11 YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN 12 Cast Information 13 Musical Numbers 15 Director’s Notes by Bill Fennelly 16 Artist Biographies 22 “Little Known Facts” about Charles M. Schulz 35 TINY HOUSES 36 Cast Information 38 Artist Biographies 42 The Big History of a Little Lifestyle ALSO INSIDE 30 Salute to our 2018-19 Season Sponsors 32 2019-20 Season 60 Patron Information Photo of Philip Paul (right); photo of Barbara Chisholm as Misery’s Annie Wilkes (right); and photo of Ayana Workman as Mary Bennet and Andrew Fallaize as Arthur de Bourgh (right) by Tony Arrasmith/Arrasmith & Associates. Visual for The Second City — It’s Not You, It’s Me provided by The Second City. All other marketing visuals by Tony Arrasmith/Arrasmith & Associates. Box Office: 513-421-3888 ∙ OH, IN, KY Toll-Free: 800-582-3208 Telecommunications Device for the Deaf: 513-345-2248 www.cincyplay.com Program Advertising Sales: 866-503-1966 Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is a proud member of the League of Cincinnati Theatres. ADVERTISING Onstage Publications Advertising Department 937-424-0529 | 866-503-1966 Email: [email protected] www.onstagepublications.com This program is published in association with Onstage Publications, 1612 Prosser Avenue, Dayton, Ohio 45409. This program may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher and the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Onstage Publications is a division of Just Business, Inc. Contents ©2019. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. 5 • IN THIS ISSUE NOTES FROM BLAKE & BUZZ Good grief! It’s the end of another season at the Playhouse! But before we shift to our summer camp programs (enroll your youngsters now!), we’ve got two entertaining shows for you to enjoy. Each one offers an opportunity to share the fun and joy of live theatre with a new generation. Every season, we strive to offer families several opportunities to attend the theatre together in addition to our annual production of A Christmas Carol. We call these productions multigenerational because they have broad appeal. In fact, there’s nothing we love more than seeing a grandparent, a parent and a kid enjoying the shared experience of live theatre — together. Of course, that multigenerational label covers a lot of territory. Some plays skew a bit older and invite a teenage audience — think: To Kill a Mockingbird or a new Sherlock Holmes play. Other plays invite a younger demographic ready to enjoy a full-length evening of theatre like The Secret Garden or Treasure Island. And then there’s the Peanuts gang. The classic, family musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown defies categorization. It holds a unique place in American culture, uniting generations across many decades. While these bobble-headed little humans from the 20th century have a somewhat old-fashioned world view, they still have something profound to say to us today. In a world divided by social and political opinion, a world where we are quick to judge others and surround ourselves by like-minded individuals 24/7, the Peanuts remind us of our core human values. Their lessons are the simple ones that we never outgrow, like friendship and happiness. This new production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown honors all those Schulzian values. And it breathes new life into a well-known and oft-performed musical with a vibrant new musical arrangement. Watch the Peanuts gang accompany themselves and each other on a wide variety of fun and unexpected musical instruments! This actor/musician approach — which the Playhouse helped to pioneer in previous seasons — brings a fresh perspective to classic material. It’s fun, zany and utterly charming. Across the plaza, we close the Shelterhouse Theatre season with the world premiere of Tiny Houses by Chelsea Marcantel. This comedy about a group of millennials who are trying to find happiness by building a tiny house in Oregon will tickle your funny bone and serve as a user’s guide to the trials and aspirations of today’s young adults. It’s our third world premiere this season! Please join us to discover what’s on the mind of one of today’s most compelling new playwrights. You won’t be disappointed! When you return next fall, you’ll get to enjoy the first phase of our capital improvements with the re-opening of the Rosenthal Shelterhouse Theatre, featuring new comfortable seats, improved accessibility and, finally, more leg room. We appreciate your support of this audience-friendly renovation. And the big one is coming soon! Stay tuned for more information on our new mainstage theatre complex. Cheers! Blake Robison Buzz Ward Artistic Director Managing Director 9 • EXECUTIVE NOTES CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK Blake Robison Buzz Ward Artistic Director Managing Director YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN Based on The Comic Strip “Peanuts” by CHARLES M. SCHULZ Book, Music and Lyrics by CLARK GESNER Originally Produced in New York by ARTHUR WHITELAW and GENE PERSSON Originally Directed in New York by JOSEPH HARDY Director Bill Fennelly Music Director/New Instrumental and Vocal Arranger Michael Holland Actor/Musician Concept by Nick Cearley and Lauren Molina Choreographer Jenn Rose Set Designer Michael Schweikardt Costume Designer Kathleen Geldard Lighting Designer Kenton Yeager Sound Designer Nick Kourtides Casting Director Stephanie Klapper, CSA April 20 – May 18, 2019 Robert S. Marx Theatre Sponsored by Design Sponsor: Artist Sponsor: Robert S. Marx Theatre Season presented by: Season Sponsor of New Work: The Rosenthal Family Foundation Marx Season Design Sponsor: Additional support provided by: YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN is presented by arrangement with TAMS-WITMARK www.tamswitmark.com CAST (in speaking order) Linus Nick Cearley* Charlie Brown Rob Morrison* Patty Stephanie Anne Johnson* Schroeder Brett Ryback* Snoopy Armando Gutierrez* Lucy Lauren Molina* Stage Manager Andrea L. Shell* Second Stage Managers Jenifer Morrow*, Brooke Redler* Assistant Stage Manager Elizabeth Freyman* Stage Management Intern Angelica Ortiz You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown will be performed with an intermission. Additional Production Staff Assistant Director Katie Baskerville Assistant Lighting Designer Alice Trent Assistant Lighting Designer Bill Miller Music Captain Brett Ryback* Dance Captain Nick Cearley* Additional Props Emily Hertzer Additional Stitcher Campbell Childers Additional Painter Stephen Childress *Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States and with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees-Local No. 5. Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park receives partial funding from the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency created to foster and encourage the development of the arts and to preserve Ohio’s cultural heritage. Funding from the Ohio Arts Council is an investment of state tax dollars that promotes economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN • 12 MUSICAL NUMBERS Act I Act II Opening The Red Baron “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” Change Music Lunch Hour Rabbit Chasing Bridge to Schroeder Change Music “Schroeder” “The Baseball Game” Quick Changes Baseball Tag “Snoopy” Crabbiness Survey Change Music Bridge to Glee Club “My Blanket and Me” “Glee Club Rehearsal” Change Music Quick Changes Queen Lucy “Little Known Facts” Change Music “Suppertime” “The Kite” Night Scene Valentines “Happiness” Lucy Opens Shop Bow Music “The Doctor Is In” Sugarlips “The Book Report” Leaf Director’s Notes By Bill Fennelly There is a period of time during each production I direct which is all about “filling up the creative well.” During this time, I look for bits of inspiration that will produce the creative fuel for a production. I begin to notice things in the world that inspire my work. Inspiration can literally come from anywhere: a piece of music, a poem, a magazine, a newspaper article, a book, nature, a collaborator, anywhere. One of my favorite things in the world is a blog called Brain Pickings. It describes itself as “a free Sunday digest of the week’s most interesting and inspiring articles across art, science, philosophy, creativity, children’s books and other strands of our search for truth, beauty and meaning.” Back in December, as our team was deep in our pre-production design phase, I came across an article by the blog’s curator Maria Popova. It was not about Charles Schulz or the Peanuts, but her meditation on The Little Prince illuminated the work that our team was doing on You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown in unexpected and inspiring ways — and I would like to share part of her blog with you. She writes: “Once a year, every year, I reread The Little Prince and manage to find in it new layers of loveliness and wisdom each time, always seemingly written to allay whatever my greatest struggle at that moment is. It is a special book, yes, but it is not singular in being a testament to something I have long believed: that great children’s books transcend both age and time. They are exquisite distillations of philosophies for living, addressing in the language of children — which is the language of absolute sincerity, so countercultural in our age of cynicism — the deepest, most eternal truths about what it means to live a meaningful, beautiful, inspired, noble life. Although written with children in mind, they speak to the eternal child that each of us lives with and answers to, but often neglects — something Antoine de Saint-Exupéry knew and articulated beautifully in dedicating The Little Prince to the little boy inside his grown-up best friend.” This passage from Popova casts beautiful light on the enduring power of Schulz’s Peanuts — which, at its heart, captures the universal and mysterious human experience that is the adult- waiting-to-be-revealed who lives within each child and the enduring child who still exists within each adult.