New Repertory Theatremusic and lyrics by Sherman Edwards
book by Peter Stone
co-director Austin Pendleton
co-director Kelli Edwards
1776
America’s Prize Winning Musical
music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards
book by Peter Stone
based on a concept by Sherman Edwards
original production directed by Peter Hunt
originally produced on the Broadway Stage by Stuart Ostrow
In this Tony Award-winning musical, Massachusetts delegate John Adams must convince a divided Continental Congress to forge a new and independent nation. With help from his colleagues Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, Adams just might make history! Experience the story of the founding of the United States with this exciting, inclusive reimagining of this classic musical.
Running Time: 2 hours and 45 minutes, plus 15-minute intermission
Straight White Men | We Will Not Be Silent | 1776 | Cardboard Piano | Becoming Dr. Ruth
BLACKBOX PLAYS
RACHEL BELLEMAN will make her New Repertory Theatre debut with this production of 1776. Regional credits include Stuart Little (Wheelock Family Theatre), Broadway Jukebox (Brown Box Theatre Project), Antigone (Flat Earth Theatre), Exit the King (Actors’ Shakespeare Project), Bridges of Madison County (SpeakEasy Stage), and Love Labour’s Lost (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company). She will return to Boston this spring to play Feste in Twelfth Night with Actors’ Shakespeare Project. Belleman holds a BA in Musical Theatre from James Madison University, and is affiliated with EMC. Originally from Richmond, VA she now resides in New York City.
Nick Chieffo makes his New Repertory Theatre debut as a member of the 2018 – 2019 Classic Repertory Company tour. Nick is a recent graduate of Emerson College. He is most excited to share the transformative, unifying power of theatre with fellow humans and the like. Recent credits include: Cat’s Neck, West Side Story and Who Donut?
AIMEE DOHERTY returns to New Repertory Theatre after being seen as Snow Queen in The Snow Queen, Marry Me a Little, Maureen in Rent, Karen in Speed the Plow, Kathy in The Last Five Years, Sally in Cabaret, Susan in …tick, tick BOOM!, Evelyn Nesbit in Ragtime, and Cinderella in Into the Woods among others. Other recent credits include Rosalind in As You Like It (Shakespeare & Company), Sally Bowles in Cabaret (Moonbox Productions), Gussie in Merrily We Roll Along (Huntington Theatre Company), Illona in She Loves Me (Greater Boston Stage Company), and performing as a soloist with the Boston Pops under the baton of Keith Lockhart at Symphony Hall. Aimee is a two-time Elliot Norton Award winner, and a two-time IRNE Award winner for Best Actress in a Musical. Originally from Bellingham, MA she now resides in Walpole, MA.
Alexander Hatcher (Lyman Hall) is making his New Rep debut in 1776. Originally from Wisconsin, he is currently a senior BFA Acting major at Boston University, with concentrations in Musical Theatre and Dance. Recent credits at BU include Angels in America: Perestroika, 26 Pebbles, Tragedy: A Tragedy, and Of Blood and Dirt. AlexanderHatcher.com
Riley Fox Hillyer makes his New Repertory Theatre debut as a member of the 2018-2019 Classic Repertory Company tour. He is a recent graduate of Emerson College, originally hailing from Saint Augustine, Florida. Recent credits include NAVIGATING DEATH ANXIETY: a how-to guide! (Actor), Tiny Houses (Olek/Lars), Cabaret DAS (fox),and staging NOMI at the Cabinet of Curiosities Festival. He is also a proud member of the band pUbeRty kiDs. He is most excited about working with this company to bring theater to communities who don’t have much access to it.
RICARDO D. HOLGUIN returns to New Repertory Theatre after appearing in Fiddler on the Roof. Credits include Assassins, The Light in the Piazza, and HAIR (The Boston Conservatory); Altar Boyz (Greater Boston Stage Company); Shrek the Musical, The Who’s Tommy, and Cinderella (Laredo Theater Guild International); The Wild Party (IRNE nominee, Moonbox Productions); Guys and Dolls (Reagle Music Theatre); Guys and Dolls (Mssng Lnks); and RENT and Cabaret (LITE Productions). He holds an MFA in Musical Theatre from The Boston Conservatory. Upcoming projects include West Side Story (Laredo Theatre Guild International).
SHANNON LEE JONES* returns to New Repertory Theatre after performing in World Goes ‘Round and Cabaret. On Broadway, she appeared as Angelique in La Cage Aux Folles (original). National tours include Cassie in A Chorus Line, La Cage Aux Folles, Hello, Dolly! with Carol Channing and Funny Girl with Juliet Prowse. Regional credits: Oliver (Goodspeed Musicals); Mamma Mia, Gypsy, Anything Goes, Drowsy Chaperone, Hairspray, and Mame (Arts Center of Coastal Carolina); Road Show, Gypsy and Working (Lyric Stage Company); Billy Elliot (Ocean State Theater, RI); Mary Poppins (Wheelock Theater); Carnival (Gloucester Stage Company); Into the Woods (Reagle Music Theatre); My Fair Lady and Gypsy (Greater Boston Stage Company); Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Foothills Theatre); Guys and Dolls (Long Wharf Theatre); Cabaret (Barrington Stage Company); A Chorus Line (North Shore Music Theatre). Television and film credits include The Judge with Robert Downey Jr., The Guiding Light, All My Children and The Irving Berlin Special at Carnegie Hall. Shannon teaches the Alexander Technique at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Originally from Winter Haven, FL she now resides in Boston, MA.
LILIANE KLEIN will make her New Repertory Theatre debut with this production of 1776. Boston theatre credits include Dogfight and Fat Pig (IRNE/Elliot Norton Award nominations) (SpeakEasy Stage Company), Sister Act, Legally Blonde (Next Door Theater), Boys from Syracuse (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), Meet Me in St. Louis (Greater Boston Stage Company), A Little Princess (Fiddlehead Theatre Company) A Streetcar Named Desire (Foothills Theatre Company), and Skin Deep at the Majestic Theater. She has regional credits at CT Free Shakespeare (CT), Aurora Theatre Company (CA), Long Wharf Theatre (CT), and Ivoryton Playhouse (CT), and in New York has performed at Lincoln Center, New York City Opera, Urban Stages, NYMF, Musicals Tonight!, La Mama E.T.C. Tours: Titanic and Scrooge. Film: Ghost Light, Super Troopers 2, Men in Black 3. Television: High Maintenance, Ananda, Kid Fitness. Klein holds a BFA from Boston University’s School of Theatre, and is a member of StageSource. Originally from Great Neck, NY, she now resides in Melrose, MA. lilianeklein.com
STEVEN MARTIN will make his New Repertory Theatre debut with this production of 1776. Recent credits include playing the Tin Man in The Wiz (Lyric Stage Company), Olen in The Scottsboro Boys (SpeakEasy Stage Company), Eddie in The Wild Party (Moonbox Theater), Jim Conley in Parade (Footlight Club) and Agwe in Once on This Island (Blue Spruce Theater). He holds a Masters of Music in Opera Performance from The Boston Conservatory, and a Bachelors of Music in Voice Performance from the University of North Carolina – Greensboro. Originally from Madison, NC, he now resides in Dorchester, MA.
TODD MCNEEL, JR. (Joseph Hewes/Ensemble, AGMA) will make his New Rep debut with this production of 1776. Recent credits include Prince Populescu (Countess Maritza), Frank (Coal Creek), George/Cephus/Will (Brother Nat: Concert Opera), Booker T. Washington (Ragtime), Krogstad (A Doll’s House: A New Opera), Gideon March/Dashwood (Little Women), and General Boom (Bremen Town Musicians), Mikado (The Mikado). McNeel won the Emerging Talent Award at the Kurt Weill/Lotte Lenya Competition and is a member of the American Spiritual Ensemble. He holds a BA in Mass and Speech Communication from Ouachita Baptist University, a Graduate Studies Diploma in Communication Management from Emerson College, and a Graduate Performance Diploma in Opera from the Longy School of Music. Originally from Grand Prairie, Texas, he now resides in Somerville, MA.
Luis Negrón* (he, him, his) has been a Boston area actor for almost 20 years, having performed in theatre, film, commercials, and voiceovers. Luis has performed at such venues as The Huntington Stage Co., The Lyric Stage Co., SpeakEasy Stage, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Wheelock Family Theatre, New Repertory Theatre, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, Wellesley Summer Theatre, Brandeis Theatre Co. and Zeitgeist Stage. Most recently, he was seen on the Mosesian Mainstage in Moonbox Productions’ The House of Ramon Iglesia.
GARY THOMAS NG will make his New Repertory Theatre debut with this performance of 1776. Recent regional credits include Gooney Bird Greene, Beauty and the Beast, and Billy Elliot (Wheelock Family Theatre), Allegiance (SpeakEasy Stage Company), Hold These Truths and Sideshow (Lyric Stage Company), Miss Saigon (Ogunquit Playhouse), Children of Eden (North Shore Music Theater), and the Far East tour of Cole Porter’s Aladdin. Ng is from and resides in Rye, NH.
PIER LAMIA PORTER will make her New Repertory Theatre debut with this performance of 1776. Regional credits include The Music Man (Reagle Music Theatre), The Wiz (Lyric Stage Company), and Beauty and the Beast (Wheelock Family Theater). Porter received her BM in Opera Performance from the University of Nevada – Las Vegas, and is a member of StageSource. Originally from Las Vegas, Nevada, she now resides in Waltham, MA. Instagram: @pierlamiaporter
KP POWELL will make his New Repertory Theatre debut with this production of 1776. Recent credits include Twelfth Night (Feste), Pride and Prejudice (Bingley/Wickham), Enchanted April (Antony Wilding), To Kill a Mockingbird (Tom Robinson), Sense and Sensibility (Willoughby), Equivocation (Tom Wintour), and Macbeth (Malcolm). Powell holds an MFA from the University of Houston. Originally from St. Louis, MO, he now resides in Atlanta, GA.
DAN PRIOR returns to New Repertory Theatre after most recently being seen as Fyedka in Fiddler on the Roof. Other recent credits include the roles of Roy/Mark/Pete/Bobby Jeremy in Fun Home (Cape Rep Theatre), Ernst Ludwig in Cabaret (Moonbox Productions), Dorante in The Liar (Wellesley Repertory Theatre), and Charlie Cowell in The Music Man (Theatre by the Sea). Prior received his degree in Vocal Performance from Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY, and teaches private voice lessons in Somerville, MA. Originally from Manchester, CT, he now resides in Somerville, MA.
Jane Reagan makes her New Repertory Theatre debut as a member of the 2018-2019 Classic Repertory Company tour. Jane is a recent graduate of Emerson College with a BFA in Acting. Recent credits include: Brazen (Cameron), Mrs. Warren’s Profession (Vivie), Caucasian Chalk Circle (Natella Abashvili), Richard III (Lord Rivers). She can’t wait to pack in the van at early hours of the morn and explore what theatre can be with students across New England.
SIMON ROGERS (Josiah Bartlett) will make his New Repertory Theatre debut with this production of 1776. Other recent credits include Damn Yankees (Priscilla Beach Theatre) and Heathers: The Musical (The Footlight Club). Rogers holds a BA in Theatre from Boston College, and is from and resides in Malden, MA
CAROLYN SAXON is pleased to make her New Repertory Theatre debut in this production of 1776. Broadway/National Tours/New York Theatre: The Civil War, Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk, Hair, Purlie, Can-Can, Timmy the Great, Linda Eder: The Christmas Concert, NYIFF. Film: Sweet & Lowdown, Small Time Crooks, Curse of the Jade Scorpion. Boston Theatre: Shakespeare in Love, Violet, The Color Purple, In the Heights (IRNE nomination), Far From Heaven (SpeakEasy Stage), The Wiz (Lyric Stage Company), The Hairy Scary (Outside the Box Festival) Brother Nat: Rise, Revolt, Redemption (Emerson Paramount Center). Upcoming: Ragtime (Wheelock Family Theatre) and black odyssey (Underground Railway Theatre/Front Porch Collective). Regional: North Shore Music Theatre, Connecticut Repertory, Papermill Playhouse NJ, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Weston Playhouse, Forestburgh Playhouse, Studio Arena Theatre, Artpark, MusicalFare, and Struthers Library Theatre. Other: Boston Pops Gospel Choir (Featured Soloist), Carnegie Hall, Buffalo Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony, Sharing a New Song, NEC Millennium Choir. Originally from Buffalo, NY, she now resides in Dorchester, MA.
CHERYL D. SINGLETON returns to New Repertory Theatre after appearing in Rent (Soloist), Blanket Woman (Ensemble), Passing Strange (Mother), and Dollhouse (Julianna). Other recent credits include Calpurnia in To Kill a Mockingbird (Gloucester Stage), Grandma in Billy Elliot (Wheelock Family Theatre, IRNE Nomination), Mrs. Dickson in Intimate Apparel (Lyric Stage Company, IRNE Nomination), Dr. Delane and Ms. Moss in Absence (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), Emilia in The Comedy of Errors (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), Storm in The Superheroine Monologues (Phoenix Theater Artists and Company One Theater), Sallie in Sureta and Lana (The Kentucky Cycle), Condoleeza Rice in Stuff Happens (Zeitgeist Stage), Paulina in The Seagull (American Repertory Theatre), as well as various roles with Queer Soup, Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans, and ImprovBoston. Singleton is a member of StageSource, ImprovBoston, and The Theatre Community Benevolent Fund. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, she now resides in Jamaica Plain, MA.
FELTON SPARKS will make his New Repertory Theatre debut with this production of 1776. Recent regional credits include a workshop of Nosferatu (Van Helsing), Kiss of the Spider Woman (Ensemble), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Major-Domo, u/s Azolan), Stuart Little (Stuart), The Antigone Project: A Play in 5 Parts (Actor 5) and A Chorus Line (Richie). Sparks holds a BFA in Theatre & Performance with a minor in Dance from Emerson College, and is a member of StageSource. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, he now resides in Dorchester, MA.
BOBBIE STEINBACH returns to New Repertory Theatre after performing as Golda Meir in Golda’s Balcony (IRNE Award for Best Actress). Also at NRT: Fiddler on the Roof, Tongue of a Bird, Collected Stories (IRNE Award for Best Actress, Elliot Norton nomination for Outstanding Actress), The Clean House (Elliot Norton Award for Best Production), Romeo and Juliet, The Waverly Gallery, A Girl’s War (IRNE Best Actress Award), Stonewall Jackson’s House (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actress). Regional: Julius Caesar (Elliot Norton nomination for Outstanding Actress), School for Scandal, Phèdre, Coriolanus, A Winter’s Tale, and Mistress Quickly with Actors’ Shakespeare Project; A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George, The Rose Tattoo, and Dead End with Huntington Theatre Company; Light Up the Sky, Follies, A Little Night Music (IRNE Award for Best Supporting Actress), The Importance of Being Earnest, and Over the River and Through the Woods (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actress) with Lyric Stage Company; Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, and Romeo and Juliet with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company; Deported/ A Dream Play, and Sailing Down the Amazon (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actress) with Boston Playwright’s Theatre. Ms. Steinbach is a private monologue coach. Bobbiesteinbach.com
ALEXANDRA TEMAN (George Reed) will make her New Repertory Theatre debut with this production of 1776. Her Boston University credits include Pool (No Water) and Melancholy Play: A Chamber Musical. Other production credits include Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage (Choreographer) and Cabaret (Dance Captain/Swing). Her regional credits include Speech and Debate (u/s Diwata) (Barrington Stage Company), The Songs of Ahrens and Flaherty (Mr. Finn’s Cabaret at Barrington Stage Company) and Show’s We’ll Never Do (Feinstein’s/54 Below). Teman is a current junior BFA Theatre Arts major at Boston University’s School of Theatre. Originally from New York City, she now resides in Brookline.
AUSTIN PENDELTON returns to New Repertory Theatre after directing Fiddler on the Roof and performing in Quills, Waiting for Godot, and King Lear. He is also the recipient of New Rep’s 2015 Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. Mr. Pendelton is an actor, director, playwright, and a teacher of acting at HB Studio in New York. As an actor he made his Broadway debut in the original production of Fiddler on the Roof, which was directed by Jerome Robbins. Subsequent Broadway productions in which he has appeared include Hail Scrawdyke (Clarence Derwent Award winner), Mike Nichols’ production of The Little Foxes, Doubles, and The Diary of Anne Frank (with Natalie Portman and Linda Lavin, in a new adaptation by Wendy Kesselman). He has also acted extensively off-Broadway and in other regional theatres, notably Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, where he is a member of the Ensemble. He has acted in about 200 movies, and on such TV shows as Oz and Homicide, in each of which he has appeared in recurring roles. He has directed on, off, and off-off Broadway, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival (where he apprenticed under the guidance of Nikos Psacharopoulos), as well as at the National Theatre of Great Britain. His plays, published and produced in New York, around the country, and internationally, are Orson’s Shadow, Uncle Bob, and Booth.
KELLI EDWARDS returns to New Repertory Theatre after co-choreographing The Snow Queen with director Rick Lombardo and choreographing Fiddler on the Roof, RENT, The Hot Mikado (IRNE Award for Best Choreography), Passing Strange, Cabaret, The Wild Party, Ragtime, Romeo and Juliet, Into the Woods, Scapin, and The Threepenny Opera. Other Boston theatre credits include A Confederacy of Dunces, How Shakespeare Won the West, The Cherry Orchard, The Second Girl, Becoming Cuba, and Come Back, Little Sheba (Huntington Theatre Company); A Marvelous Party, Red, Hot, and Cole, In the Jungle of Cities, The King Stag, and The Taming of the Shrew (American Repertory Theater); The Secret Garden and Gypsy (Stoneham Theatre); and Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado about Nothing (Actors’ Shakespeare Project). Ms. Edwards co-directs Dances by Isadora-Boston and is currently on the performing arts faculty at Milton Academy.
Cristina Todesco returns to New Repertory Theatre after designing Freud’s Last Session, A Number, On the Verge, Amadeus, Three Viewings, The Last Five Years, Opus, afterlife: a ghost story, Picasso at Lapin Agile, The Clean House, House with No Walls, Silence, and The Santaland Diaries. Theater companies include Actor’s Shakespeare Project, Company One, ART Institute, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, the Culture Project, Gloucester Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Olney Theater Center, Orfeo Group, Poets’ Theatre, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Harbor Stage, Summer Play Festival, Trinity Rep, Wheelock Family Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival among many more. She has designed for the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall in Boston and at Tanglewood. For Outstanding Design, she is the recipient of four Elliot Norton Awards and an IRNE Award. She earned a BFA in painting from Boston University’s School of Visual Arts and an MFA in scenic design from BU’s School of Theatre, where she currently teaches. Originally from Milton, she currently resides in Dorchester
ALBERTO SEGARRA has designed The Gift Horse at New Rep. Recent Washington, DC credits include Macbeth and Lucia di Lammermoor (Catholic University); Yo También Hablo de la Rosa (GALA Theatre); Twist Your Dickens (Kennedy Center); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Howard University); and Satchmo at the Waldorf (Mosaic Theatre). Other credits include The Taming of the Shrew, The Magic Flute, Carmen, Hair, Cabaret, Boeing Boeing, Evita, Dangerous Liaisons, The Glass Menagerie, and Romeo and Juliet. Mr. Segarra received his MFA in Lighting Design from the University of Maryland-College Park. Originally from Puerto Rico, he currently resides in Maryland. Upcoming projects include Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Blue Barn Theatre, NE); and Independence Eve (Urban Arias, Washington DC). albertosegarra.com
BRIAN M. ROBILLARD* returns to New Repertory Theatre after previously working on Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, Lonely Planet, Ideation, The Gift Horse, Brecht on Brecht, Fiddler on the Roof, Baltimore, Scenes from an Adultery, Albatross, On the Verge, and Pattern of Life. Recent area credits include A Christmas Carol (Central Square Theater); A Little Night Music (Huntington Theatre Company); Romeo & Juliet and King Lear (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); Don Giovanni and Siren Song (BU Opera Institute); Song Cycle (Peabody Essex Museum); and Hairspray and The Fantasticks (Hope Summer Repertory Theatre). Brian received his BFA in Stage Management from Boston University. A native of Massachusetts, Brian currently resides in Chelmsford. Upcoming projects include Calendar Girls (Greater Boston Stage Company).
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Watch an interview with director Kelli Edwards and John Adam’s actor Benjamin Evett on It’s The Law.
