Adventures in Moliere

Greetings! My name is Amy and I'm thrilled to be back at New Rep playing Celimene in The Misanthrope. I've been asked to share my experiences with you via this blog and give you a look into the life of an actor. So here goes my very first post...

It's been a whirlwind few weeks! I finished another show on December 23rd in Connecticut, spent Christmas Eve and Day at home in NYC, and left for Boston at 6 am on December 26th to make it to our first rehearsal at 1 pm the same day! I met my castmates and the crew, saw a model of the set design, the costumes, and we had our first table read. I'm so excited about Audra's magnificent set - I can't wait until it's built so we can play on it! And I'm grateful to Raphael for his exquisite costumes since I find they help me with character development. The table read was great fun. It's amazing to hear the script already begin to come to life!

I'm excited to be a part of this production, and I look forward to the process, but for now, all I want to do is get some sleep.

Until soon!
Amy

PS - My Dad thinks I'm in Buffalo. It's a long story...

The Misanthrope - costume designs

Backstage @ New Rep caught up with Costume Designer Rafael Jaen of The Misanthrope to get an inside peek at his inspiration for the gorgeous show.

What was your inspiration for the costumes, Rafael?

Rafael: The design process has been inspired by a Renoir painting (The Boating Party). Director Adam Zahler has said how much he likes the mood, light and texture of it. For my color palette and fabric choices I have focused in impressionistic paintings by Renoir; for silhouette I have early 1900’s period posters and also portraits from Sargent for the women. Director Adam Zahler and I want to give the show an elegant, colorful, fluid and whimsical look. The idea is to create a highly stylized Edwardian silhouette and evoke the various styles of La Belle Époque. We believe that this goes with the language and actions of the play.

View a slide show of Rafael's sketches and inspiration here: SLIDE SHOW

More about Rafael:
Rafael Jaen is a member of USITT and USA Local 829. He has been designing costumes for over 35 years. His professional design credits include drama, musical comedy, Shakespeare tragedy, opera and dance in regional theatre. His work has been featured in full-page articles in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald and national publication’s including Live Design and TD&T. Mr. Jaen was nominated for a 2006 I.R.N.E Award in Costume Design for the musical Urinetown, produced by the Lyric Stage. Mr. Jaen is currently a Costume Design Faculty at Emerson College. His book Developing and Maintaining a Design-Tech Portfolio was published in 2006 by FOCAL Press/Elsevier. Visit his website.

The Santaland Diaries makes New Rep history!

For the first time in New Rep history, a show sold out before opening night! In fact, The Santaland Diaries has been so popular that we've extended the run until January 1st and added several late-night shows. The tickets for these new shows are going fast, so don't miss your chance.

Above: Guy Olivieri is Crumpet, the wickedly funny Macy's elf.

Food Drive Success

Food Drive Success!

We're thrilled to report that we exceeded our goal of 400 pounds of food for the Greater Boston Food Bank. In just two weeks we raised 565 pounds of food.

Thank you to all of you who brought food or helped pass the word along.