Creative Team

Playwright

James Isaiah Gabbe is an author, professional photographer, documentarian and co-owner of a communications firm in New York City. MARCH, his first dramatic work, grew out of a life-long obsession to understand how Adolf Hitler could seduce tens of millions of educated, cultivated people into supporting his monstrous acts. His screenplay, Duke, was taken into development by TriStar. His novel, LaRue's Maneuvers, explores generational conflict and trauma during the Vietnam war in the late 1960s. His recently published, critically acclaimed, historical work, The Universe of Union Square, tells in words and nearly 1,000 photos and illustrations the mostly untold and/or lost story of a small piece of a giant city that has had an out-sized impact on the history of New York, America and, in some cases, the world. The recipient of numerous awards for industrial documentaries, Jim is currently working on a TV documentary that portrays in a personal and dramatic way China's rapid steps toward global power. A former journalist and decorated U.S. Army officer, Jim attended Northeastern University and holds graduate degrees in history and journalism from Brown University and Columbia University, respectively. Boundless love to my darling wife, Jill, for her encouragement and support and heartfelt thanks to Sarah Stern and Jennifer Garvey-Blackwell at the Vineyard Theatre, Jeremy Williams, and our extraordinarily talented actors and other creative team members.

Director

Jeremy Williams is a director, choreographer, and playmaker specializing in the creation and development of new work. He has led the creation of over thirty original works with theater and dance companies in NYC and across the country. As a director/choreographer he has also staged traditional plays and musicals including Medea, Miss Saigon, and Robert Schenkkan's Handler. Williams is a frequent guest artist at colleges and universities teaching contemporary performance techniques and composition. He holds an MFA Theatre: Contemporary Performance from Naropa University and is the Founding Director of Convergences Theatre Collective.

Ensemble & Artistic Team

Heidi Armbruster (Elizabeth "Betts" Miller) made her Broadway debut this winter covering Laura Linney in Time Stands Still. New York Theater: The Atlantic, Keen Company (Drama League Nomination for Tea and Sympathy), Red Bull, The Mint, New Georges, Playwright's Realm. Extensive regional credits including The Guthrie, ACT, Seattle Rep, ATL, BSC, BCS, George Street and the Folger Shakespeare Library. Heidi is looking forward to working on Tanya Barfield's new play The Call at the Intiman Theater in Seattle this spring. Film and TV: Michael Clayton, Revolutionary Road, The Northern Kingdom, The Smurfs Movie, Mercy, Law and Order. MFA from ACT.

Julia Campanelli (Helene Bechstein)is thrilled to be continuing to MARCH for Phoenix Theatre Ensemble.

She recently created the title role in the New York premiere of Selkie. Other New York/regional favorites: The Wonder with The Queen’s Company (2010 Lucille Lortel Award winner); Cornbury (world premiere) with Theatre Askew, opposite David Greenspan & Everett Quinton; The Comings and Goings of Average People (world premiere) opposite Mackenzie Phillips with Shelter Theatre Group; Infernal Machine with Te Ilum (inaugural production); NY Nuts with Dan Grimaldi; Benefit of a Doubt (world premiere) with Carol Kane at The Folger Shakespeare Library. New York readings/workshops: Red Bull Theatre, NYTW; St. Luke’s Theatre, First Look Theatre Company. Film/TV: L’Accordatore (Las Vegas 2010 Film Festival winner); Walking Away; Virgin Territory; Eight Faces of Jane; It Could Happen To You; A Bronx Tale; A Day with Conrad Greene. Law & Order; One Life to Live; Tattinger’s; The Equalizer. Upcoming 2012: As You Like It with The Queen’s Company. Julia is Artistic Producing Director of Shelter Theatre Group, a company dedicated to producing new plays by or about women. Danke shön to Jim, Jeremy, Phoenix, and the wundebar MARCH cast! www.juliacampanelli.com

Kathleen Chalfant (Helene Bechstein): Broadway: Angels in America (Tony and Drama Desk nominations), City Center – Encores! Bloomer Girl, Racing Demon, Dance with Me, M. Butterfly. Off-Broadway: Prophecy, Family Week, Vita & Virginia at the Zipper Theatre; Deadman’s Cell Phone at Playwrights Horizons. In addition to Wit for which she won the Drama Desk, OBIE, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Awards, Kathleen has appeared Off-Broadway in A Hard Heart at Epic Theatre Ensemble, Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell at The Minetta Lane Theatre, Great Expectations at Theatreworks/USA, 5 by Tenn at Manhattan Theatre Club, Guantanamo at the Culture Project, The Last Letter, Talking Heads, Savannah Bay, Far Away, The Vagina Monologues, Nine Armenians (Drama Desk Nomination), Twelve Dreams, Henry V (Callaway Award); True History and Real Adventures. Among Kathleen’s many other New York credits are: Delirium, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Endgame and Sister Mary Ignatius. Regional Theater: Guthrie Theater, Arena Stage, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, Mark Taper Forum, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Sundance Playwrights Lab, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse and others. Film: Duplicity, The People Speak, Jumpin’ at the Boneyard, Kinsey and many others. TV: The Damn Thorpes (pilot), Mercy (new series for NBC), Rescue Me, One Life to Live, Book of Daniel, The Laramie Project, Benjamin Franklin, A Death in the Family, Law & Order, Spin City among many others. Radio: The Lion in Winter, participant in V-Day 2001 at Madison Square Garden and V-Day 2002 in California as well as The Lysistrata Project at BAM. Additional Awards: 1996 OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance; 1998 Connecticut Critics Circle Award (Wit); 2000 Ovation, Garland, and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards (Los Angeles) for WIT. She received the Drama League and Sidney Kingsley Awards for her body of work. Kathleen is a founding member of the Women’s Project and sits on the boards of The Vineyard Theatre, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, and the advisory board of the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is an advisor to Theaters Against War and a signer of the Not In Our Name statement of conscience. Ms. Chalfant was Artist in Residence at the Weill College of Medicine of Cornell University for 2005 – 2006, was the Beineke Fellow at the Yale School of Drama in the spring of 2006, the fall of 2008, and the fall of 2010 and is a member of the Board of Advisors of MSF/Doctors Without Borders. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Cooper Union in June 2010.

Debra Disbrow (reader) recently appeared in My Illustrious Wasteland for the NY Musical Theater Festival (Hopper/Dolores, Choreographer/Assistant director). Her vocals can be heard on the alt country/ rock band Roadside Graves' EP You Won't Be Happy with Me (Autumn Tone Records) and performs her indie cabaret Little Debbie and Snack Cake at NYC venues. She was a returning resident artist this winter at Earthdance for the EMerge residency where she developed Start-up, a multi-media theater piece. Upcoming projects include creating/performing in HUETOPIA for the Fury Factory in San Francisco in June as well as the ensemble piece Katarina and Friends at Movement Research in April. She is a founding member of the dance theater company Workshop for Potential Movement where she has written, directed and performed in many new works. She teaches theater, voice and movement. MFA in Theater: Contemporary Performance, Naropa University.

Bridget Coyne Gabbe (Lotte Bechstein) is a 2010 graduate of the University of Michigan with a BFA in Theatre Performance. She just returned from a national tour with Chamber Theatre Productions where she played the lead role in EUREKA!, performing for over 40,000 students in 53 cities. Lead roles at Michigan included Line, Our Town, Sideman and The Cripple of Innishmaan. For her role as Muffet DiNicola in Uncommon Women and Others, Bridget was selected to participate in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, which singled out her performance as "embodying the essence of this classic Wendy Wasserstein play." She is also a graduate of the Drama Studio of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music + Art and Performing Arts in New York City, and has studied at the Lee Strasburg Institute and Stella Adler Acting Studio. Bridget is thrilled to be a part of MARCH!

Kate Michael Gibson (dramaturge): As an artist and creator, Kate focuses primarily on visual storytelling through film, theatre and television. In her many years in theater, she has performed, produced, managed, crewed, designed, developed, directed, authored and co-authored. Recent collaborations include projects in Arkansas, Colorado, New York and in Austin, Texas, where she worked with Austin Shakespeare Festival, The Vortex Theatre and Austin Playhouse.

Candace LaRicci (Elizabeth "Betts" Miller) After working as a music therapist in hospitals and schools in NJ and PA, Candace LaRicci decided to change her career path and become a performer in NYC. Candace attended Circle in the Square Theatre School where she graduated with a certificate in Musical Theatre. Acting credits include: Charlotte in Charlotte's Web (Theatreworks USA); Dunyasha in The Cherry Orchard; Laura Crosby in Tenderloin; Aricia in Phedra; Ensemble in The Winter's Tale Project (NY Fringe Festival), Marty in Grease. Candace is a founding member and business manager of The Contemporary Traditionalists (thecontemporarytraditionalists.com). Candace is so excited to be a part of MARCH!! Many thanks Mom and Dad and Chris for all their support! She is proud member of Actors Equity.

Brian Keith MacDonald (“Rudi” von Bethmann) most recently performed in both the Broadway and summer productions of The Merchant of Venice, and has also appeared in King Lear and The Alchemist with The Shakespeare Theatre Company. Favorite roles include Faustus (Dr. Faustus), Friar Lawrence (Romeo and Juliet), School Superintendent (The Inspector General), Basilio (Life Is A Dream), Pantalone (The Serpent Woman), and James (The Collection). He holds a BFA from The University of Evansville and an MFA from The Catholic University of America.

Kerry Malloy (Adolph Hitler) Kerry holds a degree from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He has performed with companies including Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theatre Festival, LaMaMa and The Papermill Playhouse. He has presented new works with both New York Theatre Workshop and Naked Angels. Favorite productions include Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Amy Herzog's Opportunity, and Caryl Churchill's Mad Forrest. Unpayable debt is owed to his family for their undying support, New York University and the Stella Adler Studio for Acting. Always with a deep respect for the stage, and sincere gratitude for being invited upon it. www.KerryMalloy.com

Ellen Mandel (music director/pianist) has created music for over fifty plays, at the Jean Cocteau Rep, Mint, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Pearl, Arkansas Rep, Riverside Shakespeare, Asolo, Tennessee Rep, and Peterborough Players. She has scored four films, and released three CDs: a wind has blown the rain away, her E.E. Cummings songs, the first of all my dreams, songs to poems by Cummings, Seamus Heaney, WB Yeats, and others, and Every Play's an Opera, theatre music.

Peter Marinos (Dietrich Eckart) made his Broadway debut playing the soprano sob-sister, Mary Sunshine, in Bob Fosse's Chicago opposite Jerry Orbach, Chita Rivera, and Gwen Verdon (who costumed him in a dress she originally designed for herself ). As Augustine Magaldi, in Evita, he played opposite Patti LuPone on Broadway then moved to the national tour, singing "...Night of a Thousand Stars" over a thousand times. In Zorba, starring Anthony Quinn, Peter was featured as Marinakos (his actual Greek surname) and was the only Greek in the production. Late in the '80's while starring in a Miami Beach Hotel Extravaganza (and teaching theater history and acting at the University of Miami) he was offered the opportunity to create, without auditioning, the role of Fakir in The Secret Garden. Lip-syncing to Mel Brooks' saying, "Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party!" eight times a week for the entire Broadway run of The Producers, Peter never imagined he'd be using this phrase as a character's inner mantra in MARCH. A heartfelt world of love and gratitude to Jim, Jill and of course John.

Randolph Curtis Rand (“Rudi” von Bethmann) is an Obie Award winning theatre artist from New York City. He has worked with companies and artists like Arden Party, The Drama Dept., Douglas Dunn, Elevator Repair Service, Richard Foreman, The Foundry Theater, La Mama ETC, Meredith Monk, The Public Theater, The Talking Band, Target-Margin, and the Wooster Group. Regionally he has worked at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Burning Coal Theatre, The Cleveland Public Theatre, The Hanger Theater, The Kennedy Center, Man-Not-Apart Theatre, On the Boards, The Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Pig Iron, The Pittsburg Public Theatre, and Shakespeare Santa Monica. Randy has taught, and directed at institutions like NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, NYU Graduate Acting Program, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Baton Rouge Community College, The New School, The Hanger Theatre, The University of Kentucky, The University of Tennessee, The Governor’s School of North Carolina, Shakespeare Santa Monica, and Swarthmore College.

Dominic Spillane (Reader) Was last seen in Nothing But Gold by Anna Kerrigan (Ensemble Studio Theatre). The Harmonious Pimps of Harmony (Ars Nova). Creator and producer of #serials@theflea (The Flea Theater). Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Recess by Sheila Callaghan, and Classic Kitchen Timer by Adam Rapp (The Flea Theater). Williamstown Theater Festival's non-equity company '09, '10.

Alexander Tchobanov (pianist) has been declared a “true virtuoso” by the Bulgarian press. Alexander is a winner of the National Bulgarian Svetoslav Obretenov Competition and the Temecula Young Artists Piano Competition in California. He was a semi-finalist at the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards, received a fellowship to attend the prestigious Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. He performed at Jordan Hall in Boston and was featured on Public Radio International's From the Top, a showcase of America's finest young musicians. Alexander made his chamber music debut at Weill Carnegie Hall in New York. He was awarded full-scholarships at the Idyllwild Arts Academy (where he received his high-school diploma and was given the "Best Recital of the Year" award), and the Harid Conservatory of Lynn University where he completed his Bachelor Degree. He completed his Masters Degree and was a teaching assistant at Rutgers University. His studies have included master classes and other instruction with numerous highly regarded pianists in the U.S.

Josh Tyson (Franz Bauer) With Phoenix Theatre Ensemble: Iphigenia At Aulus (Achilles), Hapgood (Maggs), The Man of Destiny (Napoleon), An Enemy of the People (Billing), Antigone (Haemon). Off-Broadway: Modotti (The Acorn at Theatre Row), Wolves (59E59 Theaters), Three Sisters (Classical Theatre of Harlem), The Blue Martini (The Lion at Theatre Row). Off-Off: Octopus Love Story (Center Stage), Life Is Short (Center Stage), Conference Room A (The Kraine). Favorite Regional Roles include Picnic (Alan), The Last Night of Ballyhoo (Joe), Proposals (Ken). Film/TV: Across The Universe (Revolution Studios), Law & Order (NBC), Alabaster (Whitestone Motion Pictures), Whales (Thomas Barnes Productions), Stoop Sale (Living Boy Productions).