November 13–21, 2020
The Cherry presented the English-language première of “A Day” by Québecoise writer Gabrielle Chapdelaine. In this funny and tender award-winning new play, four mysteriously connected characters guide one another through a seemingly ordinary day.
And the reviews are in! A Day is:
“Technically impressive and dramatically effective…Ortiz, Steinhagen, Gregory, and Yntema do excellent, heartfelt work...A Day will stick with you much longer!”
—ThinkingTheaterNYC.com
“Put down the remote, pick up the mouse and watch A Day.”
—TheaterScene.net
“An energetic cast brings a delightful script to pulsing, exuberant life.”
—Box Five Theater reviews
In a grand collaboration, four Cherry Arts actors performed live from multi-camera green-screen booths in the State Theatre of Ithaca, their performances were mixed in real time with recorded video to create a sophisticated and surprising landscape of 24 seemingly ordinary hours.
“A Day” stared Ithaca favorites Karl Gregory, Jahmar Ortiz, Erica Steinhagen, and Sylvie Yntema. It was translated by Josephine George, video mise en scène was directed by Samuel Buggeln, and performances were directed by Wendy Dann.
2020 Show times (all performances at 7:30)
Fri Nov 13 | Sat Nov 14
Thurs Nov 19 | Fri Nov 20 | Sat Nov 21
Click here to watch Erica Steinhagen* and Karl Gregory* Zoom-rehearse A Day!
“A Day” was made possible with support from the Cultural Services of the Québec Government Office in New York.
Karl Gregory (Harris) Collective member. Previous Cherry: Testosterone. Recently named “Best Actor” by the Ithaca Times, Karl has appeared in over 45 shows in Ithaca since 2002. Kitchen Theatre Company: Every Brilliant Thing, Hand To God, Buyer & Cellar, Peter and the Starcatcher (SALT Award), Gutenberg! The Musical!, Fully Committed (SALT Award), and antaLand Diaries, among others. Regional: Ever So Humble, The 39 Steps (Hangar Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (SFSTL), The Importance of Being Earnest (Trinity Rep). NYC credits: From White Plains (Fault Line Theatre, GLAAD Media Award), FROGS (Fault Line Theatre), Mother’s Day (FringeNYC Encore Series), BecauseHeCan (Personal Space Theatrics), The Servant of Two Masters (PS122). TV: ALPHA HOUSE, NIGHTCAP. BFA- Syracuse University, MFA-Brown/Trinity Rep. www.karlgregory.com
Jahmar Ortiz (Alfonso) Previous Cherry: On the Other Side of the Sea. A third-year student at Ithaca College originally from Willingboro, NJ. His previous Ithaca College credits include Julio in A Bicycle Country, Shango in In the Red and Brown Water, and Belize in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches. His other credits include Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as Double J in Saturday Night Fever and Bunsen in Newsies with Cortland Repertory Theatre in Cortland, NY.
Erica Steinhagen (Debs) Collective member. Previous Cherry: White Rabbit Red Rabbit, The Snow Queen (2016 & 2017), What Happens Next. Kitchen: Margery in Hand to God; Melissa in The Drunken City (world premiere); Precious Nonsense; Bed No Breakfast; Tony and the Soprano; Dario Fo’s We Won’t Pay!; Nora; Bed and Sofa; The Servant of Two Masters. Hangar: Dana in Ever So Humble (world premiere); The Sound of Music; Cats; Beauty and the Beast; My Fair Lady; Erica’s one-woman cabaret Imagine My Surprise. Additionally, Stage Kiss (Cider Mill); The Best of Kathy and Mo, Wider than the Sky, and Antigone (Civic Ensemble); The Drowsy Chaperone (Human Race Theatre Co.); The Unfortunates, a one-woman play by Cherry artist Aoise Stratford. Proud member, AEA. For her Family. You all know who you are.
Sylvie Yntema (Nico) Collective member. Previous Cherry: The Snow Queen (2018). Sylvie has worked locally with Civic Ensemble (On the Corner, After Orlando, In the Parlour), Homecoming Players (In the Next Room, From the Mississippi Delta), and Fitz&Startz Productions (A Case for the Classics). She is a graduate of the Actors Workshop of Ithaca, a Pilates instructor, and a NYS licensed massage therapist.
Susannah Berryman (Cashier) Collective member. Previous Cherry: White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Loza Plays: Nothing to do with Love, On the Other Side of the Sea. Susannah has been a part of the Ithaca theatre world since 1980, as teacher, actor, and director. She has performed in or directed over sixty productions in the Finger Lakes area, with the Cherry, Kitchen, and Hangar Theatres serving as particularly significant artistic homes. Susannah will retire in December from a forty-year teaching career at Ithaca College. She would like to take this opportunity to salute everyone for persevering through the challenges of CoVid and finding ways to continue to tell stories that are shared communally. One day we will get to do this in the same room!
Helen T. Clark (Coworker’s Friend) Collective member. Previous Cherry: Birthday Party/Felt Sad, Posted a Frog, Testosterone, Rule of Thumb, Winter Animals, and Snow Queen (2016 and 2017.) Other select regional credits: You Can’t Take It With You (Essie), Good Children (Iris), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woof? (Honey), Crimes of the Heart (Chick Boyle), Julius Caesar (Portia), WRENS (Meg). She has a BFA in Acting from UConn, and MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College, and is an alum of Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training. As always, for Camilla. www.HelenTClark.org
Austin Jones (Boss) Ithaca credits include Or what you will, The Foreigner and Pride & Prejudice at the Hangar and Ironbound at the Kitchen. In New York: Classic Stage Company, Roundabout Theatre, Public Theater, Next In Line Productions, Prospect Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, Target Margin, and the New York City Fringe Festival. Other Regional: Yale Repertory Theatre, Stamford Center for the Arts. Film and Television: “Louie”, “Boardwalk Empire”, “The Sopranos”, “Law and Order”, “Law and Order SVU”, “Lipstick Jungle”, “Firefly and the Bride”, and “Lonely” (PBS Short Film). Austin is a co-creator of the web series Meantime. He holds an MFA in Acting from the Yale School of Drama and is an Assistant Professor of Acting at Ithaca College’s Department of Theatre Arts. austinjonessite.com
Rafael Lopez (Barista & assistant director) is an actor and director in his senior year at Ithaca College. This fall, he will also appear in “She Kills Monsters” at IC directed by Cynthia Henderson. Rafael appeared at Cherry Arts in a staged reading of “Dream Acts.” Other roles include Orsino in “Twelfth Night,” Luis in “West Side Story,” and Pip in the workshop production of “The Halloween Tree.”He can be found on instagram at @rafiupdates
Elizabeth Mozer (Librarian) Collective member. Previous Cherry: Felt Sad Posted a Frog, George Kaplan, Blank, and her one woman play Asylum – awarded “Best Drama” at the United Solo Theatre Festival in NYC. Elizabeth was in the original Broadway casts of Teddy & Alice, Dangerous Games and Victor/Victoria. She wrote and directed Castle on the Hill which premiered at Binghamton University where she is an Associate Professor of Theatre. Elizabeth’s directing credits include The Burial at Thebes, A Chorus Line, and Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Elizabeth is the founding artistic director of the movement-theatre company Theatre In the Flesh. She is a member of SAG- AFTRA and AEA.
Kathleen Mulligan (Mom) Collective member. Previous Cherry: The Belle of Amherst, White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Storm Country. Kathleen is a Professor of Voice and Speech at Ithaca College. Acting credits include The Acting Company (national tour), American Repertory Theater, Fort Worth Shakespeare in the Park, and seven years as a resident actor at PCPA Theatrefest in Santa Maria, CA. In 2010, she was a Fulbright Scholar to Kerala, India with her project “Finding Women’s Voices”. She spent the spring of 2015 in Pakistan collaborating on her project Voices of Partition with husband David Studwell and Islamabad’s Theatre Wallay. In 2017, she worked on her second collaboration with Theatre Wallay entitled On Common Ground. Kathleen is a graduate of Boston University (BFA) and Southern Methodist University (MFA).
Darcy Rose (Coworker) Collective member. Previous Cherry: The Snow Queen, White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Rule of Thumb. Darcy graduated from UCLA’s department of Theater, Film and Television with a B.A. in acting and lived in Los Angeles for many years working in commercials, television and theater. Her television credits include Grey’s Anatomy, Dinotopia and Without a Trace, as well as several national commercials, independent films and stage productions across Los Angeles theaters. She owns an on-camera acting studio in downtown Ithaca called Acting Out New York, (www.ActingOutNewYork.com). Proud member of AFTRA/SAG.
Joshua Sedelmeyer (Dear Friend) Collective member. Previous Cherry: George Kaplan, The Snow Queen. Other credits in the Upstate NY area include Fast Blood (GK) and Faith of our Fathers (Buckley) with Civic Ensemble, True West (Austin) and Visiting Mr Green (Ross) with Know Theatre, The 39 Steps (Clown) and The Drowsy Chaperone (Man in Chair) at Cider Mill Playhouse, and A Christmas Carol (Bob Cratchit) with the Hangar Theatre Company. Ithaca College, BFA Acting. www.jsedelmeyer.com
Seth Soulstein (Man’s Voice) Collective member. Previous Cherry: A Cherry Timedive, The Fan. Seth is a PhD Candidate in Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University and a Lecturer in Theatre Studies at Ithaca College. He will be seen in the Cherry’s upcoming production in February 2021, Hotel Good Luck.
David Studwell (Neighbor) Collective member. Previous Cherry: Testosterone, Storm Country. First National Tour: The Band’s Visit (Avrum) Off-Broadway: NY City Center’s Encores! Applause! (Bert). Regional: Chicago Shakespeare; Mary Stuart (Lord Burleigh), Ogunquit Playhouse; Ragtime (Grandfather), Engemanatre; 1776 Hangar Theatre; Red (Rothko), Christmas Carol (Scrooge), Little Shop of Horrors (Mushnik), Santa Barbara Ensemble Theatre; Sweeney Todd (Sweeney), PCPA Theatrefest; Man of La Mancha (Quixote) – Santa Barbara Indy Awards, Westchester Broadway Theatre; Titanic (Isidor), Portland Center Stage; Fiddler on the Roof (Tevye)-Drammy Award. He has performed in many theaters across the country, including Syracuse Stage, Indiana Repertory, The Alliance, The Goodman, Maltz Jupiter, Marriott’s Lincolnshire Theatre. Film: Dave Barry’s Guide to Guys, TV: “Crime Story” (NBC). Fulbright Specialist Pakistan 2013, 2015
Gabrielle Chapdelaine (playwright) is a playwright, screenwriter and translator based in Montreal, and a graduate of the playwriting program (French section) of the National Theater School of Canada in 2017. She has written a number of plays, including A Day (Gratien-Gélinas award, 2018) and The Retreat (read in english at the Playwrights workshop Montreal, 2019). She has been a screenwriter on projects such as Les invisibles, a tv show broadcast in 2019. As a translator, she has translated a few plays and participated in several bilingual projects for various Montreal companies.
Josephine George (translator) is a French>English translator and theatre maker based in Brooklyn. hey.josephine.george@gmail.com
Wendy Dann (co-director) Collective member. Previous Cherry: co-writer, A Cherry Timedive. Regional directing work includes the Dallas Theater Center, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Alliance Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Capitol Repertory Theatre, Kitchen Theatre, and seven seasons as associate artistic director at the Hangar Theatre. She is the co-author and director of the musical Sammy & Me (MusicalFare Theatre, Hangar Theatre, Alliance Theatre, National Black Theatre Festival and New Vintage Theatricals). Wendy is also a writer, and her plays have been finalists for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference as well as the Arts & Letters Prize in Drama. She was a 2013 recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting and Screenwriting. Her play Birds of East Africa, premiered in 2017 at the Kitchen Theatre, and her short live-action film, La Casa Verde, screened at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival and the San Antonio Film Festival. Wendy serves on the Theatre Arts faculty at Ithaca College. MFA, Syracuse University. BFA, Ithaca College. Member, SDC.
Samuel Buggeln (co-director) is the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Cherry Arts and Cherry Artists’ Collective, where over the last few years he has produced, directed, translated, and/or commissioned over a dozen productions from Ithaca-based and international writers. Before founding the Cherry, Sam directed over 20 productions at regional theatres; in NYC he has developed new work extensively at the Lark and other venues and is an Artistic Associate at the New Ohio Theatre. Among numerous works directed at the Ohio are the Drama Desk-nominated Cressida Among the Greeks and Hater, his unconventional translation of Le Misanthrope, which has since been published and produced twice more. A volume of his co-translations of Santiago Loza’s plays is forthcoming from Seagull Books.
Lesley Greene (sound designer) is a sound designer, composer, choreographer, director, and writer. For the past twenty years, Lesley worked at the Kitchen Theatre Company, where her sound designs included Cry It Out, The Roommate, Ironbound, Hand to God, Mary’s Wedding, The Brothers Size, The Whipping Man, and many others. She has composed music for 9 musicals for young audiences with playwright/lyricist Rachel Lampert, including Physics Fair, Park Play, Winter Tales, and Emmett & Ella’s Big Apple Escapade. Most recently, she was sound designer for the Cherry Arts production of The Fan. It’s been exciting to be a part of the amazing creative team of A Day. A special thanks to Kate Griffin for finding and creating many of the sounds and to Anneke van Renesse for writing The Siesta Song with me.
Daniel Zimmerman (production designer) Collective member. Previous Cherry: The Shoe, Testosterone, George Kaplan, and Loza Plays. Select Off-Broadway: Fashions for Men (Drama Desk nomination; The Mint); After the Blast and Kill Floor (Lincoln Center); Friend Art (Second Stage); Suicide, Incorporated (Roundabout); You Got Older (Page 73 Productions); Be a Good Little Widow (Ars Nova); New York: The Play Company, Clubbed Thumb, Cherry Lane, Colt Coeur, Lesser America, The Pearl. Regional: Arena Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival of New American Plays, NYS&F, Cincinnati Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Trinity Repertory Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Playmakers Rep, Theatreworks Palo Alto, Pioneer Theatre Company, Portland Stage Company, Merrimack Rep, Geva Theater Center, The Kitchen Theater, The Hangar Theatre, and Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Daniel teaches scenic design at Ithaca College.
Jennifer Schilansky (stage manager) is thrilled to be working with The Cherry in this wild new format. Previous work for the Cherry Artspace includes The Fan, and Felt Sad, Posted a Frog. Jen has been the resident stage manager for the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca since 2012. KTC production favorites include: The Royale, Ironbound, Brawler, Birds of East Africa, Hand to God, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Mountaintop, Paloma, The Whipping Man, and Brian Dykstra Selling Out. She has also served as the the Production Stage Manager for the Hangar Theatre’s Pride and Prejudice, Dégagé, and A Doll’s House Part 2. Prior to moving to Ithaca, she spent five years as the resident stage manager for Stageworks Theater in Hudson, as well as Stage Managing for Half Moon Theater in Poughkeepsie and Bard College.
Noah Elman (video design) recently graduated from SUNY Fredonia and has come back to his hometown of Ithaca to pursue stage and film directing. He is thrilled to be working with The Cherry and with this amazing group of creators. Stage directing credits: Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare on the Lake), The Pillowman (SUNY Fredonia’s PAC); Assistant directing credits: A Christmas Carol (Hangar Theatre) The Skriker (House of Ithaqua), Hamlet (Shakespeare on the Lake), Legally Blonde Jr., Alice in Wonderland Jr., and Seussical Kids (all with Playground Drama Camp). Film directing credits include: re/act, White River; BFA Acting, SUNY Fredonia.
David Kossack (director of photography) is a filmmaker, editor, actor and director based in Ithaca NY. Part of the creative team at PhotoSynthesis Productions since 2007, his editing and documentary feature film work includes awarding winning films, such as New York Times: Critic’s Pick “They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain”, “Angkor Awakens: A Portrait of Cambodia”, and the soon to be released, “Echoes of the Empire: Beyond Genghis Khan”. David is also an instructor at the Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca where he has had the pleasure of teaching so many amazing students over the years as well as directing various showcases and plays. David is thrilled to work with such a fantastic cast and crew on this wild, new way of creating art!