June 6, 2010 – Stageworks/Hudson kicks off its 2010 season with the regional premiere of OR, by Liz Duffy Adams on Friday, June 18. Preview performances are June 16 - 17. OR, runs Wednesdays through Sundays through July 4 at Stageworks’ Max and Lillian Katzman Theater, 41 Cross Street, Hudson, New York. OR, is directed by Jeffrey Mousseau.
“We are very excited to open our 2010 season with Liz Duffy Adams’ highly inventive, three-actor comedy,” comments Laura Margolis, artistic director of Stageworks. “The play centers around the life of Restoration playwright, Aphra Behn, as she takes the leap from being a spy for King Charles II to history’s first female dramatist. With masterful humor and intelligence, Liz Duffy Adams draws a parallel between the new found empowerment of women in the 17th century and the sexual revolution of the 1960s.”
Aphra Behn, a noted bisexual, broke through the sexual barriers of her time by refusing to be subservient to a man, let alone to becoming a housewife. It is speculated that Aphra made up her marriage so that she could claim the title of “widow” and have more freedom. OR, explores Aphra’s quest to finish writing her play (which historically is considered the first play ever penned by a woman) while juggling her political obligations and love affairs with noted actress, Nell Gwynne, who frequently doted men’s clothing on and off the stage, and King Charles II.
Throughout the play Aphra is torn between her love for Nell and Charles, her duties as a spy and her passion for playwriting. The relationships portrayed in OR, breakthrough the societal rules of conformity and the play's depiction of the era's cross dressing, free love, and general ribaldry is a reminder that sexual and social revolution usually occurs after oppression and legalized conservatism. OR, is a bodice ripping mash up—a 1660’s cross dressing, free love comedy electrified by the freedom and adventure of the 1960’s—delivered with bawdy wit and punctuated with kisses.
Stageworks 2010 season is made possible by, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Shubert Foundation. OR, is made possible, in part, with support from the Ernest O. Reaugh Trust Fund.
General talk-backs with the cast, director and playwright will occur directly after the evening performances on Thursdays.
WHO’S WHO
Liz Duffy Adams (Playwright). Liz Duffy Adams’ play OR, premiered Off-Broadway at Women’s Project’s Julia Miles Theater in November, 2009. She is currently working on a pirate musical for the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis and THE LISTENER OF JUNK CITY, an alt-rock musical written with composer John Hodian. Her plays include NEON MIRAGE, Humana Festival 2006 anthology play; THE LISTENER, produced by Crowded Fire in the Bay Area and Moxie Theater San Diego, workshopped at Portland Center Stage’s 2006 JAW/West; WET, OR ISABELLA THE PIRATE QUEEN ENTERS THE HORSE LATITUDES, Humana Festival finalist produced by MOXIE Theater San Diego, workshopped at Summer Play Festival; DOG ACT, produced by Shotgun Players in San Francisco and Berkeley, and MOXIE Theater in San Diego, workshopped at Bay Area Playwrights Festival and Portland Stage Company’s Little Festival of the Unexpected, Humana Festival finalist 2005; ONE BIG LIE, music theater piece co-commissioned/produced by Crowded Fire and Playwrights Foundation, San Francisco; THE RECKLESS RUTHLESS BRUTAL CHARGE OF IT (THE TRAIN PLAY) produced by Crowded Fire in San Francisco and Clubbed Thumb in New York; A WRINKLE IN TIME, commissioned and produced by Syracuse Stage. Publications include POODLE WITH GUITAR AND DARK GLASSES in Applause Book’s “Best American Short Plays 2000-2001,” numerous short plays and monologues in anthologies by Smith & Kraus, Applause, and Heinemann, and several plays with Playscripts, Inc. Liz was profiled in American Theatre Magazine December 2004. She is a graduate of NYU’s Experimental Theater Lab and Yale School of Drama. Her honors include: New Dramatists alumna (2001-2008); 2008 Weston Playhouse Music Theater Award; 2006 New York Fellowship for the Arts Award; 2006 Frederick Loewe Award; 2004 Will Glickman Award (DOG ACT). Residencies: MacDowell, Millay, and Djerassi. Liz is a member of the Dramatists Guild and a New Georges Affiliated Artist.
Jeffrey Mousseau (Director) is happy be back at Stageworks, having previously directed I AM MY OWN WIFE. Credits include AUNT LEAF at HERE Arts Center, NYC, where he also curates StartHERE: Innovative Theater for Young People, Tribeca PAC, Westbank Café, American Southwest Theater, Proctors Theater, Provincetown Rep and Florida Studio Theater. In Boston, he founded The Coyote Theatre, recipient of numerous Elliot Norton and IRNE awards, and directed many of its productions over 12 years. In academia, he teaches and guest directs at University at Albany and Siena College, among others.
Abby Lee (Prologue, Jailor, Nell Gwynne, Maria) is thrilled to be back at Stageworks where she appeared last season in CAR TALK and directed PLAY BY PLAY: CROSSROADS. Most recently in NYC, Abby appeared in a “Sticky” production called THE INTERVENTION and has been studying with Upright Citizens Brigade. Some of Abby's favorite regional roles include, Mona in DAMES AT SEA, Sally in TALLEY’S FOLLY, Maria in WEST SIDE STORY, Corrie Bratter in BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, Hermia in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and ALMOST, MAINE. Film: 21 and a Wakeup, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Triptych. www.abbylee.net
Angela Rauscher (Aphra Behn) made her Stageworks debut last season in PLAY BY PLAY: CROSSROADS. Although she is from the NYC area, she started her career 5 years ago in London, where she attended the Central School of Speech & Drama. Some of her favourite roles include: Lady Macbeth, Dido Queen of Carthage, Bernarda Alba (THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA) and Beatrice (A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE). Noteworthy projects include CONJURING MARLOWE AT THE ROSE, a Marlowe tribute which she co-produced for the Rose Theatre Trust UK (on the excavated site of the Rose Theatre, the oldest in London!); and THE MAN WHO, which she produced as a beneficiary event for SANE, a UK Mental Health charity. www.angelarauscher.com
Jason Schuchman (King Charles II, William Scott, Lady Davenant). Stageworks/Hudson: Debut. Off-Broadway: MILTON BRADLEY, Ensemble Studio Theatre; NEVER TELL, Broken Watch Theatre Company; THE ROADS THAT LEAD HERE, Epic Repertory Theatre Company. Regional: TRAVELS OF ANGELICA, Cincinnati Playhouse; INTIMATE APPAREL, Stamford Theatre Works; MRS. FARSWORTH, Rep Stage; MODERN ORTHODOX, Caldwell Theatre; YANKEE DOODLE DANDY!, 5th Avenue Theatre; LOBBY HERO, Studio Theatre in Washington D.C. and Lyric Stage Company of Boston; DEAD END, Huntington Theatre; MESHUGAH, Boston Theatre Works, and many others. Television: Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Third Watch and Guiding Light. Film: The Perfect Dress, You & Me. Mr. Schuchman is a member of Emerging Artists Theatre and an actor member of Israel Horovitz’s New York Playwrights Lab.
Jennifer Schilansky (Stage Manager) stage managed Stageworks productions of PLAY BY PLAY, NOWHERE ON THE BORDER, CAR TALK, FORBIDDEN BROADWAY, FALLING: A WAKE, SOUVENIR and GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL! and EMERSON HIGH with Half Moon Theater in Poughkeepsie. As an actor, she performed the role of Killer as well as the Stage Manager for THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE at the Rhinebeck Performing Arts Center, Madeline Monroe in TONY & TINA’S WEDDING at Proctors and in numerous productions with Classics at the Point. A native of Catskill, NY, Jennifer holds a BA in Acting from Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA.
The Design Team
Sarah Edkins (Scenic Design) has spent half her life in the United Kingdom and half in New York, with a brief stint in San Francisco. Besides designing sets and teaching set design, she has worked as a mural artist, puppeteer and installation artist. She recently had the pleasure of working with Jeff Mousseau on a new piece by Barbara Wiechmann AUNTLEAF at HERE in New York City. She has previously designed sets for 3 other original works, written by Barbara.
Denise Massman (Costume Design). Her last collaboration with Stageworks was as set designer for MARTHA MITCHELL CALLING. Denise is an Assistant Professor of Creative Arts at Siena College where she teaches interdisciplinary and theatre design courses and also designs regularly for their productions. She has come to teaching after many years of professional design work. Denise designed costumes last summer for Montana Shakespeare in the Park’s, TWO GENTLEMAN OF VERONA, and this winter for The Garden City Ballet Company’s THE NUTCRACKER SUITE. Recently her set design for INTO THE WOODS at Siena received a certificate of merit from KCACTF.
Byron Nilsson (Sound Design). A twenty-year veteran of the radio broadcasting industry, Byron was a classical music producer-announcer on WMHT in Schenectady, NY and WFCR in Amherst, MA, and presented a big bands and jazz program on WMVI in Mechanicville, NY. He adapted and directed a radio dramatization of Thomas Berger’s WHO IS TEDDY VILLANOVA?, recorded as a live performance for WPKN in Bridgeport, CT. Among his recent theatrical sound design projects have been MR SENSITIVITY at last year’s NY Fringe Festival, a play that he also wrote; A WEDDING STORY and PLAY BY PLAY at Stageworks/Hudson, and HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE and PROOF at Russell Sage College.
Frank Den Danto III (Lighting Design) is a lighting designer and installation artist. His design work includes NOWHERE ON THE BORDER, CAR TALK, FORBIDDEN BROADWAY, FALLING: A WAKE and SOUVENIR for Stageworks, SOLAR POWER at the New Victory Theater, HBO’s “Reel Sex 24” and “Annie Sprinkle’s Herstory of Porn.” Off-Broadway productions of BLIND ALLEY at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, ONLY YOU at the Jewish American Theater, ADJOINING TRANCES at the Samuel Beckett Theater, SONG BIRD at Aaron Davis Hall and SHADOW BOX at the Hudson Guild Theater. He has designed for such artist as Spalding Grey, Karen Finely, Tim Miller, Deb Margolin, Ann Magnuson, John Kelly and Holly Hughes and the dance companies Sarah Michelson Co., Gabri Christa/DanzAsia, Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, Lava Love, Stacy Dawson & David Neumann and White Oak Dance Project. Frank has received a number of awards and merits for his installation art and lighting sculptures for the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Flat Iron Works Gallery, the Museum of Art and Architecture, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in NYC.
Phil Elman (Technical Director) has served as Resident Technical Director for Stageworks for the past four years. Recent plays include CAR TALK and FORBIDDEN BROADWAY. He has also designed the sound for several Stageworks’ productions. As the company’s General Manager, Phil has been an integral part of Stageworks both artistically and managerially for over fourteen years.
About Stageworks/Hudson
Stageworks has established a reputation for its ambitious programming and adventurous productions. The company is especially known for producing the bold, risk-taking work of new dramatic voices. Central to its vision is Futures, an integrative program designed to move Stageworks to the forefront of new play development. Stageworks is both the experiment and the resource to infuse the whole life of the theater with a creative process that produces new ways of expressing, interpreting and sharing the human experience.
Stageworks is a member of Theatre Communications Group, the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce and Perform Columbia. It is the recipient of a Proctors Regional Arts Award inaugurated by Proctors Theatre in 2008 to honor the outstanding work of performing arts organizations. For four consecutive years, Stageworks was distinguished in Metroland Magazine as “Best Theater Company.” Stageworks is recipient of the Crystal Apple Award from the Chamber of Commerce for providing a positive effect both culturally and economically on the quality of life in our community.
Plays are for everyone, whether written by students, established authors or emerging dramatists. Theater illuminates, expresses and interprets the human experience and profoundly serves as a global stage for social exchange and enrichment. Stageworks complements its main season with a series of programs to encourage and engage young people, traditional theatergoers and new audiences. Stageworks continues to actively take a leadership role in establishing the Hudson Valley as a cultural destination by exploring and expanding its reputation for developing new theatrical works, forms and programs.
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