Too Much Too Much Too Many by VIA MEDIA / BAYSTAGES

DIRECTOR’S NOTES 2120 Broadway Street Redwood City, CA 94063 650.493.2006 info@dragonproductions.net dragonproductions.net

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Katie Miller, board chair Brenda Kesler, secretary James Kasyan, treasurer Dale Albright Gennady Farber Janette Herceg Carolyn Compton Carolyn McDaniel Kimberly Mohne Hill Corinne Kason Meredith Hagedorn, ex officio

BOARD OF ADVISORS Jeff Birdwell Lessa Bouchard Ana-Catrina Buchser Lorianna + Mike Kastrop Barbara + Jerry Pierce Austin Grose

STAFF Meredith Hagedorn executive artistic director/ founder of dragon

Kimberly Wadycki managing director

Karen Altree Piemme associate director - 2nd Stages

Ashley Taylor Frampton production manager

Josiah Frampton front of house manager

Linda Olbourne company manager

So delighted you’ve joined us for this uniquely moving portrayal of one family’s struggle through the grieving process. We knew it would be a special crowd of brave, thoughtful people who’d choose to be here. We’ve been looking forward to sharing this experience with you since the middle of last year! I won’t pretend I wasn’t scared that the word grief would limit our audience, but we’ve been consistently encouraged by the response each person has had to the material. I’m especially excited because this beautiful piece was written by a young, female playwright since both distinctions are exceedingly rare in today’s theatrical climate. I trust you will resonate with her substantive yet buoyant voice as we move through the story. She touches on relevant modern issues like Alzheimer’s Disease, lack of connection, reclusive tendencies, PTSD, and impulsive behavior also imperceptibly. These characters are richly drawn, quirky, and deeply emotional but they retain a recognizable quality. We’ve aimed at allowing our sharp audience to experience these relationships unfettered by bells and whistles. As a helping professional I find that an enormous percentage of my work is due to the fact that people in our culture actively avoid pain. That sounds reasonable enough but the consequences of holding to that pattern too strongly are profound. My encouragement is that we really can sit with the discomfort, wade through the awkwardness, and emerge on the other side far stronger than we can currently imagine. Pain deferred does not, in fact, decrease. Quite the reverse! Let’s talk about the important things, let’s reach out to the people we cherish, and save all that sidestepping energy for really engaging in the present moment. That’s where the good stuff is. No regrets. As the producer and director of this play I feel tremendously grateful to Dragon Productions and the 2nd Stages Series for this incredible opportunity. It is quite a risk they’ve taken! Meredith Hagedorn and Karen Altree Piemme have made this ride a true joy. I also want to highlight our phenomenal cast, crew, and artistic staff. These folks have inspired me, worked incredibly hard, and taken wonderful care of my baby TM3. Finally, I want to express my sense of awe that so many have financially invested in order to make this pipe dream a very real thing. Those who contributed (through GoFundMe, Dragon, or directly in some way) all I can do is honor you as extraordinary people of vision and generosity. If you have value for this production please help us locate our audience. We have business cards with all the information in the lobby, everything is on the Dragon website. Help a girl out! Anything positive you can post, call a friend about, or write up for your local news source is much appreciated. Again, from this artist’s heart, thank you for showing up to meet the baby.

Nancy McClymont, M.S. Producer/Director of TM3 • @iePresents on Twitter @dragon_theatre

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presents

by Meghan Kennedy SETTING: Rose and Emma’s house. Present day.

CAST [ IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER ]

Pastor Hidge...................................................................Felix Abidor Emma...........................................................................Kelly Battcher Rose.......................................................................Mary Price Moore James...................................................................... W. Scott Whisler

CREATIVE TEAM Director................................................................. Nancy McClymont Stage Manager, Props Master.........................................Jesse Ploog Assistant Director............................................................ Drew Jones Production Assistant....................................................Kelly Battcher Scenic Designer...........................................................Ting Na Wang Lighting Designer....................................................... Edward Hunter Sound Designer.......................................................... Lance Huntley Costume Designer..................................................Evelyn O’Donnell Hair and Makeup Designer...................................... Beje Schweitzer Production Manager, Technical Assistant........... Ashley Taylor Frampton Key Art Designer..........................................Morgan Elizabeth Lewis Composer (“Catharsis Theme in Four Movements”)....... Sam Nicholson SPECIAL THANKS: Ellen Barton, Christina Sturken, Dustin Coy, Ron Gasparinetti, City Lights Theatre Company, Pear Theatre, Los Altos Stage Company, San Jose State University, TheatreWorks, Derek Shore, Kevin Reardon, Meredith and Eric Roberts, Tim Hays, Tina Rutsch, Steven Yogi and Susan Herrold. Post-show discussion with the cast and director on Sunday, April 3. graphic design + publishing

This play was developed with the support of PlayPenn, Paul Meshejian, Artistic Director. Produced by special agreement with Dramatist’s Play Service.

[ Performances:

March 24 to April 10, 2016 Dragon Theater, 2120 Broadway Street, Redwood City, CA 94063

The performance runs approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes. There will be one intermission.

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ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES FELIX ABIDOR (Pastor Hidge) is

a recent arrival in the Bay Area. He came here for college and intends to stay for quite some time, thank you very much. This is his first production with Dragon and he is thrilled at the opportunity to perform for you!

KELLY BATTCHER (Emma) is thrilled

ABIDOR

BATTCHER

to be joining the Dragon family for this beautiful show! Locally, she has performed with Santa Clara Players (Claire in Proof), Actors Theatre (Margaret Glass in Happy Birthday, Brian Glass), Walking Sideways Theatre Company (Bette in The Marriage of Bette and Boo), and she recently did voice-over work for SJCC’s production of Love and Information. Kelly earned her degree in theatre and stage management from University of the Pacific and has worked behind the scenes for San Jose Rep, Center REPertory Theatre, and CMTSJ. Thank you to the cast and production team of TM3 for this incredible experience and big hugs to my family for their endless love and support!

MARY PRICE MOORE (Rose) was

MOORE

Mary Moore

last seen at Dragon Theatre in The Columnist as Susan Mary Alsop. Other Bay Area roles include Veta Louise in Harvey (Palo Alto Players), Julia in Lend Me a Tenor (Hillbarn Theatre), Berthe in Boeing-Boeing (Palo Alto Players), Jeanette in The Quality of Life (Pear Theatre), Mama in Distracted (Portola Valley Conservatory Theatre), M’Lynn in Steel Magnolias (Hillbarn Theatre), City Her in The Gifts of the Magi (Douglas Morrisson Theatre), Arlene in Baby at (Pacifica Spindrift Players) and Rose in The Secret Garden (Los Altos Stage Company). In addition to theatre, Mary enjoys working on-camera in television and film and was recently spotted on the red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival for the film Bare (2015).

W. SCOTT WHISLER (James)

recently performed as King Arthur in Spamalot, Joe Boyd in Damn Yankees, Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey and Sigmund Freud in Freud’s Last Session. In a previous WHISLER

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century he played Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, Koko in The Mikado and Austin in True West. His directing credits include The Beaux’ Stratagem, Talley’s Folly and Pippin. Scott was a founding faculty member of the Idyllwild Arts Academy and designed scenery and lights in London, Monte Carlo and even Oklahoma City. He is currently the executive director of the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

MEGHAN KENNEDY (Playwright)

was born in Seattle, grew up on Lake Champlain in upstate New York and then the family moved to Connecticut. She’s called New York City home for more than fifteen years now. Ms. Kennedy started with writing poetry (or as she says “Bad, bad poems. Poems that always featured whichever vocabulary word I had learned that week and decided was my current obsession.”) and applied to the dramatic writing program at the Tisch School for the Arts at NYU. She went to graduate school at the Michener Program at University of Texas in Austin. When asked to describe Too Much, Too Much, Too Many, Ms. Kennedy says “I’m interested in grief. The ways in which it can take up space. The hold it has. It’s a very particular power. That’s really what the play is about at its core. But it’s also about love. Lasting, strong love. There are people in my life who have had the kind of love that Rose and James had and seeing it has always completely leveled me. I don’t know if there’s anything more full than that kind of intimacy, that kind of closeness. So it’s also a bit of a love letter to that.” Too Much, Too Much, Too Many is Ms. Kennedy’s first play and it opened Off-Broadway in 2013. It was directed by Tony-winner Sheryl Kaller and featured Phyllis Somerville, Rebecca Henderson, James Rebhorn and Luke Kirby.

NANCY MCCLYMONT (Director)

Nancy McClymont most recently directed Jerry’s Girls at South Bay Musical Theater and produced both The Genius of Leonard Bernstein and

Broadway by the Decade 2015. With her own little company, i.e.Presents, she produced and directed Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years at Theater on San Pedro Square in San Jose. That production was honored as Standout Musical of 2014 by the Silicon Valley Small Theater Awards. Nancy has served as assistant director to C. Michael Traw (South Bay Musical Theatre) and Shannon Self (CMTSJ) on such shows as Funny Girl, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Fiorello and Doctor Dolittle. Connecting artists with projects is something she deeply enjoys doing. Nancy is thankful for the professional, innovative and kind team of people she has had the privilege of working with here. Special thanks to Meredith, Karen, Taylor, Kim and Linda for the A-list support and for the phenomenal opportunity of the 2nd Stages series. A longtime arts educator, performer, writer, speaker and helping professional, Nancy loves to create experiences that impact people. She finds theatre to be highly therapeutic on every side of the equation and trusts that this piece will start a hundred needful conversations.

JESSE PLOOG (Stage Manager,

Props Master) Jesse recently graduated from the University of Arizona and has been loving her time in California since she moved here. Jesse’s previous Dragon credits include Sunlight (scenic designer and stage manager), Or, (props master and assistant stage manager), The Voice of the Prairie (scenic designer and assistant stage manager), Take Me Out (assistant stage manager) and The Birthday Party (assistant stage manager). Her UA credits include assistant scenic designer for Frankenstein, charge artist for A Little Night Music and This, assistant charge artist for The Man Who Came to Dinner, Oklahoma! and Boeing-Boeing, and scenic artist for shows such as Avenue Q, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lend Me A Tenor and The Full Monty. She would like to thank Dragon for another wonderful opportunity in this theatre, her fiance for supporting her through her crazy life and her family for being awesome, even from Arizona.

DREW JONES (Assistant Director) Too Much, Too Much, Too Many is Drew’s second show with Dragon,

having previously appeared on stage in An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein. Drew graduated with a BA in theatre arts at San Jose State University. Some of his favorite roles include Caleb in The Whipping Man, Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors. Special thanks go to Nancy, the Dragon and the secret muffin ingredient for this wonderful opportunity!

TING NA WANG (Scenic Designer)

earned a BA in fine arts from San Jose State University. She is a scenic designer, painter and props designer for local theaters including Pear Theatre, Los Altos Stage Company, Silicon Valley Shakespeare, Sunnyvale Community Players, Renegade Theatre Experiment, I.E.Presents, Opera San Jose, Children’s Musical Theater and Palo Alto Players. Outside her life in the theater, she is also an art teacher at Drawn2Art Los Altos, and a collector and reseller of mid-century modern designs.

E DWA R D H U NTE R ( L i g h t i n g

Designer) Ed has been involved in theatre in the South Bay since he moved here in 1985. He has worked with Palo Alto Players, TheatreWorks, Lyric Theater, Teatro Visión, Shady Shakespeare, Pear Theater and Sunnyvale Players. Some recent designs include Big Fish, Death of a Salesman and Miss Saigon (Palo Alto Players), The Abduction from the Seraglio (West Bay Opera), The Real Thing and Fool for Love (Pear Theatre) and Evita, Pippin and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Sunnyvale Community Players). When not in a theater Ed is a director of software at Juniper Networks.

LANCE HUNTLEY (Sound Designer)

has designed sound for several Dragon productions and is pleased to be doing so again.

EVELYN O’DONNELL (Costume Designer) This is Evelyn’s first show with Dragon productions.

BEJE SCHWEITZER (Hair and

Makeup Designer) After graduating from Albion College in Michigan, Beje began teaching speech, dramatics, debate, English, physical education and music in high schools. Her teaching career spanned seven states. In the Bay Area she taught at Valley Christian High

School, Abraham Lincoln High School and Luther Burbank Schools. She has written and directed several plays and musicals and authored a collection of poetry. Except for ushering for four theatre groups, this is the first time (except in teaching) that she has not been involved supporting one of her four kids or daughter-in-law on stage.

MEREDITH HAGEDORN (Executive

Artistic Director, Founder of Dragon) has been a professional actor and director in regional theaters across the country for almost thirty years. Meredith is also the executive artistic director and founder of Dragon Productions and is thrilled to be celebrating Dragon’s 15th season and the third in Dragon’s new home in Redwood City. Audiences last saw Meredith on the Dragon stage in 2013 as Allison in Rx and Meredith recently directed The Voice of the Prairie.

KIMBERLY WADYCKI (Managing

Director) graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor’s degree in political science. While pursuing her degree she was very active at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. She was the founding producer of On the Rocks, a series of student written, directed, and produced one-acts. She sat on the administrative board of the Krannert Center Student Association for three years and was the student representative on the search committee to hire the new executive director of the Krannert Center. After moving back to St. Louis, she was heavily involved with St. Louis Shakespeare and Magic Smoking Monkey Theatre where she worked as a stage manager, board member and production manager. After a six-year hiatus Kim has “unretired” to become active with Dragon Productions.

K A R E N A LTR E E PI E M M E

(Associate Artistic Director - 2nd Stages) is an accomplished director, actor, dramaturg, workshop facilitator and acting instructor specializing in community access to the arts. Ms. Piemme spent 21 years with San Jose Repertory Theatre, where she was the director of outreach and resident dramaturg. She also served as the director of Red Ladder Theatre Company, a nationally-acclaimed, award-winning 2016.03 • BAYSTAGES.COM

resident outreach company, which empowers disenfranchised populations in our community by helping them develop positive life skills through theatre. Ms. Altree Piemme is a member of the Actors’ Equity Association.

ASHLEY TAYLOR FRAMPTON

(Production Manager) matriculated from the University of California, Santa Cruz and Kent University, England with a bachelor’s degrees in theatre arts and in film and digital media. For the last decade she has worked internationally in both mediums as a stage manager, production manager, master electrician, properties designer, sound technician,

editor and performer. She is currently the assistant technical director for San Francisco Sketchfest and a member of Actors’ Equity Association. When not in production, she trains with mêlée weapons at Davenriche European Martial Arts School where she is an assistant instructor and apprentice to Sir Steaphen Fick.

JOSIAH FRAMPTON (Front of

House Manager) is an actor in the Bay Area. His primary experience is in musical theatre throughout the South Bay. He spent the majority of the last three years managing the Old Spaghetti Factory before being

invited to join the Dragon team. You recently saw Josiah on the Dragon stage as Christopher in U. S. Drag.

LINDA OLBOURNE (Company

Manager) An accomplished stage manager, Linda enjoys being the administrative part of a creative team. Having worked in Bay Area theatre for over 14 years, she currently provides support to Dragon’s staff, cast and crew each season. Linda continues to work backstage with several other theaters while maintaining a day job as an editor of children’s craft books.

All images and/or content provided by Dragon Productions staff, contractors and/or creative artists unless otherwise credited. Opinions expressed by contractors, contributors and/or creative artists do not necessarily reflect the views of Dragon Productions or VIA MEDIA. Photo credits are included as provided.

DONORS WIZARDS [$5,000+]

Rich Hagan + Mary Lou Torre • Meredith Hagedorn James Kasyan • Dr. Katharine Miller Silicon Valley Community Foundation Donor’s Circle for the Arts Andrew + Kimberly Wadycki FIRE BREATHERS [$1,000+]

The Benevity Community Impact Fund • Gennady + Masha Farber Janette Herceg • Brenda Kesler • Bob Miller + Dale Albright Charles + Nancy Riffle • Redwood City Civic Cultural Commission Maggie Wilde JEWELS [$500+] Anonymous • Monica Cappuccini • George + Linda Kasyan • Molly Meschke Jerry + Barbara Pierce • Erik Strahm • Joseph Sturkey WINGS [$100+] Max Beckman-Harned • Chris Beth • Louis Caputo • Sheila Cepero • Daryl + Carolyn Compton William Davidovich • George + Deborah Doeltz • Ken + Carol Emmons • Andrew + Janine Evans Fidelity Charitable - Anonymous • Ed Glazier • Gina Henson • Ken Krechmer + Elaine Baskin • Kristen Lo Microsoft Employee Matching Program • Gordon + Betty Moore Foundation • Kieley Nose • David Pasta Karen Altree Piemme • Jeanette Piesciuk • Jason Siefer + Brian Ayer • Eddie Reynolds + Ed Jones David Simon + Lynn Gordon • Kathleen Sullivan • Cheryl Vander Waal, In Honor of Marlene Hagedorn Walter + Darcie Wadycki • Mary Walker • David Whitman • Mike Wilbur + Dianne Ellsworth

FANGS [$50+] Grace Adloff, In Memory of Marty Hagedorn • Scott Allaway • Kirk Baldwin • Mark + Carol Bomball, In Memory of Marlene Hagedorn • John Ca • Sarah Cook • Philip Durden • Bernard Golden • Karen Greig • Walter Johnson • Ellen Kirschman Maria Giere Marquis • Diana Myers • Donald Osterberg • John Schofield • Ruth Sherer • Court + Barrie Skinner Susan Swope • Margo Thieneman • Steve Voldseth, In Memory of Marlene Hagedorn

THANK YOU!

THIS PRODUCTION IS SPONSORED IN PART BY THE SILICON VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION’S DONORS CIRCLE FOR THE ARTS.

2016.03 • BAYSTAGES.COM

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