Press Room
Washington Shakespeare Company presents
by Euripides
Beginning June 2 at WSC’s Clark Street Playhouse
Arlington, VA – In its 15th season, WSC will at last produce one of the Greeks. On June 2, Medea by Euripides opens at the Clark Street Playhouse under the direction of Jose Carrasquillo and Paul MacWhorter. WSC is excited to welcome back these two longtime favorites and certain they will craft a Medea worth waiting 15 seasons to see.
As directors, they "both have a very strong desire for a modern, simple, stripped-away approach to the play," according to MacWhorter, "very much in keeping with the traditional Greek theatre. This has been our working style on all the projects which we have collaborated here at WSC." Their approach, Carrasquillo adds, "thematically will transcend the ‘revenge’ theme and challenge the audience to understand Medea’s every action. We want this to be an illuminating experience because of its simplicity and its clarity." When asked what it is like working together, MacWhorter elaborates: "We complement each other artistically as directors. Jose always has a very specifc vision for the plays we work on together. His visual, conceptual, and stylistic sense is very strong and clear, while I tend to focus more on the acting and text."
The two are delighted to work once again with most of the Medea cast and design team members who have joined them on earlier projects over the years. They are particularly looking forward to working with Delia Taylor (Theatre Lobby award for Gregor Samsa in Metamorphosis, directed by Carrasquillo and MacWhorter) as Medea and Helen Hayes award-winning Jenifer Deal (Prospero in WSC’s The Tempest) as Jason, exploring some of the sexual politics of the play. Artistic director Christopher Henley (Theatre Lobby award for Tiny Alice), who acted with Taylor and MacWhorter in The Night of the Iguana, will play Creon. Kathleen Akerley (director of Jumpers and next year’s Hapgood), Debbie Minter Jackson (Blood Wedding), founding ensemble member Richard Mancini (Tiny Alice, Waiting for Godot), and Alexander Strain (The Tempest, Titus Andronicus) complete this impressive cast. "Further," MacWhorter adds, "we are very fortunate to have a wonderfully talented assistant director/stage manager in Meg Taintor, also a very talented actor, whom I had the pleasure of meeting and working with last year on Rorschach Theatre’s After the Flood."
Close friends Carrasquillo and MacWhorter have worked together off and on since 1993, when MacWhorter directed a play at the old Tavern Stage space and asked Carrasquillo for a critique. The two then worked together at the now-defunct Freedom Stage, a for-profit gay-centered group, where Carrasquillo served as artistic director and MacWhorter acted as literary manager. They first collaborated directing in 1995 at The Studio Theatre Secondstage for A Language of Their Own. In 1998, Henley asked Carrasquillo to direct Metamorphosis and MacWhorter joined the project as assistant director. When Henley later invited Carrasquillo back to direct Blood Wedding in 2001, Carrasquillo requested to have MacWhorter on as co-director. "I trust his artistic instincts implicitly," MacWhorter says of his friend and co-director, adding "but more importantly, his humanity and sense of fairness and grace under pressure are the reasons why I would follow him anywhere to work on a project if he asked me." In addition to directing, MacWhorter is an actor and playwright and has also worked with Carrasquillo in those capacities: "Jose directed me as an actor in Sueno at Olney Theatre in 2000 and has been my right arm in helping me develop my play At the Rim of a Purple Volcano, a work still in progress, which won the GLAAD Media Award in 2002 for a workshop production presented in 2001."
Carrasquillo and MacWhorter are an important part of WSC’s history at the Clark Street Playhouse. Freedom Stage produced one of MacWhorter’s plays and rehearsed at the Clark Street space before its conversion into a theatre. The two even helped to outfit 601 S. Clark Street into the Playhouse it is today: "I remember a day when both came and took sledgehammers to walls to help with the building," recollects Henley. In 2001, Carrasquillo In 2001, Carrasquillo directed Henley in WSC’s The Maids by Genet. MacWhorter has also acted frequently in WSC productions, including Richard III, As You Like It, Measure for Measure, and The Night of the Iguana. "I love the company and have great respect for its mission and willingness to take risky and edgy approaches to the classics," he exclaims.
Medea starts at the Clark Street Playhouse on June 2, 2005 and runs until July 3, 2005. For tickets, please call 800-494-TIXS(8497). For more information or for group sales, call 703-418-4808 or visit our website.
WSC's Clark Street Playhouse
601 S. Clark St.,
Crystal City (Arlington), VA 22202 (Directions)