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PressHunting for Humanity
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Joseph McGrath (Director) is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama and is the Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre. For The Rogue Theatre, Joe authored and directed Immortal Longings, and directed Mother Courage and Her Children, As I Lay Dying, The Real Inspector Hound, The Decameron, Our Town, Red Noses, Endymion, The Maids (winner of the Arizona Daily Star 2007 Mac Award for Best Play), and The Balcony. Joe was most recently seen as Griffin in The Night Heron, the Jade Emperor in Journey to the West, Leontes in The Winter’s Tale, Patsy in The New Electric Ballroom, in the ensemble of Shipwrecked! and as Andrew Undershaft in Major Barbara. In 2009 Joe won the Arizona Daily Star Mac Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Tobias in A Delicate Balance. He has toured with John Houseman’s Acting Company, performed with the Utah Shakespearean Festival, and he is a frequent performer with Ballet Tucson appearing in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Cinderella, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dracula and The Nutcracker. He has also performed with Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Opera, Tucson Art Theatre, and Arizona OnStage. Joe owns, with his wife Regina Gagliano, Sonora Theatre Works, which produces theatrical scenery and draperies. |
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Cynthia Meier (Director) is the Managing and Associate Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre and holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of Arizona. She is co-founder of Bloodhut Productions, a company performing original monologues and comedy improvisation, which toured throughout the western United States. At The Rogue Theatre, Cynthia has adapted and directed James Joyce’s The Dead, directed Journey to the West, The Winter’s Tale, Shipwrecked!, New-Found-Land, Old Times, The Tempest, Nāga Mandala, The Four of Us, Othello, Animal Farm, Orlando, Happy Days, The Good Woman of Setzuan, The Fever and The Cherry Orchard. She also directed The Seagull (featuring Ken Ruta) for Tucson Art Theatre, and she directed Talia Shire in Sister Mendelssohn and Edward Herrmann in Beloved Brahms for Chamber Music Plus Southwest. Cynthia has been nominated for six Mac Awards for Best Actress from the Arizona Daily Star. In 2008, she received the Mac Award for Best Actress for her performance of Stevie in Edward Albee’s The Goat at The Rogue Theatre. Most recently, Cynthia played the title role in The Rogue’s production of Mother Courage and Her Children. |
Director’s Notes
On first reading, A Report to an Academy (the source for Colin Teevan’s adaptation Kafka’s Monkey) gives us an ape with a strikingly human voice—indeed we wouldn’t know Red Peter as an ape at all if he didn’t tell us. In addition, there is something not immediately apparent in our monkey’s voice on the page, but comes out clearly in the spoken word: his extravagance of expression. It fits neatly with his life as a Music Hall performer. It is also surprising that Kafka sets up a situation that begs for a comic treatment, but eschews it in favor of a more brooding and complex ape. What is Kafka up to here? According to Albert Camus, “the whole of Kafka’s art consists in compelling the reader to re-read him.” And so it has been for us in rehearsal (conveniently, a “re-hearing”). Sometimes he’s us. Other times he’s a racial or economic outsider. Then again, could he simply be what he is: a mistreated animal questioning our humanity? The possibilities seem endless.
—Joseph McGrath, Director of Kafka’s Monkey
The Metamorphosis is like a dream. In our dreams we sometimes suddenly find ourselves in a locale or condition—our childhood home, an arena, a dark forest—with a particular task we have to accomplish. We don’t question our whereabouts; we must simply figure out how to proceed. Kafka begins The Metamorphosis with an absurd premise: a man wakes up as a bug. The man gradually accepts this premise, without pondering why or how he became a bug. Perhaps this is why The Metamorphosis has been so appealing since it was published nearly a hundred years ago. Aside from the curiosity of a man turning into a bug, we all understand on some level what it means to suddenly wake up to a different existence where we must figure out what life is like now.When The Metamorphosis was made into a book in 1915, Kafka became fearful that the publisher would illustrate the text with illustrations of the Ungeziefer (the graphic German word for the vermin or beetle into which Gregor Samsa is transformed). Kafka wrote to his publisher: “The insect itself cannot be depicted. It cannot even be shown from a distance.” Because of this, and other artistic reasons, you will not see any antennae or wings tonight. You will instead be invited into the psychology of a man who has been excluded from his family.
—Cynthia Meier, Director of Metamorphosis
The directors may be emailed at director@theroguetheatre.org
Ryan Parker Knox as the Charwoman and Matt Bowdren as Gregor Samsa in Metamorphosis
Patty Gallagher as Red Peter in Kafka’s Monkey
Photos by Tim Fuller
Cast |
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Kafka’s Monkey |
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Red Peter | Patty Gallagher* | |
Metamorphosis |
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Gregor Samsa | Matt Bowdren | |
Grete Samsa | Marissa Garcia | |
Mr. Samsa | David Greenwood | |
Mrs. Samsa | Patty Gallagher* | |
Clerk, Gentleman, Charwoman | Ryan Parker Knox | |
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States, appearing under a Special Appearance Contract |
Matt Bowdren (Gregor Samsa) holds an M.F.A in Performance from The University of Georgia and a B.F.A from the University of Arizona. At The Rogue, Matt has appeared in Mother Courage and Her Children, The Night Heron, Journey to the West, As I Lay Dying, Major Barbara, The Real Inspector Hound, New-Found-Land, The Four of Us, Six Characters in Search of an Author, and The Goat. Other Arizona credits include The Pillowman (The Now Theatre) Romeo and Juliet (Southwest Shakespeare), and Titus Andronicus (Arizona Repertory Theatre). In Georgia, Matt has been seen in The Shape of Things, Betrayal, Endgame, and The Comedy of Errors. In New York City, Matt performed in Somewhere In Between with Collaborative Stages, and Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Hudson Shakespeare Company. |
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Patty Gallagher (Red Peter, Mrs. Samsa) 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 has performed the roles of Shen Te in The Good Woman of Setzuan, Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard, Winnie in Happy Days, Sonnerie and Scarron in Red Noses, Orlando in Orlando, the Player in Act Without Words, Emilia in Othello, Rani in Naga Mandala, Ariel in The Tempest, Alibech in The Decameron, Player 1 in Shipwrecked!, Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale and Monkey King in Journey to the West. 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. She holds a doctorate in Theatre from University of Wisconsin–Madison, and she is Director in Residence for the Clown Conservatory, San Francisco Circus Center. |
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Marissa Garcia (Grete Samsa) performed with The Rogue Theatre as Yvette in Mother Courage and Her Children, a Townsperson and a musician in The Night Heron, Guanyin in Journey to the West, in the ensemble and as a musician in As I Lay Dying, as Barbara Undershaft in Major Barbara and as Dorcas in The Winter’s Tale. She is a Tucson native and received her BFA in Acting/Directing from the University of Arizona. Since graduating, Marissa has performed and directed with companies throughout Arizona, Colorado and California. She was seen on Los Angeles stages in premieres of Bernardo Solano’s Lost and Evangeline Ordaz’s Visitors’ Guide to Arivaca, a show she was also involved in here with Borderlands Theater. Other credits include: Ana in Living Out (2005 Mac Award Nominee–Best Actress), Julia in School of the Americas (Borderlands Theater), Thomasina in Arcadia, Cordelia in King Lear (Arizona Repertory Theatre), and Evelyn in Close Ties (Catalina Players). |
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David Greenwood (Mr. Samsa) was a member of the cast of The Rogue Theatre’s first production, The Balcony, and has recently appeared in Mother Courage and Her Children, The Night Heron and Journey to the West, The Decameron, The Real Inspector Hound, Major Barbara, As I Lay Dying and The Winter’s Tale. He has appeared locally in Shining City and The Birthday Party at Beowulf Alley Theatre and The One-Armed Man, The Disposal and The Glass Menagerie at Tucson Art Theatre. |
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Ryan Parker Knox (Clerk, Gentleman, Charwoman) is a South Dakota native and University of SD graduate. Ryan moved to Tucson in October of 2011 after living for just over a decade in Minneapolis/St. Paul where he worked on over 70 productions for over a dozen companies. Ryan has appeared in The Rogue Theatre productions of Mother Courage and Her Children as The Sergeant, The Night Heron as Neddy, and Journey to the West as Sha Monk. Some of his favorite past roles include Jerry in The Full Monty, and the title roles in Picasso at the Lapin Agile and The Who’s Tommy, all for Paul Bunyan Playhouse in Bemidji, MN, as well as Henry in Henry V, Phillip in Orphans, and Bradley in Buried Child. “RPK” (or just Ryan) is extremely thrilled to be a Rogue Acting Company Member and hopes you enjoy his work this season. Special thank yous to his supportive family and friends all over the Midwest (OOTM), and his 4 littlest fans, Olivia, Dylan, Audrey, and Parker...his beloved nieces and nephews. |
Patty Gallagher, Paul Amiel and Eric Schoon in the Preshow
Paul Amiel as Musician, Marissa Garcia as Grete Samsa, and Matt Bowdren as Gregor Samsa in Metamorphosis
Photos by Tim Fuller
Musicians |
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Paul Amiel | ||
Eric Schoon |
Music Director’s Notes
By fortunate circumstances last summer I found myself in Prague. Knowing that the Rogue would be staging two of Kafka’s short stories in the coming season, I searched the city for books of Czech folk music. While Czechs have a deep relationship with classical music (including the composers Dvorak, Mahler, and Smetana), all I could find of the folk was a small accordion book of “50 Lidovych Pisni” (Folk Songs), mostly polkas. The search was not entirely in vain, for it took me into many small, winding, back streets, many of which having a sign proclaiming some relationship to Franz Kafka—and we have used several of the “pisni” in the preshow, including songs, in Czech, sung by Marissa Garcia. D?kujeme!
What music can gain the moniker of “kafkaesque”? What music did he listen to, was he surrounded by? Surprisingly, Kafka wrote in one of his letters, “Do you realize that I’m completely unmusical, of a completeness which in my experience simply doesn’t exist elsewhere?” With this as my insight into Kafka’s self-confessed lack of musicality, I created the music for Metamorphosis guided by the exquisite themes and emotions in his story, limiting the instruments to harp and viola while extending their techniques, and utilizing Eastern European scales (though I did incorporate the most famous of Czech melodies). I think it helped greatly to have tipsily wandered the streets of Prague with all the proud proclaiming plaques, feeling as out of place as Kafka, a German speaking Jew, may have felt among the Czech-speaking Christians. For Red Peter’s act, we’ve used a few recognizable silent movie melodies as accompaniment to give the flavor of the Varieté shows popular at the time. In all of this I am indebted to Eric Schoon’s viola and musicality, Marissa’s go at Czech, and Cindy and Joe’s direction and musical sensitivities. And, of course, “50 Lidovych Pisni.”
—Paul Amiel, Music Director
Paul Amiel as Musician, Ryan Parker Knox as the Gentleman, Matt Bowdren as Gregor Samsa,
Marissa Garcia as Grete Samsa, Patty Gallagher as Mrs. Samsa, David Greenwood as Mr. Samsa
and Eric Schoon as Musician in Metamorphosis
Photos by Tim Fuller
Designers |
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Costume Design | Cynthia Meier | |
Lighting Design | Clint Bryson | |
Scenic Design | Joseph McGrath | |
Production Staff |
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Stage Manager | Leah Taylor | |
Puppets | Matt Cotten | |
Scenic Construction | Joseph McGrath, Christopher Johnson, Ryan Parker Knox & Matt Bowdren |
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House Manager | Susan Collinet | |
Box Office Manager | Thomas Wentzel | |
Box Office Assistants | Susan Koenig, David Morden, Evren Sonmez & Rebekah Thimlar |
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Poster, Program & Website | Thomas Wentzel |
Clint Bryson (Lighting Designer) has designed lights for nearly every Rogue Theatre production. Other lighting design credits include As Bees in Honey Drown and Golf Game for Borderlands, Woman in Black for Beowulf Alley, and The Seagull for Tucson Art Theatre. Clint is currently the Shop Foreman, Production Technical Director and Marketing Director for Catalina Foothills Theatre Department where he designs and coordinates the construction of all scenery. He is also a member of Rhino Staging Services, and a regular participant in Arizona Theatre Company’s Summer on Stage program where he designs and builds the scenery as well as teaches production classes. |
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Leah Taylor (Stage Manager) was Stage Manager for The Rogue Theatre’s Major Barbara, As I Lay Dying, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, The New Electric Ballroom, The Winter’s Tale, Journey to the West, The Night Heron and Mother Courage and Her Children, and Assistant to the Stage Manager for The Decameron. She was Stage Manager for The Now Theatre’s The Pillowman, The Bald Soprano and Overruled. Other work includes shows with Winding Road Theatre Ensemble and Sacred Chicken Productions. Leah graduated from the University of Arizona in May 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics and Anthropology. |
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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 acts as Volunteer Coordinator for the Rogue. |
Matt Bowdren as Gregor Samsa and David Greenwood as Mr. Samsa in Metamorphosis
Patty Gallagher, Paul Amiel and Eric Schoon in the Preshow
Photos by Tim Fuller
Our Thanks |
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Tim
Fuller |
Tucson Weekly |
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Chuck Graham |
Herb Stratford |
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Amy Novelli |
Arizona Daily Star |
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Shawn Burke |
Jesse Greenberg |
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Christopher Johnson |
Our Advertisers |
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Arizona Theatre Company |
Matt Bowdren as Gregor Samsa and Eric Schoon as Musician in Metamorphosis
Marissa Garcia as Grete Samsa, David Greenwood as Mr. Samsa,
Patty Gallagher as Mrs. Samsa, and Matt Bowdren as Gregor Samsa in Metamorphosis
Photos by Tim Fuller
Location: The Rogue Theatre at The Historic Y, 300 East University
Boulevard
Free off-street parking! Click here
Performance run time is 2 hours and 5 minutes, including one ten-minute intermission, and not including music preshow or post-show discussion.
Thursday, February 28, 2013, 7:30 pm DISCOUNT PREVIEW
Friday, March 1, 2013, 7:30 pm OPENING
NIGHT
Saturday, March 2, 2013, 7:30pm
Sunday, March 3, 2013, 2:00 pm matinee
Thursday, March 7, 2013, 7:30 pm DISCOUNT THURSDAY
Friday, March 8, 2013, 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 9, 2013, 7:30 pm
Sunday, March 10, 2013, 2:00 pm matinee
Thursday, March 14, 2013, 7:30 pm DISCOUNT THURSDAY SOLD OUT
Friday, March 15, 2013, 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 16, 2013, 2:00 pm matinee
Saturday, March 16, 2013, 7:30 pm
Sunday, March 17, 2013, 2:00 pm matinee
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