The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder. PlayMakers Repertory Company. November 10-28, 2021. Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art | playmakersrep.org | 919.962.7529

Letter from Vivienne
Support PlayMakers
Who We Are
Title Page
Program Notes
About Thornton Wilder
Actor Bios
Creative Team Bios
General Information
PlayMakers Staff
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Desktop Computer Version of playbill available here

Letter from Viv. Vivienne Benesch, Producing Artistic Director
Dear Friends,

Welcome and Welcome Back!

That seems like an understatement. After a year of U-turns, hard rights, and full stops, it is thrilling to be back up and running and to have you with us in the audience. We have learned so much during the last year – about ourselves, our shared humanity and the power and resilience of our spirit, collective and individual. As I was exploring the possibilities for a new season after a year with our doors closed, my mind kept returning to Thornton Wilder’s wildly theatrical and vividly relevant The Skin of Our Teeth.

Over the last months, working with our fantastic company of artists and technicians, this play has revealed itself to be even more thrilling for our present moment. Its audacious storytelling creates an evening of theater that is everything an artist could strive for: provocative, compelling, funny and deeply profound. Its resonances have only compounded over time, revealing a roller coaster-like adventure, and I hope you’ll hop on board and ride the ride.

The Skin of Our Teeth also marks Ray Dooley’s final performance as a resident company member with PlayMakers. While this doesn’t mean he won’t be back to play with us, it is the beginning of a new chapter for PlayMakers, UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program and for the Triangle community. Ray has lit and nurtured a fire of creativity and passion for the craft of acting in hundreds of young people and made an indelible impression on the history of PlayMakers Repertory Company. I am so grateful that he chose to make PlayMakers and UNC his artistic home. A home where, in Thornton Wilder’s words “We’ve learned. We’re learning. And the steps of our journey are marked for us here.” Thank YOU too, dear patron, for making PlayMakers part of your journey.

Warmly,

Vivienne

Support PlayMakers. A Letter from Amy Guskiewicz, Advisory Council Chair

It is my pleasure to serve another year as the chair of the PlayMakers Advisory Council and welcome you back to the Paul Green Theatre stage for our 2021-22 season.

Our five-show season was born out of the need to celebrate the healing power of human connection after a year that challenged us all. We believe that the theatre will have an important role to play in making sense of the complex world in which we find ourselves in. When I walk out of PlayMakers after a show, I always say how lucky we are to have a theater with such world-class performances right here in Chapel Hill. This season, I am grateful for the opportunity to experience PlayMakers’ signature variety of shows, live and in person once again!

In addition to an impressive lineup of powerful performances, PlayMakers continues its work serving the Triangle community and beyond. We are privileged to provide unique learning opportunities for K–12 classrooms and UNC students, creating new ways to engage with our local artists and advocates, and make the power and joy of theatre accessible to underserved communities.

Theatre is and always will be a place for community. And it is up to us—the community—to ensure that PlayMakers continues to thrive. Gifts from patrons like you will be critical to our success as we navigate reopening after more than a year away from producing live theatre with in-person audiences. If you enjoy and believe in the power of the theatre as I do, I invite you to become a Friend of PlayMakers. Please make a tax-deductible contribution to the annual fund, pledge a monthly donation as a Sustainer, or offer a campaign gift to strengthen and sustain PlayMakers’ vision for the future.

I truly believe that there has never been a more important time to support the arts. Join me in championing our local theatre—an organization that makes a difference in our community. As Joan Gillings often said, “You will sit a little taller in your theatre seat, knowing you made a difference, too.”

Thank you!

Warmly,

Amy Guskiewicz

Donate

PlayMakers Advisory Council

Amy Guskiewicz, Chair
Betsy Blackwell, Vice Chair
Duncan Lascelles, Vice Chair
Joanne Garrett
Deborah Gerhardt
Bobbi Hapgood
Janelle Hoskins
Betty Kenan, emeritus
Stuart Lascelles
Robert Long, emeritus
Graig Meyer
Julie Morris
Florence Peacock
Diane Robertson
Wyndham Robertson
Carol Smithwick
Jackie Tanner
Mike Wiley

In Memoriam

We Remember Joan Gillings

PlayMakers Repertory Company and the Department of Dramatic Art mourn the extraordinary loss of our dear friend, Joan H. Gillings, who passed away in February surrounded by family at her home in Wrightsville Beach, NC.

Joan was a lover of the arts and her dedication and support of our work was unparalleled. As a member of the PlayMakers Advisory Council for over 10 years, and its chair for 7, she worked closely with our staff on a multitude of projects including serving as chair for our annual PlayMakers Ball for many years, participating in our Producing Artistic Director search in 2015, and building lasting relationships with our students and faculty. Her transformational gift in 2017 has allowed us to expand opportunities for our students, support dynamic new work on our stages, and enhance performance and outreach offerings in our community. For Joan, her philanthropy and enthusiasm always came back to one thing – “the kids,” as she liked to call them – and her love for UNC can be felt and seen all over our campus. She brought an unmistakable joy and enthusiasm every time she entered our building and we aspire to carry that spirit forward in everything we do.

We are forever grateful to have known Joan and are honored to carry on her transformational legacy through our work in the building that bears her name. She will be sorely missed.

Join us in Celebration of Ray Dooley

Sunday, December 5
3pm

This fall, beloved professor and resident PlayMakers company member Ray Dooley is retiring after more than 30 years with the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Ray has worn many hats during his time here – actor, scholar, department chair, head of the Professional Actor Training Program, mentor, and friend. He has performed in 104 PlayMakers productions, in roles as far-ranging as Shakespearean kings and clowns, Salieri in Amadeus, Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac, and of course Bob Cratchit, Ebenezer Scrooge and dozens of characters in A Christmas Carol.

In celebration of Ray’s many contributions (too many to count, really, though we’ve been trying), we have established the Ray Dooley Artistic Excellence Fund.

JOIN US for a special Celebration of Ray Dooley, on Sunday, December 5 @ 3:00 pm at PlayMakers. Company members, alumni, patrons, and friends will gather for an afternoon that will be filled with shared memories, laughter, and probably a few tears.

Attend the Event

Donate to the Fund

All ticket proceeds and donations will benefit the RAY DOOLEY ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE FUND, which will honor Ray’s legacy as a teacher and actor. The Fund will support UNC-Chapel Hill’s Professional Actor Training Program and allow us to bring guest actors to PlayMakers, who will work with us, as Ray has, to continue teaching and inspiring the next generation of actors.

Who We Are

PlayMakers is…

“One of America’s Best Regional Theatres” (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. 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 work of becoming an anti-racist organization whose work is accessible to all.

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 five seasons have already given life to ten 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. The Vision Series, post-show discussions and a host of unique engagement opportunities – including the continuation of last season’s online PlayMakers Keeping You Company – 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 each year 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. We look forward to getting back on the road as soon as we can do so safely.

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 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 when we host live events, PlayMakers offers All Access performances for our patrons living with disabilities, we offer accessible $20 tickets for all performances, and tickets reduced to just $10 for UNC students and $12 for all other students. Our Spotlight on Service program also offers complimentary tickets to local service organizations. This season, we are proud to offer complimentary tickets to front-line workers in honor of their ongoing service to the community. For more information, please contact prcboxoffice@unc.edu.

Our Mission

As the premiere professional theatre company of North Carolina, PlayMakers Repertory Company strives to produce entertaining, relevant, and courageous work that tells stories from and for a multiplicity of perspectives and creates transformational impact in our immediate and extended communities.

Our Vision

Provoke
Represent
Create

Our Values

Artistic excellence and artistry
Education and training
Community engagement
Access and equity
Financial health
Discovery and innovation
Collaboration and communication
Culture of support

Antiracism Accountability Statement

At the heart of PlayMakers Repertory Company’s mission is the belief that theater 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.

We are grateful to Black, Indigenous and People of Color artists and administrators within our local community as well as the larger theatrical community across the country for the resources they’ve expended, both in time and emotional labor. Their work lays an important foundation for us by articulating some of the harmful practices that must change immediately as well as identifying pathways for the long-term evolution that must follow. In that light, this document is the beginning of a response to the demands for change made by the anti-racist organization #WeSeeYouWhiteAmericanTheater.

As a professional theatre company embedded in, and inextricably linked to the Department of Dramatic Art (DDA) at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, the path forward will be complex and singular. We will therefore be updating our action items and commitments continuously as our work evolves.

We at PlayMakers understand our responsibility not only to the artists, staff, and audiences with which we engage, but significantly, to the many students training here for a career in the theater.

For more information on our next steps, please read our full statement here.

These are not our first steps, and by no means our last. They are not perfect. And they are not enough. But they are steps forward. We invite you to come back to our website and our theater often and monitor our progress. We take our responsibility to this effort seriously and we welcome your involvement and assessment.

Land Acknowledgement

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, please join us in acknowledging and learning about the atrocities committed against these Nations and work with us towards inclusion, representation, and a better relationship with citizens of sovereign American Indian and Alaska Native nations.

Why is Land Acknowledgement important?

This statement is part of the continual interrogation of our own participation and complacency in colonial structures and a call for greater awareness, accountability, and intentionality in the work we do. As storytellers we are committed to learning and telling stories in ways that will have transformational impact in our immediate and extended communities.

We are excited by future partnerships with Native Americans and look forward to sharing this journey of knowledge and growth with you.

Learn more: UNC American Indian Center

PlayMakers presents

The Skin of Our Teeth

by Thornton Wilder

Directed by Vivienne Benesch

NOV 10-28, 2021

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

THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH ©1942 The Wilder Family LLC
Copyright agent: Alan Brodie Representation Ltd.
www.alanbrodie.com

PlayMakers is the Professional Theatre of the Department of Dramatic Art
Adam Versényi, Chair
Vivienne Benesch, Producing Artistic Director
Nichole Gantshar, Managing Director
Produced in association with The College of Arts & Sciences
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Il Palio Restaurant

Program Notes

“My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped by the skin of my teeth.”
Job 19:20

“On the stage it is always now.”
Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder (1897—1975) is one of a small group of playwrights to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama more than once. His Pulitzer Prizes were awarded for Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). He also won several literary prizes, including the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927). The Skin of Our Teeth is Wilder’s most potent theatrical manifestation of the central theme that runs throughout all his plays and novels: the connection between the particular and the universal.

Wilder’s fascination with the relationship between the multitude and the individual began at the age of nine. His father, a newspaper editor and publisher in Madison, WI, moved the family to Hong Kong to serve as President Theodore Roosevelt’s Consul General. Sent to an English boarding school in Chefoo, China the young Thornton Wilder found himself literally walled off from the Chinese culture he longed to explore in all its complexity. Taking classes in German, French, Latin, and English, but none in Chinese, he came to see Chinese culture as lacking concern for any individual life, a cultural misconception that forms the basis of his lifelong thematic emphasis upon the unique value of each individual amidst the complexity, multiplicity, and diversity of the universe.

Graduating from Yale College in 1920, Wilder spent eight months in Rome on an American Academy in Rome Fellowship. While there he wrote to his family of exploring “a newly discovered tomb from about the first century; it was under a street near the center of the city, and while candle-lit we peered at faded pictures of a family called Aurelius…the streetcars of today rushed by above us. We were clutching at the past to recover the loves and pieties and habits of the Aurelius family, while the same elements were passing above us.” Through the Antrobus family in The Skin of Our Teeth, Wilder shows us how “clutching at the past” of human experience prevents us from groping towards the future.

It is no accident that Wilder takes the title of his play from the Biblical Book of Job, but where Job’s trials and tribulations lead him to invoke divine intervention, the Antrobus family continually draws upon human invention and resourcefulness. Writing amidst the ongoing devastation of World War II, Wilder presents us with a family that suffers natural disasters, internal dysfunction, and the deadly human conflict of war, yet eternally returns and perseveres. Overlaying time periods from the Ice Age to the present, Wilder gives us a world of cycles of human resilience with one constant: change. As his character Sabina states, “In the midst of life we are in the midst of death”. Life and death are inextricably linked, and Wilder clearly urges us to choose life throughout the play.

Tallulah Bankhead in the original Broadway production of The Skin of Our Teeth, 1942.

Despite all that the Antrobus family confronts over the course of three acts they, and we, find joy in the chaos of figuring out how to survive, and hope in humanity’s ability to prevail over desolation. Each cycle explores both the force of nature and of natural disasters. Each cycle asks as human beings what can we make better? Each cycle wonders what have we done to harm and/or sustain each other? Amidst the play’s depiction of the power of the past on the present and the future Wilder gives us the full range of life: dark and light, good and evil, the comic and the tragic; while continually maintaining that it is our ability to choose which path to follow that defines us. The Antrobuses are both a specific family and all of us, they are the microcosm and the macrocosm whose repeated daily tasks and rituals and individual clarity are contrasted against their place in the larger universe.

Wilder’s focus on repetition, however, views such repetition not as stagnation but rather as a slow, series of cycles of accretion of knowledge that lead us towards enlightenment. Or, for us theatre folk, a series of “rehearsals”. The return to the same scene represents a process of discovery and a deepening of understanding, of growth. As one critic has stated, “progress is both the point and the plot of Wilder’s plays.” Neither dwelling upon the past nor obsessing about the future creates the ability to move forward. To do so you must be in the moment.

Wilder wrote The Skin of Our Teeth while the Nazi war machine advanced through Europe and Africa, unleashing what we would come to know as the horrors of the Holocaust. In the last eighteen months we have been tested by a global pandemic, an insurrection in our nation’s capital, and individual loss of life on our own campus. This PlayMakers production of The Skin of Our Teeth places the Antrobus family in 1942, the early 1980s, and sometime soon in the future, as they experience natural disasters and war, explore the gaps between their own self-conceptions of identity and how others perceive them, and constantly demonstrate the necessity of human resilience, forward momentum, and hope for a better future. Written and first performed in 1942 The Skin of Our Teeth is always now.

–Adam Versényi, Dramaturg

Larry's Coffee

Thornton Wilder

Playwright

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was a novelist and playwright whose works celebrate the connection between the commonplace and the cosmic dimensions of human experience. He is the only writer to win Pulitzer Prizes for both drama and fiction: for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and two plays, Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. His other novels include The Cabala, The Woman of Andros, Heaven’s My Destination, The Ides of March, The Eighth Day and Theophilus North. His other major dramas include The Matchmaker (adapted as the musical Hello, Dolly!) and The Alcestiad. The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, Pullman Car Hiawatha and The Long Christmas Dinner are among his well-known shorter plays. He enjoyed enormous success as a translator, adaptor, actor, librettist and lecturer/teacher and his screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt remains a classic psycho-thriller to this day. Wilder’s many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. More information on Thornton Wilder and his family is available in Penelope Niven’s definitive biography, Thornton Wilder: A Life (2013) as well as on the Wilder Family website.

Thornton Niven Wilder Chronology

1897 Born in Madison, Wisconsin (April 17)
1906 Moves to Hong Kong in May and to Berkeley, California in October
1906-10 Emerson Public School in Berkeley
1910-11 China Inland Mission School, Chefoo, China (one year)
1912-13 Thacher School, Ojai, California (one year). First play known to be produced: The Russian Princess
1915 Graduates from Berkeley High School; active in school dramatics
1915-17 Oberlin College; published regularly
1920 B.A. Yale College (3-month service in 1918 with U.S. Army in 1918); many publications
1920-21 American Academy in Rome (8-month residency)
1920s French teacher at Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey (’21-’25 & ’27-’28)
1924 First visit to the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire
1926 M.A. in French literature, Princeton University
The Trumpet Shall Sound produced off-Broadway (American Laboratory Theatre)
The Cabala (first novel)
1927 The Bridge of San Luis Rey (novel- Pulitzer Prize)
1928 The Angel That Troubled The Waters (first published collection of drama—playlets)
1930s Part-time faculty, University of Chicago (comparative literature and composition); lectures across the country;
first Hollywood screen-writing assignment (1934); extensive foreign travel
1930 The Woman of Andros (novel)
Completion of home for his family and himself in Hamden, Connecticut
1931 The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays (six one-act plays)
1932 Lucrece opens on Broadway staring Katharine Cornell (translation of André Obey’s Le Viol de Lucrèce)
1935 Heaven’s My Destination (novel)
1937 A Doll’s House (adaptation/ trans.) opens on Broadway with Ruth Gordon
1938 Our Town (Pulitzer Prize) and The Merchant of Yonkers open on Broadway
1942 The Skin of Our Teeth opens on Broadway (Pulitzer Prize)
Screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Shadow of a Doubt
1942-45 Service with Army Air Force in North Africa and Italy (Lieut. Col. at discharge–Bronze Star and O.B.E.)
1948 The Ides of March (novel); performing in his plays in summer stock in this period
The Victors opens off-Broadway (translation of Sartre’s Morts sans sépulture)
1949 Major role in Goethe Convocation in Aspen; lectures widely.
1951-52 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard
1952 Gold Medal for Fiction, American Academy of Arts and Letters
1953 Cover of Time Magazine (January 12)
1955 The Matchmaker opens on Broadway staring Ruth Gordon
The Alcestiad produced at Edinburgh Festival with Irene Worth (as A Life in the Sun)
1957 German Peace Prize
1961 Libretto for The Long Christmas Dinner (music by Paul Hindemith—premieres in Mannheim, West Germany)
1962 “Plays for Bleecker Street” (Someone from Assisi, Infancy, and Childhood) premiere at NYC’s Circle in the Square
Libretto for The Alcestiad (music by Louise Talma—premieres in Frankfurt, West Germany)
1963 Presidential Medal of Freedom
1964 Hello, Dolly! starring Carol Channing opens on Broadway
1965 National Book Committee’s Medal for Literature
1967 The Eighth Day (National Book Award for Fiction)
1973 Theophilus North (novel)
1975 Dies in sleep in Hamden, CT on December 7. Buried at Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Hamden, Connecticut

For more information, please visit www.thorntonwilder.com and www.twildersociety.org.

A note from The Thornton Wilder Family:

Although Thornton Wilder died in 1975, it was not until the new century that key archival holdings, notably records held by Wilder’s attorneys, dramatic agents and family members, became available and could be consulted by those wishing to build up a full, accurate picture of Wilder’s life and work.

Two volumes have been written since the full archive has been open and the Wilder Family highly recommends them to directors, dramaturgs, actors and members of the production team. They are excellent resources, providing background and context for the Play:

Thornton Wilder: A Life (2012) by Penelope Niven. The first definitive biography of Thornton Wilder, published by Harper Collins.

The Selected Letters of Thornton Wider (2008) edited by Robin G. Wilder and Jackson R. Bryer. A sampling of some of Wilder’s thousands of letters together with important biographical material.

Additional approved resources are listed below, providing further information about Wilder’s work; the correct places to approach for reprint rights for photographs, extracts from Wilder’s novels, plays and letters; plus ways to connect with Wilder experts and fans across the world. Theatre teams will find they are a great help in creating interesting and accurate programme notes and press releases.

Official website of Thornton Wilder – www.thorntonwilder.com. Contact: Rosey Strub rosey@thorntonwilder.com

Website of the Thornton Wilder Society – www.twildersociety.org

The Barbara Hogenson Agency. Wilder’s Literary Agent able to grant reprint permissions for
Wilder’s novels and plays. Contact: Barbara Hogenson bhogenson@aol.com

Beinecke Library at Yale University – www.beinecke.library.yale.edu. Holder of the Thornton
Wilder archive, including many rare papers, letters and photographs. Contact: Melissa Barton, Curator, Prose and Drama Melissa.barton@yale.edu.

Harper Collins Publishers – www.harpercollins.com. For published editions of Wilder’s novels and full length plays as well as the reference books listed above. Contact: Sofia Groopman, Assistant Editor Sofia.Groopman@harpercollins.com

Concord Theatricals – www.concordtheatricals.com. For acting editions of Wilder’s plays.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) – www.tcg.org. For collected editions of Wilder’s short plays. Contact: Kathy Sova, Editorial Director ksova@tcg.org

Residence Inn of Chapel Hill

Actor Bios

Cast List

in order of appearance

Announcers/Homer/Mr. Tremayne — Jeffrey Blair Cornell*
Sabina — Tori Jewell*
Fitz — Heinley Gaspard
Mrs. Antrobus — Kathryn Hunter-Williams*
Dinosaur (Frederick)/Chair Pusher — Khalil LeSaldo*
Mammoth (Dolly)/Conveener — AhDream Smith*
Telegraph Boy/Conveener — Jamar Jones
Gladys Antrobus — Omolade Wey*
Henry Antrobus — Anthony August*
Mr. Antrobus — Ray Dooley*
Doctor/Conveener/Fred Bailey — Adam Valentine
Professor/Conveener/Hester — Gwendolyn Schwinke*
Fortune Teller/Moses — Sergio Mauritz Ang*
Miss E Muse/Conveener — Hayley Cartee
Miss M Muse/Broadcast Official — Sanjana Taskar
Miss T Muse/Conveener/Ivy — Saleemah Sharpe
Conveener/Usher — Kendall Mason
Chair Pusher/Usher — Spencer Ellis

Sergio Mauritz Ang

Fortune Teller / Moses

PlayMakers: Company member in the third year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program. Julius Caesar, Ragtime. Wilder & Wilder (PlayMakers Mobile); I am Not Batman, Stop Kiss, Mud (PlayMakers Ground Floor).

New York: Colman Domingo’s The Brother[s] (Out of the Box Theatrics); Joker (National Queer Theater); Anna in the Tropics (The Gallery Players); Much Ado About Nothing (Classics in Color); Summertime (Between Two Boroughs); Empress of China (Yangtze Rep).

Regional: From Number to Name (East West Players); The Dalai Lama is Not Welcome Here (Arizona Theatre Company); Tomorrow Will Be Sunday (Chautauqua Theatre Company); Peter and the Starcatcher (Kitchen Theatre Company); Bruise and Thorn (PlayPenn); Mañanas de Abril y Mayo (Connecticut Free Shakespeare).

Awards: Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, National Commendation for Outstanding Performance in a Play for Boom by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb.

Education: BFA in Acting Brooklyn College; AAS in Early Childhood Education Hostos Community College; Vocal Music Major Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Arts and Performing Arts, NYC.

: @yoizsergyo
: @sergio.m.ang
: sergiomauritzang.com

Anthony August

Henry Antrobus

PlayMakers: Company member in third year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program. The Storyteller, Everybody, Ragtime. Wilder & Wilder (PlayMakers Mobile).

Regional: The Hunchback of Seville (Mildred’s Umbrella), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (The Ensemble Theater), Fade To Black Festival, This is Modern Art (The Landing Theatre Company), Macbeth (Encore Theatre).

University: When the Ancestors Call, Dutchman, A Raisin in the Sun, Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Mountaintop (Texas Southern University).

Education: Texas Southern University, B.A. in Theatre.

: @kingslick

Hayley Cartee

Miss E Muse / Conveener

PlayMakers: Debut. Company member in first year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program. A Durham native, Hayley almost made her PlayMakers debut when her mother went into labor in the Paul Green Theatre in the mid-90’s.

New York: All’s Well that Ends Well, The Tempest.

University: Titus Andronicus, Othello, Julius Caesar, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Education: NYU-Tisch School of the Arts; Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

: HayleyCartee.com

Jeffrey Blair Cornell

Announcers / Homer / Mr. Tremayne

PlayMakers: This marks Jeff’s 27th season with PlayMakers. Recently: Brutus in Julius Caesar, Father in Ragtime, Uncle Peck in How I Learned to Drive, Sipos in She Loves Me, and Darren (the Woodchuck) in Bewilderness. Some favorites: Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, Caliban in The Tempest, Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility, Roy Cohn in Angels in America, and Herr Schultz in 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, 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. Serves as Teaching Professor/Associate Chair in UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art.

Ray Dooley

Mr. Antrobus

PlayMakers: Company member since 1989. Most recently: The Storyteller, Ragtime, Life of Galileo, Bewilderness, She Loves Me, Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Broadway: Macbeth.

Off-Broadway: Three seasons with Classic Stage Company (OBIE Award for Distinguished Performance, Peer Gynt).

International: European premiere of Doubt (Vienna’s English Theatre); Amadeus, The Lark (Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, Canada).

Regional: Folger Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, American Shakespeare Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre Company, among many others.

Film/TV: Trainhopper, Changeover, The Trial of Standing Bear, Stonebrook, One Life to Live, Guiding Light.

Education/Other: MFA, American Conservatory Theater; BA, Hamilton College (Phi Beta Kappa). Professor Emeritus, UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Dramatic Art; C. Knox Massey Award for Unusual, Distinguished and Meritorious Service to the University. Member Actors’ Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA.

▶ Learn about A Celebration of Ray Dooley on December 5 and the new Ray Dooley Artistic Excellence Fund

Spencer Ellis

Chair Pusher / Usher

PlayMakers: Debut.

Senior undergraduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill. Showboat, Jekyll and Hyde, Little Shop of Horrors (Central Piedmont Community College); Mamma Mia (Matthews Playhouse), various technical positions at youth theaters in the area.

Heinley Gaspard

Fitz

PlayMakers: Debut. Company member in first year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program.

New York: Split Second (Theater 54 & IAITI), Macbeth (The Arthouse NY & Hudson Theatre works); Weekend 1967 (The Tank); More (TADA); Glass (JACK); The Belagio Fountain Has Been Known to Make Me Cry (HERE Arts); Edward II (Teatro LATEA); Fences (Hackensack Theatre).

TV/Film: Wutang: An American Saga (Hulu, 2021) The Sinner (USA, 2020), Entanglement (2019), On the Floor (2019), Good Morning (2019), Omniboat (2018, Sundance Film Festival), Heaven’s Hell (2017), Steps (2017), Coney Island Queen (2015, Cannes Film Festival), Saturday Night Live (“Drake’s Beef,” 2016), Usher’s Chain’s (2016), Funny or Die(2015).

Kathryn Hunter-Williams

Mrs. Antrobus

PlayMakers: Company member for 21 seasons. Recent and highlights include directing No Fear & Blues Long Gone, Count, plus acting in Edges of Time, Julius Caesar, Everybody, Life of Galileo, Skeleton Crew, Leaving Eden, Tartuffe, Dot, Intimate Apparel, The Crucible, Trouble in Mind, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Love Alone, A Raisin in the Sun, Imaginary Invalid, Henry IV & V, The Parchman Hour, Angels in America, Fences, Doubt, Yellowman, among others.

New York/Regional: Living Stage, The Negro Ensemble Company, Manhattan Class Company, New Dramatists, Archipelago Theater.

Education/Other: BFA, UNC School of the Arts; MFA, UNC-Chapel Hill. Kathryn is on the faculty of the Department of Dramatic Art, UNC-Chapel Hill, Company Artistic Associate for PlayMakers Rep and is Associate Director of HiddenVoices, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing life changing stories into a public forum.

Tori Jewell

Sabina

PlayMakers: Julius Caesar, Ragtime. Company member in third year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program. Wilder & Wilder (PlayMakers Mobile); Stop Kiss. References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot (PlayMakers Ground Floor).

Regional: Into the Breeches (Theatre Raleigh).

University: Her favorite shows throughout her undergraduate experience were A View From The Bridge (Company Carolina) and Hedda Gabler (Kenan Theatre Company).

Other: College Witch (YouTube), To the Girl I Never Kissed (YouTube)

Education: B.A. in Anthropology, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2019.

Jamar Jones

Telegraph Boy Conveener

PlayMakers: Debut. Company member in first year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program 

Regional: Fires in the Mirror, Passing Strange (Firehouse Theatre); Fences, Akeelah and the Bee (Virginia Repertory Theatre); Red Velvet (Quill Theatre); An Octoroon, Topdog/Underdog (The Conciliation Lab); Free Man of Color (The Heritage Ensemble Theatre Company); Choir Boy (Richmond Triangle Players/THETC); and Equus (Cadence Theatre Company).

University Guest Artist: Pure Confidence, Blues for Mister Charlie, The Story (University of Richmond).

Education/Awards: The College of William and Mary, B.A. Sociology and Theatre. 2019 Richmond Theatre Critics Circle Award, Best Actor in a Leading Role- Play for An Octoroon; 2020 RTCC Award, Ernie McClintock Best Ensemble Acting for Passing Strange.

Khalil LeSaldo

Dinosaur / Chair Pusher

PlayMakers: Company member in third year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program. Julius Caesar, Dairyland. Mud, References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot (PlayMakers Ground Floor).

New York: Sing, Care Full, Game Night.

Regional: We Can Eat Love, As You Like It, Julius Caesar (Portland Stage); Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet (Tenessee Shakespeare Company); A Manor of Speaking, Deep as Hell, Hell and Other Adventures, Deep as Hell 2: Wide as Hell (2Sheets Theater Company); Bug (60 Grit Theatre); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Mad Horse Theater Company); Princess Kaguya (Theater at Monmouth); To Kill a Mockingbird (The Theater Project); Hellcab, After (Profiles Theatre); Wait Until Dark (Jedlicka Performing Arts); Switch Tryptych (Big Picture Group).

Film / TV: Defending Jacob with Chris Evans, Chicago PD..

Education/Awards/Other: Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, Bowdoin College; Alice Merrill Mitchel Prize (2011); The Telling Room Story Slam Champion, Devising and Physical Theater (Celebration Barn).

Kendall Mason

Conveener / Usher

PlayMakers: Debut.

Senior undergraduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with courses in Dramatic Arts, Business Administration, and English.

Gwendolyn Schwinke

Professor / Conveener / Hester

PlayMakers: Onstage debut. Company member in her third season, Vocal Coach: Dairyland, Native Son, Julius Caesar, As You Like It.

Regional:
Voice/Text/Dialect Coach— Favorites include Merry Wives of Windsor, Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Cymbeline, Intimate Apparel, Merchant of Venice, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Ugly Lies the Bone, Comedy of Errors, Hamlet (Shakespeare & Company); Merry Wives…, Hamlet, The King and I (Oxford Shakespeare Festival); Boeing-Boeing, Lost in Yonkers (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.
Playwright— Plays developed and/or produced by Seattle Repertory Company, Cherry Lane Theatre, The Playwrights’ Center, Red Eye Collaboration, Judith Shakespeare Company, Jungle Theatre.
Teaching— David G. Frey Fellow/Assistant Professor of Voice & Speech at UNC-Chapel Hill, Company Member at Shakespeare & Company, Designated Linklater Voice Teacher and Teacher Trainer, Guild-certified Feldenkrais Teacher.

Saleemah Sharpe

Miss T Muse / Conveener / Ivy

PlayMakers: Debut. Company member in first year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program.

New York: King Lear (NY Classical).

University: As You Like It (Stella Adler Studio of Acting); King Lear, Soon Again Not Yet, Sopita (Royal Social Distance Company); Sins of the Father (Eden Theater Company); Significant Other (The Theatre Project); The Block (Lakai Dance Theatre); Ubu Roi, Straight Outta Kansas, Antigone (Montclair State University).

Film: The Girl With the Eyes (Independent film), Remission Accomplished (Student film).

Television: i-carly (Nickelodeon); Cartoon Network; The Electric Company (PBS Kids).

Education/Awards/Other: Montclair State University
B.A. Theatre Studies & a double-minor in Myth Studies & Business

: @Saleemah____

: @SaleemahSharpe

AhDream Smith

Mammoth / Conveener

PlayMakers: Julius Caesar. Company member in third year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program. Wilder & Wilder (PlayMakers Mobile); References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot (PlayMakers Ground Floor).

New York: The Talking Cure (Hudson Guild Theatre); Sistas on Fire (The Duke On 42nd Street); The Trojan Women, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Exception And The Rule (Shapiro Theatre).

Television: Silent Killer, The Honeymoon Killers, Death and The Maiden (Investigation Discovery).

Education/Awards/Other: Wesleyan University (B.A), William Esper, Stella Adler, Upright Citizens Brigade, Broadway Dance Center.

Sanjana Taskar

Miss M. Muse / Broadcast Official

PlayMakers: Debut. Company member in first year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program.

Regional: White Pearl (Studio Theatre); Three Women Walk Into Bar (Charm City Theatre Festival).

Education/Other: B.F.A. Acting, B.A. Sociology; University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Assistant Faculty member for Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE).

Adam Valentine

Doctor / Conveener / Fred Bailey

PlayMakers: Debut. Company member in first year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program.

Regional:Rodney in Small Mouth Sounds (Cadence Theatre); Chick in Stupid Kid (Firehouse Theatre); Stephano in The Tempest (Quill Theatre; Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (Virginia Repertory Theatre); Timothy in Hand To God (TheatreLab/5th Wall); Crispin in The Heir Apparent (Quill Theatre); J.D in Heathers: The Musical (TheatreLab/Firehouse);
and Roger in Maple and Vine (Firehouse).

Omolade Wey

Gladys Antrobus

PlayMakers: The Storyteller, Julius Caesar, Everybody. Company member in third year of UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program. Wilder & Wilder (PlayMakers Mobile); No Child, Stop Kiss, References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot (PlayMakers Ground Floor).

University: God & Country, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Insurrection: Holding History.

Education/Awards: Winner of the Director’s Company Next Wave Initiative Hattie McDaniel Acting Scholarship. BSFS in Culture & Politics from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Creative Team Bios

Vivienne Benesch

Director / Producing Artistic Director

Vivienne is in her sixth full season as a company member and Producing Artistic Director at PlayMakers, where she has helmed productions of The Storyteller, Dairyland, Life of Galileo, Leaving Eden, The May Queen, Three Sisters, Love Alone, RED, and In The Next Room. In her six seasons with the theatre, she is particularly proud to have produced ten world-premieres and launched PlayMakers Mobile, a touring production aimed at reaching underserved audiences around the Triangle. For 12 seasons, she served as Artistic Director of the renowned Chautauqua Theater Company and Conservatory, presiding over the company’s transformation into one of the best summer theatres and most competitive summer training programs in the country. Vivienne has also directed for the Folger Shakespeare Theatre (Helen Hayes nomination for best direction 2019), The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Trinity Repertory Company, NY Stage & Film, and Red Bull Theatre, among others. In 2018, she directed the world premiere of Noah Haidle’s Birthday Candles for Detroit Public Theatre and will be directing it again on Broadway in 2022, starring Debra Messing. As an actress, Vivienne has worked on and off-Broadway, in film and television, at many of the country’s most celebrated theatres, and received an Obie Award for her performance in Lee Blessing’s Going to St. Ives. Vivienne is a graduate of Brown University and NYU’s Graduate Acting Program. As an educator, she has directed for and served on the faculty of some of the nation’s foremost actor training programs, including The Juilliard School, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Professional Actor Training Program, Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Program, and at her alma mater, NYU’s Graduate Acting Program. She is the 2017 recipient of the Zelda Fichandler Award given by the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation.

Jan Chambers

Scenic Designer

PlayMakers: Company member for 16 seasons and professor in the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill. Productions include: 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: 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); 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. https://janchambers.sites.oasis.unc.edu/

McKay Coble

Costume Designer

PlayMakers: Company member for over 30 years. Everybody, Bewilderness, Sherwood, Leaving Eden, Dot, My Fair Lady, Peter and the Starcatcher, An Enemy of the People, The Tempest / Metamorphoses, It’s a Wonderful Life, Red, Noises Off, The Parchman Hour, Big River, Nicholas Nickleby, Amadeus, The Little Prince, The Illusion, Cyrano, Not About Heroes, Playboy of the Western World, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Nutcracker, and many others.

Broadway: Production Coordinator, Barbara Matera, Ltd.; La Cage Aux Folles; Big River; Sunday in the Park with George; Singin’ in the Rain; Merlin; Private Lives.

Regional: Alley Theatre, Clarence Brown Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Hartford Stage, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Virginia Stage Company.

Film: The Cotton Club, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Ghostbusters, Silkwood, Places in the Heart.

Member of United Scenic Artists Local 829; NYC.

Reza Behjat

Lighting Designer

PlayMakers: Native Son.

Off-Broadway/New York: Veil Widow Conspiracy, Henry VI (NAATCO); Hamlet (Waterwell); Notes of the Strange, Yogibogeybox (Target Margin); Waiting For Godot (New Yiddish Rep); Dead Are My People (Noor Theatre); Whore from Ohio, Labor of Life (NYR); This Is The Color (New Georges); Fillx7 (The Flea Theatre).

West End / International: Woyzeck, Mother Courage and her children, Funny Nightmares (Iran).

Regional: Everybody Black, The This Place (Actors Theater of Louisville, Humana 2019); Nina Simone: Four Women (Alabama Shakes); The Roommates (Long Wharf Theater); The Vagrant Trilogy (Mosaic Theatre); Guards at the Taj (Central Square Theatre).

Education / Awards / Other:  MFA Lighting Design, NYU. Proud member of Local 829 and Wingspace Theatrical Design

: @rza_behjat
: @rezabehjat

Fabian Obispo

Composer

PlayMakers: Everybody, Constant Star, The Tempest, As You Like It, Cymbeline.

Off-Broadway / New York: Public Theater’s Sea Wall / A Life with Jake Gyllenhall, Teenage Dick, Oedipus El Rey, Manhattan Theatre Club, Manhattan Class Company, Classic Stage Company, Atlantic Theatre Company, Vineyard Theatre, The New Group, New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre for a New Audience, MaYi Theatre, Primary Stages Women’s Project, and The Acting Company. His musical Felix Starro premiered Off-Broadway last fall.

International: Turbine Theatre, London; Romania Theatre Festival, Philippines Crossroads Theatre Festival, NYU Abu Dhabi Theatre.

Regional: Arena Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Kennedy Center, American Conservatory Theater, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Huntington Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, Seattle Repertory, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Westport Country Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, Virginia Stage, Everyman Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Barrington Stage, Folger Theatre and Indiana Repertory Theatre, among others.

Film: Sophocles in Staten Island (Vancouver).

Television: 20 Years of Asian American Playwriting (PBS).

Awards / Other: Barrymore, Berkshires Theatre Award, Rockefeller Foundation Bellaggio Center Residency.

Mark Valenzuela

Sound Designer

PlayMakers: Debut.

Regional: Mark grew up in Durham, NC and Louisville, KY and is now a Philadelphia based artist. He has been working as a Sound Designer and audio engineer for the performing arts since 2005. Regional theatre credits, in Philly and beyond, include: Theatre Exile, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Lantern Theatre Company, 11th Hour Theatre Company, Theatre Horizon, 1812 Productions, Delaware Theatre Company, InterAct Theatre Company, Act II Playhouse, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Vail Dance Festival, University of the Arts, and Villanova, Temple, Drexel and Arcadia Universities.

International: Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Scotland)

Education: Georgetown University, English and Theatre.

Shawn Duan

Video / Projections Designer

PlayMakers: Debut.

Broadway: Chinglish

New York: 2nd Stage Theater, the MET Museum, and The Public Theater.

Regional: Shawn Duan is a New York-based Projections/Media Designer, he has worked at theaters such as Arena Stage, The Alliance, Berkeley Repertory, Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Guthrie, The MUNY, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Repertory, and South Coast Repertory.

Opera: New York City Opera.

Tour/Concert: An Evening with Pacino (US/international), HK Arts Festival, various US tours and Las Vegas shows/concerts.

Film/video: VFX Supervisor on the indie feature film 16 Bars (2020).

Maxwell Bowman

Video / Projections Designer

Maxwell Bowman is a lighting and multimedia designer with side endeavors in interactive art and design and has collaborated on productions all over the world.

PlayMakers: Debut.

New York: Maxwell is a contributing member of the NYC-based collective ‘GLMMR’

Regional: American Repertory Theatre, The Atlanta Opera, Austin Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, The Dallas Opera, Philadelphia Theatre Company, The Royal Court Theatre, San Diego Opera, Second Stage, and National Sawdust Factory to name a select few.

Education: M.F.A Stage Design, Southern Methodist University; B.F.A Lighting Design, Southern Oregon University.

Adam Versényi

Dramaturg

Dramaturgy: Resident Dramaturg, PlayMakers Repertory Company, 1988–present. Recently: Julius Caesar, Native Son, Life of Falileo, Skeleton Crew, Tartuffe<\. 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: 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.

Tracy Bersley

Choreographer

PlayMakers: Movement coach and resident choreographer in her fourth season.

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— Carolina Performing Arts, McCarter Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Education / 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 co-head 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

Aubrey Snowden

Associate Director

PlayMakers: Mainstage debut. Antigone, References to Salvidor Dali Make Me Hot, Beast on The Moon (PlayMakers Ground Floor).

Off-Broadway/New York: Sense and Sensibility (Associate, Bedlam); Spill (Associate, Ensemble Studio Theater); Man Solo Festival (Bedlam); Phedra (Access Theatre).

Regional: Constellations, Betrayal (The Wilbury Group); Sense and Sensibility (Associate, American Repertory Theater); SeaWife (Associate, White Heron Theater).

University: Mr. Burns: A Post Electric Play, The Wolves, The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (Kenan Theatre Company, UNC-Chapel Hill); Green (Manhattanville College); Machinal (Brown Trinity).

Education and Training: MFA, Brown University/Trinity Rep; Tectonic Theatre Project; SITI Company; National Theater Insititute; LaMama International Director’s Symposium.

Awards: 2019 Motif Magazine Award for Best Set Design; 2019 Schwab Academic Excellence Award at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

: aubreysnowden.com

Charles K. Bayang

Stage Manager

PlayMakers: Company member for 11 seasons. Work at other regional theatres includes productions at Studio Arena Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Theater Center and Dallas Children’s Theatre. Charles holds an MFA from the University of Alabama and has been a member for Actors’ Equity since 1997.

Elizabeth Ray

Assistant Stage Manager

PlayMakers: Company member in her fifth full season. Love, Loss, and What I Wore, The Storyteller, Everybody, Dairyland, No Fear & Blues Long Gone: Nina Simone, How I Learned to Drive, Jump, Skeleton Crew, Temples of Lung and Air, “A” Train, Tartuffe, Dot, The Cake, Into the Woods, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Private Lives.

New York: Shows for Days (Lincoln Center Theater), In the Secret Sea (Theatre Row), Wallenberg, Requiem for Mr. B, Presto Change-O (Frankel Green Production Company), and Welcome to Shoofly (Playwrights Horizons).

Work at other regional theatres includes productions at North Carolina Theatre, Theatre Raleigh, Palm Beach Dramaworks, and Cape Fear Regional Theatre. Elizabeth is a member of Actors’ Equity Association.

Nichole Gantshar

Managing Director

Nichole Gantshar is a former dramaturg turned arts administrator. Having spent the past two years in interim leadership with Louisville Ballet and Theatre Bay Area, she looks forward to becoming part of the Triangle community. She spent five years as Executive Director of Rochester City Ballet, where she tripled grant revenue, grew audiences by 30 percent, added free (philanthropy supported) sensory-friendly performances, and earned support from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Shubert Foundation. Apart from her career in the arts, Nichole worked as a Legislative Aide in Congress and as a journalist.

Regional: Hangar Theatre, Milwaukee Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Richmond Ballet, Syracuse Stage, and Tulsa Ballet.

Volunteer: Rotary, treasurer, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), Chair of the National Student Education Fund, treasurer, Syracuse Chapter of Girls Inc.

Awards: Nominee, Outstanding Young Woman of America, LMDA Residency Grant. Faculty: Syracuse University, University at Stony Brook, University of Pittsburgh and the Wooster Center for the Arts.

Education: MFA, University at Stony Brook.

Michael Rolleri

Production Manager

Michael is in his 35th season with PlayMakers Repertory Company. He has been Technical Director, Project Manager, Exhibition Technician, and Lighting Designer for industrial shows in the Southeast region, as well as lead carpenter for films, the U.S. Olympic Festival, and scenic studios. He has also been a rigger in the Southeast region and has served on the executive board and as President of IATSE Local 417. Michael is a 30 year Gold Pin member of IATSE. An active member of United States Institute For Theatre Technology (USITT), he is a three-time winner at USITT’s Tech Expo. He is a full Professor/Head of the Technical Production Program at UNC-Chapel Hill and was an instructor at High Point University and Tufts University.

Education: MFA in Design and Technical Production, UNC-Greensboro.

General Information

The Skin of Our Teeth

by Thornton Wilder

Act 1: Excelsior, NJ, 1942
Approximately 45 minutes long

15-minute intermission

Act 2: Atlantic City, NJ, 1984
Approximately 45 minutes long

Act 3: In the rubble, sometime soon
Approximately 45 minutes long

Please be aware this production uses fog, haze, smoking, and strobe effects

Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art
CB# 3235, UNC-Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3235

Box Office: 919.962.7529
Website: www.playmakersrep.org

What Will Shows Look Like This Year?

The 21/22 season will feature five live, in-person performances featuring works that explore the resilience of family bonds in all their complicated forms, friendships that transcend language, time, and space, and one man’s connection to his community that helps him stand taller than he could alone.

Health and Safety

PlayMakers Repertory Company is committed to the safety and well-being of our patrons, artists and staff. We will be following state, industry and University safety guidelines in the 21/22 season.

All patrons are required to wear face coverings at all times while inside the Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art.

We have increased sanitation measures throughout the building and put some new protocols in place to improve safety including:

Touch free electronic ticketing

Hand sanitizers throughout the Center for Dramatic Art

More frequent cleaning of high-touch surfaces

HEPA filtration units

With the exception of onstage performances, artists, crew and staff will be required to wear masks

What If I Have to Miss My Performance Date?

For the safety of all our artists, patrons, and staff, if you feel unwell, please stay home. You may call our Box Office and ask to be reseated for another performance, or request a refund up to 48 hour before your ticketed performance.

If you know you will miss a performance date, we can exchange your ticket for you, based on availability. Please call our Box Office at least 48 hours before your scheduled performance, and please be aware that all exchanges are based on availability and a fee or additional cost may apply. Subscribers may exchange their tickets with no additional fee, but additional cost may apply with a change in performance or section.

Box Office Hours

Mon, Weds, Fri 12:00 noon-5:00p.m. and 90 minutes prior to each performance.

Use of Cell Phones and Other Electronics

Texting and using cell phones, laptops, smart watches, and other devices light- or sound-emitting devices are strictly prohibited during the performance. Please turn all electronic devices to silent, theatre mode, or off during the show.

Cameras or Recording Devices

Taking photographs or videotaping inside the theatre is strictly prohibited during performances. However, before the show, during intermission, and after the show, you are invited to take and share your photos of the stage and scenery.

Parking

There are several paid and free parking options available near PlayMakers. We recommend arriving 30 minutes before the show so that you have time to park and pay (Monday-Thursday evenings only) and find your seat. For more information and an interactive map of nearby parking options, please visit www.playmakersrep.org/parking

Policy on Young Children

As a courtesy to our patrons, it is the policy of PlayMakers not to admit children under the age of 5. All of our shows have content ratings for each production (for example: Rated PG-13). If you are considering bringing your child, please refer to website or contact our Box Office for further information. All patrons, regardless of age, must have a ticket.

Headsets for Hearing Impaired Patrons

Our theatres are equipped with sound systems that amplify the sound from the stage. Patrons who wish to use the system may obtain headsets on a first-come, first-served basis from the coat check. Headsets must be returned immediately after the performance.

Late Seating and Leaving Your Seat During the Performance

To minimize disruptions to the actors and other patrons, late seating will be provided at the discretion of the house manager at an appropriate break in the action on stage. Patrons who need to be seated late must be escorted by house staff to seats at the rear entrance of the auditorium, which entails climbing a flight of stairs. Patrons can take their regular seat at intermission.

PlayMakers Staff

Administration

Vivienne Benesch, Producing Artistic Director
Nichole Gantshar, Managing Director

Artistic

Tracy Bersley, Movement Coach/Choreographer
Kathryn Hunter-Williams, Company Artistic Associate
Chelsea James, Producing Assistant
Tia James, Vocal Coach
Gregory Kable, Dramaturg
Jacqueline E. Lawton, Dramaturg
Jeffrey Meanza, Associate Artistic Director
Mark Perry, Dramaturg
Gwendolyn Schwinke, Vocal Coach
Adam Versényi, Dramaturg

Administration

Kate Jones, Business Operations Coordinator
Lisa Geeslin, Accountant

Marketing & Audience Services

Alex James, Audience Services Associate
Diana Pineda, Director of Sales & Marketing
Thomas Porter, Box Office Manager
Rosalie Preston, Associate Director of Marketing
Jessie Gleason, Undergraduate Marketing Assistant

Work Study Students

Artistic: Josh Wehab
Box Office/ Front of House: Aisha Bynum, Charity Cohen, Eli Dietrich, Chloe Jones, Olivia Mahon, Yaeelin Merino-Velasquez, Olivia Morse, Kaitlyn Rivera, Krystal Rivera, Alla Sirelkhatim, Naomi Smith, Lily Vance
Development: Mahika Kawale
Marketing: Belawal Ahmed

Department of Dramatic Art

Adam Versényi, Professor and Chair

FACULTY

Vivienne Benesch, Professor of the Practice
Tracy Bersley, Assistant Professor
Pamela Bond, Visiting Teaching Assistant Professor
Jan Chambers, Professor
McKay Coble, Professor
Jeffrey Blair Cornell, Associate Chair, Teaching Professor
Ray Dooley, Professor
Samuel Ray Gates, Assistant Professor
Julia Gibson, Associate Professor
Jennifer Guadagno, Teaching Assistant Professor
Kathryn Hunter-Williams, Teaching Associate Professor
Tia James, Assistant Professor
Gregory Kable, Teaching Professor
Jacqueline E. Lawton, Associate Professor
Adam Maxfield, Teaching Associate Professor
Triffin Morris, Professor of the Practice
David Navalinsky, Associate Professor
Bobbi Owen, Distinguished Professor Emerita
Mark Perry, Teaching Associate Professor
Rachel E. Pollock, Teaching Assistant Professor
Michael Rolleri, Professor
Gwendolyn Schwinke, Assistant Professor
Aubrey Snowden, Teaching Assistant Professor

STAFF

Betty Futrell, Student Services Specialist
Lisa Geeslin, Accounting Technician
Jordan Clodfelter, KTC Technical Director
Karen Rolleri, Business Coordinator
Jamie Strickland, Business Officer

Production

Michael Rolleri, Production Manager

Costumes

Jennifer Bayang, Assistant Costume Director
Amy Evans, Wardrobe Supervisor
Marissa Lupkas, Costume Collection Coordinator
Triffin Morris, Costume Director
Rachel Pollock, Costume Craftsperson
Costume Production Graduate Students:
Matty Blatt, Jocelyn Chatman, Alex Hagman, Emma Hoylst, Lou Pires, Athene Wright, Sherry Wu

Lighting

Benjamin Bosch, Head Electrician

Props

Emma Anderson, Props Artisan
Andrea Bullock, Properties Master

Scenic

Noah George, Master Carpenter
Adam Maxfield, Technical Director
Laura Pates, Assistant Technical Director
Jessica Secrest, Scenic Artist
Technical Production Graduate Students:
Brock Burton, Gregory Condon, Paul Edghill, Patrick Hardison, Kevin Pendergast, Luke Robinson, Garrett Weeda
Spencer Ellis, Undergraduate Assistant-Scene Shop
Haley Connell, Undergraduate Assistant-Paint

Sound

Mac Cohen, Undergraduate Assistant

STAGE MANAGEMENT

Charles K. Bayang, Stage Manager
Elizabeth Ray, Stage Manager

Work Study Students

Carpentry: Tygia Drewhowell, Jeffrey Jones, Danielle Mou, Lillyann Nekervis
Lighting: Jessica Atkins, Anthony Burch, Jahel Gomes, Sananda Jagannathan, Annabelle Jiang, Alex Mitropoulos
Props: Charlotte Allsbrook, Hannah Fatool, Lydia McRoy, Marissa Romano
Scenic Painting: Madison Austin, Madeleine Collins, Corinne Laverge, Faith Wang

PlayMakers’ Resident Acting Company

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

Professional Actor Training Program:

Sergio Mauritz Ang, Anthony August, Hayley Cartee, Heinley Gaspard, Tori Jewell, Jamar Jones, Khalil LeSaldo, Saleemah Sharpe, AhDream Smith, Sanjana Taskar, Adam Valentine, Omolade Wey

For this Production of The Skin of Our Teeth

Kevin Pendergast, Production Technical Director
Greg Condon, Production Assistant Technical Director
Morgann Russell, Sound Engineer
Brandon Reed, Additional Sound Design
Allyx Miles, Assistant to the Director
Jeff Jones, Fight Coordinator
Jeffrey Blair Cornell, Fight Captain
Saleemah Sharpe, Assistant Choreographer
Omolade Wey, Dance Captain
Pareen Bhagat, Assistant to the Costume Designer
Alex Hagman, Sherry Wu, Drapers
Lou Pires, Athene Wright, First Hands
Matty Blatt, Emma Holyst, Stitchers
Wardrobe: Ainsley Edwards, Jonathan Melton, Lin Xi, Janny Xueqin Zhou
Deck: Elliot Carey, Aaron Boles, Lauren Flors, Cavys He
Light Board Op: Moshe Ikechukwu
Sound/Lights Crew: Rita Yidou Liu
Sound Board Op: Morgann Russell
Stage Management Assistant: Jessie Gleason

Friends of PlayMakers

During this period of re-emergence, we are producing a smaller, “capsule” season of only five powerful shows. While this allows us to remain focused on the safety and well-being of our patrons, artists, and staff, it has substantial financial implications.

As a nonprofit professional theatre, ticket sales cover only half of our annual operating costs. This year, we cannot count on ticket revenue as we have in the past. We must rely on the generosity of our community to help close the gap and keep our stages alive.

Ways to Give

Online

Donate

Phone or Email

prc_development@unc.edu
919.962.2481

Mail

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

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!

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 PlayMakers Development Office at 919.962.2481 or visit us at playmakersrep.org.

Donate

Director’s Circle ($10,000+)

Anonymous
The Charles Goren and Hazen Family Foundation,
Trustees Tom and Lisa Hazen
Brian Hargrove and David Hyde Pierce
Mrs. Frank H. Kenan
Coleman and Carol Ross
Alan H. Weinhouse

Angel ($5,000–9,999)

Anonymous
Betsy Blackwell and John Watson
Tom and Holly Carr
Munroe and Becky Cobey
Drucie French and Steve Cumbie
Chan and Monie Hardwick
Kim Kwok
Mr. and Mrs. William O. McCoy
Paul and Linda Naylor
Bobbi Owen
The Prentice Foundation

Investor ($2,500–4,999)

Anonymous
Richard and Deirdre Arnold ^
Andrew and Katherine Asaro ^ +
Ed and Eleanor Burke
Cindy and Thomas Cook
Joanne and Peter Garrett
Dr. Lyle V. Jones
Sandy and Ned McClurg ^
Mark and Julie Morris
Nick and Amy Penwarden
Jean and Joseph Ritok
Dr. and Mrs. Edward Smithwick
David and Heather Yeowell

Page to Stage ($1,500–2,499)

David and Judy Adamson
Steve Benezra ^
Julie R. Daniels
Dustin and Susan Gillings Gross
Kevin and Amy Guskiewicz
David Howell
Hannelore and Konrad Jarausch
Joanna Karwowska and Hugon Karwowski ^
Kathryn and Robert Kyle
Panter Foundation
Rich and Marilyn Jacobs Preyer
Dr. and Mrs. William Stewart
The Rev. Wendy R. and Mr. W. Riley Waugh
Roger and Marlene Werner

Supporter ($250–499)

Anonymous
Akin Akinli ^
David Ball and Susan Pochapsky
Tony and Susan Barrella
Deborah Barrett
Reginald M. Barton, Jr.
Adam Beck ^
Dr. Katherine L. Bick
Julie Blatt and Arthur Greenberg
William and Patricia Blau
Andrew Borba *
Julia Borbely-Brown ^
Ken and Margie Broun
Robert and Jen Buckmire
David Burr and Rusty Unger
Douglas Call and Susan Warwick
Lata Chatterjee and Tiruvarur Lakshmanan
Dennis Clements and Martha Ann Keels
Gary and Dianne Clinton
Anne F. Coenen
Britta Couris *
David DeMarini
Nancy and Mark Dewhirst
Alec and Georgia Donaldson
E.M. Eddy and D.A. O’Brien
Jane E. Emeis
Mr. and Mrs. Philip W. Ewing
Barbara and Chris Exton
Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Falvo
Pat Fischer
Jaroslav and Linda Folda
Beth Furr
Elizabeth Galvin *
Linda Grimm
Gail and Steve Grossman
Albert and Mary Guckes
Priscilla Guild
Carolyn and Jim Harris
Mark Hartman
Marianna Matthews Henry
David G. Hubby
Gerda (Kani) Hurow
Lynne and Walter Jacobs ^
Kathleen Johnson
Claudia Kadis
Jeanette Kimmel
Richard and Lynne Kohn
Dr. Leonard and Ruth Kreisman ^
Marie E. Kulchinski
Dayna Lucas
Alice and John May
Sharon and Alan McConnell
Larry McManus and Pamela Nielsen
Rick Muise
Pat and Mary Norris Oglesby
Glenn O’Neal
Heather and Russ Owen
Bobbie Owens *
Lee and Barbara Pedersen
Robert and Marilyn Pinschmidt
Gordon and Jo Ann Pitz
Stephen and Lyn Pizer
Gary and Susie Pratt
Andrea Reibel *
Sandra and Stephen Rich
Linda and Alan Rimer
Beth Rosenberg
Michael Kerry Salemi
Stephanie Schmitt
Dr. Caryl Jane Schwartzbach and Alan Bolzan
Dr. Robert Sealock and Cecile Skrzynia
Wayne Sherrill
Dr. and Mrs. Sidney C. Smith
Connie Spooner
Carol Stamm,
In memory of Dr. John Stamm
Elizabeth L. Stanley *
Steven and Madeline Sunshine
Tim and Judy Taft
Monica Taylor *
Margaret G. Teasley
Hugh and Judy Tilson ^
Bruce Tomason
Barrie Trinkle
John and Donna van Arnold
Carol and Jim Vorhaus
Mary Robin Wells and Gary Gambrell
Sarah Winkler
Jane Pettis Wiseman
Jerry Worsley
Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP,
In memory of Joan H. Gillings

Patron ($100–249)

Anonymous (10)
Trudi Abel *
Dwight and Robin Allen
Mary Altpeter
Elizabeth Amend *
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Archie *
Matthew and Linda Arnold *
Pam and Don Bailey
Dan and Susan Barco
Cathy Barrett
Anne Beaven and Margaret Louey
Neal and Jeanette Bench
Donna and Daniel Benjamin
Kitty Bergel
Robert A. and Christine S. Berndt
Patricia Beyle *
Jim and Martha Bick
Justin and Dorothy Biddle
Mr. and Mrs. David Birnbaum
Peter Bleckner
Natalie and Gary Boorman
Tony Boothby *
Melissa Bostrom and Krisztian Horvath
Thomas W. and Vicki V. Boyer
Lauren Kennedy Brady and Charlie Brady
Carol Brainard and Nancy Hardin
Philip Breitfeld and Susan Kreissman
William Brettmann ^
Eunice Brock and Sam Magill
Charles and Renee Brown
Lyndon E. Brown, PhD
Bates Buckner
Edward and Sheila Burgard
Charles Burnett and Catherine Forneris
Frances D. Burton
Thomas Butler
Dr. Leigh Fleming Callahan
Robert Cameron *
Glenn and Patricia Camp
Janet F. Campbell
Natalie Campbell
Donna Carroll and Gale Lackey
Virginia Carson *
Jean Carter
Michael Case and Lewis Dancy
Lorna Chafe
Dr. Margaret Champion
Beverly Long Chapin
Mimi Chapman *
Nancy N. Chemtob *
Gabriella Cila
Elizabeth Cisar *
Linda G. Clarkson*
Ellen Clevenger-Firley
Steve Cline *
Bill Cobb and Gail Perry
Cathy Cole
Robert F. Coleman III,
In memory of Susan Hurst Rappaport
Donald and Eunice Collins
Geneva Collins and Theodore Fischer ^
Jeffrey Collins and Rose Mills
Jenn Collins and Paul Runkle
Sharon Scholl Coop
Lee Cope
Jan Cope-Kasten
Mary Jo and Douglas Coppola
John and Belinda Corpening
Sarah Clare Corporandy *
Georgia Court *
Rick and Patty Courtright
Fred and Jane Dalldorf
Mrs. Robert Bigelow DeMaine
Todd Dickinson and Helen Kalevas
Sheila and Joe Dorey *
Scott and Mia Doron
Joy and Chet Douglass *
Ginny and David Dropkin
John F. Duncan, Jr.
Anne Dusek *
Kathleen DuVal and Martin Smith *
Connie Eble
The Eckert Family
Bobette Eckland and Richard Kamens
Barbara Elish
Jan Elliott
Jerry and Adelia Evans
Dagmar and J.C. Fahr *
Dr. Richard Fair and M. Clare Fair
Robert Farmer
Shauna and Tom Farmer
Pamela Ferguson *
Laurice Ferris ^
Nicole and Bruce Fine *
Karen Fink
Jon and Sue Fish
Sara Franks *
Douglas and Judy Frey
Bennett Galef
Betty and Franklin Garland
Ed and Carol Gaunt
Nikki and Anthony Giachetti
William Glasgow
Gunter Glass
Debra and Eric Goldberg *
Alix Goldschmidt *
Eve Benesch Goldschmidt
Raymond and Susan Goodmon
John and Lucy Grant
Grant Thornton LLP,
In Memory of Joan H. Gillings
Virginia Gray
John Graybeal and Laura Heise
Bill Green and Brett Bohnn
Elizabeth Grey *
Jean Gross and Donald Miller
Joseph Groves
Kay Gruninger
Pickett Guthrie
Erin and Evan Gwyn
Tim Hackett and James Konold
Carol and Nortin Hadler
Janet Hadler
Todd Haimes *
Bruce Hamilton and Jennifer Weiss *
Jean Handy *
Doranne Hans
Joanne Harrell
Toby and Cheryl Harrell
Lynden Harrisv*
Patti Seitz Hartel
Jim and Mary Hayes
Rachel Heller
Richard Hendel *
Eric Herget and Sherry Wilner
Klaus Hermanns
Ellen Herron
William Hicks and William Sadler
Ann Hillenbrand
Margaret R. Hinkle *
Marin Hinkle
Jennifer Hodgson and Matthew Conley
Houston and Joyce Horn
Mary Howes,
In Memory of Jonathan B. Howes
John and Joyce Hren
Mary Hulett *
Malcolm and Wanda Hunter
Leslie Hurtig *
Beth H. Isenhour *
Abby Jablin
Elizabeth W. Jackson
Emma Jakoi
Champa and David Jarmul
Perry Jenkins
Susan Joyner
Eve and Rudy Juliano
Dan and Linda Kaferle
Richard and Sally Kahler
Cindy Kahler
Amy Kane *
Lynne Kane
Laura Kayser *
Paul and Edith Keene
Marie-Beatrice and Robert Keller
Arlon Kemple and Karen Long
Barbara Keyworth
Brian and Moyra Kileff
Dr. Harriet King
Robert and Mary King,
In memory of Charles H. Kahn
Ann and Bill Kirkland
Rabecca Klemp
Joyce Kline
Ted and Marilyn Koenig
Stephen and Bunny Koff
Elizabeth Koonce
Helen Kotsher
Lloyd Kramer and Gwynne Pomeroy
Dave and Doris Krepp
Ted and Debbie LaMay
Benjamin Landman and Jen Feldman,
In honor of Ms. Betty-Ann Landman
Gerry and Ray Larson
Robert Lauterborn,
In memory of Sylvia Lauterborn
Carol and Alexander Lawrence
Priscilla and Russell Leavitt
Judith and Norbert Lechner
Philip and Nancy Leinbach
David and Carolyn Leith
John and Ruth Leopold
Arnold and Annette Levine
Joy Lewis and Frederick Annand
Betty and John Leydon
Judi Lilley
Erika Lindemann
Ginger and Derek Long
Carol Lucas
John Ludlow and Kathy Davies
Virginia Ludwig
Mrs. Earl C. Lynch
Sara Mack
Corey Madden
Dr. and Mrs. Donald Madison
John Manley
Raleigh and Betsy Mann ^
Lee and Elaine Marcus
Chris and Caroline Martens
Jeff Mason
Shelley J. Masters
Leigh Matthews
Michael Mayer
Dr. and Mrs. Robert N. McCall
Meredith McClurg
Ann and Webb McCracken
Ed and Connie McCraw
J.S. McKnight
Patrick Joseph Mclane ^
Lee McLean
John and Bonnie Medinger
Ewa Meehan
Larry and Jerri Meisner
Cathleen Melton and Larry Greenblatt
Joan and Ron Mendelsohn
Julia Merricks and Susan Hauser *
Molly S. Metzler *
Graig Meyer
Herbert Miller
Erik and Natalia Milz
Mark and Alice Mine
Dana Mochel
Jill Moore *
Aela Morgan *
Eric Muller and Leslie Branden-Muller
Margaret Mullinix
Kate Murphy
Seth Murray and Jamie Newman
Margaret Murray
Judy Murray
Lee and Ava Nackman
Michael Naglich *
Diane Nelson, Ph.D. *
Barbara Nettesheim
Michele and Klaus Nettesheim
Betty Nies
Linda W. Norris
James and Nancy Nutt
Drs. Susan and Raphael Orenstein
Marilyn and Peter Ornstein
Barry and Lois Ostrow
Norman Owen ^
In memory of Roberta Yule Owen
Michael Patrick
Josie Patton
Michael Paul
Ron and Julie Paxton
Robert and Kay Pearlstein
Robert Peet
Nancy Pekar
Arnold Pender
Imara Perera *
Carol and Al Perlman
Rebecca Perritt
Thomas Phillips
Meredith Piatt
Jim P. Polga *
Ted and Peggy Pratt
Jane Preyer *
Todd and Nicky Purves *
Jeffrey Qualls
Margaret Quinlan
Geraldine and Gary Richards
Louise A. Robinson
James and Janet Robles
Philip and Jo Rodgers *
Patricia Roos
Joel Rosch and Carol Vatz
Philip Rosoff and Dona Shikaraishi
Judith L. Ruderman
Jennifer Rudinger
Laura and Reid Russell
Patti and Dan Ryan
Sylvia and Norman G. Samet,
In memory of Charles H. Kahn
Celia Sandford and Stephen Perrin
Dale and Robert Sandler
Elizabeth Saunders *
Allie and Ian Scales ^
Carol Schachner ^
Ernest and Mary Schoenfeld
Tanya L. Schreiber
Janice and Richard Schulke
Dr. Caryl Jane Schwartzbach and Alan Bolzan
Gwendolyn Schwinke
Rick and Georgie Searles
Barbara Sharf
William N. Sharpe Jr.
Alison Sheehy *
Barbara and Jonathan Sheline
Stephanie Shipman and Walter Travers *
Connie Shuping,
In memory of Ed and Dot Kennedy
Nikki Silver *
Bland Simpson *
David Singley Jr.
Ron and Mary Sinzdak
Sim Sitkin and Vivian Olkin
Barry Slobin and Carol Land
Mike and Kim Slomianyj
Leslie Smith
Linda Smith
Dr. Richard L. Smith and Dr. Amy Grady
Rosalyn Smith
Dr. and Mrs. Stuart Solomon
Ilene Speizer *
Marcia Spray,
In honor of Laura Carson Spray
Kimberly and David Spurr
Sally and Jeremy Stander
Allen Steckler
Susanne Steinmetz *
Anne Stephens *
Cathy and Sefton Stevens
Andy Stewart and Peggy Kinney ^
Dorcas Stolper
Leslie and Paul Strohm
Mr. Edward Strong *
Jeannie Pfister Stroupe ^
Ed and Lynne Sullivan
Terrence and Marguerite Sullivan
Steven and Madeline Sunshine
Jeff Surles
Nanette and David Talaski
Beverly Taylor
David C. Taylor
Stephen Tell and Rosemary Hoban
Charles Thomas and Suzanne Maupin
Janet Thomas
Robert and Shirley Thompson
David and Kelley Tobin *
Beatrice Treat
Nancy Trovillion *
Nancy Tunnessen
Nancy Tusa and Andy Brawn
Mary Van Bourgondien *
Ted Van Griethuysen
Barney and Vivian Varner
Adam Versenyi
Jill Vexler *
Robin Visser
Deborah and Jonathan Wahl
Angela Walter *
Helen Warner
David and Marsha Warren
Tovah Wax and Lucjan Mordzak
George Weinhouse
Dr. Lynn Wesson
Shirley H. White,
In honor of Steven H. White
Loretta Wile
Jane Williams
Dr. Nancy E Williamson
Richard D. Wilson
Joy Wood
Nancy Worley
Janice and Richard Woychik
David and Dee Yoder
Marla Yost
Justin Yung ^
Rosilene Ziegler and John Steege

^ Sustainers Club Member
+ Women’s Point of View (WPOV) Supporter
* PlayMakers Special Event Supporter
~ Deceased

This list is current as of October 10, 2021. If your name is listed incorrectly or not at all, please contact PlayMakers Development Office at 919.962.2481. We will ensure you are recognized for your thoughtful support.

Corporate and Foundation Partners

PlayMakers’ 2021/22 Season is Made Possible in Part by Grants from

North Carolina Arts Council

The Shubert Foundation
Arts Midwest
Orange County Arts Commission

Foundation Support

National Endowment for the Arts, North Carolina Arts Council, Orange County Arts Commission, The Shubert Foundation, Fidelity Foundation, Truist Foundation, The Educational Foundation of America

Additional Funding for Guest Artists is Provided by

Robert Boyer and Margaret Boyer Fund, Louise Lamont Fund, Emeriti Professors Charles and Shirley Weiss Fund

Producing Council

Mebane Lumber, Residence Inn Chapel Hill, Spoonflower, Larry’s Coffee, The Siena Hotel/Il Palio Restaurant

Corporate Council

De Maison Selections, Aloft

Associates

Cambria Suites

Table of Contents

PlayMakers Advisory Council

In Memoriam

We Remember Joan Gillings

Join us in Celebration of Ray Dooley

Sunday, December 5 3pm

PlayMakers is…

Creating Tomorrow’s Classics, Today

A Hub of Engagement

Theatre for the People

Passing the Torch

Eliminating Barriers

Our Mission

Our Vision

Our Values

Antiracism Accountability Statement

Land Acknowledgement

Why is Land Acknowledgement important?

The Skin of Our Teeth

by Thornton Wilder

Directed by Vivienne Benesch

Scenic Designer

Costume Designer

Lighting Designer

Sound Designer

Composer

Projection/Video Designers

Dramaturg

Choreographer

Vocal Coach

Associate Director

Stage Manager

Assistant Stage Manager

NOV 10-28, 2021

Thornton Wilder

Playwright

Thornton Niven Wilder Chronology

A note from The Thornton Wilder Family:

Cast List

Sergio Mauritz Ang

Fortune Teller / Moses

Anthony August

Henry Antrobus

Hayley Cartee

Miss E Muse / Conveener

Jeffrey Blair Cornell

Announcers / Homer / Mr. Tremayne

Ray Dooley

Mr. Antrobus

▶ Learn about A Celebration of Ray Dooley on December 5 and the new Ray Dooley Artistic Excellence Fund

Spencer Ellis

Chair Pusher / Usher

Heinley Gaspard

Fitz

Kathryn Hunter-Williams

Mrs. Antrobus

Tori Jewell

Sabina

Jamar Jones

Telegraph Boy Conveener

Khalil LeSaldo

Dinosaur / Chair Pusher

Kendall Mason

Conveener / Usher

Gwendolyn Schwinke

Professor / Conveener / Hester

Saleemah Sharpe

Miss T Muse / Conveener / Ivy

AhDream Smith

Mammoth / Conveener

Sanjana Taskar

Miss M. Muse / Broadcast Official

Adam Valentine

Doctor / Conveener / Fred Bailey

Omolade Wey

Gladys Antrobus

Vivienne Benesch

Director / Producing Artistic Director

Jan Chambers

Scenic Designer

Sunday, December 5
3pm

Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art
CB# 3235, UNC-Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3235

Box Office: 919.962.7529
Website: www.playmakersrep.org