WELCOME TO GEORGE AND MARTHA’S,
DIRECTED BY
kristen coury
Thank you to our Donors
SEASON ANGELS
Jane & Steve Akin, Patty & Jay Baker, Glenda & Rich Struthers
SEASON BENEFACTORS
Karen & Gary Gregg, Nancy G. Lauridsen, Sandi & Tom Moran, Susan Regenstein & Barry Frank, John & Carol Walter
SEASON AMBASSADORS
Anonymous, Marsha & Gary Bertrand, Grampy’s Charities - Jim & Jonatha Castle, Bev & Art Cherry, Christine & Terrance Flynn, Nancy & Tom Gallagher, Marguerite Hambleton, Barbie & Paul Hills, Jenny & Rich Housh, Patricia & George Kraus, Laird A. Lile, Simone & Scott Lutgert, James & Brigitte Marino, Bettina McKee, Cynthia & Mike Scholl, Jane & Dave Wilson, Debbie & Bruce Yarde
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS+
Patricia & Jim Bosscher, Kathleen Cain, Bob & Laurie Champion, Robert & Joan Clifford, Sheila & Chris Cole, Bobbi & David Drobis, Dyan Fazzone, Kathleen & Brenden FitzGerald, The Habbershon Family, Matthew Hagan, Vicki Herche & Graeme Murray, Mitch Hertz & Anne Carlucci, Steven & Sarah Jackson, Liz & Jim Jessee, Sarah Raup Johnson, Larry Kaye & Casey Skvorc, Pamela & Bob Krupka, Tammy & Mike Kutsch, Diane Landgren, Debra & Vince Maffeo, Geraldine Moss, F.E. & Jack Nortman, Joan & Mahendra Parekh, Gail Kern Paster, Anthony & Beverly Petullo, Melissa & David Shockley, Patricia Sweet & Bill Marsh, Patrick Trompeter & Monica Orcutt, Julie & Steve Vanderboom, Jane Walsh, Tereska & Jerry Whitson, Joanne Wyss
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Anonymous, Mary & Phil Beuth, Lee & Peter Bewley, Richard & Jane Borchers, Cheryl & Randall W. Byrnes, Michael & Judy Cheteyan, John & Patricia Cochran, Norman & Suzanne Cohn, Margaret Cox, Jim & Shirley Curvey, Kyla & Rich de Asla, Mary Drazan, Sandy & Bill Haack, Libby & Ed Harshfield, Ken & Karen Heithoff, Jean & Leo Hertzog, Catelyn Juliano & David Deutsch, Heidi & James Kargman, Ms. Barbara K Lupient, Mary Lou & Bob Maier, Sherie Marek, Phil McCabe, Carolyn & Don McCulloch, Gerry McGraw, Pat & Tony McMunn, Dan & Ann Meyer, Joanne & Jeffrey Miller, Kristin & John Miller, Kimberly Moss & Bob Fisher, Louise & Larry Ost, Cindy & Tony Panzica, Ann Ratner, Dottie & John Remondi, DeAnna & Rick Rondinelli, Kathy & Ned Sachs, Pam & Fred Sasser, Janet & Peter Swinburn, Lisa & Warren Thomson, The Vincent Von Zwehl Memorial Fund, Kathy & Paul Weaver, Blaine & Tom Wells, Kristen & Michael Wynn
Welcome!
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the second season in the Baker Theatre and Education Center! I’m so grateful you’ve returned this season, or are here for the first time, as we have so much in store for you. With our inaugural season in the history books, we have learned a lot and have had time to plan even more exciting things for you. You’ll see more educational offerings, more engagement opportunities, and, as always, our stellar Broadway-level shows on stage.
We always bring you the best professional actors we can find from all over the country to bring these plays to life. We create the show in our 25,000 square foot production center off Livingston Road, and we fly the creative team and actors in to rehearse, create, and perform a wide variety of classics, new works, beloved musicals, and thought-provoking world premieres just for you, so you can get your “New York fix” without the airline ticket.
While this fall sports two iconic classics, Edward Albee’s hard-hitting Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in our Struthers Studio, and the sweet classic musical Irving Berlin’s White Christmas in the Moran Mainstage, the spring will feature a brand-new work, Circle Forward by Deb Hiett. This play came through our New Works Festival several years ago and we’re thrilled to be the first in the nation to produce it now.
Speaking of our New Works Festival, we’re bringing it back this season, and rebranding it. It is now called The Next Wave Festival. The Next Wave Festival focuses less on blind submissions and more on curated pieces. If you haven’t purchased your festival pass yet, you should go ahead and do that now so that you don’t miss any of the hot new properties we’re working on. You never know when one will end up on our mainstage or, for that matter, on Broadway.
Thank you, once again, for supporting Gulfshore Playhouse. Whether this is your first visit, or your 50th, we appreciate you being here. So, please, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
Warm regards,
Founder, CEO, and Producing Artistic Director
CORPORATE SEASON BENEFACTOR
CORPORATE SEASON AMBASSADORS
CORPORATE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER+
CORPORATE EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
GRANTS AND ENDOWMENTS
A letter from the Chairman of the Board
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am delighted to welcome you to the 2025–2026 season at Gulfshore Playhouse. We are coming off an extraordinary inaugural year in the magnificent Baker Theatre and Education Center, and I am thrilled to welcome you back for our second season in this new home.
As Chairman of the Board, one of my greatest joys has been seeing the excitement and pride our community feels in having a theatre of this caliber here in Naples. We’ve watched our audience grow, expanded our reach through education programs, welcomed neighbors and friends into our lobby and bar, and opened our doors to events for organizations and businesses across the region. The growing awareness of the art being produced and the activities happening daily at Gulfshore Playhouse are wonderful signs for the future.
With growth comes greater responsibility. The cost of producing theatre at this level continues to rise, as does the need for expanded staff and resources. Yet the impact of this work could not be clearer. Theatre enriches our lives and strengthens our community. It takes the vision of leadership, the creativity and hard work of a dedicated staff, the guidance of an experienced Board, the generosity of donors, and the loyalty of an engaged audience to make it all possible.
This season promises many exciting productions and opportunities—far more than I can highlight here. I encourage you to discover the many ways you can take part in all that Gulfshore Playhouse has to offer. Thank you for being here. I hope this season brings you joy, inspiration, insight, and unforgettable experiences.
Thank you,
Steve Akin Chairman of the Board
Jeffrey Binder Beth Hylton Sam Bell-Gurwitz Becca Ballenger WITH
SCENIC DESIGNER
Kristen Martino**
COSTUME DESIGNER
Tracy Dorman**
ORIGINAL MUSIC & SOUND DESIGN
Lindsay Jones**
DIALECTS COACH
Kristi Dana
INTIMACY DIRECTOR
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Dalton Hamilton**
WIGS BY
Bobbie Zlotnik
Erica Mansfield FIGHT DIRECTOR
Rick Sordelet
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER
Dom Ruggiero CASTING
DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION
Ray Inkel
Michael Cassara, CSA
COO & MANAGING DIRECTOR
Joel Markus
DIRECTED BY Kristen Coury
The Fight Director is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent national labor union.
The actors and stage manager employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
(**) Denotes a member of United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829
CAST OF CHARACTERS
RUN TIME
3 hours and 20 minutes including a 15-minute intermission and a 10-minute intermission.
SETTING
The living room of a house on the campus of a small New England college, 1962
ACT I: Fun and Games ACT II: Walpurgisnacht ACT III: The Exorcism
SPECIAL THANKS
Assistant
Gulfshore Playhouse operates under agreements between the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), a consortium of regional theatres throughout the nation; Actors Equity Association (AEA), the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States; the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), an independent national labor union; and United Scenic Artists (USA), a union of scenic, costume, lighting and sound designers.
The National Alliance for Musical Theatre, founded in 1985, is a not-for-profit organization serving the musical theatre community. The 165 organizational members and 75 individual members, located throughout 33 states and abroad, are some of the leading producers of musical theatre in the world, and include theatres, presenting organizations, higher education programs and individual producers.
Gulfshore Playhouse is an Associate Member of the National New Play Network.
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 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.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com
The videotaping or making of electronic or other audio and/or visual recordings of this production and distributing recordings or streams in any medium including the internet, is strictly prohibited, a violation of the author(s)'s rights and actionable under United States copyright law. For more information, please visit: concordtheatricals.com/resources/ protecting-artists
Director’s Note
While working on the first week of rehearsal of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, a line stuck out to me that pretty much sums it up:
“IT’S AN ALLEGORY, REALLY, BUT IT CAN BE READ AS COZY PROSE.”
This is what I have learned while working on this interesting, complex, and extraordinarily well-crafted play. Perhaps you’re like me, and have thought about this play, or its movie version, as a master class in yelling. I admit to having written it off as too ugly, too loud, and too vulgar. And then Beth Hylton, one of the most fantastic actresses in the country, talked me into it. She felt it was “her time” and boy she was right. Add to that the pleasure of bringing Jeffrey Binder back for this iconic role, and the result is absolute dynamite. With Sam Bell-Gurwitz and Becca Ballenger rounding out the cast as Nick and Honey, the entire cast is firing on all cylinders and is absolutely breathtaking and inspiring. I’m so happy you’re here because I truly believe after seeing it you will say
“I SAW THIS PRODUCTION ONCE AT GULFSHORE PLAYHOUSE, AND I’VE NEVER FORGOTTEN IT.”
Edward Albee’s treatise on marriage, in fact the first play in history to utterly dissect and demonstrate marriage in this way, can be viewed as realism. They live in a house, they drink a LOT, they have furniture. But this play isn’t realism. Albee rejected being told the play belonged to the Theatre of the Absurd, but it certainly does have absurd tenets, and it most definitely explores the very thin line between truth and illusion. It explores other things as well. We remember the characters are named George and Martha, so it won’t surprise you that Albee is making a statement on the country, and the condition of it, as well as what the definition of “the American dream” really is. This play debuted on Broadway in 1962, but, sadly, it feels all too relevant right about now. This play has a lot going on for a play that I previously viewed as “all about drinking and yelling.” We’ve done our level best to bring this “allegory that reads as cozy prose” to life faithfully, to unearth every nuance and every detail, and hopefully, you will witness it and agree with me that there’s a lot more going on here than just a lot of yelling. I find that I learn or notice something new every time I watch it. So do let me know if you decide to come back and see it again.
-Kristen Coury, Director
About the Playwright
Edward Albee (1928-2016)
He was born on March 12, 1928, and began writing plays 30 years later. His plays include The Zoo Story (1958); The American Dream (1960); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961-62, Tony Award®); Tiny Alice (1964); A Delicate Balance (1966, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award®); All Over (1971); Seascape (1974, Pulitzer Prize); The Lady From Dubuque (1977-78); The Man Who Had Three Arms (1981); Finding The Sun (1982); Marriage Play (1986-87); Three Tall Women (1991, Pulitzer Prize); Fragments (1993); The Play About The Baby (1997);The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2000, 2002, Tony Award®), Occupant (2001), Peter and Jerry: Act 1, Homelife; Act 2, The Zoo Story (2004), and Me, Myself and I (2007).
He was a member of the Dramatists Guild Council and President of The Edward F. Albee Foundation. Mr. Albee was awarded the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980, and in 1996 received the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts. In 2005 he was awarded the special Tony Award® for Lifetime Achievement.
Edward Albee, in 1965.
Photograph by Jack Mitchell/Getty
Edward Albee, May 10, 2004 in New York City. Scott Gries/Getty Images
About the Cast
Jeffrey Binder (George) is an actor, playwright, and director. He has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Regionally, and London’s West End as well as on television and in film. Additionally, he served as Associate Artistic Director of Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples, Florida for six seasons. Acting: Broadway: Lion King, Lieutenant of Inishmore (Original Broadway Cast), Mary Poppins, and Side Man. West End: Side Man (Premiere). NYC: Music Hall (US Premiere 59E59th), Romance/The New Testament (NY Premieres/Neil LaBute, 59E59th), Dr. Faustus (Classic Stage Company), Birth and After Birth (Atlantic), Princess Turandot (Blue Light) Regional: Ride the Cyclone (McCarter Theatre), The White Chip (Merrimack Rep, World Premiere), The God Game (Premiere Gulfshore Playhouse/Capital Repertory Theatre), Love in the Wars (Premiere, Bard Summerscape), The Master and Margarita (Bard Summerscape), Bob (Humana 2011), Tartuffe (NJSF), Gulfshore Playhouse: Numerous productions including the one person Higher (filmed, also playwright), An Iliad, Scapino (World Premiere, also playwright), My Fair Lady, Holmes and Watson, Hound of the Baskervilles, The Price, The Refugees, Every Brilliant Thing, Television’s “Damages” (recurring), “Law and Order,” “L&O: Criminal Intent,” “Guiding Light,” “All My Children.” Directing: The Lehman Trilogy, Maytag Virgin, The Lady Demands Satisfaction, In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play, and Camelot. MFA, NYU.
Beth Hylton (Martha) is thrilled to return to Gulfshore Playhouse, having previously performed here in Into The Breeches, Steel Magnolias, A Doll’s House and Blithe Spirit. Beth is a proud member of the resident company of actors at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore where she has performed in over 25 productions, from world premieres to American and European classics. Favorite roles at Everyman include Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, Rosemary in Outside Mullingar, Margot in Dial M for Murder, Marie Antoinette in The Revolutionists, and Bella in The Sound Inside. Off-Broadway: 59E59: Liz in Handbagged (director Indhu Rubasingham). Other NYC: NYC Fringe Fest, Gorilla Rep, founding member Ground
Floor Theatre Lab, Todo Con Nada. Beth’s favorite regional credits include Rachael in Appropriate and Betty #1 in Collective Rage (world premieres), both at Woolly Mammoth, Amanda in Private Lives at Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, Bev and Kathy in Clybourne Park at Baltimore Center Stage, Lunenburg at the Public Theater of Maine, and the one person Throw Me On The Burnpile and Light Me Up at Round House. Other Regional Credits: Rep Stage, Olney Theatre Center, Historic Ford’s Theatre, Kennedy Center Eisenhower Stage, The Folger, Maltz Jupiter, Delaware Theatre Company, Weston Playhouse, PlayMakers Rep, and NC Stage. TV/FILM: “Law And Order” (2022); “House Of Cards”; “One Life To Live”; “Thespian”; the indie feature The Other You, and Beth is currently part of the ensemble cast of the streaming series Deep End on Fawesome TV/ YouTube. More info available at bethhyltonactor.com. Beth has an MFA from UNC-Chapel Hill/PATP.
Sam Bell-Gurwitz (Nick) is thrilled to be making his Gulfshore Playhouse debut! Broadway: Goodnight, Oscar. Regional credits include: The Glass Menagerie (Indiana Repertory Theatre); The Boys in the Band, (Windy City Playhouse); Goodnight, Oscar (Goodman Theatre); A Shayna Maidel (Timeline Theatre Company); Three Sisters (UV Theatre Project). Television: “NEXT,” (Fox) “The Thing About Harry.” (Freeform) Proudly represented by Stewart Talent and a graduate of the University of Michigan. “To my fiancée, Savanna, you are the reason for all the good fortune in my life.”
Becca Ballenger (Honey) is thrilled to be back at Gulfshore Playhouse, where she was recently seen in Into the Breeches. Selected Regional: Steel Magnolias (Geva Theatre Center, Idaho Shakespeare Festival); A Midsummer Night’s Dream and White Lightning (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); Hamlet 50/50 (Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival); The Mystery of Love and Sex and Papermaker (Shadowland Stages). Off-Broadway: A Midsummer Nights’ Dream (Masterworks) and Sludge (2017 Relentless Award Winner). TV: “New Amsterdam,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Village of the Damned.” Proud AEA/SAG-AFTRA. BA Fordham. @beccaballenger
About the Creatives
Kristen Coury (Director) is the Founder, CEO and Producing Artistic Director of Gulfshore Playhouse. She founded the Playhouse in 2004, and shortly thereafter started producing with no staff and virtually no funding. Under her leadership, the Playhouse has grown to a staff of 83 people with an annual budget of $14.5M with no long-term debt. Kristen led the charge to create the iconic $75M state-of-the-art Baker Theatre and Education Center at the gateway to downtown Naples, which opened on November 1st , 2024. As part of this project, Coury ignited one of the largest public/private partnerships in City of Naples history, initiating a land-swap with the Wynn family and, together, donating over an acre of land to the City upon which to build a public parking garage. While in New York, she worked on Broadway for Walt Disney Theatrical Productions , and for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s company, The Really Useful Group, and made her feature film directorial debut with an independent film entitled Friends and Family. Kristen is also a frequent investor in Broadway productions, most recently A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical. Kristen has directed nearly 50 productions for the Playhouse. Most recently, she directed the final professional production in the Norris Center, the musical She Loves Me, and the inaugural show in the Baker Theatre and Education Center, Anything Goes. She is now hard at work at the helm of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Kristen was named one of the Men and Women of the Year by Gulfshore Life in 2013 and again in 2024. She also received the Murray Hendel Award for Civic Achievement in 2023. She served two terms on the board of Theatre Communications Group, the national advocacy group for professional theatre and is currently a member of the board of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce. Kristen is very honored to have been appointed to Florida Council for arts and culture by Senate President Kathleen Passidomo. She was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Business Leaders in Collier County for the last four years.
Kristen Martino (Scenic Designer) is excited to be returning to Gulfshore Playhouse after previously designing several shows, including Sweet Charity, Into the Breeches, Camelot, Higher, and The Price. Her work as a scenic designer has been seen on stages across the country, including productions at Drury Lane Theatre, ACT of CT, The Cape Playhouse, Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre, and Indiana University, where she completed her MFA in Scenic Design. Kristen began her career in Chicago, where she worked as a freelance and associate scenic designer. That chapter of her career provided opportunities to collaborate on a wide range of projects, from museum exhibitions to circus productions, as well as international
theatre, including serving as an associate designer for the 2020 West End production of The Prince of Egypt. Kristen was also part of the team selected to represent the United States by designing the Emerging Artist Exhibit for the 2019 Prague Quadrennial and the recipient of the 2022 USITT Rising Star Award. Kristen is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. In addition to her professional design work, Kristen is dedicated to arts education. She currently serves as Head of Scenic Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she mentors the next generation of theatre artists and is a company member at the Clarence Brown Theatre, a LORT theatre on campus. kristenmartino.com @kristenmartino.design
Tracy Dorman (Costume Designer) Previous productions at Gulfshore Playhouse include last season’s Noises Off and Dial M for Murder, as well as numerous productions over the last several seasons. She has designed productions at regional theater and opera companies around the country including at San Diego’s The Old Globe, Asolo Rep, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, GEVA, Milwaukee Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Drury Lane (Chicago), Kansas City Rep, Cleveland Playhouse, Maltz-Jupiter, Manhattan School of Music, Virginia Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Omaha, Chicago Opera Theatre, Glimmerglass, and New York City Opera. In addition, she has worked on numerous film and tv shows, winning an Emmy Award for her work on “As The World Turns.” Please visit www.tracydorman.com for a more extensive listing of production credits.
Dalton Hamilton (Lighting Designer) works around the country as a designer, associate, and programmer. His work extends from theatre, opera, and dance to corporate events and theme park entertainment. Credits include: Bay Street Theater, Gulfshore Playhouse, Tuacahn Center for the Arts, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Nashville Repertory Theatre, Ogunquit Playhouse, FreeFall Theatre, American Stage, Norwegian Cruise Line, City Springs Theatre Company, and the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. Dalton has also been an Associate Designer for numerous theme park shows at Busch Gardens Williamsburg under Lighting Designer Ken Billington for the past 10 years. Other notable Associate/Assistant credits include The Prince of Egypt (West End) with Lighting Designer Mike Billings, Dungeons & Dragons The Twenty-Sided Tavern (Chicago & Off-Broadway), and Rogers: The Musical, “Hawkeye” Series (Marvel Studios: Disney+) with Lighting Designer Mike Wood. Proud member of United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829. daltonhamiltonlightingdesign.com | @dhlightingdesign
About the Creatives
Lindsay Jones (Original Music & Sound Design) Broadway: Slave Play (Tony® nominations for Best Score and Best Sound Design of a Play), The Nap, Bronx Bombers, and A Time to Kill. Off-Broadway: Privacy (The Public Theater), Bootycandy (Playwrights Horizons), Feeding the Dragon (Primary Stages), Top Secret (New York Theatre Workshop) and many others. Regional: Guthrie Theater, Center Stage, American Conservatory Theater, Hartford Stage, Alliance Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage, Old Globe Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, and many others. International: Slave Play (West End, London), Royal Shakespeare Company (England), Stratford Festival (Canada), and many others. Audio dramas: Disney’s Star Wars: Tempest Breaker, Marvel’s Wastelanders, Audible’s A Streetcar Named Desire with Audra McDonald and Carla Gugino, Next Chapter Podcasts’ Play On Shakespeare, and Committee For Children’s The Imagine Neighborhood. Lindsay has received two Tony Award® nominations, seven Joseph Jefferson Awards (24 nominations), two Ovation Awards (three nominations), Webby Award, Ambie Award, 2 Signal Awards, L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, and many others. Film/TV scoring: HBO Films’ A Note of Triumph – The Golden Age Of Norman Corwin (2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary, Short Subject), the newly released Dinosaur Discoveries (now playing the Houston Natural Sciences Museum) and over 30 other films. He is the co-chair of Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association (TSDCA), and teaches Music History at the University Of North Carolina School Of The Arts. www.lindsayjones.com
Kristi Dana (Dialects Coach) is a voice/dialect coach, actor, teacher, and director. Her professional vocal coaching credits include Dial M for Murder at Gulfshore Playhouse, Marie Antoinette at Soho Rep, and Liz Lerman’s tour of Healing Wars. She has coached nearly 20 productions at Southern Methodist University, where she serves as the Interim Chair of the division of theatre (fall 2025) and is a tenured Associate Professor of voice and speech for the MFA and BFA acting programs in the Meadows School of the Arts. Kristi regularly performs as an equity actor in Dallas, including at Kitchen Dog Theater and Undermain Theatre. She is the Director of Teacher Certification for mVm Miller Voice Method, a groundbreaking athletic approach to voice work for actors that uses breath to build presence and vocally dynamic performances. She is on faculty with the Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA), serves on its Executive Committee, and has served on the board for theVoice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA). Kristi holds an MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College, an MA in Theatre Education from Emerson College,
and a BA in Theatre Arts from Penn State University. She is a certified teacher of Miller Voice Method and Knight-Thompson Speechwork. Kristi lives in East Dallas with her cute and slightly mischievous Texas heeler, Izzy.
Erica Mansfield (Intimacy Director) is thrilled to return to Gulfshore Playhouse, where she previously served as Intimacy Director for Sweet Charity, She Loves Me, Anything Goes, Dial M for Murder, and Noises Off. Currently, her work can be seen on Broadway in Mamma Mia! as both cast member and Intimacy Director. Other recent intimacy direction projects include the Memoirs of an Amorous Gentleman workshop directed by Rob Ashford and Almost Famous at ACT. She trained with IDC and is also a certified Lactation Education Counselor, yoga teacher, Pilates mat instructor, and visual stylist for Hearst news stations. On the creative team side, Erica has worked as Associate Director/Choreographer on Jersey Boys at Casa Mañana, Phantom at WBT, and Fiddler on the Roof at both Paper Mill Playhouse and The Muny. As a performer, Erica has appeared in 12 Broadway shows, three national tours, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and on television in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Best Man,” “Law & Order,” “FBI,” “Saturday Night Live,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “PBS: 50 Years of Broadway,” and “The Kennedy Center Honors.”
Rick Sordelet (Fight Director) with Christian and Collin Kelly-Sordelet created Sordelet Inc., a Native-owned action movement company with 35+ years experience. Rick has done many productions at WTF. They have done 88 Broadway shows. Rick and Christian won the 2025 Drama Desk Award for Best Fight Direction for Pirates! They did the fights for Moby Dick at the MET and the sword fights for “Good Luck Babe,” Chappell Roan’s VMA debut. Numerous films, operas, national tours, and loads of TV. They teach at William Esper Studio, HB Studio, CUNY Harlem, and 22 years at Yale School of Drama. Rick is a board member for Red Bull Theater. They run Sordelet INK with author David Blixt, an e-publishing company for the emerging writer. Visit www.SordeletInk.com for more. Also www.sordeletinc. Follow on IG @Sordeletinc Dom Ruggiero (Production Stage Manager) Broadway: The Gathering (Hal Linden), Borscht Belt on Broadway. LORT/regional: The Royale, Cabaret, The Legend of Georgia McBride, My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend, Women In Jeopardy, Man of La Mancha, Mame, Drowsy Chaperone, Beauty and The Beast, Always Patsy Cline, Funny Girl. Tours: The Lion, Cole Porter Songbook (Melba Moore), Irving Berlin Songbook (Carole Lawrence,) Greetings! Shalom Aleichem Lives (Judy Kaye, Bruce Adler, Theo Bikel,) Ain’t Misbehavin’, Phantom (Yrdton/Kopit), Anything Goes, Shenandoah, Song and Dance, West Side Story among many others.
About the Creatives
Dom is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers for 40-plus years. He has stage managed productions both nationally and internationally and at many LORT Theatres: The Old Globe, A.C.T (San Francisco,) Milwaukee Rep, Geva Theatre, Long Wharf Rep, Arizona Theatre Company, Geffen Playhouse, City Theatre (Pittsburgh,) Merrimack Rep, and Arena Stage (Washington D.C.) Thanks to Gulfshore Playhouse for the opportunity to work at your magnificent new theatre space.
Michael Cassara (Casting Director) casts theatre and film in New York City and is thrilled to return to Gulfshore Playhouse for a 17th season, having cast over 70 productions here since 2009. Recent credits include American Eclipse (Michael John LaChiusa, dir. Bill Rauch), An American In Paris (Int’l Tour, dir Christopher Wheeldon), Spamilton (NYC/Chicago/Pittsburgh CLO/tour), Forbidden Broadway (last five editions/albums), and over 750 plays and musicals since 2003. Regional credits include Weston Theater Company, Argyle Theatre, Hangar Theatre, Ogunquit Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Denver Center, Asolo Rep, and many more. Resident Casting Director for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) since 2013. Michael is a native Clevelander and serves on the BFA faculty at Wright State University. Member, Casting Society of America (CSA). BFA, Otterbein University. MichaelCassara.net @michaelcassara
Joel Markus (COO & Managing Director) is thrilled to be in his eighth season as Gulfshore Playhouse’s COO & Managing Director. Joel enjoys working side by side with Kristen to produce Broadway caliber theatre while focusing on cultivating a great staff and culture. In his time at Gulfshore Playhouse, Joel has helped grow and quadruple the theatre’s budget, triple the staff, has co-managed the design and construction of the new $72M Baker Theatre and Education Center, the production shop construction project, has been instrumental in joining LORT (most recently, being on the negotiating committee for LORT and Actors’ Equity Association), and navigated and guided the organization through the pandemic and Hurricane Ian. Joel’s thirty year career has taken him to some of our nation’s leading professional regional theatres. He most recently spent seven seasons at America’s oldest theatre, Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. Joel has played integral roles in the production of hundreds of plays over ten seasons at the Indiana Repertory Theatre, four years at Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY, five summers at the Weston Playhouse in Vermont, American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts. Joel is a graduate of Indiana University and originally from Miami, Florida.
STANDING OVATION SOCIETY MEMBERS
Mary & Phil Beuth
Kristen Coury
Tom & Nancy Gallagher
Elizabeth & Jim Jessee
Glenda & Rich Struthers
Ms. Patricia Sweet & Mr. Bill Marsh
Jane & Dave Wilson
Benefits of Joining:
• Annual recognition in the Gulfshore Playhouse playbill
• Invitation to periodic events honoring members of the Standing Ovation Society
• Invitation to other Gulfshore Playhouse special events
We understand that the choice to designate a planned gift is a deeply precious and personal one, and we thank you for your consideration. When you become a member of the Standing Ovation Society, you are joining an ensemble of thoughtful and imaginative visionaries who believe, as you do, in the transformative power of world-class professional theatre and educational opportunities in our region. Your gift will touch the lives of all who walk through our doors and ensure our ability to carry out our mission.
By including Gulfshore Playhouse in your estate plan, you are supporting Gulfshore Playhouse’s long-term fiscal stability and leaving a lasting legacy that will allow us to create, engage, and inspire for many years to come�
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO NOTIFY US OF YOUR INTENT OR DISCUSS YOUR OPTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT LISA HALSEY AT 239.261.7529 EXT 203. OR LHALSEY@GULFSHOREPLAYHOUSE.ORG
Sarah Bowden and Josh Canfield in the Gulfshore Playhouse production of Anything Goes.
Photo by Matthew Schipper.
How Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Became a Classic
By Audrey Zielenbach, Dramaturg
Generally speaking, a “classic” work is something that withstands the test of time. I think it’s safe to say that since Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is still making the rounds on stages 62 years after it first premiered on Broadway with no signs of slowing down, it has earned its place within the canon of American classics. Like all great works of theatre, Virginia Woolf is both a product of its time and a story for all times. There’s something intoxicating about it, which makes sense given how much booze is consumed by the play’s four characters over the course of the play. Here are some reasons why I believe Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a classic:
1� The Title
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a phrase that sticks. It’s intriguing and evocative. Edward Albee thought so, too. He saw it scrawled on a mirror in a Greenwich Village bar in 1952, and it resurfaced in his memory eight years later when he was writing a play he was calling ‘The Exorcism.’ He intended to use the phrase as a line of dialogue, but soon it graduated to the play’s subtitle before ultimately becoming its title. ‘The Exorcism’ became the name of the play’s third act, following ‘Fun and Games’ and ‘Walpurgisnacht.’
The title brings to mind the 1933 song ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?’ from the Disney cartoon Three Little Pigs (you might observe a recurring theme of nursery rhymes). Also, the author Virginia Woolf, who, like Albee, was part of the modernist movement: art that reflected a sense of disillusionment with the foundations of Western society and culture. Though the play itself has almost nothing to do with Virginia Woolf herself, Albee did request and receive permission from her widow, George, to use her name.
2� A Succès de Scandale on Broadway
Albee, who came of age as a writer and as a gay man in 1950s Greenwich Village among a disproportionate share of mid-century America’s most significant artists, harbored a healthy disdain for mainstream society and the kind of art that was accepted within it. His first play, The Zoo Story, earned him a place in the Theatre of the Absurd alongside writers like Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. Upon first hearing this, Albee was offended, thinking the term applied to “theatre uptown,” otherwise known as Broadway.
What Theatre of the Absurd actually means is exactly what Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? did when it first premiered on Broadway in October 1962: “disrupted the comfortable certainties and orthodoxies of mainstream society, shocking the audience out of a delirium of normalcy and waking them up to the harsher realities of the human condition.”
Albee and the producers knew the play was a gamble and had no idea how it would be received. The opening night audience laughed, gasped, and applauded, but initial reviews were less than stellar.
The Mirror called it “A SICK PLAY ABOUT SICK PEOPLE.”
But scandal often sells tickets. They even used bad reviews to their advantage, using headlines like “FOR DIRTY MINDED FEMALES ONLY”
to offer special discounts to secretaries. But it was Walter Kerr’s review that best predicted the play’s future.
“IT NEED NOT BE LIKED, BUT IT MUST BE SEEN.”
The Broadway production sold out every one of its 644 performances. It won the 1963 Tony Award® for Best Play, but that same year, the Pulitzer Board of Trustees announced there would be no prize for Drama awarded that year - an intentional snub. Many plainly stated they found it obscene and would compromise the integrity of the prize. This dismissal likely contributed to the play’s long life by turning it into something dangerous and salacious.
Dramaturgical Notes
3� Historical Context
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’s success exposed a chasm in American cultural life. It was just the beginning of a decade in which many illusions about American society that had emerged in the post-war years were challenged and shattered by events like the Civil Rights movement, the Kennedy assassination, and the Vietnam War.
Popular culture reflected the post-war emphasis on the nuclear family with sanitized depictions of marriage in shows like I Love Lucy and Leave It to Beaver, movies like The Parent Trap and Pillow Talk, and even in the political sphere by the young, stylish, cosmopolitan Kennedys who represented the ideal American couple. Amongst so much disruption, these cartoonish displays felt increasingly out of touch with reality.
It’s almost shocking that Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? premiered just months before Betty Friedan’s watershed book The Feminine Mystique was published, when Martha so perfectly encapsulates
“THE PROBLEM THAT HAS NO NAME.”
The expectation that women become stay-at-home wives and mothers, legally, socially, and financially subordinate to their husbands, led to a feeling of discontentment and dissatisfaction. It’s widely considered a seminal work in the second-wave feminist movement that advanced women’s rights.
Times certainly were a’changing. In 1932, there were only three marriage counseling centers in the entire United States. By 1968, there were 1800 in California alone. California was also the first state to pass a no-fault divorce law in 1969.
All of this was ongoing during the Cold War. There are few overt references to the global events of the day, giving the play a timeless quality, but you can feel the tension they created on every page. Albee later stated Nick (whose name is never spoken out loud) was named after Nikita Kruschev, the leader of the USSR at the time. The Cuban Missile Crisis began just three days after the play opened.
In the face of uncertainty, many clung to their illusions, believing that “everything will be fine,” but it was getting difficult to pretend it would be. In many ways
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? captured - or perhaps portended - the anxieties of the era.
4� The Film
Many of us may be familiar with the story because of the 1966 film adaptation starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and directed by Mike Nichols. The film was nominated for 13 Academy Awards, winning five. Funnily enough, Richard Burton was among the actors offered the role of George in the original Broadway production, having just come off a successful run in Camelot, but he had to decline because he was set to star in Cleopatra with his future wife and co-star, Elizabeth Taylor.
It was believed that the play could never be filmed in its existing form because its coarse, provocative, and often sexual dialogue violated the Hays Code, the standard moral guidelines for films in place since 1934. But like everything else in America, the Hollywood landscape was changing in the 1960s. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman refused to omit the code-violating dialogue, and Woolf divided the Production Code Association board. Ultimately, the word “screw” was removed from the film, but other language remained. The Code was clearly going out of style, and in its place, a more liberal rating system emerged. Woolf was the first film featuring the “Suggested for Mature Audiences” rating. Two years later, the MPAA film rating system, which is still used today, was officially introduced.
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Lighting Supervisor .................................. Elizabeth Knudson
Assistant Lighting Supervisor ............................. Lynn Slutsky
Lighting Technicians ...................... Jaden O’Berry, Ray Ward
SOUND
Sound Supervisor .................................................. Owen True
Assistant Sound Supervisor ............................... Max Heyliger
Sound Technicians .................. Emily Parker, Kaleb Pecoraro
COSTUMES
Costume Shop Manager ............................. Jennifer Bronsted
Assistant Costume Shop Manager ................ Elizabeth Eaton
Drapers .......................................... Lana Grant, Sarah Greene
First Hands .................................... Edward Long, Mya Nunez
Wardrobe Supervisor ................................... Marissa Mascolo
Assistant Wardrobe Supervisor ..................... Emma Madden
Wig & Makeup Supervisor ............................... Rebecca Mack
Assistant Wig & Makeup Supervisor .................. Joan Harlow
Costume Technicians ..... Suvonna Bynum, Gabby DePrizio, Astrid Reed-Kennedy
STAGE MANAGEMENT
Stage Management Production Assistants ...... Dylan Gellett, Connor Reilly, Bailey Shea