- Cleopatra!-And Antony
CLICK HERE FOR A RUNNING DISCRIPTION OF ALL THE FRINGE PLAYS CLICK ON PLAY FOR INFO ON THAT PLAY
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American Appetite: Tales of Dirty Young Boys & Spry Old Men, The
An Evening At Home
Anablep and Other Oddities
Back to Kroenig
Beckett's Last Dance
Beneath Sita's Belly
Black Box Confessions
Blue Sofa
Candistan
Caught Sleeping
Cleopatra!-And Antony
ClockBusters
Death Blow - The Show
Devouring Time
Engineer and The Artist, The
Enronicles
Exit Laughing!
F--king Handicapped Guy
Fred Anderson -Professional Goofball!
Full Spectrum Improvisation
George Bush's Nuts
Getting It Wrong
Guano dell' Amore - ("Birdshit of Love")
Gulag Ha Ha
Interactive Solo Performer Daniel Packard
Ken and Andy Show, The
Lillie, A Musical
Looking, Then Pointing
Mad Adventures of Chaos For Hire, The
Me Laugh You Long Time
Menopause and Desire: Or Why Must I Be Middle Aged and In Love?
Microclimates: A Crime Against Gravity or The Burrito From Sausalito
My Son, the Mummy: Episode Pi
nEO-sURREALIST sYSTEMS pRESENTS: HOE- DOWN!!!!!
Objects In Mirror (May Be Closer Than They Appear)
OUTTAKES: Monologues, Stories, and Social Commentary
Rise And Fall of The US/them Empire, The
Smashing Icons
Something You Might Want
Song in Your Blood, The
Spray
Stranger In Woodstock
Surfing Toasters
Survival of the Fit Enough/ Fern
Talking To Myself
Tangled
Uncle Jacques' Symphony
Underground Movement Theatre
Upper Canada Cougar Movement, The
Valentine's Play Time
Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars, The
Winterkill
Woods For The Trees
Zucchini: The Forbidden Dance!
CLEOPATRA! --AND ANTONY. (Being
the Singular Opening Night Performance of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra,
Starring the Infamous Lola Montez, Countess of Landsfeld)
ANNIE LORE/WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
EXCELSIOR THEATRICAL COMPANY
PENNGROVE, CA
120 MINUTES, INCLUDING INTERMISSION
PLAY-COMEDY (WITH LIVE INCIDENTAL MUSIC, AND A TOUCH OF CABARET)
CHILDREN OVER THE AGE OF 4 COULD ENJOY IT.
LOTS OF RUBBER SNAKES USED
VENUE: VENUE 9 - 252 NINTH STREET (BETWEEN FOLSOM & HOWARD)
For reservations call (707) 795-1686
In 1853, fire and food poisoning relocate and partially recast Gold-Rush "It" girl Lola Montez' San Francisco debut as the Bard's Cleopatra (with Royal Barge, Sinuous Forbidden Snake Dance and Battle of Actium!). An opulent full-scale Victorian production is squeezed onto a tiny stage, and new castmembers include the janitor, Lola's maid, and the producer's showgirl mistress, with Professor Scrumbly from the racy Bella Union replacing the orchestra, and a scenery-chewing, Lola-phobic Antony in full cry. Watch for the Arabian Bird!
VENUE: VENUE 9
SATURDAY 7 4:00 PM
SATURDAY 7 9:00 PM
FRIDAY 13 9:00 PM
SUNDAY 15 4:00 PM
$ 8
* Gifted comic dancer Jo Adell appears as Violet Oaks, Lola's meek personal
maid, who is thrust onstage in the wholly unanticipated role of second
handmaiden Iras. Jo's talents have also been displayed at the Dickens Fair
in
the recurring role of the durable title dancer of "The Wood-Nymph's
Call",
and as characters Venetia Oaks and Louise Weber (La Goulue of the Moulin
Rouge). Jo performed for years with Danse Macabre at the Renaissance Faire,
and has worked for some time as a figure model for numerous artists and
art instructors. She is also widely known as a jewelry designer under the
business name of "knotworking".
Jo trained and performed with the College of Marin Dance Company, and
was a member of The Sun Dancers Sacred Dance Theater. She was featured soloist
with the Sacred Dance Choir of Marin, and featured Dancer in the film "
'68 ". She has also been well known for 'freestyle hippie dance' with
various local bands in the '80s, most notably The Dinosaurs.
* Paul Harkness is a dynamic actor/singer with far-ranging skills. As semi-reformed con artist James Hazard (famous for the 'Learned Pig'), he brings an edgy intensity to his portrayal of Octavius Caesar, ally and then foe of both Antony and Cleopatra. A veteran of numerous Commedia Dell 'Arte troupes, including the Tutti Frutti Commedia Company and I Famiglia Bologna, he is also a long-time participant in the ever-popular murder mysteries produced by such companies as A Party to Intrigue and Sherlock Holmes Dinner Theater. At the Dickens Christmas Fair he made his mark as stage patriarch Vincent Crummles from Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby, and as the well-groomed Harry Lee in Helen, the Village Rosebud, while many Renaissance Faires featured him as Commedia's Dottore character. His training includes classes at Cal State Hayward and with Bay Area Theater Sports, Gordon Keller, and Jim Letchworth.
* Singer/composer/pianist Richard "Scrumbly" Koldewyn, who appears as a nineteenth-century version of himself in the show, was an original member of The Cockettes and wrote most of the music for their shows. He performed with and composed for The Distractions in the 80's, and for fifteen years with The Jesters Vocal Trio, with whom he has toured extensively in Europe. He has composed over 300 songs for approximately 25 original theatrical productions, most recently the Jesters' Singing Fools. As "Professor Scrumbly", he has been a pianist at most of the Dickens Fairs since the mid-1970s. He accompanied silent films for the Nickelodeon Show at UC Berkeley, the Castro Theater, the Telluride Film Festival 2001, and will do so this coming October in the Pordanone, Italy Silent film Festival. He composed the score for the feature length documentary The Cockettes, which played to acclaim at the Sundance, Berlin, and many more film festivals, and was released in May of this year. His next film score will be for the feature-length documentary Alaska Far Away.
* Director Annie Lore, who also plays Lola Montez, has been performing
since childhood, and had her professional start as a street entertainer
and as a singer at the original Renaissance Faire. She has costumed and
played historical and non-historical theme characters such as Lola, Lillian
Russell, the Pretty Good Fairy, the Living Christmas Tree and many others
at various events around California since the seventies. Her Lola was engaged
by the State of California to appear at the opening of the Golden State
Museum and at the Sesquicentennial Admission Day festivities. Quite a few
might know her as music-hall artiste Daisy Stiggins from Music Hall a la
Mode and the Dickens Christmas Fair, where she also wrote, directed and/or
appeared in such Victorian delights as the melodrama Helen, the Village
Rosebud, and the 'pastoral interlude' the Wood-Nymph's Call. She was director
of the Mock Turtle Theatrical Company and the New Excelsior Music Hall Company,
and performed with the Rubber Duck Company and the Royal Nonesuch. A Screen
Actors Guild member, she does occasional film and television work, and has
recorded a number of solo folk albums.
Adapting period theater for the modern audience is one of her special interests,
and the sets as well as most of the costumes and effects for Cleopatra!
--and Antony. were designed by her.
* Carol McCollum portrays San Francisco theater impresario Tom Maguire's fun-loving 'protegee', squeaky-voiced faux-French showgirl Mignonette La Monte, who makes the most of her unplanned debut as Cleopatra's handmaiden Charmian. Carol is also a performer, director, and costumer for the Stark Ravens Historical Players (www.starkravens.com), who presented their award-winning Alice in Wonderland (directed by her) to packed houses at last year's Fringe. She co-adapted Twelfth Night for the Ravens, also playing the charming Olivia in that show, and is alternating acting in Cleopatra! with honing the Ravens' new production of Love's Labours Lost. Carol has also performed with Hillbarn Theater in Foster City and Beddini Theater Project in San Francisco. She has directed and written Commedia Dell 'Arte for La Perduta and Famiglia Formaggio, troupes she helped found. She has also worked with the Vincent P. Crummles Theatrical Company at many Dickens Christmas Fairs, where she also taught Victorian ballroom dancing and appeared in the title role of Helen, the Village Rosebud. Her training includes work with the Jean Shelton Actors Lab and studying with Commedia artist Jim Letchworth.
* J. Paul Moore plays the insufferable Nathaniel J. Serapis, who is brought in as an unexpectedly Lolaphobic last-minute Mark Antony. J. Paul is a veteran of stage, screen, television, radio, nightclubs, and anyone else who would hire him. From his Army days as road manager with Special Services to his current appearance with Cleopatra! - and Antony. , he has made his living in the world of entertainment for over 40 years. He studied Theatre Arts at the Pasadena Playhouse and Los Angeles City College, where he was twice given the "Best Supporting Actor" award. Portraying a variety of theme characters over a 30-year involvement with the original Renaissance Pleasure Faire, his roles have included Robin Hood, Sir Francis Drake and The Lord Mayor. He created "Alfie, King of the Street Conjurors" at the earliest Dickens Christmas Fair and went on to be among the first of San Francisco's celebrated street performers circa 1970. Nowadays J. Paul makes his principal living as an internationally-known magician, appearing frequently in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand and the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood.
* Actor/comedian Andy Pettit brings his generous talents to the role of Bertram, the naïve man-mountain theater janitor who is suddenly called upon to represent all the soldiers, guards, messengers and other attendants in Cleopatra! - and Antony.'s beleaguered production. Andy is also a member of the Stark Ravens troupe, and has appeared onstage all over California, performing Commedia Dell 'Arte with La Perduta and Famiglia Formaggio at festivals and fairs. His White Rabbit and Dormouse were high points of the Ravens' Alice in Wonderland, and he was among the players of the Crummles troupe at the Dickens Fair, where he also appeared as the Large Butterfly in the Wood-Nymph's Call. He has played Lenny in Of Mice and Men for a local company in Novato and has done much musical theater for Walnut Creek's local stage scene. His training includes time at the Jean Shelton Actors Lab.
* Carl West is long-suffering actor-manager Lewis Baker, who is confronted with the Herculean task of opening a show -and taking it through to the final curtain- despite seemingly insurmountable difficulties, and must himself substitute for the play's Soothsayer. Among Carl's theater skills are set construction, sound engineering, lighting design, scriptwriting, directing and producing, some of which are brought to bear on Cleopatra! - and Antony. A seasoned character actor, he has performed in a number of comedies, including Arsenic and Old Lace, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the Importance of Being Ernest, and many more. He is in demand at various events statewide for his historical characterizations; his Emperor Norton is considered definitive, and he has portrayed William Techumsah Sherman and "Big Four" railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington, among others. Vistors to the Dickens Christmas Fair may have encountered him as Mr. Bumble from Oliver Twist, or as Father Time in Helen, the Village Rosebud. Also to his credit are numerous improvisational and scripted shows at the original Renaissance Pleasure Faire.