(BOSTON) – Boston Center for American Performance (BCAP) opens its seventh season with a pair of short plays from two of the 20th century’s most celebrated playwrights, Nobel Prize-winner Samuel Beckett and Pulitzer Prize-winner Harold Pinter. Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape and Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter, both directed by BCAP Artistic Associate Clay Hopper, will run November 12–23 at the Boston University Theatre, Lane-Comley Studio 210. BCAP is the professional extension of the School of Theatre at Boston University College of Fine Arts.
“This season BCAP continues its commitment to reviving plays with a particular contemporary resonance,” says BCAP Artistic Director and School of Theatre Director Jim Petosa. “We are happy to extend our efforts to the development of new work through co-productions of world premieres of new plays with partners Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and New Repertory Theatre.”
In Krapp’s Last Tape, Beckett introduces us to a self-absorbed man who makes a recording each year, documenting the events of his life. On his 69th birthday, he revisits the tapes he made 30 years prior and experiences a lifetime of regret. In Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter, two hit men are awaiting their next assignment while a series of mysterious food orders arrive in a dumbwaiter. Tension between the two men soon builds and the play resolves with an unexpected twist.
BCAP’s production of Krapp’s Last Tape and The Dumb Waiter features Boston University faculty actors Sidney Friedman (as Krapp) and Michael Hammond working in partnership with Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theatre Junior Acting major Nicholas Chuba and student designers Nicole Angell, Alex Fetchko, Matthew Haber, and Margaret Lorinczi.
BCAP’s seventh season will continue in February 2015 with two productions: Margaret Edson’s drama Wit, featuring Boston University faculty members Judy Braha, Mark Cohen, and Paula Langton; and the world premiere of Uncle Jack – a comedic retelling of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya – written and directed by Michael Hammond and co-produced by BCAP and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Uncle Jack will feature Boston favorites Nancy E. Carroll and John Kooi and BU alumni Michael Kaye and Will Lyman. In June, BCAP will partner with New Repertory Theatre on the Next Rep World Premiere of Scenes from an Adultery written by BU alumnus Ronan Noone.
KEYWORD: INTERSECT
Krapp’s Last Tape and The Dumb Waiter are featured events of the Boston University College of Fine Arts Keyword Initiative. In marking its 60th anniversary, Boston University College of Fine Arts is proud to engage the BU and global communities in a creative discussion and call to action around the 2014–2015 Keyword: INTERSECT. The College will celebrate its diamond anniversary with a year of programming that examines how forms of expression, disciplines of study, sociological constructs, and race and gender intertwine. A full roster of Keyword: INTERSECT events can be accessed at bu.edu/cfa/keyword.
ABOUT BCAP
The BCAP initiative, under the leadership of Artistic Director Jim Petosa and Managing Director Liz Mazar Phillips, aims to foster significant interaction between members of the professional performing arts community and the faculty and students of the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theatre. The goal is for these collaborations to have a significant impact on the College’s overall educational mission, become a consistent source of inspiration for the creation of both new work and new approaches to existing work, and provide the College with a professional extension of its expanding and diverse aesthetic.
BCAP launched in October 2008 with productions of Tennessee Williams’ classic The Glass Menagerie and Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife. Subsequent seasons featured critically-acclaimed productions of David Rabe’s A Question of Mercy, Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive, C.P. Taylor’s Good, Neal Bell’s Monster, Daniel MacIvor’s House, the new play Our Lady by James Fluhr, Paul Zindel’s The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Tadeusz Słobodzianek’s Our Class, Steven Berkoff’s Metamorphosis, the world premiere of Walt McGough’s Pattern of Life (co-produced with New Repertory Theatre), and Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot and The Road to Mecca (IRNE award for Best Set Design).
TICKETING DETAILS
Krapp’s Last Tape and The Dumb Waiter will run November 12–23 at the Boston University Theatre, Lane-Comley Studio 210 (264 Huntington Avenue). Performance times are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm. Running time is 2 hours plus one intermission.
Tickets are $20 general admission, $15 for students, senior citizens, and groups of ten or more, and $10 for CFA Membership holders. Members of the Boston University community are eligible for one free ticket with BU ID, at the door, day of performance, subject to availability.
Tickets and further information are available at bu.edu/cfa/bcap or by contacting the Box Office at 617-933-8600.
CAST & PRODUCTION ARTISTS
Director: Clay Hopper
Scenic Designer: Matthew Haber
Costume Designer: Nicole Angell
Lighting Designer: Alex Fetchko
Sound Designer: Margaret Lorinczi
Technical Director: Forrest Wood
Stage Manager: Mariah Mackenzie
Production Manager: NiChun Shih
Krapp’s Last Tape
Playwright: Samuel Beckett
Krapp: Sidney Friedman
The Dumb Waiter
Playwright: Harold Pinter
Ben: Michael Hammond
Gus: Nicolas Chuba
DETAILED PRODUCTION CALENDAR AND EVENTS
November 12–23
Wednesday, Nov 12, 7:30pm (Press Preview)
Thursday, Nov 13, 7:30pm (Press Opening)
Friday, Nov 14, 8pm
Saturday, Nov 15, 8pm (ASL Interpreted)
Sunday, Nov 16, 2pm
Wednesday, Nov 19, 7:30pm (ASL Interpreted/Talk-Back)
Thursday, Nov 20, 7:30pm
Friday, Nov 21, 8pm
Saturday, Nov 22, 8pm
Sunday, Nov 23, 2pm
COMPANY BIOS
Clay Hopper (director) was Associate Artist Director at Olney Theatre Center in Maryland from 2009–2012. His credits there include Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Amadeus, The 39 Steps, and Farragut North. He has also directed Triumph of Love, Call of the Wild, and On the Verge or the Geography of Yearning at Contemporary America Theatre Festival Actor’s Lab. He is the founder and producer of New Works/After Hours at Lincoln Center Institute’s Clarkes Studio Theatre. BFA from North Carolina School of the Arts, MFA from BU College of Fine Arts.
Nicholas Chuba (Gus) is a junior Acting major at Boston University where his credits include the Visiting Englishman in Passion Play. Boston Center for American Performance: Ryseik in Our Class. Regional: Don Lockwood in Singing in the Rain.
Sidney Friedman (Krapp) While some people try to play God, Sidney Friedman has actually done so (in Penn Young’s Seven Day Wonder at New Theatre). He has also played Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln in Lowell at Merrimack Repertory Theatre), Duke Senior (As You Like It, White River Theatre Festival), and Elwood Dowd (Harvy, Nickerson Theatre) among other roles. He is an adjunct professor at Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theatre.
Michael Hammond (Ben) is an actor, director, playwright, and teacher. He was a member of Shakespeare & Company for many years, last serving there as Associate Artistic Director, and has appeared on Broadway and at various regional theaters. He is an assistant professor in the School of Theatre at Boston University.
Matthew Haber (Scenic Designer) is a senior Theatre Arts, Design & Production major. BU designs: Florencia en el Amazonas, Owen Wingrave, Our Girl in Trenton, Woyzeck, Tongue of a Bird, Antigone, and After Ashley. Matthew has also designed scenery and projections throughout the United States and in the UK, Germany, and Nepal.
Alex Fetchko (Lighting Designer) has been designing lights for theatre and dance for almost ten years. He has designed for a number of companies and schools in the Greater Boston area. In two and a half years at Boston University he served as Master Electrician, Assistant Lighting Designer, and/or Lighting Designer for over 12 productions, most recently Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal. He has assisted on several productions at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, the Huntington Theatre Company, Florida Grand Opera, and Ogunquit Playhouse.
Nicole Angell (Costume Designer) is an undergraduate Costume Design major at Boston University. Her BU credits include designing Adrienne Boris’ Romeo and Juliet and Leila Ghaemi’s The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. She also had the pleasure of designing Wonderful Town at the Clinton Area Showboat Theater over the summer.
Margaret Lorinczi (Sound Designer) is a junior Lighting Design and Sound Design double major at Boston University.