Every day is opening night.

COMPLETE CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR WATERWELL’S SITE-SPECIFIC “THE COURTROOM” – A RE-ENACTMENT OF DEPORTATION PROCEEDINGS

Press Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Michael Jorgensen
rick@omdkc.com / michael@omdkc.com
212-695-7400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

COMPLETE CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR
WATERWELL’S SITE-SPECIFIC WORLD PREMIERE OF
“THE COURTROOM”
A RE-ENACTMENT OF DEPORTATION PROCEEDINGS

 TEXT ARRANGED BY ARIAN MOAYED
DIRECTED BY LEE SUNDAY EVANS

New York, NY (January 10, 2019) – Waterwell today announced the complete cast for the World Premiere site-specific production of The Courtroom, a re-enactment of deportation proceedings, with text arranged from real court transcripts by Waterwell co-founder and Tony Award® nominee Arian Moayed, and featuring direction by Waterwell Artistic Director and Obie Award® winner Lee Sunday Evans.

The cast will feature Happy Anderson, Michael Braun, Tony Award nominee and four-time Obie Award winner Kathleen Chalfant, Hanna Cheek, Michael Bryan French, Mick Hilgers, Tony Award winner Ruthie Ann Miles, Linda Powell, and Kristin Villanueva.

As previously announced, The Courtroom will play four performances in two active legal spaces: the Fordham University School of Law (150 West 62nd Street) on Wednesday, January 23 at 7:00pm, and Saturday, January 26 at 7:00pm; and the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse (40 Foley Square) on Thursday, January 24 at 6:30pm and Friday, January 25 at 6:30pm. Tickets are free and available now at waterwell.org.

The Courtroom is a re-enactment of deportation proceedings. In 2004, an immigrant from the Philippines who was married to a U.S. Citizen came to this country on a K3 Visa. After inadvertently registering to vote at the DMV in Chicago, receiving a voter registration card in the mail, and voting, her removal proceeding was set in motion. It began in Immigration Court and her case was eventually heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. The Courtroom will be performed entirely verbatim from the court transcripts.

The Courtroom is co-sponsored by Fordham Law School and made possible by the lead support of Angelina Fiordellisi.

BIOGRAPHIES

Happy Anderson. The Merchant of Venice (Broadway); The Twenty Seventh Man, A Winters Tale (The Public); As You Like It (Shakespeare Theatre of DC); Richard III, Inherit The Wind (Old Globe). Film: Birdbox, The Standoff At Sparrow Creek, X-Men: The New Mutants, Bright, The Comedian, Cold in July, Duplicity. TV: “Mindhunter,” “Snowpiercer,” “The Tick,” “The Deuce,” “The Blacklist,” “Claws,” “Gotham,” “Elementary,” “Quarry,” “The Knick.”

Michael Braun. Broadway: The Crucible, War Horse. Off-Broadway includes: In the Blood, Everybody (Signature); Much Ado About Nothing (Public); Bridge Project:  Winter’s Tale, Cherry Orchard (BAM, Old Vic); The Bad Guys (Second Stage); Don’t You… (59E59). Regional: Dangerous House, The Front Page, On The Razzle, Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Williamstown); Proof (McCarter); When the Lights Went Out (NYS&F); The Breach (Seattle Rep); The Matchmaker (Centerstage); Lulu, All’s Well That Ends Well (Yale Rep). Film: The Day Shall Come (upcoming), Dark Water, Incoming, Dare, Igby Goes Down, Drinks!, Dispatched. TV: “The Enemy Within,” “Dickinson,” “The Night Of,” “High Maintenance,” “Unforgettable,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” “The Good Wife,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Law & Order,” “Blue Bloods,” “Do No Harm,” “Comedy Bang! Bang!.” MFA: Yale. Princess Grace Award.

Kathleen Chalfant. Broadway: Angels in America (Tony and Drama Desk nominations), Racing Demon, Dance With Me. Off-Broadway: Wit (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Connecticut Critics Circle, and Obie Awards), For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday, A Walk in the Woods (Drama Desk nomination), Talking Heads (Obie Award), Nine Armenians (Drama Desk nomination), Henry V (Callaway Award). London & Los Angeles: Ovation Awards for Wit and Red Dog Howls. Film: Isn’t it Delicious?, R.I.P.D., Lackawanna Blues, Perfect Stranger, Kinsey, Laramie Project, Random Hearts. Select Television “The Affair,” “The Strain,” “The Americans,” “House of Cards,” “The Book of Daniel,” “One Life to Live”; “Madam Secretary,” “Elementary. Awards: 1996 OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence, 2004 Lortel Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance, 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from the League of Professional Women, and the 2018 Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement. She received the Drama League and Sidney Kingsley Awards and an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Cooper Union.

Hanna Cheek. With Waterwell: GOODBAR (Public Theater), The Blueprint Specials (Intrepid), The Persians…a comedy about war (Perry Street), Marco Millions (Theatre Row), The|King|Operetta (Barrow Street), #9 (59E59). With The Pumpkin Pie Show: Junta High (PS122), Hostage Song (Kraine), Commencement (NY, US, & Canada), among many others. Select other NYC: Sovereign (Judson), Universal Robots (Sheen Ctr), Happy Birthday, Widowers’ Houses (with TACT at The Beckett). Regional: Other Desert Cities, Proof, Grounded, Heisenberg. TV: “Gypsy” (Netflix), “Madame Secretary” (CBS), “The West Wing” (NBC), “Titus” (FOX), “Ugly Americans” (Comedy Central). A member of Waterwell, The Pumpkin Pie Show, and Ensemble Studio Theatre, Cheek was named one of Time Out New York‘s “Future Legends of NYC Theatre”.

Michael Bryan French. Broadway: A Doll’s House: Part Two, The Humans, Biloxi Blues. Off-Broadway: The Roundabout, The Public, Playwrights Horizons, The Vineyard Theater and Soho Rep. He was an associate member of The Wooster Group. Regional: Actors Theater of Louisville, The Old Globe, Williamstown Theater Festival and Playmakers Rep. Film: This Is Where I Leave You, Big Fat Liar, Glimmer Man. TV: HBO’s “Recount,” the ABC mini-series “Madoff,” “Orange Is The New Black,” “The Good Wife,” “Breaking Bad,” “ER,” “24,” “CSI,” “Prison Break,” “X-Files”.

Mick Hilgers is thrilled to be working with Waterwell again! Other New York theater includes La MaMa ETC, Joe’s Pub, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Peculiar Works Project, The Living Theater, The Kraine, The Frigid Festival, The Theater at the 14th Street Y, Metropolitan Playhouse. Regional theater includes Utah Shakespearean Festival, Luna Stage (NJ), Mill Mountain Theatre (VA), and Northern Stage (VT).  TV/film work includes the Emmy-Nominated “The Accidental Wolf” with Waterwell Films, “Everwood” on the WB network, and the Web Series “The Mel & El Show.” MFA: University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. Proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

Ruthie Ann Miles was last seen at the London Palladium in The King And I, and in the Broadway revival of Sunday In The Park With George. Please visit www.RuthieAnnMiles.com for more information.

Linda Powell was seen most recently in Jen Silverman’s play The Roommate at Long Wharf Theater and as Portia in Compangnia Colombari’s Merchant of Venice, which has been performed in Venice, Montclair, New Haven and Dartmouth. Her Broadway credits include Trip to Bountiful, On Golden Pond, and Wilder, Wilder, Wilder. Off-Broadway she has been seen in The Moors, The Christians, A Doll’s House, The Overwhelming, Jar the Floor, Jitney, and Angela’s Mixtape among others. Linda works frequently in regional theaters around the country and her numerous TV and film credits include the current season of “House of Cards” in  which she plays Secretary of State Marcy Siegerson.

Kristin Villanueva. Favorite credits include Julia in Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Old Globe), Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare & Co), and Mary Zimmerman’s The White Snake (Goodman Theatre, The Old Globe, McCarter Theatre Center). She frequently collaborates with director Mike Donahue, most recently in the world premieres of Zoey’s Perfect Wedding (Denver Center Theater) and Swimmers (Marin Theatre Company). Theatre: NAATCO, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Playmakers Repertory Company, Resident Ensemble Players, Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, Theatreworks Colorado, and Singapore Arts Festival. FILM/TV: Viper Club, Merry Christmas, Eve, “Elementary”, “Instinct”, “Forever,” and “Gossip Girl”. Training: SUNY Purchase, The Actors Center.

ABOUT WATERWELL

Waterwell (Lee Sunday Evans, Artistic Director; Adam J. Frank, Managing Director; Heather Lanza, Director of Education; Arian Moayed, co-founder and Board Chair) is a non-profit, civic-minded theater and education company that strives to prove itself a vital presence in the lives of its audience by remaining always responsive: responsive to the events affecting the world, to changing modes of expression, and to the individuals attending each performance. Through entertainment and arts education, Waterwell hopes to inspire audiences and students to change their lives and the world in which they live. The company’s two most recent productions were a dual-language, English-Farsi Hamlet, and Blueprint Specials, a collection of short musicals written during WWII performed by a 60+ cast comprised of veterans and professional actors on the hangar deck of the Intrepid Air + Space Museum. Founded in 2002 by Arian Moayed and Tom Ridgely, the company’s blend of music, theater, and social dialogue has been nominated for a Drama Desk, a New York Magazine Culture Award, and a Village Voice Best of NYC. The New York Times hails the company’s work as, “brilliant, original, and inspired. Alive enough to surprise even the performers themselves,” and TheaterMania writes, “Waterwell has staked a claim on our collective conscience.” Since 2003, Waterwell has offered structured classes in collaborative play-making, or “devising.” By 2010, those educational activities had grown and coalesced into the Waterwell Drama Program, which now delivers – in partnership with the Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS) – top-quality, year-round, in-school theater training to over 200 NYC public school students. The program cultivates the student-artist holistically, demands that they develop both as an interpreter and as a creator, and aims to place their work in dialogue with what’s going on outside the classroom – in their homes, communities, and the world at large.

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www.waterwell.org

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