Beckett In Brief
April 27-May 7, 2017
Sorenson Black Box Theater, Babson College, Wellesley
By Samuel Beckett
Directed by James Seymour
Among Samuel Beckett’s most autobiographical works, Rough for Radio II, The Old Tune, and Krapp’s Last Tape explore universal questions of creativity, memory, aging, sex, friendship, and the proximity of death. These plays from his mid-career are traditionally viewed as individual statements, but the three provide a wealth of impressions when placed in conversation with one another, giving us a better understanding of the legendary playwright’s intellect, passion, and temperament.
Krapp’s Last Tape and Rough for Radio II is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.). The Old Tune, written by Robert Pinget and Samuel Beckett (© Editions de Minuit).
Running Time: 90 minutes with no intermission
“Will Lyman’s mastery is evident in Beckett In Brief. It is fascinating to watch Lyman’s Krapp, a writer now nearing 70, simultaneously fight and surrender to the tidal pull of nostalgia while listening to tape recordings of himself made on his 39th birthday.”
-Don Aucoin, The Boston Globe
“CSC puts on an achingly affecting series of Samuel Beckett’s short plays.”-Carolyn Clay, WBUR/The ARTery
Cast
Ken Baltin makes his Commonwealth Shakespeare Company debut. Among his many favorite productions include Death of a Salesman, Glengarry Glen Ross, Lost in Yonkers, Laughter on the 23rd Floor (Lyric Stage Company of Boston); The Kite Runner, Eurydice, Waiting for Godot, American Buffalo (New Repertory Theatre); Deported-a dream play, King of the Jews, Permanent Whole Life (Boston Playwrights Theatre); Operation Epsilon (Nora Theatre); Copenhagen, A Screenwriter’s Daughter (Vineyard Playhouse); Oleanna (Merrimack Repertory Theatre) Brooklyn Boy (SpeakEasy Stage Company); Last Night of Ballyhoo, I Ought To Be In Pictures, Yom Kippur in Da Nang (Jewish Theatre of New England). He teaches acting and directs at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
Will Lyman-Boston Stages: King Lear, Ulysses on Bottles, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Windowmen, Operation Epsilon, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, All My Sons, Exits and Entrances, The Oil Thief, Nicholas Nickleby, King of the Jews, Prospero, Brutus, Claudius. Off-Broadway: The Novelist, Passion of Dracula, Grinding Machine, The Dwarfs. Television: “Commander-in-Chief”, “Threat Matrix”, “Hull High”, “Crossbow”, “American Meltdown”, “Our Fathers”, soaps. Film: “Little Children”, “A Perfect Murder”, “The Siege”, “Mystic River”, “Welcome to the Dollhouse”, “What Doesn’t Kill You”. Narrator: “Frontline”, “NOVA”, “American Experience” etc. Awards: Norton Outstanding Achievement (4 plays), Norton Sustained Excellence 2013, IRNE, NETC Award for Contribution to American Theatre, Howard Keel, Best of Boston, Imaginaire.
Ashley Risteen makes her Commonwealth Shakespeare Company debut. She was last seen by Boston audiences in Man in Snow (Gloucester Stage Company) which moved on to a run at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre in Manhattan this past November. Her previous Boston credits include Appropriate (Speakeasy Stage Company), Neighborhood Watch, Big Meal, and Cakewalk (Zeitgeist Stage Company), and 6 Hotels (Hub Theatre Company). A native of the North Shore, she has been active in the Newburyport theatre community for many years, notably in The 39 Steps (Firehouse Center) and Speed-the-Plow (Actor’s Studio).
Creative Team
James Seymour makes his Commonwealth Shakespeare Company debut and has appeared in leading roles on Broadway (I Love My Wife), Off-B’way (Small Craft Warnings, Moonchildren), on television (Kate and Allie)and at major regional theatres, including The Long Wharf Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, and Portland Stage. Directed productions include All The Way Home at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Road at The Marymount Manhattan Theatre, I Love My Wife at Detroit’s Birmingham Theatre, The Bacchae at UNC-Chapel Hill, and over twenty-five productions for The Island Theatre at the University of Guam. He has also taught Theatre, English Composition, Film, and Literature at Marymount Manhattan College, Queens College, CUNY, The Colorado College, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His play Two Lovers (A Taotaomona Tale and I Domino) was produced in Guam. Currently a lecturer in English and Film at the University of Maine, Jim was raised in New Jersey and spent most of his life in New York City, after receiving his BFA from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts and Ph.D. from the Graduate Center at The City University of New York.
Samuel Beckett was born on April 13, 1906, in Dublin, Ireland. During the 1930s and 1940s he wrote his first novels and short stories. Beckett reached a much wider public through his plays than through his novels. The most famous plays are Waiting for Godot (1953), Endgame (1957), Krapp’s Last Tape (1958), and Happy Days (1961). The same themes found in the novels appear in these plays in a more condensed and accessible form. Later Beckett experimented successfully with other media: the radio play, film, pantomime, and the television play. In 1969 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. His later works included poetry and short story collections and novellas. He died on December 22, 1989 in Paris, France.
James Fenton is making his Commonwealth Shakespeare debut. Off Broadway: Southern Comfort, the Musical (The Public Theatre), Kunstler (59E59), Promising (Beckett: Theatre Row), Drop Dead Perfect (St. Clement’s), Fall to Earth (59E59), When We Met (CAP21), Academia Nuts (NYMF 2015), God Steeling, Maiden’s Prayer, Sight Unseen (Theatre 54), Navy Peir (Studio:Theatre Row), Salome of the Moon (Waterwell Productions.), Third Rail Productions (Various Projects.) Regional: Abigail/1702, The Outgoing Tide, Mrs. Mannerly, (Merrimack Repertory Theatre), The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith (Royal Manitoba Theatre), Dancing Lessons, Southern Comfort, the Musical (Barrington Stage), Peter and the Starcatcher (Arkansas Repertory), Drop Dead Perfect, How the World Began, The How and The Why, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Greetings! (Penguin Repertory), Kunstler (Hudson Stage Company), Spunk, (Lorainne Hansberry Theatre), Cider House Rules (ACT-SF) www.jamesjfenton.com
Chelsea Kerl – Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: Beckett in Brief. The Huntington: Witch (Elliot Norton Award Winner: Outstanding Design, Large Theatre). SpeakEasy Stage Company: Cost of Living, Once on this Island, Pass Over, Grand Concourse. Lyric Stage: The Game’s Afoot: Holmes for the Holidays, Rooted, The Treasurer, Twelfth Night, Warrior Class. Wheelock Family Theatre at BU: The Wizard of Oz, Willy Wonka, James and the Giant Peach. Her work has also been seen at Gloucester Stage, Actors’ Shakespeare Company, The Kitchen Theatre, and Moonbox Productions, among others. Chelsea is the Costume Shop Manager and Costume Design professor at Wellesley College, and she has also taught at Bridgewater State University, Emerson College, Northeastern University, and Tufts University. www.chelseakerl.com
Alexander Fetchko makes his Commonwealth Shakespeare Company debut, Alex is a freelance lighting designer for the greater NYC and Boston areas. Recent designs include The Pilgrim’s Progress, Crazy for You, Voodoo Yoodoo (original), Macbeth, Legally Blonde, Peter and the Starcatcher, and The Merry Way (original). He has designed and assisted for new and well-known plays and musicals throughout New England, including Quixote (original opera), Finish Line (original), Million Dollar Quartet, i don’t know where we’re going but i promise we’re lost (original), A Visit with Marie Curie (original), Cendrillon, Hello, Dolly!, Krapp’s Last Tape, The Dumb Waiter, Machinal and An Inspector Calls. He’s worked for a number of extraordinary theatre companies such as The Huntington Theatre Company, Florida Grand Opera, Berkshire Theatre Festival, The Boston Ballet, and more. Alex is an alum of Boston University.
Elizabeth Callas makes her Commonwealth Shakespeare Company debut and is a Providence-based sound designer and sound artist. She began her work in sound design for theater at Brown University, and has since continued her work in live sound in New York and Boston. Her background in music has played a very influential role in her approach to sound mixing and design, and she continues to pursue her musical interests in both production and performance outside of her sound design work. Lizzy has also sound designed and created a few sound art installations, focusing on the neurophysiological response to sound in order to create a more cathartic experience for artists and audiences alike.
Lisa Berg returns to Commonwealth Shakespeare Company after working on Our American Hamlet. New to Massachusetts, and a Michigan native., she has worked as Props Master for Boston Conservatory and Boston Lyric Opera. She had also worked with Stoneham Theatre, and Moonbox Productions.
Greg Nash makes his Commonwealth Shakespeare Company debut, reuniting with his Boston University School of Theatre classmates James Seymour and Will Lyman. Recent credits: Light up the Sky and Death of a Salesman (Lyric Stage Company), Neville’s Island (Stoneham Theatre), Uncle Jack and Chosen Child (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), Arcadia (Nora Theatre Company), Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Wheelock Family Theatre). Other local credits: Underground Railway Theatre, New Repertory Theatre, The Publick Theatre, and Boston Theatre Works. Off-Broadway, Greg stage-managed Tennessee Williams performing in his play, Small Craft Warnings featuring James Seymour. Regional theatre credits include the Goodman Theatre and the Long Wharf Theatre. Greg holds a B.F.A. and an M.Ed. from Boston University.
Rachel Corning returns to CSC for the Stage2 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Since 2016, she has worked in various technical capacities with companies throughout the Boston and North Shore areas. Select credits include Deal Me Out (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), A Christmas Celtic Sojourn (WGBH), Trayf, Cardboa
Carling-Sorenson Theater
19 College Drive Babson College
231 Forest Street
Babson Park (Wellesley), MA 02457
Driving Directions to Babson College/Sorenson Center for the Arts
From the east: Take the Massachusetts Turnpike to Exit 15 (Interstate 95/Route 128). After the tolls, follow signs to Route 95/128 South to Exit 21 (Route 16 Newton/Wellesley) …
From the west: Take the Massachusetts Turnpike to Exit 14 (Interstate 95/Route 128). After the tolls, follow signs to Route 95/128 South to Exit 21 (Route 16 Newton/Wellesley) … From the south: Follow Route 95/128 North to Exit 21 (Route 16 Newton/Wellesley) …
From the north: Follow Route 95/128 South to Exit 21 (Route 16 Newton/Wellesley) …
Then … At end of the off ramp, follow signs for Route 16 West (Washington Street). Continue on Route 16 West for 2 miles through Newton Lower Falls and Wellesley Hills. Turn left onto Forest Street and follow for 1 mile to Babson College; the main entrance is on the right. Turn left onto Map Hill Drive and park in the Trim Parking Lot. The theater is a short walk away, on College Drive.
Trim Parking Lot is the best place to park when attending events at the Sorenson Center for the Arts. As you enter on Forest Street, make a left at the first stop sign unto Map Hill Drive. On your right will be a smaller lot, Hollister Lot. If there is space available, patrons may park there. However, Trim Parking Lot is preferred which will be on the left hand side after you pass the Hollister lot. To walk to the theater, walk back towards the stop sign and make a left at the Hollister building. Continue walking straight past Reynolds Campus Center and the Sorenson Center for the Arts will be the next building.
Handicap parking is available in the Hollister Lot, on Map Hill Drive. We also recommend that patrons with mobility issues be dropped off in front of the theater before your party finds parking in Hollister or Trim lot for your convenience.
From the Amtrak Terminal at South Station
You have two options:
1) Take the Framingham/Worcester Commuter rail to Wellesley Hills. From South Station, take the Framingham/Worcester commuter rail to Wellesley Hills. Depending on the time of day, regularly scheduled trains leave South Station at ½ to 2-hour intervals (Monday-Friday), and 1-to 3-hour intervals (Saturday and Sunday). The trip takes approximately 30 minutes. Purchase your ticket in the station. Then, call a taxi from Wellesley Hills. (See Area Taxis, below.)
2) Take the “T.” From South Station, take the MBTA subway Red Line inbound two stops to Park Street. Walk upstairs and take the Green Line outbound Riverside D train to Woodland, the next to last stop on the D line. Allow an hour for the trip. Then, take a taxi from Woodland to Babson. (See Area Taxis, below.)
For complete information about Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) services, including specific maps, schedules, and fares for trains, buses, and subways, please visit the MBTA web site.
By Taxi
Veteran’s Taxi (781) 449-8294 Wellesley Transportation (781) 235-2200 The Babson campus is handicap accessible.
Reviews
One wishes to have seen more of Risteen and Baltin, but Lyman commands his three roles with utmost authority and control, and his talent at voice and dialect is a major part of his performances throughout.
“Lyman’s solo turn as Krapp is the profoundly moving kicker of “Beckett in Brief.”
“It is fascinating to watch Lyman’s Krapp, a writer now nearing 70, simultaneously fight and surrender to the tidal pull of nostalgia while listening to tape recordings of himself made on his 39th birthday.”
News
Photo Gallery
What is the running time of the production?
90 minutes with no intermission.
What ages is the production appropriate for?
Contains mature subject matter. Sensibilities vary from person to person. If you have specific concerns about content, please contact the box office at 781-239-5880.
Are there accessible performances for patrons with disabilities?
Currently there are no accessible dates for this production. CSC is committed to making theater available for all and we look forward to offering accessible performances in the near future,
Is there handicap seating available?
Yes, there are several locations in the theater to accommodate wheelchairs. Call the box office at the Sorenson Center for the Arts to purchase these locations at 781-239-5880.
Are assisted listening devices available?
Yes, visit the box office for assisted listening devices.
The theater will open for seating roughly a half hour before curtain time.
We advise you give yourself plenty of time for parking and walking to the theater.
Where should I park?/How do I get to the theater after parking?
Trim Parking Lot is the best place to park when attending events at the Sorenson Center for the Arts. As you enter on Forest Street, make a left at the first stop sign unto Map Hill Drive. On your right will be a smaller lot, Hollister Lot. If there is space available, patrons may park there. However, Trim Parking Lot is preferred which will be on the left hand side after you pass the Hollister lot. To walk to the theater, walk back towards the stop sign and make a left at the Hollister building. Continue walking straight past Reynolds Campus Center and the Sorenson Center for the Arts will be the next building.
Although there is no food or drink permitted in the theater, food and drink are available for purchase in the Reynolds Campus Center next to the Sorenson Center for the arts.
Are shows delayed or canceled for weather?
Audience and actor safety is our main concern. In cases of heavy snow or extreme weather, we will cancel and try to reseat patrons into an alternative performance date. Weather updates can be found on the homepage of our website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
If I miss the show, what are my options?
To reschedule, call the box office at the Sorenson Center for the Arts at 781-239-5880 at least one business day before your reservation. We will make our best efforts to seat you in another performance. Seating will be based on availability. It is not our policy to refund tickets but we are happy to reseat you on another date. If you miss a production altogether, we will reseat you in an alternative production of your choice based on availability.
The taking of photos or video is strictly prohibited.
How can I support Commonwealth Shakespeare Company?
to make a donation or call 617-426-0863. Click on the Ways To Give tab on our website to learn more about upcoming fundraising events and ways to get involved.
Support for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company Provided by
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
101 Arch Street
8th floor
Boston, MA 02110
617-426-0863
CSC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
treenation_track(“644966adbe341”);
