The Moors: Digital Playbill

While actors will be unmasked, audiences are required to wear masks in the theatre

Olivia Sloss as Agatha and Shae McCarty as Emilie

Hannah Harrison as Huldey and Drew Jones as the Mastiff

Shae McCarty as Emilie

Hannah Harrison as Huldey and Alexa Bayliff as Marjory

Drew Jones as the Mastiff

Shae McCarty as Emilie and Hannah Harrison and Huldey

Hannah Kelly as A Moor-Hen and Drew Jones as The Mastiff

Alexa Bayliff as Marjory

The Cast of The Moors

 

The Moors

By Jen Silverman 

Artistic Team

Director: Jenna Sulecki^

Stage Manager: Lilly Grey Rudge

Costume Design: Sue Bonde

Scenic Design: Larry Larsen

Lighting Design: Maddie Southard*

Prop Design: Aria Hroma

Sound Design: Eric Lyness

Intimacy Director: Andy Christensen

Assistant Intimacy Director: Hannah Harrison

Fight Director: Kristin Mun

^In partial fulfillment of the Graduate Thesis for the MFA in Directing

*In partial fulfillment of the Senior Capstone for the BA in Theater

 

Cast

Agatha - Olivia Sloss

Huldey - Hannah Harrison*

Emilie - Shae McCarty

Marjory – Alexa Bayliff

The Mastiff - Drew Jones

A Moor-Hen - Hannah Kelly

*In partial fulfillment of the Senior Capstone for the BA in Theater

 

Understudies

Emilie, Huldey, Moor-Hen - Siena Henson

Agatha and Marjorie - Savanah Baird

The Mastiff - Joe Koppy

 

Production Crew

Assistant Stage Manager: Aidan Brown

Master Electrician: Savanah Baird

Electricians: Taylor Andreas, Bennett Buchholz, Ivy Chacon, Ricardo Guevara, Hannah Harrison, Lilly Grey Rudge, Trini Sepulveda, Olivia Sloss, Mia Tierney

Light Board Operator: Bennett Buchholz 

Sound Board Operator: Joe Kloppy 

Understudy Sound Board Operator: Savanah Baird

Dresser: Katja La Flamme 

 

Theater Program Production Staff

Producer: Andy Christensen

Scene Shop Supervisor: Eric Lyness

Costume Shop Supervisor: Sue Bonde

Props Supervisor: Aria Hroma

Cutter/Draper: Sue Bonde

Costume Construction: Alexa Bayliff, Alaina Cruson, Mollie Goldberg, Katja La Flamme, Lilly Grey Rudge, Lexi Rudolph, Isaiah Saluta

Costume Construction Volunteer: Suzanne Beam

Scene Shop Technicians and Electricians: Sean Hovland, Julia Moran, Maddie Southard, Joe Stefanich, Audrey Stineman

Marketing Director: Lezlie Cross

Marketing Assistant: Hannah Harrison

Box Office/Ushers: Rosabelle Barrozo, Belle Hansen, Isabelle Long, Zuleyma Zambrano Zamorano

 

Content Warning

This production contains:

• Acts of violence
• Mention of sexual assault
• Mention of suicide

 

From the Director:

 I discovered The Moors during my first semester of graduate school. At the time, the world of the play seemed like a huge mystery to me. What were these magical moors and who were these peculiar women who tried to traverse them? How could a Mastiff forge a relationship with a Moor-Hen? But the play stuck with me—I revisited it over and over. Now as I present it as my master’s thesis production, I can’t help but feel like my time in graduate school has been colored by the way this play has revealed itself to me. The more I grew as an artist—and more importantly, as a person—the more I saw myself in each of these women. Each in different stages of self-discovery, these characters are fighting to break out of the boxes they were placed in at birth as women and be seen for who they really are–something I can definitely relate to.

When I began to research and prepare to direct The Moors, I knew I wanted to conceptualize the piece in such a way that all women would be able to see bits and pieces of themselves reflected in these vibrant characters. I wanted to find a way to analyze the characters, setting, and major moments that would embrace the timefulness of the play—something that would speak to the part of it that was rooted in the nineteenth century as well as the urgent present-tense message it carries. For me, the solution was an archetypal analysis because archetypes are universal and eternal. The archetypes observed during the Victorian era in history and literature are the same ones present in our world today, and connecting the past to the present was important to me when directing this play. 

The plot and characters of The Moors are deeply rooted in Victorian constructs. It analyzes the boxes and roles women of the nineteenth century were forced to fill or play as a result of the way men wrote them into literature. It also observes that women today are still expected to play these roles and meet certain expectations associated with the female gender construct. There is no separating the past from the present, the characters from women today, and their actions from behavioral patterns as old as time itself. If there are expectations being placed on the women of the play—and women today—they originated with time itself, making them archetypal. The fact that women are still forced to squeeze into boxes that they have long outgrown is a huge problem—one that The Moors addresses by allowing its characters to boldly break these molds.

It is a rare and remarkable thing to be seen for who you truly are by someone else. My hope is that if you are a woman watching this play, you leave feeling empowered and knowing that you can do anything you put your mind to. I see you and the power you hold. This production is for you. A special dedication goes out to the women who have inspired and empowered me along my journey: my endlessly compassionate mother, Debbie; my sister Leah, who is wise beyond her years and braver than she knows; my soul sister Cheyenne, whose artistry and creativity knows no bounds; and my advisor and mentor Dr. Lezlie Cross, without whom I would not be half the artist I am today. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

 

“The Moors” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com

Off-Broadway premiere produced by The Playwrights Realm (Katherine Kovner, Artistic Director; Roberta Pereira, Producing Director) in January 2017

World Premiere produced by Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut James Bundy, Artistic Director Victoria Nolan, Managing Director

Theater Faculty and Staff

Susan Bonde, Costume Shop Manager

Sue Bonde is the costume shop manager for the University of Portland. She worked in Chicago as a freelance costume designer and technician for the Goodman Theater and Light Opera Works prior to moving to Portland. She has designed for A.R.T., New Rose Theatre, and Portland Repertory Theatre, and the Wee Sing children’s videos before joining Michael Curry Design and working on The Lion King on Broadway. Bonde has designed costumes for Portland Opera’s The Return of Ulysses, Albert Herring, La Calisto, Il Ballo delle Ingrate/Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda/Trouble in Tahiti , Galileo, Postcards from Morocco, L’heure Espanogle / L’enfant et les Sortileges and most recently, La Cenerentola. She is the recipient of two Willamette Week Excellence in Theater Awards and two Portland Drammy Awards. Past designs for UP include Tartuffe and Pippin. Mock’s Crest Opera costume design credits include Iolanthe, Ruddigore, The Pirates of Penzance, Light in the Piazza and Yeoman of the Guard.

 

Andy Christensen, Visiting Instructor, Directing and Acting

Andy Christensen is a fiercely curious artist-educator who specializes in emergent forms of immersive and site-informed theatre that explore the intersection of place and time. In his practice, he builds egalitarian ensembles that create interdisciplinary, research-driven, and process-shaped performances that put audiences at the center of artistic experiences and contextualize performance within community. After receiving his M.F.A. in theatre directing from the Lir Academy of Trinity College in Dublin and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Andy returned to the United States to invest in emerging artists in the Pacific Northwest. He is a founder of Cascadia Art Project and a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. He has mentored artists in many regional high schools, George Fox University, Pacific University, and most recently at Whitworth University where he was recognized for outstanding integration of vocation in the classroom.

 

Lezlie C. Cross, PhD, Assistant Professor, Theatre History and Dramaturgy

Dr. Cross’s directing credits at UP include House of Desires, Where is Home: a Digital Living Newspaper, and As You Like It. At UP, she teaches courses in theatre history, dramaturgy, and playwriting. She is also a professional dramaturg who has worked at regional theatres across America including the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, Cincinnati Shakespeare, Classic Stage Company, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she was the literary assistant for five years. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington, her M.A. from the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, and her B.A. from Whitman College. See more at lezliecross.com

 

Larry Larsen, M.F.A., Professor, Academic Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences

Professor Larsen has been involved in theater since the fifth grade when he played Schroder in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and has had a life long association with the theater ever since that time. He is in his 28th year at the University, and besides teaching the scenic and lighting design coursework for the Theater Program, he is an Academic Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences. His most recent design work at UP, which includes over a hundred productions, includes The Dragon, Dr. Faustus, Eurydice, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Mad Forest. Larry has worked as a professional designer in Portland for the last 32 years and his most recent work includes Nunsense and Company at Broadway Rose Theatre, Haddon Hall Revels for Portland Revels where he is the resident set designer, All My Sons and This Random World for Portland Actors Conservatory, and Mr. Kolpert for Third Rail Repertory Theater. Other theaters designed for include Artists Repertory Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre, Northwest Children’s Theater, Portland Repertory Theatre, Tygres Heart Shakespeare Co., Portland Civic Theatre and Summer Repertory Theatre in Santa Rosa. Prior to his employment at the University, Larry worked as the Design Associate for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, both in Ashland and Portland. He has his MFA in Theatre Design from the University of Washington. 

 

Mindi Logan, M.F.A., Associate Professor, Acting Instructor

Mindi is beginning her 22nd year teaching for the University of Portland. Her artistic work at the University includes acting and dialect coaching for productions. Mindi received her MFA from the Professional Actors Training Program at Rutgers University and then worked professionally as an actor in New York and Los Angeles, appearing off-Broadway, in soap operas, sitcoms, and film. Continuing her professional acting career, Mindi has appeared locally with Artists Repertory Theatre, Theater Vertigo, Willamette Shakespeare, Quintessence Theater, Stark Raving Theatre, in commercials, industrials, and voiceovers. Mindi was awarded the Kennedy Center Gold Medallion for her service as the Regional Chair of the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival. Mindi’s husband Hal is a professional musician and composer who also works locally and teaches at the University of Portland.    

 

Eric Lyness, Scene Shop Manager

Eric Lyness (class of '12) has had the pleasure of working here at his alma mater since 2015. Favorite UP credits include crafting sound designs for Good Kids and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and scenic designs for 1959 Pink Thunderbird.  He has worked as a director, designer, and technician at various theatres across Portland including Third Rail Repertory, Portland Opera, Northwest Theatre Workshop, and Artists Rep.

 

Gregory Pulver, M.F.A., Associate Professor, Costume and Makeup Design

Professor Gregory Pulver teaches courses in Intro to Visual Arts, Intro to the Art of Theater, Costume Design 1 & 2, Stage Makeup, Puppetry &  Millinery. He is also a director and choreographer for plays and musicals for the UP theater season annually. Before becoming Associate Professor and Program Director for the UP Theatre Program, Gregory was an Associate Professor of Costume Design at Western Washington University for 12 years and Chair of the WWU Theatre Department for four of those years. Gregory holds an MFA in costume design and choreography from Humboldt State University, CA. He is the 1993 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) National Costume Design Winner for his work on Three Penny Opera at Humboldt State. His twenty-tseven year mentorship of theatre design students has garnered 4 KCACTF national design winners, 14 national design competitors and dozens of regional winners. Gregory started his teaching career at Humboldt State University in 1990 where he was fortunate to complete his MFA, take over the makeup design program and classes, and teach contemporary dance as an adjunct instructor. Gregory is currently a Resident Artist at Artist Repertory Theater in Portland where his favorite of many designs include Skin of Our Teeth, Broomstick, Cuba Libre, Foxfinder. He has been a member of the international board of advisors for The Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, AK for 15 years and participates as a featured artist mentoring new American playwrights by participating on response panels, providing workshops in design and writing, and by individual mentorship during each festival. In Portland Gregory has designed both sets and costumes for Bag and Baggage Theatre in Hillsboro, and costumes for Broadway Rose Theatre in Portland. Gregory has designed for several short films and TV spots in Washington including a dance for the camera film titled Egg Skin. Gregory is also an accomplished singer and actor, and plans to restart that career once he retires from academia. Or he may just garden. His most tried and true hobbies are dog owner and avid dinner party host. 
 

 

 

 

Land Acknowledgement

The University of Portland Theater acknowledges that our space rests on the traditional village sites of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla and many other Tribes who made their homes along the Columbia (Wimahl) and Willamette (Whilamut) rivers. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde currently represent many of these tribes.

We give thanks to them; that we are here on their unceded lands and commit to treating their space as a living breathing entity that needs care and stewardship. We give thanks to this land as we continue to speak up for justice, a place in history, and a place in a future that demands to be better.