Stage and screen star Peter Scolari, an Emmy winner for his work on the HBO series Girls, has joined the cast of Ensemble for the Romantic Century's two-week run of Eve Wolf's The Dreyfus Affair, which will be presented April 27–May 7 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Scolari, who recently appeared on Broadway in Wicked, will take on the roleof Émile Zola. The actor, whose additional credits include Hairspray, Sly Fox, Magic/Bird, Lucky Guy, and Bronx Bombers, joins a cast that includes the previously announced Tony nominee Max von Essen (An American in Paris) in the title role of Alfred Dreyfus and Mark Evans (Irish Rep's Finian's Rainbow) as his devoted brother, Mathieu Dreyfus.
The cast also features Mark Andrew Coffin as Commandant Hubert-Joseph Henry, Dee Pelletier as Madame Bastian, Meghan Picerno as Lucie Dreyfus, Daniel Rowan as Maximilien von Schwartzkoppen, Mark Light-Orr as Count Marie Charles Ferdinand Wallin-Esterhazy, and Richard Waddingham as Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer Paty de Clam. Baritone Timothy McDevitt has also joined the cast in the role of Lieutenant Georges Picquart.
Directed by Donald T. Sanders, this multi-media production illuminates the controversial story of the 1894 treason conviction of Captain Alfred Dreyfus that had a decades-long reverberation in the political landscape of France and the rest of the world.
“The Dreyfus Affair is a symbol of injustice,” said playwright Wolf, founder and executive director of ERC, in an earlier statement. “It spectacularly exposed the virulent right-wing forces in French society — forces that can be traced down to our own day, and not only in France. Yet the heart of this story is not the injustice itself, but the moving fact that people of character and fortitude—Émile Zola, Georges Piquart, and the Dreyfus family—risked their lives, careers, and fortunes to get to the truth. They never gave up or gave in, and this is perpetually relevant.”
Through live chamber music, The Dreyfus Affair captures the human and sociopolitical drama of this turbulent period. Musicians include Grace Park (violin), Daniel Cho (violin), Chieh-Fan Yiu (viola), Nico Olarte-Hayes (cello), Jake Chabot (flute & piccolo), Parker Ramsey (organ And harpsichord), and Max Barros (piano).
The production will also have sets and costumes by Vanessa James, lighting design by Beverly Emmons, and projection design by David Bengali. Casting is by Stephanie Klapper Casting.
BAM Fisher (Fishman Space) is located at 321 Ashland Place, Brooklyn. For tickets call (718) 636-4100 or visit BAM.org.
