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PORTLANDCENTERSTAGE Presents

LIZZIE By Steven Cheslik-deMeyer,

Tim Maner and Alan Stevens Hewitt

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Artistic Director | Chris Coleman

(May 24 – June 29, 2014)

PORTLANDCENTERSTAGE Presents

LIZZIE Music by Steven Cheslik-deMeyer

and Alan Stevens Hewitt

Lyrics by Steven Cheslik-deMeyer

and Tim Maner

Book by Tim Maner

Additional Music by Tim Maner

Additional Lyrics by Alan Stevens Hewitt

Based on an Original Concept by

Steven Cheslik-deMeyer and Tim Maner

Orchestrations by Alan Stevens Hewitt

Directed by Rose Riordan

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Musical Director

James Beaton

Scenic and Lighting Designer

Daniel Meeker

Costume Designer

Jeff Cone

Sound Designer

Cecil Averett

Stage Manager

Mark Tynan

Production Assistant

Kristen Mun

Casting

Rose Riordan &

Brandon Woolley

LIZZIE has been developed with the assistance of tiny mythic

theatre company, HERE and Took An Axe Productions (Hillary

Richard and Peter McCabe). LIZZIE was presented at the

National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New

Musicals in 2010 and further developed by Village Theatre,

Issaquah, Washington (Robb Hunt, Executive Producer • Steve

Tomkins, Artistic Director).

This West Coast Premiere of LIZZIE is produced by Portland

Center Stage, Chris Coleman, Artistic Director

Performed with one intermission.

The Actors and Stage Manager employed in this production are

members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of

Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

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CAST

Carrie Cimma…………………Bridget Sullivan (Maggie)

Leslie McDonel…………………Emma Borden

Mary Kate Morrissey…………………Lizzie Borden

Kacie Sheik…………………Alice Russell

BAND

James Beaton…………………Conductor/Keys 1

Matt Brown…………………Guitar and Keys

Greg Eklund…………………Drums

Dale Tolliver…………………Cello

Sean Vinson…………………Bass

Scott Weddle…………………Guitar 1

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LIZZIE SONG LIST

ACT I

Forty Whacks (Prologue) …………Company

The House Of Borden…………Company

This Is Not Love…………Lizzie

Gotta Get Out Of Here…………Lizzie and Alice

If You Knew…………Alice

The Soul Of The White Bird…………Company

Maybe Someday…………Alice

"The Will"…………Company

Sweet Little Sister…………Company

Shattercane And Velvet Grass…………Company

"The Milk"…………Lizzie and Alice

Will You Stay? …………Lizzie and Alice

Why Are All These Heads Off? …………Bridget, Lizzie and

Alice

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Mercury Rising…………Company

Somebody Will Do Something…………Company

ACT II

Forty Whacks (Entr’acte) …………LIZZIE Band

The Fall Of The House Of Borden/"The Alibi"…………Bridget,

Lizzie and Alice

What The Fuck Now, Lizzie?! …………Emma and Lizzie

"The Dress"…………Company

Burn The Old Thing Up…………Company

Questions Questions…………Company

Will You Lie? …………Company

Watchmen For The Morning………Bridget, Emma and Lizzie

Maybe Someday (Reprise 1) …………Company

Thirteen Days In Taunton…………Company

Maybe Someday (Reprise 2) …………Company

Into Your Wildest Dreams (Epilogue) …………Company

Forty Whacks (Curtain) …………Company

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It’s always a little bit of a shock to welcome you to our final

production of the season. It seems like we just spent some happy

hours with Tevye and his family in early 20th century Russia,

and here we are about to venture to Fall River, Massachusetts, in

late 19th century America. In between, stops in modern day

China; a skewed version of Dickens’ London; a fateful night in

Memphis, 1968; and the Golden Age of Venice were all part of

our 13-14 season at Portland Center Stage.

It is the nature of our work that we not only find ourselves

playing with time on stage, but also off stage. Season planning is

a multi-year task, as we look ahead to future years and projects

while also immersing ourselves in current productions. So as I

join you in anticipation of LIZZIE, our audacious final offering

of the season, I’m spending a lot of time in the 1960s, working

with my design team to create the world of our opening

production of the 14-15 season, Dreamgirls.

In this program you’ll not only find great information on the cast

and creators of LIZZIE, but also an invitation to join us for our

new season of productions launching next September. I hope

you’ll read all about the exciting array of plays we’ve selected;

consider the great benefits of being a season ticket holder; and

connect with our amazing Patron Services team, who are ready

to help you plan the season package that fits your schedule,

budget and preferences.

I can’t imagine taking the trip without you.

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I don’t remember when I first heard about Lizzie Borden, but I

suspect I was very young and it was through the nursery rhyme,

“Lizzie Borden had an ax …” (Interestingly, that nursery rhyme

started almost immediately after the crime.)

I remember reading about her and finding her story fascinating.

Maybe because when they had stories about the most famous

murders in history, she was the only woman and she looked like

a schoolteacher. And then that Elizabeth Montgomery movie!

Samantha from Bewitched as an ax murderer! In any event, I’ve

been intrigued by this story for what seems like my entire life.

When the musical came across my desk, I thought great idea,

but a rock musical? Whaaat? How does that work? Victorian

women singing rock? But then I listened to the music and

realized the energy and angst of rock music was the perfect

match for a story about a gruesome ax murder.

On a curious side note: When I was doing research about the

story and refreshing my memory of the details (much of the

dialogue and lyrics are direct quotes from the trial transcript)

one fact stood out to me about the patriarchal world Lizzie lived

in: it is believed she was acquitted because the all white male

jury of her “peers” didn’t believe a woman would commit

murder with an ax. Poison was the preferred method of the

“weaker sex.”

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Despite the subject matter, it has been so much fun working on

this show – a pure pleasure with this group of talented women

and our genius musical director James Beaton. The music is

gorgeous, complicated and the perfect combination of story

telling and musical prowess.

No one knows what happened on that hot August afternoon in

1892. But our musical definitely has an opinion …

There will be blood.

Carrie Cimma

Bridget Sullivan (Maggie)

Nominated for a Drama Desk Award (Best Featured Actress in a

Musical, 2010) for her portrayal of Bridget Sullivan in LIZZIE.

Other credits include Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderlandand the

Playwrights’ Horizons readings of Pure Country, The Circus in

Winter and Great Wall. National tours include Sweeney

Todd (Lovett), The Wedding Singer, Oliver and The Full Monty.

Regionally, she has been seen as Mickey in Cowgirls, Rizzo

in Grease, Fraulein Kost inCabaret, Doatsey Mae in Best Little

Whorehouse ..., Lefthander in Avenue Q and Mrs. Walker

in Tommy. This one, as always, is for Mom and

Dad. www.carriecimma.com

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Mary Kate Morrissey

Lizzie Borden

Mary Kate Morrissey has been dying to work at PCS + is

excited to kill it in LIZZIE. Recently:Hair International Tour

(Sheila). Off-Broadway: Tamar of the River (Prospect Theater

Company). NYC: The Disappearing Man, A Folk Opera (Cloud

City), In Trousers (The B-Sides). Regional: Little

Women (Syracuse Stage), Woodstock (Bristol Riverside

Theater),Great American Trailer Park Musical (New Lebanon

Theater Barn). MK is committed to the development of new

musical theater: Fun Home (Sundance Theater Lab), Junk: A

Rock Opera(Musical Theater Factory). The Everleigh Club (The

Public Theater with Portland’s own Storm Large and James

Beaton) + various NYU Graduate Musical Theater Writing

Program Thesis readings. Thanks to Mom, Dad, Aunt Sue + my

heart, Ty. @maryspacekate

Leslie McDonel

Emma Borden

A musician and actor native to Portland, Eric Little made his

debut at PCS as Tobias Ragg in Sweeney Todd.

He recently music directed Les Misérables at Spokane Civic

Theatre, Cats and Drowsy Chaperone at Broadway Rose

Theater Company, White Christmas at Lakewood Center for the

Arts, and Next to Normal at Artist's Repertory Theatre. Onstage

credits include A Year With Frog and Toad and How I Became a

Pirate at Oregon Children's Theatre, and A Very Merry PDX-

Mas and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at

Broadway Rose Theatre Company. He has a B.A. in Music from

St. Olaf College.

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Kacie Sheik

Alice Russell

Kacie Sheik completed nearly 1,000 performances as Jeanie in

the Tony Award-winning revival of Hair – The American Tribal

Love-Rock Musical. She played Central Park, Broadway, the

West End and traveled the U.S. on the National Tour (Helen

Hayes nomination – Best Actress). Off-Broadway: Gypsy Rose

Lee in February House (The Public Theater). Las Vegas:

Scaramouche in Queen's We Will Rock You (Original American

Company). Film/TV: Elementary, Law and Order, Julie and

Julia. Kacie grew up in NJ (exit 91), is a Scorpio, and a

singer/songwriter. Thanks to the LIZZIE team, and love y’all,

Mom and Dad. Twitter: @kacieanne

Matt Brown

Guitar/Keys

An Oregon native, multi-instrumentalist Matt Brown currently

plays with Storm Large, Redray Frazier, Sarah Gwen and Miss

Michael Jodell. In the recent past he's also been a member of

She & Him, The Motels, Casey Neill and the Norway Rats,

Mike Coykendall and The Golden Shag, and The Baseboard

Heaters. Matt currently operates a recording studio called

EchoTone in North Portland.

Greg Eklund

Drums/Percussion

A local stalwart in the 90s Portland music scene, in 1994, Greg

joined Capitol Records recording artist, Everclear. After six

million records sold, Greg left the band in 2003 to start his own

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band, The Oohlas, who were promptly singed to Jay Z's

Island/Def Jam records in 2007. In 2010, after recording drums

for Crazy Enough, Storm Large’s one woman show, Greg joined

her band and continues to play with her nationally and around

the world. In 2012, Greg was inducted into the Oregon Music

Hall of Fame for his contribution to Oregon’s rich music history.

Dale Tolliver

Cello

Dale Tolliver has been a symphonic and freelance cellist since

1969. He’s worked on stage with such luminaries as Marilyn

Horne, Susannah Mars, Hermione Gingold, Itzhak Perlman,

Andre Watts, Rick Lewis, Henry Mancini, Liberace and Lamb

Chop.

Sean Vinson

Bass

Sean is excited to be back at Portland Center Stage once again!

He’s played bass for Oklahoma!, Sweeny Todd, Somewhere in

Time and Fiddler on the Roof here at Portland Center Stage.

Sean would like to thank everyone involved with this

production, as well as his better half Sarah, for all the love and

support she has given.

Scott Weddle

Guitar 1

Scott Weddle is a native of Montana and a graduate of Lewis

and Clark College. He was a guitarist and contributing

songwriter for the Portland Americana band The Flatirons prior

to forming the cabaret-pop group Amelia. Scott played drums in

the PCS production of Storm Large's Crazy Enough in 2009 and

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is currently the guitarist in Storm's band. He also plays guitar for

the acclaimed Portland singer/songwriter Sarah Gwen.

In 1892, on a sweltering August day in a small New England

town, a well-to-do elderly man and his second wife were

brutally murdered with an ax in broad daylight. Lizzie Borden,

their youngest daughter, was the primary suspect. She was

arrested and tried, but, with no witnesses to the hideous crime,

she was acquitted. The murders remain unsolved to this day.

Though the actual history of Lizzie Borden has provided us with

inspiration and raw material, her legend, which comes down to

us as a jump rope rhyme, is the imaginative core of LIZZIE:

“Lizzie Borden took an ax, Gave her mother forty whacks

When she saw what she had done, Gave her father forty-

one”

History tells us Lizzie Borden was innocent, but the legend

leaves no doubt about her guilt.

—Steven, Tim and Alan

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THE HISTORY OF LIZZIE

Proto LIZZIE: The Early Years

LIZZIE began life as a four-song experimental theater/rock

show hybrid created by writer/director Tim Maner and

songwriter Steven Cheslik-deMeyer for tiny mythic theater

company’s American Living Room festival in 1990. Lizzie

Borden: An American Musical sprang from Tim and Steven’s

love of musicals, Americana, women rockers, and late-80s queer

politics. One very sweaty summer night, four women in front of

a four-piece rock band took the stage in an un-airconditioned

former factory in Soho, an ax descended from the ceiling, blood

was spilled, and LIZZIE was born.

A few years later, LIZZIE made its next appearance as an

extended one-act in the mainstage season of HERE, the newly

opened downtown arts center. Steven and Tim wrote six new

songs and shortened the name to Lizzie Borden. The singers

were backed by Staten Island hard rock band, Stealth.

Though longer and more fleshed out, this version still had more

volume, grit, and blood than narrative clarity. Then, like most

downtown experimental theater, after a short run, everyone

moved on to the next project, and LIZZIE was just a sweet

memory for the small number of people who created and

experienced it.

LIZZIE Grows up on the LES

Among the people who saw the show at HERE and remembered

it were Hillary Richard and Peter McCabe. Hillary had a hunch

the show could attract a wide audience with some rewriting, a

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budget, and a longer run, but she was a young law student at the

time, her boyfriend Peter a playwright, so her hunch stayed just

a hunch. But in 2007, when Peter asked Hillary (now an attorney

and his wife) what she wanted for her birthday, she replied, “I

want the rights to Lizzie.”

Peter and Hillary provided support for a years-long development

process, starting with an artists’ retreat where Tim and Steven

wrote another batch of songs and overhauled the book, focusing

on the narrative. Their early confrontational aesthetic had

mellowed in the intervening years, and they’d come to realize

that fewer and fewer people knew about Lizzie Borden. LIZZIE

would still be a big, loud rock show but a big, loud rock show

that told a story.

For a staged reading in preparation for a New York production,

Steven and Tim needed someone to arrange the songs and lead

the band since Steven was by then living in Austin. With his

rock experience and classical training, Alan Stevens Hewitt was

the perfect guy. He was brought on board at the beginning of

2009.

The three began to work together — revising songs, fleshing out

arrangements, and creating new material — and it clicked. They

were now a three-man creative team. The wide-ranging

combined experience of the three gives LIZZIE a sound that

owes less to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim than

it does to Heart, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Grace

Slick, Radiohead, and the Runaways.

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This phase of development culminated in a production — again

directed by Tim, with Alan’s musical direction (and bass and

keyboard playing) and produced by Hillary and Peter (Took An

Axe Productions) — that ran for six weeks in fall 2009 at The

Living Theatre on New York’s Lower East Side with sell-out

crowds, great reviews, and three Drama Desk nominations.

LIZZIE Goes National

Branden Huldeen, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s

New Works Director, was in the audience at The Living Theatre

and encouraged the writers to submit LIZZIE to the NAMT

Festival of New Musicals, an annual industry event showcasing

new musicals. A 45-minute reading was presented in the 2010

festival. There, the writers met Van Dean and Kenny Howard

(the Broadway Consortium) and Brisa Trinchero and Corey

Brunish (Brunish/Trinchero), who came together to option the

show for two years, during which it was presented in a staged

reading in Village Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals in

Issaquah, Washington, in concert at Ars Nova in New York, and

returned to Village Theatre the following year for a

developmental production directed by Kent Nicholson. 2012

also brought a co-production by Baldwin-Wallace College and

Cleveland’s PlayhouseSquare (directed by Victoria Bussert, who

directed the NAMT presentation).

Throughout these developmental productions all over the

country, Tim, Alan, and Steven continued to revise the show,

making big changes in Act I, including additional songs for

Lizzie and Alice, and adding a new finale. Building on his

arrangements for the 2009 production and incorporating all the

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subsequent changes and new material, Alan fully orchestrated

the now nearly sung-through rock score.

The first half of 2013 found the team creating the LIZZIE:

Studio Album.

This new, final version of the show — now and forever entitled,

simply, LIZZIE — debuted in the fall of 2013 in a

developmental production directed by Kent Nicholson at

Theater Under the Stars in Houston, inaugurating their new

“TUTS Underground” season of edgy musicals.

Read more at lizziethemusical.com

Tell us what you think about the show!

Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

#pcs_LIZZIE

July 19, 1860 – Lizzie Andrew Borden is born in Fall

River, Massachusetts.

August 4, 1892 – Andrew and Abby Borden, Lizzie’s

father and stepmother, are brutally murdered in their

home.

August 6, 1892 – The funeral service is held at the Borden

home.

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August 7, 1892 – Lizzie’s sister Emma Borden observes

Lizzie burning her soiled dress in the kitchen fire.

August 11, 1892 – Lizzie Borden is arrested.

August 12, 1892 – Lizzie enters a plea of "Not Guilty."

She is moved to a jail in Taunton, Massachusetts.

August 22, 1892 – A preliminary hearing begins. It is

determined that there is probable cause to try Lizzie for

murder.

June 5, 1893 – The trial begins with over 30 reporters

present in the courtroom. The same day headlines declare

it “ONE OF THE GREATEST MURDER TRIALS IN

THE WORLD’S HISTORY.”

June 7, 1893 – The Borden’s maid Bridget Sullivan

testifies for the prosecution.

June 8, 1893 – Lizzie’s friend Alice testifies for the

prosecution.

June 20, 1893 – The jury deliberates for only 90 minutes

and returns a verdict of “Not Guilty.”

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June 1, 1927 – Lizzie Borden dies at age 67. Eight days

later, her sister dies.

Steven Cheslik-deMeyer

Music, Lyrics and Original Concept Fresh out of art school in the early 80s, Steven bought a used

guitar in a junk shop on St. Mark’s Place, learned three chords,

and taught himself to write songs by listening to Dolly Parton

records. He insinuated himself into a couple post-punk neo-folk

bands in the East Village, but soon discovered the world of

downtown theater. Through the late 80s and early 90s, he wrote

and performed music in several experimental productions with

tiny mythic theatre company and directors Kristin Marting and

Tim Maner. In 1992, he and Jay Byrd created an act called

Y’all, singing original songs and telling stories in the style of

old-time country vaudeville. The act sprang from the downtown

theater scene but went on to play in coffeehouses, churches,

retirement homes and rock clubs across the U.S., Canada and

Europe. In ten years, Y’all recorded four CDs, published two

books, appeared on MTV and Comedy Central, and went broke.

Their last two years together, they lived in a camper on the road

with a third partner. Steven made a documentary about that

relationship and the final years of Y’all, Life in a Box, which

premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in

2005. Steven lives in New York City with his husband and

continues to write songs, plays and stories. Steven is a

MacDowell Fellow and a graduate of the University of Texas at

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Austin with a degree in American Studies. He blogs

at golikewater.blogspot.com.

Tim Maner

Lyrics, Book, Additional Music and Original Concept Right out of college, Tim co-founded the tiny mythic theatre

company with a focus on developing the work of

creator/directors and a mission to “disrupt the american living

room / rearrange the furniture in the american mind.” tiny

mythic’s work became a staple of the downtown alt-theater

scene of the early 90s, and just a few years later, the previously

transient company transformed into the award-winning NYC

arts center, HERE. His producing/presenting history at HERE

spanned a decade with hundreds of productions brought to life

by thousands of artists. (Though he no longer serves as a co-

director, he remains an active founding board member working

to expand opportunities for mid-career hybrid artists.) Tim has

created over twenty original works as a creator/director

including:The Hawthorne Project, a six-year collaboration with

writer/adaptor Elizabeth Banks building a trilogy of multi-

layered multi-media events adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s

three American novels and The Opera Project, a five-year

collaboration with writer Ruth Magraff and composers Matthew

Pierce and Fred Ho creating a series of original New Wave

Operas. He’s also sung in some bands, arranged and conducted a

cowgirl chorus, and originated roles in a couple of Robert

Wilson shows (one of which had him wearing Gianni Versace

couture at La Scala in Milan, Italy). He is a graduate of

NYU/Tisch/Playwrights Horizons.

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Alan Stevens Hewitt

Music, Additional Lyrics and Orchestrations Son of a professional oboist, ASH grew up on stage and in the

studio, cutting his teeth as a teenager recording for

Ruffhouse/Columbia Records at Studio 4 in Philadelphia, and

during the 90s as a member of alt-folk band The Low Road

(Caroline Records), touring with Los Lobos, Barenaked Ladies

and label-mates Ben Folds Five. He moved full-time to NYC in

the late 90s to pursue his conservatory degree in composition at

Mannes College of Music/The New School, where he studied

with Robert Cuckson and Carl Schachter. In the mid-aughts,

with partners, he opened The Coral Room, a nightclub in the

Chelsea section of Manhattan, which featured a 10,000 gallon

saltwater aquarium with live “mermaid” performances and

hosted cutting edge bands, performance artists, events and djs

nightly. As an actively performing musician, his credits include

Broadway’s ROCKY, Jekyll & Hyde, Lysistrata Jones, American

Idiot, Spring Awakening(also First National Tour), Off-

Broadway’s Closer Than Ever, RENT, tours in the U.S. and

abroad, and numerous recordings as player, vocalist, composer,

arranger, and producer. ASH also played on and served as

recording producer of the LIZZIE studio album (Broadway

Records). His first score for theater was for a production of

Bertolt Brecht’s Baalthat The New York Times thought was

awful. He lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and likes motorcycles

and longboarding.

Rose Riordan

Director Rose is in her 16th season at Portland Center Stage, where she

serves as associate artistic director. At PCS she has directed A

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Small Fire, The Mountaintop, The People’s Republic of

Portland, The Whipping Man, The North Plan, Red,One Flew

Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, A Christmas Story, The 25th Annual

Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Receptionist,A Christmas

Carol, Frost/Nixon, How to Disappear Completely and Never

Be Found, Doubt, The Underpants, The Pillowman and The

Thugs, which won four Drammy Awards, including Best

Ensemble and Best Director. She has also recently directed, for

various other theaters, Adam Bock’s Phaedra, The Passion

Play, Telethon and The Receptionist. In 1999 she founded

Portland Center Stage’s annual JAW: A Playwrights Festival.

JAW has been instrumental in developing new work for the PCS

repertory: The Body of An American, The North Plan, Anna

Karenina, Outrage, Flesh and Blood, Another Fine Mess, O

Lovely Glowworm, Celebrity Row, Act a Lady, The Thugs and A

Feminine Ending. Rose has also directed some of the staged

readings for JAW festivals—The

Thugs (2005), Telethon (2006), A Story About a Girl (2007), 99

Ways to F*** A Swan (2009), The North Plan (2010), San

Diego (2012), The People’s Republic of Portland (2012)

and Mai Dang Lao (2013). She enjoys being part of a company

committed to new work and having a beautiful building in which

to work.

James Beaton

Musical Director, Conductor & Keys 1

James was born and raised in the Bronx in New York City

where he made his stage debut as the Giant Pink Sea Snail in Dr.

Dolittle to much acclaim. By 15, James was playing local rock

clubs and developing a taste for strange and discordant music. In

1992, he began his undergraduate program at the Evergreen

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State College in Olympia, Washington during which he studied

composition, performance, ethnomusicology, and toured the

Northwest with his instrumental avant band. Two months after

graduation he was hired by Portland rock band Everclear and

spent the next several years on the road and in the studio. In

2002, James and three friends founded The Balls and began a

four-year-long weekly run at Dante’s in downtown Portland (it

seemed like a good idea at the time). When not on stage, James

happily resides with three cats, two rats, and an exotic red-haired

wombat.

Daniel Meeker

Scenic and Lighting Designer Previously at PCS, Dan designed the set for The People's

Republic of Portland and Red (Drammy Award), the lighting

for Twist Your Dickens and I Love to Eat, and the set and

lighting for The Last Five Years, Bo-Nita, The Mountaintop,The

Real Americans and Mike's Incredible Indian Adventure. Other

recent credits include lighting design for the Pickathon Festival;

lighting design for Crooked at COHO; lighting design

for Disconnect at San Jose Repertory Theatre; set and lighting

design for The Light in the Piazza, Detroit, Mother Teresa is

Dead, The Huntsmen and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at

Portland Playhouse; and set design for Fancy Nancy and The

Stinky Cheese Man for Oregon Children's Theatre. Upcoming

projects include a world premiere dance piece for White Wave

dance at The Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York and

another Pickathon Festival. Daniel is a member of the faculty of

Portland State University. He is a graduate of Ithaca College and

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the Yale School of Drama and a member of United Scenic

Artists.

Jeff Cone

Costume Designer This is Jeff’s 16th season at PCS. In that time he has designed

costumes for over 75 productions. Of those shows, over 50 have

been in the last eight seasons at the Armory. Favorite

productions include West Side Story, Cabaret, Alfred

Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s

Nest, Sometimes a Great Notion, Snow Falling on Cedars, The

Imaginary Invalid, Black Pearl Sings!, Venus in

Fur and Clybourne Park. Jeff received Drammy Awards for his

costume designs for Dirty Blonde, Act A

Lady and Shakespeare’s Amazing Cymbeline. In addition to his

resident costume designer duties, Jeff is happy to manage the

costume shop here at Portland Center Stage.

Cecil Averett

Sound Designer Cecil is happy to be working on LIZZIE at PCS. Regional

theater credits include productions at Arena Stage and

Shakespeare Theatre in D.C., The Goodman Theatre, Chicago

Shakespeare, Steppenwolf and Northlight Theatre. Designs Off-

Broadway include Beyond Glory at Roundabout Theatand the

Cap21 premiere of Waiting for My Man. Cecil received an After

Dark Award (Original Music) for work on Eclipse Theatre’s

production of Fame 312 as well as Joseph Jefferson Award

nominations for sound design of both Into the

Woods and Passion Play. Most recently he received a PAMTA

for outstanding sound design for The Andrews Brothers.

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Mark Tynan

Stage Manager Imagine being in a room full of artists, watching the birth of an

idea, a movement given purpose, a sentence, phrase, scene, act

given life. Then imagine that room translating to the stage with

lighting, sound, costumes, scenery and props, then you can

imagine what Mark’s job is like. Special thanks to the

phenomenal PCS production assistants, Kristen Mun and

Stephen Gardner, who help keep the vision attainable. Prior to

PCS, Mark toured nationally and internationally with musicals

including Dreamgirls, The King and I with Rudolf

Nureyev, How to Succeed…, Grand Hotel, The Phantom of the

Opera and Rent. Other Portland credits include several summers

with The Broadway Rose Theatre Company in Tigard. Regional

credits include The Alley Theatre (Houston, TX), La Jolla

Playhouse (La Jolla, CA) and Casa Mañana Theatre (Fort

Worth, TX).

Kristen Mun

Production Assistant

Kristen Mun is originally from Hawaii and graduated from

Southern Oregon University. Outside of Portland she has

worked at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Repertory

Theatre and Actors Theater of Louisville. In Portland she has

worked with many theater companies such as Artists Repertory

Theatre (And So It Goes…, Red Herring), Oregon Children’s

Theatre (A Year With Frog and Toad, Charlotte’s Web),

Northwest Classical Theatre Company (King John,Measure for

Measure), and Post5 Theatre (Hamlet).

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Chris Coleman

Artistic Director

Chris joined Portland Center Stage as artistic director in May

2000. Before coming to Portland, he was artistic director at

Actor’s Express in Atlanta, a company he co-founded in the

basement of an old church in 1988. Favorite PCS directing

assignments include Fiddler on the Roof, Clybourne Park,

Sweeney Todd, Shakespeare’s Amazing Cymbeline (which he

also adapted), Anna Karenina, Oklahoma!, Snow Falling on

Cedars, Ragtime, Crazy Enough, Beard of Avon, Cabaret, King

Lear, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Man and Superman, Outrage,

Flesh and Blood and The Devils. Chris has directed at theaters

across the country, including Actor’s Theater of Louisville,

Oregon Shakespeare Festival, ACT-Seattle, The Alliance, Dallas

Theatre Center, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, New York Theatre

Workshop and Center Stage in Baltimore. A native Atlantan,

Chris holds a B.F.A. from Baylor University and an M.F.A.

from Carnegie Mellon. He is currently the board president for

the Cultural Advocacy Coalition. Chris’ favorite things about

Portland: farmers markets, Timbers games, Salt & Straw ice

cream, dog parks, food carts and cars that stop for pedestrians.

CTA Lab

How could I not be a sponsor for this show knowing that Lizzie

Borden took an ax and gave her mother forty whacks. When she

saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one. Blood on

a stage, and it isn't even opera!

- Curtis Thompson