Photos: First Look At Rehearsals For World Premiere MORRIS MICKLEWHITE AND THE TANGERINE DRESS

Children’s Theatre Company has announced the complete cast and creative team for the highly-anticipated World Premiere play Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, based on the acclaimed children’s book by Christine Baldacchino with illustrations by Isabelle Malenfant. 

The stage adaptation of Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress is written by juliany taveras (Desarrollo at The Lark’s Playwrights' Week and Corkscrew Theater Festival; the anatomy of light, featured on the Kilroys' List and the 50 Playwrights Project List; SYZYGY, or the ceasing of the sun, featured in the 2021 Crossing Borders/Cruzando Fronteras Festival at Two River Theater; and YAELIS, a Page 73 Finalist).

Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress will be directed by Heidi Stillman, Artistic Director of Lookingglass Theater in Chicago (Cascabel; The Brothers Karamazov; Hard Times at Lookingglass Theatre Company; The Year I Didn’t Go to School at Chicago Children’s Theatre; and The Book Thief at Steppenwolf). 

Morris likes lots of things: doing puzzles, painting pictures, pretending to be an astronaut, and wearing a tangerine dress from his school’s dress-up box because it “reminds him of tigers, the sun, and his mother’s hair.” But some of his classmates think boys can’t wear dresses because … well, because they’re boys. With his vivid imagination and space-animal friends, Morris travels the galaxy in search of an answer to the all-important question: “Do astronauts wear dresses?” 

“When I first read Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, I was immediately intrigued by the delightful cover art which showed a spaceship, a quirky and unusual planet, and a little boy in a bright orange dress,” said CTC Artistic Director Peter C. Brosius. “I loved the celebration of imagination, the tenderness of a child’s exploration, and the innate curiosity of this young boy. It was filled with  innocence, whimsy and the joy Morris found in expressing all aspects of himself. I knew this could make a fabulous play. When we read the plays of juliany taveras we knew we had found a playwright of immense creativity and wonder and when we paired juliany with director Heidi Stillman, whose work has been filled with invention and delightful theatricality, we knew that we had the right team to bring this story to life. We can’t wait to share it with you.”

"One of the strongest motivations behind anything I create—really, behind all I do—is the desire to offer to the world that which my younger self needed, wanted, and deserved,” said playwright juliany taveras. “Working on Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress is such an honor in part because it allows me to do just that, to celebrate and uplift a story of self-love and collective care. Morris's journey of self-expression, of embracing one's whole self—and his community's journey of receiving that truth with support and compassion—is exactly the kind I think our young people (and those who love them) need in this moment, and I'm so excited to be a part of sharing it with them!"

“I am thrilled to be working with this talented cast and creative team on juliany’s beautiful world premiere play at Children’s Theatre Company,” said Director Heidi Stillman.
 

This new play explores themes of finding your identity, exploration, resilience, intolerance/bullying, acceptance, and creativity.  

The Adult Cast of Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress features Joy Dolo as Ms. Melo/Moira. 

The Student Cast of Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress features alternating casts of Mathias Brinda and Scout Groshong as Morris, Baron Heinz and Truman Bednar as Henry, De’Anthony Jackson and Sam Patterson as Eli, Arianna Hymes and Indra Khariwala as Lila, and Hildie Edwards and Mia Lang as Becky. 

Deidre Cochran will understudy Joy Dolo in the roles of Ms. Melo/Moira. 

In addition to juliany taveras and Heidi Stillman, the Creative Team and Production Staff for Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress includes William Boles (Co-Scenic Designer), Sotirios Livaditis (Co-Scenic Designer), Sully Ratke (Costume Designer), Paul Whitaker (Lighting Designer), Rick Sims (Composer/Sound Designer), Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi (Movement Director), Emma Lai (Assistant Director), Dante Benjegerdes (Assistant Lighting Designer), Z Makila* (Stage Manager), Dylan Nicole Martin (Assistant Stage Manager), and Janae Lorick (Stage Management Fellow/PA). 

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers.

Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress will play from October 10-November 19, 2023 at CTC’s Cargill Stage (2400 Third Avenue South Minneapolis MN 55404). Opening Night is Saturday, October 14 at 7pm. Tickets may be purchased online at childrenstheatre.org/morris or by calling the ticket office at 612.874.0400. Ticket prices start at $15.

Photo Credit: Kaitlin Randolph

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