28TH SEASON JULY 6 - 29, 2018 - Contemporary American ...
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
28TH SEASON JULY 6 – 29, 2018
Harpers Ferry | Charles Town | Shepherdstown
It’s Delicious
walk
is an easy eater
th
from the
Our quaint small towns are filled with shopping, dining and
entertainment—everything you need to enhance your theater experience.
Discover our little panhandle of paradise.
DiscoveritallWV.com | 1-866-HELLO-WV It’s Everything
From the Founder & Producing Director
ED HERENDEEN
Here we are in a special place: Shepherdstown, West Virginia — the
home of the Contemporary American Theater Festival. After several
intense weeks of pre-production work and rehearsals, we have finally
arrived at the beginning of the 2018 Repertory: six provocative writers,
six new plays, five world premieres, and a first-class artistic company.
Here we are in a fabulous place: the Cultural Gateway to West
Virginia — where the future of American theater spends the summer.
You are about to have a momentous theatrical immersion, as you
participate in this fiercely gripping repertory, teeming with secrets,
confessions, passions, and memories. This new work overflows with
storytelling vitality that will awaken your senses.
I invite you to unplug and sit up! Pay attention! And listen . . . be here with
us now. These plays await you.
ED HERENDEEN
FEED YOUR HEAD.
MISSION
TO PRODUCE
AND DEVELOP NEW
AMERICAN THEATER
THE VISION
THE ULTIMATE
THEATER EXPERIENCE
CORE VALUES
FEARLESS ART; DARING AND DIVERSE
STORIES; A PROFOUND DYNAMIC AMONG THE
AUDIENCE, THE ARTIST, AND THE WORK
1
ED HERENDEEN TABLE OF CONTENTS
Founder & Producing Director
PEGGY MCKOWEN LETTER FROM THE PRODUCING DIRECTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Associate Producing Director
CATF INSTITUTIONAL FUNDERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
JOSHUA MIDGETT
General Manager LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
GABRIELLE TOKACH BOARD OF TRUSTEES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Public Relations Manager LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF SHEPHERD UNIVERSITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
VICKI WILLMAN SUPPORT CATF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Director of Development
MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
NICOLE M. SMITH
Company Manager 2018 COMPANY LIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
TRENT KUGLER THE CAKE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Production Manger
MEMOIRS OF A FORGOTTEN MAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
CHASE MOLDEN THIRST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Production & Props Supervisor
THE HOUSE ON THE HILL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
BERTA, BERTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Contemporary American A LATE MORNING (IN AMERICA) WITH RONALD REAGAN . . . . . . . 34
Theater Festival at
Shepherd University ABOUT THE 2018 COMPANY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
P.O. Box 429 EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Shepherdstown, WV
25443
2018 FELLOWS, INTERNS, & APPRENTICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
ART AROUND THE FESTIVAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
800.999.CATF
www.catf.org LECTURES & SPECIAL EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
CATFatSU SUPPORTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
@thinktheater
@thinktheater CATF CONTRIBUTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
PRODUCTION HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
ADVERTISERS’ INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
2
“One of America’s Coolest
Small Towns” has so much
going on all year round...
OCTOBER 6
Freedom’s Run
WV’s largest running event
through five national parks
including full and half marathons.
OCTOBER 12 - 14 AND 19 - 21
American Conservation
Film Festival
A showcase of international
conservation films with discussions,
workshops, and family programming.
OCTOBER 26 - 31
BooFest
Celebration of Halloween with films,
zombie dancing, and trick-or-treating.
NOVEMBER - DECEMBER
Christmas in
Shepherdstown
Weekends between Thanksgiving
and Christmas. Celebrate with
carriage rides, shopping, and dining.
For information:
www.Shepherdstown.Info
© Dan Smith Photography 3
THANK YOU
ACTORS’ EQUITY FOUNDATION MARION PARK LEWIS FOUNDATION
THE ALFORD FOUNDATION NATIONAL ENDOWMENT
The Contemporary American FOR THE ARTS
AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION
Theater Festival’s 2018 NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK
Season is supported, in part, BB&T
THE NORA ROBERTS FOUNDATION
by the following foundations, BB&T WEST VIRGINIA FOUNDATION
corporations, institutions, PGPRESENTS, LLC
BIG CORK VINEYARDS
and government agencies. THE RANSON CONVENTION
BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB FOUNDATION AND VISITOR’S BUREAU
MATCHING GIFT PROGRAM
ROGERS RISSLER FOUNDATION
CASEY FAMILY PROGRAMS
MATCHING GIFT PROGRAM SHAFFER WEALTH ADVISORY GROUP OF
JANNEY MONTGOMERY SCOTT, LLC
CITY NATIONAL BANK
SHEPHERD UNIVERSITY
CLAUDE WORTHINGTON
BENEDUM FOUNDATION SHEPHERD UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION
THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION THE SHUBERT FOUNDATION
SHUGOLL RESEARCH
CORPORATION OF HARPERS FERRY
THE TED SNOWDON FOUNDATION,
CORPORATION OF SHEPHERDSTOWN In loving memory of
Mrs. Snowdon Durham Byron
DELAPLAINE FOUNDATION
THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA
EASTERN WEST VIRGINIA COMMUNITY
FOUNDATION – STRAUCH FAMILY FUND THE HAROLD AND MIMI STEINBERG
CHARITABLE TRUST
ECOLAB FOUNDATION
UNITED BANK
FIRSTENERGY FOUNDATION
UNITED WAY OF THE
JEFFERSON ARTS COUNCIL EASTERN PANHANDLE
The Contemporary American Theater
JEFFERSON COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA COMMISSION
Festival at Shepherd University is
CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU ON THE ARTS
proudly affiliated with: Actors’ Equity
Association, United Scenic Artists, JEFFERSON COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA DIVISION
Society of Stage Directors and DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF CULTURE AND HISTORY
Choreographers, and National
K3 CORPORATION WEST VIRGINIA HUMANITIES COUNCIL
New Play Network, and Theatre
Communications Group. LAURENTS/HATCHER FOUNDATION WYDLER BROTHERS REAL ESTATE
4PHOTOS BY CHRIS WEISLER
A Fun Place to Dine Before or After the Show
In the Heart of Historic Shepherdstown
304-876-8477 • 112 West German Street • www.bistro112.com
5Welcome from the President of the CATF Board of Trustees
PAUL S. GARRARD
“The world only spins forward.” —Tony Kushner, Angels in America
On behalf of the CATF Board of Trustees, welcome to Shepherdstown and the 28th
season of the Contemporary American Theater Festival!
We’re delighted you’re here to experience another season of fearless art, daring
and diverse stories, and the profound dynamic we know will result between the
audience, the artists, and the work.
PAUL S. GARRARD
There is no doubt you will be talking and thinking about this season’s plays for years to
come. However, this professional theater located in the oldest town in West Virginia is about so much more than just
the plays. CATF is a festival, which means you are part of a celebration! You have now become part of the CATF
community, a wonderfully inclusive group of your fellow citizens who want to be entertained, who want to be challenged,
and yes, who want and need to be disturbed by what they see, hear, and feel.
The trustees, the company, and our gifted CATF staff have worked tirelessly to ensure your experience at CATF is a
memorable one; one that is true to our mission of producing and developing new American theater.
We are indeed nationally and internationally known, but I would humbly submit that our success is your success, and
it is your support that contributes to both. Please know that your generosity is never ever taken for granted. The entire
company — from the set and costume designers; to the builders and electricians; to the interns, painters, directors,
actors, and of course the playwrights — they are all dependent on you, the audience, to experience the art they have
created and that you become part of, all of which makes CATF so unique.
CATF is profoundly grateful to the entire town of Shepherdstown for embracing the Festival and to Shepherd University
for its unwavering partnership, without whom CATF simply could not do what we do.
My personal thanks to our remarkable trustees who make my role as President such an easy one and to our former
trustees on whose shoulders we stand.
Once again, welcome to Shepherdstown and CATF!
62018 Contemporary American Theater Festival
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
PAUL S. GARRARD MARELLEN AHERNE* EX OFFICIO EMERITUS BOARD
PRESIDENT JON AMORES DOW BENEDICT RONALD JONES
SHARON J. ANDERSON LINDA RICE
ALLISON MARINOFF JASON AUFDEM-BRINKE HONORARY BOARD SHIRLEY MARINOFF ‡
CARLE BETH BATDORF JENNY EWING ALLEN MICHAEL PROFFITT ‡
VICE PRESIDENT DR. SCOTT BEARD MARTIN BURKE *MEMBER OF CATF’S
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
ROBIN BERRINGTON ELLEN CAPPELLANTI
SCOTT WIDMEYER CARMELA CESARE
‡ IN MEMORIAM
MARY I. BRADSHAW
VICE PRESIDENT BRIDGET COHEE
ROBERTA L. DEBIASI, MD
MIRIAM DICKINSON BILL DRENNEN
S. ANDREW ARNOLD
MARY CLARE EROS
TREASURER JAMES J. EROS
THOMAS S. FOSTER
NANCY FELDMAN
LILY HILL
PETE HOFFMAN HANS FOGLE
CATHERINE E. IRWIN
SECRETARY ANN M. HARKINS
JUDITH W. KATZ-LEAVY
DR. MARY J.C. HENDRIX
SUSAN KEMNITZER
ED HERENDEEN
KATHA KISSMAN
PAUL KESSLER
DIMETRA LEWIN
ELIZABETH MCDONALD
TRIPP LOWE
PEGGY MCKOWEN STANLEY C. MARINOFF, MD
KAKIE MCMILLAN TIA MCMILLAN
SUSAN MILLS NOAH MEHRKAM
FRANKLIN C. MOORE ANDREW D. MICHAEL
JEANNE MUIR* JOYCE CAROL OATES
MICHELLE OLSON KAREN RICE
PATRICIA F. RISSLER MICHAEL SANTA BARBARA
AUDREY ROWE LYNN SHIRLEY
RB SEEM* STEPHEN SKINNER
RICK SHAFFER* MARY HELEN STRAUCH
SYLVIA BAILEY SHURBUTT* KEVIN STRUTHERS
SID STOLZ KIRSTEN TRUMP
THE REV. DR. ROSE HERR MARJORIE WEINGOLD
WAYLAND, D.MIN. LISA YOUNIS
8Celebrating 25 Years!
• A GOUR M E T M A R K E T P LACE •
THE PRESS ROOM Featuring artisanal cheeses,
SERVING DINNER WEDNESDAY - MONDAY wine and gourmet food,
5PM TO CLOSE fresh coffee beans, local
chocolates, linens, bath &
SUNDAY BRUNCH 10:30AM TO 2:00PM body products and more...
SUNDAY DINNER 4PM - 8PM
103 W. Ge
129 W. GERMAN STREET 304.876.8777 rman Stre et | 304.876.1106A Letter from the President of Shepherd University
DR. MARY J.C. HENDRIX
WELCOME to Shepherd University and to the Contemporary American Theater Festival
that we so proudly host each summer. The longstanding partnership between Shepherd
and CATF has enriched our community for more than a quarter of a century.
The Center for Contemporary Arts is home to Shepherd’s Department of Contemporary
Art and Theater, a unique combination of the visual and performing arts centered in
one beautiful complex. The Center for Contemporary Arts houses art and graphic design
classrooms, studios — including the L. Dow Benedict Sculpture Studio named in honor
of a beloved and longtime faculty member and dean — set and costume shops, and the
Stanley C. and Shirley A. Marinoff Theater, where you will have the opportunity to see DR. MARY J.C. HENDRIX
several of this season’s plays.
We are grateful to Dr. Marinoff and his family for their support of CATF, Shepherd University, and the arts. The arts
thrive because of support by generous and thoughtful donors.
Since its inception in 1991, CATF has been led by the remarkably talented Ed Herendeen. He developed the Festival in
order to produce and develop new American theater and to celebrate playwrights both established and upcoming.
A whirlwind of energy and artistic vision, Ed is directing two of the six plays being presented this season.
I hope you will take advantage of all that is offered by the theater Festival, historic Shepherdstown, and Shepherd
University during your time with us this summer. CATF evinces Shepherd’s dedication to excellence, innovation, and
opportunity. We are extremely proud to be a partner of the Contemporary American Theater Festival, and play a role
in transforming the future.
With many best wishes,
10SHEPHERD UNIVERSITY MUSIC
Extraordinary!
EXPECT THE
Shepherd University’s Department of Music offers the highest-quality educational experiences for our students,
while serving as a resource of cultural enrichment to our community. We embrace our tradition of molding
young people into competent, inspiring leaders who carry their experience beyond our region across the nation.
Please consider supporting our commitment to excellence.
All contributions are tax-deductible. Checks payable to the Shepherd University Foundation can be mailed to
Shepherd University Foundation, P.O. Box 5000, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, 25443-5000.
For other ways to contribute or to make a contributions online go to
Thank you for your support!
http://shepherduniversityfoundation.org.
DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC
304-876-5555 • music@shepherd.edu • www.shepherd.edu/musicSupport the Contemporary American Theater Festival
THINK THEATER. THINK SUPPORT. GIVE TODAY!
Each season is possible because of you.
As a nonprofit arts organization, the Festival does not cover its costs
through ticket sales alone. In order to bridge the gap between earned
income (ticket sales) and the Festival’s total budget, CATF depends
upon grants and donations from businesses and individuals like you.
For each dollar of support CATF receives, 90 cents is invested in
producing the art on our stages during the Festival.
A contribution to CATF is an investment in the future of American
theater. Help us to continue producing unparalleled theater by making
a donation. Give today in support of bringing compelling stories and
ambitious new theater to life.
Visit CATF.ORG/DONATE to learn more about donor benefits and to
Fight director Aaron Anderson at the
2018 Company Meet and Greet. make a tax-deductible donation.
STUDENT REP PASS ROGERS-RISSLER MATCHING
SPONSORSHIP GIFT CHALLENGE
Give the gift of theater to the next generation. Contributions made during the Festival using the enclosed gift envelope
Sponsor a student RepPass which CATF will support the Rogers-Rissler Matching Gift Challenge. With thanks
distribute to regional high school and college to long-time Festival friends, James Rogers and Pat Rissler, your gift
students that might not otherwise have the to CATF will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $20,000 to support
chance to participate in the Festival. CATF’s ongoing mission to produce and develop new American theater.
THREE WAYS TO DONATE: ONLINE BY PHONE BY MAIL (CHECK OR CREDIT CARD)
WWW.CATF.ORG/DONATE CALL 304.876.5683 PO BOX 429 SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV 25443
12The 2018 Season is generously supported by these FESTIVAL FRIENDS PRODUCER’S CIRCLE Peter Emch | Paul S. Garrard | Mina Goodrich & Lawrence K. Dean | Katha Kissman | Betsy Nicholas & Paul Kessler Patricia Rissler & James Rogers | Debora Weisbacher | Henry K. Willard, II PLAYWRIGHT’S CIRCLE Anonymous, In honor of American Playwrights | Robin Berrington | Roberta L. DeBiasi, MD & Mark T. Cucuzzella, MD Nancy & Cary Feldman | Pete Hoffman | Dr. Stanley C. Marinoff and Allison Marinoff Carle & Eric Carle Edward R. Moore | Jeanne Muir & Jim Ford | R.B. Seem & Stephanie Mathias | Rick & Sheila Shaffer Drs. Sylvia & Ray Shurbutt | Sidney Stolz | Scott Widmeyer AGENT’S CIRCLE Marellen J. Aherne | Jenny Ewing Allen | Jon & Linnsey Amores | Sharon J. Anderson & Adrienne Haddad S. Andrew Arnold & Carmela Cesare | Patty & John Bachner | Beth K. Batdorf & John S. Bresland Mary I. Bradshaw & Donald H. Hooker, Jr. | Julia Davis & Leonard Frenkil | Mimi Dickinson | James & Mary Clare Eros Mary Fortuna & Chris Kuser | Ann M. Harkins | Shepherd University, Dr. Mary J.C. Hendrix | Tom & Kay Horst Richard Krajeck & Anita Difanis | Liz McDonald | Peggy McKowen | Kakie & Andrew McMillan | Susan L. Mills Franklin C. Moore & Erich D. Hosbach | Michelle Olson & Scott Sudduth | C.M. & Stephanie Partridge Robert & Mary Helen Strauch | Annette Totten & Kathy Day | Rose Herr Wayland DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE Greg & Rose Anselmi | Donald & Nancy Bliss | Yolanda & Frank Bruno | Bruce & Janet Bunch Martin Burke & Barbara Spicher | Frederic & Anne D’Alauro | Joi Denenberg & Tom Murphy Mario Durham & Craig Horness | Isa Engleberg & Allan Kennedy | Erdem & Joan Ergin | Ray & Robin Fidler Hans & Dana Fogle | James G. Gatz & G. Benjamin Baker | Warren Gump | Ed & Sue Herendeen | Judith W. Katz-Leavy Cecilia Kloecker | Tripp Lowe & Clarion Hotel & Conference Center | M.A. Mahoney | Tia & Bob McMillan Martha Moss | Beth Newbold & Pat Winkler | Irene Nichols, In memory of Phyllis Kresan | Audrey Rowe Stephen Skinner & Jeffrey Gustafson | Peter & Victoria Smith | Angie Sosdian & Bill Senseney Alyse & Steve Steinborn | Emma J. Stokes | Marjorie Weingold Vicki Willman & Sue Wert, In memory of our parents: Charles & Helen Wert and Glenn R. Willman Bolded listings indicate donors who increased their contribution June 21, 2017 - June 14, 2018 by 10% or more in comparison to the previous season. 14 CATF’s contributors list continued on page 76
N a t i o n a l l y K n o w n , L o c a l l y O w n e d • O p e n E v e r y D ay
Jump start your day with an espresso drink and
one of our many tempting pastries, or have a light lunch
with sandwiches made with our own breads.
100 W German Street • 304-876-2432 • www.wvbakery.com2018 Contemporary American Theater Festival
Taran Schatz, PROJECTIONS DESIGNER
COMPANY LIST & VIDEO DEPARTMENT HEAD/ENGINEER
Stephanie Yackovetsky,
ASST. SOUND DESIGNER
STAGE MANAGEMENT
Debra A. Acquavella,
ED HERENDEEN DIRECTORS
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER*
PRODUCING DIRECTOR Adrienne Campbell-Holt***
Lori M. Doyle, STAGE MANAGER*
PEGGY MCKOWEN Reginald L. Douglas***
Lindsay Eberly, STAGE MANAGER*
ASSOCIATE PRODUCING DIRECTOR Ed Herendeen*** Jeremy Phillips, STAGE MANAGER*
Courtney Sale Tina Shackleford, STAGE MANAGER*
JOSHUA MIDGETT
Sam Weisman Cate Agis, ASST. STAGE MANAGER*
GENERAL MANAGER
Charlotte La Nasa, ASST. DIRECTOR & Madolyn Friedman,
GABRIELLE TOKACH EDUCATION ASST. ASST. STAGE MANAGER
PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER Shaun McCracken, Ryan Kane, PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
VICKI WILLMAN ASST. DIRECTOR & DRAMATURG
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Aaron Anderson, FIGHT DIRECTOR*** ACTING COMPANY
Theresa M. Davis, HOSTEL YOUTH! DIRECTOR Jason Bowen*
NICOLE M. SMITH
Pat McCorkle, CASTING DIRECTOR Jalon Christian
COMPANY MANAGER
Katja Zarolinski, CASTING DIRECTOR Ryan Nathaniel George*
TRENT KUGLER Joe Myers, ASST. FIGHT DIRECTOR Kelly Gibson*
PRODUCTION MANAGER Bianca LaVerne Jones*
Kirsten Trump, DIALECT COACH
John Keabler*
CHASE MOLDEN Miles Orduna, ASSISTANT TO MICHAEL WELLER
PRODUCTION & PROPS Sam Morales*
SUPERVISOR DESIGNERS David McElwee*
Therese Bruck, COSTUME DESIGNER Monet*
Trevor Bowen, COSTUME DESIGNER Joey Parsons*
PLAYWRIGHTS Sarita Fellows, COSTUME DESIGNER** Ruby Rakos*
John Ambrosone, LIGHTING DESIGNER** Erika Rolfsrud*
BEKAH BRUNSTETTER Jessica Savage*
Tony Galaska, LIGHTING DESIGNER
ANGELICA CHÉRI Lee Sellars*
D.M. Wood, LIGHTING DESIGNER**
D.W. GREGORY William Oliver Watkins*
Dewey Dellay, ORIGINAL MUSIC
C.A. JOHNSON Justin Withers
David M. Barber, SCENIC DESIGNER**
MICHAEL WELLER
Jesse Dreikosen, SCENIC DESIGNER
AMY E. WITTING PRODUCTION STAFF
Luciana Stecconi, SCENIC DESIGNER** Rachel D’Amboise,
Victoria Deiorio, SOUND DESIGNER** ASSOCIATE PRODUCTION MANAGER
Elisheba Ittoop, SOUND DESIGNER** Kassidy Coburn, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
David Remedios, SOUND DESIGNER** Joshua Frachiseur, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
16Clifford Glowacki, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Bryce Hargrove, COMPANY MANAGEMENT INTERN
Miguel Angel Lopez, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Maranda Jenkins, COMPANY MANAGEMENT INTERN
Zach Murhpy, LEAD CARPENTER Isaiah Hall, COMPANY MANAGEMENT & FRONT OF HOUSE INTERN
David Kelley, CARPENTER Tristin Baro, COSTUME FELLOW
Rachel McCall, CARPENTER John Polles, COSTUME INTERN
Steve Schaffer, CARPENTER Meredith Prouty-Due, COSTUME INTERN
Gabby Ullman, CARPENTER Georgia Fried, COSTUME INTERN & KCACTF DESIGN FELLOW
Stephanie Shaw, COSTUME SHOP MANAGER Jessica Palagano, ELECTRICS INTERN
Sabrina Wertman, ELECTRICS INTERN
Madeline Corcoran, SHOP ASST./STITCHER/DRESSER
Mack Woods, ELECTRICS INTERN
Anthony Gary, SHOP ASST./STITCHER/DRESSER
Mary Heyl, FRONT OF HOUSE INTERN
Lizz Williams, FIRST HAND/JR. CUTTER/DRESSER
Alex Kosick, FRONT OF HOUSE INTERN
Evan Carlson, MASTER ELECTRICIAN
Wendy Parkulo, FRONT OF HOUSE INTERN
Bri Weintraub, MASTER ELECTRICIAN
Molly Schafer, FRONT OF HOUSE INTERN
Bridget Williams, MASTER ELECTRICIAN
Rachel Squires, FRONT OF HOUSE INTERN
Bridget Willingham, FESTIVAL CHARGE ARTIST Nylah Bannister, FRONT OF HOUSE & MARKETING APPRENTICE
Sophia Adsit, SCENIC ARTIST Kenneth May, FRONT OF HOUSE & MARKETING INTERN
Clinton O’Dell, SCENIC ARTIST Mikayla Carr, PAINTS INTERN
Sebastien Oliverios-Tavares, SCENIC ARTIST Jasmine Ratcliff, PAINTS INTERN
Chase Molden, PRODUCTION & PROPS SUPERVISOR Danica Rodrigues, PRODUCTION INTERN
Katelin Ashcraft, ASSISTANT PROPS SUPERVISOR Annie Hall, PROPS INTERN
Rebecca Bandy, PROPS ARTISAN Mars Martin, PROPS INTERN
Sean Doyle, SOUND DEPARTMENT HEAD Rachel Seabaugh, PROPS INTERN
William D’Eugenio, PROJECTIONS Yvonne Tessman, PROPS INTERN
Jeremiah King, SCENERY INTERN
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Emily Taylor, SCENERY INTERN
Nicole M. Smith, COMPANY MANAGER* Monty Wilson, SCENERY INTERN
Joel Kimling, BOX OFFICE MANAGER Christopher Erbe, SCENERY INTERN & KCACTF DESIGN FELLOW
Amanda Hartman, FRONT OF HOUSE MANAGER Lindsey Cohen, SOUND INTERN
Madison St. Amour, ASSOCIATE GENERAL MANAGER Rowan Wilkerson, SOUND FELLOW
This Theater operates under an
Allene Punekii, EDUCATION ASSISTANT Mathias Brown, SOUND INTERN & agreement between the League
Hunter Strauch, EVENTS MANAGER KCACTF DESIGN FELLOW Of Resident Theatres and Actors’
Equity Association, the Union
Jennifer Miller, RESIDENCE MANAGER Thomas Breck, STAGE MANAGEMENT INTERN
of Professional Actors and Stage
Dan Karlin, STAGE MANAGEMENT INTERN Managers in the United States.
CREATIVE TEAM Rachel Lockett, STAGE MANAGEMENT FELLOW *Actors’ Equity Association
Jen Rolston, GRAPHIC DESIGN Jess Winward, KCACTF DESIGN FELLOW **United Scenic Artists
Seth Freeman, PHOTOGRAPHER ***Stage Directors and
Shaye Evans, KCACTF DESIGN FELLOW Choreographers Society
Jared Scheerer, SEASON IMAGES
UNDERSTUDIES & OBSERVERS
INTERNS, FELLOWS, & APPRENTICES Kimberly Belflower, Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin,
Zoe Thomas, ADMINISTRATIVE INTERN Dave Harris, Daria Marinelli, and
Lulu Connolly, COMPANY MANAGEMENT Graham Schmidt, OBSERVERS
FELLOW & INTERN DEPUTY Bryce Hargrove, UNDERSTUDY
17DIRECTED BY COURTNEY SALE
SPONSORED BY KATHA KISSMAN
SETTING & TIME:
NORTH CAROLINA: A BAKERY, A HOME. NOW.
CAST:
DELLA JEN SCENIC DESIGN PRODUCTION STAGE
ERIKA ROLFSRUD KELLY GIBSON DAVID M. BARBER MANAGER
DEBRA A. ACQUAVELLA
TIM MACY COSTUME DESIGN
LEE SELLARS MONET THERESE BRUCK STAGE MANAGER
LINDSAY EBERLY
LIGHTING DESIGN
D.M. WOOD ASST. STAGE MANAGER
MADOLYN FRIEDMAN
SOUND DESIGN
Run Time: 100 minutes. VICTORIA DEIORIO CASTING DIRECTORS
Performed without an intermission. PAT MCCORKLE, CSA
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Warning: mature themes and content. KATJA ZAROLINSKI, CSA
CLIFFORD GLOWACKI
Guest cupcakes compliments of
Shepherdstown Sweet Shop Bakery.
An Interview with the Playwright Researched, interviewed, and edited by Sharon J. Anderson,
CATF Trustee/Professional Story Listener and Creative Director
BEKAH BRUNSTETTER www.sharonjanderson.com
CATF: Why can’t you have your cake and rights were violated when the owner of the bakeshop refused to
eat it, too? make their wedding cake because of his Christian beliefs. The
baker also argued that he is an artist. On behalf of the Trump
Bekah Brunstetter: In terms of the play,
administration, Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued: “A custom
does that phrase mean that you can eat
wedding cake is not an ordinary baked good; its function is more
cake with someone even when you don’t
communicative and artistic than utilitarian.”
accept her or his beliefs, while funda-
mentally disagreeing with them? I want What is the function of a wedding cake for you?
to believe that you can, and that’s what
the play is hoping to exhibit. It’s not productive to reject people’s Cake is incredibly universal. It’s really hard to find someone who
points of view and not treat everyone with kindness and respect. doesn’t like cake. A wedding cake is particularly universal because
It is possible to eat cake — by that I mean have fellowship with it brings everybody together after the ceremony to celebrate the
people you fundamentally disagree with. union and experience pure joy. It’s the specific thing that means
the wedding has happened, so it is not a regular cake. The
By the time this interview is published, the Supreme Court may Masterpiece Cake Shop baker offered to make the gay couple a
have ruled on Masterpiece Cake Shop v. Colorado Civil Rights birthday cake, he didn’t have a problem with that, he just couldn’t
Commission — a case about a gay couple who believe their civil make a wedding cake.
continued on page 24
19DIRECTED BY ED HERENDEEN
SPONSORED BY PETER EMCH
SETTING & TIME: A WORLD PREMIERE
MOSCOW AND POINTS EAST, 1957 & LENINGRAD (FORMLY ST. PETERSBURG), 1937-1938
SEE PLAY NOTES ON PAGE 22
CAST: NATALYA/ SCENIC DESIGN PRODUCTION STAGE
MADAME DEMIDOVA DAVID M. BARBER MANAGER
ALEXEI/AZAROV JOEY PARSONS DEBRA A. ACQUAVELLA
DAVID MCELWEE COSTUME DESIGN
PEASANT WOMAN/ THERESE BRUCK STAGE MANAGER
KREPLEV/VASILY MISS MARKAYEVNA/ LINDSAY EBERLY
LEE SELLARS LIGHTING DESIGN
MOTHER/UTKIN
D.M. WOOD ASST. STAGE MANAGER
ERIKA ROLFSRUD
MADOLYN FRIEDMAN
SOUND DESIGN
Run Time: 105 minutes.
VICTORIA DEIORIO CASTING DIRECTORS
Performed with one intermission.
PAT MCCORKLE, CSA
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
KATJA ZAROLINSKI, CSA
CLIFFORD GLOWACKI
Memoirs Of A Forgotten Man is produced at Contemporary American Theater Festival as a part of a National New Play Network Rolling World
Premiere. Other partnering theaters are Shadowland Stages (Ellenville, NY) and New Jersey Repertory Company (Long Branch).
For more information please visit www.nnpn.org.
An Interview with the Playwright Researched, interviewed, and edited by Sharon J. Anderson,
CATF Trustee/Professional Story Listener and Creative Director
D.W. GREGORY www.sharonjanderson.com
CATF: You have said that a recurring precisely and to know very precisely where things are going off the
theme in your work is “to explore political rails. He also apparently has the inability to keep quiet about it.
questions through personal stories.” What
I finished the first draft of this play in the summer of 2016, before
political questions are you exploring in
the last election. The results of that election give the play a greater
Memoirs of a Forgotten Man? urgency. I’m struggling with the price you pay when you decide
D.W. Gregory: One of the questions that that your political agenda is more important than your adherence
I’m wrestling with in the play is the power to the facts and truth. There are such things as verifiable facts.
of propaganda and the conflict that arises Stalin literally erases his political enemies from the record book.
when people begin to see the conflict between their experience In an effort to rewrite the record, he Photoshops enemies out of
and the official party line. A mundane example is in the workplace the photographs and then erases them in reality when he has
when management puts out stuffy memos about how great them murdered.
everything is when people in one department or another know For a long time, we’ve been in a place in our democracy where we
that it’s not true. A profound example is what we’re wrestling with are not on the same page as to what the facts are, the fundamental
in the play, a regime that’s literally rewriting history. You have the facts. A huge media machine, particularly Sean Hannity and FOX
memory man, Alexei, who has the ability to remember very News, is basically churning out propaganda. If we can’t be on the
continued on page 25
21MEMOIRS OF A FORGOTTEN MAN
PLAY NOTES
KEY DATES AND YEARS KEY TERMS DEFINED
The action of the play moves between an NIKOLAI BUKHARIN: Nikolai Bukharin was a cherished Politburo member, revered as one
office in Moscow 1957, a village in the of the greatest Marxist theorists since Lenin. Stalin expelled Bukharin from the Politburo in
eastern provinces before the Revolution, 1929, and during the following decade, Bukharin carefully shared his voice of dissent. Bukharin
and Leningrad in the late 1930s. was arrested for treason in February 1937 and stood trial in 1938. Cameras captured his
1713-1913 Romanov Dynasty, ending with ten-day-long show trial and broadcast his false confession to the entire Soviet population.
Tsar Nicholas II struggling to govern.
SERGEI KIROV: Kirov became party chief in Leningrad in 1926, and subsequently earned full
Final chaotic years influenced by corrupt Politburo membership in 1930. On December 1, 1934, a lone gunman assassinated Kirov in the
“Holy Man” Rasputin. corridor of his Leningrad office. In 1937, Stalin responded to Kirov’s death by launching an
1917 February Revolution. Riots and elimination campaign known as “The Great Terror.” Stalin sent the secret police (then called
demonstrations force Nicholas II to abdicate the NKVD) to arrest or execute any suspected “wreckers” in the Communist Party. During
in March. Rebels implement disastrous this chaotic year, the NKVD arrested 1.3 million citizens of whom nearly 700,000 were shot.
provisional government.
IZVESTIA: Russian word for “delivered messages.” Russia’s top soviet newspaper born out
OCTOBER 1917 Bolshevik Revolution begins. of the 1917 revolution after a small group of revolutionaries took hold of a printing office.
V.I. Lenin leads the Bolshevik fight to stay in Bhukarin served as editor of Izvestia, and during this time the daily paper earned a reputation
power over the more conservative Marxists, as an energetic news source at the forefront soviet journalism. Bukharin and three other
known as Mensheviks. Civil war begins.
editors were tried an executed during the Terror.
NOVEMBER 1920 Bolsheviks defeat
Mensheviks. Lenin becomes leader of SHOW TRIAL: Constantly paranoid about potential threats to his power, Stalin insisted his
Communist Party and Soviet Union. enemies confess to crimes against the party. There were three trials between 1936 and 1938,
forcing confessions from fifty party leaders and officials; each trial was broadcast to the
1921 Lenin implements the New Economic public. Many defendants lied in their confessions out of complete loss of political hope.
Plan to replace War Communism after
dramatic inflation and lack of cooperation. KULAK: Bolsheviks branded the land owning sector of the peasant class as “kulaks” or “rich
1924 Lenin dies. Nikolai Bukharin prevents peasants.” Kulaks owned 40% of the land in the countryside, and any farmer opposed to
Trotsky from succeeding to Lenin’s position. government policy was assigned to this demonized caste. In 1929, Stalin announced the
necessity of “the liquidation of the Kulaks as a class” in order to achieve collectivization.
1929 Collectivization begins; Soviet Premier
Joseph Stalin forces government control over NEP: The New Economic Plan describes Lenin’s economic policy replacing war communism,
production and distribution. which completely abolished the private sector during the Bolshevik Revolution. The NEP
DECEMBER 1934 Sergei Kirov is assassinated. established that production was limited, but farmers were still allowed to sell their own goods
with careful monitoring by government officials. Bukharin was a proponent of the NEP, which
FEBRUARY 1937 Bukharin is arrested; The effected party tensions when Stalin demanded collectivization in 1929.
Great Terror begins. Millions of Russians sent
to labor camps in the Soviet Gulag system. BOLSHEVIK: Meaning “majority,” Marxism as interpreted by Lenin. Aimed to replace capitalist
dictatorship over working class with workers’ dictatorship over capitalist class (not individuals).
MARCH 2-12 1938 Bukharin’s show trial and
execution. Bolsheviks believed Socialism must be forced upon Russia, so that the end of capitalism
could begin in Russia immediately.
MARCH 1953 Stalin dies. He does not
appoint a successor before passing. FURTHER READING
1956 Nikita Khrushchev delivers speech The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book About a Vast Memory, by A.R. Luria; The Whisperers,
On the Cult of Personality and Its by Orlando Figes; The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in
Consequences, exposing Stalin’s crimes. Stalin’s Russia, by David King
22Uncommon
Vernacular
The Early Houses of Jefferson County,
West Virginia 1735-1835
John C. Allen, Jr.
Available in Shepherdstown
at Four Seasons Books
23Brunstetter interview continued from page 19
I see both sides of this issue and couldn’t they want it to be.” Not just “they” – the
BEKAH have written the play if I couldn’t see both media – but also people who are out to
BRUNSTETTER sides. My parents share the same beliefs as
this baker, so I can’t turn my back on it. And
I can’t turn off my empathy, so I’m stuck
misconstrue what you’re saying to fit it into
their narrative.
When your father supported the 2011
PLAYWRIGHT, THE CAKE trying to figure out what to do.
Defense of Marriage Act, also known as
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Amendment One, that defines marriage as
BEKAH BRUNSTETTER hails from Winston- only between one man and one woman, you
Masterpiece Cake Shop, isn’t it a slippery
Salem, North Carolina, and currently lives in slope to taking away same-sex marriage and said that your family was forced to “really
other LGBT rights? confront our different belief systems.” What
Los Angeles. She is a Supervising Producer was that confrontation like?
I’m constantly playing devil’s advocate with
on NBC’s critically-acclaimed hit series, This myself. It’s so complicated because I do It was more like awkwardness over dinner.
see that it’s discrimination. If you have It wasn’t a blowout because I’m not gay. I’m
Is Us. She has previously written for MTV’s a storefront that offers to make cakes for straight. Since high school, I’ve had many
people, you need to make a cake for gay friends, and my support of them and
Underemployed, ABC Family’s Switched at
anyone who wants one. We would culturally their relationships has always been a point
Birth, and Starz’s American Gods. Bekah’s plays understand the baker’s perspective – and of contention. My father helped to pass this
I’m not equating the two at all – if he didn’t bill; he did not create it or bring it to the
include: The Cake (Echo Theater Los Angeles, want to make a cake for a Satanist. People table. Nevertheless, it passed and his name
are reacting with that same extreme feeling. was on it. I could no longer ignore what was
Alley Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse), Going to
happening within myself, my family, my
I absolutely see how it is a slippery slope
a Place where you Already Are (South Coast circle of friends, and my theater community.
and could easily become refusing anyone
I could no longer be silent. So during
Repertory), The Oregon Trail (Portland Center service at any time. What I don’t understand
conversations, I started to challenge my
is this: Jesus stood for love and acceptance
and hung out with prostitutes and lepers. parents. But it wasn’t like a God of Carnage
Stage, Flying V), Cutie and Bear, A Long and
How can this baker use Jesus to justify throw down. It was more like me simply
Happy Life, Be A Good Little Widow (Ars Nova), discrimination? saying, “No, that’s wrong.” which was huge
for me at the time.
and Oohrah! (The Atlantic Theater, Steppenwolf You’ve said that there are lots of plays about
lesbian couples like Jen and Macy in The A reviewer of this play faulted you for not
Garage, the Finborough Theater / London). Cake, but not so many about Della, the forthrightly labeling Della “a bigot.” In
owner of the bakery. “I’m fascinated by response to that, a reader challenged the
Bekah is currently working on two new musicals,
stories where somebody said this stupid reviewer with, “You still have to love your
one with Cinco Paul and another with Karen O thing,” you have said, “and then all of a family. You still have to reach across the
sudden, we all hate them, they’re horrible table . . . Della is lovable because most of
from the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. In feature films, people. I always have sympathy for them, the time your family members are lovable
because I say stupid things all the time.” . . . You have to give people time to change,
she wrote the screenplay adaptation of the
reevaluate and change some more.”
It’s so human to misspeak, especially now.
book The Secret. Bekah is an alumna of the CTG That response was so beautiful. The reviewer,
Everything so quickly gets misquoted and
Writers Group, Primary Stages Writers Group, regurgitated and put on the internet and in fact, proved my point. He wasn’t self-aware
shared and shared and shared. One tiny enough to realize that he was making a
Ars Nova Play Group, The Playwright’s Realm, misstep can explode in a way that it couldn’t judgment about how a person should live in
before. this world. I’m a straight, white woman, and
and the Women’s Project Lab. She is currently a I need to remember that many people have
My dad was a politician for years, and once been marginalized all their lives and view
member of the Echo Theater’s Playwright’s Lab. I started building traction in my playwriting the world differently than I do . . .
BA UNC Chapel Hill; MFA in Dramatic Writing career, he told me, “You’ve gotta be careful
what you say,” and, “No matter what you Continue reading the interview online:
from the New School for Drama. say, they’re going to twist it to whatever catf.org/cake-bekah-brunstetter
24Gregory interview continued from page 21
same page about the fundamentals of Are we responsible for it? We are all
verifiable facts, then we are in a state of responsible. I’ve taken a lot of heart from
D.W.
madness.
That is precisely what you write in your
what I’ve seen recently of engaged and
active young people; for example, the
Parkland students who organized the
GREGORY
notes at the end of your play: “When our “March for Our Lives” protest. These young PLAYWRIGHT
agreed upon narrative is disrupted – so that
I deny your suffering, your sacrifice. Deny
people know that they must be physically MEMOIRS OF A FORGOTTEN MAN
engaged because we no longer have the
your very existence – we lose our bearings. luxury of not paying attention. These D.W. GREGORY’s plays frequently explore political
We lose our way. Our very sanity. It becomes students are not intimidated. They are not
a form of national madness.” issues through a personal lens. The New York
allowing themselves to be silent.
Times called her “a playwright with a talent to
We’re losing our grip on reality because we Why did you set this play specifically in the
can’t agree on the fundamentals of facts enlighten and provoke” for her most produced
period of Stalin and his Terror campaign to
themselves. I’m an old-school journalist who rewrite public memory? work, Radium Girls, about the famous case of
grew up in the mainstream media, and industrial poisoning. Other plays include Memoirs
I’ve been appalled for a long time by this I kind of backed into this play when I came
across a book – The Mind of a Mnemonist of a Forgotten Man; Molumby’s Million, nominated
narrative that every major newspaper
and network in this country is somehow by A.R. Luria – a Soviet neurologist. The for a Barrymore Award by Philadelphia Theatre
swimming in liberal bias. This narrative book is the author’s account of working Alliance; The Good Daughter, October 1962; and
undermines the press. At one point Trump with a young man who had a limitless
a new musical comedy, The Yellow Stocking
called the press, “The enemy of the people” memory as well as synesthesia – turning
sounds into vivid visual imagery. I was Play, with composer Steven M. Alper and lyricist
– a line straight out from Stalin; straight out
of Animal Farm. The first step in the direction intrigued and thought he would make a Sarah Knapp. She is also a two-time finalist
of tyranny is undermining the press. fascinating character and his story would for the Heideman Award at Actor’s Theater of
make a fascinating play, but I didn’t really
Louisville, where her short comedy So Tell Me
In his book On Tyranny, historian Timothy have a handle on what the play would be.
Snyder writes that Americans have about This Guy was produced on a bill of short
I was also intrigued by what Luria left out works. In addition, Gregory writes for youth
settled for a “a self-induced intellectual
of his account. He was working with his
coma.” How much as we to blame? Are we theatre and makes occasional appearances as a
patient in the 1920s and 1930s and even into
accommodating?
the 1950s, but there is almost no reference teaching artist. Her new drama, Salvation Road,
We’ve accepted the erosion of some to the world outside. This made sense recently released by Dramatic Publishing, was
foundational norms, but we still have a free because in that time and place, the less you
the winner of the American Alliance for Theatre
press. We still have – despite efforts to said about that world, the better. Here was
undermine it – a democracy. We still have someone with a novel memory for vivid in Education’s Playwrights in Our Schools Award
the principle that no one is above the law, detail, time and dates, how things tasted, and developed through New York University’s New
not even the President of the United States. smelled, and looked; living in a time and place Plays for Young Audiences program. Her work
It is frightening to see the degree to which where the regime was trying to rewrite
has also received the support of the National
Congress, particularly the Republicans in history and public memory and that
Congress, have completely capitulated and someone is unable to forget anything. The Endowment for the Arts, the National New Play
given up their Constitutional responsibility juxtaposition of those two things ultimately Network, the Maryland Arts Council (she is a
to act as a check on the Executive Branch took me to writing this play . . . two-time winner of the Individual Artist Award in
of government. Playwriting), the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the
continue reading the interview online:
When your party is in power and you don’t catf.org/memoirs-forgotten-man-d-w-gregory/ New Harmony Project and the HBMG Foundation.
question when the Executive is overreaching A member of the Dramatists’ Guild, Gregory is also
and going beyond constitutional authority,
an affiliated writer with The Playwrights’ Center
then you’re responsible for giving up that
ground. A completely compliant Congress in Minneapolis and an affiliated artist with NNPN.
is not at all what the Founders had in mind. More information can be found on her website at
DWGregory.com and at dramaticpublishing.com.
25DIRECTED BY ADRIENNE CAMPBELL-HOLT
SPONSORED BY CATF TRUSTEES SID STOLZ & SCOTT WIDMEYER
SETTING & TIME: A WORLD PREMIERE
A CLEARING IN THE WOODS AND AN OFFICE INSIDE A WATER
MANUFACTURING FACILITY. LATER THIS CENTURY AFTER A DEBILITATING
CIVIL WAR. THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF A LOCALLY BROKERED PEACE.
CAST:
KALIL COOLIE SCENIC DESIGN STAGE MANAGER
JALON CHRISTIAN JUSTIN WITHERS JESSE DREIKOSEN LORI M. DOYLE
SAMIRA TERRANCE COSTUME DESIGNER ASSISTANT STAGE
MONET RYAN NATHANIEL GEORGE TREVOR BOWEN MANAGER
CATE AGIS
GRETA BANKHEAD LIGHTING DESIGN
JESSICA SAVAGE WILLIAM OLIVER WATKINS TONY GALASKA CASTING DIRECTORS
PAT MCCORKLE, CSA
SOLDIER/FIGHT CAPTAIN SOUND DESIGN
KATJA ZAROLINSKI, CSA
BRYCE HARGROVE ELISHEBA ITTOOP
Run Time: 100 minutes FIGHT DIRECTOR
Performed without an intermission. TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
AARON ANDERSON
KASSIDY COBURN
Warning: performance contains smoke,
ASST. FIGHT DIRECTOR
simulated blood and firearms.
JOE MYERS
Thirst was developed with the support of PlayPenn: Paul Meshejian, Artistic Director
An Interview with the Playwright Researched, interviewed, and edited by Sharon J. Anderson,
CATF Trustee/Professional Story Listener and Creative Director
C.A. JOHNSON www.sharonjanderson.com
CATF: You’ve said that your writing is We scrape by even in the direst of emotional straits, but if you
inspired by “the hard truths.” What hard don’t have the resources that keep you alive, that’s it. How do I
truths are in your play, Thirst? raise the stakes in a play about the complexities of gender and
race? How do I have that universal conversation in a way that
C.A. Johnson: The hard truths are the
reaches more people without giving them the out that they are
ones buried beneath intersecting ideas, simply inside the trappings of a very specific play? Without giving
identities and people. Thirst puts a lot of them permission to say, “Yes, I see that trauma, but I wouldn’t
people in motion and conflict and, inside have experienced it because I am not a black woman from this
of that motion and conflict, they bump up against things that are, place and this time.” But if you make the trauma about the most
to me, the real battles. Maybe Thirst is about politics, maybe it’s essential thing – the moment when you feel thirst – no version of
about gender, maybe it’s about special preferences, maybe it’s all you can say, “I’ve never felt that.”
of these things . . . or maybe, it’s just a play about how hard it is
to let go. About the water crisis in Cape Town South Africa, Guilio Boccaletti,
the global managing director for water with the Nature Conservancy
The very last line of W.H. Auden’s poem, First Things First is, said, “Inequity plays out in water very obviously and what we’re
“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” seeing in Cape Town risks becoming an example of that. The social
continued on page 30
27DIRECTED BY ED HERENDEEN
SPONSORED BY CATF TRUSTEES PETE HOFFMAN,
JEANNE MUIR, & RB SEEM A WORLD PREMIERE
SETTING & TIME:
ALEXANDRA’S FARMHOUSE. JUNE 9, 2015 AND THE BEFORE.
CAST:
ALEXANDRA ALEX SCENIC DESIGN STAGE MANAGER
JOEY PARSONS SAM MORALES JESSE DREIKOSEN LORI M. DOYLE
YOUNG FRANKIE FRANKIE COSTUME DESIGN TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
RUBY RAKOS JESSICA SAVAGE TREVOR BOWEN KASSIDY COBURN
LIGHTING DESIGN ASSISTANT STAGE
TONY GALASKA MANAGER
Run Time: 90 minutes. CATE AGIS
Performed without an intermission. SOUND DESIGN
ELISHEBA ITTOOP CASTING DIRECTOR
The House on the Hill was originally commissioned by PAT MCCORKLE, CSA
Atlantic Theater Company: Neil Pepe, Artistic Director, KATJA ZAROLINSKI, CSA
Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director.
Supported, in part, by a grant from the
National Endowment for the Arts.
An Interview with the Playwright Researched, interviewed, and edited by Sharon J. Anderson,
CATF Trustee/Professional Story Listener and Creative Director
AMY E. WITTING www.sharonjanderson.com
CATF: Why is this play called, The House we can’t quite understand. In our own houses that we build we fill
on the Hill, and not something like, Long it with things to try and make sense of our own lives. What is a
Day’s Journey into the Past? right-sized emotion for trauma? How can we protect ourselves
but keep up an exterior image of who other people think we are?
Amy E. Witting: The house is another
How did we get to where we are? What do we do with each of the
character in the play. We all – I know I do
rooms inside of us?
– create containers for trauma. In this
particular house, Alexandra has created a In other notes, you write that the house has a “heartbeat.”
sanctuary in different compartments to hold the pain of a specific
This particular house is almost like another person. Alexandra and
event she experienced.
the house interact. She is able to interact with her emotional pain
Your notes for the play include a beautiful description of the role by creating a house that is comfortable for her. I think that there’s
of the house. [Following are part of those notes:] a way we kennel certain things after a particular loss to keep the
memory alive.
The House on the Hill is a container for all the pain and trauma
Alexandra, or really we all, hold inside of ourselves. I believe we In the past, one of my boyfriends – Charlie – passed away while
create shelters for ourselves to contain the emptiness and pain he was in Ireland. I went to visit the house where he lived and this
continued on page 31
29Johnson interview continued from page 27
contract breaks down if the rich find their own about large men with big dreams trying to
C.A. solution and leave the rest to fend for conquer the world. Right beside them were
JOHNSON themselves.”
A fellow playwright once sat in on a reading
the realistically resilient women who took
care of everyone else but themselves. We
don’t have enough plays yet where we can
of Thirst, and afterwards said, “Imagine a
PLAYWRIGHT, THIRST world where a small sector of black men
imagine what it’s like for a woman to take
care of herself, although that’s shifted in the
suddenly have power they can wield and they last half century. The strong black woman
C. A. JOHNSON hails from Metairie, Louisiana,
can wield that power for good.” We try to stereotype is complete bull and doesn’t allow
imagine futures in which we suddenly have that woman to be a person with interiority
but currently lives and writes in Queens. Her power and would wield it in an unquestioning, or anxiety or any of those things that make
loving way. But in Thirst these men aren’t her normal or human. I want to write plays
plays include Thirst (2017 Kilroys List, 2017 doing that, or at least they are and failing for that give you some version of a woman’s
totally petty, personal reasons. Our own pain strength and resilience that is true and not
PlayPenn Conference), The Climb, All the Natalie can corrupt the good in us. a stereotype. I want to show you the cracks
Why is the moral center of this play a boy and dare her to show them to you. The
Portmans, An American Feast (NYU Playwrights between the ages of nine and eleven? reason I call it impossible is because it’s
been deemed impossible for so long, but the
Kids have brutal honesty because they haven’t truth is that it’s very possible. We’ve known
Horizons Theater School), Mother Tongue, and learned how or why we sometimes hush the women our entire lives who are like that so
truth. They just say what they think. Some why aren’t we seeing more of them?
Elroy Learn His Name. She is a member of the kids become what I call “super adult children”
who have all the joy of a kid playing with a What do you think of this perspective
toy car, but are also constantly taking in the from Margaret Atwood? “Why do men feel
2017 Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm threatened by women?’ I asked a male friend
evils of the world and trying to translate them
into something good. They are trying to blend of mine. … ‘They’re afraid women will laugh
and a Core Writer at the Playwrights Center. at them,’ he said. ‘Undercut their world view.’
what’s true about the cruelty of people with
… Then I asked some women students in a
their childhood innocence. “Yes,” they say,
She was previously The Lark’s 2016-17 Van Lier poetry seminar I was giving, ‘Why do women
“all those things are true, but the sun is
feel threatened by men?’ ‘They’re afraid of
coming up tomorrow.”
being killed,’ they said.”
Playwriting Fellow, a 2016-2017 Dramatists Guild
Kalil – the young boy in your play – says, “I Those comments are obviously spot-on. We
know fightin’ ain’t good, but sometimes, not are constantly in these conversations about
Fellow, and a member of The Civilians R&D all the time, but sometimes . . . it’s necessary.” where we’re headed and some of that is
What are you willing to do to survive? because for a long time we’ve been having
Group. Her work has been developed with The legal conversations about parity and paid
That’s something I think about a lot especially
when I’m inside these plays. I’ve always said family leave . . . all these things that matter
Lark, Luna Stage, Open Bar Theatricals, The that I will be the best version of myself after to women and mothers. These conversations
I have children. I don’t know why I think that, are necessary and now so are big movements
Dennis and Victoria Ross Foundation, and The but I know that sometimes when my mother like MeToo. What does it mean when women
looks at me, there’s this thing in her eyes that say to men, “Here are the things that you’ve
says, “Yeah, yeah, you – I would die for.” done to me.” It scares the crap out of men. I
Fire This Time Festival. Most recently, C.A. was find it exciting and good because women have
In your artistic statement, you say, “I like to been terrified forever . . .
named the 2018 P73 Playwriting Fellow and a imagine the impossible in my work, those
sublime moments when a woman discovers continue reading the interview online
catf.org/thirst-c-johnson
Sundance/Ucross Fellow. BA: Smith College her own truth and finds herself suddenly bare
before an audience.” Why is this impossible?
MFA: NYU. For a long time, the American theater was
30Witting interview continued from page 29
giant house felt so sad, like it had its own It was years before I was able to stand on a
energy, its own feelings, and also contained solid foundation.
AMY E.
pieces of him that we never talked about. I
saw those little things and held onto them.
We hold onto our pain to hold onto the
How did you survive grief? How do any of us
survive grief?
WITTING
memory of the person or the thing that we My first defense was drinking a lot so I PLAYWRIGHT,
loved. wouldn’t have to think about it. It helped me
to move forward. Once that became an issue,
THE HOUSE ON THE HILL
The reason I may have a lot of wisdom about I stopped drinking and then began a lot of
trauma is that I experienced many deaths at a AMY E. WITTING finally admits she is from New
self-care. Writing and therapy really helped.
very young age. You can’t really talk about your Jersey, although she now resides in Sunnyside,
own trauma until you sift through it and spend The movie, Coco, shows how we need to talk New York. She received her bachelor’s degree
time processing it. Another boyfriend – Brandt about and remember people who have from Ithaca College and her MFA in playwriting
– died in 2011 when he fell off a cliff in Africa. touched our lives and are no longer with us. from Hunter College. Her plays include The House
That death is specific to this play in that there It doesn’t matter how long we’ve known on the Hill (Atlantic Theater Inaugural LAUNCH
was no chance of having a memorial because them or whatever our relationship was with Commission, NNPN National Showcase, CATF
they weren’t able to bring his body back to them. If you feel pain about the loss, that World Premiere), Anne Page Hates Fun (ASC
America for a service. They brought back his pain is valid. Upcoming World Premiere), The Midnight Ride
ashes and we had a memorial here in Brooklyn. of Sean & Lucy (Roundabout Underground
Is there any forgiveness in this play?
It felt like there wasn’t any closure at all. Workshop featuring Elisabeth Moss & Bryce
For Alexandra there is forgiveness of self Pinkham, Semi-finalist 2017 O’Neil Playwrights
The play explains why we need a place to go throughout the play. At the end, she does Conference), Day 392 (The Kennedy Center
to mourn tremendous losses. Mourning come to a place of being open to the process ACTF/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop, Hunter
Charlie, by being able to go to Ireland and of forgiveness. She becomes open to Playwrights Week, Honorable Mention Kilroy’s
visit a specific place and experience time forgiving Frankie.
with people who loved him felt, very different List), and A Bad Night: A Documentary Play
from mourning Brandt, who died while What is worse? Being a victim of childhood About Consent (MTC’s Creative Center, June
traveling in a foreign country then not having trauma or not being able to forgive childhood Havoc Theatre, Upcoming NY Rep Workshop).
anywhere to go to mourn. I felt lost. trauma? She has received a Jerome Foundation Emerging
Artist Fellowship, NEA Grant, The Anne Freedman
We don’t openly talk about our grief or we They are equally as devastating. What I love
Grant, and winner of the 2018 Shakespeare’s
compare our pain with other people’s pain. about the journey of this play is that we get
New Contemporaries Prize. She also has been
In our current world especially, we’re living to see the love Alexandra and Frankie had
for each other before the incident. Not only a nominee for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize,
in a post-traumatic stress environment. I Weissberger Award, Stavis Award, and Theatre
are they grappling with that loss, but they
want my play to give people permission to Visions Award. Her plays have been developed
are also grappling with the loss of their
talk about their pain and grief. at Atlantic Theater Company, Roundabout
relationship. After a trauma, you become a
You preface your play with this quote from different person. Theatre, The Lark Play Development Center,
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The SPACE on Ryder Farm, Pipeline PlayLAB, Tofte
We have empathy for victims of an awful Lake Center, Unicorn Theatre, NJ Rep, National
loneliest moment in someone’s life is when
tragedy, but seldom for the perpetrator. We New Play Network, and The Kennedy Center.
they are watching their whole world fall apart,
rarely put under the microscope the family She is currently under commission from The
and all they can do is stare blankly.”
of the perpetrator. Aren’t they victims, too? Queens Council on the Arts for her upcoming
At some point in their life, everyone has a project Sunnyside Impressions. Amy is a member
I struggle with this a lot, because I like to
moment when they realize that their world of The Dramatists Guild, affiliated artist with
think that we are all born from goodness;
is falling apart. Those moments are frozen that we all have an opportunity for a second National New Play Network, a member of Mission
in time. When I got the phone call that Charlie chance. During some readings of this play, I to Ditmars Propulsion Lab, and founder of aWe
had died, I remember watching the world received a lot of strong criticism for . . . Creative Group. While she is not writing, Amy
around me falling apart and realizing that
is busy working in the New York Public School
my life was going to be different. I was continue reading the interview online:
catf.org/house-hill-amy-e-witting/ system as a Teaching Artist where she most
paralyzed and didn’t really know what to do.
recently curated an original play about young
immigrants called Catch Me in America. Leading
31 with love is her most important credit.You can also read
