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, Fat Pig, Golda's Balcony and SMUT. 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.

MARTIN MCDONAGH (Playwright) ) was born on March 26, 1970 in London. He spent his summers in Ireland, dividing his time between County Sligo (where his mother was from) and Connemara County Galway (his father's birthplace). It took five years to get The Lieutenent of Inishmore staged because all the major theatres in London passed on it. Artistic Director Trevor Nunn refused to produce it at the National, on the grounds that it might disrupt the Northern Ireland peace process. When it was finally produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, it went on to win the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy (2003). It opened in New York at the Atlantic Theatre off-Broadway, winning an Obie for Best Play (2006). It transferred to the Lyceum on Broadway where it was nominated for a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for Best Play. At the age of 27, he became the first playwright since Shakespeare to have four plays running simultaneously in London's West End. His dramatic corpus to date include: The Galway Trilogy, The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and Tony Best Play nominee), A Skull in the Connemara, The Lonesome West (Tony Best Play nominee) and The Aran Islands.

LYLE BASKIN (Set Design) moved 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 and Fat Pig. 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.

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 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. Most recently, Matt has been music and sound designer at GableStage for every production for the last 2 years. He received a Carbonell Award for Best Sound Designer for last season's The Pillowman at Gablestage. Matt would like to thank Mom, Pop, Hal, Adam, Dina, Zach, Rob, Dan, Joe, and the countless other talented people who he has come to rely on for their abundant talent and inspiration.

CLAIRE SAVITT (Props) has been at GableStage for the last four 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, Misery, Brooklyn Boy, Address Unknown, Golda's Balcony and Smut. 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 Smut (World Premiere), Golda's Balcony, 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.

WALDO WARSHAW (effects) is president of Show Effection Inc. Based in New York, he has been designing special effects for theatre and film since 1986. His many credits on and off Broadway include The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, Evil Dead, the musical, An American Pilot, The Magician, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Lonesome West, Treasure Island. His understanding of special effects geared for both theatre or film have greatly influenced his un-orthodox approach. Currently, Mr. Warshaw holds a patent pending on an alternative to the bloody bullet hit. "The Det-Less Bloodhit System MKII" will soon be available for theatrical and film productions. Mr. Warshaw also holds a position as Gun-Fight Choreographer and Special Effects Consultant.

PAUL HOMZA (Fight Director) is thrilled to be making his Gablestage debut in this incredible production. He was last seen on stage at Avi Hoffman's New Vista Theatre Company's The Rise of David Levinsky playing multiple roles, and at the HWD playhouse in The Apple Tree. An avid fan of performing stage fights, pratfalls, and violence in general, Homza is delighted to be choreographing and directing the stage combat in this very special piece. His fight choreography was last seen in SMUT and Levinsky. A proud member of the Society of American Fight Directors, he has also instructed basic stage combat to grade school and high school kids in Florida and Washington. He wishes to thank the wonderful cast and crew, and Joe for takin' a shot on a hyperactive Irish lad.