a Cherry Collective production
sponsored by David Kramer
with the support of the Québec Government Office in New York
The Weight of Ants
The Québec writer David Paquet is one of the Cherry’s favorite collaborators, and he won the “Canadian Pulitzer” for this outrageously funny and deeply moving play about two teens at “one of the worst high schools in the country”. Joan and Olivier feel like they’re the only people who care that the whole world is going to pieces. Ferocious Joan responds by attacking everything she sees; timid Olivier is slowly shutting down. But when they’re forced to run against each other for student council, the contest unleashes their determination to revolutionize the system, and perhaps themselves.
Schedule
- Fri Oct 17 7:30PM Opening Night
- Sat Oct 18 7:30PM
- Sun Oct 19 2:00PM
- Thu Oct 23 7:30PM
- Fri Oct 24 7:30PM
- Sat Oct 25 2:00PM
- Sat Oct 25 7:30PM
- Sun Oct 26 2:00PM Closing
Cast
Sylvie Yntema
Sylvie Yntema
Previous Cherry: Baba Yaga, Rosa and Blanca, Peter and the Wolf, As You Like It, Voices of Ukraine, The Wetsuitman, Pursuit, An Odyssey, Trap Door, A Day, Felt Sad Posted a Frog. Other local credits include: Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson Apt 2B, Snow White (Hangar Theatre); The Thin Place (House of Ithaqua); The Turnaway Play (The Kitchen Theatre); A Great Wilderness, From the Mississippi Delta, In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play (Homecoming Players); Delia Divided, On the Corner (Civic Ensemble); A Case for the Classics (Fitz&Startz Productions). Sylvie studied BFA Acting at The Mason Gross School at Rutgers University and is a graduate of the Actors Workshop of Ithaca.
Jacob Garrett White*
Jacob Garrett White*
Previous Cherry: George Kaplan, White Rabbit Red Rabbit, and Rule of Thumb. Jacob is an actor and social worker. His NYC theatre credits include: The Barrow Group’s Pentecost, Lobby Hero, and The Faithful, TFANA’s Julius Caesar, and The Public Theatre/NYSF’s Cymbeline. Regionally he has performed in: The Old Globe & Goodman Theater’s Floyd Collins, NJ Rep’s Panama, Color of Flesh, and Emil, Axial Theater’s Lost in Paradise, and the Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati’s Keeping the Faith. Locally, Jacob has performed with Homecoming Players, Civic Ensemble, and the Hangar Theatre.
*member, Actors’ Equity Association
Mike Chen
Mike Chen
Mike Chen recently played the Hare in the Cherry’s Rosa and Blanca. Other roles in Ithaca include John in House of Ithaqua’s Marjorie Prime and Launce in Ithaca Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona. He is a member of one of Third Place Theater’s improv teams, performing regularly at Liquid State Brewery. He teaches Study Skills at Cornell and lives in Lansing
David Studwell*
David Studwell*
An original member of the Cherry Artist Collective, David last appeared on the Cherry stage
in Testosterone. He played Scrooge in A Christmas Carol for two seasons at the Hangar. Other
representative stage credits include First American Tour, The Band’s Visit (Avrum),
Off-Broadway: Applause! (Bert, City Center’s Encores!). Regional: A Christmas Carol and Little
Shop of Horrors (Scrooge, Musnik, The Denver Centre), The Lehman Trilogy (Henry), Maltz
Jupiter Theatre), Sweeney Todd (Sweeney, Ensemble Theatre, Santa Barbara INDY award,)
Man of La Mancha (Quixote, PCPA, INDY award,) Fiddler on the Roof (Tevye, Portland Center
Stage, Drammy award,) Red (Rothko, Hangar Theatre), 1776 (Franklin, Engeman Theater),
Titanic (Isidor, Westchester Broadway), As You Like It (Oliver, Goodman Theatre), Falsettos
(Mendle, Alliance Theatre.) Much love to Kathleen!
*member, Actors’ Equity Association
Meg Elliott
Meg Elliott
Creative Team
David Paquet
David Paquet
David Paquet won the Governor General’s Award for French-language drama and the Michel-Tremblay Prize for his play Porc-épic (Porcupine), which has since also been produced in Germany, Mexico, Austria, France, and Belgium. His play 2h14 (2:14) toured in Quebec, France, Mexico, Germany, and Switzerland, received the Sony Labou Tansi Prize, and was one of five finalists for the grand prize in dramatic literature of France’s Société des auteurs et des compositeurs dramatiques. His play Appels entrants illimités has been performed over 100 times in Quebec and France. Other plays include Le brasier and Papiers mâchés. The French-language production of Le Soulier (The Shoe) won Vancouver’s 2019 Jessie Richardson award for Best New Play. He is a graduate of the playwriting program of the National Theatre School of Canada and works regularly as a theater translator, dramaturg, and playwrights’ mentor.
photo credit: Guillaume Boucher
Leanna Brodie
Leanna Brodie
Dean Robinson*
Dean Robinson*
Previous Cherry: White Rabbit Red Rabbit, George Kaplan, Felt Sad Posted a Frog, as well as voicing Storm Country, The Missing Chapter, and The Fan. Also in the Ithaca area, Dean has appeared in plays including The Cripple of Inishmaan, Swimming in the Shallows, The Chairs, Circle Mirror Transformation, Nora, Tribes, and The Children. Other area performances include Sirens, Perfect Crime, and Dancing at Lughnasa. Regionally, Dean has performed at A.C.T. (San Francisco), Trinity Repertory Theatre, American Southwest Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, and New York’s Public Theatre as well as performed in the international tour of Robert Wilson’s The Black Rider. He is a founding member of the critically acclaimed The Actors’ Gang where he directed and acted in multiple plays. Dean is a graduate of the Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University; he is currently an assistant professor of theatre at Ithaca College, where he teaches voice, movement, and acting.
*member, Actors’ Equity Association
production sponsors
