For immediate release:
Press contact: Bill Largess
E-mail: pr@stageguild.org
(202) 900-8788
Washington Stage Guild continues its 2019-2020 Season with Bloomsday by Steven Dietz
Opens January 23, Runs Through February 16
Press Performance: Sunday, January 26 at 2:30 p.m.
There will be a post-show discussion following the 2:30 matinee on James Joyce’s birthday: Sunday, February 2.
There will be a FREE reading of a new play in development, Beautiful Monster, by Alex Webb on Sunday, February 9 at 7 PM.
January 11, 2020: The Washington Stage Guild continues its season of great writers with the Washington premiere of Bloomsday by Steven Dietz. This delicate, time-bending romance is set in James Joyce’s Dublin on June 16th, the date on which Joyce’s Ulysses is set. Robert returns to that city 35 years after meeting Caithleen on a walking tour of Joyce’s Dublin. He and Cait meet again and revisit their youthful relationship, amid the echoes of Joyce’s masterwork, and the missed connections of that earlier time in their lives. Helen Hayes Award winning Kasi Campbell will direct. A post-show discussion will follow the Sunday matinee on February 2nd, James Joyce’s birthday.
“Joyce fans all over the world celebrate the day Leopold Bloom wanders through Dublin, and as in Steven Dietz’s play, some retrace his steps,” says Artistic Director Bill Largess. “Taking place on a Bloomsday in both the past and the present, Robert and Cait try to retrace their own steps to see what might have changed, for the boy he was and the girl she was. It’s a wistful and clever story of facing what might have been, and we’ve assembled a great cast to tell it.”
The Cast
Josh Adams (Robbie) is performing with the Washington Stage Guide for the first time, though he previously worked with Kasi Campbell on The Sisters Rosensweig at Theater J. Other Theater J credits include Trayf, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide…. He recently performed with Keegan Theatre in An Irish Carol, as well as previously in American Buffalo (Ireland Tour), and A Few Good Men (Ireland Tour). Some additional credits include: Mosaic Theater: Theory, The Agitators, Hooded, Or Being Black for Dummies. Folger Theatre: Love’s Labor’s Lost. Theater Alliance: The Events, The Raid. Theater J: Rorschach Theatre: REYKJAVIK. We Happy Few Productions: Henry V, Chalk, The Tempest. Everyman Theatre: An Inspector Calls. Woolly Mammoth: Appropriate. Live Art DC: The Merry Death of Robin Hood, R+J Star-Crossed Death Match. Scena Theatre: The Cripple of Inishmaan. Studio Theatre: The Big Meal. 1st Stage: The Cripple of Inishmaan.
Megan Anderson (Cait) is a Resident Company Member at Everyman Theatre, where she has appeared in over 30 productions, most recently Proof, Dinner with Friends, Sweat, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Revolutionists, Grounded, and many other amazing projects. Regionally, she has worked at Rep Stage (The Seagull- Helen Hayes nominee, The Violet Hour, The Whale; all directed by Kasi Campbell), Olney Theatre Center (Mary Stuart, Our Town, Grounded, Rabbit Hole-Helen Hayes nominee for Best Ensemble), Round House Theatre (Problem Child, Heartbreak House, Our Town, The Cherry Orchard), Center Stage, Totem Pole Playhouse, The Kennedy Center, Theater J and Northern Stage. She appeared for 3 seasons as Jen Carcetti on the acclaimed HBO series The Wire, and is an audition coach and director. Megan lives in Baltimore with her husband, actor Kyle Prue and their 2 daughters.
Steven Carpenter (Robert) is the Stage Guild’s Associate Artistic Director. Bloomsdaymarks his 20th show as an actor and his 35th show overall with WSG. He most recently played in their acclaimed production of Dickens’s Hard Times. Other acting credits at the Guild include Widowers’ Houses, Henry Higgins in Pygmalion, Joseph Tooker in Summerland, and Stephen Undershaft in Major Barbara. He was nominated for his third Helen Hayes Award for sound design, performing the live on stage effects in the Guild’s productions of It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. In DC, his credits include work with Ford’s Theatre, Round House Theatre, the Folger and other companies. Regional credits include work at Virginia Rep, both Baltimore and Virginia Shakespeare Festivals and Wayside Theatre. He has directed at Rep Stage, Bay Theatre, Theater J, Theatre Alliance and Washington Stage Guild, including last season’s Ibsen-bending hit Resolving Hedda. Also an audio book narrator, Steven has narrated 400+ titles for the National Library Service for the Blind.
Danielle Scott (Caithleen) returns to the Washington Stage Guild after appearing earlier this season in Candida. Danielle received her MFA in Acting at the Catholic University of America. CUA performances include: Emily Dickinson (The Belle of Amherst), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Old Woman (River Like Sin), Mary Shelley (Bloody Poetry), Queen/June (The Love of the Nightingale), Lady Catherine (Pride and Prejudice), and Cagedbird_99 (Br’er Cotton). Professional work includes: Proserpine Garnett in Candidawith the Washington Stage Guild, Beatrice-Joanna (The Changeling) and Delio (The Duchess of Malfi) with Brave Spirits Theatre Company, Danielle (The Head that Wears the Crown) with Ally Theatre, Millie Martindale (Perfect Arrangement) with Source, Lucius (Julius Caesar) with Scena, and Child/Ensemble (1984) with Scena.
Bloomsday is directed by Kasi Campbell, whose previous work for the Stage Guild includes Summerland, Alabama Story, Tryst, Pen, and Elling. She has also directed at Theater J: The Sisters Rosensweig; Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: Anne of the Thousand Days; Rep Stage: The Whale, Hamlet, Arcadia, The Seagull, Translations, The Dazzle, The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?, The Judas Kiss, Yellowman, The Temperamentals, Travels with My Aunt, The Lonesome West, God’s Ear, In the Heart of America, Bach at Leipzig, The Violet Hour, The Swan, Faith Healer, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Kimberly Akimbo, Neville’s Island, The Piano Teacher, Da, The Return to Morality, Ambrosio, Hunting and Gathering and Gianni Schicchi; Maryland Opera Studio: Albert Herring and The Old Maid and the Thief; Theatre Alliance: The Woman Who Amuses Herself; WSC Avant Bard: Night and Day; Spooky Action Theatre: Fool for Love; and Source Theatre: Tumor. Additionally, she has directed at Catholic University, University of Connecticut, Indiana University of Pa., the National Puppetry Center, Groton Center for the Arts and Howard Community College, where she is an associate professor of theatre. Her productions have garnered thirty-five Helen Hayes nominations including four for Outstanding Director (she was the award recipient for The Dazzle), two for Outstanding Production, and two for Outstanding Ensemble.
Set designers are Resident Designer Carl Gudenius and Jingwei Dai. Other design elements are provided by David Bryan Jackson with sound, Marianne Meadows with lighting; and we welcome Ben Kress in his Stage Guild debut with costumes.
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING DURING THE RUN OF BLOOMSDAY
A Post-show discussion – Sunday, February 2nd, following the matinee
There will be a post-show discussion following the show’s 2:30 PM matinee on Sunday, February 2nd. Joining director, Kasi Campbell, and members of the Bloomsday cast will be Robert Aubry Davis and Christopher Griffin for a lively discussion of the play, James Joyce and his seminal novel, Ulysses.
Robert Aubry Davis, television and radio personality, is a native Washingtonian and an active member of the area’s cultural community. Davis is the creator and host of “Millennium of Music,” a program dedicated to music from the thousand years before Bach. The program now in its 41st season, is carried by more than 100 public radio stations nationwide, internationally, and on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. He has been host and moderator of WETA TV’s Emmy Award-winning weekly arts discussion program, “Around Town,” since its inception in 1986. His education in literature and art history at both Duke University and American University and his broad knowledge of — and participation in — the arts make him a well-respected and visible member of Washington, D.C.’s cultural community.
Christopher Griffin studied literature at Trinity College and University College in Dublin. He has taught courses at Politics and Prose for over 25 years. He was a study leader on 18 Smithsonian Journeys and lectured for Smithsonian Associates. He has read from Ulysses on Bloomsdays in DC since the early 1980s.
A FREE READING of a play in development
Sunday, February 9th, at 7 PM
Beautiful Monster by Alex Webb
Before George Bernard Shaw became a successful playwright, he tried to reform the theatre in London, flirted with other men’s wives, advocated socialism, and wrote rejected novels. This new play gives us a look at Shaw’s confidence that he would find his way in life, somehow or other.
Alex Webb is an actor and playwright whose first play, Amelia, (www.ameliatheplay.com) had its world premiere at the Washington Stage Guild in 2012, and was published by Samuel French in 2017. He acted with WSG in our first decade and now lives in NY with his wife, actor Shirleyann Kaladjian, and their son. He works on both stage and in film.
