Who's Who . . . Backstage

JOSEPH ADLER (Director/Producing Artistic Director) is beginning his ninth season as Artistic Director of GableStage. He previously directed on many local stages, including Coconut Grove Playhouse, New Theatre, Area Stage, Hollywood Boulevard Theatre, Players Theatre, Ruth Foreman Theatre, Florida Shakespeare Theatre, City Theatre (Summer Shorts), Hollywood Playhouse and Shores Performing Arts. At GableStage, Adler has directed Skylight, Of Mice and Men, Full Gallop, Psychopathia Sexualis, Closer, Killer Joe, This Is Our Youth, Arms and The Man, Side Man, Popcorn, Tape, The Real Thing, Adam Baum and the Jew Movie, Citizen Tom Paine, The Blue Room, Mindgame, Boy Gets Girl, James Joyce's The Dead, Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby, A Lesson Before Dying, Nixon's Nixon, Chinese Coffee, The Guys, The Shape of Things, Dirty Blonde, Tabletop, The Diary of Anne Frank, Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune, The Goat, What The Butler Saw, Ten Unknowns, 'Master Harold'...and the boys, QED, Trumbo (in which he also performed), Frozen, Bug, Retreat From Moscow, The Syringa Tree, A Bad Friend, Misery, Brooklyn Boy, Address Unknown, Intimate Apparel, Miss Margarida's Way, This Is How It Goes, The Pillowman, Fahrenheit 451 and Romance. Active in South Florida's film and theatre community for many years, Adler 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). He 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". Recently he was honored with the Heart of the Arts Award from New World School of the Arts. Adler studied drama at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and graduated from the Film Department at NYU.

NEIL LaBUTE (Playwright) is also a critically acclaimed filmmaker and fiction writer. His controversial works include the plays bash: latterday plays, The Distance from Here, The Mercy Seat and two plays that have been produced at GableStage -- This Is How It Goes and The Shape of Things. His films include: In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty and The Shape of Things. His newest play, Wrecks, starring Ed Harris, opened to excellent reviews and an extended sold-out run at The Public Theatre in New York in October 2006.

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), Brooklyn Boy, Intimate Apparel, This Is How It Goes, The Pillowman and Romance. Lyle's 30-year career also includes set designs for Coconut Grove Playhouse, Theatre, Area New Stage, 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.

JEFF QUINN (Lighting Design) is in his ninth season with GableStage. His lighting designs here have included The Diary of Anne Frank and Boy Gets Girl (both Curtain Up Awards), Address Unknown, This Is How It Goes, Closer, Killer Joe, and The Goat (Carbonell Award). He designed scenery and lighting for our productions of Frozen (Curtain Up & Carbonell Awards), The Blue Room, The Real Thing, The Play About the Baby, The Shape of Things and Romance. Jeff has also designed for the Fulton Opera House, Pennsylvania Festival Theatre, Walt Disney Enterprises, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines, Hilton Head Playhouse and the Kayagum Theatre in Seoul, Korea. His South Florida work includes White Christmas at Actors Playhouse, Moon for the Misbegotten at Florida Repertory Theatre, Anything Goes at the Hirshfeld, Faith Healer for New World Repertory Company, HMS Pinafore for Florida Shakespeare Theatre, Angels in America at New Theatre, A Christmas Carol at B.R.I.T.T., Brooklyn Bridge for Playground Theatre, 2.5 Minute Ride at Mosaic Theatre, and Nefertitti, The Musical at Parker Playhouse. He designed scenery and lighting for Fidelio and The Inner Ear for the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, and has also designed for the FIU Music Festival, New World Symphony, Freddick Bratcher and Company, Maximum Dance, Ballet Theatre of Miami, Momentum Dance Company, Ballet Espanol Rosita Segovia, Ballet Etudes, Ballet Blue Ridge, Duende Ballet Espanol, AFL Dance Theatre, the Gold-Diggers and the Miami Christmas Pageant. Mr. Quinn is a member of United Scenic Artists (Local 829, I.A.T.S.E.) and the US Institute for Theatre Technology. His work will be included in the USA exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial 2007 World Stage Design Exhibition. Jeff is a member of the faculty at New World School of the Arts. He is married to director Deborah Mello.

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. Matt's most recent sound design/music credits are Brooklyn Boy, Address Unknown, Intimate Apparel Miss Margarida's Way, This Is How It Goes, The Pillowman, Fahrenheit 451 and Romance here at GableStage. Thanks and love to Mom, Pop, Dina, and Caroline.

ELLIS TILLMAN (Costume Designer) most recently was the resident Costume Designer at the Coconut Grove Playhouse for the past twenty-five years. Of his one hundred designs, he marks the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia productions of The Constant Wife and Lost in Yonkers as two of his most fulfilling projects. He won L.A.'s Drama-Logue for Bermuda Avenue Triangle with Bea Arthur and has three times won the Carbonell Award. Mr. Tillman made his Broadway debut as costume designer for Urban Cowboy The Musical. Most recently, he designed the costumes for the Off-Broadway production of Confessions of a Mormon Boy and the national tour of Tuesdays with Morrie starring Harold Gould and Romance here at GableStage.

CLAIRE SAVITT (Props) is in her fifth season at GableStage. 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, Misery, Brooklyn Boy, Address Unknown Intimate Apparel, Miss Margarida's Way, This Is How It Goes, The Pillowman and Romance. A former folk art gallery owner, Claire resides in Coconut Grove with her husband.

MICHAEL JOHN CARROLL (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be beginning his fourth season with GableStage after recently completing the successful runs of Romance, Fahrenheit 451, The Pillowman, This Is How It Goes, Miss Margarida's Way, Intimate Apparel, Address Unknown, Brooklyn Boy, Misery, A Bad Friend, The Syringa Tree, The Retreat From Moscow (Carbonell Best Play Nominee), Bug, Frozen (Carbonell Best Play), Trumbo, QED and 'Master Harold' ...and the boys. Michael graduated from Barry University in 2001 with a BFA in Acting, but found the chance to stage manage shows such as Little Shop of Horrors and Hello Dolly before graduating. After contributing to a dozen productions at Actors' Playhouse and the Coconut Grove Playhouse, Michael went from backstage to the booth again as the stage manager for plays at the Hollywood Playhouse, Broward Stage Door Theatre, and the Miami premiere of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Level Nightclub on Miami Beach. 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.