The Servant of Two Masters

A.R.T. Senior Actor, founding member of the Yale Repertory Theatre and the A.R.T. Yale: more than 40 productions (including The Seagull). A.R.T.: 100 productions including The Seagull (three turns as Sorin), Julius Caesar, Three Sisters, The Onion Cellar, Major Barbara (Undershaft), Heartbreak House (Shotover), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Quince four times, Snug once), Henry IV (Falstaff), Twelfth Night (Toby Belch), The Caretaker (Davies), The Homecoming (Max), Loot (Truscott), Man and Superman (Mendoza/Devil), Waiting for Godot (Vladimir), The Threepenny Opera (Peacham/Petey), Ivanov (Lebedev), Three Sisters (Chebutkin), Buried Child (Dodge), The Cherry Orchard (Gaev) and The King Stag (Pantelone). Teaches at Harvard College, Harvard’s Summer and Extension Schools and at the A.R.T/MXAT Institute. Trained at the Old Vic Theatre School and subsequently taught there. Acted at the Old Vic, Young Vic, The Royal Court, in the West End, in films and television and has been hosting his own show “The Caravan” for the BBC for five years. Came to the U.S. with the satirical revue The Establishment and acted on and off Broadway, at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and at the Lincoln Center Festival. Lectured on Shakespeare in India and the Netherlands Theatre School. Received the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Boston Actor and the Jason Robards Award for Dedication to the Theatre.

Alvin Epstein is a former artistic director of the Guthrie Theater and associate director of Robert Brustein's Yale Repertory Theatre. He has directed over twenty productions (five at the American Repertory Theater, including the inaugural A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1980) and performed in over one hundred (over fifty at the A.R.T.). His A.R.T. roles include Old Man in Lysistrata, the Herald in Marat/Sade, Dionisio Genoni in Enrico IV, John of Gaunt/First Gardener in Richard II, Erich Honecker in Full Circle, McLeavy in Loot, Shabelsky in Ivanov, and Lee Strasberg in Nobody Dies on Friday; Mr. Epstein has also appeared in The Doctor's Dilemma, Antigone, Three Farces and a Funeral, The Winter's Tale, Charlie in the House of Rue, The Merchant of Venice, In the Jungle of Cities, The Bacchae, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable), Slaughter City, Tartuffe, The Tempest, Beckett Trio, The Threepenny Opera, and Waiting for Godot, among many others. His twenty Broadway and off-Broadway productions include his debut with Marcel Marceau, the Fool in Orson Welles's King Lear, Lucky in the American premiere of Waiting for Godot, Clov in the American premiere of Endgame, Peachum in The Threepenny Opera (co-starring with Sting), and the world premiere of Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin's When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable). For twenty years he and Martha Schlamme performed A Kurt Weill Cabaret on tour in the U.S. and South America and a year's run on Broadway. He has performed at many resident theaters throughout the U.S., in films and on television. Awards include Most Promising Actor ('56 Variety Poll), Brandeis Creative Arts Award ('66), Obie for Dynamite Tonight! ('68), Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence ('96), and the IRNE Award for Best Supporting Actor as Shabelsky in Ivanov ('99). Mr. Epstein teaches acting at the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

Jennifer graduated from the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University in 1992 and moved to New York City. In those first years, she worked as a temp and became a theatrical Bedouin, performing at regional theatres in such romantic locales as Knoxville, Tennessee; Cleveland, Ohio; and Westerly, Rhode Island. During the final week of her Cleveland run in Moliere’s School for Wives, she received a call summoning her back to New York. The soap opera Guiding Light needed an urgent replacement for one of their lead characters. The character spoke with a Greek accent, and as Jennifer was married to a Greek man at the time (don’t ask), she was unusually proficient at mimicking that particular dialect. She landed the part, and flew back to finish her run of the play. So, one week she was roller-blading on a raked stage, speaking the words of Moliere, and the next she was on a soundstage in front of a camera for the oldest continuously broadcast show in television history. Go figure.

Jennifer spent three lovely, debt-reducing years on the Guiding Light, where she learned a great deal about working on-camera, and discovered that soap acting was really, really hard. She then stepped into the lead role of Sam MacRae, a fast-talking newspaper editor in the AMC series, Paramour. Starring in this period piece—in the style of Howard Hawks’ film, His Girls Friday—she was able to indulge in her love for all things 1940’s. Sadly, despite its terrific cast (which also included Kristin Chenoweth), the pilot and three other episodes still sit on the network shelves, gathering dust.

After her stint on the small screen, Jennifer happily returned to theatre, albeit closer to home. She landed the role of Catarina—a model and muse to the renaissance sculptor, Benevenuto Cellini—in Cellini, written and directed by John Patrick Shanley. It was performed at New York Stage and Film and, after multiple readings, Off-Broadway at Second Stage. Jennifer also performed in High Infidelity Off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre. Hitting the road again, she performed in two plays at San Diego’s Old Globe: Smash and Tom Stoppard’s play-with-music, Rough Crossing. The Stoppard play holds a special place in her heart, as it’s where she met her current husband (you can ask this time), the musician/conductor/composer Karl Mansfield. Recently, she performed in The Mysteries at Classic Stage Company, The Miracle Worker at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, The Comedy of Errors at Yale Rep, and has thankfully fulfilled the Law & Order requirement on her NY Actor resume.

This past year, she was selected by Sam Mendes and David Hare to understudy Julianne Moore in Mr. Hare’s The Vertical Hour on Broadway. Relationships from her A.R.T. Institute past are very present in her life now, as she can be seen in the recurring role of Deb Shayes in FX’s new hit show, Damages, which stars Glenn Close and Ted Danson. Glenn Kessler and Todd Kessler, both undergrads at Harvard whom Jennifer met when she was at the A.R.T., write and produce the show.

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.

RAYMOND FOX recently played Mr. Stubb, Captain Boomer and Captain Gardiner in Moby Dick (adapted and directed by Lookingglass Ensemble Member David Catlin), on tour to the Alliance Theatre (Atlanta, GA), Arena Stage (Washington, D.C.) and South Coast Repertory (Costa Mesa, CA). Raymond will return to the production in Chicago this summer (2017) at Lookingglass Theatre, where he is an Ensemble Member. His numerous regional credits include Simon Craig in Blood and Gifts (TimeLine Theatre - 2013 Joseph Jefferson Award - Supporting Actor). Mr. Fox performed in and co-adapted Charles Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop (2006 Joseph Jefferson Award for New Adaptation – shared) for Lookingglass. He played King Midas in the original Off-Broadway and Broadway runs of Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses (Second Stage and Circle in the Square) as well as in numerous regional productions of the play. His American Repertory Theater credits include The Servant of Two Masters, Black Snow and The L.A. Plays. Additional regional credits include the Goodman Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Route 66 Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, Arena Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Meadow Brook Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Arden Theatre, Next Theatre, Remy Bumppo Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, First Folio Theatre, Court Theatre and Canada’s Stratford Festival where he was a member of the Young Company. Mr. Fox is a graduate of Northwestern University and the American Repertory Theatre/Moscow Art Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, class of '93.