& present
D. Lynn Meyers, Producing Artistic Director
THE GUYS by ANNE NELSON Directed by D. LYNN MEYERS†
August 27 – 29, 2021 Performed at the Cincinnati Fire Museum Set & Lighting Designer BRIAN c . MEHRING
Properties Master/Design Assistant SHANNON RAE LUTZ
THE VIDEOTAPING OR MAKING OF ELECTRONIC OR OTHER AUDIO AND/OR VISUAL RECORDINGS OF THIS PRODUCTION IS A VIOLATION OF UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW AND AN ACTIONABLE FEDERAL OFFENSE.
THE GUYS is presented by special arrangement with DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, INC., New York. Developed and first produced by The Flea Theater in December 2001 in New York City. Jim Simpson, Artistic Director; Carol Ostrow, Producing Director. One passage of the THE GUYS, “The Science of Pain,” was adapted from the book Listening to Prozac by Peter D. Kramer. The penultimate image of the play was inspired by a passage from Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
*Member belongs to Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers. This theatre operates under an agreement between Actors’ Equity Association, Professional Actors, and Stage Managers in the United States. Understudies never substitute for listed players unless a specific announcement is made at the time of the performance.
†
SPONSORED BY
CAST LIST CAST Joan........................................................................................................................KELLY MENGELKOCH* Nick........................................................................................................................................DEREK SNOW
*Member belongs to Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers. Understudies never substitute for listed players unless a specific announcement is made at the time of the performance.
SETTING New York City after the events of September 11, 2001.
A NOTE ABOUT THE PRODUCTION The video of counting at the beginning of the performance remembers the 2,977 people killed in the attacks on September 11, 2001: 246 from the four planes, 125 from the Pentagon, and 2,606 from the World Trade Center Towers. We also remember the thousands who were injured and died subsequently from related causes. Source: 911memorial.org
This production will be performed in one act with NO intermission. Approximate running time is 1 hour, 15 minutes.
SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Sarah Strickland, Alice Wize, and the Cincinnati Fire Museum Board Kris Chari and Rooted Grounds Coffee Co. Cincinnati Fire Department Bill “Gumby” Donovan Aymie, Jake, Jason, and Rae'ven from LotusShark
cast list | 3
BIOS KELLY MENGELKOCH (Joan) is so grateful to return to the stage with the Ensemble Theatre family. She was last seen at ETC in Fortune,as well as Red Velvet, This Random World, The Other Place, and Tribes. She has been a Resident Member of Cincinnati Shakespeare Company for 17 years, as well as appearing at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Know Theatre of Cincinnati, The Human Race Theatre Company, Xavier University Theatre, and New Stage Collective. Her film credits include Dark Waters, The Old Man and the Gun, A Kind of Murder, Perceptions, Overthe-Rhine, and CSA: The Confederate States of America. Love to Lynn, for making this happen, and Jeremy, for basically everything else. DEREK SNOW (Nick) has been a part of the Cincinnati theatre community as an actor, writer, and director for over 35 years. A graduate of the School for Creative and Performaing Arts, he continued his education in New York City before returning to Cincinnati to teach. Derek founded Missing Front Plate Productions in 2020 to amplify creative Black and Brown voices in theatre. His plays have been read and produced in Atlanta, New Jersey, Cincinnati, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Sydney, Australia. His commissioned two-act play, Silas the Uninvited, is scheduled for a 2022 debut in NYC as part of The Breath Project's New Works Initiative. ANNE NELSON (Playwright) is an author and a playwright, and teaches at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 1989 Livingston Award for international reporting. Her books and articles have been published widely, and her play The Guys has been staged throughout the world. As a war correspondent in El Salvador and Guatemala from 1980 to 1983, Nelson published reports and photography in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. She is a graduate of Yale University and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. D. LYNN MEYERS (Director) is the Producing Artistic Director of Ensemble Theatre, where she has directed more than 100 world and regional premieres, including Fun Home, The Wolves, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Legend of Georgia McBride, I Am My Own Wife, and Next to Normal. She has directed Off-Broadway at the York Theatre, and has directed extensively throughout the US and Canada. As a member of the Casting Society of America, Lynn's recent feature credits include Carol, The Old Man & the Gun, and The Public in addition to serving as the Location Casting Director for The Shawshank Redemption. She was named a finalist for the Zelda Fichandler National Award in 2011, is a past recipient of the YWCA Career Woman of Achievement Award, and recipient of the 2018 Rosa F. and Samuel B. Sachs Fund Prize for her regional arts impact and leadership.
4 | Bios