Tartuffe

Synopsis

Written to coincide with the 2016 Presidential election, this contemporary reworking of Moliere’s classic comedy and cautionary tale of frauds, cheats, scoundrels and interloper is set in the home of a wealthy businessman who’s duped into supporting the political campaign of an entirely unscrupulous charlatan. Over 350 years have passed since Moliere penned Tartuffe, and yet it remains one of the most well-known and often-produced comedies in the Western canon. This is partly due to its potent afterlife—it’s ability to resonate with our present-day anxieties.

Cast

Tartuffe – Jim LaPietra

Orgon – Paul Milord, Jr.

Dorine – Karin Cassin-Scrementi

Mira – Lisa Giovenco-Solomon

Mary Ann – Hope Lang


Pernelle – Mary Lee Hoganson

Clayton – Brian Giblin

Val – Jimmy George

Laurence/Agent Sharp – Burke Fry

Loyal/Philomena – Jessica Moen

Agent Goodwin – Levander McNeever

Damon – Josh Cash

ROBERT CAISLEY—playwright Tartuffe, In search of an American Idol

Robert Caisley was born in Rotherham, England. His plays have been performed across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom and translated into Italian, French, Estonian, Czech, and Spanish. He is the head of Dramatic Writing at the University of Idaho where he teaches playwriting and topics in Contemporary Drama. His is the recipient of a 2015/2016 Fellowship in the Performing Arts from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a two-time alum playwright of the national New Play Network and former featured playwright at Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. He was named the 2011 Blaine Quarnstrom Visiting Playwright at U. of So. Mississippi. His play Lucky Me enjoyed an NNPN Rolling World Premiere in the 2014 -15 season. Last year, Lucky Me was on tour with the Vana Baskini Teater in Estonia. His play Happy, first presented at the 2011 National New Play Network (NNPN) Annual Showcase of New Plays at InterACT Theatre in Philadelphia, was a 2012 Finalist for both the prestigious Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s New Play Conference and the Woodward Newman Award for Drama at Bloomington’s Playwrights Project, and was selected for a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere the 2012/2013 season at Redtwist Theatre in Chicago where it was named by Chicago Magazine — One of the “Nine Best Comedies” of the season. It received a Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Best Original Script and won the 2014 SOTA Award for Best Play. It received its Spanish-language premiere in 2018 at Teatro Milan in Mexico City, where it was nominated for a 2018 theatre Billboard Award. It is currently being revived in Mexico City.

Other plays include Push, The 22-Day Adagio (London’s Royal Court Theatre) Front (Sundance Institute’s Playwright’s Lab), Kite’s Book (RVC Studio Theatre, Rockford, IL); Santa Fe (StageWorks/New York, which was a Finalist for the 2004 Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville) and Winter which received its World Premiere at New Theatre in Miami in 2012 and was presented in 2014 at Playwrights Revolution at Sacramento’s Capital Stage. This past season he had two new plays premiered at the Clarence Brown Theatre (The Open Hand) and B Street Theatre in Sacramento (A Masterpiece of Comic…Timing). & Juliet was developed with support from NEA and the Idaho Arts Commission and received its World Premiere in May 2017. & Juliet has just been nominated for a Broadway World-New Jersey award for Best new Play.