FEBRUARY 17-25, 2012
LONGSTREET THEATRE
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Special thanks to our
DONORS!
Supporters of Theatre South Carolina
through our donor group
and through annual giving to the university of sc
(including the usc family fund)
Rick and Rory Ackerman
Dr. John L. Almeida, Jr.
Dr. Mary C. Anderson
Georgiana Baker
Dr. Sarah Baxter
Anne Bezuidenhout
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Podie and Hal Brunton
Anthony Brett Butler
Dr. Carol J. Carlisle
David L. Clegg
Roger and Pat Coate
Thorne Compton
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Ellen Douglas Schlaefer
Mary Ellen Doyle
Robert and Judith Felix
John F. Hamilton
John and Lucrecia Herr
Elizabeth Joiner and Buford Norman
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Richard Katz
Kimberly Lane
Nina and Arnold Levine
Bob and Mylla Markland
Larry and Barbara McMullen
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Mr. and Mrs. L. Fred Miller
Gail and Steve Morrison
Linda and Jeff Moulton
Jeff and Brigitte Persels
Dennis Pruitt
Willard Renner
Jean Rhyne
Judith Richardson
James B. Robey
Dan Sabia
Prof. and Mrs. John Safko
Dr. and Mrs. Jaime L. Sanyer
Dr. Roger Sawyer
William Schmidt
Brenda Shumpert
Brownie and Nancy Sides
Elizabeth Simmons and Al Sadowski
Wally and Barbra Strong
Erica Tobolski
Steve Valder
Isabel Vandervelde
Dick White
K. Dale White
Dr. Lauren Wilson and Greg Wilson
THANK YOU!
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List compiled from donations received at time of printing, February, 2012.
written by
noël coward
directed by
rob clare
SCENIC DESIGN.........................................................CAO XUEMEI
COSTUME DESIGN.....................................................SEAN SMITH
LIGHTING DESIGN .................................................BRAD COZBY
SOUND DESIGN.................................................WALTER CLISSEN
HAIR/WIG/MAKE-UP DESIGN.............................VALERIE PRUETT
VOCAL COACH................................................ERICA TOBOLSKI
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER.......................... KASEY BEARD
PRODUCTION MANAGER.....................................K. DALE WHITE*
CAST
DAPHNE STILLINGTON..........................................................JESSI NOEL
MISS ERIKSON...............................................................GRACE FENNELL
FRED................................................................................DON RUSSELL*
MONICA REED.....................................................AMANDA FORSTROM
GARRY ESSENDINE............................................................JOE MALLON
LIZ ESSENDINE..........................................................CATHERIINE FRIESEN
ROLAND MAULE.............................................................SAM KINSMAN
MORRIS DIXON........................................................ANDY HERNANDEZ
HUGO LYPPIATT.................................................................TREY HOBBS
JOANNA LYPPIATT......................................................YVONNE SENAT
LADY SALTBURN...........................................................PATTI WALKER*
There will be one intermission. Running time is approximately 2 hours.
*Appears by permission of Actors’ Equity Association. This theatre operates under an agreement
between the Uni­versity Resident Theatre management program and Actors Equity, the union of
professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
The theatre programs of the USC Department of Theatre and Dance are accredited by the National
Association of Schools of Theatre. The Department is a member of the University/Resident
Theatre Association and is affiliated with the Shakespeare Theatre ofWashington, DC
and the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre.
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
FROM THE CHAIR
Jim Hunter
Tonight’s performance of Noël Coward’s Present Laughter
began rehearsals five weeks ago on January 9th. I was
fortunate to be at the first rehearsal and enjoyed the great
work of the cast even at the very beginning. As with most
first rehearsal sessions, the director, staff, cast, and design
team met sitting around a large table for introductions,
director’s comments, a production design presentation,
then a reading of the script. First rehearsals are fun,
informative, and full of the promise of the upcoming weeks.
The group present at this first reading is an excellent example of our
department’s commitment to connecting students with the experiences
and opportunities they need in order to grow while here at Carolina,
and then, importantly, bridge to their careers. Central to our strategy is
immersing students in study and in the practice of the performing arts with
expert, professional faculty and guest artists.
Heading the Present Laughter team is guest director Rob Clare. Rob trained
as an actor in London and has various degrees from Oxford University,
including a doctorate in the practical interpretation of Shakespeare. He
acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company for several years and, with
the RSC, toured Europe and the USA. Recent credits on this side of the
Atlantic include work with Steppenwolf Theatre and direction of a recent
production of The Tempest at Julliard.
As I write this, just down the hill from the Present Laughter rehearsals,
guest choreographer Helen Pickett is setting a new contemporary piece
on our dance students in our beautiful new dance building. Helen has
choreographed for the Boston Ballet, Washington Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe
Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Louisville Ballet and Ballet X. In 2007, Dance
magazine named Helen one of 25 to Watch.
It is our excellent, hardworking faculty which allows our program to attract
guest artists of this level. If students are to contribute meaningfully to our
future, we owe them the quality experiences necessary to bring the needed
creativity, depth of understanding, skills, and entrepreneurial spirit required
to establish meaningful careers and make a positive impact on our culture.
Jim Hunter
Chair, Department of Theatre and Dance
Artistic Director, Theatre South Carolina
FROM THE DIRECTOR
Rob Clare
Good evening, and welcome to Present Laughter, which
has been tremendous fun to work on, and which I’m
delighted to have been invited to direct, here at USCColumbia. Although designated a comedy of manners,
it’s also a highly energized piece with strong elements of
farce, and so an excellent choice among Noël Coward’s
plays for the relatively youthful acting ensemble whose
work you are about to see. I hope that you enjoy watching
them as much as I have enjoyed working with them, and getting to know
Columbia, during this past month or so.
In order further to make the play both engaging and accessible, we have
transposed the action from Coward’s London to the equally sophisticated
and theatrically elegant world that existed in late 1940s Manhattan, a
switch which has also been a source of real pleasure, enlivenment and
discovery during our rehearsals and production process.
Again, we very much hope that you will enjoy the results - as indeed, we
hope that Coward himself would have approved! Thank you for coming,
and here’s wishing ever-present love and laughter to all.
Rob Clare
Guest Director
PLAY TIMELINE
The action of the play passes in
Garry Essendine’s apartment in
New York City.
Time: 1949
Scene 1
Morning.
Scene 2
Late night. Two days later.
{Intermission}
Scene 3
The next morning.
Scene 4
Evening. A week later.
CAST
Catherine Friesen
Liz Essendine
Grace Fennell
Miss Erikson
Grace Fennell is a freshman media arts major here
at USC with a minor in theatre. Her previous roles included Dot in HONK! The Ugly Duckling
Musical, General Matilda Cartwright in
Guys and Dolls, Devin in The Real Teens,
and Carrie in Fourteen Lines. She was
also awarded All-Star Cast Member at
the 2011 Southeastern Theatre Conference. She is very excited for the opportunity to work with the MFAs and would like
to thank her big crazy family and all her
close friends for all their love and support.
Amanda Forstrom
Monica Reed
Amanda Forstrom is a
second year M.F.A. Acting
Candidate and was last
seen on the USC stage as
Eurydice in last year’s Polaroid Stories
and performing in An Evening of OneActs by Tennessee Williams. She has
also appeared as Nell in The Comedy
of Errors, Raisa Filippovna in The Suicide, and in Big Love as Olympia. She
received her B.A in Theatre and Hispanic
Studies from The College of St. Benedict/
St. John’s University in Minnesota where
she performed in several productions, her
favorites including Toinette in The Imaginary Invalid, Lula in Dutchman, and Louise in The Underpants. Amanda would
like to thank the faculty and staff at USC
for the incredible opportunity to continue
studying this wonderful art, as well as her
family and friends for all their love and
support; she would not be here without
you!
Catherine Friesen is a
second year MFA Acting
candidate at USC. She
has performed in the USC productions of
Polaroid Stories, Lady of Larkspur Lotion,
The Pretty Trap, The Suicide, Big Love,
and The Comedy of Errors. Prior to South
Carolina, she performed with The South
Wing in New York City in AOI! at the Japan Society and Death in Vacant Lot!
Other New York credits include Alcestis
with East 3rd Ensemble, Agamemnon
and Fires with the Vortex Theater Company, AutoMotive with East River Commedia, and Macbeth under the direction
of Gisela Cardenas. Catherine’s theater
training includes an undergraduate degree from Goshen College, study at ACT
and training with the SITI Company and
The South Wing. Catherine is grateful for
the privilege of being here with you.
Andy Hernandez
Morris Dixon
Andy Hernandez is a second year MFA acting candidate from Newport, RI. He
received his BA in Theatre
from The Ohio State University and has
previously acted in Columbus, OH. Favorite past productions in the Columbus
area include Footloose, Mame, Machinal,
and Almost, Maine. He was previously
seen in Theatre South Carolina’s productions of Big Love (Constantine), The Suicide (Alexander), The Comedy of Errors
(Duke Solinus), the Tennessee Williams
Festival: An Evening of One-Acts, and
Polaroid Stories (D/Dionysus). He spent
this past summer at Theatre West Virginia in Beckley, WV where he performed
in Hatfields & McCoys (Ellison Hatfield),
Honey in the Rock (Sneath), All Shook Up
(Sheriff Earl), and The Jungle Book (Kaa).
He is thankful to his family and friends for
their support in the pursuit of his career,
and to Rob and the USC faculty for the
opportunity to be here.
Trey Hobbs
Hugo Lyppiatt
Trey is a 2009 graduate
of USC’s undergraduate
theatre program and is
excited to once again be
asked back to the stage. He has enjoyed
living in Columbia and being a part of a
growing and changing theatre community. Some of Trey’s past USC credits include: Le Bret in Cyrano, Greg in Sylvia,
Wazir/Ensemble in The Arabian Nights,
Sir Edward Clarke in Gross Indecency
and several others. Past rolls with Trustus
Theatre (TGC) include Greg in Reasons
to be Pretty and Adam in Jewtopia as
well as Pinky in the NiA Group’s production of Our Lady of 121st Street. Some of
Trey’s past lighting design credits include:
USC’s LAB Theatre productions of The
Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Interruptions,
Ipheginia and Other Daughters, The Rediscovery of North America, Sylvia, and
others. Lighting design credits at Trustus
Theatre are Extremities, Last Summer at
Blue Fish Cove, and The Great American
Trailer Park Musical, as well as the NiA
Group’s productions of Our Lady of 121st
Street and The Orange Flower Water. Trey
would like to thank director Rob Clare
and USC for the invite to join this excellent production team as well as his wife,
Katie for everything else.
Samuel Kinsman
Roland Maule
Sam Kinsman is a second year MFA Candidate
from Orange County California. He is thankful for
the opportunity to study on this side on
the country after receiving his BA in Theatre from Azusa Pacific University. Enjoying his final semester on campus in
Columbia, he is finally adjusting to the
fried food and Palmetto bugs. Previous
roles at USC include Mitch in A Streetcar
Named Desire and Nikos in Big Love. He
would like to dedicate this performance
to Smudge, who really has no sense of
humor to speak of. Thank you to Rob, the
cast and crew and the production team
for the opportunity to perform.
Joe Mallon
Garry Essendine
Joe Mallon is a second
year MFA Acting Candidate at USC. He received
his BFA in Acting from the
Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He was last seen on the USC
stage as Orpheus in POLAROID STORIES, Stanley Kowalski in A STREETCAR
NAMED DESIRE, Antiphelus of Syracuse
in COMEDY OF ERRORS, Aristarkh in
THE SUICIDE, and Piero/Bubba in BIG
LOVE. Other favorite roles include El Gallo in THE FANTASTICKS (Kimmel Center),
The Dentist in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (Devon Theater), Lt. Jack Ross in
A FEW GOOD MEN (Ritz Theatre), and
Alan in PICNIC (Montgomery Theater).
He would like to thank the cast and crew
for another amazing experience, and his
friends, family, and girlfriend for their continued support.
Jessi Noel
Daphne Stillington
Jessi Noel received her BA
in Theatre from Jacksonville State University. She
is a 2nd year graduate student in the MFA program and has enjoyed
her experience here so much. Some of
her favorite roles have been Stella in A
Streetcar Named Desire and Viktor in The
Suicide. Jessi’s family lives in Pensacola,
FL and are very excited about this department and all that she has learned. She
looks forward to more plays in the future
here at USC.
Don Russell
Fred
Don Russell is a second
year MFA Acting Candidate. Previous produc-
tions he has been involved with at USC
include Polaroid Stories, 27 Wagons Full
of Cotton, The Pretty Trap, The Comedy
of Errors, The Suicide, Big Love, Earth
and Sky and 1942. Don received his B.A.
from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania and his M.A. from California State
University, Northridge. He would like to
thank the faculty and staff of USC for the
many opportunities to explore and enrich
his craft.
Yvonne Senat
Joanna Lyppiatt
Yvonne Senat, originally
from Southern California,
is currently a 2nd year MFA
Acting Candidate.
She
graduated from California State University of Long Beach with a B.A. in Theatre
Arts. Throughout her years on the stage,
she has had the opportunity to play several iconic roles such as Blanche Dubois
in A Streetcar Named Desire, Gertrude
in Hamlet, and Mrs. Gibbs in Our Town.
She loves Noël Coward’s writing and
hopes that you thoroughly enjoy yourselves tonight!
Patti Walker
Lady Saltburn
Patti Walker is a graduate of the MFA program
at UNC-Greensboro and
currently teaches public
speaking for USC. This is her first production at South Carolina, having taken a
few years off to give birth to two beautiful
children, Eve and Nolan. Regional Credits include The Matchmaker (Triad Stage),
The Foreigner, West Side Story, Children
of Eden, and Evita (Wagon Wheel Theatre); The Will Rogers Follies, Fiddler on
the Roof, and Annie Get Your Gun (Flat
Rock Playhouse); Chicago (Pheasant Run
Theatre); My Fair Lady (Drury Lane Oakbrook); Absent Friends and Crimes of the
Heart (UNCG Summer Rep). Educational
Credits include Urinetown: The Musical
(Hope Cladwell), The Crucible (Elizabeth
Proctor), Lovers and Executioners (Julie/
Frederic), Bat Boy: The Musical (Meredith
Parker). She gives her heartfelt thanks to
the theatre department and her husband
Peter Duffy.
ARTISTIC COMPANY
Rob Clare
Director
Internationally
acclaimed
Shakespeare specialist Rob
Clare trained at the Central
School, London, and first
acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company, to whom he returned to work regularly during the past decade as a freelance verse and text coach. His extensive
credits as an actor, director and teacher
also include having been a Staff Director at the UK National Theatre, Associate
Artistic Director of Compass Theatre (UK
touring), and returning to Central School
to establish the MA Classical Acting program which he also led it for its first three
years. Other directing work includes A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar,
and Romeo and Juliet in New Delhi, India, and Richard III, Henry IV Parts 1 and
2, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night
and most recently As You Like It and a
staged reading of King Lear here in the
USA. He was verse and text coach for
Tina Landau’s productions of The Tempest for Steppenwolf in Chicago, and of
Antony and Cleopatra for Hartford Stage.
Now based in NYC, he works regularly
at the NYC Actors Center, and recently
directed The Tempest at Juilliard while
also leading an extended Shakespeare
workshop for the NYU Graduate Acting
Program. When not teaching or directing,
Rob likes to compete in triathlons and to
climb mountains. He is delighted to be
here working in USC-C, where not only is
everyone so friendly and welcoming and
talented in the Drama Dept., but there is
also an excellent climbing wall in the Fitness Center...!
8
Mei (Cao) Xuemei
Scenic Designer
Cao Xuemei is a first year
Scenic Design MFA candidate who holds a BA in
Scenic Design for Drama
and Movies from China’s Central Academy of Drama in China. From 2004 to
2011, she worked at the Tianjin People’s
Art Theatre as a scenic designer. Previous design credits include Cat and Rat
(Children’s Art Theatre, Tianjin), Born to
Be Coward (People’s Art Theatre, Tianjin), Chinese Culture (China Central Television, Beijing) and Meirenjiao (National
Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing).
Among her awards honors are “Best
Project Award” for The Hero of Jianghuai
(2009) and “Best Visual Effect Award” for
Beijing Courtyard (2003).
Sean Smith
Costume Designer
Sean Smith is a first-year
Costume Design MFA student and is pleased to have
worked on Present Laughter, his first main stage show at The
University of South Carolina. Sean is a
recent graduate of Ashland University in
Ashland, Ohio where he received his BA
in Theatre and English. Previous costume
designs include Sunday in the Park with
George and Marisol. He thanks the South
for accepting his Yankee ways and is excited for what the next three years will
provide.
Brad Cozby
Lighting Designer
Brad Cozby is a third year
M.F.A. candidate in Lighting Design. He received
his BA in Theatre at Grand
Canyon University in Phoenix, AZ. This
will be his 15th design for Theatre South
Carolina. His last lighting design was the
production of Dead Man’s Cell Phone for
the Lab Theatre Series. Some of his past
notable designs include Our Country’s
Good, Bent, The Suicide, The Arabian
Nights, Kabuki Lady Macbeth and the CD
premier concert of Christian music artist
Justin Unger. To see other designs of his,
visit his website at www.lostcozdesigns.
com.
Walter Clissen
Sound Designer
Walter has 25+ years of
experience in all aspects
of the audio world. He received his BFA/MFA from
the Higher Institute of Theatre and Culture
Spreading in Brussels, Belgium. Born in
Belgium and working in venues all over
Europe, he moved to Los Angeles, CA
in 1988. His Sound Designs have been
heard internationally in Theatre and Opera houses (e.g. L.A.’s Center for Bilingual Arts, La Mama ETC - New York City,
PCPA Theatrefest - Santa Maria-Solvang
CA, Arizona Repertory Theatre - Tucson
AZ, Romanian National Theatre - Cluj,
Romania, The Flanders Opera - Belgium,
etc.). Recent work includes Arno Raunig’s
Barrock and Subsonic Sonar’s Emerald
Green Vortex. He composed and designed the new musical, Seven Stars in
Paradise, with his partners Jean-Louis
Milford (France) and Francis Dixon (England). He started Sound Design on a new
musical My Fairy Tale (a musical about
Hans Christian Andersen, original idea
& concept by Flemming Enevold, Music
& Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by
Phillip LaZeb), commissioned by PCPA
Theatrefest to have it’s American premiere Summer 2011 in Solvang, CA. He
has taught several audio courses, workshops and lectures in Europe, at UCLA,
CSU Fresno, Pacific Conservatory of
Performing Arts in Santa Maria,CA, and
at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ.
He is currently Asst. Professor in Sound
Design at the University of South Carolina teaching Sound Design courses for
the Dept. of Theatre and Dance and the
Dept. of Media Arts.
Valerie Pruett
Hair/Wigs/Makeup
Valerie is the instructor
and designer for hair and
makeup at Theatre South
Carolina. She started out
in professional theatre as a makeup and
hair artist for such outdoor pageants as
Tecumseh! and Unto These Hills. After
paying her dues with the outdoor circuit
Valerie went on to work and sub-contract
with several regional theaters including
Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, American
Players’ Theatre, Utah Shakespearean
Festival, Dallas Theatre Center, Hippodrome, New American Theatre, Heritage
Repertory Theatre and most recently the
American Folklore Theatre. Before returning to USC, Valerie was a guest instructor
and artist at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee’s Professional Theatre Training Program and at Lawrence University
in Appleton, WI. She is a registered artist with the SC Film Commission and the
makeup artist for the Addy Award-winning media company, Mad Monkey.
Erica Tobolski
Vocal Coach
Erica Tobolski is the voice
and speech trainer at the
University of South Carolina, teaching acting, voice,
speech and dialects. She has professionally coached voice/text/dialects for
the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespearean Festival, the Clarence Brown
Theatre, Charlotte Repertory Theatre,
Purdue University and others, and was
dialect consultant for productions at the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival and for the
radio play Merry Go Round on NPR. As
Distinguished Visiting Professor at Universiti Teknologi in Malaysia she taught
acting and voice and also served as voice
and acting coach on a Malay version of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed
at the National Theatre in Kuala Lumpur.
Her work is published in The Complete
Voice and Speech Workout, in addition to
several articles in the leading journal, The
Voice and Speech Review. She maintains
a private practice in voice consultation, is
a Lessac Certified Trainer and regularly
performs on stage and in voice-overs.
Kasey Beard
Stage Manager
Kasey Beard is an undergraduate theatre major in
her third year. Past technical
credits for USC main stage
include An Evening of One Acts, The
Comedy of Errors, The Winter’s Tale, Radium Girls, and Cyrano de Bergerac. USC
Lab Theatre credits include Romeo and
Juliet, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,
Bent, Interruptions, Ralph and Mary, and
Spinning into Butter. Most recently she
stage managed Kitty Kitty Kitty in Trustus
Theatre’s black box. She would like to
thank the cast and crew for all their hard
work.
K. Dale White
Production Manager/Stage
Manager Advisor
K. Dale is a proud member
of Actors’ Equity. He has
worked on Broadway, Off
Broadway, regionally and has toured. He
has worked with David Rabe, Richard
Greenberg, Anna Deavere Smith, George
C. Wolfe, Tony Kushner and John Rando,
among others. Other credits include: The
Berkshire Theatre Festival, Shakespeare
and Company, Playwrights Horizons, The
Public Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club,
La Mama, Cambridge Theatre Company,
Available Light, Opera Theatre St. Louis,
the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and
The Alley Theatre. He teaches Stage
Management at the University of South
Carolina. He has taught at Emerson College, Boston, Old Dominion University,
Norfolk, VA and Bard College at Simon’s
Rock, Great Barrington, MA. K. Dale is a
graduate of the Conservatory of Theatre
Arts, Webster University, St. Louis, MO.
Katie Foshee
Assistant Stage Manager
Katie Foshee is a junior theatre major at USC. She has
split her time performing on
stage as well as helping out
backstage. Recent acting credits include:
Lady Montague in Romeo & Juliet (Lab
Theatre), Virtue in Anything Goes (Workshop), Tammy in Hairspray (Workshop),
Gina in Up2D8 (Lab Theatre) & Mayzie in
Seussical! (Greenwood). Backstage credits include: Language of Angels (SM), Arabian Nights (ASM) and Big Love (PSM), all
at USC. Much love to her family, friends,
Wildcat family, & most importantly Pa,
who will always have the best seat in the
house.
Sam Gross
Assistant Technical Director
Sam Gross is a graduate of
Indiana University where he
earned an MFA in Theatre
Technology. He specializes
in mechanized scenery, computer-controlled systems, electronics, set construction, and rigging. He has overseen the
construction of USC productions since
2005. Mr. Gross received his Bachelor
of Science degree from the University
of North Alabama where he also worked
as a sound designer, lighting designer,
sound engineer, carpenter, and actor. In
his position as Assistant Technical Director, Sam supervises graduate and undergraduate students in the construction of
scenery and props for USC Theatre and
Dance productions.
Spencer Henderson
Costume Studio Supervisor
M. Spencer Henderson is a
graduate of the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill
where he received an MFA
in Costume Shop Management and Costume Technology. He received his BA in
theatre from Florida State University. His
costuming credits include Playmakers
Repertory Company, The Utah Shakespearean Festival, and Glimmerglass Opera. He has spent the last three summers
at the Williamstown Theatre Festival as
the Costume Shop Manager. Spencer supervises the USC costume shop, assists
with the patternmaking and construction
of costumes, and teaches costume construction classes. He has also designed
at Workshop Theatre here in Columbia.
Jim Hunter
Chair/Artistic Director
Lighting Design Advisor
Jim’s scene and lighting
designs have been seen
at such theatres as Florida
Stage, Arkansas Rep, Charlotte Rep,
Playhouse on the Square, Drury Lane
Theatre, Theatre Virginia, the World Stage
Exposition in Toronto, Heritage Rep, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Flat Rock
Playhouse, Veggie Tales Live! National
Tour, Wall Street Danceworks and others. Recent projects include the scene
designs for A Christmas Story at Phoenix
Theatre in Arizona and Rumors at Florida
Rep. Jim is a member of the national designers union, United Scenic Artists, Local 829, in scene and lighting design. He
serves as an accreditation team leader
for the National Association of Schools
of Theatre and was recently elected for
his second term on the NAST Commission for Accreditation. Visit his website at
www.jimhunterdesigns.com.
Christine Jacky
Assistant Technical
Director
Christine Jacky received
her MFA from Southern Illinois University in Theater
with emphasis in lighting design and theatrical management. She specializes in
stage electrics, sound technology, production management, and photography
for the stage. She has worked at Central
Piedmont Summer Theater, Long Lake
Camp for the Arts, McLeod Summer
Playhouse, New York City International
Fringe Festival, and Lookingglass Theater
in Chicago.
Kimi Maeda
Properties
Kimi Maeda has designed
sets and costumes in Virginia, Atlanta, South Carolina, Philadelphia, Boston,
New York, Indiana, and Baltimore. She
has written and directed several puppet
shows, including The Crane Wife, Snow
White, and The Little Mermaid. She received her MFA in scenic design from the
University of South Carolina and was the
recipient of the 2005 Rose Brand Award
from the United States Institute of Theatre
Technology. She received her MA in Scenography from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and her
BA in Studio Art from Williams College.
Lisa Martin-Stuart
Costume Design Advisor
Professor
Martin-Stuart
has served as the Head of
the Costume Design Program at the University of
South Carolina for the past 17 years. Her
training is in costume design, historical
costume research, and costume technology. She has contributed on over 60
productions for Theatre South Carolina,
including the recent Cyrano de Bergerac
and Gravity, which performed in 2008 at
the Connelly Theatre in New York City
and the 2008 production of The Violet
Hour. Design credits in film include: Ruby
in Paradise, winner of the 1993 Sundance
Film Festival starring Ashley Judd; Ulee’s
Gold (1997) starring Peter Fonda, winner
of the Best Actor Golden Globe Award;
and, Coastlines (2002) starring Josh
Brolin and Timothy Olyphant. She has
designed costumes for several regional
theatres including American Folklore Theatre, Asolo State Theatre, Aquila Theatre
Company of London, Charlotte Repertory
Theatre and Hippodrome State Theatre.
Lisa continues to work as the wardrobe
stylist for Mad Monkey, a nationally recognized media production company,
and has collaborated on numerous national and regional award winning television commercials including University of
South Carolina’s Bicentennial Campaign
and “Cheerleader” from the USC 2004
recruitment campaign. Professor MartinStuart also serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department
of Theatre and Dance.
Andy Mills
Technical Director
Andy has designed professionally at Shakespeare
Theatre’s Young Company
(Washington, DC), Charlotte Repertory Theatre, Carolina Opera,
USC Opera, and Trustus. Andy currently
teaches Intro to Theatre Design and Theatre Laboratory. He specializes in the area
of properties, finding or building the most
obscure of items. Andy is a Member of
USITT.
Meredith Paysinger
Assistant Scenic Designer
Coming from a background
as a major of Studio Art with
a minor in Art History, at
Sweet Briar College, Meredith Paysinger is in her first year assistantship for an M.F.A in Scenic Design.
Grace Stewart
Assistant Stage Manager
Grace Stewart is a Freshman theatre major from
Morehead City, North Carolina and is extremely excited
to be involved with her first University of
South Carolina production. She is very
grateful for the opportunity to work with
Rob Clare and the incredible cast and
crew. She would also like to thank her
family and friends for their constant support.
Michelle Taylor
Assistant Director
Michelle is thrilled to work
on her first main stage show
at USC. She is a first year
graduate student in the
M.A.T program in Theatre Education. She
is originally from New Orleans, Louisiana
and received her bachelor’s degree in
theatre from the University of Southern
Mississippi. Michelle has directed such
shows as Westward,Whoa, Hansel and
Gretel, Dial F for Framed, and The FarFlunged, and has been an assistant director on several other shows. She would
like to thank her family and friends for
supporting her always.
Nic Ularu
Scenic Design Advisor
Professor Ularu has extensive design credits in USA
and Europe, including theatres in Sweden, Northern
Ireland and Romania. Nic Ularu was the
head of scenography at the National Theatre of Bucharest - Romania, and served
for four years as a board member of The
European League of the Institutes of the
Arts (ELIA), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
He has taught scene and/or costume design in Romania, Germany, Sweden, UK,
Italy, Denmark and Hong Kong. Prior to
USC, he taught at Smith College, National Theatre School of Denmark and The
University of Theatre and Film, Romania. In 2003, Professor Ularu received an
OBIE award for outstanding achievement
in Off-Broadway theater. Ularu’s designs
appeared in the USA entries at the Prague
Quadrennial International Exhibitions of
scenography in 2007, 2003 and 1998. In
2005, Nic co-designed the exhibit and
designed the poster of the World Stage
Design Exhibition, Toronto - Canada, and
was appointed by the United States Institute of Theatre Technology as the leading
designer and curator of the USA National
Exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial International Exhibition of 2007. Besides his
national and international design activity
Nic Ularu is a playwright and director. His
recent freelance work as playwright and
director includes several acclaimed productions at LaMaMa ETC - New York,
Sibiu International Theatre Festival - Romania, Teatrul Foarte Mic, Bucharest Romania, “O” Teatret - Sweden, National
Theatre of Constanta - Romania, and National Theatre of Cluj - Romania.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, NOEL COWARD
by sheridan morley
movie, D.W. Griffith’s wartime epic
Hearts of the World, for which he
was paid a pound a day for making
up his face bright yellow and wheeling a barrow on location down a
street in Worcestershire with Lillian
and Dorothy Gish. There followed a
brief, uneventful and unhappy spell
in the army, another five years in the
touring theatre with the occasional
very minor West End role, and then
an unsuccessful trip to Broadway
where he hoped to sell some of
the early scripts with which he had
already failed to impress London
managements.
Sir Noël Coward, playboy of the
West End world, jack of all its entertainment trades and Master of
most, was born on 16 December
1899, just before the last Christmas of the 19th century, hence the
name Noël. The second son of
an unsuccessful piano tuner-cumsalesman and a doting, dominant
mother, he grew up in suburban,
lower-middle-class South London
in what he would later describe as
“genteel poverty.”
When he was ten, his mother answered a Daily Mirror advertisement for ‘a star cast of wonder
children’ to appear in a fantasy
play called The Goldfish at the Little
Theatre. He auditioned successfully, and within a few weeks was on
the stage he seldom left thereafter.
In Noël’s own view, he was “when
washed and smarmed down a bit,
passably attractive; but I was, I believe, one of the worst boy actors
ever inflicted on the paying public.” Nevertheless he survived, and
by 1917 had already made his first
This plan did not work out too well,
not least because nobody had
bothered to inform Noël that, in
those days before air conditioning,
Broadway theatre managements
were virtually all closed for the
summer. Until taken in by Gabrielle
Enthoven, whose theatre collection later became the basis for the
Theatre Museum, he was reduced
to the prospect of a park bench,
but even then Coward’s luck did
not run out entirely. One evening he
was invited to dinner at an apartment up on Riverside Drive by the
eccentric actress Laurette Taylor
and her husband, the playwright
Hartley Manners. After dinner it
was the custom of the Taylor clan
to play games of charades which
grew increasingly acrimonious as
the guests began to wish they had
never come, let alone joined in; although countless other theatre writers had been to the parties, it was
Noël who first realized there might
be a play here, and 80 years later
the result was still seen in 2006’s
Hay Fever with Dame Judi Dench.
Then, in 1924 at the tiny Everyman
Theatre in Hampstead came the
overnight success of The Vortex,
a play about drug addiction written at a time when even alcoholism was scarcely mentioned on the
stage. The roughly equal amounts
of interest, indignation, admiration
and money generated by the play,
which Noël had written, directed
and starred in and for which he had
also helped paint the scenery outside the stage door on Hampstead
High Street, meant that at the age
of 24 he went from being a mildly
unsuccessful playwright, actor and
composer to being the hottest theatrical figure in London - a change
that came about so fast even he
took several months and one nervous breakdown to come to terms
with it.
As the 1920s ended and the 1930s
began, Noël wrote and staged three
of his greatest successes - the operetta Bitter Sweet, the definitive
Cowardly comedy Private Lives
and the epic Cavalcade, so that by
1931 the boy wonder of the 1920s
had settled into an altogether more
stable pattern of theatrical triumph,
one which was best characterized
by the partnership he had formed
with Gertrude Lawrence. For her he
had written Private Lives, redolent
of Riviera balconies, filled with the
potency of cheap music and shot
through with the sadness of a couple who could live neither together
nor apart, a couple who were in
many incidental ways Noël and
Gertie themselves.
‘Throughout the 1930s in fact.’ he
wrote later, ‘I was a highly publicized and irritatingly successful figure, much in demand. The critical
laurels that had been so confidently
predicted for me in my 20s never
graced my brow, and I was forced
to console myself with the bitter
palliative of commercial success,
which I enjoyed very much indeed.’
The truth is that, although the
theatrical and political world had
changed considerably through the
century for which he stood as an
ineffably English icon, Noël himself
changed very little. He just grew increasingly Cowardly, and well into
his sixties was ever quick to find
new ways to market himself.
Noël Coward died, peacefully in
Jamaica, on 26 March 1973. It
would be difficult if not impossible
to summarize his success, the way
he caught the mood of the 20th
century’s successive but often very
contrasted decades, the sheer energy of the workaholic output of a
man who believed that work was
always so much more fun than fun.
I’d be happy to leave the last words
though with the man many thought
of as Noël’s polar opposite...but
who in fact was always among his
greatest fans. As John Osborne
memorably once said, “The 20th
Century would be incomplete without Noël Coward: he was simply
a genius, and anyone who cannot
see that should kindly leave the
stage.”
Excerpted from a biography of the
author published by the Noël Coward Estate on its website, www.
Noëlcoward.co.uk.
WADSWoRTH
Chamber Music Series
Featuring Edward Arron & Friends
Presented by U.S. Trust
2011 - 2012 Season
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Wednesday, December 4, 2011
Internationally acclaimed artistic director
Edward Arron and world-renowned musicians
perform in the Museum’s gorgeous
DuBose-Poston Reception Hall.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Season pass: $150 or $125 for museum members
Single concert: $35 or $30 for members
Students: $5 the day of the concert
Presenting Sponsor
For tickets: columbiamuseum.org or 803.799.2810.
Behind the Scenes
Technical Director Andy Mills
Assistant Technical Directors Sam Gross, Christine Jacky
Assistant Stage Manager Grace Stewart
Assistant Stage Manager Katie Foshee
Properties Kimi Maeda
Master Electrician Arienne Thacker
Scenic Graduate Students Heather Abraham, Meredith Paysinger, Cao Xuemei
Scenic Artists Heather Abraham, Meredith Paysinger, Cao Xuemei
Scenic Undergraduate Assistants Katie Perry, Matt Burcham, Ait Fetterolf, Karleigh Brunson and students of the Theatre Lab program
Lighting Graduate Students Marc Hurst, Brad Cozby
Lighting Undergraduate Assistants Mary Tilden, Ashley Pittman, Adam Bintz, Arienne Thacker, Jeremy Woods, Seth Chandler and students of the Theatre Lab program
Props Assistants Ashley Pittman, Courtney Brickley
Sound Board Operator Tyler McKinney
Light Board Operator Justin Carmichael
Costume Graduate Students April Andrew, Sean Smith,
Caitlin Moraska
Drapers April Andrew, Colleen Dobson, Elizabeth Coffin, Justine Shelton (Poole)
First Hand Caitlin Moraska
Stitchers The students of the Theatre Lab Program
Dressers Justine Shelton, Caitlin Miller
Costume Studio Supervisor M. Spencer Henderson
Artistic Director/Chair Jim Hunter
Production Manager K. Dale White
Financial Manager Ray Jones
Administrative Assistants Charlotte Denniston, Leigh Cowart
Student Coordinator Lakesha Campbell
Marketing/Promotions Kevin Bush
Promotions Assistants LaTrell Brennan, Marvin Casasola, Doni Fisher, Octavius Galloway,
Merranda Michels, Emily Olyarchuk,
Curry Stone
Special Thanks
Reiko Aylesworth, Clarion Town House Hotel, Workshop Theatre, Terra,
The Whig, The Vault
Upcoming Events
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Up Next on the Main Stage
Written By William Shakespeare
Directed by Robert Richmond
April 14-22, 2012
DRAYTON HALL THEATRE
Theatre South Carolina
Longstreet Theatre
Columbia, SC 29208
803-777-4288
[email protected]
http://www.cas.sc.edu/thea