Taylor Mac, Janice Amaya & More to Star in Sarah Ruhl's ORLANDO at Signature Theatre

Signature Theatre has revealed the cast of Spotlight Resident Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando, adapted from Virginia Woolf’s novel and directed by Will Davis. Orlando was written by Woolf for her lover, Vita Sackville-West. The titular character’s adventures begin as a young man, when he serves as courtier to Queen Elizabeth. Through many centuries of living, he becomes a 20th-century woman, trying to sort out her existence. 

This theatrical trip through space, time, and gender features Taylor Mac (A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, Bark of Millions)—a visionary who’s no stranger to time traveling and irreverently breaking open the constraints of historical norms and musty mores—in the title role. Mac plays Orlando, along with an ensemble of acclaimed, boundary-breaking performers, including Janice Amaya (Off-Broadway: Lunch Bunch, SHHHH), Nathan Lee Graham  (Broadway: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; Film: Zoolander), Tony-winning Fun Home writer Lisa Kron (Broadway: Well; Off-Broadway: ​​Good Person of Szechuan), Jo Lampert (Off-Broadway: Joan of Arc: Into the Fire, Hundred Days), and TL Thompson (Broadway: Straight White Men; Off-Broadway: Is This a Room?). The creative team is Will Davis (Director and Choreographer), Arnulfo Maldonado (Scenic Design), Oana Botez (Costume Design), Barbara Samuels (Lighting Design), Brendan Aanes (Sound Design and Composition), Ann C. James (Intimacy Coordinator), Matt Carlin (Props Supervisor), and Kasson Marroquin (Production Stage Manager). 

Will Davis, the director and choreographer recently appointed Artistic Director of Rattlestick Theater, describes Ruhl’s joyously elliptical adaptation of Woolf’s eons-ahead-of-its-time canonical novel as a “bid for liberation.” Davis envisions his production as an actor-operated “handmade spectacle” in which performers with distinct relationships to and journeys with gender create and erase, inhabit and leap across whole centuries onstage in real-time. The entirety of the Irene Diamond Stage will be a visible site of invention, giving actors in Davis’ athletic and choreographic staging the most possible space to traverse. The production aims to spark audiences’ own transcendent imaginations to cross constructed but stubborn societal thresholds—as performers vividly assemble new understandings of place, time, self, and community with the DIY props and set-pieces at their fingertips. 

Says Davis, “One of the things the theater does, and one of the things a lot of folks—myself included—have done is we call something into being: we name it, then we become it. Of course, sometimes in conversations around gender, there’s a perceived binary of transformation, but it’s more complex than that: the novel and the play are about fumbling towards self and the divine chaotic nature of that. We’re trying to replicate that in the ‘handmade’ worlds performers create and recreate. Every environment that the audience will experience century to century or scene to scene, we will watch the ensemble build and then take apart. That’s part of the dedication to a bid for liberation and the dramaturgical imperative of queer place-making: define things on your own terms and then share that with others.”

In 2023, Signature’s world premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s Letters from Max, a ritual—an adaptation of the 2018 epistolary book Letters from Max: A Poet, a Teacher, a Friendship by Ruhl and Max Ritvo—moved critics as a rare “theatrical act of remembrance” and “sacrament of grief” that’s “also a comedy” (The New York Times) and “affecting…ritualistic pas-de-deux” (Time Out). With Orlando, Ruhl once again exhibits her flair for playful, surprising adaptation of literary works into dynamic theater, and an ability therein to examine subjects as vast as mortality and gender with levity and wit. 

Says Ruhl, “I’ve experimented a lot with how to stage literary language theatrically — for instance, using narration in a way that’s theatrical. Soliloquy, and talking to and telling stories to the audience in a very transparent way, feel like such natural parts of theater's toolbox, and yet it’s really common for actors to be timid about addressing the audience! So it makes sense that the cast comprises a number of writer-performers, who are really adept at handling this kind of language. In A 24-Decade History, Taylor Mac talked to the audience all night long. I remember first seeing that show—and seeing some of Machine Dazzle’s costumes on display in the lobby—and thinking, ‘Taylor needs to be Orlando.’” 

Performance Dates

Performances are April 2–5, 7, 9–12, 14, 16–19, 23–26, 30, May 1–3, 7–9 at 7:30pm, April 6, 13, 20, 27, May 4, 11 at 8pm, and April 4, 7, 13, 14, 17, 20, 24, 27, 28, May 1, 4, 5, 11, 12 at 2pm. The May 4 performance at 2pm will be open captioned, the May 4 performance at 8pm is an ASL performance, and the May 5 performance at 2pm will be audio described.

About Sarah Ruhl (Playwright)

Sarah Ruhl (Playwright) is an award-winning American playwright, author, essayist, and professor. Her plays include Letters from Max, a ritual (Signature, 2023) The Oldest Boy, Dear Elizabeth, Stage Kiss, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2010); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2005; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play (Pen American Award, Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play); Melancholy Play; Demeter in the City (nine NAACP Image Award nominations); Scenes From Court Life; How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday; Eurydice; Orlando; and Late: a cowboy song. Her plays have been produced on Broadway and across the country as well as internationally, and translated into fourteen languages. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She is the recipient of a Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a PEN Center Award for mid-career playwrights, a Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, and a Lilly award. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. She teaches at Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family.  

About Will Davis (Director and Choreographer)

 Will Davis is a director and choreographer. Off-Broadway credits include: Road Show (Encores! Off-Center); India Pale Ale (MTC); Bobbie Clearly (Roundabout Underground); Charm (MCC); Men on Boats (Clubbed Thumb and Playwrights Horizons); and Duat (Soho Rep).  Regional credits include: As You Like It (La Jolla Playhouse); The Swindlers (Baltimore Center Stage);  Everybody (Shakespeare Theater Company); A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Long Wharf Theatre); Colossal (Olney Theatre Center and Mixed Blood Theater; and multiple productions for ATC in Chicago where Davis also served as Artistic Director and was  the first transgender person to lead a major nonprofit institution without a defined LGBTQ mission). He received a Helen Hayes award for best direction for his work on Colossal at the Olney Theatre Center and was nominated for a Lucille Lortel award for his direction of Men on Boats at Playwrights Horizons. He is an alum of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, the NYTW 2050 Directing Fellowship, the Brooklyn Art Exchange’s Artist in Residence program, and the Princeton Arts Fellowship. He is the Artistic Director of Rattlestick Theater in New York.

About the Cast

Janice Amaya (they/them) is an actor, theatermaker, and educator. Recent theater credits: Shhhh (Atlantic Theater Company), Mushroom (People’s Light Theater Co), Cartography (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), Sally Forth (Lincoln Center), Tell Them I’m Still Young (American Theater Group), Your Hair Looked Great (Abrons Arts Center), As You Like It (Apocalyptic Artists Ensemble). Film: Patriot’s Day (Lionsgate, Dir. Peter Berg), Up North (Dir. Stefanie Abel Horowitz), Bound (Paralysis Productions). Janice is a Co-Director at Pipeline Theatre Company and a founding member of The Hummm. MFA, Harvard University and the Moscow Art Theater. 

Nathan Lee Graham is the originator of over 17 diverse and hilarious roles on stage and screen. Most notably, the films Zoolander 2,Zoolander, Sweet Home Alabama, and Hitch. Television: The Comeback, Scrubs, Absolutely Fabulous, Law & Order SVU, Broad City, “Bernard” in the Fox comedy LA to Vegas! “Francois” on the CW show Katy Keene and currently “Draque Noir” on the Hulu series Woke. On stage: the original Broadway casts of The Wild Party and Priscilla Queen of the Desert. A 2017 Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical for The View Upstairs. In 2016, the IRNE award for Best Supporting Actor in a Play for The Colored Museum. Also a Drama League nomination for the off-Broadway production of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Wig Out! The 2005 Best Classical Album Grammy Award for Songs of Innocence and of Experience as a soloist. Nathan is a recipient of the HRC Visibility Award. He was recently seen in the film Theatre Camp. 

Lisa Kron has been creating and performing theater since coming to NY from Michigan about a thousand years ago. She wrote the book and lyrics for the Tony Award winning musical Fun Home, and plays including In the Wake, Well, and the Obie Award-winning 2.5 Minute Ride. Her acting credits include Well (Best Actress Tony nomination) and Good Person of Szechuan (Lortel Award). She’s a proud member of SAVE OUR STATES, a group of NYC based theater artists that’s been raising money for every election cycle since 2017 to build progressive power in state legislatures.  

Jo Lampert. Selected Off-Broadway: The Tempest (Shakespeare in the Park), Hundred Days (NYTW), Joan in Joan of Arc: Into the Fire(Public Theater, Lucille Lortel Award nom), Rimbaud in NY (BAM), New York Animals (New Ohio), Iphigenia in Aulis (Classic Stage Company), and Dance, Dance Revolution (Ohio Theater). Regional: Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Marie Antoinette (American Repertory Theatre/Yale REP), Prometheus Bound (A.R.T.), and The Last Goodbye (Williamstown Theater Festival). TV: HBO’s BETTY, Amazon’s Transparent (Musical Finale), Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black, Hulu’s The Path. 

Taylor Mac (Orlando) is an actor, playwright, performance artist, director, producer, and singer-songwriter. Judy (Taylor’s preferred pronoun but any will do) is a MacArthur “genius,” the first American to receive the International Ibsen Award, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a Tony nominee for Best Play, and the recipient of the Kennedy Prize, the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim, a Drama League Award, a NY Drama Critics Circle Award, two Obie’s, and two Bessies. Mac is the author of Joy and Pandemic; The Hang; Gary, A Sequel to Titus Andronicus; A 24-Decade History of Popular Music; Hir; and The Lily’s Revenge; among many others.  Film includes: Whitman in the Woods (currently streaming on All Arts); the concert/doc of A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, (HBO, June of 2023). Judy’s most recent work, Bark of Millions, makes its premiere at the Sydney Opera House in the fall of 2023. 

 TL Thompson was a series regular on the 4400 reboot and most recently co-starred in the short “Long Pork” by Iris Dukatt and Holding Back The Tide featured at NYC Doc Fest. TL is the narrator in the first and second season of Unlicensed by Joseph Fink and Jeffery Cramer; “Ponyboy” by Eliot Duncan on Audible; and "Are You Listening," an animated series aimed at helping teens navigate conflict. Theater credits: Broadway: Straight White Men. Off Broadway: Is This A Room? (Vineyard and International Tour); Lessons in Survival(Vineyard); Nervous System (BAM). Webseries: THESE/THEMS (OutFest/Youtube); Dinette Season 2 (NewFest). Short Films: “Wolf Tone,” “Flu$h,” “Friday Afternoon” (NYC Independent Film Festival), “Miles Away” (Chronic Insanity Edinburgh Fringe). Audiobooks: Thrust, Four Hundred Souls, Filthy Animals, This Book Is Not for You, Unpopular Vote.

About the Creative Team

Arnulfo Maldonado (Scenic Design) Broadway: A Strange Loop (Tony Nominee); Topdog/Underdog; Trouble in Mind. Signature: The Comeuppance, A Case for the Existence of God (Lortel Nominee). Off-Broadway: Shhhh (Atlantic); Nollywood Dreams, School Girls...  (MCC); The New Englanders, Sugar in Our Wounds (Lucille Lortel Award) (MTC); The Fever, one in two (New Group); Dance Nation, Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons); To My Girls, Toros (Second Stage). Regional: Alley Theatre, A.R.T., Berkeley Rep, CTG, Guthrie, Steppenwolf, Woolly Mammoth. International Tour: The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir. Obie Sustained Excellence in Set Design, Princess Grace Faberge Theater Award, Henry Hewes Design Award nominee

Oana Botez (Costume Design) is an international costume designer for film, theater, opera, and dance. She is a Princess Grace Award recipient, NEA/TCG Career Development Program recipient, and Barrymore Award recipient, as well as a Henry Hewes Design Award and Lucille Lortel Award nominee. New York: BAM Next Wave, Bard Summerscape/Richard B. Fisher Center, Playwrights Horizons, Baryshnikov Arts Center, David H. Koch Theater/Lincoln Center, LCT3, Big Apple Circus/Lincoln Center, Classic Stage Company. Regional: Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Barrington Stage Company); Macbeth (Old Globe); Angels in America (Arena Stage & Wilma); Man in a Case (Hartford). Opera: Don Giovanni (WolfTrapp) Song of the Ambassadors (Alice Tully Hall/Lincoln Center); Carmen (Minneapolis Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Portland Opera); In a Grove (Pittsburgh Opera); Persona (National Sawdust, REDCAT); A House in Bali (BAM). Internationally: Bucharest National Theatre (Romania), Château de Versailles, Théâtre National de Chaillot, Les Subsistances, The Old Vic, Budapest National Theatre, Cluj Hungarian National Theatre (Romania), Le Quartz (Brest, France), La Filature (Mulhouse, France), Exit Festival/Maison des arts de Créteil, Tanz im August Festival Hebbel am Ufer – HAU1 (Berlin, Germany), Edinburgh International Festival, Singapore Arts Festival. She teaches at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale in the Design Department. 

Barbara Samuels (Lighting Design) (she/her) is a queer lighting designer, producer, and organizer whose work centers a diversity of approaches in creating intimate and explosive environments for live performance. Recent: Wolf Play (Soho Rep, Ma-Yi, MCC – Lortel Nom.), Becky Nurse of Salem (Lincoln Center), Public Obscenities (Soho Rep), Many Happy Returns (Monica Bill Barnes & Co.), In the Green (LCT3 – Lortel Nom.), and Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future (Ars Nova – Drama Desk and Lortel Nom.). Barbara currently runs the Wingspace Mentorship Program. BA, Fordham; MFA, NYU; Proud member of USA829. 2022-24 WP Producers Lab. New Georges Affiliated Artist.

Brendan Aanes (Sound Design and Composition). Off-Broadway credits include sound and an original score for Fire in Dreamland (The Public Theater), a Drama Desk- nominated immersive tennis soundscape for Balls (One Year Lease), Catch as Catch Can (Page 73),  Tip The Ivy (Performance Space New York), Chester Bailey (Irish Rep), Beep Boop (HERE), and my lingerie play (Rattlestick). Regional: Shakespeare Theater DC, American Conservatory Theater, Baltimore Centerstage, California Shakespeare Theater, and others. International: Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Shanghai Grand Theater), Edinburgh Fringe, Magic Mike Live (Vegas/London/ Berlin/Australia).

Ann C. James (Intimacy Coordinator) made her debut as the first Black Intimacy Coordinator of Broadway in 2021 for Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over. James serves as an intimacy and sensitivity consultant for Hamilton (USA) and Hamilton (UK), for Tony Award winning Parade and Sweeney Todd, White Girl in Danger, How to Defend Yourself, The Comeuppance, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing and upcoming Broadway productions of The Outsiders and Lempicka, both originating at regional powerhouse LaJolla Playhouse. James’ company, Intimacy Coordinators of Color recently received an Obie Award Special Citation and has partnerships with Adelphi University, New York University, Columbia University, American Conservatory Theater, Brown University, Trinity Repertory Theater, A.R.T./New York, and The American Repertory Theater at Harvard.   

Matt Carlin (Props Supervisor) Signature: The Comeuppance. Select Off-Broadway credits include Stereophonic, Wet Brain, Regretfully, So the Birds Are, Downstate, Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons), Buena Vista Social Club, A Simulacrum(Atlantic), american (tele)visions (NYTW), and Lessons in Survival: 1971 (Vineyard). Matt also works as a props artisan and his work has been seen on Broadway in Back to the Future: The Musical and The Thanksgiving Play. He received his B.F.A. from Pace University.

Caparelliotis Casting (Casting). Select Broadway: Jaja's African Hair Braiding, Grey House, Ohio State Murders, Cost of Living, Macbeth, The Minutes, Skeleton Crew, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, King Lear, The Waverly Gallery, The Boys in the Band, A Doll’s House, Part 2, Jitney, The Glass Menagerie. Additional theater includes: MTC, The Old Globe, Atlantic Theater Company. TV/Film: “New Amsterdam” (NBC), "The Boys in the Band" for Netflix (Original Casting).

Kasson Marroquin (Production Stage Manager) (they/he): Off-Broadway: Wet Brain (co-pro with MCC), The Thin Place (Playwrights Horizons); Wolf Play, The Light, Charm (MCC); Montag (Soho Rep.); Hamlet, Oresteia (The Park Avenue Armory); Out of Time (NAATCO and The Public Theater); BLISS (Breaking the Binary Theatre); Make Me Gorgeous! (triangle productions!). Regional: Quixote Nuevo (Hartford Stage); Kill Local (La Jolla Playhouse). Dance/Touring: The Big Five-OH!, Come to Your Senses, Shadowland, Shadowland the New Adventure, Pilobolus at The Joyce Theater (Pilobolus); On Their Bodies, Footprints (The American Dance Festival). Music/Opera: Path of Miracles, Tree of Codes (Spoleto Festival USA). Events: MCC Theater’s Miscast, Primary Stages Gala, San Diego Comic-Con’s The Good Place Activation, Symphony at the Salk with Leslie Odom Jr., Yo-Yo Ma’s Day of Action, Queer Liberation March Rally, and many readings, workshops, and corporate events. Education: BA, University of North Texas & MFA, UC San Diego. 

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