Avant Bard is proud to announce the 2019 edition of Scripts in Play Festival, its signature play-reading series, February 8 to 24, 2019. This year’s selection features seven plays over two weekends followed by a weekend-long encore presentation of the 2018 Capital Fringe hit A Two Woman Hamlet in full production.

Since 2016, Avant Bard’s Scripts in Play Festival has been a showcase and testing ground for fresh scripts with programming potential, presented by rising local professional talent. Five works have already gone on from Scripts in Play readings to full production by Avant Bard: The Good Devil (in Spite of Himself); the Helen Hayes Award-nominated TAME.; Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight; Illyria, or What You Will; and A Misanthrope, upcoming in spring.     

“Our Scripts in Play audiences really help shape who we are as a theatre company,” said Artistic and Executive Director Tom Prewitt. “We listen closely to their feedback during these tryout readings and weigh it carefully when programming our seasons. In that sense attending Scripts in Play events can be an exciting insider experience.”

Avant Bard’s mission is to produce classic works, both time-tested and contemporary, and accordingly the eight works chosen for this year’s festival share a common theme: “The past reprocessed, classics retooled for today.”

“Scripts In Play is a great time to explore what makes an Avant Bard play, what it means to be classic,” said Director of Audience Engagement Quill Nebeker, who curated this year’s festival with input from a select reading team of directors and other theater artists. “So we’ve paid special attention to picking plays that have engaged the past in an original and provocative way—and we’re all ears to hear how they sound to our creatively curious theatre lovers.”

On the festival bill joining Shakespeare’s Hamlet are scripts by Lauren Gunderson and Lojo Simon, together with locally grown works by Richard Byrne, Allyson Currin, Matthew Minnicino, Alexandra Petri, and Amanda Quain & Rebecca Speas.

The full three-weekend program is below.

VENUE: All but one of the performances will be at Gunston Arts Center, Theatre Two, 2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA 22206. (The exception is the February 16 reading of a play about art, which will be at Fred Schnider Art Gallery, 888 North Quincy Street, Arlington, VA 22203.)

ADMISSION: The seven play readings are free, no reservations required. The performances February 22 to 24 of A Two Woman Hamlet are Pay What You Will, with advance reservations at avantbard.org/tickets recommended.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Email  info@avantbard.org or call 703-418-4808.

SCRIPTS IN PLAY FESTIVAL 2019 PROGRAM

WEEKEND #3

February 22 & 23, 7:30 pm, and February 24, 2 pm

A Two Woman Hamlet
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Mara Sherman
Starring Hannah Sweet & Nicola Collett
ADMISSION: Pay What You Will

No matter how many Hamlets you’ve seen, you have never seen it like this: two women, armed with nothing but a fake skull, a real shovel, and a lot of imagination, perform Shakespeare’s classic play. Sounds far-fetched? The Washington Post called it “ingenious…a production whose approach is all about turning limits into opportunity.” DC Metro Theater Arts called it “hilariously entertaining…something I’d not imagined was possible to do.” A weekend-long encore of the Capital Fringe hit, A Two Woman Hamlet is presented as a full production at a Pay What You Will price.

Following the performances of A Two Woman Hamlet February 22, 23 & 24, hang out with cast members at Delia’s and enjoy a unique “Meet the Cast” menu featuring special prices on dishes and drinks!

Our delicious restaurant partner Delia’s will take 15% off your bill during the Scripts in Play Festival if you mention “Avant Bard” or “Scripts in Play.” At all other times, Delia’s will take 10% off your bill if you mention “Avant Bard.” Delia’s is minutes from Gunston Arts Center at 2931 South Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22206; (571) 483-0159.

WEEKEND #2

Thursday, February 14, 7:30 pm

Hey Darcy! A Bromantic Comedy
By Amanda Quain & Rebecca Speas
Directed by Katie Ganem
Starring Amanda Quain & Rebecca Speas

It’s the prequel you didn’t know you needed, Pride & Prejudice meets Dude, Where’s My Car? Hey Darcy! A Bromantic Comedy is the story of Darcy and Bingley’s rollicking, youthful road trip across Europe, where boys become men, and men become more-emotionally-accessible-yet-still-bumblingly-affable men (but still played by women). Starring playwrights Amanda Quain and Rebecca Speas as the surprisingly modern suitors, Hey Darcy! is a hot take on Austen’s quintessential (b)romantic-era novel.

Friday, February 15, 7:30 pm

Three Suitcases
By Richard Byrne
Directed by Quill Nebeker

Here’s what we know: Expressionist playwright Ernst Toller, whose poems and plays were burnt in the first fires of the Nazi regime, was exiled to America. We know that while living here, he had a secretary named Ilse Burroughs, wife of Beat Generation icon William S. Burroughs. Here’s what we don’t know: When the two undoubtedly met, what was said? Here’s more we don’t know:  What duty does art have to the people? What is the role of poetry in resistance? And can words change the world? Three Suitcases is a sharp, passionate turn of speculative fiction from Richard Byrne, who wrote the book and lyrics for Nero/Pseudo, produced by Avant Bard in 2014.

Saturday, February 16, 7:30 pm

Adoration of Dora
By Lojo Simon
Directed by Jon Jon Johnson
VENUE: Fred Schnider Art Gallery, 888 North Quincy Street, Arlington, VA 22203

Best known (unjustly) as the model behind many of Picasso’s most famous portraits, Dora Maar was already an extraordinary photographer long before Pablo entered the frame. As a surrealist, she made it her art to find the latent truth hidden in the inner workings of the mind. As a photographer, she made it her mission to document and combat the rise of inequality and fascism. Adoration of Dora is her story, told in dreamy snapshots inspired by her art. It was written by West Coast playwright Lojo Simon and won the 2012 David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award. Adoration of Dora is presented in special partnership at the Fred Schnider Art Gallery in Ballston to explore the intersection of theatre and visual art.

Sunday, February 17, 2 pm

Ada and the Engine
By Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Rebecca Speas

Augusta Ada King, the only legitimate child of the amorous poet Lord Byron, had a love of her own: mathematics. Well, that…and a certain polymath-inventor, Charles Babbage, famous as “the father of the computer.” It’s true Babbage invented the hardware—the Analytic Engine—but the language, the song, the soul of the thing, the programming—that was all Ada, baby. From prolific playwright Lauren Gunderson, author of last season’s inspirational Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight, comes another whimsical scientific history that once again proves the future is, and has always been, female.

WEEKEND #1

Friday, February 8, 7:30 pm

Antigone
By Matt Minnicino
Directed by Jon Jon Johnson

A body rots in the sun. A girl takes a stand against the new regime. What is she fighting for? How far can she go? A collision of Sophocles’ masterpiece and modern America, a mixed-media myth for modern times about fear, tyranny, justice, revolution, revelation, and hope. From Matt Minnicino, author A Misanthrope, the 2017 Scripts in Play Festival favorite that will cap off our 2019 mainstage season.

Saturday, February 9, 7:30 pm

Tragedy Averted
By Alexandra Petri
Directed by Doug Robinson

What if, instead of dying tragically at the end of the play, Shakespeare’s heroines had a place where they could all meet and form lasting friendships? A neutral ground free from war, from bumbling priests and conniving villains, a place with…capture the flag? In Tragedy Averted, Cordelia, Desdemona, Juliet, and Ophelia meet at a summer camp with a dark secret that will force them to find strengths and friends they didn’t know they had. Written by viral Washington Post humorist and current Welder Alexandra Petri.

Sunday, February 10, 2 pm

Hercules in Russia
By Allyson Currin
Directed by Doug Robinson

Another rebellion is not what Jim Hercules needs. Hercules in Russia tells the true story of a free black man born in the Reconstruction South who has fled to Russia to escape the demons of his history in America, finding a new life as a royal guard in the court of Nicholas II. As the specter of revolution looms over his adopted motherland, Hercules must weigh past against present, head against heart, and loyalty against justice. Written by Allyson Currin, two-time Helen Hayes Award nominee, former Welder, and author of Caesar and Dada, produced by Avant Bard in 2013.

By Ezra Tozian

In Avant Bard’s production of Illyria, or What You Will—freely adapted from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night by Jonelle Walker and Mitchell Hébert—the character of Cesario  (who falls in love with Orsino and is loved by Olivia), was reimagined as nonbinary. Here Ezra Tozian, the nonbinary actor who plays Cesario, shares their very personal feelings about the experience.

This has been an intense ride, y’all. What started off as one (still terrifying, but considered within my wheelhouse) role in Illyria has turned into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me.

I didn’t get the role of Cesario the traditional way. Our original cast member needed to leave the production before rehearsals started, and I found myself facing two options: option one, the option I usually take, was to remain silent but supportive. I would offer to do my best to help find another nonbinary actor for the director and producer and stay in my already-cast lane. Option two, the really scary one, involved me asking for the role since I, too, was nonbinary. A role that I knew I wouldn’t normally be cast in since it was such a stretch for me as an actor and could very well end in failure. But I asked. And, to my surprise, everyone said yes.

See, here’s the thing, growing up in theatre, I learned to never expect to see a Shakespearean Lover of my size. I certainly never thought I’d get the chance to see a Shakespearean Lover of my gender. And I never thought I’d get the chance to play one—let alone one as youthful, carefree, and hopeful as Cesario.

And here I am. Fat body and all. Genderqueer, nonbinary, trans body, and all. Up on that stage, being loved for who I am with no conditions attached. I’m not fetishized. I’m not promised love once I lose 20 pounds. 30 pounds. 50 pounds. Nothing’s found wrong with my loves for finding me attractive and wanting to be with me, as is. There are no sidelong glances of pity for anyone involved.

It’s revolutionary for me to be in a space like that. It’s vital that audiences see bodies like mine in a space like that. That is how you start to change minds. By casting like this. By showing audiences how normal, how automatic, how understandable, how joyous it is to find someone like Cesario lovable—and, by association, how bodies like mine can be lovable. A body that has been deemed unlovable for as far back as my memory goes. And yet…here we are.

I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to acknowledge my privilege and its large contribution to this moment: I have an incredibly supportive mother and a long-term partner who have been there for me physically, emotionally, and financially. They, as well as a small but mighty community of friends, all stayed with me through my gender reveal, pronoun change, and name change because they love me and were smart enough to realize nothing about me had changed, but rather had been found. I’m white. I’m also the type of fat and trans body you can put onstage and have people accept fairly easily. My pronouns may confuse your brain, but my appearance does not. I may be fat, but I’m also the statistical average of the United States. Bodies like mine are seen everywhere except in entertainment, and while I’m thrilled that my body is now being showcased and accepted in this show, I know that could very well change with the next one.

I know that there are more bodies out there that need love and acceptance just as much as mine does. I hope we can acknowledge the joy of this moment and use it as fuel to keep moving in the right direction for future productions. And I hope any theater folks reading this consider the radical act of full diversity for their future productions. The amount of joy it brings is truly immeasurable.

I’ve put everything I have into this character, into this show. I’ve learned so much from this experience. I can finally say that I fucking earned the shit out of this and I’m so fucking proud.

For those that have come to the show, thank you for sharing this with me, with us.

Adapted from DC Metro Theater Arts, where this essay first appeared.

Ezra Tozian is a genderqueer, multidisciplinary artist rocking it out in Washington, DC. Some of their previous credits include Use All Available Doors (Pinky Swear Productions), The Trojan Women Project (Brave Spirits Theatre), Crave (Avalanche Theatre Company), and the first iteration of The Tarot Reading.

Remember the 1980s when Shakespeare dropped in on a dive bar in downtown Manhattan? You don’t?! Well then, listen to this playlist to hear what inspired the original music you’ll hear when the DJ spins and the divas sing in Club ILLYRIA.

Click link to listen: ILLYRIA Inspirations playlist by Composer/Sound Designer Aaron Bliden

Illyria, or What You Will, freely adapted from Twelfth Night by Jonelle Walker and Mitchell Hébert, directed by Mitchell Hébert. October 18 to November 18, 2018 at Gunston Arts Center.

Meet the cast and creative team who are
getting it on in a downtown dive bar—in Jonelle Walker and Mitchell Hébert’s freewheeling queering of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

ILLYRIA, or What You Will reimagines Shakespeare’s comedy of mixed-signal love in a downtown Manhattan dive bar in the early 1980s, where identity, sex, and gender are what you will. But who will fall in love with whom? And what music of love will the divas and DJ play? This fresh slant on a classic shakes up Shakespeare with the driving beats and dingy glamor of the post-disco era.

CAST

Frank Britton (DJ Feste), a nine-year Acting Company member, marks his 16th Avant Bard production with Illyria or What You Will following The Tempest last spring. He recently appeared in Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train (2018 Helen Hayes Award winner of the Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play – Helen, and the 2017 Broadway World Regional Award winner for Best Actor in a Play – Small Professional Theatre) and The Farnsworth Invention (both at 1st Stage) and Judy Moody & Stink: The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Treasure Hunt (Adventure Theatre, directed by Mitchell Hébert). A native Washingtonian, he has appeared with many area theatres over the past sixteen years. His credits include Wig Out! (Studio Theatre), King Lear (Avant Bard), Back to Methuselah: As Far As Thought Can Reach (Washington Stage Guild), The Freshest Snow Whyte (Imagination Stage), and Black Nativity (Theater Alliance). Other area credits include Two Trains Running and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Round House Theatre), Passion Play: a cycle, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Forum Theatre), Kafka’s Metamorphosis (Synetic Theater), The Balcony and Mother Courage and Her Children (SCENA Theatre), and Orpheus Descending (Arena Stage). Upcoming: Two Trains Running (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park/Milwaukee Repertory Theater). Many, many thanks to Mitchell, Jonelle, Tom, and the Cast and Crew.

Katie Gallagher (Toby) is incredibly excited to be joining Avant Bard for this production. She holds a BA in Theatre and Arabic Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she performed in The Amish Project, Antigone, and Clove, and assistant-directed Love and Information. She is looking forward to exploring DC theatre!

Emma Loughran Hébert (Maria) is stoked to be a part of her first production at Avant Bard! Previously, she choreographed Beauty and the Beast at The Woods Academy and was the Assistant Choreographer for Eurydice at The University of Maryland.  Recent performance credits include Hooded: Or, Being Black for Dummies at Mosaic Theater Company, The Last Burlesque with Pinky Swear Productions, 100 Days with KG Dance, The Pillowman at Forum Theatre, Dante’s Inferno with Synetic Theatre, She Kills Monsters at Rorschach Theatre, and A Happenstance Circus  with Happenstance Theatre. She holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Maryland.

Christopher Henley (Malvolio) is a founding Ensemble Member of (as we were then known) Washington Shakespeare Company and was Artistic Director from 1996 until 2013. He has been working in DC theatre since 1979, when cast as Michael Williams in Henry V at Source Theatre Company. In our inaugural production of Hamlet, he played Horatio; he directed our second Hamlet. In our first Tempest, he played Antonio; he directed our second and played Prospero in our third, last season. He directed our first Lear and played The Fool and The King of France in our second. In our first Macbeth, he played Donalbain; in our second, Duncan, MacDuff, and son of MacDuff. He directed our production of The Merchant of Venice and co-directed (with Jay Hardee) our second Richard III. Favorite non-Shakes directing includes our Caligula and Camille: a tearjerker. Other Shakespearean parts for us: Richard II, Falstaff, Henry IV, Lysander, Jacques, Caska, Don John, Don Pedro, and Cardinal Pandulph. He also played Don John at the Folger and Antonio in The Two Gentlemen of Verona for Bard on Wheels. Many non-Shakespearean roles for us include, most recently, Truman Capote in Holiday Memories. Since retiring into the role of Artistic Director Emeritus at Avant Bard, he has been committing journalism as a Contributing Writer for DCTheatreScene.com (https://dctheatrescene.com/author/christopher-henley/) and parenting as the father of Aksel and Ivona.

Miss Kitty LeLynx (Fabian) was last seen with Avant Bard in its 2017 Scripts in Play Festival. Other shows include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Puck), Kabarett & Cabaret (Petronella), Rent (Angel), Vanilla Latte (Valerie), and Jilly Manilly (LaQuanda Rae). Catholic University of America, BM, Musical Theatre. Otherwise known as Jase Parker. “Live in FIERCE…not in fear.”

Adam Lemos (Antonio) is thrilled to be making his debut with Avant Bard. He recently graduated from George Mason University with a BFA in Performance. Credits include Constellation Theatre Company, Melancholy Play (Frank u/s). GMU: An Experiment With an Air Pump; Dido, Queen of Carthage; and Six Characters in Search of an Author. Adam is also a senior teaching artist for Acting for Young People.

Montana Monardes (Sebastian) is thrilled to be making his Avant Bard and DC debut in this production. He is a 2018 graduate of the University of Maryland’s School of Theatre Dance and Performance Studies, where he received a BA in Theatrical Performance. While at Maryland he performed in productions such as Eurydice, Love and Information, and The Importance of Being Earnest. Montana is extremely grateful for this opportunity to be welcomed into the DC theatre community and hopes to be back for future Avant Bard productions. www.montanamonardes.com   

Jenna Rossman (Andrew) is STOKED to be working with this incredible team of artists on this production. Jenna is an actor and teaching artist who is passionate about new play development, Shakespeare, and immersive performance. Most recently, she was seen as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Prince George’s Shakespeare in the Parks). Other select regional credits include As You Like It (Baltimore Center Stage), Girls in Cars Underwater (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center NPC), The Whale (Rep Stage), Pullman, WA (Edge of the Universe Players 2), Disgraced (NextStop Theatre), and A Fool’s Paradise: 30 Shakespeare Scenes in 60 Min. (Edinburgh Festival Fringe). She is a proud graduate of Towson University’s Acting program and studied improvisation at The Second City and iO Improv Theater (Chicago).

Matthew Sparacino (Orsino) is very excited to be making his Avant Bard debut with Illyria! A native of the DC area, Matt has performed with many local theatres over the past decade. He most recently appeared in Don Cristóbal with Pointless Theatre (with whom he is an artistic associate). Other select credits include Hugo Ball, Doctor Caligari, and A Very Pointless Holiday Spectacular (also with Pointless); The Farnsworth Invention and Lobby Hero (1st Stage); Six Degrees of Separation (Keegan Theatre); The Winter’s Tale and Antony and Cleopatra (Folger Theatre); Richard II, Dracula and The Merchant of Venice (Chesapeake Shakespeare); and Fever/Dream (Woolly Mammoth). Matt holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Maryland. He’d like to thank Mitch and Tom for this opportunity, and for all they’ve taught him over the years. www.matthewsparacino.com

Dani Stoller (Olivia) is so excited to be making her Avant Bard debut in Illyria! Dani is an actress and playwright originally from Brooklyn, New York. Previous DC credits include Olney Theatre Center: The Crucible (Abigail Williams), Annie (Lily St. Regis), The Diary of Anne Frank (Margot Frank); Folger Theatre: Midsummer (Flute), District Merchants (Jessica), As You Like It (Phoebe); Studio Theater: Carrie the Musical; 1st Stage: The Good Counselor, Blithe Spirit, The Italian American Reconciliation, Bat Boy (Helen Hayes Nomination: Best Supporting Actress in a Musical). BFA, Ithaca College. www.danistoller.com

Ezra Tozian (Viola/Cesario) is a genderqueer, multidisciplinary artist rocking it out in Washington, DC. This is their first time performing with Avant Bard and they couldn’t be more excited for the challenge! Some of their previous credits include Use All Available Doors (Pinky Swear Productions), The Trojan Women Project (Brave Spirits Theatre), Crave (Avalanche Theatre Company), and the first iteration of The Tarot Reading.

CREATIVE TEAM AND PRODUCTION CREW

Jonelle Walker (Co-Adapter, Dramaturg) is a Helen Hayes Award–nominated playwright, theatre-maker, and scholar who lives and works in Washington, DC, but will always call Texas home. Her work as a playwright includes TAME. (2016 Helen Hayes Award nomination, Best Adaptation of a Play or Musical), Prophets of Doom (2016), The Theatre of Self-Loathing (2015), and numerous short plays. She is a Company Member and Associate Producer with Rorschach Theatre. Jonelle holds an MA and is pursuing a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Maryland.

Mitchell Hébert (Director, Co-Adapter) has worked as a director at Round House Theatre (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Glengarry Glen Ross), Forum Theatre (The Illusion), Olney Theatre Center (Rabbit Hole), and Adventure Theatre (Judy Moody and Stink). As an actor his recent roles include Richard Burbage and Ben Jonson in The Book of Will  (Round House Theatre), Roy Cohn in Angels in America parts 1 and 2 (a co-production of Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center), and Arnold in Hir (Woolly Mammoth Theatre). At the University of Maryland, where he is on the faculty, he has directed Eurydice, The Amish Project, and The Distance from Here and co-directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was performed at UMD and The National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in Beijing, China. Mitch has received Helen Hayes Awards for both acting (After the Fall at Theatre J) and directing (Glengarry Glen Ross at Round House Theatre), in addition to several nominations as an actor and director.

Jos. B. Musumeci, Jr. (Set Designer), who has designed the scenery for Othello, Nero/Pseudo, and King John for Avant Bard and the lighting for last season’s The Tempest, is excited to return as Set Designer for Illyria. Other recent work includes scenery for Flying V’s Fights 3: The Secret History of the Unknown World and You, or Whatever I Can Get, and the lighting for Twelfth Night, Spring Awakening, and Beyond the Sunset at St. Mary’s College, where he has just completed his first year as Technical Director and Lighting Designer, after a decade and a half as the Director of Theatre and Events at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington.

Kristen P Ahern (Costume Designer) is excited for her first show with Avant Bard and third with Mitch! Recent designs include Seven Deadly Sins (Wolf Trap Opera), Judy Moody and Stink… (Adventure Theatre MTC), The Princess and the Pauper (Imagination Stage), and Love and Information (University of Maryland). Kristen is from Chicago, where where she worked with Silk Road Rising, Collaboraction, Boho Theatre Ensemble, and others. She spent summers at Hope Summer Repertory Theatre, where her designs included The Fantasticks, Hairspray and Les Miserables. www.kristenp.com/

John D. Alexander (Lighting Designer) is excited to return to Avant Bard. His recent designs include the national tour of The Migration: Reflections of Jacob Lawrence presented by Step Afrika!, the national tour of Anne and Emmett by Janet Langhart Cohen, Marie and Rosetta by George Brant (Mosaic Theater Company), and Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau (TheatreSquared). Upcoming design includes A Civil War Christmas by Paula Vogel (1st Stage).

Aaron Bliden (Composer/Sound Designer) is a performance artist based in Washington, DC. He has composed, arranged, and directed music for Pointless Theatre’s productions of Imagination Meltdown Adventure, Minnie the Moocher, A Very Pointless Holiday Spectacular, Hugo Ball, d0t, and Solar System Show. At the University of Maryland in College Park, he worked on Eurydice, The Amish Project, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He worked on Rorschach Theatre’s Glassheart and for numerous short films for Chicago Sketch outfit Claymore Productions.  He co-wrote the musicals Go to Hell, Eugene!! and Please Listen: A Musical Chaos for the Capital Fringe Festival. Aaron is grateful to Avant Bard for the opportunity to work on Illyria.

Emma Loughran Hébert (Choreographer). See bio above under Cast.

Claudia Rosales Waters (Intimacy Coordinator/Assistant Director/Assistant Choreographer) is a local DC playwright, performer, and intimacy director. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Performance from the University of Maryland. As an intimacy director, she has worked with Mosaic Theater Company on Hooded, Or Being Black for Dummies. Recent productions include Women of Troy: Voices from Afghanistan (Alliance for New-Music Theatre) and Trojan Women (Brave Spirits).  Claudia is the Program Associate with Young Playwrights’ Theater.

Liz Long (Properties Designer) is excited for her first show with Avant Bard, especially with it’s ’80s setting. Just how many Duran Duran references did she manage to sneak in? Recent designs include Coraline and 1776 (Landless Theatre Company), The Man Who, The River, and Happy Hour (Spooky Action Theater), and Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche (Monumental Theater).  Liz is the Production Manager for Encore Decor Design and Event Production.

Bryan Boyd (Stage Manager) is an up-and-coming Stage Manager in the DMV. Previous credits include Adventure Theater MTC: SM/Les Miserables; Creative Cauldron: ASM/Witch, SM/The Mistress Cycle; Constellation Theatre Company: ASM/The Skin of Our Teeth; ArtsCentric: SM/Sincerely Holidays, ASM/Sister Act; Mosaic Theater Company: ASM/Hooded or Being Black for Dummies, ASM/Charm; Montgomery College Summer Dinner Theater: SM/West Side Story, SM/Into the Woods. He holds a BA in Communication from Arizona State University and an AA in Theater Performance from Montgomery College.

Jenna Rossman (Special Effects). See bio above under Cast.

Ralph Derbyshire (Technical Director) is an Arlington native.  He has worked throughout the DC region for the last 15 years, most notably with The Smithsonian Folklife Festival (2002–08 2010–15), George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium (2007–12), as well as freelancing with many local crewing companies setting up special events and concerts.  He has held the titles of master carpenter, master flyman, assistant stage manager, and shop foreman. He also works and volunteers with the National Folk Festival as well as several other festivals locally and around the country. This is his third show with Avant Bard, after building the sets for The Gospel at Colonus and The Tempest last season.    

Jonelle Walker (Dramaturg). See bio above.

ILLYRIA, or What You Will plays October 18 to November 18, 2018, at Gunston Arts Center Theatre Two, 2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA. Tickets are available online or by calling 703-418-4804.

For its 29th season of making theatre on the edge, Avant Bard proudly announces three mainstage productions featuring classic comedies by Shakespeare and Molière newly adapted for now, plus a contemporary classic by Suzan-Lori Parks. In keeping with the company’s core commitment to affordability and access to timeless classics, Avant Bard also announces a new policy making Pay What You Will tickets available for every performance. 

Opening the season in October will be Illyria, or What You Will, freely adapted from Twelfth Night by Jonelle Walker and Mitchell Hébert, directed by Mitchell Hébert. Illyria reimagines Shakespeare’s crossed-signal love story in a downtown Manhattan ’80s dive bar, where the habitués are club kids of assorted genders and orientations who have come to the one place where they can be who they are. Walker’s play TAME., a feminist take on The Taming of the Shrew, was produced by Avant Bard in 2016 and received a Helen Hayes Award nomination. Hebért has received Helen Hayes Awards for both acting (After the Fall) and directing (Glengarry Glen Ross), in addition to other nominations as an actor and director.
* Illyria, or What You Will runs October 18 to November 19, 2018. Opening night is Tuesday, October 23, 2018, 7:30 pm.

Next up, in March 2019, is Topdog/Underdog, the Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary classic by Suzan-Lori Parks. Parks, one of the most acclaimed playwrights in American theatre, is a MacArthur “Genius” Award recipient and in 2015 was awarded the prestigious Gish Prize for Excellence in the Arts. Topdog/Underdog is about two African American brothers, named Lincoln and Booth, whose names foreshadow their destiny as they engage in a deadly game of one-upmanship. Parks encapsulates 400 years of African American history in a Cain-and-Abel fable for our time. In June The New York Times named this tensely funny and dead serious tragicomedy the best American play of the last 25 years.
* Topdog/Underdog runs March 14 to April 14, 2019. Opening night is Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 7:30 pm.

Rounding out Season 29 in May 2019 is A Misanthrope, a new distillation of Molière’s classic comedy by Matt Minnicino. A Manhattan-based playwright, Minnicino has adapted more than a dozen classics from the Greeks to Genet. A Misanthrope is a brisk, biting comedy about a cynic who thinks insincerity is a sin–but the joke’s on him when he falls for an ingenue who’s more than his intellectual equal. Minnicino’s A Misanthrope is written in slang-filled rhyming couplets, one howler after another; hypocrisy has never been more hilarious.
* A Misanthrope runs May 30 to June 30, 2019. Opening/press night is Tuesday, June 4, 2019, 7:30 pm.

“Each of these plays fits squarely and adventurously in our wheelhouse: bold and provocative productions of time-tested and contemporary classics, up close and personal,” said Tom Prewitt, Artistic and Executive Director of Avant Bard. “We’ve got an amazing lineup this season, and we hope audiences will share our excitement about it.”

A limited number of Pay What You Will tickets will go on sale online beginning the Monday before. Patrons can make advance ticket purchases online for any mainstage production, with a flat top price of only $40. Advance Pay What You Will tickets for all previews are also available now online.

On top of three mainstage shows, Avant Bard’s Season 29 will feature two special events: a month-long series of free play readings and a benefit performance by celebrity couple Sheila Johnson and William T. Newman Jr.

Avant Bard’s signature play-reading series, the Scripts in Play Festival (“artistic hopefuls for future productions”) kicks off in February 2019 with a slate of scripts and projects now being curated. Among the works that started out as Scripts in Play readings and then went on to stagings by Avant Bard are the Helen Hayes Award-nominated TAME., Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends
Her Life Tonight, and two-thirds of Season 29: Illyria, or What You Will and A Misanthrope. The free Scripts in Play Festival runs February 4 to 24, 2019, at Gunston Arts Center Theatre Two (dates and plays TBA).

And coming up in fall 2018 is a one-night-only benefit reading of Love Letters by A. R. Gurney (date, time, and venue TBA). This gently funny and deeply moving two-hander consists of letters exchanged over a lifetime between a couple who grew up together, went their separate ways, but continued to share confidences. Love Letters will star real-life married couple Sheila Johnson and William T. Newman Jr., who first met as actors in the Negro Ensemble Company. Johnson, co-founder of BET Network, is CEO of Salamander Hotels and Resorts and part owner of the Washington Mystics, Wizards, and Capitals. Avant Bard audiences will remember Newman as Preacher Oedipus in The Gospel at Colonus. In his day job, he is Arlington County Circuit Court Chief Judge.

“Avant Bard is all about discovery and connectivity,” said Prewitt. “We take what might be from then and make it mean now. We take what might be from not long ago and look at it anew. And we keep on the lookout for works that should have a life in seasons to come. In this way, we keep our hands on the pulse of the past, present, and future-all in hopes of reaching audiences who enjoy theatre on the edge.”

VENUE
All mainstage productions will be at Gunston Arts Center, Theatre Two, 2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA 22206.

PASSPORTS AND TICKETS
Subscriptions for Avant Bard’s 2018-2019 season (“Passports”) may be purchased online, through the box office at 703-418-4808, or by email at boxoffice@avantbard.org.

TICKET INFORMATION
Avant Bard tickets are $40 and available online or by calling 703-418-4808. For every Avant Bard performance, a limited number of tickets are Pay What You Will, which means you can name your price. You can reserve PWYW tickets online the Monday before each performance for a small service minimum, or at the door with no minimum. All Avant Bard tickets including PWYW are General Admission; seating is first-come-first-served.