 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Join Our E-mail List
Receive backstage info and offers via e-mail by creating an account at yalerep.org
About Notes from Underground
a note from the artistic director
Welcome to Yale Rep’s world premiere of Notes from Underground!
I am delighted to introduce New Haven audiences to the work of the celebrated director Robert Woodruff, one of America’s most distinguished and daring theatre artists; and to welcome back OBIE Award winner Bill Camp, who appeared in the Yale Rep productions of Troilus and Cressida (1990) and Le Bourgeois Avant-Garde (1995). Robert and Bill have worked together as director and actor in the past, but this production adds a unique layer to their longtime artistic collaboration, as co-authors of this new play adapted from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s groundbreaking 1864 novel.
Considered by many scholars to be the first existential novel, Notes from Underground introduced an archetypal figure who has manifested himself in the literature of every generation since: the antihero. To watch a gifted actor, director, and creative team working in rehearsal to bring this character to life for a contemporary audience in a theatrical idiom that confronts the way we live now—while honoring the bravery and compassion of the original author—has been one of the most intriguing artistic adventures I have witnessed here at Yale Rep, and I am proud to share the company’s magnificent work with you.
Notes from Underground is the first commissioned play to premiere at Yale Rep under the auspices of the Yale Center for New Theatre, established by a major grant from the Robina Foundation to underwrite the commissioning, development and production of new plays and musicals. The Center both sustains artists writing for the American stage and expands on Yale’s leadership role in new play production: to me, Yale Rep’s artistic history is most vividly defined by the more than 100 world, US, and regional premieres presented here.
Guided by Associate Artistic Director Jennifer Kiger and Literary Manager Amy Boratko, the Center has commissioned writers such as Octavio Solis, author of this season’s Lydia; award-winning playwright Naomi Iizuka; David Adjmi, whose play, The Evildoers, premiered at Yale Rep last season; 2009 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist Elizabeth Meriwether; Marcus Gardley, Amy Herzog, and Kate Walat, all recent graduates of Yale School of Drama; and OBIE Award winner Adam Bock, who is collaborating with composer Todd Almond on a new musical based on Shirley Jackson’s novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle. These writers are thrillingly accomplished and full of promise. We look forward to sharing their work with you, even as we strive to endow the Center permanently, to ensure that Yale Rep will remain a wellspring of important new plays for generations to come.
Thank you for joining us for this performance. As always, I look forward to hearing what you think: james.bundy@yale.edu is my e-mail address. Also, if you haven’t yet shared your e-mail address with us, please do so at yalerep.org—we will soon be sharing video clips of productions at Yale Rep with you online, and the more we can communicate with you electronically, the greener all our lives will be.
Last, please tell someone you know that Notes from Underground is playing here at Yale Rep through April 11 only. Thank you for sharing the experience!
Sincerely,
James Bundy
Artistic Director
