1984
ILLINOIS THEATRE
By George Orwell
Adapted for the Stage by Michael Gene Sullivan | Tom Mitchell, Director
Thursday-Saturday, October 15-24, 2015, at 7:30pm
Sunday, October 25, 2015, at 3pm
Colwell Playhouse
rendered that imagined superhighway as a
cacophony of information, disinformation,
self-promotion, argument, invective, and cat
videos. How often is true insight shared? How
many hoaxes are exposed every day? And how
much public shaming is enough—or too much?
E X PR E SS I O N . . .
In his book on the early American play,
Androboros, Illinois Theatre Professor Peter
Davis draws a direct line from that little known
political satire to the 1735 press freedom
trial of John Peter Zenger, arguing that those
events led eventually to the First Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution. Think of it: the
bedrock of freedom in American discourse
influenced by a theatrical polemic. Indeed,
Dr. Davis makes the case that freedom of the
press is a bulwark for the “extra-Constitutional
corollary that today defends and defines all
American art: freedom of expression.”
Twenty years ago, burgeoning computer interconnectivity was popularly referred to as the
“information superhighway.” It was believed
that new tools for gaining knowledge might
speed us toward a newer, more enlightened
form of democracy. Subsequent growth of the
Internet, the World Wide Web, the blogosphere,
and all manner of social media have, however,
Over the past couple of years, the University of
Illinois has found itself embroiled in controversy
over what is appropriate expression in the digital
public square. When the university failed to
cancel classes during a winter storm in 2014,
a top administrator was vilified online in racist
and sexist messages posted by students.
Always seeking a teachable moment, Illinois
faculty and staff elected to engage with the
university community on the nature of civil
discourse in an attempt to shift focus away
from ad hominem attacks and onto finding
appropriate modes for expressing dissent.
Several months later, a newly hired faculty
member was denied confirmation by the
university based on vulgar communications in
social media that one might despise as inappropriate (and some have) but appear related
directly to the scholar’s established work on
the genocide of indigenous cultures. To some,
these messages crossed a purported line
between civility and obscenity. To others, the
professor’s public diatribes were an expression
of academic freedom. There was dissatisfaction and outrage on all sides of the question.
At Illinois Theatre, we saw this debate as an
opportunity to explore the notion of “free expression” and to consider its different meaning
depending on one’s social, educational, political,
or cultural perspective. It was not so long ago
that a 2001 attack on American soil led to calls
from authorities for speakers, comedians, and
commentators to “watch what they say, watch
what they do” lest patriotic or other offense
be taken.
During the current season, we explore five
plays informed by the theme “Free Expression:
Censored.” Most of these plays—or their
underlying influences—have been censored,
banned, or burned by authorities as a result of
some perceived transgression lodged in their
texts (and contexts). Now, of course, two of
them are classics of modern literature and a
third is based on an American classic.
As the globe seems to turn a little faster and
technological change presses us incessantly,
we at Illinois Theatre invite you to take a few
moments to “unplug,” “power down,” and
consider how the transgressive ideas that live in
and around these works may speak to us today.
Thank you for joining us at this performance.
We hope that you will be stimulated, provoked,
and entertained by what you experience here,
and we hope to see you again very soon.
Jeffrey Eric Jenkins
HEAD, DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE
PRODUCER, ILLINOIS THEATRE
PHOTO REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF THE NEWS-GAZETTE, INC. PERMISSION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT.
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PROGRAM
1984 BY GEORGE ORWELL
Illinois Theatre
Adapted for the Stage by Michael Gene Sullivan
Tom Mitchell, Director
Thursday-Saturday, October 15-24, 2015, at 7:30pm
Sunday, October 25, 2015, at 3pm
Colwell Playhouse
To get the full effect of this production of 1984, you should use the LAIT app on your smartphone. You
can search for and download “LAIT” from Google Play for Android, from the App Store for iPhone, or
scan the QR code below to be directed to a download location. Just before the show, open the LAIT
app on your phone, choose “1984” as the show you want to see, and then keep the app open during
the show. Big Brother will be sending you messages during the performance!
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SCENIC BREAKDOWN
Place: A hard, bare room.
There will be a 20-minute intermission.
This production contains adult content and is intended for mature audiences only.
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (Copyright, 1949) by permission of Bill Hamilton as the Literary
Executor of the Estate of the Late Sonia Brownell Orwell, adapted by Michael Gene Sullivan.
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DIRECTOR’S NOTE
This production of George Orwell’s 1984 begins a
season of plays that address the issues of censorship and freedom of expression. Orwell’s novel
is the iconic 20th-century work that raises issues
regarding individual identity and expression in the
face of a controlling “Big Brother.” The dystopian
world created in 1984 includes “doublethink,”
“rectifying history,” “thoughtcrimes,” “newspeak,”
and “hate weeks.” As the creative team of designers and actors worked through this adaptation, we
realized that elements of those ominous ideas are
present in our own society. Although 1984, written in the wake of World War II, was proposed
as a warning of what could happen, now that we
are 30 years beyond the date, it challenges us
to come to terms with what we have done in our
own time.
play The Other Shore by Gao Xingjian—a work
that was banned in the author’s native China. In
the second semester, we offer the new play, Kingdom City, by Sheri Wilner, exploring censorship
in a small town high school. Finally we will stage
adaptations of two novels that appear frequently
on lists of banned books: The Grapes of Wrath,
adapted by Frank Galati; and Suzan-Lori Parks’
adaptation of The Scarlet Letter in her play In the
Blood, which sets Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic
in a contemporary urban landscape.
The Department of Theatre hopes that this play
will lead to conversations about the issues embedded in it. Also this semester, we present the
—Tom Mitchell
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We believe that there is power in the theatre’s
ability to present challenging ideas in a public
forum, and trust that the thought provoked by
each of these works can enrich our understanding
of the world in which we live.
When George Orwell published 1984 in 1949, the
nations of the world were continuing to process
major political, philosophical, and social changes resulting from the Great Depression and the
Second World War. A “Red Scare” was sweeping
through the United States and Western Europe.
The anxiety surrounding communism reached its
full level with the Soviet Union’s growing power
and the testing of its first atomic bomb in this
year. In reaction, twelve nations (including the
United States and United Kingdom) formed the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO,
which provided a coalition of nations that would
band together in the case of future military attacks. The world was preparing for the potential
of another World War. That year, Harry Truman
also sought to extend Roosevelt’s New Deal
when he introduced his Fair Deal plan—seeking a
higher minimum wage, more equal employment
opportunities, and universal health insurance.
Some saw an opportunity to defeat Truman’s
proposals, however, by painting his administration
as dominated by hidden Communists. While some
saw this as a political ploy, many were genuinely
fearful of the rise of these oppressive regimes.
Regardless, it was clear that by the year 1984,
the world would be different than it was in the
post­war years. The question was: how? Orwell’s
novel, projecting just how bleak the future could
be, became the quintessential dystopian novel.
Despite being set in a time now thirty years past,
the novel’s foreboding sense of the future is as
haunting and relevant as ever.
Part of what makes 1984 so accessible today is
Orwell’s focus on the individual trapped within
institutional control. Through the protagonist,
Winston Smith, we see how one’s freedom of
expression and sense of individuality becomes
DRAMATURG’S NOTE
illegal and how that impacts his psyche. While
focusing on Smith (the story’s everyman), Orwell
also comments on the dynamics of international
politics that shape Winston’s world. In the wake
of World War II, it expresses Orwell’s fear of the
world dissolving into a world of “two or three
great superstates which are unable to conquer
one another”¹ and where “two and two could
become five.” This fear of unending hostility between major superstates is seen throughout the
novel.
While the novel is known for its social and political
commentary, it is also deeply rooted in Orwell’s
own personal experiences. Autobiographical elements include Smith and Orwell’s shared fear of
rats and their deep sense of isolation and inferiority. At the ripe age of five, young Eric Blair (who
later took the pen name George Orwell) attended
St. Cyprian’s—a private Catholic boarding school.
There, he experienced feelings of isolation, as
he recalled in his early essay Such, Such were the
Joys. Additionally, he became increasingly aware
of class differences, as he was among the poorest
students to attend­­—a fact made known to the
entire school by the administration. He was often
picked on by other boys, and the sense of inferiority became deeply ingrained, manifesting itself
later in Winston’s character. Interestingly, the
young Orwell and Winston Smith both escaped
through the natural world and their peace­seeking
imaginations. Orwell, as Winston’s love interest
and fellow rebel Julia says, “contruct[ed] a secret
world where you could live as you choose”² within
his own mind. Just as Winston dreams of the
“Golden Country,” a young Orwell longed for his
childhood home in the countryside along a river.
There, he and his neighborhood friend would
hunt, fish, and play. Likewise, Winston’s mind
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often turns to the clearing in the field, located
along a river, where he and Julia were able to
express themselves freely.
St. Cyprian’s also planted in Orwell the seeds of
paranoia. He felt as if he was constantly being
watched, and was terrified of being caught
breaking the rules and receiving severe punishment. This fear increased in his later years when
he became an Imperialist police officer in Burma.
Despite his personal liberal beliefs, he was forced
to exemplify the morals of the British Empire both
on-duty and off. His frustration with fulfilling the
role of the ideal citizen is reflected in many of the
party members in the novel and their paranoid
adherence to Big Brother.
While in Burma, Orwell also explored his sexual
desires for the first time. Until this point, it had
been deeply embedded in him that sex was
sinful, and that even sexual thoughts and desires
were reprehensible. Having made his way to
Burma in his early 20s, Orwell had an incredible
sexual awakening. He found himself attracted
to local prostitutes because of his perception of
their impurity. When he later moved to Paris, he
continued to have relationships with prostitutes,
and many of his sexual adventures (which he later
writes about in Down and Out in London and
Paris) had disturbing sadistic undertones. The
conflicting intersections of institutionally regulated chastity, sexual desire, and violence is clearly
depicted throughout the novel and this adaptation.
Although it comments on post-World War II mentalities and Orwell’s own personal experiences,
1984 continues to attract readers and audiences today. In the years following its publication,
Orwell’s work has been used, adapted for other
mediums, and broken apart into iconic images.
Apple’s first and most famous commercial in 1983
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references the infamous telescreens. There was
a critically acclaimed movie adaptation starring
Richard Burton in 1984, a reality show under the
title of “Big Brother” starting in 1999, and an opera premiering at the Royal Opera House in 2005,
as well as countless other references to aspects
of 1984 in modern popular music, television, and
novels. Michael Gene Sullivan’s adaptation, written in 2006, changes how Winston’s story is told.
Sullivan restructured the story so that Winston is
forced to re-experience his “thoughtcrime.” This
new form of torture in the reenacting of Winston’s
most personal moments is poignant and maybe
even more painful than the more physical acts of
torture. Sullivan’s decision to set this interpretation within the interrogation and torture room is
entirely purposeful, as his adaptation is largely a
reaction to the incoming information about the
torture and suicides of prisoners in Guantanamo
Bay in 2006. By doing this, Sullivan focuses on
the atrocities of the loss of individuality within
a uniform society, the human experiences and
relationships present, and ultimately the aspects
of Winston that are most like Orwell himself.
—Katie Fenton
1 Orwell, George, and Peter Hobley. Davison.
George Orwell: A Life in Letters. London: Penguin, 2011. 190­–92. Print.
2 Orwell, George, Thomas Pynchon, and Erich
Fromm. Nineteen Eighty­four: A Novel. N.p.: n.p.,
2003. 135. Print.
1984
Adapter
Michael Gene Sullivan
DirectorTom Mitchell
Co-Fight Director
Robin McFarquhar
Co-Fight Director
Zev Steinberg
Scenic Designer
J. Michael Griggs*
Costume Designer
Paul Kim
Lighting Designer
Dani Deutschmann
Co-Sound Designer
Tony Reimer
Co-Sound Designer
Yu-Yun Hsieh
Properties Master
Lindsey Sample
Hair/Makeup Master
Aimee Beach
Vocal Coach
Susan Schuld
Stage Manager
Nick Lowere
Technical Director
Roy H. Howington
*United Scenic Artists, Local 829
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CAST
Winston Smith
Ford Bowers
Voice/O’Brien
Ninos Baba
Party Member: Winston
Ryan Smetana
Party Member: Julia
Alexis DawTyne
Party Member: Mrs. Parsons
Taylor Toms
Party Member: Kid/Prole Woman
Ellen Magee
Party Member: Kid/Rally Speaker
Luke Shroer
Party Member: Syme/Charrington
Brandon Rivera
Party Member: Parsons/O’Brien
Aryamehr Mohseni
Party Member: Enforcer
Vincent Williams
Party Member: Enforcer
Liz Salim
Party Member: Enforcer
Ryan Luzzo
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PROFILES
Ninos Baba (Voice/O’Brien)
is a Senior in the BFA Acting
Program at the U of I. This
is Ninos’ fourth Department
of Theatre show at Krannert
Center. Credits include Much
Ado About Nothing (Citizen
of the Watch), Oh What A
Lovely War (Ensemble), and
Not About Nightingales (Shapiro). He has also
performed in, directed, and worked on various
other shows in the Champaign-Urbana area.
Ford Bowers (Winston Smith),
from Wilmette, Illinois, is
a senior in the BFA Acting
Program. In prior years at the
U of I, he appeared in The
Tempest, O Beautiful, and The
Skin of Our Teeth at Krannert Center. He also directed
Eugene O’Neill’s Hughie and
a reading of his new play Man of the Century at
the Armory Free Theatre. He’s proud to be a part
of this important and revelatory tale about power
and order in the modern world.
Alexis DawTyne (Party Member: Julia) is in her final year
pursuing a BFA in Acting at
the U of I. Her previous credits
include The Drowsy Chaperone (Chaperone), Polaroid
Stories (Eurydice), and various
other roles and shows with
Illini Student Musicals (ISM),
Illini Union Board (IUB), and Timberlake Playhouse.
She has also choreographed for ISM and was the
Music Director of Cutting Edge. Alexis worked the first part of her summer devising a show called Tom with Professors Robin
McFarquhar, Philip Johnston, and three fellow artists. She then spent the latter half training at the
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts,
where she was cast as Adrianna in The Comedy of
Errors and Beatrice in The Changeling.
Ryan Luzzo (Party Member:
Enforcer) is from Lemont, Illinois
and is currently a sophomore
at the U of I. He is pursuing
a BFA in acting and a BA in
Dance. 1984 will be his first production with the Department of
Theatre. At the U of I, Ryan has
performed at the Armory Free
Theatre in Impulse 24/7 2014, the Theatre Studies
2015 Showcase and Will Grayson, which he wrote,
directed and performed in. With the U of I Dance
Department, Ryan has performed in the 2015
Spring Semester Choreographic Showings.
Ellen Magee (Kid/Prole
Woman) hails from Ann Arbor,
Michigan, and is a sophomore
pursuing a BFA in Acting from
the Theatre Department at
U of I. She performed in the
department’s formal reading
of Good Kids (Skylar) last
September, and has appeared
in a couple of Armory Free Theatre Productions
including Will Grayson and As Wind in Dry Grass.
Locally, she appeared most recently with the Celebration Company at the Station Theatre in Appropriate (Cassidy).
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Aryamehr Mohseni (Party
Member: Parsons/O’Brien), a
native of Chicago, is currently
enrolled in his junior year in the
undergraduate Acting program
here at the University of Illinois.
He has recently performed in
Illinois Theatre’s production of
Not About Nightingales, as well
as Indiana University’s School for Scandal.
Brandon Rivera (Party
Member: Syme/Charrington)
recently made his Chicago
debut in the United States
premiere of Brilliant Adventures at Steep Theatre
Company. Previous Department of Theatre roles
include: Bergetto in ‘Tis Pity
She’s a Whore, Fortune Teller in The Skin of Our
Teeth, and St. Denis in O Beautiful. Brandon
graduates in May of 2016 with a BFA in Acting.
He is represented by Actors Talent Group.
Liz Salim (Party Member:
Enforcer) is a junior Acting
major at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Before transferring to the U of
I, she attended Moraine Valley
Community College where she
was in shows such as No Exit,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Waiting For Lefty, and Hamlet. Since transferring,
she’s worked as production assistant for Polaroid
Stories and ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, and has also
performed in a show through the Brown Theatre
Collective called The Masses Are Asses. Over the
summer, she worked at the Bristol Renaissance
Faire as an actress in Pub Crawl.
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Luke Schroer (Party Member:
Kid/Rally Speaker) grew up
in Paris. Luke is a sophomore
in the BFA Acting Program.
This is his first production at
Krannert Center. Luke participated in Illinois Theatre’s
Student Playwright Outreach
Program, and he was a part of
Illinois Theatre’s reading of Naomi Iizuka’s Good
Kids (Tanner). Luke is a Varsity Track athlete at
the U of I, specializing in middle distance. He was
seen in the Men’s Track & Field performance at
Jock Jams, a show organized by the department
of athletics to benefit Camp Kesem, Uplifting
Athletes, and Student Athletes Leading Social
Change. Over this summer, Luke studied and performed improvisational theatre at the iO Theater
in Chicago.
Ryan Smetana (Party Member: Winston) is a senior in
the BFA Acting Program at
the U of I. Over the summer,
Ryan was in the Lincoln-Way
Area Summer Stock production
of Grease (Danny Zuko). His
Krannert Center credits
include Not About Nightingales
(Swifty), The Skin of Our Teeth (Henry), Much Ado
About Nothing (Claudio), and Clybourne Park (Jim/
Tom). He also took part in the workshop production of Now. Here. This. (Man 1) directed by
Michael Berresse. His other summer stock credits
include Jesus Christ Superstar (Simon). Ryan was
also a finalist for the 2012 Illinois High School
Musical Theatre Awards.
Taylor Toms (Party Member:
Mrs. Parsons) is currently a
senior Acting student here at
the University of Illinois. Previously, she has played Goldie
in Not About Nightingales
and the Announcer in The Skin
of Our Teeth (both Krannert
Center productions). She has
trained at The Second City in Chicago and has
plans to continue in summer 2016.
Vincent Williams (Party Member: Enforcer) is a sophomore
from Chicago who is currently
pursuing his BFA at the University of Illinois. Vince has taken
part in readings for Marcus
Gardley’s The Box as well as the
reading of Ford Bowers’ Man of
the Century. Vince has worked
with Mercy Street Theatre in their devised production of Rotpeter, directed by Jake Fruend. This is his
first Krannert Center production.
Tom Mitchell (Director) is
Associate Head of the
Department of Theatre. Last
season he completed a project
of staging all of the early plays
of Tennessee Williams by
presenting Not About Nightingales in the Krannert Center
Studio Theatre. In September
Mitchell was a guest lecturer at the Tennessee
Williams Institute, a part of the Provincetown
Tennessee Williams Festival. He is an honorary
faculty member at Inner Mongolia University Arts
College where he staged The Glass Menagerie
with Chinese and American student actors. Tom
directed two lost plays by 20th-century Spanish
playwright José López Rubio, and the
premiere of James Still’s play Meet Me Incognito
that toured nationally with the Metro Theatre
Circus. Mitchell has staged plays of Molière,
adaptations of Charles Dickens, and musicals of
Rodgers and Hammerstein at Krannert Center.
Locally, he directed productions of Hay Fever,
Around the World in 80 Days, and Freud’s Last
Session. He is the former chair of the Mid-America Theatre Conference Directing Symposium
and received the Award of Honor by the Illinois
Theatre Association. He served on the national
committee of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and travelled the nation to
review 56 productions. For eight summers, Mitchell directed, taught, and chaired the Summer
Theatre Program at the Interlochen Center for
the Arts in Northwest Michigan. With colleague
Burnet Hobgood, Mitchell authored A Framework
for Directing in the Theatre and has made numerous presentations on the practice of directing in
the contemporary theatre.
Dani Deutschmann (Lighting Designer) is a
third-year lighting design MFA student at the U
of I. She received her BA from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. She previously worked at
the Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University as
the Assistant Lighting Coordinator. While there,
she designed Two Rooms, Dusty and the Big Bad
World, and Oleanna for the Theatre Department.
Her University of Illinois design credits include
Polaroid Stories, Elixir of Love, February Dance: The
Virtuosic, and several pieces for StudioDance II.
J. Michael Griggs (Scene Designer) has been
designing scenery across the country for more
than 25 years. Recent designs include the world
premier of David Auburn’s Lost Lake for The
Manhattan Theatre Club and Fences and Auld
Lang Syne for The Gloucester Stage Company. Selected designs include Romance, No Child,
No Man’s Land, How I Learned to Drive, Boston
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Marriage, and others for The American Repertory Theater; The Sanctuary Lamp, Well of the
Saints, The Lonesome West, St. Nicholas, and
others for The Súgán Theatre Company; 9 Parts
of Desire and Adrift in Macao for The Lyric Stage
Company of Boston; as well as productions at
Speakeasy Stage (The Seafarer), The Publick Theatre (Design for Living and Travesties), the Tir Na
Theatre Company (The Lonesome West and Trad),
Opera Providence, and The New Repertory Theatre. As a designer for WGBH public television,
he has designed for many local, national, and international clients, as well as national PBS shows
like Mystery! and Fetch with Ruff Ruffman. He is a
member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829. Roy H. Howington (Technical Director) is a
second-year MFA candidate in scenic technology
from Atlanta, Georgia. While completing his degree, he has also been working with Chicago Scenic Studios as a draftsman/design engineer. Prior
to the U of I, he had the fortune of working with
some of the most prestigious theatres in New
York and Atlanta including: Chautauqua Theater
Company, NYU-Tisch School of Drama, George
Tsypin Opera Factory, PDNYC-Sleep No More,
The Atlantic Theater Company, The Center for
Puppetry Arts, The Alliance Theater, and Georgia
Shakespeare. Krannert Center credits include: ‘Tis
Pity She’s a Whore, The Skin of our Teeth, February Dance and November Dance (2014-15). Roy is
very excited to also be Technical Director for the
Lyric Theatre Production of A Midsummer Night’s
Dream in the spring.
Yu-Yun Hsieh (Co-Sound Designer) is a PhD candidate in the Theatre Studies program at the U of
I. His research explores the intersection of theatre
sound and listening in the creation of live performance and the ways in which different modes of
listening inform, challenge, and shape emerging
theatre practice in the second half of the
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twentieth century. In Urbana-Champaign, he has
designed several productions with Illinois
Theatre, INNER VOICES Social Issues Theatre, the
Station Theatre, and Parkland Theatre. Paul Kim (Costume Designer) is a second-year
MFA student of costume design at the University
of Illinois. Paul graduated in 2014 with a BFA in
Costume Design from the Helmerich School of
Drama at University of Oklahoma in Norman.
During his time at OU, he designed for Avenue
Q, The Cherry Orchard, and “Working Flesh” and
“Syncopated” in Contemporary Dance Oklahoma
2013. At the Region VI American College Theatre
Festival, he received the Focal Press Rafael Jaen
Showcase Award in 2013 and was given the Doug
Getzoff Award in 2014. Paul is also the recipient
of the 2014 USITT SW Certificate of Excellence in
Costume Design. His most recent credits include
Assistant Costume Designer for Lyric Theatre’s
Into the Woods and Illinois Theatre’s Oh What A
Lovely War.
Nick Loweree (Stage Manager) is a second-year
MFA stage manager at the U of I. He previously
served as the assistant stage manager for Oh
What A Lovely War in the fall of 2014 and The
Merry Widow in the spring of 2015. He recently
served as the assistant stage manager for The
Marriage of Figaro at the Nickel City Opera in
Buffalo, New York, and the stage manager for
Swan Lake with the Champaign-Urbana Ballet
Company. He has also worked with the Santa
Fe Opera, the American Dance Festival and the
El Paso Opera. He holds a BFA in Dance Performance from the University of Texas at El Paso.
Robin McFarquhar (Co-Fight Director) is the
Chair of Acting in the Department of Theatre, is an
accredited fight director/teacher with the Society of
American Fight Directors, and an accredited teacher of the Alexander Technique (AmSAT). As a fight
director/movement specialist, he has worked at
major regional theatres throughout the country,
including Steppenwolf, the Goodman Theatre,
Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Writers Theatre,
the Old Globe, the Long Wharf Theatre,
SouthCoast Repertory, Shakespeare Theatre
(Washington, DC), the Guthrie, the Lyric Opera
of Chicago, and also at numerous Shakespeare
festivals. His work has also been seen on Broadway, at the Royal Shakespeare Company, in the
West End of London, on the national tour of The
Color Purple, and on international tours to Japan,
Cyprus, and Hungary. He has been nominated for
two JeffAwards (Chicago) and a Helen Hayes Award
(Washington, DC) for his fight direction. At the U of
I, he has received the Excellence in Undergraduate
Teaching Award, the Excellence in Research
Award, and is a University Scholar.
University of Illinois. Zev has choreographed violence in theatres all over the Midwest, and has as
been recognized 11 times for his artistic achievements. Zev is a Certified Teacher, Governing Body
member, and recipient of the Paddy Crean Award
with the Society of American Fight Directors, and
is also a certified Yoga teacher. Zev holds his MFA
in Acting from Michigan Stage University, after
graduating with a BFA from the department of
Theatre at the University of Illinois.
M. Anthony Reimer (Co-Sound Designer) is
originally an orchestral French horn player hailing
from Indiana. Tony has spent most of the last 30
years freelancing in live theatre as a composer
and sound designer. His work has been heard
on stages and at festivals across the country and
internationally. He completed his undergraduate
work at Ball State University, received a master’s
degree in Computer Music and New Media
from Northern Illinois University, and is currently
pursuing a doctorate in Music Composition at the
University of Illinois. Lindsey Sample (Properties Master) is a
second-year MFA graduate student from Des
Moines, Iowa, studying Props Design and
Management. She graduated from the University
of Northern Iowa in 2012. 1984 is Lindsey’s second
production at the University of Illinois (Not about
Nightingales being her first).
Zev Steinberg (Co-Fight Director) is a professor
of Stage Combat, Movement, and Acting at the
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PRODUCTION STAFF
Assistant Stage Manager
Kyle Bricker
Assistant Stage Manager
Jessica Xin
Co-Assistant Scenic Designer
Evan Park
Co-Assistant Scenic Designer
Jane Seibold
Assistant Costume Designer
Sharne Van Ryneveld
Assistant Lighting Designer
Eric Van Tassell
Assistant to Director/Dramaturg
Katie Fenton
Master Electrician
Heather Raynie
Audio Engineer
Luke Parker
Production Assistants
Colleen Accardo
Madison Paez
Production Running Crew
Zhirong Cai
Mary Odom
Chapman Schanefelt
Patrick Weber
Costume Running Crew Head
Jessica Hensley
Costume Running Crew
Danyelle Monson
Alexis Walker
Makeup Running Crew
Madison Freeland
Lighting Board Operator
Armelle Harper
Sound Board Operator
Lorna Chavez
We would like to acknowledge Fab Lab and Makerspace for assistance with costumes.
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