Celebrating local dance, theatre and art in the Dallas Arts District.
Bren
April 11 – 21, 2024
Rapp Presents MURROW by Joseph VitaleTHE ALL-NEW GX
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IT GIVES OFF A LOT OF MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY. Dallas Fort Worth SEWELL LEXUS Plano
Bren Rapp Presents
MURROW
by Joseph VitaleApril 11 – 21, 2024
Hamon Hall, Winspear Opera House
Southwest Regional Premiere
Presented with support from the AT&T Performing Arts Center and the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture.
The playwright wishes to thank Mr. Casey Murrow and the Estate of Edward R. Murrow for permission to quote from letters and selected broadcasts. In addition, he wishes to acknowledge the late Mrs. Janet Murrow, Fred Friendly and David Schoenbrun for sharing their recollections.
CAST & CREW
Executive Producer........................................................................ Bren Rapp
Produced by..................................................................................... Bren Rapp
Written by.................................................................................... Joseph Vitale
Directed by..................................................................... Montgomery Sutton
Starring.................................................................................... Nicolas Greco*
Projections by...................................................................... Eric Scot Voecks
Sound Design by........................................................................... Kellen Voss
Lighting by.............................................................................. Aaron Johansen
Set Design by.................................................................. Clare Floyd DeVries
Set Construction by..................................................................... Conor Clark
Production Management............................................................ Luisa Torres
New York ASM....................................................................... Rebecca Kaplan
*Nicolas Greco appears through an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association
BIOS
Joseph Vitale (Playwright), a finalist for the 2020 Woodward-Newman drama prize and a semi-finalist for the 2012 Eugene O’Neill Theater/ National Playwrights Conference, is the author of many plays, including Dragons in the Crease, which was performed at New York’s Hudson Guild Theater (2019) and later nominated for the Woodward-Newman prize. Murrow was performed Off-Off Broadway at the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble (2016). Back Channel premiered at The Theater Project in New Jersey (2018). The Fourth State of Matter was performed at the Theater for the New City in New York and was nominated for the National Playwrights Conference (2011). His one-acts have been produced at the Hudson Guild, the Barrow Group and Manhattan Repertory Theatre in New York and in theaters around the country. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and
Columbia University and studied playwriting at the HB Studio in New York. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Theater Project Playwrights Workshop. He received a 2021 Fellowship in Playwriting from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Nicolas Greco (Edward R. Murrow) is an actor and writer from Southern New Jersey. He received his BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, and has studied and performed at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, England. Previous stage credits include Love/Sick (59E59), Blood Wedding (Barrow Group), Kaspar Hauser (Flea Theatre), Men and Women Talking Love and Sex (Davenport Theatre) and Stiff (Barrow Group). He can be seen in the films Don Q (with Armand Assante), Death Comes to Pushkin and Self Destruction. Television credits include The Food that Built America , Into the Wild Frontier , T itans: The Rise of Hollywood and Homicide City. As a Voice-Over artist, he has been featured in the films The Little Mermaid (with Steve Guttenberg) and the Lionsgate Film, The Guardians of Time , as well as the upcoming A Tooth Fairy Tale (with Fran Drescher and Jon Lovitz). He can be heard in over 50 video games including Mechwarrior 5, King Arthur: Knight’s Tale and It’s a Wrap! Nicolas is a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA and the Dramatists Guild of America.
Montgomery Sutton (Director) is a director, actor, playwright, and teacher. Directing work includes Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, The Changeling, Secret Shakespeare Hunt (Rude Grooms); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Atlantic Acting School/New York University Tisch School of the Arts); Othello, Ruins, Antigone, Oedipus (Gilbert Theater), Henry IV, Much Ado About Nothing (Junior Players), The Soothsayer (Take Ten Festivalnominee, Best Director); The Tempest, The Shrew (Seven Stages Shakespeare Company). His films include Between the Lines (winner for Best Screenplay and nominee for Best Director, Sparrow Film Festival), Delivery Failed (Best Covid19 Short, Niagara Falls International Short Festival), Self-Love , and Death Takes a Leak. As a writer, his plays include Advent (semi-finalist at the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference), Ruins, Broken Water, a modern multimedia adaptation of Antigone for Dallas College, and original verse adaptations of Antigone and Oedipus for the
Gilbert Theater. He is founder and Master of the Revels for Rude Grooms, a Queens-based theater company that creates epically intimate theatrical experiences rooted in the actor-audience relationship exemplified by Shakespeare’s acting company. As an actor he has appeared at Shakespeare’s Globe, Torn Page, New York Classical Theatre, Florida Studio Theater, Casa Mañana, Shakespeare Dallas, Cape Fear Regional Theatre, Trinity Shakespeare Festival, Seven Stages Shakespeare Company, Second Thought Theatre, Undermain Theatre, Uptown Players, Theater Three, and Dallas Children’s Theater. He serves on faculty for the Atlantic Acting School at New York University (NYU) and has taught for the Shakespeare Theater Association, the World Shakespeare Congress, Shakespeare Dallas, the Gilbert Theater, Junior Players, Dallas Children’s Theater, Cape Fear Regional Theatre, and Rude Grooms. He holds a BFA from the Atlantic Acting School/NYU Tisch School of the Arts and is a recipient of the 2015 International Actors Fellowship (Shakespeare’s Globe).
Eric Scot Voecks (Projections) holds a Bachelor of Science in Theatre from Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, and dual Master’s Degrees in Lighting/Projection Design and in Technology from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Over a thirty-year career, Eric has primarily worked in the professional theatre world as a designer and technician, providing scenery, projections, and lighting for venues, both coast to coast and internationally, having completed a four-month residency at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London in 2012 while designing lights for two Off-East End productions, Dead on Her Feet and Romeo and Juliet For the last eight years he has been at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke as a Lecturer in Theatre Design and Technology, where he also serves as the Technical Director and Lighting/Projections designer. He is the resident Lighting Director for the Uprising Theatre Company and serves as a Technical Advisor and contributing artist at the Inner Peace Center for the Arts, Lumberton, NC. He would like to thank Sara, Chloe, and Pipi for their never-ending support and love.
Kellen Voss (Sound) graduated from Full Sail University in Orlando, FL, with a degree in Recording Arts before moving to Dallas to work for a studio specializing in voice work for projects including Dragonball Z and
Borderlands . His Dallas theater credits include WaterTower Theatre’s: Native Gardens, Discord, Bright Half Life, Lord of the Flies, Honky, Good People, Dogfight, The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical, and Sweet Charity, Kitchen Dog Theater’s: Trevor, A Stain Upon the Silence, I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard, Wilde/Earnest, The Arsonists, Detroit and BBQ Apocalypse, Stage West Theatre’s: Deer, Ann, The Nether, Explorer’s Club, and Wait Until Dark, Theatre Three’s: Memphis, The Hot Mikado, On The Eve, and Hands on a Hardbody, and Shakespeare Dallas’: Romeo and Juliet, Tempest, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He recently moved to New York to work on Broadway projects such as Roundabout Theatre Company’s Jonah and Doubt, New York Theatre Workshop’s The Half-God of Rainfall, and 2nd Stage’s: Between Riverside and Crazy, The Thanksgiving Play, and Appropriate.
Aaron Johansen (Lighting) is a Dallas-based lighting designer for theater and live events and is thrilled to be a part of this production! Previous collaborations have included: Dallas Theater Center; Dallas Children’s Theater; Second Thought Theatre (Artistic Associate), Kitchen Dog Theater (Company Member), Theater Three, Circle Theatre, Stage West Theatre, Uptown Players, Cry Havoc Theater Company, Cara Mía Theatre Co., and Sweet Tooth Hotel Art installation. Aaron is the resident Lighting Director for The Dallas Opera and the Lighting Director for the Drone Racing League, where he designs lighting for drone racecourses around the country. These races are shown on NBC sports network and various streaming platforms.
Clare Floyd DeVries (Set Design) is an architect, an author, and a scenic designer. MURROW is her first set for this venue, but she has designed over 250 other productions throughout Dallas-Ft. Worth, plus a sprinkling of shows on the west coast, in Oklahoma, in Prague, and in NYC. The Off-Broadway adventure was also with Bren Rapp for the show Self-Injurious Behavior and she is excited to work with her again.
Rebecca Kaplan (NY Stage Manager) shas stage managed for New York City Opera: Stonewall, Dear Erich, La Bohème, L’amore dei tre re, Il Pigmalione/Pigmalion, Cruzar a la Cara de la Luna; New York Off-Off Broadway:
Chicken and Biscuits (Queens Theatre), Barefoot in the Park (Queens Theatre), The Country Play (Nedworks Productions), Chasing Andy Warhol (Bated Breath Theatre Co.), When the Lights Go Out (Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre), Midsummer Night’s Dream—The Podcast (Rude Grooms), The Thin Man in the Cherry Orchard (Metropolitan Playhouse), Romeo and Juliet (Rude Grooms), Lazarus (Hudson Guild), D.O.A (Producers Club). Her film and TV work includes T hree Sides of a Circle, Momentous, and Ministry of Evil .
Sara Voecks (Graphics) found her passion with art and photography, studying graphic design at Iowa Western Community College, Council Bluffs, IA. After receiving her Associates in Applied Sciences - Graphic Communications, she worked as the lead graphic artist for A Plus Designs, Inc. while continuing to work freelance as a photographer, graphic designer, and combat choreographer with Spotlight Entertainment/The Royale Pirates of Tortuga in Omaha, NE. Now located in Lumberton, NC with husband Eric Voecks and youngest daughter Chloe, this mother of 3 continues to freelance professionally and is also the resident photographer, graphic designer, multimedia artist and Director of Art and Marketing for Inner Peace Center for the Arts (IPCA). Her freelance portfolio includes a wide range of clients from universities to professional theatrical production companies and work from the Midwest to L.A., Dallas, New York City and beyond. Sara would like to thank Eric, her girls, Mom, Renee, and the IPCA family for their eternal love and support, Bren for being a courageous determined woman with a vision, and the MURROW crew for the hard work making magic happen.
Bren Rapp (Executive Producer/Producer) feels this space is better used to express gratitude. It takes a village to create anything you see on stage, from small to grand, and while the builders of this village are deserving of thanks, the lion’s share of her gratitude is for you, the audience. YOU are the people who make this possible, whether you bought your ticket, came with a friend, or received a comp. Whether you are an avid arts lover or just somehow wound up here. As a producer, she knows there are all sorts of options open to you for entertainment these days and so many of them don’t even require you to leave your house. YOUR time, YOUR
effort, YOUR interest in being here is the beating heart of this village and something she never takes for granted. To her, the great successes of her career are the times when something you see, that she has had something to do with, makes you want to see more. More live theatre. If you are still curious, you can scan the code to read her bio, but, to her, it is you who are truly worth the mention.
Scan to learn more!
SPECIAL THANKS!
The production would like to thank Ivan Sokalsky for underwriting the Wednesday, April 17th matinee making 100 tickets available to students, educators and parents at no cost.
BSFD Fund
Daryl Moon
John Ryan
Made Possible with the Support of:
Mike Bowman
Kevin Harrison
Edward Kain
Joseph Vitale
Joseph Kobylka
Amy Reed
Dr. Dennis Butler
Barry Mendelson
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