Different
Stages
In
association with
Crazy
Jane Productions
“A
sponsored project of Austin Circle of Theaters”
Presents
The
American Premiere of
Two
into War
Director Latifah
Taormina
Set
Design Leilah
Stewart
Lighting
Design Peter
Knox
Costume
Design Marann
Faget
Sound
Design Lowell
Bartholomee
&
Greg Vaetge
Assistant
Director/ Stage Manager Alex
Rosenberg
Silk
Fabric Design Chan
and Dan Felton
of
Felton-Knorra Design
Gifts
of War
By
Fraser
Grace
Set
in Athens as the beacons burn, signaling a
Greek
victory over the Trojans.
NEMESIS Hildreth
England
INTERMISSION
The
Retreating World
BY
NAOMI
WALLACE
Set
during the UN embargo of Iraq,
Between
the two Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003.
ALI Ben Wolfe
GIFTS OF WAR is presented by arrangement with
Curtis Brown, Haymarket House
28 – 29
Haymarket, London SW1y 4SP
THE RETREATING WORLD is produced by special arrangement
with The Joyce Ketay Agency,
630 Ninth Avenue, Suite 706, New York, NY 10036
PRODUCTION STAFF
Light Operator Nick Snyder
Sound Operator Alex
Rosenberg
Set Construction Phil Kokajko, Sam Kokajko, Kevin Burrell
Judy Underwood
Technical Director Edwin
Whitehead
Costumes Marann
Faget
Graphic Artist Sarah Seaton
Photographer Brett
Brookshire
Program Norman
Blumensaadt
Properties Alex Rosenberg, Norman Blumensaadt
Publicity Caron
Ginn, Norman Blumensaadt
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND SPECIAL THANKS
Russ Wiseman - Dougherty Arts Center, Austin Circle of Theaters,
Zachary Scott Theatre Center (rehearsal space and a wig) The Long Center for
the Performing Arts (rehearsal space) Savannah Olson Sally Jacques, Mohammad
Skeiker (who taught Ben the song and swear words and pronunciation of some
names)
Lobby
Exhibition
Alan Pogue, Texas Center for Documentary
Photography
About the Plays
Fraser Grace:
Can War Keep its Audience?
- I am asked to join a panel discussing war plays.
- I plead ignorance; I have never written a play about
war.
- Clearly I am in denial.
Alright I’ll
rephrase the statement: I have never consciously
decided to
write a play about war – why would I want to?
- In war a character’s choices have effortless
significance –
especially if
he is a general, or say a president.
- (I overheard this one in a theater one time) It’s easy
to be’
poignant about
death.
- War is a constant of the human condition, as constant
as
Love or death
– it has limitless audience.
I make a resolution; I will nurse a conscious interest in war. I
will examine its causes – psychological, emotional, political,
Ideological, ‘spiritual’, atavistic, banal, trivial – all the pressures
Which make a group of humans attempt the subjugation-by-
force of another group. Not only will I get an audience, I’ll be
useful; humanity has an obvious interest in
contemplating
these causes because after all …
Ah. In the words of Steve Turner:
History repeats itself.
Has to.
No-one listens.
Could this be where our theory crumbles ……?
Fraser Grace 2005/ History Lesson by Steve Turner
Naomi Wallace
on Iraq’s ghost story
I
was commissioned, along with five other writers, to write a
‘ghost story’.
I
had at that time, been thinking about a article I’d read by
John
Pilger, about how most Iraqis had had to sell everything
that
mattered most to them, namely their heirlooms, in order
to
survive the economic blockade. And selling heirlooms to eat
did
not mean selling great and ancient treasures, but rather
books
that had been passed down from parents to children, a
silver
wedding spoon, a bracelet bought by a cousin on a trip
to
Europe decades earlier.
People
were forced to sell their last pieces of personal history,
The
links that bound them from one dead loved one to the next,
The
simple objects that through decades had so patiently
Witnessed
their lives.
Iraq
lost more than 5% of its population due to the embargo,
the
equivalent of 14 million Americans. What equivalent to
British
lives? Five percent of its population. That’s a lot of life
Gone.
That’s a lot of ghosts in Iraq, with ‘made in the USA’
Stamped
on their foreheads.
The
present war and the ongoing occupation of Iraq is simply a
Continuation
of the first Gulf War and the subsequent ten year
Embargo.
This onslaught against and entire people for the last
Fifteen
years still to has to be reckoned with.
Naomi
Wallace
About the
Playwrights
Fraser Grace
Fraser’s first play Perpetua, produced by the Soho Theater
Company at The Birmingham Rep and published by Oberon Books, was the joint
winner of the 1996 Verity Award. Other plays include Cockayne, commissioned by the Birmingham Rep and Girl On a Tank commissioned by SOHO. His next play, Breakfast with Mugabe is being produced by the Royal Shakespeare
Company. His most recent plays are Who
Killed Mr. Drum? and Frobisher’s Gold.
Naomi Wallace
Naomi
Wallace’s work has been produced in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
Her plays include One Flea Spare, In the
Heart of America, Slaughter City, The
Inland Sea, and The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek. She is a
recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, and the Obie Award. Her new play, Things of Dry Hours, will be produced at
NYTW in New York in 2006. Her award-winning film Lawn Dogs, is available on DVD. She is presently working on a
commission for the Royal National Theatre and the Guthrie Theatre of
Minneapolis.
Production Team
HILDRETH ENGLAND (Nemesis) Returning to the role of simply Actor‚ for the first
time in three years, Hildreth is thrilled to be working with Latifah, Different
Stages, and at the play! Theater for thefirst
time. A Co-Artistic Director (and
sometime choreographer,
light designer, seamstress, party-planner) with the
award-winning collaborative The Bedlam Faction, she has performed the roles of Annabella in John Ford’s Tis Pity She‚s A Whore, Blanche in Reefer Madness, Engine in Edward
Ravenscroft’s The London Cuckolds, Maria in Love’s
Labors Lost, and Pyramus in Romulus. Most recently, she was seen shimmying in
little more than a feather boa in Shrewd Productions’ Xmas Unwrapped at the
Hyde Park Theater, and made her network television debut as “The Vixen” on
AMC‚s Date Night - Austin. Other
credits include spending an exorbitant amount of money at Georgetown University,
taking down Big Food Corps one informed child at a time, and bringing Brock
England to Austin. Mad Thanks and Props
especially to: mom and dad (for exemplifying true courage), Brock and Sarah and
Meri (for making laughs the reason for anything) Sage Lenolas (for sharing so
much) Deike (for being faithful and honest and true), those who truly espouse
Action over thousands of beautiful words, and finally - to 2006: the dizzying,
exhilarating Year of the Gut.
BEN WOLFE (Ali) is an
Associate Artist for Austin Shakespeare Festival (ASF), a member of Austin
Playhouse’s Acting Company, and represented by Acclaim Talent. Most recently, Ben appeared in Up in the Old Hotel (Captain Charlie,
Salinger) for Refraction Arts, Reefer Madness
(The Boss, Dr. Munch) for the Bedlam Faction and The Dog in the Manger (Tristan, 2005 Critics Table & B. Iden
Payne Awards) for ASF. Other Austin
credits include: Othello (Montano), A
Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lysander), Romeo
& Juliet (Benvolio, 2004 B. Iden Payne Award), Twelfth Night (Sir Andrew Aguecheek), Henry V (Bardolph, Dauphin, Michael Williams) for ASF; A Christmas Carol (Xmas Present, et
al.), Travesties (Tristan Tzara), The Man Who Came to Dinner (Banjo), Merry Wives of Windsor (Pistol) for
Austin Playhouse; ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore
for the Bedlam Faction; Wit with
Megan Cole at the State Theater; and The
Possibilities for Public Domain at the old Robert Mueller Airport.
LATIFAH TAORMINA (Director)
A graduate of Second City, Latifah co-founded, produced, directed and performed
with The Committee, San Francisco’s famed improvisational theater of the ‘60s
that launched the careers of Peter Bonerz, Howard Hesseman, Carl Gottlieb,
David Ogden Stiers, and Rob Reiner among others — and originated “The Harold” or long-form improvisation,
which Del Close then took back to Chicago, where it spread around the country.
Her directing highlights include the
off-Broadway production of Tallulah’s Party with Tovah Feldshuh, Lucky
and Rose, an original rock musical by Lorenzo Music with Vonda Shepard and
Richmond Arquette at the Spokane Opera House for the Subud International
Cultural Festival (70 nations participating), and Look Homeward, Angel at
The Pasadena Playhouse with Shaun Cassidy and Kyle Secor. (Secor’s LA debut).
Latifah also directed over thirty plays and musicals in Jakarta, Indonesia,
where she also developed a K-12 drama program for the Jakarta International
School. (John Kerry’s sister presently runs this program.) Latifah and her
husband “retired” to Austin in the late ‘90s. Latifah worked for years under
the name of Jessica Myerson and it’s as Jessica that she is credited for her
role as Robin Williams’ mother-in-law in Mrs.
Doubtfire. In 2004 Latifah received an Austin Critics Table Award and a B.
Iden Payne Award for her performance as Louise in Always … Patsy Cline. Latifah is Executive Director of Austin
Circle of Theaters, Texas’ only performing arts service organization and serves
as a Community Trustee on the Board of Trustees for the Long Center for the
Performing Arts.
LEILAH STEWART (Set Design)
is
enjoying a very busy season designing wars all over town. Her work can be seen
in; Get Your War on produced by the Rude Mechanicals, Antigone, at the Mary Moody Northen Theatre, and Richard III for Austin Shakespeare
Festival. She is also creating 31 Days
a performance art document commissioned by Austin Script Works. She is a company
member of the Rude Mechanicals, and would like to thank every one of them as
well as her husband, Sean deBardelaben for this amazing life.
MARANN FAGET (Costume Design) This is Marann's second show for
Different stages. IN AUSTIN :Pro Arts Collective, Austin Lyric Opera, Sam Bass
Theater, Storie Productions, Refraction Arts, for the critically acclaimed Philomel Project, One World Theatre: Groucho starring Gabe Kaplan, Zachary
Scott Theater, Oracle Theater and The Company. She is also the resident
designer for Laughing Out Loud Productions. REGIONAL CREDITS: Colorado:
Windsor Community Playhouse:: A Delicate
Balance, Ten Little Indians and Relatively Speaking. Bas Bleu Theatre: The Caretaker, Trifles. Minnesota: Resident Costume Designer (1989-1995) at
Rochester Community College: Spoon River
Anthology, Veronica's Room, Lunacy, Tobacco Road, Luv. Rochester Civic
Theater: A Shayna Maidel. Rochester Repertory Theatre: Lone Star, Laundry and Bourbon, Agnes of
God, Private Wars. Feast and Footlights Theater: Steel Magnolia. ,INTERNATIONAL CREDITS: Greece: Chios Civic
Theater: Kidnapping of the Pope, Arsenic and Old Lace. Marann has 3
children and one granddaughter, resides in Austin and loves to play poker.
LOWELL BARTHOLOMEE (Sound/Design) is a
company member of the Rude Mechanicals and a co-artistic director of the dirigo
group. He divides his time unevenly
between acting, directing, writing, and video designing. As an actor he was last seen in the workshop
production and full production of Refraction Arts Project's Up in the Old Hotel in July and November,
as X in Steve Moore's Nightswim at
the State Theater, and as August in Refraction Arts Project's Orange.
As a writer and director he last took his collection of short plays - Blah, Blah, Blah - to the New York
International Fringe Festival last year and debuted his first full length play The Middle of the Night for the dirigo
group in 2003. He will direct Carlos
Murillo's Human Interest Story for
the dirigo group at the Blue Theater in February. As a playwright he has contributed work to The Philomel Project, several Frontera Fests, a couple of Austin
Script Works' 10-Minute Play Festivals, and a few of Salvage Vanguard's Best
Holiday Show Evers. He is currently at
work on another full-length play and a couple of screenplays. As a video designer,
he was nominated for an Austin Critics Table Award for Best Video Design for
his work in Robi Polgar's The Road to Wigan
Pier, Austin Script Works' Of Superheros
and Seductions, and the dirigo group's The
Mercy Seat. He most recently
designed video for Steven Tomlinson's American
Fiesta at the State Theater. He
likes to stay busy, so if you need something done, give him a call.
PETER KNOX (Light Design) is currently a
human working to fulfill his life’s dream of living. Originally from New Mexico, Peter has been enjoying the
performing arts in various forms as performer, designer, technician, and
audience for most of his life. He has a
BA in Theatre and Dance with a minor in Modern Philosophy from The University
of Texas at Austin. Current plans and
projects include hanging out with his girlfriend Patricia and cat, Fei.
ALEX ROSENBERG (Asst.
Director / Stage Manager) Decked out in winter coat, scarf, boots, gloves, and large
sunglasses, this directing major at Bennington College in snowy Vermont stepped
off the plane from her native New York City to find a warm sun and quizzical
looks in Texas. Alex Rosenberg is
elated to have stumbled into this production in particular, and thanks Latifah
for the gut instinct, the actors for their trust, and the entire team for their
talent. She began as a stage manager at
the age of eleven, and when her creative juices just couldn’t take any more
enclosure, she decided to pursue directing and, on occasion, enjoys performing
for a room full of non-violent spectators as an actor. She has worked on productions as stage
manager or otherwise at Bennington College, in New York City, and in Washington
D.C., and most recently took on a challenging experiment directing Richard Foreman’s
Bad Boy Nietzsche. She’d like to thank Dad and Jonah for coming
to opening night, and for supporting all that she does.
Different
Stages, Inc. has been a
community-based organization since its inception in 1981 and incorporation in
1984. It produces works by playwrights
whom we believe to be defining forces in theatre. We seek to entertain with performances that reveal life in all
its comedy, tragedy and intensity; and we hope to educate by choosing plays
that provide exceptional insight into the human condition. By challenging ourselves as artists and our
audiences as participants, we endeavor to provide the community with vigorous
and exciting live theatre.
Board of Directors: Karen Jambon, Henry V. Fitzgerald, Jr., and
Randolph Stripling. Operating Board: Norman E. Blumensaadt, Mike Groblewski, Royce
Gehrels, and Paula Ruth Gilbert.
Director Level $5000+
The City of Austin
Actor Level $1000 - $5000
Karen Jambon & Jennifer Underwood
Stage Manager Level $500-$999
Tera Quest Metrics, Inc. Norman S. Blumensaadt
Designer Level $250-$499
Royce
Gehrels, Bruce McCann, Emily Erington, Don Howell
Stage Hand
Level $100-$249
Connie
McMillan, Kathleen Lawson, Ann Blumensaadt, Janie Hayes & Jimmy Bisese,
Karen Kuykendall, Irene Dubberley, Suzanne Winkelman, Mary Margaret Farabee,
Richard A. Muscat, Tom White, David Smith, Harvey Guion
Audience Level
$20-$99
Carl Anderson & Peyton Hayslip, Paul
G. Minor & Erin Ochel, Rodolfo R. Alamia, M.D., Helen M. Mrasek, Rebecca Robinson,
Courtney Dial, Reba Gillman, Patricia Bennett,
Charles Ramirez Berg, William L. Cohagan,
Ronald Seeliger,
Bobbie & Larry Oliver, Bill Johnson
& Elota Patton,
Marvela Pritchett-Paschall, Richard &
Marcia Kinsey,
In-Kind Donations
Mary Alice Carnes, Sarah Seaton
Different Stages’ Repertory
Begun as Small
Potatoes Theatrical Company
1981: August
Strindberg’s Creditors and The Stronger. 1982: William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A Midsummer
Night’s Dream. 1983: George Bernard Shaw’s Candida; Anton Chekhov’s The
Brute, Swan Song, and Celebration. 1984: Luigi Pirandello’s Right You Are (If You Think You Are); Jane Martin’s Talking With… 1985: Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9; William Shakespeare’s As
You Like It; Carl Sternheim’s The
Underpants; Michael Weller’s Moonchildren. 1986: Amlin Gray’s How I Got That Story;
William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale;
Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon. 1987: Michael Weller’s Loose Ends; Aristophanes’ The
Wasps; Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart; Arthur Schnitzler’s Anatol.
1988: Wallace Shawn’s Aunt Dan and Lemon; Dylan
Thomas’ Under Milk Wood; Moss Hart’s Light Up the Sky; Jean Racine’s Phaedra; Jean-Baptiste Molière’s The Misanthrope. 1989: Caryl Churchill’s Fen; Charles Ludlam’s The
Artificial Jungle; William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. 1990: Eric Overmeyer’s On the Verge; Eugene O’Neill’s Long
Day’s Journey Into Night; Milan Kundera’s Jacques and His Master;
Tom White’s The Trouble with Tofu;
William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. 1991: George Kelly’s The Show-Off; George Bernard
Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession;
Keith Reddin’s Life and Limb; Mozart/Lorenzo
da Ponte’s Così fan Tutte; Jean-Baptiste Molière’s The Learnèd Ladies. 1992: Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman in Mind; Carlo Gozzi’s The
Raven; Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck;
Charles MacArthur’s Johnny on a Spot;
George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer. 1993: Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good; Charles Ludlam’s The Secret Lives of the Sexists; Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending. 1994:
Constance Congdon’s Tales of the
Lost Formicans; William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline;
George M. Cohan’s The Tavern;
Marlayne Meyer’s Etta Jenks. 1995: Pierre Marivaux’s The Triumph of Love; Tom
Stoppard’s Travesties; Larry Kramer’s
The Destiny of Me; Alexander Ostrovsky’s The Diary of a Scoundrel. 1996:
Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest; Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee; William
Congreve’s The Way of the World. 1997:
Terrence McNally’s A Perfect
Ganesh; Dorothy Parker’s Here We Are; Alan Ayckbourn’s Drinking Companion; Terrence McNally’s Noon; George M. Cohan’s Seven Keys to Baldpate; Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock. 1998: Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia; Aeschylus’ Agamemnon;
Giles Havergal’s Travels with my Aunt;
Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. 1999: Edit Villareal’s My Visits with MGM;
Jean-Baptiste Molière’s The Hypochondriac
(tr. Martin Sorrel); Edward Percy
and Reginald Denham’s Ladies in Retirement; Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. 2000: Peter Parnell’s The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket; Ann Ciccolella’s Fruits and
Vegetables; George S. Kaufman and
Marc Connelly’s Merton of the Movies; Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan. 2001:
Milcha Sanchez-Scott’s Roosters;
George Bernard Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple; J. B. Priestly’s Dangerous Corner; Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke. 2002: Ann Ciccolella’s Madame X; David
Linsay-Abaire’s Fuddy Meers; Agatha
Christie’s The Unexpected Guest; Federico Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba. 2003:
Christopher Durang’s Betty’s Summer Vacation; Horton Foote’s The Traveling Lady, William
Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona;
Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband. 2004: John Patrick’s The Hasty Heart; Tom White’s The Misses Overbeck; Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney, George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man. 2005:
William Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Edit Villareal’s Marriage is Forever, Agatha Christie’s Appointment with Death, John Millington
Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World. 2006 Two Into War (Gifts of War and The Retreating World), Amy Freed’s, The Beard of Avon, Emlyn Williams’ Night Must Fall.