School for Wives

Molière (1622-1673) is one of France’s greatest playwrights, and one of the greatest comic playwrights ever. Described by Voltaire as “the painter of France”, he held a mirror up to his country’s vices and virtues and captured French society’s foibles with sparkling wit and ferocious intellect. Molière was born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin in Paris, France to a family of artisan merchants attached to the court of King Louis XIV. Even though the family was not part of the well-to-do aristocracy, Jean-Baptiste enjoyed a privileged upbringing. As his father maintained the king’s furnishings, he studied at some of the best schools in Paris, including the Jesuit Collège du Clermont. Despite his father’s expectation for him to take over as furnisher and upholsterer to the king, Jean-Baptiste abandoned all plans for a secure future. Instead, he chose a life in the theater, having been enchanted by the plays he attended at the Hotel de Bourgogne with his grandfather as a child, and the comedians he often saw trying to sell patent medicine on the streets of Paris. At the age of 21, with the actor and theater director Madeleine Béjart, he established the Illustre Théâtre, which went bankrupt less than two years later. Taking the stage name of Molière, he reemerged with a more focused dedication to the theater and, again with Béjart, established a new company of his own. During this time Molière developed his skills as a theater manager, comedic actor and, eventually, as a playwright. In 1658, after a successful performance for King Louis XIV, Molière obtained the patronage of the king’s brother and was given permission to use the Petit-Bourbon (a court theater) and eventually a theater in the Palais-Royal. Once in the favor of the king, Molière quickly became a leading figure in French culture. Until the end of his life in 1673, Molière continued to write uproariously funny plays that satirized Parisian society. His works, though controversial, were extremely popular. With masterpieces such as The School for Wives (1662), Tartuffe (1664), and The Misanthrope (1666), Molière secured his place in the canon of great French dramatists. His plays weave together themes of human error and hypocrisy while presenting characters that are wholly human and undeniably humorous. Today, his works are continuously performed in theaters throughout the world and continue to influence and inspire theater artists.

Richard Wilbur is an American poet and translator, specializing in the 17^th-century French comedies of Molière and the dramas of Jean Racine. He has earned many awards and honors, among them the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (twice, in 1957 and again in 1989) and the National Book Award. He was elected a chevalier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques and is a former Poet Laureate of the United States. Wilbur served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1961 to 1995. He currently lives in Cummington, Massachusetts and Key West, Florida.

Mark Wing-Davey first came to prominence in the United States with his highly acclaimed 1992 production of Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest at New York Theatre Workshop, following up with Owners and The Skriker. Since then he has worked extensively in New York City for NYTW, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, and The Public Theater, directing Troilus and Cressida and Henry V in Central Park. He directed Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play at the Goodman in Chicago, Yale Rep, and most recently for Epic Theatre Ensemble in a site-specific production at the Irondale Center in Brooklyn. Additional US credits include productions of new and classic plays at ACT, ART, Berkeley Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, La Jolla, Mark Taper, McCarter, Milwaukee Rep, Pittsburgh Public, PlayMakers Rep, and Seattle Rep. His international credits include productions at London’s Royal Court Theatre, National Theatre, the Edinburgh Festival, and musicals in the West End and Australia. Committing much of his career to developing new plays, he has directed new work by Caryl Churchill, Sarah Ruhl, Adam Rapp, Amy Freed, Naomi Iizuka, Jose Rivera, Anna Deavere Smith, Keith Reddin, Tony Kushner, Howard Korder, and Craig Lucas, amongst others. He directed the world premiere of Brett C. Leonard’s Unconditional for LAByrinth Theater Company, Craig Lucas’s The Singing Forest at The Public Theater, and Carson Kreitzer’s play about the photographer Lee Miller, Behind the Eye, in its premiere in Cincinnati in April 2011. In summer 2011, he directed Keith Reddin’s new play Acquainted with the Night for the O’Neill Playwright’s Conference. In 2012 he directed three world premieres: KMT—an adaptation by Keith Reddin and Carol Rocamora of Sukhovo-Kobylin’s Russian Trilogy—at NYU, Mona Mansour’s play The Hour of Feeling for Louisville’s Humana Festival, and Brett C. Leonard’s Ninth and Joanie for LAByrinth in New York. He directed his adaptation of Pericles for Berkeley Rep in Spring 2013 and workshopped Mansour’s The Vagrant for the Sundance Theatre Lab. Mr. Wing-Davey is the Chair of Graduate Acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where in September 2010 he premiered Tony Kushner’s music-theater work The Henry Box Brown Play and, in November 2013, Adam Rapp’s new play The Eggs: A Fantasy of Love & Death in the Age of Amelioration. Also an actor, in June 2012 he embarked on a six-week National UK tour reprising the role he created—Zaphod Beeblebrox—in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show Live on Stage, playing to thousands of people a night.

David Gallo has designed over 30 Broadway productions, including Memphis, The Drowsy Chaperone (Tony Award: Best Scenic Design), Gem of the Ocean, The Mountaintop, reasons to be pretty, Xanadu, and Thoroughly Modern. For Two River Theater, he designed School for Wives. He creates innovative scenic and media design for television, concerts, and events. He is production designer for Sesame Street, his Blue Man Group work has been seen by millions, he is creative director for Phish’s New Year’s Eve extravaganzas, and the Illusionarium he created for Norwegian Cruise Line was a pioneer in immersive entertainment venues. His work for Stage Entertainment, Disney, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, and others is seen daily in a dozen cities worldwide. The Smithsonian Institution and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame both own samples of his work. davidgallo.com

Emily Rebholz Broadway: If/Then; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson. Recent Off-Broadway: The Who and The What, Stop Hitting Yourself, VSMS (Lucille Lortel 2013 nomination) (Lincoln Center); Substance of Fire, The Last Five Years (Second Stage); Into The Woods (Shakespeare in the Park); Your Mother’s Copy of the Kama Sutra, Mr. Burns, The Call, The Shaggs (Playwrights Horizons); Carrie (MCC). Additional designs have been seen at Opera St. Louis, Lincoln Center, MTC, Second Stage, Roundabout, Rattlestick, Ars Nova, The Atlantic, The Old Globe, A.R.T, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Asolo Repertory. MFA, Yale School of Drama.

Michael Chybowski has recently lit The Magic Flute, directed by Isaac Mizrahi, at Opera Theatre of St Louis, and Acis and Galatea for the Mark Morris Dance Group. Other work in opera includes Parsifal, the opening production of the new Seattle Opera House, as well as Mark Morris’ Four Saints in Three Acts for English National Opera. Michael has worked extensively in theatre, opera, and dance, as well as with the performance artist Laurie Anderson. He also designed the lighting for Isaac Mizrahi’s 2008 fall fashion show in New York. Michael is the Head of Lighting at the University of CT design program and is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, as well as the Hewes Award and two Lucille Lortel Awards for his work in New York.

 Brandon Wolcott is returning to Two River after previously designing sound for As You Like It and Henry V, for which he also composed original music. Selected credits include: New York: The Record (with 600 Highwaymen, original score), The Good Person of Szechwan and Titus Andronicus (The Public Theater), Kiss the Air (Park Avenue Armory), The Mystery of Irma Vep, The Maids (Red Bull Theater), The Tenant, Confidence Man (Woodshed Collective), So Much Mad in Me (with Faye Driscoll), Hit the Wall (Barrow Street), Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center, The Joyce, La MaMa, DTW, PS122, 3LD, Juilliard, New Ohio, New Georges. Regional: Great Lakes, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, The Magic.

Mary Kay Yezerski-Bondoc is returning to Two River for her second show. She has worked on seven Broadway shows including The Producers, Spamalot, and Memphis. She is currently the Hair Supervisor on Wicked, which has been running for nearly 11 years. This fall she celebrates her 10 year anniversary of living in New York City.

UNKLEDAVE’S FIGHT HOUSE (FIGHT DIRECTION) is a team of fight/
intimacy coordinators comprised of LGBTQ theater makers. Two River credits: Hombres; El
Coqui Espectacular & The Bottle of Doom; Theo; Raisin In The Sun, Be More Chill; Seven
Guitars, King Hedley ll. Broadway: Ain’t No Mo; Kimberly Akimbo; Girl From The North Country;
Tuck Everlasting; Escape To Margaritaville; The Great Society ; An American In Paris; Disgraced.
Off-Broadway: Merrily We Roll Along (NYTW) ; On Sugarland (NYTW) ; soft (MCC) ; Halfway
Bitches Go Straight To Heaven (Labyrinth/Atlantic, Drama Desk Nom.); Oedipus El Rey (The
Public)(Drama Desk Nom.) Film: Poor Behavior; Emoticon. TV: AnnieLive!

Heidi Griffiths has worked for more than 25 years at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in NYC, where she has cast over 200 productions Off-Broadway and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, including Shakespeare, new plays, and musicals. On Broadway: The Girl From The North Country; The Inheritance; The Iceman Cometh; Sweat; Shuffle Along; The Crucible, Eclipsed; A Delicate Balance; A Raisin in the Sun; Lucky Guy; Chinglish; The Motherf**ker with the Hat; The Merchant of Venice; Hair; Passing Strange; Caroline, or Change; Take Me Out (Tony Award, Best Play 2003); Topdog/Underdog (Pulitzer Prize, 2002); The Wild Party; Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk; On the Town; and The Tempest. She also cast the films The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love, MURDER and murder, Saving Face and Ladybird. Radio Golf is her 12th collaboration with Two River Theater.

Two River Theater: Theo, King Hedley II, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Women of Padilla, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Seven Guitars, Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, and The School for Wives. Broadway (as Casting Associate): The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, A Delicate Balance, A Raisin in the Sun, Lucky Guy (Casting Assistant). Additional casting credits include work with Arena Stage, Center Theater Group, The Cherry Lane, Bedlam, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, LAByrinth, New Georges, TheaterWorks Hartford, and The Studio Theatre. Kate is a Casting Director at The Public Theater.

James Latus Broadway: All The Way, A Time to Kill, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Clybourne Park, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Elaine Stritch At Liberty, Stones in His Pockets, Bells Are Ringing; Assistant Director – Paul Simon’s The Capeman.  Off-Broadway: The Great American Trailer Park Musical, They Wrote That?, The Persians (National Actors Theatre). The Public Theater: 25 productions including Stephen Sondheim’s Road Show, three productions of King Lear, The Skriker directed by Mark-Wing Davey, WASP by Steve Martin, Stuff Happens by David Hare, Antony and Cleopatra starring and directed by Vanessa Redgrave. Playwrights Horizons: Chinese Friends, Memory House – directed by David Esbjornson. Twelve productions for The New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park. Also productions at Young Playwrights Festival, Theatre for a New Audience, B.A.M.  Regional: The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C., Seattle Rep, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Utah Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre. International: Oedipus at the Athens Festival. Training: The P.T.T.P, now at the University of Delaware.