Quartet

July 25 - Aug. 31, 2014
(Opening Night: Thursday, July 31)
Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center

By Ronald Harwood
Directed by Richard Seer
Scenic Design by Ralph Funicello
Costume Design by Charlotte Devaux
Lighting Design by York Kennedy
Sound Design by Christopher R. Walker
Stage Manager, Annette Yé

From the author of The Dresser comes an uplifting comedy recently made into a major motion picture.  Three former opera singers, Reginald, Cecily, and Wilfred, lead a harmonious existence at a home for retired musicians — until Reginald’s ex-wife, grande dame Jean Horton, arrives.  As long-ago grudges surface and old scores are settled, the quartet heads back into the rehearsal room for one final encore.  Brimming with humor and stirring music, Quartet features a masterful cast under the direction of Globe favorite Richard Seer (The Last Romance).


Production Photos
(from left) Robert Foxworth as Reginald Paget, Elizabeth Franz as Jean Horton, Jill Tanner as Cecily Robson, and Roger Forbes as Wilfred Bond in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 31, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
Elizabeth Franz as Jean Horton and Robert Foxworth as Reginald Paget in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 31, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
(from left) Jill Tanner as Cecily Robson, Robert Foxworth as Reginald Paget, Roger Forbes as Wilfred Bond, and Elizabeth Franz as Jean Horton in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 31, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
Robert Foxworth as Reginald Paget in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 31, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
Elizabeth Franz as Jean Horton in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 31, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
Roger Forbes as Wilfred Bond in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 31, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
Jill Tanner as Cecily Robson in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 31, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
(from left) Roger Forbes as Wilfred Bond, Jill Tanner as Cecily Robson, and Elizabeth Franz as Jean Horton in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 31, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
(from left) Roger Forbes as Wilfred Bond and Robert Foxworth as Reginald Paget in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 31, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
(from left) Roger Forbes as Wilfred Bond and Robert Foxworth as Reginald Paget in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 24, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
Roger Forbes as Wilfred Bond and Jill Tanner as Cecily Robson in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 24, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
Roger Forbes as Wilfred Bond and Elizabeth Franz as Jean Horton in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 24, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
 
 
(from left) Elizabeth Franz as Jean Horton and Jill Tanner as Cecily Robson in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 31, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
Jill Tanner as Cecily Robson and Robert Foxworth as Reginald Paget in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, directed by Richard Seer, July 25 - Aug. 31, 2014 at The Old Globe. Photo by Jim Cox.
  


Cast and Creative Team

(click on image to download a high-resolution photo)
Roger Forbes (Wilfred Bond) has acted for over 40 years in both the United States and in his native England. His credits include four years at the National Theatre under Sir Laurence Olivier as well as appearing in London’s West End at the Garrick and Cambridge Theatres. In the U.S. he was a founding member of Geva Theatre in New York, where he acted in and directed over 30 plays. His credits include five seasons with Alabama Shakespeare Festival as well as seasons at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Alliance Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Studio Arena Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, Florida Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Portland Center Stage. He spent two seasons at the Stratford Festival in Canada and has worked extensively in Vienna and Frankfurt. ln 2007 he premiered his one-man show Falstaff at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, which won him a Best Actor Award for 2007-2008, and subsequently toured the U.K. in 2008. He has made numerous film and television appearances in both the U.K. and the U.S. and has performed Off Broadway but never on it! His directing credits include King Lear (Ohio University), The Seagull (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Shear Madness (Studio Arena Theater), Time and the Conways (The University of Utah), and most recently A Capital Affair and Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (Vienna’s English Theatre). He has taught at Ohio University, Auburn University, and summer courses at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he is currently a member of the audition board.
Robert Foxworth (Reginald Paget) is an Associate Artist of The Old Globe and has appeared in Other Desert Cities, Inherit the Wind, Richard III, August: Osage County, King Lear, The Madness of George III, Cornelia, Julius Caesar, Private Lives, Below the Belt, Love Letters,and Antony and Cleopatra. In 2011 he played Arthur in Superior Donuts at San Diego Repertory Theatre, for which he won Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. He most recently appeared in Other Desert Cities at the Mark Taper Forum in L.A. His most recent appearance on Broadway was in August: Osage County as Charlie Aiken. Also on Broadway, Foxworth has appeared in Twelve Angry Men, Ivanov, Honour, Judgment at Nuremberg,and Henry V. He won the Theatre World Award for his portrayal of John Proctor in The Crucible at Lincoln Center Theater. His television series include “Storefront Lawyers,” “Falcon Crest,” and “LateLine” with Al Franken. He has guest starred on countless television shows over the years such as a two-year stint on “Six Feet Under” and episodes of “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Foxworth’s regional theatre work has included Cyrano de Bergerac (Great Lakes Theatre Festival), Iago in Othello and The Scottish King in Macbeth (Guthrie Theater), George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Hartford Stage), Uncle Vanya (Geffen Playhouse), and many more. He is the voice of Ratchet in the Transformers movies.   
Elizabeth Franz (Jean Horton) It is impossible to do justice to any veteran actor’s career in the allotted 200 words. In her 50 years of performing, Franz has acted on Broadway, at the Royal National Theatre in London, Off Broadway, in Scotland and in Egypt, all around the United States, in films both for the big screen and television, and on television series, both dramatic and comedic. She has been nominated numerous times for Tony, Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards and has been awarded a Tony Award, Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award, Boston’s Elliot Norton Award, Los Angeles’s Ovation Award, Friends of New York Theatre (FANY) Award, and Dramatist Guild Fund’s Lifetime Achievement Award.  
Jill Tanner (Cecily Robson) is delighted to be back at The Old Globe after a 30-year absence. She previously played the Nurse in Jack O’Brien’s production of Romeo and Juliet, Rosaline in Love Labour’s Lost,and Klytemnestra in Elektra. On Broadway she played in Dividing the Estate, Enchanted April, Rose, My Fat Friend, and No Sex Please, We’re British. Last season she played Lady Margaret in Mint Theater Company’s production of A Picture of Autumn in New York. She has played leads in almost every regional theatre in the country. Tanner has recorded over 100 books for both the Library of Congress and Recorded Books.
  Ronald Harwood (Playwright) was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1934 and went to England in 1951. His novel Home was awarded the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize for Fiction in 1994. He is the editor of The Faber Book of Theatre and the author of a history of the theatre, All the World’s a Stage, which accompanies the BBC television series, which he presented. He also wrote Sir Donald Wolfit, C.B.E.: His Life and Work in the Unfashionable Theatre. He was Visitor in Theatre at Balliol College, Oxford. Since 1993 he has been President of PEN International, the world organization of writers. His plays include A Family, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (from Evelyn Waugh), The Dresser, Tramway Road, The Deliberate Death of a Polish Priest, Interpreters, J.J. Farr, Ivanov (from Anton Chekhov), Another Time, Reflected Glory, and Poison Pen. Taking Sides had simultaneous world premieres in Chichester and Krakow prior to opening at the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End. Another Time, under the title Temps Contre Temps, won the Molière Award for Best Show, Paris, 1993. His play The Handyman opened in Chichester in September 1996 starring Frank Finlay. He won the Academy Award for his screenplay of The Pianist and was nominated for The Dresser and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. His also wrote the films The Browning Version starring Albert Finney and Cry, the Beloved Country starring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. In 1996 he was awarded the Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
  Richard Seer (Director) is an award-winning director and actor who has directed and/or performed on Broadway, Off Broadway, on film and television, and in over 70 productions at regional theatres in this country and Great Britain, including The Kennedy Center, Goodman Theatre, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Huntington Theatre Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Studio Arena Theater, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the Sybil Thorndike Theatre in England. He originated the role of Young Charlie in the 1978 Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Hugh Leonard’s Da and received the Theatre World Award for his performance. At The Old Globe, he has directed productions of Other Desert Cities, God of Carnage, Life of Riley, The Last Romance, The Price, Romeo and Juliet, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Trying, Fiction, Blue/Orange (San Diego Critics Circle Award), All My Sons, Da,and Old Wicked Songs. His recent directing assignments also include Third (Huntington Theatre Company), Bill W. and Dr. Bob and Sonia Flew (San Jose Repertory Theatre), and Other Desert Cities (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley). He received his M.F.A. in directing from Boston University, where he was awarded the prestigious Kahn Directing Award. In 1990, Seer was invited to return to Boston University’s School for the Arts as an Associate Professor of Acting and Directing. He has been Director of the Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Theatre Program since 1993 and is the University’s current Chair of Theatre. In 2010, he was awarded the Craig Noel Distinguished Professorship.
  Ralph Funicello (Scenic Design) is an Associate Artist of The Old Globe and has designed the sets for over 79 productions for the company including the recent productions of Water by the Spoonful and the Summer Shakespeare Festivals 2004-2013. Elsewhere, Funicello has designed scenery on and Off Broadway and for many theatres across the country and abroad, including Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, American Conservatory Theater, A Contemporary Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Arizona Theatre Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Guthrie Theater, South Coast Repertory, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Huntington Theatre Company, Intiman Theatre, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatre Royal Bath, New York City Opera, LA Opera, and San Diego Opera. He has received a Tony Award nomination, the Michael Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration, and numerous awards from the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the LA Drama Critics Circle. He currently holds the position of Powell Chair in Set Design at San Diego State University.
  Charlotte Devaux (Costume Design) has designed over 20 productions at The Old Globe including Other Desert Cities, Somewhere, The Last Romance with Marion Ross, Kingdom, The Price, Trying, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Body of Water, Since Africa, Da, and All My Sons. She designed La Jolla Playhouse’s production of Blood and Gifts, 9 Parts of Desire for Mo’loelo Performing Arts Company, numerous productions for San Diego Dance Theater, and Other Desert Cities at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. She also designed Miami Libre, a Cuban dance musical, for the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami. Internationally, she has designed costumes for theatre and television in New Zealand for 10 years. She is the former costume designer and stylist for Television New Zealand’s children’s programming and dramas. She is an Associate Artist with the Christchurch Drama Center and has designed for The Court Theatre and Christchurch Repertory Theatre, New Zealand. She holds additional costume design credits in Sydney, Australia, and London. Devaux holds the position of Resident Associate Costume Designer at The Old Globe where she has worked on over 70 productions, including A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, The Winter’s Tale, The Times They Are A-Changin’, Robin and the 7 Hoods, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sammy, and the Summer Shakespeare Festival.
  York Kennedy (Lighting Design) is a lighting designer for the performing arts and architecture. His designs for the stage have been seen in theatres across America and in Europe including Arena Stage, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Sacramento Opera, Polish National Opera, Alley Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Hartford Stage, Theatre for a New Audience, Yale Repertory Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Goodspeed Musicals, and the Denver Center Theatre Company. He has designed over 45 productions for The Old Globe and spent six seasons as resident lighting designer for the company’s Shakespeare Festival. His awards for theatrical lighting include the Dramalogue Award, San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award, Back Stage West Garland Award, AriZoni Theatre Award, and the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award. In the dance world he has designed for Malashock Dance, Brian Webb, and Tracey Rhodes. As an architectural lighting designer he has designed both nationally and internationally for numerous themed environments, theme parks, and residential, retail, restaurant, and museum projects including the Sony Metreon Sendak Playspace in San Francisco, Warner Bros. Movie World in Madrid, Le Centre de Loisirs in Morocco, and The LEGO Racers 4D attraction in Germany, Denmark, England, and the U.S.A. He is Head of Lighting Design in the theatre program at San Jose State University and is a graduate of the California Institute for the Arts and the Yale University School of Drama.
  Christopher R. Walker (Sound Design) is very pleased to be returning to The Old Globe. Based in Seattle, he is the resident designer for the Seattle Children’s Theatre and has also designed there at Seattle Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, Intiman Theatre, and The 5th Avenue Theatre. In California he has designed for La Jolla Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Geffen Playhouse, and American Conservatory Theater. He spent seven seasons as the resident designer at American Repertory Theater in Boston, designing over 40 productions while there. He has also designed in New York, Houston, Austin, Philadelphia, Princeton, Providence, Phoenix, New Haven, Washington D.C., Chicago, Minneapolis, and Kansas City as well as internationally in Singapore, Taiwan, and Moscow. Commercially he has designed for Intel, Harvard University, Starbucks, and PopCap Games. He holds a degree in Classical Piano Performance from Cornish College of the Arts.
  Ursula Meyer (Voice and Dialect Coach) has studied voice with Cicely Berry, Patsy Rodenburg, Andrew Wade, Arthur Lessac, and Kristin Linklater. She graduated with distinction from the Advanced Voice Studies Program at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in London and is a designated Linklater teacher. Her regional credits include The Old Globe, the Guthrie Theater, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, Yale Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, and the Idaho, Santa Cruz, and Utah Shakespeare Festivals, as well as 15 seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Meyer is currently on the faculty at UC San Diego. In 2007, she was a recipient of UCSD’s Saltman Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award.
  Annette Yé (Stage Manager) served as stage manager for The Old Globe’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Few, Pygmalion, God of Carnage, Anna Christie, Groundswell, and the 2010 production of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Her other Globe credits include A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2011-2013), Boeing-Boeing, The First Wives Club, Opus, Dancing in the Dark, Hay Fever, and the Summer Shakespeare Festivals 2008 and 2010-2013.