The Angel Play by Bella Poyton

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THE ANGEL PLAY

The untold story of God’s most trusted messenger

Written by Bella Poynton

Directed by Amanda Thompson

March 16 - April 1

Looking Glass Theatre, celebrating almost 20 years

of productions strengthening the voice of women in

theater and the arts, proudly presents the world

premiere production of Bella Poynton’s The Angel Play,

directed by Amanda Thompson.

The Angel Play opens Friday, March 16 and continues

through Sunday, April 1 with performances Thursday

through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets

are $18, general admission ($15 students/seniors)

Group tickets also available. Running time is

approximately 110 minutes with one intermission.

ABOUT THE SHOW…

We’ve all heard the story: the Angel Gabriel announces

the coming of a child and Mary is stunned but welcoming

of her Lord’s will. But did it really happen this way?

How could the players in this immortal tale live through

those nine months of waiting? We examine the humanity

of Gabriel, the divinity of young Mary, and the blindness

of the community around them. What effect did these two

beings of light have on one another, and was their

connection deeper than we might suspect?

This is the story of the Angel Gabriel and Mary of

Nazareth’s strange and convoluted love affair. They meet,

fall in love, and are forced to part ways. Because her

family and community fail to understand what has

happened, Mary is shunned and looked at as a criminal.

Gabriel is then given the task of converting Mary’s future

husband, Joseph, to believing she holds a pivotal place

in human history. As the play moves forward, we watch

Mary’s transformation from frightened young girl into

powerful prophetess as she takes control of her own

destiny, and the destiny of her unborn child.

“We are on the cusp of Aries, and moving into Pisces.

The world is turning on its hinge, shifting from one age to

another!” Set amidst the crumbling ruins of an old world

moving towards the new, this production also reflects the

in-between state of those who inhabit this earth. Just as

the world is turning and shifting, so is Gabriel himself,

stuck in-between two worlds: not quite an angel, but also

not a man. This is the moment, every 2,000 years, that

the Angel Gabriel appears, just as he did to Hagar and

the parents of Samson before Mary of Nazareth. But, as

“there is red paint dripping from the sky like blood,” we

cannot be sure if this new world – and this change in

Gabriel – is something to be welcomed… or feared.

Steve Buechler’s costume design incorporates both

contemporary and period elements, while Elle Kunnos

de Voss’ scenic design is comprised of crumbling stones

of the ruins of a city, the falling of this world. Lucas Segall

adds a haunting musical underscore, and Libby Jensen’s

stunning light design creates chilling shadows as well

as angelic illumination.

Featuring

Julie Ek as Mary

Dan Lovley as Joseph

Joey Lozada as Gabriel

Margie Ferris as Ann / Elisheva

Rebecca Nerz as Shepherd

Zachary Zimbler as Joachim / Priest

Assistant Director/Stage Manager: Meg Dowling

Assistant Director/Stage Manager: Arielle Parkas

Assistant Director/Stage Manager: Taylor Reynolds

Scenic Design: Elle Kunnos de Voss

Light Design: Libby Jensen

Costume Design: Steve Buechler

Sound Design: Lucas Segall

Click here for all company bios.

BELLA POYNTON holds a BFA in Acting from the Boston University School of Theater and is currently an MFA Playwriting candidate at the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. She is the winner of the Amelia Bassano Lanier Short Play Competition at Manhattan Theater Source in 2009, and was nominated for the Christopher Brian Wolk Playwriting Award in 2010. Her play Pope Joan was a regional finalist at the American College Theater Festival, and was later produced Off-Broadway at New World Stages. Other productions include: Unpopular Devotion (New Perspectives Theater Company), Advanced Program System (American Globe Theater), The Age (Barrow Group FAB Women Project), Who is Dan Schiller? (Looking Glass Forum) and A House Full of Dust (Wings Theater Co.) A House Full of Dust will also be published later this year by Heartland Plays. Click here for more about Bella...

Director AMANDA THOMPSON is a New York City based director and acting teacher. At Looking Glass Theatre, she most recently directed the popular children’s show Betsy is Bored… She has also directed numerous Looking Glass Forum productions including Badger and Maddy, Potato Girl, and Ampersand: a Romeo & Juliet Story Acts One and Two (winning Best Direction and Best Production among other Forum awards). NYC credits include Fate Fury and Musical Theatre (Frigid Festival), Baldy (Abingdon Theatre), Hatching (NYC Fringe), Dismemberment (Player’s Theatre), Life is a Dream and Impostor Striketh Back(Festival of Fools), Dismissing Robert Fink and Litmus (Manhattan Rep Theatre). Ms. Thompson has assisted for directors Lear Desbessonet and Rachel Dickstein, and playwright (and Obie-winning actor) Heidi Schreck.

Looking Glass Theatre’s mission is to theatrically and truthfully reflect a female vision on the stage while creating a community of artistic freedom. We fulfill this by presenting female directors' visions of original works or the classics and by staging new plays either written or directed by women. This includes children’s shows and educational programming as well as our semi-annual festival of new works, featuring emerging women playwrights and directors, each season.In June 2006, Looking Glass Theatre and Artistic Director Justine Lambert received The Lucille Lortel Award from The League of Professional Theatre Women.

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THE ANGEL PLAY

March 16 - April 1, 2012

SCHEDULE: Thursday-Saturday @ 8 p.m., Sunday @ 3 p.m.

TICKET PRICE: $18 General Admission,$15 Students/Seniors with valid ID

ADDRESS: 422 West 57th Street (btwn 9th//10th Aves)

PHONE: (866) 811-4111

This production is closed.

JULIE EK (Mary) is currently pursuing her MFA at Actors Studio Drama School, and it will be granted unto her this coming May! She is happy about that. She grew up in New Market, MD and has a BA in theatre and public relations from Susquehanna University. Some of her favorite roles include Claire in Proof, Lady Anne in Richard III, Maggie Cutler in Man Who Came to Dinner, and Gertrude McFuzz in Seussical the Musical. Most recently in NYC, she was seen in Charleston’s Finger (Dorothy Stelsin Theatre), and the original musical Ampersand (Fringe NYC). Coming up in April, she will be performing in her final project at Actors Studio Drama School, her thesis as Jane in Fallen Angels, which will take place at Dance New Amsterdam stage. While in the program, she has also worked on Dolores, Doubt, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, and On Tidy Endings. Bella Poynton’s amazing play, The Angel Play, is dear to Julie’s heart. She is incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to work on something so imaginative and beautifully written, and she is lucky to be able to have Amanda as a director for a third time! Everyone that is a part of this production is a dream come true and makes her day every rehearsal day!

MARGIE FERRIS (Ann / Elisheva) was a Best Actress nominee in NYC's Strawberry Festival. She had a principal role in an Onion News Network webisode. She was directed by John Bedford Lloyd in prison (as a volunteer actor!) for Rehabilitation Through the Arts’ open-minded production of Jitney. Margie is a Licensed Speech-Language Pathologist. She enjoys doing back bends, splits, and cartwheels. If she’s got her Tarot Cards on her, she'll give you a reading. Click here for more about Margie...

DAN LOVLEY (Joseph) is very excited to be performing with Looking Glass again. He recently appeared in the Looking Glass Spring 2011 Writer/Director Forum. Originally from Massachusetts, Dan studied acting at Boston University's College of Fine Arts (BFA 2009) and also at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Dan has appeared regionally in Boston with the Huntington Theatre (Brendan, The Cherry Orchard, The Corn is Green). Other favorite productions include Othello (Iago), The Tempest (Ferdinand), Who is Dan Schiller? (Captain Ben Stokes), and doing sketch comedy in Something Outrageous. Dan starred in an MTVU pilot, "Res. Life" which is available on youtube. Follow Dan on twitter and he’ll do his best to make you laugh. Dan would like to thank the support of his amazing family and friends.

JOEY LOZADA (Gabriel) hails from Enfield, CT. He has studied acting with the Hartford stage as well as at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy that he graduated from in the spring of 2009. He has since been working on various student films, showcases, and staged readings. He was also seen Off-Broadway at the Actors Temple in The Columbine Project. Most recently at Looking Glass Theatre, he was the Interloper in The Golden Ticket as part of the Looking Glass Winter 2011 Forum. He’s honored to be part of this new work. (BTW-Joey is the Internship Program Coordinator at Looking Glass!)

REBECCA NERZ (Shepherd) -- New York credits include Awkward Levity (Sick Little Productions), Twelfth Night (Looking Glass Forum), As I Am Fully Known (NY Fringe 2010) and Romeo and Juliet (Zephyr Rep). Regional: Ghosts, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Tobacco Road (Triad Stage), Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Carolina Jack's Last Adventure (Theatre 232). Educational credits include: The Rimer's of Eldritch, Private Lives, and The Revenger's Tragedy. Rebecca received her BFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

ZACHARY ZIMBLER (Joachim / Priest) is happy to be making his first appearance at Looking Glass Theatre. Past New York productions include performances at Columbia University, New York University, the Stella Adler Studio, Bleecker St. Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Source, Under St. Marks, the Kraine and the Playwrights Horizons Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Since 2009 he has produced plays and shorts films, including the award winning-play, The Bohemians, for the 2010 Frigid Festival, and digital content for the sketch comedy group, Boy Friends! He is also a contributing writer to the blog “The Ivester Presents…” Zack is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School. He would like to thank his friends and family for all of their continued caring and support. Much love to Mom and Dad, Sam, and LC. Click here for more about Zachary...

COMPANY BIOS

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BELLA POYNTON (Playwright) holds a BFA in Acting from the Boston University School of Theater and is currently an MFA Playwriting candidate at the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. She is the winner of the Amelia Bassano Lanier Short Play Competition at Manhattan Theater Source in 2009, and was nominated for the Christopher Brian Wolk Playwriting Award in 2010. Her play Pope Joan was a regional finalist at the American College Theater Festival, and was later produced Off-Broadway at New World Stages. Other productions include: Unpopular Devotion (New Perspectives Theater Company), Advanced Program System (American Globe Theater), The Age (Barrow Group FAB Women Project), Who is Dan Schiller? (Looking Glass Forum) and A House Full of Dust (Wings Theater Co.) A House Full of Dust will also be published later this year by Heartland Plays. Click here for more about Bella...

AMANDA THOMPSON (Director) is a New York City based director and acting teacher. At Looking Glass Theatre, she most recently directed the popular children’s show Betsy is Bored… She has also directed numerous Looking Glass Forum productions including Badger and Maddy, Potato Girl, and Ampersand: a Romeo & Juliet Story Acts One and Two (winning Best Direction and Best Production among other Forum awards). NYC credits include Hatching (NYC Fringe), Fate, Fury, and Musical Theatre (Frigid Festival), Baldy (Abingdon Theatre), Speakeasy (The Tank), Life is a Dream and Impostor Striketh Back (Festival of Fools), Dismemberment (Player’s Theatre), Dismissing Robert Fink and Litmus (Manhattan Rep Theatre). She previously worked with Bella directing her play A House Full of Dust (Wings Theatre). Amanda has assisted for directors Lear Desbessonet and Rachel Dickstein, and playwright (and Obie-winning actor) Heidi Schreck. She currently works as a teaching artist for Town Hall, and teaches theatre to middle-schoolers in Brooklyn.

MEG DOWLING (AD/SM) recently graduated from East Stroudsburg University. Last summer she worked with a new theatre company, Calliope, on their production of 3 One-Act Plays, where she was an assistant stage manager. She also worked with New York Classical Theatre as a production intern on their productions of School for Husbands in Central Park, and Henry V, which included a ferry ride for 500 people to Governor’s Island at every performance. In the summer of 2009 she worked as an intern at People’s Light in Malvern, PA on their production of End Days. She also has a wide variety of knowledge working on different aspects of productions while in college, including acting. Her college credits include being the assistant stage manager for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, light board operator on multiple productions, props master for Blithe Spirit, and acting in productions including the one-act, Beauty, and the Shakespearean comedy, As You Like It.

ARIELLE PARKAS (AD/SM) has been working Off-Off-Broadway since 2009. Beginning as dramaturg for In The Red Room written by Gordon Farrell and presented by Red Productions on the Lower East Side, she went on to direct the one-act play Prying by Jamie Gerardi. Last spring she co-directed Threshold: Six True Stories From Girls Who Broke The Rules. as part of the emerging Red Anthology Trilogy being developed by Red Productions in the Upstairs Cabaret at People Lounge. She is co-founder of the public health based arts program “Positive Health Theater Experience,” and facilitated theater workshops at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, viBe Theater Experience, Greenpoint Gallery, and One Arm Red.

TAYLOR REYNOLDS (AD/SM) is delighted to be working with Looking Glass Theatre again after being one of the AD/SMs for the Winter 2011 Forum. She is originally from Chicago, where she directed a production of Annie at Hanna Saks High School last spring. Shortly after, she was the assistant director for The Gospel According to James directed by Chuck Smith (Victory Gardens Theater) and for THIRST as part of Leapfest 8 (Stage Left Theatre). She holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University, where her favorite accomplishment was her senior thesis production of In the Blood. Click here for more about Taylor...

ELLE KUNNOS DE VOSS (Scenic Design) is the Creative Director/Co-founder of The Metrics Design Group. Some of her most notable projects include Chef John Fraser’s high-profile restaurant What Happens When in NYC, Denmark's first House of Literature in Copenhagen and The Park Lane Residence in Beijing. Before co-founding the Metrics, Elle worked with renowned designer Hilton McConnico in Paris and also created sets and costumes for Nicola Hepp in Amsterdam. With a diverse educational background and having lived and worked in Paris, Copenhagen, Beijing, Tallinn and now NYC, Elle brings a unique approach to her work. Achieved by using simple elements, Elle’s work often explores the tension between the literal and abstract, the real and fantastical. Her work has been published in books and magazines all over the world, and has been exhibited at 100% Design in London, National Gallery in Prague and the Modern Museum of Art in Reykjavik to mention a few. Recently Elle was commissioned by Beck’s as one of 30 artists to create a piece for their global Green Box project launch. Other artists included Nick Knight, Sam Spiegel, UVA and Arne Quinze. Click here fore more about Elle...

LIBBY JENSEN (Light Design) -- Recent credits include: A Doll’s House, Chamber Music, Anon(ymous), As You Like It. After working in California, Massachusetts, and New Orleans, Libby is thrilled to be in New York, and working on The Angel Play. Click here for more about Libby...

STEVE BUECHLER (Costume Design) is a recent transplant to New York. Steve completed his MFA in Costume Design at Carnegie Mellon University. Recent design credits include Butterfly's Trouble (Voice Afire), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Carnegie Mellon), and Western Country (Williamstown Theatre Festival).

LUCAS SEGALL (Sound Design) is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, conductor and sound designer. He works in a variety of mediums and genres, and is especially interested in combining classically notated music with improvisation and electronics. He attended Northwestern University where he studied composition with Lee Hyla and Jay Alan Yim. Lucas has done sound design and original music for many theater, film, radio, and multimedia works. Click here for more about Lucas...