We are bringing the classically exquisite story of Cyrano de Bergerac to our Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor Stage, featuring an expansive design team and cast of AEA actors that includes our Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary in the title role. Running February 2-19, Cyrano is directed by Atlanta’s Amelia Fischer and is generously sponsored by Pat and Ernest Kelly.
We are using the early English translation of Brian Hooker of the 1897 French masterwork by Edmond Rostand, who based his fictionalized heroic comedy on the historical Cyrano of the 17th Century. This five-act translation is edited by McCleary, with Stephanie Shine and Fischer, into two full acts.
Cyrano de Bergerac offers lyrical poetry, mythic romance, modern comedy, and tearful joy in a heartful spectacle ideal for all ages. A daring Gascon swordsman and romantic poet, Cyrano has loved deeply only one woman all his life – the exquisite Roxane. As Cyrano considers himself an uncommonly ugly due to the “grotesque” size of his nose, he hides his love. When a new recruit in the Cadets appears (the handsome Christian), love at first sight strikes between him and Roxane. Promising Roxane to protect her young love, Cyrano offers to assist the linguistically-challenged Christian in the act of wooing – both in letters and, as it turns out, in person in the dark of night. This, no doubt, will be the closest Cyrano may get in his life to achieving his love, he feels. Roxane falls for Cyrano’s verses, but she believes them to be Christian’s, whom she rapidly marries prior to his and Cyrano’s departure for war. In the siege of battle, Cyrano keeps his promise to write Roxane letters on behalf of Christian (without his knowing) by crossing enemy lines. The letters prompt Roxane to visit the battleground, where tragedy awaits. Fifteen years later, during autumn in a Convent’s yard, one of literature’s archetypal romances is brought to ever-lasting poetic life.
This is the play that inspires a revolution of the heart and a glimpse of its grace.
Alongside McCleary, the cast of Cyrano de Bergerac features TSC veterans Marquis Dijon Archuleta (TSC’s Romeo in Romeo and Juliet) as Valvert/pastrycook/cadet/a Sister, Paul Bernardo (Iago in Othello and Cassius in Julius Caesar) as Comte de Guiche, Cara McHugh Geissler (Biondello in Taming of the Shrew and Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet) as Ligniere/Lise/Sister Claire, Lauren Gunn (most recently Lady Macbeth) as Carbon/Montfleury/a sister and the Assistant Fight Director, Stuart Heyman (a TSC founding member recently seen as Lafew in All’s Well That Ends Well) as Ragueneau, Michael Khanlarian (a TSC founding member recently seen as Macbeth) as Le Bret, Kellan Oelkers (Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Henry VI) as the orange girl/a cut-purse/a meddler/first cadet/Capucin/Sister Marthe, and Nicolas Dureaux Picou (Romeo, Malcolm in Macbeth, Lords Byron/Lovelace in Ada and the Engine) as Christian, with TSC newcomers Amaree Cluff as Roxane and Allison Hesselberg as the Duenna/Mother Marguerite/second pastrycook/cadet.
Director/Fight Director Amelia Fischer (our assistant director for Hamlet) has worked as a director, actor, fight director, and intimacy director for theatres from Washington D.C. to Washington, including Untethered Theatre Project, The Alliance, Actor’s Express, Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, Horizon, Synchronicity, Gainesville Theatre Alliance, Rice University, and Lamar University
“After ten years, I am honored to be reunited with my Tennessee Shakespeare community to direct this story of audacious idealism and beauty,” says Fischer. “Our playwright’s goal as a dramatist was to give ‘leçons d’âme’ or ‘lessons for the soul.’ He gave us Cyrano and Roxane’s poetic, heartfelt, and sometimes violent navigation of the differences between image and soul. I cannot help but be drawn to these two epic characters as they struggle to forge and recognize a connection that resonates as true.
“Given our culture’s ever-growing obsession with the curated presentations of people on social media, the time seems fertile for people to hear this play. Our souls need to re-learn how to love ourselves and each other, and I look forward to sharing this world of romantic deeds and reckless dreaming with our Mid-South audiences.”
In a speech to the Académie française in 1903, playwright Edmond Rostand spoke about “panache,” a word and theme that weaves throughout Cyrano de Bergerac and informs the spirit of TSC’s 15th season: “A little frivolous perhaps, most certainly a little theatrical, ‘panache’ is nothing but a grace which is so difficult to retain in the face of death, a grace which demands so much strength that, all the same, it is a grace … which I wish for all of us.”
Our production will be set in Rostand’s intended Paris and environs of 1640 and 1655. The design team includes Jeremy Allen Fisher (lighting), Kristen Fischer (props), Amy Forester (scenic), Joe Johnson (sound), Ellen Ring (prosthetics), and Allison White (costumes). The production stage manager is Desiree Ruiloba (TSC’s I Dwell in Possibility: Emily Dickinson Emerges), and the assistant stage manager is Pedro da Silva.
“Our audiences have been asking for this play since we launched TSC, and then we have had to postpone this production for the last two years due to the pandemic,” says McCleary. “Cyrano de Bergerac is a deep investment of resources, time, and passion. We wanted to make sure patrons felt good about gathering to attend.
“This is the play I’ve pursued since I was a teenager and has kept me in love with theatre along with Shakespeare. Rostand revealed early to me the fantastical scope that an act of theatre could provide to us all. His portrait of a man with a physical and social handicap who nevertheless knowingly fights ‘in vain’ appealed personally immediately to me, and still does. I have tremendous compassion for the clown who is courageous both of heart and mind. My early-life understanding of him was his revelation that Love’s greatest manifestation might be sacrifice. As I have grown much older, and as I have come to see the role of Roxane age so well over the decades, my understanding today has shifted to picturing Love as Grace, a mystical one at that. That’s why we have Amelia Fischer at the helm and Amaree Cluff as our Roxane.”
Cyrano de Bergerac’s discounted ($20 tickets) Preview performance is Thursday, February 2 at 7:30 pm. Opening night is Friday, February 3 at 7:30 pm with the price of tickets including a post-show reception with the actors. Subsequent performances are on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, and on Sundays at 3:00 pm.
Thursday performances on February 2, 9, and 16 are Free Will Kids’ Nights when up to four children 17 years and younger may attend for FREE when accompanied by at least one, full-price-paying Adult Guardian.
Artistic and Production Bios
Marquis Dijon Archuleta (Valvert/first pastrycook/cadet/a Sister) At TSC, Marquis has appeared in Romeo and Juliet several times, most recently as Romeo; also in Julius Caesar and The Comedy of Errors. Regional credits include Of Mice and Men (Crooks), The Shawshank Redemption (Red), Pentecost (Antonio), Romeo and Juliet (Lord Capulet), and Jesus Christ Superstar (Simon Peter). Marquis is a graduate of the University of Montana’s School of Theatre & Dance program with a B.F.A. and a minor in Psychology.
Ethan Sullivan Baker (violinist) has played violin with Oakwalker, The m’Tones, Cabigao Trio, and Dandelion Williams. Ethan is a session musician, composer, and a graduate of the University of Memphis Herff College of Engineering with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering.
Paul Bernardo* (Comte de Guiche) returns to TSC where he previously appeared on stage as Iago in Othello and Cassius in Julius Caesar. Paul has worked extensively in regional theatre where his favorite roles include: PICT Classical Theater: Jane Eyre (Rochester), Orlando Shakespeare Theater: Julius Caesar (Brutus), St. Michael’s Playhouse & Theater at Monmouth: Blithe Spirit (Charles), Cape May Stage: Art (Marc) and Talley’s Folly (Matt), and Society Hill Playhouse: Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Valentin). Paul is a proud graduate of the Shakespeare Theater’s Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University.
Amaree Cluff* (Roxane) teaches acting as an Associate Professor of Theatre at Southern Virginia University. Regional credits include Virginia Rep: Tartuffe; Imagination Stage: Double Trouble; Virginia Shakespeare Festival: Taming of the Shrew and As You Like It; Heritage Theatre Festival: Pirates of Penzance, 1776, and Annie, Get Your Gun.
Pedro da Silva* (Assistant Stage Manager) Regional credits include A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline, Nat Turner in Jerusalem, Little Women, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Secret Garden, and Hamlet. Pedro served as a stage management intern at Playhouse on the Square from 2020-21. Currently, he serves as their Director of Videography. Education: Trevecca University in Nashville with a B.F.A. in Dramatic Arts and a B.S. in Film and TV.
Amelia Fischer (Director/Fight Director) is an Atlanta director, actor, fight, and intimacy director who has worked for theatres from Washington D.C. to Washington state and is deeply happy to be returning to one of her first artistic homes: TSC. Directing and Assistant Directing credits include TSC: Hamlet as assistant director, Untethered Theatre Project: An Inspector Calls, Rice University: Much Ado About Nothing, The Gainesville Theatre Alliance: The Kiss and Shakespeare in Action, and Lamar University: Silent Sky. As co-fight directors, Amelia and her brother Connor Hammond have worked with The Alliance, Actor’s Express, Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, Horizon, and Synchronicity. Amelia teaches at Kennesaw State University and is proud to have received her M.F.A. from the University of Houston’s PATP, her B.A. from Coastal Carolina University, and her training from the Gainesville Theatre Alliance. www.AmeliaFischer.org
Jeremy Allen Fisher (Production Manager/Lighting Designer) TSC: The Trouble Begins at Eight: Mark Twain, I Dwell in Possibility: Emily Dickinson Emerges, Ada and the Engine, Macbeth, As You Like It, Waiting for Godot, Much Ado About Nothing, To Kill a Mockingbird, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, Richard III, The Taming of the Shrew, Unto the Breach, It’s a Wonderful Life, Hamlet. Jeremy is a member of United Scenic Artists Local USA 829 and a graduate of Oklahoma City University. He has worked with Theatre Memphis, Youngblood Studios, Opera Memphis, Ballet Memphis, University of Memphis, Memphis’ Orpheum Theatre, Seattle Opera, Desoto Family Theatre, New Day Children’s Theatre, and New Ballet Ensemble. Some of his other credits include lighting Memphis’ Broad Avenue Water Tower, Wiseacre’s new Taproom, and several works at Saint Jude’s Research Hospital and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. Awards: 2017 TAC Individual Artist Award, and 11 Ostrander Award nominations with four wins for Lighting Design.
Amy Forester (Scenic Designer/artist) Design credits include Playhouse on the Square: Nat Turner in Jerusalem, Murder for Two, The Toymaker’s Apprentice, To All a Good Night, St. Paulie’s Delight. Select artistry credits include Something Rotten, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, A Doll’s House I and II, Little Shop of Horrors, Days of Rage. New Works at the Works: Shanktown, The Goodbye Levee, Ivanka vs. Reality. U of M Opera: Ruddigore. Georgia Southern University: Addams Family, the Musical. American University in Bulgaria: Amadeus. Amy is a graduate of Georgia Southern University with a B.F.A. in Technical Theatre. She is currently a freelance designer and scenic artist in the Memphis area.
Blake Galtelli-Meek (Hair/Wigs/Makeup Designer) Credits include Opera Memphis: Scalia/Ginsburg, Pagliacci, Pygmalion, The Companion, Così fan tutte, and Tosca. Blake has over 15 years of experience in the beauty industry including theatre, film, print, editorial, and artist-training and development.
Cara McHugh Geissler (Ligniere/Lise/Sister Claire) has worked in TSC’s Education Department for the past nine years managing programs and teaching youth. Cara played Biondello in TSC’s Taming of the Shrew and Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet. While in Louisville, Cara taught children’s theatre at Encore Youth Theatre and at Adelante Hispanic Achievers. She also taught for both the University of Louisville and Spalding University. Cara served on the Board for The Bard’s Town Theatre in Louisville, where she performed in Misses Strata, Reasons to Be Pretty, and Just Like Life. Education: Murray State University (B.A. in Theatre and Political Science); University of Louisville (M.F.A. in Theatre Performance).
Lauren Gunn (Montfleury/Carbon/a Sister/Asst. Fight Director) TSC: Henry VI, Macbeth, Ada and the Engine, Romeo and Juliet, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. Southern Arena Theatre: Boeing Boeing, I Hate Hamlet. New Stage Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Crimes of the Heart, A Christmas Carol, Cat in the Hat. Fish Tale Group Theatre: Voice of Freedom Summer. Unframed: Constellations, Gruesome Playground Injuries. Lauren is a new ensemble member of the improv group Playback Memphis, as well as an associate instructor candidate for Dueling Arts International. Education: University of Southern Mississippi (M.F.A. in Acting).
Allison Hesselberg (Duenna/Mother Marguerite/second pastrycook/cadet) makes her TSC debut with this production. Allison is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with majors in Theatre and Drama and in Chinese, and a minor in East Asian Studies. University credits include The 39 Steps, White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Sonnets for an Old Century, Rashomon, Don Juan, and A Piece of My Heart.
Stuart Heyman (Ragueneau) TSC founding company member: As You Like It (Old Adam), The Comedy of Errors (Duke Solinus), All’s Well That Ends Well (Lefew), The Taming of the Shrew (Baptista), Othello (Brabantio), As You Like It (Corin). Theatre Memphis: Dracula (Van Helsing). Circuit Playhouse: Peter and the Starcatcher (Alf) and Tom Sawyer (Doc Robinson). Desoto Family Theatre: My Fair Lady (Henry Higgins) and Oliver! (Fagin). Germantown Community Theatre: Man of La Mancha (Cervantes/Quixote). New Moon Theatre: The Homecoming (Teddy).
Brigette Hutchison (Costume Hand) Costume Design credits include A Thought in Three Parts, Defiant, Late May Be Dark, and Fear & Desire. Lighting Design credits include 69 Love Scenes, Warpstar Sexy Squad, Blood, Sweat, & Cheers. Brigette served as resident designer for Ready|Set|Go! Dance for nine years. She has a B.F.A. in Technical Theater with an emphasis in Costume Design from the University of Southern Mississippi, where she co-designed Scapin with Fred Lloyd and was nominated for a Barbizon Award. She worked as a professional technician in Austin, Texas, for 14 years.
Joe Johnson (Sound Designer) TSC: Macbeth. Joe is a singer-songwriter, composer, sound designer, and educator. Since the pandemic, Joe has shifted his focus from live performance to composition and education but is looking forward to returning to the performance world. He performs regularly in and around Memphis, and writes and records with several other Memphis musicians. Joe is looking forward to releasing new music in the coming year. He has received numerous awards for composition and sound design, including the Ostrander Award for theatrical sound design for Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. He has composed music for films, plays, and commercial presentations. He composed music featured in New York and Memphis Fashion Weeks. He has taught music in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas public schools, integrating language arts and mathematics into the music classroom, and he is currently teaching in Memphis. He received his Master’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and did more post-Graduate work at the University of Georgia.
Michael Khanlarian (Le Bret) is a founding company member of TSC (most recently appearing as Macbeth in the fall) where he has worked as a teacher/coach for Juvenile Justice, Feast of Crispian-South (serving our military Veterans at the Memphis V.A), and many communities across the Mid-South. Michael is also a proud member of Playback Memphis and completes his outreach as a teaching-artist for the Orpheum. Michael is pleased to continue to call TSC his second home.
Dan McCleary* (Cyrano de Bergerac), a native of Memphis, is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of Tennessee Shakespeare Company, where he has acted in As You Like It, Blue Roses of Tennessee Williams, The Taming of the Shrew, Richard III, The Glass Menagerie, Ernest Hemingway in Key West, Charles Dickens’ Premiere Reading of A Christmas Carol, Classical Creations in Quarantine, Shakespeare’s Election of Coriolanus, Speak What We Feel: Shakespeare’s Radical Response to a Radical Time, Unto the Breach, and Quintessence: Shakespeare in Performance. Dan has played scores of roles on stage at many regional theatres, including Shakespeare & Company, Orlando Shakespeare, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Arden Theatre: Coriolanus (thrice), Richard III (twice), Macbeth (twice), Falstaff, Marc Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, Caliban, Brutus, Petruchio, Hotspur, Bottom, Master Ford, Stephano, Antipholus of Ephesus, Dromio of Ephesus, Cassio, Bertram, Demetrius, Silvius, Herman Melville, Porfiry, Charles Dickens, The Gentleman Caller, and Bertha Bumiller in the Greater Tuna series. Memphis Magazine named him among the “Who’s Who in Memphis” for six years (including 2022). Dan presented his TEDx Talk “Shakespeare in Kindergarten, or Let Fall Rome” in Memphis in 2020, and the Germantown Arts Alliance honored him with its 2009 Distinguished Arts and Humanities Medal for Performing Arts.
Kellan Oelkers (Orange Girl/cut-purse/a meddler/first cadet/Capucin/Sister Marthe) TSC: Macbeth, The Romeo and Juliet Project, Henry VI. Theatre Memphis: Our Town. Quill Theatre: The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. NextStop Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Baltimore Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet. Theater J: The Jewish Queen Lear. Kellan is a graduate of Georgetown University with a B.A. in Theater and Performance Studies.
Nicolas Dureaux Picou (Christian), a native Memphian, has worked with TSC since 2016 appearing in As You Like It (Orlando), Macbeth (Malcolm), Romeo and Juliet (Romeo), The Comedy of Errors (Dromio of Ephesus), Ada and the Engine (Lords Lovelace and Byron), Henry VI: The Wars of the Roses (Warwick/Cade), and The Tempest (Ariel). TSC Literary Salons: Boats Against the Current (Nick), Blue Roses of Tennessee Williams (Jim O’Connor), and Truman Capote’s Christmas Memory (Queenie). Nic also serves students in Shelby County classrooms as a Romeo and Juliet Project teaching-artist, and he leads poetry classes for incarcerated youth in Shelby County as part of TSC’s Juvenile Justice program. Nic dedicates his work with children to the memory of his dear friend, Fred: equal parts empathy, intelligence, and luminous idealism.
Ellen Ring (Prosthetics Designer) Theatre Memphis makeup/prosthetics designs: Young Frankenstein the Musical, The Addams Family, Shrek! The Musical, Arsenic and Old Lace, Beauty and the Beast, La Cage aux Folles, Sideshow. Other credits: Liberace, Judy Garland, Sweeny Todd, national touring productions of Shrek! The Musical, The Addams Family, Memphis the Musical, and Beauty and the Beast. Ellen served as a special effects apprentice for a few episodes of television’s The Walking Dead and holds various production credits for performance, dance, wig design, and wardrobe for tours.
Edmond Rostand (Playwright; April 1, 1868 – December 2, 1918) Born in Marseille to a wealthy family, Rostand studied the arts in college in Paris and became a poet and playwright associated with Neo-Classicism. His most popular creations of his dozen plays, then and now, are Cyrano de Bergerac and Les Romanesques (1894), more readily known today as the musical, The Fantasticks. Rostand wrote against the Realism grain of the stage period and attracted the actor Sarah Bernhardt to his work. He became the youngest writer ever to be elected to the Académie française. The historical person named Cyrano of the 17th Century was Rostand’s childhood hero, and Rostand drew from Cyrano’s life in his writing. The romantic elements of the play, however, are more readily attributed to Rostand’s artistic vision. Cyrano was a celebrated smash from the beginning, playing 300 consecutive nights. It was quickly translated into numerous languages and was produced internationally.
Desiree Ruiloba* (Stage Manager) TSC: I Dwell in Possibility: Emily Dickinson Emerges. Desiree is a graduate of the University of Houston’s School of Theatre and Dance, earning her B.F.A in Stage Management. Stage Managing credits include The Vineyard Theatre: 2022 Gala; Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Romeo and Juliet, Mr. Burns;Stages Theatre: The Ultimate Christmas Show Abridged;Mildred’s Umbrella Theatre Co.: El Huracan; EDG Lighting: School of the Americas; University of Houston: An Ideal Husband, Come and Take It, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
Allison White (Costume Designer) TSC: The Trouble Begins at Eight: Mark Twain, I Dwell in Possibility: Emily Dickinson Emerges, King Henry VI: The Wars of the Roses, Ada and the Engine, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth. Theatre Memphis: You Can’t Take It with You; University of Florida: Pippin, Between Riverside and Crazy, The Day is Long to End; Cape Fear Regional Theatre: Caroline, or Change; Sarasota Youth Opera: The Secret World of Og; Theatre Raleigh: Smokey Joe’s Café, The Wolf, All My Sons, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Carousel. Allison also has worked at several regional theatres and opera companies as a member of their costume production staffs. She has an M.F.A. in Theatre from the University of Florida.
* Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
Box Office
Purchase tickets online here or by calling (901) 759-0604. Open Monday-Friday from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, and one hour prior to curtain. TSC is located at 7950 Trinity Road, Memphis, TN 38018-6297.
Tickets for Cyrano de Bergerac in Seating Section One are $40 (Students $20/Seniors $35). Seating Sections Two and Three are $30 (Students $20/Seniors $25). The preview performance on February 2 is $20. Thursday night performances are Free Will Kids’ Nights: up to four children 17 years and younger may attend for free when accompanied by at least one, full-price-paying Adult Guardian; while seats last, and must be purchased either over the phone or in person.
No refunds/exchanges. The house opens 30 minutes prior to curtain. Credit Card charges require a $1 per-ticket fee. Cast and schedule are subject to change with notice. Free parking and covered drop-off at the front door are available at TSC.
All TSC personnel are fully-vaccinated, and ventilation systems in TSC’s facility have been newly upgraded. Hand-sanitizer and free, disposable masks will be made available to all patrons.
Season 15 Sponsors and Partners
TSC’s generous sponsors of its season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include FedEx, International Paper, Arts Midwest, ArtsMemphis, Tennessee Arts Commission, Independent Bank, Evans Petree PC, First Horizon Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, AutoZone, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Campbell Clinic, the family of Pat and Ernest Kelly, The Sims Family Charitable Trust, Nancy R. Copp, the Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Fund, the family of Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence, and Dorothy O. Kirsch.
TSC’s season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee; and is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SLFRP5534, awarded to the State of Tennessee by the U.S. Department of Treasury. TSC’s projects and productions are supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.
TSC’s programming and outreach partners include University of Memphis’ Department of Theatre & Dance, Shelby County Schools, Memphis Juvenile Justice System, the Memphis V.A. Hospital, Cities of Bartlett/Collierville/Lakeland/Memphis, Shelby County Election Commission, the Benjamin Hooks Public Library Friends, and WKNO Radio (91.1 FM Memphis).
