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Produced by special arrangement with
THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC., of Woodstock, Illinois.

Babette’s Feast at Feast

A Fundraiser for The Rogue Theatre

Supporting Materials

Free “Open Talk” Video

Click here to see the video

Isak Dinesen—Scheherazade of the West

presented on Saturday, January 7 at 2:00 p.m.

Director Joseph McGrath introduces us to the fascinating life of Baroness Karen Blixen, a.k.a. Isak Dinesen, and her major literary works. The cast also presents a scene from the play.

This open talk is supported in part by generous gifts from
Pam & Richard Duchaine and the Arizona Humanities Council

A Babette’s Feast trailer

A glimpse of key moments in Babette’s Feast with glowing remarks from our opening weekend audience members!

Click here to see the video

Essay

Read Jerry James’ essay about the real-life events in Paris in the spring of 1871 from which Isak Dinesen plucked her fictional protagonist, and the author’s own connections to the uprising:

What Babette Fled:
The Rise and Fall of the Paris Commune

Poster

View the full-sized poster for the play

Reviews

Babette’s Feast becomes more touching in The Rogue Theatre's stage adaptation of Isak Dinesen's short story
Review of Babette’s Feast by Chuck Graham on January 17 at Let The Show Begin! and TucsonStage.com

Joseph McGrath (Director) is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama and is the Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre. For The Rogue, Joe authored and directed Immortal Longings, and directed The Oresteia, Blithe Spirit, Much Ado About Nothing, The Grapes of Wrath, A House of Pomegranates, Uncle Vanya (2016 Mac Award for Best Director), The Bridge of San Luis Rey, By the Bog of Cats, The Lady in the Looking Glass, Dante’s Purgatorio, Mistake of the Goddess, Mother Courage and Her Children, As I Lay Dying, The Real Inspector Hound (2010 Mac Award for Best Director), The Decameron, Our Town, Red Noses, Endymion, The Maids (winner of the Arizona Daily Star 2007 Mac Award for Best Play), and The Balcony. Joe was most recently seen as Magwitch/Jaggers in Great Expectations, Peter Walsh in Mrs Dalloway, F in Passage, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, M. Ratignolle in The Awakening, Jaques in As You Like It, Jack in The Weir, Alfieri in A View from the Bridge, Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, James Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Deputy Governor Danforth in The Crucible, Ambassador in The Secret in the Wings, Voice Four/Rev. Peters in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Galileo in Galileo (2018 Mac Award for Best Actor), Lear in King Lear, Macbeth in Macbeth, Fitz in Penelope, in the ensemble of The White Snake, Roy Cohn in Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches, Mr. Taylor in Tales of the Jazz Age, a singing peasant in Miss Julie, as Claudius in Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, Johnnie ‘Rooster’ Byron in Jerusalem, Myron Berger in Awake and Sing, Bernard Nightingale in Arcadia, Duke Vincentio in Measure for Measure, and Richard, Duke of Gloucester in Richard III. In 2009 Joe won the Arizona Daily Star Mac Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Tobias in A Delicate Balance. He has toured with John Houseman’s Acting Company, performed with the Utah Shakespearean Festival, and he was a frequent performer with Ballet Tucson appearing in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Cinderella, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dracula and The Nutcracker. He has also performed with Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Opera, Tucson Art Theatre, and Arizona OnStage. Joe owns, with his wife Regina Gagliano, Sonora Theatre Works, which produces theatrical scenery and draperies.

Joseph McGrath’s direction of Babette’s Feast is supported in part
by generous gifts from Pat & John Hemann and Dave Perry-Miller

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

It is arguable that few of us would be familiar with Babette’s Feast without the 1987 Oscar-winning Danish film directed by Gabriel Axel. Axel takes Isak Dinesen’s short story, set in Norway, and resets it in a bleak Denmark landscape. The film is brilliant and a touch more dramatic than the short story. Our chosen adaptation, written by Rose Courtney, is, I would argue, a little closer to the original: a lighter touch, more colorful, with more broadly comic elements.

You will see in this adaptation a great deal of “narrative.” Actors speaking storytelling passages directly to the audience. It’s Courtney’s way, I believe, of honoring Dinesen’s insistence that she be not thought of as an author so much as a storyteller. This style also lends itself to Dinesen’s tendency toward mythology and parable. The characters are psychologically simple, with profound things to say. And the events are fraught with meaning.

“...in our human foolishness we imagine divine grace to be finite. For this reason we tremble.” Thus speaks General Loewenheilm in his speech to the banquet table—a reiteration and expansion on the sermon of the Dean, the long-dead leader of the religious community of Berlevaag.

I’ve left behind the Christianity of my upbringing, but the notion of infinite divine grace is yet something that I find fascinating. I’m not sure I believe in its reality, but the poetic notion of it is still inspiring. Infinite grace is a magnetic quality of Babette’s Feast. Dinesen is fearless in conjuring such things. She gives us narratives that we don’t expect, and often ends her tales with mystery rather than resolving with a return to the tonic, as a musician might say. We are left with a mood...and profound questions.

Dinesen’s story takes place at the intersection of two distinct worlds: the remote, puritan world of Berlevaag, and the wider, more colorful and epicurean outside world. The outsiders, Loewenheilm, Papin, and ultimately Babette bring these influences to a religious flock that has become stagnant and bitter, by the time Babette arrives. And the feast of the title brings renewal and grace. It is a Last Supper, preceded, in this case by the crucifixion of Babette’s sacrifice.

Babette, Loewenheilm, and the people of Berlevaag find transcend­ence, even salvation, in the story’s final event, despite their regrets—because grace is infinite. How does Dinesen manage this? How does the serving of caviar, quail, turtle soup, Amontillado sherry, and champagne reconcile the feuds and petty grievances of a religious community and invoke transcendence? It is a mystery to me at every performance of this play and yet it plays out plausibly. Somehow Dinesen—and Babette—manage it: a kind of writerly and culinary alchemy. Perhaps someone can explain it at a post-show discussion.

It is rare that we at The Rogue produce a work of such earnestness. But we’ve always actually embraced “the importance of being earnest” in our work and aspirations. We hope you find Babette’s Feast both challenging and rewarding.

—Joseph McGrath, Director
director@TheRogueTheatre.org

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Babette is a refugee of the failed Paris Commune of 1871. Details on the Paris Commune may be found in the essay by Jerry James linked through the Rogue Theatre website, theroguetheatre.org.

She is referred to as possibly being a petroleuse, one of the rumored arsonist women of the Commune who were said to be responsible for the burning of much of Paris.

Là ci darem la mano
The “Seduction Duet” from Mozart’s Don Giovanni

Dinesen astutely selects this duet as Papin’s third lesson for Philippa. The opera scene between Zerlina and Don Giovanni very closely parallels the desires and circumstances of Philippa and Papin. Sung in Italian, here is a translation (there are repeats sung in the duet):

Don Giovanni:     There we will give each other our hands.

                           There you will say ‘yes’ to me.

                           See, it’s not far;

                           Let’s go there, my dear.

Zerlina:               I would like to, and I wouldn’t,

                           My heart is trembling a little.

                           True, I could be happy,

                           But it could trick me again.

Don Giovanni:     Come, my beautiful delight!

Zerlina:               I feel sorry for Mazetto.

Don Giovanni:     I will change your fate.

Zerlina:               Soon...I won’t be strong anymore.

Don Giovanni:     Let’s go! Let’s go!

Zerlina:               Let’s go!

Both:                   Let’s go, let’s go, my dear,

                           To restore the values

                           Of an innocent love.

Developer, Playwright and Author

Abigail Killeen is a theatre artist based in Portland, Maine, who is committed to generating performance toward the good, true and beautiful. As an actor, she has worked off-Broadway, regionally, and in film and television. Killeen’s generated theatre work includes developing new work for women. In 2018, Babette’s Feast received its world premiere at Portland Stage with a direct off-Broadway transfer. Killeen played Martine in the production and also served as its co-producer. Killeen also serves as chair of the department of theater and dance at Bowdoin College. She earned her bachelor’s degree at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and her M.F.A. at Brandeis University.

Rose Courtney is an actress and playwright whose plays have premiered off-Broadway to critical acclaim and whose work has been seen at theatres across the United States and abroad. She was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Eugene O’Neill Center National Theater Institute, and she holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Vassar College. Courtney is a member of The Actors’ Center and the Dramatists Guild. She lives in her native New York City.

Isak Dinesen (1885–1962) was born Karen Blixen at her family’s estate near the town of Rungsted, Denmark. She attended the Royal Academy in Copenhagen and also studied in England, Switzerland, Italy and France. In 1914, she married Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke and moved to Kenya to start a coffee farm. The marriage was difficult, and the couple eventually divorced. While in Kenya, Dinesen met Denys Finch Hatton, and the two maintained a romance until he died in a biplane crash in 1931. Soon afterward, Dinesen returned to Denmark and began to write in earnest. She wrote in English and then translated her stories into her native Danish. Her memoir Out of Africa as well as Babette's Feast have been adapted into Academy Award-winning films. She is also known for her Seven Gothic Tales, Ehrengard, Winter’s Tales, Anecdotes of Destiny, and many other works. She was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in literature. She continued to write until her death at the age of 77.

Cast

in alphabetical order

Bryn Booth (Martine) is a graduate of the BFA Acting program at the University of Arizona. She was most recently seen as Estella in Great Expectations, Sally Seton in Mrs Dalloway, Q in Passage, Letta in Death of a Salesman, Viola in Twelfth Night, Edna in The Awakening, Celia in As You Like It, Electra in The Oresteia, Mary Shelley in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and as Catherine in A View from the Bridge. This is Bryn’s sixth season as a member of the Resident Acting Ensemble with The Rogue where she has performed in Moby Dick, Blithe Spirit, Middletown, The Crucible (Mac Award Nominee 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 (Mac Award Nominee 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 Ann & Lewis Roscoe and Barbara & Gerald Goldberg

Shannon Elias (Player #2) is thrilled to be returning to The Rogue stage after making her debut as a member of the chorus in The Oresteia in 2021. She can usually be seen in the box office, and is very excited to be back on the stage. She’s performed in a number of productions in both Phoenix and Tucson. Favorite roles have included Olive Madison in The Odd Couple, Aunt Letty in The Magician’s Nephew, and The Activist in Power 2K10, a devised theatre piece with the University of Arizona’s Studio Series. Most recently, she played Elizabeth Garrett & Marie Curie in The Scoundrel & Scamp’s production of Faustus: That Damned Woman. She has also been seen in The Thanksgiving Show at The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre and Job: A Story at Strada Company. Shannon holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts from the University of Arizona with a minor in Special Education and Rehabilitation Psychology.

Shannon Elias’ performance is supported in part
by a generous gift from Kristi Lewis

Jim Fye (Player #1) made his theatrical debut here in Tucson in 1977 at the long-gone Saguaro Dinner Theatre as the Lieutenant in My Three Angels. Immediately bitten by the bug, he returned to the University of Arizona (receiving a BA in Creative Writing in 1975), took every acting class they offered, showing up in venues from Trail Dust Town at the (long-gone) Playbox Theatre in The Philadelphia Story, to Old Tucson in a Movie of the Week entitled Go West Young Girl, to Arizona Theatre Company in The Royal Hunt of the Sun. He then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where between day jobs he acted. Favorite roles include Norman in The Dresser, Charles in Blithe Spirit, Mr. Dussel in The Diary of Anne Frank, Salieri in Amadeus, Brian in The Shadow Box, and Truscott in Loot. Forty-odd years later he’s back home in Tucson, happily making his first appearance for The Rogue in Babette’s Feast. 

Jim Fye’s performance is supported in part by
a generous gift from Meg & Peter Hovell

David Greenwood (Player #4) is thrilled to be back as a member of The Rogue Resident Acting Ensemble. Previous Rogue credits include Moby Dick, Middletown, The Crucible, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, The Grapes of Wrath, Celia A Slave, Macbeth, The White Snake, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, By the Bog of Cats, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Merchant of Venice, Waiting for Godot, Jerusalem, Awake and Sing, Purgatorio, Arcadia, Measure for Measure, Mistake of the Goddess, Richard III, Metamorphosis, Mother Courage, The Night Heron, Journey to the West, The Winter’s Tale, As I Lay Dying, Major Barbara, The Real Inspector Hound, The Decameron and The Rogue’s first production, The Balcony. David has appeared locally in Shining City and The Birthday Party at Beowulf Alley Theatre and The One-Armed Man, The Disposal and The Glass Menagerie at Tucson Art Theatre.

David Greenwood’s performance is supported in part by
generous gifts from Carol Mangold and Todd Hansen

Hunter Hnat (Player #5) is grateful to be in his fifth season as a member of The Rogue Resident Acting Ensemble. You may have seen him in previous Rogue productions as Pip in Great Expectations, Jason in Sweat, Inner Septimus in Mrs Dalloway, M in Passage, Happy in Death of a Salesman, Sebastian in Twelfth Night, Robert in The Awakening, 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 Peggy Houghton & Paul Garner and Jane & Jim Peterson

Cynthia Meier (Player #6) is Co-Founder and Managing/Associate Artistic Director for The Rogue, and has appeared recently in Great Expectations, Death of a Salesman, The Awakening, The Oresteia, A View from the Bridge, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Blithe Spirit, The Crucible, Three Tall Women, and The Grapes of Wrath. Cynthia has been nominated for nine Mac Awards for Best Actress from the Arizona Daily Star and received the 2008 Mac Award for her portrayal of Stevie in Edward Albee’s The Goat. She has also performed with Arizona Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Michigan Repertory Theatre, and Borderlands Theatre. In the 1990s, Cynthia co-founded a women’s theatre company, Bloodhut Productions, which toured throughout the American West and was published by St. Martin’s Press. Cynthia holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of Arizona.

Cynthia Meier’s performance is supported in part by
generous gifts from Katherine Jacobson and Clay Shirk

Carley Elizabeth Preston (Babette) was last seen on The Rogue stage as Cynthia in Sweat. Now in her fifth season as a member of The Rogue Theatre’s Resident Acting Ensemble, Carley has also appeared as Lucrezia in Mrs Dalloway, B in Passage, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Adele in The Awakening, Rosalind in As You Like It, 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 the loves of her life, Jerrad 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 Jill Ballesteroes and Brock & Chantal McCaman

Kate Scally (Philippa) is a prolific performer and teacher in the greater Tucson area. She currently teaches voice and piano out of her home studio and performs/music directs with the Arizona Rose Theatre Company. She also teaches all grade levels of music at the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. She graduated with a B.M. in Vocal Performance from the Eastman School of Music, and completed her master’s degree in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy at Penn State University. She is the president of the Southern AZ Chapter of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing). Favorite past roles include Susanna in Le Nozze Di Figaro, Poppea in L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Luisa in The Fantasticks, Rona Lisa Peretti in 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Beth in Little Women.

Kate Scally’s performance is supported in part by
generous gifts from Marianne Leedy and Christina Bascom

Dennis Tamblyn (Player #3) is excited to make his debut with The Rogue Theatre. He received a B.S in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics before changing career paths and getting his B.M. in Voice at the University of Arizona. Dennis also received his M.M. in Voice at the University of Northern Colorado. He has performed with such companies as Arizona Onstage, Arts Express, Oro Valley Theater Company and the Gaslight Theatre. Some of his credits include: Max Bialystock in The Producers (MAC Nomination), Dr. Fine/Dr.Madden in Next To Normal, Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Bill in Mamma Mia! and Alfie in A Man of No Importance and most recently the title role of Jekyll & Hyde. Dennis has also enjoyed an active opera career over the past 20 years and has performed with such companies as Southern Arizona Opera, Phoenix Opera, Opera New Jersey, Opera Classica, Wiesbaden, Germany; Opera Fort Collins, Colorado; Arizona Opera, Tucson and Loveland Opera Theater, Colorado.

Dennis Tamblyn’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from
Denice Blake & John Blackwell and Jean & Jordan Nerenberg

Russell Ronnebaum—Music Director, Pianist, Composer

Russell Ronnebaum 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 Great Expectations, Mrs Dalloway, Passage, Death of a Salesman, Twelfth Night, The Awakening, As You Like It, The Weir, The Oresteia, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, A View from the Bridge, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Moby Dick, Blithe Spirit, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Much Ado About Nothing 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 live theatre, strings, 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 Pat Bjorhovde, Shawn Burke and George Bradbury & C.M. Peterson

Music Director’s Notes

When I first opened the script for Babette’s Feast, I immediately noticed this dedication by the author: “This play is dedicated to strangers in foreign lands, for their courage and their gifts.” I was inspired by how the characters come from many different lands yet could converge into one loving and accepting community. They often value the needs of others above themselves and give what they can to those less fortunate.

I chose the pieces below to honor the Danish heritage of Isak Dinesen (preshow), as well as her characters: Papin (French and Italian opera tradition), Philippa/Townspeople (sacred music), and Babette (French folk song). I also composed several themes to highlight the poignant moments where the people of Berlevaag transcend their individualism in service to one another.

Preshow Music

Piano Sonata in E minor, Op 28, Mvt. 2, by Niels Gade (1817–1890)

4 Piano Pieces for Piano (DF 37): Godfather Narrates,
Dream of the Viking Wife, Hush! and Christmas Solace,
by Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann (1805–1900)

Production Music

Godfather Narrates, by JPE Hartmann

The People of Berlevaag, by Russell Ronnebaum (b. 1986)

Christmas Solace, by JPE Hartmann

Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fête! from”La fille du regiment,”
by Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848)

A Mighty Fortress is Our God, by Martin Luther (1483–1546)

Practical Method of Italian Singing, by Nicola Vaccai (1790–1848)

Là ci darem la mano from “Don Giovanni”,
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Il était un petit navire, Traditional French Folk Song

Holy God We Praise Thy Name (Großer Gott),
from Katholisches Gesangbuch (Vienna, ca. 1774)

Ar Hyd y Nos (All Through the Night), Traditional Welsch Tune

Cooking Dance, by Ronnebaum

Jerusalem, My Happy Home; Music attrib. to Edward Clarke (1871), Words attrib. to Joseph Bromehead (1795)

Take Not Thought for Food or Raiment; Music by Ronnebaum,
Words (author unknown) paraphrased from Matthew 6:25-26

Heavenly Light/Snow Dance, by Ronnebaum

Designers and Production Staff

Cynthia Meier (Costume Design) worked her way through college at Eastern Michigan University by assisting in the costume shop. Most of what she knows about Costume Design, she learned from Katie Holkeboer, the costume designer and professor at EMU. After graduating with her MA in Speech & Theatre, Cynthia stayed on at EMU to teach Costume Design, Costume Construction, Stage Makeup, and Introduction to Technical Theatre while designing the university mainstage plays and supervising the costume shop. She has designed costumes for each and every one of The Rogue plays since 2005. 

Cynthia Meier’s costume design is supported in part
by a generous gift from Denice Blake & John Blackwell

Joseph McGrath (Set Design) worked in the scene shops at West Virginia State University and the Juilliard School of Drama while he was studying to become an actor. He served as Technical Director for Arizona Theatre Company from 1987–88, and opened his own scene shop, Sonora Theatre Works, in the 1990s. Joe has designed and built scenery for Ballet Tucson for most of their ballets for over 20 years, as well as various projects with UA Opera Theatre. He has designed each and every set for The Rogue since its inception in 2005.

Joseph McGrath’s set design is supported in part
by a generous gift from Marianne Leedy

Christopher Mason (Lighting Design) is a native of Tucson and working on his MFA in Lighting Design at the University of Arizona. After 26 years as an air traffic controller, he retired and went back to school to follow his passion for the theatre, receiving his BFA from the U. of A. in 2020. He has designed several shows for other companies in Tucson and is thrilled to be working with The Rogue. Christopher would like to thank his wife Ginger for all her support in changing things up. You can visit Christopher at www.lux2152.com

Christopher Mason’s lighting design is supported
in part by a generous gift from Denice Blake & John Blackwell

Christopher Pankratz (Stage Manager, Property Master) is honored to be both an actor and a member of the production staff at The Rogue. Christopher previously stage managed Sweat and Death of a Salesman. He has performed at The Rogue in The Grapes of Wrath, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Crucible, Moby Dick, A View from the Bridge, As You Like It, The Awakening and Great Expectations. In 2019, he directed An Enemy of the People for the John and Joyce Ambruster Play-Reading Series. Christopher has written and produced several plays at Flowing Wells High School including Black Friday, Frankenstein, Cuando Soñamos, Spinning Tales The Musical, Leave It to the Snakes, Cuando Mentimos, Cuckoo, 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, and friends for their support and inspiration.

Christopher Pankratz’s stage management is supported in
part by a generous gift from Ann & Andrew Lettes

Shannon Wallace (Production Stage Manager, Associate Lighting Design) first came to The Rogue in 2015 to stage manage The Picture of Dorian Gray, and now serves as Production Stage Manager and Operations Manager. Her stage management credits at The Rogue include: The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Angels in America, Uncle Vanya, Penelope, Macbeth, A House of Pomegranates, Celia, A Slave, Bach at Leipzig, The Grapes of Wrath, Three Tall Women, King Lear, Galileo, Curious Incident, Much Ado About Nothing, Secret in the Wings, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, The Oresteia, The Weir, As You Like It, The Awakening and Mrs Dalloway. She also served as Production Stage Manager for Twelfth Night, Death of a Salesman, Passage, Sweat and Great Expectations. 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. She spent a year living in Chicago and worked as the Operations Assistant for Mudlark Theater Company. She is grateful to be working full-time as a theater artist in her hometown and would like to thank her parents & her bunnies for their unconditional love.

Shannon Wallace’s production stage management is supported in
part by a generous gift from David & Sonia Saar

Daniel Precup (Choreographer) is a graduate of the Floria Capsali National School of Dance in Romania. He has been principal dancer of the Oleg Danovski Ballet Theater, the Oakland Ballet and Ballet Tucson. Among the many roles he has danced in his thirty year performing career are Siegfried in Swan Lake, Albrecht in Giselle, Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Prince in Cinderella and The Sleeping Beauty, the Mandarin in The Miraculous Mandarin, Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dracula in Dracula, as well as the Cavalier and Herr Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker. Following his retirement to the position of Ballet Master and Choreographer for Ballet Tucson, he created the ballets Boler-O, Gemini, Mosaico, Steps, Love Songs, Carmina Burana, Carmen, Divertimento, Perseus and Andromeda and The Lady of the Camellias. Mr. Precup embraces the power of movement to express tone in diverse mediums and has cherished his time working with the talented artists of The Rogue Theatre. He has collaborated with The Rogue on their productions of The Tempest, By the Bog of Cats, Moby Dick and Mrs. Dalloway.

Daniel Precup’s choreography is supported in part
by a generous gift from Ann & Lewis Roscoe

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 Karen DeLay & Bill Sandel

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 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), and serves as Webmaster and Business Manager. He has also served on The Rogue’s Board of Directors since the founding of the theatre.

Our Thanks

Performance Schedule

Performance run time of Babette’s Feast is ninety minutes. There is no intermission.