February 5 - March 7, 2010

Written by Glen Berger

A global detective tale ripens with the return of a library book – 113 years overdue!  Who is the mysterious Mister A? Follow our librarian hero as he is led on a scavenger hunt across five continents and dozens of cities to discover if the borrower is alive. Hoax? Myth? Or a VERY large late fee? Winner of the L.A. Ovation award for Best Play of 2001.

 

Plan your visit

Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Special events and services during this production

• Opening Night: February 10, 7:00 pm
• Dramaturg Marge Betley and actor Daniel Pearce in conversation: Thursday, February 18, 7:00 pm
• Sign-Interpreted performance: February 25, 7:00 pm
• Dr. Michael Dobkowski, Professor of religious studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, along with actor Daniel Pearce discuss Underneath the Lintel, the myth of the Wandering Jew and its place in Jewish mysticism and faith: Thursday, March 4, 7:00 pm
• Sunday Salon: March 7, 1:30 pm

Dining & Entertainment

Click here to check out the Geva Café or look below for more options in the area!

Eros Restaurant 37 Charlotte Street Rochester, NY 14607 (585) 546-2230	The Trip Hammer Grill 60 Brown's Race Rochester, NY 14614 (585) 262-2700	Siam Fine Thai Cuisine 280 Exchange Blvd. Rochester, NY 14608 (585) 232-7426
Tasteful Connections Catering 1 Whipple Lane Rochester, NY 14622 (585) 467-4400	The Little Theatre 240 East Avenue Rochester, NY 14604 (585) 258-0400	Palladio Restaurant 125 East Main Street Rochester, NY 14604 (585) 423-6767
Edibles Restaurant 704 University Avenue Rochester, NY 14607 (585) 271-4910	Pomodoro Grill & Wine Bar 1290 University Avenue Rochester, NY 14607 (585) 271-5000	Golden Port 105 East Avenue Rochester, NY 14604 (585) 256-1780

Behind the Scenes

Bios for Underneath the Lintel

DANIEL PEARCE (The Librarian) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut in Underneath the Lintel. Broadway credits include The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Circle in the Square. Off-Broadway credits include King Lear, Measure for Measure, Henry V and Henry VI at the NY Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre; The Picture of Dorian Gray for the Irish Repertory Company; A Mother, a Daughter, and a Gun at Dodger Stages and Love’s Fire at the Public Theatre. He toured nationally with the Acting Company for their 1997-1998 season playing Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet and performing Love’s Fire at the Barbican in London. He has performed regionally at Long Wharf, McCarter, New York Stage and Film, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Guthrie Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Berkshire Theatre Festival, George Street Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and The National Shakespeare Company. In late March 2010 he starts rehearsals for the New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl's A Passion Play running Off Broadway. Film Credits include the forthcoming release of Salt with Angelina Jolie, and An Invisible Sign Of My Own. Other Film/TV credits inlcude Clowns, Godzilla, "Law & Order," "Law & Order: SVU," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Damages," "Queens Supreme," "Chapelle’s Show," "All My Children," "As The World Turns." Mr. Pearce earned his M.F.A. from NYU.

PADRAIC LILLIS (Director) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut with Underneath the Lintel. Most recently, Mr. Lillis directed Scott Hudson’s Sweet Storm with Alchemy Theatre in Association with LAByrinth Theater Company. Recent credits include Michael Puzzo’s The Dirty Talk (nominated NYIT Outstanding Director), Adina Taubman’s documentary play on Columbine A Line In The Sand for the Midtown International Theater Festival (Awarded Best Production). He was the Dramaturg for Michael Lluberes’ The Boy In The Bathroom for the New York Musical Theater Festival (Awarded Most Promising New Musical and Best Book) and his play Two Thirds Home was produced in New York by the Broken Watch Theater and is published by Dramatist Play Services, Inc. Mr. Lillis is an adjunct professor with the Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU, Artist-in-Residence with Alchemy Theater, a company member of the LAByrinth Theater, and a lifelong Yankee fan.

Behind the Scenes

Production Photos

Photographer: Derek Madonia

Interview with Director Padraic Lillis

Underneath the Lintel from the dramaturg’s notebook, August 24, 2009:

What do I love about Underneath the Lintel? It’s the great combination of heart and mind – in other words, it appeals to the sentimental side of me that loves a good laugh and a good cry, and it appeals to the nerdy, brainy part of me that loves quirky ideas and odd bits of trivia. The main character of the Librarian has one possession that he is just obsessed with: the date stamper that he uses to mark the dates on books that are borrowed from the library. Yes, this is an old-fashioned, before-the-days-of-scanning-barcodes date stamper. It’s a funny little metal object with dials that show numbers and the months that you adjust to give you today’s date… or any date you can imagine. As the Librarian describes it:

"It’s lovely. It contains every date there ever was. You don’t believe me? (He closes his eyes, fiddles with the stamper dials, then looks at it.) August 27, 1883… There’s the date Mount Perboewaten explodes in Krakatoa, thirty-six thousand people perish under the ash. It’s all in here! All the trials and joys of history. (Closes his eyes and fiddles with the dials again.) January 25, 1971… Oh, January 25, 1971… Helen Shattock is walking her dog in Dayton, Ohio when a frozen block of urine from the lavatory of a Pan Am jet falls, and hits her on the head, killing her instantly. Mind you, same date, 1836, Cetewayo, King of the Zulus is born! Oh yes, this stamper contains every birth in this room, not just Cetewayo’s. And death. Yes, our deaths too, somewhere… My death is in here… somewhere. I just don’t know where. Still. Gives you a bit of respect for it, doesn’t it. The stamper."

It’s one of the first hints we get in the play that we are in for one mysterious and magical tale. (And by the way, all those events that the Librarian refers to in that little section are absolutely true. See, I told you I have a nerdy side… .) So, if you’re a fan of “Antiques Roadshow” and movies at The Little, if you like those “how they do it” shows on Discovery, and if you’re a hit at friends’ parties for your repertoire of little-known factoids, then you just might love Underneath the Lintel, too.

- Marge Betley, Literary Manager & Resident Dramaturg