APR 24–28, 2019 Joan H
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2 PRC APR 24–28, 2019 Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art | playmakersrep.org | 919.962.7529 VIVIENNE BENESCH PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Welcome to the Kenan Theater, and to Virginia Grise’s radical performance manifesto, Your Healing is Killing Me. As our spirited new Associate Producer Alejandro Rodriguez told me recently: “What Virginia’s writing teaches us is that no space is a safe space for certain bodies in America, and what appears as a familiar comfort to one group (health care, law enforcement, etc.) might actually be a lethal threat to another. If our goal is truly to ‘draw our circle wider’ we must be willing to be exposed to—and indeed confronted by—the reality of other lived experiences, especially the experiences of women of color who have borne the brunt of so many accumulated layers of systemic oppression.” Fortunately, the PRC2 Series has evolved into the perfect platform for these sorts of theatrical confrontations: experiences that often leave us feeling rattled and disoriented but also more alive, more empathetic and more humane. Among a season of incredible highlights in both our spaces here and out in our community, I have to admit that several of my favorite moments of the year have happened right here in the Kenan. I want to personally thank you, our regular PRC2 attendees, for your loyalty, bravery, and appetite for risk. We can only ever be as bold as our audiences, and this season has convinced me you all are among the boldest in the country. If you’re meeting PlayMakers for the first time tonight, thank you for jumping off the deep end with us. We hope you’ll choose to take advantage of the full menu of programming we have on offer. With this show, our 2018/19 season, Shifting Ground: Theatre That Moves, comes to a close. We hope you’ve enjoyed the journey as much as we have. We’re back at it again in August with nine new dynamic, entertaining productions for you to enjoy, starting right here in the Kenan, with local literary giant Howard Craft’s one-woman-show, No Fear & Blues Long Gone, about the life & music of Nina Simone. Even before then, please come back and join us for our Summer Youth Conservatory’s highly-anticipated production of Bright Star, a musical set right here in North Carolina, written and composed by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. Thank you again for helping us to shift ground this year; we’ll see you next season as we both look back and charge ahead with our 2019/20 line-up, Legacy | NOW. Warmly, Vivienne Benesch Producing Artistic Director PRC2 Scenic Consultant Costume Coordiantor Lighting/Projection Designer JAN CHAMBERS JENNIFER GUADAGNO DOMINIC ABBENANTE Sound Designer Stage Manager DEREK GRAHAM CHARLES K. BAYANG* PlayMakers Repertory Company is a Member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre. This Theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. Congratulations and thank you to the North Carolina Arts Council for 50 years of leadership and support. *Indicates members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. The Professional Theatre of the Department of Dramatic Art Adam Versényi, Chair Vivienne Benesch, Producing Artistic Director Justin D. Haslett, Managing Director Produced in association with The College of Arts and Sciences The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ARTIST BIOS Florinda Bryant PERFORMER, CO-WRITER PlayMakers: Debut. Regional: Salvage Vanguard Theater, the Rude Mechs, the Vortex, Paper Chairs, Teatro Vivo, Ensemble Theater. Other favorites include Dat Black Mermaid Man Lady (Pilsbury House); Pork Chop Wars, Until the Flood, and her own one-woman show, black do crack (Ground Floor Theater). Education/Other: Florinda is an interdisciplinary artist whose work exists to demand community healing and social justice. She enjoys engaging audiences in explorations around identity, body, and community. Her award-winning one-woman show Half-Breed Southern Fried was produced as part of the Performing Blackness Series at UT and was directed by Laurie Carlos. As a facilitator and arts educator, Florinda has worked with at-risk communities, young men and women, and adults—using performance as a social justice tool for empowerment and change for over 18 years. Virginia Grise WRITER PlayMakers: Debut. Virginia Grise is a recipient of the Whiting Writers’ Award, Princess Grace Award in Theatre Directing and the Yale Drama Series Award. Her published work includes Your Healing is Killing Me (Plays Inverse Press), blu (Yale University Press), The Panza Monologues co-written with Irma Mayorga (University of Texas Press), and an edited volume of Zapatista communiqués titled Conversations with Don Durito (Autonomedia Press). She earned her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Shayok Misha Chowdhury DIRECTOR PlayMakers: Debut. Shayok Misha Chowdhury is a Brooklyn-based director and theatre-maker. Misha is currently in residence at Ars Nova, Soho Rep, The Drama League, and The Flea, and was recently a Directing Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop. Upcoming: Beast Thing with Aleshea Harris (Drama League); Mac Wellman’s Bad Penny (The Flea); SPEECH with Scott Sheppard (Playwrights Horizons Theater School); rasgos asiaticos with Virginia Grise (CalArts Center for New Performance). Recent: MukhAgni with Kameron Neal (Ars Nova); How the White Girl Got Her Spots and Other 90s Trivia with Laura Grill (Ars Nova’s ANT Fest); Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves (Williams College); Cherríe Moraga’s The Mathematics of Love (Stanford University); Nia Witherspoon’s The Messiah Complex (HERE Arts Center). Misha was featured on the Grammy-winning album Calling All Dawns, and his poetry has been published in The Cincinnati Review, TriQuarterly, Asian American Literary Review, and elsewhere. He is on faculty at Williams College. Jan Chambers SCENIC CONSULTANT PlayMakers: Company member for 12 seasons. Jan Chambers is a resident designer for PlayMakers Repertory Company and professor in the Department of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina. She is also resident designer and core company member of Archipelago Theatre/Cine, as well as a member of United States Institute of Theatre and Technology and United Scenic Artists Local 839. Skeleton Crew, Leaving Eden, A Christmas Carol, The Cake, The May Queen, Sweeney Todd, 4000 Miles, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Making of a King: Henry IV & V, A Raisin in the Sun, Red, Metamorphoses, The Tempest, Angels in America, Nicholas Nickleby, The Glass Menagerie, and A Number, among others. Other Recent Designs: Sunday in the Park with George, Pericles (Guthrie Theatre); Asylum (Only Child Aerial Theatre at Circus Now International Contemporary Circus Exposure); Pericles, Hamlet (Folger Theatre); Pericles, Henry V (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Eve and Poppy, It Had Wings, The Narrowing, Out of the Blue (Archipelago Theatre/Cine). Jennifer Guadagno COSTUME COORDINATOR PlayMakers: Assistant Costume Director/Teaching Assistant Professor for the UNC/PlayMakers’ Costume Shop. In that capacity she handles the day-to-day needs of the shop as well as teaching a graduate level seminar class on Costume Management. Additionally, she has coordinated costumes for several other PRC2 productions, including Temples of Lung and Air, Count, and Mr. Joy. Prior to joining us here at PlayMakers, Ms. Guadagno draped for four seasons at Syracuse Stage, the regional theatre in residence at Syracuse University. There she worked with such designers as Paul Tazewell, Jessica Ford, Tracy Dorman, and Susanne Chesney. Ms. Guadagno received her MFA in Costume Production from Boston University. Dominic Abbenante LIGHTING/PROJECTION DESIGNER PlayMakers: Company member in his sixth season. Dominic is the Lighting Director and a resident Lighting and Media Designer at PlayMakers. Recent designs include Bewilderness, Skeleton Crew, Temples of Lung and Air, The Christians, A Christmas Carol, and Intimate Apparel. Off-Broadway:Assistant Design for Max Mavin: Thinking In Person. Regional: Triad Stage, Guilford College, and UNCSA, San Diego Asian American Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Jean Isaacs Dance Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Cygnet Theater, Diversionary Theatre, The Hudson Theater. Education/Other: Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill. MFA in Lighting Design from San Diego State University. Derek Graham SOUND DESIGNER PlayMakers: Company member in his first season as Resident Sound Designer/ Engineer. Regional: The Passion of Teresa Rae King (World Premiere), A Raisin in the Sun, Beautiful Star (Triad Stage); An Octaroon (Dobama Theatre), Believe in Cleveland (Karamu House), Edgar: I Nothing Am (North Street Playhouse). University: Dauphin Island (World Premiere), Crooked (Ohio University Theater); Knock Me a Kiss (Elizabeth City State University Players). Film (Music): Solomon Dasko (Bent Street Films); The Prescription (Há Kin). Education/Awards/Other: MFA in Sound Design – School of Dance, Film, & Theatre (Ohio University), B.A. in Music/Sound Recording – School of Music (Elizabeth City State University) Music Composition: Worse Than Tigers (RED Stage/ACT Theatre); Klauzal Square (Ohio University Theater). Charles K. Bayang STAGE MANAGER Charles is in his eleventh season with PlayMakers. Work at other regional theatres includes productions at Studio Arena Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Theater Center and Dallas Children’s Theatre. Charles holds an MFA from the University of Alabama/Alabama Shakespeare Festival and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association. FRIENDS OF PLAYMAKERS PlayMakers is grateful to the members of the Friends of PlayMakers for their generous support. For more information about how to join this dynamic group of supporters, call the PlayMakers Development Office at 919.962.2481 or visit us at playmakersrep.org. Director’s Circle ($10,000+) Investor ($2,500–4,999) The Educational Foundation of America Richard and Deirdre Arnold ^ Joan H.