Cast                         

Jill Baker (Anya) made her Tucson debut with The Rogue Theatre, performing the roles of First God and Boy in The Good Woman of Setzuan. She came to Tucson from Chicago where she co-wrote, directed and performed Mary Shelley and Her Monsters. She spent the previous year as Artist in Residence at the Berkshire Theatre Festival where she taught playwrighting and acting to elementary school students while touring a production of Strange Waves. Other productions with the Berkshire Theatre Festival include The Father, Peter Pan, and Arabian Nights. She graduated with her BFA in Theatre Performance from Missouri State University.

Steve Cruz (Trofimov) received his Bachelor’s degree in acting from Northern Arizona University, appearing onstage in productions of When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?, I Remember Mama, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Odd Couple. Here in Tucson, he has recently been seen in David Ives’ All In The Timing at Top Hat Theatre Club and Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy at Beowulf Alley Theater Company. Steve is excited and honored to work in a company of such focus and vision as the Rogue.

Todd Fitzpatrick (Vagrant/Stationmaster) is happy to be returning to the Tucson stage after a long hiatus. His Arizona credits include performances as Jesus in Godspell, Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz and Saul in Play On! (all at The Poor Man’s Theater), Joe in Our Town (Northern Arizona University) and Emile in New Moon (The Gilbert and Sullivan Theater). His other roles include Linus in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Teddy Prior in The Battle of Corpus Christi. He appeared as Lon in the HBO film El Diablo and has studied at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

Patty Gallagher (Ranevskaya) is Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts at University of California Santa Cruz where she directs courses in physical theatre, mask performance, Balinese dance, and clown traditions. She is Director in Residence for the Clown Conservatory, a year-round training program of the San Francisco School of Circus Arts. She holds a doctorate in Theatre and Drama from University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has performed clown and buffoon with Teatro Cronopio and studied in Laboratorio Grupo Malayerba. She has worked with the New Pickle Circus, Fool Time Circus, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, San Francisco Circus and the Weird Sisters Ensemble. She has performed and directed workshops in Asia, South America, Europe, and the U.S., and recently was a Fulbright Scholar in Quito, Ecuador. She is a founding member of Local Hero, a physical theatre ensemble. She debuted with The Rogue Theatre as Shen Te in The Good Woman of Setzuan.

Art Jacobson (Firs) began his acting career as a child actor in Chicago radio. In college, he played John Adams in a summer-long production of The Common Glory. He wrote and acted in radio dramas produced by the Broadcasting Service of the University of Michigan and came home to Chicago as a production director at NBC’s affiliate, WMAQ. Subsequently, he taught philosophy at Roosevelt University in Chicago. Tucson audiences have seen him in readers’ theatre performances of No Exit and The Critics, as the Rabbi in Borderlands Theater production of Vilna’s Got a Golem, and in The Rogue Theatre’s The Balcony, The Dead, Endymion, and The Good Woman of Setzuan. He’s delighted to be part of The Cherry Orchard.

Kenton Jones (Simeonov-Pishchik) studied Improvisation at Second City in Chicago and in Los Angeles with Avery Schreiber. Favorite roles have included Renfield in The Passion of Dracula, Jerry in The Zoo Story, and Mrs. Forrest in Psycho Beach Party. Kenton was most recently seen in Arizona Onstage’s The Full Monty. Other local productions include Perfect Wedding, Lend Me A Tenor, and A New Brain. Kenton co-authored and produced last year’s hit, Homoneurotic, at Club Congress. When times are rough, he puts on a dress and blonde beehive and does dinner theatre. He is thrilled to be a part of this production!

Avis Judd (Dunyasha) is pleased to be back with the Rogues! Avis received her theatre degree from Northwestern University. Favorite roles include Olga in The Three Sisters, Fury in the English language premier of Héléne Cixious’ The Perjured City, or the Awakening of the Furies; Faith in Invisible Theatre’s production of Kindertransport, Emilia in Othello; and the title role in a one woman show, which she adapted and directed, about Bahá’í heroine Martha Root. Avis feels privileged to work with such a talented ensemble, and thanks her husband, Michael, and daughter, Sophia, for their loving support and encouragement.

Joseph McGrath (Lopakhin) is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama. He has toured with John Houseman’s Acting Company, appearing in Pericles, Tartuffe, Twelfth Night, and The Country Wife. At the Utah Shakespearean Festival, Joe appeared in Hamlet, Henry IV: Part I, and Much Ado About Nothing. In New York City, he directed Rough Magic: A Shakespeare Quartet. In Tucson, he is a frequent performer with Ballet Tucson appearing as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a Stepsister in Cinderella, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, VanHelsing in Dracula and, perennially, as Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker. He has also performed with Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Opera, Tucson Art Theatre, Arizona OnStage, Green Thursday, Damesrocket Theatre, and Old Pueblo Playwrights in such roles as Trigorin in The Seagull, Sam Byck in Assassins, John in Oleanna, Weeping Willow Walter in Threepenny Opera, and This Rock in Anger Box. Joe is the Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre, for which he directed The Balcony, Endymion, and The Maids, performed The Fever, and performed in The Dead, Endymion, and The Good Woman of Setzuan. Joe is also a scenic designer and owns Sonora Theatre Works with his wife Regina Gagliano, producing theatrical scenery and draperies.

David Morden (Yephikhov) appeared most recently as The Man in the Silver Dress in The Rogue Theatre’s preshow to The Maids, Glaucus in The Rogue Theatre’s production of Endymion and Constable Smith in the Arizona Opera’s production of The Threepenny Opera as well as singing in the chorus of The Flying Dutchman and Susannah. As an actor, he has performed locally with Arizona Onstage Productions (Assassins), Actors Theatre (The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged)) and Green Thursday Theatre Project (Anger Box, Rain), of which he was a co-founder. As a director, he has worked with Green Thursday (Shakespeare’s R&J, White Garden), Oasis Chamber Opera and Arts For All. He will be directing The Rogue Theatre’s The Goat later this season, as well.

Arlene Naughton (Varya) most recently played the Horse in The Balcony, Mary Jane in The Dead, Venus in Endymion, Madame in The Maids, and Mrs. Shin in The Good Woman of Setzuan, all for The Rogue Theatre. Her Arizona credits include Nunsense (Flagstaff Festival of the Arts), Brighton Beach Memoirs (Serendipity Playhouse), A Christmas Carol (Gaslight Theatre), and Wigged Out! (Stray Theatre Company). Arlene also toured with the Nebraska Theatre Caravan and performed in Lady Audley’s Secret (Imperial Hotel) and I’ll Be Back Before Midnight (Derby Dinner Playhouse). She is a licensed marriage and family therapist and works at Cottonwood de Tucson.

Roger Owen (Gaev) began performing locally in the mid-1960s. He’s worked with Arizona Civic Theatre (now ATC), U of A, Playbox and many others. In 1979, he played Mitch in Streetcar Named Desire in Key West (with Tennessee Williams involved in rehearsals). Favorite classical roles include Macbeth, Oberon and Toby Belch in Invisible Theatre’s 1970s outdoor summer productions at La Placita, and Aphrodite/Old Nurse/Theseus in Hippolytus, also at IT. Roger took a “sabbatical” between Jerry in Albee’s Zoo Story (1981) and Frank in Shanley’s Dirty Story at Live Theatre Workshop (2006) to play the father role to his favorite co-productions, Sean and Kate. Most recently, he appeared as John Lambert in Visitor’s Guide to Arivaca, as Michael the Archangel in A Tucson Pastorela at Borderlands Theatre, and as the Carpenter and the Policeman in The Good Woman of Setzuan at The Rogue Theatre.

Aaron Sosa (Yasha)’s first moment on stage was at the tender age of eight as The Boy in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is currently pursuing his degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Arizona, where he has performed as Baby San in Tracers, Actor One in Grimm Tales, and Frank in On the Way to Miami. Other performances also include The White Knight in Alice in Wonderland. He is thankful to his parents for their support and The Rogue Theatre for giving him the opportunity to act in the Tucson community.

Martie van der Voort (Charlotta) has been performing as a musician and actor for a long, long time. A psychotherapist by day, a performer by night, she’s trying to get more sleep. Musically, she’s the soloist for the Pet Cemetery of Tucson, and wrote and performed the music for Holiday Memories with Beowulf Alley Theatre. She’s performed locally with Itch Productions, the Wilde Playhouse, Old Pueblo Playwrights, the Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed comedy improv troupe, V-Day, Bloodhut Productions, Borderlands Theatre, Bloody Unicorn Theatre Company, and Arizona Onstage. With The Rogue Theatre she has played in The Balcony, The Dead, The Good Woman of Setzuan, and now The Cherry Orchard. She gives a thousand thankful kisses to her partner Lauren for supporting this theatre passion with such love.

Musicians

The Arizona Balalaika Orchestra was founded in 1980 by Musical Director, Mia Bulgarin Gay. It began as a student ensemble at the University of Arizona Russian Department, but through membership in the Balalaika and Domra Association of America and study trips to BDAA conventions, the Soviet Union and Russia, the Orchestra has greatly expanded its skill, repertoire and membership. Resident choreographer Richard Holden formed the Kalinka Russian Dancers in 1989. The Orchestra presents an annual Winter Festival with the Kalinka Russian Dancers, visiting members of BDAA, the Sons of Orpheus Male Choir of Tucson, and a variety of internationally acclaimed soloists. Members of the Arizona Balalaika Orchestra will appear in Act Three of The Cherry Orchard, and will also present a preshow program.

Cynthia Meier (Director) is the Managing and Associate Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre. She adapted and directed James Joyce’s The Dead, directed Brecht’s The Good Woman of Setzuan and Wallace Shawn’s The Fever for The Rogue Theatre and Chekhov’s The Seagull (featuring Ken Ruta) for Tucson Art Theatre. She has adapted and directed a series of Virginia Woolf’s essays, Moments of Being, and directed a touring company of performed poetry Words & Company for Eastern Michigan University. She is co-founder of Bloodhut Productions, a company performing original monologues and comedy improvisation, which toured throughout the western United States and was published by St. Martin’s Press. Cynthia performed in The Maids, Endymion and The Balcony (The Rogue Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (Arizona Theatre Company), Blithe Spirit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Of Thee I Sing (Michigan Repertory Theatre), Romeo & Juliet and Chicago Milagro (Borderlands Theatre), Top Girls (Damesrocket Theatre), A Namib Spring (by Patrick Baliani, winner of the 1999 National Play Award), A Nightingale, Smirnova’s Birthday, The Midnight Caller, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (Tucson Art Theatre), and A Maid’s Tragedy (directed by Domini Blythe of the Royal Shakespeare Company). She has taught performance and theatre courses at Eastern Michigan University, the University of Arizona, and Pima Community College, as well as many workshops in improvisational storytelling throughout the United States. Cynthia is a Division Dean at Pima Community College and holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of Arizona.

Production Staff

Designers

Our Thanks