Jump/Cut

February 1-26, 2006

By Neena Beber
Directed by Leigh Silverman

In what the Washington Post calls “the most absorbing new play of the season,” playwright Neena Beber tackles the ultimate reality film in JUMP/CUT. Aspiring director Paul (Thomas Sadoski, Reckless), his girlfriend Karen (Michi Barall), and his lifelong buddy Dave (Luke Kirby, “Slings & Arrows”, Mambo Italiano) embark on a filmmaking adventure that captures the complications of the human heart and the ethics of ambition. JUMP/CUT is a darkly humorous drama that puts obsessions, betrayals, and Steely Dan into the line of focus.

JUMP/CUT was originally produced by the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company and Theater J at the Aaron and Cecile Goldman Theater in Washington D.C., and was developed at Gloucester Stage and New Dramatists’ Play Time. Women’s Project extends is sincere appreciation to both Howard Shalwitz (Woolley Mammoth) and Ari Roth (Theater J). Playwright Neena Beber extends special thanks to Mary Coleman, Israel Horovitz, Simon Hammerstein, Jo Bonney, Jessica Hecht, Rob Campbell, Josh Hamilton, Maria Mileaf, Michael Chernus, Eric Sutton, Colleen DeLaney, Todd London, Mary Resing, Ari Roth and Howard Shalwitz.

 

Neena Beber

(Playwright) Neena Beber’s plays include Jump/Cut at Woolly Mammoth, Hard Feelings at Women’s Project, Thirst at The Public, The Dew Point at the SPF/ Summer Play Festival, A Common Vision at Magic Theatre and Tommorowland at New Georges. She has received commissions from Actors Theatre of Louisville (Humana Festival of New American Plays), Playwright’s Horizons (Amblin), and Otterbein College, among others. Her one-acts have been included in the anthologies The Best American Short Plays 1996-1997 and Facing Forward. Ms. Beber has received the A.S.K. Exchange to the Royal Court Theatre, Distinguished Alumni Award from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and Paulette Goddard and MacDowell Colony Fellowships. She has written extensively for film and television, receiving several Emmy and Ace-Award nominations for her writing for children’s television and contributed articles to American Theatre, Theatre, and Performing Arts Journal. Her fiction has been published in The Sun and the film Bad Dates (Touchstone) was based on her one-act, Food. Neena graduatated magna cum laude from Harvard University, with a B.A. specializing in Latin American Literature. She holds an M.F.A.from N.Y.U.’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she was a Paulette Goddard Fellow and recipient of a Distinguished Alumni Award.

Leigh Silverman

(Director) At 31, Leigh will be the youngest director on Broadway later this season when she will helm Lisa Kron’s Well opening March 30 th at the Longacre Theatre. She has staged plays for The Public Theatere and ACT. Leigh directed the world premiere of Jump/Cut for the Woolly Mammoth Theatre and Theater J co-production. Her recent credits include: Oedipus at Palm Springs written by The Five Lesbian Brothers at New York Theatre Workshop, Wit on London¹s West End and at the Geffen Theatre (Los Angeles), Bad Dates at the Cleveland Playhouse, Big Times with Women’s Expressive Theatre, How I Learned to Drive at Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan at Theatre J, as well as shows at the Adirondack Theatre Festival, EST and Rattlestick. Workshops include: Sundance Theatre Lab (2001 and 2003), Baltimore Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Stage and Film, New Dramatists, Dixon Place and Epic Theatre. She holds a duel degree in directing and playwriting from Carnegie Mellon University.

Michi Barall

Off-Broadway: A Few Stout Individuals (Signature), Carson McCullers (Women’s Project/Playwright’s), Ivanov (Mint), Saved or Destroyed (Rattlestick), Sueno (MCC), Tartuffe (NYSF/Delacorte), Unwrap Your Candy (Vineyard), wAve (Ohio). Regional: Arena, ART, Berkeley Rep, Brava!, Cleveland Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Intiman, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf, McCarter, Portland Stage, Seattle Rep, Sundance, and Williamstown. Film and television credits include independent features I will Avenge You, Iago (opposite Giancarlo Esposito and Larry Pine), Personal Velocity, Pursuit of Happiness, and Welcome to Purgatory. Appearances on ATWT, Cosby, Law and Order, Third Watch and One Life to Live. Michi holds an AB from Stanford University and an MFA from NYU. Fox Fellow 1999. She wishes to thank Neena, Loretta and Leigh (all 3 are saints).

Luke Kirby

Luke Kirby performed the role of Morgan in the Factory theater’s production of Geometry In Venice in Toronto, a performance which garnered him a nomination for Best Actor at the Dora Mavor Moore Awards. This was quickly followed by the role of Patroclus in theater for a New Audience’s production of Troilus and Cressida directed by Sir Peter Hall in New York City. He then booked a lead role in the recently released Halloween 8: Resurrection after which he returned to the world of theater, first in Judith Thompson’s premiere of Habitat at Canadian Stage followed by Daniel Brook’s premiere of The Good Life at the Tarragon theater. In the summer of 2002, Luke shot the lead role in Peter Wellington’s feature film, Luck, in Toronto immediately followed by the lead role in Mambo Italiano, shot in Montreal working alongside such stars as Sarah Polley and Paul Sorvino. Luke ended the summer with a part that was written for him in the feature film Shattered Glass produced by Cruise/Wagner.

Thomas Sadoski

BROADWAY: Reckless (Manhattan Theater Club/ Second Stage).OFF-BROADWAY: This Is Our Youth, Gemini (Second Stage); Where We?re Born (Rattlestick); The General From America (Theater For A New Audience); Thunderbird (Cherry Lane); Man Measures Man (The Lark) REGIONAL: Moonlight & Magnolias (Alliance Theater); The General From America (Alley Theater); Left (NY Stage & Film); The Waverly Gallery (Long Wharf); Street Scene, The Skin Of Our Teeth, Hot L Baltimore, Rodney?s Wife (Williamstown Theater Festival). FILM/TV: Loser; Happy Hour; Company K; Winter Solstice; As The World Turns, Law & Order. Thomas has worked extensively helping to develop new works at The Lark, New Dramatists and the Sundance Institute. He is a graduate of Circle In The Square Theater School in New York City.

  • Michi Barall Luke Kirby Tom Sadowski in JUMP/CUT.

  • Luke Kirby Michi Barall Tom Sadoski in JUMP/CUT.

  • Michi Barall and Luke Kirby in JUMP/CUT.