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Les Misérables
Encore Theatrical Company Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer Original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel Additional Material by James Fenton Adapted and Originally directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird Directed by Micah-Shane Brewer Production Team Music Director - Laura Ritter Choreographer and Movement - Johanna Dunphy Scenic and Lighting Designs - Kyle Biery Costume Design - Debbie Bennett Sound Design - Gene Wooten Props Master - Heidi Booker Technical Director - Frank Williams Fight Choreography - TJ Kent Stage Manager - Amy Eanes Cast Ben Bean, William Beard, Eric Bullard, Cooper Campbell, Josh Cassels, Annie Cavin, Susan Christophel, Bleu Copas, Evan Corlew, Hannah Corlew, Joshua Davis, Lindsey Davis, Janice Denson, Emily Durand, Taylor Ferrell, Bryan Flatford, Rachel Helvey, Kelley Hinsley, Mike Howard, Robyn Isaacs, Kevin Jackson, Kathy Jones-Terry, Jim Lumpkins, Jon Luttrell, Stuart Matthews, Henry Mendoza, Hannah Miller, Nora Beth Moran, Paige Munroe-Mattocks, Seth O'Kegley, Austin Olive, Emily Reitnauer, Laureeann Ruel, Connie Sexton, Ian Sexton, Nolan Sexton, Mabel D. Smith, Parker Stansell, Dani Tower, Amber Vaughn, Scott Waisner, Luke Walker, Kaysi Watson, Ryan Worden. Press " Director's Notes Stories of redemption must be told: they serve as a reminder of the resilience of the human spirit. I first fell in love with Les Mis as a teenager when I was introduced to the musical. It moved me in a profound way. It was perhaps one of the first musicals that I came in contact with, and it demonstrated to me how musical theatre can speak to the depths of our souls and allow us, for a moment, to examine our own lives and consider our responsibility to the world around us. I have lived with this story in the back of my mind throughout the years, and would occasionally re-visit the cast recording or see various touring productions. it wasn’t until recently that I actually began reading Hugo’s original words, and the story began to unfold in a new way to me. Graham Robb, in his biography of Hugo, writes: “Les Misérables etches Hugo’s view of the world so deeply in the mind that it is impossible to be the same person after reading it – not just because it takes a noticeable percentage of one’s life to read it. The key to its effect lies in Hugo’s use of a sporadically omniscient narrator … a narrator who can best be described as God masquerading as a law-abiding bourgeois. In this way two points of view are constantly in play: society’s disgust and God’s pity.” Our world has changed in many ways since the days of Hugo, but ultimately, we still face many of the same problems in our society. We continually search for social justice in a corrupt world. People still hurt, go hungry, become ill, and often lose their hope. The journey of Jean Valjean is nothing short of a miracle, and to me, it is a spiritual awakening and a call to action to do good in the midst of all the evil that surrounds you. In the preface of the novel, Hugo writes: “So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of damnation pronounced by society, artificially creating hells amid the civilization of earth, and adding the element of human fate to divine destiny; so long as the three great problems of the century - the degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light - are unsolved; so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world - in other words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Miserables cannot fail to be of use.” I am thrilled to be back with Encore and Walters State and work with this talented and beautiful group of people. They dedication, hard work, and love of the theatre have inspired me from day one of this project. “And remember the truth that once was spoken, to love another person is to see the face of God.” Micah-Shane Brewer |
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