The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1589 and 1593. It is considered by some to be Shakespeare's first play, and is often seen as showing his first tentative steps in laying out some of the themes and motifs with which he would later deal in more detail; for example, it is the first of his plays in which a heroine dresses as a boy. The play deals with the themes of friendship and infidelity, the conflict between friendship and love, and the foolish behaviour of people in love. The highlight of the play is considered by some to be Launce, the clownish servant of Proteus, and his dog Crab, to whom "the most scene-stealing non-speaking role in the canon" has been attributed.
Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor. He was known for his intense and varied roles on stage and screen. He started his career in the Public Theatre before transitioning to film. He received numerous accolades including a Drama Desk Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and nominations for four Tony Awards. In 2017, The Daily Telegraph named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.
Joseph Papp was an American theatrical producer and director. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created a year-round producing home to focus on new plays and musicals. Among numerous examples of these were the works of David Rabe, Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Charles Gordone's No Place to Be Somebody, and Papp's production of Michael Bennett's Pulitzer Prize–winning musical A Chorus Line. Papp also founded Shakespeare in the Park, helped to develop other off-Broadway theatres and worked to preserve the historic Broadway Theatre District.
Stockard Channing is an American actress. She played Betty Rizzo in the film Grease (1978) and First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing (1999–2006). She also originated the role of Ouisa Kittredge in the stage and film versions of Six Degrees of Separation; the 1993 film version earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She was also one of two comic foils of The Number Painter on Sesame Street.
Arthur Terence Galt MacDermot was a Canadian-American composer, pianist and writer of musical theater. He won a Grammy Award for the song "African Waltz" in 1960. His most-successful musicals were Hair and Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971). MacDermot also composed music for film soundtracks, jazz and funk albums, and classical music, and his music has been sampled in hit hip-hop songs and albums. He is best known for his work on Hair, which produced three number-one singles in 1969: "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In", "Good Morning Starshine", and the title song "Hair".
John Guare is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation.
Clifton Duncan Davis is an American actor, singer, songwriter, minister, and author.
Sugar is a 1972 musical with a book by Peter Stone, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The musical is based on the 1959 film Some Like It Hot, which was adapted by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond from a story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan.
The House of Blue Leaves is a play by American playwright John Guare which premiered Off-Broadway in 1971, and was revived in 1986, both Off-Broadway and on Broadway, and was again revived on Broadway in 2011. The play won the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play and the Obie Award for Best American Play in 1971. The play is set in 1965, when Pope Paul VI visited New York City.
Mel Shapiro is an American theatre director and writer, college professor, and author.
Manu Narayan is an American actor, film producer, singer, songwriter, composer and saxophonist. He served as a Trustee of Carnegie Mellon University, his alma mater, from 2013-2016.
A Spray of Plum Blossoms is a 1931 silent Chinese film directed by Bu Wancang and starring Ruan Lingyu, Wang Cilong, Lim Cho Cho, and Jin Yan. It is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona. The film is one of several collaborations between Bu Wancang and two of the top Chinese movie stars of the day Ruan Lingyu and the Korean-born Jin Yan and was produced by the Lianhua Film Company.
Megan Lawrence is an American actress best known for her roles on Broadway. Among other honors, she has been nominated for a Tony Award. She has also appeared Off-Broadway, in regional theatre and on television.
Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus is an 1851 oil painting by William Holman Hunt. It depicts a scene from William Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona. The top left and right portions of the frame include excerpts from act V, scene IV of the play. From left to right, the characters are Julia, disguised as a page, Sylvia, Valentine, and Proteus, who is in love with Julia. Sylvia's father, the Duke of Milain, and a group of followers are present in the background.
The Blue Light Theater Company was an off-Broadway theater company located in New York City primarily active in the late 1990s through 2001 and notable for the many celebrated actors associated with the company, including Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman, Frances McDormand, Billy Crudup, Marisa Tomei, and Marsha Mason, as well as many who have since gone on to have notable careers including Josh Radnor, T.R. Knight, Chris Messina, and Matthew Saldivar. Actor/ Artistic-Director Greg Naughton, and Darice O'Mara, Assistant to Paul Newman, founded Blue Light in 1995 with the stated mission of producing challenging, primarily larger-cast plays that would bring up-and-coming actors together with veteran artists in a spirit of apprenticeship. They began as an itinerant theater troupe, renting theaters from such venues as Primary Stages, HERE Arts Center, the Classic Stage Company, and Atlantic Theatre Company, before settling in for two seasons at the 55th Street Theatre and their final two seasons in the McGinn-Cazale Theatre. Mandy Greenfield joined as Blue Light’s producing manager in 1998. She and Peter Manning are credited with the artistic direction and selection of Blue Light’s final season, when Mr. Naughton took a sabbatical.
Rich and Famous is a two-act play by John Guare. It premiered in 1974 at the Academy Festival Theatre in Lake Forest, Illinois, and made its Off-Broadway debut in 1976.
Michael Marcus Morgan, better known as Michael Marcus, is an English actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Henry Tudor in the TV series The White Queen (2013). He also had supporting roles in The Physician (2013) and The Theory of Everything (2014).
Loretta Agatha Abbott was an American educator, dancer, choreographer, singer, director, dance captain, and actress. She was an early member and foundation builder for the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. She was also a founding member of the Clark Center for the Performing Arts, and worked with the organization from 1959 to 1989.
Bernard Gersten was an American theatrical producer. Beginning in the 1960s through the early 2000s, Gersten played a major role in shaping American drama and musical theatre.
