Max McLean, Founder & Artistic Director C.S. LEWIS the Letters FPAtheatre.com Max McLean, Founder & Artistic Director Presents C.S. LEWIS the Letters Adapted for the stage by Max McLean and Jeffrey Fiske featuring Brent Harris Tamala Bakkensen Anna Reichert Scenic Design Costume Design Lighting Design Original Music & Sound Design Cameron Anderson Michael Bevins Jesse Klug John Gromada Marketing, Advertising and Press Digital Advertising Southside Entertainment The Pekoe Group General Management Production Supervisor Casting Director Aruba Productions Lew Mead Carol Hanzel Executive Producer Ken Denison Directed by Max McLean The performance will run 90 minutes with no intermission. Please turn off all electronic devices before the performance begins. Thank you. CAST AND LOCATIONS CAST His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape ..................................................................................................Brent Harris Toadpipe .............................................................................Tamala Bakkensen, Anna Reichert LOCATIONS Prologue: A Dining Hall in Hell. The Graduation Banquet at the Tempters’ Training College for Young Devils. Thereafter: Screwtape’s Office in Hell. UNSEEN CHARACTERS Wormwood ....................A Junior Tempter Our Father Below .......................The Devil The Patient .........A Young Man on Earth Slubgob, Glubose, Triptweeze & The Enemy ..............................................God Slumtrippit ....................................Tempters INTRODUCTION I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence, which I now offer to the public, fell into my hands. There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true, even from his own angle. There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth. July 5, 1941 3 WHO’S WHO BRENT HARRIS (Screwtape) recently The Outside Story. Training: U of MN/ played Scar in the National Tour of The Lion Guthrie Theater BFA, LISPA and Upright King. He has also performed leading roles Citizens Brigade. in many of the top regional theatres in the C. S. LEWIS (Author) (1898-1963) was one U.S., including the Oregon Shakespeare of the intellectual giants of the 20th century Festival, American Repertory Theatre, and arguably the most influential Christian Denver Center Theatre Company, the writer of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor Shakespeare Theatre Company, D.C., Actors in English literature at Oxford University until Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Rep, Baltimore 1954 when he was unanimously elected Center Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse in the to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Park, Syracuse Stage, Pittsburgh Public, English at Cambridge University, a posi- Portland Center Stage, Philadelphia Theatre tion he held until his retirement. His major Company, the Cape Playhouse, Geva Theatre contributions in literary criticism, children’s Center Rochester, the Shakespeare Theatre of literature, fantasy literature and popular the- New Jersey, KC Rep, Virginia Stage Company ology brought him international renown. He and many others. Awards: Drammy Award wrote more than 30 books, allowing him to (Portland), Barrymore Award nomination reach a vast audience, and his works contin- (Philadelphia), IRNE Award nomination ue to attract thousands of new readers every (Boston). New York credits include The Pearl year. His most distinguished and popular Theatre, Promenade Theatre and The Actors accomplishments include: The Chronicles of Company Theatre (TACT). Television: Out Narnia, The Great Divorce, Mere Christianity of the Box and Guiding Light. Film: About and The Screwtape Letters. Scout. MAX MCLEAN (Director, Adaptation) TAMALA BAKKENSEN (Toadpipe) The Created the role of Screwtape (NYC, Screwtape Letters (Westside Theatre, London, National Tour), Mark in Mark’s Skirball, National Tour), Tales of Doomed Gospel (Chicago, Jeff Award for Solo Love (West End), Greater Messapia (Queens Performance), Genesis (NYC National Tour). Theatre), The Rats are Getting Bigger (NY As playwright/adaptor C.S. Lewis’ The Great Fringe), Be Aggressive, Icarus’ Mother and Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, Genesis and Faust Fragments (La Jolla Playhouse). Mark’s Gospel. Co-writer with Chris Cragin- Bad Family (Portland Center Stage’s JAW Day of Martin Luther on Trial. Favorite roles Festival), Antartikos (Key City Thteatre New include Stanley, A Streetcar Named Desire, Play Fest). On camera: NBC’s Ed, Like a and Snoopy, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Springsteen Song (Independent film) and Brown. McLean has narrated the Bible five motion capture for Rock Star Video. Studied times as well as John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Balinese mask/clown/dance in Indonesia. Progress and Classics of the Christian Faith. MFA: UCSD. Designated Linklater Voice/ His narrations received four Audie Award Speech Teacher, Feldenkrais® Practitioner- nominations. Max enjoys a round of golf. GCFP, movement & acting teacher/coach. Ephesians 2:10. ANNA REICHERT (Toadpipe) is a New JEFFREY FISKE (Adaptation) directed York City-based performer. Theater: Tribes, Mark’s Gospel for FPA. His original play A Christmas Carol, Tales from Hollywood, Boudica, about the woman who command- Reverb (Guthrie Theater), Tale of a West ed the largest rebellion against the Roman Texas Marsupial Girl, Company (Children’s Empire, was performed at the Bouwerie Theater Co.), Minor Character (New Lane Theatre. Britomart, about the female Saloon), The Cherry Orchard (Columbia knight of The Round Table, was included in Stages) and is a founding ensemble mem- the Spoleto Festival. His experimental play ber of Transatlantic Love Affair. Workshops: Clytaemnestra earned him a playwriting fel- I Love Sean, The Wolves, Primrose Path. lowship with the New Jersey Council on the Film/TV: Daredevil, Village of the Damned, 4 WHO’S WHO Arts. Jeff is a former NASA consultant and JOHN GROMADA (Composer/Sound Drew University professor. Designer) FPA.: Shadowlands, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis Onstage: The CAMERON ANDERSON (Scenic Designer) Most Reluctant Convert, The Great Divorce. Internationally acclaimed scenic and pro- Broadway (Composer and/or Sound jection designer, she has designed exten- Design): More than 35 productions, includ- sively at the world’s leading theater and ing Torch Song, The Elephant Man, The opera companies. Recent: West Side Story, Trip to Bountiful (Tony nomination), The Norway’s Kilden Performing Arts Center and Best Man (Drama Desk Award), Clybourne Vancouver Opera, and Simon Boccanegra, Park, Seminar, Man and Boy, A Bronx Argentina’s Teatro Colon. Selected Off Tale, Prelude to a Kiss, Proof, Rabbit Broadway: Manhattan Theater Club, Hole, Twelve Angry Men, A Few Good Men. Roundabout Theatre Company, Playwrights Other New York: Amy and the Orphans, Old Horizons, LAByrinth Theater Company, Hats, Incident at Vichy, Dada Woof Papa Brooklyn Academy of Music and Les Freres Hot, Ripcord, My Name Is Asher Lev, Measure Corbusier. Regional: Huntington Theater, for Measure (Delacorte Theater), The Trinity Rep, South Coast Repertory, and Orphans’ Home Cycle (Drama Desk and Shakespeare & Company. Selected opera: Henry Hewes Awards), Shipwrecked!... (Lucille Glimmerglass Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Lortel Award), The Skriker (Drama Desk Saratoga, Central City Opera, Minnesota Award), Machinal (Obie Award). His region- Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Wolf al theatre credits number more than 300 Trap Opera, USC Thornton School of Music, productions at major regional theatres. His OnSite Opera, Manhattan School of Music, television credits include a score for the Gotham Chamber Opera, Opera Boston, Emmy Award-nominated film version of The Pittsburgh Opera, San Francisco Opera and Trip to Bountiful. Johngromada.com New England Conservatory. Upcoming proj- ects include The Niceties, McCarter Theater; JESSE KLUG (Lighting Designer) Off Madame Butterfly, Pacific Symphony; Yerma, Broadway: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Huntington Theater; Photograph 51, South Deity (Lortel, Hewes nominations), The Coast Rep; Emmeline, Opera Tulsa; and La Screwtape Letters (Off Broadway and National Fille Du Regiment, Opera Saratoga. www. Tour), Romulus and The Hunchback Variations. cameronanderson.net Regional: Goodman, Chicago Shakespeare, Marriott, Milwaukee Rep, Indiana Rep, MICHAEL BEVINS (Costume Design) American Players Theatre, Arizona Theatre Michael has designed several projects for Company, Paramount, Lookingglass, Victory FPA in addition to The Screwtape Letters Gardens, Geffen Playhouse, The Old Globe, including C.S. Lewis Onstage: The Most Asolo, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Court Reluctant Convert, Mark’s Gospel and last Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Portland season’s revival of Shadowlands. Recent tele- Center Stage, Northlight, Writers Theatre, vision credits include two seasons of Garry Maine State Music Theatre. International: Trudeau’s series Alpha House starring John Edinburgh Fringe Festival, INFANT, Market Goodman and Bill Murray, and three seasons Theatre of South Africa, Sydney Fringe of the web series Cop Show with Colin Quinn Festival, as well as others on five different and Jerry Seinfeld. Select film credits include continents. Mr. Klug