March 20, 2001 Summary Facts:
The New York City-based Acting Company, a troupe that The New York Times calls “the major touring classical theater in the United States,” returns to Santa Barbara with a revival of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1970s musical version of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors on Tuesday, April 24 at 8 p.m. in UCSB Campbell Hall. UCSB Arts & Lectures will host a pre-performance Meet-the-Artist Discussion at 7 p.m. at the UCSB Visitor Center with Doug Mercer, The Acting Company’s repertoire director. Irwin Appel, Acting Company veteran and Assistant Professor in the UCSB Department of Dramatic Art, and Mark Rose, Professor and Chair, UCSB Department of English will participate in a public conversation with Mr. Mercer; this event is free and open to the public. Set in a Mediterranean town square, The Comedy of Errors features two pairs of twins, separated at birth, who embark on a manic adventure replete with mistaken identities and romance and fortuitous reunions when, after twenty years, their paths begin to cross. The original production of this musical version of Shakespeare’s early comedy, starring Judi Dench, was mounted in London in the 1970s—hence the polyester and tie-dyed costumes and platform shoes. (Actually, it was at Dame Judi’s suggestion that The Acting Company revived this show.) The actors do double-duty as musicians, performing an original musical score by Guy Woolfenden with lyrics by Trevor Nunn, currently director of England’s Royal National Theatre. The production also features evocative lighting created by Dennis Parichy; costumes designed by Jonathan C. Bixby and Gregory A. Gale; and innovative sets by Michael Vaughn Sims. The Acting Company’s zany Comedy of Errors is directed by John Rando whose production of Neil Simon’s new play The Dinner Party opened on Broadway last October after runs at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Rando’s future projects include A Thousand Clowns starring Tom Selleck, slated for a Spring 2001 Broadway opening. The Acting Company has played for more than 2 million audience members nationwide in the 27 seasons since it was founded in 1972 by the late John Houseman and producing director Margot Harley. It has taken 77 plays to 48 states and seven foreign countries. The Comedy of Errors is the 26th production of a Shakespeare play presented by the Acting Company. In recognition of its excellence, the company has won several Obie awards, Audelco Awards, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and two Tony Award nominations. In addition to being instrumental to sustaining and developing a national audience for the classical theater, the company has nurtured such performing talents as Gerald Gutierrez, Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, David Odgen Stiers and Jeffrey Wright. During the 2000-2001 season, along with Comedy of Errors, The Acting Company is touring Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! That production launches “The American Century,” a five-year program to commission, develop and produce new American plays adapted from American literary classics. The Acting Company’s most recent prior performance at Campbell Hall was a production of The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in April 2000. Other previous visits featured Kabuki MacBeth and Five by Tenn in January 1988; Orchards: A Chekhov Evening and As You Like It in April 1986; Pericles and The Cradle Will Rock in November 1983; The Country Wife and Waiting for Godot in October 1981; Broadway, Elizabeth I and The White Devil in January 1980; and Way of the World, The Kitchen and Love’s Labour’s Lost in April 1977. Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, this residency is supported in part with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the California Arts Council, a state agency. For tickets or more information, Editor: For photos, please call |