SET DESIGNERJORDAN MOORE

This entire season sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture. Florida Repertory Theatre is a fully professional non-profit LOA/LORT Theatre company on contract with the Actors’ Equity Association that proudly employs members of the national theatrical labor unions. *Member of Actors’ Equity Association. **Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. ***Member of United Scenic Artists.

The Fred & Jean Allegretti Foundation • Naomi Bloom & Ron Wallace • Dinah Bloomhall • Alexandra BremnerBruce & Janet Bunch • Gholi & Georgia Darehshori • Mary & Hugh Denison • Ellie Fox • David Fritz/Cruise Everything

Dr. & Mrs. Mark & Lynne Gorovoy • John Madden • Sue & Jack Rogers • Arthur Zupko

STARRINGensemble memberSARA MORSEY*

andDANNY BERNARDY* • JENNIFER BYRNE* • TIMOTHY C. GOODWIN*

BRADY WEASE • JONATHAN WIENER*

DIRECTED BY BRUCE JORDAN**

LIGHTING DESIGNERKATE SMITH

COSTUME DESIGNERDINA PEREZ***

2 0 1 6 - 1 7 G R A N D S E A S O N S P O N S O R S

FLORIDA REPERTORY THEATRE

2 0 1 6 - 2 0 1 7 S E A S O NARTSTAGE STUDIO THEATRE • FORT MYERS RIVER DISTRICT

ROBERT CACIOPPO, PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

P R E S E N T S

ASST. STAGE MANAGERAARON MARTIN

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGERSBREE SHERRY*

JOSHUA QUINN*

Shear Madness is presented by Special Arrangement with CRANBERRY PRODUCTIONS, INC.

ASST. SOUND DESIGNERRHIAN FRANCHEBOIS

SOUND DESIGNERJOHN KISELICA

SPONSORED BY FINEMARK NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST

ASST. COSTUME DESIGNERKIM GRIFFIN

Wardrobe Supervisor: Alisha Lawrence • Lighting/Sound Board Operator: Chris PattersonUnderstudies: Nate Ritsema • Brady Wease

Barbara Demarco.......................................................................................JENNIFER BYRNE*†

Mikey Thomas.................................................................................................BRADY WEASE*†

Tony Whitcomb........................................................................................DANNY BERNARDY*†

Eddie Lawrence.....................................................................................JONATHAN WIENER*†

Nick O’Brien......................................................................................TIMOTHY C. GOODWIN*†

Mrs. Shubert....................................................................................................SARA MORSEY*†

TIMEToday at 3:50pm.

PLACEThe Shear Madness Hair Styling Salon

on the corner of 1st and Jackson.

SHEAR MADNESS will be performed with one 15-minute intermission.

The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited.

The Actors & Stage Manager employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

PAUL PÖRTNER (Author) was an avant garde German playwright and director who fell under the charm of the commedia dell’arte. This led to his creating Scherenschnitte in 1963, the play on which Shear Madness is based. His other work included novels, short stories, and radio plays. Mr. Portner died in 1984.

MARILYN ABRAMS (Co-Creator) grew up in New York City attending The Bronx High School of Science and later Cornell University, an unlikely beginning for a career that included, among others, leading roles in Mame, Gypsy, The Sound of Music, Broadway Bound, and Private Lives plus countless television commercials. She and Bruce Jordan formed Cranberry Productions when they recognized the comic potential of interactive theatre while acting in Shear Madness. Abrams originated the role of Barbara Demarco and played it in the first four productions before taking on the role of Mrs. Shubert at the Kennedy Center. She now heads the marketing division of the company.

BRUCE JORDAN (Director/Co-Creator) has directed over 30 productions of Shear Madness over the years as well as a host of other plays and musicals including Private Lives, Spamalot, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Perfect Wedding, Little Mary Sunshine, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, The Underpants, and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds. Also an actor, Jordan has appeared in over 40 roles across the country. He made his film debut opposite Barbra Striesand in The Way We Were, acted in three commercials made for the Super Bowl, and has appeared on the front pages of both New York Magazine and The Wall Street Journal. He is the director of the three longest-running plays in the history of the United States: Shear Madness Boston is now in it’s 37th year at the Charles Playhouse, Shear Madness DC now in its 29th year at the Kennedy Center, and Shear Madness Chicago ran for 17 years at the Mayfair Theatre. Most recently he directed the New York production of Shear Madness at New World Stages and then again when it moved to the Davenport. Born in Pittsfield, MA, and raised on the south shore of Long Island, Jordan in a graduate of SUNY Geneseo and currently resides in Manhattan.

CAST

*†Member of Florida Repertory Theatre’s Ensemble of Theatre Artists. See page 23 for the entire ensemble.

**

ABOUT THE WRITERS

(in order of appearance)

DANNY BERNARDY* (Tony Whitcomb) is thrilled to be making his Florida Rep debut after a rousing run of Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center! NY: Cougar The Musical, Sex Tips…, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt

Sally, NY Classical Theatre, Cherry Lane, The York, SoHo Playhouse, NY Theater Workshop. Regional Highlights: Principal roles at American Conservatory Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre (Nominee, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Alabama Story), North Carolina Theatre, Cape Playhouse, Virginia Stage Co. TV: ABC’s One Life to Live, CBS’ As the World Turns. Danny is a member of OYL Theater Company and originally hails from San Diego. Carnegie Mellon, BFA

JENNIFER BYRNE* (Barbara Demarco) Florida Rep debut! Off Broadway: Nevermore (Original OB Cast), Evil Dead the Musical (Original OB cast/recording), It’s Karate, Kid! the Musical (NYIT Nomination), Pirates of

Penzance (Lortel), Fairy Tale Christmas (World Premiere, NYC Fringe). Regional: Light in the Piazza (freeFall, Theatre Tampa Bay Award; Best Featured Actress in a Musical), On The Town (FLMTF), Open Road (Powerhouse), A Chorus Line (Maltz Jupiter), Closer Than Ever (Riverside), Lombardi (OSTC), Legally Blonde (MGR), Bernarda Alba (freeFall), Cabaret (freeFall), The 39 Steps (TBTS), The Drowsy Chaperone (Gateway), The Rocky Horror Show (Lyric Theatre), Smokey Joe’s Café (Bethesda), Seven Brides… (Carousel). Proud member: AEA, SAG/AFTRA, CAEA. Squeezes to family and friends. www.jennifer-byrne.com

TIMOTHY C. GOODWIN* (Nick O’Brien) comes from Rochester NY, where he worked with Geva Theatre Center’s Education Department and was Administrator of Geva Comedy Improv for its first four seasons. Most

recently, he appeared as Dr. Watson in Lake Dillon Theatre Company’s production of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. Other credits include Drop Dead Perfect (Phineas Fenn, Penguin Rep), As Bees In Honey Drown (Mike, J City Theatre), Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Pericles, American Bard Theatre Company), A Man’s World (Wells, Metropolitan

Playhouse), Measure for Measure (Duke Vincentio, ABTC), As You Like It (Silvius, Snorks and Pins), the short film Birthday Burglar (Mickey, Dreamtime Productions), and nine productions of Shear Madness, most recently in New York City. www.timothycgoodwin.com

SARA MORSEY*† (Mrs. Shubert) A long-time associate artist with The Hippodrome Theatre in Gainesville, FL, Sara has worked in regional theaters across the country. Recently at the Hippodrome: Whatever

Happened to Baby Jane?, All Girl Frankenstein, Good People, Carrie, Other Desert Cities, End Days, Boeing Boeing, Shear Madness, Eurydice, Mindgame, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, and The Glass Menagerie. Other Tennessee Williams plays include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Suddenly Last Summer. Also Three Tall Women, The Play About The Baby, and The Goat by Edward Albee. Shakespeare’s The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Winter’s Tale, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet. Also The Sleeper, Indiscretions, The Underpants, Master Class, Anton in Show Business, Closer, Misery, All in the Timing, Private Eyes, The Illusion (lots more). Sara recently enjoyed successful runs of Becky’s New Car, Dividing the Estate, Collected Stories, The Little Foxes, The Year of Magical Thinking, and August: Osage County at Florida Repertory Theatre where she is a member of the Ensemble of Artists. Other affiliations include Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, American Stage, Banyan Theater, New Harmony Theatre, Horse Cave Theatre, Playhouse on the Square, The Kentucky and Indiana Shakespeare Festivals. International: Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Black C Productions Sex:Female at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria. Independent Film: The First of May with Julie Harris, Borderlines, The Votive Pit. American Premieres: Mrs. Klein (American Stage), Autumn Sonata (Pegasus Rising), In the Attic (Dance Alive), War of the Words (Hippodrome). Professional Narrator, Library of Congress Talking Books, Audible, Master of Fine Arts in Acting, University of Louisville.

BRADY WEASE (Mikey Thomas) Florida Rep: Miss Nelson is Missing, A Dream Within a Dream; The Spirit of Poe. Triad Stage: A Christmas Carol, Snow Queen, All’s Well That Ends Well. Educational:

CREATIVE TEAM

Hairspray, Cabaret, A Year with Frog and Toad, Jack and the Jelly Beanstalk, Twelfth Night, Spamalot, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Education: BFA Acting, UNCG 2016.

JONATHAN WIENER* (Eddie Lawrence) Florida Rep debut. A New York native, Jonathan was last seen in Orlando Shakespeare Theatre’s production of Spamalot as Sir Lancelot/French Taunter/Tim the

Enchanter etc. Off-Broadway: My Big Gay Italian Wedding (Gregorio), My Big Gay Italian Funeral (Rabbi Howie). Regional: Shakespeare Theatre Co. in DC, Macbeth, Lorenzaccio, Pericles (Dir. Mary Zimmerman), CT Rep’s Violet (Monty), Candide (Maximilian), Loose Knit (Bob), The Laramie Project (Dennis Shepard, etc.), Surflight Theatre’s Female Odd Couple (opposite JoAnne Worley and Cindy Williams), and Damn Yankees (Colonial Theatre). International: soloist for Disney Cruise Line (Dr. Greenaway, Hades, Shang, Prince Phillip), Jihad;The Musical (Edinburgh Fringe Festival) TV: Momsters, Guiding Light, Celebrity Ghost Stories, Pan AM. This one’s for Aunt Sha!

RHIAN FRANCHEBOIS (Asst. Sound Designer) is a first-time intern at Florida Repertory Theatre. She recently graduated from Flagler College with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Arts. This is her first job after college, and she hopes she pleases your ears.

KIM GRIFFIN (Asst. Costume Designer) graduated from Baylor University with a BFA in Theatre Design and Technology with an emphasis in Costume Design and a Music Minor. She began her career designing costumes for the Baylor Opera Theatre as the resident costume designer for four years. She has worked as a designer and assistant designer for Baylor Theatre, Waco Civic Theatre, Performing Arts Supply Company, Theatre Under The Stars, Houston Family Arts Center, and Ohio Light Opera. She was on tour with Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey as the Head Seamstress and traveled the country by train. She is currently the Assistant Costume Supervisor and Resident Assistant Costume Designer here at Florida Rep where she has designed Romeo & Juliet, Miss Nelson Is Missing, and the upcoming production of Big River.

JOHN KISELICA (Sound Designer) is a graduate of West Virginia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in lighting and sound design. He is

the Resident Sound and Lighting Designer for Endstation Theatre Company in Central VA and acts as the Lighting and Sound Supervisor for year round consultation and project specific work. He has worked on a national tour, Buddy: the Buddy Holly Musical, as the master electrician after a contract with Royal Caribbean International as a stage technician. Commercial theatrical work includes installing Prodigy Hoists, an automated rigging system from Electronic Theatre Controls. In addition to his seasonal position with Florida Rep, John continues to freelance in the professional, academic, and community theatre circles.

AARON MARTIN (Asst. Stage Manager) is a recent graduate of Jacksonville State University. He is very excited to be a stage management intern for Florida Repertory Theatre. Aaron will be working on the following shows for the 2016-2017 season: Over the River and Through the Woods, The Mousetrap, Shear Madness, and Doublewide. He would like to thank his family and friends for all their support, because without them he would not be where he is today.

JORDAN MOORE (Set Designer) is thrilled to return to Florida Rep as a Resident Designer this season. Florida Rep set designs include: Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End and The Seafarer. He is a graduate of Florida State University, where he received a dual degree in Theatre and Media Productions. Having a primary focus in Scenic Design/Scenic Art, he has designed a variety of shows at FSU including Bat Boy, Company, and The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek. Additionally, Jordan has designed over 18 musicals and plays for the Stagedoor Manor Camp of Performing Arts including Godspell, The Secret Garden, and The Sound of Music. In the last two years, Jordan has designed several shows for Florida Repertory’s Theatre for Young Audiences series including A Year With Frog and Toad, The Red Badge of Courage, Journey to Oz, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and the current seasons touring shows, Miss Nelson is Missing and A Dream Within A Dream: The Spirit of Poe.

KATE SMITH (Lighting Designer) is happy to return for her seventh season at Florida Rep. She is a native of Pennsylvania and a graduate from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). Kate has worked in many aspects of theatre. She most recently designed lights for last season’s The Cocktail Hour. Lighting design credits include Murder at the Howard Johnson’s, Tribes, Educating Rita, Time Stands Still, Black Tie, It’s a Wonderful Life, King o’ the Moon, The Santaland Diaries (2009-2011), and The Year of Magical Thinking. Kate has also worked for Brevard Music Center, Flat Rock Playhouse,

CREATIVE TEAM

CREATIVE TEAMIUP’s Keystone Rep and Footlight Players. And can most likely be found hanging lights at Indiana Rep in Indianapolis or cuddling with her dog Lucy.

DINA PEREZ*† (Costume Designer) is a freelance costume designer in the San Diego area, as well as regionally throughout the United States. She is very excited to return for her fourth design at Florida Rep! Recently, she received the Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Showcase grant sponsored by OPERA America, for her team’s project proposal for The Cradle Will Rock. Credits include Becky’s New Car, Too Marvelous for Words, and Around the World in 80 Days (Florida Rep), Triassic Parq: The Musical (Off-Broadway), The Glass Menagerie (Bartlett Theater), Deathtrap (Triad Stage), The Foreigner and The Comedy of Errors (Texas Shakespeare Festival), Hairspray (McLeod Summer Playhouse), and Così fan tutte (A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute). Special thank you to Murdock, as always! Education: MFA Costume Design, University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Proud member of United Scenic Arts, Local USA 829. www.dinaperezdesigns.com

BREE SHERRY* (Production Stage Manager) Off-Broadway: The Atlantic Theater Company These Paper Bullets! Regional: South Coast Rep: Destiny of Desire, The Geffen Playhouse: These Paper Bullets!, Pasadena Playhouse: Kiss Me Kate, Kirk Douglas Theatre: Princess & Pirates, A Sing-a-long Concert, Florida Repertory Theatre: 12 Angry Men,

Merrimack Repertory Theatre: The Reduced History of Comedy Abridged, Talley’s Folly, Equally Divided, Stella & Lou, Devil’s Music, Mrs. Mannerly, The Washington Ballet: Nutcracker (2012), The Sun Also Rises, Studio Theatre: Bad Jews, Motherf*cker with the Hat, Triad Stage: A Christmas Carol (2011), A Doll House, Dial “M” for Murder, Masquerade, Steel Magnolias, The Sunset Limited. Yale Repertory Theatre: The Servant of Two Masters, Rough Crossing. Bree has been the Operations Manager for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Touring Stage Manager with the Reduced Shakespeare Company, and the Production Manager for UCSB’s Theater & Dance Department. She has worked on the Latin Grammy Awards and the Drama Desk Awards. BA in Technical Production and Design from Elon University, MFA in Stage Management from Yale University, School of Drama.

JOSHUA QUINN* (Production Stage Manager) Florida Rep: Best of Enemies. Off-Broadway: Sistas, Toyt Fun a Seylsman, A Loss of Roses, Buyer & Cellar, F#%ing Up Everything. Tour: The Lightning Thief, Fly Guy. New York: Children of Salt, Manuel v. the Statue of Liberty, The Travels, The Tenth Floor, POPart, The Farm, Thicker than Water, Helicopters, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Yorktown, Sister Myotis’s Bible Camp, Engaging Shaw, Dreyfus in Rehearsal. Proud member of AEA.

T I C K E T S

ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION (AEA) was founded in 1913 as the first of the American Actor unions. Equity’s mission is to advance, promote and foster the art of theatre as

an essential component of our society. Today, Equity represents more than 40,000 actors, singers, dancers and stage managers working in hundreds of theatres across the United States. Equity members are dedicated to working in the theatre as a profession, upholding the highest artistic standards. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions and provides a wide range of benefits including health and pension plans for its members. Through its agreement with Equity, this theatre has committed to the fair treatment of the actors and stage managers employed in this production. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. For more information, visit www.actorsequity.org.

FLORIDA PROFESSIONAL THEATRES ASSOCIATION (FPTA) is a statewide organization of professional theatre companies and theatre professionals

interested in the development and promotion of professional theatre throughout Florida. Florida Repertory Theatre is a proud FPTA member theatre.

THE NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK is the country’s alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions

the development, production, and continued life of new plays. The NNPN strives to pioneer, implement, and disseminate ideas and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and playwrights. Florida Repertory Theatre is proud to be an Associate Member of the National New Play Network.

Florida Repertory Theatre is a member of THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP (TCG), the national organization for the American Theatre.

SPECIAL THANKS: Florida Studio Theatre • Kellie Burns & NBC2

Robert Cacioppo • Jason Parrish

DRAMATURGY

The History of SHEAR MADNESSBruce Jordan was working at a theatre in Rochester, New York when he came across a play entilted Scherenschnitt, which had been written in 1963 by German writer Paul PÖrtner. The playwright had written the script to use as a study of how people perceive or misperceive reality. The brief play was set in a uni-sex hair salon and revolved around the off-stage murder of a concert pianist. Subjects were asked to solve the murder based on their individual perceptions of the events and the six stereotypical characters surrounding the murder.

Jordan was intrigued by the concept of the script and suggested that he and friend, Marilyn Abrams stage the play together. Abrams read PÖrtner’s original script, and looked forward to the challenge of revising and staging a production of such a work. They opened the newly titled Shear Madness at a dinner theatre in Lake George in 1978 with nothing more than a basic outline of a script.

The first year that Shear Madness played in Lake George it was truly a work in progress with the majority of the show improvised each night. As an ensemble, the cast maintained the action and the characterizations that received a good response from the audience night after night. They also incorporated the actual audience responses into the play. Jordan says that he continues to instruct the actors to “let the audience win.” He explains, “if the audience has something funnier to say or do than the actors, let them. That is the basic magic of the play.”

Soon Shear Madness developed into a show that changed every time it was performed. The actors followed a basic format and changed the specific lines along the way. Now, decades later, Shear Madness incorporates not only the contributions of the audience, but also frequent references to the latest media scandals and local news items.

Thus PÖrtner’s serious psychodrama became an interactive comedy whodunit. The show evolved, in the presence of an audience, into a raucous comedy that let the audience into the

act. When they first opened the show, Jordan and Abrams were in the leads as well as at the helm of the production. Because they were on stage each night, Abrams says they experienced the “magical” chemistry between the actors and the audience. They were acutely aware of the audience’s response to Shear Madness.

After receiving rave reviews and frequent suggestions from tourists from the Boston area, they decided that Shear Madness may work well in Boston. After more than two years honing the comedy, Jordan and Abrams moved their show to Boston. They scheduled a brief run at the historic Charles Playhouse in Boston’s Theatre District to begin January 29, 1980.

A second production, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’s Theater Lab in Washington D.C., opened in August 1987. A third production opened in November, 2015 at the New World Stages Off-Broadway theater in New York City. A Turkish adaptation by director Nedim Saban opened in Istanbul in 1998. In 2003 Saban adapted the play for a second time; he introduced SMS messages and online chatting as means of interaction. A French adaptation by director Sébastien Azzopardi, written by Azzopardi and Sacha Danino, opened in Paris in 2011.

Sources: Shearmadness.com, Wikipedia.com

The original Kennedy Center cast of SHEAR MADNESS in 1987.From left: Bruce Jordan, Marilyn Abrams, Matt Callahan, Steve O’Connor,Robin Baxter, and Michael Gabel.

DRAMATURGY

37 Years Running!Listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the longest running play in the history of the USA, Shear Madness has been playing in Boston for 37 years and at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. for 29 years.

The flagship Boston company has given birth to 50 productions in the US and Shear Madness has been translated into 23 foreign languages, playing worldwide in a host of cities including Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Paris, Rejkavik, Rome, Tel Aviv, Melbourne, Johannesburg, and Seoul.

Over 11.5 million people worldwide have joined in the fun, and while no one has actually died laughing, some are still rolling in the aisles.

Voted “Best Comedy of the Year” seven times by the Boston Globe and recipient of the title “Best Play of the Year” by both the Chicago Sun-Times and the Philadelphia Enquirer, Shear Madness has also received the Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America and has been inducted into the Comedy Hall of Fame, the first play ever to receive that accolade.

Featuring Florida Rep Cast Member TIMOTHY C. GOODWIN with Michael Kevin Baldwin • 2012, SeattleFeaturing Florida Rep Cast Member DANNY BERNARDY

with Brigid Cleary • 2016, Washington D.C.Mary Ann Conk and Bob Arnold • 1981, Boston

Jordan Ahnquist and Patrick Noonan • 2016, NYC

$10 STUDENT TICKETS