 LOST IN YONKERS by NEIL SIMON Directed by JENN THOMPSON MARCH 13 /APRIL 14 2012 THE BECKETT THEATRE/THEATRE ROW 410 West 42nd Street, NYC CAST: TACT Company Members: CYNTHIA HARRIS and guests: ALEC BEARD, DOMINIC COMPERATORE, STEPHANIE COZART, MATTHEW GUMLEY, RUSSELL POSNER, FINNERTY STEEVES Costumes by DAVID TOSER Set design by JOHN McDERMOTT Lighting design by MARTIN E. VREELAND Sound design by TOBY JAGUAR ALGYA Set in Yonkers in 1942, the play chronicles the story of two young brothers left in the care of the dysfunctional extended family they hardly know. Hard-hearted Grandma Kurnitz extols her own punishing brand of tough love while their tender and mentally challenged Aunt Bella offers unintended lessons in courage and resolve. As a war rages halfway across the world, a subtler generational battle is waged in the Kurnitz home, echoing the growing pains and hard truths of a nation and a family.  CLICK HERE to see photos from NEIL SIMON’s visit!  CLICK HERE to see photos from the show! The RAVES are in – DON’T MISS this Yonkers! “Warmly SATISFYING revival…LOVELY…MOVING…The director Jenn Thompson and her ACCOMPLISHED cast strike an ideal balance between poignancy and humor in this delicately calibrated production.” —The New York Times Through April 14th only “Quietly DEVASTATING…FUNNIER THAN EVER…This intimate, off-Broadway staging differs from the original in several ways — and, if anything, packs even more of an emotional wallop.” —New York Post “Harris is PERFECTION...Steeves is HEARTBREAKING…brought to vivid life by an excellent company under Jenn Thompson’s astute direction.” —Roma Torre, NY1 “an ABSOLUTE DELIGHT…resonates with sorrow, regret, and repressed anger, as well as glimmers of hope.” —Associated Press “STRIKING…HARROWING…Thompson’s cast is TOPNOTCH.” —Daily News “EVOCATIVE…POWERFUL…Jenn Thompson leads her cast through an endearing revival.” —TimeOut NY “Superb…SOLID GOLD REVIVAL…the entire cast mines Simon's autobiographical backward glance for every comic and dramatic moment” —TheatreMania “PERFECTION…even more TOUCHING and ROAR-OUT-LOUD funny in its current incarnation…GET TICKETS to this production.” - The Huffington Post “an EXCELLENT up close and FRESHLY FOCUSED production.” — Curtain Up “BEAUTIFULLY CONCEIVED REVIVAL captures the play’s humor and its deeply wounded, yet thoroughly thumping, heart. —NYTheatre.com “UTTERLY CONVINCING…TACT’s revival is welcome and overdue” —Backstage "HEARTWARMING...PITCH-PERFECT...a uniformly WONDERFUL cast" - Entertainment Weekly “MUST-SEE if you want to see the best play Neil Simon ever wrote, served up to PERFECTION…a TRULY MEMORABLE evening of theatre” —DC Theatrescene “Neil Simon can now bask in the glow of this WONDROUS production…You will laugh until you are brought to tears.” —Talk Entertainment “NO SMALL ACHIEVEMENT…everyone in the cast has found the knack of playing each scene for emotional truth while honoring Simon's singular style” —Lighting and Sound America “EXCELLENT…TOUR DE FORCE…a loving revival complete with outstanding performances.” —Wolf Entertainment Guide “RUN, DON’T WALK, to TACT’s production of Lost In Yonkers…exhilarating, exciting, sad, funny, and thoroughly enjoyable.” —The Six O’Clock Sun Cast and Crew:  CYNTHIA HARRIS (Grandma Kurnitz). TACT: Co-Artistic Director, Founding Member. Forty-two productions with the company. Most recently, TACT’s benefit reading of the US Premiere of Noel Coward’s Semi-Monde and the critically acclaimed production of T.S. Eliot’s The Cocktail Party at the Beckett Theatre. New York: HOME; Long Island Sound; Bad Habits; Company; Any Wednesday; Natural Affection; Romance Language; Second Avenue Rag; Cloud Nine; Jules Feiffer’s Hold Me; The Beauty Part; White House Murder Case; Mystery Play; America Hurrah; The Serpent (member of the Open Theatre); Merry Wives of Windsor (NYSF); “Selected Shorts” at Symphony Space; Food for Thought Lunchtime Theatre. Regional:The Injured Party (by Richard Greenberg, World Premier, South Coast Rep); Light Up the Sky (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Shadow Box (Premiere - originating the role of Beverly - Mark Taper Forum); Too Much Johnson; My Mother Said I Never Should (NY Stage & Film); Scenes from American Life. Film: I Do & I Don’t; The Distinguished Gentleman; Reuben, Reuben; Mannequin on the Move; Three Men and a Baby; Up the Sandbox; Isadora. Television: Rescue Me; Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman; Now and Again; Mad About You (5 seasons); Law & Order; Edward and Mrs. Simpson (BAFTA nominee for Best Actress); LA Law; Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story; Ask Me Again (PBS); Harrison - Cry of the City; Passion (adapted from Edith Warton’s The Reef); the film version of An American Daughter by Wendy Wasserstein. ALEC BEARD (Louie). TACT: Debut. Off-Broadway: A Feminine Ending (Playwrights’ Horizons); Sand (Women’s Project); As You Like It (The Public/NYSF). Regional: Yale Repertory; Williamstown Theatre Festival. Television: How to Make it in America; Medium. Training: Yale School of Drama. DOMINIC COMPERATORE (Eddie). TACT: Debut. Broadway: A View From the Bridge (dir. Michael Mayer). Off Broadway: Clash by Night (Naked Angels). Regional: Romeo and Juliet (dir. Sir Peter Hall); The Secret Love-Life of Ophelia (dir. Steven Berkoff); All My Sons (Chris); Burn This (Pale); The Taming of the Shrew (Petruchio); Julius Caesar; Fortinbras; Lonely Planet; Italian American Reconciliation. Film: The Good German (dir. Steven Soderbergh); Room 32 (Best Actor Nomination, Method Fest). Television: Blue Bloods, Chuck, Entourage, 24, Alias, The Shield, CSI Miami, Boston Legal, ER. www.dominiccomperatore.com STEPHANIE COZART (Gert). TACT: Debut. Off-Broadway: Seven Rabbits on a Pole (Urban Stages). Denver Center Theatre Company: Twenty productions, including Sylvia; Arcadia; A Flea in Her Ear; The Miser; Plainsong; Amadeus; King Lear; Misalliance; The Skin of Our Teeth; A Christmas Carol; Macbeth. Regional: The Syringa Tree (Portland Stage); The Syringa Tree, You Can’t Take It With You, The Crucible, (Repertory Theatre of St Louis and Cincinnati Playhouse); Private Lives (Repertory Theatre St. Louis); Doubt (Virginia Stage); As You Like It, All My Sons (Actors Theatre of Louisville); The Syringa Tree, The Sweepers (Capital Repertory); Hank Williams: Lost Highway (Laguna Playhouse); An Ideal Husband (Paper Mill Playhouse); Leaving Iowa (Adirondack Theatre Festival); As You Like It, Lurleen, Sockdology (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); The Syringa Tree, Proof, Sylvia, All in the Timing (Lizard Head Theatre Company, Telluride.) Television: Law and Order: SVU; The Good Wife. Training: MFA, The National Theatre Conservatory. MATTHEW GUMLEY (Jay). TACT: Debut. Broadway: Elf (Original Michael Hobbs); Addams Family (Original Broadway Cast); Mary Poppins (Original Michael Banks); Beauty and the Beast (Chip). Off-Broadway: Distracted (Roundabout, with Cynthia Nixon). Regional: A Thousand Clowns (Nick Burns, Two River Theatre Co). Film: Beer League (prod. Artie Lang); Teresa Is A Mother (Upcoming).Television: Modern Family; Psych; NYC 22; Law & Order: SVU; Drake and Josh; Dora The Explorer (Benny the Bull); Wonder Pets; All My Children; The Late Show with David Letterman; The View; The Daily Show; Live with Regis and Kelly. RUSSELL POSNER (Arty). TACT: Debut. This is Russell’s theatre debut! Commercial: General Mills Fiber One; Mass Mutual; Nestles Drumsticks Ice-Cream. All my love to my brothers, Mom, Dad, friends, and teachers for their constant support. A special thanks to Bart Kahn and my wonderful agents at FBI, and Bruce Grossman at Cultural Arts Playhouse for believing in me. I did it! FINNERTY STEEVES (Bella). TACT: Debut. New York: Brighton Beach Memoirs; Broadway Bound; Almost Maine; Marion Bridge; Give Me Up. Regional: Absurd Person Singular, Wonder of the World (Barrington Stage Co); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Hartford Theatreworks); Enchanted April (Arizona Theatre Company); The Norman Conquests (Milwaukee Repertory); Hedda Gabler (American Conservatory Theatre); Lost In Yonkers (Guthrie Theatre); Picnic (Baltimore Center Stage); The Garden of Hannah List (Florida Stage);The Heiress (Caldwell Theatre Company). Film/Television: Untitled Noah Baumbach Project; Morning Glory; Away We Go; The Great New Wonderful; Law & Order; The Sopranos; Bored to Death; The Big C; Smash. Training: MFA, ACT.JENN THOMPSON (Director). TACT: Co-Artistic Director of TACT/The Actors Company Theatre, where she has directed the Off-Broadway productions of Vaclav Havel’s The Memorandum, Sidney Howard’s The Late Christopher Bean, Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce, Tennessee Williams’ The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (New York Times “Top Ten for Theatre Picks for 2008”); as well as Ladies in Retirement, My 3 Angels, Rain and Kind Lady. Other NYC directing credits: world-premiere musical Seeing Stars, (NYMF); Badge by Matthew Schneck (Rattlestick); Term Limit (AGT); The Brilliance Of Bernstein (American Musicals Project); Big Doolie (FringeNYC). She has developed new work at Hartford Stage, Primary Stages, The York, Abingdon Theatre Company, The Bridge Theatre and Rattlestick, among others. Regional: The Syringa Tree (Portland Stage Company); Noises Off (Dorset Theatre Festival); as well as nineteen seasons with the River Repertory at the Ivoryton Playhouse where she served as Producing Director working on over fifty productions including Damn Yankees, The Heiress, Dinner with Friends and The Foreigner. As an actress her credits include extensive theatre, television and film appearances including the Tony Award-winning Broadway productions of Ah, Wilderness!, The Heiress, and Annie. She is married to actor Stephen Kunken and mom to Naomi. This is for J & E. DAVID TOSER (Costume Design). TACT: Adjunct Company Member since 1997, most recentlyThe Memorandum. Broadway: Oh Coward!; The Great White Hope; Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?; Our Town (with Henry Fonda); Very Good Eddie; Whoopee; Status Quo Vadis; Little Johnny Jones. Off and Off Off Broadway: The Pretty Trap; Enter Laughing; My Vaudeville Man; Memorandum; White Woman Street. Regional: Goodspeed Opera House, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Vanguard Productions, Pennsylvania Stage Company, Syracuse Stage, Olney Theatre, Bay Street Theatre. TELEVISION: The Tony Awards Ceremony; Comic Relief; Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall; Tap Dance in America (with Gregory Hines); Under Milk Wood; Best of Families; National Memorial Day Concerts; A Capitol Fourth. Industrial: Over two hundred projects. JOHN McDERMOTT (Set Design). TACT: Debut. New York: Asuncion (Cherry Lane Theatre); Fish Eye (Colt Coeur at HERE Arts Center); The Wood, There Are No More Big Secrets, American Sligo, Lady, Killers and Other Family (Rattlestick); Girls in Trouble, Bingo With the Indians, Kaspar Hauser, The Great Recession (The Flea Theatre); The Singing Forest (Public Theatre); White People, This Thing of Darkness, (Atlantic Theatre Company); Prayer For My Enemy (Playwrights Horizons); Play Yourself (New York Theatre Workshop). Regional: Time Stands Still (Studio Theatre); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Yale Dramat); Prayer For My Enemy, The Singing Forest (Long Wharf and Intiman); Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, Loot (Intiman); Frozen, Psychic Life of Savages (The Empty Space); Miss Julie (Berkshire Theatre Festival) The Woman in Black, The Weir (Merrimack Repertory); Tom Walker (South Coast Repertory). MARTIN E. VREELAND (Lighting Design). TACT: Debut. Off-Broadway: Tryst (Irish Repertory Theatre); The Road to Qatar (York Theatre); Freed (59E59 Theatres); Seeing Stars (St Clements/NYMF). Off-Off Broadway: Cherry Lane Theatre, PS122, Milkcan Theatre Company, American Theatre of Actors, Personal Space Theatrics. Regional: Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Sacramento Music Circus, Merrimack Repertory, Penguin Repertory, North Shore Music Theatre, Engeman Theatre, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, New Harmony Theatre, Virginia Musical Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, Cape May Stage, Stoneham Theatre, River Repertory, The Alley, Surflight and Troika. Education: Syracuse University. Martin has also assisted on several Broadway productions including The Lion King and Swing. www.martinvreeland.com TOBY JAGUAR ALGYA (Sound Design). TACT: Debut. New York: Where's My Money? (Cherry Lane Theatre); The Invested (4th Street Theatre); Rosmersholm (Pearl Theatre); Reckless (Marymount Manhattan College); Hamlet (Gallery Players); Whida Peru/Mosaic (59E59 Theatres); Fantasy Football the Musical? (NYMF); Moisty the Snowman (NYMF); Awesome 80s Prom (Associate). Regional: Fallow (People's Light and Theatre); Macbeth (Trinity Shakespeare Festival); The Syringa Tree (Portland Stage); The Thirty-Nine Steps (Hartford Stage, co-design w/ Fitz Patton); Las Meninas (Asolo Repertory); One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (People's Light and Theatre, co-design w/ Fitz Patton); A Wrinkle in Time (South Coast Repertory); Hoover Comes Alive! (La Jolla Playhouse); Brooklyn Boy (Milwaukee Chamber Theatre); Miss Electricity (La Jolla Playhouse); Taziyeh: The Martyrdom of Hussein (Centro Cultural de la Raza). Associate: Intervals (Stylus concert series, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts), Kamza Bar Kamza (dir. Shlomo Dubnov, Calit2); Tobacco Road (des. by Shahrokh Yadegari, La Jolla Playhouse); Tess Hole (Production Assistant); Flight of the Ibis; Space In the Heart: A Jazz Opera; CAT: The Opera Musical. LAUREN MADDEN (Props). TACT: Children, Three Men on a Horse. Lauren is a properties artist with The Spoon Group, New Jersey. Regional: All Shook Up (White Plains Performing Arts Center); Marisol, Book of Days (Repertory at Purchase College). Training: BFA in Scenic Design, Purchase College. Lauren Madden is excited to be working with TACT. KELLY GILLESPIE (Casting). TACT: Casting Director. Kelly is also the Casting Associate at Manhattan Theatre Club. MTC Projects include Spirit Control, Collected Stories, That Face, Equivocation, The Royal Family, To Be Or Not To Be, From Up Here and Come Back, Little Sheba. Prior to MTC, as the Casting Associate at McCorkle Casting, she worked on The Lieutenant Of Inishmore (Broadway & Atlantic Theatre Company), the independent film War Eagle, and the series 3 LBS for CBS. Other casting credits, include Photograph 51 for E.S.T. (currently running); The Zero Hour, Monstrosity (13P), the 2007 season for the Dorset Theatre Festival, and six seasons for off-Broadway’s Keen Company, including the Drama Desk honored revivals of The Dining Room, Outward Bound, and Pullman Car Hiawatha, and the world premiere of Michael Murphy’s The Conscientious Objector. Education: University of Michigan. JACK GIANINO (Production Stage Manager). TACT: Debut. Broadway: Two dozen productions including Souvenir; The Scarlet Pimpernel; Dream; Hughie; Inherit The Wind; Black and Blue; Carrie; The Tap Dance Kid; ‘night, Mother; Lena Horne; Brigadoon; The King and I; A Christmas Carol (MSG). Off Broadway: Souvenir; Address Unknown; Rounding Third; Love, Janis; Tallulah Hallelujah!. Tours: The Sound of Music (Marie Osmond); Hello, Dolly! (Paris); Porgy and Bess (Japan); On Your Toes (Makarova). Regional: Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf, ACT, Centerstage, Geva, Asolo. Thanks to Julie Crosby, the TACT staff, and Norman. MICHAEL FRIEDLANDER (Assistant Stage Manager). TACT: Semi-Monde; Children; Three Men on a Horse. Most recent credits include: Accidentally Like A Martyr (Otherside Productions) and The Visit (The Actor's Fund/ Vineyard Theatre). Off Broadway: Richard Skipper as Carol Channing in Concert (St. Luke's Theatre). Surflight Theatre: Rent; Grease; The Odd Couple (Female Version); Same Time, Next Year. Michael would like to thank his family and friends for all their support in pursuing such a rewarding career. LAUREN MILLER (Assistant Director). TACT: 2011-2012 Directing Fellow; Semi-Monde, Children, Three Men on a Horse (Assistant Director); newTACTics New Play Festival 2011 (Associate Producer). Directing: Abandon (The Puzzle: Marble’s Festival of New Work); Fashionable Laughs and Tunes for the Desperate and Underpaid (New Vaudeville Theatre, Garment District Week); The Big Reveal (Equinox Festival). Assistant Directing: There or Here (Hypothetical Theatre Company); Man’s Best Friend (Equinox Festival). Production Assistant: The Extraordinary Ordinary (Dreamlight Theatre Company). Education: BFA in Musical Theatre, Graduate of the University of the Arts. CATHY BENCIVENGA (General Manager). TACT: General Manager since 2004/05. Selected other GM/Producing Credits: A Weird Bar in London (Old Vic New Voices T.S. Eliot Exchange); Seeing Stars (NYMF); Around the World in 24 Hours 2008 & 2009, Decomposition, WHICH DIRECTION HOME? (The Internationalists); Tejas Verdes (THALATTA!), The Actor’s Nightmare & Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, The 10th Annual Black Box New Play Festival,Six Degrees of Separation (The Gallery Players). Associate Producer: Take Me Out (The Gallery Players), Word and Thought (Cameo Productions with The Austiner Ensemble, World Premiere). Cathy also serves as the Managing Director of The Internationalists. 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, Jenn Thompson - 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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