Tartuffe
a hypocritical farce
by Moliere
September 24-27 & October 1-4
Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00pm
Sundays at 2:00pm
Leeds Theatre
What happens when a mysterious houseguest seduces a man into turning against his family and handing over his estate, all in the name of religious devotion? A petty family argument takes a wild turn that could cost them everything overnight. Tartuffe explores the delicate line between authority and fundamentalism, and the dangerous ease in which this line can be crossed.
Our production puts a contemporary American spin on this classic French farce, investigating the fine line between passion and destruction when fundamentalism is imposed upon a community. A home is transformed as the playful tradition of eavesdropping is replaced by a culture of enforced surveillance. Our production looks at a world of extremes in which a sea change can happen overnight.
Tartuffe was quickly banned by Louis XIV after its first performance, and the Archbishop of Paris threatened to excommunicate anyone who watched it (though Louis admitted that "it was found to be extremely diverting").
Mia Rovegno is a director, actor, playwright, and puppeteer. She is the founding artistic director of HummingbirdWORKS Multimedia_Performance_Project and a company member with foolsFURY in San Francisco. She has directed and performed with The Bread and Puppet Theater, Redmoon Theater, Shadowlight Productions, Perishable Theater, and Intersection for the Arts, among others. Her plays have been developed by the foolsFURY Incubator, Fury Factory, the Page 73 Yale Summer Residency and the Empire Street Lab at Perishable Theater. Mia has developed work for the Brown University/A.R.T. Institute Bakeoff, the Harvard Playwrights Festival, The Brown New Plays Festivals, and the Brown Summer Playwrights Rep. She received her BS in Performance Studies from Northwestern and her MFA in Directing from the Brown University/Trinity Rep Consortium. Consortium productions include: Polaroid Stories, Elektra, 365Days/365Plays, Inked Baby, Some of the Rooms, Diagram of a Kidnapping, The Maids and fracture/mechanics. After serving as adjunct faculty at New College of California's Experimental Performance Institute, she taught acting and directing to undergraduates at Brown University from 2008-09. Mia is a recipient of the 2009 Drama League Fellowship.
Special thanks to Elle Moss for the use of her photography. Visit Elle Moss at ellemoss.blogspot.com or ellemoss.etsy.com.