THIS STRETCH OF MONTPELIER
Written by Kelley Nicole Girod
Directed by Ludovica Villar-Hauser
July 12th - 27th
General Admission $33.85 (including fees)
VIP Admission $55.20 (including fees)
The 14 Street Y
344 East 14th Street
New York, NY 10003
All performances will be captioned. Pay What You Can tickets will be offered at the box office 30 minutes before curtain ($15 minimum). Tickets are also available for purchase through TDF here.
Please note: audience members will be required to wear a mask over their nose and mouth at all times during performances.
Closed captions are available for all performances. Captions, hosted on Zoom, are pre-transcribed and manually advanced by our captioner during the performance.
To access captions, please bring a charged smartphone, tablet, or similar mobile device that has WiFi capability. The captions can be accessed by scanning a QR code at the theater, which will take you to the Zoom presentation.
Downloading the Zoom app to your mobile device prior to arriving at the theater will help ensure quick and easy connection. When using captions, please ensure your device is silenced. Other usage of your mobile device, including but not limited to photography or recording, is not permitted. For questions about captioning and accessibility, email alisonvincitore@gmail.com.
Captioning is being provided by a grant from NYSCA/TDF TAP Plus.
After select performances, there will be an opportunity to attend a talkback with creatives and members of the cast.
July 23rd following 3:00 PM performance – Somatic healing session with Rebecca KellyG
This interactive sound experience offers a supportive space to process and integrate emotions, perspectives, and any newfound knowledge from the play through facilitated dialogue, guided meditation, and live soundscapes.
Rebecca KellyG (she/her) supports individuals and groups to challenge conditioned beliefs, embrace accountability, and cultivate self-love for our personal and collective liberation. She engages in this work through curating healing spaces, retreats, equity consulting, and live sound sessions. Her practice is informed by her work as theatermaker, sound artist, and former civil rights attorney. To connect with Rebecca, visit www.rebeccakellyg.com. Her sounds are available on all streaming platforms.
July 26th following 2:00 PM performance – Talkback with members of the cast and creative team, moderated by Jaye Hunt.
Synopsis
On a hot and humid summer day In Montpelier, Louisiana, a community of isolated neighbors -- divided by property lines, race, class and tradition, but bonded by overlapping personal and cultural histories-- reckon with the truth and their uncertain fates as they look for refuge in unlikely places.
Check out the program for This Stretch of Montpelier here.
About the Playwright
Kelley Nicole Girod (she/her) is an award-winning playwright whose work centers on her Black Cajun/ Creole Louisiana heritage. Awards include NYIT Ellen Stewart Award 2023, Sundance IDP 2021 grantee, City Corp Artist Grant 2021, Atlantic Launch New Play Commission 2019, Sheen Center Fellow 2019, Stein and Liberace Fellow 2007, and John Golden Fellow 2008. Her work has been developed/presented at Atlantic Theater Company, Sheen Center for Thought and Culture, The Fire This Time Festival, Harlem 9, Primary Stages, Project Y, Poetic Theater Productions, Classical Theater of Harlem, Frigid NYC, Planet Connections Theater Festival, The Field, and Dixon Place. She was recently commissioned by Stanford University’s TAPS Program and completed a commission of a children’s play about Covid through a collaboration with Erin Brown under a City Corp Artist grant.
In addition, Kelley Nicole Girod is an award winning producer, known mostly for founding The Fire This Time Festival which has become a premier destination for Black artists and theater makers, and won a prestigious OBIE award in 2015. She was recently named Director of New Works at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem.. Kelley was also Producing Director of The Billie Holiday Theater from 2014-2015, and creative programmer at The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture from 2017-2019.
Cast
Donovan Wayne Christie Jr. (Felonius, he/him)* is a native of New Yorker originally from the Bronx. His love and desire for the craft lead him to Columbia University where he was able to cultivate and expand his capacity and love for the "work". He graduated from the MFA classical theater program with a concentration in acting in 2012. Donovan now resides in Harlem, NY with his wife, two sons, and dog.
Dorothi Fox (Mae, she/her)* is a Harlem native and thrilled to be returning to the stage! Favorite theatre credits include: The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (Broadway, August Wilson Theatre), The Great White Hope (National Tour) and Rain (Cincinnati Playhouse). Film: Shaft, Run All Night, Mind The Gap. TV: Power Book III: Raising Kanan (Recurring), Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens and Law & Order SVU. When she isn’t acting, Dorothi enjoys reading Science Fiction. She is a proud member of AEA and SAG/AFTRA.
Josephine Florence Cooper (Francis, she/they) is so grateful to see this play come to life after playing Francis in several readings! Jo is a queer, Brooklyn-based actor/vocalist and has a private practice as a somatic therapist and bodyworker! Tours: Finding Neverland (Sylvia). Other NYC Theatre: The Dream Project (Yonder Window Theatre Co), Night Witches (Dixon Place), Hooked (Theatre Row) TV/Film: Wild Crime (Hulu), Time Traveling… (Comedy Central), Uncanny Harbor. BFA Emerson College. Thank you to Kelley and her ancestors for sharing this play with us!
Joyce Griffen (Janice, she/her)* is an Actress /Jazz Vocalist/Director/Writer/ Book Narrator, whose screenplay Miras (Legacy in Turkish) made the semifinals in the International Screenwriters Association’s 2021 competition. A veteran of multiple productions with La Mama E.T.C, The Negro Ensemble Company, New Federal Theatre, and New Heritage Theatre Group, among others, Joyce most recently narrated the audio version of the novel, She Who Finds a Husband. Joyce has a new jazz vocal CD entitled Love’s Languages, available on Uohnit.com, Amazon, Spotify, and other sites.
Tandy Cronyn (Kacky, she/her)* has had an over fifty year career in theater performing both modern and classical roles in Great Britain, Canada and the United States. The bulk of her work has been with regional theater companies, notably Hartford Stage, The Denver Center Theatre Company, The Old Globe in San Diego, Yale Rep, The Stratford Festival of Canada, and PlayMakers Rep at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Before the pandemic Tandy performed her solo show, The Tall Boy by Simon Bent in Chicago to critical acclaim. For a full bio go to www.tandycronyn.com
Bailey Macejak (Caroline, she/her) is an actor and playwright living in Brooklyn, NY. 24 Hour Nationals alum, NYFA City Artist Corps member, Moxie Arts Incubator Program finalist. Her work has been seen at Theatre Row, The Tank, Tribeca Film Festival, the Bronx Museum of Art, and The Chain. Film projects include A Place for Ashes (Long Island International Film Expo), BUSHWITCHES, and The Thing With Feathers (theatrical premiere 2024). baileyomacejak.com. IG: @baileytheconformist
Jordan Donaldson (Boniface, he/him) is an actor, illustrator and writer who’s always exploring a new creative medium. This Tennessee native recently graduated from Pace Universities BFA Acting program and is excited to continue his education through productions of challenging and powerful pieces like This Stretch of Montpelier.
Carole Monferdini (Ruby, she/her)*. Theatre highlights include long runs Off-Broadway in The Club (OBIE award); Vampire Lesbians of Sodom & the one-woman show Full Gallop & in the national tour, among others. Broadway: standby to Diana Rigg in The Misanthrope. Regional theatre in 24 states. Film: Next Stop, Greenwich Village; The Bell Jar; The Brass Ring; Hank Boyd is Dead & Love, Repeat. Member of Actors Center. www.carolemonferdini.com
*Actors appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association.
Creative Team
Ludovica Villar-Hauser (Director, she/her) is the Founder, Artistic Director and Executive Director of Parity Productions. At Parity, her directing credits include the world premieres of Charlie's Waiting by 2017 Commission Winner Mêlisa Annis, Mirrors by 2018 Commission Winner Azure D. Osborne-Lee, Stop-Motion by 2018 Commission Winner Liz Kerin, and the award-winning She Calls Me Firefly by Teresa Lotz.
Prior to founding Parity Productions, Ludovica directed many critically acclaimed plays in the U.S. and U.K., including Final Analysis by Otho Eskin (Signature Theatre); The Countess by Gregory Murphy (Lamb’s Theatre) and in London’s West End (The Criterion Theatre); Leaves of Glass by Phillip Ridley (Peter Jay Sharpe Theater); As It Is in Heaven by Arlene Hutton (The Cherry Lane); The Brightness of Heaven, (The Cherry Lane) and This Will All Be Yours (The Barrow Group Theatre) by Laura Pedersen; and Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill in London’s West End (The Arts Theatre). The filmed stage production of Stop-Motion by Liz Kerin in 2021 marks Ludovica's directorial film debut.
In 1984, at the age of 23, with her production of O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, Ludovica became the youngest woman ever to simultaneously produce and direct in London’s West End. In the New York theatre industry, she was also one of the few women to own and operate her own theatre — The Greenwich Street Theatre — which she ran for 17 years. Ludovica served on the Board of the League of Professional Theatre Women from 2009-2018, is currently the Producer of the League's Oral History Project at the NYPL for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and became the League's Co-President on July 1, 2022.
Jaye Hunt (Dramaturg, they/them) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist who works to create equity onstage and backstage. They have developed new works with many brilliant queer and trans artists, including Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, with whom they were a finalist for the 2022-2023 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. They were also a finalist for the 2022-2024 WP Lab. www.jayehunt.com
Marcia Pendelton (she/her, Audience Development) is the founder and president of Walk Tall Girl Productions, a New York-based boutique marketing, audience development, and group sales agency for the performing arts. Founded in 2000, WTGP has developed and implemented audience-building services for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and beyond. Pendelton also produces and hosts "Backstage Stories," a weekly arts, culture, and entertainment broadcast for WBAI New York (99.5 FM & wbai.org).
Marc Ella Roy (Key Art, they/them) is a graphic designer, multimedia artist, and recent graduate of Hunter College's Emerging Media program, currently working in the NYC metro area. They have crafted illustrations and visual identities for a range of touring musicians, small businesses, academic publications, and nonprofits. In their work, they hope to reveal the web of connections that unite seemingly disparate disciplines and social issues.
Emmy and Tony-nominated and Drama Desk-winning producer, Jennifer Kranz is Executive Vice President of Creative Development and Production at Rosalind Productions. Broadway: Funny Girl, The Prom, King Lear, Three Tall Women; Off-Broadway: Lynn Nottage’s Crumbs from the Table of Joy (with Keen Company), Heather Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things (with Ars Nova), My Lingerie Play (with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); Film: Cleo (in production), Lilly (post-production). She’s held tenures at Time Warner, Lifetime Television, NBC Universal, and AMC Networks. Member: TV Academy, the Broadway League, BAFTA.
Jennifer has a Masters degree from New York University. She is a voting member of the TV Academy of Arts and Sciences and a board member of NY-based influencer theater company Page 73.
Emma Lea Hasselbach (Sound Designer, they/she) is a multidisciplinary theatre maker based in NYC working as sound designer, writer, director, and educator. Recent Sound Credits include What If/If Only (Burning Coal), Triggerman (Identity Crisis Ensemble), At Hotel Macguffin (Parity Productions). Emma is a graduate of Fordham at Lincoln Center and is a current member of Wingspace’s 22/23 cohort.
Yang Yu (Set/Lighting Designer, she/her) is a New York based lighting and scenic designer for performing arts. She is interested in using light, space, and timing to create an emotionally charged environment, as well as visualizing music. Productions include Lady Day at Emersion’s Bar and Grill (Crossroads Theatre Company); Lewberger & The Wizard of Friendship (Theater Row); The Shes (The Public Theater). yangyudesign.com
Jenny Herdman Lando (Stage Manager, she/her) was bit by the theatre bug at age 12 at the Dance Theatre at the 14th Street Y under the supervision of John Tomlinson. He instilled a love of lighting in her that has never dimmed. Since then she has worked with Matthew Hamel, Neil Berg, American Globe Theatre, National Shakespeare Company, and Astoria Performing Arts Center. By day, Jenny works for the NYC Public Schools.
Nicole Brooks Sanwandee (Costume Designer, she/her) is secretly six magpies stacked in a trench coat who managed a BFA in Costume Design and Technology from Ithaca College. She is currently based in Queens, NY.
Sanwandee has worked on a variety of projects as both a designer and technician. Independently, she has had the opportunity to costume Adagio Pair Skaters Nix Phengsy and Nicole Duke, and Canadian Comedy Champion Jason Graetz for their performances with Sun Valley On Ice 2021. Sanwandee has also worked as an Assistant Costume Designer to Devario Simmons on We Are Continuous as part of the Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 2022 summer season. Recently, she has worked on Becomes a Woman as an Assistant Costume Designer to Emilee McVey Lee with the Mint Theater Company at New York City Center and as an Assistant Costume Designer to Amanda Gladu on the ASDS Reperatory Season.
Beth Ann Mastromarino (she/her, Production Manager) is the latest addition to the Intuitive Production Management team. For the past 20 years she has worked in Regional Opera, Off Broadway, Film and Television. She’s an award winning Film Producer whose passions include solving puzzles and minding details. Her favorite roles include: Countess Attavanti in Tosca, and Rosaline in Romeo and Juliet.
Dexter Warren (Stage Manager, he/they) is a multi hyphenate performing, composing, and now stage managing in the big city. He is happy to be joining a team of such talented individuals. Dexter is thankful to be able to work with Parity on another project.
Schuyler Seitz (she/her, Stage Manager) is so excited to be working with such an amazing cast and crew. Some of her previous credits include For Bo, Sister Act, and Bare at TCU and most recently Mr. Harrigan's Phone (dir. John Lee Hancock). She is grateful to her friends and family for their constant love and support.
THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS!
Ernie Fontaine, Pati Frey, Ashley Garrett, The Georges, Howard Goldberg, Mary Francina Golden, Kenneth V. Handel, Robert Lamonica, The Carl and Renee Landegger Family Charitable Trust, Claudette Mayer, Judith Polzer, William Sargent III, Julie Sargent, Jo-Ann Sickener, Michael Simonetti, Joan Vail Thorne, Leslie Westbrook, American Endowment Foundation, and Anonymous.
Parity Productions’ programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
SPECIAL THANKS TO
The Fire This Time, Southern Comfort Productions