Much Ado About Nothing - Program

Much Ado About Nothing

By William Shakespeare Ivan Fuller, director

–– Wednesday, October 18, 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, October 19, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, October 20, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, October 21, 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, October 22, 2 p.m.

The Spitz Theater Rider University 2083 Lawrenceville Road Lawrenceville, N.J.

Special thanks to Dr. Sean McCarther, Vickie Fuller, Buck Linton, Todd Loyd, Craig Pincus, Robin Shane, Yoshi Tanokura.

Setting On the Deck of Leonata’s ship, The Messina.

The Cast Conrade, follower of Don John Ursula, lady attending Hero

Kate Bilenko

Borachio, follower of Don John Friar Francis Understudy for Balthasar

Anne Olivia Cincotta

Margaret, lady attending Hero The Sexton

Kelly Chavez-Menjivar

Leonata, Captain of The Messina

Lydia Diekmann

Don John, bastard brother of Don Pedro Francis Seacole, member of the night watch Antonia, sister of Leonata Verges, assistant of Dogberry Understudy for Dogberry

Juliette Nero Eddings Rachel Favetta

Hero, daughter of Leonata Eugene Frostbite, member of the watch

Bella Frost

Beatrice, niece of Leonata

Emily Paruk

Claudio, a young pirate from Florence

Luke Studley Roberts

Balthasar, a musician on The Messina Dogberry, master constable on The Messina Understudy for Beatrice & Benedick

Ellee Jo Trowbridge

Benedick, First Mate of The Arragon

Brock Warren

Don Pedro, Captain of The Arragon

Mitchell Wiley

Understudy for Verges

Andy White

Artistic Staff and Crew Director Production Stage Manager

Ivan Fuller Haley Hartline

Assistant Director

Andy White

Choreographer

Kate Bilenko

Music Director

Mitchell Wiley

Technical Director

Buck Linton

Lighting Designer

Scarlett Liput

Scenic Designer

Avery Hubert

Costume Designer

Emily Porter Siegel

Intimacy Director

Dr. Sean McCarther

Stage Manager

Brandon Semmel

Assistant Stage Manager

Elizabeth Holzworth

Assistant Stage Manager

ZuZu Long

Lighting Supervisor

Todd Loyd

Scenic Design Supervisor Costume Supervisor Assistant Costume Designer Wardrobe Supervisor

Yoshinori Tanokura Robin I. Shane Joei Vita Catherine Quiricio

Wardrobe Runner

Jaiden Shaw

Light and Sound Board Operator

Sarah Hyman

Props Manager

Avery Hubert

Props Supervisor

Henry Breit

Administrative Staff Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Director of Production Management

Kelly Bidle Jason Vodicka Buck Linton

Director of Performance Management

Kristen Rodgers

Associate Director of Performance Management

Leandra Acosta

Coordinator of Performance Management

Samuel Stephenson

About the Cast KATE BILENKO, URSULA/CONRADE, is a junior Musical Theatre major. Previous Rider credits include: Kiss Me, Kate (Swing) Momentum (Assistant Choreographer) and Into The Spotlight: A Tribute To Stephen Sondheim (“Ah Paris!” Soloist). Recent professional credits include: Nunsense (Sister Robert Anne) with Revival Productions and Singer/Dancer for RWS Entertainment Group.

KELLY CHAVEZ-MENJIVAR, MARGARET, is a sophomore BFA Acting for Film, TV, and Theater major. This is her Rider performing main stage debut. Rider credits include: Romeo and Juliet (Lady Montague) with the Rider Student Theatre Company, Emily Porter Siegel's of bodies changed (Philomela), and Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical (Wardrobe Supervisor).

ANNE OLIVIA CINCOTTA, BORACHIO/FRIAR FRANCIS/U.S. BALTHASAR, is a Junior BFA Musical Theatre Major. Previous Rider credits include: Rebirth (ensemble soloist) and Into the Spotlight: A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim (ensemble), as well as Mythos Cabaret (Euridice) and Puffs (Moaning Myrtle, Seamus Finnigan, Rowena Ravenclaw) with the Rider Student Theatre Company.

LYDIA DIEKMANN, LEONATA, is a junior musical theatre major. Rider credits include: LAST WORDS, Rebirth, Into the Spotlight: A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim, Swingin’ the Seasons (Rider Student Theater Company). Professional credits include: Noises Off (Belinda), Cabaret (Fraulein Kost/Kit Kat Girl), Beauty and the Beast (Silly Girl/Belle u/s), Footloose (Ethel McCormick), The Great Gatsby (Ensemble) at Woodstock Playhouse, Austen’s Pride (Elizabeth Bennet) at CenterStage Theatre.

JULIETTE NERO EDDINGS, DON JOHN/FRANCIS SEACOLE, is a senior Acting major. Rider credits include: The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong (Chris/Inspector Carter,) Love and Information (Ensemble), Everybody (Kinship/Strength,) The Ungodly Hour (Multiple Voices). Professional credits: Like Father, Like Son (Leah).

RACHEL FAVETTA, ANTONIA/U.S. DOGBERRY, is a senior Acting Major with a minor in Film Media Studies. Rider credits include: Rider New Works and Love and Information.

BELLA FROST, HERO/EUGENE FROSTBITE, is a junior BFA Acting for Film, Television, and Theatre major. Previous Rider credits include: Urinetown (Little Becky Two-Shoes), of bodies changed (Eurydice), and Puffs (Ernie Mac Track). Additional credits include: Broadway San Diego Awards 2021(finalist) and SHINE! A bright new musical adventure with Jason Mraz and friends (Bella/Chorus).

EMILY PARUK, BEATRICE, is a junior BFA Acting for Film, TV, and Theater major.

Rider credits include: The Children’s Hour (Leslie, u/s Martha), Emily Porter Siegel’s of

bodies changed (Thetis), The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong (Assistant Director).

Professional credits: Portland Theater Festival (Production Associate).

LUKE STUDLEY ROBERTS, COUNT CLAUDIO, is a sophomore BFA in Acting for Film, Television & Theatre major. Previous Rider Credits include: No Fear, Just Passion: The First- and Second-Year Acting Showcase. Previous Rider technical credits: The One-Act Play that Goes Wrong (Sound Assistant).

ELLEE JO TROWBRIDGE, BALTHASAR/U.S. BEATRICE/U.S. BENEDICK (she/her), is a Junior BA Musical Theater and Technical Theater double major making her Rider mainstage debut. Previous Rider credits include: Pippin (Assistant Stage Manager), ISM Cabaret (Stage Manager), Danny Feldman's Hide and Seek (Stage Manager), Rebirth (Featured Performer), Into the Spotlight: A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim (Featured Performer), RSTC: Magic To Do Cabaret (Featured Soloist), Love and Information (Production Stage Manager).

BROCK WARREN, BENEDICK, is a Sophomore BFA for Acting in Film, TV, and Theatre major. Rider credits include: No Fear, Just Passion: The First- and Second-Year Acting Showcase (Ensemble) and of bodies changed (Achilles, Tereus, Zeus).

MITCHELL WILEY, DON PEDRO (he/him), is a junior musical theatre major. Rider credits include: Kiss Me, Kate. Upcoming credits include: he world premiere of his show Teddy, Phoebe, and the Visionary – World Premiere (playwright).

About the Artistic & Administrative Staff and Crew LEANDRA ACOSTA, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT (she/her), is a graduate of Rider University with degrees in dance performance and arts administration. During her time performing at Rider, she was awarded both the Dance Merit Scholarship and Mildred S. Hawkins Dance Scholarship and helped adopt the Dance Mentorship Program. She is grateful to have had the opportunity to work with so many fantastic choreographers during her time performing at Rider including: Kate Ladenheim, Randy James, Angela Cusumano, Merli Guerra, Jennifer Gladney, Robson Alves, Lynn Neuman, and Ryan Davis. She was recently featured as a choreographer for the 2023 Senior Dance Capstone performance, Acknowledgements. In her role as Associate Director, Leandra creates programs for and manages the social media pages for the Department of Performing Arts and Westminster Choir College.

IVAN FULLER, DIRECTOR, serves as professor of theatre in the Performing Arts Department. Dr. Fuller was professor of theatre and chair of the Performing & Visual Arts Department at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD, from 1989 to 2011. For fifteen years he was the founder and artistic director of the Bare Bodkins Theatre

Company producing Shakespeare in Sioux Falls. Over the past 30 years, he has directed 75 productions. He has been to Russia eight times, leading students on study-abroad trips or writing. His play, Eating into the Fabric, was chosen for the Mainstage Reading Series at the Great Plans Theatre Conference in May 2009 where it was awarded a Holland New Voices Award for Outstanding Play. It was also a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwriting Conference. In July 2009 he served as playwrightin-residence for Summer Literary Seminars in Vilnius, Lithuania where he completed the first draft of Awake in Me. In 2010 & 2012, he returned to St. Petersburg, Russia, where he completed the play, In Every Note which had its debut at Rider in 2019. In 2016 & 2017 he spent time in Rwanda where he wrote and then presented his play, Deceived by Silence. And in 2019 he was back in Russia to finish his adaptation of the best-selling novel, Madonnas of Leningrad.

HALEY HARTLINE, PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER (she/they), is a senior majoring in BFA Acting for Film, TV, & Theatre with a minor in Design and Technology for Theatre. Professional credits include: New Jersey Renaissance Faire 2023 (Sir Balin).

Rider performance credits include: Love and Information (Ensemble), Magic to Do Cabaret with the Rider Student Theater Company, and The Cherry Orchard. Technical credits include: Ballymore (Wardrobe Supervisor), Puffs (Light Board Operator) with the Rider Student Theater Company, Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret (Spot Operator), The Children’s Hour (Assistant Stage Manager), and Kiss Me, Kate (Stage Manager).

LIZZIE HOLZWORTH, ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER, is a freshman BFA Acting for Film, Television and Theatre major. This is her first stage management team role.

AVERY HUBERT, SCENIC DESIGNER, is a Junior BA in Contemporary Theatre Practice and Tech and Design major. Previous Rider credits include: Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical (Light Board Operator) and LAST WORDS (Assistant Stage Manager).

BUCK LINTON, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT/TECHNICAL DIRECTOR. Earning his MFA in Scenography and Technical Design (Virginia Tech), Buck joined Rider University as its Technical Director in 2012 and became the Director of Production Management in 2022. He professionally produced more than 200 productions with such venues as The Kennedy Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse and McCarter Theatre. Selected works include Travesties, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Take Flight, Herringbone, Lookingglass Alice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Falstaff, Die Zauberflöte, Pelléas et Mélisande, Dialogues des Carmélites, La Clemenza di Tito, Oreste, Sunjata Kamalenya, The Odyssey Experience, Die Fledermaus, Rigoletto, Turandot, Chicago, EDDA (Ping Chong & Sequentia Ensemble, international tour). Since 2012, he has produced more than 100 productions for Rider University’s College of Arts and Sciences in the performing arts.

SCARLETT LIPUT, LIGHTING DESIGNER, is an aspiring Lighting Designer and senior at Rider. Previous credits include: Rider New Works 2022 (Lighting Designer) and Urinetown (Light Board Operator) at Rider University, and Rent (Light Board Operator) at Centenary University.

ZUZU LONG, ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER (she/her), is a freshman theatre design and technology major. Previous credits include: Wherever you go, there you are (assistant stage manager) with the Rider Student Theater Company. This is her first Rider mainstage production.

TODD LOYD, LIGHTING SUPERVISOR, is the lighting director for Rider University’s Department of Performing Arts. He supervises the lighting for every performance that the department produces in addition to mentoring several students that assist in designing, hanging, focusing, and programming the lighting for each show. At Rider he has designed over 30 productions including plays, musicals, dance recitals, cabarets, and operas. Some of the highlights include Kiss Me, Kate, Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical, The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong, Urinetown, Cabaret, Polaroid Stories, Rider Dances: Moving in Our Community, Pippin, Bright Star, Hair, Heathers The Musical, The Theory of Relativity, Once On This Island, She Kills Monsters, Our Town, A Chorus Line and Metamorphoses. Other selected professional projects include Rock of Ages and Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery at Forestburgh Playhouse, Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical and The Gun Show at Passage Theatre, and Journey to Oz with the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte and Experiential Theater Company.

EMILY PORTER SIEGEL, COSTUME DESIGNER (they/them), is a junior BFA Acting and English Literature double major. Professional credits include: Shipwrecked!

(Stitcher) with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, New Jersey Renaissance Faire 2023 (Sir Balan). Educational Credits include: As You Like It (Costume Designer, STNJ Summer Professional Training Program Final Project). Rider Credits include: of bodies changed (Director, Devisor, Costume Designer, self-produced), Rider Dances ‘23: Expanding Communities (Assistant Costume Designer), Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical (Assistant Costume Designer), The Lonely Hearts Club Cabaret (Costume Designer) with the Rider Student Theater Company, The Children’s Hour (Stage Manager), Urinetown (Assistant Costume Designer), Rider New Works ‘22 (Stage Manager/Costume Designer), Pete(her) Pan (Stagehand), Hänsel und Gretel (Assistant Stage Manager), and Pippin (Assistant Stage Manager) BRANDON SEMMEL, STAGE MANAGER, is a sophomore BFA Acting for Film, Television and Theatre major. Rider Credits include: Kiss Me, Kate (Lead Stagehand), The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong (Props Runner), No Fear, Just Passion: The First- and SecondYear Acting Showcase (Ensemble), and Puffs (Wayne Hopkins).

ROBIN I. SHANE, COSTUME SUPERVISOR, is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Rider University. Favorite designs at Rider include: Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical,

The Children’s Hour, Cabaret, Polaroid Stories, Pippin, and many Rider Dance concerts.

Recent professional credits include The Pillowman and In The Next Room, or, The Vibrator Play at the Hedgerow Theatre in Media, PA and Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical and OK Trenton at the Passage Theatre in Trenton, NJ. Robin has been a professional costume designer for almost 30 years and she has designed costumes regionally and nationally at such varied theatre as The New Victory Theatre, Berkeley Rep, The Yale Rep, The Hedgerow, Theatre Exile, Philadelphia Artist’s Collective, EgoPo, Passage Theater, Shakespeare Theater of NJ, The National Constitution Center, The Revision Theater, the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theater, Soho Rep and The Harrisburg Opera, as well as for film and television. Robin holds an MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and a BA in Theater and Psychology from Wesleyan University.

SAMUEL STEPHENSON, COORDINATOR OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT (he/him/his), received his Bachelor of Arts degrees in English Literature and Music from Wabash College, graduating magna cum laude under a full-ride Lilly Scholarship.

As a Joseph Flummerfelt Scholar, he received his Master of Music in Choral Conducting with distinction from Westminster Choir College. Samuel has performed with many choirs across the world. He toured with the Wabash College Glee Club internationally to Taiwan and organized and managed the renowned Choral Institute at Oxford, a summer program at the University of Oxford for inspiring conductors to work with leading figures in the choral world. He has performed with The Same Stream, whose recordings can be found on all major music services, and at the Weiwuying National Center for the Arts as part of the opera chorus for Verdi’s La Traviata. Most recently, Samuel conducted Morten Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs with the Westminster Choir in concert at Washington D.C. He currently works as the Performance Management Coordinator at Rider University and Music Director at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church in Warminster, PA. YOSHINORI TANOKURA, SCENIC DESIGN SUPERVISOR, originally from Tokyo, is currently teaching scenic design at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ. Yoshi holds a M.A. in Scenography from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London and an M.F.A. in Set Design from the University of Connecticut. As a freelance designer, his design credits include Moon Over Buffalo at the People’s Light and Theatre, Clever Little Lies by Joe DiPietro at Westside Theatre, NYC, Exonerated with the Delaware Theatre Company, and Peter and the Starcatcher at the Adrienne Arsht Center.

Yoshi assisted John Lee Beatty on a number of Broadway productions, such as Venus in Fur, Doubt, and The Color Purple. Yoshi is a member of the United Scenic Artists, Local 829.

ANDY WHITE, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, is a senior Contemporary Theatre Practice major. Previous Rider credits include: Urinetown (props runner), Puffs (Production Stage Manager), and of bodies changed (Patroclus and Orpheus).

About Rider University and The Department of Performing Arts Located in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, Rider University is a private co-educational, student-centered university that emphasizes purposeful connections between academic study and real-world learning experience. Rider prepares graduates to thrive professionally, to be lifelong independent learners, and to be responsible citizens who embrace diversity, support the common good, and contribute meaningfully to the changing world in which they live and work.

The College of Arts and Sciences is dedicated to educating students for engaged citizenship, career success, and personal growth in a diverse and complex world. The college cultivates intellectual reflection, artistic creativity, and academic maturity by promoting both broad academic inquiry and in-depth disciplinary study, while nurturing effective and ethical applications of transferable critical skills. The College consists of four schools: the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the School of Communication, Media, and Performing Arts, the School of Science, Technology, and Mathematics, and Westminster Choir College.

Through its dynamic mix of academic programs, The Department of Performing Arts helps aspiring professional performers, producers, managers, designers, technicians and entrepreneurs find their unique path in an ever-evolving industry. Acknowledged as innovative and contemporary, the Department of Performing Arts aspires to build a more equitable, engaging and sustainable future for the performing arts while exploring the many diverse historical, cultural, social and creative threads that add to our rich tapestry.

Upcoming Performances WESTMINSTER CHAPEL CHOIR & JUBILEE SINGERS HOMECOMING CONCERT Saturday, October 28, 7:30 p.m.

Rider University – Gill Chapel ENTRE’ACTE: COME TOGETHER Saturday, October 28, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, October 29, 2 p.m.

Rider University – Bart Luedeke Center Theater NEW MUSIC CONCERT SERIES Sunday, November 5, 3 p.m.

Rider University – Gill Chapel WESTMINSTER CHOIR: MUSIC OF AWE & WONDER Sunday, November 5, 7:30 p.m.

Gill Chapel FALL STUDENT DANCE CONCERT Friday, November 10, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, November 11, 7:30 p.m.

Rider University – Bart Luedeke Center Theater MOZART REQUIEM: WESTMINSTER SYMPHONIC CHOIR & PRINCETON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Saturday, November 11, 8 p.m.

Sunday, November 12, 4 p.m.

Princeton University – Richardson Auditorium FALL OPERA: SUOR ANGELICA & HERMIT SONGS Friday, November 17, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, November 18, 7:30 p.m.

Rider University – Yvonne Theater

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON UPCOMING PERFORMANCES, SUBSCRIPTIONS, AND PATRON OPTIONS VISIT RIDER.EDU/ARTS.