PCS Blog

I Love to Eat: Cast and Creative Team

Posted by Kinsley Suer | 10 December 2012 | Comments (0)

I Love to Eat

Cast

Rob Nagle*..........................................................................James Beard

Creative Team

James Still..........................................................................Playwright

Jessica Kubzansky................................................................Director

Tom Buderwitz.....................................................................Scenic Designer

Jeff Cone..............................................................................Costume Designer

Daniel Meeker.......................................................................Lighting Designer

John Zalewski.......................................................................Sound Designer

Jeremy Eisen*.......................................................................Stage Manager

Kailyn McCord......................................................................Production Assistant

*Member of the Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Cast Biography

Rob Nagle (James Beard)

Rob Nagle was born in Oregon, but left when he was five. He wasn’t given a choice. Though he has made his home in Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C., he has lived in Los Angeles for the past 15 years, where he is a proud member of the Antaeus Company and the Troubadour Theater Company. Regional credits include: Denver Center Theatre Company, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, Old Globe Theatre, Centerstage, San Jose Repertory and the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Film: New Year's Eve, Fishing Naked, Life As We Know It, The Soloist, Fun with Dick and Jane, Cellular and American Wedding. Television: Touch, Mistresses, Castle, Major Crimes, NCIS, Harry’s Law, Mad Men, Lincoln Heights, Cold Case, Without a Trace, Eli Stone, The Middleman, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Everwood, The Guardian, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson’s Creek. Wife: Heather Allyn. Pug: Roosevelt. Geek: www.robnagle.com.

Creative Team Biographies

James Still (Playwright)
A playwright and director, Still’s plays are notably diverse in form, style and substance and have been performed in leading theatres across the United States as well as Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia. Most recent plays include The Heavens are Hung in Black, which reopened Ford’s Theatre in celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday; Iron Kisses; and The Velvet Rut. His plays for young audiences and families have graced the stages of America’s most notable youth theatres and countless community, university, and high school theatres. His docudrama And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank has been translated into several languages and continues to be produced around the world. His plays have been commissioned from many notable theatres including Indiana Repertory Theatre, People’s Light & Theatre Company, Cornerstone Theatre Company, the Kennedy Center and The Children’s Theatre Company. His awards are numerous and far ranging, and include The Charlotte B. Chorpenning Cup for Distinguished Body of Work, the William Inge/Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, two Pulitzer Prize nominations and election into the National Theatre Conference. Still also writes extensively for film and television, most notably in children’s television. He is a five-time Emmy nominee for such shows as Maurice Sendak’s “Little Bear,” Bill Cosby’s “Little Bill,” and the innovative pre-school series “Paz” for Discovery Kids. Still lives in Seattle, but his artistic home for the past 12 years has been the Indiana Repertory Theatre where he is the Playwright in Residence. He has had a profound impact on the IRT for plays he has premiered and directed there, and for his involvement in the theatre’s institutional life, area schools and the Indianapolis community.

Jessica Kubzansky (Director)

Jessica Kubzansky is the co-artistic director of The Theatre @ Boston Court in Pasadena, California, and an award-winning director working nationally in venues such as South Coast Rep, Pasadena Playhouse, The Geffen Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Silk Road, The Aurora, The Publick and many others. At The Theatre @ Boston Court, Kubzansky has directed a great many world premieres, including Michael Elyanow’s The Children, Jordan Harrison's futura (a shared world premiere with PCS), Laura Schellhardt’s Courting Vampires, Salamone/McIntyre’s Gulls (a musical adaptation of The Seagull), Mickey Birnbaum’s Bleed Rail, Carlos Murillo’s Unfinished American Highwayscape #9 & 32, Jean-Claude Van Itallie’s Light, Cody Henderson’s Cold/Tender, plus Williams’ Camino Real and Hare/Brecht’s Mother Courage (with Camille Saviola). Elsewhere she has directed Shakespeare’s Macbeth with Rob Nagle in the title role (Antaeus Co.); The 39 Steps (La Mirada); Julia Cho’s The Language Archive (East/West Players); Jen Haley’s Breadcrumbs, Hamlet with Leo Marks and Winter's Tale (Theater150); Mauritius (Pasadena Playhouse); The Glass Menagerie, Toys in the Attic and Heartbreak House (The Colony Theatre); Sheila Callaghan's Kate Crackernuts (24th Street Theatre); and the world premieres of Julie Hébert’s Tree (EST/[Inside the Ford]), Bryan Davidson’s War Music (Geffen Playhouse) and Bob Clyman’s Tranced (Laguna Playhouse). More Chekhov riffs include Salamone/McIntyre’s Moscow (Playwrights’ Arena/Chekhov Now in NYC), Tom Jacobson’s The Orange Grove (Playwrights’ Arena) and many more. Kubzansky, who teaches at UCLA and has her M.F.A. from CalArts, is the recipient of the L.A. Drama Critics Circle's Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatre. She is a member of SDC.

Tom Buderwitz (Scenic Designer)
Tom has designed more than 200 productions for theaters such as South Coast Repertory, Center Theatre Group, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, Intiman Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Laguna Playhouse, Chautauqua Theater Company, Arizona Theatre Company, San Diego Repertory, The Antaeus Company, Reprise Theatre Company, The Theatre @ Boston Court, P.C.P.A. Theaterfest, Riverside Theatre, Rubicon Theatre Company, Deaf West Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre and A Noise Within, among many others. Tom has been honored with four L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Awards and three L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards. For television, Tom has designed specials and series for every major broadcast and cable network and has three Emmy Award nominations and an Art Director’s Guild Award nomination. www.tombuderwitz.com.

Jeff Cone (Costume Designer)
This is Jeff’s fourteenth season at PCS. In that time he has designed costumes for over 60 productions. Of those shows, 31 have been in the last five seasons at the Armory. Favorite productions include West Side Story, Cabaret, Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Sometimes a Great Notion, Snow Falling on Cedars and The Imaginary Invalid. Jeff received Drammy Awards for his costume designs for Dirty Blonde and Act A Lady. In addition to his resident costume designer duties, Jeff is happy to manage the costume shop here at Portland Center Stage

Daniel Meeker (Lighting Designer)
Previously at PCS Daniel designed the set and lighting for The Real Americans, Red and Mike’s Incredible Indian Adventure . Other recent credits include lighting for Black Pearl Sings! at San Jose Repertory Theatre (Bay Area Theatre Critics Association nomination for best lighting design); set for The Cherry Orchard at Artists Repertory Theatre; set and lighting for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Scene at Portland Playhouse; set and lighting for The Comedy of Errors and Passion Play at Portland Actors Conservatory; set and lighting for Great Falls, Chesapeake and Fortinbras at Profile Theater; lighting for Reasons To Be Pretty at CoHo Productions; lighting for Honky Tonk Angels at Broadway Rose; and set for Into The Woods at Davidson College. Upcoming projects include The Last Romance at San Jose Rep, and Gem of the Ocean and Angels In America for Portland Playhouse. Before moving to Portland from New York with his wife and two children, Daniel designed over 150 shows for theaters both in New York City and regionally. Daniel was a member of the design faculty at Ithaca College from 2000-2005 and is a graduate of Ithaca College and the Yale School of Drama. He is also a member of United Scenic Artists. Portfolio at danielmeeker.com.

John Zalewski (Sound Designer)

John is a sound designer, electronic musician and visual artist who's been active in live performance since his experience with the work of the late Reza Abdoh in the early 1990s. Regionally, Tom has worked at South Coast Rep, Geffen, Pasadena Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, Portland Center Stage, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival, La Mirada Theater and Lewis Family Playhouse. Los Angeles theater work includes Theater @ Boston Court, Bootleg, East West Players, L.A. Philharmonic, Redcat, Los Angeles Theatre Center, 24th Street Theater, Actors' Gang, Odyssey, Padua, Antaeus and Evidence Room. Other credits include work with the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Chashama, La Mama and Theatre Delicatessen/Bush Bazaar. He is the winner of three L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Awards and 20 nominations, five L.A. Weekly Awards, an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, ten Backstage Garlands and various Scenies. He is an NEA/TCG 2001 Designer Development alum.

Jeremy Eisen (Stage Manager)
Jeremy is thrilled to be working at PCS in his second season. A native of Chicago, he stage managed The Real Americans, The North Plan and Anna Karenina here last season. Prior to that, Jeremy spent 15 seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. His stage management credits there include To Kill a Mockingbird, Twelfth Night, Pride and Prejudice, Death and the King's Horseman, The Clay Cart, Henry VIII, A View from the Bridge, The Cherry Orchard, UP, By the Waters of Babylon, Napoli Millionaria!, The Comedy of Errors, Wild Oats, Fuddy Meers, Two Sisters and a Piano, Romeo and Juliet, Bus Stop, Julius Caesar, A Raisin in the Sun and As You Like It. Other credits include productions with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Seattle Opera, Tacoma Actors Guild, Seattle Shakespeare Festival, The College of DuPage and Rocky Mountain Rep Theatre. Jeremy received his B.F.A. in directing from Carnegie Mellon University, and has been a proud member of Actor's Equity since 2000.

Kailyn McCord (Production Assistant)
This is Kailyn’s second season as a production assistant at PCS, and she’s stoked for new shows, new folks, and to work on a new stage management team with Mr. Jeremy Eisen! She has lived in Portland for the last eight years, where she attended Reed College and found her love for theater first on the Portland Center Stage Run Crew. Run crew credits at PCS include Ragtime, A Christmas Carol, Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, The Chosen, Sunset Boulevard and A Christmas Story. Production assistant credits include Oklahoma!, A Christmas Story, Shakespeare's Amazing Cymbeline and It Ain’t Nothin’ But The Blues. Kailyn also can be seen loading in, loading out, doing carpentry, and hanging lights at Oregon Children’s Theater and CoHo Productions. Thanks to Mark Tynan, Jamie Hill, Joey Edwards, Cameron McFee and Katie Nolen for all of their support and encouragement, and to Team Irish for giving her a place to call home at the beginning of all this business.