Spacey, Mendes back 'transatlantic' theatre project
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 3, 2007 | 12:23 PM ET
CBC Arts
The Brooklyn Academy of Music and London's Old Vic theatre are teaming up to create a "transatlantic" theatre company that will play on both sides of the Atlantic.
Sam Mendes, the British-born director of American Beauty, will be working with Kevin Spacey, the U.S. actor who is artistic director of the Old Vic, in the Bridge Project.
Kevin Spacey, shown in 2004 outside the the Old Vic Theatre in London, where plays from the Bridge Project, his new theatre partnership with Sam Mendes, will be staged.
(Old Vic Theatre/Associated Press)
The company of British and American actors is expected to perform at least two plays a year in New York and London.
In 2008, the first year of the project, Mendes will direct Hamlet and The Tempest, both to star Stephen Dillane, who played in The Real Thing on Broadway. Other parts are still being cast.
For 2009, the Bridge Project plans The Winter's Tale and The Cherry Orchard, both to star Simon Russell Beale. A third year is planned, but the plays have not been selected.
The classic plays will be staged at the Brooklyn Academy from January to March and at the Old Vic in May and June. The company also plans a short run at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan in 2008 and is considering runs in other European cities.
Spacey said he hoped the project would help to take the "conversation" between the theatre communities in New York and London "to a new level."
The Brooklyn Academy has a similar design to the Old Vic, making it a natural partner in the project. It has not been associated recently with many new productions, but has brought British plays, often tried and true classics, to the New York stage.
Sam Mendes, pictured accepting his best director Oscar for American Beauty in 2000, is a British-born director and veteran of both stage and screen.
(Associated Press)
The executive producer of the Brooklyn Academy, Joseph Melillo, approached Mendes with the idea of staging more theatre after Mendes brought his 2003 production of Uncle Vanya to the academy.
Mendes hooked up with Spacey, whom he had directed in American Beauty.
Mendes spent 10 years as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse in London, but also directed films such as Jarhead and Revolutionary Road, a film in production that reunites Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Bridge Project needs to raise about $2 million US to start production.
