Chris Domig, Artistic Director;
Dan Swern, Managing Director
PRESENTS
Directed by Erwin Maas
Cast
Len Cariou*
Christopher J. Domig*
Creative Team
Lighting, Set, and Costume Designer
Guy de Lancey
Sound Designer
Eamon Goodman
Stage Manager
James Fitzsimmons*
Recorded Vocal Performance
Sally Shaw
Original Music Composition
Chris Domig
Sound Mixer
Jamil Chokachi
Marketing
Think Big Picture
Press
David Gibbs/DARR Publicity
Photography
Jeremy Varner
Catering
Pixie and Scout
*Equity Member appearing with permission of Actors’ Equity Association without benefit of an Equity contract in this Off-Off Broadway production.
Tuesdays with Morrie is presented by special arrangement with BroadwayLicensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service imprint. (www.dramatists.com)
Original New York production produced by David S. Singer, Elizabeth Ireland McCann, Joey Parnes, Amy & Scott Nederlander, Harold Thau, Moira Wilson, Shadowcatcher Entertainment.
Originally presented by New York Stage and Film Company and the Powerhouse Theatre at Vassar, 2002.
Tuesdays with Morrie was supported by a playwright’s residency and public staged readings at the 2001 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Waterford, CT.
“The Very Thought of You”
Words and Music by Ray Noble
Copyright © 1934 by Range Road Music, Inc. and Quartet Music
All rights in the USA administered by Range Road Music, Inc. (ASCAP)
All rights in Canada administered by Redwood Music Ltd. (PRS)
Special thanks to Calvary-St.Georges for their support, Jeremy Varner, Janine Lee Papio, Bill Hofstetter, Chris White, Len & Heather Cariou, Rachel Newman, and Janelle Garcia Domig, and all our supporters and sustaining members.
This production was made possible through the support of Jacob Eliosoff, Nancy Hannah, John & Jasie Britton, Susanne Neunhoffer, Michael & Jennifer Cook, H. E. Butt Foundation, David Jennings, and all of our Sustaining Members.
Sea Dog Theater depends on the support of its Sustaining Members.
Donations can be made at the box office, and online at seadogtheater.org/support.
CAST
LEN CARIOU (Morrie) is an internationally recognized, Tony Award-winning, Emmy-nominated actor whose career spans over six decades on Broadway and regional stages, in film, and television. A member of the Theatre Hall of Fame, he is celebrated in particular for originating the role of Frederick Egerman in Sondheim's A Little Night Music, and for his legendary performance as the title character in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He remains highly regarded for classical repertoires performed at the Stratford Festival and Guthrie theatres including King Lear, which he assayed twice. His one-man show Broadway and the Bard embraces both the dramatic and musical elements of his sojourn in his beloved profession. Len is also known for playing the patriarch of the family in Blue Bloods, one of CBS's highest rated primetime programs. Len is a member of the Order of Manitoba and an Officer of the Order of Canada. He is a dear friend of Sea Dog Theater and originally played Morrie in our reading of Tuesdays with Morrie in 2022.
CHRISTOPHER J. DOMIG (Mitch) Christopher is an actor and director in New York City. Recent acting credits include: The Waste Land: A Performance/Installation at FringeNYC, English World Premiere of Dirt in New York (59E59, 4th Street Theater), Edinburgh (Gilded Balloon), Vancouver (Pacific Theatre), Berlin (ETB), and London (Arcola Theatre). Recent Film: Ava (dir. Tate Taylor, opposite Jessica Chastain) Recent TV: Blue Bloods, Boardwalk Empire, Black List, Law & Order: SVU and Blindspot. BFA: Wheaton College, MFA: Southern Methodist University. www.christopherdomig.com
CREATIVES & CREW
ERWIN MAAS (Director) is a New York based theatermaker, curator, educator and international arts advocate from the Netherlands with extensive international experience across a variety of creative and community contexts. In New York, his directions both Off Broadway and site specific have received multiple NY Times Critic’s Picks. His directing work ranges from plays by contemporary playwrights to devised, interdisciplinary immersive projects, opera, music theater and dance with performances for all ages. He is the Co-Executive Director of the Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE) & teaches at CUNY Brooklyn College's MFA Performance & Interactive Media Arts Program (PIMA) - www.erwinmaas.com
GUY DELANCEY (Lighting, Set, and Costume Designer) is a conceptual detective in multiple disciplines. He is Associate Director of the Movement Laboratory for research and practice in performance, movement, technology and creativity at Barnard College, Columbia University. He was awarded a grant to attend Fabrica, the Benetton Arts and Communications Center, Italy in collaboration with film director Godfrey Reggio and Benetton campaign director Oliviero Toscani. He works in theater and film, directing, design and scenography, cinematography, lighting design, research in narrative design, process design, and interactive technology. He has worked extensively in the performing arts as both director and designer, and has created and designed large scale immersive multi-media experiences from Seoul, South Korea to South Africa. Recently he created the scenography and projection design for ‘Breaking Bricks’ a ballet for the centenary of the Tulsa Race Massacre for Tulsa Ballet, choreographed by Jennifer Archibald. As well as the projection design, light and scenography for ‘A Kid Like Rishi by Kees Roorda, directioin Erwin Maas, New York 2022. (NY times critics pick) and was cinematographer (and performer) for feature film ‘Stockade’ premiering at the Woodstock film festival 2023. He created the scenic and projection design for ‘Sounds of the Sun’ by Jennifer Archibald for Pittsburgh Ballet 2023. He has had artistic work exhibited at Signs and Symbols gallery New York (2020) and The Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art Austria (2021).
EAMON GOODMAN (Sound Designer) is a composer, sound artist, and designer based in Brooklyn. After studying classical flute and dance, he worked as a sound designer and multi-instrumentalist for off-broadway theater. Lydian Gale Parr will include a continuation of his thesis installation, Sound Suspension No. 2, advised by Luisa Pereira at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. Recent projects include The Whitney Album (Soho Rep), A Jury of our Queers (Exponential Festival) and Noise (Dartmouth/Northern Stage). wp.nyu.edu/eamon_goodblog
JAMES “FITZ” FITZSIMMONS (Stage Manager) most recently stage managed the critically acclaimed production of Translations at Irish Rep. He has stage managed 26 Broadway productions and over 40 Off-Broadway and regional productions. Fitz had the great pleasure of working with Len Cariou on productions of Mountain (as William O. Douglas) and Papa (as Earnest Hemmingway). He is also the creator of the Rebecca Luker Theatrical Partnership with Clear Space Theater in Delaware. Please continue to support live theater on Broadway and Off!
THINK BIG PICTURE, LLC (Marketing) is a full-service, strategic partner for creative entities: offering digital advertising & boutique, social marketing, project management, graphic design, strategic planning & business development. TBP uses a global network and extensive research to reach realistic goals and enhance authentic engagement. Using innovative techniques in mixed media design and guerrilla marketing strategies, Think Big Picture is committed to serving clients in a unique, collaborative way.
DAVID GIBBS (Press Representative) (he/him) is the founder of DARR Publicity, a boutique entertainment press agency specializing in theater, comedy, dance, film, music and unique theatrical experiences. David has publicized shows at many Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway venues throughout NYC. His clients have won Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Obie and Off Broadway Alliance Awards, and have been nominated for Bessie and Chita Rivera Awards. www.DarrPublicity.com
Sea Dog Theater Staff
Artistic Director and Co-Founder
Christopher Domig
Managing Director
Dan Swern
Co-Founder
Janelle Garcia Domig
Communications Manager
Sally Shaw
Community Outreach Coordinator
Whitney Bahr
Production Staff
Company Manager
Sally Shaw
Box Office Manager
Nadia Ra’Shaun
House Manager
Maggie Gillette
Sea Dog Theater Board of Directors
Meaghan Ritchey, President
Dean Kim, Treasurer
Chris White, Secretary
Ashley E. Anderson
Christopher Domig
Melina Luna Smith
Kathy Treat
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
When I read Mitch Albom’s book in the late nineties, a few months after my father passed away at an early age, it had a profound impact on me. I wondered, "What lessons would I miss out on now that my father was gone?" "Was he ready to face the inevitability of his dying?" "How do we say goodbye?" Revisiting the work, nearly thirty years later, some questions linger: "What reappears in our minds, in our memories and in our lives, of those that passed away?" "What conversations do we remember and even search for?" "What are they trying to tell us and what are we hoping to find?”
In this inspiring book and play about mentorship, learning, and love, themes of aging, illness, and death also permeate. When I first read this book, and now again with this play, I wondered: "How do we personally deal with growing older and facing our own mortality?" "How does society look upon people of age?" "Does it celebrate their talents and wisdom or does ageism limit lessons, learning, and appreciation?"
From the script: “Aging is not just decay, you know. As you age, you grow. As you grow, you learn. A tree’s leaves are most colorful just before they die.”
In a medium often about ‘make-believe,' covering up imperfections is the norm. Emphasis in the arts, and society as a whole for that matter, is on the new and the next. It has been a great pleasure to work with two actors who were unafraid to strip everything away and expose & address the reality and complexities of aging and other themes of this piece in such an honest and graceful way. Being nearly 40 years apart from each other (similar to the characters in the play), I joyfully witnessed a beautiful mentorship and gentility between these two souls. And though challenges with agility and memory can be an uncomfortable reality for all of us, either now or in the future, these actors showed me that challenges of any kind should not stand in the way of letting your most colorful light shine. We need to honor and celebrate the great wisdom and beauty gained from experience. We need to value what's gained more than what's lessened. We need to do these things individually, in the arts, and as a greater society.
As I’m nearing the age that my father was at his passing, I am both moved and excited to revisit this beautiful work. What a joy and honor it has been to do that with two extraordinary actors that I had the privilege of calling my friends even before we started this collaboration. I am extremely grateful to both Len and Chris for taking this journey with me and for their courage to embrace the choices we made. They've shown great vulnerability and openness, helping to shine a bright light on important and universal themes that many hide from, if not completely avoid, even though we all will have to face them at some point in our lives. We all will be confronted with aging and death. The main question is: “How do we live?”
Erwin Maas