Dancing at Lughnasa

BRIAN FRIEL’S AWARD-WINNING IRISH MASTERPIECE

JUL 26 – AUG 13, 2016

DIRECTED BY SHEILA DANIELS

Can love set you free?

Journey to the heart of Ireland to experience the pulsating energy of a Celtic harvest festival, and remember for a moment a simple life filled with laughter and hope. In one of Ireland’s most beloved and powerful plays, five indomitable sisters dance through memories of family, tenderness, and heartbreak—as the world tumbles towards revolution.

The Columbus Dispatch praised our director saying she “made the play shine,” and that our choreographer created “elegantly simple” choreography especially in one “breathtaking” scene. We like to think so, and agree that it complemented the “dreamlike” set. Overall, the Dispatch thought it was an “exercise in nostalgia come tensely alive.

MEET THE COMPANY

Cast

BRIAN DAVID EVANS
MICHAEL EVANS

BRIAN DAVID EVANS (Michael Evans) has acted at venues including Human Race Theatre, the Colorado, Illinois and Oxford Shakespeare Festivals, South Coast Repertory, Porthouse Theatre, CATCO, Stella Adler Theater, and Los Angeles Theatre Center. Film and television credits include Chapelle’s Show, Judging Amy, and Claire in Motion. He produced and directed award-winning theatre in Los Angeles at theaters including the Raven Playhouse, Metropole Theatre Works, and Elephant Stageworks. Directing credits include Cymbeline with Available Light Theatre, Shakespeare’s Fight Scenes and Henry IV, Part One at Oxford Shakespeare Festival, and Romeo and Juliet at Monomoy Theatre. Brian teaches voice and speech, stage combat, and improvisation in the Division of Theater at 51��. He is an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework and a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. He received his BFA in acting and directing from Kent State, and his MFA in acting from UC, Irvine. Brian is a member of SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity Association.

KATHERINE SCHOLL
KATE MUNDY

KATHERINE SCHOLL (Kate Mundy) has performed regionally at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, and Unseam’d Shakespeare Company. Some New York credits include: The Director’s Company, NY Theatre Alliance, Miranda Theater, and Blue Heron Arts Center. Katherine is a founding member of Brick Monkey Theater Ensemble and teaches 12th grade English. Many thanks to all my loves.

SARAH HARLETT
MAGGIE MUNDY

SARAH HARLETT (Maggie Mundy) is so pleased to be working with Tantrum Theater. Currently living in Seattle, recent roles include Diane in Conor Mcpherson’s The Birds, Lear in Vaclav Havel’s The Memorandum at Strawberry Theater Workshop, and Mrs. Fezziwig in A Christmas Carol at ACT. Other recent and favorite roles include: Middletown, Hermione in Winter’s Tale, Demetrius in Titus Andronicus, Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well, and Neely O’Hara in Valley of the Dolls. In Seattle, Sarah has also performed at Seattle Children’s Theater, Intiman, New City Theater, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Seattle Rep, On the Boards, West of Lenin, and The Empty Space. New York credits include: Silence! and The Part I Love the Best. Internationally, The Rich Grandeur of Boxing at the Centre de Danse in Paris, France with the Megan Murphy Company. Sarah is a current member of The Sandbox Collective and was a founding member of the Compound Collective, the nationally acclaimed Seattle performance group in Seattle from 1994-2000. Sarah is a graduate of Cornish College of the Arts, the Gaiety School of Acting (Dublin) and the British American Drama Academy (Oxford). Sarah currently teaches at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA.

ELLIE CLARK
AGNES MUNDY

ELLIE CLARK (Agnes Mundy) is honored to be a part of the inaugural season of Tantrum Theater. She is headed into her second year as an MFA acting candidate in 51��’s professional actor training program. Some of her favorite theatre credits include: Sheila in A Chorus Line, Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, Elizabeth in Pride & Prejudice, and Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra with Kentucky Conservatory Theatre’s SummerFest; Time Stands Still, Mauritius, and Rabbit Hole with South Carolina Repertory Company; Burn This, Big Love, boom, and The 12 Dates of Christmas with Project SEE Theatre; A Christmas Carol with Actors Theatre of Louisville, along with Night Out and Monument in their 26th Annual Humana Festival; and Dracula… a variation in the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Ellie is co-founder of the ensemble-based theatre company, Project SEE Theatre. She also co-founded The Girl Project, an arts-meets-activism initiative designed to inspire, educate, and empower girls of all ages to challenge the misrepresentation of girls and women in American media culture through original devised work ().

GLENNA BRUCKEN
ROSE MUNDY

GLENNA BRUCKEN (Rose Mundy) is so delighted to be with Tantrum Theater in their very first season. Regional theatre: Wondrous Strange at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Other theatre: Holiday, The Misanthrope, Spike Heels, The Baltimore Waltz, Macbeth, and The Seabury Quinn Jr. Playwrights Festival at 51��; El Stories at The Greenhouse Theatre Center; Spring Awakening at the Charnel House; and Steel Magnolias at Cornwell’s Dinner Theatre. Additional Credits: She received her BFA in acting from 51��, is a co-founder of The Right Questions Theatre Ensemble, and was a proud member of the 2015-2016 Acting Apprentice Company at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

KAT BRAMLEY
CHRISTINA MUNDY

KAT BRAMLEY (Christina Mundy) is beyond thrilled to be working with Tantrum Theater for their inaugural season. Kat is a Chicago-based actor and recent alum of the 51�� professional actor training program. Some of her favorite roles from 51�� were Rosalind in As You Like It and Brooke/Vicki in Noises Off. Other credits include Twelfth Night, Enemy of the People, Brighton Beach Memoirs (Monomoy Theatre), and An Appalachian Christmas Carol (Brick Monkey Theater Ensemble). She is so grateful for the opportunity to tell this beautiful story with such a talented group of artists. Big love to the original Tantrum.

JOE CARLSON
GERRY EVANS

JOE CARLSON (Gerry Evans) is a DC based actor, director, and educator. Joe holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in acting and directing pedagogy specializing in the application of ritual poetic drama within the African continuum. Joe has worked in commercial, television, independent, and feature film projects including principal roles in the Academy Award-winning Lincoln, Killing Lincoln, Turn, and a starring role in a new miniseries, The American West, premiering summer of 2016 on AMC. As a DC theatre artist he has worked with American Century Theatre, Constellation Theatre, Half-Mad Theatre, The Olney Theatre Center, Scena Theatre, Studio Theater, Wooly Mammoth, Round House Theater, Flying V, The Kennedy Center, and the Washington National Opera, and is a senior company member of Synetic Theatre in Arlington, VA. In addition to acting, as a theatre practitioner he teaches, directs, coaches, devises commissioned academic and professional plays, and is formally the Educational Programs Manager for Synetic Theater where, along with developing the Synetic Teen Ensemble, he oversaw classes, camps, theatre for young audiences and outreach programming that served thousands of students across the DC, MD, and VA region, and provided professional development in arts integration for K-12 educators. Joe is the recipient of the Innovative Projects Award from Culture Works, a two-time nominee for each of the Helen Hayes Awards, Irene Ryan Awards, and the Richmond Theatre Critics Circle Awards in leading, supporting, and ensemble roles. Joe is a proud member and artistic associate with The Conciliation Project, a social justice theatre company in Richmond, VA. Later this year Joe will be appearing in the regional premiere of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberly by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon at The Round House Theater.

JONATHAN PUTNAM
FATHER JACKI

JONATHAN PUTNAM (Father Jack) was a resident actor/director at CATCO in Columbus for about twenty years. He most recently appeared there as Vanya in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Locally, he has also worked with Short North Stage, Opera Columbus, Otterbein University, and A Portable Theatre. He has appeared at theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Aspen, Illinois, and Indiana among others. Over the years, he has taught at OSU, Otterbein, Ohio Wesleyan, and was a guest director at Denison. He has a Master of Fine Arts in acting from OSU and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and SAG/AFTRA.

Creative

SHEILA DANIELS
DIRECTOR

Sheila Daniels is a theatre director, educator, actor, writer and producer based in Seattle, WA. Directing credits in Seattle include A Streetcar Named Desire, Crime and Punishment, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Lysistrata, and The Children’s Hour (Intiman); The Normal Heart, Breaking the Code, and The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Strawberry Theatre Workshop); Dancing at Lughnasa and workshops of The Weathermen (Seattle Rep); Jackie and Me and According to Coyote (Seattle Children’s Theatre); The Ramayana (A Contemporary Theatre); Pericles, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Nights Dream (Seattle Shakespeare Company).

She has also directed work for CHAC, Baba Yaga, Ladykillers, Seattle Public Theatre, Book-It Repertory, Theater Schmeater, Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis and Throwing Bones (NYC). She is a three-time nominee and two-time recipient of Seattle’s Gregory Awards for Outstanding Direction.

Sheila teaches Acting, Improv & Collaboration at Cornish College of the Arts, where she is also regular director. Also a generative artist, Sheila is currently working on a new adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, and on a performance piece examining the sexuality and politics of Helen Keller.

ROBERT J. AGUILAR
LIGHTING DESIGNER

ROBERT J. AGUILAR (Lighting Designer) Recent Designs: Luna Gale (SRT); How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying… (5th Ave). Seattle area theater includes: Buyer and Cellar, Lizard Boy, Dear Elizabeth, The Vaudevillians, Bo-Nita, I Am My Own Wife, Of Mice and Men, The K of D, and boom! (SRT); Jasper in Deadland, Little Shop of Horrors (ACT Co-Pro), Hairspray in Concert, and Titanic: The Concert (5th Ave); The Children’s Hour, John Baxter is a Switch Hitter, Angels in America (Intiman Theatre); Trails (Village Theatre); Three Sisters (The Seagull Project); The Lady With All the Answers (ACT); Next to Normal, The Yellow Wood, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Zanna Don’t! (Contemporary Classics). Regional credits include, Full Gallop (The Old Globe), 7 Spots on the Sun (Cincinnati Playhouse).

MEALANIE TAYLOR BURGESS
COSTUME DESIGNER

MELANIE TAYLOR BURGESS (Costume Designer) is a Seattle, WA based costume designer. She has designed costumes for over 160 productions for: Seattle Rep, 5th Avenue Theatre, ACT Intiman Theatre, The Village Theatre, Seattle Opera, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, North Caroline Theatre Conference, Seattle Theatre Company, Strawberry Theatre Workshop and Taproot Theatre. Additionally she has designed for The Guthrie, Cincinnati Playhouse, Idaho Theatre for Youth, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, and Hawaii Opera. Melanie is on the faculty at Cornish College of the Arts and received her MFA from the University of Washington. She is the recipient of the Gregory Award for Outstanding Costume Design 2010.

BRIAN FRIEL
PLAYWRIGHT

Brian Friel (Playwright) wrote The Enemy Within (1962); Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1964); The Loves of Cass McGuire (1966); Lovers (1967); Crystal and Fox (1968); The Mundy Scheme (1969); The Gentle Island (1971); The Freedom of the City (1973); Volunteers (1975); Living Quarters (1977); Aristocrats (1979); Faith Healer (1979); Translations (1980); a translation of Three Sisters (1981); The Communication Cord (1982); an adaptation of Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons (1987); Making History (1988); Dancing at Lughnasa (1990); The London Vertigo (1991); an adaptation of A Month in the Country (1992); Wonderful Tennessee (1993); and Molly Sweeney (1994). Dancing at Lughnasa premiered at the Abbey Theatre, transferred to London’s West End, and then went on to Broadway, where it won three 1992 Tony Awards, including Best Play. The play has been performed around the world, including national tours in Ireland, England, and Australia. His plays have been performed extensively in Dublin at the Abbey, Gate, and Olympia theatres, and in many West End theatres in London. Born in Omagh, County Tyrone, in Ireland in 1929, Friel began writing short stories for The New Yorker in 1959 and subsequently published two collections: The Saucer of Larks and The Gold in the Sea. His first radio plays were produced by the BBC, Belfast, in 1958. In 1989, BBC Radio devoted a six-play season to his work, the first living playwright to be so distinguished. He co-founded Field Day Theatre Company in Derry, Ireland, where Translations, The Communication Cord, and Making History premiered.

JOHN GODBOUT
STAGE MANAGER

JOHN GODBOUT (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be a part of the inaugural season of Tantrum Theater. He also serves as resident stage manager at Cleveland Play House. John has also stage managed at North Shore Music Theatre, Capital Repertory Theatre, Weston Playhouse, Berkshire Theatre Company, Shakespeare and Company, and Seaside Music Theatre.

L.B. MORSE
SCENIC DESIGNER

L.B. MORSE (Scenic Designer) is a lighting, scenic, and multimedia designer for theatre and dance, and is thrilled to be doing his first design with Tantrum! He has designed for Seattle Repertory Theatre, ACT Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Strawberry Theatre Workshop, Intiman Theatre Company, Seattle Shakespeare Company, On the Boards, Seattle Public Theatre, lingo Dancetheater, Maureen Whiting Dance Co. and Empty Space, among others. L.B. holds a BA in theatre arts and a Graduate Certificate in scenic design from University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the Resident Designer at Seattle Repertory Theatre, and is a member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829.

BARY O’HANLON
CHOREOGRAPHER

BARNEY O’HANLON (Choreographer) most recently appeared in Brendan Pelsue’s Wellesley Girl and Sarah Ruhl’s For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday as part of the 40th Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville. He choreographed and appeared in Chuck Mee’s The Glory of the World directed by Les Waters at the Brookly Academy of Music as well as Steel Hammer as part of BAM’s 2015 Next Wave Festival. Other Next Wave Festival appearances include: War of the Worlds, bobrauschenbergamerica, Hotel Casseopeia, and Trojan Women all with SITI Company, as well as A Rite with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Barney recently choreographed Norma for Los Angeles Opera and appeared in Match Play with Austin’s Rude Mechs at NYLA. He also choreographed Verdi’s Macbeth for the Glimmerglass Festival, Anne Washburn’s 10 out of 12 for Soho Rep. and Sarah Ruhl’s The Oldest Boy for Lincoln Center Theater.

ROBERTSON WITMER
SOUND DESIGNER

ROBERTSON WITMER (Sound Designer) is a freelance composer and sound designer from Seattle, WA. His recent credits include Stupid Fucking Bird, Seven Ways to Get There, The Three Sisters (ACT); Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Mother Courage (Seattle Shakespeare Company); and The Flick (New Century Theatre Company).  His onstage appearances include Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play (ACT); A Doctor in Spite of Himself  (Intiman Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Yale Rep); Fiddler on the Roof (Village Theatre); and West (On the Boards).  In 2013, Rob received the Gregory Award for Outstanding Sound Design. He is a member of United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829.

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