Recipient of the
2012 American Theatre Wing
National Theatre Company Award

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"ANGELS IN AMERICA" has a universal sweep and a timelessness. It reminds us of the costs of greed, ignorance and living an inauthentic life, and underscores the necessity for love and generosity and acceptance. This Rogue production drives that home with a terrible beauty. —Arizona Daily Star Every time I leave the Rogue, I think this is the best production I've ever seen, but indeed this IS the best. —Pat Hammes, Audience Member Each of these scenes vibrates with compressed intensity. There are no flat spots, no filler. The pace is brisk and the subject matter explosive. —Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com Christopher Johnson is spellbinding in the role of Prior. —Arizona Daily Star

 

Press

Rogue takes on challenge of Angels in America

Review of Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches by Kathleen Allen in the September 15 Arizona Daily Star

Fallen Angel
Profound Pulitzer Prize-winning play rises at The Rogue

Review of Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches by Sherilyn Forrester in the September 15 Tucson Weekly

Angels in America has poignant patina

Review of Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches by Chuck Graham on September 11 in Let The Show Begin! at TucsonStage.com

The Rogue tackles Part One of Angels in America

Preview of Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches by Kathleen Allen in the September 8 Arizona Daily Star

Read others’ reviews of The Rogue Theatre, or write your own review on TripAdvisor!

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Direction

	Matt Bowdren (Director) is an Artistic Associate and Education Director for the Rogue Theatre. For the Rogue Theatre Matt has directed a reading of The War Boys and assistant directed Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, and By the Bog of Cats. Locally Matt has directed Mr. Marmalade at the University of Arizona and Cigarettes and Chocolate for the Now Theatre. At The Rogue he has appeared in Tales of the Jazz Age, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Miss Julie, By the Bog of Cats, Hamlet (2015 Mac Award for Best Actor), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Waiting for Godot, Awake and Sing, Betrayal, Arcadia, Measure for Measure, Mistake of the Goddess and after the quake (2013 Mac Award for Best Actor). Other credits include Romeo and Juliet with Southwest Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Hudson Shakespeare Company and Comedy of Errors with the Rose of Athens. Recently Matt was seen as a Faculty fellow and teaching artist with the Arizona Repertory Theatre in Frankenstein and Othello. Matt holds an M.F.A in Performance from the University of Georgia. Matt Bowdren’s direction of Angels in America Part One is supported in part by a generous gift from Karen DeLay & Bill Sandel.

Notes from the Director

When Angels in America opened in 1991 more than 20,000 people in the United States alone were dead from complications from AIDS. There are ghosts in this play, ghosts of people who were marginalized and ignored—the people who suffered through the American plague. This masterpiece by Tony Kushner puts gay men and the AIDS epidemic at the center of the culture for the first time. He requires a true examination at our failure as a country in the not so distant past—and he does it with humor, love, and a beautiful story. Kushner has created the subtlest of political dramas, he doesn’t demand action from the audience, but through the spotlight he places on the relationships between the characters we cannot help but reflect on our own time. This play doesn’t have any heroes; it isn’t so simple—in many ways it reflects our country’s history. A large sprawling story, full of complicated questions and difficult answers. However, night after night, I am surprised by the characters’ heart and intellect. The fierce passion they all have is as inspiring as it is heartbreaking. I first encountered this play in college. I consider it the true leaping off point in my interest in theatre. I had never read anything like it, the depth of the characters, the use of magic and theatricality, opened my eyes to the possibility of theatre. Since I first read Angels in America I’ve been searching for plays like it to work on, the greats—the plays that ask big questions and leave us speechless. As I prepared to direct this play I couldn’t help but feel like we were joining an important history. Adding our voices to a list of creative artists and storytellers who were brave enough to put this play together and tell this story. Angels in America is a cornerstone in American art, and I consider myself very fortunate to have been a part in the continuance of its larger story, as, I hope, you the audience will enjoy the chance to witness a truly majestic play. “The great work begins.” —Matt Bowdren, Director director@theroguetheatre.org

 

About the Playwright

Tony Kushner< /font>(born in 1956) received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. He co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film Munich, and he wrote the screenplay for the 2012 film Lincoln—both received Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay. Kushner’s parents were musicians and his family is Jewish, descended from immigrants from Russia/Poland. Kushner received a B.A. degree in Medieval Studies from Columbia University and a graduate degree from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.  His best-known work is Angels in America, which has been adapted into an HBO miniseries for which Kushner wrote the screenplay. His other plays include Hydriotaphia, Slavs!: Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness, A Bright Room Called Day, Homebody/Kabul, and the book for the musical Caroline, or Change.

 

Christopher Johnson as Prior Walter

Photo by Ed Flores

 

Cast
Belize		Sterling Boyns
Harper Pitt		Holly Griffith
Louis Ironson		Brian Hendricks
Prior Walter		Christopher Johnson*
The Angel		Grace Kirkpatrick
Joe Pitt		Ryan Parker Knox*
Roy Cohn		Joseph McGrath*
Hannah Pitt		Cynthia Meier
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

 

	Sterling Boyns (Belize) recently graduated from The University of Arizona with his BFA in Acting. His past credits include The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Glass Menagerie, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lend Me a Tenor, Barefoot in the Park and Rent (Arizona Repertory Theatre). In addition, he has appeared in Fences and Romeo and Juliet (Arizona Repertory Theatre). He has also performed in ATC Café Bohemia’s staged readings of Catapult and Octagon. Sterling Boyns’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Nick Soloway & Kay Ransdell.
Holly Griffith (Harper Pitt) is a member of the Acting Ensemble at The Rogue Theatre and has appeared in Tales of the Jazz Age, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Miss Julie, By the Bog of Cats, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, The Lady in the Looking Glass, Jerusalem, Purgatorio and Arcadia. She has also served as Box Office Assistant, Dramaturg, Stage Manager, and Co-Producer of the John & Joyce Ambruster Play-Reading Series at The Rogue. Holly dabbles in tap, jazz, and ballet dance, and has performed and choreographed for Emerson Dance Company, X-Dance, and Emerson Urban Dance Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts. Holly holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Arizona, teaches Freshman Composition, and has a fierce interest in the history, culture, and literary tradition of Ireland. Holly Griffith’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Stuart Salasche & Els Duvigneau.
	Brian Hendricks (Louis Ironson) is a guest artist this summer, enjoying his first ever show with The Rogue. Brian currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he performs regularly at The People’s Improv Theater in Manhattan with his house team Regina in addition to his work as an illustrator, portraitist, designer, and painter. Previous Tucson credits include Tartuffe, Scenes From an Execution, The Rocky Horror Show and Tracers at U of A where he received his BFA in 2007. Brian Hendricks’ performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Shawn Burke.
Christopher Johnson (Prior Walter) is The Rogue’s General Manager, additionally serving as an Artistic Associate and Ensemble Member. An actor, director, and stage manager; favorite Rogue credits include As I Lay Dying, Journey to the West, The Lady in the Looking Glass, The Picture of Dorian Gray, By the Bog of Cats, The Bridge of San Luis Rey and Tales of the Jazz Age. Having previously served as Artistic Director of Etcetera at Live Theatre Workshop (2006–12) and Winding Road Theater Ensemble (2012–14), notable local credits include Corpus Christi, Bug, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Lemon Sky, Camino Real, The Rocky Horror Show, Dying City, Thom Pain (based on nothing), Wit, Psycho Beach Party, The Year of Magical Thinking and Cabaret (2013 Mac Award winner, best actor in a musical). Christopher Johnson’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Susan Collinet.
	Grace Kirkpatrick (The Angel) has a BFA in Acting and minor in Psychology from the University of Arizona. She has appeared with The Rogue Theatre in this spring’s production of Miss Julie. Previous credits include Rachel (Reckless), Puck (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and Madame Armfeldt (A Little Night Music) at the Arizona Repertory Theatre. Grace Kirkpatrick’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Joan Cook.
Ryan Parker Knox (Joe Pitt)   The Rogue’s 12th Anniversary Season marks Ryan’s fifth as a member of the Resident Acting Company. He is constantly humbled and inspired by the fierce intellect and thrilling passion of both his fellow Artists and The Rogue’s loyal patrons. Ryan has previously appeared in The Bridge of San Luis Rey, By the Bog of Cats, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Merchant of Venice, The Lady in the Looking Glass, Jerusalem, Awake and Sing, Dante’s Purgatorio, Betrayal, Arcadia (2014 Mac Award for Best Actor), Measure for Measure, Mistake of the Goddess (Hayavadana), Richard III, Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Night Heron, and Journey to the West. He is a BFA Graduate of the University of South Dakota, lived in Minnesota’s Twin Cities for over a decade, and, in 2011, came to Tucson where he accepted his favorite role: Husband. Ryan thanks his lovely new wife Shayna for her love, support, and patience. Ryan Parker Knox’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Todd Hansen in memory of Lonny Baker.
	Joseph McGrath (Roy Cohn) is Co-Founder and Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre and has appeared in Tales of the Jazz Age, Miss Julie, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Merchant of Venice, Waiting for Godot, Jerusalem, Awake and Sing, Arcadia, Measure for Measure, Richard III, The Night Heron, Journey to the West, The Winter’s Tale, The New Electric Ballroom, Shipwrecked!, Major Barbara, New-Found-Land, Old Times, The Tempest, Ghosts, Naga Mandala, Othello, Krapp’s Last Tape, A Delicate Balance (2009 Mac Award for Best Actor), Animal Farm, Orlando, Happy Days, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Red Noses, The Goat, The Cherry Orchard, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Endymion, The Dead, and The Fever. Joe is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama and has toured with John Houseman’s Acting Company. He has performed with the Utah Shakespearean Festival and has been a frequent performer with Ballet Tucson appearing in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and for seventeen years as Herr Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker. He has also performed with Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Opera, and Arizona Onstage. Joe owns, with his wife Regina Gagliano, Sonora Theatre Works, which produces theatrical scenery and draperies. Joseph McGrath’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from John & Joyce Ambruster.
Cynthia Meier (Hannah Pitt) is Co-Founder and Managing and Associate Artistic Director for The Rogue, and has appeared in The Bridge of San Luis Rey, By the Bog of Cats, The Lady in the Looking Glass, Awake and Sing, Purgatorio, Measure for Measure, Mistake of the Goddess, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Night Heron, The New Electric Ballroom, As I Lay Dying, Major Barbara, The Real Inspector Hound, The Decameron, Ghosts, Not I, Our Town, A Delicate Balance, Immortal Longings, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Red Noses, The Goat (2008 Mac Award for Best Actress), The Maids, Endymion, and The Balcony. Cynthia has been nominated for seven Mac Awards for Best Actress from the Arizona Daily Star. She has also performed in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Arizona Repertory Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (Arizona Theatre Company), Blithe Spirit and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Michigan Repertory Theatre), Romeo & Juliet and Chicago Milagro (Borderlands Theatre) and A Namib Spring (1999 National Play Award winner). Cynthia co-founded Bloodhut Productions, which toured throughout the western United States. Cynthia holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of Arizona. Cynthia Meier’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Todd Hansen in memory of Lonny Baker.

 

 

Jake Sorgen (Music Director), Christopher Johnson as Prior Walter, Brian Hendricks as Louis Ironson,
Joseph McGrath as Prior 2 and Ryan Parker Knox as Prior 1

Photo by Ed Flores

 

Music
Jake Sorgen
piano, 6- and 12-string guitar, saxophone, Irish whistle & organ

Music Director’s Notes

I first encountered Angels in America nearly fifteen years ago with Mike Nichols’ film adaptation and was taken with every facet of the story, the simultaneous breadth of its scope and intimacy, and its uniqueness in the canon of “American Epics.” When, six years later, I had the opportunity to see Part Two: Perestroika performed in Boston, I was acutely aware of how rare an experience it was to see this play. I now feel an even greater joy in getting to take part in and share this work with this community. Musically, I’ve tried to maintain a close parallel to the forms Tony Kushner uses; his subtitle, “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes” introduces a key musical term. In contrast to an etude—a piece of music that focuses on a composer’s approach to a particular technique or skill set—a fantasia is a structured improvisation that is meant to reflect the feelings and thoughts of its composer. In that vein, I’ve created the score for Angels using a handful of motifs, harmonic progressions, and the style of a few composers, and manipulated, reorganized, and in some instances abandoned their structures in working with the actors to get at the core of their journeys. Kushner’s setting is distinctly centered in 1980s New York and balances beautifully between the intensely dramatic and the overtly camp style. As such I’ve taken stylistic influence from J.S. Bach, Phillip Glass, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, and Rufus Wainwright. While Bach and Wainwright could be viewed as representing the extremes in classical and camp styles, Glass, Simon, and Joel fall somewhere in between and all are associated with New York’s classical, folk, and pop music scenes of the second half of the 20th century. My deepest thanks to Matt Bowdren whose friendship and direction during this process was integral to the score you’ll hear tonight and to this incredible cast of multi-talented actors. —Jake Sorgen, Music Director and Composer

 

	Jake Sorgen (Music Direction and Original Composition) was music director for The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Miss Julie, By the Bog of Cats, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Merchant of Venice, The Lady in the Looking Glass, Waiting for Godot, Jerusalem and Awake and Sing at The Rogue Theatre, and has performed as a musician at The Rogue in Purgatorio and Betrayal. Jake is an improviser/composer/musician originally from Woodstock, New York, and has composed for and performed with musicians, actors, and dancers in Amsterdam, Austin, Boston, New York, and Tucson. Most recently Jake studied improvised music with violist Mary Oliver and movement with dancer Katie Duck and performed and studied with members of the Instant Composers Pool and the Creative Music Studio in the Netherlands and New York. Jake Sorgen’s music direction is supported in part by a generous gift from The Griffiths of Centreville, Ohio.

 

Christopher Johnson as Prior Walter, Joseph McGrath as Prior 2 and Ryan Parker Knox as Prior 1

 

Brian Hendricks as Louis Ironson and Christopher Johnson as Prior Walter

Photos by Tim Fuller

Designers
Costume Design		Cynthia Meier
Costume design is supported in part by a generous gift from Susan Tiss.
Scenic Design		Joseph McGrath
Lighting Design		Don Fox
Production Staff
Stage Manager		Shannon Wallace
Scenic Artist		Amy Novelli
Set Construction		Joseph McGrath & Christopher Johnson
Costume Construction		Cynthia Meier
Props Mistress		Shannon Wallace
Wigs and Beard		Kate Mammana & Cynthia Meier
Master Electrician		Peter Bleasby
Lighting Crew		Thomas Goldkuhl & Christopher Johnson
Prosthetic Makeup		Clifton Dance
House Manager		Susan Collinet
Assistant House Manager		Leigh Moyer
Box Office Manager		Thomas Wentzel
Box Office Assistants		Kara Clauser, Holly Griffith, Allie Knuth & Rebekah Thimlar
Program Advertising		Paul Winick
Poster, Program & Website		Thomas Wentzel

 

	Don Fox (Lighting Design) has designed lights for The Rogue Theatre for By the Bog of Cats, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Lady in the Looking Glass, The Merchant of Venice, Awake and Sing, Dante’s Purgatorio, Betrayal, Arcadia, Measure for Measure and Mistake of the Goddess. Don earned his MFA in Lighting Design from the University of Arizona and holds a B.A. in Theatre Administration from St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX. Don is the Lighting and Projections Designer and Production Manager for the Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker and also toured nationally with Circus Electronica and internationally to China with Tucson’s Artifact Dance Project, for whom he is also a resident designer. Don also serves as lighting and scenic designer for the Post Playhouse at Ft. Robinson State Park in northwest Nebraska where five full-length musicals run in rotation seasonally. Prior to returning to grad school, Don was the Technical Director and Facilities manager for the Performing Arts Center of Wenatchee, in Washington’s Cascade Mountains where more recently he has produced The Rocky Horror Show, Bat Boy the Musical, and Cabaret. He has served as lighting and sound consultant for Silversea Cruises and twice designed Shakespeare in the Park for the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Favorite Tucson designs include Arizona Onstage’s production of Les Miserables and SAAF’s Moda Provacateur fashion show/fundraiser. His complete portfolio is at www.DonFoxDesigns.com. Don Fox’s lighting design is supported in part by a generous gift from Bryan & Lizzie Falcón.
Shannon Wallace (Stage Manager) is grateful to be working with The Rogue Theatre again, having previously been stage manager for The Bridge of San Luis Rey and The Picture of Dorian Gray. She graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, focusing on both stage management and lighting design. During her time in school she worked on over 25 productions with Arizona Repertory Theatre, including: Bat Boy: The Musical, Avenue Q, Love Song, Cymbeline, Nine, Boeing Boeing, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Oklahoma!, Lend Me A Tenor, The Full Monty and Othello. She also worked at Arizona Theatre Company on their Summer on Stage productions of Elephant’s Graveyard and Legally Blonde: The Musical. Additionally, she had the opportunity to work as assistant stage manager for Oklahoma City Philharmonic’s The Christmas Show 2014. And she enjoyed a summer with the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, working as part of the company and events management team.
	Peter Bleasby (Master Electrician) lit his first show at 13, using near-lethal home-made equipment.  Professionally, he was with BBC-TV for several years, and then was an assistant to UK lighting designer Richard Pilbrow, including the inaugural production at the National Theatre in London (Hamlet, directed by Olivier). He later transferred to the general lighting industry, handling projects ranging from major sports stadia to cathedrals, but maintained his theatre interests by lighting innumerable shows on both sides of the Atlantic.  When the Rogue established itself at The Historic Y in 2009, he volunteered for the initial lighting “hang,” returning in 2013 to work with lighting designer Don Fox and later with Deanna Fitzgerald.  For the 2014-15 season, he planned and supervised the installation of an extensive permanent wiring system that enables the lighting crews to devote more time to the creative process.  In Tucson, he also directs the technical and logistical aspects of Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation fundraisers, including the fashion show Moda Provocateur.
Susan Collinet (House Manager) earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Arizona in 2008. Decades before returning to college as a non-traditional student, Susan spent twenty years in amateur theater, mostly on the East coast, as well as in Brussels, Belgium in the American Theater of Brussels, and the Theatre de Chenois in Waterloo. She has worked in such positions as a volunteer bi-lingual guide in the Children’s Museum of Brussels, the Bursar of a Naturopathic Medical school in Tempe, Arizona, an entrepreneur with two “Susan’s of Scottsdale” hotel gift shops in Scottsdale, Arizona, and as the volunteer assistant Director of Development of the Arizona Aids Project in Phoenix. Susan continues to work on collections of poetry and non-fiction. Her writing has won awards from Sandscript Magazine, the John Hearst Poetry Contest, the Salem College for Women’s Center for Writing, and was published in a Norton Anthology of Student’s Writing. In addition to being House Manager, Susan serves on the Board of Directors and acts as Volunteer Coordinator for the Rogue.

Our Thanks
Tim Fuller		Tucson Weekly
Chuck Graham		Patrick Baliani
Arizona Daily Star		Shawn Burke
Meg Linton		Hank Stratton
Our Advertisers		Jerry James
Arizona Theatre Company		Bill Sandel & Karen DeLay
Chris Babbie/Location Sound

 

Christopher Johnson as Prior Walter

Photo by Tim Fuller

 

Performance Schedule for Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches

Location: The Rogue Theatre at The Historic Y, 300 East University Boulevard
Click here for information on free off-street parking

Performance run time of Angels in America Part One is about three hours, including two ten-minute intermissions.
Run time does not include the music preshow beginning 15 minutes before curtiain, or post-show discussion.

Thursday, September 8, 2016, 7:30 pm DISCOUNT PREVIEW
Friday, September 9, 2016, 7:30 pm DISCOUNT PREVIEW
Saturday, September 10, 2016, 7:30pm OPENING NIGHT
Sunday, September 11, 2016, 2:00 pm matinee

Thursday, September 15, 2016, 7:30 pm
Friday, September 16, 2016, 7:30 pm
Saturday, September 17, 2016, 2:00 pm
Saturday, September 17, 2016, 7:30 pm
Sunday, September 18, 2016, 2:00 pm matinee

Thursday, September 22, 2016, 7:30 pm
Friday, September 23, 2016, 7:30 pm
Saturday, September 24, 2016, 2:00 pm matinee
Saturday, September 24, 2016, 7:30 pm
Sunday, September 25, 2016, 2:00 pm matinee