BRIGHT HALF LIFE
Bright Half Life
Written by Tanya Barfield
Directed by Sara Lampert Hoover
March 4 - March 18, 2018
A time-bending free fall through love. Follow Erika and Vicky as they hurtle through 25 years of love and heartbreak and a collection of the moments that make up our lives. Bright Half Life is a stunningly honest depiction of the courage and strength it takes to walk through life together.
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Cast
JENNIFER BAREILLES (ERICA): Is thrilled to make her Kitchen Theatre debut with Bright Half Life. Favorite productions include Trial (THML), Maybe Tomorrow (The Poet Acts - New York Fringe Festival winner), Proof (Expression Productions, San Francisco) & Match (Expression Productions, San Francisco). She can currently be seen in the film The Light of the Moon, winner of the Adrienne Shelly Award, in select theaters and on stage weekly at the People’s Improv Theater with the House Team "The Studio System".
SHANNON TYO (VICKY): Off-Broadway: Kentucky, Bikeman: A 9/11 Play, Dear Edwina. Favorite regional credits include The White Snake (Old Globe, San Diego), Miss Saigon (Pioneer Theatre Co, Music Theatre of Wichita, Cape Fear Regional), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Northern Stage, Tuacahn PAC, Pioneer Theatre Co), and Broadway Bounty Hunter (Barrington Stage). BFA Syracuse University.
Creative Team
TANYA BARFIELD (Playwright): Tanya Barfield's THE CALL premiered at Playwrights Horizons in co-production with Primary Stages. Her play BLUE DOOR was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and AUDELCO Award and was seen at numerous theaters around the country. Her play OF EQUAL MEASURE played at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Short plays include: MEDALLION (Women's Project/Antigone Project), FOUL PLAY (Royal Court Theatre, Cultural Center Bank of Brazil), THE WOLVES and WANTING NORTH (Guthrie Theatre Lab, published in: Best 10-Minute Plays of 2003). Tanya wrote the book for the Theatreworks/USA children's musical, CIVIL WAR: THE FIRST BLACK REGIMENT which toured public schools around the country. Barfield has been a recipient of a 2013 Lilly Award and the first inaugural Lilly Award Commission, a 2003 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, a 2005 Honorable Mention for the Kesselring Prize for Drama, a 2006 Lark Play Development/NYSCA grant and she has twice been a Finalist for the Princess Grace Award. She is a proud alumna of New Dramatists and a member of The Dramatist Guild Council.
SARA LAMPERT HOOVER (Director): I am honored to be a part of M. Bevin O'Gara's first season at KTC. Upcoming: Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune at Bridge Street Theater in Catskill, NY. Past KTC productions: Throw Pitchfork by Alexander Thomas, Precious Nonsense, Peter and the Starcatcher, Dancing Lessons, Black Pearl Sings! (Kitchen Theatre Co/Geva), Neat, The Tricky Part, I Become a Guitar, Souvenir - 2008 SALT Award "Best Summer Production", The Clean House, Tony & The Soprano, Yellowman, Precious Nonsense, The Syringa Tree, A Servant of Two Masters, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Pretty Fire, and Molly Sweeney. At Vermont Stage Co: Three Days of Rain, Doubt, I Am My Own Wife. Other production credits: Falsettos, Sweeney Todd, Proof, 4 by Beckett, Merton of the Movies, Side Man, The Insect Comedy, and The Gnadiges Fraulein. Assistant directing credits: Sight Unseen (Manhattan Theatre Club, Daniel Sullivan, Director) and The Dybbuk (Syracuse Stage, Barbara Damashek, Director). Member: SDC.
TYLER M. PERRY (Scenic & Lighting Designer): a NYC-based lighting and scenic designer, received Kitchen Theatre Company's 2013-14 Norma Fire Emerging Artist award. KTC favorites: Peter and the Starcatcher, The Soup Comes Last, I and You, Thin Walls, The House, Venus in Fur, Opus, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, The Whipping Man, Frankie and Johnny in… Lune, among others. NYC: Miss Saigon (2017 revival Assistant); Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (National Tour, Assistant); Jessica (Sanguine Theatre Company); The Wild Party, The Adding Machine, A Man of No Importance (b-side Productions). Regional: A Doll's House, This Verse Business, Trick or Treat (Northern Stage); Cabaret, 25th Annual...Spelling Bee (Florida Rep); Avenue Q (2016 RI BroadwayWorld award winner), Damn Yankees (Ocean State Theatre Co.); Annie, The Fantasticks, Hairspray, Smokey Joe's Cafe (Hope Summer Repertory Theatre); Urinetown, The 39 Steps, Stage Kiss, Lend Me A Tenor, Into the Woods (Cider Mill Playhouse). Web & TV: NBC Sports, Fox Sports 1, ABC, Bravo TV, AOPA Live, and Monumental Sports Network. BFA Ithaca College. Member: United Scenic Artists Local 829. tylermperrydesign.com
LISA BOQUIST (Costume Designer): has designed and coordinated costumes for a number of previous productions at Kitchen Theatre Company, including: Precious Nonsense, Thin Walls, A Body of Water, Lungs, Black Pearl Sings!, Heroes, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, The Whipping Man, Circle Mirror Transformation, Irma Vep, Red Light Winter, Broke-ology and Waiting For Spring. Other favorite designs at the Kitchen include Mary's Wedding, Bed and Sofa, Last Train To Nibroc, I Become A Guitar, and Nine Parts Of Desire. She runs her own studio, where she designs and constructs prototypes, mascots and custom clothing for film and public appearances. She has been the Textiles Coordinator and Design Associate for MacKenzie-Childs, Ltd., and presently runs the costume shop at Cornell University. There she is responsible for training students in all aspects of costume construction, and has designed costumes for: Picasso At The Lapin Agile, Beat Box Bard, Bedroom Farce, and Drama, Dance And The Disco Of Desire, among others.
SERGEY LEVITSKIY (Sound Designer): is an interdisciplinary artist, composer, and musician based in Ithaca, NY. His theater design involvement began in 2016 when he worked on The Cherry Arts productions of Bitter Banquet and The Snow Queen. He recently composed original music and sound design for Kitchen Theatre's productions of Sex with Strangers and Throw Pitchfork and Cherry Arts productions of Winter Animals, Nothing to Do with Love, Rule of Thumb, and What Happens Next (video and sound design). He performed live music for the Cherry Arts’ plays in Four Plays - 100 years at the Kitchen Theatre and for Cornell’s Locally Grown Dance 2018.
LISA DONADIO (Casting Director): is the Associate Casting Director at Playwrights Horizons. Credits include: Clybourne Park (Broadway and PH), The Flick (Barrow Street and PH), Bootycandy, The Qualms, Detroit, Circle Mirror Transformation, Stage Kiss, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, Rapture Blister Burn, and Present Laughter with Victor Garber for The Huntington Theatre and Roundabout. TV credits include: “Knights of Prosperity aka Let’s Rob Mick Jagger” (ABC). Other theaters include: Women’s Project, Huntington Theatre, Seattle Rep, ACT in San Francisco, Berkeley Rep, Alley Theatre, Arena in DC. Festivals: Williamstown and Humana. Casting Director for Villa at The Play Company.