Issuu

Sense & Sensibility Director James Dean Palmer Resident Designer/Production manager Chris McVicker Production Stage Manager Savannah Rae Heslep costume designER Jordan Jeffers Hair/Wig & Make-up designER Michelle Hart Scenic Designer Jeffery Weber Sound Designer Alex Pinchin Voice & Dialect Coach Patricia Delorey Movement Coach Eliza Ladd

MADE POSSIBLE WITH SUPPORT FROM THE CHARLES L. HUISKING JR. AND LILLIAN HUISKING GUEST ARTIST FUND

2022-23

season

Willoughby/Gossip Elinor Colonel Brandon/Gossip Marianne Edward Ferrars/Robert Ferrars/Gossip Mrs. Dashwood/Anne Steele/Gossip Lead Gossip/Mrs. Ferrars Margaret/Gossip Mrs. Jennings/Gossip Fanny/Thomas/Gossip Lady Middleton/Lucy Steele/Gossip Sir John/Doctor/Gossip John Dashwood/Gossip

TREZURE COLES REBECCA ROSE MIMS FALCIAN PAGE SHARON PEARLMAN ISÁYAH PHILLIPS JACKSON PURDY JORDAN RICH* BRIELLE RIVERA HEADRINGTON MIKHAIL ROBERTS* BROOKE TURNER DANIELLE VIVCHARENKO RUEBEN WAKEFIELD RICKEY WATSON, JR.

*Appears courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association

CR E W Assistant Stage Manager Light Board Operator Sound Board Operator Costume Crew Run Crew

JOHN LEGGETT ELLE MILLER CATHERINE LUCIANI

ASHLEY MCCAULEY MOORE, IBUKUN OMOTOWA JONATHAN ACOSTA, WILLIAM CROWDER, CAITLIN ROSE

Box Office House Manager

AYDA OZDOGANLAR, BRIAN ZANE JASMYN ACKAH

E X T R A CR EDI T S Intimacy Director

Choreographers Fight Captain Assistant Dialect Coach Aria Pianist

Sense & Sensibility

CA S T

BROOKE TURNER

TREZURE COLES, DANIELLE VIVCHARENKO MIKHAIL ROBERTS ZOYA MARTIN BRIAN ZANE

DIR E C T OR’ S NO T E S

The name “Jane Austen” conjures a splendorous array of images and emotions. Stately homes, manicured gardens, finely crafted furniture, young love, betrayal, hope, nostalgia. Few authors have seared themselves on the cultural psyche like Jane has. Over two hundred years after her death and we still turn to her novels for relaxation and interrogation. Jane has an uncanny understanding of human beings, but I think the reason she remains relevant is that she takes serious something some find frivolous: love. If you only watched the film versions of Jane Austen’s stories, you might think that her love was slow, languid, and inevitable. But the films don’t do Jane justice. The Jane Austen I know and love is quick witted, sharp tongued, foolishly romantic. Which is why when Andrei asked me to direct Sense & Sensibility, arguably the greatest of her novels, I was relieved to know that we were using Kate Hamill’s adaptation. Kate gets Jane Austen. Kate knows that Jane was a rebellious soul who outwitted a nation of aristocrats and went toe-to-toe with the patriarchy. Kate isn’t seduced by the slow moving, hyper realistic world of the films of Austen’s work. She gets to the heart of the stories and explodes the drama with humor in a madcap, provocative style. In the production you are about to see, we’ve stripped away the surfaces to get at the main dramatic question: do we follow the rules and conform to the manners and mores of the time, or do we break the rules and follow our hearts? I invite you to join us as we break some rules and follow our hearts.

CR E AT I V E T E A M JAMES DEAN PALMER (Director) is a New York based director and a graduate of Brown/Trinity MFA. Most recently he directed Romeo and Juliet at the Texas Shakespeare Festival. NYC credits include Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, In The Open (Professional Performing Arts School); Hamlet, Julius Caesar (Gallery Players); 274 Days, This New Now (NYU Tisch); The Young (Primary Stages/Fordham); the swan (Atelier 86); and Grief (Drama League). Select regional credits: The Goodman, Long Wharf, The Old Globe, Victory Gardens, Chautauqua, Steppenwolf, Trinity Rep, Roundabout. James received Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson award for Best Direction in 2010, is a Drama League fellow, has received fellowships from Chautauqua Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, and SDC, and is a Peter Kaplan Fellow. Teaching: Fordham University, NYU Tisch, the Professional Performing Arts School. James was the founding artistic director of Chicago’s Red Tape Theatre. Member Stage Directors and Choreographers union. CHRIS MCVICKER (Resident Designer/Production Manager) received his BA from George Mason University. He relocated to the Sarasota area in 1996 and has worked at most of the local theatres. Chris is excited to be entering his 11th season at the Conservatory. Locally, he has lighting design awards for Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, and School for Wives. SAVANNAH RAE HESLEP (Production Stage Manager) is originally from Arkansas and received her BFA from Missouri State University. She recently relocated to Florida and is excited to be joining the Conservatory for her second season! Savannah wants to thank her family for their unconditional love and support as she finds her way in the world. JORDAN JEFFERS (Costume Designer) is a graduate of UNCSA, where he earned his BFA in costume design and technology. Jordan is a St. Petersburg freelance costume and wig designer, currently working as an assistant costume shop manager at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota. Jordan’s recent design credits include American Idiot, Jacob Marley’s A Christmas Carol, and collaborative design on School Girls (American Stage). He is elated to be designing and working with the FSU/ Asolo Conservatory. MICHELLE HART (Hair/Wig & Make-up Designer) designs for Asolo Repertory Theatre and FSU/Asolo Conservatory. Other credits: Sarasota Ballet, Palm Beach Drama Works, freeFall Theatre, Urbanite Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, Banyan Theatre, Ruth Eckerd Hall, Venice Theatre, Dorset Theatre, Barrington Stage, and Open Stage Theatre. She has also done hair and/or make-up for Joan Rivers, Doris Roberts, Martin Short, Jane Russell, Arlene Dahl, Soledad Villamil, Jane Pauley, Richard Dreyfuss, Justin Long, Paul Downs, Douglas Sills, and Nia Hills. Music videos: “Second Chance” by Shinedown, “Reverse Cowgirl” by T-Pain. Film and television: Lady of the Manor, Paradise, FL, and The Real Stephen Blatt.

JEFFERY WEBER (Scenic Designer) earned his BA in Fine Arts from SUNY Cortland, and an MFA in Scenic Design from the University of Nebraska. His career as a professional scenic designer has found him designing all manner of corporate events and theatre. He has had the privilege of designing for such companies as the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, Horizon Theatre Company, Super Summer Theatre, Urbanite, and Majestic Repertory Theatre. He is honored to be back with the Conservatory. ALEX PINCHIN (Sound Designer) is a multimedia designer based out of Sarasota. Alex earned his BA in Digital Arts and Sciences with a minor in Lighting Design from the University of Florida in 2016. He has been working in the entertainment industry for over 15 years in a variety of capacities, including light, sound, and projection design in several venues across the country. He is currently the technical supervisor for Urbanite Theatre and has been designing with the FSU/Asolo Conservatory since the 2017-2018 season. PATRICIA DELOREY (Voice & Dialect Coach) is a Certified Associate Fitzmaurice Voicework Teacher with an MFA in Voice and Speech from the Moscow Art Theatre/American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. Patricia teaches voice & dialects at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training. She is also the resident voice & dialect coach at Asolo Repertory Theatre, where some of her favorite productions include Sweat, Sweeney Todd, The Cake, The Crucible, Gloria, Ragtime, Rhinoceros, Roe, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, The Great Society, Josephine, All the Way, Living on Love, West Side Story, Sotto Voce, Other Desert Cities, South Pacific, The Grapes of Wrath, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Clybourne Park, The Innocents, Twelve Angry Men, Bonnie & Clyde, Doubt, A Few Good Men, A Tale of Two Cities, Equus. Other credits include: Pitmen Painters (American Stage Theatre), Studio Six’s production of Plasticine (The Baryshnikov Arts Center), Saturday Night Fever (Royal Caribbean International Cruises), Stone Cold Dead Serious (American Repertory Theatre), and the world premiere of Nocturne (American Repertory Theatre). ELIZA LADD (Movement Coach) is a performer, director, stage writer, composer, and choreographer from NYC. She is currently associate professor of movement and dance at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training. Eliza has created work in NYC at PS 122, Dixon Place, Movement Research, the Knitting Factory, Joyce Soho, and The Berkshire Fringe. She has performed at La Mama, the Kitchen, New York Theatre Workshop, St. Ann’s Warehouse, and with Shakespeare and Company in MA. In Sarasota, Eliza has created and directed original work for New Music New College, the Sarasolo Festival, and in collaboration with Sarasota Contemporary Dance at the Dali Museum. Eliza developed Autobiography of the Human Species (2019) and Gravity and Levity (2021), a new work created for Zoom for the In Studio Series at Sarasota Contemporary Dance. Gravity and Levity was re-produced by Franklin Furnace, NYC in August 2021. Eliza holds a BA in Comparative Religion from Harvard University and an MFA in Theater: Contemporary Performance from Naropa University.

SET THE

STAGE

THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING DONORS FOR THEIR GENEROUS SUPPORT OF THIS CAMPAIGN

FSU/ASOLO REP STUDENT FELLOWSHIP ENDOWMENTS Forever Gifts Baer Family Student Fellowship | Jack E. Block Fund | Dr. Janet Brown* and Dr. Margaret R. Martin Collinsworth Family Foundation of Community Foundation of Sarasota County Margot and Warren Coville* | Foster and Martha Harmon* Scholarship Fund Lillian (Pat) Huisking* Student Fellowship | Bobby Jensen and Randell Johnson Endowed Fund Koski Family Foundation | Wilda Q. Meier | Esther M. Mertz* Muriel O’Neil* Fund for the Performing Arts of Community Foundation of Sarasota County Maurice Richards* and Jack Kesler* Endowed Fund | Roselyn Sedlezky* Eva and Stephan* Slane Fund of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Inc. Herb* and Edie Winston Endowment Fund | Bill Yandow* Endowed Fund

& special thanks to Ron Banyay, Sy Goldblatt, Jack Kesler*, Charlie Huisking/Huisking Family Fund at Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Inc., Dr. Randell Johnson and Bobby Jensen Set The Stage Matching Challenge Karl Fedronas and Kathy Kelle Secure the Future *in memoriam