Washington Ensemble Theatre to Premiere TALL SKINNY CRUEL CRUEL BOYS, 5/31-6/24

By: May. 02, 2013
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Washington Ensemble Theatre presents Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys by Caroline V. McGraw, directed in its World Premiere by Jane Nichols, running May 31 - June 24, 2013.

Brandy is the city's most sought-after birthday party clown, and she's never let her drinking, gambling, and bed-hopping interfere with her work-until now. Her teenage boyfriend won't stop calling, her clients are getting needy...and the monster under her bed is growing restless. Weaving fantasy, clown, and puppetry with brutal reality, Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys asks...what is the price of growing up?

The production plays Thursdays through Mondays at 7:30. Sneak Peak Thursday Preview, May 30th at 7:30. Opening Night Reception, Friday, May 31, after the show. All performances run at 608 19th Avenue East, at The Little Theatre in Capitol Hill. Tickets are $15-$25 and are available at the door or in advance at www.washingtonensemble.org. Tickets to all Thursday shows are $15.

THE CAST AND DESIGN TEAM for Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys:
(* Denotes member of Washington Ensemble Theatre)

CAST:

Hannah Victoria Franklin* *** Brandy

Jay Myers *** Jack

Billy Gleeson *** Jason/The Unpronounceable Name

Scott Ward Abernethy *** Reverb

Samie Spring Detzer* *** Tash

Kate Kraay *** Nina

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Caroline V. McGraw *** Playwright

Jane Nichols *** Director

Pete Rush *** Set Designer

Gabrielle Strong *** Lighting Designer

Anastasia Armes *** Costume Designer

Andrew Samora *** Sound Designer

James Schreck* *** Sound Programming

Megan Tuschhoff *** Properties Designer

Adrienne Mendoza *** Stage Manager

Caroline V. McGraw (playwright) Caroline's plays have been produced and developed all around the country, including the Cherry Lane Theatre by Young Playwrights Inc., the Yale Cabaret, Washington Ensemble Theatre, WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory, The Intiman Theatre Festival/One Coast Collaboration, Portland Center Stage, and the Yale School of Drama, to name a few. She is the winner of Young Playwrights Inc.'s National Festival, Highwire Theatre's Testing the Line Competition, and the AracaWorks Graduate Playwriting Award. She is a member of Interstate 73 and the Jam, New George's gathering of emerging women theater artists. Caroline is the 2013 Page 73 Playwriting Fellow. She recently graduated from the Playwriting MFA program at the Yale School of Drama. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Caroline is based in New York.

Jane Nichols (Director) Directing: Founder/Artistic Director of Crosswalk Theatre in Boston. Original productions - Firework; Baby and the Bear, Cords; House That Oliver Built. Harvard University - Les Liaisons Dangereux; Feed the Monkey; Noises Off; and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Shakespeare & Co schools program - The Tempest; King Lear; Julius Caesar; A Midsummer Nights Dream. Logic Limited, Ltd. - Desdemona's Dream; Schaden, Freude, and You: A 3 Clown Seminar; TiVO la Resistance; New Shorts; A Night at the Trojan Wall: a Clown version of the Iliad. Teaching: Yale School of Drama; Juilliard; Harvard University; ART; ACT; Brown University; the Actors Center in NYC; Stella Adler Conservatory; Shakespeare & Co, Lenox MA; Emerson College; University of Washington.

Hannah Victoria Franklin (Brandy) is the Managing and Co-Artistic Director of the Washington Ensemble Theatre. With the Ensemble she's been seen inHunter Gatherers, RoboPop!, Sextet, Babs the Dodo and Bedsnake. Locally, she is a member of the Seagull Project where she played Masha in the winter of 2013 and was a company member at Intiman in 2012 performing as Annie Sullivan in Miracle!, Berta in Hedda Gabler and the Prince in Romeo and Juliet. Other recent credits include Border Songs at Book-It and White Hot at West of Lenin. She teaches locally with Red Eagle Soaring Native Youth Theatre and is a guest lecturer at the University of Washington.

Jay Myers (Jack) is glad to be here with such delightful folks. Recently he played Dumaine in Love's Labour's Lost at Seattle Shakespeare Co. and worked on Owen Meany's Christmas Pageant at Book-It Repertory Theatre. At the University of Washington where he also appeared in Rough Magic (Prospero),Macbeth (Macbeth), Eurydice (Father), Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Barfee), Secret in the Wings (Tin Soldier), and Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock). His other credits include Owen Meany's Christmas Pageant (Ensemble), Hamlet (Claudius/Ghost/Gravedigger),Titus Andronicus (Marcus Andronicus).

Billy Gleason (Jason/The Unpronounceable Name) is thrilled to join the brilliant cast and crew of Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys for his Washington Ensemble Theatre debut. A London native, Billy recently earned his BA from the University of Washington. There, he applied his passion for entertainment to stage productions such as Secret in the Wings, Black Comedy, and The Laramie Project. Beyond the stage, Billy has been fortunate enough to gain experience in television by working closely with those in news and promotions at KIRO 7 Eyewitness News, as well as pursuing a dream of writing comedy for the people at "CONAN" in Los Angeles.

Scott Ward Abernethy (Reverb) Scott is absolutely over-the-moon to be making his debut at the one and only Washington Ensemble Theatre, especially for such a brilliant play. Most recently, he has been seen as Boyet in Seattle Shakespeare Co.'s production of Love's Labour's Lost, with Book-It Rep. as Count Vronsky in Anna Karenina, and F*#kHead in Jesus' Son. Other professional credits include Hastings in Henry IV Part 2 and Bazin in Man in the Iron Mask with Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Autolycus in Winter's Tale with Island Stage Left, and Frankie Avid in Shine!: A Burlesque Musical at Theatre Off-Jackson. He can also be heard as Davi in the Ice Box Studio's animated musical short En Passant. This summer you can see Scott performing in Wooden O's Tempest all over the Puget Sound, followed by a return to Book-It for She's Come Undone in the fall. Scott received his MFA in Acting from the University of Washington in 2012.

Samie Spring Detzer (Tash) is a graduate of Cornish College of the Arts, and a co-artistic director of Washington Ensemble Theatre, Samie was most recently seen in THESE STREETS at ACT and in Washington Ensemble Theatre's The Fairy Tale Lives of Russian Girls, What the Butler Saw at Centerstage, and in Wayne Rawley's award winning Live! From the Last Night of My Life at Theater Schmeater. She has worked at Seattle Shakespeare Company, Book-It Rep, Taproot, The Solo Performance Festival, The Chicago Improv Festival, and 14/48. Samie is a founding member of The Platform (formerly Orion Out Loud); a homeless youth playwriting workshop, which will be performing this summer! #TeamJinkx! If you've got it flaunt it!

Kate Kraay (Nina) could not be more psyched to return to Washington Ensemble Theatre with this fantastic cast and Caroline's breathtaking play. This has been our own little odyssey into the unknown, helmed by our clown Ulysses, Jane Nichols, with whom I would set sail in any kind of boat. This is Kate's second show with the Ensemble, having played Dr. Zewald in Love Horse in 2011. She is recently returned from a Master's program at the RADA in London. Kate has called Seattle home for many years and has worked in many of the regions great theatres, large and small.

Pete Rush (Set Designer) designs scenery and costumes for the theatre. BedSnake, Neighborhood Three and Sextet for Washington Ensemble Theatre. Other Seattle designs include: Hamlet, Electra, Antony & Cleopatra, A Doll's House, Merchant of Venice, Cymbeline for Seattle Shakespeare Company; The Cider House Rules, Sense and Sensibility, Night Flight and Art of Racing in the Rain for Book-It Repertory; RENT at 5th Avenue; The Adding Machine for New Century Theater Company, as well as productions for Seattle Opera, ArtsWest, Second Story Rep, and Seattle Public Theater. Regional: Hangar Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. He holds a BFA from Boston University and was twice an Artist-in-Residence at Cornell University.

Gabrielle Strong (Lighting Designer) is a recent graduate from Cornish College of the Arts, with an emphasis on lighting design, stage management, and original works. This show will be her debut with Washington Ensemble Theatre. Her most recent credits from Cornish include Bat Boy: The Musical (SM), Cloud 9 (LD), and Oo-Bla-Dee (LD). She was recently seen as the assistant to LB Morse at the 2012 Intiman Theatre Festival and This Wide Night over the summer, as well as stage managing Strawberry Theatre Workshop's production of This Land, as well as assisting Cloud 9, Inherit the Wind, and The Bells.

Anastasia Armes (Costume Designer) is a native of Russia and a graduate of the MFA Costume Design program at the University of Washington. She has worked as a designer and artisan in the Midwest, Santa Fe, Russia, New York City, and the greater Seattle area. Previous design credits include: Translations and Caucasian Chalk Circle at UW, Cloud 9 and The Bells at Strawberry Theatre Workshop, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and 33 Variationsat ArtsWest, and Master Harold...and the boys at West of Lenin. Anastasia frequently works with Seattle Playwrights collective, an organization committed to developing new plays by local authors.

James Schreck (Sound Programmer) is the resident sound designer and production assistant at Washington Ensemble Theatre. His work has most recently been heard in the Ensemble productions of The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls and Bed Snake, as well as the Hansberry Project's production of Wanted at Theatre Off Jackson. James is a graduate of the University of Washington School of Drama and was a 2011 Bonderman Fellow.

Megan Tuschhoff (Properties Designer) Megan is pumped to be working on such an exciting show, with some of her favorite people! Megan freelances around Seattle as a prop designer and stage manager, working on shows such as Bed Snake, Stuck and The Callers (Washington Ensemble Theatre),Modern Luv and White Hot (Marxiano Productions), and Prairie Nocturne and Anna Karenina (Book-It). She would like to thank the Ensemble for allowing her to work on yet another fabulous Ensemble production.



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