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In This House

Music by Mike Reid

Lyrics by Sarah Schlesinger

Book by Jonathan Bernstein, Sarah Schlesinger & Mike Reid

Music Direction by James Sampliner

Directed by May Adrales

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If you’ve ever been in love…you’ll find yourself In This House.

WATCH

Official Trailer

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

Two River Theater Company is in the midst of an extraordinary season in which it is not only providing exceptional work for its own audience, but is also nurturing and developing new works which will likely make an impact on the American theatre for years to come.

TALKIN’ BROADWAY

MEET THE ARTISTS

THE CAST

Chuck Cooper

Chuck Cooper was seen at Two River last season in the new musical In This House and August Wilson’s Jitney. He most recently appeared in Wilson’s The Piano Lessonat the Signature Theatre. He is a veteran of 10 Broadway plays and musicals, and numerous television and film guest lead appearances over the span of his 30 years as a professional actor. He won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a musical for his portrayal of Memphis in The Life. Other Broadway credits include: Finian’s Rainbow;Lennon; Caroline, or Change (AUDELCO Award, Best Featured Actor); Chicago; Passion; Someone to Watch Over Me; Rumors;Amen Corner; Getting Away With Murder. Off-Broadway: Lost In the Stars (Encores); On the Levee (LCT3); Thunder Knocking on the Door (Minetta Lane, AUDELCO nomination); Colored People’s Time(Negro Ensemble Co.); and more.Regional credits include: All My Sons (Intiman); Dance of the Holy Ghosts(Yale Rep); Robeson(Passage Theatre); Othello (New Jersey Shakespeare Festival); Julius Caesar (Philadelphia Drama Guild); Hamlet, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare Theatre, DC); Coriolanus, Timon of Athens, Two Trains Running (San Diego Critics Circle Award, The Old Globe); and more. Television: Gossip Girl; Nurse Jackie; Hack; 100 Centre StreetLaw & Order; SVU; Oz;NYPD Blue; Cosby; New York Undercover; I’ll Fly Away; and more. Film: Boy Wonder; Noise;Evening; American Gangster; Find Me Guilty; Three Days of Rain;The Hurricane;The Opportunists; Gloria; The Juror; North.Mr. Cooper was a Beinecke Fellow at the Yale School of Drama.Favorite role: Eddie, Alex, and Lilli’s father. www.chuckcooper.net. Contact EBONYACTOR@aol.com.

Jeff Kready

Jeff Kready Broadway: Billy Elliot (Tony Elliot), Sunday in the Park with George revival, Les Miserables revival (Jean Valjean u/s). Off-Broadway: Tokio Confidential (Atlantic Stage 2). National Tour: Billy Elliot. Favorite regional: Godspell, Anything Goes, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Cats, 42nd Street. Training: BA in Vocal Performance and Vocal Music Education from Washburn University. Kansas music teacher turned actor, now proud member AEA. Many things to The Mine and acting coach David Hibbard. All glory and credit to JC.

Brenda Pressley

Brenda Pressley began her New York theatrical career in And Still I Rise written and directed by Maya Angelou. She later enjoyed success on Broadway in the original cast of Dreamgirls directed by Michael Bennett and as Grizabella in the long running hit Cats.  More recently, Ms Pressley appeared on Broadway opposite Linda Lavin in The Lyons and with Mercedes Ruehl in The American Plan.

Brenda’s many Off Broadway appearances include Fran’s Bed opposite Mia Farrow, the world premiere of the award winning Audible production of the one woman show Proof of Love by Chisa Hutchinson, Surely, Goodness and Mercy, Almost Home, The First Breeze of Summer, Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles?, Seven Guitars, Marvin’s Room, Blues In The Night and And The World Goes ‘Round-The Songs of Kander and Ebb for which she received the Outer Critics Circle Award.

Regionally, Brenda starred in Alice Childress’ Trouble in Mind and In This House at the Two River Theatre Company and in the world premiere of The Old Settler at the McCarter Theatre and again at The Freedom Theatre.  This performance garnered the Barrymore Award for Best Actress. Additional productions include Jar The Floor at Syracuse Stage and Blues for An Alabama Sky at the Old Globe and Cincinnati Playhouse, and the world premiere of Black Odyssey at the Denver Center Theatre Company.  Brenda starred in To Be Young Gifted and Black at The Kennedy Center.

On television Ms Pressley starred opposite Oprah Winfrey in the ABC series Brewster Place. Other television appearances include guest starring and recurring roles on The Path, The Good Wife, Almost Family, The Mysteries of Laura, Body of Proof, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Headlines, New York Undercover, Educating Matt Waters, HBO Life Stories, Daddy’s Girl, Here and Now, Ghostwriter, All My Children, Loving and One Life To Live.

She has been featured in numerous national commercials.

Brenda appeared in the films Before/During/After, Detachment opposite Adrien Brody, Third Street Blackout, 16 Blocks starring Bruce Willis and Mos Def and directed by Richard Donner, Cradle Will Rock written and directed by Tim Robbins, Twisted and It Could Happen To You.

Margo Seibert

Margo Seibert was previously seen at Two River in Orestes: A Tragic Romp (also Folger Theatre). New York: The Taming of the Shrew with Old Vic New Voices, Joshua Schmidt: Songbook at Barrow Street Theatre. Her regional credits include Candide (dir. Mary Zimmerman) with the Goodman Theatre/Shakespeare Theatre, DC; Arcadia, School for Scandal at the Folger Theatre; A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theatre; The Boy Detective Fails, The Hollow, Saving Aimee at Signature Theatre; Fiddler on the Roof, Of Mice and Men, Cinderella with Olney Theatre Center; Reefer Madness at Studio Theatre. National Tour: The Phantom Tollbooth at The Kennedy Center. Education: American University. www.margoseibert.com.

THE CREATIVES

Music and Lyrics

Mike Reid & Sarah Schlesinger
Mike Reid & Sarah Schlesinger

Mike Reid & Sarah Schlesinger were the Lyricist, Composer and Co-bookwriters for In This House and the Composer and Lyricist for The Wind in the Willows Christmas, both of which had their world premieres at Two River Theater. They have also written the score for Casanova Returns, which won the Global Search for New Musicals. The team’s opera Different Fields was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Guild. They are currently writing The Last Day, a new musical commissioned by Penn State University. Mike and Sarah have received the Kleban Award, the Richard Rodgers Award, a Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Theater Foundation Award, the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award, and Chicago’s Jeff Award for best original musical. Mike is a Grammy Award-winning songwriter. His songs have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Adele (I Can’t Make You Love Me), Anita Baker, Kenny Rogers, Wynonna, Alabama, Willie Nelson, Joe Cocker, Bette Midler, and Tim McGraw. Sarah Schlesinger is the Associate Dean of Performing Arts and Chair of the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.

Director

May Adrales
May Adrales
May Adrales is a director, artistic leader, educator and mother; she has directed over 25 world premieres. Her work has been seen most recently at Second Stage (Rajiv Joseph’s Letters of Suresh) Manhattan Theater Club (Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone, and Poor Yella Rednecks, Felicia Anchuli King’s Golden Shield) Signature Theater, LCT3, The Public Theater, WP, New York Theater Workshop, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, Milwaukee Rep and South Coast Rep. She was awarded the prestigious Ammerman Award at Arena Stage and Theater Communications Group’s Alan Schneider award for freelance directors. She is a Drama League Directing Fellow, Van Lier Directing Fellow, WP Lab Director, SoHo Rep Writers/Directors Lab and New York Theater Workshop directing fellow, TCG New Generations Grantee, SDC Denham Fellowship and Paul Green Directing Award.  She served as an Associate Artistic Director at Milwaukee Rep; Artistic Associate at The Playwrights Center; Artistic Associate at The Public Theater; and Director of Artistic Programs and Artistic Director at The Lark. She serves on the board of Theater Communications Group. May has directed and taught at Juilliard, Harvard/ART, ACT, Fordham, NYU and Bard College. May has served on faculty at the Yale School of Drama and Brown/Trinity MFA program. MFA, Yale School of Drama. She is currently the Director of the Theatre Program/Assistant Professor at Fordham University. (www.mayadrales.net)

Scenic Design

Lee Savage
Lee Savage

Lee Savage previously designed Opus and In This House for Two River. New York: Muscles in Our Toes, Sunset Baby, and Thinner than Water (Labyrinth); Collapse (Women’s Project); All-American (LCT3); The Dream of the Burning Boy and Ordinary Days (Roundabout); Oohrah! (Atlantic); The Bereaved (Partial Comfort); punkplay (Clubbed Thumb). Regional: Asolo Rep, Chautauqua Theater Company, Dallas Theater Center, Glimmerglass Festival, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington National Opera, Westport Country Playhouse, Wilma Theater, Yale Rep and others. International: The Gate (Dublin, Ireland), Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Awards: NAACP: Satchmo at the Waldorf (Wallis Annenberg); Helen Hayes: Much Ado About NothingA Midsummer Night’s Dream (nom); Richard III (nom) (all Shakespeare Theatre Company); Connecticut Critics Circle: The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Yale Rep). Affiliations: Member of Wingspace Theatrical Design. Instructor: Yale School of Drama Design Department and Rhode Island School of Design. Training: Rhode Island School of Design: BFA; Yale School of Drama: MFA.

Lighting Design

Gina Scherr
Gina Scherr

Gina Scherr previously designed In This House and The Electric Baby at Two River. Recent credits include On Golden Pond at Bucks County Playhouse and Awake and Sing for NAATCO at The Public Theater. New York designs include productions at Roundabout Underground, City Center, The Women’s Project, The Kitchen, Merce Cunningham, Alvin Ailey, PS122, La MaMa, Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Company XIV and The New School. Regional credits include productions at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Old Globe, Milwaukee Rep, Asolo Rep, Weston Playhouse, and Yale Rep. Internationally, Gina’s designs have been seen in Ireland, Sweden, Edinburgh, South Korea, Canada, and Romania. Gina is a member of Wingspace Theatrical Design. MFA: Yale School of Drama.

Orchestrations

Danny Larsen
Danny Larsen

Danny Larsen Orchestrations/Copyist: A Wind in the Willows Christmas and In This House (Two River Theater); Zombie in Love (Oregon Children’s Theatre); The Butterfly Girl (Vital Theatre Company); Catch the Wind (Buck Hill Skytop Music Festival); The Hinterlands (musical web series); Cloaked (Village Theatre, CAP21); The Yellow Wood (Contemporary Classics). Composer/Lyricist: Catch the Wind; The Hinterlands (nominated for four IAWTV Awards); Cloaked (2011 Jonathan Larson Grant, 2011 Kleban Prize); The Yellow Wood (2006 Richard Rodgers Development Award, 20016 Daryl Roth Award, 2007 Best Music Award at NYMF, 2008 NAMT Festival Participant); Zombie In Love (2014 Best Original Score and Best Original Script – Drammy Awards, Portland Area Musical Theatre Award for Outstanding Original Musical); The Butterfly Girl. Danny is currently working on a new musical with collaborator Michelle Elliott called Hart Island about New York City’s public burial ground. The show was shortlisted for the Kevin Spacey Foundation Artists of Choice Award in 2015 and will have two staged readings later this year. MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.

Casting

Tara Rubin Casting
Tara Rubin Casting

Tara Rubin Casting Selected Broadway: King Kong (upcoming), Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, The Band’s Visit, Prince of Broadway, Indecent, Bandstand, Sunset Boulevard, Miss Saigon, Dear Evan Hansen, A Bronx Tale, Cats, Falsettos, Disaster!, School of Rock, Les Misérables, The Heiress, The Phantom of the Opera, Billy Elliot, Shrek, Spamalot, …Spelling Bee, The Producers, Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys. Off-Broadway: Smokey Joe’s Café; Jersey Boys; Here Lies Love; Love, Loss, and What I Wore  Selected Regional: Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Asolo Rep. www.tararubincasting.com

Production Stage Manager

Whitney McAnally
Whitney McAnally

Whitney McAnally has previously stage managed Much Ado about Nothing, Candida, and Opus at Two River. She spent 10 seasons as a resident stage manager at Milwaukee Repertory Theater where she worked on more than 35 productions, including The Normon Conquests, Escape from Happiness, Tartuffe, Half Life, The Magic Fire, Work Song, and The Blonde Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead. Regionally she has also stage managed at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Madison Repertory Theatre, Austin Lyric Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera. Whitney just returned from her 11th summer season at Cincinnati Opera, where she stage managed A Flowering Tree and The Magic Flute. This is for Raymond, who brought me here to New Jersey in the first place.

Dates and tickets

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