2011/12 season > A Doctor in Spite of Himself > Who’s who
who’s who
Steven Epp, Co-Adapter
Christopher Bayes, Co-Adapter / Director
Aaron Halva, Composer / Music Director
Matt Saunders, Scenic Design
Kristin Fiebig, Costume Design
Yi Zhao, Lighting Design
Ken Goodwin, Sound Design
Benjamin Fainstein, Dramaturg
Walton Wilson, Vocal Coach
Cynthia Cahill *, Stage Manager
Tara Rubin Casting, Casting
Jen Wineman, Assistant Director
Cast
Julie Briskman, Jacqueline
Liam Craig, Lucas / Thibaut
Steven Epp, Sganarelle
Renata Friedman, Lucinde / Puppeteer
Allen Gilmore, M. Robert / Géronte
Chivas Michael, Léandre / Old Man (February 10–March 10)
Tyler Kent, Léandre / Old Man (March 11–25)
Greg C. Powers, Trombone / Tuba / Ukulele
Jacob Ming-Trent, Valère / Cherub (February 10–March 18)
Rob Seitelman, Valère / Cherub (March 20–25)
Justine Williams, Martine / Perrin
Robertson Witmer, Accordion / Clarinet / Drums
Christopher Bayes
Co-Adapter / Director
Christopher began his theatre career with the Tony Award-winning Theatre de la Jeune Lune, where he worked for five years as an actor, director, composer, designer and artistic associate. In 1989 he joined the acting company of the Guthrie for over 20 productions, including King Lear, Marat/Sade, The Tempest, The Triumph of Love and his one-man show This Ridiculous Dreaming, based on Boll’s novel The Clown. Chris’ directing credits include productions at Court, Idaho Shakes, Intiman, Trinity Rep, Touchstone Theatre and Yale Rep (The Birds and The Servant of Two Masters, which will be remounted at the Shakespeare Theatre Company this spring). His New York work includes the Flea Theater, Dixon Place, HERE Arts Center, the Juilliard School, NYU’s Graduate Acting Program, P.S. 122 and The Public. He served as movement director and creator of additional movement for the Broadway and national touring productions of The 39 Steps at the Roundabout’s American Airlines, Court and Helen Hayes Theatres. He is a 1999/2000 Fox Fellow, has served on the faculty of the Juilliard School and NYU’s Graduate Acting Program, has taught workshops for the Big Apple Circus, Cirque du Soleil, The Public’s Shakespeare Lab and Williamstown Theatre Festival, among others, and was head of movement and physical theatre at the Brown/Trinity Consortium. Chris is currently an associate professor at Yale School of Drama and head of physical acting.
Aaron Halva
Composer / Music Director
Raised amongst polkas and hymns in Iowa, Aaron has since studied music in Argentina, Cuba, Greece, Puerto Rico and Spain. His New York composition credits include The Big Day, The Birds, The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Fiasco Bros. Circus, Four by Feydeau, The Love of Three Oranges, The Molière One Acts, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac and Red Noses at Juilliard; The Imaginary Invalid, The New Place, The Reluctant Doctor of Love and We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program; and Timeslips at HERE. His other composition and performance credits include Ballywoonde at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, A Doctor in Spite of Himself at Intiman and Yale Rep, The Molière Impromptu at Trinity Rep and The Servant of Two Masters and Ubu Rex at Yale Rep. Aaron’s recent film credits include Wall Street II as leader and arranger for Nu D’Lux, a New York-based Cuban/Latin style Son Montuno group.
Matt Saunders
Scenic Design
Matt is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include projections and sets for Jib and sets for The Tall Girls. He has designed over 70 shows for various companies, including Arden Theatre Company, the Tony Award-winning Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, the Bessie Award-winning Headlong Dance Theater, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Walnut Street Theatre and the Wilma Theater. He is also the associate artistic director of New Paradise Laboratories and has been involved in all of NPL’s works as both a scenic designer and a performer, most notably in Batch at the Humana Festival. Matt’s 2008 design for NPL’s Fatebook was selected to represent American set design at the 2011 Prague Quadrennial. Matt is the recipient of the 2007 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist. He is also a Barrymore Award-winning performer. Matt is a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University with a BA in theatre and visual art. He is also a graduate of the Scuola Internazionale Dell’attore Comico in Reggio Emilia, Italy, conducted by master teacher Antonio Fava. Visit mattsaunders.net.
Kristin Fiebig
Costume Design
Kristin is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include A Streetcar Named Desire and Twelfth Night. Her other credits include As You Like It at Yale Summer Cabaret; The Chimes and Missing Celia Rose at New York Summer Play Festival; Floyd Collins and Kiss Me, Kate at Syracuse University; Hedda Gabler, A Streetcar Named Desire and Uncommon Women and Others at Princeton University; The Mad 7 at the New York International Fringe Festival and McCarter’s INFestival; Once Upon a Mattress and La Clemenza di Tito at Westminster Choir College; and Passing and Radio Station with Yale Cabaret. She received her BFA from Syracuse University.
Yi Zhao
Lighting Design
Yi has just designed Yale Rep’s presentation of A Doctor in Spite of Himself, and is pleased to make his Berkeley Rep debut. He is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he designed lighting for Eurydice, Jib, Othello and Passing, as well as shows at Yale Cabaret. His professional credits include John Moran and Saori Tsukada’s touring dance operetta Saori’s Birthday! in the U.S. and Europe, multiple plays directed by Anna Brenner and shows at the Chocolate Factory, Ontological-Hysteric Theater, P.S. 122 and other venues in New York and Chicago. Yi grew up in Beijing and Paris and graduated from the University of Chicago. Visit yi-zhao.com.
Ken Goodwin
Sound Design
Ken is a sound designer and engineer originally hailing from upstate New York and Pennsylvania. He has worked with a number of different companies in the U.S. and UK, ranging from drama and musical theatre to opera and rock ‘n’ roll. Ken’s background also includes a number of corporate clients and touring dance companies throughout the States. Selected companies he has worked with include Adirondack Theatre Festival, Berkeley Rep, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Spoleto Festival USA, Utah Festival Opera, Yale Rep and others. Ken also serves as an artistic associate for Yale Cabaret’s 44th season. He has also worked with numerous live bands at nightclubs and festivals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Benjamin Fainstein
Production Dramaturg
Benjamin is an MFA candidate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at Yale School of Drama, where his recent credits include The Game Room, Julius Caesar, Ruzante and The Tall Girls. He is the former co-artistic director of Whistler in the Dark and a loyal alum of PTP/NYC. As a writer and director, he has collaborated with various theatres in Boston, New York and Washington, DC. His new play Carnival/Invisible premieres at Yale Cabaret this spring.
Walton Wilson
Vocal Coach
Walton is head of voice and speech at Yale School of Drama. He was trained and designated as a voice teacher by Master Teacher Kristin Linklater and was trained and certified as an associate teacher by Master Teacher Catherine Fitzmaurice. He also studied with Richard Armstrong, Meredith Monk and Patsy Rodenburg. His New York credits include Golden Child, Victor/Victoria and The Violet Hour on Broadway, and the world-premiere productions of The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later, as well as Endangered Species. His regional theatre credits include productions at Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Rep, Long Wharf, McCarter, Shakespeare & Company and Williamstown Theatre Festival. At Yale Rep, he has served as voice and dialect coach on Autumn Sonata, Battle of Black and Dogs, Betty’s Summer Vacation, The Birds, The Black Monk, Boleros for the Disenchanted, The Cherry Orchard, The Evildoers, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella, Notes from Underground, Richard III and The Unmentionables.
Tara Rubin Casting
Casting Director
Tara has been casting at Yale Rep since 2004. Her Broadway credits include The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; Billy Elliot; The Country Girl; The Farnsworth Invention; Guys and Dolls; The History Boys; How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Imaginary Friends; Jersey Boys; Les Misérables; The Little Mermaid; A Little Night Music; Mamma Mia!; Mary Poppins; My Fair Lady; Oklahoma!; The Phantom of the Opera; The Pirate Queen; The Producers; Promises, Promises; Rock ‘n’ Roll; Shrek; Spamalot; and Young Frankenstein. For Lincoln Center Theater, she has cast Contact, The Frogs, Happiness and Thou Shalt Not. Tara’s off-Broadway credits include Love, Loss, and What I Wore and Second Stage Theatre, and regionally she has cast for Dallas Theater Center, the Kennedy Center and LJP.
cast
Julie Briskman *
Jacqueline
Julie is honored to be making her Berkeley Rep debut working with her dear friend Christopher Bayes. A resident of Seattle since 2000, Julie has performed leading roles at Seattle’s major theatres, including Anne Hathaway in The Beard of Avon, Beline in The Imaginary Invalid and Sarah in Spinning into Butter at Seattle Repertory Theatre; Eppie in The Lady with All the Answers (Gregory Award nominee), Jane Hopcroft in Absurd Person Singular, Jo/Mae in Dirty Blonde, Lottie in Enchanted April and Sylvia Fowler in The Women at A Contemporary Theatre; and Jenny Diver in The Threepenny Opera at Seattle Shakespeare Company. She was a member of the Guthrie Theater acting company for seven seasons, where her roles ranged from Olga in The Three Sisters to the title role in Molly Sweeney. Her national credits include Arizona Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the Old Globe, Portland Center Stage and Trinity Repertory Company. Julie is a proud producing core ensemble member of The Seagull Project and will be seen as Arkadina in February 2013.
Liam Craig *
Lucas / Thibaut
Liam is making his Berkeley Rep debut. His New York credits include the Broadway production of Boeing Boeing (understudying and performing the role of Robert) and off-Broadway productions of Aunt Dan and Lemon with the New Group, Don Juan with Theatre for a New Audience, The Internationalist at Vineyard Theatre and Two Noble Kinsmen at The Public Theater. His regional theatre credits include A Christmas Story at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Henry V at Shakespeare on the Sound, The Lady from the Sea at Intiman Theatre, The Scene at Hartford Stage and the Alley Theatre, A Servant of Two Masters at Yale Repertory Theatre and The Wild Duck at Bard SummerScape. His television and film credits include Boston Legal, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Mercy, Rescue Me, The Royal Tenenbaums and Unforgettable. Liam received his BA in English and theatre studies from Yale University and his MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program.
Steven Epp *
Co-Adapter / Sganarelle
Steven is thrilled to return to Berkeley Rep, where he played the title role in Figaro, Harpagon in The Miser and Sganarelle in Don Juan Giovanni, and where he adapted The Green Bird with Theatre de la Jeune Lune. Steven was an actor, writer and co-artistic director at Theatre de la Jeune Lune, winner of the 2005 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, from 1983 to 2008. His title roles there include Crusoe, Figaro, Gulliver, Hamlet, the Miser and Tartuffe, as well as major roles in Children of Paradise, Cyrano, Don Juan Giovanni, Germinal, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Little Prince, The Magic Flute, Romeo and Juliet, Scapin, The Seagull, The Three Musketeers, Twelfth Night and Yang Zen Froggs. His Yale Rep appearances include Theatre de la Jeune Lune’s Children of Paradise in 1993 and Truffaldino in 2010’s The Servant of Two Masters, directed by Christopher Bayes. His other theatre credits include productions at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Alley, American Repertory Theatre, Center Stage, the Guthrie, Intiman, La Jolla Playhouse, Spoleto Festival, Trinity Rep and off-Broadway’s New Victory Theater. Steven is the co-artistic director of the Moving Company and holds a degree in theatre and history from Gustavus Adolphus College. He was a 1999 Fox Fellow and a 2009 McKnight Theatre Artist Fellow. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and three children.
Renata Friedman *
Lucinde / Puppeteer
This is Renata’s Berkeley Rep debut. Her New York credits include The Importance of Being Earnest with the Aquila Theatre Company, The K of D at the New York International Fringe Festival and Fringe Encores and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at New Victory Theater. Her regional credits include The Cherry Sisters Revisited at Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Humana Festival; A Doctor in Spite of Himself at Yale Rep; The K of D at Seattle Rep and the Illusion Theater (Minneapolis); My Name Is Asher Lev at Barrington Stage Company; many appearances at ACT/Seattle, Intiman and Seattle Children’s Theatre, as well as a national repertory tour with the Aquila Theatre Company, the Icicle Creek Theatre Festival and the Orchard Project. A graduate of NYU, Renata is a 2011 Gregory Award nominee for Outstanding Actress for The K of D, and Seattle Magazine’s 2011 Actress of the Year.
Allen Gilmore *
M. Robert / Géronte
Allen is happy to return to Berkeley Rep where he’s been seen in Mary Zimmerman’s Arabian Nights and Argonautika. He also appeared in The Servant of Two Masters at Yale Rep. His other collaborations with director Chris Bayes include The Comedy of Errors at Idaho Shakespeare Festival, A Doctor in Spite of Himself at Intiman (Footlight Award), Endgame at Court Theatre and Scapin at Idaho Shakes, Intiman and Court (Black Theatre Alliance nomination). He recently performed as Athos in The Three Musketeers at Shakespeare Santa Cruz and the Player in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Writer’s Theater (BroadwayWorld Chicago nomination). His other favorite roles include Bynum in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Jefferson and BTA Awards nominations), Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac, Iago and Othello in Othello, James Hewlett in The African Company Presents Richard III (AUDELCO Award) and Siswe Banzi Is Dead (Jeff and BTA nominations). Allen is from Texas and a veteran of the U.S. Army Infantry.
Tyler Kent *
Léandre / Old Man (March 11–25)
Tyler happily returns to Berkeley Rep where he was seen in Mary Zimmerman’s Arabian Nights. His regional credits include The Arabian Nights at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Auctioning the Ainsleys and Stephen Schwartz’s Snapshots at TheatreWorks, Finian’s Rainbow with Woodminster Summer Musicals, Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors at Broadway by the Bay, Much Ado about Nothing with Extant Arts Company in Central Park, Vera Wilde at Shotgun Players and What The Butler Saw at Pacific Repertory Theatre. His voice can be heard on the recent workshop recording of the new Sherman and Cloud musical Makeover alongside conductor Lawrence Yurman. His solo cabaret Give Me the Simple Life toured China in 2011. Tyler is a regular contributor to PlayGround SF and a proud graduate of Whitman College and New York University’s Collaborative Arts Project 21. Visit tylerkent.com.
Chivas Michael *
Léandre / Old Man (February 10–March 10)
A Doctor in Spite of Himself marks Chivas’ Berkeley Rep debut. His off-Broadway work includes The Broadway Problem (Lincoln Center Concert), Brooklyn Omnibus at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Romeo and Juliet at Classic Stage Company and Sliding into the Beast with New York Theatre Workshop. Chivas’ regional credits include A Chorus Line and Oklahoma! at Porthouse Theatre; Flyin’ West, I Am a Man and Once on This Island at Mahogany Ensemble Theatre; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Hamlet at the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane; and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado about Nothing at Shakespeare on the Sound. University work includes Gem of the Ocean, Kalakkuta Show, Our Lady of 121st Street, A Month in the Country, A Raisin in the Sun, Rocket to the Moon and The Winter’s Tale at NYU; and El Haj Milik and The Wiz at Dillard University. His film credits include Fish: The True Story of a Boy in a Man’s Prison. Chivas has a BA from Dillard University and an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program.
Greg C. Powers
Trombone / Tuba / Ukulele
Greg, a Seattle-born musician, is happy to be making his Berkeley Rep debut. After years of toiling in pits, Greg is pleased to be appearing on the actual stage. He performs on didjeridu, garden hoses, trombone, tuba, ukulele and more. Since his graduation from the University of Washington, Greg has been on a musical journey across the globe. A Fulbright Fellow to India, he is a pioneer in adapting Hindustani Music to the trombone, and the only trombonist on earth performing in the Dhrupad style. Pran, Greg’s collaboration with Stuart Dempster, has just released its new CD, Traveler’s Todi. He is at home playing avant garde, banda, Dixieland, jazz, rock, salsa and swing, and you are as likely to find him in a burlesque theatre as in a symphony hall. Greg performs regularly with the Bavarian Village Band, the Bellevue Philharmonic, the Fremont Moisture Festival, La Banda Gozona, the Pacific Brass Quintet and the Village Theatre.
Rob Seitelman *
Valère / Cherub (March 20–25)
Rob is honored to make his Berkeley Rep debut with A Doctor in Spite of Himself. His New York credits include Marat/Sade, Swetnam the Woman-Hater and Talk of the Town at the Algonquin Oak Room. His Bay Area credits include A Christmas Carol, The Cocktail Hour, Imaginary Invalid, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Wizard of Oz, among others. He has also worked as a director and writer with shows premiering in the New York City Fringe Festival and New York Music Theatre Festival. Rob is the lead teacher of Delta Academy for the Performing Arts where he also directs, training the next generation of theatre artists. He will be seen in 9 to 5: The Musical at Willows Theatre Company this May and June. Rob is a graduate of American Conservatory Theater’s MFA program.
Jacob Ming-Trent *
Valère / Cherub (February 10–March 18)
Jacob last appeared at Berkeley Rep in Continental Divide. His Broadway work includes Shrek the Musical (original cast, Papa Ogre; understudy Shrek). His off-Broadway credits include The Merchant of Venice at TFANA, On the Levee with Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3 and Widowers’ Houses with Epic Theatre Ensemble, and his national tours include The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Continental Divide (Time Magazine Theatre Event of the Year), The Merchant of Venice and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Jacob has also appeared in workshops, readings and productions with The Acting Company, American Conservatory Theater, Barbican Theatre, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, LJP, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, New Georges, Playwrights Horizons and The Public. His TV credits include Bored to Death, Law & Order and Unforgettable, and his film credits include Forbidden Love. Jacob is a graduate of ACT’s MFA program.
Justine Williams *
Martine / Perrin
Justine is thrilled to be making her Berkeley Rep debut. Her New York and regional theatre credits include A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Galileo and Illyria with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey; Falfurious at Culture Project/Women Center Stage; The Illusion at Chautauqua Theater Company; Journey to the Ocean, directed by Aya Ogawa at the Foundry Theatre; My New Best Friend, a world premiere with Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre; and Murder in the Cathedral, directed by Alec Duffy with Hoi Polloi. With the Glass Contraption she performed in The Amazing Ted Show! at Ars Nova and the National Arts Festival in South Africa and Clowns at The Public and New York Clown Theatre Festival, directed by Chris Bayes. Her film credits include Facedancing (Official Selection, Maryland Film Festival) and He’s Way More Famous Than You. As a singer, Justine has worked with numerous bands and vocal ensembles, performing at Drom, Joe’s Pub and other New York venues. She received her training at the Actors Center Conservatory, Brown University and École Philipe Gaulier in Paris.
Robertson Witmer
Accordion / Clarinet / Drums
Rob lives in Seattle where he works as a freelance composer, musician and sound designer. His recent performance credits include A Doctor in Spite of Himself at Intiman, Go, Dog. Go! At Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at the 5th Avenue Theatre and West at On the Boards. His recent work as a composer and sound designer includes Cloud 9 at Strawberry Theatre Workshop, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Seattle Shakes, Of Mice and Men at Seattle Rep and O Lovely Glowworm at New Century Theatre Company. Rob also performs with many bands, including “Awesome,” the Love Markets and the Toucans.
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
You must have Adobe Acrobat to view PDFs. Download a free Adobe Acrobat reader.
production co-sponsor
Mechanics Bank
Wealth Management
season sponsors
