LAFPI

Boston Court Pasadena presents

The World Premiere of

 Measure STILL For Measure

Written and Directed by Jessica Kubzansky

Boston Court’s first-ever immersive production offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of theatre

Extended through Sunday, OCT 22nd!

• Friday, OCT 20, 8 PM
• Saturday, OCT 21, 8 PM
• Sunday, OCT 22, 2 PM

 

Boston Court Pasadena closes their 20th anniversary theatre season with the world premiere of Boston Court’s first immersive play, Measure STILL for Measure, written and directed by Boston Court Artistic Director Jessica Kubzansky, September 7 – October 15 (press opening: September 16). Measure STILL for Measure features Robert Beitzel  (Bruce), Desiree Mee Jung (Alexis), Mara Klein (Brooke), Dinah Lenney (Mary), Leo Marks (Sam), Alexander Matos (J.Todd), Bukola Ogunmola (Dionna), Randy Thompson (Griffin), and  Jenapher Zheng (Frankie).

Boston Court’s first-ever immersive play, utilizing the entire building, will take audiences on a journey behind the curtain to experience the layered and intimate complexities of creating theatre. In this play-within-a-play, a renowned director rehearses a spectacular new production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, “the original #metoo story.”  But backstage, there’s an even bigger drama playing out as the power dynamics of the play and the rehearsal blow up in the course of the night.

At a time where American theatre as a collective is still struggling to find its new normal post- pandemic, Kubzanky’s Measure STILL for Measure is both a love letter to the art form, as well as an examination of the challenging gray areas that theatre-making demands. Measure STILL for Measure lovingly skewers the delicious behind-the-scenes oddities of the rehearsal behaviors that actors, directors, and stage managers  find routine, and the code switching that happens as they oscillate between being fully immersed in the imaginary world of the play to being pulled back to the mundane stressors of the real world. It simultaneously examines the insidious and problematic power dynamics that are inherent in the world of theatre.

 

Not only does this world premiere mark Kubzansky’s directorial debut as the sole Artistic Director of Boston Court but Measure STILL for Measure is also Boston Court’s first immersive play, as well as one of Boston Court’s most ambitious productions.

 

Says Kubzansky, “One thing that seems clear about the moment we’re in right now, is that when possible, theatrical events need to be seen live and at the theatre, so that the experience is not possible to replicate by sitting on your couch and watching a good Netflix show. Measure STILL for Measure is a brand new immersive play that will utilize the entire Boston Court building and allow audience members to move throughout various spaces in the building to see ‘behind the curtain.’ It’s the equivalent of an all-access pass to how theatre gets made. This will be a theatrical experience that people have never seen at Boston Court before.”

 

Measure STILL for Measure marks the second Boston Court production penned by Kubzansky, the first being 2013’s RII, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard II.

 

Surrounding this world premiere production of Measure STILL for Measure  are more than 10 events giving community members opportunities to engage with the play and its subject matter. These events include but are not limited to: post-show discussions on playwriting, acting, direction, design, on Theme, an Intimacy Coordination Workshop, two Pay-What-You-Choose performances, a Community Matinee, an ASL performance, and Student Night. A full schedule and listing of cast and creative team can be found below.

 

Tickets are available now and range from $22 – $47 with discounts available for students, seniors, and Boston Court members. Visit BostonCourtPasadena.org or call 626.683.6801 to purchase tickets or become a member.

 

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About Boston Court Pasadena

Located in Pasadena, California, Boston Court Pasadena is a nonprofit arts center that creates and nurtures innovative, boundary-pushing art that invokes the power of collective imagination to illuminate our common humanity. Boston Court features a state-of-the-art, intimate facility designed to bring audiences and artists closer together. The 75-seat Marjorie Branson Performance Space and the 99-seat Main Stage serve as homes for Boston Court’s season of adventurous theatre and its richly eclectic music series, the annual New Play Reading Festival, and Art Upfront, a rotating visual art program, under the leadership of Artistic Director Jessica Kubzansky. BCP was founded in 2003 by philanthropist  Z. Clark Branson and Founding Producing Director Eileen T’Kaye. For more information about Boston Court Pasadena visit BostonCourtPasadena.org or call 626.683.6801.

 

About Jessica Kubzansky

Jessica Kubzansky (she/her) is a passionate storyteller for the theatre, and a champion of innovation and artistic excellence, and as such she was invited to be one of two founding artistic directors of Boston Court Pasadena, creating a mission and vision for the company that produces risky adventurous new work coupled with intimate artistic excellence. Now Kubzansky shepherds all the art created at Boston Court, including rich and eclectic music concerts as well as theatre. She began her artistic life as a playwright; her first full-length play, Inventory, had its world premiere directed by Edward Albee, with subsequent productions in Austin, San Francisco, and more. She became an award-winning national director working at venues such as Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Arena Stage, Portland Center Stage, A Contemporary Theatre (ACT) Seattle, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, South Coast Rep, The Geffen Playhouse, and many Los Angeles theatres. Kubzansky combines her passions by treating new works like Shakespeare, and Shakespeare like new work, which is how she arrived at her own adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard II, called RII (initially developed and produced at Boston Court, subsequently produced at Santa Cruz Shakespeare Festival). Other favorite Shakespeares she’s directed include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (currently running at Utah Shakespeare Festival) Hamlet (with Leo Marks), The Winter’s Tale (Theater 150), Othello, Measure for Measure (A Noise Within), Macbeth (Antaeus), Richard II, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Illinois Shakespeare Festival), Twelfth Night (Grand Canyon Shakespeare Festival), and a Scottish/American walking production of Macbeth in Edinburgh Scotland. Recently, she directed the LA Drama Critic Circle award-winning The Father with Alfred Molina (Pasadena Playhouse), Jeanne Sakata’s Hold These Truths (San Diego Rep), Luis Alfaro’s Mojada, a Medea in Los Angeles (Boston Court/The Getty Villa), and for Boston Court Pasadena, the world premieres of Kit Steinkellner’s Ladies, and Sarah B. Mantell’s Everything That Never Happened (a new play written in response to The Merchant of Venice), which would have played at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2020 had the Coronavirus not interfered. Kubzansky teaches graduate playwrights and directors at UCLA, has her MFA in Direction from the California Institute of the Arts, and her undergraduate degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins and Harvard. She has received many awards and honors, among them the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatre.

 

Cast & Creative Team

Measure Still for Measure

Written and directed  by Jessica Kubzansky

 

Cast:

Bruce Elliot Norton: The Actor Playing Duke Vincentio; also the play’s Director: Robert Beitzel

Frankie: The Assistant Director: Jenapher Zheng

Dionna: The Actor Playing Isabella: Bukola Ogunmola

Brooke: The Actor Playing Marianna: Mara Klein

Mary: The Actor Playing Escalus/Provost: Dinah Lenney

Sam: The Actor Playing Angelo: Leo Marks

J.Todd: The Actor Playing Claudio: Alexander Matos

Griffin: The Actor Playing Lucio: Randy Thompson

Alexis: The Stage Manager:Desiree Mee Jung

 

Understudies:

Bruce and Sam: Dan Stevens

Dionna: Sharlee Taylor

Griffin and J. Todd:  Will Block

Mary and Alexis: Dawn Alden

Brooke and Frankie: Mary Ann Pianka

 

Creative Team:

Scenic Design: Francois-Pierre Couture

Costume Design: Denitsa Bliznakova

Lighting Design: Tom Ontiveros

Video Design: Jason H. Thompson

Sound Design:John Nobori

Properties Design: Cindy Campos

Production Stage Manager: Kimberly Sanchez Garrido

Dramaturg: Emilie Pascale Beck

Shakespeare Consultant: Miranda Johnson-Haddad

Intimacy Director: Carly D.W. Bones

Casting Director: Julia Flores

Assistant Director: Erica Chamblee

Associate Lighting Designer: Jennifer Gonzalez

Associate Sound Designer: Caitlin Leong

Assistant Stage Manager: Jasmine Leung