DIGITAL PROGRAM
This production is dedicated to the spirits of Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke, and Catherine Storer -- along with the millions of people who died of the plague.
Director’s Note
When I first read this play, I couldn’t help but travel back to 2020. I was about to graduate from a big-deal school and had a lot of big-deal ideas in my head. I was sure that with the right approach and brazenness, I could take the world by storm. And then there was a plague, and my big-deal school got shut down right before graduation. In a moment, the world stopped hiring actors. In 1666, at the height of the great plague, Trinity College in Cambridge shut its doors right before graduation, and a young Isaac Newton retreated to his childhood home. No jobs. No future. Just the now. The world sometimes tells us to wait.
Isaac Newton wrote about patience on Catherine Storer’s wall many years ago. He seems to have understood that things take time, and that rushing isn’t always the answer. Understanding the truth is one thing, putting truth into practice is another. Isaac thought, experimented, wrote, and discovered many things about the world we live in. By activating his tireless ambition, he came to be regarded as one of the most impressive people to have ever lived. Isaac Newton helped to define how things move, but what moved this man?
Many actors, myself included, have fantasized about becoming famous. I’ve always thought that if I originated a very successful broadway show, or starred in a great film or opened a well-regarded acting studio that I would know, without a doubt, that I was important, special and loved. That’s what we want: specialness. We want to be set apart from everyone else; to be remembered as important and live a life beyond the life we're living now, and I think Isaac, in part, taught us to want that specialness. But plagues can teach us something, too.
Plagues teach us that we’re all the same. Viruses don’t care who you are or how you think. They don’t spare the polymaths or the presidents, and they might not even spare the people we love. The Great Plague helps to frame the world of the play, and this play helps to frame the moment we’ve just left: a world reopening after a serious brush with death. As we watch Isaac prepare to embark on his illustrious career, let’s put ourselves in 2021, and remember what it felt like to be so cooped up inside. Let’s watch where Isaac’s ambition takes him. Let’s listen for what he wants to see. And let’s imagine how his choices came to shape the way we look at the world. I’d be interested in what we might find.
I also want to acknowledge the tireless work of everyone in this production, including my assistant director, Hannah Adrian. Her guidance, taste, and vision elevated our work immensely.
-Jack
About the playwright: Lucas Hnath’s plays include A Simulacrum, Dana H., The Thin Place, Hillary and Clinton, A Doll’s House, Part 2, Red Speedo, The Christians, A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney, Isaac’s Eye, and Death Tax. He has been produced on Broadway at the John Golden and Lyceum Theatres; Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, The Vineyard, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, and Ensemble Studio Theatre; and premiered work regionally at the Goodman, Center Theatre Group, Humana Festival of New Plays, Victory Gardens, and South Coast Repertory. He is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, and an alumnus of New Dramatists.
Awards: Whiting Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Kesselring Prize, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, Obie Award for Playwriting, Steinberg Playwright Award, Windham-Campbell Literary Prize, Lucille Lortel Award, and a Tony Nomination for Best Play.
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Reagan Tankersley (Isaac Newton, Lighting Designer)
Reagan Tankersley is a performer, voice actor, teaching artist, and six-year resident of Astoria, Queens. Most recently, he's toured with with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (Romeo + Juliet, Capulet/Friar Lawrence), and can be heard as the narrator for the complete Harley Cole Mystery Series from Lukeman Literary, available anywhere you get your audiobooks.
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Isto Barton (Robert Hooke)
Isto was a company member of Austin’s Shakespeare at Winedale (Hamlet, MacBeth, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Henry VI 1-3) and Sh*tfaced Shakespeare (Midsummer, Much Ado) repertories.
He does art exploring community, international folk tales, and the tarot at (@storytimewithisto).
Last year he played The Madame in The Garret’s inaugural production at the Greek Cultural Center. What a whirlwind.
IG: @istofacto
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Kasey O'Brien (Catherine)
Kasey O’Brien’s selected Chicago credits include: Much Ado About Nothing(Beatrice), Macbeth (2nd Witch), Summer and Smoke (Alma), That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play (Valerie), The Hyacinth Macaw(Susannah), and an all-female stage adaptation of Reservoir Dogs(White).
Selected New York credits include Balm in Gilead (Ann), Cowboy Mouth (Cavale), Titus Andronicus (Marcus/Demetrius) and The Maids (Solange) here at The Garret. Film credits include: Jim Shoe, Paranoia, Clean, and The Mockingbird. Kasey is also an award-winning filmmaker whose short films Secret Service and The Pageant have played in festivals around the world. She currently serves as the Programming and Outreach Coordinator for PANO. MFA from The New School. Keep art live and local!
https://www.kaseyobriennyc.com/
IG: @kaseyobs
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Jack Dryden* (Actor/Dying Man Named Sam, Director)
Jack is a director and actor from Saint Louis, Missouri. Previous directing work: The Maids (The Garret Theatre/The Greek Cultural Center), The Turn of the Screw (Brown/Trinity Rep, AS220), Red (Encore Theatre Group), and I Wrote You a Play Called I Love You (Public House Theater). Favorite acting roles include Algernon (Importance of Being Earnest), George (Our Town), Mozart (Amadeus), Slim (Cowboy Mouth), Prior Walter (Angels in America), and Duke Orsino (Twelfth Night).
MFA: Brown/Trinity Rep.
*This actor is appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association.
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Hannah Adrian (Assistant Director)
Credits: Oliver; Balm in Gilead; 10,000 Moore (The New School); Young Gods (Performing Garage); Hamlet (Present Company Theater); Macbeth (The Offshoot); Henry IV Pt. 1; Two Gentlemen of Verona (Something for Nothing); Mr. Marmalade (The Broccoli Project); Dead Man’s Cell Phone; Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet (Foot in the Door). TV: American Dynasty (Fox)
IG: @hannahadrian
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Annie Sheehy (Stage Manger)
Annie is a Manhattan-based stage manager originally from Lexington, KY.
Previous credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Christmas Story, and Machinal. This is her first production with The Garret and if she does her job well — much like ether — you won’t see her. :)
IG: @a_sheehy98
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Chelsea Bunn (Costume Designer)
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Demetre Beryeles (Carpenter)
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Amanda Perry (Design Consultant)
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Danielle Gonzalez (Poster Design)
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Noreen Nelson (Co-Producer)
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David Fisher (Legal Counsel)
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Maysie Ocera (Hype Person)
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Special thanks to Jessie Douglas, Sub/Urban Photography and She Collective.
More info here! We hope to see you there!
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Alba Quezada, Alex Huckabee, Andrew Eaton & Carly Boerrigter, Beth McIntosh & Cleary Eckelman, Christina Hawley, Bill Munson & Nancy Oja, Breegan Harper, Brett Cunningham, Cece White, Cecilia Curran, Charlotte Hockens, Chris Chartrand, Christopher Lew, Christopher Mueller, David Trabka, Elizabeth Perez, Frank Pullen, George N Xerakias, James W. Graham & Linda Kingman, Jean & Jim Barton, Jerrod Jordahl, Jillian Crackett & Kevin Davey, Jim Santel, Jim Schneider & Bob Douglas, Joe Deegan & Jessica Gingold, Joseph Martin, Jorge Gomez, Joshua Bradley, Justin Chung, Kate Donaghue, Kathie O'Brien, Kathryn Whitaker, Kelly Revenaugh, Kelsi Tyler, Kristin Stilwell, Lauren Jacobsen, Linden & Scott Kelder, Lisa Bordelon, Liz Pitofsky, Louis McWilliams, Matthew & Elizabeth Deegan, Maxine Lain, Michael Deegan, Michael Spara, Michelle Vedder, Nick Fandos, Nick Rogers & Jessica Wolvington, Noah Brody, Parker Muir, Peter Mark Kendall, Robert Carey, Robert Johnson, Rosemary Mumford, Ryan Linkul, Sam Leverenz, Samantha Blain, Sarah Swanson, Sean Magil, Stephanie & Adam Ridley, Steve & Kelsey Karson, Stephen Price, Ted Lowitz, Tom & Deb Barton, Timothy McErlean, Trent Going, Virginia Westmoreland & James Dryden, Will Suggs.
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Actors' Equity Association (AEA), founded in 1913, represents more than 50,000 actors and stage managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO, and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. The Equity emblem is our mark of excellence.
