ROBERT FALLS, Artistic Director ROCHE SCHULFER, Executive Director
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ROBERT FALLS, Artistic Director | ROCHE SCHULFER, Executive Director
presents TWO TRAINS RUNNING By AUGUST WILSON Directed by CHUCK SMITH
Set Design by LINDA BUCHANAN
Costume Design by BIRGIT RATTENBORG WISE
Lighting Design by JOHN CULBERT
Sound Design by JOSHUA HORVATH AND RAY NARDELLI
Casting by ADAM BELCUORE, CSA
Dramaturg NEENA ARNDT
Production Stage Manager ALDEN VASQUEZ*
Stage Manager KATHLEEN PETROZIELLO*
Originally produced by YALE REPERTORY THEATRE Lloyd Richards, Artistic Director cast IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
Memphis...... Terry Bellamy* Sterling...... Chester Gregory* Risa...... Nambi E. Kelley* Wolf...... Anthony Irons* Hambone...... Ernest Perry Jr.* West...... A.C. Smith* Holloway...... Alfred H. Wilson*
Assistant Directors: Aaron Mays, Maurice Proffit and Tristien Marcellous Winfree
Setting: The Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Time: 1969
There will be one 15-minute intermission.
Understudies never substitute for a listed player unless an announcement is made at the beginning of the play.
Allen Edge*—Holloway; Lee Palmer*—West/Holloway; Alexis J. Rogers*—Risa; Namir Smallwood*—Wolf/Sterling; Henri Watkins—Memphis
Two Trains Running is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
The video and/or recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited.
Goodman productions are made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts; the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; and a CityArts 4 program grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
Goodman Theatre is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group, Inc., the national service organization of nonprofit theaters; the League of Resident Theatres; the Illinois Arts Alliance and the American Arts Alliance; the League of Chicago Theatres; and the Illinois Theatre Association.
Goodman Theatre operates under agreements between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States; the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent national labor union; the Chicago Federation of Musicians, Local No. 10- 208, American Federation of Musicians; and the United Scenic Artists of America, Local 829, AFL-CIO. House crew and scene shop employees are represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Local No. 2.
*Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. notes
Why Two Trains Running?
Of the many artistic partnerships that Goodman Theatre has enjoyed during my tenure as Artistic Director, none has been more meaningful than our 20-year association with playwright August Wilson. From the beginning of our collaboration with August on Fences in 1986, we knew that his was a distinctive and crucial voice in the American theater. We were proud to bring that voice to audiences in Chicago, around the country and ultimately throughout the world. During our years with August, we had the opportunity to produce all 10 plays in his “20th Century Cycle,” the first theater in the world to do so; of these, both Seven Guitars (1995) and Gem of the Ocean (2003) began their lives at the Goodman. At the dedication ceremony of our theater’s new Dearborn Street complex in 2000, August delivered an address that still ranks as one of the most eloquent and powerful anthems to the importance of the theater that I have ever heard. And when we opened the Albert Theatre that fall, it was with another of August’s great plays, King Hedley II. His premature death in the fall of 2005 robbed us not just of an esteemed colleague, but a close personal friend.
In March and April we will honor August’s life and artistry with the unprecedented retrospective The August Wilson Celebration, featuring readings, discussions and special performances that will once again demonstrate his unique genius and indelible effect on American theater. For the centerpiece of this event, Celebration Curator and Resident Director Chuck Smith has chosen to revive of one of Wilson’s most personal plays, Two Trains Running. As do the other plays in his cycle, Two Trains Running represents a decade in the lives of African Americans, in this case the tumultuous years of the 1960s. The play focuses not on the well-known political and social unrest of those years, but instead on the profoundly personal struggles of the denizens of a small diner owned by a man named Memphis in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Surrounded by a neighborhood blighted by the missteps of urban renewal and decimated by crime and poverty, the patrons of Memphis’ once-prosperous establishment struggle mightily to carry on with their lives, while trying to make sense of the massive societal change, which so far have left them untouched. Filled with August’s distinctive urban poetry and peopled by characters whose hope for the future is leavened by the failures of the present, Two Trains Running is one of his most powerful plays; a moving portrait of the small dreams that fuel social revolution.
A few figures come to mind when one speaks of the great writers of American theater: Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee. I would proudly add August Wilson to that list; his towering cycle of plays remains an achievement unmatched by any other playwright. Passionate and raucous, achingly poetic yet fierce and fiery, these plays show us an America too often ignored by other writers, a landscape in which the glories and horrors of the past dwell alongside the uncertainties of the present—and shape the aspirations of the future.
Robert Falls Artistic Director notes
Fragile But Enduring Bridges: August Wilson at the Goodman By Neena Arndt
“It is the American theater that has often led us through the social welter of regional, class and racial conflicts, providing fresh insights and fragile but enduring bridges of fruitful dialogue.”
These words were spoken by August Wilson in 2000 at the dedication of the Goodman’s then-new building on Dearborn Street. An acclaimed playwright, Wilson was known for penning plays that gave voice to unheard populations, and for much of his career, on and off from 1986 until his untimely death in 2005, he did so at Goodman Theatre.
Wilson, born in 1945, came of age during the tumultuous 1960s and, after a period in which he identified primarily as a poet, began writing plays in the late 1970s. While many black artists before him had focused on the present day, Wilson’s work aimed to explore the rich history of the African American experience, giving voice to early 20th century blacks as well as his contemporaries. Over the course of roughly 25 years, Wilson wrote a cycle of 10 plays, each of which takes place in, and represents, a different decade of the 20th century.
Initially, the rules of the cycle seemed simple: it was merely a series of period-specific plays inhabited by African American characters. But as Wilson progressed in his writing, the plays became unified by themes, inspirations, locations and characters who reappear decades after audiences first met them. Nine of the 10 plays are set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, the neighborhood where Wilson grew up, and which through the course of the century saw highs and lows that made for excellent drama.
In the 1980s, many of Wilson’s plays premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut before going on to acclaimed productions at other regional theaters and on Broadway. In 1986, the Goodman produced its first August Wilson play, Fences, about an aging baseball player and his tumultuous relationship with his athlete son during the 1950s. Over the course of the next 20 years, the Goodman would become the first theater to present all 10 plays in the cycle, ending with the 2007 production of Radio Golf, a play set in the 1990s that deals with the redevelopment of the floundering Hill District. Wilson finished this final play in 2005, a scant few months before he succumbed to liver cancer at age 60.
This revival of Two Trains Running marks the first production of a Wilson play by the Goodman since its completion of the cycle in 2007. The Goodman first produced Two Trains Running in 1993, when Wilson was still alive and working on the cycle. Now, a decade after his death, the Goodman reexamines this play, breathing new life into it while honoring its poetry, vivacity and strength of conviction, characteristics that define Wilson’s work. The Goodman hopes to accomplish Wilson’s dream for the American theater, which he articulated at the end of his dedication speech: “…to answer the call of duty and step forward with the bold and imaginative work of which we know we are capable and [to] which the American theater, with its long and fruitful history, deserves.” profiles
TERRY BELLAMY* (Memphis) returns to the Goodman for the first time in nearly 40 years. He has performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Play House, Indiana Repertory Theatre and the Guthrie Theater. Mr. Bellamy is a founding member of Penumbra Theatre and has worked at Illusion Theater, Mixed Blood Theatre, The Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Jungle Theater, Hennepin Center for the Arts, History Theatre and Park Square Theatre. He received Drama Critics Circle Awards for his portrayal of Boesman in Boesman and Lena and for playing Estragon in Waiting for Godot. He has also received a William E. Griffin Award for outstanding contribution to Penumbra Theatre.
CHESTER GREGORY* (Sterling) returns to Goodman Theater, where he previously appeared in Drowning Crow. His Broadway credits include Hairspray, Tarzan, Cry-Baby and Sister Act. He received an NAACP Theater Award for his performance as Jimmy Early in the national tour of Dreamgirls. Other credits include The Jackie Wilson Story (Jeff Award, Audelco Award, BTAA Award and Black Excellence Award). Mr. Gregory produced his own one-man show, The Eve of Jackie (Wilson), and sold out many performances nationally including in his hometown of Gary, Indiana, where he was presented with the key to the city and made an Honorary State Representative. He is the 2015 recipient of an honorary doctorate from Columbia College Chicago. Find him on Twitter @ChesterGregory and ChesterGregory.com
ANTHONY IRONS* (Wolf) makes his Goodman Theatre debut. He is a Congo Square Theatre ensemble member, where his credits include King of Coons (Black Theatre Alliance Award), Elmina’s Kitchen, African Company Presents Richard III and King Hedley II (Jeff Award nomination). Chicago credits include Topdog/Underdog (American Theater Company); The History of Chicago (Second City) and Waiting for Godot (Court Theatre). Regional credits include Red Scare (Second City); Peach Drop, Stop and Roll (Second City/Alliance Theatre); Black Eagles (Penumbra Theatre); Hamlet (Illinois Shakespeare Festival) and As You Like It (Georgia Shakespeare). His television and film credits include Chicago Fire, Boss, The Chicago Code, Let’s Go to Prison and The Lucky Ones.
NAMBI E. KELLEY* (Risa) returns to Goodman Theatre, where she previously appeared in The Good Negro, The Ballad of Emmett Till, Crumbs From the Table of Joy (Jeff Award nomination), Drowning Crow and Mirror of the Invisible World (understudy). Chicago credits include The Lost Boys of Sudan at Victory Gardens Theater; Ten Square at MPAACT and The Glass Menagerie, Harriet Jacobs and Nikki Giovanni: New Song for a New Day at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She appeared off-Broadway in Court Martial at Fort Devens. Regional credits include Charleston Olio opposite Phylicia Rashad (National Black Theatre Festival); Gee’s Bend (Arkansas Repertory Theatre); Seven Guitars (TheatreWorks); Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Fountain Theatre) and Antigone (South Coast Repertory). International credits include performing in her co-adaption of The Book of Living and Dying at the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore and the Singapore Arts Festival, as well as projects in South Korea and Africa. Ms. Kelley’s television credits include Madam Secretary, Person of Interest, Elementary, The Beast and City of Angels. She holds a BFA from the Theatre School at DePaul University and an MFA from Goddard College. Ms. Kelley is also a produced, published and award-winning playwright, including penning Court Theatre/American Blues Theater’s Native Son, and was a member of the Goodman’s Playwrights Unit for the 2011/2012 Season. NambiKelley.com
ERNEST PERRY, JR.* (Hambone) returns to Goodman Theatre, where his credits include Death and the King’s Horseman, An Enemy of the People, Play Mas, The Road, Edmond, A Raisin in the Sun, Galileo, A Christmas Carol, Black Star Line, Puddin ‘n’ Pete (Jeff Award nomination), The Ties That Bind, Let Me Live, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Miss Evers’ Boys, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Oo-Bla-Dee, Drowning Crow, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, Cry, The Beloved Country, The Iceman Cometh, The Merchant of Venice, Heartbreak House, Magnolia and Gas For Less. Chicago credits include Rest, The Gospel of Lovingkindness, Ceremo-nies in Dark Old Men, Daddy’s Seashore Blues, Pecong and Split Second (Victory Gardens Theater); All’s Well That Ends Well, Playboy of the West Indies, Mary Stuart and Pantomime (Court Theatre); Henry V, Measure for Measure, As You Like It, and Cymbeline (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Meetings and Rhino’s Policeman (Northlight Theatre); The Petrified Forest, The Merchant of Venice and King Lear (Body Politic); Suspenders! (Chicago Theatre Company, Jeff nomination); Driving Miss Daisy (Briar Street Theatre) and 5 Rooms of Furniture (Organic Theater Company, Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best Actor). Regional credits include Death and the King’s Horsemen (Kennedy Center); The Tempest (Amer-ican Shakespeare Center); Jitney, Driving Miss Daisy and Gem of the Ocean (Indiana Reper-tory Theatre); Fences (Arden Theatre Company, Barrymore Award nomina-tion); King Hedley II (Alliance Theatre); Of Mice and Men (Virginia Stage Company); The Tempest and Fences (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Gem of the Ocean and Trouble in Mind (Milwaukee Repertory Theater); Birdie Blue (City Theatre); Emancipa-tion of the Valet de Chambre (Cleveland Play House); Dutchman (Hartford Stage); Oo-Bla-Dee (La Jolla Playhouse) and Elmina’s Kitchen and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Center Stage). Television and film credits include Chicago PD, ER, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Lady Blue, The Howard Beach Story, Early Edition, Unnatural Causes, The Watcher, The Untouch-ables, Boss, Quebec, Barbershop 2, Roll Bounce, Liar, Liar, Rage in Harlem, The Color of Money, Running Scared and The Fifteen Minute Hamlet.
A.C. SMITH* (West) returns to Goodman Theatre, where he most recently appeared as the Ghost of Christmas Present in the 2013 production of A Christmas Carol. Additional Goodman credits include Measure for Measure, Black Star Line and The Visit, as well as many staged readings and workshops. Chicago credits include productions at Victory Gardens Theater, TimeLine Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the Chicago Center for Performing Arts, the Illinois Theatre Centre and The Second City. He has appeared in many productions at Court Theatre, including Jitney, The Invisible Man, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, The First Breeze of Summer and Fences (Jeff Award for Best Actor). Mr. Smith has also appeared off-Broadway in Jelly Belly (Audelco Award nomination) and in the Broadway national tour of The Piano Lesson, directed by Lloyd Richards. His regional theater credits include Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati; Portland Stage Company; Geva Theatre Center; Milwaukee Repertory Theater; Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Black Rep in St. Louis, where he is a company member and nine-time Woodie King, Jr. Award winner. He has also appeared on film, television, radio, commercials and voice- overs, and in Ebony and Jet magazines.
ALFRED H. WILSON* (Holloway) returns to Goodman Theatre, where he previously appeared in Pullman Porter Blues. His Chicago credits include Master Harold… and the Boys (TimeLine Theatre); Waiting for Godot, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Jitney and The Piano Lesson (Court Theatre); The Etiquette of Vigilance (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Bourbon at the Border (Eclipse Theatre Company); Two Trains Running (Jeff Award) and Jitney (Pegasus Players), Panther Burn (MPAACT) and productions with Victory Gardens Theater. Regional credits include Radio Golf and Gem of the Ocean (Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati); Jitney (West Coast Black Theatre); The Exonerated (Next Act Theatre); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Milwaukee Repertory Theater and Actors Theatre of Louisville); Radio Golf (Pittsburgh Public Theatre); Two Trains Running (Geva Theatre Center) and The Whipping Man (Cardinal Stage). Mr. Wilson is also a co-founder of Onyx Theatre Ensemble.
AUGUST WILSON (Playwright, 1945 – 2005) authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of African Americans, decade by decade, over the course of the 20th century. In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show How I Learned What I Learned. Mr. Wilson’s work garnered many awards, including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; an Olivier Award for Jitney; as well as eight New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, Jitney, and Radio Golf. The cast recording of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received a 1985 Grammy Award and Mr. Wilson received a 1995 Emmy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of The Piano Lesson. Mr. Wilson’s early works include The Janitor, Recycle, The Coldest Day of the Year, Malcolm X, The Homecoming and Black Bart and the Sacred Hills. Mr. Wilson received many fellowships and awards, including Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwriting, the Whiting Writers’ Award, the 2003 Heinz Award, the 1999 National Humanities Medal by the President of the United States and numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities, as well as the only high school diploma ever issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2005, the Broadway theater located at 245 West 52nd Street was named the August Wilson Theatre. Additionally, Mr. Wilson was posthumously inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2007. Mr. Wilson was born and raised in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and lived in Seattle, Washington, at the time of his death. He is survived by his two daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero.
CHUCK SMITH (Director) is Goodman Theatre’s Resident Director and an associate producer of Legacy Productions, a Chicago-based touring company. Goodman credits include the Chicago premieres of Pullman Porter Blues; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Race; The Good Negro; Proof and The Story; the world premieres of By the Music of the Spheres and The Gift Horse; James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner, which transferred to Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company, where it won the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Award for Best Direc-tion; A Raisin in the Sun; Blues for an Alabama Sky; August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Ain’t Misbehavin’; the 1993 to 1995 productions of A Christmas Carol; Crumbs From the Table of Joy; Vivisections from a Blown Mind; and The Meeting. He served as dramaturg for the Goodman’s world-premiere production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. He directed the New York premiere of Knock Me a Kiss and The Hooch for the New Federal Theatre and the world premiere of Knock Me a Kiss at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater, where his other directing credits include Master Harold... and the Boys, Home, Dame Lorraine and Eden, for which he received a Jeff Award nomination. Regionally, Mr. Smith directed Death and the King’s Horseman (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Birdie Blue (Seattle Repertory Theatre); The Story (Milwaukee Repertory Theater); Blues for an Alabama Sky (Alabama Shakespeare Festival) and The Last Season (Robey Theatre Com-pany). At Columbia College he was facilitator of the Theodore Ward Prize playwriting contest for 20 years and editor of the contest anthologies Seven Black Plays and Best Black Plays. He won a Chicago Emmy Award as associate producer/theatrical director for the NBC teleplay Crime of Innocence and was theatrical director for the Emmy-winning Fast Break to Glory and the Emmy-nominated The Martin Luther King Suite. He was a founding member of the Chicago Theatre Company, where he served as Artistic Director for four seasons and directed the Jeff- nominated Suspenders and the Jeff-winning musical Po’. His directing credits include productions at ETA; Black Ensemble Theater; Northlight Theatre; MPAACT; Congo Square Theatre Company; The New Regal Theater; Kuumba Theatre Company; West Coast Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre; Pega-sus Players; the Timber Lake Playhouse in Mt. Carroll, Illinois and the Black Theatre Troupe in Sarosota, Florida. He is a 2003 inductee into the Chicago State University Gwendolyn Brooks Center’s Literary Hall of Fame and a 2001 Chicago Tribune Chicagoan of the Year. He is the proud recipient of the 1982 Paul Robeson Award and the 1997 Award of Merit presented by the Black Theater Alliance of Chicago. He is cur-rently a board member of the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago.
LINDA BUCHANAN (Scenic Designer) has designed hundreds of stage productions in Chicago, regionally and abroad, including the Goodman productions of House and Garden (also at the Alley Theatre); Black Snow, the musical adaptation of Wings (also at The Public Theater) and Marvin’s Room (with 10 subsequent productions in New York, London, and regional theaters). Recent Goodman designs include Race, Boleros for the Disenchanted and Ghostwritten. Other recent work includes Moby Dick and A Christmas Carol at Syracuse Stage; Richard III at Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Great Lakes Theater and The 39 Steps at Cleveland Play House, Syracuse Stage and Indiana Repertory Theatre. Ms. Buchanan received the Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration; Jeff Awards for the Goodman productions of House and Black Snow and the Royal George Theatre production of I Hate Hamlet; and a Helen Hayes Award for Dancing at Lughnasa at Arena Stage. She served as a resident designer at Court Theatre from 1976 to 1984 and was design director of R.D. Design Associates from 1985 to 1989, where her work included the State of Illinois Center dedication ceremony and more than 100 environments for corporate theater and special events. She is an associate dean and head of the scenic design program at The Theatre School at DePaul University, and has taught at the University of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago.
BIRGIT RATTENBORG WISE (Costume Designer) has designed the Goodman productions of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Buzzer, Pullman Porter Blues, Red, Race, God of Carnage, The Good Negro, High Holidays, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Talking Pictures, Rabbit Hole, Crumbs From the Table of Joy, A Life in the Theatre, The Story, Moonlight and Magnolias, Proof, The Rose Tattoo, Drowning Crow, Blue Surge, The Amen Corner, A Raisin in the Sun, Spinning Into Butter, Death of a Salesman, Blues for an Alabama Sky, A Touch of the Poet, Gertrude Stein: Each One as She May, Brutality of Fact, Wings and Spunk. As a member of Robert Falls’ design team for Death of a Salesman she helped bring the Goodman production to Broadway in 1999, and London’s West End in 2005. Other Chicago credits include work at Victory Gardens Theater and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and regional credits include productions at Arena Stage, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Huntington Theatre Company and the Ahmanson Theatre. Her dance designs include projects with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Milwaukee Ballet and the Trinity Irish Dancers. She teaches design at The Theatre School at DePaul University.
JOHN CULBERT (Lighting Designer) has designed the Goodman productions of Buzzer, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Hughie, Trojan Women, Boy Gets Girl, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol and Mirror of the Invisible World (Jeff Award). Recent designs include lighting for Iphigenia at Aulis at Court Theatre and scenery for White Guy on the Bus at Northlight Theatre. He designed scenery for Carousel at Glimmerglass Festival; Angels in America, Caroline, or Change and Man of La Mancha (Jeff Award) at Court Theatre and Grey Gardens at Northlight Theatre. Regional work includes productions at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Boston Lyric Opera and the Shakespeare Theatre. He has also designed for L’Opéra National du Rhin and Singapore Repertory. He serves as the dean of The Theatre School at DePaul University.
JOSHUA HORVATH (Sound Designer) Goodman credits include The Jungle Book; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; The Happiest Song Plays Last; Race; The Good Negro; The Sins of Sor Juana; The Long Red Road; Rock ’n’ Roll; The Crowd You’re in With; Ain’t Misbehavin’; Crumbs From the Table of Joy; The Story; Electricidad and Proof. His work has also appeared at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company, About Face Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, Congo Square Theatre Company, Lifeline Theatre, The House Theatre of Chicago, Eclipse Theatre Company, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and A Red Orchid Theatre. He is the winner of four Jeff awards and a Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award. Mr. Horvath teaches sound design for theater and film at Northwestern University, is an artistic associate at Lookingglass Theatre Company and a creative partner with the Goodman.
RAY NARDELLI (Sound Designer) Goodman credits include The Jungle Book; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; The Happiest Song Plays Last; Race; The Good Negro; The Long Red Road; High Holidays; Boleros for the Disenchanted; The Crowd You’re In With; Rock ’n’ Roll; Ain’t Misbehavin’; The Cook; Crumbs From the Table of Joy; Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky; The Story; Electricidad (Jeff Award); Proof; By the Music of the Spheres; The Gift Horse; Schoolgirl Figure and four seasons of A Christmas Carol. Chicago credits include The Auditorium Theatre’s 125th Anniversary, as well as work with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Court Theatre, Congo Square Theatre Company, American Theater Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Northlight Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace, Lookingglass Theatre Company and Victory Gardens Theater.
NEENA ARNDT (Dramaturg) is the associate dramaturg at Goodman Theatre. In six seasons, she has served as production dramaturg for more than 20 productions, including Robert Falls’ productions of Measure for Measure, The Iceman Cometh and The Seagull, David Cromer’s production of Sweet Bird of Youth and the world premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s Luna Gale. She has also worked with the American Repertory Theater, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the New Harmony Project and Actors Shakespeare Project, among others. Ms. Arndt has taught at Boston University and DePaul University. She holds an MFA in dramaturgy from the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, and a BA in linguistics from Pomona College.
ALDEN VASQUEZ* (Production Stage Manager) has stage-managed 24 productions of A Christmas Carol and more than 70 productions at Goodman Theatre. His Chicago credits include 14 productions at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, including the Broadway productions of The Song of Jacob Zulu (also in Perth, Australia) and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. His regional theater credits include productions at American Theater Company, American Stage Theater Company, Arizona Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, Madison Repertory Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Northlight Theatre, Peninsula Players Theatre, Remains Theatre, Royal George Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company and the Weston Playhouse. He teaches stage management at DePaul University, is a 30-year member of Actors’ Equity Association and a US Air Force veteran.
KATHLEEN PETROZIELLO* (Stage Manager) returns to the Goodman Theatre, where she was previously a stage manager for Brigadoon, Venus in Fur, A Christmas Carol (2013 and 2014), Sweet Bird of Youth and Joan Dark (performed in Linz, Austria). Other credits include The Wheel, The Birthday Party, Time Stands Still, Sex with Strangers, Fake and Of Mice and Men at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; The Great Fire, The Last Act of Lilka Kadison, Trust, Our Future Metropolis, Argonautika and Nelson Algren: For Keeps and a Single Day at Lookingglass Theatre Company; Death of a Salesman, Avenue Q and A Number at the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company; Panic and Final Curtain at the International Mystery Writers Festival and the Chicago productions of Altar Boyz and Million Dollar Quartet.
ROBERT FALLS (Goodman Theatre Artistic Director) has been the Artistic Director of Goodman Theatre since 1986. From 1977 to 1985, he was the Artistic Director of Wisdom Bridge Theatre. Most recently, Mr. Falls reprised his critically acclaimed 2012 Goodman production of The Iceman Cometh, featuring the original cast headed by Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy, for the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Last fall, he directed Rebecca Gilman’s Luna Gale at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, as well as a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni to open the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s new season. Other recent productions include the world and off- Broadway premieres of Beth Henley’s The Jacksonian, starring Ed Harris, Glenne Headly, Amy Madigan and Bill Pullman; Measure for Measure; the regional premiere of John Logan’s Red; John Robin Baitz’s Three Hotels; The Seagull; and the world premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s A True History of the Johnstown Flood. Mr. Falls’ credits also include King Lear, Desire Under the Elms, the Broadway revival of Eric Bogosian’s Talk Radio, the world premiere of Richard Nelson’s Frank’s Home, the American premiere of Conor McPherson’s Shining City and the Broadway and touring productions of Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida. His Broadway productions of Death of a Salesman and Long Day’s Journey into Night received seven Tony Awards and three Drama Desk Awards. Other Goodman credits include the world premieres of Arthur Miller’s Finishing the Picture, Rebecca Gilman’s Blue Surge and Dollhouse, Eric Bogosian’s Griller, Steve Tesich’s The Speed of Darkness and On the Open Road and John Logan’s Riverview: A Melodrama with Music, as well as the American premiere of Alan Ayckbourn’s House and Garden.
ROCHE EDWARD SCHULFER (Goodman Theatre Executive Director) is in his 35th season as Executive Director. On September 4, 2013, his 40th anniversary with the theater, Mr. Schulfer was honored with a star on the Goodman’s “Walkway of Stars.” In 2014, he received the Visionary Leadership award from Theatre Communications Group. During his tenure he has overseen more than 335 productions, including close to 130 world premieres. He launched the Goodman’s annual production of A Christmas Carol, which celebrated 37 years as Chicago’s leading holiday arts tradition this season. In partnership with Artistic Director Robert Falls, Mr. Schulfer led the establishment of quality, diversity and community engagement as the core values of Goodman Theatre. Under their tenure, the Goodman has received numerous awards for excellence, including the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater, recognition by Time magazine as the “Best Regional Theatre” in the US, the Pulitzer Prize for Lynn Nottage’s Ruined and many Jeff Awards for outstanding achievement in Chicago area theater. Mr. Schulfer has negotiated the presentation of numerous Goodman Theatre productions to many national and international venues. From 1988 to 2000, he coordinated the relocation of the Goodman to Chicago’s Theatre District. He is a founder and two-time chair of the League of Chicago Theatres, the trade association of more than 200 Chicago area theater companies and producers. Mr. Schulfer has been privileged to serve in leadership roles with Arts Alliance Illinois (the statewide advocacy coalition); Theatre Communications Group (the national service organization for more than 450 not-for-profit theaters); the Performing Arts Alliance (the national advocacy consortium of more than 18,000 organizations and individuals); the League of Resident Theatres (the management association of 65 leading US theater companies); Lifeline Theatre in Rogers Park and the Arts & Business Council. He is honored to have been recognized for his work by Actors’ Equity Association for promoting diversity and equal opportunity in Chicago theater; the American Arts Alliance; the Arts & Business Council for distinguished contributions to Chicago’s artistic vitality for more than 25 years; Chicago magazine and the Chicago Tribune as a “Chicagoan of the Year”; the City of Chicago; Columbia College Chicago for entrepreneurial leadership; Arts Alliance Illinois; the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee for his partnership with Robert Falls; North Central College with an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree; Lawyers for the Creative Arts; Lifeline Theatre’s Raymond R. Snyder Award for Commitment to the Arts; Season of Concern for support of direct care for those living with HIV/AIDS; and the Vision 2020 Equality in Action Medal for promoting gender equality and diversity in the workplace. Mr. Schulfer is a member of the adjunct faculty of the Theatre School at DePaul University, and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame where he managed the cultural arts commission.
For Two Trains running: Jess Going, Assistant Lighting Designer; Larisa Bocka, Stage Management Intern