THIS PROGRAM WILL NOW TAKE PLACE INDOORS IN THE JOHN DREW THEATER. Guests attending any INDOOR John Drew Theater programs must show proof of FULL vaccination. At this time, only fully vaccinated guests are permitted to attend programs in the indoor theater. Face coverings are now optional for fully vaccinated guests.
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Directed by Jackson Gay
Script Dramaturgy by Erika Rundle
Featuring Joanna Feuer, Paul Hecht, Quinn Jackson, and Nate Janis
Join us for an evening celebrating Tom Wolfe, also affectionately known as the Man in the White Suit. Winner of a National Book Award for The Right Stuff and National Book Award Finalist for his first novel Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe was more than a writer. Wolfe was a massive cultural figure, who changed journalism in America as a founder of “new journalism”, who changed the conversation around popular figures like Ken Kesey and his “Merry Pranksters” of the ’60s, Astronauts, and George W Bush. Wolfe introduced several phrases into the American vernacular, including “statusphere”, “radical chic”, “right stuff”, and “the me decade”. We are delighted to present an evening of the wit and cultural insights of Tom Wolfe, which will include excerpts from his novels, short works, articles, and interviews – all told through our performers each costumed in Wolfe’s iconic white suit.
Program Notes
Special Thanks to Rob Schikar and Ian Jones
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Jackson Gay
Jackson Gay is a freelance theater director, writer and co-Producing Artistic Director of New Neighborhood https://www.newneighborhood.net. New Neighborhood recently joined forces with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and The Commissary to produce Why Would I Dare: The Trial of Crystal Mason. In collaboration with Dan Butler and DMNDR, New Neighborhood produced the first 24-hour reading of Filibustered and Unfiltered: America Reads the Mueller Report which inspired more than a dozen other events across the country. Featured everywhere from the Los Angeles Times (“a live-theater summer sensation!”) to Breitbart News (“the single most boring and pointless way to waste your time!”), the tidal wave of public readings reached its apex when it was name-checked in Congress during Robert Mueller’s nationally televised public testimony. Jackson’s directing work includes Lucy Thurber’s Transfers for Audible, MCC and New York Stage & Film; The Seagull (Juilliard); Kleptocracy by Kenneth Lin (Arena Stage); These Paper Bullets! by Rolin Jones with music by Billie Joe Armstrong (New Neighborhood, Atlantic, Geffen, Yale Rep - Critics Pick Time Out NY, Best Production and Adaptation LA Sage Awards, Time Out Los Angeles, Connecticut Critics Circle Award Best Production and Best Director). Jackson is working with Wendy Weckwerth on a book project and is a 2021 Guild Hall Artist-in-Residence in East Hampton, NY.
Artist-in-Residence (Winter 2021)
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Joanna Feuer
Joanna Feuer (nee Howard), is a native Long Islander and spent many hours of her childhood watching her mother direct plays and concerts at various LI theaters. Joanna began her own professional career at the age of 8, traveling the world in the National Tour of Les Miserables. Since then, she appeared off-Broadway in Peter and the Starcatcher and went on to reprise her role at Milwaukee Rep and Cincinnati Playhouse. Other favorite roles have included “Abigail” in Bay Street’s The Crucible and “Miranda” in Olympia Dukakis’s adaptation of The Tempest at the Alpine Theater Project. In recent years, Joanna has appeared on television in numerous Law & Order: SVU episodes, and the films Broadcasting Christmas (Hallmark Holiday Channel), and A Very Nutty Christmas (Lifetime), both opposite Melissa Joan Hart. Joanna is passionate about music and sings jazz and classical music throughout NY state and is a member of the 3-woman band, The Buttery Barmaids. Currently, Joanna is writing about her transition to singer/farmer with her wonderful husband in rural upstate NY at BrooklynToBarn.com.
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Paul Hecht
Paul Hecht has been an actor for quite a long time. He made his debut as the Player in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (Tony nomination 1968).Other Broadway appearances include : Night & Day with Maggie Smith and Invention of Love. (Tom Stoppard), 1776 (original company), the Rothschilds, Shaw’s Caesar & Cleopatra and Pirandello’s Henry IV ( both with Rex Harrison). Off Broadway: Harold Pinter’s Moonlight,(American Premiere) the title role in Pirandello’s Henry IV (Obie award 1990). Humble Boy at the Manhattan Theater Club, and also in the National Theatre of Great Britain tour. Around the country: Cyrano at the Guthrie (world premiere Antony Burgess translation). Marc Antony, (Julius Caesar & Antony and Cleopatra) American Shakespeare Festival, and in plays by Shaw, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Turgenev, Harwood, Kaufman-Ferber,, at the McCarter (Princeton), Canada’s Shaw festival, N.Y Shakespeare Festival, John Drew East Hampton, Bay Street Sag Harbor, and the Berkshire Theater Festival.
He has been in several episodes of Law and Order, the first episode of the original Miami Vice, and in films with Bette Davis, Chris Rock, and Howard Stern.
He has appeared in many literary/musical programs: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (Stoppard-Previn) and Façade (Walton-Sitwell) with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Histoire du Soldat conducted by Bob Kraft, the Vertical Repertory in Brooklyn, the Newberry Consort (Chicago), the Allentown Symphony, Dryden players (Princeton). With the early music group Parthenia , he performs a program of Shakespeare and Donne sonnets. He has recorded dozens of books (www.recordedbooks.com).
He served as the NY Branch President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1991- 1995 and is a graduate of the first class of the National Theatre School of Canada. He is a regular volunteer at ARF and lives in the Springs with the lighting Designer Peggy Eisenhauer.
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Quinn Jackson
Quinn Jackson is a New York based actor. Since graduating from the William Esper Two Year Meisner Training Program, Quinn has continued to take master classes in acting and movement and has performed in off-off Broadway plays in NYC as well as at Guild Hall in East Hampton. Most recently, she can be seen on NBC’s The BlackList, and will be debuting as a lead in his first feature film releasing this October. Quinn is proud to sit on the board of the NeoPolitical Cowgirls and is passionate about creating space for stories and voices that need to be heard. Quinn is currently getting her MFA in acting at NYU's grad acting program (2023).
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Nate Janis
Nate Janis is a born-and-bred New Yorker and long-time resident of Huntting Lane, East Hampton. As an actor and singer, Nate has performed all over the world and at venues such as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Recent credits include: Will in tenderly (Guild Hall), Vershinin in Three Sisters (Columbia Stages), Matt in The Fantasticks (Infinity Theatre Company), Casey in The Legend of Georgia McBride (Waterfront Playhouse), Abraham in Bible Stories (Atlantic), and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (White Plains PAC). Training: Yale B.A., William Esper Studio, Columbia M.F.A. Nate is thrilled to be returning to Guild Hall!
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Erika Rundle
Erika Rundle is a writer, dramaturg, and translator.
Her translation of French playwright Marie Ndiaye’s Hilda, directed by Carey Perloff and starring Patricia Clarkson, was produced by the Public Theater, the American Conservatory Theatre, The Play Company, and the Studio Theatre, and her adaptation of Richard Brautigan’s novel In Watermelon Sugar was performed at The Culture Project.
She was the dramaturg for Guild Hall’s recent “Weekend of Wasserstein,” and has previously worked at HERE, Lincoln Center, 3-Legged Dog, The Play Company, Prospect Theatre Company, Theatre for a New Audience, Ontological-Hysteric Theatre, Waxfactory, Hourglass Group, Yale Repertory Theatre, Yale Cabaret, Rites and Reasons, and BACA Downtown.
Erika holds an MFA and DFA from the Yale School of Drama, and taught at Mount Holyoke College for 15 years. Her articles and reviews have been published in numerous journals and anthologies.
