Rattlesnake Kate

REVIVING A LEGEND: RATTLESNAKE KATE

IIt’s been three years since Colorado New Play Summit audiences got a sneak peek at Rattlesnake Kate, which back then wasn’t much more than a promising idea in the imagination of Neyla Pekarek. Simply put: “The Rattlesnake Kate world premiere musical that you will see today is dramatically diff erent from the concert version you may have seen in 2019,” DCPA Theatre

Company Artistic Director Chris Coleman said. There are at least a dozen new songs, Pekarek said, and only one that remains unchanged. The cast has been expanded from six actors to 14. There is now a fully developed script and a score that’s been expanded threefold. “It’s a completely diff erent show,” said Pekarek. The Aurora native, cellist and composer began developing the largely unknown story of Colorado frontierswoman Kate Slaughterback into a concept album back in 2015. The hook: Back in 1925, the self-reliant single mother came upon a migration of rattlesnakes near her farm in Hudson while on horseback with her 3-year-old adopted son. So, naturally, she proceeded to wipe out all 140 of them. “At fi rst she killed them with her rifl e, but she ran out of bullets,” Pekarek said. “So then she plucked a ‘No Hunting’ sign from the ground and just started bludgeoning those snakes to death.” Pekarek had recently left the Grammy-nominated band

The Lumineers and was pursuing her own artistic identity when she discovered a kindred spirit in Slaughterback. Born near Longmont in 1894, she was a nurse during World War II who held a variety of jobs, including taxidermist, midwife and bootlegger. She was divorced six times and made her way farming her own land. Pekarek wove Slaughterback’s biography into a 2018 concept album called Rattlesnake. Coleman then commissioned Pekarek, with the help of Brooklyn playwright Karen Hartman, to transform the album into a fully fl eshed stage musical. Hartman, playing big-time catch-up, came to the Summit with 40 pages of script in hand – “and we immediately threw 30 of them away,” she said with a laugh. But Coleman was so taken by the songs and the theatrical potential of this uniquely Colorado story that he immediately slated Rattlesnake Kate for a full production in January 2021. Then came COVID. “The delay gave us time to expand the story and integrate some of the deeper conversations that we are having about America right now,” Hartman said. The story is now framed as a group of contemporary storytellers who come in all shapes, genders, ages, colors and clothes, inviting us to gather around a campfi re to hear a story of the past. “The very fi rst line of the show is Neyla singing: ‘This is a tale about the West,’ ” Hartman said. And

even though Kate’s story took place 100 years ago, Pekarek added: “This is really the universal story of anyone who has been invisible.” To underscore that point: Kate is being played by three diff erent actors of diff ering ages and races. “After our last workshop, we talked a lot about diversifying the cast so that storytellers look like the Colorado that we see today,” Pekarek said.

One of those lock-opening creative conversations came when African American choreographer Dominique Kelley (DCPA Theatre Company’s Oklahoma!) read Hartman’s script and discovered this White woman from the early part of the 20th century who was fi ercely authentic in a way that rubbed up against the system of the day. “And when I fi nished reading it, I thought, ‘Well, that’s my story. I’m Kate,’ ” said Kelley. That’s when Coleman knew the story his team had to tell was larger than just one snake-killing loner. “The hope is that lots of people can see themselves in Kate,” he said. Slaughterback experienced a fl eeting taste of international celebrity when word of the snake attack started to spread in 1925. Hartman says that’s one thing Slaughterback and Pekarek have in common: “Both of them had this ‘shot-out-of-a-cannon’ experience with fame as a young person, and then they had to reinvent themselves,” said Hartman. After the glory comes the question: “What now?” The rattlesnake attack happened when Kate was just 32, and her life didn’t end there. She had 44 more years of “What now?” to go.

That’s why one of the writers’ biggest creative challenges was deciding how and when to stage the rattlesnake attack in the musical. The solution came from Broadway orchestra arranger Christopher Jahnke (Dear Evan Hansen), who suggested they tease the incident early in the musical, and revisit it later. Like a classic musical reprise. “The second time you see it, you see it in all its glory, and Kate is reliving the experience for a contemporary, younger person to hear and understand,” Hartman said. “When you see it again, you see it in the larger context of her entire life, and it is much more meaningful.” The overriding question that has driven Hartman and Pekarek: “Why now? Why do we need to see this story today?” Hartman said. She hopes they have produced “a powerful and previously untold story that a lot of people can relate to.” Pekarek counts herself among the many who have emerged from the quarantine wanting to approach their lives diff erently. “I am the kind of person who is a people-pleaser,” she said. “I really do not like to ruffl e feathers. It’s really hard for me to advocate for myself. And here’s Rattlesnake Kate, a woman who lived completely authentically to who she was all the time, regardless of cost or consequences. I know that’s more of who I want to be. “She was kind of a misfi t, and I think this is a story for misfi ts.”

“This is really the universal story of anyone who has been invisible.”

— NEYLA PEKAREK, COMPOSER

RATTLESNAKE KATE

FEB 4 – MAR 13, 2022 • MARVIN & JUDI WOLF THEATRE

COMING UP FROM BROADWAY

TOOTSIE

Get ready for the offi cial love letter to the theatre that will have you laughing out of your seat. Based on the 1982 fi lm, the Tony Award-winning Tootsie tells the story of an actor whose reputation for being diffi cult catches up to him, which prompts him to adopt a new identity as Dorothy Michaels to land the role of a lifetime on Broadway. What changes will fans of the fi lm notice on stage? In the fi lm, Michael Dorsey (as Dorothy Michaels) auditions for a role in a lead soap opera and the musical centers around a role on Broadway. Tootsie Book Writer Robert Horn shared with the Chicago Tribune during the pre-Broadway engagement, “by moving the show to Broadway, we get the chance both to pay tribute to the theater and make fun of it.” What else can audiences expect? Tootsie Composer David Yazbek (The Full Monty and The Band’s Visit) tells the Chicago Tribune to not expect to see recreations of the ‘80s music from the fi lm and to expect the exact opposite with a more upbeat and funky sound. See the hilarious comedy Tootsie at The Buell Theatre, Mar 29 – Apr 10, 2022.

The cast of the National Tour of Tootsie. Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

THE GIFT OF GLAMOUR

Surprise your sweetheart with a gift they’ll enjoy all year long — a subscription to our 2022 Broadway season! As a subscriber, you’ll get access to the best seats and the best showtimes the DCPA has to off er — and you’ll book up to eight spectacular date nights at once.

2022 BROADWAY SEASON

SUBSCRIBER PERKS INCLUDE

• First access to tickets for hit Broadway tours and Added Attractions • Free, fl exible exchanges and a dedicated customer service team • DCPA Education and restaurant/parking discounts

Some restrictions apply. Subject to availability.

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

denvercenter.org/subscribe

GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE Give your loved one(s) a DCPA gift certifi cate and let them curate their own “perfect season.”

SEASON SPONSORS

Chris Coleman, Artistic Director Charles Varin, Managing Director

present

IN THE UPPER ROOM

BY BEAUFIELD BERRY

With Sydney Cole Alexander, Yvette Monique Clark, Matthew Hancock, Kayla King, Monnae Michaell, Chavez Ravine, Levy Lee Simon, Courtney A. Vinson Stage Managers: Kristin Sutter, Rick Mireles

THE KILSTROM THEATRE • FEBRUARY 11 – MARCH 13, 2022

SCENIC DESIGN BY

Efren Delgadillo Jr.

COSTUME DESIGN BY

Angela Balogh Calin

LIGHTING DESIGN BY

Charles R. MacLeod

SOUND DESIGN BY

Jeff Gardner

DRAMATURGY BY

Regina Victor

FIGHT DIRECTION BY

Samantha Egle

MOVEMENT BY Nile H. Russell

CASTING BY Grady Soapes, CSA and Bass/Valle Casting

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT BY Matthew Campbell

DIRECTED BY Gregg T. Daniel

The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited.

In the Upper Room was developed at the DCPA Theatre Company’s 2019 Colorado New Play Summit.

Presented by The Joan and Phill Berger Charitable Fund

In the Upper Room is the recipient of an Edgerton New Play Award

Supported in part by DCPA’s Women’s Voices Fund

A DENVER CENTER WORLD PREMIERE

PREMIERE SPONSOR

June Travis

STUDENT MATINEE SEASON SPONSOR SEASON SPONSORS

IN THE UPPER ROOM CAST

In Order of Appearance John Berry ..............................................................................................................................................................Matthew Hancock Delores Williams .....................................................................................................................................................Monnae Michaell Janet Berry..................................................................................................................................................Sydney Cole Alexander Eddie Berry..................................................................................................................................................................Levy Lee Simon Jackie Williams..............................................................................................................................................Yvette Monique Clark Rose Berry..................................................................................................................................................................... Chavez Ravine Josephine Berry................................................................................................................................................Courtney A. Vinson Yvette Berry...........................................................................................................................................................................Kayla King

Stage Manager.................................................................................................................................................................Kristin Sutter Assistant Stage Manager..............................................................................................................................................Rick Mireles Stage Management Apprentice...........................................................................................................................Harper Hadley

The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers of the United States.

SETTING The Berry family home in Omaha, Nebraska in the 1970’s

There will be one 15-minute intermission.

WHO’S WHO

ACTING COMPANY

SYDNEY COLE

ALEXANDER (Janet Berry). (She/Her/Hers). Recent credits include: The American Tradition (New Light Theater Project). Film/TV: “Severance” (Apple TV), She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix), “Limitless” (CBS). Sydney is a graduate of Purchase College with a BFA in acting and attended LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in Manhattan.

YVETTE MONIQUE

CLARK (Jackie Williams). Credits include: The Mountaintop (Depot Theatre); Ain’t Misbehavin’ (International Tour & Depot Theatre); The Little Mermaid, To Kill a Mockingbird (Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre); Gun and Powder (Signature Theatre); Smokey Joe’s Café (National Tour and Gateway Performing Arts Center), Hairspray (National Tour and Theatre by the Sea). Chicago, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Show Boat (MacHayden Theatre); The Wiz, Unison, Merry Wives of Windsor (Oregon Shakespeare Festival).

MATTHEW HANCOCK

(John Berry). Theatre credits: An Octoroon (Fountain Theatre); Hit the Wall (LA LGBT Center); This Bitter Earth (The Road Theatre); Trans Scripts Part I (American Repertory); The View Upstairs (Celebration Theatre); The Brother Size, Between Riverside and Crazy, Hype Man: A Break Beat Play, I and You (Fountain Theatre). TV: “Seal Team,” “NCIS,” “Kidding,” “Westworld,” “I’m Dying Up Here,” “Giants,” “Five Points,” and “Prince of Peoria.” Matthew enjoys musical endeavors as Michael Siren. He is a LA Drama Critics Circle, Stage Raw award winner and an NAACP and Ovation Nominee. BFA from Adelphi University. Instagram: @imatthewhancock. KAYLA KING (Yvette Berry) (She/Her/Hers) is excited to be making her professional debut in In the Upper Room. She graduated, class of 2020, from Syracuse University where she was seen as Lady in Orange in For Colored Girls...Other educational experiences include performing as Hester Pryne in The Scarlet Letter at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Othello in scenes from Othello at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. TV/Film: “The Binge,” “Bull,” “FBI: Most Wanted.”

MONNAE MICHAELL

(Delores Williams) celebrates her career in theater, TV, and film. Nominated for an NAACP Theater Award: King Hedley III (Mark Taper Theater); Emmy nomination consideration for Flight ’93. At the DCPA: Seven Guitars. Credits include: Citizen: An American Lyric (Fountain Theater), Boy Gets Girl (Geffen Playhouse), A Raisin in the Sun (Lincoln Center Archives), Beehive (Actor’s Theater of Louisville). TV: “NCIS,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” “The Good Place,” “The Office,” “Young and the Restless,” “CSI,” “The Defenders.” Film: 42, Two Birds, The Drop. CHAVEZ RAVINE (Rose Berry). Off-Broadway: Cullud Wattah (The Public Theatre), The Bluest Eye (The Duke 42nd, Steppenwolf Theatre and The Arden Theatre), The Medicine Show. Regional: Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Portland Center Stage, OSF Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Congo Square Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, Virginia State Theatre, Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, Pegasus Players Theatre, Heartland Theatre, LookingGlass Theatre. BTAA for Best Lead in Drama and Drammy

Award for Best Lead. Film/TV: Barbershop II, Death of a President (Toronto International Film Festival Award), Sleepwalk with Me, April Fools, Tapioca, Southern Cross (Cannes Film Festival Award), “Prison Break.” LEVY LEE SIMON (Eddie Berry) is originally from Harlem and a graduate of the University of Iowa Playwright’s Workshop, MFA. As an actor, he has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, regional theatres, England and the Caribbean. He was a cast member in the Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony-nominated The Kentucky Cycle (The Royale Theatre), Ms. Ever’s Boys (Barbican Theatre, England), Odyssey – Race and Racism (Whitefire Theatre). Film/TV: The Last Revolutionary. Playwright credits include: The Bow Wow Club, For the Love of Freedom trilogy, Same Train, The Guest at Central Park West, and many more.

COURTNEY A. VINSON

(Josephine Berry). (She/ Her/Hers). New York credits: Georgia: The Play (777 Theatre, Actors Fund Art Center); In the Attic, Behind the Window (Theatre for the New City); DEEPLY (Manhattan Repertory Theatre); The Veritas Times (Hudson Guild Theatre). Regional theatre credits include: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Shakespeare & Company), Making Love Legal (DC Fringe Festival). Seen in ad campaign for Lifetime network mini-movie event A Merry and Bright Makeover and National TV ad for BJ’s Restaurant & Bar “Last Bite.” Training: MFA, The New School for Drama.

PLAYWRIGHT

BEAUFIELD BERRY is a Midwest-based playwright, novelist, and arts education professional. Her work specifically takes on the drama, history and joy of the Black diaspora and often includes magical surrealism and musical or mixed media components. Beaufield’s adventurous work has been performed across the country and in multiple conferences, including the Great Plains Theater Conference, Philadelphia Sparkfest, Manhattan Rep, and Colorado New Play Summit. She has served as a guest artist with Inge Fest in Independence, Kansas, on several panels and boards. Beaufield’s next work is the regional premiere of Buffalo Women; A Black Cowgirl Musical. DIRECTOR

GREGG T. DANIEL August Wilson’s Seven Guitars and Gem of the Ocean (A Noise Within Theatre -Ovation Nominee-Best Production of a Play); Lanie Robertson’s Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill and Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop (Garry Marshall Theatre). West Coast premieres of Mfoniso Udofia’s Her Portmanteau (Boston Court Theatre); and Tearrance Arvelle Chisolm’s Br’er Cotton (Lower Depth Theatre); Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs (Rogue Machine Theatre - Ovation-nominated, Best Director), the L.A. premiere of Greg Kalleres’ Honky (nominated Best Director, Comedy); Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (A Noise Within - Ovation nominated, Best Director).

DRAMATURG

REGINA VICTOR (They/Them/Pharoah) is a Black director, multidisciplinary artist, and cultural critic. Presently Sideshow Theatre’s Artistic Director, Victor has helped develop world premieres by Antoinette Nwandu, Anna Deavere Smith (Notes from the Field), and Sarah Ruhl. Victor co-founded Rescripted in 2017, an arts journalism platform by and for artists, and has written for other publications including American Theatre, Howlround, and Chicago Reader. Other notable artistic collaborations include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Steppenwolf Theater, Denver Center, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Timeline Theatre, California Shakespeare Theatre, The Sappho Project, and Bard at the Gate at McCarter Theater. Learn more at www.reginavictor.com. CREATIVE TEAM

BASS/VALLE CASTING (Casting). New York: Broadway’s Gem of the Ocean. Off- Broadway: Radio Golf, Jitney. Public Theater’s: New Works Now, Minetta Lane, Women’s Project, La MaMa, Epic Theatre, Drama League, Jewish Repertory Theatre, Women in Film and Television. Regional: Hartford Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Arena Stage, Trinity Rep, Syracuse Stage, Huntington Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Dallas Theatre Co., Berkeley Rep, Playmaker’s Rep, Alliance Theatre, Virginia Stage, Geva, CenterStage, Long Wharf Theatre, Arizona Theatre Co. Film: Pushing Hands, Gravesend, First We Take Manhattan. Audition Coach at many of the nation’s top universities and actor training programs. ANGELA BALOGH CALIN (Costume Designer). (She/Her/Hers). At the DCPA: Two Degrees, The Nest, Shadowlands, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Wall Story, Absurd Person Singular, The Miracle Worker. Recent credits include: Into the Breeches (Cleveland Playhouse, Asolo Rep.); Outside Mullingar, The Roommate (South Coast Rep.); Gem of the Ocean, Alice (A Noise Within); Shakespeare in Love (Alliance Theatre). Other theatres: Old Globe, Milwaukee Rep, Pasadena Playhouse, Orlando Shakespeare, Georgia Shakespeare, Hollywood Bowl, Antaeus Resident artist at A Noise Within. Theatre Drama Critic’s Circle, Ovation, Backstage, Drama Logue Awards. Film credits in the US and her native Romania MFA in Scenic and Costume Design - Academy of Arts Bucharest- Romania MATTHEW CAMPBELL (Production Manager). (He/Him/His). Matthew is incredibly grateful to be back at work supporting our outstanding production team and guest artists creating extraordinary theatre after so many difficult months away. He started at the DCPA in 2010 as a stage manager and in 2016 joined the production management team. Previously a stage manager at several local theatres and an Assistant Professor of Theater at Brooklyn College. Training: MFA, University of Iowa. EFREN DELGADILLO JR. (Scenic Designer). (He/Him/His). At the DCPA: Smart People, Indecent. New York: The Three Musketeers (The Acting Company); Mycenaean (BAM, Brooklyn Academy of Music). Regional credits include: American Mariachi (South Coast Rep., Arizona Theatre Company), Romeo and Juliet (Oregon Shakespeare Company), BLKS (Woolly Mammoth), Bordertown Now (Pasadena Playhouse), Othello (Hartford Stage), Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (The Getty Villa/Boston Court), Prometheus Bound (The Getty Villa/Center for New Performance). MFA: California Institute of the Arts. BFA in Studio Arts from University of California, Irvine. Efren is an Assistant Professor of Scenic Design at UC Irvine. SAMANTHA EGLE (Fight Director). (She/ Her/Hers). Her work has been seen on the stages of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Opera Colorado, Arvada Center for Arts and Humanities, Denver Children’s Theatre, Athena Project Festival, Lagoon Theme Park, Upstart Crow, New York Fringe Festival, The BiTSY Stage, Mizel Center for Arts and Culture, University of Denver, University of Northern Colorado, and numerous other educational institutions in Colorado. She was a Resident Artist as an Intimacy Director at Arena Stage. She is a Certified Teacher and the Regional Representative for the Rocky Mountain Region with the Society of American Fight Directors.

JEFF GARDNER (Sound Designer) (He/ Him/His) is an award-winning sound designer, foley artist and actor. Jeff has designed and performed throughout the country including the Geffen Playhouse, The Kirk Douglas Theatre, The Wallis Annenberg Center, A Noise Within, Antaeus Theatre Company, Circle X Theatre, Echo Theater, Rogue Machine Theatre, IAMA Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre (DC), Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival as well as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Jeff can be seen at L.A. Theatre Works where he regularly performs live sound effects.

CHARLES R. MACLEOD (Lighting Designer). At the DCPA (300+ productions/39 seasons): Recent designs include: As You Like It, Sweat, Native Gardens, One Night in Miami, Appoggiatura, The Diary of Anne Frank, Lydia, The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1001, The 39 Steps, Gem of the Ocean, All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, Lord of the Flies. For DCPA Cabaret: The Other Josh Cohen, The Improvised Shakespeare Company®, Xanadu, First Date, The Secret Comedy of Women (Denver and National Tour), The Last Five Years, Always…Patsy Cline. For DCPA Education: Corduroy, Goodnight Moon. Mr. MacLeod has been a member of the Theatre Company since 1983. www.charlesmacleod.com