Actors’ Shakespeare Project Presents The School for Scandal

Actors' Shakespeare Project's production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's classic comedy of manners The School for Scandal starts its run tonight at Multicutural Arts Center.

The comedic take on aristocracy and the cult of manners centers on Sir Peter Teazle and his wife, Lady Teazle. Much younger than her husband, Lady Teazle brings both youthful spirit and extravagance to her position. With that comes the onslaught of scandalous rumors and whispers of gossips. Suspicion mounts that she may be involved in an indiscretion with the handsome but duplicitous Joseph Surface, and in its wake the real scheming begins. The talk moves outward from the pair to Joseph’s brother Charles, who is at the center of a multitude of scandals. As the ripples continue to spread around the aristocratic drawing rooms of London, no one is left secure in their propriety.

Sheridan’s play is directed by resident acting company member Paula Plum. The cast features Sarah Newhouse as Lady Sneerwell, Omar Robinson as Charles Surface, Richard Snee as Sir Oliver Surface/Backbite, Bobbie Steinbach as Mrs. Candour/Moses, Lydia Barnett-Mulligan as Lady Teazle/Snake, Gabriel Graetz as Crabtree/Sir Peter Teazle, Rebecca Schneebaum as Maria, and Michael Underhill as Joseph Surface/Whore/Stanley.

"The School for Scandal is one of the great comedies of English drama," says Plum. "We don’t have to look very far to discover our own insatiable appetites for scandal, and that its unsavory ingredients are just as potent as they were for 18th-century audiences. But, even as scandal reveals the unseemly hypocrisy of human nature, we all savor that moment when the hypocrite is exposed and truth triumphs. That sense of victory helps The School for Scandal remain as topical and sharply funny today as it was in Sheridan’s time."

The creative team includes Michael Griggs (set design), Tyler Kinney and Jen Bennett (costume design), Karen Perlow (lighting design), Amber Vonner (hair and make-up design), Misaki Nishimiya (props master), Susan Dibble (movement), and Darby Smotherman (sound design).

Performances will run through May 8.

For tickets and more information, click here.