THE ACTING COMPANY
PRESENTS
Find out what's happening in Restonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
TOM STOPPARD’S “ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD”
Find out what's happening in Restonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
George Mason University’s Center for the Arts, Fairfax
Saturday, March 1, 2014 at 8 p.m.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S “HAMLET”
Hylton Performing Arts Center, Manassas
Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 4 p.m.
FAIRFAX and MANASSAS, Va., Jan. 31, 2014 – “The Acting Company endures as the major touring classical theater in the United States,” says The New York Times about this elite troupe of actors who explore two sides of the same story – arguably one of the greatest works in all of English literature and a modern masterpiece based on the original – with performances in Fairfax and Manassas.
The Acting Company first appears at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax on Saturday, March 1, 2014 at 8 p.m., bringing a contemporary work that explores the fundamental mystery of our existence. Tom Stoppard’s Tony Award-winning play, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” turns William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” on its head by examining the misfortunes and musings of two ill-fated, minor characters. This humorous work follows Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the Danish prince’s childhood friends, who are pawns in the king’s plot against his nephew. Much of the action takes place “in the wings” of Shakespeare’s play, as the confused courtiers try to make sense of the dramatic events unfolding among the royal family and their own involvement in them. Tony Award-winning director John Rando directs The Acting Company in its performance of this witty and engaging work.
The Acting Company shows the opposite side of the story when it presents “Hamlet” at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas on Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 4 p.m. For the first time in its 40-year history, the ensemble brings to life Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, a riveting tale of vengeance, melancholy, rage, insanity, moral corruption and regicide, in which Hamlet seeks revenge for his father’s murder and his mother’s hasty remarriage to his uncle. Soon the young prince finds himself wavering between action and inaction, and sanity and madness, as he explores his own mortality and morality. Ian Belknap, The Acting Company’s artistic director, brings this great masterwork to life.
Rick Davis, the Hylton Center’s executive director and a professor in Mason’s School of Theater, will present a lecture titled “Holding Mirrors Up to Nature: Shakespeare, Stoppard and the World of ‘Hamlet’” on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014 at 1:30 p.m. at the Hylton Center. This discussion examines a few of the contested aspects of Shakespeare’s play before exploring how a 20th century playwright with a gift for the absurd creates a parallel universe to “Hamlet,” illustrating the simple yet profound existential (and theatrical) truth that “every exit is an entrance somewhere else.” This lecture is FREE and open to the public but requires an RSVP to Hylton@gmu.edu with the subject line “Shakespeare Weekend.”
Founded in 1972 by the late John Houseman and Producing Director Margot Harley, The Acting Company is one of America’s leading touring repertory theaters. It has launched the careers of some of today’s finest actors of stage and screen, including Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Rainn Wilson, Jeffrey Wright, Frances Conroy and Jesse L. Martin. Throughout the years, The Acting Company has performed more than 138 productions for more than three million people across the globe. Many of these performances are part of the company’s education program, which promotes theater and literacy in communities that lack live performance venues and theater arts education. The company has received numerous awards, including Obies, Audelcos, Los Angeles Critics Circle Awards and a Tony Award for Excellence in Theater.
Please note: pre-performance discussions will be held 45 minutes prior to each performance on Grand Tier III
at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax (sponsored by Friends of the Center for the Arts)
and in Buchanan Partners Arts Gallery at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas.
NOVANT HEALTH IS THE 2013-2014 SEASON SPONSOR OF HYLTON PRESENTS
TICKETS AT GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY’S CENTER FOR THE ARTS:
Tickets for THE ACTING COMPANY’S production of “ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD” are $44, $36 and $22. Youth Discount: tickets are half price for youth through grade 12. Visit the box office (open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) or charge by phone at 888-945-2468 or visit cfa.gmu.edu. The Center for the Arts c
