- 2023-10-09
Steve Yockey’s Bellwether
MARIN THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS STEVE YOCKEY’S BELLWETHER
SPINE-TINGLING FAIRY TALE FOR ADULTS RECEIVES WORLD PREMIERE, CULMINATES MORE THAN TWO-YEAR LONG RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PLAYWRIGHT AND MTC
October 6-30, 2011 | Opening Night, October 11
MILL VALLEY, CA—Marin Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Bellwether by Steve Yockey, the company’s former Playwright in Residence, from October 6 to October 30. Ryan Rilette, MTC’s producing director, directs a large ensemble cast of Bay Area actors led by Arwen Anderson and Gabriel Marin in this spine-tingling fairy tale for adults. Opening night is on Tuesday, October 11.
“I am delighted that our former Playwright in Residence Steve Yockey will return to MTC for the world premiere of his haunting suburban thriller,” says MTC artistic director Jasson Minadakis. “MTC, along with a number of theaters from across the country, including Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Lab for New Work, Actor’s Express in Atlanta and Boston Court Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles, have worked on developing this thoroughly imaginative and technically challenging play with Steve over the past several seasons. We’re very excited to finally unveil Bellwether to Bay Area and national audiences.”
Bellwether begins in a place we recognize – a gated suburban community – and with a tragedy that is unfortunately all too familiar – the disappearance of a child – but, like many of Yockey’s plays, nothing is what it seems. Bellwether is part of a triptych of ‘bargain plays’ by Yockey that includes Octopus, which was produced by Magic Theatre in San Francisco in May 2008, and afterlife - a ghost story, which is currently receiving a National New Play Network rolling premiere at Southern Rep in New Orleans, New Repertory Theatre in Boston and Edgemar Center for the Arts in Los Angeles.
MTC has had a relationship with playwright Steve Yockey for over two years. During the 2009-10 season, he was the company’s National New Play Network Playwright in Residence. MTC’s Expanded Programs department has commissioned two plays for young audiences from Yockey, Animal vs. Animal: an Aesop’s Fables Mashup and TALL Tales, each of which was performed in over 20 elementary schools across the Bay Area to nearly 4,500 students. In October 2009, Bellwether received a developmental workshop and staged public reading as part of MTC’s New Works series. Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “a fiercely imaginative and finely tuned new voice,” Yockey said of the upcoming premiere, “Jasson and Ryan have been incredibly enthusiastic about this play from the jump. After spending such a fantastic year with the company and its audience, I can’t wait to get Bellwether on that stage.”
Arwen Anderson and Gabriel Marin, who both last appeared in MTC’s critically acclaimed production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 2008, return to lead an ensemble cast of Bay Area actors featuring Mollie Stickney, who appeared in MTC’s Fuddy Meers in 2011 and Happy Now? in 2010, and debuts by Danny Wolohan, Jessica Lynn Carroll, Rachel Harker and Marissa Keltie. The cast also features Marin County natives Liz Sklar, who appeared in MTC’s Seagull in 2011, Patrick Jones, who performed in both productions of Yockey’s School Tour commissions, and Kathryn Zdan, who makes her MTC debut.
FACTS & CALENDAR INFORMATION
WHAT
Marin Theatre Company presents BELLWETHER | World Premiere
WHO
By Steve Yockey | Directed by Ryan Rilette
Featuring Arwen Anderson,* Jessica Lynn Carroll,* Rachel Harker,* Patrick Jones,* Marissa Keltie, Gabriel Marin,* Liz Sklar,* Mollie Stickney,* Danny Wolohan,* Kathryn Zdan
* Member, Actor’s Equity Association
WHEN
October 6 – 30, 2011
Opening Night: October 11 | Previews: October 6-10
Performance Days
Tue, Thu, Fri & Sat 8:00 pm
Wed 7:30 pm
Sun 7:00 pm
Matinees: Thu 10/20, 1:00 pm | Sat 10/15 & 10/29, 2:00 pm | Every Sun 2:00 pm
Check marintheatre.org or call the box office at (415) 388-5208 for exact performance dates and times.
WHERE
Marin Theatre Company | 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941
ABOUT
Bellwether was a nice, safe place to live. People knew each other. They looked out for each other. Bad things didn’t happen there. That was until six-year-old Amy Draft went missing. As the police investigation progresses, speculation in the media and the neighborhood becomes critical and suspicious of Amy’s parents. However, her disappearance is not what it seems and is only a glimpse of what lurks below the gated suburban community’s perfection. Written by MTC’s 2010 Playwright in Residence Steve Yockey, this spine-tingling fairy tale for adults will haunt you long after the house lights have come up.
TICKETS
$34–$55, details below (discounts available for Seniors and Under 30)
Ticket Prices
Previews: $34 all
Opening Night & Sat Evenings: $50 side | $55 center
Tues: $34 | $38
Wed, Thu, Sun Evenings & Matinees: $39 | $44
Fri: $45 | $50
Discounts available:
RUSH tickets: $15, available one hour prior to show, based on availability
Under 30: $20, all performances
Senior discounts: varies by performance, please call
For group sales, contact Julie Knight, (415) 388-5200, ext. 3302
ENGAGE
“MTC Engaged” invites patrons to join MTC’s artistic staff, designers and casts in conversation. A member of MTC’s artistic staff (often with one or more members of the cast) hosts a Q&A talk-back after every performance, except on Saturday evenings, Opening or Closing Nights.
MTC Engaged Special Events:
– Theater Lecture Series: Bellwether – FREE public lecture at Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Ave., Thu 9/29, 7:00 p.m.,
– After Words – post-show interview with special guest: Sun 10/9, 2:00 p.m.
– Director’s Night – post-show conversation with director: Wed 10/12 & 10/26
– Perspectives – pre-show topical lecture: Thu 10/20, 12:00 p.m.
ACCESS
“MTC All Access” strives to make theater accessible to all audiences. For seeing impaired patrons, Large Print playbills are available at the box office at all performances, Digital playbills that are compatible with screen reader software are available online starting one week before the first performance of a production, and Braille playbills are available with two-weeks advance notice through partnership with LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. To request a Braille playbill, call MTC’s Box Office, (415) 388-5208, or use the California Telecommunications Relay Service by dialing “711.” For hearing impaired patrons, amplified sound Listening Devices are available.
CONTACT www.marintheatre.org | (415) 388-5208 | boxoffice@marintheatre.org
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Steve Yockey (Playwright) is a roaming company member with Out of Hand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, and his plays have been produced around the country and in Asia. His Bay Area theater credits include CARTOON, Sleepy, Large Animal Games and Disassembly at Impact Theatre, Skin at Climate Theater and Encore Theatre Company, and Octopus at Magic Theatre and Encore. This season, afterlife - a ghost story is receiving a National New Play Network [NNPN] rolling world premiere at Southern Rep in New Orleans, New Repertory Theatre in Boston and Edgemar Center for the Arts in Los Angeles. Yockey’s published works Octopus, CARTOON, Large Animal Games and Subculture (collected short plays) are available from Samuel French. His other plays include Wonder, Feverish, Heavier than... and The Thrush & The Woodpecker. Yockey holds a BA from the University of Georgia and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is a recent recipient of a Coca-Cola Artist Residency to teach dramatic structure at Emory University. After completing a yearlong NNPN playwriting residency with Marin Theatre Company, Yockey now lives and works in Los Angeles.
Ryan Rilette (Director) is in his fifth season as producing director at MTC, where he has directed Fuddy Meers, In the Red and Brown Water, boom and Magic Forest Farm and will direct the God of Carnage later this season. From 2002 to 2008, Rilette served as producing artistic director of Southern Rep in New Orleans, where he directed the world premieres of The Breach, Rising Water, The Sunken Living Room, The Vulgar Soul and The House of Plunder and regional premieres of Kimberly Akimbo, The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? and In Walks Ed. He has also directed for A.C.T.’s MFA program, New Theatre in Miami, the Tennessee Williams Festival, Soho Rep and the Flea, among others. He is the president of the National New Play Network, cofounder and former executive artistic director of Rude Mechanicals Theater Company in New York and a former professor at Tulane and Loyola Universities.
Arwen Anderson (Jackie Draft) has appeared at MTC in A Streetcar Named Desire. She recently appeared in the world premiere of Amanda Dehnert’s The Verona Project at Cal Shakes. Other Bay Area theater credits include An Accident, Mauritius, Mrs. Whitney, Expedition 6 and The Rules of Charity at Magic Theatre; Love in American Times at San Jose Rep; Lobby Hero and The Shape of Things at Aurora Theatre Company; Tales of the City (workshop) at A.C.T.; Nickel & Dimed at TheatreWorks and Brava! for Women in the Arts; as well as roles with Marines Memorial Theatre, Encore Theatre Company, Word for Word and Climate Theater. Her film work includes Hog Island, Ashley 22 and Dark Retreat. Anderson graduated with degrees in Theatre and Psychology from Wesleyan University, is a local singer/songwriter and trains and teaches aerial silk and trapeze at the Circus Center of San Francisco.
Gabriel Marin (Alan Draft) has appeared at MTC in A Streetcar Named Desire. He recently appeared in Love in American Times at San Jose Rep, Wirehead at SF Playhouse, Collapse at Aurora Theatre Company and Superior Donuts at TheatreWorks. Locally, he has appeared at A.C.T., Bay Area Playwrights Foundation, Black Box Theatre, Center REP, Central Works, Magic Theatre, PlayGround, San Francisco Fringe Festival, San Jose Rep, The Jewish Theatre, Thick Description, Word for Word and Z Space. East Bay Express named Marin the Best Actor of the East Bay in 2010. He has performed on NBC, CBS, PBS and the BBC.
Mollie Stickney (Neighbor 3/Reporter 3) has appeared at MTC in Fuddy Meers and Happy Now?. She has performed throughout the Bay Area at theaters such as A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, Magic Theatre, Theater on the Square and SF Playhouse. She is a graduate of A.C.T.’s MFA program. Film credits include Out on a Limb, The Confessional and the upcoming Love and Taxes starring Josh Kornbluth.
Liz Sklar (Neighbor 4/Reporter 1) has appeared at MTC in Seagull and is currently an MTC teacher in residence at Martin Luther King Junior Academy in Marin City (funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts’ Shakespeare in American Communities program). Her Bay Area credits include Care of Trees at Shotgun Players, A Christmas Carol at A.C.T., The Tempest at Cal Shakes, The Winter’s Tale at Marin Shakespeare Company and The Foreigner at Ross Valley Players. In New York, she most recently played Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at Mortal Folly Theatre. Other regional credits include Philistines, The Lady from the Sea, The Servant of Two Masters, Village Wooing, Little Shop of Horrors, Good Breeding and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She co-starred with Stacy Keach in Imbued, now touring film festivals worldwide. Sklar holds a BA in Theater Arts from Brown University, an MFA in Acting from A.C.T. and has been training with the SITI Company in New York.
Patrick Jones (Neighbor 6/Detective 2) makes his main stage debut in Bellwether at MTC, where he has appeared in the School Tour productions of Animal vs. Animal: an Aesop’s Fables Mashup and TALL Tales. His recent Bay Area credits include Metamorphosis at Aurora Theatre Company, Exit, Pursued by a Bear at Crowded Fire Theater, Taboos at National Center for New Plays at Stanford, Under Milk Wood at Stanford Summer Theater, The Real Thing at Livermore Shakespeare Festival and How to Write a New Book for the Bible at TheatreWorks New Works Festival. He has appeared in New York at Personal Space Theatrics, New York Classical Theater and 52nd Street Project, and, nationally, at Denver Center, Florida Studio Theater, Northern Stage in Vermont, Cleveland Play House, Great Lakes Theater Festival and Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. Jones received his MFA from Case Western Reserve University.
Danny Wolohan (Neighbor 5/Detective 1) makes his MTC debut in Bellwether. He is a member of Campo Santo and the ESP Project, resident companies at Intersection for the Arts. With ESP, he appeared in the world premieres of One Window, Orbit and 51802. With Campo Santo, he appeared in seven world premieres and collaborated with such writers as Denis Johnson, Dave Eggers, Philip Kan Gotanda, Octavio Solis and Jessica Hagedorn. Wolohan has been nominated for several San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards and received the Dean Goodman Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was named SF Weekly’s Best Ensemble Actor of 2006, Bay Area Reporter’s Best Drag Performance of 2005 and was featured on the cover of American Theatre Magazine as one of seven actors in the nation one should travel to see. Wolohan currently lives in New York City, where he and playwright Will Eno recently won the Williamsburg Brooklyn Doubles Tennis Championship.
Jessica Lynn Carroll (Amy) makes her MTC debut in Bellwether. She recently appeared in Boeing-Boeing at Center REP. She has appeared in Auctioning the Ainsleys and New Works Festival productions of The Burnt Part Boys, Asphalt Beach and The Funkentine Rapture at TheatreWorks; Urinetown (San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award nominee) and Ragtime at Foothill Music Theatre; Our Town at Palo Alto Players and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at Theatre on San Pedro Square. She has participated in readings of new plays at PlayGround and Playwright’s Foundation. Carroll earned a BFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
Rachel Harker (Maddy) makes her MTC debut in Bellwether. She recently appeared in Legacy of Light and The Dresser at San Jose Rep and The Glass Menagerie with San Jose Rep on Tour. Off-Broadway, she has appeared in Bill W. and Dr. Bob. In the Boston area, Harker won Elliot Norton and Independent Reviewers of New England Awards for her portrayal of Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire at New Repertory Theatre, as well as Elliot Norton Awards for her roles in Harold Pinter’s Ashes to Ashes and The Lover at New Repertory Theatre and The Cutting at Stoneham Theatre. Other theater credits include Sherlock’s Last Case at American Stage Festival, Lend Me a Tenor at Lyric Stage and Private Lives at the Public Theatre in Maine. Her film work includes Disney’s The Game Plan, The Invention of Lying, Don MacKay and The Legend of Lucy Keyes.
Kathryn Zdan (Doll) makes her MTC debut in Bellwether. She recently appeared in Steve Yockey’s Disassembly at Impact Theatre (world premiere). Other Bay Area credits include Lend Me a Tenor and Romeo and Juliet at Livermore Shakespeare Festival, This World in a Woman’s Hands at Shotgun Players, Cabaret at Center REP, Forever Never Comes at Crowded Fire, Oliver! at Berkeley Playhouse, Engaged at Shakespeare Santa Cruz and The Shape of Things at Worklight Theatre. Nationally, Zdan has performed with the Dell’Arte Company and, internationally, with the Amsterdam-based street performance group Warner & Consorten. She earned a BFA from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an MFA from the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. She teaches physical theater and acting at Tamalpais High School’s Conservatory Theater Ensemble. She is a Mill Valley native.
Marissa Keltie (Neighbor 2/Reporter 2) makes her main stage debut in Bellwether at MTC, where she has previously performed script-in-hand readings as part of MTC’s New Works Series. Bellwether marks her fifth time working with playwright Steve Yockey, having appeared in CARTOON, Sleepy, Large Animal Games and Disassembly. She has appeared in the Bay Area at Cal Shakes, SF Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire Theater, Central Works, Berkeley Playhouse and Impact Theatre, where she is a company member. Keltie is a proud recipient of Theatre Bay Area’s 2009 TITAN Award.
ABOUT MTC
Celebrating our 45th Anniversary this season, Marin Theatre Company is the Bay Area’s premier mid-sized theater and the leading professional theater in the North Bay. We produce a six-show season of provocative plays by passionate playwrights from the 20th century and today in our intimate 231-seat proscenium theater. We are committed to the development and production of new plays by American playwrights, with a comprehensive New Play Program that includes at least one world premiere each season, two nationally recognized annual playwriting awards, new play readings and workshops by the nation’s best emerging playwrights and a leadership position in the National New Play Network. Our numerous educational programs serve more than 6,000 students each year.
PRESS CONTACT
Sasha Hnatkovich, Communications Director
(415) 388-5200, ext. 3313 | email