PEN PALS |
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| Lisa Dozier Shacket | |||||
written by
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Nancy McKeon* Gail Winar* |
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directed by SuzAnne Barabas |
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| Scenic Design Costume Design Lighting Design Sound Design Production Stage Manager | |||||
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Jessica Parks David Woolard Jill Nagel Nick Simone Kristin Pfeifer* |
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| * Denotes a member of Actors Equity Association, the union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. ActorsEquity.org | |||||
Follow Us:
Cast
NANCY MCKEON*
Bernie
GAIL WINAR*
Mags
Creative Team
MICHAEL GRIFFO
Playwright
SUZANNE BARABAS
Director/ Artistic Director, NJRep
JESSICA PARKS
Resident Scenic Designer/Props Designer
DAVID C. WOLLARD
Costume Designer
JILL NAGLE
Resident Lighting Designer
NICK SIMONE
Resident Sound Design
KRISTIN PFEIFER*
Production Stage Manager
BRIAN SNYDER
Technical Director/Facilities Manager
JANEY HUBER
Assistant Director and Assistant Lighting Designer
JAMES LOCKHART
Master Electrician
IAN DUHART
Assistant Stage Manager
JT PUBLIC RELATIONS
PR/Public Relations
JOEL STONE
Literary Manager
EVAN BERGMAN
Associate Artistic Director
DEE DEE IRWIN
Managing Director
GABOR BARABAS
Executive Producer
LISA DOZIER SHACKET
Co-producer
NJRep Staff
Gabor Barabas, Executive Producer
SuzAnne Barabas, Artistic Director
Evan Bergman, Associate Artistic Director
Dee Dee Irwin, Managing Director
Joel Stone, Literary Manager
Jessica Parks, Production Manager and Resident Scenic Designer
Patricia E. Doherty, Resident Costume Designer
Jill Nagle, Resident Lighting Designer
Nick Simone, Resident Sound Designer
Brian Snyder, Technical Director and Facilities Manager
Joe Trentacosta, Public Relations
Kristin Pfeifer*, Production Stage Manager
Rose Riccardi*, Production Stage Manager
James Lockhart, Master Electrician
Janey Huber, Artistic Associate & Assistant Lighting Designer
Ian Duhart, Assistant Stage Manager
Karen Wharmby, House Manager and Volunteer Coordinator
Donna Stiles, Assistant to the Production Manager
David Becerra, Head Custodian
ArtsFMS, Finance Consultants
Jephens Technology, IT Consultants
John Pocalyko, Head of Finance Committee
Dee Cantalice, Theatre Ambassador
Mare Akana, Gallery Curator
Andrea Phox, Photographer
Gail Winar, Artistic Associate
Martin Fullone, Facilities
Blake Robinson, Scenic Artist/Props Assistant
Gisela Nucciarone, Carpenter
LDK Productions
Michael Shannon
Logan DeWitt
Meet the Company
NANCY MCKEON*
Bernie
NANCY MCKEON is an actress, director and producer best known for playing the role of Jo Polniaczek on the beloved long-running 1980s sitcom, The Facts of Life.
She starred in and produced the sitcom Can’t Hurry Love and starred with Jean Smart in the sitcom Style & Substance. She portrayed Inspector Jinny Exstead on the Lifetime police drama The Division from 2001 to 2004. She also directed two episodes. McKeon starred in numerous made-for-TV movies in the 1980s and 1990s, some including A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story, in which she portrayed the title role of Tracey Thurman, and Firefighter portraying the first female firefighter in Los Angeles County. Strange Voices, she portrayed a woman with schizophrenia. Love, Honor and Obey; The last Mafia Marriage , mini series with Eric Roberts. She produced many of these movies through her film company, Forest Hills Entertainment. In 1999, she wrote and directed her own short film, A Wakening. The film won two film festival awards.
GAIL WINAR*
Mags
In addition to her affiliation with NJ Rep Co, Gail teaches for the Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway, Kean University and Marymount Manhattan College. She has also taught at NYU for Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, CUNY Queensborough, Columbia Teacher’s College, Vassar College, Stockholm University, and the Jakarta International School in Indonesia. She also serves/ed on the teaching staff for the American Globe Theatre, New Jersey Repertory Company; George Street Playhouse, American Ballet Theatre, Academy of Performing Arts, Theatre for a New Audience, National Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare Theatre Company. Performing experience includes numerous tours throughout the U.S., U.K. and Europe, and original roles in Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women at 59E59 and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; Missa Solemnis at the Barrow Theatre; Beyond Gravity for New Jersey Repertory Company; What I Heard About Iraq at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; and hundreds of live industrial shows for national/international corporations. Directing credits include productions for Education@Roundabout, George Street Playhouse, New Jersey Repertory Company, Kean University, LIU/CW Post, Classics on Tour, American Globe Theatre, Shotgun Productions, Biggs-Rosati and the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center. With Paul Lucas Productions, Gail has produced dozens of theater projects including TimeSlips at HERE Arts Center in NYC, and several awarding-winning productions at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, including Trans Scripts, which won a Fringe First Award 2015. Gail has an MFA from the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting/GWU; BFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts; and a certificate from the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain.
MICHAEL GRIFFO
Playwright
Michael Griffo has written over 20 plays including 9th Street Water, The Date, Klaxson ’77, No More Sundays – winner of the New Jersey Perry Award for Best Original Play, Can Dina Even Spell Afghanistan? – finalist for the Reva Shiner Comedy Award, and CLOUDY and 5G/10B – both of which were published in Smith & Kraus’s 2005: The Best 10-Minute Plays for Two Actors. His High School plays – Material Girls and Promapocalypse! – are licensed by Theatrical Rights Worldwide.
He has published 15 novels with Kensington Books including Between Boyfriends, The Archangel Academy Trilogy, The Darkborn Legacy Series, and The Ferrara Family Mystery Series. His new mystery series launched in September 2023 with the publication of Murder In An Italian Village, followed by Murder In An Italian Café, which was published in September 2024.
His screenplays include THE SILVER REINDEER, THE CHRISTMAS SWAP, and HOLIDAY HIGH SCHOOL REUNION.
For more information, visit www.michaelgriffo.com.
SUZANNE BARABAS
Director/ Artistic Director, NJRep
For NJ Rep, SuzAnne directed the world premiere of The Two Hander (with Jill Eikenberry and Ella Dershowitz), Find Me a Voice, North Fork (premiere), Immortal Interlude (premiere), Octet(premiere), Till Morning Comes (premiere), Maggie Rose, Getting in Touch With My Inner B*tch(starring Christine Lavin, premiere), The Adjustment, 10% of Molly Snyder, Romulus Linney’s Klonsky & Schwartz, Apostasy (premiere), Women Who Steal, Apple, The Housewives of Mannheim (premiere), Evie’s Waltz, Dead Ringer (premiere), Steven Dietz’s Yankee Tavern, Puma(premiere), Night Train (premiere), Just In Time: The Judy Holliday Story, Bakersfield Mist, Annapurna, Happy, Broomstick (premiere), Lucky Me (premiere), Swimming at the Ritz (U.S. premiere), and The Realization of Emily Linder (premiere). SuzAnne directed productions of The Housewives of Mannheim at 59E59 Theater (NYC), Ensemble Theater of Santa Barbara (CA), and Phoenix Theater (Indianapolis). In addition, she directed regional productions of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, The Fantasticks, The Roar of the Greasepaint the Smell of the Crowd, Cabaret,Shaw’s Heartbreak House, A.R. Gurney’s The Perfect Party, Marsha Norman’s ‘Night Mother,Philip Barry’s The Philadelphia Story, Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy, Mark Dunn’s Belles, Lee Blessing’s Down the Road among others. She is a member of Actors Equity Association, BMI, the Dramatists Guild, SDC, and LPTW.
JESSICA PARKS
Resident Scenic Designer/Props Designer
JESSICA PARKS has been working for NJ Repertory Company since 2003 and has been the resident scenic designer and prop designer since 2010. Set designs at NJ Rep include: The Promotion, Memoirs of a Forgotten Man, Wolf at the Door, The Jag, Swimming at the Ritz, Happy and Broomstick. NYC credits at 59E59 St. Theaters include: Michael Tucker’s Fern Hill, Butler, The Housewives of Mannheim, Jericho and Poetic License. Other credits include: The End of Hester at Theatre Row NYC, Bretch:Call & Response at Paradise Factory Theatre and Dan Lauria's Dinner with the Boys at Theater Row NYC.
DAVID C. WOLLARD
Costume Designer
David C. Woolard has designed costumes at most of the major theatres in America as well as for productions all over the world. He has dressed many personalities including Jane Fonda, Betty Buckley, Liz Mikel, Quentin Tarantino and Billy Crystal among others.
Broadway credits include BRONX BOMBERS, FIRST DATE, LYSISTRATA JONES, WEST SIDE STORY, Jane Fonda’s clothing for 33 VARIATIONS, DIVIDING THE ESTATE, THE FARNSWORTH INVENTION, RING OF FIRE, ALL SHOOK UP, THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW (2001 Tony Award nomination) VOICES IN THE DARK, THE WHO’S TOMMY (1993 Tony and Olivier Award nominations) BELLS ARE RINGING, MARLENE, WAIT UNTIL DARK, Horton Foote’s THE YOUNG MAN FROM ATLANTA, DAMN YANKEES, A FEW GOOD MEN.
Other credits include PIECE OF MY HEART at The Signature Theatre, GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES with Megan Hilty (Encores), ORPHANS HOME CYCLE (Signature Theatre) (Drama Desk, Hewes Award), HEIR APPARENT, (CSC) (Drama Desk nomination) TOXIC AVENGER (off Broadway and Alley Theatre), THE DONKEY SHOW (A.R.T.)
He is well known in the Opera world as well having designed numerous world premiers including COLD MOUNTAIN at Santa Fe Opera, EVEREST at Dallas Opera, DEATH AND THE POWERS at Opera De Monte Carlo. And OSCAR at Santa Fe Opera and Philadelphia Opera Company.
JILL NAGLE
Resident Lighting Designer
JILL NAGLE is the Resident Lighting Designer at NJ Rep. Partial NJ Rep include: Dinner with the Boys, Closure, Butler, Broomstick, Happy, Puma, Night Train, and Noir. Partial NYC designs include: Butler, A Stool at the End of the Bar, Jericho, Poetic License, Housewives of Mannheim, The Man in Room 306, The Dishwashers (59E59), Love Therapy (Daryl Roth), Dinner with the Boys (The Acorn) The Bully Pulpit (Samuel Beckett), Do Not Go Gentle (Harold Clurman), Count Down (Bank Street), In the Parlance (The Pulse), Carrera (La Mama E.T.C.), South Beach Rapture (Dixon Place). Other venues: John Engeman Theatre, Chester Theatre, Luna Stage, Playwrights of New Jersey, Montclair State University, New Jersey City University. www.jillnagle.net
NICK SIMONE
Resident Sound Design
NICK SIMONE has been a performing arts educator in NYC for the past 18 years. He has worked at various music schools for all ages and has been a teaching artist for Roundabout Theatre Company, Apollo Theater, and Sundog Theatre specializing in sound design and musical disciplines. As a musician, Nick plays multiple instruments and has also performed at the renowned Carnage Hall and at the Metropolitan Opera House. Nick has also worked as sound designer and as an audio engineer for many productions such as: US: A Progressive Love Story, The Norwegians, North To Maine, IYOM, Wild Children, Time Travelers Trip To Niagara, The Diorama, Shakespeare's Hamlet at Bryant Park, Extreme Weather, Don’t Dress For Dinner, Villainous Company, Capone, & Romantic Trapezoid. Nick is also affiliated with MTV's production Artist to Watch series as a sound assistant. He is currently the chief audio engineer for Fenix Studios in Staten Island, NY and has credits on multiple albums, films, broadcasts, streaming, music videos and mobile apps. He has worked with up and coming talent and platinum selling artists in different genres from Lorde to Coldplay.
KRISTIN PFEIFER*
Production Stage Manager
NYC Credits: Hedwig and The Angry Inch Nat’l Tour (Production Asst.) Opera: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Assistant Stage Manager, Yale Opera) Regional: With George St. Playhouse as Production Stage Manager: Dear Jack, Dear Louise, The Nerd, A Doll’s House Pt. 2, The Fabulous Lipitones. With the NJ Repertory Company as Production Stage Manager: Multiple Family Dwelling, & Juliet, Halftime w/Don, F-Theory, Mutual Philanthropy, The Calling, Wild Horses, Mercy, Apple Season, The Source, Surfing My DNA, Voyager One, Lily, Bone on Bone, The Promotion, Shrinking, Shrinking World, Welcome to Matteson! Kristin is a proud member of Actor’s Equity.
BRIAN SNYDER
Technical Director/Facilities Manager
BRIAN SNYDER has been an artist, carpenter, and prop builder since 2003 for several companies in NY and NJ including The Art Department, PVS, Stone Dog Studios, Two River Theater Company, and NJ Repertory Company. After 4 years of teaching Visual Arts and Stagecraft at Lakewood High School he returned to the world of freelance and made his debut as Technical Director and Master Carpenter here at NJ Rep in 2014.
JANEY HUBER
Assistant Director and Assistant Lighting Designer
Janey began her relationship at NJ Rep in 2004 as a patron & quickly became a subscriber: “They had me at Whores!” Janey brought close to 30 years of administrative experience to her 5-year role as Managing Director and is thrilled to remain in the NJ Rep family as Artistic Associate. Her previous theater management position was as Operations Director of Algonquin Arts Theatre in Manasquan, NJ. Janey has also been a Quality Assurance Consultant in healthcare since 1988 including 18 years at the Reading Birth & Women’s Center in PA and 10 years at the Frontier School of Midwifery in Kentucky. She served as Chief Financial Officer and then Executive Director of the Institute of Midwifery, Women, & Health, and Clinical Site Coordinator of The Midwifery Institute, both at Philadelphia University. She also served as the Director of Patient Services for a large Planned Parenthood affiliate in Pennsylvania for 2 years and for 11 years prior to that, worked at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, PA as a biology professor; serving as Academic Dean during her last 5 years at the college. Her BA and MS degrees, from East Stroudsburg University, are in aquatic biology.
JAMES LOCKHART
Master Electrician
JAMES LOCKHART has the pleasure of working as the Master Electrician for NJ Repertory Company. He is a young, vibrant freelance lighting designer & master electrician that has worked in the tri-state. He has a comprehensive set of skills.
IAN DUHART
Assistant Stage Manager
IAN DUHART is very excited to be a part of this show at NJ Rep. He just finished a run as Sebastian in The Little Mermaid and Gator in Memphis the Musical. He’s honored to be a part of this team, and hopes you all enjoy the show!
JT PUBLIC RELATIONS
PR/Public Relations
Founded by Joe Trentacosta, JT Public Relations is a full-service entertainment public relations firm. For over 20 years, they have handled over 300 projects on Broadway, Off-Broadway, festival productions, industry readings, films in release, film festivals, non-profit organizations, and special events. Current projects include Anthony Rapp’s Without You, Dog Man The Musical, and the international hit Katsura Sunshine’s Rakugo. Theater companies include AMT Theater, Houses on the Moon, Royal Family Productions, TheaterWorksUSA, Theater Breaking Through Barriers, and Urban Stages. Joe is currently developing a Broadway-bound musical about the Six Triple Eighth Postal Battalion with Holly Garman and Blair Underwood.
JOEL STONE
Literary Manager
JOEL STONE was formerly the artistic director of Off-Off Broadway’s The Theatre Asylum. On May 17, 1998, his play Horrors of Doctor Moreau (published by Samuel French, Inc.) became the first script-in-hand reading to debut at New Jersey Repertory Company. The following year, his short play The Age of Miracles premiered at NJ Rep and went on to be a finalist at the Samuel French Short Play Festival. Also in 1999, NJ Rep presented “Written in Stone”, an evening of Joel’s short plays, including The Speck of Dust in Bugsy’s Eye (featuring the late Kim Hunter). In 2001, he co-produced “One Night With You”, a collection of six short plays about Elvis, created exclusively by NJ Rep playwrights. From 2000-2002, he was the Theatre Education Coordinator for the New York City Board/Department of Education. He has written and directed for all four NJ Rep Theatre Brut Festivals, including Prairie Dogs (2004), Abilene (2004), Trouble on the PATH (2005), Seven4Seven (2006), and The Purgatory of Charlie Hustle (2008). In 2012, Joel directed the acclaimed MainStage production of Gino DiIorio’s Release Point. In 2014, Joel was the Director/Mentor of the award-winning NJ Rep Young Playwrights Project, “Shelter From The Storm”, in which local high school students wrote short plays about Hurricane Sandy. For the past three years, he has been an adjunct professor of playwriting at Monmouth University and recently taught the initial playwriting class for New Jersey Repertory Company’s West End Arts Center. Currently, he is the literary manager for NJ Rep. He was recently commissioned by NJPAC to write The Calling, his first full-length play in decades.
EVAN BERGMAN
Associate Artistic Director
Over the years Evan has directed over 15 productions for New Jersey Rep, many of them world premieres. He is extremely proud of the body of work and the theaters ability to identify a wide range of talented playwrights deserving to have their plays produced. He has also directed world premieres at many other theater including Ensemble Studio Theater, The Duke, Daryl Roth, Barrington Stage, Jane Street, Playwrights Horizon, Arclight, The Tiffaney and 59E59. His film work includes the recent short film Day Zero which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was called” A cautionary tale, perfectly realized” by Oscar award winning Director James Ivory. Dig A Hole, Find A Finger, Palm Springs and Newport Beach International Film Festivals and his Documentary for Warner Music Group featuring Roger Daltry (The Who), Philip Bailey (Earth Wind and Fire). Currently he is in pre-production for a new Feature film he wrote about the life of Oyster Farmers called Life on the Flats which started principle filming in the fall of 2023.
DEE DEE IRWIN
Managing Director
DEE DEE IRWIN joined NJRep in 2022, bringing with her almost 30 years of experience in the performing arts and live events industry. Prior to coming east, Dee Dee spent nine years as the Director of Marketing and Communications/Associate Producer for Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach, CA, and 12 years as part of the Broadway in Hollywood team for Nederlander’s beautiful Pantages theatre in Hollywood, CA. Dee Dee can also be found playing with puppets as part of the gang that produces "Brian Henson’s Puppet Up! Uncensored" at the legendary Jim Henson Company Lot. While in Laguna Beach, Dee Dee served as chair for the Laguna Beach Arts Alliance, celebrated the theatre's 100th birthday, and produced much of the virtual programming during the pandemic. Originally from Los Angeles, Dee Dee holds an MA in Humanities, a BA in Theatre, and is a proud member of IATSE 857. Special shout out to the love of her life, her dog Pickle, who you might see roaming the theatre and giving his opinion on, well, pretty much everything.
GABOR BARABAS
Executive Producer
For NJ Rep, he has produced over 80 world premieres including Ends, A World I Never Made, North Fork, Octet, The Girl With the High Rouge, In Search of Red River Dog, Naked by the River, An Unhappy Woman, Immortal Interlude, Getting in Touch With My Inner B*tch, Till Morning Comes, Slave Shack, Panama, Big Boys, Winterizing the Summer House, Piaf in Vienna, The Color of Flesh, Emil, Touch of Rapture, Beyond Gravity, A Child’s Guide to Innocence, The Good Daughter, Apostasy, The Best Man, Tilt Angel, Love and Murder, tempOdyssey, October 1962, Place Setting, And Her Hair Went With Her, Engaging Shaw, Poetic License, The Housewives of Mannheim, Dead Ringer, Exposure Time (recipient of and Edgerton New American Plays Award), Character Assassins, The Tangled Skirt (nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America), Puma, Night Train, The Judy Holliday Story, Jericho (recipient of and Edgerton New American Plays Award), American Stare, Release Point, Esther’s Moustache, Ants, Noir, Happy, Broomstick, Admit One, A View of the Mountains, Butler (recipient of and Edgerton New American Plays Award), Lucky Me, Dinner with the Boys, Angels and Ministers of Grace, and the musicals Immortal Interlude,Bookends, The Little Hours (recipient of and Edgerton New American Plays Award), and Date of Lifetime. His book Miklos Radnoti: The Complete Poetry in Hungarian and English was recently published by McFarland.
LISA DOZIER SHACKET
Co-producer
LISA DOZIER SHACKET (Producer) founded the theatrical general management firm LDK Productions in 2007. Current/recent: Mama I'm a Big Girl Now, The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers, Anthony Rapp’s Without You, Emergence: Things Are Not As They Seem, The Night of the Iguana (2023 revival), Eisenhower; This Piece of Ground, Little Girl Blue, Katsura Sunshine’s Rakugo, Be More Chill, the immersive theatrical adaptation of the film Sideways, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, A Letter to Harvey Milk. Lisa was the general manager of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals for 11 years and was also the founding producing director of the regional theatre Miami New Drama. She is currently the professor of theatre management at the University of Florida. Love to her husband Mark & the 5: Hana, Noah, Maddy, Cole & Emmy.
NJRep Thanks the Following for Their Support
The Shubert Foundation, MacMillan Family Foundation, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The Stone Foundation of New Jersey, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, OceanFirst Foundation, Manasquan Bank Philanthropic Fund, Investors Bank Foundation, Community Foundation of New Jersey, Jewish Communal Fund, Darien Family Fund, Citizens Philanthropic Foundation, The Smart Family Foundation, NJEDA, The New Jersey Cultural Trust.
Dedication
Dedicated to the REAL "Mags" Sheila Bashforth and "Bernie" Jean Marsch Griffo
