Jimmy Davis, Lucy Owen and More Set for Long Wharf Theatre's CLYBOURNE PARK, Beg. Tonight
By: BWW News Desk May. 08, 2013
Long Wharf Theatre concludes its 2012-13 season with Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Clybourne Park, by Bruce Norris, and directed by Associate Artistic Director Eric Ting. The play will take place on The Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Schenck III Mainstage from tonight, May 8, 2013 through June 2, 2013. Tickets are $40-$70. The press opening is May 15, 2013 at 7:30 pm.
The cast is comprised of Jimmy Davis (Jim/Tom/Kenneth), Daniel Jenkins (Russ/Dan), LeRoy McClain (Albert/Kevin), Alex Moggridge (Karl/Steve), Lucy Owen (Betsy/Lindsey), Melle Powers (Francine/Lena), and Alice Ripley (Bev/Kathy). The creative team is comprised of Frank Alberino (sets), Linda Cho (costumes), Tyler Micoleau (lighting design), and Elizabeth Rhodes (sound). Charles M. Turner III is the stage manager.
Race and real estate collide in this outrageously funny and provocative Tony- and Pulitzer Prize winning play. The action begins in 1959, with a nervous group of neighbors trying to talk their friends out of selling their home in a Chicago neighborhood to a black family. Fast forward to the same house fifty years later when a white family attempts to move into the now predominantly African-American neighborhood. Described as "an ingenious, audacious lightning rod of a play" by Entertainment Weekly, this provocative and funny Pulitzer Prize-winning play delves into America's complicated relationship with race with sharp humor and deep perception.
"This is one of the most provocative plays about race written in the past decade. It is a masterpiece," said Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein. "It juxtaposes attitudes in the 1950s and in the 21st century, and in making that comparison, points out our folly.
"Clybourne Park is inspired by A Raisin in the Sun, bookending the events of Lorraine Hansberry's seminal work. "It owes everything to A Raisin in the Sun ... I think this play is most effective in the manner in which it puts onstage in the mouths of its characters things people have always thought, but haven't said in the presence of people from other cultures," Ting said.
Edelstein said that it is not in Long Wharf Theatre's general makeup to do "last year's Broadway hit." "However, every once in a while a play calls itself out, because of its importance, to be done. This is play is one of those," Edelstein said.
The play's subject matter - race, class, and real estate - is mirrored acutely in the history of New Haven, Edelstein believes. "We hope it will incite conversations that are provocative and enlightening," he said.
Long Wharf Theatre is also using this production to partner with the New Haven Free Public Library on a series of community conversations about race and real estate in New Haven, moderated by local historians and geared towards discussion the city's evolution and history. The conversations will take place at every city library branch throughout May.
For more information about Long Wharf Theatre, or to purchase tickets, call 203-787-4282 or visit www.longwharf.org.
CREATIVE TEAM BIOS
Jim/Tom/Kenneth
New York Theatre: The House of Blue Leaves (Broadway); We are
Proud to Present a Presentation about the Herero... (Soho Rep); The More Loving One (Fringe NYC, Best Overall Production); Favorites, The Undeniable Sound of Right Now, Best Sex Ever, What Happened When (Rising Phoenix Rep); Julia in Two Gentlemen of Verona (Urban Stages); Much Ado About Nothing (Boomerang); Hamlet (Pearl). Regional Theatre: Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (The Shakespeare Theatre); American Buffalo (The Studio Theatre); Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, America, Kuwait (Rattlestick West); Othello (New Harmony). Training: The Juilliard School.
Russ/Dan
Long Wharf: Adventures in the Skin Trade. Broadway: Original companies of Golden Boy,Mary Poppins (Mr. Banks), Big (Josh - Drama Desk nomination), Wrong Mountain (Cliff), and Big River (Huck) in 1985 (Tony and Drama Desk nominations) and the revival with Deaf West in 2003 (Mark Twain - Tony Honor). Also, Billy Elliot (Dad), Angels in America (Prior). Off-Broadway: Paris Commune (Civilians associate), Sex Lives of Our Parents; Benefactors; Love Child (co-written and performed with Robert Stanton); Bye Bye Birdie and The Pajama Game (Encores!); Spinning into Butter; Dream True; The Maiden's Prayer; Triumph of Love; Johnny Pye; Five Visits from Mr. Whitcomb; The Maiden's Prayer; Feast Here Tonight (composer/performer). Regional: ART, Cincinnati Playhouse, Arts Emerson, ACT/Seattle, Hangar Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company/Kennedy Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville (two years). Film and Television: For Robert Altman, O.C. in O.C. and Stiggs, Willie in The Caine Mutiny Court Marshall and Stringer in Tanner '88; Also, Joshua, The Perfect You, Infested, Cradle Will Rock, Five Corners, Glory, In Country, Florida Straits, What Comes Around, "The Good Wife", "Law and Order(s)", Cracker andAlex in Going to Extremes.
Albert/Kevin
Mr. McClain has appeared on Broadway in Cymbeline and The History Boys. His Off Broadway credits include Milk Like Sugar, Born Bad (AUDELCO Award nomination), Measure for Measure, Othello, The Good Negro, Oroonoko, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Huck & Holden, and In Search of Stanley Hammer. His International/Regional credits include A Raisin in the Sun (Walter Lee Younger), Hamlet (title role), The Convert, Milk Like Sugar, The Piano Lesson (Boy Willie, Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Best Actor), Antony and Cleopatra, Othello (Austria, Germany, NYC, dir. Peter Sellers), The Whipping Man, The Good Negro, Blue/Orange, Elmina's Kitchen, Trouble in Mind, The Comedy of Errors, Rough Crossing, Richard II, Three Days of Rain, Private Eyes, A Midsummer Night's Dream, like sun fallin' in the mouth, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, and others. Mr. McClain's film and television credits include The Happy Sad, The Adjustment Bureau, "Rubicon," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Guiding Light," "Breaking In," "After," and "The Stage." Education: MFA, Yale School of Drama and The National Theatre of Great Britain (London).
Karl/Steve
Mr. Moggridge was recently seen by New Haven audiences as George in Long Wharf Theatre's production of It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, and Andrei in Three Sisters at Yale Rep (a co-production with Berkeley Rep). He has just returned from the International Broadway Tour of Chinglish, in which he played Daniel. He has appeared regionally in Eat Your Heart Out (Actors' Theatre of Louisville) The Beard of Avon, A Christmas Carol, The Threepenny Opera (American Conservatory Theater); The Weir, By the Bog of Cats (San Jose Rep); The Entertainer, Betrayed, and Salomania (Aurora Theatre Company); The Pillowman (Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre); as well as productions at San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Artists Repertory Theatre, B Street Theatre, Utah Shakespearean Festival, and MCC Theater. His film and television credits include Trauma, Batman Begins, and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." Alex is also a playwright. His plays have appeared in Off-Broadway's Summer Play Festival and the New York International Fringe Festival. Alex received his MFA in acting from ACT.
Betsy/Lindsay
New York Theatre credits include Body Language (Active Theater), Time et. al., and Complete (NY Fringe and Fringe Encore). Regional credits include Cloud Nine (Berkeley Rep), Shakespeare in Hollywood (Theatreworks in Mountainview; Henry IV, parts 1 & 2; The Winter's Tale (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival); Arcadia, Amadeus, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Romeo and Juliet, Skylight (PCPA Theatrefest); and The Seagull, An Ideal Husband (Porchlight Theatre Company). She can be seen in the films Shadows and Lies, and Higher Ground with Vera Farmiga; on TV in "The Big C," "Law and Order: SVU," "Delocated," "Inside Amy Schumer," "The Americans"and on your computer in the web series, "I [heart] Lucy." Last summer she played Olga in Three Sisters in a house in New Jersey. Lucy is a graduate of the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts.
Francine/Lena
Theatre: In the Next Room or the vibrator play - (World Premiere, Berkeley Rep); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Second Stage), Fabulation, Miss Witherspoon (Playwrights Horizons), Civilization (Clubbed Thumb); and many others. Writer/Performer: The Adventures of Lock and Kay; Whence Came Ye Scarlett O'Hara O'Hanrahan? - New York Theatre.com "2008 Person of the Year"; 2008 NY Innovative Theater Award Nomination for Best Solo Performance. film: MVP, Why George? Television: "Unforgettable;" "Mercy;" "One Life to Live;" "Law & Order & SVU;" "Damages"; "Chappelle's Show", and others. MFA: NYU, Tisch School of the Arts. All my love to Jeremy and Tallulah.
Bev/Kathy
Ms. Ripley made her Broadway debut in 1992 in The Who's Tommy. Since then she has worked industriously on and off Broadway for two decades, earning a Best Actress Tony nomination for her work in Side Show, and winning a 2009 Tony award and a 2009 Helen Hayes award for her portrayal of Diana Goodman in the Pulitzer Prize winning Next to Normal. Alice has spent some time in front of the camera recently, and has two upcoming films: Isn't It Delicious and Sing Along. She is an accomplished singer-songwriter and has toured the USA playing and singing a live set consisting of her own material, musical theatre classics, and rock favorites. At NYTW last December, Ms. Ripley played Mary Todd Lincoln in Paula Vogel's A Civil War Christmas. Alice most recently appeared as herself in the season finale of "30 Rock."
Playwright
Mr. Norris won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for Clybourne Park, which was produced at The Royal Court Theatre and won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play, 2010. Other plays include The Infidel (2000), Purple Heart (2002), We All Went Down to Amsterdam (2003), The Pain and the Itch (2004), and The Unmentionables (2006) all of which had their premieres at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago. His newest play, titled A Parallelogram, premiered there in July. His work has also been seen at Playwrights Horizons (New York), Lookingglass Theatre (Chicago), Philadelphia Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre (Washington D.C.) Staatstheater Mainz (Germany) and The Galway Festival (Ireland), among others. He is the recipient of the Steinberg Playwright Award (2009), and The Whiting Foundation Prize for Drama (2006) as well as two Joseph Jefferson Awards (Chicago) for Best New Work. As an actor he can be seen in the films A Civil Action and The Sixth Sense, and the recent All Good Things.
Eric Ting
Director
Mr. Ting is in his ninth season at Long Wharf Theatre, his fourth as Associate Artistic Director. Recent directing credits include January Joiner, Macbeth 1969, It's a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play, Italian American Reconciliation, Agnes Under the Big Top, Sylvia, The Old Man and the Sea (a production he co-adapted from Hemingway's book), Bad Dates, The Bluest Eye (Hartford Stage and Long Wharf) and Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy (American Repertory Theatre), The Little Prince (Round House Theatre), and Underneath The Lintel (Long Wharf, 05/06 Connecticut Critics Circle awards for Best Director and Best Production of a Play). He has recently directed We Are Proud to Present a Presentation in Chicago and New York. Ting's work has been presented internationally, including France, Canada, Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Bali. Awards and grants include a 2004-2006 TCG New Generations Future Leaders fellowship and a Jerome & Roslyn Milstein Meyer Career Development Prize.
Frank J. Alberino
Scenic Design
Mr. Alberino, Long Wharf Theatre's assistant properties manager, is pleased to be in his sixteenth season at the theatre. A Connecticut native, Frank received his BFA from Purchase College in New York and works locally as a scenic designer.His Long Wharf design credits include Clybourne Park, Agnes Under The Big Top, Shirley Valentine, Take The Stage (LWT Gala 2010 & 2009), Sylvia, Lil's 90th, Bad Dates, Late Night Catechism, Black Nativity, A New War, My Red Hand - My Black Hand, Gary Grinkle's Battles with Wrinkles and Other Troubles in Mudgeville, and Race. Frank works closely with Julian Schlusberg and the students at The Foote School in New Haven, where he is the scenic designer and production manager. Some of his Foote productions include Peter Pan, Funny Girl, Blithe Spirit, The School For Wives, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself), The Importance of Being Earnest, The Boys Next Door, The Secret Garden, Pippin, Steel Magnolias, Chess, Barnum and Big River. Frank is the recipient of Outstanding Production in CT & Excellence in Design (CT Drama Association) for his productions of On the Verge or the Geography of Yearning and Summer and Smoke.
Costume Design
Ms. Cho made her company debut with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead (2001) and returned for Durango (2006), and Italian American Reconciliation Play (2011) Other Connecticut designs include Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder and The Whipping Man at Hartford Stage, Mary's Wedding and Hay Fever at Westport Country Playhouse, and A Little Night Music at Goodspeed Musicals. She has designed costumes for New York stages including Manhattan Theater Club; Theater For A New Audience; Second Stage; Vineyard Theater; New York Theater Workshop; Atlantic Theater Company; Lincoln Center Theatre and the Classic Stage Company. She has also designed for numerous regional theatre companies including The Guthrie; La Jolla Playhouse; Chicago Shakespeare Theater; The Goodman Theatre; The Old Globe; Williamstown Theater Festival and Arena Stage as well as opera companies across the United States. Linda is an alumnus of McGill University and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama.
Lighting Design
Past Long Wharf credits: Ride the Tiger, Macbeth 1969, Agnes Under the Big Top, Shipwrecked! (Connecticut Critics Circle award), The Good Person of New Haven, and The Shoulder. Other regional designs for: Huntington, Goodman, Alley, ART, Trinity Rep, Old Globe, Dallas Theater Center, Shakespeare Theatre, and many others. New York design credits include: Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling (Atlantic); Middletown (Vineyard Theatre), When The Rain Stops Falling (Lincoln Center Theater); That Face (Manhattan Theatre Club); The Aliens (Rattlestick), Blasted (Soho Rep); Bug, Orson's Shadow (Barrow Street). He is the recipient of a American Theatre Wing Hewes Award, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Village Voice OBIEs, three Barrymore nominations, and a Jefferson nomination. He has held visiting artist positions at Yale University, Dartmouth College and for six years served as adjunct faculty at Sarah Lawrence College Department of Dance. He received a 2010 OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design.
Sound Design
New York credits include the world premiere of Steve Martin's adaptation of The Underpants, and the premieres of John Patrick Shanley's Dirty Story and Sailor Song. LAByrinth credits include Stephen Belber's A Small Melodramatic Story and Robert Glaudini's Dutch Heart of Man. Other New York credits include In the Heat of the Night (Drama Desk Nomination), Chuck Mee's Paradise Park with director Daniel Fish (Signature), Philip Roth in Khartoum and Sweet Storm (Public Lab); Future Me with original music by Stew (SPF); The Winter's Tale with director Barry Edelstein (CSC); Trial By Water (Ma-Yi); A Soldier's Wife (The Mint); Regional credits include Lee Blessing's Winning Streak (George Street Playhouse), Stones In His Pockets (Alley Theatre), and The Colored Museum (Crossroads). For more info please visit elizabethrhodes.net.
Production Stage Manager
Long Wharf Theatre: Sylvia, The Old Man and the Sea, The Bluest Eye, The Santaland Diaries, The Price, Underneath The Lintel and Aphrodisiac. Broadway The Performers (Longacre), Golda's Balcony (Helen Hayes) and Metamorphoses (Circle in the Square). Off Broadway: Atlantic Theater Company, The Public Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Roundabout Theatre Company, Vineyard Theatre, Naked Angels, Actors Playhouse, Classic Stage Company, Second Stage, Culture Project, Manhattan Ensemble Theater, Cherry Lane Theatre, MTC and New York Theatre Workshop. Regional: Hartford Stage, Paper Mill Playhouse, NYSAF, Wadsworth Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, A.C.T., Shakespeare Santa Cruz, City Theatre and Actors Theatre of Louisville. Additional: PS 122, 52nd Street Project, Clubbed Thumb, Summer Play Festival, Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, Lucille Lortel Awards, Ravinia Festival, New York Philharmonic, Juilliard School and founding member of Intelligent Beasts.
Assistant Stage Manager
Amy Stern's Production Stage Manager credits include Mary Stuart (Pearl Theatre Company); Waiting For Godot, Therese Raquin and Another Part of the House (Classic Stage Company); and The Dying Gaul (Vineyard Theatre). Her Assistant Stage Manager credits include over 20 productions with Long Wharf Theatre, among them Ride the Tiger, Curse of the Starving Class, Sylvia, The Fantasticks, The Glass Menagerie, A Civil War Christmas, The Bluest Eye, Let Me Down Easy, Uncle Vanya, and Travesties. Stern's assistant stage management credits include A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, Intimate Apparel and The Foreigner (Roundabout Theatre Company); Sorrows and Rejoicings, Crimes of the Heart and Tiny Alice (Second Stage); The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (Manhattan Theatre Club); Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Amphitryon and Endgame (Classic Stage Company); The Waiting Room (Vineyard Theatre); and Golden Boy (Blue Light Theatre Company).
Calleri Casting (James Calleri, Paul Davis, Erica Jensen)
Theatre: Currently Venus in Fur on Broadway and Fuerza Bruta. Some past Broadway credits include: 33 Variations, A Raisin in the Sun, Chicago, James Joyce's The Dead. Many seasons for Long Wharf Theatre. Other: Playwrights Horizons (10 seasons), CSC, Rattlestick, The Flea, Old Globe, Actors Theater of Louisville, Naked Angels, New Georges, stageFARM, Epic, SPF (Summer Play Festival) and most recent and upcoming Williamstown Theater Festival seasons.
TV: Army Wives, Lipstick Jungle, Z Rock on IFC, the critically acclaimed A Raisin in the Sun onABC, and Ed, Hope & Faith, Monk. Film: That's What She Said, (Sundance 2012), Refuge, Another Earth, Yearbook, Merchant Ivory's The City of Your Final Destination, also Heights, The White Countess, Lisa Picard is Famous, Ready? OK!, Trouble Every Day, Peter & Vandy and Armless. Awarded eight Artios Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Casting. Member CSA.
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