Cyrus O. Taylor: (Dramaturg) is a senior at Case Western Reserve University. He recently served as dramaturg for Cleveland Play House’s production of Legacy of Light, and he is dramaturg for all of this season’s CWRU productions, both graduate and undergraduate. Taylor has appeared in Othello and Stage Door at Eldred Theater and Samuel Becket’s All That Fall at Caesar’s Forum. He designed sound for Eldred’s productions of The Heidi Chronicles and Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Directing credits include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Gutenberg! The Musical!, both through CWRU’s Players’ Theater Group. He has also worked as properties master for Dobama Theatre’s production of Blue Door and Dobama’s Marilyn Bianchi Kids’ Playwriting Festival. less is a senior at Case Western Reserve University. He recently served as dramaturg for Cleveland Play House’s production of Legacy of Light, and he is dramaturg for all of this season’s CWRU productions, both graduate and undergraduate. Taylor has appeared in Othello and Stage Door at Eldred Theater and Samuel... more

Jerrold Scott: (Dialect Coach) is Cleveland Play House’s resident dialect coach. Selected CPH coaching credits include The 39 Steps, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, the world premiere of Lee Blessing’s adaptation of Heaven’s My Destination, Around the World in 80 Days, The Glass Menagerie, Vincent in Brixton, The Waverly Gallery, A Small Family Business, and The Emancipation of Valet du Chambre. Scott directed Present Laughter, Heartbreak House and The Real Thing for the CWRU/CPH MFA Acting Program, and appeared with the MFA ensemble in As You Like It. Before joining the faculty at CWRU as associate professor of theater with teaching areas in directing, acting and speech/dialects, Scott was a freelance actor and director based in Washington, D.C. While in Washington, he worked at most major theatre companies in the city and served as The Studio Theatre’s resident dialect coach. He holds a Master of Fine Arts, University of South Carolina/The Shakespeare Theatre. less is Cleveland Play House’s resident dialect coach. Selected CPH coaching credits include The 39 Steps, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, the world premiere of Lee Blessing’s adaptation of Heaven’s My Destination, Around the World in 80 Days, The Glass Menagerie, Vincent in Brixton, The Waverly Gallery, A Small Family Business,... more

Kristine L. Davies: (Costume Designer) designed costumes for Cleveland Play House’s A Soldier’s Tale with Catch and Release and CWRU/CPH MFA Acting Program productions of Present Laughter, Autobahn, Arcadia, Big Love, The Little Foxes, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Real Thing. She designed Bright Room Called Day, What the Butler Saw, and Shadow of a Gunman for the CWRU undergraduate theatre program. Davies was resident designer at The Beck Center for the Arts; she has done other costume work for Great Lakes Theater Festival, Akron Art Museum, Cleveland Opera, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Playhouse Square, Cleveland State University, Phenix Repertory Dance Theatre, GroundWorks DanceTheater, Boise Contemporary Theater, and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. She has her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Sociology from Cleveland State University. less designed costumes for Cleveland Play House’s A Soldier’s Tale with Catch and Release and CWRU/CPH MFA Acting Program productions of Present Laughter, Autobahn, Arcadia, Big Love, The Little Foxes, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Real Thing. She designed Bright Room Called Day, What the Butler Saw, and Shadow of a... more

Lisa G. Palinkas: (Stage Manager) recently graduated from Lorain County Community College with an Associate's degree in Arts and Science. Last year she did an internship through LCCC at Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, Texas, and while there she was stage manager for Odd and the Frost Giants. She is honored to be working on this production with Cleveland Play House and Case Western Reserve University. less recently graduated from Lorain County Community College with an Associate's degree in Arts and Science. Last year she did an internship through LCCC at Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, Texas, and while there she was stage manager for Odd and the Frost Giants. She is honored to be working on... more

Matthew Eckstein: (Sound Designer) is proud to be designing in the new Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre and working alongside such talented artists. His previous credits include I Remember Mama, Hope Summer Repertory Theatre, 2011; Our Town, Case Western Reserve University, 2011; The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, CWRU, 2010; and The Last Night of Ballyhoo, CWRU, 2010. He has worked as a freelance sound designer at several theatres and schools in the Cleveland area including Dobama Theatre, The Beck Center for the Arts, and Chagrin Falls Performing Arts Academy. Eckstein is a junior Bachelor of Arts in Technical Theater and Design student at Case Western Reserve University. less is proud to be designing in the new Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre and working alongside such talented artists. His previous credits include I Remember Mama, Hope Summer Repertory Theatre, 2011; Our Town, Case Western Reserve University, 2011; The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, CWRU, 2010; and The Last... more

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Michael Boll: (Lighting Designer) recently designed Cleveland Play House productions of Bell, Book and Candle; Every Good Boy Deserves Favor; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play; and Stew and the Negro Problem. CWRU/CPH MFA Acting Program credits are The Misanthrope, The Winter's Tale, In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, An Orchard, Cloud 9, and Angels in America: Millennium Approaches. Cleveland lighting design work includes Cleveland Public Theatre, Cain Park, Cleveland Museum of Art, Karamu, Dobama, and Beck Center. Off-Broadway includes The Moliere Cycle, Classic Stage Company; Songs for a New World, George Street Playhouse; Dog Sees God, SoHo Playhouse; and The Moonlight Room (associate lighting designer), Beckett Theatre. His work has also been seen at New York International Fringe Festival, La Mama E.T.C., HERE Arts Center, Blue Heron Theatre, and Center Stage New York. He designed numerous Yale Cabaret shows including Say You Love Satan (Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa) and Fake (Bess Wohl). less recently designed Cleveland Play House productions of Bell, Book and Candle; Every Good Boy Deserves Favor; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play; and Stew and the Negro Problem. CWRU/CPH MFA Acting Program credits are The Misanthrope, The Winter's Tale, In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, An Orchard, Cloud... more

Ron Wilson: (Director) is resident production movement director and fight choreographer at Cleveland Play House. He has choreographed fights for more than 60 productions and continues to freelance as a movement coach/choreographer. Wilson is a founding board member and past president of the Association of Theatre Movement Educators. Among his many directing credits is the recent world premiere of Comp at Boston Playwrights’ Stage. He directed The Underpants, Eurydice and Picasso at the Lapin Agile at Case Western Reserve University’s Eldred Theatre and In Arabia We’d all be Kings, Cloud 9 and Arcadia for the CWRU/CPH MFA Acting Program where he is program director and chair of the Department of Theater. As an actor, his most recent performance on a CPH mainstage was as Dr. Glass in Room Service and before that as Klingelehoff in The Underpants. He also appeared at CPH’s Brooks Theatre in 2010 as Lavash in the MFA ensemble’s production of All’s Well that Ends Well. less is resident production movement director and fight choreographer at Cleveland Play House. He has choreographed fights for more than 60 productions and continues to freelance as a movement coach/choreographer. Wilson is a founding board member and past president of the Association of Theatre Movement Educators. Among his many directing credits... more

Stephen Adly Guirgis: (Playwright) has been a member of LAByrinth Theater Company since 1994. His award-winning plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States. They include The Motherfucker with the Hat, Guirgis’ Broadway debut as a playwright, starring Chris Rock, Bobby Cannavale and Elizabeth Rodriguez and nominated for six 2011 Tony Awards; The Little Flower of East Orange, world premiere at The Public Theater in 2008, Los Angeles premiere at the Elephant Theatre Company in 2010; Our Lady of 121st Street; Jesus Hopped the A Train; In Arabia We'd all be Kings; and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. With the exception of Motherfucker, these plays were originally produced by LAByrinth and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Guirgis was awarded a 2004 Theatre Communications Group Fellowship, attended the 2004 Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab, and was named one of 2004's 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine. He is the recipient of new play commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club and South Coast Repertory and is a member of New Dramatists, MCC Theater’s Playwrights’ Coalition, New River Dramatists, Primary Stages, and The Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit. He developed and directed Liza Col-n-Zayas's Sistah Supreme for Danny Hoch's Hip Hop Theater Festival, and Marco Greco's award-winning Behind the Counter with Mussolini in New York and Los Angeles. As an actor he appeared in Brett C. Leonard's Guinea Pig Solo, produced by LAByrinth at The Public Theater in 2004 and has had leading film roles in Todd Solondz's Palindromes, Brett C. Leonard's Jailbait opposite Michael Pitt, and in Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret. Guirgis has also worked as a violence prevention specialist and HIV educator. less has been a member of LAByrinth Theater Company since 1994. His award-winning plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States. They include The Motherfucker with the Hat, Guirgis’ Broadway debut as a playwright, starring Chris Rock, Bobby Cannavale and Elizabeth Rodriguez and nominated for six 2011... more

Tiffany M. Scribner: (Scenic Designer) is celebrating her first season as charge scenic artist at Cleveland Play House. She has designed Looking for the Pony and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie for Synchronicity Performance Group in Atlanta, The Pajama Game at The University of Findlay, as well as The Lark, Six Degrees of Separation and To Kill a Mockingbird among others. Scribner has worked as the charge scenic artist for Utah Shakespeare Festival and Porthouse Theatre. Teaching is one of her passions; she enjoys working with others to help an idea blossom into beautiful reality. In her spare time she is a superhero, defending the streets of Cleveland from injustice and baking for carpenters in need. less is celebrating her first season as charge scenic artist at Cleveland Play House. She has designed Looking for the Pony and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie for Synchronicity Performance Group in Atlanta, The Pajama Game at The University of Findlay, as well as The Lark, Six Degrees of... more

Content Advisory for In Arabia We'd All Be Kings: The CWRU/CPH MFA Acting Program is charged with training actors for the professional theater.  The fact that the program is housed in a professional theater adds an expectation of high standards of artistry in the work audiences see on the CPH stage.For the students to have experiences that will give them the tools necessary to meet the needs of the profession, the training has to encompass a broad range of material and performance styles.  As we look for appropriate scripts, one of the main considerations of the program is to expose the students to plays that are rich in language and character.  These choices have run the gamut from Shakespeare to Moliere, to Anton Chekhov and Tennessee Williams and William Inge, and to modern authors such as Neil LaBute and Stephen Adly Guirgis in this instance.In Arabia We’d All Be Kings was chosen for its rich source of character work and challenging language.  This collection of characters represents a side of the social order that is rarely seen onstage.  They are as close to the bottom of the social order as you can get yet they continue to struggle to hold onto their humanity and their dreams – as ill-conceived as the dreams may be.   There is a sense of nobility in that pursuit and that is what the actor looks for in a role.  The challenge for the actor in this instance is to expand their sense of empathy for characters that society has forgotten about or who have fallen through the cracks.   Please be advised that this production contains strong, graphic language and adult situations and is not intended for anyone under the age of 16.To go even deeper into this production, we invite you to participate in our pre-show conversations, which begin 45 minutes before each curtain.  These interactive half-hour conversations pull back the curtain early to let you connect with the people, themes, ideas and creative choices that go into each production, in an engaging and relaxed setting.Thank you for joining us as the First Year MFA Graduate Ensemble begins its work with Cleveland Play House. less The CWRU/CPH MFA Acting Program is charged with training actors for the professional theater.  The fact that the program is housed in a professional theater adds an expectation of high standards of artistry in the work audiences see on the CPH stage.For the students to have experiences that... more