Watch on the Rhine

LILLIAN HELLMAN

Playwright

LILLIAN HELLMAN (Playwright) was an American dramatist and screenwriter. Broadway credits include Watch on the Rhine, The Autumn Garden, Toys in the Attic, Another Part of the Forest, The Children’s Hour and The Little Foxes. Her screenplay adaptation of The Little Foxes, starring Bette Davis, received an Academy Award nomination in 1942. Her honors include two New York Drama Critics Circle Awards; a Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Theater from the Academy of Arts and Letters; and a National Book Award for An Unfinished Woman. As a teacher and scholar she was well-respected, and her political involvement was integral in the fight against fascism at home and abroad. Lillian will be remembered not only as an activist, playwright and memoirist, but as a woman who could overcome the hurdles of her time and succeed on her own terms.

JACKIE MAXWELL

Director

JACKIE MAXWELL (Director) previously directed Arena Stage’s Good People. She recently finished her 14th and final season as artistic director at the Shaw Festival. In 2016, she directed Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and Annie Baker’s adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Other highlights include her productions of The Divine, Juno and the Paycock, Ragtime, Come Back Little Sheba, Saint Joan, Age of Arousal, Major Barbara and Gypsy. Jackie has worked extensively as a freelance director throughout Canada and in the States and been instrumental in program creation at many Canadian theater companies, as well as being artistic director of Toronto’s Factory Theatre for 12 years. She is the recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Medal and two honorary doctorates, and in 2016 was invested into the Order of Ontario. Upcoming projects include the Jacobean tragedy The Changeling, at the Stratford Festival.

TODD ROSENTHAL

Set Designer

TODD ROSENTHAL (Set Designer)’s Broadway credits include August: Osage County (Tony Award), The Motherf**ker with the Hat (Tony nomination), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Of Mice and Men (filmed by National Theatre Live), This is Our Youth and Fish in the Dark. Upcoming Broadway, Roman Holiday and Mary Page Marlowe. Off-Broadway, Red Light Winter (Barrow Street), Domesticated (Lincoln Center) and Qualms (Playwrights Horizons). Designer for six years for Big Apple Circus. International credits, August: Osage County (London & Australia), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Ireland) and Nice Fish (London). Regional work includes Steppenwolf, Goodman (artistic partner), Guthrie, Berkeley Repertory, Arena Stage and many others. Museum exhibitions include “Mythbusters: The Explosive Exhibition” and “The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes.” Awards include Olivier, Helen Hayes, Ovation, Garland, Jefferson and Michael Merritt. Professor, Northwestern University. Graduate, Yale Drama.

JUDITH BOWDEN

Costume Designer

JUDITH BOWDEN (Costume Designer) is pleased to return to Arena Stage having designed My Fair Lady and The Music Man. She has designed for the past 16 seasons at Canada’s Shaw Festival for productions including Sweeney Todd and Peter and the Starcatcher. Her design work has been seen at National Arts Centre, Canadian Stage Company, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Pacific Opera Victoria and others. She received the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Set Design in 2015 for Chimerica (co-production with Canadian Stage and Manitoba Theatre Centre), as well as the Virginia and Myrtle Award in costume design. Her designs were exhibited in “Costume at the Turn of the Century” at the A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum.

NANCY SCHERTLER

Lighting Designer

NANCY SCHERTLER (Lighting Designer) began her career as an intern at Arena Stage 40 years ago. Arena has provided her with the opportunity to learn from and design for some of the finest directors, including Zelda Fichandler, Liviu Ciulei, Kyle Donnelly, Garland Wright, Douglas C. Wager and Molly Smith. Broadway designs include Bill Irwin’s Fool Moon and Largely New York (Tony nomination). Off-Broadway designs include Hilda, Texts for Nothing and The Regard Evening. She has designed for regional theaters across the country, including American Conservatory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, Portland Center Stage and Seattle Repertory. World-premiere opera productions include The Difficulty of Crossing a Field (commissioned by American Conservatory Theatre) and Shadowboxer, Clara and Later the Same Evening (commissioned by the University of Maryland Opera Studio).

DAVID VAN TIEGHEM

Original Music / Sound Design

DAVID VAN TIEGHEM (Original Music and Sound Design)’s Arena Stage credits include All the Way, Camp David and The Shoplifters. On Broadway, Doubt, Heisenberg, The Gin Game, The Lyons, Romeo and Juliet, The Big Knife, Born Yesterday, Arcadia, The Normal Heart, An Enemy of the People, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, A Behanding in Spokane, A Man for All Seasons, Inherit the Wind, Frozen, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Crucible, Three Days of Rain and The Best Man. Off-Broadway, Wit, Incognito, Plenty, The Piano Lesson, Through a Glass Darkly, How I Learned to Drive, The Grey Zone and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Film/TV, Buried Prayers and Working Girls. As drummer/percussionist he has played with Laurie Anderson, Talking Heads, Brian Eno and Steve Reich. CDs include “Thrown for a Loop,” “Strange Cargo,” “Safety in Numbers” and “These Things Happen.” www.vantieghem.com

ANNE NESMITH

Wig Designer

ANNE NESMITH (Wig Designer) returns to Arena Stage, where her design credits include Carousel, The Little Foxes, All the Way, Oliver!, Destiny of Desire, Fiddler on the Roof, Mother Courage and Her Children, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 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 110 in the Shade (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.

JOE ISENBERG

Fight Director

JOE ISENBERG (Fight Director)’s Arena Stage Fight Director credits include The Little Foxes, At Home at the Zoo and every tongue confess. Joe’s fight work has also been seen at Washington National Opera, the Kennedy Center’s Theatre for Young Audiences, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Theater J, Humana Festival 2011 and 2012, Florida Stage and InterAct Theatre. He served as Assistant Choreographer at Folger Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the Metropolitan Opera. Joe has been a guest teacher at The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Howard University, Georgetown University and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Awards include the 2013 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Choreography. He received the Kennedy Center/Keenan fund for the arts Fight Choreographer in Residence for 2010-11.

MARY COY

Dialect Coach

MARY COY (Dialect Coach)’s Arena Stage credits include The Little Foxes, All the Way and Destiny of Desire. She has also coached voice and dialects for The Guard (Ford’s Theatre), NSFW and The Night Alive (Round House Theatre); and The Flick (Signature Theatre). Teaching credits include Shakespeare Theatre Company, New York University (NYU), University of Mississippi, Virginia Commonwealth University, Syracuse University and Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. She currently teaches at the University of Maryland.

GEOFF JOSSELSON

New York Casting

GEOFF JOSSELSON (New York Casting)’s previous Arena Stage credits include The Little Foxes, Disgraced, All the Way, Oliver!, The Blood Quilt, King Hedley II, Fiddler on the Roof, The Shoplifters, Camp David and The Velocity of Autumn. Broadway and Off-Broadway productions include The Velocity of Autumn; Southern Comfort; Yank!; Enter Laughing; Pretty Filthy; John and Jen, Himself and Nora; and Altar Boyz. Also productions for Actors Theatre of Louisville, Barrington Stage Company, Bay Street Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Cleveland Play House, Denver Center, Marriott Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Public Theatre, San Francisco Symphony, Sharon Playhouse and the York Theatre Company. In addition to his independent casting office, Geoff teaches master classes around the country and is on faculty at CAP21. www.geoffjosselson.com

KURT HALL

Staging Manager

KURT HALL (Stage Manager)’s Arena Stage credits include 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, Looped starring 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.

RACHAEL DANIELLE ALBERT

Assistant Stage Manager

RACHAEL DANIELLE ALBERT (Assistant Stage Manager) is thrilled to return to Arena Stage after working on Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End and The City of Conversation. New York credits include The Roads to Home (Primary Stages); Maize & Blue on Broadway and The Last Word (New York Musical Festival); and Howards End. Regional credits include Bright Star (pre-Broadway, the Kennedy Center); Up Here, Ether Dome and Peer Gynt (La Jolla Playhouse); Rich Girl (The Old Globe); and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Stage 773). She is a founding member of Ubuntu Theater Project. Rachael received her M.F.A. from University of California, San Diego, and B.F.A. from University of Michigan. Proud AEA member.