WORLD PREMIERE
January 9 - February 2, 2025
CHECK OUT HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR WHO CARES: COMMUNITY ROUNDTABLE!
Co-Written by:
ARI ROTH, A. LORRAINE ROBINSON, VANESSA GILBERT
with original stand-up material from JIM MEYER
and excerpts from the work of M.T. CONNOLLY and her book
“The Measure of Our Age: Navigating Care, Safety, Money, and Meaning Later in Life”
Directed by
KATHRYN CHASE BRYER
Staged At
UNIVERSALIST NATIONAL MEMORIAL CHURCH
1810 16th Street, NW • Washington, DC
SYNOPSIS
A new work from our Voices From a Changing Nation Series (2 hours and 5 minutes, which includes a 15 minute intermission)
Based on interviews with local colleagues in the theater community, elder justice advocates, and close friends whose lives have been disrupted – but also transformed – by unexpected caretaking for loved ones contending with memory loss, Who Cares: ♥ The Caregiver Interview Project is the World Premiere story of evolving relationships within a multi-generational, caregiver support group. A fusion of verbatim testimony sprung-to-life to reveal dramatic confrontation, Sister Sledge dance breaks, and a group leader's journey to sustain the love of a valiant sister facing debilitating challenges, Who Cares is frequently funny, always intimate, and powerfully informed, moving from church basement, to comedy club, to rock-star book event and beyond, exposing fault-lines within some families, unbreakable bonds in others, and moving friendships between strangers forming newly generative communities of care.
“Caretaking frames it, illuminates it — but really this dramatic experience is an encounter with the common precarity of all our lives.” -John Stoltenberg, DCTA
Affinity Nights & Talk Backs
Monday, January 13 - Opening Night/Press Night & Post-Show Reception
(LIMITED TICKETS AVAILABLE)
Discounts
Affinity Group - Regular Performance Discount: $15 off - Contact VFP for group code
Regular Performance Discount for VFP Friends: $10 Off with code TENOFF
Artist Discount: 50% Off with code ARTIST50 (proof of artistic credit at box office)
MEET THE CAST
KELLY RENEE ARMSTRONG (RACHEL & OTHERS) is an actor, writer and educator in the DMV. Regional credits include Tempestuous Elements, Our War (Arena Stage), Bov’ Water (Northern Stage), The Call (Theatre J), The Elder Statesman (Washington Stage Guild), Invisible Man (Studio Theatre u/s), Yellowman, Antigone Project (Rep Stage). Armstrong received the Maryland Individual Artist Award grant and was a finalist for the Many Voices Fellowship for her writing. She has developed her plays with the Playwright’s Center, Playwrights Arena, and The Eden Theater Company. Kelly is a proud alum of Bowie State University and holds an MFA in Acting and Playwriting from The Catholic University of America. Much love to Kaliah and my family!
kellyreneearmstrong.com
LISE BRUNEAU (THERESA & OTHERS) is delighted to join Voices Festival Productions, and is happy to rejoin her partner in art and politics Ari Roth, after two decades of work together. A DC actor and director and Helen Hayes Award recipient, she appears at the Shakespeare Theatre, Arena Stage, and Studio Theatre among others. She has played on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country. As a director, she’s helmed productions of Oresteia, Measure for Measure, Savage in Limbo, and more; while continuing to cause trouble at DC’s upstart Taffety Punk Theatre Co. where she recently played Macbeth. Lise trained at RADA.
LAURA SHIPLER CHICO (SARAH & OTHERS) is based primarily in London, Laura Shipler Chico’s theater credits include a lead in award-winning Museum Pieces (Jamie Christian Productions), Nat in Rabbit Hole (Understudied Productions), Wicked Witch/Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz (Colour House Theatre), and Mrs. Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank (The Workhouse Theatre). Screen credits include award-winning films Borne (Amazon Prime Pathways), Luca, and Joseph Turns 42 . Laura began her involvement with Who Cares when she was in DC to care for her own mother. She dedicates this performance to her mother and to the memory of that precious, intimate time. Follow Laura on Instagram: @laurashiplerchico www.laurashiplerchico.com
KENDALL ARIN CLAXTON (KRIS & OTHERS) Hailing from Detroit, MI, Kendall Arin Claxton is an Alumna of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and has received her BFA from Point Park University’s Conservatory of Performing Arts. Her earlier credits include The Bluest Eye (as Claudia), Uncle Tom’s Cabin as Topsy, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as Young Maya (Prime Stage). In her career as a DC artist she has appeared in Season of Lights (Discovery Theatre), Page to Stage reading of the Velveteen Rabbit (Doctor) at the Kennedy Center, FRESHH Inc’s Next to Kin Festival, Crowns (as Yolanda) at the Creative Cauldron, Anacostia Playhouse’s Black Nativity, and Discovery Theater’s Lions of Adventure (Madame CJ Walker). Her proudest work is the self-produced one-woman show Epiphany: A Journey to Yes. Some film credits include BET’s “Angrily Ever After” (Bartender) & “Hear Me Say My Name” produced by Kelly Gardner. She expresses great gratitude to Voices Festival Productions for the opportunity to share such a significant and life changing story of black women who shook history! Her faith in Christ and love for people compels her approach to art, with community in mind, she always reminds herself – it’s an US thing! (2 Corinthians 5:21).
JOELLE DENISE (LORRI)(she/her) is ecstatic to be making her DC debut. Her recent credits include A Christmas Carol (Mrs. Cratchit) at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Seven Guitars (Louise) with the AngelWing Project at the Chesapeake Arts Center, Clay’s Place (Edna) with the AngelWing Project at the Chesapeake Arts Center, Laughing Stock (Sarah) at Laurel Mill Playhouse, among many others. She trained at Studio Acting Conservatory in Washington, DC.
TODD SCOFIELD (PAUL & OTHERS) DC Area: Folger Theatre: Romeo and Juliet, Tempest, Hamlet, Othello, Henry VIII, Merry Wives of Windsor, others; Arena Stage: Holiday, City of Conversation, Sovereignty; Shakespeare Theatre: King Lear, Our Town, Richard III, others; Round House Theatre: Ink, Oslo, The Book of Will, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, others; Signature Theatre: Ragtime; Kennedy Center: Mister Roberts; Theater J, Studio, Ford’s, Olney, Adventure Theatre, Imagination Stage, and Everyman Theatre REGIONAL: Arden Theatre: Freud’s Last Session, PlayMakers, Charlotte Rep, and North Carolina Shakespeare Festival. Television: recurring role in seasons 3 and 5 of The Wire.
ROBERT BOWEN SMITH (SWING) Select DC Theater Credits include The Folger Theater: Romeo and Juliet; Keegan Theatre: Shakespeare in Love, Ripcord; Imagination Stage: Escape from Pelligro Island; Spooky Action Theater: Rameau's Nephew, Collaborators; Rorschach Theatre: Sleeping Giant, Angel Number 9, Reykjavik, Neverwhere; Theater Alliance: The Raid; Hub Theatre: in a word, Peekaboo!; Synetic Theater: Picture of Dorian Gray, The Three Musketeers, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Cinderella, The Wizard of Oz.
Regional: American Shakespeare Center: Love's Labour's Lost
www.robertbowensmith.com @mottopuck
RACHEL MANTEUFFEL (SWING) is thrilled to be back with Voices Festival Productions, where she understudied MY CALAMITOUS AFFAIR. She's worked with Bob Bartlett, Nu Sass Productions, 4615 Theater Company, Pinky Swear, The Washington Rogues, Prometheus Theater and others. She's studied at Studio Acting Conservatory and has another life with The Washington Post.
LLOGAN PAIGE (SWING) is a DMV native and Howard University BFA Acting alumna who is overjoyed to join the Who Cares Company! She has most recently been seen regionally in Poetry for the People: The June Jordan Experience (Theater Alliance), Encanto (prod. Disney x CAMP), Diagnosed (dir. Iyona Blake), + the Negro Classical Cultural Carnival (prod. p.A.R.T. Productions) with other credits including local theatre, web series, tv series, and voiceover work! Llogan would like to extend gratitude to her family, friends, AKA, and D.I.V.A. Inc; for their continuous love and support. To keep up with Llogan’s journey visit www.lloganpaige.com
MEET THE CREATIVE TEAM
ARI ROTH (CO-WRITER) & VFP’s Founding Artistic Producing Partner is a playwright, producer, dramaturg, educator, and child of Holocaust refugees. He served as Artistic Director of Theater J from 1997 to 2014 and established Mosaic Theater Company of DC in late 2014 as its Founding Artistic Director. He founded Voices Festival Production LLC, in partnership with A. Lorraine Robinson in June of 2021. Over 18 seasons at Theater J, he produced 129 productions, including 44 world premieres, and created the annual festivals, “Voices From a Changing Middle East” and “Locally Grown: Community Supported Art.” In a 2005 feature, The New York Times called Theater J, “The premiere theatre for premiers.” During his founding tenure at Mosaic, he produced 36 full productions, including 9 world premieres, fifty staged readings, “Mosaic on the Move” presentations, with over 600 post-show discussions. In 2017, Roth was given the DC Mayor's Arts Award for Visionary Leadership. As a playwright, his work includes Born Guilty, based on the book of interviews with children of Nazis by Peter Sichrovsky, commissioned and produced by Arena Stage and directed by Zelda Fichandler; Peter and The Wolf, a sequel to Born Guilty, (Theater J, Epic Theater, Jewish Theatre of the South); a family prequel, Andy and The Shadows (Theater J), and is currently writing Born Guilty Unbound. Oh, The Innocents was directed by Joe Mantello for GeVa Theatre where it won the Clifford Davy Award. Other plays include Goodnight Irene, Life In Refusal, Love and Yearning in the Not for Profits; and Still Waiting (companion to Waiting For Lefty; all produced at Theater J, and elsewhere), along with a dozen one-acts. His most recent play, A Calamitous Affair, produced at VFP and presented in a workshop at the Steppenwolf Theatre Garage last year. His full bio can be found on our Producing Partners page.
A. LORRAINE ROBINSON (CO-WRITER) & VFP’s Artistic Producing Partner (she/her) is an award-winning theatre director, dramaturg, and community arts educator. She was Artistic Producing Director of MuseFire Productions, a (501c3) not-for-profit theatre & film company dedicated to multimedia and stylistically challenging work (especially voices of women & individuals of color). Recent Projects include: Director - #Charlottesville and Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too, August Wilson) [VFP]; The Piano Lesson & Raisin in the Sun [Sitar Arts Center]; Let Me Down Easy and Baltimore [St. Mary’s College of MD], Pott Odds and You Were Mine (Transformation Theatre], Three Strangers Sitting Around a Backyard Firepit at Two in the Morning Listening to Bruce Springsteen's NEBRASKA [Bob Barlett site-specific production]. Dramaturg - TopDog/Underdog [Avant Bard]. She received the Central Ohio Theatre Critics Circle Award: Best Director and Best Production for The Laramie Project (Contemporary American Theatre Company.) In 2017, 2018 and 2019 she received Tony Award: Excellence in Theatre Education Honorable Mention Awards. Memberships: BTN & SDC (associate). Lorraine is also a Board Member & Associated Artist with Transformation Theatre Company. Her full bio
can be found on our Producing Partners page.
VANESSA GILBERT (CO-WRITER/PROJECT DOULA) is a creative producer, interdisciplinary artist, and educator from Providence, RI who works with humans, objects, and digital media. She makes, produces, and directs performance works of varying scales, from miniature puppet theatre to multi-day performance festivals and opera. In 17 years with Perishable Theatre, Vanessa directed and produced scores of plays and events and founded both Blood from a Turnip-RI’s only late night puppet salon and the Resident Artist at Perishable Theatre program. She has developed and taught classes in theatre history, theatre for social change, directing and producing for learners of all ages. Vanessa is a proud member of the Magdalena Project, an international network for women in contemporary theatre for which she instigated Magdalena USA, the first of only two Magdalena Project festivals in North America. Vanessa is also an associate artist with Sleeping Weazel, an expansive theatre company based between Boston, MA and the internet. Her work has been featured at Perishable Theatre, the HERE Arts Center, The Castle of Imagination Festival (Ustka and Gdansk, Poland,) the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, among others. She received her MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College in May 2015. Since moving to DC in 2018, Vanessa has worked with Rorschach Theatre, Voices Festival Productions, and ExPats Theatre.
KATHRYN CHASE BRYER (DIRECTOR) is the Director of Theatre at Imagination Stage. She is a theatre artist with a background in directing, acting, dramaturgy, teaching, and administration and holds a B.S. from Northwestern University. For Imagination Stage, Kathryn has directed over 50 productions in the last 25 years and has helped to develop and commission over a dozen scripts. In addition, she has worked at many theatres in the DMV area. Awards and recognition: 2014 The BFG, Helen Hayes for Best Scenic Design and Best Production, Theatre for Young Audiences, 2015 Wiley and the Hairy Man, Best Production, Theatre for Young Audiences, 2018, Helen Hayes for Best Director of a Musical Wonderland, Alice’s Rock and Roll Adventures and Best Production Theatre for Young Audiences and 2021 Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed the Rock Experience Helen Hayes Best Production for Theatre for Young Audiences, and New Kid, for Imagination Stage Learning thru Theatre project at Planet Word. In addition to her duties at Imagination Stage, she has directed Scapin (2014) and Peter and the Starcatcher (winner of Helen Hayes 2018 Best Ensemble, Musical) and The Last Five Years at Constellation Theatre Company, The Late Wedding (2017) at the Hub Theatre and Fly By Night (2018) at 1st Stage, VA (nominated for 11 Helen Hayes Awards winning 5 including Best Director of a Musical, Hayes), The Wolves at Next Stop Theatre in Herndon, Va., The Oldest Boy at Spooky Action Theatre, American Spies and other Homegrown Fables at the Hub Theatre, A Doll House, The Late Wedding at UMD and Dracula a Feminist Revenge Tragedy at UMBC, Urinetown at American University and upcoming Freaky Friday at Catholic Univ.
DAVID ELIAS* (PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER) has also been SM for VFP's Letters to Kamala/Dandelion Peace, Home?, #Charlottesville, and a half-dozen readings the theater has done over the past year. He recently played Weller Martin in The Gin Game at Compass Rose Theater in Annapolis. David, who is based in the DC area, has been acting and stage managing for 30 years, working with Theater J, Wayside Theatre, Metrostage, Transformation Theatre, Spooky Action Theater, Totem Pole Theater, Edge of the Universe Theater, Theater of the 1st Amendment, Bay Theater, and many more. For over 20 years he has been teaching Voice, Acting, and Script Analysis at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. He has thought about retiring, but as he would continue working in theater as a hobby, sees absolutely no reason to do so.
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association
HEIDI CASTLE-SMITH (SET DESIGNER) has worked as both a set designer and scenic artist in and around the Washington DC area. Currently she is the Visiting Assistant Professor of Scenography at St. Mary's College of Md where she teaches and designs their main stage productions. She is also the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic director of Transformation Theatre Company. Other design credits include, Tender (Transformation Theatre Company and best of Fringe 2023 by DC Metro Theatre arts) These Shining Lives for The Arts Collective @ HCC (made the "Best Of" list for DC Metro Theatre Arts in the category of Set Designer), Spring Awakening, A Year with Frog and Toad, Peter Pan, and Dogfight (Red Branch Theatre Company), Assassins, Mother Courage and Lear’s daughters (Black Box Student Theatre at University of MD), and multiple summer seasons as a company member for the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.
DAVID M. SMITH (PM/LIGHTING DESIGNER) (he/him) has worked as a Set Designer, Lighting Designer and Technical Director in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC. Recently his work in lighting design has been seen in the Conservatory at MGM National Harbor and for both TedX MidAtlantic and TedX Bethesda. David is currently the Technical Director of the Performing Arts Center At St. Mary's College of Md where he also teaches and designs lighting.
TYRA BELL (PROPS DESIGNER) is a Scorpio and native Washingtonian who loves roller skating. She currently works as a prop shop supervisor at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland and has been working in theater the past 5 years. Occasionally, she also works at Anthropologie as an unofficial assistant display artist, building unique, whimsical installations throughout the store. She has spent many years at Sitar Arts Center on both the mural and musical team and has become a skilled painter and resourceful craftsman. Recently, she became an active member in the Local 22 IATSE stagehand union, and occasionally helps to prepare for concerts or Broadway shows. Tyra has a degree from Rhode Island School of Design in furniture design. Someday she hopes to have her own practice as a sculptor in the DMV, but currently loves the fast paced, high-energy atmosphere in theater. In quiet hours you can find Tyra wearing overalls and crocs or under a blanket watching episodes of 90210.
DAVID LAMONT WILSON (SOUND DESIGNER) is thrilled to be returning to Voices Festival Productions. He is especially thrilled to be working with Ari, Lorraine, Kate and this fantastic cast and crew. Wilson’s most recent sound designs include the critically acclaimed production of Confederates at Mosaic Theater, Chicken & Biscuits at the Virginia Repertory Theatre and the off Broadway production of ”Queens Girl In The World” for Abingdon Theatre Company and "School Girls, Or The African Mean Girls Play for Hangar Theatre Company. Favorite sound designs include the Atlanta Alliance Theatre production of "The C.A. Lyons Project" (Suzi Bass Award nominated), “Wig Out” at Studio Theatre, The Welder's "Not Enuf Lifetimes," Charter Theatre’s production of “Am I Black Enough Yet?,” “Dead Man Walking” at American University, and “Titus” for the Washington Shakespeare Theatre. His resume also includes designs at the Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Arena Stage, Imagination Stage, the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, Catholic University, and Georgetown University to name a few.
BRANDEE MATHIES (COSTUME DESIGNER) has been Studio’s Costume Shop Manager since 1994. He is a Helen Hayes nominated costume designer for Nollywood Dreams at Round House Theatre & MountainTop. He has also costume designed Passover, Mother Struck, This Is Our Youth, The Year of Magical Thinking, Stoop Stories, Rimers of Eldritch, A Number, The Syringa Tree, and Comic Briefs for Studio Theatre, as well as Moth, Contractions, A Beautiful View, Crestfall, and Polaroid Stories for Studio 2ndStage. Other DC area credits include Costume designed: Letters to Kamala/Dandelion Peace at Voices Festival Productions, One in Two, Birds of North America, Satchmo at the Waldorf, Hooded for Dummies, Blood Knot, Eureka Day, Shame, Vicuna, Inhered the Windbag at Mosaic Theater (Costume Design); Pankr’ac 45 at Atlas Theatre (Costume Designer) This Girl Laugh, Black Nativity, This Bitter Earth at Theater Alliance. (Costume Design) Sonnets and Soul, Anything Goes and & Black Nativity at Howard University; (Assistant Designer) The Wiz at Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Blues for an Alabama Sky and Sunday in the Park with George (Firsthand) at Arena Stage; and Black Nativity (Assistant Designer) at The Kennedy Center. Costume design Government movie (The AD-X2 Controversy).
DARYL EISENBERG (CASTING DIRECTOR) (she/her) is Owner of Eisenberg Casting - an Artios-nominated full-service casting office. Eisenberg Casting is a fast-paced, bi-coastal casting office with extensive experience casting for Film, TV, Broadway, Theater, Commercials, Voiceover, and New Media. Daryl has cast stage productions for Broadway, off-Broadway, National Tours, and major regional theater houses. In DC: Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Theater J, The Kennedy Center, Voices Festival Productions. She has covered nearly all the major and minor markets coast-to-coast and her films have played major festivals such as Sundance, Venice, Tribeca, TIFF, SXSW, San Diego, Cleveland, Atlanta, Soho, and have also received distribution theatrically and streaming. Daryl is the chair of the Somerset County Film Commission and is a former Watchung Borough Councilmember. She holds a BFA from Tisch School of The Arts/New York University and Playwrights Horizons Theater School. Member of Casting Society of America. @EBCastingCo. www.ebcastingco.com
APRIL SIZEMORE-BARBER (DRAMATURG) is thrilled to be back with this play, after serving as dramaturg for its earlier iteration(s). In her non-theatrical life, April teaches at Georgetown University and received her PhD in performance studies from UC Berkeley. She’s super proud to have published the book “Prismatic Performances: Queer South Africa and the Fragmentation of the Rainbow Nation” in 2020.
NORA BUTLER (ASM) Nora Butler is thrilled to join Voices Festival Productions as the assistant stage manager. An avid theater maker, Nora has worked on stages across the east coast- starting as a supernumerary at the Kennedy Center's Washington National Opera, to performing in productions at her alma mater, Wesleyan University. As a psychology graduate, she is passionate about representing mental health in performance spaces, and is proud to be working on a production that works towards just that.
DRAMATURGY - who cares
An expert on elder justice maps the challenges of aging, how things go wrong, and presents powerful tools we can use to forge better long lives for ourselves, our families, and our communities.