VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE | CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM
Tesla in The Dangers of Electric
Lighting (New York premiere), Clown
in The 39 Steps, Gidger in The Violet
Hour (first New York revival), all 35
roles in I Am My Own Wife, the Fool
in King Lear, Dr. Rance in What the
Butler Saw, Bazzard in The Mystery of
Edwin Drood and Vladimir in Waiting
for Godot. Film: Begin Again, The
Smurfs, Mamarosh. TV: The Mysteries
of Laura, The Blacklist. Education: B.A.
in English from Harvard, M.F.A. in
Acting from The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also
taught acting for two years. Andrew is
deeply grateful for the ongoing support
of his extended family and especially his
husband, Tim. www.andrewsellon.com
CHRISTOPHER DURANG
Playwright
Christopher Durang’s plays include
A History of the American Film (Tony
nomination, Best Book of a Musical),
The Actor’s Nightmare, Sister Mary
Ignatius Explains It All For You (Obie
Award, Off-Broadway run, 1981-83),
Beyond Therapy (on Broadway in
1982, with Dianne Wiest and John
Lithgow), Baby with the Bathwater
(Playwrights Horizons, 1983), The
Marriage of Bette and Boo (Public
Theater, 1985; Obie Award, Dramatists
Guild Hull Warriner Award), Laughing
Wild (Playwrights Horizons, 1987)
and Durang Durang (an evening of
six plays at Manhattan Theatre Club,
1994, including the Tennessee Williams
parody For Whom The Southern Belle
Tolls). In 1996, he was commissioned
by the Rodgers and Hammerstein
Foundation to write a new book for
the popular musical Babes in Arms.
Sex and Longing was commissioned
SPONSOR
STATEMENT
Keith and Sharon Barnes
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and
Spike won the 2013 Tony Award
for best play and we are delighted
to help PCS bring this Chekhovcentric comedy to Portland
audiences.
.................................................................
by Lincoln Center Theater and
was presented on Broadway in fall
1996 starring Sigourney Weaver.
The Idiots Karamazov, a full-length
play with music written with Albert
Innaurato, was revived at the American
Repertory Theatre. His play Betty’s
Summer Vacation (Drama Desk Award
nomination) had its world premiere at
Playwrights Horizons in February 1999
to great critical acclaim and sold-out
houses and was extended three times. It
was the recipient of four Obie Awards,
for distinguished playwriting, directing,
acting and set design. His musical
(with music by Peter Melnick) Adrift
in Macao premiered at New York Stage
and Film in the summer of 2002. Mrs.
Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge
was commissioned by Pittsburgh’s City
Theater and had its world premiere in
November 2002. In the early ‘80s, he
and Sigourney Weaver co-wrote and
performed in their acclaimed BrechtWeill parody Das Lusitania Songspiel
and were both nominated for Drama
Desk Awards for Best Performer in a
Musical. In 1993, he sang and tried to
dance in the five-person Off-Broadway
Sondheim revue Putting it Together,
with Julie Andrews at Manhattan
Theatre Club. And he played a singing
congressman in Call Me Madam with
Tyne Daly as part of “Encores.” He can
be heard on cast recordings of both
productions. In movies, he has appeared
in The Secret of my Success, Mr. North,
The Butcher’s Wife, Housesitter, The
Cowboy Way, The Object of my Affection,
Simply Irresistible and The Out of
Towners, among others. For television,
he wrote for a Carol Burnett special
called Carol and Robin and Whoopi
and Carl; and for PBS’ series Trying
Times, he wrote a teleplay called The
Visit starring Swoosie Kurtz as Wanda,
the upsetting houseguest. He’s written
several screenplays, including The
House of Husbands (co-authored with
Wendy Wasserstein), The Adventures of
Lola for Tri-Star and director Herbert
Ross, The Nun who Shot Liberty Valance,
and his own adaptation of Sister Mary
… which aired on Showtime with Diane
Keaton in the title role; and two sitcom
pilots, Billy and Meg (for Fox Television)
and Dysfunction! – The TV Show for
Warner Brothers. He hopes one day
they will be produced, perhaps in
heaven. He has an M.F.A. from the Yale
School of Drama. Early in his career,
P 6 | PORTLAND CENTER STAGE VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE
he won a Guggenheim, a Rockefeller,
the CBS Playwriting Fellowship, the
Lecompte du Nouy Foundation grant
and the Kenyon Festival Theatre
Playwriting Prize. In 1995, he won the
prestigious three-year Lila Wallace
Readers Digest Award; as part of his
grant, he ran a writing workshop for
adult children of alcoholics. Since 1994,
he has been co-chair with Marsha
Norman of the Playwriting Program at
the Juilliard School in Manhattan. He
is a member of the Dramatists Guild
Council.
ROSE RIORDAN
Director
Rose is in her 17th season at Portland
Center Stage, where she serves as
associate artistic director. At PCS
she has directed The Typographer’s
Dream, LIZZIE, A Small Fire, The
Mountaintop, The People’s Republic
of Portland, The Whipping Man, The
North Plan, Red, One Flew Over
The Cuckoo’s Nest, A Christmas
Story, The 25th Annual Putnam County
Spelling Bee, The Receptionist, A
Christmas Carol, Frost/Nixon, How to
Disappear Completely and Never Be
Found, Doubt, The Underpants, The
Pillowman and The Thugs, which won
four Drammy Awards, including Best
Ensemble and Best Director. She has
also recently directed, for various other
theaters, Adam Bock’s Phaedra, The
Passion Play, Telethon and The
Receptionist. In 1999 she founded
Portland Center Stage’s annual JAW:
A Playwrights Festival. JAW has
been instrumental in developing new
work for the PCS repertory: Bo-Nita,
The People’s Republic of Portland,
The Body of an American, The North
Plan, Anna Karenina, Outrage, Flesh
and Blood, Another Fi