The Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego is pleased to present Timberlake Wertenbaker’s The Love of the Nightingale. MFA directing student Lori Petermann leads a company of actors, designers, and stage managers drawn from the nationally acclaimed UCSD Graduate Theatre Training Program.

Noted as one of the most linguistically adept and thematically provocative playwrights of contemporary theatre, Timberlake Wertenbaker, celebrated for her multi-award winning play Our Country's Good, turns her talent to a Greek myth. As a London critic describes The Love of the Nightingale, "With wit, economy, and a powerful theatricality she offers us a rich retelling of the Philomele story. Her play passionately demonstrates the violence that stems from enforced silence . . ." The core of the story concerns Tereus, King of Thrace, who marries Procne, daughter of the King of Athens. Procne pines in her Thracian exile and sends for her beloved sister, Philomele. Tereus goes to Athens to escort Philomele to Thrace. In route he rapes her and when she threatens to talk, he cuts out her tongue. What follows is a cycle of retribution that unfolds with devastating vitality. Another critic describes The Love of the Nightingale as "...that rare thing, a compelling piece of theatre which may indeed rivet you to your seat . . . a raw piece of myth making for a violated age."

Director and Mask Maker Lori Petermann is a second-year MFA student at UCSD, where she’s directed Water Street (Baldwin New Play Festival 2006), Assistant Directed Moliere: A Cabal of Hypocrites and Arms and the Man.  Her New York City credits include: Sleepless Somniloquy (BAM Park), The Intoxicating Accelerating Death Machine (Theater for a New City), Inhale / Exile (Sacred Circle Theater) Righteous Acts Like Filthy Rags (Lincoln Center/ HERE), Green Eyes Dreaming (Lincoln Center/ HERE), The Tram (78th Street Theater), Dreamscape Machinal (The Loewe), Bed Manners (The Loewe), 1968 (78th Street Theater); and in LA: Mud (The Black Box), Ladies and Rain (The Black Box), SEARCHING (The White Gallery), The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria (The Black Box), Circus People (The Black Box).  Lori is an Artistic Associate of Theater Mitu and a member of Lincoln Center Directors Lab.

The Love of the Nightingale features the talented actors of the UCSD Graduate Theatre Training Program, including Dorian Christian Baucum, Walter Michael Belenky, Scott Drummond, Liz Elkins, Liz Jenkins, Rebecca Kaasa, Matthew Rufio Lerma, Ryan Shams, and Hilary Ward. The Love of the Nightingale also showcases the creative work of the UCSD Graduate Theatre Training Program design and management students, including: Scenic Designer Caleb Levengood; Costume Designer Michelle Hunt; Lighting Designer Tom Ontiveros; Sound Designer Toby Algya; and Production Stage Manager Jami Talbott. 

Full Cast

Dorian Christian Baucum
Walter Michael Belenky
Scott Drummond
Liz Elkins
Liz Jenkins
Rebecca Kaasa
Rufio Lerma
Ryan Shams
Hilary Ward

 

Creative Team

Director: Lori Petermann
Scenic Designer: Caleb Levengood
Lighting Designer: Tom Ontiveros
Costume Designer: Michelle Hunt
Sound Designer: Toby Algya
Production Stage Manager: Jami Talbott

 

Production Photos (taken by Manuel Rotenberg)

Tickets

Tickets can be purchased at the door (if available) or in advance by calling the Box Office at 858.534.4574, M–F Noon to 6pm.

General Admission $15

UCSD Affiliate/Senior (over 62) $12

Student/UCSD Alumni Association (with ID) $10  

Performances

Thursday, November 2nd, 7 pm reduced-price preview ($10/$8/$6)
Friday, November 3rd, 8 pm opens
Saturday, November 4th, 2 pm matinee
Saturday, November 4th, 8 pm

Thursday, November 9th, 8 pm
Friday, November 10th, 8 pm
Saturday, November 11th, 8 pm closes

Location

Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre, UCSD Theatre District
Map: /places/parking.html

Parking

Week-night parking on campus is $3.00 (including Friday).  A parking pass may be purchased from the attendant on duty in front of the UCSD Theatre District/La Jolla Playhouse one hour before show time. No parking pass is required on Saturday and Sunday.

About UCSD Theatre & Dance Department

The 2005–2006 Season will be presented in the UCSD Theatre District -– a multi-theatre complex shared with the Tony Award winning La Jolla Playhouse -- that includes the Mandell Weiss Center for the Performing Arts’ 500-seat Mandell Weiss Theatre, 400-seat Mandell Weiss Forum, and the 100-seat Mandell Weiss Forum Studio, as well as the new Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for the La Jolla Playhouse, which houses administrative offices of the La Jolla Playhouse, shared rehearsal rooms, classrooms, shop space, a restaurant, cabaret, and a flexible 250-400 seat black box theatre named for donors Sheila and Hughes Potiker. Additional performance space utilized primarily during the Baldwin New Play Festival at UCSD includes 157 Galbraith Theatre -- whose grand opening was presided over by internationally acclaimed playwright Athol Fugard in 2001 – and the Molli and Arthur Wagner Dance Building’s Studio #3.

For over 30 years our Department has been producing ambitious and challenging theatre for the San Diego Community and training the theatre and dance professionals of tomorrow. Partnering with La Jolla Playhouse in our commitment to highly professional theatre training, each of our MFA students in the theatre program are guaranteed at least one paid professional residency in a play presented by La Jolla Playhouse. The UCSD Department of Theatre and Dance professional theatre-training program is currently ranked third in the nation (US News and World Report). This year also marks the seventh year of the PhD in theatre history and dramatic literature that combines the faculty and resources of UCSD’s Department of Theatre & Dance in an innovative joint program with UC Irvine’s Department of Drama. Our almost 500 alumni currently work professionally in all areas of the professional theatre and in television, film, and animation.

The graduate program of the Department of Theatre and Dance offers three-year Master of Fine Arts degrees in Acting, Design, Directing, Playwriting, and Stage Management, as well as a PhD in Theatre in collaboration with UC-Irvine. UCSD Theatre and Dance is in the process of launching a new innovative graduate program in Sound Design beginning in 2006-07 that will complement the existing Scenic, Costume and Lighting Design Programs. In addition to our MFA and PhD programs, UCSD boasts a large undergraduate program with majors leading to Bachelor of Arts degrees in both Theatre and Dance.

For more information about the UCSD Department of Theatre and Dance, please visit our website: http://theatre.ucsd.edu

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