The Amateurs Cast and Design Team Announced

Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern announce casting for Vineyard Theatre’s world premiere production of THE AMATEURS by Jordan Harrison (2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist for MARJORIE PRIME) directed by Oliver Butler (THE OPEN HOUSE, Obie Award for Direction). Tickets are now available for purchase here or by calling the box office at 212-353-0303. THE […]

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Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern announce casting for Vineyard Theatre’s world premiere production of THE AMATEURS by Jordan Harrison (2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist for MARJORIE PRIME) directed by Oliver Butler (THE OPEN HOUSE, Obie Award for Direction). Tickets are now available for purchase here or by calling the box office at 212-353-0303.

THE AMATEURS will feature Kyle Beltran (Vineyard’s GLORIA, HEAD OF PASSES), Quincy Tyler Bernstine (RUINED, Manchester by the Sea), Michael Cyril Creighton (STAGE KISS, Spotlight), Greg Keller (Vineyard’s SOMEWHERE FUN, OUR MOTHER’S BRIEF AFFAIR), Jennifer Kim (Vineyard’s GLORIA, Spider-Man: Homecoming), and Thomas Jay Ryan (THE CRUCIBLE, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). THE AMATEURS begins performances Thursday, February 8 with opening night set for Tuesday, February 27.

The award-winning design team will include scenic design by David Zinn (SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS), costume design by Jessica Pabst (MARVIN’S ROOM), lighting design by Jen Schriever (ECLIPSED), and sound design by Bray Poor (LATIN HISTORY FOR MORONS).

When the world is in crisis, it’s time to improvise

In THE AMATEURS, an intrepid troupe of pageant players races across medieval Europe, struggling to outrun the Black Death. The arrival of a mysterious outsider sends Hollis, the leading lady, in search of answers that can only be found off-script… and soon the 14th century plague begins to look like another, more recent one. This wildly inventive and funny new work examines the evolution of human creativity in a dark age: when does a crisis destroy us, and when does it open new frontiers?

THE AMATEURS is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. THE AMATEURS was originally commissioned by South Coast Repertory and received a staged reading as part of the Goodman Theatre’s New Stages Festival.

Tickets to THE AMATEURS are on sale to the general public. Memberships for The Vineyard’s 35th Anniversary Season and can be purchased online here or by calling the box office at 212-353-0303. Members have early access to the best seats to each of The Vineyard’s mainstage productions, at a discount off regular price tickets. Other privileges include discounted guest tickets, invitations to new play readings and developmental lab productions, and other exclusive benefits.

Follow Vineyard Theatre on Facebook: vineyardtheatrenyc, Twitter: @vineyardtheatre, and Instagram: @vineyardtheatre.

Company photo by HollenderX2.

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Artists

Helen Irene Muller

(Assistant Stage Manager) Vineyard Theatre debut. Off-Broadway: HAPPY DAYS (Theatre for a New Audience), JESUS HOPPED THE A-TRAIN (Signature Theatre). Regional: HAPPY DAYS, SEVEN GUITARS (Yale Repertory Theatre). Other: SHINING CITY (Hudson Stage Company), BROADWAY UNDER THE STARS series (Transcendence Theatre Company), Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at Mass MoCA. MFA, Yale School of Drama.

Rachel Gross

(Production Stage Manager) Vineyard Theatre debut. Broadway: THE PARISIAN WOMAN. Off-Broadway: EVERYBODY (Signature Theatre), WAR (LCT3), MEASURE FOR MEASURE, ISOLDE, AN OCTOROON (TFANA), SAMARA, DUAT, 10 OUT OF 12, AN OCTOROON, MARIE ANTOINETTE (Soho Rep), ONCE UPON A MATTRESS (Transport Group), WHILE I YET LIVE, HARBOR, ALL IN THE TIMING (Primary Stages). Regional: CLOUDLANDS, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, THE BORROWERS, and JANE OF THE JUNGLE (South Coast Repertory).

Lauren Z. Adleman

(Assistant Director) Vineyard Theatre debut. Directing credits include the premieres of Aeneas Sagar Hemphill’s BLACK HOLLOW (Signature/Columbia); Kaela Mae-Shing Garvin’s AMBITION… (Ars Nova/ANT Fest); and Matthew Minnicino’s MALEFACTIONS (Chinatown Soup). Lauren is currently developing Emily Zemba’s ON LOSS AND MICE AND MONSTERS AND LOVE (LPAC Rough Draft Festival 2018) and an original piece about the first chatterbot, CONVERSATIONS WITH ELIZA (The Drama League, First Draft). 2015-2016 Playwrights Horizons Robert Moss Directing Fellow. Lincoln Center Directors Lab Alum. Drama League Rough Draft Resident. Lauren is the Associate Director to Rachel Chavkin on the current national tour of SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS by Bess Wohl. www.laurenza.me

Raphael Mishler

(Mask & Puppet Design, Props Master) Vineyard Theatre debut. Recent prop credits include 24 Decade History of Popular Music (Taylor Mac/St Ann’s & International Tour), Pipeline (Lincoln Center), Bull in a China Shop (LCT3), Men on Boats, Indian Summer, Antlia Pneumatica (Playwrights Horizons) and numerous shows with The Foundry, Women’s Project, Under The Radar and Rattlestick. Puppets for Something Rotten, TFANA, Amerinda, Primary Stages, Signature Theatre, The Public/NYSF, New School, NYU. Raphael also creates visual work in the streets with organizations including People’s Puppet’s of OWS,  SEIU, Fight for 15!, New York Communities for Change, Great Small Works and JFREJ. Clubbed Thumb affiliated artist.

Dave Bova & J. Jared Janas

(Wig, Hair & Make-Up Design) Vineyard Theatre: THIS DAY FORWARD. Broadway designs include SUNSET BOULEVARD, BANDSTAND, INDECENT, THE VISIT, M. BUTTERFLY, THE REAL THING, VIOLET, LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR & GRILL, MOTOWN, THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS, ALL ABOUT ME, and NEXT TO NORMAL. Films include Angelica and The Night Before. TV includes “Six by Sondheim,”  “Scream Queens,” “Gotham,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” and “Inside Amy Schumer.”

Bray Poor

(Original Music & Sound Design) Vineyard Theatre debut. Broadway: Latin History for Morons, The Glass Menagerie, The Real Thing, the vibrator play, American Plan. Recent work includes Office Hour at The Public, The Last Match at Roundabout, and Little Bunny Foo Foo at Actors Theater of Louisville. His sound design and music have been heard in many Off-Broadway and regional theaters. Recent notable productions: Julius Caesar in Central Park (Music and Sound), Hamlet (directed by Sam Gold), Annie Baker’s The Antipodes at The Signature with Lila Neugebauer. Upcoming: Angels in America at Berkeley Rep. Obie Awards for John and Sustained Excellence in Sound Design.

Jen Schriever

(Lighting Design) Vineyard debut. Broadway: Eclipsed, Ghetto Klown. Off-Broadway: In the Body of the World (MTC), School Girls… (MCC), Today is My Birthday (Page 73), Strange Interlude (Transport Group), …Discord (Primary Stages), On The Exhale (Roundabout), The Moors (Playwrights Realm), Eclipsed, ToasT, A Second Change (The Public), Night is a Room (Signature), American Hero and Mala Hierba (2ST Uptown), Sunset Baby (Labyrinth), Bright Half Life (Women’s Project). Recent Regional: ART, Goodman, Berkley Rep, South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown, Goodspeed Opera, Center Stage, Studio Theatre DC, Woolly Mammoth, Shakespeare Theatre DC, Two River. Opera: Pearl Fishers, (MET, ENO, LAO); Die Fledermaus, (MET); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Faust, La Traviata, (Mariinsky, Russia). Dance: Liz Lerman’s Healing Wars. Adjunct: Purchase College.
www.jenschriever.com

Oliver Butler

Vineyard Theatre debut. Co-Artistic Director of The Debate Society: THE LIGHT YEARS (Playwrights Horizons), JACUZZI (Ars Nova), BLOOD PLAY (Bushwick Starr), BUDDY COP 2 (Ontological), CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT (PS122), YOU’RE WELCOME, THE EATEN HEART, THE SNOW HEN, A THOUGHT ABOUT RAYA. Off-Broadway: THE OPEN HOUSE (Signature Theater, Lortel Award Best Play, Obie Award Direction), WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME (Clubbed Thumb). Regional: THOM PAIN (Geffen Playhouse), LEGACY (Williamstown Theater Festival), AN OPENING IN TIME (Hartford Stage). International: TIMESHARE (The Malthouse, Australia). He is a Sundance Institute Fellow and a Bill Foeller Fellow (Williamstown).

Jordan Harrison

Vineyard Theatre debut. Jordan was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for MARJORIE PRIME, which premiered at the Mark Taper Forum and had its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons. A film adaptation by Michael Almereyda debuted at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Jordan’s other plays include MAPLE AND VINE (Playwrights Horizons, Humana Festival), THE GROWN-UP (Humana Festival), AMAZONS AND THEIR MEN (Clubbed Thumb), DORIS TO DARLENE (Playwrights Horizons), ACT A LADY (Portland Center Stage), FINN IN THE UNDERWORLD (Berkeley Rep), FUTURA (NAATCO), KID-SIMPLE (Humana Festival), and a children’s musical, THE FLEA AND THE PROFESSOR (Arden Theatre). His new play LOG CABIN, will premiere at Playwrights Horizons this spring. Jordan is the recipient of the Horton Foote Prize, Guggenheim and Hodder Fellowships, the Kesselring Prize, the Roe Green Award, the Heideman Award, and a NEA/TCG Residency. A graduate of the Brown MFA program, he is an alumnus of New Dramatists. Jordan has developed TV series for Sundance and TNT, and wrote for three seasons of Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black.”

Greg Keller

Vineyard Theatre: THE AMATEURS, SOMEWHERE FUN. Greg has been lucky to act in new plays by Ayad Akhtar, Amy Herzog, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Jordan Harrison, Julia Cho, Sarah Ruhl, Richard Greenberg, Jenny Schwartz, Daniel Goldfarb, Sheila Callaghan, Melissa Ross, Rachel Bonds, Zayd Dohrn, Molly Smith Metzler, Moises Kauffman, Theresa Rebeck, Robert O’Hara, Rachel Axler, Larissa Fasthorse, Claire Lizzimore, Deb Laufer, Rachel Axler, and Sam Marks, to name a few. Greg was a Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School and has an MFA in Acting from NYU. His play DUTCH MASTERS was nominated for Best New Play of 2018 by the Off Broadway Theater Alliance.

Henry Russell Bergstein, CSA

(Casting Director) Vineyard Theatre: GOOD GRIEF, THE AMATEURS, HARRY CLARKE, THE LYONS (and Broadway), GLORIA (and Goodman), DOT, THE LANDING, CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?, KID VICTORY (and Signature DC), TOO MUCH SUN, BILLY & RAY, SOMEWHERE FUN, THE NORTH POOL, ARLINGTON, OUTSIDE PEOPLE, CHECKERS, PICKED, MIDDLETOWN, THE METAL CHILDREN, WIG OUT!. Other theater: KPOP, SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS, NATASHA, PIERRE, & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812; THE WILDNESS (Ars Nova). Sundance Theatre Lab: 5 seasons. Television: US Casting for “Black Mirror,” Comedy Central’s “The Other Two” with Allison Estrin, HBO’s “Succession” and Amazon’s “Mozart in the Jungle” with Douglas Aibel. Film: Saturday Church, It Felt Like Love, Easy Living; with Douglas Aibel – Grandma, Love After Love, How to Talk to Girls at Parties; with Allison Estrin – Spider-Man: Homecoming (NY Casting). Also: “Homecoming The Podcast” S1-2.

Jennifer Kim

JENNIFER KIM (Kendra/Jenna) Off-Broadway: Gloria (Vineyard Theatre; Goodman Theatre), The Amateurs (Vineyard Thatre), Engagements (Second Stage). TV: “Search Party” (Tbs), “Trinkets” (Netflix), “Mozart In The Jungle” (Amazon), “Station 19 (Abc), “Room 104” (Hbo), “Happy” (Netflix), “Easy” (Netflix), And “Sydney To The Max (Disney). Film: The Bourne Legacy, She Dies Tomorrow, Corporate Animals, Black Bear, First Winter, Newly Single, Confessions Of A Shopaholic, The Unity Of All Things, Intimate Semaphores, The Dark End Of The Street, I Blame Society, Lace Crater, And The Incredible Jessica James. BFA From NYU/Tisch School Of The Arts.

Kyle Beltran

(Brom) Theatre: GLORIA (also Goodman Theatre). Broadway: THE CHERRY ORCHARD, IN THE HEIGHTS (also First National Tour). Off-Broadway: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Public), HEAD OF PASSES (Public), THE FLICK (Barrow Street), FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE (Public), CHOIR BOY (Manhattan Theatre Club), THE NETFLIX PLAYS (Ars Nova) 10 THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE (Second Stage). Regional: HEAD OF PASSES (Center Theatre Group, Steppenwolf), FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE (Dallas Theater Center), GOOD GOODS (Yale Rep), KINGDOM (Old Globe). Film: Equity (Sundance, Tribeca 2016). TV: Louis CK’s “Horace and Pete,” “The Big C” (Showtime), “Unforgettable” (CBS). Education: BFA in Drama, Carnegie Mellon University.

Jessica Pabst

(Costume Design) Vineyard Theatre: Can You Forgive Her?, Somewhere Fun, The Metal Children. Broadway: Marvin’s Room, The Heidi Chronicles. Recent Off-Broadway: A Life, Rancho Viejo, The Profane, Marjorie Prime, The Whale (Lucille Lortel Award, Playwrights Horizons); The Ruins of Civilization, When We Were Young and Unafraid, Murder Ballad (MTC); The Harvest (LCT3); Sundown Yellow Moon (Ars Nova/Women’s Project); The Nether (MCC); Fortress of Solitude (The Public). Regional: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Long Wharf, Two River, Dallas Theatre Center, Children’s Theatre Company, and Center Theatre Group.

David Zinn

(Scenic Design) Vineyard Theatre: MIDDLETOWN. Broadway: SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, FUN HOME, THE LAST SHIP (sets and clothes), THE HUMANS (set design), DOLLS HOUSE PART 2 (costume design). Off-Broadway: set design for TORCH SONG (Second Stage), HIR (Playwrights Horizons), 10 out of 12 (Soho Rep); set and costumes for THE FLICK, PLACEBO, COMPLETENESS, and THE BIG MEAL (Playwrights Horizons), CHOIR BOY (MTC).