Wegrzyn
World Premiere
By Marisa Wegrzyn Directed by Susanna Gellert
Mar 6–Apr 14
2012–13 season An Enemy of the People The Completely Fictional— Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe Bus Stop The Mountaintop Mud Blue Sky The Raisin Cycle
Clybourne Park Beneatha’s Place
An Introduction to the World of the Play Beth, a flight attendant on layover in a hotel outside Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, just wants to rest her aching back, but her co-worker, Sam, won’t allow it. When Sam barges into Beth’s hotel room with an old mutual friend and a bottle of cognac, they find that they aren’t the only visitors. Beth has been joined by a teenager named Jonathan. From an awkward beginning, the unlikely group settles in for a long evening of revealing encounters and surprising connections. Barely 30, playwright Marisa Wegrzyn has already had an impressive career. Winner of the Wasserstein Prize for her play Hickorydickory, Marisa Wegrzyn, playwright
Wegrzyn is at home with the fantastic and the macabre. Mud Blue Sky marks a more naturalistic approach and one based on more personal connections—Wegrzyn grew up in the Chicago area, and her mother was a flight attendant. The play was commissioned by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company and had its first reading there before landing its world premiere here at CENTERSTAGE. Mud Blue Sky takes place in today’s post-9/11, post-recession America; in a hyper-connected chain-store world where smart phones are everywhere, Top Chef is a hit, and there’s an IHOP on every corner. Exploring missed connections, everyday dreams, and the sometimes-enormous stakes behind the smallest moments, it asks, if work is what you do, does it have to be who you are? And, when you’re neither here nor there, where are you?
>At the theater early? Want to know more about the play? Please join us on select evenings for ForeWords, a conversation about the play with a
member of our staff, in the back of The Head Theater. ForeWords will be
held pre-show on the same dates as AfterThoughts discussions (Thursday
7 pm shows on March 21, 28, and April 4; Sunday 2 pm matinees on March 24 and 31).
Mud Blue Sky By Marisa Wegrzyn • Directed by Susanna Gellert
Mar 6–Apr 14, 2013 Presenting Partner
Season Sponsors Ellen and Ed Bernard Stephanie and Ashton Carter James and Janet Clauson Lynn and Tony Deering and The Charlesmead Foundation Jane and Larry Droppa Terry H. Morgenthaler and Patrick Kerins Judy and Scott Phares Phil and Lynn Rauch Jay and Sharon Smith Barbara Voss and Charles E. Noell, III
The Cast (in order of appearance)
The Artistic Team
Susan Rome* Beth
Susanna Gellert Director
Eva Kaminsky* Sam
Neil Patel Scenic Designer
Justin Kruger* Jonathan
Jennifer Moeller Costume Designer
Cynthia Darlow* Angie
Scott Zielinski Lighting Designer
Captain Kate Murphy* Stage Manager Laura Smith* Assistant Stage Manager
Victoria (Toy) Delorio Sound Designer Kellie Mecleary Dramaturg Stephanie Klapper Casting Director
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association
CORPORATE Season SPONSORS
The Setting
Location: A room at a chain hotel in
Rosemont, IL, near O'Hare Airport. An area behind the hotel.
T. Rowe Price Foundation
Time: The present. Spring. Night.
Associate Season Sponsor Kathleen Hyle Kenneth C. and Elizabeth M. Lundeen
Media Partners
Mud Blue Sky was commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago; Martha Lavey, Artistic Director, David Hawkanson, Executive Director. CENTERSTAGE is funded by an operating grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive.
New play development at CENTERSTAGE is made possible in part by The Sylvia and Eddie Brown Family Foundation, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, and the Nathan and Suzanne Cohen Foundation Fund for Commissioning and Developing New Plays.
Please turn off or silence all electronic devices. In case of emergency (during performances only) 410.986.4080
“i mean, it seems like a hard life. Flight attendants. it’s a hard life.” –marisa Wegrzyn
Life in the Sky By Kellie Mecleary, Production Dramaturg
Beth, Sam, and Angie are part of a profession with a lot of baggage. These pages offer an overview of both the history of flight attendants and the facts of flying today—from glamorous icons to the faces of labor to the brunt of passenger air rage.
1933: An icon is born America had a new icon of femininity, declared the Toledo Sunday Times: the airline stewardess “has been eulogized, glorified, publicized, and fictionalized during her comparatively short existence… She seems to be on the way to becoming to American girlhood what policemen, pilots, and cowboys are to American boyhood.”
1943: What more could you want? No wonder stewardesses received such favorable attention from the press and the public. As a female writer for Independent Woman admiringly concluded, they exuded "the skill of a Nightingale, the charm of a Powers model, and the kitchen wisdom of a Fanny Farmer"— an ideal blend of traditional and modern femininity.
1936: A New York Times article described job requirements thus: “The girls who qualify for hostesses must be 1930: petite—weight 100 to Stewardesses, 118 pounds; height 5 or "air hostesses" feet to 5 feet 4 inches; as they were then called, were required to age 20 to 26 years.” retire if they married or became pregnant.
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1955: Playboy’s “Miss December” United stewardess Barbara Cameron posed for Playboy as “Miss December” in 1955. She appeared again exactly three years later as “The Girl Next Door” in the line-up of “most popular Playmates,” marking the magazine’s fifth anniversary. This was a notable departure from the respectable stewardess mystique of the postwar era.
1953: Flight attendants had to retire by age 35.
1965: A showgirl or jet-propelled waitress? The jet age, with its crowded, speedier flights and more motley passenger population, posed a new challenge to stewardesses’ glamourous image. As a female reporter for the Des Moines Register wittily suggested: “The airline stewardess, 1965, has one of the most frustrating jobs in the world. Male passengers expect her to look like a Las Vegas showgirl, and are angry when she doesn’t. Female passengers are angry when she does, and are fond of calling her a ‘flying waitress.’”
1979: “No More Stewardesses—We’re Flight Attendants” When feminist writer Louise Kapp Howe profiled stewardesses in the traditional women’s magazine Redbook, she presented them as symbols of women’s new assertiveness in the workplace. As Howe and others made clear in the national media, “stewardesses” had become “flight attendants” in the feminist 1970s and began to muster more respect as workers (and militant ones at that).
1968: Mandatory resignation by age 35 ends. 1971: Court orders ended airlines' practices of refusing to hire male flight attendants and prohibiting female flight attendants from marrying.
1993: The New Face of Labor With federal deregulation of airline fares and routes in 1978, price slashing, start-ups, rapid expansion, and mergers wracked the industry. One notable side effect was that the news media began to pay attention to flight attendants as unionized workers with great potential for militancy, rather than as staple subjects for “human
1974: Courts ruled that female flight attendants must be paid no less than their male counterparts. 1978: Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, protecting flight attendants, among other workers, from pregnancy termination policies.
1991: American Airlines resolved a lawsuit by relaxing standards of weight for flight attendants, permitting a 5’5” female flight attendant younger than 25 to weigh up to 133 pounds. (Previously, the same flight attendant could weigh no more than 129 pounds.) The new weight restrictions increased with age; between 40 and 44, the same flight attendant could weigh up to 145 pounds.
interest” stories. When American Airlines flight attendants carried out a highly successful 11-day strike in 1993, nearly shutting down the nation’s then-largest carrier at the time, both Time and U.S. News & World Report portrayed them as the “new face of Labor.”
2001: After September 11, many flight attendants took pay cuts to keep the airlines in business.
2010: Salaries for flight attendants at United Airlines were the same as in 1994, but with fewer benefits.
Furious Flyers
Examples of Air Rage
An enraged passenger heaved a suitcase at a customer service agent who was eight months pregnant. A flight attendant was knocked to the ground and kicked after informing a hungry passenger that there were no extra sandwiches. A man punched a pilot in the boarding area when he was informed that his flight was cancelled. A Saudi Arabian princess was sentenced and fined for choking a flight attendant.
A passenger, angry about the lengthy delay, hurled a flight attendant into the lavatory door and attacked her until restrained. The battered flight attendant crawled to the cockpit for help. An intoxicated first-class passenger defecated on a meal cart during the flight. An intoxicated passenger ignored the flight attendant’s warning not to smoke in the lavatory. Cursing and demanding more liquor, the passenger reportedly smashed a bottle of vodka over her head. The flight attendant was severely injured and required stitches.
After being denied a first-class upgrade, a passenger threw a full pot of coffee at a flight attendant, causing second-degree burns. Material on this page was compiled from several sources, including femininityinflight.com by Kathleen M. Barry and Around the World in a Bad Mood by Rene Foss.
FACTS ABOUT FLIGHT ATTENDANTS TODAY: DID YOU KNOW THAT… Of all applicants for flight attendant positions, between 5% and 10% are accepted. 40% of flight attendants are 50 or older. Fewer than 18% are 34 or younger. Most airlines hire flight attendants no shorter than 5’3” and no taller than 6’1”. Weight must fall within a specified range of proportionality to height. The Federal Aviation Administration requires one flight attendant per 50 passengers. Most airlines do not choose to exceed this minimum. On-the-job injury rates for flight attendants are comparable to those for construction workers or miners. Flight attendants are required to maintain a high standard of personal grooming and may not have any visible tattoos. Burnout rates for first-year flight attendants are as high as 90%. Flight attendants get paid for “flight hours only,” meaning the clock doesn’t start until the craft pushes away from the gate. Mud Blue Sky | 3 c
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PAIRINGS By Kellie Mecleary, Production Dramaturg
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
Mud Blue Sky is full of unlikely friendships, brought together by circumstance, both mundane and surprising. Though these unexpected pairings may seem unorthodox, such surprising bonds are seen again and again throughout history and culture. What is it that is so interesting about people from different worlds, viewpoints, or moments in time managing to connect, or at least coexist? Mark Twain and Helen Keller
The science behind this famous pair’s chemistry is elusive. But the archetypal Victorian gentleman acts as an excellent foil to the brilliant, emotionally detached analytical machine—so excellent that they have reappeared in countless reiterations. These guys are an example of the male-buddy odd couple: different in every way, yet hopeless without one another. Many came before and since, but perhaps most is owed to the eccentric Don Quixote and the bumbling, faithful Sancho Panza—the original bromance.
Who would have guessed that storied American humorist Mark Twain and deafblind author and activist Helen Keller—what with their 45-year age difference, among other things—were besties? Twain wrote a letter to Keller in 1903, describing their relationship as “an affectionate friendship which has subsisted between us for nine years without a break, and without a single act of violence that I can call to mind. I suppose there is nothing like it in heaven; and not likely to be, until we get there and show off.”
Other male odd couples: Batman and Robin, Oscar and Felix, Ernie and Bert, the boys of Men In Black.
Other age-defying BFFs: Boo Radley and Scout Finch, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor, Queen Elizabeth I and Lord Burghley. The Pixar Phenomenon
The wildly successful Pixar franchise loves unlikely friendships: their films are filled with ’em. There’s the octogenarian Carl and the pre-pubescent Russell in Up, Remy the rat and Linguini the chef in Ratatouille, the timid Marlin and overeager Dory in Finding Nemo, and, most famous of all, the enemiesturned-lifelong friends Woody and Buzz in Toy Story. Perhaps Pixar has picked up on something in the zeitgeist? Perhaps they just wanted to differentiate themselves from their Disney princess-ridden predecessors. Either way, their success suggests that audiences still dig oddball pairs. We hope you dig ours.
Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy
She is a free-spirited, run-through-the-rain, easy-to-laugh young lady, and he is an uptight, uber-wealthy stickler for decorum and status. Hate at first sight, love at last. One of the earliest versions of the opposites attract romantic comedy trope, Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy’s slow dance towards respect and love in Pride and Prejudice celebrates the value of different but complimentary sensibilities. Countless rom-com storylines followed, and many more will come, but perhaps none so keenly observed and plotted as the hero and heroine of Jane Austen’s beloved novel.
Other opposites attracting: Maria and Captain von Trap, Henry Higgins and Eliza Dolittle, Harry and Sally, Toni Morrisson and Fran Lebowitz.
Clarissa Dalloway and Sally Seton
These two from Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway couldn’t be more different: Clarissa is lighthaired, bird-like, the perfect hostess. Sally is dark, voluptuous, wild. And yet, Clarissa remembers her feeling for Sally “was not like one’s feeling for a man. It was completely disinterested, and besides, it had a quality which could only exist between women, between women just grown up.” A note: it is surprisingly difficult to find famous female pairs that fit this bill. Why might that be?
Other unlikely lady buddies: Julia Child and Simone Beck, Downton Abbey’s Dowager Countess and Isabel Crowley, Hannah and Marney in Girls.
Bill Clinton and George Bush, Sr.
Now that these former rivals are both out of the White House and the pesky politics are out of the way, they’ve formed a tight bond: Clinton even refers to Bush Sr. as a father figure. The two joined forces in 2004 to help raise money for Indian Ocean tsunami victims, and have shown up together at a variety of events over the years. According to Former First Lady Barbara Bush, Clinton is, “a good fellow,” and “very thoughtful about calling.”
Other sworn enemies joining forces: Romeo and Juliet, President Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton.
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marisa explains it all By Kellie Mecleary, Production Dramaturg
ME: So this is your first time doing like a Skype thing, a Skype-like thing? MAriSA: Yeah, the future. ME: So, I guess, uh, just to give you a sense of, why I wanted to chat with you, with…what I’m…One of the components of the dramaturgy we do for the program, um, usually we write...a…bio of the playwright, so…and up until now, the playwrights I’ve written about have been dead, so I’ve just, you know— MAriSA: Sorry to make your job harder.
So began my Skype-like* conversation with Marisa Wegrzyn, the living and breathing playwright of Mud Blue Sky. I won’t make you endure the bulk of it—suffice it to say that I’m not quite up to Terry Gross’ standards in my interviewing skills—but I did manage to learn some very interesting things about our upand-coming author. For one, Marisa’s manner is direct and unadorned. When I asked her why she decided to pursue playwriting, she answered, “because I was good at it.” She said this without a hint of ego: it was a fact, proven by a playwriting competition she entered (several times over) while a student at Washington University. The entire interview went like that: I would stumble through a rambling, slightly neurotic, overly articulated, East Coast question, and she would respond Midwestern style—simply and clearly, with a dash of wit. Other things I learned: Marisa is Chicagoland born-and-bred. She’s the second of three daughters: her parents are a retired anesthesiologist and a flight-attendant-turned-stay-at-home mom. She loves sci-fi, Martin McDonagh plays, and Tarantino films. Some things I didn’t learn from her, but found out elsewhere: at 31, Marisa has been produced at and/or commissioned by Steppenwolf, Yale Rep, and Actors Theatre of Louisville, among other places. In 2009, she received the prestigious Wasserstein Prize for her play Hickorydickory, which afforded her national attention, a $25,000 prize, and a reading at New York’s Second Stage. Prior to playwriting, Wegrzyn wrote sketch comedy for her high school’s yearly musical-comedy revue. It’s through sketch comedy that Marisa became interested in theater. This makes more sense after having read some of Marisa’s other plays: both Killing Women (2004) and The Butcher of Baraboo (2007) are filled with zany, splashy scenarios, where the payoff comes quickly, the laughs come easily, and macabre a-la McDonagh or Tarantino is a common element. The kind of stuff that, in milder form and smaller doses, would fit right in on Saturday Night Live.
I met Marisa after having read Mud Blue Sky and almost immediately thought, “that makes so much sense.” Her personality and perspective seems to pervade the play, in style and tone. And yet, Mud is a departure from Wegrzyn’s previous work. She told me, “I wanted to go in the opposite direction, see where I could go with being a little bit more gentle and a little bit more real.” It therefore took her a while to complete. She wrote what is now the play’s second scene—between Beth, a middle-aged flight attendant, and Jonathan, a highschool senior on prom night—very quickly, but then didn’t know where to go from there. “I didn’t really have the muscle to do the slow burn kind of plot development, where not much happens, but a lot happens too.” While attempting to be more real, and to focus on character over plot, Marisa chose to write about a group of women in a profession close to home. Like the women in Mud, Marisa’s mother used to be a flight attendant. But Marisa is careful not to invest too much importance in that autobiographical connection. This is not a play about her mother, or mothers and daughters in any capacity. Her choice to write a play about flight attendants came out of a more indirect interest. “I was always interested in flight attendants in the way that, like—you know, if your parents have a certain job, you notice people who do that job?” Marisa paused, and then continued, “I guess that, I mean it seems like a hard life. Flight attendants. It’s a hard life.” These days, Marisa is living in LA, trying her hand at TV writing, for the reason that many playwrights turn to TV—better pay. But, she has no intention of giving up writing plays. “I still like the craft of it. It’s really hard to do it right, to do it well…with a play, I feel like there’s always going to be that freedom of expression.” This stumbling, rambling interviewer is sure glad to hear it.
*At CENTERSTAGE we connect virtually using something called “FUZE meeting.” All I know about it is that it is similar to, but more awesome than, Skype.
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Biog r aphies The Cast
Cynthia Darlow*—Angie.
CENTERSTAGE: debut. Broadway—Billy Elliot, Accent on Youth, Old Acquaintance, Rabbit Hole, Taller Than a Dwarf, Present Laughter, Sex and Longing, Prelude to a Kiss, Rumors, the original production of Grease. Off Broadway—The Late Christopher Bean, Lovers, The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Home, The Runner Stumbles, Sin: A Cardinal Deposed, Juno and the Paycock, Cider House Rules, June Moon, Death Defying Acts, Mere Mortals, Sister Mary Ignatius.... Regional— Many credits, including founding member of the American Repertory Theatre. Film/ TV—credits include The Savages, 25th Hour, The Thomas Crown Affair, Garden State, Elementary, The Sopranos, Six Degrees, Soul Man, Law and Order, L&O: CI, L&O: SVU, Square One TV for the Children’s Television Workshop (five seasons as a series regular). Other Professional— narrator of many audio books, most notably the Murder She Wrote series for the BBC; member of The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) in New York, and The Actor’s Center; AEA,CAEA, SAG-AFTRA. Education—University of North Carolina School of the Arts; Penn State; Rose Bruford Training School of Speech and Drama, England.
Eva Kaminsky*—Sam.
CENTERSTAGE: debut. Broadway—The Lyons. Off Broadway/Other New York— Roundabout Theatre Company: The Language Archive; The Play Company: Made in Poland; Partial Comfort: ’Nami; Broken Watch: The Safety Net. National Tour—The Syringa Tree. Regional—Old Globe: Good People (Craig Noel Award nom); Alley Theatre: August: Osage County; Cincinnati Playhouse: God of Carnage, 1:23 (Acclaim Award); CATF: Breadcrumbs & Lidless; Long Wharf & ACT: The Syringa Tree; Cleveland Play House: A Small Family Business, Laughter on the 23rd Floor; Syracuse Stage: The Real Thing; Hartford TheaterWorks: Speech & Debate; and many others. Film/TV—
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Tie a Yellow Ribbon, Just Like the Son, Mercy, Ugly Betty, Gossip Girl, ER, Numb3rs, Royal Pains, and all the Law & Order series. She is also an audiobook narrator, her most recent being Mary Coin by Marisa Silver, out this spring. Love to B.
Justin Kruger*— Jonathan. CENTERSTAGE:
debut. Off Broadway— The Women’s Project at Playwrights Horizons: How the World Began (dir. Daniella Topol). Regional—Westport Country Playhouse: Twelfth Night (dir. Mark Lamos); Mile Square Theater: The Odd Ball. Education—Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts (BFA); favorite MGSA credits include Marat/Sade (dir. Anders Cato), The Hostage (dir. Sue Lawless), A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Rutgers Conservatory at Shakespeare’s Globe/Sam Wanamaker Festival.
Susan Rome*—Beth.
CENTERSTAGE: An Enemy of the People. Regional— Theatre J: The Moscows of Nantucket (Ellen), Spring Forward, Fall Back (Minnie, Naomi), The Last Seder (Julia), The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (Leah); Rep Stage: Las Meninas (Mother Superior/Queen Mother), A Shayna Maidel (Mama); Baltimore Shakespeare Festival: Richard III (Elizabeth), Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), All’s Well That Ends Well (Widow); Artemis Productions: Why We Have A Body (Renee); Center Stage Seattle: The Legacy (Rachel); Mark Taper Forum: The Substance of Fire (Sarah); Padua Hills Playwrights Festival: The Interpreter of Horror (Willa), Amado Amor (Ensemble); Road Theatre Company: The Chisholm Trail Went Through Here (Eileen), The Walkers (Fern), Why Things Burn (Vera), I-Land (Lana), Balm in Gilead (Terry, Rust); Fountain Theatre: The Couch (Toni); Burbage Theatre: Bad Country (Tony); Cast Theatre: Perpetual Care (Susan); Ensemble Studio Theatre: Branches Among the Stars (Nora); Nosotros Theatre: Of Mice and Men (Curley’s Wife). Film/TV—My One and Only, The Invasion, A Dirty Shame, The Wire, The Secret Service, NYPD Blue. Education—BFA Boston University.
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Standing ovation. As we mark our 75th year in Baltimore, we join CENTERSTAGE in celebrating its own milestone anniversary—50 years of artistic excellence provided through thought-provoking theater for this great community. That’s no small act. We’re proud to be a long-time supporter of this remarkable cultural institution, which enriches our city’s quality of life. As loyal fans, we say, Bravo!
Biog r aphies The Artistic Team
Marisa Wegrzyn—Playwright.
Wegrzyn’s past productions include Diversey Harbor, Killing Women, The Chicago Landmark Project: State & Madison: The Grid (Theatre Seven); Hickorydickory and Ten Cent Night (Chicago Dramatists); Psalms of a Questionable Nature (Rivendell Theatre); The Butcher of Baraboo (Steppenwolf Theatre’s First Look Rep & A Red Orchid Theatre). Her plays have been produced Off Broadway at Second Stage, at Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival, and most recently at Moxie Theatre (San Diego) and The Road Theatre (Los Angeles). She’s been commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre. Chicago Reader named Marisa Best Playwright in the 2008 “Best of Chicago” issue, and she received the 2009 Wendy Wasserstein Playwriting Prize. Marisa is a staff writer for The Paper Machete, a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, and a founding company member of Theatre Seven of Chicago.
Columbia University, and NYU. Susanna was the founding Artistic Director of Chicago’s I-80 Drama Co. and an associate artist at Target Margin Theater. Currently, she is a member of Wingspace, a theater design collective, and the Women’s Project Directors’ Lab. A recipient of SDCF’s Sir John Gielgud Fellowship and the Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize, Susanna is a graduate of Yale School of Drama and The University of Chicago.
Neil Patel—Scenic Designer.
CENTERSTAGE: The Mountaintop, The Whipping Man, American Buffalo, Working It Out, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Once on This Island, Elmina’s Kitchen, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Hostage, As You Like It, many others. Broadway—Oleanna; Wonderland; [title of show]; Ring of Fire; ’night, Mother; Sideman (also West End & Kennedy Center). Off Broadway—Signature Theatre: My Children! My Africa!; Second Stage: By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Susanna Gellert—Director/Artistic Gruesome Playground Injuries, Peter & Jerry, Producer—joined CENTERSTAGE in Living Out; Roundabout: McReele, Hurrah January 2012, and served as the producer at Last; Vineyard: Now.Here.This., The Long for this season’s My America videos. Prior Christmas Ride Home; MTC: Between Us, to joining CENTERSTAGE, she received a Glimmer Glimmer and Shine; MCC: The Masters in Theater Studies from the English Mercy Seat; NYTW: The Beard of Avon, Lydie Department at Columbia University. Recent Breeze, Resident Alien, A Question of Mercy, directing projects include Bar Joke by Sam Bob, Quills, Slavs!; Playwrights Horizons: Allingham (Old American Can Factory), Lobster Alice, On the Mountain; Public/ Open the Dark Door by David Nugent (New NYSF: Dirty Tricks, Othello. Regional— York Music Theater Festival), Visiting Day by includes Guthrie, Steppenwolf, La Jolla, Andy Bragen (Sewanee Writers’ Conference), McCarter, Alley, Long Wharf, Mark Taper. Fugue States (PS 122), You Can’t Take It With Opera—Chicago Lyric Opera: Anna Bolena; You (University of Rochester), The Boss in Houston Grand Opera: Mary Stuart, NYCO: the Satin Kimono (New York International Alcina; Santa Fe: Carmen, Salome, Madame Fringe Festival), The Duchess of Malfi (FSU/ Mao; Minnesota: Madame Butterfly; St. Asolo Conservatory), and Marat/Sade (The Louis: Cavalleria Rusticana, Suor Angelica, Fisher Center for Performing Arts at Bard Gloriana; Nikikai: Le Nozze di Figaro, Don College). Additional New York directing Giovanni; FGO: Anna Karenina. Television— credits include The Lacy Project (Soho Think In Treatment (HBO). Awards—Obie Award Tank’s Ice Factory ’07, the Ohio Theater), (2), Helen Hayes Award, Eddy Award, Hewes adaptations of Tamburlaine the Great nom (5), Drama Desk nom (3). and Valkyrie (Target Margin Theater’s Laboratory), Match and L’Interieur (American Jennifer Moeller—Costume Designer. CENTERSTAGE: debut. Off Broadway— Living Room), as well as workshops at the Signature Theatre: Dance and the Railroad; Lark, EST, and NYU. Susanna has taught at Primary Stages: Happy Now?; Women’s the University of Rochester, Bard College, continued on page 10 >>
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Biog r aphies
The Artistic Team [cont] Project: Crooked. Regional—Shakespeare Theatre Company: A Midsummer NIght’s Dream, Merchant of Venice, Romeo & Juliet, Tamburlaine, Richard III; Studio Theatre: Bachelorette, Venus in Fur; McCarter: The How and the Why; Williamstown Theatre Festival: Six Degrees of Separation; Yale Rep: Winter’s Tale, Dance of the Holy Ghosts; Barrington Stage: Sweeney Todd; Berkshire Theatre Festival: Waiting for Godot. Scott Zielinski—Lighting Designer. CENTERSTAGE: The Mountaintop, Intimate Apparel, Fall. Broadway— Topdog/Underdog. New York—Atlantic Theater, Classic Stage Company, Lincoln Center Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Public Theater, Signature Theatre, Theatre for a New Audience, others. International— Productions in Adelaide, Amsterdam, Avignon, Berlin, Bregenz, Edinburgh, Fukuoka, Gennevilliers, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Linz, London, Lyon, Melbourne, Orleans, Oslo, Ottawa, Paris, Reykjavik, Rotterdam, Rouen, St. Gallen, Singapore, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna, Vilnius, Zurich, others. Regional—Most theaters throughout the U.S. Dance—American Ballet Theatre, American Dance Festival, Houston Ballet, Joyce, San Francisco Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, others. Opera—Brooklyn Academy of Music, Canadian Opera, English National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lithuanian National Opera, Nederlandse Opera, New York City Opera, Opera de Rouen, Royal Opera House London, San Francisco Opera, Spoleto Festival, others. scottzielinski.com Victoria (Toy) Delorio—Original Music & Sound Designer. CENTERSTAGE: The Mountaintop, Working It Out. Off Broadway—Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater: Cassie’s Chimera; Steppenwolf at The Duke: The Bluest Eye; NYMTF: Arnie the Doughnut; NYC Fringe Festival at The Connelly: Ophelia. National Tour—LA Theatre Works: Private Lives. Regional— 10 |
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Oregon Shakespeare; The Goodman Theatre; Steppenwolf Theatre; Victory Gardens Theater; Syracuse Stage, Cleveland Playhouse; Maltz Jupiter; Delaware Theatre Company; Chautauqua Theater Company; Indiana Repertory; Milwaukee Shakespeare; Northlight Theatre; Writers’ Theatre; Peninsula Players; and many other theaters in and around Chicago, NY, and LA. Awards—Nominated for 11 and winning six Joseph Jefferson Awards, and two After Dark Awards. Professional—Head of Sound Design for The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago. www.victoria-sound-design.com Captain Kate Murphy*—Stage Manager. CENTERSTAGE: Resident Stage Manager; Stage Manager for The Mountaintop, …Edgar Allan Poe, A Skull in Connemara, American Buffalo, Crime & Punishment, Let There Be Love, The Santaland Diaries; Assistant Stage Manager for The Importance of Being Earnest, Things of Dry Hours, Trouble in Mind, Three Sisters, Radio Golf, The Murder of Isaac, Once on this Island, King Lear, Assistant Production Manager 2008-2009. Regional—Trinity Rep: BoeingBoeing; Actors Theatre of Louisville: All Hail Hurricane Gordo*, The Clean House, Moot the Messenger*, Dracula, The Ruby Sunrise*, Tall Grass Gothic*, The Drawer Boy, Amadeus, As You Like It (*premieres at the Humana Festival of New American Plays); Contemporary American Theater Festival: The Overwhelming, Pig Farm; Totem Pole Playhouse: Over 70 productions through 12 summer stock seasons. Film/ TV—Route 30, Route 30 Too!, Next Food Network Star. Proud Actors Equity and ASCAP Member. Laura Smith*—Assistant Stage Manager. CENTERSTAGE: Resident Stage Manager; Stage Manager: Bus Stop, An Enemy of the People; The Whipping Man, Gleam; The Rivals; Snow Falling on Cedars; Cyrano; Working it Out; Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Regional— Everyman: Pygmalion, Shipwrecked, The continued on page 12 >>
Mud Blue Sky | 11
Biog r aphies
The Artistic Team [cont] Exonerated, Rabbit Hole, Doubt, Gem of the Ocean, And a Nightingale Sang, The School for Scandal, A Number, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Yellowman; Woolly Mammoth: Gruesome Playground Injuries, House of Gold, The Unmentionables, Vigils, After Ashley; Folger: Measure for Measure, The Comedy of Errors (ASM); Olney Theatre: Stuff Happens; Theater Alliance: Headsman’s Holiday, Pangea, [sic]; Catalyst: Cloud 9; Longacre Lea: Man with Bags.
Kellie Mecleary—Production
congratulates CENTERSTAGE on its 50 Anniversary. Goodell DeVries th
and its employees are proud to support CENTERSTAGE as a cornerstone of the Baltimore Arts community
Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann, LLP Baltimore • Philadelphia www.gdldlaw.com
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Dramaturg—holds a Master’s Degree in Performance Studies from New York University and a BA in English and Theater from Goucher College. Other CENTERSTAGE credits include Production Dramaturg for An Enemy of the People, A Skull in Connemara, American Buffalo, and co-producer of the Pub Lab Series. Other Baltimore credits: BROS: Murdercastle; Single Carrot Theatre: Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?, Milk Milk Lemonade. Previously New York based, she has worked as a dramaturg, director, critic, producer, administrator, and stage manager with various organizations including Brave New World Repertory Company, Pipeline Theater Company, WOW Café Theater, Manhattan Theater Source, and Vital Theater. Her writing has been published through Cerise Press and OffOffOnline.com.
Stephanie Klapper—Casting Director. CENTERSTAGE—…Edgar
Allan Poe, The Whipping Man, A Skull in Connemara. Her work has been seen on Broadway, Off Broadway, regionally, internationally, on television, internet and film. Selected Broadway and Off Broadway—RX; Motherhood Out Loud; Olive and the Bitter Herbs; Stop the Virgins!; Cactus Flower; Black Tie; In Transit; Secrets of the Trade; The Temperamentals; Dividing the Estate (2009 Tony Nomination); Bells are Ringing; Dinner with Friends; an oak tree NY/LA (Artios award winner); Indoor Outdoor.
National Tour—A Christmas Story, The Musical. Resident casting director for Primary Stages, New York Classical Theatre, and the Pearl Theatre Company. NY Casting—The Cherry Sisters (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville); Eric Rosen and Matt Sax’s Venice; Saved! for Gary Griffin; Moises Kaufman’s Into the Woods; Mary Zimmerman’s The White Snake; The Arabian Nights; Mirror of the Invisible World. International—Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Vienna); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Frankfurt). Ongoing projects for a number of regional theatres including: Capital Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company; Westport; Delaware Theatre Company, Milwaukee Rep; Adirondak Theatre Festival, Asolo Theatre, Playmakers Rep, Kansas City Rep, The New Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. Numerous independent feature films. Member Casting Society of America and League of Professional Theatre Women.
“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” Pericles (c. 495-429 BCE) Planned gifts offer you creative ways to share your passion for the theater with generations to come. Fifty percent of Americans are living without a will. Their life savings may be spent in ways they never intended. Make sure that does not happen to you. Live smart. When you name CENTERSTAGE as a beneficiary, you can trust that your money will be spent wisely by a non-profit organization you already know and trust.
Your foresight is our future… and your peace of mind.
Master Your Own Legacy… Join the Heritage Circle at CENTERSTAGE To learn more about opportunities to include CENTERSTAGE in your estate plans, please contact the Director of Development, Cindi Monahan at 410.986.4020.
Mud Blue Sky | 13
for making an impact. Inspiring. Thought Provoking. PNC is proud to sponsor CENTERSTAGE. Because we appreciate all that goes into your work.
pnc.com
Š2013 The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. All rights reserved. PNC Bank, National Association. Member FDIC
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CENTERSTAGE
Biog r aphies The Staff
Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE,
Endowment for the Arts, American Arts Alliance, League of Resident Theatres, and the Theatre Communications Group. twitter: @sjrcenterstage
an award-winning British playwright, director, actor, and broadcaster, is in his Associate Artistic second season as Artistic Director/Director of Director. At CENTERSTAGE he has directed Dramaturgy Gavin The Mountaintop, An Enemy of the People, Witt came to CENTERSTAGE last season’s The Whipping Man (one of City in 2003 as Resident Paper’s Top Ten Productions of 2012) for Dramaturg, having served in which he was named Best Director, and that role previously at several Chicago previously Naomi Wallace’s Things of Dry theaters. As a dramaturg, he has worked on Hours. Among his works as playwright are well over 60 plays, from classics to new Elmina’s Kitchen and Let There Be Love— commissions—including play development which had their American debuts at workshops and freelance dramaturgy for CENTERSTAGE—as well as A Bitter Herb, TCG, The Playwrights Center, The New Statement of Regret, and Seize the Day. His Harmony Project, The Old Globe, Bay Area latest play, Beneatha’s Place, will debut this Playwrights Festival, CATF, The Kennedy season as part of The Raisin Cycle. Kwame Center, and others. A graduate of Yale and has served on the boards of The National the University of Chicago, he was active Theatre and The Tricycle Theatre, both in in Chicago theater for more than a decade London. He served as Artistic Director for as an actor, director, dramaturg, translator, the World Arts Festival in Senegal, a and teacher, not to mention co-founder of month-long World Festival of Black Arts and greasy joan & co. theater, while serving Culture, which featured more than two as a regional Vice President of LMDA, the thousand artists from 52 countries national association of dramaturgs. He participating in 16 different arts disciplines. has been on the faculty of the University He serves as the Chancellor of the University of Chicago and DePaul University, and of the Arts London, and in 2012 was named locally at Towson University. as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
Managing Director Stephen Richard,
a leader on the national arts scene for more than 30 years, joined CENTERSTAGE in January 2012. Stephen comes most recently from a position as Vice President, External Relations, for the new National Children’s Museum. Previously, he served 18 years as Executive Director of Arena Stage, where he planned and managed the theater’s $125 million capital campaign for the Mead Center for American Theater. Also a professor of Arts Management at Georgetown University, he has served on the boards and committees of some of the nation’s most prestigious arts organizations, including the National
Please join us for CENTERSTAGE's 27th annual Young Playwrights Festival on Monday, May 6 at 7 pm.
The Young Playwrights Festival presents staged readings of honored playwrights in grades 1-12, an awards ceremony, and the opportunity to congratulate all of the young playwrights who submitted work this year. Visit www.centerstage.org/ypf for more details. The Young Playwrights Festival is made possible through the generous support of our many community partners, including: Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation
Mud Blue Sky | 15
Congratulations CENTERSTAGE on 50 years of world-class theater and the world premiere of Mud Blue Sky.
EncorE!
$50-1 Hour Studio or Outdoor Photo Session and 20% off Your Order.
Mention CENTERSTAGE when booking your appointment. Maureen (240-676-2837) & Tracey (301-437-9388) mobilemomsphoto@live.com Mobilemomsphoto.com 16 |
CENTERSTAGE
1415 Aliceanna St, Baltimore, MD 21202 410-522-5511 Take a trip down Arthur Avenue, the main culinary thoroughfare of the Bronx, this season and enjoy a hand-crafted cocktail, a slice of coalfired pizza, or homemade Italian American specialties reminiscent of the timeless days of the Bronx.
F Y I Audience Services PARKED IN THE GARAGE? We can help!
The Chesapeake Garage diagonally across from the theater at Monument and Calvert has come under new management this season and we want to make sure you completely understand the options available to you. How do I Pay? 1. At the ticket machine in the garage lobby, first place the parking receipt you received when entering the garage in the designated slot. The machine will hold that receipt until the next step. 2. Place your "payment" in the designated slot. The payment may be a credit card or cash with exact bills. The machine will then return your original receipt as validated, which you can then use as you exit the garage at the gate.
What is 500 Art-Full Letters?
OR 3. If the lobby is crowded and you are using a credit card, you may go directly to your car and pay with your credit card at the machine at the exit gate as you leave the garage. Please note: these machines will not take cash! Follow the steps above at the exit gate machine to make your payment. I have a Pre-Paid Voucher, What do I do? If you pre-paid for parking with your membership and have your yellow Pre-Paid Vouchers, please bypass the machine in the elevator lobby and proceed directly to your car. Enter the parking receipt you received upon entry to the garage followed immediately by the yellow Pre-Paid Voucher. Remember that you’ll need your parking ticket to exit whether you’ve pre-paid or are paying at the pay station or at the machine when you exit. Unfortunately, CENTERSTAGE cannot validate parking, nor are vouchers from previous seasons able to be honored. Pre-paid vouchers are issued by the garage owner/operator and CENTERSTAGE in unable to replace lost or forgotten vouchers. We apologize for the inconvenience. On-Stage Smoking When a play requires on-stage smoking, we use tobacco-free herbal imitations and do everything possible to minimize the amount of smoke that drifts into the audience. If you’re smoke-sensitive, be sure to let our Box Office know. Pre-Show Dining Visit Sascha’s Express, our pre-performance dinner service located just up the lobby stairs in our Mezzanine Café. Featuring delicious prix fixe dining, service begins two hours before each performance. Accessibility Programs Wheelchair-accessible seating is available for every performance. For patrons who are hearing impaired, we offer assistive listening devices at no charge. An Open Captioned performance is available for one Sunday performance of each Classic Series production for deaf and hearing impaired patrons. Several performances also feature Audio Description, and Braille programs or magnifying glasses are available upon request.
Photography & Recording Prohibited Because of copyright and union regulations, photography or recording of performances— both audio and video—is strictly forbidden.
500 Art-Full Letters is an ongoing community project of MCA’s Emerging Arts Advocates, that encourages the public to create handmade letters for their legislators in support of public funding for the arts. Visit www.mdarts.org and follow the “Get Involved” and “Emerging Arts Advocates” links for details on how to participate.
Be Courteous Please silence your cell phone, pager, or other electronic devices both before the show starts and after intermission. And, while you’re welcome to take beverages with lids to your seat, eating is never allowed inside the theater. Anything else we can do? CENTERSTAGE wants every patron to have an enjoyable, stress-free experience. Your feedback and suggestions are always welcomed: info@centerstage.org.
See examples of Art-Full Letters online at: www.artfullletters.tumblr.com Photos are courtesy of Maryland Citizens for the Arts
Mud Blue Sky | 17
have you seen
?
To celebrate its 50th anniversary
CENTERSTAGE asked 50 of the country’s leading playwrights to answer a simple question:
April 23–24, 2013, 8:00 pm Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall Peabody Institute 1 East Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore
What is my America?
The concert-drama, Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín, tells the story of the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed the famous Verdi Requiem Mass while experiencing the depths of human degradation.
and form a snapshot of our nation
Peabody Symphony Orchestra Peabody-Hopkins Chorus Peabody Singers Murry Sidlin, Creator and Guest Conductor
$15 Adults, $10 Seniors, $5 Students with ID For tickets, call the Peabody Box Office at 410-234-4800
The responses, captured in 50
new monologues filmed by award-
winning director Hal Hartley, range from the political to the personal,
through the eyes of its playwrights.
All 50 videos can be viewed by visiting
www.centerstage.org/myamerica, or stop by the Media Wall in our downstairs lobby.
Presented by the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in partnership with The Defiant Requiem Foundation Sponsored by the Douglas S. and Hilda P. Goodwin Fund of the Peabody Conservatory
Opening Night VIP Package Tuesday, April 23, 2013 v i p pa c k a g e i n c l u d e s Preferred seating in Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall A private post-concert reception in the George Peabody Library $100 per person ($50 tax deductible) For VIP tickets, please contact Chris Scott at 410-234-4674 or cscott52@jhu.edu
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Above: Terry O’Quinn in A Brand New Man by Rinde Eckert. MY AMERICA IS SUPPORTED BY Lynn and Tony Deering and The Charlesmead Foundation
co nversat io n s Planning the Season with Kwame and Stephen Do you have a goal or a structure in mind when you start planning?
scheduled a little differently, to bring the costs into alignment?
Kwame Kwei-Armah • I think this only being the second one, it is difficult to identify a template; but, nearly everything I do comes out of my playwriting sensibility: one creates a draft, and then a second, and a third…. And I like to work thematically. If I am looking at this season that we’re in now, the theme was shaped by Conversation. Next season, that theme might be fun, it might be joy, or spirit. I tend to want something that allows each play to have a conversation with itself, with the zeitgeist, certainly with the audience. However, if a great play came in that had nothing to do with any of the themes that I’ve identified, would we discuss it? Absolutely.
What else can you tell us about the process, and who is involved?
How do you begin the process? KKA • It’s an ongoing thing, it’s not something that you just sit down and say, “Ok, here we go.” You’ve been given plays a couple of years before, or you’re developing plays a few years before, or there’s something in the zeitgeist that you think could be interesting. I also like to plan a season really early, and leave it to gestate for a long time. If we start the planning process in the summer, we don’t get back to it, properly, until November. Stephen, as Managing Director, what stages are you most involved in? Stephen Richard • I’m involved in a lot of different points. Kwame and I have a wonderful collaborative relationship about the work itself; there may be shows that I read or see and recommend. When we start getting a season lined up, then we begin looking at it from my side of the equation. We look at it from a scheduling point of view, and then we ask, can we afford this season? What would it cost, or is there a way to do the same work
KKA • What I’ve seen in many other theaters is that the season selection is solely the gig of the artistic director and the artistic team. Here, we in Artistic create a program, and then we send it out to the various departments in the building and ask, “From your point of view, Marketing, or Education, or Development, what do you think?” I like to hear all of those things. Invariably, by the time it has done its rounds, two or three plays have gone and others have come in. I do that because the theater is not just the domain of the artistic director. It’s the domain of everyone who works here, it’s the domain of the audiences who come in. But there are times when you say, “I’m going to do this, and I’ll take the flak for it.” I tender out to get opinions, then I make the final decisions—because it’s on my head. SR • One of the wonderful things about Kwame is that he does that. And he listens to the audience. Kwame reads the emails, he reads the postings on Facebook and Twitter, and he talks to people in the audience and has staff members who go down and chat with people. We’re getting opinions from the audience, from the people who ultimately participate in the season. KKA • Who pay our bills! What are some of the challenges to putting it all together? KKA • If there’s one thing that’s first and foremost in my mind, it’s the audience— our membership, and the audience we wish to attract. What kind of ride are we taking them on, from the beginning of the season to the end? We live, rather frustratingly, in
a snap-decision world. We don’t necessarily wait all the way to the end of the ride to decide what the ride is. One has to be aware of this in shaping a season; much like when you’re starting a play, it needs a good opener. You open with a good gag or with a good amount of energy that creates a shape. SR • I would add that one of the great challenges for all theaters that do new plays as well as established titles is that, from the marketing point of view, with a new play you are selling a virtual product. People don’t know it in advance, so we need to be able to come up with ways to talk about it that will engage them. If we’re doing a Shakespeare, people are going to know what that is, but if we’re doing a brand new play, then we need to know how to convey how compelling it is. KKA • Stephen’s absolutely right: how we frame and create appetite for new plays is also very much a part of season planning. There are some theaters where the audiences have signed up for that ride. Where they’ve said, “New plays are what we’re hungry for.” If we get it right, our audience should have an appetite for at least one or two new plays in a season, because they are the first people to see it and that’s what theater is fundamentally about: you’re seeing something today that nobody else will see. SR • One of the most rewarding things to hear is an audience member say, “I don’t know what that is, but I love the opportunity to see something brand new, the excitement of something I haven’t heard of.”
We encourage you to join the conversation!
You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, or just email hjackson@centerstage.org with your questions for Kwame and Stephen. centerstagemd
@centerstage_md Mud Blue Sky | 19
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CENTERSTAGE
50 th An ni versary
The Fifth Decade: New Work, Community Engagement, and Envisioning the Next Half-Century As we move through our landmark anniversary season, we invite you to help us celebrate our past. For videos, audio interviews, and memories of our history visit, visit www.centerstage.org/anniversary. CENTERSTAGE reached its 40th Anniversary during the 2002-03 Season, with a celebration that included two world premieres (Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage and No Foreigners Beyond This Point by Tony Award–winner Warren Leight) plus Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show, a co-production with Washington’s Arena Stage. Many productions during this period allowed CENTERSTAGE to embrace new and challenging work and pursue our dedication to community engagement and discussion. During the 2001 Season, Irene Lewis tackled Peter Weiss’ rarely performed The Investigation, a gripping account of the historic Frankfurt Trials of Auschwitz officers. Outreach around the production included working closely with the Baltimore Jewish Council to host discussions and events. In May 2004, CENTERSTAGE joined with a number of Baltimore law associations and universities, as well as the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, to honor the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court decision that began the process of dismantling segregation in public schools. The following season, CENTERSTAGE produced the American premiere of Elmina’s Kitchen by British playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah. While in Baltimore, Kwei-Armah made himself a part of the community, speaking with students and prisoners and cohosting Breaking the Cycle, a community forum focused on families, fatherhood, and forgiveness. Also in 2004, CENTERSTAGE was awarded a Leading National Theatre grant (recognizing artistic excellence, strong organizational capacity, long-term financial stability, and programmatic diversity) and received support from The
National Endowment for the Arts through Access to Artistic Excellence, Art Works, and a Chairman’s Extraordinary Action Award, among other grants and awards. 2008 brought new challenges to many Baltimore institutions. During this difficult time, the CENTERSTAGE artistic team began exploring a major overhaul of the season model. They embraced the needs and opportunities of the economic crisis, remodeling the season to produce 14 wildly varying productions from small to large, including the addition of the Cabaret Series and the establishment of the Play Lab Series, which continues a tradition of exploring new and emerging work and voices. From a stunning production of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, a playful partnership in the Lookingglass Theatre Company’s Around the World in 80 Days, the World Premiere of These Shining Lives, and a revival of the Jacobean thriller ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore to unique presentations such as Chicago’s famed The Second City and ReEntry, a docudrama looking at the lives of today’s veterans returning home, CENTERSTAGE continued to embrace the diverse and world-class artistry it has come to be known for. In 2011, after 19 years at the helm, Irene Lewis stepped down as Artistic Director. In the spring of that year it was announced that award-winning British playwright, director, actor, and broadcaster, Kwame Kwei-Armah—wellknown to CENTERSTAGE’s audiences through his plays Elmina’s Kitchen and Let There Be Love—would take the reins in the 2011-12 Season. With new energy and new vision he is poised, along with Managing Director Stephen Richard, to set CENTERSTAGE on the path for its next 50 years.
Top to bottom: Laura Sametz and George Morfogen in The Investigation (2000-01); Shané Williams and Steven Goldstein in Intimate Apparel (2002-03); LeRoy McClain and Sullivan Walker in Elmina’s Kitchen (2004-05). Photos by Richard Anderson. Mud Blue Sky | 21
1700 Edmonsdson Ave, Ist Floor Baltimore, Maryland 21223 blacktiecaterers@aol.com www.blacktiecaterers.com
Pr e v ie w: Heard It through the Grapevine The Raisin Cycle
Clybourne Park, by Bruce Norris · Benetha's Place, by Kwame Kwei-Armah · Directed by Derrick Sanders
By Gavin Witt, Associate Artistic Director
ÃWith little fanfare and much trepidation, a first-time
playwright arrived at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre the night of March 11, 1959. She was all of 28 years old, and an African American woman to boot—a first for the Great White Way. Her play had snuck into the city by way of small investors, out-of-town tryouts, and a leap of faith. Unlikely and unpromising would seem to be understatements. But by the next morning, nothing was ever the same again. The play was A Raisin in the Sun, the author was Lorraine Hansberry, and their combined effect not only altered her life but, as Frank Rich later wrote in the New York Times, “changed American theater forever.” With Sidney Poitier heading the cast under director Lloyd Richards, the production secured four Tony nominations, a slew of other awards, a film option from Hollywood, and acclaim as an overnight new classic of the canon. Hansberry beat out the likes of O’Neill and Williams for the Best Play plaudits that year, her writing hailed in the same breath with those giants and Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Her story introduced the world to the Younger family of Chicago—Mama, daughter Beneatha, son Walter Lee and his wife and son—weighing whether or not to risk everything and move into a house in all-white Clybourne Park. The play staged the specificity of African American life, drawing on the real-life history of Hansberry’s own family in similar circumstances (one that led all the way to the Supreme Court and a landmark case on restrictive housing covenants). It also offered audiences the universality of the American Dream, of big hopes amid bigger obstacles, and of the bonds of love and family.
ÃSome 50 years later, actor-author Bruce Norris has enjoyed his
own smashing success, achieved notoriety, and caused plenty of provocation by revisiting not just Raisin, but the very neighborhood and same house that Hansberry first introduced in 1959. In Clybourne Park, Norris returns to the famed fictional bungalow in Chicago—beginning just prior to the events of Hansberry’s story, then leapfrogging decades to the present. We meet a white couple, Bev and Russ, who are poised to sell their house to the
Youngers, the family from Hansberry’s Raisin. While the Youngers remain offstage this time, also there from Hansberry’s original play is Karl Lindner, representing the homeowners’ association; he hopes to persuade Bev and Russ not to sell, fearful that integration will devastate property values and the neighborhood’s integrity. Fast-forwarding, in Act Two the house is once again for sale, this time by Black owners to a white couple in a wave of gentrification. Sacred cows get skewered on all sides—among them, arguably, Hansberry’s landmark classic that provided the source material. And since race, class, and real estate haven’t gone away, the play has elicited uproarious laughter and powerfully resonant debates on its way to winning every conceivable award, including the Tony and the Pulitzer.
ÃVenturing into these roiling waters, filled with two existing
theatrical leviathans, comes Kwame Kwei-Armah with Beneatha’s Place, his own contribution to the conversation. Where Norris follows the house and its denizens chiefly through the lens of Karl Lindner and his white neighbors, Kwei-Armah follows Hansberry’s alter-ego, Beneatha Younger, and pursues a more international perspective. Starting where Hansberry left off—with restless, aspirational young Beneatha considering the marriage proposal of exchange student Joseph Asagai—this new play follows the couple to Africa on the eve of Nigerian independence. From there, KweiArmah traces her life’s journey from Nigeria to California, from 1959 to today, and from the depths of uncertainty to the heights of academe. Finding its own unique inspiration in Raisin, Beneatha’s Place explores the power of identity, as one remarkable woman wrestles with fundamental questions of community and legacy. CENTERSTAGE recently produced A Raisin in the Sun, in the 2001-02 Season. Now Baltimore audiences get their first look at the rest of the saga, when the world premiere of Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Beneatha’s Place takes the stage, with a single, common cast, alongside the area premiere of Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park. You won’t want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime event; for more information, including dates and times to see both performed on the same day, visit us online at www.centerstage.org. Mud Blue Sky | 23
S u ppo rt in g the Annual Fund @ CENTERSTAGE July 1, 2011– January 30, 2013
The following list includes gifts of $250 or more—individual, corporate, foundation, and government contributions—made to the CENTERSTAGE Annual Fund between July 1, 2011 and January 30, 2013. Although space limitations make it impossible for us to list everyone who helps fund our artistic, education, and community programs, we are enormously grateful to each person who contributes to CENTERSTAGE.
We couldn’t do it without you!
50 th Anniversary Season Presenting Sponsor
Corporate Sponsors
Media Partners
Season Sponsors
Ellen and Ed Bernard Stephanie and Ashton Carter James and Janet Clauson Lynn and Tony Deering and The Charlesmead Foundation Jane and Larry Droppa Terry H. Morgenthaler and Patrick Kerins Judy and Scott Phares Phil and Lynn Rauch Jay and Sharon Smith
T. Rowe Price Foundation
Associate Season Sponsors Kathleen Hyle
Kenneth C. and Elizabeth M. Lundeen
Barbara Voss and Charles E. Noell, III
INDIVIDUALS & FOUNDATIONS
The CENTERSTAGE Society represents donors, who with their annual contributions of $2,500 or more, provide special opportunities for our artists and audiences. Society members are actively involved through special events, theater-related travel, and behind-the-scenes conversations with theater artists. Artists Circle ($25,000+)
The William L. and Victorine Q. Adams Foundation and The Rodgers Family Fund
The Miriam and Jay Wurtz Andrus Trust Penny Bank
Ellen and Ed Bernard
Stephanie and Ashton Carter
The Annie E. Casey Foundation The Charlesmead Foundation James and Janet Clauson Lynn and Tony Deering
Edgerton Foundation New American Play Awards Kathleen Hyle
Kenneth C. and Elizabeth M. Lundeen
Marilyn Meyerhoff
Terry H. Morgenthaler and Patrick Kerins Judy and Scott Phares
Mr. and Mrs. Philip Rauch
George Roche
Mr. and Mrs. George M. Sherman
The Shubert Foundation, Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Smith, Jr. Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust
Ms. Barbara Voss and Charles E. Noell, III
Producers Circle ($10,000–$24,999)
Mr. and Mrs. George L. Bunting
Mr. and Mrs. Martin Hill
Ms. Nancy Dorman and Mr. Stanley Mazaroff
Francie and John Keenan
The Helen P. Denit Charitable Trust
Mr. and Mrs. Larry D. Droppa
John Gerdy and E. Follin Smith
The Goldsmith Family Foundation
The Laverna Hahn Charitable Trust Martha Head
J.I. Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. E. Robert Kent, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel G. Macfarlane Mr. and Mrs. J. William Murray Mr. Louis B. Thalheimer and Ms. Juliet A. Eurich
Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation
James T. and Francine G. Brady Sylvia and Eddie Brown
The Nathan & Suzanne Cohen Foundation The Cordish Family
The Jane and Worth B. Daniels, Jr. Fund of the Baltimore eCommunity Foundation Brian and Denise Eakes
The Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, Inc.
Dr. and Mrs. Neil D. Goldberg
The Bunting Family Foundation
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CENTERSTAGE
Jonna and Fred Lazarus
Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker
John and Susan Nehra
Stephen Richard and Mame Hunt
The Jim & Patty Rouse Charitable Foundation
Dr. Edgar and Betty Sweren, in honor of Kwame Kwei-Armah and his OBE award recognition
Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Thompson Webb
directors Circle
Ms. Katharine C. Blakeslee
Fascitelli Family Foundation Fredye and Adam Gross Donald and Sybil Hebb
Foundation
The Macht Philanthropic Fund
The John J. Leidy Foundation, Inc.
Playwrights Circle Anonymous
The Harley W. Howell Charitable Ms. Sherrilyn A. Ifill
Ms. Linda Woolf
($5,000–$9,999)
The Hecht-Levi Foundation, Inc.
Kwame and Michelle Kwei-Armah
Ms. Katherine L. Vaughns
Peter and Millicent Bain
The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund
Murray and Joan Kappelman
($2,500–$4,999)
Anonymous
The Lois and Irving Blum Foundation, Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Immelt Mrs. Diane Markman Maryland Charity Campaign Linda and John McCleary Mr. and Mrs. John L. Messmore Jim and Mary Miller Jeannie Murphy The Israel & Mollie Myers Foundation Dr. and Mrs. Lawrence C. Pakula Marjorie Rodgers Cheshire and Mark Cheshire
Lainy Lebow Sachs and Leonard Sachs Monica and Arnold Sagner
Drs. Joanna and Harry Brandt
Scott and Mimi Somerville
August and Melissa Chiasera
Mr. Michael Styer
Mary Catherine Bunting
Scot T. Spencer
The Mary & Dan Dent Fund of the Baltimore Community Foundation
Trexler Foundation, Inc. - Jeff Abarbanel
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Falcone
Kathryn and Mark Vaselkiv
Mr. and Mrs. Walter B. Doggett, III Dick and Maria Gamper
Ms. Suzan Garabedian
The Harry L. Gladding Foundation/ Winnie and Neal Borden
Mr. and Mrs. Donald and Mariana Thoms and David Goldner
Mr. and Mrs. Loren and Judy Western Scott and Mary Wieler Ted and Mary Jo Wiese
Goldseker Foundation/Ana Goldseker
Cheryl Hudgins Williams and
F. Barton Harvey, III and Janet Marie Smith
Sydney and Ron Wilner
Robert and Cheryl Guth
Alonza Williams
Drs. Nadia and Elias Zerhouni
Are you ready
Jack Fellows and Susannah Hoffman Photo by Richard Anderson
for 2013-14 at CEnTErSTAgE?
Mark your calendars!
In mid-March, CENTERSTAGE will announce the shows in our 51st Season—and membership renewal will begin shortly after. We cannot wait to share them with you, and we hope you’ll continue to join us. we are going to email you first this year!* Check your in-box for our online renewal form. If you’re uncertain whether or not we have your correct email address on file, please feel free to contact our Box Office. Make sure you’re ready to catch the best prices, claim your seats, and continue the conversation in 2013-14. *Traditional renewal mailing will follow at the end of the month. www.centerstage.org • Box Office 410.332.0033
centerstagemd •
@centerstage_md
Mud Blue Sky | 25
INDIVIDUALS & FOUNDATIONS ASSoCiATES
($1,000–$2,499) Anonymous Ms. Taunya Banks Donald Bartling Mr. and Mrs. Marc Blum John and Carolyn Boitnott Jan Boyce Dr. and Mrs. Donald D. Brown Sandra and Thomas Brushart Maureen and Kevin Byrnes Meredith and Joseph Callanan The Campbell Foundation, Inc. Caplan Family Foundation, Inc. Sally and Jerry Casey John Chester Ann K. Clapp Dr. Joan Develin Coley and Mr. Lee Rice Constantinides Family Foundation Ms. Gwen Davidson The Richard & Rosalee C. Davison Foundation Mr. Gene DeJackome Albert F. DeLoskey and Lawrie Deering Rosetta and Matt DeVito Mr. Jed Dietz and Dr. Julia McMillan Mr. and Mrs. Eric Dott Lynne Durbin and John-Francis Mergen Jack and Nancy Dwyer Patricia Yevics-Eisenberg and Stewart Eisenberg Buddy and Sue Emerson, in appreciation of Ken and Elizabeth Lundeen Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Freedman Frank and Jane Gabor Jose and Ginger Galvez Jonathan and Pamela Genn, in honor of Cindi Monahan and Beth Falcone Richard and Sharon Gentile, in honor of the CENTERSTAGE Costume Shop Ms. Sandra Levi Gerstung Janet and John Gilbert Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin H. Griswold, IV Annie Groeber, in memory of Dr. John E. Adams Stuart and Linda Grossman H.R. LaBar Family Foundation Fund of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation Bill and Scootsie Hatter Sandra and Thomas Hess Drs. Dahlia Hirsch and Barry Wohl, in honor of Carole Goldberg Len and Betsy Homer Mr. and Mrs. James Hormuth The A. C. and Penney Hubbard Foundation Joseph J. Jaffa Mr. and Mrs. Mark Joseph Francine and Allan Krumholz Sandy and Mark Laken Dr. and Mrs. George Lentz, Jr. Marty Lidston and Jill Leukhardt Mr. and Mrs. Earl & Darielle Linehan/Linehan Family Foundation Ms. Karen Malloy Michelle McKenna-Doyle Joseph and Jane Meyer John and Beverly Michel Tom and Cindi Monahan Ms. Stacey Morrison and Mr. Brian Morales The Honorable Diana and Fred Motz, in memory of Nancy Roche
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CENTERSTAGE
Mr. and Mrs. Lee Ogburn Ms. Jo-Ann Mayer Orlinsky Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Panitz Fund of the Baltimore Community Foundation, in honor of Peter Culman Ms. Beth Perlman Ronald and Carol Reckling Ms. Kathleen C. Ridder, in honor of Peter Culman The James and Gail Riepe Family Foundation Nathan and Michelle Robertson Dr. David A. Robinson Mr. Grant Roch The Rollins-Luetkemeyer Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Todd Schubert Gail B. Schulhoff Charles and Leslie Schwabe The Tim and Barbara Schweizer Foundation, Inc. Bayinnah Shabazz, M.D. The Ida and Joseph Shapiro Foundation Barbara and Sig Shapiro The Earle and Annette Shawe Family Foundation Dr. Barbara Shelton Dana and Matthew Slater Mr. and Mrs. Robert N. Smelkinson Mr. and Mrs. Scott Smith Judith R. and Turner B. Smith Mr. Gilbert H. Stewart and Ms. Joyce Ulrich Dr. and Mrs. John Strahan Susan and Brian Sullam Mr. and Mrs. Ronald W. Taylor Sanford and Karen Teplitzky John A. Ulatowski Carolyn and Robert Wallace Nanny and Jack Warren, in honor of Lynn Deering Janna P. Wehrle Ann Wolfe and Dick Mead John W. Wood Dr. Laurie S. Zabin Mr. Calman Zamoiski, Jr., in honor of Terry Morgenthaler Ziger/Snead Architects E. Jay Zuspan, Jr. and Diane Zuspan
CoLLEAguES
($500–$999) Anonymous Ms. Diane Abeloff, in memory of Martin Abeloff The Alsop Family Foundation Mrs. Alexander Armstrong Art Seminar Group Mr. Robert and Dorothy Bair Mayer and Will Baker, in honor of Terry Morgenthaler Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Bank Family Fund of the Baltimore Community Foundation Amy and Bruce Barnett Charles and Patti Baum Ms. Jane Baum Rodbell Jaye and Dr. Ted Bayless Fund Steve and Teri Bennett Mrs. Catherine L. Bennett Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Blum, in memory of Shirley Feinstein Blum Cindy Candelori Rose Carpenter Mr. and Mrs. Carl F. Christ Barbara Crain and Michael Borowitz Richard and Lynda Davis Robert and Janice Davis The Deering Family Foundation
(continued) James DeGraffenreidt and Mychelle Farmer The Honorable and Mrs. E. Stephen Derby Dave and Joyce Edington Patricia Egan and Peter Hegeman, in honor of Peter Culman The Eliasberg Family Foundation, Inc. Donald and Margaret Engvall Mr. and Mrs. Edgar and Faith Feingold, in memory of Sally W. Feingold Sandra and John Ferriter Andrea and Samuel Fine Ms. Nancy Freyman Dr. Joseph Gall and Dr. Diane Dwyer Mr. and Mrs. Francis X. Gallagher, Jr. Hal and Pat Gilreath Mary and Richard Gorman Louise A. Hager Terry Halle and Wendy McAllister Melanie and Donald Heacock Lee M. Hendler, in honor of Peter Culman Rebecca Henry and Harry Gruner Betsy and George Hess Mrs. Heidi Hoffman Ralph and Claire Hruban Mr. Edward Hunt Ms. Harriet F. Iglehart Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Imes Richard Jacobs and Patricia Lasher Ms. Mary Claire Jeske B.J. and Candy Jones Max Jordan Dr. and Mrs. Juan M. Juanteguy Peter and Kay Kaplan Ms. Shirley Kaufman Mr. and Mrs. Padraic Kennedy, in honor of Ken Lundeen Judith Phair King and Roland King Stewart and Carol Koehler Mr. John Lanasa, in honor of Peter Culman Joseph M. and Judy K. Langmead Mr. Claus Leitherer and Mrs. Irina Fedorova Dr. and Mrs. Ronald Lesser Marilyn Leuthold Dr. and Mrs. John Lion Kenneth and Christine Lobo Dr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Lynch The Dr. Frank C. Marino Foundation, Inc. Ms. Mary L. McGeady Dr. Carole Miller Mr. Jeston I. Miller Stephanie F. Miller, in honor of The Lee S. Miller Jr. Family The Montag Family Fund of The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, in honor of Beth Falcone George and Beth Murnaghan Rex and Lettie Myers Judith Needham and Warren Kilmer Roger F. Nordquist and Joyce Ward Mr. and Mrs. James and Mimi Piper Fund of the Baltimore Community Foundation Bonnie Pitt Dave and Chris Powell Jill Pratt Robert E. and Anne L. Prince Richard and Kay Radmer Mrs. Peggy L. Rice
Mr. and Mrs. Harold Rojas Dorothy L. and Henry A. Rosenberg, Jr. Kevin and Judy Rossiter Mrs. Bette Rothman Mr. Al Russell Sheila and Steve Sachs Ms. Renee C. Samuels Kurt and Patricia Schmoke Ms. Sherry Schnepfe Mr. and Mrs. Eugene H. Schreiber Scott Sherman and Julie Rothman The Sinksy-Kresser-Racusin Memorial Foundation Susan Somerville-Hawes, in honor of Encounter Georgia and George Stamas Station North Arts and Entertainment District Robert and Patricia Tarola Diana and Ken Trout Sharon and David Tufaro Mr. and Mrs. George and Beth Van Dyke In memory of Sally Wessner Mr. Michael T. Wharton Dr. and Mrs. Frank R. Witter Eric and Pam Young Mr. Norman Youskauskas Mr. Paul Zugates
ADvoCATES
($250–$499) Anonymous Mr. and Mrs. Delbert L. Adams Bradley and Lindsay Alger Mr. Alan M. Arrowsmith, II Mr. and Mrs. Jon Baker, in honor of Terry Morgenthaler Michael Baker Judge Robert Bell Alfred and Muriel Berkeley Rachel and Steven Bloom, in honor of Beth Falcone Mr. Chad Bolton, in honor of Peter Culman Perry and Aurelia Bolton ChiChi and Peter Bosworth Betty Jo Bowman Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bryan Mr. David Bundy Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Burnett II Ms. Deborah W. Callard The Jim and Anne Cantler Memorial Fund of the Baltimore Community Foundation Mr. and Mrs. David Carter Mr. Andrew J. Cary Mr. and Mrs. James Case Stanton Collins Combined Charity Campaign Combined Federal Campaign David and Sara Cooke Mr. and Mrs. Richard D. Crafton Mr. Thomas Crusse and Mr. David Imre, in honor of Stephanie and Ash Carter Ms. Alice M. Dibben Sally Digges and James Arnold Deborah and Philip English Ms. Nicole Epp Mr. Dennis Epps Ms. Rhea Feikin, in memory of Colgate Salsbury Ms. Jeannette E. Festa Bob and Susie Fetter Genine and Josh Fidler, in honor of Ellen and Ed Bernard Dr. and Mrs. Robert P. Fleishman Mr. and Mrs. George Flickinger Joan and David Forester
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Robert W. Smith, Jr., President Edward C. Bernard, Vice President Juliet Eurich, Vice President Terry H. Morgenthaler, Vice President E. Follin Smith, Treasurer Katherine L. Vaughns, Secretary Katharine C. Blakeslee+ James T. Brady+ C. Sylvia Brown+ Stephanie Carter August J. Chiasera Marjorie Rodgers Cheshire Janet Clauson Lynn Deering Jed Dietz Walter B. Doggett, III Jane W.I. Droppa Brian Eakes Beth W. Falcone C. Richard Gamper, Jr. Suzan Garabedian Carole Goldberg Adam Gross Cheryl O’Donnell Guth Martha Head Kathleen W. Hyle Ted E. Imes Murray M. Kappelman, MD+ John J. Keenan E. Robert Kent, Jr. Joseph M. Langmead+ Jonna Gane Lazarus Kenneth C. Lundeen Michelle McKenna-Doyle Marilyn Meyerhoff+ J. William Murray Charles E. Noell Esther Pearlstone+ Judy M. Phares Jill Pratt Philip J. Rauch Harold Rojas Monica Sagner+ Renee C. Samuels Todd Schubert George M. Sherman+ Scott Somerville Scot T. Spencer Michael B. Styer Ronald W. Taylor Donald Thoms J.W. Thompson Webb Ronald M. Wilner Cheryl Hudgins Williams Linda S. Woolf + Trustees Emeriti
ADvoCATES continued Dr. Neal M. Friedlander and Dr. Virginia K. Adams Constance A. Getzov Mark and Patti Gillen Herbert and Harriet Goldman Mr. Bruce Goldman Mr. Howard Gradet Joseph Griffin Thomas and Barbara Guarnieri Ms. Doris M. Gugel Mr. David Guy Jane Halpern and James Pettit Ms. Paulette Hammond Ada Hamosh Dr. and Dr. James and Vicki Handa Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hawes In Memory of Eric R. Head Aaron Heinsman William and Monica Henderson Sue Hess Mr. Donald H. Hooker, Jr. Ms. Irene Hornick Mr. and Mrs. Martin Horowitz Dr. and Mrs. J. Woodford Howard Ms. Sarah Issacs Mr. William Jacob James and Hillary Aidus Jacobs A.H. Janoski, M.D., in honor of Jane Stewart Janoski James M. and Julie B. Johnstone Richard and Judith Katz B. Keller Dr. and Mrs. Myron Kellner Mr. and Mrs. Stephen J. Kelly Donald Knox and Mary Towery, in memory of Carolyn Knox and Gene Towery David and Ann Koch Gina Kotowski Drs. Don and Pat Langenberg Mr. Richard M. Lansburgh Mr. and Mrs. William Larson Drs. Ronald and Mary Leach Leadership--Baltimore County Terry Lorch and Tom Liebel Scott and Ellen Lutrey Paul and Anne Madden Nancy Magnuson and Jay Harrell, in honor of Betty and Edgar Sweren Mr. Elvis Marks Joan and Terry Marshall Don Martin Eleanor McMillan Ms. Michael McMullan Mary and Barry Menne Bruce Mentzer Carolyn and Michael Meredith Minds Eye Cinema Peniel and Julia S. Moed James W. and Shirley A. Moore Dr. and Mrs. Clayton Moravec Ms. Cassie Motz, in memory of Nancy Roche Mr. and Mrs. William H. Mullin Dr. Patrick Murphy and Dr. Genevieve A. Losonsky Stephen and Terry Needel In memory of Nelson Neuman Ms. Nina Noble Ms. Irene Norton and Heather Millar Claire D. O'Neill Mr. Thomas Owen The P.R.F.B. Charitable Foundation, in memory of Shirley Feinstein Blum Michael and Phyllis Panopoulos Justine and Ken Parezo Fred and Grazina Pearson Linda and Gordon Peltz Chris and Deborah Pennington Mr. William Phillips
Ron and Pat Pilling Mr. Mike Plaisted and Ms. Maggie Webbert Leslie and Gary Plotnick Dr. Albert J. Polito and Dr. Redonda G. Miller Connie and Roger Pumphrey Mr. Rex Rehfeld and Ms. Ellen O'Brien Cyndy Renoff and George Taler Dr. Michael Repka and Dr. Mary Anne Facciolo Natasha and Keenan Rice Alison and Arnold Richman Richard and Sheila Riggs Liz Ritter and Larry Koppelman Ida and Jack Roadhouse Mr. and Mrs. Domingo and Karen Rodriguez, in honor of Emma Grace Barnes Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Roesler Louis and Luanne Rusk Steven and Lee Sachs Frank and Michelle Sample Ms. Gloria Savadow Frederica and William Saxon, Jr. Dr. Chris Schultz Mr. Steve Schwartzman Clair Zamoiski Segal, in honor of Judy Witt Phares Ms. Minnie Shorter Mr. and Mrs. L. Siems Dr. and Mrs. Donald J. Slowinski Rosie and Jim Smith Solomon and Elaine Snyder Ms. Jill Stempler Joseph Sterne Mrs. Clare H. Stewart, in honor of Peter Culman Ms. Joann Strickland Mr. and Mrs. James R.and Gail Swanbeck Ted and Lynda Thilly Cindy and Fredrick Thompson Laura and Neil Tucker, in honor of Beth Falcone United Way of Central Maryland Campaign Comprehensive Car Care/ Robert Wagner Donald and Darlene Wakefield Ms. Magda Westerhoust Ms. Camille Wheeler and Mr. William Marshall Mr. and Mrs. Barry and Linda Williams Brian and Paticia Winter Harold and Joan Young Mr. William Zerhouni
SPECiAL grAnTS & gifTS
The Leading National Theatres Program, a joint initiative of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
govErnMEnT grAnTS
CENTERSTAGE is funded by an operating grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. Funding for the Maryland State Arts Council is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. CENTERSTAGE’s catalog of Education Programs has been selected by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities as a 2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award Finalist.
CENTERSTAGE participates annually in Free Fall Baltimore, a program of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts. Baltimore County Executive, County Council, & Commission on Arts and Sciences Carroll County Government Howard County Arts Council through a grant from Howard County Government
gifTS in-KinD
The Afro American Akbar Restaurant Dean Alexander Art Litho Au Bon Pain The Baltimore Sun Blimpie The Brewer's Art Calvert Wine & Spirits Casa di Pasta Charcoal Grill Cima Model Management The Classic Catering People Chipotle The City Paper Eggspectations Fisherman’s Friend/PEZ Candy, Inc. Gertrude's Restaurant Greg's Bagels GT Pizza Gutierrez Studios Haute Dog The Helmand HoneyBaked Ham Co. Hotel Monaco Iggie's The Jewish Times Kleenize Rug Cleaners Marriott Minato Mitchell Kurtz Architect, PC Mount Vernon Stable and Saloon New System Bakery No Worries Cosmetics Oriole's Pizza and Sub Pazo Pizza Boli's Pizza Hut PromoWorks Republic National Distributing Company Roly Poly Romano’s Macaroni Grill Sabatino's Senovva Shugoll Research The Signman Style Magazine Sunlight LLC, in honor of Kacy Armstrong Urbanite A Vintner's Selection Wawa Wegman's Whitmore Print & Imaging WYPR Radio www.thecheckshop.us
Illinois Tool Works Foundation McCormick & Co. Inc. Morgan Stanley Norfolk Southern Foundation Open Society Institute PepsiCo Foundation PNC Bank Stanley Black & Decker SunTrust Bank T. Rowe Price Group
CORPORATIONS ArTiSTS CirCLE
PLAywrigHTS CirCLE Anonymous Accenture American Trading & Production Corporation The Baltimore Life Companies
We make every effort to provide accurate acknowledgement of our contributors. We appreciate your patience and assistance in keeping our lists current. To advise us of corrections, please call 410.986.4026.
Baxter, Baker, Sidle, Conn & Jones, P.A. Brown Advisory Environmental Reclamation Company FTI Consulting Howard Bank Lord Baltimore Capital Corporation McGuireWoods LLP PNC Bank Procter & Gamble Saul Ewing LLP Stifel Nicolaus Venable, LLP Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP Whiting-Turner Contracting Co
DirECTorS CirCLE
Alexander Design Studio Bay Imagery T. Rowe Price Foundation
ProDuCErS CirCLE
E*Trade Financial Corporation Funk & Bolton, P.A. Offit | Kurman, Attorneys at Law Pessin Katz Law P.A. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Schoenfeld Insurance Associates Stevenson University The Zolet Lenet Group at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
ASSoCiATES
Ayers Saint Gross, Incorporated Chesapeake Plywood, LLC Corporate Office Properties Trust Ernst & Young LLP
MATCHing gifT CoMPAniES .
The Abell Foundation, Inc. Bank of America The Annie E. Casey Foundation C. B. Fleet Company, Inc. Constellation Energy The Deering Family Foundation Exxon Corporation GE Foundation IBM Corporation
Mud Blue Sky | 27
Sta ff
Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE–Artistic Director Stephen Richard–Managing Director Administration
Associate Managing Director–Del W. Risberg Executive Assistant–Kacy Armstrong The Ellen and Ed Bernard Management Intern– Batya Feldman
Artistic
Associate Artistic Director–Gavin Witt Artistic Producer–Susanna Gellert Artistic Senior Fellow–Kellie Mecleary The Lynn and Tony Deering Artistic Intern– Samantha Godfrey
Audience Relations
Box Office Manager–Mandy Benedix Assistant Manager/Subscriptions Manager– Jerrilyn Keene Assistant Manager–Blane Wyche Full-time Assistants–Lindsey Barr, Alana Kolb, Christopher Lewis Part-Time Assistant–Froilan Mate, Tiana Bias Bar Manager–Sean Van Cleve House Manager & Volunteer Coordinator– Bertinarea Crampton Assistant House Managers–Cedric Gum, Alec Lawson, Faith Savill Audience Relations Intern–Quincy Price Audio Description–Ralph Welsh & Maryland Arts Access
Audio
Supervisor–Amy Wedel Engineer–Eric Lott The Jane and Larry Droppa Audio Intern– Andrew Graves
Community Programs & Education
Director–Rosiland Cauthen Education Coordinator–Julianne Franz Community Programs & Education Intern– Dustin Morris The James and Janet Clauson Community Programs & Education Intern–Kristina Szilagyi Teaching Artists–The 5th L; Oran Bandel; Jerry Miles, Jr.; CJay Philip; Wambui Richardson; Joan Weber
Costumes
Costumer–David Burdick Tailor–Edward Dawson Craftsperson–William E. Crowther Stitcher–Jessica Rietzler The Terry H. Morgenthaler and Patrick Kerins Costumes Intern– Elizabeth Chapman The Judy and Scott Phares Costumes Intern– Anna Tringali
Dramaturgy
Scenery
Finance
Scenic Art
Director–Gavin Witt Dramaturgy Senior Fellow–Kellie Mecleary Apprentices–Izaak Collins, Roisin Dowling, Christine Prevas, Kate Ramsdell, Bennett Remsberg, Matthew Buckley Smith, Amy Smith, Lucy Walker Director–Susan Rosebery Business Manager–Kathy Nolan Associate–Carla Moose
Graphics
Art Director–Bill Geenen Graphic Designer–Amanda Niesslein Production Photographer–Richard Anderson Graphics Intern–Michelle Fleming The Stephanie and Ashton Carter Digital Media Intern– Leslie Datsis
Information Technologies
Director–Joe Long Systems Administrator–Mark Slaughter
Lighting
Lighting Director–Lesley Boeckman Master Electrician–Lily Bradford Multimedia Coordinator–Stew Ives Staff Electrician–Bevin Miyake The Barbara Capalbo Electrics Intern–Scot Gianelli
Marketing & Communications
Director–Tony Heaphy Public Relations Manager–Heather C. Jackson Marketing Manager–Timmy Metzner Digital Media Associate–Timothy Gelles Marketing Associate–Tia Abner The Jay and Sharon Smith Marketing and Public Relations Fellow–Kiirstn Pagan Media Services–Planit
Operations
Director–Harry DeLair Housekeeping– Kali Keene Custodial Services/MJNJ Cleaning–Glenn Rivers Security Guards–Crown Security
Production Management
Production Manager–Mike Schleifer Assistant Production Manager– Caitlin Powers Company Manager–Sara Grove Production/Stage Management Intern–Ashley Riester The Phil and Lynn Rauch Company Management Intern–Matt Shea
Development
Properties
Director–Cindi Monahan Grants Manager–Sean Beattie Annual Fund Manager–Katelyn White Events Coordinator–Brad Norris Development Assistant–Julia Ostroff Assistant–Christopher Lewis Auction Coordinator–Sydney Wilner Auction Assistant–Norma Cohen
Manager–Jennifer Stearns Assistant Manager– Nathan Scheifele Artisan–Jeanne-Marie Burdette, Sam Kuczynski The Kenneth C. and Elizabeth M. Lundeen Properties Intern–Kimberly Townsend
The CenterStage Program is published by: Center Stage Associates, Inc. 700 North Calvert Street Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Advertising Sales ads@centerstage.org
Editor Heather C. Jackson
Assistant Editor Kiirstn Pagan
Art Direction/Design Bill Geenen Design Amanda Niesslein
28 |
CENTERSTAGE
CONTACT INFORMATION
Box Office Phone 410.332.0033 Box Office Fax 410.727.2522 Administration 410.986.4000 www.centerstage.org info@centerstage.org
Technical Director–Tom Rupp Assistant Technical Director–Laura P. Merola Shop Supervisor–Trevor Gohr Carpenters–Joey Bromfield, Mike Kulha, Scott Richardson Scene Shop Intern–Ryan Cole Scenic Artist–Stephanie Nimick Intern–Lauren Crabtree
Stage Management
Resident Stage Managers–Captain Kate Murphy, Laura Smith The Peter and Millicent Bain Stage Management Intern–Brent Beavers The Barbara Voss and Charles Noell Stage Management Intern–Lindsay Eberly
Stage Operations
Stage Carpenter–Eric Burton The following designers, artisans, and assistants contributed to this production of
Mud Blue Sky—
Assistant Lighting Designer–Scot Gianelli Assistant Sound Design–Andrew Graves Carpenters–Bernard Bender, Mark Eisendrath, Seth Foster, J.R. Fritsch Lighting–Cartland Berge, Alison Burris, John Elder, Jake Epp, Aaron Haag, Alexander Keen, Jen Reiser, Jon Rubin, Natahsa Tylea Stage Management–Alison Burris Video Design Editing–Leslie Datsis CENTERSTAGE operates under an agreement between LORT and Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. The Director and Choreographer are members of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent national labor union. The scenic, costume, lighting, and sound designers in LORT theaters are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE. Musicians engaged by CENTERSTAGE perform under the terms of an agreement between CENTERSTAGE and Local 40-543, American Federation of Musicians. CenterStage is a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the nonprofit professional theater, and is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), the national collective bargaining organization of professional regional theaters.
Material in the CENTERSTAGE performance program is made available free of charge for legitimate educational and research purposes only. Selective use has been made of previously published information and images whose inclusion here does not constitute license for any further re-use of any kind. All other material is the property of CENTERSTAGE, and no copies or reproductions of this material should be made for further distribution, other than for educational purposes, without express permission from the authors and CENTERSTAGE.
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