BRAZOSPORT COLLEGE THEATRE DEPARTMENT PROUDLY PRESENTS Originally Produced for the New York stage by Arielle Tepper and Marty Bell Orginally Produced by Northlight Theatre Chicago, IL Costume Design Lighting Design Shannon Averett Byron Gernand Musical Director Director Clayton Roberts Michael McIntosh Featuring Samantha Blackmar MaKayla Dunn Mason Rod Tomás Whitmarsh April 15-19, 2021 Shakespeare in the Glen Theatre Brazosport College Theatre Department Brazosport College | Lake Jackson TX Shakespeare in at Brazosport College Cast Samantha Blackmar .............................................Cathy MaKayla Dunn .......................................................Cathy Mason Rod .................................................................Jamie Tomás Whitmarsh ..................................................Jamie Songs Still Hurting Shiksa Goddess See, I’m Smiling Moving Too Fast I’m a Part of That The Schmuel Song A Summer in Ohio The Next Ten Minutes A Miracle Would Happen Climbing Uphill If I Didn’t Believe in You I Can Do Better Than That Nobody Needs to Know Goodbye Until Tomorrow/ I Could Never Rescue You Pianist Clayton Roberts THE LAST FIVE YEARS will be performed without an intermission. STREAMING IS PRESENTED BY SPECIAL ARRAGEMENT OF MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL (MTI) NEW YORK, NY. All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. mtishows.com. Any video and/or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited. Staff for The Last Five Years Video Streaming Specialist .............Kyle Parrinello Stage Manager ...................................Audrey Young Costume Shop Assistant ..................Audrey Young Master Carpenter .............................. Daniel Bradshaw Carpenters ............................................ Justen Cunningham, Matthew Cunningham Running Crew .................................... Vanessa Montanez, Riley Ramsower BC Marketing Specialist .................. Micah Meche Thanks to this Season’s Donors: Mary Beth Blankenship Wesley Copeland Darrell Copenhaver Raquel Gordon Gregg Greer Stephen Lostracco Cathy Mintz Sharon Moore Phillip Partridge Marisa Schamerhorn Mike Shields Virginia Tippen Lisa Unger Special Thanks To: Richard Birk Wesley Copland Jerry Crummel Vorin Dornan Ben May Jonathan Peachey Parade. Distraught with the state of musical THE LAST FIVE YEARS theatre style at the time, he wanted to create This modern musical ingeniously chronicles the an emotionally intimate, musically complex five-year life of a marriage, from meeting to piece. Brown’s musical style, although it only break-up and from break-up to meeting. uses a select number of instruments, draws on Jason Robert Brown’s Drama Desk winner, a significant number of genres, from classical The Last Five Years, has been translated into to rock to klezmer. a handful of languages and was named one of TIME Magazine’s ten best shows of 2001. A testament to the show’s longevity, and spurred Productions by the show’s regional popularity, The Last The Last Five Years, a sung-through musical Five Years enjoyed an Off-Broadway revival at written by Jason Robert Brown, premiered at Second Stage in 2013. A film adaptation was the Northlight Theatre in Skokie, Illinois, in released in 2014, starring Anna Kendrick and 2001. The production ran for two months and Jeremy Jordan. starred Lauren Kennedy and Norbert Leo Butz. An emotionally powerful and intimate musical The show reportedly sold more tickets in a about two New Yorkers in their twenties who single weekend than any other production at fall in and out of love over the course of five that theatre before. years, the show’s unconventional structure With new producers, the musical later opened consists of Cathy, the woman, telling her story at the Minetta Lane Theatre Off-Broadway on backwards while Jamie, the man, tells his story March 3, 2002, closing on May 5 of the same chronologically; the two characters only meet year. Sherie Rene Scott stepped in to star once, at their wedding in the middle of the opposite Butz, as Kennedy had taken off for a show. prior commitment. Since its closing, The Last Five Years has been produced across hundreds of American cities, in addition to Australia, Inspiration Germany, Netherlands, Italy, France and the The Last Five Years was written during the two Philippines. The musical’s regional popularity years that Jason Robert Brown toured the spurned an Off-Broadway revival at the Second country as conductor and musical director of Stage Theatre in 2013. It was directed by Jason the national tour of another one of his shows, Robert Brown, himself. Cultural Influence • The Last Five Years has been translated into a handful of other languages, including Dutch, Japanese, German and Italian. • The musical was named one of TIME Magazine’s top ten shows of 2001. • A film adaptation of the stage musical was released in 2014, starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan. Tomás Whitmarsh as Jamie TOMÁS WHITMARSH has previously played roles in BC Drama productions such as Rogues’ Gallery along with playing roles in Center Stages productions such as Fiddler on the Roof and Cabaret. Some of his favorite roles at BC are Jacob in La Cage aux Folles, Igor in Young Frankenstein, and Ragueneau in Cyrano de Bergerac. After discovering the film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera when he was around five years old, Tomás has had an interest in musicals. His favorites include the likes of Steven Sondheim’s Sweeny Todd, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s bombastic rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, and Paul Shapera’s dieselpunk The New Albion Radio Hour. Off stage, Tomás enjoys watching a variety of classic films with his family along with re-watching episodes of the BBC’s science fiction series Doctor Who. Tomás is also an avid music fan. Some of his favorite bands include My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, The Dresden Dolls, and J-rock band Ling tosite sigure. Other hobbies include filming and editing content for YouTube, arranging and writing songs, and jamming out to his vinyl records. Tomás intends to transfer to Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi to work towards a degree in cinematog- raphy. Meet the Cast Samantha Blackmar as Cathy SAMANTHA BLACKMAR Notable roles include Rosie Alvarez in Bye Bye Birdie, Cosette in Les Miserables, Penelope Ryan in Happy Birthday Wanda June, Portia in The Merchant of Venice, and Sister Mary Amnesia in Nunsense. Samantha discovered her interest in music and theater in the voice lessons her mother signed her up for in the fourth grade. After several years of practice, she was cast as a chorus member in a production of Hello Dolly and fell in love with the stage. She has since been involved in several theater productions both at the Brazosport Center Stages as well as the Brazosport College Theatre Department. When not on stage, Samantha can be found listening to 80s new wave, crocheting, or consuming horror fiction in all its known forms. She lives with several house plants, two cats, and a significantly more optimistic hus- band. She used to play the trombone at an acceptable level of quality but hopes to never see the instrument ever again. Meet the Cast MaKayla Dunn as Cathy MAKAYLA DUNN has been involved with BC Theatre since 2018. She has been in seen Cyrano de Bergerac, Puffs, Young Frankenstein, La Cage aux Folles, Charley’s Aunt, and The Two Noble Kinsmen as well as the Mad- rigal Feast and Fiddler on the Roof at Brazosport Center Stages. She also performed with the College Choir, Jazz Choir, and at Lutherfest in Berlin. MaKayla is a graduate of Brazosport College and currently works as a preschool and school-age teacher at Silverlake Kindercare. MaKayla fills up much of her time visiting family or crafting. She has a collection of over 50 tabletop games with plans to collect many more. Something only a few people know about her is that she can recite all 50 states in under 20 seconds. Meet the Cast Mason Rod as Jamie MASON ROD This is Mason’s first production at Brazo- sport College since his 2015 appearance as Polonius in Hamlet. Mason is very active across the street at Brazo- sport Center Stages where he has played roles such as Bert in Mary Poppins, Shrek in Shrek the Musical, Smee in Peter and the Starcatcher (a role where he taught himself to play ukulele), and Ken Gorman in Rumors. If you are familiar with Mason’s performances, you may not recognize him at first because he has lost 100 pounds since his last appearance in The Miracle Worker back in 2019! In his free time, Mason enjoys jogging, playing video games and reading while his dog Poppy naps in his lap. Mason is happy to be back on stage with The Last Five Years – one of his favorite musicals. He has been want- ing to play this part for almost a decade and is excited to bring this show to the community! Meet the Cast About the Author Jason Robert Brown Jason Robert Brown is the ultimate multi-hy- phenate – an equally skilled composer, lyricist, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, director and performer – best known for his dazzling scores to several of the most renowned musicals of our time, including the generation-defining “The Last Five Years”, his debut song cycle “Songs for a New World”, and the seminal “Pa- rade”, for which he won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Score. Jason Robert Brown has been hailed as “one of Broadway’s smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim” (Phila- delphia Inquirer), and his “extraordinary, jubi- chestrations). “Honeymoon In Vegas,” based on lant theater music” (Chicago Tribune) has been Andrew Bergman’s film, opened on Broadway heard all over the world, whether in one of the in 2015 following a triumphant production hundreds of productions of his musicals every at Paper Mill Playhouse. A film version of his year or in his own incendiary live performanc- epochal Off-Broadway musical “The Last Five es. The New York Times Years” was released in 2015, starring Anna refers to Jason as “a Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan and directed by leading member of Richard LaGravenese.