Wait Until Dark

RON OJ PARSON is a Resident Artist at Court where he has directed The Piano Lesson, The First Breeze of Summer, Flyin’ West and the highly acclaimed, Jeff Award-winning production of Fences. He is the co-founder and former Artistic Director of The Onyx Theatre Ensemble of Chicago. He hails from Buffalo, New York and is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Professional Theatre Program. In Chicago he has directed shows at The Goodman (Let Me Live), Steppenwolf (Wedding Band, a co-production with Congo Square Theatre, Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, and The Horn, a co-production with City Lit Theatre), Victory Gardens (Hambone), Congo Square (The Piano Lesson and co-directed and acted in Ali), and Urban Theatre Company (Short Eyes). He has also worked with Black Ensemble Theatre and eta Creative Arts Foundation, most recently directing Robert Johnson: Trick the Devil. For Onyx, he directed East Texas Hot Links, Sty of the Blind Pig, and Flyin’ West, among many other shows. Regionally he has directed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Palmer Park), the St. Louis Black Repertory Co. (Jitney), Portland Stage Company (Fences, The Piano Lesson), Virginia Stage Company (Yellowman), Studio Arena Theatre (A Raisin in the Sun), Village Theatre in Issaqua, Washington (One Red Flower), Madison Repertory Theatre (Topdog/Underdog), Actors Theatre of Louisville (Gem of the Ocean), and Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (Radio Golf). Also an accomplished actor, Parson has worked at various theatres in and out of the U.S. Some TV and film credits include E.R., Early Edition, Turks, Primal Fear, Ali, Barbershop 2, and Drop Squad. Find out more at www.ronojparson.com.

JOSHUA HORVATH Court: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Wait Until Dark, Fences, Caroline or Change, Titus Andronicus, Fences, First Breeze of Summer, Raisin’, Guys and Dolls, Romance Cycle, and End Game. Off-Broadway: Clay (Lincoln Center). Chicago credits: Goodman, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare, Northlight, Lookingglass, About Face, The House Theatre, Timeline, and Congo Square. Regional credits: The Kennedy Center, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, Centerstage, Kansas City Rep, Center Theatre Group, Peninsula Player, Illinois Shakespeare, Great River Shakespeare, Milwaukee Rep, Milwaukee Shakespeare, and Madison Rep.  Mr. Horvath has won two Jeff awards and has been nominated 6 times.

RAY NARDELLI Past Court Credits include Wait Until Dark, First Breeze of Summer,  What the Butler Saw,  Flyin West, Endgame, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Fraulein Else (Jeff Nomination). Ray has composed music and designed sound at The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Northlight Theatre, AppleTree Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, The Gift Theatre, Northwestern Theatre, Depaul Theatre, Notre Dame Summer Shakespeare, Meadow Brook Theatre, Dolphinback Theatre, American Girl Theatre, Skylight Opera. Memberships include ASCAP, IATSE #2 and USA #829.

JACK MAGAW works as a freelance scenic designer and also teaches design at The Theatre School at DePaul University.  Recent design credits include Wait Until Dark (Court Theatre), All My Sons (TimeLine Theatre), Evie’s Waltz (Geva Theatre), This Wonderful Life (Indiana Repertory), Radio Golf (Pittsburgh Public Theatre), Winesburg, Ohio and A Flea in Her Ear (Kansas City Rep), Pure Confidence (Florida Studio Theatre), Souvenir (Skylight Opera Theatre), Four Places (Victory Gardens Theater), Better Late (Northlight Theatre), Love’s Labor’s Lost (Clarence Brown Theatre), and Picnic (Writers’ Theatre).  He received Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Picnic and Bus Stop (Writers’ Theatre), Fences (Court Theatre), and Seven Guitars (Congo Square).  Upcoming projects include Funny Girl (Drury Lane Oakbrook) and A Life (Northlight Theatre).

RACHEL LARITZ is honored to be joining Court Theatre for the first time.  Some recent designs include: Po Boy Tango and Better Late (Northlight Theatre); The Voysey Inheritance and The Philadelphia Story (Remy Bumppo); Weekend (Timeline); Glengarry Glenn Ross, Seascape, The Clean House (Milwaukee Rep); Eugene Onegin, (University of Michigan).  Other professional credits include: NBC’S Law & Order, Garsington Opera (London, England) and a recent nomination for best costume design at the 2008 Jeff Awards.

MARC STUBBLEFIELD is currently in his 9th year as Court’s Director of Production. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is his fifth design for Court, having worked with Artistic Director Charlie Newell on Glass Menagerie and Arcadia, and Ron OJ Parson on The Piano Lesson and First Breeze of Summer. 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.

KATE BREDESON is Resident Dramaturg at Court Theatre and Lecturer in the Theatre and Performance Studies Program at the University of Chicago. She comes to Chicago after working as Assistant Professor of Theatre at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and living in Paris for several years before that. She has earned awards including a Fulbright, a residency at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, and fellowships from the Killam Foundation, Mellon Foundation and the Institut Français de Washington. She is currently working on a book about theatre and performance surrounding the May 1968 events in France. Kate holds an MFA and a doctorate in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from the Yale School of Drama, regularly presents at international conferences, and has published articles in Theater, Theatre Symposium, Modern and Contemporary France, The Tennessee Williams Literary Journal, and Time Out Paris. As a dramaturg, she has worked at theatres such as the Guthrie and the Yale Repertory Theatre, and with the Ensemble Company of Performing Arts.