Mrs. Sorskin Presents... ("Ubu Lear" and Other Peerless Classics)

Christopher Durang (The Idiots Karamazov) is the author of The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award, Dramatists Guild Award), Baby with the Bathwater, and Media Amok, all presented at the American Repertory Theater; as well as A History of the American Film (Tony nomination), The Actor's Nightmare, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You (Obie Award), Beyond Therapy, Laughing Wild, Durang/Durang (an evening of six plays including a Tennassee Williams parody For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls), Sex and Longing, and Betty's Summer Vacation (Drama Desk nomination). As a performer, Mr. Durang appeared in Laughing Wild in Los Angeles, shared an acting ensemble Obie for The Marriage of Bette and Boo in New York, and with John Augustine and Sherry Anderson has performed his cabaret Chris Durang and Dawne in numerous venues, winning a 1996 Bistro Award. He co-wrote with Sigourney Weaver and performed in the Brecht–Weill parody Das Lusitania Songspiel, appeared with Julie Andrews in the Sondheim review Putting It Together, and in Call Me Madam. His films include The Secret of My Success, Mr. North, The Butcher's Wife, Housesitter, The Cowboy Way, The Object of My Affection, and The Out-of-Towners. For television Mr. Durang wrote for the Carol Burnett special "Carol and Robin and Whoopi and Carl" and for the PBS series Trying Times. He has written several screenplays and two sitcom pilots. Mr. Durang has an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, is the winner of numerous scholarship and grants, and had his plays published by Grove Press and Smith & Kraus. Since 1994 he and Marsha Norman have co-chaired the Playwrighting Program at the Juilliard School.

Costume designer Karen Eister's designs at the American Repertory Theater prior to The Marriage of Bette and Boo include An Evening of Beckett, Beckett Trio, Macbeth; the A.R.T. New Stages productions of Silence, Cunning, Exile, The Lost Boys, Claptrap, Two by Korder, and Mrs. Sorkin Presents … ; and for the A.R.T. New Stages premiere and 1987 mainstage production of The Day Room. Ms. Eister earned her MFA in design at New York University. After several years of freelancing for television, fashion, and theater, she returned to Cambridge, where she has been cutting and draping costumes for the A.R.T.

Composer Richard Peaslee (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Marat/Sade) has composed for stage, screen, and concert hall. Symphony orchestras from Buffalo to Philadelphia offer his concert works, while his jazz pieces have been performed by William Russo's London Jazz Orchestra, the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, and the Stan Kenton and Ted Heath Orchestras. Numbering among his many compositions for the stage in New York, London, and Paris are Peter Brook/Royal Shakespeare Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Antony and Cleopatra; Peter Hall's Animal Farm at the National Theatre; and scores for Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival. He has composed several musicals for family audiences—The Green Knight, The Snow Queen, and Tanglewood Tales among them. In dance, his pieces include Touch for David Parsons (at the New York City Ballet) and collaborations with Elisa Monte, Lar Lubovitch, and Twyla Tharp. As for television and film, he orchestrated the Bill Campbell/Bill Moyer series The Power of Myth as well as Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life for American Playhouse. He counts among his many awards The National Academy of Arts and Letters Marc Blitzstein Award; Obie and Villager Awards; and several NEA and NYFA Fellowships.