Who's Who . . . Backstage

JOSEPH ADLER (Director/Producing Artistic Director) is starting his tenth season as Artistic Director of GableStage. He previously directed on many local stages, including Coconut Grove Playhouse, New Theatre, Area Stage, Hollywood Boulevard Theatre, Players Theatre, Ruth Foreman Theatre, Florida Shakespeare Theatre, City Theatre (Summer Shorts), Hollywood Playhouse and Shores Performing Arts. At GableStage, Adler has directed Skylight, Of Mice and Men, Full Gallop, Psychopathia Sexualis, Closer, Killer Joe, This Is Our Youth, Arms and The Man, Side Man, Popcorn, Tape, The Real Thing, Adam Baum and the Jew Movie, Citizen Tom Paine, The Blue Room, Mindgame, Boy Gets Girl, James Joyce's The Dead, Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby, A Lesson Before Dying, Nixon's Nixon, Chinese Coffee, The Guys, The Shape of Things, Dirty Blonde, Tabletop, The Diary of Anne Frank, Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune, The Goat, What The Butler Saw, Ten Unknowns, 'Master Harold'...and the boys, QED, Trumbo (in which he also performed), Frozen, Bug, Retreat From Moscow, The Syringa Tree, A Bad Friend, Misery, Brooklyn Boy, Address Unknown, Intimate Apparel, Miss Margarida's Way, This Is How It Goes, The Pillowman, Fahrenheit 451, Romance, Fat Pig, Golda's Balcony,SMUT and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Active in South Florida's film and theatre community for many years, Adler has directed hundreds of television commercials and industrial films, winning many awards, including the Clio. Other directorial credits include several independent feature films, a video version of the Broadway hit comedy Doubles and a cable TV series. He has received nineteen nominations (twelve at GableStage) and seven times won the Carbonell Award for Best Director: The Shadow Box (Coconut Grove Playhouse); The Killing of Sister George (Players Theatre); A Lesson Before Dying, James Joyce's The Dead, Edward Albee's The Goat, Frozen and The Pillowman (GableStage). He received a Remy Award from the Theatre League of South Florida, and was awarded the prestigious George Abbott Award for "significant contributions to the artistic life and cultural development of greater Miami, Fort Lauderdale and the Palm Beaches". He was honored with the Heart of the Arts Award from New World School of the Arts. Adler studied drama at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and graduated from the Film Department at NYU.

DANAI GURIRA (playwright) was born in the U.S. to Zimbabwean parents. Raised in Zimbabwe. MFA: NYU. Theater: The Story (Philadelphia Theater Company); Forbidden City (Lincoln Center Workshop); God Botherers (NYSF New Works Now); King Baabu (Edinburgh Theater Festival). Film: Trial of Charumathi (short); Patience (UNESCO). TV: Law and Order CI. Recipient of a 2006 Obie Award, 2006 John Gessner Outer Critics Award and honored by the Theater Hall of Fame. Thanks to family and friends for unshakeable support and to the Lord, my God: my muse, my light. And to the women of Africa, my beautiful Africa: I live and strive to give you voice. Dedicated to the memory of my phenomenal, fearless grandmother, Miriam Mutambara Chiza. Let me become just half the woman she was...

NIKKOLE SALTER (playwright) has the following NY Theater credits as an actress: King Hedley, We Won't Pay, Gum, Three Sisters (at NYU); The Overwhelming, Rattlestick Theatre workshop with director Lucie Tiberghien; Prime Time, Lincoln Center workshop with director Liesl Tommy; The Story (Kesselring Project at the Player's Club); Stop Kiss (Studio Tisch); (partial list). Regional Theater: Jitney (Studio Theater, Washington, D.C). Film & Television: Pride and Glory starring Edward Norton and Colin Farrell (scheduled release December 2006); All Fall Down starring Isabella Rossellini and Viola Davis (scheduled release 2006), Beauty Shop, Moesha, Whispers (2002 HBO Short Film finalist, 2002 IFP Gordon Parks Award, and 2003 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection). Awards: Howard University Hilltop Scholar; NYU Graduate Acting Fellow; Marian Seldes - Garson Kanin Fellowship ('06); and for co-writing and co-performing In the Continuum the 2005 Off-Broadway hit and one of the New York Times' four top plays of the season, the Global Tolerance Award from the Friends of the United Nations ('04); Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance ('05); Obie Special Certificate ('05); Outer Critics John Gassner Award ('05); Nikkole is a graduate of Howard University's College of Fine Arts and NYU's Graduate Acting Program. Nikkole was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA.

TIM CONNELLY (Set Design) returns to GableStage where he designed the sets for Chinese Coffee, Tabletop, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Ten Unknowns, 'Master Harold'...and the Boys, QED, Trumbo, The Syringa Tree and SMUT. Tim hails from Kentucky, and has lived and worked in South Florida for 20 years. He owns and operates the Charles T. Studio, designing and building sets for the film and commercial industry. Among Tim's finest accomplishments are his three children, Justin, Jessica and Ryan. Between raising kids and working, Tim fills his time sailing and fishing.

DAVID GOODMAN (Lighting Design) is lighting his third show for Joe at GableStage after designing A Bad Friend and Miss Margarida's Way. Since graduating from the University of Miami in 1980, David has designed numerous productions for theatres in South Florida. He was the youngest designer to ever work at the Coconut Grove Playhouse where he designed the production of Ceremonies in Dark Old Men in 1979, starring Denzel Washington. On the heels of winning a Carbonell Award in 1984 for the production of Glass Menagerie at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, David was also nominated for his designs on Groucho: A Life in Review the following year. Other productions include Tales of Hoffman for the Florida Grand Opera, The National Tour of Sunshine Boys and Wagner's Ring Cycle produced by Artpark in NY and Dealers Choice and Rabbit Hole for the Mosaic Theatre. David is currently working on his latest project, raising his 1 year old son Jake with his wife Sarah.

MATT COREY (Music/Sound) earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degree in Bassoon Performance at the University of Miami and currently plays in the pit orchestra for the Florida Grand Opera. By day, Matt is the Digital Production Manager at Insight for the Blind Studios in Fort Lauderdale, an organization that produces 100 "Talking Book" titles each year for the blind and physically handicapped. Most recently, Matt has been music and sound designer at GableStage for every production for the last 2 years. He received a Carbonell Award for Best Sound Designer for last season's The Pillowman at Gablestage. Matt would like to thank Mom, Pop, Hal, Adam, Dina, Zach, Rob, Dan, Joe, and the countless other talented people who he has come to rely on for their abundant talent and inspiration.

ELLIS TILLMAN (Costume Designer) was the resident Costume Designer at the Coconut Grove Playhouse for the past twenty-five years. Of his one hundred designs, he marks the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia productions of The Constant Wife and Lost in Yonkers as two of his most fulfilling projects. He won L.A.'s Drama-Logue for Bermuda Avenue Triangle with Bea Arthur and has three times won the Carbonell Award. Mr. Tillman made his Broadway debut as costume designer for Urban Cowboy The Musical. Most recently, he designed the costumes for the Off-Broadway production of Confessions of a Mormon Boy and the national tour of Tuesdays with Morrie starring Harold Gould.

MICHAEL JOHN CARROLL (Stage Manager) is charmed to be at Gablestage for his fourth season, serving as Production Stage Manager for its productions of The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Smut (World Premiere), Golda's Balcony, Fat Pig, Romance, Fahrenheit 451, The Pillowman (Carbonell Best Play), This Is How It Goes, Miss Margarida's Way, Intimate Apparel, Address Unknown, Brooklyn Boy, Misery, A Bad Friend, The Syringa Tree, The Retreat From Moscow (Carbonell Best Play Nominee), Bug, Frozen (Carbonell Best Play), Trumbo, QED and 'Master Harold' ...and the boys. Former stomping grounds include Actors' Playhouse, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Hollywood Playhouse, and the Miami premiere of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Level Nightclub on Miami Beach. Michael has a BFA in Theatre from Barry University and is a proud member of Actors Equity Association and the Theatre League of South Florida. He would like to thank the audience for doing their part to support South Florida theatre, Joe for so much great work and friendship, Joline for love at last, and Mom for everything. Thanks for all your hard work, Michael.