The Book Club Play

Who's Who

CAST

FRED ARSENAULT (Alex). Arena debut. Broadway: Born Yesterday, The Royal Family. Off- Broadway: Henry V, The Spy (Guthrie Theater/The Acting Company); Blue Man Group. Regional: Guthrie Theater, Virginia Stage Company, American Shakespeare Center, Hangar Theater, Bard Summerscape. Fred has performed with Continuum Company in Florence, Italy. Baryshnikov Fellow. Film: Shadows & Lies, Still on the Road. TV: The Good Wife (CBS), Person of Interest (CBS). Training: M.F.A., NYU graduate acting program. Back

ASHLIE ATKINSON (Jen) makes her Arena Stage and Washington debut. A native of Arkansas, Ashlie won a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut (as well as Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle noms) for originating the role of Helen in Neil LaBute’s Off-Broadway hit Fat Pig. She has performed on Broadway in The Ritz (Roundabout, 2007), Off-Broadway in The Butcher of Baraboo (Second Stage, 2007), and internationally as Phoebe in As You Like It and Juno in The Tempest for The Bridge Project (dir. Sam Mendes). Film and TV credits include Rescue Me, Inside Man, Louie, Eat Pray Love, The Invention of Lying, All Good Things, Bored to Death, and the Law & Order “trifecta” (Classic, CI, and SVU). Back

RACHAEL HOLMES (Lily). Arena: Sophie in Ruined. Shakespeare Theatre Company: Portia in Julius Caesar, Queen Isabel in Richard II, and Princess Katharine in Henry V. Studio Theatre: Osha in Marcus, or The Secret of Sweet. Other credits include: Manhattan Theatre Club production of Ruined, Widowers’ Houses with Epic Theatre Ensemble (Audelco nom for best lead actress), and No Child… at both the Hangar and Capital Repertory theaters. Her TV credits include The Good Wife, Dirt, Guiding Light, All My Children, and national commercials. A master teaching artist, Rachael works for New Victory Theatre in New York and Shakespeare Theatre Company. M.F.A., NYU. Back

ERIC M. MESSNER (Rob) is thrilled to make his Arena Stage debut. Notable Washington appearances include Mr. Scary in Junie B. Jones, Jingle Bells, Batman Smells (Imagination), Chicago in Is He Dead? (Olney), Justin Timberlake and Harrison Ford in Crumble … Lay Me Down Justin Timberlake (Catalyst), and Paul Foggarty in Scenes from the Big Picture (Solas Nua; Helen Hayes nom). He toured nationally as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (National Players) and in Ireland as Howard in Death of a Salesman (Keegan Theatre). Eric can be seen on TV on The Wire and West Wing and has done many commercials and several independent films. He is also the voice of Green Lantern for DC Comics’ Justice League series. Back

KATE EASTWOOD NORRIS (Ana) is very happy to make her Arena Stage debut with this production. Other Washington highlights include her appearances at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, where she is also a company member, in roles such as Kay/Jane in She Stoops to Comedy (Helen Hayes Award), and at the Folger Theatre in over 10 shows, including Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helen Hayes Award) and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. Kate has performed regionally at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Florida Stage, Two River Theatre, Wilma Theatre and Arden Theatre among many others. She has also received Philadelphia’s Barrymore Award for acting and is currently nominated for another. Visit Kate at kateeastwoodnorris.com.
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TOM STORY (Will) makes his Arena Stage debut. In D.C., he’s appeared in A Number (Hayes nom), The Invention of Love (Hayes nom), and recently as Andy Warhol in Pop! at Studio; Twelfth Night (Hayes nom), Design for Living, and Major Barbara at Shakespeare; and Henry IV, Part 1 at Folger. In New York, he’s appeared at Mint Theater, Town Hall, York Theater, and Project 400. Regional credits include Twelfth Night, Loot, Tartuffe (McCarter, Yale Rep); Romeo and Juliet (Seattle Rep); Gross Indecency (Missouri Rep); and A Girl Called Dusty (Provincetown Rep). Tom spent nine seasons at Berkshire Theatre Festival, appearing in The Heidi Chronicles (Eagle Award) and The Book Club Play (also at O’Neill Center). He’s a graduate of Duke Univ. and Juilliard. Back

CREATIVE TEAM

KAREN ZACARÍAS (Playwright) is thrilled to work again with Molly Smith at Arena Stage, where she is honored to be a resident playwright. Other plays include Legacy of Light (world premiere at Arena Stage), Mariela in the Desert, The Sins of Sor Juana, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and eight TYA musicals with Debbie Wicks La Puma. She has been produced at the Kennedy Center, Goodman, Denver Center, Alliance, La Jolla, Cleveland Play House, People’s Light & Theater, Imagination Stage, Lyric Stage, Horizon, and others. Her awards include a Steinberg citation (Legacy of Light), Primus Prize (Mariela in the Desert), National Latino Play Award, and Helen Hayes Award (The Sins of Sor Juana). She teaches at Georgetown Univ. and is founder of the award-winning Young Playwrights’ Theater. Back

MOLLY SMITH (Director) has been instrumental in leading the reinvention of Arena Stage, focusing on the creation of the new Mead Center for American Theater as well as major artistic changes. Arena Stage is a center for the production, presentation, development and study of American theater. Molly has been a leader in new play development for 30 years while at Arena Stage and at Perseverance Theatre in Alaska, the theater she founded and led for 19 years. She has commissioned or championed numerous world premieres, some of which she has directed, including Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive and Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play. Molly’s directorial work has also been seen at the Shaw Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Tarragon Theatre, and Centaur Theatre. Back

DONALD EASTMAN (Set Designer) designed Black No More, Constant Star, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Yellowman, M Butterfly, The Heidi Chronicles, and On the Verge at Arena Stage and is thrilled to return for The Book Club Play with Molly and Karen Zacarías. He designed Cuba... with Robert De Niro for the New York Shakespeare Festival on Broadway. Premiere productions include On the Open Road at the Public, Ezra Pound’s Elektra at Classic Stage Company, Arjunas Dilema for BAM Next Wave Festival, The Quality of Life at American Conservatory Theater, and over two decades of design for playwright-director Maria Irene Fornes. Donald is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence and returns to Arena Stage this spring for Tazewell Thompson’s Mary T and Lizzy K. Back

LINDA CHO (Costume Designer) is an internationally renowned costume designer for opera, theater and dance in the U.S. and abroad. N.Y.: Manhattan Theater Club; Theater for a New Audience; Second Stage; Juilliard; Vineyard Theater; N.Y. Theater Workshop; Atlantic Theater; Lincoln Center; Classic Stage Company. Regional: Guthrie; La Jolla Playhouse; Huntington Theater; Hartford Stage; Goodman Theatre; Old Globe; Chicago Shakespeare; Philadelphia Theater Company; Goodspeed Musicals; Actor’s Theater of Louisville; Arena Stage; Williamstown Theater Festival; Westport Country Playhouse; Long Wharf; Dallas Theater Center. Opera: Los Angeles Opera; Virginia Opera; Opera Theatre of St. Louis. International: Stratford Shakespeare Festival; Royal Shakespeare Company; Canadian Stage Company; Hong Kong Performing Arts Center; National Theater, Taipei. Linda holds a Master of Fine Arts from Yale School of Drama. Back

NANCY SCHERTLER (Lighting Designer) enjoys a decades-long association with Arena Stage, where she’s collaborated with many wonderful directors, including Liviu Ciulei, Kyle Donnelly, Zelda Fichandler, Douglas C. Wager, and Garland Wright. She designed the Broadway productions of Fool Moon and Bill Irwin’s Largely/New York (Tony nom). Off-Broadway productions include Hilda, The Regard Evening, Texts for Nothing, and Falsettoland. Other regional credits include Scapin, directed by and starring Bill Irwin, Boleros for the Disenchanted, and After the War for ACT in San Francisco, The Three Musketeers and The Sisters Matsumotto at Seattle Rep. Opera credits include world premieres of The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, Shadowboxer, Clara and Later the Same Evening, a joint project commissioned by Univ. of Maryland and the National Gallery of Art. Back

CRICKET S. MYERS (Sound Designer) is excited to debut at Arena Stage. On Broadway, she earned a Tony nom and Drama Desk Award for her design of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Her designs Off-Broadway include the 16-month run of The Marvelous Wonderettes (Westside Arts Upstairs). She has also designed regionally at Mark Taper Forum (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Lieutenant of Inishmore, Burn This, The Subject Was Roses), Berkley Rep (In the Wake), Kirk Douglas Theater (The Little Dog Laughed, Come Back Little Sheba), South Coast Rep (Three Days of Rain, The Trip to Bountiful), Pasadena Playhouse (Crowns, Orson’s Shadow), and Geffen Theater (Wrecks, Some Girls, Emergency). She has earned 13 Ovation noms and won LADCC and Garland awards in Los Angeles. www.cricketsmyers.com
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ADAM LARSEN (Projection Designer) is a projection designer and filmmaker. Projection designs include: Hal Prince’s LoveMusik (Broadway); The Gospel at Colonus (Athens, Edinburgh and Spoleto Festivals); The Wind Up Bird Chronicle (Edinburgh Festival); Brief Encounters and My Fair Lady (Shaw Festival); The Women of Brewster Place (Alliance/Arena Stage); Christmas Carol 1941 and Light in the Piazza (Arena Stage); 26 Miles (Alliance); big (Atlanta Ballet); Carmina Burana, Love Lies Bleeding and Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (Alberta Ballet); From the House of the Dead (Canadian Opera); Lily Plants a Garden (Mark Taper); Quartet (Aspen Santa Fe Ballet); Seed (Cedar Lake); Black Whole (BMC&AC/Moog Music); and recently Maa (gloAtl/Atlanta S.O.). Adam holds a B.F.A. in cinematography from N.C. School of the Arts and just finished a documentary on autism entitled Neurotypical. Back

JOCELYN CLARKE (Dramaturg) is a freelance dramaturg and writer. He is currently the theater adviser to the Arts Council of Ireland and a member of the artistic team of Sundance Institute’s Theatre Lab. He has taught dramaturgy at the Kennedy Center, Trinity College Dublin, and Columbia Univ. He is an associate artist with The Civilians and Theater Mitu in New York. Here You Are Human, his new project with The Tiger Lilies, was presented at Divadlo Archa during the Prague Quadrennial in May. He has written five adaptations for director Anne Bogart and her SITI Company – Bob, Alice’s Adventures Underground, Room, Score and Antigone – and his new version of Trojan Women (After Euripides) premiered in September at the Getty Villa in Los Angeles. Back

SUSAN R. WHITE (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be once again working with Karen Zacarías and Molly Smith. Susan is a proud member of Actors Equity Association. Back

ELISSA MYERS CASTING, PAUL FOUQUET, CSA (N.Y. Casting) just completed casting the PBS movie The Mystery of Matter. They’ve cast seven Broadway shows (incl. the Tony-nominated Having Our Say), 25 Off-Broadway shows, three movies of the week (with Tyne Daly, Claire Danes, Christopher Reeve, Ed Asner, Daniel J. Travanti), five pilots, two PBS specials (with Bernadette Peters, Nathan Lane, Blythe Danner, Spike Lee, Paul Sorvino), the Peabody-winning miniseries Liberty, the Emmy-winning miniseries Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, and the miniseries God in America, The People v. Leo Frank, Dolley Madison and Louisa May Alcott. Regional casting includes Denver Center, Geva, Cleveland Play House, Alabama Shakespeare, and Magic Theatre. The office has so far received 13 noms and won three Artios Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Casting. Back