presents
June 19 - July 20, 2003
Presented at 1409 Playbill Café in association with Actors Theatre of Washington
Credits Supporters Special Thanks The Gang
Woman ……………………………Suzanne
Richard
Man……………………………………………Dan
Via
Directed by……Arianna Ross & Suzanne Richard
Associate Producer……..Ian Armstrong
House Manager………………David Binet
Technical Director………Scot McKenzie
Set Design and Sculptures………………..Scot
McKenzie
Light Design………..Marianne Meadows
Sound Design……………....Mark Anduss
Costume Design………Kathleen Geldard
Stage Manager…………….…Jenn O’Neill
Assistant Stage Manager……. Catherine Charlton
Sound Board Op………….Paul Butler
Associate Stage Manager……Jessica Moos
Stage Crew………….Michael Veedock
………….Bart Lawrence
Directors Note
Remember the 80’s? The Reagan Administration, Self-help, the thinning ozone layer, “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”… In “Laughing Wild,” Christopher Durang manages to capture that frantic, neurotic energy of a tax cuts for the rich and rising debt world, while at the same time telling us the personal stories of two people trying to find some meaning in it all.
A well told story transcends its particular setting. The humor that Durang uses to explore the desperate isolation of these two characters allows the audience to “identify with [them] in some way,“ and lets us in on the secret of the play. Whether it’s outrage at the Meese Commission or Baptists curing homosexuality, The Cold War or the War on Terrorism, missiles from Russia or 9/11, tuna fish cans or loud cell phone conversations in public places – always breathe.
Harvest Moons
Sara Vagliano
Emily Fenichel
J.P. & Mary Richard
Hunter’s Moons
Robert & Susan Cole
Jessica, Anita, & Natalie Draper
Lynn Filusch
Joel Snyder
Pat Redmond
Quarter Moons
Robert & Wanda Anastasi
Michael & Trish Coogan
Don & Marion DiJulio
Charlene Duguid
Senator Jennie Forehand
Hattie Goodman
Charles & Barbara Haughey
Annie Houston
Joe & Jenine Jeffs
George & Ann Joseph
Kay Kriegsman
Ira & Barbara Miller
Richard & Nancy Millstein
Ted & Patricia Reuther
Natalie & Stephen Ross
Norma & Earl Sikes
Bev & Bert Thompson
Larry & Kathy Thompson
Paula Terry
New Moons
James & Pat Ameling
Dennis Cain
Paul Giguere
Sally & Bob Goldberg
Ron Redmond
Dotti Seitz
Ted & Mary Smith
Kathy Stein
Paula Tosini
Frauke Westphal
Nan & Jim Whalen
Craig Wright
And all of you who came to our DC Theatre Idol Fundraiser and our Playing Wild
Fundraiser. Thanks!
The owners & staff of 1409 Playbill Café,
Stephen & Patti Richard, Natalie Ross & Ann Joseph,
Robert Cole, Susan Cole, Mary & JP Richard, Home Rule, Starbucks at Tenley,
Magic Carpet, Studio Theater,
The Shakespeare Theatre, House of Musical Traditions,
Polly Sue's Shop, Mediterranean Café, Round House Theatre, Now & Then,
Bohemian Caverns Restaurant and Jazz Lounge, Kendal Sparks, Justine!, Clare
Johnson,
Joel Snyder & Audio Description Associates,
Annie Houston & Capitol Day School, Arena Stage,
Farrah Ashline & Girlsgoingout.com, Lynette Morris,
Jenny Morris, Beth Slepianl, Melissa Schwartz, Lara Rubin, Clayton Austin,
Geoge Mason Theatre Department, Grandma, Edu Bernadino, Chelle Lenkner,
Washington Shakespeare Company, Scott McCormick
Tony Cisek, Jeffery Keenan, Lynn Filusch
Blue Chuck Audio Services, Jeff Hall, Curtis Goodrich
Mark K. Anduss (Sound Designer) has designed and composed for numerous productions in the DC area. Recent designs include “Family Stories” with Rorschach Theatre, “The F Word” with Actors Theatre of Washington “Mad Dancers” with Theater J. Other highlights include “Bee-Luther-Hatchee,” “The Lady from the Sea,” “The Sins of Sor Juana,” and ‘Dream of a Common Language” with Theater of the First Amendment, “Andromeda Shack” and “The Last Orbit of Billy Mars” with Woolly Mammoth (receiving Helen Hayes Nominations for both), “Tiny Alice,” “Macbett” and “Antony & Cleopatra” with Washington Shakespeare Company, “A Light in The Storm” and “Little Women” with The Kennedy Center Youth and Family Programs, “The Last Seder,” “Death and the Maiden,” “Born Guilty,” “Peter and the Wolf,” “The Old Neighborhood” and “Collected Stories” with Theater J, as well as “Pigmaleon” and “Bel Age” with Actors Theatre of Washington. Mark received the 2003 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Sound Design for his work on “Tiny Alice” at the Washington Shakespeare Company and is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. For more information, visit www.markanduss.com.
Catherine V. Charlton (Assistant Stage Manager) – has never written a professional bio before, but is happy to announce that she has experience! Her favorite projects so far have been “Lypsinka!” and “Privates On Parade” at the Studio Theatre and just recently “Thief River” with the Theatre Alliance. But mostly, she is disturbed to have written this in the third person.
Kathleen Geldard (Costume Designer) - holds a shiny, new MFA degree from the University of Maryland for Costume Design. Her professional credits include Olney Theatre Center for the Arts, “The Miser”; Olney Theatre Center’s National Players, Tour 54: “As You Like It,” “Tartuffe”; Olney Summer Shakespeare Tour: “Twelfth Night”; Rorschach Theatre Company: “A Clearing in the Woods”; Source Theatre Company: “Dutchman,” the world premiere “By Tooth or by Tongue,” “A Life in the Theatre”; Source Theatre and Purchased Experiences Don’t Count Theatre Company: “Duranged!”; Capital Hill Arts Workshop: “Bel Age”; and Studio Theatre, Second Stage: “A Clockwork Orange.” Her academic credits include “You Can’t Take it With You,” “Fashion,” “SubUrbia,” and “As Bees in Honey Drown” for UMD.
Scot McKenzie (Technical Director, Set Designer) – is a founder and Co-Artistic Director of the recently Helen Hayes nominated Little Globe Theatre. In addition to performing, he has spent the past four years serving as apprentice to Master Sculptor Robert Cole. Stage Credits include: The Little Globe Theater, Studio Theatre, Folger Theatre, Rorschach Theatre, Project Y, Washington Shakespeare Company, Arena Stage; Roundhouse Theatre, Shenandoah Shakespeare (International Tour). Film Credits: “The Snowflake Crusade” (Clive); “Five Lines” (Waterberry).
Marianne Meadows (Lighting Designer) –has been working in Washington
area theaters for over twenty years. Nominated four times for the Helen Hayes
Award, Ms. Meadows holds an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle,
and is a member of United Scenic Artists.
Jenn O'Neill (Stage Manager) - has lived in DC for the past three years.
She recently worked on ASIA Theatre's production of BEE (Stage Manager).
Other production credits are “She Stoops to Conquer” - Folger
Theatre; “The Shape of Things,” “Privates on Parade,” “Invention
of Love,” “Trudy Blue,” “Vigil” - Studio Theatre.
Last Spring, she was seen on stage as a smiling bar girl for “Songs
for a New Millennium” at The Kennedy Center, and made her stage debut
at The Weston Playhouse's Act IV Cabaret as a lip-syncing cow, that's right
folks...a lip-syncing cow! She holds a BFA in Woodworking from The University
of the Arts - Philadelphia, and plays with her power tools from time to time
in her studio in SE-DC. She is very excited to be working with Open Circle
Theatre. Thanks to all for this experience.
Jenn O'Neill (Stage Manager) - has lived in DC for the past three years. She recently worked on ASIA Theatre's production of BEE (Stage Manager). Other production credits are “She Stoops to Conquer” - Folger Theatre; “The Shape of Things,” “Privates on Parade,” “Invention of Love,” “Trudy Blue,” “Vigil” - Studio Theatre. Last Spring, she was seen on stage as a smiling bar girl for “Songs for a New Millennium” at The Kennedy Center, and made her stage debut at The Weston Playhouse's Act IV Cabaret as a lip-syncing cow, that's right folks...a lip-syncing cow! She holds a BFA in Woodworking from The University of the Arts - Philadelphia, and plays with her power tools from time to time in her studio in SE-DC. She is very excited to be working with Open Circle Theatre. Thanks to all for this experience.
Suzanne Richard (Woman, Co-Director) – is the Accessibility Specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts Office for AccessAbility and has a BA in Theatre from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a member of the Maryland Governor’s Advisory Committee on Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities and speaks nationally on genetics and advocacy. She has performed with the following companies in the Greater DC area: Washington Shakespeare Company, Studio Secondstage, Project Y, Imagination Stage, Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre Program, Seize the Day, Venus Theatre, Baltimore Shakespeare Festival; and her film credits include “The Snowflake Crusade,” “Focus on Me,” “The Bland Pitch Project.”
Arianna Ross (Co-Director) - was Artistic Director of Scarlet Theatre Company in Chicago and directed “Mother Hicks” and “My Left Breast,” as well as directing in the New Play Festival at the Source Theatre. Trained in theatre, dance, voice, and design at Northwestern University in Illinois, she spent three years studying acrobatics, music, and martial arts and touring professionally all over India with Bansi Kaul’s troupe, Rang Vidushak. Arianna’s solo performances are created from her understanding of and experience in many different cultures worldwide. She tours as a solo storyteller all over the Washington Metropolitan area and works as the Arts Program Specialist for New Horizons, the Arts and Cultural Enrichment Program at Children’s National Medical Center.
Dan Via (Man) - Dan most recently appeared as the titular despot in “Ubu Roi” for Rorschach Theatre Company. Prior credits include “In the Boom Boom Room” with Project Y, “Corpus Christi” at Source Theatre Company, “The Invention of Love” and “Indian Ink” at Studio Theatre, “Kit Marlowe” and “Love’s Fire” at Studio Theatre Secondstage and “Dogg’s Hamlet / Cahoot’s Macbeth” for Longacre Lea Productions. He received his training at the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory. And for the record: Dan is a Virgo, so it’s not his fault.