Teenage Dick |
February 3 — February 27A brilliantly hilarious take on Richard III, Shakespeare’s classic tale of power lust, Teenage Dick reimagines the most famous disabled character of all time as a 16-year-old outsider in the deepest winter of his discontent: his junior year at Roseland High. Bullied for his cerebral palsy, Richard plots his revenge — as well as his glorious path to senior class presidency. This sharp-witted production is at once everything you’d imagine and nothing you’d expect.
Buckle up.
“Moving, exciting, and profoundly eye-opening.”
Cast
Shannon DeVido
Barbara "Buck" Buckingham
Shannon is an award winning actress, comedian, and writer. The BAFTA Breakthrough actress is best known for her roles in TV/Film: Difficult People, Bridesman, Best Summer Ever, Insatiable, The Other Two, Pew! Pew! Pew!, Delco Proper, Manifest, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, and Sesame Street. Off Broadway: Teenage Dick (The Public Theater), The Healing (Theater Row). Shannon has also acquired a dedicated following on her disability-focused comedy YouTube channel Stare at Shannon.
Louis Reyes McWilliams
Eddie Ivy
Louis is an actor and writer. He has appeared Off-Broadway in Coriolanus (The Public Theater), Anna Karenina: a riff (The Flea Theater/Notch Theatre Company), and The War Boys (Columbia Stages). His regional credits include Teenage Dick (Huntington Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company), Little Women (Dallas Theater Center, The Old Globe), No Cure (Playwrights’ Center), A Christmas Carol and An Iliad (Trinity Rep), Prowess (Pyramid Theatre Company, Cloris Leachman Award), Unknown Soldier (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Macbeth (Berkeley Repertory Theatre). Film/TV: Acquiescence, Fractal. His writing has been produced and workshopped at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Brown/Trinity Rep, and Stanford University. B.A.: Stanford University. M.F.A: Brown University/Trinity Rep (Richard Kavanaugh Fellow)
Gregg Mozgala
Richard Gloucester
Gregg is thrilled to be making his Pasadena Playhouse premier. He has been in various productions with The Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Theater Breaking Through Barriers, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and The Kennedy Center. He received a Lucille Lortel Award (Best Featured Actor) for his work in the Pulitzer Prize winning play, Cost Of Living by Martyna Majok. He was nominated for a Drama League Distinguished Performance Award for the role of “Richard” in Teenage Dick by Michael Lew. Mr. Mozgala was honored as a “Champion Of Change” by The New York City Mayor’s Office For People With Disabilities in 2017, and named a Kennedy Citizen Artist Fellow by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2016. Gregg is the founder and Artistic Director of The Apothetae, a theater company dedicated to the production of works that explore and illuminate the, “Disabled Experience.” He is currently the Director of Inclusion at Queens Theatre.
Portland Thomas
Clarissa Duke
Portland is thrilled to be working with Pasadena Playhouse! New York credits include: The Blacks: Reading (Roundabout Theatre Company), Seize the King and Fit for a Queen (Classical Theatre of Harlem). Regional: Hamlet & St. Joan (BEDLAM/ McCarter Theatre), The Wolves (Marin Theatre Company), The Syringa Tree (Creede Repertory Theatre) Film: Fernanda (Sundance Institute). BFA: NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Matthew 7:7
Emily Townley
Elizabeth York
Emily is a Company Member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC, where previous credits include Taylor Mac’s HIR, The Arsonists, The Totalitarians (Helen Hayes Award nomination, Outstanding Lead Actress), Detroit, Bright New Boise, Maria/Stuart, The House of Gold, Spain, Fuddy Meers, Wonder of the World, and Watbanaland. Other select DC credits include: The Amateurs, Comedy of Tenors, and Bad Dog for Olney Theatre Center; How I Learned To Drive and The Sisterhood for Round House Theatre; Twelfth Night (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Play) and Romeo and Juliet for the Shakespeare Theatre Company; The Mystery of Love and Sex, Signature Theatre; Between Riverside and Crazy, Laugh, Skintight, Rock N’ Roll, The Bright and Bold Design for Studio Theatre; Select Regional credits include, for Gulfshore Playhouse, The Game’s Afoot and All My Sons, and Teenage Dick for the Huntington Theatre.
Zurin Villanueva
Anne Margaret
Zurin is originally from Brooklyn, NY. Broadway: The Lion King, Mean Girls, Shuffle Along, The Book of Mormon. Regional credits: Ruined (Everyman Theatre), Ragtime (Barrington Stage Company), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Crossroads Theatre Company), Million Dollar Quartet (Pittsburgh CLO). TV/Film: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Insatiable, and Detroit. Education: proud graduate of Howard University (BFA) and the Laguardia High School for the Performing Arts Drama program.
Creative Team
Mike Lew (Playwright)
Mike Lew’s plays include Teenage Dick (Donmar Warehouse, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Ma-Yi Theater Company at the Public Theater, and Artists Repertory Theatre productions; Public Studio, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival workshops), Tiger Style! (Olney Theatre Center, Huntington Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, and Alliance Theatre productions; The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and Center Theatre Group workshops), Bike America (Ma-Yi Theater Company and Alliance Theatre productions), microcrisis (Ma-Yi Theater Company, InterAct Theatre Company, and Next Act productions), and Moustache Guys, and the book to the musical Bhangin’ It (Kleban and Richard Rodgers Awards; upcoming La Jolla Playhouse and McCarter Theater co-production, Jerome Robbins Project Springboard and Rhinebeck Writers Retreat “Triple R” workshops). He is a Tony voter, Dramatists Guild Council member, and a resident of New Dramatists. Lew’s honors include a Mellon National Playwrights Residency at Ma-Yi Theater Company and La Jolla Playhouse Artist-in-Residence, both with Rehana Lew Mirza; Lark Venturous and NYFA fellowships; and the PEN Emerging Playwright, Lanford Wilson, Helen Merrill, Heideman, and Kendeda awards. Education: Juilliard, Yale.
mikelew.com
Moritz von Stuelpnagel (Director)
Broadway: Theresa Rebeck’s Bernhardt/Hamlet starring Janet McTeer (Roundabout Theatre Company), Noël Coward’s Present Laughter starring Kevin Kline (three Tony nominations including Best Revival), Robert Askins’ Hand to God (five Tony nominations including Best Play and Best Director). West End: Hand to God (Olivier nomination). Off-Broadway: Theresa Rebeck’s Seared starring Raul Esparza (MCC Theater), Larissa Fasthorse’s The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons), Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick (Ma-Yi Theater Company/Public Theater), Nick Jones’ Important Hats of the Twentieth Century (Manhattan Theatre Club), Nick Jones’ Verité (Lincoln Center Theatre/LCT3), Mike Lew’s Bike America (Ma-Yi Theater Company), Nick Jones’ Trevor (Lesser America), Robert Askins’ Love Song of the Albanian Sous Chef (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Mel & El (Ars Nova), Michael Mitnick’s Spacebar (Studio 42), and Adam Szymkowicz’s My Base and Scurvy Heart (Studio 42). Regional: Williamstown Theatre Festival, Huntington Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and more. Moritz is the former artistic director of Studio 42, NYC’s producer of “unproducible” plays.
moritzvs.com
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Co-Producing Theater
Woolly Mammoth is “the hottest theater company in town” (Washington Post); priding itself on developing, producing, and making theater that disrupts conventional processes and stimulates transformative experiences. For almost four decades, Woolly has held a unique position at the leading edge of the American theater, earning a reputation for staying “uniquely plugged in to the mad temper of the times” (New York Times). The co-leadership of Maria Manuela Goyanes (Artistic Director) and Emika Abe (Managing Director) is supported by a core company of artists that holds itself to a high standard of artistic excellence. Woolly is relentless in its desire to take risks, experiment, innovate, interrogate, and create a radically inclusive community. Located in Washington, D.C., Woolly Mammoth stands upon occupied, unceded territory: the ancestral homeland of the Nacotchtank whose descendants belong to the Piscataway peoples.
Huntington Theatre Company
Co-Producing Theater
Celebrating our 40th season, The Huntington is Boston’s theatrical commons and leading professional theater company. On our stages and throughout our city, we share enduring and untold stories that spark the imagination of audiences and artists and amplify the wide range of voices in our community. Committed to welcoming broad and diverse audiences, The Huntington provides life-changing opportunities for students through its robust education and community programs, is a national leader in the development of playwrights and new plays, and serves the local arts community through its operation of The Huntington Calderwood/BCA. Under the leadership of Managing Director Michael Maso, The Huntington is currently conducting a transformational renovation of the historic Huntington Theatre, a storied venue with a bold vision for the future, which will allow us to innovatively expand our services to audiences, artists, and the community for generations to come. For more information, visit huntingtontheatre.org.