We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!

The Italian dramatist, actor, and theatrical activist Dario Fo was first invited by the American Repertory Theater to perform in 1986, occasioning his first visit to the United States.

For many years Fo's plays have been performed all over the world, perhaps more than any other contemporary dramatist's, and his influence has been considerable. The A.R.T. produced his We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! in 1999 and the American premiere of Archangels Don't Play Pinball in 1988. Other works in his extensive oeuvre include Mistero Buffo, Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Trumpets and Raspberries, and most recently The Devil with Boobs, a satiric comedy set in the Renaissance.

Fo's strength is in the creation of texts that simultaneously amuse, engage, and provide perspectives. As in commedia dell'arte, where he often draws inspiration, Fo's plays are open to creative additions and dislocations, encouraging improvisation and influencing the audience in remarkable ways. His works have employed topics taken from current news, such as the rise of the Italian workers' movement, revolt in Chile, and the Palestinian situation, and they often include a discussion between actors and audience. As a bridge between popular culture and radical intellectuals, Fo's collective theater occupies a central place in contemporary Italian culture.

In recent years, working with his actress–wife, Franca Rame, Fo has dealt with women's issues in several plays, and together they have established a worldwide reputation for their biting satire in their writing and performances. Corruption in the Catholic Church and the Italian government, police brutality, abuses in the prison system, violations of human rights, the Mafia, rape, the denial of Italian women's access to divorce and abortion: Fo and Rame have made these dangerous political issues the subject matter of their theater. Drawing on traditions ranging from the commedia dell'arte to puppetry, clowning, and storytelling, they have subjected every institution, political party, power broker, corrupt organization, and controversial law in Italy to their formidable satirical powers. Over the years, they have been censored, banned, rebuked, denied visas—and played to packed houses all over the world.

Dario Fo's many international awards and honors include the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature, an honorary doctorate from the University of Westminster, and an Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.

Ron Jenkins (translator and director of Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas) began his research on Dario Fo in Italy in 1985 with the support of a Sheldon Fellowship from Harvard University. He was recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, which will enable him to spend much of the next year translating, directing, and writing about Fo's works. Mr. Jenkins's translations of Fo's plays have been produced by the American Repertory Theater (We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!) and Yale Repertory Theatre, among others. His book on Fo and Rame, entitled Dario Fo and Franca Rame: Artful Laughter, is being published this September by Aperture. The author of Subversive Laughter and Acrobats of the Soul, Mr. Jenkins has written about theater for the Village Voice, American Theatre, the Drama Review, and the New York Times. He has directed plays by Fo in Israel, Lithuania, and the U.S. He is professor, chair, and artistic director of Wesleyan University's theater department.

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.

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.

We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! costume designer Evin Sanna Olsen's recent set and costume designs include the West Coast premiere of The Cryptogram and Mules at the Magic Theatre, A Mouthful of Birds and The King Stag (directed by Andrei Belgrader) at American Conservatory Theater, and Robert Woodruff's production of Skin. She has designed Women Beware Women, directed by Brian Jucha; Mistero Buffo, directed by François Rochaix; and The Trojan Women: A Love Story, directed by Robert Woodruff at the A.R.T. Institute. She is a 1997-1999 TCG/NEA fellowship recipient in set and costume design and in 98/99 served as lecturer at the University of California at Davis.

Lighting designer, Lady with a Lapdog. The American Repertory Theater's resident lighting designer (1997–2001). Antigone, Full Circle, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, The Master Builder, Phaedra, The Bacchae, In the Jungle of Cities, The Taming of the Shrew, The Imaginary Invalid, and The Wild Duck at the A.R.T. Other: Moby Dick and Other Stories with Laurie Anderson, The Grey Zone (Long Wharf Theatre), Andrei Belgrader's production of Waiting for Godot (Classic Stage Company), Cymbeline (New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theatre), Playboy of the Western World (Steppenwolf Theatre), and the original production of Wit. For the Mark Morris Dance Group, he has designed over thirty dances, including Four Saints in Three Acts for English National Opera and Falling Down Stairs, which toured the U.S. with cellist Yo Yo Ma. Nominated for an American Theatre Wing design award for his lighting of David Rabe's A Question of Mercy and also for The Grey Zone by Tim Blake Nelson. Received a 1999 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, the American Theatre Wing Design Award, and the Lucille Lortel Award for 1999.

Lighting designer, Lady with a Lapdog. The American Repertory Theater's resident lighting designer (1997–2001). Antigone, Full Circle, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, The Master Builder, Phaedra, The Bacchae, In the Jungle of Cities, The Taming of the Shrew, The Imaginary Invalid, and The Wild Duck at the A.R.T. Other: Moby Dick and Other Stories with Laurie Anderson, The Grey Zone (Long Wharf Theatre), Andrei Belgrader's production of Waiting for Godot (Classic Stage Company), Cymbeline (New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theatre), Playboy of the Western World (Steppenwolf Theatre), and the original production of Wit. For the Mark Morris Dance Group, he has designed over thirty dances, including Four Saints in Three Acts for English National Opera and Falling Down Stairs, which toured the U.S. with cellist Yo Yo Ma. Nominated for an American Theatre Wing design award for his lighting of David Rabe's A Question of Mercy and also for The Grey Zone by Tim Blake Nelson. Received a 1999 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, the American Theatre Wing Design Award, and the Lucille Lortel Award for 1999.

Christopher Walker has composed music and designed sound for We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Phaedra, Beckett Trio: Eh Joe, Ghost Trio, and Nacht und Traüme, and An Evening of Beckett, and designed sound for The King Stag, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Charlie in the House of Rue, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Taming of the Shrew, The Bacchae, The Wild Duck, Woyzeck, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Wild Duck, Alice in Bed, Slaughter City, Buried Child, Ubu Rock, The Threepenny Opera, The Accident, Demons, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Hot 'n' Throbbing, The America Play, A Touch of the Poet, The Cherry Orchard, What the Butler Saw, and Those the River Keeps at the A.R.T. Previously he composed music and designed sound for productions at the Intiman Theatre, the Bathhouse Theatre, and the Alice B. Theatre. He also scores for dance and has composed for the Allegro Dance Festival, the Bumbershoot Festival, and On The Boards.