Ed Hoopman, Erica Spyres and Mark Pierre to Lead Lyric Stage's PETER AND THE STARCATCHER

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston's 2015-16 season closes with an acclaimed new play (partly inspired by the theatricality of Nicholas Nickleby) that uses ingenious stagecraft, the talents of a dozen of our favorite actors, and the limitless possibilities of your imagination to create theatrical magic.

PETER AND THE STARCATCHER chronicles the adventures of Molly, a girl charged to protect a cargo of stardust from falling into the wrong hands, and an orphan named Peter who eventually becomes The Boy Who Never Grew Up. PETER AND THE STARCATCHER is a swashbuckling grownup prequel to Peter Pan that will have you hooked from the moment you let your mind take wing.

Featuring: Margaret Ann Brady*, Ed Hoopman*, MargaRita Martinez*, Will McGarrahan*, Mark Pierre, Robert Saoud*, Tyler Simahk, Alejandro Simoes, Damon Singletary, Matt Spano, Erica Spyres*, and Dale J. Young.

Scenic Design, Janie E. Howland**. Costume Design, Elisabetta Polito**. Lighting Design, Frank Meissner, Jr.**

PETER AND THE STARCATCHER

CAST:

Ed Hoopman* Black Stache

Erica Spyres* Molly

Mark Pierre Boy/Peter

MargaRita Martinez* Grempkin/Mack/Sanchez/Fighting Prawn

Will McGarrahan* Mrs. Bumbrake/Teacher

Dale J. Young Slank/Hawking Clam

Alejandro Simoes Smee

Tyler Simahk Prentiss

Margaret Ann Brady* Alf

Damon Singletary Lord Aster

Robert Saoud* Captain Scott

Matt Spano* Ted

The show runs May 20 - June 26, 2016. Schedule: Wednesdays, Thursdays - 7:30pm; Wednesday matinees - 2pm, May 25, June 22; Fridays - 8pm; Saturdays - 3pm & 8pm; and Sundays - 3pm. Post-show Q&A with the artists: May 22 and June 5 after 3pm performance. Tickets start at $25; Seniors - $10 off regular price; Student rush - $10; Group rates available. Box Office: 617-585-5678 or online at lyricstage.com. The show runs at The Lyric Stage, 140 Clarendon Street, Copley Square, Boston, MA 02116.

ABOUT THE CAST/CREATIVE TEAM:

Rick Elice (playwright): Broadway: PETER AND THE STARCATCHER, Jersey Boys (with Marshall Brickman, Bob Gaudio, Bob Crewe,directed by Des McAnuff, Tony Award, Best Musical), The Addams Family (with Marshall Brickman, Andrew Lippa, directed by Jerry Zaks). Regional: Turn of the Century (with Marshall Brickman, directed by Tommy Tune), Double Double (directed by Roger Rees), Dog and Pony (with Michael Patrick Walker), Studio 54 (with Stephen Trask, Peter Yanowitz, directed by Christopher Ashley). See more at mtishows.com/people/rick-elice#sthash.t5niy3Hx.dpuf.

Wayne Barker (composer): 2011 Drama Desk Award for PETER AND THE STARCATCHER. Broadway: Dame Edna: Back With a Vengeance (composer, co-lyricist with Barry Humphries). Regional: The Great Gatsby (Guthrie), Twelfth Night, The Three Musketeers (Seattle Rep). TV: A Little Curious. Other: Mark Bennett's A Midsummer Night's Dream (orchestrations). Chicago City Limits, the Raymond Scott Orchestrette, orchestras worldwide. Upcoming: I Heart Bob. Dramatists Guild: artistic associate for new musicals at NYTW. See more at mtishows.com/people/wayne-barker#sthash.HexJUlZr.dpuf.

Margaret Ann Brady* (Alf) returns to the Lyric Stage after having appeared in Shakespeare in Hollywood and the Lyric Stage's inaugural production in this space, Cole. Boston credits include Christmas on the Air, Something's Afoot, The Full Monty, 42nd Street (Stoneham Theater), Pippi Longstocking, The Little Mermaid (Wheelock Family Theatre), The Lily's Revenge (American Repertory Theater), The Chosen Child, A Child's Christmas in Wales (Boston Playwrights Theatre), The Little Pricks, Death of A Saleslady, CinderElla Rocks! (Ryan Landry's Gold Dust Orphans), A Christmas Story (New Repertory Theater), Johnny Guitar, Ruthless! (SpeakEasy Stage). This summer she will appear in Mr. Burns, a post-electric play at Opera House Arts Theater in Deer Isle, Maine. Directing: Laughing Wild (Hub Theatre Co.), The Last Jews (Piece of Tish Productions), and for the past two years in the Boston Theatre Marathon. She also wrote, produced, and performed sketch comedy with The Mrs. Potatohead Show and Greetings from Planet Girl in Boston and on various festival stages. She enjoys her work as creative director of The Freedom Trail Foundation's Scholars Program (as well as inhabiting the patriot landlady Mrs. Mary Clapham on the Trail itself). She has trained extensively with Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox, Mass. She values her long involvement with the Mass. Educational Theatre Guild as festival adjudicator. Margaret Ann is a proud member of Actor's Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, and serves on the board of StageSource, the New England Alliance of Theater Artists, and Producers.

Ed Hoopman* (Black Stache) has been seen previously at the Lyric Stage in City of Angels, Dear Elizabeth, Animal Crackers, and The Importance of Being Earnest. NYC: Interior: Panic (NY Fringe Festival), World's Fastest Hamlet (Hedgepig Ensemble), Jester's Dead (The Outfit), Foreign Wars (Random Access Theater). REGIONAL: Finish Line (Boston Theater Co.), A Civil War Christmas (Huntington Theatre), King Lear, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Taming of the Shrew (Commonwealth Shakespeare), Mister Roberts, Indulgences (New Rep), Macbeth, the title role in Hamlet (New Rep on Tour), Assassins, After Ashley, A Clockwork Orange (Company One), and Shear Madness (Charles Playhouse). TV: See Kate Run (ABC), Aftershock (History Channel). Mr. Hoopman is also an accomplished voiceover actor whose work can be heard both locally and nationally. edhoopman.com

MargaRita Martinez* (Grempkin/Mack/Sanchez/Fighting Prawn) returns to the Lyric Stage having appeared in City of Angels and Death of a Salesman. New England: The Housekeeper (Fresh Ink Theatre Co.), Blue Window (Brown Box Theatre Project), 27 Tips for Banishing the Blues, Talk to at Me (Sleeping Weazel), The Libertine (Bridge Rep/Playhouse Creatures), The King and I (Ocean State Theatre Company), Time of My Life (Zeitgeist Stage Company). Off-Broadway: The Miser (Jean Cocteau Repertory). New York: As You Like It (Giant Squid Productions), Fefu and her Friends (Culture Project: 45 Below), A Man's A Man (Giant Squid Productions/International FringeNYC), Makeshift (HERE Arts Center). TV: New England Host of the Emmy Award-winning series Neighborhood Kitchens (PBS, WGBH). Margarita also creates original theatre and music compositions, such as her solo music theatre show, Well Behaved Women. She has performed her own work at such venues as The Roots in Providence, Patravadi Theater in Bangkok, and Pete's Candy Store and Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn. She is a current M.F.A. candidate in Media Art at Emerson College. B.F.A. from NYU. margaritamartinez.com

Will McGarrahan* (Mrs. Bumbrake/Teacher) returns to the Lyric Stage where he performed in Light Up the Sky, Into the Woods, Death of a Salesman, Becky's New Car, The Chosen, The Temperamentals, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Grey Gardens, November, Souvenir, and Dirty Blonde. Other local credits include Casa Valentina, Big Fish, Far From Heaven, Next Fall, The Drowsy Chaperone, Reckless, Some Men, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Five By Tenn, Company, The Last Sunday in June, Elegies: A Song Cycle, Ruthless!, A Class Act, A New Brain (SpeakEasy Stage),A Raisin in the Sun (Huntington Theater), The Wind in the Willows, Happy Days (Gloucester Stage), Nine Circles (Publick Theatre and Gloucester Stage), The Moon For The Misbegotten, Buried Child (Nora Theater), and The Wrestling Patient (SpeakEasy Stage/Boston Playwrights/40 Magnolias). Will worked as an actor, singer and pianist for many years in Seattle before moving to Boston's South End.

Marc Pierre (Peter) is making his Lyric Stage debut. Other Boston area credits include Milk Like Sugar (Huntington Theatre), The Flick (Gloucester Stage), King Lear, Romeo and Juliet (Commonwealth Shakespeare), Great Expectations, A Midsummer Night's Dream (New Repertory Theatre), I Am a Camera (Wellfleet Harbor Actor's Theatre), A Soldier's Play (Roxbury Repertory), and We Are Proud to Present a Presentation...(Company One/ArtsEmerson). New York credits include The Imaginary Life of Millo St. Jean (Snapdragon Theatre), and Line (13th Street Repertory). Marc received his B.F.A. in acting at Emerson College and is a member of StageSource.

Robert Saoud* (Captain Scott) returns to the Lyric Stage where he was last seen in the 2007 production of Man of La Mancha. Other Lyric Stage shows include Lost in Yonkers, Assassins, She Loves Me, Lend Me a Tenor, and The Comedy of Errors. He was most recently seen in Casa Valentina (SpeakEasy Stage). Nationally, Robert toured in Groucho as Chico Marx with Gabe Kaplan as Groucho. In New England, he has appeared at the Huntington Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Trinity Rep, New Rep, Stoneham Theatre, Wheelock Family Theatre, Fiddlehead Theatre, and was also in Shear Madness. Robert has appeared in numerous cabarets in Boston and New York and is a Fellow of the 2000 Eugene O'Neill Cabaret Symposium. He is also a proud member of StageSource and Actors' Equity Association.

Tyler Simahk (Prentiss) was most recently seen oat the Lyric Stage in Fast Company. Regional credits include Sister Act (Ogunquit Playhouse and Gateway Playhouse), La Cage aux Folles (Reagle Music Theatre), and Scapino! (Peterborough Players). Tyler graduated from Emerson College last year with a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre. Emerson credits include Merrily We Roll Along, Carousel, and Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Alejandro Simoes (Smee) returns to the Lyric Stage having last appeared in Light up the Sky and One Man, Two Guvnors. Recent credits include The Motherf**ker with the Hat (SpeakEasy Stage, IRNE Award, Best Supporting Actor), Our Country's Good, Recent Tragic Events, Aunt Dan and Lemon (Whistler in the Dark), Hideous Progeny, Melancholy Play (Holland Productions), Paperbag Princess, Shh! (New Exhibition Room), Travesties, Romeo and Juliet, Misalliance (The Publick Theatre), Titus Andronicus (Actor's Shakespeare Project), The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), King John (Shakespeare & Company), Olly's Prison, Dido, Queen of Carthage (American Repertory Theatre), as well as productions with Stoneham Theatre, Theatre on Fire, Zeitgeist Stage, and Imaginary Beasts. He trained at Shakespeare & Company, Southwick Studio, and Northeastern University.

Damon Singletary (Lord Aster) is returning to the Lyric Stage having previously appeared in City of Angels. Some of his other recent credits include A Southern Victory: A Trilogy (Vagabond Theatre Group), The Boys in the Band (Zeitgeist Stage), Colossal (Company One), Dancing Wilde (Boston Actors Theater), A Soldier's Play (Roxbury Repertory Theater, IRNE Award for Best Ensemble), Neighbourhood Watch (Zeitgeist Stage), Wonder of the World (Titanic Theater Company), Othello (Roxbury Repertory Theater), and Thinking of You (Boston Actors Theater). Damon lives in Cambridge with his wife Laurie (who is also an actor), and their teenage son Sterling.

Matt Spano (Ted) returns to the Lyric Stage having appeared in Sweeney Todd and The Mikado. His regional credits include Mary Zimmerman's Candide (Huntington Theatre), Sleep No More (A.R.T./Punchdrunk), South Pacific, Grease (Summer Theatre of New Canaan, CT), The Full Monty, The Dinosaur Musical, A Year With Frog and Toad (Stoneham Theatre), Annie, and The Wizard of Oz (Wheelock Family Theatre). Most recently he participated in a reading of new plays for the Jewish Plays Project and the Jewish Arts Collaborative. Additionally, Matt performs in short plays and educational theatre pieces for children and their families with City Stage Co. at the Boston Children's Museum, as well as on tour throughout the city and state. He holds a degree in theatre performance from Northeastern University and is a proud member of Actors' Equity.

Erica Spyres* (Molly) is back in her artistic home after nearly two years fiddling and singing in Once (first National Tour), and appearing in the French premiere of Passion (Théâtre du Châtelet). Lyric Stage credits include Into the Woods, Avenue Q (IRNE Award), Time Stands Still, The Mikado, Big River, and Nicholas Nickleby. Other credits include Tribes (Elliot Norton Award), The Light in the Piazza (IRNE Award), (SpeakEasy Stage,), New Rep: Camelot (IRNE Award), Marry Me a Little, Master Class (New Rep), Pirates! (Huntington Theatre), A Little Night Music (Springfield Regional Opera). Erica coaches for My College Audition and can be seen and heard on commercials and voiceovers across the nation. ericaspyres.com

Dale J. Young (Slank/Hunting Prawn) is making his Lyric Stage debut.Recent Boston credits include: The Housekeeper (Fresh Ink), The Goat (Bad Habit), The Farnsworth Invention (Flat Earth, IRNE Award), Greenland (Apollinaire), Invasion, and Bocon! (Apollinaire). Other recent credits include: Making God Laugh, Spider Web, The Hollow, Gross Indecency, and The Foreigner. Dale is a 2016 recipient of a script development residency with Opera House Arts/Stonington Opera House. Dale is a proud member of the UMass-Lowell English Department /Theatre Arts Faculty where he recently direcTed August: Osage County and urges others to explore their own thespianic tendencies.

Spiro Veloudos (Director/Producing Artistic Director), now in his 18th season as Producing Artistic Director of the Lyric Stage, directed Sondheim on Sondheim this season, Sweeney Todd and City of Angels last season. In previous seasons, he directed Into the Woods (Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards for Best Director, Best Musical, and Best Ensemble), One Man, Two Guvnors, Death of a Salesman (IRNE Award for Best Play),The Mikado, 33 Variations, On the Town, Avenue Q (Elliot Norton Awards for Outstanding Musical and Outstanding Ensemble, five IRNE Awards including Best Musical and Best Director), The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Elliot Norton Award for Best Production and Best Director, five IRNE Awards including Best Director), Big River, Superior Donuts, Animal Crackers, Blithe Spirit, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, and Kiss Me, Kate. Spiro received the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award from Salem State College. He was the recipient of the 2006 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence. During his tenure, the Lyric Stage has earned numerous awards and honors including Elliot Norton Awards for Outstanding Production (Nicholas Nickleby, Speech & Debate, Miss Witherspoon, The Old Settler), and Outstanding Musical Production (Sunday in the Park with George); IRNE Awards for Outstanding Production (Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Settler, Glengarry Glen Ross), and Outstanding Musical Production (Grey Gardens, Urinetown: The Musical, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George). His numerous directing credits at the Lyric Stage include A Little Night Music (IRNE Award for Direction), Glengarry Glen Ross (IRNE Award), Sunday in the Park with George (Best of the Year in Boston's Globe, Herald, and Phoenix; Elliot Norton and IRNE Award for direction), Assassins (Best Production of 1998: The Boston Globe), Lost in Yonkers, Never the Sinner: The Leopold and Loeb Story (Elliot Norton Award, along with Assassins), and Speed-the-Plow (Elliot Norton for Outstanding Production). Mr. Veloudos received StageSource's Theatre Hero Award (2003) and was named Best Artistic Director by Boston Magazine in 1999. He serves as the president for the Producers' Association of New England Area Theatres, and is adjunct faculty in Performing Arts at Emerson College.

Catherine Stornetta (Music Director) has been the music director at the Lyric Stage for Animal Crackers, Ain't Misbehavin', Avenue Q, One Man, Two Guv'nors, 33 Variations, City of Angels, Into the Woods, and most recently, My Fair Lady. She has been a music director for Forbidden Broadway, Forbidden Hollywood, and Forbidden Christmas for many years, and has performed in Boston, New York, Japan, Singapore, Australia, all but five states, and on cruise ships circumnavigating the globe. She orchestrated and has conducted the orchestral version with the Detroit, Hartford, Winnipeg, North Carolina, Rochester, Syracuse, and Adelaide (Australia) Symphonies, and will conduct the Desert Symphony in Palm Springs in April of 2017. She was the music director for the three-year run of Menopause, The Musical in Boston. She composed the score for the Cable ACE-award winning documentary Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space, produced for the Arts and Entertainment Network "Biography" series, and she has arranged and written music for several shows including Intriguing People (for People Magazine), 12 Angry Reindeer, and All-of-a-Kind Family, as well as several shows for the Unione Parke Singers: Reindeer Games, 100 Years of Song, The Seasons, and Oh Look, You're 80!. She has worked extensively as a composer, music director, arranger, and teacher in Boston. In her salad days, she was an occasional soloist with the Boston Pops.

Ilyse Robbins (Choreography and Musical Staging) has choreographed numerous shows at the Lyric Stage including Sondheim on Sondheim, On the Town, Avenue Q, Kiss Me Kate, Grey Gardens, Speech and Debate, Follies, Man of La Mancha, 1776, Urinetown (IRNE Award, Best Choreography), Shakespeare in Hollywood, A Little Night Music, When Pigs Fly '03, Dirty Blonde, Sunday in the Park..., Curse of the Bambino, A... Alice (IRNE Award, Best Choreography), And theWorld Goes 'Round (IRNE Award, Best Choreography), She Loves Me, Never the Sinner, and Assassins. Also at the Lyric Stage she directed Working and acted in On the Town, Lost in Yonkers, She Loves Me, Urinetown, Shakespeare in Hollywood. Other directing credits: United Solo Festival New York City, Stoneham Theatre (Elliot Norton Award, Best Direction for Thoroughly Modern Millie), New Repertory Theatre, UpStage Lung Cancer, Wheelock Family Theatre Summer Youth Intensive. Other choreography credits: Hanover Theatre, Stoneham Theatre (IRNE Award, Best Choreography for 42nd Street), New Rep (IRNE - Best Choreography for Das Barbecue), Fiddlehead Theatre, Overture Productions, Jewish Theater of New England, American Stage Festival, Boston Theatre Works, Wheelock Family Theatre, Museum of Science, Publick Theatre (IRNE Award, Best Choreography for Gypsy), Boston Women on Top Festival, Liberty Mutual, Fidelity. Other acting credits: Stoneham Theatre, New Rep (IRNE Award, Best Ensemble for The Wild Party), Hanover Theatre, Wheelock Family Theatre, New Arts at the Modern Theater, Fiddlehead, Reagle Players, Publick Theatre. Ilyse will be directing and making a cameo appearance in a benefit production of MOMologues this February. She will be directing/choreographing Sweet Charity at Stoneham Theatre this spring and after that choreographing PETER AND THE STARCATCHERs here at the Lyric Stage. Ilyse holds a BS in Theater from Northwestern University and an Ed.M. from Harvard University. She teaches Creative Drama Ed. at Brandeis University. ilyserobbins.com

Janie E. Howland** (Scenic Design) continues a long-standing relationship with the Lyric Stage including designing My Fair Lady this season. Recent productions include Guys and Dolls (Emerson Stage), Arcadia (Nora Theatre), Mary Poppins (Wheelock Family Theatre), Urban Nutcracker (Tony Williams Dance Center), Casa Valentina (SpeakEasy Stage), Caps for Sale (BCT), Clybourne Park (Northeastern University), and Richard III (ASP). Work seen at CONSENSES conceived by Sally Taylor. Other venues include: Central Square Theatre, New Rep, Weston Playhouse, North Shore Music Theatre, A.R.T. Institute, Boston Conservatory, Company One, Stoneham Theatre, Seacoast Rep, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Huntington Theatre Studio 210. Brandeis University MFA; Co-founder CYCO SCENIC; 3 time Elliot Norton Award winner, 4 time IRNE Award winner; adjunct faculty at Emerson College, Wellesley College. USA Local 829. janiehowland.com

Franklin Meissner, Jr.** (Lighting Design) returns to the Lyric Stage after designing the lighting for Sweeney Todd (IRNE award), By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, Avenue Q, Ain't Misbehavin', The Understudy, and According To Tip. Recently he designed the lighting for Sweet Charity at the Stoneham Theatre, where he also designed Romeo and Juliet, My Fair Lady, A Christmas Carol, Strangers on a Train, Pageant and Miracle on 34th Street. In January he designed the lighting for Mary Poppins at the Wheelock Family Theatre, where he also designed Oliver!, The Secret Garden, The Phantom Tollbooth and The Wizard of Oz.. He has designed extensively for New Repertory Theatre, including The Snow Queen (IRNE award), Little Shop of Horrors, The Wild Party, Cabaret, Dessa Rose, Sweeney Todd (IRNE award), Into The Woods, Ragtime, Moby Dick (IRNE award) and many others. He also designed the World Premiere of Albatross (Norton Award - Outstanding Production, Poets' Theatre). His work has also been seen off- and off-off Broadway in NYC, at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre (IRNE award), The Boston Conservatory, SpeakEasy Stage, Central Square Theatre, the North Shore Music Theatre, the South Shore Music Circus, Sanders Theatre, various corporate events and colleges around the state, and at 40 Carnegie Hall performances. Mr. Meissner is a member of United Scenic Artists. For more information: www.FranklinMeissner.com. For Abby - you make my heart fly higher than a cat with Starstuff !

Elisabetta Polito** (Costume Design) Recent work: Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, City of Angels, Into the Woods, Water by the Spoonful, Stones in His Pockets, Time Stands Still (Lyric Stage), Big Fish, A Future Perfect, Necessary Monsters, The Color Purple, Kurt Vonnegut: Make up your Mind, In the Heights, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (SpeakEasy Stage), Mary Poppins (Wheelock Family Theater), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Addams Family: The Musical, Unbleached American, Bernarda Alba, These Shining Lives, The Nutcracker, The Rimers of Eldritch (Stoneham Theater), Out of Sterno (Gloucester Stage), Pajama Game (Boston Conservatory), Inner City Blues, In the Heights (Boston Arts Academy), Marie Antoinette: Color of Flesh (Providence College), White Christmas (Company Theatre), Martha, The Bartered Bride, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Boston Midsummer Opera), The Love of the Nightingale (Emerson College), Into the Woods, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Cherry Orchard, Hairspray, Metamorphoses, Imaginary Invalid (Concord Academy), Rent, Dr. Faustus (Suffolk University), Funnyhouse of a Negro, Three Sisters (Brandeis Theatre Company).

**United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829
*Member of Actors' Equity Association (AEA)