Aspenlieder Returns in Bad Dates
Hit Show at Shakespeare & Company to Sept. 12
By: Bob Fowler - Jul 21, 2010
Elizabeth Aspenlieder an Elliot Norton Award for Best Solo Performance—returns this summer for a special , limited run in a freshly re-imagined production directed by Eric Tucker (Women of Will this season , Pinter’s Mirror 2009). Haley Walker. The show that set the Berkshires astir in 2009—and nettarismatic heroine of Theresa Rebeck’s Bad Dates , possesses a sharp wit and an unsinkable determination to pursue the promise of new love , even while providing for her daughter and running a business in a sometimes unforgiving city. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy.
Bad Dates plays in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre August 4 through September 12. As part of S&Co.’s ongoing Wednesday Q& A Sessions , Aspenlieder will lead an informal discussion with theatergoers following the August 25 performance.
S&Co.’s usual range of discounting options are available for this production , including discounts for groups , students , Seniors , and the very popular 40% Full-Time Berkshire Resident Discount. The Bernstein is wheelchair accessible and hearing-aid assisted. Contact the Box Office at (413) 637-3353 or boxoffice@shakespeare.org to order tickets or learn more about discount availability , or order tickets from www.shakespeare.org
.
This potent comedy launched S&Co.’s first-ever winter season , directed by Adrianne Krstansky and emerging as a critical and box office hit that set the stage for Les L iaisons Dangereuse in 2010 and next winter’s upcoming The Mystery of Irma Vep. After a triumphant Berkshire run , Bad Dates transferred as a co-production to Merrimack Repertory Theatre. Aspenlieder was saluted in Boston with a prestigious Elliot Norton Award for her bravura solo turn , and was nominated for an IRNE Award as well. After her memorable turns at S&Co. as Natasha in Rough Crossing and Suzanne Auban in The L adies Man , the Wall Street Journal declared Aspenlieder the United States ’ “stage comedienne of the year.”
Now, director Eric Tucker comes on board to helm a re-imagined production featuring all new set and design elements as well as staging. Sets are by Carl Sprague , costumes by Lena Sands , lighting design by Stephen D. Ball and sound design by Michael Pfeiffer.
“I had the opportunity to work briefly with Lizzy on The Goat by A.R. Gurney for last year’s Studio Festival of Plays , and I can' t wait to team up and delve with her into Rebeck’s colorful , fluid and completely accessible language. I think Bad Dates will really be a funny and poignant treat for S&Co.’s summer audience, ” Tucker says.
Aspenlieder says she relishes the chance to return to such rich material as Theresa Rebeck’s brilliant script. “I really fell hard, when I worked on this piece a year and a half ago” says Aspenlieder. “I was in love with the story, the text, this character—her situation, her humanity. All of it. I thought I had mined every little morsel of Haley back then but still every day provides another new discovery, nuance, and depth of this wonderfully complex and extremely funny character created by Theresa. Throughout this process I continue to be surprised by our capacity for hope , humor , compassion , and fragility—qualities we all inherently possess.
“I remain very proud of what Adrianne , myself , and the design team created back in 2009 , ” she continues. “But re-exploring this material with Eric’s male perspective is an added joy and sometimes challenge , ” she says with a laugh. “And not only is he an incredibly smart and insightful director , he also happens to be an actor so he has the advantage of seeing the whole picture of the play as well as the underpinnings of the character. I can’t wait to introduce this play to anyone who didn’t catch it the first time around , and to share all the new discoveries we’ve found with those who did.”
Bad Dates springs from the pen of Theresa Rebeck , one of the truly exciting voices in today’s theatre. It made its New York debut in 2003 and is the story of Haley Walker , a single mom raising a teenaged daughter in contemporary Manhattan . After moving to the city from Texas , Haley finds herself managing a suddenly chic restaurant with murky ties to the Romanian mob , and is finally ready to navigate the choppy waters of the dating scene. From the sanctuary of her bedroom , Haley clues the audience in on her comically disappointing adventures in the dating world as well as her increasingly complicated predicament at work.
BIOS
ERIC TUCKER* second season. (Director of Women of Will, Bad Dates and Women of Will: The Complete Journey) S&Co: Pinter’s Mirror (Director). Other Directing Credits inc l ude: Off-Broadway: The Cherry L ane: The Belle of Belfast; Off-off Broadway: The L ibertine , Closer , 16E; Regiona l : Hamlet (with Wi l l iam Hurt , Ste l l a Ad l er Theatre); Macbeth (nominated Best Overa l l Production and Best Director by L .A. Critics); Women of Will (Mercury Theatre , Co l chester , Eng l and); Twelfth Night; Romeo and Juliet (Trinity Repertory Company); Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet , Measure for Measure (Red l ands Shakespeare); Man of L a Mancha, Sanctuary (North American Premiere; VCPA); Watership Down (Wor l d Premiere; Burning Coa l ); Macbeth , Closer (SFGT); The Voyage of the Carcass (Brown P l aywrights Festiva l ); Angels in America: Parts I & II, Hamlet (Beowu l f); Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest (Trinity Conservatory). Eric wi l l be directing yet another production of The L ibertine on Theatre Row in New York in the fa l l . He received his M.F.A. from Trinity Rep Conservatory and is a proud member of Equity since 1996.
Elizabeth Aspenlieder* fifteenth season (Hermione in The Winter’s Tale , Haley in Bad Dates; Director of Marketing/Publicity & Playbill Advertising) S&Co: Les L iaisons Dangereuses (Marquise de Merteuil) , Bad Dates (Haley Walker) , The L adies Man (Suzanne) , Othello (Bianca) , Rough Crossing (Natasha) , The Merry Wives of Windsor (Mistress Ford); Ice Glen (Dulce); The Comedy of Errors (Adrianna) , Much Ado About Nothing (Margaret) , King L ear (Regan) , Ethan Frome (Mattie) , The Valley of Decision (Fulvia) , A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hermia) , A Tanglewood Tale (Sophia) , Twelfth Night (Antonia) , Richard III (Anne) , All’s Well That Ends Well (Helena) , Wit (Susie) , The Winter’s Tale (Perdita) , Mercy (Annie) , Much Ado About Nothing (Ursula) , and Pericles (Thaisa/Diana). Regional: Boston Theatre Works: Angels in America (Angel/Nurse) and Emilia (Othello); Mixed Company: Ten Minutes in the Berkshires Play Festival(s). Canada : Eccentricities of a Nightingale (Alma) , Brighton Beach Memoirs (Nora) , Fifth of July (Shirley) , Ludlow Fair (Rachel). Independent Films: Trigger Finger; Seriously Twisted. Elizabeth won a 2009 Elliot Norton Award for her performance in Bad Dates at Merrimack Repertory and S&Co. , and was recently nominated for an I.R.N.E. award for the same role. She also provides the voices for commercials and animated features.
THERESA REBECK is a widely produced playwright throughout the United States and abroad. She made her Broadway debut in 2007 with Mauritius at the Biltmore Theatre in a Manhattan Theater Club Production , and has written The Scene, The Water's Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann and Spike Heels at Second Stage; Bad Dates and The Butterfly Collection at Playwrights Horizons; and View of the Dome at New York Theatre Workshop. Omnium Gatherum (co-written, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2003) was featured at the Humana Festival, and had a commercial run at the Variety Arts Theatre. Her newest work, The Understudy, premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in July of 2008, starring Tony winner Julie White. Upcoming regional productions include the West Coast premiere of Mauritus at the Pasadena Playhouse in Fall 2008. Her debut novel Three Girls and Their Brother was released in April 2008. Ms. Rebeck is originally from Cincinnati and holds an MFA in Playwrighting and a PhD. in Victorian Melodrama, both from Brandeis University . She is a proud board member of the Dramatists Guild and has taught at Brandeis University and Columbia University .