Riverside - Riverside Theatre will present the area premiere of Doubt: A Parable, written by John Patrick Shanley. Doubt was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony Awards in the same year. The production will take place January 25 – February 17.
Set in a Bronx Catholic School in 1964, Doubt sets the stage for a thrilling investigation into moral uncertainty. Pitting the no nonsense school principal, Sister Aloysius, against the charming, laid back Father Flynn, the “he said, she said” clash surrounding suspicions of sexual misconduct with a young student carry devastating consequences. The richness of Shanley’s characters provides the setting for a riveting debate on the nature of faith and certainty, presenting each side with justification and humanity.
Playing the role of Sister Aloysius is Riverside Theatre Artistic Director, Jody Hovland. Hovland has been part of the leadership as well as a working artist with Riverside Theatre since its founding in 1981. Most recently, she appeared in the 2007 Shakespeare Festival as Goneril in King Lear and Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Last season on Gilbert Street, she performed in Collected Stories and directed The Lonesome West. She holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Iowa and is a Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Cornell College.
The role of the charismatic Father Flynn will be played by Iowa City Native, Tim Budd. Budd was a company member of the 2007 Riverside Theatre Shakespeare Festival, playing the Fool in King Lear and Dr. Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Budd also directed Riverside’s annual monologue festival, Walking the Wire, in 2006. He finished his graduate studies in acting at the University of Iowa and works at Prairie Lights Bookstore.
Kristy Hartsgrove, of Chicago, will be playing Sister James, the young and naïve antagonist to Sister Aloysius. Recent roles in Iowa City include Lynn in Red Herring and Louise in Empty Plate in the Café du Grande Boeuf as part of the Iowa Summer Repertory’s 2007 season. She also appeared as Adriana in Comedy of Errors and Maria in Twelfth Night with the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and played the role of Yerma with the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble in Chicago. Hartsgrove has an MFA in Acting from Illinois State University.
Connie Winston will round out the cast as Mrs. Muller, mother of Donald, who is unwillingly pulled into the controversy. Winston has performed in New York City venues such as La MaMa, E.T.C., New Dramatists, The Ohio Theatre, Soho Repertory Theatre and The Talking Band. She has appeared on Law and Order as Judge Shirley Taylor. Winston has an MA in Performing Arts from Emerson College and is a first year MFA Dramaturgy student at the University of Iowa.
The production will be directed by Bruce Wheaton. Wheaton served as Riverside Theatre’s first Artistic Director in 1981. Most recently, he directed King Lear in the 2007 Shakespeare Festival. He holds a BA in Drama and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa.
The production’s running time is 90 minutes without intermission. For tickets or more information, go here.
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2 comments:
I thought Riverside's production of "Doubt" was outstanding, the ensemble acting riveting, the direction taut and wise, and the play itself superbly well written.
I find that, as a Catholic school boy from Providence Rhode Island in the 1950's to late 1960's, "Doubt" has stirred up some muddy waters for me.
1.) If the Father Flynn of the play is like any number of Father Flynns I knew, he is one lonely man. Think about it -- separated from the society around him by his vows, living nearly alone in a rectory with a (usually) much older pastor with whom he might have little in common (and possibly some personality conflicts, if not outright dislike and discord) and sometimes (in larger parishes) another younger priest. The bottle was often a refuge and a solace for a number of priests I knew.
The sisters, too, made great sacrifices by taking their vows, but they usually lived together in a convent and forged a comfortable family life with each other -- shared chores, meals together, TV watching in the evening, etc.
One day, when I was an 8th grader, one of the elderly retired sisters lay near death upstairs in the convent attached to the school. It was understood that "this was the day" she would probably pass. A reverent hush lay over the school that afternoon. We students in grades 1-8 worked quietly on our own as our teacher nuns stood silently by the open doors of their classrooms, awaiting word. At last, a nun appeared at the far end of the corridor and nodded once, whereupon all the teaching nuns rushed up the corridor and upstairs to say their fair wells.
2.) I can say, as a former altar boy like Donald Muller, that we were completely at the mercy of those charismatic power figures in our lives, the parish priests. On one occasion, fortunately, I was able to fend off a particularly maladjusted young priest (who kept pinning me to the wall behind the church and calling me "Albert Dear") before anything untoward happened. It probably helped that the old church custodian peered none-too-discretely around the corner at us and let it be known that he was watching.
3.) I nearly became a Father Flynn, spending four years in a diocesan seminary before my own accumulated "doubts" propelled me out into the world. And I discovered the following, which only made full sense years later in the light of the recent mass publicity of the 2000's:
The priesthood was, in many ways, a refuge and a safe haven for young homosexual Catholic men of that era. (No one in those pre-liberation days was "gay" and no one was out of the closet.) A Catholic boy could serve God as a priest, please his mother and father, and above all, avoid nagging questions about why he did not date or seem interested in girls or in starting a family.
It was only in retrospect that I realized the extent of the homosexual subculture in our diocesan seminary, and in the priesthood at large. The older priests eventually gained positions of power as pastors, monsignors and bishops and were therefore in a position to subtly protect those in their "old boy network." Thus the outrages of offending priests being shuffled around as revealed in the Boston scandals and elsewhere.
4.) I thought Tim Budd was quite spot on in his portrayal of Father Flynn. He really got that sense of shiny confidence, almost arrogance, of a young priest who knows he is adored by everyone and can do no wrong -- until he does do wrong, that is.
There were a few tiny details that were not quite right. For example, most priests I knew would end their sermons with the Sign of the Cross ("In the name of the Father, and of the Son...") by essentially throwing it away quickly and perfunctorily, rather than dwelling on it reverently as Tim does.
But that's a quibble. Generally, I thought Tim was excellent, as were Jody, Christy and Connie.
Keep up the great work, Riverdogs. You make us proud!
Al Constantineau
Thanks so much for your thoughts, Al. We love to have people talking about theatre on the blog. Hopefully, more people will follow your lead. We just posted a review of Doubt and like you, the reviewer thought it was an excellent show.
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