Greetings and welcome!

Is this your first time seeing Arthur Miller’s iconic play? Your third? Your sixth? No matter, you are about to (re)encounter one of the great American dramas. The Loman family tragedy and its cry for attention to be paid will likely resonate differently for you at different ages, but I posit that its truths will stir you at—and in—any age.

PlayMakers hasn’t produced Death of a Salesman in 30 years. What a thrill it has been to create this production and bring together this extraordinary group of artists whose own deep ties to our theatre span across and beyond that 30-year period. Director Michael Wilson started his luminous theatre career as an undergraduate here at UNC and returned several times in the 80’s and 90’s to helm shows including A Streetcar Named Desire, Beauty and the Beast and The Death of Papa. Jeff Cornell, our Willy Loman, was a graduate of the Professional Actor Training Program before joining the company and the faculty in 1995. One of Jeff’s students, Allen Tedder, is now a guest artist playing Biff. And they both share the stage with our current PATP students.

I point this out because I find it so moving to watch this masterful story about our life-long, evolving relationship to the American Dream interpreted through the voices of multiple generations of PlayMakers. At first rehearsal, set designer Jan Chambers shared that PlayMakers’ Death of a Salesman was the first show she saw after moving to North Carolina in 1994. Now, her brilliant design for this production marks Jan’s last before retiring from the faculty of UNC- Chapel Hill after 17 years and more than 40 singular costume and scenic designs for PlayMakers. Jan spoke with her usual eloquence about her own shifting relationship to Miller’s play and of the process that she, director Michael Wilson and the rest of the fantastic creative team had embarked on. What they and the cast have birthed together is something timely, timeless, intimate and epic.

May the next few hours be rich and meaningful for you. May the play resonate and stir you wherever you may find yourself at this dawning of 2025.

Warmly,

Vivienne

Table of Contents

Letter from Vivienne

Support PlayMakers

About the Author

Program Notes

Who We Are

Title Page

Actor Bios

Creative Team Bios

Abridged Constitution

PlayMakers Staff

Friends of PlayMakers

Corporate and Foundation Partners

Desktop Computer Version of playbill available here

Welcome, welcome, welcome!

We are so happy to have you in this space with us.  

When I first immigrated to the United States in 1994, America seemed like a land of bounty – full of wonder and opportunity under the banner of “The American Dream.” After living here for over 30 years, I’ve learned that this dream means very different things to different people. As our society evolves, we grapple with questions about whether that opportunity is equally afforded to all, what success truly means, what we value, and how we balance rugged individualism with collective responsibility. 

This season at PlayMakers, we invite you to join us on a journey that promises to challenge, entertain, and inspire. The American Theatre provides a unique space to explore the American Dream – where ideas come to live and breathe, allowing the nuances of our shared ideals and our differences to be examined. What a gift to our community that we have a company like PlayMakers to offer this space for reflection, dialogue, and change.  

We hope you will continue to join us throughout this season and beyond. Your support is crucial in bringing these powerful stories to life, enriching our community, and protecting the magic of live theatre. Share your experiences here with your friends, follow us on social media, and consider a donation – however you choose to support, we are truly grateful to have you with us this season. 

Peace,

Jackie Tanner, Chair

PlayMakers Advisory Council

Jackie Tanner, Chair

Betsy Blackwell, Patrick Brennan, Deborah Gerhardt, Susan Gross, Amy Guskiewicz, C. Hawkins, Zach Howell, Lillian Jenks, Duncan Lascelles, Stuart Lascelles, Robert Long, emeritus, Graig Meyer, Julie Morris, Paula Noell, Jodi Patalano, Diane Robertson, Wyndham Robertson, Haley Swindal, Jennifer Werner, Mike Wiley

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About the Author

Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was one of the foremost American playwrights of the twentieth century. Born in Harlem to Polish-Jewish immigrants, Miller’s early life was shaped by the economic upheaval of the Great Depression.

Miller’s plays are cornerstones of American realism, a movement that sought to depict life truthfully, without romanticization. Yet his work also transcended realism, as he engaged with then-contemporary ideas of existentialism and social responsibility. Miller’s All My Sons (1946), which was his first commercially successful play, examined personal ambition and the post-war spectre of the American Dream. Death of a Salesman (1949), produced shortly thereafter and investigating further the nexus of ambition and national myth, won Miller the Pulitzer Prize. The Crucible (1953), one of his most frequently produced works, shed light on the political persecution of the McCarthy era through the lens of the Salem Witch Trials.

In his later work, Miller experimented, continuing his investigation of social issues with plays such as A View from the Bridge (1955; rev. 1956) while also venturing into the autobiographical, with his play After the Fall (1964) being regarded as a reckoning of his marriage to Marilyn Monroe. Other plays, including The Price (1968) and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), developed the non-linear narrative structure he introduced in Salesman. Not to be sequestered into any one genre, Miller also made forays into comedy, with plays such as The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972).

Beyond the stage, Miller wrote for the screen, with The Misfits (1957) starring Monroe, and published essays and fiction, including the novel Focus (1945) and his autobiography Timebends (1987).

Written by Weston Barker

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Dramaturgy Fellow Series

What I Learned from Willy Loman

by Lexi Silva

Welcome back to PlayMakers! Our season interrogating the American Dream continues with Arthur Miller’s magnum opus, Death of a Salesman. Whether the start of 2025 ushers in a spirit of auspiciousness or anxiety, a new year puts us all on the precipice of urgent possibility. In early rehearsals for Salesman, I have been considering the nature of possibility as it relates to Miller’s philosophy on tragedy. In his essay, “Tragedy of the Common Man,” Miller contends: “I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were.” (“Tragedy” 3). On the first day of rehearsal Michael Wilson, director, stated that “[Salesman] is a story about real people” to whom, in the haunting words of Linda Loman, “attention must be paid.” (Salesman 46). These statements attempt to dismantle the suggestion that there is a hierarchy of suffering based on perceived importance.

The plight of the common man, as represented by Willy Loman, communicates a message that resonates with everyday people: tragedy does not mean passivity, and in Salesman, it is contingent on the presence of agency. Willy’s dreams are not bad dreams: to be heard, acknowledged, and understood are reasonable aspirations. His maladaptive habits and inability to cope with change, however, prevent him from reaching these attainable goals. Genuine human connection with his sons and his wife is impeded by these shortcomings. If Willy could find community, he might find the sense of security he desperately seeks from external sources. Despite Miller’s expert use of dramatic irony that maintains a steady tension throughout the play for audiences, tragedy strikes most effectively in the moments of hope that precede the inevitable. It is the possibility that the Loman men might overcome generational cycles that drives the play and ultimately facilitates heartbreak. The play can only end when Willy relieves himself of agency, denies himself of possibility, and can no longer carry on.

In this production, director Michael Wilson expressed interest in representing the tangible magic of bygone days to emphasize the expanse of Willy’s psychological experience. This is largely represented in the set designed by Jan Chambers in which the ephemerality of memory collides with a harsher material world. The set is all black and creates a suggestion of the Loman home, featuring a cellar overflowing with memorabilia of the past. This physical space represents Willy’s mind, a reimagining that referenced Miller’s original impulse to have the play take place on a set that is a literal representation of Willy’s head. Through these visual representations, Miller’s poetic realism comes to life in the Paul Green theatre. The competing concepts of aspiration and desperation; dreams and reality are a direct confrontation of the ethos of the American Dream and an interrogation of its validity.

As much as Salesman explores the relationship between possibility and tragedy, on the other side of catharsis I find myself interested in the possibilities set before me this year. As audience members, we have the benefit of seeing the tragedy of Willy Loman’s life unfold before he does. In our own lives, we are not often afforded such accurate foresight. What we do have, however, is agency beyond the two-act structure. The tragedy of Willy Loman’s life has been played out on stages across the world, and it always ends the same way: Willy doesn’t learn from his mistakes, but maybe we can. With Salesman in mind, I hope we can all make ourselves a little more available to the urgent possibility of building community amid isolation and hardship this year. Maybe that’s part of an America we can keep dreaming about together.

Program Notes

Frantically Seeking Safe Harbor: Notes on Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

By Mark Perry, Dramaturg

Death of a Salesman is arguably THE great American play. Arthur Miller’s 1949 tale of the working-class Loman family from Brooklyn struck a chord when it first premiered, which resounded around the country and echoed throughout the world; now it is revived perennially on Broadway and regional stages, even as it is thrust on high school English classes, and thus it ever-circulates in the cultural bloodstream. If Salesman is the Oedipus Rex of American Empire, it is because of how the play timelessly mirrors the frantic, dogged search of the splintered American psyche for both self-justification and truth.

Our salesman and vicarious representative, Willy Loman, is in trouble. A little boat adrift on turbulent seas, he seeks safe harbor, but now seems caught in a whirlpool, taking on water. A character wrought of pure, sparking nerve, he flails from delusion to despair, exhaustion to exhilaration. While his mind is the plaything of unfeeling social forces, his indignant soul calls out for solidity, for anchoring.

“What is the answer?” he asks his older brother Ben, a should-be paternal figure whose hard ambition allows no time for mentoring.  “What’s the secret?” “How should I teach my boys?” Throughout the play, Willy seeks advice from those who might have something to offer. 

In these moments, we sense Willy is not lacking in basic goodness. He wants what is best for his family. He wants to contribute. He wants to matter. What he lacks is good guidance on how to do this. The consumerist society around him offers only the mirage of joy, with its technological innovations and material comforts. The best philosophy Willy has come up with is that “to be liked” is the key to opening life’s doors, even if it’s at the expense of telling the truth. There is a nobility in his irrepressible dreaming, in his belief in the power of story to deliver. And yet, a decades-long commitment to such an amoral and evanescent life practice seems, in Miller’s storytelling, precisely what has drawn him into this typhoon of emotional perturbation and spiritual panic. 

Linda, Willy’s unflagging cheerleader and crutch, can only do so much to keep him afloat. Their son, Biff, is adrift as well. Having first moored himself to Willy’s aspirational example, he now flounders. His commitment to fact, antithetical to Willy’s approach, has not yet resolved a longstanding inner turmoil. 

The fact is the ethical vacuum of Willy’s talk and example left his boys exposed, and sinister tendrils sprouted from the seeds of well-meaning falsehoods. Lawlessness and entitlement are the legacy of young egos buoyed by a mythology of exceptionalism. We see this tendency in both boys, but especially in Happy, whose sales pitch approach to life is significantly darker than Willy’s. 

In other characters, we see embedded commitments to philosophies—that is, approaches to the pursuit of the American Dream. Or perhaps it’s just the pursuit of life. Does Arthur Miller provide the answer that Willy is seeking? Does he even know? Is it the author’s obligation to provide answers or to add urgency and clarity to the questions?

“Nobody Dast Blame This Man”

Of course, a nation founded on the idea that “all men are created equal” must needs have a common man as its emblematic hero. Arthur Miller’s essay, “Tragedy and the Common Man”, is a founding document of American theatre. In it, Miller asserts that the common person is “as apt a subject for tragedy” as a king or queen, provided that the character’s main action is defense of their infringed dignity. Here Miller presents two challenges to Aristotle’s concept of tragedy: first, the requisite nobility of the protagonist, and second, a plot hinging on a character’s fatal flaw, what Aristotle called hamartia. Anyone who would simply blame Willy Loman for his fate is a gull to Capitalism and not hearing the play Miller wrote.

Modernist drama, from Ibsen to today, has taken society to task. The cosmos is not as it should be, and it is not simply the aberrant individual that needs to change. A central theme in Death of a Salesman and Miller’s earlier play, All My Sons, is the corrosive effect of Capitalism on the integrity of individuals, families, and society. Miller fearlessly interrogated the “American Dream” even as it became the chief aspirational notion animating the rebuilding of a postwar economy still dragging from the systemic breakdown of The Great Depression.

In his plays, Miller regularly mixes individual guilt with a blameworthy society. His characters become complicit in larger faceless evils. They are often weaker men who seek respect and respectability, often motivated by financial need, and they get caught in the inevitable ethical morass surrounding corrupt systems. In a landscape of moral compromise, a veneer of normalcy settles in. Conformity rules; delusion becomes a collective truth.

Within such a framework, a heroic impulse rises in an independent-minded individual—this would be Chris Keller, John Proctor, or Biff Loman. They rise to stand up for the truth in the midst of the collective delusion. This story arc would become part of Miller’s own public life, as the Red Scare and McCarthyism took hold in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1950s.  He made his own appearance before HUAC in 1956, handling the situation honorably.

An Emerging Theatrical Form

Arthur Miller is part of the playwriting Triumvirate of the classic era of American drama, alongside Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams. With O’Neill as the irrepressible innovator, Miller as the master-of-his-craft moralist, and Williams as the iconoclast with an affinity for female characters, the three share surprising resonances with the Trinity of Classical Athenian Drama—Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. By the 1940s, American playwriting was reaching its maturation, with a new aesthetic form taking shape. 

With Death of a Salesman, Miller would evolve beyond the straight-forward, Ibsenite narrative style of his breakout play All My Sons and seek to tell a story uniquely from the perspective of Willy Loman. Originally called “The Inside of His Head,” the play would move seamlessly from present to past memory to hallucination, replicating the point of view of one who is struggling with remorse, burdened with guilt, and unable to fix himself in time or truth.

Miller felt emboldened to pursue this idea after seeing A Streetcar Named Desire in New Haven, especially by the exultant freedom Tennessee Williams took with language. Little did these two know, they were shaping a theatrical genre that would inspire American playwriting for generations. Often called Poetic Realism, this form merged 19^th Century Realism and its Well-Made Play structuring with Modernist impulses such as Expressionism.

Poetic Realism was not just in the playwriting. Jo Mielziner’s set design for the original production of Salesman reflected this same pursuit of subjectivity. The Loman home had a two-dimensional, imbalanced skeletal frame. The rooms were furnished normally but disproportionately spaced. Only essential props were included, as if memory only recalled the necessary. Just as Willy wavered, so too would the space change. When Willy would retreat to the past, the home and yard was idyllic with verdure and color. In the present, tall buildings and concrete encroached and intimidated the little Loman home.

These are Expressionistic elements of this play. And yet, the scope of the story, the subject matter, the class of the characters, the psychological complexity, the complicated interplay and conflict among the family is firmly rooted in the Realist tradition. The well-made plotting also—despite its idiosyncratic sequencing—indicates Realism.

Salesman Here and Now

In the 76 years since Salesman premiered, many of its cultural reference points have lost their relevance. Studebakers and mended stockings, even traveling salesman have faded from our society and collective memory. And yet, switch a new iPhone for Howard’s wire recorder and we could see the same old choreography set to a newer tune. Perhaps the alienation of seeing the dance we do played out with obsolescent products will give some perspective. The pathology of materialistic consumption remains, as do the whispered values of cutthroat, zero-sum capitalism.

Classic plays have a strong timeless core, but some story elements may not age so well. In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller features a male-centered narrative. While he does write convincing female characters, his plays tend to feature more roles and more complex roles for men. Despite this, his plays generally repudiate the Patriarchal supernarrative. Women are not sacrificed at the altar of male need. Instead, it’s often the “Big Daddy” figure who is knocked down, or rather who ends it himself—frequently in a kind of honor suicide.

Early productions of Salesman would have featured predominantly (or entirely) White casts. This has thankfully changed. Universal stories are often supple enough to handle cross-racial casting or deliberate substitutions. Arthur Miller famously directed a Chinese cast in a production in Beijing in 1983. The current PlayMakers production features African American actors as Charley and Bernard, the Lomans’ neighbors and friends. This choice adds a subtle, but intriguing flavor to the neighbors’ relationship.  

Despite its ubiquity, Salesman has not been produced on the Paul Green stage since 1994. That production featured Judd Hirsch and Eva Marie Saint as Willy and Linda. Our dear late colleague Ken Strong played Biff, and our dear retired colleague Ray Dooley played Uncle Ben. Current PlayMakers Adam Versenyi, Michael Rolleri and Maura Murphy contributed to that show, which was directed by UNC alumnus Jeffrey Hayden (’46), even as this one is directed by UNC alumnus Michael Wilson (’87).

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Death of a Salesman

Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem

by Arthur Miller

Directed by Michael Wilson

Scenic Designer
Jan Chambers

Costume Designer
David C. Woolard

Lighting Designer
Carolina Ortiz Herrera

Sound Designer & Composer
John Gromada

Projection Designer
Tao Wang

Vocal Coach
Tia James

Dramaturg
Mark Perry

Stage Manager
Sarah Smiley

Assistant Stage Manager
Aspen Blake Jackson

January 29 – February 16, 2025

“Death of a Salesman”

is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service imprint.  www.dramatists.com

David Woolard is the recipient of the Virginia Knight Sanford Distinguished Guest Artist Award

Any video or audio recording of this performance by any means is strictly prohibited.

The Professional Theatre of the Department of Dramatic Art Kathryn Hunter-Williams, Chair, Vivienne Benesch, Producing Artistic Director Produced in association with the College of Arts and Sciences The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Actor Bios

in Alphabetical Order

Howard Wagner: Reez Bailey
Stanley: Jim Bray* Ben: Paul Carlin*
Willy Loman: Jeffrey Blair Cornell*
Happy Loman: Matthew Donahue
Miss Forsythe: Elizabeth Dye
Charley: Samuel Ray Gates* Linda Loman: Julia Gibson* The Woman: Susannah Hough
Jenny: Jadah Johnson
Bernard: Nate John Mark
Second Waiter: Jayden Peszko
Biff Loman: Allen Tedder*
Letta: Mengwe Wapimewah

Stage Managers: Sarah Smiley* Aspen Blake Jackson*

*Appearing through an Agreement between this theatre and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Setting: Late 1940’s Brooklyn.

Death of a Salesman will be performed with a 15 minute intermission.

PROFESSIONAL ACTOR TRAINING PROGRAM

Reez Bailey

Howard Wagner

PlayMakers: Company member in their second year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program with the Department of Dramatic Art. The Christmas Case of Hezekiah Jones, Murder on the Orient Express, Much Ado About Nothing. Stupid F**king Bird, The Lifespan Of A Fact, The Lonesome West, (PlayMakers/DDA Ground Floor). Little House On The Prairie (Frosted Glass Collective).

University: Ordinary Days (InterMission Theatre); Peter and the Starcatcher, God of Carnage (University Theatre).

Film: The Thing, Dream Killers (Student Film), Rapid Eye Movement (2022).

Education: BS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Jim Bray

Stanley

PlayMakers: Company member in their first season. Debut.

New York/International: Workshop Theatre Company, New Light Theatre Project, Dixon Place. Sympathy Jones (NY Studio Cast Album), Grease (European Tour), among others.

Regional: Curse of the Starving Class (Theatre Raleigh); Elf (NC Theatre); A New Brain (Jennie T. Anderson Theatre); 33 1/3 (Dobama Theatre); The Music Man (Cain Park); Blood Drive (Barrington Stage); Fallen Angel (Bay Street Theatre); The Musical Theatre Project; Forestburgh Playhouse; Porthouse Theatre.

Directing: Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, Cinderella, You Can’t Take it With You, The Stonewater Rapture, Dream With Me (film), Kinky Boots (assoc. dir.).

Education: MFA in Acting- Kent State University. Jim has previously been on faculty at University of Northern Iowa, Stephens College, East Carolina University. He serves as Teaching Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC Chapel Hill.  

www.jimbray.net

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Paul Carlin

Ben

PlayMakers:Debut.

Local: Other Desert Cities (Triad Theatre); My Fair Lady (Flatrock Playhouse).

New York: Long Day’s Journey into Night (with Frances Sternhagen); In the Secret Sea, After the Ball, Where’s Charley?.

Regional: He has worked in theatres across the country, including the Goodman Theatre and Goodspeed Musicals, and has been fortunate to work with such luminaries as Dame Julie Andrews and Tony Walton in The Great American Musical and The Boyfriend, to name a few. 

Television: Credits include “30 Rock,” “Ryan’s Hope,” and “One Life to Live.”

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Jeffrey Blair Cornell

Willy Loman

PlayMakers: Jeff is celebrating his 30th consecutive season acting with PlayMakers. The Christmas Case of Hezekiah Jones, Murder on the Orient Express, Much Ado About Nothing, The Legend of Georgia McBride, Hamlet, Emma, Native Gardens, Julius Caesar, Ragtime, How I Learned to Drive, She Loves Me, Bewilderness, My Fair Lady, The Tempest, Sense and Sensibility, Angels in America, Cabaret.

New York: Two by Two, Down to Earth, Serious Business.

Regional: Guthrie Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Paper Mill Playhouse, Geva Theatre Center, among others.

Education/Other: Carbonell Award nominations for Best Actor – Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me and Falsettoland (Caldwell Theatre – FL). Studied at HB Studios in New York with Uta Hagen, Austin Pendleton, and Elizabeth Wilson and received his MFA from the PATP/UNC-Chapel Hill. Serves as Teaching Professor/Associate Chair in UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art.

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Matthew Donahue

Happy Loman

PlayMakers: Company member in their second year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program with the Department of Dramatic Art. The Christmas Case of Hezekiah Jones, Murder on the Orient Express, Every Brilliant Thing, Much Ado About Nothing. Stupid F**king Bird, The Lonsome West (PlayMakers/DDA Ground Floor).

Regional: Little Shop of Horrors(Virginia Theatre Festival);The Fox; Peter and the Starcatcher (The Commonweal Theatre Co.); Gypsy, Oklahoma! (The Prizery).

University: The Three Musketeers, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Hands on a Hardbody, et al. (ECU/Loessin Playhouse).

Education: BFA Acting, East Carolina University.

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Elizabeth Dye

Miss Forsythe

PlayMakers: Company member in their second year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program with the Department of Dramatic Art. The Christmas Case of Hezekiah Jones, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, The Game, Much Ado About Nothing. The Taming, Stupid F**king Bird (PlayMakers/DDA Ground Floor). 

University: Cabaret, Animal Farm, Three Sisters, Violet, Henry IV Part One (University of Evansville)

Education: BFA Theatre Performance at the University of Evansville.

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Samuel Ray Gates

Charley

PlayMakers: Company member in his sixth season. Fat Ham, Clyde’s, How I Learned What I Learned, Julius Caesar, Life of Galileo, Skeleton Crew, Leaving Eden, Dot.

Regional: Fairview (Woolly Mammoth Theater Company); All the Way (Theatre Squared); Between Riverside and Crazy (American Conservatory Theater); Alabama Story (Pioneer Theatre Company); Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Swing (Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse); The Muscles in our Toes (Labyrinth Theater Company); Clybourne Park (Cincinnati Playhouse); Trinity River Plays (Dallas Theater Center, Goodman Theatre); In the Red and Brown Water (McCarter Theatre Center); Electra (Classical Theatre of Harlem).

Film: November Criminals, Wolves, Two Night Stand, Queen City, The Men Who Stare at Goats.

Television: Our Kind of People, The Good Fight, NCIS: New Orleans, Person of Interest, Veep, Mozart in the Jungle, The Blacklist, House of Cards, Boardwalk Empire, Unforgettable, Kings, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Rescue Me, The Staircase, DopeSick.

Education: MFA, American Conservatory Theatre.

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Julia Gibson

Linda Loman

PlayMakers: Resident company member in her 12th season. What The Constitution Means To Me, Murder on the Orient Express, Misery, Native Gardens, Yoga Play, Native Son, How I Learned to Drive, Bewilderness, The Cake, Ragtime, My Fair Lady, She Loves Me, Twelfth Night, The Crucible, An Enemy of the People, Into the Woods, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Love Alone, Metamorphoses, The Tempest.

Broadway: Stanley, Uncle Vanya, Night Mother.

National Tour: The Exonerated.

Off-Broadway: The Public, Shakespeare in the Park, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Roundabout, Classic Stage Company, New York Theatre Workshop, SoHo Rep, Origin Theatre Company, Irish Rep, The Rattlestick, among others.

Regional: The Alley, American Conservatory Theatre, The Goodman, The Long Wharf, Yale Rep., George Street, The Arden, Milwaukee Rep., Philadelphia Festival Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Chautauqua Theatre Company, and elsewhere.

Film/TV: Michael Clayton, Changing Lanes. Blue Bloods, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Spin City, So Close, and One Life to Live.Directing includes Rattlestick, Epic Theatre Company, Gulfshore Playhouse, New London Barn, Portland Stage, Juilliard, and NYU.

Education/Other: Currently co-head of the Professional Actor Training Program in the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill.  Fox Fellowship recipient, founding member of The Actors Center in NYC and of the National Association of Acting Teachers. Institute for the Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellow. URTA Board of Directors.  2020 Carolina Women’s Center Faculty Scholar. Narrated over 175 audiobooks.

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Susannah Hough

The Woman

PlayMakers: Debut.

Regional: A Streetcar Named Desire (IVRT Los Angeles); Tiny Beautiful Things, Small Mouth Sounds, Annapurna (Honest Pint Theatre Co.); The Grapes of Wrath, Dancing at Lughnasa, Our Town (Justice Theatre Project); Always…Patsy Cline (REP/Theatre in the Park/Clayton Center); Superior Donuts, Body Awareness (Deep Dish Theatre); Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night (Koka Booth Amphitheater).

Film: Sisters, Endings (Turnip Films); Katie’s Dog (Carbon Footprint); Righteous (Bombshell Studios).

Audio Drama: Jesus Pancake, The New Colossus (Artist Soapbox Productions).

Directing Credits: A Chorus Line, Grand Horizons, A Steady Rain, The Legend of Georgia McBride, The Night Alive (Honest Pint); Something Rotten! (Raleigh Little Theatre).

TV: Numerous commercials for brands including Sparkle Paper Towels, American Express, LiftMaster, Sealy.

Awards: Best Actress Award from Stage Scene Los Angeles for role of Blanche DuBois in Streetcar (IVRT).

Education: BFA in Drama, University of California, The American Conservatory Theater. 

www.susannahhough.com

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Jadah Johnson

Jenny

PlayMakers: Company member in their second year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program with the Department of Dramatic Art. The Christmas Case of Hezekiah Jones, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, The Game (u/s perf.), Much Ado About Nothing.  Stupid F**king Bird (PlayMakers/DDA Ground Floor). 

Regional: Too Heavy For Your Pocket (New Horizon Theatre)

Education: B.A Theatre Arts Performance and Practices at Point Park University.

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Nate John Mark

Bernard

PlayMakers: Company member in their second year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program with the Department of Dramatic Art. The Christmas Case of Hezekiah Jones, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Fat Ham, Much Ado About Nothing. The Lifespan Of A Fact, Stupid F**king Bird (PlayMakers/DDA Ground Floor).

Regional: Party People (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Nollywood Dreams ( Open Book Theatre); Head Over Heels (Ringwald Theatre); Taming of the Shrew (Idaho Shakespeare Festival); Othello (The Acting Company/NY); Twelfth Night (Shakespeare in Detroit).

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Jayden Peszko

Second Waiter

PlayMakers:Debut

Regional:  Jayden has performed and directed in community theater in Ayden and Greenville, North Carolina. 

Education: UNC School of the Arts (High School, Drama), Sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill 

Training:Harvey Stone at NC Governors School East

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Allen Tedder

Biff Loman

PlayMakers:  A Raisin in the Sun, The Parchman Hour.

Broadway: To Kill a Mockingbird.

Off-Broadway: Red Bull Theater, the Public Theater.

Regional: Indiana Repertory Theater, Rhinoleap, Berkshire Theater Group, Jackson Hole Playhouse. 

University: R&J, Tales From Ovid, Eurydice, Julius Caesar, Our Country’s Good, The Parchman Hour; The Taming of the Shrew.

Education: MFA in Acting- The Juilliard School, BFA in Dramatic Art- UNC Chapel Hill. 

Training: Tectonic Theatre, Suzuki Method, and The Viewpoints under Joseph Baker and Gleason Bauer at Governor’s School of North Carolina East.

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Mengwe Wapimewah

Letta

PlayMakers: Company member in their second year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program with the Department of Dramatic Art. The Christmas Case of Hezekiah Jones, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Fat Ham, Much Ado About Nothing. The Lifespan Of A Fact, Stupid F**king Bird (PlayMakers/DDA Ground Floor).

University: Recycling Theater; The Quiet Zone (Stella Adler Studio of Acting). 

Film: MAGICKY; Sisyphus (Pace University); Vices (JG Filmworks); Out of Luck (RK Productions).  

Education: BFA Acting for Film, Television, Voiceovers, and Commercials at Pace School of Performing Arts.

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Michael Wilson

Director

PlayMakers: 7 productions at PlayMakers including: Beauty and the Beast, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Death of Papa, The Seagull. Michael Wilson (SDC, DGA) is a Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle award-winning director working on Broadway, off-Broadway, and at major theaters across the country.

Broadway: Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful, The Best Man, Dividing the Estate, Enchanted April. 

Off Broadway:  Incident at Vichy, Desire, Talley’s Folly, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, Orphans’ Home Cycle.

International: Angels in America.

Regional: The Night of the Iguana, Grey Gardens: The Musical, Tender Mercies.

Film: The Trip to Bountiful, Showing Roots.

Education/Other: BA in Dramatic Art at UNC Chapel Hill, Treasurer of SDC since 2015, Wilson was Artistic Director from 1998-2011 of Hartford Stage, where he commissioned and developed the Pulitzer Prize winning Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes.

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Jan Chambers

Scenic Designer

PlayMakers: Company member for 17 seasons and professor in the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill. Productions include Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Fat Ham, Much Ado About Nothing, They Do Not Know Harlem, Yoga Play, As You Like It, Skin of Our Teeth, Julius Caesar, Dairyland, How I Learned to Drive, Skeleton Crew, Leaving Eden, A Christmas Carol, The Cake, The May Queen, Sweeney Todd, 4000 Miles, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Making of a King: Henry IV & V, A Raisin in the Sun, Red, Metamorphoses, The Tempest, Angels in America and Nicholas Nickleby, among others.

Regional: A Brittle Glory: The History Plays, Hamlet, Cyrano de Bergerac, Sunday in the Park with George, Pericles (Guthrie Theatre); Asylum (Only Child Aerial Theatre at Circus Now International Contemporary Circus Exposure); Pericles, Hamlet (Folger Theatre); Pericles, Henry V (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); North: A Love Letter, The Reckoning, It Had Wings, The Narrowing, Out of the Blue (Archipelago Theatre/ Cine). Member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology and of United Scenic Artists, Local 829.  janc@email.unc.edu

www. janchambers.sites.oasis.unc.edu

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David C. Woolard

Costume Designer

PlayMakers: Debut. 

David C. Woolard received Tony Award nominations for The Rocky Horror Show and The Who’s Tommy. He has designed over 20 shows on Broadway and over 200 shows around the world. Including West Side Story, Damn Yankees, the operas Diving Bell, Cold Mountain, Everest. In addition to his Tony nominations, Mr. Woolard has won a Drama Desk Award, the Henry Hewes Design Awards and was nominated for an Olivier Award. For additional credits please visit

www.davidcwoolard.com.

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Carolina Ortiz Herrera

Lighting Designer

PlayMakers: The Game.

Broadway: Good Night (Oscar co-designed with Benjamin Stanton), Slave Play (with Jiyoun Chang).

Regional: Born with Teeth (OSF, Guthrie, and Alley Theatre); American Mariachi (Alley Theatre & Arizona Theatre Company); Native Gardens (Dallas Theatre Center); Doubt, A Parable (Westport Country Playhouse); I & You (Bristol Riverside Theatre); Macbeth (Merrimack Theatre Repertory); Seven Guitars (Yale Repertory Theatre).

Opera & Dance:  Cruz’s (Minneapolis Opera); Florencia en el Amazonas (Shubert Theatre); Trouble in Tahiti (West Side Theatre); The Silent Lyre (Lighten Theatre); The Cunning Little Vixen (Opera Theatre of Yale); among others.

Education: MFA in Design at Yale School of Drama, BA in Theatre at the University of California.

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John Gromada

Sound Designer & Composer

PlayMakers: Beauty and the Beast, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Seagull.

New York: 40+ Broadway productions as composer/sound designer, includingBirthday Candles, All My Sons, Torch Song, The Elephant Man,  Trip to Bountiful(Tony nomination), The Best Man(Drama Desk Award),Clybourne Park, Rabbit Hole, Prelude to a Kiss, Proof,  Twelve Angry Men, A Few Good Men.

Off Broadway: Brooklyn Laundry, A Sherlock Carol,  The Cake, Old Hats,  Orphans’ Home Cycle (Drama Desk Award, Henry Hewes Award),Shipwrecked!(Lucille Lortel Award),The Skriker(Drama Desk Award),Machinal(OBIE).

Film / TV: Chazz Palminteri’sA Bronx Tale, and the Emmy nominated Trip to Bountiful. 

Other:  NEA Opera/Music Theatre Fellowship, Connecticut Critics Circle Awards, Eddy Awards, and grants from the NJ State Council on the Arts and Meet the Composer. Proud Blue Devil and member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 and ASCAP. 

www.johngromada.net

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Tao Wang

Projections Designer

PlayMakers: Company member in his second season. What The Constitution Means To Me, The Game, Misery.

Regional: UrbanArias Keegan Theatre, Hattiloo Theatre – Black Repertory Theatre), Taft Theatre, Corbett Theatre, MainStage Musical Theatre and Dance Company, Stauss Theatre.

Film/Events/ TV/ Shows: “Nanjing, Nanjing,” The Universal Beijing Resort, Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony 2008 and Special Olympics World Games in Shanghai Opening Ceremony, Turandot in Paris, Beijing TV Virtual Reality Interactive Showroom, USITT 2019 National Conference.

Teaching: Assistant Professor and David and Rebecca Pardue Fellow, serving as a Media and Lighting Designer in the Department of Dramatic Arts at UNC, Chapel Hill. Proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829; NYC and USIT                    

www.wangtman.com

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Tia James

Vocal Coach

PlayMakers:  Company member for 6 seasons. Actor: Much Ado About Nothing, Clyde’s, Hamlet, Blues for an Alabama Sky, A Wrinkle in Time, Julius Caesar, Native Son. Vocal coaching includes Misery, They Do Not Know Harlem, The Legend of Georgia McBride, Stick Fly, Ragtime, How I Learned to Drive, Life of Galileo, Bewilderness, She Loves Me, Skeleton Crew, Sherwood, Jump, Your Healing is Killing Me. Director: Crumbs from the Table of Joy, How I Learned What I Learned, As You Like It, Macbeth (PlayMakers Mobile), and Constellations (PlayMakers Ground Floor).

Broadway: The Merchant of Venice.

Off Broadway/New York: The Winter’s Tale, The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare in the Park).

Regional: Much Ado About Nothing (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); Richard III (Allentown Shakespeare); Loving and Loving (Stella Adler Studios); Much Ado About Nothing (Two River Theatre); Civilization [All You Can Eat] (Woolly Mammoth Theater). 

Television: “Nurse Jackie,” “Treme.”

Teaching / Coaching / Directing: UNC-Chapel Hill, NYU Graduate Acting, NYU Dance, Atlantic Acting School, Montclair University.

Education / Awards: MFA NYU Tisch Graduate Acting Program, BFA Virginia Commonwealth University; Miller Voice Method Teacher Certification. Recipient of the 2014 NYU Graduate Acting Diversity Mentorship Scholarship, 2003 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship winner for Best Actor; 2019 Michael Chekhov/Zelda Fichandler Scholarship.

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Mark Perry

Dramaturg

PlayMakers: Company member for 15 seasons. Misery, Emma, Yoga Play, Everybody, How I Learned to Drive, Jump, The Cake, De Profundis, The Crucible, Trouble in Mind, Metamorphoses, Surviving Twin, A Raisin in the Sun, An Iliad, Noises Off, The Parchman Hour, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, The Little Prince.

Mark teaches play analysis and playwriting in the Department of Dramatic Art. His plays The Will of Bernard Boynton and A New Dress for Mona have been produced in our Kenan Theatre, and both have been published by Drama Circle. He has also directed the Kenan Theatre Company’s productions of The Cherry Orchard, Hedda Gabler, and The Seagull.

Education/Other: MFA, Playwright’s Workshop, University of Iowa. Former recipient of NC Arts Council Literature Fellowship for Playwriting.

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Sarah Smiley

Assistant Stage Manager

This is Sarah’s 13th season with PlayMakers, since first joining the company in 2005. She has worked professionally for over 30 years in the entertainment and theatrical industries, in theme parks and road houses in eight states and the U.K. She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and has been active in USITT and the Stage Managers’ Association.  She received her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa.

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Aspen Blake Jackson

Stage Manager

PlayMakers: Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Murder on the Orient Express, Much Ado About Nothing, Clyde’s, They Do Not Know Harlem, Native Gardens. The Prom, The Drowsy Chaperone, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Summer Youth Conservatory).

Aspen is thrilled to be returning for her third mainstage season. She graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in Vocal Performance and Dramatic Arts. Aspen has also thoroughly enjoyed spending the last three summers serving as the Production Stage Manager for our Summer Youth Conservatory program of which the most recent production, The Prom was a hit!

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UP NEXT

Mar 5-23

This groundbreaking play weaves a tapestry of parallel struggles for two brilliant Black women living centuries apart. Sara, a Union spy during the Civil War, and Sandra, a modern-day university professor, confront intersecting biases of racism and sexism that feel all too familiar. It’s a provocative, highly theatrical exploration that challenges perceptions and resonates with humor and intelligence.Learn more.

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Our Mission

PlayMakers Repertory Company is North Carolina’s premier professional theatre company, proudly in residence on the dynamic campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Our mission is to produce relevant, courageous work that tells stories from and for a multiplicity of perspectives. We believe that theatre can have a transformational impact on individuals and entire communities, and we are committed to the journey of becoming an anti-racist organization whose work is accessible to all. Inextricably linked to UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art, PlayMakers is devoted to nurturing and training future generations of artists and audiences.

Our Vision

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Antiracism Accountability Statement

At the heart of PlayMakers Repertory Company’s mission is the belief that theatre has the power to transform individuals and entire communities. There is no more aspirational or urgent a use of that power than working to dismantle the systems of oppression, white supremacy, and racism that pervade American life and consume the American Theatre. PlayMakers continues to assess and evaluate our own practices in order to embed equitable, antiracist policies into strategic planning, our mission, and our operations.

PlayMakers Repertory Company, and those of us who work here, commit to the following:

• To work intentionally to create an antiracist culture in our company.
• To continually educate ourselves on the ways in which we can combat racism locally and nationally as we move to create an inclusive, diverse, and equitable sense of belonging for every one of our constituents.
• To demonstrate our values through action in our policies, practices, and procedures.

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Land Acknowledgment

We acknowledge that the Center for Dramatic Art is located on the unceded lands of one or more of Abiayala’s (the Americas’) original sovereign nations, the name(s) of which have not yet been affirmed. The unjust acquisition of these Indigenous lands came about through a history of racism, violence, dispossession, displacement, and erasure of cultures by settlers as part of the larger, land-centered project of settler colonialism.

As we look to the future, may. webuild upon the memories and goodwill of all who walked and labored here before us with truth, integrity, and honor. Learn more: UNC American Indian Center

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PlayMakers is…

(American Theatre Magazine), PlayMakers Repertory Company is North Carolina’s premier professional theatre company, proudly in residence on the dynamic campus of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The professional company was founded in 1976, growing out of a storied 100-year tradition of playmaking at Carolina. 

“One of America’s Best Regional Theatres”

At the very heart of the PlayMakers experience is one of the nation’s last remaining resident theatre companies, made up of accomplished performers, directors, designers, artisans, and technicians, and supported by exceptional graduate students in UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art. Our company works side by side with guest artists from all over the world and our alumni include Pulitzer Prize, Tony®, Emmy®, and Grammy Award® winners. 

Creating Tomorrow’s Classics, Today

Producing Artistic Director Vivienne Benesch is continuing PlayMakers’ tradition of producing vibrantly reimagined classics, large-scale musical theatre, and significant contemporary work, but is also broadening the company’s reach to become a home for new play development and a true hub of social and civic discourse in the region. Her first seven seasons have already given life to twelve important new American plays.  

A Hub of Engagement

PlayMakers seeks to provoke thought, stimulate discussion, and push the boundaries of the theatrical form in everything we do. Whether through our intimate @PLAY series, our mainstage offerings or our virtual line-up, we look for opportunities for direct, dynamic engagement between audiences, artists, and thinkers. We also offer a host of unique engagement opportunities designed to enrich our audience’s experience of the live arts.    

Theatre for the People

PlayMakers Mobile is an initiative that seeks to contribute positively to the civic and social life of our region by taking world-class theatre out of our building and into the community. We create a streamlined production of a play and take it to schools, transitional housing facilities, and long-term treatment facilities around the Greater Triangle area. And best of all, it’s all free of charge. 

Passing the Torch

PlayMakers’ award-winning Summer Youth Conservatory is the only professionally supported training program of its kind in the region. The Theatre Quest program provides camps to area middle school and high school students, while the Theatre Intensive and TheatreTech programs allow Triangle high schoolers to apprentice directly with professional directors, choreographers, musical directors, and technicians, culminating in a professional quality production on the PlayMakers mainstage for the whole community to enjoy.  

Eliminating Barriers

With a commitment to eliminating barriers for attendance, PlayMakers offers All Access performances for our patrons living with disabilities. We also offer accessible $20 tickets for all performances and ticket prices are reduced to just $10 for UNC students. For more information, please contact prcboxoffice@unc.edu.

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PlayMakers’ 2024/25 Season is Made Possible in Part by Grants from

Foundation Support

National Endowment for the Arts, North Carolina Arts Council, The Shubert Foundation, Fidelity Foundation, Orange County Arts Commission, The Strickland Family Foundation, UNC Parents Council

Additional Funding for Guest Artists is Provided by

Jeffrey Hayden Guest Lectureship Fund, Robert Boyer and Margaret Boyer Fund, Louise Lamont Fund, Emeriti Professors Charles and Shirley Weiss Fund

Corporate Council

Craven Allen Gallery & House of Frames, Larry’s Coffee, Mediterranean Deli, Bakery, and Catering, Metal Supermarkets Raleigh, Pineapple Sol Catering, Pinsieline Properties LLC, University Florists, Vimala’s Curryblossom Cafe

Associates

Glasshalfull, Infinium Spirits

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PlayMakers Repertory Company is a program of the Department of Dramatic Art, The College of Arts and Sciences, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources, recognizes PlayMakers as a professional theatre organization and provides grant assistance to this organization from funds appropriated by the North Carolina General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts. PlayMakers is a beneficiary of the Elizabeth Price Kenan Endowment and the Lillian Hughes Prince Endowment.

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PlayMakers Repertory Company is a Member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre.

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This Theatre operates under an agreement between the League Of Resident Theatres (LORT) and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

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The scenic, costume, lighting and sound designers in LORT Theatres are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE.

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The Director and Choreographer are members of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.

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Administration

Vivienne Benesch, Producing Artistic Director

Artistic

Jeff Aguiar, Director of Engagement
Tracy Bersley, Movement Coach/Choreographer
Chelsea James, Associate Producer
Tia James, Vocal Coach
Gregory Kable, Dramaturg
Jacqueline E. Lawton, Dramaturg
Mark Perry, Dramaturg
Gwendolyn Schwinke, Vocal Coach Lexi Silva, Dramaturgy Fellow
Adam Versényi, Dramaturg
Andrew Wade, Assistant to Producing Artistic Director

Management

Lisa Geeslin, Accountant
Charisse Holloway, Admin Support Specialist. Emily N. Kelly, General Manager
Zoë Lord, Company Manager
Maura J. Murphy, Director of Operations
Sarah Tackett, Administrative Operations Associate
Ella Hawn, Work Studies

Development

Kyle Kostenko, Assistant Director of Annual Giving
Lenore Fields, Special Events Coordinator

Marketing & Audience Services

TJ Carr, Graphic Designer and Marketing Associate
Rebecca Edmonds, Audience Services Associate
Hannah LaMarlowe, Marketing Specialist
Thomas Porter, Box Office Manager
Rosalie Preston, Director of Marketing & Sales
Jenna Zottoli, Audience Services Manager
Ava Lytle, Cora Willis: Student House Managers Aryan Kale: Database Assistant Micah Kennel: Student Box Office Manager. Albert Carlson, Alicia Norman, Sophie Taylor, Maggie Thornton: Student Assistants. Swetha Anand, Lynlee Collins, Kali Dao, Tygia Drewhowell, Evan Jeppson, Gali Jones-Valdez, Lindsay Kanipe, Alex Lankford, Leah Page, Kas Perez, Watson Pope, Dani Urgiles, Ava Wells: Box Office and Front of House Work Studies

Department of Dramatic Art

Kathryn Hunter-Williams, Chair and Associate Professor

FACULTY

Judy Adamson, Professor Emerita  Milly Barranger, Professor Emerita
Vivienne Benesch, Professor of the Practice
Tracy Bersley, Associate Professor
Pamela Bond, Assistant Professor
James Bray, Teaching Assistant Professor
Jan Chambers, Professor
McKay Coble, Professor
Jeffrey Blair Cornell, Associate Chair, Teaching Professor
Ray Dooley, Professor Emeritus
Samuel Ray Gates, Associate Professor
Julia Gibson, Professor
Douglas Hall, Associate Professor
David Hammond, Professor Emeritus
Rachel Hynes, Teaching Assistant Professor
Letitia James, Assistant Professor 
Gregory Kable, Teaching Professor
Jacqueline E. Lawton, Associate Professor
Triffin Morris, Professor of the Practice
David Navalinsky, Professor
Bobbi Owen, Distinguished Professor Emerita
Laura Pates, Teaching Assistant Professor
Kathy Perkins, Professor Emerita
Mark Perry, Teaching Associate Professor
Rachel E. Pollock, Lecturer
Bonnie Raphael, Professor Emerita
Michael Rolleri, Professor
Gwendolyn Schwinke, Assistant Professor
Lexi Silva, Dramaturgy Fellow
Aubrey Snowden, Teaching Assistant Professor
Craig Turner, Professor Emeritus
Adam Versényi, Professor 
Tao Wang, Assistant Professor

Administration

Weston Barker, Program Specialist
Lucas Branch, KTC Technical Director
Jocelyn Chatman, Costume Inventory Specialist
Lisa Geeslin, Accounting Technician
Taylor McDaniel, Student Services Manager
Karen Rolleri, Business Coordinator
Jamie Strickland, University Manager

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Production

Michael Rolleri, Production Manager

Costumes

Amy Evans, Costume Shop Manager
Marissa Lupkas, Wardrobe Supervisor
Matthew Mallard, Assistant Costume Director
Triffin Morris, Costume Director
Rachel Pollock, Costume Craftsperson
Costume Production Graduate Students:
Manda Apony-Moriarty, Jillian Gregory, Kris Kingsolver, Jessica Land, Bailey Mae Doran, Zachery Morrison, Sally Rath
Ellie Steever, First Hand/Stitcher
Katherine Craig, Costume Shop Work Study
Arcadia Hilton, Clara “Hock” Hockenberry, Undergraduate Assistants
Natasha Harm, Wardrobe Assistant Work Study
Georgia Wood, Costume Stock Assistant

Lighting

Benjamin Bosch, Electrics Supervisor
Nick Rodgers, Production Swing for Lighting & Sound

Props

Lauren Reinhartsen, Properties Supervisor
Natasha Dell, Sam Gainer, Props Artisan

Leah Jarrell, Props Undergraduate Assistant
Cami Crocker, Lydia McRoy, Evan Wilker, Work Studies

Stage Management

Aspen Blake Jackson, Stage Manager
Sarah Smiley, Stage Manager
Sarah Patisaul, Production Assistant

Sound

David Bost, Sound Supervisor
Jayden Alexander Peszko, Nubia Orellana, Work Studies

Scenic

Brandon “Bruce” Hearrell, Production Carpenter
Gwendolyn Van Denburg, Alec Westmoreland, Production Carpenters
Corrinne LaVergne, Scenic Artist
Laura Pates, Technical Director
Diane Zimmerman, Scenic Charge Artist
Technical Production Graduate Students:
Rachel Van Namen, Joel Ernst, Benjamin Fink, Roark
Charlene Nguyen, Gabrielle Shulikov, Veta “Koa” Torres, Scenic Painting Work Studies
Connor Gould,  Laurel Everett,  Enoch Joo, Ian McDuffie, Kathryn Ouyang, Danielle Mou, Carpentry Work Studies

PlayMakers’ Resident Acting Company

Jim Bray
Jeffrey Blair Cornell
Samuel Ray Gates
Julia Gibson
Kathryn Hunter-Williams
Tia James
Gwendolyn Schwinke

Professional Actor Training Program:

Reez Bailey, Matthew Donahue, Elizabeth Dye, Jadah Johnson, Nate John Mark, Mengwe Wapimewah

For this Production

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THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A MORE IMPORTANT TIME TO SUPPORT PLAYMAKERS AND THE ARTS

PlayMakers Repertory Company is a nonprofit theatre. We rely on the generosity of our community to continue delivering the Broadway-quality theatre you love. If you believe in the transformative power of theatre as much as we do, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help theatre thrive.

You can help support and sustain all our work, both on stage and off, by making a tax-deductible gift which enables us to:

• Bring innovative, entertaining, and relevant theatre to the Triangle
• Serve students across the state through our award-winning educational programs
• Engage with our audiences through artist and community conversations
• Remain flexible, safe, and better prepared for the future

Every gift, big or small, makes a huge difference!

Ways to Give

Online

Donate

Phone or Email

Kathryn Banas
banask@email.unc.edu

919.843.2745

Mail

Send your check to:
Kathryn Banas 
PlayMakers Repertory Company Development Department
Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art
CB 3235
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3235

PlayMakers is grateful to the members of the Friends of PlayMakers for their generous support. For more information about how to join this dynamic group of supporters, call the Assistant Director of Annual Giving Kyle Kostenko at 919.445.1282 or visit us at playmakersrep.org.

Donate

Friends of PlayMakers

Director’s Circle ($10,000+)

Anonymous
Betsy Blackwell and John Watson Jr.
Cindy and Thomas Cook  Druscilla French and Stephen M. Cumbie 
David G. Frey ~
Joanne and Peter Garrett
Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund
The Farley Fisher Gift Fund
Deborah Gerhardt
Joan Gillings ~
Cynthia Strickland Graham 
Susan and Dustin Gross
Garrett Hall and Zachary Howell
T. Chandler and Monie Hardwick
Mrs. Frank H. Kenan ~
Thomas S. Kenan III * Sharon Lawrence and Thomas Apostle
Paula Noell and Palmer Page
John and Debra Ratliff 
Wyndham Robertson
Coleman Ross
Schwab Charitable
Shubert Foundation
The Robert Strickland Family Foundation 
The Robertson Foundation 
T. Rowe Price Program for Charitable Giving 
Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program
Alan H. Weinhouse
Jim and Bonnie Yankaskas 

Angel ($5,000–9,999)

Anonymous
Patrick Brennan and Lillian Jenks Kymberly Burkhead-Dalton and Stephen Dalton 
Thomas and Holly Carr 
Charities Aid Foundation of America 
Munroe and Becky Cobey 
Amy and Kevin Guskiewicz + 
Mr. and Mrs. Matt Hapgood
Dorothy Heninger Kim Kwok
Duncan and Stuart Lascelles Prentice Foundation
Ken Smith

Investor ($2,500–4,999)

Anonymous 
Alicia and Bill Allred 
Richard and Deirdre Arnold ^ Vivienne Benesch 
Ed and Eleanor Burke ^ 
Adam Cifu 
Susan E. Hartley
Carol Hazard and Winston Liao
Johnson & Johnson Matching Gift Program 
Susan J. Kelly Dr. Moyra Kileff and Mr. Brian Kileff
Duncan and Stuart Lascelles
Louis and Jodi Patalano
Nick and Amy Penwarden
Pinsieline Properties LLC 
Robert and Tobi Schwartzman + 
Mrs. Carol Smithwick 
Jackie and James Tanner  
Jennifer Werner
Jennifer and Sandy Williams

Page to Stage ($1,500–2,499)

David and Judy Adamson
Mary Altpeter +  
Keith and Iris Archuleta +  Andrew and Katherine Asaro ^ 
Steve Benezra ^
Ed and Eleanor Burke ^
Ed and Virginia Cockrell + Emerald HPC International 
Cornell University Foundation 
Mrs. Linda Whitham Folda and Dr. Jaroslav Thayer Folda, III 
John and Diane Formy-Duval
Dana and Robert Greenwood 
Hugon Karwowski and Joanna Karwowska ^
Dr. Catherine Kuhn and Glenn Tortorici
Shirley and Tom Kunkel 
Metal Supermarkets Raleigh
Paul and Linda Naylor
Abigail Panter and George Huba
Jay and Cris Preble
David Price 
Andrew Sisson and Karen Levine
Dr. William L. Stewart
The Rev. Wendy R. and W. Riley Waugh + 
Michael Weil and Peggy Link-Weil
Roger and Marlene Werner  Paul and Sally Wright

Partner ($1,000–1,499)

Anonymous (4)
Michael and Marie Andreasen
Jeremy Arkin and Marian Fragola
Bruce and Dianne Birch Dr. Stanley Warren Black, III Fiona Brady and Carl Mehling ^ Carolyn and Jackson Breaks 
Peggy Britt Joan Clendenin
Bill Cobb and Gail Perry Julie and M. Brian Daniels  Georgia and Alec Donaldson
Dr. Carrie Donley and W.P. Gale ^
Shelley Earp
Dr. and Mrs. John P. Evans John and Carolyn Falletta Kausik Gangopadhyay Alison Friedman Buck and Kay Goldstein Julia and Bill Grumbles Eric and Elizabeth Gutt 
David J. Howell+
Robert Huddleston
Jack Knight and Margaret Brown
Katie Kosma+
Robert and Kathryn Kyle
Anand and Sandhya Lagoo Douglas MacLean and Susan Wolf Carolyn Maness 
Elaine Mangrum and Michael Freedberg
Bruce and Marlee Margulies +                 Holly and Ross McKinney
Herbert and Jean Miller
Cathy O’Connell Bettina Patterson
Suzanne and Charles Plambeck Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund
Jean and Joseph Ritok
The Shelby Family Foundation Carole L. Shelby Kyle and Jenn Smith
Lucy and Sidney Smith
David B. Sontag Stephen Tell and Rosemary Hoban Triangle Community Foundation
J. Stephen and Denise Vanderwoude, in honor of John Vanderwoude +
Amanda and Mal Watlington  Dr. Jesse L. White
Derek and Louise Winstanly
David and Heather Yeowell Alan Young Miriam and Thomas Zietlow

Backer ($500–999)

Anonymous (3)
Richard and Susan Allison   Bailey and Tammy Hoffmeister
Susan and Tony Barrella
Deborah Barrett and Charles Kurzman
Evelyn Barrow  Adam C. Beck ^
John W. Becton and Nancy B. Tannenbaum
Shula and Stephen Bernard
Patricia Beyle
Dr. Stephen Shaw Birdsall
Jerri Lynne Bland Lisa and Greg Brown Keith Burridge and Patricia Saling
Kris and Alisha Byrd  Ann and John Campbell
Philip and Linda Carl
Ann and Bayard Collins
Britta Couris      David Doll
Elizabeth Eagle and David Crews    Bob and Connie Eby
Thorsten A. Fjellstedt
Windi and Roger Glogowski
James P. Gogan ^ Dr. and Mrs. Robert S. Greenwood Elizabeth Grey Dede Hall 
Toby and Cheryl Harrell
C. Hawkins ^
David and Leslie Henson Don and Kay Hobart Ann Holloman Steve and Lisa Jones Laura Kline and David Robinson K.A. and Carol Lawrence Nelda and Douglas Lay Karen and Stephen Lyons Dr. and Mrs. Morton D. Malkin  Michael Maness and Lois Knauff
Ann McCracken Ed and Connie McCraw
Amy McEntee Mary McMorris and Leonard Santoro
Laurie E. McNeil and Patrick W. Wallace Dr. James C. and Dr. Susan D. Moeser
Fred and Anne Morris + Betsy and Jefferson Newton
Linda W. Norris Pat and Mary Norris Oglesby
David and Elizabeth Nuechterlein
Lois P. Oliver David and Mary Ollila Sarah Owens Ariana Pancaldo and Michael Salemi Mark and Eugenea Pollock
Jodi and Glenn Preminger
Elizabeth Raft
Vikram and Susan Rao +
Dr. William W. Smith and Brenda W. Kirby
Susan Stedman and Charles Higgins Jr.
Tim and Judy Taft
Karen and Tom Tierney
Carol Uphoff  Peter Vitale and Stephen Nelson Wegmans Chapel Hill George Weinhouse

~ indicates deceased 

^ indicates PlayMakers Sustainer 

+ indicates Summer Youth Conservatory Supporter 

This list is current as of August 1, 2024. If your name is listed incorrectly or not at all, please contact the PlayMakers Development Office at 919.962.4846. We will ensure you are recognized for your
thoughtful support.

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Jump to: Letter from Viv | Support PlayMakers | Program Notes | Who We Are | Title Page | About the Author | Actor Bios | Creative Team Bios | PlayMakers Staff | Friends of PlayMakers | Corporate and Foundation Partners