FLORIDA REPERTORY THEATRE 2015-2016 SEASON HISTORIC ARCADE THEATRE • FORT MYERS RIVER DISTRICT ROBERT CACIOPPO, PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR PRESENTS SPONSORED BY FINEMARK NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST AND LCEC STARRING Ensemble Members VIKI BOYLE* • RACHEL BURTTRAM* • BRENDAN POWERS* and MICHAEL SCOTT* Also Featuring CHASE CLARK • ANNABEL CRATER • HENRY CRATER • DILLION EVERETT BRYAN FITZGERALD • REAGAN FITZGERALD • LANDON MAAS • EVAN SOLBERG KAATJA VELDHUYZEN VAN ZANTEN • CALVIN WALDAU DIRECTED BY ensemble member JASON PARRISH SET DESIGNER LIGHTING DESIGNER COSTUME DESIGNER JIM HUNTER*** TODD O. WREN*** CHARLENE GROSS ensemble member ensemble member SOUND DESIGNER PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER ASST. STAGE MANAGER JOHN KISELICA AUDREY M. BROWN* GRACIE DOD ensemble member Produced by special arrangement with DRAMATIC PUBLISHING, Woodstock, Illinois 2015-16 GRAND SEASON SPONSORS Anonymous • The Fred & Jean Allegretti Foundation • Naomi Bloom & Ron Wallace Bruce & Janet Bunch • Gholi & Georgia Darehshori • Ed & Ellie Fox • Dr. & Mrs. Mark & Lynne Gorovoy John & Marjorie Madden • Sue & Jack Rogers • Arthur Zupko This entire season sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture. Florida Repertory Theatre is a fully professional non-profit LOA/LORT Theatre company on contract with the Actors’ Equity Association that proudly employs members of the national theatrical labor unions. *Member of Actors’ Equity Association. **Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. ***Member of United Scenic Artists. CAST Ralph....................................................................................................MICHAEL SCOTT*† Ralphie Parker........................................................................................HENRY CRATER*† Mother............................................................................................RACHEL BURTTRAM*† The Old Man....................................................................................BRENDAN POWERS*† Randy Parker...........................................................................................LANDON MAAS*† Miss Shields..................................................................................................VIKI BOYLE*† Flick......................................................................................................CALVIN WALDAU*† Schwartz..................................................................................................CHASE CLARK*† Esther Jane Alberry...........................................................................ANNABEL CRATER*† Helen Weathers.................................................KAATJA VELDHUYZEN VAN ZANTEN*† Scut Farkas........................................................................................DILLION EVERETT*† School Children.......BRYAN FITZGERALD, REAGAN FITZGERALD,,EVAN SOLBERG*† TIME & PLACE 1938. Hohman, Indiana. Jean Shepherd’s A CHRISTMAS STORY will be performed with one 15-minute intermission. Understudies: Chase Clark (Ralphie), Bryan Fitzgerald (Flick/Schwartz), Reagan Fitzgerald (Esther/Helen), Haley Ondrejka (Mother), Evan Solberg (Randy) Fight Choreographer: Greg Longenhagen • Child Wrangler: Caroline Clay The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited. ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT PHILIP GRECIAN (Adaptor) His authorized stage adaptation of the film A Christmas Story has had well over 1,000 productions, professional and amateur, since its publication in 2000. His stage adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has been on the boards for 40 years, and his full stage adaptation of It’s a Wonderful Life has been produced multiple times by North American professional theatre companies-notably the Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver, British Columbia-while his staged radio version of the same story has been broadcast on both radio and television and continues to be produced in theatres throughout the United States and Canada. Grecian is an alumnus of Creede Repertory Theatre, a professional company in Colorado. He continues to maintain a connection with Creede, which has produced several of his plays and has featured him as a returning guest performer. He has worked as a writer/director for film, video and audio production, and his televised live radio version of Dracula earned an Emmy in 2010, as well as a Videographer Award of Excellence and a Platinum Hermes Creative Award. A CHRISTMAS STORY SPECIAL THANKS Based upon the Motion Picture Don Abbott & Abbott Productions A Christmas Story, ©1983 Turner Entertainment Co., Distributed by Warner Brothers Florida Rep’s Education Department written by JEAN SHEPHERD, Lauren Sale, Anna McCullers LEIGH BROWN, To all the parents & families of our and BOB CLARK, young cast members for being so supportive and In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash of these rising stars. by JEAN SHEPHERD †Member of Florida Repertory Theatre’s Ensemble of Theatre Artists. See page 23 for the entire ensemble. The Actors & Stage Manager * employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity ** *** Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. DIRECTOR’S NOTE TO THE CHILD IN ALL OF US As I enter my middle thirties, I find myself looking back more frequently to my childhood; when I see photos of myself as a carefree little boy wearing a cape ready to conquer the world, I think “where did he go? I hope I’ve lived up to the dreams he had for me.” I suspect all of us have those thoughts at one time or another, and the yearning for a simpler time when the cares of the world had more to do with BB guns than bottom lines is universal. That is why A Christmas Story’s message has stood the test of time. What Jean Shepherd captured so beautifully in his writing and his 1983 film is that twinge we all feel from time to time (especially at the holidays) to look back and relive the innocence of our youth. We all grew up with a Flick and a Schwartz, every neighborhood had a Scut Farkas, all of our teachers wanted perfect margins, and there is a little bit of The Old Man in all our dads. A Christmas Story is a memory play, a coming of age tale, and above all, it is a loving tribute to the child in all of us. In the opening credits to The Wizard Of Oz, MGM dedicates its film to the “Young in Heart”, and though I never paid much attention to the credits then, that film’s heartfelt and tender message worked its magic on me even so. I realized working on this play that the little boy with a cape I mentioned earlier didn’t go anywhere. No matter how old we are, each of us still has the capacity for wonder and imagination and innocence, but sometimes we forget them. So tonight I hope you see something of yourself in Ralphie’s quest and walk away with a heart full of your own Christmas memories and a renewed respect for the child in you who just wants to be set free now and again. Enjoy the show! Jason Parrish, Director ABOUT THE AUTHOR JEAN SHEPHERD was a writer, humorist, satirist, actor, radio raconteur, and television and film personality. A master storyteller, he took bits and pieces from his youth in Hammond, Indiana, his adventures in the Army Signal Corps and stories of the obscure and infamous were all fertile sources for his tales. For almost three decades, he told these stories to eager radio audiences, in Cincinnati from 1950 to 1954 and on WOR in New York from 1956 to 1977. His other radio enterprise was live broadcasts on Saturday night from The Limelight, a nightclub in Greenwich Village. Shepherd began his entertainment career in Chicago as a performer at the Goodman Theatre. He did nightclub acts on Rush Street, appeared on Broadway in Leonard Sillman’s revue, New Faces (1962) and in Voice of the Turtle, and played a dance instructor in the film The Light Fantastic (1963). He was also a sportscaster and did baseball broadcasts for the Toledo Mudhens and Armed Forces Radio. In the seventies, he took his talents to television in a series of humorous narratives for PBS called Jean Shepherd’s America, later continued on the PBS New Jersey Network as Shepherd’s Pie. Here he was able to show us the more offbeat aspects of America, particularly his own home state, which he loved to ridicule. This led to a series of teleplays for PBS/WGBH’s American Playhouse: The Phantom of the Open Hearth, The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters, Ollie Hopnoodle’s Haven of Bliss, and The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski. His most popular and well-known work is the film A Christmas Story (1983) which he co-wrote and narrated. In 1994 he did a sequel, My Summer Story (aka It Runs in the Family). Shepherd wrote articles for several magazines, including Playboy and Omni, and was an early contributor to The Village Voice, most notably in his “Night People” column. His books include The America of George Ade; In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash; Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters; The Ferrari in the Bedroom; and A Fistful of Fig Newtons. Shepherd passed away on October 16, 1999, at the age of 78. CREATIVE TEAM VIKI BOYLE*† (Miss Shields) AL, Dillion is a recent graduate from Jacksonville is a 35-year veteran of New State University in Alabama where he received a B.A. York and regional theatre, in Performance. Some of his favorite credits include film, and TV. She is an Konstantin in The Seagull, Christopher Wren in The ensemble member here at Mousetrap, and Man