Ashley Tata’s Women-Led Production of Molière’s Tragicomedy Dom Juan Opens Bard SummerScape 2022, June 23–July 17
Amelia Workman (Dom Juan). Photo by Maria Baranova
Bridging 17th Century France and Late-‘70s America, This World Premiere Production Interrogates Questions of Class, Faith, Gender, and the Individual’s Responsibility to Society
Dom Juan Features a New Translation Commissioned from Scholar Sylvaine Guyot and Fisher Center Artistic Director Gideon Lester
Cast Includes Jordan Bellow, Roger Casey, Kirsten Harvey, Pauli Pontrelli, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Alok Tewari, Tony Torn, and Amelia Workman
The Fisher Center at Bard, which has become one of the world’s preeminent sources of major multidisciplinary performance works, presents a bold, gender-reframed, era-transcending vision of Molière’s 1665 tragicomedy Dom Juan, conceived and directed by Ashley Tata, with a new translation from NYU Professor of French Literature and theater scholar Sylvaine Guyot and Fisher Center Artistic Director Gideon Lester. Reimagining both the titular libertine (Amelia Workman, Fefu and Her Friends at TFANA) and Sganarelle (Gossip Girl’s Zuzanna Szadkowski), Dom Juan’s assistant and sidekick, as women, Tata recasts this subversive, hilarious, and incisive work in a contemporary light—creating a Dom Juan for the 21st century. Commissioned as the opening production of Bard SummerScape 2022, and marking this year’s global celebrations of Molière’s 400th anniversary, Dom Juan makes its world premiere June 23–July 17.
Rounding out Dom Juan’s cast are Jordan Bellow (GNIT at TFANA) as Elver, Roger Casey (Good Girl Gone Bad at HERE) as Pierrot/Alonso, Kirsten Harvey (Die Tote Stadt in the 2019 Bard Music Festival) as Carla/Charlotte, Pauli Pontrelli (The Visitor at the Public Theater) as Gusman/Matty, Alok Tewari (The Band’s Visit original Broadway cast, Homeland) as Louis, Tony Torn (Venus at Signature Theater, Breakfast at Tiffany’s on Broadway) as A Poor Man/Mr. Sunday, and additional cast members to be announced. The creative team includes several of Tata’s collaborators from her celebrated 2020 virtual production of Mad Forest, including Paul Pinto (Original Music), Dan Safer (Choreography), Afsoon Pajoufar (Scenic Design), and Ásta Bennie Hostetter (Costume Design) joined by Cha See (Lighting Design), Chad Raines (Sound Design), Lisa Renkel (Video Design), Fre Howard / Faces by Fre (Hair and Makeup Design), Cha Ramos (Intimacy and Fight Direction), and Taylor Williams (Casting).