Ken Baltin, Paula Plum and More Star in DEATH OF A SALESMAN at The Lyric Stage, Now thru 3/15

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston presents DEATH OF A SALESMAN, running tonight, February 14 - March 15, 2014. The play, by Arthur Miller, will be directed by Spiro Veloudos.

Ever since it was first performed in 1949, Death of a Salesman has been recognized as a milestone of the American theater. In the person of Willy Loman - the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine - Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. Death of a Salesman compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room.

Featuring: Kelby T. Akin*, Ken Baltin*, Jaime Carrillo, JorDan Clark, Larry Coen*, Joseph Marrella*, MargaRita Martinez, Will McGarrahan*, Eve Passeltiner*, Paula Plum*, Omar Robinson, Victor L. Shopov, Amanda Spinella

CAST:

Ken Baltin* Willy Loman

Paula Plum* Linda

Joseph Marrella* Happy

Kelby T. Akin* Biff

Victor L. Shopov Bernard

Eve Passeltiner* The Woman

Larry Coen* Charley

Will McGarrahan* Uncle Ben

Omar Robinson Howard Wagner

MargaRita Martinez Jenny

Jaime Carrillo Stanley

JorDan Clark Miss Forsythe

Amanda Spinella Letta

CREATIVE TEAM:

Scenic Design, Janie E. Howland**

Costume Design, Gail Astrid Buckley**

Lighting Design, Karen Perlow

Sound Design and Original Compositions, Dewey Dellay

Production Stage Manager, Nerys Powell*

Assistant Stage Manager, Greg Nash*

Assistant Set Designer, Anat Mano

*Member of Actors' Equity Association (AEA)

**United Scenic Artists (USA-Local 829)

The show runs February 14 - March 15, 2014, playing Wednesdays, Thursdays - 7:30pm; Wednesday matinees - 2pm, February 19 & March 12; Fridays - 8pm; Saturdays - 3pm & 8pm; and Sundays - 3pm.

Special Dates: Post-show Q&A with the artists: Sundays, February 16 & March 2 after 3pm performance. Press opening: Sunday, February 16, 3:00pm; VIP opening: Wednesday, February 19, 7:30pm (post-show reception with the artists at Back Bay Harry's - open to all ticket holders); P.S. Event - Free screening of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, Monday, March 3, 7pm.

All performances and events take place at The Lyric Stage, 140 Clarendon Street, Copley Square, Boston, MA 02116. Tickets: $25 - $61. Seniors - $10 off regular price. Student rush - $10. Group rates available. Box Office: 617-585-5678. For more information, visit lyricstage.com. Running time: 2 hours and 45 minutes with one intermission.

WHO'S WHO:

Spiro Veloudos (Director/Producing Artistic Director), now in his 16th season as Producing Artistic Director of The Lyric Stage, directed this season's opener One Man, Two Guvnors, and last season's The Mikado, 33 Variations, and On the Town. In previous seasons, he directed Avenue Q (Elliot Norton Awards for Outstanding Musical and Outstanding Ensemble, five IRNE Awards including Best Musical and Best Director), The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (five IRNE Awards including Best Director, Elliot Norton Award for Best Production and Best Director), Big River, Superior Donuts, Animal Crackers, Blithe Spirit, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, and Kiss Me, Kate. Spiro received the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award from Salem State College. He was the recipient of the 2006 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence. During his tenure, The Lyric Stage has earned numerous awards and honors including Elliot Norton Awards for Outstanding Production (Nicholas Nickleby, Speech & Debate, Miss Witherspoon, The Old Settler), and Outstanding Musical Production (Sunday in the Park with George); Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards for Outstanding Production (Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Settler, Glengarry Glen Ross), and Outstanding Musical Production (Grey Gardens, Urinetown: The Musical, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George). His numerous directing credits at The Lyric include A Little Night Music (IRNE Award for Direction), Glengarry Glen Ross (IRNE Award), Sunday in the Park with George (Best of the Year in Boston's Globe, Herald, and Phoenix); Elliot Norton and IRNE Award for direction), Assassins (Best Production of 1998:The Boston Globe), Lost in Yonkers, Never the Sinner: The Leopold and Loeb Story (Elliot Norton Award, along with Assassins), and Speed-the-Plow (Elliot Norton for Outstanding Production). Mr. Veloudos received StageSource's Theatre Hero Award (2003) and was named Best Artistic Director by Boston Magazine in 1999. He serves as the president for the Producers Association of New England Area Theatres, and is adjunct faculty in Performing Arts at Emerson College.

Kelby T. Akin* (Biff) appeared at The Lyric Stage last season in 33 Variations and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark. Other Lyric Stage credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Understudy. Area credits include Hamlet, Paul, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Glass Menagerie, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing (Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre), Take Me Out (Foothills Theatre), As You Like It, and Curse of the Starving Class (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company/American Voices Reading Series), Richard III, A Christmas Carol (2007), All the King's Men (Trinity Repertory Company). If you don't blink, you can also catch Kelby in the occasional film, commercial, or television role, or puttering around down the street from here on East Berkeley as the day manager for the Medieval Manor Theatre Restaurant. He received his M.F.A. in Theatre Studies from Brown University.

Ken Baltin (Willy Loman) last appeared at the Lyric Stage in Arms And The Man. Previous Lyric Stage credits: Glengarry Glen Ross, Lost in Yonkers, Laughter on the Twenty-Third Floor, and Shakespeare in Hollywood. Recent Boston area credits: Romeo and Juliet and Cymbeline (Actors Shakespeare Project), The Kite Runner, Eurydice (New Repertory Theatre), The Sussman Variations, Deported - A Dream Play (Boston Playwrights Theatre), The Screenwriter's Daughter, Copenhagen (Vineyard Playhouse), Operation Epsilon, The Cherry Orchard (Nora Theatre Co.), Fever Chart, The Loudest Voice (Underground Railway Theatre). Past local credits: Permanent Whole Life, King Of The Jews, Haymarket (BPT), Last Of The Red Hot Lovers, Three Hotels (Gloucester Stage), The Last Hurrah (Huntington Theatre Co.), The Last Night Of Ballyhoo, Beau Jest, Social Security, Yom Kippur At Danang, I Ought To Be In Pictures (Jewish Theatre Of New England), Art, Over the Tavern, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Speed-the-Plow, Oleanna, The Illusion, Founder Of The Feast, A Christmas Carol (Merrimack Repertory Theatre), Waiting for Godot, Scapin, The Waverly Gallery, Twelfth Night, American Buffalo (New Repertory Theatre), Brooklyn Boy (SpeakEasy Stage). Aside from performing, Ken is on the acting faculty at The Boston Conservatory.

Jaime Carrillo (Stanley) made his Lyric Stage this past fall in Becky's New Car. He has recently been seen in The Motherfucker with the Hat (SpeakEasy Stage) and in Two Gentlemen of Verona (Actors' Shakespeare Project). As a company member of the Classical Theatre of Harlem for six years, Jaime performed in King Lear, Marat/Sade, Macbeth, Mother Courage and her Children, and Dream on Monkey Mountain. Other New York credits include Red Beads (Mabou Mines), The Vultures, Offending the Audience, and I.E., in other words (Flea Theatre), Oedipus Rex (Faux-Real Theatre). Regional credits include Woolly Mammoth Theatre, GALA Hispanic Theatre, and Studio Theatre. TV credits: School Spirits (Syfy), Red Rum (Discovery ID). Training: The William Esper Studio, B.A. with honors in Theater Arts from Brandeis University. Jaime was also a member of the Bats at the Flea Theatre for two seasons and a resident artist at The Living Theatre.

JorDan Clark (Miss Forsythe) is making her Lyric Stage debut. She was last seen in She Kills Monsters and You For Me For You (Company One). Jordan also recently filmed Allston Xmas, a web-series by Jared Vincenti, which is due to be released later in 2014. Next, you can see her in Wheelock Family Theatre's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon where she'll have the privilege of sharing the stage with her sister, Paige, once again! Jordan has trained at Boston University's School of Theatre and holds a B.A. in Vocal Performance from the University of the Incarnate Word in her hometown of San Antonio, TX.

Larry Coen* (Charley) previously appeared at The Lyric Stage in One Man, Two Guvnors, Nicholas Nickleby, Miss Witherspoon, Kong's Night Out, Dirty Blonde, and Inspecting Carol. He directed the Lyric Stage productions of Becky's New Car, Chinglish, and The Understudy. This year, he directed The Divine Sister for Red Barn Theatre in Key West, and appeared in Shear Madness (Charles Playhouse), Ryan Landry's M (Huntington Theatre), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Commonwealth Shakespeare). Larry has received four Elliot Norton Awards from Boston Theater Critics' Association. With David Crane he wrote the play Epic Proportions which ran on Broadway starring Kristin Chenoweth. Larry is Artistic Director of City Stage Co. of Boston, which provides free arts education programs and performances for low-income urban youth and families.

Joseph Marrella* (Happy) has previously appeared at The Lyric Stage in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby and Big River. He has also served as a Guest Director for The Lyric First Stage program, directing Coriolanus and Twelfth Night. Joseph has appeared at The Charles Playhouse, as every male character in Shear Madness (the longest running play in American history). Other Boston area credits include Tales of Poe (NewRep on Tour), Twelfth Night and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Summer Festival Theater), Sense & Sensibility: The Musical (Wellesley College Theater), Story Time Preservation Hour (New Exhibition Room). Joseph graduated from Emerson College with a B.A. in Theatre Education-Acting Emphasis. He currently serves as a Monologue Coach and High School Liaison for My College Audition, providing one on one coaching for the competitive college audition process (mycolegeaudtion.com). Love and thanks to Mandy. josephmarrella.com.

MargaRita Martinez (Jenny) is making her Lyric Stage debut. New England: The Libertine (Bridge Rep of Boston/Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company), The King and I (Ocean State Theatre Company), Time of My Life (Zeitgeist Stage Company). Off-Broadway: The Miser ( Jean Cocteau Repertory). New York: As You Like It (Giant Squid Productions), Fefu and her Friends (Culture Project: 45 Below), A Man's A Man (Giant Squid Productions/International FringeNYC), The Elephant Calf (Jean Cocteau Repertory Late Night Series, Makeshift (HERE Arts Center). Television: Host of Neighborhood Kitchens series (PBS WGBH), Crossroads (PBS WNET). Margarita also creates original theatre and music compositions, such as her solo music theatre show, Well Behaved Women. She has performed her own work at such venues as The Roots in Providence, Patravadi Theater in Bangkok, and Pete's Candy Store and Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn. Margarita received her BFA from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. margaritamartinez.com

Will McGarrahan* (Uncle Ben) returns to The Lyric Stage where he performed in Becky's New Car, 33 Variations, The Chosen, The Temperamentals, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Grey Gardens, November, Souvenir, and Dirty Blonde. Other local credits include A Raisin in the Sun (Huntington Theatre), Next Fall, The Drowsy Chaperone, Reckless, Some Men, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Five By Tenn, Company, The Last Sunday in June, Elegies: A Song Cycle, Ruthless!, A Class Act, and A New Brain (SpeakEasy Stage), The Wind in the Willows and Happy Days (Gloucester Stage), Nine Circles (Publick Theatre/Gloucester Stage), The Moon For The Misbegotten and Buried Child (Nora Theater), and The Wrestling Patient (SpeakEasy Stage/Boston Playwrights/40 Magnolias). Will worked as an actor, singer, and pianist for many years in Seattle before moving to Boston's South End in 2001.

Eve Passeltiner* (The Woman) is making her Lyric Stage debut. New England credits include The Diary of Anne Frank (New Repertory Theatre), The Sweetest Swing in Baseball (Boston Theatre Works), And Then There Were None (Stoneham Theatre), Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Appolinaire/TheaterZone), From Orchids to Octopi (Fourth Wall Stage), Ransom and The Crucible (Lost Nation Theatre), Our Town (Mirror Rep/GAAR), as well as Romulus, Tongue of a Bird, and Dodging Bullets (The Theatre Cooperative). She has worked extensively with Avalon Repertory Theatre (NYC) and Moab Repertory Theatre (Utah) where she portrayed Dr. Vivian Bearing in the southwest premier of the Pulitzer-prize winning play Wit. In addition to film, TV, commercials, industrials, Eve's credits include voiceovers for radio, TV, film, video games, and the Webby Award Honoree The Women of Kabul for the Washington Post. AgencyProTalent.com/evep22

Paula Plum* (Linda) first appeared at The Lyric Stage in Dial M for Murder in 1975. (She was 3.) Since then she has been seen at The Lyric Stage in 33 Variations, The Goat, Private Lives, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, Blithe Spirit, Sideman, The Heiress, Mercy Seat, Miss Witherspoon, and Three Tall Women. As a founding member of Actors' Shakespeare Project, she has played Cleopatra (Antony & Cleopatra) , Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), and The Countess (All's Well That Ends Well), and appeared in The New Century, Savannah Disputation, History Boys, Body Awareness, and Divine Sister (SpeakEasy Stage), and No Exit, Ivanov, Mother Courage, Lysistrata , The Marriage of Bette and Boo, and Picasso at the Lapin Agile (American Repertory Theatre). In November she appeared on ABC Lifetime's The March Sisters at Christmas, and will be featured in the upcoming ABC pilot Terminales. Paula is the recipient of four IRNE Awards, the 1995 and 2007 Eliot Norton Award for Best Actress, the 2004 Eliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence, and the 2003 Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University. In 2009 she was one of five actors nation-wide to receive the Fox Actor Fellowship in association with SpeakEasy Stage. She is married to actor Richard Snee.

Omar Robinson (Howard Wagner) returns to The Lyric Stage after appearing in Superior Donuts. Regional credits include Henry VIII, Romeo and Juliet, Pericles, Twelfth Night (Actors' Shakespeare Project) , Hamlet (Bay Colony Shakespeare Company), Fire on Earth (Fresh Ink Theatre), Zombie Double Feature (New Exhibition Room), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Summer Festival Theater), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar, Macbeth (Shakespeare NOW!), Art (Parish Players Theatre), and Robin Hood (Emerson Stage). Omar received a B.A. in Acting and Television/Video Production from Emerson College. He is also a member of Theatre Espresso, an educational theatre company in residence at Wheelock Family Theatre.

Victor L. Shopov (Bernard) returns to The Lyric Stage having previously appeared in 33 Variations and The Temperamentals. Other local credits include The Normal Heart, Punk Rock, Life of Riley, A Bright New Boise, Tiny Kushner, Enron (2010 IRNE Award, Best Actor in a Play), and Farragut North (Zeitgeist Stage Company), Indiscreet Discretion (Fort Point Theatre Channel), Hideous Progeny, The Mistakes Madeline Made, and Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls (Holland Productions), The Country Club, Music From A Sparkling Planet, and The Gingerbread Lady (Happy Medium Theatre), Assassins (Curtain Call), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) and Macbeth (Gurnet Theatre Project), and The Heidi Chronicles (Longwood Players). He has also worked with Bad Habit Productions, GAN-?-meed Theatre Project, the Vokes Players, Whistler in the Dark, and members of the Boston Playwrights' Platform, and holds degrees from Emerson College and Northeastern University. victorshopov.com

Amanda Spinella (Letta) returns to The Lyric Stage after appearing as audience member Christine Patterson in One Man, Two Guvnors earlier this season. Other Boston area credits include: EEP! Show (New Exhibition Room), 99% Stone (The Theater Offensive), Tartuffe (Emerson Stage), as well as work-shopping and appearing in DARLING: A New Musical (Retrop Productions/Emerson College). She is a proud member of Boston's award-winning, professional a cappella group, Fermata Town, and she recently produced and appeared in the festival-bound short film Looking. Amanda holds a B.A. in Theater Studies from Emerson College.

Pictured: Ken Baltin and Paula Plum. Photo by Mark S. Howard.

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