Bullying: - KATHIE RASMUSSEN WOMEN`S THEATRE

Curl Your Hair OR Straighten Your Hair
HELEN OF TROY FLAT IRON
Kathie Rasmussen
Women’s Theatre
presents
Complimentary style for those who
mention this Amazing offer
Exclusively,
425 South Yellowstone Dr.
Corner of Mineral Point Road,
Next to Summit Credit Union
608.271.2771
www.BeInspiredSalon.com
Bullying: Congratulations
cast
The Musical
A TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater
production
Auditions
For the All-Youth Cast
Friday, December 3rd
6:00 – 9:30 pm
Saturday, December 4th
11:00 am – 2:00 pm
to the
crew of
HELEN
and
- Smooth Sailing!
TAPIT/new works Studio Theater
www.tapitnewworks.org
Performances
Friday
March 11, 2011
Barrymore Theatre
Creative Spark
Writing Workshops
gail.creativespark@gmail.com
Directed by Jan Levine Thal
November 5-7 and 11-13, 2010
Why a Women's Theater Company?
Helen
To build gender equality so firmly entrenched that
women have full artistic voices, that women's visions
are honored side by side with men's, in all aspects
of performance.
Presented By KRASS
Historically, many performance companies have
assigned artistic vision to men and practical tasks to women, who nonetheless
volunteered in greater numbers. Failure to recognize women playwrights
and directors is a national phenomenon in professional theater. To wit: In
the 91 years of the Pulitzer Prize, 13 women won for drama versus 64 men
(13 years no awards were given). Over six decades, only three women have
won the Tony Award for Best Play and only four for Best Director of a Play
or Musical. Madison-area community theater companies are ahead of the
mainstream—increasingly perform plays written or directed by women—
but parity has not been reached or even approached, even here.
Our focus—promoting women playwrights and directors—provides
consistent openings for women artists, as well as opportunities for
audiences to see work not routinely available. We welcome men and
women as participants in this exciting endeavor.
Kathie Rasmussen (1949-2007) was an actor, playwright, poet, stage
manager and props mistress, but her skill set doesn’t capture her
brilliance and wit—acerbic, insightful, and always aimed at promoting the
greater good. She helped envision Krass and expected to create it in
collaboration with others. Sadly, she left us for the Greatest White Way.
Three dedicated people formed the Kathie Rasmussen Women’s Theatre
in 2008: Heather Renken, Ben Emerick, and Jan Levine Thal. Since then, a
group of hard-working, inventive people have come forward, contributing
wonderful ideas as well as time, effort, and money to help our company
thrive. Our first season, 2009-2010, was successful and exciting. Special
thanks go to Kathie’s family members, who supported us from the start.
In the years ahead we will need volunteers in every area, from the business
to the artistic end of our work. We hold regular readings and discussions
of published plays, as well as potlucks, original one-time improvised
mysteries, and occasional examination of works in progress. Our dream is
to have our own space where we conduct workshops and classes in addition.
We welcome you to come with us on our journey.
Why a women's theater? Because it's time.
Jan Levine Thal
Artistic Director
Adapted By Ellen McLaughlin
Cast
Helen................................................................Autumn Shiley
Servant...........................................................Heather Renken
Athena..................................................................Nancy Craig
Io..........................................................................Carrie Masse
Menelaus..............................................................Jess Williard
Understudy.....................................................Marcy Weiland
Production & Management Staff
Director & Co-Producer..................................Jan Levine Thal
Stage Manager....................................................Teresa Rode
Co-Producer, Publicity & Program..............Alanna Medearis
Technical Director.............................................Ethan Rosing
Assistant Technical Director...........................Taylor Kokinos
Set Designer...................................................Jennifer Pendur
Lighting Designer...........................................Patricia Micetic
Sound Designer.....................................................Shaun Petts
Graphic Designer................................................Ingrid Kallick
Costume Designer.............................................Sharon White
Props Designer.............................................................N-Dig0
Props Acquisition...................................Wendy Fern Hutton
Play Produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc.
(www.playscripts.com)
The Playwright
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608-255-6222
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Ellen McLaughlin is a playwright and actor, perhaps best known
as originating the part of the Angel in Tony Kushner’s Angels in
America. Besides Helen, her plays include Days and Nights Within,
A Narrow Bed, Infinity’s House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters,
Tongue of a Bird, The Trojan Women, The Persians, and Oedipus.
Her work has been produced all over the country and has won
numerous prizes and awards including the Great American Play
Contest, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the NEA, the Writer’s
Award from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, and the
Berilla Kerr Award for playwrighting.
Her regional theater roles include The Homebody in Homebody/
Kabul (Intiman Theater, Seattle), Pirate Jenny in Threepenny
Opera (Trinity Rep. Elliot Norton Award), Mrs. Alving in Ghosts
(Berkeley Rep.) and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
at the McCarter and the Paper Mill Playhouse. Screen acting
credits include Everything Relative, The Bed You Sleep In, with
guest appearances on Law & Order. She has taught playwrighting
in numerous venues from Yale School of Drama to Princeton
University. She currently teaches at Barnard College in New York
City.
KRASS Board of Directors
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Alanna Medearis
Andrew Miller-Rhoads
Nancy Craig
Jan Levine Thal Board Members
Betty Diamond, MJ Jones,
Heather Renken, R. Elena Tabachnick
Director’s Note
Ellen McLaughlin’s dramas are “predicated on a deep faith in
human sympathy,” Tony Kushner writes in his forward to McLaughlin’s
remarkable volume of plays, The Greeks.
Sympathy? Surely not for Helen of Troy, a queen with everything who
ran off with an exotic foreigner. Or Paris, who took a bribe and set off
a firestorm. Or Menelaus, who launched a bloody ten-year war for the
gods and country but mostly for personal revenge.
But what if Helen was framed? Menelaus duped? What if the war
started because of a lie?
In this play, Helen, innocent of all charges, waits uneasily in an
imaginary ancient Greece where television is vital to daily life and yet
provides no information, while a lazy servant offers truths in the guise
of mythology.
Today for the first time in 17 years she has visitors: Io, the
refugee who travels the world while enduring its indignities; Athena, the
goddess of both war and wisdom who finds life more valuable than
death despite prevailing ideology; and Menelaus, the warrior driven to
find honor in sacrifice.
Yes, beauty can be a burden, they acknowledge. And a weapon. But
not an excuse. Not for war, not for apathy. Helen’s not so sure. Helen
offers no easy answers.
I have wanted to stage this play since I saw it, directed by Kushner
at the Public Theater in NYC. Adaptation or not—this is not Euripides’
Helen. It evokes conflicts and standards of beauty from all epochs
and McLaughlin’s clever poetic voice embraces our power to turn
sympathy into action.
The team that created Helen is as legendary as the story they tell. The
play requires brilliant actors dedicated to assiduous hard work. This
cast has risen to those demands and exceeded my imagination. Each
designer brought glorious inventiveness to Helen’s world despite our
limited budget and resources.
Special thanks to Co-Producer Alanna Medearis, Stage Manager Terri
Rode, Wendy Fern Hutton for daily support, and the staff for their
many contributions.
Let us put down our weapons and share our stories.
Jan Levine Thal, November 2010
Show Your
Support In Style!
STIX LAW
OFFICES
Support KRASS by ordering
Helen or owl products online.
(608) 271-9888
www.stixlaw.com
Representing unions
& employees for 30 years
CONGRATULATING
KRASS ON YOUR THIRD
PRODUCTION!
• T-Shirts
• Water Bottles
• Mugs & More!
Shop the owl at:
cafepress.com/kathie
in partnership with
presents...
by Fred Alley and James Valcq
December 3-18, 2010
Drury Theatre at the Bartell
Visit www.fourseasonstheatre.com
The Cast
In Order of Appearance
Autumn Shiley - Helen
Autumn Shiley, Helen, began her acting career
at the New Vic Theatre in Kalamazoo where she
received her BA in Theatre Performance from
Western Michigan University. She has trained
BADA in Oxford and with SITI company members
various times, and has performed in Edinburgh.
Autumn received her MFA from the University of Virginia. She
would like to thank all the women in her life. They have taught
her what it is to be beautifully real. Autumn believes everyone
has a story to tell. She wants to hear yours.
Heather Renken - Servant
Heather Renken, Servant, has been active in
theater for more than twenty years. Recently
named Artistic Director of Broom Street
Theater, she is a cofounder and board member
of the Kathie Rasmussen Women’s Theatre.
Heather has lived and done theater in Chicago, Indianapolis,
Denver and Norfolk, Virginia. Heather wrote and directed three
plays at Broom Street Theater: Oh God, There’s Baptists at the
Door in 2006; Shiny Things in 2008; and A Woman on Paper
in 2010. She teaches theater classes for youth at the NorthEast
YMCA in Sun Prairie, and is an acting specialist and Stage Manager for Proud Theater, a company that promotes and supports
LGBT and allied youth. With companies such as StageQ, Madison Theater Guild, and Children’s Theater of Madison, she has
worked as a performer, costumer, sound board operator, stage
manager, and properties manager. She thanks her husband and
sons for all of their patience and support.
The Cast
Nancy Craig - Athena
Nancy Craig, Athena, is a member at-large
for the company. She has a Bachelor’s of Arts
degree in Theater from Missouri Southern State
College (now University) in Joplin, MO. Since
moving to Madison in 2004, she has become
active at Broom Street Theater, both acting and technical work.
She has been associated with KRASS since 2009.
Carrie Masse - Io
Carrie Masse, Io, remembers that when the
fabulousJanLevineThalsaidshehadtheperfectrolefor
Carrie in the play Helen, she was excited and flattered.
Carrie then found out she’d be playing the role of a
cow. “Hmmm,” she thought to herself, for Carrie has
a tendency to eat rather sloppily and leave the door open when visiting
Jan’s home. She sees how a cow could be the perfect role and a great
opportunity to display her animalistic barn-yard nature. It is amazing
how well Carrie can relate to this character, and not just because she’s a
little slow at times. Carrie is a cow and she invites everyone to displace
the shame attached to our more primitive human urges. She thanks
all and hopes you all take something away from this play that you can
chew on later. -Moo
Jess Williard - Menelaus
“Is she dead?”
“No, better. She’s perfect.”
Jess, Menelaus, would like to thank Jan Levine
Thal for her creative encouragement and patience. He would also like to thank Autumn Shiley for being
neither dead nor perfect, but really, really great to work with.
Production & Management Staff
Jan Levine Thal - Director & Co-Producer
Jan Levine Thal, Co-Producer & Director, was introduced to
prejudices about appearance at an early age when her family
joined the Civil Rights Movement. As a life-long anti-war activist,
she appreciates Ellen McLaughlin’s vision that peace and beauty
are inextricably linked. Jan is grateful to the amazing cast, staff,
and crew for this exquisite production and thanks her fabulous
family and friends, especially her son, Jeremy Thal.
Teresa Rode - Stage Manager
Having previously acted at Broom Street Theater in John
Sable’s Multiple O & Multiple O 2: Women On Top, and Heather
Renken’s Shiny Things & A Woman On Paper, Teresa has
truly loved her first time stage managing, she thanks Jan for the
opportunity. She sends all her respect and adoration to one of
the most amazingly talented, wonderful casts ever, and all her
love always to Miss H.B. and Sir Dork. Tons of thanks to all the
friends who’s support has meant the world to her.
“I’LL
“I’LL
TAKE A
TAKE A
KITCHEN”
KITCHEN”
Save
the world and save money!
Save the world and save money!
New
and used building materials for your home.
New and used building materials for your home.
NEW
NEWHOURS:
HOURS:
NEW
HOURS:
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HOURS:
Tuesday––Saturday
Saturday
Tuesday
Tues-Sat
9-5
Tues-Sat
9-5
a.m.––55p.m.
p.m.
99a.m.
www.restoredane.org
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(608) 661-2813
(608) 661-2813
208 Cottage Grove Road
208 Madison,
Cottage Grove
Road
WI 53716
Madison, WI 53716
Among the oldest species
of vertebrates, owls are
associated with many myths,
including the Greek goddess
of wisdom, Athena.
The Krass
Owl was
designed by
Ingrid Kallick.
www.ikallick.com
Alanna Medearis - Co-Producer
A staunch believer that beauty is indeed in the eyes
of the beholder, Alanna has worked in theater for
fifteen years, both on and offstage and currently serves as the
President for the KRASS Board of Directors. Alanna is excited
to be involved with this inspiring production and thanks the
unbelievable cast and crew of Helen who have made this a
rewarding experience.
Ethan Rosing - Technical Director
Ethan Rosing, technical director of Helen, thanks Jan for the
opportunity to work together. He thanks his fiancée, Aubrey,
for her patience. Ethan also serves on the Board of Directors for
the Madison Theatre Guild.
Production & Management Staff
Production & Management Staff
Taylor Kokinos - Assistant Technical Director
Sharon White - Costume Designer
Taylor Kokinos, Assistant Tech Director, first got enmeshed
with this zany group of people working on Heather Renken’s
A Woman on Paper at Broom Street Theater. Earlier experiences
with the Actor’s Factory in Stoughton misled him into believing
theater people were sane. He intends to let the current crowd
down easy with songs about binary representations, base thirteen,
and Tibetan monks—as soon as he completes his teens.
Sharon White, Costume Mistress, is happy to be a part of
Helen. Sharon has worked as a costumer on several productions
within the Madison and surrounding areas. She feels that theater
continues to be important because, as Keats said, “Beauty is truth,
truth beauty—that is all/ Ye know on earth, and all ye need to
know.”
Jennifer Pendur - Set Designer
N-dig0 supports the Arts (not the wars) and encourages you
to Live, Love, and Create! He also chases dragons and truths,
gods and monsters. N-dig0 would like to thank all of his family
and friends (past, passed, and present) for all of their love and
support. Fn0rd!
Jennifer Pendur, Set Design, finds the stresses of finding herself
to be taken for a goddess (or was it a cow?) herself, nothing more
than a mirror bombarded by the projections of others, to whom
she seemed to be invisible. Early on it caused in her a sense of
cognitive dissonance from which she has yet to fully recover.
Particia Micetic - Lighting Designer
Patricia Micetic has designed lighting for professional and
amateur theaters in the Madison area. She is an architect in
private practice in Stoughton.
Shaun Petts - Sound Designer
Shaun Petts, Sound Designer, is thankful for much. Especially
YOU! :)
Ingrid Kallick - Scenic Artist & Graphic Designer
Ingrid Kallick is a writer, freelance artist and graphic designer.
She has done graphics and set painting for KRASS, The Madison
Theater Guild, Broom Street Theater and The Madison Savoyards.
Many thanks to Jan Levine Thal and the cast and crew of Helen
for this opportunity.
N-dig0 - Props Designer
Wendy Hutton - Props Acquisition
Wendy Fern Hutton (Props Acquisition) is a mermaid and is
happy to help finding props for this beautiful production. She
offers kudos to Jan and the cast and crew.
Marcy Weiland - Understudy
Marcy Weiland is a charter member of Mercury Players
Theatre and was artistic director from 1995 to 2001. Favorite roles at
Mercury include the one-actor play Chesapeake by Lee Blessing, Lisa
in Well by Lisa Kron, and a missing-link Mama in In the Beginning by
Catherine Capellaro and Andrew Rohn. In 2005, the stage manager for
Chesapeake and rock of strength for Weiland was the wonderful
Kathie Rasmussen. Weiland is a pacifist who always wished she could
be drafted, just so she could resist!
Are you interested in getting involved with the
Kathie Rasmussen Women’s Theatre?
Visit madwomenstage.org to find out how!
Thank You
a
Betty Diamond & Madison Theatre Guild
Tara Ayres & StageQ a Gail Sterkel, Mari Mitchell &
Monona Grove High School a Jonathan Zarov & WORT-FM
TAPIT/New Works a Broom Street Theater
Cathleen Blair a Kurt Brown a Lindsay Christians
Mary Conroy a Walter Elmore a Kristin Forde
Al Hart a David Harvey a MJ Jones a Teri Kahel
Ric Lantz a Lynette Margulies a Fran Metcalf
Mary E. Myers a Andrew Miller-Rhoads
Karen Milstein a Deanna Reed a Ilsa Reed
Laszlo Reed a Patrick Robbins a Jane Schroeder
Cam Shimniok a Charles Stephens a Stephanie Turner
Mary-Ann Twist a Marcy Weiland a Sarah Whelan