KING LEAR

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DIRECTOR’S NOTE  

What is power but a paper crown in a storm? King Lear is sculpted out of silence, framed into words and offered back into the silence. In our "enfleshment" of this text, we seek to bring these words into a visceral dimension for our audience. Together, we journey through nothing.

This performance springs from the vision to take over spaces around the world: in this case, the legendary black box theater of La MaMa.

I am interested in revelation and new prophetic understandings. These epiphanies do not involve looking into the future but rather deepening our knowledge of the shared bedrock on which all humanity stands. We begin our performance of King Lear with Lear, played by ten actors—the whole company—in paper crowns.

"He hath only but slenderly known himself," says Regan of her father in the play's first scene. Regan herself is a piece of work, an incubus of unleashed rage, as is her sister Goneril. Each sister is far more recognizable than we'd like to acknowledge—as is Lear himself. 

The cosmic play encompasses so many themes that one can hardly begin to adumbrate them. But what is important to transmit from me to you is the understanding that this takeover exists to bring us together: to share in "witnesshood," to undertake collective discovery, and to experience radical presence. 

—Karin Coonrod, Director & Adapter, Artistic Director of Compagnia de' Colombari

DRAMATURG’S NOTE 

Welcome to our King Lear. 

In The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin writes, “The person who distrusts himself has no touchstone for reality—for this touchstone can be only oneself.” Almost 400 years earlier, William Shakespeare prefigured Baldwin’s observation with King Lear, the story of an autocratic monarch whose power shields him from self-knowledge. It is only through the loss—of his land, his power, and his mind—that he gains, eventually, insight. 

Compagnia de’ Colombari’s production of King Lear embodies these parallel processes of loss and gain. The play begins not with one Lear but with ten; each bedecked in a paper crown: ten very different actors who, together, play the titular king. Quickly, this unity fragments. Other characters appear, vying for influence, diminishing Lear by their very presence. 

Such attrition brings clarity. Refined to his barest essentials, Lear attains, for the first time, true understanding. But in this tragic universe, wisdom comes at an unendurable cost. By blurring the boundaries between performance space and audience space, between king and subject, between perpetrator and witness, between character and spectator, our King Lear renders this cost inescapable. We lose, as Lear, together. As Lear, we meet ourselves. And as Lear sees, terribly and miraculously, we, too, see. 

—Gabrielle Hoyt, Production Dramaturg 

A Synopsis of Compagnia de’ Colombari’s KING LEAR

Celebrating the betrothal of his youngest and favorite daughter to either the King of France or Duke of Burgundy, King Lear announces that he will abdicate and asks his children: “Which of you shall we say doth love us most?” His older daughters, Goneril and Regan, play along and are rewarded with pieces of the kingdom; his youngest, Cordelia, does not and is disowned by Lear. Loyal adviser Kent objects and Lear banishes him as well. Having won the King of France’s love, Cordelia leaves, as does Kent. Lear declares that he, with 100 followers, will stay with Goneril, then Regan. The two women worry about how to control their father. 

Edmund, the bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester, intends to steal his father’s title from his legitimate brother, Edgar and begins turning Gloucester and Edgar against each other. Lear, accompanied by his followers and his Fool, carouses at Goneril’s, while Kent—disguised as a servant—gains favor with Lear by beating one of Goneril’s henchmen, Oswald. After a confrontation between Lear and Goneril, the king curses his daughter and decides to travel to Regan’s, sending Kent ahead with letters. Goneril dispatches Oswald for the same purpose.

Edmund engineers a scene in which he and Edgar appear to fight. As his brother flees, Edmund convinces Gloucester to send soldiers in pursuit. Regan enters, revealing that she’s traveled to Gloucester’s to avoid her father. Having followed Regan, Kent and Oswald meet once more, with Kent again beating the other man over Gloucester’s objections. Regan orders Kent to be put in the stocks. Edgar disguises himself as a beggar named Poor Tom to escape.

Lear arrives at Gloucester’s, appalled to find Kent in the stocks. Regan, unrepentant, has invited Goneril to join her. The two refuse to house Lear’s followers. Lear staggers onto the heath, followed by Kent and the Fool. Goneril and Regan order Gloucester to bar his doors. Caught in a storm, Lear rages at the elements while Gloucester confides to Edmund that Cordelia, with a French army, is headed to Dover. Edmund reveals this information to Regan. 

The crazed Lear meets Edgar in a hovel, who raves as Poor Tom. Gloucester finds them there, though he doesn’t recognize his son, and invites Lear, Edgar, Kent, and the Fool to shelter in an outbuilding. There, Lear, Edgar, and the Fool conduct a trial to indict Goneril and Regan. As Lear falls asleep, Gloucester encourages Kent to take Lear to Dover. They leave. So does the Fool, never to return. Goneril accuses Gloucester of treason, and Regan puts out his eyes, naming Edmund the new Earl. Realizing Edmund’s betrayal and Edgar’s innocence, Gloucester enlists Poor Tom (really Edgar) to lead him to the cliffs of Dover to die by suicide.   

Cordelia returns to Britain to find her father. Preparing for war, Regan, in love with Edmund (and suspecting that Goneril is as well), attempts to extract information from Oswald before charging him to kill Gloucester. At Dover, Edgar tricks his father into jumping off of flat ground. Despairing, Gloucester meets a wandering, half-lucid King Lear. After the king runs off, Edgar and Gloucester encounter Oswald; he attacks, and Edgar kills him. In the French camp, Kent and Cordelia revive a now-located Lear who, recognizing Cordelia, begs her forgiveness. 

A battle looms, but Regan, increasingly jealous, focuses instead on securing Edmund’s love. When she attacks Goneril, her sister fights back, and the two kill each other. Led by Edmund, the British defeated the French. Still, Edgar urges Gloucester to take heart, revealing his identity. Overcome, Gloucester dies. Edmund, meanwhile, takes Cordelia and Lear prisoner, giving mysterious orders to their prison guard. Edgar, disguised, challenges him to a duel. The two fight and Edgar kills Edmund, unmasking himself to his brother and narrating their father’s fate. Edmund confesses that he’s sentenced Cordelia and Lear to death. As he succumbs, Lear emerges with Cordelia’s body, mourning his daughter before dying himself. 

Cast

Creative Team

Meet the Company

Brandon Burton

King Lear/Edgar

Regional: Death of a Salesman (Broadway), Fences (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival), The Folks at Home (Baltimore Center Stage), Merry Wives (Public Theater). Yale Drama: Othello (Othello), Henry VI pt. 3 (York, George, Bona). Yale Rep: A Raisin in the Sun (Bobo). Film/Television: “Cram” (Amazon/Tubi), “Evil” (CBS). MFA: Yale Drama

Abigail Killeen

King Lear/Goneril

Previously with Karin Coonrod/Colombari: The Merchant of Venice, Everything That Rises Must Converge, Whitman on Walls (WoW!). Also directed by Karin Coonrod: Babette's Feast (Portland Stage, Theatre at St. Clement's). Based in Portland, Maine, Abigail is an Affiliate Artist at Portland Stage. Recent credits: What The Constitution Means To Me (Heidi), The Clean House (Lane), Brighton Beach Memoirs (Blanche), Love/Sick, A Christmas Carol. Other Portland theater: Doll's House Part 2 (Nora, Good Theater), Sofonisba (Sofonisba, Dramatic Rep), and Macbeth (Lady Macbeth, Fenix). Founding member of Connecticut Free Shakespeare, where she worked for eight seasons. Abigail is also a Professor of Theater in the Department of Theater and Dance at Bowdoin College.

Julian Elijah Martinez

King Lear/Edmund

Broadway: Network. Off-Broadway: This Land Was Made (Vineyard Theatre); Sanctuary City (New York Theater Workshop); Anatomy of A Suicide (Atlantic Theater Company); Mud (Boundless Theater Company); Alligator (New Georges). Regional: King Lear (Shakespeare Theater Company); Father Comes Home From The Wars Part 1, 2, 3 (co-production Yale Rep and A.C.T); and 9 Circles (Forum Theatre, Helen Hayes nomination). TV: “Wu-tang: An American Saga”; “Law and Order: SVU”; “That Damn Michael Che Show”; “Prodigal Son”; and “Elementary.” Other: Company member of The Acting Company and Board member of Developing Artist. Training: MFA Yale School Of Drama. julianelijahmartinez.com

Jo Mei

King Lear/Regan

Jo’s NY theater credits include Salesman之死 (Connelly Theatre), Lunch Bunch (PlayCo. & Clubbed Thumb), Anatomy of a Suicide (Atlantic), Babette’s Feast (Theatre at St. Clement’s), World of Extreme Happiness (Manhattan Theatre Club), You For Me For You (Ma-Yi). Regionally, she has worked at Berkeley Rep, Pittsburgh City Theatre, Portland Stage, A.R.T., The Goodman, Woolly Mammoth and others. TV credits include “Crashing” (HBO), “Nicki”(Freeform), “Bones” (Fox), and “The Good Wife” (CBS). Jo starred in and co-wrote the award-winning film “A Picture of You.” Other film credits include “A Bread Factory, Part One,” “Who We Are Now,” “Adult World,” and “The Grief of Others.” Member: The Actors Center. Training: Juilliard.

Tom Nelis

King Lear/France

Broadway: Girl From the North Country, Indecent, The Visit, ENRON, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, Aida. Off-Broadway: The Vineyard, The Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Manhattan Theater Club, Theatre For A New Audience, Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theater, Second Stage, BAM, Ars Nova, Dance Theater Workshop, The Women’s Project, The Talking Band, Ripe Time, En Garde Arts and most recently The Beautiful Lady at Cafe La Mama. International: The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Suzuki Company of Toga, SITI Company and international tours with Laurie Anderson and Richard Foreman. Awards: Eliot Nortton Outstanding Performer (Prospero - The Tempest), OBIE (Marshall McLuhan - The Medium), Drama League Nomination (Leonard Bernstein - SCORE). Founding member of SITI Company, MFA, UC San Diego.

Lukas Papenfusscline aka leiken

King Lear/Fool

Lukas Papenfusscline (aka leiken) is a singer and performer exploring expansive identity, queer spirituality, and ephemera. They specialize in medieval and new music and work exclusively in collaborative environments. A sought-after vocalist for concert, opera, and theater, leiken can often be seen leading their band, mammifères, singing with world-renowned ensemble Sequentia, or collaborating with leading contemporary artists like Ran Blake, Eve Beglarian, and Four Larks. leiken also loves fermentation, textiles, and swimming. www.leiken.xyz

Michael Potts

King Lear/Gloucester

Broadway: The Piano Lesson (Outer Critics Circle Nom.), The Iceman Cometh (Richard Seff Award), The Prom, Jitney, The Book of Mormon, 1984 and Grey Gardens. Other credits: Richard III (Falstaff Award), Mother Courage, Twelfth Night, The Tempest and The America Play (Obie Award). Television & film: The Piano Lesson, Rustin, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Rounding, "East New York,” "The First Lady,” "L&O: SVU,” "True Detective" and "The Wire." Yale School of Drama graduate.

Paul Pryce

King Lear/Kent

Paul Pryce is thrilled to join the Compagnia de Colombari King Lear ensemble! Theatre credits: The Merchant of Venice (Compagnia de Colombari / Arts & Ideas Festival), Hamlet, The Piano Lesson, Good Goods (Yale Repertory Theatre), Create Dangerously (Miami New Drama), Julius Ceasar, Pericles (Elm Shakespeare), Pecong (The National Black Theatre of Harlem), GO FORTH! (NY & US Tour), Silence & Fear (Compagnie Lieux Dits, France). Film & TV: Marvel’s “Jessica Jones,” “Narco Saints” (Netflix), “Unforgettable” (CBS). As a filmmaker & producer, Paul’s debut film, Come Out Come Out World, premiered at the Cannes Short Film Corner. His short film The Deliverer won Best Foreign Film at The Atlanta Underground Film Festival, and his feature-length screenplay for The Deliverer was a Sundance Writers Lab Short-listed Finalist. Paul teaches at Brooklyn College, HB Studio, and in South Korea. MFA: Yale School of Drama alum. Paul was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago.

Celeste Sena

King Lear/Cordelia

Celeste Sena is a Caribbean-American actress, singer, and dancer based in NYC and a recent graduate of Brooklyn College's MFA Acting Program. She has also trained at the Atlantic Theater Company, Alvin Ailey and BADA. Her recent on-screen work includes commercials for Totino's Pizza Rolls with Pete Davidson and Etsy, short films Welcome to Afro Tree for Warner Bros/OneFifty and a Rap Pack starring Emmy-Winning Actor Jharrel Jerome. She has also had a series of readings and workshops for leading Off-Broadway theaters, such as Infinite Life and The Welkin at Atlantic Theater Company, Good Bones by James Ijames at The Public Theater, and Fish by Kia Corthron at the Keen Company.

Tony Torn

King Lear/Oswald

Previously with Karin Coonrod/Colombari: Whitman on Walls!, The Tempest at LaMama, Mycenaean workshop at TBA Festival, Portland OR. Recent Stage: Spider Rabbit, directed by Dan Safer, at The Prelude Festival; Bedlam's Fall River Fishing, directed by Eric Tucker; Mabou Mines' Mud/Drowning, directed by Joanne Akalaitis; Dom Juan at The Fisher Center, Bard College, directed by Ashley Tata. Recent Screen: “Law & Order SVU” (NBC); “The Blacklist” (NBC); “Teenage Bounty Hunters” (Netflix). Upcoming: feature films, The Dutchman and Exhibiting Forgiveness. Tony is known for working extensively with experimental theater makers Reza Abdoh and Richard Foreman, as the founding director for Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, playing Rusty Trawler in Breakfast at Tiffany's on Broadway opposite Emilia Clark, and creating and starring in Ubu Sings Ubu with Dan Safer. Most recently, Tony directed the English language premiere of Romina Paula's acclaimed play The Whole of Time at Torn Page, a private event space named in honor of his parents, Rip Torn and Geraldine Page.

Zuzanna Szadkowski

Standby

Zuzanna Szadkowski is best known for playing Dorota in the CW’s “Gossip Girl.” She can be seen in "The Gilded Age" on HBO and in “Three Women” on Starz. Other television credits include “Bull,” “Search Party,” "The Knick," “The Good Wife,” “Elementary,” “Girls,” “Guiding Light,” and “The Sopranos.” Film credits include “Worth,” “Minyan,” and “Loserville.” Theatre credits include Arcadia, Fall River Fishing, Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet (WSJ Performance of the Year 2018), The Crucible and Peter Pan with Bedlam, queens at LCT3, The Comedy of Errors as part of The Public Theater’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit, King Philip’s Head… with Clubbed Thumb, and Love, Loss and What I Wore Off-Broadway. Regional credits include The 39 Steps at ATL and The Merry Wives of Windsor at Two River Theater. Zuzanna has written several plays and screenplays and was published in The New York Times “Modern Love” column and in the book of essays, “Alien Nation.”

Paul Wellington

Black Angel #1

Paul Wellington is the owner and founder of Redemption Flute LLC. At the core of Redemption Flute is Paul's purpose. Through the marriage of flute melodies and the introspective practice of meditation, Paul traversed the labyrinth of his trauma and emerged with a profound understanding of human suffering. His journey of self-discovery kindled a flame of compassion within him, igniting a fervent desire to extend the same healing hand that guided him through the darkness. Paul's commitment to healing is manifested through a myriad of creative avenues. From soul-stirring sound baths to theatre and immersive retreats, Paul's flute resonates with the promise of healing and renewal.

Peter Gomez

Black Angel #2

Peter Gomez (he/him/his) is a versatile artist—a writer, actor, poet, storyteller, and songwriter. Born in Harlem and raised in Washington Heights, New York, Peter's talent was nurtured from a young age. Despite early-stage success, he faced challenges in adolescence, leading to entanglement in street life and legal troubles. During his incarceration, Peter found a renewed passion for the arts through the Rehabilitation through the Arts program. He participated in productions and workshops and earned an Associate’s degree in Liberal Arts from Bard College (BPI). Released in February 2024, Peter now uses his artistic talents for social change, advocating for social justice, mental health, and climate change. He shares his voice through spoken word events, demonstrating the transformative power of the arts and the resilience of the human spirit.

Luca Evans

Black Angel #3

Luca Evans (he/him) is a native New Yorker and a sophomore at Columbia University. He plans on majoring in Film and Media Studies. Luca is thrilled to be making his Off-Broadway debut in Compagnia de' Colombari’s KING LEAR production at La MaMa and to have worked on the production as a PA. Aside from producing and appearing in local undergraduate and graduate school productions, Luca also appeared in “Make Yourself Grow,” shown at the AIFF Festival. He wishes to thank his fellow castmates and crew for their support throughout this production. A special thank you to Karin Coonrod, Director, for her vision and guidance.

Karin Coonrod

Director, Adaptor and Artistic Director, Compagnia de' Colombari

Karin Coonrod is the founding Artistic Director of Compagnia de’ Colombari and has directed on stages worldwide. Notable productions include Henry VI, Love's Labor's Lost (Public Theater, NYSF); King John, Julius Caesar (Theater for a New Audience); Enrico IV (American Repertory Theater); Everything That Rises Must Converge (New York Theater Workshop); texts&beheadings/ElizabethR (Folger Theatre; BAM/Next Wave Festival); and The Merchant of Venice (Venice, Italy; International Festival of Arts & Ideas; Peak Performances at Montclair State University; The Hopkins Center; Dartmouth University). Coonrod, with Compagnia de’ Colombari, has launched new theater traditions in Orvieto, Italy and brought works into detention centers, jails, schools, pubs, libraries, parks, museums, galleries, piers, churches, and the streets. The book The Transnational Theatre of Karin Coonrod (Bloomsbury Press UK) is currently in development. She teaches directing at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.

Frank London

Composer

Frank London is a Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and composer, a member of the Klezmatics, and a band leader of many groups. He has performed and recorded with John Zorn, Pink Floyd, Mel Tormé, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, LaMonte Young, Gal Costa, They Might Be Giants, David Byrne, Itzhak Perlman and is featured on over 500 albums. His latest recordings include the Klezmer Brass Allstars’ Chronika!, Frank London’s Brass Conspiracy, and The Elders’ Spirit Stronger Than Blood. His first symphony, 1001 Voices: A Symphony for a New America (with text by Judith Sloan and video by Warren Lehrer), premiered in 2012. His Yiddish-Cuban opera, Hatuey Memory of Fire (libretto by Elise Thoron), premiered in Cuba and New York in 2018.

Gabrielle Hoyt

Dramaturg

Gabrielle Hoyt is a DFA candidate at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale (DGSD), where she researches the nexus of Jewishness and musical theater and serves as Associate Editor of Theater magazine. Gabrielle has published with American Theatre, Theater magazine, Studies in Musical Theatre, and Hey Alma, and received the 2023 John W. Gassner Memorial Prize for her essay “Reviving Jewishness.” She previously worked as a literary manager at Round House Theatre (RHT), where she administered the Equal Play commissioning program. Credits include Cactus Queen, Fucking A, Macbeth, and rent-free (DGSD); Ironbound, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, and The Book of Will (world premieres, RHT); The Heal (world premiere, Getty Villa); Handbagged (US premiere, RHT & 59E59); In Every Generation (world premiere, Victory Gardens); and Period Sisters (HEREArts). In November 2024, she will dramaturg the world-premiere musical A Hanukkah Carol (RHT). MFA: David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, BA: Yale College.

Stephen Strawbridge

Lighting Designer

Stephen Strawbridge (Lighting Designer) has designed more than 200 productions on and Off-Broadway and at most leading regional theaters and opera houses across the US. Internationally, he has helped create major premiers in Bergen, Copenhagen, The Hague, Hong Kong, Linz, Lisbon, Munich, Naples, Sao Paulo, Stockholm, Stratford-Upon-Avon (for the Royal Shakespeare Company), Wroclaw and Vienna. Artistic collaborators have included such notable directors and choreographers as Robert Brustein, Martha Clarke, Graciela Daniele, Gordon Edelstein, Barry Edelstein, Richard Foreman, Athol Fugard, Loretta Greco, Mark Lamos, Kenny Leon, Emily Mann, Kathleen Marshall, Tarell McCraney, Trevor Nunn, Diane Paulus, Erica Schmidt, Bartlett Sher, Rebecca Taichman, John Tillinger, Robert Wilson, Mark Wing-Davey and Robert Woodruff. His work is represented multiple times in the repertories of Pilobolus Dance Theatre and Alison Chase/Performance. He has been recognized with numerous awards and nominations, including the American Theatre Wing, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Connecticut Critics Circle, Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum, Drama Desk, Helen Hayes, Henry Hewes Design and Lucille Lortel. He is the lighting designer advisor for Yale Repertory Theatre and heads the lighting design department at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.

Krista Smith

Lighting Designer

Philadelphia-based Lighting Designer and Visual Artist. Recent design work includes The Good Person Of Setzuan (Wilma Theater), The Lehman Trilogy (Arden Theatre Co), Onegin In Our Own Words (BRIC), KrymovLab BIG TRIP (La MaMa), Wig Wag (Fringe Arts), The Thanksgiving Play (Dorset Theatre), What the Constitution Means to Me (Weston Theater), sandblasted (Theatre Horizon), Red Riding Hood (Arden Theatre Co), Head Over Heels (Theatre Horizon), One-Man Nutcracker (Theatre Exile), The Mousetrap (Hartford Stage), TOWN (Theatre Horizon), Letters You Will Not Get (American Opera Project), Threshold of Brightness, It is a Comfort to Know (Beth Morrison Productions), Ni Mi Madre (Rattlestick Theater), Zoetrope (Exquisite Corpse Company). Company Member of KrymovLab NYC. MFA Yale School of Drama. Proud member of USA 829. www.KristaSmithLD.com

Tye Hunt Fitzgerald

Sound Design

Tye Hunt Fitzgerald (Sound Design) is a Canadian-born Sound Designer based in New York City. Design credits include Comedy of Errors (The Public Theater), Legally Blonde (Oregon Cabaret Theater), A Good Day For Me Not For You (Waterwell), Superstitions (OKC Rep), The Vagrant Trilogy (The Public Theater), The Full Monty, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Skylight Music Theater), Matilda The Musical (New Arts), Floyd Collins, Wilder Shorts (Lenfest Center For The Arts). Associate Credits Include: Hell’s Kitchen (Broadway), Home (Broadway), Pictures From Home (Broadway), A Soldiers Play (Broadway and 1st National), How I Learned What I Learned (Seattle Rep), Cullud Wattah, The Micheals, White Noise, Eve’s Song (The Public), Letters From Max (Signature Theatre), The Coast Starlight (Lincoln Center Theater), Alice By Heart (MCC). Festival Sound Design: The International Festival of Arts and Ideas New Haven 21-24. MFA Yale School of Drama. tyehuntfitzgerald.com

Oana Botez

Costume Designer

Oana Botez is a Princess Grace Recipient, NEA/TCG Career Development Program Recipient and NEA/TCG Round of Global Connections Program. Nominated for The Lucille Lortel Award, The Theatre Bay Area Awards, The Henry Hewes Design Awards, and The Barrymore and Drammy Awards. Her designs have raised critical acclaim in New York’s BAM Next Wave, Bard SummerScape/Richard B. Fisher Center, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The David H. Koch Theater/Lincoln Center, The Glimmerglass Festival, Soho Rep, LCT3, The Public Theater, 59East59, La MaMa, The Kitchen, PS122, HERE Arts Center, The Joyce Theater, The Ontological-Hysteric Theater, BRIC Arts Media, Big Apple Circus/Lincoln Center and The Classic Stage Company. Ms. Botez is a Bucharest Art Academy (Romania) graduate and received an MFA in Design from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. Ms. Botez significantly contributed to the first Romanian theater design catalog, Scenografica. She taught costume design at Colgate College, Brooklyn College and MIT. Ms. Botez is an Associate Professor Adjunct in the Design Department at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. She resides in Manhattan, New York.

Jacob Basri

Assistant Director

Jacob Basri is a director originally from Berkeley, California. His work has appeared at Rattlestick, The Flea, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Columbia University School of the Arts, Sarah Lawrence College, Wow Haus, Bedlam, Williamstown, Yale Summer Cabaret, and the Yale School of Drama. He is an alum of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, Williamstown Theatre Festival Directing Corps, and the 2017/2018 Van Lier directing fellow at Playwright’s Horizons. Jacob has had the pleasure of assisting several directors, including David Cromer, Rebecca Taichman, Pam MacKinnon, and Lila Neugebauer. Jacob is the directing fellow at Rattlestick and is directing a production, Fun Home, for YMTC+. He holds a BA in theatre from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama, where he was awarded the Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize in directing.

Rebecca Werner

Production Stage Manager

Rebecca Werner (Direttrice di scena) is grateful to return to Compagnia de' Colombari's King Lear at La Mama after its premiere at The International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven. Off-Broadway: Arcadia (PSM), The Comeuppance (A2), Letters from Max (V1). Select credits: Spring Awakening (Breaking Borders), Audience, Good Soldier Svejk (CAMT), New York Sings Yiddish! at Summerstage (NYTF), Black Snow, A View From the Bridge, Dance Nation, Exit Strategy (Atlantic Acting School), Windfall, Ragtime (Bay Street), Seussical, Matilda, Spring Awakening (LUX Performing Arts), Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Forbidden Broadway (Arc Stages). Rebecca is also an AV Tech & Stagehand for Off-Broadway, National Tours and live events. She studied & performed Commedia dell’arte in Florence, Italy and is a teaching artist with Zara Aina in the U.S. and Madagascar. Auguri & vi ringrazio alla squadra di Colombari, cast, crew, e fam & amici for your love and support! www.rebeccawerner.com

Kino Alvarez

Director of Production

A true creative at heart, Kino has been involved in the Caribbean creative and cultural sector for the majority of his life. He began his career in sound design and engineering at the Queen’s Hall Auditorium, Trinidad and Tobago, and it was there that his passion for supporting the creative arts blossomed. He has over a decade of experience in the field, and his path has seen him work with various creators, Caribbean talents and international artists. A rising 3rd-year graduate student is pursuing his MFA in Technical Design and Production at the Yale School of Drama. Kino is no stranger to cultural diversity, a humble yet jovial soul. His love for the arts is deep and true, and he is on a mission to create a creative economy that is sustainable and deeply rooted.

Michael Rossmy

Fight Director

Esti Bernstein

Deck Stage Manager

Caleb Krieg

Assistant Costume Design

Talla Dia & Caleb Krieg

Costume Construction

Jennifer Stanjeski

Costume Painting

Tine Kindermann

Paper Crowns

Gib Gibney

Lighting Programmer and Board Op

Brandon Burton

Fight Captain

Jesse Rasmussen

Company Manager (NYC)

Luca Evans

Production Assistant

Jennifer Harrison Newman

General Manager, Compagnia de' Colombari

Jennifer Newman is a New York-based artistic director, producer, educator, choreographer, and performer with over twenty-five years of experience in visual and performing arts. She works extensively across disciplines with artists pushing the boundaries of dance, theater, and opera.

Cindy Sibilsky

Publicist, Marketing & Communications Manager, Compagnia de' Colombari

Cindy Sibilsky is the founder/CEO and producer of INJOY Entertainment LLC, a multimedia, multi-genre and multi-purpose arts & entertainment company focusing on meaningful global cultural exchange. She is a Broadway, Off-Broadway & international independent producer, marketing/PR director, and writer/journalist. INJOY has a diverse and constantly growing roster of clients, companies and shows, including theatre, musicals, dance, cirque, plays, cabaret, drag, concerts, curated art shows, public art, and immersive performances.

Sofia Crouch

Development Manager, Compagnia de' Colombari

Sofia Crouch (she/her) is a development professional who has worked with organizations, including Freedom Reads, The Morgan Library and Museum, The Laundromat Project, and international non-profit organizations, to expand their development processes and increase funding for their missions. Sofia holds a Bachelor's degree from Barnard College of Columbia University and a Master's degree from LUISS School of Government in Rome. She is a member of the Association of Italian Fundraising Professionals (ASSIF).

Kino Alvarez

Director of Production

A true creative at heart, Kino has been involved in the Caribbean creative and cultural sector for the majority of his life. He began his career in sound design and engineering at the Queen’s Hall Auditorium, Trinidad and Tobago, and it was there that his passion for supporting the creative arts blossomed. He has over a decade of experience in the field, and his path has seen him work with various creators, Caribbean talents and international artists. A rising 3rd-year graduate student is pursuing his MFA in Technical Design and Production at the Yale School of Drama. Kino is no stranger to cultural diversity, a humble yet jovial soul. His love for the arts is deep and true, and he is on a mission to create a creative economy that is sustainable and deeply rooted.

Multimedia

Multimedia

Compagnia De' Colombari's KING LEAR to Have Off-Broadway NYC Premiere & Limited Run at La MaMa

Following a successful world premiere at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in June, Compagnia de' Colombari's fresh, vital and urgent KING LEAR debuts in New York City for a limited run of four performances at La MaMa (66 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003).

Tickets are available online HERE for $45 ($25 student tickets available). Opening Night is Friday, July 12, at 7pm, with performances at 2pm & 7pm on Saturday, July 13 and 5pm on Sunday, July 14.

The play, explored in five “movements,” is adapted and directed by Karin Coonrod with original music by long-time collaborator Frank London, a talented team of designers, and a diverse cast of ten actors playing King Lear and other characters.

This Off-Broadway premiere marks Coonrod's return to presenting boldly experimental Shakespeare adaptations at La MaMa after her highly lauded production of The Tempest was a NY Times Critic's Pick in 2014.

Compagnia de' Colombari's KING LEAR is a primal, physical, and potent  “paper crown” Lear that strips the Shakespearian classic to its essence. Coonrod utilizes her signature “multiplicity” to shift and deepen audiences' connection with the characters. Ten diverse actors ranging in age and gender embody King Lear at the beginning and conduct a radical take-over of the text and space. Their unity fragments as they tear off their paper crowns and transform into other roles, competing for influence and diminishing the legion of Lears by their existence. Through a vigorous exploration of the characters' egos, motivations, and power dynamics, the actors dig deep into the internal and external voyage of a stubborn, fractured soul who must lose everything to find himself. Transformation takes place in the apocalypse. Coonrod's immersive production commands us to, as Kent says to King Lear, “See better.”

Throughout 2024, Compagnia de' Colombari is celebrating 20 years of generating spectacle, disrupting and reconstructing texts and spaces under the direction of Karin Coonrod with a robust Anniversary Season. Of Coonrod's direction, The New York Times proclaimed, “this experimental director has a knack for transforming high concepts into accessible theater” and calls her “a theater artist of far-reaching inventiveness” who uses a “style that deconstructs to construct.” Other season highlights include an Italian / U.S. tour of Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge (Fall 2024) and multiple U.S. tour dates for Whitman on Walls! (WoW!).

Tickets (KING LEAR at La MaMa, July 12-14): https://colombarikinglearjuly.eventbrite.com 

https://www.lamama.org/shows/compagnia-de-colombari-king-lear 

For more information about Colombari's KING LEAR: www.colombari.org/productions/king-lear 

Compagnia de' Colombari's KING LEAR 15 sec HD Promotional Trailer: https://vimeo.com/973228499 

About Compagnia de' Colombari:

Compagnia de' Colombari is an international collective of performing artists, generating theater in surprising places for over 20 years under the vision of director Karin Coonrod. Colombari intentionally clashes cultures, traditions and art forms to bring fresh interpretations to the written word. It is founded on the twin principles that the magic of great theater can happen anywhere and be accessible to everyone. Colombari was born in Orvieto, Italy, in 2004, where the company re-imagined the medieval mystery plays and performed them in the streets and piazzas. The company launched a parallel theatrical experience at its New York City home base that same year. Colombari's 20th anniversary season focuses on unique theatrical adaptations of works by Walt Whitman, Flannery O'Connor and William Shakespeare. Compagnia de' Colombari's 20th Anniversary Season programs are made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), The Eucalyptus Foundation, and support from other funders and donors.

KING LEAR Comes to Compagnia de' Colombari This Month

Throughout 2024, Compagnia de’ Colombari is celebrating 20 years of generating spectacle, disrupting and reconstructing texts and spaces under the direction of Karin Coonrod with a robust Anniversary Season. 

One of the 20th season’s greatest highlights is the world premiere of a raw, primal, and potent “paper crown” KING LEAR that strips the Shakespearian classic to its essence. The play, explored in five “movements,” is adapted and directed by Karin Coonrod with original music by long-time collaborator Frank London, a talented team of designers, and features a diverse cast of ten actors playing King Lear. KING LEAR debuts at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas on June 14-16, 2024, for five performances at the University Theatre (222 York Street, New Haven, CT). Tickets are available online HERE, from $48.31 to $79.18 (premium). Opening Night is Friday, June 14, at 8p.m. followed by performances at 3p.m. & 8p.m. on Saturday, June 15 and 2p.m. & 7p.m. on Sunday, June 16. Following its world premiere in New Haven, Connecticut, a New York City debut for KING LEAR and US and international touring are in the works. 

In Colombari’s fresh, vital and urgent KING LEAR, Coonrod utilizes her signature “multiplicity” (as seen in Colombari’s Merchant of Venice in the historic Jewish Ghetto in Venice, Italy in 2016, which was praised by The New York Times in its stateside tour in 2017 and was presented at Arts & Ideas in 2018) to shift and deepen audiences’ connection with Shakespeare’s most iconic characters. Through a vigorous exploration of the text and the characters’ psyches and motivations, a diverse ensemble of ten actors ranging in age and gender embody King Lear at the beginning. One by one, they strip off their paper crowns, transform into other roles, and conduct a radical take-over of the text and the space. Spreading across the play’s treacherous psychic cartography, the actors dig deep into the internal and external voyage of a fractured soul who loses and finds himself again after arduous challenges. 

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