TONIGHT: The Misanthrope at 7PM

Streaming on our Facebook page

Sep 12, 2020

Tonight’s the night! No Exit Theatre Collective presents THE MISANTHROPE, directed by co-artistic director Zeynep Akca.

Molière’s The Misanthrope, directed by Zeynep Akca, will be performed today, September 12 at 7 p.m. on the No Exit Theatre Collective Facebook page. All shows in our Fortnightly Reading Series are abridged to run less than 90 minutes, with a Q&A with the artists to follow.

Molière’s The Misanthrope is directed by Zeynep Akca, co-artistic director.

The cast will feature RJ Christian as Alceste, Colette Ambo as Célimène, Katelyn “Kay” Elliot as Philinte, Bruce Jimenez as Oronte, Cameron Reese as Acaste, Daniel Cabrera as Clitandre, Angel Rafael Tavarez as Arsinoé, Isabella Weiss as Éliante, Kassandra Pérez as Basque/Du Bois/Officer, Nicole Pelini, Swing.

Technical directed by Ellen McAlpine. Script managed by Caity MacNeill.

Director’s note, by Zeynep Akca

What is the point of a comedy of manners? This genre has drawn us in for centuries. We will always make art that comments on, criticizes, and satirizes these ridiculous social structures. The same social structures that are constructed, entirely made up by those who want power and a convenient system of oppression. Our setting, the French courts, is as good a place as any to show how people followed made-up manners to appease a made up higher class. Molière, of course, is an expert of the genre.
Molière has a stylized way of relating to his audience, while smartly criticizing the “rules” of his cultural setting. The full title of the play, The Misanthrope, or, the Cantankerous Lover, carefully suggests that this is a play simply about a man in love. (A clever distraction, from the actual themes of the play.) The Misanthrope is a response to the criticism, censorship, or out ban of his works by the French court. His work Tartuffe, famously, is the most notable example of this.
Working on texts by authors like Moliére and Shakespeare prove that we continue to engage with art in the same ways. Those in power want to see themselves portrayed as heroes. Artists are tarnished and banned from publishing or performing materials that criticize those with power, and the structures that keep them in power. These works have been performed and interpreted in ways that were acceptable to white-bourgeois audiences for centuries. It’s our job to dissect them, and find the truth within.
I am most interested in finding moments that may be missed, in playing up the comedy. For example, The Misanthrope of the play, Alceste, is often performed as a laughable person because he won’t conform to norms. He says he won’t rely on hypocrisy to keep his status. Molière, with this approach to the character, was able to get the play past censorship. His audiences found Alceste to be a relatable character, representing a real and valid desire to refuse conformity. This can also be seen with Célimène, the love interest. She is played up to be “promiscuous,” a woman who can’t make up her mind. If we read deeper, she is a woman coming into the power of her own sexuality. Célimène realizes she can climb the social ladder by using her love as currency in a society where women cannot work and have no social mobility.
In these ways, Molière’s characters are nuanced. They aren’t always good or bad, heroes or fools, but simply people finding ways to survive. Molière’s art shows that it is human nature to be flawed and to be working on those flaws.
In Molière’s time, those in power considered his work dangerous and subversive. A threat to their system of rigid social classes and domination. At the heart of these works is deep criticism of people who ignore the flaws within society, as well as their flaws. Satire makes people laugh, and then it forces them to really think about their own place in this system. How does this art reflect my own flaws, and how can I work on them? Unless, of course, they are too oblivious to their own flaws... the very kind of person Molière is criticizing.
I think that each of us has a Misanthrope within ourselves, especially if we are working on our own flaws. We compare ourselves to the ideals of the systems we live in — systems of oppression, constructed and maintained by those who cannot survive without these rigid structures. So much of our world is built on the domination of others. Our misanthropy, our distaste or even hatred for humanity, shows that we expect better from ourselves, and each other. We dream of a world where no one owes anyone anything due to their social status. A world with no systems of domination and oppression. A world where we are not forced to conform to ancient rules of society, arbitrarily created by men whose disdain for other people was so great, it makes us think we hate each other, too.

Honoring the activist roots of theatre and our artists is at the core of No Exit Theatre Collective. We seek to affect change with our work. With each production we put on, the creative team selects a social justice organization to support. Our support comes from our virtual tip jar, which is on Venmo @NoExit-TC.

The director for each show selects an activist organization to support. This week, we’re supporting the Sex Workers Outreach Project.

“Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA is a national social justice network dedicated to the fundamental human rights of people involved in the sex trade and their communities, focusing on ending violence and stigma through education and advocacy.”

Zeynep Akca on why we’re selecting the Sex Workers Outreach Project.

“I wanted to bring forward the work SWOP does around education and advocacy with The Misanthrope. While Célimène is not necessarily involved in sex work, she wields her gender and sexuality as a force to improve her position. This kind of advancement wasn’t possible for women, unless they married a rich man with more power than them.
Gender-based oppression is the basis for the opposition to sex work. It still happens today. From the postponement of the ERA to SESTA, our governments hurt sex workers. This is just one aspect of our society’s hypocrisy, as those who scrutinize sex work are the ones who consume media created by or about sex workers, pay for their services, or appropriate aspects of it for their own personal gain. We stand in solidarity with all workers. Sex work is work.”

The rest of the tip jar will be split equally among contributing artists on the project. You can support our art by donating to our tip jar, @NoExit-TC on Venmo.

RJ Christian is a senior at NYU studying Musical Theatre Voice at Steinhardt. He previously appeared on No Exit’s virtual stage as Claudius in Hamlet, Demitrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Agememnon in Iphigenia in Aulis. Some of his favorite roles have been Donkey (Shrek the Musical), Callahan (Legally Blonde), and Beast (Beauty and the Beast). RJ was a cast member of the 2018 and 2019 NYU Reality Show. He has also served as composer/lyricist in five different productions including The Link, Mea Culpa, On a Wing and a Chair, Airlock: The Musical, and RedBeard. RJ was a finalist for Taylor Louderman’s Write Out Loud song competition with his song “Up There.”

Colette Ambo is a performer from the Commonwealth of Dominica. She holds a BFA in Multimedia Performing Arts from Lehman College. Her credits include Caint (ChoreJoey), Wanita (ChoreoJoey), Bring it On (Black Spectrum Theatre), Passing Strange (Lehman), Chicago (BTP), Busted (Lehman), Church (Lehman), Rapunzel (Penny Prince), When I Get to Where I'm Going (Penny Prince). She is also the founder of West Indian Arts Project, an organization aimed at promoting West Indian arts, artists, and culture.

Katelyn (a.k.a Kay) is honored to join No Exit for their second reading "The Misanthrope." Kay graduated with their BFA in Performance and a minor in French. Kay is a genderfluid actor (She/Her or They/Them pronouns) and hopes to one day be a founding member of an all-genders Shakespeare company. In their spare time, Katelyn is an author, seamstress, podcaster, and cat mom. They live with their fiance in Orlando.

My name is Bruce Jimenez and I am a proud Latino actor/singer/dancer based in NYC! I originally debuted my professional career as a classically trained vocalist in venues such as Lincoln Center, New York City Center, Carnegie Hall and the Verbier Festival in Verbier, Switzerland. I recently made great strides in my acting career as a dancer in the re-make of West Side Story directed by Steven Spielberg. This past August I also made my Off-Broadway debut as a lead in The Argentinian Prostitute Play.

Cameron "Cameron" Reese is a theatermaker going into his senior year at NYU. He looks forward to the day that he can play dads and grandfathers. Until then, he supplements acting with writing plays and writing the books of musicals with composer/lyricist RJ Christian.

Daniel Cabrera received his BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2017 where he studied at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. His recent credits include Corin/Audrey in As You Like It presented by Match: Lit, Claudio in Measure for Measure co-presented by Company of Fools and Barefoot Shakespeare Co., and Lysander in Santa Fe Shakespeare's production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. You may have seen him recently in No Exit's productions of Twelfth Night, Iphigenia in Aulis, and Arms and the Man. For more information visit danielcabreraactor.com.

Angel Rafael Tavarez is thrilled to be joining NETC for their third reading. Angel is an arts educator who teaches students the art of acting and musical theatre to all ages. Constantly working with theatre educational programs like Roundabout, Brooklyn Youth Company, and Statement Arts. Recent roles include King Herod (JCS), Wolf/Prince (ITW), Helena/Quince (Midsummer), and Leading Player(Pippin).

Isabella Weiss is incredibly excited to join No Exit Theatre Collective's production of The Misanthrope! She is currently based out of Chicago where she has performed at The Annoyance Theatre and Navy Pier's Winter Wonderfest. Over the past couple of years, she's had the privilege of performing all around the Midwest to play some of her dream roles including #14 in The Wolves, Mara in Well-Intentioned White People, and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. She's also a proud graduate of Viterbo University's BFA program in La Crosse, Wisconsin. www.theisabellaweiss.com

Kassandra Pérez is an actor, writer, creator, applied theatre practitioner and dabbles in song. This is her second production with No Exit, her first being Arms and the Man directed by Ben Natan and she is excited to be back for Misanthrope. She is a proud Rutgers Alum where she received her BA in Art History with a theatre minor and is now pursuing her MA in Applied Theatre from CUNY SPS. Kassandra has worked in numerous productions Off/Off-Off-Broadway and film and now, virtual staged readings. She is happy to be back.

Nicole Pelini is honored to be returning to the No Exit Theater collective screen, previously seen as Iphegenia (Iphegenia in Aulis) and as Queen Getrude (Hamlet). Some of her favorite credits include Jean in August Osage County, Elvira in Blithe Spirit, and Leigh in Really, Really. She received her BFA in Theatre Performance at Florida Atlantic University. Ms. Pelini has until recently been based out of Brooklyn, NY and now can be found on her mother’s farm in Nebraska for the foreseeable future. Nicole is thankful to No Exit Theatre Collective for this opportunity to continue to practice the craft we all know and love.

Ellen McAlpine is a New York based actress, model, and writer. She's been involved with NETC since playing Beatrice in "Much Ado About Nothing," and then technical directing "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and now "The Misanthrope." Recent credits also include an appearance in season 6 of Investigation Discovery's "Evil Lives Here" and HBO's "Paterno." She is a graduate of Muhlenberg College with a B.A. in Theatre (acting concentration) and Film Studies. Ellen is also a writer at CNN Underscored. When she's not working it's likely you'll find her making freshly popped popcorn and cheering on the Yankees.