The Understudy

• Further Reading

  A Note from the Director

  “You can choose what you want, but what you want is not your choice.”
  —Theresa Rebeck, The Understudy

  A play within a play, a rehearsal with a new understudy for another understudy understudying someone else. Sound confusing? Add to this, that the play within the play is a newly discovered play by Franz Kafka. Oh, and the stage manager running this rehearsal just might have some personal relations with both understudies.

  Well, now we’ve gone from merely confusing to the stuff nightmares are made of in Theresa Rebeck’s entertaining, thought-provoking, and Kafkaesque play, The Understudy.

  What is our role in this world? Is it what we choose or what is chosen for us? Do we have a real identity created by ourselves, or is one put upon us by some unknown, unseen, omnipresent force?

  Enjoy watching our three protagonists as they fight for what they know and love, recognize their faults, and attempt to rise above it all as they discover and accept who they truly are.

  —Mark Brotherton, Director

  A Note from the Dramaturg

  Franz Kafka is an erudite challenge, and those approaching the task of unraveling his work must be patient in order to reveal what it has to offer. Kafka is often cited as the unwitting patron saint of the pseudointellectual, and the merits of his work are shrouded in the self-actualizing agenda of his readers. However, the descriptor “Kafkaesque” has become a colloquialism because even the idea of approaching Kafka’s work fulfills the definition.

  The experience of Kafkaesque is deliberately marked by the confusingly absurd matched with the notion of harrowing disorder. In Theresa Rebeck’s The Understudy, the audience is given the opportunity to enter the heightened realm of a Broadway show in a tense moment of transition. Circumstances, both industry-driven and personally driven, create a crucible in which everyone involved must confront the individual demons of their past, present, and the existential terror they must face together.

  —Teresa Kilzi, Dramaturg

• Cast

  1. HarryColton Butcher, U/S Logan Ayala
  2. RoxanneHelena Whittaker, U/S Sami Cunningham
  3. JakeTerry Farley, U/S Aaron Glogowski

  Creative Team

  1. DirectorMark Brotherton
  2. Scenic DesignerBert Scott
  3. Costume DesignerSarah Johnson*
  4. Lighting DesignerHaleigh Dunn*
  5. Sound Designer Robert Dagit
  6. Stage ManagerJena Chang*
  7. Assistant DirectorVictoria Gluchoski*
  8. DramaturgTeresa Kilzi*
  9. Assistant Stage ManagersJessica Karlen*, Savanna Shurman*
  10. Design Advisor (Costumes)Daniel M. Jones
  11. Design Advisor (Lighting)Vandy Wood
  12. Production ManagerPeggy Carter*
  13. Technical DirectorJohn Heil
  14. Assistant Technical Director.. Michael Layton
  15. Paint ChargeBonnie Sprung
  16. Props MasterTommy Heller*
  17. Assistant PropsLily Novak*
  18. Costume Shop SupervisorEmily Wille
  19. Master ElectricianMatt Decker
  20. Light Board OperatorNeelam Harinandansingh*
  21. Sound Board OperatorMax Vojcsik*
  22. Automation OperatorJack Audet*
  23. Run CrewChris Armellino*, Rico Lastrapes*, Brenden Rourke*
  24. Wardrobe HeadAlexander Hehr*
  25. Wardrobe CrewKathleen DeRosa*, Brenden DiBerardino*, Douglas Jensen*

  * UCF Student. All cast members are students.

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