Rain and Zoe Save The World

Grantors

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Sponsors

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Sponsors

Donors

Tributes

Performers

Jordan Benjamin

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Rain

Rose De Vera

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U/S Zoe & Ensemble

Mei Henri

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Zoe

Richard Holt

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Ensemble

Salma Shaw

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Ensemble

Joshua Sinclair-Evans

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U/S Rain & Ensemble

Setting

Songs & Scenes

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Production Staff

David Adkin Limited

Producer/General Manager

David Adkin

Production Co-ordinator

Adam Line

Dramaturg

Aida Rocci

Accountancy

Breckman & Company

Legal

Jonathan Hull

Drew & Dane Productions

Producers

Drew Desky Dane Levens

Associate Producer

Clayton Howe

Chief Admin Officer

Sarah Nowak

Evan Bernardin Productions

CEO/Producer/General Manager

Evan Bernardin

General Manager

Hillel Friedman

General Manager

Jenna Lazar

Assistant General Manager

Sami Pyne

Venue Staff

School Administration Staff

Artistic Director

Tom Littler

Executive Director

Penny Horner

Carne Deputy Director

Ebenezer Bamgboye

Resident Producer

David Doyle‍

Marketing Officer‍

Darcy Dobson

‍Graphic Designer‍

Ciaran Walsh‍

Building Manager‍

Jon Wadey‍

Artistic Associates‍

Stella Powell-Jones Natasha Rickman

Associate Designer‍

Louie Whitemore‍

PR‍

David Burns‍

In-House Technical Staff‍

David Harvey‍ Steve Lowe

Box Office Manager

‍Kayleigh Hunt‍

FOH Duty Managers‍

Christina Gazelidis‍ Adam Ishaq‍ Adam Lilley‍ Mark Magill‍ Alex Pearson‍ Rohan Perumatantri‍ Grace Wessels‍

Day Staff‍

Laura Jury-Hyde‍ Ritchie Xavier

Bar Team‍

Mandy Berger‍ Aren Johnston‍ Ritchie Xavier

Business Development

Chris Parkinson‍

Web Design‍

Robin Powell / Ideasfor‍

Web Development‍

Robert Iles / Dynamic Listing

Musicians

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Board Members

Student Advisory Board

Credits

Lighting equipment from PRG Lighting, sound equipment from Sound Associates, rehearsed at The Public Theater’s Rehearsal Studios. Developed as part of Irons in the Fire at Fault Line Theatre in New York City.

Special Thanks

We are grateful that Rain and Zoe Save the World received new play development from the The New Harmony Project, the Earth Matters on Stage Festival and Symposium, Brave New World Repertory Theatre, and HERE Arts Center.

Special thanks to Claire Kennedy for pre-show music from her upcoming album Hindsight, produced and arranged by Bobby Cronin; also special thanks to Alex Mendelson on guitar and Casey Wehr on female vocals.

*Appearing through an Agreement between this theatre and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

“Actors’ Equity Association (“Equity”), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 actors and stage managers, Equity fosters the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors’ Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an International organization of performing arts unions. www.actorsequity.org

United Scenic Artists ● Local USA 829 of the I.A.T.S.E represents the Designers & Scenic Artists for the American Theatre

ATPAM, the Association of Theatrical Press Agents & Managers (IATSE Local 18032), represents the Press Agents, Company Managers, and Theatre Managers employed on this production.

A Message from Tom Littler

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Welcome to Jermyn Street Theatre.

We are delighted to present the world premiere of Rain and Zoe Save the World. From the moment we first read Crystal Skillman's new play, we passionately wanted to stage it. As you are about to discover, it is a timely and important piece of theatre - but just as vitally, it is vibrant, funny, and exciting. It offers a personal way into thinking about our contemporary world. Thank you to everyone involved in this trans-Atlantic collaboration - never an easy feat, but even more of a challenge right now - especially to Drew & Dane Productions and to David Adkin.

Rain and Zoe Save the World is the second production in our spring Outsiders Season, which celebrates and investigates the stories of those who do not, or cannot, follow the rules. Next up is The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein, directed by its celebrated New York author, Edward Einhorn. It's a dizzying 'marriage farce' in which four actors play dozens of characters. This production was originally set for 2020 so we're really pleased to producing its European premiere at last. After that, we produce the London premiere of Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando - I cannot wait to see one of my favourite novels brought to life on stage. And in June, I'll be directing the world premiere of Howard Brenton's Cancelling Socrates, which sees one of our most renowned playwrights dramatising the final days of a firebrand philosopher.

Don't miss our exciting programme of work on Sunday evenings, from poetry to drama to literary events. Our new JST Conversations series includes talks, explorations and regular debates which unpack the issues raised by our productions.

If you enjoy coming to Jermyn Street Theatre, please join our Friends. This group are invited to exclusive performances and given a real insight into life behind the scenes. The cost is under £5 a month. For the price of a slurp of warm white wine in a big West End theatre, you can make a significant difference to our producing and support our work with young and emerging theatremakers.

Enjoy the show - and come back soon!‍

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- Tom

A Message from the Writer

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As I write this, we are in the middle of a global health crisis, and yet another worldwide disaster is coming. Parts of the world experience flooding and global warming continues at an alarming rate. As the NY Times puts it: “Those who are least responsible for polluting Earth’s atmosphere are among those most hurt by its consequences.” And the damage only grows worse.

When I began to develop Rain and Zoe Save the World five years ago, I wrote this play to shed a light on this. My goal was to do this in a new and theatrical way in a coming of age story. In a way, I felt I was coming of age. Rain and Zoe is highly personal. It’s my life.

My family has a history of activism, and my cousin-in-law (“The Reluctant Radical”, Amazon), is a pioneer in the environmental activism movement using his peaceful, but direct actions (stopping coal barges, etc.) to save the planet using “self-defense” as an argument to save the earth. My only-child household was a real hippie unit with my racer “Bike Dad” and my “creative soul” mom. They fled the oppressive household of their own parents and drove cross country together. Outsiders Rain and Zoe’s voices are based on my experience teaching playwriting to teenagers in high schools over the past five years as a guest artist. The relationship Zoe has with her mother, whom she idealizes, is my own relationship with my mother.

Throughout this play’s evolution, I discerned that the story of climate change is truly an intergenerational story. The older generation who created the problem, together with the younger generation who must stop it in order to save their own lives, are united in this cause together.

Climate change is an issue that should unite us, not divide us.

I hope families can see this play, generations sitting side by side. Over the years of development, I have witnessed firsthand how the piece can actually connect audience members of different mindsets through the strong, spiritual nature that Rain and Zoe develop in the story.

Zoe and Rain face difficult choices as young activists. What is the most effective use of environmental activism? What WORKS? What has an EFFECT? And how does friendship impact that journey?

Of course, I don’t believe in spoilers, and you may be listening to this before the short of after … I hope not during… but I can say this: I believe plays should prepare an audience to go back into this intense, terrible, beautiful world with hope and clarity of action. And when they are, and taking an action like being here tonight … just like Zoe says your soul grows. As her father says your soul grows out of the trying. Thank you for coming tonight. We are growing up together. We are ready for this journey, to change the world. To save it one action at a time.

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- Crystal Skillman, Writer

Message from the Director

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When I first read Rain and Zoe Save the World, I immediately connected with how it examines the emotional toll of activism. It involves cyclical feelings that rotate like phases of the moon. Unadulterated, adrenaline-inducing hope lives firmly on the light side of the cycle, and soul-crushing despair is found lurking on the dark side. And without fail, these cycles rotate. The enduring hope of etching a lasting effect into the world that catapults us on a path towards utopia alternates with wondering if any effect we might have is futile in the face of an existential cataclysm. But then, if you let it, and you do have to let it, the hope sneaks around again, waxing brighter and brighter. Along the way, this cycle translates into a series of small victories and profound disappointments. Crystal seems to be asking, "What does all this emotional spinning add up to?"

I’ve certainly noticed the constant emotional evolution in my life...especially during these politically tumultuous, pandemic-dominated past several years that Crystal and I have been developing Rain and Zoe.

What’s fascinating about this cycle is that each time we made plans to work on Rain and Zoe, we had no idea where in the spinning we would be when we actually walked into the rehearsal room. As American creatives, the play resonated differently in the early days of our previous presidential administration than during the earth-shattering moments of the summer of 2020’s reckoning. So where do we find ourselves now? Well, most notably, America's new administration is trying to pass its first substantial climate legislation in our country's history. Yet, it’s stalled in legislative hell, and with each passing day it seems less likely to pass. As such, we’re in the gray, one of the middle phases of the cycle. Like Rain and Zoe, we are living in both hope and despair at the same time, proving we’re capable enough to hold onto both simultaneously.

I’m writing these words in early January, prior to starting rehearsals, and weeks before anyone will read or hear them. I’m trying to imagine where in the cycle we’ll be in six weeks when the production opens. In our rapidly changing world, will that be the same place as later in our run? Who knows? But I do know the one phrase that makes a sad man happy and a happy man sad: “This, too, shall pass.”

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- Hersh Ellis, Director

Meet the Cast

Jordan Benjamin

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Rain

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Jordan trained at Young and Talented School of Stage and Screen. Theatre includes: Duane and understudied and played Seaweed J. Stubbs in Hairspray (London Coliseum). Workshops include: Dom in The Little Big Things (Michael Harrison Entertainment). Television includes: Dibber in Rocket’s Island (CBBC), Tito Jackson in Man in the Mirror (ITV), Young Luther Vandross in Autopsy (ITV Studios).

Rose De Vera

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U/S Zoe & Ensemble

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Rose received her B.A. in Acting from the London College of Music. Her theatre experiences include Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, the Angel in Angels in America, and Pargeia in Welcome to Thebes. She is set to appear in an upcoming Apple TV+ series.

Mei Henri

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Zoe

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Mei graduated from London Studio Centre in 2021 and is thrilled to be making her professional stage debut. Credits include: The Birth of Daniel F Harris (Channel 4) and a new Netflix series, both to be coming out later this year. Mei would like to thank her family, friends and agent for their continued support.

Richard Holt

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Ensemble

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Richard trained at ALRA, London.Theatre includes: A Christmas Carol (Antic Disposition 2017 & almost '21) Apples and Angels (Wassail Theatre 2021), United Queendom (Les Enfants Terribles), When Swallows Cry (Rada Festival), Mr Popper's Penguins (Kenny Wax, UK and USA), Romeo and Juliet (Insane Root); Alice's Adventures Underground (LET 2015, Company Associate 2017); Partners in Crime (Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch); Swallows and Amazons (West End and Tour); The Game's Afoot (LET); Captain Flinn (Speigeltent, Edinburgh); The Light Princess (Tobacco Factory); Macbeth (UK Tour); The Pillowman (New Theatre, Oxford), Curiosity Shop (UK Tour), Bloody Poetry (White Bear); Love’s Labour’s Lost (Rose Theatre, Kingston); Three Musketeers (Pleasance, Edinburgh); Romantics (Keats House). Screen includes: Liaison (Apple TV), Sherlock Holmes: An Online Adventure (LET), Theresa v Boris (BBC), Captain Webb (feature, Marathon Films), RU-486 (feature, Xylomancy Films), Wrestling Yetis (short, Ben Mills), Puppy Pulling Power (Sony Commercial, Irresistible Films). Audio productions include: Wireless Theatre Company.

Salma Shaw

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Ensemble

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Salma is a versatile and accomplished Scottish-Pakistani actor, singer and producer, who works steadily in TV, booking roles across ABC, NBC, CBS, HBO, HBO Max, Hulu and MTV, and in Off-Broadway and Broadway-bound productions. She is a two-time Helen Hayes Award recipient and 2020 AUDELCO nominee for Off-Broadway’s Bars and Measures. Her multi-award-winning short film, Silent Partner, premiered at the Oscar-qualifying RSF Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival and is currently on the festival circuit. Selected credits include Acquittal (Off-Broadway), That Damn Michael Che (RECUR, HBO Max), People You Know (SERIES REGULAR, HereTV), Monsoon Wedding (Broadway-bound workshop), and Rain + Zoe (Brave New World NYC workshop). Graduate of Stanford, MIT and Harvard. Proud member of SAG-AFTRA, Actors’ Equity Association and Equity. For my Mum in the Moon.

Joshua Sinclair-Evans

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U/S Rain & Ensemble

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Josh's TV and Film credits include: Kevin in A Christmas Number One; True Things; Spider-man: Far From Home; Josh Dixon in Disney's The Lodge (Seasons 1 and 2); Joel in Ruth; Shane in High Strung: Free Dance and Sheridan in Casualty (BBC). Theatre credits include: Liam in The Distance (Orange Tree Theatre); Jack in Digging Deep and Tom in Rubber (Vault Festival).

Meet the Team

Crystal Skillman

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Playwright

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Crystal is a member of the Playwrights’ Center & alumni of Orchard Project, The Civilians, Soho Rep, EST, & Women’s Project. Plays include: NY Times Critic Picks’ GEEK (Vampire Cowboys), CUT (Theatre Under St. Marks), and OPEN (The Tank/AFO, Offie Nomination 2021). Recipient of NY Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Play, Earth Matters on Stage Prize (RAIN AND ZOE SAVE THE WORLD), & Clifford Odets Ensemble Prize for PULP VÉRITÉ (Kilroys List). UK credits include BIRTHDAY at Waterloo East (Kibo Productions). Musicals include MARY AND MAX (Landestheater Linz, Theatre Calgary) with composer Bobby Cronin, winning several BroadwayWorld Austria Awards & Germany’s MUT Prize. POSTCARD AMERICAN TOWN (Composer Lynne Shankel) premieres this April (SDSU New Musicals’ Initiative). Audio drama includes KING KIRBY (Co-written w/Fred Van Lente, scored by Bobby Cronin) on the Broadway Podcast Network & THE MAGICIAN’S MAGICIAN. Work in comic books include Adventure Time & Marvel.

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Bobby Cronin

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Composer

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Bobby Cronin is the award-winning composer/writer of Mary and Max (2017 Pace New Musicals Award, 2018 MUT Critics Award, 2019 Canada BroadwayWorld Awards, 2020 Austria BroadwayWorld Awards, 2021 Austria BroadwayWorld Streaming Awards) book by Crystal Skillman, ’Til Death Do Us Part (2018-2020 SDSU New Works Award) book by Caroline Prugh; Concrete Jungle, commissioned for London’s ArtsEd with a new version currently under a Broadway option; Welcome To My Life a rock musical-concert hybrid also under a Broadway option. Bobby has composed numerous award-winning scores for musical short films in festivals worldwide, and the hit audio drama King Kirby (by Crystal Skillman and Fred Van Lente) on the Broadway Podcast Network. He's also written songs for artists such as Tony and Emmy winner Billy Porter and Tony winner Jordan Roth. A Yale graduate where he won the Michael P. Manzella Award. Member of ASCAP, Dramatists Guild. UK rep: The Artists Partnership.

Hersh Ellis

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Director

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Hersh was artistic director of Home Grown Theatre Co. in Kansas City for six seasons, directing over 20 productions. For several years, he directed the Century Clubs annual benefit of A Christmas Carol (Starring Alec Baldwin, Sam Waterston, Marsha Mason and Chuck Cooper). Recent projects: Mary and Max: The Musical by Crystal Skillman and Bobby Cronin (Dramatists Guild), Pulp Verite by Crystal Skillman (Urban Stages), Disruption by Andrew Stein (Sheen Center), Wanderer, or the Literal Extraterrestrial I Met on Grindr and Turn Back Now both by Kaleb Tank (Chicago’s Otherworld Theatre).

Assistant & associate work includes: The Public, Rattlestick, Theatre Row, CSC (Pacific Overtures, directed by John Doyle) and on the world premiere of Heathers the Musical (New World Stages). He is currently working on short films Question and Block. Member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, alum of Pace Performing Arts, SDC Associate Member, represented by A3 Artists.

Jasmine Ricketts

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Movement Director

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Jasmine holds both an MA in Choreography from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (kindly supported by the Trinity Laban Dance Scholarship) and a BA in Drama from the University of Exeter. Jasmine was also part of the Overture 2017/18 cohort of Community Dance Artists with New Adventures Dance Company.

Credits include: Venus and Adonis (Blackheath Halls Opera); The Middle by Mandi Chivasa (Park Theatre); The Elixir of Love (Into Opera); Eugene Onegin (Buxton International Festival); Slow Motions (music video by Molly Mango); Morph by Mandi Chivasa (Tristan Bates and Tramshed Theatre); Paul Bunyan (ENO); The Day After (ENO); Phoenix (dance film by Aislinn King); No Quarter by Polly Stenham (Duelling Productions); A Single Act by Jane Bodie (Duelling Productions); Blink (RAW Festival, Exeter Northcott).

As a facilitator, Jasmine works with English National Opera, Disney Theatrical Group, Eastside Educational Trust and Best Theatre Arts.

Zoë Hurwitz

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Set & Costume Designer

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Recent UK credits include: Malindadzimu (Hampstead Theatre); Deciphering (New Diorama); The Language of Kindness (Shoreditch Town Hall); Fen (LAMDA); We Anchor in Hope (Bunker); The Five Plays Project (Directors Programme, Young Vic) and Living Newspaper collective (Royal Court).

Zoë has designed for US venues including: Here Arts Center, Ars Nova (AntFest), The Wild Project, and Brown/Trinity Rep.

Associate credits include: Caroline or Change (Fly Davis) at Studio 54, Broadway & Social! (Christine Jones) at the Park Avenue Armory NYC.

Awards and nominations include: Linbury Prize (2019 winner), JMK Award (2020 finalist with Emerald Crankson), Best Set Design - Off West End Awards (twice finalist). 2 designs have been selected to represent the UK at World Stage Design 2022.

Zoë is a graduate of the MFA Design Programme at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and holds a BA in Fine Art from Chelsea School of Art, UAL.

Pablo Fernandez Baz

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Lighting Designer

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Pablo’s recent lighting design credits include Oliver Award-nominated show Warheads, directed by Toby Clarke at the Park Theatre. Contemporary Circus production Staged, Winner Total Theatre awards for Circus 2019. United Queendom, a site-specific, immersive production at the Kensington Palace, produced by Les Enfants Terribles. Nearly Human by Perhaps Contraption, offie nominated (IDEA 2020). Valhalla, site-specific directed by Rich Rusk, nominated Offfest short run 2019. Other companies with which Pablo has collaborated include Talawa Theatre, The Sleeping Rrees, Little Soldier Production, Nofit Circus State. Recent credits as LD assistant: “El Medico, El Musical” , “El tiempo entre costuras” (Spain Tour).

Elizabeth Mak

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Projections Designer

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Elizabeth is a theatre artist and designer based in New York and Singapore. New York: The Tricky Part, A Walk in the Woods (The Barrow Group); They, Themself and Schmerm (The Public’s UTR Festival INCOMING!); Rocco, Chelsea, Adriana… (HERE Arts). Regional USA: Miss You Like Hell (Baltimore Center Stage); already there (Kennedy Center); Tiny Houses (Cleveland Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse); Bridges of Madison County (Philadelphia Theatre Company); Square Root of Three Sisters (International Festival of Arts and Ideas); The Phantom Tollbooth (Weston Playhouse). Resident designer with Albany Park Theater Project. MFA Yale School of Drama. Represented by A3 Artists Agency. Member of IATSE Local USA 829 and Wingspace Theatrical Design Inc. Founder of Rainshadow Studios, a non-profit dedicated to making art addressing climate change and environmental destruction.

Will Burton

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Casting Director

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West End Theatre includes:

Be More Chill (Shaftesbury), Heathers (Haymarket), Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Apollo), Matilda (Cambridge), Ghost (Piccadilly).

London Theatre includes:

Origin (Almeida), Evita (Regent’s Park), Jesus Christ Superstar (Barbican & Regent’s Park), Local Hero, Jekyll & Hyde, High Society (Old Vic), Othello, I Think We Are Alone, Fatherland (Frantic Assembly), Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith), The View Upstairs (Soho), But I’m a Cheerleader, My Night With Reg, Torch Song (Turbine), In the Heights (Kings Cross) Five Guys Named Moe (Marble Arch), Xanadu, Carrie, Side Show (Southwark Playhouse).

Regional Theatre & Tours include:

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Sheffield Crucible), Piaf (Nottingham Playhouse), Bugsy Malone (UK Tour), The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (UK Tour), RENT 20th Anniversary (UK Tour).

TV & Film includes:

Matilda (Netflix), Mary Poppins Returns, Beauty & the Beast (Disney), The Voice, So You Think You Can Dance, Over The Rainbow (BBC) and Superstar (ITV).

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Ellie Roser

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Associate Designer

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she/her

Ellie is a Bristolian artist and performance designer now working in London. With a background in devised performance and fine art, Ellie takes a multidisciplinary approach to her practice and she is interested in work grounded in community, sustainability and collaboration. She has made work at The Bristol Old Vic, for shows in Brighton and Camden fringe and as part of Iris Theatre's 2021 design cohort. Recent credits include working as Design Assistant on both National Youth Theatre's 5* production of Animal Farm at Northampton's Royal & Derngate and renowned community company The Big House's Redemption. Ellie is thrilled to be part of bringing Rain and Zoe Save the World to life and to be sharing the necessary message of this show with Jermyn Street's audience.

Drew & Dane Productions

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Producers

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Drew Desky and Dane Levens are award-winning producers for theatre and web series. They have produced the award-winning revival of Little Shop of Horrors (Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award and Outer Critics Circle Honor for Outstanding Revival of a Musical), Pageant (Drama Desk nomination), Application Pending (Drama Desk nomination), Who’s Holiday! (Lortel nomination), The Other Josh Cohen (Off Broadway Alliance nomination) Unexpected Joy, Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, R.R.R.E.D., and Fairycakes. They are currently supporting Dear Evan Hansen (including the North American Tour and West End), Hadestown (including the North American Tour), Come From Away (Australia/NZ), and Moulin Rouge! The Musical (Australia/NZ). They are leading the upcoming production of Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors. They earned the Emmy® Award for Best Digital Drama Series as Executive Producers of After Forever in 2018. Drew is the Founding Co-Chair of the Leadership Council of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Drew and Dane are also members of the Artists Circle of the Bucks County Playhouse, where they have the honor of being the only couple married on its stage.

Yarit Dor

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Fight Director

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Yarit is co-director of Moving Body Arts and Ensemble Associate Artist of Shakespeare’s Globe. Theatre includes: Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre), The Shark Is Broken (Ambassadors Theatre), Death Of A Salesman (Piccadilly/Young Vic Theatre), Love & Other Acts Of Violence (Donmar Warehouse), Richard II, Hamlet, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe), NW Trilogy (Kiln Theatre), Changing Destiny, Wild East (Young Vic Theatre), Daddy (Almeida Theatre), Macbeth (Royal Exchange), Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, Last Easter (Orange Tree Theatre), Miss Julie (Storyhouse), Assata Taught Me (Gate Theatre), The Effect (Boulevard Theatre), Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare in the Squares).

Dance includes: Rooms (Rambert Dance Company), Self And An Other, Leah, 2B, Sunday Morning (Hagit Yakira Company).

Film includes: The Colour Room, Knives Out 2.
Television includes: The Wheel Of Time, Adult Material, Atlanta 3, Pistol, Starstruck.

Amanda Stephens-Lee

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Voice and Accent Coach

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Amanda is a graduate of the MFA (Voice) program at Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA). Recent Voice/dialect coaching credits include: The Sugar House (Finborough Theatre). In Sydney she has coached dozens of productions including The Rolling Stone, Gloria;You Got Older, The Cripple of Inishmaan; If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You; The Caretaker; Nell Gwynne and Next Lesson. She has a busy private coaching studio, and has taught Voice, Accents and Acting at East 15, ArtsEd, LAMDA, Mountview, NIDA and in all the major drama schools in Sydney.

David Adkin Ltd

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U.K. General Management

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David is a producer and general manager. Credits include: Clybourne Park, Rothschild & Sons (Park Theatre); Blindness (Donmar/UK Tour/International); Rocky Road (Livestream); The Realistic Joneses, Wild Goose Dreams (Theatre Royal Bath); The Grinning Man (Trafalgar Studios); The Life; Dessert; Stalking the Bogeyman; Next Fall (Southwark Playhouse); Agnes Colander (Jermyn Street); Our Friends the Enemy (UK Tour/New York); Sweeney Todd (Twickenham Theatre, Winner of Best Off West End Production Whatsonstage Award); and Our House The Musical – 10th Anniversary Concert (Savoy Theatre).

David worked for legendary Producer Robert Fox on the UK premiere of David Bowie and Enda Walsh’s musical Lazarus (Kings Cross Theatre). David was the Festival Producer for the Old Vic New Voices Festival in 2015 and the Producer of the award-winning Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath in 2019/20. David is a member of SOLT and Chairman of Cherwell Theatre Company – an arts charity for young people in his hometown.

Evan Bernardin Productions

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US General Manager

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Evan Bernardin Productions is a full-service theatrical management company that provides general and production management for productions, tours, and immersive experiences in North America. Select: Seven Deadly Sins by Moisés Kaufman's, Afterglow, We Are The Tigers, Douglas Carter Beane's Fairycakes. Touring: CocoMelon, Million Dollar Quartet, Charlie Brown Christmas, Million Dollar Quartet Christmas, Counting Sheep. Additional collaborative projects have included performances at Lincoln Center, The United Nations, The Harvard Club, The White House, Cornell University, Georgetown's Gaston Hall, The Culture Project, The Ohio Theatre and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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2021 National Touring Cast

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Thomas Doherty Joins LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS Off-Broadway

Emily Wyrwa

August 21, 2025

Suddenly, Thomas! Thomas Doherty will make his New York stage debut in the current Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors as Seymour beginning Sept. 5. He will star opposite Madeline Brewer as Audrey.

Doherty was most recently seen in Hulu’s Tell Me Lies, and has just wrapped Hulu’s series Paradise season 2. He is perhaps best known for his role in HBO’s Gossip Girl reboot, and has been seen in Tina Fey’s Girls5Eva, Hulu's High Fidelity opposite Zoë Kravitz, HBO's Catherine The Great opposite Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke, and Disney’s Descendants film franchise.

“To have Thomas and Madeline Brewer paired together in these iconic roles of Seymour and Audrey brings a special kind of energy to our stage, and we can't wait for audiences to experience it live,” producer Tom Kirdahy said in a statement.

Brewer is continuing her run as Audrey in following her acclaimed turn as Sally Bowles in the Olivier Award-winning West End production of Cabaret at the Playhouse Theatre in London. She earned a 2021 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, for her role as Janine in Hulu’s Emmy Award and Golden Globe-winning series The Handmaid’s Tale.

Starring alongside Doherty and Brewer in the cast of Little Shop of Horrors are Jeremy Kushnier as Dr. Orin Scrivello DDS, Reg Rogers as Mushnik, Major Attaway as The Voice of Audrey II, Hailey Thomas as Ronnette, Savannah Lee Birdsong as Crystal, and Morgan Ashley Bryant as Chiffon. The company also includes Weston Chandler Long, Teddy Yudain, Mecca Hicks, Aveena Sawyer, Jeff Sears, Christopher Swan, David Colston Corris, Bryan Fenkart, Alloria Frayser, Jonothon Lyons, Noel MacNeal, Chani Maisonet, Johnny Newcomb, Jon Riddleberger, and Christine Wanda.

Little Shop of Horrors runs at the Westside Theatre on West 43rd Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.

Danny Burstein, Christopher Lowell, Cynthia Nixon, and June Squibb Join Broadway's MARJORIE PRIME

Emily Wyrwa

August 21, 2025

The complete cast of Second Stage Theater’s Broadway production of Marjorie Prime has been announced. The company will include Tony Award winner Danny Burstein, Christopher Lowell, Tony Award winner Cynthia Nixon, and June Squibb. Squibb will play the title role.

Marjorie Prime will begin previews at the Hayes Theatre on West 44th Street on Nov. 20, with official opening set for Dec. 8. The production is directed by Anne Kauffman.

The play was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize, and will mark playwright Jordan Harrison’s Broadway debut. It examines the blurred line between a life lived and a life remembered, begging the question of what you would say to someone you lost if you could see them again. And what if they’re a better listener now than when they were alive?

Set in the age of artificial intelligence, Marjorie is battling dementia as her daughter and son-in-law introduce her to a cutting-edge technology: a computer hologram resembling her late husband. The hologram, a Prime, becomes a bank of memories. As Marjorie’s health declines, her daughter must grapple with their relationship, and the impact of this human-robot dynamic.

The Broadway production will feature scenic design by Lee Jellinek, costume design by Márion Talán de la Rosa, lighting design by Ben Stanton, and sound design and original music by Daniel Kluger. Casting is by Daniel Swee, CSA.

In addition to Marjorie Prime, Second Stage Theater’s 2025-26 season will feature the Broadway debut of playwright Gina Gionfriddo with her play Becky Shaw directed by Trip Cullman. Off-Broadway, the season will include Meet the Cartozians directed by David Cromer, Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood written and directed by Aya Ogawa, and The Receptionist directed by Sarah Benson.

Marjorie Prime begins performances at the Hayes Theatre on West 44th Street in New York City on Nov. 20, with opening set for Dec. 8. For tickets and more information, visit here.

Danny Burstein, Christopher Lowell, Cynthia Nixon, and June Squibb Join Broadway's MARJORIE PRIME

Emily Wyrwa

August 21, 2025

The complete cast of Second Stage Theater’s Broadway production of Marjorie Prime has been announced. The company will include Tony Award winner Danny Burstein, Christopher Lowell, Tony Award winner Cynthia Nixon, and June Squibb. Squibb will play the title role.

Marjorie Prime will begin previews at the Hayes Theatre on West 44th Street on Nov. 20, with official opening set for Dec. 8. The production is directed by Anne Kauffman.

The play was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize, and will mark playwright Jordan Harrison’s Broadway debut. It examines the blurred line between a life lived and a life remembered, begging the question of what you would say to someone you lost if you could see them again. And what if they’re a better listener now than when they were alive?

Set in the age of artificial intelligence, Marjorie is battling dementia as her daughter and son-in-law introduce her to a cutting-edge technology: a computer hologram resembling her late husband. The hologram, a Prime, becomes a bank of memories. As Marjorie’s health declines, her daughter must grapple with their relationship, and the impact of this human-robot dynamic.

The Broadway production will feature scenic design by Lee Jellinek, costume design by Márion Talán de la Rosa, lighting design by Ben Stanton, and sound design and original music by Daniel Kluger. Casting is by Daniel Swee, CSA.

In addition to Marjorie Prime, Second Stage Theater’s 2025-26 season will feature the Broadway debut of playwright Gina Gionfriddo with her play Becky Shaw directed by Trip Cullman. Off-Broadway, the season will include Meet the Cartozians directed by David Cromer, Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood written and directed by Aya Ogawa, and The Receptionist directed by Sarah Benson.

Marjorie Prime begins performances at the Hayes Theatre on West 44th Street in New York City on Nov. 20, with opening set for Dec. 8. For tickets and more information, visit here.

Theatrely News

EXCLUSIVE: Watch A Clip From THEATER CAMP Starring Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, and Molly Gordon

Theatrely News

READ: An Excerpt From Sean Hayes Debut YA Novel TIME OUT

Theatrely News

"Reframing the COVID-19 Pandemic Through a Stage Manager’s Eyes"

EXCLUSIVE: Watch A Clip From THEATER CAMP Starring Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, and Molly Gordon

By: Maia Penzer

14 July 2023

Finally, summer has arrived, which can only mean one thing: it's time for camp! Theater Camp, that is. Theatrely has a sneak peak at the new film which hits select theaters today.

The new original comedy starring Tony Award winner Ben Platt and Molly Gordon we guarantee will have you laughing non-stop. The AdirondACTS, a run-down theater camp in upstate New York, is attended by theater-loving children who must work hard to keep their beloved theater camp afloat after the founder, Joan, falls into a coma.

The film stars Ben Platt and Molly Gordon as Amos Klobuchar and Rebecca-Diane, respectively, as well as Noah Galvin as Glenn Wintrop, Jimmy Tatro as Troy Rubinsky, Patti Harrison as Caroline Krauss, Nathan Lee Graham as Clive DeWitt, Ayo Edebiri as Janet Walch, Owen Thiele as Gigi Charbonier, Caroline Aaron as Rita Cohen, Amy Sedaris as Joan Rubinsky, and Alan Kim as Alan Park.

Theater Camp was directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman and written by Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman & Ben Platt. Music is by James McAlister and Mark Sonnenblick. On January 21, 2023, Theater Camp had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

You can purchase tickets to the new film from our friends at Hollywood.com here.

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READ: An Excerpt From Sean Hayes Debut YA Novel TIME OUT

By: Kobi Kassal

29 May 2023

Actor Sean Hayes is what we in the biz call booked and blessed. On top of his Tony-nominated performance as Oscar Levant in Good Night, Oscar, Hayes has partnered with Todd Milliner and Carlyn Greenwald for the release of their new YA novel Time Out.

Heralded by many as Heartstopper meets Friday Night Lights, Time Out follows hometown basketball hero Barclay Elliot who decides to use a pep rally to come out to his school. When the response is not what he had hoped and the hostility continually growing, he turns to his best friend Amy who brings him to her voting rights group at school. There he finds Christopher and… you will just have to grab a copy and find out what happens next. Luckily for you, Time Out hits shelves on May 30 and to hold you over until then we have a special except from the book just for Theatrely:

The good thing about not being on the team the past two weeks has been that I’ve had time to start picking up shifts again at Beau’s diner and save up a little for college now that my scholarship dreams are over.

The bad part is it’s the perfect place to see how my actions at the pep rally have rotted the townspeople’s brains too.

During Amy’s very intense musical theater phase in middle school, her parents took her to New York City. And of course she came back home buzzing about Broadway and how beautiful the piss smell was and everything artsy people say about New York. But she also vividly described some diner she waited three hours to get into where the waitstaff would all perform songs for the customers as a way to practice for auditions. The regulars would have favorite staff members and stan them the way Amy stans all her emo musicians.

Working at Beau’s used to feel kind of like that, like I was part of a performance team I didn’t know I signed up for. The job started off pretty basic over the summer—I wanted to save up for basketball supplies, and Amy worked there and said it was boring ever since her e-girl coworker friend graduated. But I couldn’t get through a single lunch rush table without someone calling me over and wanting the inside scoop on the Wildcats and how we were preparing for the home opener, wanting me to sign an article in the paper or take a photo. Every friendly face just made the resolve grow inside me. People love and support the Wildcats; they would do the same for me.

Yeah, right.

Now just like school, customers have been glaring at me, making comments about letting everyone down, about being selfish, about my actions being “unfortunate,” and the tips have been essentially nonexistent. The Wildcats have been obliterated in half their games since I quit, carrying a 2–3 record when last year we were 5–0, and the comments make my feet feel like lead weights I have to drag through every shift.

Today is no different. It’s Thursday, the usual dinner rush at Beau’s, and I try to stay focused on the stress of balancing seven milkshakes on one platter. A group of regulars, some construction workers, keep loudly wondering why I won’t come back to the team while I refuse proper eye contact.

One of the guys looks up at me as I drop the bill off. “So, what’s the deal? Does being queer keep ya from physically being able to play?”

They all snicker as they pull out crumpled bills. I stuff my hands into my pockets, holding my tongue.

When they leave, I hold my breath as I take their bill.

Sure enough, no tip.

“What the fuck?” I mutter under my breath.

“Language,” Amy says as she glides past me, imitating the way Richard says it to her every shift, and adds, “even though they are dicks.” At least Amy’s been ranting about it every free chance she gets. It was one thing when the student body was being shitty about me leaving the team, but the town being like this is even more infuriating. She doesn’t understand how these fully grown adults can really care that much about high school basketball and thinks they need a new fucking hobby. I finally agree with her.

[She’s wearing red lipstick to go with her raccoon-adjacent eyeliner as she rushes off to prepare milkshakes for a pack of middle schoolers. I catch her mid–death glare as all three of the kids rotate in their chairs, making the old things squeal. My anger fades a bit as I can’t help but chuckle; Amy’s pissed-off reaction to Richard telling her to smile more was said raccoon makeup, and her tolerance for buffoonery has been at a negative five to start and declining fast.

I rest my arms on the counter and try not to look as exhausted as I feel.

“Excuse me!” an old lady screeches, making me jump.

Amy covers up a laugh as I head to the old lady and her husband’s table. They’ve got finished plates, full waters. Not sure what the problem is. Or I do, which is worse.

“Yes?” I say trying to suppress my annoyance.

“Could you be bothered to serve us?”

Only five more hours on shift. I have a break in three minutes. I’ll be with Devin at Georgia Tech tomorrow. “I’m sorry, ma’am,” I say, so careful to keep my words even, but I can feel my hands balling into fists. “What would you—?”

And suddenly Amy swoops in, dropping two mugs of coffee down. “Sorry about that, you two,” she says, her voice extra high. “The machine was conking out on us, but it’s fine now.”

Once the coffee is down, she hooks onto a chunk of my shirt, steering us back to the bar.

“Thanks,” I mutter, embarrassed to have forgotten something so basic. Again.

“Just keep it together, man,” she says. “Maybe you’d be better off with that creepy night shift where all the truckers and serial killers come in.”

Honestly, at least the serial killers wouldn’t care about my jump shot.

It’s a few minutes before my break, but clearly I need it. “I’ll be in the back room.”

Right before I can head that way though, someone straight-up bursts into the diner and rushes over to me at the bar. It’s a middle-aged dad type, sunburned skin, beer belly, and stained T-shirt.

“Pickup order?” I ask.

“You should be ashamed,” he sneers at me. He has a really strong Southern accent, but it’s not Georgian. “Think you’re so high and mighty, that nothing’ll ever affect you? My kid’ll never go to college because of you and your lifestyle. Fuck you, Barclay Ell—”

And before this man can finish cursing my name, Pat of all people runs in, wide-eyed in humiliation. “Jesus, Dad, please don’t—”

I pin my gaze on him, remembering how he cowered on the bench as Ostrowski went off, how he didn’t even try to approach me. “Don’t even bother,” I snap.

I shove a to-go bag into his dad’s arms, relieved it’s prepaid, and storm off to the break room.]

Amy finds me head in my arms a minute or two later. I look up, rubbing my eyes. “Please spare me the pity.”

She snorts and hands me a milkshake. Mint chocolate chip. “Wouldn’t dare.” She takes a seat and rolls her shoulders and neck, cracks sounding through the tiny room. “Do you want a distraction or a shoulder to cry on?”

For more information, and to purchase your copy of Time Out, click here.

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Reframing the COVID-19 Pandemic Through a Stage Manager’s Eyes

By: Kaitlyn Riggio

5 July 2022

When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a national emergency in the United States in March 2020, Broadway veteran stage manager Richard Hester watched the nation’s anxiety unfold on social media.

“No one knew what the virus was going to do,” Hester said. Some people were “losing their minds in abject terror, and then there were some people who were completely denying the whole thing.”

For Hester, the reaction at times felt like something out of a movie. “It was like the Black Plague,” he said. “Some people thought it was going to be like that Monty Python sketch: ‘bring out your dead, bring out your dead.’”

While Hester was also unsure about how the virus would unfold, he felt that his “job as a stage manager is to naturally defuse drama.” Hester brought this approach off the stage and onto social media in the wake of the pandemic.

“I just sort of synthesized everything that was happening into what I thought was a manageable bite, so people could get it,” Hester said. This became a daily exercise for a year. Over two years after the beginning of the pandemic, Hester’s accounts are compiled in the book, Hold Please: Stage Managing A Pandemic. Released earlier this year, the book documents the events of the past two years, filtering national events and day-to-day occurrences through a stage manager’s eyes and storytelling.

When Hester started this project, he had no intention of writing a book. He was originally writing every day because there was nothing else to do. “I am somebody who needs a job or needs a structure,” Hester said.

Surprised to find that people began expecting his daily posts, he began publishing his daily writing to his followers through a Substack newsletter. As his following grew, Hester had to get used to writing for an audience. “I started second guessing myself a lot of the time,” Hester said. “It just sort of put a weird pressure on it.”

Hester said he got especially nervous before publishing posts in which he wrote about more personal topics. For example, some of his posts focused on his experiences growing up in South Africa while others centered on potentially divisive topics, such as the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Despite some of this discomfort, Hester’s more personal posts were often the ones that got the most response. The experience offered him a writing lesson. “I stopped worrying about the audience and just wrote what I wanted to write about,” Hester said. “All of that pressure that I think as artists we put on ourselves, I got used to it.”

One of Hester’s favorite anecdotes featured in the book centers on a woman who dances in Washington Square Park on a canvas, rain or shine. He said he was “mesmerized by her,” which inspired him to write about her. “It was literally snowing and she was barefoot on her canvas dancing, and that seems to me just a spectacularly beautiful metaphor for everything that we all try and do, and she was living that to the fullest.”

During the creation of Hold Please, Hester got the unique opportunity to reflect in-depth on the first year of the pandemic by looking back at his accounts. He realized that post people would not remember the details of the lockdown; people would “remember it as a gap in their lives, but they weren’t going to remember it beat by beat.”

“Reliving each of those moments made me realize just how full a year it was, even though none of us were doing anything outside,” he adds. “We were all on our couches.” Readers will use the book as a way to relive moments of the pandemic’s first year “without having to wallow in the misery of it,” he hopes.

“I talk about the misery of it, but that’s not the focus of what I wrote... it was about hope and moving forward,” Hester said. “In these times when everything is so difficult, we will figure out a way to get through and we will move forward.”

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