; Almost, Maine; Rufus Wainwright's Judy Garland Concert; and Jennifer Muller The Works. Regional: The Guthrie Theatre, The Alliance, The Shakespeare Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Barrington Stage, McCarter Theatre, Kennedy Center, The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, The Huntington, Geffen Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, Trinity Rep, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse, Ford's Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, and NY Stage and Film.
Rick Sordelet (Fight Director) Broadway: 57 shows, including Disney's Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Tarzan, The Scottsboro Boys, and The Snow Geese, as well as hundreds of productions for national tours and regional theater. International: 54 productions, including Ben Hur Live. Opera: Cyrano (Metropolitan Opera, The Royal Opera House, and La Scala in Milan), Don Carlo (Metropolitan Opera), and Heart of the Soldier (San Francisco Opera). Film: The Game Plan, Dan in Real Life, Hamlet. Television: 12 years as chief stunt coordinator for Guiding Light, One Life to Live. Instructor: Yale School of Drama. Awards: Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence, Jeff Award for Best Fight Direction, SAFD President's Award.
Karin Graybash (Sound Designer) holds the position of sound supervisor for the Mason Gross School of the Arts. She has created numerous sound designs for regional theater and off-Broadway. Her work has been nominated for Helen Hayes Awards, and she is a recipient of the Bay Area Theatre Critics Award for her sound design of Polk County at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Graybash was the original live sound consultant for the multimedia
production Freedom Rising at the National Constitution Center. Currently she is creating multiple soundscapes for The Franklin Institute's upcoming exhibit titled Your Brain.
Martha Sullivan (Music Director) works professionally as a composer, singer, and teacher/director. She has earned prizes from the Dale Warland Singers and the Sorel Organization (which premiered her work at Carnegie Hall). Recent commissions include works for the Manhattan Choral Ensemble and other choirs in the area, as well as the American Guild of Organists. An in-demand singer, she has premiered and recorded works by such composers as Toby Twining (Chrysalid Requiem) and John Zorn (Chimeras); she also sings with C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective. She has performed with The Gregg Smith Singers and many other advocates of new music. She sings regularly for Bard Summerscape, which has brought to life such neglected opera works as Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots and Taneyev's Oresteia. She has also sung in New York City Opera's VOX Opera Lab. She has taught for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Boston University, and the musical-theater conservatory CAP21, and she founded and directed performing ensembles in both Boston and New York. Currently she is pursuing her PhD in music composition at Rutgers, where she is collaborating with performers in the Music Department and Dance Department as well as with the cast and staff of Cyrano.
Jeff Friedman, PhD (Choreographer) is associate professor in the Dance Department at Mason Gross School of the Arts. His research area is in oral history theory, method, and practice, including documentary theater projects based on oral histories, focusing on choreography; recent works include Mosaic and The Mabel Douglass Show (both for Douglass/SAS Honors Courses), The Sourcerer's Apprentice, and Muscle Memory, as part of his lecture-performance titled "The Eros of Oral History," seen throughout the United States; Canada; New Zealand, where he was visiting lecturer in the Dance Programme at Auckland University; Germany, where he was a 2010 Senior Research and Teaching Fulbright Fellow (Frankfurt); this fall in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and as the Allen Smith Visiting Scholar at Simmons College in Boston, 2014. Friedman teaches dance studies at Rutgers, including writing, criticism, and history/cultural studies. He is the incoming graduate director of the new MFA degree in performance and choreography in 2016.
Danielle Liccardo (Movement and Style Coach) began her theater training as an actress under the tutelage of Kathryn Gately (head of MFA acting at Northern Illinois University) and received extensive classical training at The American Globe Theatre and at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in London. She has worked commercially, off-Broadway, regionally, in voice-over and in film, and has been the artistic director of Inertia Productions, Inc. in New York City since 1997. Liccardo is a certified master teacher of the Williamson technique and is a movement and style specialist teaching in both the BFA and MFA professional acting conservatories at Mason Gross School of the Arts. She is also the co-director of the movement program at Maggie Flanigan Studio in New York.
Christopher Cartmill (Dramaturg) is an award-winning playwright, actor, and director. His plays include: La Chasse, The Robbers of Madderbloom, Romeo's Dream, and Home Land. The journey in writing the play became the solo performance and memoir The Nebraska Dispatches, published in 2010 by the University of Nebraska Press. His acting credits include, on film, performances in the Steven Spielberg's Lincoln and the National Geographic Channel film Killing Lincoln. Stage roles have included John Grisham in Jack Moore's Killing John Grisham, Barney/Max in the long off-Broadway run of The Director with John Shea, Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo, Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice, Arthur in The Idylls of the King, and Stephen in The Lisbon Traviata (Joseph Jefferson Award). He has directed many plays and operas, most recently Goldoni's La Guerra in the Jameson Theater, and will soon direct Lopez de Vega's Acting is Believing.
Martha Beggerly (Stage Manager -- MFA II) is from Fort Dodge, Iowa and received her BA from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. At Rutgers Theater Company she was the assistant stage manager for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and the co-stage manager for Performance Ensemble: EXP: 04-13-2013. She has worked with The Blank Theatre in Hollywood, California, and the Denver Center Theatre Company in Colorado.
About Mason Gross School of the Arts
Founded in 1976, Mason Gross School of the Arts is the arts conservatory of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and home to the departments of dance, music, theater, and visual arts as well as the Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions, Mason Gross Extension Division, Arts Online, and the Rutgers Center for Digital Filmmaking. Its faculty and alumni rosters include arts professionals recognized nationally and internationally, including Kristin Davis, Calista Flockhart, Avery Brooks, Cleo Mack, William Pope.L, Alice Aycock, Sean Jones, and Cristina Pato. The school's enrollment of 729 undergraduates and 322 graduate students across four departments, combined with a faculty of 224, ensures students the opportunity to work closely with accomplished artists within their fields.
