Ubu Rock

Francine Torres returns to the A.R.T. to play Toinette in The Imaginary Invalid. Previously she appeared as Katrin Dowling in The Naked Eye, Ma Ubu in Ubu Rock, Dorine in Tartuffe, and Smeraldina in the summer 1995 The King Stag at the A.R.T. Previously she appeared in The Good Person of Setzuan at the La Jolla Playhouse, where she was also seen in Arms and the Man. Ms. Torres performed in the premiere U.S. tour of Real Women Have Curves with El Teatro de la Esperanza and was seen in Dallas Theatre Center's production of Real Women Have Curves. Interested in multi-cultural theater, Ms. Torres appeared in Dog Lady at the Asian American Theatre and has worked extensively with Luis Valdez' El Teatro Campesino. Productions include Simply Maria, La Pastorela, Food for the Dead, Greater Tuna, as well as the PBS film version of La Pastorela. Ms. Torres received her M.F.A. in acting from the University of California/San Diego Professional Acting Program.

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.

Vlad Tepes/the Functionary in The Communist Dracula Pageant. A.R.T.: Fifty-four productions, including Alfed in Cardenio, Conspirator in Julius Caesar, Niels Bohr in Copenhagen, Eddie Darko in Donnie Darko, A Marvelous Party!, Mr. Brownlow in Oliver Twist (also at Theatre for a New Audience and Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Garcin in No Exit, Kulygin in Three Sisters, Uncle Jacob, Innkeeperess, Head Waiter in Amerika, Jupiter in Dido, Queen of Carthage, Valère in The Miser, Goldberg in The Birthday Party, Egeus and Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream, several roles in Highway Ulysses, the President of the Senate in Lysistrata, Marat in Marat/Sade, Brabantio and Lodovico in Othello, Dantly in Animals and Plants, the Father in Nocturne, Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonington in The Doctor's Dilemma, Gregory Smirnov and Gonov in Three Farces and a Funeral, Heiner Müller in Full Circle, Borkin in Ivanov, the State Trooper, Policeman, Grave Digger, and Grandfather in We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Dr. McSharry in The Cripple of Inishmaan, Karl Hudlocke in The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Argan in The Imaginary Invalid, Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew, Tiresias in The Bacchae, the title role and other parts in Shlemiel the First, the Doctor in Woyzeck, Hjalmar in The Wild Duck, Brighella in The King Stag, Will in Six Characters in Search of an Author, Mother/Father in Alice in Bed, King Wenceslas/McGreedy in Ubu Rock, Cléante in Tartuffe, Sebastian in The Tempest, Murray in Demons, Exeter in Henry V, Aegisthus and Chorus in The Oresteia, Sagot in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, the Earl of Westmoreland in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, and Lord Chief Justice in Part 2. Other credits include The Rivals and Melinda Lopez's Sonia Flew (Huntington Theatre), Twelfth Night (Feste, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), Brian Friel's Faith Healer (Gloucester Stage Company), Shear Madness (all male roles), the Boston Pops premiere of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (narrator). Film: Next Stop Wonderland. Television: the Cable Ace Award–winning animated series Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (voice of Stanley).

A.R.T.: Britannicus (Albina), Ubu Rock (Queen Rosamund). Other: 2.5 Minute Ride, New Repertory Theatre; November, Lyric Stage Company; Gary, Boston Playwrights Theater; Well, New Century Theater; Laundry and Bourbon, Young Vic, London; Luck, Pluck and Virtue, Atlantic Theater and La Jolla Playhouse; A Clockwork Orange and Twelfth Night, Steppenwolf Theatre; Closer, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre; Frozen, New Repertory Theatre; Bug, Boston Theatre Works; Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Vineyard Playhouse; among others. Film: The Company Men. She teaches acting at Brandeis University.

Scott Ripley appeared as Andres in Woyzeck; Mr. Twiddle (The Banker) in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; Truffaldino in The King Stag; and the Stage Manager in Six Characters in Search of an Author in the 1996-97 Loeb Stage Season, and as Chaim Rascal in Shlemiel the First on tour in San Francisco. Mr. Ripley's previous A.R.T. roles have included The Tsar, Dregadier McBalls and other roles in Ubu Rock; Valère in Tartuffe; and Ferdinand in The Tempest. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and flew the Navy's A-6 Intruder for six years before entering the Professional Acting Program at the University of California/San Diego, where he received an M.F.A. He was seen in the world premiere of The Who's Tommy and in Much Ado About Nothing, both directed by Des McAnuff at La Jolla Playhouse, Alchemy of Desire at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Game of Love and Chance at the Washington Stage Guild. At U.C.S.D. he performed the title role in Henry V and Argante in Andrei Belgrader's production of Scapin, among others.