Shipwrecked: An Entertainment

by Donald Margulies

 February 22-March 2, 2019

 

Friday, February 22, 2019, at 7.30 pm
Saturday, February 23, 2019, at 7.30 pm
Sunday, February 24, 2019, at 2 pm
Friday, March 1, 2019 at 7.30 pm
Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 7.30 pm

Derry Opera House

“I’m about to tell you a story. A fantastic and amazing story! A story all the more remarkable because every word of it is true.” So says Louis de Rougemont. His brave and amazing adventures left nineteenth-century England spellbound. Prepare to be swept away in a high seas adventure, populated by a monstrous man-eating octopus, flying wombats, giant sea turtles, cannibals, and buried treasure! Inspired by a true story, Donald Margulies’ epic Shipwrecked: An Entertainment—The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (as Told by Himself)  examines how far we’re willing to blur the line between fact and fiction in order to leave our mark on the world. This is the second time tKAPOW will produce a play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Donald Margulies.

Meet the Company

 

Meet the company of Shipwrecked:

Peter Josephson (Louis de Rougemont) is in his ninth season as a member of the theatreKapow company. An accomplished actor and director, he has won two New Hampshire Theatre Awards for his roles in Penelope and Exit the King (both with tKAPOW).  He has performed with the New Hampshire Theatre Project, the Winnipesaukee Playhouse, and the Seven Stages Shakespeare Company, and has appeared in numerous productions with tKAPOW including Agamemnon, A Dream Play, Macbeth, Buried Child, Stupid F#cking Bird, and Translations. He trains regularly with the International Michael Chekhov Association and tKAPOW, and teaches acting workshops on the Seacoast and in the Manchester area.


Katie Proulx (Player 1) is so very excited to be back with theatre KAPOW for her second time after being seen in Story Knife. Credits with Idaho Shakespeare Festival/Great Lakes Theater include Les Miserables, Merry Wives of Windsor, King Lear and The Comedy of Errors (Shakespearience 2015). Katie is a graduate of The New York Conservatory for the Arts and was an original company member of the Roschman Dance Company. NY credits include Spike Heels, Wet: Shakespeare, The Art of Dining, and the independent film, Nothing Phases Me. Regional roles include the Mute in The Fantasticks as well as the title role in Aladdin, An Original Pantomime at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse, Meg in Little Women, Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story, Nancy D. in A New Brain, and Val in A Chorus Line. Katie teaches ballet and musical theatre styles of dance throughout the New England area, as well as choreographing for various colleges, theatre companies and high school companies.


Glenn Provost (Player 2) is an award-winning actor, director, and one-time playwright. He has appeared in hundreds of productions in NH and across New England and NYC, with some favorite roles including Orpheus in Eurydice, Ben in Seascape with Sharks and Dancer, Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Guildenstern in Hamlet / Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Glenn is cofounder of Strangers at Home Theatre Company, was an original company member of the “Best in NH” winning Dorks in Dungeons improv theatre group, and regularly appears with Seven Stages Shakespeare Company. This is Glenn’s fourth theatre KAPOW production, having previously appeared in The Illusion, Buried Child, and The Burial at Thebes, as well as three ARTiculate Pleayreadings. Glenn appears less on stage these days, as he is currently pursuing a full-time career in the renewable energy industry.


Matt Cahoon (Director) is a tKAPOW co-founder and has directed many productions for the company including: Agamemnon, A Dream Play, Buried Child, Time Stands Still and the February 2014 production of Penelope which won three NH Theatre Awards including Best Director. Matt directed Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Israel Potter at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse. He currently serves on the boards of the Arts Presenters of Northern New England and the Greater Derry Arts Council. Matt’s theatre training includes work with Double Edge Theatre Company, SITI Company, the New England Center for Circus Arts, and Range of Motion Arts. In 2013, Matt attended the International Symposium for Directors at LaMaMa Umbria in Spoleto, Italy. As his “day job” Matt serves as the Director of Cultural Programming at Pinkerton Academy. In 2011, Matt was named to the New Hampshire Union Leader’s “40 Under Forty” program.  


J. Ryan LoPresti (Stage Manager) is happy to be joining theatre KAPOW for the first time as the stage manager for Shipwrecked!  He is a recent graduate of Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts and works as a stage manager and technical director in the New England area.  Recent credits include: Dean College – Curtains the Musical (SM), Dance Company: Move (SM) | Gabrielle Revlock – Show No Show (SM) | FPAC – The Little Mermaid (TD) | MHS Theatre Society – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (TD), Pippin (TD), The Snow Queen (TD)


Tayva Young (Lighting Designer) has been helping to bring stories to life for the last 25 years, both in live theatre and architectural lighting for museums. She has worked all across New England with various theaters, fully enjoying the challenges and adventures that come with each new play. She considers KAPOW her theatre family and could not have asked for a more talented, supportive and imaginative group of people to work with. Some of her favorite tKAPOW productions are: Melancholy Play by  Sarah Ruhl  , Living in Exile by Jon Lipsky, Grounded by George Brant and Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl. She enjoys the collaboration process with so many talented individuals, bringing the magic of live theatre to all audiences.  Now in her 8th year with Theatre KAPOW she is incredibly excited to work on this season of Explore.

Pre-Show Symposium
Fiction, Drama, or FAKE NEWS!?: De Rougemont, Shipwrecked!, and the Blurred Lines Between Life, Art, and Lies
In 1898, Louis de Rougemont, an Australian traveler, concocted wild stories about his “true” adventures, much to his audience’s amazement and delight. This travel writer turned out to be a liar whose stories were exposed as a fraud, but some readers didn’t care, because they loved the stories so much. Then in 2007, Donald Margulies added more strands to this life-story-art tangle in his play, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment. The hoaxer de Rougemont is depicted as a narrator and a character in his own rollicking stories—all portrayed by actors, who are led by a director, who is guided by the playwright. So where is the truth in the story? Whose stories are these? At what point do stories become the cherished property of the listeners, given to them by the greatest storytellers of history? What’s the difference between an artist, a tale-teller, and a liar? Is de Rougemont’s wild romp with cannibals, flying wombats, and friendly sea-turtles an imaginative tour-de-force or FAKE NEWS?

Dr. Mark Cronin of Saint Anselm College will prepare audiences for theatre KAPOW’s production of Shipwrecked! An Entertainment in his talk about great literary hoaxes, unreliable narration, and the enchanting effects of powerful storytelling. Focusing in particular on de Rougemont’s nineteenth-century contexts, Dr. Cronin will explore why the invented tales and characters of an author like Charles Dickens are beloved as great art, while the brilliant concoctions of de Rougemont are rejected as audacious lies.

Audience Reaction

“If you like adventure, excitement, marine life, a loyal DOG, acrobatics, romance, battles,wombats, pearl-diving, pseudonyms, costumes, props, the Royal Geographic Society, scandal, great acting, great ACCENTS, storytelling, or scones–do come to see SHIPWRECKED!”

“Remember being a small child and going on exotic adventures around the world using your imagination? Well, this show takes you back to one of those amazing adventures. Peter and the cast are so enchanting with their storytelling… you can’t take your eyes off the action! Such a fun evening for all of us!!”

“Congratulations to the cast and crew of Shipwrecked! The talent on the stage and behind the scenes is incredible. Set, costumes, loved it all. Go see this show!”

“This is such a creative piece of theater! Please go if you can- a work of great imagination!!!”

Get In Touch

4 + 3 =

Skip to content