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The Cast

Antoinette LaVecchia
DIANE

The Little Dog Laughed marks Antoinette’s Portland Center Stage debut. Her New York credits include: 3 Sisters from Queens (NY Playwrights Lab); The Bottle House (Public Theatre); Puccini: A Composer’s Journey (Carnegie Hall); String of Pearls (Primary Stages); Magic Hands Freddy (Soho Playhouse); Kimberly Akimbo (Manhattan Theatre Club); Duet (Greenwich St. Theatre) and Almost Blue (Flatiron Theatre), plus work with NYTW’s Usual Suspects, MCC, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab & Institute, Urban Stages, Lark Theatre, EST, The Salon and others. Regionally, Antoinette has worked with companies including Williamstown, Shakespeare on the Sound, ACT, Weston Playhouse, the “B” Street Theatre, Barrington Stage Co., Hartford Theaterworks, Wilma Theatre, Syracuse Stage and the Hangar Theatre. Her film and TV credits include Delirious, Jesus’ Son, Dirty Laundry, The Sopranos, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and One Life to Live. She holds an M.F.A. from NYU, and has received further training from the Moscow Art Theatre, Philippe Gaulier & Theatre de Complicite. She taught at NYU’s Grad Acting Program, the Actor’s Center and co-created a theater piece in Ethiopia with 40 HIV+ orphans through WWO that performed at Ethiopia’s National Theatre. Antoinette is a Drama League Directing Fellow and a 1997 Fox Fellowship recipient.

Brik Berkes
MITCHELL

Brik had the pleasure of working with Chris Coleman on Rescue & Recovery and Jeffrey at Actors’ Express in Atlanta. He is honored to make his west coast premiere as part of this talented ensemble. Brik’s regional credits include: Glengarry Glen Ross, Proof, Medea (starring Phylicia Rashad) and The Grapes of Wrath at the Alliance Theatre; Richard III, Metamorphoses, Macbeth and Hamlet with Georgia Shakespeare. Other credits include Take Me Out and Side Man at Theatre in the Square; Three Days of Rain and The Missionary Position at Horizon Theatre; and The Taming of the Shrew and Henry V at the New American Shakespeare Tavern. Brik can also be seen on Good Eats on the Food Network, and has appeared in the films Run, Ronnie, Run! and Ruby in Paradise. Many thanks to Chris for this opportunity to travel across the country and get to know this wonderful theater and city. Enjoy the show.

Dennis Flanagan
ALEX

Dennis is happy to be making his Portland Center Stage debut. Last year he appeared in the West Coast premiere of John Patrick Shanley’s Defiance at the Pasadena Playhouse and in the world premiere of Bleed Rail at Boston Court. His film credits include Pray for Morning, and his TV credits include Charmed and Guiding Light. Dennis received his B.F.A. in acting from Rutgers University, and he has studied at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. He is the founder of the Apothecary Theatre Company in New York and is a proud member of AEA and SAG. Dennis would like especially to thank his family for all their love and support.

Natalie Knepp
ELLEN

Natalie’s NY credits include My First Time (New World Stages); Comedy of Errors (NY Classical Theatre) and Don’t Forget to Breathe (Samuel French Festival). Regional credits include To Kill a Mockingbird (Virginia Stage Company); Cymbeline (Cleveland Shakespeare Festival); and Much Ado About Nothing (Princeton Repertory Shakespeare Festival). Film and TV credits include: All My Children, Guiding Light and The Sleep of Reason. She is a graduate of Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she received a B.F.A. in acting. She is grateful to her family for their support and to PCS for this experience!

The Playwright

Douglas Carter Beane
PLAYWRIGHT
Douglas Carter Beane has written the screenplays for To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar; Advice from a Caterpillar (Best Film, Aspen Comedy Festival; Best Feature, Toyota Comedy Festival) and the upcoming Skinner’s Eddy. His plays include As Bees in Honey Drown (Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Playwriting Award, Drama Desk Best Play Nomination); The Country Club (LA Times Critics’ Choice & Dramalogue Awards); Music from a Sparkling Planet, Advice From a Caterpillar (Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination); White Lies, Devil May Care and Old Money. His new musical, The Big Time (with music and lyrics by Douglas J. Cohen), was just produced by Drama Dept. As artistic director of Drama Dept., he produced more than 40 productions, including revivals of As Thousands Cheer, June Moon and The Torchbearers and world premieres by Paul Rudnick, David Sedaris and Wendy Wasserstein. He resides in NYC with his partner, Lewis Flinn, and their children Cooper and Gabrielle.

The Director

Chris Coleman
DIRECTOR/ ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Chris joined Portland Center Stage as artistic director in May 2000. Since then, he has directed The Beard of Avon, Cabaret, Misalliance, West Side Story, Celebrity Row, The Fantasticks, King Lear, Things of Dry Hours, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Bat Boy: The Musical, Man & Superman, Outrage, Much Ado About Nothing, The Seagull, Flesh and Blood, The Gimmick, A New Brain, A Christmas Carol and The Devils. 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. He has directed at major theaters across the country, including Actors Theatre of Louisville, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, ACT in Seattle, the Alliance Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Asolo Center for the Performing Arts, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Pittsburgh Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop and Center Stage in Baltimore. A native Atlantan, Chris holds a B.F.A. from Baylor University and an M.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon.

Designers

Dex Edwards
SCENIC DESIGNER
While living in Oxford, Mississippi, Dex’s designs have been seen nationally and internationally. During six years as resident designer at the Alliance Theatre Company in Atlanta, his designs won the Critics Choice Award three years in a row. Regionally, he has designed for theaters such as Milwaukee Rep, Long Wharf Theatre, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Indiana Repertory Theater, Merrimack Repertory Theater, Portland Center Stage, Virginia Opera and the Sacramento Theater Company, among others. Outside the U.S., Dex has designed for the Queen’s Mill Theatre and the Winter Garden, both in Toronto, as well as the Berlin Opera House. He served as design consultant for the 1996 Olympic Centennial Park and concept designer for the 1994 World Cup Opening Ceremonies in Washington, D.C. He also designed the Microsoft Global International Summit in Atlanta in 2005. In 1998, he received a Carbonell Award nomination for designing the world premiere of Jimmy Buffet’s Don’t Stop the Carnival at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami. His design of Comedy of Errors at Chicago Shakespeare won Chicago’s coveted Jefferson award for Best Scene Design. In 2002 he won the Independent Reviewers of New England (Boston Critic’s Circle) Award for his production of Miss Saigon at the Northshore Music Theater. In 2006 he was awarded Portland’s Drammy Award for Best Scene Design of the world premiere production of A Wonderful Life at Portland Center Stage. Commercially, his designs have been seen in Las Vegas, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and Branson, Missouri.

Jeff Cone
COSTUME DESIGNER
Jeff, costume shop manager for Portland Center Stage, has designed Sometimes a Great Notion, A Christmas Carol, 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. Highlights of his 18-year career include the world premiere of Pearl Cleage’s Flyin’ West at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, with subsequent productions at Indiana Repertory Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Long Wharf Theatre; an expressionistic Charlotte’s Web and 10 annual productions of A Christmas Carol at the Alliance; and the coordination of costumes for Seattle Opera’s productions of Andrea Chénier and La Traviata.

Ruth Walkowski
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Ruth is pleased to return to Portland Center Stage, where she designed Misalliance last season. Ruth lives in Portland and is a member of the leadership team at Oregon Food Bank. Prior to becoming a business manager, she was a professional lighting designer for television and theater. She spent five seasons designing the lighting for Late Night with David Letterman at NBC studios. She moved with the show to CBS and spent two seasons designing The Late Show at the Ed Sullivan Theatre, receiving an Emmy nomination. Her work at NBC also included The Today Show and Nightly News. On Broadway she designed The King & I starring Yul Brynner, and worked extensively in musical theater designing touring shows and regional operas, including the world premiere of The Abduction of Figaro by PDQ Bach. Off-Broadway she designed the Kaye Ballard show Hey Ma! and gertrude stein gertrude stein gertrude stein starring Pat Carroll, in addition to shows with such stars as William Hurt and Nathan Lane. She is a CPA in the state of Oregon and holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in New York.

Casi Pacilio
SOUND DESIGNER
Casi is excited to design her 13th production for Portland Center Stage and is thrilled to work at the Gerding Theater at the Armory as the sound supervisor and resident sound designer. Theater credits: 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, Celebrity Row (PCS). Other credits include Squonk Opera’s Bigsmorgasbord-WunderWerk (Broadway, off-Broadway, regional, touring); I Am My Own Wife, I Think I Like Girls, Burning Deck (La Jolla Playhouse); Hair (Live On Stage); Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Playland, 10 Fingers (City Theatre). Film credits: Creation of Destiny, Out of Our Time, Powerful Thang. Recording credits: Squonk Opera, Abigail’s Attic, Jana Losey. She was the event production coordinator for Portland’s Village Building Convergence from 2004 to 2006.

Mark Tynan
STAGE MANAGER
Mark is happy to be in his sixth season with Portland Center Stage. Previous PCS shows include The Beard of Avon, Twelfth Night, Cabaret, Bad Dates, Act a Lady, The Thugs, This Wonderful Life, West Side Story, Celebrity Row, The Fantasticks, Pride and Prejudice, O Lovely Glowworm, Things of Dry Hours, King Lear, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Bat Boy: The Musical, Outrage, The Merchant of Venice and for colored girls…. Prior to PCS, Mark toured nationally and internationally with musicals including Dreamgirls, The King and I with Rudolf Nureyev, How to Succeed…, The Phantom of the Opera and Rent. Mark is grateful for the hard work and support of the PCS production assistants. The past several summers, Mark has enjoyed being a part of the Broadway Rose Theatre Company productions in Tigard with shows including Jekyll and Hyde, Chicago and 42nd Street.

Zachary Lifton
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Zach is back again after PA-ing for this season’s Cabaret, Twelfth Night and The Beard of Avon. His first PCS season found him wrangling the phones in the box office and now, in his second year, he’s quite pleased to join the ranks of the talented production team. As a recent East Coast transplant, Zach originally hails from Ithaca, NY, where he was on the staff of The Hangar Theatre. He holds a B.A. in theater/stage management from Bennington College in Vermont. Warm thanks to Mom, Dad and Jes, and very special thanks to Mark and Jamie for their sharp guidance and steady patience this season.

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