A Noise Within, led by Producing Artistic Directors Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, announces its 24th season of classic theater. Informed by the season’s theme, “Breaking and Entering,” these plays follow protagonists as they break down walls, enter unknown realms, and search for the truth. 2015-16 subscription tickets are available by calling (626) 356-3100, Ext. 1, visiting our website anoisewithin.org, or emailing [email protected].
“In the context of our new season, breaking and entering can mean getting behind the walls of ignorance and even fear,” says Geoff Elliott, “and summoning the personal courage to step away from old notions in favor of a clear-eyed embrace of a new truth.
As a recurring thematic element, breaking and entering symbolizes breaking down the walls of ignorance or fear and summoning the personal courage to embrace a greater sense of truth. These plays are inhabited by characters who do just that,” Elliott said.
The Company’s season unfolds this fall with Georges Feydeau’s A Flea in Her Ear, Antigone by Jean Anouilh (world premiere of a translation and adaptation by Resident Artist Robertson Dean), and All My Sons by Arthur Miller. Spring 2016 includes Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, You Never Can Tell by George Bernard Shaw, and Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello (adapted by Robert Brustein). The season again includes A Noise Within’s annual holiday tradition, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted for the stage by Geoff Elliott.
Julia Rodriguez-Elliott said, “What’s most exciting about these plays is how they portray transformations that occur in the face of huge adversity. The protagonists of Antigone and Romeo and Juliet oppose cynicism and corruption–and end up paying with their lives. But comedies can be equally transformative: at first glance, A Flea in Her is frothy, yet both its characters and the play itself break with tradition and enter new ways of being. That, in essence, is what this season is all about.”
A Noise Within’s 2015-2016 Season: The Seven Plays
A Flea in Her Ear by Georges Feydeau (Sept 6-Nov 22, 2015)
Very strange bedfellows rub shoulders – and more – at the Hotel Coq d’Or in the work that is thought to be Feydeau’s comic masterpiece. The audience can expect a creation of La Belle Epoque– with an undercurrent that provides “plenty of bite” (Los Angeles Times) – and enough sexy revenge to fill a boudoir (or two or three) to the brim. Based on older French farces, the demi-monde and their caprices are exposed in this entertaining romp. Theatre Mirror called it “one of the greatest French Farces ever written.”
Antigone by Jean Anouilh, adapted & translated by Robertson Dean (Sept 20 – Nov 20, 2015)
Anouilh’s reimagining of the Greek classic roars with theatrical drama – and poses questions about choosing between personal values and those of the larger society. One of the medium’s most compelling heroines, Antigone accepts her fate with fearless grace – and dares herself and the audience to rise to the greater good. Originally performed in Paris in 1944 during the Nazi occupation, it speaks to that time and it is “as relevant now as at any other time,” said the Los Angeles Times (1992).
This is the world premiere of a new translation/adaptation by A Noise Within Resident Artist Robertson Dean.
All My Sons by Arthur Miller (Oct 11 – Nov 21, 2015)
A ferocious indictment of the American Dream and ethos, Arthur Miller’s Tony Award-winning play holds up a mirror to the soul of American business and morality. How family ties bind – to ideals and the realities of daily life – is illuminated with a bright light in this searing touchstone of the American stage.
Miller established himself as a major theatrical voice with this work and said of the experience of having All My Sons produced on Broadway, “I tasted that power which is reserved, I imagine, for playwrights, which is to know that by one’s invention a mass of strangers has been publicly transfixed.”
With echoes of Ibsen and many great Greek tragedies, All My Sons was dedicated to Elia Kazan, who directed the first production. The New York Times commented, “A play of superior quality.” All My Sons, which premiered on Broadway in 1947, resonates with Antigone, which it post-dates by three years, by presenting another side of the conflict of World War II.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (Feb 14 –May 8, 2016)
The greatest love story of all time seduces audiences with its romantic aura as much today as when it was written. Crossed by their stars and society both, Romeo and Juliet “fills the highest purpose of theater – to enlighten and to purge, to create order out of chaos” (The New York Times). By any name, the enduring power of love smells bittersweet. As The Los Angeles Times has said, “Romeo and Juliet remains timeless.”
You Never Can Tell by George Bernard Shaw (March 6 – May 15, 2016)
A lunch unlike any other reveals a family secret–uncovering both the pleasures and perils of family life. Written over a century ago, this early Shaw play is charming and comically surprising. No man (or woman) is an island in You Never Can Tell, one of the comedic master’s warmest, wisest, and most modern plays. Unlike his Ibsen-influenced satires, You Never Can Tell displays a light comedic touch. The Los Angeles Times called the piece, “Wonderfully apt for our time.”
Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello (March 22 – May 8, 2015)
Nobody wants to be heard more than the six characters in this groundbreaking play from the early 1920s by the Nobel Laureate Pirandello. Posing the questions “When do characters become more real than the actors? And where does the line between fact and fiction really lie?” the fourth wall comes down between actors and audience in this well-known display of theatrical sleight of hand. At its premiere, Pirandello and his daughter had to slip out a side door, after the audience started shouting “Asylum! Asylum!” suggesting where the playwright should be housed. The San Francisco Chronicle said of the piece, “A mesmerizing mash-up. Suspenseful. . .and sexy.”
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (December 5-23, 2015)
2015 marks the fourth year that the company has presented their popular and critically acclaimed production of A Christmas Carol, adapted by Co-Producing Artistic Director Geoff Elliott, with original music by Ego Plum. “Remounting our acclaimed presentation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol allows families to once again take a supremely theatrical journey, celebrating the transformative power of forgiveness during the holidays,” says Elliott. Julia Rodriguez-Elliott adds, “Ebenezer Scrooge’s rebirth from miserly curmudgeon to the epitome of love and generosity reaffirms our faith in the potent goodness of human kind during this joyful time of year.”
About A Noise Within
A Noise Within, founded in 1991 and named “one of the nation’s premier classical repertory companies” by The Huffington Post, is the leading presenter of these plays in Southern California. The company’s mission is to produce world-class performances of the great works of drama in rotating repertory with a resident company; to educate and inspire the public through programs that foster an understanding and appreciation of history’s great plays and playwrights; and to train the next generation of classical theatre artists.
Originally based in a former Masonic Temple in Glendale, the company moved to its present home—a building of architectural distinction designed by Edward Durrell Stone of Kennedy Center fame—in 2011. Helmed by Producing Artistic Directors Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, who hold MFAs from San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre, A Noise Within delivers a seven-show repertory season and a wide range of educational programs to diverse audiences from Los Angeles County and well beyond. Voted “Best Theatre” by readers of Time Out Los Angeles and Reader Recommended by Pasadena Weekly, A Noise Within is indeed “California’s Home for the Classics.”
