Portland Center Stage

The Imaginary Invalid’s Cast and Creative Team

Posted by Kinsley Suer | 11 January 2011 | Comments (0)

 

The Imaginary Invalid

Cast:

 

Beline..................................Christine Calfas

Dr. Purgeon.........................Barry Del Sherman

Angelique............................Hollye Gilbert

Toinette..............................Sharonlee Mclean

Argan..................................David Margulies

Cleante/Fleurant................John Wernke

De Bennefoi/Claude.............Danny Wolohan

 

Creative Team:

 

Director.............................Chris Coleman

Scenic Designer..................William Bloodgood

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

Lighting Designer...............Peter Maradudin

Sound Designer..................Casi Pacilio

Composer..........................Randall Tico

Musical Supervisor............Rick Lewis

Stage Manager...................Liam Kaas-Lentz

Assistant Stage Manager....Jamie Hill

Production Assistant.........Lydia Comer

 

Cast Biographies:

 

Christine Calfas (Beline) was last seen at PCS as the spy, the lass and the blonde in The 39 Steps. Also at PCS: A Christmas Carol, Misalliance (Lina Szczepanowska), O Lovely Glowworm (Philomel), King Lear (Cordelia), The Seagull (Nina), and seven roles for JAW. Other recent credits include: Lady Macbeth (Anonymous Theater), The Clean House (Matilde) and Miss Witherspoon (Maryamma) for ACT Seattle. Christine is a Fulbright Scholar in Indian Classical Dance. She created and performed two full-length dance pieces, Sappho’s Arrow and Sounding Hekate, as well as four short solos for Mike Barber's Ten Tiny Dances. Her recent solo WHOOP featured a costume of 99 knives. See her in Brian Padian's short film I'm Your Man, Ciro Fusco's Opening, and Leverage. Upcoming projects include the Solo Performance Commissioning Project with renowned choreographer Deborah Hay in Findhorn, Scotland 2011. Keep track of her dance work at studio297.org or her acting at christinecalfas.com.

 

Barry Del Sherman (Dr. Purgeon) has played Off Broadway at such theatres as Circle Rep, 2^nd Stage, The Public, Naked Angels and recently won an Obie for Marlane Meyer’s Mystery of Attraction at the Tribecca Playhouse. Most recently appeared as Sal in Michael Sargeant’s The Projectionist at CTG’s Kirk Douglas Theatre. Also in Los Angeles as Merton in Merton At The Movies at the Geffen and plays at the Magic and La Jolla Playhouse. Television credits are routine: Law&Order, etc. Film credits include the just completed On The Road for director Walter Selles, There Will Be Blood and American Beauty which garnered a SAG Ensemble Award.

 

 

 

Hollye Gilbert (Angelique) Theater: Broadway Backwards 5 (Vivian Beaumont Theater), The Three Sisters (Glass Bandits Theater), August Snow (The Actors Center), The Orphans Home Cycle (Collin Theatre Center), Cabaret (Watertower Theatre), and many shows at Casa Manana! Film: Mary Last Seen, Art Machine. Member of The Glass Bandits. Graduate of The Actors Center. Texas Rangers fan.

 

 

Sharonlee Mclean (Toinette) This will be Shlee’s 15^th production here at PCS.  Last season Sharonlee had her second run at doing The Receptionist. She stepped in for Grey Gardens,  playing Big Edie and did The Importance of Being Earnest, Steve Martin’s The Underpants and A Feminine Ending just to name a few. Her career started in San Francisco studying at the American Conservatory Theatre. She moved to Los Angeles where she worked close to 30 years in television, film and stage. On the soap Santa Barbara she was nominated for a Day Time Emmy. Shlee has been here in Portland on and off since 1994. In Portland some of her film work has been with such actors as Kate Hudson, Melisa Gilbert, Michael McKean, Annette O’toole and not to mention incredible local actors. Last year she worked Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser in Extraordinary Measures, at the same time winning her Third Drammy for The Receptionist directed by Rose Roirdan.  She has done four productions at Portland Rep. and eight shows at Artists Rep. where she just opened their season playing Essie in Ah Wilderness.

 

David Margulies (Argan) returns to Portland Center Stage from New York’s Playwrights Horizon’s production of Amy Herzog’s new play After the Revolution. In the spring he appeared here in The Chosen (Drammy Award, best supporting actor). Broadway: Credits include Conversations With My Father (in which he co-starred), Comedians, The West Side Waltz, Wonderful Town, 45 Seconds from Broadway, The Ice Man Cometh, Angels in America (where he was the third and last of the Roy Cohn's) and Brighton Beach Memoirs. Off-Broadway: All That I Will Ever Be, The Accomplices (Actors Equity's Richard Seff Award 2007) and many others. Regionally: The Rivals (Hartford Stage), Hamlet (the McCarter), The American premiere of Hysteria as Freud (Mark Taper Forum), The Happy Time (Arlington's Signature Theatre, Helen Hayes Award in 2008, best leading actor in a musical), Lil’s 90^th, The Price, Rocket to the Moon and She Stoops to Conquer (Long Wharf). Film: the upcoming Roadie; Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2, Ace Ventura Pet Detective, 9 ½ Weeks, All That Jazz, Dressed to Kill and more. He was Tony Soprano's lawyer Neil Mink.

 

John Wernke (Cleante/Fleurant) is grateful to be back at PCS. He appeared in two productions here previously, The Beard of Avon and Twelfth Night. Regional credits: Cactus Flower, Barefoot In The Park, Theophilus North, etc. Broadway: The American Plan, Accent On Youth, Royal Family. Film/TV: Broken English, The Good Shepherd, Life On Mars. He wishes to note that among his favorite things are rain, giant trees and creation... so he will feel right at home here in the City of Roses.

 

 

Danny Wolohan (De Bennefoi/Claude) has been featured on the cover of American Theatre magazine as one of seven actors in the nation one should travel to see.   He is a member of Campo Santo and The esp Project, the resident theatre and dance theatre companies at San Francisco's Intersection for the Arts.  Danny was named San Francisco's Best Ensemble Actor by the SF Weekly, and The Bay Area's Best Drag Performer of the Year by The Bay Area Reporter.  Danny currently lives in Brooklyn, where he and playwright Will Eno recently won the Williamsburg Brooklyn Doubles Tennis Championship.

 

 

 

Creative Team Biographies:

 

Chris Coleman (Director) joined Portland Center Stage as artistic director in May 2000. Before coming to Portland, he was artistic director at Actor’s Express in Atlanta, a company he co-founded in the basement of an old church in 1988. In the 12 years of his leadership, the Express grew from a shoestring operation to one of the most highly regarded small theaters in the country. Recently, he directed The Chosen, Snow Falling on Cedars, Ragtime, Grey Gardens, Crazy Enough, The Importance of Being Earnest, Guys and Dolls, Cabaret, The Beard of Avon and The Little Dog Laughed. He has directed at major theaters across the country, including Actor’s Theater of Louisville, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, ACT in Seattle, The Alliance Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Asolo Center for the Performing Arts, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop and Center Stage in Baltimore.

William Bloodgood (Scenic Designer) returns to Portland Center Stage for his tenth production, having previously designed the scenery for The Cripple of Inishmann (2000), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2004), King Lear (2004), Misalliance (2007), The Beard of Avon and Twelfth Night (2008), Snow Falling on Cedars (2010) and An Iliad (2010).  William has designed for many regional theaters in the U.S. and abroad, including Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Birmingham Repertory Theatre in the U.K., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Alley Theatre in Houston, Arizona Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, Denver Center Theatre Company, Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre in Seattle, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, and especially for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he has designed over 140 productions.

Jeff Cone (Costume Designer), the costume shop manager for Portland Center Stage, has designed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Mike’s Incredible Indian Adventure, The 39 Steps, Snow Falling on Cedars, Grey Gardens, Guys and Dolls, Doubt, The Little Dog Laughed, Sometimes a Great Notion, The Underpants, Cabaret, Bad Dates, The Pillowman, Act a Lady, Misalliance, This Wonderful Life, I Am My Own Wife and West Side Story since PCS opened the Gerding Theater at the Armory. Other PCS credits include the world premieres of Celebrity Row and Another Fine Mess, as well as Underneath the Lintel, Things of Dry Hours, Anna in the Tropics, King Lear, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, True West, Flesh and Blood, A New Brain, Closer, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Bus Stop and Dirty Blonde. Jeff received Drammy Awards for Best Costume Design for both Act a Lady and Dirty Blonde.

Peter Maradudin (Lighting Designer) is pleased to return to Portland Center Stage, where previous work includes Ragtime, Crazy Enough, A Feminine Ending, West Side Story, The Fantasticks, Anna in the Tropics, Hamlet, King Lear, Little Foxes and Terra Nova, among others. He is also the lighting designer for the Armory Theatre lobby spaces. On Broadway, he designed the lighting for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Kentucky Cycle, and off-Broadway Hurrah at Last, Ballad of Yachiyo and Bouncers. Peter has designed more than 300 regional theater productions for such companies as The Kennedy Center, The Guthrie Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Old Globe Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, Steppenwolf, Dallas Theater Center and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Casi Pacilio (Sound Designer) is thrilled to work at the Gerding Theater at the Armory as the sound supervisor and resident sound designer. Her credits with PCS include The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, JAW, The Chosen, The 39 Steps, Snow Falling on Cedars, Ragtime, Grey Gardens, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Christmas Carol, Guys and Dolls, Doubt, The Little Dog Laughed, Sometimes a Great Notion, The Beard of Avon, Twelfth Night, A Christmas Carol, Cabaret, Bad Dates, The Pillowman, Act a Lady, Misalliance, I Am My Own Wife, West Side Story and Celebrity Row. Other credits include Squonk Operaís Bigsmorgasbord-WunderWerk (Broadway, off-Broadway, regional, touring); I Am My Own Wife, I Think I Like Girls, Burning Deck (La Jolla Playhouse); Uncanny Valley (Hand2Mouth); and Playland, 10 Fingers and Lips Together, Teeth Apart (City Theatre).

Randall Tico (Composer) Recent works include music composition for Snow Falling on Cedars and Apollo at the Portland Center Stage, directed by Nancy Keystone. He received a Garland Award and an Ovation Award nomination for Apollo at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Other productions with Keystone include Suzan-Lori Parks’ The America Play (Theatre @ Boston Court), Antigone (Portland Center Stage, for which he won a Drammy Award), The Ahkmatova Project, Dr. Faustus, The Rover and Measure for Measure. In June of 2009 Tico composed the music score and sound design for Hamlet, directed by Jessica Kubzansky (Theater 150 in Ojai, Ca). Other collaborations with Kubzansky are the vocal score for David Hare’s version of Mother Courage (Theatre @ Boston Court) and music and sound design for The Glass Menagerie (Colony Theatre, in Burbank).

Rick Lewis (Musical Supervisor) is back for his tenth production at Portland Center Stage. Previous PCS shows include Sunset Boulevard, The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Ragtime (Drammy Award for Musical Director), Grey Gardens, A Christmas Carol (Composer), Guys and Dolls (Drammy Award), Cabaret, West Side Story (Drammy Award), The Fantasticks and Bat Boy. He is the creator of the hit off-Broadway musical The Taffetas, with productions currently around the world. Rick has written Have a Nice Day! A ’70s Musical Flashback! (premiered at NYC’s Theatre East), The Cardigans (New York Backstage Bistro Award for Outstanding Musical Review), and most recently A Taffeta Wedding, with an East Coast premier in December 2010.