Lisa Perterson & Denis O’Hare’s AN ILIAD Directors: Guy Roberts & Rebecca Greene Udden

by · Published · Updated

image_pdfimage_print

Playwrights: Lisa Perterson & Denis O’Hare

Directors: Guy Roberts & Rebecca Greene Udden

Group: Prague Shakespeare Company, Czeh Republic

Language: English

Duration: 1 hr 45 mins

The Play
Aided by two Muses, a single, modern day storyteller takes the stage—possibly Homer, possibly one of the many bards who followed in his footsteps. He retells Homer’s classic tale of the Trojan War – The Iliad, specifically focusing on the story of the great fighters Achilles and Hector. As he shares his tale with a modern audience, references with wars throughout the ages collide with the ancient story of Greeks and Trojans. As a traveling storyteller, he uses poetry, music, humor, and poignant accounts of war to share the experience from the perspective of a fighting Greek soldier and a poet, a tale he is fated to tell throughout time.

Director’s Note
The Iliad is the foundational epic of Western civilization — all of our basic ingrained beliefs about men and women, the role of the individual to the group; duty to country/tribe vs. duty to individual/family; what is just and correct action when faced with injustice and corruption —are brought wonderfully to life in The Iliad. This production brings these thrilling questions to a very human and relatable level in an easily digestible evening of theater. The audience will leave with a keen understanding not just of the story of Achilles and Helen of Troy but also hopefully with a renewed hunger to think about and address the timeless questions in their own lives. The phenomenal original score by Patrick Neil Doyle, lifts the entire experience and transports us back 2500 years ago to the plains of Troy making us feel that we are there with the great people of legend.

The Directors
Guy Roberts – Artistic Director of Prague Shakespeare Company, Guy won the 2018 Best Actor Houston Theatre Award for his performance of The Poet in An Iliad. He is a 2015 recipient of the Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Medal of Honor, in recognition for his work promoting arts and artistic freedom. In 2014 Guy received the inaugural Sidney Berger Award from the Shakespeare Theatre Association. His award-winning work as actor, director and producer has been seen in over 200 productions in the United States, Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Qatar and Egypt and has been honored with multiple awards. Guy served as Artistic Director of the Austin Shakespeare Festival (USA) from 2001-2007. He received his BFA from Boston University. Guy resides in Prague, Czech Republic with his wife, the actress Jessica Boon.
Rebecca Greene Udden- co-Director An Iliad and Founding Executive Artistic Director of Main Street Theater Company located in Houston, Texas USA. Some of her major works as director are- Enemies, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (First American Productions), Twelfth Night (Prague Shakespeare Company), Silent Sky, Peace in Our Time, Heartbreak House, The Real Thing, The Heidi Chronicles, Arcadia, The House of the Spirits, Copenhagen, The Little Foxes, Pride and Prejudice, and many more. She is also a celebrated actor Memory House and Richard III are two such productions of Prague Shakespeare Company in which she acted. Her some other acting assignments have been The Last Night of Ballyhoo, The Sisters Rosensweig, Hapgood, Hamlet, and more. She has also designed costumes of numerous productions.

The Playwrights
Lisa Peterson is a nationally renowned director who works in NYC and regional theatres around the USA. She was for ten years Resident Director at the Mark Taper Forum. She won an Obie Award for her direction of Caryl Churchill’s Light Shining in Buckinghamshire at New York Theatre Workshop.
Denis O’Hare is a writer and Tony Award-winning actor who has performed on Broadway and off-Broadway as well as in numerous regional productions and in film and television. His TV work includes roles on HBO’s True Blood and FX’s American Horror Story.

The Group

Based in Prague, Czech Republic, the award-winning Prague Shakespeare Company presents professional theatre productions, workshops, classes, lectures and other theatrical events of the highest quality, conducted primarily in English by a multinational ensemble of professional theatre artists, with an emphasis on the plays of William Shakespeare. Celebrating its 11th year, PSC has entertained, enriched, enlightened and inspired students and audiences not only in the Czech Republic but in the United States, Hungary, France, Egypt, Qatar, the Netherlands and elsewhere around the world with performances that are fresh, bold, imaginative, thought-provoking, and eminently accessible, connecting the truths of the past with the challenges and possibilities of today.

CASTS & CREDITS
The Poet: Guy Roberts
Muse / Athena: Jessica Boone
Muse / Musician: Fanette Ronjat

Composer & Sound Designer: Patrick Neil Doyle
Director of Production & Stage Manager: Eric Sammons
Light, Set Designer & Technical Director: Adam Thornton
Sound Engineer : Jacob Sanchez

Playwrights: Lisa Perterson & Denis O’Hare

Directors: Guy Roberts & Rebecca Greene Udden

Tags:

Manohar Khushalani

Manohar Khushalani

Prof. Manohar Khushalani is a former Visiting Faculty at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. The courses he taught were: Animation & Graphics, Non-Linear Editing for Film and Radio and Theatre Appreciation.  He has won a total of nine Excellence in Teaching awards for all the courses he has taught at IIITD Earlier he retired from Government of India as Director Environment Management, Central Water Commission and held many senior positions in the Government Based on a Belief that Culture and Environment are the two keys to global sustainability , Manohar Khushalani has launched two portals: A Portal on Environment and Water called One Vorld at url: www.onevorld.org and two Ezines on Culture called Stage Buzz at url: www.stagebuzz.in He has taught extensively in varied subjects such as Dam Safety, Instrumentation, CAD, IT, Animation, Theatre, Newspaper Editing. He has conducted Courses on Environment Management, Water Shed Development, Team Building and Personality Development. He was an Expert Member of Prasar Bharti’s Committee for Grading & Short listing Films for Telecast on all channels of Doordarshan.  He is a Radio Anchor for All India Radio and has moderated several programs for the Rajdhani Channel He is a well-known Theatre Actor/Director and Critic, has been involved in theatre since 1977. He has worked as an actor in over 50 plays with almost every leading director/Actor in the Country including Badal Sircar, Feisal Alkazi, Amal Allana, M.K. Raina, Anuradha Kapoor, Maya Rao, Manohar Singh, Prasanna, Rati Bartholomew and Sushmita Mukherji. He has been active in the social sector as a street theatre activist. As a member of Workshop Theatre, Theatre Union and Prayog, Khushalani has participated in street plays taking up major social issues such as dowry, bride burning, Sati, banned medicinal drugs and communalism. Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can’t Pay Won’t Pay, both directed by him, received rave notices from critics and audiences alike. Other plays directed by him include Badal Sircar’s, Sagina Mahato and Boris Vian’s Empire Builders for Ruchika Theatre Group. Khushalani has also acted in a few films such as Sudhir Mishra's Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi , Shoojit Sircar’s Madras Café and Pradeep Krishan's Annie Gives Those Ones. He is an Animator & Graphics Designer and has directed a number of documentaries. He also held a number of Honorary positions and was President of North India Films Association, He was the Chairman of  Jury for UGC CEC Educational Films Competition and has been on their Preview Committee since last many years. He was on the preview committee of Door Darshan Channel 3, was a visiting Professor at National School of Drama, New Delhi, and Film & Television Institute of India, Pune, AJKMCRR, Jamia Milia Islamia and Professor in Media at FICT, Delhi  He has judged a large number of Drama Competitions and conducted a number of Theatre / Management Games Workshops with Institutions such as AIIMS, NTPC, CWPRS, NWA, Karve Nari Prakshishan Sansthan, FICT, IIT, MAMC, Gargi College, KNC, Tagore International School and Vivekananda School. He is a Theatre Critic for IIC Diary, has also been a Columnist with Midday and Pioneer Daily and wrote Column's Called Culture Cocktail and Footlights Respectively. He was also the Guest Editor for an issue on Folk Theatre of ICCR Journal Horizons. He has written for Times of Indian, Hindustan Times, Blitz, Hard News, Hindu Business Line, Theatre India & Art Times. He has designed dams and hydraulic structures for the Government. He is a programmer and has developed Engineering design software in Fortran. He is a co-author of Irrigation Practice & Design (Vol 1 to5 - 1500 pages) published by Oxford & IBH and sponsored by National Book Trust. He has been a Director, Environment and Sociology, at the National Water Academy, Khadakwasla and Director, Environment Management Directorate, Central Water Commission and Member Secretary, National Environmental Monitoring Committee for River Valley Projects. He was also Director of Instrumentation Directorate in the Dam Safety Organisation. He was Chief General Manager and Head of Water Resources at Scott Wilson and is an accredited consultant with numerous other organizations He is a Delhi Public School, BITS Pilani, IIT Delhi and FTI Pune Alumini. He was also the President of BITS Pilani Alumni Association, Pune.

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *