FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 3, 2010
Media Contact: Sarah Pressler
240.644.1387
press@roundhousetheatre.org
University of Maryland
Department of Theatre’s
Hotel Cassiopeia coming to Silver Spring
The University of Maryland Department of Theatre collaborates with
Round House Theatre on a production directed by Blake Robison
June 5 ‑ 13, 2010 at Round House Theatre Silver Spring
240.644.1100 or roundhousetheatre.org
Tickets $10 & $15
(Silver Spring, MD) In association with Round House Theatre, the University of Maryland Department of Theatre presents Charles Mee’s Hotel Cassiopeia at Round House Theatre Silver Spring on June 5 ‑ 13, 2010. Under the direction of Round House’s Producing Artistic Director Blake Robison, this University of Maryland production of Hotel Cassiopeia originally ran on the College Park campus in February 2010 and now comes to Round House’s black box facility in the heart of downtown Silver Spring.
Written by American playwright Charles Mee, Hotel Cassiopeia chronicles the life of Joseph Cornell through the exploration of the renowned modern artist’s creative assemblage boxes ‑ collections of discarded souvenirs, mementos, buttons, feathers, marbles, corks, fake-birds, old maps, and anything else he could find ‑ which he constructed to visually portray his feelings about the unique world in which he lived. Having spent his adult life caring for his disabled brother while living in his mother’s basement in Queens, Cornell amassed an immense collection of correspondence and journals, each filled with observations and obsessions that reveal his desire to capture through his work the intense feelings of a hidden moment.
Hotel Cassiopeia has been described by the New York Times as “a collage of music, images and dialogue” that engages the audience in a life-sized onstage portrayal of an eccentric Cornell box. Discussing his play, Mee wonders how it would be if Cornell’s boxes could speak “about art, about America, about compassion and longing and loneliness and heartbreak.”
In talking about Hotel Cassiopeia, Blake Robison said, “I’m thrilled that we can bring the talented cast and this compelling University of Maryland production to Round House Theatre Silver Spring. Working with the student actors and the wonderful team in the Department of Theatre on this complex, fascinating play has been a rewarding experience for me and for Round House.”
The Playwright
Charles Mee has written Big Love, True Love, and First Love, bobrauschenbergamerica, Hotel Cassiopeia, Orestes 2.0, Trojan Women: A Love Story, Summertime, and Wintertime, among other plays. His plays have been performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, American Repertory Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, Lincoln Center, the Humana Festival, Steppenwolf, and other places in the United States, as well as in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Vienna, Istanbul, and elsewhere. Mr. Mee is the recipient of the Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two Obies, a Laura Pels Award, and the Richard B. Fisher Award. He is the head of the graduate playwriting program at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. He is the author of a number of books of history (Meeting at Potsdam, The Marshall Plan, The End of Order) that have been selections of the Book-of-the-Month Club and the History Book Club, and is the former editor-in-chief of Horizon magazine, a magazine of history, art, literature, and the fine arts. He is a lifetime trustee of the Washington think tank The Urban Institute. For more information, visit www.charlesmee.org/.
The Director and the design team
Blake Robison is in his fifth season as Producing Artistic Director of Round House Theatre. Since his arrival, he has launched the company’s Literary Works Project, re-envisioned its educational programming, created RHT’s artist laboratory, The Kitchen, and commissioned new works from some of the country’s most exciting up and coming playwrights. At the same time, he has kept the organization on sound financial footing by increasing both earned and contributed revenue and growing its endowment funds. Blake serves on the executive committee of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and is an advisory member of the Maryland State Arts Council and the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County for their strategic planning processes. He is a graduate of Williams College, The British American Drama Academy, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The design team includes Scenic Designer Daniel Pinha (UM MFA ’10), Lighting Designer Ariel Benjamin (UM MFA ’11), Costume Designer Franklin Labovitz (UM MFA ’10), and Projections Designer Tarythe Albrecht (UM ’10). Both the scenic and costume designs were thesis projects. The design team is rounded out by professional sound designer Matthew M. Nielson, who serves as Round House’s Resident Sound Designer.
The Cast
The cast includes Washington, D.C.-area professional actor Scott Sedar as Joseph Cornell; Sara Wright (UM ’10) as the ballerina; Theresa Buechler (UM ’11) as Lauren Bacall and Allegra; Ali Grusell (UM ’11) as Mother, Waitress, and DuCamp; Madeline Whiting (UM ’13) as Leila, Marianne, and Girl; Sebastian Delta (UM ’12) as Robert and Matta; Jason Phillips (UM ’10) as the Pharmacist and Corkmaker; James Waters (UM ’13) as the Astronomer; and Jonathon Berenson (UM ’12) as the Herbalist and Gorky.
Scott Sedar has worked at Arena Stage, the Kennedy Center, Maryland Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth, and the Washington Stage Guild, among others. His musical credits include roles at the recent reopening of the National Portrait Gallery (1776) and runs at Open Circle Theatre, Rep Stage, Round House Theatre, and Signature Theatre. His performances at festivals include the D.C. Fringe and the bi-annual NewVisions/New Voices Children’s Theatre Festival hosted by the Kennedy Center. Currently, he is a Teaching Artist for Education and Outreach with Round House Theatre and the Director in Residence at the D.C. Creative Writers Workshop.
Performance Calendar & Ticket Information
Performances are at Round House Theatre Silver Spring, 8641 Colesville Road (located next to the AFI Silver Theatre). The Silver Spring station on Metro’s red line is approximately three blocks away. Performance dates and times for Hotel Cassiopeia are as follows:
- Saturday, June 5, 2010 at 8pm
- Sunday, June 6 at 3pm
- Wednesday, June 9 at 7:30pm
- Thursday, June 10 at 8pm
- Friday, June 11 at 8pm
- Saturday, June 12 at 3 and 8pm
- Sunday, June 13 at 3pm
Tickets are $15 for general admission and $10 for full-time University of Maryland students, faculty, and alumni (with ID), Round House Theatre subscribers, senior citizens, patrons age 30 and under, and groups of 10 or more.
Tickets can be purchased at www.roundhousetheatre.org or by calling 240.644.1100. Tickets go on sale in person at the Round House Theatre Silver Spring box office one hour prior to curtain.
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