The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence
- Written by Madeleine George
- Directed by Leigh Silverman
Madeleine George's plays include THE ZERO HOUR, PRECIOUS LITTLE, and SEVEN HOMELESS MAMMOTHS WANDER NEW ENGLAND. Her work has been produced by 13P, Clubbed Thumb, Shotgun Players in Berkeley, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, and Two River Theater Company in New Jersey, among other places. She's received the Princess Grace Playwriting Award and the Jane Chambers Award, as well as commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club and Playwrights Horizons. SEVEN HOMELESS MAMMOTHS... was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award; THE ZERO HOUR was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Madeleine is a resident playwright at New Dramatists; an alum of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, the Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, and the Lark Playwrights' Workshop; and a founding member of the Obie-Award-winning playwrights collective 13P, which recently imploded after completing its mission of staging thirteen playwright-produced plays. (As of March 2013)
Broadway: David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish; Lisa Kron’s Well. Recent world premieres: The Madrid (MTC); No Place to Go (Public Theater); In the Wake (Center Theatre Group/Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The Public Theater, Obie Award, Lortel nomination); Chinglish (Goodman Theater, Jeff nomination; West Coast/Hong Kong tour); Go Back to Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons, Obie Award); From Up Here (MTC, Drama Desk nomination); Yellow Face (Center Theatre Group/The Public Theater); Coraline (MCC/True Love); Blue Door (Playwrights Horizons); Hunting and Gathering (Primary Stages); Beebo Brinker Chronicles (Hourglass Group/37 Arts); Creature (New Georges/P73); Well (The Public Theater; Huntington Theatre; ACT); Oedipus at Palm Springs (NYTW); also Golden Child (Signature Theatre) and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Second Stage Theatre); and many regional productions. West End: Wit. She is currently directing Tanya Barfield's The Call for Playwrights Horizons and Primary Stages. (As of March 2013)
WORLD PREMIERE
Watson: trusty sidekick to Sherlock Holmes; loyal engineer who built Bell’s first telephone; unstoppable super-computer that became reigning Jeopardy! champ; amiable techno-dweeb who, in the present day, is just looking for love. These four constant companions become one in this brilliantly witty, time-jumping, loving tribute (and cautionary tale) dedicated to the people—and machines—upon which we all depend.
Featuring
John Ellison Conlee
David Costabile
Amanda Quaid
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: The Full Monty (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC nominations), 1776, The Constant Wife. Off-Broadway: Murder Ballad, The Madrid, The Green Heart (MTC); Anyone Can Whistle, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Encores!); Pig Farm (Roundabout); The Bald Soprano, The Butter and Egg Man, Once in a Lifetime (Atlantic); Henry VIII, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for Measure (Shakespeare in the Park). London: The Full Monty. Television: “Parks and Recreation,” “Medium.”
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: Translations, Caroline or Change, Titanic, The Tempest. Off-Broadway: Mr. Marmalade (Roundabout); Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry V (2003), Henry V (1996), Troilus & Cressida (Shakespeare in the Park); Caroline or Change (Public); Carnival!, Can-Can (Encores!); The Winter’s Tale (CSC), Rainn Wilson’s The New Bozena (Cherry Lane). Film/TV: Lincoln, The Bitter Pill, The Cradle Will Rock, “Breaking Bad,” “Suits,” “The Good Wife, “The Closer,” “House,” “Damages,” “The Wire.”
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: Equus. Off-Broadway: The Seagull (Culture Project); A Public Reading…Disney (Soho Rep); Luck of the Irish (Lortel nomination, LCT3); Cock (The Duke); Galileo (CSC); Happy Hour (Atlantic); The Illusion (Signature); The Witch of Edmonton (Red Bull Theatre); Banished Children of Eve, The Yeats Project (Irish Rep); Not a Creature Was Stirring (The Flea). Regional: Mrs. Warren’s Profession (Shakespeare Theatre), As You Like It (Folger), Romeo and Juliet (Hudson Valley Shakespeare).
Creative Team
Louisa Thompson
Scenic DesignAnita Yavich
Costume DesignMark Barton
Lighting DesignMatt Tierney
Sound DesignPeter Stopschinski
Original MusicDavid H. Lurie
Production Stage ManagerLouisa Thompson is an award-winning set/costume designer and creator of theatrical work for young audiences. In 2018, she received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Design. Her designs have been seen Off-Broadway, on Regional stages, and internationally (with the 10 year tour of GATZ by Elevator Repair Service). Known for explorations of audience space, site specificity, and the potential for materials on stage, Louisa is considered an innovator in the field and has been recently featured in the book Scene Shift. Currently, Louisa connects her projects as Ground_Cloth, a container for past, present, and future explorations of cloth, play, and environmental justice.
Anita Yavich has designed costumes for theater, opera, and dance across the US and internationally. Her costume designs for Broadway include: Fool for Love, Venus in Fur, Chinglish, and Anna in the Tropics.
Anita has received numerous awards for her designs: the Ovation Award, Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award, IRNE award, Obie award, Henry Hewes Award, and Irene Shariff Young Master Award.
In 2001, as the recipient of a NEA TCG career development grant, she traveled to India for three and a half months observing theater, dance, textile, and crafts traditions. She holds an MFA in costume design from Yale School of Drama.
Broadway: The Real Thing, Violet, The Realistic Joneses. Off-Broadway: Signature, Playwrights Horizons, Public, Roundabout, Elevator Repair Service, NYTW, TFANA, many others. Other NYC: Encores! Off-Center (NYCC), BAM, Juilliard Opera. Regional: A.R.T., Guthrie, Center Theater Group, La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf, Huntington, Berkeley Rep, many others. Obie Award for Sustained Excellence.
Matt Tierney is an American actor with a diverse range of credits on stage, television, and film. Born and raised in New York City, Tierney discovered his passion for acting at a young age and began performing in local theater productions. He went on to study theater at the prestigious Juilliard School, where he honed his craft and developed his unique style.
Peter Stopschinski (Composer) has composed music/lyrics for New York Musicals Festival’s 2015 Winner Best in Show: The Calico Buffalo, string arrangements for Grupo Fantasma’s 2011 Grammy Award winning album El Existential, music for Madeleine George’s Off-Broadway play which was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Drama: The Curious Case of the Watson Intelligence, and the 2016 film score for two-time Academy Award winning director Al Reinert’s film for PBS Rara Avis: The Life of John Audubon. His operas and musicals have been performed across the country from Arena Stage (DC) to Playwrights Horizons (NYC) to Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theater (LA) to Gertrude Opera in Melbourne, AUS to La Mama (NYC).
Photos by Joan Marcus
MARVELOUS AND FILLED WITH MARVELS. In the Stoppardian world of The Watson Intelligence, Madeleine George’s human, dramatic play takes surprising turns. Amanda Quaid, David Costabile, and John Ellison Conlee are excellent, and under Leigh Silverman’s bracing direction, pull off a good deal of magic.
FOUR STARS. A sweet and twisty time-tripping fantasy that keeps the seriocomic juices flowing. Refreshingly whimsical, Madeleine George’s play juggles several deep themes with grace, wit and intellectual verve.
GRANDLY AMBITIOUS. John Ellison Conlee is brilliant in four different roles. David Costabile imbues his characters with a fervid intensity.
