Gene Weygandt, Susie McMonagle, et al. Set for Northlight's SNAPSHOTS

Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, announces casting for the Chicago premiere of Snapshots, by Stephen Schwartz and David Stern, and Alan Ayckbourn's Season's Greetings. The Snapshots cast includes Gene Weygandt in his third production with Stephen Schwartz, following Wicked and Working; and Susie McMonagle, direct from the Billy Elliott National Tour. Snapshots also features Tony Clarno, Nick Cosgrove, Jess Godwin and Megan Long. The irreverent holiday comedy Season's Greetings includes John Byrnes, Amy Carle, Francis Guinan, John Hoogenakker, Heidi Kettenring, Maggie Kettering, Ginger Lee McDermott, Rob Riley and Matt Schwader.

"The thrill of having Stephen Schwartz here at Northlight working on a new piece reinforces our commitment to new musicals. What a great opportunity for local artists to work with this legendary composer, and for our audience to glimpse his favorite musical pieces in a new context," comments Artistic Director BJ Jones. "One of the joys of working on Alan Ayckbourn's plays is that they are opportunities to assemble killer casts, and in Chicago, we are rich with actors who can breathe life into Ayckbourn's wildly funny style. Both casts are a ‘who's who' of Chicago talent, and we are all excited to have them here at Northlight."

Subscriptions are currently on sale. Tickets to Snapshots and Season's Greetings will be on sale August 5, 2011. Tickets are available through the box office, 9501 Skokie Boulevard in Skokie, by phone at 847.673.6300 or online at northlight.org.

About Snapshots
Snapshots with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by David Stern, is directed by Ken Sawyer and runs September 16 - October 23, 2011. The press opening is Friday, September 23, 2011.

Snapshots, described by the creators as a "musical scrapbook," blends together some of the best-loved music with some of the genuinely wonderful lesser known gems of renowned Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz, the creator of Wicked, Godspell, Pippin! and Working.

This touching romantic comedy exposes a marriage at a crossroads, as a middle-aged couple reminisces how love brought them together and why life pushed them apart. Mr. Schwartz has rewritten many of the lyrics to even his most familiar songs to reflect the fascinating story and characters of this new work. Funny and bittersweet, Snapshots brings into focus all the wonders and frustrations of trusting your heart and believing your memories.

Snapshots Cast bios
Tony Clarno (Daniel) Chicago credits include Grease (American Theater Company) Aladdin (Chicago Shakespeare Theater) and Stupid Kids (About Face Theatre). Regional credits include Third and Pygmalion (Guthrie Theater); Drawer Boy (Jungle Theater); West Side Story (Portland Center Stage); The Winter's Tale, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Great River Shakespeare Festival); The Crucible (Pittsburgh Public). Film credits include Peaceful Warrior (Lions Gate). Television credits include Pandemic and Shark Swarm (The Hallmark Channel).

Nick Cosgrove (Danny) is originally from Park Ridge, Illinois and is a recent graduate of Carnegie Mellon University. Currently based in New York, credits there include Where's Charley?, Saving Aimee, Tuck Everlasting, and It's a Wonderful Life. Regional credits: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (New Theatre, Kansas City, MO); The Sound of Music (Engeman Theatre, Northport, NY); and Titanic, Show Boat, Les Miserables, Annie, My Fair Lady and Miss Saigon (The Muny, St. Louis, MO).

Jess Godwin (Susan) A singer-songwriter and pianist, Jess Godwin studied classical music at Vanderbilt University and obtained a degree in theater from Columbia College, Chicago. As an actor, Chicago credits include Gypsy (Porchlight Theatre), The Wild Party (Bohemian Theater Ensemble's) and Lady Madeleine (Steppenwolf for Young Adults). As a musician, Jess's band keeps up a regular Chicago schedule at venues ranging from Mayne Stage and Double Door to Davenports and Bottom Lounge. She also performs in New York and Atlanta every couple of months. Godwin's three albums, Klutz, Quiet the Room and To The Heart of It are available on iTunes.

Megan Long (Susie) is making her Northlight Theatre debut. Chicago credits include Meet Me in St. Louis and Shout! The Mod Musical (Drury Lane Watertower); A Christmas Carol (Drury Lane Oakbrook); Little Women (Marriott); Always, Patsy Cline (Fox Valley Rep); The Emperor's New Clothes (Chicago Shakespeare), Married Alive (Noble Fool); and My Favorite Year (Bailiwick), among others. She studied at Denison University in Ohio and the Tisch School of the Arts summer program in New York.

Susie McMonagle (Sue) most recently appeared in Billy Elliott, both in Chicago and in the National Tour. Broadway: Fantine in Les Miserables. National tours: Mamma Mia!, The Secret Garden, The Sound of Music, Les Miserables. An Evanston resident, Susie's Chicago credits include: Rock n Roll at Goodman Theatre; Indian Ink, Spitfire Grill and Dirty Blonde at Apple Tree Theatre; Man of La Mancha at Court Theatre; Sideshow and At Wit's End at Northlight Theatre; and numerous shows at the Drury Lane Theatre and Marriott Theatre including Annie Get Your Gun, Anything Goes, Cats, Evita and Chess. A nine time Jeff Award nominee.

Gene Weygandt (Dan) is a three-time Jefferson Award recipient most recently seen in Working, and previously as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in Wicked both in Chicago and on Broadway. Also on Broadway, he created the role of Paul, the bad boyfriend, in big: the Musical. Regional credits include: The Music Man, My Old Lady, Taming of the Shrew, Me and My Girl, Little Me, Lend Me a Tenor, Little Shop of Horrors, and A Day in Hollywood, among others. Film: The Birdcage, The Babe, The Pager. Television: Murphy Brown, Home Improvement, Cybill, The Drew Carey Show, Ellen, Coach, University Hospital. He's also a voice-over actor you've heard hundreds of times.

About Season's Greetings
Season's Greetings by Alan Ayckbourn, directed by Artistic Director BJ Jones, runs November 11-December 18 with a press opening on Friday, November 18, 2011.

It's Christmastime in the Bunker household, and while the children lurk just out of sight, the adults are busy making the "naughty" list. As dinner burns and guests bungle attempts at infidelity under the tree, only one question remains: can Father Christmas escape unscathed? A wildly funny look at the hilarity and high jinks of a "normal" family Christmas.

Season's Greetings Cast bios
John Byrnes (Eddie) has been working with The Hypocrites since The Cherry Orchard in 2000. Other Chicago credits include appearances with Timeline, the Neo-Futurists, Eclipse, Rising Moon and the Bailiwick. Outside Chicago, he has also performed with the Minnesota Fringe Festival, the Huntington Theatre, New Repertory, Boston Playwrights' Theater and the Vineyard Playhouse, among others. John has also appeared in various television and radio commercials. He currently manages an arts education and performing arts center on the Near West Side.

Amy Carle (Phyllis) Chicago credits: The Sins of Sor Juana, Rock ‘N' Roll, and Desire Under the Elms (Goodman Theatre); Sex With Strangers and Hedda Gabler (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Peter Pan and Trust (Lookingglass Theatre Company); Refuge (Collaboraction Theater - Jeff nomination); SubUrbia, The Lights (Jeff nomination), Ecstasy, WAS, and The Planets (RoadWorks Productions). Off Broadway: National tour of The Vagina Monologues. Regional: Fully Committed and The Diary of Anne Frank (Madison Repertory Theatre); Morning Star (Kansas City Repertory Theatre). Television: Chicago Code (FOX), Law & Order (NBC), Guiding Light (CBS).

Fran Guinan (Bernard) is member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble, where appearances include August: Osage County, Love Song, Cherry Orchard, The Grapes of Wrath, Balm in Gilead, True West, and The Diary of Anne Frank. He previously appeared at Northlight in Inherit the Wind. Los Angeles credits include God's Man in Texas and The Weir (Geffen Playhouse); Stuff Happens and Space (Mark Taper Forum); and The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial, True West, Antigone, Oedipus the King, and numerous other productions (L.A. Theatre Works). His many TV credits include Grey's Anatomy, CSI: NY, John Frankenheimer's Path to War and most notably as the Dad in Eerie, Indiana.

Ginger Lee McDermott (Rachel) recently appeared in Northlight Theatre's Sense & Sensibility. Other Chicago credits include Jade Heart with Chicago Dramatists Theatre; Bianca in Othello with Chicago Shakespeare; the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro with Remy Bumppo; and Ann Putnam, Sarah Good and Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible with Steppenwolf. Regional credits include Proof with Orlando Theatre Project and A Doll's House with Pendragon Theatre.

Heidi Kettenring (Belinda) has been seen at Northlight in Sense & Sensibility, the Interplay readings of House On Stilts and Auctioning The Ainsleys, as well as in Side Show. Chicago credits include three years in the Broadway in Chicago production of Wicked at the Oriental, as well as work with Writers', Marriott Lincolnshire, Court, Chicago Shakespeare, Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace and Evergreen Park, Theatre At The Center, and American Theatre Company. Regionally she has appeared at Theatre Works in Palo Alto, Peninsula Players and Bar Harbor Theatre. Heidi has also sung concerts for the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Pensacola Symphony and can be heard singing on a Disney Princess children's book. She is a four-time Jeff Award nominee, an After Dark Award winner, and the recipient of the Sarah Siddons' Chicago Leading Lady Award.

Maggie Kettering (Pattie) was recently seen in Orange Flower Water with Backstage Theater, Lady Macduff at First Folio Theatre, and Sybil in Private Lives at City Lit Theatre. She was a founding member and artistic associate of Mythmakers Theatre Company, where she appeared in Tartuffe, Medea, and The House of Atreus, among others. Some favorite regional credits include: 9 Parts of Desire (Contemporary American Theatre Festival); A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Inherit the Wind (The Warehouse Theatre); and Taming Of The Shrew, A Streetcar Named Desire, Uncle Vanya, Peter Pan, and the world premiere of Adrian Hall's Savages, Christians & Other Homo Sapiens at the University of Delaware. She holds an MFA from the University of Delaware's Professional Theatre Training Program.

John Hoogenakker (Clive) last appeared at Northlight in The Retreat from Moscow. John's regional credits include Mary Stuart, Richard III, Escape From Happiness, The Foreigner at Milwaukee Repertory, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, the title role of Hamlet at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival and Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright at both Arizona Theatre Company and Missouri Repertory Theatre. Chicago credits include Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing at Chicago Shakespeare, Killer Joe at Steppenwolf, the world premiere of Clifford Odets' lost play I Got the Blues at Victory Gardens, Robyn Hood of Barnsdale Wood for Equity Library Theatre, The Bomb-itty of Errors at both the Royal George and Chicago Shakespeare and Stones in His Pockets at Apple Tree. He is also a voice-over actor and a graduate of DePaul University. John's film and television credits include ER and the forthcoming Flags of Our Fathers (WB).

Rob Riley (Harvey) Chicago credits include The Cripple of Inishmaan (Northlight Theatre); The Crowd You're in With, Moonlight and Magnolias, and A Touch of the Poet (Goodman); I Sailed with Magellan, The End of the Tour, Unspoken Prayers and Before My Eyes (Victory Gardens Theater); Heartbreak House (Remy Bumppo Theatre); The Merry Wives of Windsor (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); The Weir and Playboy of the Western World (Steppenwolf Theatre); and Cadillac (Chicago Dramatists). At Actors Theatre of Louisville he appeared in Lisa Dillman's Ground. He appeared in several mainstage revues at The Second City; in Paul Sills' Sills and Company at Actors Playhouse (New York); and co-wrote, directed, and performed in the musical Wild Men! in Chicago and New York.

Matt Schwader (Neville) last appeared at Northlight in A Life. Chicago Credits: A Life in the Theatre, A Christmas Carol (Goodman);Titus Andronicus (Court); Othello, Henry IV parts 1 & 2, Measure for Measure, Merry Wives of Windsor, The Moliere Comedies (Chicago Shakespeare); Juliet in Shakespeare's R&J (co-production Apple Tree and Chicago Shakespeare); All Night Strut (Marriott); Mrs. Warren's Profession (Remy Bumppo); Polish Joke (Noble Fool Theatricals). He has also performed with Actors Theatre of Louisville, Indiana Repertory, and Summer Shakespeare Notre Dame. Matt is a company member with American Players Theatre in Spring Green, WI where he played Prince Hal in Henry IV and the title role in Henry V and will be appearing in As You Like It, All's Well that Ends Well, and Major Barbara this coming season. He holds an MFA from the University of Delaware's Professional Theatre Training Program.

Curtain times are: Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.; Fridays at 8:00 p.m.; Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; Sundays at 2:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

Subscriptions to the 2011-12 Northlight Season are currently available through the box office, 9501 Skokie Boulevard in Skokie, by phone at 847.673.6300 or online at northlight.org. Tickets to Snapshots and Season's Greetings will be on sale August 5, 2011.

Subscriptions range in price from $99-$225. A limited number of season subscriptions for the Opening Night performances (also includes a reception with the cast) are available for $300, subject to availability.

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