Charlie in the House of Rue

Robert Coover (Charlie in the House of Rue) is the author of fourteen books, including A Night At the Movies (includes the story "Charlie in the House of Rue" on which the play is based), Briar Rose, The Universal Baseball Association, Inc. : J. Henry Waugh, Prop., and the collection of plays A Theological Position. He has received numerous awards, including the William Faulkner Award for best first novel (Origin of the Brunists), the Brandeis citation for fiction, three Obie Awards, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and he has been nominated for a National Book Award for his novel The Public Burning. Mr. Coover has held teaching positions at Bard College, the University of Iowa, Princeton University, and Brown University, where since 1980 he has been professor of English and where he teaches creative writing.

Scenic Designer Laurie Olinder is a founding member of the Ridge Theater, an experimental opera and theater company in New York City. Her work at the A.R.T. includes Charlie in the House of Rue, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Alice in Bed, all directed by Bob McGrath. Recent set designing credits include the John Moran operas Mathew In the School of Life, Everyday Newt Burman, and The Manson Family, all produced by Ridge Theater. She is also a painter, last exhibited in 1995 at St. Peter's Church at the CitiCorp Building in New York City. She has been awarded artist residencies at The Kitchen, Millay Colony for the Arts, and Yellow Springs.

Scenic Designer Fred Tietz is a founding member of Ridge Theater, an experimental opera and theater company in New York City. He has collaborated on many productions with Bob McGrath and Laurie Olinder, including the Ridge production of Mathew In the School of Life, and the A.R.T productions of Charlie in the House of Rue, Alice in Bed, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Mr. Tietz's technical theater credits span over thirty off and off-off Broadway productions as a designer, production manager, technical director, or technician. Highlights include work on Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, A.R. Gurney's Later Life, special prop construction for Merce Cunningham, and realization of numerous designs by John Lee Beaty. He is also currently the scene shop supervisor for Playwrights Horizons in New York City.

Bob McGrath's directing work at the American Repertory Theater has included Charlie in the House of Rue, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Alice in Bed. He is the winner of three OBIE awards for: Direction – Jennie Richee (2001), Best New American Work – The Carbon Copy Building (2000), and for Sustained Achievement. He has directed all of Ridge Theater's productions. Mr. McGrath was awarded a fellowship from The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, and has taught at NYU and the Eugene O'Neil Theater Center. He has directed at venues including The Kitchen; Lincoln Center; La MaMa, ETC.; MASS MoCA; The Kampfnagle (Hamburg, Germany); and The Carignano (Turin, Italy). He has worked with writers and composers including Mac Wellman, Ben Katchor, Susan Sontag, Robert Coover, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Bang On A Can, and Cynthia Hopkins. As an actor and a writer, Mr. McGrath collaborated on the Scott Saunders films The Headhunter's Sister and The Lost Words.

Scenic Designer Laurie Olinder is a founding member of the Ridge Theater, an experimental opera and theater company in New York City. Her work at the A.R.T. includes Charlie in the House of Rue, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Alice in Bed, all directed by Bob McGrath. Recent set designing credits include the John Moran operas Mathew In the School of Life, Everyday Newt Burman, and The Manson Family, all produced by Ridge Theater. She is also a painter, last exhibited in 1995 at St. Peter's Church at the CitiCorp Building in New York City. She has been awarded artist residencies at The Kitchen, Millay Colony for the Arts, and Yellow Springs.

Catherine Zuber has created the costumes for Richard II, The Doctor's Dilemma, and over forty other A.R.T. productions including Three Farces and a Funeral, Antigone, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, Phaedra, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Imaginary Invalid, The Taming of the Shrew, Peter Pan and Wendy, The Bacchae, Man and Superman, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Woyzeck, The Wild Duck, The Naked Eye, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Tartuffe, Ubu Rock, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Shlemiel the First, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, A Touch of the Poet, What the Butler Saw, The Cherry Orchard, and Orphée. Ms. Zuber's credits include work at Lincoln Center, The Joseph Papp Public Theater, Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera, among others. Her Broadway credits include The Triumph of Love (Connecticut Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk nomination), Ivanov (Drama Desk nomination), The Sound of Music, Twelfth Night, The Red Shoes, London Assurance, The Rose Tattoo, and Philadelphia Here I Come. Ms. Zuber was the recipient of the 1997 Obie Award for sustained achievement in design. She is the costume designer for La Fête des Vignerons de 1999, the massive Festival of the Winegrowers in Vevey, Switzerland.

Lighting Designer John Ambrosone has designed over thirty productions for the American Repertory Theater, including Lysistrata, Absolution, Marat/Sade, Othello, Animals and Plants, Mother Courage (2001 Elliot Norton Design Award), The Doctor's Dilemma, Three Farces and a Funeral, Nocturne, Ivanov, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The King Stag, Boston Marriage, Charlie in the House of Rue, Valparaiso, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, How I Learned to Drive, Nobody Dies on Friday, Man and Superman, The Old Neighborhood, When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable), Alice in Bed, Slaughter City, and Buried Child. On Broadway he designed The Old Neighborhood. Work in resident theaters includes the Alley Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, the Coconut Grove Playhouse, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Walnut Street Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, and Arena Stage. Mr. Ambrosone also has designed in Singapore, Moscow, Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, Mexico, Germany, and France.

Christopher Walker has composed music and designed sound for We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Phaedra, Beckett Trio: Eh Joe, Ghost Trio, and Nacht und Traüme, and An Evening of Beckett, and designed sound for The King Stag, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Charlie in the House of Rue, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Taming of the Shrew, The Bacchae, The Wild Duck, Woyzeck, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Wild Duck, Alice in Bed, Slaughter City, Buried Child, Ubu Rock, The Threepenny Opera, The Accident, Demons, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Hot 'n' Throbbing, The America Play, A Touch of the Poet, The Cherry Orchard, What the Butler Saw, and Those the River Keeps at the A.R.T. Previously he composed music and designed sound for productions at the Intiman Theatre, the Bathhouse Theatre, and the Alice B. Theatre. He also scores for dance and has composed for the Allegro Dance Festival, the Bumbershoot Festival, and On The Boards.

Bill Morrison, the filmmaker whose work appears in Alice in Bed, has collaborated with the Ridge Theater team on their last seven projects. The films Footprints and The Death Train, commissioned by Ridge, were both acquired by the Museum of Modern Art. The Death Train was awarded a 1993 Bessie Award and 1st prize at the Viper Film Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland. Mr. Morrison is currently working in Treviso, Italy, through a fellowship provided by Beneton.

Bill Frisell (Charlie in the House of Rue) is a composer and guitar player who has performed on dozens of recordings as sideman, featured player, or co-leader, including In Line, Rambler, and Lookout for Hope, which also marked the recording debut of the Bill Frisell Band. His album Is That You? features Mr. Frisell's original compositions, with Frisell playing guitars, bass, banjo, ukulele, and clarinet.