07/08 main season
George Bernard Shaw, Playwright
Les Waters, Director
Madeleine Oldham, Dramaturg
Annie Smart, Scenic Design
Anna R. Oliver, Costume Design
Alexander V. Nichols, Lighting Design
Obadiah Eaves, Original Composition and Sound Design
Lynne Soffer, Dialect and Text Coach
Michael Suenkel, Production Stage Manager
Karen Szpaller, Assistant Stage Manager
Amy Potozkin, Casting Director
Janet Foster, New York Casting
Amy Lieberman, Los Angeles Casting
cast (in order of appearance)
Allison Jean White, Ellie Dunn
Lynne Soffer, Nurse Guinness
Michael Winters, Captain Shotover
Susan Wilder, Ariadne Utterword
Michelle Morain, Hesione Hushabye
Matt Gottlieb, Mazzini Dunn
Stephen Caffrey, Hector Hushabye
David Chandler, Boss Mangan
Michael Ray Wisely, Randall Utterword
Chris Ayles, Burglar
les waters
(Director) is in his fifth year as associate artistic director of Berkeley Rep, where he has staged Eurydice, Fêtes de la Nuit, Finn in the Underworld, The Glass Menagerie, The Mystery of Irma Vep, The Pillowman, Suddenly Last Summer, To the Lighthouse and Yellowman. He won an Obie Award for Big Love, directing its premiere at the Humana Festival and subsequent runs at Berkeley Rep, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Goodman Theatre and Long Wharf Theater. In addition to Big Love, his New York credits include the Connelly Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, Second Stage Theatre and Signature Theatre Company. Elsewhere in America, he has directed for A.C.T., the Goodman, the Guthrie, La Jolla Playhouse, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Yale Rep. In his native England, Waters has staged work with the Bristol Old Vic, Hampstead Theatre Club, Joint Stock Theatre Group, National Theatre, Royal Court Theatre and Traverse Theatre Club. He has a long history of working collaboratively with prominent playwrights like Caryl Churchill and Charles Mee, and champions important new voices, such as Jordan Harrison, Sarah Ruhl and Anne Washburn. Waters is an associate artist of The Civilians, a New York-based theatre group, and former head of the M.F.A. directing program at UC San Diego. His many honors include a Drama-Logue Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, a KPBS Patte and several awards from critics’ circles in the Bay Area, Connecticut and Tokyo.
annie smart
(Scenic Designer) is originally from England, where she designed the premieres of Caryl Churchill’s Fen, Ice Cream and Hot Fudge and A Mouthful of Birds. She also designed for the Royal Court Theatre and Joint Stock Theatre Company; numerous regional and London companies; and four plays at the National Theatre: Black Snow, The Father, The Mountain Giants, Say It with Flowers and Churchill’s The Skriker. In the U.S., Annie has designed for Arena Stage, BAM, The Guthrie, Long Wharf, The Public, Steppenwolf and others. Her California productions include A Doll’s House, Night and Day and The Threepenny Opera at A.C.T; Othello and The Tempest for Cal Shakes; Going to St. Ives, The Importance of Being Earnest, Norah, Sheridan and Wintertime for La Jolla Playhouse; and Big Love, Fetes de la Nuit, Finn in the Underworld, Honour, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Passing Strange, Suddenly Last Summer, To the Lighthouse and Yellowman at Berkeley Rep. Annie has served as chair of the master’s program in theatre design at London’s Wimbledon Art School, professor of stage design at UC San Diego and a costume lecturer at UC Berkeley.
anna r. oliver
(Costume Designer) designed costumes for Berkeley Rep’s productions of Fräulein Else, The Magic Fire, Missing Persons and last season’s The Pillowman. She also designed costumes for The Constant Wife, The House of Mirth and The Guardsman at A.C.T.; Dear Master, Ice Glen, Saint Joan and others at the Aurora; Man and Superman, Nicholas Nickleby, Restoration Comedy and The Skin of Our Teeth at Cal Shakes; Iphigenia at Aulis and Major Barbara at San Jose Rep; and The Puppet Master of Lodz at Marin Theatre Company. Anna’s work has also been seen at Brava Theater Center, BAM, Canadian Opera Company, Dallas Opera, Dallas Theater Center, Houston Grand Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera, The Old Globe, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Rep and the Shakespeare Theatre Company, where she received a 2006 Helen Hayes nomination for Don Juan. Other honors include numerous Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Craig Noel and Dean Goodman awards, and a Garland award. She is currently working on The Trojan Women at the Aurora, and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde for Arizona Theatre Company and San Jose Rep.
alexander v. nichols
(Lighting Designer) designed lighting for last season’s Mother Courage, as well as Berkeley Rep productions of Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell, Surface Transit, Continental Divide and Fêtes de la Nuit, among others. He has also worked with the Alley Theater, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Arena Stage, A.C.T., Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Cal Shakes, Huntington Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, National Theater of Taiwan, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, ODC/SF, Hubbard Street, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Kronos Quartet, Paul Dresher Ensemble and Rinde Eckert. Alexander has served as resident designer for the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Pennsylvania Ballet and Hartford Ballet, and was lighting director for American Ballet Theater. Dance credits include designs for choreographers Christopher d’Amboise, Ann Carlson, Val Caniparoli, Bill T. Jones, Jean Grand Maitre, Mark Morris, Mikko Nissinen, Kevin O’Day, Kirk Peterson, Stephen Petronio, Dwight Rhoden, Michael Smuin and Brenda Way.
obadiah eaves
(Sound Designer) created the original music and sound for last season’s The Pillowman and the previous season’s 9 Parts of Desire, receiving the 2005 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Sound Design for his work on the show’s New York production. He recently designed sound for Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore and Conor McPherson’s Shining City on Broadway; and created music and sound for the original productions of Woody Allen’s A Second Hand Memory, David Mamet’s Romance and Suzan-Lori Parks’ Fucking A. Other recent work includes The American Pilot at Manhattan Theatre Club, In Darfur at the Public, Hamlet at South Coast Rep and Mary Rose at Vineyard Theatre; as well as the national tour and Radio City production of Blues Clues Live. Obadiah’s music for television can be heard on HBO, Nickelodeon, Discovery and TLC; he has also appeared as a violinist and mandolinist in numerous film and television scores. His band, Big Hair, has released two CDs.
lynne soffer
(Dialect and Text Coach) was last seen at Berkeley Rep in Slavs!, and has served as dialect/text coach for 25 other Berkeley Rep productions, and for The Laramie Project, which made its world premiere at Denver Center Theatre, before transferring to New York and Berkeley. Bay Area audiences saw her most recently as Nat in Rabbit Hole at San Jose Rep, and as Josephina in Ambition Facing West at TheatreWorks. An experienced teacher of acting, speech and textwork, Lynne has served as dialect or text coach on over 160 theatrical productions around the country, including Cal Shakes’ recent Shaw production, Man and Superman. As an actor, her other local credits include work at A.C.T., The Aurora, Campo Santo, Magic Theatre, Sacramento Theatre Company and San Francisco Opera; with regional credits including Alaska Repertory Theater, Arcadia Repertory Theatre of Maine, Encore! Theater Company and the Sherwood Shakespeare Festival. In New York, Lynne has worked with the 29th Street Project and Direct Theatre.
cast
chris ayles
(Burglar) was last seen in Berkeley at the Aurora Theatre’s production of The Birthday Party. Most recently, local audiences saw him in the title role of Sergeant Musgrave’s Dance at TheatreFIRST in Oakland. He has worked extensively in the Bay Area at Cal Shakes, Center Rep, San Jose Rep, Marin Theatre Company, the Magic Theatre and TheatreWorks, among others. His favorite local roles include Jacques in As You Like It, Clive/Cathy in Cloud Nine, Reverend Parris in The Crucible, Dysart in Equus, Sam in The Homecoming, Lear in King Lear, Harpagon in The Miser, David in Morning’s at Seven, Spooner in No Man’s Land, Selsdon Mowbray in Noises Off, Prospero in The Tempest, Scott in Terra Nova, Lickcheese in Widowers’ Houses and Kipps in The Woman in Black. He has appeared on television and film and has received acting awards in both the U.S. and the U.K.
stephen caffrey
(Hector Hushabye) has recently appeared in Bach at Leipzig at South Coast Rep, The Constant Wife at Pasadena Playhouse, Restoration Comedy at Seattle Rep, 36 Views at Laguna Playhouse and a recent radio tour of Private Lives for L.A. Theatre Works. His other credits include The Body of Bourne at the Mark Taper Forum, Homewrecker at the Evidence Room, The Voysey Inheritance at A.C.T. and Kansas City Rep, What You Get & What You Expect at the New York Theatre Workshop, Motel Blues at the Greenwich, A Doll’s House and The Real Thing with A.C.T., Bargains at the Old Globe, Oleanna at Malibu Stage, as well as shows at Classic Stage Company, The Royal George, Hartford Stage and others. His film and television credits include three seasons as actor and director on Tour of Duty, CSI Miami, Seinfeld, The Practice, Columbo, Buried Alive, Virus, Indiana Jones Chronicles, The Profiler, Longtime Companion, The Babe and many others. Stephen is a 25-year member of Actors’ Equity.
david chandler
(Boss Mangan) appeared on Broadway in The American Clock, Death of a Salesman and Lost in Yonkers. His off-Broadway productions include Black Sea Follies at Playwrights Horizons; Cellini at Second Stage Theatre; The Grey Zone at Manhattan Class Company Theater; Phaedra at Vineyard Theatre; Private Jokes, Public Places at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club; Slavs! at the New York Theatre Workshop; The Swan at New York Shakespeare Festival; and Glen Berger’s one-man show Underneath the Lintel at Soho Playhouse. Regionally, David has worked at Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Guthrie, Long Wharf Theatre, The Wilma, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Yale Rep, among others. He also appeared at London’s Bush Theatre in A Question of Mercy. David’s film and television credits include Arli$$, Death of a Salesman, The Grey Zone, Hide and Seek, Her Alibi, The Portrait, Seinfeld, Third Rock From the Sun, Upheaval and Law and Order in most of its manifestations.
matt gottlieb
(Mazzini Dunn) is happy to be working again with Les Waters, who directed him in Glengarry Glen Ross at A.C.T. His other Bay Area credits include Reverend Morell in Candida and the title role in The Puppetmaster of Lodz, both for Marin Theatre Company; and Merv Kant in San Jose Rep’s production of The Sisters Rosensweig. On the East Coast, Matt has performed at Circle Repertory Company, Long Wharf, the New York Shakespeare Festival, Soho Repertory Theatre and on Broadway. His Los Angeles credits include work at the Mark Taper Forum, the Odyssey Theater, Pacific Resident Theatre and most recently, Laguna Playhouse’s production of Sonia Flew. Matt also directed the Los Angeles premiere of Rabe’s A Question of Mercy at Pacific Resident Theatre, and Pinter’s The Caretaker at the Zephyr Theatre, for which he received Best Director nominations from both the LA Weekly and Ovation Awards. Matt has also worked extensively in film, television, commercials and voice-overs.
michelle morain
(Hesione Hushabye) celebrates the start of her 25th year as a professional actor with Heartbreak House, returning to the company where she played her first professional role—Millamant in The Way of the World. As a past company member and frequent visitor to Berkeley Rep, her work here includes A Touch of the Poet, An Ideal Husband, The Art of Dining, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Misalliance, Moon for the Misbegotten, Season’s Greetings, Twelfth Night and Homebody/Kabul, in which she played the Homebody. Michelle has also enjoyed long-term associations with A.C.T., GEVA Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Willamette Repertory Theatre, where she recently portrayed Amanda in The Glass Menagerie. Other theatres include the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Seattle Rep and San Jose Rep. Michelle has taught theatre classes and workshops from Alaska to Georgia, and is the recipient of numerous acting awards. Her greatest theatre adventure to date, sparked by her involvement with Berkeley Rep’s Homebody/Kabul, was her participation in a Women’s Humanitarian Delegation to Kabul, Afghanistan in March of 2003.
lynne soffer
(Nurse Guinness) was last seen at Berkeley Rep in Slavs!, and has served as dialect/text coach for 25 other Berkeley Rep productions, and for The Laramie Project, which made its world premiere at Denver Center Theatre, before transferring to New York and Berkeley. Bay Area audiences saw her most recently as Nat in Rabbit Hole at San Jose Rep, and as Josephina in Ambition Facing West at TheatreWorks. An experienced teacher of acting, speech and textwork, Lynne has served as dialect or text coach on over 160 theatrical productions around the country, including Cal Shakes’ recent Shaw production, Man and Superman. As an actor, her other local credits include work at A.C.T., The Aurora, Campo Santo, Magic Theatre, Sacramento Theatre Company and San Francisco Opera; with regional credits including Alaska Repertory Theater, Arcadia Repertory Theatre of Maine, Encore! Theater Company and the Sherwood Shakespeare Festival. In New York, Lynne has worked with the 29th Street Project and Direct Theatre.
allison jean white
(Ellie Dunn) makes her Berkeley Rep debut with Heartbreak House. She recently completed a year as a core company member and associate artist at A.C.T., where she performed in The Circle, The Imaginary Invalid and Travesties. Her other A.C.T. credits include A Christmas Carol, The Real Thing and the First Look presentations of Donna Wants, The Shaker Chair, Waiting for the Flood and Warsaw. Allison has also been seen in Chez Moi, A Clown Cabaret with Infinite Stage Theater Company at The Players Theatre in New York, Killing My Lobster’s Goooal!!! at the Magic Theatre, Red Light Winter at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater and her solo performance piece Whitenoise at Venue 9 and The Marsh. Allison is a graduate of Brown University and A.C.T.’s M.F.A. program.
susan wilder
(Ariadne Utterword) is delighted to be making her Berkeley Rep debut. She has appeared at Lincoln Center Theater with Christopher Plummer in King Lear, Kevin Kline in Ivanov and in Far East. Susan’s recent regional credits include Flora in Humble Boy at People’s Light & Theatre Company; Anna Petrovna in Ivanov at the Studio Theatre in Washington, DC; Vivien Leigh in Orson’s Shadow at Philadelphia Theatre Company; and Annie in The Real Thing at Theatre South Carolina. Her numerous television credits include Equal Justice, Hack, Perry Mason, the CBS Live Broadcast of The Petrified Forest and Spenser: For Hire; Susan’s film credits include Big, The Silence at Bethany with American Playhouse, Unbreakable and Universal Signs. She received her M.F.A. from the Shakespeare Theatre’s Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University, and is a proud longtime member of Actors’ Equity.
michael winters
(Captain Shotover) has appeared twice before at Berkeley Rep, in Life of Galileo, and another Shaw work, Man and Superman. He was also in the company at A.C.T., and has worked at the Mark Taper Forum and The Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles. Michael has also been seen in Seattle with A Conservatory Theatre, Book-It Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre and Seattle Rep; and nationwide at many theatres including Arizona Theatre Company, Denver Center Theatre Company, the Old Globe, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and San Jose Rep. He appeared briefly on Broadway in Wrong Mountain and is the grateful recipient of a Fox fellowship.
michael ray wisely
(Randall Utterword) is honored to work with Berkeley Rep and Les Waters. Michael Ray is well-known to Bay Area audiences, having performed locally and throughout the West Coast for almost 20 years. Recent credits include McCann in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party at The Aurora; Stephano and Antonio in The Tempest with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival; and many appearances at American Musical Theatre of San Jose, Center Rep, The Magic, Marin Theatre Company, Pacific Alliance Stage Company, San Jose Rep, San Jose Stage Company, the Willows and elsewhere. Michael Ray has guest-starred in television movies, series and pilots, and is the host of Home Transformations on the DIY network.
The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
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