Biography of the Artistic Team Marion McClinton (Director) returns to CENTERSTAGE, where he directed our productions of a.m. Sunday, A Raisin in the Sun, Les Blancs, Jitney, Seven Guitars, Two Trains Running, Splash Hatch on the E Going Down, Day of Absence, Thunder Knocking on the Door, Police Boys (also author), and readings of Intimate Apparel for First Look and Regina Taylor’s Drowning Crow for Vivat!. He recently directed the world premiere of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean at Goodman Theatre and Mark Taper Forum. His Broadway productions include Drowning Crow, the revival of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and King Hedley II (Tony nomination). His Off Broadway credits include Jitney (Obie and Lortel Awards; also Royal National Theatre, London: Olivier Award, Best Play), Roar, Talk, and Breath, Boom. In addition to Police Boys, his plays include Walkers, Stones and Bones, and Who Causes the Darkness? Mr. McClinton is an Associate Artist at CENTERSTAGE, as well as at Mark Taper Forum, Playwrights Horizons, and Pillsbury House Theatre; an alumnus of New Dramatists, and a long time member of the Penumbra Theatre Company. Ron OJ Parson (Associate Director) makes his CENTERSTAGE debut. He is Co-founder and former Artistic Director of Chicago’s Onyx Theatre Ensemble. His directing credits include Yellowman at Virginia Stage Company; Conversations on a Dirt Road at eta Creative Arts Foundation; East Texas Hot Links, Flyin’ West, and Sty of the Blind Pig for Onyx Theatre Ensemble; Wedding Band, The Horn, and Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Let Us Live at Goodman Theatre; Hambone at Victory Gardens Theatre, A Raisin in the Sun at Studio Arena Theatre; Ali (Co-director) at Congo Square Theater Company; Fences at Portland Stage Company; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Day of Absence; Short Eyes; and Slow Dance on the Killing Ground. He has also worked as an actor at various theaters throughout the country. Mr. Parson’s film and television credits include The Drop Squad, Primal Fear, Ali, Barbershop 2, Early Edition, ER, and Turks. Neil Patel (Scenic Designer) returns to CENTERSTAGE, where he designed scenery for Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Hostage, As You Like It, How I Learned to Drive, Seven Guitars, Thunder Knocking on the Door, Two Trains Running, Triumph of Love, and Day of Absence. His Broadway credits include ‘night, Mother and Sideman (also London). His Off Broadway credits include Dinner With Friends, The Beard of Avon, Between Us, The Baltimore Waltz, Dirty Tricks, Here Lies Jenny, Quills, and Slavs! He has also designed extensively for many of the country’s top regional theaters, including Goodspeed Opera House, Guthrie Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Dallas Theater Center, Yale Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, among others. Tokyo credits include numerous productions with Amon Miyamoto including Candide and Don Giovanni. Opera credits include Santa Fe Opera, New York City Opera, and Minnesota Opera. His work has been recognized with numerous Drama Desk Nominations and two Obie Awards for sustained excellence.
David Burdick (Costume Designer), CENTERSTAGE’s resident costumer, has designed costumes for Picnic, a.m. Sunday, The Rainmaker, Blithe Spirit, The Piano Lesson, Short Plays by Thornton Wilder, The Hostage, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Travels With My Aunt, Les Blancs, Hannah Senesh for The Feminine Singular: Women Speak Solo, and Private Lives. He designed the Walnut Street Theatre/Totem Pole Playhouse co-productions of Moon Over Buffalo and The Last Night of Ballyhoo; Lapis Blue, Blood Red, and Meditations From the Ash at Baltimore Theatre Project; and The Love Space Demands at Axis Theatre. His opera design credits include Carmen, Fidelio, The Barber of Seville, Tosca, I Puritani, The Rape of Lucretia, and Don Giovanni. He designed premiere works for The Next Ice Age, an ensemble skating company at the Kennedy Center and American Dance Festival. Mr. Burdick is currently collaborating with director/Choreographer Dianne McIntyre on a new work dealing with the historic moments leading up to the Brown v. Board of Education Decision of 1954, entitled Open the Door, Virginia, at Theater of the First Amendment. Michelle Habeck (Lighting Designer) makes her CENTERSTAGE debut. On Broadway, she was Associate Lighting Designer for The Boy From Oz and King Hedley II, and Assistant Lighting Designer for Movin’ Out and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Her regional credits include Two Trains Running at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; The Subject Was Roses at Writers’ Theater; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Alliance Theatre Company; Lobby Hero and The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t at Goodman Theatre; The Chosen and Ten Percent of Molly Snyder at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Amber Waves at Indiana Repertory Theatre; Waiting for Godot at Swine Palace Productions; Fräulein Else, Guys and Dolls, and The Romance Cycle at Court Theatre; American Dead at American Theater Company; A Skull in Connemara at Northlight Theatre; and They All Fall Down: The Richard Nickel Story at Lookingglass Theatre Company. Ms. Habeck received her MFA in Scenic/Lighting Design from Northwestern University. Shane Rettig (Sound Designer) returns to CENTERSTAGE, where he designed sound for a.m. Sunday. Recent credits include The Civilians’ Nobody’s Lunch at PS 122, Heather Lynn MacDonald’s Pink at Arielle Tepper’s Summer Play Festival, Melissa Gibson’s Suitcase at Soho Rep and La Jolla Playhouse, and Anne Washburn’s Apparition at Chashama. His original musical, The Unknown, recently appeared at Joe’s Pub as part of The Public Theater’s “New Work Now!” series. He has designed sound for Soho Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Dallas Theater Center, Yale Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Juilliard. Directors and playwrights he has worked with include Len Jenkin, Wallace Shawn, Richard Foreman, Steve Cosson, Daniel Aukin, and Jean Randich. He composes, performs, and directs music for The Atomic Grind Show, a carny-rock band based in New York. Other projects include the all-electronic band, Project Airl[o]ck, and his recording studio, Cracker Jam, where he engineers many varied recordings. Mr. Rettig received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
David Leong (Fight Coordinator) returns to CENTERSTAGE, where he was the fight director for Jitney. His Broadway credits include Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, King Hedley II, The Rainmaker, The Civil War, Company, Picnic, Carousel, Solitary Confinement, Hamlet, Conversations With My Father, Macbeth, and The Homecoming. He worked on London’s West End on Napoleon the Musical and National Theatre’s Jitney. He has worked regionally at Arena Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Alley Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, Huntington Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Guthrie Theater, and Goodman Theatre. His film credits include Titus Andronicus and Alien: Resurrection. He is chairman and full professor of the Theatre Department at Virginia Commonwealth University. Mr. Leong is one of ten Certified Fight Masters in the Society of American Fight Directors. Gillian Lane-Plescia (Dialect Consultant) returns to CENTERSTAGE, where she has previously consulted on Sweeney Todd, Mary Stuart, and Peter Pan, among others. Off Broadway she has worked for New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, Classic Stage Company, Cherry Lane Theater, and Madison Square Garden. Regional credits include Alley Theatre, Arena Stage, Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, Huntington Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Trinity Repertory Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Banff Center for Fine Arts. Ms. Lane-Plescia is a guest teacher at The Juilliard School and a faculty member at the National Theater Institute of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center; her popular, self-teaching dialect materials are used throughout the US, as well as in Canada, England, and Australia. Judy Dennis (Casting Director) continues this season at CENTERSTAGE, where she directed last season’s First Look workshop of Crippled Sisters. In addition to hundreds of plays cast for premier Off Broadway and regional stages, casting credits include Hamlet (film directed by Campbell Scott), Fool’s Fire (directed by Julie Taymor, American Playhouse), The Wedding Banquet, Sansho the Bailiff (adapted for the stage by Terrence Malick, directed by Andrzej Wajda), Philip Glass’ 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, NPR’s Heat (Peabody Award), and Separate But Equal (Casting Associate, shared special Emmy). She consulted on the Rotunda Film for New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Her directing credits include Oz for HBO and Patriotic, her first short film, which screened as part of New Directors/New Films at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, as well as the Maryland Film Festival. Ms. Dennis is an Associate Artist at CENTERSTAGE.
Debra Acquavella* (Stage Manager) continues her second season at CENTERSTAGE, where she has stage managed Lady Windermere’s Fan, Picnic, Sweeney Todd, and a.m. Sunday. On Broadway, she was production stage manager of the long-running, Tony Award-winning production of Metamorphoses. Additional Broadway credits include “Master Harold”…and the Boys, starring Danny Glover, and Jane Eyre, The Musical, directed by John Caird. Off Broadway, she stage managed The Thing About Men at The Promenade Theatre; Falsettos, directed by Lonny Price, at Playwrights Horizons; and Metamorphoses at Second Stage. While living and learning on her farm in southern Indiana, Ms. Acquavella spent 15 seasons as Production Stage Manager of Actors Theatre of Louisville, stage managing close to 200 productions. These include dozens of premieres of works in the Humana Festival of New American Plays, representing playwrights Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks, and David Henry Hwang, among many others. Mike Schleifer* (Assistant Stage Manager) has stage managed The Price, Speed-The-Plow, The Miser, Misalliance, The Rainmaker, Intimate Apparel, and Three Tall Women for CENTERSTAGE. He has been a stage manager or assistant stage manager on world premieres of plays by August Wilson, José Rivera, A.R. Gurney, Nilo Cruz, David Ives, Lynn Nottage, Tina Landau, Julia Dahl, Mac Wellman, Billy Aronson, Scott Organ, and James Magruder. In addition to CENTERSTAGE, he has worked locally at Everyman Theatre; Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, where he is an Artistic Associate; Rep Stage; Round House Theatre; The Maryland Arts Festival; and various universities. He is the former production manager of Playwrights Horizons Theatre School in New York City and the former company manager and casting director of Hangar Theatre in Ithaca. Mr. Schleifer is a graduate of Towson University. Jason Arnold (Assistant Lighting Designer) makes his CENTERSTAGE debut. He has designed lights locally for The Crucible, The Waverly Gallery, and Blues for an Alabama Sky at Everyman Theatre. In the DC area, his lighting design credits include A Bad Friend; Welcome to My Rash/Third; Oh, the Innocents; and Talley’s Folly at Theatre J; The Gifts of the Magi at Olney Theatre Center; Charlotte’s Web, Bunnicula, and The BFG at Imagination Stage; and Lloyd’s Prayer, All in the Timing, and An Evening of Israel Horovitz One Acts at Black Box Theatre. He has taught lighting and sound design at the University of Rhode Island. Mr. Arnold holds an MFA from Brandeis University and a BA from Vassar College. *Members of Actors’ Equity Association