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Press Release
ANTHONY ZERBE
in IT’S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS
an uncommon mix of theatre and salon
“...a charismatic performance”
The Los Angeles Times
“This must have been what it was like when Homer spoke to a crowd.”
Harvard University
“Zerbe journeyed through Cummings with a power only Zen master’s command. “
Dr. Crae Wilson, Eastern Arizona College
“a marriage of great acting and extraordinary poetry”
Fordham University
Emmy Award winning screen and stage actor ANTHONY ZERBE captivates audiences in his nationally acclaimed performance in IT’S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS ... an avalanche of E.E. Cummings.
ANTHONY ZERBE provides joyous access to the art and energy of one of America’s most beloved poets Here again are the Cambridge ladies who “live in furnished souls;” the defunct blue-eyed Buffalo Bill; the comic love duet of “he-said, she-said;” and the mesmerizing voice from the circus high wire in him. Zerbe moves pell mell through a parade of characters, accents and dazzling word plays capturing in perfect moments Cummings favorite subjects ... Paris, New York, the mOOn, Spring, first loves & the Circus! Like Cummings, Anthony Zerbe is an accomplished raconteur and his asides and anecdotes recall a time when conversation was considered an art form. IT’S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS is an uncommon mix of theatre and salon.
A poet of both joy and satire, E.E.CUMMINGS (1894-1962), along with James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and William Faulkner, is one of the progenitors of the modern movement in literature. He manipulated language and typography to offer new ways of presenting poetry on the page. “He was everything an American poet should be: fiercely independent, unsparingly amorous, joyfully Bohemian, dourly patriotic, engagingly eccentric. He was our kind of genius, self-taught and fearless; he was P.T. Barnum, Charles Ives, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Armstrong, Robert Goddard, Buster Keaton and Frank Zappa. To some of his contemporaries he appeared lunatic. Now he seems one of the few bright human beings in a world of robots.” (Fred Chappell “Celebrating America’s originalest poet on his 100th anniversary”) Today Cummings still beguiles readers as the poet of youth, the poet of the importance of being rather than doing, the poet of spring (“mender of things”), to whom a flower meant more than a skyscraper.
Anthony Zerbe is recognized as one of the country’s most versatile actors with extensive credits in film, television and theatre. His feature films include: The Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, Star Trek Insurrection, True Crimes, The Touch, License to Kill, See No Evil – Hear No Evil, Mismatch, The Dead Zone, Farewell My Lovely, The First Deadly Sin and Who Will Stop the Rain. His series of classic releases include: The Turning Point, Rooster Cogburn, The Laughing Policeman, The Parallax View, Papillon, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, The Omega Man, The Liberation of L.B. Jones, They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!, The Molly Maguires, Will Penny and Cool Hand Luke. He starred as Teaspoon Hunter in the television series “The Young Riders” and received an Emmy Award for his performance as Lt. K.C. Trench in the popular series “Harry-O” (with David Janssen). He has been a guest star in numerous television series from vintage classics such as “Gunsmoke,” “Mission Impossible,” “Bonanza,” “Columbo” and “Murder She Wrote” to “Frasier” and “Judging Amy.” His mini-series and movies of the week appearances include: Asteroid, One Seventh Avenue, Treasure Island: The Adventure Begins, Once An Eagle, North and South Book II, One Police Plaza, Dream West, Ari: The Richest Man In The World, How the West Was Won and Centennial. His Broadway appearances include: The Little Foxes, Terra Nova, Solomon’s Child and Moon Besieged. For five seasons he was in residence at The Old Globe Theatre where his roles included Coriolanus, Iago, Richard, III and Macbeth. He also played Iago in the Mark Taper Forum production of Othello with James Earl Jones. His appearances at the Taper also included the American premieres of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine and Brian Friel’s Crystal and Fox. Other residencies include two years with Arena Stage in Washington, DC, a season at the Stratford Festival in Canada, and the Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia. Other appearances in resident theaters include productions at The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre and the Huntington Theatre in Boston. In the latter two theaters, he played the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac. For five years he was the Artistic Director of REFLECTIONS: A New Plays Festival in Rochester, New York. For over thirty years, he toured with the late actor Roscoe Lee Browne in their critically acclaimed production, Behind the Broken Words. It premiered at the Mark Taper Forum, played Off Broadway and subsequently in over 200 theatres across the country. His one man show It’s All Done With Mirrors ... an avalanche of e.e. cummings has played in 100+ venues including the Library of Congress. He won critical praise for his adaptation of, and performance in, Prelude to Lime Creek taken from the prose and poetry of Joe Henry with singer Greg Barnhill at the Denver Center Theatre Company. He also appeared with Garth Brooks and John Denver in Lime Creek Christmas which he devised from Lime Creek, a novel-in-progress, by Joe Henry.
