Share This Campaign:
The York Shakespeare Company in association with Mercia Entertainment presents three Shakespearean powerhouses in rotating repertory - Antony & Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice and The Winter's Tale.
This is our 10th Anniversary Season and our line-up more ambitious than ever. We need YOUR help to make it happen!
Working in the classical Actor-Manager tradition made famous by the likes of David Garrick, Edwin Booth, Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier, YSC Artistic Director Seth Duerr directs, produces and plays Mark Antony, Antonio and Leontes along with a company of 20 actors rotating in all three plays. Also starring Mary Riley as Cleopatra, Luis de Amechazurra as Shylock, Julia Motyka as Portia, Jenn Remke as Hermione and Renee Williams as Paulina.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
Call me impressed. – The New York Times
Seth Duerr is abominably brilliant. - TheatreScene
We are in the presence of someone who knows how to keep his listeners tuned in and turned on. – CurtainUp
Played masterfully by Seth Duerr, whose authoritative voice demands to be heard. Duerr does a fine job at making a difficult transition look easy...revealing some vulnerability and making him a sympathetic character. Duerr, the artistic director of the York Shakespeare Company, pushes his character to the brink of tragedy. – NY Blueprint
Duerr draws the ambiguous character precisely as written and does not comment on the role within his own performance. We are left to draw our own conclusions about the true moral center of the play’s densely enigmatic anti-hero. – Show Business Weekly
Mr. Duerr is remarkably ego-free for a director-star: His acting is neither showy nor thin; it is naturalistic where naturalism is called for and poetical when the verse rises to poetry. He has a sense of intelligence about him, or rather senses of intelligence: One can see the machinery of Macbeth’s ambition working in Mr. Duerr’s face, and the very different sort of resigned understanding that blossoms in Richard II too late to save him. Mr. Duerr is particularly effective in discovering the many shades and degrees of Macbeth’s regret: His Scottish strongman is not much of a bloodthirsty plotter, more of a man who falls into a single moment of temptation and thereby sets in motion the wheels upon which the tragedy revolves—and he revolves with them, moved along rather than moving them. He wades through a pile of corpses, but he always seems to be looking desperately for an exit, not wishing to be what it is he has become. He goes to his end fighting, but is grateful to be rid of his wretched life. – The New Criterion
The York Shakespeare Company, under the direction Seth Duerr, is a well-rounded group committed to bringing the classics to life. Together, these two entities have combined to create the equivalent of theatrical fireworks. Despite his youthful age, Duerr does an excellent job of capturing Lear's conflicted emotions and weakening grip on reality. He has also surrounded himself with a very strong cast of supporting characters. - Backstage
In a move of remarkable hubris, Seth Duerr, founder and artistic director of the York Shakespeare Company, is directing and playing the leads in four of the Bard's plays, which the company is performing in repertory for one month. I caught one of them, Timon of Athens -- and, judging by this production, Duerr may have actually pulled this stunt off. As Timon, Duerr himself, who possesses the kind of voice, presence, and emotional understanding of his material that brings out the best in every actor and makes Shakespeare's words a treat to listen to. - Theatermania
Duerr is a very busy man...lucky for him and this show, he is very talented as well...The story was told and told effectively...This work was a success and deserves its audience. – Arts Pass
The emotional punch this production carries definitely leaves a bruise. – TheatreSource
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Seth Duerr (Director/Mark Antony/Antonio/Leontes) has appeared in 33 productions of Shakespeare. Roles include: Iago, Claudius, Talbot, Margaret, Chorus, Leontes, Antonio (The Tempest), as well as directing and playing the title role in Coriolanus, Timon of Athens, Macbeth, King Lear, Richard 2, Henry 4, Henry 5, Titus Andronicus and Richard 3. He is the Founder/Artistic Director of The York Shakespeare Company and was the Asst. Artistic Director of the Jean Cocteau Repertory, playing Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet; The Cook in Mother Courage; Lexy in Candida; and Cléante in The Miser. For The Public Theater: Macbeth directed by Moisés Kaufman and Romeo and Juliet directed by Michael Greif. He wrote and directed the first author-approved adaptation of one of Ian McEwan's novels, In Between the Sheets. He starred as Captain Ahab in Orson Welles' Moby Dick - Rehearsed in (The Acting Company and Twenty Feet Productions), Azdak in The Caucasian Chalk Circle for Sonnet Rep, John Proctor in The Crucible for manhattantheatresource and Tupolski in The Pillowman at APAC as well as directing and playing Jamie in YSCs production of Long Day's Journey Into Night. Film: Dangerous Words from the Fearless, The Kindergarten Shuffle and the title role in Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta. He is the lead vocal actor in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. He is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, SDC and The Dramatists' Guild and serves on the Advisory Board of Wingspan Arts with Donna Murphy and Scott Schwartz. He will direct all of YSC's 10th Anniversary Season productions and play Marc Antony, Antonio, Orson Welles, Junius Brutus Booth, and reprise his celebrated performances as Leontes, Lear, Ahab in Moby Dick – Rehearsed and Leslie White in four-time Emmy-winner Randy Cohen’s solo comedy The Punishing Blow. www.SethDuerr.com
Mary Riley (Cleopatra) was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and began her theatrical and musical career at the wee age of 6 as Mary in the church Christmas Pageant. Her love of singing led her to receive her Bachelor of Music from East Carolina University, and her Master of Arts from Radford University. She taught private and class voice for a year at Bluefield College, before deciding she needed to explore the country as a performer and took off for sunny California on a theater contract. Since 2000, Mary has appeared as a professional actress, singer and model across the US, internationally and in her current home of NYC. Some of her favorite roles include: Anna Nicole in the world premiere of Anna Nicole: Blonde Glory, Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, Hermione in The Winter's Tale, Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, and Claire in Proof. Mary performs annually with the Lower East Side Arts Festival at Theater for the New City. Producing Artistic Director at Mercia Entertainment, she is also currently one half of The Unstuffy Divas along with Jennifer Gelber. She was accepted as a part of the TRU - Theater Resources Unlimited Producer Development and Mentorship Program-Self Producing Artist (SPA) division for the 2011-2012 season. Mary is a proud member of Actor's Equity. MaryRiley.net.
The York Shakespeare Company (Executive Producer) was founded in 2000 by its current Artistic Director, Seth Duerr. Working under the classical Actor-Manager system, YSC produced the critically acclaimed repertories of Henry 6 Part 3, Richard 3, Julius Caesar, and Richard 2 in 2001; Coriolanus, Timon of Athens, King Lear, and Henry 5 in 2002; Henry 6 Part 3, Richard 3, Macbeth, and Hamlet in 2003; Henry 4 Parts 1 & 2, Titus Andronicus, and Waiting for Godot in 2004; the first author-approved adaptation of an Ian McEwan novel, In Between the Sheets, in 2006; Nagle Jackson's The Quick-Change Room in 2007; Randy Cohen's solo-comedy The Punishing Blow, The Merchant of Venice & Marlowe's The Jew of Malta in 2009; Long Day's Journey Into Night, Macbeth and Richard 2 in 2010; and True West in 2012. Upcoming productions include Antony & Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale, Moby Dick – Rehearsed, Orson's Shadow, Booth and Small Craft Warnings in 2013. www.YorkShakespeare.org
Mercia Entertainment (Co-Executive Producer) was founded in 2011 by Mary Riley, who wanted create a company not limited to just theater, but film, music, & art. Her long-term vision is to create a place where audiences can come to see a short film, watch a cabaret, see theater, browse an art gallery in the lobby, all while under the same roof, creating a welcoming place of multiple cultural opportunities & events. Mercia Entertainment’s mission is to offer patrons a stimulating, dynamic and educational entertainment experience by retelling classic stories through theater, film, music and art. www.MerciaEntertainment.org
The York Shakespeare Company is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the purposes of The York Shakespeare Company must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
