Christopher Johnson (Director) first came to The Rogue in 2011 to play Jewel in As I Lay Dying, and now serves as an Artistic Associate and General Manager. The recipient of eight Arizona Daily Star Mac Award nominations for Best Director, his directing credits include The Rogue’s productions of Middletown, The Crucible, Three Tall Women, Penelope, and his adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as The Rogue’s staged readings of The Illusion, No Exit, Don Juan in Hell, A House of Pomegranates, The River, and Elizabeth Rex. Elsewhere in Tucson, Christopher has directed boom, Cabaret, The Year Of Magical Thinking, The Altruists, and Speech & Debate for Winding Road Theater Ensemble; Psycho Sarah for Middlesex Repertory; Hedwig and The Angry Inch for The Bastard Theatre; as well as Wit, Persephone Or Slow Time, The Book Of Liz, My Name Is Rachel Corrie, Say You Love Satan, Killer Joe, The Rocky Horror Show, Danny And The Deep Blue Sea, The Importance Of Being Earnest, 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 2007–12. Before turning his attentions entirely to directing he acted in just over a hundred plays on Tucson stages.
Christopher Johnson’s direction of The Beauty Queen of Leenane is supported in part by a generous gift from Paul Winick & Ronda Lustman.

Martin McDonagh (Playwright) was born in London in 1970, the son of Irish parents. He is considered among the most acclaimed Irish playwrights living today. He is the author of several plays including The Cripple of Inishmaan. His play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, is the first of three plays in The Leenane Trilogy. In 2017, McDonagh wrote and directed the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, for which he won Golden Globe Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Picture.

Cast

Holly Griffith (Maureen) is a 6th year member of the Resident Acting Ensemble at The Rogue. Favorite productions include Moby Dick, Blithe Spirit, Middletown, Much Ado About Nothing, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Three Tall Women, Celia A Slave, A House of Pomegranates, The White Snake, Uncle Vanya, Angels in America, By the Bog of Cats and Hamlet. She also serves 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 where she now teaches in the department of Theatre, Film, & Television. She also serves as Artistic Associate and Director at the Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre, and maintains a fierce interest in the culture and literary tradition of Ireland.
Holly Griffith’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Sally Krusing and Els Duvigneau & Stu Salasche.

Hunter Hnat (Ray Dooley) is grateful to be in his second season as a member of The Rogue Resident Acting Ensemble. You may have seen him in previous Rogue productions as Flask in Moby Dick, Edmund Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the Mechanic in Middletown, Ezekiel Cheever in The Crucible, Son of Three Blind Queens (and others) in The Secret in the Wings, Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing, Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Andrea in Galileo, Oswald in King Lear, Steindorff in Bach at Leipzig, and Ensemble for A House of Pomegranates. He has also been a part of The Rogue’s staged readings of The Illusion, No Exit, and Cloud 9. Other credits include Jokanaan in Salomé (The Scoundrel & Scamp), Ensemble and Romeo U/S in Romeo and Juliet (Arizona Theatre Company), Boyfriend in How the House Burned Down (Live Theatre Workshop) as well as several other workshops and readings. He is a U of A alumnus with his BFA in Musical Theatre, class of 2015. Enjoy the show!
Hunter Hnat’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Bill & Barb Dantzler and Jack & Kathy Mattox.

Ryan Parker Knox (Pato Dooley)  The Beauty Queen of Leenane marks Ryan’s 40th production in his 8th season as a member of The Rogue Acting Ensemble. Originally from the Midwest, he has his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of South Dakota and spent nearly 11 years in Minnesota’s Twin Cities working for various local and regional theaters. Gratitude to Ryan’s family, his friends, his fellow ensemblers, and especially his cats who have always stuck by him through everything.
Ryan Parker Knox’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from Shawn Burke and Clay Shirk.

Cynthia Meier (Mag) is Co-Founder and Managing and Associate Artistic Director for The Rogue, and has appeared in Blithe Spirit, The Crucible, Three Tall Women, 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 nine 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 generous gifts from Andy & Cammie Watson and John Blackwell & Denice Blake.

Music

Music Direction and Composing/Arranging by Russell Ronnebaum

Janine Piek: Violin
Ms. Piek will be performing on February 27–29 and March 6, 7, 13 & 14

Aidan Kram: Violin
Mr. Kram will be performing on March 1, 5, 8, 12 & 15

Robert Marshall: Cello

Preshow Music

Da Slockit Light
Tune by Tom Anderson
Arranged by Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas

Christina
Tune by Alasdair Fraser
Arranged by Fraser & Haas

Body of an American
Tune by The Pogues
Arranged by Russell Ronnebaum

Josefin's Waltz
Tune by Roger Tallroth
Arranged by Fraser & Haas

Production Music

Josefin’s Waltz

Christina

The Letter (Part 1)
Russell Ronnebaum

Body of an American

The Spinning Wheel
Tune by Delia Murphy, arr. Ronnebaum

The Beauty Queen of Leenane
Ronnebaum

Opening of Act 2
Ronnebaum

Da Slockit Light

The Letter (Part 2)
Ronnebaum

The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Reprise)
Ronnebaum

Irish Blessing
Tune by Millie Rieth

Maids of Mitchelstown
Traditional Irish tune

Russell Ronnebaum (Music Director, Composer/Arranger) is most excited to be serving as The Rogue Theatre’s newly appointed Director of Music and Resident Composer. Russell holds a Master of Music degree in collaborative piano from the University of Arizona where he studied under Dr. Paula Fan. He currently serves as the assistant director of music at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Oro Valley, as well as the staff accompanist for the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. As a classically trained pianist, Russell has performed with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Artifact Dance Company, Arizona Repertory Theatre, and as a concerto soloist with the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. Russell made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 performing the music of composer Dan Forrest. Past credits include The Rogue’s 2019 and 2020 productions of Much Ado About Nothing, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Blithe Spirit, and Moby Dick (Music Director, Pianist, and Composer) and The Secret in the Wings (Vocal Director). Recent composition commissions and premieres include music for bassoon quartet, live theatre, strings, brass, voice, choir, and piano. Recordings, videos, sheet music, and upcoming concert dates can be found at www.RRonnebaum.com.
Russell Ronnebaum’s music direction is supported in part by a generous gift from Ward & Judy Wallingford.

Aidan Kram (Violin) began playing the violin in 2013 at the age of ten. He has participated for multiple years in ASTACAP (American String Teachers Association Certificate Advancement Program), and is a winner of the 2019 Tucson Music and Dance Academy Honors Competition. Formerly a principal violinist for the Tucson Junior Strings, he currently performs with the Tucson Philharmonia Youth Orchestra. Aidan’s other interests include tennis, bluegrass fiddle, and music composition. He is a member of the Boy Scouts of America and is completing his pursuit of the prestigious Eagle Scout Rank.

Robert Marshall (Cello) earned his M.M. of Cello Performance in 2016 from the University of Arizona, where he served as a founding member of the Graduate String Quartet. He has attended the Talis Festival & Academy in Switzerland, the St. Lawrence String Quartet Summer Seminar, and the University of Nebraska Lincoln Chamber Music Institute with the Escher and Chiara String Quartets. Past teachers include Dr. Theodore Buchholz, Charae Krueger, and Dr. Robert Jesselson. Orchestrally, he serves as principal in the Civic Orchestra of Tucson, assistant principal in the Sierra Vista Symphony Orchestra, and is frequently asked to perform with the Tucson Symphony and Tucson Pops Orchestras. In 2019, he performed the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Tucson Repertory Orchestra in preparation for the orchestra’s Japanese tour. During this year he also gave the Southwest premiere of Sarah Hennies’ Contralto, a multimedia piece exploring the relationship between transgender women and their literal and figurative voices scored for strings, percussion, and video. Mr. Marshall also enjoys collaborating on staged productions in dance and theatre. He has worked with the Arizona Theatre Company, Arts Express, the University of Arizona Repertory Theater, and Artifact Dance Project. He looks forward to joining The Rogue Theatre’s production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane in March of 2020.

Janine Piek (Violin) began playing the violin at the age of nine and received a violin scholarship through the Nevada School of the Arts at age seventeen. She is a graduate of the Las Vegas Academy of Performing Arts and holds degrees in Music Education (BM) and Violin Performance (MM) from the University of Arizona. She has performed and recorded with artists such as the Moody Blues, Louis Bellson, Skip Martin, Katherine Byrnes, and Rick Braun. Janine performs with the Southern Arizona Symphony, Tucson Repertory Orchestra, Arizona Theater Company, and the Sierra Vista Symphony, and teaches at the Tucson Academy of Music & Dance.

Designers

Costume design is supported in part by a generous gift from Bev Bechtel

Scenic design is supported in part by a generous gift from Andy & Cammie Watson

Lighting design is supported in part by a generous gift from Anne & Ed Griffith

Production Staff

Deanna Fitzgerald (Lighting Designer) is a professional Lighting Designer and member of United Scenic Artists, as well as a Professor and head of lighting design and technology at the University of Arizona, where she also serves as the Associate Director for theatre programs and the Director of Graduate Studies. Her lighting design credits include a range of theatre, dance, opera, circus-themed entertainment, puppets, architectural lighting and more. She is 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 for STOMP OUT LOUD, the Las Vegas version of the internationally acclaimed STOMP, for whom she also toured for six years as lighting director; Cirque Mechanics: Boom Town, which toured for two years with an off-Broadway appearance at The New Victory Theatre; and Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo US Tour. Deanna has been smitten with her Rogue family since 2014 when she designed their extraordinary creation Jerusalem, and has since designed Waiting for Godot, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Miss Julie, Bridge of San Luis Rey, Tales from the Jazz Age, Uncle Vanya, Penelope, Macbeth, Celia A Slave, Bach at Leipzig, Three Tall Women, King Lear, Galileo, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Secret in the Wings, The Crucible, Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Blithe Spirit. She is grateful for every moment she gets to spend making things with them and for ME Peter Bleasby and the returning Associate LD Megan Coy whose collaborations make that possible.

Megan Coy (Resident Stage Manager, Associate Lighting Designer) is thrilled to return to her hometown to stage manage for The Rogue Theatre! Her first Rogue production was this summer’s Middletown. She spent the last five years working in marketing, stage management, and lighting design at The Magik Theatre in San Antonio, TX. Prior to settling in San Antonio, Megan was the stage manager and lighting director on the first North American tour of Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo Live! She graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, training in stage management, lighting design, and dramaturgy. She has worked with Williamstown Theatre Festival, Alpine Theatre Project, and local theater and dance companies in Tucson and San Antonio. Megan is a proud mom to Eleanor and wants to thank Casey for his constant love and support.
Megan Coy’s stage management is supported in part by a generous gift from Andy & Cammie Watson.

Amy Novelli (Scenic Artist) is originally from Ohio and Pennsylvania She received her Cum Laude BFA from the Columbus (Ohio) College of Art & Design in 1987 and her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1994. Novelli’s scenic art career began in New York City where she worked as a sculptor for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Studio.  She was Scenic Charge Artist for the Arizona Theatre Company 2010–2014, painted several sets for Arizona Opera and UA Opera, and presently paints for The Rogue Theatre and Arizona Broadway Theatre in Peoria (Phoenix).  Amy created monstrous Halloween decor for Hotel Congress for 20 years, and was lead painter for Marshal-Fields 1998 award winning Easter Window display “Alice in Wonderland”.  She supervised four public art projects in the Tucson area with high school youth and won commissions to design and paint five large scale outdoor murals across the country as well as at the Biosphere II and La Posada Hotel on Oracle Blvd.  She has taught at the University of Arizona and Pima Community College. Novelli’s fine art work has been exhibited at several Tucson Galleries and in May-August 2020 she will have a one woman show at the Tucson International Airport and September 2020 at Agua Caliente Gallery. Amy Novelli has been living in Tucson since 1996.  When not painting, Novelli trains and rides her three horses with friends and guests in the Tucson Mountains and several Arizona wilderness areas.
Amy Novelli’s scenic painting is supported in part by a generous gift from Jill Ballesteros.

Nanalee Raphael (Costume Manager) has known from age 5 that she would work in theatre. Of course, she thought it would be as an actor, not as someone who flings fabric around. She feels blessed that she has always been employed in costuming, for both professional and academic theatres, and has never had to have a “day job.” Until moving to Tucson in 1995, she was peripatetic in her work situations, desiring to work with theatres all over the country. She has taught at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee but was lured by the bright lights of Chicago and so moved there to teach at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Following her husband to central Illinois, she then wangled a position at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she created a successful costume rental program. She then gave up all that greenery to come to Tucson to teach and design at the University of Arizona. She has worked as a costume designer, costume director and/or draper in professional theatres in Michigan, (Hope Summer Repertory, Holland), Wisconsin (American Players Theatre, Spring Green), Illinois (Goodman, Wisdom Bridge, and Steppenwolf, Chicago), New York (The Public, NYC), Arizona (ART & ATC, Tucson), at Shakespeare Festivals in Vermont and New Jersey, and California (The Old Globe, San Diego). She received both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Costume Design and Technology from Syracuse University. She is one of the “Pioneering Seven,” the first group of women to study full-time at Dartmouth College.

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