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Northern Stage Presents - The History Boys -
Sponsored by Stave Puzzles at the Briggs Opera House in White River Jct., Vt.
Saturday, December 13, 2008 10:39 AM
"The History Boys" Explodes with an International Cast It's back-to-school time, and you'll blast into the new year with this burst of energy. With humor and passion, eight young actors from the U.S., U.K and Zimbabwe portray eight boys from very different backgrounds who assemble to prepare for their upcoming exams. With admission to Oxford and Cambridge hanging in the balance, they learn more than they bargained for.
Northern Stage once again gathers the finest talent from throughout the world, including Broadway actors Samuel Maupin ("Accomplice" and "Whodunnit"), Drew Taylor ("Sweet Smell of Success," "The Secret Garden" and the 20th Anniversary production of "Annie") and Elizabeth West ("The Women"). Joining the cast are four special guest actors, three from England and one from Zimbabwe.
"The History Boys," directed by Brooke Ciardelli, runs live on stage at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction from October 1-19, 2008. Performances are Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 5:00 p.m., with 2:00 p.m. matinees on Thursday, Oct. 9 and Saturdays Oct. 11 and 18. For tickets and information, call 802-296-7000. Tickets are also available through the Northern Stage Web site, www.northernstage.org.
The Northern Stage production of "The History Boys" is sponsored by Stave Puzzles.
About the Cast
Artistic Director Brooke Ciardelli traveled to England seeking to cast one of the eight "History Boys"; the level of talent was so great that she came back with two, Matthew Johnson (Crowther) and Ben Starr (Timms), along with Assistant Director Oscar Blustin. Award-winning Zimbabwean actor, radio and television star and stand-up comedian Michael Kudakwashe makes his U.S. debut In addition to Broadway veterans Maupin, Taylor and West, the cast includes Off-Broadway's Brad Fraizier, who was unforgettable in last year's "How the Other Half Loves." Trey Mitchell toured as the Cat in the Hat in "Seussical," as well as the First National Tour of "Wonderful Town."
About the Director
Brooke Ciardelli, a New York native who grew up in southern Vermont, founded Northern Stage in 1997 after working with the Andrew Lloyd Webber organization and the Williamstown Theatre Festival and making two feature films. The graduate of Sarah Lawrence College has guided the company since then, directing dozens of productions--most recently "Disney's Beauty and the Beast" and "The Crucible"--while providing the artistic direction for Northern Stage. Her work has ranged from the Moss Hart Award-winning "All My Sons" to World Premiere adaptations of "The Shrew Tamer" and "The 'O' Myths" and much more. She took her production of "I Am My Own Wife" to the Edinburgh, Scotland Fringe Festival and the Harare, Zimbabwe International Festival of the Arts. She has directed Lisa Harrow in a reading of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," along with a reading of "Resurrection Blues" at which she hosted playwright Arthur Miller.
About the Author
"To him, nothing and nobody are quite what they seem. Normalness is an aberration. For every dark side there is a sort of humorous underside. It's seeing the paradoxical nature of things that's his identifying mark--and a sort of optimistic gloom."
--Sir Richard Eyre, former director of the National Theatre, on Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett was born in 1934 in Leeds; his father was a butcher and amateur musician. Bennett surprised himself by doing well on his own exams--he crammed incessantly by studying rather random facts and quotations that he carried around on note cards, something that would make Irwin proud--and studied and taught at Oxford. His first big break came in 1960 when he appeared in the satirical "Beyond the Fringe" at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, along with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, which later transferred to London's West End and New York. Since then, he has written for the stage, film and television. His first stage play was Forty Years On" in 1969, in which John Gielgud played the headmaster of another English public school. His other well-known plays include "Kafka's Dick" (1987), an adaptation of "The Wind In the Willows" (1991) and "The Madness of George III," which he later adapted for the screen as "The Madness of King George" (supposedly so American audiences would not dismiss it as a sequel).
Bennett delights in reading between the lines of life's seemingly mundane moments. His plays, rich in irony, parody and literary (and popular culture) allusions from Shakespeare to Edith Piaf, are deeper than they appear, yet they are always accessible, and his characters are sharply drawn. Nicholas Hytner, who directed the original production of "The History Boys," as well as the film versions of that work and "King George," says Bennett is "incapable of writing a dull line. There's his feel for dialogue, and, more particularly, his feel for the workings of the mind and heart, and how they're related. That's why he's so trusted and respected by the audience. They know they're not going to be dicked around."
Bennett's life is filled with contradictions. He has a reputation as an intensely private man who generally shuns interviews, but much of his writing is autobiographical, sometimes painfully so. He is considered one of the premier playwrights of his generation, yet he didn't make the top 20 in a 1998 National Theatre ranking of the century's greatest playwrights. Bennett tells the story of receiving a literary calendar as a gift. He duly noted that the birthdays of Dennis Potter, Michael Frayn and Edna O'Brien were included. "So, naturally, I turned to my own birthday," he wrote. "May 9 is blank except for the note: 'The first British self-service launderette is opened on Queensway, London 1949.'"
About the Play
"I wanted to show that the boys are the ones who know more than any of the teachers. They will go their own way and they will carve out their own futures. They will take from each of these teachers what they want."
--Alan Bennett
Much of the 12th Season at Northern Stage revolves around the idea of transitions and life changes. What better theme is there to guide us through the many changes in store for the company? And what better way to start than with the turmoil of adolescence?
"The History Boys" premiered at the Lyttleton Theatre in London on May 18, 2004 and debuted on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on April 23, 2006. The Broadway run, scheduled to end on Sept. 2, was extended to Oct. 8 after winning six Tony Awards, including Best Play, as well as similar awards from the New York Drama Critics' Circle and the Outer Critics' Circle.
The play raises provocative questions about the nature and the process of education. Eight young men at Cutlers' Grammar School in Sheffield, England face the prospect of preparing for their entrance exams, and admission to Oxford and Cambridge is on the line. But what will best prepare them for their exams, and for life beyond school? The students are confronted with radically different teaching styles. Hector, who is an older, eccentric firebrand, seeks to prepare his students for life. Irwin, bright, insecure, barely older than the students in his charge, is determined to teach them tricks that will help them pass the exams.
Set in Thatcher-era England, the play stands as a metaphor for the volcanic changes Britain faced in the 1980s. The "history boys" are not just learning history; they are both reflecting and making history. As noted journalist Michael Billington noted, Bennett "understands that a school is . . . a place in which a precariously maintained order is constantly on the verge of disintegrating into chaos."
The boys, from different backgrounds and cultures, mix standard lessons with re-enactments of film scenes and intense conversations in French. They are very bright, full of energy and, most of all, eager to ace their exams. But which teacher should they follow? Which approach will work best on their upcoming exam? And which will give them the education they need to live a fulfilling life?
About Northern Stage
Northern Stage has come a long way since Founding Artistic Director Brooke Ciardelli began staging shows in various venues in Burlington, VT in 1992. Since relocating to their new home at the Briggs Opera House in 1997, Northern Stage has offered over 70 productions, including World Premieres such as "The Shrew Tamer," "Ovid: Tales of Myth & Magic" and "A Christmas Carol: The Musical." Other highlights include a staged reading of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" with Patrick Stewart and Lisa Harrow and a reading of "Resurrection Blues," with the playwright, Pulitzer Prize winner Arthur Miller, in attendance. The company has twice been honored with Moss Hart Awards for Excellence in Theater from the New England Theatre Conference, for productions of "To Kill A Mockingbird" (1999) and "All My Sons" (2004), as well as an Addison Award for "The Shrew Tamer" (2004). Most recently, the company toured their acclaimed production of "I Am My Own Wife" to the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, with upcoming performances in Dublin and Florida. Last summer, Northern Stage collaborated with Dartmouth College on an outdoor production of "The 'O' Myths," featuring international professionals and Dartmouth Students.
Community support has enabled the company to sell over 30,000 tickets in downtown White River Junction each year to enjoy entertaining and thought-provoking professional theater and theater education here at the crossroads of northern New England. They have also reached out to offer residencies and workshops at over a dozen area schools. The company initiated "Project Playwright," a literacy program for fifth and sixth graders, which has resulted in over 750 original plays written by that age group.
For information or tickets, call 802-296-7000, or e-mail boxoffice@northernstage.org. The Box Office at the Briggs Opera House is open from 5:30-9 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 1:00-9:00 p.m. on Saturday and 3:00-7:00 p.m. on Sunday during show weeks; tickets for all shows are available by phone or at the Northern Stage administrative office at 28 Gates Street, White River Junction, Monday-Friday from 10 am.-6 p.m. or via the Northern Stage Web site (www.northernstage.org). MasterCard and VISA are accepted.
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