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| Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) & Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) |
From our friends at the Shakespeare Theatre Company...
Will on the Hill, the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Annual Bipartisan Comedic Event Returns June 17th
Members of Congress, Senators and Distinguished Washington Insiders Take the Stage, with Special Guest Actors Nicholas Bruder, Harry Hamlin and Hannah Yelland
On Tuesday, June 17, 2014, Will on the Hill, a favorite bipartisan event of theatre and political fans alike, returns to the Shakespeare Theatre Company. This year’s event features a performance of Lend Me Your Ears, an original play by Peter Byrne, written with assistance from The West Wing Writers Group, and directed by STC Associate Artistic Director Alan Paul. The cast will include special guest performers Nicholas Bruder, Harry Hamlin and Hannah Yelland.
The annual Will on the Hill event welcomes Members of Congress, Senators and distinguished Washington insiders onto the Shakespeare Theatre Company stage to perform scenes from Shakespeare infused with comedic references to contemporary politics. The event pays tribute to the unique dynamic of our city and provides a wonderful way to engage new audiences. Will on the Hill will take place in Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW), and begins with a VIP cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m., followed by the performance at 7:30 p.m. and a buffet dinner immediately after the performance.
This year’s cast for Will on the Hill will include three special guest performers. Harry Hamlin is a classically trained actor and veteran star of television, film and stage for three decades, whose work ranges from multiple Golden Globe® nominations for his iconic role on L.A. Law to a recent Emmy-nominated performance on AMC’s Mad Men. Nicholas Bruder currently stars as Macbeth in the haunting Off-Broadway phenomenon, Sleep No More. Hannah Yelland appeared in STC’s production of The Winter’s Tale (2012-2013), and returned this season to reprise her Tony Award®-nominated role of Laura Jesson in Brief Encounter, which she has also toured extensively throughout the U.K. and U.S.
In addition to Lend Me Your Ears, the evening includes a performance from students in Text Alive!, a free arts integration program offered by STC to D.C. area schools, which teaches Shakespeare’s plays through performance and adaptation. This year, students from Maryland’s Charles Flowers High School will perform Henry IV, Part 1 Act 2, scene 4, reimagined in a Bollywood theme.
About Lend Me Your Ears: In the waning hours of Super Tuesday, a documentarian visits the campaign headquarters of a candidate who’s on the verge of a narrow victory—or a humiliating defeat. Complicating matters, the headquarters are located in the candidate’s hometown, which is in the middle of its Shakespeare festival, complete with costume-wearing and verse-speaking. The idealistic filmmaker clashes with a jaded campaign manager as the voting results come in, and as donors, rival candidates, reporters and others attempt to get in one last wheedle, one last dig, one last question before the final tally.
Many Senators and members of Congress will join Nicholas Bruder, Harry Hamlin and Hannah Yelland on the STC stage, including Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Donna Edwards (D-MD), Michael Grimm (R-NY), Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Mike McIntyre (D-NC), Jerry McNerney (D-CA), Jim Moran (D-VA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Jared Polis (D-CO), Tom Rice (R-SC), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Terri Sewell (D-AL), Dina Titus (D-NV) and Kevin Yoder (R-KS).
Other illustrious cast members include Ian Liddell-Grainger (MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset); Comm. Mignon Clyburn (Chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission) and Christina Sevilla (DA U.S. Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President); Marla Allard; and members of the media, including Bob Cusack (Managing Editor, The Hill), Benny Johnson (BuzzFeed), Rick Klein (ABC News’ Political Director), Dana Milbank (The Washington Post) and Kelly Jane Torrance (The Weekly Standard). The Honorary Co-Chairs for the event are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX).
Cast members subject to change.
A select number of performance-only tickets to this popular event are available online at ShakespeareTheatre.org/WillontheHill for $50. VIP tickets are available for purchase, and include a pre-performance cocktail reception and a buffet dinner with the opportunity to meet and dine with members of the cast and event sponsors. VIP tickets can be purchased for $250 by emailing WillontheHill@ShakespeareTheatre.org.
WILL ON THE HILL COMMITTEE:
The Honorable Tom Davis, Co-Chair, Deloitte, LLP
Bernie McKay, Co-Chair, Intuit, Inc.
Gene Procknow, Co-Chair, Deloitte, LLP
Nick Allard, Past Chairman, Squire Patton Boggs, Joseph Crea Dean and Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
Janet C. Boyd, The Dow Chemical Company
Carol Danko, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association
Mike House, Past Chairman, Hogan Lovells US LLP
Jerry Jasinowski, Business Consultant; Former President of National Association of Manufacturers
Kate McAuliffe, Hogan Lovells US LLP
Susan Mora, Pepco Holdings
Karishma Page, K&L Gates LLP
Linda Paulson, She Should Run
Steve Ryan, Past Chairman, McDermott Will & Emery
June Silverberg, Silverberg Associates
Cathy Sloan, The Computer and Communications Industry Association
Julie Slocum, Wells Fargo
Katie Vlietstra, National Association for the Self-Employed
Rich Whiting, Past Chairman, The Financial Services Roundtable
SUPPORT FOR WILL ON THE HILL:
Will on the Hill is made possible in part by its Executive Sponsors: Deloitte LLP; Intuit; McDermott Will & Emery; Director Sponsors: Altria Group, Inc.; Amazon Web Services; Brown-Forman Corporation; Carmen Group; Computer & Communications Industry Association; The Dow Chemical Company; FLUOR; Hogan Lovells LLP; Humana; PEPCO; Venable LLP; Producer Sponsors: Nicholas and Marla Allard; BP America; Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter and Associates; The Ludwig Family Foundation and The Honorable Eugene A. Ludwig and Dr. Carol Ludwig; McLane Company, Inc.; Nissan; Sovereign Strategy; West Wing Writers Group; Patron Sponsors: Aflac; Alston + Bird LLP; Ernst and Young; Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.; H&R Block; Jerry and Isabel Jasinowski; K&L Gates LLP; Oracle; Reset Public Affairs; Security Industry and Financial Markets Association; Software and Information Industry Association; TPG Capital; Vulcan Materials Company; Wells Fargo; Jonathan and Lynn Yarowsky; Benefactor Sponsors: BB&T; Elmendorf Ryan; Michael Evans; Expedia, Inc; FTI Consulting; Franklin Square Group; Alice and John Goodman; National Association of Realtors; National Rural Electric Cooperative Association; Navigators Global; The OB-C Group; Peck, Madigan, Jones & Stewart, Inc; Podesta Group; Gene and Mary Procknow; Property Casualty Insurers Association of America; Rasky Baerlein Prism; The Smith-Free Group LLC; Supporter Sponsors: William and Lorelei Bodie; Dickstein Shapiro LLP; International Brotherhood of Boilermakers; Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc.; LEVICK; Peter Mirijanian Public Relations; Professional Women in Advocacy Conference; Regions Financial Corporation; Steptoe & Johnson LLP; Washington Resource Association; and Media Partner: The Hill.
ABOUT THE ACTORS:
Nicholas Bruder plays Macbeth in the haunting Off-Broadway phenomenon, Sleep No More (Drama Desk Award® winner, Obie nominations). He has appeared in the opera The Death of Klinghoffer, directed by Tom Morris; on television programs including Gossip Girl, SMASH and Shakespeare Uncovered; and with the dance performance The Painted Bird Trilogy. He has been awarded the Falstaff Award for Best Actor, and performed at Feldstärke International (Paris, Essen, Los Angeles) and in the Modern Hearts video by The Knocks. He received his BFA from the California Institute of the Arts, in Dance/Choreography/Production, Lovelace Full Scholarship.
Harry Hamlin garnered a Golden Globe® nomination for Best Motion Picture Acting Debut in the musical comedy Movie Movie, and has been steadily working in television, film and stage for three decades. He currently appears on AMC’s Mad Men, for which he received an Emmy nomination, had recurring roles on Showtime’s Shameless and cult classic Veronica Mars, and made a memorable guest appearance on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. During his recent Mad Men hiatus, he filmed a kinky cameo in the thriller Shiva & May with Jessica Biel and Zosia Mamet, and he’ll next enjoy an arc on the USA Network medical drama, Rush. Hamlin received an additional three consecutive Golden Globe® nominations for his role as attorney Michael Kuzak on Steven Bochco’s L.A. Law. The cast reunited some ten years later for a highly anticipated reunion movie. In the interim, Hamlin has starred in some two dozen telefilms and mini-series. On the big screen, Hamlin appeared as Adam Sandler’s nature host rival in the FOX comedy Strange Wilderness. He previously starred as Perseus in the cult favorite Clash of the Titans with Sir Lawrence Olivier; in the ground-breaking and controversial Making Love about a gay relationship in the early-’80s; and the dramas Immigrant and The Fourth Noble Truth, which recently took home honors at the Sonoma International Film Festival. Hamlin, who has the distinction of being honored as People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive,” is a classically trained actor having received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama from Yale University, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.
Hannah Yelland made her STC debut in The Winter’s Tale in the 2012-2013 Season, and returned to reprise her Tony Award®-nominated role of Laura Jesson in Brief Encounter this season. She toured with Brief Encounter throughout the U.K., to A.C.T San Francisco, the Guthrie and St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, before transferring to Broadways’ Studio 54 in 2010–2011. Her previous theatre credits include playing Daisy in Daisy Pulls It Off, and Kate in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby in London’s West End. She also toured the production (with her father, David Yelland playing Ralph Nickleby), throughout the U.K. and to Toronto. Regional work includes My Cousin Rachel (Spoleto Festival 2014); Hermione in The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre Center); Rachel in My Cousin Rachel (Gate Theatre, Dublin); Vivie Warren in Mrs. Warren’s Profession (U.K. Tour); Nora Helmer in A Doll’s House (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); Jacqueline Maingot in French Without Tears (English Touring Theatre Company); Marion de Saint Vaury in The Linden Tree and Jan in Bedroom Farce (U.K. Tour). Film and television work includes Method, AKA, Modern Love, the leading role in Catherine Cookson’s The Secret, Ultimate Force and guest-starring roles in Dalziel and Pascoe, Doctors, Ahead of the Class, Holby City, Danielle Cable: Eyewitness, Heartbeat, The Project, Dinotopia, Swallow, The Bill, Micawber, A Touch of Frost, Poirot and Lord Edgware Dies.
ABOUT THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY:
Recipient of the 2012 Regional Theatre Tony Award®, the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) has become one of the nation’s leading theatre companies. Today, STC is synonymous with artistic excellence and making classical theatre more accessible.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Kahn and Managing Director Chris Jennings, STC’s innovative approach to Shakespeare and other classic playwrights has earned it the reputation as the nation’s premier classical theatre company. By focusing on works with profound themes, complex characters and poetic language written by Shakespeare, his contemporaries and the playwrights he influenced, the Company’s artistic mission is unique among theatre companies: to present theatre of scope and size in an imaginative, skillful and accessible American style that honors the playwrights’ language and intentions while viewing their work through a 21st century lens.
A leader in arts education, STC has a stable of initiatives that teach and excite learners of all ages, from school programs and acting classes to discussion series as well as accessible programs like the annual Free For All, one of STC’s most beloved annual traditions, allowing audiences to experience Shakespeare at no charge.
Located in our nation’s capital, STC performs in two theatres, the Lansburgh Theatre and Sidney Harman Hall in downtown Washington, D.C., creating a dynamic, cultural hub of activity that showcases STC as well as outstanding local performing arts groups and nationally renowned organizations. STC moved into the 451-seat Lansburgh Theatre in March 1992, after six years in residency in the Folger Library’s Elizabethan theatre. At that time the Penn Quarter neighborhood was not considered desirable by many; since then, STC has helped drive its revitalization. The 774-seat Sidney Harman Hall opened in October 2007.
