Or,

October 29-December 13, 2009

By Liz Duffy Adams
Directed by Wendy McClellan

Aphra Behn is getting out of the spy trade and into show biz, if she can only write her play without interruptions from her love life-celebrity Nell Gwynne, King Charles II, and double-agent William Scott, among others. While war rages and Aphra and her friends celebrate free love, cross-dressing and pastoral lyricism, the 1660s start to look likie the 1960s. Verse or prose, now or then, love or death… and a lot of kissing.

“A playful, funny and inventive comedy. Frisky historical romp.” – Charles Isherwood, The New York Times

“In her real-life poetry, Behn vowed to ‘laugh at love and fate.’ Adams and this wonderful cast have certainly done the same with this delightful comedy.” – Associated Press

“Positively ripples!” – Time Out, New York

“Rollickin’ bodice-ripping farce… suitably smart and sexy.” – New York Post

“Nothing short of brilliant ” – WCBS Newsradio 880

“A fetching Maggie Siff, a “Mad Men” alum, brings humor and sexiness as the pioneering Behn. Andy Paris and Kelly Hutchinson are delights in all the other roles.” – NY Daily News

Liz Duffy Adams

(Playwright) Liz Duffy Adams is a WP Lab alumna, a New Dramatists alumna (2001–2008) and a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award, a Will Glickman Award, a Frederick Loewe Award in Music Theatre, a Weston Playhouse Music Theater Award, and a commission from Children’s Theater Company, Minneapolis. Her work has been written, produced, or developed at the Humana Festival, Portland Center Stage, Portland Stage Company, Syracuse Stage, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Millay Colony for the Arts, New Georges, Shotgun Players, Moxie Theater, Clubbed Thumb, and Crowded Fire Theater among other organizations. Publications include Poodle With Guitar And Dark Glasses in Applause’s “Best American Short Plays 2000-2001,” numerous short plays and monologues in anthologies from Heinemann and Smith & Kraus, and several plays published by Playscripts, Inc. Adams was profiled in American Theatre magazine’s December 2004 issue. BFA: NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing; MFA: Yale School of Drama.

Wendy McClellan

(Director) Wendy McClellan is a WP Lab member and a New York based director who has developed and directed new American plays in New York and across the country. Her world premiere credits include Deborah Stein’s Wallflower (Stages Repertory Theatre, Houston), Laurie Brook’s Brave No World (The Kennedy Center), Jennifer Maisel’s Birds (Rorschach Theatre, DC) and Goody Fucking Two-Shoes (Actors Theatre of Louisville). She recently directed Sarah Hammond’s Green Girl in SPF at The Public. Developmental work in New York includes directing the Loewe Award Workshops of two new musicals at New Dramatists:  Liz Duffy Adams and John Hodian’s The Listener of Junk City, and Runway 69 by Erin Kamler and Carson Kreitzer. Also at New Dramatists, she developed Sarah Hammond’s House on Stilts and Liz Duffy Adams’ Or. With Mabou Mines Suite she directed the workshop of Julia Pearlstein’s commedia play Rat Bastards, and with New Georges she led a workshop of Olga Humphrey’s restoration farce Cornbury, among others. As Director of the Apprentice/Intern Company at Actors Theatre of Louisville, she developed and directed the anthologies Neon Mirage, Uncle Sam’s Satiric Spectacular, Fast and Loose, and Trepidation Nation for the Humana Festival of New American Plays, all of which received critical acclaim, prompting Neon Mirage and Uncle Sam’s to remount at the New York International Fringe Festival. In ATL’s regular season she directed productions of Glen Berger’s Underneath the Lintel and Barbara Field’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol. In addition to her duties as a director, Wendy was a core member of the Artistic Staff, lending a voice in season planning and Humana Festival play selection.  As Artistic Director of Oasis Theatre Company in Los Angeles, she developed and directed the world premieres of Gregory Gunter’s Rave. Bakkhai. Muthafu**. and Antigone. Tertiary. Sexxx., for which she received an LA Weekly Award nomination in Best Comedy Direction. She also developed and directed the world premiere of Leon Martell and Penka Kouneva’s musical Steel: John Henry & the Shaker, which was subsequently nominated for an Ovation Award as Best New Musical. She was co-producer of Framework: 98 and 99, a city-wide event that occasioned the first opportunity for Anne Bogart and the SITI Company to work in Los Angeles. In addition to Actors Theater of Louisville, she has held staff positions regionally at A.S.K. Theater Projects, Mark Taper Forum and Great Lakes Theater Festival, and acted as consultant for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She was the recipient of the 2006 New York Coalition for Women in the Arts and Media’s Collaboration Award. Wendy is an Affiliated Artist with New Georges, a member of SSDC, and a member of the Women’s Project Directors Lab 2008-2010. She is a graduate of The University of North Carolina’s School of the Arts.

Kelly Hutchinson

(Nell Gwynne, Maria) Broadway:  Desire Under The Elms, Major Barbara, Macbeth. Off-Broadway: The Voyage of the Carcass (Soho Playhouse), Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul at New York Theater Workshop, and Romola and Nijinsky at Primary Stages. Regional: How Shakespeare Won The West (Huntington Theatre), The Unmentionables (Yale Rep, Dir: Anna D. Shapiro), Rocket To The Moon (Dir: Daniel Fish), Baltimore Center Stage, Barrington Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Indiana Rep, etc. On television, Kelly has been seen on Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Hack, The Jury, as well as a recurring role on Strangers with Candy. Films include “Catch Me If You Can”, “Slippery Slope”, and “Hysterical Psycho”. Kelly is a founding member of the theater company “Stage13”.

Andy Paris

(Charles II of England, William Scott, and Lady Davenant) has made a career of developing new works for the stage and screen, including The Laramie Project (Emmy Nomination), Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde by Moises Kaufman, Lucie Tiberghien’s The Quiet Room and Innocents by Rachel Dickstein. As a writer/director Andy created The Fanmaker’s Inquisition, adapted from the novel by Rikki Ducornet. He also developed Goldstar Ohio by Michael Tisdale, directing the stage version at The Cleveland Public Theatre, and the short film starring Michael Emerson. Currently he is writing The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later, an epilogue to The Laramie Project. For Women’s Project, he wrote the text and served as ringmaster for the site specific Corporate Carnival, which was presented in the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center. Andy was invited to participate in The Lincoln Center Directors Lab in 2008. As an actor he has performed in countless plays in New York, Regionally, and in Europe. Regionally, he has been seen at Playmaker’s Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Theatre Virginia, Berkeley Rep and La Jolla Playhouse. FILM/TV: “Laramie;” “Law & Order.” He is the recipient of two AUDIE Awards for his audiobook narrations. As an original member of Tectonic Theatre Project, Andy has worked under the mentorship of Mr. Kaufman, and now teaches the techniques which he and Tectonic developed over the past seventeen years. He has taught workshops at New York University, DePaul University, Naropa Institute and in Osaka, Japan, among others. Andy was invited to be a participant in the Lincoln Center Directors Lab in 2008. Andy grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and is a graduate of NYU.

Maggie Siff

(Aphra Behn) –is thrilled to be joining the Women’s Project for this production.  Theater credits include: Ruby Sunrise (Public Theater, dir. Oskar Eustis), Frank’s Home (Playwright’s Horizons, dir. Robert Falls), Dollhouse (The Goodman Theater, dir. Robert Falls) for which she was nominated for a Jefferson Award, and Ghosts (The Lantern Theater) for which she received a Barrymore Award for Best Supporting Actress.  More recently she has been seen on AMC’s Mad Men as Rachel Menken (2008 Golden Globe Best Drama, 2008 Emmy for Best Ensemble) and FX’s Sons of Anarchy as Tara Knowles.  Other TV credits include recurring roles on Life on Mars and Nip/Tuck.  Film credits include: Funny People, Push, and the upcoming film Leaves of Grass starring Ed Norton, directed by Tim Blake Nelson.  She has an M.F.A. from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program at Tisch and a B.A. in English from Bryn Mawr.

Zane Pihlstrom

(Set Design) is currently designing a trilogy of plays for Company XIV, a neo- baroque dance company in Brooklyn, and Open The Dark Door (NYMTF). Off-Broadway, Zane designed the costumes for The Brothers Size (dir. Tea Alagic, The Public Theater/Foundry Theater), with tours to The Studio Theater (Washington, D.C.) and The Abbey (Dublin, Ireland). International credits include Macbeth premiering at the Volksbühne Am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Berlin); Bambiland (National Theater of Lithuania; Oskaras Korsunovas Theater); and Sleeping Beauty (Seoul Performing Arts Festival, South Korea). New York credits include costumes and scenery for A Kingdom, (Performance Space 122); costumes for Going Down Swingin’ and scenery for (NYMTF); Cherubina (Fractured Atlas); costumes and scenery for Iphigenia at Alus (Active Eye) and scenery for Food for Fish (The Krain); scenery for Binibon (The Kitchen). Regional/University credits include scenery for Until We Find Each Other (dir. Anna Shapiro, Steppenwolf Garage Theater); All’s Well that Ends Well (dir. James Bundy/Mark Rucker, Yale Rep); Baal (Columbia University); Marat/Sade, Slaves and Prowlers (Bard College); La Bohème (Yale Opera); Flyin’ West and Orange Woman (Princeton University); Hedda Gabler (Yale University Theater); Evita (Northwestern University); Anna Karenina, Don Juan Returns from the War, Selki and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (DePaul University); costumes for MSN Dream, As You like It  (Yale School of Drama) and Don’t Look Back (dir. Joe Roach, World Performance Project). Zane is a member of Wingspace, a theatrical design collective.

Andrea Lauer

(Costume Design) designed costumes for the Second Stage Uptown The Butcher of Baraboo, NYU’s Our Lady of 121st Street and Hair, and Alley Theatre’s productions of Black Comedy, Wait Until Dark, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Crucible, After the Fall, Proof, Steel Magnolias, Fully Committed, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Thirteenth Chair, The Woman in Black and And Then There Were None. She also has designed for the Williamstown Theatre Festival Act I (The Trojan Women: A Love Story), Frontera at Hyde Park in Austin (Blood Pudding, David’s Red Haired Death, Deviant Craft, Race of the Ark Tattoo, and Clay Angels), University of Texas (guest designer for Love of the Nightingales).  She was art director for the film Mantis by Trey McIntyre and her prop designs have been featured in Yale’s Theater magazine. She has a BA from University of Texas, Austin, and a MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Design for Stage and Film.

Deb Sullivan

(Lighting Design) has designed extensively at Trinity Rep, including Paris by Night, Cherry Orchard, A Delicate Balance, Dublin Carol, A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Ruby Sunrise, Homebody/Kabul, The New England Sonata, Dinner with Friends and numerous Christmas Carols. Off Broadway:  The Ruby Sunrise (The Public Theater), Green Girl (Summer Play Festival), Play it Cool (NYMF Festival). Regional credits include: Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, (where she was resident lighting designer for two seasons and has designed a dozen world premiers as part of the Humana Festival of New American Plays), Alliance Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival, City Theatre Company, and Cleveland Play House. Other theatres include The New Repertory Theatre (Elliot Norton Award), Two Rivers Theatre Company, Gloucester Stage Company, Perishable Theatre, Boston Theatre Works, Opera Providence and Festival Ballet Providence, among the many. Deb is a member of United Scenic Artists.

Elizabeth Rhodes

(Sound Design)—New York credits include the world premiere of Steve Martin’s adaptation of The Underpants, and the premieres of John Patrick Shanley’s Dirty Story and Sailor Song. LAByrinth credits include Stephen Belber’s A Small Melodramatic Story and Robert Glaudini’s Dutch Heart of Man. Other New York credits include Chuck Mee’s Paradise Park with director Daniel Fish (Signature), Philip Roth in Khartoum and Sweet Storm (Public Lab); Future Me with original music by Stew (SPF); The Winter’s Tale with director Barry Edelstein (CSC); Trial By Water (Ma-Yi); A Soldier’s Wife (The Mint); Regional credits include Lee Blessing’s Winning Streak (George Street Playhouse), Stones In His Pockets (Alley Theatre), and The Colored Museum (Crossroads).  For more info please visit elizabethrhodes.net.

Alaine Alldaffer

(Casting Director) ALAINE ALLDAFFER is the Casting Director for Playwrights Horizons and The Huntington Theater in Boston. Theater credits include Deadman’s Cellphone with Mary Louis Parker (PWH), Grey Gardens (PWH and Broadway), Walmartopia the musical, Knights of Prosperity (ABC), ED (NBC). Currently in the works is This with Parker Posey at Playwrights Horizons.   She credits Lisa Donadio as co-casting director for Or,.

Jack Gianino

(Stage Manager) is up, down, all around…Broadway: two dozen, including Souvenir; The Scarlet Pimpernel; Dream; Hughie; Inherit The Wind; Black and Blue; Carrie; The Tap Dance Kid; ‘night, Mother; Lena Horne; Brigadoon; The King and I; and A Christmas Carol (MSG). Off Broadway: Souvenir; Address Unknown; Rounding Third; Love, Janis; Tallulah Hallelujah! Tours: The Sound of Music (Marie Osmond); Hello, Dolly! (Paris); Porgy and Bess (Japan); On Your Toes (Makarova). Regional: Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf. Thanks to Julie Crosby, the WP staff, and Norman.

Lisa Mcginn

Assistant Stage Manager) is happy to be joining the Women’s Project.  Previous credits include The Mirror Rep (Shanghai Gesture), PTPNYC (Therese Raquin), Two River Theatre Company (Mary’s Wedding, A Year with Frog and Toad, ART), The Old Globe (I Just Stopped by to See the Man), Lake George Theatre Lab (Four by Four), Soho Playhouse (A Stone Carver),  Passage Theatre (The Deacons, Second Line), Berkshire Theatre Festival (This is Our Youth, Pound of Flesh), Prospect Theatre (Dark Nights Festival), Stage 13 (Elephant in the Room!), Park Performing Arts Center (The Passion Play).  Lisa has also worked at George Street Playhouse, Playwright’s Theatre, Shadow Lawn Stage, The Bickford, Charlotte Rep, NJPAC, Algonquin Theatre.

  • Andy Paris and Maggie Siff in OR,.

  • Kelly Hutchinson, and Maggie Siff in OR,

  • Kelly Hutchinson, Maggie Siff and Andy Paris in OR,

  • Kelly Hutchinson and Maggie Siff in OR,

  • Kelly Hutchinson, Andy Paris, and Maggie Siff in OR,