Laura Gordon, Ericka Ratcliff & More to Star in Milwaukee Repertory Theater's GOOD PEOPLE

Milwaukee Repertory Theater announced casting today for Good People, the next production in their 2014/15 Quadracci Powerhouse Season. The Tony-nominated play explores complex social questions about class, luck, and escaping our roots with electric energy and razor sharp humor. The cast includes Associate Artist Laura Gordon in the title role, Milwaukee actress Tami Workentin, Chicago actress Ericka Ratcliff (A Raisin In the Sun) and guest actors Bernard Balbot, Michael Elich, and Laura T. Fisher, all making their Rep debuts. Directed by accomplished director Kate Buckley, the production runs January 20 - February 15, 2015 and opens on Friday, January 23.

In South Boston, this month's paycheck covers last month's bills, bingo is a night on the town, and sharp-tongued single-mom Margie Walsh has just been let go from yet another job. Scrambling to make ends meet, she looks up an old flame, Mike, hoping he'll help her make a fresh start in this humor-filled drama about how twists of fate determine one's path. Circumstances and money may separate Margie and Mike, but their worth as individuals is infinitely more difficult to calculate. Old wounds of the heart and the new sting of their very different socio-economic classes fuel both laughs and tears.

THE CAST

Bernard Balbot (Stevie) is making his Rep debut with Good People. Chicago credits include: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks); Rich and Famous (Jackalope Theatre Company); We Are Proud to Present . . . (Victory Gardens Theater);The Original Grease (American Theater Company); and Yeast Nation, It's a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play (American Theater Company); and A Christmas Carol (Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace). Other regional credits include: The Grapes of Wrath (Asolo Repertory Theatre); Philadelphia, Here I Come! (The Mert Theatre); 1776 (American Conservatory Theater); and Hair (The Hangar Theatre).

Michael Elich (Mike) recently portrayed Mark Rothko in RED at Clarence Brown Theatre in Tennessee. In 20 seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Elich has been seen in roles as varied as The Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance; King John in King John; Feste and Orsino in Twelfth Night; Prince John in the American premiere of The Heart of Robin Hood; Harold Hill in The Music Man; Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew; Aufidius in Coriolanus; and Harry Van in Idiot's Delight, among many others. A Juilliard graduate, Elich has appeared in numerous Off-Broadway and regional theaters including The Orpheum, Playwrights Horizons, The York Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, The La Jolla Playhouse, Portland Stage, Dallas Theater Center, and Paper Mill Playhouse. TV credits include One Life to Live and Ryan's Hope.

Laura T. Fisher (Katie) is also making her Milwaukee Rep debut. Chicago credits include: End Days, Defiance, Frozen, Helen, and Julius Caesar (Next Theatre Company); Cymbeline and Kabuki Lady Macbeth (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Half and Half, Relatively Close, and Big Blue Nail (Victory Gardens Theater); Cyrano (Court Theatre and Redmoon Theater at Museum of Contemporary Art); Cider House Rules Parts I and II, The Living, Hellcab, Early and Often, (Jeff Award), Hushabye Mountain (Jeff Award nomination), and Remembrance at Famous Door Theatre; The Secret Rapture (Jeff Award nomination) at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company; SIC and Season's Greetings to our Friends and Family (Roadworks Productions); What Once We Felt (About Face Theatre); The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Collaboraction); and Arcadia (Indiana Repertory Theatre). Fisher also had roles in NBC's Chicago Fire and the 2011 thriller Contagion.

Laura Gordon (Margie) is a Milwaukee Rep Associate Artist whose most recent acting credits include Harvey, Noises Off, Sense and Sensibility and The Diary of Anne Frank (Milwaukee Rep) and Good People (Forward Theater). At The Rep, Gordon has appeared in over 76 productions including Death of a Salesman, The Lady with All the Answers, Pride and Prejudice, Enchanted April, The Crucibleand Doubt, among many others. As a director, her credits at The Rep include Venus in Fur; Gutenberg! The Musical!, In the Next Room or the vibrator play, Speaking in Tongues, Laurel and Hardy, Almost, Maine, Edward Albee's Seascape, and I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda. Other directing credits include The Royal Family and Old Times (American Players Theatre); Measure for Measure, Love's Labour's Lost, and The Winter's Tale (Utah Shakespeare Festival); Richard III (Notre Dame Shakespeare); Amelia, Skin Tight, Memory House, and Full Gallop (Renaissance Theaterworks); and Going to St. Ives (Forward Theater Company). Gordon is a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow.

Ericka Ratcliff (Kate) was last seen at The Rep in the 2012/13 production of A Raisin In the Sun (Ruth Younger). Ratcliff's other stage credits include The Nutcracker and Rose and the Rime (The House Theatre of Chicago); Bulrusher (Chicago's Beacon Street Theater);Short Shakespeare! The Taming of the Shrew and Funk It Up About Nothin' (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); and Peter Pan (A Play),Around the World in Eighty Days and Black Diamond (Lookingglass Theatre Company). Ratcliff also assistant directed her first production, King Hedly II, at the Congo Square Theatre in Chicago in March 2014.

Tami Workentin (Jean) is a Milwaukee actress whose credits include The Exonerated (Sunny Jacobs) and 7 Stories (Nurse Wilson, Joan, Charlotte) at Next Act Theatre; Picnic (Rosemary Sydney) at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre; and Hana's Suitcase and A Christmas Story (Mother, Miss Shields) at First Stage Children's Theater.

The Creative Team for Good People includes: Director, Kate Buckley; Scenic Design, Kevin Depinet; Costume Design, Rachel Anne Healy; Lighting Design, Jason Fassl; Sound Design, Joe Cerqua; Dialect Coach, Jill Walmsley Zager; and Stage Manager, Jennifer Anderson.

Single tickets for all Good People performances are now on sale and can be purchased online at www.MilwaukeeRep.com, by phone at 414-224-9490 or in person at The Rep's Ticket Office at 108 E. Wells Street. Ticket prices start at $20.00. Group tickets are also available for purchase by calling Morgan Halverson in Group Sales at 414-290-5340.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater is a nationally-recognized company that presents compelling dramas, powerful classics, award-winning contemporary works, full-scale musicals, housed in its three unique performance venues - the Quadracci Powerhouse, Stiemke Studio and Stackner Cabaret. The Rep also produces an annual production of A Christmas Carol at the beautiful and historic Pabst Theater. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Mark Clements and Managing Director Chad Bauman, The Rep is committed to creating plays that are meaningful and relevant to the society we live in - plays that are challenging, visceral, and engage the community through the issues they explore, demonstrating how a theater deeply rooted in its locality can also enjoy a richly influential and resonant national voice.

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