The Wrestling Patient
March 27 - April 11, 2009Written by Kirk Lynn in collaboration with Anne Gottlieb
Directed by Katie Pearl
Set Design by Richard Wadsworth Chambers
Lighting Design by Franklin Meissner Jr.
Costume Design by Charles Schoonmaker
Sound Design by Ben Emerson
A World Premiere! This extraordinary new play is based on the true story of Dutch Jewish writer, Etty Hillesum. As WWII engulfs her native Amsterdam, Etty is confronted with a remarkable choice: to hold onto a kind of integrity, or to save her own life. With the help of a charismatic teacher, she enters into the emerging science of psychology and wrestles to answer the demons of her time by looking within herself. The Wrestling Patient brings to light Etty’s secret history of musical evenings, therapeutic wrestling matches, black-market strawberries, and midnight prayers. Her story is one of an amazing transformation during one of the darkest hours in history.
Featuring:
Anne Gottlieb… Etty Hillesum
Will Lyman… Julius Spier
Daniel Berger-Jones… Jaap
Joel Colodner… Louis “Father” Hillesum
Tom Gottlieb… Mischa
Marya Lowry… Riva “Mother” Hillesum
Will McGarrahan… Wrecking Ball
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Who's Who
Cast & Crew
VICTORIA S. COADY* SpeakEasy: The Drowsy Chaperone (IRNE Award – Best Musical); Striking 12; Body Awareness; Adding Machine: A Musical (Norton & IRNE Awards – Outstanding Musical Production); [title of show]; The Wrestling Patient. Regional: afterlife: a ghost story; DollHouse (New Repertory Theatre); A Child’s Christmas in Wales (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre);Uncle Vanya: Finita La Comedia (Boston Art Theatre), and three seasons as PSM at Wellfleet Harbor Actors’ Theater. Off-Broadway: The Merchant of Venice (NY & Royal Shakespeare Company, UK with TFANA), The Jew of Malta, Sore Throats, and All’s Well That Ends Well (TFANA). Victoria is Producer and Director of Operations for toUch Productions. A native Bostonian, she received her BFA in Stage Management from CalArts.
PAUL DAIGNEAULT (Producing Artistic Director) was the recipient of the 2014 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence by the Boston Theater Critics Association. Since founding SpeakEasy in 1992, he has produced over 100 Boston premieres. SpeakEasy directing highlights include: The Color Purple; In the Heights; Xanadu; Next to Normal; Nine; Body Awareness; The Great American Trailer Park Musical; [title of show]; The Savannah Disputation; Jerry Springer – The Opera; The New Century; Some Men; Zanna, Don’t!; Parade (2008 Elliot Norton Award – Outstanding Director, Midsize Company); Almost, Maine; Caroline, or Change; Take Me Out; Company; A Man of No Importance (co-production Súgán); Bat Boy: The Musical (2003 Elliot Norton Award – Outstanding Director, Small Company); Passion; A New Brain; Violet; Songs for a New World; Floyd Collins; Jeffrey; and Love! Valour! Compassion! Regional credits: Grand Hotel and Nine (The Boston Conservatory and Cincinnati Conservatory of Music); Rent, City of Angels, Sunday in the Park with George, and Merrily We Roll Along (The Boston Conservatory); and Into the Woods, Urinetown, and Blue Window (Boston College). Paul is also on the faculty at The Boston Conservatory where he teaches musical theatre and directing. He has also been honored with the Boston College Arts Council’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement in 2007, and served as the 2011-2012 Rev. J. Donald Monan S.J. Professor in Theatre Arts. Outside the theatre, Paul serves on the Boards of the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center and the ICU Patient & Family Advisory Council at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
ANNE GOTTLIEB* is thrilled to return to SpeakEasy for her fourth time. Other productions include The Women, In the Next Room or (the vibrator play), and the world premiere of The Wrestling Patient, which her company 40Magnolias Productions created and then co-produced in collaboration with SpeakEasy and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Recent appearances include Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune at the New Repertory Theatre, Futurity at the ART, My Name is Asher Lev at the Lyric Stage, Not Enough Air at The Nora Theatre. She is the co-author of Anam Cara: Two Women Fall in the Ancient Tale of Gilgamesh which premiered at the Roy Hart International Centre in France. She is the recipient of the 2011 Elliot Norton Award and the 2011 Independent Reviewers of New England Award (IRNE) for her work in Frankie and Johnny and the vibrator play. Anne is a teacher for the Michael Chekhov Association and a committed student of the work. She is a resident scholar in Collaborative Process and Acting at Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. Anne resides and works in both Boston and New York.
WILL MCGARRAHAN* (Isadore/Charlotte) is happy to return to SpeakEasy Stage where he performed in Big Fish; Far From Heaven; Next Fall; The Drowsy Chaperone; Reckless; Some Men; The Mystery of Edwin Drood; Five By Tenn; Company; The Last Sunday in June; Elegies: A Song Cycle; Ruthless!; A Class Act; and A New Brain. Other local credits include Light Up The Sky, Into The Woods, Death of a Salesman, Becky’s New Car, 33 Variations, The Chosen, The Temperamentals, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Grey Gardens, November, Souvenir, and Dirty Blonde. (Lyric Stage); A Raisin in the Sun (Huntington Theatre), The Wind in the Willows and Happy Days (Gloucester Stage); Nine Circles (Publick Theatre and Gloucester Stage); A Moon For The Misbegotten and Buried Child (Nora Theater); and The Wrestling Patient (SpeakEasy Stage/Boston Playwrights/40 Magnolias). Will worked as an actor, singer and pianist for many years in Seattle before moving to Boston’s South End in 2001.
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