Antony and Cleopatra

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Jon Tracy
Starring L. Peter Callender and Leontyne Mbele-Mbong

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA — Shakespeare’s epic love story — is set in modern day. Mark Antony has traded his power over an empire for the forbidden love of one woman, Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt. Jealousy, betrayal, death, and war cannot refute their undying love for each other. With award winning actors L. Peter Callender and Leontyne Mbele-Mbong in the title roles of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

Director’s Note

The history of humanity is the history of our quest for power. We are taught that power affords us control and, being that we are fundamentally insecure beings, we seek these perceived strengths by way of personal and societal sacrifices. It’s true of every individual, household, community and state, whether rich or poor, servant or king: each ultimately defined by the lengths we are willing to go to call the shots.

Because to be in control is to be able to lay out our legacies and we, as legacy-driven creatures, need to plant the seeds of our earth’s present so that it might resemble a world where we were right and our enemies have no place. We want our myth to be defined our way…we want to write the narrative.

History shows us the terrible effects of this mindset unchecked. Though many have wielded power with just intent, they still had to subscribe to a hierarchy of classism, which takes the above tenets but skews them so much that the game can only be played by those born into the high end of the power structure, sacrificing our fellow citizens. But the sacrifice is larger: for to sacrifice one’s citizens is to sacrifice the perspectives of the human community. And community is the only true measure of identity. As we learn to grasp power, we shrink our communities to the like-minded, no longer hearing opposition, and therefore no longer being relevant to others and, ultimately, ourselves.

In Antony and Cleopatra the community that either title character can fully control has become a community of two. Both have carved out a bubble for themselves, away from the rest of the world, a safe haven for their love that they feel can’t be touched by outside influence. Like all of us, fundamentally lost souls that are actually terrified by the power we’ve attained, they try to detach and find some sense of utopia where the above rules don’t apply.

But because we have all subscribed to the fallacy of classism, the world needs them to act, to be responsible for their states, to take back the communities they thought they could sacrifice. We have let our leaders glue our planet together. Antony and Cleopatra is the story of what happens when leaders yearn to be the very humans they ran away from all those years ago in hopes of attaining a sense of legacy that, it turns out, is as mythological as the process they built to attain it.

—Jon Tracy

Cast

L. Peter Callender*, Mark Antony

L. Peter Callender is Artistic Director of AASC and Associate Artist at California Shakespeare Theater. He has appeared in many productions at CalShakes over the years including Julius Caesar, Nicolas Nickleby, Richard II, Man and Superman, The Importance of Being Earnest, Winter’s Tale, SPUNK, Romeo and Juliet and many, many others. He’s also appeared at Marin Theatre Company (Whipping Man, My Children! My Africa!, Swimmers, The Convert, Seven Guitars); at Aurora Company (Permanent Collection, Breakfast with Mugabe); American Conservatory Theater (The Tempest, Streetcar Named Desire, Tartuffe) and several other local theaters. Mr. Callender also appeared on Broadway (Prelude to a Kiss), teaches at Stanford University (Acting Shakespeare and Fundamentals of Directing), directs (American Stage Company, Aurora Theater, AASC), is a private acting coach, and an especially proud Dad of Brandon Callender. www.lpetercallender.com

Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, Cleopatra

Leontyne Mbele-Mbong is delighted to return to African-American Shakespeare Company’s stage. Previous AASC roles: Ruth in A Raisin in the Sun, Mistress Ford in Merry Wives of Windsor, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, and the title role in Medea (TBA Award: Female Actor in a Principal Role). Other favorite Bay Area roles: Aurora Theatre Company: Breakfast With Mugabe (Grace Mugabe); Shotgun Players: Top Girls (Pope Joan/Nell); Aluminous Collective: The Last Days of Judas Iscarioy (Fabiana Cunningham); Altarena Playhouse: Fences (Rose); Central Works: Andromache (Andromache); Lamplighters Music Theatre: Candide (Paquette); Woman’s Will: Richard III (Buckingham), Twelfth Night (Orsino), Macbeth (Lady M, and others); TheatreFIRST: World Music; Solano College: Intimate Apparel (Mayme; ARTY Award, best supporting actress); American Conservatory Theatre’s First Look: The Road Weeps, The Well Runs Dry. www.leontynembele-mbong.com

Steve Ortiz, Octavius

Steve Ortiz is a San Francisco actor, and is very excited to be back working with the African-American Shakespeare Company! Mr. Ortiz received a BA in theater from SFSU and attended the BADA Graduate program in London. Mr. Ortiz has worked with the Asian American Theater Company, Thick Description, Luminarias, Darvag Theater, Teatros de la Esperanza, Campesino, Sabor and Vagon, and the San Francisco City Theatre Company for whom he just completed a successful run as George in their production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf directed by David Acevedo. Mr. Ortiz wants to give a shout out to Each One Reach One whose outreach program brings the skills of playwriting to at risk youth in the Bay Area’s detention centers.

Timothy Redmond, Enobarbus

Timothy Redmond is making his African-American Shakespeare Company debut. Previous collaborations with Jon Tracy include Much Ado About Nothing with TheatreFirst; Macbeth with Sonoma County Rep; and Linda McLean’s Stranger, Babies with Shotgun Players. Mr. Redmond most recently appeared in Grapes of Wrath with Ubuntu Theatre Project; and an adaptation of Uncle Vanya with Symmetry Theatre. Regional credits include Bailiwick Rep, Relentless Theatre Company, and South Coast Rep. Bay Area credits include Berkeley Rep, Boxcar Theatre, CenterREP, CentralWorks, Impact Theatre, Livermore Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Napa Valley, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, and ZSpace, among others. Thanks, as always, to his wife Amber for her endless support.

Edward Neville Ewell, Ensemble

Edward Neville Ewell is an actor from Detroit, MI and is honored to be working with the African-American Shakespeare Company. After graduating from Yale University, Mr. Ewell moved to the Bay Area and studied acting with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Shelton Studios, and Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco. Edward Ewell has also received private coaching from master actor James Carpenter. Last year, Mr. Ewell understudied with Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Head of Passes. In the fall, Mr. Ewell will begin an MFA program at Rutgers University. Along with the arts, Mr. Ewell has a passion for education: he served as an elementary teacher in Oakland Unified School District for three years and currently works as a private tutor.

Indiia Wilmott, Ensemble

Virginia native, Indiia Wilmott is now a very happy Bay Area resident, and she is elated to make her African-American Shakespeare Company debut with this incredible cast and crew! When not on stage, Ms. Wilmott is a teaching artist at Berkeley Playhouse, A.C.T., and Museum of the African Diaspora. Ms. Wilmott was most recently seen as a Natalie in Bay Area Musical’s production of Hair, and various roles in New Conservatory Theatre Center’s YouthAware production of Cooties. Some of her favorite roles include the role of E in The Horse’s Ass and Friends at Repurposed Theatre, Sarah’s Friend in Ragtime at Mesa Encore Theatre, and Joanne in Rent at Mesa Community College. To her biggest fan Fujio, “I love you.”

Production Team

Jon Tracy**, Director

Jon Tracy works as a director, playwright, designer, and educator. He is a Company Member of Shotgun Players and PlayGround; Adjunct Faculty with Chabot College and American Conservatory Theater; the Co-Artistic Director of ITI San Miguel de Allende; the Executive Director of The Lights Up Project; a member of Theatre Bay Area’s Gender Parity Commission, and of SDC, the union for stage directors and choreographers. He is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Meritorious Achievement Award, fifteen North Bay Arty Awards, a Sacramento Elly Award, a Bay Area Critics Circle Award, and a grant recipient from Theatre Bay Area and the National Endowment for The Arts. www.jontracy.com

Annye Bone, Stage Manager

Annye Bone is very glad to be working again with the African-American Shakespeare Company. After running away to join the circus at a young age, Ms. Bone found that theater tend to have fewer leaks than tents, which has made a huge difference to her career in show business. (Those of you who’ve followed previous of my bios will be glad to know that Hannibal the elephant is doing quite well, thank you.) In her “spare” time, Annye Bone has been successfully pursuing True Love and developing her business, Parting Glass Event Planning.

Brian Snow, Assistant Stage Manager

Brian Snow has studied acting at Chabot College, Laney College, Pan Theater and San Francisco State University. He began stage-managing at San Francisco State University and is continuing his training through the African-American Shakespeare Company. He plans to earn his MFA in Theatre and advance his skills in stage managing.

Jon Tracy, Set Designer and Lighting Designer

Jon Tracy works as a director, playwright, designer, and educator. He is a Company Member of Shotgun Players and PlayGround; Adjunct Faculty with Chabot College and American Conservatory Theater; the Co-Artistic Director of ITI San Miguel de Allende; the Executive Director of The Lights Up Project; a member of Theatre Bay Area’s Gender Parity Commission, and of SDC, the union for stage directors and choreographers. He is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Meritorious Achievement Award, fifteen North Bay Arty Awards, a Sacramento Elly Award, a Bay Area Critics Circle Award, and a grant recipient from Theatre Bay Area and the National Endowment for The Arts. www.jontracy.com

Kevin Myrick, Technical Director and Sound Designer

Kevin Myrick has been lighting theatrical events since 1968, working for dance and theatre companies in Chicago, Atlanta, and here in the Bay Area. Mr. Myrick studied theatrical design at San Francisco State University, and has designed shows for the Oakland Ensemble Theatre Company, A Black Box Theatre Company, United Projects, Berkeley Black Repertory Theatre Company, Go Productions, SEW Productions, Dimensions Dance Theatre, Wajumbe Cultural Ensemble, the Alliance Theatre Company and Just Us Theatre Company in Atlanta, African-American Shakespeare Company, Cultural Odyssey, AfroSolo Theatre Company; and many other community and professional arts organizations.

Maggie Whitaker, Costume Designer

Maggie Whitaker is the Costume Design Coordinator at the Academy of Art, as well as a freelance costume designer. Credits include: Marin Theatre Company: I and You (world premier); TheatreWorks: Upright Grand (world premier); Aurora Theatre Company: A Bright New Boise, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Fat Pig (SFBATCC nominee for costumes), The Shape of Things and Lobby Hero (Dean Goodman Choice award winner); Shotgun Players: Truffaldino Says No! (SFBATCC award winner-Best Costume Design) Cutting Ball Theater: Lady Gray and Krapp’s Last Tape; Ray of Light Theatre: Assassins and Jerry Springer: The Opera (SFBATCC nominee for costumes). Her design presentation of Aristophanes’s The Birds was selected for exhibition at the Prague Quadrennial Scenofest. She also was a contributor to the book Earn it, Learn it, written by Alisa Weinstein. Ms. Whitaker has an MFA in costume design from the University of California, San Diego.

Brittany White, Prop Artisan

Brittany White is a local Prop Artisan who is pleased to finally work with the African-American Shakespeare Company. Ms. White has worked on theater and film productions with The Cutting Ball Theater (Ondine; Mount Misery), Campo Santo (Babylon is Burning; SuperHeroes), CalShakes, Marin Theatre Company, Bay Area Children’s Theater, HEIST, DelinaDreamProductions (Bare Soles Bare Soul; An Open Love Letter…), and FaultLine Theater (Stegosaurus…). She graduated with a BA in Technical Theater from Humboldt State University.

Durand Garcia, Fight Choreographer

Durand Garcia (MA, SAG-AFTRA), is an actor, director, educator, and Fight Choreographer. He is co-founder of Luminarias Theatre Company, which was invited twice to perform at Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Gardens. He has recently appeared on st age in Role Players’ production of Of Mice and Men, and with the Eugene O’Neill Festival’s production of The Iceman Cometh. As a Fight Choreographer he has worked for Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Off Broadway West, Sacramento Opera, Opera On Tap, Boxcar Theatre Co., Shady Shakespeare Theatre Company, Dragon Productions Theatre, The Eugene O’Neill Festival, Folsom Lake College, Stanford University, San Francisco State University, and U.C. Davis, among others; and as an action coordinator on over thirty five indie films. He is the resident Fight Choreographer at African-American Shakespeare Company. Currently, he teaches Stage Combat at the Academy of Art University and received a Master of Arts in Drama from San Francisco State University.

Christopher “Chance” Howard, Technical Personnel

Chance Howard is passionate about opening up to a whole new understanding of acting and the responsibilities that come with it. Because at the end of the day, the reality is the understanding of the acting world. Mr. Howard has taken the first step and enrolled in Academy of Art University which prides itself on being the vanguard of innovation and creativity and will help hone his skills. Mr. Howard has performed as an extra in movies and in a TV series. Because of his early training in taekwondo and traveling all over the world with military parents, Mr. Howard has gained the discipline that allows him to focus more, read more, learn more, practice more, and train more to become the actor he needs to be. Mr. Howard desires to be a well-known and respected actor, director, model, and to capture the hearts of millions.

Treasia Jackson, Technical Personnel

^{* The Actor appears through the courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
** The Director is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.}