Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Manny Arciniega (Schlatko) is happy to be back at OLNEY THEATRE CENTER. Previous Olney Theatre credits include Miss You Like Hell. DC credits include Working: A Musical with Working in D.C.; We’re Gonna Die at Round House Theatre; Lovesick at Theatre J; Fame and In the Heights at Gala Hispanic Theatre; Caucasian Chalk Circle, Aida, Peter and the Starcatcher, and Avenue Q at Constellation Theatre; Hands on a Hard Body, Chicago, Big Fish, Next to Normal, and Cabaret at the Keegan Theatre. Manny was a featured extra and provided original music for the Netflix Original Series House of Cards. Other notable performances include appearances with The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, The Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, the Miyabi Koto Shamisen Ensemble, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Sinfonietta, and The Symphony Orchestra of India. Manny received a Bachelor of Music Education from Texas Christian University and a Master of Timpani and Percussion Performance from the Royal Academy of Music.

Jaime Ibacache (Krzyzhtoff) is a guitarist originally from Temuco, Chile, now active for more than 20 years in the DMV. His career spans various musical settings from musical theater productions, to touring bands, and recording sessions. As a Berklee College of Music graduate, Jaime has played various genres through his career as a professional musician, but is happy to bring the rock n roll to this awesome production of Hedwig at Olney.

Mason Alexander Park (Hedwig) is a nonbinary performer/writer best known for playing Hedwig on the first Broadway national tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Mason can be seen playing Gren in the Netflix live action adaptation of the hit anime Cowboy Bebop, and Desire in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. Other favorite credits include The Emcee in Cabaret (Olney Theatre Center) [Helen Hayes Award Winner], Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf in a reimagined I Am My Own Wife (Long Wharf Theatre), Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show (Bucks County Playhouse), Man in Chair in The Drowsy Chaperone (Pittsburgh Playhouse) and Miss Andrew in Disney's Mary Poppins (Pittsburgh CLO). They were honored at the Kennedy Center as the 2013 Presidential Scholar in the Arts for Musical Theatre (documented in PBS's Becoming an Artist). Other TV/Film include: Amazon’s Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina, the PBS reality series Broadway or Bust, Nickelodeon's iCarly, Bucket and Skinner's Epic Adventures and Before You Know It, which premiered at Sundance this year. Podcast: Loveville High. Visit www.masonalexanderpark.com for more info.

Chani Wereley (Yitzhak) is excited to be making her Olney Theatre Center debut! Previous DC credits include: Round House: Spring Awakening (Martha); The Kennedy Center: Earthrise (Sophia); Folger Theatre: Love’s Labor’s Lost (Katherine); Constellation Theatre Co: Little Shop of Horrors (Crystal) [Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Musical], Aida (Princess Amneris); Keegan Theatre: American Idiot (Extraordinary Girl), Dogfight (Ensemble); Monumental Theatre Co: Pippin (Catherine), Bonnie and Clyde (Ensemble). UPCOMING: Olney Theatre Center: AD16.

Jason Wilson (Jacek) is making his debut at OLNEY THEATRE CENTER. ACTING CREDITS: Woolly Mammoth: F#@king Up Everything [Broadway World Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical – Local]; Toby’s: Ragtime, The Buddy Holly Story, Here’s Love. MUSICIAN CREDITS: NATIONAL TOUR: Stirring The Waters. REGIONAL: Eldorado Casino (Reno, NV) & Lake Dillon Theatre (Silverthorne, CO): Rock Of Ages; The New York Musical Festival; The Lincoln Center Youth Debut Series. DC AREA: Round House: We’re Gonna Die; Kennedy Center: Let Freedom Ring MLK Celebration, Kennedy Center Honors; Signature Theatre: Partial Eclipse; Keegan Theater: American Idiot, Spring Awakening, Chicago; Toby’s: Dreamgirls, In The Heights, Kinky Boots. TV: Comic Book Men, Criminals At Work, History’s Secrets.

Christopher Youstra (Music Director/Associate Artistic Director/Skszp) As the past resident music director, Mr. Youstra has music directed and conducted over 40 musicals at Olney Theatre Center, including Cabaret, Matilda, Once, On the Town, In the Heights, My Fair Lady, Sweeney Todd, Evita, Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical, Carousel, Godspell, How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying and has also music directed at many of the other local theaters including Ford’s Theatre: Ragtime; Studio Theatre 2nd Stage: Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Passing Strange; Studio Theatre: Adding Machine: A Musical; Round House Theatre: Once on This Island, A Murder A Mystery A Marriage, The Summer of ‘42, and The World Goes ‘Round; Toby’s Dinner Theatre: Les Misérables, The Color Purple, Titanic, Beauty and the Beast; Imagination Stage; The Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences; Arena Stage; Burn Brae Dinner Theatre; Montgomery College; American University; Musical Theatre Center; Signature Theatre; and Columbia Center for the Theatrical Arts. Mr. Youstra has been nominated for twelve Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Music Direction and received the award for Titanic. He is director of music at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Columbia, has worked with both Phoenix Productions and Troika Entertainment national touring company and toured both Europe and Korea with Smokey Joe’s Café. As a composer, Mr. Youstra’s music has been heard throughout the area, including The Dancing Princesses at Imagination Stage, Big Nate: The Musical (with Jason Loewith), the Helen Hayes Awards, the 2014 Summer Hummer, and the opening gala of the ATLAS center.

Denise Cardarelli (Production Stage Manager) OFF-BROADWAY: The Perplexed, Long Lost, The Cake, and Dan Cody’s Yacht with Manhattan Theatre Club; ReEntry at Urban Stages; Dov and Ali with The Playwright’s Realm. OTHER NY CREDITS: Lincoln Center Education; HERE Arts Center; The LAByrinth Theater Company; and The Talking Band. SELECTED REGIONAL: Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Two River Theater, The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Centerstage (Baltimore), and 17 seasons at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.

Jacob A. Climer (Scenic/Costume Design) is thrilled to be making his debut at OLNEY THEATRE CENTER with Hedwig. Selected theatrical works include: Kid Victory (Vineyard Theater, NYC), Uncommon Sense (Tectonic Theater), Fondly Collette Richland (New York Theatre Workshop), Arguendo (Elevator Repair Service Tour/Public Theater). Selected Opera Works include: PLATEÉ (Des Moines Metro Opera), Shining Brow (Arizona Opera), The Flying Dutchman (Atlanta Opera, Cincinnatti Opera, Houston Grand Opera), The Little Prince (Utah Opera), Rusalka (Des Moines Metro Opera). Jacob is also the resident designer for the Texas Rose Festival. EDUCATION: BFA University of Evansville, MFA Carnegie Melon University.

Max Doolittle (Lighting Designer) Olney Theatre Center: Elf, South Pacific, Every Brilliant Thing, My Fair Lady. DC Area: Ford’s Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Folger Theatre, Mosaic Theatre, Theatre Alliance,Theatre J, Rep Stage, Kennedy Center/Second City, Imagination Stage, Forum Theatre, Adventure Theatre, Constellation Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Academy for Classical Acting, Pointless Theatre Co, NextStop Theatre. NYC includes Ars Nova, Juilliard School, New Ohio Theatre, New World Stages. Regional includes Geffen Playhouse, Kitchen Theatre Company, Fulton Theatre. Lighting direction for television includes Anderson Cooper 360, Piers Morgan Live. Aboard Cruise Ships: Wine Lovers, The Musical. BFA: Ithaca College. MFA: University of Maryland.

Patrick W. Lord (Projection/Video Designer) is happy to be back at OLNEY THEATRE CENTER. Previous Olney Theatre Center design credits include: A Christmas Carol. NEW YORK: Lincoln Center: Where Words Once Were; R. Evolución Latina: The Tempest; White Plains Performing Arts Center: The Bodyguard: The Musical. NATIONAL TOUR: Hairspray (Video Design); Mean Girls (Animator). REGIONAL: Flatrock Playhouse: South Pacific; Peppercorn Theatre: Desvelado; Croswell Opera House: Beauty and the Beast, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; Ohana Arts: Peace On Your Wings. DC AREA: The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts: Earthrise, Voyagers, Digging Up Dessa, Where Words Once Were; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Hamlet, Twelfth Night; Gala Hispanic Theatre: Fame: The Musical; Synetic Theatre: The Phantom of the Opera; Arts Centric: Dreamgirls, The Wiz; Forum Theatre: Love and Information, Building the Wall, Blackberry Winter; Theatre Alliance: Mnemonic [Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Best Projection Design]; Keegan Theatre: Bridges of Madison County, Big Fish, Outside Mullingar, American Idiot, Picasso at the Lapin Agile; Arts on the Horizon: Outside the Lines; 1st Stage: Columbinus; Mosaic Theatre Company of DC: A Human Being Died That Night; Adventure Theatre: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical, Jumanji, Riverside Performing Arts Center: The Color Purple; Taffety Punk: Don Juan; The Hub Theatre: The Happiest Place on Earth, Redder Blood, Leto Legend. EDUCATION: MFA, The University of Texas at Austin.

Johanna McKeon (Director) Associate Director on five Broadway musicals, including Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Idiot, War Paint, Grey Gardens, and King Kong as well as multiple national and international tours. Directing credits include the West Coast premiere of Noura by Heather Raffo at The Old Globe, Mona Mansour’s Unseen (Old Globe New Voices Festival), Anne Washburn’s I Have Loved Strangers (Clubbed Thumb and Williamstown Premiere), Tokio Confidential (Atlantic), Comedy of Errors, Schmoozy Togetherness (Williamstown), Much Ado About Nothing, Cymbeline, The Taming of the Shrew, The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall (Vineyard Playhouse), A Hatful of Rain (ITS Festival Warsaw), Semi-­Permanent (*Outstanding Solo Show NY Fringe Festival), The Importance of Being Earnest (Bard), Golden Motors (BRIC), Functional Drunk, Fiesta Cabana, The Tanks Break (Ontological-­‐Hysteric Theater). Her independent feature Auld Lang Syne received the Audience Award for Narrative Feature at the 2016 Indie Street Film Festival and her newest feature My Address is Still Walton Have You Forgotten? created with playwright Karinne Keithley Syers, has recently begun a screening tour. Her digital series of shorts Arguments by Juan José Saer is currently available to stream on the Old Globe website. Johanna is the recipient of Drama League, Boris Sagal and Fulbright Fellowships. MFA UT Austin.

Mike Potter (Wig/Makeup Designer) was born and raised in rural Delaware. He began doing wigs and makeup at a young age. He received a BS in Resource Economics from the University of Delaware. He has done the wigs and makeup for Hedwig since the beginning with Trask and Mitchell at the Jane Street Theatre, as well as the wigs and makeup for Hedwig the film, the Broadway run and subsequent tour. He currently works in the fashion, film industries as a makeup artist, and is also a painter. Mike currently lives and works in New York City.

Matt Rowe (Sound Designer) is proud to be back at Olney. Olney Theatre Center: Beauty and the Beast, Miss You Like Hell, Cabaret, Once, In The Heights, My Fair Lady, Sweeney Todd, A Chorus Line; Kennedy Center: Orphie, And The Book Of Heroes, First You Dream, Snow White, Rose Red (and Fred!), Nobody’s Perfect. MetroStage: The Last Five Years; Signature Theatre: Miss Saigon, Company, The Last Five Years, Shakespeare’s R&J, Dreamgirls, Dying City, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Xanadu, God of Carnage, Brother Russia, Really Really, Hairspray (Helen Hayes nomination), A Second Chance, Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South, The Boy Detective Fails, The Hollow, Side by Side by Sondheim, Art, And the Curtain Rises, Sunset Boulevard, Walter Cronkite is Dead, A Fox on the Fairway, Chess, Sycamore Trees, [title of show], Sweeney Todd, Show Boat, First You Dream: The Music of Kander & Ebb, Dirty Blonde, Giant, The Little Dog Laughed, Les Miserables, Anyone Can Whistle in concert, The Visit, The Happy Time, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Glory Days, Merrily We Roll Along, The Witches of Eastwick. Norwegian Cruise Lines: Million Dollar Quartet, Rock Of Ages.

Ani Taj (Choreographer) is a director-choreographer and founder of The Dance Cartel. She choreographs large-scale multimedia dance experiences, films, VR, music videos, concerts, and non-traditional musicals, and is a deep believer that dance can actually be a GOOD TIME for everyone. Dance Cartel highlights include PS1/MoMA, Storm King Arts Center, Brooklyn Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the High Line, Ace Hotell NY, OBERON (ART); CONAN and The Late Late Show; music videos for Yoko Ono, Reggie Watts, Shura & Vic Mensa; Wajatta’s VR experience Runnin (Sundance, “Best Interactive” at SXSW). This fall, Taj and collaborator Sam Pinkleton launched an absurd immersive dance experience commissioned by Virgin Voyages. She received an LMCC Creative Engagement Award and City Artist Corps Grant to develop a research+performance project on the economics of dance. Taj is an Adjunct at NYU/ETW. @anitaj @thedancecartel (she/her/hers)