by Caryl Churchill
Directed by Cheryl Faraone
LUNCH
by Steven Berkoff
*New York City Premiere*
A woman and man, (ostensibly) strangers, engage in a provocative encounter that forces them to recognize their loneliness. Sexy, rude and funny.
HOT FUDGE & HERE WE GO
by Caryl Churchill
“Suffice it to say that the characters in this brief, explosive work are on the gravy train…. rich in bracing theatrical bile.” Frank Rich NYTimes
HOT FUDGE e is an explosive short play about greed and self-invention – a bleak, black comedy.
“But what Churchill has written is a striking memento mori for an age without faith; and although her play is brief, that in itself evokes the idea that we are here for a short time and then are suddenly gone.” Michael Billington The Guardian
HERE WE GO is written in three brief scenes. The play drifts from conversations among mourners at a post-funeral party to the dying process of (possibly) the man mourned and finally a wordless sequence with a man and his caregiver.
Bill Army began his professional acting career in “Somewhere in the Pacific” directed by PTP Co-Artistic Director, Jim Petosa. Over nearly two decades, Bill has worked with Co-Artistic Directors Richard Romagnoli and Cheryl Faraone, and Associate Artistic Director, Alex Draper on over twenty productions and readings. Most recently in “Scenes from an Execution” and “Vinegar Tom.” And though Jim, Cheryl, Alex, and Richard hate sentimentality, Bill wishes to thank each of these brilliant artists from the bottom of his heart for their impact on his life…but he was only offered 100 words in the program, so there isn’t enough space.
Jackie Sanders is thrilled to be returning to Potomac Theatre Project this season. Other recent work: Carousel (Riverside Theatre); The Musical of Musicals (York Theatre Co); Tyrants! (York Theatre workshop). Off-Broadway Original Casts: Swingtime Canteen (Lilly McBain); Cowgirls (Mickey); Kicking a Dead Horse (written and directed by Sam Shepard). Other: Measure for Measure (The Public Theater); The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare in the Park); The Demise – A Rock Opera (Playwrights Horizons). Tours: A Chorus Line (Val); 42nd Street (Anytime Annie u/s Dance Capt); TV: “Pan Am” (ABC); “The Loudest Voice” (CBS); “The Blacklist” (NBC); “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: (Netflix). Jackie can be seen playing Barbara Walters in the upcoming TV mini-series, “Iron Mike” (HULU) and can be heard voicing numerous Audiobooks. Many thanks to Richard and Cheryl. Love to Bill and Olin.
Tara Giordano is a proud 15-year company member of PTP/NYC, with previous credits including Vinegar Tom, Serious Money, Lovesong of the Electric Bear, Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth, Cigarettes and Chocolate, Experiment with an Airpump, Perfect Pie, The After-Dinner Joke, and Plenty. A Helen Hayes nominated actor, she has performed at Arena Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre Co., Two River Theater, Lincoln Center Education, New Victory Theatre, Folger Theatre, and others. Her work can also be seen & heard in national commercials, audiobook recordings, and feature films. Ms. Giordano received her BA in Theatre from Middlebury College and her MFA from the Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University
David Barlow has performed for PTP/NYC in Havel: the Passion of Thought, Scenes From An Execution, Victory, The Castle, Gertrude, No End Of Blame, and Serious Money. Some other favorite NYC productions include Horizon at New York Theater Workshop, This Is My Office at The Play Company, Saved and Andorra at Theater For A New Audience, Romola and Nijinski at Primary Stages, and his original piece LA Party at the Under the Radar Festival. He has performed at Berkeley Rep, Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, Actors Theater of Louisville, Portland Center Stage, Kansas City Rep, Berkshire Theater Group, Philadelphia Theater Company, and others, and has appeared in various European productions, including at the Norwegian National Opera House in The Hamlet Complex, and in France with director Arthur Nauzyciel in Julius Caesar and Splendids. David most recently voiced the characters of Mr. Chouinard and Francois for Season 2 of Julian Koster’s The Orbiting Human Circus, now available on all podcast platforms. Middlebury Alum, MFA: NYU Grad Acting.
Danielle Skraastad – Broadway: All My Sons. Off Broadway: Anon and Paris (The Atlantic) Moundbuilders (Signature), Hurricane Diane(NYTW/WP), Architecture of Becoming (WP), IHO (Signature/The Public) and The Wake (The Public) A Bright Room Called Day (The Public), The Pain and the Itch (Playwrights Horizons), Big Times (W.E.T.), Lidless (Page 73) Regionally Danielle has worked at Miami New Drama, Ancram OperaHouse, The Studio Theater, Premiere Stages, Two River Theater, Berkeley Rep, Cleveland Playhouse, Gulfshore Playhouse, The Wilma,, The Kirk,, Berkeley Rep, Capital Rep/Albany, ACT/Seattle, StageWorksHudson, The Human Festival and more…Film/TV: 27 Dresses, Draw Up and Stare, Being, Hard Sell , Michael Clayton, The Business of Story, “Succession”, “Speed Mating”, “SVU”, “L&O”, “Unforgettable”,”Mercy”, “Fringe”. MFA NYU.
Christopher Marshall is an actor, director, and teacher. Off-Broadway: No End of Blame, Pity in History, The Possibilities, The Havel Plays, Cahoot’s Macbeth (PTP/NYC Atlantic Stage 2). Regional: All My Sons (Milwaukee Rep), A Christmas Carol (ACT Theatre Seattle), Betrayal (Aurora Theatre, *Best Cast SFGuardian); The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hamlet, Love’s Labors Lost, A Penny for a Song (American Players Theatre), Copenhagen (Tampa Rep), Hedda (Jobsite), three seasons at The Utah and Colorado Shakespeare Festivals.
Wynn McClenahan is a recent Middlebury College graduate from Montclair, NJ. Her acting credits include Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play (Quincy), Dinner with Friends (Beth), Project Y’s Women-in-Theatre Festival and Tiny Barn Festival, PTP’s Standing on the Edge of Time, Writer’s Block (Alvin Miller), Julius Caesar (Julius Caesar), Giants Have Us in Their Books (Lizzy), and American Idiot (St. Jimmy). This past summer, she performed in a YouTube series called The Deli People and in PTP/NYC’s Standing on the Edge of Time. She is so grateful to finally perform with PTP in New York.
Molly Dorion is thrilled to be making her PTP/NYC debut after three long years of waiting. Molly is a senior theatre and psychology double major from Carpinteria, California. Previous Middlebury theatre credits include Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play (Colleen), Dinner with Friends (Karen), Dry Land (Ester), and Happy (Eva). She also works at the Costume Shop on campus and spends her time outside of the theatre running around Vermont. A huge thank you to Cheryl and the company for their persistence in putting these shows up and to her family for supporting her the whole way through
Gibson Grimm is a Theatre and Film double major at Middlebury College from Jacksonville, Florida. His Middlebury acting credits include Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, She Kills Monsters, Giants Have Us in Their Books, The Bacchae 2.1, Untitled Romantic Comedy, Working, and the First Year Show. He recently directed I and You. Outside the department, he is a member of Middlebury Discount Comedy, is a Social Activities Co-Chair for MCAB, and co-hosts a radio show.
Teddy Best graduated in May from Middlebury College with a degree in Political Science. He is grateful to have caught the theatre bug in the latter half of his college years, and he is very excited to make his PTP/NYC debut this summer. Middlebury credits include: Everybody (Friendship) and Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (Gibson, Pianist). Teddy is eager to pursue acting and writing in the coming years.
Meili Huang is thrilled to be making her PTP debut. Her acting credits include No One Is Forgotten (Lali), Everybody (Everybody), finally (Aria & Celeste), and Julius Caesar (Cicero). She has 12 weeks of pattern-making experience, interning for the Middlebury College Costume Shop. Her costume construction credit includes The Orphan Muses. This past spring, she directed Bella Costantino-Carrigan’s thesis, Ophelia Underwater. A native of Shenzhen, China, Meili is currently completing her B.A. in theatre at Middlebury College.
Annabelle Iredale is a Theatre and Neuroscience double major at Middlebury College from Rhode Island. Her previous Middlebury acting credits include She Kills Monsters (Kaliope/Kelly), Company (Sarah), Big Fish (gender-bent Edward), Everybody (B). She is co-president of Middlebury College Musical Theatre as well as a student liaison for the theatre department. She is thrilled to be making her PTP debut this summer!
Maggie Connolly is a senior at Middlebury College, joint majoring in Theatre and Philosophy. She debuted with PTP in Standing on the Edge of Time during the summer of 2021. At Middlebury, Maggie most recently performed in She Kills Monsters as Tilly Evans and is looking forward to playing Daisy in Rhinoceros this coming fall. Her other Middlebury acting credits include Giants Have Us In Their Books (Jennifer Leigh), Julius Caesar (Metellus Cimber, Lepidus, Poet) and Jump! The 2019 Annual First-Year Show.
Charlie Porto is a Miami-grown senior at Middlebury College studying Molecular Biology/Biochemistry and Theatre. Some of his favorite productions have been playing Steve in She Kills Monsters and romping in local Middlebury theatre. He enjoys his offstage hobbies as a playwright, writer, musician, and book addict almost as much as Theatre. His future plans range from medical school to an MFA (or an accursed mix of both). He holds inexpressible gratitude for his family and friends, and hopes you enjoy the show!
Victoria Keith is a theatre major at Middlebury College. Middlebury acting credits include Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play (Jenny), She Kills Monsters (Evil Gabbi), and Ophelia Underwater (Nanny). Tech credits include PTP/NYC’s Standing on the Edge of Time (Assistant Director/ASM), Big Fish (Choreographer), Dinner with Friends (Scenic Designer), I and You (ASM), and Happy (Wardrobe). She has performed in three world premiere plays: Sloppy Firsts, Hear. Eye. Stand., and Beach Week as part of the Teen Performance Company at Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland.
Catie Clark is a senior theatre major from Tampa, Florida. Her past credits at Middlebury include Company (Kathy),Julius Caesar (Octavius) and The Bacchae 2.1 (Aide to Agave). Outside of theatre, Catie spends her time rehearsing with her a cappella group, the Middlebury Mamajamas. She sends her appreciation to Cheryl and the PTP company for their ingenuity and dedication to the arts.
Katelyn Wenkoff is a Theatre and Psychology major at Middlebury College from Nashville, TN. Middlebury credits include She Kills Monsters (Lilith), Company (Susan), Everybody (Stuff/Somebody 1), The Last Five Years (Cathy), and Big Fish (The Witch). She has previously studied with the NHSI Theatre-Arts Division at Northwestern University. At Middlebury, she is Co-President of Middlebury College Musical Theatre, as well as a member of the Middlebury Mamajamas a capella group.
In 1986 Richard Romagnoli co-founded and has since been the Co-Artistic Director of the Potomac Theatre Project. PTP/NYC; Director, For PTP/NYC, private and public Zoom productions of Pinter’s Press Conference/Party Time, Howard Barker’s poem Don’t Exaggerate. His most recent ‘live’ production for the company was 2019’s Havel: The Passion of Thought. For PTP and other theatres he has directed multiple productions of Howard Barker’s The Castle, Scenes from an Execution, The Europeans, A Hard Heart, Pity In History and The Possibilities. He has also directed Barker’s Judith, Gertrude— The Cry, Victory: Choices in Reaction and Barker’s poems ‘Gary the Thief,’ ‘Plevna: Meditations on Hatred, ‘and ‘Don’t Exaggerate.’ For the worldwide 2010 Barker celebration “21 for 21”, he directed Judith with Jan Maxwell, Alex Draper and Stephanie Janssen. Other playwrights directed for PTP include Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, Gore Vidal, Vaclav Havel, Pavel Kohout, Snoo Wilson, Howard Brenton and Tariq Ali. In Washington D.C. he has directed Dumas fil’s Camille (with Jan Maxwell), Pinter’s The Homecoming, Coward’s Private Lives, and The Importance of Being Earnest for the Olney Theatre Center, and has also worked with Project Y in D.C. and in Boston for Whistler in the Dark. He is a professor emeritus of theatre at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he directed numerous plays, including, most recently, Major Barbara, Havel: The Passion of Thought.
Cheryl Faraone is a co-founder of Potomac Theatre Project and has produced all of PTP/NYC’s 35 seasons. She has directed many shows for the company, including Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth and Arcadia by Tom Stoppard; Serious Money, Vinegar Tom, After-Dinner Joke, Mad Forest and Far Away (the last online) by Caryl Churchill; Sarah Kane’s Crave, Territories, Lovesong of the Electric Bear, Politics of Passion: the Plays of Anthony Minghella, An Experiment with an Air Pump, Perfect Pie, Stanley and many more. Previously, she directed and produced for eight seasons with the New York Theatre Studio. For the Olney Theatre Center in Maryland she directed King of the Jews, The Real Thing and Anna Karenina. She worked on the Broadway productions of The American Clock and An Evening with Comden and Greene with producer Arthur Cantor and also worked at the Public Theatre, and the Folger Theatre . Her work at Middlebury College, where she is professor emeritus, teaching Theatre and Women and Gender Studies for 35 years, includes the direction of 30+ productions, including Julius Caesar, Men on Boats, Enron, Stupid Fucking Bird, As You Like It, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Jumpers, Arcadia, The Real Inspector Hound,The Five Hysterical Girls Theorem, An Experiment with an Air Pump, Top Girls, Way of the World, and numerous others.
A graduate of Catholic University and Florida State University’s School of Theatre, and officer and board member for OOBA (early ART/NY, the League of Washington Theatres, Athe and TCG. She is a member of the National Theatre Conference.
Mark Evancho has designed scenery, lights, and projections for PTP/ NYC for 25 years in Maryland and in New York. Over the years Mark has designed for the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Olney Theatre Center in MD, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and the Bucks County Playhouse in PA. In the New England area, Mark has designed for the Vermont Stage Company, Lyric Theatre Company, and Lost Nation Theatre Company in Vermont, and broadcast designing for YNC/ Yankee Communications Network in New Hampshire. Mark teaches design at Middlebury College.
Courtney Smith is a scenic, media designer, and technician for live performance. He is currently the Production Designer for the Department of Theatre at Middlebury College. Courtney’s designs have received several Meritorious Achievement Awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Additionally, his work received a “Distinguished Achievement Award in Scenic Design” from the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
Credits include Potomac Theatre Project (NY), Warren Miller Performing Arts Center (MT), Southwark Playhouse (UK), The Bushwick Starr (NY), Roundabout Theatre Company (NY), New York City Opera (NY), Playwrights Horizons (NY), Classic Stage Company (NY), Cedar Lake Dance (NY), Marvel Repertory Theatre (NY), Mount Baker Repertory Theatre (WA), Montana Shakespeare in the Parks (MT), Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre (ID), and Idaho Repertory Theatre (ID).
Courtney is a member of United States Institute of Theatre Technology (USITT) and received his MFA in scenic design from the University of Idaho.
Bella Costantino-Carrigan is a recent graduate of Middlebury College with foci in acting and costume design. Middlebury design credits include Ophelia Underwater, Big Fish, Happy, No One Is Forgotten, Gidion’s Knot and Airswimming; acting credits include Ophelia Underwater (Ophelia), She Kills Monsters (Agnes), and Happy (Melinda). She is thrilled to be returning to an (in-person!) PTP season after costume designing Lunch for the virtual 2021 season. www.thanksbella.com
A professional patternmaker/draper, Carol Wood has been teaching costume cutting and construction through her custom costume business and at design schools in California and Vermont. She is known for recreating, wearing, and writing about historical garments. For the past two decades, her work has been honored with awards, shown in galleries, worn to period events, appeared on the stage, and escorted down the wedding aisle. Carol also worked as an assistant cutter in San Francisco Opera’s Costume Shop and is currently Costume Shop Director in Middlebury College’s Department of Theatre. Her motto: Cinch it tighter!
Peter Hamlin is a composer, retired Middlebury music professor and former broadcaster. His compositions include music for orchestra, chamber ensembles, choir, and electronic media. He has recently been especially interested in sound design and music for theater and film. After working on Middlebury Department of Theatre productions of Middletown, One Flea Spare and The Orphan Muses, he is excited to be working for the first time with Cheryl Faraone and PTP/NYC.
Originally from Shanghai, China, Qinyi Hua is a double major in Theatre and Art History at Middlebury College. This is Qinyi’s first season with PTP/NYC and she is thrilled to work with this talented group. Middlebury credits include: Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play (assistant stage manager), Dinner with Friends (sound design), The Orphan Muses (sound board operator), the 2021 Annual First Year Show (sound board operator).
◊ member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
º member of United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829