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The Bald Soprano and the Chairs

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In The Bald Soprano, Mr. and Mrs. Smith engage in the banal abusurdities of domestic conversation. When the Martins come to visit, the talk becomes increasing ludicrous, climaxing with a visit by a licentous fire chief and a maid. In The Chairs, an elderly couple asks an orator to deliver a speech on the meaning of life. Chairs are arranged to fill a room for guests who never arrive. While the hosts extend their hospitality to the vacant chairs, the orator raves incomprehensibly.

Credits

Creative team

By

Eugene Ionesco

Translated by

Donald Watson

Directed by

Andrei Belgrader

Directed by

Andrei Belgrader

Andrei Belgrader is well known to American Repertory Theater audiences for his productions of Loot, We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Ubu Rock, The Servant of Two Masters, Rameau's Nephew, The Bald Soprano and the Chairs, Waiting for Godot (for which he received the Boston Circle Critics Awards for Best Play and Best Director for 1982/1983), Measure for Measure, and As You Like It. Since arriving from his native Romania in 1978, Mr. Belgrader has directed several off-Broadway productions, including Waiting for Godot, Scapin, Woyzeck, and Troilus and Cressida. At Yale Repertory Theatre he directed Molière's Scapin, which he adapted with Shelly Berc and Rusty Magee and was subsequently performed at Classic Stage Company in New York and American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. His other credits at Yale Repertory Theatre include John Guare's Moon Over Miami, The Miser, As You Like It, Alfred Jarry's Ubu Rex, the American premiere of Dario Fo's About Face, Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw, and Gogol's Marriage. At the Goodman Theatre in Chicago he directed Beckett's Happy Days. Mr. Belgrader also worked at the West Bank Cafe, where he directed Qunicy Long's Korea and Tom Eyen's The White Whore and The Bit Player, which was subsequently performed at the Edinburgh Festival and then moved to two London theaters. For the Double Image Theatre, he directed Ondine and Brendan Cole's Tenth Avenue Tales. With Shelley Berc, Mr. Belgrader also adapted Rameau's Nephew and directed the original production for the Classic Stage Company in New York. For the Norwegian State Theatre, he directed Nikolai Erdman's Suicide. Mr. Belgrader also directed several episodes of Coach for MCA Universal.

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Set design by

Anita Stewart

Set design by

Anita Stewart

Anita Stewart (Loot) previously designed the sets for We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, The Imaginary Invalid, The Servant of Two Masters, Rameau's Nephew, The Bald Soprano, and The Chairs for the American Repertory Theater. Her recent credits include scenery for Playboy of the Western World at Steppenwolf and Long Wharf theaters, costumes for Elektra at Canadian Opera Company, scenery for Waiting for Godot at Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Intimate Exchanges at Dallas Theater Center. She has designed for a number of major American theater and opera companies, and is currently the artistic director of Portland Stage Company in Maine.

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Costume design by

Candice Donnelly

Lighting design by

Stephen Strawbridge

Sound design by

Maribeth Beck

Cast

The Bald Soprano

Lynn Chausow (Mrs. Smith)Thomas Derrah (Mr. Smith)Deborah Lewin (Mary)Jeremy Geidt (Mr. Martin)Tresa Hughes (Mrs. Martin)Rodney Scott Hudson (Fire Chief)

The Bald Soprano

Lynn Chausow (Mrs. Smith)Thomas Derrah (Mr. Smith)Deborah Lewin (Mary)Jeremy Geidt (Mr. Martin)Tresa Hughes (Mrs. Martin)Rodney Scott Hudson (Fire Chief)

The Chairs

Tresa Hughes (Old Woman)Roberts Blossom (Old Man)Rodney Scott Hudson (Orator)

The Chairs

Tresa Hughes (Old Woman)Roberts Blossom (Old Man)Rodney Scott Hudson (Orator)