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| Creative Team
Chief Executive Officer and President: David Eisner
VP of Exhibits and Education: Steve Frank Theatre Programs Producer: Nora Berger-Green Director: David Bradley Creator & Co-Artistic Director: Nora E. Berger-Green Scriptwriter: Larry Loebell Lighting, Video and Asst. Scenic Design: Terry M. Smith Sound Design: Christopher Colucci Costume Design: Rosemary McKelvey and Regina Rizzo Scenic Design: Matt Saunders Stage Manager/Educator: Allison Heishman Asst. Stage Manager: Josh Hitchens Cast Actor 1: Delanté G. Keys Actor 2: Felicia Leicht Actor 3: Stephanie Lauren Understudies: Newton Buchanan, Katie Keith,Mary Tuomanen |
Listen to a Sample Track. Play above or Download: MP3 | WAV | WMA |
Administration
Nora E. Berger-Green (Creator and Co-Artistic Director) Ms. Berger-Green is the Theatre Programs Producer at the National Constitution Center and has been with the Center since 2003 when she was brought onboard to help produce and manage the award winning show “Freedom Rising.” She is the original creator behind Living News and produces several other performing arts programs at the museum year round along with creating curriculum based performing arts and civic learning programs. She is a professional Theatre Artist, Manager and Museum Educator. Nora’s work includes Directing, Dramaturgy, Design, Acting and Theater Management. When not at the Center, she is an adjunct professor at Arcadia University and consultant on integrating theater and museum programming .She has worked extensively in the Philadelphia, East Coast Professional Theatre, and Folk Music communities including Radio City Productions, Arden Theatre, Wilma Theatre, Theatre Exile, People’s Light and Theatre, Mum Puppettheatre, Center Stage, Americans For the Arts, Broadway on Broadway, Folger Theatre, Azuka Theatre, Philadelphia Folk Song Society, National Folk Alliance, Canadian Folk Alliance, TEA, NERFA, USITT and others. She is a proud member of the Actors Equity Association. Nora holds a B.F.A. from Penn State University and a MA from Villanova University both in Theater Arts Performance, Theory and Management.
David Bradley (Director sand Co-Artistic Director) is a Philadelphia-based theater artist, arts educator and consultant. He's been Artistic Director of Living News since the project began in 2006 and in addition to directing the piece has helped create its curriculum and teacher training materials. A long-time company member at People's Light and Theatre, David has directed more than 20 productions there and for four years was Associate Artistic Director, jointly leading its arts education programs. People's Light productions include Doubt, The Crucible, The Giver, Young Lady From Rwanda and Holes. He's directed This Wonderful Life, Iron Kisses, Searching for Eden and He Held Me Grand at Indiana Repertory Theatre and has also directed at Children's Theatre Company. His play What's Now, What's Next? was commissioned by Scholastic, Inc. as part of their exploration of youth civic engagement. David is co-founder and arts education consultant for LiveConnections.org, the non-profit partner of Philadelphia's acclaimed music venue World Cafe Live. He works regularly with Philadelphia Young Playwrights, and his arts education work has included collaborations with the Rosenbach Museum, Spiral Q Puppet Theater, Art-Reach and numerous urban, suburban and special needs schools across the region. David has led panels on art and civic dialogue in the U.S. and Mexico and is on the board of Shakespeare in Clark Park. He's a graduate of Yale University.
Larry Loebell (Scriptwriter) is a Philadelphia playwright, screen writer, dramaturg, and teacher. His most recent play, House Divided was nominated for a “Best New Play” Barrymore Award after its 2008 production at InterAct Theater Company. His produced full-length plays include La Tempestad, which premiered Off-Off Broadway at the OHIO THTR in New York in 2005, produced by The Resonance Ensemble, The Ballad of John Wesley Reed, which was produced by Theatre Catalyst in Philadelphia also in 2005, and Pride of the Lion. Published full length plays include La Tempestad in the anthology Playing With Canons: Explosive New Works from Literature by America's Indie Playwrights, NYT Books, and Pride of the Lion, published by Playscripts.com. Published short plays in regular production include Angie and Arnie Sanguine, But Who's Counting, and Just Before the War Between the Plates, all published by Playscripts.Com. Monologues and scenes from his plays have been published by Applause Books, Smith and Krauss Books, and Playscripts. He has been awarded four Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowships in Playwriting, an EST/Sloan Science Foundation grant for his play Girl Science, and he was awarded a new play commission for House, Divided from the National Council for Jewish Culture. He has written film documentaries on historical and scientific subjects, and has also written (and received Emmy recognition) for work on the children's television show Rugrats. He is the writer of a play about Thomas Paine, which is currently in development by the Thomas Paine Society. In addition to Living News, he wrote the monologues spoken by the signers of the Constitution for the National Constitution Center which visitors can hear on the iPod tour of Signers Hall. He teaches playwriting and dramaturgy at Arcadia University in Glenside, PA, and film history at University of the Arts.
Allison Heishman ( Stage Manager/ Educator) is the Theatre Programs Coordinator at the National Constitution Center and the Literary Manager for Azuka Theatre. She has worked as a freelance theatre artist in Philadelphia for the last five years, finding work as an actor and director for some of the most exciting small theatre companies in the city. She graduated with honors from Washington College on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Terry M. Smith (Lighting and Video Designer) is founder of Terry Smith Designs and has worked in the Philadelphia and greater northeast for the last 10 years. He is the production manager for Azuka Theatre and the Resident Master Electrician for The Philadelphia Theatre Company. He has designed Lights and Video for companies around Philadelphia as well as major corporate and industrial events including recently the Kennedy center in DC.
Christopher Colucci (Sound Designer) makes sound and music as a theater artist, composer, producer and guitarist. He is happy to be returning for this latest incarnation of the Living News! Other shows of note this season include Disco Descending (LiveArts Festival); The Hothouse and Sizwe Bansi is Dead (Lantern); A Streetcar Named Desire, Born Yesterday, and A Tuna Christmas (Walnut Street Theater); Dark Play, Blackbird, and American Buffalo (Theater Exile); Gee's Bend (Arden); The Day of the Picnic and Eggs (Peoples Light); The War Party (InterAct); Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Copenhagen, and All The Great Books (Delaware Theater Company); and A Long Days Journey Into Night (Villanova). Christopher received the 2008 Barrymore award for Outstanding Sound Design.
Regina M. Rizzo (Co-Costume Designer) Recent Costume Design credits include: Long Day's Journey into Night (Simpatico Theater Project), Jump/Cut (Flashpoint Theater Company), Compleat Works of Wllm. Shkspr (Abridged) (Theatre Horizon), Impending Rupture of the Belly (Flashpoint Theater Company), Romeo and Juliet (Delaware Theater Festival), Working (Theatre Horizon), The Faculty Room (Flashpoint Theatre Company), Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1812 Productions), Trad (Inis Nua Theatre Company), Iron Kisses (Gay and Lesbian Theater Festival), Two Rooms (Azuka Theater Collective), From tha Hip (Prince Music Theater), Crazy Gary's Mobile Disco (Inis Nua Theatre Company). Regina is also the Wardrobe supervisor for the Wilma Theater and for the National Constitution Center as well as a sticher for many of the various theaters in Philadelphia.
Josh Hitchens (Asst. Stage Manager) has been working as Theatre Programs Assistant at the National Constitution Center ever since graduating from Arcadia University in 2007 with a BFA in Acting. He has acted with Plays & Players, Mauckingbird Theatre Company, To The Wall Productions, and Curio Theatre Company. Josh has also directed for Arcadia University Theatre, Dragon Stage & Screen, and The Drama Group. He recently co-founded The Magic Circle Theater Company, for which he has directed and performed.
Cast
Delanté G. Keys (Cast) is a graduate of Arcadia University's B.F.A. Acting Program. Since graduation, Delanté has been working as both an actor and teaching artist. He has taught at People's Light and Theatre Company, Arcadia's Camp Shakespeare, and Philadelphia Young Playwrights. In addition, he has appeared in Little Bunny Voodoo's Late Night at the Tiki Bar, Curio Theatre's The Nutcracker, What the Butler Saw, and Road, Six Degrees of Separation at Allen's Lane Theater, Black Gold with Interact Theatre Company, Kid Simple with Azuka Theatre Company, and has been performing in Living News since 2007 at the National Constitution Center.
Felicia Leicht (Cast) is a Philadelphia area native and proud member of the Living News team at the National Constitution Center. She most recently appeared as Madison in Exit, Corpse (Plays and Players) and Celia in As You Like It (Shakespeare in Clark Park). Other favorite roles include the Countess/Diana in All’s Well That Ends Well (directed by Eleanor Holdridge), The Lady in The Storm (directed by Alexandre Marine and Maria Monakhova of Theatre Deuxiéme Réalité), and Viola in Twelfth Night (Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival - YPC). She has also co-created and performed in several original works in the Philadelphia area, including Portrait of Dora as a Young Man (Stolen Chair Theatre Company), Like Ink and Paper (Swarthmore Project in Theater), and Recitatif (2007 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival). She is an honors theater graduate of Swarthmore College, and has also trained at the British American Drama Academy, and with members of the Moscow Art Theatre School.
Stephanie Lauren (Cast) is thrilled to be joining the cast of Living News after completing an apprenticeship with the Walnut Street Theatre. She has recently worked with several theatres in the Philadelphia region including: Theatre Horizon as Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Pines Dinner Theatre as Maria in The Sound of Music, PCS as Belle in Beauty and the Beast, as well as the Broadway Bound ensemble- performing in various venues in the area. Stephanie holds her B.A. in Theatre and Dance from Muhlenberg College. She sends an abundance of sincere gratitude to David, Nora and the crew at the National Constitution Center as well as her incredible friends and family for their unwavering support, enabling her to do what she loves.
Understudies
Katie Keith (Understudy) is an honors graduate of Arcadia University's B.F.A. Acting Program. Arcadia acting credits include: Edna in Waiting for Lefty, Ariel in The Tempest, Lili in Carnival, Pammi in Hearsay, Olga in Three Sisters, Savage in Savage in Limbo, and Shelly in Buried Child. Since graduation, she has been working as a teaching artist and director in the South Jersey area, as well as a props designer for Arcadia's 2008-2009 season. She has been teaching at Mainstage Center for the Arts for the past six years and recently began working with Learning Stages' Class Act Program. Her most recent directing credits include Willy Wonka, Cinderella, Once Upon a Mattress, and School House Rock Live.
Newton Buchanan (Understudy) is excited to return to Living News. He has recently been seen in various Curio Theatre productions such as, Curios original comedy Funeral Farce and Road" by Jim Cartwright. Other Favorite roles include, "Student 3" in the Philly premiere of "Shakespeare's R&J" with Mauckingbird Theatre Company and "Pastor Oglethorpe" in "Smoke on the Mountain" with Hedgerow Theatre. He also holds many lighting and sound design credits from Hegderow Theatre, Curio Theatre, Full-screen and Neumann College. A natural teacher, hes taught Acting to youth at Spruce Hill Middle School, Strath Haven Middle school and various schools in the Chester Upland School District.
Mary Tuomanen (Understudy) is a newly Philly-based performance artist. In New York, she has worked with New Dramatists, HERE Arts Center, and the TANK theater. In Philly: Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater (Macbeth), Shakespeare in Clark Park (Comedy of Errors) and Nice People Theater Co (Grace, or the Art of Climbing). Other credits include Actor's Theater of Louisville Humana Festival and Paris' Centre Pompidou, where she performed with other graduates of the Lecoq School of Movement. Her one-woman show, La Pendue, premieres in November at West Philly's CEC.
E-mail your questions or responses to the show directly to the creative or educational staff behind Living News.
