THE WOLFE TWINS BY RACHEL BONDS
DEAR FRIENDS, Welcome to The Wolfe Twins. This is likely the first time you’re becoming acquainted with Rachel Bond’s work, but I suspect it won’t be the last. With high-profile productions on both coasts and commissions from numerous theatres, Rachel is fast making a mark on the American theatre landscape. Words that describe Rachel’s writing: precise, delicate, natural, wise. She constructs her dialogue with great craft and attention to detail, but it sounds like real talk. And under that talk, with its carefully constructed fits and starts, lie great stores of subtext. Rachel calibrates the bubbling up of that subtext down to the last comma. Supporting her is an almost embarrassingly strong assemblage of designers and actors whose work I’ve admired for years, led by director Mike Donahue. There’s been a palpable sense of newness in the air here, as almost all of them are working with us for the first time. The Wolfe Twins represents the coming together of two institutional stories at Studio. I launched the Lab series four years ago as an incubator to develop new plays through rehearsal and production. Last year, Studio took the next step in investing in new project development and began to commission plays from writers we believe in. This Lab production marks the first time we’ve produced a Studio-commissioned play. I hope you too can feel the thrill I do, witnessing the emergence of a writer, already confident and mature, with decades of works ahead of her.
YOURS,
ABOUT STUDIO LAB Studio develops new work by producing it. Our intimate spaces are uniquely suited to the immediacy of new work—they’re small, and they provide a direct relationship between the actor and audience. Building on its 37-year history of producing powerful contemporary plays, Artistic Director David Muse came to Studio in 2010 with a vision for substantially expanding its new work production. Muse inaugurated the Studio Lab in the 2011-2012 Season. Studio Lab presents scaled-back productions of world premiere plays, giving playwrights in residence the ability to work in an environment of experimentation, collaboration, and discovery. Studio publishes Lab plays, to broaden the reach of these new works, and launch them onto the international stage. The last three plays from Studio Lab have gone on to over a dozen productions in the US, Canada, and Europe. To date, all of Studio Lab’s plays have been nominated for the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play.
PRESENTS A STUDIO LAB PRODUCTION
THE WOLFE TWINS BY RACHEL BONDS A WORLD PREMIERE DAVID MUSE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR MIKE DONAHUE
KEITH ALAN BAKER MANAGING DIRECTOR /ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, 2NDSTAGE
SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER DANE LAFFREY
SERGE SEIDEN PRODUCING DIRECTOR
SOUND DESIGNER DANIEL KLUGER
MERIDITH BURKUS DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
DRAMATURG LAUREN HALVORSEN
LIGHTING DESIGNER SCOTT ZIELINSKI
CASTING DIRECTOR JACK DOULIN
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER T. SCOTT WOOTEN* The Wolfe Twins is a professional production employing members of Actors’ Equity Association, United Scenic Artists, and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. The Wolfe Twins is a Studio Theatre commission. Beginning October 15, 2014 in the Milton Theatre.
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR ROBERT SHEARIN
THE 2014-15 STUDIO LAB IS GENEROUSLY UNDERWRITTEN BY DAVID AND JEAN HEILMAN GRIER.
NOTE A NOTE FROM THE DRAMATURG, LAUREN HALVORSEN Rachel Bonds’ The Wolfe Twins explores intimacy and its loss. In the wake of their father’s death, Lewis invites his sister Dana on a vacation to Italy, hoping to reconnect. But when they encounter Raina, a magnetic fellow traveler, the once-inseparable siblings start to reckon with the ways they’ve grown apart, and grapple with what they do and don’t know about each other as adults. Rachel considers the intricacies of these relationships with a blend of wellobserved and precise language. Her dialogue—whether punctuated by pauses or overlapping mid-thought—is specific yet retains elasticity, evoking the awkward rhythms of conversation. She excavates the important minutiae—the ripples and ruptures of our day-to-day interactions that we’re not always conscious of—and exposes her characters at their most complicated junctures of uncertainty, transition, and introspection. This attunement to micro-behavior shows how the quiet, idiosyncratic, easy, or difficult moments in our lives can accumulate, spurring revelations of surprising depth. These realizations unfold in the small common area of a modest B&B in Rome, an unlikely place for the confessions and discoveries that emerge over the course of the play. While the novelty of unfamiliar people and places encourages emotional risk-tasking between the three visitors, the public nature of the space underscores the stakes of that kind of vulnerability. For Dana and Lewis, the allure of being out of their element clashes with their shared history, revealing how a mix of familiar and foreign can escalate tensions to their limits. The Wolfe Twins captures the difficulty—and danger—of being vulnerable with strangers and family alike, and, at its core, examines the mechanics of our intimate relationships. What sustains a connection, and how do we allow those closest to us to grow and change? As Rachel’s characters reconcile their individual pasts, they also struggle to untether themselves from their assumptions about each other, fumbling towards a new, more authentic understanding.
CAST
LEWIS TOM STORY* DANA BIRGIT HUPPUCH* RAINA JOLLY ABRAHAM* ALEX SILAS GORDON BRIGHAM+
The Wolfe Twins will be performed without an intermission. SETTING Rome, Italy. Fall. The Present. UNDERSTUDIES LEWIS CARL MENNINGER+ DANA ALEXANDRA FRIENDLY+ RAINA CORI DIOQUINO+ ALEX ARIEL MESSECAT
*Members Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States +Equity Membership Candidate
PLAYWRIGHT
RACHEL BONDS Rachel Bonds’ plays have been developed or produced by South Coast Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, The McCarter Theatre, Roundabout Underground, Atlantic Theater Company, New Georges, Ars Nova, Ensemble Studio Theatre, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Arden, and New York Stage & Film, among others. Her plays include: Five Mile Lake, winner of the 2013 L. Arnold Weissberger Award, which received its world premiere at South Coast Rep, directed by Daniella Topol, and will receive its East Coast premiere at The McCarter in May 2015, directed by Emily Mann; At The Old Place, developed during her 2013 Writer’s Room Residency at The Arden, directed by Ed Sobel; Swimmers, featured in New York Stage & Film’s 2013 Powerhouse Reading Series and Roundabout Underground’s Reading Series, receiving top ranking on The Kilroys List; Michael & Edie, named a New York Times Critic’s Pick in 2010, directed by Robert Saenz de Viteri; Winter Games, winner of the 2014 Heideman Award and part of the Ten Minute Plays at the 2014 Humana Festival; The Noise, developed at New Georges and Ars Nova; and Anniversary, winner of the 2012 Sam French Festival and featured on Public Radio Exchange’s “Playing on Air.” Ms. Bonds is an alumna of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood, Ars Nova’s Play Group, and New Georges’ The Jam, and was the Fr. William Ralston Fellow at the 2011 Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She is a member of SPACE on Ryder Farm’s 2014 Working Farm Writers’ Group, and is currently working on commissions for Ars Nova/MTC’s Writer’s Room, South Coast Rep, and Atlantic Theater Company. She is a graduate of Brown University.
CAST TOM STORY (LEWIS) returns to Studio Theatre as an actor after directing Moth for 2ndStage last season. His other Studio credits include The Invention of Love, A Number, POP!, The Pillowman, and many others. He is an affiliated artist at Shakespeare Theatre Company where his many credits include Design for Living, Twelfth Night, The Winter’s Tale, Major Barbara, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. He has worked at Folger Theatre, Arena Stage, Round House Theatre, The Hub, and Ford’s Theatre. Regionally he has appeared at Seattle Rep, Missouri Rep, Provincetown Rep, and eleven seasons at The Berkshire Theatre Festival, where he recently directed Design for Living. He attended Duke University and The Juilliard School, where he studied with Michael Kahn. He studied directing with Joy Zinoman at the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory. Mr. Story will direct Terminus for Studio 2ndStage later this season. BIRGIT HUPPUCH (DANA) most recently performed as Penthesilea in John Banville’s Love in the Wars at Bard Summerscape and Olivia in Pig Iron Theatre Company’s production of Twelfth Night. She received an OBIE Award for her work in the Foundry Theatre’s production of Ariana Reines’s Telephone directed by Ken Rus Schmoll at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Credits include Not What Happened (BAM Next Wave), The Debate Society’s Blood Play (Williamstown, The Public, Bushwick Starr, ArtsEmerson), A Map of Virtue (13P), Neighbors (The Public), Angel Reapers (Joyce Theatre, tour), Telethon and Dot (Clubbed Thumb), Gun Logistics (Drama League DirectorFest), Miss St.’s Hieroglyphic Suffering (Guggenheim), What The Public Wants (Mint Theatre), In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) (Cleveland Play House), Isabella and Pay Up (Pig Iron), and Peer Gynt (Kansas City Rep, La Jolla Playhouse). Film credits include Jonathan’s Chest (Sundance Short 2014) and The Sisterhood of Night (upcoming). She has also appeared in the web series High Maintenance. She received a BA from Williams College. JOLLY ABRAHAM (RAINA) has been a company member of The Pearl Theatre Company since 2008, where she most recently appeared in No Exit; other productions at Pearl include Hamlet, Hard Times, and The Bald Soprano. Her Broadway credits include Coram Boy and Bombay Dreams. She has appeared Off Broadway in the world premiere of Jose Rivera’s Massacre at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Twelfth Night at Sonnet Repertory Theatre, and McReele at Roundabout Theatre Company. Regionally, her credits include Scorched at Wilma Theater (Barrymore nomination), Vaidehi at Chautauqua Theater Company, Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Shakespeare Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Pentecost at The Old Globe. She spent three seasons with the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Her television and web credits include Wallflowers (webseries), Unforgettable, Smash, Lights Out, Gossip Girl, Sex and the City, Ed, multiple episodes of Law and Order: SVU/CI, Bedford Diaries, White Collar, and Nurse Jackie. Her film work includes The Adderall Diaries, A Walk Among the Tombstones with Liam Neeson, Stay, Loving Leah, and After You Left. Ms. Abraham holds a BFA from the North Carolina School of the Arts. SILAS GORDON BRIGHAM (ALEX) is a DC-based actor whose recent credits include Homeboy Thanksgiving at Capital Fringe Festival, The Real Thing (understudy) at Studio Theatre, and staged readings of Pecan Park at Theatre Alliance and The Goblin Baby at the DC Shorts Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Regional credits include The Glass Menagerie at the immediate theatre project. Film credits include Ultrasonic, which won Best in Fest at the DC Independent Film Festival in 2012. Mr. Brigham holds a BA in theatre studies from Guilford College in Greensboro, NC and attends the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.
ARTISTS MIKE DONAHUE’s (DIRECTOR) recent productions include the world premieres of Matthew Lopez’s The Legend of Georgia McBride and Lauren Feldman’s Grace, or The Art of Climbing (Denver Center Theatre Company); Jen Silverman’s Phoebe in Winter (Clubbed Thumb) and The Hunters (Cherry Lane Mentor Project); Annie Baker’s adaptation of Uncle Vanya with Campbell Scott (Weston Playhouse); Ethan Lipton’s Red-Handed Otter (Playwrights Realm); Shostakovich’s Moscow, Cheryomushki with new libretto by Meg Miroshnik (Chicago Opera Theatre); and Assassins, Henry IV & V (co-director), and A Number (Playmakers Rep, 2011/12 Distinguished Guest Artist). Mr. Donahue has directed readings and workshops for MCC, New York Theatre Workshop, Soho Rep (Writer/Director Lab), Williamstown, The O’Neill, Clubbed Thumb, Denver Center Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, The Lark, Ars Nova, Dramatists Guild, Chautauqua Theater Company, Cape Cod Theatre Project, TheatreWorks, Working Theatre, Studio 42, and SPACE on Ryder Farm. Mr. Donahue is a recipient of a Fulbright to Berlin, the Drama League Fall Fellowship, The Boris Sagal Fellowship at Williamstown, and the Inaugural Opera America Director-Designer Showcase Award. He is an alumnus of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and was the Artistic Director of the Yale Summer Cabaret for two seasons. Mr. Donahue is a graduate of Harvard University (Louis Sudler Prize for Artistic Excellence) and the Yale School of Drama (MFA). His upcoming projects include Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra at St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. DANE LAFFREY (SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER) has recent Off Broadway credits that include set and/or costumes for Bad Jews and Tigers Be Still (Roundabout), Disgraced (Lincoln Center Theater), Arlington (Vineyard), American Hero and The Talls (Second Stage), The Maids (Red Bull), I Remember Mama and The Patsy (Transport Group), The Other Place (MCC), Sixty Miles to Silver Lake (Soho Rep.), The Few and Rag and Bone (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), Bad Jazz (Play Company), 12 Chairs and Exit (Keigwin + Co, The Joyce Theatre). His work has been presented at major theaters around the US including The Old Globe, the Humana Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Denver Center Theatre Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, New York Stage and Film, Asolo Rep, Signature, Yale Opera, and Two River Theatre. He has worked internationally in Tokyo, Oslo, Osaka, and throughout Australia, including on “The Roast,” which airs nightly on ABC2. He has been nominated for the Drama Desk Award, four American Theatre Wing Henry Hewes Design Awards, and the Sydney Theatre Award. SCOTT ZIELINSKI (LIGHTING DESIGNER) has created designs for over 300 productions of theatre, dance, and opera throughout the world. He has worked extensively in New York, including Topdog/Underdog on Broadway; in DC at Arena Stage; and at most regional theatres throughout the US, including Goodman Theater, Guthrie Theater, Lincoln Center Festival, Mark Taper Forum, New York Theatre Workshop, Public Theater, and Steppenwolf. Internationally he has designed in Adelaide, Amsterdam, Avignon, Berlin, Bregenz, Edinburgh, Fukuoka, Gennevilliers, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Linz, London, Lyon, Melbourne, Orleans, Oslo, Ottawa, Paris, Reykjavik, Rouen, St. Gallen, Singapore, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna, Vilnius, and Zurich. Dance and opera highlights include American Ballet Theatre, Bregenzer Festspiele, Boston Ballet, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Canadian Opera Company, CND Paris, English National Opera, Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera, Kennedy Center, Lithuanian National Opera, National Ballet of Canada, De Nederlandse Opera, New York City Opera, Royal Opera House, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Opera, and Spoleto Festival.
ARTISTS DANIEL KLUGER’s (SOUND DESIGNER) recent New York credits include The Village Bike (MCC); Your Mother’s Copy of the Kama Sutra (Playwrights Horizons); The Few, Ode to Joy, and The Correspondent (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); Women or Nothing (Atlantic Theater Company); Nikolai and the Others (Lincoln Center); Somewhere Fun and The North Pool (Vineyard); Tribes and Hit the Wall (Barrow Street Theatre); and The Seagull (Lake Lucille). His regional credits include productions at The Old Globe, Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf, Pig Iron, TheatreWorks, and American Players Theatre. LAUREN HALVORSEN (DRAMATURG) is Studio Theatre’s Associate Literary Director. For Studio and Studio 2ndStage, she has dramaturged Belleville, Water by the Spoonful, Tribes, The Real Thing, The Motherfucker with the Hat, The Aliens, Bachelorette, The Big Meal, and Time Stands Still. Previously, she spent three seasons as Literary Manager of the Alley Theatre and has worked in various artistic capacities for the WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory, City Theatre Company, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, First Person Arts Festival, and The Wilma Theater. Ms. Halvorsen is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. T. SCOTT WOOTEN (PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER) returns to Studio Theatre where he stage managed Red Speedo and assistant stage managed The Apple Family Plays. He was previously the Artistic Associate of American Stage Theatre Company in St. Petersburg, FL for nine seasons and a resident Stage Manager at Maltz Jupiter Theatre. He has worked in various capacities on over 90 productions and received two 2013 Theatre Tampa Bay Award nominations for his direction and sound design of My Name is Asher Lev. His adaptation REEFER MADNESS!!! THE PLAY!!! received the Best Play Audience Choice Award at the 2010 Orlando International Fringe Festival. He recently directed The Chosen by Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok at American Stage Theatre Company. JACK DOULIN (CASTING DIRECTOR) has been the Casting Director at New York Theatre Workshop since 2000. Productions there include Fetch Clay/Make Man, Peter and the Starcatcher, Tony Kushner’s Homebody /Kabul, Caryl Churchill’s Far Away, A Number (Sam Shepard), and Love and Information. Ivo von Hove’s Hedda Gabler, The Misanthrope, and The Little Foxes. Other New York highlights include Blasted and two notable Uncle Vanyas, (Andre Gregory’s production with Julianne Moore and Wallace Shawn; Annie Baker’s adaptation with Reed Birney, Maria Dizzia, and Michael Shannon directed by Sam Gold). His regional credits include: Long Wharf, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, ART, Seattle Rep, Chautauqua Theater Company, Pig Iron Theatre, The Philadelphia Theatre Company, The Wilma Theater, and Arena Stage. For Studio Theatre he previously cast The Motherfucker with the Hat, Water by the Spoonful, and Cock. Film work includes New Orleans, Mon Amour directed by Michael Almereyda and Jonathan Demme’s film A Master Builder. Mr. Doulin cast the speaking roles in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Le Fille du Regiement. Mr. Doulin teaches at ESPA and in the drama division at Juilliard.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Studio Theatre is grateful to Jon and NoraLee Sedmak for their support of the 2014-2015 Studio Lab. Studio Theatre is grateful to opening night hosts E.C. Michael Higgins and Liz and Tim Cullen and pre-show reception hosts Sid Stolz and David Hatfield. Studio Theatre thanks Jessica Cappellini and Enrico Nassi for their assistance with this production. Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) was founded in 1913 as the first of the American actor unions. Equity’s mission is to advance, promote, and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Today, Equity represents more than 40,000 actors, singers, dancers, and stage managers working in hundreds of theatres across the United States. Equity members are dedicated to working in the theatre as a profession, upholding the highest artistic standards. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions and provides a wide range of benefits including health and pension plans for its members. Through its agreement with Equity, this theatre has committed to the fair treatment of the actors and stage managers employed in this production. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. For more information, visit www.actorsequity.org.
THE WOLFE TWINS STAFF Assistant Stage Manager Cody Whitfield Assistant Lighting Designer Drew Kaufman Second Assistant Lighting Designer/Light Board Operator Mary Keegan Sound Board Operator Emma Streett Dialects Gary Logan
STUDIO STAFF ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: DAVID MUSE MANAGING DIRECTOR/ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, 2NDSTAGE: KEITH ALAN BAKER PRODUCING DIRECTOR: SERGE SEIDEN DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES: MERIDITH BURKUS Director of Design: Debra Booth Literary Director: Adrien-Alice Hansel Associate Literary Director: Lauren Halvorsen Artistic Apprentice: Nathan Norcross Commissioned Writers: Rachel Bonds, Vivienne Franzmann, Clare Lizzimore, Stew and Heidi Rodewald Technical Director: Robert Shearin Assistant Technical Director/Master Carpenter: Jen Worster Carpenter: Marty Thoman Scenic Artist: Erich Starke Carpentry/Scene Shop Apprentice: Bianca Hamp Properties Director: Deborah Thomas Costume Shop Manager: Brandee Mathies Master Electrician/Sound Technician: Adrian Rooney Electrics Apprentice: Eric McMorris Sound/Projections Apprentice: Christal Jerez Associate Production Manager: Lorna Mulvaney Production Associate: Jacob Janssen Company Manager/Production Apprentice: Victoria Vasquez
Resident Stage Manager: John Keith Hall Stage Management Apprentice: Jen Grunfeld Business Manager: Terence McCann Assistant Business Manager: Eric Colton Business Apprentice: Julia Corrigan Administrative and Events and Rentals Coordinator: Nikki Grizzle Executive Assistant: Mary Grace Short Information Technology Director: Nick Torres Facilities Manager: Kieran Kelly Facilities/Operations Apprentice: Dawn Kelley Director of Development: TC Benson Manager of Major Gifts: Zack Lynch Development Officer: Stephanie Richards Development Associate, Individuals and Events: Kelsey Beaumont Development Apprentice: Laura Cohen Director of Marketing and Communications: Beth Hauptle Publicist and Publications Manager: Liz O’Meara-Goldberg Marketing Manager: Scott Sanger Subscriptions Manager: Adria Gunter Digital Marketing Manager: Rachael Wilkinson Communications Apprentice: Dorothy Trigg Graphic Design Apprentice: Cheyenne Michaels Photographer: Teddy Wolff Photographer: Igor Dmitry
Director of Ticket Operations: Stephen Notes Box Office Manager: Amy Horan Assistant Box Office Manager: Tobias Franzen Box Office Assistant: Milica Bogetic Audience Services Manager: Lynn Coughlin House Manager: Robert Montenegro House Manager Swings: Ric Birch, Matt Dewberry, Jon Harvey Assistant House Managers: Amie Cazel, Juliette Ebert, Rachel Garmon, Elizabeth Greenstein, Corinne Hayes, Orion Jones, Marley Kabin, Emily Kester, Jeff Kirkman III, Briana Manente, Anna Treichler, Jon White, Kara Sparling, Quill Nebeker Director of Education: Roma Rogers Education Manager: Madeleine Burke Pitt Associate Education Manager: Anderson Wells Education/Conservatory Apprentice: Kaitlyn McElrath Instructors: Joy Zinoman (Director of Curriculum and Teacher Training), Meade Andrews, Carol Arthur, Nancy Bannon, Diana Bradley, Zach Campion, Kate Davis, Elena Day, Kate Debelack, Denise Diggs, Catherine Eliot, George Fulginiti-Shakar, Julie Garner, Charlotte Graham, Robb Hunter, Nancy Paris, Madeleine Burke Pitt, Roma Rogers, Serge Seiden, Colette Yglesias Silver, Matthew Vaky
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5 01
2 7, Y BO NEY H
BEGINS DEC 10,
2014
TERMINUS
BY MARK O’ROWE DIRECTED BY TOM STOR Y
(STAR OF THE WOLFE TWINS)
This supernatural vision from Irish playwright Mark O’Rowe (Crestfall) takes its audience on a dizzying plunge through its three characters’ quietest fears and most intimate desires.