World Premiere of Jen Silverman's THE MOORS Begins Run at Yale Rep Today

Yale Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of THE MOORS by Jen Silverman, directed by Jackson Gay, beginning tonight, January 29, where it will run through February 20 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). Opening Night is Thursday, February 4.

The cast of THE MOORS includes Jeff Biehl, Hannah Cabell, Birgit Huppuch, Jessica Love, Kelly McAndrew, and Miriam Silverman.

THE MOORS features scenic design by Alexander Woodward, costumes by Fabian Fidel Aguilar, lighting by Andrew F. Griffin, sound design and original music by Daniel Kluger, fight direction by Rick Sordelet, dramaturgy by Maria Inês Marquez, casting by Tara Rubin Casting, and stage management by Avery Trunko.

The bleak moors of England. The bleakest. Two spinster sisters -- one desperately unhappy, the other resolutely miserable -- live with their elder brother and their mastiff in a gloomy, old mansion. When a governess is summoned to their isolated home, teeming with secrets and desires, what price might they pay for love? Inspired (perhaps) by certain 19th-century gothic romances, and the sisters who wrote them, Jen Silverman's THE MOORS courses with a distinctly contemporary, darkly comic sensibility.

THE MOORS is the recipient of a 2015 Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award. Development and production support are provided by Yale's Binger Center for New Theatre.

Tickets for THE MOORS range from $20-98 and are available online at yalerep.org, by phone at (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Yale Rep Box Office (1120 Chapel Street). Student, senior, and group rates are also available. Post-show discussions will be held in the Yale Rep Lounge on Friday, January 29 and Saturday, January 30, with a talk back set for Saturday, February 6, an audio described performance and talk back on Saturday, February 13, and an opening captioning performance on Saturday, February 20.

ABOUT THE CAST:

JEFF BIEHL (THE MASTIFF) is making his Yale Rep debut. His New York credits include Machinal (Roundabout Theatre Company); Lloyd Suh's Charles Francis Chan Jr.'s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery (National Asian American Theater Company); Thomas Bradshaw's Fulfillment (The Flea); Burning (New Group); A Lecture on the Blues (Whitney Museum); Ann Washburn's 10 Out of 12 (Soho Rep.); David Ives's Lives of the Saints, Theresa Rebeck's Poor Behavior (Primary Stages); and Lucas Hnath's Isaac's Eye (Ensemble Studio Theatre). Regional credits include Three Sisters (A.R.T. and Edinburgh International Festival), also shows with South Coast Rep, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, and Westport Country Playhouse. Film and television credits include Ragnar Brovik in the Jonathan Demme film of Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory's A Master Builder, Ricki and the Flash, Vinyl, Mysteries of Laura, Forever, Southland, and several episodes of all three Law & Order franchises. Education: The Juilliard School.

HANNAH CABELL (MARJORY) previously appeared at Yale Rep in David Adjmi's Marie Antoinette (also at American Repertory Theater) and Rinne Groff's Compulsion (also at Berkeley Rep and the Public Theater; Bay Area Critics Circle Award nomination). Her New York theatre credits include the Broadway production of A Man for All Seasons (Roundabout Theatre Company); Men on Boats (Clubbed Thumb); Major Barbara (The Pearl Theatre Company); Grounded (Page 73; Drama Desk nomination); 3C (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); Zero Hour, Mark Smith (13P); Pumpgirl (Manhattan Theatre Club); and more. Regional and international: As You Like It (Continuum Company, Florence); the world premieres of Sarah Ruhl's Three Sisters (Cincinnati Playhouse) and In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Berkeley Rep, BACCA nomination); Sedition and Mary's Wedding (Westport Country Playhouse). Her television credits include The Path (upcoming on Hulu), Mr. Robot, Happyish, The Leftovers, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. MFA, NYU/Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program. She is a recipient of the Annenberg Fellowship for the Arts.

BIRGIT HUPPUCH (HULDEY) is making her Yale Rep debut. Recent credits include Judy (Page73), Men on Boats (Clubbed Thumb), I Will Be Gone (Humana Festival), The Wolfe Twins (Studio Theatre, Washington, DC), and Love in the Wars (Bard SummerScape). Other credits include The Debate Society's Blood Play (Bushwick Starr, The Public, Williamstown Theatre Festival, ArtsEmerson); Twelfth Night, or What You Will (Pig Iron at Abrons Arts Center, FringeArts); In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Cleveland Play House); A Map of Virtue (13P); Not What Happened (BAM Next Wave Festival); Neighbors (The Public Theater); Angel Reapers (Joyce Theater); and Telephone (The Foundry, OBIE Award for Best Performance). Film: The Sisterhood of Night, Jonathan's Chest (Sundance Short 2014). Web: High Maintenance ("Brad Pitts," "Ruth"). Birgit is a 2011 Charles Bowden Award recipient and a Clubbed Thumb Affiliated Artist.

JESSICA LOVE (A MOOR-HEN) is making her Yale Rep debut. Her New York theatre credits include The River (Broadway), The Snow Geese (Broadway), Grace (understudy, Broadway), The Rivals (The Pearl Theatre Company), Bottom of the World (Atlantic Theater Company), Don't Fuck With Love (Red Bull Theater), and We Live Here (u/s, Manhattan Theatre Club). Regional: Anna Christie (The Old Globe), Bachelorette (Studio Theatre, Washington, DC), Map of Heaven and When Tang Met Laika (Denver Center Theatre Company). Training: The Juilliard School (38xo). Jessica also works as a children's book author and illustrator and lives in Brooklyn.

KELLY McANDREW (AGATHA) is making her Yale Rep debut. Most recent New York credits include Perfect Arrangement (Primary Stages); Men on Boats (Clubbed Thumb); Abundance (The Actors Company Theatre); Almost, Maine (Transport Group); and Good Television (Atlantic Theater Company). She was also seen on Broadway as Maggie the Cat in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Other New York theatre includes Still Life (MCC Theater), The Cataract (Women's Project Theater), Book of Days (Signature Theatre), My California (HERE Arts), Topsy Turvy Mouse (Cherry Lane Mentor Project), Trout Stanley (Culture Project), and Lyric Is Waiting (kef productions). Recent regional credits include Grounded, Precious Little (City Theatre); All in the Timing (Dorset Theatre Festival); Other Desert Cities (Guthrie Theater); Good People (Pittsburgh Public Theater); August: Osage County, Alive and Well, Dividing the Estate, and Sight Unseen (The Old Globe). Television and film credits include Orange Is the New Black, Smash, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Gossip Girl, When the Moon Was Twice as Big (filming), Appropriate Behavior (Sundance 2014), In the Family (2011 Independent Spirit Award nomination), Everybody's Fine (with Robert DeNiro), Superheroes, New Guy, and Out of the Darkness. Training: University of Missouri-Kansas City. Kelly is a member of TACT.

MIRIAM SILVERMAN (EMILIE) is making her Yale Rep debut. New York credits include A Delicate Ship (The Playwrights Realm), Everything You Touch (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); You Got Older (Page 73); The Hour of All Things, Finks (Ensemble Studio Theatre; Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Actress); Septimus and Clarissa (Ripe Time); The Witch of Edmonton (Red Bull Theater); Hamlet (The Public Theater); and Bone Portraits (Walkerspace). Miriam is a Shakespeare Theatre Company Affiliated Artist where her credits include Measure for Measure, All's Well That Ends Well, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It, the world premiere of David Ives's The Liar, and The Dog in the Manger (Helen Hayes nomination). Other regional work includes Extremities, Moonchildren (Berkshire Theatre Festival); Peer Gynt (Guthrie Theater); Awake and Sing! (Arena Stage); As You Like it (Folger Theatre); and numerous productions with Trinity Rep. Film and television credits include Elementary, Pan Am, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Better Days Ahead. She holds both a BA and MFA from Brown University and is a recipient of the 2011 TCG Fox Foundation Fellowship.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM:

JEN SILVERMAN (PLAYWRIGHT) Her work has been produced at Actor's Theatre of Louisville (The Roommate, Humana 2015; Wondrous Strange, Humana 2016), InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia (The Dangerous House Of Pretty Mbane, Barrymore Award), and in New York by the Playwrights Realm (Crane Story) and Clubbed Thumb (Phoebe in Winter). She has developed plays as workshop-productions at the Cherry Lane Mentor Project (The Hunters, mentor Lynn Nottage), Juilliard (Wild Blue and Still), and Playwrights Horizons Theatre School (That Poor Girl and How He Killed Her, a commission). She is a member of New Dramatists, is a Core Writer at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and has developed work at the O'Neill, Playpenn, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Williamstown Theatre Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, Portland Center Stage, Boston Court Theatre in LA, The New Harmony Project, FUSION Theatre Company in New Mexico, Youngblood @ Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Royal Court in London, among others. She's a two-time MacDowell fellow and a recipient of the Kennedy Center's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, New York Foundation for the Arts grant, a Leah Ryan Fellowship/Lilly Award, the 2015 Helen Merrill Fund Award for emerging playwrights, and the Yale Drama Series Award for Still. Education: Brown, Iowa Playwrights Workshop, The Juilliard School. jensilverman.com

JACKSON GAY (DIRECTOR) Yale Rep credits include Elevada by Sheila Callaghan (2015), These Paper Bullets! adapted by Rolin Jones (2014; Outstanding Director Award, Connecticut Critics Circle), and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow by Rolin Jones (2004; Outstanding Production of a Play Award, Connecticut Critics Circle). Recent projects include These Paper Bullets! (Geffen Playhouse and Atlantic Theater Company); The Insurgents by Lucy Thurber (Labyrinth Theater Company); 3C by David Adjmi (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater/piece by piece/Rising Phoenix); Kingdom City by Sheri Wilner (La Jolla Playhouse); Arlington by Victor Lodato with music by Polly Pen (San Francisco's Magic Theatre); Lucy Thurber's Where We're Born, part of the 2014 OBIE Award winning The Hilltown Plays (Rattlestick), and Scarcity (Atlantic Theater Company); Rolin Jones' s The Jammer and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Atlantic Theater Company); A Little Journey (Mint Theater Company; Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Revival of a Play). Jackson is a founding member of New Neighborhood. She is the Director of Artistic Programming for Fuller Road Artist Residency in Vermont and teaches directing at Columbia University. Originally from Sugar Land, Texas, Jackson received her BFA in acting from the University of the Arts and MFA in directing from Yale School of Drama.

ALEXANDER WOODWARD (SCENIC DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include The Children and Don Juan. Other credits include Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them (Yale Summer Cabaret); Have I None, The Mystery Boy, Rose and the Rime (Yale Cabaret); Fingers & Toes (New York and Florida); Dixon Family Album, Schmoozy Togetherness (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Ruby Place Nest on the Ground (Signature Theatre); 13 Things About Ed Carpolotti (59E59); 1940s Radio Hour (Cortland Repertory Theatre); What I Thought I Knew, the world premiere of Waiting for Spring (Kitchen Theatre Company); Oblomov (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater); Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical (Cardinal Stage); And a Child Shall Lead (HERE Arts Center); as well as numerous assistant and associate credits in New York and across the country including the Tony-nominated designs for Bullets Over Broadway, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, The Assembled Parties, and Present Laughter. Alexander holds a BFA in scenic and costume design from Ithaca College.

FABIAN FIDEL AGUILAR (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include Preston Montfort-An American Tragedy and The Master and Margarita. His other credits include He Left Quietly (SummerWorks Performance Festival, Toronto and Yale Cabaret); Quartet, Zero Scenario, A New Saint for a New World (Yale Cabaret); and the 2014 Dwight/Edgewood Project. He has worked for various theatres, conservatories, and universities in Boston including American Repertory Theater, Boston Ballet, Moscow Ballet, and the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, among others. He will be designing costumes for the first two productions of Yale Summer Cabaret 2015: Rough Magic. Originally from El Paso, Texas, Fabian received his BA from Boston University.

ANDREW F. GRIFFIN (LIGHTING DESIGNER) is a professional lighting designer who has collaborated with companies including Olney Theatre Center, Woolly Mammoth, Folger Theatre, Theatre J, La Mama E.T.C., Signature Theatre, Synetic Theater, Studio Theatre, Tri-Cities Opera, Forum Theatre, Adventure Theatre, Urban Arias, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Faction of Fools, Imagination Stage, Everyman Theatre, The Delaware Shakespeare Festival, MetroStage, Yale Cabaret, Yale Summer Cabaret, and Michigan Opera Theatre Children's Chorus. Abroad, his work has been seen in Canada, Mexico, and the Republic of Georgia. Andrew has been a guest designer at The Catholic University of America, Gallaudet University, and Connecticut College. Recent work includes He Left Quietly for the Toronto SummerWorks festival; The Producers at Olney Theatre Center in Washington, DC; and A Midsummer Night's Dream with Synetic Theater. Andrew is a two-time recipient of the Helen Hayes Award for his designs of Henry V at Folger Theatre and King Lear at Synetic Theater. He is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama.

DANIEL KLUGER (SOUND DESIGNER AND ORIGINAL MUSIC) produces music and sound design for theatre and film. He recently did the orchestrations for Daniel Fish's Oklahoma! at Bard SummerScape. Other credits include The Mystery of Love and Sex, Nikolai and the Others (Lincoln Center Theater); Significant Other, The Common Pursuit (Roundabout Theatre Company); Iowa, Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra (Playwrights Horizons); The Nether, The Village Bike, Really Really (MCC Theater); I'm Gonna Pray for You So Hard, Women or Nothing (Atlantic Theater Company); You Got Older (Page 73); Somewhere Fun, The North Pool (Vineyard Theatre); Tribes, Hit the Wall (Barrow Street Theatre); How to Make Friends and Then Kill Them, The Few, Ode to Joy, The Correspondent (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater). Regional credits include work at The Old Globe, Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, Pig Iron, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, People's Light & Theatre, and American Players Theatre.

RICK SORDELET (FIGHT DIRECTOR) Theatre credits include 65 Broadway productions and 60 productions on five continents in hundreds of cities around the world including Misery starring Bruce Willis, Cymbeline for The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park, Big Love for Signature Theatre, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Waiting for Godot, No Man's Land, and Ben Hur Live (Rome, European Tour). Opera: Cyrano starring Placido Domingo (Metropolitan Opera, The Royal Opera House, La Scala), and Don Carlo and Cold Mountain (Santa Fe Opera). Film: The Game Plan, Dan in Real Life, and Hamlet. Rick was Chief Stunt Coordinator for Guiding Light for 12 years and One Life to Live, representing over 1,000 episodes of daytime television. Rick sits on the board of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and teaches at Yale School of Drama and HB Studio. He is a recipient of an Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence from the Lucille Lortel Foundation and a Jeff Award for Best Fight Direction for Romeo and Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Rick has created the new stage combat company, Sordelet INK, with his son Christian Kelly-Sordelet. They have over thirty years of action movement experience for film, television, and stage. sordeletINK.com

MARIA INÊS MARQUEZ (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Altogether Reckless. She graduated from the University of Porto in Portugal with a BA in Portuguese and English studies. Her previous dramaturgy credits include La Scène by Valère Novarina (TeCA, Portugal) and Muzeum (Yale Cabaret), and she was the translator and dramaturg for the English-language world premiere of Boris Yeltsin by Mickaël de Oliveira, also at Yale Cabaret. In Portugal, Maria worked on two academic research projects about translation and reception of foreign drama in the country. She is currently a co-managing editor of Theater magazine.

TARA RUBIN CASTING (CASTING DIRECTOR) has been casting at Yale Rep since 2004. Selected Broadway: School of Rock; Bullets Over Broadway; Aladdin; A Time to Kill; Big Fish; The Heiress; One Man, Two Guvnors (U.S. Casting); Ghost; How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Promises, Promises; A Little Night Music; Billy Elliot; Shrek; Guys and Dolls; The Farnsworth Invention; Young Frankenstein; The Little Mermaid; Mary Poppins; LES MISERABLES; Spamalot; Jersey Boys; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; The Producers; Mamma Mia!; The Phantom of the Opera; Contact. Off-Broadway: Love, Loss, and What I Wore; Old Jews Telling Jokes. Regional: The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, The Old Globe, Westport Country Playhouse, Bucks County Playhouse. Film: Lucky Stiff, The Producers.

AVERY TRUNKO (STAGE MANAGER) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include This Land was Made, Don Juan, THUNDERBODIES, and The Visit. Other credits include Twelfth Night (Elm Shakespeare); A Map of Virtue, Middletown (Yale Summer Cabaret); I'm with you in Rockland, The Hotel Nepenthe, The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs, and Look Up, Speak Nicely, and Don't Twiddle Your Fingers All the Time (Yale Cabaret); Grease, The Cat in the Hat, The Little Mermaid (Summer Theatre of New Canaan); Other Desert Cities, The Giver, and Grace, or the Art of Climbing (Denver Center Theatre); The Power of Duff, 22 Seconds (New York Stage and Film). Avery received her BFA from Hofstra University.

Yale Repertory Theatre, the internationally celebrated professional theatre in residence at Yale School of Drama, has championed new work since 1966, producing well over 100 premieres -- including two Pulitzer Prize winners and four other nominated finalists. Twelve Yale Rep productions have advanced to Broadway, garnering more than 40 Tony Award nominations and eight Tony Awards. Yale Rep is also the recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

Established in 2008, Yale's Binger Center for New Theatre has distinguished itself as one of the nation's most robust and innovative new play programs. To date, the Binger Center has supported the work of more than 50 commissioned artists and underwritten the world premieres and subsequent productions of 21 new American plays and musicals at Yale Rep and theatres across the country -- including this season's Indecent created by Paula Vogel and Rebecca Taichman, peerless by Jiehae Park, and The Moors by Jen Silverman.??