written by: chambers stevens starring: brian t. hill ... · carrelli holds a bachelor’s degree in...

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Written by: Chambers Stevens Starring: Brian T. Hill | Michael Roark | Caroline Davis Director: Melissa Carrelli | Producer: Scott Orr The Filming Station 501 8th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee 37203

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Written by: Chambers StevensStarring: Brian T. Hill | Michael Roark | Caroline Davis

Director: Melissa Carrelli | Producer: Scott Orr

The Filming Station501 8th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee 37203

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Director: Melissa Carrelli | Producer: Scott Orr

The Filming Station501 8th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee 37203

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Twain & Shaw Do LunchCAST

Mark Twain ......................................................... Brian T. Hill

George Bernard Shaw ............................. Michael Roark

Mrs. Shaw ....................................................... Caroline Davis

There is 1 Act - No intermission

SeTTiNG: George Bernard Shaw’s Living Room, Lon-don, 1907

SUPPORT STAFFStage Manager/Technical ............................. Daryl Pike

Assistant Stage Manager..................... Stephanie Reith

Lighting Design ............................................ Richard Davis,

ARDee Design Group

Costume and Set Design....................... Melissa Carrelli

Poster Art ....................................................... Danny Proctor

Set Dressing................................................. Chase Jeffords

Set Construction .................. Gary Carrelli, Kirby Hade

Dramaturg ................................... Andrea Bradley Hearn

Playbill .......................................... The Camden Chronicle,

Camden, Tennessee

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About the PlayTwain and Shaw Do Lunch, a comedy by Hendersonville native Chambers Stevens based on the 1907 meeting of Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw, will make its area debut November 7-15, for four performances at The Filming Station downtown. Present-ed by in Another Life and Maverick entertainment Group in asso-ciation with Genuine Human, Twain and Shaw Do Lunch will play two weekends: Friday and Saturday, November 7-8 and 14-15, at 7:30 p.m.

Bracing and fast-paced, Twain and Shaw Do Lunch covers an ex-traordinary afternoon in June 1907, when the world’s best-known humorist matches wits with one of its most controversial play-wrights—and the playwright’s wife. Based on an actual meeting between Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw, the comedy hurtles through a good deal of biographical, political and liter-ary ground in the Shaws’ London home. Having bumped into Mark Twain at Victoria Station, the prolific irishman Shaw invites the aging American novelist home for lunch. Meanwhile, Shaw’s wife Charlotte, herself an irish heiress, has been doing battle with a dewy-eyed admirer of her husband. Will Shaw and Twain avoid coming to blows over their feelings for Wagner and Joan of Arc? Will Charlotte keep a star-struck young woman from gate-crash-ing the afternoon? Will anyone survive Charlotte’s abysmal cook-ing?

From the hilarious (the teetotaling Shaw’s failure to serve his fa-mous guest a drink) to the heartfelt (the Shaws’ complicated mar-riage and Twain’s family griefs), Twain and Shaw Do Lunch invites the audience to join Charlotte, “Sam” and “Genius” over a fraught and funny lunch of badly cooked beet salad and liberally poured irish whiskey.

Directed by Melissa Carrelli, the production features Brian T. Hill as Mark Twain, Michael Roark as George Bernard Shaw, and Caroline Davis as Shaw’s wife, Charlotte. Scott Orr is producer and Daryl Pike is stage manager.

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The PlayersMark Twain: At 71, Mark Twain has entered the final years of his ca-reer and his life. Having published an astonishing array of popular books, he has also made a series of spectacularly bad investments. To repay his debts, he has undertaken a grueling schedule of in-ternational speaking engagements; in recent years, his beloved wife and favorite daughter have died. He has come to London in the early summer of 1907 to receive an honorary degree from Ox-ford University.

George Bernard Shaw: The 51-year-old irishman Shaw is a whirl-wind of activity: he makes speeches, publishes articles and books, and writes the plays that will make him one of the Western world’s most important dramatists. He is an atheist, a socialist and a vege-tarian; a committed member of the Fabian Society and co-founder of the London School of economics, Shaw (or “Genius,” as Char-lotte calls him) has a habit of expressing unconventional views and encouraging lovelorn would-be lady authors.

Charlotte Shaw, née Charlotte Payne-Townshend: A member of the Anglo-irish ascendancy, Charlotte Shaw was born in County Derry, ireland, and grew up in County Cork. A woman of indepen-dent means, she has traveled widely; mixed with artists, intellectu-als and socialites alike; and, at the age of 39, married the electric and eccentric George Bernard Shaw. She is now 50 years old and, although their marriage is affectionate and companionable, it is [assumed to be] entirely platonic. A fine friend and complex soul, Charlotte guards and guides her husband’s prolific social and ar-tistic commitments.

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About the Playwrightemmy nominee Chambers Stevens is one of Los Angeles’ top acting coaches, with 10 books in print, including several titles in the popular Hollywood 101 series for young actors (Sandcastle Publishing). in the last 15 years, Chambers has toured the country, doing workshops for more 100,000 actors in 40 states. He is also a contributing columnist for the weekly casting publication Backstage.

Chambers left his mark on Nashville theater as a founder of The Nashville Shakespeare Festival, now in its 25th year. Among his many local stage and local television performances were WSMV-TV’s The Steve Spots, which received six emmys and a George Peabody Award. in 2012, the Nashville theater community cele-brated his theatrical contributions at the First Night Theater Hon-ors, and a reading of Twain and Shaw Do Lunch was staged during the First Night week of festivities.

Twain and Shaw Do Lunch received its world premiere in 2008 at the New Theatre in Coral Gable, FL, and has been recognized with a Long Beach Playhouse Award for Best New Play and as Best Comedy by The Palm Spring international Playwriting Contest. Chambers’ other playwriting accomplishments include an ingram Fellowship and the Tennessee Arts Commission individual Artist Award. Additional credits include Mother of Pearl (published by i.e. Clark Publishing), Desperate for Magic (elderidge Publishing), Biff and Charlie (Samuel French), Travels With Jack Lemmon’s Dog, which premiered at the North Star Theatre in New Orleans, and Bing Bang Boom, which debuted at the University of Florida and has since been performed in colleges around the country.

He and his wife, film and theatre producer Betsy Sullenger, live in Los Angeles with their seven-year-old son, Twain.

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About the DirectorMelissa Carrelli (formerly Melissa Bedinger Hade) has been a highly acclaimed performer, director and designer since her early work with Nashville legends Ruth Sweet and Dennis ewing. Among her directing credits are The Dresser, Lady Frederick, The imaginary invalid, The Constant Wife, and Lady Windermere’s Fan (for ACT i); enchanted April and Sunday on the Rocks (Groundworks); Summer and Smoke (Circle), and Titus Andronicus and The Win-

ter’s Tale (Actors’ Playhouse).

As an actor her resume includes lead roles in Who’s Afraid of Vir-ginia Woolf? (“Martha”), Three Tall Women, M. Butterfly, Morning’s at Seven, Top Girls, The Cocktail Hour and First Night Award-win-ning turns as “Sally Bowles” in Cabaret and “Madame de Tourvel” in Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Carrelli holds a bachelor’s degree in Visual Art from Western Ken-tucky University and an MFA in Directing from the University of Memphis, and was formerly managing director of Theatre Mem-phis’ Showagon,

DARYL PIKE has been part of the Nashville theater community, both on stage and behind the scenes, for 20 years. He has worked with companies such as Circle Players, ACT 1, and Groundworks Theatre. Some of his favorite productions are: Oh! What a Lovely War!, enchanted April, The Royal Family, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, all of which he served as stage manager, as well as i Hate Hamlet and She Stoops to Conquer, both of which he produced. He is also

proud of the three productions that he directed for ACT 1: edward Albee’s Three Tall Women, which starred Melissa Carrelli; Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy; and Terrence McNally’s Love! Valour! Compassion!, which starred Brian T. Hill. He still hopes to, one day, get to direct Dancing at Lughnasa (hint, hint) by Brian Friel.

About the Stage Manager

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About the CastBRIAN T. HILL (“Mark Twain”) has worked in pro-fessional and non-professional theatrical capaci-ties as an actor, director and musical director for some 50 years. He is the proud recipient of a Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and handful of tech-nical awards from Circle Players. Additionally, two of his directorial efforts were honored with a First Night Award (Best Musical to Jacques Brel…) and named one of the top ten community theater pro-

ductions in the nation (American Academy of Community Theater for A…My Name is Alice). in his favorite roles he’s lost a foot (“Paul Sheldon” in Misery), come close to losing a kingdom (“Henry iii” in The Lion in Winter) and prepared, with some style and grace, to lose his life (“John/James” in Love! Valour! Compassion!).

CAROLINE DAVIS (“Charlotte Shaw”) has per-formed with various local theatre groups (ACT 1, Blackbird, Carrick, Circle, Groundworks, Rhubarb), on occasion as an ice skater, a geisha, a monkey, a dog, a Marx Brother, a shepherdess (twice) and a dead person (thrice). Among her favorite roles are “Olivia” in Mr. Pim Passses By; “Amanda” in Private Lives; “Sylvia” in Sylvia and in The Women; “Mrs. erlynne” in Lady Windermere’s Fan; “Rose” in en-

chanted April; “Haley” in Bad Dates; “Florence Nightingale” in Twi-light of the Gods, and the title role of Lady Frederick. She has also sung in three Nashville Opera productions. A member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, Middle Tennessee Chapter, she is an alumna of Leadership Music and the FBi Citizens Academy.

MICHAEL ROARK (“George Bernard Shaw”) lived in New York City and studied acting at the National Shakespeare Conservatory after graduating from Western State Colorado University. Since moving to Nashville in 2003, he has been seen in many pro-ductions for a variety of theater companies (Ten-nessee Rep, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, ACT 1, Rhubarb Theater, Circle Players, etc.). He recently

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About the Cast (cont.)played Dr. Martin Dysart in KB Productions’ presentation of Peter Schaffer’s equus, a role he had always wanted to take on (even if he didn’t consciously know it) since he first encountered it at the age of 18. Other favorite roles include Norman in Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser, Dale Harding in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuck-oo’s Nest, Griever in Craig Lucas’ Blue Window, and Cecil Graham in Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan. He’s also proud of two productions he directed for ACT 1: edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Paul Osborn’s Morning’s at Seven—both star-ring the wonderful Melissa Carrelli. And he’s thrilled to be playing (for the fifth time!) under her direction again.

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Home to Demetria Kalodimos’s Genuine Human production com-pany, The Filming Station is located on the Downtown Roundabout (just south of the Music City Center) at 801 8th Avenue South (37203). Using reclaimed brick from a nearby demolition, found materials, recycled supplies and ingenuity, the venue is the resur-rection of an historic 1935 gas station that serviced the city for generations, and now includes performance, screening, produc-tion and special event spaces. For more information, visit TheFilm-ingStation.com.

About the Filming Station

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In Remembrance

Rita Ellen Frizzell(1956 - 2013)

On May 10, 2013 the Nashville Theater community lost one of its treasured members when our friend & colleague Rita Frizzell succumbed after a valiant battle with cancer. Rita was one of the most well known and liked actresses in the Nashville area.

She and director, Melissa Carelli, were great friends and per-formed together in many fantastic productions such as A COUPLe OF WHiTe CHiCKS SiTTiNG AROUND TALKiNG. Rita was directed by Carelli in memorable productions of SOCiAL SeCURiTY, TiTUS ANDRONiCUS, OUT OF OUR FATHeR’S HOUSe, and WATeRBeAR-eR. Her bubbly personality and range of emotion led her to play a variety of roles during her career.

She was a graduate of the Acting Studio’s prestigious Conser-vatory and acted in TN Rep’s JeSUS CHRiST SUPeRSTAR and CAMeLOT. During an exciting plot twist in the 1980s, General Hos-pital fans will remember her as the Mysterious Blond.

A favorite actress and the definition of a best friend, Rita Frizzell’s star shines bright.Though her time on earth is done, her legacy of being a class act as well as actress lives on.

Margaret “Maggi” Bowden (1950- 2014 )

On August 28, 2014 the Nashville Theater Communi-ty lost one of its staunchest supporters in Margaret “Maggi” Bowden. Maggi also lost a courageous bat-tle with cancer and leaves a rich legacy of service to the Nashville arts community.

For over a decade, Maggi Bowden, along with Sue Stinemetz, was one of the finest theater producers working in Nashville Theater. Maggi not only produced amazing productions of CABAReT and Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Circle as well as shows at ACT 1, she directed many plays. Among her most notable was TOWARD ZeRO.

Maggi also brought her talents in front of the lights with turns in STeeL MAGNOLiAS and as eleanor in THe LiON iN WiNTeR. A re-cipient of The Sue Stinemetz Award for Outstanding Service. She was dearly loved by all who knew her and will always shine in our hearts.

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Special Thank YouDemetria Kalodimos

Verlon Thompson

Terri Dorsey

Genuine Human

Jef ellis

David McGinnis

evans Donnell/ ArtsNash

Amy Prough Stumpfl/ The Tennessean

Martin Brady/ The Nashville Scene

Christian N. Anderson, MD, and Angela Whittaker,

PT, Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance

Tulip Street United Methodist Church

CJ Advertising

Chase Oeser & Stewart Parking Solutions

Jennifer Fox & The Camden Chronicle

Bobby “Flash” Melton & WRJB 95.9 FM, Camden, TN