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STUDY GUIDE
ANNIE BAKER WILL ENO ATHOL FUGARD BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS SUZAN-LORI PARKS
2016-17 SEASON
EVERYBODY
BY
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
DIRECTED BY Lila Neugebauer
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Playwright Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Historical Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Interview with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins & Lila Neugebauer . . . . . . . . 7
Further Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Cast & Creative Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Playwright Bio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Cast Bios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Creative Team Bios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Signature Spotlight Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
About Signature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
PLAYWRIGHT LETTER
Dear Students,
Everybody is inspired by Everyman, a play written more than five hundred years ago in a world that was both
unbelievably different and surprisingly similar to our own. At least officially, everyone in Europe subscribed to
the same set of beliefs, those of the Catholic Church. Most people never left their hometowns or met anyone from another village, let alone another country or continent. At the same time, they were fascinated and
troubled by many of the questions that continue to fascinate and trouble us today. What happens when we
die? How should we prepare for our own death? What does it mean to live a good life?
When I began writing, I wanted to explore how a fifteenth century story like Everyman—which was itself
influenced by an earlier Dutch play, which was itself influenced by an earlier Buddhist story—would resonate
today. As Everyman tells Death in the original, “Thou comest when I had thee least in mind.” In today’s world,
death can come for anyone, at any time. It can be anticipated, or it can be unexpected. It can happen in the
street or in the hospital or in the home. As the Usher says in Everybody, “Think about that and what you
want to do with the rest of your life, vis-à-vis that.” While death is an important part of this play, I hope you’ll
find that it’s also, perhaps primarily, about how to live—both with yourself and other humans.
As you’ll see, this play may be different from others you’ve seen or heard about. Actors play not just other
people, but also abstract concepts like “Beauty,” “Strength,” and a bunch of “Stuff.” The actors have all memorized the entire play, and at each performance they’ll randomly be assigned a part to play. This means that
the show you see today will be very different from the one you would have seen if you’d come to the theatre
yesterday, or tomorrow, or next week. Just as no two lives are ever lived the same, each performance of this
play will be unique. Thank you for coming. I hope you enjoy the show.
Sincerely,
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
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HISTORICAL CONTEXT
MORALITY PLAYS
In the sixth century, the Catholic Church
closed Europe’s theatres, ending the robust dramatic tradition that had begun
with the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Around 970 C.E., however, England’s
Bishop Ethelwold of Winchester wrote
the Regularis Concordia, a series of
instructions to be followed by religious
brothers during the Mass. One section
of this text, “The Visit to the Sepulchre,”
is widely considered the moment when
drama returned to England. In this short
scene, which includes both dialogue and
stage directions, three monks impersonate visitors to Jesus’ tomb, while a fourth
acts as the angel announcing His resurrection. While still part of the religious
ceremony, “The Visit to the Sepulchre”—a
good example of “liturgical drama”—
bears all the hallmarks of theatre.
Over the next several centuries, England’s
theatrical tradition continued to expand.
Eventually, these performances moved
outside the churchyard into the streets
and other public places. Cycle plays,
which were presented in major towns on
the feast of Corpus Christi, brought to life
scenes from Christian history, from the
Creation to the Last Judgment. Morality
plays like Everyman, on the other hand,
used symbolism and personification to illustrate the Church’s teachings on sin and
salvation for their audiences.
The staging conventions of the Middle
Ages were vibrant and creative. Plays
often featured tumbling, singing, dancing, sword fighting, wrestling, magic,
mime, and the use of trained animals. In
the morality play The Castle of Perseverance (written sometime between
1400 and 1425), an actor playing a devil
stormed the castle with smoking pipes
hidden in his hands, ears, and hindquarters. In other plays, actors would
leave the makeshift stage and move
about through the audience, sometimes
bellowing commands at spectators.
Throughout medieval drama, characters used foul language and made dirty
jokes—not only did this help attract audiences to the performances, it also underlined the idea that sin can be quite
tempting! While many of these plays
have been unperformed for centuries,
others—especially Everyman—can still
Gustave Moreau, “The Young Man and Death.” 1865
Hans Holbein the Younger, “The Ambassadors.” 1533
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be seen on stages around the world. In
addition, the legacy of medieval theatre lives on in the better-known plays
that followed: Christopher Marlowe’s Dr.
Faustus and Shakespeare’s history plays
are just a few of the important works influenced by their medieval predecessors.
EVERYMAN
Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins freely adapted Everybody from the fifteenth
century morality play Everyman. Written
around 1495, Everyman tells the story of
a relatively affluent individual suddenly
summoned by Death to present an account to God about how he has lived his
life and why. While he initially attempts
to convince his friends and family—and
even his worldly possessions—to go with
him, Everyman eventually realizes that all
the things he’s loved on earth are temporary, and that only his good deeds can
follow him to the afterlife. One of the
most regularly studied and performed
examples of English morality drama, Everyman poses timeless questions about
some of life’s biggest mysteries.
The author of the original Everyman
remains unknown, although the play’s
story is almost certainly derived from an
earlier Dutch play called Elckerlijc, which
may in turn have been influenced by a
much older Buddhist fable. Although
the script was first printed in 1508, there
are no surviving records to suggest that
Everyman was ever performed during
the Middle Ages. In fact, its subtitle—“a
treatyse…in maner of a morall playe”—
suggests it might have originally been
intended for study rather than performance. Regardless, the first documented
production of Everyman was William
Poel’s 1901 revival, which was seen in
London and on Broadway. In 1920, Vienna’s Salzburg Festival first featured the
acclaimed German director Max Reinhardt’s production of the adaptation Jedermann, an annual event which can still
be seen at the Festival to this day. Since
then, Everyman has been performed and
adapted throughout the world, including
on film and in major theatres—even at a
mall in Los Angeles.
Of course, while the play you will see
today is adapted from Everyman, it is
important to remember that Everybody
is not a direct translation. Many other
writers, thinkers, and events inspired
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins as he began to
write Everybody. The result is a distinctly
modern twist on the enduring questions
posed by Everyman—questions we may
never definitively answer.
Hans Holbein the Younger, “The Ambassadors.” 1533
Salvador Dalí, “The Horseman of Death.” 1935
Chris Peters, “No Protection.” 2005
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INTERVIEW WITH THE PLAYWRIGHT & DIRECTOR
Throughout his body of work, Residency Five playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
has illuminated the present by looking to the theatrical past. His comedy Neighbors
collided kitchen-sink realism with blackface minstrelsy, exploding centuries-old attitudes toward race and social progress. In An Octoroon, Jacobs-Jenkins fused contemporary vernacular and pop music with the plot of a popular nineteenth-century
melodrama. His Obie Award-winning Appropriate, the first production of his Signature residency, explored the submerged racial anxieties underlying classic American
family dramas. Now, Jacobs-Jenkins returns to Signature with the world premiere of
Everybody. A riff on the fifteenth-century morality play Everyman, Everybody again
excavates contemporary meaning from an older theatrical form, posing powerful
questions of human mortality – and by extension, human life.
Joining him in the rehearsal room is Lila Neugebauer, who previously directed the
Signature productions of A.R. Gurney’s The Wayside Motor Inn and Signature Plays,
featuring works by Edward Albee, María Irene Fornés, and Adrienne Kennedy. Shortly before rehearsals began, Jacobs-Jenkins and Neugebauer spoke with Literary
Associate Nathaniel French about the play’s development, the element of chance
in life, death, and theatre, and why a medieval allegory like Everyman continues to
resonate today.
Photo of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins by Gregory Costanzo.
Photo of Lila Neugebauer by Ahron R. Foster.
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This is your first time working together.
Why did you want to collaborate on
this project?
BJJ: I was desperate! [Laughs] Lila’s
someone whose work I’ve always
watched with much interest. I feel in
awe of her intelligence and think we see
eye to eye on so many things and that’s
always a good sign. Aesthetically, politically, emotionally, I feel like we live in the
same zip code. It’s a horrible metaphor,
but there you go.
LN: I love it, I love it. I’ve been in love with
Branden’s brain for a number of years
now. I’m astonished by the breadth of
his imagination. He tackles ideas with
such rigor and complexity; he’s invested
in irreconcilable oppositions, which is
intellectually thrilling. But what he puts
on stage is also so viscerally undeniable,
and that collision—of guts and ideas—
exhilarates me. I’m also right now fortuitously in rehearsal for a production of
Appropriate at Juilliard with fourth year
students, so I’m having a year of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins [Laughs].
What were your early conversations
about Everybody like?
BJJ: I think it was a matter of me saying, “Lila, would you like to meet me at
this bar late in the evening?” And then
she showed up and I said, “I want you to
direct my play.” It was pretty simple.
How far along in your writing process
were you at that point?
BJJ: I didn’t really have a script, I just
knew that it was going to be loosely
based on the medieval play Everyman. I
wanted a partner who could be a sounding board for me as I worked through my
attack on the original. Lila has a background in devised work. She has an eye
for making in addition to interpreting.
Why did you want to dig into Everyman?
BJJ: At first I was flirting with doing an
adaptation of the Eugene O’Neill play
Emperor Jones, but as I was working
on that I kept thinking to myself, “This is
very similar to Everyman.” Like in some
weird way I was using O’Neill as the lens
through which I might look at Everyman. And at a certain point I realized
that I really just wanted to adapt Everyman, so I just kind of shoved O’Neill to
the side and leaned into this.
Like many of your plays, Everybody
is inspired by a much older theatrical
tradition. Where does this interest in
form come from?
BJJ: When I think about genre or old
forms, I think of them as interesting
artifacts that invite a kind of archeology of seeing. How much are Race
and Gender about visual cues that we
don’t question? Genre comes out of the
needs of a historical moment, of a community requiring a new way of looking
at old things. So I’m interested in why
we saw things the way we saw them
five hundred years ago. What actually
is different about the way we look at
things and people now? So for Everybody, I was like, how interesting that
five hundred years ago it was totally
okay for an abstraction to be played by
a person. Whereas I think in our culture
now there’s an overwhelming proclivity
for thinking that actors can only play
other people. It’s part of my ongoing
struggle with naturalism as our default
mode of storytelling.
What were some of the other things
you were thinking about as you
started writing?
BJJ: You know, I was watching Signature deal with the imminent loss of its
Founding Artistic Director, Jim Houghton, and I was just thinking through the
way the loss of a person could be processed in a work environment. That was
such a fascinating thing to see people
wrestle with. There was also just so
much death in the news, whether it was
gun violence or police brutality/murder.
I mean, I felt like we were all processing
dying in some strange way, and it all
felt like it was wrapped up in moral and
ethical questions. So I just kind of kept
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thinking about Everyman as a moral
play about life and death, and I tried
to think through what a morality play
might look like now. And whether we
are even interested anymore in moral
theatre. As a field, we’ve moved away
from thinking through an ethics of the
stage or how the theatre relates to the
moral. We sort of assume that Theatre
is, like, inherently a “good” thing to do,
make, and see; whereas I think actually
as artists, we have to work a little harder
to make that real.
Have recent events in America
changed your thinking about the play?
BJJ: I actually think Lila was one of the
first people I called—
LN: Yeah.
BJJ: —on “the day the world stood still.”
You know, I think for a while I was sort
of wrestling with the place of politics in
this play, and it was sort of nice to have
something make it very clear that politics
wasn’t something that anyone should
shy away from right now. Even thinking through this idea of a play about life
and death having no room for politics in
it—actually, that’s all the play was about
originally. It was about Catholicism cementing its place within a social sphere.
But Everyman is itself adapted from this
Dutch play Elckerlijc, that in turn is influenced by a Buddhist fable. Every time
we want to make a play about Life and
Death, we’re always erasing someone
else’s philosophy. That idea of the politics
of erasure felt very central somehow to
the experience of making this play.
What has it been like engaging with
a time period whose mindset is so
similar and simultaneously so different
from our own?
BJJ: I’m someone who believes very
much in the importance of History. I’m
very moved by this idea that our lives
are predicated on people living—much
as we are— through trial and error, surviving and making sense of themselves.
So I’ve read all this weird medieval history and been like, I can’t believe this is
the way people walked around and interacted with the world. Everyman was
playing to, essentially, a homogeneous
religious society, but we fancy ourselves
today living in a secular, diverse, democratic republic. So the trick here is, in
the absence of a unifying belief system
or cosmology, what becomes of things
like a “good life”? How should a person
live in such a pluralistic petri dish?
Chance will play a role in this production,
with different actors playing different
characters each night. Why were you
interested in exploring that element?
BJJ: Take it away, Lila.
LN: From our very first conversation
about this endeavor, Branden knew that
he wanted some element of chance to
be essential to the fabric of how this
event functions, how the evening makes
meaning. And that immediately resonated with me on a number of fronts.
In part, the impulse is predicated on
a desire to avoid distilling the identity
of an “everyman” into the body of a
single actor, who necessarily has an age,
a gender, a race, a sexual orientation.
Also, the notion that death could strike
any one of us, at any moment... when I
get off this call, walk out of the restaurant I’m sitting in right now and cross
the street. Inviting that randomness,
that arbitrary violence, into a theatrical
event—as a physical enactment of the
ideas we’re investigating—struck me as
challenging, scary, and thrilling.
BJJ: I’ve also been thinking so much
about how, if death is the end of an
identity, there’s so much we think
about in terms of identity that’s about
variables attached to the body, which
is ultimately the thing that actually
dies. And I just never loved this idea
that “everyman” had to be the index
by which we judge the experience of
dying. Do people all die the same?
I don’t know. People certainly don’t
seem to live the same. So how do we
actually honor that?
LN: Practically and philosophically, incorporating chance will force us to dismantle many of our accepted notions about
9
the process of making a play. Something
about disrupting much of what we take
for granted as theatre-makers felt right
to me when grappling with material of
this nature.
We developed this play through a series of readings. Why was that so important for this process in particular?
BJJ: I think for exactly the reasons Lila
just said: We both are really trying to
rethink every assumption we make
about how theatre happens. You know,
I couldn’t just sit down and write a play,
I felt like I would somehow be cheating. We wanted to explore the limits of
what, in each of our prescribed roles in
the theatre, we’re expected to do ver-
Albrecht Dürer, “Death Riding.” 1505
sus what’s possible. That includes actors. What are the limits of what an
actor can actually, feasibly accomplish
given the wild demands we’re placing
on the event, and on the limited amount
of time we have to make a show?
Without giving anything away, what
can you tell us about the design?
BJJ: It’s crazy.
LN: Part of the project has been putting the audience at the center of the
experience. We want people to feel that
the event is principally orchestrated
around the fact that they all showed up
that night. Which is fundamentally what
every night at the theatre is defined by.
But again, we tend to take that—the
sheer element of presence—for granted.
Kathe Kollwitz, “Death clutches a woman.” 1934
What is it about the story of Everyman
that has allowed it to survive and challenge us more than 500 years later?
BJJ: It’s about a mystery that we’ve
never solved. [Laughs] You know, ever,
in this society or as a species. It’s a play
about a scary thing.
LN: Someone once encouraged me
to investigate a play—any play—by
identifying an unanswerable question
at its core. A question that would keep
me—as a reader, director, or spectator—
curious, challenged, and creative. Everyman contains some of the most vital,
existentially urgent questions we’re
capable of asking.
The Housebook Master, “Death and Youth.” c. 1480-1490
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FURTHER DISCUSSIONS
• Why do you think Everyman has remained so relevant for over 500 years?
What are some of the questions it asks us to consider?
• If you were going to adapt a classic story to the 21st Century, which would you choose and why? This can be
not only another play, but a novel, historical event, poem, song, dance, myth, or folktale.
• In Everybody, are Friendship, Kinship, Cousinship, and Stuff to blame?
What would you do in their place?
• What does the ending of Everybody mean to you?
• How is Everybody similar to other plays you’ve seen or heard about? How is it different?
• Many of the actors play different parts at each performance depending on the lottery at the beginning of
the play. Why do you think the playwright and director made this decision?
How does it underline some of the play’s themes?
What specific challenges do you think it created for the actors?
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CAST & CREATIVE TEAM
SIGNATURE THEATRE
Scenic Design Laura Jellinek
Artistic Director Paige Evans
Costume Design Gabriel Berry
Executive Director Erika Mallin Lighting Design Matt Frey
Founder James Houghton Sound Design Brandon Wolcott
Choreographer Raja Feather Kelly
EVERYBODY
Production Stage Manager Amanda Spooner
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Lila Neugebauer
Casting Telsey + Company, Karyn Casl, CSA
Featuring
Jocelyn Bioh
Brooke Bloom
Michael Braun
Marylouise Burke
Louis Cancelmi
Lilyana Tiare Cornell
David Patrick Kelly
Lakisha Michelle May
Chris Perfetti
Press Boneau/ Bryan-Brown
Associate Artistic Director Beth Whitaker
General Manager Gilbert Medina
Director of Development Glenn Alan Stiskal
Director of Marketing & Audience Services David Hatkoff
Director of Finance Jeffrey Bledsoe
Director of Production & Facilities Paul Ziemer 12
PLAYWRIGHT BIO
BRANDEN JACOBSJENKINS
PLAYWRIGHT
Credits include Everybody (forthcoming at the Signature Theatre), War (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater),
Gloria (Vineyard Theatre; Pulitzer Prize-finalist), Appropriate (Signature Theatre; Obie Award), An Octoroon (Soho Rep; Obie Award) and Neighbors (The
Public Theater). He is a Residency Five playwright
at Signature Theatre and under commissions from
LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater, MTC/Sloan, and the
Steppenwolf Theatre Company. His recent honors
include the MacArthur Fellowship, the WindhamCampbell Prize for Drama, the Benjamin Danks
Award from the American Academy of Arts and
Letters, the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation
Theatre Award, the Steinberg Playwriting Award, and
the Tennessee Williams Award. He currently teaches
in the Hunter College Playwriting MFA Program,
where he is a Master-Artist-in-Residence.
Photo of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
by Ahron R. Foster.
13
CAST BIOS
JOCELYN BIOH (USHER/GOD/UNDER-
STANDING) is a Ghanaian-American writer/
performer from New York City. Signature
Debut! Other NYC acting credits include: The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
which won the TONY Award for Best Play in
2015. Men on Boats (Playwrights Horizons),
An Octoroon (Soho Rep), SEED (Classical
Theatre of Harlem), and NEIGHBORS (The
Public Theater). Her plays include: 2015 Kilroys List selection Nollywood Dreams, which
will be presented in the Spring of 2017 as part
of The Cherry Lane Mentor Project (mentored by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins), School
Girls (Kilroys List 2016), Happiness and Joe
(2017), and The Ladykiller’s Love Story, of
which she conceived the story and wrote the
libretto with music/lyrics by Cee Lo Green. B.A in English/Theatre from The Ohio State
University and MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University.
BROOKE BLOOM (EVERYBODY)
Select Theatre credits: Cloud Nine at Atlantic
Theater Company (2016 Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in
a Play), You Got Older with Page 73 (Obie
Award Winner & 2015 Drama Desk nomination
for Best Actress in a Play). Select Film: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Ceremony,
(left to right) David Patrick Kelly, Louis Cancelmi, Marylouise Burke, Jocelyn
Bioh, Michael Braun, Brooke Bloom, Lakisha Michelle May, Chris Perfetti.
Photo by Ahron R. Foster.
He’s Just Not That Into You, Gabbi on the
Roof in July, Swim Little Fish Swim (SXSW
2013), and She’s Lost Control (Berlinale
2014). Select Television: Series Regular on
Netflix’s forthcoming “GYPSY” and Amazon’s “Alpha House.” Guest appearances
including USA series “Falling Water,” “Louie,”
“The New Normal,” “Person of Interest,” “Law
& Order,” “The Good Wife.”
MICAHEL BRAUN (EVERYBODY)
Broadway: The Crucible, War Horse (Lincoln Center). Off-Broadway includes: Much
Ado About Nothing (Public Theater), The
Bridge Project: The Winter’s Tale, The
Cherry Orchard (Dir. Sam Mendes; BAM,
Old Vic, World Tour), The Bad Guys (Second Stage); Don’t You…(59E59), Billy Witch
(Studio 42). Regional: Proof (McCarter),
When the Lights Went Out (NYS&F), The
Front Page, On The Razzle, Haroun and the
Sea of Stories, The Liddy Plays, and Bloody
Mary (Williamstown), The Breach (Seattle
Rep), The Matchmaker (Centerstage), Lulu
and All’s Well That Ends Well (Yale Rep).
Film: Dark Water, Incoming, Dare, Igby
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CAST BIOS
Goes Down, Drinks!, Dispatched. TV: “The
Night Of,” “High Maintenance,” “Unforgettable,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” “The Good Wife,”
“Nurse Jackie,” “Law & Order,” “Blue Bloods,”
“Do No Harm,” “Comedy Bang! Bang!.” MFA:
Yale (Williams Prize for Acting). He is the
recipient of the Princess Grace Award.
MARYLOUISE BURKE (DEATH)
made her Signature debut in The Oldest
Profession. Broadway: Into the Woods, Is
He Dead? and Fish in the Dark. Off-Broadway credits include Ripcord, Fuddy Meers
(Drama Desk, Featured Actress), Kimberly
Akimbo (Drama Desk Nomination, Leading
Actress), Savannah Disputation, American
Sligo, Imagining the Imaginary Invalid, Love
Loss and What I Wore. Television: “30 Rock,”
“Fringe,” “Law and Order,” and recurring on
“Hung,” “Alpha House,” “Flesh and Bone,”
“Crisis in Six Scenes,” “The Mist.” Films include Sideways, A Prairie Home Companion,
Series 7, Must Love Dogs, Meet Joe Black,
Sleepwalk With Me. 2014 Obie Award for
Sustained Excellence of Performance.
LOUIS CANCELMI (EVERYBODY)
Recent New York: Troilus and Cressida and
The Tempest (both for Shakespeare in the
Park), Suzan-Lori Parks’ Father Comes
Home from the Wars Parts 1, 2, & 3 (The
Public), Sarah Kane’s Blasted (Soho Rep),
Adam Rapp’s Hallway Trilogy (Rattlestick)
and Melissa James Gibson’s This (Playwrights Horizons). Broadway/West End:
Vincent in Brixton. Regional: Williamstown
Theatre Festival, The Huntington, Arena
Stage, Yale Rep, and Steppenwolf. Film:
Tramps, Fits and Starts, Funny Bunny, The
Amazing Spider-Man 2. Television: “The
Blacklist,” “Blue Bloods,” “Billions,” “Inside
Amy Schumer,” “Chicago P.D.,” “Elementary,”
“Law & Order,” and “Boardwalk Empire.” Recipient of the 2016 St. Clair Bayfield Award.
LILYANA TIARE CORNELL (GIRL/TIME)
is so excited to be a cast member of Everybody! Broadway: Les Miserables (Little Cosette/Young Eponine). National Tour: How
the Grinch Stole Christmas (Cindy-Lou).
Promo Tour: School of Rock. Film: Future
States: “Happy Fun Room.” TV: “The Heart
She Holler.” Thanks to Telsey + Co.,CESD,J.
Reamy, J. Mendelsohn. Love to God, family
and friends! DAVID PATRICK KELLY (EVERYBODY)
Broadway: Thérèse Raquin, Once, Uncle
Vanya (Roundabout), Twelfth Night, The
Government Inspector, Working. OffBroadway: Pearls for Pigs, The Cure, Film Is
Evil/Radio Is Good, The Mind King, When I
Come to Die, Marlowe, Anadarko, The Glorious Ones, Ghosts, Lobster Alice. Regional:
Othello, Enrico IV, Seascape, Snow in June.
Film: Chi-Raq, John Wick, Flags of Our
Fathers, The Longest Yard, K-Pax, Last Man
Standing, Crooklyn, The Crow, Malcolm X,
Wild at Heart, Dreamscape, Commando,
The Warriors. TV: “Feed The Beast,” “The
Blacklist,” “Blue Bloods,” “Gossip Girl,”
“Louie,” “Twin Peaks.” Recipient, Obie
Award for Sustained Excellence.
LAKISHA MICHELLE MAY (EVERYBODY)
Off-Broadway: Sojourners (NYTW/Playwrights Realm), Regional: The Mountaintop
(Playmakers Repertory Company and Triad
Stage), In the Red and Brown Water (Marin
Theater Company), Spoon Lake Blues (Alliance Theater Company), A Christmas Carol
(American Conservatory Theater) and other
theaters. TV: “Boardwalk Empire” (HBO),
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CAST BIOS
“Law & Order: SVU” (NBC), “Forever” (ABC).
Film: Panama Canal Stories (Cannes Film
Festival), Education: MFA, The American
Conservatory Theater. BA, Spelman College.
Lakisha also enjoys creating/producing her
own work (short films & web content). She
also loves to box! Stay tuned @kisha_may
on Instagram and Twitter.
CHRIS PERFETTI (LOVE)
Picnic (dir. Sam Gold). Off-Broadway: Cloud
Nine (Atlantic), The Tempest (Public Theatre/NYSF), Sons of the Prophet (Roundabout), The Tutors (Second Stage). TV: “The
Night Of” (HBO), “Crossbones” (NBC),
“Looking” (HBO), “Next Caller” (NBC). Education: B.F.A., SUNY Purchase Conservatory.
Lakisha Michelle May. Photo by Ahron R. Foster.
(left) Jocelyn Bioh (right) Michael Braun. Photos by Ahron R. Foster.
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CREATIVE TEAM BIOS
LILA NEUGEBAUER
(Director) At Signature: A.R. Gurney’s The
Wayside Motor Inn (Drama Desk Nomination); Signature Plays; and upcoming,
Annie Baker’s The Antipodes. Recent
directing: Sarah Delappe’s The Wolves
(The Playwrights Realm at The Duke,
NY Stage and Film); Abe Koogler’s Kill
Floor (Lincoln Center), Mike Bartlett’s An
Intervention (Williamstown), Amy Herzog’s After The Revolution and 4000 Miles
(Baltimore Center Stage), Zoe Kazan’s
Trudy and Max in Love and Eliza Clark’s
Future Thinking (South Coast Rep), Lucas
Hnath’s Red Speedo (Studio Theatre), Dan
LeFranc’s Troublemaker (Berkeley Rep),
Partners and O Guru Guru Guru (Humana
Festivals), Annie Baker’s The Aliens (SF
Playhouse, Studio Theatre), Associate Director on Karen O’s Stop The Virgens (St.
Ann’s Warehouse, Sydney Opera House).
As co-Artistic Director of The Mad Ones,
Neugebauer conceives and directs ensemble-devised work, including Miles for Mary,
Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of
the Robot War, and The Essential Straight
and Narrow. Drama League alum, Soho
Rep Writer/Director Lab, Lincoln Center
Directors Lab, Ensemble Studio Theatre
member, New Georges Affiliated Artist,
Princess Grace Award recipient.
LAURA JELLINEK
(Scenic Design) New York: The Wolves
(Playwrights Realm); A Life (Playwrights
Horizons); The Nether (MCC, Lortel nomination); Buzzer (The Public); Marjorie
Prime (Playwrights Horizons); Small Mouth
Sounds (Ars Nova, Signature Center);
The Village Bike (MCC); multiple projects
with The Debate Society & The Mad Ones.
Regional: Bard Summerscape, Cincinnati
Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival,
Williamstown Theatre Festival, Southcoast
Rep. Opera: Boston Lyric Opera, Opera
Philadelphia, Atlanta Opera, Juilliard. Obie
for Sustained Excellence in Design. Upcoming projects with Opera Theatre of St.
Louis, Yale Rep, and the Roundabout.
GABRIEL BERRY
(Costume Design) designed the costumes
for A Few Stout Individuals and Enter The
Night (Signature Theatre). Recent work includes The Total Bent (The Public Theater)
and Hir (Playwrights Horizons). Awards
include an Obie for sustained excellence,
a Bessie and a Lucille Lortel award and a
medal from the Prague Quadrennial committee for her contribution to experimental theatre.
MATT FREY
(Lighting Design) Recent Off Broadway:
Rancho Viejo, A Life, (Playwright’s Horizons), All the Ways to Say I Love You (MCC),
War (LCT3), Gloria (Vineyard), The Way We
Get By (Second Stage), Buzzer (The Public), An Octoroon (Soho Rep. and TFANA),
Generations (Soho Rep.). Regional: Gloria
(Goodman Theatre), And No More Shall
We Part (Williamstown), For Peter Pan on
her 70th birthday (Humana Festival 2016
and Berkeley Rep), Wellesley Girl (Humana
Festival 2016).
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CREATIVE TEAM BIOS
BRANDON WALCOTT
(Sound Design) Brandon Wolcott is an
NYC-based sound designer and composer.
Recent/Notable: The Fever (600 Highwaymen), Coriolanus (Red Bull), Signature Plays
(Signature), Kill Floor (Lincoln Center), Habeas Corpus (Park Avenue Armory), The Record (600 Highwaymen), The Nether (MCC),
Kansas City Choir Boy (Prototype), Good
Person of Szechwan, Titus Andronicus (The
Public Theater). Collaborations with Marina
Abramovic, Laurie Anderson, Faye Driscoll,
Nicolas Jaar, Elizabeth Streb, Woodshed
Collective, Red Bull, New Georges, Clubbed
Thumb and many more....
RAJA FEATHER KELLY
(Choreographer) Credits: Signature Plays (Signature Theatre) directed by Lila Neugebauer,
The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole
Entire World AKA the Negro Book of the
Dead (Signature Theatre) directed by Lileana
Blain-Cruz. He is the artistic director of dance
theater ensemble THE FEATH3R THEORY and
a company member of Reggie Wilson/ Fist
and Heel Performance Group. Featured as one
of Dance Magazine’s ‘On The Rise’ Choreogra-
phers; 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts
Fellow for choreography; received the 2016
Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography. www.thefeath3rtheory.com
AMANDA SPOONER
(Production Stage Manager) Signature
Theatre debut. Recent Off-Broadway: The
Wolves, 10 Out of 12, The Glory of the World,
An Octoroon, While I Yet Live; Recent
Regional Theatres: Yale Repertory, La Jolla
Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville. MFA:
Yale School of Drama. Amanda also serves
as the General Manager for Transport Group
Theatre Company and Adjunct Assistant
Professor of Stage Management at Rider
University. Next up: Indecent on Broadway.
For Jeff and Jack.
RACHEL GROSS
(Assistant Stage Manager) OFF BROADWAY: WAR (LCT3), Isolde, An Octoroon
(TFANA), Duat, 10 Out Of 12, An Octoroon, Marie Antoinette (Soho Rep.), Once
Upon A Mattress (Transport Group), While
I Yet Live, Harbor, All In The Timing (Primary Stages); REGIONAL: Cloudlands, A
Christmas Carol, The Borrowers, and Jane
of the Jungle (South Coast Repertory);
ADDITIONAL: Shiner, Do Like The Kids Do
(IAMA). Rachel is thrilled to be working
here, at The Signature Theatre, on Branden
Jacobs-Jenkins’ EVERYBODY.
LILLETH GLIMCHER
(Assistant Director) is a performance and
film director, and the founder of an Arts +
Action non-profit, CO.RITE. NY Directing
credits include Dan Giles’ The Blast (May
2017); Diane Xavier’s Good Blood (spring
2017); Story Bank (The Future of Storytelling); The Knight, The Nurse, The Priest,
The Whore (The Capri Marfa); CAENIS
(Pace Gallery); Houseworld (associate,
San Damiano Mission); 1969: The Second
Man (Ars Nova’s Ant Fest); #serials @ The
Flea. Lilleth has assistant directed Ivo Van
Hove, André Gregory, Niegel Smith, 600
Highwaymen, Lily Whitsitt, César Alvarez,
HORSE, Michael McQuilken, Andrew Hoepfner, and Shira Milikowsky. www.lillethglimcher.com | www.corite.org
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CREATIVE TEAM BIOS
TELSEY+COMPANY
(Casting) Broadway/Tours: Anastasia, Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory, Hello, Dolly!, War
Paint, Present Laughter, Come from Away,
Paramour, Waitress, On Your Feet!, Hamilton,
Kinky Boots, Wicked, Something Rotten!,
The King and I, An American in Paris, The
Sound of Music. Off-Broadway: Atlantic,
Classic Stage Company, LAByrinth, MCC,
Second Stage. Regional: A.R.T., La Jolla,
McCarter, New York Stage and Film, Paper
Mill, Williamstown. Film: Miss Sloane, Into the
Woods, Margin Call, Rachel Getting Married,
Across the Universe, Camp, Pieces of April.
TV: “One Day at a Time,” “Time After Time,”
“Hairspray Live!,” “Conviction,” “This Is Us,”
“Grease Live!,” “The Wiz Live!,” “Flesh and
Bone,” “Masters of Sex,” “Smash,” “The Big
C,” commercials. www.telseyandco.com
Lila Neugebauer. Photo by Ahron R. Foster.
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SIGNATURE SPOTLIGHT SERIES
Learn about a work’s inspiration, ask questions of its creators, and deepen your understanding
of the artistic process and the role of a theatre artist at the Center and beyond.
Our free supplemental programming includes:
TALKBACK SERIES
Learn about the process of putting on a production, what
it’s like to play the characters, what goes on behind the
scenes, and much more in this post-show Q&A session
with the cast and creative team.
BOOK CLUB
Delve into the context of a Signature playwright’s work
by discussing a related book or play and explore theatre’s
connection to other art forms through a guided discussion with Signature’s literary staff.
BACKSTAGE PASS
Get an inside look at the mechanics behind the magic in
this pre-show discussion with one of the show’s designers. Learn how design shapes the audience experience
and transforms a production.
PAGE TO STAGE
Hear the full story on how artists transform an idea into
a play through a moderated discussion with members of
the Artistic Team.
THE WORLD OF THE PLAY
Explore cultural themes in the play and gain insight into
the intellectual context for the work in this moderated discussion, featuring a panel of scholars, experts and artists.
THE ART OF COLLABORATION
Dig deep into the relationship of multiple artists to understand how their creative dynamic has changed over time
in this pre-show conversation between longtime artistic
collaborators.
The Signature Spotlight Series is brought to you by
American Express.
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SIGNATURE SPOTLIGHT SERIES
CALENDAR FOR EVERYBODY
TALKBACKS
(Post-show on the Diamond Stage)
Tuesday, February 7th
Thursday, February 23rd
Tuesday, February 28th
Tuesday, March 7th
PAGE TO STAGE (6pm)
Thursday, February 16th
PARTICIPANTS:
Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
and Director Lila Neugebauer
BACKSTAGE PASS (6pm)
Thursday, March 2nd
PARTICIPANT:
Scenic Designer Laura Jellinek
AUDIO DESCRIBED
PERFORMANCE (2pm)
Sunday, March 5th
BOOK CLUB (7:30pm)
Thursday, March 16th
BOOK:
When Breath Becomes Air by
Paul Kalanithi
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ABOUT SIGNATURE
Signature Theatre celebrates playwrights and gives them an
artistic home. By producing multiple plays by each resident
writer, Signature offers an in-depth look at their bodies of work.
Founded in 1991 by James Houghton, Signature makes an extended commitment to a playwright’s body of work, and during
this journey the writer is engaged in every aspect of the creative process. By championing in-depth explorations of a playwright’s body of work, Signature delivers an intimate and immersive journey into the playwright’s singular vision. Signature
serves its mission through its permanent home at The Pershing
Square Signature Center, a three-theatre facility on West 42nd
Street designed by Frank Gehry Architects to host Signature’s
three distinct playwrights’ residencies and foster a cultural community. At the Center, opened in January 2012, Signature continues its founding Playwright-in-Residence model as Residency
One, a first-of-its-kind, intensive exploration of a single writer’s
body of work. Residency Five, the only program of its kind, was
launched at the Center to support multiple playwrights as they
build bodies of work by guaranteeing each writer three productions over a five-year period. The Legacy Program, launched
during Signature’s 10th Anniversary, invites writers from both
residencies back for productions of premiere or earlier plays.
The Pershing Square Signature Center is a major contribution
to New York City’s cultural landscape and provides a venue for
cultural organizations that supports and encourages collaboration among artists throughout the space. In addition to its
three intimate theatres, the Center features a studio theatre, a
rehearsal studio and a public café, bar and bookstore. Through
the Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access, Signature has also made an unprecedented commitment to making
its productions accessible by underwriting the cost of the initial
run tickets, currently priced at $30, through 2031. Signature
has presented entire seasons of the work of Edward Albee, Lee
Blessing, Horton Foote, María Irene Fornés, Athol Fugard, John
Guare, A. R. Gurney, David Henry Hwang, Bill Irwin, Adrienne
Kennedy, Tony Kushner, Romulus Linney, Charles Mee, Arthur
Miller, Sam Shepard, Paula Vogel, Naomi Wallace, August Wilson, Lanford Wilson and a season celebrating the historic Negro
Ensemble Company. Signature’s current Residency One playwright is Suzan-Lori Parks; current Residency Five playwrights
are Annie Baker, Martha Clarke, Will Eno, Katori Hall, Quiara
Alegría Hudes, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Kenneth Lonergan and
Regina Taylor. Signature was the recipient of the 2014 Regional
Theatre Tony Award®, and its productions and resident writers have been recognized with the Pulitzer Prize, Lucille Lortel
Awards, Obie Awards, Drama Desk Awards, AUDELCO Awards,
among many other distinctions. For more information, please
visit signaturetheatre.org.
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