Bossa Nova

CREATIVE TEAM

ADAM BOCK (BOOK AND LYRICS)

Adam Bock's play A Small Fire will premiere at Playwrights Horizons in New York this fall. Other plays include The Receptionist (Manhattan Theatre Club), The Drunken City (Playwrights Horizons), The Flowers (About Face Theatre), The Thugs (Soho Rep, OBIE Award), Swimming in the Shallows (Second Stage Uptown), Five Flights (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), The Typographer's Dream (Clubbed Thumb), The Shaker Chair (Humana Festival of New American Plays), and Three Guys and a Brenda (24 Hour Plays, Heideman Award). He is a resident playwright at Encore Theatre Company and a Shotgun Players artistic associate; the two Bay Area theatres have premiered and produced many of his works. He is a New Dramatist member playwright and a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. He is proud to be a TDF Open Doors mentor for Validus High School in the Bronx.
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TODD ALMOND (MUSIC AND LYRICS, CO-ORCHESTRATOR)

is a composer, lyricist, and playwright. His musicals include On the Levee with playwright Marcus Gardley and director Lear deBessonet at Lincoln Center's LCT3, Girlfriend with composer Matthew Sweet and director Les Waters at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Ahraihsak at Theater Mitu with director Rubén Polendo, Kansas City Choir Boy with director Sam Gold, and the award-winning People Like Us with director Gus Kaikkonen. He is currently collaborating with playwright Warren Leight and director Stafford Arima on a musical adaptation of the novel A Separate Peace. Todd served as music director for the world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's Tres Niñas, and has also music directed and reconceived classic works, most notably the "bald" Hair at the Skirball Cultural Center. In collaboration with composer Ellen Mandel, Todd has recorded two albums of songs with texts by e.e. cummings, Seamus Heaney, W.B. Yeats, and other poets. He also recently released Mexico City, a CD of original songs. www.toddalmond.com
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SHIRLEY JACKSON

Considered one of the most brilliant and influential authors of the twentieth century, Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) wrote more than one hundred novels, short stories, and plays, including the iconic "The Lottery." In her works she often explored themes of psychological turmoil, isolation, prejudice, and the inequity of fate. Many of Jackson's works take place in the small, xenophobic towns of New England, where she and her husband, Professor Stanley Edgar Hyman, wrote and taught. When "The Lottery" was first published in The New Yorker in 1948, it engendered huge controversy and has since become one of the most anthologized short stories in literature. Her other major works include the novels We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House, now regarded as "the quintessential haunted house tale." Dorothy Parker called Jackson "unparalleled as a leader in the field of beautifully written, quiet, cumulative shudders." The Library of America recently honored Jackson by publishing an anthology of her literary works, edited by Joyce Carol Oates.
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ANNE KAUFFMAN (DIRECTOR)

New York theatre credits include This Wide Night (Naked Angels), Stunning (Lincoln Center Theater's LCT3), Sixty Miles to Silverlake (Page 73 Productions/Soho Rep), God's Ear (Vineyard Theatre/New Georges), The Thugs (Soho Rep, OBIE Award), Dot (Clubbed Thumb),You Better Sit Down: Tales from My Parents' Divorce (The Civilians), Have You Seen Steve Steven? (13 Playwrights), The Ladies (Civilians/Dixon Place/Cherry Lane Theatre), and The Loyal Opposition (New York Theatre Workshop). Her other theatre credits include Six Degrees of Separation (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Becky Shaw (Wilma Theater); The Winter's Tale (Chautauqua Theater Company); Communist Dracula Pageant (American Repertory Theatre); Expecting Isabel, Doubt (Asolo Repertory Theatre); The Typographer's Dream (Encore Theatre Company/Shotgun Players); Act A Lady (Humana Festival of New American Plays); and The Children's Hour (Loyola University, Big Easy Entertainment Award). She is the recipient of a Lilly Award, and the Theatre Communication Group's Alan Schneider Director Award. Artistic Affiliations: Drama League; The Civilians, Founding Associate Artist; Clubbed Thumb, Artistic Associate; New York Theatre Workshop, Usual Suspect; New Georges Kitchen Cabinet; Soho Rep, Artistic Council.
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DAN LIPTON (MUSIC DIRECTOR, CO-ORCHESTRATOR)

enjoys a diverse career as a performer, writer, and arranger. He has played piano on three Grammy-nominated recordings, received four ASCAP songwriting awards, and has scored several award-winning short films. Lipton performed in the original orchestras of the Broadway musicals Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Full Monty. He appeared onstage in Tom Stoppard's trilogy The Coast of Utopia (Lincoln Center Theater) as well as in the Bridge Project productions of The Cherry Orchard and The Winter's Tale (Brooklyn Academy of Music, international tour), directed by Sam Mendes. Other credits as music director include Herringbone with B.D. Wong (Williamstown, McCarter, La Jolla) and Michael John LaChiusa's Little Fish (Second Stage). He arranges music and leads bands for Kelli O'Hara, Martha Plimpton, and Audra McDonald, whom he has backed with many symphony orchestras, at Carnegie Hall and the White House. Lipton is also a creator of the comedy variety show Don't Quit Your Night Job. He holds a degree in music composition from Northwestern University and is represented by Thomas Pearson at ICM.
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SEÁN CURRAN (MUSICAL STAGING)

made his mark as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and as an original member of the Off-Broadway cast of Stomp. He is the Artistic Director of Seán Curran Dance Company. Choreography projects include Yale Rep's Lulu and The Taming of the Shrew; Broadway: Cymbeline, The Rivals (both at Lincoln Center Theater), James Joyce's The Dead; Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew (The Shakespeare Theatre); Nixon in China, Street Scene, La Traviata (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis); L'Étoile, Alcina, Turandot, Capriccio, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Alcina, Acis and Galetea (New York City Opera); My Life with Albertine (Playwrights Horizons); As You Like It (The Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park); Roméo et Juliette (Metropolitan Opera); and Daphne (Santa Fe Opera). He recently directed Salome for San Francisco Opera and will remount the production for Opéra Montréal this winter. He will direct Daughter of the Regiment for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis next summer. Awards: New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" and New York Foundation for the Arts Choreographer Fellowships.
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DAVID ZINN (SCENIC DESIGNER)

designed the sets for Yale Rep's production of Notes from Underground in 2009 and costumes for Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella in 2002. His New York credits include costumes for the Broadway productions of In the Next Room (Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations), A Tale of Two Cities, and Xanadu; and Off-Broadway his recent set and costume design credits include Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons); That Face, Back Back Back, The Four of Us (Manhattan Theatre Club); scenery for The Pride (MCC Theater); and The Sound and the Fury (Elevator Repair Service). His regional credits include sets and costumes for the Todd Almond/Matthew Sweet musical Girlfriend (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); costumes for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Mark Taper Forum); sets for Twelfth Night (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), as well as productions at La Jolla Playhouse, Guthrie Theater, Alliance Theatre, Spoleto Festival, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Rep, and CENTERSTAGE, among many others. His set and costume designs for opera have been seen at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass, New York City Opera, and others. He is the recipient of the 2008 OBIE Award for Sustained Achievement in Set and Costume Design and the 2005 TDF/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award.
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ILONA SOMOGYI (COSTUME DESIGNER)

Recent New York area productions include Clybourne Park (Playwrights Horizons); Jerry Springer: The Opera (Carnegie Hall); Almost an Evening, Scarcity (Atlantic Theater Company); The Piano Teacher (Vineyard Theatre); Fever Chart, Controversy at Vallalodid, Fucking A (The Public Theater); The American Pilot (Manhattan Theatre Club); Hot 'n' Throbbin' (Signature Theatre Company); Savannah Bay (MCC); as well as God of Hell, Wit, Swimming with Watermelons, Unwrap Your Candy, Tabletop, and Hard Times. She also designed Princess Wishes for Disney on Ice, currently on tour. Her many regional credits include Battle of Black and Dogs, Passion Play, As You Like It (Yale Rep); Tom Sawyer, Noises Off, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Hartford Stage); Lil's 90th (Long Wharf Theatre); The Torchbearers, The Autumn Garden, Sweet Bird of Youth, Top Girls, On the Razzle (Williamstown Theatre Festival); tick, tick...BOOM!, Scramble, Vigil, and Sedition (Westport Country Playhouse). She was also associate costume designer for Spamalot, The Crucible, and Art on Broadway, and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Ilona is a proud graduate of Yale School of Drama and is a member of its faculty.
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STEPHEN STRAWBRIDGE (LIGHTING DESIGNER)

has designed the lighting for productions on and off Broadway, at most leading regional theatres and opera companies across the US, and internationally in Bergen, Copenhagen, The Hague, Hong Kong, Lisbon, Munich, São Paulo, Stockholm, and Vienna. Recent work includes Happy Days (Westport Country Playhouse); Battle of Black and Dogs (Yale Rep); Athol Fugard's Coming Home (Berkeley Rep, Long Wharf Theatre); School Boy Play (Linz 09 Festival, Austria); Having Our Say (McCarter Theatre); At Home at the Zoo (American Conservatory Theater); Crime and Punishment (Berkeley Rep); The Glorious Ones, Bernarda Alba (Mitzi Newhouse Theatre at Lincoln Center); Prayer for My Enemy (Playwrights Horizons); and Souls of Naples (Mercadante, Naples, Italy, and Theatre for a New Audience). He has been nominated for or won the American Theatre Wing, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum, Helen Hayes, and Lucille Lortel awards. He is co-chair of the Design Department at Yale School of Drama and resident lighting designer at Yale Repertory Theatre.
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TONY SMOLENSKI IV (SOUND DESIGNER)

New York credits include Lincoln Center Theater's Broadway production of Cymbeline; Off-Broadway: The Adding Machine (Drama Desk Award nomination), Walmartopia, Dutchman (AUDELCO nomination), Mimi Le Duck, Satellites, Everything Bad & Beautiful, Measure for Pleasure, I Love You Because, Indoor/Outdoor, Almost Maine, and Mr. Marmalade. Regional theatre credits include A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Working (The Old Globe); Pirates!, She Loves Me (Huntington Theatre Company); August Wilson's 20th Century (The Kennedy Center); The Lady in Question and The Night Season (Bay Street Theatre). Associate Sound Design work includes over 20 Broadway shows, including Billy Elliot, The Coast of Utopia, and Bobbi Boland. Tony is a graduate of SUNY New Paltz.
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AMY BORATKO (DRAMATURG)

previously served as dramaturg on the Yale Rep productions of Battle of Black and Dogs, Compulsion, Notes from Underground, A Woman of No Importance, Eurydice, and The Cherry Orchard. Her other dramaturgy credits include productions at Yale School of Drama and Yale Cabaret and Voice and Vision's ENVISION retreat at Bard College. She is the Literary Manager at Yale Rep. She has been a teaching fellow at Yale College and Yale School of Drama and was a managing editor of Theater magazine. A graduate of Rice University, she received her MFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from Yale School of Drama.
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VICKI SHAGHOIN (VOCAL COACH)

previously served as music director on Yale Rep's 2003 world premiere of The Black Monk by David Rabe. Her performance credits include Jenufa, Der Rosenkavalier, Das Lied von der Erde, L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, Seven Deadly Sins, Song of Pegasus, Un racconto fiorentino (Avery Fisher Hall), Carousel (Opera Illinois), Candide (Harrisburg Opera), and Windsor Follies (Laurie Beechman Theatre, NYC). She has debuted over a dozen libretti with the celebrated Donald Pippin and has directed for Pocket Opera. She is affiliated with the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Theater Institute. A faculty member at Yale School of Drama, she received her training at California State University at Fresno (BA), the Royal College of Music-School of Opera (ARCM), and the Alexander Institute in London as the recipient of the Rotary International Foundation Graduate Fellowship Award.
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TARA RUBIN CASTING (CASTING DIRECTORS)

has been casting at Yale Rep since 2004. Broadway: Promises, Promises; 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. The Old Globe: Robin and the Seven Hoods, The First Wives Club, Sammy. Film: The Producers: The Musical. Members, Casting Society of America.
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JAMES MOUNTCASTLE (STAGE MANAGER)

made her Broadway debut at the age of 17 as a swing in the Tony Award-winning musical Spring Awakening and played Wendla in the final company. Her other Broadway credits include Brighton Beach Memoirs (Nora) and the Roundabout Theatre Company benefit concert of A Little Night Music (Fredrika) with Vanessa Redgrave. Her film and television credits include Follow Me (CUFF Faculty Selects), White Collar, and The Big C.
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