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The Scarlet Letter

World Premiere

By Kate Hamill
Based on the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Directed by Shelley Butler

The Joan and Robert Rechnitz Theater

Run Time: 90 minutes, no intermission

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A CLASSIC TALE OF COURAGE

Hester Prynne dares to strive for a better life for herself and her daughter. Kate Hamill (Pride and Prejudice, Little Women), one of American theater’s most celebrated contemporary playwrights, reimagines Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic tale of courage. This world premiere, directed by Shelley Butler (Beautiful: The Carol King Musical, A Doll’s House Part 2), showcases the strength of a woman who will not let the rules of an unjust society define her.

THIS PERFORMANCE CONTAINS: brief partial nudity, violence, scenes of self-harm, adult situations, and haze effects. While the public performances of The Scarlet Letter will include brief nudity, the student matinees will not.

WATCH

Official Trailer

ARTS & CRAFTS WITH THE CAST AND CREATIVES

MEET THE CAST

Mary Bacon

Mary Bacon Drama Desk for The Public and Audible’s’ Coal Country, and her NYC theater career. Recently, Dig at Primary Stages. Broadway: Tom Stoppard’s Rock N Roll and Arcadia. Select Off-Broadway: The Roads To Home and Harrison, TX with Hallie Foote, Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist,  and Lucinda Coxon’s Happy Now?Primary StagesDrama Desk/Lortel nominated Women Without Men and Days to ComeThe Mint;  GIANT, The Musical at the Public, Alma in Eccentricities of a Nightingale, TACT, NY Times top ten productions of the year. For dear late husband Andrew Leynse, and their beautiful son Abadi. See more at marybacon.net. 

Nikki Calonge

Nikki Calonge (she/her/siya) is a performer, puppeteer, and educator. Stage Credits: Life of Pi, Broadway and A.R.T.; Psychic Self Defense, HERE Arts Center; Eterniday, LaMama; EsperpentoSundance Institute; In the Pony Palace/FOOTBALL, Bushwick Starr; Electric Lucifer, The Kitchen. Film: Feast of the Epiphany, The Museum of the Moving Image and BAMcinemaFestHeads or Tails. Education: Drama B.F.A. NYU/Tisch – Experimental Theater Wing and Playwrights Horizons Theater School, student of Dance/Movement Therapy M.S. Pratt Institute. nikkicalonge.com  

Kevin Isola

Kevin Isola:  For Two River: My Wonderful DayForum Broadway:  Brooklyn Boy  Off-Broadway:  Lincoln Center, Signature Theatre, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, NYSF/The Public Theater, Transport Group, Wheelhouse, The Play Company, Theatre Row, 59E59, The Women’s Project, Cherry Lane, others.  Regional: Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Guthrie, The McCarter, Yale Rep, Two River Theatre, The Old Globe, South Coast Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, others.  Film:  Miles, Blumenthal, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Uninvited, 24 Nights, The New Yorker, others.  Television: “The Equalizer”, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, “Billions”, “Bull”, “The Blacklist”, “Elementary”, “Deadbeat”, “Smash”, “Fringe”, “Damages”, “Boston Legal”, “Law and Order”, others. 

Keshav Moodliar

KESHAV MOODLIAR is a New York-based actor, born in Pune, and raised between Bombay and New Delhi. Off-Broadway: Queen (Long Wharf and NAATCO), Arms and the Man(Gingold Theatre) , Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Theatre New Jersey), Measure for Measure (The Acting Company)  . Film/TV:  Extrapolations (Apple), “SINK SANK SUNK” (mini-series), Chicken (Independent), “Untitled Paul Simms Pilot” (FX). MFA: Juilliard. 

Amelia Pedlow

NEW YORK: The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window  (BAM);  Intelligence(NYTW NEXT Door/ Dutch Kills); The Metromaniacs, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Red Bull);  Pride & Prejudice(world premiere by Kate Hamill, Primary Stages); The Liar, The Heir Apparent (Classic Stage Company); You Never Can Tell  (Pearl Theatre Company). REGIONAL (selected):Emma  (world premiere by Kate Hamill, The Guthrie); Dear Jack, Dear Louise(world premiere by Ken Ludwig, Arena Stage & George Street); Private Lives(St. Louis Rep); Doubt(Studio Theatre); Red Velvet(The Old Globe); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Ether Dome(La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre Company); 39 Steps, The Glass Menagerie,  Hamlet(Denver Center);  Legacy of Light(Cleveland Play House). TV: The Good Wife, Blue Bloods, Shades of Blue, The Blacklist. Juilliard BFA. 

Triney Sandoval

BROADWAY: Bernhardt/HamletMarvin’s RoomMACBETH, A Free Man of Color, A Man for All Seasons, Frost/Nixon. OFF BROADWAY: 72 Miles to Go…(Drama Desk nomination), The Thin Place, Timon of AthensThe Idiot, As You Like it. REGIONAL: La Jolla Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, American Players Theatre, The Wilma Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Virginia Stage, Center Stage, Yale Rep., Milwaukee Rep., Alabama Shakespeare, Idaho Shakespeare, California Shakespeare, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, among others and six seasons with Oregon Shakespeare Festival. TV: Blue Bloods, Prodigal Son, Black List, Elementary, Sopranos, and recurring roles on Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU. 

MEET THE CREATIVES

Kate Hamill

Kate Hamill is an actor & playwright. Plays include Pride & Prejudice– Primary Stages / HVSF (originated role of Lizzy; nominee, Off-Broadway Alliance Award), Sense & Sensibilityat Bedlam (originated role of Marianne; winner, Off-Broadway Alliance Award; nominee, Drama League Award); Vanity Fair at the Pearl (originated Becky; nominee, Off-Broadway Alliance Award), Mansfield Park at Northlight,Little Women at Primary Stages & the Jungle, Dracula at Classic Stage Company, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt. #2Bat KCRep,  Emma at the Guthrie, The Little Fellow (Or: the Queen of Tarts Tells All) at Cygnet Theatre. Other plays include Scrooge for Senate;The Piper (O’Neill Finalist, PlayPenn Fellowship),In the Mines(Sundance Finalist);The Odyssey, and The Light and The Dark. Her plays have been produced off-Broadway, atA.R.T., the Guthrie, Seattle Rep, The Alley, Folger, OSF, TrinityRep, Pittsburgh Public, Dorset Theatre Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Dallas Theater Center, Kansas City Rep, Long Wharf, A.C.T., Actors Theater of Louisville, & manyothers. Upcoming in 2024: Emma at Denver Center, The Light and The Dark at Chautauqua Theater Company, and more to be announced. Kate has been one of the most-produced playwrights nationwide every season from 2017-current season. Wall Street Journal Playwright of the Year, 2017; Einhorn Award, 2023. www.kate-hamill.com 

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne, (born July 4, 1804, SalemMassachusetts, U.S.—died May 19, 1864, Plymouth, New Hampshire), American novelist and short-story writer who was a master of the allegorical and symbolic tale. One of the greatest fiction writers in American literature, he is best known for The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851).

Shelley Butler
Shelley Butler has over forty Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional credits to date. She has worked extensively with writers on new plays and musicals and has directed over two-dozen new works including the world premiere of Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House Part 2 (South Coast Repertory) and the Japanese premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Shelley currently serves as Artistic Director for the South Carolina New Play Festival. Shelley has directed and developed work at prestigious companies nationwide including: Ars Nova, Primary Stages, E.S.T., WP Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe, Milwaukee Rep, Hartford Stage, South Coast Repertory, Denver Center Theatre Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Geva, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Pioneer Theatre Company, Contemporary American Theater Festival, New York Stage and Film, Partial Comfort, New Georges, The Playwright’s Realm, Keen Company and New Dramatists. Shelley is the recipient of a Drama League Fall Directing Fellowship, a 2018 Drama League Directing Resident, a 2005 Director’s Guild of America Trainee, a member of SDC, the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab and the WP Directors Lab. Learn more at Shelleybutler.com

Scenic Designer

Takeshi Kata
Takeshi Kata

Broadway:  Prayer for the French Republic  (Friedman),  Clyde’s (Helen Hayes), Derren Brown’s Secret(Cort),Water for Elephants(upcoming). Off Broadway: Atlantic, NYTW, Playwrights Horizons, Public, Rattlestick, Second Stage, Signature, Vineyard, among others. Other Recent Projects includeUntil the Flood (FIND festival, Shaubühne, Berlin) andBug(Steppenwolf). Kata is the recipient of the 2022 Michael Merrit Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration, and has received Drama Desk, Obie, and Jeff Awards. He is an Associate Professor at University of Southern California, School of Dramatic Arts. 

Costume Designer

Sara Ryung Clement
Sara Ryung Clement

Off-Broadway:  Golden Shield(Manhattan Theatre Club),  Somebody’s Daughter(Second Stage Uptown), Fruiting Bodies(Ma-Yi).  Regional: World premieres of Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House Part 2and Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band (South Coast Repertory). Other regional credits include Center Theatre Group, Boston Lyric Opera, Guthrie Theater, Portland Center Stage, Alley Theatre, Denver Center, Geffen Playhouse,  Asolo Repertory, Folger Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Dallas Theatre Center, Seattle Repertory, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and others. Set design faculty at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. MFA, Yale School of Drama; AB Princeton University. sararyungclement.com 

Hair and Makeup Designer

Roxanne De Luna
Roxanne De Luna

Lighting Designer

Philip S. Rosenberg
Philip S. Rosenberg

Broadway and West End: Mrs. Doubtfire, Pretty WomanThe Elephant Man, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and It’s Only a Play. Regional: Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Ford’s Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, The Old Globe, TheatreWorks, Hartford Stage, Alliance, Huntington Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Dallas Theatre Center, Denver Center Theatre, The Alley Theatre, Arena Stage, The McCarter Theatre, Manhattan School of Music, Portland Stage Company, TACT, Barrington Stage Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Dorset Theatre Festival, Bay Street Theatre, Goodspeed Opera, Two River Theatre Company, George Street Playhouse, and Westport Country Playhouse. 

Sound Designer and Composer

Kate Marvin
Kate Marvin

KATE MARVIN (she/her) (SOUND DESIGNER) Kate Marvin is a New York based sound designer, composer, and musician for theater, film, puppetry, and podcasts. She specializes in making music using found sounds and everyday objects. Recent work: Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Lucille Lortel Theatre), Merry Me (New York Theatre Workshop), Big Trip (La Mama/Krymov Lab NYC), Wolf Play (Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Sound Design – MCC/Soho Rep/Ma-Yi), Bulrusher (McCarter/Berkeley Rep), the best we could [a family tragedy] (Manhattan Theatre Club), Vanessa in Bed (Audible), Three Sisters (Two River Theater), Fidelio (Heartbeat Opera), Blood Meal (Theater in Quarantine), Wives (Playwrights Horizons), [PORTO] (WP Theater/Bushwick Starr/New Georges), Chimpanzee (HERE/Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes/The Barbican), The Memory Trade (Handmade Puppet Dreams). Associate Artist – Target Margin Theater. MFA Yale School of Drama. katemarvinsound.com [katemarvinsound.com] 

 

 

Puppet Designer

James Ortiz
James Ortiz

James Ortiz (Puppet Design and Direction) Ortiz’s recent creation of Milky White for the Broadway revival of Into the Woods and the Dinosaurs for Lincoln Center’s Tony-nominated Skin of Our Teeth have become fan favorites. Recently: Disney’s Hercules. Previous credits include: The Kennedy Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, The Public Theater, Carnegie Melon University, Dallas Theatre Center, Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Ars Nova, and New World Stages. 2022 Drama Desk winner for Skin of our Teeth. 2016 OBIE winner for The Woodsman. American Theatre magazine “Six Theatre Workers you Should Know” in 2020. www.Jamesortiz.co

 

 

 

Puppetry

William Gallacher
William Gallacher

Fight and Intimacy Coordinator

Rocío Mendez
Rocío Mendez

Rocío Mendez is an actor/fight director/teacher from Hell’s Kitchen, NYC. Fight/Intimacy Direction credits include: On the Grounds of Belonging (Long Wharf Theatre), Hercules (The Public Theater), The Bandaged Place (Powerhouse Theater), No One Is Forgotten (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), The Secret life of Bees (Atlantic), Leap and the Net Will Appear (New Georges), The Royale (Geva Theatre), Southern Promises, Good Friday (The Flea Theater), Marian, or The True tale of Robin Hood, Hearts Like fists (Flux Theatre Ensemble). Film credits include Bad Writing, Clandestiny, Tied Up, Hurt Fillings. Nominee for two New York Innovative Theatre Awards: Outstanding Choreography and Movement; winner, Artemis Women in Action Film Festival. Rocío is a Team Member of UnkleDave’s Fight-House. www.rociomendez.com

Alex Might
Alex Might

Production Stage Manager

Alex Murphy
Alex Murphy

Alex Murphy returns to Two River Theater after Assistant Stage Managing their production of Two Sisters and a Piano. Regional: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer The Musical, Justice At War(Coterie Theatre);  A Christmas Carol, Still Ready(Actors Theatre of Louisville), Wine in the Wilderness(Two River Theater), American Prophet (Arena Stage). National Tour: The Prom. Off-Broadway: The Harder They Come, Romeo and Bernadette, Two’s a Crowd.Alex was the Resident Stage Manager for Kansas City Actors Theatre in Kansas City, MO,  for three seasons, working on such productions asDeath and the Maiden, And Then There Were None, and Skylight. 

Assistant Stage Manager

Kassi Wilson
Kassi Wilson

Kassi Wilson (Assistant Stage Manager) Is a Theatre Arts Rowan University Alum and is proud of her Two River Theater debut! Past credits include Broadway: SIX: The Musical, Off Broadway: Hell’s Kitchen (The Public Theater), Public Works’ The Tempest (The Public Theater), King James (Manhattan Theater Club), The Harder They Come (The Public Theater), Raisin In The Sun (The Public Theater), Fat Ham (The Public Theater), Our Dear Dead Drug lord (WP Theater). Other past live event credits include The 76th Annual Tony Awards, Broadway Bares, and Afropunk.

 

Casting

David Caparelliotis and Joseph Gery
David Caparelliotis and Joseph Gery

Dramaturg

Christine Scarfuto
Christine Scarfuto

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

This is a captivating show that is bound to go far.

—BROADWAY WORLD

A masterful adaption.

—THE STAR-LEDGER

“In the hands of Hamill, Butler, and a superb cast, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s poignant story moves along with both speed and passion.”

—FRONT ROW CENTER

A powerful force.

—THE STAR-LEDGER

INSIDE TWO RIVER EVENTS

PHOTOS

NEWS & UPDATES

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