Director Les Waters, composer Paul Dresher and playwright Adele Edling Shank created the stage work to play in the California company's Roda Theatre. The official opening is slated for Feb. 28; the run ends March 25.
"It's a challenge and an inspiration to work on an adaptation of such amazing material," said Waters in the announcement. "In both content and style, Virginia Woolf was one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. To the Lighthouse is about the power of art to pin down and capture a moment in time – and it will speak to anyone who has a family.”
Set to fill the summer house of the Ramsay house are Whitney Bashor (Bus to Buenos Aires, White Noise), Noah James Butler (Cloud 9), Monique Fowler (You Can’t Take it With You, The Skin Game), Edmond Genest (Dirty Linen and New Found-Land, The Elephant Man)‚ Lauren Grace (Emma, The Voysey Inheritance), Clifton Guterman (Finn in the Underworld, Nicholas Nickelby), David Mendelsohn (Come, My Beloved; The Misanthrope), Jarion Monroe (Hard Times, The House of Blue Leaves) and Rebecca Watson (By Jeeves, The Cocoanuts).
Local school children Sophie Gabel-Scheinbaum, Jack Indiana, Amara Radetsky and Gabriel Stephens-Siegler are also featured in the ensemble.
The 7th Avenue String Quartet — Alex Kelly (on cello), Justin Mackewich (first violin), Charith Premawardhana (viola) and Sarah Jo Zaharako (second violin) — will perform Dresher's score live onstage. "This piece starts as a play,” Waters explained, "and eventually becomes like a concert. There's a remarkable scene without words in which music must capture the passage of ten years. Then, in the final scene, it almost transforms into opera – as much of the text is sung and music is the thread that dramatically ties everything together.”
Waters has previously staged Big Love, Eurydice, Fêtes de la Nuit, Finn in the Underworld, The Glass Menagerie, The Mystery of Irma Vep, The Pillowman, Suddenly Last Summer and Yellowman for Berkeley Rep. He will revisit Eurydice for the upcoming Off-Broadway run at Second Stage Theatre.
Shank has penned the plays Sex Slaves, War Horses, With Allison's Eyes, The Wives of the Magi and California Plays — six interconnected stories set in the Golden State. She has a past with Virginia Woolf — the legend served as a character in Rocks in Her Pocket.
The design team includes Annie Smart (scenic), Christal Weatherly (costume), Matt Frey (lighting), Darron L. West (sound) and Jedediah Ike (video). The stage manager is Elizabeth Moreau.
Tickets for To the Lighthouse at Berkeley Rep's Roda, 2015 Addison Street in Berkeley, CA, are available by calling (510) 647-2949 or toll free at (888) 4-BRT-tix. For more information visit www.berkeleyrep.org.
