2020 Love in Hate Nation Playbill

B OOK , MUSI C & LY RI CS BY

D I RECTED BY

JOE ICONIS JOHN SIMPKINS N OV - D E C/20 1 9 PRODUCTION SPONSOR:

SEASON SPONSOR:

SUBSCRIPTIONS MAKE GREAT HOLIDAY GIFTS! SUB SCRI BE TO TH E R E ST OF OUR S E AS ON & SEE 4 SHOWS FOR AS LITTLE AS $1 20 !

AUGUST WILSON’S

T H E

By William Shakespeare Directed by Sara Holdren

Directed by Obie Award winner Brandon J. Dirden

JAN 11 – FEB 2

FEB 29 – MAR 22

Cross-dressing and crossed-garters in one of Shakespeare's most perfect romantic comedies.

A mayoral campaign is upended by the struggle to preserve a piece of history in 1997 Pittsburgh.

WORLD PREMIERE

By Tony Meneses Directed by Annie Tippe

APR 11 – MAY 10 Clashes and connection between a gay yoga teacher and a team of construction workers.

Written, Performed and Directed

by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson Original Music Composed by Bill Sims Jr. Additional Music Composed and Performed by Chris Thomas King

JUNE 6 – 28 This master storyteller reminisces about the 1950's boardinghouse that helped raise him.

SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE NOW AT THE BOX OFFICE OR ONLINE AT TWORIVERTHEATER.ORG 2

ABOUT US

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LEADERSHIP

John Dias Artistic Director

Michael Hurst Managing Director Robert M. Rechnitz Joan H. Rechnitz Founders

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Anne Luzzatto President Kathleen Ellis Vice President Hon. Edward J. McKenna, Jr. Treasurer Susan Olson Secretary Stephen Becker Marilyn Broege Amanda Butterbaugh Carolyn Cushman DeSena Gale Grossman Todd Herman Caroline Huber Mary Jane Kroon Nyire Melconian Adam Rechnitz Joan H. Rechnitz Geoffrey Sadwith Maureen Silliman Mary Carol Stunkel Webster Trammell Richard B. Worley Howard P. Aronson Kathryne Singleton Emeritus Board Members

ARTIST ADVISORY BOARD May Adrales Barbara Andres Brandon J. Dirden Joel Grey Lisa Kron Martin Moran Brenda Pressley Ruben Santiago-Hudson Tanya Saracho Maureen Silliman Leigh Silverman Jennifer Tipton

Two River Theater produces a theatrical season that includes American and world classics, new plays and musicals, programs for young people, and festivals of new work. Each year, we also offer 40+ events that reflect our diverse community of Red Bank, New Jersey. Staying true to our founding principles, we bring a fresh eye to American and world classics, and we have commissioned and premiered original projects including Be More Chill

by Tony Award nominee Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz (the theater’s first Broadway production) and Hurricane Diane by Playwright-in-Residence Madeleine George (which won an Obie Award for its Off-Broadway run). Two River serves thousands of students and community members through arts and humanities programs at the theater, in schools, and throughout our region. Each season, we host numerous artist residencies, workshops and readings, and present an annual Cabaret of New Songs for the Musical Theater in association with NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program. Two River’s three-story Center for New Work, Education and Design opens in the fall of 2019. Two River Theater is led by Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst. tworivertheater.org

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7 Patron Services 8 A Note from the Artistic Director John Dias 11 Cast of Characters 13 Songs & Chapters 15 Bios 20 Joe Iconis in conversation with Playwright-in-Residence Madeleine George 26 Joe Iconis & Two River Theater 29 Production Spotlight: Mayte Natalio 30 Remembering Our Founder, Bob Rechnitz 33 Inside Two River Spotlight 34 Notes from the Dramaturg 37 Coming Soon: Twelfth Night and A Little Shakespeare: Twelfth Night 39 Education Spotlight 40 Center for New Work, Education & Design 41 Pave the Plaza 42 Individual Donors 45 Institutional Support 47 Meet Our Staff 50 Scene at Two River 3

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3/22/18 4:01 PM

LOVE IN HATE NATION

John Dias Artistic Director Michael Hurst Managing Director Robert M. Rechnitz Joan H. Rechnitz Founders

Book, Music and Lyrics by Joe Iconis

With Sydney Farley * Lena Skeele *

Amina Faye * Emerson Mae Smith

Jasmine Forsberg * Ryan Vona *

Lauren Marcus * Tatiana Wechsler *

Kelly McIntyre *

SCENIC DESIGNER........................................................................................Meredith Ries COSTUME DESIGNER................................................................................Karen Perry LIGHTING DESIGNER.................................................................................Isabella Byrd SOUND DESIGNER........................................................................................Palmer Hefferan HAIR & WIG DESIGNER.............................................................................J. Jared Janas FIGHT DIRECTOR & INTIMACY CONSULTANT..............Rocío Mendez COPYIST...................................................................................................................Danielle Gimbal ASSOCIATE MUSIC DIRECTOR........................................................Geoffrey Ko CASTING..................................................................................................................Telsey + Casting, Rachel Hoffman, CSA, Lily Schneider ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER........................................................Nicole Kuker * PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER.................................................Amanda Michaels *

Music Direction and Vocal Arrangements by Annastasia Victory Music Supervision and Orchestrations by Charlie Rosen Choreography by Mayte Natalio Directed by John Simpkins

OPENING NIGHT: NOVEMBER 15, 2019 JOAN AND ROBERT RECHNITZ THEATER

Commissioned and originally produced by Penn State University John Simpkins, Head of Musical Theatre & Dan Carter, Director – School of Theatre Love in Hate Nation is presented by special arrangement with Jenn Maley, Cori Stolbun, Rachel Sussman and Jennifer Ashley Tepper

PRODUCTION SPONSOR:

SEASON SPONSOR:

SEASON SUPPORTERS:

* Members of Actor's Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

Two River Theater is supported in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Bank of America Private Bank operates through Bank of America, N.A., Member FDIC. © 2019 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved. | ARYR43TP

PATRON SERVICES Thank you for joining us at this performance.

Two River Theater is dedicated to making your experience the best that it can possibly be. Please note the following offerings and requests to better enhance your time at the theater: BEFORE PLAY Join us 45 minutes prior to every performance in the Two River lobby for a pre-performance talk, which will give you valuable insight into the play you are about to see. Talks last 10-15 minutes and are led by a member of the company or Two River’s Artistic Department.

JOIN US FOR A DELICIOUS PRE-SHOW MEAL and positively impact your community.

JBJ Soul Kitchen serves an in-need and paying customer.

Hours of Operation Wed. - Sat. Dinner 5:00 - 7:00 PM Sunday Brunch 11:30 AM - 2:00 PM If you are hungry or hunger to make a difference.

Come by and learn why we say:

POST-PLAY DISCUSSIONS Post-play discussions are scheduled following select performances of every subscription series production. During these discussions, audiences are invited to share their questions and responses to the work on stage with members of the cast and staff of the theater. Post-play discussion dates for the current season can be found in our season brochure or on our website.

207 Monmouth Street Red Bank, NJ 07701 732.842.0900 info@jbjsoulkitchen.org www.JBJSOULKITCHEN.org

INSIDE TWO RIVER EVENTS A series of mostly FREE arts & humanities events specially curated for each of our productions. Events include film screenings, book club, poetry readings, crafting nights, lectures, social events with our artists & more!

To make sure you are first to hear about these events sign up for our email list, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and stay tuned to our website!

BOX OFFICE Box Office Hours: Monday through Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday from 12-5pm and starting one hour prior to all performances.

CONCESSIONS Coffee, tea, water, soda, candy, and snacks are available at the concessions stand in the lobby. Only water will be permitted into the theater during performances.

COURTESY Please limit food and drink, taking photographs and cell phone usage to our lobby or outside the theater. Late seating will occur at the discretion of Management.

CONNECT WITH US STAY CURRENT WITH TWO RIVER! See show trailers, costumes renderings and set sketches, photos, posts from the rehearsal room, and much more!

The conversation is constant on Two River’s social media sites.

VIRTUAL TOUR & ACCESS Two River Theater is committed to making theater accessible to all. If you would like to view our space in detail, in advance of your visit, a virtual tour is available on our website, tworivertheater.org

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A NOTE FROM THE

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

JOHN DIAS

Photo by Danny Sanchez.

Dear Friends, Joe Iconis’ Love in Hate Nation is set in the early 1960s, a time in our history when we were very much on the brink. When our world was so divided that it was radical to think we could come together and turn hate into love.

Radical to believe in the hope of changing the world for the better. Idealists have always struggled, been mocked, forced to swim against the tide of complacency and doubt. Two River Theater’s founder, Robert Rechnitz, who died this past October, was just such a man.

Like all great men he was an enigma; full of contradictions, with an immensity of heart and mind and soul best expressed though the words of his fellow American, Walt Whitman: “Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.” Yet, I don’t know that Bob ever fully embraced that truth about himself. As large as he was, he saw himself as one of us. Fiercely intelligent, highly educated, a voracious reader, a quick and sharp wit, a charming and persuasive orator; in a certain light he looked like a giant. But everything he did proceeded from a spirit of deep humility and yes, occasional self-doubt. Ever in pursuit of an answer to what it means to be human, and more importantly, how to be a better one.

I remember in one of my early days at Two River, Bob and I were in my office and I was asking him for more details about the Theater’s origin story. He said that many sober and reasonable people told him at the time that he was a fool to believe that this community could support a theater with the ambitions he set out for it.

When he spoke, I told him he reminded me of the lead character in Lorraine Hansberry’s imperfect but profound play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. Set in the early 1960s the play concerns the idealistic ambitions of a white, Jewish man, Sidney, living in Greenwich Village among neighbors who are artists, marginalized outsiders, homosexuals, blacks, feminists, etc. He struggles with his own self-doubt and a belief that change is possible.

At his lowest point, Sidney rouses himself with an extraordinary speech. Of course Bob knew the play. And the speech I was referring to. I took the play off my shelf and we opened to the page and Bob performed, as if the words were his own: “I am a fool who believes that death is waste and love is sweet and that the earth turns and men change every day and that rivers run and that people wanna be better than they are and that flowers smell good and that I hurt terribly today, and that hurt is desperation and desperation is—energy and energy can move things.”

Thankfully, for all of us, Bob also believed.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been poring through Bob’s old writing. Hoping to catch hold of his spirit and hold it forever. I came upon his original “Mission Statement.” Even if you’ve read it before, it’s worth remembering now.

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Two River Theater Company is a not-for-profit professional theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, established to provide the opportunity for theater artists to work at, and for the community’s theater audience to witness, theater events, the choice and character of which will be guided by a number of beliefs: •

that theater is a necessary institution if society is to maintain a truly human discourse and strive toward significant and rational communality,

•

that worthwhile theater can be attained only through patient experimentation, and that the activity of theater is a matter of process and exploration as well as ultimate achievement,

•

that success is to be measured in terms of a season rather than a single production, and a number of seasons rather than a single one,

•

that our society is pluralistic in populations, cultures, beliefs, and values, with no spiritual or cultural center to it, and that, subsequently, there is no specific canon of dramatic works that a theater purporting to be of serious cultural purpose, must perforce perform,

•

that there can be, consequently, no criterion other than an aesthetic one to guide the choice of dramatic works,

•

that therefore, Two River Theater Company will choose to perform from the world body of dramatic literature, including new works, those plays which, despite their inevitably fragmentary perspectives, most richly direct our gaze to the life of the human spirit in all of its shifting modes, its thought, its suffering, its passion, its joy and laughter,

•

and that Two River Theater will seek to educate and thereby create of its audience a community of partakers who, it is to be hoped, will learn to cherish the experience of theater as an intimate one which is enriched, and deepened, and made humanly significant to the extent it is shared with a community of others.

Robert Rechnitz. Photo by Danny Sanchez

Bob was radical. He was hopeful. And, he made that mission OUR responsibility. Will you take it on? Will you remember him? Will you join Bob’s artistic revolution?

Yours, John

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Ya-Ya.......................................................................................................................Sydney Farley Susannah Son...................................................................................................Amina Faye Rat............................................................................................................................Jasmine Forsberg Miss Asp...............................................................................................................Lauren Marcus Sheila Nail............................................................................................................Kelly McIntyre Dorothy.................................................................................................................Lena Skeele Kitty.........................................................................................................................Emerson Mae Smith Francis, Buzz, Doc Shock, Others.........................................................Ryan Vona Judith.....................................................................................................................Tatiana Wechsler Conductor and Keyboard 1........................................................................Annastasia Victory Drums.....................................................................................................................Rose Avila Guitar......................................................................................................................Dave Cinquegrana Reeds......................................................................................................................Tessa Dolce Trumpet/Flugelhorn......................................................................................Nick Frenay Keyboard 2..........................................................................................................Geoffrey Ko Bass.........................................................................................................................Chris Lough Love in Hate Nation will be performed with one intermission.

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Telsey + Company: Bernard Telsey CSA, Bethany Knox CSA, Craig Burns CSA, Rachel Hoffman CSA, Patrick Goodwin CSA, Rebecca Scholl CSA, Lauren Harris CSA, Laura Wade CSA, Ally Kiley, Lily Schneider, Meghan Ryan, Devin Rossinsky

SPECIAL THANKS

Musical Theater Factory, Shakina Nayfack, Scott Chaloff, Gimbal, Rachel Lee, Alex Ferrara, Amara Brady, Paul Rigano, Chris Anselmo, the cast and teams of Love In Hate Nation Penn State ('17 and '18) & MTF, Eric and Molly Barron, Bob and Lisa Bowman, Rick Lombardo, Art and Paige Nagle, Jennifer Peacock, Bailey Ford, 321 Theatrical Management, Nathan Sheffield, Esq and the Iconis Family (blood and otherwise).

The Director is a member of the STAGE DIRECTORS AND CHOREOGRAPHERS SOCIETY, a national theatrical labor union.

NI SCE C A

UNITED

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CA 8 L USA

The Designers at this Theatre are Represented by

United Scenic Artists • Local USA 829 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes

The scenic, costume, lighting, and sound designers in LORT theatres are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE.

Two River Theater is a member of the League of Resident Theaters (LORT), Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, and ArtPride New Jersey.

OPEN YOUR HEART

CASTING

PRACTICE & GIVE

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Associate Sound Designer: Ien DeNino Assistant to the Writer: Julián Mesri Assistant to the Director: Kamilah Bush Assistant Lighting Designer: Megan Seibel Assistant Wig Designer: Tony Lauro Projections Consultant: Michael Antoniewicz A2: Jason Crawley Lighting Programmer: Adam Rose Sound Programmer: Jordana Abrenica Wig Runner: Tanner Pippert Dance Captain: Lena Skeele

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SONGS & CHAPTERS ACT I “Susannah’s Song”

Susannah

ONE First Day at Nation “Life in Hate Nation” “The Three Failed Escape Attempts of Sheila Nail” “Doc Shock Theme Song”

The Girls Sheila, The Girls Doc Shock

TWO Smoking the Days Away Montage: “This Is the Way…” “Miss Asp’s Song” “The Other One” “Francis’s Song”

The Girls Miss Asp Sheila, Susannah Francis

THREE Disaster Night at Nation “Jezebel” Ya-Ya “Oh Well” Susannah, Sheila “I Hope” Susannah

ACT II FOUR Pipes “Solitary” “Masochist” “Miss Asp’s Song II” “Revolution Song”

The Girls Kitty, Susannah, The Girls Miss Asp The Girls

FIVE Operation: Sha La La Operation: Sha La La “I Was a Teenage Delinquent!”

Everybody Susannah, Sheila

Finale Everybody

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BIOS

MEET THE ARTISTS! SYDNEY FARLEY (Ya-Ya) Recent television credits include: Blue Bloods, The Deuce, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Search Party. Recent film credits include: Drunk Bus, American.ish and A Nice Girl Like You. Sydney is originally from Portland, OR and holds a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Love and gratitude to her family, friends, KMR and Michal!

AMINA FAYE (Susannah Son) is so excited to be working at Two River Theater for the first time! Amina would like to thank John and Joe for letting her be part of this EPIC story. She would also like to thank her family and her best friends Daniel and Nick for their endless love and unconditional support. Amina will be graduating from Penn State University in the spring!

JASMINE FORSBERG (Rat) is thrilled to reprise this badass role after playing Rat in Penn State's 2018 production. From Orlando, Florida, she is a junior in Penn State's BFA Musical Theatre program. Off Broadway: Broadway Bounty Hunter. Penn State Centre Stage: Hands on a Hardbody (Norma), Legally Blonde (Pilar). Jasmine will be working on Kirsten Childs' new musical, The Lucky Boy, this spring. Love and thanks to her parents, big brothers, John, Joe, and her incredible friends and mentors for their unwavering support. @jasmine_forsberg

LAUREN MARCUS (Miss Asp) Broadway: Brooke Lohst in Be More Chill (Original Broadway Company). Select regional and New York credits: Brooke Lohst in Be More Chill (Two River Theater and Signature Theatre), Brigid in The Humans (St. Louis Rep), Amy in Company (Barrington Stage), Beatsville (Asolo Rep), and The Jonathan Larson Project (Feinstein’s/54 Below). Lauren is also a singer/ songwriter, and her debut EP, Never Really Done with You, is on Spotify and iTunes. BM: NYU; MA: Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Endless thanks and love to her family, John, Diane Kitten, her man, everyone at Two River, and Whole Artist Management. www.laurenmarcus.com, @laurmarcus KELLY MCINTYRE (Sheila Nail) is pumped beyond belief to be joining Love in Hate Nation at Two River! For the past few years, Kelly has toured as the headliner for the National Tour of A Night with Janis Joplin, as well as countless regional productions of the show at lovely theaters such as McCarter, A.C.T. and Laguna Playhouse. Kelly is a current solo vocalist for Revolution: A Beatles Symphonic Experience throughout the United States with select Symphony Orchestras. Select NYC credits include: Beau, The Accidental Club, Days of Rage, For Tonight, Into the Sun. You should also check out Kelly’s band She’s Everist if you dig rock and roll! A massive thank you to Joe Iconis, Two River, John Simpkins & team for taking a chance on me, this totally rocks! Additional X’s and O’s to Jeremy & The Boys at Hoff, Cori and MD&S! @kellymcintyre22 LENA SKEELE (Dorothy, Dance Captain) is a recent graduate of Penn State University, and is so excited to be continuing her journey with LIHN after playing the role of Dorothy at PSU! Regional credits include: Joseph…Dreamcoat (Pittsburgh CLO). Lena wants to thank her family, Joseph and CTG for all their love and support, and John and Joe for letting her be a part of this beautiful show. Instagram/Twitter: lena_skeele

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EMERSON MAE SMITH (Kitty) is a writer and performer currently pursuing a BFA in Acting from the University of Michigan.

She is honored to raise a fist in this and all revolutions. Recent UofM performances include devised theatrical pieces like Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. and Murakami by the Sea, in addition to Viola in Twelfth Night and Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information. As a writer, she created the one-woman show WATCHDOG and collaborated with her twin sister Murphy Smith on the musical Elektric, a bloody new retelling of The Oresteia featuring Elektra as a transgender woman. Thanks mom and dad! @emersonmaesmith RYAN VONA (Francis, Buzz, Doc Shock, Others) is a Bostonborn, New York-based actor/ musician. Broadway credits include Once (Andrej), Cirque du Soleil’s Paramour (Joey, OBC) and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Regional credits include Jesus Christ Superstar (Judas, dir. Terrence Mann), Mamma Mia! (Pittsburgh CLO) and Little Shop of Horrors (opposite The Lauren Marcus). You can find his original album, Somebody, wherever you listen to your music. For Caity and Moony. RyanVona.com, @ryanvona TATIANA WECHSLER (Judith) Two River debut! First woman to play Curly in Oklahoma! (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). OffBroadway: X: or, Betty Shabazz v.

The Nation, Julius Caesar, Othello (The Acting Company), The Golden Bride (National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene). NYC credits: Regional credits: Benny & Joon (Paper Mill Playhouse), The Legend of Georgia McBride (Marin Theatre Company), Love's Labour's Lost (OSF). Film: Netuser.

Many concert and reading appearances in major venues around NYC. Graduate of NYU Tisch's New Studio. www.tatianawechsler. com, @tatiwex

MUSICIANS ROSE AVILA (Drums) was born in Bad Godesberg, Germany and spent her childhood in Mexico and Vienna, Austria. She began playing drums at age 16 and has studied at Facultad de Musica de la Universidad de Veracruz in Xalapa, Veracruz and Escuela Superior de Musica in Mexico City. She was later granted a scholarship from the Mexican Endowment of the Arts for completion of her training at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles,

California where she studied with such notables as Joe Porcaro, Casey Scheuerell, Ralph Humphrey, and Taka Numazawa. Upon graduation in 1991, Rosa was presented with the award of Outstanding Student of the Year and also received the Human Relations Award, the first time a student won both in the same year. She has performed with artists such as The Lennon Sisters, Ann Margret, Pat Boone, Glen Campbell, Debby Boone, Shari Lewis, Elkie Brooks, Petula Clark. In 1992, she began her association with Andy Williams, with whom she performed until 2009. She plays drums in the all-women jazz group Sheroes with band members Monika Herzig, Jennifer Vincent, Leni Stern, Jamie Baum, and Reut Regev. In 2018 she had the pleasure of having the drum chair at Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway, and she had the drum chair in two amazing Off-Broadway shows this year, Chick Flick and Broadway Bounty Hunter.

DAVE CINQUEGRANA (Guitar) is a New York-based (Jersey born!) guitarist. Broadway: Be More Chill, Frozen (sub), Next to Normal (sub), Once on This Island (sub), Beetlejuice (sub). Regional/OffBroadway: Desperate Measures (sub), Mad Ones (sub), The Last Goodbye (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Be More Chill (TRT extension only), Be More Chill (Off-Broadway sub), Next to Normal, Bare, Legally Blonde. Other: 21 Chump Street (BAM/This American Life), The Midtown Men (OBC The Jersey Boys) since 2014, as well as many cabarets/concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Beacon Theatre, The Blue Note, 54 Below, Green Room 42, and just about every bar and venue in NYC, etc. Jazz performance at William Paterson University and City College of New York.

TESSA DOLCE (Reeds) is a freelance Multiple Woodwind Specialist based in the New York/ Metropolitan area. This is Tessa’s second show at Two River Theater, after the world premiere of Pamela’s First Musical by Cy Coleman last season, and she is thrilled to be working with Charlie Rosen again as a member of the pit orchestra for this production. Tessa received her MA degree in Multiple Woodwind Performance from Montclair State University in New Jersey. A student of Chad Smith and Harry Searing, Tessa has been a member of the orchestra for the New Jersey State Theater’s Joseph and Spring Lake Theater’s production of The Producers.

While at MSU, Tessa was orchestra manager for Greg Dlugos and a pit orchestra member for West Side Story, Carousel, Three Penny Opera, The Producers, Anything Goes, 42nd Street, and Kiss of the Spider Woman. Tessa has been a member of the orchestra for productions presented by Vanguard Theater Company, CAST Theater Productions, GB Productions, and The Old Library Theater in Fair Lawn. She also plays with the Mark Heter Concert Band, George Krauss Concert Band, the Garden State Symphonic Band and Central Jersey Wind Ensemble.

NICK FRENAY (Trumpet/Flugelhorn), working for the first time with Two River Theater, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Nick Frenay is thrilled to be a part of this production. Having recently relocated from Boston, Nick’s first professional theater credit was playing trumpet/flugabone in the 2016 world premiere of another Joe Iconis show, Broadway Bounty Hunter at Barrington Stage.

He also made his Broadway debut earlier this summer subbing on trumpet/flugabone/theremin in Be More Chill at the Lyceum Theatre. When he isn’t juggling instruments in Iconis & Family productions, Nick writes and releases music with his pop duo Nick + Noah and continues to study the noble and enduring tradition of American popular song.

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CHRIS LOUGH (Bass) attended The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music and has been a part of more than 150 theatrical productions in the tri-state area. He has toured Europe several times with Evita and Die Schöne und Das Biest, and the United States/Canada with Peter Pan and the first national tour of She Loves Me. Notable appearances include the JVC Jazz Festival and Guimaraes Jazz in Portugal. He has also been featured on various recordings for the Cadence Jazz, Leo, Sony, Nacht, and MSR Classics record labels.

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CREATIVE TEAM JOE ICONIS (Book, Music and Lyrics) is a musical theater writer, composer and lyricist. He has been nominated for a Tony Award, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Outer Critics’ Circle Awards, and is the recipient of an Ed Kleban Award, a Jonathan Larson Award, a Richard Rodgers Award, and is a former Ars Nova artist-in-residence. Joe’s musical Be More Chill (with Joe Tracz) debuted in March 2019 at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre, following a sold-out OffBroadway run at The Pershing Square Signature Center and a world premiere at Two River Theater. He is the author of Broadway Bounty Hunter (with Lance Rubin and Jason SweetTooth Williams; Barrington Stage Company and Greenwich House Theater Off-Broadway), Bloodsong of Love (Ars Nova, NAMT), The Black Suits (with Robert Maddock; Center Theater Group, Barrington Stage Company), ReWrite (Urban Stages, Goodspeed Opera House), and Theaterworks USA’s The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks and We the People. Musicals currently in development include The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson for La Jolla Playhouse (with Gregory S. Moss; directed

by Christopher Ashley), Punk Rock Girl. Commissions: Two River Theater (with Joe Tracz). His music appeared on season two of NBC’s Smash, with his song “Broadway, Here I Come!” hailed by the New York Times as a new entry in The Great American Songbook. Albums: Be More Chill (OCR), which has been streamed over 350 million times; Things to Ruin (OCR); Two-Player Game, and The Joe Iconis Rock & Roll Jamboree, all available on Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records.

JOHN SIMPKINS (Director) is proud to have been the director of six previous projects with Joe Iconis. He directed Mr. Iconis' three-time Drama Desk nominated Bloodsong of Love (Ars Nova); The Black Suits (Center Theatre Group - Kirk Douglas Theatre, Barrington Stage Company); ReWrite (Urban Stages, Goodspeed Opera House); The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks (Theaterworks USA - Lucille Lortel); Things to Ruin (which he also co-conceived) and all 11 years of the Joe Iconis Christmas Extravaganza. His recent new musical credits include the World Premiere of Legendale (music by Andrea Daly, words by Jeff Bienstock) at Fredericia Teater in Denmark and the subsequent American Premiere at Human Race Theatre Company. Recent new plays include the World Premieres of Raging Skillet (by Jacques Lamarre) at Theaterworks Hartford, The Bus (by Jim Lantz) at 59E59 Theaters and For Better, For Worse (by Reed Arnold). Regionally, he has directed at Sacramento Music Circus, Lyric Theatre Oklahoma, North Carolina Theatre, the Engeman Theatre, and Sharon Playhouse (where he also served as Artistic Director). John is Head of Musical Theatre at Penn State University, where he has commissioned and directed Love in Hate Nation, The Last Day (Mike Reid/Sarah Schlesinger), The Lucky Boy (Kirsten Childs) and an Untitled Musical (Sam Salmond) through a New Musicals Initiative he created and curates. Upcoming projects include the World Premiere of A Hero's Tale at Fredericia Teater in Denmark and productions of The Lucky Boy (Kirsten Childs) and For Better, For Worse (Reed Arnold). www.john-simpkins.com MAYTE NATALIO (Choreographer) is from Queens, New York. She trained at the LaGuardia H.S. for the Performing Arts as well SUNY Purchase (BFA) and has had an extensive performing career. As a choreographer she has been a part of Camille A. Brown’s choreography team on several productions including NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live, Atlantic Theater Company’s This Ain’t No Disco and, most recently as associate choreographer on the Metropolitan Opera’s Porgy and Bess. Choreography credits include Public Works/Dallas Theater Center’s The Tempest (associate choreographer) and The Winter’s Tale (choreographer), Red Speedo (Juilliard), Runaways (NYU/New Studio), Into the Woods (Barrington Stage), The Public Theater’s Mobile Unit’s Measure for Measure and, premiering in Spring 2020, Virgin Voyage’s Another Rose. Mayte is a Co-Founder of the immersive events production company MinuteZero.

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732.588.1800 19

“I REALLY LOVE THE ECCENTRICITIES OF PEOPLE”:

Joe Iconis in conversation with Playwright-in-Residence Madeleine George

Madeleine: I know that musical theater fans really make all other fans look like amateurs. Has anyone ever ripped your clothes off in the street?

Joe: (laughing) No, we’ve never gotten that far, but I have had people give me clothing in the street. People are really into giving me socks, which I love. I think the fans have perceived that I’m a fairly snappy dresser when I’m out in the world doing events. I definitely care about my socks.

And because I play piano, people tend to be really aware of them—their eye level is right at my ankles.

Madeleine: Do you have a sense of what creates that kind of rabidity and passion and fainting intensity of musical theater fans? What is it about the form that makes people go crazy?

Joe: I think it’s a few things. For one, I think theater attracts

a certain type of person—there’s an inherent strangeness and sensitivity in theater people. And theater is such a home, it’s such a community. I feel like when young people, especially, discover this community, it makes them double down on their weirdness and double down on their sensitivity. And musical theater is an explosion of different obsessions because you have the theater people, but then also the music people—the people who are going to know all the lyrics to the songs and go to the concerts and wear the T-shirts.

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Madeleine: Is it different for you writing now post-Be More Chill because of the global scope of this intensity?

Joe: I’ve always occupied a very culty place in the New

York theater scene; I’ve been lucky enough to have a good number of people who are aware of my work and who like my work. And age-wise, it’s been an across-the-board kind of thing. At the same time, I have done work in regional theaters, and those audiences tend to be older. So with Be More Chill it’s been really mind-blowing to see all these young people be aware of my work and get excited about it.

Madeleine: And so well-deserved.

Joe: Thank you. It’s the coolest thing and really kind of

unexpected for me. Be More Chill is a show that’s about young people and there’s definitely a youthful energy to it, but when I wrote it for Two River, I wasn’t necessarily imagining that the audience would be filled with young people. I was imagining the audience would be filled with the traditional regional theater crowd. The fact that these young people came to my writing when I wasn’t trying to write for a young audience has been great. It made me realize that I don’t need to change my writing in order to keep the fanbase happy; what they dug about my stuff or what they connected to is something, I think, inherent in what I was doing. And I hope that Love in Hate Nation

connects in the same way. The show is, technically, about young people in 1962 but the idea is that anyone can relate to it—whether they grew up in the era or not and regardless of age.

The other nice part of it for me is that I’ve met and interacted with so many young people who are fans of Be More Chill, who then got turned onto the rest of my work.

And I do feel like I owe it to them to not let them down.

Be More Chill deals with very real issues, like anxiety and depression. I’ve met so many people—and not just young people—who deal with those things in their day-to-day life, and would talk to me about how the show helped them. And I feel like I have a responsibility to these people if I’m writing something that interacts with those issues— which invariably, all of the things that I write do. I have a responsibility to make sure that I’m being authentic, and that I’m always aware that there will be human beings watching what I’m doing. It’s made me more aware of the art that I’m putting into the world.

Madeleine: I was thinking in terms of awareness that

you write really good girls and women; it’s noticeable. What accounts for your insight?

Joe: Every time I’ve spoken about this, I feel like I

oversimplify it, but I truly believe that people are people. I think that women are not another species (laughing) and so I feel like if I’m able to write a cis white male character, I should be able to write human beings who are not that.

I really love the eccentricities of people, and I like to find the things that are universal in all of us. I think my writing really tries to find commonalities between people who, on the surface, might seem really different—from each other, from the rest of society—and find things that everyone can relate to and latch onto. That’s definitely the heart of it.

But another part of it is that in musical theater specifically, I feel like women almost always get the short end of the stick insofar as having good stuff to do. That’s such a musical-theater thing and it drives me insane. It’s like the female characters in musicals, even if they actually have something substantial to do, invariably, they have to take on this like noble stance or something. It’s like they have to be an angel or they have to save somebody or they have to be saved, and then it’s like their character becomes whatever their issue is, you know?

Madeleine: Yes. Joe: And in my writing, I’m obsessed with actors. I love

actors. I love collaborating with actors and, when I write, I try to give actors material that they can sink their teeth into. I hate the idea of ever wasting an actor in a show.

I want to give every single human being who’s on stage

something meaningful and exciting to do, and I want to be able to see women have just as much complexity and weirdness as the men, you know?

And then, as far as the songs, the women characters in musicals always get these songs, where, as soon as an intro starts, I feel like I always know, oh, this is going to be the ballad, the female song, and I know basically how she’s going to sing it because she’s not allowed to sing an uptempo number. And I try to play against that as much as I can. Love in Hate Nation is pretty much all women, and the only for-real “ballady” moment in the show is something that the guy sings, and it’s not even a whole song.

Madeleine: A lot of your work has been you striking out on your own—writing book, lyrics, music—and then you’ve also worked with collaborators on adaptations of existing material. Is there like a zone where you feel like most at home?

Joe: No is the easy answer. Whether I’m writing on my

own or writing with a collaborator is really based on the project, and dictated by the content. Be More Chill was based on a book by Ned Vizzini, and I loved the book and responded to it, but it was very immediately clear to me that I wasn’t the person who should write the book for the musical. Joe Tracz was a writer who I loved and thought, oh, that’s it, if he was into it, we could make a really cool musical out of this.

Love in Hate Nation was an idea that started with me and came together really organically. But when I first started working on it, I definitely had a moment where I was like, hmm, this show is really telling me that it wants to be a musical that is about a 16-year-old queer woman of color in the 1960s. And I could not be further apart from a 16-yearold queer woman of color in the 1960s (laughing) and so I wondered, should I get a collaborator who can speak to that point of view a little more explicitly? What ended up happening was I started writing and the show just kind of presented itself and it then became about trying to like populate the room and the process with many people who have a different life experience and different point of view from myself.

I truly love collaboration. I love being in a room and wrapping the writing around the actors who are inhabiting it. And I love a room that feels like anyone can say anything and things change based on what everyone is feeling. All I ever want to do is finish the draft or get something down on paper so that I can take it and collaborate with all the other people. And it’s cheesy, but anytime I’m ever writing something myself, it never feels like it’s by myself. All my writing is just to be able to get in a room with other people to start the actual work on it. n 21

CHARLIE ROSEN (Music Supervisor/Orchestrator) is a composer, performer, arranger, orchestrator, music director, and producer.

Recent Broadway credits include Be More Chill (Music Sup/ Orchestrations), Moulin Rouge (Horn Arrangements), Prince of Broadway (Orchestrations), American Psycho (Assoc MD/Keys), The Visit (Guitar/Zither), Honeymoon in Vegas (Orchestrations), Cyrano de Bergerac (Composer), One Man, Two Guvnors (Music Director, Bass), 13 The Musical (Guitars, Bass, Keys), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Assoc. MD, Bass). Off-Broadway/Regional/Other: Moulin Rouge (Orchestrations), The Colonial Theatre; Bounty Hunter (Orchestrations), Barrington Stage; The Boston Pops (Arranger); A Legendary Romance (MD/Orch.), Williamstown Theatre Festival; Miss You Like Hell (Orchestrations) and misc. Shakespeare in the Park, The Public Theater; Pamela’s First Musical (Orchestrations) and Be More Chill (MD/Orch.), Two River Theater; The Black Suits (MD/Orch.), Center Theatre Group; Unauthorized...Samantha Brown, Goodspeed; Bonfire Night, NYSF; Charlie Rosen’s Broadway Big Band (in residency at 54 Below); Chita Rivera: A Legendary Celebration (Orchestrations), August Wilson. TV/ Film: The President Show (Composer), Comedy Central; Maya and Marty (MD/Composer/Arranger), NBC; Best Time Ever w/NPH (Orchestrations and Track Production), NBC; High Maintenance (Addl Music) HBO. ASCAP, Local 802, Equity, Berklee, WME. www.charlierosen.com, @ CRosenMusic ANNASTASIA VICTORY (Music Director/Vocal Arranger/Keyboard 1) is an internationally acclaimed pianist, composer, arranger and conductor, known for her ability to proficiently integrate diverse genres of music. Her work with 3 Mo’ Divas, a live PBS special nominated for an NAACP Image Award, earned her the nickname “Diva of the Keys.”

Collaborations include: Leslie Odom Jr., Billy Porter, Alex Newell, Santino Fontana, Jake Gyllenhaal, Brooke Shields, Renée Fleming, Tituss Burgess, Deborah Cox, Joshua Bell. Music director, arranger, orchestrator for Cynthia Erivo: In Concert (Live from Lincoln Center). Credits: Broadway revival of Once on This Island (conductor, pianist); Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope at Encores! (MD, arranger); Bubbly Black Girl at Encores! (MD, conductor, pianist); Little Dancer at The Kennedy Center (AMD, piano, accordion); Marie, Dancing Still at 5th Avenue Theatre (AMD, lead pianist); The Wiz at La Jolla Playhouse (AMD, pianist); A Wonderful World at Miami New Drama (MD, arranger). Broadway: Mean Girls, Motown, Newsies, The Color Purple, Violet, An American In Paris, School of Rock, Big Fish, Jersey Boys, Billy Elliot, Nice Work If You Can Get It. Annastasia made her Carnegie Hall debut as a virtuoso pianist at 16 years old, and performed as a soloist with the symphonic orchestra at Merkin Hall as a winner of the Kaufman Concerto Competition. Annastasia’s education includes The Juilliard School of Music, School of Sound and Audio Engineering, and Moscow Music Conservatory of Tchaikovsky pre-school. She is also a recording artist with a solo music available for download on iTunes. www.annastasiavictory.com MEREDITH RIES (Scenic Designer) Little Gem (Irish Repertory Theatre), No One Is Forgotten (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), A Hard Time (Pig Iron Theatre Company), Bonnie’s Last Flight (NYTW Next Door), Sweeney Todd (Curtis School of Music), Cute Activist (The Bushwick Starr), Lost Laughs (Merrimack Repertory Theatre), Peer Gynt & the Norwegian Hapa Band (A.R.T./NY, Ma-Yi Theater Company), Heartland (Geva Theatre Center), Heartbreak (The Bushwick Starr), The Temple Bombing (Alliance Theater), The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go! (Ma-Yi Theater Company). Associate Designer: Hadestown (des: Rachel Hauck), The Spongebob Musical (des: David Zinn), The Waverly Gallery (des: David Zinn), Amelie, the Musical (des: David Zinn). Check out my work at www.meredithries.com KAREN PERRY (Costume Designer) previously designed August Wilson’s King Hedley II, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Jitney, Two Trains Running and Seven Guitars at Two River, as well as Oo-Bla-Dee, Lives of Reason, Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, Guadalupe in the Guest Room, Third and 22

Trouble in Mind. Her most recent credits include runboyrun & In Old Age (New York Theatre Workshop), Mothers (Playwrights Realm), Jazz (MTC), Lackawanna Blues with Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Mark Taper Forum), Fun Home (Baltimore Center Stage), Steel Magnolias, Hair, Dreamgirls (DTC), Oklahoma! (Houston Ballet at TUTS) and Cinderella Ballet (Eglevsky Ballet Company). Other credits include Danai Gurira’s Familiar (Woolly Mammoth, Guthrie, Seattle Rep), Cabin in the Sky (Encores!), Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky (Pasadena Playhouse), John Grisham’s A Time to Kill, dir. Ethan McSweeny (Arena), Crowns, stop. reset, Trinity River Trilogy by Regina Taylor (Goodman, STC, DTC/Arena), The Trip to Bountiful, Walter Mosley’s The Fall of Heaven, dir. Marion McClinton (Cincinnati Playhouse), The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarell McCraney, dirs. Tina Landau and Robert O’Hara (The Public/McCarter), Having Our Say by Emily Mann (McCarter) and Resurrection by Daniel Beaty (Arena). She has designed every play in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle except Fences. Film/TV credits include: Gregory Hines Show, Saturday Night Live, and The Brother from Another Planet by director John Sayles.

ISABELLA BYRD (Lighting Designer) Select New York: Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons), The Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (New York Theatre Workshop, Obie Award), “Daddy” A Melodrama (Vineyard/New Group), Continuity (MTC), Plano (Clubbed Thumb), The Hello Girls (Prospect, 59E59), The Slow Room (Annie Dorsen), Sundown Yellow Moon (Ars Nova/WP). Regional: Mlima’s Tale (Westport), The Tale of Despereaux (The Old Globe), Seascape (ACT, San Francisco) Tell Me I’m Not Crazy, Member of the Wedding, and Artney Jackson (Williamstown), Humana Festival 2018, Angels in America co-design (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Upcoming: Shakespeare Theatre Company DC, Hartford Stage, New York Theatre Workshop, and the Alley Theatre. www.isabellabyrd.design PALMER HEFFERAN (Sound Designer) previously designed Cyrano at Two River Theater. Broadway: The Lifespan of a Fact (Studio 54), Grand Horizons (upcoming, Second Stage). Off-Broadway: Marys Seacole (Lincoln Center); Wild Goose Dreams (The Public); The New Englanders, Sugar in Our Wounds, Important Hats… (Manhattan Theatre Club); Seared, BLKS, Collective Rage, Charm, School Girls (MCC Theater); Do You Feel Anger? (Vineyard); Something Clean, Bobbie Clearly (Roundabout); Fefu and Her Friends (TFANA), Pride and Prejudice (Primary Stages); Fabulation, Death of the Last Black Man… (Signature Theatre); Friend Art (Second Stage); Samara, Revolt.

She Said. Revolt Again (Henry Hewes nomination, Soho Rep.); Today Is My Birthday (Henry Hewes Award, Drama Desk nomination, Page 73). Regional: Tell Me I’m Not Crazy, Grand Horizons, Dangerous House, Seared, Romance Novels… (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Girls, American Night (Yale Rep); As You Like It, Henry V, Henry IV, Part One (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); peerless (TBA Award, Marin Theatre); Baby Screams Miracle (Helen Hayes Award), Guards at the Taj, Cherokee (Woolly Mammoth). Palmer received a 2019 Obie Award for “Sustained Excellence in Sound Design.” MFA: Yale School of Drama.

J. JARED JANAS (Hair & Wig Designer) previously designed Oo-Bla-Dee at Two River Theater. Broadway: Jagged Little Pill, Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, Gettin’ the Band Back Together, Bandstand, Indecent, Sunset Boulevard, The Visit, The Real Thing, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, Motown, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, All About Me, Next to Normal. Recent Off-Broadway & Regional: Scotland, PA (Roundabout), BLKS (MCC), Nantucket Sleigh Ride (Lincoln Center), Alice by Heart (MCC), Jagged Little Pill (A.R.T.), Miss You Like Hell, The Low Road, and Father Comes Home from the War… (Public Theater), The Amateurs (Vineyard), Jerry Springer the Opera (New Group), Yours Unfaithfully (Mint Theatre, Drama Desk nomination).

ROCÍO MENDEZ (Fight Director& Intimacy Consultant) is an actor/ fight director/teacher from Hell’s Kitchen, NYC. Fight/Intimacy Direction

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credits include: On the Grounds of Belonging (Long Wharf Theatre), Hercules (The Public Theater), The Bandaged Place (Powerhouse Theater), No One Is Forgotten (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), The Secret life of Bees (Atlantic), Leap and the Net Will Appear (New Georges), The Royale (Geva Theatre), Southern Promises, Good Friday (The Flea Theater), Marian, or The True tale of Robin Hood, Hearts Like fists (Flux Theatre Ensemble). Film credits include Bad Writing, Clandestiny, Tied Up, Hurt Fillings. Nominee for two New York Innovative Theatre Awards: Outstanding Choreography and Movement; winner, Artemis Women in Action Film Festival. Rocío is a Team Member of UnkleDave’s Fight-House. www.rociomendez.com DANIELLE GIMBAL (Copyist) has experience in many facets of the theater industry, including music prep, general and company management, producing, and performance. As a music copyist, Danielle has worked on Broadway as the copyist and music assistant for Be More Chill, OffBroadway on Broadway Bounty Hunter, and has also worked doing music prep for live concerts and film. Danielle has previously worked for the Tony Awards as the Operations Associate and Ticketing Manager, as well as a General Management Associate for Live Wire Theatrical Management.

Thanks to Joe for including me in this crazy and loving family.

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GEOFFREY KO (Associate Music Director/Keyboard 2) is a New Yorkbased music director, orchestrator and arranger. Broadway: Be More Chill.

Off-Broadway/Regional: Billy and the Killers, Generation Me, Renascence, The Honeymooners (Paper Mill Playhouse), Sweet Charity (Marriott) and October Sky (Marriott). Other work includes: Hear Her Song; The Double Standards Benefit Concert for Planned Parenthood; Naamah’s Ark; Little Dancer; Becoming Nancy; orchestrations for Symphony Space and The American Pops Orchestra; and multiple productions with Pixie Dust Players. Several projects in development with Lively McCabe including Punk Rock Girl and Pop Goes the World. Geoffrey is a New Jersey native (Westfield born and raised!) and Northwestern graduate. www.geoffreyko.com, @geoffreyhko TELSEY + COMPANY (Casting) Broadway/Tours: West Side Story, Tina, The Sound Inside, Linda Vista, Freestyle Love Supreme, Beetlejuice, Oklahoma! To Kill a Mockingbird, Mean Girls, Frozen, Come from Away, Waitress, Hamilton, Wicked, My Fair Lady, Once on This Island, Hello, Dolly! Anastasia, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Off-Broadway: Atlantic Theater Company, Classic Stage Company, MCC Theater, New Group, Park Avenue Armory, Second Stage Theatre. Film: The Kitchen, Mary Poppins Returns, Ben Is Back, The Greatest Showman, Into the Woods, Rachel Getting Married. TV: Tales of the City, Fosse/Verdon, NOS4A2, This Is Us, NCIS: New Orleans, One Day at a Time, Rent, commercials. www.telseyandco.com NICOLE KUKER (Assistant Stage Manager) Broadway: Be More Chill.

Off-Broadway: Be More Chill, The 39 Steps, First Love, School for Scandal, The Anthem, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, Dead Dog Park, Drop Dead Perfect. Regional: I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; Too Heavy for Your Pocket; American Hero; The Trial of Donna Caine; Good People; Outside Mullingar; Rich Girl; One Slight Hitch; The 39 Steps; Red (George Street Playhouse); The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Other Josh Cohen, Oliver, Holiday Inn, Annie, The Producers, Mary Poppins, Elf (Paper Mill Playhouse); Clue: On Stage, Steel Magnolias, Cake Off, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (Bucks County Playhouse).

AMANDA MICHAELS (Production Stage Manager) is thrilled to be back at Two River Theater. Other TRT favorites include The Ballad of Little Joe, Be More Chill, Two Trains Running, Jitney, Orestes; A Tragic Romp. Broadway: Be More Chill, Come from Away, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, The Children, Thérèse Raquin, A Bronx Tale. Off-Broadway: Signature Theatre, Lincoln Center/LCT3, 2econd Stage. Regional: Paper Mill Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Dallas Summer Musicals, Shakespeare on the Sound, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of NJ. Other: August Wilson’s American Century Cycle with WNYC.

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JOE ICONIS & TWO RIVER THEATER Joe Iconis is a lyricist, composer, writer, raconteur, showman, internet sensation, and the “future of musical theater” (The New York Times). He is also part of Two River’s family of artists whose work has found a home on our stages year after year.

As we kick off his next worldpremiere musical, here’s a timeline of this theater’s history with the Tony Award nominee.

2010: HELEN? YOU MEAN HELEN? Joe first hit the Two River stage as part of our very first Cabaret of New Songs for the Musical Theater, featuring work written by graduates from NYU’s Musical Theatre Writing program. Joe’s lively—and surprising—ode to “Helen,” performed by Jason SweetTooth Williams, instantly charmed the audience. Artistic Director John Dias approached Joe the very next day with a commission for a full musical, to premiere at Two River.

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2015: YOU WILL BE MORE CHILL

To adapt the young-adult novel Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini—about a teenager who ingests a sinister supercomputer in the hopes it can help him join the ranks of the popular kids— Two River teamed Joe with Joe Tracz (who wrote the musical’s sharp and hilarious book); we now affectionately call them “The Joes.” Developed through workshops and readings, Be More Chill had its world premiere at Two River in June 2015, and built a passionate local fanbase over the course of its four-week run. With the

Two River Theater world premiere of Be More Chill. Photo

by T. Charles Erickson

support of Joan and Robert Rechnitz, who adored the production, Two River produced the musical’s Original Cast Recording with Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight

Joe Iconis and the workshop cast of Love in Hate Nation.

Photo by Yurik L. Lozano

Records in 2015, and the show was licensed through Rodgers and Hammerstein so it could be staged in other regional and community theaters, high schools, and colleges.

2017: FAN-DOMINATION Two years after the release of the original cast album and abetted by Two River’s marketing efforts, Be More Chill caught fire online through the power of music streaming services.

New fans from all over the world (the vast majority of whom had not seen the original Two River Theater production) took to social media and the web to express their love for the show through fanart, fanfiction, dressing up as their favorite characters, creating their own animation of scenes from the show, and more. Popular fandom hub Tumblr.com ranked Be More Chill as second overall for the Top Musicals of 2017, beating out musicals like Tony Award winner Dear Evan Hansen and Wicked. The only musical to top Be More Chill that year, according to Tumblr fans, was super-smash-hit Hamilton.

2018: PUT A PARTY HAT ON YOUR CAT With Joe Iconis firmly established as part of the Two River family, the theater

An Evening with Joe Iconis & Family. Photo by T. Charles Erickson

also adopted Joe’s own “family” of artists and collaborators. This merry band festively celebrated Joe’s musical theater/rock-androll sensibilities at Two River’s Spring Gala with a cabaret-style concert, An Evening with Joe Iconis & Family, that showcased Joe’s original songs and was directed by his longtime colleague, John Simpkins.

2018: BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY

On the strength of that viral and international adoration, in spring 2018 Be More Chill announced an Off-Broadway run at the Pershing Square Signature Center. (As The New York Times wrote in a lengthy feature prior to the Off-Broadway run, “Before Be More Chill even starts previews…it will already be one of the most popular new musicals in America, with a passionate fan base that dwarfs the number of people who have ever seen the show.” The limited engagement, which featured the same creative team and much of the same cast from Two River’s production, completely sold out. Be More Chill opened on Broadway that summer, reaching a total audience of more than 150,000 people through its 207 performances. And Joe Iconis was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Original Score.

AUGUST 2019: HATE NATION, LET ME TELL YOU ‘BOUT IT The night that Be More Chill closed on Broadway, Joe Iconis and his family of artists sent the beloved musical off with a post-bows concert and joyous celebration of all that the show had meant to so many. Immediately after, he hit the road and returned to Red Bank, to prepare for a week of workshopping the Love in Hate Nation. The week of deep-diving into the script and music of his next Two River Theater world premiere culminated with a concert performance open to the public.

LOOKING TOWARDS THE 2020’S The Joes—Iconis and Tracz—came up with the proposal for their next Two River commission during a week-long writers’ retreat at our theater. We are very excited about their idea, and look forward to sharing it with our fans and friends as soon as we can!

2019-20 Season Sunday, December 22, 2019 Count Basie Center for the Arts 99 Monmouth Street, Red Bank

Sunday, March 29, 2020

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Sunday, May 31, 2020 The Parish of St. Mary 1 Phalanx Road, Colts Neck

27

160 Route 35 South . Red Bank, NJ

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28

MEET CHOREOGRAPHER

MAYTE NATALIO

PRODUCTION SPOTLIGHT:

If you were to watch choreographer Mayte Natalio in rehearsal, you’d see a woman go from lightning-speed instruction to a long moment of silent calculating. She choreographs with the grace of someone who has been there—and she has been there. She started her career as a dancer herself, performing in a myriad of settings and styles. From modern dance concerts and musicals, to experimental downtown New York theater and arena tours with some of your favorite pop stars, Mayte’s varied experiences are all at her disposal as a choreographer.

Born and raised in Queens, NY, dancing came into Mayte’s life organically—through the social dances she learned from her Dominican family. When her mother saw how serious she was about learning the dances she saw in Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul music videos, she was immediately enrolled in dance classes. She then went on to LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and then received a BFA from SUNY Purchase.

After college, her first job was a musical (“but I’m not a traditional musical-theater girl”). While she has worked regionally in places like Ogunquit Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center and Pregones Theater, and served as an associate with Broadway choreographers including Camille A. Brown and Sam Pinkleton, it was Mayte’s unique perspective that was interesting to director John Simpkins and writer Joe Iconis.

“This is my first experience working with Mayte,” Joe says, “but it feels like we’ve been collaborators for years. She’s electric, inspired, inspiring, persnickety, fired up, and collaborative. Her point of view is singular and her perspective on the characters is so integral to the show as a whole. I never feel like she’s delivering ‘steps,’ but movement that stems from the inner lives of the human beings on stage. Her dance makes the drama easier to understand and effortlessly elevates the stakes. This musical has piss and vinegar in its veins and Mayte’s choreography brings that to the surface in the most exciting way.”

In the rehearsal hall, Mayte enters the process with a movement vocabulary but takes in all of the opinions of everyone in the room and incorporates them into her process. “Things change,”

she says, noting that dancers move better when their steps are tied to the story they are telling. “I’m a big editor. You get into the rehearsal room and start to cater to space, the personalities of the actors, the characters and the story.”

For Love in Hate Nation, she says, “I want people to see the 1960s in a different way. I want them to feel the energy of young girls—grounded, messy, dirty and new. These are young women rebelling and finding their voices and becoming individuals.” To Mayte, dance is the perfect way to convey these ideas. “Dance allows you to release things and say things that are impossible to speak in words and offers a beautiful way to be both entertaining and say something valid.”

—Kamilah Bush

FIRST MONDAY MASTERS

CHARACTERS AND CHOREOGRAPHY FROM LOVE IN HATE NATION WITH MAYTE NATALIO

SPECIAL MASTER CLASS

For more information and to purchase tickets visit the Box Office or tworivertheater.org

Monday, Dec 2 | 6:00 PM -8:00 PM $40—Adults and High School Students

29

The Company of You Can’t Take It With You in 2004/05; Bob’s production of the classic play opened Two River Theater’s permanent home in Red Bank.

REMEMBERING OUR FOUNDER,

BOB RECHNITZ

Robert M. Rechnitz, Founder and Executive Producer of Two River Theater and one of New Jersey’s most respected civic leaders, died at his home on October 12, 2019. He was 89.

Bob Rechnitz was born in Pueblo, Colorado, the second son of the late Morton and Ruth Rechnitz. He was predeceased by his older brother Morton Jr. He is survived by his beloved wife Joan and their three children, Emily Rechnitz, married to John Paladino; Adam Rechnitz, married to Elizabeth Fordi; and Joshua Rechnitz.

He is also survived by his grandchildren Max and Flora Paladino and Esme Rechnitz.

Growing up in Colorado, surrounded by blooming prairie bounded by the Rocky Mountains, he developed a love of nature. In high school, he discovered a love of theater. “I went with my mother to see the national tour of The Glass Menagerie in Pueblo, where I grew up, and the set amazed me,” he later recalled. “As the actor spoke, the brick wall began to dissolve. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The theatricality of it all knocked me out. I would have been about 15 and I just adored it.”

He received his B.S. degree in Speech and Theater at Northwestern University and an M.A. degree with Honors in English Literature from Columbia University. Bob originally planned to be an actor: at Northwestern, he studied with the legendary acting teacher Alvina Krause. Upon graduating he moved to New York to pursue acting, enrolling in classes with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Marilyn Monroe and Marlon 30

Brando were among his classmates. “Because I started out as an actor, I used to say that playwriting was a great challenge, and directing is always pleasurable, but the only thing that really matters is acting,” he said in a 2019 interview. “As a professor, I understood the act of performing in front of a classroom.”

After receiving his Ph.D. in American literature from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Bob came east to take a job as Assistant Professor of English at Monmouth College, now University. For the following 35 years, during which time he was promoted to Full Professor, he taught courses in American Literature, World Literature, English Drama, seminars in T.S. Eliot, Herman Melville, American Romanticism and American Realism, among other topics. He published critical articles and short stories, a number of which were later included in anthologies. During this time, he also directed student productions in the Theatre Department at Monmouth, including The Physicists, Twelfth Night, A View from the Bridge, and The Matchmaker.

In the summer of 1980 Bob and Joan produced four plays in Milford, Pennsylvania, in an old, vaudeville-era theater. Then, in 1994, they founded the Two River Theater, which is today one of the

“As a professor, I understood the act of performing”: Bob in the classroom at Monmouth University.

preeminent theaters in the region and a leader in the national theater community.

In its first two and a half seasons, with Bob as Producing Artistic Director, Two River played in the Woods Theatre at Monmouth College. The company then moved to a larger space, the Algonquin Theater in Manasquan, New Jersey, where it played for eight years. During that time Joan and Bob searched for space and finally secured the Blaisdell Lumber Company’s property on Bridge Avenue in Red Bank, New Jersey.

There, with the design firm Hardy, Holtzman and Pfeiffer, they planned for and oversaw the building of the state-of-the-art, two-theater complex which is Two River’s permanent home.

In 2005 Bob directed the opening production in the new

Finding solace in literature: Peter Rini (Matthew Livingston), Matthew Lieff Christian (Jeffrey Cabot), Mairin Lee (Ilona Cabot), Maurice Jones (Carl Cooper) and Philip Goodwin (Sam DeLuca) in Bob’s play Lives of Reason (written with Kenneth Stunkel); photo by T. Charles Erickson

building, the classic American comedy You Can’t Take It with You, to rave reviews, “some for the play, some for the building.”

Among the other notable productions he directed at Two River are Curse of the Starving Class, True West, A View from the Bridge, The Glass Menagerie, Thieves’ Carnival, Uncle Vanya, American Buffalo, Barefoot in the Park and The Belle of Amherst.

In 2016, Two River produced Lives of Reason, a worldpremiere play written by Bob and his friend and colleague Kenneth Stunkel, under the direction of Jonathan Fox, Two River’s former Artistic Director. Like its authors, many of the characters in the play seek solace in literature; through it, they achieve a greater understanding of the universe, and our place in it.

During their nearly 60 years in Monmouth County, Bob and Joan have given generously in support of arts and culture, with a particular emphasis on arts education, environmental stewardship, health care and social services, and Jewish and humanitarian causes. Bob was an active member of a number of organizations including serving as a Board member for several local non-profits. In addition, Bob was a longtime Board member of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

He was the recipient of numerous awards, honors, commendations, and accolades. He took special delight in being named, at age 70, one of “20 New Jerseyans to Watch”

by The Star-Ledger.

He was loved, and he will be missed. n 31

(Untitled) Portrait of A Homeless Person, 1991 (26 x 22 inches; Oil on linen)

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32

INSIDE TWO RIVER A series of arts & humanities events—specially curated for each of our productions.

Multiple events take place each month and most are free.

INSIDE TWO RIVER SPOTLIGHT

Here’s a look at just a few of the many events that took place!

Community Mural Project led by Artist Holly Suzanne Rader and DeTour Gallery

On Friday, October 11 members of the community joined artist Holly Suzanne Rader and our friends at DeTour Gallery in painting the background of an 8’ x 16’ mural inspired by the characters of Love in Hate Nation, titled Valley of the Paper Dolls.

The completed mural is on display at Two River Theater throughout the run of Love in Hate Nation.

Let’s Rock! A 1960s-Inspired Concert with Red Bank’s School of Rock

On Friday, October 18 the house band from Red Bank’s School of Rock filled the Two River Theater lobby with an evening of music in the spirit of Love in Hate Nation. The band made up of seven musicians ages 12+ had attendees tapping their feet, bobbing their heads and in some cases, full on dancing to the revolutionary sounds of the 60s and songs featuring strong vocal leads!

Works & Process at the Guggenheim Presents Two River Theater: Love in Hate Nation by Joe Iconis, with John Simpkins, Mayte Natalio and the Cast

On the eve of the internationally famed museum’s 60th Anniversary, writer Joe Iconis, director John Simpkins and choreographer Mayte Natalio discussed Love in Hate Nation with moderator Laura Heywood as part of the Works & Process series at the Guggenheim. Four songs from the show were performed by the cast, featuring Joe Iconis on Piano!

The evening's program can be viewed in full at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5VKveB6FIU Inside Two River is supported in part by the William T. Morris Foundation 33

REVOLUTION IN THE INSTITUTIONS NOTES FROM THE DRAMATURG

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

Brown vs. Board of Education Decision; May 17, 1954

Joe Iconis’ new musical, Love in Hate Nation, is set in a small juvenile detention center in Connecticut during 1962. In discussing his setting, Joe says, that “the show tells the story of young people caught between eras of a changing America and their attempt to break out of the boxes society has created around them. The early sixties were really the last time that Americans could stick their heads in the sand and pretend that these changes weren’t happening.”

Indeed, 1962 marked a significant crossroads for the United States on a number of fronts. Although a number of equal rights and counterculture movements began in the mid-1950s, the majority of the country stubbornly held onto the ideals of family, establishment, order, and country cultivated during WWII and the post-war years. The 1950s and first three years of the 1960s saw major strides in racial civil rights including the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, which 34

desegregated schools (at least on paper), Dwight D. Eisenhower signing the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott sparked by Rosa Parks. The LGBT community began mobilizing in new ways around burgeoning ‘homophile’ organizations such as The Mattachine Society (1950), ONE, Inc (1952), and The Daughters of Bilitis (1955). As the United States entered into the conflict in Vietnam, a small number of individuals began expressing condemnation of the country’s violent involvement in global affairs.

The Daughters of Bilitis Founders, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon

Between 1963 and 1969, however, the cultural shifts occurring in this country became difficult to ignore. Because of the Baby Boom after WWII, there were more teenagers and young adults than any era beforehand clamoring to rebel from restrictions set by their parents.

Advancements in science such as the birth control pill and mass-produced penicillin helped instigate a culture of free-love and recreational sex. Drug use from marijuana to psychedelics became more popular. The government relaxed

censorship laws that once restricted how artists could express themselves, leading to more radical material being created.

Bold ideas surrounding women and their roles in family and business began to gain popularity. Betty Friedan’s 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique, lead the charge in critiquing what she called “the cult of domesticity” that for years mandated that “a woman’s place was in the home.” Instead she claimed that, “if women do not put forth, finally, that effort to become all that they have it in them to become, they will forfeit their own humanity. A woman today who has no goal, no purpose, no ambition patterning her days into the future, making her stretch and grow beyond that small score of years in which her body can fill its biological function, is committing a kind of suicide.”

Television also changed the way everyday Americans engaged with world events. The war in Vietnam dominated news channels, giving people new windows into the horrors of war. As disapproval for the war grew, protestors around the country took to the streets to express their disapproval. Perhaps

Americans watching the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War in 1968

most notably, on October 21, 1967, an anti-Vietnam demonstration took place at the Lincoln Memorial involving over 100,000 protestors, followed by a smaller demonstration at the Pentagon later that day. A number of prominent figures supported the anti-war effort including Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammad Ali. Many musicians likewise used their platforms to express their displeasure over the war such as Nina Simone, Phil Ochs, Barry McGuire, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger.Media outlets also gave ordinary homes more access to the ever-growing civil rights battles erupting across the country. In 1962, fighting erupted at Ole Miss between southern segregationists and state forces over the enrollment of one black student. Also, in 1962, The Daughters of Bilitis held a national convention followed by what was likely the first American national broadcast that specifically covered lesbianism. In 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was organized by Bayard Rustin, A. Philip Randolph, and Dorothy Height, and included an estimated 250,000 participants at the Lincoln Memorial. In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson signed a sweeping Civil Rights Act.

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan

In 1965, the Supreme Court established the right of married couples to use contraception. The long, hot summer of 1967 saw uprisings and violence in Atlanta, Boston, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York, and Detroit. Inspired by the Civil

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Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, Two Leaders of the Stonewall Uprising

Rights Movement for black Americans, activists also began organizing a unified Chicano Movement and Asian American Movement. In 1969, the Stonewall Uprising occurred after police raided a gay bar in Greenwich Village. The subsequent demonstrations powered the gay liberation movement in the United States.

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The sustained and ever-present struggles for civil rights during this time challenged and worked toward dismantling institutions that had stood in this country for centuries. The characters in Love in Hate Nation stand at the cusp of all this profound change. For some, the future elicits fear and a desire to revert back to the way things were. For others, however, the coming revolutions offer a glimpse into a new world, in which they can be accepted and thrive as their whole unique selves. n

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TWELFTH NIGHT Directed by Sara Holdren and

A LITTLE SHAKESPEARE: TWELFTH NIGHT

COMING SOON:

Adapted and Directed by Em Weinstein

Two River continues our season with Twelfth Night, one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated plays and, perhaps, his most perfect comedy. Cross-dressing heroines, separated twins and mistaken identities propel this gender-bending tale, which celebrates a world in which every broken heart can be made whole.

Director Sara Holdren’s production will feature Joey McIntyre, a veteran of Broadway’s Waitress and Wicked and a member of 1980s pop group New Kids on the Block, as Orsino and Maggie Thompson, making her Two River debut as Viola.

Several actors will sing and play music, and songs will be composed by The Lobbyists, a band/theater collective known for its lush harmonies and “marvelous” songwriting (The New York Times). Members of The Lobbyists will also be part of the cast: including Tommy Crawford (Feste), Will Turner (Sea Captain) and Tony Aidan Vo (Fabian). The full company also includes Celeste Ciulla (Maria), Carman Lacivita (Antonio), Richard Hollis (Malvolio), Kathleen Littlefield (Olivia), Luis Quintero (Sir Andrew Aguecheek), Rudy Roushdi (Sebastian), and Kurt Rhodes (Sir Toby Belch).

Twelfth Night will be performed in the Rechnitz Theater from January 11-February 2, and in our Marion Huber Theater, audiences will have the chance to see A Little Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, adapted and directed by Em Weinstein.

Now in its seventh season, A Little Shakespeare introduces the works of the Bard to hundreds of youth and adults each year. Through this program, Two River produces an abridged version of a Shakespeare play, performed and supported backstage by high school students, and directed and designed by theater professionals.

At Yale School of Drama, Weinstein’s directing credits include the first workshop production of Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris and an all-female, pop-infused Romeo & Juliet. For Two River, they will delight audiences with a 75-minute adaptation of Shakespeare’s play featuring as many as 20 local high school students on-stage and working behind the scenes.

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For tickets to both productions, visit tworivertheater.org, call 732.345.1400 or stop by the box office.

37

ENROLLMENT FOR PRIVATE LESSONS IS ONGOING THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

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THEATERWORKS

WHAT

EDUCATION SPOTLIGHT

IS THEATERWORKS? TheaterWorks is Two River Theater's grant-funded education program that connects students from under-served communities to the profound content of each production in our season, and highlights the diverse career opportunities that go into producing a professional play.

WHO

Students from FINCC show their designs in a TheaterWorks workshop with Costume Shop Supervisor, Lesley Sorenson (Left).

IS THE PROGRAM FOR?

Any under-served school or community group with students that have an interest in a specific theatrical vocation, or in the content and themes of a show in the Two River season is welcome to apply to participate in TheaterWorks. Recent partners include Friends in Need Children’s Center, students from the Minority Males Initiative Conference, and School Based Youth Services programs from Asbury Park, Long Branch, and Red Bank Regional High Schools.

WHAT

DOES THE PROGRAM INCLUDE?

A TheaterWorks package includes a pre-show workshop, lunch, tickets to a Saturday matinee performance, and an exclusive post-show discussion with artists from the production.

Teachers and community organizers must submit applications early as space is limited for each show.

If you like to share TheaterWorks with your student group, please contact Director of Education Kate Cordaro at kate@trtc.org or 732.936.8814.

Students from FINCC show their designs in a TheaterWorks workshop.

Students from FINCC after their Pamela's First Musical TheaterWorks costume workshop.

A post-show discussion with the cast and playwright Martin Moran after Theo.

39

Rendering of Two River Theater with Center for New Work, Education & Design

UPDATE: CENTER FOR NEW WORK, EDUCATION & DESIGN Metal Shop

Studio A

Two River Theater Addition

Two River Theater is gearing up to officially open our Center for New Work, Education and Design. The Center will allow us to grow the impact and reach of our education programs, new-play development activities and many free community events we offer through our Inside Two River program. The building will include two rehearsal studios; scenery, props and costume shops; centrally located offices; and multiple storage areas. With the completion of the building, the parking lot will be back online as well.

Two River Theater Staff in Studio A. Photo by Danny Sanchez

40

Rendering of Two River Theater with Plaza Renovation

OUR PLAZA RENOVATION The transformation of our entrance plaza into a welcoming and useful amenity for our patrons and neighborhood is near completion. The plaza renovation includes beautiful foliage, seating, better lighting, a bike rack and a pergola stage for events and programming.

This capital project was made possible by a leadership gift from one of our generous donors. However, we still have 40% of the cost to raise. Please consider making a one-time gift to help us reach our capital goal of $400,000 by engraving a paver on our new plaza.

GRANITE PAVERS BENEFACTOR - $7,500 - A wave of beautiful 18 x 24 inch red granite pavers will grace the lobby entrance.

We have a limited number of these special pavers available. Call Angela Kluwin at 732.936.8830 to reserve!

STONE PAVERS Stone pavers are 6 x 9 inches and pricing is based on the prominence of their placement.

You can engrave up to 4 lines, 24 characters max (including spaces) per line.

CHAMPION - $2,500 – your paver will be located right in front of the lobby entrance!

PATRON - $1,000 – your paver will be located by benches and close to the entrance of our theater.

PRODUCER - $500 – your paver will be located west of the box office or near the new parking lot.

GROUP PAVER - $125 - per name Organize a group of 4 or let us add you to a single paver with 3 other patrons! One full name will be listed on each line (24 characters max). See illustration below.

Group pavers will be installed west of the box office or near the new parking lot.

PAVE THE PLAZA

ENGRAVE A PAVER. SUPPORT TWO RIVER. BEAUTIFY OUR COMMUNITY. Ordering your personalized paver is easy!

Visit the box office at intermission or order online: tworivertheater.org/plaza 41

INDIVIDUAL

DONORS

THANK YOU to the following generous individuals who made contributions to our Annual Fund, Events, and Capital Campaign.

VISIONARY CIRCLE ($25,000+)

Anonymous Cynthia Bajorek and Robert E. Evanson Caroline P. Huber Joanna and Brian Leddin* Helaine and Sidney Lerner Victoria and William Marraccini Joan and Robert Rechntiz Leslie Miller and Richard Worley

THE INNOVATOR CIRCLE ($10,000-$24,999)

Anonymous Lisa and Stephen Becker* Jane Bergere Marilyn and Bob Broege Elizabeth Columbo Melissa and Joseph C. Del Broccolo, III* Jeremy Grunin Phyllis Kinsler Mary Jane and Rick Kroon David Lee Anne Luzzatto and Gordon Litwin Nancy A. Mulheren The Murphy Family Foundation Joshua Rechnitz Ms. Emily Rechnitz Liz and Adam Rechnitz Anne Marie Schultz Anne and Sheldon Vogel

BENEFACTOR ($5,000-$9,999)

Anonymous (2) Sam Chevalier Kelly and Brooks Cullen Carolyn DeSena The Gravina Family Foundation, Inc. Gale and Dr. Robert B. Grossman Guttenplan Family Foundation Joan and Paul Hamelberg Lanae and Todd Herman Barbara and Joseph Hollander Barbara and Jim Hrebek Katherine Kovner Wendy and Gerald Marks Linda McKean The Honorable Edward J. McKenna Nyire and Gregory Melconian 42

Diane and Ross Millhiser JP Nicolaides and the Honorable Ed Zipprich Sean O’Connell Susan and Ty Olson Mary Beth and Gerald Radke Patricia and Vernon Ralph Lori and Geoffrey Sadwith Cathy Sivo Steve Scopellite Jennifer Estela-Stollwerck Mary Carol Stunkel Susan E. Whyman

CHAMPION ($2,500-$4,999) Howard P. Aronson Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Barrett Hall Building Juliet Cozzi and Ronald Gumbaz Dr. and Mrs. Miguel Damien Mr. and Mrs. Thomas DeFelice John Dias Gail and John Duffy Joan Ellis Kathleen Ellis and the Honorable Kenneth Pringle* Susan and Brett Flynn Thomas K. Hessman Christina Hewitt Maureen and James Hurst* Michael Hurst Nancy Karpf and Scott Brady Kathryn Kent and Robert Patton Cathy Larson Sharon Falco and Dr. Jonathan Lustgarten Beth and Vincent Mazza Shirley and Bob Neff Barbara Nevius Gloria Nilson Fund Allyn and Patrick Quagliano Maureen Silliman and William Parry Cynthia and Bill Wilby Meta and Dr. Ralph Wyndrum Miss Chryssa Yaccarino Mr. Albert Zager Joan Zakanych

PATRON ($1,000-$2,499) Anonymous

Jutta and George Aguilar Barbara and Andy Andres Ms. Jay Appleton Marie and Robert Arbour Mrs. Deborah and Mr. Richard B. Ansell Kasandrea Banks The Honorable William G. Bassler Melissa and John Bonello Lois P. Broder Barbara and Tom Carroll The Carton Family Tamara Casriel Dr. and Mrs. E. F. Cheslock Isabella and John Chiappinelli Mr. Chris Cole Lynne and Jan Dash Nancy and Michael Del Priore Lorraine and Bob Henry Daniel L. Hertz Jr. Mr. Dave Hoder Eileen and Timothy Hogan Marti and Bruce Huber Melissa and Paul Hurst Ginny Kamin Robin and John Klein Ms. Tricia Krietzberg Edward Madden Charles and Theresa Mattina John McEwen Lisa and Quinn McKean, III Mr. Albert Mishaan Sonya Moroney Aida and Brian Murphy Jesse Muscarello Ms. Jennifer Neil Lauren Nicosia Rev. and Mrs. William Riker Paulette and Lawrence Roberts Monica and John Ryan Linda and Andrew Safran Candy and Dr. Sigmund Sattenspiel June and Mort Seligman Bruce Sherrill and Robert Cordrey Caryl and Charles Sills Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sorensen Kathryne and Richard Singleton Mr. and Mrs. William Spector Mary and Bill Todt Elizabeth Tortorella and Ivan Polonsky Kathy and Webster Trammell

Penny and Larry Turtel Catherine Weiss and Samuel Huber David Zippel

PRODUCER ($500-$999) Anonymous Meredyth Armitage Rosalyn Azzolina Nancy and Ed Butler Jill and John Caddell Lucy Campanella John Caroli Mr. Thomas Carroll Barbara and Harold Chafkin Joan and John Cleary Susan and Alan Coen Justine and John Coleman* Duke Dang and Charlie Rosen Judy and Richard Fuller Laraine and Ned Gaunt Vincent Gillick Phyl and Don Howard Angela Kluwin and James Noll Mr. and Mrs. Heywood Knopf Bobbi and Bob Krantz Senator Joe Kyrillos Maxine Macnow Kimberly Mason Larry and Paula Metz Robert Mortenson Trudy and Charles Parton Ms. Patricia Perfect Barry V. Qualls Monica Reid The Craig and Flori Roberts Foundation, Inc. Sheila Schwartz Carol Stillwell Nancy Wong Susan Zaffiro

DIRECTOR ($250-$499) Anonymous (2) Lisa and Michael Absatz Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Aglione Lynne Beach Alba Di Bello Barbara Benson Risa and Richard Bertodatti Sarah and Colin Bradley Dorothy and Michael Bailey Dr. Janice Breen Nancy and Martin Brilliant Amanda Butterbaugh and Michael Mulheren Dr. Joseph J. Calabro Lucy Campanella Paul Chalifour Donna and Michael Castellano Marjorie and Peter Cavalier

Linda and Samuel Chororos Kyllene Cox Donald Crocker Karen and Joseph D’Amore Dr. Jack Demarest Phil Dorian* Lisa and Carl Dumont Judith and William Fraser Matthew Goldzweig May Louie and Walter Graczyk Gail and Marc Harrison Barbara Boas and Stephen Hecht Ms. Emma Herlihy Kimberly and Thomas Jarck Patricia and William Jaeger Nicole Lerario Ann Roseman and Stan Lumish Bob MacKasek Maria Noschitta Mary Pearson Marion and Michael Portnoy Senator Declan O’Scanlon Karen and David Rajala Ginger and Joel Richmann Mrs. Margaret Riker Toni Rinella and Brian Compton Louis Rodriguez Barbara Sager Peggy Sansone Peter A. Schkeeper Linda Schottland William G. Shlala Susan Stamler Joe Stampe Karin and Joe Stein Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Steinman Patrice Sullivan Janet and P.J. Rotchford Nannette and Richard Tereo Stephen Thurber Judith and Joseph Vassallo Dee and Fred Williamson Dr. Kenneth Womack Marjorie and Zeke Zaccaro Barbara and Maurice Zagha *Includes Matching Gift

MATCHING GIFTS

The following have provided matching gifts to Two River on behalf of their employees.

American Online Giving Foundation Black Rock Matching Gift Program C.R. Bard Foundation Goldman Sachs HSBC Matching Gifts Program IBM Corp Johnson & Johnson Matching Gifts JPMorgan Chase Foundation

Listing reflects gifts made between August 1, 2018 and October 25, 2019

New Jersey Resources Matching Gift Microsoft Corporation Prudential Financial, Inc. (3) TE Connectivity Verisk Analytics (2) Verizon Wireless

TRIBUTES AND MEMORIALS Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County In memory of Robert Rechnitz Lois P. Broder In memory of Robert Rechnitz Lois P. Broder In memory of Kenneth Stunkel Jill and John Caddell In memory of Robert Rechnitz Mrs. Diane DeLoche In memory of Kenneth Stunkel Dr. Jack Demarest In memory of Kenneth Stunkel Debra Dengrove In honor of Kenneth Stunkel Mr. David Herrstrom In memory of Kenneth Stunkel Eileen and Timothy Hogan In memory of Robert Rechnitz Barbara and Joseph Hollander In memory of Robert Rechnitz Mrs. Caroline Huber In memory of Kenneth Stunkel Ginny Kamin In memory of Layla Diba’s mother Soudavar Magaloff Ginny Kamin In memory of Kristi Kaepplen’s mother Jane Ms. Barbara Kenas In memory of Helen Selinger Mrs. Helen Kim In Memory of Kenneth Stunkel Mary Jane and Richard Kroon In Memory of Kenneth Stunkel Renee Maxwell In memory of Art Kamin The Murphy Family Foundation In memory of Robert Rechnitz Sally and Charles Neustadt In memory of Robert Rechnitz Ms. Lauren Nicosia In honor of Edward J. McKenna Jr. Drs. Robert M. and Joan H. Rechnitz In Memory of Kenneth Stunkel Ms. Sheila Sachs In memory of Robert Rechnitz Ms. Sheila Sachs In memory of Elaine Rennert Maureen Silliman and William Parry In honor of Michael Stelle Susan Stamler In honor of Mary Jane Kroon Karin and Joe Stein In memory of Robert Rechnitz

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Bank of America Private Bank operates through Bank of America, N.A., Member FDIC. © 2019 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved. | ARYR43TP

INNOVATOR CIRCLE $10,000-$24,999 The

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BENEFACTOR $5,000 - $9,999 THE HILARIA AND ALEC BALDWIN FOUNDATION

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

The Merrill G. & Emita E. Hastings Foundation

IN-KIND SUPPORT

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It’s Time the to Rethink

Quality Inn Middletown-Red Bank NEWLY RENOVATED Under NEW OWNERSHIP

Offering: Free WiFi Fitness Center Meeting Space Outdoor Heated Salt Water Pool Complimentary Parking Complimentary Hot and Cold Breakfast Buffet

Just on the Other Side of the Navesink is Middletown’s Premier Hotel!

Located Just Minutes Away from The Two River Theater, Red Bank and the Jersey Shore.

CELEBRATING

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We Look Forward to Welcoming You and Showing You What True Hospitality is all About!

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For Groups and Meetings Contact Allison Mercer Regional Director of Sales

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MEET OUR STAFF ARTISTIC Stephanie Coen Associate Artistic Director Taylor Barfield Literary Manager Madeleine George Playwright in Residence Kamilah Bush Artistic Assistant ADMINISTRATION Alma MalabananMcGrath General Manager Margaret Shafai Director of Finance Karen Pierce Staff Accountant AUDIENCE SERVICES, PR & MARKETING Courtney Schroeder Director of Marketing Jenna Castano Associate Director of Marketing Hannah Walker Institutional Marketing Manager Yurik L. Lozano Multimedia Manager

Lauren Mancuso Marketing Associate Michele Klinsky Box Office Manager Evan Kudish Box Office Supervisor Lynn Kroll Box Officer/Group Sales Coordinator Vernette Spicer Box Officer/Access Coordinator Alexandra McCall Samantha Truglio Auslin Williams Matt Yee Box Officers Angela White House Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Carmen Balentine Doreen Fromage Melissa Javorek Francesca Trerotola Assistant House Managers Tess Ammerman Briana Butler Kelsey Butler Myles Columbo Bobby DiGenova Thomas Dougherty John Knodel

Matt Markowski Janet Pepsin Daniel Pino Kayla Santry Gabby Scerbo Nicholas Trerotola Elena Zambrowski Front of House Staff DEVELOPMENT Denyse Reed, Director of Development Katie Benson Special Events Manager Thomas Dougherty Events Assistant Rachel Hulsart Institutional Giving Manager Angela Kluwin Associate Director of Development EDUCATION Kate Cordaro Director of Education Amanda Espinoza Education and Community Engagement Manager

Lea Anello Corinda Bravo Amanda Butterbaugh Devin Fletcher Shane O’Neil Maria Paduano Elliot Roth Steven Wilson Teaching Artists Em Weinstein Adaptor/Director OPERATIONS Dave Hartkern Director of Facilities Wayne Van Sant Maintenance Supervisor Vinnie Gillick Lamar Hicks William Hinton Building Maintenance PRODUCTION Lauren Kurinskas Director of Production Will Cruttenden Associate Production Manager Jackie Romeo Production Management Assistant

Alison Campbell Company Management Assistant Jacqueline Deniz Young Technical Director Colleen Dolan Scenic Charge Fiona Malone Assistant Technical Director Duane Noch Master Carpenter Christian Dilks Staff Carpenter Laura Nuneviller Shop Assistant Marlène Whitney Properties Supervisor Victoria Schilling Assistant Properties Supervisor Mich Davis Properties Assistant Lesley Sorenson Costume Shop Supervisor Jill DiGiuseppe Draper Maggie Barnett Wardrobe Supervisor Jennah H. Cruz Costume Assistant

Sue Patino Lighting Supervisor Dan Montano Sound Supervisor Cassie Mazza Abigail Lynn Smith Lighting & Sound Assistants Niew Bharyaguntra Devin Christor Production Assistants SPECIAL SERVICES Gilda Rogers Community Relations Social Sidekick Press & Publicity Design Army Graphic Design Suzanne Anan Graphic Design T. Charles Erickson Production Photography Michael Boylan Director, Cinematographer Gordon N. Litwin, Esq., Litwin & Provence, LLC Legal Counsel WithumSmith + Brown Auditors

WHEN YOU NEED THE BEST. CALL ON THE BEST. Gloria Nilson & Co. Real Estate has earned the position of Top Real Estate Broker in the Two Rivers Area. Our clients expect a world-class experience provided by skilled, knowledgeable agents. We are proud that our clients continue to honors us with this recognition that acknowledges our integrity, discretion and exceptional service. We thank you for your loyalty.

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2019-2020 SEASON NOW

ON SALE! Bridgman | Packer Dance Voyeur & Other Works

NOVEMBER 15 8 PM

BLACK LIKE ME NOVEMBER 16 8 PM ●

FEBRUARY 8 8 PM ●

SMITHEREENS MARSHALL CRENSHAW

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MARCH 7 8 PM ●

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SCENE

AT TWO RIVER (AND BEYOND!)

PRIDE NIGHT

Why should Pride Month have all the fun? We kicked off the first Pride Night of the 2019/20 season with a fabulous drag show in the Two River Theater lobby, led by Lady Celestina and Rhedd Rhumm and with additional performances by Vanity Ray and Chi Chi Gonzales.

DENHOLTZ On October 24th, Two River welcomed our Love in Hate Nation Production Sponsor Denholtz Properties for a private tour of our brand new Center for New Work, Educaton and Design, followed by a reception in The Victoria J. Mastrobuono Library.

NYU CABARET On October 7th, Two River hosted a pre-show reception for donors and special guests attending the annual NYU Cabaret. Since 2010, Two River has collaborated with NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program as part of our commitment to supporting new songs written for the musical theater.

All photos by Yurik L. Lozano.

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