W O R L D
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T H E O By Di r e cte d
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Fe b 23 - Mar 24/ 2019
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ABOUT US
LEADERSHIP
John Dias Artistic Director
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Michael Hurst Managing Director
Robert M. Rechnitz Executive Producer Joan H. Rechnitz Associate Producer
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Todd Herman President Anne Luzzatto Vice President Hon. Edward J. McKenna, Jr. Treasurer Susan Olson Secretary Stephen Becker Marilyn Broege Amanda Butterbaugh Robert Butters Carolyn Cushman DeSena Kathleen Ellis Gale Grossman Caroline Huber Mary Jane Kroon Nyire Melconian Adam Rechnitz Joan H. Rechnitz Robert M. Rechnitz Geoffrey Sadwith Maureen Silliman Mary Carol Stunkel Webster Trammell Richard B. Worley Howard P. Aronson William Marracini Kathryne Singleton Emeritus Board Members
Clockwise from left to right: Crystal A. Dickinson, Owen Tabaka, Brenda Pressley in A Raisin in the Sun. Photo by T. Charles Erickson
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, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, develops and produces great American theater. Through 8 theatrical productions each year (including world premieres, musicals, classics and theater for families) and 40+ annual events happening around Monmouth County, we produce exceptional theater and cultivate engaged audiences. Two River celebrates and honors our core values of Artistic Excellence; Education and Community Engagement; Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; and Operational Excellence. Founded by Joan and Robert Rechnitz in 1994, Two River is recognized in the national theater community for its newplay commissioning program, which creates a pipeline for developing work that contributes to the vitality and future of the American theater. Each season, the theater hosts numerous artist residencies, workshops and readings, and presents an annual Cabaret of New Songs for the Musical Theater in association with NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program. The Crossing Borders (Cruzando Fronteras) festival and Nosotros program foster a closer relationship between the theater and Latino artists and audiences. Two River cultivates a new generation of theatergoers through innovative arts education programs that introduce young people to the theater and create opportunities for them to engage with renowned theater artists. For more information, visit tworivertheater.org or call 732.345.1400. Â
5 Title Page 7 Patron Services 8 25th Anniversary Gala 9 A Note from the Artistic Director, John Dias 11 Cast of Characters 12 Bios 16 A letter from Martin Moran 19 Leadership Bios 20 Two River 25th Anniversary: Celebrating New Work 23 Upcoming Inside Two River Events 24 The Elusive Moment of Joy: A Conversation Between Martin Moran & Madeleine George 29 Coming Soon: The Belle of Amherst 31 Construction Update: Center for New Work, Education and Design 33 Summer Intensives 35 Local Spotlight: JBJ Soul Kitchen 38 Individual Donors 41 Institutional Support 46 Scene at Two River
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4 HMIHM-Chronic-10x12.75-TRTimes-18.indd 1
3/22/18 4:01 PM
John Dias Artistic Director
THEO
Michael Hurst Managing Director Robert M. Rechnitz Executive Producer
By Martin Moran
Joan H. Rechnitz Associate Producer
With Zachary Booth Andrea Syglowski
Jesse James Keitel Brenda Wehle
Jon-Michael Reese
SCENIC DESIGNER.................................................................Antje Ellermann COSTUME DESIGNER.........................................................Kristin Isola LIGHTING DESIGNER..........................................................Yuki Nakase SOUND DESIGNER.................................................................Leon Rothenberg WIG DESIGNER...........................................................................Tommy Kurzman FIGHT DIRECTION..................................................................UnkleDave’s Fight-House CASTING .........................................................................................Heidi Griffiths & Kate Murray PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER ......................... Nathan K. Claus
Directed by Carolyn Cantor
OPENING NIGHT: MARCH 1/2019 MARION HUBER THEATER
SEASON SPONSOR:
SUPPORT PROVIDED BY:
JKW FOUNDATION
Made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment of the Arts.
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PATRON SERVICES
ACCESS
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
VIRTUAL TOUR & ACCESS
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.
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
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.
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 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
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Offered at one 1PM Wednesday matinee performance of all subscription series productions: Theo Wednesday, March 20 at 1PM The Belle of Amherst Wednesday, April 24 at 1PM Oo-Bla-Dee Wednesday, June 26 at 1PM OPEN CAPTIONING: Offered at one 3PM Saturday matinee performance of all subscription series productions: Theo Saturday, March 23 at 3PM The Belle of Amherst Saturday, May 4 at 3PM Oo-Bla-Dee Saturday, June 29 at 3PM Please confirm on tworivertheater.org or by calling 732.345.1400. Access programs made possible through support from New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
ACCESS DATES
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.
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HONORING JOAN AND ROBERT RECHNITZ S AT U R D AY, M AY 1 8 , 2 0 1 9 | 6 : 3 0 P M JOIN US ON THE RECHNITZ STAGE COCKTAILS | DINNER BY IN THYME ENTERTAINMENT AND DANCING | LIVE AUCTION VALET PARKING | COCKTAIL ATTIRE This 25th Anniversary Season marks an incredible milestone for Two River Theater and our founders, Joan and Robert Rechnitz. Join us on the Rechnitz stage as we celebrate Two River’s past, present and future, as well as the two special people who have played leading roles in the theater’s success. All proceeds of this event will benefit the programs and services of Two River Theate r. Fo r m o re i n fo r m at i o n o n t i cke ts a nd sp onsorship p a cka g e s , ple a se c o nta c t Kat i e B e n so n at k b e nson@ t r tc .org or 73 2 . 34 5.14 0 0 ex 1817
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A NOTE FROM THE
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
JOHN DIAS Photo by Danny Sanchez.
I’ve been thinking about poets lately. We seem now to have a happy preponderance of them here in Red Bank. We just finished a very successful run of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in our “A Little Shakespeare” program. Eager and vigorous high school student actors rehearsed the Bard’s play for months under the expert direction of Sara Holdren. A thrill to hear in the halls here a young actor grapple—in the depths of feeling and intellect—to bring a searing clarity to: “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, / To the last syllable of recorded time.” Before that we witnessed the gifted company of King Hedley II call out the language of heartache and history through the Blues and Jazz riffs of our American Bard, August Wilson. In a matter of weeks we’ll begin rehearsals for William Luce’s witty and wise theatrical portrait of this country’s greatest poet, Emily Dickinson. But what is a poet? What makes something poetic? Dickinson herself said: “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” A poet must begin by taking pleasure in a great love for language—a celebration of its complexity and plasticity. But also to respect the clear and direct power language has to reveal hidden mysteries. A power that any artist worth her salt hopes to harness. It is perhaps a stretch to say that all art that employs and respects that power is poetry. But, I’ll say it anyway. And, because I’m not prepared to have some Aristotelian argument, I will borrow that phrase from Supreme Court Potter Stewart and say about poetry: “I know it when I see it.” I was thinking that recently when I read about the death of another great American poet, Mary Oliver. Oliver was a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner, often published in the New Yorker and other magazines but not universally respected by the academic and critical communities. Reviewers were put off by what they saw of her “surface simplicity.” But, as Ana Fota wrote in her New York Times obituary, “Oliver’s champions argued that what lay beneath her work’s seemingly unruffled surface was a dark, brooding undertow, which together with the surface constituted a clear-eyed exploration of the individual’s place in the cosmos.” They also compared her favorably to Walt Whitman. And Emily Dickinson. Perhaps because Oliver too was an American woman, a seeming recluse who understood
nature more profoundly than society. She and Emily shared a poet’s distrust of fame and wrote rather to illuminate the darker corners of their souls. I thought of Mary Oliver while in rehearsal recently for Martin Moran’s Theo. Something in the play was reminding me of the final lines in her poem “In Blackwater Woods.” She writes: To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go. I was thinking that Marty Moran feels like a poet to me. I hear his words and I see him lighting a path to the hidden corners of human experience. And he does so—as I think all poets must— with equal parts grace and ferocity. It can’t be easy to do what a poet is compelled to do: to uncover those mysteries and see the deeper truths of our existence. Thornton Wilder—another poet of the stage—writes about that, I think, in the final moments of Our Town. His heroine, Emily wants to return from the dead and look in on a day from her past. The Stage Manager manages to make this possible and he shows her a scene of her mother in their kitchen. Emily attempts to speak to her mother across the ages, saying: “….But just for a moment now we’re all together. Mama, just for a moment we’re happy. Let’s really look at one another!” She then stops herself and turns to the Stage Manager: “I can’t. I can’t go on. It goes so fast. We don’t have time to look at one another. I didn’t realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed…. Oh, earth, you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it—every, every minute?” The Stage Manager answers simply, “No.” Then Wilder has him take a pause before saying, “The saints and poets, maybe they do some.”
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CAST OF CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF SPEAKING)
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Margaret Flynn.......................................................................Brenda Wehle Theodore Flynn.....................................................................Zachary Booth Elizabeth Flynn......................................................................Andrea Syglowski Maddy Flynn...........................................................................Jesse James Keitel Abraham Cramer..................................................................Jon-Michael Reese
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SETTING:
A small Catskill Mountain Community, circa 2007 Theo will be performed with one intermission
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PRODUCTION CREDITS Assistant to the Director: Brian Eckert Assistant Lighting Designer: Heather Konish
A S S OC IAT ES ,
INC.
Award-Winning Award-Winning Full Color Full Color Printing, Printing, Digital Printing, Digital Printing, Design, Binding, Design, Binding, Distribution and Distribution and Promotion Promotion Direct to Direct to Plate Plate
The Actors and Stage Manager employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Technology Technology Utilizing Macintosh Utilizing Macintosh and PC and PC Platforms Platforms
The Director is a member of the STAGE DIRECTORS AND CHOREOGRAPHERS SOCIETY, a national theatrical labor union NI SCE C A
29 •
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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
Full Service Full Service Design Design
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 Company is a member of the League of Resident Theaters (LORT), Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, and ArtPride New Jersey.
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MEET THE ARTISTS! Zachary Booth (Theodore Flynn) Broadway: The Winslow Boy. Off-Broadway: The Thing with Feathers (The Barrow Group), The Mound Builders (Signature Theatre), Me Myself & I, Prayer for My Enemy (Playwrights Horizons). Regional: After All the Terrible Things I Do (Huntington). Films include: After Louie (NewFest Special Mention for Acting), The Revival, Keep the Lights On, Dark Horse, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. TV: Currently on The Good Fight and The Other Two; Damages (Michael Hewes), Gone, Major Crimes, Blue Bloods, Person of Interest.
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Jesse James Keitel (Maddy Flynn) is a nonbinary actor and performance artist who holds a BFA in acting from Pace University. Jesse’s recent work in TV and Film can be seen on Younger (Paramount), Alex Strangelove (Netflix), Fluidity (Dir. Linda Yellen), What Would You Do? (ABC). Jesse will also be starring in the new sci-fi series Forever Alone. They were honored as part of OUT Magazine’s OUT100 in 2018. In addition to acting, Jesse frequently performs under the pseudonym Peroxide of the Haus of FemAnon. @jessejameskeitel @peroxide_femanon www.jessejameskeitel.com
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Jon-Michael Reese (Abraham Cramer) This Bitter Earth (Jesse Howard), Penumbra Theatre; Man of La Mancha (Padre), Theatre Latté Da; My Heart Is the Drum (Edward Adu, Gregory Award: Outstanding Actor), Village Theatre; Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat (Thomas Edison), Adirondack Theatre Festival; King Lear (Cordelia), Exit Pursued By a Bear; Camelot (Sagramore), Westport Country Playhouse; Book of Mormon (Doctor), National Tour; when last we flew (Paul), Lucille Lortel; Hairspray (Seaweed), Drury Lane; Fantasticks (Matt), Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. BFA: CMU.
Andrea Syglowski (Elizabeth Flynn) Recent credits: queens (Lincoln Center, LCT3), The Understudy (Westport Country Playhouse), Cry It Out (Dorset Theatre Festival/Humana, world premiere), A Doll’s House (Huntington, IRNE Award nomination, Best Actress), The May Queen (Playmakers), Dear Elizabeth (Dorset Theatre Festival), The Nest (Denver Center), Of Good Stock (South Coast Rep), Venus in Fur (Huntington, winner of the 2014 Elliot Norton Award and 2015 IRNE Award for Best Actress), A Flea in Her Ear, Bully to You, Schmoozy Togetherness, White Trash Anthem (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Three Sisters, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Elijah, Carve (Chautauqua Theater Company), Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare at the Manor), Asking for Trouble (Ensemble Studio Theatre), The Walk Through (Slant Theatre Company). TV: Blue Bloods, New Amsterdam, How to Get Away with Murder, Elementary, The Good Wife. New Play Development at: Roundabout, NYTW, EST, The O’Neill, and many, many more. Training: USC and The Juilliard School, recipient of the Robin Williams Scholarship. Brenda Wehle (Margaret Flynn) Broadway: The Crucible, The Big Knife, Pygmalion, and Come Back, Little Sheba. Off-Broadway includes: Mary Jane (NYTW), Pocatello (Playwrights Horizons), The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide… (The Public), The Grand Manner (Lincoln Center), and Stuff Happens (The Public). Regional theater includes over 40 productions at The Guthrie Theater including title roles in Medea and A Woman of No Importance. Two international tours of Peter Sellars’ The Children of Herakles. Film includes: Chronic, Saint Vincent, Winter’s Tale, Kill All Your Darlings, Let Me In, Soldier, American Beauty. TV includes: NOS4A2 (AMC), Mildred Pierce (HBO), Malcolm in the Middle (recurring), Law & Order.
Martin Moran (Playwright) was awarded a 2013 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Solo Show for his play All the Rage and a 2004 Obie Award and two Drama Desk nominations for his play The Tricky Part, based upon his memoir of the same title. His writing has appeared in Ploughshares, the Pushcart Prize anthology and The New York Times. As an actor, his Broadway credits include Spamalot, Cabaret, Titanic, Wicked, Bells Are Ringing, How to Succeed in Business…, and Big River. His Off-Broadway credits include O, Earth (The Foundry Theatre), Floyd Collins (Playwrights Horizons), A Man of No Importance (Lincoln Center Theater), The Cider House Rules and 3 Kinds of Exile (Atlantic Theater), The Cradle Will Rock (City Center Encores!) and Brecht’s A Man’s a Man (The Classic Stage Company). He has worked regionally at Long Wharf Theatre, The Old Globe, Two River Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Trinity Repertory Company, and the Intiman. Film/TV credits include: The Newsroom, The Big C, Z-Nation, Possible Side Affects, Private Parts, Law &Order; Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Dellaventura, Mary and Rhoda. He was a fellow at The MacDowell Colony and he wrote the Book and Lyrics for the 2012 solo musical, Borrowed Dust, with composer Joseph Thalken. His memoir, All the Rage, A Quest was released in 2016 by Beacon Press. He lives in New York City with his husband, Henry Stram. Visit: alltherageplay.com Carolyn Cantor (Director) is happy to be working for the first time at Two River Theater. Off-Broadway credits include: Sell/Buy/ Date, Regrets, and Pumpgirl (Manhattan Theatre Club); Indian Summer, Fly By Night, The Great God Pan, After the Revolution (Callaway Award), and Essential Self-Defense (Playwrights Horizons); In a Dark Dark House (MCC Theater); Arlington (Vineyard); Something You Did (Primary Stages); The Talls (Second Stage); Core Values (Ars Nova); Orange Flower Water, Now That’s What I Call a Storm, Living Room in Africa, Stone Cold Dead Serious, and Life Is a Dream (Edge Theater); EVE-olution (Cherry Lane). Selected regional: The Violet Hour (Old Globe); Sell/Buy/Date (Ovation Award) and Rabbit Hole (Garland Award) (Geffen); Diary of Anne Frank (Paper Mill); Not Waving and King Stag (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Vera Laughed and Get What You Need (NYS&F). Carolyn has received the Kanin-Seldes Award from the Theater Hall of Fame, both the Boris Sagal and Bill Foeller Fellowships from the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and a Drama League Directing Fellowship. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the mother of two daughters, Stella and Vivian. Antje Ellermann (Scenic Designer) designs sets for theater, opera and TV. She previously designed The Bridge of San Luis Rey for Two River Theater. Her NY credits include: Building the Wall, Stuffed, Dear Elizabeth (WP Theater and Off Broadway), I’m Looking for Helen Twelvetrees, The Belle of Amherst, The Open House (Signature Theatre), Hamlet and The Broken Heart (Theatre for a New Audience). Regionally her work has been seen at: Hartford Stage, Kansas City Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf Theatre, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, NY Stage & Film, Trinity Rep, Huntington Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Denver Center Theatre Company, Cleveland Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Geffen Playhouse, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Bard SummerScape and Pittsburgh Opera Center. Award nominations: Connecticut Critics Circle Award (The House that will not Stand), Helen Hayes Award, Ovation Award and Lucille Lortel Award (Nine Parts of Desire), Emmy Award nomination: Becoming American). 13
IN MEMORIAM:
CHARLES WELDEN AND BILL SIMS JR.
Two River Theater mourns the loss of actor and director Charles Weldon (June 1, 1940-December 7, 2018) and composer and musician Bill Sims Jr. (June 23, 1949 – February 2, 2019). A veteran director and actor of stage, film, and television, CHARLES WELDON appeared at Two River as Zebedee in our world-premiere production of Your Blues Ain’s Sweet Like Mine, written and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson in 2014/15. After performing in the original San Francisco cast of Hair, Charles came to New York with the 1969 Broadway musical Buck White with Mohammed Ali. In 1970, he joined the legendary Negro Ensemble Company as an actor; he served as the company’s Artistic Director for 13 years, from 2005 until his death. Among many memorable roles, he played Hedley in a 2006 revival of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars for Signature Theatre, which Ruben Santiago-Hudson directed, and for which Charles won an Best Supporting Actor Award from Audelco.
Charles Weldon (Zebedee) and Brandon J. Dirden (Zeke) in the world premiere of Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, written and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson in 2014/15; photo by Michal Daniel.
BIL L SI MS J R. was an internationally respected “Master of the Blues” who collaborated with Ruben Santiago-Hudson on his acclaimed solo show Lackawanna Blues, for which both men won Obie Awards. At Two River, his theater credits included composing original music for Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, and August Wilson’s Two Trains Running and Jitney. With the Heritage Blues Orchestra, Bill was a 2012 Grammy nominee for “And Still I Rise” in the category of Best Blues Album. He was the subject of the documentary An American Love Story (PBS) for which he composed many of the songs for the soundtrack. Q
Photos by Lisa Campbell
From R: Bill Sims, Jr. and his wife Karen Wilson with actor Jason Dirden. 14
Kristin Isola (Costume Designer) Design credits include: A Walk in the Woods, The Thing with Feathers, Muswell Hill, Abigail’s Party, Enemy of the People, Expecting Isabel (Barrow Group), What the Butler Saw, Richard III (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey), Touched (59E59), The Language Archive (Bristol Riverside Theatre), The Understudy (McCarter Theatre), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Next in Line Productions), Solo Rites: 7 Breaths (Roulette), Two Point Oh (59E59), A Doctor in Spite of Himself (Yale Repertory Theatre, Berkley Repertory Theatre). Assistant Design credits include: Fosse/Verdon (FX); Girl from the North Country, Mlima’s Tale (Public Theater), The Sound of Music (National Tour), Thérèse Raquin (Roundabout), La Bohème (Washington National Opera), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Shakespeare in the Park). M.F.A., Yale University. B.F.A., Syracuse University. Yuki Nakase (Lighting Designer) previously at Two River Theater: Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey adapted for the stage by David Greenspan and directed by Ken Rus Schmoll, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest directed by Michael Cumpsty, and Tony Meneses’ The Women of Padilla directed by Ken Rus Schmoll. Recent design credits include Tiny Beautiful Things (Long Wharf Theatre), Hope (Wild Project), Queen of Basel (Colony Theatre), The Hartt School Dance Division Fall Concert (University of Hartford). Next: Triptych: Eyes of One on Another (LA Phil, University Musical Society, Kennedy Center and BAM). She was born in Tokyo, grew up in Kyoto, Japan and currently lives north of NYC in the woods. B.A. in Dance: JWCPE, M.F.A. in Lighting Design: NYU. For more information, visit http://yukinakase.com Leon Rothenberg (Sound Designer) For Two River: Present Laughter, Jitney. Select Broadway: The New One, The Waverly Gallery, Boys in the Band, A Doll’s House Part 2, Violet, The Realistic Joneses, The Nance (Tony Award), The Heiress, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Tony nomination). Regional: Arena, ACT, Geffen, Pasadena Playhouse, Huntington, Portland Center Stage, Seattle Rep, La Jolla, Old Globe, Long Wharf, McCarter, Williamstown Theatre Festival, New York Stage and Film, others. Select New York/Off-Broadway: Second Stage, NYCC, MTC, Public Theater, Culture Project, Tectonic. International: Cirque du Soleil. Faculty: CalArts. http://klaxson.net Tommy Kurzman (Wig Designer) recently designed makeup for: True West, St. Joan (MTC), My Fair Lady, The Parisian Woman, The Little Foxes (MTC) and Long Day’s Journey into Night, in addition to Bright Star, Fiddler on the Roof and Thérèse Raquin on Broadway. Hair Design credits include: Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Signature Theatre, VA), Candide, Pushkin, La Cenerentola (MSM), Desperate Measures (NWS/York), Chess (DC), White Snake and Jazz (Baltimore Center Stage). Tommy has been the Associate Hair Designer on over 15 Broadway productions since graduating college in 2012.
UnkleDave’s Fight-House (Fight Direction) is a Drama Desknominated company of fight directors founded by Dave Anzuelo. The core members of the team are Gerry Rodriguez, Sean Fletcher, Jesse Geguzis and Aldo Uribe. Two River Theater credits: King Hedley ll, El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom, Be More Chill, A Raisin in the Sun, Seven Guitars. Broadway credits: Escape to Margaritaville (Marquis), Tuck Everlasting (Broadhurst), An American in Paris (Palace), Disgraced (Lyceum). Off-Broadway: The Girl from the North Country, Oedipus El Rey (Public Theater); Boesman and Lena (Signature); The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center). National Tour: An American in Paris. London: Buried Child. Heidi Griffiths (Casting) has worked for more than 25 years at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in NYC, where she has cast over 200 productions Off-Broadway and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, including Shakespeare, new plays, and musicals. On Broadway: The Iceman Cometh; Sweat; Shuffle Along; The Crucible, Eclipsed; A Delicate Balance; A Raisin in the Sun; Lucky Guy; Chinglish; The Motherf**ker with the Hat; The Merchant of Venice; Hair; Passing Strange; Caroline, or Change; Take Me Out (Tony Award, Best Play 2003); Topdog/ Underdog (Pulitzer Prize, 2002); The Wild Party; Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk; On the Town; and The Tempest. She also cast the films The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love, MURDER and murder, Saving Face and Ladybird. Theo is her 11th collaboration with Two River Theater. Kate Murray (Casting) Two River Theater: King Hedley II, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Women of Padilla, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Seven Guitars, Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, and The School for Wives. Broadway (as Casting Associate): The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, A Delicate Balance, A Raisin in the Sun, Lucky Guy (Casting Assistant). Additional casting credits include work with Arena Stage, Center Theater Group, The Cherry Lane, Bedlam, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, LAByrinth, New Georges, TheaterWorks Hartford, and The Studio Theatre. Kate is a Casting Director at The Public Theater. Nathan K. Claus (Production Stage Manager) Broadway: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; God of Carnage; The Norman Conquests; David Mamet’s November. Regional: My Brilliant Divorce; Noah Racey’s Pulse (Asolo Rep). Off-Broadway: First Breeze of Summer; Shout!; Grey Gardens; Blackbird; Perfect Harmony; Psycho Therapy; F%#ing Up Everything; To Kill a Mockingbird; 2008 Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Proud Member of AEA.
CELEBRATING
49 YEARS IN BUSINESS
è 15
TO THEO, FROM MARTIN
On the first day of rehearsal playwright Martin Moran read a letter he had written to the assembled artists. Here are excerpts.
D
ear Cast and Company,
It seems a wild miracle that we sit together this first day; that words exist on the page poised to become—because of you—a play called THEO. I am filled with boundless gratitude that each of you believed enough in the piece to lend your precious life and time, your skill and vulnerabilities for these weeks we are together. In some realm I guess I believe we’ve always had this date. All of us. Breathing together. To arrive in the here and now in a rehearsal room on a very cold January morning. The day feels at once momentous, and familiar—showing up for work, to do what we love and have been called to do for so many years. But, being an actor, I am usually in the play. This time, apparently, I wrote it! Or somehow stood in the way and sat at the desk enough hours for what wanted to come through to make itself known.
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I don’t know how THEO emerged. The Buddhists often talk of the importance of cultivating ‘Don’t Know Mind.’ I don’t know. A lot. What is the play about? Folks ask. I still find it difficult to answer. I’ve come to think that what a piece of writing can do best is somehow point toward, hint at, what remains unknown. Unsayable. The timeless mysteries not quite graspable to our busy sapiens brain. Here we are, making our way on planet earth at the beginning of the twenty-first century. So much changing with the speed of light while what’s ancient and eternal remains quietly, insistently present. Sometimes a veil is lifted. Sometimes a story can do that. One hopes. I was commissioned to write the play five years ago. I was honored and terrified. The only commissions I’d ever had came from within me. Like some imperative: Tell about what happened to you! Understand how can you forgive! Write about this or you might not live!
Playwright Martin Moran (2nd from R) with actors Jon-Michael Reese and Brenda Wehle (L) and director Carolyn Cantor (R).
The solo plays and memoirs I’ve written are first-person narratives. To receive a commission from John Dias and Two River Theater (their only proviso: Try your hand at a multi-character play) was this great blessing and fearsome invitation to enter into fiction-land. I spent most of the first 18 months plagued by doubt, plotting to give the commission money back. Trouble was, I’d already spent it. John said he wouldn’t take it back in any case. He urged me to just keep writing. I thought maybe I could find something historic and specific to base the play upon. The history of Red Bank, say. The indigenous people, the early settlers. A shipwreck? Meanwhile, while doing a little of that research, I was madly filling notebooks with random thoughts. My wounds, as always, taking me to the desk.
H
uge questions splashed across the pages of my crazy commission notebooks: Why do we suffer? Where do we go when we die? The questions taken up since we creatures made of stardust,
sat around a fire, wondering. The questions that have given rise to religion and poetry. And, of course, to theater. Scribblings appeared having to do with the complicated devotion and pain I seem to hold around my Catholic upbringing and the various souls inhabiting that loving, dysfunctional sexually charged world. My deeply kind and alcoholic father, my beautiful, lonely Mother, who expressed such anguish that she could not find faith as she faced her death and yet, who faced it so forthrightly and, well, spiritually. My dear sisters treated as second-class citizens in that Irish Catholic world where boys and priests are revered while girls are urged to do the laundry. I began thinking and writing a lot about our progression of consciousness around the fluidity of gender. Finding it all frightening and exciting and sexy and scary, awakening our awareness of how we constantly (out of fear, habit, conditioning? ) box ourselves into certain identities. As if pinning ourselves down will keep us safe from...
change? From the unknown? From death?—the ultimate underlying fear, of course. Always and ever there: Our mortal-ness. I began thinking a lot about the feminine in me. In all of us. Pondering my own homophobia. Wondering at our violence toward women and things feminine. The toxic abuses of patriarchal structures. Our seeming fixation on the alpha, the masculine. Wondering if the rise of The Divine Feminine will save us. Like the great Hindu goddess Durga, who leads the battle to save the world when the guys have screwed up and can’t manage it anymore. (I take note, that the director of this play and nearly all of the design team, are women.)
I
collected countless strange, fractured phrases in my notebooks. Here’s one from the gnostic gospels, those secret gospels hidden for nearly two thousand years: “Pray in the name of the unknown Father and in the name of Truth, The Mother of all being.” Or a bit of Willa Cather, from My Antonia: “I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I didn’t want to be anything more. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire. Whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.” I began writing about a young man who felt betrayed and banished from his home and community. Drawn back by
the necessity of healing and the urgency of seeing his dying mother. I began writing about a shy African refugee trying to find a home after experiencing unimaginable violence as a child. Slowly, so slowly, a constellation of characters and the shape of a family story began to emerge. Suddenly, too, my Mother was dying. I left New York City for weeks at a time to sit with her. I struggled with missing out on the rush of the city, the possible next job. And yet, in the quiet of sitting with her, secrets of timelessness emerged, the primacy of being present for the most mysterious transformation of all. Leaving the body. It seemed right for the play to be nestled in nature. A mountain town where old trees—our silent, sentient companions—bear witness to our sweet plight. Wind and Lenten roses and Easter and elms and chickadees and creeks and geese and silence. Trusting the holiness of silence. Of earth. I found the courage to ask the director Carolyn Cantor to work with me. Eventually, nearly three years ago, we did a first reading. There were a 130 pages and 11 characters. The great Brenda Wehle (Our Margaret!) was in that reading. The play lasted over four hours. We had to send everyone home without finishing the last scene! It was traumatizing. I asked Carolyn: What is it!? What’s the play about? What’s the story? She said, quietly, “I can’t tell you that. It would be a disservice at this point. The play is emerging you need to keep writing. I will respond
when I know I have something to say.” She did tell me which characters she was most interested in. And those are the five souls that appear in today’s play. Theodore, Margaret, Elizabeth, Abraham and Maddy. I kept writing. John, Stephanie Coen and the Two River staff guiding and never losing faith that I’d deliver. And Carolyn, all the while quietly and confidently holding space, responded with clarity and directness and great intuition at every step. She has been shepherd of thoughts, the queen of cuts, guide of content and structure and steady companion in finding the play. I am eternally grateful.
P
eople have called this a ‘Family Play.’ I don’t know. Maybe it’s a meditation on the Eternal disguised as a family play? Maybe it’s a play about moving toward death, about transformation. About the otherness we all bear? Here’s what I do know. A young man shows up, a locked farmhouse door is opened. Margaret is there and we witness five souls finding the courage it takes to wake up to their lives. We witness how nothing comes to be on this earth outside of relation. If THEO lands anywhere, it is perhaps in a moment of radical Faith. The trust that our lives, just as they are, here and now, have unfolded perfectly to bring us to this very place and time. That with the world wounded, less clean water, rising oceans, ozone depletion, dying loved ones: Here we are. All of us in it together. What can we do but behold and love
what’s before us. Our families. Our neighbors, our beloved planet. To take care of each other in our living and our dying as we have been doing for millennium. Perhaps the best we can do is to remind ourselves again and again that All Souls are connected. That we share this air and this moment and that, in the end, we are here to help walk each other home. Thank you for being. Here. Martin
DEDICATION THEO For my beloved sisters, Christine and Carolyn Moran My Very Special Thanks: Ellen McLaughlin, Jane Lincoln Taylor, Eliza Baldi, Marya Fogel Flanagan, Keith Reddin, Space on Ryder Farm, and Henry Stram The playwright would like to acknowledge the profound contribution of the director, Carolyn Cantor, toward realizing the structure and language of this work. Carolyn Cantor would like to thank Vivian and Stella Korins, Paul and Helaine Cantor, Emma Feiwel and John Buzzetti Thanks to: Obi Abili, Adam Chanler-Berat, Phillip James Brannon, Michael Chernus, Lynn Cohen, Randy Danson, Glenn Fitzgerald, Hari Nef, Chukwudi Iwuji, Korey Jackson, Greg Keller, Jennifer Mudge, Nicholas Podany, Angela Reed, Ana Reeder, Peter Smith, and Andrew Weems
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APRIL 3
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at the Count Basie Center for the Arts
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LIVE ON THE ASBURY PARK PRESS STAGE
LEADERSHIP BIOS
JOHN DIAS (ARTISTIC DIRECTOR) assumed his position as Artistic Director of Two River Theater in August 2010 after working as a producer and dramaturg in New York for 20 years. In partnership with Managing Director Michael Hurst he has brought new vitality to the 25-yearold Red Bank theater, including producing subscription shows on two stages for the first time; launching the theater’s first literary department and commissioning program for new plays; presenting annual events such as a musical theater cabaret in collaboration with New York University’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and the Crossing Borders festival of Latino plays; and developing numerous arts-education initiatives for young people including A Little Shakespeare, an annual production of one of Shakespeare’s plays performed by high-school students. He is the co-author and was the director of Two River’s musical The Ballad of Little Jo, which he wrote with composer Mike Reid and lyricist Sarah Schlesinger. Throughout his career, John has been a leading advocate for bold new American plays and stimulating productions of the classics, including the Broadway productions of Lisa Kron’s Well and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. For 12 seasons, he worked in a variety of capacities at The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, including Associate Producer and Associate Artistic Director. Previously, John was dramaturg at Hartford Stage Company. He also co-founded and led Affinity Company Theater, a production company dedicated to bringing daring new works from around the world to New York, and The Playwrights Realm, an off-Broadway company that produces new plays by emerging artists. He has been a Tony Award nominator, a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts and numerous other organizations, and he has taught at New York University and Yale University. John currently teaches in the graduate school at Columbia University. He received his BA from George Washington University and his MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. MICHAEL HURST (MANAGING DIRECTOR) has been the Managing Director of Two River Theater since 2011. During his tenure, Two River has embarked on a new Strategic Plan; began producing subscription shows on two stages for the first time; and launched the theater’s first commissioning program for original plays, as well as numerous new community and education programs. Under his joint leadership with Artistic Director John Dias, Two River has experienced ambitious growth and enjoyed new recognition in the national theater community. Prior experience includes 16 years at The Public Theater, including four years as General Manager and six as Managing Director, overseeing budgets that ranged from $16 to $20 million. Michael was responsible for all financial aspects of the productions at The Public Theater and Central Park’s Delacorte Theater. During his tenure at The Public, he oversaw the Broadway transfers of many productions, including Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Take Me Out, winner of the Tony Award for Best Play; and Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s Caroline, or Change. Michael was also part of all strategic planning including the opening of Joe’s Pub, now considered one of the country’s best small venues for music and performance. Prior to coming to Two River, Michael was Chief Operating Officer of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which presents the New York Film Festival. At the Film Society, he oversaw the building of a new three-theater, $40-million facility that opened in June 2011, and he managed the organizational growth necessary to support the facility. Michael served as Vice President for The Off-Broadway League and was a member of The Broadway League for 14 years. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the New Jersey Theatre Alliance and on the Advisory Board for the Indie Street Film Festival. ROBERT M. RECHNITZ (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) founded Two River Theater in 1994 and serves as the theater’s Executive Producer. In 2015/16, Two River premiered his play (written with Kenneth Stunkel), Lives of Reason. An educator, writer, and director, he is one of New Jersey’s most esteemed theater leaders. He earned his PhD from the University of Colorado and was a Professor of American Literature at Monmouth University for 35 years, contributing scholarly articles and short stories to various academic journals. As Two River’s Executive Producer, he oversaw the theater’s move from Monmouth University in West Long Branch to the Algonquin Arts in Manasquan. While the company was in residence in Manasquan, he planned for and oversaw the building of Two River’s state-of-the-art, two-theater complex in Red Bank as its permanent home. He directed the opening production in the new building, the classic American comedy You Can’t Take It with You, in 2005. Among the other notable productions he has directed at Two River are Curse of the Starving Class (for which he received a nomination for Best Director of a Comedy from The Star-Ledger), True West, A View from the Bridge, The Glass Menagerie, Thieves’ Carnival, Uncle Vanya, American Buffalo, and Barefoot in the Park. Bob is an active member of a number of organizations benefiting our Monmouth County, including serving as a Board member for several local non-profits. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, honors, commendations, and accolades.
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:
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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.
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TWO RIVER 25TH ANNIVERSARY:
CELEBRATING NEW WORK JITNEY
T
wo River Theater is committed to producing new works—original plays and musicals that will go on to become the classics of tomorrow. Over the past decade, we have presented the world premieres of 15 original plays and musicals. The first two were both produced under the leadership of former Artistic Director Aaron Posner: Re-Entry, a play drawn from interviews with Marines returning from war, written by Emily Ackerman and former Associate Artistic Director KJ Sanchez and produced in the 2008/09 Season, and Orestes: A Tragic Romp by Anne Washburn, produced in the 2009/10 Season. In 2010/11, as one of the earliest new initiatives launched by Artistic Director John Dias, Two River established the theater’s first Literary Department and, with it, a series of new-play commissions (works written specifically for Two River’s audiences) to support bold and diverse artists. We typically invest $15,000 in a new play commission and an additional $25,000 or more to develop a play for production through workshops, readings, and dramaturgical support. To maintain the consistency of our ambition, we commission two plays a year; maintain up to six projects in the pipeline of development; and produce anywhere from one to three premieres each season. Since the theater’s 2011/12 Season, we have produced 13 world premieres, five of them commissions. Today, Two River is recognized in the national theater
Holly Twyford and Jay Sullivan in Orestes: A Tragic Romp in the 2009/10 Season; photo by T. Charles Erickson 20
community for our contributions to the vitality and future of the American theater. Commissions currently in development include plays and musicals by Rinde Eckert, Jessica Hagedorn, Lisa Kron, and Tony Meneses, and musicals by the teams of Joe Iconis/Joe Tracz, and Daniel Maté/Marshall Pailet. The first new works produced under the leadership of John and Managing Director Michael Hurst, both of which were seen in the Marion Huber Theater in 2011/12, were Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England by Madeleine George, who is now our Playwright-in-Residence, and the chamber musical In This House by Mike Reid, Sarah Schlesinger, and Jonathan Bernstein. Mike and Sarah, with bookwriter Mindy Dickstein, wrote our first commissioned new musical in 2012/13: A Wind in the Willows Christmas. In 2013/14 we collaborated with other theaters to develop a model for nurturing new work by producing Andrea Thome’s Pinkolandia as part of a nationwide series of rolling world premieres that also included New York’s INTAR Theatre, Austin’s Salvage Vanguard Theater, and Chicago’s 16th Street Theater. This collaboration was spearheaded by the Lark Play Development Center.
I
n 2014/15, we produced three world-premiere productions, two of which we commissioned. These new plays included Guadalupe in the Guest Room by Tony Meneses, directed by Daniela Topol, which was produced at Colorado’s Creede Repertory Theatre in August/September 2018 and the
Brenda Pressley and Chuck Cooper in the musical In This House in 2011/12; photo by T. Charles Erickson
commissioned in 2012 and was subsequently produced at the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center in September 2017.
T
he 2014/15 Season’s other world-premiere production was Be More Chill, a new musical that we commissioned in 2011 to appeal to younger audiences, with music and lyrics by Joe Iconis and a book by Joe Tracz, based on the young-adult novel by Ned Vizzini, directed by Stephen Brackett. Be More Chill is now slated for 60+ productions both across the United States and internationally, and will open on Broadway in March 2019. The world premiere of Lives of Reason, written by Two River founder Robert Rechnitz and Kenneth Stunkel, directed by former
Artistic Director Jonathan Fox, was seen in our Marion Huber Theater in 2015/16. And in 2016/17, we welcomed back some favorite Two River playwrights with the commissioned world premiere of Madeleine George’s play Hurricane Diane (produced this season Off-Broadway by New York Theatre Workshop and WP Theater) and The Women of Padilla by Tony Meneses. In 2017/18, we developed and produced the world premiere of El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom, written by Matt Barbot, directed by José Zayas, which was originally read as part of our Crossing Borders festival of new Latinx plays; and the commissioned world premiere of The Bridge of San Luis Rey, based on the seemingly “unstageable” novel by Thornton Wilder, adapted for the stage by and featuring David Greenspan, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll.
O
ur most recent world premiere, the opening production of our 2018/19 Season, was the most ambitious project in our history: Pamela’s First Musical, based on the children’s book by Wendy Wasserstein, written by Wasserstein and Christopher Durang, with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by David Zippel. Our world-premiere production featured a cast of 15 and a full band, and was directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele.
Socorro Santiago and Alfredo Huereca in Guadalupe in the Guest Room in 2014/15; photo by T. Charles Erickson
We commissioned Theo in 2014, and have been developing it with Martin Moran and director Carolyn Cantor over the past several years. We look forward to sharing this heartrending, heartwarming new play with our audiences! n 21
The
G A L L E R I A ‘S
TUESDAY - FRIDAY 8 AM - 4 PM SAT & SUN 8 AM - 3 PM / CLOSED MONDAYS!
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Email: eaterywestside@gmail.com www.westsideeatery.com CATERING - BUSINESS NETWORK MEETING - SPECIAL DINNERS
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UPCOMING INSIDE TWO RIVER EVENTS Inside Two River consists of a series of arts & humanities events—specially curated for each of our productions. Multiple events take place each month and most are free. Below is a chronological list of some of the exciting events we have for the remainder of our season. In conjunction with Theo BOOK CLUB: Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt MONDAY, MARCH 4 AT 6:30PM Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Amy Ellis Nutt, follows the story of the Maines family, whose lives change after they adopt identical twins and one comes out as transgender. Becoming Nicole is more than an account of a courageous girl and her extraordinary family. It’s a powerful portrait of a slowly but surely changing nation, and one that will inspire to see the world with a little more humanity and understanding. In connection with our production of Theo, we will explore the intersection of gender, identity, and family.
In conjunction with Oo-Bla-Dee 2019 WOMEN’S JAZZ FESTIVAL WEEK 2: A Salute to Women in Bebop at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture MONDAY, MARCH 11 AT 7PM Join us for a Salute to Women in Bebop curated by musician, Jazz composer, and Obie Award winner Diedre L. Murray. Murray has composed original music for Two River Theater’s production of Oo-Bla-Dee written by Golden Globe-winning actor and playwright Regina Taylor and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. OO-BLA-DEE TO CARDI B: Female pioneers in Black music THURSDAY, MAY 23 AT 6:30PM Ma Rainey and Missy Elliott. Josephine Baker and Janelle Monáe. Lena Horne and Lauryn Hill. These incredible black women each revolutionized the music industry during their careers. Join Two River Theater’s literary manager for an exciting exploration into some of the Mothers of American music past and present.
In conjunction with The Belle of Amherst BOOK CLUB: The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson TUESDAY, APRIL 23 AT 6:30PM Our production of The Belle of Amherst focuses on one of the most prolific and profound American poets in history, Emily Dickinson. Most of her nearly 1,800 poems were published posthumously. This relatively contemporary collection of Dickinson’s work splits her work into four thematic categories, which we will discuss: “Life”, “Love”, “Nature”, and “Time and Eternity.”
For a full listing of our upcoming events, visit twotivertheater.org or call the Box Office at 732.345.1400.
INSIDE TWO RIVER SPONSORED BY:
Inside Two River is supported in part by the William T. Morris Foundation.
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THE ELUSIVE MOMENT OF
JOY:
A Conversation between Martin Moran and Two River’s Playwright-in-Residence Madeleine George MADELEINE:
MARTIN:
Sometimes people talk about their entry into the theater as a kind of conversion experience. They saw something on a stage and it was like boom, they just knew they had to make contact with that, they had to be part of that. Is that true for you? Do you have an early experience of theater that you’re willing to share? I do. In 10th grade, I left my all-boys Jesuit Catholic School and transferred to Denver’s George Washington Public High School, where there was a well-known theater department. And everything just went from black and white to color. I had never done any theater, so you could call it a mystical experience, but something took my feet to the drama room to sign up for auditions for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I knew that I sort of had a voice. I sang in the choir at church and all. But I had never even thought of auditioning. I was cast in the role of Hero. The woman who ran the department was like, “Oh you’re a tenor, can I see your legs?”—because there was a big thing in the show about Hero having nice legs. I was struggling, coming out of that conservative Catholic world. And I remember clearly bowing with the company on the opening night and feeling infused with joy. And I remember thinking, “Oh my, this joy exists.” It had something to do with the raggle-taggle company. And it had something to do with storytelling and music. So that was when, as people say, I got “bit.” That absolutely, absolutely was an opening into a new world, a new life calling, though I didn’t know that then. In fact it would guide me toward my life, my vocation. Eventually, my husband! It included meeting teachers. One in particular, who saw me in a show and told me that she was commanded from above to give me voice lessons! She was an eccentric, wacky, wonderful woman. Winnie Magoun was her name. She gave me lessons for free. She just said, “I’m supposed to teach you.” I was a junior in high school and she saved my life. Singing opened so many channels of joy.
MADELEINE: 24
I was going to ask you to talk about some of the plays and some of the roles that have made you.
MARTIN:
MADELEINE: MARTIN: MADELEINE:
MARTIN:
Floyd Collins comes to mind because it was a new piece that we were creating together and because there was a way in which I knew that the musical theater part of me was meeting a deeper kind of theatrical storytelling. And to be there on the ground floor, developing it and feeling deeply met as a fellow artist with [composer/lyricist] Adam Guettel and [writer/director] Tina Landau—that felt seminal. I felt like I gained confidence as an actor. Also, Anne Bogart’s first Off-Broadway play called The Making of Americans. That’s where as a young actor, I felt met by Anne as an artist. It’s also the piece in which I met my husband, Henry Stram. That was 34 years ago. That was a phenomenal bit of grace. There was again that sense of being profoundly creative musically and textually and dramaturgically. And then getting my first huge part on Broadway, Huckleberry Finn in Big River. That was so rigorous, so much responsibility to carry. A two hour and twenty minute musical where I never left the stage. It was another kind of crucible, being forged by the commercial stakes and the pressure and the—wow, taking a bow center stage on Broadway as a 25-yearold! Joy. Did your teachers get to see you perform on Broadway? Yes, some made trips from Denver to see me. Particularly to see me in Big River, and then in later years in other Broadway shows. Cabaret, or Spamalot. Denver was still kind of a small town then, or it felt that way. There was a kind of small-town feel, coming to see the kid from Denver in big ole New York City. I was just thinking about how amazing it is that you have shaped and embodied other people’s words, then you’ve created words for yourself to embody on stage. Now you’re building worlds of words for other human beings to step into and embody. I know you’re right in the middle of rehearsals right now and this may not be the best time to ask about it! I feel so in the thick of it! The Buddhists often say, “Know that the deepest self is universal.” The entire process of making this play has been utterly mysterious. That sense that Beth or Maddy or Margaret are somewhere stored in the psychic, spiritual fabric of what I call my flesh and blood. And trusting that enough to try to tap into what I think are their deepest needs and wounds, and joys. Which are, of course, universal. As we’re talking we’re two weeks away from the first preview and, you know, you’re catching me at a moment where I’m—stressed and amazed. There are moments in rehearsal where, in a way that I absolutely can’t believe, I witness this dimensionality. These live human beings speaking to one another and the sense or the arc of a story—and the sense that somehow this has manifested though ‘Marty.’ Through, all of us working together. Hard to believe. When you write you’re not really sitting down at the desk to make meaning, you’re really sitting down at the desk to be available for what wants to come through. Some subconscious consciousness. So I would say I’m still so in the thick of this process, I cannot feel or see beyond it...yet. I’m just here
MADELEINE: MARTIN: MADELEINE: MARTIN:
You’re living in the present moment. That’s a thrilling thing. I’m in this Red Bank moment, yeah. There’s something about giving birth to a piece of work. Pain and joy. I’m excited on one level, but it’s painful too, really trying to know what it is. You’re circling the unsayable. Circling the unanswerable questions. Right. It’s so poignant to think of the initiation into the life of the theater as that moment of pure joy, bowing on opening night of Forum, and then how much difficulty, repetition, sheer labor, the actual profession involves. All for those elusive moments of joy. Yes. Yes it is. It’s all seems to be about learning to trust and enjoy the ride. I’m reminded of what my Great Aunt Marion, who was a Cloistered Maryknoll Nun. Her chosen name from the time she took her vows was Sister Theodore. I thought about her when I named the play THEO. She used to say: “Remember, it’s through discipline that the transcendent enters our lives.” n 25
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4/6/19, 8:00pm • 4/7/19, 3:00pm Axelrod Performing Arts Center 100 Grant Ave, Deal Monmouth Civic Chorus joins forces with the Roxey Ballet to present Carl Orff's towering “Carmina Burana”. Featuring original choreography by Roxey Ballet, this magnificent performance brings to life Orff's vision of a cantata with chorus, instruments and magical images.
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This Program is made possible in part by Monmouth Arts through funding from the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
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COMING SOON: THE BELLE OF AMHERST STARRING MAUREEN SILLIMAN BY WILLIAM LUCE DIRECTED BY ROBERT RECHNITZ RECHNITZ THEATER APRIL 13 – MAY 5 / 2019
Maureen Silliman and Will Connell in The Glass Menagerie. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.
Maureen Silliman stars as Emily Dickinson in William Luce’s The Belle of Amherst, the classic American drama originally written for Julie Harris in 1976. Drawn from Dickinson’s poems, diaries and letters, The Belle of Amherst offers a window into the life of one of America’s greatest poets. The production will be directed by Two River founder Robert Rechnitz, who was a Professor of American Literature at Monmouth University for 35 years. Maureen Silliman first performed at the Two River Theater in 1998 when she was cast in The Real Thing and went on to appear in The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and Our Town. Also at Two River, she appeared as Sonya in Uncle Vanya and Amanda in The Glass Menagerie under the direction of Robert Rechnitz, as well as in the world premiere of his play (written with Kenneth Stunkel), Lives of Reason. Maureen Silliman (Emily Dickinson)
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For tickets, visit tworivertheater.org, call 732.345.1400 or stop by the box office.
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IT ALL BEGINS HERE
Nursery through Grade 8
That moment when...
CONFIDENCE
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Sponsored by
In association with the Old Globe Theatre Made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment of the Arts
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE: CENTER FOR NEW WORK, EDUCATION AND DESIGN
Two River Theater is celebrating our milestone 25th Anniversary Season—and we are expanding! In the summer of 2019, we will 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 spaces; scenery, props and costume shops; centrally located offices; and multiple storage areas. We are pleased to share photos of our progress as we build this exceptional new space, which will further the reputation of Two River, and Red Bank, as a home for worldclass theater and theater artists. With the completion of the building, our parking lot will be back online. n
Rendering of the new building (left), adjacent to the existing Two River Theater complex.
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IN MEMORIAM:
KENNETH R. STUNKEL
Two River Theater mourns the loss of Kenneth R. Stunkel (September 8, 1931-February 7, 2019), husband of Two River Trustee Mary Carol Stunkel. After retiring as Emeritus Professor of History at Monmouth University, he coauthored a play, Lives of Reason with his friend and Monmouth colleague Robert Rechnitz. It was produced in 2016 at Two River Theater to sold-out performances with a stellar cast. Last year Ken’s second play, How to Live, was given a reading at Two River. A Memorial Celebration of his life will be held in Wilson Hall at Monmouth University on Monday, April 8 between 3-5pm. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Monmouth University or Two River Theater. n
FIRST MONDAY MASTERS Two River Theater hosts a series of master classes led by some of the marvelous artists who are involved in our season. Some master classes are for high-school students, some for adults and some are for mixed ages. Classes are taught by actors, directors, playwrights and designers—great artists who are excited to share their visions and work with students and lifelong learners.for professional development, and will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the evening.
Elliot Roth teaching “Everybody Sing!” First Monday Masters Class
Recently, we brought Elliot Roth, our Summer Intensives Musical Director, back to Red Bank to teach a class and he did not disappoint. Twenty-seven music lovers from 8-70 years old learned an arrangement of sun-loving songs to beat the winter blues, and two hours later, performed it on the Rechnitz stage! COMING UP NEXT: Stage Combat with UnkleDave’s Fight-House MONDAY, MARCH 4 FROM 6-8PM Violence on stage has to look realistic while remaining completely safe for all involved. Founded by David Anzuelo, UnkleDave’s FightHouse is the stage combat team behind TRT’s productions of El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom, Be More Chill, Seven Guitars, A Raisin in the Sun and this season’s King Hedley II and Theo. Combining his training as an actor, director, and martial artist, Anzuelo brings a unique approach to both fight-choreography and stage violence. His core team consists of Jesse Geguzis, Sean Griffin and Gerry Rodriguez. These amazing fight-directors/stage-combat teachers will discuss—and demonstrate—how violence fits into storytelling on stage. For adults and high school students $40 per person | Limited to 16 partipants To register or for more information, visit tworivertheater.org/first-monday-masters. 32
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PA REN TS AND G UA RDIANS SPE AK A BOU T SUMME R I N TEN SIVE S:
SUMMER
Photos by Scott L. Friedman.
INTENSIVES Start looking forward to warm weather, and to the return of Two River’s program for theater lovers in grades 7-12! Summer Intensives 2019 runs for three weeks in July, and each week offers students a chance to create an entirely original show every Friday.
The ONSTAGE TRACK is for actors, singers, dancers, and writers who want to perform; and the BACKSTAGE TRACK is for designers, artists, stage crew, aspiring directors, and technicians to work behind the scenes. Students are encouraged to take the Track in which they feel most comfortable, or to learn entirely new set of skills by trying a different Track. Or to sign up for multiple weeks and try everything! The program returns after its 2018 debut, but the 2019 shows will be entirely new; created by the students and shaped by the directors, the shows evolve around a theme to include what interests the ensemble, what moves them, and what they love. Last year, that meant Hamilton with Panic! at the Disco with spoken word selections from
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Spring Awakening alongside original poetry and slam tap dancing, lighting and shadow puppetry paired with selections from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This year – the options are without limit. Created as they are over the course of just a week, Summer Intensives performances offer a perfect look into all that it takes to dream up an idea, create it as a team, and bring it to life onstage. It’s the theater-making process, condensed into 5 days. For its second year, the team of professionals leading the Summer Intensives Backstage and Onstage Tracks returns, with the Onstage Track led by Director Devin Fletcher and Musical Director Elliot Roth, and the Backstage Track led by Director Lea Anello and Assistant Director Shane O’Neil. Plus a roster of incredible guest teaching artists, covering everything from creating text to movement to stage combat to costume design to set creation and beyond. Registration is open – book your spot now!
Summer Intensives is for students going into grades 7 - 9 and 10 - 12 and runs for 3 weeks in July: July 8 - 12, July 15 - 19, and July 22 26. The camp is $475 for one week; sign up for two or more and save 10%! Full and partial need-based scholarships are available, visit tworivertheater.org for more information.
“It’s an amazing program, I can only speak for our child, but it has opened up a whole new world to her with regard to art, set design, costuming, lighting.... she intends to pursue this at high school and beyond!”
“The intensity, effectiveness, love for the students, allowing them to create and explore, and so much more.” “Love the collaborative spirit and creativity that emerged in just one week!”
"The scholarship made it possible for my son to attend and it seriously ignited a desire to pursue the arts after last summer. I have watched him fall in love with theater and gain confidence and set goals for his future." “I am so thrilled that this program exists!” "It's the perfect next step for students who have participated in more traditional productions and are looking for ways to grow and learn new perspectives within the theater community. As a parent, it was amazing to see what the campers accomplished in a week!"
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JBJ SOUL KITCHEN WARM HEARTS FOR COLD DAYS Jon and Dorothea Bon Jovi at the ribbon cutting for the Hope & Comfort Warming Center.
In the weather roller-coaster that has been the winter of 2019, there have been plenty of wintery days in amongst the unseasonable warmth. Days that—when temperatures fall low enough—cause a real danger to those without shelter. Red Bank organizations are not allowing that danger to go unanswered, and the JBJ Soul Kitchen –along with a collection of local churches and organizations – has established a Code Blue Warming Center program that, although only a few months old, has already become a national model for what’s possible in a community’s response to dangerous Code Blue freezing conditions. “We are gradually realizing our goal of serving 16 individuals per night,” said Marylou Caputo of JBJ Soul Kitchen. “The Warming Center has proven not only to answer the call of helping individuals who are homeless but also through resources available, has helped in preventing homelessness.” In addition to shelter, the Warming Center also provides hygiene bags,
Red Bank Soul Kitchen Volunteers
a place to take a shower, do laundry, pharmaceutical assistance, and community resources to assist with housing. Soul Kitchen has partnered with a host of community aid organizations, including First Baptist Church, Lunch Break, Trinity Church, St. James Catholic Church, Saint John’s Episcopal Church, the Brielle PBA, Shrewsbury Avenue Pharmacy and Parker Health Clinic. All this is in addition to Soul Kitchen’s all-weather role as a seasonally-based and locally-sourced restaurant. Soul Kitchen is like any other fine dining establishment in Red Bank, but with one key difference—for those of its patrons who cannot afford to pay for their meal, they have the option to become a Soul Kitchen volunteer, or to benefit from a previous diner electing to “pay it forward” by covering the cost of someone else’s meal, in addition to their own. Between the Red Bank location and their new second location in Toms River, the Soul Kitchens have served over 90,000 meals, reaching their goal of 51% of them to paying customers and 49% to diners in need.
LOCAL SPOTLIGHT:
Chefs Josh, Wendy and Steven cooking at our Red Bank location.
The Soul Kitchen applies a teach-aman-to-fish method to most of what it does. Yes, offering food to those in need is a worthy cause, but Soul Kitchen seeks to address the root cause of why someone might not have food. Through their Employment and Empowerment Team (EET) Program, Soul Kitchen connects volunteer coaches with Kitchen volunteers, to help them build skills and experience with resume writing, job coaching, financial counseling, legal advice, and job placement. So far EET has connected volunteers to 94 job offers, with a 97% successful placement rate.
Learn more about the Soul Kitchen’s menu, mission, and ways to get involved at jbjsoulkitchen.org. The Warming Center is currently open during a Code Blue, or when air temperatures drop below freezing. For more information on Code Blue alerts visit nj211.org n 35
C reating our future, together.
artscouncil.nj.gov
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(609) 292-6130
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monmouth.edu
Monmouth University proudly supports Two River Theater
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INDIVIDUAL
DONORS
THANK YOU to the following generous individuals who made contributions to the theater! VISIONARY CIRCLE ($25,000+)
Anonymous Caroline P. Huber Helaine and Sidney Lerner Victoria and William Marraccini Joan and Robert Rechnitz The Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation
THE INNOVATOR CIRCLE ($10,000-$24,999) Anonymous Lisa and Stephen Becker* Jane Bergere Marilyn and Bob Broege Phyllis Kinsler Mary Jane and Rick Kroon Joanna and Brian Leddin* Anne Luzzatto and Gordon Litwin Liz and Adam Rechnitz
BENEFACTOR ($5,000-$9,999)
Sam Chevalier Elizabeth Columbo Kelly and Brooks Cullen Carolyn DeSena Kathleen Ellis and the Honorable Kenneth Pringle* Robert E. Evanson Gale and Dr. Robert B. Grossman Guttenplan Family Foundation Joan and Paul Hamelberg Lanae and Todd Herman Barbara and Jim Hrebek Beth and Vincent Mazza* Linda McKean The Honorable Edward J. McKenna Nyire and Gregory Melconian Diane and Ross Millhiser
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JP Nicolaides and the Honorable Ed Zipprich Sean O'Connell Susan and Ty Olson Elizabeth Tortorella and Ivan Polonsky Mary Beth and Gerald Radke Anne Marie Schultz Kathy and Webster Trammell Anne and Sheldon Vogel
CHAMPION ($2,500-$4,999)
Jeanne Achille Howard P. Aronson Shirely S. Boll Diane and Robert Butters Patrick Callinan Juliet Cozzi and Ronald Gumbaz Melissa and Joseph C. Del Broccolo, III The Devon Group Joan Ellis The Gravina Family Foundation, Inc. Christina Hewitt Eileen and Tim Hogan Barbara and Joseph Hollander Maureen and James Hurst* Michael Hurst Nancy Karpf and Scott Brady Katherine Kovner Cathy Larson Kathleen and Arthur McConnell Gloria Nilson Fund Allyn and Patrick Quagliano Patricia and Vernon Ralph Daryl and Steven Roth Foundation Linda and Andrew Safran Mary Carol and Ken Stunkel Susan E. Whyman Cynthia and Bill Wilby Meta and Dr. Ralph Wyndrum Chryssa Yaccarino
PATRON ($1,000-$2,499)
Anonymous Jutta and George Aguilar Barbara and Andy Andres Elizabeth and Robert Barrett Kasandrea Banks The Honorable William G. Bassler Lois P. Broder Barbara and Tom Carroll Tamara Casriel Joan and John Cleary Jennifer Colyer and Shemmy Mishaan Robert Cordrey and Bruce Sherill Lynne and Jan Dash Nancy and Michael Del Priore John Dias Gail and John Duffy Margean Gladysz Lorraine and Bob Henry Thomas K. Hessman Herbert Paul Melissa and Paul Hurst Jean Jaslovsky and Vincent Gifford Ginny Kamin Gerri and Brett Lawrence Edward Madden Wendy and Gerald Marks Renee Maxwell Aida and Brian Murphy Barbara and Rev. William Riker Monica and John Ryan Lori and Geoffrey Sadwith Candy and Dr. Sigmund Sattenspiel June and Mort Seligman Caryl and Charles Sills Maureen Silliman and William Parry Cathy Sivo Rita and Arthur Steinman Laura and Gregg Wallace Warters Family Fund
Cathy and Gene Weber* Catherine Weiss and Samuel Huber Joan Zakanych David Zippel
PRODUCER ($500-$999)
Anonymous Jennifer and Joe Anderson Nancy and Ed Butler Patricia and Dr. E. F. Cheslock Isabella and John Chiappinelli Kathleen Anderson Culebro Philip Dorian* Judy and Richard Fuller Valerie Gordon-Johnson Eve R. Hershkowitz Sheela Jain, M.D. and Suresh Jain, M.D. Giovanna Kanu Judith Laufer Lisa McKean Lois and Robert Mortenson Lauren Nicosia Barry V. Qualls The Craig and Flori Roberts Foundation, Inc. Anita and Robert Stix* The Wilder Family Gail and Stuart Van Winkle Carolyn Williams Nancy Winter*
DIRECTOR ($250-$499)
Anonymous (2) Lisa and Michael Absatz Lucille and Richard Adelmann Meredyth Armitage Nancy and Frank Bellezza Alba Di Bello Peg and John Bennett Dr. Janice Breen Jill and Harmon Butler Amanda Butterbaugh and Michael Mulheren Ellen and Donald Byck Dr. Joseph J. Calabro Lucy Campanella Barbara and Peter Carton
Donna and Michael Castellano Marjorie and Peter Cavalier Candice Chirgotis Susan and Alan Coen Robert Connolly Karen and Joseph D'Amore Lisa and Carl Dumont Judith and William Fraser Barbara G. Fleischman Maria and Paul Galeota Susan and Roy Gelber Matthew Goldzweig Suzanne Longley and Guy Gsell Gail and Marc Harrison Barbara Boas and Stephen Hecht Phyl and Don Howard Patricia and William Jaeger Ann Roseman and Stan Lumish Bob MacKasek Linda Mitchell Jennifer and Thomas Mullins Barbara R. Nevius and Tom Curtis Marion and Michael Portnoy Karen and David Rajala Toni Rinella and Brian Compton Louis Rodriguez Barbara Sager Peggy Sansone Peter A. Schkeeper Linda Schottland William G. Shlala Kathryne and Richard Singleton Victoria Snoy* Susan Stamler Karin and Joe Stein Patrice Sullivan Nannette and Richard Tereo Stephen Thurber Jennifer Tipton Judith and Joseph Vassallo Cheryl Wild Dee and Fred Williamson Marjorie and Zeke Zaccaro Barbara and Maurice Zagha
MATCHING GIFTS
The following have provided matching gifts to Two River on behalf of their employees. C.R. Bard Foundation Goldman Sachs HSBC Matching Gifts Program IBM Corp Johnson & Johnson Matching Gifts JPMorgan Chase Foundation New Jersey Resources Matching Gift Microsoft Corporation Prudential Financial, Inc. (3) TE Connectivity Verisk Analytics (2) Verizon Wireless *Includes matching gift.
TRIBUTES AND MEMORIALS In memory of Layla Diba’s mother Leona Soudavar Magaloff: Ginny Kamin In memory of Kristi Kaepplein’s mother Jane: Ginny Kamin In memory of Art Kamin: Renee Maxwell In memory of Mary (Penny) Buchner: Barbara McCarthy In memory of Leon Yarusi: Paula Yarusi In Memory of Helen Selinger: Barbara Kenas In honor of Michael Shelle: Maureen Silliman and William Parry In honor of Hannah Walker: Jodi Magee Listing reflects gifts made between December 1, 2017 and February 8, 2018.
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INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT
THE VISIONARY CIRCLE $25,000+
THE STONE FOUNDATION
INNOVATOR CIRCLE $10,000-$24,999 The
The Philip & Tammy Murphy Foundation
Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust
JKW FOUNDATION
BENEFACTOR $5,000 - $9,999 THE HILARIA AND ALEC BALDWIN FOUNDATION
THE MAX AND BELLA SCHULMAN FOUNDATION
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
DAVID SCHWARTZ FOUNDATION
The Merrill G. & Emita E. Hastings Foundation
IN-KIND SUPPORT
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MEET OUR STAFF & VOLUNTEERS! ARTISTIC Stephanie Coen Associate Artistic Director Taylor Barfield Literary Manager Madeleine George Playwright in Residence Brian Eckert 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 Michele Klinsky Box Office Manager Lauren Mancuso Box Office Supervisor Kristina Marinos Box Office Supervisor/ Student Matinee Coordinator Lynn Kroll Box Officer/Group Sales Coordinator Vernette Spicer Box Officer/Access Coordinator Evan Kudish Samantha Truglio Matt Yee Box Officers Angela White House Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Carmen Balentine Doreen Fromage Melissa Javorek Julie Mullen Donna Stiles Francesca Trerotola Assistant House Managers Briana Butler Colette Dante Thomas Dougherty Matt Markowski Daniel Pino Kayla Santry Gabby Scerbo John Knodel Front of House Staff 42
DEVELOPMENT Denyse Reed, Director of Development Jesse Beutell, Individual Giving Manager Katie Benson Special Events Manager EDUCATION Kate Cordaro Director of Education Amanda Espinoza Education and Community Engagement Manager Lea Anello Corinda Bravo Amanda Butterbaugh Devin Fletcher Shane O’Neil Elliot Roth Teaching Artists Sara Holdren 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 Kayla Allen Production Management Assistant Katherine Borden Company Management Assistant Frank Meyer Technical Director Colleen Dolan Scenic Charge Fiona Malone Assistant Technical Director Duane Noch Master Carpenter Christian Dilks Staff Carpenter Laura Nuneviller Shop Assistant Jeena Yoon Properties Supervisor Victoria Schilling Assistant Properties Supervisor
Alison Marjean Frimmel Props Assistant Lesley Sorenson Costume Shop Supervisor Jill DiGiuseppe Draper Maggie Barnett Wardrobe Supervisor Jaclyn Vela Costume Assistant Sue Patino Lighting Supervisor Abigail Lynn Smith Lighting Assistant Dan Montano Sound Supervisor Natalie Soto Sound Assistant Jackie Romeo Joaquin Gomez 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 VOLUNTEER GUILD Arthur Aaron Ronnie Aaron Marlene Abelon Debbie Adamchak Juanita Agee Irwin Altschiller Maddy Altschiller Cecelia Ambrosio Ellen Balthazar Dennis Banks Gale Baran Paddy Barber Myriam Barthole Carl Battaglia Ellen Battaglia Joyce Becker Herb Bein Diane Bein Carmen Benimeli Barbara Berg Joan Blake Roza Blackwood Helena Blyskun Belinda Bohrman Kathy Boushie Marti Bookstein
Charles Blake Mercedes Brand Carmela Brady Barbara Brodzinski Arlene Brown Monica SchneiderBrewer Robert Buchbinder Loriz Burke April Bunn Suzanne Bugbee Carmen Cancel-Seaman Colleen Carroll Kathleen Castore Dora Chu Barbara Chasser Rita Chiarini Bob Connolly Roslyn Cooper Nancy Daley Elizabeth De Carvalho Diane DeLoche Ronni Donza Florence Diller Barbara Ely Maddie Emile Eleanor Falcichio Ellen Falvo June Farkouh Robyn Flipse Prudence Frechette Bonnie Foerst George Foerst Judy Fuller Janet Garcia Nancy Gargan Sidney Gelbein Pat George Bill Gerdes Lara Gomez Margaret Graf Marilyn Griffin Constance Gryczka Mark Guberman Alice Greenberg Nona Hammer Kathie Hari Karen Harrington Helene HelgesenMonserrate Elaine Held Cynthia Hellman Jeri Held Karen Hespe Karen Heyer Marion Holinaty Caroline Huber Cecilia Jelic Shirley Johnson Bonnie Johnson Thomas Johnson Virginia Kamin Barry Kaplan Dee Kaplan Bev Keyes Karen Kelly Barbara Kenas Valerie Kilpatrick Phyllis Kinsler Karen Kirkwood Dottie Kirschenbaum Eleanor Kitzhoffer
John Knodel Mavis Kolb Diane Kragh Diane Kuriloff Harriet Kuropatwa Betti Lane Mary Anne Lapiana Victoria Later Margaret Lelivelt Bob Levine Carol Levine Barbara Lipton Donna Lizotte Kathy Lloyd Diane Lopresti Frank Lopresti Brittany Lovely Donna Lovely Sharon Lucas Gay Lowden Lynn Marie Macy Iris MacNeil Joanne Mallon Robert Mallon Sheryle Mallen Janis Marano Phyllis Marberry Libby Markowitz Pamela Marhan Lynne Martocci Mary Mason Susan Mazur Kathryn Mazur Casandra Mazzaro Vinnie Mazza Joan McCue Eileen McDermott Jo McKeon-Hutton Bill McMurray Mary Melosh Evelyn Mendelsohn Anne Messinger Dorothy Michels Carol Migliore Joanne Mieszkowski Bernard Miller Carol Miller Susan Minehardt Roland Monserrate Linda Monti Marilynne Morley Gloria Moro Susan Moss Michele Mullin Sophia Murillo Judith Mugrace Leslie Nicholson Judith Nock Kathy Nielsen Jennifer Newton Maureen O'Connor Leach Olivia & Gerald Olson Linda Pacotti Dolores Palonetti Sophia Parola Katherine Parisi Marilyn Pennell Art & Pat Perri Tracy Peternich Claire Planchere Victoria Pater
Jeanette Peterson Terri Pinto Terri Pontecorvo Philomena Porcello Lois Priest Marion Quinn Moira Quinn Judy Rector Fran Reinhold Mary Beth Reidy Renee Ready Lorri Reines Jill Reminick Susan Richman Carl Rosencrown Mirta San Martin Lori Sadwith Gil Saltzman Marcia Saltzman Gail Sanderson Evelyn Schneider Lorelle Shea Connie Schulman Matt Sivo Phyllis Searby Shirley Sexton Deb Sieron Judy SimmonsBradshaw Jeffrey Shepard Arlene Smelson George Smith Arthur Steinman Linda Stewart Carol Stewart Cathy & Howie Stelzner Rose Sullivan Denise Sobotka Mary Carol Stunkel Martin Sulkes Leila Sulkes Michele Susalis Eunice Taylor Steve Tepperman David Tolleth Deborah Tolleth Lauren Tolleth Marie Trezza Johnny Tuohy Chris Wallace Patricia Walter Mollie Warar Marvin Wasserman Deborah Wasserman Gregory White Raffaella Weiner Joy Weinstein Nina Willey Kirk Willey Joyce Wingerter Barbara Withers Rosemarie Wilkinson Marty Weinstein Marla Weinstein Mary Ellen Wirin Zina Wolin Martin Wolin Marion Wright Joan Zakanych Laura Zakanych Joe Zedeny
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SCENE NOISES OFF OPENING NIGHT
AT
TWO RIVER
On Friday, January 18, Two River Theater hosted a post-show reception for donors and special guests attending the opening night performance of Noises Off. Those in attendance had the chance to mix and mingle with our creative and artistic teams along with a wide ar sts from Two River productions. array of actors
Photos by Yurik Lozano.
NOISES OFF GROUP OUTINGS
Throughout the run of Noises Off, we welcomed multiple groups to our performances. Many groups paired their theater experience with a pre-show reception and/or a post-show talkback with our artists. Below are just a few photos captured. Members of the Rumson Fair Haven Performing Arts Society with Noises Off cast members: (back row from left) Adrianna Mitchell, Jason O’Connell, Phillip Taratula and Ellen Harvey.
Alumnae sisters of Montclair State University’s Sigma Delta Tau
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Show-Score patrons at a Member Night Party
Members of the Monmouth Arts staff
ACT ONE IS ON US!
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