RED

Production Cast and Credits

CAST

Dan Kelly (Rothko)

Dan is so thrilled to get the band back together again for this newly conceived production of Red at the Peabody Black Box Theatre. Dan often comments that Rothko is a role of a lifetime and he hopes he is able to properly convey the miasma of the man and his thoughts on art, as rendered in John Logan’s pitch perfect script, to this next round of audiences. Dan’s 2024 has been busy, playing the roles of "Charlie Guiteau" in the Colonial Chorus Players’ Assassins, "Councilman Breeding" in the Elliot Norton nominated Umbrella Arts Center’s New England premiere of Tracy Letts The Minutes, "Rothko" in the Boutcher Theater Company’s inaugural production of Red, and "Father" in the Firehouse Center for the Arts’ Eurydice. Dan extends much gratitude and love to Bradley who has given his heart and soul to this production.

He believes the definitive guide on Rothko’s approach to life and painting can be found in his son Christopher’s book, Mark Rothko, From the Inside Out. He is especially fond of its dedication which he shamelessly steals for this production: “For my wife, Lori – my source of perpetual inspiration.”

Chloe Olwell (Ken) is thrilled to be working on Red again. She recently worked at Gallows Hill on A Christmas Carol (Christmas Past/Belle/Missy), Walpole Footlighters on Into the Breeches (June), and GW Shakespeare Co. on Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio). Chloe graduated from George Washington University in May 2023, where she studied Theatre and Journalism. While at GW, she also had the opportunity to study classical acting at the London Academy for Music and Dramatic Art.

Chloe wants to thanks Bradley and Dan for all their incredible work. She also wants to thank her parents for not kicking her out or making her pay rent (yet).

Production Team

Bradley Boutcher (Director, Producer, Scenic Design, Sound)

Bradley is so glad to share this piece with you. Bradley has been acting, directing, and performing in the North Shore area for almost ten years, with recent projects including The Trail to Oregon (McDoon and Full Ensemble) with Yorick Ensemble and The Play That Goes Wrong (Max / Cecil) with Concord Players, which recently won "Best Production" at the annual DASH awards. They're so glad to have had this opportunity to work in collaboration with so many generous local artists, and Bradley hopes to see you at their next project.

Bradley would like to thank Kari, his spouse, for everything Kari does to show their love and support. He'd also like to thank his team, for partnering with him to make this show a reality. He'd also like to thank

Lydia Charlotte Brendel (Stage Manager)

Lydia is a North Shore based actor, director, and stage manager known for co-founding Castle Hill Productions in Ipswich, MA. She is a graduate of AMDA’s New York conservatory program and Los Angeles BFA program. Backstage credits include International Thespian Society Award Nominee The Door (Director), Massachusetts Thespian Society Award winner Tracks, (Co-Director),and Castle Hill Productions Romeo and Juliet (Co-Director) and Arcadia (Props Manager). Onstage credits include "Olivia" in Twelfth Night, "Leslie Casewell" in The Mousetrap, "Lucy Steele" in Sense and Sensibility, and, most recently, "Victoria" in Theater in the Open’s A Bold Stroke for a Husband.

Donna Clegg (Lighting Design)

Donna Clegg has been designing lights for the past few years at Sanborn High School in Kingston, NH. Shows include Clue, Almost Maine, Little Shop of Horrors, Addams Family: The Musical, and Mama Mia. She was excited to step out of the high school realm and work on this production of Red.

Spencer O'Dowd (Lighting Design)

Spencer O’Dowd is excited to be back in the booth for Red! His first tech role was with another production of Red at the Actor’s Studio Newburyport a full ten years ago. Since then, he has run tech for several other shows at the Actor’s Studio as well as with travelling productions of Terezin. More recently he has been seen onstage at Quannapowitt Players and performing with Firebird Vox

Kari Boutcher (Executive Producer)

Kari is a theatre artist on the North Shore, and works in executive leadership of Beverly Mainstreets. She has experience as a choreographer, actor, and director, and shared all of her talent in the creation of RED. This show is dedicated to Kari, and all that she does for her friends, family, and community.

Kari assisted with marketing, outreach, additional direction during rehearsals, and operational support for Boutcher Theatre. Kari helped create several of the murals seen throughout the show, and assisted with a number of additional roles throughout the process.

Luke Nemitz - Sound Editing (lukenemitz.com)

Luke works as a composer and musician / multi-instrumentalist based in Washington, DC. Luke assisted in creating file-format version of the audio needed for this show, in addition to editing sound cues to meet design specifications.

Special Thanks

Red was built by many hands, and we could not have created this piece without the help of the following individuals and groups.

Todd Graham

Todd manages Peabody's Black Box Theatre, and has supported this re-mound since our initial conversations in April. Todd has believed in us, and helped us create this production, and we cannot thank him enough for this contributions to Red.

Kat Batten Wrenn and Chris Wrenn (sullysbrand.com and bridge9.com)

Kat and Chris own the performance space we used for our initial production or Red in April of 2024, and we're so grateful for their support of our work.

Maureen Festa

Maureen did the original costumes for our production of Red in April of 2024, and lent us costumes to use during this re-mount.

Nathan Seavey and The Ryal Side Civic Association (ryalsidecivicassociation.org)

Nathan and the board of the RSCA rented their space to us for our rehearsals. You cannot perform in theatre without having a space to rehearse, and we could not have done this show without their generosity to share their space with us.

Patricia Gray and Noelle Keach (MUSTart Studios)

Pat and Noelle are highly talented artists and educators, who operate MUSTart studio in Ipswitch. They provided us with beautiful stretcher frames, along with consultation, support, and encouragement throughout the process. We're endlessly grateful for them and their generosity towards members of the art community.

Tia Cole and Arielle Kaplan of Creative Collective (creativecollectivema.com)

Tia and Arielle provided business management mand arketing support during this production. They offer business management, networking, and other professional needs for creative groups and small businesses all over the North Shore.

Additional Thanks

Taylor Comeau, Wil Hall, The Northeast Arc, Jack and Connie Eldridge, Rebecca Greene, Beverly Mainstreets, Eric Roberts, The Danvers Art Association, John Archer, Jessica Algard, The students of the Gordon College Theatre Department, Alan Bull, Andrew Nocastro and Streamography

About "RED"

Mark Rothko

Born Marcus Rotkovitch in the town of Dvinsk, Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire, Mark Rothko immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of ten, settling in Portland, Oregon. A gifted student, Rothko attended Yale University on scholarship from 1921-23, but disillusioned by the social milieu and financial hardship, he dropped out and moved to New York to "bum around and starve a bit." A chance invitation from a friend brought him to a drawing class at the Art Students League where he discovered his love of art. He took two classes there but was otherwise self-taught. Rothko painted in a figurative style for nearly twenty years, his portraits and depictions of urban life baring the soul of those living through The Great Depression in New York. The painter Milton Avery offered Rothko both artistic and nutritional nourishment during these lean years. In the 1930s, Rothko exhibited with The Ten, a close-knit group of nine (!) American painters, which included fellow Avery acolyte, Adolph Gottlieb. Success was moderate at best but the group provided important incubation for the Abstract Expressionist school to come. The war years brought with it an influx of European surrealists, influencing most of the New York painters, among them Rothko, to take on a neo-surrealist style. Rothko experimented with mythic and symbolic painting for five years before moving to pure abstraction in the mid 1940s and ultimately to his signature style of two or three rectangles floating in fields of saturated color in 1949. Beginning in the early 1950s Rothko was heralded, along with Jackson Pollock, Willem deKooning, Franz Kline and others, as the standard bearers of the New American Painting--a truly American art that was not simply a derivative of European styles. By the late 1950s, Rothko was a celebrated (if not wealthy) artist, winning him three mural commissions that would dominate the latter part of his career. Only in the last of these, The Rothko Chapel in Houston was he able to realize his dream of a truly contemplative environment in which to interact deeply with his artwork. RED presents a fictionalized account of Rothko’s frustrated first attempt to create such a space in New York’s Four Season’s restaurant. Rothko sought to create art that was timeless; paintings that expressed basic human concerns and emotions that remain constant not merely across decades but across generations and epochs. He looked to communicate with his viewer at the most elemental level and through his artwork, have a conversation that was intense, personal and, above all, honest. A viewer’s tears in front of one of his paintings told him he had succeeded. While creating a deeply expressive body of work and garnering critical acclaim, Rothko battled depression and his brilliant career ended in suicide in 1970.

Licensing

"RED is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection. (www.dramatists.com)".

RED premiered at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, London on December 3, 2009,Michael Grandage, Artistic Director.Original Broadway Production Produced by Arielle Tepper Madover,Stephanie P. McClelland, Matthew Byam Shaw, Neal Street Productions,Fox Theatricals, Ruth Hendel/Barbara Whitman, Philip Hagemann/Murray Rosenthaland The Donmar Warehouse.Likenesses of the Rothko Seagram Mural Panels used with permission.© 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

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