"Indecent" now playing at Arena Stage
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Timeless Masterpiece
Indecent
November 23 – December 30
-
Credits
Playwright
Paula VogelDirected by
Eric RosenCo-production with
Kansas City
Repertory and
Baltimore Center Stage -
Location
The Kreeger Theater
“ELOQUENT ... MOVING ... hauntingly Absorbing.”
– Washington Post
“Thrilling. Stirring.”
– DC Theatre Scene
Anonymous support for Indecent has been provided by a life-long Washingtonian and friend of Arena Stage.
In 1923, the Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s Yiddish drama God of Vengeance set the stage for an explosive moment in theatrical history. The evocative work of Jewish culture was praised and criticized for taboo themes of censorship, immigration and anti-Semitism. Inspired by these true events and the controversy, Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel tells the behind-the-scenes story of the courageous artists who risked their careers and lives to perform a work deemed “indecent.” “Brimming with good faith” (New York Times), this Tony Award-winning intimate and enchanting play filled with music and dance is a testament to the transformative power of art that is timelier than ever before.
Indecent runs approximately one hour and 45 minutes with no intermission.
Please be advised this production contains haze and suggestive content.
Cast
BEN CHERRY
Lemml
SUSAN LYNSKEY
The Middle: Halina / Ensemble
JOHN MILOSICH
Moriz Godowsky / Musician / Ensemble
VICTOR RAIDER-WEXLER
The Elder: Otto / Ensemble
SUSAN ROME
The Elder: Vera / Ensemble
EMILY SHACKELFORD
The Ingenue: Chana / Ensemble
MARYN SHAW
Nelly Friedman / Musician / Ensemble
ALEXANDER SOVRONSKY
Mayer Balsam / Musician / Ensemble
ETHAN WATERMEIER
The Middle: Mendel / Ensemble
MAX WOLKOWITZ
The Ingenue:Avram / Ensemble
BEN CHERRY
Lemml
BEN CHERRY (Lemml) appeared on Broadway in Indecent and Fiddler on the Roof, Off-Broadway in Goldstein and in the National Tour of Mary Poppins. Most recently, Ben played in the regional premiers of Oslo at the Pioneer Theatre Company and Indecent at the Guthrie. Other regional highlights include Mothers and Sons at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Henry V, The Secret Garden, The Tempest and Merry Wives of Windsor, all during his four seasons at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. He originated roles in Milwaukee Repertory Theatre’s Route 66, Life Could Be a Dream and The Andrews Brothers and in Delaware Theatre Company’s 10 Months. Ben has been seen on TV in “The Following,” “Smash,” and “I Love You...But I Lied.” Ben trained at The University of Michigan and North Carolina School of the Arts. www.BenCherry.com
SUSAN LYNSKEY
The Middle: Halina / Ensemble
SUSAN LYNSKEY (The Middle: Halina / Ensemble) is thrilled to return to the D.C. stage with this beautiful production. Arena audiences know Susan well from Roe (Helen Hayes nomination; also at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Berkeley Rep), Noises Off (opposite Robert Prosky), Proof, Anne Bogart’s Intimations for Saxophone, Book of Days and The Importance of Being Earnest. Earlier this year, she starred as young Margaret Thatcher in the U.S. premiere of the U.K.’s Handbagged (Round House Theatre), a role she will take Off-Broadway (59E59) in June 2019. Other recent work includes Sweat (ACT, San Francisco), Imaginary Comforts (Berkeley Rep), The Sisters Rosensweig (Theatre J), Richard II (OSF), and directing Barbara Hammond’s Enter the Roar at The Kennedy Center. Susan contributes nationally to the development of new plays. She is a usual suspect at The Kennedy Center, Mosaic, and Metro Stage, and is co-artistic director of Washington Women in Theatre. On the left coast: OSF’s Black Swan Lab; Z Space; Magic Theatre’s Virgin Play Festival (in English and ASL); and as a Berkeley Rep Ground Floor returning artist working with playwrights Lemony Snicket, Ryan Haddad, Dustin Chinn, and Sarah Ruhl on her newest play (a response to The Crucible; name to be announced). Susan has been named by The Washington Post as one of the “top ten actors to watch” and featured in American Theatre Magazine, Washington Theatre Review, and Broadway World. She is the recipient of numerous Helen Hayes nominations, the DCTS’s Audience Choice Award and high honors from the D.C. Commission on Arts and Humanities. Susan holds degrees from the University of Iowa (MFA), McGill University (BA Honours) and The National Theatre School of Canada. She deeply thanks her parents, Walker, Susie, David, Victor Vasquez, and (always) The Egg.
JOHN MILOSICH
Moriz Godowsky / Musician / Ensemble
JOHN MILOSICH (Moriz Godowsky / Musician / Ensemble) is grateful for the opportunity to debut at Arena Stage. D.C. credits include Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Master and Margarita, Frankenstein, Salomé, Crackpots, Hamlet, as well as Host and Guest (Synetic Theater). He served as composer and music director for Courage (dog & pony dc), co-director for Annabel Lee and The Fiddler Ghost (Old Lore Theater – Cap Fringe), and solo writer/composer/performer for The Race (Arts Alive/Montgomery College). John played the role of Songman in the U.S. national tour of War Horse, and recently released the album One Precious Life with his PA-based theatrical rock band Featherburn.
VICTOR RAIDER-WEXLER
The Elder: Otto / Ensemble
VICTOR RAIDER-WEXLER (The Elder: Otto / Ensemble) returns to Washington after a 53-year absence, last seen here in Merry Wives of Windsor. On Broadway he has appeared in Best Friend, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Gypsy. Off-Broadway credits include The Passion of Dracula, The Boys Next Door and Give the Bishop My Faint Regards. National tours include Grand Hotel and Six Degrees of Separation. His recurring roles on television include Seinfeld, The King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond. Movie appearances include Dr. Doolittle 2, Minority Report, and The Pursuit of Happyness. Regional appearances include Milwaukee Rep, Denver Center Theatre, Pittsburgh Public, KC Rep, Syracuse Stage and Springfield Rep. He won the best actor award at the Brussels International Film Festival. Most recently in A Moon for the Misbegotten.
SUSAN ROME
The Elder: Vera / Ensemble
SUSAN ROME (The Elder: Vera / Ensemble) returns to Arena Stage after appearing in The Great Society and All the Way. D.C.-area credits include If I Forget and Hand to God (HH nomination, Ensemble) at Studio Theatre; The Diary of Anne Frank (Olney Theatre Center); After the Revolution, Vanya and Sonia…, An Enemy of the People and Mud Blue Sky (Baltimore Center Stage); Roz and Ray, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Brighton Beach Memoirs (Helen Hayes Award), The Sisters Rosensweig, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide…, The Argument and After the Revolution (HH nomination) at Theater J, where she is an associate artist-in-residence; The Whale Las Meninas and A Shayna Maidel (Rep Stage); and Richard III, Macbeth and All’s Well That Ends Well (Baltimore Shakespeare Festival). Regional credits include The Substance of Fire (Mark Taper Forum) and The Legacy (Seattle’s Centerstage). TV credits include House of Cards, NYPD Blue and four seasons as DA Ilene Nathan on The Wire. Film credits include A Dirty Shame and My One and Only. www.susanrome.com
EMILY SHACKELFORD
The Ingenue: Chana / Ensemble
EMILY SHACKELFORD (The Ingenue: Chana / Ensemble) is making her Arena Stage debut. She appeared Off-Broadway in Lucky Duck at The New Victory Theatre. Regional theatre credits with The Kansas City Repertory Theatre include Johanna in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Luisa in The Fantasticks, The Mistress in Evita, and several world premieres such as Between The Lines, Last Days of Summer, Man In Love, Hair: Retrospection and Stillwater. Instagram: @emilyareti. www.emilyshackelford.com
MARYN SHAW
Nelly Friedman / Musician / Ensemble
MARYN SHAW (Nelly Friedman / Musician / Ensemble) is thrilled to return to D.C. after last being seen in The Wolves (Studio Theatre). Her Off-Broadway credits include The Skin of Our Teeth (Theater for a New Audience). Regionally, her credits include Twelfth Night, The Book of Will, Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival), Love’s Labour’s Lost (The Acting Company/HVSF), and Clybourne Park and Pinkalicious: The Musical (The Hangar Theatre). Maryn can be seen in the upcoming season of Netflix’s Friends from College. Maryn is a classically trained violinist and opera singer, and is a graduate of the Fordham University Theatre Program and Interlochen Arts Academy. www.marynshaw.com @marynstagrams
ALEXANDER SOVRONSKY
Mayer Balsam / Musician / Ensemble
ALEXANDER SOVRONSKY (Mayer Balsam / Musician / Ensemble) – See Musical Director biography
ETHAN WATERMEIER
The Middle: Mendel / Ensemble
ETHAN WATERMEIER (The Middle: Mendel / Ensemble) has performed a broad range of leading roles in musical theater, theater and opera throughout the United States. Performance highlights include: Broadway National Tour of Les Misérables (Javert and Factory Foreman/Combeferre), Shakespeare Theatre Company, Folger Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Aspen Music Festival and Olney Theatre Center. A keen advocate for new works, Ethan has premiered compositions by Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Martin Hennessy, John Musto and Rachel Portman. He was educated at Northwestern University (BM), The Manhattan School of Music (MM), and the University of Maryland (Doctoral Studies), and is a Designated Linklater Teacher trainee. Ethan is a winner of the Lotte Lenya International Competition and currently serves on the faculty at American University. He is a proud member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, VASTA, Musical Theatre Educators' Alliance and the artist roster of Sing For Hope.
MAX WOLKOWITZ
The Ingenue:Avram / Ensemble
MAX WOLKOWITZ (The Ingenue:Avram / Ensemble) is thrilled to be making his Arena Stage debut. He has appeared regionally in The Chosen (Long Wharf), Assisted Loving (Capital Rep), My Name is Asher Lev (Penguin Rep), Ivanov (Trinity Rep), and the first TheatreWorks tour of The Velveteen Rabbit. He received a BA from Bennington College and an MFA in Acting from Brown/Trinity where some highlights were playing Dr. Givings in In the Next Room (WISE Foundation Emerging Artist of the Year Award), Crow in Tooth of Crime and Sir Andrew in Twelfth Night. Max is a proud member of The Actor’s Center.
Creative
PAULA VOGEL
Playwright
ERIC ROSEN
Director
ERIKA CHONG SHUCH
Choreographer
ALEXANDER SOVRONSKY
Music Direction and Original Music
JACK MAGAW
Set Designer
LINDA ROETHKE
Costume Designer
JOSH EPSTEIN
Lighting Designer
ANDRE PLUESS
Sound Designer
JEFFREY CADY
Projection Designer
ANNE NESMITH
Wig Designer
ZACH CAMPION
Voice and Dialect Coach
PAULA VOGEL
Playwright
PAULA VOGEL (Playwright)’s play, How I Learned to Drive, received the Pulitzer Prize, Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critics Awards for Best Play, as well as her second Obie Award. Other plays include The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz, Hot 'N' Throbbing, Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven, The Oldest Profession, A Civil War Christmas and Don Juan Comes Home from Iraq. Her play Indecent opened at The Cort Theatre in New York in April 2017. It is available on Broadway HD. TCG has published four books of her work. She teaches playwriting workshops throughout the United States and abroad.
ERIC ROSEN
Director
ERIC ROSEN (Director) recently concluded his decade long tenure as artistic director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre and previously was co-founder and artistic director of Chicago’s About Face Theatre for thirteen seasons. World premieres under his direction include Venice (named “Best Musical of 2010” by TIME),Clay,Roof of the World, A Christmas Story: The Musical, M. Proust and Theater District. Other directing credits include Goodman, Hartford Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Chicago Shakespeare, Melbourne Theatre Company, the O’Neill and Sundance. Highlights of his tenure at KCRep include reimagined productions of classic musicals including Evita, Sunday in the Park with George, Hair: Retrospection and a punk rock Pippin, along with classics from Romeo to Death of a Salesman. Rosen helped develop and produced the original production of the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play I Am My Own Wife. As a playwright, his work includes Lot’s Wife, Dream Boy, Winesburg, Ohio and Venice. Rosen served on the Board of Theatre Communications Group, was inducted into Chicago’s Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame and was a finalist for the Zelda Fichandler Award. He holds a doctorate in performance studies from Northwestern University and a B.A. in performance studies from UNC.
ERIKA CHONG SHUCH
Choreographer
ERIKA CHONG SHUCH (Choreographer) is a performance maker, choreographer and director whose topic-driven ruminations coalesce into imagistic assemblages of music, movement, text, and design. Interested in expanding ideas around how performance is created and shared, her recent work For You (a Creative Capital Project, commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts) is a series of intimate performances for audiences of 12. Recent projects also include Iron Shoes, a new neo-feminist folk opera created with Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble (supported by Creative Work Fund, NEA) and TheaterTheater, a participatory morality play exploring the hidden forces underlying everyday ethical choices. Her original work has also been commissioned and supported by Gerbode Foundation, Daejeon Metropolitan Dance Theater (Korea) and Berkeley Repertory Theater’s Groundfloor Program. Erika choreographs for theater companies such as Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Folger Theater, Hudson Valley Shakespeare, Kennedy Center, American Conservatory Theater, Pittsburgh Public, Playmakers Rep, California Shakespeare Festival, and Magic Theatre. Thank you to Bruce Bierman for sharing his Jewish Dance expertise.
ALEXANDER SOVRONSKY
Music Direction and Original Music
ALEXANDER SOVRONSKY (Music Direction and Original Music) Arena Stage debut. As a composer/performer, NYC credits include Broadway: Cyrano de Bergerac (starring Kevin Kline). Off-Broadway: Mother of the Maid, Romeo & Juliet (The Public); Othello (TFANA); Bottom of the World (Atlantic Theater Co); Volpone, Women Beware Women (Red Bull); King Lear, Marat/Sade, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Three Sisters (Classical Theater of Harlem); The Little Prince (Hang A Tale). Regional: Hartford Stage, Walnut Street Theater, Shakespeare & Co, Shakespeare Theater Company, Ford's Theatre, Barrington Stage Co, Berkshire Theater Group, Arizona Theatre Co, American Shakespeare Center, Connecticut Rep, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Wharton Salon, WAM Theater, Actors Shakespeare Project. International: title role in Hamlet (Milan & NYC). Instagram: @AlexanderSovronsky For a good time, check out www.AlexanderSovronsky.com.
JACK MAGAW
Set Designer
JACK MAGAW (Set Designer) makes his Arena Stage debut with this production of Indecent. Recent Chicago and regional design credits include the world premiere of Support Group For Men (Goodman Theatre), the world premieres of The Agitators and Other Than Honorable (Geva Theatre), the world premiere of Sheltered (Alliance Theatre), A Flea In Her Ear (American Players Theatre), The Flick (Steppenwolf Theatre), Buried Child and East Texas Hot Links (Writers’ Theatre), The Bridges of Madison County and Miss Holmes (Peninsula Players Theatre), Radio Golf and Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Court Theatre), Man of La Mancha and The Mousetrap (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre), Of Mice and Men and Sweeney Todd (Kansas City Rep). Eleven Joseph Jefferson Award nominations include designs for East Texas Hot Links (Writers’ Theatre) and Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Court Theatre). Upcoming projects include the world premiere of Approval Junkie (Alliance Theatre) and The Scarlet Ibis (Chicago Opera Theatre). Jack lives in Chicago and teaches design at The Theatre School at DePaul University. www.jackmagaw.com
LINDA ROETHKE
Costume Designer
LINDA ROETHKE (Costume Design) Off-Broadway: Richard III (The Public Theater). Regional: Oklahoma, Richard II, Into the Woods, King Lear, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, All’s Well That Ends Well (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Hand to God, The Geller Girls, Managing Maxine, The Underpants, Shadowlands (Alliance Theatre); The Game's Afoot (Cleveland Playhouse); The Good Book, Water by the Spoonful, The Dead, Orlando (Court Theatre); Stage Kiss, The Clean House (Goodman Theatre); Visiting Edna, Mary Page Marlowe, Motherf**ker with the Hat, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Intimate Apparel (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George (Kansas City Rep); Miss Saigon (The Paramount Theatre). Cincinnati Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Arden Theatre Company, Center Stage, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, American Players Theatre and Northlight Theatre. Other credits: co-director of the MFA Design Program at Northwestern University, where she teaches costume design. Awards: Jeff Award (An Ideal Husband, Court Theatre); Suzi Bass nominations (The Geller Girls and The Underpants, Alliance Theatre); Connecticut Circle nomination (A Little Night Music, Connecticut Repertory Theatre. Education: MFA, University of Iowa
JOSH EPSTEIN
Lighting Designer
JOSH EPSTEIN (Lighting Designer) Josh has designed lighting at many of the top theaters in the country, including the Guthrie, Mark Taper Forum, Goodman, Geffen Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Trinity Repertory, Long Wharf, Alliance, South Coast Repertory, Geva Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, PlayMakers Repertory, Cincinnati Playhouse and Paper Mill Playhouse. He is also an adjunct professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Josh is an LA Ovation Award Winner, a Knight of Illumination Nominee and a recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers. In addition he serves on the O'Neill Playwrights Conference Artistic Council. Josh received his MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three daughters. www.joshepsteindesign.com
ANDRE PLUESS
Sound Designer
ANDRE PLUESS (Sound Design) Arena Stage credits include Smart People, Equivocation, The Passion Play Trilogy, Legacy of Light, 33 Variations, Smart People, Metamorphoses and Arabia Nights. Broadway: Metamorphoses, I Am My Own Wife and 33 Variations, as well as the world premiere of The Clean House at Yale Repertory and Lincoln Center. Based in Chicago, his work has appeared on most of the cities stages including the Goodman, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare and Lookingglass Theatre, where he is an associate artist. Regional credits include multiple productions with Oregon and California Shakespeare Festivals, The Guthrie Theatre, McCarter Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Seattle Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse and Center Theater Group.
JEFFREY CADY
Projection Designer
JEFFREY CADY (Projection Designer) Is a freelance lighting and projection designer living in Kansas City, Missouri. Credits include: KC Rep:Side by Side, A Christmas Carol (2010-2016), The Invisible Hand, The Roof of The World, When I Come to Die, The Glass Menagerie, Circle Mirror Transformation (Lighting and Projections); Stillwater, Hair, Harriet Jacobs, Palomino, Back Home Again: A John Denver Holiday Concert, Under Midwestern Stars, Love, Janis, Give ’Em Hell, Harry Other credits:The Great Divorce (Pearl Theatre NYC), Rebecca (LG Theatre Seoul, South Korea); Mary Wilson Holliday Spectacular (Harris Theatre, Chicago); Seeing America (Ensemble Galilei, Washington, D.C.); It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues (Portland Center Stage); The Gay Bride of Frankenstein, Rooms (Seacoast Repertory Theatre, New Hampshire); The Wiz, Always, Patsy Cline (Main State Musical Theatre); Lombardi (Cleveland Playhouse); Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club, [title of show], Woody Guthrie’s American Song (Arizona Theatre Company). Love, Janis (Lighting and Projections, Columbia Artists Theatricals’ tours). Mr. Cady served as the Head Projections Programmer for Green Day’s American Idiot (Broadway production), Jennifer Lopez’s AKA tour, Jason Aldean’s Burn it Down Tour, Imagine Dragons, Pitbull and Wintuk (Cirque du Soleil).
ANNE NESMITH
Wig Designer
ANNE NESMITH (Wig Designer) is pleased to return to Arena Stage following last season’s The Pajama Game, Nina Simone: Four Women and The Price. Her designs have been seen locally at Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre, Signature Theatre, Wolftrap Opera, Shakespeare Theatre, Folger Theatre and Washington Ballet. Regional work includes designs with Opera Philadelphia, Opera Boston, Annapolis Opera and Castleton Music Festival and internationally at Saito Kinen Festival and Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Japan. Anne was the resident wig/makeup designer for the Baltimore Opera and has constructed wigs for Scooby Doo! Live and 42nd Street (Asian tour). You can see her work in Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery programs, Ice Cold Killers for Investigation Discovery, the Military Channel’s Great Planes, MD Public Television and the U.S. Army’s tour Spirit of America.
ZACH CAMPION
Voice and Dialect Coach
ZACH CAMPION (Voice and Dialect Coach) is a freelance voice, speech and dialect coach and once worked in the Arena Stage sales office. D.C. credits include voice/dialect coach for Sovereignty, The Price and Smart People (Arena Stage); Hand to God (Helen Hayes Award-winning), Vietgone, and The Remains (Studio Theatre); the world premiere of The Gulf, and Heisenberg (Signature Theatre); Labour of Love, The Invisible Hand, and My Fair Lady (Olney Theatre Center); The Legend of Georgia McBride, and Angels in America Part 1 and 2 (Round House); and When the Rain Stops Falling (Helen Hayes Award-winning, 1st Stage). Upcoming projects include Kleptocracy at Arena and Kings at Studio Theatre. Zach is a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework© and is a member of the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory faculty. Education: MFA -Virginia Commonwealth University, BFA Texas State University. www.voicecoachdc.com
Multimedia
In The News
Washington Post
How Indecent, about art happening against all odds, speaks to our time
Washington Post
Arena Stage looks into history for inspiration in 2018/19 season
American Theatre Magazine
Arena’s 2018-19 Season to Feature New Tom Kitt/Nell Benjamin Musical
Playbill
The 69th lineup at the Washington, D.C. venue will also include the a cappella musical Jubilee and Junk.
Accessible Performances
Audio Described
Saturday, December 15, 2018 at 2 p.m.
Open Captioned
Saturday, December 1, 2018 at 2 p.m.
Thursday, December 20, 2018 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, December 22, 2018 at 2 p.m.
Wednesday, December 26, 2018 at 7:30 p.m.
Events
Post-Show Discussions
Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at 12 p.m.
Featuring panelist Dr. Miriam Isaacs, Educator and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Fellow.
Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018 at 12 p.m.
Tuesday, December 18, 2018 at 12 p.m.
Thursday, December 27, 2018 at 8 p.m.