Orlando
By Virginia Woolf
Adapted by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Rachel Dickstein
Featuring Eva Doyle & Therese (Tea) Marie Rigor
CMFT Performance Theater (CMFT 0061)
Fri, 10/25 @ 7:30pm
Sat, 10/26 @ 1:30pm
Sat, 10/26 @ 7:30pm
Weds, 10/30 @ 7:30pm
Thurs, 10/31 @ 7:30pm
Fri, 11/1 @ 7:30pm
Sat, 11/2 @ 1:30pm
Sat, 11/2 @ 7:30pm
CAST:
Amaya Akosua Adu | Shakespeare, Sea Captain, Clorinda, Salesperson, Chorus 1
Johnny Bayne | Grimsditch, Favilla, Chorus 2
Eli Bettmann | Queen, Chorus 3
Eva Doyle | Virginia Woolf, Euphrosyne, Dupper, Penelope, Rosaline (in As You Like It), Priest, Chorus 4, Understudy: Sasha
Rory Flynn | Understudy: Orlando, Orlando (in As You Like It), Washer Woman, Elevator Man
Hope Lowery | Sasha, Chorus 5, Understudy: Archduke / Archduchess
Morgan Reichberg | Orlando (in As You Like It), Washer Woman, Elevator Man, Chorus 7, Understudy: Marmaduke
Therese (Tea) Marie Rigor | Orlando, Vita Sackville-West
Jackson Sorice | Marmaduke, Russian Sea Captain, Chorus 8
Franki Spinelli Mastrone | Archduke / Archduchess, Chorus 6, Understudy: Queen
Kat Tobits | Understudy: Euphrosyne, Favilla, Grimsdich, Dupper, Shakespeare, Sea
CREATIVE & PRODUCTION:
Alec Hoxha | Assistant Director / Dramaturg
Morgan Rotman | Production Stage Manager
Molly McHugh | Stage Manager
Stella Mahler | Stage Manager
Sydney Martinez | Asst. Stage Manager
Choregraphed by the ensemble in collaboration with Stephen Haley.
Will Schwerin | Sound Designer
Eliam Artman | Assistant Sound Designer / Production Audio
Julius Rosado | A1
Patrick Cahill | A2
Sally Marlin | A2
Jack Bombard | Lighting Designer
Jaelle Aquino-Fan | Assistant Lighting Designer
Francesca Villani | Production Electrician
Gillian Cornelison | Light Board Operator
Luca Plitz | Scenic Designer
Tyler Franks | Assistant Scenic Designer
Analiz Corona | Paint Charge
Rylie McCracken | Props Charge
Ethan Chichester | Technical Director
Lily O’Neil | Asst. Technical Director
Beatrice Breininger | Lead Technical Designer / Rigger
Robert Gyurko | Co-Lead Shop Carpenter
Julia Rau | Co-Lead Shop Carpenter
Noe Defranc | Asst. Rigger
Necha Bishop | Asst. Rigger
Mace Veeder-Shave | Costume Designer
Mae Russell | Asst. Costume Designer
Claire Cannizzo | Wardrobe Supervisor & Design Assistant
Jessica De Peiza | Run Crew
Owen Parrot | Run Crew
Rae Shaloum | Run Crew
Reed Kochneva | Run Crew
Adian Mitchell | Wardrobe
Autumn Magar Matsuoka | Wardrobe
Samantha Oest | Wardrobe
Deanna Smutek | Wardrobe
Kristion Thompson | Wardrobe
Logo & Poster Design By: August Ricciardi
Mitch McCoy | Intimacy and Fight Direction
Laura Esposito | Dialect Coach
The evening also includes The Color of Night, adapted from the letters of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West by Rachel Dickstein.
The performance will be performed with one ten-minute intermission.
Content Advisory
This production of Orlando contains: sexual content, flashing lights, and loud sounds.
Director’s Note
My engagement with Virginia Woolf started 33 years ago when I was in college adapting and directing her seminal novel The Waves as my senior project (with Purchase College Professor Jordan Schildcrout!) Since then, her work has been a crucial touchstone in my career as a deviser and director of embodied performance through Septimus and Clarissa, …a kiss suddenly on the back on my neck, and In[finite] Time, all movement-based adaptations of Woolf’s novels and stories. This production of Orlando, and the accompanying The Color of Night, a short adaptation of a selection of letters exchanged between Woolf and her lover Vita Sackville-West has been a wonderful new chapter in this lifelong project and I am thrilled to bring it to the Purchase College campus with this incredible group of young artists.
Nigel Nicolson called Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando “the longest and most charming love letter in literature,” a rarity in the closeted 1920’s when the otherwise married Woolf could openly write a tribute to her lesbian lover. It was published in 1928, the same year when another openly lesbian novel, The Well of Loneliness, was censored by the British government and cut off from publication. My impulse to bookend Ruhl’s magnificent text with Sackville-West and Woolf’s letters to one another was to celebrate the freedom of queer love we hear in their exchanges and help the audience connect to Ruhl’s adaptation of Orlando as its own radical assertion of queerness. Woolf’s central character easily shifts between genders and actively questions the restrictions of a gender binary. Woolf was, I believe, the first novelist to articulate “they/them” pronouns. Our production of this adaptation of Orlando travels the same 500 years as Woolf’s novel but lands us smack in the present moment of 2024 when gender fluidity and queerness need not be hidden away. I hope this radical tale offers you the joy, humor and incisive understanding of the self in conflict with societal restrictions that Woolf so brilliantly penned nearly 100 years ago.
- Rachel Dickstein
Dramaturg’s Note:
In the spring of 2023, I had the privilege of taking a course in adapting Virginia Woolf’s novels for the stage (taught by our director Rachel Dickstein, and Anthony Domestico from the English and Global Literatures department.) The one and only complaint I ever lodged against the class was that I could not spend more time with Orlando. At the time, I was so enraptured with the story that I wanted an entire semester of closely working on Orlando by itself. Now that I’ve spent the better part of this year working on Ruhl’s adaptation, I can very happily tell you that my wish was granted.
My own relationship to gender influenced much of my fascination with Orlando. As a transgender man, I move through the world as someone whose identity provokes questioning, investigation, judgment, and at its worst, harm. We’ve made plenty of progress towards understanding gender diversity, but there is still just as much stigma. Research clinics study the differences between “male” and “female” brains; psychiatrists respond to the word “transgender” by referencing a manual on mental disorders. But the human experience of gender and sex is wonderfully complicated, beyond what we can try to explain and define. Our world has yet to understand that.
Orlando treats gender as what it is: a social construct. Nothing about gender is natural or pre-ordained. As modern witnesses of Orlando’s journey, see quite plainly that Orlando chafes against the expectations of the gender binary. Neither category of male or female is able to comfortably contain the full vibrancy of their identity–which might make us wonder if those categories can comfortably contain the rest of us, either.
When Orlando was published in 1928, fear and uncertainty reigned. Queer identity was to be implied and covertly understood–not spoken of. In our current landscape, a change of sex is not quite as difficult to imagine in comparison to a hundred years ago, but still just as easily misunderstood, and often overanalyzed. Among the drone of those who seek to categorize, stifle, and dull the full range and vibrancy of the human spirit (which does not confine itself to one sex–or even to one lifespan!) Woolf’s Orlando is not just a relief: it is a necessity.
- Alec Hoxha, Dramaturg and Assistant Director
Creative Team Profiles
CAST
Amaya is a third year Theatre and Performance major, with a concentration in Directing. She performed in the 2024 Spring MainStage ‘Angels in America’. She’d like to thank her family, the THP faculty, her drama teachers at Forest Hills High School, and her mentors and friends at CreateHER NYC and Clubbed Thumb for helping her flourish and find fulfillment in this field.
Johnny is a playwriting/screenwriting major from Sacramento, California. Johnny’s original one-act was selected and staged in POV Fest this past spring. Orlando is their acting debut! Johnny would like to thank Eli Bettmann and Rachel Dickstein for being so encouraging and Amanda Plesser for everything, really.
Eli (they/them) is an actor from Saxapahaw, North Carolina. Recent credits include Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania), The Curious Savage (Dr. Emmett), and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Linus). Eli is grateful to their family for their undying love and support.
Eva Doyle is a fourth year Theatre and Performance major in the performance concentration. Eva’s Purchase credits include Crystal Clear, Fefu and Her Friends, and College Monologues. Eva wants to thank her mom, dad and sister for being her biggest supporters in everything.
Rory Flynn is a second year in the theatre and performance major, with a minor in film production. Rory has performed in one Purchase production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with a history in musical theatre in highschool. They have also been nominated for the Roger Rees award in 2023.
Hope Lowery is a third year Theatre and Performance major from Miami, Florida. Past credits include Trojan Women (Andromache), The House of Blue Leaves (Bunny), and A Midsummer Nights Dream (Hermia). She’d like to thank her family for their support, no matter how far they were.
Morgan Reichberg is a third year majoring in Theatre and Performance with a concentration in directing. Previous SUNY Purchase credits include acting in The Attic and As You Like It, as well as directing scene presentations of Sanctuary City and Three Sisters. Morgan would like to thank her mom, dad, and brother David for their support.
Therese (Tea) Marie Rigor (any pronouns) is a third and final year theatre and performance major from Gainesville, Florida. Purchase credits include How to Defend Yourself (Susannah/Swing Diana, Nikki, and Mojdeh), As You Like It (Jaques), and Emily Coates’ Some Things We Know (musician). Other credits include Little Shop of Horrors (Crystal), A Christmas Carol (Ghost of Christmas Present), And (director), and more. Many thanks to the cast and crew, her mentors, family, and friends for their continuous support!
Jackson Sorice is in his third year at SUNY Purchase in the Theatre and Performance program. Past credits include How To Defend Yourself at Purchase College (Eggo), Leaving at The Chain Theatre (Sal), and As You Like it at Purchase College (Silvius). Love and thanks to Mom, Dad, and Ryder.
Franki is a third year Theatre and Performance transfer student and has been performing for as long as they can remember. She is so happy to have found such a beautiful community of artists to share her final two years of college with here at Purchase. Some of Franki’s favorite past Purchase credits include Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Judy/Avery in Judy’s House by Jorin Clougherty. When not creating or attending theatre, Franki love’s gardening and taking care of her children (house plants), overpriced dinners with loved ones, and rewatching Queer Eye until she can quote the entire show. Many thanks to everyone involved in making Orlando a production she will never forget.
Kat Tobits is a fourth year Theatre and Performance major from Readsboro, Vermont. Past credits include The Haunting of Campbell House, Catharsis, Leaving, Kill the Man!, As You Like It, and Life After Cali. She’d like to thank her wonderful friends and family for their love and support!
CREATIVE & PRODUCTION
Jack is a fourth year BFA lighting & sound designer from Massachusetts. Purchase design credits include Luna Gale, Intimate Apparel, Socrates (Asst. Lighting Design), F*cking A, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Orpheus Descending (Assoc. Sound Design). Thank you for coming to our show and supporting the arts.
Ethan Chichester
Alec Hoxha is a fourth year theatre & English major. His show credits for the 2024-2025 season include: Orlando (AD/Dramaturg), The Motherfucker with the Hat (ASM), Macbeth (Macbeth), Geryon (Dramaturg). He is immensely thankful for the support his friends, family, and fellow artists have given him!
Luca Plitz is a fourth year theatre design/tech major with a concentration in scenic design from Chandler, Arizona. Purchase Rep credits include: The Tempest (Scenic Designer), Orlando (Scenic Designer), Titus Andronicus (Paint Charge) and F*cking A and Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Props Charge). Thank you to his lovely family, friends, and partner, he couldn’t do this without you!
Morgan Rotman is a fourth year Stage Management student at SUNY Purchase. She has worked on Orpheus Descending (ASM), Orestes (ASM), Socrates (SM), and Intimate Apparel (SM) before working on Orlando as the Production Stage Manager. She would like to thank her parents, boyfriend Nate Tohill, and the entire Orlando team.
Will Schwerin is a third year BFA Theater Design/Tech Sound Designer. His past credits include The Seagull (Sound Designer) The Tempest (Sound Designer) Orlando (Sound Designer) Titus Andronicus (Assistant Sound Designer) Machinal (Sound Designer). He would like to thank Sunny, Matt and the rest of DT for making this a possibility. He would also like to thank his family and friends for their support.
Mace Veeder-Shave
Director Profile
Rachel Dickstein (Director, adapter: The Color of Night)
Rachel founded the Obie-winning theatre company Ripe Time in 2000, to develop and produce ensemble-based, embodied adaptations from literature. The company has received commissions from Arizona State University Gammage, BAM, Center Theatre Group, and Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Recent work includes the world premieres of COMPASS (ASU Gammage), Haruki Murakami’s SLEEP (BAM Next Wave Festival, Yale Rep, Annenberg), THE WORLD IS ROUND (BAM-Fisher, Obie Award), SEPTIMUS AND CLARISSA (Drama Desk, Drama League nominations, Baruch Performing Arts Center) FIRE THROWS at 3LD, INNOCENTS and BETROTHED at the original Ohio Theatre. These works featuring original scores created by such award-winning composers as Vijay Iyer, Kamala Sankaram, Katie Down, Jewlia Eisenberg, and NewBorn Trio.
Rachel also specializes in bringing her signature visual aesthetic to new plays, chamber opera and new music theatre. Recent: BLOOD MOON by Garrett Fisher/ Ellen McLaughlin (Beth Morrison Projects, Prototype), DESIRE by Hannah Lash for Jack Quartet (Miller Theatre, Columbia), Kamala Sankaram/ Susan Yankowitz’s THUMBPRINT (LA Opera, Prototype), Vijay Iyer/Mike Ladd’s IN WHAT LANGUAGE? (Asia Society, REDCAT, PICA TBA Festival). Upcoming: In[finite] Time created with Grammy winning composer Rinde Eckert, Modern Virgin, a song cycle by Garrett Fisher and Maria Mannisto, Salvaged Pages, a new opera by Michael Zapruder (with libretto by Rachel) and Star Singer by Juhi Bansal & Neil Aitkin (set to premiere in 2026 with LA Opera/Beth Morrison Projects.)
Rachel was the recipient of the 2015 LPTW Lucille Lortel Award and was nominated for the 2014 Alan Schneider Award, the 2014 and 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award and the 2011 SDC Joe A. Calloway Outstanding Directing award. She is a proud recipient of four Drama League fellowships including the Impact Residency at LPAC. She received a NEA-TCG Director’s Fellowship, and has engaged in residencies at Berkeley Rep Ground Floor, LMCC, JCC in Manhattan, Watermill Center, and the Civilians R&D Group. She has been a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop since 1994.
Rachel received her BA at Yale College and currently serves as Associate Professor, and Chair of Theatre and Performance at Purchase College, SUNY. She is the author of Towards Embodied Performance: Directing and the Art of Composition, published by Routledge in June 2024.
About the Conservatory of Theatre Arts
In our teaching and art, the Conservatory values inclusiveness, equality, and excellence. Upholding all of our training is our aim to train and graduate citizen artists: multifaceted people with a strong sense of purpose in approaching an arts education.
What is a citizen artist? Citizen artists seek to discover how their unique voices can contribute to our world. They understand what it means to be an artist, and what they are here on earth to say and do and make.
The Conservatory trains future citizen artists in three degree programs:
+ BFA Actor Training. The BFA is an intensive professional training program offered to a highly select and diverse group of students. The professional training is anchored in four years of study in acting, voice, speech, and movement, complemented by offerings in dramatic literature and analysis, history of the theatre, stage combat, improvisation, mask work, acting for the camera, and the business of acting. As one of five schools in the Consortium of Professional Theatre Training Programs, Purchase is one of a handful of colleges in the world capable of training artists at this level—and of drawing a faculty from the ranks of professional theatre
+ BFA in Theatre Design/Technology. Emphasizing studio and classroom training, our professional training program in theatre design/technology gives students the guidance and support of established and theatre industry professionals. Many of our alumni are recognized at the top of their field, and have received Tony, Emmy, Obie, and Drama Desk Awards, among other honors. Quite literally, Purchase grads are working in or have worked in every theatre on Broadway, in all tristate venues, and with countless touring productions
+ BA program in Theatre and Performance. From traditional theatre to cutting-edge interdisciplinary work, the theatre and performance major encourages creativity, intellectual curiosity, social engagement, and critical thinking. The core requirements combine scholarship and practice to provide students with a strong foundation in theatre history and dramatic literature, with mandatory stagecraft/production courses. Theatre and Performance majors are encouraged to expand the scope of their education by studying abroad, as well as pursuing coursework in other programs of study within the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Purchase College.