The videotaping or other video or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.

Aurora Theatre, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation and a member of Theatre Communications Group, Lawrenceville Tourism and Trade Association and the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.

C A S TPenni............................................................................................................BRITTANY L. SMITHNathan ................................................................................................................. SEUN SOYEMIPenni u/s ................................................................................................. JASMINE RENEE ELLISNathan u/s .............................................................................................BRANDEN CLEVELAND

P R O D U C T I O N S TA F FProducing Artistic Director ............................................................... ANTHONY P. RODRIGUEZAssociate Producer ....................................................................................ANN-CAROL PENCEAssociate Artistic Director .........................................................................JUSTIN ANDERSONDirector .....................................................................................................CYNTHIA D. BARKERStage Manager .................................................................................................KELLSEY HOOKSet Designer .............................................................................................DANIELLA AMPUDIASound Designer .................................................................................... ANDREW CLEVELANDLighting Designer ........................................................................... MAXIMO GRANO DE OROCostume Designer .........................................................................................NICOLE CLOCKEL Properties Designer ...........................................................................................CODY RUSSELLCompany Manager .............................................................................................KATIE PELKEYProduction Manager ............................................................................................DANIEL POPETechnical Director ........................................................................................ ANDREW O'NEALScenic Painter ............................................................................................... SARAH THOMSONTechnical Theatre Apprentice ...............................................................................CODY EVINSRunning Crew ................................................................ YUKA SEKINE AND CASEY GARDNERDirecting Assistant ................................................................................................ CHLOE KAYDramaturg .................................................................................................. BRIGETTE BURTON

Ontario Was Here is produced by special arrangement with Alexis Williams, BRET ADAMS, LTD., 448 West 44th Street Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10036

www.bretadamsltd.net

S E A S O N S P O N S O R SPeach State Federal Credit Union • Metro Waterproofing, Inc.

Besco Steel • National Endowment for the Arts • City of Lawrenceville • Holtkamp Heating & Air

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F R O M T H E P R O D U C E R S

-Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

Producing a new play is like sailing to the island Where the Wild Things are. I am mildly amazed our parents read that book to us. I mean, it’s about a child who gets sent to his room for being bad. The child runs away. When he reaches the place where the Wild Things are, the wild things roared their terrible roars, gnashed their terrible teeth, and scratched their terrible claws. But he becomes their king.

Imagine the power we could posess if we became kings and queens of our FEAR? This world premiere probes what COURAGE looks like in our social service industry. Every day, our social workers make BIG decisions on behalf of our nation’s families. When should families stay together? When should children be placed in foster care? When do we reunite families? At what cost?

With our Apprentice Company members, and with our GGC students, we are training the next generation to BE COURAGEOUS...

As playwright Darren Canady so beautifully states, “Believers are another breed altogether. We keep pushing and pleading and praising.”

Perhaps as fiercely as Aurora PUSHES and PLEADS those we train to achieve, and how much we DEMAND of our artists, it may not initially sound like PRAISE. But inside, we repeatedly whisper,

“...You have so much power in you, You don’t even know! I’m stillin your cheering section - I’m just a few rows further back....”

Those are Darren’s words too. We are blessed to have this play added to the American theatre canon; because we are all AFRAID .... and there is great power in becoming king of all wild things.

Thanks!

Anthony P. RodriguezProducing Artistic Director

Ann-Carol PenceAssociate Producer

C A S T B I O G R A P H I E S

BRITTANY L. SMITH (Penni) is so excited to be making her debut at Aurora Theatre! Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Brittany received her B.A in Theatre from the University of South Florida. Her Tampa stage credits include, Moliere's The Doctor in Spite of Himself, What the Heart Remembers: The Women and Children of Darfur, The Amen Corner and Eurydice. After graduating Brittany then moved to Atlanta, Ga. She advanced her theatre training during Horizon

Theatre's Acting Apprenticeship. Since completing her Apprenticeship, Brittany's stage, television and film credits include Anne Boleyn, A Leason Before Dying,

"Tyler Perry's If Loving You is Wrong" and VENOM. Brittany would like to thank God and her parents for their love and continued support.

SEUN SOYEMI (Nathan) is excited and grateful to be making his Aurora Stage debut! Born in Lagos, Nigeria and raised in Atlanta, GA, he has performed on regional stages all over the U.S. and fea-tured in several local film projects. Some of his recent stage and film credits include Father Comes Home from the Wars Parts 1, 2 & 3, Oshoosi Size in The Brothers Size (nominated for the Broadway World Dallas Award for Best Actor), Paul in BLACKFACE (winner of

Best Performance in the BWFF), Asagai in A Raisin in the Sun, Pish-Tush in Hot Mikado, Ebony in Hurt Village, Pentheus in The Bacchae, Hymen in AS YOU LIKE IT, and Khari in RED, BLACK AND BLUE. “I leave my heart on the stage to be a mirror to your soul."

JASMINE RENEE ELLIS (Penni u/s), a Mississippi Native, is grate-ful for another opportunity to work with the Aurora Theatre family. Her stage credits include Measure for Measure, Sweep, Ghost the Musical, and Grace for President. She sends love to her Mom and Aurora AppCo Family for their support. See her perform as Kathryn in Love's Labour's Lost at the Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern this April. Catch her directing debut in the Aurora Appco Series June 2018.

Have less. Be More.

BRANDEN CLEVELAND (Nathan u/s) is honored to be part of Aurora's AppCo18 and to be working on Ontario Was Here. A graduate of SUNY Albany, SUNY Albany credits: The Carrion (Dr. Ambrose), Spring Awakening (Hanschen Rilow), Eurydice (Big Stone), 308-B (Neil). Aurora credits: Musicals by Moontlight In The Heights (Ensemble) and Goosebumps The Musical (Zeke); also Aurora and Theatrical Outfit's co-production of The Hunchback of

Notre Dame (Gargoyle u/s). Thanks to God for His continued blessings! Thanks to Aurora for this experience, and to his mother, father, and sister for their continued love and support in all that he has and will accomplish.

Seun Soyemi

P R O D U C T I O N S TA F F B I O G R A P H I E S

DARREN CANADY (Playwright) hails from Topeka, KS. His play, False Creeds, was named the winner of the Alliance Theater’s Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition and was also workshopped at the O’Neill Playwright’s Conference in 2006. False Creeds was also a finalist for the Abingdon Theatre Company’s Christopher Brian Wolk Award and the Goldberg Prize in Playwriting. Another play, Brothers of the Dust, has received recognition in the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Competition, the Theodore Ward Prize for African-American Playwriting, the James W. Rodgers Playwriting Competition and was produced by Congo Square Theatre

4 AURORA THEATRE Gwinnett’s Only Professional Theatre Order Tickets Online auroratheatre.com • 678.226.6222 5

(Black Excellence Award, Black Theatre Alliance Award, ATCA Osborn Award, Jeff Award nom.). How Theo Changed His Name, an opera for which Darren provided the libretto, was premiered through the Pittsburgh (PA) Symphony Orchestra. His play You’re Invited appeared in The Best American Short Plays 2010-2011. His work has been seen at the Quo Vadimus Arts’ ID America Festival, the Fremont Centre Theatre, Chicago’s Congo Square Theatre, and the BE Company. Darren is an alum of Carnegie Mellon University, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and the Juilliard School. He is a former member of Primary Stages’ Dorothy Strelsin New Writers Group. He is a member of the Old Vic Theatre’s Old Vic New Voices Network, where he participated in the T.S. Eliot US/UK Exchange. He currently teaches playwriting at the University of Kansas.

CYNTHIA D. BARKER (Director) is heartily grateful to be making her directorial debut. Acting credits: Uprising (Metro Stage) Atlanta Credits: The Mountaintop (Aurora Theatre), Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The Troy Davis Project, Women+War (Synchronicity Theatre), How To Use A Knife, Uprising, Elemeno Pea, Third Country, and Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery (Horizon Theatre), Macbeth (Georgia Shakespeare), Flyin’ West (Theatre in the Square), A Raisin in the Sun, Lakebottom Proper, Hamlet (Springer Opera House), A Christmas Carol, Honk! The Musical (Alliance Theatre), for colored girls who considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Black Nativity (True Colors). Film/ TV: "Rectify" (Sundance TV), IR/RECONCILABLE (short film), "Tyler Perry’s House of Payne" (TBS). Love and thanks to AC, Tony, Justin, Jaclyn, cast/crew, and to the family and friends who remind me, "I CAN."

KELLSEY HOOK (Stage Manager) is so excited to make her debut with Aurora Theatre with this world premiere play. She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and has worked locally with the Atlanta Shakespeare Company, Serenbe Playhouse, 7Stages Theatre, The Seedling Project, and the Fern Theatre. She would like to thank you for supporting your local artists and keeping the tradition of the-atre alive.

DANIELLA AMPUDIA (Set Designer) is a scenographer majoring in Theatre & Performance Studies at KSU, with a concentration in Design & Technology. She is excited to be back at Aurora Theatre, now as a designer. Selected production credits include: Lighting Designer for Shrek Jr., and First Hand for Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley at Theatrical Outfit. Assistant Scenic Designer for Split in Three at Aurora Theatre. Lighting Designer for Feathers and Teeth; Scenic and Costume Designer for In the Red and Brown Water, and Associate Lighting Designer for Heathers at KSU. Daniella is also part of the Joel A. Katz Music & Entertainment Business Program, and was recently selected to be part of the USITT's 2018 Gateway Mentorship Program. Love to MJ, KL, and DC.

ANDREW CLEVELAND (Sound Designer) is a producer, composer and multi-in-strumentalist from Atlanta. After leaving the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2013, Andrew began making his own music under the name Mad Ace as well as collabo-rating in the studio with athens-based bands such as Wieuca, Big Morgan, and Juan de Fuca. Since 2011, Andrew’s played bass and cello for musicals around Atlanta including Sweeney Todd, Toxic Avenger, and Urintown, and composed music for Romeo and Juliet at Ogelthorpe. He’s played cello for Sam Brown, bass for In the Heights, and designed sound for A Bicycle Country at Aurora Theatre and is thrilled to be joining them as a sound designer for Ontario Was Here.

MAXIMO GRANO DE ORO (Lighting Designer) is New Jersey based Lighting Designer and is a recent graduate of Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts from which he received a BFA in Theater Design. While pursuing his degree he took the opportunity to study abroad for a semester at Shakespeare's Globe in London. He recently spent a summer working as an intern at the Glimmerglass Festival and, while primarily trained a theater designer, has since increasingly been

actively working in opera. This is his first production with Aurora. Recent design credits include: La Nozze di Figaro, SVADBA, Tick, Tick...Boom!, Enterprise, for col-ored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, and Dialogues of the Carmelites. Upcoming design credits include: Der Mond and for colored girls.

NICOLE CLOCKEL (Costume Designer) is a costume designer and fabricator, as well as a proud graduate of Kennesaw State University. She currently works as a design assistant for the Alliance Theatre. Her previous work with Aurora Theatre includes New Brain, Bicycle Country, and In the Heights. Nicole would like to thank her sister Danielle, Christian, and the inspirational folks at the Aurora.

CODY RUSSELL (Properties Designer) is ecstatic to be working on Ontario Was Here. Recent credits include: Aurora Theatre's Christmas Canteen, Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up and Pais de Bicicleta (Prop Design), Syncronicity Theatre's Heidi and Sense and Sensibility (Prop Design), The Weird Sisters' pro-duction of Space Girl (Prop Design and Scenic Artist) and GGC's production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Scenic Artist and Scenic Design). When not designing you may catch him on stage acting and singing his heart out (most recently in Independant Artist's Playhouse 35MM) Cody is a proud alumnus of Aurora AppCo17.

A U R O R A T H E AT R E S TA F F

Producing Artistic Director/Co-Founder .........................................ANTHONY P. RODRIGUEZAssociate Producer/Co-Founder ..............................................................ANN-CAROL PENCEAssociate Artistic Director ........................................................................ JUSTIN ANDERSONDirector of Education .................................................................................JACLYN HOFMANNDirector of Cross-Cultural Programs ................................................ JUAN CARLOS UNZUETAEducation Coordinator ......................................................................................RENITA JAMESGeneral Manager ........................................................................................ D.H. MALCOLM, IIIDirector of Community Outreach .............................................. BRITT HULTGREN RAMROOPDirector of Institutional Giving....................................................LIZ HARTNETT SANTAMARIA Company Manager .............................................................................................KATIE PELKEYProduction Manager ............................................................................................DANIEL POPETechnical Director ..........................................................................................ANDREW O'NEALResident Stage Manager .................................................................... KATIE ERIN CHAMBERS*Director of Sales and Marketing ................................................................................ AL STILOMarketing & Sales Manager ...................................................................................EB HOOYERGraphic Design & Marketing Associate ............................................................. ARI MCBRIDEBox Office Manager ................................................................................... JENNIFER OWENSBox Office & Front of House Staff ............ DAISIE AKKASHA, SARAH ELAINE, ELLIOTT FOLDS,

SONYA FREEMAN-MOSS, DIANA HOWELL,MOLLY HUNTINGTON, ROBBY OWENBY, AND SOFIE WOOD

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