 Press Room:
Judgment at Nuremberg
Photo Gallery
Judges Sit in ‘Judgment’ at the Willows
Theatre
Abby Mann’s Oscar®-winning Judgment at
Nuremberg leaps from screen to stage in gripping courtroom drama
April 25 - May 29, 2005: tickets on sale
now
What is the responsibility of individuals caught in a
seemingly irresistible wave of evildoing? In light of recent events in
Rwanda, Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sudan, Congo, and East Timor, this
question is, unfortunately, more relevant than ever. The Willows Theatre,
one of the Bay Area’s most celebrated professional theaters, explores this
issue with a new stage adaptation of the 1961 award-winning film
Judgment at Nuremberg by Abby Mann. Willows Theatre Artistic
Director Richard Elliott will direct. Judgment at Nuremberg
opens April 29 and runs through May 29, 2005 at the Willows Theatre, 1975
Diamond Boulevard, Concord, CA. Preview performances begin April 25.
The first Nuremberg Trial, held in 1945-46, was an
international tribunal that tried 22 high-level Nazi officials for war
crimes, 12 of whom were put to death 15 days after the trial ended. The
second round of trials – 12 in all – was solely an American attempt to try
177 “professionals” for their complicity with the Third Reich: arms makers,
industrialists, doctors, and legal officials. One of these trials – known
as the Justice Case – is the source for Judgment at Nuremberg.
Four German high court judges are on trial in front of a panel of American
judges, led by a Southern Centrist, Dan Haywood, with Army Col. Tad Parker
as head prosecutor The leading defendant, Ernst Janning, a once
unassailable jurist now tormented by his assent to Nazi edicts, is defended
by a fiercely patriotic young lawyer named Oscar Rolfe, who argues that the
judges merely acted according to existing law; that working within the
system allowed them to help more people than they could have otherwise; and
that placing blame on them is unfair when so many others are equally
culpable. Mann is asking, as people since the trial have been asking, the
hard and still-pertinent questions about individual responsibility in a
my-country-right-or-wrong world. How did everyday Germans not know what was
happening in the name of their country? And, if they did know, what, if
anything, could they have done?
Judgment at Nuremberg
began life in 1957 as a live-TV drama on CBS’s famed Playhouse 90
series. It was adapted into a feature-length film in 1961, directed by
Stanley Kramer, winning two Oscars®: for Mann’s screenplay and
for Maximilian Schell as defense attorney Rolfe. Tony Randall commissioned
Mann to adapt his screenplay to the stage in 2001 for his acclaimed National
Actors Theatre, for a Broadway production that featured Schell (now in the
role of Janning), George Grizzard, Robert Foxworth and Joseph Wiseman.
Richard Zoglin of Time noted that the stage version of
“Judgment retains the power to move and provoke us,” and Michael
Kuchwara of the Associated Press says “Judgment at Nuremberg will
always be a powerful work of art.”
THE CAST
George Maguire* (Judge Dan
Haywood) is a well-known Bay Area stage and film actor making his first
appearance on stage at the Willows. Mr. Maguire was featured on Broadway in
The Canterbury Tales and has appeared with the Great Lakes
Shakespeare Festival, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Actors
Theater of Louisville, among many others. Locally, he was seen recently in
Othello and She Stoops to Conquer at the Marin Shakespeare
Festival; Dancing at Lughnasa at the Sacramento Theater Company; and
Interior Decorations at the Magic Theater. He has also been featured
in principal roles in over 30 films and TV series, including Fight Club, True Crime and Nash Bridges.
Robert Parsons* (Ernst Janning)
has appeared in productions of The Black Rider, Buried Child and
Good at A.C.T.; The Heiress at Berkeley Rep; and Cyrano de
Bergerac and Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Oregon Shakespeare
Festival. He has also been featured in productions at the Magic Theater,
Marin Theatre Company, and Word for Word. Mr. Parsons holds a Master’s of
Fine Arts degree from Temple University. This is his first appearance at
the Willows.
Mark Farrell* (Oscar Rolfe) is
no stranger to the Willows stage, having appeared in productions of Look
Homeward, Angel (Ben); Merrily We Roll Along (Charlie); 1776
(Rutledge); and Funny Girl. Mr. Farrell also recently appeared in
Noel and Gertie (Center Rep), Me and My Girl (Marin Theater
Company), and The Good Companions (42nd Street Moon).
Robb Bauer* (Col. Tad Parker)
was featured in the John Waters films Cry-Baby and Hairspray,
as well as Avalon, directed by Barry Levinson. Mr. Bauer has
appeared in a number of productions for Baltimore’s Center Stage, including
An Ideal Husband, Gross Indecency, and Romeo and Juliet.
Locally, he has recently been seen in Shakespeare in Hollywood at
TheatreWorks and Coyote Creek Flat at the Magic Theater. This is his
first appearance on the Willows stage.
C. Dianne Manning (Frau Bertholt)
received her B.F.A. in Directing from the North Carolina School of the Arts
and her M.F.A. in Acting from A.C.T. and has appeared in productions at the
Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Sacramento Theater Company, A.C.T., and the
Valley Shakespeare Festival in Saratoga, among many others. This is her
first appearance with the Willows.
Others in the large cast, portraying judges, prosecutors,
witnesses and German citizens, include: Cedric Clark (Suisun),
David Hardie (Antioch), Sally Hogarty (Canyon), John Hommes
(Oakley), Sandra Jardin (Hayward), Jeff Lowe (Lafayette),
Eric Neiman (Pleasant Hill), Eric Rice (San Francisco), Joe
Roebuck (Moraga), Carl Spiegelberg (Lafayette) and Richard
Wenzel (San Francisco).
*Member, Actors’ Equity Association
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 new musical John Muir’s Mountain Days, based on the life of
John Muir, and is currently overseeing the development of a newly
commissioned piece, Sacagawea. Mr. Elliott was a 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 will be a
guest director in 2005.
The design team for Judgment at Nuremberg
includes Shaun Carroll (Properties and Set Dressing), Jonathan
Retsky (Lighting), Jean-Francois Revon (Scenery), and Loran
Watkins (Costumes).
Ticket and
Schedule Information
Tickets are $30-$35 with discounts for students (6-18),
seniors (65+) and groups (10+). To purchase tickets call (925) 798-1300
or order
online. Performances are
Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m., and
Sunday at 7:30 p.m., with matinees Wednesdays at 3:30 pm, Saturdays at 2
p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m.
The Willows Theatre is located at 1975 Diamond Blvd. next to
CompUSA and REI in the Willows Shopping Center in Concord, across the street
from the Concord Hilton and one block east of the Willow Pass Road exit off
Highway 680.
The Willows Theatre Company daytime box office is located at
1425 Gasoline Alley, Concord, at the corner of Bisso Lane, one block north
of Concord Avenue, behind the EXPO Design Center. The daytime box office
hours are Monday-Saturday 10 A.M. – 6 P.M. and Sunday Noon-5 P.M. The
theatre box office and will-call window, located in the theater lobby, opens
one hour prior to each performance.
###
Recipient of the 2002 Cyril Award of the San Francisco
Business Arts Council for Nonprofit Arts Excellence, the Willows Theatre
Company is led by Artistic Director Richard Elliott and Managing Director
Andrew Holtz. The Willows Theatre Company 2005 sponsors are Rocco’s Pizzeria
of Walnut Creek, Industrial Lumber of Martinez, Contra Costa Newspapers,
Alphagraphics of Walnut Creek, and US Bank (student/teacher discount ticket
sponsor). |
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Judgment
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