to view the The Balcony program as a PDF file

March 28 - 31, April 4 - 7, 2002
Trueblood Theatre
UM School of Music
Department of Theatre and Drama
The University of Michigan
Department of Theatre and Drama
presents
The Balcony
by Jean Genet
translated by Bernard Frechtman
Director
Scenic/Lighting Designer
Costume Designer
Dramaturg
Stage Manager
Mbala Nkanga
Gary Decker
Jessica Gorchow
D. Ross
Alix Malloy
Setting:
A brothel.
There will be one intermission.
The Balcony is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
Latecomers will be seated at a suitable break or scene change. As a courtesy to others,
please set pagers to silent mode. Cellular phones should be deactivated. Please
deactivate your electronic watch alarm so it will not interrupt the performance.
Special thanks to the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies for their assistance.
This production is entered in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KC/
ACTF). The aims of this national theater education program are to identify and promote quality
in college-level theater productions. To this end, each production entered is eligible for a response
by a regional KC/ACTF representative, and certain students are selected to participate in KC/
ACTF programs involving awards, scholarships, and special grants for actors, playwrights,
designers, and critics at both the regional and national levels.
Cast of Characters (in order of appearance)
The Bishop ...........................................................................Kevin Bradley, Jr.
Irma ..................................................................................... Sandra Abrevaya
The Woman (Penitent) .......................................................... Anathea Alberda
The Thief.......................................................................... Maureen Sebastian
The Judge .................................................................................... Jason Smith
The Executioner/Arthur ................................................................ Dan Granke
The General ................................................................................. Brad Fraizer
The Girl .................................................................................... Joanna Fetter
Carmen .................................................................................... Meghan Powe
The Chief of Police ..................................................................... Brian Luskey
Chantal ................................................................................... Joanna Spanos
Roger ................................................................................... Joshua Lefkowitz
Rebel/The First Photographer ................................................... Lauren Roberts
Rebel/The Second Photographer ....................................................... Sean Ward
Rebel/The Third Photographer ................................................. Ashley Michael
The Court Envoy .......................................................................... David Jones
The Slave ............................................................................... Jonathan Rosen
From the Director
Seventeen young actors are gathered tonight on this Trueblood Stage to perform
Jean Genet’s The Balcony. This is a challenge. And it has been one throughout the
staging process of this “mythology of the whorehouse.” Genet wrote a mythology in
which abstraction of reality became the leit-motiv of his artistic creation. The plot, the
characters, the space, time, everything is an abstraction in this play. The abstraction
attains the point of confusion, of bewilderment, and of embarrassment. The kind of
embarrassment and uneasiness, but also the kind of self-enjoyment one feels when
facing their own image reflected by the mirror. It can be an enormous mirror. It can
also be a distorted mirror that reflects a twisted, deformed, and why not, tainted image
of the individual.
This situation becomes more confusing when power and sex get involved with the
mirror of a brothel. Thus, the individua1 character loses its individuality to encompass
that of the others, those we dream of all the time of becoming. Sex... power ...
domination... possession... The individual, the actor for the matter, becomes possessed
by those wandering spirits of vice and virtue. The mirror... the mirror... always the
mirror reflects that change of status. Who are we? Who are they? This mythology poses
the issue of our identity as a question of being or doing, and as a mode of existence or
a function to fulfill.
About Jean Genet
“Among other things, the goal of the theatre is to take us outside the
limits of what is generally referred to as “historical time.”
- Jean Genet, “Reflections on the Theatre”
JEAN GENET was born in Paris in 1910 to an unwed mother who
abandoned him at the age of eight months. Placed in the care of a
foster family, Genet attended primary school with high grades and
there committed his first petty thefts. At 19, he enlisted in the
army to escape his assignment as a farmhand and was sent to Syria
- his first contact with the Arab world, to which he remained loyal
throughout his life. A later enlistment would place him in the
Algerian war, and he traveled numerous times to the Middle East
and Africa until his death in 1986. It was his habitual thieving,
however, which landed him in prison several times, and which in 1948 inspired a
group of French artists and intellectuals led by Jean-Paul Sartre to petition for a definitive
pardon on his behalf. They succeeded
The Balcony, written in 1955, holds true to Genet’s idea of exceeding the limits of
“historical time.” Its shapes and characters are drawn from the Spanish Civil War, the
Algerian conflict, the French Revolution, Ghanaian spirit possession rituals, Genet’s
own experiences as a gay prostitute, and the timeless dynamic between power and
sexuality. The ever deepening levels of illusion constructed in these studios not only
echo an array of historical moments but suggest that they are linked through the human
sense of fantasy.
- D. Ross, Dramaturg
About the Cast
SANDRA ABREVAYA (Irma) senior, BFA Perf./BA English, Chicago, IL
ANATHEA ALBERDA (The Woman (Penitent)) senior, BFA Perf., Gladwin, MI
KEVIN BRADLEY JR. (The Bishop) sophomore, BFA Perf./BA Communication Studies,
Southfield, MI
JOANNA FETTER (The Girl) first-year, BFA Perf./BA English, Highland Park, IL
BRAD FRAIZER (The General) sophomore, BFA Perf., Saginaw, MI
DAN GRANKE (The Executioner/Arthur) junior, BFA Performance, Ann Arbor, MI
DAVID JONES (The Court Envoy) junior, BFA Perf., Beverly Hills, MI
JOSHUA LEFKOWITZ (Roger) junior, BFA Perf., West Bloomfield, MI
BRIAN LUSKEY (The Police Chief) junior, BFA Perf., Saratoga, CA
ASHLEY MICHAEL (The Third Photographer) sophomore, BFA Perf., Louisville, KY
MEGHAN POWE (Carmen) sophomore, BFA Perf., Mount Clemens, MI
LAUREN ROBERTS (The First Photographer) first-year, BFA Perf., Port Huron, MI
JONATHAN ROSEN (The Slave) junior, BFA Perf., Los Angeles, CA
About the Cast (con’t)
MAUREEN SEBASTIAN (The Thief) first-year, BFA Perf., Novi, MI
JASON SMITH (The Judge) junior, BFA Perf., Cadillac, MI
JOANNA SPANOS (Chantal) sophomore, BFA Perf., Bloomfield Hills, MI
SEAN WARD (The Second Photographer) sophomore, BFA Perf., Ann Arbor, MI
About the Artists
MBALA NKANGA (Director), a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a
visiting assistant professor in the Dept. of Theatre and Drama. Since 1979, he has
taught and headed the research center in performing arts and music (CEDAR) at
Institut National des Arts in Kinshasa (DRC). UM: Liyanja. International Theatre:
Bernard Dadié’s Béatrice du Congo, Wole Soyinka's A Dance of the Forests, Réné Kalisky's
Aïda Vaincue. Other Theatre: Diur Ntumb's Zaina, which he brought to the stage
and screen for Concours Théâtral Interafricain out of his work directing for Radio
France-Internationale. Awards: Fulbright scholar, Northwestern University's
Gwendolyn Carter Award for Academic Excellence. Other: PhD, Northwestern Univ.;
MA, Indiana Univ.; BA, Institut National des Arts.
GARY DECKER (Scenic/Lighting Designer) Asst. professor of design and production, Dept.
of Theatre & Drama. UM: The Secret Rapture, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Little Night
Music, The Magic Flute, Volpone, The Best People, The Marriage of Figaro, Grand Hotel.
Regional Theatre: Gem Theatre, Attic Theatre, Birmingham Theatre, Boarshead
Theatre, Purple Rose Theatre. Commercial: Scenery/exhibition display: AT&T, LincolnMercury, Buick, Oldsmobile. Interiors/commercial lighting: On Stage - A Restaurant and
The Elwood Grill, Detroit; The Fashion Cafe, NYC; The Arndale Centre, Manchester,
UK. Awards: Theatre Designer of the Year, Detroit News; International Illuminating
Engineering Society Design Awards.
JESSICA GORCHOW (Costume Designer) is a BFA theatre design and production major.
UM: Costume design assistant: The Tavern; makeup artist: The Tavern, The Grapes of
Wrath, The Secret Rapture, Lysistrata, The Daughter of the Regiment; makeup designer:
Into the Woods, Chicago, Evita, MUSKET; costume designer: The Nerd, Rude
Mechanicals. Regional Theatre: Costume design intern/design assistant, Williamstown
Theatre Festival. Community Theatre: Costume Director, Cranbrook Theatre School.
ALIX MALLOY (Stage Manager) is a BFA theatre design and production major focusing
on stage management. UM: Assistant stage manager: Good News!, The Heiress; stage
manager: Chicago, Evita, MUSKET. Regional Theatre: UM Festival of New Works,
assistant stage manager: Broadway Joe, Jingles in a Broken Tongue, Love Songs, Divided.
Staff for The Balcony
SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Dean ........................................................ Karen Wolff
DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND DRAMA
Chair (on leave) ................................. Erik Fredricksen
Interim Chair ........................... John Neville-Andrews
UNIVERSITY PRODUCTIONS
Director ................................................... Jeffrey Kuras
Administrative Associate .................... Fatima Abdullah
Office Assistant III .................................. Shelda Smith
Marketing Director ........................ Kerianne M. Tupac
Public Relations Director ......................... Joel Aalberts
Computer Administrator ................... Henry Reynolds
Facilities Manager .................................. Shannon Rice
House Manager .............................. Dianne Widzinski
Graphic Design ......................................... Bill Burgard
Banner Artist .......................................... Janine Wood
Office Assistants .......... Katie Banks, Katherine Gregg,
Kristen Hutchison, Jermaine Stephens, Justin Tanis
Theatre 386 .... Dara Frank, Michelle Jacobs, Ryan Steinman
PRODUCTION STAFF
Production Manager ....................... Amanda Mengden
Production Stage Manager ..................... Nancy Uffner
Technical Director (Frieze) ....... Richard W. Lindsay, Jr.
Technical Director (Power) ............... Douglas Edwards
Assoc. Tech. Director (Power) ....... Donald C. Watkins
Carpenter ........................................... Robert Michael
Scenic Artist ........................................ Kathleen Runey
Scenic Painter ....................................... Toni Y. Auletti
Properties Master ................................... Arthur Ridley
Asst. Properties Master .................... Bryan Huddleston
Interim Properties Artisan ............... Celibeth Donnelly
Master Electrician .............................. Mark Allen Berg
Costume Shop Manager ............................ Julie Marsh
Assoc. Costume Shop Manager .............. George Bacon
Draper ........................................... Virginia R. Luedke
Assoc. Draper ........................................ Lea Marzonie
Crafts Artisan/Stock Manager ......... Rebecca Valentino
Sound Engineer ................................. Henry Reynolds
House Technicians ............ Ron Cypert, Mark Gordon,
Jim Haven, Barry LaRue
Office Assistants ............. Molly Daunt, Kelly K. Irwin
PRODUCTION CREW
Assistant Stage Managers Anup Aurora, Erin Whipkey
Assistant Director ................................. Clark Johnson
Associate Prop Master ...................... Kendra McKenzie
Scenic Artist .......................................... Toni Y. Auletti
Scenery ..................... Bonnie Aumann, Justin Holmes,
Caleb Levengood, Jennifer Lohman, Katie Powell,
Megan Reinking, students of Theatre 250
Paint ...... Shanti Akkineni, Kate Armstrong-Blanchard,
Katie Conrad, Jessica Miller, Taran Muller, Connie Shea,
Jamie Treacy, Erin Whipkey, students of Theatre 250
Props ....... Anathea Alberda, Cecilia Anderson, Julie Brown,
Shannon McShane, Ed Morris, Marianna Reynolds,
Tara Siesner, Paul Wyatt, students of Theatre 250
Sound ................................................. Heather Bryant
Costumes ..................... Laurie Kantner, Matt Mitchell,
Monica Prince, Diane Tuel, Dottie Youells,
Anna Blackburn, Celibeth Donnelly, Leslie Henstock,
Heeyun Kim, Catherine Meyer, Taran Miller,
Mandy Richardville, students of Theatre 250
Lighting ... Ellen Katz‡, Anup Aurora, Christian Deangelis,
Andy Fritsch, Dan Granke, Mandy Heuermann,
Justin Hyatt, Ed Morris, Thom Omar, Monica Patel,
Andrew Russell, Michelle Sherry, Joel Silver,
Luor Shyuan Tan, Angela Zuck, students of Theatre 250
RUNNING CREW
Scenery/Props .................. SheBrei Brooks, Amy Duffy
Light Board Operator ............................... Phil Boileau
Sound .........................................................................
Wardrobe ............................................ Nathan Ciccolo,
Jennifer Friedel, Justin Holmes
‡ Member IATSE 395
A Love Story. A True Story. A Musical.
Book by Alfred Uhry • Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
UM School of Music Musical Theatre Department
April 11 – 13 at 8pm • April 14 at 2pm • Power Center
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