Flaubert's Latest
- Written by Peter Parnell
- Directed by David Saint
Plays: The Cider House Rules, Part One, adapted from John Irving's novel (Atlantic Theatre Company, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Rep Theatre); The Cider House Rules, Part Two (Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Rep); An Imaginary Life, Flaubert's Latest,Hyde in Hollywood, Romance Language, The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket (all at Playwrights Horizons); Sorrows of Stephen (Public Theater, NYSF). TV: Producer, The Guardian (current) for Columbia-Tristar; co-producer, The West Wing (two seasons) NBC-Warner Bros; Hyde in Hollywood and The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket, both American Playhouse, PBS. Grants and awards: NEA, Guggenheim, Ingram Merrill and Lecomte de Nouy foundations; the Fund for New American Plays, Kennedy Center, American Theatre Critics' Association and Ovation awards; nominated for Best Play from the Drama League (for The Cider House Rules). (As of November 2006)
DAVID SAINT is now in his fifteenth season at as the Artistic Director of the George Street Playhouse. Most recently he directed Ken Ludwig’s The Fox on the Fairway; the NJ premiere of the Broadway hit God of Carnage; the world premiere of Joe DiPietro’s Creating Claire; Boyd Gaines, Rachel Dratch, Kathleen McNenny and Stephen DeRosa in A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia; Marlo Thomas and Keith Carradine in Arthur Laurents’ New Year’s Eve; Matthew Arkin in Donald Margulies’ Sight Unseen; Jack Klugman and Paul Dooley in Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys; William Finn’s landmark musicalFalsettos, the film noir musical Gunmetal Blues, Inspecting Carol, the world premiere of Arthur Laurents’ 2 Lives;The Last Five Years, Lend Me a Tenor, the world premiere of Charles Evered’s Celadine starring Amy Irving and Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick…BOOM!. Mr.Saint’s time in New Brunswick has been marked by collaborations with such artists as Uta Hagen, A.R. Gurney, Arthur Laurents, George Grizzard, Chita Rivera, Eli Wallach, Frances Sternhagen, Anne Meara, Dan Lauria, Stephen Sondheim and Jack Klugman.
An ardent advocate for new work, Mr. Saint created the Next Stage Festival of New Plays at George Street where the recent Broadway hit and Tony Award-winner Proof by David Auburn was developed before moving on to Manhattan Theatre Club and Broadway, becoming the longest-running play in two decades and the most produced play in the nation during the 2002-03 season. Another success story emerging from the Festival is The Spitfire Grill, which won the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award for New American Musicals and was produced under Mr. Saint’s direction at Playwrights Horizons in New York, winning Drama Desk, Drama-League and Outer Critics Circle award nominations, before becoming one of the most produced plays in the nation during the 2004-05 season, generating more than 100 productions across the country. Another new work which began its life at George Street Playhouse is The Toxic Avenger, the musical by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan that moved to New York, won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Musical, and has gone on to multiple productions worldwide.
Mr. Saint has directed on Broadway, off-Broadway, and at most of the leading regional theatres around the country. Recent credits include directing the first national tour of the recent Broadway revival of West Side Story, A.R. Gurney’s new play The Fourth Wall at Primary Stages, starring Sandy Duncan, as well as the world premiere of Mark St. Germain’s The God Committee at Barrington Stage. Other regional credits include Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, McCarter Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Paper Mill Playhouse, Bay Street Theatre, Walnut Street Theatre, and SeattleRepertory Theatre, where he served as Associate Artistic Director to Daniel Sullivan, directing many productions including the West Coast premiere of Wendy Wasserstein’s An American Daughter. Other productions include two Anne Meara plays: After-Play, in New York and Los Angeles, and Down the Garden Paths, which began at George Street Playhouse and moved to New York; the national tour of The Cocktail Hour, with Fritz Weaver and Elizabeth Wilson; Fame: The Musical; The Fourth Wall, with Betty Buckley and George Segal; Fourplay, with Elaine May and Gene Saks; Sons and Fathers, with Holly Hunter; and the West Coast premiere of Lend Me a Tenor, as well as world premieres by such authors as Jonathan Larson, Peter Parnell, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Aaron Sorkin, Wendy Wasserstein and others. Mr. Saint was recently a panelist for the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative for the Pew Charitable Trust, has taught at Bennington College, and directed the short film Celebrity. He is the recipient of the Alan Schneider Award, Helen Hayes Award, Los Angeles Drama Critics Award, and several Drama-Logue Awards.
Take a sumptuous Connecticut garden (and gardener); a struggling novelist trying to complete Gustave Flaubert's final, unfinished novel Bouvard et Pecuchet; his choreographer lover; a spiritualist who's playing Madame Arcati in a summer stock production of Blithe Spirit; and last, but not least, the magical arrival of the author of Madame Bovary himself, along with his lover, the feminist-poet Louise Colet, and you have all the ingredients for a bold and fanciful excursion into the land of love, literature and the intrepid artistic idols whom we want to adore—at least until we really get to know them.
Featuring
Mitchell Anderson
Gil Bellows
Jean DaBaer
John Bedford Lloyd
Mark Nelson
Sam Stoneburner
Mary Louise Wilson
Creative Team
James Noone
Scenic DesignerJane Greenwood
Costume DesignerKenneth Posner
Lighting DesignerJohn Gromada
Sound DesignerRick Sordelet
Fight DirectorPaul Lester
ChoreographerPhoto of Jean DeBaer and Mitchell Anderson by Joan Marcus.
Handsomely stimulating and deliriously enjoyable.
Long passages of tangy, bubbly writing… produces what is not only Parnell's wittiest but his most mature work so far.