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OUR MISSION
Capital Stage’s mission is to entertain, engage and challenge our audience with bold, thought provoking theatre.
THINGS TO KNOW
HEALTH & SAFETY:
Visit our COVID-19 Safety Protocols & Procedures Page to stay up to date on our Health & Safety requirements and recommendations.
VIDEO/PHOTOS:
Recording and photography of any kind are prohibited at Capital Stage by Copyright Law and Union regulations during the performance.
CELL PHONES:
Patrons are asked to turn any noise making devices off upon entering the theatre.
LATE SEATING & RE-SEATING:
Due to the design of our theatre, we cannot guarantee seating for late arrivals or for patrons who leave the theatre during the performance. As a courtesy to our artists and our audiences, late arrivals will be seated in a suitable location by our staff if possible and at the appropriate intervals.
REFRESHMENTS:
Only concession items purchased in the Wine & Dessert Bar are allowed in the theatre, patio and lobby areas. Yes, you can bring your drinks and snacks into the theatre!
CHILDREN:
Capital Stage is noted for bringing intimate bold productions to our region and we encourage young adults to experience a live performance. Children age sixteen and up are welcome at Capital Stage unless specifically noted in the production’s description.
WHEELCHAIR SEATING:
Seating locations at Capital Stage for patrons using wheelchairs or with limited mobility are located in the first row. Tickets for these seats may be purchased in person or by calling the Box Office at 916-995-5464. Please call ahead to notify the staff if you required these seats.
RESTROOMS:
Restroom facilities are located in the lounge behind the Wine & Dessert Bar.
INFORMATION:
Brochures and information about upcoming Capital Stage productions and events are available in the box office or by visiting capstage.org.
Capital Stage is a member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Capital Stage is a member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre.
Capital Stage is a member of the National New Play Network, the country’s alliance of leading nonprofit theaters that champion the development, production and continued life of new plays.
Capital Stage is a member of Blue Star Theatres, offering discounts to Military personnel, Military family members, and Veterans.
SDC is the theatrical union that unites, empowers, and protects professional Stage Directors and Choreographers throughout the United States.
Cast
Creative Team
Rajiv Joseph
Michael Stevenson
Oscar Quezada
Keith Riedell
Tony Gabrielson
Jouni Kirjola*
Johnny Moniz
Melissa Jernigan*
Tricia Tecson
Eunice Kim
Rebecca A. Valentino
Riley Cisneros-Gruenthal
Ed Lee
Logan Jacob Heller
Samantha McLean Haas
K. Kevyne Baar
Special Thanks
Joe Bertolucci, Affordable Heating & Air, Inc.
Jill Bowers
Center REPertory Theatre
Donna Chipps
Di Arie Vineyard & Winery
Jim Hensley, President Abbey Flooring, Inc.
Oak Park Brewing Company
Lucía Plumb-Reyes, Moonbelly Bakery
Solano College Theatre
Theatreworks
UC Davis
Production Staff
Director/Artistic Director - MICHAEL STEVENSON
Production & Company Manager - TONY GABRIELSON
Technical Director - CALEB JONES
Lead Carpenter - CONOR WOODS
Carpenter, Technician & Marketing Assistant - ANDREW FRIDAE
Carpenter - SUNNY MACKEY
Scenic Designer - TRICIA TECSON
Scenic Charge Artist - SAMANTHA McLEAN HAAS
Sound Designer & Engineer - ED LEE
Lighting Designer - EUNICE KIM
Lead Electrician - SHAE MERCER
Electricians - ISAIAH LEEPER, SHAE MERCER, ANDREW FRIDAE
Stage Manager - JOUNI KIRJOLA*
Assistant Stage Manager - JOHNNY MONIZ
Substitute Stage Manager - MELISSA JERNIGAN*
Properties Designer - RILEY CISNEROS-GRUENTHAL
Costume Designer - REBECCA A. VALENTINO
Tailor - LORAN WATKINS
Hair & Make-Up Designer - LOGAN JACOB HELLER
Fight Choreographer - KAREN VANCE
Build Crew - ANDREW FRIDAE, SUNNY MACKEY, CONOR WOODS
Painters - SAMANTHA McLEAN HAAS, CALEB JONES, SUNNY MACKEY, ANDREW FRIDAE, CONOR WOODS
Wardrobe - OSCAR QUEZADA^
Sub Run Crew - MADDIE JUDD^, FATEMEH MEHRABAN^, OSCAR QUEZADA^, SHELBY SAUMIER^
BIAPOC Liaison - VERNON LEWIS
Dramaturg - K. KEVYNE BAAR
Infection Control Manager - ELIJAH PETERS
Graphic Designer, Webmaster - MISTY MCDOWELL
Photographer - CHARR CRAIL
^ Capital Stage Apprentice | * Member Actors' Equity Association
About The Play
by K. Kevyne Baar, PhD
“If I had to choose between bein known while alive or bein known while dead, I gotta go with dead. Cause I’ll be dead forever. So that means: Remembered forever.”
– Gavrilo
Meticulously researched in Sarajevo, and based on the events of 1914, ARCHDUKE is a play about the infamous assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife which history tells us was the match that lit the fuse that started World War I.
All the male characters you’ll meet were in fact present for that event, although not necessarily as they appear in this play. A number of playwrights, Joseph among them have made twisting history important to the telling of a story such as this one. In the twisting comes surprising moments, especially for this playwright, of true comedic splendor or as the critic for the Los Angeles Times, Charles McNulty explained of the production at the Mark Taper Forum in 2017, it is a “style blending rambunctious humor with a global conscience and an empathy that heeds no borders.”
In a warehouse at midnight. “Gavrilo, a teenage boy, frail, underfed, and sickly enters” looking for “the man.” Not long after, he is joined by Nedeljko, also nineteen, also looking for “the man.” Gavrilo had been told “there’d be a guy who’d give me meaning in my life.” In Nedeljko’s case he thinks he is coming for a job. During the ensuing chaos, they find out that they are both lungers; they have tuberculosis/consumption/the Red and Yellow, and they were both sent to this warehouse by “the Doctor on the hill” who they were able to visit because he is “free.”
We come to learn that this Doctor is recruiting boys for Dragutin “Apis” Dimitrijevic of the Black Hand, a secret Serbian society that used terrorist methods to promote the liberation of Serbs outside Serbia. He needs these boys to assist him in his plot to assassinate the Archduke and his wife when they come to visit Sarajevo. As Gavrilo and Nedeljko’s frustration grows, we meet Trifko who can, and does, take them to “the man.”
Upon arriving at “the man’s” home, our young men enter a world of indescribable delights overseen by Apis along with his housekeeper and cook, and the one fictional character in this play, Sladjana. While the trio is scarfing down a massive spread of food, they are given a history lesson in Serbian grievances against the rule of the Austrian-Hungarian regime of Emperor Franz Joseph and his heir, the Archduke whom Apis explains is responsible for the boys’ fatal ailments. The answer of course is to become martyrs themselves.
Apis adds to the boys list of delights when he lets them know they will be going to Sarajevo on a train, something none of them have ever experienced. Interrupting their unmitigated joy, Apis involves them all in performing a pantomime of the assassination. Apis plays the Archduke, and Sladjana plays his wife. Chairs become a car, calm becomes chaos, and how the three boys are perceived is upended.
Soon after they are on the train. What is going to happen becomes clearer. A new more philosophical look at life, and distance, and what is to come, overtakes them all as we are led to the inevitable events of June 28, 1914.
About The Playwright
by K. Kevyne Baar, PhD
“American theater is not that old actually. We’re on a new draft and I think that it's time to start digging in and really grappling with some of the issues that we've all been thinking about whether we're aware of it or not.” – Rajiv Joseph, August 13, 2020
A gifted playwright with the uncanny ability of ringing humor out of some of the most difficult and dramatic situations, Rajiv Joseph was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio where he still shares family time while calling Brooklyn, New York home. In 1996, he graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a degree in Creative Writing, but instead of pursuing another degree, he packed his bags and headed to the West African Republic of Senegal where he spent the next three years in the Peace Corps. In any number of interviews, he comments on the experience. “Being in Senegal, more than anything else in my life, made me into a writer.”
When he returned, a friend “gave him the idea to attend grad school and study screenwriting.” Although he has written a few screenplays and a bit of television, we are very fortunate that the school he chose was New York University where “he found himself inspired by theatre for the first time.” Seeing the work of Stephen Adly Guirgis and Lynn Nottage, he decided “I want to do that.” Joseph earned his MFA in Dramatic Writing in 2004. His first play, HUCK AND HOLDEN, debuted at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 2006, followed in quick succession by ALL THIS INTIMACY also in 2006, THE LEOPARD AND THE FOX in 2007, and ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER in 2008.
Enter BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO first presented at Los Angeles’ Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre in 2009, followed by a production at the Mark Taper Forum in 2010, and an auspicious Broadway debut in 2011, with Robin Williams heading the cast, and yours truly a fortunate audience member. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for this play. Awards and recognition have been following him ever since including two Obie Awards for Best New American Play, first in 2016 with GUARDS AT THE TAJ (presented at Capital Stage in 2017) and DESCRIBE THE NIGHT in 2022.
Joseph, like so many other playwrights, found himself caught in the pandemic chaos that has gripped the country for the past three years. As the pandemic began, he had been working on the libretto of a new musical, FLY at the La Jolla Playhouse. It opened and closed within a week in March of 2020. His play, KING JAMES, is currently on hold at the recently shuttered Mark Taper Forum.
Our play, ARCHDUKE, had a major production also at the Mark Taper Forum in 2017. The production led to a rewrite. TheatreWorks presented that rewrite in 2019. This current production at Capital Stage is of a script dated 2021. In a chat that same year with the original director of the play, Giovanna Sardelli, Joseph spoke of "reconsidering it yet again," as he feels a "newfound resonance in this time because it is about young men who are sick." Not surprisingly, rumor has it another rewrite might be on the way.
Meet the Company
Scott Coopwood*
Jamie Jones*
John Lamb*
Chris Sharpe
Cole Winslow
Rajiv Joseph
Michael Stevenson
Oscar Quezada
Keith Riedell
Tony Gabrielson
Jouni Kirjola*
Johnny Moniz
Melissa Jernigan*
Tricia Tecson
Eunice Kim
Rebecca A. Valentino
Riley Cisneros-Gruenthal
Ed Lee
Logan Jacob Heller
Samantha McLean Haas
K. Kevyne Baar
ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION (AEA)
Founded in 1913, this union represents more than 45,000 actors and stage managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO, and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. The Equity emblem is our mark of excellence.
Capital Stage Staff
MICHAEL STEVENSON - Artistic Director
KEITH RIEDELL - Managing Director
KIRK BLACKINTON - Development Manager
TONY GABRIELSON - Production & Company Manager
MISTY MCDOWELL - Marketing Manager
LOGAN JACOB HELLER – Education & Box Office Manager
CALEB JONES - Technical Director
CONOR WOODS - Lead Carpenter
SUNNY MACKEY - Carpenter
ED LEE - Resident Sound Designer & Engineer
ISAIAH LEEPER - Lighting Supervisor
SHAE MERCER - Lead Electrician
ANDREW FRIDAE - Carpenter, Technician & Marketing Assistant
CECILIA CASTILLO JUAREZ - Concessions & Box Office Associate
YASMINE SALMERON - Production Associate
K. KEVYNE BAAR - Dramaturg
JAMIE JONES, PETER MOHRMANN, GAIL RUSSELL, JANIS STEVENS – Associate Artists
ELIJAH PETERS - Infection Control Manager, Payroll & Administrative Assistant
2023/24 SEASON APPRENTICE COMPANY - Maddie Judd, Fatemeh Mehraban, Oscar Quezada, Shelby Saumier
Capital Stage Board Members
Chastity E. Benson
California State Association of Counties
Dan Brunner, Treasurer
Arts Patron
Melissa Conner
Seed Communications Design
Kathryn E. Doi, Board President
Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP
Sherry Hartel Haus
Downey Brand
Steve Koonce
Arts Patron
Kris Martin
Arts Patron
Kristi Quesada Mathisen
Sacramento Country Day School
Lori Abbott Moreland
Arts Patron
Vince Sales
Everyday Impact Consulting
Mike Tentis
University of the Pacific
Peggy Wheeler
California Hospital Association
Board Emeritus:
Stephanie Gularte, Founding Artistic Director
Capital Stage
Peter Mohrmann, Co-founder
Capital Stage
Jonathan Williams, Co-Founder
Capital Stage
Clif McFarland
Mitchell Chadwick
Arlen Orchard
SMUD
Julie Stark
Arts Patron
Donors
Special Thanks to our Donors
Donation Totals from 10/1/22 to 10/1/23
Please alert us to any errors or omissions by contacting Development Manager, Kirk Blackinton at kblackinton@capstage.org.
Founder's Circle: $20,000+
Kathryn Doi
Sacramento City Office of Arts and Culture
The Shubert Foundation
Executive Producer: $10,000+
Donna Chipps
Drs. John & Lois Crowe
Jeffrey Farley & Mike Tentis
Gloriette C. Fong
Lesley & Steve Koonce
Bob Mandelson
Kris Martin
Sacramento Region Community Foundation - The James & Susan McClatchy Fund
Anita Scuri & James Simon
Producer: $6,000+
John Abbott & Lori Abbott Moreland
Dan Brunner
Director: $3,000+
John & Randi Brooklier
Susie & Jim Burton
Melissa Conner & Theodore Harris
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Damaris & Douglas Perez
Kim Silvers & Sheila Cardno
Barbara Sommer
Ed Telfeyan & Jeri Paik
Patricia Wall & David Stavarek
Gloria & Don Yost
Lead Actor: $1,200+
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Peggy Beasley
David Bell & Katherine Newman
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Designer: $600+
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Ensemble: $300+
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Learn more about "The Crew": capstage.org/play-a-part/donate/