The Imaginary Invalid

Shelley Berc (translator/adaptor of The Imaginary Invalid). Ms. Berc's previous work at the American Repertory Theater includes stage adaptations with Andrei Belgrader of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Rock, Diderot's Rameau's Nephew, The Servant of Two Masters (with Rusty Magee), and Wedekind's Lulu with Lee Breuer. Ms. Berc also collaborated with Belgrader and Magee on a new musical adaptation of Molière's Scapin for the Yale Repertory Theatre. Her plays include Dual Heads, Burn Out, and Shooting Shiva. Her play A Girl's Guide to the Divine Comedy was published by John Hopkins Press in 1995. Ms. Berc's plays and adaptations have been performed at the Women's Project, CSC Repertory, St. Louis Repertory, the Mark Taper Forum, Yale Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Odyssey Theatre, and at the Edinburgh Festival. Her plays and essays have been published in the Drama Review, Performing Arts Journal, TCG's Plays in Progress, and Theatre Magazine. She has held several grants and awards, including two Lila Wallace Reader's Digest "New Young Audiences" commissions, a McKnight fellowship in playwriting, an NEA Opera/ Music Librettist fellowship, and an artist's residence at the Rockefeller Foundation's center in Bellagio, Italy. Ms. Berc is the Professor of Playwriting at the University of Iowa. Her first novel, The Shape of the Wilderness, was published by Coffee House Press in 1995.

Andrei Belgrader is well known to American Repertory Theater audiences for his productions of Loot, We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Ubu Rock, The Servant of Two Masters, Rameau's Nephew, The Bald Soprano and the Chairs, Waiting for Godot (for which he received the Boston Circle Critics Awards for Best Play and Best Director for 1982/1983), Measure for Measure, and As You Like It. Since arriving from his native Romania in 1978, Mr. Belgrader has directed several off-Broadway productions, including Waiting for Godot, Scapin, Woyzeck, and Troilus and Cressida. At Yale Repertory Theatre he directed Molière's Scapin, which he adapted with Shelly Berc and Rusty Magee and was subsequently performed at Classic Stage Company in New York and American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. His other credits at Yale Repertory Theatre include John Guare's Moon Over Miami, The Miser, As You Like It, Alfred Jarry's Ubu Rex, the American premiere of Dario Fo's About Face, Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw, and Gogol's Marriage. At the Goodman Theatre in Chicago he directed Beckett's Happy Days. Mr. Belgrader also worked at the West Bank Cafe, where he directed Qunicy Long's Korea and Tom Eyen's The White Whore and The Bit Player, which was subsequently performed at the Edinburgh Festival and then moved to two London theaters. For the Double Image Theatre, he directed Ondine and Brendan Cole's Tenth Avenue Tales. With Shelley Berc, Mr. Belgrader also adapted Rameau's Nephew and directed the original production for the Classic Stage Company in New York. For the Norwegian State Theatre, he directed Nikolai Erdman's Suicide. Mr. Belgrader also directed several episodes of Coach for MCA Universal.

Andrei Belgrader is well known to American Repertory Theater audiences for his productions of Loot, We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Ubu Rock, The Servant of Two Masters, Rameau's Nephew, The Bald Soprano and the Chairs, Waiting for Godot (for which he received the Boston Circle Critics Awards for Best Play and Best Director for 1982/1983), Measure for Measure, and As You Like It. Since arriving from his native Romania in 1978, Mr. Belgrader has directed several off-Broadway productions, including Waiting for Godot, Scapin, Woyzeck, and Troilus and Cressida. At Yale Repertory Theatre he directed Molière's Scapin, which he adapted with Shelly Berc and Rusty Magee and was subsequently performed at Classic Stage Company in New York and American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. His other credits at Yale Repertory Theatre include John Guare's Moon Over Miami, The Miser, As You Like It, Alfred Jarry's Ubu Rex, the American premiere of Dario Fo's About Face, Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw, and Gogol's Marriage. At the Goodman Theatre in Chicago he directed Beckett's Happy Days. Mr. Belgrader also worked at the West Bank Cafe, where he directed Qunicy Long's Korea and Tom Eyen's The White Whore and The Bit Player, which was subsequently performed at the Edinburgh Festival and then moved to two London theaters. For the Double Image Theatre, he directed Ondine and Brendan Cole's Tenth Avenue Tales. With Shelley Berc, Mr. Belgrader also adapted Rameau's Nephew and directed the original production for the Classic Stage Company in New York. For the Norwegian State Theatre, he directed Nikolai Erdman's Suicide. Mr. Belgrader also directed several episodes of Coach for MCA Universal.

Anita Stewart (Loot) previously designed the sets for We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, The Imaginary Invalid, The Servant of Two Masters, Rameau's Nephew, The Bald Soprano, and The Chairs for the American Repertory Theater. Her recent credits include scenery for Playboy of the Western World at Steppenwolf and Long Wharf theaters, costumes for Elektra at Canadian Opera Company, scenery for Waiting for Godot at Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Intimate Exchanges at Dallas Theater Center. She has designed for a number of major American theater and opera companies, and is currently the artistic director of Portland Stage Company in Maine.

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.

Lighting designer, Lady with a Lapdog. The American Repertory Theater's resident lighting designer (1997–2001). Antigone, Full Circle, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, The Master Builder, Phaedra, The Bacchae, In the Jungle of Cities, The Taming of the Shrew, The Imaginary Invalid, and The Wild Duck at the A.R.T. Other: Moby Dick and Other Stories with Laurie Anderson, The Grey Zone (Long Wharf Theatre), Andrei Belgrader's production of Waiting for Godot (Classic Stage Company), Cymbeline (New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theatre), Playboy of the Western World (Steppenwolf Theatre), and the original production of Wit. For the Mark Morris Dance Group, he has designed over thirty dances, including Four Saints in Three Acts for English National Opera and Falling Down Stairs, which toured the U.S. with cellist Yo Yo Ma. Nominated for an American Theatre Wing design award for his lighting of David Rabe's A Question of Mercy and also for The Grey Zone by Tim Blake Nelson. Received a 1999 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, the American Theatre Wing Design Award, and the Lucille Lortel Award for 1999.

Christopher Walker has composed music and designed sound for We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Phaedra, Beckett Trio: Eh Joe, Ghost Trio, and Nacht und Traüme, and An Evening of Beckett, and designed sound for The King Stag, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Charlie in the House of Rue, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Taming of the Shrew, The Bacchae, The Wild Duck, Woyzeck, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Wild Duck, Alice in Bed, Slaughter City, Buried Child, Ubu Rock, The Threepenny Opera, The Accident, Demons, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Hot 'n' Throbbing, The America Play, A Touch of the Poet, The Cherry Orchard, What the Butler Saw, and Those the River Keeps at the A.R.T. Previously he composed music and designed sound for productions at the Intiman Theatre, the Bathhouse Theatre, and the Alice B. Theatre. He also scores for dance and has composed for the Allegro Dance Festival, the Bumbershoot Festival, and On The Boards.

Rusty Magee is a composer, pianist, and performer who has composed the music and lyrics for The Imaginary Invalid, Ubu Rock, and The Servant of Two Masters at the American Repertory Theater. He won the 1993 Outer Critics Circle Award for Most Promising Composer for his music and lyrics for the production of Andrei Belgrader and Shelley Berc's adaptation of Molière's Scapin at the Classic Stage Company, also produced at Yale Repertory Theatre and A.C.T. He wrote the music and lyrics for The Green Heart, book by Charles Busch, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club. He co-wrote the musical The Czar of Rock & Roll, produced at the Alley Theatre, Houston, and was the musical conductor for Harold Prince's Grandchild of Kings Off-Broadway. He also wrote music for John Patrick Shanley's The Fool and Her Fortune. Mr. Magee recently appeared at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, singing and playing the piano in Frank McCourt's The Irish … And How They Got That Way.

Amy Spencer was a member of Twyla Tharp Dance from 1981 to 1988. During that time she worked on the films Amadeus, Zelig, and "The Catherine Wheel," and appeared on Broadway in Singing in the Rain. She was a collaborator and performer in Martha Clark's Vienna: Lusthaus and Miracolo d'amore at the Public Theater, and has been a guest artist with Pilobolus and the White Oak Dance Project, directed by Mikhail Baryshnikov. Ms. Spencer co-directs, creates work for, and performs in SPENCER/COLTON, a company of dancers and actors based in Boston. The company has been presented by Jacob's Pillow, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Dance Theater Workshop, Boston Dance Umbrella, and Harvard Summer Dance Center. She has choreographed productions for the American Repertory Theater, Trinity Repertory Theatre, and the Boston Ballet. Ms. Spencer has taught movement to actors at N.Y.U. through Playwrights Horizons and taught dance at Barnard College, Sarah Lawrence College and N.Y.U.'s Tisch School of the Arts.

Richard Colton performed with Twyla Tharp Dance from 1977 to 1988 and was a member of the Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. He was a guest performer and teacher with the White Oak Dance Project, directed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, and has staged the works of Twyla Tharp for the Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and Twyla Tharp Dance, where he served as rehearsal director. Mr. Colton appeared in the films Hair and Amadeus, directed by Milos Foreman, the PBS Great Performances presentation of "The Catherine Wheel," and on Broadway in Singing in the Rain. Mr. Colton currently co-directs SPENCER/COLTON, a company of dancers and actors formed in 1989 to perform his work in collaboration with Amy Spencer. The company, based in Boston, has been presented by Jacobs Pillow, Boston Dance Umbrella, the American Repertory Theater Fall Festival, Harvard Summer Dance Performance Series, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, and New York's Dance Theater Workshop. Mr. Colton has choreographed the A.R.T. productions of The Cherry Orchard; Henry V; The Threepenny Opera, directed by Ron Daniels; and Ubu Rock, directed by Andrei Belgrader. Each year since 1989, in collaboration with Amy Spencer, he has created an original dance-theater work with the actors of the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. Mr. Colton has choreographed productions for Trinity Repertory Theatre, Boston Conservatory Dance Theatre, and the Boston Ballet. He is currently on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory and co-directs the dance program at Concord Academy.