Board of Directors Welcome to summer 2017-2018 Paul Crewes Rachel Fine Michael Nemeroff Artistic Director Managing Director BOARD CHAIRMAN at The Wallis! David C. Bohnett In addition to presenting great performances on our two PRESENT EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN stages — such as the return of Hershey Felder in Lauren Leichtman Beethoven in the Bram Goldsmith Theater this month, and The Samantha F. Voxakis, Karen Racanelli and Erik Carstensen production of EXECUTIVE VICE CHAIR the continuation of the wonderfully diverse slate of Vicki Reynolds VICE CHAIR performers of The Sorting Room in the Lovelace Studio Arnold Rosenstein Theater — The Wallis is equally committed to providing VICE CHAIR & ASSISTANT TREASURER exceptional arts learning and outreach. Our GRoW @ The Richard Rosenzweig Wallis arts education programs aren’t just about serving VICE CHAIR our community and training the next generation of HERSHEY FELDER Jonathan Victor performers — they are core to our identity as an inclusive world-class arts TREASURER organization and cultural hub. It’s how we at The Wallis continue to grow. Ronald D. Rosen SECRETARY Our commitment to education and outreach is evident in a number of GRoW Susan Strauss ASSISTANT SECRETARY events playing out this summer. Last month, GRoW had the honor of producing a new stage adaptation of The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with a talented Arnon Adar ensemble of young actors, under the direction of Madeleine Dahm. GRoW also THE MUSIC OF LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Debbie Allen continued our ongoing collaboration with two community organizations. GRoW TEXT BY HERSHEY FELDER Wallis Annenberg joined with CRE Outreach on Marching On, an original play based on the lives of Jacqueline Avant Los Angeles veterans. GRoW also collaborated with The Miracle Project, an John Bendheim inclusive theater arts program for children, teens and adults with autism and all BASED ON THE ORIGINAL Steve Cochran abilities, on the new musical 185 Wilshire: A Love Story, as well as a summer Sharon Davis AUS DEM SCHWARZSPANIERHAUS BY DR. GERHARD VON BREUNING camp on our campus. Steve Ghysels

MeraLee Goldman This July we welcome back Broadway Dreams for The Hits Reimagined, a Bruce Goldsmith SCENIC DESIGN COSTUME DESIGN LIGHTING & showcase performance by the next generation of musical theater talent after a Carol Goldsmith Hershey Felder Theatr’ Hall, Paris PROJECTION DESIGN Halle Hammond week’s intensive training with Broadway professionals. We are honored to Christopher Ash Chad Hummel partner with Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust on Voices of History, an Cinny Kennard evening of original student theater highlighting the personal narratives of local Kris Levine Holocaust survivors. And we just received a new California Arts Council grant to SOUND DESIGN & ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGN The Wallis ADVOT-Homeboy Industries Summer Theater Institute Nigel Lythgoe OBE offer for PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Erik Barry Mark Louchheim previously incarcerated young adults, which launches this month. Erik Carstensen Linda May Daphna Nazarian If you haven’t already seen our gorgeous 2018/19 Season Brochure, I encourage Kenneth Salkin you to grab one today. As you flip through the pages of outstanding dance, music HISTORICAL & ASSOCIATE DIRECTION Bruce Schulman and theater offerings, and decide which events you’ll be treating yourself to next BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH Trevor Hay Marc Selwyn season with a Wallis Subscription or Flex Pass membership, please keep GRoW Meghan Maiya Ron Simms @ The Wallis in mind. It’s only with your generous donation that we can continue Stephanie Vahn providing arts education and outreach programs that serve our community, Regina Weingarten train the next generation of artists and make The Wallis a place for everyone. DIRECTED BY Luanne Wells Joel Zwick FOUNDING CHAIRMAN Thank you for your support and friendship! Bram Goldsmith* FOUNDING PRESIDENT Fondly, Paul Selwyn JULY 27 - AUGUST 12, 2018 CHAIRMAN EMERITUS Bram Goldsmith Theater Jerry Magnin PRESIDENT EMERITUS Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission Richard Rosenzweig LIFETIME TRUSTEE Les Bider Max Salter* Rachel Fine Paul Crewes Michael Nemeroff The production thanks * in memoriam Managing Director Artistic Director Board Chairman Steinway & Sons for their courtesy in providing the concert grand piano.

P2 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE About the Production About the Artists

CAST OF CHARACTERS HERSHEY FELDER (Playwright/Performer/ and Woycek (West End). Mr. Zwick has taught drama ERIK CARSTENSEN (Sound Design/ Center. Karen was named a 2016 “Unsung Hero of Scenic Design) Named to Time Magazine’s 2016 at Yale University, Brooklyn College, Queens Production Manager/Co-Producer) has worked for Arts Administration” by the national arts and Top 10 Plays and Musicals, Hershey Felder has College, Wheaton College, and the University of Eighty-Eight Entertainment since 2008. He has culture organization, Fractured Atlas. She is HERSHEY FELDER as played over 4,700 performances of his self-created Southern California. He is a graduate (B.A., M.A.) of served as sound designer on Hershey Felder as married to Bay Area arts attorney MJ Bogatin. GERHARD VON BREUNING / LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN solo productions at some of the world’s most Brooklyn College. He is currently directing for the Irving Berlin, Jamaica Farewell, Baritones Unbound, prestigious theatres and has broken box office Disney Channel and has been at the helm of Suite Louis and Keely: ‘Live’ at the Sahara, Jack Lemmon’s SAMANTHA F. VOXAKIS (Producer/Company records consistently. American Theatre Magazine has Life on Deck, Dog with a Blog, Jessie, Shake it Up, Son, Rockstar, An American Story, The Pianist of Manager) is a native of Maryland where she spent The action takes place in Vienna, October 1863. said, “Hershey Felder is in a category all his own.” Girl Meets World, I Didn’t Do It and K.C. Undercover. Willesden Lane (2012 Ovation Award Nomination), twelve memorable years working in the front office His shows include: George Gershwin Alone Maestro, Our Great Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven As I of the Baltimore Orioles. Since 2004, Sam has (Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, West End’s TREVOR HAY (Associate Director) Directed the Knew Him (2009 Ovation Award Winner). Formerly, been responsible for the day-to-day operations of Duchess Theatre); Monsieur Chopin; Beethoven; world premieres of An American Story for Actor and he was the master sound technician at the Old Eighty-Eight LLC/Hershey Felder Presents. With AUTHOR’S NOTE Maestro (Leonard Bernstein); Franz Liszt in Musik, Orchestra, Abe Lincoln's Piano, Hershey Felder as Globe Theatre in San Diego and was production special thanks to her very supportive family and to Lincoln: An American Story, Hershey Felder as Irving Franz Liszt in Musik, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, engineer on over 60 productions, including Mr. Felder. I’m delighted to be returning to The Wallis with a newly Berlin, and Our Great Tchaikovsky. His compositions and Our Great Tchaikovsky. He is Associate Director Allegiance, Robin and the Seven Hoods, A Catered Aliyah, Concerto for Piano The Pianist of Willesden Lane Affair, Hershey Felder’s George Gershwin Alone, HERSHEY FELDER PRESENTS revised musical-theatrical story about the composer Ludwig and recordings include for Mona Golabek's . (Producer) and Orchestra; Fairytale, a musical; Les Anges de Former member of the historic Old Globe Theatre in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Chita Rivera-A Dancers Life, Hershey Felder Presents is the newest division of van Beethoven. For any young pianist, Beethoven’s “Für Paris, Suite for Violin and Piano; Song Settings; San Diego where, at the age of nine, his first Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, The Full Eighty-Eight Entertainment which was created in Elise” is a staple, an ordering of notes and harmonies Saltimbanques for Piano and Orchestra; Etudes position was selling Old Globe memorabilia. Over Monty, Dirty Blonde, and Floyd Collins. Mr. 2001 by Hershey Felder and is devoted to the Thematiques for Piano; An American Story for that result in music so entirely memorable that every and the next 32 years, Mr. Hay went on to various Carstensen is a member of IATSE Local 122. creation of new works of musical theatre. Current Actor and Orchestra. Hershey is the adaptor, director aspects of production on more than 80 projects include the musical plays Hershey Felder child attempting the keyboard ‘wants’ to play it. And yet, and designer for the internationally performed presentations, including the Broadway productions MEGHAN MAIYA (Historical & Biographical as Irving Berlin, Our Great Tchaikovsky, Nathan where did such a piece come from? The circumstances play-with-music The Pianist of Willesden Lane; of Jack O'Brien's Damn Yankees, How The Grinch Research) is the Director of Research and Special Gunn: Flying Solo and The Pianist of Willesden Louis and Stole Christmas, The Times They Lane Love Songs of the Yiddish surrounding this most beloved little “Bagatelle” is curious producer and designer for the musical and Twyla Tharpe's Projects for Hershey Felder Presents (HFP). She has . Recordings include Keely: ‘Live’ at the Sahara, directed by Taylor Are A-Changin'. Included in his 23 seasons at the been doing biographical and historical research for Theatre, Back from Broadway, George Gershwin to begin with but how does such a piece or, in fact, any of Hackford; and writer and director for Flying Solo, Old Globe were eleven seasons of the Summer HFP’s new theatrical productions since 2013. Alone, Monsieur Chopin, Beethoven As I Knew Him, the great works of Beethoven — be it the Symphonies, the featuring opera legend Nathan Gunn. Upcoming Shakespeare Festival Repertory, as well as work on Productions include Hershey Felder as Franz Liszt in An American Story for Actor & Orchestra, and The Story of My Cello August: Osage County, Musik; Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin Our Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin. Concerti, the Chamber Music, The Piano Sonatas — make projects include , a solo work Tracy Letts' directed by Sam ; and for cello virtuoso Antonio Lysy. Composition projects Gold, and Hershey Felder's George Gershwin Alone, Great Tchaikovsky. Additional projects include their way into the ear and imagination and stay for good? include EDITH, an opera, based on the story of Monsieur Chopin and Maestro. Production Research & Imagery for Louis and Keely ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There is magic in all of it, and attempts to explain tend to British nurse Edith Cavell; a Washington Irving ‘Live’ at the Sahara; Scenic Decoration for The Patricia Stroh, the Ira F. Brilliant Center for CHRISTOPHER ASH Pianist of Willesden Lane, Abe Lincoln’s Piano, result in the individual listener’s response to the music. And musical, and a new musical based on the award- (Lighting & Projection Beethoven Studies, San Jose State University. winning book Out on a Ledge by Eva Libitzky. Design) NYC. Design and Associate Credits Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, and Jamaica Susan and Moses Libitzky, Jacqueline and Steve therein is the secret. The music means something different Hershey has operated a full-service production Broadway/UK: On The Town, An Act of God, Crucible, Farewell. Formerly, Meghan worked in the Swire, Dan and Phyllis Epstein, Gail Gudmundsen and special to each listener — but where can such music company since 2001. He has been a scholar-in- Prince of Broadway, Lazarus Theater: Guthrie, Yale Department of Family Medicine and Public Health and Mead Killion; Ken and Katrina Carlson; Lee come from? Perhaps to begin with man himself. residence at Harvard University’s Department of Rep, Soho Rep, Engeman, Theatre Row, Drury Lane at the University of California, San Diego as a Senior and Claire Kaufman and their family for their Music and is married to Kim Campbell, the first Oakbrook, Chautauqua Institute, Old Globe, Geffen, Program Evaluation Specialist and Project Manager. support of the original production of Beethoven, As female Prime Minister of Canada. South Coast Rep, LATC, San Diego Rep, Arizona, She managed multiple research projects in the I Knew Him; Dr. Benjamin Salisbury and Steinway, Several years after I became aware of Beethoven when I Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, Theatre For A New fields of Integrative Medicine and Behavioral Sam Rudy; MJ Bogatin, Esq. Grosses bises à notre JOEL ZWICK My Big Fat was nine, I was introduced to his “Heiligenstadt Testament.” (Director) directed Audience, New York Theatre Workshop, Shakespeare Health. Additionally, Meghan spent twelve years as famille à Seine-Port— Pierre, Isa, Amandine, Greek Wedding, the highest-grossing romantic In The Park, Signature, Philadelphia Theatre Co. a psychology professor at San Diego State Reglisse et Martine. A heartfelt thank you to my Not really a testament per se, but a letter to his younger comedy of all time. Recent films include Fat Albert Opera: Lyric Opera Chicago, Canadian Opera, University and local community colleges. team of devoted artists without whom none of our brothers Karl and Johann, written when he was residing in and Elvis Has Left the Building. Mr. Zwick directed Houston Grand, Salzburg, Royal Opera, work would be possible, especially Karen Racanelli, George Gershwin KAREN RACANELLI the Viennese suburb of Heiligenstadt. It was written when the Broadway production of Metropolitan, Opera Delaware, Summer Opera DC., (Executive Producer) Erik Carstensen, Trevor Hay, Meghan Maiya, Alone at the Helen Hayes Theatre. Mr. Zwick began Santa Fe Opera Dance: Charlotte Ballet, River North, comes to Hershey Felder Presents from Berkeley Christopher Ash, Richard Norwood, Erik Barry, Beethoven was 31 years old, and it has haunted me since his theatrical career at La Mama E.T.C., as director Hubbard Street 2, Heidi Latsky, Anadolu Ateşi Repertory Theatre, where she worked as General Lawrence Siefert, Samantha and the entire Greek I first encountered it. Ever since, I have tried to imagine of the La Mama Plexus. He has directed on (Istanbul), CoisCeim (Dublin), Hershey Park, Manager for 21 years, overseeing daily operations, Family. Thanks to Paul Crewes, Rachel Fine, Coy the man from whom the music came, and have tried to Broadway, Off-Broadway and Broadway touring National Dance Insitute. Training: MFA Yale School and produced several shows performed and/or Middlebrook, James D’Asaro, Joel Hile, William companies. He and Hershey Felder have of Drama. christopherash.com directed by Hershey Felder. She has represented Nedved, Tom Jones, Matthew Waldron, Michelle reconcile the music with that very individual. This piece collaborated on Monsieur Chopin, Beethoven As I the League of Resident Theatres during Wiesel and the box office, the house staff, and forms the basis of this new presentation of Beethoven. Knew Him and Maestro. Currently, Mr. Zwick is LAWRENCE SIEFERT (Projection Co-Design) negotiations with both Actors’ Equity Association everyone at The Wallis. A special thank you to recognized as one of Hollywood’s most prolific For over twenty years, Lawrence has been involved and the union of Stage Directors and Candice and Joel Zwick, Joel Zwick “Alone.” directors of episodic television, having the in theatre, corporate events and film. Some of his Choreographers, served on LORT’s Executive My father Jack, my sister and brother-in-law Tammy Thank you for attending this new work, and thank you for direction of over 650 episodes to his credit. New credits include projection design for the San Diego Committee and served as a panelist at several LORT and Kevin, and their dear children Avery and Kiley. having me back to The Wallis. York productions have included Dance With Me Opera’s Wozzeck and Moby Dick. He is a recipient of meetings. Prior to her tenure at Berkeley Rep, Karen And of course, Leo and Kim. (Tony nomination), Shenandoah (Broadway two Telly Awards and one Davy Award for How Do worked as an independent producer at several Bay national tour), Oklahoma! (national tour) and Cold You Build Hope (Habitat for Humanity). Area theatre companies and has served on the Hershey Felder Storage (American Place Theater). He acted in the boards of Climate Theater, Overtone Theatre original New York production of MacBird. He Company, Park Day School, and the Julia Morgan directed Esther (Promenade Theater, NY), Merry-Go- Round (Chicago and Las Vegas), Last Chance Saloon

P4 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P5