Watershed

an original play by Susan Palmer

directed by Margo Whitcomb

THE GRAY SPACE

SEPT 11 - 27

Thur Sept 11@ 7:30 - Pay-What-You-Can ($5 min)

Fri and Sat @ 7:30pm

Sat @ 2:00 pm

168 N. Main Street, Room #7, Northfield, VT

$20

Family. Community. Strangers... A Vermont Flood.

noun: An event or period marking a turning point in a course of action or state of affairs.

A Vermont flood exposes the narratives we construct to feel safe in our changing world. What is our responsibility to ourselves, our families, our communities and our environment?

CAST

Aliza Azarian - Penny

Jonathan Brathwaite - Parker

Maya Kotkes-Cummings - Charlotte

Evan Reichelt - Jax

Maren Langdon Spillane - Amira

CREATIVE

Playwright - Susan Palmer

Director - Margo Whitcomb

Tech Director - Dominic Spillane

Producers - Dominic & Maren Spillane

Sound Designer - Otto Muller

BUY TICKETS

ALIZA AZARIAN (Penny)

JONATHAN BRATHWAITE (Parker) is an actor, producer, and advocate for diversity in the arts. he has performed in leading classical roles, including Hal in Henry IV, Part 1 (Utah Shakespeare Festival), Romeo in Romeo and Juliet(Aquila Theatre Company), Florizel in The Winter’s Tale and Friar Francis in Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare Theatre of NJ), Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Colonial Theatre), Malvolio in Twelfth Night (Performing Arts Theatre), and Adrian in The Tempest (Off-Broadway, Pearl Theatre Company). A graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s Acting Conservatory and the first American to study at Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Arts. As the founder of Rise Up Productions, he champions inclusive storytelling by casting of underrepresented actors to share a more authentic and diverse global human experience in theater and film.Jonathan would like to thank his family for all their love, support and encouraging him to return to his passion of acting after a long hiatus.

MAYA KOTKES-CUMMINGS (Charlotte)

EVAN REICHELT (JAX)

MAREN LANGDON SPILLANE (Amira) lived and worked as an actor in New York City for several years, where her credits include world premieres of Itamar Moses' Love/Stories (Or, But You Will Get Used to it), A.R. Gurney's Office Hours, and Nick Jones' The Wundelsteipen [The Flea Theater, NYC], The Tenant [Woodshed Theater Company, NYC], and Three Sisters [Williamstown Theatre Festival, MA]. She is now happily settled back in Vermont, where she co-runs Dirt Road Theater as well as working at Montpelier High School as their theater director. VT acting credits include Gruesome Playground Injuries, Constellations, Collected Stories, and Time Stands Still [Greenroom Productions], Much Ado About Nothing and The Cherry Orchard [Middlebury Acting Company], Twelfth Night [Unadilla Theater] and Customer Service, The Ties That Bind, and Cry it Out [Dirt Road Theater].

SUSAN PALMER (Playwright) is an actor, director, playwright and theatre teacher living in Burlington, Vermont. She holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from Middlesex University in London UK. She has worked locally with Vermont Stage Company, Vermont Shakespeare Festival, Middlebury Acting Company and Lost Nation Theatre. She took a leap into playwriting during Covid and slowly unfurled a new love. She is excited to join forces with this incredible creative team at Dirt Road Theatre and share this story with you all. Many thanks to all who read the epic number of drafts, shared insight and offered their experiences. It takes a village. You are a part of it by coming to watch! So, thank you for valuing this art form! Our stories will save us!

MARGO WHITCOMB (Director) is a director, actor and educator who has worked coast to coast. Local Directing: A Doll's House Part 2 (Vermont Stage Company), Mary Stuart (Vermont Shakespeare Salon), The Niceties, Hundred Days (MACo), original musical Mad as the Wind and the Sea (Gospel Hollow),Of the Better Kind (Theatre Kavanagh), Love Alone and The Kid Thing (VT Pride Festival), A Fleeting Animal-opera from David Budbill’s award winning “Judevine” (State tour), Durang Bang, Bad Dates, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lost Nation Theatre), Picasso at The Lapin Agile, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee ,Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cabaret (NVU), Tartuffe (St Mikes), Imogen says Nothing (UVM), Eurydice (Bake off: VSC). East of Berlin ( BTC Circle Outstanding production award), Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes (Bridge St. Theatre), 2016 Alliance/Kendeda winner Start Down, How To Pray, Bekah Brunstetter’s You May Go Now, Neena Beeber’s The Dew Point, Sister Week and Road to Mecca (CSC-NJ), Hecuba (Williamstown/ACT) with Olympia Dukakis and Viola Davis, Another Side of the Island, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Alpine Theatre Project, Long Wharf Theater). Formerly, ACT Associate Artistic Director San Francisco- notable collaborations: Elizabeth Banks, Anika Noni Rose, Colman Domingo, David Straitharn, Bebe Neuwirth. Other: multiple award winner Glace Bay Miner’s Museum (Phoenix theater,SF), Getting Out (Il Teatro Theater, SF), Hamlet (adapted) and Cloud Nine (UCR), Time Lost (L.A. Playhouse), Top Girls (Warehouse Rep), Women of the Bear (Stage 3), Freudian Slip (New City Theatre), Danger! Woman on Board (SF Fringe). Founding Artistic Director Half Moon Theatre, Poughkeepsie NY, Teaching:CCV,NVU, UVM, Marymount Manhattan College, CUNY, ACT, SF College of Art and Design, Vassar, UC Riverside and Santa Barbara, University of Washington and City University of NY. Proudly, is the first teacher in Vermont to teach Acing in the prison system as part of CCV’s degree program. Next up: the US Premiere of Red Like Fruit (Bridge Street Theater) and A Room in the Castle at MACo in Middlebury VT.

DOMINIC SPILLANE (Tech Director, Producer) is an actor, director, producer, and co-founder of Dirt Road Theater with Maren Langdon Spillane. Past directing credits include the original plays Bea Arthur and Knights of the Round Table by Joe Tracz [Ars Nova, NYC], Joan’s Boutique by Charlotte Miller [The Spectrum, NYC], Talk To Moi Amer-i-ca by Stacy Davidowitz [#serials at The Flea, NYC], The New Trevor and Bachelorette (one-act) by Leslye Headland [Working Stage, LA]. Dominic is the co-founder of the hit late night show #serials at The Flea, co-writer and producer of Dirt Road Theater’s family podcast, Fairies and Dragons, Ponies and Knights, and founder of the performing arts website TheaterEngine. Dominic has a passion for original stories and original theater.

OTTO MULLER (Sound Designer, Composer) is an award winning composer and sound artist. His work has been performed throughout North America and Europe by ensembles including the Slee Sinfonietta, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the Formosa Quartet, and the Third Coast Percussion Quartet. An avid collaborator, Otto has scored work for Theatre Témoin in London, choreographers Hanna Satterlee and Maura Gahan in Vermont, and plays piano for Vermont Vaudeville. With media artist Sean Clute, Otto also co-founded the Rural Noise Ensemble, which employs noise aesthetics to critically examine rural geography. Since 2008, Otto has taught at Goddard College, where he co-founded a BFA program in Socially Engaged Art. ottomuller.net