PCS Blog

Venus in Fur: Cast and Creative Team

Posted by Kinsley Suer | 07 January 2013 | Comments (0)

Venus in Fur

Cast

David Barlow*......................................................................Thomas

Ginny Myers Lee*.................................................................Vanda

Creative Team

David Ives............................................................................Playwright

Nancy Keystone....................................................................Director

Sibyl Wickersheimer.............................................................Scenic Designer

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

Eric Southern.......................................................................Lighting Designer

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

John Armour........................................................................Violence Director

Emily N. Wells*.....................................................................Stage Manager

Kelsey Daye Lutz...................................................................Production Assistant

Rose Riordan.........................................................................Casting

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

Cast Biographies

David Barlow (Thomas)

David is making his Portland Center Stage debut in Venus in Fur. Regional credits include Oleanna (Bristol Riverside Theater), The Tempest (Hartford Stage), The Hour Of Feeling (Actors Theater of Louisville), The Crucible (Hartford Stage), King Lear (Kansas City Rep), This Is Our Youth (Philadelphia Theater Co), The Importance Of Being Earnest (Olney Theater) and On The Jump (Arena Stage). Off-Broadway credits include Serious Money, Victory and Scenes From An Execution (Atlantic Stage 2); Perfect Harmony (Theater Row); Horizon (New York Theater Workshop); Mycenaean (BAM); Oroonoko, Andorra and Saved (Theater For A New Audience); Romola and Nijinski (Primary Stages); The Seagull (Roundtable Ensemble); Smashing (Play Company); and his original show LA PARTY (Under The Radar Festival). Other theater credits include Babel (Avignon International Theater Festival), Bauerntheater (Germany) and To Whom It May Concern (Belgrade International Theater Festival). Television credits includeWithout A Trace, Third Watch and All My Children. He holds an M.F.A. from NYU's Graduate Acting program. www.davidbarlow.org.

Ginny Myers Lee (Vanda)

Ginny is thrilled to be making her PCS debut! International credits include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (English Theater of Frankfurt). New York credits include Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Cymbeline, Misalliance and Love’s Labour’s Lost (New York Classical Theatre); Stars In A Dark Sky (Red Fern Theatre Co.); The Night Carter Was Bad (Kids With Guns at 59E59); and Love of a Pig (The Cardinal Group). Regional credits include The Three Musketeers (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); The Triumph of Love (The Clarence Brown Theatre); The Taming of the Shrew (Capital Repertory Theatre); New Music: A Trilogy, Providence Gap, Oleanna and Brother Wolf (Triad Stage); The Shape of Things, The Voice of the Prairie and Crimes of the Heart (Greensboro Summer Repertory); and Ruth (Blue Shift Theatre Ensemble). Education: M.F.A. in Acting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Love and gratitude to kin and her cherry-lipped Bub.

Creative Team Biographies

David Ives (Playwright)
David Ives is perhaps best known for his evening of one-act plays, All in the Timing (he has been included in the “Best Short Plays” series seven times), and for his drama Venus in Fur, which was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play. His plays include New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch De Spinoza, The School for Lies (adapted from Molière’s The Misanthrope), The Liar (adapted from Corneille), Time Flies and Is He Dead? (adapted from Mark Twain). He has also translated Feydeau’s A Flea in Her Ear and Yasmina Reza’s A Spanish Play. A former Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting and a graduate of The Yale School of Drama, he lives in New York City.

Nancy Keystone (Director)

Nancy Keystone is a director, playwright, designer and visual artist, and the honored recipient of a 2011 United States Artists Hoi Fellowship. In Los Angeles, she is the founder and artistic director of Critical Mass Performance Group, whose latest multi-disciplinary piece was the trilogy Apollo, which premiered at PCS in 2009. Also at PCS she has directed and designed The 39 Steps, Antigone (her own adaptation), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Dirty Blonde, Underneath the Lintel and Mike's Incredible Indian Adventure. She was artistic associate at PCS from 2003-2005. In 2006, with collaborator Peter Maradudin, she was design consultant for the new Gerding Theatre at the Armory, designing features for the four lobby spaces. Other theatres at which she has directed and designed include the Mark Taper Forum, Theatre @ Boston Court, Actor’s Express, Georgia Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and Long Beach Opera. As a visual artist, Ms. Keystone works in mixed media, creating paintings and collages, as well as unique scenic environments for her productions. She is the recipient of TCG’s Alan Schneider Director Award and many national grants and fellowships. With Critical Mass Performance Group she is currently creating Ameryka and an adaptation of Alcestis, which was recently in development at the Getty Villa and will premiere at Theatre @ Boston Court in June. www.nancykeystone.com.

Sibyl Wickersheimer (Scenic Designer)
Sibyl has designed a wide range of projects, bringing her work to venues internationally on five continents. 2012-2013 projects include What About Dick?, written and directed by Eric Idle; Crescent City, a new opera with The Industry LA; the set for Transit Space, created by Diavolo Dance Company; and The Unfortunates, a new musical for Oregon Shakespeare Festival's upcoming season. She has designed productions at Portland Center Stage, Lookingglass Theatre, Berkeley Repertory, South Coast Repertory, The Geffen Playhouse, The Kirk Douglas Theatre, The Natural History Museum of LA County, The Actors’ Gang, Theatre at the Boston Court, EST-LA and Circle X. Sibyl's visual art and installations have been exhibited in Los Angeles at Hi-Lite, Weekend, The New Chinatown Barber Shop, Gallery 825, Shoshane Wayne Gallery, Andrew Shire Gallery, Hatch Gallery, Latch and the Pacific Asia Museum. Sibyl is an assistant professor in the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

Jeff Cone (Costume Designer)
This is Jeff’s fourteenth season at PCS. In that time he has designed costumes for more than 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.

Eric Southern (Lighting Designer)

Eric Southern is a New York-based lighting and set designer. He is thrilled to be back at Portland Center Stage this season designing Venus in Fur and Clybourne Park after designing Shakespeare’s Amazing Cymbeline last season. Most recently, his work on the world premiere of The Secret Agent by Michael Dellaira, directed by Sam Helfrich, was seen at the Danny Kaye Playhouse in New York City, the Avignon Opera House and as part of the Armel International Opera Festival in Szeged, Hungary. Other operas include Die Fledermaus with Virginia Opera, a fully staged version of Handel's Messiah at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and a production of Cosi Fan Tutte at the Delaware Valley Opera. Eric also works extensively in theaters around the country including The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Kansas City Rep, The Magic Theater, The Atlantic Theater and the Juilliard Drama Department.

Casi Pacilio (Sound Designer)

Casi feels so lucky to be in Portland, working at one of the best regional theaters and doing a job she loves. Portland Center Stage credits include Oklahoma!, The North Plan, Shakespeare’s Amazing Cymbeline, Black Pearl Sings!, Opus, futura (with composer Jana Losey), Ragtime (PAMTA Award 2010), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Chosen, Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, Snow Falling on Cedars, Crazy Enough, The Little Dog Laughed, Sometimes a Great Notion, The Beard of Avon, Twelfth Night, Cabaret, The Pillowman, Act a Lady, I Am My Own Wife, West Side Story, Celebrity Row and seven seasons of JAW. Hand2Mouth Theatre credits include My Mind is Like an Open Meadow (Drammy Award 2011), Something’s Got Ahold Of My Heart and the upcoming PEP TALK. Other theatrical credits include Squonk Opera’s Bigsmorgasbord-WunderWerk (Broadway, Off-Broadway, national and international touring); I Am My Own Wife, I Think I Like Girls and Burning Deck (La Jolla Playhouse); and Playland, 10 Fingers and Lips Together, Teeth Apart (City Theatre, PA). Film credits: Creation of Destiny, Out of Our Time and A Powerful Thang. Recordings: Glitterfruit’s fruit snacks.

John Armour (Violence Director)

John has been choreographing violence for more than 20 years. He is based in Portland, Oregon, where he choreographs for many local theater companies and teaches throughout the region at colleges, high schools and middle schools. John's work has been seen regularly on stage at the Portland Opera, Artists Repertory Theater, Oregon Children's Theater, Miracle Theater and many others in the Portland metropolitan area. His work has twice been recognized within the Portland theater community for best fight design.

Emily N. Wells (Stage Manager)
Emily is in her second season at PCS and loves the work we do! Proud Equity member for 16 years spent in NYC, on tour and regionally. Highlights on Broadway include Electra, Swan Lake and Jersey Boys. Off-Broadway credits include Adrift in Macao; Dedication, or the Stuff of Dreams (with Nathan Lane, Marian Seldes); and String of Pearls at Primary Stages. Other Off-Broadway credits include Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky at Playwrights Horizons; and Summer of the Swans and Sarah, Plain & Tall at the Lucille Lortel. She has also stage managed readings and workshops for Playwrights Horizons, NAMT and North Shore Music Theatre. National tours include Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. Regional theater work includes Ordway Center, Ogunquit Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse and Theatreworks/USA, among others. In her spare time, Emily writes, directs, bakes, hikes, drinks coffee and raises funds for the Adult Congenital Heart Association. www.achaheart.org.

Kelsey Daye Lutz (Production Assistant)
Kelsey Daye is a dairy farmer’s daughter and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. New York credits include Off-Broadway work with The Actors Company Theatre, and Off-Off-Broadway work with Theatre for the New City and The Internationalists. Regional credits include: production assistant for The North Plan and Anna Karenina at PCS; stage management intern for Hard Weather Boating Party, Shipwrecked, A Raisin in the Sun and 43 Plays for 43 Presidents at Actors Theatre of Louisville; and assistant stage manager for A Beautiful Star and A Christmas Carol at Triad Stage. She would like to thank her Rottweiler, Boss, for all his love and support.