About the Roustabouts Theatre Co

A World Premiere Written by Directed by Marni Freedman & Phil Johnson Rosina Reynolds CAST Theodore Roosevelt . Phil Johnson PRODUCTION STAFF Producer . Rebecca Crigler Stage Manager . Jessamyn Foster Set Design/Props . Tony Cucuzzella Costume Design . Jordyn Smiley Assistant Costume Design . Ross Stewart Lighting Design . Joel Britt Sound Design . Matt Lescault-Wood Director of Photography/Editor . Michael Brueggemeyer Time: 1902 | Place: Washington, DC and other US cities Visit the official Roosevelt: Charge The Bear website at roosevelttheplay.com ARTISTIC DIRECTOR'S NOTE Here we are 7 months into this “new normal” and everyone is experimenting like mad to try to communicate. How do we do that when we can’t be together? We reach out in the ways we can. We now have a new San Diego theatre organization, Theatre Alliance, that will face the problems many theaters have that sprung into focus this year - isolation, distancing, economic issues and racial injustices - that are asking to be worked at and answered. The Roustabouts Theatre Co. is presenting two new media releases, Roosevelt: Charge the Bear and No Way Back. With these virtual experiences, we look at one imperfect man trying to conquer chaos with character and an iron will, and the flight of a child and a family to safety in the new world. We’ll try to do our best to take care of that world. Phil Johnson WRITER'S NOTE Why Now? Why Teddy Roosevelt? Our culture doesn't currently encourage the idea that we have much in common, that we are all in this together, or that we can find common ground. In his time, Teddy nurtured a larger collective vision and possessed an infectious and wild optimism - so much so that he was able to draw people from all walks of life to work together for common causes. Another trait that inspired us was Teddy's love for the working class. In the 1900's the coal miners were the essential workers that often felt unseen, unheard, and uncared for. Teddy saw them. He was not a perfect man. But he led with heart. That is what we hope returns to our country - heart. Marni Freedman PROFILES PHIL JOHNSON (Theodore Roosevelt/Co-Writer) is a proud founding partner in The Roustabouts Theatre Co. As an actor/writer, his solo show, A Jewish Joke (co- written with Marni Freedman, directed by David Ellenstein) had an Off-Broadway run at Theatre Row in NYC in March 2019, after a successful San Diego run for The Roustabouts, as well as touring regionally. Other original shows: Withering Heights, written and performed with Omri Schein and directed by Ellenstein, for TRTC; She- Rantulas from Outer Space in3D!, co-written with Ruff Yeager, for Diversionary Theatre and the NY Fringe Festival; and The Hound of the Baskervilles, as a San Diego Foundation Creative Catalyst Grantee, at North Coast Rep in 2012. Phil played in Les Misérables on Broadway and on tour; the Canadian production of Sunset Boulevard; and the 1st National Co. of Miss Saigon. He is a two-time winner of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Craig Noel Award for acting. So. California theatres include North Coast Rep (Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Spelling Bee), Backyard Renaissance Theatre (The Zoo Story), Intrepid Theatre (Midsummer Night’s Dream), Old Globe (How the Grinch...), and Cygnet Theatre (Mistakes Were Made, Pageant). Local directing credits include SD Playwrights Project and Scripps Ranch Theatre. He teaches and produces a Solo Show Workshop for writer/performers that is part of The Roustabouts season. He has just helped form the new San Diego countywide Theatre Alliance. philjohnson.net MARNI FREEDMAN, BFA, LMFT (Co-Writer) is a screenwriter, playwright, award- winning author, writing coach, co-founder, and Director of Programming for San Diego Writers Festival. After graduating from USC film school, Marni began her career bringing her play, “Two Goldsteins on Acid” to the stage, after which it was made into the film, “Playing Mona Lisa,” produced by Disney. She co-authored the play, A Jewish Joke, about a 1950s comedy writer facing the Hollywood Blacklist, which won the NY Solo Show for best drama, critics’ choice for the San Diego Union-Tribune, and was recently produced Off-Broadway. Marni leads the Memoir Certificate Program for San Diego Writers, Ink, produces the San Diego Memoir Writers Association’s theatrical Memoir Showcase, and is an editor of Shaking the Tree: short. brazen. memoir. She is also a writing coach and a therapist for artists and writers. Her first book, 7 Essential Writing Tools: That Will Absolutely Make Your Writing Better (And Enliven Your Soul) is an Amazon Bestseller. Her second award- winning book is Permission to Roar: For Female Thought Leaders Ready to Write their Book. You can find Marni at marnifreedman.com, a writing hub to help writers find their authentic voice. ROSINA REYNOLDS (Director) The Roustabouts Theatre Co.: gUnTOPIA; Margin of Error. Backyard Renaissance: American Buffalo; Zoo Story. New Village Arts: The Secret Garden. North Coast Repertory Theatre: Blithe Spirit; The Cocktail Hour; Fallen Angels; Broken Glass; Glorious; Don’t Dress For Dinner; Relatively Speaking; Importance of Being Earnest; Travesties; An American Daughter; The Sum of Us; Corpse. San Diego Repertory Theatre: Bad Dates. Cygnet Theatre: Atwater, Fixin’ to Die. Renaissance Theatre: Caretaker (San Diego Critics Circle Award). Diversionary Theatre: 2.5 Minute Ride; Marriage Bed; Happy Endings are Extra; Twilight of the Golds; Beautiful Thing; Wrinkles; Another American; Asking and Telling; Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde; Breaking The Code; Lot’s Daughters. Compass Theatre: Three Days of Rain. Fritz Theatre: Vigil. Gaslamp Quarter Theatre: Marvin’s Room. Founding Artistic Director of Chequamegon Children’s Theatre in Northern Wisconsin, established in 1987. REBECCA CRIGLER (Producer) has been called many different things by many different people in a few different places. Sometimes she's called a "producer" (with and without a prefix): Mike Birbiglia’s The New One (Lortel Award nomination) and Thank God For Jokes; Chris Gethard: Career Suicide (Lynn Redgrave Theatre - NYC); The American Tradition (New Light Theater Project - NYC); Lucie Pohl: Hi, Hitler; I Lost You There; Pass Over; The Surgeon and Her Daughters (Cherry Lane Theatre - NYC); Whirlwind (New York Innovative Theatre Award nomination, The Wild Project - NYC); and A Sunnyside Mixtape (Queens, NY). Sometimes she is called a "company manager": Downtown Race Riot, Jerry Springer – The Opera, Good for Otto, Peace for Mary Frances (The New Group - NYC); 3 Mics (Lynn Redgrave Theatre - NYC). Sometimes a "general manager": A Jewish Joke, gUnTOPIA (The Roustabouts - NYC and San Diego); Nick Kroll: One Night Only (Cherry Lane Theatre - NYC); The King's Speech (The National Theatre - DC); ADH Theatricals; Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation. She's been called a "Production Consultant" for Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees, the "Producing Director" for The Misfits Theatre Company, and a "Resident Artist" at New Light Theater Project. Sometimes people call her a friend. JESSAMYN FOSTER (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be stage managing for The Roustabouts. Her local stage manager credits include MOXIE Theatre’s Fade, The Diary of Anne Frank, Ironbound, The Kid Thing, Crumbs from the Table of Joy and The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, Innermission Productions’ Gidion’s Knot, Southwestern College’s Bring it On! and The Arsonists, Leigh Scarritt Productions’ Brooklyn: The Musical, and California Youth Conservatory’s Into the Woods, Billy Elliott, and The Wiz. She has worked with the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre & Actors and Playwrights Initiative (Kalamazoo, MI), Huntington Theatre & Boston Lyric Opera (Boston, MA), the Big Apple Circus (touring division), Harbor Playhouse (Corpus Christi, TX), Little Theatre of Norfolk, Generic Theatre & Virginia Opera (Norfolk, VA) and Yokosuka International Players (Yokosuka, Japan). She has a BFA in Stage Management from Boston University an MA in Arts Administration from the University of Kentucky. She is also the Production and Operations Manager for the San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory. TONY CUCUZZELLA (Set Designer/Props) is happy to be back working with The Roustabouts. He is the Technical Director for the Performing Arts Department at Palomar College. He is a veteran of over 300 set designs around San Diego for such theatres as Backyard Renaissance/La Jolla Playhouse, The Welk, Diversionary, San Diego Comic Opera, J-Company, and San Diego Junior Theatre. Next up is A Christmas Carol at Palomar College in December. JORDYN SMILEY (Costume Designer) is working on her third production with The Roustabouts. Previous costume designs include Romeo, Romeo & Juliet, A Jewish Joke, The Jungle Book, Crimes of the Heart, Assassins, Glorious Ones, and the 2017- 2020 Plays by Young Writers Festivals. Jordyn teaches Fashion and Costume Design at San Diego Mesa College. She has built costumes for The Old Globe, McCarter Theatre, Cygnet Theater, and Disney Imagineering. ROSS STEWART (Assistant Costume Designer) is delighted to be the assistant costume designer for this production. They are a student at San Diego Mesa College studying Fashion Design, concentrating in Theatrical Costuming. This is their first stage production. With eight years background in sewing and design, Ross also regularly receives commissions to recreate costumes for people who part-take in cosplay. In conjunction with completing their studies and working with The Roustabouts, Ross is also currently involved in creating their own fashion line. JOEL BRITT (Lighting Designer) San Diego Design work includes The Dazzle, American Buffalo, Experiment With an Airpump, and Mr. & Mrs. Fitch (Backyard Renaissance), A Kind of Weather and Significant Other (Diversionary), A Raisin in the Sun, Taming of the Shrew(d), Strange Men, Vieux Carré, and Angels in America (UCSD), The Who’s Tommy Benefit Concert and South of the 8 (La Jolla Playhouse), Heaven on Earth (Sledgehammer), Little Women and Peter and the Starcatcher (The Barn Stage Company).

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