2020 Twelfth Night Playbill

BY

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE D I R ECT E D BY

SA R A H O L D R E N

JAN 11 – FEB 2/2020

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"The dialogue crackles with the poetry and fierce conscience that made Wilson one of this country's most essential artists!" - USA Today FEB 29 – MAR 22 Directed by Obie Award winner Brandon J. Dirden A mayoral campaign is upended by the struggle to preserve a piece of history in 1997 Pittsburgh.

Playwright Tony Meneses is “a distinctive voice worthy of attention.” - The Star-Ledger PRODUCTION SPONSOR:

APR 11 – MAY 10 | WORLD PREMIERE

By Tony Meneses Directed by Annie Tippe Clashes and connection between a gay yoga teacher and a team of construction workers.

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“Performed with marvelous subtlety and rare humility.”

- The New York Times

JUNE 6 – 28 Written, Performed and Directed by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson Original Music Composed by Bill Sims Jr. Additional Music Composed and Performed by Chris Thomas King This master storyteller reminisces about the 1950s boardinghouse that helped raise him.

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SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE NOW AT THE BOX OFFICE OR ONLINE AT TWORIVERTHEATER.ORG 2

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

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7 Patron Services 9 A Note from the Artistic Director John Dias 11 Cast of Characters 13 Synopsis 15 Bios 20 Playwright-in-Residence, Madeleine George on Twelfth Night 25 Leadership Bios 26 Shakespeare at Two River Theater: A Look Back 29 Production Spotlight: Meet the Lobbyists 31 Coming Soon: August Wilson's Radio Golf 35 Upcoming Classes 36 Education Spotlight: A Little Shakespeare & Spring/ Summer Intensives 38 Individual Donors 41 Institutional Support 43 Love in Hate Nation Opening Night Sponsors 45 Meet Our Staff 46 Scene at Two River

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12/23/19 9:16 AM

TWELFTH NIGHT

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

By William Shakespeare

With Hannah Rose Caton Carman Lacivita* Kurt Rhoads*

Celeste Ciulla* Kathleen Littlefield* Rudy Roushdi*

Tommy Crawford* Joey McIntyre* Will Turner*

Richard Hollis* Luis Quintero* Tony Aidan Vo*

SCENIC DESIGNER........................................................................................Claire DeLiso† COSTUME DESIGNER................................................................................Fabian Aguilar LIGHTING DESIGNER.................................................................................Caitlin Smith Rapoport† SOUND DESIGNER........................................................................................Kate Marvin† & Kathy Ruvuna ORIGINAL MUSIC............................................................................................The Lobbyists MUSIC DIRECTOR..........................................................................................Tommy Crawford HAIR & WIG DESIGNER.............................................................................Cookie Jordan FIGHT DIRECTOR...........................................................................................Benjamin Curns CASTING..................................................................................................................Binder Casting/Chad Eric Murnane, CSA ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER........................................................Larry Copeland* PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER.................................................Brett Anders*

Directed by Sara Holdren

OPENING NIGHT: JANUARY 17, 2020 JOAN AND ROBERT RECHNITZ THEATER

SEASON SPONSOR:

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UNITED

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Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

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* Members of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of

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PRODUCTION SPONSOR:

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

† Represented by United Scenic

Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE

SEASON SUPPORTERS:

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.

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A NOTE FROM THE

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

JOHN DIAS Photo by Danny Sanchez

I’m writing this from the depths of winter. It’s not exactly the shortest day of the year, but here above the 40th parallel, it almost doesn’t matter. The darkness shrouds us for the better part of December and January and, though it happens every year, I know I’m not the only one unsettled by the sudden murk. The day ends so quickly, the night predominates and the sun has so much less to give. I’ve seen this all before, but why does it surprise me? Despite my fifty-something years of consciousness, perhaps I still haven’t fully learned its lesson. Instead, I’m made more aware of my lack of awareness. And it’s something about that—the flaw of our human ignorance—which I believe led Shakespeare to write us this most wintertime play.

It is mostly intelligent supposition that leads scholars to theories of why, when and how Shakespeare wrote his plays; the facts are relatively few and sometimes sketchy. About Twelfth Night we’re not certain of much. But I do like a theory that gathers some of the facts and argues that Shakespeare wrote the play with the Christian holiday of Epiphany very much in mind.

January 6 is the feast of the Epiphany, the day following the twelfth night of Christmas. Shakespeare’s company was hired by the Queen to perform an entertainment for a young Italian nobleman named Orsino on January 6, 1601. We don’t know which play Orsino saw but it was almost certainly not Twelfth Night (the first recorded performance was not until February of the following year). I like to believe it was the visit of that Italian nobleman, however, that put Shakespeare in mind of a contemporary English translation (Rich’s Farewell to Militarie Profession) of an Italian story (from Bandello’s Novelle) of the romantic entanglements involving a set of twins and two disaffected aristocrats. Shakespeare borrowed that visiting nobleman’s name for his duke, Orsino, and named the others Viola, Sebastian and Olivia. What if, in anticipation of Orsino’s twelfth night visit, in the darkest days of December, Shakespeare first sat down to write what would become our play?

The Feast of the Epiphany was a much more important and somber holiday for the Elizabethan English than for most of us today in New Jersey. Sure there were three-kings’ cakes, mummers’ plays, chalking-the-door, wassailing and general revelry but notably, there was mandatory church attendance for quiet contemplation of Christ’s birth. And more importantly, for His epiphany.

Epiphany is not solely a Christian idea. We know it is at least as old as the ancient Greeks, who gave us the word. For the Greeks, it meant the appearance or manifestation of a deity. I quite like how Webster defines the word as a bridge between the original Greek—running over the Christian event—to its contemporary meaning, charged with both a psychological and spiritual awareness: “a sudden, intuitive perception of—or insight into—the reality or essential true meaning of something, usually initiated by some commonplace occurrence or experience.” What’s necessary for an epiphany is that the unseen is suddenly and wonderfully, seen. The initiation need not be unusual—though it is usually profound—it happens in the everyday: in the case of the Christian story it’s the birth of a child, for the characters in Twelfth Night it’s as commonplace as the pangs of loss and love.

Listen in the play for the many ways the characters confront in themselves—and in others—the various disguises, masks and cloaks of “darkness” that both figuratively and literally shroud the true essence of who they are. I like to think that Shakespeare is reminding us—as he remembers himself—that epiphany is a wonder, an enlightening, the experience of which requires some time spent in the darkness of ignorance. And probably because our “essential true meanings” are infinitely profound, we will require epiphanies at least once a year if we ever hope truly to know ourselves. But the universe provides: the sun will peep out and the light increase, for a while this summer. Then darkness returns. The theater—perhaps the universe’s best understudy— provides too: we enter as innocents, the play begins in darkness, in the light our awareness grows, the characters reveal themselves, and we begin to see ourselves. Then all goes to black. Until the next show.

See you in the theater!

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PRACTICE & GIVE

CAST OF CHARACTERS ORSINO, a Duke, in love with Olivia.................................................................................Joey McIntyre VALENTINE, his manservant...............................................................................................Will Turner CURIO, the same..........................................................................................................................Tony Aidan Vo OLIVIA, a countess.....................................................................................................................Kathleen Littlefield SIR TOBY BELCH, her uncle.................................................................................................Kurt Rhoads SIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK, his companion...............................................................Luis Quintero FABIAN, their friend, a member of Olivia's household..........................................Tony Aidan Vo MALVOLIO, Olivia's steward.................................................................................................Richard Hollis MARIA, Olivia's gentlewoman..............................................................................................Celeste Ciulla CAPTAIN of a shipwrecked vessel...................................................................................Will Turner A PRIEST..........................................................................................................................................Will Turner AN OFFICER...................................................................................................................................Will Turner Of Messaline VIOLA, a young noblewoman, later disguised as the page Cesario………..Hannah Rose Caton SEBASTIAN, her brother........................................................................................................Rudy Roushdi Of Where You Will

OPEN YOUR HEART

Of Illyria

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FESTE, a wandering jester, often seen in Olivia's household...........................Tommy Crawford ANTONIO, a sea captain, enemy to Orsino..................................................................Carman Lacivita Violin...................................................................................................................................................Celeste Ciulla Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Piano, Ukulele............................................................Tommy Crawford Guitar..................................................................................................................................................Luis Quintero Ukulele...............................................................................................................................................Rudy Roushdi Bass, Guitar, Piano......................................................................................................................Will Turner Guitar, Drums, Percussion......................................................................................................Tony Aidan Vo Twelfth Night will be performed with one intermission.

PRODUCTION CREDITS Assistant to the Director: Kamilah Bush

CASTING Binder Casting Jay Binder, CSA, Mark Brandon, CSA Chad Eric Murnane, CSA, Sarah Cooney Kyle Coker, Anthony Pichette Jarrett Reiche Part of RWS Entertainment Group Ryan Stana CEO, Bruston Manuel COO Two River Theater 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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Twelfth Night: SYNOPSIS

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wins Viola and Sebastian are shipwrecked off the shores of Illyria. Both believe the other to be drowned. Viola is saved by a local ship captain. Finding herself in a strange land without her brother, she decides it prudent to disguise herself as a young man named ‘Cesario.’ With the help of the captain, she goes off to seek employment as a servant for a local Duke, Orsino.

Orsino has fallen in love with the Lady Olivia, who has promised to mourn the death of her brother for seven years. Passing off affairs of state to his assistants, Orsino spends most of his time at home, pining for Olivia and sending messengers to her in hopes she’ll return his affections.

Meanwhile, in Olivia’s house, her uncle Sir Toby Belch brings his wealthy but foolish friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek to woo Olivia. They are reprimanded by Olivia’s chambermaid, Maria, for drinking late into the night and partying in Olivia’s house in her time of mourning.

After Viola arrives at Orsino’s court, it takes only a few days for ‘Cesario’ to become one of Duke Orsino’s favorites. Given his new fondness for ‘Cesario,’ and believing his youthful charm will sway Olivia, Orsino sends the disguised Viola to woo Olivia on his behalf.

Viola heads off to perform the task—despite the fact that she herself has fallen in love with Orsino.

A

t Olivia’s house, the family fool, Feste, has returned from a long absence and seeks to resume his job of telling jokes. Maria interrupts with news that Orsino has sent another messenger to Olivia. After outwitting her stern steward, Malvolio, Olivia grants ‘Cesario’ a private audience. As Viola works to convince Olivia of why Orsino is a worthy suitor, Olivia instead begins falling for ‘Cesario.’ After rebuking Orsino yet again, Olivia says that she will see no other messengers other than ‘Cesario’ and that she wants the youth to return the next day with news of how Orsino takes her rejection. After ‘Cesario’ leaves, Olivia sends Malvolio to bring a ring to the youth and say he left it behind.

Malvolio brings the ring to Viola (still disguised as ‘Cesario’) outside of Olivia’s home. Upon seeing the ring and hearing Olivia’s message, Viola works out her sticky wicket—she loves Orsino, who loves Olivia, who has fallen in love with her male alter ego, ‘Cesario.’

The situation is further complicated when Sebastian arrives in Illyria with Antonio, a pirate. Antonio rescued Sebastian from the shipwreck and they have since become close friends. Sebastian ventures to meet with Duke Orsino. Antonio, feeling a deep love for Sebastian, accompanies him despite being an outlaw in Illyria. For his own safety, Antonio gives Sebastian some money to spend in town, while he waits for him in their hotel.

Later, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Feste, and Fabian, another member

of Olivia’s household, throw a raucous party late at night. There’s drinking, music, and mirth. Although she’s amused by Sir Toby and the lot, Maria attempts to quiet the group for Olivia’s sake.

She’s followed by Malvolio, who harshly breaks up the party and threatens severe consequences if their revelry continues. Tired of Malvolio’s high-and-mighty attitude, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria devise a plan to humiliate the steward.

Maria forges a letter to Malvolio, supposedly from Olivia, suggesting that she loves him and he should smile all the time and dress in a fashion that she, in actuality, detests. Malvolio, who is secretly in love with Olivia, does as the letter instructs. When he meets Olivia later, she is so concerned by Malvolio’s appearance and behavior that she asks Maria and Sir Toby to treat him for madness by locking him up.

M

eanwhile, Sir Andrew laments Olivia’s continued favor toward ‘Cesario.’ He threatens to leave, but Sir Toby convinces him that Olivia, in fact, favors Sir Andrew and has been testing him by speaking with ‘Cesario.’ Sir Toby convinces Sir Andrew that he should challenge ‘Cesario’ to a duel to prove his valor and win Olivia. Just as Sir Andrew and ‘Cesario’ are about to fight, Antonio happens upon the scene and, believing the disguised Viola to be her brother Sebastian, intervenes and is arrested.

Later, Sir Andrew encounters Sebastian on the street and re-issues his challenge, but Sebastian soundly beats him. Olivia arrives and mistakes Sebastian for ‘Cesario,’ asking him to marry her. He is immediately smitten by her and agrees.

Meanwhile, Malvolio is still imprisoned in the depths of Olivia’s home. With the help of Feste, Sir Toby and Maria continue to humiliate the steward. After he plays some tricks on him, Feste agrees to help Malvolio by giving him a pen, paper, and a light so that he can write a letter to Olivia.

The play comes to a head when Orsino, accompanied by ‘Cesario,’ finally comes to woo Olivia in person. Thinking she has married ‘Cesario,’ Olivia calls Viola her husband. Viola, of course, denies this union. Both Orsino and Olivia feel betrayed by ‘Cesario.’ Sir Toby and Sir Andrew enter and accuse ‘Cesario’ of assaulting them in the street. In the midst of all Viola’s denials, Sebastian arrives. The twins recognize each other, Viola is revealed as a woman, and they clear up the confusion.

I

n the midst of these revelations, Feste reveals Malvolio’s letter, which accuses Olivia of doing him notorious wrong. Sir Toby and Sir Andrew sneak away, leaving Fabian and Maria to confess the tricks they have played on Malvolio and reveal that Sir Toby has married Maria for her part in this ploy. Malvolio vows revenge.

At the play’s conclusion, Olivia and Sebastian remain wed and Orsino proposes marriage to Viola. n 13

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MEET THE ARTISTS! HANNAH ROSE CATON (Viola) is a NYC/London-based actress and recent graduate of The Juilliard School’s Drama Division. She’s thrilled to be working with Sara Holdren and to be performing at Two River Theater for the first time! Off-Broadway/Regional Theater: Mrs. Christie (Vermont Theatre Festival), An Octoroon (Chautauqua Theater Company), Untitled Russia Play (reading at Chautauqua Theater Company), Hay Fever (West Fulton Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sadler’s Wells Theatre). TV & Film: The Falling, Lady of Heaven, Last Knights, Wizards vs Aliens, Beady Eye. Juilliard: Queens (by Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok), Detroit ’67, Rita También Rita (The Playwriting Festival), Richard II, Queens Boulevard, Top Girls, Dancing at Lughnasa, Hamlet, Once in a Lifetime, Our Lady of 121st Street, Pericles.

CELESTE CIULLA (Maria, Violin) A long and winding road has finally led Celeste back to Two River Theater. She last performed here in the 1998/99 Season, in Thieves’ Carnival, and is so glad to be here! Celeste performed in 11 shows at The Old Globe, including playing Miss Lily in Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow’s Whisper House, Gertrude in Hamlet, Volumnia in Coriolanus and Tamora in Titus Andronicus. She was a member of the Pearl Theatre Company where she performed in 13 shows including Dona Angela in The Phantom Lady and Ariel in The Tempest. Last holiday season she played Queen Eleanor in The Lion in Winter at Pioneer Theatre. Other favorite roles include: Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy at American Stage Company, Lady Macbeth at Pioneer Theatre and the Arizona Theatre Company, Titania/ Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Hermione in The Winter’s Tale at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival and The Ghost of Christmas Past in Cincinnati Playhouse’s A Christmas Carol. Though Celeste has yet to perform on Broadway, television or film, she keeps busy. She has recorded over 60 audio books with Recorded Books and has a home audio studio where she records for Elevate, the law company. She is a graduate of Northwestern

and Harvard Universities and a proud member of AEA and SAG/ AFTRA. celeste@celesteciulla.com. A special thanks to Thom Clay at Acuity Artists and all of my dearest friends and family who have shown me so much love in the most difficult of times.

TOMMY CRAWFORD (Feste, Guitar, Piano, Ukulele, Music Director) is an actor, musician, and composer, and is thrilled to be making his Two River debut (in his home state)! Favorite recent theater acting credits include playing Paul McCartney in Only Yesterday (59E59, Northern Stage), Carl Perkins in Million Dollar Quartet (Weston Playhouse), Percy in SeaWife (White Heron Theatre, Naked Angels), Once (Northern Stage), Veil’d (WP Theater), Alan in One Man, Two Guvnors (Florida Studio Theatre), A.R. Gurney’s Heresy (The Flea), and Bekah Brunstetter’s Take Her to See the Maco Lights (The Lark/Invisible Dog). As a composer, recent projects include SeaWife (2016 Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Music in a Musical, with The Lobbyists), From Cold Lake (PIT/PITCast), and The Burial at Thebes (UCSD/ La Jolla Playhouse). As a music director, recent projects include One Man, Two Guvnors and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chautauqua Theater Co.), The Tempest (Saratoga Shakespeare), The Grapes of Wrath (Ubuntu, UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse), and SeaWife. Current writing: Miss Mitchell (EST/ SLOAN Commission); The Golden Spike (with The Lobbyists and Don Nguyen); Cry Eden, an exploration of the Cain and Abel story as a folk-rock epic; and Nia, an adaptation of Euripides’s Iphigenia at Aulis. Collective leader, music director, and co-founder, The Lobbyists. He is a lifetime member artist of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. Tommy grew up in Montclair, NJ, and lives on the Upper West Side with his wife, director Sarah Elizabeth Wansley, his sourdough starter, and more instruments than he has room for.

Edu: Yale. www.tommycrawford.com RICHARD HOLLIS (Malvolio) Previously at Two River: Present Laughter. Broadway: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime (Barrymore Theatre), Travesties (Roundabout). OffBroadway: Hangmen (Atlantic Theater), Muswell Hill (Barrow Group). Regional: Taking Steps (Barrington Stage), Bedroom Farce (Huntington), Twelfth Night (Center Stage), Stones in His Pockets (Hudson Stage), Hit-Lit (Queens Theatre), The Illusion (Triad Stage), The Sisters Rosensweig (Capital Rep), Romeo and Juliet, The Real Thing, Amadeus (Northern Stage). National Theatre, London: Coast of Utopia, His Girl Friday, Tartuffe, The Wonders of Sex and The Country Doctor. Other London theater includes Diana of Dobson’s, The Skin Game, The Years Between and Factors Unforeseen (Orange Tree Theatre), Torn (Arcola), and State of Innocence (Theatre 503). Film and television includes the upcoming Plot 15

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Against America (HBO), Blacklist, Dark Shadows, Believe, and the original BBC series of The Office, as well as Waking the Dead, EastEnders, Shakespeare’s Happy Endings, Silent Witness.

CARMAN LACIVITA (Antonio) Broadway: Marvin’s Room and Cyrano de Bergerac opposite Kevin Kline. Off-Broadway: Henry 6th in Rose Rage: Henry the 6th Pts. 1, 2, 3 (Bayfield Award, Jeff Award, Drama League nomination), directed by Edward Hall; Colonel Brandon in Bedlam’s Sense and Sensibility, Red Bull Theater, The Public, Drama League, The Pearl, Ars Nova and others. International & Regional: Darcy in Pride and Prejudice at Syracuse Stage, George Is Dead with Marlo Thomas, directed by Elaine May, Dorset Theatre Festival, Arizona Theatre Company, Bermuda Arts Festival, George Street Playhouse, Chicago Shakespeare, Long Wharf, Contemporary American Theatre Festival and others. TV/Film: Blue Bloods, Golden Boy, Royal Pains, Modern Love, Marino’s, The Chica Show. For iTunes and iBooks: Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Macbeth and Cyrano de Bergerac for Great Performances (PBS). MFA–Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, BFA-TCU, Founding member of The Coop and Artistic Associate at Amphibian Stage Productions. Love to Tony and Gordon. www.carmanlacivita.com, follow on Instagram @lacivitacarman KATHLEEN LITTLEFIELD (Olivia) is thrilled to be making her Two River Theater debut! Broadway: The Nap (MTC), The Glass Menagerie (John Tiffany). Off-Broadway: Love, Love, Love (Roundabout), Linda (MTC). NY Theater: Convention (Brontosaurus Haircut), Invincible Ones (Columbia), Man of the Hour (Metropolitan Playhouse), Graduation Day (Middle Voice).

Film: Tenured, Regarding the Case of Joan of Arc. TV: Orange Is the New Black, The Blacklist, It’s a Hit! (pilot). Thanks to Sara, the cast, everyone at Two River, Jodi, my Mine team and always Michael. All things SM: @kathleenslittle JOEY MCINTYRE (Orsino) grew up four blocks away from the oldest community theater in America, The Footlight Club in Boston, MA, where at 8 years old he made his debut as Winthrop in The Music Man. When he was 12, his community theater career was held up by an audition for New Kids on the Block—the original Boy Band. A very long story short, the band went on to sell over 80 million records worldwide and continue to sell out arenas today.

Joey has enjoyed success as a solo recording artist, including the Top Ten hit “Stay the Same” on Columbia Records. As an actor, Joey has been seen on TV and film including Matt in the film version of The Fantasticks, David E. Kelly’s Boston Public, The McCarthys

on CBS, and Paul Feig’s The Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. Through it all, his heart has always led him back to the theater, where his credits include many regional productions as well as Wicked on Broadway as Fiyero alongside Idina Menzel, OffBroadway in tick, tick…BOOM! and most recently on Broadway in Waitress the Musical. Love to B, G, R and K for making it all possible.

LUIS QUINTERO (Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Guitar) made his Two River debut earlier this season as Christian in Cyrano.

Other recent credits include: The River Bride (Stages Repertory Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Man of La Mancha (Triad Stage); Around the World in 80 Days (A.D Players); American Mariachi (Denver Center Theatre Company/The Old Globe, San Diego; Love’s Labour’s Lost (The Acting Company/HVSF); Cyrano, Into the Woods, Twelfth Night, Book of Will, Pride and Prejudice (u/s) (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (N.C Symphony); The Lightning Thief, A Christmas Carol (TheaterWorksUSA); Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Our Town (Generations, A Theater Company). BFA: University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

KURT RHOADS (Sir Toby Belch) This is Kurt’s first time at Two River Theater. Recent: Torvald in A Doll’s House, Part 2, Hudson Stage; Belarius in Cymbeline and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. Broadway: Julius Caesar.

Off-Broadway: Mint Theater: Fashions for Men; Pearl Theatre: Othello, The Good-Natur’d Man; NYU Director’s Lab: The Seagull; Present Company: Americana Absurdum. Regional: Everyman Theatre: Sweat and Long Day’s Journey into Night. Shakespeare Theatre: Measure for Measure, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Richard III. Arena Stage: How I Learned to Drive, Agamemnon and His Daughters. Denver Center: Book of Will. Clarence Brown Theatre: King Charles III, Titus Andronicus. Arvada Center: A Man for All Seasons. Playmakers Rep: Arcadia. Alabama Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth, To Kill a Mockingbird. Arizona Theatre Company: Blithe Spirit, Rocket Man. Old Globe: Fiction, Dinner with Friends. Arts Center of Coastal Carolina: Inherit the Wind, Pride and Prejudice.

Eight seasons as company member at Dallas Theater Center.

Twenty-two seasons performing and directing at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: An Iliad, Measure for Measure, Othello, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Winter’s Tale, Much Ado About Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth and Tartuffe. Video Games: “Red Dead,” “Grand Theft Auto,” “Bully,” “Warriors.” Education: University of Chicago (BA), DePaul University (MFA). He has worked with his wife, actress Nance Williamson, in 66 plays.

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RUDY ROUSHDI (Sebastian, Ukulele) Two River Theater debut!

Regional: King Charles III (Seattle Repertory Theatre), Concrete Orange (The Guthrie Theater), Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Cymbeline (Orlando Shakes), Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (7 Stages), The Liar (Seattle Public Theater), The Winter’s Tale (Seattle Shakespeare Company), Brooklyn Bridge (Seattle Children’s Theatre), Twelfth Night (Island Stage Left), Suffering, Inc. (Pony World Theatre). Film/TV: The Enemy Within (NBC). Rudy is a graduate of the University of Washington School of Drama Professional Actor Training Program. He would like to thank his friends and family for their continued support. Special thanks to Lily, Olive, and Masha.

TONY AIDAN VO (Fabian, Guitar, Drums, Percussion) is an actor, musician, and entrepreneur.

New York Theater: The Great Leap (Atlantic Theater), SeaWife (Naked Angels, 2016 Drama Desk nomination), 1969: The Second Man (NYTW), Frontiéres sans Frontières (Bushwick Starr), These Seven Sicknesses (The Flea).

Regional Theater: King of the Yees (Baltimore Center Stage), SeaWife (New York Stage & Film), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (The Hangar), The Little Prince (Colorado Shakespeare Festival), and SeaWife (White Heron).

Television: Queen Sugar (OWN), Instinct (CBS), and Slutty Teenage Bounty Hunters (Netflix-upcoming). He is also a co-founder of Audition.Cat, a new startup company that provides analytic tools for auditioning actors. Love and thanks to his family, The Lobbyists, Team BWA, and Anna. Follow: @tvo_this, tonyaidanvo.com SARA HOLDREN (Director) is a director, teacher, and writer originally from Charlottesville, Virginia. She is the Artistic Director/ co-founder of the theater company Tiltyard, as well as the Artistic Director of Shakespeare Academy @ Stratford. From 2017-2019 she served as the theater critic for New York Magazine and Vulture. com. Recent projects include The Merchant of Venice at Cleveland Play House; The Winter’s Tale with Shakespeare Academy @

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

WILL TURNER (Valentine, Sea Captain, Priest, Officer, Bass, Guitar, Piano) is an actor and songwriter based in Brooklyn. As an actor, he has been a frequent developer of new works with theaters like Ars Nova, New York Stage & Film, EST, and the Lark, as well as with rising indie filmmakers across the country.

He writes and performs music with The Lobbyists (2016 Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Music, SeaWife). MFA: Brown/Trinity.

Thanks to his family, to Gwen, and to Artists and Representatives.

More at www.willturneractor.com

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Stratford; Macbeth and The Comedy of Errors with Two River Theater’s A Little Shakespeare program; MIDSUMMER (which she co-adapted from the play by William Shakespeare) with Tiltyard; Deer and the Lovers by Emily Zemba; The Zero Scenario by Ryan Campbell; and The Master and Margarita, adapted by Edward Kemp from the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov. Sara served as the Artistic Director of the 2015 Yale Summer Cabaret, where she directed the original production of MIDSUMMER and Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. She holds a BA in Theater from Yale University and an MFA in Directing from Yale School of Drama. She is also a Drama League Fellow, a graduate of the Acting Shakespeare program at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and the recipient of the 2016-2017 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.

CLAIRE DELISO (Scenic Designer) is a French-American New York City-based set designer. She is the first recipient of the Burry Fredrik Design Fellowship from the Yale School of Drama, where Claire received her scenic design MFA. Her selected design credits include Mlima’s Tale (Westport Country Playhouse), The Tempest (The Public Mobil Unit), Imogen Says Nothing (Yale Repertory Theatre), A Padlas (Csokonai Színház, Hungary), The Tempest and As You Like It (HPSCE/The Public Theater), Love Me Tender and Honor Students (Wild Project), Spring Awakening (CT College); New Domestic Architecture, Women Beware Women, Titus Andronicus (Yale School of Drama); The 39 Steps, Red, God of Carnage, and Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (New Century Theatre). Claire has worked as an associate on productions on Broadway and at The Public, the Goodman Theatre, Lincoln Center, A.R.T, Théâtre National de Rennes and more. Claire was born and raised in a small town in the south of France called Lourmarin. www.clairedeliso.com FABIAN AGUILAR (Costume Designer) was born in El Paso, TX and attended Yale University and Boston University to pursue costume design. Most recently designed: Mlima’s Tale, In the Heights, Man of La Mancha, Romeo and Juliet (Westport Country Playhouse), Slow Food (Dorset Theatre Festival), Max Makes a Million (Alliance Theatre), safeword. (Midnight Theatricals), and Recent Alien Abductions (Play Co.). Design credits also include Winnie the Pooh (Alliance Theatre, Atlanta); Afterglow (Midnight Theatricals); ¡Bienvenidos Blancos! or Welcome White People! (Team Sunshine); Philadelphia; A View from the Bridge; Seven Spots on the Sun; set and costume for The War Boys (East Coast premiere); Sotto Voce (Portland Stage); Midsummer; The Moors (Yale Repertory Theatre world premiere); He Left Quietly (SummerWorks Performance Festival, Toronto). While in Boston he worked for various theaters, conservatories, and universities including: American Repertory Theater, Boston Ballet, Moscow Ballet, the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, and others. In his spare time, he likes to paint watercolors or urban sketch.

CAITLIN SMITH RAPOPORT (Lighting Designer) is a Brooklynbased lighting designer for theater, opera, dance, live entertainmen,t and architectural projects. Recent New York credits include productions at Theatre Row, Soho Rep. Walkerspace, Ars Nova, The New Ohio Theatre, Judson Church, Columbia University Theatre, and many others. Select US and international projects include work at REDCAT, Yale Repertory Theatre, TheatreSquared, Cape Fear Regional Theatre, Totem Pole Playhouse, Stonybrook Opera, Two River Theater: A Little Shakespeare, the Vancouver Fringe Festival, on tour in the US with Nimble Arts Circus, Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom, and internationally with Wakka Wakka Theater and Cirkus Xanti. Recent associate design credits include projects for the Park Avenue Armory, and Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird on Broadway. (continued on page 23)

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HOW HAVE YOU MADE DIVISION OF YOURSELF? Twelfth Night and the Drive Towards Wholeness

by Playwright-in-Residence, Madeleine George

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ll comedies drive towards the birth of a new society. Comedic action moves from trouble, through chaos, into resolution and social harmony. The great critic Northrop Frye calls the scene where this new society is born the cognitio. This is the obligatory pile-up of recognitions and reconciliations that every Shakespearean comedy must end with, in which that which was scrambled gets sorted, lovers are joined, tyrants are tamed, and the utopian society of peace and harmony is—at least for a moment—achieved. “The appearance of this new society,” Frye tells us, “is frequently signalized by some kind of party or festive ritual. [...] Weddings are most common.”

Thus the classic romantic comedy structure we’re all familiar with, whose origins lie in Hellenistic New Comedy and descend through the Roman comedians Plautus and Terrence into the Latin textbooks William Shakespeare recited from in grammar school, then down to Molière, pantomime, The Philadelphia Story, When Harry Met Sally, Friends, etc. But Twelfth Night, written around 1601, may be the Platonic ideal of the form. It’s often referred to as a “perfect” comedy, and it has been offering its audiences a curiously deep satisfaction for over 400 years. More well-built than Much Ado, more fulsome than Midsummer, less bitter than Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night feels somehow grown up, even though it turns on a series of credulity-straining gambits and preposterous coincidences.

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he key to its perfection may be the fact that it’s built on a double-helix structure, a braiding of the marriage plot with the ancient story of separated twins finding each other again. It’s hardly a spoiler to talk about how this play ends in a program note; Twelfth Night is not a play that operates via suspense. When we hear at the top of the show that Olivia refuses to be married, we can be certain that we’ll find her at the altar by Act V. When Orsino declares that he’ll perish without love, we know what’s coming down the pike for him, too. And we’d have to be willfully ignorant not to realize by Act II Scene 1 that the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are wandering Illyria, both believing the other to have been drowned in a shipwreck, are destined to find each other again. We don’t come to Twelfth Night to be surprised by outcomes. We come

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to accept, if we were taking the terms of the play at face value.

for the pleasure of watching a story unfolding as it must.

As Oxford professor Emma Smith says in her “Approaching Shakespeare” lecture on As You Like It, “We all know that Shakespeare’s comedies end in marriage. Comic partners usually meet early in the play. So the play sets up right at the beginning what’s going to happen at the end, and then has to spin out the fact that it can’t happen straight away, otherwise we’d just all go home. [...] Comedies thus epitomize the literary pleasure of withheld or deferred gratification. You want to know what’s going to happen, but you don’t want it to happen yet. That’s comedy.”

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or Viola and Sebastian, the path they cannot see, but which we know they must walk, is clearly laid, and strewn with ludicrous claims. First of all, we hear a lot about how, although they’re obviously fraternal twins, they’re literally indistinguishable from one another. We don’t hear much about Viola herself. One of Shakespeare’s great heroines, forceful, agile, bold and full of heart, she doesn’t have much of a backstory before she washes up on the play’s shore in Act I. (Famously, her real name isn’t even spoken until the cognition—for the whole play up until that moment, readers of the script would know her as Viola but audience members listening would know her only by her alias, “Cesario.”) It’s a mystery why her first move upon crawling from the scene of a near-fatal shipwreck is to dress herself as a boy and find a local duke to become a servant to. And it’s a stretch to believe that, just by putting on doublet and hose, she could convince both Olivia and Orsino that she’s a strapping young marriageable dude. It would all be a lot

Yet the play is after something more mythic than mannerly. And by the time we reach the cognitio in Act V, we’re gripped. The necessary complications that are the substance of comedy have played themselves out, and Sebastian and Viola are finally in the same place at the same time. We know the obligatory couples must be paired off in their obligatory couplings. But before the unions occur, Shakespeare gives us the re-union of the siblings drawn from the sea. He lets the moment of reconciliation hold the stage in distended wonder for much longer than it would ever take twins to recognize each other in real life. Viola and Sebastian stand together almost shyly, cataloguing their identifying markers to each other, tentative about releasing themselves into joy. “Do I stand there?” Sebastian asks, baffled and beguiled, as he gazes at Viola. “Do not embrace me,” Viola says, “till each circumstance of place, time, fortune, do cohere and jump that I am Viola.” In other words, “Do not embrace me until you recognize me completely as myself.”

There’s something both primitive and sophisticated about this moment. It makes the weddings—those “solemn combinations of souls”—that cap the play’s conclusion look easy by comparison. This isn’t just the forging of social bonds, it’s a psychological reconciliation, two broken halves of a self merging back into a whole. And everybody seems to realize it: “How have you made division of yourself?” Olivia cries when she sees her husband “doubled” in front of her. “One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons,” Orsino affirms.

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his may be part of what makes the play feel so “perfect,” so mature: it drives towards a wholeness deeper than union, greater than mere sorting out or pairing off. In Twelfth Night, Viola must know who she is before she can get what she wants. It’s a powerful wish in all of us to meet a walking, talking embodiment of that which we lack, to feel ourselves fulfilled not only in a union with another but internally, reunited with the lost or shipwrecked parts of ourselves. This is the gift that Sebastian gives Viola in Act V, as the new society of love coalesces around them. n

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Continued from page 19 Caitlin holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, and a BA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. To learn more about Caitlin’s work and upcoming projects visit caitlinsmithrapoport.com.

KATE MARVIN (Sound Designer) Recent designs include Wives (Playwrights Horizons); Queen (Geva Theatre Center); Lifespan of a Fact (Cincinnati Playhouse); Happy Days (Mark Taper Forum); Chimpanzee (HERE Arts Center); Fruiting Bodies (Ma-Yi Theater Company); Sweat (Asolo Repertory Theatre); Men on Boats (American Conservatory Theater); A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Indecent (Guthrie Theater); Babette’s Feast (Portland Stage Company); Crossing Delancey (Alliance Theatre); Grounded (Westport Country Playhouse); [Porto] (Women’s Project Theater); Wilder Gone (Clubbed Thumb); Fidelio (Heartbeat Opera). Kate is an Associate Artist with Target Margin Theater and Little Lord. MFA in Sound Design, Yale School of Drama.

Visit www.katemarvinsound.com.

KATHY RUVUNA (Sound Designer) is New York-based sound designer and composer originally from San Antonio, Texas. She is a recent graduate of the Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Tent Revival, Pentecost, and Much Ado About Nothing. Her work has also been heard in Good Faith (Yale Repertory Theatre), Fireflies, Taking Warsan Shire Out of Context on the Eve of the Great Storm, It’s Not About My Mother, the feels…(KMS), In the Red and Brown Water, The Meal, The Red Tent, Ni Mi Madre, Enter Your Sleep (Yale Cabaret) and Mies Julie (Yale Summer Cabaret). She holds a B.F.A. in sound design from the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University.

THE LOBBYISTS (Original Music) are a band and theater collective that creates concerts and plays that explore the American mythos driven by a folk-Americana beat. They are interested in the intersection of band performance and theatrical storytelling.

They formed in 2012, and take their name from the lobby of The Flea Theater, where the group of actor-musicians first started playing and writing music together. Drawing on folk, roots, and a host of other influences, the group has been noted for their lush harmonies and arrangements, “marvelous: songwriting (The New York Times), and “impressive musicianship” (Entertainment Weekly).

Their music for their debut show SeaWife, a haunted tale of the American whaling trade created with playwright Seth Moore and director Liz Carlson, was nominated for a 2016 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Musical. They regularly play some of New York’s favorite concert venues, including Joe’s Pub, Rockwood Music Hall, 54 Below, Mercury Lounge, and more. Their music has been developed with New York Stage and Film, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Musical Theatre Factory, Ars Nova, Rhinebeck Writers’ Retreat, and more. Currently, the band is working on several theatrical projects, including The Golden Spike (with Don Nguyen), Miss Mitchell (EST/SLOAN commission, with Kristin Slaney), and The Westside Cowboys of Death Avenue. Core members: Tommy Crawford, Eloïse Eonnet, Alex Grubbs, Will Turner, Tony Aidan Vo, and Douglas Waterbury-Tieman. Next up: check out The Lobbyists in a workshop presentation of The Golden Spike at BRIClab in downtown Brooklyn, Feb. 6 and 7. They have released one full-length and three short albums of original music. Learn more at www.wearethelobbyists.com, keep in touch @thelobbyistsnyc, and listen on Spotify, iTunes, or wherever you get your music.

COOKIE JORDAN (Hair & Wig Designer) previously designed wigs for The Belle of Amherst, Dancing at Lughnasa, Pericles and Absurd Person Singular at Two River Theater. Broadway: Slave Play, Choir Boy, The Cher Show, Once on This Island, Sunday in the Park with George, In Transit, Eclipsed, Side Show, After Midnight, Fela, A View from the Bridge. Off-Broadway: In the Blood, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare in the Park). Tours: Fela (National Tour), Fela (European Tour), Dirty Dancing. Emmy nominated for makeup design for NBC’s The Wiz Live. Winner of a 2019 Obie Award.

BENJAMIN CURNS (Fight Director) Benjamin’s fight choreography has been seen at PlayMakers Repertory Company, American Shakespeare Center, Elm Shakespeare Company, Live Arts, Roust Theatre Company, Kenan Theatre Company, The Shakespeare Forum, Virginia Stage Company, The Shakespeare Academy @ Stratford, and several colleges and universities. He’s a recognized Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors and was the recipient of the Best Scene Award and the David Boushey Founder’s Award for Excellence in Unarmed Combat at the 2016 National Stage Combat Workshop. Benjamin is a black belt in American Freestyle Karate and is currently training in mixed martial arts. Benjamin has also trained with Neutral Chaos, The Stage Combat Academy of North Carolina, and he received his MFA in Acting from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where he was awarded the David A. Hammond Award for Excellence in Dramatic Art. He is a proud AEA member and is currently a member of the Adjunct Faculty of Southern Connecticut State University.

BINDER CASTING/CHAD ERIC MURNANE, CSA (Casting) Binder Casting was founded by Jay Binder, CSA in 1984. Binder Casting has cast over 80 Broadway productions, dozens of National Tours, Off-Broadway shows, full seasons for over 25 regional theaters, as well as feature films, episodic television and commercials. Binder has also cast for Encores! at New York City Center since its inception in 1994. Additionally, the office was featured in the documentary, Every Little Step. Binder Casting is a 12-time recipient of the Artios Award for excellence in casting. Part of RWS Entertainment Group. Staff: Jay Binder, CSA, Mark Brandon, CSA, Chad Eric Murnane, CSA, Sarah Cooney, Kyle Coker, Anthony Pichette and Jarrett Reiche. www.bindercasting.com LARRY COPELAND (Assistant Stage Manager) is very happy to return to Two River Theater, where he has previously been a part of the stage management teams for Oo-Bla-Dee, The Belle of Amherst, Lives of Reason and Henry V. Most recently he was Stage Manager for Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.

Broadway: Leap of Faith. Off-Broadway: Exit Strategy. In Canada: The Lion King, I Am My Own Wife, Evangeline, Anne of Green Gables, two years of touring with Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia through the US, Canada and China. Larry would like to thank Sue, Sybil and CC for all their love and support.

BRETT ANDERS (Production Stage Manager) previously stage managed The Merry Wives of Windsor at Two River Theater.

Off-Broadway: Power Strip, The Harvest (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater); BLKS (MCC Theater); I Was Most Alive with You, The Treasurer, Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons); Cyprus Avenue, Mobile Unit: Henry V (Public Theater); [PORTO], (WP Theater/Bushwick Starr). Regional: Selling Kabul (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Miller, Mississippi (Long Wharf Theatre); Bedlam’s Sense & Sensibility (A.R.T.); The Best Little…in Texas (Theatre Under the Stars); 40 productions at the Alley Theatre in Houston, TX. 23

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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 25-year-old theater, which will open a threestory Center for New Work, Education and Design in the fall of 2019. 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 will open a three-story Center for New Work, Education and Design in the fall of 2019. During his tenure, Two River has embarked on two Strategic Plans; produced 14 world premieres (including Hurricane Diane by Playwrightin-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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SHAKESPEARE AT TWO RIVER THEATER: A LOOK BACK Photo by T. Charles Erickson

Avery Monsen and Erin Weaver in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2009/10) “Lord what fools these mortals be!” Particularly when they are in love! In his most magical and mischievous celebration of fools in love, Shakespeare assembles an odd array of fun, funny, and flummoxed mortals who fall in and out and in and out of nearly every variety of love under the moon. Aaron Posner’s production came to Red Bank following a highly successful run at California Shakespeare Theater.

Photo by Joan Marcus Photo by T. Charles Erickson

Ian Merrill Peakes and Kate Eastwood Norris in Macbeth (2007/08) Obie and Emmy Award winner Teller (of Penn and Teller) teamed with Two River’s Artistic Director Aaron Posner to reimagine Macbeth as a startling, supernatural horror show.

Bloody, chilling, and hallucinatory, it drew audiences inside the twisted minds of the theater’s most celebrated husbandand-wife murder team. Macbeth ran for 42 performances and to this day is the theater’s #1 most-attended production of all time.

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Michael Cumpsty and Katherine Meisle in Much Ado About Nothing (2011/12) The romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing delighted audiences with the sparkling banter between resistant lovers Benedick and Beatrice—Shakespeare’s greatest roles for mature actors, played by Michael Cumpsty and Katherine Meisle. Director Sam Buntrock set their “merry war” in the early 20th century, on the veranda of a family home owned by one of Sicily’s most powerful men. In this idyllic atmosphere, filled with music and sunshine, the sudden appearance of soldiers returning from battle brought romance—and an undercurrent of danger.

Photo by T. Charles Erickson

Photo by T. Charles Erickson

Jacob Fishel in the title role of Henry V, with members of the company (2012/13)

The Company of Pericles with Rinde Eckert, standing, as Gower (2015/16)

Henry V was the first of Shakespeare’s history plays to be produced at Two River. Directed by Michael Sexton, the production featured a company of 14 actors and the work of an exceptional design team, who created a dazzling canvas for the play’s combination of politics, comedy, and romance.

Sexton’s production maintained the sweep and grandeur of the play, but drew audiences inside Henry’s interior, personal life as he balanced his responsibilities as a leader with the legacy of his famously miscreant youth, spent with the largerthan-life Falstaff.

Rinde Eckert and David Schweizer’s production of Pericles, the first of the Late Romances, was set in a dive bar at the end of the world, where a group of barflies and musicians gathered to tell Shakespeare’s epic story of adventure, loss, redemption, and miraculous resurrections. With more than 40 songs and continuous underscoring, Eckert and the on-stage band played an eclectic assortment of instruments including hammered dulcimer, toy piano, and steel drum.

Photo by T. Charles Erickson

Photo by T. Charles Erickson

The Company of As You Like It (2013/14) As You Like It began in Duke Frederick’s court, a place in which audiences saw a reflection of contemporary urban life. As the characters ventured into the Forest of Arden, they discovered a rich and musical imaginative space where song and poetry and dance flourished. In this pastoral landscape, under the direction of Michael Sexton, the characters of the play let go of their rational selves and found love at the end of their journeys.

Zuzanna Szadkowski, Jason O’Connell and Nicole Lewis in The Merry Wives of Windsor (2016/17) Featuring only three actors, director Eric Tucker’s production of The Merry Wives of Windsor explored the darker undercurrent of one of Shakespeare’s silliest comedies.

In the play, the lecherous buffoon John Falstaff (perhaps Shakespeare’s greatest comic character) decides to seduce both Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, respectable married women of Windsor. When the two women immediately see through Falstaff’s plot, they decide to turn the tables on him and devise a plot of their own—for hilarious revenge.

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MEET THE LOBBYISTS

PRODUCTION SPOTLIGHT:

The Lobbyists are a band and theater collective consisting of core members Tommy Crawford, Eloïse Eonnet, Alex Grubbs, Will Turner, Tony Aidan Vo, and Douglas Waterbury-Tieman.

Here, Tommy, Will and Tony describe their unique origins and work on Twelfth Night.

How did the band form?

Tommy: The band came together in early 2012. Five of us—Tommy, Alex, Will, Tony, and Eloïse—were all performing in a show called These Seven Sicknesses at The Flea Theater in lower Manhattan.

During early previews, our director, Ed Iskandar, asked Tommy and Will (who were also the show’s co-assistant music directors) if they could noodle around in the lobby and play some songs as the audience entered. Will and Tommy’s musical friendship goes back all the way to college, when they worked on As You Like It, directed by none other than Sara Holdren.

After playing the first night in the lobby, Alex sidled up to the pair and asked if they needed a mandolin player. The next day, Tony and Eloïse approached, offering to shake their tambourines and play percussion. Tommy’s ears sparked up: an opportunity for five-part harmony arrangements! Soon, the group was playing a 30-minute set every night before the show. The members started furiously penning original songs to add to the repertoire of covers. We fondly talk about the lobby as our “Hamburg”—a venue to nightly hone our skills and develop a cohesive vibe.

A year later, Douglas joined after Tommy heard him mellifluously playing his fiddle underground at Penn Station. The two struck up a conversation, and Tommy learned Douglas was fresh from Nashville to New York, and alongside his virtuosity on the strings, shared a love of theater and acting. Douglas was presented with his suspenders and became a bona fide Lobbyist, and the band was complete.

Where did the name “The Lobbyists” come from?

Will: We literally came together in the lobby of The Flea Theater.

A few pun-filled names floated around, but The Lobbyists felt the most fun out of context.

What was the process of writing/composing music for Twelfth Night at Two River?

Tony: The Lobbyists’ songwriting process is very collaborative and can start in many different ways. Every member’s unique musical taste and perspective influences the collective’s songwriting.

Luckily, Shakespeare already provided us with written lyrics in several scenes. With that, several members took a pass at different chord progressions and adding these lyrics to it. We would share our song proposal and from there, The Lobbyists and Sara would discuss and settle on the one song that felt right for that moment in the play and how it could come back in different iterations later on. Sara also came to us with specific moments where she thought music would enhance a scene or event, and with that, The Lobbyists would offer different song options for those moments.

Things obviously change in the rehearsal room. Sara and The Lobbyists in the cast (Tommy, Will, and Tony) were in constant communication with how the music is functioning. It’s been especially fun getting to make music with our castmates of Twelfth Night. They very much influence the musical world of Illyria and we’re excited to see it come to fruition! n Learn more about The Lobbyists at www.wearethelobbyists.com 29

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COMING SOON:

AUGUST WILSON’S

AUGUST WILSON’S RADIO GOLF Directed by Obie Award winner Brandon J. Dirden ——

FEB 29 – MARCH 22/2020

J OA N A N D RO B E RT R E C H N I T Z T H E AT E R

Two River favorite Brandon J. Dirden returns to direct Radio Golf, the final play written for August Wilson’s famed American Century Cycle, comprised of one play focused on African American life for each decade of the 20th Century.

The year is 1997 in Pittsburgh’s Hill District and the 21st century rapidly approaches. Harmond Wilks is running to be Pittsburgh’s first black mayor. Concurrently, he is working to break ground on his real estate firm’s most lucrative redevelopment project, which would level a large portion of the Hill District and replace it with high-rise condos, Whole Foods, Barnes & Noble, and Starbucks. One of the buildings that Harmond’s company is set to destroy is 1839 Wylie Avenue—the ancestral home of Aunt Ester, who died in 1985, during the events of King Hedley II (performed at Two River last season). Two men with close ties to Aunt Ester confront Harmond to convince him of the house’s spiritual significance to the community—forcing Harmond, and the Hill District itself, into a battle between the past and the future.

Performances of Radio Golf begin in the Rechnitz Theater on February 29 and continue through March 22.

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

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MONDAY MASTERS

UPCOMING CLASSES

LEARN FROM THE THEATER WORLD’S BEST SHAKESPEARE SCENE STUDY WITH MICHAEL CUMPSTY JAN 27

PLAYWRITING WITH TONY MENESES MAY 4

EVERYBODY SING! WITH ELLIOT ROTH MAR 9

Tony is an alum of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Ars Nova Play Group, the Sundance Institute Playwrights Retreat at Ucross, Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship, Youngblood, and has been previously developed at the LARK Playwrights’ Week, the Berkeley Rep Ground Floor, the Wild Wind Performance Lab, and the Denver Center New Play Summit.

$40 | Adults and High School Juniors/Seniors Michael Cumpsty has spent much of his career in the theater working on Shakespeare’s plays as an actor, teacher and director.

An Obie Award winner for his performance as Hamlet at Classic Stage Company, he received raves for his Malvolio at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. Insightful, patient, and immensely gifted in taking young people and lifelong learners through the creative process, Michael has a remarkable facility with language that he will share with participants as he leads them through scenes from Twelfth Night, which many consider Shakespeare’s most perfect comedy.

$5 | For Ages 9–99 | reservations are required—offered through the New Jersey Theatre Alliance Stages Festival We all know that March is a cold, dark month. There’s no better way to kick it off than by singing a joyful song with friends! In this participatory master class, the multi-talented Elliot Roth will teach a new arrangement of an unlikely mashup with lots of harmonies for singers of all ages.

Hailed by the New York Times for his “silky smooth voice”, Elliott is the Musical Director for Two River’s Summer Intensives program. A Masters graduate of the prestigious Manhattan School of Music jazz arts program, he has Broadway (Our Sinatra and A Christmas Carol) and Off-Broadway credits, and currently teaches voice, rock/pop audition technique and jazz/soul recording arts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, NY. Come join the fun!

$25 | Adults and High School Juniors/Seniors Playwright Tony Meneses touched the hearts of Two River audiences with his plays Guadalupe in the Guest Room and The Women of Padilla. In connection with his latest Two River Theater world premiere, The Hombres, Tony will share insights into how he writes characters we fall in love with—people who are strong and vulnerable at the same time.

The class will focus on how to develop and give full life to even the smallest characters—including offstage ones!—and how to build a community around your protagonist(s).

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TO SECURE YOUR SPOT IN A CLASS, VISIT TWORIVERTHEATER.ORG/MONDAY-MASTERS OR 732.345.1400

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EDUCATION SPOTLIGHT

SHAKESPEARE FOR ALL AGES

It’s time for—Little Shakes! Two River Theater introduces hundreds of young people—and adults—to the work of the Bard through our annual A Little Shakespeare program, which is now in its seventh season. Each A Little Shakespeare production is a 75-minute abridged version of a Shakespeare play that is directed and designed by theater professionals, and performed and supported backstage by high school students.

This season, in conjunction with director Sara Holdren’s mainstage production of the full play in the Rechnitz Theater, we will bring Shakespeare to all ages with our A Little Shakespeare production of Twelfth Night in the Marion Huber Theater, adapted and directed by theater artist and educator Em Weinstein. There will be four student matinees and eight public performances between January 31-February 9.

“Twelfth Night is Shakespeare at his most dexterously playful,” Em says.

“The play interweaves tragedy, comedy, music and an excess of love.

With a cast of 14 teenagers, this 75-minute musical adaptation is set on a beach at the height of summer vacation. We hope you’ll join us to bask in the sunshine this January.”

Cast members featured in this buoyant production include Natasha Allen (Antonia), Matawan Regional High School; Dariel Angeles (Flora), MCVTS East Brunswick; Matthew Blankley (Fabian, keys), Red Bank Regional High School — VPA; Jack Cusick (Malvolio), Christian Brothers Academy; Abigail Gilder (Dorset, bass guitar), Colts Neck High School; Jesse Kodama (Valentine, drums), Red Bank Regional High School—VPA; Julian Lavarra (Sebastian), Henry Hudson Regional School; Ashley Moshett (Olivia), Howell High School—FPAC; Megan Mulroy (Viola), Howell High School— FPAC; Dylan Pitanza (Sir Toby), Red Bank Regional High School—VPA; Lily Grace Riddle (Maria), Mater Dei Prep; Kaelan Roberts (Duke Orsino), Arts High School; Maya Sta. Ana (Feste, guitar), Howell High School—FPAC; and Hunter Thomas-Burgos (Sir Andrew), Mater Dei Prep.

Joining the company backstage are Claire Munley, Assistant Director, Red Bank Regional High School – VPA; Julia Norton, Assistant Stage Manager, Middletown High School North; Ryan Lindner, Production Assistant, Middletown High School South; Brandon Rivera, Lighting Assistant, Perth Amboy High School; and Izabella Patrizio, Sound Assistant, Howell High School—FPAC. productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014/15), R E G I S T E R O N L I N E A T T W O R Photos I V ofETheARLittle TShakespeare Hof Errors E A(2017/18) T E and R Macbeth . O R(2018/19) G by Scott L. Friedman.

Comedy 36

Since A Little Shakespeare launched in 2013, more than 130 students have participated in six productions, which have reached more than 5,000 audience members as young as nine years old. When students attend a “Little Shakes” student matinee performance, it is often their first time seeing one of Shakespeare’s plays. Schools are offered an in-school preshow workshop conducted by Two River teaching artists who are highly experienced in both artistic and educational settings. Additionally, after each student matinee, students are invited to participate in a Q&A session with the cast and crew to discuss their experiences learning about Shakespeare and the production process.

Tickets for A Little Shakespeare: Twelfth Night are $20 for adults and $15 for children 12 and younger. Tickets are available from tworivertheater.org or 732.345.1400. A Little Shakespeare: Twelfth Night is sponsored by Ocean First Foundation and Rumson Country Day School.

AN INTENSIVE WAY TO BE PART OF THE THEATER-MAKING PROCESS Two River’s Intensives program is an inside look at the theater-making process that is perfect for future theater professionals, as well as anyone who wants to have some fun in an exciting and judgement-free environment. Our popular Summer Intensives gives students in grades 7–12 the opportunity to create an entirely original show in just one week—as actors, singers and dancers with the Onstage Track, or as part of the Backstage Track for designers, stage crew and technicians. Led by a team of professionals and guest artists, each show is created by the students and shaped by the directors around a theme for the week.

Registration for July 2020 opens February 1.

This season, we are also offering our first Spring Break Intensive, which will run Monday, April 13—Friday, April 17 from 9am—4pm in our brand-new Center for New Work, Education and Design. Students will create a performance in a week and share it with family and friends on Friday afternoon in one of our new studios. They will spend each day working with professional teaching artists—singing, dancing, playing theater games, creating, doing acting exercises, devising and exploring. The sky’s the limit! The cost for the week-long immersive experience is $375; some need-based scholarships are available. Contact Amanda Espinoza, Education and Community Engagement Manager, at aespinoza@trtc.org for more information.

Students in the Onstage and Backstage Tracks for Summer Intensives 2019. Photos by Yurik L. Lozano.

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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 Joanna and Brian Leddin* 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* Jane Bergere Marilyn and Bob Broege Elizabeth Columbo Jeremy Grunin Phyllis Kinsler Mary Jane and Rick Kroon 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 Carolyn DeSena Joan Ellis 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 Diane and Ross Millhiser JP Nicolaides and the Honorable Ed Zipprich Sean O’Connell Susan and Ty Olson Patricia and Vernon Ralph Cathy Sivo 38

Steve Scopellite Jennifer Estela-Stollwerck Mary Carol Stunkel Kathy and Webster Trammell

CHAMPION ($2,500—$4,999) Howard P. Aronson Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Barrett Hall Building Juliet Cozzi and Ronald Gumbaz Dr. and Mrs. Miguel Damien Mr. and Mrs. Thomas DeFelice John Dias Gail and John Duffy 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 Aida and Brian Murphy Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Neff Barbara Nevius Gloria Nilson Fund Allyn and Patrick Quagliano Daryl Roth Linda and Andrew Safran Penny and Larry Turtel Susan E. Whyman Cynthia and Bill Wilby Meta and Dr. Ralph Wyndrum Miss Chryssa Yaccarino 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 Kasandrea Banks Barbara Benson Lois P. Broder Nancy and Ed Butler Barbara and Tom Carroll Tamara Casriel Dr. and Mrs. E. F. Cheslock Isabella and John Chiappinelli 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 Mrs. Nancy Medrow Mr. Albert Mishaan and Jennifer Coyler Sonya Moroney 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 Lori and Geoffrey Sadwith Candy and Dr. Sigmund Sattenspiel June and Mort Seligman William G. Shlala Bruce Sherrill and Robert Cordrey Maureen Silliman and William Parry Caryl and Charles Sills Kathryne and Richard Singleton Mr. and Mrs. William Spector T. Thomas Fortune Foundation Mary and Bill Todt Elizabeth Tortorella and Ivan Polonsky Catherine Weiss and Samuel Huber Mrs. Pippa Woods Joan Zakanych

PRODUCER ($500—$999) Anonymous Suzanne Anan Rosalyn Azzolina Mr. Philip Bonaventura Jill and John Caddell

Dr. Joseph J. Calabro John Caroli 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 Angela Kluwin and James Noll Mr. and Mrs. Heywood Knopf Senator Joe Kyrillos Maxine Macnow 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 Diane Vigilante Nancy Wong Susan Zaffiro

DIRECTOR ($250—$499) Anonymous (3) Lisa and Michael Absatz Meredyth Armitage Alba Di Bello Risa and Richard Bertodatti Dorothy and Michael Bailey Dr. Janice Breen Nancy and Martin Brilliant Amanda Butterbaugh and Michael Mulheren Lucy Campanella Marjorie and Peter Cavalier Linda and Samuel Chororos Kyllene Cox Donald Crocker Karen and Joseph D’Amore Dr. Jack Demarest Phil Dorian* Linda and Philip Falcone

Rob Gannon Matthew Goldzweig 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 Mary Pearson Senator Declan O’Scanlon Karen and David Rajala Ginger and Joel Richmann Mrs. Margaret Riker Toni Rinella and Brian Compton Louis Rodriguez Barbara Sager Linda Schottland 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 Dr. Kenneth Womack Marjorie and Zeke Zaccaro Barbara and Maurice Zagha *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 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 Renee Maxwell In memory of Art Kamin 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 December 1, 2018 and December 30, 2019 39

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FEATURING TWO-TIME EMMY AWARD WINNER DANA DELANY.

MEET OUR STAFF 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 Lauren Mancuso Marketing Associate 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 and 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

PROUDLY SUPPORTING THE ARTS Conveniently located less than two miles from Two River Theater, the Courtyard Lincroft Red Bank has everything you need to complete your theater-going experience. Lounge in our state-ofthe-art lobby and enjoy The Bistro offering fresh breakfast and dinner selections, Starbucks® coffee beverages and an evening bar featuring wine, beer and cocktails.

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SCENE

AT TWO RIVER

LOVE IN HATE NATION

Fans traveled from all over the world to see the world premiere of Love in Hate Nation (Nov 9 – Dec 1), a turbulent rock romance by Tony Nominee, Joe Iconis (Be More Chill). Before and after each performance fans filled the lobby to snap a photo in front of our commissioned mural by Holly Suzanne Rader titled Valley of the Paperdolls, created in partnership with Detour Gallery and to get autographs signed by members of the cast and creative team of the show.

LOVE IN HATE NATION OPENING NIGHT On November 15th, following the opening night performance of Love in Hate Nation, all in attendance joined the cast and creative team for our post-show reception. Special thank you to our opening night sponsors In Thyme Catering and Nicholas Wines.

Photos by Yurik L. Lozano.

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