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Dream of the Red Spider

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Don Emilio, an aging dictator in an unnamed South American country, installs a robot-like surrogate, El Commandante, to assure the piblic he’s always working for them.  El Commandante leads a  rebellion against Don Emilio and is joined by Uyttersprot, a God-seeking civil servant, and Violet, a cabaret singer who formerly working in a fish plant.

Credits

Creative team

By

Ronald Ribman

Directed by

Ron Daniels

Directed by

Ron Daniels

At the American Repertory Theater Ron Daniels has directed Hamlet, The Seagull, Dream of the Red Spider, Cakewalk, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, The Cherry Orchard, Henry V, The Threepenny Opera, The Tempest, and Long Day's Journey Into Night on the Loeb Stage and Silence, Cunning, Exile and Slaughter City for the A.R.T. New Stages; he was also associate artistic director of the A.R.T. and director of the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University from 1992 to 1996. Mr. Daniels was a founding member of the Teatro Oficina in São Paulo, Brazil, where he was born. In 1977, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as artistic director of the Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon. His work in the U.S. includes Romeo and Juliet at the Guthrie Theater, Camille at Long Wharf, and Bingo, Ivanov, Man Is Man, and Mister Puntila and His Chauffeur Matti at the Yale Repertory Theatre. At the RSC, his productions included The Tempest, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Pericles, Timon of Athens, Richard II, A Clockwork Orange, and many more, as well as world premieres of works by David Edgar, David Rudkin, Stephen Poliakoff, Pam Gems, and others. Mr. Daniels has staged Titus Andronicus and Hamlet in Tokyo, Japan. He is an honorary associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

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Set design by

Riccardo Hernández

Set design by

Riccardo Hernández

A.R.T.: Over twenty productions, including most recently, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992Jagged Little PillThe White Card, Arrabal, Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Prometheus Bound, Best of Both Worlds, The Seagull, Julius Caesar, Britannicus, and Marat/Sade. Broadway: Indecent, The Gin Game; The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess; The People in the Picture; Caroline, or Change, National Theatre London; Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, Old Vic; Topdog/Underdog, Royal Court; Bells Are Ringing; Parade (directed by Hal Prince, Tony, Drama Desk nominations); Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk, The Tempest. Recent productions include: Dreaming Zenzile, Light Shining…, NYTW; The Skin of Our Teeth, TFANA; The Invisible Hand (Henry Hewes Design Award); Red Speedo (Drama Desk Nomination); Grounded (directed by Julie Taymor). International: Théâtre du Châtelet, Avignon (Cour d’honneur Palais des Papes); Oslo, National Theatre; Abbey Theatre. Recipient, Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Design. Hernández is an Associate Professor and Co-Chair of the Yale School of Drama.

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Costume design by

Catherine Zuber

Costume design by

Catherine Zuber

Catherine Zuber has created the costumes for Richard II, The Doctor's Dilemma, and over forty other A.R.T. productions including Three Farces and a Funeral, Antigone, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, Phaedra, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Imaginary Invalid, The Taming of the Shrew, Peter Pan and Wendy, The Bacchae, Man and Superman, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Woyzeck, The Wild Duck, The Naked Eye, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Tartuffe, Ubu Rock, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Shlemiel the First, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, A Touch of the Poet, What the Butler Saw, The Cherry Orchard, and Orphée. Ms. Zuber's credits include work at Lincoln Center, The Joseph Papp Public Theater, Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera, among others. Her Broadway credits include The Triumph of Love (Connecticut Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk nomination), Ivanov (Drama Desk nomination), The Sound of Music, Twelfth Night, The Red Shoes, London Assurance, The Rose Tattoo, and Philadelphia Here I Come. Ms. Zuber was the recipient of the 1997 Obie Award for sustained achievement in design. She is the costume designer for La Fête des Vignerons de 1999, the massive Festival of the Winegrowers in Vevey, Switzerland.

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Lighting design by

Frances Aronson

Lighting design by

Frances Aronson

Frances Aronson's work at the American Repertory Theater includes Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Cherry Orchard (for which she received a Boston Theatre Award for 1994), Henry V, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, Hamlet, Dream of the Red Spider, The Homecoming, and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. Recent work in New York includes Entertaining Mr. Sloane for CSC and Arts and Leisure for Playwrights Horizons. She designed Falsettos on Broadway and counts among her numerous off-Broadway credits Das Barbecu, Through the Leaves, Painting Churches, The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives, and The Dining Room. Her work is seen in resident theaters across the country. She received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design.

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Sound design by

Maribeth Back

Cast

El Commandante Gutierrez

Jonathan Fried

El Commandante Gutierrez

Jonathan Fried

Remo Airaldi

Commandante Rosas

Remo Airaldi

Remo Airaldi

Commandante Rosas

Remo Airaldi

A.R.T.: The Lily’s Revenge, Cabaret, Paradise Lost, Endgame, The Seagull, Oliver Twist, Island of Slaves, The Onion Cellar, The Communist Dracula Pageant, Cardenio, Julius Caesar, Amerika, The Miser, Henry IV and V, The Birthday Party, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Dispute, Uncle Vanya, Enrico IV, The Winter’s Tale, The Wild Duck, Buried Child, Tartuffe, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Waiting for Godot. Regional: Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company; Sweeney Todd, My Fair Lady, Lyric Stage Company; Boston Playwrights’ Theatre; The Poets’ Theater; Israeli Stage; Central Square Theater; New Repertory Theater; Hartford Stage.

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Rosas/Mistress of Ceremonies

Candy Buckley

Rosas/Mistress of Ceremonies

Candy Buckley

Uyttersprot

Jack Willis

Uyttersprot

Jack Willis

Jack Willis appeared as Hector Malone Sr. in Man and Superman, Carl in The Old Neighborhood, The Drum Major in Woyzeck, Bruto in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Relling in The Wild Duck in the American Repertory Theater's 1996-97 season. Previously, he appeared as Tilden in Buried Child, Caliban in The Tempest, the husband in The Accident, Man in Hot 'n' Throbbing, Jamie Cregan in A Touch of the Poet, Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard, Sir Walter Blunt in Henry IV, Part 1 and Lord Hastings in Part 2, Boss Mangan in Heartbreak House, Panin in Black Snow, Uyttersprot in Dream of the Red Spider, Aston in The Caretaker, Sal in Those the River Keeps, and Banquo in Macbeth. As a member of the resident company at the Dallas Theatre Center, his roles included Willie Stark in All the King's Men, Caliban in The Tempest, and Jack Henry Abbott in In the Belly of the Beast. He has also appeared at the Alliance Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Yale Repertory Theatre, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Teatro de Dallas, the San Antonio and Dallas Shakespeare Festivals, and Cincinnati Playhouse.  Mr. Willis is also a founding member of Aruba Repertory. Television and film credits include Dallas, All My Children, Love Hurts, Problem Child, and I Come in Peace.

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The Cripple

Royal Miller

The Cripple

Royal Miller

Aide-de-Camp/Bellevisage

Gino Montesinos

Aide-de-Camp/Bellevisage

Gino Montesinos

Violet

Maggie Rush

Violet

Maggie Rush

Jockimo/Calista

Daniel Passer

Jockimo/Calista

Daniel Passer

Daniel Passer, a graduate of the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University, is currently playing the lead clown in Franco Dragone's Le Reve at the Wynn in Las Vegas. Theater credits include: Center of the Star with Cornerstone Theatre Company, the Lover in Dreamplay, the title character in The Servant of Two Masters (Bergamot Station), The Imaginary Invalid (the Actors' Gang), Rameau's Nephew, Chicago Conspiracy Trial, and Macbeth (the Odyssey Theatre), She Stoops to Conquer, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Anthony and Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar (Shakespeare Santa Cruz), and My Birthday Party, a theatrical piece incorporating acrobatics, music, and clowning that he co-created with his partners at We Few Productions. Film credits include Danny Roane, First Time Director with Andy Dick and Jack Black, The Little Death, Music From Another Room with Jude Law, Almost Heroes, and Ted. On television, Daniel has appeared on Monk, King of Queens, Grounded For Life, Providence, Tracey Takes On, and News Radio. Mr. Passer is on the national advisory boards of the Edward Albee Theatre Festival and the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts.

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Dr. Cesteros

Gustave Johnson

Dr. Cesteros

Gustave Johnson

Antonia

Patti Allison

Antonia

Patti Allison

Don Emilio

Alvin Epstein

Don Emilio

Alvin Epstein

Alvin Epstein is a former artistic director of the Guthrie Theater and associate director of Robert Brustein's Yale Repertory Theatre. He has directed over twenty productions (five at the American Repertory Theater, including the inaugural A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1980) and performed in over one hundred (over fifty at the A.R.T.). His A.R.T. roles include Old Man in Lysistrata, the Herald in Marat/Sade, Dionisio Genoni in Enrico IV, John of Gaunt/First Gardener in Richard II, Erich Honecker in Full Circle, McLeavy in Loot, Shabelsky in Ivanov, and Lee Strasberg in Nobody Dies on Friday; Mr. Epstein has also appeared in The Doctor's Dilemma, Antigone, Three Farces and a Funeral, The Winter's Tale, Charlie in the House of Rue, The Merchant of Venice, In the Jungle of Cities, The Bacchae, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable), Slaughter City, Tartuffe, The Tempest, Beckett Trio, The Threepenny Opera, and Waiting for Godot, among many others. His twenty Broadway and off-Broadway productions include his debut with Marcel Marceau, the Fool in Orson Welles's King Lear, Lucky in the American premiere of Waiting for Godot, Clov in the American premiere of Endgame, Peachum in The Threepenny Opera (co-starring with Sting), and the world premiere of Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin's When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable). For twenty years he and Martha Schlamme performed A Kurt Weill Cabaret on tour in the U.S. and South America and a year's run on Broadway. He has performed at many resident theaters throughout the U.S., in films and on television. Awards include Most Promising Actor ('56 Variety Poll), Brandeis Creative Arts Award ('66), Obie for Dynamite Tonight! ('68), Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence ('96), and the IRNE Award for Best Supporting Actor as Shabelsky in Ivanov ('99). Mr. Epstein teaches acting at the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

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Herr Dwoff/Lorenzo

Timothy Karcher

Herr Dwoff/Lorenzo

Timothy Karcher

Cleo

Jennifer London

Cleo

Jennifer London

Lena

Lisa Louise Langford

Lena

Lisa Louise Langford

Josande

Kristen Lee Kelly

Josande

Kristen Lee Kelly

Ensemble

Claudia Arenas, George Drance, Karl Lampley, Alexandra Loria, Michael McNeil, Richard Similio

Ensemble

Claudia Arenas, George Drance, Karl Lampley, Alexandra Loria, Michael McNeil, Richard Similio