FEEL THE MOMENT 2015/2016 SEASON
IN THIS ISSUE
MAY 2016 Title Page. 2 Cast. 3 About the Play. 4 The Cast . 8 The Creative Team. 10 ATC Artistic Director. 15 About Arizona Theatre Company . 16 ATC Board of Trustees...... 20 Corporate and Foundation Donors. 21 Individual Donors. 22 ATC Staff. 28 Theater Information...... 31
The Herberger Theater Center, ATC’s performance venue in downtown Phoenix.
Cover art by: ESSER DESIGN
1 David Ira Goldstein Artistic Director
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, CHARLES DICKENS AND COUNT LEO TOLSTOY: DISCORD BY SCOTT CARTER
Matt August ...... Director Takeshi Kata...... Scenic Designer Ann Closs-Farley ...... Costume Designer Luke Moyer...... Lighting Designer Cricket S. Myers...... Sound Designer Jeffery Elias Teeter ...... Projection Designer Michael Nyman...... Music Michael Donovan, CSA...... Casting T. Greg Squires...... Resident Lighting Designer Brian Jerome Peterson...... Resident Sound Designer Glenn Bruner ...... Production Stage Manager Maggie Swing...... Tucson Stage Manager Timothy Toothman...... Assistant Stage Manager
On this original Arizona Theatre Company production, the ATC Production Staff is responsible for scenic construction, costume construction, lighting, projections, sound, props, furniture, wigs, scene painting and special effects.
The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.
Produced in 2014 by the Geffen Playhouse.
2015/2016 SEASON SPONSORS: I. MICHAEL AND BETH KASSER
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CAST (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)
Larry Cedar...... Thomas Jefferson Mark Gagliardi ...... Charles Dickens Armin Shimerman...... Count Leo Tolstoy
The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
TIME: YES PLACE: A ROOM
...DISCORD IS PERFORMED WITHOUT AN INTERMISSION.
ADDITIONAL STAFF Emma DeVore...... Assistant to the Stage Manager Ned Mochel...... Fight Choreographer Amy Chaffee...... Dialect Coach Richie Ferris...... Casting Assistant
Arizona Theatre Company operates under agreements between the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States; Stage Directors and Choreographers, an independent national labor union; and United Scenic Artists Local USA-829, IATSE.
To learn more about …Discord please visit the Learning & Education page on our website at arizonatheatre.org for a comprehensive free Play Guide. The Play Guide contains historical information, cultural context, and more. Play Guides are also available in The Temple Lounge for a nominal charge to cover printing.
Cell phones and other devices that make a noise can greatly disturb your fellow audience members and the performers. PLEASE TURN THEM OFF before the performance.
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ABOUT THE PLAY
DISCORDANT & HARMONIOUS NOTES BY SCOTT CARTER The writing of this play began, really, in June 1986 as I awoke choking on a Sunday morning. As a lifelong asthmatic, this was not unexpected, but the attack was to be the most severe of my life and I spent nearly a week in the hospital. At that time, I was a struggling standup comic and, like many colleagues, I was either indifferent or hostile to God; Jesus was the ghost who came into my bedroom when I was a child and tried to choke me to death on a nightly basis. I was released from Bellevue that Saturday afternoon. At the intersection of 26th and First Avenue, I had an epiphany like Saul on the road to Damascus when a thunderbolt knocked him to the ground, scales fell from his eyes and he knew that Jesus Christ was his Lord and Savior. My metanoia was less specific and more non-denominational; I went from cynical comic to non-affiliated deist. I received the unshakable realization of God’s existence and that of grace – for which I though myself unworthy but grateful. I guess that’s why it’s called grace. I entered into a bliss state – loving all whom I met and forgiving previous transgressions done to me. It lasted about a week. Then it faded and I felt a return to the petty life I’d always led. I didn’t want this to happen. I wanted to make this event into the B.C./A.D. of my existence. But I had no strong religious affiliation to which to turn. My parents were devout believers in whatever Protestant community was closest and nicest. I grew up Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran. Post-service coffee and donuts were sacraments as sacred as any wafers or wine. So I made a pact with the universe in the summer of 1986: I would remain open to signs and direction from anyone offering religious literature, conversation or ritual. On October 5, 1988, I watched an episode of A World of Ideas on PBS. Host Bill Moyers was interviewing Reverend Forrester Church of All Souls Unitarian in New York. And it was here that I learned about the Jefferson Bible. In 1804 President Jefferson bought two identical copies of the King James Bible. Needing both sides of each page for his project, he then, over three consecutive nights, used a razor to cut out only the verses he liked from all four gospels. Jefferson then pasted his chosen scraps of scripture into the pages of a blank book. He named his volume “The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth.” I became fascinated with the details of this history. What modern president would hatch such an idea and then spend his White House evenings executing it? For the next eight years, my fascination stopped short of creativity. I was getting jobs writing and later producing television. In 1993, HBO teamed me with Bill Maher to develop Politically Incorrect for Comedy Central. As that show took off, Jefferson gathered dust.
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ABOUT THE PLAY (CONTINUED)
In 1996 my wife and I moved from New York to Los Angeles. We rented a house near Larchmont Village where, one Saturday at the independent bookstore, Chevalier’s, I discovered The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens. I subsequently learned that Dickens, between 1846 and 1849, condensed the gospels for the first five of his ten children. He read it to them so often that they had it memorized before they learned to read. Dickens’ favorite word in the English language was “fancy.” And, as you will soon hear, Dickens embraced most of the gospel verses that Jefferson jettisoned. I now had a play to write: two great men debating whose version of the gospels is better. The first pages of these men’s fictive theological spat multiplied madly during the ensuing months. One day, while allegedly doing more research (procrastinating), I happened on this note in Stephen Mitchell’s superb The Gospel According to Jesus: “…Tolstoy, too, compiled a gospel harmony, which he called The Gospel in Brief.” My excited first thought – adding Tolstoy to this debate – instantly gave way to an easily imaginable five more years of research to turn this duet into a trio. After the global success of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy suffered a Russian epic of a depression so severe that his family hid his hunting guns to avoid his suicide. He embarked on a 30-year spiritual quest, learning Greek and Hebrew to freshly translate scripture. The Gospels in Brief, unlike the work of Jefferson and Dickens, was published during Tolstoy’s lifetime – though not in Russia. His increasingly controversial works were smuggled into Switzerland and would later result in Tolstoy’s excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church. Harmonizing this latest Tolstoy research with the other two was proving unwieldy and was going to require much more work. The Jesus narrative is hardly, “the greatest story ever told.” Yes, there’s a beginning and end but the middle is a structural mess. At the end of 1999, after producing the first 1,100 episodes of Politically Incorrect, I left to develop my play and knew I needed help. Michael Bruner, a graduate of Princeton Seminary and the University of Hamburg began to meet with me regularly over the next three years. We organized the messy muddle of Christ’s ministry into a 315-page multi-colored volume. My literary agent shopped it around; no publisher was interested (at least not yet). Still, in 2005, this source material gave rise to the first draft of the play! It was universally hated. My wife hated it. My agent hated it. My lawyer hated it. And I felt guilty for wasting their time reading and so much of my time writing. I shelved it.
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ABOUT THE PLAY (CONTINUED)
But, please, no pity: I’ve had a long and lucrative career in television. By then, Real Time with Bill Maher was on HBO and scheduled in a way that allowed me to develop other projects. In December 2008, I found myself with three open months and re-read my play’s 151-page first draft. Every bit of Jefferson, Dickens, and Tolstoy trivia had been thrown in; using the passage of time as perspective for this editing, I promptly removed most of it, focused on the Christ narrative, and distilled the page count from 151 down to 47 and increased the font size. But did I really have anything? I wanted someone to hear it who both had killer story chops and a spiritual simpatico. I called my friend, the brilliant writer, actor and comedian Garry Shandling. We were fellow Tucsonans who went to the same high school. He’d enjoyed my monologues and appeared on Politically Incorrect. We made dinner and reading plans for his house and I brought three little sticks with the heads of Jefferson, Dickens and Tolstoy to keep clear which character was talking. Garry interrupted me halfway through the stick puppet reading and gave me 23 pages of notes. We finished the play the following night with another round. I hosted reading after reading with friends and rewrote time and time again. Notes came from annotated scripts and post-reading discussions. Norman Lear, Stephen Mitchell (the translator who’d introduced me to Tolstoy’s gospel), Byron Katie (the author and Stephen’s wife), my wife, Bebe, Elaine Pagels, the Princeton Religious Studies professor who wrote The Gnostic Gospels (which you might know under its alternate title, Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code) and many others participated and I am grateful for it. After one reading, Arianna Huffington said: “We must have a performance at my house.” That December, the play was read in front of a 20-foot-high Christmas tree and 60 guests including Shirley MacLaine who, afterwards, gave me her phone number to discuss the play. We met in a dark corner of a Malibu restaurant. She ordered a bottle of red wine and, after a sip, asked, “Do you know why the star of Bethlehem hovered over the manger?” I responded that I did not. “It’s because,” she continued, “it was not a star. It was a spaceship. Let’s start there.” Then, with the world weariness of a Cassandra used to having her truth doubted, she told me that she had slept in Jefferson’s bed (in this lifetime, through a connection at Monticello). She said workers there report that his ghost roams the halls, whistling. Then she got to the purpose of our meeting: “You need a fourth character in your play … My friend Stephen Hawking believes that he is Sir Isaac Newton reincarnated. I really feel that Newton would have a lot to add to what those other three are saying.” I said, “Shirley, I appreciate you caring so much. But I’ve been working on this for 21 years. And I have to stop adding people or it will never get done.” My Cassandra looked at me, as through eyes of Fran Kubelick, of Irma La Douce, with an expression that said: Brother, you are making a big mistake. And maybe I am. But you’ll have to be the judge of that. Enjoy.
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Intersecting Lives By Merl Reagle ACROSS 12 34 DIS CORD 1 “Let the heart swell into what 5678 ___ it will” (Dickens, “Little 910 Dorrit”) 5 Guitar’s five-string cousin 11 12 13
7 Add to one’s territory, as 14 15 16 Russia did to Crimea in the 17 1700s 9 Jefferson used one to edit the 18 19
gospels 20 14 Acquaintance of Dickens 21 22 and literary rival of Tolstoy, Fyodor ___ 23
16 Having an unexpected twist 24 25 26 27 18 Adams and Jefferson declared one late in their lives after 28 29 30 31 years of bickering 19 More greasy
20 Nonviolent Indian to whom 32 33 Tolstoy wrote his last letter 34 21 Character that Tolstoy threw under a train, Anna ___ 35 36 37
23 Jefferson once received a 38 39 1,234-pound wheel of this 40 41 as a gift 26 Jefferson political foe who 42 was shot by his former vice-president, Aaron Burr DOWN 23 Least popular Dickens novel, 28 Dickens’ pen name 1 “There is something ... burning “Martin ___” 29 Jefferson purchase that in the heart of man that will not 24 Tolstoy’s early “___ Sketches,” doubled the size of the U.S. go out no matter how ___ the about military life in Crimea’s 30 Mountains that Dickens and world becomes” (Tolstoy) capital during a siege in the Tolstoy once visited in the 2 Dickens’ last completed novel, 1850s mid-1800s “___ Mutual Friend” 25 Jefferson was the first president 32 Figure out, as a mystery 3 Tolstoy’s “___ and Peace” to live in it full time (2 words) 33 The Declaration of ___ 4 Dickens novel, “Great ___” 27 One more time 35 Crucifixion site, “the place of 6 Day of Jefferson’s Declaration 29 “Anything is better than ___ the skull” and death (2 words) and deceit!” (Tolstoy) 38 While writing “Bleak House,” 8 French leader from whom 31 Dickens novel, “The ___ Dickens would often plunge Jefferson bought 29 Across Papers” his head into a ___ of cold 10 The Promised Land (also, a 34 Evil One who tempted Jesus water national park in Utah) thrice 39 Subject of a “head on a 11 Jefferson’s house, which 35 Name of Dickens’ pet raven platter” painting owned by means “little mountain” in 36 ___ Lucerne (Dickens visited it Jefferson, John the ___ Italian in 1844) 40 Name of Jefferson’s pet 12 Tolstoy’s last novel, about the 37 “No crib for ___” (line from mockingbird, which was often Christlike redemption of a “Away in a Manger”) on his shoulder when he nobleman answered the door (also, the 13 String instrument played by MerlMERL Reagle REAGLE, who ispassed the Sunday last August, was nickname of a future Jefferson thecrossword Sunday crosswordcreator for creator the Los for the Arizona president) 15 Jefferson didn’t like to do it in DailyAngeles Star, Times, Los Angeles Washington Times, Post, Washington 41 Jefferson’s wise nickname, public Post,and 50and other 50 other major major papers. papers. His Merl grew up in Tucson and was a long-time friend of “the ___ of (11 Down)” 17 Jefferson often powdered his “100th Anniversary Crossword 42 “No nation is ___ where wine Discord playwright Scott Carter. Scott asked hair to avoid wearing them himBook,” to construct the 17th this in acrossword series, was for the original is cheap” (Jefferson) 22 “Art ___ life” productionpublished in 2014.November 2013. For answers, visit ww.arizonatheatre.org/show/discord/. 7 FEEL THE MOMENT 2015/2016 SEASON
THE CAST
Larry Cedar (Thomas Jefferson) Theater: Discord (Geffen Playhouse), American Misfit (Boston Court); Lear in King Lear (Porters of Hellsgate). Colony Theatre Productions: Best of Enemies, American Fiesta, Celadine, Billy Bishop Goes to War and Around the World in 80 Days. Musicals: Nightmare Alley (Geffen Playhouse); She Loves Me (Ovation Award – Best Featured Actor in a Musical) and 1776 (Reprise!); and as Hoagy Carmichael in Hoagy, Bix and Wolfgang Beethoven Bunkhaus (Mark Taper Forum). Larry played the opium addict “Leon” for three seasons on the critically acclaimed HBO series, Deadwood, and starred for six seasons on PBS’s Square One TV. Other television: Mad Men, Grey’s Anatomy, Community, House, Terminator, NCIS, Enterprise, Alias, The Closer, Gilmore Girls, Boston Legal. Film: The Crazies, Midnight Son, Towelhead, Hollywoodland, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and a starring role in the upcoming independent feature She Sings to the Stars (www.shesingstothestars.com). Visit Larry on Facebook or at larrycedar.com.
Mark Gagliardi (Charles Dickens) ATC Debut. Theatre: Croach the Tracker in The Thrilling Adventure Hour (Largo at the Coronet), Genie in Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular (Disneyland), Strider in Fellowship: The Musical (Steve Allen Theatre), Welcome to Night Vale (tour), National Lampoon Lemmings (tour), Around the World in 80 Days (ICT), The Illusion (El Portal). Television: Drunk History (original narrator), The League, How I Met Your Mother, Life with Bonnie, According to Jim, Austin & Ally, Sam & Cat, Gamer’s Guide, I’m in the Band, Venture Bros, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, voice of Batman on DC Super Friends. Proud graduate of The Theatre School, DePaul University and The Second City Training Center.www.markgagliardi.com
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THE CAST
Armin Shimerman (Count Leo Tolstoy) is well known as Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Broadway: Three Penny Opera, St. Joan, I Remember Mama and Broadway. Selected regional theatre: Lear’s Fool, Marius in Fugard’s Road to Mecca, Richard in Seafarer (San Diego Critics Circle Award for Best Actor) (San Diego Repertory Theater); Henry V (American Shakespeare Festival); Hoagy, Bix, Wolfgang Beethoven Bunkhaus (Indiana Repertory Theatre); Three Penny Opera, Camille, Wild Oats (Guthrie Theatre). Selected Los Angeles theatre: The Birthday Party (LA Drama Critics Circle nomination for Lead Performance, Matrix Theatre); Misalliance, Juno and the Paycock, Standup Shakespeare (Odyssey Theatre); Richard II (Mark Taper Forum). Associate Artistic Director at Antaeus Theater where he teaches Shakespeare, co-directed The Crucible, and performed Seagull, Macbeth, and many classic fests. TV: 80 different guest star roles, including Stargate, Principal Snyder on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Judge Hooper on Boston Legal, CSI, Castle, Franklin & Bash. Voiceover: General Skarr for three animated shows, and many game voices, acclaimed for Dr. Nefarious in Ratchet and Clank franchise and Andrew Ryan in Bioshock.
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THE CREATIVE TEAM
Scott Carter (Playwright) has served as Executive Producer for Real Time with Bill Maher since it debuted on HBO in 2003. He produced the first 1,100 episodes ofPolitically Incorrect with Bill Maher from its 1993 Comedy Central debut to its 1997 move to ABC. While at P.I., Carter received eight Emmy nominations and three consecutive CableAce Awards for Best Talk Series. He has served as creator, producer and/or writer for, among others, Curb the Discussion with Susie Essman (TV Guide, 2010), Root of All Evil with Lewis Black (Comedy Central, 2008), Earth to America (TBS, 2005), The Conspiracy Zone with Kevin Nealon (Spike, 2002-3), and Exhale with Candice Bergen (Oxygen, 2000-1). In 1997, Variety named him one of the “50 Creatives to Watch.” In 2007, he was a co-recipient of the Producer’s Guild of America’s Johnny Carson Award for Real Time. A former stand-up comedian, Carter has written and performed two full-length monologues, “Heavy Breathing” and “Suspension Bridge,” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Aspen Comedy Arts Festival, The Kilkenny (Ireland) Murphy’s Cats Laugh Festival, the Cleveland Performance Festival, Dixon Place, Primary Stages, Manhattan Punchline, etc. He is former Producing Director and a founding member of The Invisible Theatre, now in its 44th season in Tucson, Arizona. Scott is represented by Joe Cohen and George Lane at Creative Artists Agency and by Nancy Rose at the firm of Schreck Rose Dapello & Adams LLP. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, interior designer Bebe Johnson, and their two daughters, Calla and Colette.
Matt August (Director) Broadway: Dr. Suess’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas ’06 & ‘07 (also ten National Tours, Madison Square Garden, Grand Ol’ Opry, Pantages, Wang, Chicago, Fox Theatres, etc); Broadway as Associate Director: Henry IV, Invention of Love, Imaginary Friends, Full Monty National Tours. International: Full Monty Australia Tour. Regional Theatre: Geffen Playhouse - Gospel According to Jefferson, Dickens and Tolstoy: Discord; Pioneer Theatre - Two Dollar Bill, In the Heights; Much Ado About Nothing; Old Globe- Two Gentlemen of Verona, Time Flies, Pig Farm, Food Chain. Ford’s Theatre- Liberty Smith, A Christmas Carol (5 seasons); Falcon Theatre - Scott Caan’s The Trouble We Come From; LA Theatre Works - Dracula - National Tour, Intelligence Slave, The Real Dr. Strangelove, Speech and Debate; Hanger Theatre: Complete History of America Abrdgd, All in the Timing, Tempest, Velvet Ropes, Free to Be You and Me; TheatreWorks Palo Alto - Baby Taj; The Acting Company (NYC): Two Gentlemen of Verona, Merry Wives of Windsor and Staff Repertory Director; NoHo Arts Center: Gospel…Discord; Long Wharf: Sixteen Wounded (starring Martin Landau); Mr. August has received fellowships and residencies from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Old Globe Theatre, Drama League, Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, the Juilliard School, San Francisco’s Zen Center, received the Panavision New Filmmaker’s Grant and mentored upcoming directors through the SDC Observership Program and Drama League Fellowship. His productions have been recognized by the Ovation, Helen Hayes, Broadway World, Bay Area Critics and Australia’s Helpmann Award Nominations, and appeared on year-end top-ten lists in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, SJ Mercury News and NPR/KQED. His award-winning short film How to Get to Candybar has played at festivals around the world winning “Best Comedy” twice. MFA from California Institute of the Arts.
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Takeshi Kata (Scenic Designer) New York credits include Gloria, Outside People (Vineyard Theatre); The Adding Machine, Orson’s Shadow (Barrow Street Theatre); 3 Kinds of Exile, Storefront Church, Through a Glass Darkly, Port Authority, Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Atlantic Theater Company); Doris to Darlene, BFE (Playwrights Horizons); Gone Missing (The Civilians). Regionally, Mr. Kata has worked at Alley Theatre, American Players Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Dallas Theater Center, Ford’s Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, Kirk Douglas Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Nashville Opera, The Old Globe, Skylight Opera Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Yale Repertory Theatre. Mr. Kata has won an Obie Award and has been nominated for Drama Desk, Ovation and Barrymore Awards. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California, School of Dramatic Arts.
Ann Closs-Farley (Costume Designer) Recent credits include Broadus, AnnaPurna, Stinky cheeseman, Cunning Little Vixens, Last Act of Lilka Kadison, Carnage, Rabbit Hole, Broadway Bound, American Misfits,Eric Idle’s What About Dick?, The Pee-wee Herman Show, Disney’s Toy Story: The Musical for Disney Cruise Lines, Eric Idle’s An Evening Without Monty Python and Around the World in 80 Days at the lovely Cleveland Play House. Ms. Closs-Farley also styles and designs for The World Poker Tour, Kaiser Permanente Theatricals and Disneyland Parks and resorts. annclossfarley.com.
Luke Moyer (Lighting Designer) is the resident lighting designer for the NoHo Arts Center and Open at the Top, and his recent credits include …Discord, One November Yankee, Red Room, Having it All Dracula (Ovation Award), Yo Ho Ho! A Pirate’s Christmas, East of Berlin, Departures, Pirates of Penzance, Feed, Jerusalem, Barnum, Elizabeth Rex (Ovation Award), Lizard, Bush is Bad, Bush is Bad 2, and the full staging of Angels in America. He is also the resident lighting designer for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Mr. Moyer began his career at the Main Street Stage in Massachusetts where he designed PMS, Apartment 3A, Irma Vepp and Collected Stories. He has designed many shows for The Company Rep including Six Degrees of Separation, Camino Real, Split, The Comedy of Errors, The Fantasticks, The Pension Grillparzer, Season’s Greetings, Twelfth Night, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Play Strindberg. More west coast credits include Deathtrap (Ovation Award), Shooting Star, Year Zero, Grace and Glory, All Night Strut, Celadine, A Long Christmas Ride Home, Recent Tragic Events, The Intern, The Last Pitch, Generator Girl and Why’s the Dog Howlin’ Mama?
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Cricket S. Myers (Sound Designer) Broadway: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Drama Desk Award, Tony Nomination). Off-Broadway: Marvelous Wonderettes. Regional: Sex with Strangers, Play Dead, Wrecks, Some Girl(s), Emergency (Ovation, NAACP nominations) (Geffen Playhouse); Bent (Ovation Nomination), The Price, Steward of Christendom, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Ovation nomination), Vigil, Burn This, The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Ovation nomination), Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, The Subject Was Roses (Mark Taper Forum); Twist your Dickens (Ovation nomination), The Wake, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Ovation nomination); The Little Dog Laughed (Ovation nomination) (Kirk Douglas Theatre); Guards at the Taj, Sideways, The Nightingale (La Jolla Playhouse); Book Club Play (Arena Stage); In the Wake (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Red, Mr. Wolf, Trudy and Max in Love, 4000 Miles, The Fantasticks, Parisian Woman, Elemeno Pea (South Coast Repertory); Real Women have Curves, Stoneface, Above the Fold, Crowns, Orson’s Shadow (Pasadena Playhouse); Carrie the Musical (Los Angeles Theater). Other selected LA theatres include The NoHo Arts Center, Ghost Road Theater company, The Celebration Theater, The Colony Theatre, and Circle X. Cricket won the Kinetic Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatrical Design in 2015, has earned 18 Ovation nominations, and has won an LADCC and a Garland Award. cricketsmyers.com.
Jeffrey Elias Teeter (Projection Designer) graduated from California Institute of the Arts and has worked on numerous world, West Coast, and New York premieres. He has designed and worked on: The Tallest Tree in the Forest and Tribes (Mark Taper Forum); On the Spectrum and Cyrano (Fountain Theatre); A Guide to an Exhibitionist and Cleopatra, C.E.O. (Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre); Baby It’s You, written and directed by Floyd Mutrux (Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway); Lighting Director for Halloween Horror Nights, NBC Universal Studios Hollywood and several premieres for AMC; Brewsie & Willie, a collaboration with Center for New Performance and Poor Dog Group; All That Skate, an international ice skating show (Staples Center); Piedra de Sol, directed by Maria Morett and presented (Getty Villa); The Jesus Ride, performed and written by Michael Schlitt (New York Fringe Festival and Portland Center Stage); Kirk Douglas: Before I Forget (Kirk Douglas Theatre); Apollo (Portland Center Stage); Norman’s Ark (Ford Amphitheater); Mycenaean (Brooklyn Academy of Music Festival); 11 Septembre 2001 (National Theatre of Paris); The Mask and Can-Can (Pasadena Playhouse); A Hip Hopera (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Other projects include The leading Matters and Stanford Challenge national tour.
Michael Donovan, CSA (Casting) has been ATC’s Los Angeles casting director since 2005. He is the proud recipient of six Artios Awards, given by the Casting Society of America for Outstanding Achievement in Casting. Credits include shows produced at the Hollywood Bowl, Pasadena Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Reprise Theatre Company, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Shakespeare Festival/L.A., International City League, Laguna Playhouse, Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara, Ebony Repertory Theatre, Falcon Theatre, Colony Theatre and the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. Tours include Aida, Buddy, Peter Pan, How to Train Your Dragon and the currently playing I Love Lucy Live. Television credits include the series Blood Relatives. Mr. Donovan has also cast numerous films and more than 1,200 commercials.
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T. Greg Squires (Resident Lighting Designer) began working for ATC in 1988 as a lighting and sound technician. Since becoming the Resident LD, he is responsible for remounting all of the designs in Phoenix and was the designer for Permanent Collection and Tuesdays with Morrie. Mr. Squires has been the Associate Lighting Designer for Michael Gilliam, Dennis Parichy, Ann Wrightson, Don Darnutzer, Allen Lee Hughes, York Kennedy, David Lee Cuthbert and Peter Maradudin. In addition to ATC, Mr. Squires has designed lights and/or sound for Laguna Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, Creede Repertory Theatre, Borderlands Theater and Childsplay. Recently, Mr. Squires was Sound Designer for Actors Theatre of Phoenix productions of This, Circle Mirror Transformation and Dead Man’s Cell Phone, all of which received ariZoni Award nominations.
Brian Jerome Peterson (Resident Sound Designer) celebrates his 30th season at ATC, where he has designed 83 productions, including Fences, Disgraced, Five Presidents, Wait Until Dark, Around the World in 80 Days, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Sunshine Boys, Jane Austen’s Emma, The Great Gatsby, God of Carnage, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Lost in Yonkers, Ain’t Misbehavin’, George is Dead, Somebody/Nobody, Enchanted April, Touch the Names, I Am My Own Wife, Twelfth Night, Tuesdays with Morrie, Crowns, Macbeth, The Pirates of Penzance, The Immigrant, A Streetcar Named Desire, Oh Coward!, Copenhagen, Fully Committed and The Mystery of Irma Vep (for which he won an ariZoni Award) and the world premieres of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of The Suicide Club, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, Inventing van Gogh, Rocket Man, Minor Demons and The Holy Terror. His designs have been heard in many theatres including Geva Theatre Center, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Cleveland Play House, Northlight Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville and San Jose Repertory Theatre Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, and the Bay Street Repertory Theatre.
Glenn Bruner (Production Stage Manager) is in his 19th season as Production Stage Manager at ATC where he has stage managed over 60 productions, including Romeo and Juliet, Five Presidents, Other Desert Cities, The Mountaintop, The Importance of Being Earnest, Clybourne Park, The Sunshine Boys, Next to Normal, The Great Gatsby, The Mystery of Irma Vep, [title of show], The Kite Runner, Hair, Enchanted April, and the world premieres of Jeffrey Hatcher’s Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of The Suicide Club and Ten Chimneys, and Steven Dietz’s Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, Rocket Man, Inventing van Gogh, and Over the Moon. Mr. Bruner has worked at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Alley Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Pasadena Playhouse, Centerstage, Studio Arena Theatre, and Maine’s Portland Stage Company. He was the Assistant Stage Manager for the world premiere of On the Waterfront at The Cleveland Play House and stage managed the Off-Broadway premiere of Alan Ayckbourn’s Season’s Greetings. He has also been the voice for many radio and television commercials and worked for Texas Public Radio in his hometown of San Antonio. Mr. Bruner was the 2012 recipient of the Lucy Jordan Recognition Award, presented annually by the Western Region of Actors’ Equity Association. He has been a member of AEA since 1981.
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THE CREATIVE TEAM
Maggie Swing (Tucson Stage Manager) Geffen Playhouse: Barcelona, Guards at the Taj, Discord, The Country House, The Judy Show, American Buffalo. European Tour of The Apple Family Plays. Off-Broadway: Regular Singing, Sorry, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Sweet and Sad, Knickerbocker, Compulsion, That Hopey Changey Thing (The Public Theater), Slowgirl (Lincoln Center), Blood Knot, The Orphans’ Home Cycle (Signature Theatre Company). Regional: Bell, Book and Candle (co-production with Long Wharf Theatre), The Orphans’ Home Cycle, Dividing the Estate, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Christmas Carol, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, The Bluest Eye, Our Town (Hartford Stage Company).
Timothy Toothman (Assistant Stage Manager) is the Artistic Associate at ATC. He most recently stage managed ATC’s productions of Fences, A Christmas Carol, The Santaland Diaries, A Weekend with Pablo Picasso, Five Presidents, Wait Until Dark, Around the World in 80 Days, The Importance of Being Earnest, Freud’s Last Session, Lombardi, Daddy Long Legs and God of Carnage, among others. Mr. Toothman spent five seasons as the Production Stage Manager for Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY and was then Company Manager for five years for Sunshine Too, a national touring ensemble of deaf and hearing actors. He has also managed producing and presenting theatres in Indiana and Maryland. Prior to moving to Arizona, Mr. Toothman spent eleven years as a program and grants director for the Maryland State Arts Council and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. Mr. Toothman stage managed the National Heritage Awards Program for the National Endowment for the Arts for ten years and has been the stage manager for the Vineyard Playhouse on Martha’s Vineyard for the past twelve summer seasons.
Emma DeVore (Assistant to the Stage Manager) served as Assistant to the Stage Manager for ATC’s productions of Of Mice and Men, Fences, Disgraced, Romeo and Juliet, Murder for Two, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Around the World in 80 Days, Xanadu, The Importance of Being Earnest, Clybourne Park, Freud’s Last Session, Lombardi, God of Carnage and The Great Gatsby. Regionally, she has worked at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, Phoenix Theatre, Gulfshore Playhouse, and Southwest Shakespeare Company. She was the Production Stage Manager for E&M Theatrical’s Las Vegas production of The D*Word: A Musical, and has toured with the vaudeville troupe Handsome Little Devils, and with The Magic of David Copperfield.
The Actors and Stage Managers The Director is a member of the The Scenic, Costume, Lighting and employed in these productions are Stage Directors and Choreographers Sound Designers in LORT Theatres members of Actors’ Equity Association, Society, an independent national are represented by Union Scenic the Union of Professional Actors and labor union. Artists Local USA-829, IATSE. Stage Managers in the United States.
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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
David Ira Goldstein this season celebrates his 24th season as Artistic Director of Arizona Theatre Company. In that time, he has produced and/or directed over 200 mainstage plays, workshops, readings, and presentations including acclaimed appearances by the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and the Theatre Royal Bath. He received the 2010 Leader of the Year Award in Arts and Humanities from the Capitol Times and the 2003 Governor’s Arts Award as Individual Artist for his contributions to the arts in Arizona. This season he directed Disgraced and The Santaland Diaries for ATC. He has directed over 40 mainstage productions for ATC ranging from classics to new plays to musicals, including Next to Normal, The Sunshine Boys, Hair, Much Ado about Nothing, My Fair Lady, Valley Song, The Illusion, The Pajama Game, Side Man, [title of show], How I Learned to Drive, Wait Until Dark, Xanadu, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Scapin, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Boys Next Door, Shadowlands, Fully Committed, The Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore, Willi, Dreams from a Summer House, Other People’s Money, The Heidi Chronicles, Noises Off and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as many world premieres including The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (winner of the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America); Inventing van Gogh, Rocket Man, Private Eyes, Over the Moon and Dracula by Steven Dietz; and Ten Chimneys, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Edgar Award nominee) and Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of The Suicide Club (Edgar Award nominee) by Jeffrey Hatcher. Mr. Goldstein has been a guest director at theatres all across the country including Arizona Opera, Pasadena Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Florida Stage, Center Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Northlight Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Village Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, Laguna Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Mixed Blood Theatre, The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, Alaska Repertory Theatre, and Illusion Theatre. His musical A Marvelous Party: The Noël Coward Celebration, which originated at ATC, has played extensively across the U.S., winning many awards including four Jeff Awards in Chicago (including Best Director), the Elliot Norton Award in Boston, several Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Production. Before coming to Arizona, Mr. Goldstein was Associate Artistic Director of ACT Theatre in Seattle. His many productions there included Glengarry Glen Ross, Hapgood, Breaking the Silence, Lloyd’s Prayer, the world premieres of God’s Country by Steven Dietz and Willi by John Pielmeier, as well as a joint Soviet-American production of The Falcon. He was Associate Artistic Director at Actors Theatre of St. Paul from 1983-86. Mr. Goldstein holds an M.F.A. from the University of Minnesota. He has been a visiting instructor and director at ASU, University of Washington, University of Minnesota, and University of Northern Iowa. He has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, Arts Midwest, and the Arizona, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington State Arts Commissions. Mr. Goldstein is a proud Union member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and Actors’ Equity Association. He is married to KJZZ radio announcer Michele Robins. They share their home with their dogs and cats: Rio, Rocky, Cary, Reggie, Dexter, and Benny.
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ABOUT ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY
The Cast and Crew of ATC’s Wait Until Dark. Photo by Tim Fuller.
Now celebrating 49 years, Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) boasts the largest subscriber base of any performing arts organization in Arizona, with more than 130,000 people each year attending performances at the historic Temple of Music and Art in Tucson, and the elegant Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix. Each season of carefully selected productions reflects the rich variety of world drama – from classic to contemporary plays, from musicals to new works, as audiences enjoy a rich emotional experience that can only be captured through live theatre. Touching lives through the power of theatre, ATC is the preeminent professional theatre in the state of Arizona. Under the direction of Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein, ATC operates in two cities – unlike any other League of Resident Theatres (LORT) company in the country.
ATC shares the passion of the theatre through a wide array of outreach programs, educational opportunities, access initiatives and community events. Through the schools and summer programs, ATC focuses on teaching Arizona’s youth about literacy, cultural development, performing arts, specialty techniques used onstage, and opens their minds to the creative power of dramatic literature. With approximately 450 Learning & Education activities annually, ATC reaches far beyond the metropolitan areas of Tucson and Phoenix, enriching the theatre learning experience for current and future audiences.
The mission of Arizona Theatre Company is to inspire, engage and entertain – one moment, one production and one audience at a time.
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ANNOUNCING THE 2O16/2O17 SEASON