2020 August Wilson's Radio Golf Playbill

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ABOUT US

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LEADERSHIP

John Dias Artistic Director

Michael Hurst Managing Director Robert M. Rechnitz Joan H. Rechnitz Founders

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Anne Luzzatto President Kathleen Ellis Vice President Hon. Edward J. McKenna, Jr. Treasurer Susan Olson Secretary Stephen Becker Marilyn Broege Amanda Butterbaugh Carolyn Cushman DeSena Gale Grossman Todd Herman Caroline Huber Mary Jane Kroon Nyire Melconian Adam Rechnitz Joan H. Rechnitz Geoffrey Sadwith Maureen Silliman Mary Carol Stunkel Webster Trammell Richard B. Worley Howard P. Aronson Kathryne Singleton Emeritus Board Members

ARTIST ADVISORY BOARD May Adrales Barbara Andres Brandon J. Dirden Joel Grey Lisa Kron Martin Moran Brenda Pressley Ruben Santiago-Hudson Tanya Saracho Maureen Silliman Leigh Silverman Jennifer Tipton

Two River Theater produces a theatrical season that includes American and world classics, new plays and musicals, programs for young people, and festivals of new work. Each year, we also offer 40+ events that reflect our diverse community of Red Bank, New Jersey. Staying true to our founding principles, we bring a fresh eye to American and world classics, and we have commissioned and premiered original projects including Be More Chill

by Tony Award nominee Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz (the theater’s first Broadway production) and Hurricane Diane by Playwright-in-Residence Madeleine George (which won an Obie Award for its Off-Broadway run). Two River serves thousands of students and community members through arts and humanities programs at the theater, in schools, and throughout our region. Each season, we host numerous artist residencies, workshops and readings, and present an annual Cabaret of New Songs for the Musical Theater in association with NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program. Two River’s three-story Center for New Work, Education and Design is now open. Two River Theater is led by Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst. tworivertheater.org

5 Title Page

7 Patron Services 9 A Note from the Managing Director, Michael Hurst 11 Cast of Characters 15 Bios 22 Our New Building and Plaza Come to Life 24 August Wilson's Changing Hill 29 Leadership Bios 30 Production Spotlight: Karen Perry 33 Coming Soon: The Hombres 34 A Decade, A Century: Two River Theater is a Home for Playwrights 37 Local Spotlight: T. Thomas Fortune Foundation and Cultural Center 39 Education Spotlight: Intensives Program 40 Individual Donors 43 Institutional Support 45 Meet Our Staff 46 Scene at Two River

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H A C K E N S A C K U N I V ER S I T Y M E D I C A L C E N T ER / J ER S E Y S H O R E U N I V ER S I T Y M E D I C A L C E N T ER R I V ER V I E W M E D I C A L C E N T ER / O C E A N M E D I C A L C E N T ER

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12/23/19 9:16 AM

AUGUST WILSON’S

RADIO GOLF

John Dias Artistic Director Michael Hurst Managing Director Robert M. Rechnitz Joan H. Rechnitz Founders

With Wayne DeHart* Carl Hendrick Louis*

Amber Iman* Robbie Williams

Nathan James*

SCENIC DESIGNER.......................................................................................Edward E. Haynes Jr. COSTUME DESIGNER ...............................................................................Karen Perry LIGHTING DESIGNER ................................................................................Driscoll Otto SOUND DESIGNER .......................................................................................Kay Richardson HAIR & WIG DESIGNER............................................................................Erin Hicks CASTING .................................................................................................................Heidi Griffiths & Kate Murray PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER ................................................Megan Smith*

Directed by Brandon J. Dirden

OPENING NIGHT: MARCH 6, 2020 JOAN AND ROBERT RECHNITZ THEATER August Wilson’s Radio Golf is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc., a Concord Theatricals Company.

Originally Produced on Broadway by Jujamcyn Theaters Margo Lion, Jeffrey Richards/Jerry Frankel, Tamara Tunie/Wendell Pierce, Fran Kirmser, Bunting Management Group, Georgia Frontiere/Open Pictures, Lauren Doll/Steven Greil & The AW Group, Wonder City, Inc./Townsend Teague in association with Jack Viertel and Gordon Davidson First produced in New Haven, CT in April 2005 by Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director)

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Two River Theater is supported in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/ Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

* Members of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

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12:1

STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO

170

One of the “25 Most Beautiful College Campuses in the World ” —buzzfeed.com

ACRE CAMPUS

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DIVISION I ATHLETIC TEAMS

97

PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS WHO RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID

BEST

monmouth.edu

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PATRON SERVICES Thank you for joining us at this performance.

Two River Theater is dedicated to making your experience the best that it can possibly be. Please note the following offerings and requests to better enhance your time at the theater: BEFORE PLAY Join us 45 minutes prior to every performance in the Two River lobby for a pre-show talk, which will give you valuable insight into the play you are about to see. Talks last 10–15 minutes and are led by a member of the company or Two River’s Artistic Department.

JOIN US FOR A DELICIOUS PRE-SHOW MEAL and positively impact your community.

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POST-PLAY DISCUSSIONS Post-play discussions are scheduled following select performances of every subscription series production. During these discussions, audiences are invited to share their questions and responses to the work on stage with members of the cast and staff of the theater. Post-play discussion dates for the current season can be found in our season brochure or on our website.

207 Monmouth Street Red Bank, NJ 07701 732.842.0900 info@jbjsoulkitchen.org www.JBJSOULKITCHEN.org

INSIDE TWO RIVER EVENTS A series of mostly FREE arts and humanities events specially curated for each of our productions. Events include film screenings, book club, poetry readings, crafting nights, lectures, social events with our artists and more! To make sure you are the first to hear about these events sign up for our email list, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and stay tuned to our website!

Box Office Hours: Monday and Tuesday 12-6pm, Wednesday through Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday from 12-5pm and starting one hour prior to all performances.

CONCESSIONS Coffee, tea, water, soda, candy and snacks are available at the concessions stand in the lobby. Only water will be permitted into the theater during performances.

COURTESY Please limit food and drink, taking photographs and cell phone usage in our lobby or outside the theater. Late seating will occur at the discretion of Management.

VIRTUAL TOUR & ACCESS Two River Theater is committed to making theater accessible to all. If you would like to view our space in detail, in advance of your visit, a virtual tour is available on our website, tworivertheater.org/accessibility.

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A NOTE FROM THE

MANAGING DIRECTOR MICHAEL HURST Dear Friends, Those of you who regularly attend productions at Two River Theater know that, each season, I use this space to take our audiences behind the scenes of our work. This year, I am writing about the “state of the theater” with a great deal of excitement.

Two years ago, we announced our plan to build an addition to our existing theater that would provide much-needed space to support our ambitious activities and operational needs. Today, we are proud that our Center for New Work, Education and Design is fully operational. Radio Golf will be remembered here not only as our sixth production from August Wilson’s American Century Cycle, but the very first show to rehearse in the building’s studios. The Center—which also includes artist labs, classrooms, expanded shops and centrally located offices—will allow us to better serve our community through increased public programs. If you haven’t yet had the chance to experience one of our Inside Two River events in the new space, we look forward to sharing it with you throughout this season. To date 75 parking spaces have also been made available to patrons. In the Spring of 2020, full parking will resume and include over 100 free on-site parking spots. (To read more about the Center, see pages 22-23 of this program.)

We are also pleased to add more beautification to the west side of Red Bank through the renovation of the plaza in front of the theater’s lobby entrance. What was once a concrete slab is being transformed with beautiful foliage, benches, tables and chairs, better lighting, a bike rack and a pergola stage for events and programming. This renovation is made possible by a leadership gift from long-time Trustee Caroline Huber and our “Pave the Plaza” campaign, which launched in September on the opening night of our season. So far, we have sold more than 100 pavers, with the first wave of stone pavers installed in January. Thank you to all who have engraved a paver. If you are interested in participating, we have many pavers available for purchase. (For more information about our “Pave the Plaza” campaign, see pages 22-23.)

All theater is local, and we are grateful to be surrounded by so many generous and adventurous supporters here in Red Bank. We are also proud that our reputation continues to grow both nationally and internationally. Two River’s original cast recording of Be More Chill is the #4 most streamed cast album of the decade coming in behind only Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen and Wicked. In February, Be More Chill opened in London and a production will open in Chicago this coming April—truly growing the show’s global fandom!

Here at home, we are developing an international fan base of our own, with audience members for Love in Hate Nation traveling from 25 states and Australia, Canada, Mexico City, Tokyo and Wales to see the show, and coming from 31 states and Australia, Argentina, Canada, England, Germany, Japan, Peru, Chile and Spain to see Twelfth Night!

We know our audiences are happy to see a new production of an August Wilson play this season. Out of the five Wilson productions staged to date, two are in the top 10 of most highly attended shows in the Rechnitz Theater, and last season’s King Hedley II, directed

by Brandon J. Dirden, was the most well attended show to date in our Marion Huber Theater.

Please save the date! On May 16, 2020 we will honor Caroline Huber and The Stone Foundation of New Jersey at our Spring Gala – a benefit concert of a new musical that we are developing called Middle School Mysteries by composer/lyricist Daniel Maté and bookwriter Marshall Pailet. We look forward to honoring Caroline and her contributions to Two River and the community with this fantastic event where all proceeds will go to support our theater Education programs.

Thank you for all that you, as patrons, subscribers and donors, bring to our work. We look forward to seeing you at the theater!

Michael Hurst Managing Director 9

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PRACTICE & GIVE

CAST OF CHARACTERS MAME WILKS .......................................................................................... Amber Iman HARMOND WILKS................................................................................ Carl Hendrick Louis ROOSEVELT HICKS............................................................................. Robbie Williams STERLING JOHNSON ........................................................................ Nathan James ELDER JOSEPH BARLOW ............................................................... Wayne DeHart

SETTING The Hill District. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1997. The office of Bedford Hill Redevelopment, Inc., in a storefront on Centre Avenue.

August Wilson's Radio Golf will be performed with one intermission.

OPEN YOUR HEART

(IN ORDER OF SPEAKING)

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PRODUCTION CREDITS Assistant to the Director: Kamilah Bush Assistant Lighting Designer: Chris Gilmore The videotaping or making of electronic or other audio and/or visual recordings of this production or distributing recordings on any medium, including the internet, is strictly prohibited, a violation of the author's rights and actionable under United States Copyright Law. For more information, please visit: https://shop.samuelfrench.com/content/files/pdf/piracy-whitepaper.pdf “Blue Skies” Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin This selection is used by special arrangement with Rodgers & Hammerstein, on behalf of the Estate of Irving Berlin, www.irvingberlin.com. All Rights Reserved.

NI SCE C A

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UNITED

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CA 8 L USA

The Designers at this Theatre are Represented by

United Scenic Artists • Local USA 829 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes

The scenic, costume, lighting, and sound designers in LORT theatres are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE

Two River Theater Company is a member of the League of Resident Theaters (LORT), Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, and ArtPride New Jersey.

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BIOS

MEET THE ARTISTS! WAYNE DEHART (Elder Joseph Barlow) was born in Jonesville, South Carolina; his parents’ divorce brought him to Houston. He began his theater journey with J.B. by Archibald MacLeish. He joined Houston’s Ensemble Theatre in 1981 and has been a mainstay there for 38 years, garnering several Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor awards. Wayne has completed eight of August Wilson’s American Century Cycle (having to forego his casting in Gem of the Ocean to do a film). His film credits include Jason’s Lyric (The Shit Man), I Come in Peace, and Once Upon a Time…When We Were Colored. He recently completed work on Bayou Caviar with Cuba Gooding Jr., Tales from the Hood 2, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Tropical Cop Tales, and Hap and Leonard. Wayne is the primary re-enactment performer at the Buffalo Soldier National Museum, where he has performed The Life of a Buffalo Soldier since 2001. He is a proud father of My Love T-ATA, a three-time grandfather, and a four-time great grandfather. “I was so excited when Mr. Dirden reached out to me. I wanted to dig up my script and start right away. I am truly grateful and appreciative to Two River Theater for giving me this ‘bucket list’ opportunity.”

AMBER IMAN (Mame Wilks) made her Two River Theater debut last season as Luna C in Oo-Bla-Dee. Broadway: Shuffle Along, Soul Doctor. OffBroadway: A Civil War Christmas, Rent. National Tour: Hamilton (1st National, Peggy Schuyler/ Maria Reynolds). Favorite regional credits: Joy in Witness Uganda (The Wallis, LA Ovation Award Winner for Best Featured Actress in a Musical), Cheryl in Stick Fly (Arena Stage, IRNE Award nominee for Best Supporting Actress), Aldonza in Man of La Mancha (Shakespeare Theatre, Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Actress and Emery Battis Award for Acting Excellence). Howard University Graduate (2016 James Butcher Alumni Award), and proud founding member of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition. Recently, Amber wrote, executive produced, and starred in her first short film, Steve. Her proudest accomplishment to date, Steve has won awards for Best Short, Best Comedy, and Best Actress at multiple film festivals across the country.

NATHAN JAMES (Sterling Johnson) is thrilled to be making his debut at Two River Theater! He is a proud native of Pittsburgh and began his career with Kuntu Repertory Theatre.

Nathan will be featured as Xavier in the feature film Standing Up, Falling Down starring Billy Crystal due in theaters February 2020. He won 1st place at Amateur Night at the Apollo with an original poem and received a 2014 A.U.D.E.L.C.O Award for Best Supporting Actor for the Billie Holiday Theatre’s production of Maid’s Door. His one-man play, Growing Pains, has been produced at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, United Solo Theatre Festival (Theatre Row NYC), and various theaters and festivals around the United States. Film/TV credits: Madam Secretary, Person of Interest, Blue Bloods (CBS), Shades of Blue, Blindspot (NBC), Quantico, Deception (ABC), The Wire, Vinyl (HBO), The Interestings (Amazon), The Path (Hulu), Pain Within (Sundance Film Festival), Service to Man (STARZ). Theater: Off-Broadway: Travisville (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Playing with Fire (Gene Frankel Theatre), Black Angels Over Tuskegee (St. Luke’s Theatre). NY: Armed (Amoralists), Growing Pains (Billie Holiday Theatre). Regional: Feeding Beatrice (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), Julius Caesar (Pennsylvania Centre Stage), Work Song (Pittsburgh City Theatre). www.officialnathanjames.com.

CARL HENDRICK LOUIS (Harmond Wilks) Broadway: 1984, The Cherry Orchard (Roundabout Theatre Company).

Off-Broadway: The Emperor Jones (Irish Repertory Theatre), The Tempest (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Little Children Dream of God (Roundabout Theatre Company), The King’s Whore (Walkerspace), In Fields Where They Lay (Hudson Guild Theatre), Marat/Sade (Classical Theatre of Harlem). Regional: Mlima’s Tale (Westport Country Playhouse), Sunset Baby (Kitchen Theatre Company). Film: Fan Girl, Unknown Soldier. Television: Mindhunter. Education: New York University’s Graduate Acting Program and Fordham University’s Theatre Program.

ROBBIE WILLIAMS (Roosevelt Hicks) Robbie Williams is thrilled to be making his debut at Two River Theater. The Indianapolis native is a NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program alum and can be seen on shows such as Orange Is the New Black and CSI: NY. Robbie is grateful to be working with the talented cast and crew of Radio Golf.

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AUGUST WILSON (April 27, 1945-October 2, 2005) authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of African-Americans, decade-by-decade, over the course of the twentieth century. His plays have been produced at regional theaters across the country and all over the world, as well as on Broadway. In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Mr. Wilson’s works garnered many awards including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987); and for The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney; as well as eight New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, Jitney, and Radio Golf. Additionally, the cast recording of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received a 1985 Grammy Award, and Mr. Wilson received a 1995 Emmy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of The Piano Lesson. Mr. Wilson’s early works included the one-act plays The Janitor, Recycle, The Coldest Day of the Year, Malcolm X, The Homecoming and the musical satire Black Bart and the Sacred Hills. Mr. Wilson received many fellowships and awards, including Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in Playwrighting, the Whiting Writers Award, 2003 Heinz Award, was awarded a 1999 National Humanities Medal by the President of the United States, and received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities, as well as the only high school diploma ever issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and on October 16, 2005, Broadway renamed the theater located at 245 West 52nd Street - The August Wilson Theatre. Additionally, Mr. Wilson was posthumously inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2007. Mr. Wilson was born and raised in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and lived in Seattle, Washington at the time of his death. He is immediately survived by his two daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero.

BRANDON J. DIRDEN (Director) made his directing debut at Two River Theater with August Wilson’s Seven Guitars and most recently directed King Hedley II here. He has appeared at Two River in A Raisin in the Sun; August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Jitney; the world premiere of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine; and Topdog/Underdog, in which he starred opposite his brother Jason Dirden under the direction of the play’s author, Suzan-Lori Parks. An award-winning actor/director, he is perhaps best known for portraying Agent Dennis Aderholt in the acclaimed FX series The Americans. ​Currently, Brandon can be seen in ABC’s new drama For Life. A Morehouse College and University of Illinois graduate, he is also known for appearing on Broadway as Martin Luther King Jr. in the successful Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Robert Schenkkan’s All the Way opposite Bryan Cranston’s Lyndon B. Johnson. Other Broadway credits include August Wilson’s Jitney (2017 Tony Award for Best Revival), Prelude to a Kiss, Enron and Clybourne Park. In 2012 he was awarded an Obie and a Theatre World Award and was nominated for Drama League and Lucille Lortel Awards for his portrayal of Boy Willie in the Signature Theatre Company revival of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. Look for his Broadway return this spring in the highly anticipated revival of Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out. Brandon is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union for professional actors and stage managers, and he is a frequent volunteer at The 52nd Street Project (52project. org). Brandon is married to actress Crystal Dickinson and currently lives in West Orange, NJ with their five-year-old son, Chase.

EDWARD E. HAYNES JR. (Scenic Designer) is excited to be designing his first show for Two River Theater. Regional credits include: Mark Taper Forum, Ebony Repertory Theatre, South Coast Rep, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, East West Players, Pasadena Playhouse, Hollywood Bowl, Marin Theatre Co., TheatreWorks, Muny Opera, Intiman Theatre, Trinity Rep, Alley Theatre, Alliance Theatre, and many he can no longer remember. Television credits include: MTV’s Spring Break 2012 & 2011, Hip Hop Harry, The Tony Rock Project, and Culture Clash. Ed is the father of twins, Denis and Wesly, and husband to director Elizabeth Bell-Haynes.

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CELEBRATING

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KAREN PERRY (Costume Designer) previously designed August Wilson’s King Hedley II, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Jitney, Two Trains Running and Seven Guitars at Two River, as well as Love in Hate Nation, Oo-Bla-Dee, Lives of Reason, Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, Guadalupe in the Guest Room, Third and Trouble in Mind. Her most recent credits include runboyrun & In Old Age (New York Theatre Workshop), Mothers (Playwrights Realm), Jazz (MTC), Lackawanna Blues with Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Mark Taper Forum), Fun Home (Baltimore Center Stage), Steel Magnolias, Hair, Dreamgirls (DTC), Oklahoma! (Houston Ballet at TUTS) and Cinderella Ballet (Eglevsky Ballet Company). Other credits include Danai Gurira’s Familiar (Woolly Mammoth, Guthrie, Seattle Rep), Cabin in the Sky (Encores!), Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky (Pasadena Playhouse), John Grisham’s A Time to Kill, dir. Ethan McSweeny (Arena), Crowns, stop.reset, Trinity River Trilogy by Regina Taylor (Goodman, STC, DTC/Arena), The Trip to Bountiful, Walter Mosley’s The Fall of Heaven, dir. Marion McClinton (Cincinnati Playhouse), The Brother/ Sister Plays by Tarell McCraney, dirs. Tina Landau and Robert O’Hara (The Public/McCarter), Having Our Say by Emily Mann (McCarter) and Resurrection by Daniel Beaty (Arena). She has designed every play in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle except Fences. Film/TV credits include: Gregory Hines Show, Saturday Night Live, and The Brother from Another Planet by director John Sayles.

DRISCOLL OTTO (Lighting Designer) Previously designed Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine and Seven Guitars at Two River. Recently Driscoll designed lighting for the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of The Purists directed by Billy Porter, lighting for The Old Globe’s production of Noura, projections for The Flying Dutchman in Florence, Italy, and lighting and projections for Iolanta at Chicago Opera Theater.

Mr. Otto’s design work is seen frequently in NYC & in regional theater and opera. His credits include Huntington Theatre Company, Utah Opera, The Old Globe, Opera Omaha, Opera Philadelphia, Dallas Theater Center, Drury Lane Theatre, The Dallas Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, Houston Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Repertory Company, Hangar Theatre, Flat Rock Playhouse, Lyric Opera Kansas City, and productions of Legally Blonde and Rock of Ages for Norwegian Cruise Lines. Highlights to his resume include projection design for Santa Fe Opera’s production of The Golden Cockerel and The Metropolitan Opera’s production of La Donna Del Lago. He received his MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

KAY RICHARDSON (Sound Designer) is a two-time Suzi Bass nominated Sound Designer and Audio Engineer. Radio Golf marks Kay’s return to the Two River family. Regional Theater designs include: The Hound of the Baskervilles at Alpine Theatre Project in Whitefish, MT; King Hedley II at Two River; Eclipsed at Synchronicity Theatre, Thurgood at Theatrical Outfit; Between Riverside and Crazy, Smart People, Fetch Clay Make Man and Gut Bucket Blues at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company in Atlanta, GA. Additional design work includes: A Man of No Importance, Spring Awakening, The Colored Museum, A Song for Coretta, and Seven Guitars.

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DAIN: Dos Peakos, 2014 (48 x 36 inches; Mixed media on panel)

CONNECT WITH US STAY CURRENT WITH TWO RIVER! See show trailers, costumes renderings and set sketches, photos, posts from the rehearsal room, and much more!

The conversation is constant on Two River’s social media sites.

2019-20 Season Sunday, December 22, 2019

Count Basie Center for the Arts 99 Monmouth Street, Red Bank

Sunday, March 29, 2020

First Presbyterian Church of Freehold 118 West Main Street, Freehold

Sunday, May 31, 2020 The Parish of St. Mary 1 Phalanx Road, Colts Neck

20

It’s

Kay has toured in all 50 of the United States and in over 45 countries mixing live sound for musicals and concerts.

Currently she is the Sound Supervisor at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts in Princeton, NJ. ERIN HICKS (Hair & Wig Designer) grew up in Harlem, NY. She began styling hair as an assistant on The Winter’s Tale at the New York Shakespeare Festival, starring Alfre Woodard, Mandy Patinkin, and Diane Venora. Over the last 20 years she has worked on various Broadway, film and TV shows. This is Erin’s fifth show at Two River, following Guadalupe in the Guest Room and August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and King Hedley II.

Time

to

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HEIDI GRIFFITHS (Casting) has worked for more than 25 years at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in NYC, where she has cast over 200 productions Off-Broadway and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, including Shakespeare, new plays, and musicals. On Broadway: The Girl From The North Country; The Inheritance; The Iceman Cometh; Sweat; Shuffle Along; The Crucible; Eclipsed; A Delicate Balance; A Raisin in the Sun; Lucky Guy; Chinglish; The Motherf**ker with the Hat; The Merchant of Venice; Hair; Passing Strange; Caroline, or Change; Take Me Out (Tony Award, Best Play 2003); Topdog/ Underdog (Pulitzer Prize, 2002); The Wild Party; Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk; On the Town; and The Tempest. She also cast the films The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love, MURDER and murder, Saving Face and Ladybird.

Radio Golf is her 12th collaboration with Two River Theater.

KATE MURRAY (Casting) Two River Theater: Theo, King Hedley II, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Women of Padilla, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Seven Guitars, Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, and The School for Wives. Broadway (as Casting Associate): The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, A Delicate Balance, A Raisin in the Sun, Lucky Guy (Casting Assistant).

Additional casting credits include work with Arena Stage, Center Theater Group, The Cherry Lane, Bedlam, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, LAByrinth, New Georges, TheaterWorks Hartford, and The Studio Theatre. Kate is a Casting Director at The Public Theater.

MEGAN SMITH (Production Stage Manager) is thrilled to return to TRT and to be working on Radio Golf. Previously, Ms. Smith stage managed The Bridge of San Luis Rey and Dancing at Lughnasa at Two River Theater. Most recently, Ms. Smith helped David Greenspan remount TRT’s production of The Bridge of San Luis Rey at Miami New Drama. Select NY credits include: Off-Broadway: Usual Girls, Look Back in Anger, Ordinary Days (Roundabout Theatre Company); Fetch Clay, Make Man and Red Dog Howls (New York Theatre Workshop); The Scottsboro Boys, Mary Rose, The Internationalist (The Vineyard Theatre); Book of Days (Signature Theatre). Regional credits include: Miami New Drama, Westport Country Playhouse, Long Wharf Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, New York Stage and Film, Bard SummerScape and The Guthrie Theater. Proud member of Actors’ Equity since 1999.

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21

OUR NEW BUILDING AND PLAZA COME TO LIFE Two River is thrilled to have opened a 36,000 square foot addition to our existing theater complex.

The Center for New Work, Education and Design is a three-story facility that includes two rehearsal studios, artist labs, classrooms, expanded shops and centrally located offices. We are happy to open these doors to the public for community events and classes.

Our plaza renovation is also well under way! This January, over 100 pavers were installed with names, quotes and tributes from our patrons, artists and community partners. The pergola stage is up and ready for upcoming warm-weather events.

STU D I O A

Here’s a look at some of the first events we hosted in our new space!

We packed the house for our very first public event in Studio A with a TEDxAsburyPark Salon in conjunction with Twelfth Night. A few weeks later, the Radio Golf cast, creatives and production staff pose for a photo on their first day of rehearsal.

Photo by Doug Dresher

22

Photo by Yurik L. Lozano

STU D I O B Sponsored by Hackensack Meridian Health Riverview Medical Center The more intimate Studio B space was the perfect location for our first Education class: Monday Masters Shakespeare Scene Study led by actor and director Michael Cumpsty. In the same week longtime media partners WBGO Jazz 88.3FM returned for a live interview with Radio Golf director Brandon J. Dirden and cast member Wayne DeHart hosted by Doug Doyle.

Photo by JRomeo Photography

Photo by Yurik L. Lozano

THE PLAZA Take a look at the first installation of our personalized pavers!

The next installation is scheduled for early summer.

To join in supporting the campaign, visit the box office or tworivertheater.org/pave-the-plaza.

PARKI N G U P DATE FREE On-Site Parking has returned! Over 75 complimentary spaces, including eight handicapped spaces, are now available to patrons, on a first-come-first-served basis, prior to your next show or event. Phase 2 will be completed Spring of 2020 and result in over 100 total parking spaces.

23

AUGUST WILSON’S CHANGING HILL

NOTES FROM THE DRAMATURG

By Literary Manager, Taylor Barfield

Nine of August Wilson’s ten American Century Cycle plays take place in his native Hill District. Only Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is set outside the confines of this 1.4 square mile Pittsburgh neighborhood. Like many writers, Wilson wrote what he knew. He was born and raised in the Hill. It’s where he bought his first typewriter and began writing poetry. It’s where he sat on stoops and in barbershops, listening to the stories and vocal cadences of the people around him. He once said in an interview, “when I left my mother’s house, I went out into the world, into that community, to learn what it meant to be a man, to learn whatever it is that the community had to teach me. And it was there I met lifelong friends who taught me and raised me.”

His Cycle allowed Wilson to capture the voices of the community that raised him while also indirectly exploring the evolution of the Hill over the course of the 20th century. In writing one play for each decade, Wilson was able to exhibit the extensive changes that occurred in Pittsburgh as a result of the Great Migration, the fight for equal rights, the economic decline of the neighborhood, and the gentrification projects that are at the heart of Radio Golf.

Century Cycle in Chronological Order 1904: Gem of the Ocean 1911: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone 1927: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 1936: The Piano Lesson 1948: Seven Guitars 1957: Fences 1969: Two Trains Running 1977: Jitney 1985: King Hedley II 1997: Radio Golf

Century Cycle by World Premiere Year 1982: Jitney 1984: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 1985: Fences 1986: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone 1987: The Piano Lesson 1990: Two Trains Running 1995: Seven Guitars 1999: King Hedley II 2003: Gem of the Ocean 2005: Radio Golf

Although Wilson wrote specifically about Pittsburgh, his stories are emblematic of changes that happened across the country during the 20th century in places like Detroit, San Francisco, Baltimore, St. Louis, Chicago, and Lackawanna (the setting of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s play Lackawanna Blues, which will be at Two River Theater from June 6-28).

Like many of these cities, Wilson’s Pittsburgh was greatly affected by The Great Migration. During the century’s first four decades, black people fled north looking to escape the segregation, disenfranchisement and violence prevalent in the south. Many also sought opportunities in these bustling industry towns.

Hill District in the early 20th century 24

August Wilson

Wilson’s plays that focus on these decades—Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and The Piano Lesson—all feature characters adjusting to the city after beginning their lives in the predominantly rural, Reconstruction south.

According to census data, Pittsburgh’s black population grew 93% (from 28,472 to 54,943) between 1910 and 1930. The city saw the population increase another 83% (from 54,943 to 100,692) between 1930 and 1970. Discriminatory housing practices led to two-thirds of Pittsburgh’s growing black community living in one of three areas—Homewood Brushton, East Liberty, or the Hill District. That’s about 3 square miles for over 50,000 people in 1930. To put that into perspective, that’s about the same amount of land as Red Bank and Keyport, which only have a combined 19,000 residents.

The stark population increase in these three neighborhoods led to mass conversion of single-family homes into multi-family dwellings. Furthermore, since black tenants had a difficult time finding homes elsewhere, landlords in these areas had little to no pressure to renovate or perform basic maintenance on these homes. As the social scientist, Joe T. Darden wrote about Pittsburgh in his 1973 book, Afro-Americans in Pittsburgh: The Residential Segregation of a People, “lower-quality housing for blacks than for whites has become a rule, and blacks have been forced to pay higher rents than whites for housing of the same quality or equal rents for lower quality housing.”

Herron Avenue ca. 1941

Despite these living conditions, Homewood Brushton, East Liberty and the Hill District teemed with life in the early half of the century. Wilson notes in an interview, “at one time it was a very thriving community, albeit a depressed community. But still there were shops all along the avenue.” The Hill, in particular, developed a vibrant entertainment district that turned the area into a cultural hub for music, especially jazz and blues. Black entrepreneurs established a number of nightspots including nightclubs, bars and gambling dens. This concentration of entertainment spots along Wylie Avenue, Fullerton Street and Centre Avenue provided ready venues for both famous national acts and upstart local artists to perform.

The Crawford Grill, a jazz club in the 1940s. (photo: Charles “Teenie” Harris)

continued on page 27 25

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(continued from page 25) The relative prosperity of the early 20th century did not last, however. Following World War II, the federal government committed to upgrading housing across the nation, and a large swath of the Hill District was targeted for urban renewal projects. In an article from 1943, George E. Evans, a member of the City Council wrote,

Urban Renewal Projects in the mid-20th century

“The Hill District of Pittsburgh is probably one of the most outstanding examples in Pittsburgh of neighborhood deterioration...There are 7,000 separate property owners; more than 10,000 dwelling units and in all more than 10,000 buildings. Approximately 90 percent of the buildings in the area are sub-standard and have long outlived their usefulness, and so there would be no social loss if they were all destroyed.”

Led by Evans and other politicians, The Pittsburgh Renewal Council was formed in 1950 to facilitate the demolition of large chunks of the city to make room for parks, offices, and other buildings. The Council purchased buildings in the Hill District and other areas, forcing residents to move elsewhere, oftentimes overcrowding already overcrowded black neighborhoods. Instead of immediately tearing down these old buildings, however, the city left many to rot for years, sometimes decades. Most of the public projects that the city promised never materialized and the ones that did caused further harm to the community. For example, the city began construction on the Civic Arena in the summer of 1956 by demolishing around thirteen thousand structures.

Fifteen hundred families (more than eight thousand residents) were displaced.

The redevelopment severed the Hill District from surrounding neighborhoods, devastating the Hill’s local businesses. And although the construction of the Civic Arena created jobs for residents in the short term, once the project was finished, those jobs also disappeared. The once lively Hill District would soon become the home of vacant buildings and deteriorating futures.

Civic Arena Under Construction ca. 1960

The Pittsburgh Renewal Council looms over Wilson’s plays focused on the later half of the century such as Two Trains Running, Jitney, and King Hedley II. In those plays, audiences witness characters full of life, love, and wisdom, experiencing their businesses, livelihoods, and community spaces assailed in the name of urban renewal. When George Evans wrote that “there would be no social loss” if these spaces were destroyed, he wantonly dismissed the rich life that August Wilson captures in his plays. These streets were once home to neighborhood kids playing the Dozens on the block, beauty parlors smelling of freshly pressed hair, soul food restaurants that would make folks weep, jazz clubs blaring bebop and big band till four in the morning. From the 60s to the 90s, Pittsburgh lost the gambling joints, the numbers runners, the barbershops, Boys Playing Stickball in 1951 (photo: Samuel Howze) the gossip, the shit-talkers, the hop-on-a-crate philosophers, the militants, the pacifists, the free lunch programs, the shamans. It lost the corner stores where owners would give you a loaf of bread on Wednesday even if you didn’t have the money till Friday. It lost the community spaces where a young August Wilson listened to the old folks telling stories and an adult August Wilson watched disappear while he was writing his Cycle in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.

Phylicia Rashad as Aunt Ester in Wilson's Gem of the Ocean.

At the center of Radio Golf is the question of what to do with the wreckage of the once thriving Hill District. In 1997, Harmond Wilks and Roosevelt Hicks are partners in a redevelopment project that would tear down a sizable section of the Hill to make way for high-rise condominiums and retail giants such as Barnes & Noble, Whole Foods, and Starbucks. Right in the middle of Harmond and Roosevelt’s development site, however, is 1839 Wylie Avenue, a house that was once inhabited by Aunt Ester. In Wilson’s Century Cycle, Aunt Ester served as the spiritual guide to Hill District residents until she died during the events of King Hedley II in 1985 at the age of 366. Aunt Ester was born in 1619, or when the first Africans were brought to this country during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. With the memory of Africa, the middle passage, and black experience in the United States, Aunt Ester appears in Two Trains Running and Gem of the Ocean to guide characters to a better understanding of themselves and what they have to do to move forward in their lives.

Like other spaces in the Hill District that once contained incredible life during the 20th century, Aunt Ester’s house stands on the precipice of destruction in service of a gentrification project that will exclude many of Pittsburgh’s black community. While Harmond and Roosevelt see the demolition of 1839 Wylie Avenue and other remnants of the Hill as a small price to pay for progress, other characters emerge to reveal the real spiritual costs of leveling a community. n 27

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28

LEADERSHIP BIOS John Dias assumed his position as Artistic Director of Two River Theater in 2010 after working as a producer and dramaturg in New York for 20 years. In partnership with Managing Director Michael Hurst he has brought new acclaim and vitality to the 26-year old theater, which recently opened a three-story Center for New Work, Education and Design. Dias launched Two River’s first literary department and commissioning program; during his tenure Two River has produced 14 world premieres (including Hurricane Diane by Playwright-in-Residence Madeleine George, which enjoyed an Obie Award-winning Off-Broadway run, and Be More Chill by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz, the theater’s first Broadway production) and developed numerous other plays and musicals.

He has spearheaded new initiatives for the theater including the Crossing Borders (Cruzando Fronteras) summer festival of plays and music by Latinx artists; an annual musical theater cabaret in partnership with New York University’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program; and the popular education program A Little Shakespeare, which introduces the works of Shakespeare to hundreds of young people each year. Under his leadership, Two River serves thousands of students and community members each season through arts and humanities programs at the theater, in schools, and throughout Monmouth County. He is the co-author and was the director of Two River’s musical The Ballad of Little Jo, which he wrote with composer Mike Reid and lyricist Sarah Schlesinger. Throughout his career, John has been a leading advocate for bold new American plays and stimulating productions of the classics, including the Broadway productions of Lisa Kron’s Well and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. For 12 seasons, he worked in a variety of capacities at The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, and he co-founded Affinity Company Theater and The Playwrights Realm. He has been a Tony Award nominator, a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts and numerous other organizations, and he has taught at New York University and Yale University. John currently teaches in the graduate school at Columbia University. He received his BA from George Washington University and his MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Michael Hurst has been the Managing Director of Two River Theater since 2011. Under his joint leadership with Artistic Director John Dias, Two River has experienced ambitious growth and enjoyed new recognition in the national theater community, and has opened a three-story Center for New Work, Education and Design in 2019. Two River has embarked on two Strategic Plans; produced 14 world premieres (including Hurricane Diane by Playwright-in-Residence Madeleine George, which enjoyed an extended run Off-Broadway, and Be More Chill by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz, the theater’s first Broadway production); developed numerous other new plays and musicals; and launched the Inside Two River audience-engagement program, which reaches more than 5,000 patrons annually.

Prior experience includes 16 years at The Public Theater, including four years as General Manager and six as Managing Director. Michael was responsible for all financial aspects of the productions at The Public Theater and Central Park’s Delacorte Theater. During his tenure at The Public, he oversaw the Broadway transfers of many productions, including Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Take Me Out, winner of the Tony Award for Best Play; and Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s Caroline, or Change. Michael was also part of all strategic planning including the opening of Joe’s Pub, now considered one of the country’s best small venues for music and performance. Prior to coming to Two River, Michael was Chief Operating Officer of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which presents the New York Film Festival. At the Film Society, he oversaw the building of a new three-theater, $40-million facility that opened in June 2011. Michael served as Vice President for The Off-Broadway League and was a member of The Broadway League for 14 years. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and currently serves on the Board of Trustees as Vice Chairman for the New Jersey Theatre Alliance and on the Advisory Board for the Indie Street Film Festival.

Robert M. Rechnitz founded Two River Theater in 1994 and served as the theater’s Executive Producer until his death in 2019. In 2015/16, Two River premiered his play (written with Kenneth Stunkel), Lives of Reason. An educator, writer, and director, he was one of New Jersey’s most esteemed theater leaders. He earned his PhD from the University of Colorado and was a Professor of American Literature at Monmouth University for 35 years, contributing scholarly articles and short stories to various academic journals. As Two River’s Executive Producer, he oversaw the theater’s move from Monmouth University in West Long Branch to the Algonquin Arts in Manasquan. While the company was in residence in Manasquan, he planned for and oversaw the building of Two River’s state-of-the-art, two-theater complex in Red Bank as its permanent home.

He directed the opening production in the new building, the classic American comedy You Can’t Take It with You, in 2005. Among the other notable productions he has directed at Two River are Curse of the Starving Class (for which he received a nomination for Best Director of a Comedy from The Star-Ledger), True West, A View from the Bridge, The Glass Menagerie, Thieves’ Carnival, Uncle Vanya, American Buffalo, Barefoot in the Park and The Belle of Amherst. Bob was an active member of a number of organizations benefiting our Monmouth County, including serving as a Board member for several local non-profits. He was the recipient of numerous awards, honors, commendations, and accolades.

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29

PRODUCTION SPOTLIGHT

AN INTERVIEW WITH

KAREN PERRY

Costume designer Karen Perry has a career stretching back over 40 years. Since 2012, she has designed twelve shows at Two River Theater. Radio Golf is lucky number 13, and she will earn her 14th TRT credit later in the season with Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Lackawanna Blues. She spoke with Artistic Karen Perry Assistant Kamilah Bush about her career, her relationship with August Wilson and his work, and this production of Radio Golf.

KAMILAH BUSH: You’ve been so blessed to be designing for so long. What keeps you doing this every day?

KAREN PERRY: Well I like what I do. You have to like it because if you don’t, you need to be doing something else.

Some jobs are harder than others. Some actors are harder than others. Some directors are harder than others. Some plays are harder than others, but I’m not afraid of a challenge. There are not a lot of plays that I want to do repeat performances of.

Once I’ve done them and had the experience of being in what I consider an optimum production where the integrity, quality, and understanding [of the play] are delivered crystal clear to an audience, then I’m usually done. This is my third or fourth Radio Golf. So, I will not do Radio Golf ever again. I said yes because John [Dias] and Stephanie [Coen] asked me and I knew it was Brandon [Dirden] and I do not like to say no to any of those three, if I can.

K.B.: Radio Golf is August’s [Wilson] last play—both chronologically in the American Century Cycle and it is the last play he wrote in his lifetime. It’s the culmination of his life’s work. You’ve designed 8 of his 10 plays—

where he was denying treatment to finish [the play]. Gem of the Ocean was on Broadway and it closed early. Emily Mann and Carey Perloff worked it out so that it could go from Broadway to the regional theater world quickly. August asked Ruben [Santiago-Hudson] to direct it. It was my introduction to seeing and designing Gem of the Ocean. August and Ruben spoke every day when we were at The McCarter rehearsing.

I remember the day that he died. We just stopped. We just stopped everything. Rehearsal was over.

Radio Golf was still in process. I saw it and thought “this is an odd button.” After Gem, I felt he didn’t have to write nothing else. He could have stopped there. For me, that is his perfect play. It took me designing Radio Golf twice before I really understood. Also, having my birth home, Harlem, moving through a huge gentrification, before my very eyes was heartbreaking and astounding. While I was designing these other two Radio Golfs, I realized what it really felt like living through it. We’re still having that happen. For anybody who feels that their history is not important and that the future is all that there is, I believe that they are doomed to repeat the wrongs of the past by not looking back and observing the lessons. That’s what Radio Golf is for me. Oh Kam, you ask me questions and I go through history.

K.B.: But isn’t that what August wants? He was asking us in his August brilliance to stop and look back. I think that’s the gift that he left us was, “You need to stop and look back at the things…”

K.P.: “Look what the New World has wrought.” Like Lorraine Hansberry has Walter say “It’s always been about money, Mama.” That part of Raisin in the Sun always resonates in my head when I’m watching Radio Golf. It’s like there’s Lorraine.

There she is.

K.P.: I’ve designed 9. I’ve designed every August show except Fences and I’m kind of okay with that. If I don’t design all 10, I’ll be alright. I’m at that point in my life where I’ve got to like what I’m doing. I’ve got to like who I’m doing it with. I’ve got to care about all of it, or I’m just going to say no. I can stay home.

I really, really like my home a lot.

K.B.: Do you think that there’s something special about Radio Golf, knowing that it’s the last one?

K.P.: It’s hard for a lot of people. I remember when August was trying to finish it and he got really, really sick to the point 30

The Company of Love In Hate Nation with costumes by Karen Perry.

Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

Radio Golf costume sketches

K.B.: I think that in this play we see a different kind of character. We see men and women of means, wealthier people, when so many of his other characters were working class folk.

K.P.: They was “The Folk” K.B.: Does that change the way you design? What does that do to your design when we’re still in August’s world—we’re still at Aunt Ester’s house, we’re still on The Hill— but we’ve got these other folk that we have not met yet?

K.P.: They are different. They are the children and the grandchildren of the other “Folk” that we met. They are the dream that they wanted for them. That’s who they are.

That’s the dilemma. They literally don’t know from whom they came and how they got to be the kid that got to wear a Brooks Brothers suit, who has a wife that’s probably one of the 100 Black Women of the Blah, Blah, Blah. They kind of know it—they’ve heard the stories of their grandparents at Thanksgiving—but they didn’t know. And then you get those “Folk” saying, “Hey wake up. Cousin! Cousin! We are still related. We don’t play much golf. We don’t play much tennis.”

It’s very interesting when all of these characters meet in a scene. It’s like, “I went to school with you” and “I know you because I used to be you.”

K.B.: We’ve been talking a lot about history and this play is set in what I like to call “recent history.” Is that a different kind of challenge when designing a show that’s not present day but recent enough history that people who are working on it or are coming to see it can look back and see something they know to be true?

K.P.: The tricky thing about recent history, which I also encountered doing Love in Hate Nation when we moved to the 80s, is it becomes everybody’s mind’s eye or memory of where they were then. If you were a little kid, you’re trying to remember what you were wearing when you were a little kid, or what your mom and dad wore. There are these images of what things looked like that sometimes link up and sometimes don’t, which is why I have to do homework and dramaturgical work so that we can see what people actually looked like in the 90s. And the 90s was a period where kind of everything went. Some of the leftovers of the 80s bled over into the 90s for a long time. Younger people were wearing the Cross Colours and the FUBU and there was still the big shoulders. Then the silhouette got a little bit narrower and more conservative. You can see it if you watched The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. You could see the difference between what Hillary and Aunt Viv were wearing and what Fresh and Jazzy and the girls they were dating were wearing. The same with Phylicia [Rashad] in The Cosby Show. All four of her daughters had different styles. They were four completely different styles. Sandra did not look like Denise, who did not look like Vanessa, who did not look like little Rudy, or their friends, or Claire. If you were watching Friends, then you got the Rachel haircut. If you were watching Seinfeld, you got that whole thing. It’s that kind of a challenge. Everything kind of went so you just have to figure out who this person is. What is his background? What does he symbolize? I’m just excited to see what Brandon [Dirden] and this cast, what their energy brings to the play. They’re so smart. I’ve enjoyed meeting with each of them individually and talking to each one of them about their lives and their places in what I call the “New World Order,” this new decade of 2020, this new girl. I’m throwing 2019 over there. I’m excited to see what [the play] means to this particular generation that’s watching. n 31

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732.345.9977

32

è

THE

HOMBRES

COMING SOON

BY TONY MENESES DIRECTED BY ANNIE TIPPE APRIL 11 - MAY 10

Two River’s third world premiere by Tony Meneses (following audience favorites Guadalupe in the Guest Room and The Women of Padilla) is a fresh and nuanced new play about the complexity and intimacy of male friendship. Set in New Jersey (“somewhere off the NJ Transit line”), the play follows Julián, a Latino yoga teacher, as he clashes with the Latino construction workers outside his studio—particularly the older head of the crew, Héctor, who seeks from Julián something he never expected.

Two River Theater co-commissioned The Hombres with the NJPAC Stage Exchange, a program of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and New Jersey Theatre Alliance. We have been pleased to develop The Hombres through two public readings, including one in Newark at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and another in our 2018 Crossing Borders (Cruzando Fronteras) festival of plays and music by Latinx theater artists—where it was the first play reading we’ve done to get a standing ovation.

Yoga Classes at Two River Theater: Every Tuesday in April at 6pm In partnership with Red Bank's Open-Heart Yoga, Two River Theater will offer free yoga classes—curated and led by teachers from Open-Heart Yoga. There is no cost to participate; participants should bring their own mats. Space is limited. Please reserve in advance at tworivertheater.org.

T H E W O R L D

THE CAST

Frankie Alvarez (Julián)

è

Victor Cruz (Pedro)

Gerardo Rodriguez (Héctor)

Jon Rua (Beto)

P R E M I E R E

AJ Shively (Miles)

For tickets, visit tworivertheater.org, call 732.345.1400 or stop by the box office.

PRODUCTION SPONSOR:

6

Bank of America Private Bank operates through Bank of America, N.A., Member FDIC. © 2019 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved. | ARYR43TP

33

A DECADE, A CENTURY: TWO RIVER THEATER IS A HOME FOR PLAYWRIGHTS

The Company of August Wilson's Jitney, 2012. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

by Playwright-in-Residence Madeleine George

Radio Golf comes tenth in the chronology of great American dramas August Wilson wrote that comprise his American Century Cycle, one play for each decade of the Twentieth Century. And it’s the sixth production of a Wilson play here at Two River, one of the few theaters in America closing in on completing the full cycle of Wilson masterpieces on its stages.

34

To bring a playwright home like this, over and over again, to light the candle for them in the window of a theater and let them know that they’re welcome, is an act of the deepest respect for both the writer and the audience they’re reaching out to.

Making space for that peculiar conversation between writer and theatergoer to happen across the footlights, not just one-and-done but slowly over time, is to honor the unique collaboration that playwright and audience create together when all the moving parts of theatrical production—and the stars—align.

For audiences, staying in conversation with one playwright over time allows dramatic work to weave its way into our inner lives. Those of us who love plays know that the same play may find us at different points

in our lives and mean very different things to us. We might be big Thornton Wilder fans in our youth, reject him as trite in young adulthood, only to come back to him with new eyes in middle age. Shakespeare, Brecht, August Wilson—they all have similarly long catalogues that reward our sustained attention.

And for us living playwrights, knowing that a theater wants to be a home to us, wants to bring the same audiences back into conversation with our work again and again, can be a springboard for us to take risks, dig deep, and give ourselves the room to try big things, in the seasoned hope that our words might land on eager ears. Among the playwrights who call this theater home is Tony Meneses, whose upcoming The Hombres will mark his third world premiere here at Two River. Notably, I think, both Tony and I have found ourselves writing not just for the audience here in Monmouth County but about it, trying to actively close the distance between ourselves and the people we’re in deep conversation with here in Red Bank.

Nowadays, this kind of sustained relationship between writer and audience is vanishingly rare. The American regional theater system as it currently stands functions largely on a New York-centric trickle-down model, whereby new plays premiere off-Broadway and then, once they’ve been vetted by the New York critics, get sent out to the regions to try to spark conversation with different audiences.

Two River is holding space for the writers it loves and cultivating them here, for its own devoted audiences.

Whether that means moving Matt Barbot’s El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom from the Crossing Borders (Cruzando Fronteras) festival to the Marion, or

Gabriel Diego Hernández and Bradley Tejeda in El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom by Matt Barbot.

Photo by Richard Termine.

The Company of The Women of Padilla by Tony Meneses. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

re-commissioning playwrights who have already had one world premiere here, this theater wants its playwrights to grow here and thrive here. (And, incidentally, it’s sending new plays and musicals from the region to New York City, in the case of Be More Chill and my own play Hurricane Diane, and no doubt many more shows in the future.)

I’ve been a playwright-in-residence here at Two River since 2016, but my relationship with the theater began in 2011, with the premiere of my play Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander England. That means I’m coming up on my tenyear anniversary of being welcomed home on Bridge Avenue. Knowing that this theater and these audiences are among the most courageous, rigorous, curious, and committed in the country, and that the doors are open for me and my next leap of theatrical faith, has emboldened and strengthened me, and rekindled my hope about what theater can do. n

Mia Barron in Hurricane Diane by Madeleine George.

Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

Will Roland and George Salazar in Be More Chill by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

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T. THOMAS FORTUNE FOUNDATION AND CULTURAL CENTER

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT

the same. But in that change, how do you access what was important in what existed there before?”

“The Cultural Center wants to be a touchstone. It has a foundation in AfricanAmerican culture, but it wants to celebrate all cultures that make up Red Bank, and recognize their importance.”

Gilda Rogers (center) with Foundation and Community members at the Cultural Center's ribbon cutting.

Just up the street from the battle between historical preservation and community development playing out in Two River Theater’s Rechnitz Theater, you can see a triumphant real-life resolution in the Drs,. James Parker Boulevard home of T. Thomas Fortune – now the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center.

T. Thomas Fortune was born into slavery in Florida, in October 1856. The most influential African-American journalist of the late 19th and early 20th century, he was a deeply connected intellectual and businessman, and an essential cultivating force in what would become the Civil Rights Movement. Fortune moved to his Red Bank home—which he dubbed Maple Hall—in 1901. The house was designated in 1976 as a National Historic Landmark, one of only two historic homes of AfricanAmerican historical luminaries in the state.

Despite its clear historical significance, after decades of private ownership and a slow slide into disrepair, the home was slated for demolition. Struck by the importance of Fortune’s legacy, Brookdale Community College professor, journalist, activist, and Two River Theater community relations representative Gilda Rogers began to rally interest in Fortune and his home in 2008. She formed the official T. Thomas Fortune Foundation in 2012, and

through their efforts and the essential aid of developer Roger Mumford, the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center opened to the public in 2019.

“His home represents the energy in the African-American culture in that time,” Rogers says. “This was a community of accomplished people who lived in Red Bank: inventors, activists, business people, newspaper owners and journalists. They held recitals, built homes, invested in companies. They were the intelligentsia, who had risen above their circumstances, many of them having been born into slavery.”

“The home represents the lineage of African-American history: a race of people who were striving to rise above the shackles of oppression, and had really set the tone for what that meant.”

Rogers sees the home as a physical and spiritual marker of the families that used to make up that community, a way to speak to the history of that AfricanAmerican culture in Red Bank so that it will not be forgotten.

“That’s what historical preservation should be about: making connections, understanding the value of them,” Rogers says. “Things change. Nothing stays

Programming for the Cultural Center salutes Red Bank’s African-American history while also celebrating all that is current in Red Bank’s cultural landscape.

Exhibits and lectures have ranged from Afro-futurism to African roots in all contemporary music genres, and upcoming programming includes letters to Harriet Tubman, a year-long celebration of Red Bank’s own Count Basie, and participation in Women in Media–Newark’s Women’s History Film Festival. Recently the Cultural Center collected the oral history of Alma Penn, a 98-year-old Red Bank resident who was the first AfricanAmerican supervisor of nurses in the state of New Jersey, and welcomed a crowd of music lovers for a concert led by 14-yearold piano prodigy Emilio Jennette.

“We saw his talent, and wanted to showcase that,” Roger says. “And the house was packed with all nationalities, loving his performance.”

T. Thomas Fortune House

For more information about the T. Thomas Fortune Foundation and Cultural Center, programming and ways to get involved visit tthomasfortuneculturalcenter.org.

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INTENSIVES PROGRAM

EDUCATION SPOTLIGHT

The Intensives Program at Two River gives middle and high school students a fun and collaborative peek into what it takes to create and stage a show, and to share it with family and friends!

The program is expanding for its third year. 2020 will include an additional week of Summer Intensives in July, filling the entire month with theatrical creation, as well as a one-week Spring Break Intensives this April. Both programs will be guided by professional theatermakers with expertise in all areas of the theater world, and provide a creative and judgment-free space for theater lovers and those who just think they might like to give it a try.

An opportunity to take time off and turn it into time on, Spring Break Intensives runs from April 13 through April 17 2020, from 9:00AM to 4:00PM for high school students interested in the Onstage Track. Participants will work with professional artists and directors to create a show in just four days – and then present it in one of the new spacious studios in Two River Theater’s recentlycompleted Center for New Work, Education and Design. They will spend the week working with professional teaching artists—singing, dancing, playing theater games, creating, devising, exploring—the sky’s the limit. The week’s Intensives Program is $375, and needbased scholarships are available.

Last year’s Summer Intensives were guided by a particular theme for each week, selected by the participants: Around the World, Heroes and Villains, and The Masks We Wear. Exploring these themes resulted in an explosion of joyful and colorful creativity, including a Disney villain mashup infused with social media savvy, lettuce-based superpowers, and more. But the shows also created space for explorations of more thoughtful, and at times painful, aspects of the week’s themes: what to do when a friend trusts you with a secret that you feel you need to share with an adult, the feeling of being “Mr. Cellophane,” and the struggles of coming into oneself as a middle and high schooler.

While the onstage program created a show based around their theme of the week, the Backstage track had its own areas of focus, based on that particular week: costuming, lighting, or set design. All this in addition to running the show itself, managing the sound board and a mountain of props, and sometimes wrangling a wayward actor if needed. If taking advantage of multiple weeks of the program, participants are free to switch from Onstage one week to Backstage the next, so they can get the experience of both crafting a gorgeous costume to wearing one themselves as they strut into center stage.

Summer Intensives runs all four weeks in July, from 9:00AM to 4:00PM every day and culminates in a performance each Friday onstage in the Rechnitz Theater. Registration is open for grades 7–12 for both the Onstage and Backstage Tracks. One week is fun, but more is even better! Intensives are $475 for one week, and when you register for an additional second, third, or fourth week you save 10%! Payment plans and need-based scholarships are available.

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Registration for Spring Break Intensives and Summer Intensives is now open!

Sign up and learn more via 732.345.1400 or tworivertheater.org/intensives/ 39

Photos by Yurik L. Lozano.

INDIVIDUAL

DONORS THANK YOU to the following generous individuals who made contributions to our Annual Fund, Events, and Capital Campaigns.

VISIONARY CIRCLE ($25,000+) Anonymous Cynthia Bajorek and Robert E. Evanson Caroline P. Huber Helaine and Sidney Lerner Victoria and William Marraccini Emily J. Rechnitz Joan and Robert Rechntiz Leslie Miller and Richard Worley THE INNOVATOR CIRCLE ($10,000-$24,999) Anonymous Lisa and Stephen Becker* Marilyn and Bob Broege Jeremy Grunin Phyllis Kinsler Mary Jane and Rick Kroon Joanna and Brian Leddin Anne Luzzatto and Gordon Litwin The Honorable Edward J. McKenna Nancy A. Mulheren The Murphy Family Foundation Mary Beth and Gerald Radke Joshua Rechnitz Liz and Adam Rechnitz Anne Marie Schultz Anne and Sheldon Vogel BENEFACTOR ($5,000-$9,999) Anonymous (2) Peter Bruguiere Mr. Thomas Carroll The Carton Family Sam Chevalier Elizabeth Columbo Mr. William Colin Carolyn DeSena Gale and Dr. Robert B. Grossman Guttenplan Family Foundation Joan and Paul Hamelberg Barbara and Joseph Hollander Barbara and Jim Hrebek Katherine Kovner Wendy and Gerald Marks Linda McKean Nyire and Gregory Melconian JP Nicolaides and the Honorable Ed Zipprich Gloria Nilson Fund Sean O’Connell Susan and Ty Olson Patricia and Vernon Ralph Cathy Sivo Steve Scopellite 40

Jennifer Estela-Stollwerck Mary Carol Stunkel Kathy and Webster Trammell CHAMPION ($2,500-$4,999) Howard P. Aronson Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Barrett Jane Bergere Hall Building Juliet Cozzi and Ronald Gumbaz Dr. and Mrs. Miguel Damien Mr. and Mrs. Thomas DeFelice John Dias Gail and John Duffy Joan Ellis Kathleen Ellis and the Honorable Kenneth Pringle Linda and Bob Ensor The Gravina Family Foundation, Inc. Thomas K. Hessman Christina Hewitt Maureen and James Hurst* Nancy Karpf and Scott Brady Cathy Larson Beth and Vincent Mazza Metrovation Aida and Brian Murphy Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Neff Barbara Nevius Ms. Victoria Perry Allyn and Patrick Quagliano Daryl Roth Lori and Geoffrey Sadwith Linda and Andrew Safran Maureen Silliman and William Parry Penny and Larry Turtel Susan E. Whyman Cynthia and Bill Wilby Meta and Dr. Ralph Wyndrum Mr. Albert Zager PATRON ($1,000-$2,499) Anonymous Jutta and George Aguilar Barbara and Andy Andres Ms. Jay Appleton Marie and Robert Arbour Mrs. Deborah and Mr. Richard B. Ansell Barbara Benson Lois P. Broder Nancy and Ed Butler Barbara and Tom Carroll Tamara Casriel Dr. and Mrs. E. F. Cheslock Mr. Chris Cole

Lynn and Jan Dash Melissa and Joseph C. Del Broccolo, III* Nancy and Michael Del Priore Lorraine and Bob Henry Lanae and Todd Herman Daniel L. Hertz Jr. Mr. Dave Hoder Eileen and Timothy Hogan Marti and Bruce Huber Melissa and Paul Hurst Michael Hurst Jean Jaslovsky and Vincent Gifford Ginny Kamin Robin and John Klein Thomas and Bridget Kluwin Ms. Tricia Krietzberg Edward Madden Ms. Susanne Mars Kimberly Mason Charles and Theresa Mattina John McEwen Lisa and Quinn McKean, III Mr. Albert Mishaan and Jennifer Coyler Robert Mortenson Larry and Paula Metz Ms. Jennifer Neil Lauren Nicosia Parker Family Health Center Mr. Herbert Paul Karla Radke Joel Rogers Monica and John Ryan Candy and Dr. Sigmund Sattenspiel June and Mort Seligman William G. Shlala Bruce Sherrill and Robert Cordrey Caryl and Charles Sills Kathryne and Richard Singleton Mr. and Mrs. William Spector Mary and Bill Todt Elizabeth Tortorella and Ivan Polonsky Catherine Weiss and Samuel Huber Mrs. Pippa Woods Joan Zakanych PRODUCER ($500-$999) Anonymous Ms. Suzanne Anan Rosalyn Azzolina Risa and Richard Bertodatti Mr. Philip Bonaventura Jill and John Caddell Dr. Joseph J. Calabro John Caroli Isabella and John Chiappinelli

Joan G. Clark Susan and Alan Coen Justine and John Coleman* The Cordaro-Camoosa Family Duke Dang and Charlie Rosen Judy and Richard Fuller Laraine and Ned Gaunt Gary Gellman Vincent Gillick Janice and David Henderson Marc Harrison and Gail Klein Ellen and Jay Herman Lamar Hicks Phyl and Don Howard Mr. Frederick Johnson Mrs. Bonnie Johnson Margaret and Jim Graf Angela Kluwin and James Noll Mr. and Mrs. Heywood Knopf Senator Joe Kyrillos Maxine Macnow Mrs. Nancy Medrow Mr. and Mrs. Steven Meko Jennifer and Thomas Mullins Ms. Christine O’Rourke Trudy and Charles Parton Ms. Patricia Perfect Barry V. Qualls Ginger and Joel Richman Denyse and R.J. Reed Monica Reid The Craig and Flori Roberts Foundation, Inc. Paulette and Lawrence Roberts Peggy Sansone Dr. and Mrs. Harold and Davida Schachter Peter A. Schkeeper Courtney and Ricky Schroeder Sheila Schwartz Margaret and Matt Shafai Shrewsbury Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sorensen Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide Carol Stillwell T. Thomas Fortune Foundation Diane Vigilante Nancy Wong Susan Zaffiro Linda Zarnett DIRECTOR ($250-$499) Anonymous (3) Lisa and Michael Absatz Meredyth Armitage Dorothy and Michael Bailey Dr. Janice Breen Nancy and Martin Brilliant Amanda Butterbaugh and Michael Mulheren Ellen and Donald Byck Lucy Campanella Marjorie and Peter Cavalier Linda and Samuel Chororos Kyllene Cox Donald Crocker Karen and Joseph D’Amore Phil Dorian*

Linda and Philip Falcone Rob Gannon May Louie and Walter Graczyk Barbara Boas and Stephen Hecht ICM Partners Patricia and William Jaeger Bobbi and Bob Krantz Nicole Lerario Ann Roseman and Stan Lumish Lunch Break Daphne and Steve Mishkin Senator Declan O’Scanlon Karen and David Rajala Mrs. Margaret Riker Toni Rinella and Brian Compton Louis Rodriguez Barbara Sager Susan Stamler Joe Stampe Karin and Joe Stein Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Steinman Anita and Robert Stix Janet and P.J. Rotchford Nannette and Richard Tereo Stephen Thurber Judith and Joseph Vassallo Joyce Weinstein Wendie and Stephen Weinstein Dee and Fred Williamson Ms. Nancy Winter Dr. Kenneth Womack Marjorie and Zeke Zaccaro *Includes Matching Gift MATCHING GIFTS The following have provided matching gifts to Two River on behalf of their employees.

American Online Giving Foundation Black Rock Matching Gift Program C.R. Bard Foundation Goldman Sachs HSBC Matching Gifts Program IBM Corp Johnson & Johnson Matching Gifts JPMorgan Chase Foundation Linkedin New Jersey Resources Matching Gift Microsoft Corporation Prudential Financial, Inc. (3) TE Connectivity Verisk Analytics (2) Verizon Wireless TRIBUTES AND MEMORIALS Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County In memory of Robert Rechnitz Esther Barcun In memory of Robert Rechnitz Leslie and Richard Black In memory of Michelle Skole Lois P. Broder In memory of Robert Rechnitz Lois P. Broder In memory of Kenneth Stunkel

Jill and John Caddell In memory of Robert Rechnitz Candice Chirgotis In honor of John Dias Mrs. Diane DeLoche In memory of Kenneth Stunkel Dr. Jack Demarest In memory of Kenneth Stunkel Debra Dengrove In honor of Kenneth Stunkel Mr. David Herrstrom In memory of Kenneth Stunkel Eileen and Timothy Hogan In memory of Robert Rechnitz Barbara and Joseph Hollander In memory of Robert Rechnitz Mrs. Caroline Huber In memory of Robert Rechnitz Mrs. Caroline Huber In memory of Kenneth Stunkel Ginny Kamin In memory of Layla Diba’s mother Soudavar Magaloff Ginny Kamin In memory of Kristi Kaepplen’s mother Jane Ginny Kamin In memory of Robert Rechnitz Ms. Barbara Kenas In memory of Helen Selinger Mrs. Helen Kim In Memory of Kenneth Stunkel Mary Jane and Richard Kroon In Memory of Kenneth Stunkel Lunch Break In Memory of Robert Rechnitz Michelle McCreary In memory of Maureen Fisher The Murphy Family Foundation In memory of Robert Rechnitz Sally and Charles Neustadt In memory of Robert Rechnitz Ms. Lauren Nicosia In honor of Edward J. McKenna Jr. Ms. Emily J. Rechnitz In Memory of Robert Rechnitz Drs. Robert M. and Joan H. Rechnitz In Memory of Kenneth Stunkel Ms. Sheila Sachs In memory of Robert Rechnitz Ms. Sheila Sachs In memory of Elaine Rennert Shrewsbury Foundation In memory of Robert Rechnitz Maureen Silliman and William Parry In honor of Michael Stelle Susan Stamler In honor of Mary Jane Kroon Karin and Joe Stein In memory of Robert Rechnitz Wendie and Stephen Weinstein In memory of Robert Rechnitz Listing reflects gifts made between January 1, 2019 and January 31, 2020 41

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Recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards

STAFF

Two River Theater Staff in Studio A. Photo by Danny Sanchez

ARTISTIC Stephanie Coen Associate Artistic Director Taylor Barfield Literary Manager Madeleine George Playwright in Residence Kamilah Bush Artistic Assistant ADMINISTRATION Alma MalabananMcGrath General Manager Margaret Shafai Director of Finance Karen Pierce Staff Accountant AUDIENCE SERVICES, PR & MARKETING Courtney Schroeder Director of Marketing Jenna Castano Associate Director of Marketing Hannah Walker Institutional Marketing Manager Yurik L. Lozano Multimedia Manager

Michele Klinsky Box Office Manager Evan Kudish Box Office Supervisor Lynn Kroll Box Officer/Group Sales Coordinator Vernette Spicer Box Officer/Access Coordinator Samantha Truglio Auslin Williams Matt Yee Box Officers Angela White House Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Tess Ammerman Carmen Balentine Briana Butler Kelsey Butler Myles Columbo Bobby DiGenova Thomas Dougherty Doreen Fromage Melissa Javorek John Knodel Matt Markowski Janet Pepsin Daniel Pino Kayla Santry Gabby Scerbo Francesca Trerotola

Nicholas Trerotola Elena Zambrowski Front of House Staff DEVELOPMENT Denyse Reed, Director of Development Katie Benson Special Events Manager Thomas Dougherty Events Assistant Rachel Hulsart Institutional Giving Manager Angela Kluwin Associate Director of Development EDUCATION Kate Cordaro Director of Education Amanda Espinoza Education & Community Engagement Manager Lea Anello Corinda Bravo Amanda Butterbaugh Devin Fletcher Shane O’Neil Maria Paduano

Lucas Pinner Elliot Roth Steven Wilson Teaching Artists Em Weinstein Adaptor/Director OPERATIONS Wayne Van Sant Maintenance Supervisor Vinnie Gillick Lamar Hicks William Hinton Building Maintenance PRODUCTION Lauren Kurinskas Director of Production Will Cruttenden Associate Production Manager Jackie Romeo Production Management Assistant Alison Campbell Company Management Assistant Jacqueline Deniz Young Technical Director Colleen Dolan Scenic Charge

Fiona Malone Assistant Technical Director Duane Noch Master Carpenter Christian Dilks Staff Carpenter Laura Nuneviller Shop Assistant Marlène Whitney Properties Supervisor Victoria Schilling Assistant Properties Supervisor Mich Davis Properties Assistant Lesley Sorenson Costume Shop Supervisor Jill DiGiuseppe Draper Maggie Barnett Wardrobe Supervisor Jennah H. Cruz Costume Assistant Olga “Sue” Patino Lighting Supervisor Dan Montano Sound Supervisor Cassie Mazza Abigail Lynn Smith Lighting & Sound Assistants

Niew Bharyaguntra Devin Christor Production Assistants SPECIAL SERVICES Gilda Rogers Community Relations Social Sidekick Press & Publicity Design Army Graphic Design Suzanne Anan Graphic Design T. Charles Erickson Production Photography Michael Boylan Director, Cinematographer Gordon N. Litwin, Esq., Litwin & Provence, LLC Legal Counsel WithumSmith + Brown Auditors

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SCENE

AT TWO RIVER

TWELFTH NIGHT OPENING NIGHT

On January 17th, Two River hosted a special post-show reception for the donors and special guests who attended the opening night performance of Twelfth Night. Those in attendance had the chance to mix and mingle with our creative and artistic teams with a wide array of artists from past Two River productions. Special thank you to our opening night sponsors Sickles Market and Nicholas Wines.

TEDXASBURYPARK SALON: WISE FOOLISHNESS On January 9th, leading up to the opening of Twelfth Night, Two River hosted an evening of curated talks in partnership with TEDxAsburyPark. The Salon's theme was "Wise Foolishness" with talks that covered music, comedy and Shakespeare.

Performers included composer David Cieri, comedian Marion Grodin, comedian Myq Kaplan, Two River's Literary Manager Taylor Barfield and directors Sara Holdren (Twelfth Night) and Em Weinstein (A Little Shakespeare: Twelfth Night). The evening was moderated by Brian Smiga, TEDxAsburyPark founder, and included refreshments from Sickles Market and Triumph Brewing Company. This event marked our first public event in the Center for New Work, Education and Design.

Photos by Yurik L. Lozano

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