2017-2018 Season
“Building the Wall”
By Robert Schenkkan
October 20, 2017 - November 4, 2017
Oct. 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, Nov. 2, 3, 4 at 8 pm and
Oct. 22 at 2 pm
Premiered October/November 2017
Presented by iTheatre Collaborative
From Pulitzer & Tony winning Robert Schenkkan, comes a provocative theatrical event set in the near future and deals with one of the most talked about topics of this past election. In a time when campaign rhetoric turns into real policies, Building the Wall reveals the power of theater to question who we are and where we might be going.
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Cast (Alphabetically)
De Angelus Grisby
as Gloria
De Angelus is happy to return to the iTheatre Collaborative stage for the third time with this production. She was in Passing Strange and The Colored Museum . Ms Grisby is currently working on a one woman show and several screenplays. De Angelus is looking forward to greater opportunities in theatre and film. She always wants to thank God for the gift, her sons Roman and Elijah for allowing their mother to grow. A very special thank you for Charles St. Clair for this chance. #actsingdanceoutloud
Phillip Herrington
as Rick
Phillip is thrilled to be back at iTheatre Collaborative where he was last seen in 9 Circles. Recent credits include Reasons to be Pretty at Mesa Encore Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet with Southwest Shakespeare Company, Stupid Fucking Bird with Stray Cat, The Motherfucker With The Hat with Teatro Bravo, The Whipping Man with Black Theatre Troupe, and Romeo and Juliet, The Desperate Hours and All My Sons with Theaterworks. Phillip teaches Theatre at Apollo High School in Glendale and lives in Phoenix with his amazing wife and six, yes six, hilarious children.
Playwright
Robert Schenkkan
Playwright
Robert is a Pulitzer Prize, Tony, and WGA Award winner, three-time Emmy-nominated writer. Author of sixteen plays: All the Way, The Great Society, Building the Wall, Hanussen, Shadowplay, By the Waters of Babylon, Handler, A Single Shard, Devil and Daniel Webster, Lewis and Clark Reach the Euphrates, Final Passages, The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune, Heaven on Earth, Tachinoki, The Dream Thief, and The Kentucky Cycle (Pulitzer prize, Tony, and Drama Desk nominations). Also a collection of one-act plays, Conversations with the Spanish Lady, and a musical (book and co-lyrics), The Twelve, winner of the 2015 Henry Award. The 2014 Broadway production of All the Way swept the Awards season winning the Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Drama League, and Tony Awards as well as the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Award, the inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Prize, and Boston’s Elliot Norton Award. It also set two box office records on Broadway. It aired in May 2016 as a film for HBO, with Steven Spielberg producing, directed by Jay Roach, and was nominated for eight Emmys and the Humanitas Prize. Film: "Hacksaw Ridge," directed by Mel Gibson and starring Andrew Garfield. "The Quiet American" directed by Phillip Noyce. TV: "The Pacific" (HBO miniseries; WGA Award, two Emmy and Humanitas Prize nominations), "The Andromeda Strain," "Crazy Horse," "Spartacus."
Creative Team (Alphabetically)
Rosemary Close
Director
Rosemary has been involved in theater in the Valley for over thirty years. Her work dates back as far as the Arizona Contemporary Theater Company, Northwest Studios and the Glendale Little Theater to name a few oldies. Her onstage credits include: Frozen, Harvey, Chapter Two, Barefoot in the Park, Cabaret, The Balcony, The Way We Live Now, Royal Gambit, Loves Scenes from Romeo and Juliet, Reel to Real, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, The Maids, Skimpies and The Bad Seed. Her recent directing credits include: last season’s Velocity of Autumn and Hughie, previous season’s Grounded and An Almost Holy Picture. In 1991, Rosemary began her longtime association with the New York theater company, Mabou Mines. She appeared in numerous productions with that company both in Phoenix and New York. The highlight of that work with Mabou Mines was a leading role in the multimedia stage production, Wrath of Kali, directed by the award winning and acclaimed, Lee Breuer. Currently, she is the Managing Director for iTheatre Collaborative and is proud to be a part of the impact iTheatre has made in the Phoenix downtown community.
Christopher Haines
Production Design, Producer
Christopher is a theater veteran with over thirty years of experience as an actor, producer, stage manager, writer, director and designer. He graduated in 1991 from Duke University and in 2016 from Arizona State. Directing credits include: (for iTheatre) White Guy on the Bus, A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney, A Bad Friend, The Fish Must Die, Molly Sweeney, and Cat’s Paw. As a designer his work includes: Topdog/Underdog, A Raisin in the Sun, Gunplay, Peter Pan and Wendy, The Wizard of Oz, The Colored Museum, The House of Bernarda Alba, and Horn in the West, a 1500-seat outdoor amphitheater in Boone, N.C. In 1994, Mr. Haines collaborated with the internationally acclaimed director, Lee Breuer (founder of Mabou Mines), on his project Wrath of Kali, as the Director of Videography, both in its debut in Phoenix, AZ and in New York. Other design work in video, photography and media includes; the Daniel Lentz Group's “A Crack in the Bell,” such plays as Jack, Reel to Real, Romeo and Juliet, Sweet Thunder, Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope, and he has worked as the Director of Photography on the feature films Wake of the Hero and Means of Escape and was the production designer for the independent film Hack. In 2002 he co-founded iTheatre Collaborative. His work at iTheatre has garnered national attention and recognition with invited performances at the National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., the Black Arts Movement Festival in Austin, TX and the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, AK. For iTheatre he has produced well-over sixty productions in the Valley with numerous regional and world premieres.