A New American Play
Lombardi
Creative Team Bios
ERIC SIMONSON
PlaywrightEric Simonson was the director and co-writer (with Jeffrey Hatcher) of ATC’s acclaimed production of Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright in 2002. His plays and adaptations include Magic/Bird; Lombardi, on Broadway; Slaughterhouse-five, off-Broadway; and numerous plays which premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago: Nomathemba (written with Ntozake Shange and Joseph Shabalala), Carter’s Way and, most recently, Honest and Fake. Other plays include The Last Hurrah; Louder Faster with Jeffrey Hatcher (commissioned by ATC); Edge of the World and Speak American. His work has been produced in Japan and throughout the United States at theatres including Huntington Theatre Company, L.A. Theatre Works, City Theatre of Pittsburgh, The Kennedy Center, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Madison Rep, Kansas City Rep, and Crossroads Theatre Company. His adaptation of Moby Dick at Milwaukee Rep was chosen as one of Time Magazine’s top 10 productions of 2002. Simonson directed the Broadway production of The Song of Jacob Zulu, which received six Tony Award nominations, including one for best direction. He is also an accomplished film and opera director. With Campbell Scott he codirected Hamlet for Hallmark Entertainment, as well as three documentaries for HBO: Studs Terkel – Listening to America, Emmy nomination; A Note of Triumph, earning Simonson a Best Documentary, Short Subjects Academy Award; and On Tiptoe, Academy Award nomination. In 2005 he received a Princess Grace Statue Award for Sustained Artistic Achievement. Simonson is a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble and is currently overseeing the development of three new operas for Minnesota Opera’s OperaWorks and writing two play commissions for Manhattan Theatre Club.
DAVID MARANISS
AuthorDavid Maraniss is an associate editor at The Washington Post. In addition to the recent best-selling biography Barack Obama: The Story, Maraniss is the author of five critically acclaimed and bestselling books: When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi; First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton; They Marched Into Sunlight – War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967; Clemente – The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero; and Rome 1960: The Summer Olympics That Stirred the World. Maraniss is a three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and he won the Pulitzer for National Reporting in 1993 for his newspaper coverage of then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton. He also was part of The Washington Post team that won a 2008 Pulitzer for the newspaper’s coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting. He has earned several other notable awards for achievements in journalism, including the George Polk Award, the Dirksen Prize for Congressional Reporting, the ASNE Laventhol Prize for Deadline Writing, the Hancock Prize for Financial Writing, the Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the Frankfort Book Prize, the Eagleton Book Prize, the Ambassador Book Prize, and Latino Book Prize.
CASEY STANGL
DirectorCasey Stangl is making her ATC debut. She is a Los Angeles based director of theatre, opera and television. Recent projects include Tony Kushner’s adaptation of The Illusion at A Noise Within; the West Coast premiere of Carson Kreitzer’s Slither for Chalk Repertory Theatre, performed at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery Masonic Lodge; The Car Plays for Moving Arts at La Jolla Playhouse; and the world premiere of a new adaptation with music of Noel Coward’s Peace in our Time at Antaeus Company (winner of the 2012 Los Angeles Weekly Best Production). Nationally, Stangl’s work has been seen at South Coast Repertory, Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival, Guthrie Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Portland Stage, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles, HERE Arts Center in New York, and many others. Opera credits include Music Academy of the West, Fort Worth Opera, Kentucky Opera, Portland Opera, Minnesota Opera Company, Pine Mountain Music Festival, Opera Omaha, Omaha Symphony, and Juilliard Opera Center in New York. Stangl works extensively with new plays, and her recent developmental work includes workshops of Samuel Hunter’s The Few; Mia McCullough’s Household Spirits; and Oedipus the Man, Kenneth Cavander’s adaptation of the entire Oedipus Cycle. Stangl was the founding artistic director of Eye of the Storm Theatre in Minneapolis – a company devoted to new work – for which she was named Minnesota Artist of the Year.
MICHAEL SCHWEIKARDT
Scenic DesignerMichael Schweikardt returns to ATC where he designed Ella and Lost in Yonkers. Schweikardt has created sets for the world premieres of Nobody Loves You and Duncan Sheik’s Whisper House for The Old Globe and for several musicals by Joe Iconis, including Bloodsong of Love at Ars Nova, ReWrite at Urban Stages, The Black Suits at The Public Theater, and Things to Ruin at both The Zipper Factory and SecondStage Theatre. Other recent credits include the critically acclaimed productions of Carousel, Showboat, Annie Get Your Gun, 1776, Big River, and Camelot for Goodspeed Musicals; Ella, appearing in cities all across the country; Barnum for Asolo Repertory Theatre’s 50th anniversary season; Oklahoma! starring Kelli O’Hara and Will Chase (Oklahoma State Centennial); the American premieres of Frank McGuinness’ Gates of Gold and The Bird Sanctuary; and national and international tours of James Taylor’s One Man Band. Schweikardt’s online portfolio can be seen at www.msportfolio.com.
TELSEY + COMPANY
CastingBernie Telsey CSA, Will Cantler CSA, David Vaccari CSA, Bethany Knox CSA, Craig Burns CSA, Tiffany Little Canfield CSA, Rachel Hoffman CSA, Justin Huff CSA, Patrick Goodwin CSA, Abbie Brady-Dalton CSA, David Morris, Cesar A. Rocha, Andrew Femenella, Karyn Casl, Kristina Bramhall, Jessie Malone
ALEX JAEGER
Costume DesignerAlex Jaeger previously designed Talley’s Folly for ATC. He has designed for theatre, film and opera across the country. Other productions include Two Sisters and a Piano for Public Theater, N.Y. and many productions for Oregon Shakespeare Festival including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Romeo and Juliet, August: Osage County, and Dead Man’s Cell Phone. Jaeger is also a frequent designer for the Studio Theatre in Washington D.C. and in San Francisco at Magic Theatre and A.C.T. where he recently designed Maple and Vine, The Homecoming, Rock ‘n Roll (also at Huntington Theatre in Boston), and Once in a Lifetime (also at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Fla.) In addition to costume design, Jaeger works as a fashion consultant and has styled many celebrities for the Los Angeles production of Nora and Delia Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore. For more information, see www.alexjaegerdesign.com.
LAP CHI CHU
Lighting DesignerLap Chi Chu is making his ATC debut. His work has been seen in such theatres as New York Theatre Workshop, Public Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, PS 122, The Kitchen, Mark Taper Forum, Geffen Playhouse, Kirk Douglas Theatre, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, McCarter Theatre Center, Hartford Stage, Arena Stage, San Jose Rep, Dallas Theater Center, Indiana Rep, and Intiman Theatre. He is the recipient of an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for Lifetime Achievement in Lighting as well as the winner of four Bay Area Theatre Critics. He is currently on the Lighting Design faculty at California Institute of the Arts.
JAMES C. SWONGER
Sound DesignerJames C. Swonger is resident sound designer at Cleveland Play House where he has designed sound for over 40 productions including the world premiere of Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot, Daddy Long Legs, The Trip to Bountiful, Present Laughter, Heaven’s My Destination (world premiere), Crime and Punishment, Noises Off!, Gee’s Bend, The Chosen, and I Am My Own Wife. For Cleveland State University he designed Chekhov in Yalta, The Shadowbox and Return to the Forbidden Planet. Additional credits include Cleveland’s Lyric Opera Company, The Utah Festival Opera Company, Pioneer Theatre Company, Baltimore CENTERSTAGE, George Street Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theatre, and premiere productions of The Tragic Demise of the Whaleship Essex, Swinging on a Star: A Tribute to the Music of Johnny Burke, Tangents, and The Count of Monte Cristo.
JEFFREY CADY
Projections DesignerJeffrey Cady returns to ATC where he designed projections for Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club, [title of show], Woody Guthrie’s American Song, Love Janis and others. Recent design credits include Dance with Me at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts, It Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues at Portland Center Stage, A Christmas Carol for Kansas City Rep, Cups for Theater League, and Summer of Love for Ogunquit Playhouse. Nationally, he has designed lighting and projections for Columbia Artists Theatricals’ tours of Love, Janis. Cady has also served as the head media server programmer for the Broadway production of Green Day’s American Idiot and Cirque du Soleil’s Wintuk.
TIMOTHY TOOTHMAN*
Stage ManagerTimothy Toothman is the Artistic Associate at ATC. He has stage managed ATC’s productions of God of Carnage, Lost in Yonkers, The Glass Menagerie, The Lady with All the Answers, Tuesdays with Morrie, The Immigrant and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Mr. Toothman spent five seasons as the Production Stage Manager for the Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY and was then Company Manager for five years for Sunshine Too, a national touring ensemble of deaf and hearing actors. He has also managed producing and presenting theatres in Indiana and Maryland. Prior to moving to Arizona, Mr. Toothman spent eleven years as a program and grants director for the Maryland State Arts Council and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. Mr. Toothman stage managed the National Heritage Awards Program for the National Endowment for the Arts for ten years and was the Production Stage Manager for six seasons at the Vineyard Playhouse on Martha’s Vineyard.
GLENN BRUNER*
Assistant Stage ManagerGlenn Bruner is in his sixteenth season at ATC where he has stage managed, among many others, Next to Normal, The Great Gatsby, The Mystery of Irma Vep, [title of show], The Kite Runner, Hair, Enchanted April, and the world premieres of Jeffrey Hatcher’s Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club and Ten Chimneys, and Steven Dietz’s Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, Rocket Man, Inventing van Gogh, and Over the Moon. Mr. Bruner has worked at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Alley Theatre, Dalles Theater Center, Pasadena Playhouse, CENTERSTAGE, Studio Arena Theatre, and Maine’s Portland Stage Company. Mr. Bruner has been a member of Actors’ Equity Association since 1981.
EMMA DeVORE
Assistant to the Stage ManagerEmma DeVore served as Assistant to the Stage Manager for ATC’s productions of God of Carnage and The Great Gatsby. Regionally, she has worked at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, Phoenix Theatre, Gulfshore Playhouse, and Southwest Shakespeare Company. She has stage managed for E&H Theatrical, and has toured with the vaudeville troupe Handsome Little Devils and The Magic of David Copperfield.
CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE
Co-ProducerCleveland Play House was founded in 1915 and is America’s first professional regional theatre. Throughout its rich history, Cleveland Play House has remained dedicated to its mission to inspire, stimulate and entertain diverse audiences in Northeast Ohio by producing plays and theatre education programs of the highest professional standards. It has produced more than 100 world and/or American premieres, and over its long history more than 12 million people have attended over 1,300 CPH productions. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Bloom and Managing Director Kevin Moore, Cleveland Play House looks toward its centennial while performing in three state-of-the art venues at PlayhouseSquare in down- town Cleveland.
