The Master and Margarita

János Szász, Director and Co-Adaptor

János Szász is a film and theater director whose work has received numerous international prizes, awards, and honors. Named in 1998 as one of the top 10 up-and-coming film directors in the world by the Sundance Film Festival and Daily Variety magazine, his cinematic oeuvre includes Opium: Diary of a Mad Woman (2007; awarded Best Director by Hungarian Filmweek); Witman Boys (1997; official selection at Cannes; awarded Best Director at Moscow International Film Festival); and Woyzeck (1995; won more than 20 prizes at 55 international film festivals); among others.

In the theater, he has directed plays in Hungary, Norway, and throughout the United States, including critically acclaimed productions of Three Sisters and The Seagull (Chekhov), Marat/Sade (Weiss), Mother Courage and Caucasian Chalk Circle (Brecht), A Streetcar Named Desire (Williams), and Ghosts (Ibsen). Szász is a faculty member at the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest; he directed the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University from 2001 to 2003, and remains on its faculty. A member of the European Film Academy, his film adaptation of Agota Kristof’s novel The Notebook is in postproduction.

Gideon Lester, Co-Adaptor

Gideon Lester is director of theater programs at Bard College, where he curates theater and dance for the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, chairs the undergraduate Theater and Performance Program, and directs Live Arts Bard, the College’s new Residency and Commissioning Program.

He is the cocurator of Crossing the Line, a cross-disciplinary international arts festival in New York City. His translations for the stage include plays by Marivaux, Büchner, and Brecht, and his stage adaptations include Kafka’s Amerika and Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire. From 1997 to 2009 he worked at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as acting artistic director and associate artistic director, and chaired Harvard University’s M.F.A. program in dramaturgy. From 2009 to 2011 he taught at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he founded and directed the Arts Collaboration Lab, in association with Performance Space 122.

Jeffrey Binder, Bengalsky and others

Jeffrey Binder’s Broadway credits include The Lieutenant of Inishmore (James, original Broadway cast, Lyceum Theatre); The Lion King (Zazu, also understudied and performed Scar, New Amsterdam and Minskoff theaters); Mary Poppins (George Banks, New Amsterdam Theatre); and Side Man (Clifford, also understudied and performed Al, Golden Theatre).

He’s been seen in London’s West End in Side Man (Al, London premiere at the Apollo Theatre) and in New York in Romance, The New Testament (New York premieres by Neil LaBute, New York Summer Shorts 4 and 5); Birth and After Birth (Bill, Atlantic Theater Company); Princess Turandot (Pantalone, Blue Light Theatre); and Fresh Faces of Broadway (featured vocalist, Town Hall), among others. He has many regional credits and has appeared on television in Damages, Law and Order, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Guiding Light, All My Children, and Welcome to New York. He has an M.F.A. from New York University.

Ronald Guttman, Woland

Born in Brussels, Belgium, Ronald Guttman performed there at The National Theatre in plays by Beckett, Schnitzler, Racine, Turgenev, and Camus, among others. In New York, he studied with Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler and has appeared at Second Stage, Circle in the Square, Long Wharf, and The Mint.

His more recent work has been predominantly in film and television—most recently The Good Wife, Mad Men, and HBO’s Mildred Pierce. He will be seen later this year in the films Pawn, Girl Most Likely, and Nina (with Zoe Saldana portraying jazz icon Nina Simone). He is the founder of HIGHBROW, a production company for independent film and theater, currently a producer on My Name Is Asher Lev, winner of the Outer Critics Circle award for best Off Broadway play. Further acting credits can be found at IMDB.com, and production credits at www.highbrow.net.

Stephanie Roth Haberle, Margarita

Stephanie Roth Haberle’s Broadway credits include Artist Descending a Staircase (Drama Desk nominee) and Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Royal Shakespeare Company). Off-Broadway credits include The Last Will (Abingdon Theater Company); Eavesdropping on Dreams (Cherry Lane Theater); Titus Andronicus and Cymbeline (Public Theater); Orange, Hat & Grace (Soho Rep); An Oresteia (Classic Stage Company); Chair (Theatre for a New Audience); Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare’s Globe and Victory Theatre); and The Cherry Orchard (Brooklyn Academy of Music), among others.

Regional credits: Marat/Sade (American Repertory Theater with János Szász), Phaedra Backwards and Hamlet (McCarter Theatre), Judgment Day and Rocket to the Moon (Bard SummerScape), Macbeth (Hartford Stage), and Betrayal (Yale Rep). Her film and television credits include Do No Harm (pilot), Crimes and Misdemeanors, Melinda and Melinda, Hollywood Ending, Deconstructing Harry, Philadelphia, Cradle Will Rock, and Songcatcher. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

Arliss Howard, Master

Broadway: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Off-Broadway: Killer’s Head, Public; The Monogamist, Playwright’s Horizon; The Late Henry Moss, Signature Theatre; CQ/CX, Atlantic Theater; also The Geography of Luck, LATC; A Lie of the Mind, Mark Taper Forum; and In the Jungle of Cities, How I learned to Drive, Uncle Vanya (Eliott Norton Award), directed by János Szász at American Repertory Theater.

Selected films and television: Amistad and Jurassic Park: The Lost World with Steven Spielberg; Full Metal Jacket with Stanley Kubrick; Moneyball, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Birth, Tequila Sunrise, A Map of the World, Men Don’t Leave, and Wilder Napalm. Adapted and directed Big Bad Love from Larry Brown’s novel; wrote and directed Dawn Anna, both starring his wife, Debra Winger. Directed and appeared in the series Medium; starred in the AMC series Rubicon; recently completed the upcoming season of HBO’s True Blood.

Peter Macklin, Behemoth and others

Peter Macklin has acted as Edmund in King Lear and The Tempest (with Olympia Dukakis) at Shakespeare & Company, and Annie Get Your Gun (with Deborah Voigt) and Carmen (Anne Bogart, director) at Glimmerglass Festival.

His Off-Broadway and national tour credits include Moby Dick—Rehearsed and The Tempest with The Acting Company; work at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, New Jersey Repertory, Bristol Riverside Theater, 59E59, Baltimore Centerstage; Law and Order SVU; and much more. He has written Someplace Warm (published by Samuel French, Inc.); A Beautiful Building (directed by Francesca Zambello, as part of The Acting Company’s Write-On! New Play Series); Oh! California! (59E59); Oliver and Me; A Different Time; the book to the new musical One; and the recently wrapped short film Dinner@40 (commission).

Michael Medeiros, Pontius Pilate and others

Michael Medeiros studied with legendary actress and coach Uta Hagen and has played in more than 100 film, television, and stage productions, most recently winning critical acclaim in Goodman Theatre’s 2012 production of Camino Real.

Other theater work includes Playwrights Horizons, New York Shakespeare Festival, Long Wharf, Kennedy Center, and many others. He has sung the title roles in Sweeney Todd and Man of La Mancha. Recent film and TV credits include X-Men First Class, Synecdoche New York, and Person of Interest. He starred in Sometime in August and Son of the Morning Star, and has guest-starred as both defendant and defense attorney on Law & Order. He has written and directed two films: the 2007 short Underground and the feature-length dark comedy Tiger Lily Road, to be released this year. He would like to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to his first acting mentor, Glenn Cannon, who passed away this year.

Ean Sheehy ’94, Ivan and others

Ean Sheehy’s move credits include Precious, The Notorious Betty Page, and Company Retreat; the miniseries John Adams; and nine episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent as the character Joshua Simmons, forensic accountant, as well as appearances in the original Law and Order and on Law & Order: SVU.

He has been seen in commercials for NASCAR, Mad River Iced Tea, Massachusetts State Lottery, Xerox, Skittles, and The National Ad Council. His theater credits include Red Eye to Havre de Grace at the Suzanne Roberts Theater (Philadelphia Live Arts Festival) and National Theater of the United States of America’s Chautauqua! at many venues across the country. He has been directed by Andrew McCarthy and Jo Bonnie, and starred in Will Eno’s Thom Pain (based on nothing). He graduated from Bard in 1994 as a Drama/Dance Program major.

Mickey Solis, Koroviev and others

Mickey Solis’s Off-Broadway credits include Orestes in An Orestia (Classic Stage Company), White People (Ensemble Studio Theatre), and Night Over Taos (INTAR, directed by Estelle Parsons).

Among his regional and other theater credits are In a Year with 13 Moons (Yale Repertory); Desire Under the Elms, Romeo and Juliet, and The Seagull (American Repertory Theater); L’Amour Fou (Dangerous Ground Productions; company member); Baal and The Error of Their Ways (HERE Arts); Beckett at 100: Three Plays (with Bill Camp and Alvin Epstein at 92nd Street Y, Appalachian Summer Festival, and New College Theater); and Love’s Labour’s Lost (Kentucky Shakes). His film and television credits include michigan (writer), Lament for the Artist (cowriter), Law & Order, and Law & Order: SVU. Solis has taught acting in Tampa and at Tisch School for the Arts. He studied comparative religion at Western Michigan University and earned his M.F.A. from The Institute for Advanced Theater Training, Harvard University.

Danny Wolohan, Azazello and others

Danny Wolohan has performed regionally at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Portland Center Stage. Danny was recently featured in Variety for his performance at the Humana Festival and in American Theatre magazine as one of seven actors in the nation one should travel to see.

He was named San Francisco’s Best Ensemble Actor by SF Weekly and the Bay Area’s Best Drag Performer of the Year by The Bay Area Reporter. Wolohan is an award-winning writer of greeting cards, and along with playwright Will Eno, was the 2010 Williamsburg Brooklyn Doubles Tennis Champion.

Sonia Feigelson ’13, Ensemble

Sonia Feigelson graduated from Bard’s Theater & Performance Program this spring. She has performed principal roles in several collegiate productions, including Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, Jean Wagner’s Kassandra, Sarah Mitchell’s (Un)Spoken Word(s), and Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde. Her professional film work can be seen in Off the Black and Teenage. Her training includes conservatory programs at Stella Adler Studio and Michael Howard Studios.

Schuyler Helford ’13, Ensemble

Schuyler Helford graduated Bard College in May with a B.A. in theater and performance. She previously performed at the Fisher Center in La Ronde (directed by Benjamin Mosse), (Un)Spoken Word(s) (directed by GT Upchurch), and The Bakkhai (directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz), and 10 other undergraduate productions. She also studied at the British American Drama Academy in London, where she performed in Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (Ovalhouse Theater). She has collaborated with the Hollywood theater company Rogue Machine Theater on a production of Bingo with the Indians (assistant director, stage manager). Helford has a television credit as a recurring role on Anger Management (FX, starring Charlie Sheen).

Hannah Mitchell ’13, Ensemble

Hannah Mitchell graduated from Bard College this past May with a degree in theater and performance. Her acting credits at Bard include Fefu and Her Friends (Jean Wagner), Dot (Emma Griffin), La Ronde (Benjamin Mosse), Gum (Morgan Green), and, most recently, The Bakkhai (Lileana Blain- Cruz). She has acted in several films, including two Senior Project films: Julian’s an Alien and Pale Marble Movie. She devised A Bodies (2011) with seven collaborators across the disciplines of puppetry, film, dance, and prose, and she is currently developing a solo piece, A View from Space.

Alexander Setzko ’13, Ensemble

Alexander Setzko received a B.A. in theater and performance from Bard College in May. He trained at the British American Drama Academy in London, where he appeared in Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (Oval Theatre), directed by Guy Retallack. Past roles at Bard have included Aeneas in Kassandra (directed by Jean Wagner), Chas in The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, and Ted in the film Telephone Call, among several other productions. Setzko has worked as a carpenter and stage technician for several years at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts, and The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College.

[The Fisher Center at Bard] Credit: Bettina Egger

Credit: Bettina Egger

This event occurs on:
Thursday, July 11, 7:30 pm
Friday, July 12, 7:30 pm
Saturday, July 13, 7:30 pm
Sunday, July 14, 3 pm
Wednesday, July 17, 3 pm
Thursday, July 18, 7:30 pm
Friday, July 19, 7:30 pm
Saturday, July 20, 3 pm
Saturday, July 20, 7:30 pm
Sunday, July 21, 3 pm
Fisher Center, Theater Two

Bard SummerScape presents

The Master and Margarita

World Premiere Adaptation

Previews
Thursday, July 11 at 7:30 pm*
Friday, July 12 at 7:30 pm*
Tickets: $30

Performances
Saturday, July 13 at 7:30 pm*
Sunday, July 14 at 3 pm*
Wednesday, July 17 at 3 pm*
Thursday, July 18 at 7:30 pm
Friday, July 19 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, July 20 at 3 and 7:30 pm
Sunday, July 21 at 3 pm*
Tickets: $45
*Limited seating available. Please call the Box Office for more information. 845-758-7900.

Adapted by János Szász and Gideon Lester
after the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov
Directed by János Szász
Based on a translation by Andrea Tompa
Produced by Bob Bursey

Doug Elkins, movement
Maruti Evans, set and lighting designer
Oana Botez, costume designer
Ien Denio, sound designer
Jon Carter, hair designer
Judy Bowman, casting director
Taylor Adamik, stage manager

One hot spring evening, a foreign professor appears in Moscow, with a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and a giant talking cat with a taste for vodka. This elegant stranger is none other than the Devil, come to wreak havoc on the city, and to demonstrate to a godless world the truth of good and evil.

What follows is a story of unceasing verve and imagination, a joyous and sometimes terrifying journey that transports us from the alleyways and garrets of Moscow to the stage of a theater, from the deserts of biblical Judea to the glittering splendor of the Devil’s ballroom. And at the still center of this supernatural frenzy stands a pair of lovers: the Master, a writer, and Margarita, who must journey to hell to save him.

A contemporary of Stravinsky, Mikhail Bulgakov wrote The Master and Margarita in the 1930s, but its satirical vision of the Soviet Union under Stalin was so acute that the novel was suppressed until 1967. The internationally renowned Hungarian film and theater director János Szász will apply his opulent theatrical vision to this new stage adaptation of Bulgakov’s beloved novel, now justly regarded as one of the great masterpieces of the 20th century. Suitable for audiences 15 and older (contains nudity).

This performance has been underwritten by the Martin and Toni Sosnoff Foundation and has also received support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding.

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Round-trip Bus from NYC for The Master and Margarita
Sunday, July 13 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, July 14 at 3 pm
Sunday, July 21 at 3 pm

The Master and Margarita

János Szász, Director and Co-Adaptor

Gideon Lester, Co-Adaptor

Jeffrey Binder, Bengalsky and others

Ronald Guttman, Woland

Stephanie Roth Haberle, Margarita

Arliss Howard, Master

Peter Macklin, Behemoth and others

Michael Medeiros, Pontius Pilate and others

Ean Sheehy ’94, Ivan and others

Mickey Solis, Koroviev and others

Danny Wolohan, Azazello and others

Sonia Feigelson ’13, Ensemble

Schuyler Helford ’13, Ensemble

Hannah Mitchell ’13, Ensemble

Alexander Setzko ’13, Ensemble

Director János Szász talks about Bulgakov, Stalin, and The Master and Margarita

Bard SummerScape presents

The Master and Margarita

World Premiere Adaptation

Browse the SummerScape 2013 Brochure

TRANSPORTATION