Press Room:
The Kentucky Cycle
(Parts I & II)
Willows Theatre presents
nine-play epic saga of an American family
Two-part Pulitzer Prize-winning drama ”The Kentucky Cycle”
plays at the Willows Theatre from August 27 – October 28, 2007
In the tradition of such groundbreaking epic
multi-generational family dramas as Alex Haley’s Roots, the Willows
Theatre Company will present Robert Schenkkan’s 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning
The Kentucky Cycle -- nine short plays chronicling the changing
fortunes of seven generations of the Rowen family over 200 years in that
part of eastern Kentucky known as Appalachia. The plays will be presented
in two parts – either on two consecutive days, or in a continuous, all-day
performance with a single dinner break. Part I, consisting of the first
five plays – covering the period from 1775 to 1861 – opens Friday, August
31, 2007. Part II, continuing the family story from 1890 through 1975,
opens on Saturday, September 1, 2007. Preview performances begin August 27,
2007. The plays will run in repertory through October 28, 2007, under the
direction of Artistic Director Richard Elliott.
The Kentucky Cycle
features 23 actors portraying nearly 100 characters to tell the story of
three intersecting families in an isolated section of eastern Kentucky: the
Rowen family, descended from an uneducated, escaped indentured Irish
servant; the Talbert family, homesteaders and landowners; and the Biggs
family, enslaved African-Americans. Although the locale is specific, the
experiences and conflicts are universally American and draw on the very best
and the very worst in our nation’s history. The plays explore man’s
propensity toward violence – whether racial, gender-based, or environmental
– and the fierce devotion to property and family that is part of America’s
rich and complex heritage.
THE STORY
The Cycle begins with the settlement of land
brutally and unjustly wrested from the Cherokee Indians by poor European
immigrants. The struggle for independence and survival includes fratricide,
murder, and adultery; the trauma caused by the American Civil War; the
violating of land for mineral rights; and the tumultuous rise and fall of
mining unions. Each generation adds obstacles and opportunities for their
progeny. And all three families must find a way to survive in the
ever-changing, unforgiving environment of the Appalachian Mountains. The
Cycle concludes with the restoration of hope for the future of the land and
of the human spirit.
THE HISTORY OF
THE KENTUCKY CYCLE
When he first conceived the idea of The
Kentucky Cycle, playwright Robert Schenkkan never believed that it would
grow into a history-making, award-winning, epic drama of Americana. He
began the work in 1984 after a trip through rural eastern Kentucky -- a
wedding present to his wife, Mary Anne. The play grew as he researched more
about the region and realized that he wanted to say something about how
modern America thinks of and rethinks its past and what that history means.
The Kentucky Cycle won a grant from the Kennedy Center Fund for New
American Plays, which allowed Schenkkan to complete the cycle by the fall of
1991, when it premiered at The Intiman Theatre in Seattle. The 1992
Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama propelled The Kentucky Cycle to
Broadway, where it had a short run in 1994.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
theater critic Joe Adcock recalled its world premiere opening: “All who
gathered at The Intiman Theatre June 1, 1991, knew something extraordinary
was going on. It was strange to go into the theater on a bright spring
afternoon, sit for three hours, come out, have dinner, and go back again for
nearly three more hours, and then come out again feeling somehow changed --
shaken, deeply moved, and alerted to an important truth.”
“I am interested in the play because I love the
fact that it shows how a single choice made by one member of a family can so
incredibly affect the lives of subsequent generations,” says Willows
Artistic Director Richard Elliott, who was born and raised in the shadows of
the Appalachians in West Virginia. “On an academic level, it deals with the
universal theme of the sins of the fathers, as addressed by playwrights
dating to the ancient Greeks, but in a contemporary setting. This play is
written in a place and time that is close to my own family. I am descended
from Scotch-Irish immigrants. I grew up in a rural setting. It is
interesting to me to look back on a similar ancestry. The common thread of
this piece is how important choices and home are to people and to what
lengths they will go to defend, to honor, and to hold their home.”
THE CAST
Gloria Belle
(Alameda) – Ms. Belle is making her Willows Theatre debut. Recent roles
include Aretha in Legends, Janice in Waiting to Dance, and
Fran in The Heidi Chronicles. She plans to co-star and direct a short
film adaptation based on the hard-hitting one act play, The Fallen Angel
by Eloise Beasley.
Diana Boos
(Berkeley) – Ms. Boos most recently appeared at the Willows Theatre in
Dearly Beloved and The Odd Couple. Other Bay Area credits
include: A Christmas Carol and The Women (Center REP),
Richard III (Woman’s Will), Playboy of the Western World
(Cinnabar Theater), Oklahoma! (N.D.N.U), and Julius Caesar
(San Leandro Players).
Cassidy Brown*
(Oakland) – Mr.
Brown is performing in his tenth show at the Willows, where he has also been
seen in The Odd Couple; Noises Off; Deathtrap;
Treasure Island; You Can’t Take It With You; Teahouse of the
August Moon; Jackie; Look Homeward, Angel; To Kill a
Mockingbird; and My Sister, Eileen. He was most recently seen at
the Aurora Theatre as Scooper in Bosoms and Neglect.
Kurt Gravenhorst
(San Jose) – Mr. Gravenhorst is appearing for the first time at the Willows.
His Bay Area performances include the world premiere of My Antonia at
TheatreWorks, Santos & Santos at Teatro Vision, the title role in
Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol at Bus Barn Stage, The Trojan Women
(Dean Goodman award) and Twelfth Night at Foothill Playhouse, The
Seagull and Doll’s House at the Pear Avenue Theatre, and Comic
Potential at City Lights Theatre.
Val Hendrickson
(San Francisco) – Mr. Hendrickson’s Bay Area theater credits include stints
with Berkeley Rep, Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks, San Francisco Shakespeare
Festival, Theatre Valentine, Shotgun Players, and the Willows – where he
last appeared as E.K. Hornbeck in Inherit the Wind.
Tim Hendrixson*
(San Rafael) -- Mr. Hendrixson previously performed at the Willows as
Captain Brackett in South Pacific, Colonel Purdy in Teahouse of
the August Moon, Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird, and Joseph
Kennedy and Truman Capote (among others) in Jackie: An American Life.
Other Bay Area appearances include Lilies (ACT); Greater Tuna,
Inherit the Wind, and God’s Country (San Jose Stage); The
Philanderer, The Zoo Story, and The Collection (Theatre
Rhinoceros); and Grapes of Wrath (TheatreWorks).
Letitia Trattner
(Oakland) – Ms.
Trattner is making her debut at the Willows. She recently appeared in
DIVAFest! and has also worked with Teatro Vision, Actors’ Ensemble of
Berkeley, Woman’s Will, Cutting Ball Theatre, Douglas Morrisson Theatre,
Stage 1 Repertory Theatre. Earlier this year, she understudied the role of
Nancy in Oliver Twist at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
Michael Moerman
(Walnut Creek) – Mr. Moerman has appeared in Proposals and Over
the River and Through the Woods (Center Rep); Noises Off, Long
Shadow, Over the River …, You Can’t Take It With You, and
The Secret Garden (Foothill Theatre/Nevada City); and Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Merry Wives of Windsor, Love’s Labours Lost,
Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It, Comedy of Errors,
and Much Ado About Nothing (Lake Tahoe & Sierra Shakespeare
Festivals).
Adrian Roberts*
(Walnut Creek) – Mr. Roberts was last seen at S.F. Playhouse as Daniel
Jamison in First Person Shooter. Other credits include Off-Broadway
at Lincoln Center as Ken in Playboy of the West Indies, Asagai in
Raisin in the Sun at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, and two seasons
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Has also appeared on TV’s Criminal
Minds, Scrubs, and Brothers & Sisters.
Jeff Trescott (Oakland) – Mr. Trescott has appeared in
over 60 productions at Theatre of the Blue Rose, including George in
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, MacHeath in Threepenny Opera,
Barrymore in I Hate Hamlet, and Rick in The Nerd. Other
theaters include Lamplighters, Town Hall, and Shotgun Players.
*Member, Actors’ Equity Association
The cast also includes Robert Campbell (San
Jose), Matthew Dragicevic (Martinez), Tenaya Hurst
(Lafayette), Jon Lutz (Concord), Andrew Merit (San Francisco),
Brady Morales-Woolery (El Cerrito), Norman Munoz (Pacifica),
Lorraine Olsen (San Francisco), Ruben Oriol-Rivera (Vallejo),
Blythe Rayford (Oakland), Blake Rosier (Martinez), Ryan
Tasker (Hayward), and Kathryn Tkel (Danville).
PRODUCTION TEAM
As artistic director of the Willows since 1986,
director Richard Elliott has overseen the company’s growth from a
small community theater to a nationally recognized professional LORT theater
company, recipient of two NEA grants for the commission of new outdoor
drama, and has overseen the development and production of more than 15 new
plays and musicals. Elliott has directed over 100 productions, garnered two
Shellie awards, and won the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle director’s award
for the West Coast premiere of Brimstone. He has produced and
directed the acclaimed musical John Muir’s Mountain Days, based on
the life of environmentalist John Muir, and is currently overseeing the
development of a newly commissioned piece, Sacagawea. Mr. Elliott is
a past recipient of the Arts Recognition Award from the Arts & Cultural
Commission of Contra Costa County. He holds a B.A. in Theatre from West
Virginia Wesleyan College and a Master’s of Fine Arts from the University of
Arizona, where he was a guest director in 2005.
The design team for The Kentucky Cycle
includes Caryn Wolf (Properties & Set Dressing), Robert Anderson
(Lighting), Peter Crompton (Scenery), Melissa Torchia
(Costumes), and Sean McStravick (Sound). Allison Ward* is
Stage Manager.
TICKETS AND SCHEDULE
Tickets are $33-$38 with discounts for students
(6-18), seniors (65+), groups (10+), and Preview performances. To purchase
tickets, call (925) 798-1300 or visit the Willows Theatre Company Web site
at www.willowstheatre.org. Regular performances are Wednesdays and
Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., with
matinees Saturdays at 2:00 p.m., and Sundays at 3:00 p.m. There are also
special added performances on certain Mondays at 3:30 p.m., Tuesdays at 7:30
p.m., Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m., Thursdays at 3:30 p.m., and Sundays at 7:30
p.m. (please call the box office or consult www.willowstheatre.org for
further schedule information).
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