2012-2013 Season
Death of a Salesman
Jan 18th - Feb 10th, 2013
Spencer Theatre
Buy Tickets Now!Written by Arthur Miller
Directed by Eric Rosen
Attention must be paid. Winner of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize for best play, Arthur Miller’s stoic classic of a down-on-his-luck salesman searching desperately for his American dream remains one of the most profound dramas in American theatre. Directed by Artistic Director Eric Rosen, Death of a Salesman draws on the exceptional talents of Kansas City’s own Gary Neal Johnson and Merle Moores as the desperate Willy and Linda Loman. Working from Miller’s timeless resonant themes of family, dreams deferred, and unfulfilled lives, Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s production of Death of a Salesman will be nothing short of unforgettable.
Death of a Salesman is a co-production with UMKC Theatre, with the generous support of the Hall Family Foundation.
"Inexorable power over an audience" KC Star
"Seamless production" KC Star
Read about Gary Neal Johnson and Merle Moores playing in roles of a lifetime at KC Studio
“KC Rep has rendered a superb drama” KCMetropolis.org
THE COMPANY |
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~ CAST ~ |
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*Member, Actors' Equity Associationtop |
*Member, Actors' Equity Associationtop |
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*Member, Actors' Equity Associationtop |
*Member, Actors' Equity Associationtop |
*Member, Actors' Equity Associationtop |
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 MARK ROBBINS* (Charley) The Mystery of Irma Vep, A Christmas Carol (20 seasons), Circle Mirror Transformation, Bus Stop, A Flea in Her Ear, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (title role), The Voysey Inheritance, Man and Superman, Liliom, The Front Page, Guys and Dolls, Saint Joan, Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright, The Winter’s Tale, Major Barbara, The Sea Gull, Inherit the Wind, Oedipus the King, The Deputy, Romeo and Juliet, Nicholas Nickleby. Local acting: title role in Titus Andronicus (The Living Room), The Sound of Music, Run for Your Wife (New Theatre); title roles in Macbeth and Richard III, Prospero in The Tempest (Heart of America Shakespeare Festival); Time Stands Still, Next Fall, Closer, Speed-the-Plow, The Goat (Unicorn Theatre); American Heartland Theatre; Coterie Theatre. Local directing credits: As You Like It (HASF); Next of Kin, Orson’s Shadow, Topdog/Underdog, Fully Committed, Lobby Hero, Bee-Luther Hatchee (Unicorn). Founding member of Kansas City Actors Theatre: directed The Mousetrap, The Real Inspector Hound, God of Carnage (Unicorn coproduction), Translations, Private Lives, Fifth of July, Absurd Person Singular, The Seafarer; performed in The Pinter Project, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Dinner with Friends, True West. Education: BA, Webster College Conservatory; MFA, Wayne State University.*Member, Actors' Equity Associationtop |
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 RUSTY SNEARY* (Biff Loman) KC Rep: KC Rep: August: Osage County, A Christmas Carol, Liliom. Local: Carousel, Love Song, This Is How It Goes, On an Average Day (The Living Room); Sci-Fi Triple Feature-Flowers for Algernon (Coterie Theatre); The Pillowman, Frozen, Take Me Out, The Exonerated, Omnium Gatherum, Distracted, Next Fall (Unicorn Theatre); Out of Order (New Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V (Heart of America Shakespeare Festival); The Importance of Being Earnest (American Heartland Theatre). Film & TV: Canterbury’s Law, Raising Jeffrey Dahmer, Suspension, Psychic Detectives, Charlie 13. Education: BFA in Theatre Performance, Missouri State University. Mr. Sneary is co-owner and serves as Artistic Director of The Living Room, where he is currently producing David Harrower’s Blackbird and in pre-production for Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love. Upcoming: The Living Room’s revival of Carousel (KC Rep); Lanford Wilson’s Burn This and David Rabe’s Hurlyburly in rotating repertory at The Living Room. www.thelivingroomkc.com
*Member, Actors' Equity Associationtop |
 CHERYL WEAVER* (The Woman) KC Rep: August: Osage County, Bus Stop, A Christmas Carol (3 seasons), The Voysey Inheritance, The Trip to Bountiful, Living Out. Local Credits: My First Time, 9 Parts of Desire, Nickel and Dimed, Frozen, The Mineola Twins, Memory of Water, Spinning into Butter, Closer, Sideman, As Bees in Honey Drown, Jack and Jill (Unicorn Theatre); Love’s Labor’s Lost, Measure for Measure (Heart of America Shakespeare Festival); Boston Marriage (Kansas City Actors Theatre); Rumors, Moon Over Buffalo, Social Security, Father of the Bride (New Theatre); Dixie Swim Club, Murder by the Book, The Dinner Party, The Mousetrap, Play It Again, Sam (American Heartland Theatre); Little House on the Prairie (Coterie Theatre); The Seagull (Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre). Regional: The Voysey Inheritance (KC Rep co-production with American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco); More Fun than Bowling (Purple Rose Theatre Company); Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry IV (Shakespeare in the Park, Fort Worth, Texas); Macbeth (Dallas Shakespeare Festival); King Lear (Stage West).*Member, Actors' Equity Associationtop |
~ CREATIVE TEAM ~ |
MARY R. HONOUR* (Production Stage Manager) Kansas City Rep stage management: Little Shop of Horrors, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (including the New York production at New Victory Theatre), The History of Kisses, Peer Gynt (including the co-production at La Jolla Playhouse), Circle Mirror Transformation, Harriet Jacobs, Bus Stop, A Flea in Her Ear, Winesburg, Ohio, The Glass Menagerie, Radio Golf, The Drawer Boy, A Marvelous Party!, A Christmas Carol, Doubt, Two Pianos, Four Hands, The Syringa Tree, Love, Janis, Jitney, The Trip to Bountiful, Man and Superman, The Voysey Inheritance, Little Women, The Front Page, Incognito; assistant stage management includes: Hank Williams: Lost Highway, The Pirates of Penzance, Liliom, Metamorphoses, Indian Ink, Saint Joan, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. She has also stage managed the Rep’s annual fundraising event A Fearless Fête. Additional local and regional credits: The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Starlight Theatre, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Arizona Theatre Company, and Northwestern University. *Member, Actors' Equity Association
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ERIC ROSEN (Director) is Artistic Director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre, was the founding Artistic Director of Chicago’s About Face Theatre (AFT) (1995-2008), and is a writer, director and producer. Original projects include Venice (KC Rep, Center Theatre Group-LA, upcoming Public Theater-NYC, “Best Musical of 2010”–TIME Magazine); Wedding Play (Steppenwolf/AFT, Jefferson nomination) Winesburg, Ohio (Steppenwolf, AFT-Jeff Award; Arden Theatre Company-Philadelphia, Barrymore Award; KC Rep), Clay (AFT, Lookingglass Theatre-Chicago, Center Theatre Group, KC Rep, Lincoln Center, LCT3-Drama Desk Nomination, Jeff Award); and Undone, Whitman and Dream Boy (Jeff Award, several productions across the country). In addition to Venice, other Rep directing credits include: Pippin; Clay; Winesburg, Ohio; world premiere of A Christmas Story, The Musical!, a hit 2012 holiday production on Broadway; Cabaret; August: Osage County and The Whipping Man. Additional directing credits include productions at Lincoln Center, Center Theatre Group, Steppenwolf, Goodman, Alliance, Lookingglass, Chicago Shakespeare, Hartford Stage, 5th Avenue, Prince, Cincinnati, Melbourne (Australia) and workshops at Sundance, O’Neill, Playwrights Horizons, and the Public Theater. He has developed and produced over 40 world premieres, including Doug Wright’s Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winner I am My Own Wife and work by Mary Zimmerman, Frank Galati, Stephen Flaherty, Moisés Kaufman, David Cale, and The Civilians, among others. He holds a doctorate in performance studies from Northwestern University, has twice served as an NEA panelist and serves on the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group, the national organization of non-profit theatres. top |
MEGHAN RAHAM (Scenic Design) KC Rep: Little Shop of Horrors (sets and costumes), Circle Mirror Transformation, Venice (sets and costumes)—world premiere (also at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles), Broke-ology, Clay, The Borderland. New York: Clay (Lincoln Center Theater LCT3). Regional: The Aliens (costumes, Studio Theatre); The Conference of the Birds (Folger Theatre); The Wings of Ikarus Jackson (sets and costumes, Kennedy Center); Eric Rosen’s Wedding Play (About Face Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company); FRANKENSTEIN (The Hypocrites at the Museum of Contemporary Art); Fedra (Lookingglass Theatre Company); A Big Blue Nail (Victory Gardens Theatre); Moby Dick—costumes, Noir—production design, theatrical adaptation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle– production design (The Building Stage Theater Company, company member). International: S/he is Nancy Joe (Zero Point International Festival of Physical Theatre and Dance in Prague, Czech Republic). Awards: Princess Grace Theatre Honorarium, 2009. Education: MFA Northwestern University. Ms. Raham is a professor of stage design at American University in Washington, D.C. top |
LINDSAY W. DAVIS (Costume Co-Design) KC Rep: Irma Vep, Bad Dates, The Syringa Tree, The Pirates of Penzance, The Front Page, Major Barbara, Guys and Dolls, The Philadelphia Story. Mr. Davis is on the faculty at UMKC, where he teaches costume design/costume technology, after a successful 30-year career in New York. During those 30 years he designed for thirteen Academy Award-winners, and designed the Tony Award Best Musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. For many years he owned and operated a highly successful commercial costume shop. Professor Davis has won design awards in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and South Florida. He has designed opera in Europe, musicals in Japan and Korea, and multiple shows in London’s West End. The Cleveland Playhouse, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Radio City Music Hall, Arena Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Chicago’s Goodman, Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera have all been graced with his work. Mr. Davis has worked professionally in 37 of our 50 states. top |
LAUREN GASTON (Costume Co-Design) KC Rep: debut. Design credits: Inspecting Carol (Unicorn Theatre), The House That Will Not Stand (workshop, New York Stage and Film). Additional credits: Don Carlo and Nixon in China (production assistant, Metropolitan Opera, NYC). Lauren is a 2nd year M.F.A. candidate in Costume Design and Technology at UMKC. top |
VICTOR EN YU TAN (Lighting Design) KC Rep: The Whipping Man, Broke-ology, The Borderland, Bad Dates, Under Midwestern Stars, A Young Lady from Rwanda, Liliom, Machinal (selected to represent American designers at the Scenography Exposition at the Prague Quadrennial in 2003), The Sea Gull, Gross Indecency and many others. Broadway and Off-Broadway: As You Like It, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet (New York Shakespeare Festival at the Belasco Theater); Imelda, Shogun Macbeth, Tea, Rashomon (Julia Miles Theatre); Joy Luck Club (Theaterfour); Sheila’s Day (New Victory Theater); Yiddish musicals The Golden Land and On Second Avenue, and Noa Ain’s opera Trio (Carnegie Hall). Additional New York: over 25 plays for New York Shakespeare Festival and over 40 plays for Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. Recent: Black Pearl Sings! (Virginia Stage/Capital Rep/Santa Barbara Ensemble Theatre co-production); The Pinter Project (Kansas City Actors Theatre); Fishy Waters and Train to 2010 (Crossroads Theatre); Sheila’s Day (Hartford Stage); Anything Goes (Starlight Theatre); To Kill A Mockingbird, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing (Colorado Shakespeare Festival); Christmas Rapping (Theatre at Judson Church). Regional: The Ballad of Emmitt Till—world premiere (Goodman Theatre), Resurrection— world premiere (Arena Stage); On Naked Soil—world premiere (Theater for the New City); Cinderella and Topdog/Underdog (Sacramento Theatre Company); Gee’s Bend (Cleveland Playhouse) and productions at Sacramento Opera, Florida State Opera, Crossroads Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Asolo Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and many others. Awards & Awards: OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design; NYC Villager Award for outstanding lighting design; the Dramalogue for outstanding achievement in Theatre; Kansas City Drama Desk Award for best lighting design; the Sarasota and Manatee Critics’ SAMMY Award for best lighting design; Maharam Citation for lighting design from the American Theatre Wing. Mr. Tan is Professor of Lighting Design at UMKC. top |
TOM MARDIKES (Sound Design) KC Rep: now 30 years and over 100 productions beginning with Crown of Thorns in 1982. Highlights include Nicholas Nickleby, Master Harold and the Boys, Emperor Jones, The Tempest, The Deputy, Indian Ink, Saint Joan, King Lear. Kansas City Actors Theatre: Talley’s Folly, Fifth of July, Talley and Son, Cripple of Inishmaan. Repertory Theatre of Saint Louis: A View from the Bridge, Death of a Salesman, The Miracle Worker, Wit. Great Lakes Theatre Festival: A Christmas Carol, Hamlet, The Dybbuk, The Cherry Orchard, King Lear. Dallas Theatre Center: The Cherry Orchard, A Christmas Carol. Shakespeare Santa Cruz: Merry Wives of Windsor, The Seagull, Hamlet, Comedy of Errors. Roundabout Theatre: King Lear. Buffalo Studio Arena: City of Light. Coconut Grove Theatre and National Tour: Death of a Salesman with Hal Holbrook. Idaho Shakespeare Festival: Merry Wives of Windsor, Julius Caesar. Unicorn Theatre: Wit, Aunt Dan and Lemon, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Talk Radio. top |
LARRY BAILEY (Composer) KC Rep: Anthony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, View from a Bridge, The Tempest and many other compositions for Rep productions throughout the 1980s. Bailey studied composition and theory at the University of Missouri Conservatory of Music in Kansas City and worked with Al Harris in Hollywood studying film scoring and arranging for movies and TV. top |
THOMAS CANFIELD (Program Essayist) holds a Ph.D. in English, with a specialization in Elizabethan drama, from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and is pursuing a second master’s degree in Theatre History and Dramaturgy at UMKC. In the past, he has contributed to Rep productions of King Lear, Gee’s Bend and The Drawer Boy. At UMKC Theatre, he has provided dramaturgy for The Country Wife, Great Expectations and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For the last six summers, he has been the dramaturg for the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, most recently for the 20th anniversary season productions of Antony and Cleopatra and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He teaches Theatre, Humanities, and English at UMKC and National American University, and is a regular contributor to KC Stage magazine. Currently, he is writing a complete history of the first professional resident theatre company in Kansas City, the Circle Theatre, which was located in Union Station from 1962-67. top |
JESSICA BIERNACKI JENSEN
KYLE HATLEY*
GARY NEAL JOHNSON*
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