The Mystery of Irma Vep

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The Biddeford Journal

About The Cast

Tom Ford (Nicodemus Underwood, Lady Enid Hillcrest, Alcazar, Pev Amri) Tom is very pleased to be returning to Portland Stage where he has appeared in I Am My Own Wife, Billy in Iron Kisses, Kipps in The Woman in Black, Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, Mr. Manningham in Gaslight and Yvan in Art. Most recently, as Mr. Cupp in A Christmas Carol at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Last summer, at the New London Barn Playhouse, Tom appeared as Max in The Producers, Sipos in She Love Me and directed The Fantasticks. On Broadway in Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Weber's By Jeeves at the Helen Hayes Theater. At the Idaho Shakespeare Festival: the Baker in Into the Woods, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet,the King of Navarre in Love's Labour's Lost, Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew, Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Touchstone in As You Like It, Casca in Julius Caesar, the title role in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown and Hucklebee in The Fantasticks. For Great Lakes Theater Festival: Into the Woods, A Funny Thing Happened..., Love's Labour's Lost, Julius Caesar, as Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol, Nicola in Arms and the Man and Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Other performances: Dromio of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors at Pittsburgh Public Theater, Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Lincoln Center Director's Lab, Once Around the City at New York Stage and Film, Rutherford and Son at the Mint Theater, Salvador Dali in Hysteria at Florida Studio Theater, Johnny in Maurice Sendak's production of Really Rosie, and Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at McCarter Theatre. Visit him at tomfordactor.com

Steven Strafford (Jane Twisden, Lord Edgar Hillcrest, An Intruder) is so excited to be working on this awesome piece of theatre at Portland Stage!  Steven had the good fortune of playing Prince Herbert, Not Dead Fred and many others in Monty Python's Spamalot. (Original Vegas Company)  He, then, was lucky enough to do the Asian tour of Cinderella (and stand on the Great Wall of China!) Other favorite roles include Anthony in Sweeney Todd; Eugene in Grease; Costard in Love's Labour's Lost and Solyony in Three Sisters.

The Design Team

Christopher Grabowski (Director) is thrilled to be back at PSC , where he has directed Ellen McLaughlins Iphigenia and Other Daughters,  The world Premier of Brian Silbermans Manifest, Collected Stories, (with Kristen Linklater) and  Lobby Hero.   Director of the Experimental Theater of Vassar College (Professor, Chair of Drama) where he has produced and/or directed nearly 100 productions including plays by Eurirpides, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Shaw, new works, and numerous musicals---most recent productions were Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, Chekhov's Three Sisters, and Jonathan Larson's Rent. Chris was previously the associate artistic director and literary manager of the New York Theater Workshop where he both directed (George Walker's Love and Anger, with Kristine Neilson and Saul Rubinek, A Forest in Arden, adapted from Shakespeare's As You Like It, C Columbo Inc. , with Leo Bassi) and assisted in the development of emerging artists and their work through readings, workshop productions, works-in-progress festivals, and artistic retreats during the summer months.  Additonally in NYC he has directed the world premier of Timothy McCracken's There's The Story, Suburbia, You Come You Go You Stay Put, and David Simpatico's People People.  Regionally Chris has directed at Yale Rep (Elizabeth Egloffs Pheadra, Midsummer Nights Dream), Shakespeare Santa Cruz (Pericles), the Denver Center (Mad Forest), and He has also directed student productions in the graduate training programs at NYU Tisch School of the Arts (Suburbia), The Juilliard School (Once in A Lifetime, An Absolute Turkey), the Academy for Classical Acting (Loves Labors Lost,  and the Jacobean plays The Cardinal, Tis Pitty She's A Whore, Revengers Tragedy, and Women Beware Women), the Stella Adler Conservatory (Manifest, Angels in America, Mad Forest), and the National Theater Conservatory (Misalliance, You Never Can Tell). Christopher holds a BA in Theater Arts from UC Santa Cruz and an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama.

ANITA STEWART (Set Designer) has worked as a set and costume designer at leading theatres across the country, including: the Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Canadian Opera Company, Minnesota Opera, A.R.T., Steppenwolf, Hartford Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, Boise Contemporary Theater, New Jersey Shakespeare and Portland Stage Company. Anita's desire to play a meaningful role as an artist in a specific community brought her to Portland Stage Company in Maine as Artistic Director, a company for which she had previously done significant freelance design.

LOYCE ARTHUR (Costume Designer) Loyce L. Arthur is a costume designer, an associate professor and Head of Design in the Theatre Arts Department, University of Iowa.  She has designed costumes for numerous productions including Little Lamb at the InterAct Theater Company, Philadelphia, PA; Caribbean carnival costumes for the University of Iowa's Afro-Cuban Drum & Dance Ensemble; a Asian/African performing arts production of The Magic Flute at the Chicago Cultural Center; Brokenville, and Nocturnal Wanderer at the Aggelon Vima Theatre, Athens, Greece; a special OBIE awardproduction of Langston Hughes' Black Nativity; Box Office of the Damned at the Classic Stage Company Theatre, NY, andThe Brothers Sun and Moon at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington D.C.  Her work at the University of Iowa includes Reefer Madness, and the world premieres of Versailles, and Shadows of the Reef. She has studied mask making in Italy, West Africa, India, Bali, and Caribbean carnival in Trinidad, Brazil, London UK, Holland, Cuba, and Toronto Canada.  She is a member of USA 829.  She's delighted to return to Portland Stage after the wonderful time she had with last year's production of Peer Gynt.

GREGG CARVILLE (Sound Designer) is a free-lance lighting and sound designer who has worked in the Portland area since the early 90's. He has worked for Portland Stage Company for a number of seasons in both administrative and design roles. Gregg is currently the Technical Director for Merrill Auditorium.  Gregg received an MFA in Lighting Design from NYU-Tisch School of the Arts in 2002. Currently Gregg is the technical director for Merrill Auditorium and the City of Portland. He continues to free-lance as a designer as well as provide consulting on various theatrical projects. Gregg has designed lighting for the Portland Stage productions of I Am My Own Wife, Noises Off, Augusta, Indoor/Outdoor, and Wait Until Dark and designed sound for Rough Crossing, Syncopation, and The Piano Lesson.

Christopher Studley (Lighting Designer) Christopher's work for the past 10 years has focused primarily on new plays in the San Francisco Bay Area.  World premiers include designs for; Encore Theatre Company, The Magic Theatre, Intersection for the Arts/ Campo Santo, Fools Fury and Killing My Lobster. East Coast credits include The Ones that Flutter/SPF;The Scariest/ The Exchange@ 45 Bleeker; Devil on all Sides/ P.S. 122; Driving Miss Daisy, No Child, Copenhagen/ Delaware Theatre Company; Private lives/ Two River Theatre. His work has also been seen at; Bali Arts Festival Indonesia, A.C.T. Conservatory, Aurora Theatre Company, Center Repertory, SF Playhouse, Theatre Abydos, and the Pacific Alliance Stage Company.  In 2004 and 2005 He received the California Elly Award for Best Lighting Design.  Christopher's lighting was selected for the Prague Quadrennial 2007 by the USITT.

Shane Van Vliet (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be working on her second season with Portland Stage Company. Prior to coming to Maine, she worked back to back tours with Jean Ann Ryan Productions and Two Beans Productions w/Theatreworks. Some of her other New York credits include working with The Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Chicago City Limits, Turtleshell Productions, T. Schreiber Studios and participating in The New York Fringe Festival. She has also previously stage managed at the Kavinoky Theatre and Sheas Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, New York; and she has been a Production Assistant with the Radio City Rockettes.