EARLY PLAYS


EARLY PLAYS - piano track with portraits

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The Wooster Group invited Richard Maxwell of New York City Players to direct Eugene O'Neill's early "Glencairn" plays—Bound East for Cardiff (1914), The Long Voyage Home (1917), and The Moon of the Caribbees (1918). Our production, EARLY PLAYS, takes O'Neill's tales of sailors on and off the ocean and explores themes of longing and eternity. Dark episodes showing the underside of turn-of-the-century maritime life—brawls, dances, and carousing—are threaded together with haunting melodies composed by Maxwell. The EARLY PLAYS company includes performers and technical artists from The Wooster Group and New York City Players.


Production Credits

EARLY PLAYS
based on the Glencairn Plays by Eugene O'Neill

Moon of the Caribbees
Driscoll: Ari Fliakos
Smitty: Kevin Hurley
Cocky: Keith Connolly
Big Frank/Paul/Lamps: Jim Fletcher
Yank: Brian Mendes
Davis: Andrew Schneider
Olson/Max: Bobby McElver
Paddy/Chips: Lakpa Bhutia
The Donkeyman: Alex Delinois
Bella: Kate Valk
Pearl: Kaneza Schaal (2012), Victoria Vazquez (2013)
The First Mate: Enver Chakartash

Bound East for Cardiff
Yank: Brian Mendes
Driscoll: Ari Fliakos
Cocky: Keith Connolly
Davis: Andrew Schneider
Scotty: Lakpa Bhutia
Olson/Paul: Bobby McElver
Smitty: Kevin Hurley
Ivan: Jim Fletcher
The Captain: Enver Chakartash
The Mate: Alex Delinois

The Long Voyage Home
Fat Joe: Jim Fletcher
Nick: Kevin Hurley
Mag/Kate: Kate Valk
Driscoll: Ari Fliakos
Olson: Bobby McElver
Cocky: Keith Connolly
Ivan: Lakpa Bhutia
Freda: Kaneza Schaal (2012), Victoria Vazquez )2013)
One of the Roughs: Enver Chakartash
The Rough: Alex Delinois

Director: Richard Maxwell
Set: Jim Clayburgh, Elizabeth LeCompte
Additional Set Elements, Production Manager, Sound Board Operator: Bozkurt Karasu
Lighting: Aron Deyo (2012), Michael McGee (2012), Jeff Englander (2013)
Projections: Andrew Schneider
Sound: Bobby McElver
Costumes: Enver Chakartash
Stage Manager: Teresa Hartmann
Assistant Director: Nicholas Elliott
Technical Director: Bill Kennedy
Musicians: Bobby McElver, Brian Mendes, Andrew Schneider
Production Staff for The Wooster Group: Sandra Garner, Cynthia Hedstrom, Jason Gray Platt, Jamie Poskin
Video Blog: Zbigniew Bzymek

Songs by Richard Maxwell
Produced by The Wooster Group

EARLY PLAYS is made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Pilot, with lead funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

For Jim Strahs


Production History

2011 February: EARLY PLAYS rehearsals at Baryshnikov Arts Center
2011 June-July: EARLY PLAYS rehearsals at The Performing Garage
2011 July 8: EARLY PLAYS work-in-progress showing at The Performing Garage
2012 January: EARLY PLAYS rehearsals at The Performing Garage
2012 February: EARLY PLAYS rehearsals at St. Ann's Warehouse
2012 Feburary 15-March 11: EARLY PLAYS performances at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY
2013 February 14-16: EARLY PLAYS performances at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California
2013 February 21-24: EARLY PLAYS performances at Roy and Edna Disney/Calarts Theater (REDCAT), Los Angeles, California


Articles & Reviews

"Role Reversal: From Intern to Director" in The New York Times (February 16, 2012)
Ben Brantley review in The New York Times (February 22, 2012)
Scott Brown review in New York Magazine (February 24, 2012)
Andy Horwitz review in Culturebot (February 25, 2012)
Hilton Als review in The New Yorker (March 5, 2012)
Hilton Als' 2012 year-in-review for The New Yorker (December 31, 2012)
Charles McNulty review in the Los Angeles Times (February 23, 2013)