My five-actor, two-location adaptation of Cyrano is available for licensing. The script conflates characters rather than relying on doubling; it is not a trunk show. Nor is it a concept-driven adaptation; it presents the original story with its beautiful language intact. The one conceptual change is that Roxane now sees through the hat trick, but pretends to have been fooled first because she believes Cyrano is really doing this on behalf of Christian, then at the siege because she’d rather Cyrano and Christian admit the lie than call them out for it. It only took a small number of very minor adjustments to the dialogue to make this work, and it played beautifully.

Here’s my Artistic Director’s note in the playbill for the world premiere production:

Dear Friends-

When I first started working at Aurora as the Literary Manager ten years ago under Tom Ross, he shared with me a dilemma and an idea. The dilemma had to do with classic plays: most of the great plays of the past require enormous casts, and we only have room for eight actors in our dressing rooms — never mind on our stage! The idea was to commission a series of adaptations of classic plays specifically for Aurora, cutting them down to their most essential characters so that their incredible language can shine in our intimate space. 

We never launched that program — we’re spending our play development resources on new plays (like Eureka Day, The Incrementalist, and Colonialism is Terrible, but Pho is Delicious) that address the present moment more directly. But the idea took hold in me. I realized that Cyrano de Bergerac — a play I had long dreamed of directing — might be a perfect fit for this approach.

And so I started working with the script, exploring it, finding the most essential scenes and storylines. I quickly realized that despite all the crowd scenes, the key moments in the play almost all happen between just a handful of characters. It took some creative cutting, conflating, and reconfiguring, but eventually I had a solid draft, an intimate Cyrano for just five actors.

Many more drafts have followed, including a way of addressing something that had always bothered me about the play. How could Roxane, with all her wit, intelligence, courage, and agency, be fooled by something as silly as Cyrano pretending to be Christian under the balcony? But through all the changes, my hope is not to make a statement or to put my own stamp on such a beautiful play. I just want to tell this story, with all its heart, brilliant language, and panache, on Aurora’s intimate stage. Directing Cyrano at Aurora, with such a talented cast and design team, has been a dream come true.

We have information in the lobby about the five inspiring plays in our 2023/2024 season. You won’t want to miss out on any of them.

Enjoy.