Update: Actress Susan Angelo will play Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra at A Noise Within, replacing Jeanie Hackett, who has departed the production due to a family member’s illness. Angelo previously appeared at A Noise Within in The Rehearsal and Richard III. Antony and Cleopatra opens Saturday, March 3 and plays through May 13, 2011. Previews now begin Wednesday, February 29 rather than Saturday, February 25.
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A Noise Within showcases the considerable capabilities of its new state-of-the-art Pasadena venue with a towering production of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, directed by ANW producing artistic directors Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott, with original music by composer Laura Karpman, opening Saturday, March 3 and closing Sunday, May 13, 2012 (previews begin Wednesday, February 29). This seminal tragedy is based on larger-than-life figures caught up in an empire-shattering dance of lust, love, politics and war. A “Pay What You Can” date, which allows patrons to purchase tickets for what they can afford, is Thursday, March 1.
Long on the ANW wish list, Antony and Cleopatra was an early choice for A Noise Within’s inaugural Pasadena season in the company’s permanent new home, according to Elliott and Rodriguez-Elliott. Both history play and sweeping love story, the play is undeniably one of the most challenging works in the Shakespeare canon to bring to the stage. “Until now, we just didn’t have the physical capability to give this play, with its many battle scenes and great surround, the grandness it deserves,” they note. “The depth of our new theatre has opened up tremendous artistic possibilities.”
The cast includes Geoff Elliott (Mark Anthony), Susan Angelo (Cleopatra), Max Rosnak (Octavius Caesar), Bill Hunt (Lepidus/Rustic), Christian Rummel (Pompey/Scarus), Ken Merckx (Demetrius/Dercetus), Greg North (Agrippa), Robertson Dean (Enobarbus), Raphael Goldstein (Eros), Nick Crandall (Soothsayer/Thidius), Nathan Turner (Philo/Schoolmaster), Angela Gulnar (Octavia), Steve Weingartner (Menas/Dolabella), Thad Shafer (Proculeius), Jill Hill (Charmian), Diana Gonzalez-Morett (Iras), Amin El Gamal (Mardian), Chris Karbo (Diomedes), Dane Biren (Abused Mess/Seleucus) and Philip Rodriguez (Varrius). Tom Buderwitz is the set designer, and Angela Calin is the costume designer.
A Noise Within is located on the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue in the Stuart Pharmaceutical building, 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107. Free self-parking is available in the Sierra Madre Villa Metro parking structure, with entrances on northbound Sierra Madre Villa Avenue or North Halstead Street. To purchase tickets, call (626) 356-3100 x 1 or visit www.ANoiseWithin.org.
Photo credit: Craig Schwartz
Shakespeare in LA 