Susan Hill’s The Woman In Black To Kick Off The Cleveland Play House 103RD Season
Posted August 27, 2018 in Press Releases
CLEVELAND, OH (August 27th, 2018) Cleveland Play House (CPH) is proud to kick off its 2018-2019 Season with the spine tingling tale of Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black. Hill’s gothic ghost story, adapted for the stage by Stephen Mallatratt, will star Bradley Armacost as Arthur Kipps and Adam Wesley Brown as the Actor in the show that Daily Mail called, “A nerve-shredding experience.” Director Robin Herford will recreate his original staging from the London West End. The American premiere of the West End Production is produced by PW Productions and Pemberley Productions. Previews begin on September 15th, with press opening on September 21st at the Allen Theatre in Playhouse Square. Presenting sponsor for this production is DLR Group|Westlake Reed Leskosky
Halloween comes early this year with a bone-chilling story that will shake you to your core. Arthur Kipps never believed in the supernatural until he came face to face with evil. Tonight—desperate to exorcise his demons—he will tell his haunting tale…no matter the consequences. For over 28 years, The Woman in Black has thrilled audiences on London’s West End. Now, CPH is proud to launch the North American tour.
Susan Hill’s novel, The Woman in Black was originally published in 1983. Stephen Mallatratt adapted the book for the stage in 1987 as a holiday show at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, U.K., where Herford was Artistic Director. The play transferred to London’s West End in January 1989. The classic chiller was released as a major motion picture starring Daniel Radcliffe in 2012 and soon became the highest grossing British horror film in 20 years.
“Ghost stories are such a tantalizing and enduring part of our culture because they allow us to explore the possible mysteries, terrors, and intrigue of the afterlife in a safe and fun way,” says CPH Artistic Director Laura Kepley. “The experience of The Woman in Black is very bonding as each night the audience goes on a wild ride together. They will experience the endorphin rush that comes from being scared as well as the cathartic release of collectively exorcising our fears of the unknown, all from the safety of their seats!”
“CPH is excited to be launching the national tour of The Woman in Black that has been delighting audiences in London’s West End for the past 28 years,” Kepley continues. “Clevelanders will be proud to know that the set that will be traveling with the show on the North American tour was constructed entirely in Cleveland.”
“DLR Group|Westlake Reed Leskosky is proud to support Cleveland Play House - and to celebrate our collaboration and their history of serving the community through the performing arts,” said Paul Siemborski, Principal, AIA and National Business Development Leader.
THE WOMAN IN BLACK Cast
BRADLEY ARMACOST (Arthur Kipps) has worked extensively on stage, in film/television, and in voice-over throughout the country. Based in Chicago, he has received numerous Joseph Jefferson Awards and nominations for his stage work. Select credits include Oedipus Complex, The Zoo Story, The Trip To Bountiful, A Touch of the Poet, and Chicago Boys at Goodman Theatre; Playboy of the Western World, Maria Arndt, The Seafarer, and Faith Healer at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; The Merchant of Venice, The Comedy of Errors, Timon of Athens, Antony & Cleopatra, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Elizabeth Rex, and The Madness of King George at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; and You Can't Take It With You and A Life (with the late John Mahoney) at Northlight Theatre. Earlier this season he appeared in Translations at Washington, D.C.'s Studio Theatre. Bradley is an Artistic Associate at Provision Theatre Company (Shadowlands, C. S. Lewis: Onstage, Tuesdays With Morrie) and Irish Theatre of Chicago (The Weir, Moon for the Misbegotten, The Seafarer, Hughie, Shining City). Television credits include the Fox series The Exorcist as Bishop Eagan, Empire, Chicago Fire, Mind Games, Missing Persons, Untouchables, and Early Edition. Film credits include Patriot, Warren, The Company, Barbershop 2, Repetition, and Eight Men Out. Bradley has made numerous appearances as narrator with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the Beyond the Score series.
ADAM WESLEY BROWN (The Actor) Theatre Credits include: Once (Broadway); Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Book of Joseph, The Tempest, Julius Caesar and Henry VIII (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Million Dollar Quartet (Paramount Theatre); Long Way Go Down (Jackalope Theatre, Jeff Award nomination); A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Folger Theatre, Helen Hayes Award nomination); A Christmas Carol (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Film Credits include: Widows and Keith Urban: 30 Songs in 30 Days. Mr. Brown released his debut album Adam Wesley Brown: Live at Bowery Poetry on Apple Music and Spotify. He is represented by Paonessa Talent Agency.
SIMON HEDGER (standby: Arthur Kipps) Simon Hedger recently moved to Chicago from the United Kingdom, where he divided his time between acting, producing and teaching. Recent theatre includes Fear & Misery in the Third Reich (Haven Theatre); The Audience (Timeline Theatre), understudy roles (went on) for Shakespeare in Love (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Volpone, The Jew of Malta, Love's Sacrifice, Shakespeare's Sonnets (Royal Shakespeare Company); Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth (Liverpool Shakespeare Festival); The Threepenny Opera (English Shakespeare Company); Gaffer, Clybourne Park (Unity Theatre); Once Upon a Christmas (LookLeftLookRight) Bash, When the Rain Stops Falling (Said & Done); The Master and Margarita, Rozencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Lodestar Theatre); Beasts and Beauties (Spike Theatre / Kendal Brewery Arts). Television includes Detroiters (Comedy Central), A Touch of Frost, Emmerdale, Place of Execution. Radio plays include Mr. Goodbye, Clomp, I Knew Camus, Hook (BBC). Simon received a BA in Theatre Arts from Bretton Hall and is represented by Gray Talent Group in America and Macfarlane Doyle Associates in the U.K.
NICK VIDAL (standby: The Actor) Theatre credits include: Peter and the Starcatcher (First National Tour); The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Steppenwolf for Young Adults); April 4th , 1968 (Indiana Repertory Theatre); Peter and the Starcatcher (Peninsula Players); Iphigenia 2.0 (Next Theatre Company); That Face, Reverb (Redtwist Theatre); Aftermath (Signal Ensemble); The Gospel According to James (Victory Gardens); Ah, Wilderness! (Eclipse Theatre Company); The Ring Cycle (The Building Stage). Film and Television: Black Box (Feature); Sirens; Chicago Fire.
THE WOMAN IN BLACK Creative Team
ROBIN HERFORD (Director) Robin read Philosophy and English at St Andrews University and trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Much of his early career was involved with Alan Ayckbourn and the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. Joining the company in 1976 as an actor, he was appointed Associate Director in 1979 and was Artistic Director from 1986 to 1988. Robin has appeared in the original production of more Ayckbourn plays than any other actor, from Ten Times Table in 1977 to Henceforward… in 1987, and including the monster 16-play two-hander Intimate Exchanges. He came to London with Season’s Greetings and Suburban Strains (Roundhouse), Intimate Exchanges (Ambassadors) and Henceforward… (Vaudeville). While Artistic Director at Scarborough, he commissioned and directed Stephen Mallatratt’s phenomenally successful adaptation of The Woman in Black, which has been running in the West End for 25 years, and has completed 12 national tours. He always personally directs every recast, and has also directed productions of the play abroad: in Tokyo (in Japanese!), America, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand. Other London productions include The Glory of the Garden (Duke of Yorks); Rough Justice (Apollo); Joking Apart, The Importance of Being Earnest (Greenwich); and The Secret of Sherlock Holmes (Duchess). Elsewhere, directorial credits include Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance, All My Sons, Twelfth Night, Old Times, Clouds, Butley, She Stoops to Conquer, The Beaux’ Stratagem, Touch Wood and Whistle, Calling, Spokesong, Getting On, Tapster, Just Between Ourselves, Forty Years On, A Going Concern, and What Every Woman Knows (Scarborough), Hard Times (Croydon Warehouse), Last of the Red Hot Lovers (Old Laundry Bowness), Ten Times Table, Sisterly Feelings, Woman in Mind, and The Constant Wife (Windsor), Man of the Moment (Chester), Absent Friends and Same Time Next Year (World Tours), Bedroom Farce (Lyceum Edinburgh), A Going Concern (Nuffield Southampton), Time of My Life, Taking Steps, Perfect Days, Shining City (Derby Playhouse), Talking Heads, April in Paris, (Northcott Exeter), Time and Time Again (Salisbury) and The Rivals (Vienna). Most recent regional productions are Hay Fever (Basingstoke), Sugar Daddies (Sonning), Home, Driving Miss Daisy, The Turn of the Screw, Proof, The Mortal Ash, An Inspector Calls, Blithe Spirit, Private Lives, Bedroom Farce, and Taking Steps (Coliseum Oldham) and The Price (New Vic, Stoke on Trent). National tours include Relatively Speaking, Confusions, Time and Time Again, Corpse!, Strangers on A Train, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Bedroom Farce, Season’s Greetings, Rain Man, and Duet for One. As an actor, Robin’s radio credits are numerous, and his TV appearances include Only Fools and Horses, Casualty, and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. Most recently, he has played the lead role of Arthur Kipps in The Woman in Black in Singapore, India, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.
The Design Team for The Woman in Black includes: MICHAEL HOLT (Designer) KEVIN SLEEP (Lighting Designer), GARETH OWEN (Sound Designer), EVA BRENEMAN (Dialect Coach), MAGDALENE SPANUELLO (Associate Director), ANSHUMAN BHATIA (Associate Lighting Designer & Production Manager), kCLARE McKELLASTON (Associate Costume Designer), and RAY NARDELLI (Associate Sound Designer), and NEIL HILLYER (Company Manager). The Production Stage Manager for this production is DAVID A. LORANCA and the Assistant Stage Manager is ANNIE ZARUBA-WALKER. Casting by Laura Stanczyk, CSA. The Woman in Black is produced by PW PRODUCTIONS and PEMBERLEY PRODUCTIONS.
Ticket Information
The Woman in Black will be performed in the Allen Theatre at Playhouse Square September 17th – October 7th, 2018. Tickets range in price from $25-$97 each, $12 rush tickets for currently enrolled students under age 25 with valid student ID, and Young Professional discounts available with YP-CPH Membership. To order single tickets please call 216-241-6000 or visit clevelandplayhouse.com. Groups of 10+ save up to 50% off single ticket prices; call 216-400-7027.
Subscriptions: Subscribers save up to 25%. Flexible season packages available. To purchase subscriptions or get more information, call 216-400-7096 or visit clevelandplayhouse.com
ABOUT PW PRODUCTIONS
PW Productions is one of the West End’s most prolific and significant theatre producers, responsible for some of the most successful theatre productions in British theatre over the past 30 years. They specialize in high-quality production, management and bookkeeping/accountancy services for first-class plays and musicals in the West End, on tour throughout the UK and (given enough notice) throughout the world. They have acted as General Managers, Bookkeepers and Accountants to more than 300 productions in London and throughout the UK.
ABOUT PEMBERLEY PRODUCTIONS
Founded in 2013, Pemberley Productions is a production company specializing in producing overseas tours and new commercial productions in the UK and USA. Led by Producers Tim Smith and Andy Hamingson, Pemberley Productions work has included: Co-producing a European tour of The Public Theater's Apple Family Plays by Richard Nelson in the U.K., Germany and Austria; Two US tours of Filter Theatre's Twelfth Night; Producing Paterson Joseph's new play Sancho on tour in the UK and USA including performances at BAM, The Kennedy Center and Chicago Shakespeare Theater; An Irish tour of the American Players Theatre production of In Acting Shakespeare, written and performed by James DeVita; the USA tour of the acclaimed Georgian Ensemble: Ensemble Basianil; the Irish tour of Michael Morpurgo's Private Peaceful, adapted and directed by Simon Reade. Follow Pemberley Productions on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PemberleyProductions/
ABOUT CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE
CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE, founded in 1915 and recipient of the 2015 Regional Theatre Tony Award, is America's first professional regional theatre. Throughout its rich history, CPH has remained dedicated to its mission to inspire, stimulate, and entertain diverse audiences across Northeast Ohio by producing plays and theatre education programs of the highest professional standards. CPH has produced more than 100 world and/or American premieres, and over its long history more than 12 million people have attended over 1,600 productions. Today, Cleveland Play House celebrates the beginning of its second century of service while performing in three state-of-the art venues at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland. clevelandplayhouse.com
Cleveland Play House is made possible in part by state tax dollars allocated by the Ohio Legislature to the Ohio Arts Council (OAC). The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically. Cleveland Play House is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
###
