Indecent - La Jolla Playhouse

KNOW
BEFORE YOU GO
Production Sponsors
Laurents/Hatcher Foundation
Righteous Persons Foundation
Ed and Martha Dennis
Recipient of a 2015 Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award
NOVEMBER 13 – DECEMBER 10
BEFORE YOU GO
KNOW
We look forward to seeing you at La Jolla Playhouse at your
upcoming performance of Indecent. Below is some additional
information about the production and the venue to enhance your
theater-going experience.
PARKING
Parking is free for all subscribers. For all others parking is $2 (subject
to change), Mon-Fri. Upon arrival to campus, please purchase your
parking permit from one of the automated pay stations located next
to the information kiosk. Simply park, note your space number, and
pay $2 at the pay station. Pay stations accept Visa, MasterCard,
American Express or cash ($1 and $5), and do not give change. You
will not need to return to your car. Parking is free on the weekends.
AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT EVENTS
The Playhouse offers unique opportunities for audience members
to delve deeper into the play with these special performance
series options:
Foodie Friday: Buy a ticket to the performance and enjoy San
Diego’s finest food trucks, plus a complimentary microbrew
tasting from Stone Brewing Company.
- Friday, December 4 starting at 6:00 pm
Talkback Tuesdays: Participate in a lively discussion with actors
and Playhouse staff members after the performance.
- Tuesday, November 24 following the 7:30 pm performance
- Tuesday, December 1 following the 7:30 pm performance
Discovery Sunday: Special guest speakers engage audience
members in a moderated discussion exploring the issues and
themes in the play.
- Sunday, December 6 following the 2:00 pm performance
Insider Events: Join Playhouse staff for a special pre-performance
presentation that gives an insider’s view of the play.
- Saturday, December 5 at 1:15 pm
- Wednesday, December 9 at 6:45 pm
ACCESSIBILITY
A golf cart is available to assist patrons with accessibility issues to
and from the parking lot. Please notify Patron Services prior to your
performance if you are in need of this service; additionally, you may
pull into the five minute parking in front of the theatre, and a friendly
La Jolla Playhouse greeter will assist you.
ACCESS PERFORMANCES
Open Captioned Performance: This performance has open captioning for patrons who are deaf
or hard of hearing.
- Sunday, November 22 at 2:00 pm
ACCESS (ASL Interpreted & Audio Described) Performance: This performance has American
Sign Language interpretation for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing, and audio description
for patrons who are blind or have low vision.
- Saturday, November 28 at 2:00 pm
DINING
James’ Place is the Theatre District’s on-site restaurant.
Developed by renowned Sushi Master James Holder, the menu includes his signature sushi, as well as
delectable dishes created with Prime and Angus cuts of beef, locally and sustainably harvested seafood,
along with seasonal dishes. A lighter fare menu is also served at the newly-redesigned sushi/cocktail bar,
featuring craft beer and California wines. James’ Place is open daily.
Tuesday – Friday: Happy Hour: 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm | Dinner: 5:00 pm – Close
Saturday – Sunday: Happy Hour: 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm | Dinner: 5:00 pm – Close
For reservations, please call (858) 638-7778.
We also recommend the following nearby restaurants:
Adobe El Restaurante
(breakfast and lunch) and
Mustangs & Burros
(dinner and weekend lunch)
at Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa
9700 N. Torrey Pines Road
La Jolla, CA 92037
estancialajolla.com
Café la Rue and
The Med
at La Valencia Hotel
1132 Prospect Street
La Jolla, CA 92037
lavalencia.com
Cusp Restaurant and
Hiatus Poolside Lounge
at Hotel La Jolla
7955 La Jolla Shores Drive
La Jolla, CA 92037
cusprestaurant.com
Dolce Pane e Vino
16081 San Dieguito Road
Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
dolcepaneevino.com
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse
& Wine Bar
8970 University Center Lane
San Diego, CA 92122
flemingssteakhouse.com
Giuseppe Restaurants
& Fine Catering
700 Prospect Street
San Diego, CA 92037
giuseppecatering.com
Pamplemousse Grille
514 Via de la Valle, Suite 100
Solana Beach, CA 92075
pgrille.com
Rock Bottom
Restaurant & Brewery
Playhouse Patrons Get 20% Off
8980 Villa La Jolla Drive
La Jolla, CA 92037
rockbottom.com
Children under the age of 6 are not permitted in the theatre during performances unless otherwise posted.
A MESSAGE FROM THE
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
MISSION STATEMENT:
La Jolla Playhouse advances
theatre as an art form and as a
vital social, moral and political
platform by providing unfettered
creative opportunities for the
leading artists of today and
tomorrow. With our youthful
spirit and eclectic, artist-driven
approach, we will continue to
cultivate a local and national
following with an insatiable
appetite for audacious and
diverse work. In the future,
San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse
will be considered singularly
indispensable to the worldwide
theatre landscape, as we become
a permanent safe harbor for the
unsafe and surprising. The day
will come when it will be essential
to enter the La Jolla Playhouse
village in order to get a glimpse
of what is about to happen in
American theatre.
“A blink in time” is a motif that appears
several times throughout Indecent, a new
play written by Paula Vogel and directed
by Rebecca Taichman, having its world
premiere at the Playhouse in a co-production with Yale Repertory Theatre.
Indecent is deeply embedded in another
play, God of Vengeance, written in
1906 by Yiddish playwright and novelist
Sholem Asch, about a Jewish brothel
owner who attempts to marry off his
daughter to a rabbinic scholar; however,
© Howard Lipin/U-T San Diego/ZUMA Wire
she has fallen in love with one of her
father’s prostitutes. Vogel’s play uses its blinks in time to take us on the journey of
“a little Jewish play” through the turbulent decades between 1906 and the early
1950s. As its story unfolds, it reaches across the vicissitudes of memory to show
art’s inherent power to pierce society’s sense of propriety and disrupt it.
A kiss between two women is the jumping off point for the questions that Indecent
raises. What is obscenity – where is the line that cannot be crossed? What is the
proper role of art and storytelling? Should we only tell stories of beauty with positive
messages and role models? Should we be exposing the seamy underbelly of our
culture? Are religious symbols and images sacrosanct? What, if anything, is off limits?
While Indecent presents us with provocative ideas, its true heart lies in its love
stories – between men and women, women and women, a playwright and his
play, a troupe of actors and musicians who bring the play to life, writers and their
culture and people. Then there’s the soulful character of Lemml, not a man of
letters but a stage manager, an everyman who sees the humanity that resides in
God of Vengeance and keeps its flame alive.
Two amazing women are at the helm of Indecent – director Rebecca Taichman and
playwright Paula Vogel. Indecent is Rebecca’s third play at the Playhouse, having
directed both Sleeping Beauty Wakes and Milk Like Sugar in our 2012 season.
She has had a longstanding passion for the God of Vengeance story, having first
encountered it as a student in the Sholem Asch Collection at Yale University’s
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which includes the God of Vengeance
obscenity trial transcript. Her theatrical style on the production is deceptively
simple. With a bare stage and an abundance of theatrical elements – music,
songs, choreography, projections, costume changes, scene shifts and blinks in time
– she juggles all with a cohesive lyricism and honesty that transports us through
time and space.
Paula Vogel, one of the leading lights of American playwrights, has never stepped
back from provocative and controversial subject matter in her plays, including her
Pulitzer prize-winning How I Learned to Drive about familial sexual abuse and Hot
‘N Throbbing, which centered on domestic violence. With Indecent, Paula invokes
a past that feels somehow contemporary, taking on weighty topics – assimilation,
hypocrisy, immigration, lesbianism and censorship. Yet, the play’s spirit of love,
liberation and belief in the transformational power of theatre prevails.
Indecent is a play in love with making theatre. I invite you into its theatrical and
thought-provoking world.
La Jolla Playhouse has received
La Jolla Playhouse has received the
the highest rating from Charity
highest rating from Charity Navigator,
Navigator, the nation’s premier
the nation’s premier charity evaluator.
charity evaluator.
P4 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE
CHRISTOPHER
ASHLEY
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS
Michael S. Rosenberg
Managing Director
Christopher Ashley
Artistic Director
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
YALE REPERTORY THEATRE
WRITTEN BY
OPENING NIGHT
NOVEMBER 18, 2015
PAULA VOGEL
CREATED BY
PAULA VOGEL AND REBECCA TAICHMAN
DIRECTED BY
REBECCA TAICHMAN
FEATURING
MACGREGOR J. ARNEY , LISA GUTKIN, AARON HALVA, TRAVIS W. HENDRIX, KATRINA LENK*, MIMI LIEBER*,
MAX GORDON MOORE*, TOM NELIS*, STEVEN RATTAZZI*, EMILY SHAIN‡, RICHARD TOPOL*, ADINA VERSON*
‡
CHOREOGRAPHER
COMPOSERS
MUSIC DIRECTOR
SCENIC DESIGNER
COSTUME DESIGNER
LIGHTING DESIGNER
SOUND DESIGNER
PROJECTION DESIGNER
DIALECT COACH
FIGHT DIRECTOR
YIDDISH CONSULTANT
PRODUCTION DRAMATURG
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE DRAMATURG
CASTING DIRECTOR
STAGE MANAGER
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE ASSOCIATE PRODUCTION MANAGER
DAVID DORFMAN
LISA GUTKIN, AARON HALVA
AARON HALVA
RICCARDO HERNANDEZ
EMILY REBHOLZ
CHRISTOPHER AKERLIND
MATT HUBBS
TAL YARDEN
STEPHEN GABIS
RICK SORDELET
JOEL BERKOWITZ
AMY BORATKO
SHIRLEY FISHMAN
TARA RUBIN CASTING
AMANDA SPOONER*
JESS SLOCUM*
BENJAMIN SEIBERT
Indecent was commissioned by Yale Rep and American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Development and production support are provided by Yale's Binger Center for New Theatre and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Indecent was developed, in part, at the 2013 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at the Sundance Resort.
Inspired by The People vs. ‘The God of Vengeance,’ conceived by Rebecca Rugg and Rebecca Taichman.
MEMBERS OF THE TROUPE
LEMML, THE STAGE MANAGER
RICHARD TOPOL
THE ACTORS
KATRINA LENK
MIMI LIEBER
MAX GORDON MOORE
TOM NELIS
STEVEN RATTAZZI
ADINA VERSON
THE MUSICIANS
LISA GUTKIN
AARON HALVA
TRAVIS W. HENDRIX
Understudies: MacGregor J. Arney, Emily Shain
Indecent is performed without an intermission.
ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION STAFF
Yale Rep Assistant Director............................. Elizabeth Dinkova
La Jolla Playhouse Assistant Director...................Stephanie Prugh
Associate Projection Designer................................. Keith Skretch
Assistant Scenic Designer.................................Kristen Robinson
Assistant Costume Designer.........................Steven M. Rotramel
Assistant Lighting Designer.....................Caitlin Smith Rapoport
Assistant Sound Designer...................................Stephanie Smith
Assistant Projection Designer..................................Yana Biryukova
Fight Captain..................................................Max Gordon Moore
Dance Captain............................................................Katrina Lenk
Additional Music Arranger................................Travis W. Hendrix
La Jolla Playhouse
Production Assistant................. Cheyenne Splinter-Newlander
Script Assistant............................................................ Julia Greer
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Rick Banks; David Chambers; Keith Davis; Rob Devaney; Jill Dolan; Harley Erdman; Morris Granite; Blair Gulledge; Hartford Stage Company;
Christopher Hibma; Philip Himberg; Lael Logan; Lou and Frances; Emilio Magnotta, Emilio Accordions, White Plains, NY; Jerry Meyer;
Rabbi James Ponet; George Rattner; Mary Readinger, Long Wharf Theatre; Joe Roach; Alicia Roper; David Savran; Jan Seele; Joe Sexton;
Ronn Smith; Alisa Solomon; Nanette Stahl; Anne Sterling; Ettie, Lorne and Laura Taichman; Lenny Wolpe
* Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage
Managers in the United States. The theatre operates under an agreement between the
League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association.
This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres
and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, an independent national labor union.
This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres
and United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE.
La Jolla Playhouse is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and a
constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization
for the nonprofit professional theatre.
‡ UC San Diego M.F.A. Candidates in residence at La Jolla Playhouse.
THE COMPANY
KATRINA LENK, Actor
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway credits: Once (Reza),
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (Arachne) and The Miracle
Worker. Regional theatre work includes Margaret in iWitness
(Mark Taper Forum), Anna in Lost Land (Steppenwolf
Theater) and Linda Lovelace in Lovelace: A Rock Opera,
for which she won LA Weekly, LADCC and Garland Awards. Film
and television work includes Evol: The Theory of Love, Look Away,
FracKtured, Elementary and The Blacklist. She is a co-creator of the web
series Miss Teri and is a member of several bands including her own,
moxy phinx. katrinalenk.com
MIMI LIEBER, Actor
La Jolla Playhouse: Figaro Gets a Divorce. Broadway: Act
One (Lincoln Center Theater), Brooklyn Boy and I’m Not
Rappaport (revival). Off-Broadway: Distracted (Roundabout).
Other theatre includes: Two Things You Don’t Talk About
at Dinner (Denver Center Theatre); Persephone, The Sisters
Rosensweig (Huntington Theatre Company); We Won’t Pay! We Won’t
Pay! (Long Wharf); Taking Sides, The Greeks, Love Council, Five Women
Wearing the Same Dress (Odyssey); Leon & Lena (and lenz) (Guthrie
Theater); Sirens (Humana Festival of New American Plays); Potestad
(Stages); Much Ado About Nothing, Othello (L.A. Shakespeare Festival);
U.S. Comedy Arts Festival w/E.S.T. (winner, Best of Fest); Los Angeles
Theatre Center; Taper, Too; Ford’s Theatre and The Kennedy Center.
National tour: The Heidi Chronicles. Film and television includes The
Thing About My Folks; Arranged; Cold Souls; Permanent Midnight;
Bulworth; Corrina, Corrina; Wilder Napalm; Just Another Story; The
Sopranos; Law & Order (rec.); Medium; Friends; The Practice; Seinfeld;
ER; The X-Files; NYPD Blue; Judging Amy (rec.); Early Edition (rec.) and
L.A. Law. Her choreography credits include the Broadway productions
Act One, The Snow Geese (Manhattan Theatre Club); Cymbeline
(Callaway nomination), The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It (Callaway
nomination), The Merchant of Venice, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth
Night (The Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park); choreographer of 26
national commercials.
MAX GORDON MOORE, Actor
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Mr. Moore appeared at Yale Rep
in last season’s productions of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia and
Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Other recent
credits include Time and the Conways (The Old Globe), also
directed by Rebecca Taichman; Don Juan in Hell (Project
Shaw); The Master Builder with John Turturro (Brooklyn Academy of
Music); Relatively Speaking on Broadway; Man and Superman, It’s A
Wonderful Life (Irish Repertory Theatre) and The American Song Project
(Flea Theater). Regional theatre includes Tragedy: A Tragedy (Berkeley
Rep); The Seagull (Cleveland Play House); Richard III, As You Like It, The
Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice (California Shakespeare
Theater); Bach at Leipzig (A Contemporary Theatre); John Bull’s Other
Island (Geva Theatre); Pleasure and Pain (Magic Theatre); Private Jokes,
Public Places (Aurora Theatre); Learned Ladies, The Two Gentlemen
of Verona (Texas Shakespeare Festival) and Family Alchemy (Traveling
Jewish Theatre). Film and television: Gods Behaving Badly, The Terrors
of Basket-Weaving, Madam Secretary and The Good Wife. M.F.A., Yale
School of Drama, Herschel Williams Prize in Acting.
TOM NELIS, Actor
La Jolla Playhouse: Wintertime, A Funny Thing Happened
on the Way to the Forum and Macbeth. Broadway credits
include The Visit, Enron, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
and Aida. Off-Broadway: Road Show, Richard III, Henry VI
(title role), ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Henry IV parts 1 and 2,
American Document with The Martha Graham Dance Company (The
Public Theater); The Seven, Score, The Medium (New York Theatre
Workshop); Doris to Darlene (Playwrights Horizons); Iphigenia 2.0, Hot
’N’ Throbbing (Signature Theatre); Passion, Orlando (Classic Stage
Company); Septimus and Clarissa (Ripe Time); The Merchant of Venice
(Theatre for a New Audience/The Royal Shakespeare Company); The
Trojan Women/A Love Story, Marathon Dancing, Another Person Is
a Foreign Country (En Garde Arts); Ahab in Laurie Anderson’s Songs
and Stories from Moby Dick (BAM/World Tour); Oscar Wilde in Gross
Indecencies (Minetta Lane); Hot Mouth (Manhattan Theater Club);
Antigone (Dance Theater Workshop); Pearls for Pigs (Richard Foreman/
World Tour); 20-plus years with SITI Company. Awards: Eliot Norton
Outstanding Performer Award for Prospero in The Tempest, OBIE Award
for The Medium, San Diego Critics Ensemble Award for Wintertime,
Drama League nomination for Score and Barrymore nomination for
Candide. Education: M.F.A., University of California, San Diego.
In memory of Arthur Wagner.
STEVEN RATTAZZI, Actor
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Mr. Rattazzi previously appeared
at Yale Rep in David Adjmi’s Marie Antoinette directed by
Rebecca Taichman. New York: City Of (Playwrights Realm);
Adjmi’s Stunning (Lincoln Center’s LCT3); Galileo with F.
Murray Abraham, The Tempest with Mandy Patinkin, Age
of Iron directed by Brian Kulick (Classic Stage Company); The Tempest,
Dinner Party directed by David Herskovits (Target Margin); Spy Garbo
(3LD); Taylor Mac’s Walk Across America for Mother Earth (La MaMa
E.T.C.); Henry V with Liev Schreiber (The Public Theater); Painted Snake
on a Painted Chair (OBIE Award, Talking Band); McGurk (Elevator Repair
Service); The Fourth Sister directed by Lisa Peterson (Vineyard Theatre)
and Richard Foreman’s Samuel’s Major Problems (Ontological Theater
at St. Mark’s). Regional: The School for Wives (Two River Theater, NJ);
The Lovesong of J. Robert Oppenheimer directed by Mark Wing-Davey
(Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park). Film and television: The Family (Luc
Besson) and Dr. Orpheus on The Venture Brothers.
RICHARD TOPOL, Lemml
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway: Larry David’s Fish in
the Dark, the Tony Award-winning revivals of The Normal
Heart and Awake and Sing!, The Merchant of Venice with Al
Pacino, Cymbeline, The Country Girl, The School for Scandal
and Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington. Off-Broadway
he has appeared in Regrets (Manhattan Theatre Club); Bronx Bombers,
Opus (Primary Stages); When the Rain Stops Falling (Lincoln Center
Theater); King Lear, Twelfth Night, The Winter’s Tale (The Public Theater);
Hamlet (Theatre for a New Audience); The Wayside Motor Inn (Signature
Theatre); as well as new plays at The New Group, Ensemble Studio
Theatre, Soho Rep., Naked Angels and Playwrights Horizons. His film and
television credits include Lincoln, Mickey Blue Eyes, Party Girl, Path to
Paradise, Indignation (upcoming), The Great Gilly Hopkins (upcoming),
James White (upcoming), The Good Wife, Elementary, Person of Interest,
all of the Law & Order series, Ed, Gilmore Girls, The Drew Carey Show
and recurring roles on The Practice, Covert Affairs and Perception. He
holds an M.F.A. from NYU and is a two-time Drama Desk Award winner,
a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, a Fox Fellowship recipient
and a proud member of Actors' Equity. For Morris Topol.
THE COMPANY
ADINA VERSON, Actor
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Recent credits include As You
Like It (Shakespeare Theatre Company), The Servant of Two
Masters directed by Christopher Bayes (Guthrie Theatre,
Seattle Rep, ArtsEmerson), 4000 Miles (Cincinnati Playhouse),
The Winter's Tale (Yale Rep), HIM (Primary Stages) and
Machine Makes Man, which she co-created with Michael McQuilken
(Amsterdam Fringe, Best International Performance; National Arts Festival
of South Africa). Television: Miriam Setrakian on The Strain (FX) and
Deadbeat (Hulu). M.F.A., Yale School of Drama.
LISA GUTKIN, Composer, Musician
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Grammy-winning Lisa Gutkin
is best known as violinist, vocalist and composer for the
Klezmatics, and recently for her work in Sting’s Broadway
production The Last Ship. As an actress/musician/composer
she has appeared in Sex and the City, Hava Nagila (The
Movie), The Klezmatics: On Holy Ground and Seeing Is Believing by
Dutch choreographer Maggie Boogaart. Lisa’s compositions include the
score for Mabou Mines’ Song for New York: What Women Do While
Men Sit Knitting, a multi-ethnic folk opera directed by Ruth Maleczech,
and songs with lyrics by Woody Guthrie, Maggie Dubris and Anne
Sexton. She records and performs with an immense array of artists and
has appeared on The Conan O’Brien Show, A Prairie Home Companion,
World Cafe, Mountain Stage, etc. Ms. Gutkin is a MacDowell Artist
Fellow, has released an instructional DVD called Play Klezmer Fiddle! on
Homespun Tapes and is soon to release the first of three collections of
newly composed songs and compositions.
AARON HALVA, Composer, Music Director, Musician
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Raised amongst polkas and
hymns in Iowa, Mr. Halva has since studied music in Cuba,
Puerto Rico, Argentina, Greece and Spain. His previous
work at Yale Rep includes Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of
an Anarchist, Molière’s A Doctor in Spite of Himself and
Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters, all directed by Christopher
Bayes. New York theatre credits include Red Noses by Peter Barnes,
Four by Feydeau, The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Molière One Acts,
Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, The Love of Three Oranges by Carlo
Gozzi (The Juilliard School); The Imaginary Invalid by Molière, The New
Place by Carlo Goldoni, We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! by Dario Fo,
and a new adaptation of Molière’s The Reluctant Doctor of Love (New
York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program).
Regional credits include The Servant of Two Masters (Guthrie Theater,
ArtsEmerson, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Seattle Rep),
A Doctor in Spite of Himself (Intiman Theatre, Berkeley Rep) and The
Molière Impromptu (Trinity Rep). International: Ballywoonde (Edinburgh
Fringe Festival). Film: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, as leader and
arranger for Cuban music group Nu D’Lux.
TRAVIS W. HENDRIX, Musician
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Mr. Hendrix is a multiinstrumentalist and composer based in the San Francisco
Bay Area. Although not traditionally educated, Travis has
been taught by a host of great musicians, and most recently
studied under clarinetist and composer Ben Goldberg. Mr.
Hendrix’s versatility has found him playing intimate clubs with jazz combos,
music festivals with indie rock bands, Jewish delis with klezmer groups,
street performances with brass bands and on stage in theatre productions.
He will be releasing an album of his own compositions in 2016.
PAULA VOGEL, Co-Creator/Playwright
is Playwright in Residence at Yale Repertory Theatre. Her play How I
Learned to Drive received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Lortel
Prize, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critics
Awards for Best Play, as well as her second OBIE Award. Other plays
include Don Juan Comes Home from Iraq, The Long Christmas Ride
Home, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz, Hot ’N’ Throbbing,
Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven, The Oldest Profession and A Civil
War Christmas. TCG has published four books of her work. Most recent
awards include the Theatre Hall of Fame, Lifetime Achievement Award
from the Dramatists Guild and the 2015 Thornton Wilder Award. She is
honored to have two awards for emerging playwrights named after her:
the Paula Vogel Award, created by the American College Theatre Festival
in 2003, and the Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting, given annually by the
Vineyard Theatre since 2007. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell
Colony, the Double UCross Colony as well as Yaddo. She has taught
for 24 years at Brown University and for five years at Yale School of
Drama where she was the Eugene O’Neill Professor of Playwriting. She
is honored by Philadelphia Young Playwrights and Quiara Hudes, who is
curating the Paula Vogel Mentors Project.
REBECCA TAICHMAN, Co-Creator/Director
La Jolla Playhouse: Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Milk Like Sugar. Her OffBroadway credits include Familiar (upcoming, Playwrights Horizons);
The Oldest Boy by Sarah Ruhl (Lincoln Center Theater); The Luck of
the Irish (LCT3); Stage Kiss, Milk Like Sugar (Playwrights Horizons);
Orlando (Classic Stage Company); Orpheus (New York City Opera); Dark
Sisters (Music Theater Group, Gotham Chamber Opera); Rappaccini’s
Daughter (Gotham Chamber Opera); Marie Antoinette (Soho Rep.); The
Scene (Second Stage, Humana Festival of New Plays) and Menopausal
Gentleman (Ohio Theatre). Regional credits include the world premieres
of Familiar by Danai Gurira, David Adjmi’s The Evildoers and Marie
Antoinette (Yale Rep); Twelfth Night, Time and the Conways (The Old
Globe); Marie Antoinette (A.R.T.); She Loves Me (Oregon Shakespeare
Festival); The Winter’s Tale (McCarter Theatre Center, Shakespeare
Theatre Company); Cymbeline, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew
(Shakespeare Theatre Company); Twelfth Night, Sleeping Beauty Wakes
(McCarter); Dead Man’s Cell Phone and The Clean House (Woolly
Mammoth Theatre Company). She received her M.F.A. from Yale School
of Drama. She is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.
DAVID DORFMAN, Choreographer
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Mr. Dorfman has been artistic director of his
vainly named dance company since 1987, and also has been Professor
of Dance and Chair at Connecticut College since 2004. He has received
a Guggenheim fellowship, four NEA fellowships, a New York Dance and
Performance Bessie Award and a Barrymore Award in Philadelphia for
Best Choreography on Green Violin, his first collaboration with Rebecca
Taichman. 2014–15 brought David Dorfman Dance to Armenia, Tajikistan
and Turkey via the State Department, DanceMotion USA and Brooklyn
Academy of Music, where DDD has appeared in three Next Wave
Festivals. David also tours a serio-comic evening, Live Sax Acts, with longtime collaborator, Dan Froot. daviddorfmandance.org
THE COMPANY
RICCARDO HERNANDEZ, Scenic Designer
La Jolla Playhouse: Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Honey Bo and the Gold
Mine, The Miser, Beauty, Cloud Tectonics. Previous Yale Rep productions
include the world premieres of David Adjmi’s Marie Antoinette and The
Evildoers, both directed by Rebecca Taichman, and Robert Woodruff’s
productions of Autumn Sonata and Battle of Black and Dogs. Broadway:
The Gin Game; The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess; The People in the
Picture; Caroline, or Change (also Royal National Theatre, London); Elaine
Stritch at Liberty (also National Tour, Old Vic London); Topdog/Underdog
(Royal Court); Bells Are Ringing; Parade (directed by Hal Prince; Tony and
Drama Desk nominations); Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk (also
National Tour, Japan) and The Tempest. Recent: Grounded directed by
Julie Taymor, The Library directed by Steven Soderbergh (The Public
Theater); La Mouette (Cour d’Honneur, Palais des Papes, Avignon
Festival); Abigail’s Party (Oslo National Theatre, Norway); The Dead
(The Abbey Theatre, Dublin); King Lear (Theatre for a New Audience).
He has designed over 200 productions in the U.S. and internationally
at The Public Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, American Repertory
Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Goodman
Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera,
San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, OTSL, Los Angeles Opera,
Santa Fe Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Théâtre du Châtelet Paris,
Theater an der Wien (Vienna), Teatro Real Madrid, English National
Opera/Young Vic, among others. Upcoming: The Bitter Tears of Petra von
Kant (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Genet’s Splendid’s (La Colline-Theatre National
Paris), Othello (Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, D.C.), Don
Giovanni (Santa Fe Opera). Faculty: SUNY Purchase; lecturer, Princeton.
EMILY REBHOLZ, Costume Designer
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway credits include If/Then, Vanya
and Sonia and Masha and Spike and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.
Recent Off-Broadway: The Tempest, Into the Woods (The Public Theater/
Shakespeare in the Park); Nice Girl (Labyrinth Theater Company); Pretty
Filthy (The Civilians); Our Lady of Kibeho (Signature Theatre); The Who &
The What, Stop Hitting Yourself (Lincoln Center Theater); Your Mother’s
Copy of the Kama Sutra, Mr. Burns (Playwrights Horizons); The Way We
Get By, The Substance of Fire and The Last Five Years (Second Stage).
Recent regional theatre work: Dear Evan Hansen (Arena Stage), Morning
Star (Cincinnati Opera) and Yardbird (Opera Philadelphia). In addition,
she has designed costumes at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Lincoln Center,
Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage Theatre, Roundabout Theatre,
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater Company, The
Old Globe, A.R.T., Williamstown Theatre Festival and The Goodman
Theatre. Upcoming: Another Word for Beauty (The Goodman), Don
Giovanni (Santa Fe Opera) and La Bohème (Opera Theatre of St. Louis).
M.F.A., Yale School of Drama. emilyrebholz.com
CHRISTOPHER AKERLIND, Lighting Designer
La Jolla Playhouse: Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Herringbone, Tobacco
Road, The Third Story, Carmen the Musical, The Country, Randy
Newman's Faust, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Broadway: The Last
Ship, Rocky (Tony nom.), Porgy and Bess (Tony nom.), Superior Donuts,
110 in the Shade (Tony nom.), Talk Radio, Awake and Sing (Tony nom.),
Well, Rabbit hole, In My Life, The Light in the Piazza (Tony, Drama Desk,
Outer Critics Circle Awards), The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Seven
Guitars (Tony nom.) and The Piano Lesson, among others. Recent credits
include: Julie Taymor’s production of Grounded with Anne Hathaway
at the Public Theater, and Martha Clarke’s Cheri for the Royal Opera
House. Awards: OBIE for Sustained Excellence; Michael Merritt Award
for Design & Collaboration.
MATT HUBBS, Sound Designer
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Mr. Hubbs has recently designed Preludes
(LCT3); The Royale, Time and the Conways (The Old Globe); Stage Kiss
(Playwrights Horizons); Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
(Kazino, Ars Nova); Marie Antoinette (Soho Rep., A.R.T., and Yale Rep);
Three Pianos (New York Theatre Workshop, A.R.T.); How We Got On,
Death Tax and A Devil at Noon (Humana Festival of New American Plays);
Futura (NAATCO); The Human Scale (The Public Theater); Telephone
(Foundry Theatre); Hammock, The Matter of Origins: Tea, Blueprints
of Relentless Nature and 613 Radical Acts of Prayer (Liz Lerman Dance
Exchange) and the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill
Theater Center. A company member of the TEAM, he has designed The
Holler Sessions, RoosevElvis, Mission Drift, Architecting, Particularly in
the Heartland and A Thousand Natural Shocks. He received his B.A. in
philosophy as a University Scholar at Xavier University.
TAL YARDEN, Projection Designer
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Mr. Yarden has designed video for Swimming
in March (Market Theater) directed by Rebecca Taichman; POP! (Yale
Rep); Between Worlds (ENO); King Lear (The Public Theater); Distracted
(Roundabout Theatre Company); Little Foxes, Liberty City, Kaos,
Beast, The Misanthrope (New York Theatre Workshop); Lush Valley,
Sounding (HERE Arts Center); Futura (NAATCO); The King Is Dead,
Not Garden (Stephen Petronio); Reza Abdoh’s Tight Right White and
Quotations from a Ruined City. His international designs for director
Ivo van Hove include Antigone, Kings of War, The Fountainhead, Cries
and Whispers, Antonioni Project, Angels in America, Husbands, Roman
Tragedies (Toneelgroep Amsterdam); La Clemenza de Tito, Idomeneo
(La Monnaie); Brokeback Mountain (Teatro Real); Der Schatzgräber (De
Nederlandse Opera); Macbeth (Opéra de Lyon) and Wagner’s Ring Cycle
(Vlaamseopera). Upcoming projects include Lazarus by Enda Walsh
and David Bowie (New York Theatre Workshop) and The Crucible on
Broadway. He is a technology consultant for the Performing Arts Center
at the World Trade Center.
STEPHEN GABIS, Dialect Coach
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Previous Yale Rep productions include
Arcadia, These Paper Bullets!, Stones in His Pockets, A Woman of No
Importance, Safe in Hell, The People Next Door, The Clean House,
The Ladies of the Camellias and The Way of the World. His Broadway
and Off-Broadway credits include Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Outside
Mullingar; The Winslow Boy; Transport; Loot; Juno and the Paycock;
Once; The Book of Mormon; Tribes; Man and Boy; The 39 Steps;
Lombardi; Lend Me a Tenor; A View from the Bridge; Becoming Dr.
Ruth; Look Back in Anger; The Weir; The Freedom of the City; Memphis;
Jersey Boys; A Day in the Death of Joe Egg; Bluebird; Through a Glass
Darkly; The Shaggs; Kin; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; The Lieutenant
of Inishmore; Brighton Beach Memoirs; When the Rain Stops Falling;
The Emperor Jones; Doubt; Frozen; Port Authority; Dublin Carol and
Stuff Happens. Selected film and TV credits include Spotlight, Stonewall,
Boardwalk Empire, Prime Suspect, Million Dollar Baby, Bernard and Doris,
Salt, Across the Universe, Mildred Pierce, The Notorious Bettie Page and
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
THE COMPANY
RICK SORDELET, Fight Director
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Theatre credits include 65 Broadway
productions and 60 productions on five continents in hundreds of cities
around the world, including Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Waiting
for Godot, No Man’s Land, Ben Hur Live (Rome, European Tour) and
currently Big Love for Signature Theatre. Opera: Cyrano starring Placido
Domingo (Metropolitan Opera, The Royal Opera House, La Scala),
and Don Carlo and Cold Mountain (Santa Fe Opera). Film: The Game
Plan, Dan in Real Life and Hamlet. Rick was Chief Stunt Coordinator for
Guiding Light for 12 years and One Life to Live, representing over 1,000
episodes of daytime television. Recently: Misery on Broadway starring
Bruce Willis and Cymbeline for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the
Park. Rick sits on the board of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
and teaches at Yale School of Drama and HB Studio. He is a recipient
of an Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence from the Lucille Lortel
Foundation and a Jeff Award for Best Fight Direction for Romeo and
Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Rick has created the new stage
combat company, Sordelet INK, with his son Christian Kelly-Sordelet.
They have over thirty years of action movement experience for film,
television and stage. sordeletINK.com
JOEL BERKOWITZ, Yiddish Consultant
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Mr. Berkowitz is Director of the Sam
and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies and Professor of Foreign
Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A
historian of the Yiddish theatre and translator of Yiddish drama, he is the
author of Shakespeare on the American Yiddish Stage, editor of Yiddish
Theatre: New Approaches and co-editor of Landmark Yiddish Plays and
Inventing the Modern Yiddish Stage. He is the co-founder of the Digital
Yiddish Theatre Project (yiddishstage.org), a research group applying
Digital Humanities methods and tools to the study and preservation of
Yiddish theatre, and is currently researching a book on Yiddish drama and
the Holocaust.
AMY BORATKO, Production Dramaturg
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Ms. Boratko is the Literary Manager at Yale
Rep and has previously served as dramaturg on the Yale Rep productions
of War, The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, Dear Elizabeth, The Realistic
Joneses, Good Goods, Belleville, Autumn Sonata, We Have Always
Lived in the Castle, Battle of Black and Dogs, Compulsion, Notes from
Underground, A Woman of No Importance, Eurydice and The Cherry
Orchard. Other dramaturgy credits include The Time of Your Life, The
Summer People, Romeo and Juliet, The War Is Over (Yale School of
Drama) as well as Voice and Vision’s ENVISION Retreat at Bard College.
She has been a teaching fellow at Yale College and Yale School of Drama
and was a managing editor of Theater magazine. A graduate of Rice
University, she received her M.F.A. in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism
from Yale School of Drama.
SHIRLEY FISHMAN, Dramaturg
Now in her 14th season, she is the Playhouse’s Resident Dramaturg
and has worked on such plays and musicals as Healing Wars, Come
From Away, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Chasing the Song, Ether
Dome, Side Show, Sideways, Glengarry Glen Ross, An Iliad, Hands on a
Hardbody, American Night, 2015 POP Tour The Astronaut Farmworker
and other projects in development. During her five years at the
Joseph Papp Public Theater she dramaturged such projects as Jessica
Hagedorn’s Dogeaters, Two Sisters and a Piano by Nilo Cruz and Tina
Landau’s Space, among others, and was co-curator of the New Work
Now! annual new play festival. She serves as a Playwright’s Dramaturg
for UC San Diego’s Wagner New Play Festival and has been a dramaturg
at Sundance Theatre Lab, Magic Theatre, Native Voices at the Autry
and Playwrights Project, among others. She is an M.F.A. graduate of
Columbia University’s Theatre Theory/Criticism/Dramaturgy program.
TARA RUBIN CASTING, Casting Director
Selected La Jolla Playhouse: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Sideways,
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, The Nightingale, Peter and the
Starcatchers, Most Wanted, The Farnsworth Invention, Fraulein Else,
Zhivago. Selected Broadway: School of Rock, Dr Zhivago, It Shoulda
Been You, Gigi, Bullets Over Broadway, Aladdin, Mothers and Sons, Les
Misérables, Big Fish, How to Succeed..., A Little Night Music, Billy Elliot,
Shrek, Guys and Dolls, Young Frankenstein, Mary Poppins, Spamalot,
...Spelling Bee, Jersey Boys, The Producers, Mamma Mia!. Off-Broadway:
Here Lies Love; Old Jews Telling Jokes; Love, Loss, and What I Wore.
Regional: Yale Repertory, Paper Mill Playhouse, The Old Globe.
AMANDA SPOONER, Stage Manager
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Yale Rep: Marie Antoinette, Death of a
Salesman and Happy Now?. Recent credits include An Octoroon at
Theatre for a New Audience; 10 Out of 12, Marie Antoinette and An
Octoroon at Soho Rep.; Luck of the Irish and Mr. Joy at LCT3; While I
Yet Live at Primary Stages and Sing for Your Shakespeare at Westport
Country Playhouse. Amanda is a graduate of Yale School of Drama and
also serves as the Development and Producing Associate at Transport
Group Theatre Company. She would like to thank Rebecca and Paula for
their friendship, Mary Hunter and James Mountcastle for their guidance,
and her family for their perfection.
JESS SLOCUM, Assistant Stage Manager
La Jolla Playhouse: Side Show, Ruined, The Third Story, Memphis, Most
Wanted. Regional: In Your Arms, Twelfth Night, Buyer & Cellar, Bright
Star, Othello, Water by the Spoonful, The Winter’s Tale, A Doll’s House,
Pygmalion, A Room with a View, Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror
Show, 2011-2013 Shakespeare Festivals, Rafta, Rafta…, Robin and the
7 Hoods, Alive and Well, Sammy, Cornelia, Since Africa, Dr. Seuss’ How
the Grinch Stole Christmas!, The Glass Menagerie (The Old Globe); Post
Office (Center Theatre Group). Education: Vanderbilt University.
YALE REPERTORY THEATRE
The internationally celebrated professional theatre in residence at Yale
School of Drama has championed new work since 1966, producing
well over 100 premieres – including two Pulitzer Prize winners and four
other nominated finalists. Twelve Yale Rep productions have advanced
to Broadway, garnering more than 40 Tony Award nominations and
eight Tony Awards. Yale Rep is also the recipient of the Tony Award for
Outstanding Regional Theatre. Established in 2008, Yale’s Binger Center for
New Theatre has distinguished itself as one of the nation’s most robust and
innovative new play programs. To date, the Binger Center has supported
the work of more than 50 commissioned artists and underwritten the
world premieres and subsequent productions of 21 new American plays
and musicals at Yale Rep and theatres across the country – including this
season’s Indecent created by Paula Vogel and Rebecca Taichman, peerless
by Jiehae Park, and The Moors by Jen Silverman.
PLAYHOUSE LEADERSHIP
CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY, Artistic Director
has served as Artistic Director at La Jolla Playhouse since
2007. During his tenure, he helmed the world premieres of
Come From Away, The Darrell Hammond Project, Claudia
Shear’s Restoration and Arthur Kopit and Anton Dudley’s A
Dram of Drummhicit, as well as John Guare’s adaptation of
His Girl Friday, Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, and the musicals Xanadu and Memphis, which went on
to Broadway, winning four 2010 Tony Awards including Best Musical. In
addition, he spearheaded the Playhouse’s Without Walls site-specific theatre
series, the Resident Theatre program and the DNA New Work Series. Prior
to joining the Playhouse, Mr. Ashley directed the Broadway productions
of Xanadu (Drama Desk nomination), All Shook Up and The Rocky Horror
Show (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), as
well as The Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration productions of Merrily
We Roll Along and Sweeney Todd (Helen Hayes Award for Direction). Other
New York credits include: Leap of Faith, Blown Sideways Through Life,
Jeffrey (Lucille Lortel and OBIE Awards), The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told,
Valhalla, Regrets Only, Wonder of the World, Bunny Bunny, Communicating
Doors, The Night Hank Williams Died and Fires in the Mirror (Lucille Lortel
Award). He also directed the feature films Jeffrey, Blown Sideways Through
Life for PBS, and Lucky Stiff, released July 2015. Mr. Ashley is the recipient
of the Princess Grace Award, the Drama League Director Fellowship and an
NEA/TCG Director Fellowship.
DEBBY BUCHHOLZ, General Manager
has served as general manager of La Jolla Playhouse
since 2002. She is the Secretary of the League of Resident
Theaters (LORT) and a member of its Executive Committee.
In 2009, she received a San Diego Women Who Mean
Business Award from The San Diego Business Journal.
Previously she served as Counsel to The John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington,
D.C. She was a faculty member of the Smithsonian Institution’s program
on Legal Problems of Museum Administration. Prior to The Kennedy
Center, she served as a corporate attorney in New York City and
Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of UC San Diego and Harvard Law
School. Ms. Buchholz and her husband, noted author and White House
economic policy advisor Todd Buchholz, live in Solana Beach and are the
proud parents of Victoria, Katherine and Alexia.
MICHAEL S. ROSENBERG, Managing Director
has served as the Managing Director of La Jolla Playhouse
since April, 2009. Working in partnership with Artistic
Director Christopher Ashley, he has developed and
produced new work by Ayad Akhtar, Trey Anastasio, Amanda
Green, John Leguizamo, Carey Perloff, Jay Scheib, Herbert
Siguenza, Basil Twist, Michael Benjamin Washington, Sheri Wilner, Doug
Wright and The Flaming Lips. Playhouse collaborations have included
projects with UC San Diego, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego,
The New Children’s Museum, San Diego Museum of Man, San Diego
Rep, Tectonic Theatre Project, the I.D.E.A. District and the cities of
Escondido and Chula Vista. Additionally, he fostered the growth of the
Playhouse’s award-winning Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour,
achieving the most performances at local schools in Playhouse history.
Previously, Mr. Rosenberg was Co-Founder and Executive Director
of Drama Dept., a New York non-profit theatre company, where he
produced new works by the likes of Douglas Carter Beane, Warren
Leight, Isaac Mizrahi, Paul Rudnick and David & Amy Sedaris. His early
work included stints at The Kennedy Center, Kaiser Permanente, National
Dance Institute and an Atlantic City casino. As a Theatre Communications
Group Board member, he is proud to be on the Global and Diversity &
Inclusion Committees.
DES McANUFF, Director Emeritus
served as La Jolla Playhouse’s Artistic Director from 1983
through 1994, and from 2001 through April, 2007. Under
his leadership, the Playhouse garnered more than 300
awards, including the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional
Theatre. Playhouse to Broadway credits: Jersey Boys (four
Tony Awards); Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays (Tony Award); How to Succeed
in Business Without Really Trying (five Tony nominations); director and
co-author with Pete Townshend on The Who’s Tommy (Tony and Olivier
Awards for Best Director) and Big River (seven Tony Awards), among
others. Film credits: Quills, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, The
Iron Giant (9 Animation Society awards) and Cousin Bette. Recipient of
the Drama League’s 2006 Julia Hansen Award, Mr. McAnuff served as
Artistic Director at Canada’s Stratford Festival from 2007 through 2012.
He recently directed the hit productions of Sideways, Yoshimi Battles the
Pink Robots and Jesus Christ Superstar at the Playhouse.
UP NEXT
SPECIAL HOLIDAY ENGAGEMENT
of the Eighty Eight Entertainment, Eva Price,
Samantha F. Voxakis and Karen Racanelli production of
DECEMBER 16, 2015 – JANUARY 3, 2016
Written and performed by Hershey Felder
Lyrics and music by Irving Berlin
Directed by TrevorPERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P11
Hay
THE JOURNEY OF GOD OF VENGEANCE
In Indecent, we see how Sholem Asch’s play God of Vengeance, a three-act drama written in
Yiddish, was as itinerant as its author, travelling from a Polish literary salon to the American
Broadway stage. This map tracks the play’s travels in the first half of the twentieth century.
1
1907, I.L. Peretz’s Salon, Warsaw
Sholem Asch presents his play God of Vengeance at the literary salon of I.L. Peretz, a
prominent figure in the Jewish Enlightenment. Peretz promoted literature by Jews and
written in Yiddish – nurturing young talent that one day might shape Yiddish literature
– but he also wished to carefully curate a positive portrayal of his people. Because Asch’s
play naturalistically depicts the seedy underbelly of Jewish society, Peretz warns the young
writer to “burn” the play.
ABOVE: FIVE LITERATI: ABRAHAM REISEN, I.L. PERETZ, SHOLEM ASCH, CHAIM ZHITLOWSKY, H.D. NOMBERG.
OPPOSITE: SHOLEM ASCH, 1957. PHOTO COURTESY OF CORBIS/BETTMAN.
1907,Yiddish Theatre,
New York City
5
8
David Kessler’s production of God
of Vengeance premieres downtown
in 1907 in Yiddish. For over fifteen
years, the play is produced by Yiddish
companies and enjoys successful runs
– for predominantly Yiddish-speaking
immigrant audiences fresh from Ellis
Island. The play’s scandalous content –
the Jewish brothel owner, the love affair
between Rifkele and Manke, and the
treatment of the Torah scroll – triggers
some outrage and protest, but the uproar
doesn’t seem to deter audiences.
1922, Provincetown Playhouse, NYC
7
5
6
God of Vengeance, translated into English by Isaac
Goldberg in 1918, plays for English-speaking audiences.
Lawyer Harry Weinberger serves as the producer, and
Rudolph Schildkraut joins the company to perform the
role of Yekel in English for the first time.
The Provincetown Players, which started in
Massachusetts, set up this Greenwich Village theatre
space in 1916 to become a “playwrights’ theatre.” Plays
by Eugene O’Neill, e.e. cummings, and Edna St. Vincent
Millay find a home on this stage.
P12 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE
6
1923, Greenwich Village
Theatre, NYC
7
After a short run at the Provincetown
Playhouse, the company moves a few blocks
away to the Greenwich Village Theatre.
3
4
2
1907, Deutsches Theatre,
Berlin
9
1
2
God of Vengeance has its world premiere
at Berlin’s Deustches Theatre, directed
by the acclaimed Max Reinhardt and
starring Rudolph Schildkraut.
The German theatre is producing
canonical works – Greek dramas,
Shakespeare, and the German
Romantics, among others – but it also
showcases much newer plays by the
likes of Chekhov, Gorky, Ibsen, and Zola.
Both Reinhardt and Schildkraut later find
success in Hollywood: the director for his
1935 film A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
and the actor for his work with the
legendary Cecil B. DeMille.
3 4
1907, St. Petersburg and Moscow
Legendary actress Vera Komissarzhevskaya brings a Russian translation
of the play to the St. Petersburg stage. God of Vengeance debuts in
Moscow a few months later.
Meanwhile, Yiddish theatre gains popularity in New York City
(see opposite page)...
9
Early 1940s, An Attic in the Ghetto, Łódź
Despite the inhumane conditions and extreme hardship, theatrical activity persists in Jewish ghettos during Nazi
rule. Plays and musical performances take place in official clubs—such as the “Police Revue” in the Łódź ghetto,
exclusively for the Gestapo—and in attics and basements. Fearing any large congregation that might attract the
attention of the police, smaller performances spring up in hidden corners. Sometimes they are held to raise funds for
a particular person or family. At the same time, theatre has become a way to express, most often through satire, the
harsh realities of ghetto life.
1923, Apollo Theatre on
Broadway
8
God of Vengeance premieres on Broadway, but the
run is short-lived. The Goldberg translation is cut to
make the play more palatable for uptown audiences.
In the original, Manke and Rifkele’s love scene in the
rain is often compared to Romeo and Juliet’s balcony
scene, but now, Manke seduces Rifkele to trap her
into a life of prostitution.
1923, The Trial
An obscenity complaint is filed by Rabbi Joseph Silverman,
and the actors, producer, and theatre owner are arrested
and, after a long trial, convicted for their indecent acts
onstage. Later, the conviction is overturned, but not before
the show is forced to end its run.
– AMY BORATKO, YALE REP PRODUCTION DRAMATURG
PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P13
SHOLEM ASCH
FROM THE JEWISH PALE INTO THE MODERN WORLD
B
y the late 19th century, five million of world’s Jews lived in Eastern Europe
under the rule of Russian law, in a geographically restricted area known as
the Pale of Settlement. It extended from the eastern pale, or demarcation
line, to the western Russian border with the Kingdom of Prussia (later the
German Empire) and with Austria-Hungary.
Sholem Asch, photo by Rene Saint Paul
Over the course of 900 years, small towns and villages (shtetls), sprang up
throughout the Pale in which poverty-stricken Jews overcame harsh conditions
by forming community organizations and charities, establishing yeshivas as well
as secular schools, libraries, burial societies and cemeteries, synagogues, theatres,
publishing houses and the like, to overcome harsh conditions imposed by the
majority population and meet the needs of the Jewish people. Despite pogroms
and anti-Jewish riots, which caused considerable property damage and deaths in
the thousands, Jewish culture flourished.
Sholem Asch was born in Kutno, a shtetl in the Polish sector of the Pale on
November 1, 1880. The youngest of 10 children of Hasidic parents and
traditionally educated, he was an eager student with an interest in secular
subjects, including the German language, of which his parents did not approve.
He moved in with relatives and became a Torah instructor, then moved to a
nearby shtetl where he earned a living writing letters for its illiterate townspeople.
Asch traveled to Warsaw in 1900 and began writing his own work in Hebrew. He
soon became part of the literary salon of the Yiddish author and playwright,
I. L. Peretz, which was considered the center of the city’s literary and
cultural life. The Jewish literary establishment had dictated that literature,
which consisted mainly of folk tales, mystical stories, popular rhymes and
religious tracts, be written in Hebrew. The young writers in the salon wanted
to create a modern Yiddish literature, and Peretz was one of the few who
encouraged them. Asch began to write stories and poems, in Yiddish as well as
Hebrew, that reflected life in the surrounding impoverished Jewish community.
In 1903, he married Mathilde (Madzhe) Shapiro, the daughter of a wealthy
Hebrew teacher and poet, was able to dedicate himself solely to his writing, and
was soon placed in the vanguard of new Yiddish writers.
Political, social and cultural change was in the air and new ideologies were
developing in the region – the socialist Jewish Labor Bund, Zionism, the Russian
Revolution of 1905 and Polish nationalism which increased anti-semitism,
resulting in even harsher restrictions for the Jewish population.
The Jewish literary world was also moving into new territory, eschewing old forms
and embracing naturalism, following the path of such playwrights as Henrik
Ibsen, Maxim Gorky, August Strindberg and Anton Chekhov. With realistic stories
that exposed the harsh realities of poverty, prejudice, violence and corruption,
the plays’ characters displayed psychological motivations and behavior that were
influenced by the mores and values of their heredity and environment.
The cast
of
God of Ve
ngeance,
arrested
in 1923 on
P14 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE
grounds
of "impu
rity."
In 1906, in the midst of this time of change, Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance
came into the world.
Y
iddish Theatre existed in Eastern Europe prior to the 18th
century in the form of dialogues of poetry and Purim plays,
masquerades and plays emanating from religious scripture
and practice, featuring music, song and dance. By the 1870s,
itinerant Yiddish theatre companies were performing skits in cafés
and wine cellars. By the end of the century, there were some nineteen
amateur troupes performing in Eastern Europe.
The first professional Yiddish Theatre troupe was founded in Romania
in 1876 by poet Abraham Goldfaden, considered to be the father of
Yiddish theatre. His all-male company performed musical vaudeville,
light comedy, and quasi-serious operettas based on biblical and
historical subjects. Jewish audiences reveled in hearing their own
language spoken on the stage and Yiddish theatres began to proliferate
to communities in Warsaw, Vilna and other towns in the Pale of
Settlement. Goldfaden’s plays continued to be performed for more than
50 years, and his canon became a resource for aspiring playwrights.
Russia banned Yiddish Theatre after the assassination of Alexander
II in 1883, which pushed the boundaries of Yiddish theatrical
performance to Western Europe and then to America.
:
E
R
T
A
THE
H
O
T
S
I
D
D
L
D
R
YI HE OLD WO
T
M
O
R
F
Grand Theatre, circa1905. The theatre was opened by famed actor Jacob P. Adler in 1903 and was
located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Y
T
I
C
K
R
O
Y
W
NE
Audience at the Grand Theatre in 1905. During the early twentieth century, a visitor to the Lower
East Side could come across a multitude of theatres that mainly staged performances in Yiddish.
Amateur theatrical performances in
New York City had already begun by 1882 at theatres
such as the Bowery Garden and Thalia on the city’s Lower East Side.
With such star performers as Boris Thomashefsky, Jacob Adler and his
wife Sara, Jacob Gordin and later Molly Picon, who were skilled at fiery
temperaments and extreme emotions, the size of the audience grew.
Original plays, musicals, adaptations and translations of Shakespeare’s
plays were performed alongside those of Yiddish writers S. Ansky (The
Dybbuk), H. Leivick (The Golem), Sholem Aleichem, Sholem Asch and I.
L. Peretz, among others.
By the early twentieth century, the largest Jewish population in the
world resided on the Lower East Side. They flocked to the 22 theatres
in the Yiddish Theatre District on Second Avenue, sometimes referred
to as the “Jewish Rialto.” Ticket prices were affordable to all, ranging
from 25 cents to a dollar. Two million patrons, from the poorest
immigrants to Jewish intellectuals, attended plays and musicals
that ran the gamut from low comedy to adaptations of Strindberg
and Ibsen. Audiences, eating and drinking as they watched the
shows, became fervently involved in the events of the plays – crying,
laughing, cheering, hissing and shouting advice to the characters.
The Holocaust devastated Yiddish language culture. In Europe, many
of the world’s Yiddish speakers were killed and many theatres were
destroyed. After World War II, Yiddish Theatre in New York began to
wane. Although the golden age of Yiddish Theatre has passed, Yiddish
theatre companies continue to perform at Folksbeine and New Yiddish
Rep in New York City, and in various cities in the U.S. and abroad.
This poster advertises a production of King Solomon at the Thalia Theatre.
PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P15
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE
STAFF
ARTISTIC
Associate Artistic Director Jaime Castañeda
Resident Dramaturg Shirley Fishman
Director of New Play Development Gabriel Greene
Without Walls Associate Producer Marike Fitzgerald
Director Emeritus Des McAnuff
Executive Assistant to Christopher Ashley Rick VanNoy
Artistic Assistant Teresa Sapien
Interns Julia Greer, Stephanie Prugh
Commissioned Artists Daniel Beaty, Mark Bennett,
Keith Bunin, Kirsten Greenidge, Quiara Alegría Hudes,
Joe Iconis, Naomi Iizuka, Aditi Brennan Kapil, Jon Kern,
Mike Lew, Mona Mansour, Erin McKeown,
Rehana Lew Mirza, Gregory S. Moss, Alfred Uhry,
Charlayne Woodard, Martín Zimmerman
2015/2016 Resident Artist BD Wong
PRODUCTION
Production Manager Audrey Hoo
Associate Production Manager Benjamin Seibert
Assistant Production Manager Becca Duhaime
Production Office Manager Tarin Hurstell
SCENE SHOP
Technical Director Chris Borreson
Assistant Technical Director Curtis Green
Scene Shop Supervisor David Weiner
Technical Designer Tyler Grady
Staff Production Carpenters Kyle “Boo-Boo” Ahlquist,
Jeremy Luce, Preston Spence
Staff Carpenters Mihai Antonescu, William Bender,
Jacob Bruce, Katelynn Cardon, Matt Clark,
Danielle Dunne, Nick Jackson, Scott Kinney,
Stephanie Lee, John Serbian, Don Dino Spezzini
Shop Helper Doug Collind
PAINT SHOP
Charge Scenic Artist Joan Newhouse
Assistant Charge Artists Vicki Erbe, Melissa Nalbach
Scenic Artist Dwaine Best
PROPERTIES SHOP
Prop Shop Supervisor Deb Hatch
Associate Prop Master Jeni Cheung
Assistant Prop Master Jenny Fajerman
Prop Shop Foreman Will Widick
Props Artisan Tim Nottage
COSTUME SHOP
Costume Shop Manager Sue Makkoo
Costume Shop Project Manager Mary Eggers
Costume Shop Foreman/Tailor Lissa Skiles
Draper Elena Ham
Master Stitchers K-Joy Lehmann-Way, Yangchen Dolkar
Craft Artisan Christy Jones
Costume Shop Assistant Desiree Hatfield-Buckley
ELECTRICS
Lighting Supervisor Mike Doyle
Assistant Lighting Supervisor Kathryn Sturch
Staff Electricians Kristyn Kennedy, Mike Lowe,
Andrea Ryan, Ramon Wenn, Matt Wilson
SOUND/VIDEO
Sound/Video Supervisor Joe Huppert
Associate Sound Supervisor Chad Goss
Sound Shop Foreman Steve Negrete
Playhouse Sound Engineer Chris Luessmann
Sound Technician Jim Zadai
Sound Intern Dylan Nielsen
Christopher Ashley, Artistic Director
ADMINISTRATION
General Manager Debby Buchholz
Associate General Manager Jenny Case
Assistant General Manager Katherine Stout
Human Resources Specialist Nezam Etemadi
Corporate/Legal Counsel Robert C. Wright, Wright & L’Estrange
Theatre/Legal Counsel F. Richard Pappas, Esq.
Executive Assistant to Managing Director David Barnathan
COMPANY MANAGEMENT
Company Manager Megan Alvord
Assistant Company Manager Samantha De La Riva
Company Management Assistant Cody Littlefield
Intern Rachel Brawley
FINANCE
Director of Finance John O’Dea
Comptroller Laura Killmer
Payroll/AP Tamara Tipps
Staff Accountant Vincent Ng
Production Accountant Sharon Ratelle
Network Specialist Mike Salapow
DEVELOPMENT
Director of Development David W. Hanses
Sr. Associate Director of Development Erin Decker
Associate Director of Development,
Individual & Corporate Giving Bonnie Broberg
Associate Director of Development,
Special Events Rachel Terrones
Grants Manager Alexandra Kritchevsky
Development Manager Annie Shrinkle
Corporate Relations Manager Carina Burns
Donor Stewardship & Volunteer Coordinator Caitlin Finch
Development Database & Research Analyst Tony Dixon
Assistant to the Director of Development Naysan Mojgani
Development Assistant Jessica Humphrey
Intern Gabi D’Amico
MARKETING
Director of Communications Mary Cook
Director of Public Relations Becky Biegelsen
Associate Director of Sales & Marketing Mia Fiorella
Communications Specialist Grace Madamba
Multimedia Designer Nancy Showers
Database Specialist Steven Jirjis
Marketing Campaign Manager John Olchak
Marketing Coordinator Tara Shoemaker
Audience Activator Malesha Taylor
Public Relations & Marketing Intern Amanda Benenson
PATRON SERVICES
Associate Director – Patron Services Nikki Cooper
Patron Services Sales Manager Jordan Marrone
Patron Services Assistant Manager Travis Guss
Lead Patron Services Representative/Group Sales Specialist
Pearl Hang
Lead Patron Services Representatives Mike Brown,
Renee Tolson
Patron Services Representatives Deandre Clay,
Makayla Hoppe, Bill Washington
Patron Services Sales Specialist Paul Preston
Sales Concierges Andrew Fink, William Guiney
Michael S. Rosenberg, Managing Director
EDUCATION & OUTREACH
Director of Education & Outreach Steve McCormick
Associate Director of Education & Outreach Alison Urban
Education & Outreach Coordinator Paola Kubelis
Audio Describers Mernie Aste, Brian Berlau, Joanne Brook,
Tina Dyer, Shari Lyon, Kay O’Neil, Deborah Sanborn,
Janet Schlesinger, Sylvia Southerland, Susan Weekes
ASL Interpreters Lynn Ann Garrett, Anelia Glebocki,
Alycen Haneyoworth, Suzanne Lightbourn, Billieanne
McLellan, Geri Wu
Artist Instructors Carolyn E. Agan, Catherine Hanna,
Rachel Hoey, Blake McCarty, Erika Phillips,
James Pillar, Cynthia Stokes, Skylar Sullivan
Playhouse Teen Council Kayla Cruise, Carleigh Jensen,
Tyler Moore, Natasha Partnoy, Emily Smedley,
Nicole Sollazzo, Madeleine Williams, Brennen Winspear
OPERATIONS
Director of Operations Ned Collins
Operations Manager Jen McClenahan
FRONT OF HOUSE
House Manager John Craft
Assistant House Managers Gabi D'Amico, Avery Henderson,
Sara Lucchini, Amy Marquez
Janitorial Professional Maintenance Systems:
Elena Hernandez, David Mares, Miriam Martinez,
Ignacio Mena, Juan Mena, Luis Mena, Maria Mena,
Ramón Mena
INDECENT STAFF
Production Carpenter Kyle "Boo Boo" Ahlquist
Automation & Master Flyman Jeremy "Go Bolts" Luce
Tech Automation Associate Will "Dragon Coaster" Bender
Prop Runner Marilia Maschion
Wardrobe Supervisor Debbie Callahan
Wardrobe Crew Debbie Allen, Jeri Nicolas
Light Board Op Mike Lowe
Spot Ops Leighann Enos, Kristyn Kennedy
Audio Engineer Jeremy Siebert
Audio 2 Dana Pickop
Projections Technician Jay Schenk
IN GRATITUDE:
The La Jolla Playhouse
Board of Trustees and
staff wish to express their
deepest appreciation and gratitude
to Vivien and Jeffrey Ressler for
establishing the Jordan Ressler
Endowment Fund. With the creation
of this endowment, the Playhouse
will receive much-needed annual
support for the express purpose of
developing new work and sustaining
key artistic projects throughout the
creative process.