Who's Who . . . Backstage

JOSEPH ADLER (Director/Producing Artistic Director) is in 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, Romance and Fat Pig. 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 nineteen nominations (twelve at GableStage) and seven 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, Frozen and The Pillowman (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". 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.

WILLIAM GIBSON (Playwright) was born in 1914 in New York City. He has written poetry, fiction and scripts for stage, television and films. His plays include The Miracle Worker (which was originally produced for TV's Playhouse 90, and which went on to win the Tony Award for Best Play on Broadway in 1960), Two for the Seesaw, A Cry of Players, Golda, The Butterfingers Angel, Monday After the Miracle, Goodly Creatures and Handy Dandy. He is the author of a novel, The Cobweb, as well as the musical version of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy. His several books include The Seesaw Log, A Mass for the Dead (a study of his family), and a volume of poetry entitled Winter Crook. Mr. Gibson's book, A Season in Heaven, takes a look at metaphysics and the creative process. His latest book is Shakespeare's Game, a critical study. He is married to the psychoanalyst Margaret Brenman-Gibson, whose biography, Clifford Odets, American Playwright, appeared in 1982.

TIM CONNELLY (Set Design) returns to GableStage where he designed the sets for Chinese Coffee, Tabletop, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Ten Unknowns, 'Master Harold'... and the Boys, QED, Trumbo, The Syringa Tree, Address Unknown, Miss Margarida's Way and Fahrenheit 451. Tim hails from Kentucky, and has lived and worked in South Florida for 20 years. He owns and operates the Charles T. Studio, designing and building sets for the film and commercial industry.

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, Romance and Fat Pig. 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 sound design/music credits at GableStage include Brooklyn Boy, Address Unknown, Intimate Apparel Miss Margarida's Way, This Is How It Goes, Fahrenheit 451, Romance, Fat Pig and The Pillowman, for which he was awarded the Carbonell Award for Best Sound. 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 and Fat Pig 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, Romance and Fat Pig. A former folk art gallery owner, Claire resides in Coconut Grove with her husband.

MICHAEL JOHN CARROLL (Stage Manager) is charmed to be at Gablestage for his fourth season, serving as Production Stage Manager for its productions of Fat Pig, 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. Former stomping grounds include Actors' Playhouse, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Hollywood Playhouse, and the Miami premiere of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Level Nightclub on Miami Beach. Michael has a BFA in Theatre from Barry University and is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association and the Theatre League of South Florida. He would like to thank the audience for doing their part to support South Florida theatre, and "I love you, Mom. Thanks."