OUR TOWN Off-Broadway at Barrow Street Theatre

BIOS
ELIZABETH AUDLEY (Citizen)
Off Broadway debut. Regional: Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, New Jersey Repertory Company, Hedgerow Theatre, New England Shakespeare Festival, Monomoy Theatre, Next Act Theatre and others. Training: Brown University, Ohio University PATP.		   ROBERT BEITZEL (Howie Newsome). Off Broadway: Finer Noble Gases (Rattlestick), Light Raise the Roof (NYTW), Faster (Rattlestick). Other Theater: Finer Noble Gases (The Bush - London, Edinburgh Fringe, Actor’s Theater Louisville, O’Neil) Bulrusher (Urban Stages), Until We Find Each Other, Parts Unknown (O’Neill). Film and T.V.: Winter Passing, Blackbird, “ER”, “Law and Order”. BFA, The Juilliard School.
         
SUSAN BENNETT (Mrs. Soames). TV: “Law & Order” and “Rescue Me”. Off-Broadway: Orson’s Shadow, Barrow Street Theatre/Planetearth Partners; Levittown, Cliplight Theater at St. Clement’s; Crime and Punishment, 59 E 59 Theaters; Beautiful Thing, Cherry Lane Theater. Regional: The Glass Menagerie, Kansas City Repertory; The Dazzle, Steppenwolf Theater Company; Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Goodman Theater, among others.   KATI BRAZDA (Mrs. Webb). Broadway: A Moon For The Misbegotten (u/s Josie). Off-Broadway: Trying, Promenade Theater. Regional: Twelfth Night, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Fest; A Moon For The Misbegotten, Palm Beach Drama Works. Others include Wilma, Alliance and Dallas Theater Center. Some Chicago credits include Goodman, Victory Gardens, Next, About Face, Court, Remy Bumppo, Lookingglass and Steppenwolf.
         
WILL BRILL (Joe Crowell, Jr.) is very thankful to be working on such a great production. Regional: Winnemucca (Shelby Company & FringeNYC), Lieutenant of Inishmore (Pittsburgh Irish and Classical), Goat Song for Asa Jacobs (Stanford Summer Theatre), Arcadia (TheatreWorks Palo Alto). Shelby Company founding member. Love and thanks to his parents, bros, Dan and Emma.   NATHAN DAME (Sam Craig). New York: Three Sisters (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Gerda's Lieutenant (workshop--Tectonic Theatre Project), The Hand That Feeds You (Horse TRADE). Regional: Mercutio--Romeo and Juliet (Arts Lanes, Chicago), BASH: the latter-day plays (AAT, Utah state premiere). TV: “Nurse Jackie.” BA from Weber State University. Member of The New Ensemble. Thanks, Liz!
         
JENNIFER GRACE (Emily Webb) is grateful to again work with David Cromer. She played Emily in the Chicago-based Hypocrites’ critically-acclaimed production of Our Town in 2008. She is a Hypocrites ensemble member. Previous roles include Rachel in The 4th Graders Present An Unnamed Love-Suicide written by Sean Graney and produced at 59E59 in NYC.   MARK HATTAN (Constable Warren) has performed Off-Broadway and at such theaters as Westside Playhouse, Manhattan Theater Club, Playwright’s Horizons, Soho Rep, TheaterVirginia, Bristol-Riverside and Indiana Rep. Dramalogue Award and Critic’s Circle Nomination. NY TV/Movies: “Love Monkey”, “Cashmere Mafia” and “The Superagent”. Currently on Onion News Network extolling the drug busting capabilities of Lil’ Wayne.
         
WILBUR EDWIN HENRY (Professor Willard). NYC: Is He Dead?; Orson’s Shadow, In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Outward Bound, Pullman Car Hiawatha. Regionals: Orson Welles in Orson’s Shadow at Alley Theatre, Round House Theatre and Philadelphia Theatre Company. Garfinkel in Other People’s Money (John W. Engeman Theatre). Ludie in The Trip to Bountiful (Stage One Wichita). Ralph Parker, Narrator in A Christmas Story (The Cleveland Play House).   JAKE HOROWITZ (Wally Webb). attends LaGuardia High for the Performing Arts as a drama major. Some of his favorite parts include the title role in Macbeth and Hal from The Grippe of October written and directed by John MCeneny which toured to the Gordonstoun School in Scotland. This is Jake's Off-Broadway debut.
         
DANA ELIZABETH JACKS (Irma) Off Broadway debut. Other credits include productions at Mile Square Theatre, B Street Theatre, New York and New Orleans Fringe Festivals. Training: Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts. More information at www.danajacks.com. Thank you Forrest and never-ending thanks to the cast, crew, management and producing teams of Our Town.   RONETE LEVENSON (Rebecca Gibbs). NY : What Once We Felt (LCT) dir. Ken Rus Schmoll; Origin Story (The Public) dir. Hal Brooks; Stunning (NY Theater Workshop ); Regional: Argonautika dir. Mary Zimmerman (Berkeley Rep, Shakespeare Theater of DC, McCarter); TV / Film: “Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU”, “Guiding Light” , “Possible Side Effects” (pilot) dir. Tim Robbins (Showtime) and Taking Woodstock dir. Ang Lee.
         
BEN LIVINGSTON (Doc Gibbs). Broadway: Mamma Mia. Regional: Man From Nebraska (South Coast Rep.), Gross Indecency (Mark Taper), Measure for Measure (Ahmanson), Love’s Labours Lost (Old Globe), Dr. Faustus (Utah Shakes.), Henry VI (Oregon Shakes.). Film: Bruce Almighty, Unrest, Freeloaders. TV: “The Good Wife”, “CSI: Miami”, “Frasier”, “ER”, “Ally McBeal”, “Spin City”, “Freaks and Geeks”, “Star Trek Voyager”.   DAVID MANIS (Mr. Webb). Most recently: title role in The Alchemist, Shakespeare Theatre, D.C. Broadway: Exit The King, The Coast Of Utopia, The Rivals, Henry IV, Morning's At Seven, Arcadia, Abe Lincoln In Illinois. Extensive regional credits. TV includes Monk, Frasier, King Of Queens, and a telekinetic weatherman on The X-Files.
         
DANIEL MARCUS (Simon Stimson). For Barrow Street Theatre: Adding Machine directed by David Cromer. Broadway: Urinetown, Pal Joey, 1776, Woman in White, Pirates of Penzance, A Christmas Carol. TV this season: "Law and Order;SVU" and "You Don't Know Jack" opposite Al Pacino this spring on HBO. Thanks to Ilana Becker, Mastro, Pete and Jed and especially Rosalind Hurwitz for bringing me into the orbit of Planet Cromer.   JAMES McMENAMIN (George Gibbs). Off Broadway: BFE (Playwrights Horizons), The Naked Angels Issues Project & Mag-7 (Naked Angels) Regional: Prayer for My Enemy (Intiman Theatre & Long Wharf Theatres), Loves Labor’s Lost, The Sisters Rosensweig (Huntington Theatre), BFE (Long Wharf Theatre), Chekhov Cycle, Three Penny Opera (Williamstown Theatre Festival) TV: “Law and Order SVU,” “Law and Order,” “Guiding Light”
         
LORI MYERS (Mrs. Gibbs). Chicago: August: Osage County (u/s, Steppenwolf), Mother Courage in Mother Courage and Her Children, King Lear (Fool/Cordelia), (Vitalist). Two After Dark Awards. Regional: White Boned Demon (director Lee Breuer, Kennedy Center). London: The Roaring Girl, Mrs. Klein, Happiness Compartment, (MAYDAYS). For Geoff, Curtis, and Janiece.   KATHLEEN PEIRCE (Citizen) Recent NY stage credits include Something Unspoken, Summerfolk, The American Clock, The Habitation of Dragons (HB Playwrights); Birthday Party in Madagascar (Wings); The Laramie Project (Small Pond); Wonderland (HERE/Immediate Theatre Co.), Cycling Past the Matterhorn (NY Fringe). Film: Finding Graceland, Nine Lives, Black Mail, The Green Belt.
         
KEITH PERRY (Farmer McCarty) is honored to celebrate his 46th year as a professional actor by appearing in Our Town. During those years, he has worked from Broadway to Off-Off Broadway, in national tours, regional and stock theatres, film, tv and commercials. A proud member of Actors’ Equity Association since 1963.   JAY RUSSELL (Joe Stoddard). B’way: The Play What I Wrote. Off-B’way: Around the World in 80 Days, The Normal Heart, The Green Heart & more. National Tour: Beauty & the Beast. Extensive regional credits, most recently A Civil War Christmas(Long Wharf). International: Fully Committed (Vienna) & Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Frankfurt). TV/Film: Morning Glory, “Ugly Betty”, “Louie,” “Bored to Death,” “Sopranos,” “The Unusuals,” “Law & Order(s)”.
         
MICHAEL SHANNON (Stage Manager). NY Theatre: Bug (Barrow Street), Lady (Rattlestick), The Little Flower of East Orange (Public/LAB), Killer Joe (Soho Playhouse). Chicago Theatre: The Pillowman, Man From Nebraska, Mojo (Steppenwolf); Mistakes Were Made, Bug (A Red Orchid); Grace, Lady (Northlight). Recent film: The Runaways; Revolutionary Road; The Missing Person; My Son, My Son What Have ‘Ye Done?; Shotgun Stories. Currently shooting: “Boardwalk Empire” (HBO).   MARK SHOCK (Citizen) is very happy to be a part of Our Town. Originally from Michigan, Mark has been seen here in NYC at The Apollo Theater in the show If This Hat Could Talk, as well as in Emerging Artists Theatre’s NYMF country musical, Heaven in Your Pocket. Regional shows include Shear Madness, Romeo and Juliet and Almost Heaven. Break Legs!
         
JASON YACHANIN (Si Crowell) is thrilled to be a part of Our Town! Other acting credits include: The Buddy Holly Story, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, True TVs “Forensic Files” and spots for Turkey Hill Iced Tea, Time Warner Cable and Trojan Condoms. Thanks to my family and Katy. Go CAVS!    
         
CREATIVE/PRODUCTION CREDITS
         
THORNTON WILDER (Playwright, 1897-1975) was an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works explore the connection between the commonplace and the cosmic dimensions of human experience.  He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928 for The Bridge of San Luis Rey, the second of his seven novels, and received the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1943). His hit play The Matchmaker (1954) was adapted as the musical Hello, Dolly! and he enjoyed enormous success  as a teacher, lecturer, translator and adaptor, actor and  librettist.  His screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943) remains a classic psycho-thriller to this day. Wilder's many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Book Committee's Medal for Literature.
         
DAVID CROMER (Director). Most recently directed the (brief) Broadway revival of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs. He received the 2009 OBIE and Lortel Awards for his direction of Our Town. Other New York credits: Adding Machine: a Musical (Minetta Lane Theatre - 2008 OBIE and Lortel Awards for Direction) and Orson’s Shadow (Barrow Street Theatre). Chicago: Picnic (Writers),Come Back, Little Sheba (Shattered Globe), Cider House Rules (Famous Door), Angels in America (Journeymen) among others. Regional: Glass Menagerie (Kansas City Rep); Farnsworth Invention, SantaLand Diaries, Orson’s Shadow (Alley Theatre). Upcoming: When the Rain Stops Falling (Lincoln Center Theatre)
         
MICHELE SPADARO (Set Design).  Chekhov's Rifle, Uncle Bob, Eggnog Talking, Sweet Eros. Properties:  Adding Machine, Orson's Shadow, The Third Story, Fifty Words. Set Decoration (Television): “The Secret Lives of Men,” “The Jenny McCarthy Show,” “The Ben Stiller Show,” “Cousin Skeeter,” “Turn Ben Stein On.” Film, The Prophecy, Lipstick Camera, Killer Instinct, Rubin and Ed.
         
ALISON SIPLE (Costume Design) is based out of Chicago where recent work includes The Mystery of Irma Vep (Court Theatre), Fedra: Queen of Haiti (Lookingglass), Oedipus (Hypocrites), The Hairy Ape (Hypocrites at the Goodman O'Neill Festival), Edward II (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), Wonka: The Musical (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), The Marriage of Figaro (Remy Bummpo) and Celebrity Row (American Theatre Company). Off Broadway credits: Our Town (Barrow Street Theatre) and The 4th Graders Present an Unnammed Love Suicide (Hypocrite at 59e59). Look for Alison's upcoming work on No Exit (Hypocrites), A Separate Peace (Steppenwolf Theatre for Young Audiences) and Cabaret (Hypocrites). Alison won Jeff Citations for Time and the Conways (Griffin) in 2006 and for Leonce und Lena (Hypocrites) in 2005. She is an Associate company member of The Hypocrites and an Artistic Associate with Lookingglass. Check out her other work at alisonsiple.com.
         
HEATHER GILBERT (Lighting Design). Heather previously designed Our Town for David Cromer in Chicago for the Hypocrites. Her designs have been seen on many Chicago stages including the Court Theatre, Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Timeline, and Remy Bumppo. She participated in the NEA/TCG Career Development Program. Heather serves as the head of lighting design at Columbia College Chicago.
         
JONATHAN MASTRO (Original Music and Music Direction). King Lear, Frank's Home (Goodman), A Year With..., Go, Dog. Go! (Chicago Children's Theatre); Barrel of Monkeys; Second City; Neo-Futurists; Lookingglass, etc. 2009-10 Irving D. Suss Fellow (Colby College, Waterville, ME). Thanks to David, Jeremy, and this wonderful team.
         
KATE McDONIEL (Production Stage Manager) is proud to be living in Our Town. Recent Off-Broadway credits include Adding Machine: a Musical and The Black Monk. Regionally: North Shore Music Theatre, Trinity Rep, True Colors Theatre Company, and over forty productions for the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. Thanks Hodge, Mom and Dad!
         
SARAH BUTKE (Assistant Stage Manager) Off Broadway SM credits: Blind Lemon Blues, Enter Laughing, The Musical!, My Vaudeville Man, 13 shows in the Musicals In Mufti Series, That Time of the Year, Asylum (York Theatre), None of the Above (Lion Theatre), and Mother Load (Sage Theatre and National Tour). Graduate of Miami University of Ohio.
         
MICHAEL PAGE (Assistant Director). is the Managing Director of the Barrow Street Theatre. At BST he’s managed the venue for Mike Daisey’s How Theatre Failed America, TJ & Dave, Baby Wants Candy, Two Men Talking, both BST Fortnight Series, among others and worked as the assistant director on Gone Missing by The Civilians. Many special thanks to Norbert. MFA: Ohio University.
         
B.D. WHITE (Production Manager). Reasons to be Pretty, 50 Words, Third Story, Spain, Grace, Some Girl(s), Frozen, Fat Pig, Runt of the Litter, A Letter from Ethel Kennedy, The Mysteries, The False Servant, Richard III, New Jerusalem, The Mercy Seat, Scattergood, Intrigue With Faye, Bright Ideas, Sessions the musical, The Distance From Here, What of the Night, Colder Than Here, Nixon’s Nixon, The Wooden Breeks. Temporary Help, Cheat, Hard Feelings, The Strange Case of Mary Todd Lincoln, Nuyorican Stories, St. Lucy's Eyes, Leaving Queens, Underneath the Lintel, Sophie Tottie and Bell, Songs of Paradise, Buicks, and Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran.
         
RAPSCALLION PRODUCTIONS – BRIAN DUEA (Theatre Renovation). As a project manager, Brian supervises renovations and restorations of commercial and residential properties. Recent projects include the Cherry Lane Theatre, the Veronica Lally Kehoe Studio at Fordham College and a brownstone on King Street in Manhattan. At The Barrow Street Theatre, he was the Production Manager for BUG.
         
McCORKLE CASTING, LTD. Pat McCorkle, C.S.A. / Joe Lopick (Casting). Broadway: Lieutenant Of Inishmore, Glass Menagerie, Amadeus, A Doll’s House, She Loves Me, Blood Brothers. Off-Broadway: The Toxic Avenger, Adding Machine, Almost Maine, Killer Joe, Mrs. Klein. Film: Ghost Town, Secret Window, Thomas Crown Affair, School Ties. Television: “Electric Company”, “3lbs.”, “Barbershop”, “Chappelle’s Show.”
         
TWO STEP PRODUCTIONS (General Management). Garden Of Earthly Delights, Adding Machine: a Musical (Minetta Lane Theatre). Basic Training, The Strangerer, How Theatre Failed America, Gone Missing, The/King/Operetta, No Child…, Orson’s Shadow, Eat the Taste, BUG (Barrow Street Theatre). The London Globe’s Love’s Labour’s Lost (Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, Pace University). The Irish Curse, Made In Heaven (SoHo Playhouse). Loaded, Dance of the Seven Headed Mouse, Sophistry, The Black Monk (Theatre Row). Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University MFA Showcase (Dance New Amsterdam). The Globesity Festival (Theater for the New City). Finer Noble Gases, Girl Blog From Iraq, (I Am) Nobody’s Lunch, The Acrobat, Two Men Talking (Edinburgh Festival Fringe). www.2StepNYC.com
         
SCOTT MORFEE (Producer). Summer Solo Series (Soho Playhouse); Adding Machine: a Musical by Josh Schmidt and Jason Loewith (Minetta Lane Theatre); Gone Missing by the Civilians, No Child... by Nilaja Sun, Orson's Shadow by Austin Pendleton, BUG by Tracy Letts, TJ & Dave, Eat the Taste by Greg Kotis (all at Barrow Street Theatre); Underneath the Lintel by Glen Berger (SoHo Playhouse); Killer Joe by Tracy Letts (SoHo Playhouse and at Theatre 2851 Chicago) and Shout & Twist (Odyssey Theatre, Los Angeles). At Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2006: Two Men Talking by Murray Nossel & Paul Browde at Assembly Rooms, Finer Noble Gases by Adam Rapp at the Bongo Club and Girl Blog from Iraq: Baghdad Burning, adapted for the stage by Kimberly I. Kefgen & Loren Ingrid Noveck from the blog by Riverbend at Pleasance Courtyard.
         
JEAN DOUMANIAN (Producer). Based in New York City, Jean Doumanian Productions produces works for film, theatre and television. Jean Doumanian Productions is a lead producer on Broadway's August: Osage County, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and five Tony Awards including Best Play, and Mary Stuart, nominated in 2009 for seven Tony Awards, including Best Revival. JDP's upcoming Broadway shows include Tracy Lett’s Superior Donuts and Katori Hall's The Mountaintop, now playing in London's West End. Off Broadway, Jean Doumanian Productions is a lead producer of Our Town, winner of two Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Director and Outstanding Revival. Under the leadership of Ms. Doumanian, the company has produced over 20 films by directors such as David Mamet, David Gordon Green, Woody Allen, and Barbara Kopple, earning Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. In partnership with The Weinstein Company, Jean Doumanian Productions is now adapting August: Osage County for the screen. Other adaptations include David Harrower’s Olivier Award-winning stage play Blackbird.
         
TOM WIRTSHAFTER (Producer). Past productions include Adding Machine a Musical (Minetta Lane Theatre) Gone Missing, No Child..., TJ & Dave, Orson’s Shadow, BUG, Eat the Taste (Barrow Street Theatre) Sarah Jones Bridge and Tunnel (Culture Project and on Broadway, Tony Winner 2005), White Chocolate (Century Center for Performing Arts), Underneath the Lintel (Soho Playhouse), Stars in Your Eyes (Cherry Lane Theatre).
         
TED SNOWDON (Producer )was represented this past spring with Neil LaBute's acclaimed Reasons to Be Pretty on Broadway and Tina Howe's Chasing Manet at Primary Stages. He was a producing partner on the 2007 Tony Award-winning Best Musical Spring Awakening, as well as on David Mamet's November starring Nathan Lane, The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane (Tony-nominated Best Play), and LoveMusik at Manhattan Theatre Club. He was sole producer of Judy Kaye in Souvenir three seasons ago. His credits extend back to the 1979 Tony winner The Elephant Man and include many plays on Broadway and off. He first wept at Our Town at an all-girl's school 50 years ago and is humbled to be back Off-Broadway with this classic play.
         
EAGLE PRODUCTIONS LLC (Producer) is a company that produces plays in New York and other cities as well as provides enhancement funds for non-commercial productions. Its managing member is Michael B. Rothfeld.
         
DENA HAMMERSTEIN / PAM PARISEAU for JAMES HAMMERSTEIN PRODUCTIONS (Producer)Broadway: Superior Donuts, The Seagull. West End: Dealer’s Choice, Sunday in the Park With George, Dirty Blonde. Off-Broadway: My Name Is Rachel Corrie, I Love You, You’re Perfect Now Perfect Now Change, Slut. Projects in development include the West End production of Simon Gray’s The Late Middle Classes, Butley and the new musical Lucky Break based on the movie “The Front”. Dena is also the founder of Only Make Believe, a not for profit charity she created to bring theatre to children confined to hospitals because of serious illness and disability. www.onlymakebelieve.org
         
THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY (Producer). Bob and Harvey Weinstein are co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company. They previously founded and ran Miramax Films which, during their tenure, was nominated for 249 Oscars and won 60. The Weinsteins have produced several award winning shows on Broadway and in the West End, including: The Real Thing, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Baz Luhrmann’s La Boheme, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Producers, Frost/Nixon, Young Frankenstein, August: Osage County, Boeing Boeing, The Seagull, Billy Elliot, You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush, West Side Story, God of Carnage, Exit The King, Hair, A Little Night Music, A View from the Bridge and Race.
         
BURNT UMBER PRODUCTIONS (Producer). Judi Krupp and Bill Gerber are committed to producing quality projects for the theatre. We are pleased to be a part of David Cromer’s Our Town.
         
PATRICK DALY (Associate Producer) is VP of Production and Development for Jean Doumanian Productions, a NY based film/theatre and TV productions company. Theatre credits include August:Osage County, The Great American Trailer Park Musical and Our Town. Film credits include Neal Cassady and the upcoming film adaptations of August:Osage County, Blackbird and Womens World.
         
BARROW STREET THEATRE is operated by producers Scott Morfee and Tom Wirtshafter. Since 2003 Barrow Street Theatre has been home to the following productions:  Roadhouse: The Stage Play by Timothy Haskell, BUG by Tracy Letts, Eat the Taste by Greg Kotis, Orson’s Shadow by Austin Pendleton, TJ & Dave, Red Light Winter by Adam Rapp, Nilaja Sun’s No Child, an oak tree by Tim Crouch, Floating by Hoi Polloi, Gone Missing created by The Civilians. In 2008: BST Fortnight, What’s My Line?-Live on Stage, Two Men Talking, Mike Daisy’s How Theater Failed America, Theater Oobleck’s The Strangerer, Baby Wants Candy. BST was a host venue for the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival and the FringeNYC Encore Series. www.BarrowStreetTheatre.com
         
video by Jeremy Beiler