06/07 limited season

by adele edling shank
based on the novel by virginia woolf
music composed by paul dresher
directed by les waters
the roda theatre
february 23–march 25, 2007
WORLD PREMIERE

running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes,
including one 15 minute intermission

the show

Last season, director Les Waters gave Bay Area audiences a breathtaking production of The Glass Menagerie. Now the Obie Award-winning director reflects upon another family with To the Lighthouse, a world-premiere adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s landmark novel. Waters and his cast bring Woolf’s incandescent characters to life on stage, and a live string quartet uses brilliant new music by Paul Dresher to further illuminate the Ramsay house. Here, a couple lives, loves and endures; children play, fight and grow; and a painter struggles to capture the transient beauty of daily life.

the artists

Known as both an essayist and novelist, Virginia Woolf’s innovative style exploded the boundaries of prose to shed light on the inner lives of women through works that include A Room of One’s Own, Mrs. Dalloway and Orlando.

Director Les Waters won an Obie at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Big Love. The New York Times placed his production of Eurydice at Yale Rep among the Top 10 Plays of 2006, and Time Out New York named his off-Broadway production of Apparition one of the Best 5 Plays of 2005. Last year, he directed Rita Moreno in Berkeley Rep’s hit revival of The Glass Menagerie.

Composer Paul Dresher is just back from India. His work has been heard around the world—including at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the New York Philharmonic and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. A current Guggenheim fellow, he has applied his signature style to collaborations with diverse artists such as choreographer Margaret Jenkins, poet June Jordan, playwright Charles Mee and director Robert Woodruff.

Playwright Adele Edling Shank is known for her six-play cycle, The California Series. The editor of TheatreForum and head of the playwriting program at UC San Diego, she also wrote Rocks in Her Pocket, which features the ghosts of Diane Arbus, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf.