ANNUAL REPORT
Robert Vaughn
Kenneth Tigar and Ron Menzel
ARTISTIC & LITERARY HIGHLIGHTS
2012 - 2013
PRODUCTIONS: Celebrating Geva’s 40th Anniversary, the 2012-2013 Season featured seven major productions in the Wilson Mainstage, plus seven shows in the Fielding Nextstage, including a Conservatory production of 44 Plays for 44 Presidents as part of the first Rochester Fringe Festival and a Spring Studio Series that starred Remi Sandri in The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs and Reenah Golden in No Child…. Wilson Mainstage highlights included: Extraordinary Ensemble Acting Achievements – comic mayhem in You Can’t Take It With You and The Book Club Play, a stage full of Shakespearean magic in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the six-person musical intensity of Next to Normal n
Memorable Individual Performances – two historical characters came to life: Ken Tigar as Sigmund Freud and Ron Menzel as C.S. Lewis in Freud’s Last Session; a towering yet plain dose of humanity: David Alan Anderson as Simon in The Whipping Man; and the irrepressible energy of Guy Paul as Ebenezer Scrooge n
n Stunning Design – the exquisite detail of Freud’s study, the colorful sweep of moving scenery in a powerful musical, and a dream-like fairy kingdom
Cohort Club: Geva launched an innovative new audience engagement program, which immersed 20 community members in the entire artistic process, from first rehearsal to opening night. Cohorts observed the theatre-making process of The Book Club Play and wrote about their experiences online. Theatres across the country are now looking to emulate this program in their own communities.
Cary Tedder
New Play Development: Geva’s literary department nurtured the development of 20 plays during the 20122013 season, including The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence by Madeleine George, which has since opened at Playwrights’ Horizons in New York City; as well as Informed Consent by Deborah Zoe Laufer and Tinker to Evers to Chance by Mat Smart, which will both premiere at Geva in 2014. Tyler Jacob Rollinson and Andrew C. Ahrens Photos by Zach Rosing
Brett Robinson
Lunchtime Series: The first plays Geva ever produced were in a Lunchtime Series. To celebrate the 40th Anniversary, Geva produced lunchtime staged readings of four plays from the first two seasons, as selected by audience vote: After Magritte by Tom Stoppard, A Slight Ache by Harold Pinter, The Exception and the Rule by Bertolt Brecht and The Private Ear by Peter Shaffer. Student Matinee Series
Brian O’Connor Production Photographs by Ken Huth
Mark Cuddy | Artistic Director
Tom Parrish | Executive Director