Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women

EDWARD ALBEE was born on March 12, 1928, and began writing plays 30 years later. His plays include The Zoo Story (1958), The American Dream (1960), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961-62, Tony Award), Tiny Alice (1964), A Delicate Balance (1966, Pulitzer Prize; 1996, Tony Award), All Over (1971), Seascape (1974, Pulitzer Prize), The Lady from Dubuque (1977-78), The Man Who Had Three Arms (1981), Finding the Sun (1982), Marriage Play (1986-87), Three Tall Women (1991, Pulitzer Prize), Fragments (1993), The Play About the Baby (1997), The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (2000, 2002 Tony Award), and Occupant (2001). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council, and President of The Edward F. Albee Foundation. Mr. Albee was awarded the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980, and in 1996 received the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts.

CHARLES NEWELL has been Artistic Director of Court Theatre since 1994, where he has directed over 30 productions. He made his Chicago directorial debut in 1993 with The Triumph of Love, which won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Production. Directorial highlights at Court include An Iliad, Porgy and Bess, Three Tall Women, The Year of Magical Thinking, The Wild Duck, Caroline, Or Change, Titus Andronicus, Arcadia, Man of La Mancha, Uncle Vanya, Raisin, The Glass Menagerie, Travesties, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Hamlet, and The Invention of Love.  Charlie has also directed at the Goodman Theatre (Rock ‘n’ Roll), the Guthrie Theater (Resident Director: The History Cycle, Cymbeline), Arena Stage, John Houseman’s The Acting Company (Staff Repertory Director), the California and Alabama Shakespeare Festivals, Juilliard, and New York University. He is the recipient of the 1992 TCG Alan Schneider Director Award. He has served on the Board of Theatre Communications Group, as well as on several panels for the National Endowment for the Arts. Opera directing credits include Marc Blitzstein’s Regina at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Rigoletto at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Charlie is a multiple Joseph Jefferson Award (Chicago’s highest theatrical honor) nominee and recipient. Recently, his production of Caroline, Or Change at Court was the recipient of four Joseph Jefferson Awards, including Best Production–Musical and Best Director–Musical.

LEIGH BRESLAU is not a set designer. He is design partner at the architecture, engineering & planning firm of Trahan Architects of Chicago and Baton Rouge. Leigh has designed many performing arts venues including Symphony Center in Chicago and the Long Center in Austin, Texas. He has also been involved in renovations of Avery Fisher Hall in New York and the Lyric Opera and Ravinia Festival in Chicago, and was the master planner for Chicago’s Millennium Park. He continues to design theatres and other assembly buildings as well as institutional projects around the country with his new partner, the award-winning architect Trey Trahan. This is his fourth scenic design for Court Theatre, returning to join Charlie after having worked on Uncle Vanya, Titus Andronicus, and The Wild Duck.

MARC STUBBLEFIELD is currently in his 11th year as Court’s Director of Production. Spunk is his seventh design for Court, having previously worked with Artistic Director Charlie Newell on Glass Menagerie, Arcadia, and Three Tall Women, and Ron OJ Parson on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, and The First Breeze of Summer.  He also teaches Lighting Design at the University of Chicago.  He has worked at the Geffen Playhouse, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, and the Alley Theatre among others. He received a dual MFA in Production Management and Scenic Design from UCLA’s school of Theatre, Film and Television, and his BA in Technical Theatre from Rice University.

Ana Kuzmanic is thrilled to be working at Court Theatre. She designed costumes for the original Steppenwolf production of August: Osage County, including the runs on Broadway, National Theatre of London, Sydney Theatre Company and 2009-10 US National Tour. Other Broadway credits include Desire Under the Elms directed by Bob Falls and Superior Donuts directed by Tina Landau. In 2008 Ms. Kuzmanic designed costumes for Rock’N’Roll directed by Charles Newell at the Goodman Theatre, where she also worked on King Lear, Desire Under the Elms, A True History of the Johnstown Flood, and Seagull, all directed by Robert Falls. Ms Kuzmanic is the recipient of a Jeff Award for The Comedy of Errors directed by Barbara Gaines at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where she also designed for Romeo and Juliet. Other credits include Lookingglass Theatre, Trinity Rep, Milwaukee Rep, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Berkeley Rep, and McCarter Theatre. Her upcoming projects include Mary at the Goodman, The Hot L Baltimore at Steppenwolf and Willful at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Ms. Kuzmanic graduated from Faculty of Applied Arts and Design in Belgrade, Serbia and earned her Masters Degree in Stage Design from Northwestern University in 2004. She has been Assistant Professor of Costume Design at Northwestern University since 2007.

Megan Geigner is happy to return to Court Theatre. She has served as the production dramaturg for The Year of Magical Thinking, in the winter of 2010, as well as The Regina Taylor Project at Northwestern University, where she is a student in the Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama program. Megan was the production manager for the undergraduate theatre program at University of Chicago from 2008 to August 2010. She has worked at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Profiles Theatre, and the Sundance Theatre Lab. She is a member of the Jeff A/T Team and sits on the board of the NeoFuturists. She has taught theatre at University of Chicago, Illinois State University, Wilbur Wright College, and Heartland Community College. She holds an MA in Liberal Studies from Reed College and an MA in Theater History from Illinois State University.