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I L L I N O I S T H E AT R E
W E
M A K E
T H E A T R E
M A K E R S
OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR
ILLINOIS THEATRE
By Joan Littlewood, Theatre Workshop, and Charles Chilton | Research by Gerry Raffles
Robert G. Anderson, director | Philip Johnston, choreographer | Cara Chowning, music director
Thursday-Saturday, November 6-8, 2014, at 7:30pm
Tuesday-Saturday, November 11-15, 2014, at 7:30pm
Sunday, November 16, 2014, at 3pm
Studio Theatre
There is a saying in theatre:
“Actors act. Stars do what
stars do.” Implicit in this
statement is the idea that “stars” are commodities enriched
for attaining a certain status and function within a rather
narrow definition, while “actors”—and every artist, one might
argue—are continually in a process of becoming.
The artistic process in theatre requires a developing
understanding of the human body, spirit, and mind. An
artist’s education demands consistent development,
metamorphosis, evolution. Indeed, education at its best is
a continual process of becoming. At Illinois Theatre, our
artists—students, staff, and faculty—are embarked on the
exciting journey of becoming human beings.
It is the same for us when we consider which dramatic works
to program in a given season. What kinds of work do our students need to create at this point in their
artistic development? Which plays or musicals feed that pedagogical imperative? And how do these works
allow, encourage, or (sometimes) confound our ability to understand a bit more about the nature of human
becoming? When we leave the theatre, do we feel more closely bound to our neighbors? If we feel alienated
by the experience, do we understand why?
It is no accident that this note of welcome to our current season includes a litany of questions. Intellectual,
emotional, and spiritual query are at the core of a great education. At Illinois Theatre, “we make theatre
makers,” but we also ask foundational questions on our pathways to creation. Along the way, we learn to
think more deeply, critically, and analytically.
Questions about the nature of the human condition are never easy to resolve. The challenging road to the
answers we seek encourages public discourse to thrive and pushes our performing arts to engage in positive,
healthy transformation.
Thank you for joining us at this performance. We hope that you will be stimulated, provoked, and entertained
by what you experience here, and we hope to see you again very soon.
Jeffrey Eric Jenkins
Head, Department of Theatre
Producer, Illinois Theatre
PROGRAM
OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR
JOAN LITTLEWOOD’S
MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT
OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR
BY JOAN LITTLEWOOD, THEATRE WORKSHOP, AND CHARLES CHILTON
RESEARCH BY GERRY RAFFLES
after treatments by Ted Allan and others
Director
Robert G. Anderson*
Choreographer
Philip Johnston
Music Director
Cara Chowning
Scenic Designer
Joe C. Klug
Costume Designer
Amy Chmielewski
ILLINOIS THEATRE
Lighting Designer
Aaron Lichamer
Thursday-Saturday, November 6-8, 2014, at 7:30pm
Tuesday-Saturday, November 11-15, 2014, at 7:30pm
Sunday, November 16, 2014, at 3pm
Studio Theatre
Sound Designer
M. Anthony Reimer
Media Designer
Joseph A. Burke
Scenic Charge Artist
Jane Seibold
Properties Master
Megan Gerber
Hair/Makeup Master
Aimee Beach
Vocal Coach
Susan Gosdick
Movement Consultant
Robin McFarquhar
Stage Manager
Samantha Kosinski
Technical Director
Brian Gonner
Dramaturg
Kyle A. Thomas
This production includes strobe lighting, gunshots, explosions, and adult language.
Presented by permission of
Amy Love
1300 Shawnee Ct.
Millersville, MD 21108
410/923-0410
410/693-0143
[email protected]
www.ohwhatalovleywar.org
In Dedication to the Memory of Kent Conrad
Special Thanks
David O’Brian at Krannert Art Museum
Christine Coniff-O’Shea, Assistant Conservator for Preparation and Framing, Department of Prints
and Drawings, The Art Institute of Chicago
This production is supported, in part, by donations to The Producers Group, Friends of Illinois Theatre, and the Bunch Family Guest Artist
Fund. Illinois Theatre gratefully acknowledges these gifts, which assist theatre students in their professional training.
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*Appears by permission of the Actor’s Equity
Association, the union of professional actors and
stage managers in the United States
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CAST
SCENE BREAKDOWN
Timuchin Aker (Kaiser Wilhelm/General)
Time: World War I (1914-19)
Place: Europe
Scene 14
Gassed Last Night
Ninos Baba (Austro-Hungarian Man/Soldier)
ACT I
Samuel Babick (Sergeant/Roses of Picardy)
Scene 1
Row, Row, Row
Scene 15
Roses of Picardy
Thom Miller* (MC)
Harry Belden (Russian Man/British Man)
Scene 2
Dylan Connelley (German Man)
Claire Floriano (Roses of Picardy/Keep the Home Fires Burning)
Mark E. Fox (American Man/Moltke/Chaplain)
Sara Freedland (Young Girl)
Sydney Germaine (Panel Announcer/Visual Artist)
Scene 6
It’s a Long Way to Tipperary
Chris Khoshaba (Drunken Soldier/Roses of Picardy)
S. Janjay Knowlden (Khaki Tunic Singer/Scottish Man)
David Mor (Soldier)
Jordan T. Pettis (Drunken Soldier)
Scene 9
Hitchy-Koo
Erik Rothlind (Irish Soldier)
Katarina G. Spungen (Hitchy-Koo)
Scene 10
Heilige Nacht
Henry Steinken (Frenchman)
Scene 11
Goodbye-ee
Adam Thatcher (General Haig)
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Scene 7
I’ll Make a Man of You
Scene 8
We’re ‘Ere Because We’re ‘Ere
Allison Morse (I’ll Make a Man of You)
Kim Uwate
Matthew Feingold
Sam Carroll
Alex Blomarz
Katarina G. Spungen
Ellen Fred and Allison Morse
Timuchin Aker
Jordan T. Pettis
Scene 4
Scene 5
We Don’t Want to Lose You
Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser
Ellen Fred (Sister Suzie’s Sewing Shirts)
ORCHESTRA
Violin
Bass
Percussion Reeds Flute/Piccolo Trumpets Trombone
Banjo Scene 3
20-minute intermission
*Appears by permission of the
Actor’s Equity Association, the
union of professional actors
and stage managers in the
United States
ACT II
Scene 12
Oh It’s a Lovely War
Scene 13
Scene 16
Hush, Here Comes a Wizzbang
Scene 17
Scene 18
I Don’t Want to Be a Soldier
Scene 19
Kaiser Bill
They Were Only Playing Leapfrog
If You Want the Old Battalion
Far Far from Wipers
Scene 20
I Wore a Tunic
Forward Joe Soap’s Army/Onward Christian
Soldiers
When This Lousy War Is Over/What a Friend We
Have in Jesus
Wash Me in the Water
I Want to Go Home
Scene 21
Scene 22
Scene 23
The Bells of Hell
Keep the Home Fires Burning
Scene 24
Sister Suzie’s Sewing Shirts
Chanson de Craonne
I Don’t Want to Be a Soldier
And When They Ask Us
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DRAMATURG’S NOTE
Long Long Trail, conspired to create a musical
that would echo the antiwar sentiments of
many Britons in the early 1960s, especially as
America’s involvement in Vietnam increased.
Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop was created as
a touring company in 1945 to take on ensemblebased performances that would actively engage
their primarily working-class audiences through
community engagement, use of open-air spaces,
and socially conscious theatrical techniques.
Littlewood envisioned Oh What a Lovely War as a
reframing of British patriotism—a critique of the
“patriotic” call to arms as the romanticization of
war as a hero’s endeavor in which mostly workingclass men and women bear the burden of war
so that aristocrats, politicians, and businessmen
claim prestige and profits.
enter contemporary debates about the necessity
for war and our involvement in it. The 21st century
has so far been defined by the ongoing efforts to
combat terrorism, especially in the United States.
In an increasingly technological battlefield, it
becomes easier to feel far away from the areas of
the globe that are the epicenters of such conflicts.
But the nature of war is still that of a human
conflict that affects lives on every side. In staging
our production of Oh What a Lovely War, we hope
to ask the questions: How are you implicated in
these modern conflicts? To what measure are
you close to the modern perception of war? Are
the human costs of such interactions the way in
which we wish to define our new century (even
millennium)—much as those of the First World
War did for the 20th century?
In 1963, the Theatre Workshop, located in East
Stratford in London, opened Oh What a Lovely
War to critical acclaim. The show not only
captured the spirit of a war-weary population
in London but also challenged the perception
of a what constituted a commercially successful
show in the London theatre community. After
the February 2014 Theatre Workshop revival of
Oh What a Lovely War (in memory of the 100year anniversary of the start of World War I),
Michael Billington, who had also been at the
original production, wrote for the Guardian that
“the source of Littlewood’s genius, and one of
the reasons for Oh What a Lovely War’s instant
success, was her ability to combine a European
aestheticism with a deeply English love of popular
theatre.”
—Kyle A. Thomas
The upbeat quality of Sheridan’s song, which
memorialized in such happy fashion the incredible
price paid for a fully preventable war, later
became one of the most recognizable songs from
the 1963 musical Oh What a Lovely War, which
highlights the juxtaposition of memorialization
and historicization of war using the absurdity of
such a cheerful tune against a somber backdrop.
Building on new contexts for memorialized events,
Oh What a Lovely War is not a historical play—in
other words, it is not a play about World War
I, but, rather, it is a play that uses the war as a
means for transporting a larger message about
the human propensity to engage in such violent
conflict and the difficulty and sheer absurdity of
relaying the horrific effects of such a struggle.
Oh What a Lovely War was the creation of Joan
Littlewood and Gerry Raffles, who, after hearing
Charles Chilton’s radio documentary about the
songs and soldiers of World War I entitled The
For our production, we take up Joan Littlewood’s
initial spirit of making theatre that engages our
audiences (you) in order to give a distant historical
event, like World War I, a fresh context in which to
Belgium certainly put the kibosh on the Kaiser in
the late summer of 1914, when a fierce Belgian
force, with the help of the British Expeditionary
Force, halted the German advance into France.
The unexpected impediment to the German
forces inspired a jaunty patriotic tune aptly
named Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser by
Mark Sheridan that celebrated the bravery of the
Belgian forces and the courage of their British
counterparts. Unfortunately, the song’s cheerful
character was soon overshadowed by the horrors
of a prolonged conflict defined by brutal trench
warfare, chemical weaponry, and the beginning
of modern mechanized warfare that is still the
standard of the military field manuals today.
Despite the awfulness of World War I, the tune
remained a popular reminder of British resilience
against difficult odds.
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PROFILES
Timuchin Aker (Kaiser
Wilhelm/General) is currently
earning his MFA in acting at
the U of I. He was recently
seen at Krannert Center in
O Beautiful, The Tempest,
The Normal Heart, and A
Dream Play. His other favorite
productions include Antony
and Cleopatra, Much Ado About Nothing
(Illinois Shakespeare Festival), A Midsummer
Night’s Dream (Idaho Shakespeare Festival tour),
Macbeth (Great Lakes Theater Festival), Bunnicula
(Cleveland Playhouse), Clarisse and Larmon
(Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival),
It’s a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play (American
Theater Company), 15 Minutes (Ruckus Theater),
and Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Lakeland Civic
Theatre). He completed the acting apprenticeship
at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and holds a BA
from Kalamazoo College.
Ninos Baba (Austro-Hungarian
Man/Soldier) is a junior in the
BFA Acting Program at the
U of I. This is Ninos’ second
Illinois Theatre production,
and he previously appeared
in Much Ado About Nothing
(Citizen of the Watch). Other
performance credits include
The Taming of the Shrew (Petruchio), King Lear
(Albany), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lion/
Philostrate) with the What You Will Shakespeare
Company. He has also performed in, directed,
and worked on numerous other shows in the
Champaign-Urbana area.
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Samuel Babick (Sergeant) was
born in Cary, Illinois, where
he attended Cary-Grove High
School. He is currently a thirdyear student in the Theatre
Program at the U of I. Samuel
has performed in musicals and
plays including Les Misérables;
Urinetown; Almost, Maine;
Thoroughly Modern Millie; 12 Angry Men; O
Beautiful; and Romeo and Juliet. In 2012, Samuel
was a finalist for Broadway in Chicago’s Illinois
High School Musical Theatre Awards for his
performance as Bobby Strong in Urinetown.
Harry Belden (Russian Man/
British Man) is a sophomore
acting major at the U of I.
Harry has been acting for
as long as he can remember
and has performed in shows
throughout campus, including
at the Armory Free Theatre.
Harry enjoys personally
training people through Campus Recreation and
cannot get enough of acting.
Dylan Connelley (German
Man) is currently a junior in
the BFA Acting Program at the
U of I. Dylan has performed
in the Station Theatre’s
production of Next to Normal,
a workshop production of
Now. Here. This., Art in the
Armory Free Theatre, and
Illinois Theatre’s production of O Beautiful at
Krannert Center.
Claire Floriano (Ensemble) is
in her third year of pursuing
her BFA at the U of I. She
attended Maine South
High School in Park Ridge,
Illinois. This summer, she
studied under the tutelage
of Jenny Lipman at the
London Academy of Music
and Dramatic Arts. Her previous roles include
Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, Matt
in Matt and Ben, and Hope in the 2012 AllState production of Almost, Maine at the Illinois
High School Theatre Festival. This is her first
production at Krannert Center.
Mark E. Fox (American Man/
Moltke/Chaplain) is a senior
in the BFA Acting Program
at the U of I. His previous
Illinois Theatre credits include
O Beautiful (Don Fletcher/
Benjamin Franklin), The
Tempest (Alonso), The Normal
Heart (Examining Doctor),
and Dracula (Drinkwater). His other local credits
include Come Back, Little Sheba (Bruce), Evil
Dead: The Musical (Ed/Moose), and Bloody
Bloody Andrew Jackson (Henry Clay) at the
Station Theatre; Too Much Light Makes the Baby
Go Blind (Ensemble) at Parkland College; Legally
Blonde (Professor Callahan) at the Champaign
Urbana Theatre Company; and On the Twentieth
Century (Max Jacobs/Chorus) at the Allerton
Music Barn Festival. While serving overseas, he
performed with the Beijing Playhouse in China
and the Pacific Okinawa Players in Japan. Mark
also participates annually in the Department of
Theatre’s Student Playwrights Outreach Theatre.
Ellen Fred (Ensemble) is a
senior acting major at the U of
I. Last year, she participated
in a workshop production of
Now. Here. This. directed by
Michael Berresse. Her Krannert
Center credits include Ariel in
The Tempest, Mina Westerman
in Dracula, Ursula in Much Ado
About Nothing, and Thea in
Spring Awakening.
Sara Freedland (Young Girl)
is currently a sophomore in
the BFA Acting Program at
the U of I and is originally
from Los Angeles, California.
Her recent credits include
Michelle Sterling-Matthews
in Might at the Armory Free
Theatre and Philia in A Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with
the Champaign Urbana Theatre Company. Earlier
this year, she placed third at the Chicago Chapter
National Association of Teachers of Singing Music
Theatre Competition. This is her first production
at Krannert Center.
Sydney Germaine (Panel
Announcer/Visual Artist) is a
senior acting major who has
also trained at Aloft Circus
Arts, privately with Camille
Swift, and with the Dell’Arte
International School of
Physical Theatre in Blue Lake,
California. Sydney’s recent
credits include Much Ado About Nothing and The
Tempest. Next January, Sydney will be studying
dance and physical theatre abroad and studying
mask carving in Bali.
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Chris Khoshaba (Drunken
Soldier), from Skokie, Illinois,
is a sophomore acting major
at the U of I. He was a part of
multiple productions in high
school, including Punk Rock;
Noises Off; Hello, Dolly!, and
Another Part of the Forest.
He also helped lead two
workshops and acted on the Colwell Playhouse
stage at Krannert Center in Love’s Labour’s Lost at
the Illinois High School Theatre Festival. This is his
first production at Krannert Center.
S. Janjay Knowlden (Khaki
Tunic Singer/Scottish Man),
born and raised in Champaign,
is a sophomore acting major
at the U of I. This is his first
Krannert Center appearance.
His recent stage roles include
George Banks in Mary
Poppins, Collins in Rent, and
Shawn Matthews in Might. He has performed with
the Illinois Music Education Association Honors
Chorus as a baritone. Janjay has provided voice
work for the cartoon Tabloids and was also a
state-level finalist for the 2013 Poetry Out Loud
poetry recitation competition.
Thom Miller (MC) is a thirdyear student in the MFA
Acting Program at the U of I.
He has been seen at Krannert
Center in Much Ado About
Nothing, The Tempest, The
Normal Heart, and 44 Plays for
44 Presidents. His New York/
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off-Broadway credits include Camp Wanatachi
(La Mama), Mental (Cherry Lane), Only a Lad
(New York International Fringe Festival), and
numerous readings. His favorite regional credits
include Reasons to Be Pretty (Studio Theatre);
The Last Five Years (Denver Center); Macbeth
and Cymbeline (Texas Shakespeare Festival); Hair
(Prince Music Theatre); The Music Man, Picasso at
the Lapin Agile, and Leading Ladies (New London
Barn Playhouse); and Boeing Boeing, Moon Over
Buffalo, Dancing at Lughnasa, Deathtrap, and I
Hate Hamlet (Northern Stage). He received a BFA
in acting from the North Carolina School of the
Arts.
David Mor (Soldier) graduated
from Alden-Hebron High
School, where he studied with
Janet Booth, and is currently
a junior pursuing a BFA in
acting at the U of I. David
was most recently seen in
Illinois Theatre’s production
of Much Ado About Nothing,
directed by Kathleen F. Conlin, and Naked on
Green Street (Armory Free Theatre). Some of
David’s past acting credits include Sons of the
Prophet (Celebration Company at the Station
Theatre); Suburbia (Black Box Theatre); It’s a
Wonderful Life: Radio Play and Sweeney Todd:
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Riverview
Theatre Company); Not What You Expected and
A Quartet of Comedies (Theater Underground);
High School Musical and Beauty and the Beast
(Palette, Masque, and Lyre Theatre); and A
Christmas Carol, The Wedding Singer, All I Really
Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, and
Check, Please! (Alden-Hebron High School).
Allison Morse (Ensemble)
is currently a senior in the
BFA Acting Program at the
U of I and is originally from
Cleveland, Ohio. Allison spent
her summer as an acting
apprentice at the Great River
Shakespeare Festival, where
she played the title role in
Troilus and Cressida and understudied Gertrude
in Hamlet. Her other regional credits include Miss
Sandra in All Shook Up and Sally Brown in You’re
a Good Man, Charlie Brown, both at the Hope
Summer Repertory Theatre. Allison’s favorite
local credits include Woman 2 in the workshop
production of Now. Here. This., Arlene in O
Beautiful, Natalie Goodman in Next to Normal,
Janet Van de Graaff in The Drowsy Chaperone,
Queenie in Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party, and
Kate Monster/Lucy the Slut in Avenue Q.
Erik Rothlind (Irish Soldier) is
a sophomore acting student
at the U of I. He studied at
the Conservatory Theater
Ensemble at Tamalpais High
School in California before
making his move to the
Midwest. He has been in many
shows, and his favorite role is
Joseph Surface in School for Scandal. This is his
first production at Krannert Center.
Katarina G. Spungen
(Ensemble), a senior in the BFA
Acting Program at the U of I,
has previously performed at
Krannert Center in O Beautiful
(Brenda Waters) and A Dream
Play (Mother/She/Wife/Dean
of Philosophy). Her local credits
include the Champaign Urbana
Theatre Company’s production of Mary Poppins
Jordan T. Pettis (Drunken
Soldier) is from the Kishwaukee (Winifred Banks), Illini Student Musicals’ production
of The Wedding Singer (Rosie), and the Station
Riverlands in and around
Rockford, Illinois. He is a junior Theatre’s production of Bloody Bloody Andrew
Jackson (Rachel). Additionally, she interned in the
in the BFA Acting Program
Development Department at Goodspeed Musicals
at the U of I. This is his third
for its 50th anniversary season in 2013.
production at Krannert
Center and his first in the
Henry Steinken (Frenchman)
Studio Theatre. Last season,
is currently a senior acting
he played Mariner/Reaper in The Tempest and
major at the U of I. Oh
Balthasar/Sexton in Much Ado About Nothing.
What a Lovely War marks
He has also appeared in shows at the Armory
Henry’s fourth main-stage
Free Theatre, including Art as Marc and Double
production at Krannert Center.
Text, written by Theatre Studies Program student
His previous work includes
Olivia Bagan, as Andrew. He is an accomplished
directing and acting in Next at
musician and frequently plays on the praise team
the Armory Free Theatre and
for the Twin City Bible Church and for his dogs.
directing a production of The Dumb Waiter. Most
recently, Henry played St. Paul/John Adams/Ed
Turner in O Beautiful and Kenneth in Clybourne
Park.
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Adam Thatcher (General
Haig), a native of Milan, Ohio,
is a third-year candidate in the
MFA Acting Program at the
U of I. He received his BFA in
musical theatre from SUNY
Fredonia. Adam has had the
privilege of working with the
respected artists Victoria
Clark and Renée Fleming, along with performing
in various musical workshops in Shimoda and
Aichi, Japan, with Lyrics Arts International. His
favorite credits include El Gallo in the Fantasticks,
Mephistopheles in Doctor Faustus, Dr. Treves in
The Elephant Man, and Actor 7 in the premiere of
Wanderlust: A History of Walking at the Cleveland
Public Theatre and at the Ice Factory festival in
New York City. His film credits include Made in
Cleveland. His most recent role was in Tecumseh!
Outdoor Drama in Chillicothe, Ohio, in which he
played a Native American.
Robert G. Anderson (Director)
is an associate professor in
the Department of Theatre,
where he teaches acting and
directs plays. He recently
returned from London, where
he worked in residency at
Goldsmith College with
director Struan Leslie on a
devised solo performance piece entitled My Case
Is Altered. In 2012, he assisted Leslie at the Royal
Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon
on his controversial production Song of Songs.
A member of the Actors’ Equity Association, he
has performed across the United States and won
the Seattle Footlights Award for his performance
as The Fool in Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of
an Anarchist. Also active in film, Anderson most
recently co-directed and produced The Actual
Authentic Version of Who You Say I Am. He holds
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an MFA in acting from the University of Delaware’s
Professional Theater Training Program. In 2012,
he received the College of Fine and Applied Arts’
Teaching Excellence Award.
Philip Johnston
(Choreographer) trained as
a dancer with Helen Lewis in
Belfast. He received a BA from
the University of Ulster and
is a graduate of the London
School of Contemporary
Dance. He earned MFA and
PhD degrees from the U of I.
Philip performed and choreographed in Europe
for 15 years. He was the artistic director for the
Norwegian Modern Dance Company in Oslo. He
has received numerous choreographic and dance
fellowships from the Arts Council of Northern
Ireland, the British Council, the Norwegian Fund
for Performing Artists, the Norwegian Culture
Council, the London School of Contemporary
Dance, and the Skinners Guild of London. The
Charles and Harriet Luckman Undergraduate
Distinguished Teaching Award at the U of I was
awarded to Philip. Philip’s book The Lost Tribe in
the Mirror: Four Playwrights of Northern Ireland
was published by Lagan Press (2009), and the
biography Nina Fonaroff: Life and Art in Dance is
forthcoming from Celtic Cat Publishing.
Cara Chowning (Music
Director) has prepared over
thirty opera or musical theatre
productions. As a conductor,
she has produced The Mikado,
Le Nozze di Figaro, and Die
Zauberflöte for Simpson
College; Carmen, Il Barbiere
di Siviglia, Madama Butterfly,
L’Elisir d’amore, and La Bohème for the Bar
Harbor Music Festival; and The Threepenny Opera
for the U of I. Additionally, Chowning has served
on the music staff of the Moonlight Amphitheatre,
the Cleveland Opera, Lyric Opera Cleveland, and
Opera Cleveland. She worked with Cleveland
Opera on Tour and also created programs
for Opera Cleveland’s Great Works Outreach
Department. She has performed extensively and
has served on the accompanying faculties of
the Cleveland Institute of Music, the American
Institute of Music Studies (Graz, Austria), Simpson
College, and the U of I. Chowning holds degrees
from Northwestern University, the Cleveland
Institute of Music, and the U of I. She currently
enjoys a freelance career based in the Chicago
area.
came here from Philadelphia, where she was the
resident designer for the Delaware Valley Opera
Company and the Center City Opera Theater,
for whom she designed several world premiere
operas including collaborations with composers
Michael Ching and Paul Moravec, director Leland
Kimball, librettist Terry Teachout, and playwright
Albert Innaurato. During her time in Philadelphia,
she also designed costumes for the Ombelico
Mask Ensemble, the New City Stage Company,
the Represented Theatre Company, the Maya
Project, Princeton High School, Philadelphia
Children’s Theatre, and the InterACT Theatre
Company.
Megan Gerber (Properties Master) is a secondyear student pursuing a Master of Fine Arts
in properties design and management at the
U of I. Megan graduated in 2010 with her
Bachelor of Liberal Arts with a double emphasis
in performance and technical theatre from
Whittier College. Prior to reentering academia,
Joseph A. Burke (Media Designer) is currently
Megan worked for various regional theatres;
working as a visual artist in Chicago as he is
was the production intern at the Kitchen Theatre
earning his Master of Fine Arts degree at the U of
Company in Ithaca, New York (2012-13); and
I. Joseph specializes in lighting and visual design.
served as the co-properties master for the
He prides himself on the perfection of his design
Chautauqua Theater Company’s 2013 summer
work, using his design eye as a powerful extension
season.
of story telling. He believes that his history as
Brian Gonner (Technical Director) is a seconda musician and passion for composition and
year candidate in the MFA Scenic Technology
photography allow him to create and collaborate
Program at the U of I and is from Dubuque,
with other brilliant-minded artists. Joseph’s
Iowa. He is a 2013 graduate of the University
art has been seen at Cleveland’s Playhouse
of Evansville with a BFA in theatre design
Square, the Cleveland Public Theatre, Kent State
and technology and a minor in mathematics.
University, Travesty Dance Group, the Spartan
Theatre Company, Base Entertainment, and the U Professionally, Brian has worked for Music Theatre
Wichita, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Public
of I. www.josephaburke.com
Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, and
Amy Chmielewski (Costume Designer) most
the Hope Summer Repertory Theatre. His U of I
recently designed the costumes for Falstaff. She
credits include technical director for the 2013-14
received her BA in digital media from Drexel
Dance at Illinois season and assistant technical
University and is in the third and final year of the
director for Much Ado About Nothing.
MFA Costume Design Program at the U of I. Amy
Aimee Beach (Hair/Makeup Master) received her
Bachelor of Arts in theatre performance from the
University of Vermont in 2012. She is currently
a second-year MFA candidate in the Costume
Design Program at the U of I.
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Susan Gosdick (Vocal Coach), currently serving as
a visiting assistant professor of voice and speech
at the U of I, has also coached dialects with
Shattered Globe (The Whaleship Essex, Mill Fire,
Our Country’s Good, and Other People’s Money),
Light Opera Works (Cabaret, Camelot, The Secret
Garden, and Brigadoon), the Mystery Writers’
Festival (Panic and Chimneys), the Berkshire
Theatre Festival, the BrightSide Theatre (Cabaret
and Run for Your Wife), and Fordham University,
among other organizations. As a performer, she
has appeared at the Paramount Theatre, Drury
Lane Oakbrook, Artists’ Ensemble, the Old Globe
Theatre, the Lincoln Center Institute, the Ma-Yi
Theatre, and other venues.
master electrician for Lost Lake, Orpheus in the
Underworld, O Beautiful, and Falstaff; and assistant
lighting designer for The Normal Heart. He has
also worked as a season lighting technician for
the Utah Shakespeare Festival (2014), a lighting
designer for multiple productions at the Armory
Free Theatre, and the designer for Twenty: A
Musical Revue for the Journeymen Theater
Company in Chicago.
Robin McFarquhar (Movement Consultant) is
a professor in the Department of Theatre, an
accredited fight director/teacher with the Society
of American Fight Directors, and an accredited
teacher of the Alexander Technique (AmSAT).
As a fight director/movement specialist, he has
Joe C. Klug (Scenic Designer) is in his final year as worked at major regional theatres throughout the
country, including Steppenwolf, the Goodman
an MFA candidate in scenic design at the U of I.
Theatre, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the
His most recent design credits include the world
Writers Theatre, the Old Globe, the Long Wharf
premiere of Little Man at the Los Angeles New
Court Theatre, The Doyle and Debbie Show at the Theatre, South Coast Repertory, the Shakespeare
Theatre (Washington, DC), the Guthrie, and the
Milwaukee Repertory Theater, What the Butler
Lyric Opera of Chicago and also at numerous
Saw at the Bristol Valley Theatre, Happy Days
Shakespeare festivals. His work has also been seen
at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint, and Our
on Broadway, at the Royal Shakespeare Company,
Class with the Remy Bumppo Theatre Company.
in the West End of London, on the national tour
Samantha Kosinski (Stage Manager) is a senior
of The Color Purple, and on international tours to
pursuing a BFA in stage management at the U of
Japan, Cyprus, and Hungary. He has worked with
I. She has recently been the stage manager for
Tony Award-winning directors and well-known
Studiodance II; worked on Studiodance I: Nico
actors such as Martha Plimpton, Mark Ruffalo, John
Johanna Niall, The Tempest, and The Normal Heart
C. Reilly, Gary Sinise, John Malkovich, and Denzel
as an assistant stage manager; and was a technical
Washington. He has been nominated for two
assistant stage manager on The Threepenny
Jeff Awards (Chicago) and a Helen Hayes Award
Opera. She will be the production coordinator for
(Washington, DC) for his fight direction. At the U of
the Illinois High School Theatre Festival in January.
I, he has received the Excellence in Undergraduate
In addition to working on her BFA, Sami is also a
Teaching Award and the Excellence in Research
seasonal cast member at the Walt Disney World
Award and was made a University Scholar in 2003.
Resort.
M. Anthony Reimer (Sound Designer), originally
Aaron Lichamer (Lighting Designer) is a senior
an orchestral French horn player who hails from
in the BFA Lighting Design Program at the U of
Indiana, has spent most of the last 20 years
I. His previous Krannert Center credits include
freelancing in live theatre as a composer and sound
co-lighting designer for Studiodance II (2014);
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designer. His work has been heard on stages and
at festivals across the country and internationally.
He completed his undergraduate work at Ball State
University, received a master’s degree in computer
music and new media from Northern Illinois
University, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in
music composition at the U of I.
Jane Siebold (Scenic Charge Artist) is a junior
majoring in scenic design and minoring in
comparative world literature at the U of I. This is
her first production as a scenic charge artist.
Kyle A. Thomas (Dramaturg) is a PhD candidate
in the Theatre Studies Program at the U of I. He
specializes in theatre history, political theatre, and
methodologies for performing historical plays.
Kyle holds a BA in musical theatre from Ouachita
University, and although his start in theatre was
mostly onstage—he received critical acclaim for
his performances in The Crucible (John Proctor)
with the Studio Theatre in Little Rock, Arkansas,
and Kissing (Andrew) with the New Theatre in
Coral Gables, Florida—Kyle’s work today mostly
centers on his scholarship and directing. His
directing credits include Ah, Wilderness! at the
International Drama Conference in Beijing, China;
Absence with Pictures for the Kennedy Center
American College Theater Festival; and The Play
of Antichrist, a Mellon Foundation grant recipient
for the Performing the Middle Ages Symposium at
the U of I.
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PRODUCTION STAFF
Assistant to the Director/
Assistant Vocal Coach
Stephanie Feldman
Assistant Stage Managers
Matthew Brooks
Nicholas Loweree
Assistant Scenic Designer
Miguel Salazar
Assistant Properties Master
Lindsey Sample
Assistant Costume Designer
Paul Kim
Costume Technician
Laura Molander
Assistant Lighting Designer
Michelle E. Benda
Master Electrician
Alon Stotter
Deck Running Crew
Kyle Bricker
Aidan Schliesmann
Ryan Smetana
Properties Running Crew
Emily Benziger
Ellen Magee
Costume Running Crew
Ryan Leonard
Luke Worland
Hair/Makeup Crew
Danyelle Monson
Lighting Operator
Allie Wessel
Projections Operator
Armelle Harper
THE GREAT WAR: EXPERIENCES, REPRESENTATIONS, EFFECTS
Oh What a Lovely War is part of the campus commemoration of the 100th anniversary of World War I’s
start. The events ranging from lectures to exhibitions to performances in this series encourage reflection
on this global conflict and its implications for the present. Take part in other experiences in this initiative.
EXHIBITIONS
After the Front Line: Artists Who Served in the World Wars
Through December 23, 2014 | Free
Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion
The Fighting Illini 1917-1918 Legacy
Through December 31, 2014 | Free
Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, Harding Band Building
First Global Conflict: Contemporary Views of the Great War, 1914-1919
Through December 19, 2014 | Free
346 Library
La Grande Guerre: French Posters and Photographs from World War I
Through December 23, 2014 | Free
Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion
Many Voices: The Great War in America’s Songs
Through September 25, 2015 | Free
Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, Harding Band Building
Professor Harding and the Illinois Bands during World War I
Through August 3, 2015 | Free
Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, Harding Band Building
World War I with America’s March King
Through May 6, 2015 | Free
Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, Harding Band Building
LECTURES AND DISCUSSIONS
From the Great War to the Bloodlands: Rethinking Europe’s History
Timothy Snyder, Bird White Housum Professor of History at Yale University
CAS/MillerComm Lecture Series
November 10, 2014, at 3pm | Free
Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum
11-11-11: World War I Remembered through Words and Melody
William Brooks, musician, composer, and music scholar
November 11, 2014, at 11am | Free
Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, Harding Band Building
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Then and Now: Theatre and Performance of the Great War
November 14, 2014, at noon | Free
Krannert Room, Krannert Center
FILMS
The Good Soldier Schweik
Directed by Karel Steklý
November 13, 2014, at 7pm | Free
Krannert Art Museum Auditorium
Paths of Glory
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
November 17, 2014, at 7:30pm | $7-$9.50
The Art Theater Co-op
Joyeux Noël
Directed by Christian Carion
December 4, 2014, at 7pm | Free
Krannert Art Museum Auditorium
PERFORMANCES
The Many Voices of Sousa’s Twentieth-Century America
UI Wind Orchestra
Barry L. Houser, conductor
November 11, 2014, at 7:30pm | $4-$10
Foellinger Great Hall, Krannert Center
Out of Battle We Escape
UI Hindsley Symphonic Band
J. Ashley Jarrell, conductor
November 20, 2014, at 7:30pm | $4-$10
Foellinger Great Hall, Krannert Center
Cantus and Theater Latté Da: All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914
December 2, 2014, at 7:30pm | $10-$36
Foellinger Great Hall, Krannert Center
The Closing Reception for the Great War Fall Initiative immediately follows the performance.
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