red fern theatre red fern theatre
red fern theatre
red fern theatre
red fern theatre
red fern theatre

melanie red fern theatre
Melissa Dowty Timothy Fannon
red fern theatre
melanie red fern theatre melanie
John Dalton Hill John Mervini
melanie red fern theatre melanie
Mike Mihm Emilie Elizabeth Miller
melanie red fern theatre melanie
Jack Perry Matt Sadewitz
Cast

Melissa Dowty – Joanie
Timothy Fannon - Scott
John Dalton Hill - Mike
John Mervini – Little Earl
Mike Mihm - Shane
Emilie Elizabeth Miller – Melody
Jack Perry – Ernie
Matt Sadewitz – Smolowitz


Production Team

Melanie Moyer Williams – Director
Amanda Donelan - Properties
Jessica Greenberg - Lighting Designer
Adrienne Kapalko - Set Designer
Caroline Reck – Fight Coordinator

Laura Luciano - Stage Manager

Lauren McDonnell - Marketing
Bridgid Ryan - Marketing Assistant
Chris Flecker - Illustrator
Found a Peanut
By Donald Margulies
Directed by Melanie Moyer Williams
Featuring Melissa Dowty, Timothy Fannon, John Dalton Hill , John Mervini, Mike Mihm, Emilie Elizabeth Miller, Jack Perry, and Matt Sadewitz


In a Brooklyn tenement on the last day of summer vacation, a group of children aged five to fourteen (portrayed by adult actors) are at play. Finding a dying bird they decide to have a ritual burial, which leads to the discovery of a bag of money.  This discovery, in turn, results in squabbles and bitterness among the children, as the microcosm of their games gradually yields an awareness of greed, betrayal and violence—elements of life heretofore unknown to them but, regrettably, so much a part of the grownup world which they are approaching. In a sense the play, with deft irony and lively humor, marks the coming of age of the children, as the carefree innocence of youth is sobered by the emergence of emotions which, while not yet fully comprehended, will have a profound effect on their lives in the years to come.

Found a Peanut was performed from May 3-13,2007 at the 78th Street Theatre Lab.

To read our excellent review from www.NYTheatre.com please click here.





Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility

For this production, the RFTC has chosen to partner with the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility (founded in 1982 as Educators for Social Responsibility Metropolitan Area). This organization educates young people for hopeful and intelligent engagement with their world: We promote creative nonviolent ways of dealing with conflict and help students develop life skills in relating well to others, standing up to bias, and thinking critically about the big issues of the day. Through our programs, we encourage people to take leadership in creating and sustaining a just, peaceful, and truly democratic society.

www.morningsidecenter.org


Cast Bios:


Melissa Dowty, Joanie

This is Melissa's Red Fern debut.  Other New York credits include: Neon Mirage (Fringe NYC 2006), Cascadia (Andhow! Theatre), a cabaret with the Abingdon Theatre, and most recently, sketch comedy at the People's Improv Theatre.  Regional:  Neon Mirage (2006 Humana Festival), The Madwoman of Chailliot, Tiny Baby, and WORK (ATL Apprentice Company).  Other credits include: Once Upon a Mattress (Winnifred), She Loves Me (Amalia), and The Heiress (Catherine).  Training:  Actor's Theatre of Louisville Apprentice Company.  B.A:  Indiana-Purdue University, Ft. Wayne.  For Larry. 


John Dalton Hill, Mike

John was last seen in an Off-Off Broadway production of Spoon River Anthology. Past productions include Sweet Bird of Youth, Savages (by Anne Nelson), You Can't Take It With You, Kimberly Akimbo and Grease, to name a few. He also portrayed Napoleon in Engineering an Empire: Napoleon, which airs on The History Channel. John is very excited to be working with Red Fern and sends his love and appreciation to Jessica. www.JohnHillActor.com.


Timothy Fannon, Scott

New York credits: Blindness, 59E59 Theaters; Baal, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Ontological Theater; Oresteia, Teatro Alfredo Chiesa, Milan/Theater for the New City, NY; The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Center Stage/NY; Bull Spears, CSV; Dollbody, Atlantic Theater Studio; The Burnt Woman of Harvard, Inverse Theater Co.; Talk to me like the rain…/This Property is Condemned, Blue Heron Arts Center; A Sleep of Reason Creates Monsters, Access Theater; Blood/White, Bank Street Theater. Training: MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College; Royal National Theatre Studio in London; founder and artistic director of Fovea Floods Theater.


John Mervini, Little Earl

John Mervini is thrilled to be making his Red Fern Theatre debut! He has most recently been seen in New York in The Wedding, The Gospel Show at La Mama, and Soul Searching. Other favorite roles include Jesus in Godspell and Japheth in Children of Eden. John would like to thank Jess, Melanie, family, friends, the cast, and the entire production team.


Mike Mihm, Shane

Mike was last seen in the September installment of the Dare Project with Tax Deductible Theatre. He also just appeared in a national Kmart commercial. Graduating with a BFA in theatre from Ohio University, he continued his training as an intern at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park during their Tony award winning season. Mike is a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild.


Emilie Elizabeth Miller, Melody

Emilie is one of the co-founders of the Red Fern Theatre Company.  She is formally trained as an actor and the Red Fern Theatre Company is her first production endeavor.  Emilie graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a concentration in Theatre Arts and Film History.  She trained at the British American Dramatic Academy where she studied with Julian Glover, Tom Hollander and Fiona Shaw.  Emilie has also trained with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA under the direction of Jason Asprey, Corinna May and Jonathan Croy.  She has received extensive training in Kristin Linklater’s voice method, Shakespearean dance, the Suzuki Method and improvisational comedy.  Emilie has also been certified in stage combat.  Emilie’s favorite roles include: Lucia (A Shayna Maidel); Isabella (Measure for Measure); Nora (A Doll’s House); Shelly (Fishing); Akmahtova (Akmahtova); Mindy (Five Women Wearing the Same Dress).  Emilie has appeared in the NYC Fringe Festival.  Film and television credits include: Sex & the City; Social Grace (dir. B.D. Wong); The J.A.R (Azan Films - soon to be released); MTV Productions.  Emilie appeared as Kimberly in Patient A, the Red Fern Theatre Company’s premiere production, Lainie in the RFTC's production of Two Rooms, and most recently as Claire in The Long Christmas Ride Home.


Jack Perry, Ernie

Theatre- The American Dream, Streetlight Productions at the Barrow Group Theatre, Macbeth at the Industrial Shapespeare Park, Wishing Time, Matt and Wendy, Titus(exclamation point). Film- Off-Off Broadway, They Seek Him Here, Up the Creek, Out of the Frying Pan, Drawn by Pain, Maching On, Book of Truth Book of Lies.


Matt Sadewitz, Smolowitz

Matt is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts.  Credits include:  The Black Crook, Spring Awakening, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, The Distance From Here, 29 Questions, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, founding member of the award-winning sketch group Hammerkatz, and a lead in the 35mm short film, Checkout, which won a Jury Award at the 2006 HBO Aspen Comedy Arts Festival.  Matt is currently freelancing with Vision Talent Agency and is exclusively represented commercially by Don Buchwald & Associates, through whom he goes on many commercial auditions hoping to be given the chance to sell his artistic soul for a ton of money.  Love and thanks to Vicki and Richard.  



Production Team Bios:


Melanie Moyer Williams, Director

Melanie, a graduate of Duke University, is also co-founder of the Red Fern Theatre Company. Most recently, she directed The Long Christmas Ride Home by Paula Vogel and Found a Peanut by Donald Margulies for the company. This past fall she directed Two Rooms by Lee Blessing as well as the initial reading of Stars in a Dark Sky by R.E. Vickers for Lime Rock Press, Inc. Last summer, Melanie directed Henry Kissinger by John Attanas with Woodframe Productions where they received rave reviews at the NY Fringe Festival. Last year, she directed A Tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of El Salvador in El Salvador with Wanderlust Theatre Company. She directed That is the Question in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and it was named to the “Best of the Fringe” list. In New York, Melanie has also directed Patient A for RFTC; Medea excerpts as well as musical directed Iphigeneia for CYPRECO and the New York Public Library; Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, When the World Was Green and Icarus’s Mother for the Michael Chekhov Theatre Company; and A Tribute to the Blues for Wanderlust Theatre Company. Upcoming productions include the new musical Temps and a production of Oleanna.


Amanda Donelan, Properties

Amanda Donelan is a graduate of Hofstra University from which she received a B.F.A in Theatre.  She most recently appeared in The Long Christmas Ride Home as a puppeteer with the Red Fern Theatre Company.  Amanda’s other New York Theatre credits include performing with The Queen’s Players in both Beautiful Noises and Coal’s of Fire, participating in Turtles Shell Production’s 8 Minute Madness One Act Festival as part of Everyman, and a show with The Big Little Theatre (Michael Chekhov Theatre Company) as part of the Cast of Happy Hour.  She would like the thank Melanie for giving her the opportunity to test her skills at props (and pigeon construction) and for allowing her the chance to be again part of a Red Fern Theatre Company production.  Finally, Amanda would like to extend all of her love to her friends and family for all of their support.  


Jessica Greenberg, Lighting Designer

Jessica is thrilled to be designing for The Red Fern Theatre Company for the second time having just designed The Long Christmas Ride Home. Most recently Jessica has worked with Century Productions NYC, Calamity Carolers, Hartford Stage, City Stage, and Stagedoor Manor.  Later this season she will be working with The Rising Sun Performance Company lighting a new ensemble piece. Especially interested in new scripts, she has produced several new play festivals; as a director, she loves staging political pieces with physicality, humor, and great roles for women. Past lighting designs include (Don't Go) Home for the Holidays, Ana 3/11, A River Apart, Venus, Pride and Prejudice, As It Is In Heaven, and premiers of The City That Cried Wolf and Dreaming Inside the Lover's Eye. Jessica received her BA from Hampshire College with a self-designed concentration in lighting, directing, and producing.


Caroline Reck, Fight Coordinator

Caroline is a graduate of the Lecoq School of Physical Theatre in Paris, France. In France, she worked for the puppetry company Sous Un Otre Angle and was Artistic Director and host of Cabaret Le Cochard. Recent productions include This Savage Parade (AUS), The Musicians of Bremin (Avignon Festival), Nutmeat, a Fairytale (NYC Fringe), and Stone (Stone Soup Arts, NYC). She puppeteered for Red Fern Theatre’s The Long Christmas Ride Home in March and is happy to be working with the company on another production.


Adrienne Kapalko, Set Designer

This is Adrienne's first time working with the Red Fern Theatre Company. New York credits include: The House of Yes (designer/The Neighborhood Playhouse), Gypsy directed by Arthur Laurents (assistant designer/City Center), Almost Maine (assistant designer/The Daryl Roth), Tall Grass (assistant designer/The Beckett Theatre). Other credits include: The Marriage of Figaro (designer/Purchase Opera), All About Us (assistant designer/Westport Country Playhouse), 1776 (assistant designer/The Guthrie), Disney Live! Mickey's Magic Show (assistant designer/National Tour), Hairspray (assistant designer/Johannesburg, South Affrica). Adrienne graduated with a BFA in scenic design from SUNY Purchase.


Laura Luciano, Stage Manager

Laura is excited to be working on another Red Fern production.  She is a graduate of the State University of New York at New Paltz where she received a BA in both performance and design technology.  Her most recent credits include Polaroid Stories (director/SUNY New Paltz), Striking Chords (playwright/Creative Place Theatre), Dust (production assistant/Soho Think Tank), Henry Kissinger (stage manager/NY Fringe Festival), Two Rooms (stage manager/Red Fern Theatre Company) and The Long Christmas Ride Home (stage manager/Red Fern Theatre Company).


Lauren McDonnell, Marketing

Lauren McDonnell is excited to be working with the Red Fern Theatre Company on this season’s productions of Two Rooms, The Long Christmas Ride Home and Found a Peanut. Lauren is a graduate of Auburn University with a degree in Public Relations and currently works for Yahoo!.  In the past two years, she has combined her love of the arts and her PR background to design websites.  Her client list includes the Broadway actress, Stephanie J. Block, David Garner, Mason McCulley, Paige McDonnell, Jennifer Lucas, and Grace Cullman. Many thanks to Melanie and Emilie for this continued opportunity to work with Red Fern!