WHAT’S INSIDE From the Managing Director | 5 The Roommate | 7 Cast | 8 Dramaturgy | 9-11 The Creative Team | 13-14 Board of Trustees | 16 Staff | 17 Annual Giving | 18-23 General Information | 25 ADVERTISING Onstage Publications Advertising Department 937-424-0529 | 866-503-1966 e-mail: [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. Onstage Publications is a division of Just Business, Inc. Contents ©2018. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. LONG WHARF THEATRE | 2018–19 3 from the MANAGING DIRECTOR Dear Friends, Welcome to The Roommate, the first show of our 2018 – 2019 season! Many of us, perhaps all of us, have been in a place in life where we have reached a point of stasis. Maybe we look backwards more than we look forward, maybe we think that our greatest days are behind us, and maybe our emotional baseline is one of ennui or melancholy. We are “stuck in a rut,” going through the routine, but not feeling any new energy or optimism. Then, someone comes into your life to shake up your world. Perhaps that person is a love interest, but often it is someone you may not have much in common with on the surface, but shares the same inner world. One of my grandmothers comes to mind, and in her case, it was also a roommate who changed her. She had a number of health problems, and my 90-year-old grandfather took care of her. We all thought that she would pass away first, but then my grandfather was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and died very quickly after its discovery. While she had her family, my grandmother had suddenly lost her life partner of nearly 65 years. In addition, since she could not live on her own, she moved from her hometown, where she had essentially been all of her life, to an assisted living facility closer to us but about an hour away from her community. You can imagine the complex range of emotions which she experienced. To top it all off, the facility did not have any single rooms available at first, so she was stuck with a roommate. She was a young woman from New Rochelle who was there temporarily due to serious, multiple fractures in her leg. My grandmother was frustrated to lose privacy, especially to a stranger. At first, she refused to speak to her roommate at all. Well, you know the old saying that you should not discuss politics and religion with people you do not know. That was not my grandmother. However, she learned that when she started to have conversations with her roommate, the two of them started to realize how much they had in common. Both of them were devoted to their houses of worship, both of them were close with their families, and both of them were trying to lead lives that might make the world a better place. Eventually, the roommate was discharged, but she visited her all of the time, took her out for walks, and became one of the most important people in my grandmother’s life in her final two years. Jen Silverman captures a situation like this so delightfully and beautifully. She is one of the most exciting people writing for the American stage (those of you who attend our New Works Festival may remember her All the Roads Home, the story of three generations of women told with music). We are so excited to be producing her on our Mainstage for the first time, and we hope that you enjoy it. If you have any comments or feedback about tonight’s performance, please email me at [email protected]. I always respond! Thank you for coming and spending your time here with us. I hope you have a great time. All my best, Josh LONG WHARF THEATRE | 2018–19 5 10 LONG WHARF THEATRE | 2018–19 LONG WHARF THEATRE | 2018–19 11 12 LONG WHARF THEATRE | 2018–19 the CREATIVE TEAM TASHA LAWRENCE (Robyn) House (Williamstown Theatre Festival; earlier Broadway: Good People (MTC); draft at InterAct Theatre.) Jen is a member of Wilder, Wilder, Wilder; (Circle in the New Dramatists, a two-time MacDowell fellow, Square, Willow Cabin), Proof (Nat’l recipient of the Yale Drama Series Award, the tour). Off Broadway: Pipeline (Lincoln Helen Merrill, a Lilly Award, and the 2016-2017 Center), If I Forget (Roundabout), Playwrights of New York Fellowship. Random Lost Girls (MCC), The Few (Rattlestick), The House recently published her first book, The Whale (Drama Desk Nom., Playwrights Horizons), Island Dwellers, a collection of interlinked stories. Asheville, Bhutan (Cherry Lane Theatre). Additional Jen also writes for TV and film, most recently on Credits: Confederates (TheatreWorks Silicon Netflix’s “Tales of the City.” Education: Brown, Valley), A Great Wilderness (Williamstown Theatre Iowa Playwrights Workshop, Juilliard. More info: Festival), Good People (Dorset Theatre), The www.jensilverman.com Roommate, (Humana Festival, Actors Theatre of (Director) is a New York- Louisville), Bad Dates, Human Error (City Theatre), MIKE DONAHUE based director. NYC credits include: world Dangerous Liaisons (Huntington), Clover Road premieres of Matthew Lopez’s The Legend of (CATF). Film: Romance and Cigarettes (dir: John Georgia McBride (MCC, The Geffen and Denver Turturro); Hangnail (Slamdance); Pooka, Irma and Center, Joe A. Callaway Award, Outer Critics Floyd. TV: “Looming Towers,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Circle Nomination, Ovation Award Nomination); Schmidt,” Law & Order” (Classic, SVU, Criminal Jen Silverman’s Collective Rage (MCC, Woolly Intent), “Third Watch” (recurring), “Deadline,” Mammoth), The Moors (Playwrights Realm – NYC “Kevin Hill,” “Royal Pains,” “Life with Boys,” “The premiere), Phoebe in Winter (Clubbed Thumb) Line” (ACTRA, Gemini Nominations, Best actress). and The Hunters (Cherry Lane Mentor Project); LINDA POWELL (Sharon) Long Jordan Seavey’s Homos, Or Everyone In America Wharf Theatre: Our Town, A Doll’s (Labyrinth); and Ethan Lipton’s Red-Handed House, King of Coons. Broadway: Otter (Playwrights Realm). Regionally, world Trip to Bountiful; On Golden Pond; premieres of Jen Silverman’s The Roommate Wilder, Wilder, Wilder. Off Broadway: (Humana, Williamstown); Rachel Bonds’ The Moors (Jen Silverman), Curve of Departure (South Coast Rep, Studio The Christians, The Overwhelming, Jar the Floor, Theatre), The Wolfe Twins (Studio Theatre) Jitney, Angela’s Mixtape, Pericles, Love’s Labours and Swimmers (Marin); and Matthew Lopez’s Lost, The Odyssey, Lucrece, A Midsummer Night’s Zoey’s Perfect Wedding and Lauren Feldman’s Dream. Additional Regional: Mark Taper Forum, Grace, or The Art of Climbing (Denver Center). Mike Actors Theater of Louisville, Arena Stage, Cleveland is a recipient of a Fulbright to Berlin, the Drama Playhouse, ART, Williamstown Theatre Festival, League Fall Fellowship, The Boris Sagal Fellowship Pittsburgh Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage at Williamstown, and was the artistic director of the and Compangnia Colombari’s Merchant of Venice Yale Summer Cabaret for two seasons. Mike is a which has been performed in Venice, Montclair, graduate of Harvard University and the Yale School New Haven and Dartmouth. TV and Film: “Chicago of Drama. Fire” (recurring), “Law & Order SVU” (recurring), (Set Design): Broadway: Once “Bull,” “Elementary,” “Blue Bloods,” “Good Wife,” DANE LAFFREY on This Island (Tony, Drama Desk nominations), The Best Man, Morning Glory, American Gangster Spring Awakening, Fool For Love. Recent and The Northern Kingdom. Upcoming: “House of Off-Broadway work at Roundabout, MCC, Cards,” “Manifest,” The Torture Report. Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center Theatre, JEN SILVERMAN (Playwright) Jen’s plays Second Stage, Atlantic, Playwrights Horizons, include: The Roommate (Humana Festival, Vineyard, New Group, B.A.M. Harvey. Regional Williamstown Theatre Festival, Steppenwolf, work at Mark Taper Forum, Arena Stage, South Coast Rep, Long Wharf, etc); Collective Geffen Playhouse, The Old Globe, Huntington, Rage: A Play In 5 Betties (Woolly Mammoth, Williamstown, Woolly Mammoth among many Southwark Playhouse in London, Boston Court in others. 2017 OBIE Award for sustained excellence LA, MCC off-Broadway); The Moors (Yale Rep, The in set and costume design; 5 American Theatre Playwrights Realm off-Broadway); and Dangerous Wing Henry Hewes nominations. LONG WHARF THEATRE | 2018–19 13 the CREATIVE TEAM ANITA YAVICH (Costume Design) Broadway: ALEX H. HAJJAR (Production Stage Manager) Fool for Love, Venus in Fur, Chinglish, Anna in the Broadway: Les Misérables, The Realistic Joneses, Tropics. NYC: Oedipus El Rey (NYSF); The View After Midnight Off-Broadway: Head of Passes Upstairs (Lynn Redgrave Theater); The Legend of (The Public), Aubergine (Playwrights Horizons), Georgia McBride, Coraline, The Wooden Breeks Mother Courage (CSC), Relevance, Georgia (MCC); Nathan the Wise, Caucasian Chalk Circle, McBride, YEN, The End of Longing (MCC), Big Orlando, New Jerusalem, and Texts for Nothing Love (Signature), This American Life (BAM), A (CSC); Big Love, Kung Fu, Golden Child, Iphigenia Midsummer Night’s Dream (TFANA), Belleville 2.0 (Signature); The Oldest Boy (LCT); The Explorers (NYTW), We Are Proud to Present a Presentation… Club (MTC). Opera: Aida (SF Opera, Washington (SoHo Rep), Melancholy Play (13P). Regional: Opera, Seattle Opera); Cyrano de Bergerac (La Frost/Nixon (Bay Street Theater), Ether Dome Scala, MET, Royal Opera); Les Troyens (MET). (Hartford Stage), February House, My Name Puppet and costume designer for The Sound of is Asher Lev, The Train Driver (Long Wharf Music (Salzburger Marionettentheater). Awards: Theatre), Little Shop of Horrors, 2 Pianos 4 Hands Obie, Lucille Lortel, and Drama Desk Awards. (Peterborough Players). REZA BEHJAT (Lighting Designer) is a lighting AMY PATRICIA STERN (Assistant Stage designer for theater and dance. Before moving Manager) Amy’s Assistant Stage Manager to New York in 2014, he began his career in Iran credits include over 45 productions with Long where he worked with some of the prominent Wharf Theatre, among them Baskerville; Napoli, directors on various productions for several years.