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Yankee practicality collides with New York’s sophisticated Art World in Sidney Howard’s sly 1930s comedy The Late Christopher Bean.  THE LATE CHRISTOPHER BEAN by Sidney Howard based upon "Prenez Garde a la Peinture" by Rene Fauchois Directed by JENN THOMPSON With TACT Company Members: MARY BACON, CYNTHIA DARLOW, GREG McFADDEN, JAMES MURTAUGH & JAMES PRENDERGAST and guest artists: BOB ARI, HUNTER CANNING JESSIEE DATINO & KATE MIDDLETON All hell breaks loose when a celebrated painter’s early works are traced to the humble home of a country doctor. Both a biting satire on the destructive power of greed and a touching view of a family in turmoil, this feisty comedy will have you cheering for the most unlikely of heroines. Costume design by MARTHA HALLY Set design by CHARLIE CORCORAN Lighting design by BEN STANTON Sound design by STEPHEN KUNKEN Original music by MARK BERMAN Props by TALINE ALEXANDER PSM: MEREDITH DIXON ASM: JANE CLAUSEN November 1st through December 5th, 2009 Mon, Wed, Thurs & Friday at 7:30 Saturday at 2:00 and 8:00 Sunday at 3:00 ***Special 7:30 PM performance Tuesday, November 24th No performance Thanksgiving Day, November 26th. The Beckett Theatre Theatre Row 410 West 42nd Street New York, NY CAST  BOB ARI (Rosen) TACT: Debut. Broadway : Frost/Nixon (u/s Richard Nixon); The Constant Wife; Bells Are Ringing; Laughter On The 23rd Floor. Off-Broadway: Dreyfus In Rehearsal; Die Mommie Die!; Jolson & Company; Picasso At The Lapin Agile; Baby Anger; June Moon. Tours: Frost/Nixon (U.S.); West Side Story (Europe); Guys & Dolls (Europe). Regional Theatres: Delaware Theatre Co.; Coconut Grove Playhouse; Walnut St. Theatre; Wilma Theatre; Long Wharf; A.C.T.; New Jersey and Utah Shakespeare Festivals; Hartford Stage; McCarter Theatre; St. Louis Rep and many others. Film: Two Lovers; Wanted; Kissing Jessica Stein; Music Of The Heart; Cradle Will Rock… Television: Law And Order SVU; Ed; Law And Order; Cheers; Cagney And Lacey; Soap; L.A. Law; Diff’rent Strokes; The Jeffersons; All My Children.  MARY BACON (Abby) TACT: Company Member since the 2001/2002. 14 productions with the company most recently as Alma Winemiller in Eccentricities of A Nightingale. Broadway: Rock N’ Roll, Arcadia. Off Broadway: Becky Shaw (Second Stage), Treason (Perry Street), The Madras House (The Mint), The Bear, (The Drama League.) Regional: Children, Westport Country Playhouse and Williamstown Theatre Festival, Happy Now? (Yale Rep), Misalliance (Old Globe), Hazard County, (Humana Festival), Stephen Wadsworth’s adaptation/direction of Don Juan (world premiere, Seattle Rep, McCarter) and The Triumph of Love (Seattle Rep, Long Wharf),The Bald Soprano and The Rivals (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey), Iron Kisses, (world premiere Geva), and the Alliance, Capital Rep, Dallas Theatre Center, Baltimore Center Stage, Denver Center, Cincinnati Playhouse, Hartford Theatreworks. TV/Film: Alexander Hamilton, Jonny Zero, Law and Order, L&O Criminal Intent and SVU, Suzanna Most, The Gaveltons. She has been in 13 salons readings with TACT, and is a member of the Actors Center workshop company. Upcoming: Kitty Allison in the New York Premiere of Lucinda Coxon’s Happy Now? at Primary Stages, January-March.  HUNTER CANNING (Warren Creamer) TACT: Debut. Recent workshops & Off-Broadway: Reconstruction (dir. Josh Fox, Ohio Theater); ‘68 (dir. John Gould-Rubin - LAByrinth); Foreman/Bridge Project (dir. Richard Foreman). Film: The Exploding Girl (official selection of Tribecca Film Festival ‘09). BFA from the SUNY Purchase Acting Conservatoire. Hunter is thrilled to be making his TACT debut and is honored to be working with such an incredible group of artists. www.huntercanning.com.  JESSIEE DATINO (Susan Haggett) TACT: Debut. Regional: Romeo & Juliet (Kansas City Shakes Fest.); Hay Fever, Lend Me a Tenor, The Dining Room, (PA Centre Stage); Moon Over Buffalo (Cape Playhouse); Talley’s Folly, Talley and Son (Actors Theatre of Kansas City); A Christmas Carol (Kansas City Rep.). MFA from Penn State University. Love and Thanks to J and B.  CYNTHIA DARLOW (Mrs. Haggett) TACT: Company member since 1997/1998. 25 productions wtih the company, most recently, The Devil Passes. Broadway: Billy Elliot; Accent on Youth; Old Acquaintance; Rabbit Hole; Taller Than a Dwarf; Present Laughter; Sex & Longing; Prelude to a Kiss; Rumors; and the original production of Grease. Off-Broadway: The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, The Runner Stumbles, HOME (TACT); Sin: A Cardinal Deposed; Hank Williams: Lost Highway; Surviving Grace; Juno and the Paycock; Cider House Rules; Once in a Lifetime; The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told; June Moon; Death Defying Acts; Mere Mortals; Till the Rapture Comes; The Naked Truth; Actor’s Nightmare/Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You; Baby with the Bathwater; This Property is Condemned. Regional Theatres: American Repertory Theatre (founding member); ACT; Ahmanson; Cleveland Playhouse; Ford’s Theatre; Goodman; Goodspeed; Pittsburgh Public Theatre; Pittsburgh CLO; Mark Taper Forum; Syracuse Stage; Walnut Street; Yale Rep. Film: The Savages; 25th Hour; The Thomas Crown Affair; Garden State; Lost Souls. Television: The Sopranos; Six Degrees; Soul Man (w/ Dan Ackroyd); Law & Order; Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; and the Children’s Television Workshop’s Square One TV (5 seasons - series regular). Ms. Darlow is a narrator of many audio books, most notably the "Murder She Wrote" series for the BBC.  GREG McFADDEN (Tallant) TACT: Company Member since the 1996/1997. 28 productions with the company, most recently The Sea. Broadway: The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. Off-Broadway: Hamlet (NYSF); Brooklyn At Eye Level (Civilians); Badge; The Sea (TACT); The Voysey Inheritance (Atlantic); Three Cornered Moon (Keen); World Premiere of Noel Coward’s Long Island Sound; In Praise of Folly: The Don Quixote Project; A Tale of Two Cities; Misalliance; School for Scandal; Richard II; The Last Episode. Regional: Cincinnati Playhouse; St. Louis Rep; Shakespeare Theatre; George Street Playhouse; Humana Festival – ATL; Delaware Theatre Company; Kennedy Center. Television: Cupid; Dirty Sexy Money; Law and Order; Law and Order: CI; Conviction; Guiding Light; One Life to Live. Film: Synecdoche, New York and the upcoming Solitary Man. Mr. McFadden is a graduate of Juilliard.  KATE MIDDLETON (Ada Haggett) TACT: Debut. NYC Credits: Most recently, Barefoot in the Park (Ground UP Productions); Cathedral (by Joe Pintauro at Manhattan Theatre Source); Avow (45th St. Theatre/The Cardinal Group - nominated for Best Leading Actress by The NYIT Awards 2009), Proof, The Shape of Things, House of Yes, Pump Boys and Dinettes (Ground UP Productions); The Pajama Game (Village Light Opera). Regional: Marty (Huntington Theatre, with John C. Reilly); With and Without (Bickford Theatre); South Pacific (ArtPark,); Carnival (NJ Shakespeare); August Snow (Triad Stage); Jack and Jill (UNC/Playmakers); Blithe Spirit; The Full Monty, and Chicago (Weston Playhouse). She has also directed the new hit southern musical, The People vs. Mona, and The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek. TV/Film: Mercy: Episode 106, L&O: "Fame", L&O SVU: "Desperate", Comedy Central’s "Date from Hell," as well as many national and regional VO’s and commercials. Kate is thrilled to be making her TACT debut and incredibly grateful to both her supportive family and her 5-year old non-profit theater company, Ground UP Productions! Check us out at www.GroundUPproductions.org.  JAMES MURTAUGH (Dr. Haggett) TACT: Company member since 1996/1997. 36 productions with the company, most recently, The Confidential Clerk. Broadway: Ah, Wilderness (Lincoln Center); Philadelphia, Here I Come; Two Shakespearean Actors. Off-Broadway: The Triangle Factory Fire Project (TACT); The Runner Stumbles (TACT); The Secret Order (EST); The Jazz Singer (Jewish Rep); Other People’s Money (Minnetta Lane); The Wreck of the 5:45 (EST); How The Other Half Loves (York); I Am A Man (CSC Rep). Film: Everything’s Fine, Invincible; The Tourist; Two Weeks; How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days; Out of Time; Thirteen Conversations about One Thing; Goy Band; My Brother’s Shadow; The Last Days of Disco; Private Parts; The Howling; Blue Thunder; The Rosary Murders; Night Falls on Manhattan, Vanilla Sky. Television: 30 Rock; The Water Is Wide (Hallmark); 100 Centre Street; The Sopranos; The Laramie Project; Ed; Law & Order; Law & Order Special Victims Unit; Law and Order CI; Law and Order: Trial by Jury; Cosby; Feds; Spin City; All My Children; Spenser For Hire; NYPD Blue; Wonderland; The Equalizer; Hope and Faith; Third Watch; Hill Street Blues. Mr. Murtaugh is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre.  JAMES PRENDERGAST (Maxwell Davenport) TACT: Company member since the 2002/2003. 23 productions with the company, most recently, The Tavern. New York Theatre: Playwrights Horizons; Ensemble Studio Theatre; Directors Co.; Lark; New Georges. National Tours: Harvey; My Daughter, Your Son. Regional: Old Globe Theatre, Dorset Theatre Festival, Hangar Theatre, Allenberry, Shadowland, Mountain Playhouse, Woodstock Fringe, Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, Public Theatre of Maine, Washington’s National Theatre in Born Yesterday; Three Sisters; The Cherry Orchard; Death of A Salesman; School For Scandal; Seascape; Mr. Roberts; A Doll’s House; Inherit The Wind; The Woman In Black; Don’t Dress For Dinner; Gypsy; ART; The Immigrant; Ten Little Indians; The Chief (solo show), etc. Film: The Changeling; Moscow On The Hudson; The Purple Rose of Cairo; Quiz Show; The Day The Bread Turned Green. Television: As The World Turns; Guiding Light; All My Children; Prime Time Live; David Letterman; Conan O’Brien; Dana Carvey Show. JENN THOMPSON (Director) TACT: Company member since 2002/03 and Associate Producer, having appeared in several productions and, most recently, directing last season’s critically-acclaimed production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce. Other directing credits for TACT include Tennessee Williams’ The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (included in the The New York Times "Top Ten Theatre Picks for 2008"), Ladies in Retirement, My 3 Angels, Rain and Kind Lady. Other recent NYC directing credits include the world premiere musical Seeing Stars, this fall, for The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), Badge by Matthew Schneck (Rattlestick), Term Limit by Viki Boyle (American Globe Theatre), The Brilliance Of Bernstein (featuring Phyllis Newman - American Musicals Project at the NY Historical Society) and Richard Thompson’s critically-acclaimed play Big Doolie, which sold out its run at the 10th Anniversary NYC Fringe Festival. As a Producing Director and founding company member of Connecticut’s award-winning River Rep Theatre Company, she has performed in over 40 plays and musicals and has, most recently, directed productions of The Foreigner, Dinner with Friends, The Heiress and Damn Yankees. As an actress her credits include extensive TV and Film appearances as well as the Tony Award-winning Broadway productions of Ah, Wilderness!, The Heiress, and Annie in addition to productions at Playwrights’ Horizons, The Public Theatre; Soho Rep, The York; American Jewish Theatre; The Hudson Guild; W.P.A., Protean Theatre Company; Perry Street Theatre and Ubu Rep in addition to work at many of the finest regional theaters across the country. CHARLIE CORCORAN (Set design) TACT: Debut. Designs include: The Emperor Jones, The Yeats Project, Prisoner of the Crown, Sive, Defender of the Faith, The Field, Mr. Dooley’s America (Irish Rep), The Night Watcher, Exits and Entrances (Primary Stages), The Black Monk, The Bully Pulpit, Sophistry (Becket Theatre), The Metal Children (Vineyard), Without Walls (Mark Taper Forum), The Molly Maguire’s (Kirby Center), Rock Doves (Irish Arts Center), Shogun Macbeth, Tea, Yohen (Pan Asian Rep), Women Who Steal (Penguin Rep). Associate Designs Include: A Raisin in the Sun; The Boys from Syracuse; the upcoming Me Myself and I (Broadway); Happiness; Third (Lincoln Center); Conversations In Tusculum; See what I wanna see (The Public), Adrift In Macao; Southern Comforts (Primary Stages); Rodelinda; Iphigenie En Tauride (Metropolitan Opera); The Ring Cycle; and, upcoming, Amelia (Seattle Opera). www.charlescorcorandesign.com BEN STANTON (Lighting design) TACT: Debut. New York: Coraline (MCC/True Love Productions), Why Torture Is Wrong And The People Who Love Them (Public Theater), Gingerbread House (StageFARM), Humor Abuse (Manhattan Theater Club), Light Raise the Roof, Play Yourself, Bexley OH! (New York Theater Workshop), Three Changes, A Feminine Ending, Essential Self-Defense (Playwrights Horizons), The Dear Boy, The Triple Happiness (Second Stage), Astroland (The Kitchen), Sandra Bernhard: Everything Bad & Beautiful (Daryl Roth Theater), Walmartopia, Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell (Minetta Lane), Bad Jazz (Play Company), Orange Flower Water, Stone Cold Dead Serious (Edge Theater), Die Mommie Die (New World Stages), Hunting and Gathering (Primary Stages), Jollyship the Wizbang (Arsnova), The Thugs (Soho Rep), Finer Noble Gases, American Sligo, Rag and Bone (Rattlestick), Lower Ninth (Flea). Regional: La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, South Coast Rep, Huntington Theater, Philadelphia Theatre Co., The McCarter Theater, Intiman Theater, Paper Mill Playhouse, Westport Co untry Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Actors Theater of Louisville, Cincinnati Playhouse, St. Louis Rep. Chautauqua Theater Co, Bay Street Theater, New York Stage and Film, Williamstown Theater Festival. MARTHA HALLY (Costume Designer) TACT: Bedroom Farce. Off-Broadway: Is Life Worth Living?, The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd (Mint Theater), Secret Order (59E59), Treason (Perry Street Theater), Sive, Gaslight, Defender of the Faith, The Field (Irish Repertory Theater). Regional: Milwaukee Repertory Theater, CenterStage, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Repertory Theater of St Louis, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Alley Theatre, Portland Stage, Merrimack Repertory Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival. Opera: Chicago Opera Theater, Virginia Opera, The Little Orchestra Society of Lincoln Center, Center For Contemporary Opera, Manhattan School of Music. Television: "Live On Tape" (NBC), "Hazelle" (HBO),"Robert Klein: It All Started Here" (HBO), Hard Rock Live (VH-1) STEPHEN KUNKEN (Sound Designer) TACT: Bedroom Farce. Recent New York design credits include the world premiere musical Seeing Stars for The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), last season’s acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Alan Ayckbourne’s Bedroom Farce (TACT/The Actors Company Theatre) and the world premieres of Matthew Schneck’s Badge (Rattlestick) and Richard Thompson’s Big Doolie at the New York Fringe Festival. He was the resident Sound Designer for the award-winning River Rep Theatre Company in Connecticut for seven seasons where some of his favorite designs include: The Heiress, Dinner with Friends, The Good Doctor, The Foreiger and Proof. In his other life Stephen is an actor whose work include Television, Film and Broadway. TALINE ALEXANDER (Props) TACT: Debut. Scenic design: The Art of Dining (Syracuse University); Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (Personal Space Theatrics);Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Seashore School) Beauty and the Beast (Red Bank Regional HS). Costume design: R+J (Syracuse University); We All Fall Down (Pop Meghit Theatre Factory). Film Production Design: Beyond Words; Blue Collar Boys; Cold Blue Eternal. Education: BFA Syracuse University. MARK BERMAN (Composer) TACT: Debut. Mr. Berman is a much sought after pianist, composer, arranger, orchestrator and music director. He has written for, played and recorded with jazz, pop and rock, icons such as: Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Phoebe Snow, Hugh Jackman, and Gladys Knight, among many others. Broadway: Rent, Smokey Joe’s Café and Blood Brothers and played lead piano/keyboards on The Boy From Oz, Hairspray, The Life, 42nd Street, Dreamgirls, and Jesus Christ Superstar, as well as the current revival of Hair. Television: Played and composed for HBO’s Sex and the City. Showtime’s Nurse Jackie, among others. Appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show Rosie O’Donnell. Other: produced, arranged and wrote music and lyrics for The Genesis Project, his highly acclaimed début recording (available on iTunes). He is currently at work on his next jazz album of original material for his trio. www. markbermanmusic.com STEPHANIE KLAPPER (Resident Casting Director) Klapper Casting’s work has been seen on Broadway, Off-Broadway, regionally, internationally, on television, the web and film. Selected recent Broadway and Off-Broadway: Dividing the Estate (2009 Tony Nomination); The Temperamentals; Bedroom Farce; A Dangerous Personality; King of Shadows; an oak tree (Artios Award winner) Resident casting director for Primary Stages, most recently Cusi Cram’s A Lifetime Burning; Numerous regional theatre plays/musicals currently running and independent feature films. Ms. Klapper is a member of the Casting Society of America and the League of Professional Theatre Women. MEREDITH DIXON (Production Stage Manager) TACT: Incident at Vichy. New York: In The Daylight (Vital Theatre Company/Choice Theatricals); Dance/Speak (New York Theatre Ballet); Philip Roth in Khartoum (Labyrinth Theater Company). Live Events: "Bitter Honey II" (Labyrinth); ‘Sweet 16 Gala’ (TACT); ‘Celebrity Charades: We Will Rock You’ (Labyrinth); ‘Lyrics and Laughter’ (Safe Horizons/Apollo Theatre). Workshops/Readings: Red Rooster, Ady, and The NYU Master Thesis Reading Series (The Public Theater); Fault Lines, 7 Captiva Road, Ruined, ISO…, and Unconditional (Labyrinth). Meredith also works as the Associate Division Director of the National High School Institute Theatre Division ("Cherubs"). JANE CLAUSEN (Assistant Stage Manager) TACT: Debut. New York Theatre: A Silly Silverstein Show (Fringe NYC). University: A Dream Play (Skidmore College, Mainstage), Professor Taranne (Skidmore College, Blackbox), The National College Comedy Festival (Skidmore College, Producer), Down The Middle (Skidmore College, Cabaret Troupe), Muse (Skidmore College, Theatre Department Workshop), Facebook: The Musical (Skidmore College, AIDS Benefit). Rufio: King of the Lost Boys (Skidmore College, AIDS Benefit), Jane also works as the Assistant Production Manager at the National High School Institute: Cherubs program. CATHY BENCIVENGA serves as both the General Manager for TACTand the Managing Director of The Internationalists. In addition to her work with TACT she has produced: Tejas Verdes (THALATTA!); Six Degrees of Separation, Bury Him, The 10th Annual Black Box New Play Festival, The Actor’s Nightmare & Sister Mary Ignatius... (The Gallery Players), and associate produced on Take Me Out (TGP), and Word and Thought (Austin, TX). ACTOR’S EQUITY ASSOCIATION (AEA), founded in 1913, 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. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO, and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. www.actorsequity.org TACT/THE ACTORS COMPANY THEATRE (Scott Alan Evans, Cynthia Harris, Simon Jones - Co-Artistic Directors) celebrates language, the actor, and the spoken word. Founded by a group of professional actors in 1992, TACT is dedicated to presenting neglected or rarely performed plays of literary merit with a focus on creating theatre from its essence: the text and the actor’s ability to bring it to life. For more information about our company please visit our website: www.tactnyc.org |
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