Black Box Theatre presents

Production Details | Artist Bios | Community Partners
The Cast (click on image for a high-res image)
(From left to right: James Carpenter, Mark Anderson Phillips, Andrew Hurteau)
Artist Bios (click on headshot for a high-res image)
Kent Nicholson (Director) previously collaborated with Trevor Allen on Tenders in the Fog at San Jose Stage Company. He most recently directed A Small Tragedy at the Aurora Theatre Company and The Good German for Marin Theater Company. Off-Broadway directing credits include Wet by Liz Duffy Adams for The Summer Play Festival and Five Flights by Adam Bock for Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre. His San Francisco production of Five Flights for Encore Theatre was named one of the top ten cultural events of 2002 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Other credits include the World Premiere of Dog Act, also by Liz Duffy Adams; the long running Sacrament! which he co-adapted with novelist Dave Eggers from Eggers’ book; and All My Sons by Arthur Miller, Vincent in Brixton by Nicholas Wright and Ambition Facing West by Anthony Clarvoe for TheatreWorks, where he serves as New Works Director. Previously, Kent served as Associate Artistic Director of the Magic Theatre where he directed the World Premiere of Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue and the American Premiere of Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones. He is the Editor of the anthology Breaking Ground: Adventurous Plays from Adventurous Theaters. He serves on the board of directors of The National Alliance for Musical Theater.
Trevor Allen (Playwright) is a recipient of a 2006 San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist commission for a new play entitled Zoo Logic, which will have a staged reading at The Magic Theatre in Feb. 2008. Recent productions include: Tenders in the Fog at San Jose Stage Company (recipient of the 2005 Dean Goodman Choice Award for Original Script), Working for the Mouse! with Impact, The EXIT and Bus Barn Stage Company, 49 Miles co-produced with Crowded Fire, Chain Reactions with The Cutting Ball and Combined Art Form Entertainment. He received PlayGround's Emerging Playwright Award in both '98 & '99 and the 2003 PlayGround Playwriting Fellowship full-length play commission. His plays have received San Francisco Fringe Festival’s “Best Of” award in ’96 and 2000. In 2002, Chain Reactions was presented at the “Edward Albee”, Last Frontier Play Festival in Alaska. His work has also received staged readings, workshops or productions from: Abydos, A.C.T., Bay Area Playwrights Festival, City Lights, Eastenders, FoolsFury, The Magic Theatre, The Marsh, One Act Wonders, Parched Camel, Theatre Rhinoceros, Three Wise Monkeys, Unconditional and Unidentified theatre companies. Other collaborations have included: working with award-winning choreographer Rebecca Salzer on a dance piece about the Nagasaki bombing, consulting with Liebe Wetzel, Artistic Director of Lunatique Fantastique on a non-verbal puppet theatre piece about Einstein entitled E=? and writing Digging Hamlet for the S.F. Shakespeare Festival school touring program. He studied acting with Robert Reed, solo performing with David Ford and Charlie Varon and playwriting with Roy Conboy, Brighde Mullins, Carl Mueller, Mac Wellman and John O'Keefe. He holds a BA in Theatre from UCLA and an MFA in Creative Writing from SFSU. He is proud to be an active member of the Dramatists Guild of America. Special thanks to Karen McKevitt for all of her continued support.
James Carpenter (The Creature) is a longtime Bay Area resident whose credits include many leading roles at theatres here including Gus Belmont, the mad Venture Capitalist in Cntrl,Alt,Delete, Frank in Wintertime, Lyman Fellers the lost veteran in Redwood Curtain costarring Lucy Liu, and By The Bog of the Cats, starring Holly Hunter at San Jose Repertory Company. He recently appeared in the title role of The Master Builder in the Aurora Theatre Company’s record-breaking production and been seen in their production of The Homecoming as well. He appeared in The Heidi Chronicles and as the Reverend Shannon in Night of the Iguana at Theatreworks and performed at Marin Theatre Company in Lips Together Teeth Apart, All in the Timing, and Two for the Seesaw. James was one of the original members of Campo Santo appearing in their first venture, Santos y Santos, a co-production with Thick Description. He has been an Associate Artist with Berkeley Repertory Theatre first starting in 1984 and been seen in (to name a few) Mad Forest, The Normal Heart, The Sea, Man and Superman, The Importance of Being Earnest, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Rivals, Our Country’s Good, Major Barbara, Blue Window, Reckless, The Revenger, A View from the Bridge, Serious Money, Galileo, Private Lives, Ghosts, and most recently, The People’s Temple. Out of town credits include As You Like It, Othello, Henry IV, Elektra, and Catsplay starring Sada Thompson at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego; and at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has appeared in Romeo and Juliet, The Birthday Party, Lone Star, Tis Pity She’s a Whore, and Comedy of Errors. He’s appeared in Love!Valour!Compassion with The Intiman Theatre, and starred as Uncle Peck in the Arizona Theatre Company’s production of How I Learned to Drive and in Moon for the Misbegotten as James Tyrone. James performed the role of Macbeth in the 1992 production at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and is currently an Associate Artist with the California Shakespeare Theater having starred as Prince Hal in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, Henry V in their 1988 season, and Timon of Athens, and Anthony in Julius Caesar in 1989. More recently he’s been seen at CST as Claudius in Hamlet, Cassius in Julius Caesar, King Henry IV in the 2004 adaptation of Henry 4, and Trigorin in The Seagull; his two productions with director Penny Metropoulos playing Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, and Richard II in Richard II received much acclaim as did his Ralph Nickleby in last year's triumphant production of Nicholas Nickleby. He is the recipient of numerous Drama-Logue and Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle awards and was given in 2004 an Outstanding Achievement Award. Mr. Carpenter has many credits at American Conservatory Theater as well, among them the title role in The Guardsman, Dr. Rank in their new translation of A Doll’s House and has appeared in The Tempest, Mary Stuart, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Royal Family, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Hecuba and will be performing the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in their upcoming production of A Christmas Carol. He sends his deepest love to his wife Cassandra, artist and partner of 33 years. Television: Nash Bridges; Film: The Rainmaker, Metro Independents: Singing, The Sunflower Boy, Presque Isle. This is the longest bio Mr. Carpenter has ever written [at the request of the producers-BB] and he hopes to never again.
Mark Anderson Phillips (Captain Walton) is currently appearing in Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap at Center Repertory Company. Recent Bay Area credits include the title role in Theophilus North at TheatreWorks, Jamie Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey into Night at San Jose Rep, and Iokanaan in Salome at the Aurora.
Andrew Hurteau (Victor Frankenstein) appeared most recently as the Duke of Albany in Lisa Peterson’s production of King Lear at California Shakespeare Theater and as Lord Stanley in Mark Rucker’s Richard III, also at Cal Shakes. Last year he was seen as Count Almaviva in Michael Butler’s production of The Marriage of Figaro at Center Repertory Theatre and as Max Prince in Barbara Damashek’s production of Laughter on the 23rd Floor, also at Center Rep. Earlier this spring he appeared as Boccaccio in the Magic Theatre’s production of Nero. Also at the Magic, he played LH in Chris Smith’s production of The Rules of Charity, Branwell Bronte in John O’Keefe’s Bronte, Francois in Charles L. Mee’s Summertime, and various demented physicists in Shroedinger’s Girlfriend. Elsewhere, he was seen in California Shakespeare Theater’s Nicholas Nickleby, Parts I and II, playing ten characters. He’s appeared at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Aurora Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, and Word for Word, among others.
Cliff Caruthers (Sound and Music) has created soundscapes and music for over 100 Bay Area productions, including Tenders in the Fog for San Jose Stage Company, Anna Bella Eema and Porcelain for Crowded Fire (company member); Macbeth, Woyzeck, and Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World for Cutting Ball Theater (artistic associate); and The Elephant Man, The Clean House, Into the Woods, and Arcadia for TheatreWorks (resident sound designer). Mr Caruthers is co-curator and technical director of the San Francisco Tape Music Center, and his electronic music has been performed by the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States, E.A.R. New Music Dublin, Deep Wireless, The San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, and the Prague Quadrennial 2007. Upcoming projects include Brainpeople for American Conservatory Theater, TRAGEDY: a tragedy for Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Bone to Pick for Cutting Ball Theater, Faust: Part 1 for The SF Playhouse, and The Listener for Crowded Fire.
Paul Lancour (Audio Production and Podcast Announcer) is a company member with Crowded Fire and has appeared in that company's productions of We Are Not These Hands, Juan Gelion Dances for the Sun, One Big Lie, Slaughter City, Trojan Women: A Love Story, and One Flea Spare. He's also a sound designer, having worked in that capacity on the company's No Good Deeds, 69 Stories, A-A-America!, and The Train Play. Paul has also worked in the Bay Area with Unconditional Theatre, Shotgun Players, Campo Santo, and the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, among others.