Recipient of the
2012 American Theatre Wing
National Theatre Company Award

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Press

Three of a Kind
Rogue Theatre tackles Edward Albee’s examination of aging

Review of Three Tall Women by Sherilyn Forrester in the March 15 Tucson Weekly

A braching life fills Three Tall Women

Review of Three Tall Women by Chuck Graham on March 13 in Let The Show Begin! at TucsonStage.com

Three Tall Women served with bite at The Rogue

Review of Three Tall Women by Kathleen Allen to appear in the March 15 Arizona Daily Star

Three Tall Women is a glimpse at playwright Albee’s life

Preview of Three Tall Women by Kathleen Allen to appear in the March 8 Arizona Daily Star

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

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Direction

	Christopher Johnson (Director) first came to The Rogue in 2011 to play Jewel in As I Lay Dying, and now serves as Artistic Associate and General Manager. Directing credits include Penelope and his adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray for The Rogue; boom, Cabaret, The Year Of Magical Thinking, The Altruists and Speech & Debate for Winding Road Theater Ensemble; Hedwig and The Angry Inch for The Bastard Theatre; Wit, Persephone Or Slow Time, The Book Of Liz, My Name Is Rachel Corrie, Say You Love Satan, Robots Vs. Fake Robots, Killer Joe, The Rocky Horror Show, Danny And The Deep Blue Sea, The Importance Of Being Earnest, The Penis Monologues, Savage In Limbo, Bug, Titus Andronicus and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Etcetera at Live Theatre Workshop where he served as Artistic Director from 2007–2012. Christopher helps to coordinate and produce The John & Joyce Ambruster Play-Reading Series for The Rogue, where he has directed readings of Elizabeth Rex, The River, his adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s A House of Pomegranates, and most recently Don Juan in Hell. He was last seen on stage as Prior Walter in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (Mac Award Winner––Best Actor, Drama). Christopher Johnson’s direction of Three Tall Women is supported in part by a generous gift from Karen DeLay & Bill Sandel.

Notes from the Director

Edward Albee never forgot where he came from. He carved for himself a prolific and influential career as a playwright by dragging those who resided in the suburbs of 1930’s Westchester into the illuminating light of the stage for all the world to see. Albee was adopted by Reed and Frances Albee—a philandering, one-eyed son of a millionaire and a humble salesgirl-turned-trophy wife. Young Edward’s pampered but miserable upbringing (and those who generously provided it) would eventually be exorcised across more than two dozen plays written between 1959 and 2007. Albee would sometimes skewer his origins only vaguely, and at other times would reveal them with precise biographical bite. Recreated for the stage in various personas—from Mommy and Daddy in The American Dream to Agnes and Tobias in A Delicate Balance—Albee’s adoptive parents would prove to be perfect instruments with which to surgically explore, expose and diagnose as terminal the slippery family values of white, upper class America. Inspired most by his mother’s elegance and neglect, he began to write most freely about her after she died at the age of 92. In Three Tall Women, Albee objectively lays bare the geography of his mother’s life and their tumultuous 60-year relationship with unflinching honesty, offering up his own sins for judgment alongside hers. The play is a warts-and-all presentation fraught with eruptions of prejudice in one moment and brimming over with joyous remembrance in the next. And it is terribly, terribly human. There’s no missing the questions that Albee is grappling with in Three Tall Women. The title characters (based on his mother at different ages) often interrupt the asking with their regretful, reflective, and riotously funny answers. What would your 26-year-old self think of you at 52, and would your 52-year-old self care? Is your 92-year-old self really that much wiser or at peace than she was at 52? What do we really know about ourselves, and when do we know it? Is any lesson in life learned in time to avoid disaster, or is a life lesson defined solely by our having missed the proverbial boat? In the end, the answers to these questions seem less important than the capacity for acceptance required to hear them: acceptance of who we were, what we’ve become, and, if we’re lucky, from those we leave behind. Christopher Johnson, Director director@theroguetheatre.org

 

Playwright

	Over five decades, Edward Albee crafted more than two dozen plays, including The Zoo Story, A Delicate Balance, Seascape, Three Tall Women and The Goat: or, Who is Sylvia. A three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Albee is perhaps best known for his 1962 drama, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, widely considered a classic of American contemporary theatre. He wrote several adaptations of other authors’ work over the years, including The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, based on a Carson McCullers’ novella; Malcolm, based on a James Purdy novel; and Lolita, based on the Vladimir Nabokov classic. In his lectures, Albee described the power of the arts as a catalyst for change. He believed that art should be dangerous, that it should reveal all of our shortcomings and complacency—and, at its best, inspire us to live our lives more fully. New York Times critic Ben Brantley once wrote, “Mr. Albee has unsparingly considered subjects outside the average theatergoer’s comfort zone: the capacity for sadism and violence within American society; the fluidness of human identity; the dangerous irrationality of sexual attraction and, always, the irrefutable presence of death.” Albee is a Kennedy Center Honoree, was awarded the National Medal of Arts, and received a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre. He died on September 16, 2016 at the age of 88.

Cynthia Meier as A, Holly Griffith as C and Patty Gallagher as B

Patty Gallagher as B, Holly Griffith as C and Cynthia Meier as A

Photos by Tim Fuller

 

Cast
A		Cynthia Meier
B		Patty Gallagher*
C		Holly Griffith
The Young Man		Ryan Parker Knox*
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

 

	Patty Gallagher (B) is a Rogue ensemble member. She is Professor of Theatre Arts at University of California Santa Cruz where she teaches movement, mask, Balinese dance, and clown traditions. With The Rogue, she was last seen as the White Snake in The White Snake. She has performed the roles of Mrs. Kilbride in By the Bog of Cats, Rosencrantz in Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Mabel in The Lady in the Looking Glass, Madame Moiselle in Dante’s Purgatorio, Hannah Jarvis in Arcadia, Kali in Mistake of the Goddess (Hayavadana), Red Peter in Kafka’s Monkey, Mrs. Samsa in Metamorphosis, Monkey King in Journey to the West, Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale, Player 1 in Shipwrecked!, Alibech in The Decameron, Ariel in The Tempest, Rani in Naga Mandala, Emilia in Othello, the Player in Act Without Words, Orlando in Orlando, Sonnerie and Scarron in Red Noses, Winnie in Happy Days, Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard and Shen Te in The Good Woman of Setzuan. She has worked with Shakespeare Santa Cruz, The Folger Shakespeare Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, The New Pickle Circus, Ripe Time Theatre, Two River Theatre, Teatro Cronopio and Grupo Malayerba. She has performed, choreographed and directed workshops in Asia, South America, Europe, and the U.S. In 2006 she was Fulbright Scholar in Quito, Ecuador. In 2014 she was awarded the Pavel Machotka Chair in Creative Studies at UCSC’s Porter College. She holds a doctorate in Theatre from University of Wisconsin–Madison. From 2002 to 2010, she was Director in Residence at Circus Center San Francisco. Patty Gallagher’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Sally Krusing.
Holly Griffith (C) is a 4th year member of the Acting Ensemble at The Rogue. Favorite productions include The Grapes of Wrath, Celia, A Slave, Macbeth, The White Snake, Uncle Vanya, Angels in America Part One, By the Bog of Cats, Hamlet, and Arcadia. She has also served as a Box Officer and Co-Producer of the John & Joyce Ambruster Play-Reading Series at The Rogue. Holly holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Arizona, serves as an Artistic Associate at The Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre, and has a fierce interest in the history, culture, and literary tradition of Ireland. Holly dedicates her performance in Three Tall Women to Mom, Mammaw, Grandma Jean, and Leah Griffith. Holly Griffith’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Tim Wernette & Carolyn Brown.
	Ryan Parker Knox (The Young Man) Three Tall Women marks Ryan’s 29th production at the Rogue spanning more than five seasons as a member of the Acting Ensemble. He remains humbled by the fierce intellect of his fellow company members and the gracious support from the faithful Rogue patrons. Ryan is a South Dakota native and graduate from USD in 1999 with a BFA in Acting, and also spent over a decade performing in Minneapolis/St Paul before arriving in Tucson in the autumn of 2011. He would like to sincerely thank his family and friends for all their support through all the ups and downs. Ryan Parker Knox’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Ed & Nancy Landes.
Cynthia Meier (A) is Co-Founder and Managing and Associate Artistic Director for The Rogue, and has appeared in The Grapes of Wrath, A House of Pomegranates, Macbeth, Uncle Vanya, Angels in America Part One, 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 Bill & Barb Dantzler.

 

Music

	Jake Sorgen (Music Direction and Composer) was music director for The Grapes of Wrath, Bach at Leipzig, Celia, A Slave, A House of Pomegranates, Macbeth, Penelope, The White Snake, Uncle Vanya, Angels in America Part One, 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. He performs solo and in music and interdisciplinary ensembles around the world with musicians, writers, actors, and dancers. Jake's 4th solo album is set for release in 2018. This summer, Jake will premiere an as yet untitled original work as the 2018 Maverick Prodigy at the Maverick Concert Hall in New York. Jake studied guitar with Ed DeLucia, 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 Kristi Lewis.

Preshow Music

“Later On” by Jake Sorgen

“Naima (Coltrane)/Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1 (Chopin)”
by John Coltrane and Frederic Chopin, arranged by Jake Sorgen

“Remembering, Remembering It” by Jake Sorgen

“Clair de Lune Contrafact: Without Moonlight” by Jake Sorgen

Music Director’s Notes

There are few things in this world more closely connected to memory than music. Melodies bring out our personal associations with them often before we’re even sure what the memory is. As “C” posits late in the play about the nature of memory, we are “remembering, remembering it.” From this vantage point came the music I’ve composed for Three Tall Women; an attempt to imply both the action of remembering as well as creating a lifetime of memories for “A” in two short acts. To achieve this the vast majority of the music is original, allowing us to enter into one woman’s world and leave our own behind for a couple hours. Still, in the show, and more prominently in the pre-show, there are a few contrafacts—musical works utilizing existing melodies or harmonies as a jumping off point. These snippets will hopefully bring about personal associations from your own lives (or if you’ve been very attentive, from Rogue shows past) to allow everyone a small taste of the specific yet universal experience of a woman looking back. —Jake Sorgen, Music Director and Composer

Patty Gallagher as B, Ryan Parker Knox as The Young Man and Cynthia Meier as A

Patty Gallagher as B, Cynthia Meier as A and Holly Griffith as C

Photo by Tim Fuller

 

Designers
Costume Design		Cynthia Meier
Costume design is supported in part by a generous gift from Ellen Bodow
Scenic Design		Joseph McGrath
Lighting Design		Deanna Fitzgerald*
Lighting design is supported in part by a generous gift from Ed & Anne Griffith.
Production Staff
Stage Manager		Shannon Wallace
Scenic Artist		Amy Novelli
Set Construction		Joseph McGrath & Christopher Johnson
Costume Construction		Cynthia Meier, Nanalee Raphael, Barb Tanzillo & Michele Landsberger
Associate Lighting Designer		Shannon Wallace
Master Electrician		Peter Bleasby
Lighting Crew		Shannon Wallace, Connor Greene & Tori Mays
House Manager		Susan Collinet
Assistant House Manager		Paul Winick & Susan Tiss
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
*Represented by United Scenic Artists Local USA 829 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees

 

	Deanna Fitzgerald (Lighting Design) is a professional Lighting Designer and member of United Scenic Artists, as well as an Associate Professor and head of lighting design and technology at the University of Arizona, where she also serves as the Associate Director of the theatre program and the Director of Graduate Studies. Her lighting design credits include theatre, dance, opera, circus-themed, puppets, architectural lighting and more. She is also a registered yoga and meditation teacher and conducts classes and workshops focused on using these and other "quietive" practices to enrich creative processes. Some of Deanna’s career highlights include the lighting designs of Cirque Mechanics: Boom Town, which toured for 2 years with an off-Broadway appearance at The New Victory Theatre, and Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo US Tour. She designed the lighting for the world premiere STOMP OUT LOUD, the Las Vegas version of the internationally acclaimed STOMP. Other design credits include the San Francisco Opera’s Merola and Coconut Grove Playhouse’s Young Artist programs, as well as numerous original dance designs for choreographers such as Deborah Hay, Ben Levy and Andy Vaca. Other credits include 6 years as the Lighting Director on the International Tour of STOMP; Production Director of the Opera Theater Music Festival in Lucca, Italy; Lighting Supervisor/Assistant Lighting Designer at the Santa Fe Opera; Lighting and Tour Consultant for the Original Broadway Cast tours of the Greater Tuna trilogy and Assistant Lighting Designer at the Cincinnati Ballet.
Shannon Wallace (Stage Manager) has served as stage manager for The Rogue Theatre productions of The Grapes of Wrath, Bach at Leipzig, Celia, A Slave, A House of Pomegranates, Macbeth, Penelope, Uncle Vanya, Angels in America Part One, The Bridge of San Luis Rey and The Picture of Dorian Gray, and as assistant director for The White Snake. 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. Shannon Wallace’ssStage management is supported in part by a generous gift from Andy & Cammie Watson.
	Peter Bleasby (Master Electrician) lit his first show at 13. Professionally, he was with BBC-TV for several years, and was an assistant to UK lighting designer Richard Pilbrow during the inaugural production of the National Theatre (Hamlet, directed by Olivier.) He transferred to architectural lighting, but maintained his theatre interests by lighting many shows on both sides of the Atlantic. When the Rogue established itself at the Historic “Y” in 2009, he volunteered for the initial season, returning in 2013 with  lighting designer Don Fox, and later working with Deanna Fitzgerald. He devised the installation of the permanent wiring system that enables lighting teams to devote more time to the creative process. For the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation he directs the technical and logistical aspects of 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
Jerry James		Our Advertisers

 

Patty Gallagher as B and Holly Griffith as C

Patty Gallagher as B, Ryan Parker Knox as The Young Man, Cynthia Meier as A and Holly Griffith as C

Photo by Tim Fuller

The cast and crew of Three Tall Women. Seated: Ryan Parker Knox,Holly Griffith. Cynthia Meier and Patty Gallagher.
Standing: Stage Manager Shannon Wallace, Music Director Jake Sorgen, Director Christopher Johnson and House Manager Susan Collinet.

Photo by Tim Fuller

Performance Schedule for Three Tall Women

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 Three Tall Women is two hours and ten minutes, including one 10-minute intermission.
Run time does not include the music preshow beginning 15 minutes before curtain, or post-show discussion.

Thursday, March 8, 2018, 7:30 pm DISCOUNT PREVIEW
Friday, March 9, 2018, 7:30 pm DISCOUNT PREVIEW
Saturday, March 10, 2018, 7:30pm OPENING NIGHT
Sunday, March 11, 2018, 2:00 pm matinee SOLD OUT

Thursday, March 15, 2018, 7:30 pm
Friday, March 16, 2018, 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 17, 2018, 2:00 pm SOLD OUT
Saturday, March 17, 2018, 7:30 pm
Sunday, March 18, 2018, 2:00 pm matinee SOLD OUT

Thursday, March 22, 2018, 7:30 pm
Friday, March 23, 2018, 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 24, 2018, 2:00 pm SOLD OUT
Saturday, March 24, 2018, 7:30 pm
Sunday, March 25, 2018, 2:00 pm matinee SOLD OUT

Patty Gallagher as B, Cynthia Meier as A and Holly Griffith as C

Patty Gallagher as B, Ryan Parker Knox as The Young Man and Holly Griffith as C

Cynthia Meier as A, Patty Gallagher as B and Holly Griffith as C

Cynthia Meier as A, Holly Griffith as C and Patty Gallagher as B

Photos by Tim Fuller