THE PAJAMA GAME

GEORGE ABBOTT

Book

had one of the most active and distinguished careers in the entire history of the American theater as an actor, director, writer and producer. He directed his first musical, Rodgers and Hart’s Jumbo, in 1935 and other directorial highlights include A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, On Your Toes, The Boys From Syracuse, Pal Joey, On the Town, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees and Once Upon a Mattress. He received numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize for Fiorello!, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, four Donaldson Awards, four Tony Awards, a Handel Medallion from the City of New York and he was a Kennedy Center honoree. He died in 1995 at the age of 107.

RICHARD BISSELL

Book

worked for H.B. Glover Company, the garment factory founded by his grandfather. Bissell then began writing about his experiences and had his stories published in journals such as Atlantic Monthly, Colliers and Esquire. His greatest success came when he wrote a humorous novel based on the activities at the garment factory called 7 ½ Cents. He turned the book into a musical for Broadway, titled The Pajama Game, which was a smash and soon became a motion picture. This experience provided the fodder for his novel Say, Darling, which later became a Broadway musical. He also wrote 12 books and numerous articles over the course of his career.

RICHARD ADLER

Music and Lyrics

co-composed the music and lyrics for numerous musicals including The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees, both of which won Tony Awards for best musical and best score. His score for his musical Kwamina earned him a Tony Award nomination. Recordings of his biggest hit songs “You Gotta Have Heart,” “Hey There,” “Hernando’s Hideaway,” “Whatever Lola Wants,” “Steam Heat,” “Rags to Riches,” “Another Time, Another Place” and “Everybody Loves a Lover”, have sold over 30 million copies. Richard composed numerous symphonic works, four of which were Pulitzer Prize nominees. Awards and honors include Donaldson Awards, Variety Critics Choice Awards, a London Evening Standard Award, the University of North Carolina Playmakers Lifetime Achievement Award and a National Parks Service Honorary Ranger Award. Richard is a member of the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame.

JERRY ROSS

Music and Lyrics

died prematurely at age 29, but won Tony Awards for two of the best-loved musicals in Broadway history, The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees — both written with Richard Adler, his frequent collaborator. As a team, they put out a number of catchy songs including the number one hit “Rags to Riches” (sung by Tony Bennett), songs for the musical Almanac (a revue featuring Harry Belafonte, Hermione Gingold, Orson Bean and Polly Bergen) and of course The Pajama Game, an out-and-out hit, playing for 1,063 performances and winning several Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Choreography. The Pajama Game was made into a movie starring Doris Day. In 1955, Ross and Adler wrote Damn Yankees and won the Tony Award for Best Musical.

ALAN PAUL

Director

is the Associate Artistic Director of Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he has directed Romeo and Juliet, Kiss Me, Kate, Man of La Mancha, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Helen Hayes Award for Best Director of a Musical), The Boys from Syracuse and revivals of Twelfth Night and The Winter’s Tale. Local highlights include Penny (Washington National Opera); I Am My Own Wife (Signature Theatre); Fully Committed(MetroStage); The Rocky Horror Show and Silence! The Musical (Studio Theatre 2ndStage); and numerous collaborations with the National Symphony Orchestra. Opera credits include The Pirates of Penzance (Palm Beach Opera), Man of La Mancha (Portland Opera) and numerous operas for Urban Arias. Alan was a 2013 finalist for the European Opera Directing Prize in Vienna, Austria. Upcoming projects include Camelot (Shakespeare Theatre Company) and Kiss Me Kate (Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre). www.AlanPaulDirector.com

PARKER ESSE

Choreographer

is a five-time Helen Hayes Best Choreography nominee and recipient for Arena Stage’s Oklahoma! Director/choreographer credits include Crazy for You and West Side Story (Finger Lakes Music Theatre Festival). Choreographer credits include A Bed and a Chair: A New York Love Affair (Encores!); Carousel, Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof, Smokey Joe’s Café, The Music Man and The Light in the Piazza (Arena Stage); A Wonderful Life, Fiddler on the Roof, The Most Happy Fella and Carousel (Goodspeed); Seven Brides for Seven Brothers(Ogunquit Playhouse); West Side Story (Signature Theatre); Bells are Ringing and Little Shop of Horrors (Berkshire Theatre Group); and Me and My Girl, Sweet Charity and Guys and Dolls (Canada’s Shaw Festival). Associate choreographer credits include Broadway’s Finian’s Rainbow and A Tale of Two Cities, and featured performer in Fosse.

JAMES CUNNINGHAM

Music Director

New York credits include Avenue Q; music director for Bunnicula(TheaterworksUSA and original cast recording); Hot Mess in Manhattan (The Araca Project); and Happy Birthday(TACT) for which he also provided original music. National tour credits include White Christmas, Spamalot, Evita and Cats. He recently completed his first season as music director for Pittsburgh CLO, which included productions of In the Heights, Newsies, Mamma Mia and Million Dollar Quartet. He has served as music director for over ten productions for Casa Mañana in Fort Worth, Texas and has conducted productions for North Carolina Theatre, Sharon Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Engeman Theater, Paper Mill and The Muny. He holds degrees from Manhattan School of Music and NYU.

MICHAEL DANSICKER

Dance Music

D.C. credits include Kiss Me Kate (Shakespeare Theatre Company). Over 20 Broadway productions including Piaf and Good (RSC), Les Liasons Dangereuses (National), Singin’ in the Rain, Dance of the Vampires, The Times They Are a-Changin’ and Little House on the Prairie. Film credits include Elf, Analyze That, Meet the Parents, Brain Donors and Garfield. Concert Dance: Twyla Tharp, Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, ABT, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Kenny Ortega. Publications include The Sixteen Bar Theatre Auditions (8 Volumes) for Hal Leonard. He served as Supervisor for the launch of Disney Cruise Line. Michael is writing the songs for Play Ball (Lyrics by Martin Charnin) opening in Cooperstown, NY June ’18. His songs have been performed by Gay Men’s Chorus of Boston, San Francisco and Knoxville.

JAMES NOONE

Set Designer

Arena Stage credits include The Mystery of Irma Vep; A Time to Kill; You, Nero; and At Home at the Zoo. Other D.C. credits include work at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington National Opera, the Kennedy Center, Studio Theatre and Signature Theatre. Recent Broadway credits include Sunset Boulevard, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill and A Time to Kill. He has worked on numerous off-Broadway and regional productions, and his opera work includes Lyric Opera of Chicago, English National Opera and Glimmerglass. He has received a Drama Desk Award, LA Ovation Award and two Helen Hayes Awards.

ALEJO VIETTI

Costume Designer

Arena Stage credits include Ella. Broadway credits include Holiday Inn, Allegiance(Drama Desk nomination) and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (also national tour and West End, Olivier Award nomination). Additional New York credits include Encores! At New York City Center, Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, MTC, Atlantic Theater Company, Irish Repertory and Primary Stages. Opera credits include New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Minnesota Opera, Wolf Trap and Donetsk Opera (Ukraine). Regional credits include Alley Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, Signature Theatre, Center Stage, Goodspeed, The Guthrie, Hartford Stage, Paper Mill, La Jolla and Old Globe. Other credits include Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Japan and Germany) and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He received the 2010 TDF Irene Sharaff Young Master Award.

ROBERT WIERZEL

Lighting Designer

has worked with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds on stages throughout the country and abroad. Broadway productions include Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill starring Audra McDonald; FELA! (Tony Award nomination); and David Copperfield’s Dreams & Nightmares. He has designed at most major regional theaters including American Conservatory Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The Guthrie, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Goodman, Old Globe and Hartford Stage, among many others. He has designed for opera companies in New York, Paris, Tokyo, Norway, Toronto, Boston, Seattle, San Diego, Houston, Dallas, D.C., Virginia, Florida, Atlanta and Chicago, plus 28 years with Glimmerglass. His dance work includes 32 years with Bill T. Jones and the BTJ/AZ Company. Robert is also a creative partner at Spark Design Collaborative.

DANIEL ERDBERG

Sound Designer

work has appeared at Arena Stage in Dear Evan Hansen and The Lion. Daniel’s designs have been heard at numerous New York theatres including The Public, Roundabout, New York City Center, 59E59, Atlantic Theater Company, Prospect and HERE. Highlights include the American premiere of Caryl Churchill’s Drunk Enough to Say I Love You, Mike Daisey’s Last Cargo Cult and Time it Was with Bill Irwin. Regional credits include Arena Stage, Milwaukee Repertory, Geffen Playhouse, ACT, Merrimack Repertory and Long Wharf, as well as productions in Korea, Japan, China, Canada and Cuba. He is a frequent Broadway associate designer, where credits include Significant Other, Violet, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Heiress and The Nance. Daniel is a faculty member at NYU and a graduate of Northwestern University.

ANNE NESMITH

Wig Designer

returns to Arena Stage, where her design credits include Smart People, A Raisin in the Sun, Watch on the Rhine, Carousel, The Little Foxes, All the Way, Oliver!, Destiny of Desire, Fiddler on the Roof, Mother Courage and Her Children, and The Music Man. Her recent work includes Titanic (Signature Theatre), La Boheme and L’Opera Seria (Wolf Trap), Cosi fan tutte (Nishinomiya, Japan) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Ford’s Theatre). Her designs have been seen at the Kennedy Center, Opera Philadelphia, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington Ballet and Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan. Anne was the resident wig / makeup designer for the Baltimore Opera and has created wigs for Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery programs, Investigation Discovery’s Ice Cold Killers, Maryland Public Television and the U.S. Army’s tour Spirit of America.

ROBB HUNTER

Fight Director

is thrilled to be back at Arena Stage, having previously choreographed for King Hedley II, Ruined, Stick Fly, Noises Off and Frankie & Johnny in the Claire de Lune to name a few. Robb directs movement for a variety of area theaters including Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington National Opera, Woolly Mammoth, Studio Theatre and Ford’s Theatre and has received multiple Helen Hayes nominations for choreography. He is a member of SDC, AEA and SAG / AFTRA, and is one of only 30 Fight Directors in the world certified by the Society of American Fight Directors, for whom he is also a Certified Teacher. He is on faculty of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting and is Artist in Residence at American University, as well as a teaching artist at many other venues.

LYNN WATSON

Vocal Coach

Arena Stage credits include Carousel, Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof, Moon for the Misbegotten, The Misanthrope, M. Butterfly, A Time to Kill and The Great White Hope. She has worked extensively as a voice, speech and dialects specialist at leading regional theaters. D.C. credits include The Glass Menagerie and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Kennedy Center), Ford’s Theatre, Signature Theatre, Olney and Round House. Other credits include four seasons at South Coast Repertory, A Streetcar Named Desire (A.C.T.) and Skylight (Mark Taper Forum). Current research includes an fMRI study on the cognitive effects of Fitzmaurice Voicework. She directed the world premiere of Tina Howe’s Milk and Water, is a past president of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association and professor of theater at UMBC.

VICTOR SIMONSON

Associate Music Director

Arena Stage credits include Smokey Joe’s Café and Three Mo’ Divas. He was Composer for the ground breaking hip-hop opera, STOMPING GROUNDS. D.C. credits include Ragtime, 110 in the Shade, Freedom’s Song and Violet (Ford’s Theatre); Wicked, Addams Family (Kennedy Center); national tours of Memphis and The Color Purple; and tour of Three Mo’ Tenors. Regional credits include A Civil War Christmas and The Wiz (Center Stage); Brooklyn, The Musical (Denver Civic Theater). Film / TV credits include Good Morning America, ABC Nightline and Rosie O’Donnell. Other credits include On My Journey Now; The McLurkin Project; Total Praise(Grammy Award nominee); and Victory. He thanks God for this opportunity and gives God praise for everything, especially his wife Ciara and children Victoria Grace and Immanuel Justice. www.VictorSimonson.com

TONY NIEDENBACH

Assistant Choreographer

is thrilled to return to Arena Stage after performing in Carousel and serving as assistant choreographer for Oliver!. From Gainesville, Georgia, Tony is a New York-based performer. Regional credits include West Side Story (Signature Theatre), La Jolla Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, The Alley Theatre, Theatre Under the Stars, The Muny, Northern Stage, Pioneer Theatre Company, Virginia Stage Company, Seaside Music Theater, Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival and Jacob’s Pillow. He toured nationally with Roundabout Theatre Company’s Anything Goes. New York credits include Off-Broadway, Metropolitan Opera, 65th and 70th annual Tony Awards, New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival and the HBO web series High Maintenance. He is also a member of the critically acclaimed Liz Gerring Dance Company. Thanks to Alan, Parker, Migs and the Fam. Instagram: @ToeToe_A_gogo.

GEOFF JOSSELSON, CSA

New York Casting

is pleased to continue his association with Arena Stage. Broadway and Off-Broadway productions include The Velocity of Autumn starring Estelle Parsons; Southern Comfort; Yank!; Enter Laughing; Pretty Filthy; John and Jen, Himself and Nora; and Altar Boyz. He has also cast productions for Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, Barrington Stage Company, Bay Street Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Civilians, Cleveland Play House, Denver Center, Marriott Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Public Theatre, San Francisco Symphony, and the York Theatre Company. For more information: www.geoffjosselson.com

KURT HALL

Stage Manager

Arena Stage credits include Smart People, Watch on the Rhine, Carousel, The Year of Magical Thinking starring Kathleen Turner, Born for This, All the Way, Sweat, Destiny of Desire, The Blood Quilt, Our War, The Shoplifters, Smokey Joe’s Café, Mother Courage and Her Children starring Kathleen Turner, Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life, Good People, Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins starring Kathleen Turner, The Normal Heart, Red, Ruined, every tongue confess starring Phylicia Rashad, Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies, Loopedstarring Valerie Harper, Next to Normal starring Alice Ripley, Awake and Sing! and The Goat, or Who is Sylvia. Additional regional credits at the Kennedy Center, Roundabout Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company and Signature Theatre. Thanks to his family for all their support.

ANTHONY O. BULLOCK

Assistant Stage Manager

makes his Arena Stage debut. Off-Broadway credits include School for Lies (Classic Stage Company). D.C./Baltimore credits include The Hard Problem, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Moment, Between Riverside and Crazy, Chimerica, Jumpers for Goalposts and Laugh (Studio Theatre) and Twisted Melodies (Center Stage). He toured with The White Snake by Mary Zimmerman in association with Goodman Theatre, and part of The Wuzhen Theatre Festival in Wuzhen, China. Select regional credits include McCarter, Barrington Stage Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Passage Theatre. He has also worked with Princeton University Dance Department. Anthony received his B.F.A. at Oklahoma City University. He is on the board of the Stage Managers’ Association as the Eastern Regional Representative.

MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL (MTI)

is one of the world’s leading theatrical licensing agencies, granting theatres from around the world the rights to perform the greatest selection of musicals from Broadway and beyond. Founded in 1952 by composer Frank Loesser, and orchestrator Don Walker, MTI is a driving force in advancing musical theatre as a vibrant and engaging art form. MTI works directly with the composers, lyricists and book writers of these musicals to provide official scripts, musical materials and dynamic theatrical resources to over 70,000 professional, community and school theatres in the US and in over 60 countries worldwide.