ENSEMBLE THEATRE CINCINNATI PRESENTS ADAPTATION OF ONE THE GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD WITH REGIONAL PREMIERE OF AN ILIAD, STARRING BRUCE CROMER
(Cincinnati, OH) In a long and diverse stage career, acclaimed Cincinnati actor Bruce Cromer has built a reputation as an amazingly compelling performer. Whether playing the curmudgeonly Ebenezer Scrooge in the annual Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), theologian and celebrated fantasy writer C.S. Lewis (Freud’s Last Session, Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati), or a myriad of Shakespearean characters at theatres across the country, Bruce Cromer consistently delivers a precision and edge that makes each of his characters particularly memorable and authentic. All that acumen comes into play with the incredible one-man show An Iliad, playing October 14 through November 2 and directed by Michael Evan Haney. A bold adaptation of Homer’s masterpiece written by Obie Award-winning playwright and director Lisa Peterson along with acclaimed actor Denis O’Hare (Milk, HBO’s True Blood), An Iliad unleashes the power of the epic story for a modern audience while asking us: how can we despise war, yet at the very same time glorify those soldiers who fight it?
An expansive yarn based on Homer’s epic poem, An Iliad transforms the familiar tale of gods and goddesses, undying love, and endless battles into a sweeping account of humanity’s unshakeable attraction to violence, destruction, and chaos. Homer’s text runs to over 15,600 lines and would take about 24 hours to recite from beginning to end; it also has hundreds of characters—men, women, gods, demigods, a crying baby, and two immortal, talking horses, among others. Remarkably, An Iliad’s ultra-condensed script compresses this vast scope into just 90 minutes—employing a single narrator called “The Poet,” a mysterious, slightly bedraggled figure who, we learn, was present at Troy during the war and has been telling the story ever since.
Director Michael Evan Haney explains that he loves An Iliad because “it is a primal theatrical event. Just a storyteller who takes us back in time and steeps us in the brewing cauldron of the Trojan War.” He also explains: “like Shakespearean works, The Iliad/An Iliad, is received by an audience with more feeling, emotion, and understanding when it is heard spoken—in contrast to reading it on the page. An Iliad reminds of us of the folly, the costs, and the bitter truth that Homer knew 3,000 years ago: that in the end, we bury our dead, try to heal our wounded, and realize that nobody really wins.”
In Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati’s production, The Poet’s storytelling is underscored with vocal melodies from Deirdre Manning and Emily Scott. Inspired by these muses, The Poet stalks up and down the stage paraphrasing the events of Homer’s poem, embodying the characters themselves, and, in heightened moments, quoting directly from classics scholar Robert Fagles’ 1990 Iliad translation, upon which this script is based.
About the Cast
Bruce Cromer (The Poet) has previously been seen most recently at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati (ETC) as C.S. Lewis in the runaway hit production of Freud’s Last Session, as well as Dan in the encore presentation of Next to Normal. His other ETC credits include Richard in Time Stands Still, Butch in Next Fall, Dylan in Wayfarer’s Rest, Dr. Smith in Blue/Orange, and the Librarian in Underneath the Lintel. He has been a proud AEA actor in American regional theatres for over thirty years, appearing at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the St. Louis Repertory, the Milwaukee Repertory, Santa Fe Stages, the Cincinnati Playhouse, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Cincinnati Shakespeare, etc… Mr. Cromer is a Resident Artist with the Human Race Theatre in Dayton, the Head of Acting in the Professional Actor Training Program at Wright State University, and a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors.
Production team includes Brian c. Mehring (Resident Scenic & Lighting Designer), Matthew Hollstegge (Production Coordinator & Master Electrician), Shannon Rae Lutz (Properties Master & Design Assistant), Matt Callahan (Sound Designer), and Reba Senske (Costume Designer). Production Stage Manager is Brandon T. Holmes.
Performance Information
Performances run Tuesday through Sunday. Tuesday-Thursday, 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturday, 8:00 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 2:00 pm; and Sunday, 7:00 pm. A complete calendar of performances is available online at www.ensemblecincinnati.org.
Ticket Prices
Ticket prices range from $28 to $44 for adults; student tickets are $25; and children are $18. For the 2014-2015 season, ETC continues its popular $15 student and half-price rush tickets for all performances, which are available two hours prior to show time and may be purchased by phone or in person at the box office.
Available Discounts
Military, Educator, Public Radio Perks Card, ArtsWave FunCard, AAA, Senior, and Enjoy the Arts discounts available; tickets and seating are subject to availability.
Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati is supported, in part, by the generosity of community contributions to the ArtsWave Campaign.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati also receives funding from the Shubert Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
2014-2015 Season Presenting Sponsor is the Otto M. Budig Family Foundation. Additional support provided by Garfield Suites Hotel, the Shubert Foundation, and PNC.
Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati is a professional theatre dedicated to producing world and regional premieres of works that often explore compelling social issues. We fulfill our mission through our stage productions and educational outreach programs that enlighten, enliven, enrich and inspire our audiences.
