back to Mad Forest
MICHAEL DOVE* (Director) is the Artistic Director of Forum Theatre where he has produced 23 productions, garnering 9 Helen Hayes Award nominations. For Forum, Michael has directed Scorched, Angels in America (Perestroika), Amazons and Their Men (co-directed with Elissa Goetschius), dark play or stories for boys, Marat/Sade, Antigone, Valparaiso, Rockaby and Rough for Radio (for the DC Beckett Centenary Festival), The Memorandum, Hamletmachine, BECKETT: The Shorter Plays and the upcoming Church. His other credits include A View From the Bridge at Cape Fear Regional Theater; La Corbière at Solas Nua (co-directed with Linda Murray); Dated and The Relationship of Archibald and Amity for the Source Festival; Metamorphoses at Montgomery College; Snow Angel for the Imagination Stage Conservatory; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at Anthem Connection; and the upcoming productions of The Water Engine at Montgomery College and Side Man at 1st Stage. Michael is also a theatre educator, was a panelist at the University of Maryland on Samuel Beckett, and co-wrote an adaptation of The Fatal Marksman, which was produced at James Madison University. Michael is an Associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Many thanks and love to JB.
MARIA BENSON (Master Electrician, Light Board Operator) is thrilled to be part of her first Forum production. She is a recent graduate of Northwestern University where she designed
Selkie and Would, directed
Much Ado About Nothing and
Dead Man's Cell Phone, and acted in
4.48 Psychosis. She continues all three in DC, directing a reading of
Albert Nobbs at the Kennedy Center and assistant directing
The Importance of Being Earnest at Scena Theatre. She'd like to thank Kenny, her family, and all her friends, collaborators and educators at Northwestern. She hopes you are challenged, unsettled and provoked by this moving production.
www.MariaBenson.com.
PAUL FRYDRYCHOWSKI (Lighting Designer) is very glad to be back designing for Forum Theatre again after last season's bobrauschenbergamerica. His past designs with Forum, of which he is a Founding Member, include dark play or stories for boys, Antigone, Memorandum, All Things Seen, HamletMachine/The Gasheart, and Kid-Simple. When not here, Paul works as a freelance designer and technician internationally and domestically and is the Lighting Supervisor for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. Many thanks and congratulations to all involved in this project, and sincere thanks and admiration to everyone at Forum for their amazing work and dedication. For everyone who has ever been there, though they may not be able to be here.
HANNAH HESSEL (Dramaturg/Associate Director) is a proud company member of Forum Theatre. She has worked as the dramaturg on many shows with Forum including The Skriker, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, and Marat/Sade. She is the Audience Enrichment Manager at The Shakespeare Theatre and the former Literary Director at Theater J. She is on the board of the Association of Jewish Theater. She holds an MFA in dramaturgy from Columbia University.
PATTI KALIL (Props Designer) is a recent graduate of the Juilliard School professional internship program in stage properties and co-founder of Washington DC-based puppet troupe Pointless Theatre Company. Patti has been self-producing full-length children and adult experimental shows with her troupe for the past three years, providing the Baltimore/DC area with innovative and provocative puppetry and storytelling. Her DC credits include Please Liste - A Musical Chaos for the Capital Fringe 2009; (Winner "Pick of the Fringe: Best Musical”); Sleeping Beauty - a Puppet Ballet for the Capital Fringe 2010 (Winner “Best Experimental"); and Hugo Ball: A Super Spectacular Dada Adventure for the Capital Fringe 2011 (Winner "Best Experimental”). Her off-Broadway credits include The Invested. She holds a BA in theater set design/stage management from the University of Maryland.
FRANK LABOVITZ (Costume Designer) is excited to be working on his first production with Forum. His previous design credits include Mojo at The Studio Theatre 2nd Stage; Gruesome Playground Injuries and Fever/Dream at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Junie B. Jones: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells and Callisto 5 at Imagination Stage; Stop/Kiss at No Rules Theatre Company; This Storm Is What We Call Progress and A Bright Room Called Day at Rorschach Theatre Company; Something You Did and Sholom Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears at Theatre J; Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, The Importance of Being Ernest, and Dracula for The National Players. He received his MFA in design from The University of Maryland.
KAT LEE (Assistant Stage Manager) is happy to be working on her first show with Forum Theatre. Previously, Kat has assistant stage-managed The Green Bird and the recent remount of The Ramayana at Constellation Theatre Company. She is currently majoring in Musical Theatre at The Catholic University of America.
NATSU ONODA POWER (Scenic Designer) returns to Forum after designing bobrauschen-bergamerica. Favorite credits include Kafka’s Metamorphosis at Synetic Theatre; Romeo and Juliet at Chicago Shakespeare; and Loss of Breath at Theatre X (Milwaukee). She has written and directed a number of original productions with Live Action Cartoonists theater company, including SCIENCE (FICTION), Performance of Sleep, and are you my negative space? She will be returning to her comic geek roots with her new play, Astro Boy and the God of Comics in 2012 at the Studio Theatre 2ndStage, where she directed Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven in 2011. She is the author of God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post World War II Manga (The University Press of Mississippi, 2009).
VERONIKA VOREL (Sound Designer) is pleased to return to Forum after designing last season's bobrauschenbergamerica. Other sound design work includes Full Circle, Eclipsed and Fever/Dream at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Habit of Art at Studio Theatre; Photograph 51, The Odd Couple, Something You Did, and Mikveh at Theater J; Black Pearl Sings! at Ford’s Theatre; The Way of the World at the Shakespeare Theatre Company; Alice at Round House Theatre; Cyrano de Bergerac, Arcadia and Henry IV Part One at Folger Theatre, as well as plays for Kennedy Center's VSA program, Theatre Alliance, and the Hub. Regionally, she designed Xanadu, Cinderella, The Producers, and Anything Goes at the Kansas City Starlight Theatre; and Boleros For the Disenchanted at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Broadway credits include associate sound design for Master Class at Manhattan Theatre Club, and work on the sound design staff for West Side Story. Ms. Vorel received her training at the Prague Conservatory of Music, California Institute of the Arts, and the Yale School of Drama. She garnered three Helen Hayes Award nominations for her work in the 2009 season.
BEKAH WACHENFELD (Stage Manager) is thrilled to join the Forum Theatre team. Over the past year, she worked on the stage management team of Curtains, White Christmas, Amadeus, The 39 Steps, and Miss Saigon at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. Other credits include Les Misérables, The Light in the Piazza, Doubt, The Musical of Musicals..., and Stuart Little at the Weston Playhouse. Internationally, she has worked as a stage manager on The Time of Your Life, Cradle Me, and Follow at Finborough Theatre (London, UK). She received her BA in Theatre from James Madison University.; she has received national awards from The Kennedy Center and USITT. She is constantly amazed at the undying support and love of God and her family.
CLIFF WILLIAMS III (Fight Choreographer & Asst Director) is happy to be returning to Forum Theatre for another season. He has choreographed with Michael Dove on five previous shows:
Scorched, Angels In America: Part 2, Antigone, and
Marat/Sade at Forum and
A View from the Bridge at Cape Fear Regional Theatre; this is his first experience assistant directing with Michael. Cliff is a native Virginian and has been choreographing operas and plays for the last 12 years. Some of his other favorite credits include
A Delicate Balance and
Gem of the Ocean at Arena Stage;
Dracula and four of the 2006 Humana Festival plays; and
Dead Man's Cell Phone at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. His full resume can be seen at
www.CliffWilliamsIII.net.
* Member, Stage Directors & Choreographers Society
