Welcome to PlayMakers Repertory Company’s 50th Season!!! I am delighted you’re here with us at the start of this landmark anniversary.  

Legacy. Forward. That’s what we’re calling this season as we look behind and ahead to better understand ourselves now. And what better way to begin than with a new lens on Oedipus, a story that stands at the origins of both theatre and democracy? What better place to wrestle with it than on the campus of a public university—an institution built to ask democracy’s essential questions? 

When Carey Perloff shared that she was looking for a home to continue her fascinating odyssey with Sophocles’ Oedipus alongside brilliant composer David Coulter, it seemed fated. I am so proud that PlayMakers could commission its continued development and produce this world premiere.  

Throughout her extraordinary career—including more than 25 years as Artistic Director of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco—Carey has connected the vital necessity of the classics with the power of new work. Her passion for both, and for the value of an intergenerational company in exploring them, is also at the heart of PlayMakers’ identity and mission. I am therefore doubly thrilled to have her as adaptor and director. 

Carey has brought together an extraordinary creative team, including returning PlayMakers favorites like set and costume designer Lex Liang and lighting designer Robert Wierzel, who boasts more than 30 PlayMakers credits, though it has been close to 30 years since his far-reaching theatre and opera career last brought him to Chapel Hill. Onstage, our wonderful resident acting company is met and matched in craft, imagination, and bravery by our guest artists: Tony-nominated veteran actor Michael Hayden in the title role and Nike Imoru, who, along with composer David Coulter, has been on this creative journey with Carey since it began more than five years ago. 

The scope and challenge of this epic work feel worthy of PlayMakers’ remarkable 50-year history, at a moment when the country marks its 250th. Thank you for coming together, as the Greeks did 2,500 years ago, to wrestle with our biggest questions. 

I look forward to seeing you throughout this season-long investigation and celebration!  

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

PlayMakers Staff

Friends of PlayMakers

Corporate and Foundation Partners

Desktop Computer Version of playbill available here

Fifty years. Countless stories. One shared experience.

Or is it?

The magic of theatre is that we sit together and experience the very same story, yet each of us walks away with our own version of that experience—a new perspective, a different feeling, a viewpoint that may differ from the person sitting beside us. A single performance can spark countless conversations, perspectives, and interpretations.

Whose experience is valid? Perhaps they all are.

That is the power of theatre. It reminds us that while our viewpoints may differ, our humanity connects us. In a world that often asks us to stand apart, theatre invites us to come together.

As we celebrate this 50th anniversary season, we invite you to continue building this community of shared experience. On behalf of our PlayMakers Advisory Council,  I’d like to challenge you to bring someone with you. Tell a friend. Share our story. Invest in our vision.

The next fifty years of PlayMakers will be shaped by audiences who believe in its power—to bring us together, challenge us, move us, and remind us that even when our perspectives differ, we are all human.

Thank you for being part of this story.

Here’s to the next chapter.

Here’s to the next fifty years.

And here’s to experiencing it together.

Jackie Tanner, Chair

PlayMakers Advisory Council

Jackie Tanner, Chair

Marie Andreasen, Andrea Bates, Betsy Blackwell, Patrick Brennan, Druscilla French, Deborah Gerhardt, Susan Gross, Amy Guskiewicz, C. Hawkins, Zach Howell,
Debra Ives, Lillian Jenks, Diane Robertson Kibbe,
Kim Kwok, Duncan Lascelles, Stuart Lascelles,
Peggy Link-Weil, Graig Meyer, Julie Morris, Paula Noell, Jodi Patalano, Maria Savage, Haley Swindal, Jennifer Werner-Cannizzaro, Mike Wiley, Ford Worthy

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About the Author

Sophocles, (born c. 496 BCE in Colonus, near Athens, died 406 in Athens), was, along with Aeschylus and Euripides, one of classical Athens’ three great tragic playwrights.  The few facts we know about Sophocles’ life imply steady and distinguished attachment to Athens, its government, religion, and social forms.  Wealthy from birth, highly educated, and noted for his grace and charm, Sophocles was on easy terms with the leading families and personal friend of prominent statesmen.  In 440 he was elected one of the 10 strategoi , high executive officials who commanded the armed forces, and served twice more in that capacity.  In 413, at around age 83, Sophocles was a proboulos, one of 10 advisory commissioners who were granted special powers and were entrusted with organizing Athens’ financial and domestic recovery after its terrible defeat at Syracuse in Sicily.  Sophocles’ last recorded act was to lead a chorus in public mourning for his deceased rival, Euripides, before the festival of 406.  He died the same year.

Sophocles won his first victory at the Dionysian dramatic festival in 468, defeating the great Aeschylus in the process.  This began a career of unparalleled success and longevity.  In total Sophocles wrote 123 dramas for the festivals.  Since each author who was chosen to enter the competition usually presented four plays, this means he must have competed about 30 times.  Sophocles won perhaps as many as 24 victories, compared to 13 for Aeschylus and four for Euripides, and may have never received lower than second place in the competitions he entered.  Only seven of his plays survive—the three Theban Plays Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone; along with Ajax, Philoctetes, Trachinian Women, and Electra.
   –Oliver Taplin

Robert Bagg 
Translator
Robert Eli Bagg (September 21, 1935 — April 9, 2026) was an American poet and translator. A beloved English professor at UMass Amherst for over 30 years, he wrote and published six books of poetry and authored critical studies of Sappho and Catullus. His collection Madonna of the Cello (1961) was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. His translations of Greek plays have been staged in over 70 productions on four continents.

Carey Perloff 
Adaptor & Director
see Creative Team bio

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Director’s Note

I began writing this adaptation during the Covid pandemic when we, like Oedipus, were living through a mysterious plague. What began as an exploration of Oedipus Tyrannos evolved into an exploration of all three of Sophocles’  Theban plays, which were written at intervals throughout his long life. I wondered what compelled Sophocles to return to the Oedipus story so often, completing Oedipus at Colonus when he was nearly ninety. How had his view of this extraordinary character changed over the course of his creative life? In this version, I begin the story at the end, with the arrival of the aged Oedipus in Colonus, and work backwards towards the story of the leader who was confronted by plague and ultimately had to learn terrible truths about himself (Oedipus Tyrannos), finishing with a glimpse of Antigone and the crisis confronting Oedipus’ children. The Oedipus who arrives in Colonus has changed his mind about the guilt of his past crimes and is seeking some kind of divine transformation in death. What are we to make of that? Does the arc of history not bend towards justice? What is the statute of limitations on past crimes?

I found it very exciting to center the role of the Chorus. Many contemporary adaptations of the Greeks eliminate the Chorus altogether, but it felt to me that the public voice, in all its chaos and contradiction, was the key to these great plays. As in our own democracy, the people in Sophocles’ Choruses try to reckon with the situation around them by arguing, by lamenting together, by debating and discussing, and sometimes by praying and protesting. In our production, their collective speech is shaped and scored by composer David Coulter and brought to life by PlayMakers’ remarkable company. The fact that this theater maintains both a standing company of actors and a renowned MFA program make it the perfect place to conduct an experiment in how we experience the collective voice.

It’s a rare gift in the American theater to have the chance to work on material of such scope and depth, and I am incredibly honored that PlayMakers has chosen Oedipus: King/Colonus to launch its 50th Anniversary Season. All of us sitting here are participating in an ancient tradition of drama that goes back 2,500 years; together, as audience and as artists, we pull the threads, ask the questions, and keep the stories alive. Thank you so much for being part of it!

– Carey Perloff

Oedipus King/Colonus Adaptor & Director

Oedipus: Notes from the Dramaturg

By Adam Versényi , Dramaturg

Three plays, many questions:  What constitutes birthright citizenship?  How do we treat an immigrant?  What does it mean to be a parent?  What is the nature of family?  Who gets to be honored in memory? And, perhaps most crucially, what is justice?  While these are 21^st century questions the three plays that constitute Sophocles’ Theban Plays:  Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone are from 5^th century Ancient Greece.  Sophocles is our contemporary.

The nature of 5^th century Greek society was largely determined by the twin poles of trade and colonization.  Lacking abundant natural resources the Greeks became seafarers exploring far and wide in search of the resources they needed trading for them whenever possible and taking them when necessary.  As those explorers returned home they brought with them new ideas and new modes of doing things that were tested against Greek practices creating the dynamic society where each city-state sought to outdo each other socially, politically, economically, and militarily.  As with all artistic and intellectual endeavor, Ancient Greek Tragedy was seen as an exploration by playwrights and audiences alike with the majority of Greek theatres sited in such a way that the audience looked out over the stage and the sea beyond. 

Perhaps the most central concept of Sophoclean tragedy in general, and of the Oedipus plays in particular, is anagnorisis, a moment of discovery where a character moves from a state of ignorance to one of knowledge that serves to bring the world of the play back into proportion or balance, a balance that characteristically holds for a period of time before breaking down and impelling a new tragic action.  Sophocles’ characters are faced with ethical choices involving the unknowable and/or uncontrollable forces both within and without the self, with divine forces offering the hope of making sense of human plans and errors.

In Oedipus the King Oedipus, having received an oracle that says he will murder his father and sleep with his mother, and believing his adoptive parents Polybus and Merope, king and queen of Corinth, to be his biological parents, flees Corinth.  Under Greek law royalty has the right of way on all roads.  At a crossroads Oedipus meets the king of Thebes and his biological father, Laius.  Neither tells the other they are royalty and in the ensuing fight Oedipus kills Laius before journeying on to Thebes where the Sphinx, a mythical creature half woman, half lion,  threatens the city.  The Sphinx demands an answer to the riddle, “What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three at night?” in order to free Thebes.  Oedipus is the first to answer correctly saying, “Man: as an infant he crawls on all fours; as an adult, he walks on two legs and; in old age he uses a walking stick.”  The Sphinx destroys herself, drowning in the sea, and Oedipus is welcomed as the new king of Thebes, marrying Jocasta, not knowing that she is his biological mother. 

Years later a plague threatens Thebes, unless Laius’ murder is found and brought to justice.   Under Greek law it was the responsibility of the closest relatives of a murder victim to bring the murderer to trial.  Oedipus is both the closest relative and the murderer as well as the highest judge of the land by virtue of his birth, his former actions, and his legal position.  Self-propelled and self-destructive he returns into his past and reaches the position he was initially saved from:  that of outcast.  A Greek did not exist outside of family and state.  To be ostracized was to become a non-person and the physical isolation of Sophocles’ characters is symbolic of the essential isolation felt even in the midst of human society.

The notions of oikos (the domestic and private sphere) and the polis (the public square and the city-state), are particularly important to an understanding of the Oedipus plays.  Tragedy blurs the boundaries between family and state, the public and private worlds.  To operate in the polis demands subordination of male private interests to those of the state.  To operate in the oikos demands the subordination of female public interests to those of the family, particularly in the realms of death, marriage and inheritance.  The Peloponnesian War, in which Sophocles fought, and during which and shortly after which he wrote two of the three Oedipus plays, lasted for thirty years and in that time the state took over grief with public ceremonies, leaving little room for private individual mourning.  In that context, Tragedy offers an outlet for lamentation and private grief.

The plays also offer a sharp contrast between the two ancient Greek cities of Thebes and Athens.   Thebes is in central Greece and has been inhabited for millennia.  A powerful city-state in the Classical period with an autocratic system of government,  it participated in both the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, becoming the most powerful city in Greece in the early 4^th century. Thebes was a constant rival with Athens and Sparta for dominance.  Siding with Persia when Xerxes invaded Greece and with Sparta over Athens during the Peloponnesian Wars.  Athens, with its famous Acropolis and the port of Piraeus, reached its height during the 5^th century BCE when it was associated with the development of democracy, philosophy, science, mathematics, drama, literature, art, and other aspects of culture and civilization including the Olympic Games.  Burned during the Persian invasion in 480 BCE, it was rebuilt by Pericles and became the superpower of the ancient world through its economic and military might.  Safe behind their walls and blessed with a deepwater port, the Athenians are portrayed by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey as great warriors and seafaring people trading widely throughout the Aegean and Mediterranean region.

In this PlayMakers Repertory Company production Carey Perloff’s adaptation Oedipus: King/Colonus reorders and combines two the plays with a suggestive  coda from Antigone.  We invite you to take this journey of exploration and discovery as the work asks us to evaluate the relative value of reason and religion, to consider whether we marginalize communities for things we don’t understand, to ask how best to live our lives, what is memory, what is democracy, and by the end of his life does Oedipus, or any of us, find grace?

HOUSE OF CADMUS

CADMUS

Founder of Thebes

Married HARMONIA, daughter of Ares and Aphrodite

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POLYDORUS

Son of Cadmus and Harmonia

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LABDACUS

Son of Polydorus

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LAIUS

Son of Labdacus

Married JOCASTA

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OEDIPUS

Son of Laius and Jocasta

Unknowingly kills Laius and marries Jocasta

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ETEOCLES * POLYNEICES * ANTIGONE * ISMENE

Oedipus and Jocasta’s children

Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, was of divine ancestry, the grandson of the sea god Poseidon and Libya on his father’s side, and of Nilus (the River Nile) on his mother’s side and a member of the fifth generation of beings following the creation of the world.  Cadmus married Harmonia, with whom he had two sons, Polydorus and Illyrius, and four daughters, Agave, Antonoë, Ino, and Semele.  Despite the divinely ordained nature of the marriage and his kingdom Cadmus’ family was overtaken by grave misfortunes and Thebes by civil unrest.  Cadmus abdicated in favor of his grandson Pentheus.  Labdacus was the only son of Polydorus and Nycteïs.  With Labdacus’ death Lycus became regent raising Labdacus’ son Laius until Amphion and Zethus usurped the throne, killing Lycus.  Laius was smuggled out of the city and welcomed by Pelop, King of Pisa.  Laius abducted and raped the king’s son Chrysippus and carried him off to Thebes where, both Amphion and Zethus having died in his absence, he married Jocasta and fathered Oedipus who, not realizing Laius is his father, kills him and then, not knowing Jocasta is his mother, marries her and has two sons, Polyneices and Eteocles, and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene.  Nearly all of Laius’ descendants meet with misfortune, a combination of his violation of the laws of hospitality and marriage by carrying off his host’s son and raping him and then ignoring the Oracle’s warning not to have children.  The entire line of Cadmus was cursed either by the god Ares when Cadmus killed his serpent, or by the god Hephaestus who resented Cadmus’ marriage to Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, Hespahestus’ wife.

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Oedipus

King/Colonus

Adapted and Directed by Carey Perloff

From a translation by Robert Eli Bagg

Original Music Composed and Performed by David Coulter

Scenic Designer & Costume Designer
Lex Liang

Lighting Designer
Robert Wierzel

Sound Designer
Jane Shaw

Vocal Coach
Gwendolyn Schwinke

Choreographer
Tracy Bersley

Dramaturg
Adam Versényi

Stage Manager
Aspen Blake Jackson

Assistant Stage Manager
Devon Currie

September 9 – 27, 2026

Funds to commission Carey Perloff and David Coulter’s continued work on this world premiere production were generously provided by Joanne and Peter Garrett through the PlayMakers New Commissions Fund. 

Carey Perloff would like to thank Seattle Rep and its then-Artistic Director Braden Abraham for providing the Director Commission that launched this project, Red Bull Theater in New York (Jesse Berger, AD) for producing two workshops to develop the script and music, and classicists Helene Foley and Elizabeth Irwin for their deep participation throughout.


Generous support for this production is provided by the Jeffrey Hayden Guest Lectureship Fund and the Virginia Knight Sanford Fund.

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

Chorus (Colonus & Tyrannos): Jeff Aguiar*
Polyneikes/Chorus (Tyrannos): Dawson Boudreaux
Old Shepherd/Chorus (Colonus): Jim Bray*
Kreon: Jeffrey Blair Cornell*
Msgr from Corinth/Death Msgr : Samuel Ray Gates*
Chorus Leader (Colonus)/Stranger/2nd Msgr: Julia Gibson*
Oedipus: Michael Hayden*
Teresias/Theseus/Chorus(Act 1 Colonus): Nike Imoru*
Chorus (Tyrannos): Delaney Jackson
Jocasta/Chorus (Colonus): Tia James*
Ismene: Caroline Marques^
Priest/Chorus (Tyrannos) Trevele Morgan
Chorus (Tyrannos): Adam Moskowitz^
Antigone: Celeste Pelletier^

Stage Managers: Aspen Blake Jackson*, Devon Currie*

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

^Appears by permission of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

UNDERSTUDIES
Understudies never substiture for listed players unless a specific announcement is made for the appearance at the time of performance

Old Shepherd: Jeff Aguiar
Messenger from Corinth/Polyneikes: Dawson Boudreaux
Second Messenger: Samuel Ray Gates*
Teiresias/Theseus: Delaney Jackson
Jocasta: Caroline Marques^
Kreon: Trevele Morgon
Polyneikes/Death Messenger: Adam Moskowitz^
Tyrannos Chorus: Celeste Pelletier^
Oedipus: Jim Roof*

Oedipus King/Colonus will be performed with a 15 minute intermission.


Setting: A sacred grove near Athens, and outside the palace at Thebes

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Jeff Aguiar

Chorus (Colonus & Tyrannos)

PlayMakers: Macbeth(u/s). Associate Director: Every Brilliant Thing.

Regional:  A Christmas Carol, South Pacific (Triad Stage);Into the Woods, Newsies, Annie (North Carolina Theatre);Romeo and Juliet, The Iron Curtain Trilogy, As You Like It, Brigadoon, Man of La Mancha, Enron, Much Ado About Nothing(Burning Coal);Eurydice, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Picasso at the Lapin Agile(ArtsCenter Stage);The Soloist, Piece Work, Birds of a Feather(Touring Theatre of North Carolina).

Education: BFA in Theatre Education/MA in Peace and Conflict Studies.

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Dawson Boudreaux

Polyneikes/Chorus (Tyrannos)

PlayMakers: Company member in their 2nd year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program with the Department of Dramatic Art. You Can’t Take It With You. The Flick, Back Back Back (PlayMakers/DDA Ground Floor)

University: Friends, Three Sisters, Long Day’s Journey Into Night with Emily Scott Banks, The Comedy of Errors, The Laramie Project, Airness (Baylor University).

Education: BFATheatre Performance and BA Mathematics at Baylor University.

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Jim Bray

Old Shepherd/Chorus (Colonus)

PlayMakers: Company member in their 3rd season. Macbeth, You Can’t Take It With You, Little Shop of Horrors, Death of a Salesman.

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); Barrington Stage; Bay Street Theatre; The Musical Theatre Project; Forestburgh Playhouse; Porthouse Theatre.

Film/TV: “A Good Fight,” Born This Way,” “Mona Lisa Smile,” “CAMP,” “Strangers with Candy.”

Directing: The Flick (PlayMakers/DDA Ground Floor),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 from Kent State University, Maggie Flanigan Studio, Anne Bogart/SITI Company, Atlantic Acting Company in NYC. Jim has served as a faculty member at University of Northern Iowa, Stephens College, and East Carolina University. He is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill.

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Jeffrey Blair Cornell

Kreon

PlayMakers: After over 30 years Jeff is celebrating his final season as a resident company member with PlayMakers Rep. He has acted over 90 roles including Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express, Roy Cohn in Angels in America, Henry IV in Parts I and II, Brutus in Julius Caesar, and Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady.  Other favorites roles include Elyot in Private Lives, Father Flynn in Doubt, Vanya in Vanya, Sonya, Masha and Spike, Caliban in The Tempest, and Herr Schultz in Cabaret.  Last season saw Jeff as Duncan/Siward in Macbeth, Clay/Sam in Primary Trust, Boris Kolenkhov inYou Can’t Take It With You, and Bullock in A Good Boy (with Hidden Voices).

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: 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. Recently retired from UNC’s  Department of Dramatic Art as Associate Chair, he currently serves as Visiting Lecturer.

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Samuel Ray Gates

Messenger from Corinth/Death Messenger

PlayMakers: Company member since 2017. Primary Trust, Death of a Salesman, 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: “Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story” (2025), “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

Chorus Leader (Colonus)/Stranger/2nd Messenger

PlayMakers: Company member in her 14th season.
Steel Magnolias,You Can’t Take It With You, Death of a Salesman, 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”.

Education/Other: 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. 

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Michael Hayden

Oedipus

PlayMakers: Debut.

Broadway: Elf, All My Sons, Festen, Henry IV, Judgment at Nuremberg (Tony nomination), Cabaret, Carousel.

Off-Broadway: The Honey Trap, Lady From Dubuque, Measure for Measure, Dessa Rose, Far East.

London: Cabaret, Carousel (Olivier Award nomination).

Regional: A Little Night Music, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Richard II, Merrily We Roll Along, Sweet Bird of Youth.

Film: Charming Billy (American Film Institute Best Actor Award).

TV: “Elementary,” “Evil,” “Chicago Fire,” all “Law & Order,” “Murder One.”

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Nike Imoru

Teresias/Theseus/Chorus (Act 1 Colonus)

PlayMakers: Debut.

Regional: Metamorphoses (Ensemble), Seattle Rep; Hamlet (Hamlet), Seattle Shakespeare Company; Coriolanus (Coriolanus; Best Actress, Seattle Times Footlights Award), 12th Ave Arts; Bring Down the House (Warwick; Best Supporting Actress, Seattle Times Footlights Award, Gregory Award); Titus Andronicus (Aaron the Moor; Outstanding Actress, Gypsy Rose Lee Award, Seattle Times Footlights Award) Upstart Crow Collective; The Breach (Water/Poet), Seattle Repertory Theatre.

Award/Fellowship: Lunt-Fontanne/Ten Chimneys Fellow.

Film/TV: casting director, Train Dreams (dir Clint Bentley) nominated for four academy awards including Best Picture (2026) Casting Society of America ARTIOS nomination for casting Train Dreams

International: Medea (Solo), Delphi, Greece.

Education: PhD, Theatre History Race and Gender, University of Warwick, UK.

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Delaney Jackson

Chorus (Tyrannos)

PlayMakers: Company member in their 2nd year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program with the Department of Dramatic Art. Macbeth, You Can’t Take It With You, The Wolves.

Regional: Scissoring, Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties (Voices In Alliance); As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing (Old School Shakespeare Omaha); Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (Benson Theatre); King Lear, R3³ (BLUEBARN Theatre); It’s A Wonderful Life (The Rose Theater). 

Film: Wed the Dark (Shoot Montana).

Education: B.A. in Theatre from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. 

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Tia James

Jocasta/Chorus (Colonus)

PlayMakers: Company member since 2018. Actor: The Royale, Confederates, Much Ado About Nothing, Clyde’s, Hamlet, Blues for an Alabama Sky, A Wrinkle in Time, Julius Caesar, Native Son. 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).PlayMakers Resident Vocal Coach.

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.”

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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Caroline Marques

Annelle

PlayMakers: Company member in their 2nd year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program with the Department of Dramatic Art. Steel Magnolias, You Can’t Take It With You, The Wolves; The Flick (PlayMakers/DDA Ground Floor).

University: Exit, Pursued by a Bear; Something Rotten! the Musical; Nia; Anna K. (Kenan Theatre Company). 

Film: Dream Killers (Student Film).

Education: BA in Dramatic Arts and BA in Global Studies at UNC Chapel Hill. 

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Trevele Morgan

Priest/Chorus (Tyrannos)

PlayMakers: Company member in their 2nd year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program with the Department of Dramatic Art. You Can’t Take It With You. The Flick, Back Back Back (PlayMakers/DDA Ground Floor)

Regional: Kill Move Paradise (Playhouse on the Park); Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Connecticut Repertory Theatre); The Flick (Jobsite Theatre); Voodoo Macbeth (Studio 620); As You Like It (Jobsite Theatre); William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead (Hat Trick Theatre).

Education: B.F.A. in Theatre Performance from the University of South Florida.

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Adam Moskowitz

Chorus (Tyrannos)

PlayMakers: Company member in their 2nd year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program with the Department of Dramatic Art. You Can’t Take It With You. Back Back Back (PlayMakers/DDA Ground Floor)

Regional: Fat Ham (FireHouse Theatre & Virginia Stage Company); The Three Musketeers, Henry V, Dreamgirls (Virginia Stage Company). 

University: The Brother Size (Elegba); The Color Purple (Norfolk State University Theatre Company); A Soldier’s Play (co-pro with Virginia Arts Festival); LP Migration (World Premiere) written & directed by Broadway playwright Keenan Scott II (NSU Theatre Company).

Film: 72 Whaler (Scribble Cinema).

Education/ Awards: B.A. Norfolk State University; KC/ACTF Distinguished Performance by an Actor (Thoughts of a Colored Man) 2024.

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Celeste Pelletier

Antigone

PlayMakers: Company member in their 2nd year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program with the Department of Dramatic Art. You Can’t Take It With You, The Wolves.

Regional: It’s A Wonderful Life, The Burn Vote, The Wolves, The Little Prince (River & Rail Theatre); King Lear, Althea and Angela (The Word Players); A Kid Like Jake, The Thanksgiving Play (Flying Anvil Theatre).

University: Airness, Three Sisters, Top Girls (Clarence Brown Theatre).

Film: The Fool (Yenno Studio).

Education: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Tennessee Knoxville, double major in Theatre (Acting Concentration).

Awards: Winning Playwright of the Tennessee Stage Company’s New Play Development Series. 

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Carey Perloff

Adaptor & Director

PlayMakers: Debut.

Director: Leopoldstadt (Huntington, STC, Writers Theater), Waste (Marin Theatre), The Oedipus Project (Red Bull Theater), As You Like It (SCS), The Lehman Trilogy (Huntington and St. Louis), Ghosts (Seattle Rep and Williamstown), A Thousand Splendid Suns (Arena).

Upcoming: The Cherry Orchard (Marin).

Writer & Director: Vienna, Vienna, Vienna (Colorado New Play Festival 2025), If God Were Blue (Denver New Play Summit 2025), Edgardo or White Fire, Higher (Laurie Prize), Luminescence Dating (EST, NY and Magic Theater SF), Kinship (Theatre de Paris starring Isabelle Adjani, WTF starring Cynthia Nixon) and The Fit (SF Playhouse 2019).

Author: Pinter and Stoppard: A Director’s View and Beautiful Chaos: A Life in the Theater.

Education/Other: A director, playwright, producer and educator who served as Artistic Director of the A.C.T. from 1992- 2018 and CSC Repertory in NYC from 1986-1992.  She teaches Directing at Columbia University.

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David Coulter

Composer & Musician

PlayMakers: Debut.

Composer: A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hamlet (A.C.T.); Medea, Bakkhai, Oedipus at Colonus, Helen, Ion (Legion of Honor); Ghosts (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Seattle Rep); The Eldership Project (Improbable); Agamemnon (UC Columbia); Frankenstein Revived (Stratford Festival); As You Like It (Santa Cruz Shakespeare); The Trials (UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Playhouse); Shades and Shadows (Magic Theatre, SF).

Director: In Dreams: David Lynch Revisited (Opera de Strasbourg, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Royal Festival Hall), Swordfishtrombones: Revisited (Barbican Concert Hall, Dublin National Concert Hall).

Awards/Other: Betty Mitchell Award for best score for a new play for A Thousand Splendid Suns. David Coulter composes for the stage, theatre, dance and film and builds various experiences out of sound. He has written, directed, recorded, produced and played with numerous artists such as Tom Waits, The Pogues, Kronos Quartet, Laurie Anderson, Yoko Ono, Wes Anderson, Claire Denis, Marianne Faithfull, Damon Albarn, Gorillaz and the Royal Shakespeare Company. David Coulter was didgeridoo player to HM Queen Elizabeth II. Current member of Eco Performance Lab at UC Berkeley.

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Lex Liang

Scenic & Costume Designer

PlayMakers: Primary Trust, Confederates, Emma.

Off-Broadway: 60+ productions.

Regional: Alliance Theatre, The Asolo, Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Dallas Theatre Center, Denver Center, The Goodman, The Guthrie, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, and many others.

Other: Founder and owner of LDC Design Associates, an experiential event and production company in NYC.  Recent projects/clients include Ubuntu Pathways: Fight For Good, Operation Smile’s 35th Anniversary Gala, Absolut Vodka, Invesco, The Tony Awards Gala, and BCBG’s 30-Year Retrospective.  www.lexliang.com

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Robert Wierzel

Lighting Designer

PlayMakers: Many plays from the mid 1980’s through the mid 1990’s.

Broadway: Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, FELA!, David Copperfield’s Dreams & Nightmares.

Off-Broadway/New York: A Walk On The Moon (musical), House Of McQueen, Indian Ink, Othello.

West End/International: Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam; Château de Versailles Spectacles, France; Royal National Theatre of London, UK; Opera Nationale de Paris, at the Palais Garnier.

Regional: Glimmerglass Festival; Washington National Opera; Atlanta Opera; Detroit Opera; Florida Grand Opera; Guthrie Theatre.

Dance: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane & Company- 1985 thru to the present.

Awards: Broadway World- 2025 Off-Broadway Award; Helen Hayes Design Award 2019; Tony Award- 2010 nomination; ‘Best Lighting in a Musical’ for Fela! 

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Jane Shaw

Sound Designer

PlayMakers: Debut.

Off-Broadway/New York: Archduke (Roundabout), Music City (Bedlam), Men on Boats, (Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons), Henry IV (Theatre for a New Audience), The Fears (Signature), Actually (MTC), Zack (The Mint), Grounded (P73), Mac Wellman’s Antigone (Classic Stage Company).

International: Dedication tour (Roger Peltzman), Wind-Up Bird Chronicles (Edinburgh International Festival), Wife to James Whelan (Jermyn Street Theatre).

Regional: Leopoldstadt (Huntington, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Writers Theater), A Doll’s House (Guthrie), Lend Me a Soprano (Alley), Rope, Rear Window (Hartford Stage),  Ken Ludwig’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (Alabama Shakespeare), Emma (Everyman), Billie Jean (Chicago Shakespeare), A View from the Bridge (Long Wharf), Mousetrap (Gulfshore), Amadeus (Pasadena Playhouse), The Wanderers (The Old Globe), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Bucks County).

Awards: Drama Desk, Connecticut Critics Circle, Henry Award, Bessie Award, Premios ACE 2012, NEA/TCG Career Development Grant, Meet the Composer Grant, Jeff &  Lortel nominations.

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Tracy Bersley

Choreographer

PlayMakers: Company member since 2016. Movement coach and resident choreographer. Recent highlights include directing Macbeth, Murder on the Orient Express and choreographing The Christmas Case of Hezekiah Jones, Fat Ham, Much Ado About Nothing, The Legend of Georgia McBride, and Hamlet.

Off-Broadway/New York: As director/choreographer— Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), The Lortel Theatre, Primary Stages, and many award-winning Off-Broadway companies, such as The Civilians and Red Bull Theatre.

Regional: As director/choreographer— Delaware Repertory Theater, Carolina Performing Arts, McCarter Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Eduction/Other: Served as professor or guest artist at Yale School of Drama, Princeton University, New York University, Purchase College, Columbia University/Barnard College, and The Juilliard School. Tracy received her MFA in Directing from Syracuse University and is currently head of movement of the Professional Actor Training Program in the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill, a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and a Drama League Fellow.

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Gwendolyn Schwinke

Vocal Coach

PlayMakers: Company member since 2019.Voice/Dialect Coach: Macbeth, You Can’t Take it With You, The Royale, Confederates, What the Constitution Means to Me, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, The Game, Murder on the Orient Express, Fat Ham, Much Ado About Nothing, Clyde’s, Emma, Native Gardens, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Yoga Play, Dairyland, Native Son, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, The Skin of Our Teeth, A Wrinkle in Time. Actor: You Can’t Take It With You, Murder on the Orient Express, Much Ado About Nothing, The Skin of Our Teeth, As You Like It.

International: Voice/Text/Dialect/Somatic Coach: Macbeth, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Roman Daggers, The Winter’s Tale (Prague Shakespeare Company), Company season training (Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble).

New York & Regional: Voice and Text Coaching for over 50 professional shows, including over 25 Shakespeare productions, and 50-plus different international or regional accents. Utah Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare & Company (seven seasons), Clarence Brown Theatre, Oxford Shakespeare Festival, Frank Theatre, Cheap Theatre, Atlantic Stage. Actor: Carlyle Brown & Company, Oxford Shakespeare Festival, Frank Theatre, Red Eye Collaboration, Minnesota Shakespeare Project, Atlantic Stage, Old Creamery Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

Teaching: David G. Frey Scholar/Associate Professor of Voice & Speech at UNC-Chapel Hill, Faculty Member at Shakespeare & Company and Prague Shakespeare Company. Designated Linklater Voice Teacher and Mentor/Trainer, Guild-certified Feldenkrais Teacher, Certified Teacher of Louis Colaianni Approach to Speech & Accents.

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Adam Versényi

Dramaturg

PlayMakers: Resident Dramaturg, PlayMakers Repertory Company, 1988–2026. Recently: Macbeth, What the Constitution Means to Me, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, The Skin of Our Teeth, Julius Caesar, Native Son, Life of Galileo. 7 Stages; NEA Playwrighting Fellows Program; Theatre Previews at Duke; Critics Panel, IV Hispanic Theatre Festival (Teatro Avante); Florida Studio Theatre; Yale Repertory Theatre; La MaMa E.T.C.; Festival Latino (New York Shakespeare Festival).

Directing: The Nutcracker (PlayMakers); The Agony of Ecstasy; El Día Que Me Quieras; The Black American Dream; Hughie; The Indians Were Angry; Bitter Blood; The Lesson; No Exit.

Publications: The Dramaturgy of Space, Ramón Griffero: Your Desires in Fragments and Other Plays.; The Theater of Sabina Berman: The Agony of Ecstasy and Other Plays; El Teatro en América Latina; Theatre in Latin America: Religion, Politics, and Culture from Cortes to the 1980s.

Other: Fulbright Senior Lecturer, Colombia, South America. Member, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.

Faculty: UNC-Chapel Hill; Deep Springs College; Escuela de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia; Escuela Nacional de Arte Dramático, Bogotá, Colombia.

Education: DFA, Yale School of Drama.

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Aspen Blake Jackson

Stage Manager

PlayMakers: Steel Magnolias, Primary Trust,The Wolves,Confederates, The Shot, The Christmas Case of Hezekiah Jones, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Murder on the Orient Express, Much Ado About Nothing, Clyde’s, They Do Not Know Harlem, Native Gardens. Hello, Dolly!, Pippin, The Prom, The Drowsy Chaperone, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Summer Youth Conservatory).Aspen is delighted to be returning for her fifth season with PlayMakers Repertory Company. A graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Vocal Performance and Dramatic Arts.

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Devon Currie

Assistant Stage Manager

PlayMakers: Debut.

Regional: Million Dollar Quartet, Pump Boys & Dinettes, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again], Every Brilliant Thing, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (The Hippodrome State Theatre), Veremonda (Yale Baroque Opera Project), Elixir of Love (Gulfshore Opera), Macbeth, Pericles, and A Flea In Her Ear (Michigan Shakespeare Festival).

Education: BA from UNC Greensboro, MFA in Stage Management from Wayne State University.

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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

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Thank you to all organizations who make our 50th Anniversary Season possible!

Foundation Support

Joan H. Gillings Foundation, Hellendall Family Foundation of North Carolina, Kyser Foundation, Robertson Foundation, Shubert Foundation, The Churchill Group, The Educational Foundation of America 

Corporate Trade Partners

Craven Allen Gallery & House of Frames, Glasshalfull, Larry’s Coffee, Pineapple Sol Catering, University Florist, Vimala’s Curryblossom Café

PlayMakers 50th Anniversary Ball Sponsors

Presenting Sponsor: The Polk Wealth Management Group at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management 

Gold Sponsors: Pyramis Wealth Management Group of Wells Fargo Advisors, Anonymous 

Silver Sponsors: The Arts and Sciences Foundation, Inc., Dwell Real Estate, Rivers Agency 

Sponsors: American Party Rentals, Brown Advisory, The Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill Restaurant Group, Erin and Company Real Estate, Glasshalfull, Hart and Jahoo Real Estate Group, HuthPhoto, Pam Heavner Designs, Six Cups of Flowers, University Florist 

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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.

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

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

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For this Production

Administration

Vivienne Benesch, Producing Artistic Director

Artistic

Jeff Aguiar, Director of Engagement
Brigette Bagley, Assistant to Producing Artistic Director
Tracy Bersley, Movement Coach/Choreographer 
Chelsea James,Associate Producer
Tia James, Vocal Coach
Jacqueline E. Lawton, Dramaturg
Mark Perry, Dramaturg
Gwendolyn Schwinke, Vocal Coach
Lexi Silva, Senior Dramaturg
Georgia Wood, Artistic Assistant Work Study

Management

Lisa Geeslin, Accountant
Amy Evans, General Manager
Zoë Lord, Assistant General Manager
Maura J. Murphy, Director of Operations
Susan Williams, Accounting Technician
Ella Hawn, Administration Work Study

External Relations

Tina CoyneSmith, Director of External Relations
Lenore Field, Special Events Coordinator
Anna Fletcher, Assistant Director of Annual Giving

Marketing & Audience Services

TJ Carr, Graphic Designer and Media Specialist
Alex James, Audience Services Associate
Salem Jones, Audience Services Associate
Nora Kerwin, Audience Services Associate
Hannah LaMarlowe, Associate Director of Marketing
Thomas Porter, Box Office Manager
Rosalie Preston, Director of Marketing and Sales
Ava Wells, Audience Services Associate
Christopher Bailey, Maggie Thornton,
Student House Managers
Micah Kennel, Student Box Office Manager
Alex Lankford, Student Assistant
Lynlee Collins, Ella Flaim, Lindsey Kanipe, Talise Koonce, An Thanh Nguyen, Leah Page, Kas Perez, Mira Teague, Box Office and Front of House Work Study

Department of Dramatic Art

Kathryn Hunter-Williams, Chair and Associate Professor

FACULTY

Judy Adamson, Professor Emerita 
Vivienne Benesch, Professor of the Practice
Tracy Bersley, Associate Professor
Pamela Bond, Assistant Professor
James Bray, Teaching Assistant Professor
Jan Chambers, Professor Emerita
McKay Coble, Professor Emerita
Jeffrey Blair Cornell, Professor Emeritus
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, Associate Professor 
Gregory Kable, Teaching Professor Emeritus
Jacqueline E. Lawton, Professor
Matthew Mallard, Lecturer
Triffin Morris, Professor of the Practice
David Navalinsky, Professor
Bobbi Owen, Distinguished Professor Emerita
Laura Pates, 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
Aubrey Snowden, Teaching Assistant Professor
Craig Turner, Professor Emeritus
Adam Versényi, Professor Emeritus
Tao Wang, Assistant Professor

Administration

Piper Shipley, Program Specialist
Teresa Greene, KTC Technical Director
Jocelyn Chatman, Costume Inventory Specialist
Lisa Geeslin, Accounting Technician
Taylor McDaniel, Student Services Manager
Kevin Pendergast, Assistant to the Head of the Technical Production MFA Program
Karen Rolleri, Business Coordinator
Sarah Tackett, Director of Business Administration

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Production

Michael Rolleri, Production Manager

Costumes

Jocelyn Chatman, Costume Shop Manager
Matthew Mallard, Assistant Costume Director
Triffin Morris, Costume Director
Janis Nordeen, Wardrobe Supervisor
Rachel Pollock, Costume Craftsperson
Alice Crist, Kris Kingsolver, Bailey Mae Doran, Mackenzie Privett, Aerial Sanders, Brynn Turner, 
Francis Werth, Costume Production Graduate Students
Ellie Steever, First Hand/Stitcher
Saturn Brundick, Ellison Brown, Katherine Craig, Costume Shop Undergraduate Assistants
Ava Kennel, Costume Stock Work Study
Maya Tilson, COSTAR Historic Costume Collection Assistant  Work Study
Naomi Eckhaus, Eva Hoke, Susan Newcomer, Costume Shop Volunteers

Lighting

Benjamin Bosch, Electrics Supervisor
Maize Aubin, Production Swing for Lighting & Sound
Pezhi Li (Kimi), Undergrad Assistant

Props

Eden Clementine, Swing Scenic Artist/Props Artisan
Sam Gainer, Props Artisan
Lauren Reinhartsen, Properties Supervisor
Evan Wilker, Props Undergraduate Assistant
Ava Casey, Work Studies

Stage Management

Aspen Blake Jackson, Stage Manager
Devon Currie, Stage Manager
Emma Clements, Production Assistant

Sound

Nick Rodgers, Sound Supervisor
Jayden Alexander Peszko, Work Studies

Scenic

Brandon “Bruce” Hearrell, Shop Supervisor
Laura Pates, Technical Director
Rachel Van Namen, Associate Technical Director
Diane Zimmerman, Scenic Charge Artist
Lucas Branch, Gibson Cameron, Erica Meece, Kaden Reynard, Josh Zietak, Technical Production Graduate Students
Devon Smith, Diana Lopez Zapata, Scene Shop 
Undergrad Assistant
Eliza Mariano, Scenic Painting Undergrad Assistant
Connor Gould, Eliza Hage, Makaela Mainor, Veta “Koa” Torres, Scenic Painting Work Study

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Friends of PlayMakers

Director’s Circle ($10,000+)

Bill and Andrea Bates

John Watson and Betsy Blackwell

Munroe and Becky Cobey

Chanel and Ford D’Aprix

Kay Kohring-DaSilva and Keith DaSilva

David* and Judith Frey

Alston Gardner and Barb Lee

Joanne and Pete Garrett

Deborah and Michael Gerhardt

Joan Gillings*

Dustin and Susan Gross

Garrett Hall and Zach Howell

Matt and Bobbi Hapgood

Chan and Monie Hardwick

Betty Kenan*

Tom Kenan

Sharon Lawrence

Sylvia Mills*

Paula Noell and Palmer Page

Ariana Pancaldo and Michael Salemi

Roger and Linda Perry

Wyndham Robertson

Coleman Ross

Tim and Jane Sullivan

Cynthia Strickland Graham

Alan Weinhouse

Ford and Allison Worthy

Angel ($5,000–9,999)

Vivienne Benesch

Patrick Brennan and Lillian Jenks

Jan and Steve Capps

Tom and Cindy Cook

Gail Fearing and Guy Crabtree

Phil and Kim Phillips

Shelley Earp

Linda and Jaroslav Folda

Bryan and Emily Hassel

Brad and Debra Ives

Peggy Link-Weil and Michael Weil

Lou Patalano

Jodi Patalano

Amy and Nick Penwarden

Lee and Amy Perry

Phil and Kim Phillips

Karen Popp and M.C. Ragsdale

Brad and Laura Ross

Robert and Tobi Schwartzman

Haley Tantleff Swindal

Elissa and Joe Vona

Katie Woodbury

Phyllis and Edward Wright

Bonnie and Jim Yankaskas

Investor ($2,500–4,999)

David and Judith Adamson

Alicia Allred

Jeff and Jennifer Allred

Deirdre and Richard Arnold

Brad and Cheryl Briner

Andy Church and Joni Walser

Jeffrey Cornell and Maria Savage

Jim and Jan Dean

Susan Hartley

Jane Preyer and Lark Hayes

Ron Hellendall

Dottie Heninger

David Howell

Brian and Moyra Kileff

Kim Kwok

Stuart and Duncan Lascelles

Winston Liao

Paul and Linda Naylor

Frank and Ellen Proctor

Alec Rhodes

Karen and Michael Rolleri

John and Emily Glenn Ruch

Sallie Shuping-Russell and Ed Spence

Perry Silver

Trey and Jackie Tanner

Riley and Wendy Waugh

Roger and Marlene Werner

Gerald and Roberta Whittington

Sandy and Jennifer Williams

Alan Young

Page to Stage ($1,500–2,499)

Marie and Mike Andreasen

Keith and Iris Archuleta

Katherine and Andrew Asaro

Steve Benezra

Pat Beyle

Kymberly Burkhead-Dalton

Jennifer Cannizzaro

Brian and Julie Daniels

Patrick Gale and Carrie Donley

John and Diane Formy-Duval

Evan and Erin Gwyn

Cheryl and Toby Harrell

Lynne Kane

Cathy Kuhn and Glenn Tortorici

Robert and Kathryn Kyle

Thomas and Earlyn Lawrence

Bruce and Marlee Margulies

Holly and Ross McKinney

Mark and Julie Morris

Tina Patterson

John and G Powell

Sidney and Sally Wright

Heather and David Yeowell

Partner ($1,000–1,499)

Howard and Penny Aldrich

Jeremy Arkin and Marian Fragola

Brooke Barnett and Tom Mould

John Becton and Nancy Tannenbaum

Neal and Jeanette Bench

Greg and Megan Blackwell

Fiona Brady and Carl Mehling

Jack Knight and Margaret Brown

Eleanor and Ed Burke Jr.*

Keith Burridge and Patricia Saling

Cliff and Linda Butler

Martha Ann Keels and Dennis Clements

Elizabeth Eagle and David Crews

Joan East

Jack and Pat Evans

James Faber and Mary Musacchia

Carolyn and John Falletta*

Drucie French

Mathew Gerard

Buck and Kay Goldstein

Bob and Dana Greenwood

Julia and Bill Grumbles

Kevin Johnson

Hugon Karwowski and Joanna Karwowska

Thomas and Shirley Kunkel

Anand Lagoo and Sandhya Lagoo-Deenadayalan

Sarah Gray Lamm

Mort and Cheryl Malkin

Lyn Maness

Ed and Connie McCraw

Pam Miller

Kurt Newman

Charles and Sue Plambeck

Mark and Eugenea Pollock

Jodi and Glenn Preminger

David and Jenny Routh

Carole Shelby

Ken Smith

Roger Van Der Horst

Mal and Amanda Watlington

John and Ashley Wilson

* indicates deceased 

The above list represents patrons who have made gifts to PlayMakers between July 1, 2024 and March 1, 2026.

A heartfelt thanks to the Friends of PlayMakers whose generosity makes it possible to produce world-class theatre here in Chapel Hill.  For more information about supporting PlayMakers, or to request request a correction to the listing above, please contact Tina CoyneSmith, director of external relations, at 919.962.4846 or tc@unc.edu.

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

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Patron Spotlight

Betsy Blackwell and John Watson

When we decided to retire, Chapel Hill felt like coming home. As college sweethearts, we have deep roots here, but we were also drawn back by a community that genuinely values the arts. We feel fortunate to live in a place that is home to one of the nation’s premier professional repertory theatres, where generations of actors, designers, technicians, and artisans have honed their craft while inspiring audiences along the way.

This year PlayMakers celebrates 50 years as a professional theatre!  Supporting the theatre’s 50th anniversary with a gift of $50,000 gift felt both symbolic and necessary. PlayMakers has never thought small. From daring productions with artists from around the world who perform alongside our resident Company, PlayMakers consistently delivers work of a caliber you’d expect in New York or London.  And it is right here in our backyard.  That has always mattered to us. We believe everyone, everywhere, deserves access to world‑class, life-changing theatre.

Giving at this level is our way of saying thank you—and of saying yes to the future. The past 50 years were built by people who believed in the power of art and invested in it. We feel a responsibility to do the same, ensuring that PlayMakers can continue to take creative risks, nurture talent, and welcome new audiences through its doors.

For us, theatre is not passive; it invites conversation, empathy, and connection. Especially now, those experiences feel essential. Our gift is an investment in a shared cultural space that brings people together and reminds us of our common humanity. We hope you will consider joining us in giving 50 for 50!  When you give to PlayMakers, you are sustaining an important local treasure, ensuring its legacy and helping shape the next 50 years of storytelling in our community.

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Some of the best scenes happen around a table.

Pineapple Sol builds charcuterie boards and grazing tables for the gatherings that matter: opening nights and cast parties, showers, milestone birthdays, and holidays. Charcuterie Boards serve 15 to 30. Grazing tables start at 50 guests and run past 300, delivered and styled on site by our team. We also cater breakfast, brunch, and lunch across the Triangle, all from our all-day café at Waverly Place in Cary.

pineapplesol.com/charcuterie 
(919) 746-0888

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