Joy and Pandemic
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A play by Taylor Mac
Directed by Loretta Greco
The Huntington
@ Calderwood/BCA
527 Tremont St. Boston, MA 02116
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Approximate run time: 1 hour, 55 minutes with one intermission.
Show Synopsis:
Joy and Pandemic questions how our passions regarding family, art, and war impact the very meaning of our lives. As Joy finds her Philadelphia children’s art school at risk in a burgeoning public health crisis, she hopes to keep her dream of the school alive. When her unyielding faith runs up against another mother’s beliefs, an afternoon in the early 20th century transforms the world for both of their daughters for decades to come. With infinite humor and insight, MacArthur Fellow Taylor Mac and The Huntington’s artistic director Loretta Greco explore the complex and ever-evolving relationships between science and faith, art and tradition, parents and children, and choice and consequence.
Cast & Crew:
Ella Dershowitz
Young Pilly
Ella Dershowitz
Ella Dershowitz Off Broadway: Can You Forgive Her? (Vineyard Theatre), Intimacy (The New Group), Card and Gift (Clubbed Thumb), Connected (59E59), On the Verge (Attic Theater), Three Musketeers 1941 (Project Y), A Splintered Soul (Theater Three).
Breezy Leigh
Melanie / Marjory
Breezy Leigh
Breezy Leigh Off Broadway: Le Blanc (People’s Improv Theater); A Sketch of New York (The Producers’ Club Theater). Regional: Superstitions (OKC Rep); Oedipus Rex/ Symphony of Psalms (SF Symphony); Animals Out of Paper (Chautauqua Theater Company).
Stacy Fischer
Joy / Pilly
Stacy Fischer
Stacy Fischer The Huntington: Common Ground Revisited, Our Town, A Month in the Country. Regional: The Pink Unicorn, Necessary Monsters (SpeakEasy Stage); Photograph 51 and Hysteria (Central Square Theater); Frozen, Three Sisters (Harbor Stage Company). Also, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Gloucester Stage, Greater Boston Stage Company, Lyric Stage, New Repertory Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, and WHAT.
Marceline Hugot
Rosemary
Marceline Hugot
Marceline Hugot Broadway: Prelude to a Kiss. Off Broadway: Marys Seacole, Measure for Measure (Lincoln Center); Christina Alberta’s Father (Vineyard Theatre); Cider House Rules (Atlantic Theatre). Regional: A Moon for the Misbegotten (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville); Pride’s Crossing (Old Globe); Lake Hollywood (Guthrie Theatre). Also, McCarter Theatre, Berkeley Rep, LaJolla Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, and Cape Playhouse.
Ryan Winkles
Bradford
Ryan Winkles
Ryan Winkles Regional: Universe Rushing Apart (Commonwealth Shakespeare); Mr Fullerton Between the Sheets (Gloucester Stage); Breakwater (Great Barrington Public Theater); Visitors (Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse); Pericles (the rig); ROE (WAM Theater).
Rebecca Whitney Klein
U/S Young Pilly
Rebecca Whitney Klein
Rebecca Whitney Klein Off Broadway: Woman on Fire (Royal Family Productions). Regional: Brundibar (Central Square Theatre); Br’er Cotton, Buried Deep (Endstation Theatre Company). University: Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (JMU). Education: James Madison University. Signed with UGA Talent, Rebecca is a Brooklyn- and Boston-based actor/singer/creator. IG: @rebeccawhitneyklein
Alexander Platt
U/S Bradford
Alexander Platt
Alexander Platt Regional: Stage Kiss, Chinglish (Lyric Stage Company); Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, True West (Gloucester Stage); Miss Holmes, Miss Holmes Returns, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Neville’s Island (Greater Boston Stage Company); Hamlet (Actor’s Shakespeare Project); Cloud 9, Arcadia, Insignificance (Central Square Theatre); Macbeth (The Hanover Theatre Rep); Macbeth, Social Creatures, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Trinity Rep); Assassins, Hedda Gabler, Far Away, Festen, Paul, Don Carlos (Gamm Theatre).
Marina Re
U/S Rosemary
Marina Re
Marina Re The Huntington: Saturday Sunday Monday. Off Broadway: LaMama, NY Classical, Bleecker Street, Flea, Abington, Lion on Theatre Row, HB Playwrights Theatre. Regional: Two River Theatre, Riverside Theatre, Centre Stage, Florida Studio Theatre, Gulfshore Playhouse, Merrimack Rep, Connecticut Rep, National Theatre of the Deaf National Tour, Peterborough Players, Charles Playhouse, Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, Public Theatre of Maine, Coachella Valley Rep, Gloucester Stage, Lyric Stage of Boston, Shadowland Stage, Seven Angels Theatre.
Thomika Bridwell
U/S Melanie / Marjory
Thomika Bridwell
Thomika Bridwell Front Porch Arts Collective and The Huntington: K-I-S-S-I-N-G. The Front Porch Arts Collective: Chicken and Biscuits. Regional: A Christmas Carol (Hanover Theater), BLKS (SpeakEasy Stage), A Midsummers Night Dream (Boston Theater Company), Miss You Like Hell (Company One/ART), Coriolanus and For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf (Praxis Stage). IG: @QueenRegnant77 FB: ThomikaBridwell
Becca A. Lewis
U/S Joy / Pilly
Becca A. Lewis
Becca A. Lewis The Huntington: Dream Boston, Lizzie Stranton, Breaking Ground Festival. Regional: The Women Who Mapped the Stars (Nora, Central Square); Charlotte’s Web (Wheelock); Broken, The Book Club Play (Boston Playwrights’); Voyeurs de Venus, GRIMM, Splendor, Revolt. She said. Revolt again. (Company One); Greater Good (Company One / ART), Cry it Out, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, Three Sisters, Detroit, The Seagull, Proof (Apollinaire); Cato & Dolly (Bostonian Society/Plays in Place); The Pineapple Project (Queer Soup).
Taylor Mac
Playwright
Taylor Mac
Taylor Mac is a MacArthur Fellow, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a Tony nominee (for Best Play), and the recipient of the Kennedy Prize (with Matt Ray), the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim, a Drama League Award, a NY Drama Critics Circle Award, two Obie’s, two Bessies, and the first American to receive the International Ibsen Award.
Loretta Greco
Director
Lyndsay Allyn Cox
Associate Director
Lyndsay Allyn Cox
Lyndsay Allyn Cox The Huntington (acting): Common Ground Revisited; Our Daughters, Like Pillars; Witch. Regional (directing): Chicken and Biscuits (Front Porch Arts Collective); Tiny Beautiful Things (Gloucester Stage); Splash Hatch on the E Going Down (The Nora Theatre Company). Regional (acting): Fairview, Men on Boats (SpeakEasy Stage); Fabulation (or the Re-Education of Undine), Barbecue, By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lyric Stage Company); Bright Half Life (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); The Three Musketeers (Greater Boston Stage Company); Winter People (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); Caroline, Or Change (Moonbox Productions); The Overwhelming, Leftovers (Company One).
Shirley Fishman
Dramaturg
Shirley Fishman
Shirley Fishman As Associate Artistic Director, Director of New Play Development at La Jolla Playhouse and Dramaturg, Shirley has worked with playwrights and directors on new plays and musicals (including Tony Award-winning Come from Away and Indecent), the annual POP Tour that brings new plays to San Diego County elementary schools, and workshops and readings of projects in development for the DNA new work series and beyond.
Frances Hellums
Assistant Director
Frances Hellums
Frances Hellums Regional (acting): The Tempest (Theater in the Open); And Your Little Dog Too (Apollinaire Theatre).
Arnulfo Maldonado
Set Designer
Arnulfo Maldonado
Arnulfo Maldonado Broadway: A Strange Loop (Tony Nominee); Topdog/Underdog, Trouble in Mind. Off Broadway: Shhhh (Atlantic Theatre Company); The Coast Starlight (Lincoln Center Theater); Nollywood Dreams, School Girls… (MCC); The New Englanders, Sugar in Our Wounds [Lucille Lortel Award] (MTC); Dance Nation, Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons); To My Girls (Second Stage); A Case for the Existence of God, Fires in the Mirror, My Broken Language (Signature Theatre).
Sarita Fellows
Costume Designer
Sarita Fellows
Sarita Fellows Sarita Fellows wasborn in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The Huntington: Our Daughters Like Pillars. Broadway: Death of a Salesman. Off Broadway: Elyria (Atlantic Theater Company); A Bright Room Called Day (Public Theater).
Rachel Padula-Shufelt
Wig and Hair Designer
Rachel Padula-Shufelt
Rachel Padula-Shufelt The Huntington: The Colored Museum. Broadway: Glass Menagerie, Waitress. Regional: Life of Pi, Macbeth in Stride, Moby Dick (Elliot Norton Award winner- Best Design), Black Clown, Waitress, Fingersmith (Elliot Norton Award winner- Best Design), Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Elliot Norton award winner- Best Design), Marie Antoinette, and Crossing (ART). Rachel is the hair and makeup supervisor for Boston Ballet and the resident hair and wig designer for North Shore Music Theatre.
Jen Schriever
Lighting Designer
Jen Schriever
Jen Schriever The Huntington: Hurricane Diane. Broadway: A Strange Loop(Tony Nomination); Death of a Salesman; 1776; Birthday Candles; Lackawanna Blues; Grand Horizons; What the Constitution Means to Me (also on Amazon); The Lifespan of a Fact; Eclipsed; John Leguizamo’s Ghetto Klown. Off Broadway:White Girl in Danger (2ST/Vineyard); To My Girls, SuperHero (2ST); Shhhh(Atlantic); A Bright New Boise, My Broken Language, Thom Pain, Night is a Room (Signature); Strange Interlude (Transport Group); The Moors (Playwrights Realm).
Fan Zhang
Sound Designer and Composer
Fan Zhang
Fan Zhang Off Broadway: The Far Country, Paris (Atlantic); At the Wedding (Lincoln Center); This Land Was Made (Vineyard); Snow in Midsummer (Classic Stage); Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (Second Stage & WP); Pumpgirl (Irish Rep); Suicide Forest (Ma-Yi); Molly Sweeney (Theatre Row); Behind the Sheet (Ensemble Studio); The Trail of the Catonsville Nine (Transport Group); On That Day in Amsterdam (59 E59).
Rebecca Schneebaum
Voice Coach
Rebecca Schneebaum
Rebecca Schneebaum The Huntington: K-I-S-S-I-N-G (co-production with Front Porch Arts Collective), Clyde’s, The Niceties. Regional: Angels in America (Central Square Theater/Bedlam); Photograph 51 (Central Square Theater/Nora Theater); Bud Not Buddy (Wheelock Family Theater); A Christmas Carol (Hartford Stage); Richard II, Edward II, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night (Actor’s Shakespeare Project).
Kevin Schlagle
Production Stage Manager
Kevin Schlagle
Kevin Schlagle* has worked on over 40 productions in 14 seasons with The Huntington including K-I-S-S-I-N-G; Our Daughters, Like Pillars; Witch; The Purists; Yerma; Sherlock’s Last Case; Merrily We Roll Along; Ripcord; Topdog/Underdog; Sunday in the Park with George; Milk Like Sugar; A Confederacy of Dunces; A Little Night Music; Come Back, Little Sheba; Smart People; Our Town, and Prelude to a Kiss. Other theatre credits include American Repertory Theater, New Repertory Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. His opera credits include Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Baroque, Boston Opera Collaborative, Guerilla Opera, New England Conservatory, Boston University Opera Institute, and Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. He holds a BFA in stage management from Boston University and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity.
Ashley Pitchford
Stage Manager
Ashley Pitchford
Ashley Pitchford The Huntington: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone; Our Daughters, Like Pillars; Teenage Dick; Witch; We All Fall Down; Man in the Ring.
Sondra R. Katz
General Manager
Sondra R. Katz
Sondra R. Katz (General Manager) is in her nineteenth season at the Huntington. She has worked on Broadway, Off Broadway, and regionally as a stage manager, company manager, production manager and general manager.
Rosalind Bevan
Casting
Rosalind Bevan
Rosalind Bevan is the Casting & Producing Associate at The Huntington, and she is a producer and director. The Huntington: Assistant Director of Witch; Director for two Dream Boston audio plays: Echoes by Patrick Gabridge and The 54th in ‘22 by Kirsten Greenidge.
Additional Staff for Joy and Pandemic
Associate Director ……………………Lyndsay Allyn Cox
Assistant Director ………………………Frances Hellums
Voice Coach………………………..Rebecca Schneebaum
Movement Consultant………………………Ryan Winkles
Associate Sound Designer……………………Tyler Berg
Production Assistants……………………Winnie Chiang, Hannah Marks, Bethany Rachel
Carpenters…………………William Stanley, Amy West, Hannah Ashe, Joe Ellard, Julia Wonka, Steven Asaro
Scenic Artists………..Sam Galvao, Saskia Martinez
Props Artisan…………Ian Thorsell, Steven Doucette
Props Run……………………………………..Corey Roberts
First Costumer………………………………..Becca Jewitt
Stitcher…………………………..Ana-Ayanna Escalante, Maegan Pate
Wardrobe………………………………………….Zoë Sundra
Wardrobe Swing……………………………Jennie Fuchs
Wig Run…………………………………………..Lia Maynard
Season Electrician………………………..Anna Brevetti
Electricians…………………………………..Kevin Barnett, Violet Gayzagian, Gabe Karr, Callie Moos, Cameron Parsons Muniz, Dylan Norris, Eliott Purcell
Audio Run (A2)………………………….Lexie Lankiewicz
Brighter Boston Interns………………..Dillon Brooks, Nicolas Nolasco
COVID SAFETY POLICY FOR JOY & PANDEMIC
Masks are encouraged but are no longer required for any performances.
Anyone who feels uncomfortable can ask the House Manager about alternative options which may include:
- a better quality mask
- a new seat further distanced from other patrons
- re-scheduling for a different performance
- a shift to the at-home Digital Streaming option, when applicable
Any patron interested in attending a different performance will be able to exchange their tickets by contacting our ticketing services staff.
IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING ANY COVID SYMPTOMS, STAY HOME.
If on the day of your performance, you are experiencing any COVID symptoms, please reach out to the box office to easily exchange to a different performance or to the at-home Digital Streaming option.
Please contact Ticketing Services at 617-266-0800 or tickets@huntingtontheatre.org for more information about exchanges and contact covidsafety@huntingtontheatre.org with any questions or concerns.
