Comedy of Errors

Notes from the Director

Based on Roman playwright Plautus' Menaechmi, written circa 220 BC, and employing the neoclassical unities of time, place, and action, Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors is perhaps his earliest play and certainly his only true farce. The plot involves three travelers from Syracuse (on Sicily) who arrive in Ephesus (now in Turkey but at one time part of the Greek Empire) in search of their long-lost loved ones. A twin and his servant, who is himself a twin, seek their brothers, and a father seeks all four boys and his wife. As in any farce, the fun arises out of an escalating series of mistaken identities and crossed communications and the hapless characters' desperate dealings as they try to pin down any sense of reality in the increasingly zany world around them. The deceptively simple storyline belies the complexity that dwells in this play. Comedy of Errors is a simplistic but no less delightful exploration of the slippery nature of reality and identity in uncertain times, a search that is highlighted and given an added layer of complexity by Woman's Will's unisex production. The play's themes of estrangement and reunification mirror our own efforts to find our way in the modern world, and Comedy's conclusion elicits the same wonder we feel when we finally find ourselves reflected in others' eyes.

Bios

• Erin Merritt (Director)
  • is the founding Artistic Director of Woman's Will, where she acts, directs and teaches. In the past year, she has played the lecherous Lucio in Measure for Measure, directed Merchant of Venice, and adapted and directed last year's bold, expressionistic hamlet (the melancholy dame). For Woman's Will, Ms. Merritt has also directed Two Gentlemen of Verona and performed the title role in Coriolanus. Other directing highlights include Brecht's A Man's a Man and Heiner Muller's Quartet. Ms. Merritt has studied taught and performed with the Berkeley/ California Shakespeare Festival, The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, The Carmel Shakespeare Festival, and Massachusetts' Shakespeare and Company among others. As an actor, she has been seen in the Bay Area with such companies as Shotgun Players, Center Rep, Pacific Repertory Theatre, and Unconditional Theatre. Regional theatre credits include the Woman in Scotland Road, Li'l Bit in How I Learned to Drive, and the title role in Sylvia. Her treatise on Brecht, Logical Brecht: what he did, why he did it, how we do it has been used as a textwork at her alma mater, Reed College, for the past ten years.
• Kathleen Antonia (Duke Solinas of Ephesus)
  • is appearing with Woman's Will for the first time. Recent performances include playing Angel in Jose Rivera's Marisol at the EXIT Theatre and Clara Hill in Pygmalion with the African-American Shakespeare Company. Kathleen is also a singer, having performed locally at the Ruby Skye and Plush Room. Kathleen is most widely known as the voices of Cindy in Sony PlayStation 2's Cool Boarders and of numerous characters in Armored Core 2.5. Many have also heard her as the vocals in Mattel Barbie commercial jingles. Kathleen is just looking to be discovered somehow wearing just one of her many hats!
• Tina Butcher (Stage Manager, Messenger)
  • is originally from Ohio, where she is working on her BA in theater at Antioch College. Most recently she produced, directed, and performed in Rainy Days, a full length play that she wrote about women finding their voice in a patriarchal society. Other experience includes Othello in Masks of Othello (Antioch College), Lucetta in Two Gentleman of Verona and Beth in Little Women (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park). Elmire in Tartuffe (Jarson-Kaplan Theater), Miep Gies in The Diary of Anne Frank, Ruth in Plain Coffee, How We Now Live-a performance art piece on youth in America dealing with the AIDS epidemic (ROAR Theatre Co.), and Sara Bradford in Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad (Theatre lV Artreach). Ms. Butcher plans on having her own theatre company one day dedicated to producing feminine positive theater.
• Darothy Durkac (Merchant 2)
  • is quite thrilled to be working with Woman's Will. A performer, mask maker, and writer, her training includes extensive work in several rigorous physical disciplines, including the Suzuki technique (both with the SITI Company and locally with Jeffrey Bihr), Decroux technique, and the Son Jarocho dance of Veracruz, Mexico. Ms. Durkac has most often performed in original ensemble plays with choral and mask work and solo works drawn from short stories. Recently, she created two original solo works for Writers Who Act, with whom she continues to work. She is also a mother and friend to her nine year old son.
• Kristina Goodnight (Dromio of Ephesus)
  • is thrilled to be performing with Woman's Will for the first time (and to be enslaved by her dear friend of 9 years, Carla Pantoja). She received her MFA in Playwriting from Saint Mary's College, and another equally practical B.A. degree in Drama and English from U.C. Davis. Other cross-dressing Shakespearean credits include Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ariel in The Tempest, and Moth in Love's Labour's Lost. Ms. Goodnight would like to thank her family and friends for their on-going support and Coppertone 50 for keeping her from burning to a crisp on the afternoons in the park.
• Lisa Jenai Hernandez (Balthazar, Cortezan)
  • was last seen in Superman with 42nd Street Moon, Little Shop of Horrors at Larkspur Café Theatre, and Chess at New Conservatory Theatre Center. Other favorite roles include Angel in Celebration with Pacifica Spindrift Players, The Grapes of Wrath with TheatreWorks, and Anita in West Side Story with Foothill Music Theater, for which she won a Dean Goodman Award. Ms. Hernandez has trained at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, the Theatre Artists Institute at American Musical Theatre of San Jose, and Santa Clara University.
• Tracy Hudak (Dromio of Syracuse)
  • is an actor, director, and writer from Los Angeles. Theater credits include Master & Margarita, Oleanna, Top Girls, Cowboy Mouth, Drums in the Night, and Artaud's Spurt of Blood. She recently wrote and directed imprint, a theatrical haunting of four Los Angeles women whose stories have been stolen by history. Ms. Hudak is a founding member of two award-winning Los Angeles companies, Zoo District, and Wolfskill Theater. Training includes Suzuki actors' training and Viewpoints, commedia dell'arte, and a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in Performance Art. She is currently adapting Helene Axon's The Book of Promethea for the stage using elements of butoh dance, opera, and commedia dell'arte.
• Allyson Kulavis (Antipholus of Syracuse)
  • most recently appeared for Center Repertory Company as Katherina in Ken Ruta's production of The Taming of the Shrew. She also spent two seasons with the Marin Shakespeare Company, as Portia in The Merchant of Venice and Olivia in Twelfth Night. Other Bay Area credits include King Lear at the 450 Geary, Problem Child at the Exit Theater, and a lovely little mileu of roles with American Citizens' Theater, Theater Rhinoceros, Antenna Theater (as a puppeteer), New Conservatory Theater Company, Playground's Emerging Playwrights Festival, the San Francisco Fringe Festival and Shotgun Players. A graduate of Vassar College, she holds a BA in Theater and Cultural Anthropology. Allyson is extraordinarily thankful to be able to spend her summer with such a rockin' group of dames.
• Madeline Lacques-Aranda (Angelo the Goldsmith)
  • is pleased to appear in Comedy. A founding member of Woman's Will, this is her third show with the company; she was last seen as Polonius in last year's production of hamlet (the melancholy dame), and also appeared as Launce in the first season's Two Gentlemen of Verona. She has spent the early part of this summer on Catalina Island, directing, writing and teaching for the Performing Arts Summer Camp. Ms. Lacques-Aranda is also a member of Eastenders Repertory Company, where her recent performances include Dario Fo's The Virtuous Burglar and the title role in Brecht's The Jewish Wife.
• Alexis Murrell (Assistant Stage Manager, Officer)
  • is going to be a Junior at Oceana High School in Pacifica in the Fall. She has worked on several school plays, most recently as a randy mayfly in David Ives' one-act play "Time Flies". Ms. Murrell was ASM for Woman's Will's Fall 2000 production of hamlet (the melancholy dame), as well as Stage Manager for their 2001 24-Hour PlayFest. She is thrilled to be working with the company again.
• ej Ndeto (Merchant 1, Emilia)
  • A graduate of American Academy of Dramatic Arts, this is Ms. Ndeto's first show with Woman's Will. Seen on stage most recently as Lady Fidget in Foothill College's The Country Wife, she has worked extensively with Peninsula theatre companies. Favorite roles include Eleanora Duse in The Ladies of the Camellias at Palo Alto Players, Carla et al. in As Bees in Honey Drown with TheatreWorks, and as Clarisse in When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? with City Lights Theatre Company.
• Carla Pantoja (Antipholus of Ephesus)
  • is very, very, very thrilled to be involved in her fourth project with Woman's Will. She was previously seen as Aufidius in Coriolanus and she performed Angelo as an understudy in Measure for Measure, as well as playing various roles in Woman's Will's Henry VIII at the Bay Area Shakespeare Marathon last year. Ms. Pantoja has appeared with other Bay Area companies such as TheatreWorks, Teatro Visión, and Brava! for Women in the Arts.
• Courtney Shropshire (Adriana)
  • has been acting in the Bay Area for the last five years, since receiving her BA in theater from UCLA. Ms. Shropshire has recently been seen on tour with San Francisco Shakes, as Sheila in An Inspector Calls at Ross Valley Players, and as an abused townsperson in CalShakes' production of Taming of the Shrew last summer. She would like to dedicate her performance to her Mom, who has been braver this year than anyone she has ever known.
• Diane Tasca (Egeon, Dr. Pinch)
  • looks forward to playing her first male role since impersonating The Little Prince long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. Prior San Francisco roles include Fanny Fern in Fanny and Walt (which included a few moments of male impersonation) and Mona Pureloin in The Big Drag (in which she played two women but no men at all). She also appeared at Center REPertory as Sarah in Translations, for which she won a Shellie Award. Other favorite roles in the Bay Area and elsewhere have been Amanda in Private Lives, Regina in The Little Foxes, and the title roles in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Hapgood, The Heidi Chronicles, and Molly Sweeney. Ms. Tasca lives in a work-in-progress (a.k.a. a very old house) in Palo Alto with her husband, Norm, and son, John.
• Lisa Wentz (Luciana)
  • was last seen playing several characters in Doing Durang. Favorite roles include Sabina in The Skin Of Our Teeth and Jill in The Big Funk. Thank you to Erin for the opportunity to be a part of The Comedy of Errors, and many thanks to her favorite acting coach, Richard Seyd.

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