2003-04 Season
The University 0f l,l0trs 0ame Department ol Film, Television, and Thealre
s
i& \&r'
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Peler
Lindlord
Victoria
0uani
0avid
Aclon
Francesca
flyan
Chuk lwuji
Actors f'romThe
London Stage
Romeo
and Juliet
ffi
or most of his working life, William Shakespeare was a sharer in the King's Men,
London's leading theatre company. He knew the actors he was writing for and collaborated with them on seeing the plays into performance.
All theatre is a collaboration, o{ course, and, while actors can no longer collaborate directly with Shakespeare, the Actors From The London Stage (AFTLS) company
always aims to work with him, respectfully and creatively, throughout the rehearsal process.
Our company's aim is to make his words exert their magic and their power in performance,
but we do this in a vital, and perhaps unconventional, way. We have no massive sets to tower over the performers and no directorial concept to tower over the text of Shakespeare's
play. ln fact, AFTLS does not have a director at all; instead, the play has been rehearsed by
the actors, working together to create theatre, cooperating with each other in their imaginative engagement with the play's words.
Now the actors ask you, the audience, to perform thai same kind oi imaginative
engagement that Shakespeare was thinking about when, in the Prologue to Henry V, he
instructed his spectators: "Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them,/Printing their
proud hoofs i'the receiving earth/For'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kingsl Now
the actors seek a new collaboration, working with you the audience in the way that only live
theatre can. lt is not a hard job for people to do, even though we are now used to having
everything shown us on screen, and even though we usually no longer rely on the powers
of the imagination and collaboration to bring a play's world into being. lf you share the fun
of collaborating with us, then the excitement of the performance will be richly rewarding
for you and for the actors, for this special act of working together, actors and audience
combined, marks the latest stage of that long journey Rameo and Juliet has made from
Shakespeare's writing the play with and for the actors he knew so well. So, tonighl watch
and listen and "let us../On your imaginary forces workl
Peter Holland, AFTLS, University ol Notre Dame
T
II E STORY
Set in the city of Verona, the play opens with an argument and a brawl between the
servants of the feuding noble families of Capulet and Montague, The Prince, ruler of
Verona, stops the fight and decrees that whoever disturbs the peace again shall be
sentenced to death. Montague's son, Romeo, and Romeo's cousin, Benvolio, talk about
Romeo's love for Rosaline.
Meanwhile, at the Capulet home, Paris, a kinsman of the Prince, seeks Juliet's hand in
marriage. Capulet dispatches a servant with a list of people to invite to a masquerade and
feast that he holds every year. He invites Paris to the feast, hoping that Paris will begin to
win Juliet's heart. Juliet talks with her mother, Lady Capulet, and with her Nurse about the
possibility of marrying Paris. Juliet has not yet considered marriage, but agrees to talk with
Paris during the feasi to see if she will accept him as her husband.
Romeo and Benvolio encounter the Capulet servant bearing the list of invitations to the
masquerade ball and, since Rosaline will be there, they decide to attend the feast with their
friend Mercutio. Once inside the Capulet residence, Romeo sees Juliet from a distance and
instantly falls in love with her, Soon, Romeo speaks to Juliet, and she, too, falls in love with
him, They kiss, not even knowing each othels names. When the two find out that they are
from opposite sides of the city's largest feud, they are both distraught. Romeo and Juliet
are married the next day by Friar Lawrence, who agrees to marry the young lovers in secret,
hoping that their marriage will end the feud between Capulet and Montague.
The next day, Romeo kills Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, in fury after Tybalt has killed Mercutio. The Prince declares that Romeo will be banished to the city of Mantua for his crime.
Friar Lawrence arranges for Romeo to spend his wedding night with Juliet before he has
to leave for Mantua the following morning. Capulet pushes ahead with the plan to marry
Juliet to Paris. The Friar concocts a plan to reunite Juliet with Romeo in Mantua. The night
before her wedding, Juliet must drink a potron that will make her appear to be dead. After
she is laid to rest in the family's tomb, the Friar and Romeo will secretly retrieve her, and
she will be free to live with Romeo, away from their parents'feuding.
That night, Juliet drinks the potion. The Nurse discovers her, apparently dead, the next
morning. Juliet is entombed in the Capulets'iamily tomb according to plan; however, the
message to Romeo explaining the plan never reaches him, and Romeo hears only that
Juliet is dead. Rather than live without his true love, Romeo buys a vial of poison and
returns to Verona to kill himself at Juliet's tomb. He {inds Paris mourning at the tomb and
kills him in a fight. Standing by Juliet's body, Romeo drinks the poison, and when Juliet
awakens moments later, she sees the body of her beloved Romeo and stabs herself with
his dagger. After seeing their children's bodies, Capulet and Montague agree to end their
long-standing feud and to raise gold statues in honor of their children in the town square.
THE CAST
David Acton
Victoria
Duarri
Chuk
Peter
lwuii
Lindford
Francesca
Ryan
Friar Lawrence, Lady Capulet
Iybalt, Peter, Montague
Juliet, Benvolio, Apothecary
Romeo, Lady Montague, Gregory
Mercutio, Capulet, Balthasaq
Abraham
Nurse, Prince, Paris, Friar John,
Old Capulet, Sampson
THE PRODUCTION STAFF
Lighting Designer
Light Board Operator
Stage Manager
Stage Crew
Marketing Assistants
C. Kenneth Cole
Mike Dury
Joseph Falco
Carl Gioia, Lea Marmora
Grayson Burghardt, Bob Cundy,
Dominic Eck, Erin Horne,
Kelly Korson, Allison Livingston,
Kristine Rosek, Jennifer Rudenko
Ihe use of cameras and recording devices in this theatre is strictly prohibited.
Please make sure your pagers and cell phones are turned off.
ABOUT THE PLAYERS
DAVID ACTON's Shakespearean roles include the title role in Hamlet at the Oxford Playhouse, Adriana in The Comedy
of
also performed the title rolein Tartuffe and played the role of Hlppoly,tus in Phddre with the
Errors, Olivia in Twelfth Night at the Newbury Watermill
American Players Theatre. Chuk has also acted in Moll Flanders, Our Town, and Hot Wind
Theatre, and Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Julietat the Chester Gateway. His work with
From the Sourh. Chuk has been trained as a classical pianist and has experience in martial
the Royal Shakespeare Company includes Aegeon in The Comedy of Errors, the King
arts, modern dance, and juggling. This is his first tour with Actors From The London Stage.
of France in Henry
I
Cornwall in King Lear, Rosencrantz in Hamlet, Salisbury in Edward
lll,andYizard in George Farquhar's The ConstantCouple. He has also performed in Ihe
PETER LINDFORD studied English and European Studies at Sussex Universityand trained
Clandestine Marriage, All My Sons, and Breaking the Code and was assistant director
at the Drama Studio, London. His Shakespearean roles include the following: Leontes
of a production oI Richard /// at the Tokyo Globe. Last year, at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre,
and Autolycus in The Winter's Iale; the title role in Macbeth; Petruchio in The Taming
Guildford, he performed in The Hinge of the World, a new play by the U.S. writer Richard
the Shrew;Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Royal Shakespeare Company); the
N. Goodwin. His television crediis include EastEnders, Casualty, Persuasion, The Wyvern
Mystery, Macbeth, The Bill, All in the Game and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).His
I
n
radio experience includes Manikudlak and the Bear, lnto Exile, and Slrangers and Broth-
of
Dukein MeasureforMeasure;SebastianinTwelfth Night(PeterHall Company); PuckinA
Midsummer Night's Dream;and Laertes in Hamlet (Royal National Theaire). He has also
performed in She Stoops To Conquer, Jane Eyre, Sir Martin MarAll, Lady Windermere's
Fan, The Country Wife, The Norman Conquesls (directed by Alan Ayckbourn), Miss Julie,
ers. This is David's second tour with Actors From The London Stage, following his spring
1998 AFTLS tour of A Midsummer Night's Dream in which he played the roles of Puck,
Dr. Faustus, and played Mephistopheles in Goethe's Faust at the Lyric, Hammersmith (for
Theseus, and Snout.
which he received the DRAMA Award for Best Supporting Actor). His television appearances include Footballers'Wives, Doctors, Without Motive, Real Women, The Bill, Julie
VICTORIA DUARRI trained at Mountview Theatre School, where she was awarded a
& the Cadillacs, So/dier Soldier and Grange Hill. His radio appearances include Jokrng
Laurence Olivier bursary Her theatre experience includes seasons with the Royal Shake-
Apart, Brummel Abroad, and The Lady of the Camellias. This is Petels third tour with Ac-
speare Company in London, Strat{ord-upon-Avon, and on national and international tours
tors From The London Stage. ln 1996 he played Claudio, Borachio, and Margaret in Much
with King John (playing Lady Blanche and understudying Constance),Twelfth Night, The
Ado About Nothing, and in l99B he played Oberon, Lysander, and Flute in A Midsummer
Taming of the Shrew, The Seagull, and Madness
in Valencia. Co-producing the 2001
Royal Shakespeare Ccimpany Fringe Festival, she appeared as Catherine in Memory
Night's Dream.
ol
Water, which she brought to the Latchmere Theatre in London, Her other theatre credits
FRANCESCA RYAN has been a professional actress for more than 20 years. For the Eng-
include Prrandello's Stone Goddess in London, The Country Wife tor the Citizens Theatre
lish Shakespeare Company at the Old Vc and abroad, she played the role of Oueen lsabel
in Glasgow, the new play Polar Bears at the Soho Theatre in London, and Mamet's Speed
in Richard
the Plowlor the Spit on Me Theatre Company. Her radio and television credits include her
lll,and,Ior the Royal Shakespeare Company, Portia rn
Julius Caesar. Other Shakespearean roles include Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream,
rolesin Family Affairs, Dalziel and Pascoe, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, and the BBC
Radio
4
play Learning the Language. Victoria is a co-founder of Touchstone Theatre, tak-
ing Shakespeare and drama workshops to able and learning disabled children and young
people throughout the UK. This is her first tour with Actors From The London Stage,
/{
Doll Tearsheetin Henry /[/, Princess Katherine in Henry l/, Joan la Pucelle
in Henry Vl,Lady Anne in Richard
l
I
Ophelia in Hamlet, and Hermione in The Winter's Tale. For the National Theatre, she played
Margaret in Arlhur Miller's Broken G/ass and Kristine in Shared Experience's award-winntng
A Doll's House. Her recent leading roles include Maggie in Dancing at Lughnasa,
the title role in Shaw's Candida, the Marquise de Merteuil in Les Lraisons Dangereuses,
CHUK IWUJI was born in Nigeria and has earned a bachelor o{ arts in economics at
Beatrice in A View from the Bridge, and M'Lynn in Steel Magnolias. She also has a strong
Yale University, as well as a master of fine arts in acting. During his two seasons with the
interest in comedy improvisation, having performed with Comedy Express and The lmpro-
Royal Shakespeare Company, he appeared in the role o{ Fenton in The Merry Wives of
fessionals. Her best known TV appearances include Dr. Claire in Medics, Miranda Peters
Windsor, as Tullus Aufidius in Coriolanus, and as the Soothsayer in Julius Caesar His
tn Coronation Street and most recently, Katherine Reid in Waking The Dead. Francesca
other Shakespearean credits include Edmund in King Lear, Cornelius in Hamlet, Othello in
is currently completing an MA in theatre studies. This is her first tour with Actors From The
Othello, Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing, and Florizel in The Winter's lale. He has
London Stage.
ABOUT ACTORS FROM THE LONDON STAGE
he residency at the University of Notre Dame of ACTORS FROM THE
LONDON STAGE (five British Shakespearean artists from such companies as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre
of Great Britain, and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, among others) is an
educational program developed by Homer Swander at the University of California,
Santa Barbara. The theatre company is now based in London, England, and at the
University of Notre Dame. The artists devote a large part of their time to lectures,
workshops, seminars, and informal meetings with students. Their stay provides
students and faculty with a unique opportunity both to observe extraordinary performances and to discuss literature and the art of theatre in depth with some of
the most talented artists from some of the most important theatre companies in
the world. This program is supported by the Office of the Provost; the Department
of Film, Television, and Theatre; the DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts, the
Department of English; and the Henkels Lecture Series.
Academic Director
General Manager
Peter Holland'
Cleo Haynes
Washington Hall Staff
Film, Television, and Theatre Faculty/Staff
Tom Barkes
Kelly Sanford
Nick Gupta
Peter Holland (Chair)
James Collins (Associate Chair)
Kevin Dreyer (Director of Theatre)
Student Managers
Wendy Arons
Christine Becker
Jessica Chalmers
Ken Cole
Don Crafton
William Donaruma
Richard E. Donnelly
Vincent Friedewald Jr.
Luke Gibbons
Sarah Ernst
Sangita John
Karen McGrath
Carrie Vos
JillGodmilow
Marie P. DeBartolo
Performing Arts Genter
John Haynes
Denise Sullivan
Associate Directors
Bruce Alexander
Jane Arden
Gareth Armstrong
Simon Day
Vivien Heilbron
Stephen Jenn
David Rintoul
Eunice Roberts
Karen Heisler
Beth Lewinski
Theodore E. Mandell
Paul McEwan
Mark Pilkinton
Emily Phillips
Siiri Scott
Gary Sieber
Christopher Sieving
Ann Marie Stewart
John Welle
Pamela Robertson Wojcik
Emeriti
Founder
Founding Directors
Homer Swander
Tony Church
Lisa Harrow
Bernard Lloyd
Patrick Stewart
Reginald Bain
Rev,
Arthur S. Harvey,
Harry Kevorkian
Frederic Syburg
Staff
Tour Manager
Marketing Manager
.Professor
John Calvin Traver
Jane Paunicka
Robin Slutsky
Christina Ries
Christine Sopczynski
Jackie Wyatt
Holland holds the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies.
c.s.c,
Upcoming Performances
Arms and the Man
by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Ann Marie Stewart
April 21-25,2OO4
Performances begin at 7:30 p.m., except for
Sunday at 2:30 p,m., Washington Hall
New!
NDPresents: is the presenting
arm of the DeBartolo Center
for the Performing Arts and is
dedicated to gathering great
artists from around the world
and bringing them to South
Bend.
NDPrcsents: Live at the Morris
Cirque Eloize
performs Nomade
Monday, March 22,2004
7:30 p.m.
Season and family discounts
are available.
Call the Morris Performing Arts
Center 235-9 1 90.
NDPresents: Live at the fulorris is sponsored by
.L
7< US.Cellular