“To Live My Life With Truth and Honesty” The 17th-century court of King Louis XIV was
a challenge to talented actors, the play would
familiar with seeing the same group of actors
have faded from memory by now. The play only
appear in different plays. Our performance of
works if our jeune premier, our raisonneur, and
Molière’s 1666 The Misanthrope is no different
our farceurs all commit to the same story.
(minus the presence of a few nobles, French or otherwise). The Fall Studio Acting Project at David Geffen School of Drama is a safe space for the actors to exercise their training in the classics. Given the constraints of the Kondoleon, it is also a performance that is quite raw and intimate, which can be exposing for them. This project requires a group of players with great respect for and trust in one another. This performance is, then, not just for us but for them, and few plays could be better suited to them.
This cast almost entirely comprises members of the fourth-year acting class at the start of their final year at the school. Like 17th-century French actors, these performers have watched their profession undergo many changes in a short time. They arrived in the middle of a pandemic, during which calls for social change in our country found their way into intuitional reform across theaters nationally. Now, as they complete their training, their peers in the industry fight for the recognition that what they do isn’t merely a hobby, it’s a
The Misanthrope is a play for actors, written
livelihood. The status of actors in France was
by Molière with the strengths of his Troupe de
equally as challenging: just 25 years before
Monsieur in mind. Indeed, the playwright was
the first performance of The Misanthrope
the world’s first Alceste. This play references
Louis XIII issued a proclamation stating that
recognized caricatures of the French bourgeoisie
actors couldn’t be criminalized so long as they
and then deepens them, generating a more
performed to the standards of decency upheld
complex and universal human ethos. With
by the Roman Catholic church.
director Mary Lou Rosato, the cast has mined this incredibly challenging play to find the truth hidden inside the verse. Though a very funny play, The Misanthrope is ultimately a serious drama, a tragedy even, in each character’s rancor and ruse. If any of the figures portrayed were
FALL PROJECT B
Extraordinary times create extraordinary art—which can only be made by extraordinary people, like the nine artists you are about to see perform a truly great play. —Austin Riffelmacher, Production Dramaturg
merely “stock” characters, unable to provide
2023–24 SEASON STUDIO SERIES PRODUCTIONS