Play(gue)

Performing Arts at CCBC
presents

PLAY(GUE)

Directors
Zach Hartley
Julie Lewis

Set & Lighting Designer
Terri Raulie

Costume Designer
Eva Grove

Technical Director
Jason Randolph

Puppet Design
Ben Pierce

Stage Manager
Molly Prunty

Assistant Stage Manager
Fay McNair

October 30 at 5:00pm
November 2 at 4:00pm

Welcome to Play(gue). Theatre has been hit hard during the pandemic and we are so happy to be able to gather safely and participate in this ancient and sacred ritual. Plagues and pandemics have been a dark and forceful part of our existence. In this production we have devised six scenes that revolve around how humans have faced these dire circumstances: with grief, humor, and of course, storytelling.

Audience Safety Protocols:

The cast and production team are doing all we can to create a safe and comfortable outdoor atmosphere for our performances. To ensure these performances stay as safe as possible, we are asking our audiences to abide by the following safety protocols when attending the show.

All audience members attending the performances must wear a protective face covering (mask or face shield) at all times for the safety of all audience and performers.
All audience members will be expected to maintain social distancing with other audience members and performers and crew at all times.
Any audience members seen violating these safety protocols during the performance will be asked to leave.

THE COMPANY

Mags Carey
Louis Cervantes
J. Mae Giesselmann
Ross Hamilton
Mone’t Howard
Sarah Joyce
Sebastian Maizel
Ashley Mayfield
Missy Merry
Broadus Nesbitt III
Amani Nkere
Ben Pierce
Dan Poletynski
Elaya Zsebenyi
Zoe Zsebenyi

SCENES

The number next to each scene description corresponds to the location number on the map below. You will be assigned a starting location at check in, and then escorted from scene to scene by actors.

1. Pandemic Play: Avoidance – Two roommates try to order a pizza safely during Covid 19.
Directed by Julie Lewis
Starring: Mags Carey, Mone’t Howard, & Ashley Mayfield

2. August – Based on a poem by Mary Oliver’s, August, is about observing a family dealing with the loss of control in the face of a terminal illness. How do we behave when we must be adjacent to inevitable death?
Directed by Zach Hartley
Starring: Elaya Zsebenyi & Sarah Joyce

3. Masque of the Red Death – Based on the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, wealthy party revelers gather in the house of Prince Prospero to attend a masquerade ball, while outside a virus known as The Red Death Rages. They believe they are immune, closed off from the suffering of those less fortunate.
Directed by Julie Lewis
Starring: Sebastian Maizel, J. Mae Giesselmann, Missy Merry, & Ben Pierce

4. Hello, Neighbor – Inspired by the poetry of the American AIDS Crisis, this piece examines the external and internal responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Directed by Zach Hartley
Starring: Broadus Nesbitt III & Louis Cervantes

5. Oedipus Wrecks – Poor Oedipus, am I right? The guy rescues Thebes from the Sphinx, accepts the responsibility of the crown, and implements a sensible public health policy to help fight the Theban plague. And what thanks does he get? Anti-tyranny protests and conspiracy theories regarding exactly how much squid blood runs through his veins.
Directed by Zach Hartley
Starring: Ross Hamilton, Amani Nkere, Zoe Zsebenyi

6. A Journal of the Plague Year – Based on the novel by Daniel Defoe, travel with us to London during the Bubonic Plague.
Directed by Julie Lewis
Starring: Dan Poletynski

LOCATIONS

Check in at the ROMA building under the Green Theatre canopy upon arrival.

Quad between the SSRV and ADMIN Buildings
Front entrance to AHUM by Art Gallery
Outdoor atrium area of AHUM
In the sitting garden area between AHUM and the parking lot
Entrance to WELL on parking lot side
At the Peace Sculpture and Fountain between ROMA and SSRV

PRODUCTION STAFF

PRODUCTION STAFF BIOS

ZACH HARTLEY (Director) (MFA: Acting – Kent State University, BA: Theatre – The Ohio State University) has directed and performed regionally and internationally with many companies including the Contemporary American Theatre Company, The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, and the Virginia Arts Festival. His previous directing credits at CCBC include She Kills Monsters, Working: A Musical and Rashomon, and fight choreography for Rashomon, Romeo and Juliet, The Zoo Story, and True West. He is a certified teacher of the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique through the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium.

JULIE LEWIS (Director)

is a Professor, Playwright, Director and Coordinator of the CCBC Theatre Program. She received her BA in Writing Arts and Theatre from SUNY Oswego and her MFA in Playwriting from Brooklyn College. Her original plays include Henry’s Holiday (Winner of the Perishable Theatre’s Women’s Playwriting Festival), Obituary Mambo (Abingdon Theatre, NYC), Plastic Haircut, Three Hundred Out of Hades, Quiver and Sink (Mohawk Valley Community College), and Smolder and an adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (CCBC Essex). Her works have been produced in the Samuel French New Play Festival, Manhattan Theatre Source’s Estrogenius Festival, NYC’s Ensemble Theatre’s Opal Series, and Fitchburg State’s Americulture Festival. Locally, her plays have been produced at The Strand, Glass Mind Theatre, Vagabonds, The Kennedy Center (staged reading) and Fells Point Corner Theatre. Julie’s directing credits include Lysistrata, The Skin of Our Teeth, Marco Polo Sings a Solo, Blithe Spirit, The Maids, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Metamorphoses, Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh, M. Butterfly, Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom and Pullman, WA, and most recently Suzan Lori-Parks’ Father Comes Home for the Wars. Julie is most proud of the devised work she has created with her students, including War Stories Staged (Winner of the League of Innovations Award) and The Consumables (performed at the KCACTF Region 2 Fringe and Baltimore’s ArtScape). Her devised production of Hamlet Lost/Found was chosen to perform on the main stage of the 2017 KCACTF Region 2 Festival, as well as her production of Waiting for Godot (set in Baltimore), which garnished two National Kennedy Center Awards in 2018.Julie is a 2012 recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Grant in Playwriting and English Writing Arts Alumni Award in Playwriting, SUNY Oswego, 2013. She directs annually in the CCBC Academic Theatre Program and teaches Script Analysis, Introduction to Theatre and Writing for the Stage.

TERRI RAULIE (Scenic & Lighting Designer) is an Assistant Professor in the Performing Arts and Humanities Department at CCBC. She holds a BFA and an MA in Theatre Design and Production from Montclair State University in New Jersey. Professional and regional credits include The Whole Theatre, The Hangar Theatre, and Playwright Horizons in New Jersey and New York. Locally, she has designed sets and/or lights for productions with Cockpit-in-Court Theatre, Phoenix Festival Theatre, and the Baltimore School for the Arts.

EVA GROVE (Costume Designer) is thrilled to be costuming for the Performing Arts at CCBC having previously costumed for Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre’s productions of Avenue Q, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Toward Zero, The Gazebo, and Don’t Drink The Water. Elsewhere onstage, she has been seen in such shows as A Christmas Story, Cabaret, Bridges of Madison County, Evita, and a Helen Hayes-nominated production of A Chorus Line. Eva was blessed to have traveled the US and Canada in 3 national tours: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Can-Can, and Singin’ in the Rain.

JASON RANDOLPH (Technical Director)
BS Math, College of William and Mary
MFA Rinehart School of Sculpture, MICA
MFA Technical Theatre and Design, UVA
TD/Resident Scenic Designer Single Carrot Theatre 2014-2017
TD CCBC Essex 2015-present
TD Cockpit in Court Summer Theater 2016-present

BRADLEY NORRIS (Sound Designer) is the Production Manager for the Performing Arts Department at CCBC. He has lived and worked in the Baltimore Theatre Community for ten years now as a Director, Production Manager, Designer, Fight Choreographer, and pretty much any other role that needs doing. Previously he was based in Chicago, where he did much of the same and more. He is a proud Co-Founder of Cohesion Theatre Company, and enjoys bringing underserved voices to the stage. If there is a theatre in the Baltimore area, chances are he has worked there in some capacity. If not, he is too tired to start now.

Special Thanks

Dr. Sandra Kurtinitis | CCBC President
Dr. Joaquin Martinez | Provost & Vice President of Instruction
Dr. Rich Lilley | Vice President of Enrollment & Student Services
Dr. William Watson | Dean of Instr, School of Arts & Communication
Professor Patti Crossman | Chair of Performing Arts and Humanities
Anne M. Lefter | Director, Performing Arts
Johanna Lawrence | Administrative Support Assistant, Performing Arts
Marc Ershler | Campus Director, Essex
G. Maurice “Moe” Conn, III | Technical Director, CCBC Catonsville
CCBC Public Safety
CCBC Safety Monitors
Dr. Carla Alexander