Who's Who . . . Backstage

JOSEPH ADLER (Director/Producing Artistic Director) is in his eighth season as Producing Artistic Director. Adler previously directed at many South Florida Theatres--including Coconut Grove Playhouse, New Theatre, Area Stage, Hollywood Boulevard Theatre, Players Theatre, Ruth Foreman Theatre, Florida Shakespeare Theatre, City Theatre, Hollywood Playhouse and Shores Performing Arts. Active in South Florida's film and theatre community for many years, he has directed hundreds of television commercials and industrial films--winning many awards, including the Clio. Other directorial credits include several independent feature films, a video version of the Broadway hit comedy Doubles and a cable TV series. He has received eighteen nominations (eleven at GableStage) and six times won the Carbonell Award for Best Director: The Shadow Box (Coconut Grove Playhouse); The Killing of Sister George (Players Theatre); A Lesson Before Dying, James Joyce's The Dead, Edward Albee's The Goat and Frozen (GableStage). This year GableStage received 23 Carbonell Nominations-and won six of the most important awards, including Best Play, Best Actor and Best Actress--all for Frozen. He also received a Remy Award from the Theatre League of South Florida and was awarded the prestigious George Abbott Award for "significant contributions to the artistic life and cultural development of greater Miami, Fort Lauderdale and the Palm Beaches." This year, he was the recipient of The Heart of the Arts Award presented by the New World School of the Arts. Adler studied drama at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and graduated from the Film Department at NYU.

LYNN NOTTAGE (Playwright), A Stone's Throw/The Antigone Project (The Women's Project). The Obie award-winning Fabulation or, the Re-Education of Undine (Playwrights Horizons, Tricycle Theatre in London), Intimate Apparel (Roundabout Theatre Company, South Coast Rep and Center Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Guthrie, among others).

Awards for Intimate Apparel include: The 2004 NY Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle Best Play and John Gassner, American Theatre Critics/Steinberg 2004, 2004 Francesca Primus and two AUDELCO's.

Most recently, she is the recipient of the PEN/Laura Pels Award and a 2005 Guggenheim fellowship. An anthology of her plays is available through TCG. She is a resident member of New Dramatists.

LYLE BASKIN (Set Design) after moving to the North Carolina mountains three years ago, continues to work as a Scenic Designer in South Florida. Lyle's previous designs with Director Joseph Adler include The Killing of Sister George (Players Theatre), Cantorial (Hollywood Playhouse), Shadow Box (Carbonell winner at Coconut Grove Playhouse), and at GableStage, Skylight, Full Gallop (Carbonell nomination), Closer, Killer Joe (Carbonell nomination), Citizen Tom Paine, Of Mice and Men, Psychopathia Sexualis, Boy Gets Girl, A Lesson Before Dying (Carbonell nomination) Misery (Carbonell nomination) and Brooklyn Boy. Lyle's 30-year career also includes set designs for Coconut Grove Playhouse, Actors' Playhouse (Evita, 2001 Carbonell nomination), Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre, Area Stage, New Theatre, Acme Theatre, Hollywood Playhouse and Players State Theatre. He has also designed for Ring Theatre (UM), Miami-Dade Community College, Bloomsburg Theatre in Pennsylvania, Corning Summer Theatre and Ft. Lauderdale Presbyterian Church. In NC, he is currently Scenic Designer for the Blowing Rock Stage Company.

JOHN D. HALL (Lighting) is currently Resident Lighting Designer at Miami City Ballet. John is very happy to be returning to Gablestage after having designed the lighting for last season's Misery and Bug. Recent projects include Hand of God at Palm Beach Dramaworks and Blithe Spirit at the Caldwell Theatre. He is a 1988 graduate of North Carolina State University, and a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. John and wife Shannon have two sons, John and William.

MATT COREY (Sound/Music) earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degree in Bassoon Performance at the University of Miami and currently plays in the pit orchestra for the Florida Grand Opera. By day, Matt is the Digital Production Manager at Insight for the Blind Studios in Fort Lauderdale, an organization that produces 100 "Talking Book" titles each year for the blind and physically handicapped. Most recently, Matt's music and sound design was heard in Brooklyn Boy and Address Unknown here at GableStage. Matt would like to thank Mom, Pop, Hal, Kelly, Dina, Zach, Rob, Mike, Joe, and the countless other talented people who he has come to rely on for their abundant talent and inspiration.

ERIN AMICO (Costumes) is thrilled to be returning to work as a costume designer at Gablestage. Her previous work in the region and here at GableStage includes Address Unknown, Brooklyn Boy and Misery; Jacques Brel, Seascape, Berlin to Broadway and Championship Season at Palm Beach Dramaworks; Cradle of Man, Beguiled Again, Puttin' on the Ritz, and Cabaret Verboten at Florida Stage. She also designed the premier production of Sophie Tucker, Last of the Red Hot Mamas at the Kravis Center. She is especially grateful to her talented team of costume technicians, M. Margaret Stearns and Salvatore Amico, for their work on this show. Erin is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 and is currently living in Deerfield Beach raising her two children Dante 7 and Bridget 5 with her husband Michael.

MICHAEL JOHN CARROLL (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be continuing his third season with GableStage after recently completing successful runs of Address Unknown, Brooklyn Boy, Misery, A Bad Friend, The Syringa Tree, The Retreat From Moscow, Bug, Frozen, Trumbo, QED and 'Master Harold'...and the boys. Michael graduated from Barry University in 2001, and though he received his BFA in Acting, he also stage managed their productions of Little Shop of Horrors and Hello Dolly. He subsequently contributed to a dozen productions at Actors' Playhouse and the Coconut Grove Playhouse, and then went from backstage to the booth again as Stage Manager for the Hollywood Playhouse and the Broward Stage Door Theatre. Michael also stage managed the Miami premiere of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Level Nightclub on Miami Beach. He is a proud member of Actors Equity Association and the Theatre League of South Florida. Michael's short list of inspirations include Jeff Buckley, Michel Gondry, and Mom.

CLAIRE SAVITT (Props) has been at GableStage for the last three seasons. She delights especially in finding the items that "play hard to get". Claire has worked on a number of plays, including A Lesson Before Dying, James Joyce's The Dead, Dirty Blonde, The Shape of Things, Nixon's Nixon, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Goat, What the Butler Saw, Ten Unknowns, 'Master Harold'...and the boys, QED, Frozen, Bug, Retreat from Moscow, A Bad Friend, MiseryBrooklyn Boy and Address Unknown. A former folk art gallery owner, Claire resides in Coconut Grove with her husband.