Brown/ Trinity Rep MFA Programs Presents Parade 12/1-11

The Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA Programs present Alfred Uhry, Jason Robert Brown and Harold Prince's Parade, directed by Talya Klein (Brown/Trinity Directing MFA'12). Performances are December 1 through December 11 in the Citizens Bank Theater, Pell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire St., Providence. Tickets are $12 (general admission) and $6 (students and seniors), and are now on sale at the Trinity Rep box office, by phone (401) 351-4242, and online at www.trinityrep.com.

This Tony award-winning musical is ripped from the headlines of one of the most sensational trials of the early 20th century. In 1913 Atlanta, Jewish factory manager Leo Frank stands accused in the brutal death of a young employee. This daring and innovative show takes on such hot button topics as antisemitism and, potentially, the miscarriage of justice. Parade premiered on Broadway in December of 1998 and went on to win the 1999 Tony Award for Best Book and Original Musical Score.

Director Talya Klein chose to stage a musical for her MFA Thesis project in order to feature the many strong singers in this year's MFA Acting class. Parade in particular appealed to her for its remarkable and haunting melodies, anchored by a very chilling tale from American history. "In many ways, Parade is a ghost story. Even though they are long gone, these characters really existed and these events really happened," she explained.

Klein's production will put the focus squarely on the townspeople of this rural Georgia community. "Parade is a story about what happens to a town sent reeling when a senseless tragedy occurs, and how they join together to execute justice amidst a sea of grief, shame and regret," she said.

In order to bring this daring story to life, Klein plans on fully utilizing the space of the Pell Chafee Performing Center, staging the production in the round and having the actors remain onstage throughout the performance. "We imagined what it would be like if the space had been holding on to this story for a hundred years, accumulating layers of debris and items, and every night this story and its characters were unearthed by a group of actors and musicians and shared with whoever is there to listens," she said. "Our company will usher a hundred people into our haunted bank building, tell them their story, and then send them away into the night."

The cast features second and third-year MFA acting students Will Austin (Hugh Dorsey), Darien Battle (Jim Conley), Philippe Bowgen (Young Soldier), Alston Brown (Tom Watson), Caitlin Davies (Essie), Mary C. Davis (Mrs. Phagan), Tommy Dickie (Luther Rosser), Mia Ellis (Minola McKnight), Brough Hansen (Detective Starnes), Lovell Holder (Mr. Peavy), Caroline Kaplan (Lucille Frank), Alexandra Lawrence (Sally Slaton), Jaime Rosenstein (Iola Stover), Charlie Thurston (Leo Frank), and Tyler Lansing Weaks (Frankie Epps) with child actor Emeline Herreid (Mary Phagan).

Performances are Thursday December 1 at 7:30PM (preview); Friday, December 2 at 7:30pm (opening); Saturday, December 3 at 7:30PM; Sunday, December 4 at 2:00PM; Monday, December
5 at 7:30PM; Thursday, December 8 at 7:30PM; Friday December 9 at 7:30PM; Saturday, December 10 at 2:00PM and 7:30PM; Sunday, December 11 at 2:00PM.

Talya Klein is an award-winning director, actor and writer whose work has been seen in New York, Los Angeles, London and Providence. Directing credits include: The Rover (Brown/Trinity MFA Program), Three Sisters (Brown/Trinity MFA Program), All The Things You Are by Theo Goodell (Writing is Live! Festival), Red Noses by Peter Barnes and Black Snow by Mikhail Bulgagov (Kensington Drama Company, London), the American Premiere of Samuel Adamson's Clocks and Whistles (Origin Theatre Company, NYC), and the West Coast Premiere of Rinne Groff's Orange Lemon Egg Canary. In the spring Talya will be directing We Can Rebuild Him, music and book by Deepali Gupta, part of the Brown University main stage season in March '12, and performing as Janey Williams in Brown/Trinity's upcoming production of U.S.A. directed by Brian McEleney. Talya has served as assistant director on a variety of productions at theaters including Trinity Rep, Pasadena Playhouse, Theater for a New City, and 59E59, and has received internships at Manhattan Theatre Club and The National Theatre (London), as well as a playwriting fellowship at the National Playwrights' Conference, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. She received her BA from Duke University, during which time she was awarded a Benenson Artist's Grant, the Alex Cohen Award for Initiatives in Theatre, the Dasha Epstein Playwriting Award, and named one of nine local Artists to Watch in the New Millenium by the Raleigh News & Observer. Talya is also a member of the Lincoln Center Directors' Lab (2004), the Directors' Lab West (2008), and an associate member of SDC.

The Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA Programs provides a three-year professional training program for eighteen students under the auspices of an Ivy League University and Rhode Island's Tony Award-winning theater company. Brown University's Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies is internationally recognized for the quality of its faculty and instruction. Trinity Rep, with its deep tradition of resident artists, provides powerful artistic assets and creates a firm foundation for a new generation of theater artists.

Venue: Citizens Bank Theater, Pell Chafee Performance Center,
87 Empire St., Providence
Ticket Prices: $12 General Admission
$6 Students, Seniors
Web Site: www.trinityrep.com
Box Office: (401) 351-4242
201 Washington Street, Providence, RI 02903

Parade is presented through special arrangement with Musical Theatre international (MTI).
All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
421 West 54th Street. NY, NY 10019