Some relationships are tricky, and The Bard sets out to remind us of that inconvenient truth via one of theater’s most unconventional heroines, Helena. Fiercely determined to get what she wants (in this case, the almost equally enigmatic Bertram), Helena has quite the bag of tricks, entrapment not least among them. Since All’s Well That Ends Well defies easy categorization, it is sometimes called a “problem play.” Needless to say, we take issue. True enough, the play deals in the complex currency of life and love. If that’s problematic, so too then is it funny, beautiful, even outrageous. Or, as Shakespeare himself puts it, “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”
First Performance: Friday, June 11 8:00 p.m.
Opening Night: Saturday, June 19 8:00 p.m.
3 hours including one 20-minute intermission.
Parental Advisory: We recommend this play for ages 15 and up, however younger teens comfortable with mature themes may also enjoy it.
| Director | John Langs** |
| Costume Designer | Robert Morgan† |
| Scenic Designer | Takeshi Kata† |
| Sound Designer | Sarah Pickett† |
| Lighting Designer | Michael A Peterson |
| Voice & Text Coach | Jan Gist |
Cast
| King of France | Jonathan Smoots* |
| Duke of Florence | Michael Huftile* |
| Bertram, Count of Rossillion | Matt Schwader* |
| Countess of Rossillion, mother to Bertram | Tracy Michelle Arnold* |
| Helena, a gentlewoman protected by the Countess | Ally Carey |
| Lafew, an old lord | John Pribyl* |
| * | Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers |
| ** | Member of Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, an Independent Labor Union |
| † | Member of United Scenic Artists |
Off the Isthmus: APT
| 9:13AM.July 19th, 2010
An Isthmus video interview with the lovely Ally Carey. Click in to watch.
Read On »
How many buttons does it take to dress the cast of All’s Well That Ends Well?
| 11:29AM.June 15th, 2010
It starts with an idea. The director creates his vision for a play and shares it with his design team.
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The ABCs of APT
| 9:35AM.June 14th, 2010
A 2010 season preview by 77 Square's Lindsay Christians.
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Inside this Cinderella story of a commoner’s daughter on a great quest to win her handsome prince resides one of Shakespeares most shocking and timeless themes. At its heart All’s Well is about how flawed we are as human beings and the necessity to accept and forgive ourselves this fact if any good is to be made out of our lives. In this story, as in life, the characters are on a great adventure. They make choices that hurt the ones they love; they make many messy – and some irrevocable – mistakes all in pursuit of a perceived heart’s desire. In the final accounting they stand looking at one another perhaps a little wiser and take what good they can out of the circumstances they have created. Because really, what is our alternative? All’s Well That Ends Well deals with life in all its truthful sticky contradictions.
I kept two quotes close at hand as I worked on the play. The first from the play itself:
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and
ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our
faults whipped them not; and our crimes would
despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.
The second, from an unknown author, I imagined young Helena and Bertram both had taped to the mirror in their bathroom:
“Life is not a journey to the grave with intentions of arriving safely in a pretty well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming ... WOW! What a ride!”
Thank you for taking the trip Up the Hill and through the woods to sit with us inside this story.
-John Langs
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