Absurd Person Singular

Alan Ayckbourn 2014 marked Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s 53rd year as a theatre director and his 55th as a playwright. He has spent his life in theatre, rarely if ever tempted by television or film, which perhaps explains why he continues to be so prolific. To date he has written 78 plays and his work has been translated into over 35 languages, is performed on stage and television throughout the world and has won countless awards. Major successes include: Relatively Speaking, How the Other Half Loves, Absurd Person Singular, Bedroom Farce, A Chorus of Disapproval and The Norman Conquests. In the past four years, there have been revivals of Season’s Greetings and A Small Family Business at the National Theatre and in the West End productions of Absent Friends, A Chorus of Disapproval and Relatively Speaking. 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of his first West End production, Mr Whatnot. In 2009, he retired as artistic director of the Stephen Joseph, where almost all his plays have been and continue to be first staged. Holding the post for 37 years, he still feels that perhaps his greatest achievement was the establishment of this company’s first permanent home when the two auditoria complex fashioned from a former Odeon Cinema opened in 1996. In recent years, he has been inducted into American Theatre’s Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics’ Circle Award for Services to the Arts and became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards. He was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre. (Source: Alan Ayckbourn’s official website www.alanayckbourn.net.)

Jessica Stone worked as an actress on and Off Broadway and in television and film for the last 30 years. Concurrently, she was an assistant/associate director on and Off Broadway to Nicholas Martin, Joe Mantello, David Warren, and Christopher Ashley. Ms. Stone’s directing career began in earnest with her all-male 2010 production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum for Williamstown Theatre Festival. She directed A Funny Thing…. and Absurd Person Singular for Two River. Her directing credits also include Theresa Rebeck’s Bad Dates (Huntington), Ken Ludwig’s Robin Hood! (Old Globe), David Lindsay Abaire’s Ripcord (Huntington), Joshua Harmon’s Bad Jews (George Street Playhouse), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Bucks County Playhouse), Arms and the Man (The Old Globe), Chris Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (The Old Globe, Huntington), Charlotte’s Web (Theatreworks USA), June Moon and Neil Simon’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers (Williamstown). Ms. Stone’s upcoming productions include Barefoot in the Park for The Old Globe and Kate Hamill’s Vanity Fair for Shakespeare Theatre Company and A.C.T. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons.

Charlie Corcoran

Gabriel Berry specializes in collaboration on new work. Notable productions include the world premieres of the works of Maria Irene Fornes, Richard Foreman, Charles Ludlam, Samuel Beckett, Philip Glass, John Guare, Christopher Durang, Mabou Mines, Peter Sellars, John Adams, Tito Puente, Yoshiko Chuma, Lucinda Childs, Ethyl Eichelberger, Nick Jones, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Osvaldo Golijov, Meredith Monk, and Ellen Stewart. Awards include Obies, Bessies and a silver medal from the Prague Quadrennial for her contribution to experimental theater. She previously designed Dancing at Lughnasa, Pericles and Absurd Person Singular at Two River Theater.

Rui Rita (Lighting Designer) (he/him) Selected Broadway: Skeleton Crew, Velocity of Autumn, Trip to Bountiful, Present Laughter, Dividing the Estate, Enchanted April. Off-Broadway premieres: Paradise Blue; Horton Foote’s Old Friends and Orphans’ Home Cycle (Hewes Award) (Signature); Happiest Song Plays Last (Second Stage); Just Jim Dale (Roundabout); Nightingale, Moonlight and Magnolias (Manhattan Theatre Club); Carpetbagger’s Children, Far East (Lincoln Center Theater). Off-Broadway revivals: The Piano Lesson (Signature), Talley’s Folly (Roundabout), Engaged (TFANA; Obie Award). Recent regional credits: Alley, Asolo, Center Stage, Center Theatre Group, Dallas Theater Center, Ford’s, Guthrie, Huntington, Oregon Shakespeare, The Old Globe, Pasadena Playhouse. designbyrui.com.

Drew Levy (he/him) (Sound Design) Broadway: A Strange Loop (Tony nom.), Oklahoma! (Tony nom., Drama Desk nom.), Honeymoon in Vegas (Drama Desk nom.), Chaplin (Drama Desk Award), The Winslow Boy, The Importance of Being Earnest, Present Laughter. West End: A Strange Loop, Oklahoma! (Olivier nom.). Off-Broadway: Judgment Day (Park Avenue Armory), Oklahoma! (St. Ann’s), Cleopatra, One Day the Musical, The Weir, Why Torture is Wrong…, Emergence-See!, Rainbow Kiss, Dutchman (AUDELCO Viv nom.). Regional: The Old Globe, Heartbreak Hotel (Chicago), ART, Williamstown, Huntington, Westport Country Playhouse, Two River Theater, McCarter Theater, Arena Stage, Long Wharf. Other: Reconfiguration: An Evening with Other Lives at BAM; Drama Desk Awards 2014 & 2015; Metropolitan Opera 125th Anniversary Gala; annual holiday installations for Saks 5th Avenue, Cartier, and others.

Ben Furey Broadway includes: The Last Ship, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Matilda, Billy Elliot, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Side Show, Mamma Mia. National Tours include: All North American productions of Billy Elliot, Monty Python’s Spamalot, West Side Story, The Phantom of the Opera. Off-Broadway includes Appropriate (Signature Theatre); Our New Girl, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Harper Regan, Gabriel, and The New York Idea (Atlantic Theater Company); If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, The Language Archive, Bad Jews (Roundabout Theatre Company); By the Water, The Explorers Club, That Face (Manhattan Theatre Club). Regional/International includes: Guthrie Theater, Palm Beach Dramaworks, Cincinnati Playhouse, Gate Theatre (Dublin), Dallas Theater Center, and Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Film includes: Treasure Buddies, Eyeborgs, and Pete’s Meteor. TV: Vocal Consultant for the popular PBS wine program, Vine Talk. Teaching includes: University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Old Vic – “New Voices” workshop NYC, Gaiety School of Acting (Dublin), and the Laura Henry Studio, Los Angeles.

Adam Caldwell works with Cindy Tolan. Broadway: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Betrayal, Cinderella, The Performers, Lysistrata Jones, Relatively Speaking, That Championship Season, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, Avenue Q, and Xanadu. Previous productions with Vineyard Theatre, Bay Street, Dallas Theater Center, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, and Lincoln Center Theater. Film: This Is Where I Leave you, The Place Beyond the Pines, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Winter’s Tale, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Blue Valentine, Another Happy Day, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Letters to Juliet, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Starting Out in the Evening, Death of a President, The Darjeeling Limited. Upcoming films: Katie Says Goodbye, Breakable You. Television: Odd Mom Out, Deadbeat, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Flight of the Conchords, Fringe, The Return of Jezebel James, and multiple HBO pilots. Member of CSA.

Libby Unsworth Two River: Absurd Person Singular. Broadway: The Visit; Scandalous; Promises, Promises; 33 Variations; The Country Girl. Off-Broadway: Murder for Two (New World Stages), Anthem (Baryshnikov Arts Center), Bunnicula (DR2), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (CSC), Next Fall (Naked Angels), Jailbait (Cherry Lane), Unconditional (LAByrinth), Speech & Debate, The Overwhelming (Roundabout), Our Leading Lady (MTC). Regional: 5th Avenue, Geffen, Williamstown (eight seasons), Goodspeed, Goodman, Hangar, Huntington. Touring: Prince of Broadway (Japan), The Old Man and the Old Moon (Boston), Radio City Christmas Spectacular (Arena Tour), White Christmas (Boston & Toronto). BFA, Boston University.