CALL ME ELIZABETH WRITTEN BY KAYLA BOYE DIRECTED BY ERIN KRAFT . E I Z O M I H C A K Y B O T O H P . E Y O B A L Y Streaming March 19? 28 A K : D E R U T C I P CALL ME ELIZABETH CURTAIN TIME: MARCH 2021 SPECIAL ISSUE PROGRAM THE YOUNGSTOWN PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS BOARD OF TRUSTEES THE STREAMING PREMIERE OF OFFICERS President Dr. John Cox, D.O. CALL ME ELIZABETH Vice President Molly Galano Secretary Jack Daugherty WRITTEN BY KAYLA BOYE Treasurers Leslie Brown & Richard Woolford DIRECTED BY ERIN KRAFT MEMBERS Associate Producer Christopher Pazdernik Atty. Richard Machuga Cinematographer Ryan Cassell Rev. Lewis W. Macklin II Composer Ethan Deppe Dr. Joseph M. Malys, DDS Vocalist Bethany Thomas Matthew Mazuroski Production Photographer Kàchi Mozie Terry Shears Wardrobe Denise Sculli Glamourland Vintage Charles Simon Hairstyling Necia?s Hairstyling Susan Thompson Robert J. Tullio 2021 BOX OFFICE SPONSOR IN-KIND SUPPORT Dr. David Waldman, DDS Stephen Weiss ENGAGEMENT SUPPORT This engagement is supported by the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from Ohio Arts Council and the Crane Group. CALL ME ELIZABETH CALL ME ELIZABETH PROGRAM PROGRAM . E CAST I Z O M Elizabeth Taylor..........................................................................................................Kayla Boye I H C A K Y B SETTING O T O H P A bungalow of The Beverly Hills Hotel, California. A late morning in May, 1961. E Y O B A L Y CREATIVE TEAM A K : D AUTHOR'S NOTE E Director/Dramaturg....................................................................................................Erin Kraft R U T C Associate Producer.............................................................................Christopher Pazdernik I P Cinematographer....................................................................................................Ryan Cassell "It's not the having; it's the getting." Composer...................................................................................................................Ethan Deppe ? Elizabeth Taylor Vocalist...............................................................................................................Bethany Thomas Like so many, I have long been fascinated with Elizabeth Taylor, a pop culture icon Production Photographer....................................................................................Kàchi Mozie who continues to captivate. In her youth, Taylor epitomized movie stardom, later Wardrobe.................................................................................................Glamourland Vintage becoming associated with her fabulous jewels, her popular perfumes, and her activism in the fight against HIV/AIDS. But what is the story behind the image? How Hairstyling....................................................................................................Necia's Hairstyling does a star develop into a legend, and how does that legacy sustain itself? Call Me Elizabeth details the formative events in the life of this extraordinary woman, exploring how the strength of her character enabled her to break barriers with SPECIAL THANKS unshakable bravery and signature style. I am inspired to tell the stories of trailblazing women, particularly influential figures Karl & Susan Boye Jennifer Marie Ledesma in the entertainment industry, to show the substance behind the glamorous images Geoff Button Arlene Malinowski created by the studio system. These women, including Elizabeth Taylor, were more Erica Evans Emma Parssi than just pretty faces. They were smart, savvy, innovative feminists. Ironically, Tom Freer Porchlight Music Theatre Elizabeth Taylor, arguably the biggest star of all, was responsible for destroying the Michael Halberstam, Hollis Resnik very system that created her stardom. By securing her $1 million contract with Michael & Mona Heath Ed Tracy & Denise McGowan Tracy Cleopatra, the highest salary for a woman on film to date, she effectively ended Ronald Keaton Senator John Warner studio domination by taking control of her projects and her life, and leading the way Christopher Kidder-Mostrom Michael Weber for subsequent generations of women to create their own work and opportunities. Sandy Lakoff Lawrence Wright I seek to honor her legacy with Call Me Elizabeth. Lawyers for the Creative Arts Writers Theatre Kayla Boye, March 2021 CALL ME ELIZABETH CALL ME ELIZABETH PROGRAM PROGRAM ARTIST PROFILES Kayla Boye (Writer/Actor/Producer) is elated DIRECTOR'S NOTE to premiere Call Me Elizabeth at The Youngstown Playhouse, where she has been When Kayla first sent me Call Me Elizabeth, I?d been staying-at-home for previously seen in Mary Poppins, Chicago, and almost two months. I was still shocked by my broken routines and freshly Curtains. Chicago credits include: The Wizard of afraid of dying young. I thought Kayla?s play was eerily aligned with this Oz (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), South Pacific strange and scary time we?re all enduring. (Drury Lane Theatre), Can-Can, Billy Elliot, Little Me (Porchlight Music Theatre), Pippin, Mary We meet Elizabeth Taylor in the summer of 1961, basking in the glow of her Poppins (Mercury Theater Chicago), Anything recent Oscar win and recovering from a case of pneumonia that nearly Goes, Gypsy, and Mame (Music Theater Works, killed her. Production for Cleopatra has shut down due to her formerly Light Opera Works). Regional credits include: Guys & Dolls, A hospitalization, and for the first time in her adult life, Elizabeth is compelled Christmas Story (Fireside Theatre), On the Town (Capital City Theatre), and to take an extended break from her normally frenetic schedule. She?s had a seasons with Bigfork Summer Playhouse and The Huron Playhouse. She lot of time to think. And she?s getting ready to take back control of her life holds a BA from Youngstown State University. For David. kaylaboye.com and her story. Elizabeth grew up as a child star on the movie lots of MGM. Like Judy Garland before her, and countless others in her wake, she learned a painful Erin Kraft (Director/Dramaturg) is a truth: When you are young and famous, there is no such thing as control. Chicago-based director whose recent projects Especially for young women. include: In A Word (Urbanite Theatre, Sarasota), Neither the media nor the public have changed their appetites much in the the world premiere of The Great Inconvenience past 60 years. We still build women up so that we can destroy them. I?d (Annex Theatre), We Are Proud to Present a never given Elizabeth Taylor much thought before I started research for this Presentation...,The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, play. But her story has struck a deep chord in me and challenged me to Circle Mirror Transformation, Tender, The Lady examine the ways I still unthinkingly participate in the misogyny of our From the Sea, and The Merchant of Venice (The tabloid culture. Theatre School). She?s directed new play workshops and world premieres for Seattle Today, I?ve been staying-at-home for a year. After my first read of the play, Repertory Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, 20% Theatre, Prop Theatre, in those dark days of Spring 2020, I told Kayla, ?Oh my god. You wrote a play Washington Ensemble Theatre, Book-It Repertory Theatre, and Northwest about DEATH.? We've lost so much life over the past 12 months. As we inch Playwrights Alliance. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Director?s Lab, closer to that light at the end of the tunnel, I?m reminded that the other side the SDCF 2018-2019 Observership Class, and earned her MFA in of death is REBIRTH. And I wonder, after our long year away from each Directing from The Theatre School at DePaul University, where she is other, who will we decide to become next? currently a directing faculty member for the Summer High School Training Erin Kraft, March 2021 Program. erinkraft.com CALL ME ELIZABETH CALL ME ELIZABETH PROGRAM PROGRAM ARTIST PROFILES ARTIST PROFILES Christopher Pazdernik (Associate Producer) is Ethan Deppe (Composer) is a Chicago-based a Chicago-based artist with a ?a near composer, musician, and electronic music encyclopedic knowledge of musicals" (NewCity designer. Raised on a unique diet of classical Stage). Past highlights include his Jeff music, heavy metal, and musical theatre, he Award-winning production of High Fidelity attended the University of Illinois (Production of a Musical & Director of a Urbana-Champaign. As a composer for the Musical) for Refuge Theatre Project, where he theatre, Ethan has written four original also served as Artistic Director for three musicals and contributed original songs and seasons; directing eight productions for scores for dozens of plays throughout Porchlight Revisits, Porchlight Music Theatre's Chicagoland and around the country. A prolific lost musicals series; curating multiple cabaret revues on the history of composer for the screen, Ethan?s music can be heard virtually every day on musical theatre; and his current position as Casting & Company Manager television. Credits include:20/20, 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, The for Porchlight. A staunch advocate for new works, Christopher has also Today Show, CBS This Morning, The Bold and the Beautiful, The Young and the directed many new musicals in development, served as a judge for the Restless, The Nate Berkus Show, What Would You Do?, Let?s Make A Deal, NY Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, served as reader for the National Med, Katie, Nightline Presents, Dateline NBC, Boston