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The Bridge of San Luis Rey
We can’t always see what connects us.
Thornton Wilder won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for the classic American plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and one for his novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey. This quiet masterpiece—a dazzling rumination on the nature of love—will be brought to life on stage by a troupe of actors led by one of the singular figures in the American theater: writer and actor David Greenspan, the winner of five Obie Awards.
WATCH
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
It is a whimsical fairytale about big themes like love, longing, loss and loneliness, but it is first a paean to the joys and powers of words.
THE STAR LEDGER
Give Mr. Greenspan considerable credit for his venturesome daring: adapting a novel that Wilder thought beyond the each of the stage.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
This gripping play is a true gift to metro area audiences.
BROADWAY WORLD
MEET THE ARTISTS
THE CAST
Sumaya Bouhbal
Sumaya Bouhbal is thrilled to be performing at Two River Theater. Sumaya’s credits include Runaways, the Encores! production at New York City Center, and Jessa in the off-Broadway production of A Civil War Christmas at New York Theatre Workshop. Sumaya also performed in The TEAM’s Primer for a Failed Superpower concert, directed by Rachel Chavkin, and she co-starred as the Puerto Rican girl in the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle. Sumaya would like to send a special thank you to her family, manager Achilles Tsakiridis (Prestige Management), agent John Shea (FBI), and singing coach Daniel Orama (Vocal Production Studios) for their love and continued support.
David Greenspan
DAVID GREENSPAN performed in his adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey at TRT; has worked with many contemporary playwrights; appeared in his own plays, most notably Dead Mother, She Stoops to Comedy, Go Back to Where You Are, I’m Looking for Helen Twelvetrees, The Things That Were There and his solo plays The Argument and The Myopia; performed solo renditions of Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude, Barry Conners’ The Patsy, Gertrude Stein’s lecture Plays, a program of two Stein lectures and a playlet Composition…Masterpieces…Identity; he is a recipient of Guggenheim, Lortel and Fox fellowships, Alpert, Lambda Literary, Helen Merrill Playwriting awards, a RUTHIE and six OBIES.
Zachary Infante
Zachary Infante, a native of Roselle Park, New Jersey, is grateful to be making his Two River debut. Off-Broadway: Big River (dir. Lear deBessonet) and Do I Hear a Waltz? (dir. Evan Cabnet), both for New York City Center’s Encores!; Pericles (dir. Trevor Nunn), Tamburlaine the Great (Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Revival of a Play, dir. Michael Boyd), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Francis Flute, dir. Julie Taymor), all for Theatre for a New Audience. Regional & International: Rent at Cas di Cultura, Aruba’s National Theatre (Angel, dir. Nicola Murphy); Fingersmith at the American Repertory Theater (dir. Bill Rauch); Somewhere at Hartford Stage (dir. Giovanna Sardelli); Peter Pan at Paper Mill Playhouse (dir. Mark Hoebee). Film & TV: School of Rock (dir. Richard Linklater); Carrie Pilby (dir. Susan Johnson); Alpha House; Gotham. BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch (CAP21 & ETW). A great many thanks to Ken, David, John and the TRT family for the opportunity to join The Bridge. He maintains love and gratitude for his family, friends, this cast, crew, and the team at Abrams Artists. “Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” www.zacharyinfante.com, @zachinfante
Julienne Hanzelka Kim
Julienne Hanzelka Kim Broadway: Metamorphoses; Golden Child. Off-Broadway credits include: Among the Dead and Chairs and a Long Table at Ma-Yi Theater; Yellow Face at The Public; The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow at Atlantic Theater Company; The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci at Second Stage; Blood Orange at the Cherry Lane Theatre and the Blue Heron Arts Center; and The House of Bernarda Alba for NAATCO. Regional and International: Phaedra Backwards at McCarter Theater; Language Rooms at the Wilma Theater; Krystian Lupa’s adaptation of Three Sisters at A.R.T. and the Edinburgh International Festival; Yellow Face at Mark Taper Forum; Golden Child at The Kennedy Center, A.C.T., Singapore Rep and Seattle Rep; Everything That Rises Must Converge and The World Is Round with Compagnia de’ Colombari. TV/Film credits include: Castle Rock (Hulu); The Affair (Showtime); Blue Bloods (CBS); Elementary (CBS); The Good Wife (recurring CBS); Royal Pains (USA); Law & Order: CI (NBC); Rescue Me (FX); One Life to Live (recurring ABC); Children of the Northern Lights (ITVS, FutureStates); When We Dead Awaken; The Adderall Diaries; Shadows and Lies; The Tested; Robot Stories; Split; and Life in Bed. Julienne holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program where she was the recipient of the NYU Departmental Scholarship. She is a proud member of the Workshop Company at The Actors Center, on the steering committee of AAPAC (Asian American Performers Action Coalition), and is the recipient of a Van Lier Literary fellowship.
Elizabeth Ramos
Elizabeth Ramos made her Two River debut in The Women of Padilla. Off-Broadway: The Surgeon and her Daughters (Cherry Lane Theatre, dir. Adrienne Campbell-Holt); The Idea of Me (Cherry Lane Theatre, dir. Jose Zayas); and A Month in the Country (Classic Stage Company, dir. Erica Schmidt). Regional: Fade (TheaterWorks, dir. Jerry Ruíz); Deferred Action (Dallas Theater Center, dir. David Lozano); Sleep Rock Thy Brain (Actors Theatre of Louisville, dir. Amy Attaway). Previous credits include Romeo and Juliet; Odilia; and Sonnets for an Old Century. Training: Actors Theatre of Louisville Apprenticeship and California State University, Fullerton. Liz would like to thank Two River Theater for letting her be a part of such an extraordinary family. And to her husband, her bridge…Kenji.
Steven Rattazzi
STEVEN RATTAZZI (He/Him/His) Two River Theater: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by David Greenspan; The School For Wives. Broadway: Indecent. Off-Broadway: King Kirby (The Brick); Henry V w/Liev Schrieber (Public Theater); Galileo w/F. Murray Abraham; The Tempest w/Mandy Patinkin, (CSC); Stunning (Lincoln Center); Dinner Party (Target Margin); Painted Snake on a Painted Chair (OBIE); McGurk (ERS); Richard Foreman’s Samuel’s Major Problems (Ontological). Regional: Lempicka (Williamstown); Seder (Hartford Stage); Indecent (Yale Rep/La Jolla); Marie Antoinette (ART/Yale Rep); The Lovesong of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cincinnati Playhouse); Christmas Carol (McCarter). Film: The Family (Luc Besson); But This Is How It Will End (Epstein). TV: The Venture Brothers (7 seasons).
Mary Lou Rosato
Mary Lou Rosato Broadway: Once Upon a Mattress, 1996 (Queen Aggravain), School for Scandal (National Actors Theatre), My Life as a Fairytale (Lincoln Center Festival), The Suicide, The Inspector General, The Robber Bridegroom, Beggar’s Opera, Measure for Measure, The Time of Your Life, The Three Sisters. Off-Broadway: The Skin of Our Teeth, Henry the 5th (TFANA), Government Inspector (Red Bull), The Winter’s Tale, The Misanthrope (CSC), Mother Courage, The Cradle Will Rock, Ten by Tennessee, School for Scandal (Drama Desk Award). Regional: Guthrie (Candide), Yale Rep (The Alchemist, Elizabeth: Almost By Chance a Woman), ART (The Miser), Shakespeare Theatre, Washington (Witch of Edmonton and King Lear), Cincinnati Playhouse (Medea), Seattle Rep (Misanthrope, Coming of Age in Soho), McCarter (Triumph of Love, Changes of Heart, Mirandolina), Old Globe San Diego (The Hostage), Williamstown Theatre Festival (Camino Real), Baltimore Center Stage (Roza), Berkshire Theatre Festival (High Spirits), St. Nicholas Theater Company (Curse of an Aching Heart—Jeff Award, Primary English Class), Playwrights Lab at Sundance, SCR (The Clean House), Mark Taper (Changes of Heart). Film: Quiz Show, Hudsucker Proxy, The Wedding Banquet, Two Bits, Spike of Bensonhurst, Brenda Starr, Illuminata. TV: Titus (Nurse Kathy), Law & Order: SVU, and Caroline in the City, Warehouse 13, The Lot, Miami Vice, Stone Pillow with Lucille Ball. Juilliard Drama (Group 1) under John Houseman and Michel St. Denis. Founding member: The Acting Company. Faculty Emerita—California Institute of the Arts.
Bradley James Tejeda
Bradley James Tejeda recently appeared in Two River Theatre’s production of El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom as Alex/El Coquí. From San Antonio, TX, he obtained a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of the Incarnate Word in 2013, then recently graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 2016. Bradley will be playing Ralph in a stage adaptation of Lord of the Flies at Nebraska Repertory Theatre in Lincoln, Nebraska in April.
The power of Love itself doesn’t happen accidentally, but it does desperately desire to become intention. Be patient, the power of loving yourself and another profoundly with an undying purpose to master the tight-rope walk of love itself—connecting the lands of the living and the dead—is primary. To love, is to live. To live with. That is primary. Before we can live for another, we must learn to love. Profoundly, courageously, faithfully. Convivir! Conjunto! Con el Mundo!
Madeline Wise
Madeline Wise Select theater credits include Cute Activist (The Bushwick Starr); Far Away (Sharon Playhouse); Minor Character (Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival; Invisible Dog; Sharon Playhouse); The World My Mama Raised (Clubbed Thumb Summerworks); the feels (KMS) (American AF Festival/New Ohio); Choice (Huntington, IRNE nom for Best Supporting Actress); PlayMoney (La MaMa ETC); Tall Women in Clogs (Edinburgh Fringe). Film/web includes Whatever this is., Snow Day, The Outs, Peacekeepers. Readings and developmental work with Playwrights Horizons, LCT3, New York Theatre Workshop, Clubbed Thumb, Ars Nova, Playwrights Realm, Drama League, New Group, The Lark, Huntington, and more. Madeline is a founder of New Saloon Theater Co and a member of the Actors Center. madelinewise.com.
THE CREATIVES
Author
Thornton Niven Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder (1897-1975) Born in Madison, Wisconsin, and educated at Oberlin, Yale (B.A. 1920) and Princeton (M.A. 1925), Thornton Wilder was an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works, exploring the connection between the commonplace and the cosmic dimensions of human experience, continue to be read and produced around the world. Wilder is the only writer to win Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and drama—for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) and two plays, Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). His other novels include The Cabala, The Woman of Andros, Heaven’s My Destination, The Ides of March, The Eighth Day and Theophilus North. His other major dramas include The Matchmaker (adapted as the musical Hello, Dolly!) and The Alcestiad. The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, The Long Christmas Dinner and Pullman Car Hiawatha are among his celebrated shorter plays. Wilder also enjoyed success as an essayist, translator, research scholar, teacher, lecturer, actor, librettist and screenwriter. His screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943) remains a classic psycho-thriller to this day. Wilder’s many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Book Committee’s Medal for Literature, The Order of Merit (Peru), and the Goethe-Plakette (Germany). In 1930, with royalties received from The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Wilder built a home for himself and his family in Hamden, CT. Although often away from it for as many as 250 days a year, restlessly seeking quiet places in which to write, Thornton Wilder always returned to “The House The Bridge Built.” He died here on December 7th, 1975. More information on Thornton Wilder and his family is available in Penelope Niven’s definitive biography, Thornton Wilder: A Life (2013) as well as on the Wilder Family website, www.thorntonwilder.com
Uncle Pio & Playwright
David Greenspan
David Greenspan
DAVID GREENSPAN performed in his adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey at TRT; has worked with many contemporary playwrights; appeared in his own plays, most notably Dead Mother, She Stoops to Comedy, Go Back to Where You Are, I’m Looking for Helen Twelvetrees, The Things That Were There and his solo plays The Argument and The Myopia; performed solo renditions of Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude, Barry Conners’ The Patsy, Gertrude Stein’s lecture Plays, a program of two Stein lectures and a playlet Composition…Masterpieces…Identity; he is a recipient of Guggenheim, Lortel and Fox fellowships, Alpert, Lambda Literary, Helen Merrill Playwriting awards, a RUTHIE and six OBIES.
Director
Ken Rus Schmoll
Ken Rus Schmoll
Ken Rus Schmoll directed Madeleine George’s Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England and The Women of Padilla by Tony Meneses at Two River Theater. Recent credits include Annie Baker’s John at the American Conservatory Theater, a workshop of Anne Washburn’s 12-hour play The Octavia at the University of Washington School of Drama, MJ Kaufman’s Sagittarius Ponderosa for the National Asian American Theatre Company, Lucas Hnath’s Hillary and Clinton at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Anne Washburn’s Antlia Pneumatica at Playwrights Horizons. He is a usual suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb, a co-mentor of the Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship, a three-time Sundance Theatre Institute alum, a former co-chair of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and the recipient of two Obie Awards.
Scenic Designer
Antje Ellermann
Antje Ellermann
Antje Ellermann designs sets for theater, opera and TV. She previously designed The Bridge of San Luis Rey for Two River Theater. Her NY credits include: Building the Wall, Stuffed, Dear Elizabeth (WP Theater and Off Broadway), I’m Looking for Helen Twelvetrees, The Belle of Amherst, The Open House (Signature Theatre), Hamlet and The Broken Heart (Theatre for a New Audience). Regionally her work has been seen at: Hartford Stage, Kansas City Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf Theatre, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, NY Stage & Film, Trinity Rep, Huntington Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Denver Center Theatre Company, Cleveland Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Geffen Playhouse, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Bard SummerScape and Pittsburgh Opera Center. Award nominations: Connecticut Critics Circle Award (The House that will not Stand), Helen Hayes Award, Ovation Award and Lucille Lortel Award (Nine Parts of Desire), Emmy Award nomination: Becoming American).
Costume Designer
Elizabeth Hope Clancy
Elizabeth Hope Clancy
Elizabeth Hope Clancy Broadway: A Christmas Story: The Musical, Passing Strange, The Goat; or Who Is Sylvia?, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan. West End: A Few Good Men. Dublin: Death of a Salesman (Gate). Off-Broadway: The Lady from Dubuque, The Oldest Profession, The Last of the Thorntons (Signature), Measure for Measure (Shakespeare in the Park), Hamlet (TFANA), In the Blood, A Dybbuk (Public), Memory House, Recent Tragic Events, The Wax (Playwrights Horizons), Waiting for Godot, Endgame, The Entertainer (CSC). Regional: The Outsiders (Paper Mill), Our Town (George Street), productions at The Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Intiman, Huntington, Mark Taper, OSF, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, Geffen, Yale Rep, etc. Dance: resident designer for Sally Silvers Dance. MFA: Yale School of Drama. Faculty: Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers and Fashion Institute of Technology.
Lighting Designer
Yuki Nakase
Yuki Nakase
Yuki Nakase previously at Two River Theater: Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey adapted for the stage by David Greenspan and directed by Ken Rus Schmoll, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest directed by Michael Cumpsty, and Tony Meneses’ The Women of Padilla directed by Ken Rus Schmoll. Recent design credits include Tiny Beautiful Things (Long Wharf Theatre), Hope (Wild Project), Queen of Basel (Colony Theatre), The Hartt School Dance Division Fall Concert (University of Hartford). Next: Triptych: Eyes of One on Another (LA Phil, University Musical Society, Kennedy Center and BAM). She was born in Tokyo, grew up in Kyoto, Japan and currently lives north of NYC in the woods. B.A. in Dance: JWCPE, M.F.A. in Lighting Design: NYU. For more information, visit http://yukinakase.com
Sound Designer
Karin Graybash
Karin Graybash
Karin Graybash has created numerous sound designs for regional theater and Off-Broadway, including: Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, Berkeley Rep, Dallas Theater Center, Yale Rep, McCarter, Arena Stage, Portland Stage, TheatreWorks, and the Alliance. Her work has been nominated for the Helen Hayes Awards and she is a recipient of the Bay Area Theatre Critics Award for her sound design of Polk County at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Karin was the original live sound consultant for the multi-media production Freedom Rising at the National Constitution Center. Many of her soundscapes can be heard at The Franklin Institute’s exhibit entitled Your Brain. Karin also holds the position of Sound Supervisor for the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.
Wig Designer
David Bova
David Bova
David Bova Broadway designs include The Visit, The Real Thing, Violet, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, Motown, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, All About Me, and Next to Normal. Films include Angelica and The Night Before. TV includes Six by Sondheim, Scream Queens, Gotham, Mozart in the Jungle, and Inside Amy Schumer.
Puppet Consultant
Eric Wright
Eric Wright
Eric Wright Performance credits include: The Soldier’s Tale (Bushwick Starr), What Are You Eating? (The Tank), The Firebird (City Center), Alice in Wonderland (New York City Opera), P.S. Jones and the Frozen City (New Ohio Theater), Compulsion (Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, The Public), Disfarmer (St. Ann’s Warehouse), Madama Butterfly (Metropolitan Opera), Peter and Wendy (Arena Stage), Powerhouse (Fringe Festival NYC), Petrushka (Lincoln Center), La Bella Dormente… (Spoleto Festival), Hiroshima Maiden (St. Ann’s Warehouse), Don’t Trust Anyone over 30 (Art Basel Miami). He is an Associate Artist of Sinking Ship Productions, and regular performer in Puppet Playlist. Mr. Wright is one of the co-founders and ‘Head Chef’ of the Puppet Kitchen, which provides puppetry services for stage and screen productions worldwide. www.puppetkitchen.com
Casting
Taylor “Sharky” Williams
Taylor “Sharky” Williams
Taylor “Sharky” Williams is the Casting Director at New York Theatre Workshop. For Two River Theater she has cast: Pericles, The Lion in Winter, The Ballad of Little Jo, A Raisin in the Sun and El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom.
Production Stage Manager
Megan Smith
Megan Smith
MEGAN SMITH (she/her/hers) PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER is thrilled to return to Two River Theater for The Hombres. Previous TRT credits include Radio Golf, Dancing at Lughnasa and The Bridge of San Luis Rey. In 2019, Ms. Smith helped David Greenspan remount TRT’s production of The Bridge of San Luis Rey for Miami New Drama. Select NY credits include: Off-Broadway: Usual Girls, Ordinary Days (Roundabout Theatre Company); Fetch Clay, Make Man and Red Dog Howls (New York Theatre Workshop); The Scottsboro Boys (The Vineyard Theatre); Book of Days (Signature Theatre). Regional credits include: Miami New Drama, Westport Country Playhouse, Long Wharf Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, New York Stage and Film, Bard SummerScape and The Guthrie Theater.