By Melanie Marnich
Directed by Rachel Walshe

October 25 – November 21, 2009

Sponsored by The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation

Directed by RTE's Rachel Walshe, "These Shining Lives" tells the story of the young women employed at Ottawa’s Radium Dial and Luminous Processes watch and clock factories in the 1920s and '30s. While employers assured the women’s safety, their exposure to and ingestion of radium-based paint proved deadly.

Location:
The West Stage, Raven Theatre Complex
(6157 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL)

CAST

Kathy Logelin as Catherine Donohue

Member of Actors' Equity Association

Kathy Logelin joined Rivendell Theatre Ensemble in the spring of 2010 after appearing in the Rivendell's 2009 remount of These Shining Lives. Recent Rivendell credits include the world premiere of Precious Little, as well as the These Shining Lives remount in Ottawa, IL. Kathy has been an actor in Chicago since 1998. Other Chicago credits include Betrayal with Oak Park Festival Theatre; The Last Days of Judas Iscariot with The Gift Theatre and Victory Gardens; Cadillac with Chicago Dramatists; and Widowers' Houses with Timeline Theatre Co. Regionally Kathy has done five seasons with the Illinois Shakespeare Festival including The Three Musketeers, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and All's Well That Ends Well, as well as Mauritius at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Macbeth at the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival. Kathy is also a dialect coach and recently worked with Remy Bumppo, Mary-Arrchie, Strawdog and Idle Muse Theatre Co. Kathy holds a B.S. in Acting from Illinois State University.

Guy Massey as Tom Donohue

Guy Massey holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Southern California. He has been acting in Chicago for twenty years, performing in plays with The Steppenwolf Theater, Rivendell Theater, The Curious Theatre Branch, Theater Oobleck, Eclipse Theater, Greasy Joan & Co., A Red Orchid Theatre, Prop Thtr, Teatro Vista, Next Theater, and Wisdom Bridge, among others. Time Out Chicago called Mr. Massey “one of the instantly recognizable and dependably engaging personalities” on Chicago’s fringe theater landscape. Most recently he has worked with the Goodman Theater and Steppenwolf Theater, and played George W. Bush in Theater Oobleck’s The Strangerer, both Off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theater in Manhattan and in Chicago at the Chopin Theater. His earliest film credits include the '80s cult classic Three O’Clock High. The latest are The Promotion, Stranger Than Fiction, Contagion, and Fred Claus. Television credits include the pilot episodes of The Beast, The Line, and The Chicago Code. In the Spring of 2011, Mr. Massey will be performing in Death of a Salesman at the Milwaukee Rep.

Ashley Neal as Charlotte

Ashley has been a member of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble for 7 years. During that time she has appeared in Be Aggressive, Expecting Isabel, The Walls, These Shining Lives, and most recently 26 Miles. As a graduate of Columbia College Chicago and having worked with numerous theatre companies throughout Chicago, Ashley is proud to call Chicago her home — and Rivendell her family!

Rani Waterman as Pearl

Rani Waterman is incredibly honored to be a part of These Shining Lives. Other recent Chicago credits include: Ski Dubai and Gary (Steppenwolf Theatre); Hephaestus, Lookingglass Alice and Hard Times (Lookingglass Theatre); Major Barbara (Remy Bumppo), Our Town (The Hypocrites); Fake Lake (The Neofuturists); Last of My Species (Redmoon Theatre); and Taming of the Shrew (First Folio Shakespeare Festival). Regional credits include: Lookingglass Alice and Hard Times (Arden Theatre); Lookingglass Alice (McCarter Theatre and New Victory Theatre); and Mime! (Theâtre Le Petit Louvre, Avignon, France). Rani is a company member and arts educator with Barrel of Monkeys and a graduate of Northwestern University and The School at Steppenwolf.

Caitlin McGlone as Frances

Caitlin McGlone is ecstatic to be performing in her first show with Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. Caitlin is the Director of New Works for XIII Pocket and has worked with companies across the city, including XIII Pocket, Hell in a Handbag, Chicago Shakespeare, the Abbie Hoffman Festival, Theatre Building Chicago, and Canterbury Theatre, among others. Caitlin is a graduate of North Central College with a BA in Theatre Performance, as well as a budding vegan chef and avid city bicyclist. Please feel free to contact her regarding XIII Pocket’s new works development, or any events that require vegan catering, at cmcglone[at]thirteenpocket.com.

Ron Wells as Mr. Reed

Ron Wells is an original cast member of the Chicago production of These Shining Lives and is thrilled to be making his third run in this wonderful play. In 2008, he received a Non-AEA Jeff Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the murderous Sean in Thomas Babe’s A Prayer For My Daughter at Mary-Arrchie Theatre. Other favorite roles include: Annibale Carracci in Caravaggio at Silk Road Theatre Project, and Dr Miklos Nyiszli in The Grey Zone at Red Orchid Theatre. Over the past 20 years he has appeared on many other Chicago stages, including: Chicago Dramatists (where he is an Associate Artist), American Theatre Company, Steppenwolf, American Blues Theatre, Stage Left, City Lit, Profiles Theatre, Footsteps Theatre, and Caffeine Theatre. In February, Ron can be seen as Tommy in Joel Drake Johnson’s The End Of The Tour at 16th Street Theatre in Berwyn.

PLAYWRIGHT

Melanie Marnich

Melanie is originally from Duluth, Minnesota, where she developed a keen appreciation for the dramatic extremes of the characters and climate around her. Her love of such a careening environment has informed her work ever since. Her plays are driven by people who are compelled, by personality and by place, to seek answers to life’s most human and confusing questions. Her voice is idiosyncratically comic, exuberantly theatrical, and emotionally real. Melanie has received two McKnight Advancement Grants and two Jerome Fellowships (The Playwrights’ Center), two Samuel Goldwyn Awards and the Francesca Primus Prize. Her work has been seen at The Guthrie Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Steppenwolf Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Dallas Theater Center, London’s Royal Court Theatre and the O’Neill Theatre Center. Commissions include The Guthrie Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage, and the Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis. She is a core member of The Playwrights’ Center.

Director — Rachel Walshe

Rachel Walshe became an ensemble member in 2007. She is Artistic Director of Fresh Produce and Director of New Play Development. For Rivendell, Rachel directed These Shining Lives; assistant directed Quiara Alegria Hudes’ Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue (director: Lisa Portes); and directed the staged reading of Carson Kreitzer’s Flesh and the Desert. Rachel holds her MFA from DePaul University’s Theatre School where she directed Machinal by Sophie Treadwell; Eighteen by Allison Moore; Breath, Boom by Kia Corthron; Living Out by Lisa Loomer and Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl. Other Chicago directing credits include readings of Annie Levine’s Disaster City and Lisa Rosenthal’s The Good Harvest, both at Chicago Dramatists. Rachel hails from Providence, RI, where she has worked extensively as a dramaturge and director. Rachel has dramaturged Tom Stoppard’s Travesties and David Mamet’s Oleanna, both for the Gamm Theatre. She served as literary associate for Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul, Henry IV and Henry V, all for Trinity Rep. RI directing credits include Marie Jones’ A Night in November for the Firehouse Theatre in Newport and Kayla Hazzard’s The Dinosaur Play for Perishable Theatre’s Manton Avenue Project. She is currently directing the remount of These Shining Lives. She gave birth to baby Alice in the spring of 2009.

Assistant Director — Shera Street

Shera Street has been a proud member of Rivendell Theater Ensemble since 2001. She has more than 10 years of experience in theater production, including 6 years as Assistant Production Manager with the Goodman Theatre. Production management credits with Rivendell include These Shining Lives at Theater on the Lake; Fresh Produce; Be Aggressive; The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek; and Faulkner's Bicycle. Directing credits with Rivendell include 365 Days 365 Plays and assistant direction for These Shining Lives. Shera was Producer for Rivendell’s production of Indulgences in the Louisville Harem and Associate Producer for RTE’s Silence. Acting credits include 365 Days 365 Plays with Lifeline Theatre and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Expecting Isabel, and Silence (performing understudy) also with Rivendell. She has also performed in Chicago-area productions of Romeo and Juliet; Lost In Yonkers; Arsenic and Old Lace; and King Lear with the Iowa Shakespeare Project. She received her BFA in Theatre from Drake University and currently works as a project manager for planetarium shows and exhibits at the Adler Planetarium.

Production Manager — Patrick Fries

Pat Fries is perhaps the most handsome Rivendell Ensemble Member. Pat has production-managed the RTE productions of These Shining Lives, The Walls, Mary's Wedding, and 26 Miles. Previous credits include The UN Inspector, Dying City, Boom, End Days, War With The Newts, The Piano Teacher, and Madagascar (Next Theatre); Generic Latina 2010 and Lunatic(a)s (Teatro Luna); and Welcome Yule! 2009 and 2010 (Chicago Symphony Orchestra).

Scenic Design — Jessica Kuehnau

Jessica Kuehnau is pleased to be designing her first set for Rivendell Theatre. Ms. Kuehnau is a recent graduate of Northwestern University with her MFA in both set and costume design. Her Chicago credits include designing for Pegasus Players, Griffin Theatre, Lifeline, MPAACT, Adventure Stage Chicago, Light Opera Works, and Metropolis Performing Art Center. Jessica is currently the resident set designer and design professor at North Park University and full time teaching faculty at Northeastern Illinois University. Look for her costume designs this spring with Steep, Circle Theatre and Adventure Stage Chicago.

Lighting Design — Diane Fairchild

Diane Fairchild is a proud ensemble member of Rivendell, an Artistic Associate of Next Theatre, and adjunct faculty at The School of the Art Institute. Previous designs for Rivendell include 26 Miles, The Walls, These Shining Lives and Psalms of a Questionable Nature. Other design credits in Chicago include shows at  Next, TimeLine, Northlight, Pegasus Players, Neo-Futurists (at Northlight), Redmoon, Infamous Commonwealth, Noble Fool, The Side Project, Wheaton College, and Court Theatre. In New York: The Juilliard School, Dixon Place, The Kitchen, Joyce Soho, HERE, New Georges; Regional: INTIMAN Theatre, Trinity Repertory, Syracuse Stage. Ms. Fairchild holds an MFA in theater design from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and she earned her BFA in design and technology for the theater from Wright State University in her hometown of Dayton, Ohio.

Costume Coordinator — Janice Pytel

Janice Pytel has been living and working in the Chicago area since she moved here to attend Lake Forest College in 1989. She also attended Northwestern University from 1993-1996, finally earning her MFA in costume design in 1999. Over the years she has worked with dozens of theatre companies in various capacities, including brief stints as a stage manager and in a box office. Janice was the costume shop manager for Steppenwolf Theatre from 1996-2002, and also worked briefly at the Court Theatre while she was transitioning into full-time freelance costume design. She’s been living the freelance dream (sometimes a nightmare) since 2004. For Rivendell Theatre Ensemble she has designed costumes for Falling: A Wake, Precious Little,  Psalms of a Questionable Nature and Mary’s Wedding. Additional costume design credits include: Broadway: 33 Variations; I Am My Own Wife. Chicago: The Long Red Road (Goodman Theatre); The Seafarer, Sonia Flew, The Last of the Boys, The Pain and the Itch, and The Drawer Boy (Steppenwolf Theatre); The Caretaker, The Detective's Wife, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Picnic (Writers’ Theatre);  Our Town (Lookingglass Theatre Company);   Fences and  Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Court Theatre); Pulp (About Face Theatre). Regional: The Farnsworth Invention (Alley Theatre); Winesburg, Ohio (Kansas City Rep); The Glass Menagerie (Kansas City Rep.); 33 Variations (Arena Stage and La Jolla Playhouse); Lombardi: the Only Thing (Madison Rep.); Rembrandt’s Gift (Madison Rep.); Agnes of God (Indiana Rep.). Los Angeles: The Seafarer (Geffen Playhouse). Multi Media: Catherine Sullivan’s Triangle of Need (Walker Art Center, Vizcaya Musuem and Gardens, Metro Pictures Gallery). Janice has designed costumes for over a dozen world-premieres, and as a result has become interested in new play development. She is very excited to be one of the newest members of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and to embark on this new phase in her career.

Sound Designer — Nick Keenan

Nick is thrilled to be working with Rivendell for the first time. Nick has designed over 100 shows in Chicago with companies including A Red Orchid (Not a Game for Boys), BackStage (How I Learned to Drive), Raven (Book of Days, A Few Good Men), Greasy Joan & Co. (Sueño, Woyzeck) and his artistic home, New Leaf Theatre (Touch, Six Years, The Dining Room). Nick has assisted at the Chicago Shakespeare (Amadeus) and the Goodman Theatre (Trip to Bountiful, Shining City) Nick is a sound operator at the Goodman, and explores behind-the-scenes on his blog theaterforthefuture.com.

Composer / Associate Sound Design — Claudette Perez

Claudette Perez is a graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso and fairly new to Chicago. Since moving here, she's interned at Goodman Theater, designed for Halcyon Theater, Rasaka theater, and assisted design for Strawdog Theater. She is glad to be working with Rivendell again.

Dramaturg — Martha Wade Steketee

Martha Wade Steketee has been a script reader for Washington, DC theatres (Theatre J and Studio Theatre), Chicago theatres (Steppenwolf, Goodman, and Northlight), and online publisher Playscripts, Inc. She has dramaturged productions at Writers' Theatre, readings at Columbia College and Chicago Dramatists, and reviewed Chicago theatre for Aislesay.com. Our "Radium Girls" along with Hedda Gabler and Jeff Committee membership currently fill her days and nights with theatre. Steketee is a happy immigrant to Chicago after an eight-year stint in Washington, D.C., most of those with a national court research organization.

Assistant Dramaturg — Caitlin Kunkel

Stage Manager — Stephanie Hurovitz

Stephanie Hurovitz has been stage managing in Chicago since 2003 and she is very happy to have found a home with Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. She has stage-managed Rivendell’s productions of Falling: A Wake; Precious Little; Mary’s Wedding; The Walls; These Shining Lives (all four incarnations); and assistant stage-managed Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue with Teatro Vista at the Steppenwolf garage. Other theatres that have been lucky enough to have her pass through include: SuzBo Productions (a staged reading of One Is One; Two Is Math at Steppenwolf); Route 66 Theatre Company (A Twist of Water); Pegasus Players (Continental Divide); Lifeline Theatre (Lyle, Lyle Crocodile; The True Story of the Three Little Pigs!; Gaudy Night; Giggle, Giggle Quack; A Long Way From Chicago; and Deep In The Jungle); Bailiwick Reparatory (Sunday on the Rocks); and ASM (Naked Boys Singing); Theatre Building Chicago, where she worked with Hancock Productions (The Brother and ‘Night Mother); Walk-About Theatre Company, in conjunction with Lookingglass (The Coast of Chicago); Collaboraction Theatre Company (Casanova); the (since re-named) International Theatre of Chicago (Safe); Brown Couch Theatre Company (Tempting Fate and Defying Gravity); Reverie Theatre Company (All’s Well That Ends Well); and (since-dissolved) Pywackett Theatre Company (Misery).

Technical Director — Kurt Kupferer

Graphic Design — Melissa Blumenthal

Publicists — Shout Marketing and Media Relations

SPECIAL THANKS

JB Burt, Cheetah Gym; Victoria DeIorio; Diane Dorsey; Susan Gaspar; Ann Gordon; Debra Giunta and Design Dance; Damon Kiely; Barbara Mallen; Jennifer Masi; Misetic Management ; Spectrum Creative Solutions; Zena Vaughn; Harvey Wells; Gavin Witt; Wishbone restaurant; Joy Camarena; Roost; Theatre Wit