Oak Park Festival-Healer

PRESENTS

Brian Friel’s

FAITH HEALER Directed by BELINDA BREMNER*

March 10 – April 16, 2011

Madison Street Theatre

Faith Healer is produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc., New York City *Member of Actors’ Equity Association, The Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers Oak Park Festival 1

D I R E C TO R ’ S N O T E S “What is a fact in the context of an autobiography? A fact is something that happened to me or something I experienced. It can also be something I thought happened to me, something I thought I experienced. Or, indeed, an autobiographical fact can be pure fiction and no less true or reliable for that.... You delve into a particular corner of yourself that’s dark and uneasy, and you articulate the confusion and the unease of that particular period, when you do that, that’s finished and you acquire other corners of unease and discomfort.”

Brian Friel CAST Frank............................................................................................................................... Kevin Theis* Grace............................................................................................................................Mary Michell* Teddy..............................................................................................................................Jack Hickey* Mid 1970’s, the last night of August in Ballybeg, County Donegal and one year later in London Scenes: Frank Grace Teddy Frank Understudies Understudies never substitute for listed performers unless a specific announcement is made at the time of the performance.

For Frank - Kevin O’Brien, For Grace - Sara Nichols *Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers P R O D U C T I O N S TA F F Director............................................................................................................... Belinda Bremner* Stage Manager..................................................................................................... Robert W. Behr* Assistant Stage Manager............................................................................................Chris Julun Assistant Director.............................................................................................................Lucy Carr Production Design....................................................... Belinda Bremner* and Edwin Wald* House Manager.........................................................................................................Kristin Larsen C A S T & S TA F F B I O G R A P H I E S Jack Hickey (Teddy) is the Artistic Director for Oak Park Festival Theatre and has been with the company for nine seasons. For Festival Theatre he has 2 Oak Park Festival

directed Much Ado About Nothing, The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, and Love’s Labour’s Lost. Roles with Festival Theatre include the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac, Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit, Howard Bevins in Picnic, Touchstone in As You Like It, John Douglas in Murder by the Book, Friar

C A S T & S TA F F B I O G R A P H I E S ( c o n t .)

Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, and Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Jack has worked with many other theatres including ShawChicago, The Goodman, Drury Lane Oak Brook, Remy Bumppo, and Chicago Dramatists.

Favorite roles include that of Buckminster Fuller in the one man show R. Buckminster Fuller: The History and Mystery of the Universe at the Mercury Theatre, and Ko‑Ko in The Mikado with Light Opera Works. Next summer, Jack will return to the OPFT stage as Falstaff in The History of King Henry the Fourth.

Mary Michell (Grace) Faith Healer marks Mary Michell’s second appearance with Oak Park Festival Theatre. In 2008 she appeared as Kate in Belinda Bremner’s production of Dancing at Lughnasa. She has been performing with ShawChicago Theatre Company for twelve years, appearing in last season’s The Doctor’s Dilemma, Midwinter’s Tales, and Votes for Women.

Chicago audiences have also seen her at Bailiwick Repertory, Chicago Dramatists, Illinois Theatre Center, Drury Lane, The Harper Theatre, The Ivanhoe Theatre, and the Academy Playhouse. Regional theatre credits include What the Butler Saw at Arena Stage in Washington D.C.; A Man for All Seasons and Bedtime Story at Mummers Theatre in Oklahoma City; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at Actors Theatre of Louisville; and Butterflies are Free at Cherry County Playhouse. At Ravinia, Mary performed the narration to Mendelssohn’s Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Chicago Symphony.

Kevin Theis (Frank) returns to Oak Park Festival Theatre, having previously appeared as George in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men under Ms. Bremner’s

direction, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing under Mr. Hickey’s direction, as well as in The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Falstaff. He has also directed three shows for Festival Theatre (most recently Cyrano de Bergerac) and will direct Henry V this coming summer. He has appeared with, among others, the Goodman Theatre, Next Theatre, City Lit, Peninsula Players, Buffalo Theatre Ensemble and CT20 Ensemble, where he served as Artistic Director. He is a founding member of Shanghai Low Theatricals, a group of artists adapting popular classics to the stage, as well as an ensemble member with the Seanachai Theatre Company where he appeared as Finbar in The Weir last season.

Belinda Bremner (Director/Designer) Belinda’s Oak Park Festival Theatre directing credits include Friel’s Dancing At Lughnasa (2008) and Of Mice and Men (2010) as well as the annual benefit performances of Mrs. Coney. She will appear as The Chorus in this summer’s production of Henry V . A founding member of ShawChicago (with whom she acted in some thirty productions and directed productions including John Bull’s Other Island and her own script, Midwinter’s Tales) and a Joseph Jefferson winner, she has also appeared with such theatres as The Goodman, Northlight, Court, and several late and lamented companies such as The Body Politic and Saint Nicholas. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and has taught at The Theatre Conservatory at The Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University for over twenty years.

Edwin Wald (Designer) is delighted to be making his OPFT design debut with this production of Faith Healer.

Edwin is a veteran actor, director, designer, composer and acting/dialect coach. Originally from Dallas, Texas, his Chicago design credits include: Edward Albee’s Sand: Three Plays on a Beach, for Oak Park Festival 3

B I O G R A P H I E S ( c o n t .)

Sun Partners; By and About: GBS and Another Opening, Another Schmo! for THEM; Lepers and Medea/Cyclops for Razor’s Edge; and Cat Tales for Little Giant Productions. Edwin is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

City. Both towns lie within Northern Ireland and the Friels were Catholics.

Friel studied for the priesthood before becoming a schoolteacher. By 1959 he was a full time writer. Philadelphia Here I Come premiered in 1964, the first of his many plays set in Ballybeg, Co. Donegal. Ballybeg, meaning “small town,” is the setting for his masterpieces Dancing at Lughnasa, Translations, and Faith Healer. He describes writing plays as “delving into a corner of yourself that’s dark and uneasy and articulating the confusions.” He has been named one of Ireland’s seven Saoi of the Asosdana, a Wise Man of the People of Art.

Robert W. Behr (Stage Manager) is pleased to return for his eighth season at Oak Park Festival Theatre. A proud Actors’ Equity member since 1980, he has performed and stage managed for many Chicago area theatres as well as in Toledo, Ohio; Muskegon and Saugatuck, Michigan; and the opera company of the Eastman School of Music. He was last seen here as Sir Richard Lisa Gordon (Managing Director) has de la Lee in Robyn Hood. He is also a been working in theatre management on free‑lance director and OPFT’s treasurer. and off for 20 years. In addition to stage managing for many Chicago theatres Lucy Carr (Assistant Director) is excited since 1986, she was the bookkeeper for to be back at Oak Park Festival Theatre, The Commons Theatre for several years in having assistant directed last fall’s Bethe late 80s and early 90s. She also functrayal. As an actor, she has worked with tioned as production manager for several such companies as ShawChicago, Remy years at Next Theatre while she was also Bummpo, Piven Theatre Workshop, one of the resident stage managers there.

Rasaka, Irish Repertory, Lookingglass, She has been a member of Actors’ Equity Absolute Shakespeare, A Reasonable Association since 1998. Outside of the Facsimile (where she is also a company theatre, she is the owner of Lisa Gordon member), Abbie Hoffman Festival, and Events, a full-service event, party, and wedthe Kennedy Center in Washington DC. ding planning company. She began her Lucy is a graduate of the University of association with Oak Park Festival in 2006 the Arts in Philadelphia, where she was and has worked with the company almost nominated for the Kennedy Center ACTF every summer since then in one capacity Best Ensemble award twice, and the or another. She is very pleased to be workGaeity School of Acting in Dublin, Ireing with Oak Park Festival in a new role. land. She would like to thank this amazing cast and crew and her mother for Michael Rothman (Photographer) instilling her love for this amazing craft started in theater photography almost to her daughter and letting her follow.

50 years ago while acting in high school. In college and grad school Brian Friel (Playwright) Fellow Irishman he turned to photojournalism, phoand Artistic Director of the Guthrie tographing such luminaries as Barry Theatre, Joe Dowling called Brian Friel Goldwater, Supreme Court Justice “without question the predominant William Brennan, Jr., and Martin Luther Irish dramatist of his time.” Proving King, Jr. In 2003, he started shooting that the wide world is kinder than models for their portfolios after atkinsmen, Benedict Nightengale of The tending a workshop. In 2008, he joined Times hailed him as “the greatest living Oak Park Festival Theatre as their staff English dramatist.” And if an Englishphotographer and a year later started man said that, then.... Friel was born shooting for Village Players. in 1929 in County Tyrone and moved with his family ten years later to Derry 4 Oak Park Festival

SPECIAL THANKS Michael Lasswell, Jake Dickens, Si Osborne, Terry Boyle, Susan Gosdick A very special thank you to the leadership and staff of the Oak Park Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Gala Benefit Special Thanks: Silvano Brugioni and the The Madrigal Choir of Grace Episcopal Michael Lasswell Lillian Hohmann Douglas VanHouten Grace Episcopal Church & The Rev. Ms. Shawn Schreiner, Rector House Red Brooke Bremner Find us on Facebook!

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AU S T I N G A R D E N S B E N E F I T S F R O M YO U R S U P P O R T Festival Theatre summer performances are located in beautiful Austin Gardens. Originally owned by the Austin Family, Austin Gardens was willed to the Park District of Oak Park in 1944 along with an irrevocable trust fund for extraordinary maintenance and improvements. This fund is managed locally in hopes it will continue to grow and support the work of the Park District and, more specifically, Festival Theatre. If you are interested in donating to the Austin Trust, please contact Diane Stanke at the Park District of Oak Park at (708) 725-2022.

1003 Madison St., Oak Park IL 708-386-6304 HOURS: Mon. - Fri., 9am-7pm • Sat. 9am - 2pm

Service ■ Selection ■ Local Delivery Oak Park Festival 5

OA K PA R K F E S T I VA L T H E AT R E S TA F F Artistic Director...........................................................................................................Jack Hickey* Managing Director....................................................................................................Lisa Gordon* Marketing Manager..............................................................................................Alexis Jaworski Outreach Coordinator...................................................................................... Katherine Banks Education Director........................................................................................................David Zizic Box Office Manager...................................................................................................Mary Liming Photographer................................................................................................... Michael Rothman Legal Advisor.......................................................................................................Pamela Myerson Administrative Volunteer......................................................................................Marilyn Nolan OA K PA R K F E S T I VA L T H E AT R E B OA R D O F D I R E C TO R S Co-Presidents................................................................... Kevin Theis*and Belinda Bremner* Treasurer................................................................................................................. Robert W. Behr* Asst. Treasurer.................................................................................................................... Bill Rakes Secretary................................................................................................................... Molly Surowitz Members........................................................................Paul Englehardt, Leonard Grossman,

Jeff Madden, Dan Marco, Clifford T. Osborn,

Joyce Porter, Michael Rothman, Edwin Wald*

AN AGENCY OF T H E S TAT E O F I L L I N O I S

Shop for just about anything online at www.igive/OPFT, and your favorite retailers will donate a percentage of your purchases to the Theatre. Last year, our shoppers raised money for us and it didn’t cost them a penny.

Join for free at: www.iGive.com/OPFT For a limited time: get a $5 bonus donation with your 1st purchase at any iGive.com store!�

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2 010 - 2 011 C O R P O R AT E & F O U N DAT I O N S U P P O R T Over $5,000 Donnelley Foundation $1,001 - $5,000 19th Century Club Resurrection Health Care $501 - $1,000 Thomas G. Brown Family Charitable Foundation $251 - $500 Book Table EZMail Services Oaklake Park Associates Sear’s Pharmacy Vivid Seats

$101 - $250 Chicago Bancorp Forest Park National Bank & Trust Goodsearch Dr. Michael Rothman Susan M. Scherer Scoville Square Assoc.

Strand & Browne Molly Surowitz, Baird & Warner Up to $100 Andy the Good Handyman Jerry Bloom Fashions Anew

Fly Bird Forest Printing Frame Warehouse Evanston IGive.com Lynch Dental Center Partnership Michael Fitzsimmons Decorative Arts Minuteman Press Murder Mystery Players Poor Phil’s Your Home Inspector

2 010 - 2 011 I N D I V I D UA L D O N O R S Over $1,000 Belinda Bremner & Jake Dickens $251 - $1,000 Richard & Patricia Akin Cynthia Barnard & Len Grossman Krystyna D. Kiel C. Michael & Madeleine M. Weldon‑Linne Up to $250 Mrs. John H. Andersen Carole Aston Margaret Bailey & Thomas Barwin Jerry Bloom H. J. and S. Cartland Bode Ben Bogner Frederick J. Boland Rachael Bottorff F. David & Philomena Boulanger Brooke Bremner Timothy & Elizabeth Browne Elinor Chapman Sylvia & Lawrence Christmas

Nancy & Peter Clark James Dickert Dr. & Mrs. Peter W. Dietz Stuart A. Feldman & Arielle R. Augustyn Dan and Beverly Feldt Robert Fischer Cheryl L. Flinn Donald G. Gancer Joan M. Giardina Deborah J. Gillespie Edmund & Paula Goedert Elinor Hamer‑Crane Angelo Hareas Jerry Hills Judith M. Hoppe Elizabeth Howland & Dennis Zavac Elaine Hoyt Raymond A. Johnson Marian & Stan Kaderbek Carolyn A. Kalina Marion and Alexander Karczmar Evelyn Krueger Daniel S. Lamorte Arlene Lencioni Amy Little Colette M. Lueck

Patricia & Frederick Martin Cynthia Maziarka Roselen Murphy Marilyn Nolan Georga K. Parchem Maryellen Ponsford Teresa Powell Howard Raik Susan M. Roberts Maryanne Rusinak F.J. Schaal Peggy Tuck Sinko Joseph T. Smith Ken Stock Mila Tellez Kevin Theis Margaret & Russell Umbricht Nancy & Richard Waichler Edwin Wald Sharon Watts & Arthur M. Spooner Kate Wulle‑Dugan Martha A. Yount Gale S. Zemel & David Mausner Michele M. Zurakowski & John B. Flanigan

Oak Park Festival Theatre is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization. All donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. OPFT gratefully accepts donations of all sizes and types. If your employer has a matching gift program, please send the necessary paperwork with your gift. Donations may be sent to P.O. Box 4114, Oak Park, IL 60303 or may be made online at OakParkFestival.com.

Oak Park Festival 7

2 011 B E N E F I T AU C T I O N D O N O R S The Book Table Bosco Productions Bramble Belinda Bremner Brooke Bremner Chicago Bears Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox Comedy Sportz Competitive Foot Court Theatre Stanton Davis Tony Dobrowolski Robert Fischer D.C.,L.Ac. First Folio Marge and Galen Gockel Gold Hat Pin Leonard Grossman knot just knits League of Chicago Theatres Lifeline Theatre

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Light Opera Works LMNOP Children’s Clothing Marion Street Cheese Market Molly Malone’s Irish Pub Oak Park Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Oak Park and River Forest Symphony Rickshaw Rick Michael Rothman Eric Schaefer Seanachai Theatre Company ShawChicago Strawdog Theatre Company Mila Tellez Timeline Theatre Company Edwin Wald Unity Temple Restoration Foundation Verismo Opera Club Victory Gardens Winberie’s Restaurant and Bar Wonder Works, a children’s museum

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