THE MASTER BUILDER

The Creative Team

PAUL WALSH (TRANSLATOR)

teaches in the Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism department of Yale School of Drama. He served for nine years as senior dramaturg at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, which produced his translations of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (2004) and Hedda Gabler (2007). He is currently preparing new translations of August Strindberg’s Chamber Plays for production by San Francisco’s Cutting Ball Theater in 2012. In addition, Walsh has worked as dramaturg, translator, and co-author with theatre companies across the country, including the dearly missed Theatre de la Jeune Lune, with whom he collaborated on such award-winning productions as Children of Paradise: Shooting a Dream, Don Juan Giovanni, Germinal, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Mr. Walsh is artistic director of the New Harmony Project, a new play development residency program in New Harmony, Indiana, dedicated to serving writers who celebrate hope and the resiliency of the human spirit. Back to top.

EVAN YIONOULIS (DIRECTOR)

is a resident director at Yale Rep where her productions include Richard II, Black Snow, The People Next Door, The King Stag, Heaven, and Galileo. New York credits include Howard Brenton’s Sore Throats, Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders (Lucille Lortel Award, Best Revival) at Theatre for a New Audience; Daisy Foote’s Bhutan (Cherry Lane Theatre); as well as Richard Greenberg’s The Violet Hour (Broadway), Everett Beekin (Lincoln Center Theater), and Three Days of Rain (Manhattan Theatre Club, OBIE Award). With frequent collaborator, composer/lyricist Mike Yionoulis, she has written and directed the short film Lost and Found (Cleveland International Film Festival) and is currently developing their new musical, Redhand Guitar, at Arena Stage. Other credits include productions at such theatres as the Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Rep, Huntington Theatre Company, New York Shakespeare Festival, Vineyard Theatre, Second Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Denver Center. She has directed presentations of the documentary play Seven, which tells the stories of seven extraordinary women who work for human rights, in New York, Boston, Washington, London, and Deauville, France. She is the recipient of a Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship and the Foundation’s prestigious statuette. She is currently a professor in Yale School of Drama’s Department of Acting (which she chaired from 1998 to 2003). Back to top.

TIMOTHY BROWN (SCENIC DESIGNER)

is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include last season’s Man=Man and Love’s Labour’s Lost. He received his BFA in scenic design from the University of Miami, where he designed sets and lights for productions of A New Brain, Electra, How I Learned to Drive, Falsettos, Kimberly Akimbo, Reckless, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He is also a resident designer for Miami’s Fresco Productions, where he designed world premieres of Reconstructing Mama and The Penguin Tango, presented as part of the 2006 New York International Fringe Festival and the Fringe Encore Series. Back to top.

KATHERINE AKIKO DAY (COSTUME DESIGNER)

is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include the set for last season’s The Robbers and costumes for The Tempest. She received a BA in art history and film studies from Dartmouth College in 2007. At Dartmouth, she designed sets for The Imaginary Invalid, The Distance from Here, A Number, The Lover, and sets and costumes for Betrayal. Back to top.

PAUL WHITAKER (LIGHTING DESIGNER)

New York credits include Durango (The Public Theater); The Wooden Breeks (MCC Theater); Manic Flight Reaction, BFE (Playwrights Horizons); Swimming in the Shallows (Second Stage Theatre); Points of Departure, Tight Embrace, Kissing Fidel (INTAR Theatre); Guinea Pig Solo (The Public Theater/LAByrinth Theater Company); Get What You Need (Atlantic Theater Company); The Last Sunday in June (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); American Hwangap (The Play Company/Ma-Yi Theater Company); Smashing, Lovely Day (The Play Company), among others. Regional theatre credits Serious Money and It Pays to Advertise at Yale Rep, as well as productions at Long Wharf Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, CENTERSTAGE, American Conservatory Theater, Children’s Theater Company, Hartford Stage, Alley Theatre, George Street Playhouse, and Dallas Theater Center, among others. Paul received his BA from Macalester College and his MFA from Yale School of Drama. He has taught at Amherst College and is a Lighting Designer/Theatre Consultant for Schuler Shook. Back to top.

SCOTT L. NIELSEN (SOUND DESIGNER/COMPOSER)

is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. He received his BA with a double major in sociology and theatre from the University of California, San Diego in 2007. His sound design and original music composition credits include The Robbers, Hamlet (Yale School of Drama); Waiting for Lefty, Second Sites: Tales of Alternate Routes, Red State Bluegrass (UCSD); Moms in America (Guise Gallery); Pacific Tales: Santiago vs. the Seven-Legged Squid Monster (Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater); and Be Aggressive (Yale Cabaret). Aside from his theatrical endeavors, Scott has worked as a musician and sound artist creating, composing, recording, and performing experimental music and sonic art for more than 18 years. Back to top.

MAYA CANTU (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG)

is a third-year MFA candidate in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Grace, or The Art of Climbing (Carlotta Festival of New Plays) and 99 Ways to Fuck a Swan. The Master Builder marks her Yale Repertory Theatre debut. Most recently, Maya served as dramaturg for The Mystery of Irma Vep at Yale Summer Cabaret. Other dramaturgy credits include Three Sisters, or the Dormouse’s Tale and Estrella Cruz [the junkyard queen], both at Yale Cabaret. Her writing has been published in Theater magazine and The Sondheim Review, among others. Back to top.

colin mannex (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG)

is a third-year MFA candidate in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at Yale School of Drama. He has served as a managing editor and contributor for Yale’s Theater magazine. He has also written for The Oregonian newspaper and PAJ. His dramaturgy credits include Yale Rep’s 2008 production of Passion Play, as well as work at Cripple Creek Theatre Company in New Orleans. He received a BA in English and Drama from Kenyon College in 2006. Back to top.

tara rubiN CASTING (CASTING DIRECTORS)

has been casting at Yale Rep since 2004. Broadway: A Little Night Music, Billy Elliot (Adult Casting), Shrek, Guys and Dolls, The Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins, Jersey Boys, The Producers, Mamma Mia!, The Phantom of the Opera, The Country Girl, Young Frankenstein, The Farnsworth Invention, Rock ’n’ Roll, The History Boys (US casting), Les Misérables, Spamalot, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Pirate Queen, Good Vibrations, Bombay Dreams, Oklahoma!, Flower Drum Song, Imaginary Friends, Metamorphoses (New York casting). Lincoln Center Theater: Happiness, The Frogs, Contact, Thou Shalt Not, A Man of No Importance, Anything Goes (concert). The Kennedy Center: Mame, Mister Roberts, The Sondheim Celebration, and Tennessee Williams Explored. Film: The Producers: The Musical. Members, Casting Society of America. Back to top.

JAMES MOUNTCASTLE* (STAGE MANAGER)

has been at Yale Rep since fall 2004. He was stage manager for last season’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, Richard II in 2007, Ruhl’s Eurydice in 2006, a new adaptation of The Cherry Orchard in 2005, and the 2004 world premiere of Ruhl’s The Clean House. A professional stage manager for more than twenty years, he has worked in regional, stock, and Broadway theatre. Broadway credits include Damn Yankees, Jekyll & Hyde, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Boys from Syracuse, The Smell of the Kill, Life x(3), and Wonderful Town. Mr. Mountcastle spent several Christmas seasons in New York City as stage manager for the now legendary production of A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden. Broadway national tours include City of Angels, Falsettos, and My Fair Lady. He served as Production Stage Manager for Damn Yankees starring Jerry Lewis for both its national tour and at the Adelphi Theatre in London’s West End. In addition, Mr. Mountcastle has worked at The Kennedy Center, Centerstage in Baltimore, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and elsewhere. James and his wife Julie live in North Haven and are the very proud parents of two beautiful girls: Ellie, who is 10 years old, and Katie, age 8. Back to top.

*MEMBER OF ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION, THE UNION OF PROFESSIONAL ACTORS AND STAGE MANAGERS IN THE UNITED STATES.