Bedlam to Return to Cambridge with Two Versions of Twelfth Night

The Nora Theatre Company is proud to present Bedlam performing their two version of TWELFTH NIGHT: TWELFTH NIGHT (or WHAT YOU WILL) and WHAT YOU WILL (or TWELFTH NIGHT). Both plays are the text of TWELFTH NIGHT written by William Shakespeare. Artistic Director of Bedlam, Eric Tucker, directs both productions. The press performance for TWELFTH NIGHT is Sunday, June 12 at 7PM. The press performance for WHAT YOU WILL is Monday, June 13 at 7:30PM,

One play, two completely different ways, with the same five actors.

Bedlam returns to Central Square Theater after last season's Saint Joan, specializing in classical revivals that are both radically innovative and winningly playful. This year they bring their successful TWELFTH NIGHT playing in rep with... itself. Two different versions of the same play, both of them staged by the same director, Eric Tucker, and performed by the same five-person cast, whose members share between them all 12 parts!

Tickets for both TWELFTH NIGHT and WHAT YOU WILL start at $20 and are currently on sale at CentralSquareTheater.org or by calling 617.576.9278.

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright (1564-1616) widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of 37 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several additional poems. His plays have been translated into every major language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Bedlam Theatre Company Saint Joan enjoyed multiple runs in New York to great critical acclaim with its repertory partner, Hamlet, performed by the same four actors. The pair also ran at the Olney Theater Center in the Washington, D.C. area. Saint Joan won the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Revival of a Play, appeared on TIME Magazine Top Ten Plays and Musicals of 2013, and received Lucille Lortel Award and Helen Hayes Award nominations (Outstanding Lead Actress). This season, Bedlam mounted the North American Premiere of Chekhov's The Seagull, in a new version by Anya Reiss, in rotating repertory with the world premiere of Jane Austen's Sense & Sensibility, adapted for the stage by Kate Hamill. The productions were highly celebrated in the press, with The Seagull named Best Classical Production of 2014 by the Wall Street Journal, and Sense & Sensibility appearing on Ben Brantley's top ten list of The Best Theater of 2014 (alongside the Bedlam productions of Hamlet and Saint Joan). Committed to the immediacy of the relationship between the actor and the audience, BEDLAM creates theatre in a flexible, raw space and is interested in contemporary reappraisals of the classics, new writing, and small-scale musical theater. It is in the process of developing outreach programs providing theater programming for Veterans. Founded in 2012 by Eric Tucker (Artistic Director) and Andrus Nichols (Producing Director), Bedlam is a New York-based company. More information at: TheatreBedlam.org

ABOUT THE CAST:

Kelley Curran (Ensemble) Off-Broadway: The DingDong (Pearl Theatre Co; Drama League Award Nomination - Distinguished Performance), 'Tis Pity She's A Whore (Red Bull Theatre Co; Callaway Award - Best Actress, Lortel Nomination - Best Revival), Angels In America(Signature, Lortel Award - Best Revival), The Atmosphere of Memory (LAByrinth) Henry V (New Victory), Knives & Spoons Go On the Right (59E59), and work with The Drama League, Shakespeare Society and Public Theater. Selected Regional: Shakespeare Theatre of DC (D.C. Metro Arts Best Actress: Lady Percy, Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, opposite Stacey Keach), Shakespeare & Co, The Guthrie, Portland Center Stage, ASF, HVSF, The Barnstormers, and The Acting Co. Film: Dear Santa, Still On the Road. Training: Fordham, B.A. Additional honors: Princess Grace Award Nominee. Kelleycurran.com

Edmund Lewis (Ensemble) is very happy to be back in Cambridge, having appeared in the 2015 Elliot Norton Award winning productions of Bedlam's Saint Joan (here at CST) and The Tempest (at A.R.T.) Most recently, he played Colonel Brandon in Bedlam's hugely successful Off-Broadway run of Sense & Sensibility as well as numerous characters in the east coast premiere of Steven Sater's New York Animals. Edmund is an original member of the acclaimed Bedlam company, having acted in the original runs of Saint Joan and Hamlet (both at the Access Theatre and Off-Broadway at the Lynn Redgrave Theatre) in addition to TWELFTH NIGHT and WHAT YOU WILL (at the Abingdon Theatre.) Other New York credits include Sackville & Mr. Harris in The Libertine (at the Chernuchin-also directed by Eric Tucker); Mark in The Philadelphia, Kafka in Words, Words, Words and Sir Richard Attenborough in Time Flies (Bang Theatre Collective) and the Horny Delivery Guy in 95% Chance They'll Wind Up Like Larvae (NY Fringe). Edmund can also be seen in his friend Gregory Abbey's web series, Marriage & Other Tragedies, as well as in Andrew Lawton's short film Have You Seen Calvin? which will be premiering at various film festivals this year.

Susannah Millonzi (Ensemble) NEW YORK: Bedlam: Dead Dog Park, New York Animals (WSJ Performance of the Year 2015), TWELFTH NIGHT, WHAT YOU WILL; CSC: Prometheus Bound (with David Oyelowo); Clubbed Thumb: Pageant; REGIONAL: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Othello, Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Arabian Nights, The Winter's Tale, HVSF Choreographer: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth; Shakespeare & Co.: Romeo and Juliet, King John, As You Like It, Comedy of Errors; Seattle Shakespeare: TWELFTH NIGHT, Electra (Footlight Award: Best Actor); Georgia Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, All's Well That Ends Well (also choreographer); Orlando Shakespeare: As You Like It; Elm Shakespeare: The Three Musketeers; Boston Theatre Works: The Tempest. B.A. Barnard College

Tom O'Keefe (Ensemble) Off-Broadway: Tamburlaine Parts I & II (Theater for a New Audience), Hamlet & Saint Joan (Bedlam/Lynn Redgrave Theater). Other New York: The Best of Everything (HERE Arts), A Hard Wall at High Speed (APAC), The Libertine, (Kirk Theater). Regional: Richard II, The Taster, Measure for Measure (Shakespeare & Co.), From Orchids to Octopi (Central Square Theater), Humble Boy (Publick Theater Boston), Questa (Court Theater). TV: CSI, Criminal Minds, E.R., The Shield. Film: A New Tomorrow, Avenging Angel, Crash N'Burn. Tom-OKeefe.com

Eric Tucker (Ensemble, Director) Wall Street Journal Director of the Year 2014. Off Broadway: Bedlam's Sense and Sensibility (Lortel nom, Best Director, Drama League nom, Best Revival); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Drama League nom Best Revival, WSJ Best Classical Production 2015; NY Times Critics Pick), Bedlam's Saint Joan (NY Times/Time Magazine top 10; Off Broadway Alliance Best Revival 2014), Bedlam's Hamlet (NY Times Top 10; Time Out NY and Backstage Critics Pick), Tina Packer's Women of Will; The Belle of Belfast. For Bedlam: Dead Dog Park, New York Animals (World Premiere by Steven Sater/Burt Bacharach), TWELFTH NIGHT and WHAT YOU WILL (NY Times Critics Picks), The Seagull (WSJ Best Classical Production 2014) and Sense and Sensibility (NY Times top 10; NY Times/Wall Street Journal/Time Out Critics Pick), Saint Joan and Hamlet (NYC and Tour; Elliott Norton Outstanding Visiting Production and Outstanding Ensemble, Boston Globe Top Ten). Other: Sense and Sensibility (The Folger), Copenhagen (Underground Railway Theater), A Midsummer Night's Dream , The Two Gentlemen of Verona (HVSF), The Libertine (IRNE nomination, Best Director). Hamlet (with William Hurt), Mate (The Actors' Gang), Macbeth (Best Overall Production and Best Director noms LA Weekly). Eric received his M.F.A. from the Trinity Rep Conservatory. He resides in New York City where he is the Artistic Director of Bedlam.

For both productions Les Dickert will be designing the lights and Valerie Barth will be the costume designer Dominique D. Burford is the Production Stage Manager.

TWELFTH NIGHT and WHAT YOU WILL play at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, in rotating repertory from Thursday, June 8 through Sunday, July 10, 2016. Performances are Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7:30PM, Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 3PM and 8PM, and Sundays at 2PM. There is an occasional Sunday performance at 7PM Tickets may be purchased by calling 617.576.9278 x1, at the Central Square Theater box office, or online at CentralSquareTheater.org. For box office hours, group discounts, and more information call 617.576.9278 x210.

Central Square Theater (CST) opened in 2008 through a groundbreaking partnership between The Nora Theatre Company (The Nora) and Underground Railway Theater (URT). This collaboration has been called a model for the arts community (The Boston Foundation, Culture is our Commonwealth, and The National Collaboration Prize), as it has paired two like-minded performing arts organizations in a strategic alliance with the City of Cambridge and MIT, resulting in the development of a state-of-the-art performing arts center in the heart of Central Square. CST has a mission to support its two theaters-in-residence while maintaining a shared vision of artists and audiences creating theater vital to their communities. The Nora and URT have a combined track record of over 50 years producing award-winning theater. Located in Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and steeped in its multiracial, intergenerational, ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods, the CST theater experience exudes a democratic energy where classes, races and age groups come together to be inspired, entertained and energized.