Yale Summer Cabaret to Toast Dionysus with 'Vote: Bacchae'

Yale Summer Cabaret closes its 2007 season with The Vote: Bacchae, adapted and directed by Mike Donahue.

According to press materials, "The Vote: Bacchae is a production of Euripides' The Bacchae with a twist; the Summer Cabaret audience voted online and with paper ballots to help create it.  They selected the play, the staging location, which liquids would be used by the actors, and even a featured dessert. This Bacchae will take place largely outdoors (in the Cabaret garden), the actors will be covered in honey and wine, and Dinonysus' Molten Chocolate Cake completes the scene."

"Dionysus, god of wine, revelry, sex and theater, has returned to Thebes and expects to be worshiped. Pentheus, king of Thebes, would rather die than worship an effeminate foreigner with no heavenly credentials - he may get his wish...Erotic, physical, violent and exciting, The Bacchae is already an enduring classic with modern resonance; The Vote: Bacchae takes that resonance a step further with an artistic process controlled in part by the SC07 audience."

Director Mike Donahue elaborates, "With original musical numbers and the addition of a dancer as Semele, this adaptation of The Bacchae for our outdoor production is not the traditional fare of Greek unison; we'll be celebrating the god of theatre and debauchery in all his sexy, messy, contemporary glory."

The cast will feature Eric Bryant (The Illusion at Yale Cabaret, The Unmentionables at Yale Rep) as Pentheus, Brian Burns (The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, etc. at Yale School of Drama, Epicene: or The Silent Woman at the Cabaret) as Cadmus, Teresa Lim (The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow at Wellfleet Harbor Actors' Theatre, Macbeth, Lorenzaccio, etc. at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Camino Real, etc. at YSD) as Teiresius/Agave, Barret O'Brien (The Wendy Play and Camino Real at YSD, Montana Rep national tour of The Trip to Bountiful, Conspirators at HERE, "Dawson's Creek") as Dionysus, and Luke Robertson (Speaking Our Mind at Yale Carlotta Festival, Camino Real at YSD, The Illusion at Yale Cabaret) as Chorus Leader.  Rebecca Alaly appears as Semele.

Director Mike Donahue graduated from Harvard in 2005 with a special concentrations BA in Performance Studies: Directing. At Harvard, he studied under Robert Woodruff, Marcus Stern, Gideon Lester and Robert Scanlan; was the 2005 recipient of the Louis Sudler Prize for artistic excellence; served as a proctor for the Freshman Arts Program; sat on the executive board of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club; and produced numerous productions and festivals on campus. Productions directed at Harvard include: Closer, Tartuffe, Hedda Gabler (Loeb Experimental Theatre); She Loves Me (Adams Pool Theatre); The Physicists, The Oresteia (Loeb Mainstage). At the St. Louis MUNY, he served as the Assistant to the Executive Producer for the 2001-2003 seasons, and then as the Associate Producer for the 2004 season. He is currently a second year director at Yale School of Drama. Productions directed at Yale include The 60's: Nov. 22, 1963 - April 4, 1968; Ways to Survive the World: Parts I - III (Studio Theatre); Electronic City; Brand (Yale Cabaret); Bibles and Candy; Titus Andronicus (New Theatre); and God is a DJ (Summer Cabaret 2007).

The production will feature choreography by Rebecca Alaly, set design by Zane Pihlstrom, lighting design by Ji-Youn Chang, costumes by Anya Klepikov, and music, music direction and sound design by Sarah Pickett, with Michael Barker as line producer.

The Vote: Bacchae runs: Wednesday, August 1 at 8:00pm, Thursday, August 2 at 8:00pm, Friday, August 3 at 8:00pm, Saturday, August 4 at 8:00pm, Wednesday, August 8 at 8:00pm, Thursday, August 9 at 8:00pm, Friday, August 10 at 8:00pm and Saturday, August 11 at 8:00pm.

Single tickets range from $14 - $25. Membership and group discounts available.  Buy tickets online at www.summercabaret.org or by calling 203.432.1567.

Doors open at 6:00 for dinner by Chef Anna from Anna's on Orange Street.  All performances take place at 217 Park Street between Chapel and Edgewood streets in downtown New Haven.