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The Caucasian Chalk Circle

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Grusha, a kitchen maid, rescues the governor’s child, who has been deserted during an uprising. Escaping to the countryside, Grusha cares for the child as her own. When the government is restored, the birth mother returns to claim her son. Azdak, a wildly dissolute but humane judge, devises a test to determine the child’s custody.

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Credits

Creative team

By

Bertolt Brecht

Translated by

Ralph Manheim

Directed by

Slobodan Unkovski

Directed by

Slobodan Unkovski

Macedonian director Slobodan Unkovski (The Winter's Tale) returns after an absence of ten years, having directed the A.R.T.'s production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. His most recent work includes Molière's The Misanthrope at the Slovenian National Theatre in Ljubljana and the Macedonian premiere of Patrick Marber's Closer, as well as numerous other productions in Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Belgium, Russia, Great Britain, and Macedonia. His production of Dejan Dukovski's Powder Keg opened the Biennale in Bonn, Germany; and his other work was seen at festivals in France, Germany, Venezuela, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, and Italy, and he received a number of national and international awards for Best Production and Best Director. Mr. Unkovski served as Minister of Culture of Macedonia from 1996-1998, was a visiting Fulbright Scholar at the City University of New York and a visiting professor at the A.R.T./MXAT Institute, and is currently of Skopje in Macedonia.

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Set design by

Meta Hocevar

Set design by

Meta Hocevar

Slovenian designer and director Meta Hocevar (The Winter's Tale) previously collaborated with Slobodan Unkovski at the American Repertory Theater on The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and has designed numerous of his productions including, most recently, The Misanthrope. She was trained as an architect, but has spent her career in theater design.  She has created productions for theatres in Sarajevo, Skopje, Zagreb, Belgrade, and Dubrovnik, as well as abroad in Germany, Russia, and Austria, where she recently created Euripides's Trojans for the Vienna Volkstheater. She directed Dusan Jovanovic's Antigona; Visit, an adaptation of Yukio Mishima's Hanjo; and Family Album, a paraphrase of Ibsen's The Wild Duck, for the Vienna Festival. Ms. Hocevar is dean of the Academy of Theatre and Film in Ljubljana.

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Costume design by

Catherine Zuber

Costume design by

Catherine Zuber

Catherine Zuber has created the costumes for Richard II, The Doctor's Dilemma, and over forty other A.R.T. productions including Three Farces and a Funeral, Antigone, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, Phaedra, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Imaginary Invalid, The Taming of the Shrew, Peter Pan and Wendy, The Bacchae, Man and Superman, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Woyzeck, The Wild Duck, The Naked Eye, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Tartuffe, Ubu Rock, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Shlemiel the First, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, A Touch of the Poet, What the Butler Saw, The Cherry Orchard, and Orphée. Ms. Zuber's credits include work at Lincoln Center, The Joseph Papp Public Theater, Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera, among others. Her Broadway credits include The Triumph of Love (Connecticut Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk nomination), Ivanov (Drama Desk nomination), The Sound of Music, Twelfth Night, The Red Shoes, London Assurance, The Rose Tattoo, and Philadelphia Here I Come. Ms. Zuber was the recipient of the 1997 Obie Award for sustained achievement in design. She is the costume designer for La Fête des Vignerons de 1999, the massive Festival of the Winegrowers in Vevey, Switzerland.

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Lighting design by

Richard Riddell

Sound design by

Maribeth Back

Music composed by

Mel Marvin

Cast

Arkadi Cheidze

Thomas Derrah

Arkadi Cheidze

Thomas Derrah

A.R.T.: 119 productions, including R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Myster) OF THE UNIVERSE (R. Buckminster Fuller), Cabaret (Fraulein Schneider), Endgame (Clov), The Seagull (Dorn), Oliver Twist (also at Theatre for a New Audience and Berkeley Repertory Theatre), The Birthday Party (Stanley), Highway Ulysses (Ulysses), Uncle Vanya (Vanya), Marat/Sade (Marquis de Sade), Richard II (Richard). Broadway: Jackie: An American Life (23 roles). Off-Broadway: Johan Padan (Johan), Big Time (Ted).  Tours with the Company across the U.S., with residencies in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and throughout Europe, Canada, Israel, Taiwan, Japan and Moscow, and has recently been performing Julius Caesar in France. Other: I Am My Own Wife, Boston TheatreWorks; Approaching Moomtaj, New Repertory Theatre; Twelfth Night and The Tempest, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co.; London’s Battersea Arts Center; five productions at Houston’s Alley Theatre, including Our Town (Dr. Gibbs, directed by José Quintero); and many theatres throughout the U.S. Awards: 1994 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, 2000 and 2004 IRNE Awards for Best Actor, 1997 Los Angeles DramaLogue Award (for title role of Shlemiel the First). Television: Julie Taymor’s film Fool’s Fire (PBS American Playhouse), "Unsolved Mysteries," "Del and Alex" (Alex, A&E Network). Film: Mystic River (directed by Clint Eastwood), The Pink Panther II. He is on the faculty of the A.R.T. Institute, teaches acting at Harvard University and Emerson College, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

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Natella Abashvili/Peasant Wife/Mother-in-Law

Candy Buckley

Natella Abashvili/Peasant Wife/Mother-in-Law

Candy Buckley

Governor Abashvili/Yussup/Shauva

Gustave Johnson

Governor Abashvili/Yussup/Shauva

Gustave Johnson

Remo Airaldi

Prince Kazbeki/Corporal/Brother Anastasius

Remo Airaldi

Remo Airaldi

Prince Kazbeki/Corporal/Brother Anastasius

Remo Airaldi

A.R.T.: The Lily’s Revenge, Cabaret, Paradise Lost, Endgame, The Seagull, Oliver Twist, Island of Slaves, The Onion Cellar, The Communist Dracula Pageant, Cardenio, Julius Caesar, Amerika, The Miser, Henry IV and V, The Birthday Party, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Dispute, Uncle Vanya, Enrico IV, The Winter’s Tale, The Wild Duck, Buried Child, Tartuffe, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Waiting for Godot. Regional: Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company; Sweeney Todd, My Fair Lady, Lyric Stage Company; Boston Playwrights’ Theatre; The Poets’ Theater; Israeli Stage; Central Square Theater; New Repertory Theater; Hartford Stage.

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Shalva/Ironshirt II/Kulak III

Matthew Sheehan

Shalva/Ironshirt II/Kulak III

Matthew Sheehan

Mikha Loladze/Peddler/Bizergan Kazbeki/Lawyer I

Robert Stanton

Mikha Loladze/Peddler/Bizergan Kazbeki/Lawyer I

Robert Stanton

Niko Mikadze/Peddler/Fugitive/Invalid/Kulak II/Old Man/Lawyer II

Steven Zahn

Niko Mikadze/Peddler/Fugitive/Invalid/Kulak II/Old Man/Lawyer II

Steven Zahn

The Rider/Old Man/Sosso/Drunk Peasant/Lame Man/Kulak I

Kevin Cole Costin

The Rider/Old Man/Sosso/Drunk Peasant/Lame Man/Kulak I

Kevin Cole Costin

Mr. Costin is the first alumnus of the A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University to join the board. He is the Executive Director of Counseling Service of the Eastern District of New York (CSEDNY), a New York State-licensed mental health and substance abuse treatment agency with multiple sites in New York City and Long Island. With Diane Paulus, Mr. Costin initiated A.R.T. In NYC, a group of arts-lovers and friends supporting works originally produced or developed at the A.R.T. in Cambridge which have gone on to play in New York including Sleep No More, The Glass Menagerie, and the Tony-award winning productions of Once, Pippin, and The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. He has also been active with other non-profits- as Executive Director of ComALERT and on boards including New York City Anti-Violence Project, CorbinDances, and The Workplace Center at Columbia University School of Social Work. Mr. Costin is a graduate of Harvard College and holds a MSW degree from Columbia University. 

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Maro Peddler

Nicolette Vajtay

Maro Peddler

Nicolette Vajtay

Masha/Aniko

Donna LaBrecque

Masha/Aniko

Donna LaBrecque

Zulika/Ludovika

Joy Ehrlich

Zulika/Ludovika

Joy Ehrlich

Nina/Old Woman

Deborah Lewin

Nina/Old Woman

Deborah Lewin

Grusha

Cherry Jones

Grusha

Cherry Jones

A.R.T.: Cherry was a founding member of the A.R.T. and has appeared multiple times on its stage, including: King Lear, Twelfth Night (with Diane Lane), Three Sisters, As You Like It, The Serpent Woman, Life is a Dream, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Major Barbara, Love’s Labors Lost, Lysistrata. Broadway and Off-Broadway: Doubt (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award), The Heiress (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award), Pride’s Crossing (Drama Desk Award), Lincoln Center Theater; Angels in America; Imaginary Friends; Moon for the Misbegotten (Tony Award nomination); The Night of the Iguana; Our Country’s Good (Tony Award nomination); Faith Healer; Mrs. Warren’s Profession; The Baltimore Waltz (OBIE Award). Television: “24” (Emmy Award for role as President Allison Taylor), “What Makes a Family,” and most recently as Dr. Judith Evans in “Awake.” Film: Ocean’s Twelve, Cradle Will Rock, The Horse Whisperer, The Perfect Storm, Erin Brockovich, Signs, The Village, Mother and Child, Swimmers, Terrence Malick’s upcoming film Knight of Cups.

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Simon

Steven Skybell

Simon

Steven Skybell

Architect/Peasant Husband/Bandit Irakli

Sean Runette

Architect/Peasant Husband/Bandit Irakli

Sean Runette

Sean Runette (Durandarte in the A.R.T. tour of King Stag) is a graduate of the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University, and previously appeared with the American Repertory Theater in The King Stag at the Mitsui Festival in Tokyo, and in the A.R.T. New Stages production of Fun and Nobody. His New York credits include Waterbird at PS 122, The Merchant of Venice and Dead House at the End of the Street at NADA, Royal Blood and The Changeling at HERE, Yikes! at the Cucaracha Theatre and CSV Theater, Easter at Naked Angels, Proof through the Night at the Public Theater, and Sin at the Ohio Theater. Resident credits include Death of a Salesman at the Alley Theatre and the Papermill Playhouse, and Pick Up Axe at San Jose Repertory Theatre. Mr. Runette appeared in the films Copland, Two If By Sea, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, Angel in New York, and the upcoming film of Easter. Television credits include Law and Order, Sex in the City, and Third Watch.

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Groucho

Daria Martel

Groucho

Daria Martel

Harpo

Ross Salinger

Harpo

Ross Salinger

Chico

Christopher Colt

Chico

Christopher Colt

Michael Abashvili

Cassidy Downing-Bryant/Tyler John Dorson

Michael Abashvili

Cassidy Downing-Bryant/Tyler John Dorson

Azdak

Mario Arrambide

Azdak

Mario Arrambide

Beggars/Petitioners/Wedding Guests/Funeral Guests/Farmers/Dancers

Donivan BartonKevin Cole CostinJoy EhrlichAndrew HillDonna LaBrecqueDeborah LewinSean RunnetteMatthew SheehanNicolette VajtaySteven Zahn

Beggars/Petitioners/Wedding Guests/Funeral Guests/Farmers/Dancers

Donivan BartonKevin Cole CostinJoy EhrlichAndrew HillDonna LaBrecqueDeborah LewinSean RunnetteMatthew SheehanNicolette VajtaySteven Zahn