HURRICANE DIANE

ABOUT

By Madeleine George
Directed by Leigh Silverman
A co-production with WP Theater

2018/19 Season

February 7, 2019—March 24, 2019

RUNTIME
Approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission.

Read Synopsis

Meet Diane, a permaculture gardener dripping with butch charm. She’s got supernatural abilities owing to her true identity—the Greek god Dionysus—and she’s returned to the modern world to gather mortal followers and restore the Earth to its natural state. Where better to begin than with four housewives in a suburban New Jersey cul-de-sac? Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George pens a hilarious evisceration of the blind eye we all turn to climate change and the bacchanalian catharsis that awaits us, even in our own backyards. Tony nominee and NYTW Usual Suspect Leigh Silverman directs.

Scenic Design Rachel Hauck
Costume Design Kaye Voyce
Lighting Design Barbara Samuels
Sound Design Bray Poor
Original Music The Bengsons
Choreography Raja Feather Kelly
Stage Manager Melanie J. Lisby

Hurricane Diane is a co-production with WP Theater.

  • Carol Fleischer

    Mia recently completed a run at BAM’s Next Wave Festival of the New York premiere of Joan Didion’s The White Album, which will tour to Los Angeles in the spring. Other New York theatre includes: The Wolves (Obie, Drama Desk for Best Ensemble); The Pain and the Itch, She Stoops to Comedy, The World Over (Playwrights); The Coast of Utopia, Domesticated, What Once We Felt, QED (LCT); Spirit Control (MTC); Dying for It (Atlantic); Knickerbocker (Public). Regional work includes Williamstown, New York Stage & Film, Mark Taper, Geffen, Old Globe, Long Wharf, Westport Playhouse, Huntington, Guthrie, among others. She is thrilled to be reunited with Leigh Silverman and Danielle Skraastad after co-creating and acting in the Off-Broadway production of Big Times. TV includes: “Modern Family,” “NCIS,” “Law & Order,” “Elementary,” “Newsroom,” “Glee,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Blue Bloods,” “Bones,” “Medium,” the Adult Swim comedy shows “Children’s Hospital,” “Newsreaders,” and “The Venture Bros,” in which she voices the character of Molotov. She is currently playing Emily on the series “Get Shorty.” MFA: NYU.

  • Renee Shapiro-Epps

    NY credits include A Raisin in the Sun (Broadway); Richard III, Love’s Labour’s Lost (Public); world premiere of A Kid Like Jake (LCT3); As You Like It, The Tempest (BAM/Old Vic Bridge Project); Much Ado About Nothing (TFANA); Measure for Measure (Epic Theatre Ensemble); The Changeling (Red Bull); Uncle Vanya (Pearl); The Sentinels (59e59). Regionally, she has performed in the world premiere of Anna Ziegler’s The Wanderers (Old Globe), King Charles III (ACT, Seattle Rep, Shakespeare Theater); Tartuffe (McCarter/Yale Rep); Hamlet (Shakespeare Theater); Twelfth Night (Chicago Shakespeare Festival); Proof (TheatreWorks Palo Alto; BATCC nom); The Winter’s Tale, Cyrano de Bergerac (OSF). TV: “Luke Cage” (recurring); “Claws;” “Homeland;” “Madam Secretary.” Film: Ovum; Ambition’s Debt; Death of a Prince; Spinning into Butter. She co-wrote/directed the film Sam & Julia with Randy Harrison. Member of the Artists Advisory Council with Epic Theater Ensemble and Dorset Theater Festival’s Women Artist Writing Group, where her play The Others is in development.

  • Diane

    Becca is an NYC-based trans actor, performer and writer. Existing between genders, and preferring the pronoun “they,” Becca works collaboratively with playwrights and directors to expand our sense of personhood and the body through performance. Some of their collaborations have been with Young Jean Lee, Half Straddle, Jennifer Miller’s Circus Amok, Richard Maxwell, Erin Markey, Sharon Hayes, Theater of the Two Headed Calf and Lisa D’Amour. Film/TV includes: Untitled Noah Baumbach Project, “Shameless,” Deadman’s Barstool, and “Jack in the Box.” Becca is a recipient of the Doris Duke Impact Artist Award and the writer and performer of the solo show They, Themself and Schmerm.

  • Pam Annunziata

    Danielle was last seen in Annie Dorsen’s play The Slow Room at PSNY. Recent credits include Homebody by Tony Kushner at The Ancram Opera House and the World Premieres of The Remains by Ken Urban and Linger by Craig Garcia. Danielle was last seen on Broadway in All My Sons. Off-Broadway credits include Lisa Kron’s In The Wake at The Public and Tony Kushner’s iHo which was a co-production between The Public and Signature. Danielle has been seen at The Signature in The Moundbuilders and at Playwrights in The Pain and the Itch. Other NY works include Big Times co-written by Danielle, Maggie Lacey and Mia Barron. Big Times was directed by Leigh Silverman and produced by WET. Danielle has also been seen at PS 122 (Carrie), Cherry Lane (Lascivious Something and Fugue), The Ohio (Cressida Among the Greeks). Regionally, Danielle has worked at The Studio, Premiere Stages, Two River, The McCarter, StageWorks/Hudson, Cleveland Playhouse, The Old Globe. MFA: NYU Grad Acting.

  • Beth Wann

    Kate is thrilled to reprise her role as Beth in Hurricane Diane after its premiere at Two River in 2017. Kate is the co-creator, writer, director and star of the comedy Submissions Only (currently streaming on The Stage Network), as well as co-author of the Jack & Louisa book series for Penguin Workshop. Broadway: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Legally Blonde. Off-Broadway: The Other Josh Cohen (Drama Desk nom), Clever Little Lies, Ordinary Days, Tatjana in Color, and Sarah, Plain and Tall. Kate has worked regionally at theaters such as The Guthrie, Dallas Theater Center, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Bucks County Playhouse and Goodspeed Opera House.

The Bengsons / Original Music

NYTW: Hundred Days (Lortel, Drama League Noms). WP: Sundown, Yellow Moon (with Ars Nova). Off-Broadway: The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova), Iphigenia in Aulis (CSC). Regional: Anything That Gives Off Light (Edinburgh Festival), You’ll Still Call Me By Name (NYLA, Jacob’s Pillow). TV: “So You Think You Can Dance.”

Madeleine George / Playwright

MADELEINE GEORGE’s plays include Hurricane Diane, The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award), Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England (Susan Smith Blackburn finalist), Precious Little and The Zero Hour (Jane Chambers Award, Lambda Literary Award finalist). Honors include a Whiting Foundation Award, the Princess Grace Award for Playwriting and three MacDowell Fellowships. Madeleine is an alumna of New Dramatists, a founding member of the Obie Award-winning playwrights’ collective 13P (Thirteen Playwrights, Inc.), the Fellow for Curriculum and Program Development at the Bard Prison Initiative at Bard College and the Mellon Playwright in Residence at Two River Theater in New Jersey

Rachel Hauck / Scenic Design

NYTW: What the Constitution Means to Me, Hadestown, An Illiad. WP: Bright Half Life, Antigone Project. Broadway: Latin History for Morons. Recently in NYC: Othello, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare in the Park); The Waves (NY Stage and Film); The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova); You’ll Still Call Me By Name (Sonya Tayeh, Jacob’s Pillow). Princess Grace, Lilly Awards. Obie for Sustained Excellence.

Raja Feather Kelly / Choreography

NYTW: The House That Will Not Stand. WP debut. Recent: Fairview (Soho Rep), Everybody (Signature), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature; 2017 Lortel Award), UGLY (Bushwick Starr), Another Fucking Warhol Production (nominated ‘Most Innovative Dance Performance of 2017’ by Dance Magazine), among others.

Melanie J. Lisby / Stage Manager

NYTW & WP debut! Broadway: On the Twentieth Century. Off-Broadway: Wild Goose Dreams, Jersey Boys, Pacific Overtures, Dead Poets Society, Nathan the Wise, Once Upon a Mattress, Silence! The Musical. Regional: La Jolla Playhouse, Two River, Pig Iron, Crossroads Repertory, Gulfshore Playhouse, Barnstormers. Numerous labs, showcases, readings, galas, events. Indiana State University Alumnus.

Raphael Mishler / Properties Master

Bray Poor / Sound Design

NYTW: Othello. WP debut. Broadway: True West, Latin History for Morons, The Real Thing, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play). Recent notable work: The Last Match (Lortel nom), original music for Mary Page Marlow and The Amateurs, Office Hour (Lortel nom), plus work regionally and in Europe. Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Sound Design.

Barbara Samuels / Lighting Design

Lighting Design

WP: Great Lakes…, upcoming Hatef**k. NYTW debut. Off-Broadway: Rags Parkland Sings…(Ars Nova); Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons, Hewes Nom); Singlet (Bushwick Starr); The Rape of The Sabine Women (Playwrights Realm), Orange Julius (Rattlestick/ P73, Hewes Nom); Caught (PlayCo); O, Earth (Foundry Theatre, Hewes Nom). BA: Fordham; MFA: NYU. Member USA829.

barbarasamuels.com

Leigh Silverman / Director

Broadway: Violet by Jeanine Tseori/Brian Crawley (Roundabout; Tony nomination), Chinglish (David Henry Hwang), Well (Lisa Kron). Upcoming: Soft Power by Jeanine Tseori/David Henry Hwang (Ahmanson Theater/Curan Theater); Wild Goose Dreams (La Jolla Playhouse/Public Theater). Recent Off-Broadway: Harry Clarke (Vineyard Theatre/Audible at the Minetta Lane), Sweet Charity (New Group), On the Exhale (Roundabout), The Outer Space (Public Theater), All the Ways to Say I Love You (MCC), The Way We Get By (Second Stage), Tumacho (Clubbed Thumb), American Hero (Williamstown Theater Festival, Second Stage), No Place to Go (Public Theater), Kung Fu (Signature Theatre), The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Playwrights Horizons), The Madrid (MTC), Golden Child (Signature Theatre), In the Wake (CTG/Berkeley/Public Theater, Obie Award, Lortel nomination), The Call (Playwrights Horizons), Go Back to Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons, Obie Award), From Up Here (MTC, Drama Desk nomination), Yellow Face (CTG/Public Theater), Oedipus at Palm Springs (NYTW). Encores: Really Rosie, The Wild Party, Violet.

Kaye Voyce / Costume Design

NYTW: All the Wrong Reasons, Beckett Shorts, and Forever. WP: Ironbound, Under A Western Sky. Broadway: Shining City, The Realistic Joneses, The Real Thing, Significant Other, The Nap, and True West. Recent Off-Broadway includes Mary Page Marlowe, Queens, At Home At the Zoo, After the Blast, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, The Antipodes, and Richard Maxwell’s Paradiso.

Ellen Winter / Music Director

NYTW & WP debut. Performer, composer, theatremaker. Music Director: Salty Brine’s Living Record Collection, Folk Wandering, The Elementary Spacetime Show. Composer: 36 Questions. (co-writer/director), The Story Pirates Podcast, Chamber Band. TV: “The Chris Gethard Show” (w/ CB). Residencies: Ars Nova’s Makers Lab, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat. Upcoming album: Every Feeling.

WP Theater /

WP THEATER (Lisa McNulty, Producing Artistic Director; Michael Sag, Managing Director) is the nation’s oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of female-identified and trans theater artists at every stage in their careers. For nearly four decades we have served as leaders at the forefront of a global movement towards gender parity, and the example we set and the artists we have fostered have grown into a robust and thriving community of artists in theater and beyond. WP empowers female-identified artists to reach their full potential and, in doing so, challenges preconceptions about the kinds of plays women write and the stories they tell. As the premiere launching pad for some of the most influential female theater artists today, our work has had a significant impact on the field at large. Nearly every prolific female theater artist has been through our doors, including Eve Ensler, María Irene Fornés, Katori Hall, Pam MacKinnon, Lynn Nottage, Leigh Silverman and Anna Deavere Smith. These powerful women found an early artistic home at WP, and are a testament to our role as a driving cultural force. WP was founded in 1978 by visionary producer, Julia Miles, to address the significant under-representation of women in theater. Today, WP accomplishes its mission through several fundamental programs, including: the WP Lab, a two-year mentorship and new play development program for women playwrights, directors, and producers; the Domestic Partner residency program; the Developmental series; and the Mainstage series, which features a full season of Off-Broadway productions written and directed by extraordinary theater artist

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