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STEEL MAGNOLIAS Artistic Team
ROBERT HARLING (Playwright) made his directorial debut with The Evening Star for
Paramount, which he also wrote for the screen based on Larry McMurty’s novel. The
Evening Star reunited Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson and co-stars Juliette Lewis,
Bill Paxton, Scott Wolf, Miranda Richardson, and Marion Ross. The Evening Star is the
continuation of one of the most beloved and acclaimed movies of our time, Terms of
Endearment. Before launching a successful stage and screenwriting career, Robert
graduated from Tulane University School of Law, but instead of taking the bar exam, he
opted to become an actor in New York. After years of productive work as an actor in
voiceovers and commercials, Harling was inspired to write the highly acclaimed stage
play Steel Magnolias, which was based on events from his personal life. Steel
Magnolias continues to thrive in theatrical productions throughout the world.
Immediately bridging a career from stage to screen, Harling adapted his original play
into the popular film of the same title, which starred Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Shirley
MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, and Daryl Hannah. Over the years, Mr.
Harling has become a much sought-after screenwriter: other credits, to name a few,
include Soapdish, which was based on Harling’s acting experience and starred Sally
Field, Whoopi Goldberg, and Robert Downey Jr., and First Wives Club for Paramount,
starring Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton.
LAURA KEPLEY (Director) is in her third season as Artistic Director and has directed
Cleveland Play House mainstage productions of The Good Peaches (world premiere),
The Crucible, Fairfield (world premiere), The Little Foxes, Venus in Fur, Good People
(also at Syracuse Stage), A Carol for Cleveland (world premiere), In the Next Room, or
the vibrator play, My Name is Asher Lev and CPH readings of Roe Green Awardwinning plays Soups, Stews and Casseroles: 1976, Marjorie Prime and Daphne’s Dive.
She joined CPH in 2010 as Associate Artistic Director, having arrived from Trinity
Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island where she was Resident Director and
Artistic Associate for four seasons and Interim Director of the Brown/Trinity Rep M.F.A.
in Directing Program for one. She has also directed for The Alliance Theatre, Asolo
Repertory Theatre, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and
Contemporary American Theatre Festival, among others. A native Ohioan, Laura
received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and her Master of
Fine Arts from Brown University/Trinity Rep. She is a Drama League Fellow and a
recipient of the 2009—2011 National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications
Group Career Development Program for Directors.
VICKI SMITH (Scenic Designer) For Cleveland Play House, Vicki designed Radio Golf,
Raisin in the Sun, Dream a Little Dream, Dinner Party, Dirty Blonde, The Guardsman,
Emancipation of Valet de Chambre, Picasso at the Lapin Agile (toured to Budapest and
Miskolc, Hungary), Russian Romance, Dracula, Diary of Anne Frank, Oleanna, and The
African Company Presents Richard III. She’s designed for Denver Center Theatre
Company (54 productions), Arizona Theatre Company, Penumbra Theatre Company,
Cincinnati Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Geva Theatre
Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie Theatre, Kansas City Rep, Seattle Rep,
Actors Theatre Louisville, Repertory Theatre St. Louis, Dallas Theatre Center, Alley
Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Berkeley Rep, and others. She’s received Bay Area
Critics Awards for Kite Runner and Execution of Justice, a DramaLogue Award for
Cyrano, Colorado Theatre Guild and Denver Ovation Awards for Mariela in the Desert,
Plainsong, Doubt, I’m Not Rappaport, and Pierre, selected for the Prague Quadrennial
Design Exposition 2007.
JEN CAPRIO (Costume Designer) Broadway: Falsettos and The 25th Annual Putnam
County Spelling Bee. West End: The Lion (St. James). Current National Tours: Joseph
and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Lion. Selected NYC: Perfect
Arrangement (Primary Stages); Laugh it Up, Stare it Down (Cherry Lane); Little Children
Dream of God (Roundabout); Tail! Spin! (Culture Project); The Lion (MTC, Culture
Project and Tour); Little Miss Sunshine (Second Stage); In Transit (Primary Stages);
Fugitive Songs (Dreamlight) and Striking 12 (Daryl Roth). Opera: Florida Grand Opera,
Minnesota Opera, Opera Colorado, Opera Boston and Mill City Summer Opera.
Regional Theater: Guthrie Alley Theatre, Papermill Playhouse, Williamstown Theater
Festival, Goodspeed Musicals, La Jolla Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, Utah
Shakespeare Festival, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Portland Rep, PlayMakers Repertory
Company, Asolo Repertory Theater, Virginia Stage Company, George Street
Playhouse, Weston Playhouse, Geva Theater, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, among
others. Graduate of Ithaca College and Carnegie Mellon. Proud Member USA-829.
JENNIFER SCHRIEVER (Lighting Designer) is a New York City based lighting
designer. Her Broadway credits include Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed starring Lupita
Nyong’o, and John Leguizamo’s Ghetto Klown, also filmed for HBO. Jen’s Opera
credits include Les Pêcheurs de Perles and Die Fledermaus at the Metropolitan Opera
in NYC; and La Traviata, Faust and A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Mariinsky in
Russia. Jens Off-Broadway credits include Eclipsed, Toast and A Second Chance
(Public Theatre); Night is a Room (Signature); Mala Hierba and American Hero (Second
Stage); Sunset Baby (Labyrinth) and Bright Half Life (Women’s Project). Regionally Jen
has worked at the Goodman, Goodspeed Opera House, Studio Theatre, Woolly
Mammoth, Papermill, CenterStage, Signature, Olney, Asolo Rep, Williamstown and
People’s Light. Jen is an adjunct professor at Purchase College and a member of
Wingspace. www.jenschriever.com
JANE SHAW (Sound Designer) previously designed The Crucible, The Little Foxes,
Grounded, A Carol for Cleveland and In the Next Room, or the vibrator play for
Cleveland Play House. Her credits include Ironbound (Women's Project, Rattlestick);
The Killer (Theatre for a New Audience); Food and Fadwa (New York Theatre
Workshop); Rear Window (Hartford Stage); Men on Boats (Clubbed Thumb); Don Juan
(The Pearl Theatre); Women Without Men (Mint Theater); O.P.C. (American Repertory
Theater); 4000 Miles (Asolo Rep). Upcoming productions include Living Together
(Northern Stage) and Table Manners (Dorset Theater Festival). Ms. Shaw’s sound
designs have earned a Drama Desk, Bessie Award, Connecticut Critics Circle, Henry
Award, Premios ACE 2012, Meet the Composer grant, Theatre Communication Group's
Career Development Program and nominations for two Lortels, Henry Hewes and Elliot
Norton awards. She was born in Kansas and lives in Brooklyn.
THOM JONES (Dialect Coach) Head of Voice for Brown University/Trinity Repertory
M.F.A. Program. Theatre: The Public Theater, Trinity Repertory Company (15 seasons),
Yale Repertory Theatre, Delaware Theatre Company, Huntington Theatre, Actors
Theatre of Louisville, Cleveland Play House, Syracuse Stage, McCarter Theatre Center,
Long Wharf Theatre and Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Film/TV: various productions
with Nicole Kidman (Academy Award/Golden Globe nomination), Alan Rickman,
Vanessa Redgrave, Robin Williams, Sandra Bullock, Emma Watson, Miles Teller, Aaron
Eckhart, Katey Segal, Ciaran Hinds, Sienna Miller, Ben Mendelsohn, Brendan Gleeson,
Melissa Leo, among others.
WIGS AND WHISKERS (Wig Design) owned and operated by Mary Schilling-Martin
and Caitie Martin, provides wig, hair and specialty makeup services to performing arts
organizations, entertainment companies and educational institutions around the country.
Their motto is: “To hair is human, to wig divine.” Regional credits include Cleveland Play
House, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Goodman Theatre, The Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla
Playhouse, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Arizona Theatre Company, Marriott Theatre in
Lincolnshire, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Victory Gardens, Theatre at the Center,
American Theatre Company, Chicago Theatre for Young Audiences, Light Opera
Works, Northwestern University, Roosevelt University in Chicago, University of
California at San Diego, San Diego State University, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines,
Denver Center Theatre Company, Opera Colorado and Arizona Opera Company.
JENNIFER MATHESON COLLINS (Stage Manager) stage managed Cleveland Play
House productions of The Good Peaches, Luna Gale, Ken Ludwig’s A Comedy of
Tenors, Fairfield, Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life, Informed Consent, Breath and
Imagination, A Christmas Story, Woody Sez, Rich Girl, The Devil’s Music: The Life and
Blues of Bessie Smith, A Carol for Cleveland, A Night With Janis Joplin (at both CPH
and Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.), The Trip to Bountiful and This Wonderful Life.
Other recent credits include: Angels in America (Millennium Approaches and
Perestroika), A Christmas Carol, The Santaland Diaries, and The Who and the What
(Kansas City Repertory Theatre). Previously, she was a full-time faculty member at
Northwestern University, overseeing the stage management program. From 2000 to
2007, she was a resident stage manager at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy
Pier, where selected credits include Passion, Marionette Macbeth, Hamlet, Seussical
the Musical, A Flea in Her Ear, Kabuki Lady Macbeth, A Little Night Music, Sunday in
the Park with George and Pacific Overtures. Other Chicago credits include Death of a
Salesman, Waiting for Godot, Floyd Collins, Jitney, The Odyssey and A Christmas
Carol (Goodman Theatre). She earned a Bachelor of Science, Theatre and a Bachelor
of Arts, Anthropology from Kansas State University and is a proud member of Actors’
Equity Association.
TOM HUMES (Assistant Stage Manager) returns to Cleveland Play House where
previous stage management work includes The Mountaintop, The Little Foxes and the
2014 New Ground Theater Festival production of Grounded. Assistant stage
management work at CPH includes Ken Ludwig’s A Comedy of Tenors, Vanya and
Sonia and Masha and Spike, Maurice Hines is Tappin Thru Life, Clybourne Park, Breath
and Imagination, A Christmas Story, Woody Sez, Lombardi and A Night With Janis
Joplin. Area stage management credits include Kiss Me, Kate!, The All-City
Musical; Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida, Cleveland Musical Theatre; Godspell, The
Frogs, Smokey Joe's Café, Avenue Q, Pippin and Oliver!, Cain Park; Le Nozze di
Figaro and Cosi Fan Tutte, The Cleveland Orchestra; Tosca, La Boheme and Lucia Di
Lammermoor, Opera Cleveland; Caroline, or Change, Dobama Theatre and Karamu
House; and History Boys, Beck Center for the Arts. He is a proud member of both
Actors' Equity Association and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
(IATSE). He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre with a minor in Mathematics from
Bowling Green State University.
GEOFF JOSSELSON/CALLERI CASTING (Casting) Geoff is thrilled to continue his
collaboration with Calleri Casting, where he previously cast John and Jen (Keen
Company); Head Over Heels and The Wiz (OSF); and A Christmas Carol (McCarter
Theatre). As an independent casting director for 10 years, Geoff cast the Broadway
production of The Velocity of Autumn, the off-Broadway productions of Yank!, Enter
Laughing, Southern Comfort, Pretty Filthy and Altar Boyz. Also many productions for
Arena Stage, Bay Street Theatre, Barrington Stage, Denver Center, North Shore Music
Theatre, Kansas City Starlight and the York Theatre Company. Calleri Casting credits
include Broadway: Hughie, Fool for Love, The Elephant Man (also West End), Hedwig
and The Angry Inch, The Visit, Of Mice and Men, Venus in Fur, Living on Love, 33
Variations, A Raisin in the Sun, Chicago, and James Joyce’s The Dead. Casting for
CSC, Rattlestick, Long Wharf, Keen, Williamstown Theater Festival, The Flea,
McCarter, Berkeley Rep, City Theater, OSF, and Playwrights Horizons (10 seasons).
TV: The Path for Hulu, Army Wives, Lipstick Jungle, Monk, Hope & Faith, and Ed.
Awarded 12 Artios Awards for Outstanding Casting Achievement. Member CSA.
geoffjosselson.com and callericasting.com.