PORTLAND STAGE PRESENTS:
VIRTUAL READING MAY 27 | 7 PM | FREE
Riverbank
by Brendan Pelsue
Chorus.................................................................... Benjamin Anthony Anderson* Paul........................................................................................................................ Tom Ford* Ruth.................................................................................................................. Penny Fuller* Director..............................................................................................................Rory Pelsue Asst. Director, Dramaturg, Stage Directions......................Macey Downs
Run Time
100 Minutes No Intermission
About the Play
Every spring, Paul takes his mother Ruth for an afternoon of bird watching. As Ruth slips into dementia, this year’s trip becomes a journey to the elusive limits of memory and identity. With the past and the present colliding, Ruth and Paul must question not only what she knows, but who she is when she no longer knows.
*Member of AEA (Actor’s Equity Association), appearing through permission from Theatre Authority.
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Brendan Pelsue (Playwright) is a playwright, librettist, and translator whose work has been produced in New York and regionally. His play Wellesley Girl premiered at the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Hagoromo, a dance-opera for which he wrote the libretto, appeared at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Pocantico Center, and was first-round ballot nominee for a Grammy Award. Recent projects include a new translation and adaptation of Molière’s Don Juan at Westport Country Playhouse, and Read to Me at Portland Stage, which won the 2017 Clauder Prize. He is currently working on One Thousand Years of Sacred Music and Two Americans, a chamber opera, for Theater Emory, as well as a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities for The Alliance. Commissions include South Coast Repertory, American Opera Projects, Westport Country Playhouse, and the Actors Theatre of Louisville. He was a 2017 artist-inresidence at Château de la Napoule, France, where he produced the podcast We Are Not These People. Originally from Newburyport, MA, he received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama and his BA from Brown University, where he received the Weston Prize in playwriting. He teaches at Rutgers University. Benjamin Anthony Anderson (Chorus) New York: Ensemble Studio Theatre, Pipeline Theatre Company. Regional: Indiana Rep, OSF Play On, New Harmony Project, South Coast Rep, Yale Institute of Music Theatre, Yale Rep. Film: The Breakdown Parables (Bushwick Film Festival, NewFilmmakers New York). Ben is a singer/ songwriter who has performed in music venues across the country which include: Whisky A Go Go, The Knitting Factory, Rockwood Music Hall, and The Bitter End. As a musician he has accompanied Olivia Newton John, Joe Walsh, and Tommy King (Haim). He is a graduate of the University of Evansville and the Yale School of Drama (Frederick Lowe Foundation Scholarship). Tom Ford (Paul) Boise Contemporary Theater: The world premiere of The Show on the Roof, Book by Tom Ford, Music and Lyrics by Alex Syiek. Previous productions at Portland Stage: Last Ship to Proxima Centauri, A Christmas Carol, Read to Me, Greater Tuna, Bach at Leipzig, The Mystery of Irma Vep, I Am My Own Wife, The Snow Queen, Iron Kisses, The Woman in Black, Lend Me a Tenor, Art, and Gaslight. Recent performances include Felix in The Odd Couple at New London Barn Playhouse, Connor in Lewiston at Boise Contemporary Theater, and Miss Trunchbull in Matilda at Northern Stage. Idaho Shakespeare and Great Lakes Theater: Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, Frollo in The
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Hunchback of Notre Dame, Wargrave in And Then There Were None, the Fool in King Lear, Sidney Bruhl in Deathtrap, Sweeney in Sweeney Todd, Thenardier in Les Miserables, Argan in The Imaginary Invalid, Mr. Paravicini in The Mousetrap, the Baker in Into the Woods, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened..., and the title role in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. New London Barn Playhouse: The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Drowsy Chaperone, Hairspray, Harvey, The Pirates of Penzance, The Producers, and She Loves Me. On Broadway, Tom was in By Jeeves. tomfordactor.com Penny Fuller (Ruth)’s latest Broadway appearances were in the 2017 revival of Sunday in the Park with George and recently in Anastasia. Her Broadway career began starring in Barefoot in the Park, then three Shakespeare-in-the-Park productions, and the musicals Cabaret and Rex (Drama Desk nomination), and Applause (Tony nomination); then, Wendy Wasserstein’s An American Daughter, Horton Foote’s Dividing the Estate and Neil Simon’s Dinner Party, Tony nomination. She spent time in California where her television work garnered her six Emmy nominations, and the Emmy for The Elephant Man. She appeared in two films: All the President’s Men, and The Beverly Hillbillies. She also helped found two theater companies focusing mainly on the classics. In 2001, she met composer, lyricist, playwright, Barry Kleinbort, and with him embarked on another creative phase: as cabaret artist in New York clubs and theaters. They taught musical performance together at the O’Neill Foundation. Their most recent collaboration is a solo musical which he created for her: Thirteen Things about Ed Carpolotti from the play by Jeffrey Hatcher. Her latest film has just been released: Strawberry Mansion. Rory Pelsue (Director) is thrilled to return to Portland stage after directing Read to Me in 2019! He serves as the resident director of Fake Friends and has helmed their productions of Circle Jerk, This American Wife, and a workshop of a new musical at Ars Nova. Recent and upcoming credits include an off-Broadway production of Circle Jerk at the Connelly Theater, and the world premieres of The Show on the Roof at Boise Contemporary Theater, and Deathbed Edition at Ars Nova ANT Fest and Bedlam Theater Company; workshops of Circle Jerk at Ars Nova Makers Lab and Alumni Relations at South Coast Repertory Theater; and assistant directing at the Metropolitan Opera, Roundabout Theater Company, McCarter Theater, and Yale Repertory Theater. Artistic leadership experience includes serving as artistic director or associate artistic director of Yale Cabaret, Yale Summer Cabaret, MaineStage Shakespeare, and Oxbridge Opera—a UK-based company that specialized in staging rarely-heard
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editions of Savoy Operas. Originally from Newburyport, Massachusetts, Rory received his MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama, where he received the Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize for directing. (rorypelsue.com) Macey Downs (Asst. Director, Dramaturg, Stage Directions) is a Directing & Dramaturgy Apprentice at Portland Stage with a passion for new play development. At Portland Stage, Macey directed Honey, Moon! by Gabriele Labanauskaite for the digital From Away Festival. Macey has also assistant directed several mainstage productions at Portland Stage, including I and You by Lauren Gunderson dir. Cait Robinson; Last Ship to Proxima Centauri by Greg Lam dir. Kevin R. Free; Perseverance by Callie Kimball dir. Jade King Carroll; and Where We Stand by Donnetta Lavinia Grays dir. Kevin R. Free. In 2020, she earned her BA at Bard College as a double major in Theater & Performance and Sociology. She completed a senior project in directing with the premiere of a new play titled this is the knot in my stomach by Phil Carroll, which had its New York City premiere in NY Winterfest in November 2021. She has also directed scenes or productions of the following plays: Eurydice, The Wolves, Bluebird, Richard III, Being Norwegian, and Fun Home. Special Thanks We would like to thank Anita Stewart, Cody Brackett, Todd Brian Backus, and Mical Hutson for making this reading tonight possible.
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