“Time will explain.” –Jane Austen, Persuasion
Blog
photo by Ashley Garrett
Persuasion
September 11–October 31, 2021
The Connelly Theater
220 E. 4th Street
New York, NY 10009
New York, NY 10009
A World Premiere by Sarah Rose Kearns
Adapted from the novel by Jane Austen
Directed by Eric Tucker
(Runtime: 2 hours, 35 min including intermission)
In the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, a shy English spinster seeks to win back the love of the man she jilted eight years before. Jane Austen’s last and most romantic novel, PERSUASION first appeared in print in 1818, and is a meditation on love and loss, and what is constant in a changing world.
Tickets
Choose from showtimes below. *Indicates inclusion of an after-performance 30 min expert discussion. More details
Wed | September 15 @ 7 PM CANCELLED
Thurs | September 16 @ 7PM CANCELLED
*Sat | September 18 @ 2 PM w/Lena Yasutake talkback*
*Sat | September 18 @ 7 PM w/R.B. Bartgis talkback*
*Sat | September 25 @ 2 PM w/Jennifer Abella talkback*
*Sat | September 25 @ 7 PM w/Kathleen Flynn talkback*
*Sun | September 26 @ 2 PM w/Amanda-Rae Prescott talkback*
*Sat | October 2 @ 7 PM w/Wendy Jones talkback*
*Sun | October 3 @ 2 PM w/Sayantani Dasgupta talkback*
*Sat | October 9 @ 7 PM w/Emily Kugler talkback*
Health and Safety
Currently, BEDLAM performances are Vaccinated Only Performances; all patrons attending performances will be required to show proof of vaccination (NY Excelsior pass or vaccination card) and be masked inside the building. To read up on Bedlam’s comprehensive Health & Safety protocol, please click HERE.
The Connelly Theater Directions
220 East 4th St.
New York City
The Connelly is wheelchair accessible from street level.
Subway
F to 2nd Ave. (closest)
6 to Bleecker St.
B/D/F/M to Broadway-Lafayette
6/N/R to Astor Place & 8th St.
Nearest Parking
Edison ParkFast at 167 Essex St. btw Stanton and Houston (about a 6 minute walk)
Is the theater wheelchair-accessible? Although the building is unfortunately not ADA-compliant (it was built in 1874), the theater is on ground level and is wheelchair-accessible (no steps). BEDLAM productions will be able to make room for patrons in wheelchairs*
To make arrangements for wheelchair-accessible seating please call 1-833-4BEDLAM or email: info@bedlam.org.
*Please note that although restrooms are accessible without stairs, there are no wide stalls.
Meet the cast
RAJESH BOSE
(CAPTAIN WENTWORTH)
Off-Broadway and regional favorites include: The Crucible (Bedlam Theatre), Henry VI (NAATCO), Pygmalion (Bedlam), Against The Hillside (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Indian Ink (Roundabout), Oslo (St. Louis Rep), Mary Stuart (Folger Theatre), Guards at the Taj (Capital Stage), Disgraced (Playmakers Rep, Huntington Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre – Connecticut Critics Circle Award, IRNE Nomination), The Who & The What (Gulfshore Playhouse), and The Invisible Hand (Westport Country Playhouse, Hartford TheaterWorks). Film & Television: “Quantico”, “Blacklist”, “Blue Bloods”, “Elementary”, “Damages”, “Nurse Jackie”, “Madame Secretary”, “The Good Wife”, “Law & Order: SVU”, “Criminal Minds”, the series finale of “The Sopranos”, and the Academy Award nominated film Frozen River.
ANNABEL CAPPER
(LADY RUSSELL)
Born and raised in London. Annabel is an actor and director living in New York City. Annabel’s father brought her to New York at the age of 10. He said ‘This is New York. You’re going to love this city.’ She did. She does. With Bedlam: Pygmalion (NYC/ Sheen Center), Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Entertaining Mr Sloane, The Price, The Importance of Being Earnest, Anna Karenina (Do More Reading Series 2020-2021). Off Broadway: The House Our Families Built (PBS), The Convent (A.R.T/ NY), (Kraine Theater), Passion Play (Lincoln Center). Regional: Twelfth Night (Shakespeare on The Sound), Mrs Packard (Bridge Rep, Boston), Macbeth (Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre) London: The Price (Apollo Theatre, West End), One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Lost Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Hazlitt Theatre), The Importance of Being Earnest (Hazlitt Theatre), Melancholy Play (Old Vic Studio), Two Women For One Ghost (Regent’s Park), Stitching (Judi Dench Theatre), Making The Sound Of Loneliness (Arcola Theatre). TV: New Amsterdam (NBC), For Life (ABC), East Enders (BBC), Sensitive Skin (BBC), Operation Mincemeat (BBC). Film: Macbeth No More, The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka, Brahms and the Little Singing Girls. Radio: Cymbeline, Troilus and Cressida (BBC). John Barton, co-founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, mentored Annabel for a year in 2007. Annabel facilitated and performed in Shakespeare workshops in high security prisons around the UK for 8 years. The workshops garnered much acclaim culminating in several productions being filmed by the BBC. Annabel’s first film as writer and director was selected as a finalist in the New York F*It Club Film Race 2021. Trained: LAMDA 3 Year Classical Acting.
SHAUN BENNET FAUNTLEROY
(MARY MUSGROVE)
Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy is an actress, playwright, and director. Recent NY Theatre: Holy Ghosts (Theatre East), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, and The Winter’s Tale (Smith Street Stage), Richard III (Smith Street — NYIT Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role nomination), Advance Man (Gideon Productions), The Truth Quotient and Burning (Resonance Ensemble). Film: Hamlet Rehearsed (Smith Street), The Riverside Bench (Barefoot Theatre Co./Barefoot Studios). Shaun is also a recipient of the Theatre Hall of Fame’s 2017 Emerging Theatre Artist Award and is delighted to be speaking Rose’s words in this delicious play. She lives in Brooklyn with her dog Bentley — they are both foodies. B”H. AEA, DGA www.shaunbfauntleroy.com
YONATAN GEBEYEHU
(MR. SHEPHERD / PIANIST)
NEW YORK: Off Broaday: TFANA: Timon of Athens, Vineyard Theater: Lessons in Survival. Off-Off Broadway: New Georges/The Tank: I Thought I Would Die, But I Didn’t. REGIONAL: Shakespeare Theatre Company: Timon of Athens, Everybody, Montana Rep: Go. Please. Go., Shakespeare on the Manor: The Tempest, Chautauqua Theater Company: Noises Off, Romeo and Juliet, Portland Stage Company: A Christmas Carol, UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse: Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., Strange Men, Streamers, Native Son, How to Use a Knife, The Venetian Twins. TELEVISION: Prodigal Son (FOX), Elementary, Madame Secretary (CBS). WEB: Series: 86’d (Bric Arts). PERSONAL: Teaching: Has served on the acting faculty of Playwrights Horizons Studio/NYU Tisch School of the Arts and University of California San Diego. TRAINING: University of California San Diego: MFA in Acting. Proud member of The Commissary. Yonatan-Gebeyehu.com
CAROLINE GROGAN
(MRS. CLAY)
Caroline Grogan is a NY based actor, voice-over narrator, and teaching artist. Her theater credits include Bedlam’s The Crucible (Boston & NY), Mona Mansour’s Beginning Days of True Jubilation directed by Scott Illingworth, Chuck Mee’s Jesus (13th Street Rep), and Polaroid Stories (Tisch Stage Works). In addition to education director and development assistant at Bedlam, Caroline is a puppeteer for Puppetsburg, the development director and teaching artist for the arts nonprofit Zara Aina (zaraaina.org), and a founding ensemble member of Society Theatre. She is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. http://www.caroline-grogan
CLAIRE HSU
(LOUISA MUSGROVE)
Claire is beyond thrilled to be a part of Bedlam’s production! Made in Taiwan, Claire is a two-time award-winning trilingual actress, who has performed in French, English and Mandarin on stage and on screen. Favorite theater credits: The Hard Problem (Quantum Theater), Lynette Has Beautiful Skin (The Marjorie S. Deane Theater), The Doormen (NYC fringe festival) and Le Décalage (Grand Lecture Hall). Favorite screen credits include Amazon Original movie You Were Never Really Here with Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix, and most recently Universal Pictures’ Boogie.
SARAH ROSE KEARNS
(Anne Elliot (Understudy))
RANDOLPH CURTIS RAND
(SIR WALTER)
Randolph Curtis Rand is an Obie Award winning theatre artist, based in Brooklyn NY. Artists, companies, and theaters he has worked with include, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Bedlam, Joseph Chaikin,Elevator Repair Service, Richard Foreman, Meredith Monk, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, The Public Theatre (Cleveland, New York, and Pittsburgh), The Rude Mechs, and The Wooster Group, to name a few. Film/TV, “Fresh Kill”, “Aphrodisiac”, “State Property”, “Diamond Soles”, “Law & Order; Organized Crime”.
NANDITA SHENOY
(ELIZABETH ELLIOT)
Nandita Shenoy is an actor-writer living in New York City. Her last role before the pandemic was playing Lucy Steele in Sense & Sensibility at Virginia Stage, and so she is thrilled to return to the stage in another Austen adaptation. Nandita has starred in the Off-Broadway production of her own play Washer/Dryerat Ma-Yi Theater Company and has originated roles in World Premiers of plays by Adam Szymkowicz, Madhuri Shekar, Chelsea Marcantel, Eric Pfeffinger,and Richard Dresser. She spent a season in the Repertory Company at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Television credits include season 3 of Netflix’ “Daredevil” and “The Last O.G.” on TBS. As a playwright, her work has been performed in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago as well as in Shanghai. Her latest Rage Playwas named to the 2020 Kilroys List. She is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, dtfwaw, the Dramatists Guild, Actors Equity, and SAG/AFTRA. She won a 2020 Obie Award for her work in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as part of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition. Nandita holds a BA in English literature from Yale University. www.nanditashenoy.com
JAMIE SMITHSON
(CHARLES MUSGROVE)
Jamie Smithson: Sense and Sensibility with Bedlam at American Repertory Theater, Portland Centerstage and Folger Theatre (Helen Hayes Nomination – Best Actor). Some of his DC favorites include: Newsies (Arena Stage), Cake Off (Signature Theatre), The Wanderers (Theater J), Boeing Boeing (No Rules), Twist your Dickens (The Kennedy Center, The Second City) and Fly By Night (1st Stage, Helen Hayes Nomination – Best Actor). He has also performed in DC and regionally with Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, Imagination Stage, Roundhouse Theatre, Everyman Theatre, The Guthrie, and The Acting Company among others. Jamie received his MFA in acting at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.
ARIELLE YODER
(ANNE ELLIOT)
Broadway/National Tour: Birthday Candles (Roundabout Theatre Company – Upcoming), The Humans First National Tour. Off-Broadway: DOG, The Price of Thomas Scott, soot and spit. Regional: Sun Valley Shakespeare Festival: Shrew! Shaker Bridge Theatre: The Mystery of Love and Sex. The Guthrie: Concrete Orange: An American Fable. PlayMakers Repertory Company: Three Sisters, Peter and the Starcatcher, 4,000 Miles, An Enemy of the People, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Vanya and Sonia, and Masha and Spike, Love Alone, The Tempest, Metamorphoses. TV/Film: FBI: Most Wanted, Law and Order: SVU. Arielle serves as an Associate Director for DreamStreet Theatre Company, a 501c3 nonprofit for performers with developmental disabilities. arielleyoder.com | dreamstreetnyc.org | @yodes9
Creative
DIRECTOR
ERIC TUCKER (Director). Wall Street Journal DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR 2014. Off Broadway: Bedlam’s The Crucible, Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet; Pygmalion; Peter Pan; Vanity Fair; Sense and Sensibility (Off Broadway Alliance Award, Lortel nom., Best Director, Drama League nom., Best Revival); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Drama League nom. Best Revival, WSJ Best Classical Production 2015; NY Times Critics’ Pick), Bedlam’s Saint Joan (NY Times/Time Magazine Top 10; Off Broadway Alliance Best Revival 2014), Bedlam’s Hamlet (NY Times Top 10; Time Out NY/Backstage Critics’ Pick); Tina Packer’s Women of Will. For Bedlam: Hamlet/Saint Joan: McCarter Theatre; Central Sq. Theater (Elliott Norton: Outstanding Visiting Production/Outstanding Ensemble, Boston Globe Top Ten); Dead Dog Park, New York Animals (World Premiere by Steven Sater/Burt Bacharach), Twelfth Night and What You Will (NY Times Critics’ Picks), The Seagull (WSJ Best Classical Production 2014), Sense & Sensibility (NY Times Top 10, NY Times/WSJ/Time Out Critics’ Picks). Other: The Merry Wives of Windsor (Two River), Disney’s Beauty & The Beast (OSF); Pericles (APT); Sense and Sensibility (The Folger Theater, 8 Helen Hayes nominations including Best Director and Best Production), Copenhagen (Central Square Theater), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (HVSF), Mate (The Actors’ Gang). Eric received his M.F.A. from the Trinity Rep Conservatory. He resides in New York City where he is Founder and Artistic Director of Bedlam.
ADAPTED FOR THE STAGE BY
SARAH ROSE KEARNS (Writer/Adaptation) is a writer, performer, and lifelong Austen enthusiast. She studied acting with Dan Daily, Ragnar Freidank, Austin Pendleton, and many others; and she holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Columbia University. Her short play Manydown, which imagines one important night in the life of Jane Austen, was recently produced by Mia Moravis as a piece of audio theatre, featuring Laura Rocklyn as Jane and Lilli Cooper as the Narrator; it debuted in June 2021 at the Jane Austen Summer Program. Rose is the most recent recipient of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) International Visitor Program fellowship and, in 2022, will travel to Chawton, UK, to conduct research for another biographical drama about the Austen family. She serves as a member of the JASNA Committee for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
Scenic Design
JOHN MCDERMOTT (Scenic Design). Other designs for Bedlam include The Crucible, Sense and Sensibility, The Seagull, Peter Pan, Hamlet, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, and the Burt Bacharach/Steven Sater musical New York Animals. He is a company member of Colt Coeur where he designed Eureka Day!, Dry Land, Zurich and others. He is an Associate Professor at Adelphi University, Garden City, NY. With Jake Bellissimo, he also helps to produce videos for www.youtube.com/c/dreamsoundsvideo that analyze the wide spectrum of Disney music. Each episode explores topics such as queer theory, film studies, theater history, and theme park design to understand how media affects society. Many thanks, as always, to Clifton Chadick.
Costume Design
CHARLOTTE PALMER-LANE (Costume Design). Recent credits, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Twelfth Night, Pericles, Troilus & Cressida, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, The Three Musketeers, The Liar, Othello, Winters Tale, An Iliad, As You Like It, Our Town, The General from America, Richard II, Rip Van Winkle, Cymbeline, The Tempest; Pennsylvania Shakespeare: Blithe Spirit; Mint Theatre: Rutherford & Son; Penguin Rep: Drop Dead Perfect, My Name is Asher Lev, Playing The Assassin; Hudson Stage Co: Family Reunion, Other Desert Cities,You Will Remember Me, Switzerland Barrington Stage, Camping with Henry & Tom; Shakespeare & Co: God of Carnage, Heisenberg, HIR, Time Stands Still, The Chairs; Folger Shakespeare: As you Like It; Bedlam: Peter Pan, Pygmalion, Uncle Romeo, The Crucible; Syracuse Stage: Pride and Prejudice. TV-BBC: “Dr Who,” “Miss Marple,” “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Other TV: “Sneaky Pete.” Film: Guarding Tess, Quiz Show, Disobedience. United Scenic Artists 829. charlottepalmerlane.squarespace.com
Lighting Design
LES DICKERT (Lighting Design) designs for a diverse range of contemporary and classical theater, dance, and international performance art. Previously with Bedlam: Pygmalion, Sense and Sensibility, The Seagull, Hamlet, Saint Joan, New York Animals, What You Will, Twelfth Night, Cry Havoc. New York: Isaac’s Eye, Photograph 51, Card and Gift, This is Fiction, Perdita, Intimate Apparel, Seven Guitars, Julius Caesar, others. Dance: White Oak Dance Project; San Francisco, Boston, Miami, Tulsa, San Diego, Orlando, and Joffrey Ballets. International: Le Louvre, Centre Pompidou, La Scala, and the National Ballets of England, Denmark, Australia, Belgium, Canada and Russia. Awards: Mahindra, Ovation, multiple Hewes nominations. MFA: Yale School of Drama.
Sound Design
JANE SHAW (Sound Design) is so happy to be back in a theater! Bedlam debut. Online work during the pandemic includes The Wolves (Philadelphia Theatre Company), Pericles (Next Chapter Podcasts), A Simple Herstory (The Tank), and The Blind (HERE). Next: A Christmas Carol and The Tempest (Guthrie), It’s a Wonderful Life (Theatre Works, Silicon Valley), Amerikin (The Alley). New York work includes designs at Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Mint Theater, Theatre for a New Audience, National Black Theatre, Repertorio Español, New York Theatre Workshop, and the Cherry Lane. Regional work includes projects with Hartford Stage, ART, Old Globe, Mark Taper Forum, Two River Theater, Asolo, Williamstown Theatre Festival, ACT, Dorset Theatre Festival, and Cleveland Play House. Awards: Drama Desk, Connecticut Critics Circle, Henry Award, Bessie Award, Meet the Composer Grant, NEA-TCG Career Development Grant recipient, and nominations for Lortel and Elliot Norton awards. Member: USA 829, TSDCA (Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association). Training: Harvard University, Yale School of Drama. www.janeshaw.info
Choreography
SUSANNAH MILLONZI (Choreography) is an actor, dancer and choreographer based in New York. Theatre credits include: Bedlam: The Crucible (Drama League nom. for Distinguished Performance), Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet, New York Animals (WSJ Performance of the Year 2015), Dead Dog Park, Twelfth Night(s) (also at Central Square Theater); Classic Stage Company: Prometheus Bound (David Oyelowo); David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group: tough, the tough, 21st Annual Bessie Awards; Clubbed Thumb: Pageant; Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Othello, Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Arabian Nights, The Winter’s Tale; Shakespeare & Company: Romeo and Juliet, King John, As You Like It, Comedy of Errors; Seattle Shakespeare Company: Twelfth Night, Electra (Footlight Award: Best Actor); Georgia Shakespeare Festival: Julius Caesar, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, All’s Well that Ends Well; Orlando Shakespeare Company: As You Like It; Elm Shakespeare: The Three Musketeers; Boston Theatre Works: The Tempest. Choreographer for Bedlam, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Orlando Shakespeare Company, Georgia Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Esperance. B.A. Barnard College.
Intimacy Direction
JUDI LEWIS OCKLER (Intimacy Direction). Judi Lewis Ockler’s ID work has found collaboration with Signature Theater (Hot Wing King with Steve Broadnax III; One in Two with Stevie Walker-Webb), WP theater (Hatef**k with Adrienne Campbell-Holt; Our Dear Dead Drug Lord with Whitney White), Mile Square Theater (5 times in One Night with Melissa Firlit) and Williamstown Theater Festival (A Raisin in the Sun with Robert O’Hara; A Human Being, of a Sort with Whitney White). Intimacy Coordination: Out of the Blue with Neil La Bute; Cyclone with Francisco Solorzano. She is a certified Intimacy Director with Intimacy Directors International and Intimacy Directors and Coordinators. She teaches/directs intimacy and violence in performance at Tisch Drama, The Meisner Studio, Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic Theater School, National Theater Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, The New School for Drama, HB Studios, Stella Adler Studios,The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, NYC. www.judilewisockler.com
Props Design & Associate Scenic Designer
CLIFTON CHADICK (Props Design & Associate Scenic Designer) has worked as associate designer for many Bedlam productions including The Crucible, Peter Pan, Saint Joan, Hamlet, Sense and Sensibility, Pygmalion, New York Animals, Dead Dog Park, and The Seagull. Other set design credits include Ella es Tango, Tia Julia Y El Escribidor, Perro Del Hortelano, Exquisita Agonia, Fame (GALA Hispanic Theatre); Hedda Freeman (WCSU); Matilda (Axelrod); The Tempest (R.Evolucion Latina); Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Ricochette Collective); The 20th Century Way (Rattlestick); In Fields Where They Lay (New Ohio); Mr.Landing Takes A Fall (The Flea); Accidentally, Like a Martyr (Wild Project); We Are All In Paradise (NYU); Grace McLean Live (Ars Nova); Oprah’s The Life You Want Tour (EVNT); AfroPunk Music Festival (Rolick), Tyra Banks’ Model Land (Jason Sherwood Design); The Brat Pack Live (Norwegian Cruise Line). Clifton’s work can be viewed at CliftonChadick.com.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
Reviews
The Critics are RAVING about Persuasion!
Seek out Bedlam’s new version of ‘Persuasion’… It’s full of unexpected touches of fantasy … In short, this ‘Persuasion’ is in no way like a Netflix period drama – it’s better, vastly and deliciously so.”
…it’s still Bedlam, and that means beauty, humor and precision in the design, and much clever and enlivening stage business.”
…every actor has impeccable comic timing…The audience members may find themselves grateful just to laugh at the characters’ stumblings through social and romantic life and forget about their own for a while.”
Persuasion marks the long-awaited return of one of New York’s most talented companies… Jane Austen’s last novel bubbles to life with satire and delicious absurdity at the Connelly Theater… Tucker and his troupe took on Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, in what became one of 2014’s best off-Broadway productions, and Persuasion looks to be a worthy successor.”
This world-premiere production owes much of its theatrical appeal to the creative flourishes fans have come to expect from artistic director Eric Tucker and his acclaimed downtown company Bedlam, which has a knack for reinvigorating classic texts.”
Love won. Love lost. Love regained. In short, the main plot of PERSUASION. This exceedingly well put together, charming, theatrical, humorous, anachronistic, engaging bare bones production of Jane Austen’s final romantic novel beautifully adapted by Sarah Rose Kearns is a WONDER TO BEHOLD in its world premiere.”
Gallery
A Look Into Persuasion at The Connelly, NYC - Photos by Ashley Garrett
