New Play Festival
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New Play Festival January 16th, 2021 DRIVE BY DEBORAH YARCHUN Winner of Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award for Playwriting issued by the Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth College Directed by Michael Legg Production Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager Assistant Director/Dramaturg *Brian R. Sekinger Jacqueline Pageau Sam West CAST *Larry Bull .............................................................................................Arthur *Johanna Day ......................................................................................Arlene *Nehassaiu deGannes .........................................................................Gloria Jayla McDonald .................................................................................Ainsley *Allison Jean White ....................................................................................Jo *CJ Wilson ............................................................................................... Cliff Songs composed by Hannah Fairchild Special Thanks to the Neukom Institute, Dan Rockmore, and the Department of Theater at Dartmouth College. NEW WORKS NOW is made possible by the BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle and the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation. Season Underwriter New Works Now Sponsors * Member of Actor’s Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. ABOUT THE COMPANY LARRY BULL (Arthur) is delighted to be making his NS debut in Drive. Broadway: Linda Vista - Second Stage; The Coast of Utopia - Lincoln Center. NYC: 1776 - City Center Encores! Off-Broadway: Mother of the Maid - Public; The Traveling Lady, Nora - Cherry Lane; Rocket to the Moon - Pecadillo Theatre. Off-Off Broadway: Kenneth - What Is the Frequency? - 78th St. Theatre. Regional: Actors Theatre of Louisville - Appropriate, The Mystery of Irma Vep. Arizona Theatre - Outside Mullingar. Also Utah Shakespeare, Shakespeare Theatre, Geva Theatre, Merrimack Repertory, Huntington Theatre, Trinity Repertory. Film & TV: Master, “New Amsterdam,” “The Blacklist,” “Blue Bloods,” “Madam Secretary,” “Law & Order: SVU.” JOHANNA DAY (Arlene) Broadway: The Nap, Sweat (Tony Nomination), You Can’t Take It With You, August: Osage County, Lombardi, Proof (Tony Nomination). Theatre: Floyd’s (Guthrie), Peace for Mary Francis (New Group), Peter and Jerry (Second Stage – Drama Desk Nomination), Appropriate (Signature - Obie Award, The Lilly Award), Poor Behavior (Mark Taper), Realistic Joneses (Yale), Choice (Huntington), The Rainmaker (Arena Stage – Helen Hayes Award), How I Learned to Drive (Vineyard). Television: “Madam Secretary” (5 Years Recurring), “For Life,” “New Amsterdam,” “The Blacklist,” “Escape at Dannemora,” “The Knick,” “The Americans,” “Masters of Sex,” “Alpha House,” “Royal Pains.” Film: What is Life Worth, The Post, Great Gilley Hopkins, How Far She Went, The Breatharian. NEHASSAIU deGANNES (Gloria) recent credits include Angie in Is God Is (Soho Rep), Arkadina in The Assembly’s SEAGULLMACHINE (LaMaMa), Cynthia in Sweat (Cleveland Play House and Canada’s Theatre Aquarius), Esther in Intimate Apparel (Shakespeare & Co., WSJ Best Actor in a Play citation), Nell Gwynne, Maria, Lady Davenant in Or (S&Co. Berkshire Theatre Critics Award), as well as Kings (Studio Theatre, D.C.), Our Town (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Romeo & Juliet (Stratford Festival of Canada), and the indie filmEqual Standard. A featured performer for The UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, Nehassaiu’s poetry book, “Music for Exile” (Tupelo Press) will be released in February. JAYLA McDONALD (Ainsley) is a 15 y/o actress from Houston, TX. She made her screen debut on season 5 of TLC’s hit TV show “Toddlers & Tiaras” in 2009. Since that time, she has been cast in several stage plays at The Ensemble Theatre in Houston, TX. She was also featured in the film Tales from the Hood II. Jayla has a passion for acting and dance and is excited to make a debut performance with Northern Stage Company. She aspires to grace the stages on Broadway someday. ABOUT THE COMPANY ALLISON JEAN WHITE (Jo) is thrilled to “return” to Northern Stage where she was last seen in the world premiere of Orwell in America. Broadway: Man and Boy (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: Party Face (City Center), The Shaughraun (Irish Rep), Santa Doesn’t Come to the Holiday Inn (EST). National Tour: The 39 Steps. Select Regional: The Whistleblower (world premiere, The Denver Center); King Charles III (A.C.T., Seattle Rep, Shakespeare Theatre Company); The Realistic Joneses, The Circle, Travesties, The Imaginary Invalid, The Real Thing (A.C.T.); Disgraced (Arizona Theatre Company); Heartbreak House (Berkeley Rep); TV/Film: “The Blacklist,” “The Slap,” “High Maintenance,” The Family Fang. BA: Brown University; MFA: A.C.T. CJ WILSON (Cliff) Broadway: Bronx Bombers, The Big Knife, Festen, Henry IV, The Best Man. Off-Broadway: On the Shore of the Wide World, Hold on to me Darling (Lucille Lortel nom.), Dying for It, Our New Girl, Offices, The Voysey Inheritance(Atlantic Theatre); Medieval Play, The Lady from Dubuque (Signature); Happy Now? (Lucille Lortel nom. Primary Stages); All-American (LCT3). Regional: Mark Taper, Old Globe, Shakespeare Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Group. Film: Irresistible, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Demolition, The Intern. Television: “The Blacklist,” “Quantico,” “Bull,” “The Sinner,” Homeland,” “The Characters,” “The Sound of Music Live!,” “The Following,” “Onion Sportsdome,” “Brotherhood,” “Law & Order.” DEBORAH YARCHUN (Playwright) honors include two Jerome Fellowships, a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, an EST/ Sloan Commission, Dartmouth’s 2020 Neukom Literary Arts Award for Playwriting, The Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, the Kernodle New Play Award, the Richard Maibaum Playwriting Award, and Women in the Arts & Media Coalition’s 2019 Collaboration Award. Her play Great White was an Honorable Mention for the Relentless Award. She was recently a playwright-in- residence at the William Inge Center for the Arts and a member of the Civilians’ R&D Group. Deborah earned her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. MICHAEL LEGG (Director) is in his third season as Artistic Director of Montana Repertory Theatre. Prior to coming to Missoula, he was the Director of the Professional Training Company at Actors Theatre of Louisville. At Actors, he directed world premieres of plays by A. Rey Pamatmat, Laura Jacqmin, Dan Dietz, Kyle John Schmidt, Marco Ramirez, Eric Dufault, Jennifer Haley, and Allison Moore, among others. He spent five summers serving as the Artistic Director of WildWind Performance Lab, where he developed new plays by Brian Quijada, Hilary Bettis, Martyna Majok, Basil Kreimendahl, Emily Feldman, Steve Yockey, and Matthew Paul Olmos, among others. ABOUT THE COMPANY JACQUELINE PAGEAU (Assistant Stage Manager) is a New Hampshire native and is excited to be coming back to the Upper Valley for her first full season at Northern Stage, where she has previously been a founding E-Term member and teaching artist. She graduated in 2018 from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Theater and has spent the last two years as a stage manager and theater educator based out of NYC. Most recently, she stage managed the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s education tour of Romeo & Juliet and was a camp teacher at The New London Barn Playhouse. jaclynpageau.com BRIAN R. SEKINGER (Production Stage Manager) Regional: It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play, Citrus, The Sound of Music, A Doll’s House Part 2, Once, Venus Rising, Matilda, Dear Elizabeth, Oslo, Noises Off, Disgraced, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, A Christmas Carol (Northern Stage), Catch Me If You Can, Peter and the Starcatcher, Disney’s Newsies, Little Women, On Golden Pond, West Side Story, Godspell, How to Succeed, Crazy for You (New London Barn Playhouse), Mary Stuart, Othello (Folger Shakespeare), Stoop Stories (Studio Theatre), August Wilson’s 20th Century (Kennedy Center). NYC: Cleopatra: The New Pop Experience (Theater for the New City), Daddy Long Legs (Davenport Theatricals), Claudio Quest (NYMF), Zombies on Broadway (RKO Stage), Sheila’s Day (Lincoln Center Education), Jasper in Deadland (Prospect Theater). MFA: Carnegie Mellon University. briansekinger.com. JESS CHAYES (BOLD Associate Artistic Director) is a founding co-artistic director of The Assembly, with whom she has co-created and directed ten original productions. Recent directing includes productions with Northern Stage, The Warehouse Theatre (Greenville, SC), The Juilliard School, Dutch Kills, Lesser America, New Georges, and new work development with The Vineyard Theatre, The Atlantic Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and The Playwrights Center, among others. New York Theater Workshop Usual Suspect, 2018 Audrey Resident with New Georges, alum of The Civilians R&D Group and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Broadway associate directing credits: Peter and the Starcatcher, The Snow Geese, Misery. Recipient of the 2017 Lucille Lortel Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women. www.jesschayes.com NORTHERN STAGE (northernstage.org) is a regional non-profit LORT-D professional theater company located in White River Junction, VT. Northern Stage serves over 50,000 people a year and actively engages its audiences with world-class productions and extensive educational programming. Founded in 1997, the company has offered more than 150 professional productions of new works, classics, and musicals. In 2014, the company launched