King Lear Takes The Trinity Rep Stage by Storm

Trinity Rep will open its 49th Season this September with Shakespeare's sweeping tragedy King Lear, a co-production with The Dallas Theater Center (DTC) directed by DTC artistic director Kevin Moriarty. When the aging King Lear decides to divide his power between his three daughters, the results are devastating to the family - and the country. Driven by flattery, foolishness, ambition and greed, each generation soon betrays another and even nature itself revolts. King Lear opens in previews on September 13 and runs through October 21 in Trinity Rep's intimate Dowling Theater. In January 2013, the production will travel to Dallas as part of DTC's 12-13 Season.

Artistic Director Curt Columbus says it was Moriarty that called him from Dallas with the idea of returning to Providence to helm King Lear, "When he told me he wanted to direct Shakespeare, I was thrilled. When he mentioned that he wanted to stage it as co-production featuring both our resident companies and perform it at BOTH our theaters? I was all in."

Trinity Rep resident acting company favorite Brian McEleney stars as the aging monarch who has decided to split his kingdom among his three daughters-Goneril (DTC resident actor Christie Vela), Regan (Angela Brazil), and Cordelia (DTC's Abbey Siegworth) -with the largest share going to the daughter who loves him best. The eldest daughters shower him with flattery, while Cordelia can only speak plainly of her love. Lear flies into a rage and gives everything to the eldest sisters. Once in power, they quickly desert their father and violently turn on each other in their quest for power.

Director Kevin Moriarty is best remembered by local audiences for his inspired take on many of Shakespeare's plays at Trinity Rep, among them The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Henriad's Richard II and Richard III - the latter two starring Brian McEleney in the title roles. When asked about Moriarty's directing style, McEleney says, "Kevin likes to push the envelope, rather than making a safe, predictable production. His goal - and mine as an actor - will be to make the play as visceral, immediate and understandable as possible for the audience."

The sixteen-member cast also features Trinity Rep resident acting company members Stephen Berenson (Fool), Phyllis Kay (Gloucester), Fred Sullivan, Jr. (Oswald) and Joe Wilson, Jr. (Albany) alongside DTC resident actors Hassan El-Amin (Kent), Chamblee Ferguson (Cornwall), Lee Trull (Edmund) and Steven Michael Walters (Edgar). Rounding out the cast are Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Program '13 actors Alston Brown, Grant Chapman, Drew Ledbetter, and Brandon J. Vukovic.

To create the vivid, modern - and often rain-soaked - world of Lear's England, director Moriarty has tapped set designer Michael McGarty, Trinity Rep resident designer William Lane, lighting designer Seth Reiser, and sound designers and composers Broken Chord Collective. Set designer Michael McGarty has created a dramatic and flexible stage space where the walls move, shift and even collapse - all within the confines of the 280-seat Dowling Theater.

Moriarty explains why he chose to direct King Lear - and why this play is just as powerful today as when it was first written. "On one level we see a powerful, self-assured and self-centered man descend into homelessness, frailty and vulnerability. Then on a political scale, we see a country that is unified and intact at the start of the play break into factions, chaos and civil war. And through it all, the play artfully reveals the fragility of the ties that hold us together as a society, within our families, and even within our own psyches."

As Dallas Theater Center's sixth artistic director, Kevin has made a name for himself with the theater's productions of Next Fall, The Tempest, The Wiz, Henry IV, It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman, Fat Pig, A Midsummer Night's Dream, In the Beginning, and The Who's Tommy. Before joining DTC, Kevin was Head of Directing for the Brown/Trinity MFA Program and artistic director at NY's Hangar Theatre. Kevin has also directed off-Broadway and at regional theaters, including the Lamb's Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Virginia Stage Company, Queens Theatre in the Park, the Flea Theatre, HERE, Theatreworks/USA, and the national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar starring Sebastian Bach and Carl Anderson.

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