SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES CASTING FOR SIMON GODWIN’S FIRST SHOW AS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: TIMON OF ATHENS

December 23, 2019, Washington, D.C.: Shakespeare Theatre Company is excited to announce casting for Artistic Director SIMON GODWIN’s directorial debut at the Theatre—a restaging of his recent acclaimed production of Timon of Athens, a co-production with Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA), produced in association with The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Timon of Athens will be onstage at the Michael R. Klein Theatre at the Lansburgh starting February 20 and running until March 22, 2020.

KATHRYN HUNTER, the shapeshifting, Olivier Award-winning actress who has portrayed several of Shakespeare’s kings, reprises the role of Timon, which she first performed at the RSC last February. “Her performance brings a generosity of spirit that this story needs,” explains Godwin. “Kathryn’s performance enlivens this forgotten Shakespeare play as a zeitgeist work, a reversed fairytale for our own economic times. I am thrilled to work with her again to bring Timon to new audiences. ” 

As played by the “preternaturally talented” (Slant Magazine) Hunter, Timon’s fury and pity move us in equal measure. Timon is a wealthy philanthropist and Athenian influencer who loses her prestige, power, and friends when bankruptcy beckons. Taking to the forest, she becomes a lowly and lonely hermit. Godwin’s daring take on this rarely produced play yields “a parable for our times … and perhaps a nifty touchstone for spiritual renewal” (Daily Telegraph).

Joining Hunter in Timon of Athens are several actors returning to STC, including YONATAN GEBEYEHU; who most recently played an irreverent God in Everybody, actor, writer, and comedienne JULIA OGILVIE, who appeared in STC’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream tour in Macau; Broadway performer DANIEL PEARCE (Machinal), who appeared in STC’s The Merchant of Venice; DAVE QUAY, who played Stephano in The Tempest; and LIAM CRAIG who has appeared in several STC productions including The School for Lies and The Government Inspector.

Actors making their Shakespeare Theatre Company debut include SHIRINE BABB,who dazzled as Cleopatra in the Folger Theatre’s production of Antony and Cleopatra; ARNIE BURTON, who won a Calloway Award for The Government Inspector;HELEN CESPEDES,who most recently appeared in the lauded Fefu and Her Friends at TFANA; Helen Hayes winner for his work in The Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Folger Theatre,ZACHARY FINE;Helen Hayes nominee ADAM LANGDON who played the role of Christopher in the Broadway tour of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; KRISTEN MISTHOPOULOUSwho was featured in the film Wild Nights with Emily;ELIA MONTE-BROWN, whoappeared in Blithe Spirit (The Guthrie); and JOHN ROTHMAN, who has appeared in over 100 movies (including Ghostbusters and The Devil Wears Prada).

Several members of the Creative Team have previously collaborated with Simon Godwin. Set and Costume Designer SOUTRA GILMOUR worked on Hamlet (2019)at Theatre Cocoon in Tokyo; Sound Designer CHRISTOPHER SHUTT worked on Anthony and Cleopatra (2018);Composer MICHAEL BRUCE has written the scores for several Godwin-directed plays, including Anthony and Cleopatra (2018), Twelfth Night (2017), The Beaux’ Stratagem (2015), Man and Superman (2015), Two Gentlemen of Verona (2014), and Strange Interlude (2013). They all collaborated on the original design of Timon of Athens for the RSC. Lighting Designer DONALD HOLDER has received two Tony awards (The Lion King and South Pacific) and thirteen Tony nominations.

Previews begin February 20, and Press Night will be on Monday, February 24 at 7:45 p.m. at the Michael R. Klein Theatre at the Lansburgh.

More information about Timon of Athens may be found here: http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/events/timon-of-athens-19-20/

Timon of Athens is underwritten by the Beech Street Foundation with production support by Share Fund.

The restaurant partner for Timon of Athens is Succotash. 

CAST:

SHIRINE BABB (Lucia) Broadway: Macbeth (Lincoln Center), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (OBC). Off Broadway: Bedlam’s Crucible, Napoli, Brooklyn (Roundabout), Aliens with Extraordinary Skills (Women’s Project). Regional: School Girls, Antony & Cleopatra (2015 Theatre Critic Circle nom.), Measure & Dido (Kennedy Center), Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra (Folger Theatre), Widows (Arcola Theatre, London), Disgraced (2015 Critic Circle nom.). 2010/2011 seasons at The Old Globe Shakespeare Festival. Television: Iron Fist, I Love You… But I Lied, Blue Bloods, and Madam Secretary. East 15 Acting Conservatory (MA), USD/Old Globe PTAP (MFA)

ARNIE BURTON (Apemantus) Broadway: Machinal, Peter and the Starcatcher, The 39 Steps, A Free Man of Color, Amadeus.  Off Broadway highlights: Lewiston/Clarkston (Drama Desk nomination), The Government Inspector (Callaway Award), The Mystery of Irma Vep (Drama League nom.), The Temperamentals (Drama Desk Award Ensemble), The New Yorkers, The Explorers Club, The Winter’s Tale, Lives of the Saints.  TV and Film includes: Murphy Brown, The Good Fight, Search Party, Blacklist, Jessica Jones, The Greatest Showman.

HELEN CESPEDES (Flaminia) Selected New York credits: The Cripple of Inishmaan (Broadway), Fefu and Her Friends (TFANA), Paul Swan is Dead and Gone (Civilians), The School For Scandal (Red Bull), A Picture of Autumn (The Mint), and Couriers and Contrabands (Timeline). Regional: Williamstown, Old Globe, McCarter, Two River, Barrington Stage, Goodman, NYSF, Hartford Stage, Studio Theater, and Chautauqua. TV/Film: The Way I Remember It, The Knick. Training: Juilliard.

LIAM CRAIG (Demetrius) was last seen at TFANA in Julius Caesar. STC: School for Lies, The Tempest. Broadway: Boeing Boeing (u/s, appeared). Off-Broadway: Later Life (Keen Company), The Internationalist (Vineyard Theatre), Aunt Dan and Lemon (New Group), Two Noble Kinsmen (Public Theater). Regional: Henry V, Seder (Hartford Stage), Book of Will (Denver Center), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Weston Playhouse), TV: Madam Secretary, Mozart in the Jungle. Film: The Royal Tenenbaums.

ZACHARY FINE (The Painter) Broadway: China Doll with Al Pacino. Off-Broadway: Acting Company, Mint, Pearl, Red Bull, Fiasco, Theatre for A New Audience. Regional: Guthrie, Folger, Playmakers, Original work; Walled In, Manifest Destiny (with Aitor Basauri and Lucas Rooney), So Please You (HVSF), The Sea Maids Music (HVSF) Bewilderness. 2015 Helen Hayes Award for Fiasco’s Two Gentlemen of Verona. Zack teaches clown and games at NYU, Fiasco Conservatory and more.

YONATAN GEBEYEHU (Poet) STC: Everybody.New York: I Thought I Would Die, But I Didn’t (New Georges/The Tank). Regional: Go. Please. Go. (Montana Rep), The Tempest (Shakespeare on the Manor), Noises Off, Romeo and Juliet (Chautauqua Theater Company), Christmas Carol (Portland Stage), Revolt. She said. Revolt Again., Strange Men, How to Use a Knife (UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse). TELEVISION: Elementary, Madame Secretary (CBS). WEB: 86’d (Bric Arts). BA in English Literature: Columbia University; MFA in Acting: UCSD.

KATHRYN HUNTER (Timon)TFANA: Why?, The Valley of Astonishment (CICT/Bouffes du Nord), Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kafka’s Monkey (Young Vic), and Fragments (CICT/Bouffes du Nord). Other theatre credits: Antony & Cleopatra, King Lear (RSC); The Diver (Soho Theatre); Yerma (Arcola Theatre); and The Visit (National Theatre, Olivier Award for Best Actress). Film credits include: A Midsummer Night Dream, Mike Leigh’s All or Nothing and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

ADAM LANGDON (Lucilius) Christopher in the Broadway tour of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Helen Hayes nomination). Regional: Kimberly Akimbo (Barrington), I Saw My Neighbor on the Train and I Didn’t Even Smile (BTG), Hapgood, Robin Hood (Williamstown). Film/TV: Midnight, Texas; Masters of Doom; The Good Wife; Red Oaks; The Path; Difficult People; Peter Has to Go to the Doctor; Three Dates. Co-wrote and co-starred in the web series Moe and Jerryweather. Training: Juilliard.

KRISTEN MISTHOPOULOUS (Singer) Regional: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, R+J4EVR. INTERNATIONAL: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. FILM: Wild Nights With Emily. PERSONAL: She/her/hers. TRAINING: The Globe Theatre (London), The Freeman Studio, BFA Syracuse University. INSTAGRAM: @kristmis 

ELIA MONTE-BROWN (Alcibiades) Elia has appeared in Blithe Spirit (The Guthrie), Top Girls (The Huntington), Between Riverside and Crazy (ACT Geary Theatre) and has also worked at The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Humana Festival and many more.  Film and TV credits include FBI, The Deuce, The Resident, Shades of Blue, The Affair, Fort Tilden, Search Party, The Affair, The Following, Person of Interest, Madam Secretary, Elementary, Law and Order: SVU and Law and Order: Criminal Intent.  Yale School of Drama.

JULIA OGILVIE (Jeweller) Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Julia Ogilvie is an actor, comedienne, and writer who trained at Julliard. She trained at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre on Maude Night, and performs comedy, poetry, and music around New York City. She wrote and performed her solo show Freckle and Burn directed by Vivienne Benesch at the Steinberg Studio, as well as Our Names in Masking Tape at Juilliard.

DANIEL PEARCE (Sempronius) STC: The Merchant of Venice. Broadway: Machinal, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Off-Bway: Mother of the Maid, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Ping Pong, Henry V, Henry VI, Measure for Measure, Loves’ Fire (Public), The Most Deserving (Women’s Project), Falling (Minetta Lane), Passion Play (Epic), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Irish Rep), among others. Film/TV: Murder of a President, Salt, Clowns, Godzilla, Bull, Chapelle’s Show, Law & Order, SVU, CI. MFA: NYU. 2017 Lunt-Fontanne Fellow. 

DAVE QUAY (Lucullus) Off-Broadway: Socrates, The Low Road (Public Theater), The Heir Apparent (Classic Stage Company), Donogoo (Mint Theater). Regional: Dorset Theatre Festival, Shakespeare Theatre DC, New Jersey Symphony, Georgia Shakespeare, Alliance Theatre, Synchronicity Theatre, Chautauqua Theater Company, Florence Continuum, etc. Film: Catcher was a Spy. TV: Bull, Looming Tower, Gotham, House of Cards, Blindspot, Unforgettable, Royal Pains, Forever, Drop Dead Diva. Other: Big Apple Circus. MFA: NYU Grad Acting.

JOHN ROTHMAN (Flavius) TFANA: Pericles.  Broadway: Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Relatively Speaking, Prelude to a Kiss, Some Americans Abroad, Social Security. Off-Broadway: CSC, New Group, Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard, Impossible H.L. Mencken, which he wrote. 100 plus movies, Stardust Memories, Ghostbusters, Devil Wears Prada, The Report and Bombshell.  Television: Judge Kofax on SVU, Series Regular on One Mississippi, streaming on Amazon. Grad, Yale Drama, Actors Studio Lifetime member, EST, Actors Center. More: johnrothmanactor.com

CREATIVE TEAM:

SIMON GODWIN (Director) joined Shakespeare Theatre Company as Artistic Director in September 2019. He has served as Associate Director of the National Theatre of London, the Royal Court Theatre, and Bristol Old Vic. He made his debut at the National Theatre with Strange Interlude followed by Man and Superman, and went on to direct The Beaux’ Stratagem, Twelfth Night, an acclaimed production of Antony and Cleopatra with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo, and the world premiere of Simon Woods’ play Hansard. Simon has also directed at the Royal Shakespeare Company, including an acclaimed Hamlet, which toured to the Kennedy Center, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Simon recently made his Tokyo debut, directing a Japanese cast in Hamlet for Theatre Cocoon. In 2012 Simon was awarded the inaugural Evening Standard/Burberry Award for an Emerging Director.

SOUTRA GILMOUR (Set and Costume Designer) Theatre: Betrayal (Broadway); Pinter at The Pinter, From Here To Eternity, The Commitments (West End); Twelfth Night, My Brilliant Friend, Shadow of a Boy (National Theatre); Strictly Ballroom (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Toronto, West End); Bull, When the World Was Green (Young Vic); Hecuba, Candide, The Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes (RSC); Cyrano de Bergerac (Roundabout); Macbeth (Trafalgar Transformed); The Crucible, The Duchess of Malfi, Dr Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Old Vic), Reasons to be Pretty (Almeida)

DONALD HOLDER (Lighting Designer) TFANA: He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box (OBIE Award), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, many others. Broadway: fifty-eight productions, two Tony awards (The Lion King and South Pacific) and thirteen Tony nominations. Recent projects include: Kiss Me, Kate; Tootsie; My Fair Lady; Oslo; M Butterfly; Anastasia; She Loves Me; Fiddler on the Roof; The King and I; The Bridges Of Madison County; many others. Television: Smash Seasons 1 and 2 (NBC-Dreamworks). Film: Oceans 8 (Warner Brothers Pictures)

CHRISTOPHER SHUTT (Sound Designer) Broadway: War Horse (Tony Award), Coram Boy, All My Sons, Not About Nightingales (Drama Desk Award), Moon for the Misbegotten, Privacy. Off-Broadway: Mnemonic (Drama Desk Award), Macbeth (Armory), Love & Information, Arturo Ui (with Al Pacino). London Theatre: Antony & Cleopatra, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Disappearing Number, The Elephant Vanishes, Street of Crocodiles, The Father, Twilight Zone, Oppenheimer, Glass Kill Bluebeard Imp, ear for eye, All About My Mother.

MICHAEL BRUCE (Composer) Michael is a Scottish composer and lyricist. He was composer-in-residence at the Donmar Warehouse from 2012 to 2019. He has worked extensively at the Royal National Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company and in the West End. His work on Broadway includes Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Booth) and The Winslow Boy (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: Privacy (Public Theater). Publications include Writing Music for the Stage: a Practical Guide for Theatremakers.

ABOUT SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY

Led by Artistic Director Simon Godwin and Executive Director Chris Jennings, the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) is the nation’s premier classical theatre company. STC has become synonymous with artistic excellence and making classical theatre more accessible to audiences in and around the nation’s capital, building on the foundation laid by Founding Artistic Director Michael Kahn.

Recipient of the 2012 Regional Theatre Tony Award, STC’s mission is to create innovative productions that inspire dialogue and connect classic works to the modern human experience. The Company focuses on works with profound ideas, complex characters and poetic language written by Shakespeare and others—ambitious, enduring plays with universal themes—for all audiences. At this time of transition, the Company’s mission evolves with a three-year initiative to produce family-friendly theatre during the holidays, and an expansion of the definition of “classic” to include playwrights previously excluded from the canon, with a renewed commitment to high-quality, exhilarating, inclusive theatre.

A leader in arts education, STC has a dynamic range of initiatives that teach and excite learners of all ages, from school programs and adult acting classes to accessible community programming like play-relevant discussion series and the Free for All. For the past 27 years the Free For All program has offered an annual remount of a popular production completely free of charge to all audience members.

Located in downtown Washington, D.C., STC performs in two theatres, the 451-seat Michael R. Klein Theatre at the Lansburgh and the 761-seat Sidney Harman Hall. In addition to STC productions appearing year-round, these spaces also accommodate presentations from outstanding local performing arts groups and nationally renowned organizations. The Company has been a fixture in the vibrant Penn Quarter neighborhood since 1992.

ABOUT THEATRE FOR A NEW AUDIENCE

Founded in 1979 by Artistic Director Jeffrey Horowitz, Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) celebrates its 40th anniversary this season. Through its productions of Shakespeare and other new plays, humanities initiatives and arts education programs in NYC public schools, TFANA creates adventurous dialogues with a diverse national audience. TFANA has produced 33 of Shakespeare’s 38 plays; promotes the ongoing training of artists through the Actors and Directors Project; and in 2001, became the first American theatre company invited to the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon.

ABOUT ROYAL SHAKEPSPEARE COMPANY:

Royal Shakespeare Company creates theatre at its best, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world.  We produce an inspirational artistic program each year, setting Shakespeare in context, alongside the work of his contemporaries and today’s writers.  

Everyone at the RSC – from actors to armorers, musicians to technicians – plays a part in creating the world you see on stage.  All our productions begin life at our Stratford workshops and theatres and we bring them to the widest possible audience through our touring, residencies, live broadcasts and online activity. So wherever you experience the RSC, you experience work made in Shakespeare’s home town.  

We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. We encourage everyone to enjoy a lifelong relationship with Shakespeare and live theatre.  We reach 530,000 children and young people annually through our education work, transforming their experiences in the classroom, in performance and online.  Registered charity no. 212481 www.rsc.org.uk.