September 26-29 October 3-6, 2019

The Cherry’s season kicked off with The Shoe, an emotionally profound and wildly funny new play about an unusual young boy named Benoît and the adults who care for him. Québec playwright David Paquet is a recipient of the Governor General’s Award for Drama and the Prix Michel Tremblay, and The Shoe is his newest play, produced at the Cherry for the first time in English. Canadian press called the French première “a Kinder Surprise: you come for the comedy, but stay for the lucid observations.” Don’t miss this sweet, strange and soulful delight of a play!

2019 Show times
Thursday, September 26th – 7:30pm (pay what you will preview)
Friday, September 27th – 7:30pm
Saturday, September 28th – 7:30pm
Sunday, September 29th – 3:30pm
Thursday, October 3rd – 7:30 pm
Friday, October 4th – 7:30pm
Saturday, October 5th – 7:30pm
Sunday, October 6th – 3:30pm

Sponsored by:
Finger Lakes Wealth Management
Elissa Cogan & Barry Chester

The Shoe Artist Bios

Emma Elizabeth Bowers Selected credits: New York: Hold Please (World Premiere), Working (Mopsa and Emilia, also u/s to Michael Stulbarg and Aunjanue Ellis) dir. Brian Kulick. Henry VIII, Public Theatre/NYSF, dir. Mary Zimmerman. A Dream Play (Indra’s Daughter) dir. JoAnne Akalaitis. Never The Sinner (World Premiere), John Houseman Theatre, (Loeb’s girlfriend). Regional: Fighting Words (World Premiere) Yale Repertory Theatre (Peg) dir. Liz Diamond. Family Stories Belgrade (American Premiere) (Nadezda) dir. Annie Dorson. Sister Carrie (World Premiere) (title role) Indiana Repertory Company. Emma was awarded a Comedy Central “Donkey Award” for “audience favorite guest star comedy performance” for her work on Strangers with Candy. Emma is a graduate of the Juilliard school drama division (group 26) BFA.

Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. (Simeon) is Artistic Director of Civic Ensemble, and has been championing and shepherding new scripts and adaptations toward production for over 20 years. In December he will become the Artistic Director of HartBeat Ensemble in Hartford, CT. He most recently appeared in Civic Ensemble’s production of Mike Daisey’s Trump Card, and directed Eugene O’Neill’s rarely-produced All God’s Chillun Got Wings in Brooklyn and at Cornell. At the Cherry, he was most seen in A Cherry Timedive, the inaugural production of the Cherry Arts. Godfrey has also been seen in Richard III with Obie Award-winning Epic Theatre Ensemble, in the title role of Othello with Ithaca Shakespeare Company, and as Hambone in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running with Syracuse Stage. He is a member of Epic Theatre Ensemble (2012 Fox Fellow), Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the Lark Playground. He currently teaches acting at Cornell University, and has also taught at Binghamton University and Marymount Manhattan University.

Amoreena Wade (Melanie) is a recent transplant to Ithaca. Some of her fondest theatre experiences have included Reckless with 40th St Stage, You Can’t Take It With You with Cider Mill Playhouse, and many shows with KNOW Theatre, where she also directed and performed in benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues, and for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. She has studied at Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC and was a stand-up comic for many years. She has also appeared in The CW’s One Tree Hill. She is currently studying at the Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca.

Joshua Witzling (Benoit) was recently a dancer in Ithaca College’s fall dance concert Experiential Atonement and was an understudy for the IC’s production of Violet this past spring. Josh is originally from Flemington NJ, and is currently pursuing a BFA in Musical Theatre at Ithaca College. He is thankful to the faculty at Ithaca College for allowing him to be a part of a show outside of the department.

Samuel Buggeln (director) is the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Cherry Arts, where over the last few years he has produced, directed, translated, and/or commissioned a dozen productions from Ithaca 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.

Christopher Brusberg (lighting) is based out of NYC. Over the past 10 years Christopher has had the pleasure of working with Annapolis Opera, Wolf Trap Opera & NOI (DC), Imagination Stage (DC), New Rep Theater (Boston), Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Actor Shakespeare Project (Boston), Company One (Boston), Boston Midsummer Opera, A.R.T Institute, Guerilla Opera (Boston), Gotham Early Music Scene (NYC), Vassar College, and Northeastern University. Chris just completed his MFA from the University of Maryland where he worked on several shows in theater, opera and dance. Please visit www.ctblighting.com for upcoming work.

Leanna Brodie (translator) is an actor, playwright, and translator based in Vancouver. Her original plays The Vic, For Home and Country, The Book of Esther, and Schoolhouse have been performed across Canada. She has written libretti for three operas (receiving the Flourish Prize and the Opera Factory New Work Competition), and translated over twenty plays. Her translation of Hélène Ducharme’s Dora Award-winning Baobab continues to tour after more than 600 performances; Olivier Sylvestre’s The Paradise Arms (La beauté du monde) won the Safewords National New Play Prize, Rébecca Déraspe’s You Are Happy was a finalist for the Tom Hendry Awards, and Christian Bégin’s After Me received 6 Jessie Award nominations including Best Production. As a performer, Leanna has been Jessie Award-nominated for her performances in Pi Theatre’s Terminus (in English) and Théátre la Seizième’s Bonjour, là, bonjour (in French).

Deletris Bryant (stage manager) is a sophomore Theatre Studies Major at Ithaca College from Washington, D.C. Their previous credits include Ithaca College’s Ragtime (production assistant) and Menotti’s The Medium (assistant stage manager).

Sarah Chaneles (cherry arts marketing and box-office manager) is a graduate of Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications and spends her time outside of the Cherry planning, marketing, and performing in Ithaca’s arts and nightlife scenes. Some notable examples of Sarah’s work include directing The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Ithaca’s State Theatre, managing marketing for an online literary arts magazine, performing as a Drag King at Pop’d at The Cherry, teaching drag workshops at Cornell University and around the Finger Lakes Region, and ongoing collaborations with Whiskey Tango Sideshow.

Kate Griffin (sound) is an audio engineer, sound designer, and classically trained musician. Originally from Chicago, IL, she came to Ithaca College to study voice performance when she took her first audio class on a whim and immediately fell in love with the art form. She has been sound designing film and mixing music for 3 years and graduated from Ithaca College with a double major in audio and voice performance. Post-graduation from Ithaca College, Kate found a deep appreciation for the thriving musical and artistic community in Ithaca and has been working as freelancing in Ithaca in live sound, theatre, and film ever since.

Daniel Gwirtzman (choreography) is a producer, choreographer, educator, filmmaker and performer. He directs the NYC-based Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. His diverse repertory for the nonprofit, and other concert and commercial projects, has earned praise for its invention, humor, musicality, charisma and accessibility. “Mr. Gwirtzman does know that in dance less can be more. And that’s a good thing for any choreographer to know” writes The New York Times. The New Yorker describes him as a choreographer of “high spirits and skill.” The Company has been described as “a troupe I’d follow anywhere” (The Village Voice). www.gwirtzmandance.org

Rose Howard (cherry arts operations manager) has a BFA in Theatrical Design, Ithaca College ’04. After living in and around NYC, she has returned to Ithaca. Highlights from NYC include working props on the Broadway shows South Pacific, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Sunday in the Park with George, American Buffalo, and Cyrano de Bergerac. She has designed for theatres in New York and Seattle including SecondStory Rep, The Ohio Theatre, and The Zipper. She has done additional work at The Vineyard Theatre, The Signature Theatre, and at Williamstown Theatre Festival, the New School for Drama and The Actors Studio.

Edith McCrea (props) has worked as a puppet builder, puppeteer, and ASM for The Cherry’s 2016, 2017, and 2018 productions of The Snow Queen. She designed and created a variety of severed human body parts for The Cherry’s February, 2019 production of Testosterone. She is Artistic Director of Magic Garden Puppets, a traveling marionette troupe. She has built crankies for the Crankie Cabaret produced by LilyPad Puppet Theatre in 2017 and 2018. She is a member of Puppeteers of America, the Puppet Guild of Upstate New York, and the Union Internationale de la Marionette (UNIMA).

Sasha Oliveau (costumes) is a fibers artist and designer from rural Northern Virginia. She learned to sew from her grandmother at 6 years old, and began teaching others as a young adult. Having graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2018 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Fibers, she plans to continue her education in expressive art therapy. She works with slow, meditative processes to make one of a kind, abstract expressionistic objects and textiles that create therapeutic environments. She was assistant costume designer on Testosterone and The Snow Queen (2018) at the Cherry Artspace.

Minmin Pan (assistant stage manager) recently transferred from the Syracuse University vocal performance program to the Ithaca College Theatre Studies program to pursue her goal of becoming a musical theatre director. Originally from China, this is her sixth year in the US. She has performed as the Wardrobe in Beauty and Beast, Rhoda in White Christmas, Hannah in Newsies, and other roles in Les Miserables and Guys and Dolls.

David Paquet (text) 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.

Daniel Zimmerman (set) Cherry company member. Previous Cherry: Loza Plays, Geroge Kaplan, Testosterone. 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); Other NYC: 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, Center Stage, Playmakers Rep, Trinity Repertory Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Theatreworks Palo Alto, Portland Stage Company, People’s Light, Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Daniel teaches set design at Ithaca College.