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"A Streetcar Named Desire" Cast and Creative Team

A Streetcar Named Desire
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Chris Coleman
With Demetrius Grosse and Deidrie Henry


CAST LIST

Dana Millican*................................Eunice

Anya Pearson.................................Creola

Demetrius Grosse*.........................Stanley

Keith Eric Chappelle*......................Mitch

Kristen Adele*.................................Stella

Deidrie Henry*................................Blanche

Bobby Bermea*..............................Steve

Gilberto Martin del Campo*............Pablo

Caleb Sohigian...............................A Young Man/Ensemble**

Sofia May-Cuxim............................A Mexican Woman/A Nurse/Ensemble

David Bodin....................................A Doctor/Ensemble


CREATIVE TEAM

G.W. Mercier..........................................Scenic and Costume Designer

Ann G. Wrightson...................................Lighting Designer

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

Mary McDonald-Lewis............................Dialect Coach

Barbara Hort, Ph.D.................................Production Dramaturg

Mark Tynan*...........................................Stage Manager

Kristen Mun............................................Production Assistant

Harriet Bass............................................New York Casting

Rose Riordan and Brandon Woolley.......Local Casting


*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
** The role of A Young Man/A Vendor/Ensemble was previously played by Blake Stone.


CAST BIOS

Kristen Adele

Stella
Kristen Adele is thrilled to make her Portland Center Stage debut. Off-Broadway and regional credits include Desire (59E59 Theaters); In the Red and Brown Water (Curious Theatre Company); A Raisin in the Sun (Clarence Brown Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Hartford Stage); Jackie and Me (Denver Center for the Performing Arts); Myrna in Transit (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Clybourne Park (Geva Theatre Center and Cleveland Play House); and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Shadow Theatre Company). Her most recent television credits include Orange is the New Black, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife and The Mysteries of Laura . She is the program director of ArtChangeUS.com and earned her M.F.A. from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. She would like to thank her beautiful family, Terrance, Roberta, Kitchens-Tritto and the Nicolosi & Co. team for their tireless support, and many thanks to Chris for this once in a lifetime opportunity! KristenAdele.net

Bobby Bermea

Steve
Bobby Bermea is the artistic director of Beirut Wedding World Theatre Project and BaseRoots Theatre Company, a founding member of Badass Theatre Company and a member of Sojourn Theatre. He received a Drammy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Lead Role for Ogun in The Brother/Sister Plays (Portland Playhouse) and another Drammy, for Supporting Actor, for his work as Asagai in A Raisin in the Sun at Artists Repertory Theatre. Bermea has appeared at La MaMa in New York, Center Stage in Baltimore, VORTEX Repertory Company in Austin, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, and in Seattle at Intiman Theatre, ACT, The Group Theatre, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, AHA! Theatre, The Empty Space Theatre and The New Mercury Theatre. In Portland, Bermea has performed with BaseRoots Theatre, Teatro Milagro, Jewish Theatre Collaborative, Cygnet Productions and Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company. Bermea is excited to be making his return to the PCS stage.

David Bodin

A Doctor/Ensemble
This is Dave's Portland Center Stage debut, and he's very grateful to be here. He has been involved in a number of Portland productions in recent years. Favorites include: The Road to Mecca at Profile Theatre (Supporting Actor Drammy Award), One Flea Spare at Shaking the Tree Theatre, Eurydice at Artists Repertory Theatre, The Uneasy Chair at CoHo Productions, Twelfth Night at Portland Shakespeare Project, Noises Off at Third Rail Repertory Theatre, and many others. He has appeared on Grimm, Leverage, Nowhere Man and several independent films, as well as in many commercials years ago, where he usually played a bland, confused consumer with a smart and beautiful wife. It is a role he now plays in real life. He received his training at Illinois State University.

Gilberto Martin del Campo

Pablo
Gilberto Martin del Campo, born in Mexico, is a federally certified court interpreter and graduate of The Portland Actors Conservatory. He has been part of the Portland theater scene for the past 10 years, appearing in productions with Miracle Theatre, Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative and Artists Repertory Theatre, where he is a resident artist. He adapted, directed and co-produced Lee, Adam & Sam, based on John Steinbeck's East of Eden, for Cerimon House, and co-wrote and directed the play That Was The River, This Is the Sea with Claire Willett. He participated in the successful inaugural production of Badass Theatre Company’s staging of INVASION!. Film and television projects include Not Dead Yet , Management, Duende: Suit of Lights, Leverage, and The Recordkeeper for Bigpuddlefilms.com. Gilberto is proud to have his last performance in Portland at PCS, as he is moving to New Mexico to start a staff interpreter position with the Federal Courts.

Keith Eric Chappelle

Mitch
Keith Eric Chappelle is based in New York City, and has most recently been seen at The Public Theater as Banquo in Macbeth. Other recent New York credits include Balthasar in The Comedy of Errors, Hastings in Richard III and Lord Longaville in Love’s Labor’s Lost. His Broadway credits include Moving Man in the recent production of A Raisin in the Sun at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and Poet/Soldier in Cyrano de Bergerac at the Richard Rogers Theater. His regional theater credits include the title role in Ion for Washington D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company, the role of Elegba in Abbey Theatre’s production of The Brothers Size, and as Oshoosi in McCarter Theatre Center’s production of The Brothers Size. He has appeared on the television series Madame Secretary, Blue Bloods, Law and Order , Person of Interest and The Good Wife. This production marks his Portland Center Stage debut.

Demetrius Grosse

Stanley
Portland Center Stage debut. Off-Broadway/Regional: Black Angels Over Tuskegee (NAACP Theatre Award), The Road Weeps , The Well Runs Dry (NAACP Award nominee), The Blue Room, The Oedipus Plays, The Merchant of Venice, The Birthday Present 2050, No Exit, Spunk!, Master Harold ... And The Boys . Repertory: Richard II , Twelfth Night. TV: Game of Silence, Banshee, Justified, Westworld, ER, Heroes. Film credits include: Straight Outta Compton, Saving Mr. Banks, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, This is Martin Bonner (Sundance Audience Award), The Inheritance, Studio, A Quiet Fire (AOF Award), Samaria (DGA Award). B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University. To my loving and devoted wife, Ashley-Nicole: a champagne-supernova of love to you and our beautiful children! To the Grosse, Kubwa and Bethel family: You are the streetcar of my desire.

Deidrie Henry
Blanche
Regional: Raisin in the Sun and Parade (Center Theatre Group), Coming Home (The Fountain Theatre), Yellowman (The Fountain Theatre; winner of Best Actress Award from NAACP, Ovation Award, Backstage Garland Award and the Los Angeles Drama Critic Circle Award), American Night: The Ballad of Juan Jose (Yale Repertory Theatre), Ballad of Emmett Till (Goodman Theatre), Yellowman (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), As You Like It, Three Sisters, Wit, Hamlet, Seven Guitars, among others (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Closer (Portland Center Stage), Blues for an Alabama Sky (Alliance Theatre, Hartford Stage, Arena Stage, Boston’s Huntington Theatre). Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Blues for an Alabama Sky and winner of Backstage Bistro Award (New York) for Outstanding Vocalist and Cabaret Debut for her cabaret, What a Day for a Daydream . Television: series regular on NBC’s new Game of Silence, The Riches , Criminal Minds, Justified, Glee, CSI and others. Film: Beyond the Lights and Beautiful Boy.
Sofia May-Cuxim

A Mexican Woman/A Nurse/Ensemble
Sofia began singing zarzuela at the age of 5. She has acted, danced, sung and written plays in many languages. She started learning English at 18, then Russian, Armenian, French and recently, Mandarin. She is from Mexico City, where she studied a B.A. in Dramatic Literature at UNAM. She has received awards in Mexico and Los Angeles for acting, singing and producing. In her hometown, she performed for over 15 years, and then worked with the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, Words Across Cultures, and bilingual companies in Los Angeles. Since moving to Portland in 2009, she has been in eight Miracle Theatre productions, and with Post5 Theatre, Fertile Ground, Portland Actors Ensemble, Well Arts Institute and Theatre Diaspora. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Drammy in 2015. This is her debut with PCS. She thanks Chris Coleman for the opportunity, and her dad, Gonzalo, for always promoting her love of the arts.

Dana Millican

Eunice
Dana Millican is delighted to make her Portland Center Stage debut. She has worked with Artists Repertory Theatre (world premieres of Ithaka, The Lost Boy); CoHo Productions (‘ night, Mother); Corrib Theatre (The Hen Night Epiphany); Northwest Classical Theatre Company ( Twelfth Night, Othello and King John, for which she received a Drammy Award for Actress in a Supporting Role); Portland Shakespeare Project ( The Turn of the Screw, King Lear and As You Like It); Profile Theatre ( Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Fifth of July); Shaking the Tree Theatre ( Suddenly, Last Summer). While in New York, Ms. Millican appeared in the world premiere of Lanford Wilson’s Sympathetic Magic (Off-Broadway, Second Stage Theatre). TV: recurring roles on Grimm (NBC) and Portlandia (IFC); Leverage (TNT), Final Witness (ABC). Film: The Architect (Parker Film Company), C.O.G. (Forty Second Productions). Web Series: The Benefits of Gusbandry , One Bird at a Time. She has a B.A. in Theatre from Arizona State University. DanaMillican.com

Anya Pearson

Creola
Anya Pearson is delighted to be making her debut at Portland Center Stage in A Streetcar Named Desire. She was recently seen as Rebecca in Profile Theatre’s production of The Call. She is an actress, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, poet and writing coach. A graduate of the prestigious William Esper Studio in New York City, she is thrilled to be making Portland her home again. She is the author of the choreopoem Made to Dance in Burning Buildings, a fusion of poetic text, and violent and visceral contemporary dance, which poses the question: How do we heal from trauma? She believes that through the transformative power of performance and literary arts, she will be able to effect meaningful change in the world.


Caleb Sohigian
A Young Man/Ensemble
Caleb Sohigian was recently seen as Matthew in The Few with Coho Productions, directed by Brandon Woolley. Previously, he was a Promising Playwright for the 2014 JAW: A Playwrights Festival, an apprentice for the Original Practice Shakespeare Festival, and in a number of plays at Lincoln High School, including A Dybbuk (The Dybbuk), Chicago (Amos Hart) and The Skin of Our Teeth (George Antrobus). Caleb would like to thank his parents for their love and support, and Brandon Woolley for offering him the world, one bite at a time.

CREATIVE TEAM BIOS

Tennessee Williams
Playwright
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) explored passion with daring honesty, and forged a poetic theater of raw psychological insight that shattered conventional proprieties and transformed the American stage. The autobiographical The Glass Menagerie brought what Mr. Williams called “the catastrophe of success,” a success capped by A Streetcar Named Desire, one of the most influential works of modern American literature. An extraordinary series of masterpieces followed, including Vieux Carré, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Rose Tattoo, Orpheus Descending and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Chris Coleman
Director
Chris joined Portland Center Stage as artistic director in May, 2000. He directed the Off-Broadway debut of Threesome at 59E59 Theaters (a production that had its world premiere at PCS and was also presented at ACT-Seattle). Before coming to Portland, Chris was artistic director at Actor’s Express in Atlanta, a company he co-founded in the basement of an old church in 1988. Chris returned to Atlanta to direct the world premiere of Edward Foote at Alliance Theatre in 2015. He also directed Phylicia Rashad and Kenny Leon in Same Time Next Year at True Colors Theatre Company in Atlanta, in 2014. Favorite PCS directing assignments include Ain’t Misbehavin’, Three Days of Rain, Threesome, Dreamgirls, Othello, Fiddler on the Roof, Clybourne Park, Sweeney Todd, Shakespeare’s Amazing Cymbeline (which he also adapted), Anna Karenina, Oklahoma!, Snow Falling on Cedars, Ragtime, Crazy Enough, Beard of Avon, Cabaret, King Lear, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Man and Superman, Outrage, Flesh and Blood and The Devils. Chris has directed at theaters across the country, including Actor’s Theater of Louisville, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, ACT-Seattle, The Alliance, Dallas Theatre Center, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, 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. He is currently the board president for the Cultural Advocacy Coalition. Chris and his husband, Rodney, are the proud parents of an 18-lb Jack Russell/Lab mix, and a 110-lb English Blockhead Yellow Lab.

G.W. Mercier
Scenic and Costume Designer
Portland Center Stage scenic designs are Dreamgirls, Fiddler on the Roof (PAMPTA Award, Best Set Design), Anna Karenina, Sunset Boulevard, Ragtime, Grey Gardens, Guys and Dolls, Cabaret, West Side Story and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow. In San Francisco, he was honored with the Bay Area Critics Award for Outstanding Scenic Design for Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life at ACT and the Theatre Bay Area Award for Outstanding Scenic Design for Tarell McCraney’s Head of Passes at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and currently running at The Public Theater, both directed by Tina Landau. In New York, he proudly received the Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award for Outstanding Talent and Vision in Design. G.W. Mercier thrives on collaborating with amazing writers, composers, directors, partner designers and actors, creating original work or making established shows seem new.

Ann G. Wrightson
Lighting Designer
Ann G. Wrightson is so pleased to be back at Portland Center Stage, where she has designed Oklahoma, Fiddler on the Roof (PAMTA Award) and Anna Karenina. She designed the Broadway production of Souvenir and was a Tony nominee for her work on the Tony Award-winning August: Osage County, which she designed for Broadway, London, Sydney and the National Tour. Recent projects include A Moon for the Misbegotten for the Theatre Royal Waterford in Ireland and Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, Domesticated at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and Georama (world premier) and Disgraced at Repertory Theatre of St Louis. Other work has been seen at many regional theaters, including Guthrie Theater, Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage, Cleveland Play House, Weston Playhouse Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Indiana Repertory Theatre, McCarter Theatre and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference. Awards include an IRNE Award for Best Lighting, Backstage Garland Award for Magic Fire at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and an AUDELCO nomination.

Casi Pacilio
Sound Designer
Casi’s home base is Portland Center Stage in Portland, Oregon, where her recent credits include Great Expectations, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Three Days of Rain, Cyrano, The People’s Republic of Portland, Threesome, Dreamgirls (PAMTA Award) and The Last Five Years; Other Desert Cities, Vanya and Sonia, A Small Fire and Chinglish with composer Jana Crenshaw; and nine seasons of JAW. National shows: Holcombe Waller's Surfacing and Wayfinders; Left Hand of Darkness, My Mind is Like an Open Meadow (Drammy Award, 2011), Something’s Got Ahold Of My Heart and PEP TALK for Hand2Mouth Theatre. Other credits include Squonk Opera’s Bigsmorgasbord-WunderWerk (Broadway, PS122, national and international touring); I Am My Own Wife, I Think I Like Girls (La Jolla Playhouse); Playland, 10 Fingers and Lips Together, Teeth Apart (City Theatre, PA). Film credits include Creation of Destiny, Out of Our Time and A Powerful Thang. Imagineer/maker of the Eat Me Machine, a dessert vending machine.

Mary McDonald-Lewis
Dialect Coach
Mary McDonald-Lewis has been a working artist since 1979 as a SAG-AFTRA voice actor and on-camera performer, and in theater for much longer as an actor and director. MaryMac has been a dialect coach since 1999, and is house coach for Hallmark Hall of Fame, the series Leverage, Grimm and others. Film, television and stage clients range from overnight sensations to Drammy, Obie, Emmy and Oscar winners, and include a Knight of the British Empire. She is blessed to be a resident artist, speech and text director at Artists Repertory Theatre and house coach at Portland Center Stage, and is just thrilled to say this is her 25th show as coach at PCS. MaryMac thanks Finnegan, Sullivan and Flynn for always wagging their tails when she comes home from telling her tales. marymac.com

John Armour
Fight Director
John is an actor and fight director who has been choreographing violence for more than 25 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 Portland Opera, Portland Center Stage, Artists Repertory Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre, Miracle Theatre and many others. John’s work has twice been recognized within the Portland theater community for Best Fight Design.

Barbara Hort, Ph.D.
Production Dramaturg
Barbara Hort, Ph.D., has maintained a private practice in Portland for over 25 years, working primarily from the psychological perspective developed by the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung. At the invitation of Chris Coleman, Dr. Hort has served as a dramaturg on the PCS productions of Sweeney Todd, Clybourne Park, the 2013 JAW festival, Fiddler on the Roof, Othello, Dreamgirls, Threesome, Three Days of Rain, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and now, A Streetcar Named Desire, providing material on the psychological dynamics of the play that can be used by the artists who are creating the performance.

Mark Tynan
Stage Manager
Imagine being in a room full of artists, watching the birth of an idea, a movement given purpose, a sentence, phrase, scene, act given life. Then imagine that room translating to the stage with lighting, sound, costumes, scenery and props, then you can imagine what Mark’s job is like. Special thanks to the phenomenal PCS production assistants, Marialena DiFabbio, Stephen Kriz Gardner, Bailey Anne Maxwell and Kristen Mun, who help keep the vision attainable. Prior to PCS, Mark toured nationally and internationally with musicals including Dreamgirls, The King and I with Rudolf Nureyev, How to Succeed …, Grand Hotel, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent and Jersey Boys. Other Portland credits include several summers with Broadway Rose Theatre Company in Tigard. Regional credits include Alley Theatre (Houston, TX), La Jolla Playhouse (La Jolla, CA) and Casa Mañana Theatre (Fort Worth, TX).

Kristen Mun
Production Assistant
Kristen Mun is originally from Hawaii and graduated from Southern Oregon University with a B.F.A. in Stage Management. This is her third season at Portland Center Stage, where previous credits include: production assistant on Each and Every Thing, Forever, The Santaland Diaries, Three Days of Rain, Threesome, Lizzie, and 2nd production assistant on Fiddler on the Roof. Outside of Portland, she has worked at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Repertory Theatre and Actors Theater of Louisville. In Portland, she has worked as a production assistant and stage manager with other theater companies, such as Artists Repertory Theatre (And So It Goes …, Red Herring), Oregon Children’s Theatre (A Year With Frog and Toad, Charlotte’s Web, Ivy and Bean, Junie B. Jones) and Broadway Rose Theatre Company (Oklahoma!). Outside of stage managing, Kristen is also a fight choreographer and stage combat teacher.

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