August 8, 2014 - Sag Harbor, NY - Bay Street Theater is pleased to announce the launch of The Bay Street Shakespeare Initiative with the presentation of two outdoor staged readings of THE TEMPEST, starring Tony Award winner John Glover as Prospero, on August 16 and 17. This initiative is an ongoing program, which offers exciting performances and educational opportunities focusing on the work of William Shakespeare at Bay Street Theater.
On Saturday, August 16, Bay Street will host a reading of The Tempest starring John Glover beginning at 7 pm at Mashashimuet Park in Sag Harbor. This reading is offered to the community at no charge. There will be seating in bleachers, but guests are invited to bring their own chairs, picnics and blankets to enjoy this special sunset production under the stars.
The second performance will be a VIP benefit on Sunday, August 17 to be held at a provate waterfront estate. The event includes a reception with the cast, and the evening begins at 6:30 pm with cocktails followed by The Tempest reading at 7 pm. Contact Bay Street’s Development office at 631.725.0818 for details.
“Bay Street is very excited to spotlight the work of William Shakespeare in our community. Considered by many to be the greatest playwright of all time, Shakespeare’s plays are as entertaining and relevant today as they have ever been. We are delighted to launch an initiative which we hope will make Bay Street Theater a center for the Bard’s work on the East End.”
The Bay Street Theater Shakespeare Initiative is offering supporters the opportunity to be a patron of the world of Shakespeare by sponsoring a character in The Tempest, as part of the Join the Company campaign and sponsors will be able to consult with the actors, and will receive complimentary passes to the VIP Benefit on August 17, as well as an opportunity to be photographed with the cast members playing their sponsored characters. Contact Bay Street’s Development office at 631.725.0818 for details.
The Tempest is one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays, full of magic, mystical creatures, and love. Set on a remote island, it is the story of Prospero, the usurped Duke of Milan, as he employs magic and wit to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place.
Scott Schwartz (Director) joined Bay Street Theater as Artistic Director in the fall of 2013. He directed Conviction at Bay Street Theater for the 2014 Mainstage season. On Broadway, he directed Golda’s Balcony and Jane Eyre (co-directed with John Caird). Off-Broadway: Murder for Two, Bat Boy: The Musical (Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Awards, Outstanding Off Broadway Musical; Drama Desk Award nomination, Outstanding Director of a Musical), tick, tick…BOOM! (Outer Critics Circle, Outstanding Off Broadway Musical; Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Director of a Musical), The Foreigner starring Matthew Broderick, Rooms: A Rock Romance, Kafka’s The Castle (Outer Critics Circle nomination, Outstanding Director of a Play), No Way to Treat a Lady. Other recent Credits include the world premiere of What We’re Up Against, Much Ado About Nothing and Othello (Alley), the world premiere of Secondhand Lions (5th Avenue). Regional theaters include: Berkshire Theatre Festival, Cleveland Playhouse, Dallas Theatre Center, Denver Center, Goodspeed, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe, Papermill Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Westport Country Playhouse, and others. Opera: Séance on a Wet Afternoon (New York City Opera). A member of SDC and graduate of Harvard University.
Lindsey Alexander (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be back at Bay Street after working on Conviction and The New Works Festival. Broadway: Scandalous. Off-Broadway: The Commons of Pensacola, The Two Character Play, The City Club, Carrie, Cactus Flower, Dear Edwina, Rooms: A Rock Romance, Human Error, Altar Boyz, Jacques Brel.... Regional: John Drew Guild Hall, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Festival Stage of Winston Salem, John Engeman Theatre. Film/TV: My Blueberry Nights, The Women, 3 lbs.
The cast consists of the following:
Dianne B (Alonsa) is thrilled to take part in this staging of The Tempest and especially to be acting again in a play with her dearest friend John Glover. They have appeared together both as a steamy couple in Schnitzler’s The Affairs of Anatole and Dianne in the title role of Phedre with John as Hippolytus: just a few of their many star-turns together. Dianne is a gardener, a writer, a lay minister, a dog lover, a duck feeder, a domestic partner and President of LongHouse Reserve. She will next be seen as Gertrude in the Round Table Theater production of Hamlet at Guild Hall opening November 7 for ten performances.
Alex Hernandez (Caliban) is a Brooklyn based professional performer and amateur hooligan. His hobbies include spoken word poetry, rock climbing and biking down Broadway on busy Friday nights. He has collaborated theatrically around the country (Actors Theater of Louisville, Dallas Theater Center, Cleveland Playhouse) and in New York City (La MaMa, The Public, New World Stages). He has appeared on the television shows Law and Order:SVU, Blue Bloods, Alpha House and Black Box, and wrapped the Cinemax pilot Blanco earlier this year. Currently he is fulfilling a childhood dream collaborating with the folks at 2K developing the main character in an upcoming video game.
Josh Gladstone (Sebastian) is delighted to return to Bay Street where he recently appeared as Van Daan in Diary of Anne Frank. In ’96 he co-founded Hamptons Shakespeare Festival as Artistic Director where he directed Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tempest, and played Capulet in Romeo & Juliet and Jacques in As You Like It. In 2000 he joined Guild Hall as Artistic Director of the John Drew Theater where he directed and appeared in Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Hamlet as well as producing and performing in hundreds of other plays, readings and concerts, most recently Clever Little Lies starring Marlo Thomas. Other Shakespearean credits include touring Germany in Macbeth with Classic Theatre International; Elbow in Measure for Measure at Shakespeare Theatre, DC; and locally as Ross/Porter in Round Table’s Macbeth and Polonius in Hamlet coming to the Drew this November. Married to Neo Political Cowgirl Kate Mueth, they reside full-time in Springs.
John Glover (Prospero) received both a Tony and Obie Award and a Drama Desk nomination for Love! Valour! Compassion! He is currently featured in Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare in the Park in New York City and recently played one of the Witches in Macbeth at Lincoln Center. At Roundabout he was in Waiting for Godot (Tony and Drama League Nominations), The Marriage of Bette and Boo, The Paris Letter (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Drama League Nominations), Give Me Your Answer Do. On Broadway he was in Death of a Salesman, The Royal family, The Drowsy Chaperone, Design For Living, Whodunnit, Frankenstein, The Importance of Being Earnest, Holiday, Chemin De Fer, The Visit, Don Juan, The Great God Brown (Drama Desk Award). Off-Broadway he was in Secrets of the Trade, Sorrows and Rejoicings, Oblivion Postponed, The Fairy Garden, Digby, A Scent of Flowers, Rebel Women, Criminal Minds, and the original House of Blue Leaves at the Truck Warehouse. Regional credits include The Lisbon Traviata (Kennedy Center, Helen Hayes Nomination), Secrets of the Trade (LA’s Black Dahlia Theatre, Ovation and LA Drama Critics Circle Awards); The Traveler (Mark Taper Forum, LA Drama Critics Circe Award); Some Men (Philadelphia Theatre Company, Barrymore Nomination), The Goat or Who is Sylvia? (Philadelphia Theatre Company, Barrymore Nomination); A Winters Tale (American Shakespeare Festival, Bayfield Award).
On television, he appeared on Smallville from 2001 – 2011 playing Lionel Luthor, also An Early Frost, Nutcracker: Murder, Money, and Madness, Brimstone, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, The Blacklist, and Heroes. Glover has received five Emmy nominations and has appeared in over 35 films including Payback, Batman and Robin, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Gremlins II, Scrooged, The Chocolate War, Masquerade, 52 Pick-UP, White Nights, Melvin and Howard, Julia, and Annie Hall.
Neal Kelley (Boatswain) is an actor and director living in New York and is thrilled to be making his regional debut with Bay Street. A proud graduate of the University of Michigan, he has performed in New York with the Pearl Theatre Company, the Gallery Players, Mud/Bone Collective and Cracked Kettle. He recently directed a revival of Anouilh’s Becket at the Gene Frankel Theatre. Neal is currently an Artist in Residence at Pepperdine University. Special thanks to Scott and everyone at Bay Street for this exciting opportunity.
John Kroft (Ferdinand) is a New York actor who has been performing Shakespeare since high-school and has studied at both Oxford and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. He is currently in his third year of training at The Juilliard School. In July, he was an assistant teacher in a Juilliard workshop on Directing Shakespeare. This is his second time performing in an outdoor setting: last summer he appeared in the Free Theater production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula at the Williamstown Theater Festival. He feels extremely privileged to share the stage with John Glover and Company.
Julia Motyka (Ariel) Off Broadway credits include, Travesties (Bay Street Theater), We Got Issues (Exec. Prod. Eve Ensler and Jane Fonda), Obama 44, The Last Starfighter: the Musical; and Golden Ladder. NY Workshops include Roundabout, Primary Stages, EST, The Directors Company, Abingdon Theatre Company, Mabou Mines, Nöel and Company (associate artist), etc. Regional credits include, The Folger, The Alley, Denver Theatre Center (Westword Award), The Pioneer, The Rubicon, PRT (LA Weekly nom.), TheatreWorks (Palo Alto), and San Francisco, Colorado, and Marin Shakespeare Festivals (BATCC and Dean Goodman awards). Films include, Crosseye, The Kindergarten Shuffle, In the Family. She is also an Audiobook narrator on the rosters at Audible and Brickshop Audiobooks. Motyka is also a member of The Actors Center, NYC.
Amanda Nichols (Miranda) a proud native New Yorker, has worked at theaters such as The Kraine, Urban Stages, and Theater Row. She is a graduate of LaGuardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts, The Neighborhood Playhouse School of The Theatre, and most recently, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She is happy and grateful to be a part of The Bay Street Theater Shakespeare Initiative. She sends much love and thanks to her Bay Street Theater family!
Steve Rosen (Stephano) is an actor, writer and composer/lyricist. Bay Street: Lend Me a Tenor, 2013. On Broadway he originated principal roles in Spamalot, The Farnsworth Invention and the 2009 revival of Guys & Dolls. Off-Broadway he co-wrote and starred in both The Other Josh Cohen (with David Rossmer) which was nominated for 6 Drama Desk Awards and Don't Quit Your Night Job with Rossmer, Dan Lipton and Sarah Saltzberg. Off-Broadway: Peter and the Starcatcher; CQ/CX, Franz Kafka's The Castle, others. Regional: Paper Mill (NJ), La Jolla (CA),Woolly Mammoth (DC), Goodspeed (CT), MUNY (MO). Concerts: The Mikado (Carnegie Hall), Knickerbocker Holiday (Alice Tully), phish (MSG) TV: Masters of Sex, Psych, Person of Interest, The Good Wife, Law and Order, Kings, Ed, and others. Upcoming Films: Barry Levinson's The Humbling and Beijing/New York. Twitter: @sweetrosen
John Shuman (Gonzalo) Bay Street credits include Chasing the Tiger (Gail Sheehy), The Orchard Play (P.Seth Bauer). Broadway credits include La Cage Aux Folles, 13 Rue de l'Amour. Off-Broadway credits include The Dishwashers (59E.59), The Fantasticks (revival) , An Oak Tree, Hot l Baltimore, Moonchildren. Regional credits include Shakespeare Theatre, Guthrie Theatre,Yale Rep, Syracuse Stage, Alley Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Children's Theatre Company (Mr. Popper in Mr. Popper's Penguins), Goodspeed Musicals (Pappy
in L'l Abner). Film credits include Movie 43, The Naked Man. TV credits include Boardwalk Empire, Melrose Place. John has performed Glen Berger's Underneath the Lintel in three productions and last summer as a member of the Bread Loaf Acting Ensemble (Middlebury College) where he portrayed Mr. Webb in Our Town.
John Leonard Thompson (Gonzalo) has done tons of plays on (most recently, Butley) and off-Broadway (Love, Janis, Sin, and shows with the Mint Theatre and the Negro Ensemble Company), internationally, the national tours of Angels in America and The Graduate, and at many theatres across the United States including Syracuse Stage, Hartford Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville (premieres: Jack and Jill, Reverse Transcription and Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom), Seattle Rep, Old Globe, Arena Stage and Berkeley Rep, where he appeared in the premiere of Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play. On film, work includes Guarding Tess, Killer and Soho, They Call It and Empty Chairs and Apache Moon; on television, The Good Wife, Elementary, The Blacklist, Zero Hour, All My Children, Law & Order, Third Watch, Sesame Street, Summer Switch, The Shady Hill Kidnapping and A Woman Named Jackie.
Patrick Vaill (Trinculo) Broadway credits include Macbeth (Lincoln Center Theater); Off-Broadway credits include Edward the Second (Red Bull Theater), When In Disgrace (Examined Man), also Theater For The New City, The Brick, NY Fringe, and Fringe Encores, among others; Regional credits include Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Henry V, Richard II, As You Like It, Mrs. Warren's Profession (Shakespeare Theatre Company, DC); Training: MFA, NYU Graduate Acting Program.
Bay Street Theater is a year-round, not-for-profit professional theater and community cultural center which endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. We serve as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists.