Closing out the mainstage season is Big Love by Charles Mee, the most ambitious Hub production yet. Fifty brides flee their fifty grooms and seek refuge in a villa on the coast of Italy in this modern re-making of one of the western world's oldest plays, The Danaids by Aeschylus. And, in this villa on the Italian coast, the fifty grooms catch up with the brides and mayhem ensues: the grooms arriving by helicopter in their flight suits, women throwing themselves over and over again to the ground, pop songs and romantic dances, and finally, unable to escape their forced marriages, 49 of the brides murder 49 of the grooms-and one bride falls in love—about the same odds as today. Big Love runs at the John Swayze Theatre July 13 – August 12, 2012.
Due to adult language and violence, Big Love is appropriate for ages 16 and up.
Featuring:
Lydia: Sarah Douglas*
Thyona: Jessica Aimone
Olympia: Kristen Garaffo
Nikos: David Zimmerman
Constantine: Michael Kevin Darnall*
Oed: Josh Sticklin
Guiliano: S. Lewis Feemster
Bella/Eleanor: Claire Carroll
Piero/Leo: David Bryan Jackson*
Fiddle Player: Genna Davidson
Ensemble: Chelsea Townsend and Ocean Bianchi
*AEA Members
Director: Kirsten Kelly
Assistant Director: Matt Bassett
Music Directors: Carla Gerdes & Michael Gerdes
Stage Manager: Daniel Mori
Scenic Design: Natsu Onoda Power
Lighting Design: Joel Moritz
Sound Design: Matthew Nielson
Costume Design: Deborah Sivigny
Choreography: Susan Shields
Fight Choreography: Casey Kaleba
Cast:
Sarah Douglas (Lydia) Most recently, as actor and artistic producer of The Mud/Bone Collective, Sarah Douglas and the ensemble developed Impossible Country, a play based on the true stories of international refugees seeking asylum in New York City. Also with Mud/Bone: 365 Days/Plays; No Hay Olvido/There is no Forgetting, a performance piece based on the writings of Pablo Neruda; and Liminal. Other New York Credits: Iowa ’08 at The Vineyard Theatre, Broken Window with Theatre Trouve, The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui at the Ontological Theatre, and Ashes to Ashes at Walkerspace. Regional: Ten Unknowns at The Signature Theatre, Marat/Sade and Lysistrata (u/s for Cherry Jones) at the American Repertory Theatre, Medea at Zero Church Theatre. International: Cher Moliere and Man of La Mancha at the Moscow Art Studio Theatre. Sarah is a graduate of The Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard/MXAT. She is also a teaching artist and therapeutic theatre facilitator, who has spent over a decade working with underserved, at-risk, and traumatized populations.
Jessica Aimone (Thyona) is an actor, director and producer in the Washington, DC area. She has worked with Adventure Theater (The Red Balloon), 1st Stage (Holiday, The Violet Hour), Rorschach Theater (Klecksography: Home for the Holidays, and Klecksography: DC Underground), the American Shakespeare Center (Macbeth, Loves Labours Lost, Merry Wives of Windsor), The Theater at Monmouth (As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra, The Liar), and Sierra Repertory Theater (Idols of the King, The Laramie Project). She directed Killing Women for Pinky Swear Productions this spring, and is working on her next project, a multimedia production of The Diviners.
Kristen Garaffo (Olympia) Recent DC credits include Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Adventure Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Fords Theatre), Who's Your Baghdaddy, or How I Started the Iraq War (New Musical Foundation), You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown (No Rules Theatre Company),Tough (Flying V), Suburban Motel (1st Stage), A Thousand Cranes (The Hub Theatre) Orestes, A Tragic Romp (Folger Theatre), and The Winters Tale (Wandering Souls). Boston credits include: Beauty and the Beast (Wheelock Family Theatre),Peter Pan (Wheelock Family Theatre) and Little Women (The Boston Conservatory). Kristen holds a BFA in musical theatre from the Boston Conservatory. www.KristenGaraffo.com
David Zimmerman (Nikos) is thrilled to be making his second appearance with The Hub Theatre Company. His first appearance was in the world premiere Merry, Happy,...What? David has worked at theaters around the DC area including, Constellation Theatre, Folger Theatre, and Brave Spirits Theatre. He has also toured with the Staunton, Virginia-based, American Shakespeare Center. David holds a BA in English degree from Liberty University.
Michael Kevin Darnall (Constantine) hopes this is his first of many productions with The Hub Theatre. He has formerly appeared with Constellation Theatre Company: Metamorphoses; MetroStage: Savage in Limbo, The Sand Storm: Stories from the Front. New York credits include TheatreRats: Romeo and Juliet; Bohemian Archaeology: Beyond Therapy; Spring Theatreworks: Arden: The Lamentable Tragedie of a DUMBO Real Estate Mogul; New York City 15 Minute Play Festival: Self-Generated Friction. Readings: The Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Kennedy Center, Theater Alliance. Television: HBO’s The Wire. Michael has a BFA in Acting from SUNY Purchase—Conservatory of Theatre Arts and Film.
Josh Sticklin (Oed) DC AREA: Keegan Theatre: Cuchullain, Basra Boy, Irish Carol, National Pastime, Signature Theatre: Really Really (US), A Fox on the Fairway (US), Shakespeare Theatre: Henry V & Richard II (Swing), Imagination Stage: Pirate Repertory, Bunnicula, Adventure Theatre: The Red Balloon, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Rorschach Theatre: Kit Marlow, Source Theatre Festival: Feet, Spacebar, Studio Theatre: Fucking A (US), Welsh Words: Theatre from Wales, Arena Stage: Student Playwrights Project, Washington Shakespeare Company: Red Noses, Washington Revels: Under the Greenwood Tree INTERNATIONAL: Russia's Volkov Theatre: They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Singapore Repertory Theatre: Just a Dream EDUCATION: American University, 2008, Political Science/Music Theatre.
S. Lewis Feemster (Giulliano) is excited to be on stage at The Hub Theatre. Local credits include: force/collision: The Nautical Yards; The Kennedy Center: The Wings of Ikarus Jackson; theHegira: In the Blood; Studio 2NDSTAGE: Passing Strange; Theatre of the First Amendment: Live Wire; Washington Shakespeare Company: Lulu; Synetic Theater: Lysistrata; Adventure Theatre; FOLGER Education; Workhouse Arts Theatre; Factory 449; Active Cultures Theatre; The Source Festival. REGIONAL: Virginia Shakespeare Festival: Taming of the Shrew, Othello, the Tempest; Deeply Rooted Productions (Chicago): Nefertiti. EDUCATION: The College of William & Mary in Virginia, BA, Theatre.
Claire Carroll (Bella/Eleanor) is a British Equity actress who relocated to the DC area in July 2011. She trained at Drama Studio London and has been in the business for 13 years, with comedy credits ranging from touring with Ray Cooney to appearing as a talking portrait in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, at Universal Studios, Orlando. Claire voice can be heard in commercials both in the US and the UK. She is also performing her one woman show, Beef Encounter, at this year’s Capital Fringe Festival, July 12-29.
Genna Davidson (Fiddle Player) is a Washingtonian actress, musician and puppeteer. Recent credits include: The Nightmare Dreamer (created and performed by Tattooed Potato); Idylls for a Bare Stage (a new work by Magus Magnus); The Malachite Palace (Wit's End Puppets). She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a BA in theater in 2008. She's been playing violin since she was eleven years old, but didn't really understand how to play passionately until she started playing for theater productions. Someday she might even write a book about it. I love you Kevin!!
Chelsea Townsend (Ensemble) Chelsea Townsend has been working professionally since the age of seven. That's when she nagged her mother enough to get her an agent, who took Chelsea on her first audition for a national commercial spot. Since then, Chelsea has done a host of commercials, video spots and appeared on Nickleodeon's World Wide Day of Play. (If you look hard, you can see her red head bouncing behind the network's bevy of TV stars.) On stage, Chelsea was Liesl in Fairfax City Theatre's Sound of Music, Grace in Alliance Theatre's Annie and Gracie in Nifty Fifties. Of course, there are the host of memorable walk on roles -- a frog footman and wolf cub #3. Chelsea studied acting at Fairfax Academy, and with director Tom Logan and voice with the renowned Dorothy Kingston. She is majoring in theatre at George Mason University.
Ocean Bianchi (Ensemble), a native of Northern VA, is thrilled and honored to be making his premiere on the professional stage with The Hub. As a student, Ocean has performed in numerous theatrical productions; he was nominated for Best Male Vocalist for his portrayal of Billy Crocker in "Anything Goes" and was honored when he was chosen to perform the opening solo for the Cappie Awards Ceremony at the Kennedy Center. Ocean has also performed in many productions at Stagedoor Manor, a prestigious performing arts camp in New York, where he received most of his training and performed in the premiere production of RENT: High School Edition.
David Bryan Jackson (Piero & Leo) has been working as an actor and director in the Washington, D.C. area for many years, most recently performing in The Seafarer by Conor McPherson at Scena Theatre, with whom he has also appeared in Steven Berkoff's Greek and The Fall of the House of Usher, Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, Ionesco's The Chairs, Pinter's One for the Road, Mountain Language, and New World Order, and Robert Auletta's adaptation of The Persians. Last year he was seen in Alan Ayckbourn's simultaneously performed House and Garden at Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, and Theater J’s production of David Hare's Via Dolorosa, which he also premiered in Los Angeles in 2010. He’s had notable performances with The Folger Theatre, Studio Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, Washington Shakespeare Company, Actor’s Theatre of Washington, the Kennedy Center, Rep Stage and Potomac Theatre Project. He taught with the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Acting Program for 10 years and holds law degrees from both sides of the Atlantic. He has also worked at various times as a writer, editor, attorney, lumberjack, carpenter, Lucite embedder, troubadour, and stand-up comic.
Creative Team:
Kirsten Kelly (Director) a theater and documentary film director and an arts educator who lives in Brooklyn. Recent theater credits include: The Clockmaker (The Hub Theatre, D.C.); Going Dutch (Roots&Branches Theatre, New York); Just An Ordinary Day (The Horror, The Horror) a site-specific piece based on the short stories of Shirley Jackson in development with Mud/Bone Collective, New York; Slipping by Daniel Talbott (Off-Broadway/ Rattlestick Theatre); Taming of the Shrew (Chicago Shakespeare, Education Department); Tongues (Lincoln Center/Juilliard Concert); Crash! (Roots&Branches Theatre Company, New York); ART (Two River Theatre); the D.C. premiere of Boy Gets Girl (Theatre Alliance-Helen Hayes Nomination, Best Direction); the Midwest/Chicago premiere of Mamet’s Boston Marriage (After Dark Award, Best Director). Kirsten’s film credits include the award-winning feature documentary, Asparagus! Stalking the American Life, The Real Rosie the Riveter Film Project (an oral history film project produced for NYU’s Taminent Labor Library), Re-Inventing Rosie (an animated documentary dispelling the myth of Rosie the Riveter), and The List (a surprising documentary about youth homelessness in America-projected release 2013). Kelly and her film partner, Anne de Mare, were awarded a recent Sundance Institute Development Grant. Kirsten’s recent theatre credits include: The Bible Project, with Rattlestick Artistic director David Van Asset, where New York actors partner with communities of faith to read, word-for-word, the books of The Bible and Co-adapting and directing The Wednesday Wars stage play version. Kirsten is the Co-Creator of “CPS Shakespeare!” with Chicago Shakespeare Company, an innovative theatre education program working with public high school students and their English teachers. Kirsten is an alumnus of Calvin College and graduate of Juilliard’s Master Directing program.
Daniel Mori (Stage Manager) is a multi-disciplinary performer and teaching artist, with concentrations in puppetry, aerial theater and early childhood education. He has designed, built and performed with puppets for many Washington-area theaters, including The Smithsonian's Discovery Theater, Adventure Theatre, Synetic Family Theatre, The Washington Revels and Wit's End Puppets. Daniel is a company member with both Young Playwright's Theater and the DC Clown Cabaret. This is his debut with The Hub Theatre.
Natsu Onoda Power (Set Designer) is delighted to be working with The Hub. Recent scenic design credits include bobrauschenbergamerica, Mad Forest (Forum Theatre) Kafka’s Metamorphosis (Synetic Theatre), and Macbeth (Georgetown University). Local directing credits include Astro Boy and the God of Comics and Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven at the Studio Theatre 2ndStage. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Theater and Performance Studies program at Georgetown University.
Matt Bassett (Assistant Director) Since relocating to the DC area from his native Tennessee in 2010, Matt has directed table and staged readings for The Hub Theatre (where he’s also a company member) and assistant-directed for Roundhouse Theatre (A Wrinkle in Time). Regional directing credits include a dream once lost, a world premiere collaboration with Tia Shearer that opened at the 2007 Philly Fringe and Matt and Ben, a Tennessee premiere with People’s Branch Theatre. He’s also worked as an assistant director, sound designer and production assistant for the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, People’s Branch Theatre and Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theatre. Matt teaches for Montgomery College, The National Conservatory of the Dramatic Arts in Washington, DC and Compass Rose Studio Theatre in Annapolis, MD. He holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He lives in Takoma Park, MD, with his beautiful and talented collaborator and wife as well as their cat, feline jazz legend Charlie Parker.
Joel Moritz (Lighting Designer) is excited to be back at The Hub. Most recently he did the production design and lighting design for the new Blue Man Group show at Universal Studios in Florida, the national touring production for Blue Man Group and Snow Falling on Cedars at Hartford Stage. Recent New York/ Off Broadway includes: Cosi Fan Tutte for Manhattan School of Music, Yosemite, The Wood, Post No Bills, Slipping, Too Much Memory, Tatjana in Color, wAve, The Tempest , Elliot a Soldier’s Fugue, Phedre (with JoAnne Akalaitis) and King Stag for the Juilliard School. Regional theatre and opera credits include Arena Stage, Long Wharf, Shakespeare Theatre, Goodman Theater, Steppenwolf, Chicago Opera Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare, Kansas City Rep., Court Theatre, Rep. Theater of St Louis, Meadowbrook Theatre, Theatre Alliance, and About Face Theatre including Eleven Rooms of Proust (with Mary Zimmerman). International design credits: Blue Man Group in Tokyo, Berlin, Oberhausen, Amsterdam, Zurich, Lugano and Basel. Theatrical productions at The Traverse Theatre, Assembly Theater in Edinburgh and other productions in Buenos Aires, Lima, Hong Kong, Paris, Prague, and Cairo.
Debra Kim Sivigny (Costume Design) is thrilled to be back at The Hub where she designed costumes for Birds of a Feather last summer. Most recent credits include The History of Invulnerability at Theater J, Macbeth at Georgetown University, The Snowy Day at Adventure Theatre, Mouse on the Move and Dr. Dolittle at Imagination Stage, and the scenic design for After the Quake at Rorschach Theatre, where she is a company member. The is a faculty artist-in-residence at Georgetown University and a company member of Young Playwrights Theatre. She has a BA from Middlebury College, an MFA from University of Maryland and is a proud member of USA 829.
Susan Shields (Choreographer) recipient of the 2006 Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography, has created dances on numerous professional companies and universities. Her work appears in the repertories of Ballet West, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Washington Ballet, Richmond Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, Boston Ballet II, and City Dance Ensemble. She has also created work for Harvard University, George Mason University, University of Richmond and Shenandoah University. In 2005, Ms. Shields was given a generous commission from the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts to create a ballet for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre which premiered at the Filene Center. She performed internationally as a member of Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, where she was partnered by Mr. Baryshnikov in Mark Morris’ acclaimed dance, The Argument . She was also a member of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company for eight years, performing a substantial part of his repertory worldwide. In addition to performing, she assisted Mr. Lubovitch in setting his work on American Ballet Theatre. She performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group in The Hard Nut, Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians, Eliot Feld Ballet New York and the Washington Ballet, where she received her training. Ms. Shields has taught extensively at major universities throughout the world, most recently in China, Korea, and Poland. She is a Professor in the School of Dance at George Mason University
Casey Kaleba (Fight Director) returns to The Hub Theatre after working on their productions of John & Beatrice, The Clockmaker, and We Won't Pay, We Won't Pay. A Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors, Casey has staged nearly 300 productions for academic and professional theatres: recent credits include the Folger Theatre (Othello, The Gaming Table, The Taming of the Shrew); Round House Theatre (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Crown of Shadows, Double Indemnity); and as a company member with Rorschach Theatre (Living Dead in Denmark, After the Quake, The Gallerist). He has staged fights or taught for Catholic University, Georgetown University, American University, two Universities of Maryland, and George Mason University. Casey is an affiliated teaching artist for the Shakespeare Theatre, hosts the online videos for the Folger Library, and currently teaches at Shepherd University.
Suzanne Maloney (Props Design) As a dramaturg, Suzanne works with local and national playwrights as they develop new work for the stage and has served as production dramaturg for twenty-seven productions. She has directed twenty-three plays. She has designed props for over twenty-five professional productions and is currently a props artisan at Signature Theater. Her most recent projects include serving as production dramaturg for TFA’s Life of Galileo and props artisan for Signature’s Xanadu. She serves as the Company Administrator for The Hub Theatre.
Matthew M. Nielson (Composer/Sound Designer) is returning to the Hub for his third production (Pavilion, The Clockmaker). Other regional credits include Round House Theatre (Helen Hayes Award, A Prayer for Owen Meany), Catalyst Theatre (Helen Hayes Award, 1984), Woolly Mammoth, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Rorschach, Delaware Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Barrington Stage Company, CATF, the Smithsonian, Ford's Theatre, Arena Stage and Adventure Theatre. Off-Broadway sound design credits include the Joseph Papp Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival. Film & TV credits include Epix Drive-In, From Hell to Here, The Good Ways of Things and The Long Road. He is a founding member of audio theatre company The Audible Group and creator of the series Troublesome Gap. He is currently opening Sound Lab Studios, a recording and production house in Asheville. Samples can be heard online at matthewnielson.com.
1.800.494.8497 | Contact Us | Join our mailing list | Behind the Scenes Blog | Site design by: 