MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY ILLINOIS THEATRE By Anne Washburn | Lisa Gaye Dixon, director Thursday-Saturday, October 13-15, 2016, at 7:30pm Thursday-Saturday, October 20-22, 2016, at 7:30pm Sunday, October 23, 2016, at 3pm Colwell Playhouse season. What kinds of work do our students need to create at this point in their artistic development? Which plays or musicals feed that pedagogical imperative? And how do these works allow, encourage, or (sometimes) confound our ability to understand a bit more about the nature of human becoming? When we leave the theatre, do we feel more closely bound to our neighbors? If we feel alienated by the experience, do we understand why? It is no accident that this note of welcome to our current season includes a litany of questions. Intellectual, emotional, and spiritual query are at the core of a great education. At Illinois Theatre, “we make BECOMING . theatre makers,” but we also ask foundational There is a saying in theatre: “Actors act. questions on our pathways to creation. Stars do what stars do.” Implicit in this Along the way, we learn to think more statement is the idea that “stars” are deeply, critically, and analytically. commodities enriched for attaining a Questions about the nature of the human certain status and function within a rather condition are never easy to resolve. The narrow definition, while “actors”—and challenging road to the answers we seek every artist, one might argue—are encourages public discourse to thrive and continually in a process of becoming. pushes our performing arts to engage in The artistic process in theatre requires positive, healthy transformation. a developing understanding of the Thank you for joining us at this performance. human body, spirit, and mind. An We hope that you will be stimulated, artist’s education demands consistent provoked, and entertained by what you development, metamorphosis, evolution. experience here, and we hope to see you Indeed, education at its best is a continual again very soon. process of becoming. At Illinois Theatre, our artists—students, staff, and faculty— are embarked on the exciting journey of becoming human beings. It is the same for us when we consider Jeffrey Eric Jenkins which dramatic works to program in a given Head, Department of Theatre Producer, Illinois Theatre 2 PHOTO REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF THE NEWS-GAZETTE, INC. PERMISSION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT. 3 PROGRAM MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY ILLINOIS THEATRE By Anne Washburn Lisa Gaye Dixon, director Thursday-Saturday, October 13-15, 2016, at 7:30pm Thursday-Saturday, October 20-22, 2016, at 7:30pm Sunday, October 23, 2016, at 3pm Colwell Playhouse 4 DIRECTOR’S NOTE This is a story about the telling of stories: about Suppose, just suppose, that tonight the world how we tell them, and why. For millennia, human ended, and that tomorrow you and I had to begin beings have used story telling as a way to share anew? collective societal ethics, information, and ideals, and as a way to bring us closer together What would be the stories we would choose to inside of the communities we built, or into which carry over? What values? What ideals, hopes, we had been born. There is the pervasive and dreams? What part of our current everyday apocryphal tale told in countless “Introduction to culture would we deem important enough to Theatre” classes about early humans squatting survive THE APOCALYPSE? Popular culture is round a campfire sharing stories of the hunt, of chock-full of possibilities, but one stands out encounters with other tribes, of trying to explain as both harbinger and case in point—a clever the existence of stars. Supposedly, as humans little television show that has outlasted three became more “civilized,” our stories evolved— presidents, numerous fashion trends, and has moving from pantomimes by firelight to epic embedded countless phrases and sayings into Broadway productions with flying Spidermen American culture across all levels of society: The climbing vertical set pieces and bright-winged Simpsons. Angels soaring out over heads of audiences. Now That is what tonight’s production is about: The (for an exorbitant price) one can experience smoke, Simpsons and the apocalypse (but not necessarily mirrors, and all manner of technological spectacle in that order). and sleight of hand that serve as augmentation to or replacement for our imaginations. It is also a play about how we choose what to keep believing in, how we discover (and Though the size and complexity of our story rediscover) what is truly important to us, and telling has grown, the basic root of our stories how a shared collective memory (no matter how has not. I speak most specifically of the Western tattered, twisted, and torn) can unite our chosen canon and its roots in Greek and Roman tribes in remembrance and celebration—how mythology. Tales of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes, shared culture can give us purpose, and give our Heroines, unsuspecting everyday shepherds, lives meaning even in the darkest of times. classically beauteous young women and men—all striving toward the western ideals of “true love,” It’s weird, no doubt about it. Those of you “happiness,” and singular self-satisfaction— who know me know that I find that to be a have permeated all facets of our society on all compliment. So. sit back, join us on tonight’s levels, and these 6,000 year old stories are the journey to the near and far distant future, and standards by which we still measure our twenty- ponder along with us: the nature of existence, first century levels of fulfillment. memory, and connection. The WHY of it all. And this, dear reader, is where tonight’s And, in the words of Homer Simpson, “I’ve seen performance comes in. plays better than this. Honest-ta-God PLAYS!” Lisa Gaye Dixon, Director 5 MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY PLAYWRIGHT SCENIC DESIGNER Anne Washburn Jaclyn Zimmerman MUSIC COSTUME DESIGNER Michael Friedman Nicole Zausmer LYRICS LIGHTING DESIGNER Anne Washburn Michael Shoaf DIRECTOR SOUND DESIGNER Lisa Gaye Dixon Tyler Stewart Knowles MUSIC DIRECTOR STAGE MANAGER Cara Chowning Chenglin Xin CHOREOGRAPHER TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Aaron R. White Robert J. Jenista FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHER ACT II MUSICAL ARRANGEMENT Zev Steinberg Jordan Coughtry VOICE AND SPEECH COACHES Susan Schuld Adam Thatcher 6 CAST MATT/HOMER/SCRATCHY GIBSON/HUSBAND/SIDESHOW BOB/ Nick Lannan HOMER Jordan Coughtry* JENNY/MARGE/LISA Ellen Magee QUINCY/BUSINESSWOMAN/BART Allie Wessel SUSANNAH/LISA/ITCHY Elana Weiner-Kaplow EDNA KRABAPPEL Alex Smith SAM/BART/MR. BURNS Chris Khoshaba SECOND FBI AGENT/MAGGIE/ ENSEMBLE COLLEEN/FIRST FBI AGENT/MARGE Ezzy Fishbein Jessica Kadish ENSEMBLE Ethan Perry *Appears by permission of the Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. 7 SCENIC BREAKDOWN ACT I The near future Somewhere in America. The woods. A fire. ACT II 7 years later A rehearsal space 20-minute intermission ACT III 75 years later The tragic tale of the Simpson family This production includes the use of simulated gunfire, smog effects, and strobe lights. 8 PROFILES Jordan Coughtry (Gibson/ Jessica Kadish (Colleen/ Husband/Sideshow Bob/ First FBI Agent/Marge) is Homer) is in the MFA Acting an Acting MFA student Program at the University of from Massachusetts. She Illinois. Credits include John last appeared at Krannert Steinbeck's The Grapes of Center in Kingdom City Wrath (Illinois Theatre); Very (Miriam). In Chicago, she is Very (J, J & Z); Murder an ensemble member with in the Cathedral (Hoi Teatro Aguijón and 2nd Story, Polloi); Be Story Free (InVerse Theatre); Winter and has performed with Lifeline Theatre, Chicago Journey (P.S. 122); Godspell (Olney Theatre Dramatists, 16th Street Theater, Pride Films and Center); Twelfth Night (Westport Country Plays, Voice of the City, and Colectivo El Pozo. Playhouse); Red (TheatreWorks); Emma (Pioneer Film/web series credits include You’re So Talented Theatre); Candida (Two River Theatre); Failure: (OpenTV), Easy Abby (Juicy Planet), DateSMASH! A Love Story, Macbeth, The Comedy of (XVP Comedy), Absent Father (Vanguard Cinema), Errors (Illinois Shakespeare Festival); All’s Well that and Lady of the Dead (2by2 Films). She holds a Ends Well (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); Love’s BA in Theater and Performance Studies from the Labour’s Lost (The Shakespeare Theatre/ University of Chicago and has also studied at the RSC); Amadeus, Our Town, Wittenberg, Romeo University of Buenos Aires. Jessica also works as and Juliet (Shakespeare Theatre of a director and teaching artist in Chicago and is NJ); Hamlet, Richard III, and composer of original represented by Gray Talent Group. songs for The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Arkansas Chris Khoshaba (Sam/Bart/ Shakespeare Theatre). Mr. Burns) from Skokie, Illinois, is a senior Acting BFA student Ezzy Fishbein (Second FBI at the University of Illinois. Agent/Maggie/Ensemble) is His previous credits include from Glencoe, Illinois, and is John Steinbeck's The Grapes currently a junior pursuing of Wrath (George Rustbucket), a BFA in Acting. Her most Not About Nightingales recent credit with Illinois (Schultz), and Oh What a Theatre was the production of Lovely War (Ensemble). His Armory Free Theatre John Steinbeck's The Grapes productions include Rockman (Rock) and The of Wrath (Ruthie). She has Duchess of Malfi (Ferdinand). also performed in the Armory Free Theatre’s productions of Call Me Woman (Deviser) and As Wind In Dry Grass (Gabby). She participated in the 2014 reading of Good Kids (Madison) by Naomi Iizuka. 9 Nick Lannan (Matt/Homer/ Ethan Perry (Ensemble) Scratchy) is returning to is originally from Detroit, Krannert Center’s stages after Michigan. He is a sophomore his debut in John Steinbeck's pursuing his BFA in The Grapes of Wrath (1st Acting, and this is his first Agricultural Officer/Deputy performance at Krannert Sheriff).