FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Lisa Higgins • 610.282.WILL, ext. 4
Lisa.Higgins@pashakespeare.org
Center Valley, PA – Honor vies with conspiracy as Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar takes the stage in the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival production which previews June 22 and 23, and opens June 24. Performed in the intimate Schubert Theatre of the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts at DeSales University, Julius Caesar continues through July 17.
Producing Artistic Director Patrick Mulcahy returns to the director’s chair. “Julius Caesar moves from rationality to frenzy, from soaring ideals to impulsive mob violence and civil war.
“The play also translates history into great entertainment, and makes the harder-to-glance nuances of our natures more visible, poignant, and illuminating, as we, like the characters in this play, struggle to create the version of the world we would most want to live in,” Mulcahy says.
Julius Caesar, played by Emmy-nominee Keith Hamilton Cobb, has just returned to Rome after conquering his enemy, Pompey. As Caesar’s popularity with the people soars, Marc Antony, played by Spencer Plachy, offers him the crown, which he refuses.
Cassius, played by PSF veteran Greg Wood, fears Caesar’s growing power and ambition, and conspires with other senators, including a reluctant and honorable Marcus Brutus, played by Henry Woronicz, to assassinate Caesar on the Ides of March.
Rosalyn Coleman joins the cast as Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia, with Grace Gonglewski as Brutus’ wife Portia. Jacob Dresch plays Decius Brutus, with Steven Dennis, portraying Cicero and Messala, and Christopher Patrick Mullen, playing Caesar’s enemy Casca.
Steven TenEyck serves as set and lighting designer; Marla Jurglanis as costume designer; Don Tindall as the sound designer. J. Alex Cordaro is fight director and Maggie Davis is production stage manager.
Amaranth Foundation is production sponsor, with Embassy Bank and Lutron serving as co-sponsors. Lee and Dolly Butz are the actor sponsors for this production.
Every performance is preceded by a “Prologue” which allows audience members to join with PSF staff for a free informal discussion about the play, 45 minutes before curtain in the theatre.
Performances are Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm; Sundays at 2pm; Tuesdays at 7pm; Saturdays, July 2, 9 and 16 at 2pm; Sunday, June 26 at 7:30pm. Ticket prices are $25 to $75.
Savoring Shakespeare, a specialty dinner with behind-the-scenes insights into Julius Caesar will take place Sunday, June 26 at 5pm and Saturday, July 16 at 5pm. The audience is invited to meet the actors for talkbacks after the show Thursdays, June 30, July 7 and July 14.
The Festival’s 25th season also includes: West Side Story (through July 3); The Taming of the Shrew (July 13-Aug 7); Blithe Spirit (July 21-Aug 7) Love’s Labor’s Lost (July 27-August 7); and Shakespeare for Kids (July 27-Aug 6) and The Little Mermaid (through August 6).
One night events include the return of the The Great Divorce, a one-man performance by Philadelphia actor Anthony Lawton, based on the novel by C.S. Lewis. The performance will take place on Monday, June 27th at 7:30pm. In addition, Mike Eldred, who played Valjean on Broadway and in PSF’s Les Misérables last summer, will return with pianist Jeff Steinberg for Songs of Life and Love, amedley of Broadway’s best songs on Monday, August 1st at 7:30pm. Both one night performances are on the Main Stage.
Kathleen Kund Nolan and Timothy E. Nolan are serving as season sponsors for the third time in the Festival’s 25-year history. Associate season sponsors are the Harry C. Trexler Trust, Linda Lapos and Paul Wirth, Dr. James and Penny Pantano and the Szarko Family. The season media sponsor is The Morning Call.
PSF is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, and a member of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the Shakespeare Theatre Association, the Lehigh Valley Arts Council, and Discover Lehigh Valley.
For ticket information, contact PSF at 610-282-WILL [9455], ext. 1, or online at www.pashakespeare.org.
Principal Artist Bios
Patrick Mulcahy (Director; PSF Producing Artistic Director). Since assuming leadership in 2003, Mulcahy has led PSF’s return to artistic excellence and financial stability, built the professional company of artists, oversaw the quadrupling of the endowment, and achieved increasing national recognition for the Festival. Further accomplishments include PSF’s first-ever awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and attracting a company of artists including winners and nominees of the Tony, Obie, Emmy, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Jefferson, and Barrymore awards to the Festival, growth in all income areas, a 75% increase in annual attendance, and the expansion of the number of Actors’ Equity contracts per season.
As a professional director, actor and fight director, credits include Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, television, and radio. Mulcahy has acted with Angela Bassett, Peter MacNicol, Hal Holbrook, Joan Cusack, Don Cheadle, Anne Meara, Milo O’Shea, Cynthia Nixon, Tony Shaloub, Bradley Whitford, and others at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Hartford Stage, Roundabout Theatre Company, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Syracuse Stage, and the Walnut Street Theatre. He served as a fight director for Tom Hulse and Timothy Busfield in A Few Good Men on Broadway and for Off-Broadway productions starring John Savage, John Mahoney, Marcia Gay Harden, and Patrick Dempsey. He directed Oscar nominee Vera Farmiga in The Real Thing, and, for PSF, directed Macbeth (2014), Hamlet (2011), Antony and Cleopatra (2009), The Winter’s Tale (2007), Henry IV, Part I (2005), The Tempest (1999), and acted in and served as fight director for The Taming of the Shrew (1998) and Julius Caesar (1997). Also head of acting at DeSales, Patrick holds an MFA from Syracuse University.
Maggie Davis (Production Stage Manager) Stage and production management credits include: Seven seasons with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Pearl Theatre Company); Fully Committed and A Christmas Carol (Half Moon Theatre); Christmas Rappings (Judson Memorial Church); Radio City Christmas Spectacular (Florida/Texas Tour); Mike Birbiglia’s My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend; Tribes; and Hit the Wall (Barrow Street Theatre); Emotional Creature (Signature Center); Becoming Dr. Ruth (Westside Theatre); Measure for Measure (Fiasco/New Victory Theater).
Steven TenEyck (Set and Lighting Designer) Companies include Madison Opera, Syracuse Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, Tacoma Opera, Anchorage Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Syracuse Stage, TACT–NYC, Big Art Group NYC, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, The Kitchen Theatre Company, The Hangar Theatre, Merry-go-Round, Ensemble Theatre, and The Herson Group Ltd. Beyond his freelance work, Steve teaches lighting design at Ithaca College and received his MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle and is a member of United Scenic Artists 829.
Marla Jurglanis (Costume Designer) PSF credits: The Foreigner, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for Measure, Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Othello and three Willpower tours. She is the Resident Costume Designer for People’s Light where she has designed 100+ productions. Marla’s designs have also been seen at Delaware Theatre Company, The Arden Theatre Company, The Philadelphia Theatre Company, Virginia Stage Company, Alliance Theatre Company and George Street Playhouse.
Don Tindall (Sound Designer) is a free-lance sound designer and an Associate Professor of sound design at Ithaca College. He has also designed for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Denver Center Theatre Company, Hangar Theatre, Signature Theatre Company, Illusion Theatre, Burning Coal Theatre Company, Working Theater, and others. World premieres include The Quick Change Room by Nagle Jackson, Thunder Knocking on the Door by Keith Glover, A Lesson Before Dying by Romulus Linney, Disguises by Craig Warner, and Strangerhorse, The Two of You, and Selling Out by Brian Dykstra.
J. Alex Cordaro (Fight Director) has directed fights for PSF, The McCarter Theatre Center, Actors Theater of Louisville, Wilma Theatre, Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, Lantern Theater Company, Theater Exile, Inis Nua Theater Company, Arden Theatre Company, Philadelphia Artists Collective, Philadelphia Opera Company, and others. Alex’s choreography has been seen all across Europe in Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Saturday Night Fever, and the upcoming World Premier of Columbus, The Musical! Alex is a Certified Teacher and Theatrical Firearms Safety Instructors with the Society of American Fight Directors, a two-time Barrymore Award Nominee, and was featured on the Discovery Channel’s “Project Discovery” series: Careers in the Arts; Fight Director, and his choreography is currently on file at The Lincoln Center in New York.
Keith Hamilton Cobb (Julius Caesar) BFA NYU Tisch Stage. Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet (The Shakespeare Theatre/D.C.); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ruined (The Denver Center Theatre Company), Find and Sign (The Pioneer Theatre Company); Race (Orlando Shakespeare Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, (Geva Theatre Center). Television: All My Children, Gene Rodenberry’s Andromeda, The Young and The Restless, Noah’s Arc. 2015 AUDELCO Award recipient/Outstanding Solo Performance for original play, American Moor.
Steven Dennis (Cicero/Metellus Cimber/Messala) New York credits include The Girl of The Golden West (Soho Rep) and A Most Secret War (Harold Clurman Theatre). Regional highlights include Hartford Stage Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, and The Philadelphia Theatre Company. He was named Best Dramatic Actor by The NJ Daily Record for Underneath the Lintel at Centenary Stage Company. He’s performed with PSF in The Tempest, Cyrano de Bergerac and As You Like It. An LA Weekly Award winner, his television and film work includes guest-star roles on Star Trek: Enterprise (UPN), The Young & the Restless (CBS), Profiler (NBC), Miracles (ABC), and a recurring role on Star Trek: Voyager. He will appear in M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming film, Split. Steven holds an MFA in Theater from Rutgers University, and currently serves as associate professor at DeSales University and artistic associate with the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival.
Jacob Dresch (Marullus/Decius Brutus/Cinna the Poet/Titinius) is excited to return to PSF this season having just finished his Off-Broadway debut as Mr. Snake in the Red Bull Theater’s production of School for Scandal. Some PSF favorites include: Charlie (The Foreigner), Max (Lend Me a Tenor), Malcolm (Macbeth), Shawn Keogh (The Playboy of the Western World) and Octavius Caesar (Antony and Cleopatra). BA from DeSales University/MFA from U.C. Irvine. He currently teaches at the New York Film Academy.
Rosalyn Coleman (Calpurnia). Proud to celebrate 25 years in showbiz. Broadway credits include: Mountaintop, Radio Gulf, and 7 Guitars. Recent TV: The Ground On Which I Stand, Elementary, Blue Bloods. Film: It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Father’s Day (BET); HBO: Search Party. Educator: Adjunct at SUNY Purchase and NYU. MFA Yale Drama School.
Grace Gonglewski (Portia) Off-Broadway: The Flea, The Guys with Tom Wopat, director Tommy Kail. Regional: Arden (26 roles), Walnut Street (8 roles), Cape Cod Playhouse, Cape May Stage, Delaware Theatre Company, PSF (8 seasons), Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Two River, Wilma, 1812, and a tour of Ireland with Interact. Grace has received four Barrymores, Haas Award, Haas Fellowship, and BFA/North Carolina School of the Arts. She is the voice of Alex’s Lemonade Stand, CarSense, and Valley Forge Casino etc.
Christopher Patrick Mullen (Casca/Lucilius) A DeSales graduate, CPMʼs work with PSF (since 1992) includes Pericles, Dracula…, Charleyʼs Aunt, Hamlet, The Mystery of Irma Vep, The Glass Menagerie, and 20 other productions. Other theatre credits include West Side Story (1st National Tour); The Runner Stumbles (Off-Broadway); The Whaleship Essex (Vineyard Playhouse); When You Comin Back, Red Ryder? (Retro Productions); Metamorphoses, Macbeth, A Little Night Music, Candide, and Assassins (Arden Theatre). He is a long-time company member of Peopleʼs Light where he recently played Buckingham in Richard III. TV: Law & Order. He will be performing his new play Chip and Gus (A Comedy with Balls) this August in the NY International Fringe Festival!
Spencer Plachy (Marc Antony) PSF: Pericles, The Two Noble Kinsman, 1776, South Pacific, Antony and Cleopatra, Amadeus, Cyrano de Bergerac, My Fair Lady. Broadway: Romeo & Juliet, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Off-Broadway: The Common Pursuit. Most recently: Moon Over Buffalo at Gulfshore Playhouse, Tim and Scrooge at Westchester Broadway Theatre, National Pastime at Buck’s County Playhouse. Also: The Cottage, and The Full Monty at Theatre Aspen. Tours: Oklahoma!, Fiddler on the Roof.
Greg Wood (Cassius) Roles include: Prospero in The Tempest, King John in King John, Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac, Leontes in The Winter’s Tale, Antony in Antony & Cleopatra, Hamlet/Claudius in Hamlet, Jamie Tyrone in Moon for the Misbegotten and Richard III. Recent credits include: Bill in How to Write a New Book For The Bible for People’s Light & Theatre Co., and Elyot in Private Lives and Judge Margrave in And Then There Were None at the Walnut St. Theatre. Film and television credits include: How to Get Away with Murder, The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Happening, The Discoverers, The Answer Man, Bereavement, Bottleworld, Killing Emmett Young, A Gentlemen’s Game, Law & Order, Ed, Hack, and Homicide.
Henry Woronicz (Brutus) has been an actor and a director for 40 years. Regional credits include: La Jolla Playhouse, American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Shakespeare Theatre, Center Stage, American Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, American Players Theatre, and many of the nation’s leading Shakespeare Festivals. Henry also spent eleven seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as a resident actor and director, and served as the Festival’s Artistic Director from 1991 to 1995.
Media representatives: Please contact: Lisa Higgins, 610.282.WILL [9455] or Lisa.Higgins@pashakespeare.org
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