The Happiest Man on Earth

FREE ARTISTIC EVENTS

Aftershows

FREE Discussion with purchase of a ticket for that night’s performance.

Stick around after the show for a discussion of the play, its themes and its relation to our community; featuring select cast and creative team. Purchase your tickets by clicking the desired dates below.

The Happiest Man on Earth — September 23 at 7:30pm | September 27 at 7:30pm | October 5 at 7:30pm

CAST

KENNETH TIGAR* (Eddie Jaku) BSC: Boca, 10×10 (2020), Uncle Vanya; Broadway/Off Broadway: Fish in the Dark; Prayer For the French Republic; Vienna: Wir Spielen Frieden (in German); Old Wicked Songs. Regional Theater: Alley Theatre; Cleveland Play House; Syracuse Stage; co-founder Chester Theatre; four productions of Freud’s Last Session (Geva, TheaterWorks Hartford, Le Petit/New Orleans, Cape Playhouse); winner of LA Drama Critics Circle, Dramalogue and South Florida’s Carbonell awards. Film: The Avengers; Lethal Weapon 2&3. Television: The Man in the High Castle; Hunters; The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; Evil; Dopesick; House of Cards; The Good Wife; Bull; Blacklist; Barney Miller. Directing credits include Tosca; Don Giovanni; La Bohème; Threepenny Opera. Published translations of Wedekind and Büchner.

ROBERT ZUKERMAN* (u/s Eddie Jaku) BSC: Boca, If I Forget, His Girl Friday, The Crucible, Ring Round the Moon, The Importance of Being Earnest, Thief River, The Collyer Brothers at Home, eight productions of 10×10. Theater: Florida Rep, GableStage, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Penguin Rep, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage. Off Broadway: Irish Rep, Atlantic, CSC, TFANA, Pearl. Film: In Bed With Ulysses. Television: Renaissance Gardening (Rhode Island PBS). Narration: Talking Books (Library of Congress). Tour: USAF bases in Greenland for the USO. Former Theater Program Director at the New York State Council on the Arts.

CREATIVE TEAM

MARK ST. GERMAIN (Playwright) is an Associate Artist, and has had many plays premiere at BSC, including Freud’s Last Session, Dancing Lessons, The Best of Enemies, The God Committee and Becoming Dr. Ruth. Other plays include Out of Gas on Lover’s Leap, Camping with Henry and Tom and Relativity. He has partnered with composer Randy Courts for musicals and John Markus for the comedy The Fabulous Lipitones. He has written for television and film, directed the documentary My Dog, An Unconditional Love Story; and scripted Carroll Ballard’s film Duma. His books include the humorous memoir Walking Evil and the thriller The Mirror Man. The film of Freud’s Last Session, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Anthony Goode, will be released this holiday season. He wishes to thank Eddie Jaku’s sons, Michael and Andre, for their help in bringing The Happiest Man to the stage.

EDDIE JAKU (Memoirist) (April 14, 1920–October 12, 2021), Medal of the Order of Australia, was born Abraham Jakubowicz in Germany in 1920. In World War II, Eddie was imprisoned in Buchenwald and Auschwitz concentration camps. In 1945, he was sent on a “death march” but escaped. Finally he was rescued by Allied soldiers. In 1950, he moved with family to Australia where he lived for over 60 years. Eddie was married to his wife Flore for 75 years and they had two sons, four grandchildren and five great grandchildren. He died peacefully in October 2021, at the age of 101.

RON LAGOMARSINO (Director) most recently directed Joseph Dougherty’s Chester Bailey at Irish Repertory Theatre in New York (Outer Critics Award nomination for Outstanding Play), following its acclaimed run at BSC in 2021 (NY Times Critics Pick; Berkshire Theatre Critics Awards, including Best Director). He also directed the premieres of Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy (Pulitzer Prize, Drama Desk Award nomination) and The Last Night of Ballyhoo (Tony Award, Best Play). The national tour of …Daisy (Helen Hayes nomination) starred Julie Harris, and Dame Wendy Hiller led the West End cast. For his productions of …Daisy, Christopher Durang’s Laughing Wild and Timothy Mason’s Only You, Ron received the Outer Critics Circle Award. He staged Joseph Dougherty’s Digby (Drama Desk nomination) at Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Dougherty/Ahrens/Flaherty musical My Favorite Year at Lincoln Center. He has developed new works at NY Stage & Film, Sundance, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and Ojai Playwrights Conference. His own play Jerome was developed at NYS&F and chosen as an O’Neill Finalist. His extensive television credits include the Emmy-winning pilots of David E. Kelley’s Picket Fences (Directors Guild of America Award) and Homefront (Emmy Award nomination). Favorite episodic work includes thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, Ally McBeal and Pretty Little Liars. Movies for television include the Hallmark Hall of Fame My Sister’s Keeper, starring Kathy Bates and Lynn Redgrave (National Association for Mental Illness Media Award). He is a graduate of Santa Clara University (Valedictorian) and NYU School of the Arts. 

JAMES NOONE (Scenic Designer) BSC: Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Alice Revisited. Broadway credits include: Inherit the Wind, The Gin Game, Jekyll & Hyde, The Sunshine Boys, Getting and Spending, Night Must Fall, The Rainmaker, A Class Act, Judgement at Nuremberg, Urban Cowboy, Match, Hot Feet, A Bronx Tale, Come Back Little Sheba’s, Time To Kill, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Sunset Boulevard. Off Broadway credits include: Frankie and Johnny in the Clair De Lune, Breaking Legs, Cowgirls, Ruthless, Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women, Full Gallop, Fully Committed, A Bronx Tale, Party, Boys in the Band. Opera credits include: Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, NYC Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, LA Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, English National Opera, Chateau de Versailles Spectacles, Theatre du Capitole, Opera National de Bordeaux. Film and television credits include: Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (HBO, Live From Lincoln Center and Great Performances). Awards: Drama Desk Award, American Theatre Wing Design Award, LA Ovation Award, 2 Helen Hayes Awards, Broadway World—Scenic Design of The Decade (Calgary) as well as many Drama Desk Nominations and Outer Critic Circle Award nominations.

JOHANNA PAN (Costume Designer) is a costume and sometimes scenic designer for theater, film, dance and opera, a textile and visual artist, host and co-producer of the podcast Dirty Laundry: Unpacking the Costume Closet. They first discovered theatrical design while competing in the creative thinking competition Odyssey of the Mind, and they never looked back. Johanna’s artistic practice is centered around anti-racism, decolonizing the imagination and breaking down the notions of feminized labor. They continue to harbor hope for a more sustainable humankind in the face of adversity and dreams of a future filled with equity, inclusion and diversity. BFA: Ithaca College, MFA: NYU/TISCH. @jpandesign

MARÍA-CRISTINA FUSTÉ (Lighting Designer) BSC: Anna in the Tropics. Broadway: Jagged Little Pill, Associate LD 2021 remount. Off Broadway: Sancocho (WP/ Sol Project), Songs About Trains (Working Theater/Radical Evolution); Fur, Mud, and The Conduct of Life (Boundless Theatre Company, NYC). Regional: Cleveland Play House, Alabama Shakespeare, Bay Street Theater, Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Co., Geva Theatre Center, People’s Light Theater, Westport Country Playhouse. Opera: Cecilia Valdés (Teatro Colón, Bogotá); Tosca, Bluebeard’s Castle, Madama Butterfly, Don Pasquale and L’Elisir d’Amore (Ópera de PR). Training: MFA in Lighting Design (NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts). Awards: Princess Grace Award 2018, Suzi Bass Award 2016/ 2017, HOLA Award 2022. MC is the Executive Artistic Director of Boundless Theatre Company. mcfuste.com

BRENDAN AANES (Sound Design & Additional Music) BSC: Chester Bailey. Off Broadway: Fire in Dreamland (Public Theater), Dead and Alive and Balls with One Year Lease (Drama Desk Nomination), Chester Bailey (Irish Rep), {my lingerie play} (Rattlestick), Beep Boop (HERE). Regional: Everybody (Shakespeare Theater DC), The Good Person of Szechwan and War of the Roses (Cal Shakes), Seascape, The Unfortunates, John, The Hard Problem (American Conservatory Theater), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Kansas City Rep) and Bakkhai (Baltimore Center Stage).

LESLIE SEARS* (Production Stage Manager) she/her BSC: Andy Warhol in Iran; If I Forget; A Doll’s House, Part 2; Taking Steps; Georgie; Kunstler; 10×10 2018. Off Broadway: Sons of the Prophet (Roundabout). Regional theater credits include work at Chester Theatre Company, Barnstormers, New Rep, Gloucester Stage, Poets’ Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Huntington Theater Company and Old Globe. Opera and Symphony credits include Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Tanglewood Music Festival, Inland Northwest Opera, Concert Theater Works, Jacksonville Symphony, Boston Lyric Opera and Boston Early Music Festival. Ms. Sears is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and a core member of FairWage.

MCCORKLE CASTING: PAT MCCORKLE, CSA; REBECCA WEISS, CSA (Casting) Casting actors for Barrington Stage for 21 years. Pat McCorkle is pleased to be an Associate Artist at BSC. Broadway: Over 50 productions including On the Town, Amazing Grace, End of the Rainbow, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, She Loves Me, A Few Good Men. Off Broadway highlights: Clever Little Lies; Sheer Madness; Tribes; Our Town (Barrow Street); Freud’s Last Session; Toxic Avenger; Almost, Maine; Driving Miss Daisy. Feature film: Premium Rush, Ghost Town, The Thomas Crown Affair, Die Hard with a Vengeance, School Ties, etc. Television: Twisted, St. George, Sesame Street, Hack, Californication, Max Bickford, Chappelle’s Show, Strangers with Candy, Barbershop, etc. mccorklecasting.com

CHARLIE SIEDENBURG (Berkshires Press Representative), Associate Artist (19^th Season), joined the BSC family in 2005 and has represented over 150 BSC productions. His work has led to features in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Associated Press and American Theatre Magazine. His many PR credits include the Metropolitan Opera (Live in HD), Paper Mill Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Goodspeed Musicals, Long Wharf Theatre, Surflight Theatre and Two River Theater Company. He serves as Press Rep for Wagner College Theatre, The Minty Awards, Ghostlight Productions and Forestburgh Playhouse. Charlie is a 1995 Theatre/Arts Administration graduate of Wagner College on Staten Island, where he currently teaches Theatre Appreciation. In 2021, he received a Berkshire Theatre Critics Association Special Award for Exceptional Support of Arts Journalism in the Berkshires.

THE PRESS ROOM (National Press Representatives) Broadway: Hamilton, The Book of Mormon, Prima Facie. Off Broadway: Blue Man Group, Death Drop, The Fears. Upcoming: Female Troubles, Personality: The Lloyd Price Musical, A Wonderful World. Recent credits: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, Paradise Square, The Waverly Gallery, Three Tall Women, Farinelli and the King. Clients include: The Acting Company, Drama Book Shop, Hershey Felder, Hunter Theater Project, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, New York Classical Theatre, Ogunquit Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Rosie’s Theater Kids, Shakespeare’s Globe, Theatre Row, Vineyard Theatre, The Wooster Group.

BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY

ALAN PAUL (Artistic Director) Before joining BSC, Alan was the Associate Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he directed productions of Our Town; Camelot; The Comedy of Errors; Romeo and Juliet; Kiss Me, Kate; Man of La Mancha; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and the film of Patrick Page’s All the Devils Are Here, which was a New York Times Critics Pick.

Along with his work at STC, Alan has directed productions at theaters across the country including Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre, Chicago’s Drury Lane Theatre and at almost every top Washington, D.C. theater including Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Studio Theatre and Round House Theatre.

Alan is particularly dedicated to new work and has spent much of his career developing new plays and musicals. At STC, Alan commissioned Lauren Gunderson to write a feminist adaptation of Peter Pan and Wendy which premiered in 2019. He brought in significant musical theater composers such as Michael John LaChiusa, Daniel Kluger and Jenny Giering to compose scores for his productions.

Alan has a passion for classical music and works regularly at The Kennedy Center. He directed the world premiere of Penny for the Washington National Opera and is a frequent guest with the National Symphony Orchestra. He recently directed John Williams: The 90th Birthday Gala Concert at the NSO with Steven Spielberg, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Daisy Ridley. In 2013, Alan was the only American finalist for the European Opera Directing Prize in Vienna, Austria. Alan has been nominated for five Helen Hayes Awards and was awarded Best Director in 2014.

MEREDITH LYNSEY SCHADE (Managing Director) is a three-time Tony Award-winning producer with over two decades in the theater industry, currently represented on Broadway by Hadestown and The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. Other recent credits include the world premiere of Taylor Mac and Matt Ray’s The Hang (HERE), Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe (New World Stages); Erik Ehn’s Soulographie (La MaMa); and the international Gun Control Action Week. Broadway: The Inheritance; Network; What the Constitution Means to Me; The Front Page; Bridges of Madison County; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and many more. 

While Meredith began her career at Barrington Stage Company with the 1999 production of Mack and Mabel, her career in the intermeaning years has been quite varied. Most recently, she was the Producing Director at HERE Arts Center, where she oversaw the world premieres of Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville, 9000 Paper Balloons and the revival of Basil Twist’s Symphonie Fantastique. As General Manager, she developed dozens of devised works in puppetry, dance and theater. She has held various positions at Classic Stage Company, Ars Nova, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Center for New Performance at CalArts and Dee Gee Entertainment. She’s worked on a number of films, including 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, and was the Executive Director of the South Asian arts festival ArtWallah. In 2010, she founded the e-play periodical StageReads. She holds an MFA in Producing from California Institute of the Arts and a BFA in Design & Technical Theatre from the University of Connecticut.

JULIANNE BOYD (Founding Artistic Director, 1995–2022) has directed many productions at BSC, including the critically acclaimed musicals West Side Story, Company and Follies. In 1997 she directed BSC’s smash hit production of Cabaret, which won six Boston Theater Critics Awards and transferred to the Hasty Pudding Theatre in Cambridge. She also directed the world premieres of Mark St. Germain’s Dancing Lessons, The Best of Enemies and Dr. Ruth, All the Way, as well as Christopher Demos-Brown’s American Son, the latter two having moved to Off Broadway and Broadway respectively.

Boyd oversaw the development of Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which moved to Broadway and won two Tony Awards; the 2013 critically acclaimed revival On the Town, which also transferred to Broadway; and the world premiere of Freud’s Last Session, which moved Off Broadway. Boyd conceived and directed the Broadway musical Eubie! Based on the music of Eubie Blake and starring Gregory Hines; it garnered three Tony nominations. She also co- conceived and directed (with Joan Micklin Silver) the award-winning Off Broadway musical revue A…My Name Is Alice and its sequel A…My Name Is Still Alice. 

From 1992–1998 Boyd served as President of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, the national labor union representing professional directors and choreographers in the U.S. She and her husband Norman, a New York dentist, have three grown children.

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