Historic Arcade Theatre • Fort Myers River District Robert Cacioppo, Producing Artistic Director SYLVIAPRESENTS BY A.R. GURNEY SPONSORED BY FINEMARK NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST • THE NEWS-PRESS STARRING CHRIS CLAVELLI* • MICHELLE DAMATO* • CARRIE LUND* • GORDON McCONNELL* DIRECTED BY MAUREEN HEFFERNAN** SET DESIGNER STAGE MANAGER LIGHTING DESIGNER RAY RECHT*** AMY L. MASSARI* MATTHEW McCARTHY*** COSTUME DESIGNER SOUND DESIGNER ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER ROBERTA MALCOLM KATE SMITH MARCIE SMITH SYLVIA is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc. Cole Porter’s “EV’RY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE” is used by permission of the Cole Porter Musical & Literary Property Trusts. “EV’RY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE” Copyright 1994, Chappell & Co., Inc. Copyright renewed. Assigned to John F. Wharton, Trustee of the Cole Porter Musical & Literary Property Trusts, Chappell & Co., Inc., Publisher. International Copyright secured. All Rights Reserved. 2010-11 GRAND SEASON SPONSORS Arthur Zupko • John & Marjorie Madden • Cheryl & David Copham Gholi & Georgia Darehshori • City of Fort Myers Public Art Committee This entire season sponsored in part by in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, 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. CASTCAST LISTLIST (In Order of Appearance) Sylvia ..................................................................................................... Michelle Damato Greg .................................................................................................... Gordon McConnell Kate ................................................................................................................ Carrie Lund Tom/Phyllis/Leslie ........................................................................................ Chris Clavelli TIME & PLACE Various Places in Manhattan. The Present. The use of any photographic or recording devices is strictly prohibited! ABOUT THE AUTHOR A.R. GURNEY (Playwright) was born in 1930 in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Williams College in 1952, served as an officer in the Navy, and afterwards attended the Yale School of Drama. For many years, he taught literature at M.I.T., but moved to New York in 1982 to devote more time to writing for the theatre. Some of his plays include: Scenes from American Life, The Dining Room, The Middle Ages, The Cocktail Hour, Love Letters, Later Life, Far East, Ancestral Voices, Big Bill, and Mrs. Farnsworth. Gurney is the recipient of many awards, notably a Drama Desk Award in 1971, a Rockefeller Award in 1977, and two Lucille Lortel Awards in 1989 and 1994. He has also received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the New England Theatre Conference. 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. Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) was founded in 1913 as the first of the American Actor unions. Equity’s mission is to advance, promote and foster the art of theatre as an essential component of our society. Today, Equity represents more than 40,000 actors, singers, dancers and stage managers working in hundreds of theatres across the United States. Equity members are dedicated to working in the theatre as a profession, upholding the highest artistic standards. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions and provides a wide range of benefits including health and pension plans for its members. Through its agreement with Equity, this theatre has committed to the fair treatment of the actors and stage managers employed in this production. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. For more information, visit www.actorsequity.org. SYLVIA THETHE CREATIVECREATIVE TEAMTEAM CHRIS CLAVELLI (Tom/Phyllis/Leslie) is the Associate Artistic Director of Florida Repertory Theatre. Directing Credits: here at Florida Rep, Trying, Santaland Diaries, Sideman, Almost Maine, Alone Together, Six Dance Lessons, Rounding Third, The Foreigner, Glass Menagerie, and Alone Together. Other credits: The Actors Studio, The NY Fringe, Virginia Stage Company, Two River Theatre, Chenango River Theatre, Symphony Space; New York City, The Depot Theatre and SOLO MIO at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Chris collaborated with The South West Florida Symphony to create Star Crossed Lovers; a marriage of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suites with Shakespeare’s classic text. As an actor, Chris has worked Off- Broadway, and around the country. Here at Florida Rep: Born Yesterday, Stones in His Pockets, Art of Murder, You Can’t Take it With You, Dancing at Lughnasa, Indian Blood, Relatively Speaking and Opus. Other representative theatres: The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Pioneer Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Florida Stage, The Hangar, The Paper Mill Playhouse, The Virginia Stage, Philadelphia Theatre Company, The Caldwell and The Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. He is a recipient of both The Carbonell and Barrymore Awards. His one-man play, A Little More Than You Wanted to Spend is slated for a New York run this summer. TV: The Sopranos, Rescue Me and Law and Order. For Jess and Lee. MICHELLE DAMATO (Sylvia) is returning for her fifth show with Florida Rep. Audiences will remember her from her roles in Rabbit Hole, Almost, Maine, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Dancing at Lughnasa. She is a graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School in NYC, and came to Florida by way of Louisville, KY, where she was a company member with Stage One for four years. Some of her favorite roles include Oliver Twist off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre and Cecile Volange in Les Liasons Dangerouses with Mad Horse Theatre Company in Portland, Maine. Michelle is a proud member of Actor’s Equity...and a newlywed! CARRIE LUND (Kate) has been the Associate Producer with Florida Rep since its inception and has acted in over 90 productions in Southwest Florida. Selected credits include: Gaslight, Noises Off, Boeing-Boeing, You Can’t Take It With You, Relatively Speaking, The Last Romance, Alone Together, Dancing at Lughnasa, Enchanted April, Rabbit Hole, Indian Blood, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, All My Sons, I’m Not Rappaport, Deathtrap, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Same Time Next Year, and Private Lives. Her work as a voiceover artist can be heard on NPR and industrial DVDs. In another lifetime she founded the Pirate Playhouse on Sanibel Island in 1984, served as a theatre faculty at Florida Gulf Coast University, produced theatre companies in her hometown of Erie, PA and New York City, performed in regional theatres in NY, VT and NC, as well as the Three River Shakespeare Festival, Pittsburgh Playhouse and American Ibsen Theatre. In 1987, the Sanibel-Captiva Chamber of Commerce awarded her the Distinguished Citizen Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Her favorite role is mom to Matthew and Julia and wife to Robert. GORDON McCONNELL (Greg) is delighted to be returning to Florida Rep, where he last appeared more than 10 years ago. His work as an actor, director and producer has taken him from L.A. to London to Amsterdam, and to NYC where he was a member of Geraldine Page’s Mirror Repertory Theatre. He currently resides in Southeast FL, where he has appeared at Florida Stage, Caldwell Theatre, Actor’s Playhouse, Seaside Music Theater, The Burt Reynolds Institute, American Stage, Hippodrome Theatre, Florida Repertory Theatre, Palm Beach Dramaworks, TheatreWest, Maltz Jupiter Theater, Gable Stage and Mosaic Theatre. Most recently he was honored SYLVIA to play Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman for Greenbrier Valley Theatre in WV. Gordon is happy to be a member of Actors Equity Association, a Carbonell (“South Florida’s Tony”) winner (Best Actor, Frozen), and multiple nominee (Dirty Business, Blackbird, The Guys, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, all Best Actor nominations), a husband, dad and connoisseur of single malt Scotches from the land of his birth. MAUREEN HEFFERNAN (Director) is thrilled to be returning to her favorite Florida Artistic Home for her 9th show, including Opus, Doubt, Rabbit Hole, Art, Master Class and All My Sons. Over the past 25 years, Maureen has earned increasing recognition for her directing abilities that include more than 80 professional theatrical productions nationally and at theaters that include John Houseman Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Pennsylvania Stage Company, and Florida Repertory Company, among others. She is the director of Arts and Education for Young Audiences New Jersey. Maureen also served as Artistic Director for George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, and Acting Artistic Director for the Delaware Theater Company in Wilmington. She was also a founding member of the Crossroads Theater Company in New Brunswick. A respected educator, lecturer, and workshop leader in theater arts and arts administration throughout the New Jersey/ New York area, Maureen has received a New Jersey Governor’s Arts Award as a Distinguished