press
“Donahue elevates ‘Stairs’ to new heights...
The freshness and originality that is consistently present in the production is able to make an old and somewhat obscure play feel relevant and new again.”
- Nicholas D. Cuse (full story)
stairs to the roof
american repertory theatre (institute), agassiz theatre, feb 4-6, 2010
(part of diane paulus’s american: boom, bust and baseball season)
benjamin d. murphy: worker, poet, revolutionary. when he takes a risk and stands up to his boss, his life changes forever. from factory to zoo to carnival, STAIRS celebrates the imagination’s ability to liberate the human spirit. staged in reverse-configuration (with the audience on stage), then the audience moved to a ballroom for the last 10 minutes, where the action unfolded outside in the courtyard, seen through the windows and heard over walkie talkies.
photos: marcus stern
CREDITS:
by tennessee williams / designed by: ji-youn chang (sets/lights), moria clinton (costumes), adam stone (composer/sound); with: jason beaubien (alfred, voice, j.t. faraway jones, officer, fox, mummer, mr. q), tim eliot (designer, thatcher, voice, beauty), rebecca feinberg (factory worker, helen, fox, guard one, carnival goer, mrs. hotchkiss, alma’s mother), heather gordon (factory worker, alma, voice, fox, beast, mr. p), emily hyman (factory worker, edna, voice, fox, carnival barker), ian kerch (factory worker, jim, clown, mr. t), scott lyman (benjamin d. murphy), christian rivera (johnnie, voice, youth, fox, guard two, carnival goer), charles settles jr. (mr. e), lindsay strachan (girl), rebecca whitehurst (factory worker, bertha, voice, night watchman, zookeeper, mr. d) / dramaturged by joe pindelski / directed by mike donahue
