A Noise Within

‘Henry V’ at a Noise Within Stars Pasadena-area Native

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 6 February 2018 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

Rafael Goldstein as Henry V. | Photo by Craig Schwartz

William Shakespeare’s ‘Henry V’ goes on stage at A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed repertory theatre company, from February 4 to April 6, 2018. Co-directed by Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, it focuses on the Battles of Harfleur and Agincourt and has been streamlined into a dynamic thrill ride infused with modern relevance.

“‘Henry V’ is a play about going to war, and the propulsive energy that leads to conflict,” declares Elliott. “We’ve zeroed in on the conflict between Henry and France, and captured the unifying, almost euphoric energy that comes with having a shared enemy. While the play is not explicitly for or against war, it does provide an in-depth look at the politics of war and our thirst for conflict. Ours is a very physical, visceral production: we have three fight choreographers and a live percussionist. Expect a fast, furious, and ferocious evening.”

At the center of the intense action is ANW resident artist, Rafael Goldstein, who assumes the title role. He states, “When I found out I was going to be playing Henry I started training – running four or five miles a day – and eating better to get in shape. We spent hours staging the battles. Our fight choreographer, Ken Merckx, and a couple of his assistants  have done a fantastic job of putting this together. It’s edge-of-your seat excitement and really bloody action. It’s a spectacle not to be missed.”

Shakespeare’s history play tells the story of King Henry V of England and takes place during the Hundred Years War. ANW’s iteration of it, however, does not specify an era. States Goldstein,  “It’s a timeless tale set in a timeless way. Men’s need for conflict and war never goes out of style. When you’re working with a story this malleable and universal you could pretty much do whatever you want with it and the strength of the story would stand up.

This particular production happens in a ritualistic arena where this group of people comes together to tell a story about humanity’s need for conflict. They use Shakespeare’s words and plot to tell this very human story but it isn’t set in 1415 on a battlefield with knights in armor. It’s a modern version of what warfare looks like and what it does to people. While we’ll be sporting contemporary clothes, we’ll still be wielding swords. And we’ll be wearing crowns so the audience can tell who’s the king, the prince, the princess, and so on.”

Henry V ensemble | Photo by Craig Schwartz / A Noise Within

Ever the professional, Goldstein prepares for his performances seriously. He declares, “No matter what show it is and what role I play, I go over the script two or three times a day. And during the lead-up to rehearsals when we get ‘off-book’ I try to have all my lines memorized before the first run-through so when I get into the room with all the other actors, I can communicate with them and not have to look down at the script.

Memorizing, especially Shakespeare, is a joy. The language is so rich and the characterizations are so clear. He gives you so many clues as to how to read and understand it that it becomes a familiar song, a part of who you are.”

This talented and prolific actor hails from the Pasadena area and his involvement with ANW goes way back. Goldstein discloses, “I was born and raised at the base of these mountains, in Altadena. I went to St. Andrew Catholic School on Raymond Avenue in Pasadena. And then I went to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA).

Actually, the summer before I went to LACHSA, I took the Summer with Shakespeare program at A Noise Within when it was still in Glendale to give me a leg up and little bit more training under my belt before I head into this conservatory-style setting. That fall, ANW contacted me and asked if I wanted to be in their production of Macbeth. So I worked on high school stage productions and professionally with ANW all through high school.

I attended New York University’s (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts and stayed in New York for a while. When I moved back here in 2011, I rekindled my association with ANW. So not only did I come back to my birth home but to what has become my stage home as well. They cast me in Antony and Cleopatra as Eros, a wonderful little role as Antony’s servant on the battlefield. When Antony realizes that all is lost he asks Eros to kill him. Rather than kill Antony, Eros kills himself instead.

In my many years at ANW, I have played key characters. I had a principal role last season in Tom Stoppard’s ‘Arcadia,’ which was an ensemble piece. I’ve also played title roles before but never in a venue like this; it’s challenging in a nice way. One of the obstacles is thinking of Henry as a lead role because even though the world of the play hinges on his experience, that world is still very much alive and independent of him. There are so many things that he can’t control in this world. He causes a lot to happen but things happen to him as well.

Being in a titular role, I do feel a certain amount of responsibility for ensuring our play is well received and resonates with our audience. That’s why I have been preparing for as long as I have and as assiduously as I possibly can. But, like Henry, I can’t take all the credit because there are so many moving parts and aspects to this play. It really does take a village to raise a mountain of a play and incredibly long hours of hard work that goes into the production that the audience will eventually see.”

Henry V cast (left to right): Erika Soto as Boy; Jeremy Rabb as Bardolph (supine); Deborah Strang as Mistress Quickly; Frederick Stuart as Pistol; and Kasey Mahaffy as Nym | Photo by Craig Schwartz

I have worked in other theatre companies like Theatre Forty and Sacred Fools, and a part-time job at Pasadena Playhouse, but ANW is my home base. ANW and doing theatre are vital to my life; they’re essential to who I am. My poor wife sees me maybe one day a week but that’s the life of an actor – it’s hard and grueling. It’s not always rewarding in the way you would like it to be, you hear the word ‘no’ more than ‘yes.’ But when you do have a job and you’re doing a play that feeds your soul, you couldn’t ask for anything more – it’s the fulfillment of a passion. You give something of yourself to your audience as they watch you on stage. There is a symbiotic relationship between the actor and the audience, a true communion.

Other professional pursuits keep Goldstein busier still. He says, “I do voicing for video games, standing in a dark room screaming into the microphone. I’m also involved in film-making with a friend who has started a small company. Right now he’s doing mostly music videos and we shot one wild little film recently at Joshua Tree. We have plans to put together some shorts and features, going through the fund-raising phase, pitching the idea for possible funding. I’ve been in a number of short films as well and one TV spot on Investigation Discovery Chanel.”

“Theatre is my first love though,” Goldstein hastens to add. “It has been since I first went on stage at the age of three and played one of the sons of Adam and Eve in a little play at a Unitarian Church about the creation of the world. I remember I had one line and the audience laughed. I was hooked.

If that weren’t enough motivation for me, my father is an English professor who would bring home plays for us to read aloud. My mother, my sisters, and I would divide the parts and we’d talk about it after. We’d read Eugene O’Neill, Shakespeare, Neil Simon, any author he was doing a unit on at the time.

My mother is a psychologist who would talk to me about people and human behavior and thought. I never had a chance: I was always going to be an actor. So for as long as I still have all my hair and teeth, I’ll be on stage somewhere many years from now telling stories and, hopefully telling them well.”

While Goldstein’s little three-year-old self couldn’t have foretold that he would be playing incredibly memorable roles in numerous acting projects at age 30, empirical evidence suggests he has been honing his skills for ever more significant performances.

‘Henry V’ may be Rafael Goldstein’s star vehicle but it’s only the beginning of his journey. His career’s ascent may not be akin to a fast, furious, and ferocious evening of ‘Henry V’ on stage but it will be steady, strong, and superlative. And that would be a far more thrilling ride.

A Noise Within Presents ‘A Christmas Carol’ for the Sixth Year

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 6 December 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

Geoff Elliott is Ebenezer Scrooge and Deborah Strang plays the Ghost of Christmas Past | Photo by Craig Schwartz/
A Noise Within

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed repertory theatre company in Pasadena, presents Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ for the sixth year. Onstage from December 1st to the 23rd, it remains, to this day, the embodiment of the true spirit of this season.

Adapted directly from the original novella by Geoff Elliott, ‘A Christmas Carol’ is directed by ANW’s Co-Producing Artistic Directors, Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott.

‘A Christmas Carol’ features mostly the same cast members as in previous years, including: Geoff Elliott as Scrooge; Rafael Goldstein as his nephew, Fred; Deborah Strang as the Ghost of Christmas Past; and Frederick Stuart as the narrator. Seven-year-old newcomer, Ryan Dizon plays the youngest of the Cratchit children, Tiny Tim.

“I’ve watched the movie and I saw ‘A Christmas Carol’ here two years ago and I enjoyed it a lot. I can’t remember much about Tiny Tim but I’m really excited to be playing him,” Dizon says with a big smile.

Dizon is not a stranger to acting. According to his mom, Corinne Chooey, he started modeling for commercials as a baby and expanded to print work. Lately, he appeared in the film ‘Dr. Strange’ and just finished work on the television show ‘Jane, the Virgin’.

This artistic interest runs in the Dizon-Chooey family. Both his parents and two older brothers, Ethan and Zachary, are in the entertainment business. He and his siblings all attended ANW’s ‘Summer with Shakespeare Workshop’ as well as the Saturday acting class.

“In the Summer with Shakespeare workshop I learned four different types of plays – comedy, romance, history, and tragedy,” Dizon informs proudly. “Comedy always has a good ending. In tragedy everybody gets a bad ending. Romance play is where the good guys have a good ending and bad guys get a bad ending. And history play is about England.”

Ryan Dizon is this year’s Tiny Tim | Courtesy Photo

“This is my first stage play,” continues Dizon. “Rehearsals began on November 14 and the show opened on December 1st. I didn’t really have a lot of lines to memorize so it’s easy.  Everyone is nice – they all treat me like a child. Because Tiny Tim can’t walk, I am being carried a lot on the show. The entire experience is so much fun that I would like to be on other ANW productions.”

“Besides acting, there’s some singing on this show – I start the first lines of the Tiny Tim song, and I sing in another number; I’m also part of the ensemble,” Dizon states, grinning.  “My favorite portion is the end where Scrooge turns into a kind man and where we all sing ‘Glorious’.”

“Christmas is my favorite holiday because it is when we spend time with our family. Last year all my cousins came over to my house and we had a grand time,” Dizon volunteers without prodding, which touches his mom immensely.

“We have a large family on both sides; Ryan has a lot of cousins. It’s a big occasion in our house – we have a Christmas tree, we gather as a clan, we open presents. Since we have two different cultures, Filipino and Chinese, we blend the two together. It’s an especially big holiday for my husband because he’s Filipino; I think Filipinos start celebrating it in September. On Christmas eve our table is filled with food – mostly desserts,” Chooey laughingly discloses.

Acting is embedded in Dizon’s genes. Chooey reveals, “My grandparents were movie stars from Hong Kong and my aunts are dancers. My cousins are also actors, dancers, musicians, and producers. So, for me, getting my children involved in it was simply a natural consequence.

However, my husband and I don’t make them do it; we let them pursue it only if they want to. Ryan’s older brother, Ethan, who is 15 years old, revels being on screen. He was in the summer movie ‘Spiderman: Homecoming’ and also appears on some TV shows. Zachary is nine years old and was in the TV series ‘Henry Danger’ in 2014. He chose to quit acting and we were fine with his decision. But after a year he asked, ‘When’s my next audition’. And Ryan, here, seems to like it enormously.”

For his audition as Tiny Tim, Dizon met with Elliott. He recounts, “I walked into the rehearsal room and he asked me to pretend there was a window and there were a lot of toys to play with. Then he asked me to walk with a limp. And the last thing was for me to sing; I sang ‘Happy Birthday’ because that’s the only one I know the words to.”

Dizon adds, “To prepare for this role my mom downloaded some vocal warm-ups and the songs in ‘A Christmas Carol’ on my Kindle. That helped me memorize the songs and prepare me to become Tiny Tim.  I can’t wait for my whole family to come and watch the show.”

“Christmas is a big, happy occasion for the Chooey and Dizon clan. We’re very excited that Ryan is part of this cherished family play. I hope everyone who comes to see it leaves the theatre with the spirit of kindness and bigheartedness the show inspires,” Chooey says.

That sentiment is echoed by Rodriguez-Elliott, “Ebenezer Scrooge’s rebirth from miserly curmudgeon to the essence of love and generosity affirms our faith in the potent goodness of humanity during this beloved time of year.”

Elliott adds, “‘A Christmas Carol’ is the epitome of Christmas entertainment which encompasses warm moments, beautiful score, memorable scenes, and great performances. Half a generation of children have grown up on it and families continue to make it our most popular production of the year. Students studying Dickens come to see his story leap off the page onto our stage.”

For all these reasons, being Tiny Tim in ‘A Christmas Carol’ this year is of deep significance to this second-grader. Indeed, it is one Christmas carol Ryan Dizon shall remember the words to and sing in years to come.

Scrooge with the Cratchits | Photo by Craig Schwartz/ A Noise Within

Shaw’s ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’: A Timely Production at A Noise Within

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 31 October 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

Judith Scott as Kitty Warren and Adam Faison as Frank Gardner. Photo by Craig Schwartz

George Bernard Shaw’s seminal play ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’ is currently playing at A Noise Within (ANW) until November 17, 2017. Directed by Michael Michetti, Co-Artistic Director of The Theatre @ Boston Court, it stars Judith Scott, known for her role as Claudia Crane on the current FX series ‘Snowfall’, in the titular role of Kitty Warren.

Written in 1893, ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’ was one of Shaw’s earliest plays which was published in a series called ‘Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant’ in 1898. It was widely branded as being immoral not so much because it dealt with prostitution but because the woman in the center of the scandal did not show remorse for her choice of career.

Michetti says of ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’, “It is shockingly modern. It’s a play that examines Kitty Warren’s choices from different perspectives and without judgment. Shaw was brazen to put the plight of women front and center in his art; it’s a choice none of his contemporaries made. It’s a protofeminist play before the terminology was even commonplace.”

“When Shaw wrote ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’ in 1893 he exposed women’s dilemma at that time and the double standard that society imposed,” Scott pronounces. “Prostitution was highly regulated and prostitutes were punished while the men who availed of their services got away with it.

This is a woman who has prostituted herself unabashedly and has remained unashamed for having done that. It is a powerful portrayal of women and the tremendous sacrifices they make to raise their children and give them opportunities in life.”

Scott got her acting training at Webster University, alma mater of acclaimed actress Marsha Mason, in Webster Groves, Missouri. She says, “It was at one time an all-girls school but it was coed by the time I attended it. I was there for three years; I left after the third year and moved to Paris. My friends used to call me the Wandering Jude.”

“A month after I got back in the States, in 1983, I went walking with my mother in downtown Chicago. I went into The Second City Theater to use the bathroom and after I came out I heard some people laughing. I entered the room and saw people improvising. When I rejoined my mother outside I told her, ‘that’s what I want to do’. That sealed my fate, I went to the bathroom and decided I want to be an improviser,” relates Scott.

“Actually, I grew up improvising; that’s how I made my mother laugh,” Scott hastens to confess. “So I have always been an improviser but when I saw what they were doing I knew I wanted to do that. I was there in the fall and by the spring I was one of 300 touring performers with The Second City Theater Company. I did that for six years.

My mother was an amateur actress, my grandmother watched soap operas and was kind of a drama queen. The path was already laid out for me all my life and I just took up the calling. But I didn’t really make it a serious career until I was in my 40s.”

ANW Resident Artist Erika Soto as Vivien Warren and Adam Faison as Frank Gardner. Photo by Craig Schwartz / A Noise Within

“Having studied all the classics in college, I’m familiar with Shaw’s work,” explains Scott. “’Mrs. Warren’s Profession’ is a very intellectual play; Shaw is a very word-heavy writer but there’s a tremendous amount of emotion and feeling in his work. That was what struck me – how much feeling was in his writing; it is replete with polemic discussion, there’s so much passion in it.

It is a powerful piece and playing the role of this strong and willful character was life-changing for me.  I related to Kitty Warren on a deeply personal level. The play has resonated with me because of what I know and where I come from; my ancestral history has certain parallels with her experience.

This role is not traditionally played by a woman of color and it has made a difference for me. It was a vehicle that changed my life – not only in my understanding of me as Judith, my mother’s child, but as a woman of color who comes from a long line of women of color before me who sacrificed a great deal to have the privileges that I now enjoy but take for granted.”

Adds Scott, “This is the first Shaw I performed ever and is also my first at ANW. It has been both challenging and illuminating. It helped me understand that I come with a certain history and perspective that I have learned to respect and honor more than I ever did before; Shaw gave me my identity.

By relating to the character it simply means that I have taken her seriously and deeply; I see Kitty through her eyes.  I don’t live in my skin color but I use it when it’s necessary to make a statement – in this role I have to fight diligently and ferociously. In Shaw’s work that revelation is more so.”

While Shaw wrote ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’ towards the end of the 19th century to expose the prevailing culture, women in the early 21st century are still fighting against double standards of behavior and inequality in the workplace.

Would that Shaw’s depiction of a woman being decidedly unapologetic for making her own fortune and shedding the inhibitions that society unfairly imposed serve as an exhortation for all women of this generation to fearlessly pursue their dream and resolutely determine their own destiny. May equity and parity be achieved long before the end of this century.

Monrovia High School Students Perform on A Noise Within’s Stage

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 27 April 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

This past Tuesday night, April 25th, 23 drama students from Monrovia High School (MHS) put on a production of Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ at A Noise Within (ANW) in Pasadena. The partnership was a first for both the high school and the classical theatre company.

Nathanael Overby, MHS drama teacher who came on board in 2012 and was responsible for expanding the school’s drama department, advanced the partnership with ANW. He states, “A Noise Within clearly takes a unique approach to theatre – they have a quality and creativity unequaled by other professional groups. That was something I wanted my students to emulate.”

“We have been performing on our stage, which is quite impressive, but being on a professional stage would be an exciting experience for my students,” continues Overby. “ I wrote a proposal to partner with ANW and discussed it with Patrick Garcia, the director of performing arts for the Monrovia Unified School District, who reached out to ANW. When ANW’s artistic directors agreed to it, I began working with Alicia Green, the director of Education and Community Outreach at ANW.”

Concurs Green, “The director, Patrick, and I came together to discuss the proposed partnership and we decided to do ‘Lear’ as it worked best for the school and us. From the outset Nate and I worked to ensure students had a great experience and understood what it takes to do a show in a professional space.”

Overby adds, “This partnership is so much more than the students being able to perform ‘King Lear.’  We were able to join ANW’s cast for their table read of ‘Lear’ and we watched ANW actors perform it on stage. This gave my students the opportunity to join a professional cast on their journey on a production – to experience what it’s like to put on a professional show by observing ANW’s cast at several different points in their process. Furthermore, I want to develop a connection with ANW to inspire my students to pursue work with them after they graduate.”                     

“All students attended first rehearsal, some attended opening night, and all students came to a student matinee in mid-March,” Green said the week before their performance. “We wanted to immerse them fully in every step of the way – what it takes to make a full production a reality!  Nate worked with the students at Monrovia on the show and I am looking forward to having them come for the first time on Monday, the 24th, to rehearse on our stage, and then perform it the following night.”

Monrovia High School | Photo by Alicia Valdez / Monrovia High School website

While the show was put on at ANW, it was truly a student production as Green relates, “Other than providing one tech person to help set up the lights/sound they need, their technical director and students will be running all of the technical elements and stage managing the show. We are here to support them, but this is their show and we encourage them to make the space their own!”

“We are constantly looking for ways to engage students in the world of classical theatre,” Green says about ANW’s outreach. “Equitable access is of key importance, and we continue to grow and develop our education program through attendance at student matinees and evening/weekend performances, in-school residencies and workshops, full-school partnership programs, pre-show engagement activities, post-show conversations with the artists and our free study guides. Ideally, every student would have the opportunity to participate in some way with our programing to enhance their education!”

A Noise Within has its ‘Summer with Shakespeare’ camp and Saturday conservatory classes where students perform on its stage and in the building. This past Tuesday’s performance of ‘King Lear’ by Monrovia High School students, however, was a first for this kind of project.

According to Overby, MHS had two drama classes back in 2012 when he came to teach at the school. He says, “Now we have a full-time department offering five different periods of drama, including a Stagecraft class and an Honors drama course. We also started out with one performance a year; we are currently producing three a year which includes at least one musical and one play. This year we produced ‘Dracula’ in October, ‘Urinetown the Musical’ in March, and now ‘Lear’.”

‘King Lear’ was the capstone to a great year for the school’s drama students. And what better venue to fully realize the essence of one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated works than in Pasadena’s premier classical theatre company. 

Indeed it was a dream come true for these Monrovia High School students. How propos that their performance took place towards the end of A Noise Within’s own season they called ‘Beyond our Wildest Dreams’.  

‘King Lear’ and ‘Man of La Mancha’ Share Similar Worlds at A Noise Within

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 14 February 2017 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, and Monrovia Weekly

Resuming its 25th Anniversary celebration, ‘Beyond our Wildest Dreams’, A Noise Within puts on a production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear which will run in repertory with Man of La Mancha later in the spring. Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, co-producing and artistic directors of ANW, have conceived these two shows to be seen on the same day, allowing them to fully speak to each other. 

Both shows share the same leading man (Geoff Elliott), the same director (Julia Rodriguez-Elliott) and the same scenic elements, enabling a quick turnover between matinee and an evening performance so the two productions can play on the same stage.  

Of the opportunity to perform both Lear and Cervantes/Don Quixote, Elliott pronounces, “I feel I know Lear. He is stripped of everything, and must face his worst demons to find tenderness and uncompromising love in a very violent world. Lear spends so much of the play terrified of losing his mind. Anyone who goes through a similar self-investigation can’t help questioning his sanity as so much of the world that we live in seems insane.”

Continues Elliott, “In his way, Cervantes/Don Quixote is Lear’s doppelganger. As he assumes Quixote’s persona, Cervantes gains the courage and the strength needed to face the uncertain future of the Inquisition. He, along with his fellow prisoners and, ultimately, the audience are transformed.”  

 

King Lear | Image taken from A Noise Within’s website

Says Rodriguez-Elliott, “In Lear, this personal journey of a family dealing with an ailing patriarch has global implications. The breakdown of a nation runs concurrent with Lear’s mental decline. At the beginning of the play, we see a man at the zenith of his power, a modern day dictator who is feared and has never heard the word NO. The world we enter is a violent, callous one. At the end, we see a man transformed.”

The world of La Mancha is as violent and callous as it is ripe and crying out for transformation. “Though many often associate Man of La Mancha with elaborate set pieces and fanciful costumes, its earliest stagings were sparse, encompassing the spirit of a rag-tag band of prisoners putting on a play with found objects,” explains Rodriguez-Elliott. “I wanted to return to those roots. Based on real-world prisoners, the conditions we’ve created for Cervantes and his fellow inmates are recognizable and terrifying.”

Audiences will likewise be transported to these worlds, in large part, because of the actors’ excellent portrayal of the characters they will inhabit for the next two hours. However, stage plays are a collaboration among many – actors and directors; as well as designers, which include costume, lighting, and set – and their success depends on how seamlessly these collaborators work together to create one magnificent piece.  

That Lear and La Mancha also share artistic team members – Fred Kinney (scenic), Angela Balogh Calin (costume), and Ken Booth (lighting) – makes for an exciting experience for the audience and for everyone involved in both productions as well.

Booth, ANW’s resident lighting designer, who has worked on over 40 productions for ANW since 1998 says, “I’m thrilled to be a part of it; this kind of challenge doesn’t happen a lot in small theatres. For Lear I am using a palette of warm and cold lighting, often in combination.  You don’t really see the source of light but it’s there being filtered through some unknown artificial source. Shifting the temperature of the lighting within a scene helps to punctuate or accent a moment. Highlighting one particular character helps create dramatic conflict within that character.”

“Lighting defines and redefines the performance space; it can influence the mood for the play and the audience. It enhances the atmosphere for the actors who are on stage to share their art and emotions with their audience,” Booth adds.

Man of La Mancha | Image taken from A Noise Within’s website

“Both Lear and La Mancha deal with a man with delusions of grandeur. The conflicts in both come not from without but from within the characters – their inner dilemmas of importance and immortality that affect them. To connect both stories, I will create lighting that seems omnipotent in certain scenes and confining for others. Beyond the giant set wall the plays share, you only see shafts of light that emanate from behind a window or door whenever it is opened. The wall is the horizon – there doesn’t seem to be an outside world – and for the most part the lighting of the wall is the same: a cool or bluish wash, beams of warm light seeping down; and a filtered break-up catching parts of it.”

Angela Balogh Calin, resident costume designer for ANW, has worked with Booth since 1998. She says she hasn’t done many shows when Booth didn’t light. “We go back a long time,” she declares. 

“Both Lear and La Mancha are going to have modern setting so costume-wise, I will give them a modern approach,” Calin discloses. “The clothes will be something the audience will be able to identify with; they will be easily recognizable. Lear will be eclectic, with 1950s flair.”

Lear and La Mancha will only be Fred Kinney’s second and third shows with ANW. An independent scenic designer, he was contracted for both shows last spring and immediately did his research. 

“I think Shakespeare’s work is better heard not read; so I watched a couple of film versions of Lear before I started conceptualizing the scenery,” Kinney reveals. “For La Mancha, I listened to the music and then watched the film. Then I came up with a concept that could work for both but different enough. They are unified in theme but the design will have enough variety to service the individual parts of the shows – the things that are unique to each production. I will have a base layer to which I can add elements to make the scenery distinctive to each.”

ANW provides a unique environment in which artists work together across decades. They are comfortable experimenting, trying new things; impressing as much as supporting each other show after show. These artistic relationships inform each of this repertory theatre company’s many exceptional productions for 25 years.

Booth expresses says it best when he says, “I want our audiences to remember what an otherworldly universe we created within our theatre for our interpretation of King Lear and, hopefully, they get a satisfying feeling of bittersweet closure. This is what I find exciting – the collaboration in putting on a production – to take a blank stage and create a beautiful picture that is like a painting come to life using the limited tools at our disposal.”

A Noise Within’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ is a Glorious Production

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 8 December 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

The joyful observance of the holiday season isn’t complete without annual traditions one remembers with nostalgia. At A Noise Within (ANW), the classical repertory theatre company in Pasadena, it means a restaging of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. 

Celebrating its  25th anniversary and its fifth production of this time-honored tale, ANW will have 16 performances of A Christmas Carol starting Friday, December 2 and closing Friday, December 23, 2016. Producing Artistic Directors Geoff Elliott (who adapted the play from the novella) and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott co-direct this masterpiece about the redemptive power of love.       

Much like ANW’s ardent followers, the company’s resident artists look forward to this year-end event with anticipation. “Remounting our acclaimed presentation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol allows families to once again take a supremely theatrical journey, and celebrate the transformative power of forgiveness during the holidays,” says Elliott. She adds, “Ebenezer Scrooge’s rebirth from miserly curmudgeon to the epitome of love and generosity affirms our faith in the potent goodness of humanity during this beloved time of year.”   

“The beauty of going back to these great works is that you have a history with it – because they are in your muscle memory, you have the opportunity to discover new things,” explains Rodriguez-Elliott. “You don’t have the same pressure of having to create something for the first time; it’s very lived in.”

“For me there’s a unique aspect every year  – I can see something from a different perspective because I’m a year older,” Rodriguez-Elliott continues. “There are elements of a particular play that have altered because of where we are personally and where we are as a country. It takes on a different meaning for everyone, depending on where one is in life at that time.”

But wherever one finds himself in life, when the entire ensemble belts out Ego Plum’s majestic song ‘Glorious’ at the close, one will understand why it was undeniably worth the wait and coming back for. ANW’s A Christmas Carol is like aged wine – its flavor gets deeper and richer with each year. One could never have too much of it.               

One thing that will change annually is the casting of the Cratchit children. As Rodriguez-Elliott relates, “Last year, resident artist Freddy Douglas’s son, Eli, was too young but we knew at some point he would be right for Tiny Tim. He has a little sister who is in the wings getting ready for her turn. She knows all the songs and sings them in my ear during rehearsals.”

Ashlyn Woo, an eighth grader in Suzanne Middle School, plays Belinda Cratchit this year. She has previously attended the Fine Arts Academy of Dance and Summer with Shakespeare to prepare her for stage acting. While she has been in other shows, including the Nutcracker, this is her first professional performance in an ANW production. 

Enthuses Woo, “I found out I have been picked to play Belinda and be a part of the ensemble on a Friday after school. I read A Christmas Carol in seventh grade and now I’m a character in a production of it! How amazing is that!”

“To be in the show, I’ve had to do my homework in the car and sometimes during rehearsals,” Woo confides. “But it’s so worth it.”   

The Cratchits | Image taken from A Noise Within’s website

Another young actor debuting on A Christmas Carol as a Cratchit child is Samuel Genghis Christian. A sixth grader at Blair Middle School in Pasadena, he also trained at Summer with Shakespeare and Youth Conservatory at ANW.

Christian reveals, “I knew I wanted to perform on stage when I saw A Christmas Carol for the first time two years ago. It was one of the most exciting experiences of my life besides watching Harry Potter and the 2015 Super Bowl!”

“It was easy for me to get into the role once rehearsals started because I had seen the production before; I knew what it was going to be like,” adds Christian. “It’s such a wonderful show and I invited all my classmates and teachers to see it. My English class is coming to a student matinee.”

Of his time on the set of A Christmas Carol, Christian exclaims, “Everybody has been super nice to me and I feel really at home. It’s fantastalicious!”  Being in the company of talented ANW performers must produce such an incredible feeling if the experience moves one to invent words.

For Freddy Douglas, who is once more narrating, this year’s A Christmas Carol has greater significance as he shares the stage for the first time with his son, Eli Stuart. According to Douglas, Stuart hadn’t really shown an interest in acting until last year.

Says Douglas, “Eli saw A Christmas Carol last year and started singing ‘Glorious’, the final musical number on the show. Then seeing Apollo Dukakis in The Imaginary Invalid  caught his imagination and he agreed to have a go at Tiny Tim.”

Stuart is seven years old and attends second grade at Ivanhoe in Silverlake. Douglas states, “His teacher is working with us, helping him juggle the demands of school with that of the production.  He does extra reading on two show days.”

Douglas refrains from giving unsolicited advice to his young aspiring thespians. He discloses, “I just tell them to enjoy it and don’t bump into the furniture. However, this morning his four-year-old sister sang ‘The Charwoman Song’ about 50 times so he gets pointers from her.”

According to Stuart, “Working with my dad is a thrill; it feels special. I saw him on this show last year and I wanted to be on stage with him.” On the other hand, it was Douglas who was concerned. He confesses, “I was wondering if I might get very emotional after this song but so far I’ve managed to hold it together.”   

Sentiments like these are one of the reasons why ANW puts on A Christmas Carol every year.  As Rodriguez-Elliott points out, “It takes on a different meaning depending on where one is in life at that time.” 

ANW’s  ‘The Imaginary Invalid’ Makes for Uproarious Entertainment

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Originally published on 20 October 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Moliere’s ‘The Imaginary Invalid’ opened at A Noise Within (ANW) over the weekend, a fitting final production of the fall in the repertory company’s 25th anniversary season. Long-time resident artists, Apollo Dukakis as Argan, and Debora Strang as Toinette, face off in this raucously hysterical play. At the helm is ANW co-producing director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott.    

On stage until the 19th of November, ‘The Imaginary Invalid’ tells the story of Argan, a man obsessed with his health and the lengths to which he will go to ensure that he will have a doctor to diagnose and cure his ailments. It’s a high comedy that calls for much sparring among the characters which the resident artists pull off with dexterity and aplomb.           

Rodriguez-Elliott says of working on the show with resident performers, “It usually isn’t until the third week of production that people begin to have a sense of each other and by week five it’s over. But here, we get right down to the task on the very first day of rehearsal so that the work becomes so much richer. I’ve observed guest artists begin to relax as they see the vocabulary of the place.” 

Strang immediately pipes in, “Apollo and I have played opposite each other on the stage so many times but as I look back on them I think we’ve had the same kind of relationship every single time.”

“It’s part of being in a company, as long-time colleagues we have such a familiarity and that instant connection. We’re there for each other,” Dukakis adds.

Dukakis has played ‘The Imaginary Invalid’s’ lead character, Argan, four times previously; the first one was 16 years ago. This time around, he was originally cast as the doctor but the actor who was to have played Argan had an emergency medical surgery one week into rehearsal.  Without too much preamble, Rodriguez-Elliott asked him to replace the lead and Dukakis graciously agreed.

ANW has produced Moliere and Shakespeare plays more than any other playwright’s.  

Molière as Argan in his play ‘Le Malade Imaginaire’. Illustration from Liebig collectible card series (‘Auteurs dramatiques comme Acteurs’/ ‘Famous Actor Playwrights’), 1921. M: (Real name Jan-Baptiste Poquelin) – portrait. French dramatist, comic playwright, and theatre director, 1646 – 1673 (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Rodriguez-Elliott rationalizes, “Moliere’s characters are people who are extremes; watching what happens when we’re obsessed fascinates me. His works give us the opportunity to play the characters with a humanity. It’s the same with Shakespeare when he writes ‘a street’ and you have no idea what that looks like and you have to create what the language of that particular production is going to be.”

“I find it interesting that both Moliere and Shakespeare wrote for repertory companies,” observes Strang. “I think every single character in their plays is rich and full-bodied because they had particular actors in mind. The fact they had repertory companies made them much stronger writers.”

Interjects Rodriguez-Elliott, “Even if Moliere and Shakespeare just had a sketch, they throw it to the repertory and they fill it out. That’s the power of having a company. It’s in that same vein that I was able to ask Apollo to fill in for the original actor playing Argan; I was very confident that we have resident artists who can handle the role. It was seamless, we moved the different actors to play the various characters. We didn’t have to scramble around to find someone.”

Rodriguez-Elliott says of ‘The Imaginary Invalid’, “This individual is in the throes of mental illness. The brilliance of Moliere is that he’s turned this destructive isolation into a sparkling, effervescent romp! So much of the comedy is about how oblivious Argan is to the vultures that are taking advantage of him, and the lengths in which people in his life navigate his neurosis.”                             

“It’s slapstick hilarity to watch the characters go right to the brink of insanity, but there is an underlying basis of reality – we are all blinded by our own behaviors,” Rodriguez-Elliott observes. “At the end of the play, Argan overcomes it all. What’s most interesting to me is his trajectory and his journey. It’s up to the audience to figure out if he ultimately finds enlightenment and takes ownership of his life as he becomes a doctor himself.” 

“I can have some high and mighty notion of what I think the audience should take away with them. But given what’s going on in the world right now it’s really great to be in a room with everyone just laughing hysterically … being together and having a really good time where we’re not dealing with complex issues, or things that are taxing and stressful,”  Rodriguez-Elliott concludes.

‘The Imaginary Invalid’ provides the perfect last fall production of ANW’s ‘Beyond our Wildest Dreams’ 2016-2017 season. It’s a blast of a play!

A Noise Within Unveils 25th Anniversary Season

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Originally published on 21 April 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

A Noise Within (ANW), the classical theatre repertory company based in Pasadena, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Founders and Producing Artistic Directors, Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, still find it amazing that they have reached that milestone. 

“If someone were to tell me a decade ago, when we were still in the cold, leaky Masonic Temple in Glendale, that I would be standing here in front of you today, I would never have believed it. I would have loved to hear it but I could not have imagined it to be the case. And yet here I am;  it’s simply beyond our wildest dreams,” Elliott humbly confessed before an audience of theatre supporters, artists-in-residence, and a few members of the press. 

On Tuesday, April 19, ANW officially began its 25th year celebration and unveiled its growth plans as well as the slate of play offerings for the 2016-2017 season. Michael Bateman, Managing Director, who opened that evening’s event described how the company plans to build on its success and thrive in the future. He also revealed how ANW will get the funding to support its grand initiatives.

The company’s ambitious growth plans include: continuing to invest in the artistic company – actors, designers, and directors; providing flexibility for ANW’s creative artists through ‘freedom funds’; maximizing educational outreach by providing additional transportation and ticket scholarships to underserved schools, and deeper engagement opportunities for teachers and for students, including sequential learning options and curriculum development assistance.

Continued Bateman, “While that sounds challenging, it is totally achievable. We are getting support for our initiatives through gifts and pledges. A single gift of $250,000 has been pledged by John and Barbara Lawrence, with $600,000 having been pledged overall. Jeanie Kay has pledged a bequest gift of $2.5 million; we are also hoping to find 25 new individuals, like Jeanie, to include ANW in their estate plans.”

After Bateman talked about the business of producing memorable plays,  Elliott and Rodriguez-Elliott took to the stage and announced ANW’s 2016-2017 season offerings. Amidst  

enthusiastic cheers from members of the company and theatre enthusiasts, who have been eagerly anticipating this announcement, they outlined each play – Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia; The Maids by Jean Genet; Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid, adapted by Constance Congdon based on a new translation by Dan Smith; Shakespeare’s King Lear; Ah Wilderness! by Eugene O’Neill; Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion; and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted for the stage by Geoff Elliott.

Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott | Courtesy Photo

“Four of the plays we are announcing for the 25th anniversary season speak loudly to us now from our history – The Imaginary Invalid, King Lear, Ah, Wilderness!, and Man of La Mancha. Arcadia and The Maids are new for us. Together, our actors, artists, and audience will take a journey through and beyond our wildest, and sometimes simply wild dreams – the same journey that Julia and I have taken over this past quarter-century,” Elliott pronounced.

And it has indeed been a journey that has surpassed all their expectations as they look back in time. As Rodriguez-Elliott remembers it, “In 1991 we were struggling students, fresh from American Conservatory Theatre, and we used our last $3,000 to produce Hamlet. It was a big success and we learned a lot very quickly – that Los Angeles was filled with well-trained talent, that there was an audience hungry to see plays of substance, that there were people and resources willing to support this effort, and that there was a press corps interested in writing about this work.

“All of this added up quickly to the beginnings of a community,” continues Rodriguez-Elliott. “In the nurturing of this idea of community, we found ourselves on a path that led to our next productions, the use of the Masonic Temple in Glendale, a 501(c)(3) designation, an administrative staff, and so on. We had suddenly built an organization, including a robust education program, which enabled us to share our love of the classics with local students.”

As ANW gained following, it also outgrew its venue. In the middle of the 2008 recession the company somehow managed to raise the $13.5 million needed to build its new home on 3352 East Foothill Blvd. in Pasadena. It is a three-story, 30,000 square foot facility with rehearsal space, scene and costume shops, classrooms, administrative offices, and a student learning resource center.

This new facility made it possible for the theatre company to increase its audience considerably, and in the last five years has surpassed its previous box office and attendance records annually. Each year ANW serves over 40,000 patrons from Southern California and elsewhere. It has also achieved the remarkable feat of 85% subscription theatre renewals, 12% more than the national average. And it still is adding new subscribers, increasing its total audience base every year.

The theatre company’s commitment to make theatre accessible to everyone is evidenced by its ‘Pay What You Can’ night for each production. Its Resident Artists also put on staged readings six times a year at no cost to the public.   

One of ANW’s distinguishing hallmarks is its educational outreach program. Thirty percent of its resources are dedicated to support schools, providing transportation for students to come to the theatre. It also offers: reduced ticket costs to attend a live on-stage performance; post-show discussions with the artists; in-class workshops; and standards-based study guides. It has served more than 250,000 students over the years; in the 2015-2016 season, 15,400 youths from 204 schools from 28 school districts participated in this program. Its acclaimed summer camp, ‘Summer With Shakespeare,’ has graduated nearly 900 students since its creation.

So much has happened in two and a half decades. Today ANW is considered one of the most successful theatre companies in the country. But the one thing that has remained constant is their unwavering artistic vision. As Rodriguez-Elliott says, “We focus on timeless works that speak to the human condition. It’s important for us to present these epics in an intimate setting, told with a personal and contemporary perspective – after all, what good are all these grand, sweeping narratives if no one can relate to them?” 

To celebrate its first quarter century, ANW is holding events across their disciplines. There will be a Summer with Shakespeare on July 16; The American Dream: A Resident Artist Reading Festival on July 22- 24, 2016 (an event which is free to the public); a free Open House on September 17, 2016; a Fashion Show featuring costumes the artists have worn in its productions

through the years on January 21, 2017; and a 25th Anniversary Gala at the California Club to commemorate 25 years of classic theatre on April 29, 2017.

Elliott and Rodriguez-Elliott have decidedly come very far from their humble beginnings when they used their last dime to produce Hamlet. And both are keenly aware that a loyal community of artists, students, theatre lovers, and friends will take the next 25-year journey with them to help ensure this art form remains flourishing for generations to come.            

Six Characters in Search of an Author Premieres at a Noise Within

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Originally published on 14 April 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

When Luigi Pirandello’s early play Six Characters in Search of an Author was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome the audience protested with shouts of “manicomio!” (madhouse) because of the play’s irrational premise. Pirandello had to write a third edition in 1925 with a foreword to clarify the idea he wished to convey.

A precursor to the Theatre of the Absurd, Six Characters in Search of an Author, blurs the line between reality and illusion. It premieres at A Noise Within  (ANW) in Pasadena from March 27 to May 14, 2016 with Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott as co-directors.

Essentially a play within a play, it takes place in a rehearsal room where an acting company is working when they are interrupted by six people who come in from the street. They explain to the director that they are unfinished characters in search of an author to complete their story. While the director initially thinks them to be mad, he gives in to their claim as they relate their story. 

Elliott explains, “The director buys into it and agrees to stage their story.  But then a debate ensues as to who would best play the roles. The actors are convinced they are the ones who could bring the words to life and make these characters relatable human beings. Meanwhile the six characters argue that they should play themselves because anything otherwise would merely be an interpretation, and not who they really are.”  

Adds Rodriguez-Elliott, “This is why when Six Characters was first produced onstage there were protests. The play challenged the very nature of theatre; it showed how implausible theatre is. But when you parse it down to its most basic, it isn’t just an esoteric idea but a tale of passions.  It’s almost Shakespearean as it tackles infidelity, suicide and, possibly, incest. It is a story about a family seeking relief from a horrible event that has befallen them. And they believe that they would find that release they so desperately need if they could tell their story. It suggests theatre’s healing and therapeutic power.”

“Pirandello had these characters in his head who were so alive for him but he didn’t know how to use them or what play to put them in. Yet he couldn’t get them out of his mind,” Rodriguez-Elliott continues.

“They just wouldn’t leave him alone” Elliott interrupts with a laugh. “They kept causing great frustration so finally he gives in and lets them insert themselves into this rehearsal. I can’t help but think that writing this play must have been very cathartic for Pirandello. All writers or screenwriters, generally, dread to hand their work over to the actors because the actors will decide to rewrite it and make it into something they didn’t have in mind at all. What a joy it must have been for Pirandello to watch what happens when he haphazardly throws these characters into a play!”

Rodriguez-Elliott relates, “It’s quite fascinating – as we started working on the material, we saw the brilliance of Pirandello’s writing. We didn’t really completely comprehend it until we got into rehearsal and discovered its many facets. And, frankly, I found even more humanity in these individuals as we peeled away their layers.”

As Elliott puts it, “This play, more than any of the others we’ve done, reveals itself to us. It shows how your thoughts could change as you delve deeper into the story. It is fundamentally about a dysfunctional family. Who couldn’t relate to that?”

“Theatrically, it’s quite interesting to put on. We start out with a neutral rehearsal room with nothing much in the way of a set – a piano, some chairs, maybe. As the characters begin to tell their story, color is introduced; a garden comes to life; things appear and then disappear. The space takes on their reality at some point and you see that manifest itself through the pieces on the set. In a way it’s like our imagination; it can take us to certain places,” Rodriguez-Elliott elaborates.

“We hope Six Characters gives our audience a chance to experience theatre in its most non-linear sense and give in to it. Pirandello asks a lot of questions and puts them all out there. He doesn’t necessarily give us a solution nor neatly ties things together. It’s going to mean different things to disparate people; we can all observe the same event but each one of us would have a different perspective,” Rodriguez-Elliott concludes. 

In announcing the theatre company’s theme for the 2015-2016 season, Elliott declared, “As a recurring thematic element, ‘Breaking and Entering’ symbolizes breaking down the walls of ignorance or fear and summoning the personal courage to embrace a greater sense of truth. These plays are inhabited by characters who do just that.”

How apropos that Six Characters in Search of an Author culminates ANW’s impressive season staging groundbreaking masterpieces by playwrights who have given us permission to see beyond the obvious.                        

Shaw’s ‘You Never Can Tell’ on Stage at A Noise Within

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Originally published on 10 March 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Students of English Drama would all be in agreement that George Bernard Shaw, who wrote over 60 plays in his lifetime, is one of the most revered writers of all time. This Nobel Prize- and Oscar-winning Irish playwright, critic and socialist influenced Western theatre, culture and politics from the 1880s to his death in 1950.     

One of Shaw’s earlier plays, You Never Can Tell, provides much hilarity for Drama scholars and theatre enthusiasts alike as it is performed onstage at A Noise Within (ANW), starting March 6 through May 15, 2016.  

Stephanie Shroyer, an Associate Professor of Theatre Practice and the Artistic Director at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, takes the helm for this production.  She describes what’s in store for its audience, “I believe Shaw is telling us that life is hard and we should cherish every moment because, really, you never can tell what good will come our way. This is a wise, warm, and terrifically funny play – after all, what other play about love opens in a dentist’s office, with a practitioner who becomes the major love interest, pulling his first tooth without using anesthesia because it is an extra five-shilling charge?”

This is Shroyer’s first time to direct You Never Can Tell and she is thrilled. “I’m a big fan of Shaw – I love his wit and provocative thinking. I didn’t know this play intimately well but fell in love with it after reading it.   

When we did a bit of research for the play, we found this to have been Shaw’s answer to some people’s request for material with popular appeal for the modern audiences of the late 19th century. While the characters are intellectualizing, it’s lighter in tone. I liken it to serving the play’s message with a spoonful of sugar,” Shroyer enthuses.

Shroyer also imagines some of the characters in this play are what one would expect to see from Commedia dell’arte stock characters, “I want to have the circumstances in the material performed to their fullest – the actors will use overemphasized hand movements and gestures to show the exaggerated points Shaw is making intellectually.”

Longtime ANW company performer, Deborah Strang, who plays Mrs.Clandon, articulates everyone’s sentiment that staging You Never Can Tell is an enjoyable experience, “I loved working with Stephanie when she directed Blood Wedding during ANW’s very early years, and I still enjoy collaborating with her to this day. She is a visual artist and her training as a dancer shows when she asks us to do something that comes from another world, in a way. But eventually we get that her approach is left brain-right brain. And she makes us all laugh. We have way too much fun in rehearsal there must be something wrong.  I’m sure it will all fall apart sometime.”

Unlike her director, Strang isn’t particularly the playwright’s fan. She confesses, “In a way Shaw is too smart for me; he’s very much an intellectual. I’m a little stupider than he – I constantly feel like he’s two beats ahead of me. But this piece might have changed my mind and I might have to reread him from this new angle.  his play and the people in it are so delightful. Whereas a lot of his work deals with ideas, this one is more about the characters. It’s almost like Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest without the irony. It’s a comedy, it’s fresh and delightful.  Every single character is lovable and charming.”  

You Never Can Tell is set in a seaside town and follows the story of Mrs. Clandon and her three children – Dolly, Phillip and Gloria – as they return to England after an 18-year stay in Madeira.  Mrs. Clandon, a woman whose sensibilities are caught between the tug of restrained Victorian manners and the modern ways, raised her children on her own and never told them their father’s identity. Through a comedy of errors, however, they end up inviting him to a family lunch.  Meanwhile, a dentist named Valentine has fallen in love with the eldest daughter, Gloria. But Gloria deems herself a modern woman and declares to have no interest in love or marriage. The play goes about with various scenarios of confused identities, with the wisdom coming from a sage waiter who dispenses it with the phrase “You Never Can Tell”.

This play performs in repertory with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author.  Elliott says of You Never Can Tell, “As Romeo and Juliet shows an aspect of love, George Bernard Shaw shows us love – and heartbreak – in an entirely different, bright and very funny way. This early play of his, before Shavian became an adjective, gives us a chance to take great delight in his outrageous situations and voice with a kind of unique wordsmithing that allows us to bathe in his glorious use of English.” 

Shaw’s imposing body of work that we find irresistible to read or watch on stage – from acerbic satire to historical allegory – clearly exhibits why his plays endure to this day.