Recipient of the
2012 American Theatre Wing
National Theatre Company Award

A cryptic look at a marriage as only Harold Pinter can create. Deeley and Kate are preparing for a visit from Anna, Kate’s old roommate and only friend. When Anna arrives, layers of relationships are peeled back one by one, revealing an enigmatic web of connections and history between these three people. Is it a dream, a memory, or a complete and coherent narrative?

About the poster

Old Times is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

Avis Judd (Kate) and Joseph McGrath (Deeley)

Laura Lippman (Anna) and Joseph McGrath (Deeley)

Photos by Tim Fuller

 

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Rogue After Curfew
The Now Theatre presents Eugène Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano

Thursdays through Sundays, February 24–March 12, 2011 following performances of Old Times, 10:30 P.M. Thursdays through Saturdays, 7:30 P.M. Sundays. No performance Sunday, March 13. Full information about The Bald Soprano The Bald Soprano is not part of The Rogue Theatre’s season ticket package.

 

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Make your reservations now for a spectacular meal before the performance at

533 N. 4th Avenue
Two blocks from The Rogue Theatre

On Opening Night, Friday, February 25,
Delectables will feature a special “Rogue menu.”
Plus, Rogue Season Ticket Holders receive 20% off their meal
before any performance of Old Times!

To make a reservation, call 520-884-9289
For more information, visit www.delectables.com or Delectables’ Facebook page, Delectables On Fourth

 

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In Rehearsal at The Rogue

As part of The Rogue Theatre’s continuing commitment to foster a dialogue with our audience about the challenging, provocative and complex ideas behind quality dramatic language and literature, Dr. Carrie J. Cole, our season dramaturg, has prepared background resource material to introduce our theatregoers to Harold Pinter and his work. Topics include:

The Playwright and the Play
Silence and the Pinter Pause
A “Pinteresque” Menace
Poilitics and Plays
Further Resources

The document can be downloaded here.
The file is viewable in Adobe Reader, downloadable here.

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Press

Pause, like Pinter, to decipher Old Times

Review of Old Times by Kathleen Allen in the March 4 Arizona Daily Star

Poetic Production
The Rogue Theatre does justice to Harold Pinter’s puzzling Old Times

Review of Old Times by Sherilyn Forrester in the March 3 Tucson Weekly

Pinter’s Old Times a Sisyphean search for truth
Classic example of Theatre of the Absurd

Review of Old Times by Dave Irwin posted March 2 on TucsonSentinel.com

Pinter’s mind games fill Old Times

Review of Old Times by Chuck Graham on February 27 in Let The Show Begin! at TucsonStage.com

Of memories and mysteries

Preview of Old Times by Kathleen Allen in the February 18 Arizona Daily Star

 

Direction

	Cynthia Meier (Director) is the Managing and Associate Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre for which she has adapted and directed James Joyce’s The Dead, directed The Tempest, Nāga Mandala, The Four of Us, Othello, Animal Farm, Orlando, Happy Days, The Good Woman of Setzuan, The Fever and The Cherry Orchard, and performed in many of the productions including The Goat for which she received the Arizona Daily Star’s 2008 Mac Award for Best Actress. Cynthia has also performed in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Arizona Repertory Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (Arizona Theatre Company), Blithe Spirit and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Michigan Repertory Theatre), Romeo & Juliet and Chicago Milagro (Borderlands Theatre), A Namib Spring (1999 National Play Award winner), and Smirnova’s Birthday, The Midnight Caller, and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (Tucson Art Theatre). Cynthia teaches Speech at Pima Community College and holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of Arizona.

Director’s Notes

When we decided to produce Old Times, we told a friend, Marco Barricelli, who had worked on the play before, about our choice. He gave a knowing smile and said, “Whatever you think about it, you’re right.” As we’ve wrestled with this mysterious play, we’ve found Marco’s words comforting. Pinter layers memory upon memory, each version correcting or corrupting the last. Is it all a dream? Are some of the characters imaginary? Are they all Kate? We are left with a mosaic of what may have happened with these three characters, twenty years ago.

Early in the rehearsal process we watched the film described in the play—Odd Man Out—which, incidentally, is well worth seeing. The film is part of the noir genre and offers a convoluted tale of several disparate people affected by a single incident. In every threesome, there is inevitably an “odd man out.” Deeley and Kate and Anna alternate that position, as they each attempt to tell their side of the story. Perhaps the meetings between Deely and Kate and Anna did happen, perhaps they didn’t. In any case, each one has been affected by the others.

Let me encourage you not to try too hard to figure out what “really” happened. Part of Pinter’s point is, I think, that there is no single history, but various versions of the truth. Truth is never fixed. Whatever you think about it, you’re right.

—Cynthia Meier, Director of Old Times
director@theroguetheatre.org

 

Avis Judd (Kate) and Joseph McGrath (Deeley)

Photo by Tim Fuller

 

Program Order Preshow Music Three works by Ástor Piazzolla: Primavera Portena Triston from Cinco Piezas Oblivion
Night (A Duologue)
Old Times, Act I
10-Minute Intermission
Old Times, Act II
5-Minute Break
Post-show discussion with the cast and director

Performance run time is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, not including music preshow or post-show discussion.

Cast of Night
Man		Joseph McGrath*
Woman		Cynthia Meier
Cast of Old Times
Kate		Avis Judd
Anna		Laura Lippman
Deeley		Joseph McGrath*
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States, appearing under a Special Appearance Contract

Cast Biographies

	Avis Judd (Kate) has previously performed with The Rogue Theatre in Naga Mandala, Animal Farm, The Good Woman of Setzuan, as Dunyasha in The Cherry Orchard, as Sasha in Orlando, as Beatrice in Immortal Longings, as Julia in A Delicate Balance and as Desdemona in Othello. She received her theatre degree from Northwestern University. Other favorite roles include Olga in The Three Sisters, Faith in Invisible Theatre’s production of Kindertransport, Emilia in Othello, and the title role in a one woman show, which she adapted and directed, about Bahá’í heroine Martha Root.
Laura Lippman (Anna) was Assistant Director for The Rogue Theatre’s production of A Delicate Balance last season, and she recently directed Blackbird at Beowulf Alley Theatre, which earned her the 2010 Arizona Daily Star Mac Award for Best Director of a Drama. Select acting credits include Annie in All My Sons, Phebe in As You Like It, Lady MacDuff in Macbeth, Flo in Dorothy Parker’s Big Blonde plus countless new plays and devised theater projects. Laura teaches introductory acting at UA. She received her undergraduate theater training at Bennington College and the Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, Wales. She earned her MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University.
	Joseph McGrath (Deeley) is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama and is the Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre for which he has performed in many of its plays. Joe was most recently seen as Caliban in The Tempest, Pastor Manders in Ghosts, The Man/Naga in Naga Mandala, and Iago in Othello. In 2009, Joe won the Arizona Daily Star Mac Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Tobias in A Delicate Balance. Joe also authored and directed Immortal Longings for The Rogue and has directed The Balcony, Endymion, The Maids (winner of the Arizona Daily Star 2007 Mac Award for Best Play), Red Noses and Our Town. He has toured with John Houseman’s Acting Company, performed with the Utah Shakespearean Festival, and he is a frequent performer with Ballet Tucson appearing in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Cinderella, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dracula and The Nutcracker. He has also performed with Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Opera, Tucson Art Theatre, and Arizona OnStage.

Music Director’s Notes

Ástor Piazzolla, iconoclastic tango musician and composer, has become a national hero in Argentina and a cult figure for classical and jazz lovers worldwide. He revolutionized tango—hearing in the music possibilities that others couldn’t imagine. He dared to compose tangos that were not for dancing, tangos of such melodic and rhythmic complexity that both worlds, classical and popular, would ultimately claim him as their own.

Born in 1921 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Piazzolla’s family soon relocated to New York City, where at the age of eight, his father gave him his first bandoneón, a type of concertina. At 17, he moved to Buenos Aires where he realized his dream of playing bandoneón with one of the greatest tango orchestras of that time; the Aníbal Troilo orchestra. In 1946 he formed his first orchestra and composed El Desbande, considered by Piazzolla as his first formal tango, and shortly thereafter he began to compose musical scores for movies.

By 1949 he had grown discontent and decided to part with the bandoneón and nearly abandon tango altogether. He studied Bartok and Stravinsky, orchestra conducting and jazz. Between 1950 and 1954 he composed a series of works, clearly different from the conception of tango at the time. In 1953 he presented the work Buenos Aires (three symphonic pieces) for the Fabien Sevitzky competition. Piazzolla won the first prize and a scholarship to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, considered the best music educator in the world at the time. At first, Piazzolla tried to hide his tanguero past, thinking his destiny was in classical music. But when he played his tango Triunfal for Boulanger, he received a historic recommendation: “Ástor, your classical pieces are well written, but the true Piazzolla is here, never leave it behind.”

After this episode, Piazzolla returned to tango and the bandoneón. What was once a choice between “sophisticated” music and tango became a conscious decision to combine the two genres. Blending the structure of sophisticated music with the passion of the tango, Piazzolla created an opus of more than 1000 works. His characteristic sound continues to influence musicians such as Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo-Ma, and numerous chamber music and symphonic orchestras. With elements of jazz, classical music, and the drastic pulse of tango he created a musical language which is his and only his. His music provides a perfect door through which to enter the unique world of Pinter’s play, Old Times.

—Dawn C. Sellers, Music Director of Old Times

Musicians
Piano		Dawn Sellers
Violin		Tim Blevins
Cello		James Beauchamp

Musician Biographies

	Dawn C. Sellers (Music Director, Pianist) performed in The Rogue’s production of Our Town, was Assistant Director for Naga Mandala, Assistant Director and pianist for Ghosts, and Music Director for The Tempest. Dawn was a pianist, composer and educator prior to receiving an MFA in dramatic writing from Carnegie Mellon University. She has composed music for Off-Broadway and is published by Hal Leonard, Alfred and Kjos Music Publishers. In Tucson, her plays have been produced by This Side Up Productions, Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, Live Theatre Workshop, and Live Theatre Workshop’s Etcetera series, as well as The Arizona Women’s Theatre. She is also listed on nytheatre.com, which features emerging women playwrights.
Tim Blevins (Violinist) took up the violin at age seven. He has studied with members of the Phoenix Symphony and passed through the Suzuki program. Now, as a senior at the University of Arizona, Tim studies Violin Performance with Prof. Mark Rush. In high school Tim was Concert Master of his local orchestra and the Northwest Regional Festival Orchestra. He also played with three Arizona All-State Orchestras. Having played with street bands, jazz bands, hip-hop groups and rock bands, Tim has developed a strong interest in non-classical idioms. After college Tim hopes to forge a career synthesizing classical and non-classical styles, incorporating classical technique and precision into more flexible pop structures.
	James Beauchamp (Cellist) was raised in Denton, Texas where he studied at The University of North Texas and won many soloist awards including the Denton Bach Society Young Artist competition and the Lewisville Lake Symphony Solo Competition, and he was a finalist in the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition. In Houston, he studied with cellist Vagram Saradjian at The University of Houston, sat principle cello in the Greater Houston Youth Orchestra and sat fourth chair in the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Since coming to Tucson, he has been a member of the Tucson Philharmonia Youth Orchestra. At eighteen years of age, James currently studies with MaryBeth Tyndall, the Principle cellist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, until he moves to Calgary, Alberta later this year to continue his studies with cellist Beth Root Sandvoss at the University of Calgary.

Joseph McGrath (Deeley), Laura Lippman (Anna) and Avis Judd (Kate)

Photo by Tim Fuller

 

Designers
Costume Design		Cynthia Meier
Music Director		Dawn Sellers
Lighting Design		Clint Bryson
Scenic Design		Joseph McGrath
Production Staff
Stage Manager		Nic Adams
Assistant Stage Manager		James Robert Giza
Dramaturg		Carrie J. Cole
House Manager		Susan Collinet
Box Office Manager		Thomas Wentzel
Box Office Assistant		Anna Swenson
Snack Bar Manager		Leigh Moyer
Snack Bar Assistant		Shannon Macke
Poster and Program		Thomas Wentzel

	Clint Bryson (Lighting Designer) has designed lights for nearly every Rogue Theatre production. Other lighting design credits include As Bees in Honey Drown and Golf Game for Borderlands, Woman in Black for Beowulf Alley, and The Seagull for Tucson Art Theatre. Clint is currently the Shop Foreman, Production Technical Director and Marketing Director for Catalina Foothills Theatre Department where he designs and coordinates the construction of all scenery. He is also a member of Rhino Staging Services, and a regular participant in Arizona Theatre Company’s Summer on Stage program where he designs and builds the scenery as well as teaches production classes.
Nic Adams (Stage Manager) has worked with The Rogue Theatre, both onstage and off, on its productions of The Tempest, Ghosts, Nāga Mandala, Othello, Krapp’s Last Tape, Not I, Act Without Words, Orlando and Six Characters in Search of an Author. Nic has appeared with the Now Theatre in Overruled, This Property is Condemned and The Zoo Story , all “Rogue After Curfew” productions. A theatre student at the University of Arizona, Nic performed in productions of Titus Andronicus and Candide.
	James Robert Giza (Assistant Stage Manager) appeared as the Mariner in The Rogue’s production of The Tempest, for which he was also Assistant Stage Manager. He studies acting locally with Philip G. Bennett at the Bennett TheatreLab. He received his training in assistant stage management at the Juilliard School, where he worked as a production assistant through the school’s Professional Intern Program.
Carrie J. Cole (Dramaturg) first collaborated with The Rogue Theatre as fight director for last season’s Othello, and has joined The Rogue as dramaturg for the 2010-2011 season. She appeared as Iris in this season’s The Tempest. Carrie has previously been seen on Tucson stages playing Rosalind in As You Like It, Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Alais in A Lion in Winter. An assistant professor in the UA’s School of Theatre, Film, & Television, Carrie oversees the BFA Dramaturgy Program, and serves as Resident Dramaturg for Arizona Repertory Theatre. She is currently working with the Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET) as a respondent to their MicroFests in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
	Susan Collinet (House Manager) received her A.A. Degree from Pima Community College in 2005, and her B.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Arizona in 2008. Before returning to college as a non-traditional student, Susan spent twenty years in amateur theater, mostly on the East coast, as well as in the American Theater of Brussels and the Theatre de Chenois of Waterloo, Belgium. She has worked in such positions as volunteer bi-lingual guide in the Children’s Museum of Brussels, Bursar of a Naturopathic Medical school in Tempe, Arizona, and volunteer assistant Director of Development of the Arizona Aids Project in Phoenix. Susan is currently peddling a manuscript of poetry for publication and continually working on collections of creative nonfiction and fiction. Her writing has won awards from Sandscript Magazine, the John Hearst Poetry Contest, and the Salem College for Women’s Center for Writing, and has been published in the 2010 Norton Anthology of Student’s Writing. In addition to being House Manager, Susan acts as Volunteer Coordinator for The Rogue.

 

Our Thanks
Arizona Daily Star		Tim Fuller
Tucson Weekly		Brad Kula
Shawn Burke		Jesse Greenberg
Chuck Graham		Ann Hasselmo
Patrick Baliani

 

Avis Judd (Kate), Laura Lippman (Anna) and Joseph McGrath (Deeley)

Photo by Tim Fuller

 

Performance Schedule for Old Times

Location: The Rogue Theatre at The Historic Y, 300 East University Boulevard
Free off-street parking! Click here to see map and parking information.

Performance run time is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, not including music preshow or post-show discussion. There will be one 10-minute intermission.

Thursday February 24, 2011, 7:30 pm PREVIEW
Friday February 25, 2011, 7:30 pm OPENING NIGHT
Saturday February 26, 2011, 7:30 pm
Sunday February 27, 2011, 2:00 pm matinee

Thursday March 3, 2011, 7:30 pm, PAY-WHAT-YOU-WILL
Friday March 4, 2011, 7:30 pm
Saturday March 5, 2011, 7:30 pm
Sunday March 6, 2011, 2:00 pm matinee

Thursday March 10, 2011, 7:30 pm, PAY-WHAT-YOU-WILL
Friday March 11, 2011, 7:30 pm
Saturday March 12, 2011, 7:30 pm
Sunday March 13, 2011, 2:00 pm matinee

 

 

Joseph McGrath (Deeley), Laura Lippman (Anna) and Avis Judd (Kate)

Photo by Tim Fuller