FLORIDA REPERTORY THEATRE 2017-2018 SEASON HISTORIC ARCADE THEATRE • FORT MYERS RIVER DISTRICT ROBERT CACIOPPO, PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

PRESENTS

SPONSORED BY ELLIE FOX STARRING ensemble members V CRAIG HEIDENREICH* • CARRIE LUND* and DAVID FRIEDLANDER* • BRITT MICHAEL GORDON* • OLIVIA HOWELL JACKIE SCHRAM* • STACEY SCOTTE*

DIRECTED BY ensemble member GREG LONGENHAGEN SET & LIGHTING DESIGNER COSTUME DESIGNER BERT SCOTT*** ALICE NEFF SOUND DESIGNER PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER JOHN KISELICA JOSHUA QUINN* The Last Night of Ballyhoo is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York. Originally produced on Broadway by Jane Harmon, Nina Keneally and Liz Oliver. The Play was commissioned by the Alliance Theatre Company, and presented by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, Cultural Olympiad for the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival. 2017-18 GRAND SEASON SPONSORS

The Fred & Jean Allegretti Foundation • Naomi Bloom & Ron Wallace • Dinah Bloomhall • Jane & Bob Breisch Alexandra Bremner • Janet & Bruce Bunch • Chippendale Audiology • Berne Davis • Mary & Hugh Denison Ellie Fox • David Fritz/Cruise Everything • Nancy & Jim Garfield • Vici and Russ Hamm John Madden • Joel Magyar • Noreen Raney • Linda Sebastian & Guy Almeling • Arthur M. Zupko This entire season sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture. Florida Repertory Theatre is a fully professional non-profit LOA/LORT Theatre company on contract with the Actors’ Equity Association that proudly employs members of the national theatrical labor unions. *Member of Actors’ Equity Association. **Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. ***Member of United Scenic Artists. CAST (in order of appearance) Lala Levy...... JACKIE SCHRAM*† Reba Freitag...... STACEY SCOTTE*† Boo Levy...... CARRIE LUND*† Adolph Freitag...... V CRAIG HEIDENREICH*† Joe Farkas...... BRITT MICHAEL GORDON*† Sunny Freitag...... OLIVIA HOWELL*† Peachy Weil...... DAVID FRIEDLANDER*† TIME & PLACE Atlanta, Georgia. December, 1939. THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO will be performed with one 15-minute intermission. The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited. Asst. Stage Manager: Laura West Asst. Costume Designer: Olivia Pedigo Wardrobe Supervisor: Ian Witten Lighing and Sound Board Operator: Eli Carnahan Understudies: Haley Clay u/s Lala Levy • Paul Gary u/s Peachy Weil Dillon Feldman u/s Joe Farkas • Virginia Newsome u/s Sunny Freitag ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT ALFRED UHRY is the only playwright ever to win the Triple Crown: an Oscar, a Tony, and a Pulitzer Prize. He began his career as a lyric writer under contract to the late Frank Loesser. In that capacity he made his Broadway debut in 1968 with Here’s Where I Belong. He then wrote the book and lyrics for The Robber Bridegroom and was nominated for a Tony Award. He followed that with five re-created musicals at the Goodspeed Opera House. In 1987 his first play, Driving Miss Daisy, opened at Playwrights Horizons Theatre in New York. It was subsequently moved to the John Houseman Theatre, where it ran for over 1,300 performances. The play earned many awards, including the Outer Critics Circle Award and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. For the film version, he won an Academy Award and the film itself was voted Best Picture of the Year. Other films include Mystic Pizza and Rich in Love. Mr. Uhry’s second play, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, which was commissioned by the Cultural Olympiad for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, opened on Broadway in February 1997. It has been chosen Best Play by the American Theatre Critics Association, The Outer Critics Circle, and the Drama League, and the 1997 Tony Award. He worked on Parade, a musical play about the Leo Frank case, with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and directed by Harold Prince. His film projects include a new adaptation of Dodsworth for Time Warner, Cut Flowers for Miramax, and Taft, commissioned by Morgan Freeman.

SPECIAL THANKS Leigh Scrabus • LaTasha Armstead • Lisa R. Kaminski City of Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency Amanda Warriner • Jonathan Borgia • Asolo Repertory Theatre Penguin Point Costume Shop at Lake Howell High School

†Member of Florida Repertory Theatre’s Ensemble of Theatre Artists. See page 23 for the entire ensemble.

* The Actors & Stage Manager *** employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. CREATIVE TEAM DAVID FRIEDLANDER* 15 seasons and more than 80 productions with (Peachy Weil) is thrilled Actors Theatre of Louisville, three seasons to be making his Florida with the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, two Rep debut. Selected seasons with the Asolo in Florida, five with credits include Katie Shakespeare Santa Cruz in California and Roache (Mint Theatre); three years as artistic director of the Complete The Rivals, Measure for Theatre Alliance and Infinite Space as well as Measure (New York the first three seasons of the Banyan Theater Classical Theatre); Amadeus, Stones in His in Sarasota of which he is a founder. He Pockets, Romeo and Juliet, Cyrano de Bergerac, currently splits his time between theatre work The Little Prince (PlayMakers Repertory); and coaching for Banyan Voice and Speech in Middlemen (New Jersey Repertory); Twelfth which he and his wife, Tess Hogan, Night (Mountain Playhouse); Stones in His are partners. Pockets (Majestic Theater); End of Summer, The Boss (Metropolitan Playhouse); Love’s Labor’s OLIVIA HOWELL (Sunny Lost (Shakespeare Forum); Belleville (Sonorous Freitag) moved to New Road Productions) TV/Film: Girls, Nan’s Ring. York City after graduating MFA from University of North Carolina, BA from Stephens College from Yale University. Proud member Actor’s with a B.F.A. in Theatre Equity Association. MG, you come too. Arts and is happy to call Fort Myers her temporary BRITT MICHAEL home. Select credits GORDON* (Joe Farkas) is include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Honey), thrilled to be returning Skin of Our Teeth (Gladys), Number the Stars to Florida Repertory (Annemarie), The 39 Steps (Annabella/Pamela/ Theatre where he Margaret), Love is Dead (Cindy), and Bedroom previously portrayed Farce (Susannah). You may also hear her as Billy in Tribes and Jan in BaaBaa the sheep in the animated children’s The Unexpected Guest. series The Mother Goose Club. Olivia eagerly Other regional credits include Arcadia (Palm awaits the 2018/19 release of two feature films Beach Dramaworks), Assassins and Peter and Nothing Like the Sun and Ask for Jane. Much the Starcatcher (freeFall Theatre), Good People love to her family, and fiancé Greyson. and The Pitmen Painters (American Stage), www.olivia-howell.com Tribes (Mad Cow Theatre), and Butterflies Are Free (Broward Stage Door). Britt is a recipient CARRIE LUND*† (Boo of a Silver Palm Award and Theatre Tampa Levy) is co-founder, Bay Award. He received a BFA in Acting from ensemble member, Florida State University. associate producer of Florida Rep, was V CRAIG HEIDENREICH*† recently seen in Sylvia, (Adolph Freitag) appeared and has acted in over 90 last season at Florida Rep productions in Southwest as Atticus Finch in To Florida. In 2012, she was named Best Actress of Kill a Mockingbird and the Year and named one of the “Power Women very recently directed of the Year” by Florida Weekly. She produced Disgraced this season, and acted on Sanibel Island from 1984-1998 Best of Enemies last at the Pirate Playhouse and on Captiva Island November, and Echo Location for the 2016 with Carrie Lund Presents. She taught theatre PlayLab new play festival. He also appeared at Florida Gulf Coast University in its early in Pitmen Painters for American Stage in St. years, produced theatre companies in her Petersburg and directed Freak for the Urbanite hometown of Erie, PA and New York City, and in Sarasota. He has produced, directed, and/ performed in regional theatres in NY, VT and or performed in more than 200 professional NC, as well as the Three River Shakespeare productions throughout the country including Festival, Pittsburgh Playhouse, and American CREATIVE TEAM Ibsen Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA. In 1987, Ruthless! (Myrna Thorn); and Hairspray (Prudy the Sanibel-Captiva Chamber of Commerce Pingleton). Television and film credits include awarded her the Distinguished Citizen Award 30 Rock, The Practice, Unsolved Mysteries, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Zoobilee Zoo, Julie & Julia, Me & Will, and Carrie has been in all nine Florida Rep shows currently streaming on Amazon Prime, Judy’s reviewed by The Wall Street Journal: The House Child. www.staceyscotte.com of Blue Leaves, The Cocktail Hour, One Slight Hitch, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Little Foxes, GREG LONGENHAGEN† (Director) is making his God of Carnage, Sylvia (2011, 2017), You Can’t mainstage directorial debut with Florida Rep’s Take It with You, and Dancing at Lughnasa. production of The Last Night of Ballyhoo. As Other selected credits include Florida Rep’s a 20-year company member, Greg’s versatility Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End, Becky’s New Car, as an Actor, Fight Director, and Dialect Coach Doublewide, Dividing the Estate, Tribes, Heart has been evident in many Rep productions. Song, Clybourne Park, Rumors (2002, 2011), He served as director for the young audience’s August: Osage County, Noises Off (1998, 2010), version of Laura Ingalls Wilder and as assistant The Last Romance, Enchanted April, Rabbit director for the Rep’s very first production, Hole, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Tale of the Noises Off. Greg directed for the PlayLab Allergist’s Wife, All My Sons, and Private Lives. new play series, including last season’s staged Married to Robert Cacioppo, she enjoys the reading of We Will Not Be Silent. Other local accomplishments of their best productions: directing credits include Florida Gulf Coast Matthew and Julia. University’s The Foreigner and Leap at Theatre Conspiracy. In addition to his continuing JACKIE SCHRAM* (Lala efforts for Florida Rep, Greg is an Assistant Levy) is thrilled to be Professor at FGCU and President of Abbott back at Florida Repertory Productions, where he has been responsible Theatre! Credits: Florida for many national marketing campaigns for Rep: 2009/2010 season television and the web. His past achievements acting apprentice, include assistant director to Theodore Mann Boeing- Boeing, You Can’t in the acclaimed production of The Music Take It With You, and Box at HERE, NYC and resident director for Rumors. Jackie just finished a year-long run Pittsburgh’s professional touring company Off-Broadway in Sleep No More. She has also “Shakespeare in the Schools.” Greg holds an toured the country twice: once with The 39 M.F.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and Steps and once with Aquila Theatre Company. was certified with the S.A.F.D. at Carnegie Jackie trained at The University of Tampa and Mellon University. The New School for Drama in New York. The forever traveler, she likes to call Brooklyn her JOHN KISELICA (Sound Designer) is a graduate home-base these days. More on Jackie: www. of West Virginia University with a Bachelor facebook.com/tallgirlschram of Fine Arts degree in lighting and sound design. He is the Resident Sound and Lighting STACEY SCOTTE* (Reba Designer for Endstation Theatre Company Freitag) is delighted to in Central VA and acts as the Lighting and return to Florida Rep, Sound Supervisor for year round consultation previously seen here in and project specific work. He has worked August: Osage County on a national tour, Buddy: the Buddy Holly (Ivy), Absurd Person Musical, as the master electrician after a Singular (Jane), and contract with Royal Caribbean International Company (Amy). Off- as a stage technician. Commercial theatrical Broadway credits include Strictly Personal, work includes installing Prodigy Hoists, an Eat the Runt, and Boobs! The Musical. Other automated rigging system from Electronic regional favorites (Riverside Theatre – Vero Theatre Controls. In addition to his seasonal Beach, Goodspeed, Sacramento Music Circus, position with Florida Rep, John continues to Florida Studio Theatre) include Mame (Mrs. freelance in the professional, academic, and Upson); La Cage aux Folles (Marie Dindon); community theatre circles. I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; CREATIVE TEAM ALICE NEFF (Costume Designer) is delighted BERT SCOTT*** (Set & Lighting Designer) to be returning to Florida Repertory Theatre Off-Broadway designs include According to after designing Over the River and Through Goldman, Bass for Picasso, The Unexpected the Woods. She has designed frequently for Guest, The Cocktail Hour, The Middle Ages, The professional as well as academic companies, Rules of Charity, and many others. Regionally, including Lees McRae Summer Theatre, the Bert has designed for Stages St. Louis, Theatre outdoor drama Horn in the West, Blowing West Virginia (where he served for seven Rock Stage Company, and for the Appalachian seasons as Resident Designer), The Opera State University Opera Program, all in Company of Philadelphia, The Mark Twain North Carolina. She has also designed at Playhouse (Branson, MO), Theatre by the Sea Davidson College, Ballet Austin, Western and Ocean State Theatre (Rhode Island), North Carolina University, and the University of Shore Music Theatre (Boston), The Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Orlando Rep, and the Cumberlands. She has built costumes for Nickelodeon (Slime Time Live! on Norwegian Glimmerglass Opera, some of which are now Cruise Lines and several productions of Dora in stock for the Metropolitan Opera; for the the Explorer Live! in the US and Canada). Hallmark channel miniseries True Women, and Bert is an associate professor of theatre and for Alvernia University. She managed the ASU the coordinator of the Theatre Design & Theatre & Dance Department costume shop for Technology BFA program at the University of many years, and mentored many students who Central Florida in Orlando. went on to graduate schools and professional careers. She holds a BFA in costume design LAURA WEST (Asst. Stage Manager) is a proud and construction from UT-Austin. She and 2017 graduate of James Madison University her husband enjoy riding their motorcycle in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She has fostered cross-country, raising money for theatre-based her love of travel and theatre by working at charities. theatres across the country, such as Jean’s Playhouse in Lincoln, New Hampshire and The JOSHUA QUINN* (Production Stage Manager) Lake Dillon Theatre Company in Silverthorne, is excited to be back in Fort Myers with this Colorado, and she is so thrilled to be joining th great company. Florida Rep: Best of Enemies, Florida Repertory Theatre for their 20 season. Shear Madness. Off-Broadway: Sistas, Toyt Fun Some of her favorite past credits include Little a Seylsman, A Loss of Roses, Buyer & Cellar, Women, Orlando, Godspell, The Wild Party, F#%ing Up Everything. Tour: The Lightning Assassins, and Sister Act. She is always eager Thief, Fly Guy. New York: Children of Salt, to talk about her two adorable cats or her love Manuel v. the Statue of Liberty, The Travels, The of the font Garamond, and she sends a huge thank you to her friends and family for always Tenth Floor, POPart, The Farm, Thicker than supporting her. Water, Helicopters, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Yorktown, Sister Myotis’s Bible Camp, Engaging Shaw, Dreyfus in Rehearsal. Proud member of AEA.

ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION (AEA) was is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, founded in 1913 as the first of the American an international organization of performing arts unions. Actor unions. Equity’s mission is to advance, For more information, visit www.actorsequity.org. promote and foster the art of theatre as an essential component of our society. Today, Equity FLORIDA PROFESSIONAL THEATRES represents more than 40,000 actors, singers, dancers ASSOCIATION (FPTA) is a statewide and stage managers working in hundreds of theatres organization of professional theatre companies and theatre professionals across the United States. Equity members are dedicated interested in the development and promotion of to working in the theatre as a profession, upholding professional theatre throughout Florida. Florida the highest artistic standards. Equity negotiates wages Repertory Theatre is a proud FPTA member theatre. and working conditions and provides a wide range of benefits including health and pension plans for its Florida Repertory Theatre is a member members. Through its agreement with Equity, this of THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS TICKETStheatre has committed to the fair treatment of the actors GROUP (TCG), the national and stage managers employed in this production. AEA organization for the American Theatre. DRAMATURGICAL NOTES

East of the Elbe: German Jews and “the Other Kind” As a Jew in early 20th century Atlanta, you could be a member of arguably the most prominent social organization in the region: The Standard Club. There are several requirements for membership but above all, anyone who wants to join must be Jewish and must be German. “Well,” Peachy Weil pauses to think at one point of the play, “they’re startin’ to let in a few others because they need the initiation fees. But they try to only take the ones that are toilet trained.” And so begins the show’s most heated discussion regarding race and religion.

The Last Night of Ballyhoo tackles the issues of pre-WWII Atlanta where Jewish identity is at a crisis and sociopolitical differences spread hate from Jew to Jew.

Playwright Alfred Uhry was born in Atlanta to a German Jewish family whose ancestry traces back to the founders of the city itself. “Southern Jews,” Alfred declares, “define themselves as Southern first, American second, and Jewish third.” “Our social life was Jewish,” says Aline Uhry, Alfred’s mother. “We were a very tight little German-Jewish community revolving around the Temple and the Standard Club… People say the Jewish clubs are exclusive, and they sprang up as a result of not being in the other [a WASP].”

“Yet to be a true Southerner, to be part of the ‘in’ group,” Alfred continues, “You have to be Christian.” Or at least, as close to it as you could be.

Since the late 19th century, the Jewish community in Atlanta “What’s the Elbe?” asks has splintered into separate groups. The German Jews Sunny Freitag a half hour who practiced Reform Judaism and the Eastern European into the play. The Elbe is a immigrants who were Orthodox. German Jews have assimilated more into the Southern way of life more than their river that separates Germany Orthodox counterparts. “We had a Saturday night bridge- and Czechoslovakia. “The playing group for over 45 years,” says Aline. “At the height of west of it is us,” explains it, we had 23 people. Five of us went to Wellesley. We’d come to Reba Freitag, “and the east each other’s houses for dinner. We’d get all dressed—cocktail of it is the other kind.” Sunny dresses. You’d have drinks with hors d’oeuvres and candy and presses: “How can you tell?” nuts in little silver dishes. And we’d always get together on “The way they look.” New Year’s Eve.” Meanwhile, the Eastern Europeans were more culturally conservative and maintained a firm grip in Jewish customs and traditions.

“I think the [German] Jewish lifestyle tried to copy the WASP style, in their own way,” says Aline. German Jews sat at the fringes of both Southern Christians and Jewish Orthodoxy, nestling comfortably between the two and drawing from both culturally and socially.

These differences fueled conflict with the tendency of German Jews to look down on their Eastern European counterparts. While some German Jewish organizations assisted Jewish immigrants who were in need and helped them assimilate, there were others who did not treat them as kindly. When the Council of Jewish Women opened a Sabbath School for the immigrants, Yiddish Jews were offended. The editor of the local Jewish newspaper defended the school, claiming that these newly arrived immigrants were “ignorant” and “coarse” and that “we want to make good American citizens out of our Russian brothers.” Aside from this, German Jews also made institutional efforts to keep the immigrants from their inner circle. Yiddish Jews were largely excluded from the Standard Club from its founding until the club was financially forced by The Great Depression to relax this discrimination. Yiddish Jews founded their own social club, the Progressive Club, in 1913. By most accounts, this social barrier between German and Yiddish Jews did not die out until World War II. (SOURCES: www.isjl.org/georgia-atlanta-encyclopedia.html; The Temple Bombing by Melissa Fay Greene; www.youvecottmail.com/a-conversation-with-alfred-uhry--jason-robert-brown.html) DRAMATURGICAL NOTES

Ballyhoo From 1931 to the late 1950s, members of Atlanta’s Standard Club sponsored “Ballyhoo,” an annual courtship weekend attended by college-aged sons and daughters of the Temple community. The event drew Jewish youth from the “best” families across the South, which meant those with German Jewish ancestry. Over a long weekend, participants endured an exhausting round of breakfast dates, lunch dates, tea dance dates, early evening date, late night dates, formal dances, and At the Center of cocktail parties, with the goal of meeting a “nice Jewish boy or girl” who might well become a It was 1939the and Worldeveryone had its spouse. eyes on the Loew’s Grand Theatre. For three nights, crowds gathered Similar courtship weekends in southern cities included Montgomery, Alabama’s “Falcon,” in the streets with an excitement Birmingham, Alabama’s “Jubilee,” and Columbus, you can still taste even in the Georgia’s “Holly Days.” blandest of photographs taken that December. “Atlanta is the center (Excerpted from the introduction of Jewish Roots in Southern of the world tonight!” Lala Levy Soil: A New History edited by Marcie Cohen Ferris and Mark I. exclaims in the opening scene. And Greenberg) indeed it was: Gone With the Wind was having its world premiere and its stars were lighting up the city. Hattie McDaniel and the rest of the black cast members were notably absent as Georgia’s Jim Crow laws prevented them from attending. This almost caused Clark Gable to boycott the celebrations if not for McDaniel successfully convincing him to go.

Atlanta Ballyhoo Club. 1947 or 1949. L-R: Beth Issacs (Nashville); Ann Sternberg (Asheville); Shirley Hirsch (Reif) (Atlanta); Ralda Bressler (Protosky?), Barbara Kessler (Zickel), and Danice Greenwald (Macon). Shirley Hirsch (Reis) was crowned the Queen of Ballyhoo.

Robert L. Gerson Family Papers William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum UP NEXT!

Starring Tony Nominee Paxton Whitehead

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!