ROBERT FALLS, Artistic Director | ROCHE SCHULFER, Executive Director
presents
STOP. RESET.
Written and Directed by
REGINA TAYLOR
Set Design by
RICCARDO HERNANDEZ
Costume Design by
KAREN PERRY
Lighting Design by
KEITH PARHAM
Sound Design by
RICHARD WOODBURY
Projection Design by
SHAWN SAGADY
Original Music by
DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN
Casting by
ADAM BELCUORE, CSA
Dramaturg
TANYA PALMER
Production Stage Manager
DONALD E. CLAXON*
cast
IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Alexander Ames
J
Tim
Chris
Deb
Jan
Eugene Lee*
Edgar Miguel Sanchez*
Tim Decker*
Eric Lynch*
Lisa Tejero*
Jacqueline Williams*
Location: Office of Alexander Ames Chicago Black Publisher
Time: Late 2016
Understudies never substitute for a listed player unless an
announcement is made at the beginning of the play.
Anthony DiNicola—J; Charles Gardner—Chris; Tanya Thai
McBride*—Deb; Chris Meister—Tim; Celeste Williams*—
Jan; Cedric Young*—Alexander Ames
The video and/or recording of this performance by any
means whatsoever are strictly prohibited.
Goodman productions are made possible in part by the
National Endowment for the Arts; the Illinois Arts Council,
a state agency; and a CityArts 4 program grant from the
City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special
Events.
Goodman Theatre is a constituent of the Theatre
Communications Group, Inc., the national service
organization of nonprofit theaters; the League of Resident
Theatres; the Illinois Arts Alliance and the American Arts
Alliance; the League of Chicago Theatres; and the Illinois
Theatre Association.
Goodman Theatre operates under agreements between the
League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity
Association, the union of professional actors and stage
managers in the United States; the Society of Stage
Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent
national labor union; the Chicago Federation of Musicians,
Local No. 10-208, American Federation of Musicians; and
the United Scenic Artists of America, Local 829, AFL-CIO.
House crew and scene shop employees are represented by
the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees,
Local No. 2.
*Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union
of professional actors and stage managers in the United
States.
notes
A Conversation with stop. reset. Playwright/Director
Regina Taylor
By Tanya Palmer
This year marks playwright/director/actress Regina Taylor’s
20th season as an Artistic Associate at the Goodman.
During her tenure, Taylor has presented an eclectic mix of
work including the blues drama Oo-Bla-Dee, the Chekhovinspired Drowning Crow and two productions of her
inspiring musical Crowns. In a recent conversation with
Tanya Palmer, the Goodman’s director of new play
development, Taylor discussed her inspirations for her new
play stop. reset. and reflected on her time at the
Goodman.
Tanya Palmer: What inspired you to write stop.
reset.?
Regina Taylor: The idea came when my favorite
bookstore closed. The store was right across the street
from my home and stopping in was part of my daily ritual.
I’d go there to get a cup of coffee, browse the aisles and
see what I might discover. I love books. I grew up with
books. Now I was starting to think about what the future
will hold for books, what it will look like and if I can accept
it. So the play is about how I deal with change, but then
also opens up to look at how we are all dealing with the
enormous changes happening right now with regards to
technology, race, gender, sexuality and economics. I
thought about the history of books and of storytelling,
going all the way back to the oral tradition. At one point in
history people were accustomed to the hierarchy of oral
tradition where someone functioned as the holder of
history and memory. The hierarchy of who told the story
and whose lives were worthy of being discussed was
broken down when books were invented. That was an
enormous change and there was resistance to moving from
a gathering of people around a fire to an individual alone
with a book. “What’s going to happen to the human mind
and our civilization if we hand over this knowledge to
individuals?” It feels like we’re now at that same moment
in terms of books. We’ve shifted from oral tradition to
books and now books to…what? We have a generation of
people growing up on devices. There are all these things
that we thought would never change, but now all these
changes are happening on all these different levels. That’s
where the play started. For the character Alexander Ames,
who runs a publishing company, books are vessels of
history and memory. They are the container of the voices
of ancestors and legacy, of what we pass down palm to
palm.
TP: You did a lot of research about new technologies
through the course of developing this play. What did
you discover? Has your point of view changed about
technology?
RT: My perspective has opened up through conversations
I’ve had with different people with different eyes on these
issues. I’m open to the challenges and ready to take that
leap.
TP: The play is also, I think, about the future of
African American identity. Alexander Ames’ identity
as an African American, that history and legacy that
he carries with him, seems to be in question too,
along with the books that he publishes.
RT: The play is about identity, legacy and how we pass
those things down in this time of societal upheaval with
technology and all these changes. It’s told through the lens
of an African American. We have a play that is set in
Chicago in a not-too-distant future and we take on the
speculative fiction of what lies ahead. It is then a science
fiction play, an Afrofuturist play.
TP: How would you describe the Afrofuturist genre?
RT: The most noted contemporary author writing in this
genre was Octavia E. Butler [1947 – 2006, a novelist and
short story writer whose works include Bloodchild and
Parable of the Sower.] But it goes back to books such as
George Schuyler’s 1931 novel Black No More or Ishmael
Reed’s 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo. Afrofuturism is a way of
grappling with who we are as African Americans in the
present moment by looking at our past and speculating on
how we get to tomorrow. I’m a big sci-fi fan. Afrofuturism
is very interesting to me and not just in literature. There
are musicians like Sun Ra, who spent a lot of time in
Chicago, whose work influences a lot other important
musicians, from George Clinton to Frank Ocean to Janelle
Monae to Kanye West. The children of this Afrofuturistic
music are all fascinating to me, and they’re all speculating
what we’ll become as African Americans. In the sci-fi
movies I watched growing up, if there was a black
character—and a lot of times there weren’t because black
people just weren’t thought of as being part of the future—
they usually died within the first few moments. With
Afrofuturism, the focus is on grappling with where we as
African Americans have been, where we are now and
dreaming about who we will become.
TP: There is another important character in the play
who seems to be the polar opposite of Ames: a
young man named J who is totally in tune with
technology and for whom books hold no meaning.
RT: J gives us a window into the next generation and
generations to come. In terms of African American history,
we think about that line of how to get to freedom. We think
about that in terms of our most immediate past, which still
affects us at this present time and will through tomorrow.
Freedom. But freedom into what? Will race matter 500
years from now? At what point does the conversation
change? I wanted to get different perspectives on change
and what that means in terms of identity. Certainly these
two characters, Alexander Ames, who’s about 75 years old,
and J, who is much younger, can speak to the greatest
spectrum of perspectives in this play and provide different
viewpoints. There are also a number of other perspectives
represented by the office workers at Alexander’s publishing
house who are all afraid of losing their jobs. But certainly
the greatest distance, I think, comes from Ames and J, two
people whose lives have been affected by history in very
different ways.
TP: This is the second production of stop. reset.; you
directed the play at the Signature Theatre in New
York last season. What did you learn from that
process and will anything change with this new
incarnation?
RT: I’m in the process of reimagining the play. This is a
play about Chicago, and I look at it as a way of celebrating
my 20 years here with the Goodman. It’s an ideal way to
explore my relationship with the theater and the city where
I am based. I’m also very interested in how we present the
play. I’m excited about expanding the life of the play
beyond the stage. To that end I’m collaborating with a
number of artists and institutions to engage in
conversations about the play’s ideas and themes and to
invite others to create work that responds to the play
through various disciplines. I’ve invited composers,
photographers, visual artists, filmmakers and writers to
create unique, original pieces that will be presented during
the run of the play. I’m also working with the Goodman to
plan a series of dinners and symposia to engage scholars,
business leaders and politicians in conversations about
change in Chicago. We’re presenting a series of one-on-one
interviews with real people in Chicago—politicians, doctors,
artists—as they talk about about how they are dealing with
changes in their fields. All of these art works and
discussions are being documented and will be uploaded
onto StopReset.org, a microsite created by the Goodman
for the play. Audiences can really start engaging with the
piece before they come to the theater, and can continue to
do so after they see the play. The dialogue continues.
That’s really important to me. I’ve had this unique
opportunity in the last 20 years working at the Goodman to
find my own voice and part of that is having dialogue with
the theater and the communities in Chicago that have
helped shape my work. Finding new ways to break down
the walls of the theater and have these conversations with
audiences is really fascinating.
profiles
TIM DECKER* (Tim) returns to the Goodman, where he
appeared in Charles Smith’s Black Star Line. Chicago
credits include a four-year run with 1,600 performances as
Sam Phillips in Million Dollar Quartet (Apollo Theatre);
People’s Temple and Dark at the Top of the Stairs
(American Theater Company); Mornings at Seven (Drury
Lane Theatre); Ghetto (Famous Door Theatre Company);
The Comedy of Errors (Chicago Shakespeare Theater);
Toys in the Attic (American Blues Theatre, Jeff Award) and
Complete History of America (Noble Fool Theatre). Mr.
Decker’s television work includes two seasons on Boss,
Chicago Fire, Detroit 187, Doubt, Turks and Cupid.
Additionally he has done many voice-overs for both
national and regional spots.
EUGENE LEE* (Alexander Ames) returns to the Goodman,
where he previously appeared in A Soldier’s Play. He has
appeared in many works by August Wilson including the
Broadway production of Gem of the Ocean and Wilson’s
autobiographical play How I Learned What I Learned. He
has worked with the Negro Ensemble Company, True
Colors Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Pittsburgh
Playwrights Theatre Company, Center Theatre Group and
Crossroads Theatre Company. Television credits include
The Women of Brewster Place with Oprah Winfrey, Dallas,
Good Times, The White Shadow, The District and the title
character in Wolf, an award-winning independent film. Mr.
Lee is also a playwright whose work includes East Texas
Hot Links, Fear Itself, Stones in My Passway, Somebody
Called: A Tale of Two Preachers, Killingsworth, Lyin’ Ass
and the musical Twist. His television writing credits include
Homicide: Life on the Streets, Walker, Texas Ranger,
Michael Hayes, The Journey of Allen Strange and The
Turks. He is an artist-in-residence and artistic director of
the Black and Latino Playwright’s Conference at Texas
State University. Eugeneleeonline.com
ERIC LYNCH* (Chris) returns to the Goodman, where he
previously appeared in Buzzer (Black Theater Alliance
Award nomination). Chicago credits include Native Son
(Court Theatre/American Blues Theater); Broken Fences
(16th Street Theater); Blacktop Sky (Theatre Seven);
Holidaze (Step Up Productions) and A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (Sankofa Theatre Company). Mr. Lynch is also an
artistic affiliate with American Blues Theater. His regional
credits include Twelfth Night and Richard III (Lakeside
Shakespeare Theater) and Buzzer (Cincinnati Playhouse in
the Park). Mr. Lynch has appeared on television on
Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D.
EDGAR MIGUEL SANCHEZ* (J) makes his Goodman
Theatre debut. Chicago credits include Water By The
Spoonful and Native Son (Court Theatre); The
Wheel (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Romeo and
Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); This Is Our
Youth (Sankofa Theatre Company); The Ghost Is
Here (Vitalist Theatre); Fever Chart (Eclipse Theatre
Company); Brothers of the Dust (Congo Square Theatre
Company); Sinbad: The Untold Story (Adventure
Stage); 1001 (Collaboraction); Red Noses (Strawdog
Theatre Company); Welcome to Arroyo’s (American
Theater Company); Wilson Wants It All (House Theatre)
and Twelfth Night (Chicago Shakespeare Theater).
Regional credits include the title character
in Hamlet (GableStage); Twelfth Night, Richard III, Troilus
and Cressida and The Admirable Crichton (American
Players Theatre) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Othello and The Comedy of Errors (Oregon Shakespeare
Festival). Mr. Sanchez’s television credits include Sense 8.
LISA TEJERO* (Deb) returns to the Goodman, where she
previously appeared in The White Snake, A Christmas
Carol, Ghostwritten, Mirror of the Invisible World, Silk,
The Odyssey, As You Like It, Journey to the West and The
Winter’s Tale. She is an artistic associate of Lookingglass
Theatre Company, where she has helped develop and
appeared in Argonautika, Ethan Frome, Fedra, Curiosity
Shop, 1984 and S/M. Other Chicago credits include
Kafka on the Shore (Steppenwolf Theatre Company) and
Macbeth (Oak Park Festival Theatre). Ms. Tejero appeared
on Broadway in Metamorphoses (also at Arena Stage).
Regionally, she has appeared in Henry V (Oregon
Shakespeare Festival) and The White Snake (Oregon
Shakespeare Festival, Berkley Repertory Theatre and
McCarter Theatre). She has also worked at Cincinnati
Playhouse, Court Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company,
Mark Taper Forum, Milwaukee Repertory Theater,
Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Seattle Repertory Theatre,
Shakespeare Theatre Company and Victory Gardens
Theater. Ms. Tejero is a recipient of two After Dark Awards
and was a Drama League Distinguished Performance
nominee.
JACQUELINE WILLIAMS* (Jan) returns to the Goodman,
where she most recently appeared in Pullman Porter Blues.
Other Goodman credits include Camino Real, The Trinity
River Plays, The Story, The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove,
Crowns, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Oo-Bla-Dee, The Amen
Corner, Gertrude Stein: Each One as She May, Richard II
and The Skin of Our Teeth. Chicago credits include Airline
Highway, Head of Passes, The Hot L Baltimore and The
Brother/Sister Plays (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); The
Good Book, Fences, The First Breeze of Summer, Electra
and Caroline, or Change (Court Theatre); Gee’s Bend, Po
Boy Tango and The Miser (Northlight Theatre); Yellowman
and Fabulation (Next Theatre Company) and The Gospel
of Lovingkindness and The Colored Museum (Victory
Gardens Theater). Regionally, Ms. Williams has appeared
at LaJolla Playhouse, Huntington Theatre Company, A
Contemporary Theatre (Seattle), Berkeley Repertory
Theatre, Portland Stage Company, Arena Stage and
others. She appeared on Broadway in The Young Man from
Atlanta and off-Broadway in From the Mississippi Delta,
Mill Fire and The Talented Tenth. She has appeared in
national tours of Crowns and Born in the R.S.A. Ms.
Williams’ film and television credits include the recurring
Officer Becerra on Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D., Turks
(series regular), The Chicago Code, Prison Break, ER, The
Break-Up, The Lake House, Hardball, Whiteboyz and the
recently completed Heartlock. Ms. Williams is a former
Lunt-Fontanne fellow (representing the Goodman) and has
been recognized with awards and nominations from the
Jeff Committee, 3Arts, Helen Hayes, Black Theater
Alliance, American Arts Council, Drama Desk, Sarah
Siddons, Excellence in the Arts, After Dark Awards and
others. She holds a BFA from the Goodman School of
Drama/Theatre School.
REGINA TAYLOR (Playwright/Director) celebrates her
20th year as an Artistic Associate with Goodman Theatre
this season. With an impressive body of work that
encompasses film, television, theater and writing, Ms.
Taylor’s career continues to evolve with exciting and
challenging projects. She is best known to television
audiences for her role as Lilly Harper in the series I’ll Fly
Away. She received many accolades for her performance in
the show including winning a Golden Globe for Best
Performance by an Actress in a TV Series, an NAACP
Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama
Series and two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding
Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Ms. Taylor was most
recently seen starring in the USA series Dig and CBS’ hit
drama The Unit. She took home the NAACP Image Award
for Outstanding Actress in a Drama for her work on The
Unit. Ms. Taylor made her professional acting debut on
CBS in the movie Crisis at Central High. Other television
credits include the series The Education of Max Bickford
and Feds, as well as the television movies Strange Justice
(playing Anita Hill, earning her a Peabody Award and
Gracie Award); Cora Unashamed; Children of the Dust;
Howard Beach: Making a Case for Murder. Her film credits
include The Negotiator, Courage Under Fire, A Family
Thing, The Keeper, Clockers, Losing Isaiah and Lean on
Me. In addition to her film and television work, Ms. Taylor
holds the honor as being the first black woman to play
Juliet on Broadway in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet. Other theater credits include As You Like It,
Macbeth, Machinal, The Illusion and Jar the Floor. In
addition, she won the L.A. Drama-Logue Award for her
performance in The Tempest. She is also an accomplished
playwright and director. Her plays include Oo-Bla-Dee (for
which she won the American Critics’ Association new play
award); Drowning Crow (her adaptation of Chekhov’s The
Seagull, which was produced on Broadway by Manhattan
Theater Club in its inaugural season at the Biltmore
Theater and starred Alfre Woodard); The Dreams of Sarah
Breedlove; Escape from Paradise; Watermelon Rinds and
Inside the Belly of the Beast. Ms. Taylor’s Crowns
continues to be one of the most performed musicals in the
country. It is the winner of four Helen Hayes Awards
including Ms. Taylor’s win for Best Direction. Ms. Taylor’s
play Magnolia premiered at the Goodman in March 2009.
Her trilogy The Trinity River Plays premiered as a coproduction with the Dallas Theater Center and the
Goodman, and was the recipient of the 2010 Edgerton
Foundation New American Play Award. She also wrote and
directed Post Black (a monologue played by Micki Grant,
Carmen de Lavallade and Ruby Dee) for The River Crosses
Rivers II Festival at New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre.
She is also a resident playwright at New York’s Signature
Theatre Company. She received the Hope Abelson Artist-inResidence Award from Northwestern in 2010. She has
received honorary doctorates from Columbia College,
DePaul University and Lake Forest College. Ms. Taylor wrote
and directed stop. reset. at Signature Theatre Company in
2013. She was named one of six 2012 Chicagoans of the
Year by Chicago magazine and was awarded the 2013 Oscar
Micheaux Award from the Chicago Film Critics Association.
Ms. Taylor is also the national spokesperson for the Ovarian
Cancer Symptom Awareness Organization (OCSA).
Reginataylor.com, Crownsthegospelmusical.com,
stopreset.org, Twitter: TheReginaTaylor, Facebook: Crowns
The Gospel Musical
RICCARDO HERNANDEZ (Set Designer) returns to
Goodman Theatre, where his credits include Pullman Porter
Blues, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, The Good Negro,
Crowns, Electricidad, All’s Well That Ends Well and Waiting
for Godot. Broadway credits include The Gershwins’ Porgy
and Bess, The People in the Picture, Caroline, or Change
(also at London’s Royal National Theatre),
Topdog/Underdog (also at London’s Royal Court Theatre),
Elaine Stritch At Liberty (also in London’s West End and
the US tour), Parade (Tony and Drama Desk Award
nominations), Bells Are Ringing, Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring
in ’Da Funk (also US and Japan tours) and The Tempest.
Other New York credits include Grounded, The America
Play, One Flea Spare, Stuff Happens, Mother Courage and
Her Children and The Library (The Public Theater), as well
as work with Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center
Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, Second Stage, New
York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, MCC
Theater and Playwrights Horizons. Regionally, his work has
appeared at American Repertory Theater, Guthrie Theater,
the Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, Steppenwolf
Theatre Company and McCarter Theatre, among others.
Recent designs include The Dead (Dublin’s Abbey
Theatre); Il Postino (Los Angeles Opera, Paris’ Théâtre du
Châtelet and Theater an der Wien); Die Entführung aus
dem Serail (Opéra de Nice); Lost Highway (English
National Opera); La Mouette and Jan Karski (mon nom est
une fiction) (Avignon Festival); Abigail’s Party (National
Theatre) and Appomattox (San Francisco Opera). Other
opera credits include work with New York City Opera, Lyric
Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera
and Gotham Chamber Opera. Mr. Hernandez is a recipient
of the Princess Grace Statue Award. He is a SUNY Purchase
faculty member, lecturer at Princeton University and a
graduate of Yale School of Drama.
KAREN PERRY (Costume Designer) returns to the
Goodman, where her previous credits include The Trinity
River Plays and Crowns. Design credits include The
Brother/Sister Plays at The Public Theater and McCarter
Theatre; My Children My Africa at Signature Theatre; John
Grisham’s A Time to Kill at Arena Stage and Walter
Mosley’s The Fall of Heaven. Additional theater credits
include productions of Crumbs from the Table of Joy; A
Raisin in the Sun; Breath, Boom; Having Our Say; Spunk;
Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk, and Regina Taylor’s
Sty Farm, Ghost Train and Night in Tunisia. Additionally,
Ms. Perry has designed costumes for seven of the 10 plays
in August Wilson’s “American Century Cycle,” including
Gem of the Ocean, The Piano Lesson, King Hedley II, Radio
Golf, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars and Jitney. Select
film and television credits include designs for Bojangles
(starring Gregory Hines, for whom she was a personal
stylist for 13 years), The Rosa Parks Story, Do the Right
Thing and Saturday Night Live. Ms. Perry has received two
Audelco Awards, the 2007 San Diego Theatre Critics Circle
Award, the 2006 Woodie Award, the 2005 National Black
Theatre Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, an NCAAP
Award and nominations for Henry Hewes Design Awards,
Lucille Lortel Awards and Cable ACE Awards.
KEITH PARHAM (Lighting Designer) returns to Goodman
Theatre, where past credits include A Christmas Carol; Ask
Aunt Susan; Venus in Fur; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark;
Teddy Ferrara; Sweet Bird of Youth; Red; Mary and The
Seagull. Chicago credits include The Dumb Waiter, Fulton
Street Sessions and Baal (TUTA, where he is a company
member) and The Birthday Party, Time Stands Still, The
Sunset Limited and Red Light Winter (Steppenwolf Theatre
Company), among others. New York credits include Hit the
Wall, Tribes, Mistakes Were Made and Red Light Winter
(Barrow Street Theatre); Through the Yellow Hour
(Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); Karen O’s Stop the
Virgens (St. Ann’s Warehouse); Ivanov and Three Sisters
(Classic Stage Company); A Minister’s Wife (Lincoln Center
Theater); Adding Machine (Minetta Lane Theatre) and
Crime and Punishment and The Sunset Limited (59E59
Theaters). Internationally, his credits include Stop the
Virgens (Sydney Opera House) and Homebody/Kabul
(National Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia). Mr. Parham has
designed lighting for productions at Arena Stage, the Alley
Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, Trinity Repertory
Company, Shakespeare on the Sound and Chicago Opera
Theater. He has received Obie, Lucille Lortel and After Dark
Awards, as well as the Michael Maggio Emerging Designer
Award.
RICHARD WOODBURY (Sound Designer) is the resident
sound designer at the Goodman, where his credits include
music and/or sound design for The Little Foxes; Rapture,
Blister, Burn; Ask Aunt Susan; Luna Gale; Measure for
Measure; Teddy Ferrara; Other Desert Cities; Crowns;
Camino Real; A Christmas Carol; Red; God of Carnage;
The Seagull; Candide; A True History of the Johnstown
Flood; Hughie/Krapp’s Last Tape; Animal Crackers;
Magnolia; Desire Under the Elms; The Ballad of Emmett
Till; Talking Pictures; The Actor; Blind Date; Rabbit Hole;
King Lear; Frank’s Home; The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove;
A Life in the Theatre; Dollhouse; Finishing the Picture;
Moonlight and Magnolias; The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?;
Lobby Hero and many others. Steppenwolf Theatre
Company credits include Slowgirl; Belleville; Middletown;
Up; The Seafarer; August: Osage County; I Just Stopped
By to See the Man; Hysteria; The Beauty Queen of
Leenane; The Memory of Water; The Libertine and others.
Broadway credits include original music and/or sound
design for Desire Under the Elms; August: Osage County;
Talk Radio; Long Day’s Journey into Night; A Moon for the
Misbegotten; Death of a Salesman and The Young Man
from Atlanta. Mr. Woodbury’s work has also been heard at
Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada; London’s Lyric
and National theaters; in Paris and at regional theaters
across the United States. Mr. Woodbury has received Jeff,
Helen Hayes and IRNE Awards and the Ruth Page Award
for Outstanding Collaborative Artist, as well as nominations
for Drama Desk and Ovation Awards. Mr. Woodbury has
composed numerous commissioned scores for dance and
has performed live with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane and
Merce Cunningham Dance companies. He is an associate
professor and distinguished faculty fellow at Columbia
College Chicago, where he serves as music director in the
dance department.
SHAWN SAGADY (Projection Designer) returns to the
Goodman, where he previously designed projections
for The White Snake and Brigadoon. His Broadway credits
include All The Way (also at American Repertory
Theatre), Leap of Faith and Memphis. Mr. Sagady’s offBroadway work includes stop. reset., Mound Builders
and Emotional Creature (Signature Theatre Company); By
The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Second Stage) and Father
Comes Home From the War (The Public Theater). He has
worked on the national tours of Memphis and Julius
Caesar. Regionally, his work has appeared in Fingersmith,
The Great Society, A Wrinkle in Time, The White
Snake, Measure for Measure and American Night (Oregon
Shakespeare Festival); Back Back Back (The Old
Globe); Carmen (La Jolla Playhouse) and Cowboy Vs.
Samurai (Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company).
DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN (Composer) is an
acclaimed composer and performer whose work
spans more than two decades. He has been commissioned
by venerable artists and institutions worldwide. His many
collaborations include work with Philip Glass, Bill T. Jones,
Savion Glover and Lady Gaga. He has been nominated for
an Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Composition for
his work with ESPN; featured as keynote performer at
technology conferences; and written large scale, sitespecific music for public parks. He is currently working on
We Shall Not Be Moved, a chamber opera commissioned
by Opera Philadelphia, and Meditations for Raising Boys,
an oratorio commissioned by Chautauqua Symphony
Orchestra.
TANYA PALMER (Dramaturg) is the director of new play
development at Goodman Theatre, where she coordinates
New Stages, the theater’s new play program, and has
served as the production
dramaturg on a number of plays including the world
premieres of Ask Aunt Susan by Seth Bockley, Smokefall by
Noah Haidle, Magnolia by Regina Taylor, The Long Red
Road by Brett C. Leonard and the Pulitzer Prize–winning
Ruined by Lynn Nottage. Prior to her arrival in Chicago,
she served as the director of new play development at
Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she led the reading and
selection process for the Humana Festival of New American
Plays. She is the co-editor, with Amy Wegener and AdrienAlice Hansel, of four collections of Humana Festival plays,
published by Smith & Kraus, as well as two collections of
10-minute plays published by Samuel French. Originally
from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she holds an MFA in
playwriting from York University in Toronto.
DONALD E. CLAXON* (Production Stage Manager) makes
his Goodman Theatre debut. Chicago credits include Dee
Snider’s Rock n’ Roll Christmas Tale and The Addams
Family, as well as work with the Lyric Opera of Chicago,
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Silk Road Rising, Chicago
Opera Theater, Grant Park Music Festival, Court Theatre,
Paramount Theater, The Second City and About Face
Theatre. He also served as a production assistant for
Shrek: The Musical. Regionally, he has worked with Mobile
Opera, Peninsula Players, Yale Opera, Florentine Opera,
Glimmerglass Festival, Barrington Stage Company and
Yale Repertory Theatre. He is a graduate of Wabash
College and the Yale School of Drama.
ROBERT FALLS (Goodman Theatre Artistic Director) has
been the artistic director of Goodman Theatre since 1986.
From 1977 to 1985, he was the artistic director of Wisdom
Bridge Theatre. Most recently, Mr. Falls reprised his
critically acclaimed production of The Iceman Cometh,
featuring the original cast headed by Nathan Lane and
Brian Dennehy, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Last
fall, he directed Rebecca Gilman’s Luna Gale at the Kirk
Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, as well as a new
production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni for the Lyric Opera of
Chicago. Other recent productions include Measure for
Measure and the world and off-Broadway premieres of
Beth Henley’s The Jacksonian. Next season at the
Goodman, Mr. Falls and Goodman Playwright-in-Residence
Seth Bockley will co-direct their world premiere adaptation
of Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, and Mr. Falls will also direct the
Chicago premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s Soups, Stews, and
Casseroles: 1976. Among Mr. Falls’ other credits are The
Seagull, King Lear, Desire Under the Elms, John Logan’s
Red, John Robin Baitz’s Three Hotels, Eric Bogosian’s Talk
Radio and Conor McPherson’s Shining City; the world
premieres of Richard Nelson’s Frank’s Home, Arthur Miller’s
Finishing the Picture (his last play), Eric Bogosian’s Griller,
Steve Tesich’s The Speed of Darkness and On the Open
Road, John Logan’s Riverview: A Melodrama with Music
and Rebecca Gilman’s A True History of the Johnstown
Flood, Blue Surge and Dollhouse; the American premieres
of Alan Ayckbourn’s House and Garden; and the Broadway
premiere of Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida. Mr. Falls’
Broadway productions of Death of a Salesman and Long
Day’s Journey into Night received seven Tony Awards and
three Drama Desk Awards.
ROCHE EDWARD SCHULFER (Goodman Theatre
Executive Director) is in his 35th season as executive
director. On September 4, 2013, his 40th anniversary with
the theater, Mr. Schulfer was honored with a star on the
Goodman’s “Walkway of Stars.” In 2014, he received the
Visionary Leadership Award from Theatre Communications
Group. During his tenure he has overseen more than 335
productions, including close to 130 world premieres. He
launched the Goodman’s annual production of A Christmas
Carol, which celebrated 37 years as Chicago’s leading
holiday arts tradition this season. In partnership with
Artistic Director Robert Falls, Mr. Schulfer led the
establishment of quality, diversity and community
engagement as the core values of Goodman Theatre.
Under their tenure, the Goodman has received numerous
awards for excellence, including the Tony Award for
Outstanding Regional Theater, recognition by Time
magazine as the “Best Regional Theatre” in the US, the
Pulitzer Prize for Lynn Nottage’s Ruined and many Jeff
Awards for outstanding achievement in Chicago area
theater. Mr. Schulfer has negotiated the presentation of
numerous Goodman Theatre productions to many national
and international venues. From 1988 to 2000, he
coordinated the relocation of the Goodman to Chicago’s
Theatre District. He is a founder and two-time chair of the
League of Chicago Theatres, the trade association of more
than 200 Chicago area theater companies and producers.
Mr. Schulfer has been privileged to serve in leadership
roles with Arts Alliance Illinois (the statewide advocacy
coalition); Theatre Communications Group (the national
service organization for more than 450 not-for-profit
theaters); the Performing Arts Alliance (the national
advocacy consortium of more than 18,000 organizations
and individuals); the League of Resident Theatres (the
management association of 65 leading US theater
companies); Lifeline Theatre in Rogers Park and the Arts &
Business Council. He is honored to have been recognized
by Actors’ Equity Association for his work promoting
diversity and equal opportunity in Chicago theater; the
American Arts Alliance; the Arts & Business Council for
distinguished contributions to Chicago’s artistic vitality for
more than 25 years; Chicago magazine and the Chicago
Tribune as a “Chicagoan of the Year”; the City of
Chicago; Columbia College Chicago for entrepreneurial
leadership; Arts Alliance Illinois; the Joseph Jefferson
Awards Committee for his partnership with Robert Falls;
North Central College with an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts
degree; Lawyers for the Creative Arts; Lifeline Theatre’s
Raymond R. Snyder Award for Commitment to the Arts;
Season of Concern for support of direct care for those
living with HIV/AIDS; and the Vision 2020 Equality in
Action Medal for promoting gender equality and diversity in
the workplace. Mr. Schulfer is a member of the adjunct
faculty of the Theatre School at DePaul University, and a
graduate of the University of Notre Dame where he
managed the cultural arts commission.
FOR STOP. RESET.:
AMANDA CLEGG LYON
Assistant Lighting Designer
DANIEL MUELLER
Associate Projection Designer
KELLY RICKERT
Lobby Display Design
CHARLOTTE DROVER
MARIAN FIELDS
AARON MAYS
KYRA MORRIS
JENAE TAYLOR
Assistant Directors
IZIK ALEQUIN
DYLAN BRENNAN
AUSTIN R. EBERT,
ERICA SHELBY MCCLAIN
BRENDON PERDIKIS
MATTHEW SADOWSKI
Special Project Film Assistants
REGINA TAYLOR
ADAM BELCUORE
JOSEPH PINDELSKI
Special Project Producers
DR. CAROL ADAMS
Assistant Curator
SYDNEY CHATMAN
Social Media Consultant
BEN MEDINA
Supervising Editor
EBS BURNOUGH
Regina Taylor’s Chicago Publicist
ALANA PARVEY ZALAS
Assistant to Ms. Taylor