2019 \ Jun 5 - 16
The Bald Soprano
Deliciously Zany, Absolutely Absurd
By Eugène Ionesco
Translated and Directed By Rob Melrose
A limited engagement of Eugène Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano, a revival of Cutting Ball’s celebrated 2009 production, closes out the 2018/2019 Season.
About the play:
The play that breaks all the rules is back! In celebration of its twenty years, Cutting Ball is reprising its hit 2009 production of The Bald Soprano, Ionesco's quintessential absurdist masterpiece where chaos cheerfully reigns over logic. Founders Rob Melrose and Paige Rogers collaborate, as director and actor (respectively), to refresh this raucous and beloved past production for Cutting Ball's banner year.
Run time: 1 hour with no intermission
Trailer for the 2009 production
Rob Melrose (Director) is a co-founder of the Cutting Ball Theater and is currently the Artistic Director of The Alley Theatre. His directing credits include: Frankenstein – Playing with Fire, Happy Days, Pen,Julius Caesar – with the Acting Company (The Guthrie Theater); Pericles (The Public Theater); Troilus and Cressida (Oregon Shakespeare Festival – in association with the Public Theater); Much Ado About Nothing (The Old Globe); An Accident (World Premiere, Magic Theatre); Happy Days (PlayMakers Rep); The Creature (World Premiere, BATCC Award for direction, Black Box Theatre), as well as works at Actors’ Collective and Crowded Fire Theater, among others. His directing credits at Cutting Ball include Ondine (World Premiere); Pelleas & Melisande; the Bay Area Premiere of Will Eno’s Lady Grey (in ever lower light); Bone to Pick and Diadem (World Premiere); The Taming of the Shrew; Macbeth; Hamletmachine;
Lauren Hayes (Mrs. Martin) is thrilled to be back at Cutting Ball and joining the The Bald Soprano team. She’s previously been seen in Cutting Ball’s Variety Pack, Caesar Maximus(We Players), Roman Women (We Players), MacBitch (The Breadbox), These Seven Sickness (The Flea Theater), The Mysteries (The Flea Theater), Quiet Peninsula (New York Fringe Festival), and Stop the Virgens (St. Ann’s Warehouse), among others. As an actor and singer who loves working across a wide variety of genres, she’s participated in play development workshops both in the Bay Area and New York City. In her free moments, you’ll find her hiking up mountains, watching birds, baking bread, or curling up with a cup of tea & a book.
Donell Hill (Mr. Martin) After a seven-year break, Donnie is excited to make his way back to the stage in Cutting Ball’s remount of The Bald Soprano. He had the opportunity to play Mr. Martin 10 years ago, and is thrilled to rejoin the cast to celebrate the theater company’s 20th anniversary. Some of his previous roles included Jackie Robinson in California Theater Center’s original piece, Most Valuable Player and Antonio, Caliban, and Ferdinand in Cutting Ball’s three-person production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. A big thank you to John, Ed, and his family for all the love, encouragement, and support. To making memorable magic on the stage!
Doug Nolan (The Fire Captain) is thrilled to return to Cutting Ball! He recently appeared on Cutting Ball’s stage in Uncle Vanya and Timon of Athens. Other credits nclude: Hecuba/Helen (Stanford Repertory Theater); Enrico IV, Threepenny Opera (American Conservatory Theater); Kean, Love’s Labour’s Lost (Shakespeare Santa Cruz); Romeo and Juliet (Marin Shakespeare Company, Half Moon Bay Shakespeare Company), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Marin Shakespeare Company, Half Moon Bay Shakespeare Company); Balm in Gilead, Scattering Poems All Through the Night (Magic Theatre); Arrivals/Departures (Shotgun Players); Macbeth (Half Moon Bay Shakespeare Company); August: Osage County, Coney Island Christmas, Every Christmas Story Ever Told (Coastal Repertory Theatre). MFA: American Conservatory Theater. Next appearing as ‘Touchstone’ in As You Like It at Half Moon Bay Shakespeare this summer.
Radhika Rao (The Maid) is thrilled to return to the Cutting Ball stage where she was last seen in Timon of Athens and A Dream Play). Recently, she has performed in Richard III (African American Shakespeare Company), Hamlet (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival), Strange Ladies (Central Works Theater Company), The Forgotten Empress (Farah Yasmeen Shaikh Dance), as well as with Leela Improv and Eth-Noh-Tec Storytelling. She specializes in creating curriculum that integrates theatre into diverse learning situations including universities, schools, corporations, and community spaces. She is a proud teacher for Cutting Ball’s Tenderloin Theater Discovery Program. Read more at www.radhikarao.org.
Paige Rogers (Mrs. Smith) co-founded Cutting Ball Theater in 1999 where she took nearly two years to create Antigone, workshopping the piece at the Grotowski Institute in Poland and collaborating with translator Daniel Sullivan. Paige also took a long process to create Tontlawald, a play based on an Estonian fairy tale, with playwright Eugenie Chan, co-director Annie Paladino and choreographer Laura Arrington. She has also directed Life is a Dream with David and Asher Sinaiko in the father/son roles, The Wasps by Guy Zimmerman and Maria Irene Fornes’ Mud. As an actor, she was last seen onstage in Eugenie Chan’s plays Bone to Pick and Diadem. Some of her favorite roles at Cutting Ball include Mrs. Smith in The Bald Soprano, Ellie in The Vomit Talk of Ghosts and Kate in Taming of the Shrew, for which she was voted “Best Actress in San Francisco” by the SF Weekly’s annual reader’s poll. Rogers has been seen onstage with Berkeley Opera, Lamplighters, Sonoma County Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, The Kennedy Center, McCarter Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She has a B.A. in English and Theater from Princeton University and attended drama school at Trinity Rep Conservatory.
David Sinaiko (Mr. Smith) is a Cutting Ball Associate Artist, where his credits include: Timon of Athens, Life’s a Dream, Mount Misery, Ubu Roi, The Chairs, The Tempest, Endgame, Taming of the Shrew, and many others. Shotgun Players: Hamlet, Village Bike, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Antigonick, and The Coast of Utopia. Co-founder of Chicago’s New Crime Productions, where credits include: Heart of a Dog, The Balcony, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Methusalem, and Alagazam! Additionally: Just Theater, Golden Thread, Crowded Fire, SF Playhouse, The Goodman Theatre, and The Actor’s Gang. Film includes: The Grifters and Bob Roberts, among others.
