Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

Dave Malloy is a composer/writer/performer/sound designer making his fourth appearance at A.R.T., following the Obie Award-winning Three Pianos, Beowulf—A Thousand Years of Baggage, and, most recently,Ghost Quartet. He has written the music for ten musicals, including Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Richard Rodgers Award, Obie Award, and 11 Lortel nominations). Other musicals include Preludes at LCT3, Black Wizard/Blue Wizard, Beardo, Sandwich, and Clown Bible.  He has won a Jonathan Larson Grant, an ASCAP New Horizons Award, and a NEA/TCG Grant for Theatre Designers, has been a Guest Professor in devised music theater at Princeton and Vassar Universities, and is the composer for Banana Bag & Bodice. Future projects include adaptations of Moby-Dick and Shakespeare’s Henriad, commissioned by The Public and Berkeley Repertory Theater, and a piece on Taoism at ACT.  

Rachel Chavkin is a director, writer and artistic director of Brooklyn-based experimental collective the TEAM, whose work has been seen all over New York, the US, and internationally (including festivals across Europe, Australia, and the Hong Kong Arts Festival), and whose consensus-driven writing process was the subject of a feature length documentary by Emmy Winner Paulette Douglas. She won the Tony Award for her work on Hadestown (NYTW, National Theatre, London), which has been one of her greatest joys. She is a three-time Obie Winner, and received Tony and Lortel nominations and a Drama Desk Award for Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway, Ars Nova, A.R.T.). London: Mission Drift, National Theatre; American Clock, Old Vic. Select New York and regional: Marco Ramirez’s The Royale (Obie Award, Drama Desk, and Lortel noms.), LCT; Malloy’s Preludes, LCT3; Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds, Ars Nova, national tour; Carson Kreitzer’s and Matt Gould’s Lempicka, Williamstown Theatre Festival, La Jolla Playhouse; The Royal Family, Guthrie Theater; and multiple collaborations with Taylor Mac.

A.R.T./OBERON: Kansas City Choir Boy. Broadway: Machinal, The Heidi Chronicles. Recent: Amélie, Berkeley Rep; Significant Other, Roundabout; Heisenberg, MTC; Pretty Filthy, The Civilians; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Kazino; Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play; Fly By Night; Stage Kiss; Playwrights Horizons; I Promised Myself to Live Faster, Pig Iron/Humana Festival; HAIR: Retrospection, Kansas City Rep;The Understudy, McCarter. Sam is an Associate Artist with The Civilians and Witness Relocation and is co-director of The Dance Cartel’s ONTHEFLOOR. Upcoming: Rimbaud in New York, BAM; The Good Swimmer, Prototype Festival. sampinkleton.com

A.R.T.: Moby-Dick; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; The Communist Dracula Pageant. Broadway: Uncle Vanya; Sweeney Todd; True West; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Tony Award). Off-Broadway: Fairview, An Octoroon, Soho Rep/TFANA; A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, St. Ann’s Warehouse. Opera: Grounded, Washington National Opera; Intelligence, Houston Grand Opera; Antony and Cleopatra, San Francisco Opera; Parsifal, Bayreuth Festival; Die Zauberflöte, Staatsoper Berlin. Awards: Drama Desk, Lortel, Bessie, Hewes Design Award, Obie Award, MacArthur Fellowship.

A.R.T.: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; The Tempest. Broadway: Peter and the Starcatcher (Tony Award). Off-Broadway: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Lucille Lortel Award), Kazino; The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters, Fly By Night, Playwrights Horizons; Wildflower, Second Stage; Recall, Colt Coeur; Brooklyn Babylon, BAM Next Wave. Regional: The Bandstand, Paper Mill Playhouse; Troublemaker… and You, Nero, Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Hoover Comes Alive! and A Current Nobody, La Jolla Playhouse. Ms. Young has also worked at South Coast Repertory, The Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, California Shakespeare Theater, Hand2Mouth, and Mixed Blood among others. Education: MFA, UCSD.

A.R.T.: Moby-Dick, We Live in Cairo, Endlings, Burn All Night, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, O.P.C. Broadway: Fat Ham, Hadestown (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC Awards), Flying Over Sunset (Drama Desk Award, Tony Nomination), The Great Comet(Tony, Drama Desk, OCC awards), Bernhardt/Hamlet. Numerous shows Off-Broadway, regionally, and around the world. Upcoming musicals: Water For Elephants, Alliance; Buena Vista Social Club, Atlantic; Lempicka; Goddess; How to Dance in Ohio. bradleykingld.com

A.R.T.: Marie Antoinette, Three Pianos. Sound Design credits: Preludes, LCT3; The Royale, Time and the Conways, Old Globe; Stage Kiss, 100 Saints You Should Know, Playwrights Horizons; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Kazino, Ars Nova; Marie Antoinette, Soho Rep, Yale Rep; How We Got On, Death Tax, A Devil at Noon, Humana Festival of New American Plays; Three Pianos, NYTW; The Human Scale, Public Theater; Telephone, Foundry Theatre; Hammock, The Matter of Origins: Tea, Blueprints of Relentless Nature, 613 Radical Acts of Prayer, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange; the National Playwrights Conference, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. A company member of the TEAM, he has designed The Holler Sessions, RoosevElvis, Mission Drift, Architecting, Particularly in the Heartland, and A Thousand Natural Shocks. BA in Philosophy as a University Scholar at Xavier University.

Dave Malloy is a composer/writer/performer/sound designer making his fourth appearance at A.R.T., following the Obie Award-winning Three Pianos, Beowulf—A Thousand Years of Baggage, and, most recently,Ghost Quartet. He has written the music for ten musicals, including Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Richard Rodgers Award, Obie Award, and 11 Lortel nominations). Other musicals include Preludes at LCT3, Black Wizard/Blue Wizard, Beardo, Sandwich, and Clown Bible.  He has won a Jonathan Larson Grant, an ASCAP New Horizons Award, and a NEA/TCG Grant for Theatre Designers, has been a Guest Professor in devised music theater at Princeton and Vassar Universities, and is the composer for Banana Bag & Bodice. Future projects include adaptations of Moby-Dick and Shakespeare’s Henriad, commissioned by The Public and Berkeley Repertory Theater, and a piece on Taoism at ACT.  

A.R.T.: Pippin (Associate Music Director). Broadway: The Last Ship (written by 16-time Grammy Award winner, Sting; Associate Music Director); Pippin; (Assistant Conductor/Keys): Jesus Christ Superstar; Billy Elliot; Grease; Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; Keyboards: Guys and Dolls; Mama Mia; Promises, Promises; Addams Family; Women on the Verge. Music Supervisor for Disney's High School Musical, Milan/Italy Tour.First National Tours: Disney's High School Musical, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Grease. Work with Alicia Keys, Ke$ha, Matthew Morrison. As composer: The Return of the Blue Cat (with poet F.D. Reeve). TV: The X-Factor (Australia), The Next Big Thing. Sonny is also the music director and arranger for The Doo Wop Project. BFA in Jazz Piano from CUNY City College. 

sonnypaladino.com

A.R.T.: Debut. Most recent productions: First Daughter Suite, Public Theater; Preludes (Rachmaninoff, Music Director), LCT3. As writer: music, lyrics, and book for The Wave—based on the 1967 experiment which turned an entire school into a proto-fascist movement. Original scores for Land of Broken Toys at Fringe NYC and “Israel Story” radio show. Education: Juilliard and NYU (Dean’s Award). For Mai, who makes us sing, laugh, and love more than we knew we could. ormatiasmusic.com

Duncan Stewart CSA/Benton Whitley CSA. A.R.T.: WILD, Moby-Dick,The Black Clown, Great Comet of 1812, The Tempest, Pippin. Broadway/NY: Hadestown (Artios Award), Chicago the Musical, Paradise Square, Rock of Ages, Lightning Thief,Great Comet of 1812, Elf, On the Town, Pippin, La Cage aux Folles, Radio City Christmas Spectacular. TV/Film: Netflix, 20th Century Fox, NBC, Lionsgate, Disney Channel. West End/U.K.: Hadestown, Thriller Live, Menier Chocolate Factory. Tours: Hadestown, Hairspray, Waitress, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland, Into the Woods, We Will Rock You. Regional: Berkeley Rep, Alley, Bay Street, For The Record, TUTS, Hollywood Bowl, McCarter, Signature, RCCL. Follow: @stewartwhitley and stewartwhitley.com.

A.R.T.: Debut. Broadway: Elf, Fiddler on the Roof, RENT, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. First National Tours: The Drowsy Chaperone, 9 to 5, La Cage Aux Folles. Off Broadway: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Kazino; Almost, Maine (World Premiere), Daryl Roth Theatre; Preludes (World Premiere), Lincoln Center; Summer of ’42, Variety Arts; Iphigenia in Aulis, Naked, Hurricane, The Misanthrope, Classic Stage Company; The Day Emily Married, Barefoot Boy With Shoes On, Primary Stages; What Didn’t Happen, Playwrights Horizons; The Dying Gaul, Vineyard Theatre, and many others. Regional: Six seasons at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, as well as Dallas Summer Musicals, TUTS, TOTS, Pantages Theatre, Starlight Theatre, Missouri Rep. 

A.R.T.: Debut. Most recent productions: First Daughter Suite, Public Theater; Preludes (Rachmaninoff, Music Director), LCT3. As writer: music, lyrics, and book for The Wave—based on the 1967 experiment which turned an entire school into a proto-fascist movement. Original scores for Land of Broken Toys at Fringe NYC and “Israel Story” radio show. Education: Juilliard and NYU (Dean’s Award). For Mai, who makes us sing, laugh, and love more than we knew we could. ormatiasmusic.com

A.R.T.: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. Broadway: Wicked, Book of Mormon, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Kinky Boots, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, She Loves Me, Les Misérables. National Tour: Wicked, Book of Mormon. Off-Broadway: Heathers. Regional: Elf, NERDS. Education/Training: Penn State University.

A.R.T.: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; Evita. Performances with Boston Symphony, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Boston Pops, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Ballet, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, Albany Symphony, Portland Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Hartford Symphony, New World Symphony. Education/Training: MM, New England Conservatory; BM, Boston University; Tanglewood Music Center.

A.R.T.: Crossing. Performances with Boston Pops Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, A Far Cry, Orchestra of Indian Hill, Boston Musica Viva, Unitas Ensemble, Boston Civic Orchestra. Winner of the Boston Woodwind Society Oboe Merit Award Competition 2011, Longy School of Music Concerto Competition 2011. Holds Artist Diploma and Graduate Performance Diploma from Longy School of Music, studied with Keisuke Wakao.

A.R.T.: Evita; 1776; Moby-Dick; We Live in Cairo; Jagged Little Pill; The Black Clown; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; Crossing. Founding Member, A Far Cry; Principal Viola, Boston Baroque; period viola with Handel and Haydn Society, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, The English Concert, ACRONYM Ensemble, The Thirteen, Seattle and Portland Baroque Orchestras, Teatro Nuovo, Opera Lafayette, Relic, Sarasa Ensemble. Carnegie Hall Fellow and Peabody Singapore Fellow. Tours of Europe, Asia, Kazakhstan, and the Kyrgyz Republic. Performances with Pink Martini, Jake Shimabukuro, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Kiri Te Kanawa, members of the Florestan Trio, and Æolus, Brentano, Cleveland, Emerson, Mendelssohn and St. Lawrence String Quartets. Concerts at Vienna Musikverein, Singapore Esplanade, the Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall. Awards: Grammy nominee (Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance). Director of Chamber Music Lab, Rivers School Conservatory.

A.R.T.: Debut. Taiwanese-Canadian cellist Loewi Lin grew up in Taiwan and moved to Calgary when he was seven. Loewi started playing cello at age 11 but always wanted to be a doctor; as a high-school senior, he converted to music and has been a devout follower ever since. He now lives in Boston where he helped found the conductor-less chamber orchestra A Far Cry; the group is in-residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, as well as the New England Conservatory.  Loewi is also the principal cellist of the Boston Lyric Opera. Aside from cello, he enjoys the culinary arts, billiards and finding good eats.

A.R.T.: Debut. Chu-Yun Lin has performed with Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Canton Symphony Orchestra and been awarded top prizes by the Osaka International Music Competition, Taiwan National Music Competition, and Boston National Chamber Music Competition. Lin has premiered composer Adeline Wong's ‘Five Letters,’ been a Representative of Taiwanese Students, and performed for the previous president of Singapore. Graduate Diploma from New England Conservatory of Music, Master of Music from Cleveland Institute of Music, Bachelor of Music from National University of Singapore.

A.R.T.: Moby-Dick; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. Broadway: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. Performs with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, A Far Cry, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, Decoda, Jupiter Chamber Players, New Orchestra of Washington, New Haven Symphony, New York City Ballet Orchestra. Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect Fellow ’16-’18, Yellow Barn participant ’14-’18. Education: New England Conservatory and Boston University.

A.R.T.: Jagged Little Pill, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. Broadway: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Sub). Education/Training. BA, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Jazz and Classical guitar. Freelance performer and educator on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and mandolin.

A.R.T.: The Tempest, Finding Neverland. Music Director for Mt. Auburn Cemetery's A Glimpse Beyond. Principal Percussionist for Juventas New Music Ensemble and Flamenco Boston. Resident composer for Boston Theater Company, Come On Over Ensemble Theater, Danza Organica, Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion. Dance Accompanist for Boston Ballet and Boston Conservatory. New Album Off Gridavailable on iTunes. Percussion Performance degrees from The Boston Conservatory and University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

A.R.T.: Stage Manager: We Live in Cairo; Barber Shop Chronicles; The Black Clown; HEAR WORD! Naija Woman Talk True; Burn All Night; Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education; 1984; O.P.C.; The Shape She Makes; The Donkey Show. Assistant Stage Manager: Othello; ExtraOrdinary; Jagged Little Pill; Bedlam’s Sense & Sensibility; The Night of the Iguana; Fingersmith; RoosevElvis; Kansas City Choir Boy; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; The Heart of Robin Hood; All the Way; The Glass Menagerie; The Lily’s Revenge; Once. Production Associate: Prometheus Bound; The Blue Flower; Cabaret. Education/​Training: Boston University College of Fine Arts (Summa cum laude).

A.R.T: Debut. Rachel was most recently assistant director on The Bandstand, (directed by Andy Blankenbeuhler, Papermill Playhouse; and on Preludes (directed by Rachel Chavkin), LCT3. She holds an MFA in Directing from The Actors Studio Drama School, (Pace University), and a BFA in Musical Theatre (Point Park University). She would like to thank the entire creative team, cast, and crew for this beautiful story. 

A.R.T./OBERON: Kansas City Choir Boy. Off-Broadway: The Lightning Thief, Lortel; Heisenberg, MTC; The Elder (Wax-Workshop), Public Theater; Buyer and Cellar, Barrow Street. Regional: All's Well That Ends Well (choreographer), Shakespeare on the Sound; Amélie, Berkeley Rep; Dirty/Crusty, Page 7; The Fairy Tale Lives of Russian Girls, Yale Rep. Opera: Daphnis and Chloe (choreographer), Heartbeat Opera; Falstaff, Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble. BFA, NYU Tisch.

A.R.T.: Debut. Turner Smith is a stunt performer and fight choreographer based in New York City. Stunt credits include Gotham, Boardwalk Empire, Blindspot, Marvel's Daredevil, Blacklist, and many others. Off- Broadway fight choreography credits include shows with Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, and more.  He is thrilled to be working with director Rachel Chavkin and the Great Comet team again, and to be working with A.R.T. for the first time.