Director: Ashley Tata

Environment: Afsoon Pajoufar

Costumes: Summer Lee Jack

Video: David Bengali

Movement/Intimacy/Fight Direction: Katie Bradley

Dramaturgy: Claire Hubble

Assistant Director/Assistant Video Design: Steven Beemsterboer

Assistant Costume Design: Brenna McShane

Purgatory In Ingolstadt was written in 1924 by German playwright Marieluise Fleißer. As a female playwright who was censored by the Nazis, Fleißer is a frequently overlooked playwright from this era. But her influence on later playwrights Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Franz Xaver Kroetz is evident in this brutal, unadorned depiction of working-class suburban life. It depicts a group of teenagers negotiating each other within an austere, rigid and strict religious society. They fantasize, drink, are violent, have sex, have abortions, break hearts, play at sainthood, play at sinning. They try to escape the purgatory of their high school existence. This studio production will focus on the relationships between these characters and their society and bring the audience into a space that is all-too-familiar, intimate and menacing by removing some of the traditional barriers between audience and performer as well as incorporating ritual, music and contemporary media.

CAST

Stefano Boetto (Berotter) is a sophomore in the BFA Acting program.

Blake Ehrlichman (Roelle) is a sophomore in the BFA Acting program. Previous MMC credits include the Directing Project Stonewall 1969.

Darby Kolwyck (Hermoine Seitz) is a senior in the BFA Acting program and the BA Theatre Arts program with a concentration in Directing as well as a minor in Art History. Previous MMC credits include the Mainstage production of The Balcony and the Directing Project Polaroid Stories. Other credits include King Lear at RADA.

Kyle Lutes (Peps) is a sophomore in the BFA Acting program. Previous MMC credits include the Directing Project Orgy in the Lighthouse.

Raffi Manjikian (Christian) is a sophomore in the BFA Acting program. Previous MMC credits include the Directing Project Our Town Too.

Alondra Olmo Barlucea (Carla) is a sophomore in the BFA Musical Theatre program. Previous MMC credits include the Playwriting Project The Road Trip and the Musical Theatre Association production of American Idiot. Other credits include The Lion King Jr. and Cuentos, Cuentos y Más Cuentos at Thomas Alva Edison School.

Emma Ridley (Olga) is a junior in the BFA Acting program. Previous MMC credits include the Mainstage production of Electra and the Directing Project Ex-Miss Copper Queen on a Set of Pills.

Eboni Rodgers (Clementine) is a junior in the BFA Acting program with a minor in Fashion Studies. Previous MMC credits include the Mainstage production of Electra and the Directing Projects …for the love of (or, The Roller Derby Play) and Line.

Maura Slater (Gervasius) is a sophomore in the BFA Acting program. Previous MMC credits include the Directing Projects Rag and Bone and Ex-Miss Copper Queen on a Set of Pills.

Carola Thurin (Mother) is a junior in the BFA Acting program. Previous MMC credits include the Directing Project …for the love of (or, The Roller Derby Play).

Kevin Ulrich (Protasius) is a senior in the BA Theatre Arts program with a concentration in Theatre Performance. Previous MMC credits include the Directing Project The Intervention. Other credits include Freezer Burn at Manhattan Repertory Theatre.

Kyle Velazquez (Crusius) is a sophomore in the BFA Acting program with a minor in Dance.

CREATIVE TEAM

Ashley Tata (Director) is a director of multi-media works of theater, contemporary opera, performance, live music and immersive experiences. Her work frequently sits at the intersection of music, installation and performance and has been presented in venues and festivals throughout the U.S. and internationally including LA Opera, Austin Opera, The Miller Theater, Mannes Opera, Mass MoCA, National Sawdust, The Kitchen, EMPAC, BPAC, Dixon Place, Roulette Intermedium, HERE Arts Center, PROTOTYPE Festival, The Crossing the Line Festival, the Holland Festival, The Big Ears Festival, The National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, and the Bard Fisher Center. Her production of David T. Little's Soldier Songs with video by Bill Morrison was called an "extraordinarily powerful production" by The LA Times; and her production of Kate Soper's Ipsa Dixit was named a critic’s pick of 2018 by the New York Times and one of the “notable performances of the decade” by Alex Ross of The New Yorker. She earned her MFA at Columbia University and has taught or guest taught at Mannes School of Music, Harvard University, MIT, Marymount Manhattan College, Colgate College, Bard College, LIU Post and NYU. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater’s Directors’ Lab, the recipient of the Lotos Foundation's Emerging Artist Award in Arts and Sciences and a winner of the 2017 Robert L. B. Tobin Director/Designer grant. Upcoming productions include Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest at Bard’s Fisher Center, Soldier Songs at Chicago Opera Theater sung by Nathan Gunn and John Adams’s I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw The Sky with Cincinnati Symphony. www.ashleytata.com

Katie Claire (Movement Director) holds a BFA from Shenandoah University in Musical Theatre and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Theatre Pedagogy emphasis in Dance/Movement. Katie is a proud member of AEA and has appeared in numerous regional productions. Some of her favorites include: The Producers starring Roger Bart and Brad Oscar, Nunsense, Guys and Dolls, The Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast and Footloose. Katie Claire has danced since the age of three and has had the opportunity to dance with Gregory Hines, Savion Glover, Brenda Bufalino, and Bill Irwin. As a choreographer, Katie choreographed Urinetown, Carousel, Cabaret, High School Musical, Spring is Here, and The Pajama Game at Five Towns College; Shout! The Mod Musical, 13, How to Eat Like a Child, School House Rocks, and Dear Edwina Junior for the John Engeman Theatre Children’s Ensemble. Most recently, Katie Claire choreographed a musical revue for InterAct Theatre Productions starring Adam Pascal and Brandi Chavonne Massey and directed/choreographed Seussical for A Class Act Performing Arts Studio. Katie assisted in the choreography of the Broadway tryout for Paint Your Wagon. She also assisted in the choreography of The Producers, My Fair Lady, and Chicago at Pioneer Theatre Company and Cabaret, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Smokey Joes Café at Virginia Commonwealth University. Katie was an Associate Professor of Dance and Movement at Five Towns College and is now an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Movement at Marymount Manhattan College in NYC. Katie’s most recent accomplishments have been recording numerous voice overs and commercials for national television and training to be an intimacy choreographer with Intimacy Directors International. She also just received her 200hr yoga certification with Yoga Alliance.

Afsoon Pajoufar (Set and Props Coordinator) is a NYC based freelance designer of stage and environment for play, opera and live performance. Arriving at set design from a background in fine arts and film. She earned her MFA in Set Design at Boston University. Her designs have been seen at Harvard TDM, New Repertory Theatre, Kitchen Theatre, Gloucester Stage, Actor’s Shakespeare Company, Corkscrew and Prelude Festivals. Her design for "Cabaret" was chosen for the 2019 American Exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. Afsoon moved to the United States from Tehran, Iran. www.afsoonpajoufar.com

Summer Lee Jack (Costume Designer) is a Brooklyn based freelance costume designer living and working in New York City. Recent New York theatre credits include: Baghdaddy (Off Broadway) at St. Luke’s Theatre; The Tower at HERE Arts Center; The Elephant in Every Room I Enter at La Mama and New York Theatre Workshop; Romeo and Juliet at New York Classical Theatre; Sonata 1962 at Acorn Theater / New York Musical Festival; Pericles at Animus Theatre Company / Soho Rep; and The Feigned Courtesans at The New School. Additional theatre credits include Bossa Nova at Yale Repertory Theater; Romeo and Juliet with Empirical Rogue Theatre Company; A Christmas Carol and Nevermore! for The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey; Small Town Story and A Good Farmer at American Theater Group / SOPAC; and The Playboy of the Western World at Quintessence Theatre Company in Philadelphia. Summer is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829, and she is an active member in Wingspace Theatrical Design Collective. Originally from Dallas, Texas, her undergraduate degree is in Scenography from Arizona State University, and she has an MFA in Design from the Yale School of Drama.

David Bengali (Projections Designer) David Bengali is a projection designer based in New York. Recent designs include: We Live In Cairo (A.R.T), Girls (Yale Rep), Bound (Fresh Squeezed Opera); The Great Leap (Atlantic Theater Co.); Frankenstein (Dallas Theater Center); Van Gogh’s Ear (Ensemble for the Romantic Century - Drama Desk Nomination); The Temple Bombing (Alliance Theatre); Kid Prince and Pablo (Kennedy Center); Uncommon Sense (Tectonic Theater Project); Anna Akhmatova, Jules Verne From The Earth To The Moon (BAM); Rockin' Road To Dublin (National Tour); Conference of the Birds (Anikaya Dance / Boston Center for the Arts). MFA: NYU

Claire Hubble (Dramaturg) is finally a senior at Marymount Manhattan College. She is studying to complete a double major in Theatre History and Performance Texts and Art History, plus a minor in Digital Journalism. Previous dramaturgical credits include the MMC Playwriting Project Under the Covers and the 2019 Homecoming musical American Idiot. She is also the proud representative of the Theatre History and Performance Texts students in the Theatre Arts Student Council at Marymount.

Kasey Ackerman (Production Stage Manager) is a junior in the Producing and Management program. Previous MMC credits include the Studio production of Oh What a Lovely War and Mainstage production of Parade. Other credits include Caroline, Or Change at Astoria Performing Arts Center, La Traviata with Finger Lakes Opera, and Nutcracker with Rochester City Ballet.

Steven Beemsterboer (Assistant Director) is a Marymount Manhattan College senior after transfering from North Central College. He is currently studying for his BA in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Theatre Performance and Digital Media. Previous MMC credits include: Mainstage Theatre Smash. Previous North Central College credits include: Grease, Parade, and The Grand Duke.

Kerstin Decicco (Assistant Stage Manager) is a junior Producing and Management student with a minor in Communications at Marymount Manhattan College. Previous stage managing credits include the MMC Playwriting Project Imagine the World Away and Birds and Bats produced by Sidekick Productions at Access Theater.

Hannah Lewis (Assistant Stage Manager) is a freshman Producing and Management student at Marymount Manhattan College. Other stage managing credits at MMC include the Playwriting Project The Play at the Bottom of a Wishing Well.

Brenna McShane (Costume Assistant) is a Brooklyn based designer originally hailing from the Lone Star State. Recent costume design credits include Medea (Fractured Atlas); Everything That Rises Must Converge (Compagni de Colombari); Detained (UP Theater Company); The Nemesis Effect (No Frills Theatre Collective); Conditions of Love (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); Marat/Sade (Post Theatre Company). mcshanedesign.squarespace.com

Chris Neher (Voice and Speech Coach) Chris was last year's recipient of Excellence in Part-Time Teaching Award for Theatre Arts at Marymount. Along with his private practice coaching actors for stage and screen, Chris has also recently taught at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Atlantic Acting School, and Mason Gross School for the Arts.

Dan O’Driscoll (Violence Consultant) - Off-Bway: HIR for Playwrights Horizons. Picnic, Come Back, Little Sheba and Summer and Smoke for Transport Group. Lost Girls for MCC. Dan is a SAFD Certified Teacher/Fight Director and teaches stage combat at MMC. His work was seen previously in productions of The Balcony, Electra, Tommy, Blues For Mister Charlie, The Servant of Two Masters, Parade, Merrily We Roll Along, An Enemy of the People, Machinal, Kiss Me Kate, Dracula the Musical, A View From the Bridge, Tartuffe, Polaroid Stories, and The Beaux Stratagem.

Baylee LaCroix (Wardrobe Crew) is a sophomore Design and Technical Production student at Marymount Manhattan College. Previous credits include Much Ado About Nothing produced by MMC’s Strong Female Lead club.