New Rep Announces DOLLHOUSE 2/28-3/20

New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, is pleased to announce DollHouse, a drama by playwright Theresa Rebeck, based on Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House. Directed by Bridget Kathleen O'Leary. Featuring New Rep favorites Jennie Israel (Boston Marriage and Tartuffe) as Christine and Will Lyman (Exits and Entrances, The Clean House and The Ice Breaker) as Evan. Making her New Rep debut is Sarah Newhouse as Nora.

DollHouse opens for the press on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 7:30pm and plays through Sunday, March 20, 2011 at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in the Charles Mosesian Theater.

"New Rep has always been dedicated to reviving classic texts and revitalizing them for today's audiences, and I am excited to bring Theresa Rebeck's clever, modern adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House to New Rep's stage," says Kate Warner, New Rep's Artistic Director.

Warner continues, "By setting the play in contemporary Connecticut, Rebeck allows our audiences members to reengage with Ibsen's prominent work inviting them to relate more closely with the actions and decisions Nora makes."

"I feel very fortunate and privileged to be working with such an amazing cast and design team," said Bridget Kathleen O'Leary, the director of DollHouse. "Henrik Ibsen is such an important figure in the history of theatre, and Theresa Rebeck has such a powerful voice in contemporary theater. It is a unique opportunity to be able to blend both of these prolific playwrights' styles and works together in this compelling production."

Set in suburban Connecticut, this contemporary adaptation of Ibsen's classic follows the iconic Nora as she struggles to preserve her seemingly perfect life. Nora's "happy home" is compromised when a man from her past unexpectedly resurfaces and threatens to reveal her secret. In this play by critically-acclaimed playwright Theresa Rebeck, Nora must decide between her idyllic world and a life she can truly claim as her own.

DollHouse is Theresa Rebeck's contemporary adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's famous work in 1879.

New Repertory Theatre produces plays that speak powerfully to the essential ideas of our time. Through the passion and electricity of live theater performed to the highest standards of excellence, New Rep expands and challenges the human spirit of both artists and audience. New Rep presents world premieres, contemporary and classic works in several intimate settings. We are committed to education and outreach, including special dedication to the creation of innovative in-school programming and providing access to underserved audiences. New Rep is an active advocate for the arts and a major voice in the national dialogue defining the role of theater in our culture.

ARTISTS

Jennie Israel (Christine) is delighted to return to New Rep where her credits include Boston Marriage and Tartuffe. Other credits include: Actors' Shakespeare Project (founding member): A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Duchess of Malfi, King John, All's Well That Ends Well, King Lear, Julius Caesar, and Richard III; Gloucester Stage: Table Manners and upcoming Living Together, summer of 2011; the Huntington Theatre Company: Les Liasons Dangereuses; Súgán Theatre Company: Molly Maguire; Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: Macbeth and As You Like It; The Vineyard Playhouse: Living in Exile and The Heidi Chronicles. Regional credits include Yale Repertory Theatre: The Marriage of Figaro/Figaro Gets a Divorce, The Beaux Stratagem, and Pericles; Actors Theatre of Louisville: Guernica and King Lear; Greenwich Street Theatre: Antony and Cleopatra; Chautauqua Theatre Festival: Antigone; Shakespeare & Company: Undine's Valediction, The Scarlet Letter, Macbeth, and Summer; Theatre Chicago: Goose and TomTom; and Sun Valley Shakespeare Festival: A Midsummer Night's Dream. Film and television credits include: Rudy (TriStar Pictures), Guiding Light (CBS), and Coming to Litchfield, an independent film. Ms. Israel has taught voice, Shakespearean text, and acting at Bowdoin College, Harvard College, Concord Academy, Boston College, SUNY/Purchase, Emerson College, and The Boston Conservatory. She holds her MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
Will Lyman (Evan) is returning to the New Rep, where he has previously played in Exits and Entrances (Norton Award), The Clean House and The Ice Breaker. Other area credits include: Nicholas Nickleby at Lyric Stage, All My Sons at the Huntington Theatre Company, The Wrestling Patient with SpeakEasy, Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT), 40Magnolias, The Oil Thief (Elliot Norton Award), King of the Jews, and A Girl's War at BPT, To Kill a Mockingbird at Wheelock and Equus at The Nora. He is chairman of the Board of The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, for whom he has previously worked in Hamlet, The Tempest, and Julius Caesar. Many years ago, he performed various roles at various times in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at the Charles Playhouse. Elsewhere, he has performed with the Denver Center Theatre Company, Hartford Stage, Pennsylvania Stage, American Place, George Street Playhouse, NJ Shakespeare Festival, Champlain Shakespeare Festival, Portsmouth Playhouse, and Off Broadway (The Novelist, Trinity, The Passion of Dracula, The Grinding Machine). He has narrated with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, the Cleveland Symphony and the Handel and Haydn Society. His voice is frequently heard selling cars and beer (separately) and he has been the narrator of the multi-award-winning PBS series Frontline since 1984. Films briefly include: Little Children, What Doesn't Kill You, Mystic River, The Siege, A Perfect Murder, and Welcome to the Dollhouse. Television series regular: William Tell in 72 episodes of Crossbow, the dying and deceased President Bridges in Commander in Chief, Colonel Atkins in Threat Matrix and John Deerborn in Hull High. Series Guest: Spenser: For Hire twice, Law and Order twice, Ed, Murder She Wrote. Movies for TV: Our Fathers, Meltdown, George Washington and Three Sovereigns for Sarah. Soaps: Another World, The Doctors, Loving, Ryan's Hope, All My Children.

More Articles by This Author...