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Adrienne Kennedy Rewrites Madame Bovary for Signature Reading
By Kenneth Jones
16 Feb 2006
Madame Bovary, Adrienne Kennedy's adaptation of the Gustave Flaubert novel, will get an invitation-only reading directed by Estelle Parsons for Signature Theatre Company.
The 7 PM Feb. 20 and 3 PM Feb. 21 performances are part of the Off-Broadway company's 15th anniversary season, which includes presentations of work by Signature's past playwrights-in-residence. Attendance is by invitation only.
The cast for the reading will include Jill Alexander, Tim Altmeyer, Michael Aronov, Ryan Patrick Bachand, Liz Canavan, Jessica Chastain, Timothy Doyle, Bob Lavelle, Chris McGarry, Joyce Lynn O'Connor, Felix Solis and Jerry Zellers.
"Madame Bovary is the tragic, yet scintillating story of a woman who longed for a life she could never fully achieve," according to Signature. "Emma Bovary is a woman who desires the illustrious and romantic world she has only read about in books or observed from afar. As this desire grows, Emma must seek to fulfill it, whatever the cost, in an ultimate quest to become the Madame Bovary of her wildest and most passionate dreams. Telling Emma's story through the eyes of her own daughter, Adrienne Kennedy brings a fresh and exciting approach to this classic novel."
Adrienne Kennedy (Signature playwright-in-residence 1995-96) has been a force in the American theatre since the early 1960s, "influencing generations of playwrights with her hauntingly fragmented lyrical dramas," according to Signature. "Frequently produced, read, and taught, they continue to hold a prominent place among the most exciting plays of the past 50 years."
Among her many honors are the Guggenheim Fellowship and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award. She is a recipient for Lifetime Achievement of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.
Director Estelle Parsons, who is also a respected actress, directed a multicultural, multilingual Antony and Cleopatra at the Interart Theatre in New York City. Joe Papp invited her to form a multicultural, multilingual Shakespeare company which played for two seasons to New York City high school students, with special weekend performances for their families. She commissioned and directed Adrienne Kennedy's recent play Hitler's Addendum at the Actors Studio. A few years ago, Parsons started working with Al Pacino on W.B. Yeats' version of Sophocles' King Oedipus, Oscar Wilde's Salome, a reading of which they presented on tour and on Broadway in 2003. They are currently working on Strindberg's The Father. She was inducted into the Broadway Hall of Fame in 2004 and won an Academy Award for "Bonnie and Clyde."
For additional information on Signature Theatre Company, visit www.signaturetheatre.org or call (212) 244-PLAY (7529).
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