The Lark

Synopsis: Chapman, writing in the New York News called The Lark: "a beautiful, beautiful play…It is always the story of a simple girl who became an inspired warrior and then was tried by the church—but there have been several ways of telling it. Anouilh's way, and Miss Hellman's, is to try to tell the story from two viewpoints. One of them is how we look at the tale now as a piece of history, with our knowledge of how the girl's blundering captors unwittingly created a martyr who became forever a symbol of courage and faith. The other viewpoint has been to try to imagine what it must have been like to be Joan herself. Both approaches to this legend of the Martyr of Rouen have been splendidly realized by the technique of divorcing the drama from the confinements of time, sequence and space. Until the last moment—a thrilling and uplifting one of Joan's greatest earthly triumph, the coronation of the worthless Dauphin for whom she fought—there is no scenery in the usual sense, merely a few levels of steps and platforms, and lights. With this freedom, the story of Joan of Arc can move backward or forward without an interruption, without a jar. It begins with Joan's trial, and her tale of the voices which prompted her one day to set forth and save France from the English. And as she tells her listeners—the cold Inquisitor from Spain, the politically cynical Earl of Warwick, the deeply religious but ineffectual Cauchon and all the others—of what she heard and what she did, her story comes alive."

Cast

Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick	Crispin Manson
Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais	Jason Gonzalez
Joan the Maid	Marjorie K. Smith
Joan's Father	William Fairchild
Joan's Mother	Chris Bakasis
Joan's Brother	John Evans
Henriette	Travis Loyanich
The Promoter	Thomas Rouch
The Inquisitor	Bert Gordon
Brother Donald	Don Drummond
Brother Adam	Adam Chase
Brother Ladvenu	Bobby Holder
Robert de Beaudicourt	Waylon Wood
Agnes Sorel	CLaudia Egerdorfer
Marie, the Little Queen	Jammi Adams
Charles, the Dauphin	Adam Cohn
Queen Yolande	Beatrice Lindeman
Monsieur de la Tremouille	Jim Hastings
Archbishop of Reims	Steven Saunders
Captain La Hire	Tom Stamper
Executioner	John Evans
English Soldier	Adam Chase

 

Production Staff

Director	Susan Dunlap Harper
Scene Design	Paul DeDoes
Lighting Design	Peter B. Young
Costume Design	Mary Bruns
Technical Director	Paul DeDoes
Stage Manager	Kristian Telese
Assistant Stage Manager	Hope Roberts
Light Control	Bonnie Jean Clark
Light Crew	David Newton
	Bonnie Jean Clark
Sound Control	Renee Carnley
Properties Mistress	Hope Roberts
Properties Assistant	Chris Bakasis
Assistant Costume Designer	Kelly Long
Voice Coach & Choreographer	Gillain Clause
Musical Direction	Thomas Rouch
Drums	Hope Roberts
Vocalist	Joanna Robbins
House Manager	Judith DeBolt