Adapted by Annie Lareau Directed by Susanna Burnery
A Novel Approach to Theatre Welcome to Book-It and to our Production of My Ántonia. Dear Book-It Patrons,
Together, we can continue to bring the best literature to the stage and continue to keep our mission of “inspiring audiences to read” alive and thriving.
I am so excited about this production and know that you are going to love hearing Willa Cather’s words as you meet all of the wonderful people of this engaging novel. I think you’ll find that My Ántonia is a classic Book-It production and we are all very proud to bring it to you. One of the things I am most proud of at Book-It is how we capture the spirit of every novel we produce in a way that, until I saw my first Book-It production, I would never have imagined could be done on stage. I am also proud to be an artist during these difficult-but-hopeful times. We at Book-It know that in such times, the arts can make a meaningful difference in so many ways. When Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration, he wisely included theatre as part of this program. As a result, he put artists to work, and provided places where people could get away from their own troubles and put themselves in someone else’s shoes, if just for a few hours. I hope that you will find that kind of haven as you watch My Ántonia. When Book-It was founded 19 years ago, the company members had no WPA to support them. They relied on what Jane and Myra managed to collect in a blue tea kettle marked “donations” that was placed at the theatre exit after each performance. At the end of the evening, the money
was counted and divided among the cast as pay. The very first major donation, a check for $1,000, came out of that tea kettle. We are still using that very same tea kettle and tonight I ask you to consider making a donation to Book-It. Together, we can continue to bring the best literature to the stage and continue to keep our mission of “inspiring audiences to read” alive and thriving. By my calculations, if every patron put just $5 in the kettle, we would reach our goal of raising $10,000 during the run of My Ántonia. As you know, your ticket alone does not fully cover the cost of making My Ántonia come to life, and your $5 will go a long way to helping us continue to bring you the most novel theatre in Seattle. Thank you and Happy Holidays. I hope that 2009 will bring many blessings to us all.
Charlotte Tiencken Ch l Ti k Managing Director
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Notes From the Director
I think this work would be powerful for any reader, but I think it may resonate quite specifically for Americans. Because, unless you are 100% Native American, you came from someplace else. And everyone in this book comes from someplace else.
When I was a freshman in college in Boston, 3,000 miles away from home, an upper classman I respected and befriended, told me I must read Willa Cather. I didn’t know if it was because Cather was from Nebraska and I was from the Pacific Northwest, and somehow my friend had conflated the two into one shared landscape, or if something in my personality made him think I’d like her writing. He was a little cagey about it, he just said, “you should read her.” I guess I’m one of those people who tend to not do what others suggest I do—I didn’t pick up a Willa Cather book till February 2007, when Jane and Myra asked me to direct a staged reading of My Ántonia, for a “Big Read” tour of southwest Washington libraries. I love to read, but I don’t do it as much as I’d like to. I am better motivated by work-related assignments, maybe because reading is a kind of indulgence to me, and I’m more motivated if it’s for a specific reason. Reading My Ántonia was one of the most profound reading experiences of my life. I remember sitting on my couch, breathless at the cumulative power of Cather’s love letter to the Nebraska of her childhood, and the immigrants who had so impressed her. I was transported by the simple truth of her writing, her keen and clear observations, and the rich empathy for the lives that fought to survive and thrive in what Jim Burden calls “one of the loneliest countries.” Annie Lareau was to do the adaptation for the staged reading and play of My Ántonia, and her relationship with this material was quite different from mine. She had owned a copy of the novel since she was 11 years old. Had loved it so passionately, she’d created her own cover art for it, and indeed, it was that same well-worn copy she carried around as we started our first attack on the material.
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I think this work would be powerful for any reader, but I think it may resonate quite specifically for Americans. Because, unless you are 100% Native American, you came from someplace else. And everyone in this book comes from someplace else. Cather wrote this story, years into adulthood (like her surrogate, Jim Burden), as a kind of tribute to the brave and lively souls who tried their hand at settlement. Some thrive like the Burdens or the Harlings, or fail miserably, tragically, like Mr. Shimerda and the Russian brothers. Jim Burden (perhaps, as did Cather) wants to rediscover this extraordinary childhood buried somewhere in a wild, unsettled country, where he’d been brought by train, an orphan, but loved and cared for, lonely, perhaps, but often content. Modern abstractions of adult life leave him wanting and he yearns to reconnect with the single most powerful influence on his life: a poor Bohemian immigrant, who came to this country with practically nothing; whose will to survive, indomitable spirit, astonishing strength, and boundless generosity, holds within her extraordinary heart and strong brown hands, the poetry and the power of the great prairie itself. I wish I had read My Ántonia sooner, because I would have been able to live with it longer—but I am truly grateful that Book-It gave me the opportunity to discover it in such a rich and powerful way. If Book-It’s mission is to inspire people to read, they’ve certainly succeeded with me. And if you haven’t read Willa Cather, perhaps this production will motivate you to do yourself a favor.
Susanna Burney
BOOK-IT REPERTORY THEATRE Jane Jones & Myra Platt, Founding Co-Artistic Directors * Charlotte M. Tiencken, Managing Director
PROUDLY PRESENTS
MY ÁNTONIA by Willa Cather Adapted by Annie Lareau * Directed by Susanna Burney CAST (in alphabetical order)
Justin Alley Anders Bolang* Tom Butterworth Anna-Lisa Carlson Heather Collins Sarah Dennis Anthony Duckett Langston Emerson Guettinger Alyssa Kay Mik Kuhlman Annie Lareau Barbara Lindsay George Mount* Mike Oliver Clark Sandford* Emily M. Trantow John Ulman Cynthia Whalen Devorah Spadone Whitney Meredith Breite
Musician/Ensemble Otto/Peter/Cutter/Cuzak Grandfather/Krajek/Ordinsky Lena Lingard Sally Harling/Ensemble Nina Harling/Yulka Cuzak Marek/Ensemble Charley Harling/Leo Cuzak Yulka/Tiny/Ensemble Mrs. Shimerda/Mrs. Harling Ántonia Grandmother Jim Burden Conductor/Harry Paine/Ensemble Mr. Shimerda/Mr. Harling/Colonel Raleigh Musician/Ensemble Jake/Ambrosh/Pavel/Cleric/Ensemble Willa/Mrs. Cutter/Ensemble Production Stage Manager Production Assistant
ARTISTIC & PRODUCTION STAFF Larry Rodriguez Technical Director & Production Manager Bliss Kolb Scenic Designer Janessa Jayne Styck Costume Designer Roberta Russell Lighting Designer Sean Patrick Taylor Music Director Brett Hamann Sound Designer Lindsey E. Callihan Properties Designer
Laura Ferri Liza Comtois Judith Shahn Erin Fortier Joseph Lambert Jessica Dodge Ayako Yamada Heather Mayhew
Choreographer Dramaturg Dialect Coach Assistant Director Master Carpenter Scenic Painter Costume Assistant Sound Board Operator
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States Season Support provided by: Production Support provided by:
Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of America
Media Sponsor:
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Willa was interested in acting at a young age, at left she is shown in a Hiawatha recitation costume in 1882. Below is the Cather family home in Red Cloud Nebraska.
Meet the Author
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orn in Back Creek, Virginia in 1873, Willa Cather spent the first nine years of her life in Virginia before moving to Nebraska with her family. Initially Willa had trouble adjusting to her new life on the prairie. She felt an “erasure of personality” amidst the all encompassing land. She described the move in an interview: “I was little and homesick and lonely… so the country and I had it out together and by the end of the first autumn the shaggy grass country had gripped me with a passion that I have never been able to shake. It has been the happiness and curse of my life.” Willa attended the University of A-4
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Nebraska-Lincoln, her classmates remembered her as one of the most colorful personalities on campus; intelligent, outspoken, talented, even mannish in her opinions and dress. While a student she not only became the managing editor of the student newspaper, The Hesperian, but also become a theater critic and columnist for the Nebraska State Journal as well as the Lincoln Courier. Her experience in journalism and criticism took her to Pittsburgh, where she worked first for Home Monthly and then for the Pittsburgh Leader. Between 1901 and 1906, Willa took a break from journalism to teach English in local high
schools and write. During this time she had numerous short stories published in magazines, and traveled abroad for the first time with companion Isabell McClung, who encouraged Willa’s creative streak. In 1903 Willa met Edith Lewis, who would become her lifelong companion and she published April Twilights, a book of verse, which was followed in 1905 by The Troll Garden, her first collection of short stories, published by S. S. McClure, the editor of McClure’s Magazine, the most widely circulated general monthly in the nation. In 1906 she moved to New York City to join McClure’s staff and by 1908 she was promoted to managing editor.
We had very few American neighbors—they were mostly Swedes and
Danes, Norwegians and Bohemians. I liked them from the first and they made up for what I missed in the country. I particularly liked the old women, they understood my homesickness and were kind to me. I had met ‘traveled’ people in Virginia and in Washington, but these old women on the farms were the first people who ever gave me the real feeling of an older world across the sea. Even when they spoke very little English, the old women somehow managed to tell me a great many stories about the old country... I have never found any intellectual excitement any more intense than I used to feel when I spent a morning with one of those old women at her baking or butter making. I used to ride home in the most unreasonable state of excitement; I always felt as if they told me so much more than they said—as if I had actually got inside another person’s skin. If one begins that early, it is the story of the man eating tiger over again—no other adventure ever carries one quite so far. — From an interview with F.H. , August 10, 1913, The Philadelphia Record. Willa Cather in Pittsburg, 1905. In 1911, at age 37, Willa left McClure’s to begin writing full time. In 1912 she moved in with companion Edith Lewis, with whom she lived until her death in 1947, and published her first novel, Alexander Bridge, which she later dismissed as imitative of Edith Wharton and Henry James. Her friend and mentor Sarah Orne Jewett encouraged Willa to develop her own voice, and in 1913 she delivered, publishing O Pioneers! a novel that celebrates the pioneering spirit of Swedish farmers on the plains of Nebraska. Cather placed her “shaggy grass country” at the center of the novel, allowing the land to provide the structure of the book.
Reviewers were enthusiastic about the novel, recognizing a new voice in American letters. She followed this with The Song of the Lark (1915) and My Ántonia (1918), both novels are epic treatments of heroic immigrant women. She went on to write eight more novels and three more collections of short stories. Willa received the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for One of Ours. She was given honorary degrees from Yale, Princeton, Berkeley, and Smith College, among others. When novelist Sinclair Lewis won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930, he paid homage to Willa Cather by say-
ing that she should have won the honor. In 1933 Willa was awarded France’s Prix Femina Américaine for her depiction of French culture within North America. Her writing earned her the cover of Time Magazine as well as the gold medal from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Cather wrote, “There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.” Her ability to tap into these fundamental human stories is what makes Willa Cather’s writing as powerful today as it was in the early twentieth century.
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Above, Willa working at the Nebraska State Journal in the mid-1890s. At University of Nebraska Lincoln, top left,Willa Cather with Hesperian staff in 1892 or ’93; left, Louise Pound and Willa Cather 1891 or ’92.
When I was in college and immediately after graduation, I did newspaper work. I found
that newspaper writing did a great deal of good for me in working off the purple flurry of my early writing. Every young writer has to work off the ‘fine writing’ stage. It was a painful period in which I overcame my florid, exaggerated, foamy-at-the-mouth, adjective-spree period. I knew even then it was a crime to write like I did, but I had to get the adjectives and the youthful fervor worked off. I believe every young writer must write whole books of extravagant language to get it out. It is agony to be smothered in your own florescence, and to be forced to dump great carloads of your posies out in the road before you find one posy that will fit in the right place. — From
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an interview with Ethel M. Hockett, October 24 , 1915, Lincoln Daily Star.
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Above, Willa and Isabelle McClung camping on their two-month trip to the west in 1905. Right: Willa, with an unknown man, in Mesa Verde in 1915.
It was during the six years when I was editor of McClure’s magazine that I came to have a definite idea about writ-
ing. In reading manuscripts submitted to me, I found that 95 per cent of them were written for the sake of the writer never for the sake of the material. The writer wanted to express his clever ideas, his wit, his observations. Almost never did I find a manuscript that was written because a writer loved his subject so much he had to write about it…
I learned that a man must have a technique and a birthright to write... He must know his subject with an understanding that passes understanding—like the babe knows its own mother’s breast… I knew every farm, every tree, every field in the region around my home, and they all called out to me. My deepest feelings were rooted in this country... I had searched for books telling about the beauty of the country I loved, its romance, and heroism and strength and courage of its people that had been plowed into the very furrows of its soil, and I did not find them. And so I wrote O Pioneers!. — From
an interview with Eva Mahoney, November 27, 1921, Omaha World-Herald
Willa Cather photos: Pages 4 & 7, published in Willa Cather, a Biography, by Milton Meltzer, coutesy of the Willa Cather Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska Lincoln Libraries; Pages 5 & 6, published in Willa Cather Remembered, Ed. Sharon Hoover, courtesy of the Nebraska State Historical Society, Willa Cather Memorial Collection ENCORE ARTS PROGRAMS
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Wh o’ s Who - THE CAST JUSTIN ALLEY Musician/Ensemble Justin is a Seattle native and a graduate of the University of Washington. He has performed locally with Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, ACT Theatre, Tacoma Actors Guild, Centerstage, Annex Theatre, and the 14/48 festival. Justin also plays music regularly with Miss Mamie Lavona the Exotic Mulatta and her White Boy Band! www.myspace.com/missmamielavona
ANDERS BOLANG* Otto/Peter/Cutter/ Cuzak A graduate of Whitman College and the Yale School of Drama, Anders has performed at Baltimore Center Stage, Delaware Theatre Company, Yale Rep, Centennial Theatre Festival, Oldcastle Theatre Company, Rutgers Summerfare, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Harlequin Productions, Tacoma Actors Guild, and as a guest artist with The Boston Pops. In New York, he has performed at BACA Downtown, NADA con Todo, the Performing Garage, NY Theatre Workshop (new works series), and La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. He also wrote and performed a one-man adaptation of He Who Gets Slapped for the East European Theatre Festival. Anders has appeared in “As the World Turns” and “One Life to Live”, the feature films Police Beat (2005) and Helene (2000) and in industrial training films, voice-overs, and as a spokesman for Nissan Corporation.
THOMAS BUTTERWORTH Grandfather/Krajek/ Ordinsky Since retiring from a business career in 2004, Tom has been fortunate to play some memorable characters in both community and semi-professional theatres. In Connecticut, he played the Inspector in An Inspector Calls, Sir Thomas More in A Man For All Seasons, Harry in Company, * Member Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. A-8
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and Stanley Banks in Father of the Bride. Since moving to Seattle in 2006, he has appeared at SecondStory Repertory as Senex in A Funny Thing Happened… and Devery in Born Yesterday; and at Centerstage as Baron Hardup in Cinderella—an English Pantomime and McKendrick in Robin Hood…The Legend Continues... His most recent role was Charles Thomson in 1776 at the Seattle Musical Theatre. In June 2009, he will appear in Book-It’s production of Night Flight.
ANNA-LISA CARLSON Lena Lingard Anna-Lisa just joined the Actors Equity Association, playing Kensington in Becky’s New Car at ACT Theatre, where she also played Barbie Doll in the Young Playwrights Program’s A Plastic Affair. At Seattle Repertory Theatre, she appeared in The Great Gatsby and The King Stag. She played Sarah Jane Moore in Assassins at Western Washington University, Laura in Look Homeward, Angel and Cinderella in Into the Woods at the American College Theatre Festival in Ashland. Other Seattle credits include six productions at Village Theatre, and Arne Zaslov’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other companies she has worked with include Civic Light Opera, Theater Schmeater, UW Ethnic Cultural Center, Outsider’s Inn Collective, Youth Theatre Northwest, and Mountaineers. She has been represented for 12 years by Topo Swope Talent.
HEATHER COLLINS Sally Harling/ Ensemble Heather is delighted to be Book-It’s acting intern for the 2008-09 season. A very recent Colorado transplant, she was last seen as one of the rowdy ranch hands in Book-It’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Previous favorites include Viola in Twelfth Night and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, both in Denver; The Vagina Monologues, at the University of Colorado; Dona Ana in House of Desires, and the world premiere of The Great Game, directed by Wilson Milam, at Duke. Heather graduated from Duke University in May and has studied theater in London with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and in New York City with Michael Howard
Studios. She has interned with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Classic Stage Company.
SARAH DENNIS Nina Harling/Yulka Cuzak Sarah is pleased to appear in My Ántonia. Her favorite theater roles include Child Dreamer in The Secret Garden at Village Theatre Kidstage Summerstock, Sharpay in High School Musical 2, Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, Glinda the Good Witch in Wizard of Oz and Patti Simcox in Grease, all with Small Hands on Art. Sarah also appeared in the Independent Film C.C. 2010 as young C.C. this summer. Also, Sarah is a board member for Cure Finders – Cystic Fibrosis. She is in the fourth grade and enjoys singing in her school choir.
ANTHONY DUCKETT Marek/Ensemble Anthony is excited to be making his Book-It debut. This summer, Anthony performed with Stone Soup Theatre in a new work, at Eclectic Theater Company playing Charles and Sylvius in As You Like It, theater simple playing Prince, Tiger Lily and others in The Snow Queen, and most recently with SecondStory Repertory playing Migget in The Emperor’s New Clothes. Anthony graduated from Cornish College of the Arts with a BFA in May 2008. In February 2009 Anthony will appear at Seattle Public Theatre as Nelson in End Days, directed by the beloved Carol Roscoe.
LANGSTON EMERSON GUETTINGER Charley Harling/Leo Cuzak Langston is an 8thgrade student at The Northwest School. where he is active in both drama and music. A violinist who has performed with children’s chamber groups throughout the Puget Sound, Langston is also a former member of the Seattle Boys Choir. His professional credits include work with Seattle Opera, Village Theatre, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, and ACT Theatre. Langston appeared last season with Book-It as Michael Darling in Peter Pan.
Who’s Who - THE CAST ALYSSA KAY Yulka/Tiny/Ensemble Alyssa is excited to be making her Book-It debut with My Ántonia. Past regional credits include Lemon in Aunt Dan and Lemon for Theatre Unlocked, the ensemble of Under Milk Wood for Ray Burley Productions, and the chorus and dance captain of Cinderella—an English Pantomime for Centerstage Theatre. A native of Seattle, Alyssa earned her BA in Drama at the University of Washington in 2005. More recently, she has returned from the Accademia dell’Arte in Italy, where she spent a year training in commedia dell’arte, physical theater, and mask.
MIK KUHLMAN Mrs. Shimerda/Mrs. Harling Mik has created over 20 original works of theater, touring nationally and internationally with Seattle Mime Theatre and her solo show, split second. She has created and performed works based on the writings of Raymond Carver, James Thurber, Joyce Carol Oates, Bailey White, and David James Duncan. In Seattle, she has worked with UMO Ensemble, Seattle Group Theatre, Seattle Public Theater, 14/48, The Moisture Festival, as well as noted choreographers Sally Sykes, Pat Graney, and Donald Byrd. Mik was awarded a 2009 4Culture Independent Artist Grant for her next solo show Shadows, a collaboration with choreographer Sonia Dawkins. In March 2009, Mik will appear in UMO’s Rubble Women. Her training includes CalArts (MFA -Acting), Ecole Jaques Lecoq (LEM), Philippe Gaullier (clown). www.mikkuhlman.com
ANNIE LAREAU Ántonia/Adaptor Annie has previously appeared with BookIt as Maggie Jones in Plainsong and Mrs. Croft in Persuasion. Other favorite roles include: Nadia Blye in The Vertical Hour for ArtsWest, The Bawd in Pericles for Seattle Shakespeare Company, Henry V in Henry V for Company of Women, The Queen in Cymbeline for Wooden O, Tamara in Music from a Sparkling Planet for Spokane
Interplayers and April in Savage in Limbo for Syracuse Stage. Other credits include various roles at such places as The Belfry Theatre (Victoria, BC), Jeanetta Cochran Theatre (London), The Schollschberg Theatre (Amsterdam), Berkshire Theatre Festival (Massachusetts), The Empty Space, Theater Schmeater, Annex Theatre, and Unexpected Productions. Annie holds a BFA in Acting from Syracuse University and a M.Ed. in Arts in Education from Harvard University.
BARBARA LINDSAY Grandmother Barbara spent 26 years in Los Angeles acting onstage and in film, television and commercials. She discovered she had a knack for playwriting and in 2001 moved to Monterey, CA to write full time. Two years later she came to Seattle, where she continues to write and has also rediscovered the joy of acting. Barbara has done film, commercial, and voice over work here and is thrilled to be making her Seattle stage debut at Book-It Repertory Theatre. She is recently married and ridiculously happy.
GEORGE MOUNT* Jim Burden George Mount was last seen at Book-It in Snow Falling on Cedars. Previous Book-It credits include Grendel, The Beat at Book-It, and Book-It All Over’s Pink and Say. He is the director of Outdoor and Touring Performance at Seattle Shakespeare Company and the founding artistic director of Wooden O. Acting roles with Wooden O include Shylock, Hamlet, Cassius, Benedick, Caliban, Romeo, and Feste. He has also directed and acted in Wooden O productions of Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, All’s Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy of Errors, and Much Ado About Nothing. Seattle Shakespeare Company credits include Antipholus of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors and Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew. He has also performed at ACT Theatre, Taproot, SecondStory Repertory, Village Theatre, Boomer Classics, Theater Schmeater, and Annex Theatre.
MIKE OLIVER Conductor/Harry Paine/Ensemble Mike is grateful to be making his Book-It debut. He has been seen around Seattle in Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and As You Like It at Taproot Theatre, as well as in The Worm for Emerald City Scene. He is a recent graduate of the University of Washington where his roles included Cinderella’s Prince/ Wolf in Into the Woods, Paris in Romeo and Juliet, Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show, The Specialist in The Who’s Tommy and Mihai in Mad Forest. Mike is also a collaborator with Washington Ensemble Theatre.
CLARK SANDFORD* Mr. Shimerda/Mr. Harling/Colonel Raleigh The grandson of a Kansas settler, Clark has a personal appreciation for Ántonia’s story. Clark has been around the Seattle theater scene for more than 30 years and has appeared on most of Seattle’s professional stages as well as those in Minneapolis and Dallas. He recently appeared as Warnie in Shadowlands at Village Theatre. He played Raymond in Plainsong and Monte in Cowboys Are My Weakness previously at Book-It. Clark appears with support from his employers at Seattle Children’s Theatre and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity.
EMILY M. TRANTOW Musician/Ensemble Emily has a BA in Drama from the University of Washington. Past credits include Mrs. Stevenson in Sorry, Wrong Number, Blondie in Blondie and Woman in Purgatorio for Robot Arms Theatre; Mary in The Shark, and Bianca in Desdemona for Emerald City Scene; and Olivia in Twelfth Night, Li’l Bit in How I Learned to Drive, and Caliban in The Tempest for the University of Washington. Emily is classically trained in piano, she has taken one summer of intensive Suzuki Training with the Pacific Performance Project, has a background in Viewpoints training and Continued... ENCORE ARTS PROGRAMS
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THE CAST
ARTISTIC & PRODUCTION STAFF
attended The Royal Academy of Dance. Also a makeup designer, Emily is the Dept. Information Systems Specialist for Nordstrom Cosmetics and last assisted the Luly Yang Bridal Fashion Show at Benaroya Hall.
JANE JONES Founding Co-Artistic Director
JOHN ULMAN Jake/ Ambrosh/Pavel/Cleric/ Ensemble Originally from Bakersfield, California, John began his acting career performing in two seasons of the Kern Shakespeare Festival. He went on from there to receive his BA degree in drama from UC Irvine. John has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland and has toured nationally in several productions with California Theatre Center. Locally, John has been seen in ArtsWest’s The Vertical Hour, Capitol Hill Arts Center’s God’s Country, Book-It Repertory Theatre’s Bud, Not Buddy and Rhoda: A Life in Stories, several Book-It-All-Over touring productions, and Seattle Shakespeare Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cyrano De Bergerac and All’s Well That Ends Well. When not acting, John works as a photographer.
CYNTHIA WHALEN Willa Cather/Mrs. Cutter/Ensemble Cynthia is happy to be working with Book-It Repertory Theatre for the first time. She is particularly thrilled on account of her particular love of Willa Cather’s writing. Cynthia has appeared on many Seattle stages including Capitol Hill Arts Center, Theatre Off Jackson, New City Theater, Annex Theatre, On The Boards, Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Women Playwrights series, Seattle Public Theater, Printer’s Devil Theater, as well as other more nefarious joints. She was a founder of and performer on all projects of the awardwinning experimental theater collective, The Compound.
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Jane is the founder of Book-It and founding co-artistic director of Book-It Repertory Theatre, with Myra Platt. In her 20 years of staging literature, she has performed and directed works by such literary giants as Charles Dickens, Eudora Welty, Edith Wharton, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Pam Houston, Raymond Carver, Frank O’Connor, Ernest Hemingway, Colette, Amy Bloom, John Irving, John Steinbeck, Daphne du Maurier, and Jane Austen. A veteran actress of 25 years, she has played leading roles in many of America’s most prominent regional theatres including The Guthrie, American Conservatory Theater, The McCarter and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Locally, she has been seen at Seattle Rep, ACT Theatre, The Empty Space, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Tacoma Actors Guild, and INTIMAN. Film and TV credits include The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Singles, Homeward Bound, “Twin Peaks,” and Rose Red. She co-directed with Tom Hulce at the Seattle Rep, Peter Parnell’s adaptation of John Irving’s The Cider House Rules, which enjoyed successful runs here in Seattle, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles (Backstage West Award, best director) and in New York (Drama Desk Nomination, best director). Jane recently directed Pride and Prejudice and Twelfth Night at Portland Center Stage which won the 2008 Drammy award for Best Direction and Production. For Book-It, she directed The House of Mirth, The Highest Tide, Travels with Charley, Pride and Prejudice, Howard’s End, In a Shallow Grave, The Awakening, Owen Meany’s Christmas Pageant, and A Tale of Two Cities. Book-It performances include roles in Ethan Frome, Silver Water, Cowboys Are My Weakness, Breathing Lessons, and Rhoda: A Life in Stories.
MYRA PLATT Founding Co-Artistic Director Myra is the founding co-artistic director of Book-It Repertory Theatre, with Jane Jones. She studied literature and theater at Northwestern University (BS Analysis and Performance of Literature) and Circle in the Square (NYC). As actor, director, adaptor and composer, she has helped Book-It produce over 55 world-premiere stage adaptations. Most recently, Myra directed the world-premiere production of Persuasion by Jane Austen. She has also adapted and directed The House of the Spirits, Giant, Red Ranger Came Calling, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Cowboys Are My Weakness, Roman Fever, A Little Cloud by James Joyce, A Telephone Call by Dorothy Parker, and A Child’s Christmas in Wales. She directed Plainsong, Cry, the Beloved Country,
Sweet Thursday, and Danger: Books!. She coadapted Owen Meany’s Christmas Pageant with Jane Jones and composed music for Red Ranger Came Calling (with Edd Key), Ethan Frome, Owen Meany’s Christmas Pageant, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, The Awakening, the first workshop production of The Cider House Rules, A Telephone Call, and I Am of Ireland. Performances include Margaret Schlegel in Howards End, Elaine in The Dying Gaul at INTIMAN, and as Edna in Book-It’s production of The Awakening (for which she received an Honorable Mention/ Backstage West Los Angeles Garland Awards). She originated the role of Candy Kendall in John Irving’s The Cider House Rules at Seattle Repertory Theatre and at the Mark Taper Forum. She is the proud mother of Wilson.
CHARLOTTE M. TIENCKEN Managing Director Charlotte is an arts administrator, director, producer and educator who has been working in the producing and presenting fields for 20 years. Before moving back to the Seattle area in September of 2003, she was general manager at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts for four seasons. Currently, she is president of Scarlet Productions, her own consulting firm, and is an adjunct faculty member at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. Most recently she was executive director of Tacoma Actors Guild. Charlotte is a member of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and is past president of the Board of Arts Northwest, the presenting service organization for Washington, Idaho and Oregon. She has served on the board of the Pat Graney Dance Company and sat on granting panels for the Washington State Arts Commission. She most recently completed her term on the Board of Theatre Puget Sound, a regional service organization for theatres in the Puget Sound area.
ANNIE LAREAU Adaptor/Ántonia Annie is so thrilled to take one of her childhood literary favorites from the page to the stage for Book-It, where she works as Education Director overseeing all of BookIt’s touring shows and residencies. For BookIt All Over, she has adapted and directed Patricia C. McKissack’s Goin’ Someplace Special as well as adapted Sue Kidd Monk’s Secret Life of Bees and a shortened version of My Ántonia for a special editions series that tours to local libraries. Her directing credits with Book-It also include Ereth’s Birthday and Minty. Other writing ventures
A R T I ST I C & PRODUCTION ST A FF include the a case study “In Loco Parentis” published by the McDougall Foundation, “Working with Girls and Women” for the Pacific Northwest Women’s Quarterly and “Queen Elizabeth in Fleece” for Zipline Magazine. Annie is indebted to Susanna Burney, our director, and the Book-It Staff for believing in this project and for giving her the opportunity to both act and write in the same project, a dream come true.
SUSANNA BURNEY Director Susanna has been working as a director, actor, and teaching artist in the Seattle area since 1989. Book-It credits include acting in Trains, Howards End, and a number of shows for Book-it All Over. At Book-It she has also directed Danger: Books! and staged readings of My Ántonia, Darfur Stories, and Kafir Boy. She is the founding artistic director of Our American Theater Company, where she recently directed Three Hotels. Other directing credits include the Book-It adaptation of Sweet Thursday at Orcas Center on Orcas Island, Mrs. Klein for Sight Nine, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle for theater simple. Susanna has also directed for Annex Theatre, Theater Schmeater, Next Stage, Mae West Festival, Theatre Babylon, 14/48, Living Voices, North Seattle Community College, and Nova High School. Susanna will be directing The Last Night of Ballyhoo for SecondStory Repertory in March 2009. She received her BFA in Theatre Performance from Boston University.
DEVORAH SPADONE Production Stage Manager Devorah is proud to be the production stage manager at Book-it Repertory Theatre, where My Ántonia will be her 16th production. Last season, she worked on The Highest Tide, Persuasion, and Peter Pan, in addition to working with The Ethereal Mutt Limited on Saving Tania’s Privates by Tania Katan at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and on Strawberry Theatre Workshop’s production of Leni, here in Seattle. She has also worked for Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Bumbershoot, Folklife, the University of Washington, 14/48, and the Seattle International Children’s Festival.
LARRY RODRIGUEZ Technical Director & Production Manager Larry hails from the Philippines and has been passionate about the theater since 1994. He was technical director and lighting designer for the Philippines’ pioneer theater company, The Philippine
Educational Theater Association (PETA). He also studied Lighting Design and Sound Engineering in Tokyo, Japan. Larry was a theater manager for three years with The Far Eastern University, which houses the Philippines’ first cultural center where early theater and vaudeville shows started during the 1940s; he was behind its ambitious 1998 renovation and refurbishing of the entire facility. He has also worked as director of photography for companies that produced television commercials and music videos. Before leaving the Philippines he was involved in over 50 productions from stage, television, and film, and represented the country in International theatre festivals. He moved to Seattle in 2005 and joined Book-It Repertory Theatre. This is his fourth season and is continually grateful for having the opportunity to work among great talents. Larry was recently brought on as the resident lighting designer of Next Stage, a newlyformed Seattle theatre company.
LIZA COMTOIS Dramaturg Liza has served as dramaturg on nine world premiere adaptations with Book-It Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee’s First Stage, and AJ Epstein Presents. She has served as production dramaturg for INTIMAN Theatre, ACT Theatre, Book-It, Strawberry Theatre Workshop, and The Upstart Crow Project in Seattle. Liza is a script evaluator for the Sundance Theatre Program and participated in their Summer Theatre Labs and White Oak Lab. Other credits include producing Invisible Ink and Project X: When the Comet Comes for House of Dames and serving as INTIMAN Theatre’s artistic associate under Bartlett Sher. She is currently associate producer at The Ethereal Mutt Limited.
JUDITH SHAHN Dialect Coach Judith has been one of the leading dialect coaches in the Northwest for the last 25 years. She recently worked on All the King’s Men at INTIMAN Theatre and The Three Musketeers at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Recently, she coached for the Noel Coward Revue at ACT Theatre; To Kill a Mockingbird at INTIMAN; Doubt, Private Lives, and The Cook at Seattle Rep; as well as on dozens of productions at most of Seattle’s theatres. Judith has also coached at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Utah Shakespearean Festival. She is a designated Linklater Voice Teacher and has been teaching voice, dialects and text at the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program for the last 19 years. She is thrilled to be working here with Book-It.
ERIN FORTIER Assistant Director Erin likes reading and likes theatre, so is happy to be involved with her first show at Book-It Repertory Theatre. Erin has assistant directed and stage managed several shows, most recently Three Days of Rain at Seattle Public Theater, Pants at On the Boards’ NW New Works Festival, and American Buffalo at Theater Schmeater. She has directed new plays for the Bakery at Live Girls! Theater and for the Mae West Festival. Erin lives in Ballard with her cats, Beaker and Bunsen, and her super-duper husband, Thew.
BLISS KOLB Scenic Designer Bliss Kolb is a designer and builder of props, sets, cabinets, furniture, and automata. His sets have appeared at Annex Theatre, The Empty Space, ACT Theatre, Seattle University, on the road with the Flying Karamazov Brothers, and most recently in Our American Theater’s Three Hotels. Bliss has also helped develop performances including The Yellow Kid at Annex Theatre and Sleep Tight, a touring show of comedy and magic. He is currently making mechanical birds. www.blisskolb.com
ROBERTA RUSSELL Lighting Designer Roberta is a professor at Cornish College of the Arts, teaching both lighting design and drafting. She also works as a freelance lighting designer; recent work includes Andrea Sings Astaire, an evening of beautiful music sung by Andrea Marcovicci, in ACT Theatre’s Bullitt Cabaret. She has also been working with a new opera theatre company in Seattle, designing for directors including Arne Zaslov and Rhoda Levine and has especially enjoyed designing lighting for local dance companies and working with Donald Byrd and Cyrus Khambatta. This fall, she is lighting a building for the inaugural year of “Northern Lights Northwest,” an architectural lighting festival that will occur at several locations around Seattle.
SEAN PATRICK TAYLOR Music Director Sean is pleased to make his Book-It debut with My Ántonia. Other engagements as music director have been with Seattle Shakespeare Company—most recently in All’s Well That Ends Well—and with Wooden O and Annex Theatre. Recent dramatic roles include Montague in Balagan Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet, Polonius in Ghostlight’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tubal in Wooden O’s Merchant of Venice, and Maxim in Annex Theatre’s production of The Continued... ENCORE ARTS PROGRAMS
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ARTISTIC & PRODUCTION STAFF Secret Recordings of Lenin. He confesses to have once played guitar in Blackie’s Band on “General Hospital.”
JANESSA JAYNE STYCK Costume Designer Janessa is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois where she studied under Tony-nominated Marcia McDonald. During her time at Wesleyan she interned at the acclaimed Glimmerglass Opera in upstate New York, where she was privileged to learn from renowned designers David Zinn, Catherine Zuber, and Jess Goldstein. Additionally, Janessa placed second in the undergraduate division at the Southeastern Theatre Conference’s 2006 Costume Design Competition. Since graduation, Janessa has relocated to Seattle where she has been honored to work on a number of productions at Seattle Shakespeare Company and Book-It Repertory Theatre. Over the summer she designed shows for Snoqualmie Falls Forest Theater, GreenStage, and Youth Theatre Northwest. She currently manages costume shops for both Seattle Musical Theatre and Book-It. Janessa is happy to be designing her first show for Book-It and is looking forward to the rest of the Book-It season.
BRETT HAMANN Sound Designer Brett lives and loves in Bellingham, WA. My Àntonia is his first Seattle production since high-school, which may or may not have been back in the ’90s. Brett studied both theater and film at Western Washington University and Texas State University. While at WWU he designed sound for Prelude to a Kiss, Stuff Happens, 1959 Pink Thunderbird, Creature, and Dog Sees God. Brett has acted in recent NW productions as Kip in Raised in Captivity and Roy in Lone Star.
LAURA FERRI Choreographer Laura is delighted to being working with Susanna Burney on the production side of a performance, having directed her in several Book-It shows. She most recently choreographed the dances for Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and directed a touring production of The Wizard of Earthsea for the Timberland Library System. She has choreographed Book-It’s Romance with Double Bass, Ethan Frome, and the multiple productions of Pride and Prejudice in which she also played Mrs. Bennet and Lady Catherine. A company member for almost 20 years, she has adapted and directed Broken for You and the Book-It All Over touring shows, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mrs. Katz and Tush, Mirandy and Brother Wind, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as well as the annual Danger: Books! series and Literature of Champions events. Last spring, she adapted and directed The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears for the Seattle Public Library’s Seattle Reads program.
WHITNEY MEREDITH BREITE Production Assistant Whitney is pleased to make her Book-It debut with My Ántonia. She was raised in Southern California and upon graduating from California State University, Chico she moved to Seattle to take part in the Seattle Repertory Theatre internship program for Stage Management. While at Seattle Rep, Whitney worked on Murderers, The Breach, and The Cure at Troy. After completing her internship, she worked as an assistant to the stage manager for A Streetcar Named Desire at INTIMAN Theatre. Most recently, Whitney returned to Seattle Rep to work on The Three Musketeers as a production assistant. Whitney is very excited to be working at Book-It this season.
Lindsey is a BFA graduate of Seattle University with Dramatic Emphasis and Departmental Honors. She has studied (both in and out of school) set design, puppetry fabrication, backstage management, effects makeup, and painting, but has developed a fascination with property artistry and design. In the last five years, she has frequented various Seattle theatres with her properties and special effects makeup design. This is her sixth appearance with Book-It as properties designer.
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JOSEPH LAMBERT Master Carpenter Joe is overjoyed to see a show come together— after slaving over many planks of uncut, unfinished wood. This is the fifth show Joe has been fortunate enough to build for Book-It, the others being Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, The Highest Tide, Snow Falling on Cedars, and Peter Pan. Joe is also the master carpenter for Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center and, previously for The Empty Space. Before moving to Seattle in 2006, he was the technical director for the Drew Harvey Theater in Yelm, WA from 2000 until its closure in the summer of 2005, where he also acted in numerous shows and outreach programs.
Affiliations ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION (AEA), founded in 1913, represents more than 45,000 actors and stage managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including heath and pension plans. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO, and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. The Equity emblem is our mark.
Book-It Repertory Theatre is a proud member of
THEATRE PUGET SOUND
Save the Date For our Second
JUDITH SHAHN Dialect Coach LINDSAY CALLIHAN Properties Designer
years. She is thrilled to be working here with Book-It.
Judith has been one of the leading dialect coaches in the Northwest for the last 25 years. She recently worked on All the Kings Men at INTIMAN Theatre and The Three Musketeers at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Recently, she coached for the Noel Coward Revue at ACT Theatre; To Kill a Mockingbird at INTIMAN Theatre; Doubt, Private Lives, and The Cook at Seattle Repertory Theatre; as well as on dozens of productions at most of Seattle’s theatres. Judith has also coached at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Utah Shakespearean Festival. She is a designated Linklater Voice Teacher and has been teaching voice, dialects and text at the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program for the last 19
Family Series Performance CHICKEN SUNDAY by Patricia Polacco February 21, 2009 11:00 a.m. * Grades: K-8 Three best friends learn about the power of generosity, friendship, and tolerance. Children’s tickets only $10, Adults $12. Performance includes a fun book fair and workshops!
For our Annual
Celebration and Auction
GUILTY PLEASURES May 19, 2009 at Teatro ZinZanni
Honoring Book-It Contributors Book-It would like to express our gratitude to the following for their generosity in supporting our 2008-09 season: LITERARY LEGENDS ($50,000+) The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation Matthew N. Clapp, Jr. The William Randolph Hearst Foundation LITERARY CHAMPION ($25,000+) Anonymous, ArtsFund LITERARY HEROES ($10,000+) $VMUVSF t ɨF #PFJOH $PNQBOZ t )BSWFTU 'PVOEBUJPO #FUI .D$BX :BIO #FSOJFS t (MBEZT 3VCJOTUFJO 4BGFDP 'PVOEBUJPO t 1PMMZ 4DIMJU[
Nancy Lawton Lee & Darcy MacLaren Susan Moseley Christopher Motley Thomas & Cheryl Oliver Kristan Parks Don Sands Bill Smith Deborah Talley Eric Taylor Kerry Thompson Roger Tucker & Becky Barnett Sally S. & David Wright Anonymous (1)
Pen/Faulkner Award Circle $100+ Literary Classics $5,000+ Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Inc. Tom and Sonya Campion Humanities Washington City of Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs The Norcliffe Foundation The Seattle Foundation Washington State Arts Commission Leadership Circle $2,500+ ArtsFund/Wells Fargo Cultural Education Enhancement Fund ArtsFund/John Brooks Williams & John H. Bauer Endowment for Theatre The Baker Foundation Enterprise Rent-a-Car* PONCHO Russell Investments Thomas & Lucy Flynn Zuccotti Nobel Award Society $1000+ Cheryl Boudreau Mary Anne Christy & Mark Klebanoff Robert & Audrey Hancock Harold Hill Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of America Whitney & Jerry Neufeld-Kaiser Marklyn Family Foundation Ann Ramsay-Jenkins SB Schaar & PK Whelpton Foundation Patricia & John Torode U.S. Bank April J. & Brian Williamson
Pulitzer Award Society $500+ Babeland, Inc.** Luther Black & Christina Wright Judy Brandon & H. Randall Webb The Carey Family Foundation Diana Carey Jayn & Hugh Foy Bonny Hill Jeffrey M. Kadet Jacqueline Kiser Marni Gittinger H. Stewart Ross Marcia Joslyn Sill & Peter Sill Richard Gelinas & Sara Thompson Judith & Morton Weisman Richard P. Wilson National Book Award Society $250+ Nancy & Craig Abramson Laurie & Steve Arnold Boeing Gift Matching Program Dottie Delaney Joe Delaney Tony & Nancy Dirksen Beth Dubey Rob Entrop Deborah Fialkow Liz Fitzhugh Marcia Greenberg Gordon & Linda Griesbach Helen & Max Gurvich Susan Hoffman Diane Hostetler & Ross Johnson Melissa Huther Eva Jackson Clare Kapitan & Keith Schreiber Fay Krokower Frank Lawler & Anne McCurdy
Diane & Steve Adam Monica Alquist Bill & Helen Wattley Ames Emily Anthony Christine & Perry Atkins Ruth Bacharach Andrew Bell Alice Birnbaum Lindsay & Tony Blackner Jean Boler & John Dienhart Barry Boone Anne Bostwick Patricia Britton Marcia Bruno Joann Byrd Jeff Cain Christina Chang & Paul J. Stucki Lynne & David Chelimer Clayton Cook Kerry J Coughlin Gale & Michael Davis Dan & Melinda Deane-Wheetman Nancy Deane Sandra & Paul Dehmer Lorna Dykes Titia & Bill Ellis Joyce Erickson James & Denice Fortier Gail Frasier Sehlhorst Julia Geier & Phil Borges Vicki Hadley Lisa Hager Phyllis Hatfield Marcie Headen & Kathie L. White David Hecht Lloyd Herman Nancy Holcomb Lawrence Jackson Eric Jensen Kris Jorgensen David J. Kasik Jeff Keane & Martha Noerr Pam Kendrick ENCORE ARTS PROGRAMS
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Honoring Book-It Contributors Pen/Faulkner $100+ Cont. Joe Kerkvliet Jean Kushleika Teri J.Lazzara Kathryn Lew Jamie & Andrea Lieberman Laura Lindenmayer David & Sherrie LittleďŹ eld Craig Lorch Sheila Lukehart Ellen & Stephen Lutz Denise & Jim Kevin Lynch Glenda Maledy Melissa & Donald Manning Doug & Josie Manuel Kathy McCluskey Samuel McCormick Jean McKeon Mary Metastasio Peggy Metastasio & Dick Stuart Joshua Mitchell Glenn Morrissey Tom Newhof Clare & Austin O’Regan Glenna Olson Doris Parker S. Edward Parks Terry Paugh Annie Pearson Mary Anne Braund & Steve Pellegrin Ed & Carol Perrin Page Pless & Mark Blatter
Eleanor Pollnow Mike & Shawn Rediger Lynne & Nick Reynolds Eric & Karen Richter Ellen Roth Suzanne Rowen Evelyne Rozner Michael & Jo Shapiro Lola Smith Douglas Spaulding Diane Stevens Deborah Swets LaJuana Swilley Larry Symonds Tammy Talman Gail Tanaka Kimberlee Tempel I. Michael Thomas Brian Thompson Diane & Burt Turnbull Mary Turner Karen & Ron Van Genderen Benjamin Wall Frida Weisman James & Sharon Welch Richard B.Wesley Mary Ann & Robert Wiley Alison Withey Tim & Ann Wood Phyllis Yoshida Robilee & Eric Zocher Mary & Jerry Zyskowski Anonymous (2)
“Thank you for my book. It is the best book I have at my house, it’s my best and goodest. I’ve never had one before.� –Irina, Nespelem Elementary, Nespelem
Imagine if you never had a book to call your own. Book-It is proud to work with our partner in literacy, Page Ahead in collecting new children’s books during our annual book drive happening throughout the run of My à ntonia. Both Page Ahead and Book-It feel that the most powerful thing you can do for a child’s future is to make sure reading is part of their lives. A-14
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O.Henry Award Circle $50+ 4VTBO "OEFSTPO t #FO "OESFXT t,BSM #BOTF t :WPOOF #BUFT t 4IBXO #B[ t +PIO )FMFO #JHFMPX t /BODZ #JUUOFS t $PMFUUF #KPSLFMP t )FMFO #PUUDIFS t .POJDB #SBEMFZ t 1BUSJDJB #SBTFM t +FĊ :PVOHTUSPN #FDLZ #SPPLT t 3BDIFM %BWJE #VLFZ t 3PMBOE -BVSB #VSOT t $BSSJF .BSL #VUMFS t "ESJFOOF $BSOT t (FSBSEJOF $BSSPMM t 1BNFMB $BSUFS 3PZ )JSTILPXJU[ t 4ZMWJB $SBJH $IBNCFST t -JTB $MBSL t %BWF $PODB .BSZ 'PSUNBO t 4VTBO $POOPST t 4IFMMZ $PSCFUU t +PIO $PSEFS t &MBJOF $SBOF t .BSHBSFU $VSUJO t $BUIZ 1IJM %BWJT t 3PCFSU ,BUIMFFO %BWJT t .BSUIB %FNBS t .BSZ ɨBEJB E )POEU .JDIBFM 5BZMPS t 4BMMZ &BTUFSCSPPL t .BSJMZO &OESJTT t ,ZMF &OUSPQ t #BSCBSB 'SBOL 'BOHFS t -JOEB +PIO 'JOEMBZ t &MJ[BCFUI 1BVM 'MFNJOH t .BSZ #FB (BMMBHIFS t +BOF %BWJE (SBIBN t ,BZ (SJFTNBO t ,FOEBMM (VUISJF t &JMFFO 3ZEFS (XJOO t .BSJMZO )BOOB .ZSJDL t &NNB )BTTFU t 4VTBO )FMMXJDI t 3FCFDDB )FS[GFME (PSEPO $SBXGPSE t 4UFQIBOJF )JMCFSU t ,BSFO )PXBSE t "OESFB *DIJLBXB 4DPUU t "MJTPO *OLMFZ t -BVSB +BDVNJO t 3PCFSU $ +FOLJOT t $FMJB +VTUJDF t .BSZ ,BCSJDI t 1BUSJDJB ,JZPOP t (PMEZ ,MFJONBO t $IFSZM -BXSFODF t +BO -BXSFODF t % 4 -JOERVJTU t 1BU -PGUJO t /BODZ -PNOFUI t .BSL #PZE t $BSPM -VNC t (SFUDIFO -VYFOCFSH t .BSTIB 8JMMJBN .BEJHBO t ,JN .BFEB t $SZTUBM .B[[BMJ t
Share your love of reading. View Page Ahead’s book list in our lobby or online and bring your gift to a child in need to our lobby through December 21. Your generosity will be rewarded with a 10%-o coupon for a future Book-It production. Page Ahead Children’s Literacy Program is the leading provider of children’s books and literacy services in Washington State, serving more than 55,000 children in need every year. Dedicated to helping at-risk children succeed in school by developing strong reading skills, they put books in the hands of children who would otherwise have none, encourage parents to get involved in their children’s learning eorts, and create community partnerships to advocate for children’s literacy. Learn more about Page Ahead at www.pageahead.org.
Contributors #FOKBNJO .PPSF .BSJMZO .D(VJSF t $IBSMJOF .D,FO[JF t #BSCBSB .D1IFF t $BSPM .JDIFM t %POOB .JMMFS 1BSLFS t 4BSB .PDLFUU t +PBO .PSJU[ t 1BN %PO .ZFST t #FUUZ /HBO t +PBOO /JDPO t ɨF /PSUI 'BNJMZ t /BODZ 0 #SJFO t 3PTBOOF 0MTPO t -PSFOB 1BMNFS t &MJ[BCFUI 1FMIBN t 3PO 1FUSJF t 4IFSSZ 1FSSBVMU t %FCPSB 1FUTDIFL t "OESF 1UBL "BSPO )PVTFLOFDIU t ,SJTUJ 1ZOF ,FONPSF -BEJFT #PPL $MVC t +FBOOFUUF 4UFQIFO 3FZOPMET t 5PN 3PCCJOT t 4BMMZ 3PDIFMMF t #BSCBSB 3PMMJOHFS t 4VTBO 4DIBFGFS t $IBSZM ,BZ &BSM 4FEMJL t "MMFO 4FOFBS t "VESFZ +PIO 4IFċFME t #SVDF 4IFSNBO t ,BZ 4NBMMXPPE t (FPSHF 4VTBO 4NJUI t %JBOF 4OFMM t %BOB 4UBOEJTI /PBI 4FJYBT t +BOFU 4UJMMNBO t )FMFO 5 4USJDLMBOE t $BSPMZO 4XBOTPO t +BOJDF 5FTTJO ɨVMJOF t "XOJF ɨPNQTPO t .PMMZ ɨPNQTPO +PF $BTBMJOJ t 7JSHJOJB ɨPNQTPO t $ZOUIJB , 5PEE t $PMF 5TVKJLBXB t "SOJF 5VDLFS t -PSSBJOF 7BHOFS t 3PO +BOFU 7BOEFOCFSH t %FCPSBI 7BO%FSIFJ t /JOB 7FMJLJO t 3ZBO 8BMMBDF .BHHJF )JMMEJOH t $JOEZ 8BSSFO t &SJD 'SPJOFT 4VTBO 8BSXJDL t +FSSZ 7SFOJ 8BUU t "OOB ,SJTUJOB 8FCFS t +VMJF 8FJTCBDI t "OHFMB 8POH t +VEJUI :BSSPX t "OPOZNPVT
What’s the Best Holiday Gift? Not Needing to Worry about Holiday Gifts of Course! We’ve got you covered. You know that Book-It is entertaining, educational and extraordinary. Share your experience with your friends and loved ones. Our 3-Play Subscription packages begin at $85 for matinees or weeknights ($100 for Friday or Saturday evenings). 4-Play packages start at $105 for matinĂŠe/weeknights ($123 for those coveted weekend nights). These well-priced packages are also ever so easy to wrap up for holiday gifts—we'll even supply the bow! Just ask for the gift-wrap special when you place your order. Gift CertiďŹ cates are also available in any amount and can be purchased online or at our box ofďŹ ce 206.216.0877.
Happy Holidays from Book-It
*denotes in-kind donation, **denotes in-kind plus monetary support. This list reects gifts received July 1 – November 7, 2008. Book-It makes every attempt to be accurate with our acknowledgements. Please email Development Associate Sam Wykes, sam@ book-It.org, with any changes that may be required.
Your participation in
the audience at this performance is deeply appreciated. Please tell your friends how much you enjoyed yourself. And if you are moved by the work you see on stage, we ask that you please consider making a gift to Book-It. Your gift—in any amount—makes the work we do on stage and in classrooms possible and accessible to all. Making a donation is a click away on our website at www.book-it.org, or call Marketing & Development Director Patricia Britton, 206.216.0877, ext. 100 to make your gift. Thank you.
ENCORE ARTS PROGRAMS
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S p e c i al T han ks Special thanks to the following organizations and individuals for their generous support: Maria Fe Bernardo, Bill Danner, Therese Diekhans, Ken Ewerc at ACT Theatre, Stephen Grenley, Philippa Herbert, John Patrick Lowery, Pacific Rim Equipment Rental, Hilary Pickles, Seattle Wood Design, Klara Svorcikova, and Michael Tufano.
Book-It Repertory Theatre Board, Staff & Company BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mary Metastasio President Gail Frasier Vice-President Kristine Villiott Treasurer Lucy Flynn Zuccotti Secretary Monica Alquist Steven Bull Jeff Cain Mary Anne Christy Melissa Manning Lynne Reynolds Deborah Swets
BOOK-IT STAFF Jane Jones & Myra Platt — Founding Co-Artistic Directors Charlotte M. Tiencken — Managing Director Annie Lareau — Education Director Patricia Britton — Marketing & Development Director Rachel Alquist — Box Office Manager Brady Brophy-Hilton — Education Associate Kate Godman — Grants Associate Emma Kelley — Marketing Intern Sara Lachman — Education Assistant Alison Loerke — Events & Special Programs Assoc. Susanna Pugh — House Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Larry Rodriguez — Technical Dir. & Production Mngr. Devorah Spadone — Production Stage Manager Bill Whitham — Bookkeeper Rachel Wilsey — Marketing Associate Samantha Wykes — Development Associate Samantha Wykes & Karen Imas — Box Office Representatives
COMPANY MEMBERS James Dean Laura Ferri Gail Frasier Heather Guiles Andy Jensen Jennifer Sue Johnson Jane Jones Daniel Harray Reginald André Jackson David Klein James Lapan Mary Machala Kevin McKeon Myra Platt David Quicksall Stephanie Shine Susanna Wilson
Book-It is a company of professional actors and directors who perform classic and contemporary works of fiction for the stage.
OUR MISSION IS TO TRANSFORM GREAT LITERATURE INTO GREAT THEATRE THROUGH SIMPLE AND SENSITIVE PRODUCTION AND TO INSPIRE OUR AUDIENCES TO READ. We strive to return theatre to its roots, to the place where the spoken and the written word intersect and where the story comes alive for the audience. What you see and hear at a Book-It performance is literary prose spoken by the characters of the story as if it were dialogue in a play—often word for word in a short story and, in adaptations of larger works, selected narrative. This is the Book-It Style™. We ask our audiences to use their imaginations, thereby becoming participants in a Book-It performance.
BOOK-IT REPERTORY THEATRE CENTER HOUSE THEATRE, SEATTLE CENTER
*
Administration Education Box Office Fax
305 HARRISON STREET
*
SEATTLE, WA 98109
206.216.0877 206.770.0880 206.216.0833 206.256.9666
info@book-it.org * boxoffice@book-it.org * education@book-it.org * www.book-it.org A-16
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