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Cast and Crew Bios |
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 THEODORE BIKEL
(Reb Saunders): was born in Vienna and left for Israel (then
Palestine) at the age of 14. He joined the Habimah Theatre at 19
and, one year later, became a co-founder of the Israel Cameri Theatre.
After graduating with honors from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in
London, he appeared in several West End plays including A Streetcar
Named Desire, under the direction of Sir Laurence Olivier and The
Love of Four Colonels by Peter Ustinov. In the U.S. his roster
of memorable stage performances include The Lark, The Sound of Music
(in which he created the role of "Baron von Trapp"), My Fair Lady,
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well, etc., Threepenny Opera, Zorba and
Fiddler on the Roof in which he has played the role of "Tevye" over
2000 times. He has made some 35 films, amongst which are The
African Queen, The Enemy Below, The Little Kidnappers, The Russians are
Coming/The Russians are Coming, My Fair Lady, I Want to Live and
The Defiant Ones (for which he received an Academy Award nomination).
Bikel has starred in virtually every top dramatic show on TV, was
repeatedly nominated for Emmy Awards and received an Emmy in 1988.
His television appearances include guest appearances on "Dynasty," "Murder
She Wrote," "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Babylon 5," "L.A. Law," as
Henry Kissinger in "The Final Days," and "Law & Order." Mr.
Bikel
has recorded 20 albums, all but four on the Elektra label. Mr. Bikel
holds honorary doctorates from the University of Hartford and Seton Hall
University and his autobiography, Theo, was published by the
University of Wisconsin Press. Theodore Bikel has been active for
many years in Actors' Equity Association, serving for 9 years as First
Vice President and from 1973 to 1982 as President. He also held the
post of Vice President of the International Federation of Actors (FIA)
from 1981 to 1991. He is currently President of the Associated
Actors and Artistes of America (4A's), President Emeritus of Actors'
Equity, a Board Member of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, has
served on the Board of Amnesty International and was appointed by
President Jimmy Carter in 1977 to serve a 5-year term on the National
Council for the Arts. To find out more about Theodore Bikel go to:
www.bikel.com. |
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 MITCHELL GREENBERG
(David Malter) is pleased to revisit The Chosen, having
originated the role of "Reb Saunders" at the Arden Theatre. His
other world premiers include American Maccabee (NY's Urban Stages),
Say Yes (Berkshire Theatre Festival) and O. Henry's Lovers
(American Stage Festival). Broadway audiences have enjoyed him in
Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Ain't Broadway Grand, Threepenny Opera
(with Sting), Hollywood/Ukraine, Into the Night, Marilyn...An
American Fable, Whodunnit, Can-Can, and Yiddle With a Fiddle
(for which he won a Carbonell Award). Mr. Greenberg has appeared
off-Broadway in Old Wicked Songs, Isn't it Romantic, Scrambled Feet,
How Now, Dow Jones and Two Grown Men (?) -- a revue which he
wrote and performed with Paul Kandel. Nationally, he has played
leading roles in Art, My Fair Lady, Talley's Folly, Two for the Seesaw,
You Never Know, The Good Doctor, Run for Your Wife!, A Funny Thing
Happened on the Way to the Forum (with Mickey Rooney), and
The Cocoanuts, for which he received a Helen Hayes Award nomination.
Mitchell has made various appearances in films and series television, and
occasionally crops up on the Letterman show. In quieter moments he
is a writer of songs and unstoppable solver of crosswords. Love to
Irene, Dad and Evie. |
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 PAUL KROPFL
(Young Reuven Malter) is honored to be a part of this production.
A recent graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, plays there include
Angels in America, A Lie of the Mind, and Much Ado About Nothing.
New York theatre includes: LibidOff (78th Street Theatre Lab),
Macbeth (Harold Clurman Lab. Theatre Co.), On the Verge (Home
Productions), and the world premiers of Dive by Sam Riley and
Father Guzman by Gerald Stern. National tours: The Lion, the
Witch and the Wardrobe (Theatreworks/USA), and The Outsiders
(National Theatre for the Performing Arts). TV/Film: New Jersey
Noir and 300 Seconds (Anthony Ropoli, dir.) and various
commercials and voice-overs. Original recordings: "The Farmer Weds a
Widow" (with Bill Daugherty) and "A Paris Affair" (by Joe Elefante and
Paul Lloyd). Paul is frequently heard crooning and/or tickling the
ivories in and around New York City. Many thanks to the cast and
crew, Patrick Parker, The Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting, my amazing
family and friends, and Casey Rose. |
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 RICHARD TOPOL
(Reuven Malter) most recently appeared as "Jeff" in the
off-Broadway hit Omnium Gatherum. He has appeared on Broadway
in The School for Scandal. Other off-Broadway credits include
"Andrew Aguecheek" in 12th Night at The Public Theatre with the
Acting Company, "Zavel" in Vilna's Got a Golem at the American
Jewish Theatre and new plays at Playwright's Horizons, Soho Rep, EST, and
the WPA, among others. His regional credits include The Grey Zone
at the Long Wharf, A Dybbuk at Hartford Stage, "Louis" in Angels
in America at ACT, "Benedick" in Much Ado About Nothing at The
Arden Theatre, directed by Aaron Posner, and plays at the McCarter
Theatre, Yale Rep, New York Stage and Film and the Great Lakes and New
Jersey Shakespeare Festivals. Film and TV work includes Mickey
Blue Eyes, Party Girl, all 3 "Law & Order" shows, recurring roles on
"The Practice," "The Guardian" and "Strong Medicine" and guest appearances
on "Ed," "The Drew Carey Show," "Ally McBeal," "The Gilmore Girls," "The
Agency," and "Malcolm in the Middle." Richard is a New York Theatre
Workshop Usual Suspect, a Fox Foundation Fellow and an Acting Company
Alumnus. |
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 JOHN LLOYD YOUNG
(Danny Saunders) last appeared off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel
Theatre as "Charlie" in Julia Jordan's The Summer of
the Swans, directed by Joe Calarco. In 2002, John Lloyd
originated the role of "Caleb" in the critically-acclaimed world premiere
of Larry O'Keefe's Sarah, Plain & Tall, also under the direction of
Joe Calarco at the Lortel. Other New York roles include nail-biting
number theorist "Claudio" in The Five Hysterical Girls Theorem with
the Obie-winning Target Margin Theatre, directed by David Herskovits;
"Moritz" in the Douglas Langworthy translation of Wedekind's Spring
Awakening, downtown at Expanded Arts; as well as appearances at the
John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks, Jose Quintero and Cherry Lane Theatres.
Regional: McCarter, Kennedy Center. TV: computer tech "Cooper" on
NBC's "Law & Order." Graduate: Brown University.
www.johnlloydyoung.com
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CHRIS CLAVELLI (standby for Reuven
Malter and David Malter) NY: The Master Builder/Rebuilt,
All in the Timing, The Strange Case of Mary Todd Lincoln.
Regional: The Hangar, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Alabama
Shakespeare Festival. TV: "Law & Order." He is the recipient of both
The Carbonell and The Barrymore Awards. For Jess and Amy.
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 DENNIS
STAROSELSKY (standby for Danny Saunders and Young Reuven Malter)
New York theatre credits include News Junkie at Lincoln Center
Directors' Lab and Gamelegs in the New York Fringe Festival.
Previously, Mr. Staroselsky appeared in Dead End at Huntington
Theatre, directed by Nicholas Martin. Other regional credits include
Alabama Shakespeare Festival, American Repertory Theatre, Geva Theatre
Center, and a staged reading of The Paris Letter, a new play by
Jon Robin Baitz, with Blair Brown and Ron Rifkin, also directed by
Nicholas Martin at Huntington Theatre. On television, Mr. Staroselsky
has been seen on "All My Children," "Ghostwriter," and national
commercials for Comedy Central. He holds a BFA from Boston University.
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 AARON POSNER
(Dramatist) is a co-founder and the Resident Director of
Philadelphia's award-winning Arden Theatre Company where he has directed
more than 40 productions over the last 16 years. He has directed
nine plays by Shakespeare, three by Craig Wright, two by Shaw and a bunch
of others, too. His adaptations of literature include Who Am I
This Time? by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., What Ho, Jeeves by P.G.
Wodehouse, Echoes of the Jazz Age by authors from the 20's,
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons and Third & Indiana by Steve
Lopez. His adaptation, with Chaim Potok, of The Chosen was
originally presented by The Arden and Pittsburgh's City Theatre and won
the 1999 Barrymore Award for Best New Play. It has since been
produced all around the country. Aaron directs at other theatres
across the country (The Folger Shakespeare Library, Actors Theatre of
Louisville, etc.) teaches at the University of the Arts, is a
philanthropic consultant, and even acts occasionally. He is
originally from Eugene, Oregon, graduated from Northwestern University,
and dropped out of Southern Methodist University. He is also proud
to be an Eisenhower Fellow. |
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| CHAIM POTOK (Dramatist)
is best known for his 8 novels, beginning with the blockbuster first,
The Chosen, followed by The Promise, My Name is Asher Lev, In the
Beginning, The Book of Lights, Davita's Harp, The Gift of Asher Lev,
and his last, Old Men at Midnight, a trilogy of novellas. He
also wrote two children's books and stories for young readers.
Moon in the collection Zebra and Other Stories won an O.
Henry prize in 2000. Many of his essays and opinion pieces were
published in scholarly journals as well as in the popular press. His
non-fiction books, Wanderings: Chaim Potok's History of the Jews, Gates
of November: The Slepak Chronicles, and My First 79 Years: A
Biography with Isaac Stern, attest to the breadth of his literary
ouvre. An accomplished artist, editor, teacher/lecturer, Chaim Potok
fully entered the world of drama when he was asked by Carol Rocamora,
producer/director of the Philadelphia Festival of New Plays, to adapt some
of his work for the stage. His first play comprised two one-act
works, based on scenes from The Promise and My Name is Asher Lev,
which he titled The Sins of the Father. His next was a more
ambitious two-act play based on The Book of Lights, which he titled
The Play of Lights. An earlier musical stage version of
The Chosen had a short run in New York in 1988. He considered
that enterprise his apprenticeship as a playwright, though he had written
the screen treatment for the 1981 film adaptation of his classic novel.
He enjoyed the collaboration with Aaron Posner on the writing of The
Chosen as a stage drama. |
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 DAVID ELLENSTEIN (Director)
is pleased to be making his directorial debut at the Coconut Grove
Playhouse with The Chosen, which he previously directed for the Los
Angeles Repertory Company and the Arizona Jewish Theatre, while serving as
Artistic Director of each of those institutions. David is currently
the Artistic Director of the North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana
Beach, California, and Artistic Supervisor of the Los Angeles Repertory
Company. A veteran of over 100 theatrical productions.
Directorial favorites include: Long Day's Journey Into Night (San
Diego Rep.), Hamlet (Kingsmen Shakespeare), Charley's Aunt
and Story Theatre (NCRT), A Christmas Carol (Meadow Brook),
Awake and Sing (AJTC), Romeo and Juliet (Nevada
Shakespeare), Old Wicked Songs and Talley's Folly (Pirate
Playhouse), Conversations With My Father (Portland Rep.), The
Cherry Orchard (Foothill Theatre), and A Shayna Maidel (Gaslamp
Quarter Theatre). Favorite productions as an actor include title
roles in Hamlet at LA Theatre Center and LA Rep. and Richard III
at the California Shakespeare Festival, The Illusion (Calisto)
at Arizona Theatre Company and Sight Unseen (Jonathan) at
Portland Rep and NCRT. David has appeared in over three dozen
feature film and television shows including "Star Trek IV," "The
Practice," "Foul Play," "Renegade," "Eight is Enough" and "General
Hospital." David has taught acting and Shakespeare for Cal State
Northridge, UCLA, CAL Arts, the Academy of the Classics and professional
workshops in Los Angeles and New York. David will return to the
Coconut Grove Playhouse later in the season to direct the US premiere of
Halpern and Johnson. |
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 ALISON FRANCK (Casting
Director) has been the resident casting director at Paper Mill for
over 3 years. Including The Chosen, other co-productions with
Coconut Grove Playhouse: The Dinner Party, Romeo and Bernadette,
and I'm Not Rappaport starring Ben Vereen and Judd Hirsch which was
also produced at the Ford's Theatre and Broadway. At Paper Mill she
cast Funny Girl, Miss Saigon, The King and I, Camelot, Carousel,
Ain't Misbehavin', The Sound of Music, and Anything Goes
starring Chita Rivera, and is currently casting Baby and Guys &
Dolls. Also the independent film Broke Even, which won
the award for Best Drama at the 2000 New York Independent Film Festival.
And TV series "Lateline", "Soul Man", and "Talk to Me." Pilot
casting for "Madigan Men", "The Others" and "Freaks & Geeks," which won an
Emmy for Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series in 2000. |
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| MICHAEL ANANIA (Set
Design) Resident designer for the Paper Mill Playhouse (18 years);
Show Boat (Great Performances), The Wizard of Oz, Windy City
(Prague Quadrennial) and the critically-acclaimed Follies
(starring Ann Miller), Broadway: A Change in the Heir, Run for
Your Wife, Canterbury Tales, The View from Here, The
Gathering starring Hal Linden, Laughing Room Only starring
Jackie Mason. Off Broadway: The Spitfire Grill for
Playwrights Horizons, Back on the Boulevard with Liliane
Montevecchi, directed by Tommy Tune; Desire Under the Elms - the Opera
(City Center Theatre): Transformations (Merkin Hall); Lord Byron
(Alice Tully Hall); Emma (Park Royal Theatre); The Miser
and Romeo and Juliet (Equity Library Theatre); Give My Regards
to Broadway (Carnegie Hall); Darlene Love: A Portrait of a Singer,
A Hot Minute and Leader of the Pack (the Bottom Line).
New York City Opera: H.M.S. Pinafore, The Merry Widow, La Boheme, A
Little Night Music, The Desert Song (all "Live from Lincoln Center"),
Wonderful Town, 110 in the Shade, The Most Happy Fella, Pajama Game,
The New Moon ("Live from Wolftrap"). National Tours: Applause
(Barry and Fran Weissler Productions), The Eagles Hotel California
Tour, Heartstrings and the national tour of The Wizard of Oz
(starring Mickey Rooney). International debut: 1982 Holland
Festival. Resident Designer: Eugene O'Neill Opera Music Conference
(five years), Lake George Opera (10 years), Central City Opera (10 years).
Nominated for Australia's 2002 Helpmann Award for Singin' in the Rain
and Dallas Theatre League's Leon Rabin Award for
My Fair Lady. |
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ELLIS TILLMAN
(Costume and Wig Design) has designed more than 50 productions at
the Coconut Grove Playhouse over the past twenty-one years. Mr.
Tillman has been nominated nine times for a Carbonell Award and won the
award for Blues in the Night, The Disputation and for his work with
Edward Albee on Seascape. He also won L.A.'s coveted
Drama-Logue Award for Bermuda Avenue Triangle with Bea Arthur.
Other Playhouse designs include Broken Glass with Linda Lavin,
The Rothschilds, Waiting for Godot, Indiscretions, Who's Afraid of Virgina
Woolf? with Elizabeth Ashley, No Way to Treat a Lady, A Passionate
Woman with Loretta Swit, Caught in the Net, The Price with Jack
Klugman, and Proof. Mr. Tillman just recently returned from
making his Broadway debut as costume designer for Urban Cowboy, the
Musical. |
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| MICHAEL J. EDDY
(Lighting Design) is honored to make his debut at the Coconut Grove
Playhouse with The Chosen. This will be Michael's third time
lighting The Chosen with director David Ellenstein; first at the
Arizona Jewish Theatre and then again at the LA Repertory Company.
Over the past eight years, Michael has had the honor of working on
hundreds of productions with the finest theatre and dance companies in the
region. Some of his favorites include The Quiltmaker's Gift
world premiere (Phoenix Theatre Cookie Company), Two Donuts (Childsplay),
and Blues in the Night (Black Theatre Troupe). In January
2004, Michael will be designing The Chosen at the Paper Mill
Playhouse in New Jersey. |
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| STEVE SHAPIRO
(Sound Design) is currently enjoying his fourteenth season as
resident sound designer at the Coconut Grove Playhouse. A three-time
recipient of the Carbonell Award for Best Sound Design, his work can also
be heard at the Caldwell Theater, the Actor's Playhouse, the Hollywood
Playhouse and City Theater. Other credits include monitor engineer
for such disparate acts as Pia Zadora and The Ramones, the sound design
for the Russian language premiere of The Skin of Our Teeth in
Novosbirsk, Russia, helming the sound board for the South American tour of
Phantom of the Opera, and composing and performing the score for
the world premiere of Alan Ginsburg's only play, Plutonian Ode.
He spends his spare time playing rhythm guitar for the local rock band,
The Avenging Lawnmowers of Justice. |
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| GAIL P. LUNA (Production
Stage Manager, Paper Mill Playhouse) is thrilled to return to Paper
Mill. Recent credits -- Broadway: Thoroughly Modern Millie,
Smokey Joe's Cafe, The Lena Horne Awards, The Save Venice Fund, and
The Best of Broadway. Regionally: The New Jersey State Opera;
I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change and I Love a Piano at
the Denver Center; BJ Ward and Stand Up Opera; and Debbie Gravitte
Holiday Show. Previous Paper Mill credits include: The
Tale of the Allergist's Wife; The Sound of Music; Ain't Misbehavin';
The Dinner Party with Tony Award-winning director John Rando;
Nutcracker; Carousel; Red, Hot and Blue; and Funny Girl.
Thank you to a fantastic crew and production staff! |
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| NAOMI LITTMAN (Production
Stage Manager, Coconut Grove Playhouse)
is pleased to return to the Playhouse for her sixth season. Other
local associations include the Shores Theater, Acme Acting Co., Florida
Shakespeare Theatre and the Florida Grand Opera. New York credits
include work with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, the Vineyard
Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music and LaMama E.T.C. A graduate of
North Carolina School of the Arts, Ms. Littman holds a Bachelor of Fine
Arts in Stage Management. |
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| HEATHER DALE MACKENZIE (Stage
Manager, Coconut Grove Playhouse) was raised in Mexico City and is a graduate of Barry
University. Ms. MacKenzie is pleased to move to the Mainstage after
five great years of stage managing in the Encore Room Theater. She
has stage managed regional theater, opera and Shakespeare festivals in
Florida, Chicago, New York and was on the production staff of the
inaugural season of the Emmy-winning Tracey Ullman HBO series "Tracey
Takes On..." |
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| ALEXANDER MORR (Director
of Production, Coconut Grove Playhouse) brings to the Playhouse over twenty years experience as
a performing arts consultant, during which time he served as general
manager for the Elizabeth Theatre Group, presenting Private Lives,
starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and Cicely Tison in The
Corn is Green on Broadway and national tours, acted as Executive
Director for the Wheeling Symphony and general manager for the New Haven
Symphony Orchestras, as booking and marketing consultant for Boston's
Metropolitan Theatre, Seattle's Fifth Avenue Theatre and Washington's
National Theatre, production manager for the Las Vegas Hilton's seven year
run of Starlight Express, the Washington Opera and Dance
Connecticut and construction management of Clearwater's PACT. Prior
to his work as a consultant, Mr. Morr served as General Manager for
Washington's John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, during which
time he also acted as executive producer for the American premiere of Tom
Stoppard's Jumpers and the Broadway musicals Pippin and
Annie, as well as serving as production manager for Bicentennial
presentations of the Berlin, Bolshoi, La Scala, Paris and Royal Opera
companies and the Bolshoi, Kirov, Stuttgart, Royal, Royal Danish, New York
City and ABT ballet companies and the Vienna State Opera and Ballet.
In Washington, D.C. he received a Certificate of Performance Award from
the Commission on the Arts and Humanities, served as a founding member of
the Ellington School Advisory Board and is distinguished by a bronze
plaque in the lobby of the National Theatre. |
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| ARNOLD MITTELMAN (Producing
Artistic Director, Coconut Grove Playhouse) is a producer and director with over 30 years of
theatrical achievement that has resulted in the production of more than
250 artistically diverse plays and musicals. Just prior to coming to
the Playhouse in 1985, Mr. Mittelman directed and co-produced Lawrence
Roman's Alone Together at Broadway's Music Box Theater. Since
succeeding the renowned Jose Ferrer as the Producing Artistic Director of
Coconut Grove Playhouse in 1985, he has brought continued national and
international focus to this renowned theater. Numerous Playhouse
productions have transferred to Broadway, toured, or gone to London's West
End, including the current, long-running Fame: The Musical, soon
reappearing off-Broadway. Most recently Urban Cowboy and
Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks have moved to Broadway and Addicted
opened off-Broadway in November 2003. Herb Gardner's
I'm Not Rappaport, starring Judd Hirsch and Ben Vereen, moved to
Broadway's Booth Theater. Mr. Mittelman also produced the hit,
Visiting Mr. Green starring Eli Wallach, which started at the
Playhouse, ran off-Broadway in 1998, and has subsequently been produced
all over the world. In 1995-96 Mr. Mittelman co-produced the Los
Angeles hit, Bermuda Avenue Triangle, starring Beatrice Arthur,
Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna, which then transferred to off-Broadway,
having had its world premiere at the Coconut Grove Playhouse. As a
director, Mr. Mittelman has staged numerous plays and musicals ranging
from classics to revivals and new works, including Luis Santeiro's
Mixed Blessings (based on Moliere's Tartuffe), which was chosen
to be part of the prestigious AT&T OnStage Program. For more than a
decade, Mr. Mittelman was Producing Director of the nationally-acclaimed
Whole Theater Company, which he founded with other artists including
Oscar-winner Olympia Dukakis. Prior to the Whole Theater he was a
founder and director of the nationally-acclaimed New York Free Theater
where he created, for six years, plays and musicals with relevant social
themes. Mr. Mittelman attended the High School for the Performing
Arts and graduated with honors from Brooklyn College. He received
his M.F.A. from the N.Y.U. School of the Arts, where he was the first
recipient of the Vincent Sardi Fellowship. Additionally, Mr.
Mittelman has taught and been on the graduate faculty of Rutgers
University, under a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, developing a
new doctoral program in Applied Arts. Mr. Mittelman is a member of
the League of American Theaters and Producers, Actors Equity and the
Society of Directors and Choreographers. |
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| PAPERMILL PLAYHOUSE
Since opening in 1938, the theatre has become a nationally-recognized
non-for-profit professional arts center committed to preserving the rich
heritage of plays and musicals through productions of the highest quality.
Vital to its mission is developing new works, collaborating with
established and emerging artists, providing arts education for all age
groups, and maintaining a leadership role in outreach and accessibility
programming. Paper Mill's mainstage season of six musicals and
plays, a children's series, educational programs, art exhibits,
symposiums, and access services for individuals with disabilities, reach
an annual audience of nearly 425,000 people, representing 19 of New
Jersey's 21 counties, and 16 other states. Over the years, Paper
Mill Playhouse has sent several highly acclaimed productions to Broadway
including I'm Not Rappaport, starring Judd Hirsch and Ben Vereen,
You Can't Take it With You, starring Colleen Dewhurst and Jason
Robards, and The Glass Menagerie, starring Maureen Stapleton.
In addition, its productions of Crazy for You, Show Boat, and
You Can't Take It With You were filmed for television and broadcast
nation-wide on PBS' "Great Performances." Original cast recordings
include Stephen Schwartz's Children of Eden and the star-studded,
critically-acclaimed Follies. |
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| ACTORS EQUITY ASSOCIATION,
founded in 1913, represents more than 45,000 actors and stage managers in
the U.S. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a
wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Equity
seeks to foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our
society. www.actorsequity.org |
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