Washington Stage Guild to Present MEMOIRS OF A FORGOTTEN MAN

The Washington Stage Guild will conclude its 2021-2022 season with Memoirs of a Forgotten Man by D.W. Gregory. The play, which had its world premiere at The Contemporary American Theatre Festival in 2018, takes place in the Stalinist Soviet Union, where a man's inability to forget those whom the government has "erased" becomes increasingly problematic for him and his family.

"As we complete our first season of in-person performances after nearly two years, it's a great pleasure to bring DC audiences this marvelous play," says Artistic Director Bill Largess. "In our very first season, we presented Brian Friel's Translations, in which a character says, 'to remember everything is a form of madness.' Gregory's play echoes that sentiment and observes how dangerous it can be, as well."

Says director, Kasi Campbell, "We've all witnessed in recent history, as well as in current events, the destructive power of both personal narrative and national narrative when it strays far from objective truth. So directing this intriguing play at this unsettling time has felt eerily and importantly relevant."

Playwright D.W. Gregory notes, "Memoirs of a Forgotten Man is not just about Soviet Russia. It's about what happens to ordinary people caught up in a political machine that values ideology above truth, and loyalty over reason. It's a cautionary tale for our times."

Memoirs of a Forgotten Man was first produced as a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere by Contemporary American Theater Festival (WV), New Jersey Repertory Company (NJ) and Shadowland Stages (NY). For more information, please visit nnpn.org.

The Cast

Playing the dual role of Kreplev and Vasily is Steven Carpenter, the Stage Guild's Associate Artistic Director. He has previously worked with Kasi Campbell on seven shows, including Bloomsday, Summerland and Alabama Story at the Stage Guild, and The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, The Lonesome West, Translations and Ambrosio at Rep Stage. Other Stage Guild productions include: Hard Times, Widowers' Houses, It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Tolstoy in The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy, Henry Higgins in Pygmalion, Dr. Paramore in The Philanderer (Helen Hayes nomination), and Major Barbara. In DC, he's also performed at Constellation Theatre, Ford's, The Folger Theatre, Round House and 1st Stage. He directed the Guild's hit Sam & Dede earlier this season and has also helmed shows at Rep Stage, 1st Stage, Theater J, and Theatre Alliance. Steven is a three-time Helen Hayes nominee, as an actor, a director and a sound designer. He received his MFA from the University of South Carolina and has narrated 500+ titles for the National Library Service for the Blind.

Lynette Rathnam makes her Washington Stage Guild debut with this production. She is playing the psychologist, Natalya Berezina, and neighbor Demidova. She has previously appeared in The Phlebotomist at 1st Stage; It's Christmas, Carol! with Oregon Shakespeare Festival; A Wind in the Door, Kid Prince and Pablo and Mockingbird at the Kennedy Center; Shame 2.0 and When January Feels Like Summer with Mosaic Theatre; 4,380 Nights with Signature Theatre; Death of A Salesman at Ford's Theatre; Our War with Arena Stage; The Trojan Women with Taffety Punk; A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, All's Well that Ends Well with Maryland Shakespeare Festival; and In the Blood and Lyme Park with The Hegira.

Chris Stinson returns to Washington Stage Guild to play the man with the amazing memory, Alexei/Azarov. He previously appeared in WSG's production of Pen in 2014, also directed by Kasi Campbell. D.C. area credits include: A Christmas Carol at Ford's; Failure: A Love Story at The Hub (Helen Hayes nomination); Another Way Home at Theater J; The Diary of Anne Frank at Olney Theatre Center; Among the Dead with Spooky Action; Cinderella at Imagination Stage; Digging Up Dessa and Shear Madness at The Kennedy Center; The Lieutenant of Inishmore with Constellation Theatre; This Lime Tree Bower and Port Authority with Quotidian Theatre; and The Magic Tree at Keegan Theatre. Regional credits: Clue: On Stage (Meadow Brook Theatre - Michigan). Film: Dinner with the Alchemist. TV: Legends & Lies: The Civil War, CopyCat Killers. He received his degree from Penn State University and studied also with The Theatre Lab.

Laura Giannarelli, a founding company member of the Stage Guild, plays the Old Woman, Teacher, Mother and Utkina. Laura has appeared in more than 40 Guild productions over the past three decades. During the pandemic, Laura directed two online performances for the Stage Guild - Shaw's The Devil's Disciple and Jerome Kilty's Dear Liar. She last appeared here as Mrs. Brummett in Gulf View Drive. She has also acted with many other area theatres over the years: Baltimore's Everyman Theatre, Olney Theatre, The Kennedy Center (Theatre for Young Audiences), GALA Hispanic Theatre, Theater J, Studio Theatre, Round House Theatre, Wayside Theatre in Virginia and Annapolis Shakespeare Company, among others. As a director, credits include It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Widowers' Houses and Candida here at WSG and Ghost-Writer, A Lesson from Aloes and Faith Healer for Quotidian Theatre. A narrator since 1979 for the Library of Congress' "Talking Books for the Blind" Program, Laura has recorded over 1000 books. She received an Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Award from American Foundation for the Blind, and a Mary Goldwater award for her acting from DC's Theatre Lobby. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Catholic University's Drama Department.

Memoirs of a Forgotten Man is directed by Kasi Campbell, who returns to the Washington Stage Guild where she has directed Bloomsday, Summerland, Alabama Story, Tryst, Pen, and Elling. Other credits include: Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: Anne of the Thousand Days; Theater J: The Sisters Rosensweig; Rep Stage: H2O, The Whale, Hamlet, Arcadia, The Seagull, Translations, The Dazzle, The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, The Judas Kiss, Yellowman, The Temperamentals, Travels with My Aunt, The Lonesome West, God's Ear, In the Heart of America, Bach at Leipzig, The Violet Hour, The Swan, Faith Healer, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Kimberly Akimbo, Neville's Island, The Piano Teacher, Da, The Return to Morality, Ambrosio, Hunting and Gathering and Gianni Schicchi; Maryland Opera Studio: Albert Herring and The Old Maid and the Thief; Theatre Alliance: The Woman Who Amuses Herself; WSC Avant Bard: Night and Day; and Source Theatre: Tumor. Additionally, she has directed at Catholic University, University of Connecticut, Indiana University of Pa., the National Puppetry Center, Groton Center for the Arts and Howard Community College, where she recently retired as a professor of theatre. Her productions have garnered thirty-five Helen Hayes nominations including four for Outstanding Director (she was the award recipient for The Dazzle), two for Outstanding Production, and two for Outstanding Ensemble.

D.W. Gregory's plays frequently explore political issues through a personal lens and with a comedic twist. The New York Times called her "a playwright with a talent to enlighten and provoke" for her most produced work, Radium Girls, about the famous case of industrial poisoning. Other plays include Molumby's Million (Iron Age Theatre), nominated for a Barrymore Award by Philadelphia Theatre Alliance; The Good Daughter and October 1963 (New Jersey Rep); a new musical comedy, The Yellow Stocking Play, currently in development with composer Steven M. Alper and lyricist Sarah Knapp, as well as a musical adaptation of Radium Girls, with the same team. She is also a two-time finalist for the Heideman Award at Actor's Theatre of Louisville, where her comedy So Tell Me About This Guy was produced on a bill of short works. Gregory's plays have been developed through the support of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE), The National New Play Network, the Playwrights' Center, the Maryland Arts Council, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the HBMG Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. A member of the Dramatists Guild, Gregory is an affiliated writer with The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis and an affiliated artist with NNPN. For four years in a row, Dramatics Magazine listed Radium Girls among the 10 Most Produced Plays in American High School Theatre.

Designers

Design elements are provided by Joseph Musumeci with set design, Neil McFadden with sound, Marianne Meadows with lighting; and Resident Designer Sigrid Johanessdottir with costumes.

Performance Details:

Washington Stage Guild concludes our 2021-22 season with

Memoirs of a Forgotten Man by D.W. Gregory

Opens May 5, 2022 and Runs Through May 29.

For more information visit: https://stageguild.org/

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