
WITCH
By Jen Silverman | Directed by Michael Rau
A charming devil arrives in the quiet village of Edmonton—a semi-rural small town lost in the country—to bargain for the souls of its residents in exchange for their darkest wishes. Elizabeth should be his easiest target, having been labeled a “witch” and cast out by the town, but her soul is not so readily bought. An inventive retelling of a Jacobean drama, this sharp, subversive fable debates how much our souls are worth when hope is hard to come by.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Michael Rau (TAPS Assistant Professor) is a live performance director specializing in new plays, opera, and digital media projects. He has directed projects internationally in Germany, the UK, Brazil, Ireland, Denmark, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and the Czech Republic. He has created work in New York City at Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, PS122, HERE Arts Center, Ars Nova, The Bushwick Starr, The Brick, 59E59, 3LD, and Dixon Place. Regionally, his work has been seen at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA, the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, and the Humana Festival at Actors Theater of Louisville. His work with composer Kate Soper has been performed at the Seattle Symphony, Smith College, and The New York Festival of Song at the Dimenna Center. He has developed new plays at the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Playwrights Realm and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. His production of temping was selected by the Guardian and the Telegraph as one of the best productions of the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the piece was featured twice in New York Times. He is a recipient of a 2021 Artists + Machine Intelligence Research Award from Google, as well as fellowships from the Likhachev Foundation, the Kennedy Center, and the National New Play Network. He has been a resident artist at the Orchard Project, E|MERGE, and the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. His experimental opera, developed in collaboration with MeowWolf narrative director Joanna Garner was a finalist for the Finnish National Opera’s Opera Beyond competition. Rau is a Forward/Story fellow and a speaker at Books in Browsers, Performing Robots, and StoryCode. He is a fellow of the Akademie für Theater und Digitalität and a resident of Stochaistic Labs. He has been an assistant director for Francesca Zambello, John Turturro, Robert Woodruff and associate director for Anne Bogart, Les Waters, and Ivo Van Hove. He is a New York Theater Workshop Usual Suspect and a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and received his MFA in Theater Directing from Columbia University. At Stanford, he is an affiliate faculty member with the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.
PRODUCTION CREDITS
CREATIVE TEAM
WITCH CAST
TAPS STAFF
ADMISSION
Tickets $5-$21.90
Advanced Purchase Required
Tickets on Sale Feb 20
WHEN
Thursday-Saturday March 06-08 at 8pm
There will be no late seating or re-seating while the performance is in progress.
WHERE
Harry J. Elam, Jr. Theater
Roble Gymnasium
Stanford University Main Campus
RUN TIME
This production runs 100 minutes and is presented without intermission.
SPONSORS
This production was supported by the Pigott Fund for Drama, the May Ellen Ritter Production Fund, and the Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson Fund.
IMPORTANT INFO
LATE SEATING / RE-SEATING
For safety reasons, we cannot accommodate late admission OR re-seating while the performance is in progress. Please plan on arriving with ample time to find parking, locate the theater, move through the box office, etc.
SPECIAL EFFECTS
This production makes use of water-based haze.
ACCOMMODATIONS
Electronic Assisted Listening Devices will be available for pickup at the Box Office on performance nights.
Request disability accommodations and access info via Stanford’s online form. Requests should be made by March 1, 2024.
FILMING NOTICE
Any personal video and/or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.
The Thursday, March 6th performance will be professionally recorded for potential future public viewing. Cameras in the theater may incidentally capture audience images and audio in the background. Ticket purchasers must alert all members of their party to this possibility, and refrain from purchasing tickets before receiving their party’s consent.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
TABLEWORK
TAPS’s podcast series TABLEWORK is a behind-the-scenes look at the scholarly and artistic efforts behind each production. This episode features Host TAPS graduate student CONNOR LIFSON interviewing Witch director and TAPS Assistant Professor MICHAEL RAU.