Justin Adams*
Damis
New York:
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Acting Company),
Her Majesty the King (HERE Studios),
The Municipal Abattoir (13th Street Repertory), Freeplays Festival (NYU Tisch), LES Theatre Festival. Regional:
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Parts 1 and 2 (title role),
Romeo and Juliet (Playmakers Repertory Company);
The Rainmaker, Amadeus (title roles, Northern Stage);
Hamlet (title role),
Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival);
Eurydice (Alliance Theatre);
Jesus Hates Me (Denver Center);
Hamlet (Folger Theatre);
Hidden Tennessee (Portland Stage);
The Triumph of Love (Clarence Brown Theatre);
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Miracle Worker (Texas Shakespeare Festival in conjunction with Peking University); Vineyard Art Project. Film and TV: “Unforgettable”;
Independence: Beyond What She Expects; ASAS: Anatomy of Socially Awkward Situations; Radio Cape Cod. Training: The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Chrissy Albanese
Flipote
Chrissy will be completing her training at NYU/ Tisch CAP21 in the coming year. This is her first endeavor at Westport Country Playhouse! Favorite credits include
Hello Again, Sweet Charity (NYU/ CAP21);
High School Musical (Ogunquit Playhouse);
Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Producers (Arundel Barn Playhouse).
Matthew Amendt*
Valère
Off-Broadway:
Henry V in the title role (The Acting Company at the New Victory Theater);
The Subject Was Roses, The Misanthrope (Pearl Theatre). Matthew appeared at the Guthrie Theater in 12 productions since 2003, including
The Great Gatsby, and
Henry V in the title role. His work has been seen at Syracuse Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare, Arden Theatre, Chautauqua, Great River Shakespeare, and others. He is a 2000 Presidential Scholar in the Arts, has a BFA in Acting from the Guthrie/U of M, and is an Ivey Award winner for writing/performing in
The Comedian’s Tragedy.
Nadia Bowers*
Elmire
Broadway:
The Farnsworth Invention, Doubt, Metamorphoses. Off-Broadway:
Wildflower (Second Stage);
Julius Caesar (The Public Theater, NYSF);
Dog and Wolf (59E59);
Romania, Kiss Me! (Play Co.);
Eyes of the Heart (NAATCO);
In Your Shoes (original solo show, NYC Fringe Festival). Regional:
Circle Mirror Transformation (Huntington Theatre Company);
Crimes of the Heart (Open Fist Theatre);
Boston Marriage, Blood Wedding (Guthrie Theater);
Tartuffe (La Jolla Playhouse);
The Winter’s Tale (Elm Shakespeare). Film/TV:
Little Ones; “NCIS”; every incarnation of “Law & Order”; “The Young and the Restless”; “As The World Turns.” BA: Dartmouth College. MFA: NYU’s Graduate Acting Program.
Patricia Conolly*
Madame Pernelle
Westport Country Playhouse:
Outward Bound (dir. Doug Hughes) and a
Script in Hand playreading of
The Last Journey. Broadway credits include:
Is He Dead?, Enchanted April, Waiting in the Wings, The Sound of Music, The Circle, Judgment at Nuremberg, A Small Family Business, and four seasons with the APA/Phoenix Company. She has also worked at Lincoln Center; Manhattan Theatre Club; Roundabout Theatre Company; Atlantic Theater; Irish Repertory Theatre; Stratford Festival, Ontario; Guthrie Theater; Mark Taper Forum; and many regional centers; in the West End (with Maggie Smith); Royal Shakespeare Company; Laurence Olivier's Chichester Festival Company. Patricia has worked in many productions with Westport Country Playhouse artistic director Mark Lamos, including
Antony and Cleopatra (Hartford Stage).
Tyrone Mitchell Henderson*
Cléante
New York:
Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk; King Lear; The America Play; The Tempest; Two Noble Kinsmen; The Public Sings; Letters to the End of the World; Medea; Stonewall. Television: “Boardwalk Empire,” “Suits” (Pilot), “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “As the World Turns,” “All My Children.” Film:
Ride for Your Life, The Treatment. Regional: Yale Repertory Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Huntington Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Dallas Theater Center, Syracuse Stage, Denver Theater Center, PlayMakers Repertory. Awards: Winner, Dallas Theatre Critics, Connecticut Critics Circle and Leon Rabin awards; nominee, Audelco and Kevin Kline awards.
Marc Kudisch*
Tartuffe
Broadway:
9 to 5 (Tony, Drama Desk Awards noms.),
The Apple Tree, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Tony, Outer Critic Circle Awards noms.),
Assassins (Drama Desk Award nom.),
Thoroughly Modern Millie (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critic Circle Award noms.),
Bells Are Ringing, The Wild Party, The Scarlet Pimpernel (3.0),
High Society, Beauty and the Beast, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Recent Off-Broadway:
Blue Flower (Second Stage Theater);
A Minister's Wife (Lincoln Center);
Girl Crazy (Encores!);
The Glorious Ones (Lincoln Center);
A Little Night Music, The Pirates of Penzance (NYC Opera);
See What I Wanna See (Drama Desk Award nom.). Recent Regional:
Golden Age (Kennedy Center),
A Little Night Music (L.A. Opera). Film/TV: “Smash,” “Blue Bloods,” “Sex and the City,” “Late Night with David Letterman,” “As the World Turns,” “Break In” (Lifetime), “All My Children,”
Bye Bye Birdie.
Jeremy Lawrence*
Monsieur Loyal
Westport Country Playhouse:
Into the Woods. Off-Broadway:
What the Public Wants, Is Life Worth Living?, So Help Me God! (Mint Theater);
Five by Tenn (Manhattan Theatre Club);
Imaginary Invalid (Cell Theatre). Bravo Award:
Lavender Songs Cabaret (Duplex). International: Tennessee Williams’
Traveling Companion (Dublin Gay Theatre Festival). Los Angeles: Chekhov’s
The Wood Demon, Brecht’s
The Wedding, Ghetto (Mark Taper Forum);
The Threepenny Opera (Reprise Productions);
Patience (Antaeus Company);
The Three Sisters (Open Fist Theatre);
The Chairs (Stages Theatre Center);
Nicholas Nickleby (LACC). Film/TV:
Critters, Body Double, Nightshift, “Law & Order: SVU,” “Stella,” “Drew Carey Show,” “ER,” “thirtysomething,” “Night Court.” He just returned from directing his
Cabaret Verboten in Florida. He is internationally acclaimed for his one-man Tennessee Williams shows.
Mark Nelson*
Orgon
Mark Nelson last played this role in 1973 in high school in the Bronx, NY. More recent credits include
Timon of Athens (The Public Theater); Shylock in
The Merchant of Venice (The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC); Sam Mendes' Bridge Project (BAM, The Old Vic);
My Name Is Asher Lev (Long Wharf Theatre). He appeared on Broadway in
The Invention of Love, After the Fall, Three Sisters and
A Few Good Men, and played Einstein in Steve Martin's
Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Obie Award). He teaches at Princeton.
William Peden*
Laurant/Officer
The Great Gatsby as Tom Buchannan (Arizona Theatre Company),
Shotgun as Beau Harlan (Florida Studio Theatre),
Snow Falling on Cedars as Carl Jr. (Portland Center Stage),
Bear Country as Young Bear (Alabama Shakespeare Festival),
Take Me Out as Kippy (Capital Repertory Theatre),
Red Light Winter as Davis (Studio Theatre). New York: Cherry Lane Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Red Bull Theater, Adobe Theater, Storm Theatre, et al. Film:
The Jimmy Show, Little Horses, Beds Made & Sweaters On. TV: “Law & Order,” “Guiding Light,” “All My Children,” “As the World Turns.” MFA: ACA, The Shakespeare Theatre, DC.
Jeanine Serralles*
Dorine
Off-Broadway:
The Maids (Red Bull Theater),
Maple and Vine (Playwrights Horizons),
Stunning (LCT3),
The Glass Cage (Mint Theater),
The Misanthrope (New York Theatre Workshop, Drama League Award nomination),
The Black Eyed (NYTW, Drama League Award nomination),
Hold Please (Working Theater, Drama Desk Award nomination - Featured Actress),
Antigone Project (Women's Project). NYC Theater includes:
Busted (Cino Nights),
Vendetta Chrome (Clubbed Thumb),
Paris Commune (Public Lab). Film/TV:
The Abolitionists, Inside Llewyn Davis, Two Lovers, Across the Universe, “The Good Wife,” “Sex and the City.” NYTW Usual Suspects. Member of The Civilians. MFA: Yale University.
Charise Castro Smith*
Mariane
Charise Castro Smith is an actress and playwright. Off-Broadway:
The Art of Preservation (The Flea Theater),
The Germ Project (New Georges/3LD Arts and Technology Center),
The Voices in My Head (Ars Nova),
Jane Says (The Public Theater: New Work Now!). Television: “The Good Wife,” “Body of Proof,” “Unforgettable.” Playwriting credits include:
Estrella Cruz [The Junkyard Queen] (Ars Nova ANT Fest/ Yale Cabaret),
The Hunchback of Seville (Studio 42/New Georges) and the World Premiere of
Boomcracklefly (Miracle Theatre, Portland, OR). She is currently a Van Lier Playwriting Fellow at New Dramatists. MFA: Yale School of Drama, BA: Brown University.
*Members of Actors’ Equity Association
Molière (1622 – 1673)
Playwright
Molière was the leading French comic actor, stage director, and dramatic theoretician of the seventeenth century. He was born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. Although he was awarded a law degree, he incorporated an acting troupe, The Illustrious Theatre, in collaboration with the Béjart family, probably because he had fallen in love with their oldest daughter, Madeleine Béjart, who became his mistress. It was at roughly the same time that he acquired the pseudonym Molière. In 1658 the troupe played before Louis XIV in Paris. The king's brother became Molière's patron; later Molière and his colleagues were appointed official providers of entertainment to the Sun King himself. Molière advanced from being a gifted adapter of Italian-derived sketches and a showman who put on extravaganzas to a writer whose best plays had the lasting impact of tragedies. Unwittingly, he made many enemies. The clergy mistakenly believed that certain of his plays were attacks on the church. Other playwrights resented his continual experiments with comic forms. In 1662 he married Armande Béjart, a nineteen-year-old actress who was either Madeleine's sister or, as some of the playwright's rivals claimed, her daughter by Molière. They had one child, Esprit-Madeleine. In the late 1660s, Molière developed a lung ailment from which he never recovered, although he continued to write, act, direct, and manage his troupe as energetically as before. Molière's works include
The School for Husbands (1661),
The School for Wives (1662),
Tartuffe (1664),
Don Juan (1665),
The Misanthrope (1666),
The Doctor in Spite of Himself (1666),
Amphitryon (1668),
The Miser (1668),
Scapin (1671),
The Learned Ladies (1672), and
The Imaginary Invalid (1673).
Richard Wilbur
Translator
Born in New York City, Wilbur received his BA from Amherst College and an MA from Harvard. He has taught on the faculties of Harvard, Wellesley, Wesleyan, and Smith. Wilbur’s publications include six volumes of poetry, a collection of prose, and the musical Candide, for which he supplied most of the lyrics. He has written highly praised verse translations of Molière’s plays
The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, The School for Wives, and
The Learned Ladies. Among Mr. Wilbur’s awards are two Pulitzer Prizes, a National Book Award, Edna St. Vincent Millay Award, Bollingen Award, Ford Foundation Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, and Prix de Rome Fellowship. He has served as both Chancellor and President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1987 he was named the second Poet Laureate of the United States, succeeding Robert Penn Warren.
David Kennedy
Director/Westport Country Playhouse Associate Artistic Director
Westport Country Playhouse:
Suddenly Last Summer, Beyond Therapy, Dinner with Friends. Kennedy joined the Playhouse in March 2009 as associate artistic director. He previously served as associate artistic director at Dallas Theater Center from 2004 to 2007 and as acting artistic director for their 2007-08 season. His Dallas Theater Center directing credits included
The Misanthrope, Glengarry Glen Ross, Moonlight and Magnolias, I Am My Own Wife, The Violet Hour, and
Thom Pain (based on nothing). He has also staged productions at the Wilma Theater, Clarence Brown Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, 78th Street Theatre Lab, Prospect Theater Company and Kitchen Dog Theater, among others. He was a founding artistic director of The Lunar Society in Toronto and Milkman Theatre Group in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was artistic director of the Summer Cabaret in New Haven. Kennedy is a former Phil Killian Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a Drama League Directing Fellow, and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
Wilson Chin
Scenic Design
Westport Country Playhouse:
I Do! I Do! Broadway:
Next Fall. Off-Broadway: Ars Nova, Daryl Roth Theatre, HERE, Naked Angels, Rattlestick Theater, Second Stage, SoHo Playhouse, Working Theater. Opera:
Lucia di Lammermoor (Lyric Opera of Chicago),
A Florentine Tragedy/Gianni Schicchi (Canadian Opera Company),
The Saint of Bleecker Street (Central City Opera),
Don Giovanni (San Francisco Opera Merola). Regional: ACT, Barrington Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, Geva Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, Hartford Stage, Indiana Rep, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe, Portland Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Trinity Repertory, Two River Theater Company, Weston Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theatre. MFA: Yale School of Drama. www.wilsonchin.com.
llona Somogyi
Costume Design
Westport Country Playhouse:
Suddenly Last Summer; Tick, Tick…Boom!; Vigil; Scramble!; Sedition; The Voice of the Turtle. Connecticut:
My Name is Asher Lev (Long Wharf Theatre);
The Crucible, Gem of the Ocean, Tom Sawyer, Noises Off, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hartford Stage);
Three Sisters, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Passion Play (Yale Repertory Theatre). Broadway:
Clybourne Park. Off-Broadway:
Regrets, Maple and Vine, A Small Fire, Home, the original
Wit, and many more. Regional: Guthrie Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Denver Theater Center, Arena Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and many others. Ms. Somogyi is a graduate of and a faculty member at Yale School of Drama.
Matthew Richards
Lighting Design
Westport Country Playhouse:
Suddenly Last Summer, Dinner with Friends. Off-Broadway:
Storefront Church (Atlantic Theater Company),
RX (Primary Stages),
Hand to God (Ensemble Studio Theatre),
Invasion! (Play Company), Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, MCC, Playwrights Horizons, Rattlestick Theater, Second Stage, TheatreworksUSA. Regional: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage, Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE, Bay Street Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, Ford’s Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, Hangar Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Stage and Film, The Old Globe, Shakespeare Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre. Graduate: University of Massachusetts, Yale School of Drama.
matthewrichardsdesign.com.
Fitz Patton
Sound Design and Original Music
Westport Country Playhouse:
Suddenly Last Summer, Dinner with Friends. Fitz Patton has designed and scored over 240 productions in 20 cities across the U.S. In 2010 he was awarded both the Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Awards for his design for
When the Rain Stops Falling at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, and was nominated again, in 2011 for his work on
The Other Place, directed by Joe Mantello. His most recent article for
Live Design Magazine, “Stochastic Natural Sound Fields,” details his process for the creation of dense, natural soundscapes. Last summer he collaborated with composer Annea Lockwood on the installation of a large scale sensor activated environmental sound sculpture at iPark, an artist retreat in East Haddam, CT. His symphony,
The Holy Land, a 45-minute work for baritone, tenor and mezzo-soprano and orchestra, was completed in January of this year. He is a graduate of Vassar College, Bard College, and Yale University.
Michael Rossmy
Fight Director
Westport Country Playhouse:
Into the Woods. Broadway:
A Tale of Two Cities (Fight Director);
Fences, Cymbeline, Lestat, Tarzan, Superior Donuts (all as Assistant Fight Director), among other credits. Regional: Baltimore CENTERSTAGE, Goodspeed Opera House, Paper Mill Playhouse, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Public Theater, Huntington Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, Metropolitan Opera, Yale Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Rattlestick, Project Y, and others. Michael is also a faculty member at the Yale School of Drama and the New York Conservatory for the Dramatic Arts where he teaches Stage Combat.
Klaus van den Berg
Dramaturg
Klaus van den Berg is Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has worked as resident dramaturg for UT’s Clarence Brown Theatre since 1997—highlights include stage adaptations for American premieres of Tabori’s
Mein Kampf and
The Brecht File, and visual dramaturgy/scenography for
Nora and
Oedipus/Caligula—and as production dramaturg for 7Stages, American Conservatory Theater, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, English Theatre Berlin, and Asolo Theatre Conservatory in Sarasota, where his translation and adaptation of Schiller’s
The Robbers recently premiered under David Kennedy’s direction. In addition to directing plays by Büchner, Strindberg, Chekhov, Goldoni, Marivaux, Molière, and Racine, he has published widely in academic journals on topics from Strindberg, Tabori, Wagner, Libeskind, and Frisch to contemporary developments in directing, dramaturgy, and scenography. He's currently at work on a book that extends Walter Benjamin’s innovative image theory into contemporary performance studies.
Matthew Melchiorre
Production Stage Manager
Westport Country Playhouse:
The Year of Magical Thinking; Into the Woods; Twelfth Night, or What You Will; Suddenly Last Summer (directed by David Kennedy);
Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Beyond Therapy; The Diary of Anne Frank; Happy Days; She Loves Me; That Championship Season; Tick, Tick...Boom!; Around the World in 80 Days; A Holiday Garland; The Pavilion. Broadway:
The Light in the Piazza, Coram Boy, Hamlet, Curtains, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Wicked, The Lion King, All Shook Up, The Frogs. Off-Broadway:
Black Tie (directed by Mark Lamos),
Happy Now?, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment…, Buffalo Gal (directed by Mark Lamos),
White Chocolate, Open Heart, The Architecture of Loss. Other New York:
Show Boat In Concert (Carnegie Hall). Regional:
Honk! (Two River Theater Company),
Into the Woods (CENTERSTAGE).
Alison M. Roberts
Assistant Stage Manager
Westport Country Playhouse:
Suddenly Last Summer (directed by David Kennedy),
The Diary of Anne Frank, Around the World in 80 Days. Broadway:
Billy Elliot: The Musical, A Steady Rain, Les Misérables (Revival),
The Addams Family, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Disney's The Little Mermaid. Off-Broadway: NYSF/Public Theater, Primary Stages. Regional: Paper Mill Playhouse, New Freedom Theater. MFA: Rutgers University. Proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
Elizabeth Smith
Voice and Speech Consultant
Westport Country Playhouse:
Twelfth Night, or What You Will; The Breath of Life; How the Other Half Loves; Around the World in 80 Days. Broadway:
Mrs. Warren's Profession, Arcadia, The Importance of Being Earnest, Top Girls, The Homecoming, Julius Caesar, Cymbeline, The Coast of Utopia, The Rivals, Henry IV, The Invention of Love, Ivanov, Racing Demon, Sight Unseen, The Retreat from Moscow, Tartuffe, Uncle Vanya, Night Must Fall, London Assurance, Tommy, My Fair Lady, Beauty and the Beast, Me and My Girl, Piaf, Rose, Dracula. Off-Broadway:
Humble Boy, House and Garden, One Flea Spare, The Skriker, Hamlet, Fen, Moonlight, The Entertainer, No Man's Land, Kindertransport, The Road to Mecca, Cloud Nine. New York Shakespeare Festival:
As You Like It, King Lear. Regional: Long Wharf Theatre, Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, Guthrie Theater, Huntington Theatre Company, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Shakespeare Theatre D.C.
Stephanie Klapper
Casting
Broadway:
A Christmas Story, The Musical (upcoming);
Dividing the Estate; Bells Are Ringing. Off-Broadway: Horton Foote’s
Harrison, Texas (Primary Stages);
The Morini Strad, RX, Olive and the Bitter Herbs, Black Tie (Primary Stages/Resident Casting Director);
Twelfth Night (New York Classical Theatre);
Karen O’s Stop the Virgens! (St. Ann’s Warehouse);
Cactus Flower (Westside Theatre). Regional:
Emotional Creature (Berkeley Repertory Theatre),
Nobody Loves You (Old Globe),
Three Musketeers (Cincinnati Playhouse),
Venice (Kansas City Rep/Kirk Douglas Theatre),
God of Carnage (Capital Rep),
Next to Normal (Milwaukee Rep). Film:
Alice Jacobs, Roberta, Feast of the Goat. Television: “LazyTown.” Casting Society of America, League of Professional Theatre Women.
