The Piano Lesson

CREATIVE TEAM

AUGUST WILSON (PLAYWRIGHT)

authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II,and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of African Americans, decade-by-decade, over the course of the twentieth century. His plays have been produced at regional theatres across the country, all over the world and on Broadway. Pulitzer Prizes: Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990). Tony Award: Fences.Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney, and eight NY Drama Critics’ Circle Awards. The cast recording of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received a 1985 Grammy, and The Piano Lesson received a 1995 Emmy nomination. August Wilson received Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships, the Whiting Writers Award, 2003 Heinz Award, 1999 National Humanities Medal from the President of the United States, numerous honorary college degrees and the only high school diploma ever issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. On October 16, 2005, Broadway renamed the theatre located at 245 West 52nd “The August Wilson Theatre.” Posthumously received he Dramatists Guild Award for Lifetime Achievement, Theatre Hall of Fame induction, the namesake for Pittsburgh’s August Wilson Center for African American Culture. Born and raised in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, he lived in Seattle at the time of his death. He is immediately survived by his daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero.
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LIESL TOMMY (DIRECTOR)

made her Yale Rep debut last season with Eclipsed, which was honored with the Outstanding Production of a Play Award from the Connecticut Critics Circle, following the play’s McCarter Theatre workshop and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company world premiere. Her other recent credits include Ruined by Lynn Nottage (Huntington Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival); the world premieres of Peggy Pickett Sees the Face of God by Roland Schimmelpfennig (Luminato Festival/Volcano Theatre), Eisa Davis’s Angela’s Mixtape (Synchronicity Performance Group, New Georges) and A History of Light (Contemporary American Theatre Festival),  The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson (The Public Theater, Sundance Theatre Institute, Dallas Theater Center), and A Stone’s Throw by Lynn Nottage (Women’s Project); Yankee Tavern, Stick Fly (CATF); A Christmas Carol (Trinity Rep); In the Continuum (Playmakers Rep); Flight (City Theatre); Bus and Family Ties (Play Company) for the Romania Kiss Me! Festival. Ms. Tommy was awarded the NEA/TCG Directors Grant, the New York Theatre Workshop Casting/Directing Fellowship, and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. She has also been a guest director and teacher at Juilliard, Trinity Rep/Brown University’s MFA Directing and Acting Program, and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is a native of Cape Town, South Africa.
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DEDE AYITE (SCENIC DESIGNER)

originally from Ghana, is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. She received her BA in theatre and behavioral neuroscience from Lehigh University. Past design credits include costume design for American Schemes by Radha Blank (NYC Summerstage); Every Other Hamlet In The Universe, The Seagull (Yale School Of Drama); Passing, Orestes (Yale Cabaret); Frozen, The Fantasticks, and No Exit. Dede has also worked as a Scenic Artist for The Santa Fe Opera, The Studio Theatre, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Gateway Playhouse, and the Sono Dance Company’s production of The Nutcracker.
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JENNIFER SALIM (COSTUME DESIGNER)

is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Phèdre and Macbeth. Yale Cabaret credits include Waking. Originally from Chicago, she worked as a fashion stylist for Chicago magazine, American Idol, Time Out Chicago, Newcity magazine, Honest magazine, Heidi Hess Designs, as well as styling consultation for various celebrity and corporate clients. She is the 2009-2010 recipient of the Zelma Weisfeld Scholarship for Costume Design and the 2010-2011 recipient of the Jay and Rhonda Keene Scholarship for Costume Design.
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ALAN C. EDWARDS (LIGHTING DESIGNER)

is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Earlier this season he designed the lighting for Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance at Yale Rep. Other credits include Every Other Hamlet In The Universe, the things are against us, La Ronde, Love’s Labour’s Lost (Yale School of Drama); Hedwig and the Angry Inch (also set design), The Phoenix, Muse (Yale Summer Cabaret); Erebus & Terror, The Maids, A Day in Dig Nation, Orestes, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, See What I Wanna See (Yale Cabaret); The Pulp of the Matter (Connecticut College Dance); and The Marriage of Figaro (Tri-Cities Opera). While studying at Ithaca College, he designed Urinetown, Burn This, and scenery for the opera Acis and Galatea. His New York credits include the Broadway productions of A Catered Affair (set design assistant), Boeing-Boeing and The Country Girl (props); and the Off-Broadway production of Amazons and Their Men (props). www.alancedwards.com
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JUNGHOON PI (SOUND DESIGNER)

is a Seoul-based composer and multimedia artist. He has written songs for major K-pop artists including R.ef, Zaza, Shinhwa, Roo’ra, CrownJ. He has also composed scores for Korean blockbuster films including Modern Boy, Man of Vendetta, A Better Tomorrow (invited to the Venice Film Festival, 2010). His American theatre composition credits include Price (Kraine Theatre, New York International Fringe Festival); Blood Wedding (Schapiro Theatre); Walkabout Yeolha(The Riverside Theatre); Every Other Hamlet In The Universe(Yale School of Drama); Electra: Mask Ritual, The Other Shore (Yale Cabaret). Pi earned his BM and MM from Yonsei University and Dongguk University, and he is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where he is the recipient of the Eldon Elder Fellowship.
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RICK SORDELET (FIGHT DIRECTOR)

Fifty Broadway productions, including Disney’s The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, The Little Mermaid, and Aida. More than fifty productions all over the world, including Cyrano de Bergerac starring Placido Domingo at the Metropolitan Opera, The Royal Opera House, and the LaScala in Milan. Stunt coordinator for the films The Game Plan starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Dan in Real Life starring Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche, and Hamlet starring Campbell Scott. He served as the chief stunt coordinator for Guiding Light. Rick sits on the board of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and is a company member of Drama Dept. He teaches at Yale School of Drama, The New School for Drama, and The Neighborhood Playhouse; and he is the author of the play Buried Treasure. Rick is a proud recipient of the Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence from the Lucille Lortel Foundation. He is married to actress Kathleen Kelly and has three children: Kaelan, Christian, and Collin.
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BETH McGUIRE (VOCAL AND DIALECT COACH)

Vocal and dialect coach credits include the Off-Broadway productions of The Overwhelming (Roundabout Theatre Company); The Black Eyed (New York Theatre Workshop); Five by Tenn (Manhattan Theatre Club); People Be Heard (Playwrights Horizons); Candida, Gas Light (The Roundtable Ensemble); Free Market (The Working Theatre); Exit Cuckoo; Art of Memory (Company SoGoNo); and In Darfur (The Public Theater). Regional: The Servant of Two Masters, Eclipsed, Death of a Salesman, Lydia, All’s Well That Ends Well, dance of the holy ghosts, The Mystery Plays, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Iphigenia at Aulis, Kingdom of Earth (Yale Rep); Hamlet, Carnival, King John, The Glass Menagerie (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); The Cook (Hartford Stage); and Crimes of the Heart (The Cape Playhouse). Ms. McGuire is currently on faculty at Yale School of Drama; is a member of VASTA (The Voice and Speech Trainers Association), Actors’ Equity, SAG, and AFTRA; and is an actress with over 30 years of performance experience.
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CHENG-HAN WU (DRAMATURG)

is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his dramaturgy credits include Homebody/Kabul and Uncle Vanya. Originally from Taiwan, he received his BA in drama and theater from National Taiwan University (NTU), where his major dramaturgy credits include Twelfth Night and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Later, he served as web editor of PAR Performing Arts Magazine and research assistant of NTU Shakespeare Forum. Currently, he is also Resident Dramaturg as well as translator of Ren-Shin Theatre, a Taiwan-based troupe renown for staging Euro-American contemporary plays in Chinese. For Ren-Shin, his dramaturgy credits include The Homecoming, Wonder of the World, and Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. He is also a director and actor in Taiwan. His directing credits include Before Breakfast (NTU), I Am My Own Wife (Ren-Shin), and The Other Shore (Yale Cabaret). His acting credits include the new musical adaptation Mulan (NTU).
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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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ALLISON HALL JOHNSON (STAGE MANAGER)

is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Her Yale Repertory Theatre credits include assistant stage managing Eclipsed and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Her Yale School School of Drama credits include Orlando, Jelly's Last Jam, Thriftcrawl, Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys, The Current War, The Bedtrick, and the things are against us. Her Yale Cabaret credits include The Mystery of Irma Vep, Fly-by-Night, Evil Dead: The Musical, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, Babs the Dodo, and A Portrait of the Woman as a Young Artist. Other credits include The Daughters (Yale Institute for Music Theatre), Blues in the Night (Post Street Theatre), and Joe Goode Performance Group's Humansville (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts). She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2007 with a BA in theatre and performance studies and a minor in African American studies. She got her start in theatre as a high school student at a performing arts school in Los Angeles called Amazing Grace Conservatory. She has been a proud member of Actors Equity Association for 3 years.
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