For immediate release:
Press contact: Bill Largess
E-mail: pr@stageguild.org
(202) 900-8788
Washington Stage Guild continues our 2021-22 season with
Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw
Opens March 3, 2022 and Runs Through March 27.
Press Performance: Sunday, March 6 at 2:30 p.m.
8 February 2022: The Washington Stage Guild continues its 2021-2022 season with a play we first produced in 1991, George Bernard Shaw’s MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION. Two of Shaw’s greatest women clash as Mrs. Warren and her daughter Vivie struggle to connect in light of their very different views on women, morality, and business. Shaw’s play was considered explosive when it premiered in 1905, drawing ire from the Lord Chamberlain’s office for its frank examination of the hypocrisy surrounding prostitution. It still packs a punch today. This new production will be helmed by the director of our 1991 production, Michael Rothhaar.
“Shaw’s eternal topicality is well represented in this play, written in 1893 but banned in England for decades because of its irreverent take on issues of moral certainty in the period he wrote it,” says WSG Artistic Director Bill Largess. “For us, it’s especially exciting to have Lynn Steinmetz and Michael Rothhaar, who were involved in our 1991 production, return to the great script for a fresh look. And to have a marvelous cast of Stage Guild favorites joined by friends since infancy Will Rothhaar (Michael’s son) and Rachel Felstein is a particular treat.”
Says director, Michael Rothhaar, “When I first directed this play at the Stage Guild in 1991, I was stunned to find how much this play, which rocked the world in the late 19th Century, remained both shocking and seditious in the late 20th Century. Apparently, not much actually changed during the intervening hundred years.”
Now, another thirty years on, Shaw’s play continues to be a witty, insightful and relentless account of two women, at different points in life, who insist on choosing their own destinies in the face of the expectations of Victorian society. Let me say that again with emphasis: CHOOSING their OWN destinies. And the play remains every bit as resonant and, sadly, every bit as necessary as it was 130-odd years ago. That these fierce women are mother and daughter and stand opposed to each other equally armored, makes for a thrilling, shocking and heartbreaking tale. I am grateful to join them again. Welcome back to the fight.”
The Cast
Lynn Steinmetz (Kitty Warren) – is a founding member of the Washington Stage Guild. Over the years, Stage Guild audiences have known Lynn as various English ladies, Irish lasses, Southern belles, saucy maids, a queen or two, doting mothers, dotty mothers, a drunken chain-smoking sister, and a mischievous ghost. She played Vivie Warren in the Guild’s 1991 production of Mrs. Warren’s Profession. And most recently, she played Mrs. Gill in Arlene Hutton’s Nibroc Trilogy on our stage. Over the past 40 years, she has performed at several other venues in the Washington–Baltimore area, including Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth, Olney Theatre Center, Round House Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, and others. Lynn studied at The Catholic University of America and The Juilliard School.
Rachel Felstein (Vivie Warren) – is back at the Washington Stage Guild, having previously acted in the 2018 production of Summerland. DC credits include Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World (Mosaic Theater Company of DC), the world premiere of Right to be Forgotten (Arena Stage), Antigonick (Taffety Punk), and two self produced projects over the course of the pandemic, Twelfth Night with her group Her Majesty & Sons, and Night@Newcastle with collaborators Andre Hinds and Alan Naylor. New York credits include This American Life – As Seen on Radio (BAM), readings and productions with Ensemble Studio Theatre, and wRETCH – the final concert (Fresh Fruit Festival). Regional credits include Fun Home (Virginia Stage Company), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey), and the most recent national tour of Man of La Mancha. Rachel is an MFA graduate of the Academy for Classical Acting and studied acting with Terry Knickerbocker.
Carl Randolph (Sir George Crofts) directed All Save One in the Stage Guild’s 2018-19 season. His last WSG performance was as Alan in Opus. Other credits include the Helen Hayes wining production of A Chorus Line (Zach) at Olney Theatre Center and roles at Round House Theatre,Wayside Theatre; Henlopen Theatre Project and MetroStage; Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center and Bobby in the national tour of A Chorus Line. He has worked in film and television as well. Television appearances include episodes of The Prosecutors, Civil War Combat and Special Forces: GSG 9. He earned his MA in Producing film at American University and his MFA in Directing from Catholic University. Carl is the Founding Producing Artistic Director for Transformation Theatre.
R. Scott Williams (Rev. Samuel Gardner) returns to the Stage Guild, where previous credits include All Save One, Opus, Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, and scores of characters in several dozen staged readings. Around the region, Scott has performed with The Shakespeare Theatre Co. (five productions), Olney Theatre, Theatre Alliance, Compass, Wayside Theatre and Everyman. He has appeared in 46 states thanks to two national tours and has given over 600 performances of Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center. His NY performance in Boys of a Certain Age earned a Best Lead Actor nomination from the NY Innovative Theatre Awards. Film/TV work includes A Modest Suggestion, My One and Only, The West Wing, The Wire, and John Waters’s Pecker.
Peter Boyer (Mr. Praed) previously appeared at Washington Stage Guild as Charles Dickens in Discord. He has also been seen locally at Ford’s Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Olney Theatre, Rep Stage, Metro Stage, Infinity Theatre, Imagination Stage, Adventure Theatre, Baltimore Shakespeare Festival and the Alliance for New Music Theatre. He has performed in theatres across the country, including Wayside Theatre in Middletown VA, the Cumberland Theatre in Cumberland MD, as well as several shows in Colorado, Ohio, and much of the mid-West. His one-person play Captain Hook: My Story, or How I Clawed My Way to the Top will have a staged reading in April as part of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival’s 41st Annual Live Reading series.
Will Rothhaar (Frank Gardner) – Will Rothhaar roams the hallways of the Washington Stage Guild again for the first time since he was 4 years old. He is the son of actor/directors Michael Rothhaar and Nancy Linehan Charles, both of whom have a long association with the Guild, since his father directed our 1991 production and his mother played the title role. Will has appeared in film and television throughout his career including stints on all of the CSI’s, NBC’s Grimm, Castle, Cold Case, Benji on Netflix, and played Lee Harvey Oswald In National Georgraphic Channel’s Killing Kennedy. He was the loner/psychopath in Ghost Light streaming on all platforms, and stars alongside Omar Chaparro and Breaking Bad’s Max Arcienega in the upcoming feature release of The Wingwalker directed by Alonso Alvarez Barreda in late 2022.
Mrs. Warren’s Profession is directed by Michael Rothhaar, who returns to The Washington Stage Guild where he directed Mrs. Warren’s Profession in 1991, followed the next season by The Millionairess. Michael served as the Artistic Director of Pennsylvania’s Allenberry Playhouse from 1987 to 1992, directing 40 productions, notably: Lettice and Lovage, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Agnes of God, Cabaret, Guys and Dolls and My Fair Lady. At Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre, he directed South Pacific, Witness for the Prosecution, A Murder is Announced, My Fair Lady, Spider’s Web and Greater Tuna. For Pacific Resident Theatre, he has directed Becky’s New Car (Los Angeles Premiere) Brecht’s Saint Joan of the Slaughterhouses, Otherwise Engaged, Candida, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Waiting for Godot, The Hasty Heart, Four Dogs and a Bone and Family Planning, among others. Elsewhere, he directed the West Coast Premiere of Holy Ghost at Theatre of NOTE and The Last Flapper at the Ensemble Theatre of Santa Barbara. A proud member of SDC, his production of The Hasty Heartwon the 2007 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Revival. Michael is married to Debbie Rothhaar. They have four children and three grandchildren. He is very proud to work with his son Will in this production.
Designers
Design elements are provided by Megan Holden as Scenic Design Coordinator, Marcus Darnley with sound, Marianne Meadows with lighting; and Resident Designer Sigrid Johanessdottir with costumes.
