Whoopi Goldberg's Alice
Adapted for the Stage by Kim Hines

Who's Who

Whoopi Goldberg (Author) In 1992, Whoopi made her debut as an author with her first children's book, Alice. Her second literary endeavor, simply entitled Book, became a bestseller in the U.S. and around the world. She recently signed a three-book publishing deal with Jump at the Sun, an imprint of Hyperion Books for Children, the first of which will be out Fall 2005.

Born and raised in New York City, Whoopi later worked in theatre and improvisation in San Diego and the Bay Area, where she performed with the Blake Street Hawkeyes theatre troupe. It was there that she created the characters that became The Spook Show and evolved into her hit Broadway show, Grammy Award-winning album and the HBO special that helped launch her career.

In 2002, Whoopi became one of a very elite group of artists who have won the Grammy (Whoopi Goldberg, 1985), the Academy Award (Ghost, 1991), the Golden Globe (The Color Purple, 1985 and Ghost, 1991), the Emmy (as host of AMC's Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel, 2002) and a Tony (Producer of Thoroughly Modern Millie, 2002). She is equally well-known for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of children, the homeless, human rights, education, substance abuse and the battle against AIDS, as well as many other causes and charities including her position as a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations.

Whoopi has also appeared in such films as Jumpin' Jack Flash, Sister Act, Made in America, Corrina, Corrina, The Lion King, Boys on the Side, Eddie, Girl, Interrupted, and Rat Race. Most recently she lent her voice to the animated feature Racing Stripes.

On television, she appeared in the Emmy-nominated HBO drama, In the Gloaming, directed by Christopher Reeve, as well as The Wonderful World of Disney's Rogers & Hammerstein's Cinderella and appeared in the mini-series Alice in Wonderland. She recently starred in the new NBC sitcom, Whoopi, which she executive produced with Carsey-Werner-Mandabach and Bonnie and Terry Turner. She can also be seen on Nick Jr's Whoopi's Littleburg, a series of three, half-hour TV specials set in "The Preschool Capital of the World," which she also produces.

From 1998-2002, she executive produced and appeared in the center square on the Emmy Award-winning Hollywood Squares. Whoopi was seen most recently in the television movies, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie for NBC and Showtime's Good Fences, co-producing and co-starring with Danny Glover. In early 2003, Whoopi returned to Broadway, co-starring with Charles "Roc" Dutton in August Wilson's acclaimed Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which she also produced. She had last appeared on Broadway in 1997, in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

In addition, Whoopi has been honored with multiple NAACP Image Awards, numerous People's Choice Awards (including a special tribute in 1998) and an unprecedented five Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards as "Favorite Movie Actress," as well as various awards and honors for her many humanitarian efforts. She was honored with Women in Film's 2001 Crystal Award and became the first woman to be honored with the prestigious Mark Twain Prize.

In 2001, Whoopi returned to her performing roots, on tour for the first time in over 10 years, performing one-night-only engagements across the U.S., including the famed Apollo Theater. In the Fall of 2005, Whoopi commemorated the 20th anniversary of her original one-woman show with a limited engagement production on Broadway. Whoopi...The 20-Year Anniversary played at the Lyceum Theatre, the site of the original production.

Kim Hines (Playwright) first set foot on the professional stage as a child when she became a member of the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. She literally grew up there; attending theater school and continuing to perform in CTC productions for over five years. As an actor, Hines has performed at a majority of the theaters in the Twin Cities area including the Mixed Blood Theater, Illusion Theater, Penumbra Theater and the Guthrie Theatre. As a playwright, Hines' work has been performed in the Twin Cities, as well as other major cities including Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, PA, Oakland and Long Beach, CA, Chicago, IL, New Brunswick, NJ, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, MD, and Dallas, Houston and Austin, TX. As a director, Hines has worked with many theaters in town including Theater Mu, Park Square, Theater in the Round, The Great American History Theater, Illusion Theater, Augsburg College, and Cornell University in New York, University of Northern Iowa and Kansas University. Along with the many grants and commissions Hines has received for her work, she was a 1997 recipient of the Bush Fellowship awarded for her playwrighting. Last year she received a MN State Arts Board Grant for playwrighting. She is an Alumni Core Member of the Playwrights' Center, a member of the Screenwriter's Workshop, and Actor's Equity Association. Hines sits on the board of Corning Dance Company and Intermedia Arts. Hines has a BA in Speech & Theater and Visual Art from Macalester College, St. Paul, MN. She is an Associate Artist at Illusion Theater in Minneapolis. She occasionally teaches playwrighting classes at The Loft. Hines also has a coaching and mentoring business for Artists of all kinds and levels called "Art: work-in-process."

Shirley Jo Finney(Director) is an award-winning director and actress and has directed all over the country, including The Pasadena Playhouse, The Goodman Theater, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Crossroads Theater Company, Actors' Theater of Louisville Humana Festival, The Mark Taper Forum, The American College Theater Festival and The Sundance Theater Workshop. In the Fall of 2005 she directed the world premier production of Alice for the Kennedy Center's new Family Theater. She has received the Los Angeles Theater Ovation Award nomination, The NAACP IMAGE AWARD, Drama Critics, Backstage West, and the LA Weekly award for Best Director for her Production of Yellow Man. Miss Finney is featured in INFINITI IN BLACK a national ad campaign for Infinity. She also has to her directing credit three Drama-Logue Awards and Chicago's Jefferson Award. She has directed several episodes of the UPN series Moesha and has received the International Black Filmmakers Award for the short film Remember Me. She is an alumnus of the American Film Institute's Director Workshop for Women and holds an MFA degree from UCLA. Ms. Finney is also a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, The Director's Guild, and the Screen Actor's Guild. She has been am Artist in Residence at Columbia College in Chicago, and a guest director at USC and UCLA.

Production Staff

Dreama J. Greaves (Properties Artisan) has served as properties artisan for many Kennedy Center Youth and Family Programs shows. Her credits include such diverse productions as Dreams in the Golden Country; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing; The Nightingale; Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and others; many of which have toured nationally. She has a Master of Fine Arts from Northwestern University and free-lances throughout the metro area.

Matthew M. Nielson (Tour Sound Designer) is happy be returning to the Kennedy Center. Previous productions here include Ben Uchida and Walking the Winds. Other area design and composition credits include A Prayer For Owen Meany, A Body of Water, The Retreat From Moscow, Underneath the Lintel, Tabletop, The Chairs and Off the Map at Round House Theatre, Sleeping Beauty, Seussical, Huck Finn, Grimm Reality and Cinderella Around the World with Imagination Stage, A Bright Room Called Day for Rorschach Theatre, Lend Me a Tenor and Anything Goes for Olney Theatre Center, Ten Unknowns with Signature Theatre, Twelfth Night and The Tempest at the Franklin Park Arts Center, The King and the Fool with the Washington Revels at Lisner Auditorium (where he also played the King), Spoon River Hunt of the Sun and Death and The King's Horseman for the Washington Shakespeare Company. Composition Credits include The Bremen Town Fairy Tales with the Very Special Arts, Icarus/Iris at Imagination Stage, Eleemosynary with Catalyst Theatre and Arkansaw Bear with ArtStream. Off-Broadway sound design credits include Shakespeare's Villains and Lakawanna Blues (Joseph Papp Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival).

Mitch Greenhill (Composer) Mitch Greenhill composed music for the Broadway production of An Almost Holy Picture at the Roundabout Theatre, directed by Michael Mayer and starring Kevin Bacon. The recipient of three Drama-Logue Awards for productions at the Mark Taper Forum and South Coast Repertory, he has also worked at Arena Stage (Helen Hayes nomination), Huntington Theatre, Berkeley Repertory, McCarter Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Trinity Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, San Jose Repertory and the Alley Theatre. Mr. Greenhill's recording career includes three CDs as an artist and many as producer, including one Grammy-winner and several nominations. He has appeared on screen in The Long Riders and Safe. Mr. Greenhill is president of Folklore Productions, a three-generation family business devoted to traditional and vernacular music. He is delighted to be collaborating once again with Shirley Jo Finney.

James Kronzer (Set Designer) Past shows for Kennedy Center include Cyrano, Shakespeare Stealer, My Lord What a Morning, Bocon and Hidden Terrors. Recent shows in the area: Elegies, Twentieth Century at the Signature Theater, Radiant Abyss, Big Love at Woolly Mammoth, Copenhagen, Monster at the Olney Theater Center, Wintertime, Heartbreak House and Drawer Boy at the Round House Theater and Trudy Blue at the Studio Theater. Elsewhere he has designed shows for the Arden Theater in Philadelphia: The Baker's Wife which won a Barrymore Award and Pacific Overtures; Pioneer Theater Company in Salt Lake City, Milwaukee Rep, Asolo Theater in Florida, Delaware Theater Company and the Weston Playhouse. He has done several national tours for Networks including Showboat, Annie, Big, Damn Yankees and the current tour of Seussical. Museum work of his has been seen at the Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, where he worked on the Julie Taymor exhibit. He is currently working on a new production of Cinderella for Disney Cruise lines. He has been nominated for the Helen Hayes Award nineteen times and has received the award five times. He is a member of United Scenic Artists, a board member at the Olney Theater Center and an Artistic Associate for Signature Theater.

Tony Angelini (Original Sound Designer) is happy to be back at The Kennedy Center after designing last season's Dancing in the Wings and The Emperors New Clothes in the fall of 2001. Recent credits include: The Great Quillow at the Kennedy Center; Much Ado About Nothing with the Hamptons Shakespeare Festival on Long Island, NY; the world premier of The Rhythm Club at Signature Theater in Arlington, VA; SLAM! at The San Diego Repertory Theatre; Gross Indecency at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; Fool For Love and A Streetcar Named Desire with the Keegan Theatre/ Town Hall Theatre, Galway, Ireland; Available Light and Tell Me On A Sunday, at Signature Theatre; Quintuplets for Gala Hispanic Theatre/National Theatre of Cuba; Comic Briefs, Master Harold and the Boys and SLAM! at The Studio Theatre; The Fantasticks and Three Days Of Rain at The Round House Theatre; Translations, The Field and On The Verge! for the Keegan Theatre. Other credits include Ruthless at the Source Theatre, Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde at Gallaudet University, and Brady Of Broadway! for The National Portrait Gallery. He has designed sound at the Washington Stage Guild for productions of Anna Karinina, The Late Edwina Black, and others. Mr. Angelini is a manager at RCI Sounds Systems in Rockville, MD.

Dan Covey (Lighting Designer) is honored to be back at the Kennedy Center where he has designed for many VSA arts productions and the world premieres of Dancing in the Wings, The Light of Excalibur and Dreams in the Golden Country. Dan's other recent lighting designs include: Mary's Wedding for Theater Alliance, where he is an artistic associate; Beyond Glory for Tribute Productions; Merlin and the Cave of Dreams for Imagination Stage; The Elixir of Love at The Barns at Wolf Trap; columbinus at Round House Theatre Silver Spring; Two Trains Running and A Lesson Before Dying for The African Continuum Theatre Company; The Seagull and Arcadia at Rep Stage; Romeo and Juliet and Two Gentlemen of Verona at Folger Shakespeare Theatre; A Midsummer Night's Dream at Perseverance Theatre; The York Realist at The Studio Theatre; Donna Q at Signature Theatre; Passing the Love of Women at Theater J; The Odyssey of Telémaca at Theater of the First Amendment and many others. Mr. Covey is a Helen Hayes Award winning lighting designer living in the Washington, DC area. Please visit his web site at dancovey.com for other upcoming projects, portfolio photographs, and contact information.

Tim Burrow (Costume Designer) Design credits: Alice, Dancing in the Wings, Pearl, The Emperor's New Clothes, Light in the Storm, Dreams, The Kennedy Center; Sweeney Tod, Falstaff, Don Pasquale, The Impresario/Viva la Mamma, Wolf Trap Opera; Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Signature Theatre; Enchantment of Dreams, Washington National Opera; Il Matrimonio Secreto, Le Nozze di Figaro, University of Maryland; Leaving the Summerland, Tribute Productions; Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, The Inseries; Cosi fan Tutte, Hansel and Gretel, Capital City Opera. 2004 Best Costume Nominee, NAACP.

Cast

Dionne Audain (Betty/Mrs. Rump) is honored to make Alice her Kennedy Center debut. She was last seen as Venus in the African Continuum Theatre's Draft Day. Favorite roles include: Matt Damon in Matt & Ben (Accokeek Creek Theatre) and Mrs. Garrity in A Candle on the Table (Serenity Players, Inc.), plus many DC area theatre credits. NY Stage: Afrikan Women's Repertory, The Workshop Theatre Co., Sanford Meisner Theatre and Shakespeare Saturdays. Many thanks to Ms. Goldberg, Kim, Shirley Jo and this outstanding cast and crew. Much love and gratitude to husband, family, friends, colleagues and coach, Vera J. Katz. Proud member of AEA, SAG & AFTRA. www.DionneAudain.com

Cecil E. Baldwin (Sal/Ronald/Fortune Teller) Studio Theatre: Robinson Crusoe in The Russian National Postal Service, Anton Chekhov in The Death of Meyerhold, Man in Autobahn; The Shakespeare Theatre: Cyrano, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Journeymen Theater: Arnold in The Boys Next Door, Ty Wain in The Colorado Catechism; Catalyst Theatre: Michael in Someone Who'll Watch Over Me; Rorschach Theatre: "The Bishop" in BEHOLD!; Didactic Theatre: Isaac in Beautiful Child; The National Players (Tour 54): Orgon in Tartuffe, Jaques in As You Like It; Capitol Fringe Festival and Journeymen Theatre: Bartleby in Bartleby; Cherry Red Theatre: Recta Lee in Day Old Plays '05; Tantalus Theatre: Agamemnon02; Hyperworld Theatre: Melia in Execution of Justice; FILM: Felix in Open Cam.

Taisha Cameron (Alice) is performing in her first Kennedy Center tour. She holds a BA from the University of Maryland College Park in Theatre Performance and a Dance minor. She has received further training from the DC Improv and New York Film Academy. Stage credits include: Friendship Betrayed, The Trial of One Short-Sighted Black Woman vs Mammy Louise & Safreeta Mae, Coyote Mischief Tale, Macbeth, and Romeo & Juliet. She thanks her family and friends for supporting her dream. She dedicates these performances in honor of artists who have inspired her and those whom she will inspire.

Nathaniel P. Claridad (Robin/Jaz) Off-Broadway: New York Musical Theatre Festival's And The Earth Moved; Off-Off Broadway: Radium (Alexis), The Merchant of Venice (Prince of Arragon); Regional: Hangar Theatre Kidstuff Series: Pinocchio, a musical (Pinocchio), Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs; Hangar Lab Company: Gallathea (Cupid), Constantinople Smith (Reality); Folger Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing; Shakespeare Theatre: ReDiscovery Series' The Beaux Strategem; Didactic Theatre: Moonchildren (Mike) Television appearances include Law and Order. Other favorite shows include Scapin (Scapin), and Blue Window (Griever).

Matt Dunphy (Streetperson/Kooli-Koolbob, Understudy - Sal/Ronald/Fortune Teller, Sherman/Mrs. Lowdown) is pleased to be joining The Kennedy Center on this national tour. His previous stage credits in Washington, DC include productions at Arena Stage, The Folger Theatre, Imagination Stage, The Smithsonian Institution, Journeymen Theater, Rorschach Theatre, and The Maryland Shakespeare Festival. Matt has appeared internationally as part of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival in Croatia and will return to Washington this coming spring to play Johann Steindorff in the Washington, DC premiere of Bach at Leipzig at Rep Stage. Matt has a BA in Theater from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MFA in Acting from The Catholic University of America.

Brad Fraizer (Sherman/Mrs. Lowdown) is very excited and thankful to be joining the Kennedy Center on his first national tour. New York Theater: Behnind the Sticks, New York Fringe Festival at Cherry Lane Theatre; The Maids and Deathwatch, Egress Theatre Co.; The Devil is an Ass, Emuyabo Prods.; Ping Pong Diplomacy, New York Premiere with Reverie Prods. Regional Theater: The Matchmaker, Ford's Theatre (dir. Mark Lamos); The Lion in Winter, Hackensack Cultural Arts Center; Hungry, Ann Arbor Festival of New Works. BFA Theater Performance University of Michigan.

Audra Alise Polk (Understudy - Alice, Betty/Mrs. Rump) is very excited to once again be a part of the Kennedy Center family. Kennedy Center credits include: Page to Stage, New Voices/New Visions, Alice, Brave No World (understudy), and Color Me Dark. Other credits include The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Globe Theatre (San Diego), Wooly Mammoth Theatre, and Plowshares Theatre. She is a graduate of the Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University.

Tyler Smith (Understudy - Robin/Jaz, Streetperson/Kooli-Koolbob ) is excited to be a part of his first Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences tour. Past credits include: Dis/Appearing (Capital and New York Fringe Festival), The Crucible, Again for Cydnus, Taming of the Shrew, Our Town, Cyrano de Bergerac, Scapin (University of Maryland), The Hairy Ape, Beauty and the Beast, School for Devils, DNA (Hangar Theatre Lab Company), Glass Mendacity, The Rocky Horror Show (Landless Theatre). Tyler just recently graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Maryland. He would like to thank his family and friends for their love and support.

Tour Technical Staff

Jeremy B. Wilcox (Production Stage Manager): Manhattan Madcap's of 1924 (Symphony Space); All's Well That Ends Well (New York Classical Theatre); Color Me Dark (The Kennedy Center); Klonsky and Schwartz, Octoberfest, The One-Armed Man (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Ramona Quimby (Theatreworks/USA); Show Title Deemed Indecent by the FCC, Pants On Fire, Curious George Goes To War (The Second City e.t.c.); Godshow, Standing on Ceremony, Kill The Messenger, Hamlet! The Musical (Second City Theatricals); The Best of The Second City (The Second City National Company). In addition, Jeremy has stage-managed 55 corporate industrial productions with Second City Communications including a show on LA's Fox Studio Lot with Tim Kazurinsky and a series of shows starring Martin Short.

Christopher Schardin (Technical and Sound Director) has worked as a sound engineer, technical director, lighting director, and puppet master on 4 previous tours with the Kennedy Center, and is excited to be part of yet another fabulous production.

Rachel Gilmore (Lighting Director) Broadway: On Golden Pond (Assistant to the LD). NYC: Pump Boys and Dinettes, Proof (Ground Up Productions), Game Boys, Baby Girl (Partial Comfort Productions), The Many Voices of the Saxophone (Lincoln Center Institute), Rebel Verses (Center Stage NY), Mingus, Mingus, Mingus: I am Three, The Rats are Getting Bigger (NY Fringe). Regional: Festival of Arts and Ideas (New Haven), Carmina Burana (Spartanburg Ballet), Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol (Cedar Creek Rep), Cabaret (The North Carolina Theatre), Field Effect (Hubbard Street 2). Graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Jeremy Kendall (Prop and Wardrobe Supervisor) is from Lincoln, Nebraska. He has his M.F.A. in theatre from the Johnny Carson School of Film and Television. With almost 15 years of theatrical experience, Jeremy has worked on over 100 productions as director, actor, props master or fight choreographer in Nebraska, Oklahoma and Los Angeles.

* Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka is a professional production employing members of Actors' Equity Association