A Doll’s House
By Henrik IbsenNew adaptation by
Kirsten Brandtand Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey Mark Wade, director
Friday, March 22, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 23, 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 24, 2 p.m.
The Yvonne Theater
Rider University 2083 Lawrenceville Road Lawrenceville, N.J.
Rider University gratefully acknowledges the generous support of: The Martinson Family Foundation for its support of theater technology equipment; & Michael T. '89 and Susana Santaguida '89 Gummel for their support of our new Rider Friend of the Arts patron program.
Special thanks
Dr. Sean McCarther, Intimacy Coach
• • •
Director’s Note
I would like to thank my understudies, assistant directors, and my production team.
Understudying is at best a thankless job, especially with a run as short as ours is. These understudies have actually been integral to the process of developing this production. I thank them for the hard work and energy they have given.
Bella Frost, Lane Radeke, and Bianca D’anton
The title assistant director can mean many things, more often than not it is an opportunity to be in the rehearsal process and learn through osmosis. Given the restraints of the rehearsal schedule, it is often difficult to find ways to fully utilize the talents of these people. I hope this experience has been as helpful to them as they were to me in the process.
Alicia Bartosik, Meredith Bishop, and Avery Nurzia
– Mark Wade
Act 1
SCENE 1
The Living Room
SCENE 1.2 Christmas Day INTERMISSION
Act 2
SCENE 2
SCENE 2.2
The Living Room
After the Party
The Cast
Helene Bianca D’Anton
Porter Lane Lavonne
Nora Helmer
Torvald Helmer
Haley Hartline
Sean McDonald
Mrs. Kristine Linde Liberty Ashe
Nils Krogstad Emily Porter Siegel
Dr. Rank Javier Santos
Anne-Marie Ava Hojnowski
Artistic Staff and Crew
Director Mark Wade
Choreographer Avery Nurzia
Production Stage Manager Melena Scott
Technical Director Buck Linton
Lighting Designer Todd Loyd
Scenic Designer Yoshinori Tanokura
Costume Designer Robin I. Shane
Props Designer Melody Marshall
Sound Designer Alyssa Gil-pujols
Sound Engineer Craig Pincus
Hair/Makeup Designer Maggie Coscia
Stage Manager Nicholas Franki
Intimacy Coach Dr. Sean McCarther
Production Documentarian Cole Russell
Production Documentarian Olivia Sauerberg
Assistant Director Alicia Bartosik
Assistant Director Avery Nurzia
Assistant Director Meridith Bishop
Assistant Scenic Designer Melena Scott
Assistant Costume Designer Charlotte Caldejon
Assistant Lighting Designer Dakota Patterson
Assistant Stage Manager Andy White
Assistant Stage Manager Julianna Belbol
Wardrobe Supervisor Skyler O’Kelley
Wardrobe Runner Chloé Le Breton
Wardrobe Runner Jadyn Kelly
Hair/Wig Designer/Supervisor Maggie Coscia
Makeup Designer/Supervisor Maggie Coscia
Hair/Makeup Runner Sadie Patton
Light Board Operator Angelie Rodriguez
Sound Operator Faith Stack
Props Supervisor
Props Runner
Administrative Staff
Jaden Misaro
Amelia Ferro
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Kelly Bidle
Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Jason Vodicka
Director of Production Management Buck Linton
Director of Performance Management Kristen Rodgers
Associate Director of Performance Management Leandra Acosta
Coordinator of Performance Management Samuel Stephenson
About the Cast
LIBERTY ASHE, MRS. KRISTINE LINDE, is a junior BFA Acting for Film, Television, and Theatre major. Rider credits include: Rider New Works 2022 (various roles).
JAVIER SANTOS, DR. RANK, is a senior BFA Acting for Film, TV and Theater and B.A. Film and TV double major. Rider performance credits include: Rider New Works ‘22 (Patrick), PUFFS (Cedrid/Mr. Voldy) and Romeo and Juliet (Benvolio).
BIANCA D’ANTON, HELENE, is a sophomore BFA Acting major and is making her Rider Mainstage debut in A Doll’s House.
BELLA FROST, NORA UNDERSTUDY, is a Junior Acting for T.V., Film, and Theater major. Rider credits include: Much Ado About Nothing (Hero, Watch 1), Urinetown (Little Becky Two Shoes), Of Bodies Changed (Eurydice). Additional credits include: A Christmas Carol (Belle), Broadway San Diego Awards 2021 (finalist), SHINE! A bright new musical adventure with Jason Mraz and friends (Bella/Chorus)
HALEY HARTLINE, NORA HELMER, is a senior Acting for Film, TV, and Theatre major with a minor in Design and Technology for Theatre. Professional credits include: New Jersey Renaissance Faire ‘23 (Sir Balin). Rider credits include: Love and Information, Sin of Man with the Rider Student Theatre Company, Desiderium: Remnants of Longing with META in Italy, Magic To Do Cabaret with the Rider Student Theatre Company, A Cherry Orchard, and an upcoming production of In A Grove with META in Italy. Technical Theatre Credits include: Much Ado About Nothing (Production Stage Manager), Kiss Me, Kate (Stage Manager), The Children’s Hour (Assistant Stage Manager), and Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret (Spot Op).
AVA HOJNOWSKI, ANNE-MARIE, is a sophomore BFA Acting for Film, Television and Theatre major and Arts and Entertainment Industries Management minor. This will be her first Rider mainstage performance
LANE LAVONNE, PORTER/MALE-IDENTIFYING COVER, is a junior Musical Theatre major. Rider credits include: Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Andrey Bolkonsky), Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical (Ensemble/Dion u/s). Recent professional credits include: The Prom (Emma) with Porthouse Theatre, Like Father, Like Son (Director)
SEAN MCDONALD, TORVALD HELMER, is a senior Acting and Theatre Design and Technology double major. Rider Acting credits include: The One-Act Play that Goes Wrong (Audience Man/Robert U/S) and Rider New Works Festival in “The King's Choice” (Alex) and “Counseling” (Dom). Most Recently, Sean completed his senior capstone project as the scenic designer for Radium Girls at Rider University.
EMILY PORTER SIEGEL, NILS KROGSTAD, (they/them) is a junior BFA Acting and English Literature double major Professional credits: New Jersey Renaissance Faire (Principal Cast, Sir Balan). Rider credits: of bodies changed (directed/devised, selfproduced), No Fear, Just Passion (Jaques/Cloten), Love and Information (Company Member), A Cherry Orchard (Charlotta) RSTC credits: Inside (the Spitz) Cabaret (Time), Sin of Man: the Story of Heinz Wolfgang Fritz (The Contact), Mythos (Eurydice).
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.
ALICIA BARTOSIK, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, is a senior BA in Musical Theatre major with a minor in Film & TV. Professional credits: See How They Run (Penelope Toop) and Oklahoma! (Gertie Cummings) at Prairie Repertory Theatre. Rider credits include:
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Helene), The Children’s Hour (Lily Mortar) and Love & Information.
JULIANNA BELBOL, ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER, (she/her) is a current freshman Musical Theatre major. This is her first Assistant Stage Manager role in a Rider mainstage production! Rider Student Theatre Company credits include: Our New World: A Green Cabaret for a Sustainable Future, The Minor Feelings of a Minor Character (Person 2), and Inside The Spitz Cabaret. Recent Professional Credits: Detox: The Art of Expression at Passage Theatre Company.
MEREDITH BISHOP, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, is a BFA Acting major and plans to graduate in December 2024. Her previous Rider mainstage credits include: The Children's Hour and Rider New Works 22' as well as several productions with Rider Student Theatre Company. Last summer, she was an acting apprentice with The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.
CHARLOTTE CALDEJON, ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER, is a sophomore BFA Musical Theatre major and an employee in Rider’s costume shop. She has recently designed for Rider Dances and has previously assistant costume designed for Kiss Me, Kate
MAGGIE COSCIA, MAKEUP & HAIR DESIGNER/SUPERVISOR, is a junior BFA
Acting for Film, Television, and Theatre major. Maggie has also been working as a Rider theatre technician as a scenic painter since her freshman year. Her other Rider mainstage technical credits include: Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Makeup Supervisor), Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret (Makeup & Hair Supervisor/Assistant Designer), and Hansel ünd Gretel (Makeup & Hair Runner).
NICHOLAS FRANKI, STAGE MANAGER, is a junior BFA Acting and BA Technical Theatre student. Rider credits include: Ballymore: Winners (Assistant Stage Manager), The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong (Props Supervisor), Pippin (Spotlight Operator), and Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret (Spotlight Operator). Rider Student Theatre Company credits include: Ride the Cyclone (Props Designer), Puffs (Props Designer).
ALYSSA GIL-PUJOLS, SOUND DESIGNER. This is Alyssa’s first Rider mainstage design credit.
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.
TODD LOYD, LIGHTING DESIGNER, 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.
MELODY MARSHALL, PROPS DESIGNER, is a Rider University alumnus and emerging theatre artist based in South Jersey. Her most recent work includes Props Design for Ghetto Gods of Divineland (Passage Theatre Company) and producing and directing Skerryvore: A Tale of Terror by Michael Punter in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival (2023). Melody is currently pursuing a dual degree MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English at Arcadia University.
AVERY NURZIA, CHOREOGRAPHER/ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, is a sophomore musical theatre major. This production is her first opportunity assistant directing and choreographing for a Rider mainstage production
DAKOTA PATTERSON, ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGNER, (she/they) is a senior Theatre Design and Technology major. Select Rider credits include: Suor Angelica & Hermit Songs (Stage Manager), The Prom (Assistant Lighting Designer), and Urinetown (Assistant Lighting Designer). Professional credits include: Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus! (Production Stage Manager), Escape to Margaritaville (Assistant Stage Manager), Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (Assistant Stage Manager), and A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline (Assistant Stage Manager). Upcoming credits include: Anything Goes (Production Stage Manager).
CRAIG PINCUS, SOUND ENGINEER, has worked in professional audio and system design for the past twenty-eight years. He has engineered audio for musical theater, television broadcast, and recording studio clientel. Craig holds a Bachelor’s degree in
communication from Rutgers University and teaches audio production at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, NJ. Craig also performs and records music, owns a sound & event production service, and directs TheatreCraft Musical Program, a children’s theater company, created with his wife Renee, producing theatrical performances in the central NJ area.
COLE RUSSELL, PRODUCTION DOCUMENTARIAN, (they/them) is a sophomore Musical Theatre major with a minor in Web Design. This is their first technical position on a Rider mainstage production.
BRANDON RUSH, ASSISTANT TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, Brandon Rush is excited to collaborate as artistic staff after a long relationship with the department as a carpenter. He has worked as carpentry staff intermittently with Rider since graduating in 2015 with a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Studies, and has since taken on the mantle of Sceneshop Supervisor for Rider’s Theatre Department. As a freelance Technical Director, his production credits at Luna Stage include: King of the Mountains, Indian Head, and Tranquil.
MELENA SCOTT, PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER/ASSISTANT SCENIC DESIGNER, is a sophomore Theater Design and technology major. Rider technical credits include: The Great Comet of 1812 (Stage Manager), The Prom (Assistant Stage Manager), Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical (Assistant Stage Manager), Urinetown (Assistant Stage Manager). Recent Professional credits include: Detox: The Art of Expression (Production Stage Manager) at Passage Theatre Company.
ROBIN I. SHANE, COSTUME DESIGNER, 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 DESIGNER, 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.
MARK WADE, DIRECTOR, is thrilled to be returning to Rider University. Mark is a graduate of The Yale School of Drama in Acting and The Neighborhood Playhouse (where he studied with Sanford Meisner). Acting and directing credits include work for The Westport Country Playhouse, The Long Wharf Theater, and Trinity Repertory Theater. He spent five years as a creative consultant for Joanne Woodward, produced with her two television movies for the “Hallmark Hall of Fame.” Mark served as assistant director to Lloyd Richards on the Hallmark Hall of Fame’s television adaptation of The Piano Lesson by August Wilson.
Mark has directed numerous productions in his 30+ years of teaching undergraduates including: A Children’s Hour at Rider University, Home (a regional finalist and recipient of multiple awards including Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Ensemble Acting by the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival), The Swing of the Sea (a world premiere written by Molly Hagan, an invited production to the KCACTF’s regional festival and winner of the Harold and Mimi Steinberg National Playwriting Award and now published by Samuel French).
He is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Bronze Medallion for Excellence in Educational Theater. Mark is currently teaching at The University of the Arts, spent 18 years as the head of the theater program at Arcadia University and 10 years at Wesleyan University. Mark is featured in Ethan Hawkes 6-part documentary about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward The Last Movie Stars streaming on HBO Max.
ANDY WHITE, ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER, (they/them) is a senior Contemporary Theatre Practice major with a focus in directing. Previous Rider credits include: Much Ado About Nothing (Assistant Director), and Urinetown (Props Runner). Rider Student Theatre Company credits include: Puffs (Production Stage Manager), Of Bodies Changed (Orpheus/Patroclus), and Inside: A Bo Burnham Cabaret (The Internet). They are also an intern at Passage Theatre Company.
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
ENEMIES, A LOVE STORY
Saturday, April 6, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 7, 2:30 p.m.
Bart Luedeke Center Theater
NEW MUSIC CONCERT SERIES
Sunday, April 7, 3 p.m.
Gill Chapel
WESTMINSTER CHOIR JOINS NEW ENGLAND SYMPHONIC ENSEMBLE AT CARNEGIE HALL
FEATURING JAMES WHITBOURN REQUIEM (WORLD PREMIERE) & ELAINE HAGENBERG'S ILLUMINARE
Saturday, April 13, 1 p.m.
Carnegie Hall
881 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019
ANYTHING GOES
Friday, April 19, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 20, 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 21, 2 p.m.
Yvonne Theater
UNIVERSITY CHORALE SPRING CONCERT
Friday, April 19, 7:00 p.m.
Gill Chapel
WESTMINSTER CONCERT BELL CHOIR: A TIME TO DANCE
Saturday, April 20, 4 p.m.
Gill Chapel
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON UPCOMING PERFORMANCES, SUBSCRIPTIONS, AND PATRON OPTIONS VISIT RIDER.EDU/ARTS.
