Cyrano de Bergerac - The Call Is Places - Guthrie Theater
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The Call Is Places
2018–2019 SUBSCRIBER NEWSLETTER
Cyrano de Bergerac
March 16 – May 5
McGuire Proscenium Stage
WELCOME
2018–2019
SEASON
From Artistic Director
Joseph Haj
Frankenstein –
Playing with Fire
Sept 15 – Oct 27, 2018
Wurtele Thrust Stage
Dear Friends,
In the late 1800s, Parisians were enthralled with the theater. Nearly one
Noises Off million people went to the theater monthly and a half-million attended
Oct 27 – Dec 16, 2018 at least once a week. It’s not surprising that France fell in love with
McGuire Proscenium Stage Cyrano de Bergerac — and for far more than just its witty, large-nosed
protagonist. The French adore stories that examine where beauty truly
A Christmas Carol resides, such as Beauty and the Beast, Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre
Nov 13 – Dec 29, 2018 Dame and Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince.
Wurtele Thrust Stage
Perhaps that’s why Edmond Rostand felt compelled to write Cyrano
The Great Leap during a volatile time in French history that was rife with political
Jan 12 – Feb 10, 2019
McGuire Proscenium Stage
unrest. France had lost its position as a world leader rather capriciously,
the country was deeply divided and most of the plays being written
addressed the social ills of the day.
As You Like It
Feb 9 – March 17, 2019
Wurtele Thrust Stage Rostand chose to write a heart-forward, romantic story for a cynical age.
He was so sure Cyrano would be received poorly that hours before curtain
Cyrano on opening night, he found himself apologizing to his lead actor, Benoît-
de Bergerac Constant Coquelin, for the fiasco he feared his play would become. Yet it
March 16 – May 5, 2019 was one of the most legendary opening nights in the history of theater as
McGuire Proscenium Stage the audience applauded for over an hour after the final curtain — proof that
people were eager for something beyond the culture’s mounting cynicism.
Metamorphoses
April 13 – May 19, 2019 In that spirit, I’m thrilled to bring Rostand’s brilliant tale to our Guthrie
Wurtele Thrust Stage
audiences. Together with this gifted cast and creative team, we’ve created
a production that seeks to explore the question of true beauty. As Saint-
Guys and Dolls Exupéry wrote in The Little Prince a half-century after Cyrano, “It is
June 22 – Aug 25, 2019
only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible
Wurtele Thrust Stage
to the eye.”
Floyd’s
July 27 – Aug 25, 2019
McGuire Proscenium Stage
Yours,
Visit guthrietheater.org for
additional productions and
play descriptions.
2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTO: KERI PICKETT
Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand
adapted and directed by Joseph Haj
The Guthrie gratefully recognizes Cast
William & Penny George & the George in alphabetical order
Family Foundation as Platinum
Producers; The David & Leni Moore
Family Foundation and John & Kathy RAGUENEAU Ansa Akyea*
Junek as Leading Producers; Benjamin
Y. H. & Helen C. Liu, Jim & Julie Chosy LE BRET Remy Auberjonois*
and Martha Goldberg Aronson & Dan
Aronson as Producers; and Abdhish & CUIGY/THIRD POET/SIXTH CADET Robert O. Berdahl*
Mary Bhavsar and Antone & Genevieve
Melton-Meaux as Associate Producers. FIRST LADY/SECOND CADET/ Kaitlyn Boyer†
SISTER CLAIRE
Setting Nate Cheeseman
MARQUIS/MUSKETEER/FIFTH CADET
Paris, France and Arras, Spanish
Netherlands, 1640
SECOND CAVALIER/FOURTH POET/ Fernando Collado*
SECOND PAGE/SPANISH VOICES
Run Time
Approximately 2 hours, 45 minutes COUNT de GUICHE Cameron Folmar*
(including intermission)
ROXANE Jennie Greenberry*
Essentials DUENNA/MOTHER MARGUERITE Charity Jones*
Maura Gillespie, Tyler Lueck,
Kristin Nelson, Jasmine Porter, CHRISTIAN Robert Lenzi*
Tucker Brewster Schuster, Jake Stone,
Chaz Truog, Joseph Vang MONTFLEURY/CUSTOMER/SENTRY Joel Liestman*
FIRST CAVALIER/FOURTH CADET/ Mark Mazzarella†
MUSICAL PAGE
ACTRESS/LISE/NUN Andrea Mislan*
BRISSAILLE/SECOND POET/ David O’Connell†
FIRST PAGE
BELLEROSE/FIRST POET/ Jason Rojas*
FIRST CADET
CYRANO de BERGERAC Jay O. Sanders*
VALVERT/THIRD CADET Eric Schabla
BUFFET GIRL/SISTER MARTHA Christine Weber*
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association
†Student in the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program
3 \ GUTHRIE THEATER
Creative Team Understudies
Robert O. Berdahl* (Count de Guiche),
Kaitlyn Boyer† (First Cavalier/
Fifth Cadet), Nate Cheeseman
ADAPTER/DIRECTOR Joseph Haj (Christian), Casey E. Lewis*
(Le Bret/Montfleury/Customer/
SCENIC DESIGNER McKay Coble Sentry), Joel Liestman* (Ragueneau),
Mark Mazzarella† (Marquis/Musketeer),
COSTUME DESIGNER Jan Chambers Andrea Mislan* (Buffet Girl/Sister
Martha), David O’Connell† (Cuigy/
LIGHTING DESIGNER Rui Rita Third Poet), Christine Weber* (Roxane)
Understudies never substitute for performers
SOUND DESIGNER Elisheba Ittoop unless announced prior to the performance.
COMPOSER Jack Herrick
Acknowledgments
DRAMATURG Carla Steen Adapted from the English translations
by Gertrude Hall and Gladys Thomas/
VOICE AND TEXT COACH Robert Ramirez Mary F. Guillemard.
FIGHT DIRECTOR Kara Wooten Joseph Haj wishes to acknowledge
Michael Cumpsty, Todd London and
MOVEMENT CONSULTANT Maija García Tom Quaintance for their valuable
feedback on the script.
INTIMACY CONSULTANT Lauren Keating
A special thanks to Mme. Maureen
Katie Hawkinson* Peltier from Saint Paul’s Central High
STAGE MANAGER
School for providing French language
assistance.
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER Michele Hossle*
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Seonjae Kim
NYC CASTING CONSULTANT McCorkle Casting, Ltd.
DESIGN ASSISTANTS Ryan Connealy (lighting)
Lisa Jones (costumes)
Julie Zumsteg (sound)
FIGHT CAPTAIN Robert O. Berdahl*
4 \ GUTHRIE THEATER
THE PLAY
“I’ll lend you my
words, and you
lend me your face.
Together we’ll
make one
storybook hero!”
– Cyrano to Christian in
Cyrano de Bergerac
CHARACTERS
Cyrano de Bergerac, a poet
and soldier
Roxane, his cousin and a
précieuse
Christian, a soldier in Cyrano’s
company
Duenna, Roxane’s companion
Count de Guiche, a nobleman
and soldier
Valvert, his friend and
Roxane’s suitor
Cuigy, a marquis
Brissaille, a marquis
Le Bret, the captain of the
Synopsis
Gascony Guards
Ragueneau, a baker and poet
Lise, his wife
Cyrano de Bergerac is a poet, soldier and consummate swordsman with Montfleury, an actor
a prominent nose that keeps him from declaring his love for Roxane. But
Bellerose, an actor and
that’s his only vulnerability — he bullies actors from the stage, battles
theater manager
a hundred swordsmen alone, fights alongside his company of Gascon
cadets and composes impeccable verse on the spot. Mother Marguerite, an abbess
at the convent
When Roxane tells him she loves a handsome new cadet named Christian, Sister Claire, a nun at the
Cyrano selflessly takes the tongue-tied young man under his wing convent
and helps him woo Roxane, who revels in language and poetry. Their Sister Martha, a nun at the
plan works perfectly until Christian goes rogue and decides to speak convent
for himself.
Other characters include
cadets, poets, pages and
But Christian and Cyrano aren’t Roxane’s only suitors. The powerful Count
cavaliers as well as a marquis,
de Guiche, who is no fan of Cyrano, has his own designs on Roxane. When
actress, lady, buffet girl,
the cadets are sent to war abroad, it is during the siege of Arras that love,
musketeer and sentry.
heroism and the true Gascon heart are revealed.
5 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTOS: COSTUME SKETCHES BY JAN CHAMBERS
THE AUTHOR
Edmond Rostand
Born April 1, 1868, in Marseille, France, to a family that
counted poets and a composer among their ranks, ROSTAND’S WRITINGS
Edmond Rostand was a quiet, intense student who enjoyed 1888 The Red Glove, written
with Henry Lee, premieres at
designing stage sets and costumes for his puppet theater.
Cluny Theatre
By adolescence, he was named “school poet” and began to
publish his poetry in the local magazine Mireille. 1890 Publishes poetry collection
Les Musardises
At age 16, Rostand went to Paris to The play was almost immediately 1894 The Romancers premieres
attend the Collège Stanislas, where translated into other languages at Comédie-Française
he excelled at French composition, and produced around the world.
history and philosophy. He also 1895 The Princess Far-Away
studied law to please his father In 1901, Rostand was the youngest premieres at Renaissance Theatre
but pursued his literary interests writer to be elected to the
by writing plays and poems. prestigious French Academy. 1897 The Woman of Samaria
premieres at Renaissance Theatre
His first play was produced in His next play, Chanticleer, finally
1888, and in 1890, he published a appeared in 1910 after delays due 1897 Cyrano de Bergerac
poetry collection, Les Musardises. to Rostand’s health. The hype was premieres at Porte Saint-Martin
That same year, he married poet almost unprecedented, yet it proved Theatre
Rosemonde Gérard, with whom he to be a disappointment among
would have two children. audiences. Scholars today consider 1900 The Eaglet premieres at
it to be Rostand’s masterwork. Sarah-Bernhardt Theatre
Rostand would rise to the heights
1910 Chanticleer premieres at
of French theater over the next During World War I, Rostand was
Porte Saint-Martin Theatre
decade. The Romancers received disappointed that his declining
popular accolades (and is the health kept him from fighting 1910 Publishes poetry collection
source story for the 1960 musical for his country, and he produced The Canticle of the Wing
The Fantasticks), and he wrote two a collection of patriotic poems
plays for actress Sarah Bernhardt: in The Flight of the Marseillaise. 1914 Publishes poetry collection
The Princess Far-Away and The Rostand died on December 2, 1918, The Flight of the Marseillaise
Woman of Samaria. But it was shortly after the war ended. His
1922 The Last Night of Don Juan
Cyrano de Bergerac that made final unfinished play, The Last Night
premieres posthumously
Rostand an overnight sensation of Don Juan, was published and
with its opening in December 1897. performed posthumously.
6 \ GUTHRIE THEATER
THE DIRECTOR
FROM DIRECTOR JOSEPH HAJ:
An Earnest Tale for a Cynical Time
Artistic Director Joseph Haj is no stranger to directing on our stages — he’s helmed
six shows since he joined the Guthrie in 2015, including last summer’s acclaimed
West Side Story. Yet every show has been on the Wurtele Thrust Stage and, in his
own good-humored words, “people were starting to talk.” This season, he’s breaking
his one-stage streak by directing his own adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac on the
McGuire Proscenium Stage — a perfect landing place for all that panache.
7 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTO: NATHAN DALE STUDIOS
When I was working as a freelance
director in 2006, PlayMakers
Repertory Company asked me
if I would direct their upcoming
production of Cyrano de Bergerac.
I was honored and accepted,
as I had long been interested in
the themes playwright Edmond
Rostand was pursuing in his
heroic tale.
If you see a production of Cyrano
in English, it will likely be the
work of Brian Hooker, who wrote the two English translations cited elaborate garments, wigs and
his magisterial translation in above and wrote a new adaptation makeup — things we put on
1923, or Anthony Burgess, whose of Cyrano with the goal of staying to make ourselves look more
version premiered here at the as close to Rostand’s original story appealing than we believe
Guthrie in 1971. While both are as possible. ourselves to be. And the scenery,
extraordinary works, neither costumes, lighting and sound
felt right to me. Hooker took As I wrote, I made some notable follow the same journey as the
language that was deeply poetic changes. I strengthened some characters, removing masks and
and added more decoration in of the characters in meaningful disguises one by one until only the
a way that slows what I believe ways — Roxane and Christian in truth remains.
to be one of Rostand’s great particular — and created some
accomplishments — the play’s composite characters to bolster The play is fabulist in ways that
powerful, front-footed, forward certain roles and tighten the don’t correlate with anything
action. And Burgess’ translation storytelling. Most importantly, I in our modern lives or world.
firmly belongs to 1971 and seemed attempted to create a well-built, Yet there is something deeply
off the mark in 2006. forward-moving story with a human about how we take a
steady rhythm that remained in blemish — an oversized nose
Because Cyrano was an pursuit of what I believed to be in Cyrano’s case — and allow
instantaneous hit when it opened Rostand’s key theme: the idea that it to become the overriding
in 1897, it immediately went into true beauty resides within. characteristic that determines
translation. I promptly immersed our worth. It also interrogates the
myself in two of the play’s first After many drafts and discussions, idea of how we treat people we
English translations: one in prose I got the green light to move find highly attractive and project
by Gertrude Hall and one in verse my adaptation into production. qualities onto them that they may
by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. As I collaborated with scenic or may not possess. But as Roxane
Guillemard. While reading those designer McKay Coble, who I’m and Cyrano come to learn, it’s only
translations and working with thrilled to work with again on the with the heart that one sees best.
Rostand’s original script, I thought Guthrie’s production, the idea for
I saw a path to something a a deconstructing curiosity cabinet That is the truth I was after when
bit different. was born. It was — and still is — an I wrote and staged my adaptation
ingenious way to visually represent in 2006, and I’ve revised and
So I made PlayMakers a the play’s themes and accentuate strengthened it (I believe) further
proposition: I would write my the final moments when Cyrano still for our Guthrie production.
own adaptation of Cyrano with a and Roxane bare their souls My hope is that audiences will
promise to abandon it with no hard and finally speak their truths to wholeheartedly enjoy Rostand’s
feelings if we didn’t agree it was one another. time-transcending play, about
the right direction. They accepted, which American theater critic
and I got to work. Over the next On the surface, Cyrano is a John Simon once said, “Cyrano de
few months, I combined my world teeming with disguise. Bergerac is not a great play, merely
working knowledge of French with Everywhere you look, there are a perfect one.”
8 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTO: JAY O. SANDERS, ROBERT LENZI AND JENNIE GREENBERRY (NATHAN DALE STUDIOS)
PLAY FEATURE
1897
Cyrano de Bergerac:
A Story With
Staying Power
By Carla Steen 1950
Dramaturg
1897
Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de
Bergerac debuts in Paris to
immediate acclaim. Within a year, a
production is staged on Broadway
in English.
1950
United Artists releases a film
version starring José Ferrer, who
also played the title role onstage.
He wins a Tony and an Oscar for
playing the swashbuckling Cyrano.
1964 1973
The cartoon character Mr. Magoo
1987
stars as Cyrano in his own version
of the tale, which is released as
part of “The Famous Adventures of
Mr. Magoo” television series.
1973
The stage musical Cyrano, written 1996
by Anthony Burgess and Michael The Truth About
J. Lewis and starring Christopher Cats & Dogs, starring
Plummer, plays at the Guthrie Uma Thurman and
before a short Broadway run for Janeane Garofalo, 1996
which Plummer wins a Tony. takes inspiration from
Cyrano but switches
1987 the genders of
Steve Martin adapts and stars
in the film Roxanne, an updated
the principals.
2018
retelling of the story with Martin as 2006
C.D. Bales and Daryl Hannah as the Inspired by Cyrano, Michael 2018
leading lady. Golamco’s play Cowboy Versus Netflix releases the film Sierra
Samurai is set in Wyoming where Burgess is a Loser — a riff on
1990 the only two Asian-American men Cyrano that takes place in a high
A faithful film adaptation in French in town vie for the affection of new school and swaps text messages
stars Gérard Depardieu as Cyrano. arrival Veronica Lee. for letters.
9 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTOS: CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER IN CYRANO (ACT TWO PHOTOGRAPHY); BENOÎT-CONSTANT COQUELIN AS CYRANO (PAUL BOYER)
ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION
A Nose Fit for a Hero
Actor Jay O. Sanders, who plays Cyrano, lends his profile to create a prosthetic of the hero’s iconic, oversized nose.
WATCH THE VIDEO
Next on the
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM Wurtele Thrust Stage
SAINT PAUL PUBLIC LIBRARY
Panache!
This curated list of Cyrano-inspired books and resources has it all:
romance, comedy, swashbuckling adventure, movie recommendations
and even French cookbooks.
EXPLORE RESOURCES
A visually stunning masterpiece
Metamorphoses
April 13 – May 19
based on the myths of OVID
written and directed by
MARY ZIMMERMAN
from the translation by
For more staff-recommended book lists on DAVID R. SLAVITT
a variety of topics, visit www.sppl.org.
WATCH THE TRAILER
10 \ GUTHRIE THEATERYou can also read
