Canberra Theatre Centre presents a sydney theatre company production
Director Sarah Goodes Designer Elizabeth Gadsby
Lighting Designer Damien Cooper Composer & Sound Designer Steve Francis
With Paula Arundell, Glenn Hazeldine, Sachin Joab, Shiv Palekar and Sophie Ross
22–25 June 2016
DISGRACED
BY AYAD AKHTAR
SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS
JORY
DIRECTOR
PRODUCTION MANAGER
EMILY
DESIGNER
STAGE MANAGER
ISAAC
LIGHTING DESIGNER
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
AMIR
COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER
VENUE TECHNICIAN
ABE
ASSOCIATE SOUND DESIGNER
BACKSTAGE WARDROBE SUPERVISOR
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
REHEARSAL PHOTOGRAPHER
VOICE & TEXT COACH
PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHER
PAULA ARUNDELL
GERALDINE HAKEWILL
GLENN HAZELDINE
SACHIN JOAB
SHIV PALEKAR
SARAH GOODES
ELIZABETH GADSBY
DAMIEN COOPER
STEVE FRANCIS
MICHAEL TOISUTA
SCARLET McGLYNN
CHARMIAN GRADWELL
JOHN COLVIN
SARAH SMITH
TODD EICHORN
CAMERON MENZIES
ROSALIE LESTER
HON BOEY
PRUDENCE UPTON
DIALECT COACH
PAIGE WALKER
1 HOUR 30 MINUTES, NO INTERVAL
THIS PRODUCTION PREMIERED AT
WHARF 1 THEATRE ON 21 APRIL 2016
DISGRACED HAD ITS WORLD PREMIERE IN JANUARY 2012 AT AMERICAN THEATER COMPANY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
(PJ PAPARELLI, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR).
DISGRACED WAS DEVELOPED IN PART AT THE NEW WRITERS NEW PLAYS RESIDENCY AT VINEYARD ARTS PROJECT
(ASHLEY MELONE, FOUNDER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR).
NEW YORK PREMIERE PRODUCED BY LINCOLN CENTER THEATER, NEW YORK CITY, 2012.
ORIGINAL BROADWAY PRODUCTION PRODUCED BY THE ARACA GROUP, LINCOLN CENTER THEATER, JENNIFER EVANS, AMANDA WATKINS,
RICHARD WINKLER, RODGER HESS, STEPHANIE P. MCCLELLAND, TULCHIN/BARTNER PRODUCTIONS, JESSICA GENICK, JONATHAN REINIS,
CARL LEVIN/ASHLEY DE SIMONE/TNTDYNAMITE PRODUCTIONS, ALDEN BERGSON/RACHEL WEINSTEIN, GREENLEAF PRODUCTIONS,
DARREN DEVERNA/JERE HARRIS, THE SHUBERT ORGANIZATION AND THE DAVID MERRICK ARTS FOUNDATION.
3
DIRECTOR’S NOTE:
SARAH GOODES
In the week that I write these notes, over
a hundred people have died in terrorist
attacks in Pakistan and Belgium. The
world feels more alert than ever to the
rising tensions fuelled by religion and
identity. Disgraced is a play that touches a
nerve of our times.
But Ayad Akhtar hasn’t written a play
about terrorism; he has written a play
about being human. It has the bones of a
Greek tragedy. It vibrates with a sense of
tragic inevitability – the harder our hero
tries to outrun his past, the faster and
more ruthlessly it pursues him.
It has been a wonderful experience to
work on such a tightly structured play. A
play that speaks to us so directly on both
a personal and political level. It was the
most produced play in America last year
and its immediate popularity with you,
our audience here at STC, is testament to
Sydney’s appetite for great writing by new
voices, with new actors, that argue every
corner of a debate and discuss difficult
and dangerous ideas about the times in
which we live.
In an interview, Ayad Akhtar talked about
the Greek word hamartia. In Aristotle’s
Poetics, the word refers to the key
personality flaw of a dramatic character –
the ‘tragic flaw’ that will bring about their
downfall. Set designer Elizabeth Gadsby
and I discussed, in our early design
meetings, how women are very central to
Amir’s life and journey. We decided to
approach the design through the prism
of Emily – Amir’s love for Emily being his
hamartia.
As part of our research, we read Geraldine
Brooks’ book Nine Parts of Desire which
she wrote 20 years ago, while living as a
reporter in the Middle East. As well as
being an amazing document of events
during this period, particularly the rise
of radical Islam, it is a fascinating insight
into the roles of women inside modern
Islam and tells the story of the Prophet
Muhammad’s relationships with women.
We used this research, along with Ayad
Akhtar’s own film The Enemy Within, his
novel American Dervish and his interviews
and essays, as a springboard into this
production. Together with Damien
Cooper and Steve Francis, it has been a
wonderful process designing this piece.
In one of my favourite essays by Akhtar –
you can find an extract in this program
– he talks about the power of theatre,
its survival during a time of industrial
storytelling and its ability, still, to breathe
life into us.
The actors – Paula Arundell, Glenn
Hazeldine, Sachin Joab, Shiv Palekar and
Sophie Ross – are a remarkable group
of artists who are the most important
element of this production. Their
generosity, bravery, commitment and
talent breathe life into this play. And
I thank Charmian Gradwell and Paige
Walker for their work with the cast on
dialect and voice, and Scarlet McGlynn,
our wonderful Assistant Director. D
CAST & CREATIVES
~
AYAD AKHTAR
WRITER
Ayad was born in New York City and raised in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
He is a novelist and author of American
Dervish, published in over 20 languages
worldwide and named a 2012 Best Book of
the Year by Kirkus Reviews, Toronto’s Globe
and Mail, Shelf Awareness, and O, The Oprah
Magazine.
His play Disgraced won the 2013 Pulitzer
Prize for Drama, ran on Broadway at the
Lyceum Theatre and is currently the most
produced play in the USA.
In addition to Disgraced, his plays The Who
& The What and The Invisible Hand received
Off-Broadway runs and are currently being
produced at theaters across the country.
Ayad was listed as the most produced
playwright for the 2015/16 season by
American Theatre.
As a screenwriter, he was nominated for
an Independent Spirit Award for Best
Screenplay for The War Within.
He has been the recipient of fellowships from
MacDowell, Djerassi, the Sundance Institute,
Ucross, and Yaddo, where he currently
serves as a Board Director. He is also a Board
Trustee at PEN/America.
CAST & CREATIVES
~
SARAH GOODES
DIRECTOR
Sarah is a Resident Director at Sydney
Theatre Company. While at STC she has
directed Virginia Woolf’s Orlando adapted
by Sarah Ruhl, Battle of Waterloo by Kylie
Coolwell, Switzerland by Joanna MurraySmith, The Effect by Lucy Prebble (with QTC),
Vere (Faith) by John Doyle (with STCSA), The
Splinter by Hilary Bell and Edward Gant’s
Amazing Feats of Loneliness by Anthony
Neilson (with La Boite), as well as The
Laramie Project for STC Education. Most
recently she worked as Associate Director on
The Present by Andrew Upton with director
John Crowley.
Other directing credits include The Sweetest
Thing by Verity Laughton, The Small Things
by Enda Walsh, Elling by Axel Hellstenius,
Black Milk by Vassily Sigarev, The American
Reconciliation by John Patrick Shanley, all at
the Downstairs Theatre Belvoir.
At the Old Fitzroy Theatre she has directed
The Shelling Point by Ron Elisha, Hilt by
Jane Bodie, Vertigo & the Virginia by Sven
Swenson, What Happened Was… by Tom
Noonan. She directed a one-man show called
The Colour of Panic at The Studio, Sydney
Opera House, that toured to Norway, and a
production of Henning Mankell’s play The
Unscrupulous Murderer at the Darlinghurst
Theatre.
As Assistant Director for STC she has worked
with Pamela Rabe on Elling and Lee Lewis
on Honour. Other Assistant Director credits
include Ray’s Tempest at Belvoir with Richard
Roxburgh.
In 2015, she was the recipient of The
Gloria Payten Fellowship. She was recently
nominated for Best Director for Switzerland
in both the Helpmann and Sydney Theatre
Awards.
Sarah graduated with a postgraduate
Diploma in Theatre Directing from VCA and
a Bachelor of Arts (Literature and Theatre)
from UNSW, including a year at the University
of California San Diego. While in San Diego,
Sarah worked as an actor at the San Diego
Repertory Theatre and with director Les
Waters at UCSD.
CAST & CREATIVES
~
Rats. Awards: Green Room
Award (Henry V), Sydney
Morning Herald Best Actress
(Antony and Cleopatra).
Proud member of Actors’
Equity.
PAULA ARUNDELL
GLENN HAZELDINE
Sydney Theatre Company:
Suddenly Last Summer,
Macbeth, Under Milk Wood,
Honour, Blackbird, LoveLies-Bleeding, Julius Caesar,
Life Is A Dream, Three
Sisters, The White Devil,
Attempts On Her Life, Love
for Love. Other Theatre:
Belvoir: Mother Courage
and Her Children, Angels In
America, Peter Pan, Death
of a Salesman, Gethsemane,
Scorched, Snugglepot
and Cuddlepie, Paul,
Peribanez, The Threepenny
Opera. Griffin Theatre:
The Bleeding Tree, Clark in
Sarajevo. MTC: Company,
Measure for Measure. Bell
Shakespeare: Servant of
Two Masters, Hippolytus,
Antony and Cleopatra, Henry
V, The Tempest, Much Ado
About Nothing. Ensemble
Theatre: Clybourne Park,
Are You There?, Interactive
World Theatre. STCSA:
Night Letters, The Torrens.
Sydney Festival: Oedipus
Rex & Symphony of Psalms,
Three Furies. Film: Gods of
Egypt, Disgrace, Bad Eggs,
Sample People, Diana and
Me. TV: Hunters, The Time
Of Our Lives, Slide, Me and
My Monsters, All Saints,
Home and Away, Out of the
Blue, The Alice, Love My
Way, Farscape, Murder Call,
Children’s Hospital, Water
Sydney Theatre Company:
Arcadia, Love and
Information (with Malthouse
Theatre), After Dinner,
Perplex, Tot Mom, Elling,
The Pig Iron People, Don’s
Party (with MTC), Julius
Caesar, Victory, Love for
Love, Mongrels, Historia, Two
Weeks With The Queen, Dead
White Males (national tour).
Other Theatre: As Actor:
Daniel Sparrow Productions:
Rupert. Ensemble: Act One,
All My Sons, Sanctuary, Face
to Face, A Conversation,
Charitable Intent, Birthrights,
Rhinestone Rex and
Miss Monica, Happiness,
Managing Carmen,
Tuesdays With Morrie, A
View From The Bridge, Ten
Unknowns, The Ruby Sunrise,
Rapture, Blister, Burn. Bell
Shakespeare: As You Like
It (national tour). Belvoir:
The Judas Kiss (national
tour). B Sharp: Rhinoceros.
Griffin Theatre: A Hoax,
Porn.Cake. Seymour Centre:
Transparency. Marian
Street Theatre: Labour
Day. Yellow Brick Road:
After Dinner. New England
Theatre Company: Private
Lives. Darlinghurst Theatre:
Laurence and Holloman,
Every Second. Noosa
Longweekend Festival:
Birthrights. The Old Fitzroy
Theatre: Last One Standing.
JORY
ISAAC
GERALDINE HAKEWILL
EMILY
Sydney Theatre Company:
Fury, Les Liaisons
Dangereuses, Baal (with
Malthouse Theatre). Other
Theatre: Bell Shakespeare:
Tartuffe. Belvoir: Peter Pan
(New York tour), B Street.
Darlinghurst Theatre: The
Pride. MopHead/Catnip:
Platonov. ISM: Heaven.
Mess Hall: Sweet Bird and
so forth. Film: Joe Cinque’s
Consolation, The Pretend
One, Flotsam Jetsam, Ad
Nauseam, Careless Love,
Uninhabited, Wasted On
The Young. Short Film: I’m
Banksy, Shadow/Self, Young
Labor, Inanimate, Casa del
Suenos, Markers, Only One,
The Last Race, Sellouts,
Happy Bag, Found Footage,
His Mama Always Told Him.
TV: Wanted, Australia - The
Story of Us, Camp, Rescue
Special Ops. Web Series:
Avalon Now. Training: WAAPA.
CAST & CREATIVES
~
As Assistant Director:
Ensemble: Charitable Intent.
Ross Mollison Productions:
Defending the Caveman.
Film: Last Train to Freo, The
Mechanicals, Dripping in
Chocolate. TV: Anzac Girls,
Redfern Now, The Moodys,
The Elegant Gentleman’s
Guide to Knife Fighting, At
Home with Julia, All Saints,
BlackJack, Stingers, Water
Rats, Backberner. Positions:
Member of Actors’ Equity
National Performers
Committee, Deputy Chair
of The Actors Benevolent
Fund of NSW. Training: NIDA.
Proud member of Actors’
Equity.
Project: The Boat People. As
Associate Costume
Designer: Barking Gecko:
Jasper Jones. As Associate
Set Designer: Brisbane
Festival: Freeze Frame.
Training: The National Art
School, NIDA.
SHIV PALEKAR
ABE
Sydney Theatre Company:
debut. Other Theatre: Bell
Shakespeare: Actors At
Work. Training: Zen Zen Zo
Physical Theatre, NIDA.
DAMIEN COOPER
LIGHTING DESIGNER
ELIZABETH GADSBY
SACHIN JOAB
AMIR
Sydney Theatre Company:
debut. Film: Lion, Reversion,
Road Hard, The Legend
Maker, Big Mamma’s Boy,
10 Terrorists, Taj, My Year
Without Sex. TV: Childhood’s
End, Perception, Fat Tony and
Co, Better Man, Neighbours,
Conspiracy 365, Rush, City
Homicide.
DESIGNER
Sydney Theatre Company:
As Assistant to the
Designer: Storm Boy (with
Barking Gecko). Other
Theatre: As Designer:
Belvoir: Cinderella. Griffin
Theatre: A Rabbit for Kim
Jong-il, Luck, Bad Luck,
Lysicrates Prize. Sydney
Chamber Opera: Fly Away
Peter, An Index of Metals.
West Australian Ballet/
Perth Festival: Epic Fail.
Spectrum Now Festival:
Orfeo ed Euridice. London
Handel Festival/Brighton
Early Music Festival: Bach,
Coffee, Cake. Sport for Jove:
Much Ado About Nothing.
Tiny Bricks/Adelaide
Festival: Deluge. As Costume
Designer: The Hayloft
Sydney Theatre Company:
includes Arcadia, The Golden
Age, Orlando, Arms and the
Man, Suddenly Last Summer,
Cyrano de Bergerac, Children
of the Sun, The Long Way
Home, Storm Boy (with
Barking Gecko Theatre), The
Splinter, Under Milk Wood,
Bloodland, Blood Wedding,
Edward Gant’s Amazing
Feats of Loneliness (with La
Boite), ZEBRA!, Honour, Tot
Mom, The Women of Troy,
The Great, Riflemind, The Art
of War, Ying Tong – A Walk
with The Goons, The Lost
Echo, Fat Pig, The Cherry
Orchard, Summer Rain, Boy
Gets Girl, Julius Caesar, Far
Away, The Shape of Things.
Other Theatre: Shaun Parker
& Company: Am I. GFO: Dr
Zhivago. Stuart Thompson
Productions (Broadway,
USA): Exit the King. Belvoir:
includes The Great Fire,
Elektra/Orestes, The Glass
Menagerie, Coranderrk,
Miss Julie, Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof, Stories I Want To Tell
You in Person, Peter Pan,
CAST & CREATIVES
~
Private Lives, Conversation
Piece, Strange Interlude,
Summer of the Seventeenth
Doll, Neighbourhood Watch,
The Seagull, Toy Symphony,
Keating!, Peribanez, Stuff
Happens. Malthouse
Theatre/Belvoir: Exit the
King. Bangarra: Of Earth and
Sky, Mathinna. Performing
Lines: Three Furies, Theft of
Sita. Lyric Opera Chicago: A
Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Houston Grand Opera:
Peter Grimes, Chorus!, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Opera Australia: Der Ring
Des Nibelungen (The Ring
Cycle), Peter Grimes, Cosi fan
tutte, Aida, Alcina, The Magic
Flute. Canadian Opera: Peter
Grimes, A Midsummer Night’s
Dream. SDC: includes Grand,
Air and Other Invisible Forces.
Australian Ballet: includes
The Narrative of Nothing,
Swan Lake. Universal Ballet
(South Korea): Giselle. ADT:
Habitus, Multiverse, Be
Your Self, Birdbrain. Chunky
Move: Mortal Engine. SOH/
Malthouse Theatre: Honour
Bound. Film: Mao’s Last
Dancer. Positions: Lecturer
at NIDA. Awards: APDG
Awards (The Glass Menagerie,
Der Ring Des Nibelungen).
Sydney Theatre Awards
(Toy Symphony, The Lost
Echo, Summer Rain). Green
Room Awards (Macbeth, The
Narrative of Nothing, 2007
Body of Work). 2003 Mike
Walsh Fellowship. Training:
NIDA.
STEVE FRANCIS
COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER
Sydney Theatre Company:
Arcadia, Orlando, Battle
of Waterloo, After Dinner,
Switzerland, Mojo, Travelling
North, Machinal, Vere (Faith)
(with STCSA), Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern are
Dead, The Secret River,
Sex with Strangers, The
Splinter, Under Milk Wood,
Les Liaisons Dangereuses,
Pygmalion, Bloodland, Blood
Wedding, The White Guard,
Hamlet, Tusk Tusk (with
ATYP), Leviathan, Spring
Awakening, The Removalists,
Rabbit, The Pig Iron People,
Gallipoli, The Great, Romeo
and Juliet, The Taming of the
Shrew, Embers, The 7 Stages
of Grieving, Fat Pig, A Hard
God, Stolen. Other Theatre:
Griffin Theatre: A Rabbit for
Kim Jong-il, The Bull, the
Moon and the Coronet of
Stars, Between Two Waves,
This Year’s Ashes, Speaking
in Tongues, Strange Attractor.
Belvoir: Angels in America,
Babyteeth, This Heaven,
Don’t Take your Love to Town,
The Power of Yes, The Book of
Everything, Gethsemane, The
Man from Mukinupin, Ruben
Guthrie, Baghdad Wedding,
Keating!, Paul, Parramatta
Girls, Capricornia, Box the
Pony, In Our Name, Gulpilil,
Page 8, The Spook. MTC:
The Weir, The Sublime,
Other Desert Cities. Bell
Shakespeare: Hamlet, Henry
V, Much Ado About Nothing,
Duchess of Malfi, Romeo and
Juliet. Bangarra: Lore, Belong,
Fire, True Stories, Skin,
Corroboree, Walkabout, Bush,
Boomerang. The Australian
Ballet: Totem. Film: The
Turning, JB, Last Christmas,
dik, The Burnt Cork, Mr
Patterns, Box, Black Talk,
Djarn Djarns. TV: Cops LAC,
Dangerous, Double Trouble,
Chopper Rescue, Macumba,
Picture the Women. Awards:
2014 Sydney Theatre Award
(Henry V), 2012 Helpmann
for Best Original Score for
Belong, 2003 Helpmanns for
Original Score and Best New
Australian Work (Walkabout).
2011 Sydney Theatre Award
(The White Guard).
MICHAEL TOISUTA
ASSOCIATE SOUND DESIGNER
Sydney Theatre Company:
debut. Other Theatre: As
Sound Designer: Griffin
Theatre: Masquerade (with
STCSA). Legs On The Wall:
My Bicycle Loves You. As
Composer and Sound
Designer: Belvoir: Windmill
Baby. ATYP: The Voices
Project: All Good Things, Max
Remy Super Spy, Ishmael and
the Return of the Dugongs.
Ride On Theatre: An Oak
Tree. DeQuincey Co: Framed.
Short Film: Hairpin, Jyoti,
Woodlands.
CAST & CREATIVES
~
SCARLET McGLYNN
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Sydney Theatre Company:
Switzerland, Storm Boy (with
Barking Gecko), Rough Draft
#28: Hooting & Howling.
Other Theatre: As Director:
La Boite: Show Me Yours,
I’ll Show You Mine. Rock
Surfers: Future Senior/
Former Youth, You and
Whose Army?, Boxing Day,
Small Hard Things. Critical
Stages: Boxing Day. Old
505 Theatre: Still. Tin Shed
Theatre Company: Bluey, The
Importance of Being Earnest
Dragons, and Other Classic
Tales, as Told By an Octopus.
Positions: Tin Shed Theatre
Company: Co-Artistic
Director.
CHARMIAN GRADWELL
VOICE & TEXT COACH
Sydney Theatre Company:
includes Hay Fever, Arcadia,
The Golden Age, King Lear,
Orlando, Arms and the Man,
The Present, Suddenly Last
Summer, After Dinner, Cyrano
de Bergerac, Children of the
Sun, Macbeth, M.Rock (with
ATYP), Mojo, Perplex, Noises
Off, The Long Way Home,
Travelling North, Machinal,
Waiting for Godot, Romeo
and Juliet, Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern are Dead,
Storm Boy (with Barking
Gecko Theatre), The Maids,
Mrs Warren’s Profession,
Sex with Strangers, Under
Milk Wood, Gross und Klein,
Bloodland, Elling, Blood
Wedding, The White Guard,
In the Next Room (or The
Vibrator Play), Uncle Vanya,
Travesties, A Streetcar
Named Desire, The War
of the Roses, Tot Mom. As
Director: The Comedy of
Errors. Other Theatre: As
Voice & Text Coach: Royal
Shakespeare Company: The
Taming of the Shrew, Julius
Caesar, The Tempest, The
Canterbury Tales (tour), A
Winter’s Tale, Pericles, Days
of Significance, Macbeth,
Macbett, The Penelopiad,
Noughts and Crosses, The
Comedies London Season,
Twelfth Night, A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, The London
Gunpowder Season, Romeo
and Juliet. As Director/
Trainer: A year with Space
2000 in Kaduna, Nigeria.
Film: As Dialect Coach:
Reaching for the Moon, Truth,
Ginger & Rosa. Other: Voice
trainer for London School of
Puppetry. Member of London
Shakespeare Workout,
which brings Shakespeare
into UK prisons. Training:
Central School of Speech
and Drama, Bristol Old Vic
Theatre School.