![McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2019/GoodnightNobody.jpg "McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"")
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- The Big Chill meets This is Us in Rachel Bonds’ play Goodnight Nobody. In this deeply moving and funny world premiere, a group of old friends reconnect after years apart. They reminisce with wild abandon, until the things they aren't telling each other come hurtling to the surface. The production runs January 10 through February 9 in McCarter’s Berlind Theatre.
Continuing its tradition of introducing major new plays and voices to the American Stage (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Convert, Anna in the Tropics), McCarter is pleased to bring this original commission to life, celebrating the artistry of Rachel Bonds (Five Mile Lake at McCarter), a playwright whose work has a “sublime tone” (The New York Times) in its well-constructed mix of character, potent dialogue, and nuanced subtext.
In Goodnight Nobody, Bonds leans in to a variety of relevant and timely themes. What is the cost of pursuing artistic excellence? Is there a connection between creative brilliance and mental illness? Can a female artist—however disciplined—ever attain freedom from the fact of her own womanhood?
McCarter’s Resident Playwright and Artistic Director Emily Mann remarked “after directing Bonds’ beautiful play Five Mile Lake in 2015, I sensed that Rachel was on her way to becoming a major new American playwright. We immediately commissioned her next work, which became Goodnight Nobody. Rachel explores the bonds and fractures between friends and family. She looks at our responsibly to one another, and she looks without sentimentality at new motherhood—the complex magnitude of that moment in time—in a more genuine ways than most playwrights have dared. With humor and compassion, Rachel gives us a portrait of her generation.”
The cast includes two-time Emmy Award-winner Dana Delany (China Beach, Desperate Housewives); Ken Marks (The Matchmaker at McCarter, Broadway’s Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark, and Spring Awakening); Nate Miller (Ayad Akhtar’s JUNK at Lincoln Center Theater); Saamer Usmani (Shakespeare in Love at Stratford Festival); and Ariel Woodwiss (Significant Other at Roundabout).
The creative team includes Kimie Nishikawa (scenic design), Ásta Bennie Hostetter (costume design), Jen Schriever (lighting design), and Daniel Kluger (sound design). Dramaturgy provided by Christine Scarfuto. Casting by Kelly Gillespie, CSA. Alison Cote and Christine Whalen are the stage managers.
McCarter Theatre Center is located at 91 University Place in Princeton, New Jersey. Under the leadership of award-winning playwright and Artistic Director Emily Mann, Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg, and Special Programming Director William W. Lockwood, McCarter’s mission is to create world-class theater and present the finest artists for the engagement, education, and entertainment of the community. Winner of the 1994 Tony Award® for Outstanding Regional Theatre, world premieres include Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2013 Tony® – Best Play); Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brother/Sister Plays; Emily Mann’s Having Our Say; and Danai Gurira’s The Convert. McCarter brings artists from around the world to Princeton, New Jersey including Gregory Porter, Zakir Hussain, Richard Thompson, and more. Education and outreach efforts serve tens of thousands through student matinees, in-school residencies, and adult classes.
About the Playwright
![McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2019/RachelBonds.jpg "McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"")
Rachel Bonds’ plays have been developed or produced by Ars Nova, WP Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre, Roundabout Underground, Atlantic Theater Co., South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Studio Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Williamstown Theatre Festival, among others. Her plays include: Curve of Departure (South Coast, Studio, Northlight); Sundown, Yellow Moon with music by The Bengsons (Ars Nova/WP, NY Times Critic’s Pick); Five Mile Lake (South Coast, McCarter, Shattered Globe, Weissberger Award); At the Old Place (La Jolla Playhouse); Swimmers (Marin Theatre Co., Sky Cooper Prize); The Wolfe Twins (Studio); Michael & Edie (NY Times Critic's Pick); Winter Games (ATL, Heideman Award); and Anniversary (EST). She is currently collaborating with composer Zoe Sarnak on The Lonley Few, a commission for The Geffen. BA, Brown University.
About the Director
Tyne Rafaeli (Direction) is a New York-based director of new plays, classics, and musicals. Recent productions include Sylvia Khoury’s Power Strip at LCT3 and Selling Kabul at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Ming Peiffer's Usual Girls at Roundabout Theater Company (NY Times Critics’ Pick); Craig Lucas' I Was Most Alive With You at Playwrights Horizons (NY Times Critics’ Pick); Martyna Majok’s Ironbound; the world premieres of Anna Ziegler’s Actually and Amanda Peet’s Our Very Own Carlin McCullough at The Geffen Playhouse; and Michael Yates Crowley’s The Rape of the Sabine Women at The Playwrights Realm. Her work has also been seen at La Jolla Playhouse, Classic Stage Company, Cal Shakes, Roundabout Theatre Company, Atlantic Theater Company, Two River Theater, PlayMakers Rep, New York Stage & Film, Goodspeed, Juilliard, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, American Players Theatre, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and the O'Neill Playwright's Conference. Tyne is a 2016-18 Time Warner Directing Fellow at the Women's Project Theater and received the 2014 SDC Sir John Gielgud Fellowship for Classic Direction. Upcoming projects include Selling Kabul at Playwrights Horizons.
Cast Biographies
![McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2019/Delany200.jpg "McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"")
Dana Delany (Mara) Broadway: Translations, A Life. Off-Broadway: Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties (MCC), Dinner with Friends, Blood Moon. Regional: The Night of the Iguana (A.R.T.), The Parisian Woman (South Coast Repertory), Much Ado About Nothing (Old Globe), Dinner with Friends (Geffen Playhouse, Wilbur Theatre). TV/Film: Hand of God (Crystal Harris), Body of Proof (Dr. Megan Hunt), Desperate Housewives (Katherine Mayfair), China Beach (Colleen McMurphy), Kidnapped, Pasadena, True Women, Wild Palms, Tombstone, Housesitter, Fly Away Home, Light Sleeper, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Can next been seen as Edith Roosevelt in The American Guest on HBO.
![McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2019/KenMarks.jpg "McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"")
Ken Marks (Bo) is pleased to return to McCarter after an absence of 25 years, when he was Cornelius Hackl in Emily Mann’s production of The Matchmaker. Broadway: Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark (Uncle Ben), Airline Highway, Spring Awakening, Rock N’ Roll, Hairspray (Wilbur Turnblad), After the Fall, Mamma Mia! (Original Broadway Company), Present Laughter, Dancing at Lughnasa. Off-Broadway: Father Comes Home from the Wars (Public Theatre), Bethany (Women’s Project), Editor Webb in Our Town (Barrow Street), Stage Kiss (Playwrights Horizons), Orson’s Shadow (Barrow Street), Stuff Happens (Public Theater). TV: recurring on Elementary, The Exorcist, Life on Mars, and The Tick; guest star on Billions, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, Madam Secretary, and various Law & Order. Film: The Confession, The Wackness, Step-up 3D, Kelly & Cal, Henry’s Crime, Blood Stripe.
![McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2019/NateMiller.jpg "McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"")
Nate MIller (Reggie) is a Brooklyn-based actor/producer and founding member of Lesser America Theatre Co. A Milwaukee native, he is a graduate of Marquette University and The Juilliard School’s Drama Division. Broadway: JUNK at LCT. Off Broadway: India Pale Ale, Ripcord, Of Good Stock at MTC; Love and Information at NYTW; Peter and the Starcatcher at New World Stages. Regional: Actors Theatre of Louisville, La Jolla Playhouse, Playmakers Rep, The Wilma Theatre. FILM: Either Side of Midnight, Another Kind. TV: The Code, The Good Wife (CBS), Us & Them (FOX), Another Kind (Vicart Ent.)
![McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2019/SaamerUsmani.jpg "McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"")
Saamer Usmani (Nan) Theater: Shakespeare in Love directed by Declan Donnellan (Stratford Festival), The Aeneid (Stratford Festival), Richard III (Birmingham Conservatory), King John (LAMDA). Selected TV: What If (Netflix), Succession (HBO), Run (HBO - upcoming), Reign (CW). Training: MA, LAMDA, Birmingham Conservatory at the Stratford Festival.
![McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2019/ArielWoodiwiss.jpg "McCarter Theatre Presents The World Premiere Of "Goodnight Nobody"")
Ariel Woodiwiss (K) specializes in developing new work that celebrates complex women and addresses timely social issues. She has developed and premiered new works by Molly Smith Metzler (The May Queen, Elemeno Pea), A.R. Gurney (Heresy) and with many New York theaters including: Page 73, (Ultimate Beauty Bible), Cherry Lane Theatre (The Convent of Pleasure), Roundabout Theatre (Significant Other), American Theater Group (A Good Farmer), Premiere Stages (Foster Mom) NYTW, Vineyard Theatre, EST, Primary Stages, and Clubbed Thumb.
Ariel was most recently seen as the lead in the workshop of the powerful new play IKE, written and directed by 2019 Drama League Beatrice Terry Resident Director Molly Beach Murphy. She is represented by Sinclair Management. Ariel Woodiwiss makes her McCarter Theatre Center debut with Goodnight Nobody.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Live at the Library – Sunday, January 5 at 3 p.m.
McCarter Theatre Center’s Artistic Director and Resident Playwright Emily Mann and Goodnight Nobody playwright Rachel Bonds will join in conversation about their lives in theater, working motherhood, and working together on both Rachel’s 2015 McCarter debut, Five Mile Lake, and on her original McCarter commission set to make its world premiere in January.
Emily will reflect upon her artistic legacy as a champion for new voices, the work of women, and the next generation of playwrights in the American Theater, and about her special connection with and mentorship of Rachel. Rachel will talk about how new motherhood and other aspects of her own life inspired both the writing of Goodnight Nobody, as well as her parenting and theater essay/practical manifesto entitled “Working Like a Mother,” for Howlround Theatre Commons.
All are welcome to share in this intimate and fascinating discussion, which will include a conversational Q&A with the audience. Mothers, fathers, and aspiring parents are especially welcome! This event will take place in Princeton Public Library’s Community Room (on the first floor) at 64 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, NJ. No RSVP or ticket is required to attend this event; it is free and open to the public. This is a Princeton Public Library and McCarter Theatre Center community partnership event.
Dialogue on Drama – Sunday, January 19 following the 2 p.m. performance
An in-depth post-show interview with McCarter’s Artistic Director and Resident Playwright Emily Mann and Goodnight Nobody Director Tyne Rafaeli, offering audiences a window into the artistic process of bringing a play to life. The interview is followed by questions and reflections from the audience. This is a free event, no RSVP required.
Post-Show Discussions – Wednesday, January 22 and Sunday, January 26
Post-show discussions are interactive conversations facilitated by a member of McCarter’s artistic staff, often featuring cast members. Post-show discussions occur following the 7:30 p.m. performance on Wednesday, January 22 and the 2 p.m. performance on Sunday, January 26.
Inside Story
Join us 45 minutes before every performance for a talk led by a member of McCarter’s artistic staff. Hear about what inspired the play, its unique style, and more. All Inside Story talks take place in the Matthews Theatre unless otherwise noted in the lobby upon arrival.
