Different Stages

Presents

 

Stop Kiss

By

Diana Son

                                                               

 

Director                                                                          Karen Jambon

Set Design                                                                Ann Marie Gordon

Light Design                                                                           Bill Peeler

Costume Design                                                                    Le Easter

Sound Design                                                  Jen Brown, Julie Wright

Stage Manager                                                                Tiffany James

 

 

 

 

 

CHARACTERS AND CAST

 

                                                                                                                          

Callie                                                                      Julianna Elizabeth Wright

Sara                                                                                               Jen Brown

George                                                                                      Chris Doubek

Peter                                                                                      Daniel Cardoza

Mrs Winsley/Nurse                                                                      Leng Wong

Detective Cole                                                                              Steven Fay

                                                                                               

 

SETTING - New York City

 

TIME - Now

 

 

Stop Kiss is performed without an intermission.

 

Original New York Production by

The New York Shakespeare Festival

George C. Wolfe, Producer

 

This play was written with support from Playwrights Horizons

made possible in part by funds granted to the author through

a program sponsored by Amblin Entertainment, Inc.

 

Produced by special arrangement with

 DRAMATIST PLAY SERVICE.

.

 

THE PRODUCTION COMPANY

 

 

JEN BROWN (Sara) Jen majored in acting with a minor in sound design at The University of Oklahoma.  She founded a theatre company, the vestige group, with Susie Gidseg after moving to Austin.  Theatre credits include: Brilliant Traces (Rosannah), New Jersey Book Of The Dead (Elizabeth), Anton In Show Business (Joby), Fat Pig (Jeannie), Muses: Memories of a House (Bridget), Frontera Fest 2007 Best of Fest Selections Bliss & My Name Is Ar, Metamorphoses (Various), The Glass Menagerie (Laura), A Midsummer Nights Dream (Helena); she was also involved in The Austin Shakespeare Festival’s production of Suzan Lori Parks 365 Days 365 Plays and Zachary Scott Theatre’s Project Interact.  Aside from acting, Jen is also a sound designer and has designed such shows as Lion in the Streets, The Laramie Project, Halfway to Beautiful and more.  Jen thanks everyone involved in the show for such a wonderful experience and dedicates this performance to her family and the memory of her father.

 

DANIEL CARDOZA (Peter) Is a newcomer to the Austin area.  He moved from El Paso, where he was studying for a degree in theatre. He has been in numerous theatre productions such as, Don't Hurt the Daisies, A Christmas Carol, The Importance of Being Ernest, The Tempest and The Day they Kidnapped the Pope.  He is honored and grateful to be given the opportunity to work with a talented bunch of actors, and director, in this production.  He

would like to thank his parents and sister for always believing and supporting.  Enjoy the show!

 

 

CHRIS DOUBEK (George) Chris' acting journey has gone through 'different stages' but is now for the first time with it. Local favorite roles include Marc in Art at Zach Scott (multiple Payne winner), Mud with Iron Belly Muses, and Don't Drown and Man Enters House both written by Rebecca Beegle for Rude Mechs and Mi Casa. Regional faves include Candor in Macbett at Theatre of

Newburyport, The Game of Love and Chance at the Huntington and Music-Theatre Group's original ensemble of Juan Darien directed by Julie Taymor. Chris studied in NYC with the late Kevin O'Connor & Bill Esper and in Austin with Mona Lee, Paula Russell & Stella Adler (the latter thanks to the Harry Ransom Center!) Those of you with cable can catch The Cassidy Kids, a Burnt Orange feature, with Chris as one of the grown-up Kids this month on IFC.

 

LE EASTER (Costume Designer) Le Easter has been involved in Austin area theatre for over ten years. Acting, directing, designing lights, and costuming are some of the exciting ways she spends her evenings. During the day, she shares her love of the stage with middle school students. She is a member of Loaded Gun Theory Theatre Co., and currently on loan with Different Stages. Many thanks to her family for their love and support.

 

 

STEVEN FAY (Detective Cole) appears in his 16th production

for Different Stages.  For DS, he was last seen giving a new guy a

break in The Beard of Avon and received a B. Iden Payne nomination for Appointment With Death.  At Vortex, he most recently saw blue in Trickster and felt red in Wyrd Sisters.

 

ANN MARIE GORDON (Set Designer) is the resident designer at The Vortex. Her designs for St. Enid and the Black Hand won a B. Iden Payne Award.  Recent Vortex designs include Bell(e) (B. Iden Payne nomination) and The Dragonfly Princess and Troades. She has also designed for Ariel Dance Theater and The Rude Mechanicals. For Different Stages, she has designed Life and Limb, The Beard of Avon, Lettice and Lovage, The Miser.

 

KAREN JAMBON (Director) This is Karen's 10th show with Different Stages, her 7th as Director, with previous directing credits including Mrs. Bob Cratchit's WIld Christmas Binge, Betty's Summer Vacation and The Playboy of the Western World.  She has also recently directed for Loaded Gun Theory, Paradox Players, Sam Bass Theatre, and North By Northwest. This play has been a labor of love, and she wants to thank the cast for their unparalleled commitment and courage and to Jennie for her love and support. 

 

TIFFANY JAMES (Stage Manager). Tiffany is excited to be working on a love story as powerful as Stop Kiss.  Tiffany was a stage manager for Dearly Beloved, also directed by Karen Jambon.  All of Tiffany's shows are dedicated to her wife in appreciation of her unwavering love and support.

 

WILLIAM (BILL) PEELER (Light Designer) is a faculty member with the Texas State University Department of Theatre and Dance. He has over 25 years experience as a lighting designer, holding both national and international credits including Uncle Vanya with the National Theatre Company of Costa Rica, a four-year stint lighting the International Bluegrass Music Awards Show, in addition to Trying and Men of Tortuga for the Asolo Rep in Sarasota, Florida. Among his Austin area credits are the world premier productions of Sonny's Last Shot at the State Theatre, Austin, Texas, A Ride With Bob featuring Grammy award winning Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel, culminating in a run at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and six previous shows for Different Stages. For the last five summers, Bill’s design work, involving both conventional and automated lighting, has been seen in San Jose, Costa Rica, while serving as a director and faculty member with the Institute for Digital-Performing Arts.

 

 

JULIANNA ELIZABETH WRIGHT (Callie) This is Julie's fourth production with Different Stages.  You may recognize her from the Different Stages production of Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge, for which she received a B. Iden Payne Award Nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy.  During Julie's "off time," she is a writer, director, producer, actor, designer, educator, music lover and mom to her chihuahua, Zoe.  Julie also shares Co-Artistic Directing responsibilities with her colleague, Leslie Hollingsworth, at Second Youth Family Theatre. Julie would like to take this time to thank Karen, Jen, Chris, Daniel, Steven, and Leng, for what has turned out to be one of the most enjoyable theatre experiences she's had to date.  "Thank you all so much for sharing with me.  I appreciate it beyond words".

 

 

LENG WONG (Mrs. Winsley/Nurse) Leng is a new face in the Austin theatre scene and is thrilled to bits to be working with Different Stages in her debut.  Call it destiny or just plain eerie but she was practicing monologues from Stop Kiss one month before she found out Different Stages was producing Stop Kiss!  She is now considering a part-time gig as a psychic.  All my love and thanks to the uber-talented cast and crew.  You guys crack me up and move me to tears at the same time. 

 

 

 

PRODUCTION STAFF

 

                                                                                                  

Light Operator/Sound Operator                              Martina Ohlhauser, Amy Lewis,

                                                                                            Suzanne Pressman

Running Crew                                                                       Rosalinda Gonzalez

Set Construction                                                  Steven Fay, Ann Marie Gordan,

                                                                                                  Theda Bellinger

Web Master                                                                            Martina Ohlhauser

Properties                                                                                    Karen Jambon,

Graphic Artist                                                                                Sarah Seaton

Photographer-Publicity                                                                Brett Brookshire

Program                                                                             Norman Blumensaadt

Publicity                               Carol Ginn, Norman Blumensaadt, Martina Ohlhauser

Email Guru                                                                                        Scott Tesh

 

 

 

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

 

Diana Son was born and raised in Dover, Delaware. She studied Dramatic Literature at New York University and received the Berilla Kerr award for playwriting. Son was also nominated for the John Gassner Playwriting prize. She is the recent recipient of an NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Grant with the Mark Taper Forum. Her plays BOY, R.A.W. ('Cause I'm a Woman), Stop Kiss, and Fishes were all commercial successes and have received extensive critical acclaim. She is currently a member of the Playwrights Unit in Residence at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. Son’s most recent play for the stages is Satellites, which received it world premiere at The Public Theater in New York City in 2006. She is currently a Supervising Producer for the hit NBC drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent and was previously a writer for NBC’s The West Wing.

 

 

 

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND SPECIAL THANKS

 

Russ Wiseman & Dougherty Arts Center, Austin Circle of Theaters, Karen Jambon,  Emily Erington, AAA Medical and Oxygen Supply – Joe Serrano, Zach Scott Theater, Bonnie Cullum and the staff of The Vortex

 

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.

 

Producing Artistic Director                       Norman Blumensaadt

 

Board of Directors:  Karen Jambon T.J. Moreno, Norman Blumensaadt.  Operating Board:  Norman Blumensaadt, Sarah Seton, Royce Gehrels, and Paula Ruth Gilbert.

 

Funding and Donations

 

Director Level  $5000+

      The City of Austin

Actor Level  $1000 - $5000

Karen Jambon & Jennifer Underwood, Jack Grimes,    Ameriprise Financial

Stage Manager Level  $500-$999

       Craig Kanne

     

Designer Level  $250-$499

      Royce Gehrels, Bruce McCann, Emily and Kent Erington,

       Connie McMillan, Harvey Guion

Stage Hand Level  $100-$249

      Karen Kuykendall, Irene Dubberley, Sarah & David Seaton Keith Yawn, Pamela Bates, Marla Boye, Melanie & Travis Dean, Anonymous, Ann Bower, The Pizer Foundation, Bonnie & Frank Cahill

Audience Level $20-$99

      Miriam Rubin, David Smith & Tom White, M.D., Rebecca Robinson, Reba Gillman, Charles Ramirez Berg, Dianne Herra,

      Rodney & Donna Le Roy

 

IN-KIND DONATIONS

Mary Alice Carnes, Sarah Seaton

 

 

                                 

 

This project is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

 

 

 

 

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 (The Gifts of War and The Retreating World); Amy Freed’s The Beard of Avon; Agatha Christie’s The Hollow. Christopher Durang’s Mrs’Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge.   2007: Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia. Peter Shaffer’s Lettice and Lovage, W. Sommerset Maugham’s The Constant Wife. Moliere’s The Miser, 2008: Tenneesee William’s  Garden District (Something Unspoken and Suddenly Last Summer), Diana Son’s Stop Kiss, Tom White’s What I Want Right Now.