Notch Theatre Company presents : a riff by Gwen Kingston Created with Notch Theatre Company Based on the novel by Directed by Ashley Teague^

CAST (in alphabetical order): Quinn Franzen* — STIVA ​ Sam Khazai — VRONSKY ​ Gwen Kingston* — ANNA ​ Louis Reyes McWilliams* — KARENIN/BAND ​ Marina Morrissey* — DOLLY ​ Aleca Piper — VARENKA/BAND ​ Michael Vitaly Sazonov* — LEVIN ​ Portland Thomas* — KITTY ​ Erikka Walsh* — BORIS ​

PRODUCTION TEAM Music Composition: Christie Baugher, Yan Li, Teresa Lotz & Will Turner ​ Music Director: Yan Li ​ Costume & Scenic Designer: Susanne Houstle ​ Lighting Designer: Megan Lang ​ Producer: Annie Middleton ​ Creative Producer: Marina Morrissey ​ Production Stage Manager: Jenny Kennedy* ​ Assistant Stage Manager & Lighting Assistant: Julia Perez* ​ Sound Technician: Jack Scaletta ​ Casting: Eisenberg/Beans Casting; Daryl Eisenberg, CSA & Ally Beans, CSA ​ Communications & Community Engagement: Jessica Kahkoska ​ Artwork: Rachel Birnbaum ​ Assistant Costume Designer and Production Assistant: Bethsaly Alarcon ​ Associate Line Producer: Zachary Elkind ​ Communications and Development Intern for Notch Theatre Company: Julianna Roth ​ Production Assistant Intern for Anna Karenina: Ashleigh Stoneman ​ ​ ​ Communications Intern for Anna Karenina: Yao Ge ​ ​ ​ Front of House and Production Intern for Anna Karenina: Cindy Xu ​ ​ ​ Front of House Intern for Anna Karenina: Deyshun Semple ​ ​ ​

*These actors are appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. This is an Equity Approved Showcase production. ^Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society A note from Ashley Teague (Director) and Gwen Kingston (Playwright):

We workshopped our first draft of Anna Karenina: a riff in spring of 2018 at an artist retreat on ​ ​ Saukenuk Ranch in Mineral Wells, Texas, it was a glorious mess. We went on to workshop the material at White Heron Theatre on Nantucket that fall, and then at HB Studios here in New York this past June. Each iteration has taught us more about the world we want to present onstage: a world where echoes of the past can reverberate against each other with enough power and dissonance that perhaps we start to see some cracks and fissures large enough force through a new idea.

For many of us Anna Karenina is just this implacable literary Everest - this thing we always meant to read ​ ​ before we got distracted by life - maybe we know there's a train. But whether we've read it or not, it's part of our literary landscape - it's taught in high schools and colleges - it's in our artistic water. Knowingly or not, we've absorbed these cultural ideas about marriage and loyalty and female virtue or immorality.

Irreverence is a wonderful tool for showing what is absurd about our society. Our irreverence led us to a Russian folk-punk band, who think maybe if they tell this old story (badly) enough times, something might change. We can't rewrite history but maybe by retelling it with new voices we can, one word at a time, collectively imagine a different future together.

CAST

QUINN FRANZEN (STIVA) is a Brooklyn-based actor, comedian, and poet. He is thrilled to be working ​ ​ with the brilliant minds of Notch Theatre Company. Off-Broadway: Threesome (59e59); Diaspora (Gym ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ at Judson) Regional: Nell Gwynn (Folger); Familiar, We Are Proud to Present... (The Guthrie); Angels in ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ America (parts 1&2), Romeo and Juliet, Dirty Story (The Intiman); Familiar, Hound of the Baskervilles ​ ​ (Seattle Rep); Othello, Importance of Being Earnest (Seattle Shakespeare). TV: Billions, The Blacklist, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Younger, Grimm. Training: LAMDA, Pig Iron, Market Theatre of Johannesburg, Williams College. More ​ ​ ​ at: www.quinnfranzen.com ​ ​

SAM KHAZAI (VRONSKY) Sam Khazai is a NYC-based actor who transitioned into theater following a ​ ​ career in counterterrorism. He seeks to create work that is messy and real; work that brings audiences - and himself - closer to the truth. As a founding member of Peydah Theatre Company, Sam is interested in telling stories that empower marginalized communities & challenge conventional narratives. Recent theatrical projects include Tosca Tehran (Atlantic Theater), Echo & Narcissus (Flea), & City of No Illusions ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ (La Mama). Sam has appeared on Law & Order SVU & Madam Secretary. Follow @skhazai ​ ​ ​ ​ @peydahtheatre

GWEN KINGSTON (ANNA / PLAYWRIGHT) is a New York-based actor/playwright hailing from the San ​ ​ Francisco Bay Area. Her work tackles questions of power, privilege and protest, with a focus on untold stories and reframing damaging cultural narratives. She earned her MFA in Acting from Brown University/Trinity Rep. Her credits there include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, We Go Round and Round, ​ You Are The Circus and Romeo & Juliet. She is a founding member of FaultLine Theatre in San Francisco. ​ ​ ​

LOUIS REYES MCWILLIAMS (KARENIN / BAND) Off-Broadway: Coriolanus (The Public Theater / NYSF). ​ ​ ​ ​ Regional: A Christmas Carol, An Iliad (Trinity Rep); Macbeth (Berkeley Rep); Unknown Soldier ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ (Williamstown Theatre Festival); King Lear, Pride & Prejudice (Actors' Shakespeare Project); A Tale of ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Two Cities (Bread Loaf Acting Ensemble); Prowess (Pyramid Theatre, Cloris Leachman Award); At the ​ ​ ​ ​ Table (On The Verge Festival); Slaugher City, Waiting for Lefty, Moby-Dick: Rehearsed (Stanford Rep). ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Education: Stanford University (BA), Brown University/Trinity Rep (MFA).

MARINA MORRISSEY (DOLLY / CREATIVE PRODUCER) is thrilled to be back onstage with Notch Theatre ​ ​ Company. Recent credits include: Appropriate (Trinity Repertory Company); Babycakes (The Hearth); FIT ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ (Notch Theatre Co., Trinity Rep, White Heron Theatre Company), The Underpants; Vanya, Sonia, Masha, ​ and Spike; Family Furniture; (White Heron). BA from Williams College, and MFA in Acting from Brown ​ University/Trinity Rep. Love and gratitude for her endlessly supportive family.

ALECA PIPER (VERENKA / BAND) Aleca Piper is originally from D.C. and is a proud graduate of Duke ​ ​ ​ Ellington School of the Arts. She received her BFA in acting from SUNY Purchase and is a proud Story Pirate! She is passionate about creating new works and giving homage to the classics. Previous work includes: Official Lady of Missing You in Made To Dance To Dance In Burning Buildings, The Nurse in ​ ​ Romeo and Juliet, Speed in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Lucius in Julius Caesar, Antipholus of Syracuse ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ in Comedy of Errors, Bertha Holly in Joe Turner's Come and Gone, The Maid in Red Cross, and Beulah ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Binnings in Orpheus Descending. ​

MICHAEL VITALY SAZONOV (LEVIN) NYC: Or Current Resident (Squeaky Bicycle), Solstice Party! (Live ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Source), Sex Good; Money Bad (Broken Watch). NYC Readings: Playwrights Horizons, Ma-Yi, terra NOVA, ​ ​ Rising Circle, the Lark. Washington DC: The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Round House. Outreach: ® Dance for PD t​ eaching artist. Education: American University, Juilliard’s Evening Division, West Side ​ Dance Project, Funny School of Good Acting. Big thanks to Mauricio Salgado for introducing me to this Notch family, and especially for Ashley and Gwen. Dad, this is for you. @RealityAndTruth | MichaelVitaly.com

PORTLAND THOMAS (KITTY) is thrilled to join Notch Theatre Company! Off-Broadway; HERE Arts Center ​ ​ and The Classical Theatre of Harlem. Regional; The Wolves (Marin Theatre Company) The Syringa Tree ​ ​ ​ (Creede Rep Theatre) Hamlet & Saint Joan (McCarter). BFA NYU Tisch. Portland would like to thank her ​ ​ family for their continuous support! John 4:13-14 www.portlandthomas.com ​

ERIKKA WALSH (BORIS) is excited to finally wear some pants and play Boris for you! Broadway: Once ​ ​ ​ (Original Broadway Cast). Select Off-Broadway: Red Roses Green Gold (featuring the music of Jerry ​ ​ Garcia and Robert Hunter), Come Light My Cigarette, Urban Death. Select Regional Theatre: Ring of Fire ​ ​ ​ (Capital Repertory Theatre), Jar the Floor (Arkansas Repertory Theater), Striking 12 (SpeakEasy Stage ​ ​ ​ ​ Company), Alice vs. Wonderland (American Repertory Theater), Romeo and Juliet, Pericles (Philadelphia ​ ​ ​ ​ Shakespeare Theatre). Film/TV: “The Deuce”, Rosie Rose, “Miss Teri” (co-creator). Founding member of ​ ​ the rock band Bonfire Falls. MFA: ART/Moscow Art Theater Institute at Harvard University. www.erikkawalsh.com

PRODUCTION TEAM

ASHLEY TEAGUE (DIRECTOR) is the Founding Artistic Director of Notch Theatre Company ​ (www.notchtheatre.org) and recipient of the Embark Fellowship Award for Social Innovation in ​ ​ Entrepreneurship from the Sweater Center for Public Service. While with Cornerstone Theater Company, Teague developed and produced Talk It Out, which travels California creating community-engaged ​ ​ theater to change policy around the school-to-prison pipeline crisis. As a creative content producer, she worked on such films as Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls, and Gus Van ​ ​ ​ ​ Sant's Promised Land among many others. Recent directing credits include Anna Karenina: a riff (HB ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Studio, NYC; White Heron Theater, MA), Generation25 (Collaborative Arts Ensemble, Kigali, Rwanda), ​ ​ Wild Home (Delicious Orchards, CO), FIT (La Mama Studios, NYC; Spectrum Theatre/Trinity Rep, RI; ​ ​ ​ White Heron Theater, MA), Sense and Sensibility (Redlands University, CA), The Language Archive ​ ​ ​ (UNC/Playmakers Rep), Capsized (Cherry Lane, NYC), Twelfth Night (Gallery Players, NY), The Rehearsal ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ (Asolo Rep/FSU, FL), CHQ Project (Chautauqua Theatre Co, NY), Scapegoat (Delta Cultural Center, AR), ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Willful (California State Capitol). Teague was nominated for Best Direction by Motif's Theatre Awards ​ and has received Broadway World Critics’ Picks for Best Director/Choreographer, Best Musical, and Best Ensemble Cast. www.ashteague.com ​

YAN LI (MUSIC DIRECTOR) is a music director, composer/lyricist, and writer. Recent experiences: Marguerite (APAC), The Fantasticks (Weston Playhouse), The Age of Innocence (McCarter Center, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Hartford Stage), Oh What a Lovely War (Marymount), From Here to Eternity (Ogunquit Playhouse), The ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Mystery of Edwin Drood (Fordham), and Side Show (Trinity Rep). His musicals include Made In China (NY ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Times Critics’ Pick), Sweet Nothings, Enjoy the Ride, and Bethune. He is an alum of NYU’s Graduate ​ ​ ​ ​ Musical Theatre Writing Program.

WILL TURNER (COMPOSER) is an actor and songwriter. He writes music and performs with The Lobbyists (2016 Drama Desk Nomination, Outstanding Music, SeaWife). As an actor, he holds an MFA from Brown/Trinity and is represented by Artists and Representatives. More at www.willturneractor.com ​

TERESA LOTZ (COMPOSER) Teresa Lotz’s work includes She Calls Me Firefly (2019 New York Innovative ​ Theater Award Winner Best Original Short Script, World Premiere: Soho Playhouse), Red Emma & the Mad Monk (NY Times Critic’s Pick, 6 NYIT Nominations) with Alexis Roblan, ThreeTimesFast (book/music) with Naomi Matlow (Florida Festival of New Musicals), Mommy’s Little Princess: A Craigslist Love Story (The Barbour Award Finalist), The Awakening (music) with Sarah Rebell (Musical Theatre Factory Development at Playwright’s Horizons,). Dramatists Guild, ASCAP, Musical Theatre Writing, M.F.A., NYU. TeresaLotz.com

CHRISTIE BAUGHER (COMPOSER) Christie Baugher’s musicals include The Fitzgeralds of St. Paul and Leni ​ ​ ​ Riefenstahl Is Going To Tell You The Truth, both of which are currently in development with director ​ Danny Mefford and Switchboard Operations. Big thanks to Gwen, Ashley and the gang for letting me play in your delightful sandbox. MFA, NYU-Tisch; Speller 79, 1998 National Spelling Bee. @timidfrieda / christiebaugher.com

SUSANNE HOUSTLE (COSTUME & SCENIC DESIGNER) Selected Design Credits Include: NYC: Twelfth Night ​ directed by Ashley Teague, The Triumphant (Target Margin Theater), Conway (Theater Lab, NYC), Go Get ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ the Axe (Fig Productions), Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?, Decky Does a Bronco (Starting 5 ​ ​ ​ Productions) Where Does It All Go When It Goes? (2nd Ave Dance Company). Regional: Be More Chill ​ ​ ​ (Playhouse Square), Once (Beck Center for the Arts). International: Ivankaplay, directed by Rachel Dart ​ ​ ​ ​ (Edinburgh Fringe). Upcoming: The Scottsboro Boys (Beck Center for the Arts). MFA, NYU-Tisch. ​ ​ www.susannehoustle.com

MEGAN LANG (LIGHTING DESIGNER) Megan Lang has designed lighting at BAM, La Mama, Abrons Arts Center, EST, Under St. Mark's, the Wild Project, Dixon Place, 59E59, JACK, Atlantic Stage 2, among others. Recent designs include JACK &(BAM Next Wave and US tour, dir. Kaneza Schaal), Riot Antigone ​ ​ ​ (La Mama, dir. Seonjae Kim), and Oye! For My Dear Brooklyn (Abrons Arts Center and UTR, dir. Artem ​ ​ Yatsunov). She is the resident lighting designer for the Ubumuntu Arts Festival in Rwanda. Assistant/associate special effects work includes Sting's The Last Ship, Our Lady of Kibeho, An Act of God ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ and Pip's Island. BA: Fordham University. ​ ​

ANNIE MIDDLETON (PRODUCER) is a Brooklyn-based Creative Producer and Development Consultant. ​ Middleton currently works with A.D. Hamingson & Associates, Hypokrit Theatre Company, Notch Theatre Company, The Pond Theatre Company, The Associates, and a number of individual NYC artists. Middleton recently served as Managing Director of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in the West Village for three years. She is a graduate of Yale School of Drama’s Theater Management MFA program. At Yale, Middleton served as Managing Director of Yale Cabaret, Company Manager for Yale Repertory Theatre, General Manager for the Dwight/Edgewood Project, and Management Fellow at Roundabout Theatre Company in NYC.

JENNY KENNEDY (PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER) Broadway: The King and I, Bloody Bloody Andrew ​ ​ ​ Jackson, Red. Off-Broadway: Heroes of the Fourth Turning, The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons); ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ In The Body of the World (MTC); Office Hour (The Public); We Are The Tigers (Theatre 80); The Wedge ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Horse (Fault Line Theatre); A Minister’s Wife, When I Come To Die (Lincoln Center Theater). Regional: ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Trans Scripts, In The Body Of The World (American Repertory Theater); The Lion In Winter (Two River ​ ​ ​ Theater). 13 seasons with Chautauqua Theater Company.

JULIA PEREZ (ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER / LIGHTING ASSISTANT) is brand new to New York and excited to be working with Notch Theatre Company for the first time! She's worked regionally throughout New England, including at the Peterborough Players, Trinity Repertory Company, the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre, Northern Stage, Shaker Bridge Theatre, and the Highland Center for the Arts. Julia is a proud member of Actors’ Equity.

JACK SCALETTA (SOUND TECHNICIAN) is a theatremaker, technician, and lighting designer. Audio credits ​ include: FringeCLUB (Nuyorican Poets Café), No One is Forgotten (@ Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), ​ ​ ​ ​ Jack of Cups (Experimental Bitch Presents), The Infinite Love Party (The Bushwick Starr), and Go With The ​ ​ ​ ​ Flow Gala (What Will The Neighbors Say?). BA: Williams College. jackscalettalighting.com ​ ​

JESSICA KAHKOSKA (MARKETING DIRECTOR) is a playwright/dramaturg with a double life in community engagement and communications. She has formerly served as the Director of Marketing and Communications at Chautauqua Theater Company, Detroit Public Theatre, Creede Repertory Theatre, and Bridge Repertory Theatre, and has developed community-responsive theatre projects with Notch Theatre Company, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and Southern Colorado Repertory Theatre. Graduate of Northwestern University. www.jessicakahkoska.com ​

BETHSALY ALARCON (ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER / PRODUCTION ASSISTANT) is a junior at ​ Marymount Manhattan College. She anticipates graduating in December 2020 with a degree in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Costume Design. Her recent credits include being Assistant Costume Designer for The Balcony and Bring It On, both main stage productions at MMC. Additional credits ​ ​ ​ ​ include working as ASM and Wardrobe Supervisor for Crossroads, an Amanda Selwyn Theatre ​ ​ production.

ZACHARY ELKIND (ASSOCIATE LINE PRODUCER) is a director and teaching artist based in New York City. ​ Selected directing: Henry IV, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Arcadia, Here Be Dragons, His Dark Materials; ​ ​ NYU Steinhardt, Acting Manitou. Assistant Director: BEDLAM, Live from Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center Education, Theater for the New City, Yale School of Drama, Symphony Space, Heartbeat Opera. Producer / Assistant Producer: Page 73, BRIC, Dixon Place, Dramatists Guild Foundation. Education: Yale. zacharyelkind.com

SPECIAL THANKS

Moira Squier, John Nash, Ann and James Turner, Sandy Mailliard, Maureen and Edward Bousa, Susan Morrissey, Kim and Clay Clement, Bradley Wilson, Maggie Mason, Julia Atwood, Chris Stahl, Laura Payne and the Saukenuk Ranch, White Heron Theatre, HB Studio, Shetler Studios, Desira Pesta, Corina Chase, Ryan Ginter, Erin Seidl, and Notch Theatre Company's Board of Directors.

Notch Theatre Company (www.notchtheatre.org) is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to creating ​ ​ community-responsive theatre. By collaborating with communities across the nation to tell their stories on stage, our work engages folks that brick and mortar theaters are not reaching, personalizes important social issues for people on all sides of a conversation, raises awareness in a compelling way, drives change on a national scale, and prompts meaningful, lasting engagement at a grass-roots level. Notch is currently producing Wild Home, which takes an odyssey across rural America using theatre to ​ ​ ​ tell personal stories about threatened wilderness spaces and the communities that depend on them. Wild Home has been featured on Howlround and Broadway World. Notch co-developed FIT, a play ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ about the American eugenics movement of the 20th century that partners with the Intellectual Disability Community and features actors with Down Syndrome in the cast (profiled in N Magazine). Additionally, ​ ​ Notch is a participating partner on Remember2019, an effort to make space for the congregation of ​ ​ Black communities in the Arkansas Delta, by supporting and facilitating local artistic practices of self-determination, memory and reflection as directly related to the mass lynching of 1919, the lasting effects of racial terror and the current and future health of these communities. Remember2019 is a recipient of the prestigious Map Fund grant, has been featured by the US Department of Arts and ​ Culture and presented at the Children’s Defense Fund Child Advocacy Conference, the National ​ Performance Network's Conference, the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture's Citizen Artist Salon on Creative Strategies for Commemorative Justice, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, among others. Theater is able to connect with an audience in a deeply personal way, and we strive to push the boundaries of what that connection can achieve.

NOTCH THEATRE COMPANY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Alexis Green, Shannon Morzov, J. Richey Nash (Treasurer), Moira Squier (Chair), Ashley Teague (President), Casey Terrell (Secretary).

NOTCH THEATRE COMPANY SUPPORTERS

JKW Foundation Bob & Toni Teague Drew McCoy & Amy Aquino Sabrina Sikes Thornton Jon Neustadter Sandy Mailliard to honor Gwen Kingston Jennifer & Matthew Rowland The Loewenthals Byron Gross & Ricky Tovim Tracy Nayer Bill & Chloe Cornell Brown University/Trinity MFA Program Stuart & Susie Berton Look What She Did! Mauricio & Cindy Salgado Enfamilia Inc. Colin Walker Common Sense Fund Jody Wagner T. Rowe Price Group Inc. Darin Anthony Benevity