Christopher Johnson’s adaptation and direction is a work of art.

—Bob Parks, Audience Member

Once again Rogue has rocked my boat!

—Karen Falkenstrom, Audience Member

Bryn Booth delivers an award-worthy performance.

—Chuck Graham, reviewer for TucsonStage.com

Preview Video

See a preview of The Awakening. Tickets are in-person performances are available until September 26, and video tickets can be purchased until October 10.

Supporting Materials

Free “Open Talk” Video on The Awakening

Click here to see the video

A Solitary Soul: Kate Chopin and The Awakening
Director Christopher Johnson discusses Kate Chopin, his adaptation of her novel, and the pressures of gender roles.

This open talk is supported in part by a generous gift from Meg & Peter Hovell.

Essay

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening takes place on Grand Isle and in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the 1870s. The following essay by Jerry James describes the history and social structures of this time and place. Click on the title to read it.

Crème de la Crème 
The Creole Upper Class in New Orleans in the 1870s

View the full-sized poster for the play

Reviews

A 19th century novel comes to life on The Rogue stage
Review by Kathleen Allen, special to the Arizona Daily Star

Restless Victorian women find their voice in The Awakening
Review of The Awakening by Chuck Graham on September 13 at Let The Show Begin! and TucsonStage.com

Christopher Johnson (Director) first came to The Rogue in 2011 to play Jewel in As I Lay Dying, and now serves as Artistic Associate, General Manager, and Play-Reading Producer. The recipient of eight Arizona Daily Star Mac Award nominations for Best Director, his directing credits include The Rogue’s productions of The Weir, A View from the Bridge, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Middletown, The Crucible, Three Tall Women, Penelope, and The Picture of Dorian Gray; as well as Rogue’s play-readings of Everybody, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Illusion, No Exit, Don Juan in Hell, A House of Pomegranates, The River, and Elizabeth Rex. Elsewhere in Tucson Christopher has directed boom, Cabaret, The Year Of Magical Thinking, The Altruists, and Speech & Debate for Winding Road Theater Ensemble; Psycho Sarah for Middlesex Repertory; Hedwig and The Angry Inch for The Bastard Theatre; as well as Wit, Persephone Or Slow Time, The Book Of Liz, My Name is Rachel Corrie, Say You Love Satan, Killer Joe, The Rocky Horror Show, Danny And The Deep Blue Sea, Savage In Limbo, Bug, Titus Andronicus, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Etcetera at Live Theatre Workshop (where he served as late-night series Artistic Director from 2007-12). Previous adaptations for the Rogue include A House of Pomegranates and The Picture of Dorian Gray, both by Oscar Wilde.

Christopher Johnson’s direction of The Awakening is supported in part by a generous gift from Susan Tiss, and his adaptation is sponsored in part by a generous gift from Clay Shirk.

Notes from the Director

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening was lambasted by critics when it was first published in 1899 due to its unapologetic depiction of female sexuality. Her next book was swiftly cancelled and she died a few short years later, having spent barely a decade writing. The world just wasn’t ready for even a fictional portrayal of a woman shrugging off the expectations of her gender in pursuit of her own desires.

A lot has changed since then––not the least of which is our cultural appreciation for Chopin’s book, now one of the most celebrated and widely studied works of literature in American academia since it was restored to print during the Women’s Liberation movement of the late 1960s. But take a look at some of the laws passed in Texas just in the last month, and you’ll see that when it comes to systemic oppression of women and their bodies––some things haven’t changed much at all.

This is a new and untested adaptation of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. We went into rehearsals confident that the source material stood on its own two feet and hopeful that we could bring the story to a comparable height on stage. Something I had to wrap my head around in the process of developing and directing the piece is that Kate Chopin would have balked at our designation of The Awakening as a feminist work. Like a lot of Southern authors, Chopin considered society more organism than machine. Social issues, in her words, were “mutable,” and therefore at odds with the more timeless designs of great literature.

The story of Edna Pontellier, the central figure of The Awakening, is ultimately that of one woman’s search for meaning amid the spiritually-deadening costs and comforts of modern life. Modern life as we know it––in which people moved away from farms to live in cities; relying more and more on technological advances than on one another, each generation more disconnected than the last––came into existence during Chopin’s lifetime with the arrival of the Industrial Revolution. Forerunner of feminist fiction or not (sorry Kate, but it is), there’s no shortage of parallels between the world of The Awakening and the one we live in today.

So many of us yearn for a simpler, more romantic past––sure that we were born in the wrong era. No wonder we sigh with longing to be immersed in the period drama of a story like The Awakening. But the truly revolutionary among us are quietly suffering the weight of a progressive future they can’t help but carry undelivered into the long and obtuse present. This is the burden of being ahead of one’s time.

It is relief from just such a burden that Edna Pontellier tirelessly seeks in every quiet street corner, every oak-shaded garden cafe, and over the tumultuous horizon of the Louisiana coastline––a haven to safely rest her revolution free of molestation from the controlling desires of children and men.

—Christopher Johnson, Director
director@TheRogueTheatre.org

Author

Kate Chopin (1850–1904) was an American writer of Louisiana Creole heritage. She is the author of two short story collections: Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897), and two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899). The characters in her stories are usually residents of Louisiana, and many are Creoles of various ethnic or racial backgrounds. At the age of 20, Kate Chopin married Oscar Chopin and had six children in the following nine years. Oscar died in 1882 (twelve years after they were married), leaving Kate deeply in debt. She moved her family to live with her mother in St. Louis where she began her writing career. When The Awakening was published in 1899, the critics considered the behavior of the novel’s characters, especially the women to be in conflict with prevailing standards of moral conduct and therefore offensive. The novel essentially disappeared until it was reprinted in the 1970s. It is now considered a classic of feminist fiction.

Cast

Bryn Booth (Edna Pontellier) is a graduate of the BFA Acting program at the University of Arizona. She was most recently seen as Celia in As You Like It, Electra in The Oresteia, Mary Shelley/Elizabeth in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and as Catherine in A View from the Bridge. This is Bryn’s fifth season as a member of the Resident Acting Ensemble with The Rogue where she has performed in Moby Dick, Blithe Spirit, Middletown, The Crucible (for which she was nominated for a Mac Award for Best Actress), The Secret in the Wings, Much Ado About Nothing, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Galileo, King Lear, The Grapes of Wrath, A House of Pomegranates, and Macbeth. In 2018, Bryn played Mag in the Scoundrel & Scamp’s production of Lovers, for which she was nominated for a Mac Award for Best Actress. Other credits include The Love Talker (Scoundrel & Scamp) Romeo & Juliet (Tucson Shakespeare in the Park), and Othello (Arizona Repertory Theatre). She also had the pleasure of understudying with Arizona Theatre Company in Romeo & Juliet and Of Mice and Men. Bryn wants to thank Joe and Cindy for giving her the best job she’s ever had with the most amazing people she’s ever met.

Bryn Booth’s performance is supported in part by generous
gifts from Carol Mangold and Kate Flash

Hunter Hnat (Robert Lebrun) is grateful to be in his fourth season as a member of The Rogue Resident Acting Ensemble. You may have seen him in previous Rogue productions as Le Beau/Sylvius in As You Like It, Brenden in The Weir, Orestes in The Oresteia, Lord Byron/Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Rodolpho in A View from the Bridge, Ray Dooley in The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Flask in Moby Dick, Edmund Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the Mechanic in Middletown, Ezekiel Cheever in The Crucible, Ensemble in The Secret in the Wings, Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing, Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Andrea in Galileo, Oswald in King Lear, Steindorff in Bach at Leipzig, and Ensemble for A House of Pomegranates. Other credits include Salomé (Scoundrel & Scamp), U/S in Romeo and Juliet (Arizona Theatre Company), and How the House Burned Down (Live Theatre Workshop). He is a U of A alumnus with his BFA in Musical Theatre, class of 2015. Enjoy the show!

Hunter Hnat’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Tim Wernette & Carolyn Brown and Sally Krusing

Christopher Johnson (Alcée Arobin) first came to The Rogue in 2011 to play Jewel in As I Lay Dying, and now serves as Artistic Associate, General Manager, and Play-Reading Producer. Select acting credits include Joshua in Corpus Christi, Peter in Bug, The Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret (2013 Mac Award Winner – Best Actor, Musical), Doug in Gruesome Playground Injuries, The Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show, Alan in Lemon Sky, Pale in Burn This, Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Chicklet in Psycho Beach Party, Thom Pain in Thom Pain (based on nothing), and Prior Walter in The Rogue’s production of Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches (2016 Mac Award Winner – Best Actor, Drama). In addition to acting for The Rogue over the years, he has also directed, adapted, and stage managed both full productions and staged readings.

Christopher Johnson’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift
in memory of Jan Stewart by her daughters.

Joseph McGrath (Alphonse Ratignolle) is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama and Co-Founder and Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre. He has recently appeared in As You Like It, The Weir, A View from the Bridge, Moby Dick, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Crucible, The Secret in the Wings, Galileo (2018 Mac Award for Best Actor), and King Lear. He also received the Mac Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Tobias in A Delicate Balance. Joe has toured with John Houseman’s Acting Company and has performed with the Utah Shakespearean Festival. He has been a frequent performer with Ballet Tucson appearing in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and for seventeen years as Herr Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker. He has also performed with Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Opera, and Arizona Onstage. Joe owns, with his wife Regina Gagliano, Sonora Theatre Works, which produces theatrical scenery and draperies.

Joseph McGrath’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Art & Katherine Jacobson and Julia Royall

Christopher Pankratz (Victor Lebrun) has performed at The Rogue Theatre in The Grapes of Wrath, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Crucible, Moby Dick, A View from the Bridge, and As You Like It. Christopher has also joined the production staff of The Rogue as Prop Master. Christopher teaches acting and theatre tech at Flowing Wells High School where he has written and produced several plays including Black Friday, Frankenstein, Cuando Soñamos, Spinning Tales the Musical, Leave It to the Snakes, Cuando Mentimos, Cuando Perdonamos, The Snow Queen, You Can’t Make Wine from Raisins, and two newly-published plays: The Longest Day of April and The Story Seller’s Tale. Christopher would like to thank his colleagues, family, friends, and students for their support and inspiration.

Christopher Pankratz’s performance is supported in part by
a generous gift from Meg & Peter Hovell.

Carley Elizabeth Preston (Adele Ratignolle) was last seen on The Rogue stage as Rosalind in As You Like It. Now in her third season as a member of The Rogue Theatre’s Resident Acting Ensemble, Carley has also appeared as Valerie in The Weir, Beatrice Carbone in A View from the Bridge, Mrs. Bradman in Blithe Spirit, and as Tituba in The Crucible. Carley received her BFA from the University of Arizona where she was a member of the Arizona Repertory Theatre. Some of her other stage credits include Time Stands Still (Mac Award for Best Actress), Molly Sweeney, Enchanted April, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (Live Theatre Workshop), Mrs. Mannerly (Mac Award Nominee for Best Actress), Boston Marriage, By the Bog of Cats, Miracle on 34th Street (Mac Award Nominee for Best Actress), Kimberly Akimbo, and Good People. Carley is also the Diversity Specialist for The Rogue. She would like to thank Kline, Burlato, Nae, Pickles, and MOST importantly the loves of her life, Jerrad “Large Father” McMurrich and their fur babies Loki Björn Hiddleston and Freyja Laveau for supporting her theatre habit!

Carley Elizabeth Preston’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Bill Krauss & Kate McMillan and Karen DeLay & Bill Sandel

Aaron Shand (Leonce Pointellier) was last seen on The Rogue stage as Orlando in As You Like It. Now in his fourth season as a member of The Rogue Theatre’s Resident Acting Ensemble, Aaron has also appeared as Jim in The Weir, Agamemnon in The Oresteia, Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge, Ishmael in Moby Dick, The Cop in Middletown, Hathorne in The Crucible, The Sea Captain in The Secret in the Wings, Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing, Sagredo in Galileo, Noah Joad in The Grapes of Wrath and Duke of Albany in King Lear. Born and raised in Tucson, he received his B.F.A. in Acting from the University of Arizona, performing for the Arizona Repertory Theatre in Bus Stop, The Miracle Worker and Romeo & Juliet. He also spent a season with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, performing in The Cherry Orchard, State of the Union and A Christmas Carol.

Aaron Shand’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Kathy Ortega & Larry Johnson and Barbara & Gerald Goldberg

Teri Lee Thomas (Madame Lebrun & others) is new to The Rogue and delighted to play multiple roles this season in The Awakening and Mrs Dalloway. A regional theatre veteran, she has enjoyed diverse roles across four decades in seven states. Credits span Shakespeare, classics, contemporary and new plays, musicals, TV, film. Some highlights: Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gertrude in Hamlet, Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Margaret in Much Ado About Nothing, Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Ernest, Mrs. Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer, the title role in Shaw’s Candida, Creon in Oedipus the King, Countess de Lage in The Women. Musicals include Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret, Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance, Mrs. Higgins in My Fair Lady, Miss Tweed in Something’s Afoot, Yente in Fiddler on the Roof, Mrs. Medlock in The Secret Garden, Doatsey Mae in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Her favorite role was Josie in A Moon for the Misbegotten. Some of the theater companies she has worked with include Village Theatre, Taproot Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Harlequin Productions, Texas Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Shakespeare, Oregon Cabaret, Oregon Repertory Theatre, Montana Shakespeare, Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan, SecondStory Rep and TV’s Northern Exposure. Up next: Babette’s Feast at Seattle’s Taproot Theatre and Three Busy Debras on HBO.

Teri Lee Thomas’ performance is supported in part by
generous gifts from Ann & Andrew Lettes and Lori Levine & Gary Benna

Composed and performed by Russell Ronnebaum

Russell Ronnebaum (Music Director) serves as The Rogue Theatre’s Director of Music and Resident Composer. He holds a Master of Music degree in collaborative piano from the University of Arizona where he studied under Dr. Paula Fan. He currently serves as the assistant director of music at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Oro Valley, as well as the staff accompanist for the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. As a classically trained pianist, Russell has performed with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Artifact Dance Company, Arizona Repertory Theatre, and as a concerto soloist with the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. Russell made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 performing the music of composer Dan Forrest. Past credits include The Rogue’s recent productions of Much Ado About Nothing, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Blithe Spirit, Moby Dick, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Awakening, A View from the Bridge, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, The Oresteia, The Weir and As You Like It (Music Director, Pianist, and Composer) and The Secret in the Wings (Vocal Director). Russell also composes the music for Rogue Radio, a radio play series produced in partnership with Arizona Public Media, NPR 89.1 FM. Recent composition commissions and premieres include music for bassoon quartet, live theatre, strings, brass, voice, choir, and piano. Recordings, videos, sheet music, and upcoming concert dates can be found at www.RRonnebaum.com.

Russell Ronnebaum’s music direction is supported in part
by generous gifts from Jim Wilson & Adam Hostetter and Bill & Nancy Sohn.

Music Director’s Notes

It’s always a delight to research music for a play that is set in such a rich environment as Kate Chopin’s depiction of 1899 Louisiana. In the novel, Chopin references the music of her day to create the soundscape of Edna’s life, repeatedly calling upon the concert piano music of Frédéric Chopin (no relation). The musical references would have been well known to Chopin’s readers and establish a stunning world where Edna is transfixed by the music of the piano just as she is drawn to the sounds of the sea. Chopin adds additional color to the story with references to some of the popular standards of the time: “Si Tu Savais,” Zampa, and others.

Of course, in the theatre, we have the luxury of bringing those musical pieces into the soundscape created live. In preparing the other musical selections in this production, I relied on the pieces the author calls for, and in addition, I sourced popular waltz tunes by contemporary composers (“Hearts Courageous” and “When Knighthood Was in Flower”). For this production, I also had the joy of composing some themes based on the cakewalk, which is a style of the late 19th century that eventually inspired ragtime.

—Russell Ronnebaum, Music Director, Pianist and Composer

Preshow Video

Preshow (instrumental)

Prelude in F# Major, Op. 28, No. 13 — Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)
Si Tu Savais — Michael William Balfe (1808–1870), arr. Russell Ronnebaum
Ballade No. 3 in A-flat major, Op. 47 — Frédéric Chopin

Production music

Prelude in F# Major, Op. 28, No. 13 — Frédéric Chopin
Overture to Zampa — Ferdinand Hérold (1791–1833)
Si Tu Savais — Michael William Balfe
Edna and the Water — Russell Ronnebaum
When Knighthood Was in Flower — Louise V. Gustin (1868–1949)
Prelude in C Minor, Op. 28, No. 20 — Frédéric Chopin
Il Bacio — Luigi Arditi (1822–1903)
Hearts Courageous — Henrietta Blanke-Belcher (1882–1958)
Cakewalk — Russell Ronnebaum
Fantasie Impromptu Op. 66  — Frédéric Chopin
Ballade No. 3 in A-flat major, Op. 47 — Frédéric Chopin
Walking Through Town — Russell Ronnebaum
Because I Love You — Russell Ronnebaum

“Si Tu Savais”
Lyrics: Unknown

Si tu savais comme je t’aime,        If you knew how I love you,
Bien sûr toi même tu m’aimerais.   Of course you yourself would love me.
Si tu savais comme je t’aime.        If you knew how I love you. 

Designers and Production Staff

Shannon Wallace (Lighting Designer, Stage Manager) is excited for her fourth year as Resident Stage Manager with The Rogue Theatre, after a one-year hiatus. She served as stage manager for Angels in America, A House of Pomegranates and The Grapes of Wrath. She also worked on The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Uncle Vanya, Penelope, Macbeth, Celia, A Slave, Bach at Leipzig, Three Tall Women, King Lear, Galileo, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Much Ado About Nothing, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and The Weir as stage manager as well as associate lighting designer. She graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, focusing on both stage management and lighting design. During her time in school she worked on over 25 productions with Arizona Repertory Theatre. She has also worked for Arizona Theatre Company, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival serving on both stage management teams and company & events management teams. She is grateful to be working full-time as a theater artist in her hometown.

Shannon Wallace’s lighting design is supported in part
by a generous gift from Joan Warfield, and her stage management
is supported in part by a generous gift from Sally Krusing

Amy Novelli (Scenic Artist) is originally from Ohio and Pennsylvania. She received her Cum Laude BFA from the Columbus (Ohio) College of Art & Design in 1987 and her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1994. Novelli’s scenic art career began in New York City at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Studio. Charge Scenic Artist for the Arizona Theatre Company 2010–2014, Amy also painted several sets for Arizona Opera and UA Opera, and presently paints for The Rogue Theatre and until COVID at the Arizona Broadway Theatre in Peoria (Phoenix). Amy created monstrous Halloween decor for Hotel Congress for 20 years, and was lead painter for Marshal-Fields 1998 award winning Easter Window display “Alice in Wonderland”. She supervised four public art projects in the Tucson area with high school youth and won commissions to design and paint five large scale outdoor murals across the country as well as at the Biosphere II and La Posada Hotel on Oracle Blvd. She has taught at the University of Arizona and Pima Community College. Novelli’s fine art work has been exhibited at several Tucson Galleries and in May-August 2020 she had a one woman show at the Tucson International Airport. Amy Novelli has been living in Tucson since 1996. When not painting, Novelli trains rescue horses and dogs and enjoys riding wilderness trails all over the western states.

Amy Novelli’s scenic painting is supported in part by
a generous gift from Shawn Burke.

Peter Bleasby (Master Electrician) lit his first show at 13. Professionally, he was with BBC Television for several years, and was an assistant to the UK lighting designer Richard Pilbrow during the inaugural production of the National Theatre (Hamlet, directed by Olivier.) Although his career was in architectural lighting, he maintained some theatre lighting involvement on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2009, he volunteered for the Rogue’s initial season at the Historic Y. He has been master electrician at the Rogue for every show from 2013 to the present, supporting our lighting designers Deanna Fitzgerald, Don Fox, and Josh Hemmo. He devised the system that enables lights to be quickly re-arranged, allowing more time for the creative process. Elsewhere in Tucson, he directed the technical and logistical aspects of fundraisers for the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, including the fashion show Moda Provocateur.

Susan Collinet (House Manager) earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Arizona in 2008. Decades before returning to college as a non-traditional student, Susan spent twenty years in amateur theater, mostly on the East coast, as well as in Brussels, Belgium in the American Theater of Brussels, and the Theatre de Chenois in Waterloo. She has worked in such positions as a volunteer bi-lingual guide in the Children’s Museum of Brussels, the Bursar of a Naturopathic Medical school in Tempe, Arizona, an entrepreneur with two “Susan’s of Scottsdale” hotel gift shops in Scottsdale, Arizona, and as the volunteer assistant Director of Development of the Arizona Aids Project in Phoenix. Susan continues to work on collections of poetry and non-fiction. Her writing has won awards from Sandscript Magazine, the John Hearst Poetry Contest, the Salem College for Women’s Center for Writing, and was published in a Norton Anthology ofStudent’s Writing. In addition to being House Manager, Susan serves on the Board of Directors and acts as Volunteer Coordinator for the Rogue.

Thomas Wentzel (Box Office Manager, Program, Website) is a Scientific Programmer for the National Solar Observatory and holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Arizona. Previously he has worked as a Data Manager for several prevention programs in the Arizona Cancer Center and the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health. He has served on the Board of the Tucson Men’s Cooperative, editing its newsletter for five years, and on the Executive Committee of Sons of Orpheus—The Male Choir of Tucson. He has sung with Furry Day Singers, Sons of Orpheus, AwenRising and Arizona Repertory Singers, and has performed with Tucson Art Theatre in Viktor Slavkin’s Cerceau and Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty. Thomas has designed and built The Rogue Theatre Web site (with great assistance from Bill Sandel and Bryan Falcón in creating the 2020 Website update), creates all The Rogue’s posters and programs and has served as Webmaster, Business Manager and Treasurer.

Our Thanks

Performance Schedule

Performance run time of The Awakening is two hours and five minutes, including one ten-minute intermission.

The video viewing option will be available from Thursday, September 23
until the end of Sunday, October 10, 2021.