Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

3/20/13 - 5/19/13

MUSIC AND LYRICS BY MICHAEL FRIEDMAN
BOOK BY ALEX TIMBERS
DIRECTED BY KEITH ALAN BAKER
CO-DIRECTED BY JENNIFER HARRIS, CHRISTOPHER GALLU

This rowdy and irreverent musical imagines President Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson as a rock star, following young Jackson from his boyhood home to the spotlight of the White House and beyond. Whether fighting “injuns” or seducing the ladies, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson showcases one of the nation’s most notorious presidents in all his ass-kicking glory.

This political, satirical spectacle questions how important it is to be a great leader when you’re already hot and popular. American history has never been this sexy.

2ndStage is Studio’s playground for emerging artists, offering innovative and thrillingly eclectic programming with shorter rehearsal periods and smaller budgets than our other productions, with a spirit of exuberance and experiment.

Play Name

The 2011-2012 season of Studio 2ndStage is generously underwritten by Don and Nancy Bliss and A. Fenner Milton.

Multimedia

The Artists

BOOK

Alex Timbers

Artistic Director of Les Freres Corbusier. Writer and Director of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson on Broadway (Drama Desk, Lortel, OCC Award, and Tony nomination),  Off Broadway at The Public Theater, and at Center Theatre Group. BROADWAY: The Pee-wee Herman Show (director); Peter and the Starcatcher (co-director). OFF BROADWAY: Peter and the Starcatcher (co-director; OBIE award), New York Theatre Workshop;; The Language of Trees (director), Roundabout Theatre Company; A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant (writer/director, OBIE and Garland Awards), Boozy (writer/director), Gutenberg! The Musical! (writer/director; Drama Desk nomination), Hell House (writer/director, Drama Desk nomination), HeddaTRON, Les Freres Corbusier; underground (co-director), Brooklyn Academy of Music. REGIONAL: Beyond Therapy, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Bay Street Theater. EDUCATION: Yale College.

(As of June 2012)

MUSIC/LYRICS

Michael Friedman

Associate Artist with The Civilians and Artistic Associate at New York Theatre Workshop. BROADWAY: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Drama Desk, Lortel, OCC Award, and Tony nomination). OFF BROADWAY: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (writer/director), The Public Theater; Canard Canard Goose, Gone Missing, Nobody's Lunch, This Beautiful City, In the Footprint, The Great Immensity, Paris Commune (co-author), The Civilians; Saved, Playwrights Horizons. REGIONAL: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Center Theatre Group; The Brand New Kid, South Coast Repertory Theatre, City Theatre, and Orlando Repertory Theatre;  In the Bubble, American Music Theatre Project. AWARDS: OBIE Award for sustained achievement. HONORS: MacDowell Fellowshop, Princeton Hodder Fellowship. TEACHING: Visiting Professor at the Princeton Environmental Institute. EDUCATION: Harvard University.

(As of June 2012)

DIRECTOR

Keith Alan Baker

STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, POP!, Passing Strange, Fucking A, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Reefer Madness: The Musical! (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Musical), Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, Terrorism, The Who’s Tommy, Polaroid Stories, Nocturne, Wonderland Alice, The Wild Party, Kerouac, HAIR (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Musical), Goblin Market, 2-2 Tango, Alfred and Victoria: A Life, Road. AWARDS: 2008 Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Director (Reefer Madness: The Musical!); 1998 Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Director (HAIR); 1999 Mayor’s Arts Award.

(As of July 2014)

CO-DIRECTOR

Christopher Gallu

THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Mojo, tempOdyssey, Seconds of Pleasure, Finding the Sun, The Galileo Project, Deadbeat, Forever and Ever, The Love of Karlovna, Oxygen; Polaroid Stories (Co-Director), autobahn (Assistant Director). LOCAL: Roundheads and Peakheads, The Trial (Director/Adaptor), The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui (Helen Hayes Award nomination), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, 1984 (Director/Adapter), Catalyst Theater; Run Through an Unquiet Mind (Co-Director/Co-Writer), Rootstock Collective; Twelve Angry Men, Keegan Theatre; Spinoza's Solitude, Theater J.

(As of June 2012)

CO-DIRECTOR

Jennifer Harris

THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: POP! REGIONAL: A Man With a Flower In His Mouth (director), New York University; Penelope (producer), New York University and Princeton University. LOCAL: National Smoke Signal Day, Source Theatre Festival; Northern Indiana Wildlife Preserve, Source Theatre Festival; Three Hotels, Theater of the First Amendment; The Woman In Black, George Mason University. EDUCATION: BA, George Mason University; MA, New York University.

(As of June 2012)

Cast

ANDREW JACKSON

Heath Calvert

BROADWAY:  Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Hair, and Good Vibrations.  OFF BROADWAY/REGIONAL: Nobody Loves You, The Old Globe; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Public Theater; Pretty Filthy, The Civilians and Center Theater Group;  Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion and Suprema,  Eugene O’Neill Theater Center; Next Thing You Know, CAP 21; My Scary Girl, Barrington Stage Company.  CONCERTS:  Naples Philharmonic Orchestra, National Arts Centre and Edmonton, Baltimore, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Nashville, and Phoenix Symphonies.  TELEVISION: Guiding Light, The Early Show, The View. OTHER: Calvert is a blogger for The Huffington Post.

(As of June 2012)

THE STORYTELLER

Felicia Curry

Felicia Curry is an actor, singer, and performer in the DC area. She has been seen at Studio in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Laugh. In New York, her credits include We Three Lizas at Joe’s Pub, as well as Dizzy Miss Lizzy Roadside Revue's The Brontës and Petite Rouge at the New York Musical Festival. Regionally, Felicia has performed in The Mountaintop and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Gulfshore Playhouse, and numerous productions at Virginia Repertory Theatre. In the DC area, select credits include Queens Girl: Black in the Green Mountains at Everyman Theatre, Fabulation… at Mosaic Theater Company, Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity at Signature Theatre, Nina Simone: Four Women at Arena Stage, and Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. She has been nominated for nine Helen Hayes Awards, and won for Lela & Co at Factory 449. She is a Factory 449 Company Member, a Resident Company Member at Everyman Theatre, and an Artistic Associate at Ford’s Theatre.  

(As of February 2021)

RACHEL JACKSON

Rachel Zampelli Jackson

THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE:  POP!, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Reefer Madness.  LOCAL: The Comedy of Errors, Orestes:  A Tragic Romp, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Folger Shakespeare Theatre; Brother Russia, Chess, See What I Wanna SeeThe Happy Time, Dying City (upcoming), Signature Theatre; Shenandoah, Ford’s Theatre.  AWARD: Helen Hayes Nomination.

(As of June 2012)

MARTIN VAN BUREN

Davis Hasty

STUDIO THEATRE: Rock’n’Roll. LOCAL: Arena Stage, Round House Theatre, Adventure Theatre, Bay Theatre, and Forum Theatre. Upcoming at Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, and Theater J. TRAINING: The National Theatre Institute at the O’Neill Center; Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory. EDUCATION: Duke University.

(As of June 2012)

HENRY CLAY

Matt Dewberry

THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Mojo.  THE STUDIO THEATRE: The Habit of Art. REGIONAL: You for Me for You (upcoming) Ma-Yi Theatre/Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.  LOCAL: Birds of a Feather, Hub Theatre; Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Keegan Theatre; Mulan, Peter and Wendy (upcoming), Imagination Stage. AWARDS: Two Helen Hayes Award nominations (Ensemble). EDUCATION:  Auburn University; The Catholic University of America. 

(As of June 2012)

JAMES MONROE

Benjamin Horen

THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Jerry Springer: The Opera. LOCAL: The Boys From Syracuse, Cymbeline, The Shakespeare Theatre; Cool Papa’s Party, The Stephen Schwartz Project, Metro Stage; Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible…, Adventure Theatre; Gay: Accept ME If You Love Me, Spotlight Communications. EDUCATION: Bowling Green State University

(As of June 2012)

JOHN CALHOUN

Pomme Koch

LOCAL: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Round House Theatre; Henry V, Folger Theatre; Readings at The Shakespeare Theatre, Kennedy Center, Theater J, Field Trip Theatre. EDUCATION: BFA, Theatre Performance, The University of Michigan.

(As of June 2012)

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

Alex Mills

Alex Mills returns to Studio Theatre for Wig Out! after performances in Torch Song Trilogy, 2-2 Tango, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Local credits include Shakespeare’s R&J at Signature Theatre and A Tale of Two Cities, The Man in the Iron Mask, Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog) (Helen Hayes Nomination: Outstanding Supporting Actor), Antony and Cleopatra, Othello (Helen Hayes-nominated Outstanding Lead Actor), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helen Hayes-nominated Outstanding Supporting Actor) at Synetic Theater.

(As of July 2017)

BLACKHAWK

Ryan Sellers

LOCAL: The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet, among others, Synetic Theater; Synetic Family Theater; Black Box Theater Company; Capitol Fringe Festival. FILM: Damascus Road, Hamilton Carver: Zombie PI, Law and Disorder, among others. AWARDS: Two Helen Hayes Awards, Outstanding Ensemble.  TEACHING: Synetic Studio. TRAINING: Synetic Studio.  EDUCATION: The Catholic University of America, Montgomery College.

(As of June 2012)

LYNCOYA

Eli Schulman

LOCAL: Fame Jr., Adventure Theater MTC; Spotlight 2012, Seussical Jr., Musical Theater Center. TELEVISION:  Public Service Announcement, American Speech-Language Hearing Association.  TRAINING:  Adventure Theater MTC.

(As of June 2012)

ENSEMBLE

Katy Carkuff

REGIONAL: Beehive!, Theatrical Outfit;  The Spitfire Grill, Aurora Theatre; Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Actor’s Express. LOCAL: Taming of the Shrew, The Folger Theatre; Doubt, Everyman; Constellation Theatre Associate Artist (10 shows).

(As of June 2012)

ENSEMBLE

Esther Covington

REGIONAL: Fiddler on the Roof, Sundance Institute; The Buddy Holly Story, Alhambra Theatre; Mrs. Kemble’s Tempest, Baltimore Shakespeare Festival; Miracle on 34th Street, Wayside Theatre. LOCAL: American Century Theatre, Imagination Stage, Landless Theatre, Theatre on the Hill, Toby’s Dinner Theatre. EDUCATION: MA, Theatre, Brigham Young University.

(As of June 2012)

ENSEMBLE

Maria Egler

LOCAL: Giant, Dirty Blonde, Signature Theatre; The Sound of Music, Camelot, Olney Theatre Center; Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s Roadside Revue, Company Member.  TOUR: Gypsy! CONCERT: Grand Night for Singing, Washington Savoyards. EDUCATION: BM, Music, The Catholic University of America (Honors).

(As of June 2012)

ENSEMBLE

John Fritz

LOCAL: The Sound of Music, Olney Theatre Center; F#@king Up Everything, New Musical Foundation; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Academy of Holy Cross. EDUCATION: BA, Musical Theatre, American University.

(As of June 2012)

ENSEMBLE

Aaren Keith

STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. REGIONAL: The Who’s Tommy, Crossing, Anything Goes, Shenandoah Conservatory. LOCAL: The Rocky Horror Show, Washington Savoyards. TRAINING: Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory. EDUCATION: BFA, Musical Theatre, Shenandoah Conservatory.

(As of July 2013)

ENSEMBLE

Emily Levey

THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Reefer Madness.  REGIONAL: Who's Your Baghdaddy?, New Musical Foundation. LOCAL: Chess, The Happy Time, Merrily We Roll Along, Signature Theatre; Rent, Dancing at Lughnasa, Keegan Theatre; You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Go, Dog. Go!, ’Twas The Night Before Christmas, Adventure Theatre; Snow White, Rose Red (And Fred), Kennedy Center Family Theatre; Dante, Synetic Theatre; Busytown, Imagination Stage. TELEVISION: ER, Third Watch, NBC. EDUCATION: BFA, NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

(As of June 2012)

ENSEMBLE

Katie McManus

LOCAL: Two Gentlemen of Verona: a Rock Opera, The Shakespeare Theatre Company; Chess, Sweeney Todd, The Happy Time, Signature Theatre; Rent, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, A Man of No Importance, Man of La Mancha, National Pastime, Keegan Theatre; Songs of My Family, Kennedy Center.

(As of June 2012)

ENSEMBLE

Robert Mueller

STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. OFF BROADWAY: The Flea Theater, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Big Intimacy Group, Essential Theatre Group, The New York International Fringe Festival. LOCAL: The Impressionable Players, Capital Fringe. EDUCATION: University of Maryland.

(As of July 2014)

ENSEMBLE

Ryan Patrick Welsh

LOCAL: Improbable Frequency, Solas Nua; White Christmas, Chicago, Anything Goes, Hairspray, Toby's Dinner Theatre.  EDUCATION: BM, Musical Theatre, The Catholic University of America.

(As of June 2012)

Production Team

MUSIC DIRECTOR

Christopher Youstra

STUDIO THEATRE: Adding Machine: A Musical. STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Jerry Springer: The Opera, Passing Strange, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, POP!. TOURS: Smokey Joe's Cafe (Europe & Korea). DC AREA: Olney Theatre Center (Associate Artistic Director), Ford's Theatre, Round House Theatre, Signature Theatre, Imagination Stage, Adventure Theatre MTC, The Kennedy Center, Toby's Dinner Theatre. AWARDS: 2008 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Musical Director, nine Helen Hayes nominations. OTHER: Compositions include Home (for the re-opening of the ATLAS), Big Nate (Samuel French), and music for the Helen Hayes Awards and the Summer Hummer.

(As of July 2015)

CHOREOGRAPHER

Diane Coburn Bruning

LOCAL: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Washington National Opera.  FELLOWSHIPS: Guggenheim, NEA, Sundance, NYFA, Americans for the Arts, McKnight. AWARDS: Helen Hayes nomination. EDUCATION: Butler University; NYU; Yale School of Drama.

(As of June 2012)

SET DESIGN

Giorgos Tsappas

THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, POP!, Fucking A, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Reefer Madness, Dog Sees God, Terrorism, A Clockwork Orange, Kerouac, Hair. THE STUDIO THEATRE: Guantanamo, John Epperson in Rep. LOCAL: Photograph 51, Theater J; Ay Carmela, Lucido, Blood Wedding, Gala Hispanic; Macbeth, Medea, The Maids, WSC; Harlem Rose, Metrostage. INTERNATIONAL: Our Town, Waiting for Godot, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, National Theatre of Cyprus.

LIGHTING DESIGN

Justin Thomas

THE STUDIO 2NDSTAGE: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Passing Strange, Fucking A, Jerry Springer: The Opera. LOCAL: Round House Theatre, Olney Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. REGIONAL: The Lincoln Center, Arden Theatre. INTERNATIONAL: Volkov National Theatre, Natarani (India), The National Theatre (Bangladesh), Centre Culturel Robert Desnos (France). TEACHING: Grinnell College.

(As of July 2013)

PROJECTIONS

Erik Trester

Erik Trester previously designed projections for the Studio Theatre productions of The Night Watcher, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Grey Gardens, A Number, This Is How It Goes, and The Long Christmas Ride Home. His Studio 2ndStage credits include The Rocky Horror Show, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Passing Strange, Fucking A, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Reefer Madness: The Musical, Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, and autobahn. Mr. Trester is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin.

(As of January 2014)

COSTUME DESIGN

Ivania Stack

Ivania Stack previously designed several productions at Studio Theatre including I Wanna F***ing Tear You Apart and Water By The Spoonful among others. Ivania designs for many regional and DC area theatres, including Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Company Member), Seattle Repertory Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Round House Theatre (Resident Artist), Kennedy Center, Center Stage, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Everyman Theatre, The Second City, Signature Theatre, Imagination Stage, Olney Theatre Center and Studio Theatre. She has an MFA in design from the University of Maryland and is an Adjunct Lecturer for Georgetown University.

(As of February 2019)

SOUND DESIGN/LIVE MIX

Aaron Fisher

THE STUDIO THEATRE: POP!, Passing Strange (Assistant Sound/Projections). LOCAL: Five Variations on the Art of Aphrodite, Theater of the First Amendment; Hay Fever, George Mason University. EDUCATION: George Mason University, BA.

(As of July 2012)

Press

Bracing and high voltage
DC METRO THEATER ARTS
Enjoyably rowdy
WASHINGTON CITY PAPER