Sarah Ruhl's New Play SCENES FROM COURT LIFE Opens Yale Rep's 50th Season Tonight

Yale Repertory Theatre, celebrating 50 years of daring artists, bold choices, and adventurous audiences, presents the world premiere of Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince by Sarah Ruhl, directed by MarK Wing-Davey, now through October 22 at Yale University Theatre (222 York Street). Opening Night is tonight, October 6.

The cast of Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince is Jeff Biehl, John R. Colley, Angel Desai, Evelyn Giovine, Greg Keller, Keren Lugo, Hudson Oznowicz, Mary Shultz, Arturo Soria, Andrew Weems, Danny Wolohan, and Frank X.

The creative team includes choreographer Michael Raine, scenic and costume designer Marina Draghici, lighting designer Stephen Strawbridge, Sound Designer Shane Rettig, projection designer Yana Birÿkova, dialect and vocal coach Beth McGuire, fight director Rick Sordelet, wig designer Charles G. LaPointe, baroque expert and choreographer Meggi Sweeney Smith, dramaturg Kari Olmon, casting director Tara Rubin Casting, and stage manager James Mountcastle.

History, remixed. In 17th-century Great Britain, the Stuarts-Charles I and Charles II-defend their divine rights, with the help of a whipping boy. In our own time, Jeb and George W. Bush play hardball-both politics and tennis-battling for power, as siblings and statesmen. By turns intimate and epic, Sarah Ruhl's astonishing new play reveals the cost of dynastic privilege.

Scenes from Court Life was commissioned by NYU Graduate Acting Program and Yale Repertory Theatre. Further development and production support are provided by Yale's Binger Center for New Theatre. Scenes from Court Life is the recipient of a 2016 Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award.

Tickets for Scenes from Court Life range from $12-99 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.

ABOUT THE CAST

Jeff Biehl (Groom of the Stool, Executioner, Karl Rove) previously appeared at Yale Rep in The Moors. Broadway: Machinal (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: Lloyd Suh's Charles Francis Chan Jr.'s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery (National Asian American Theater Company); Ann Washburn's 10 Out of 12 (Soho Rep.); Lucas Hnath's Isaac's Eye (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Thomas Bradshaw's Fulfillment (The Flea), Burning (New Group), and A Lecture on the Blues (Whitney Museum); David Ives's Lives of the Saints and Theresa Rebeck's Poor Behavior (Primary Stages). Regional credits include Brendan Pelsue's Wellesley Girl (Humana Festival of New American Plays),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 credits include Ragnar Brovik in the Jonathan Demme film of Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory's A Master Builder and Ricki and the Flash. Television credits include The Path, Vinyl, Mysteries of Laura, Forever, Southland, and several episodes of all three Law & Order franchises. Education: Juilliard.

JOHN R. COLLEY (Ensemble) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Recent credits include c*ck(Creative Works Theatre); Amandine, Girl in Window (New York Theatre Workshop); Rickhardt (HB Playwrights Foundation); The Illusion, Angels in America (NYU); Inherit the Wind, The Secret Garden (Texas Rep); You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Little Shop of Horrors (Little Theatre Company). Film and television credits include A Week in London (opposite Denise Richards), August Falls (with Fairuza Balk), Devious Maids, NCIS, Castle, Criminal Minds, and Chosen. BFA: New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.

Angel Desai (Laura Bush) is thrilled to be back at Yale Rep after appearing in Sunil Kuruvilla's Rice Boy during the 2000 season. Her recent theatre credits include Frankie and Johnny (Berkshire Theatre Festival), Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (George Street Playhouse), and The Winter's Tale (Old Globe). Broadway: Company (2007). Off-Broadway: CSC, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Women's Project Theater, MCC Theater, and Ma-Yi Theater Company. Regional credits also include The Old Globe, McCarter Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, Arena Stage, Playmakers Repertory, and Cleveland Play House. Recent television includes Chicago Med, Minority Report, Madam Secretary, Major Crimes, Forever, Elementary, Nurse Jackie, Being Mary Jane, and all three Law and Order franchises. Film credits include The Clique, The War Within, Heights, Black Knight, and Robot Stories. Angel is a 2014 Lunt-Fontaine Fellow and she holds an MFA in acting from NYU.

EVELYN GIOVINE (Ensemble) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Selected credits include Elektra, Great Expectations, Uncle Vanya (Lewis Center for the Arts); Zoyka's Apartment, Much Ado About Nothing, Red Noses, Der Bourgeois Bigwig (McCarter Theatre); No Exit, Venus in Fur, and Frankenstein (Theatre Intime). Evelyn earned her BA in English with an emphasis in Slavic studies and a minor in theatre from Princeton University with additional training from Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, and BADA.

Greg Keller (Prince Charles II, George W. Bush) previously appeared at Yale Rep in the world premieres of Elevada by Sheila Callaghan, War by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Belleville by Amy Herzog. He has also been lucky enough to act in other new plays including Richard Greenberg's Our Mother's Brief Affair, Ayad Akhtar's The Who and The What, Sheila Callaghan's That Pretty Pretty, Melissa Ross's Of Good Stock, Jenny Schwartz's Somewhere Fun, Daniel Goldfarb's Cradle and All, Zayd Dohrn's Reborning and Sick, Rachel Axler's Smudge, Moises Kauffman's 33 Variations with Jane Fonda, and Theresa Rebeck's Seminar with Jeff Goldblum. Greg was a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School and has an MFA in acting from NYU.

KEREN LUGO (Catherine of Braganza, Columbia Bush) Theatre credits include Our Town, Henry V (Chautauqua Theater Festival); DC-7: The Roberto Clemente Story (GALA Hispanic Theatre); Volpone (Teatro Francisco Arriví, Puerto Rico); The Balcony, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, and Widows (Teatro UPR, Puerto Rico). Keren was born and raised in Puerto Rico and holds an MFA from NYU's Graduate Acting Program, where some of her credits included The Caucasian Chalk Circle, After the Fall, The Playboy of the West Indies, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, and Scenes from Court Life.

HUDSON OZNOWICZ (Ensemble) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Theatre credits include Ugly Little Sister, directed by Daniel Talbott; Wayward; Captain Glorious; and The Iliad all at NYU where he earned his BFA in acting.

Mary Shultz (Barbara Bush) first appeared at Yale Rep in 1993 in Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz, directed by Stan Wojewodski, Jr. She previously worked with MarK Wing-Davey in Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest at New York Theatre Workshop and Manhattan Theatre Club, and Craig Lucas's Small Tragedy at Playwrights Horizons. Her most recent Off-Broadway work includes Burnished By Grief at La Mama, ETC; The Good Person of Szechwan at The Public Theatre; and Somewhere Fun at The Vineyard Theatre. Her recent television and film work includes The Leftovers, Mozart in the Jungle, and the new Woody Allen Amazon project. Mary is the recipient of two OBIEs (one for sustained excellence), a Bessie, the New York Dance and Performance Award, Charles Bowden Award for Exceptional Contribution to the Theatrical Community, and the inaugural Mabou Mines Ruthie Award.

Arturo Soria (Ensemble) is a first-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Recent credits include Hit the Wall (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Off-Broadway at Barrow Street Theatre); Olivério: A Brazilian Twist (Kennedy Center); Deferred Action (Dallas Theater Center); Peter and the Starcatcher (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Milwaukee Rep); Water by the Spoonful (Studio Theatre); Seven Spots on the Sun (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Oedipus el Rey and Equivocation (Victory Gardens Theatre). Arturo received his BFA in acting from the Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago. ArturoSoria.org

Andrew Weems (Tutor, Bishop, Judge, Advance Man, IniGo Jones, Reporter, Nobleman, Bonnie Flood, Priest) Broadway: Born Yesterday, Inherit the Wind, The Green Bird, and London Assurance. Off-Broadway: Blood and Gifts (Lincoln Center Theater); The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Bach at Leipzig (New York Theatre Workshop); The Broken Heart, Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline, Pericles, The Green Bird (Theatre for a New Audience); A Man's a Man (Classic Stage Company); Manahatta (The Public Theater); Somewhere Someplace Else, Telethon (Clubbed Thumb); A Midsummer Night's Dream (The Acting Company); Mere Mortals, Marathon Dancing. Elsewhere: Uncle Vanya, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Guthrie Theater); Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Center Stage); A Behanding in Spokane (Alley Theatre); Don Juan (The Old Globe); Rhinoceros, King John, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Noises Off, The Time of Your Life, Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); Three Sisters, Arms and the Man (Intiman Theatre); Rocket to the Moon, Much Ado About Nothing (Long Wharf Theatre); As You Like It, Clybourne Park (Chautauqua); An Iliad (Aspen Fringe); and Romance Novels for Dummies (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Weems is a Fox/TCG fellow and the author/performer of Namaste Man (Intiman, Boise Contemporary Theater, Two River Theater) and Damascus (4th Street Theater, Boise Contemporary Theater, Chautauqua Theater Company).

Danny Wolohan (A Whipping Boy, Jeb Bush) Off-Broadway: An Octoroon (Soho Rep.); The Flick (Barrow Street Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Judy (Page 73); Verité (LCT3); Pocatello, Patron Saint (Playwrights Horizons); Tumacho, I'm Pretty Fucked Up, and Baby Screams Miracle (Clubbed Thumb). Television: Orange is the New Black, Veep, Boardwalk Empire.

Frank X (Charles I, George H.W. Bush) was last seen as Jacques in As You Like It at the Lantern Theatre. Originally trained as a dancer and playwright, he has performed with such institutions as Seattle Rep (Twelfth Night, The Lady From Dubuque); the Folger Theatre (The Winter's Tale), Humana Festival (After Ashley), Blue Heron Theatre (Black Russian, AUDELCO Award nomination); Arden Theatre (The History Boys, Passion); InterAct Theatre (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Lonely Planet, Barrymore Award); and Lantern Theatre (King Lear, "Master Harold"...and the Boys). Mr. X is delighted to be making his Yale Rep debut in this production.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Sarah Ruhl (Playwright) Plays include Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince; For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday; The Oldest Boy; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play; The Clean House (Yale Rep, world premiere, 2004); Eurydice (Yale Rep, 2006); Passion Play (Yale Rep, 2008); Orlando; Late: a cowboy song; a new version of Chekhov's Three Sisters (Yale Rep, 2011); Dear Elizabeth (Yale Rep, world premiere, 2012); and Stage Kiss. She is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. Her plays have been produced on Broadway at the Lyceum by Lincoln Center Theater and off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, and at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Her plays have been produced regionally all over the country and have also been produced internationally, and translated into over twelve languages. Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. She has received the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the Whiting Award, the Lily Award, a PEN Award for mid-career playwrights, and the MacArthur "Genius" Grant. Her book of essays 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write was published by Faber & Faber last fall. She teaches at Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family.

MarK Wing-Davey (Director) lives in New York for most of the year, though he maintains a presence in the U.K. He first came to prominence in the United States with his highly acclaimed 1992 production of Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest at New York Theatre Workshop, following up with Owners and The Skriker. Committing much of his career to developing new plays, he has directed new work by Caryl Churchill, Sarah Ruhl, Mona Mansour, Naomi Iizuka, José Rivera, Anna Deavere Smith, Brett C. Leonard, Keith Reddin, Tony Kushner, Howard Korder, and Craig Lucas, amongst others. Mr. Wing-Davey is also the Chair of the Graduate Acting Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where in 2010 he premiered Tony Kushner's music theatre work, The Henry Box Brown Play, and where he originally developed Adam Rapp's new play The Eggs: A Fantasy of Love and Death in the Age of Amelioration in 2013 and Sarah Ruhl's Scenes from Court Life in 2015. He is currently working with Caryl Churchill on her version of a rarely performed Genet play.

Michael Raine (Choreographer) Michael grew up tap dancing around Boston and is thrilled to be back home in New England with Scenes from Court Life. His choreography has been seen around New York and the country, including four seasons at the Weston Playhouse and the Japanese tour of Rent. When not dancing, Michael is passionate about new play development and has directed new work for the Flea Theater, EST/Youngblood, Theater for the New City, Atlantic Second Stage, and the PIT. He has been teaching at NYU's graduate acting program since 2008 and has also taught and choreographed for CAP21, University of Miami, Music Theatre Italy, and Juilliard Drama.

Marina Draghici (Scenic and Costume Designer) Previous Yale Rep credits include The Miser (costumes), Exact Change (sets), and Elizabeth: Almost by Chance a Woman (costumes). Her other theatre credits include the Broadway production of Fela! (Tony Award, Outstanding Costume Design); Mother Courage and Her Children, Cymbeline, Hamlet, The Skriker (The Public Theater); It's the Truth (Arena Stage); and Hedda Gabler (Dallas Theater Center). Opera work includes L'Itanliana in Algeri and Les Indes Galantes (Paris National Opera/Palais Garnier). Film and television work includes Precious, Rage, The Cake Eaters, The Night Listener, The Grey Zone, Minority Report, Black Sails, Elementary, Homeland, Blue Bloods, Babylon Fields, and Dexter. Marina Received her MFA from Yale School of Drama.

Stephen Strawbridge (Lighting Designer) has designed more than 200 productions on and off Broadway and at most leading regional theatres and opera houses across the US. Internationally he has helped create major premieres in Bergen, Copenhagen, The Hague, Hong Kong, Linz, Lisbon, Munich, Naples, São Paulo, Stockholm, Stratford-upon-Avon (for the Royal Shakespeare Company), Wroc?aw, and Vienna. Artistic collaborators have included, along with MarK Wing-Davey, such notable directors and choreographers as Robert Brustein, Martha Clarke, Graciela Daniele, Gordon Edelstein, Barry Edelstein, Richard Foreman, Athol Fugard, Loretta Greco, Mark Lamos, Emily Mann, Bartlett Sher, Rebecca Taichman, John Tillinger, Robert Wilson, and RoBert Woodruff. He has numerous pieces in the repertories of Pilobolus Dance Theatre and Alison Chase/Performance. Recent work includes Turn Me Loose, with Joe Morton at Westside Arts Theatre; Pericles, directed by Trevor Nunn at Theatre for a New Audience; and "Master Harold"... and the Boys at Signature Theatre in New York. He has been recognized with numerous awards and nominations including the American Theatre Wing, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Connecticut Critics Circle, Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum, Helen Hayes, Henry Hewes Design, and Lucille Lortel. He is co-chair of the design department at Yale School of Drama and resident lighting designer for Yale Repertory Theatre.

Shane Rettig (Sound Designer) is a Sound Designer and composer whose work has been heard in over a hundred productions in New York and across the United States. He is the resident composer and Sound Designer for the OBIE Award-winning Vampire Cowboys, is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and is an associate artist with The Civilians. His work has also been heard in productions at The New Group, The Public Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, Ma-Yi Theater Company, The Flea, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Soho Rep., Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, La Mama, HERE, and many regional theatres including Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, La Jolla Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. His work has been nominated for Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel awards and he was part of the United States sound design exhibition in the 2007 Prague Quadrennial. Shane is composer and co-lyricist of the musical War Is f-ing Awesome with playwright Qui Nguyen, developed at the 2013 Sundance Theatre Lab. He also composed the musical The Unknown (book and lyrics by Janet Allard and Jean Randich), developed with a grant from the Jonathan Larson Foundation and selected for presentation in New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2005. Shane is a composer and performer in The Atomic Grind Show, a band based in Brooklyn, as well as the electronic improvisation group Project:Airl[o]ck.

YANA BIRŸKOVA (Projection Designer) is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Women Beware Women and Don Juan. Her other designs include The Square Root of Three Sisters (Dmitry Krymov Lab at Yale School of Drama); Don Quixote (Yale Opera); Mad Forest (UNC Wilmington); The Secretaries, We Are All Here (Yale Cabaret); The Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (Yale Summer Cabaret); 1/13/14 (Studio Tisch); Transport (Irish Repertory Theatre). Her assistant credits include Elevada (Yale Repertory Theatre), The Master and Margarita (Yale School of Drama), and Deepest Man (3-Legged Dog). Originally from Moscow, Russia, Yana holds a BA in film studies from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. yanabiryukova.com

Beth McGuire (Dialect and Vocal Coach) Vocal and dialect credits include the Broadway productions of Eclipsed, Chaplin, and A Streetcar Named Desire with Blair Underwood. Off-Broadway productions include The Overwhelming (Roundabout Company); The Black Eyed (New York Theatre Workshop); Five by Tenn (Manhattan Theatre Club); People Be Heard (Playwrights Horizons); Candida, Gas Light (The Roundtable Ensemble); The Block, Free Market, Exit Cuckoo (Working Theater); Art of Memory (Company SoGoNo); and In Darfur (The Public Theater). Regional: Familiar, Owners, American Night: The Ballad of Juan José, Belleville, The Piano Lesson, The Servant of Two Masters, Eclipsed, Death of a Salesman, Lydia, All's Well That Ends Well, dance of the holy ghosts, The Mystery Plays, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Iphigenia at Aulis, Kingdom of Earth (Yale Rep); The Convert (McCarter Theatre); Hamlet, Carnival, King John, The Glass Menagerie (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); The Cook (Hartford Stage); and Crimes of the Heart (The Cape Playhouse). Ms. McGuire is the Director of Speech and Dialects and Associate Professor (Adjunct) of Acting at Yale School of Drama; a member of The Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), Actors' Equity, SAG, and AFTRA; and an actress with over 30 years of performance experience. Her book African Accents for Actors (Routledge 2016) is the first of its genre.

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

Charles G. LaPointe (Wig Designer) has worked on more than 50 Broadway shows including The Color Purple, Allegiance, On Your Feet, Doctor Zhivago, Hamilton, Of Mice and Men, Violet, Side Show, The Elephant Man, Honeymoon in Vegas, The Radio City Spring Spectacular, After Midnight, Beautiful, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, Motown, Jekyll & Hyde, Clybourne Park, Bring It On, Newsies, The Mountaintop, Bonnie & Clyde, Memphis, Lombardi, Fences, The Miracle Worker, Superior Donuts, 33 Variations, In the Heights, Jersey Boys, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, and A Raisin in the Sun. Television: The Wiz Live!

MEGGI SWEENEY SMITH (Baroque Expert and Choreographer),
soloist with the New York Baroque Dance Company since 2010, has trained with Catherine Turocy, Lieven Baert at the Stanford Historical Dance Week, and Thomas Baird. Recently, she performed at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center in a restaging of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Les fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour, ou Les Dieux d'Égypte (1747). Meggi began her research and reconstruction of Baroque dance during her BFA studies at the University of Kansas and, as a dance educator, developed and implemented a Baroque Dance for Musicians course at NYU where she received her MA in dance education. Meggisweeney.com

KARI OLMAN (Production Dramaturg) is a second-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include The Cloud People. She previously assisted playwright Dan LeFranc and worked in the literary departments of Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, the Wilma Theater, and the Guthrie Theater, among others. Select dramaturgy credits include Tony Kushner's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures and Angels in America, Annie Baker's Uncle Vanya, Kirk Lynn's Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra, Heidi Schreck's Grand Concourse, Robert O'Hara's Bootycandy, and Dan LeFranc's Rancho Viejo. She holds a BA in English literature and theatre from Swarthmore College.

Tara Rubin Casting (Casting Director) has been casting at Yale Rep since 2004. Selected Broadway: Falsettos (upcoming); A Bronx Tale (upcoming); Dear Evan Hansen (upcoming); Cats; Disaster!; School of Rock; Dr Zhivago; It Shoulda Been You; Gigi; Bullets Over Broadway; Aladdin; LES MISERABLES; Mothers and Sons; Big Fish; The Heiress; How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; A Little Night Music; Billy Elliot; Shrek; Guys and Dolls; Young Frankenstein; The Little Mermaid; Mary Poppins; Spamalot, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; The Producers; Mamma Mia!; Jersey Boys; The Phantom of the Opera. Off-Broadway: Here Lies Love; Old Jews Telling Jokes; Love, Loss, and What I Wore. Regional: Paper Mill Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Bucks County Playhouse.

James Mountcastle (Stage Manager), has been at Yale Rep since 2004. He has stage managed productions of Arcadia, The House that will not Stand, A Streetcar Named Desire, American Night: The Ballad of Juan José, Three Sisters, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Master Builder, Passion Play, Eurydice, and the world premiere of The Clean House. Broadway credits include Damn Yankees, Jekyll & Hyde, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Boys from Syracuse, The Smell of the Kill, Life x(3), and Wonderful Town. Mr. Mountcastle spent several Christmas seasons in New York City as stage manager for the now legendary production of A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden. Broadway national tours include City of Angels, Falsettos, and My Fair Lady. He served as Production Stage Manager for Damn Yankees starring Jerry Lewis for both its national tour and at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End. In addition, Mr. Mountcastle has worked at The Kennedy Center, Center Stage in Baltimore, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Brooklyn Academy Of Music, and elsewhere. James and his wife Julie live in North Haven and are the very proud parents of two beautiful girls: Ellie, who is 17 years old, and Katie, age 15.

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 24 new American plays and musicals at Yale Rep and theatres across the country-including this season's Scenes from Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince by Sarah Ruhl, Imogen Says Nothing by Aditi Brennan Kapil, and Mary Jane by Amy Herzog.