World-Premiere Power Play
Change Agent
January 21 - March 6, 2022
- Press Contact Email
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Publicist
Lauren McMillen
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Phone
202-600-4055
The Cuban Missile Crisis. The Civil Rights Movement. The Cold War. Some of the most influential periods in U.S. history, in an eerie resonance with the social and racial movements of today. During the volatile 1960s, one woman influenced American policy – and in turn, world events – through her friendships and proximity to power.
Change Agent pulls back the curtain on an artist who fought long and hard to keep the humanity in politics and expand the consciousness of a nation. This provocative Power Play from Tony Award-nominated playwright and director Craig Lucas (An American in Paris, The Light in the Piazza) imagines how insider voices could have influenced major decisions that are still impacting our country today.
Prime Sponsorship for Change Agent is generously provided by Decker Anstrom and Sherry Hiemstra.
Change Agent is the recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.
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Change Agent Cast
ANDREA ABELLO
Mary
RENEA S. BROWN
Mary/Cicely/Jackie Understudy
REGAN LINTON
Cicely
TONY NAM
Jack/Cord Understudy
JEFFREY OMURA
Cord
KATHRYN TKEL
Jackie
LUIS VEGA
Jack
ANDREA ABELLO
Mary
Andrea Abello is a Colombian American actor, poet and educator. She is making her Arena Stage debut! Off-Broadway:Passage (Soho Rep.), Last Night in Inwood (Signature), Hindsight (Fault Line Theatre). Regional:A Doll's House Pt. II (St. Louis Rep.), Little Bunny Foo Foo (Actors Theatre of Louisville), You Across from Me (Humana Festival). Workshops at NYTW, EST, The Lark, Playwrights Realm, The New Group, WP Theater, Repertorio Español and others. TV: Lisey's Story (Apple TV+) written by Stephen King and produced by J.J. Abrams. She is a recipient of the Leonard A. Slade Jr. Poetry Fellowship with the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. BFA: NYU Tisch. She/Her. For Mary, and so many others whose stories have been left untold.
Website: |
andreaabello.com |
RENEA S. BROWN
Mary/Cicely/Jackie Understudy
Renea S. Brown is excited for her Arena Stage debut! Favorite theater credits include regional: Cassio in Othello, Marianne in Sense and Sensibility (Island Shakespeare Theatre), Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nebraska Rep), Sara Crewe in The Little Princess, Julia Agustine in Wedding Band (Quintessence Theatre). D.C. area credits: Danielle in Love Factually (Kennedy Center); ensemble and understudy in The Tempest and Macbeth (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Jacques in As You Like It (Prince George’s Shakespeare Festival); Sylvia in Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Guiderius in Cymbeline (Theatre Prometheus); Jane in Pride and Prejudice (NextStop); Virgilia in Coriolanus (Brave Spirits Theatre) and others. TV/film credits: For My Man, Water in a Broken Glass and Beauty’s Keeper.
Personal Instagram: |
@TheDarkLady |
Business Instagram: |
@boxothbard |
REGAN LINTON
Cicely
Regan Linton is making her Arena Stage debut following five years as artistic director at Phamaly Theatre Company in Denver, CO. Regional acting credits include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime; Safe at Home; Animate at Mixed Blood Theatre (MN); Much Ado About Nothing and Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Marginalia at Denver Center for the Performing Arts; Blood and Gifts at La Jolla Playhouse; Into the Woods, Man of La Mancha, Side Show and Urinetown at Phamaly and A Madrigal Opera at Boston Court (CA). She is co-director of the documentary imperfect (2021) about disabled theater actors. MFA Acting, UC San Diego; MSW, University of Denver. Regan lives with a spinal cord injury.
Website: |
reganlinton.com |
Instagram: |
@reganlinton |
TONY NAM
Jack/Cord Understudy
Tony Nam Arena Stage: Akeelah and the Bee; Kennedy Center: Where Words Once Were, A Cricket in Time Square, Unleashed, American Scrapbook, A Kite on the Wind; Everyman Theater: The Skin of Our Teeth, Cry it Out, Murder on the Orient Express, Everything is Wonderful, Aubergine; The Folger Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing, Measure for Measure; Ford’s Theater: Our Town; Olney Theatre Center: Our Town, Aubergine; Round House Theatre: Treasure Island; Seattle Children’s Theatre: The Red Badge of Courage; The Shakespeare Theatre Company: Othello, Pericles; TheatreWorks: Pacific Overtures; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis. Education: St. Mary’s College of Maryland – BA, University of Washington - MFA. Everyman Theater Resident Company Member.
JEFFREY OMURA
Cord
Jeffrey Omura is thrilled to make his Arena Stage debut. He’s known for his work onstage in New York with the Public Theater, Playwrights’ Realm, Ma-Yi Theater Company, and National Asian American Theater Company and around the country with Weston Playhouse, St. Louis Rep, Hartford Stage and more. He was recently seen on television in Hawaii Five-0, Succession, Elementary, Limitless, The Blacklist, The Interestings and High Maintenance. His voiceover work can be heard in more than 50 films and television shows. He’s a founding member of Fair Wage Onstage, Be An #ArtsHero and an elected member of Actors’ Equity’s National Council. He was a recent candidate for New York City Council and named to city and state's 2021 Labor 40 Under 40. He’s a proud graduate of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama.
Website: |
jeffreyomura.com |
Instagram: |
@jeffreyomura |
Twitter: |
@jeffreyomura |
KATHRYN TKEL
Jackie
Kathryn Tkel is making her Arena Stage debut. She was most recently seen by D.C. audiences in Studio Theatre’s streaming production of Cock earlier this year. Other select D.C.-area credits include An Octoroon at Woolly Mammoth; Sense and Sensibility and Timon of Athens at Folger; Jefferson’s Garden and The Guard at Ford’s Theatre; A Doll’s House, Part 2 and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime at Round House; The Wanderers at Theatre J; Venus in Fur and The 39 Steps at Rep Stage. Regionally she has appeared at Everyman Theatre, The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Theatrical Outfit, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Perseverance Theatre, North Coast Rep, Arizona Theatre Company and The San Francisco Playhouse. She can be seen on screen in the film Harriet. MFA from the Academy for Classical Acting.
Website: |
KathrynTkel.com |
LUIS VEGA
Jack
Luis Vega’s most recent New York theater credits include Hindsight (Fault Line Theatre), The Underlying Chris (Second Stage), Tell Hector I Miss Him (Atlantic Theater Company), i thought i would die but i didn't (New Georges/The Tank) and Romeo and Juliet (Back Room Shakespeare Project). Regional credits include Where Storms Are Born (Williamstown), The Underpants (Old Globe), Seize the King (La Jolla Playhouse), As You Like It (The Guthrie) and The Humans (Broadway National Tour). Luis’ film and TV credits include The Good Fight (Paramount +), Madam Secretary (CBS), Another Earth (Fox Searchlight), Chinese Puzzle (dir. Cédric Klapisch) and Thorp (Independent Feature). He holds a BA in English from Columbia University and an MFA in Acting from UCSD.
Instagram: |
@sinverguenzaluisvega |
Creative Team
CRAIG LUCAS
Playwright and Director
WILSON CHIN
Set Designer
ALEJO VIETTI
Costume Designer
CHA SEE
Lighting Designer
BROKEN CHORD
Original Music and Sound Design
CAITE HEVNER
Projection Designer
CHARLES G. LAPOINTE
Wig Designer
JENNY MALE
Intimacy and Fight Consultant
LISA NATHANS
Dialect and Vocal Coach
JOCELYN CLARKE
Dramaturg
JZ CASTING / GEOFF JOSSELSON, C.S.A. AND KATJA ZAROLINSKI, C.S.A.
Casting
RACHAEL DANIELLE ALBERT
Stage Manager
LEIGH ROBINETTE
Assistant Stage Manager
CRAIG LUCAS
Playwright and Director
Craig Lucas’ (Playwright/Director) plays include Missing Persons, Reckless, Blue Window, Prelude to a Kiss, God’s Heart, This Thing of Darkness (co-authored with David Schulner), The Dying Gaul, Stranger, Small Tragedy, Prayer for My Enemy, The Singing Forest, Ode to Joy, The Lying Lesson, I Was Most Alive with You and Change Agent. Screenplays include Longtime Companion (Sundance Audience Award), The Secret Lives of Dentists (NY Film Critics Best Screenplay Award), Reckless, Blue Window, The Dying Gaul. Libretti include The Light in the Piazza (music and lyrics by Adam Guettel), Two Boys (composer Nico Muhly, world premiere at the English National Opera, American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera), Orpheus in Love (with composer Gerald Busby), 3 Postcards (with composer/lyricist Craig Carnelia), An American in Paris (music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin), Amélie (music by Dan Messe, lyrics by Nathan Tysen and Dan Messe), Sousatzka (music by David Shire, lyrics by Richard Maltby), Prelude to a Kiss (music by Dan Messe, lyrics by Sean Hartley and Dan Messe), Days of Wine and Roses (music and lyrics by Adam Guettel), and Marry Me A Little, Songs by Stephen by Sondheim (co-conceived with Norman René and Suzanne Henry). His new English- language adaptations include Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, Galileo and Miss Julie. He directed the world premiere of The Light in the Piazza, Harry Kondoleon’s plays Saved Or Destroyed and Play Yourself, and the films The Dying Gaul and Birds of America. Lucas has worked with a host of remarkable directors including Mark Wing-Davey, Norman René, Pam MacKinnon, Lisa Petersen, Daniel Sullivan, Tyne Rafaeli, Christopher Wheeldon, Alan Rudolph, Mark Brokaw, Bartlett Sher and Joe Mantello. He received the Excellence in Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Laura Pels/PEN Mid-career Award, the Hermitage Greenfield Prize, LAMBDA Literary Award, Hull-Warriner Award, Flora Roberts Award and Steinberg/ACTA Best Play Award among many others. He has three Tony nominations and three Obie Awards and has been a Pulitzer finalist.
WILSON CHIN
Set Designer
Wilson Chin (Set Designer) Arena Stage: The Price. Broadway: Pass Over (Lortel Award nomination), Next Fall. Off Broadway: Cost of Living, By the Water (Manhattan Theatre Club); Teenage Dick (Ma-Yi/Public); A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet (DR2); Wild Goose Dreams (Public/La Jolla Playhouse); The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons); My Mañana Comes (The Playwrights Realm); Too Much Too Much Too Many (Roundabout); The Jammer (Atlantic Theatre); Sakina’s Restaurant (Audible/Minetta Lane); Engagements (Second Stage); Informed Consent (Primary Stages). Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Eine Florentinische Tragödie/Gianni Schicchi (Canadian Opera Company, Dora Mavor Moore Award). Film/television: Pass Over (dir. Spike Lee), Blindspot (NBC). Eastern Region Board member of Local USA 829.
Instagram: |
@wilsonchindesign |
ALEJO VIETTI
Costume Designer
Alejo Vietti (Costume Designer)’s Arena Stage credits include: Ella, The Pajama Game, Anything Goes (Helen Hayes Award) and Disney’s Newsies. New York credits include: Broadway’s Holiday Inn, Allegiance (Drama Desk nomination) and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (U.S. tour, West End – Olivier Award nomination, Australia, Japan and UK tour). He has designed for City Center Encores!, Radio City Rockettes, Roundabout Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Atlantic Theatre, among others. Opera credits include: New York City Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Minnesota Opera, Wolf Trap Opera and Donesk Opera (Ukraine). Selected regional work includes: Alley Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, Ford’s, Signature, Goodspeed, Guthrie, Hartford Stage, Paper Mill Playhouse and The Old Globe. Other credits include:Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (US, Berlin and Tokyo), Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. TDF Irene Sharaff Young Master Award recipient.
CHA SEE
Lighting Designer
Cha See (Lighting Designer)’s D.C. credits include the world premiere of What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, American Repertory Theater). Her New York credits include One in Two (The New Group), What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Brooklyn Academy of Music, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, The Movement Theatre Company), House Plant and In the Penal Colony (Next Door at NYTW), and Yasmina’s Necklace (Primary Stages). Regional credits include the world premiere of On the Grounds of Belonging (Long Wharf Theatre) and the world premiere of America V.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of the American Negro (Barrington Stage Company). Upcoming: The Fever (The New Group/Audible Theatre), The Great Leap (Portland Center Stage), Exception to the Rule (Roundabout Theatre Company), and Soft (MCC). Training: MFA, NYU Tisch.
Website: |
http://www.seelightingdesign.com/ |
BROKEN CHORD
Original Music and Sound Design
Broken Chord (Original Music and Sound Design) Arena Stage credits include Kleptocracy and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. Broadway credits are The Parisian Woman and Eclipsed. Off-Broadway credits include Toni Stone at Roundabout Theatre Company; The Lying Lesson at the Atlantic; OZET at Incubator Arts; Bull in a China Shop at LCT3; Party People at The Public. Selected regional credits are Angels in America at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; Enemy of the People at the Guthrie Theatre; Ruined at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Top Girls at the Huntington Theatre; UniSon at OSF; Macbeth at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Film credits include Fall to Rise.
Website: |
http://www.brokenchord.us/ |
CAITE HEVNER
Projection Designer
Caite Hevner (Projection Designer) Arena: Smokey Joe’s Café. Broadway: In Transit; Derren Brown: SECRET; Harry Connick Jr., A Celebration of Cole Porter. New York: Sweatshop Overlord, NYTW; Bella Bella, Manhattan Theatre Club; Collective Rage, MCC; DISCORD, Primary Stages; Ugly Lies the Bone, Roundabout Underground; Parade and The Scarlet Pimpernel, Manhattan Concert Productions/Lincoln Center. D.C. credits include How to Succeed [. . .], Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage, Admissions, Studio Theatre; She the People, Woolly Mammoth; Fetch Clay Make Man, Round House Theatre. Regional: Alabama Shakespeare, Alley, Alliance, Baltimore Center Stage, Barrington Stage, Cleveland Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, Everyman, Guthrie, Long Wharf, Maltz Jupiter, McCarter, MUNY, Pasadena Playhouse, Playmaker’s Rep, Seattle 5th Avenue, Syracuse Stage, Westport Country Playhouse and Williamstown. Projection Coordinator for Broadway Cares’s Broadway Bares since 2018.
Website: |
www.caitedesign.com |
Instagram: |
@caitehevner |
CHARLES G. LAPOINTE
Wig Designer
Charles G. LaPointe (Wig Designer) is an award-winning Wig and Hair Designer who maintains a highly successful career on stages throughout the United States and abroad. Prior at Arena Stage: Celia and Fidel, Disney's Newsies; Ken Ludwig's Dear Jack, Dear Louise; Anything Goes. Highlights: Numerous Broadway; Touring; American Regional Theatre; West End and International productions including Hamilton (Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylist Guild Award); Ain’t Too Proud; Beautiful: The Carole King Musical; Beetlejuice; The Cher Show (Drama Desk Award); The Band’s Visit; Anastasia; The Lifespan of a Fact; SpongeBob SquarePants (Drama Desk Award); Jersey Boys; A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder; The Color Purple; In the Heights. Television: The Wiz Live! (Emmy Award Nomination); Jesus Christ Superstar Live! (Emmy Award Nomination and Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylist Guild Award).
JENNY MALE
Intimacy and Fight Consultant
Jenny Male (Intimacy and Fight Consultant)’s D.C.-area credits include: Arena Stage: Newsies, Celia and Fidel; Ford’s Theatre: Guys and Dolls; Rep Stage (Resident Intimacy and Fight Director): E2, Things That Are Round, Sweeney Todd, True West, H20, Yellowman, Dorian’s Closet; Factory 449: Lela & Co., Agnes of God; Constellation Theatre Company: The 39 Steps; Washington Stage Guild: Bloomsday. Affiliations include: Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors and Certified Intimacy Director with Intimacy Directors & Coordinators.
LISA NATHANS
Dialect and Vocal Coach
Lisa Nathans (Dialect and Vocal Coach) is thrilled to be coaching again for Arena Stage after coaching Disney’s Newsies and Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise previously this season! Other D.C. credits include various productions with the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Olney Theatre Center, Signature Theatre, Theater Alliance, Keegan Theatre and MetroStage. Regional credits include: Guthrie Theater, The 5th Avenue and Theatricum Botanicum. TV credits include: National Geographic’s Elemental: Hydrogen vs. Hindenburg. Teaching (USA and UK): University of Maryland: TDPS (Assistant Professor, Voice, Speech, and Acting); CalArts; Stella Adler Academy; RADA; Royal Welsh; Royal Central; University of Washington (PATP MFA); and University of Minnesota (Guthrie BFA). Training: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama: MFA (Voice Studies); Boston University: BFA (Acting); Linklater Voice Designation; and Colaianni Speech Practitioner. Break legs all!
JOCELYN CLARKE
Dramaturg
Jocelyn Clarke (Dramaturg) is Senior Dramaturg at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. He was Theatre Advisor to the Arts Council of Ireland for ten years. As a dramaturg, Clarke has worked with writers such as Katori Hall, Taylor Mac, Lydia Diamond, Abhishek Majumdar, Eduardo Machado, Charles Randolph Wright, Lisa Kron, Craig Lucas, Carl Hancock Rux, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Tanya Saracho and Karen Zacarias. He was a script editor on several Irish films, including Young Offenders, and was executive story editor on all three seasons of the BBC/RTE TV series Young Offenders. He is a writer on the second season of P-Valley, Katori Hall’s acclaimed TV series for Starz. His new adaptation of Elizabeth Swados’ musical The Beautiful Lady, will be directed by Anne Bogart at La Mama Theatre in New York in May 2022.
JZ CASTING / GEOFF JOSSELSON, C.S.A. AND KATJA ZAROLINSKI, C.S.A.
Casting
JZ Casting (Casting) Geoff Josselson, CSA and Katja Zarolinski, CSA are New York-based casting directors, handling productions for theatre, film and television. Recent work includes productions for Arena Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Baltimore Center Stage, Cape Playhouse, Denver Center, The Irish Repertory Theatre, Merrimack Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Round House Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Studio Theatre, Theaterworks Hartford, Weston Playhouse.
Website: |
jz-casting.com |
RACHAEL DANIELLE ALBERT
Stage Manager
Rachael Danielle Albert (Stage Manager) is eager and excited to return to Arena Stage. Credits include: Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Junk, Native Gardens, A Raisin in the Sun, Watch on the Rhine, Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End and The City of Conversation. Regional credits include: A Wind in the Door, She A Gem and Bright Star (Kennedy Center); Fairview, Describe the Night and Botticelli in the Fire (Woolly Mammoth); The Wolves (Studio Theater); Seize the King, Up Here, Ether Dome and Peer Gynt (La Jolla Playhouse); The Odd Couple, Sylvia, Souvenir (New London Barn Playhouse); and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Stage 773). During quarantine, Rachael entered the brave new world of digital theatre, as the livestream stage manager for Amir Nizar Zuabi’s new play This Is Who I Am, produced by Woolly Mammoth and PlayCo, in partnership with The Guthrie, A.R.T. and OSF. Founding member: Ubuntu Theater Project (Oakland, CA). Adjunct Faculty: Shenandoah University. MFA: University of California, San Diego. BFA: University of Michigan. Proud AEA member.
LEIGH ROBINETTE
Assistant Stage Manager
Leigh Robinette (Assistant Stage Manager)'s Arena Stage credits include The Originalist, Dear Evan Hansen, Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof, Mother Courage and Her Children and My Fair Lady. Other D.C. credits include The Second City's Love, Factually at the Kennedy Center, Love Sick and The Jewish Queen Lear with Theater J and Describe the Night, Gloria, Botticelli in the Fire, Familiar, The Arsonists, An Octoroon and Guards at the Taj with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. She has worked Off-Broadway at Second Stage, with the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston and the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY. She is a graduate of Boston University.