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Michael Ritchie (artistic Director)
Michael Ritchie (born October 17, 1957) is an American artistic director of Center Theatre Group, overseeing the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Career Early career Ritchie began his professional career in the theatre in 1980 as a production stage manager in New York City. Over the next 15 years, he stage-managed more than 50 shows on and off-Broadway including productions at Lincoln Center Theater, Circle in the Square, Circle Rep, the New York Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Horizons, New York City Center and the National Actors Theatre. Among the notable productions he stage managed were ''Our Town'' with Spalding Gray and Eric Stoltz, ''Timon of Athens'' with Brian Bedford, '' Heartbreak House'' with Rosemary Harris and Rex Harrison, '' Candida'' with Joanne Woodward, '' You Never Can Tell'' with Uta Hagen and Philip Bosco, '' Arms and the Man'' with Kevin Kline and Raul Julia, ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (two productions: ...
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Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities in New England by population, most populous city in New England after Boston. Worcester is approximately west of Boston, east of Springfield, Massachusetts, Springfield and north-northwest of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence. Due to its location near the geographic center of Massachusetts, Worcester is known as the "Heart of the Commonwealth"; a heart is the official symbol of the city. Worcester developed as an industrial city in the 19th century due to the Blackstone Canal and rail transport, producing machinery, textiles and wire. Large numbers of European immigrants made up the city's growing population. However, the city's manufacturing base waned following World War II. Long-term economic and population decline was not reversed ...
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Our Town
''Our Town'' is a 1938 metatheatrical three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play tells the story of the fictional American small town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens. Throughout, Wilder uses metatheatrical devices, setting the play in the actual theatre where it is being performed. The main character is the stage manager of the theatre who directly addresses the audience, brings in guest lecturers, fields questions from the audience, and fills in playing some of the roles. The play is performed without a set on a mostly bare stage. With a few exceptions, the actors mime actions without the use of props. ''Our Town'' was first performed at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1938. It later went on to success on Broadway and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Described by Edward Albee as "the greatest American play ever written", the play remains popu ...
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Arms And The Man
''Arms and the Man'' is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's ''Aeneid'', in Latin: ''Arma virumque cano'' ("Of arms and the man I sing"). The play was first produced on 21 April 1894 at the Avenue Theatre and published in 1898 as part of Shaw's '' Plays Pleasant'' volume, which also included '' Candida'', '' You Never Can Tell,'' and ''The Man of Destiny.'' ''Arms and the Man'' was one of Shaw's first commercial successes. He was called on to stage after the curtain, where he received enthusiastic applause. Amidst the cheers, one audience member booed. Shaw replied, in characteristic fashion, "My dear fellow, I quite agree with you, but what are we two against so many?" ''Arms and the Man'' is a humorous play that shows the futility of war and deals comedically with the hypocrisies of human nature. Plot summary The play takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. Its heroine, Raina Petkoff, is a young Bulgarian woman enga ...
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Philip Bosco
Philip Michael Bosco (September 26, 1930 – December 3, 2018) was an American actor. He was known for his Tony Award-winning performance as Saunders in the 1989 Broadway production of '' Lend Me a Tenor'', and for his starring role in the 2007 film '' The Savages''. He won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1988. Personal life Bosco was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Margaret Raymond (née Thek), a policewoman, and Philip Lupo Bosco, a carnival worker. His father was of Italian descent and his mother, German. Bosco attended St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City, and later studied drama at Catholic University of America, where he had notable success in the title role of William Shakespeare’s ''Richard III''. Bosco married a fellow Catholic University student, Nancy Ann Dunkle, on January 2, 1957. They had seven children and 15 grandchildren. Bosco and his wife resided in Haworth, New Jersey. Bosco died at his home of complications from dementia on December 3, 201 ...
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Uta Hagen
Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German-American actress and theatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' by Edward Albee, who called her "a profoundly truthful actress." Because Hagen was on the Hollywood blacklist, in part because of her association with Paul Robeson, her film opportunities dwindled and she focused her career on New York theatre. She later became a highly influential acting teacher at New York's Herbert Berghof Studio and authored best-selling acting texts, '' Respect for Acting'', with Haskel Frankel, and '' A Challenge for the Actor''. Her most substantial contributions to theatre pedagogy were a series of "object exercises" that built on the work of Konstantin Stanislavski and Yevgeny Vakhtangov. She was elected to the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1981. She twice won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and received a Special Tony Award for Li ...
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You Never Can Tell (play)
''You Never Can Tell'' is an 1897 four-act play by George Bernard Shaw that debuted at the Royalty Theatre. It was published as part of a volume of Shaw's plays entitled ''Plays Pleasant''. Characters *Mr. (or Dr.) Valentine, the dentist – Mr. Yorke Stephens *Gloria Clandon, the eldest daughter – Miss Margaret Halstan *Walter, the waiter – Mr. James Welch *Dolly Clandon, twin to Philip – Miss Winifred Fraser *Philip Clandon, twin to Dolly – Mr. Roland Bottomley *Mrs. Clandon, the mother – Miss Elsie Chester *Mr. Fergus Crampton, the landlord and father – Mr. Herman Vezin *Mr. Finch McComas, a solicitor – Mr. Sydney Warden *Bohun, a QC (Queens Counsel) – Mr. Charles Charrington *The Parlor-maid ...
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Joanne Woodward
Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward (born February 27, 1930) is an American actress. A star since the Golden Age of Hollywood, Woodward made her career breakthrough in the 1950s and earned esteem and respect playing complex women with a characteristic nuance and depth of character. She is one of the first film stars to have an equal presence in television. Her List of awards and nominations received by Joanne Woodward, accolades include an Academy Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Woodward is perhaps best known for her performance as a woman with personality disorders in ''The Three Faces of Eve'' (1957), which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In a career spanning more than six decades, Woodward starred or co-starred in many feature films, receiving four Academy Awards, Oscar nominations (winning one), te ...
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Candida (play)
''Candida'', a comedy by playwright George Bernard Shaw, was written in 1894 and first published in 1898, as part of his '' Plays Pleasant''. The central characters are clergyman James Morell, his wife Candida and a youthful poet, Eugene Marchbanks, who tries to win Candida's affections. The play questions Victorian notions of love and marriage, asking what a woman really desires from her husband. The cleric is a Christian Socialist, allowing Shaw—himself a Fabian Socialist—to weave political issues, current at the time, into the story. Shaw attempted but failed to have a London production of the play put on in the 1890s, but there were two small provincial productions. However, in late 1903 actor Arnold Daly had such a great success with the play that Shaw would write by 1904 that New York was seeing "an outbreak of Candidamania". The Royal Court Theatre in London performed the play in six matinees in 1904. The same theatre staged several other of Shaw's plays from 1904 ...
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Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play '' French Without Tears'', in what was his breakthrough role. He won his first Tony Award for his performance as Henry VIII in the play '' Anne of the Thousand Days'' in 1949. He won his second Tony for the role of Professor Henry Higgins in the stage production of '' My Fair Lady'' in 1957. In addition to his stage career, Harrison also appeared in numerous films. His first starring role was opposite Vivien Leigh in the romantic comedy ''Storm in a Teacup'' (1937). Receiving critical acclaim for his performance in '' Major Barbara'' (1941), which was shot in London during the Blitz, his roles since then included ''Blithe Spirit'' (1945), '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1946), '' The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'' (1947), ''Cleopatra'' (1963), '' My Fair Lady'' (1964), reprisin ...
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Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Ann Harris (born 19 September 1927) is an English actress. She is the recipient of such accolades as a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. In 1986, Harris was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Harris began her stage career in 1948, before making her Broadway debut in 1952. For her New York stage work, she is a four-time Drama Desk Award winner and nine-time Tony Award nominee, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 1966 for '' The Lion in Winter''. On television, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for the BBC serial '' Notorious Woman'', and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for the miniseries ''Holocaust'' (1978). In film, Harris portrayed Aunt May in Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Man'' (2002), ''Spider-Man 2'' (2004), and ''Spider-Man 3'' (2007). For her performance ...
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Heartbreak House
''Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes'' is a play written by George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1919 and first played at the Garrick Theatre in November 1920. According to A. C. Ward, the work argues that "cultured, leisured Europe" was drifting toward destruction, and that "Those in a position to guide Europe to safety failed to learn their proper business of political navigation". The "Russian manner" of the subtitle refers to the style of Anton Chekhov, which Shaw adapts. Characters *Ellie Dunn *Nurse Guinness *Captain Shotover *Lady Utterword *Hesione Hushabye *Mazzini Dunn *Hector Hushabye *Boss Alfred Mangan *Randall Utterword *Burglar (Billy Dunn) Plot summary Ellie Dunn, her father, and her fiancé are invited to one of Hesione Hushabye’s infamous dinner parties, to be held at the house of her father, the eccentric Captain Shotover, an inventor in his late eighties who is trying to create a "psychic ray" that will destroy dynamite. ...
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Brian Bedford
Brian Bedford (16 February 1935 – 13 January 2016) was an English actor. He appeared in film and on stage, and was an actor-director of Shakespeare productions. Bedford was nominated for seven Tony Awards for his theatrical work. He served as the voice of Disney's Robin Hood from the 1973 animated film of the same name. Early life Brian Bedford was born in Morley, West Yorkshire on 16 February 1935, the son of Ellen (''née'' O'Donnell) and Arthur Bedford, a postman. He attended St Bede's Grammar School in Bradford, leaving at the age of 15. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London from 1952 to 1955.RADA Student and Graduate Profiles: – Brian Bedford
rada.ac.uk; accessed 15 January 2016.
At RADA, he was in the same class as