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The Juniper Tree

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A Son is born to a couple that has longed for a child. The Wife dies in childbirth and the Father buries her under a juniper tree in accordance with her wishes. In a few years, the Father remarries and has a Daughter by his new Wife. The Stepmother, believing the First Wife’s spirit still lives in the son, dismembers him and serves him to the father for dinner. The Stepdaughter buries the bones fo the Son in a silk scarf under the juniper tree. The tree opens and the soul of the Son is released in the form of a Bird. The Bird’s song attracts a Goldsmith, a Cobbler, and a Miller who give the father a gold chain, a red shoe, and a millstone that are used to kill the Stepmother. The Son is then brought back to life and is reunited with his family.

Credits

Creative team

Cast

The First Wife

Jayne West

The First Wife

Jayne West

The Husband

Sanford Sylvan/S. Mark Aliapoulios

The Husband

Sanford Sylvan/S. Mark Aliapoulios

The Son

Lynn Torgove/Lisa Saffer

The Son

Lynn Torgove/Lisa Saffer

The Stepmother

Ruby Hinds/Valerie Walters

The Stepmother

Ruby Hinds/Valerie Walters

The Stepdaughter

Janet Brown/Sue Ellen Kuzma

The Stepdaughter

Janet Brown/Sue Ellen Kuzma

The Goldsmith

David Stoneman

The Goldsmith

David Stoneman

The Cobbler

Thomas Derrah

The Cobbler

Thomas Derrah

A.R.T.: 119 productions, including R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Myster) OF THE UNIVERSE (R. Buckminster Fuller), Cabaret (Fraulein Schneider), Endgame (Clov), The Seagull (Dorn), Oliver Twist (also at Theatre for a New Audience and Berkeley Repertory Theatre), The Birthday Party (Stanley), Highway Ulysses (Ulysses), Uncle Vanya (Vanya), Marat/Sade (Marquis de Sade), Richard II (Richard). Broadway: Jackie: An American Life (23 roles). Off-Broadway: Johan Padan (Johan), Big Time (Ted).  Tours with the Company across the U.S., with residencies in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and throughout Europe, Canada, Israel, Taiwan, Japan and Moscow, and has recently been performing Julius Caesar in France. Other: I Am My Own Wife, Boston TheatreWorks; Approaching Moomtaj, New Repertory Theatre; Twelfth Night and The Tempest, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co.; London’s Battersea Arts Center; five productions at Houston’s Alley Theatre, including Our Town (Dr. Gibbs, directed by José Quintero); and many theatres throughout the U.S. Awards: 1994 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, 2000 and 2004 IRNE Awards for Best Actor, 1997 Los Angeles DramaLogue Award (for title role of Shlemiel the First). Television: Julie Taymor’s film Fool’s Fire (PBS American Playhouse), "Unsolved Mysteries," "Del and Alex" (Alex, A&E Network). Film: Mystic River (directed by Clint Eastwood), The Pink Panther II. He is on the faculty of the A.R.T. Institute, teaches acting at Harvard University and Emerson College, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

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The Miller

William Cotten

The Miller

William Cotten

Off-Stage Voices

Mary Ann Scipione, Guy F. Pugh, Brian P. DeLorenzo, James Crowther, Murray Wheeler, Jeffrey Korn

Off-Stage Voices

Mary Ann Scipione, Guy F. Pugh, Brian P. DeLorenzo, James Crowther, Murray Wheeler, Jeffrey Korn

Mama Bird

Meredith Borden

Mama Bird

Meredith Borden