MORE PERFECT PLACES
Written and Directed by Seth Bockley
Performed on June 10 & 11, 2022
Thrall’s Opera House, New Harmony, Indiana
Cast (in alphabetical order):
Matt Beil
Renee Carter
AJ Clauss
Alex Coniaris
Lauren Diesch
Scot Greenwell*
Lethia Nall*
Caroline Sanchez
Creative Team:
Video Design: Liz Nofziger
Composer/Musician: Andrew Gerber
Lighting Design: Joshua Stallings
Sound Design: Jakey Mumford
Stage Manager: Jake Allen Miller*
Youth & Community Engagement: Angela Tillges
Dramaturg/Creative Producer: Tanya Palmer
Setting: Thrall’s Opera House, New Harmony, Indiana
Time: Pre-history – the present day
*Appears through the courtesy of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Stage projections for the production have been built around the incredible Don Blair Collection held at Rice Library at USI.
Special Thanks: the development and production of More Perfect Places was supported by Indiana University’s Arts and Humanities Council, Platform: An Arts and Humanities Research Laboratory with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; IU’s Center for Rural Engagement, IU’s Department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance; Historic New Harmony and the University of Southern Indiana; The New Harmony Project; Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, and the Robert Lee Blaffer Foundation.
CAST BIOS:
Matthew Beil (Ensemble 4) is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. His ancestors lived along the Saint Joseph and Wabash Rivers in Indiana. Matthew acknowledges and honors the other Indigenous communities, those of the Myaamiaki (Miami), Lënape (Delaware), and the Saawanwa (Shawnee) whose ancestral homelands the State of Indiana and all its infrastructure are built upon. Matthew has worked in theater for the past decade, primarily in the Tampa Bay area as a Lighting Designer, Stage Manager, Dramaturge, and Actor. Matthew is finishing his master’s degree in history at Indiana University Bloomington and in the fall will be a first-year doctoral student in History at the University of Kansas. Matthew’s primary historical focus is on Bodéwadmi (Potawatomi) history and interconnectivity of Indigenous communities in the Great Lakes Region of Turtle Island (North America). Finally, Matthew would like to say migwétch (thank you) to all present.
Renee Carter (Ensemble 8) is excited to begin her professional career with the production of More Perfect Places. She began her acting career at the age of eight in her first musical Cinderella Jr. Since then, Renee has appeared in several theater productions such as Hairspray (Lil Inez), Almost Maine (hope), and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Olive), just to name a few. She is currently a student attending Indiana University studying theatre. Renee is a Hoosier native. She was born in Bloomington and has lived in Indiana her entire life. Renee is extremely grateful to be working with such a great cast.
AJ Clauss (Ensemble 7) is a writer and performer forged from Southern Indiana. AJ is the co-founder of Stomping Ground Theatre Project, producing plays in Small-Town America using a hybrid of local and professional artists. Stomping Ground's goal is to bring theatre to the people, while making the entire theatre-making process (from writing to production) feel local and accessible, & free to the public. AJ is a current member of Youngblood, the Obie award-winning playwright group at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in NYC. Up next AJ's off to Cape Cod, performing in Taylor Mac's Gary at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre.
Alex Coniaris (Ensemble 3) is thrilled to be a part of More Perfect Places. Recent credits include Sueno (Astolfo), Nice Jewish Boy (Jerry), Mystery Plays (Nathan West and others) at Indiana University, John Brown’s Body (Clay Wingate and others) for Stages Bloomington and Rabbit Hole (Howie) for Theatre South. Alex has competed at the UCWDC World Dance Competition under pro Mary Hoedeman for Two Step, Cha Cha, West Coast Swing, Night Club and Waltz. This fall, Alex will be a junior at Indiana University majoring in Marketing with a minor in Spanish and Theatre. He loves volleyball, cooking, dancing, filmmaking, and hopes to study abroad in Seville, Spain for the Spring 2023 semester.
Lauren Diesch (Ensemble 6) is a director, actor, and teaching artist originally from Pittsburgh, PA. Lauren received her B.A in Theatre Arts from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently pursuing her MFA in Directing at Indiana University. Lauren worked at the award-winning CLIMB theatre in the Twin Cities from 2011-2021--first as an actor educator and eventually rising to the role of Director of Education and Associate Artistic Director of CLIMB Theatre. In the Twin Cites she has worked with The Children's Theatre Company, Park Square Theatre, Theatre Coup d’Etat (Company Member), Gadfly Theatre, Theatre in the Round, Open Window Theatre, Chameleon Theatre Circle, Umbrella Collective (Company Member), and Theatre Unbound.
Scot Greenwell (Ensemble 1) grew up in Loogootee, Indiana, attended the University of Evansville, and attended the New Harmony Project over 20 years ago. He’s thrilled to be back after all this time for his first history pageant. Scot is an actor, improviser, and simulated patient, helping healthcare students & professionals enhance their skills. He lives in Indianapolis with his husband Zack and their dog Minnie.
Lethia Nall (Ensemble 6) is so very grateful and excited to be a part of this inspiring ensemble. As an actor and educator in New York City for 11 years, her favorite work includes As You Like It at The Public Theatre and the premiere of Tom Stoppard’s Indian Ink at Soho Rep. She played Sonya in Crime and Punishment at The Cleveland Playhouse and just finished Witness For The Prosecution in Shelbyville, Ky. Film & TV: Summertime in New York; A Decent Arrangement (India), Law & Order, Rescue Me. She now lives in Louisville, Ky with her husband, two children and allergies. Thank you to her family for their huge support so she can do what she loves! And to Tanya, for this opportunity.
Caroline Sanchez (Ensemble 5) is a Southern California native pursuing her M.F.A. in acting at Indiana University, Bloomington. Caroline received her B.A. in Theatre from the University of California, Riverside. Previously, she was featured in the Artist Spotlight of the Press-Enterprise for the Inland Empire. Some of her favorite roles have been the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, a David Bowie inspired Feste in Twelfth Night, and Martirio from The House of Bernarda Alba.
CREATIVE TEAM:
Seth Bockley (Playwright/Director) is a writer and theater artist. He has adapted for the stage works of fiction by George Saunders, Washington Irving and Roberto Bolaño, received two New York Times’ “Critics’ Picks,” and has been commissioned to write plays by the Public Theater, Goodman Theater, and Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. His works have been seen onstage in Mexico City, Singapore, rural Ireland, Canada and all over the USA. An inaugural member of Chicago’s Goodman Theater Playwrights' Unit, for three years he subsequently served as Writer in Residence at Goodman Theater. His story “Repertorio" won a debut fiction prize for Boulevard magazine and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His first film, “The Cartographer,” is in post-production in Bristol, UK. He teaches performance and literary adaptation for the stage at the University of Chicago. sethbockley.com
Andrew Gerber (Composer/Musician) is a musician, writer and cook. He lives in Paoli, Indiana. He has studied celebration while living in East Africa and the love of life while working as a hospice nurse. He and his partner live in a former factory building they are bringing back to life to host community celebrations and the arts.
Jake Allen Miller (Stage Manager) is a stage manager and theatre maker residing in Louisville, Kentucky. Jake has stage managed productions for Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Second City in Chicago, and many other theaters big and small across the Midwest. Currently he serves as Production Manager at Commonwealth Theatre Center in Louisville. He is grateful for your support of the arts and live theatre.
Jakey Mumfie (Sound Design) is an audio engineer, sound designer, and native of the New Harmony area with family ties back to the Owen period. They primarily work in video game sound design but have worked with live music production their entire life.
Liz Nofziger (Video Design) Liz Nofziger is a site-specific installation artist whose work examines relationships to space within the physical, architectural, political, and pop-cultural landscape. Employing a broad range of media including sculptural elements, video, light, audio, and text, viewer investigation completes her work. Nofziger received her MFA from the Studio for Interrelated Media at Massachusetts College of Art. Originally from Paoli, Indiana, Liz currently lives and teaches sculpture and installation in the Boston area. www.nofzilla.com
Tanya Palmer (Dramaturg/Creative Producer) is currently the Assistant Dean and Executive Artistic Director in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. She was previously on faculty at Indiana University Bloomington, and for 14 seasons was the Director of New Play Development at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. From 2000-2005 she served as the Director of New Play Development at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she led the reading and selection process for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from York University in Toronto. She currently lives in Evanston, IL with her family.
JOSHUA STALLINGS (Lighting Designer/Production Manager) is excited to join a project creating new work across his native southern Indiana . He has been on the staff/faculty at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville since 2019 where he fills various roles as a composer, designer, and technician. Previously, Joshua spent seven years in the Twin Cities in Minnesota where he worked many full time and freelance roles across theatre, television, music, and corporate production. Please help support local young artists with EVSC Foundation's SpongeBob Squarepants: The Musical at ONEP this July and throughout the school year with USI's upcoming season!
Angela Tillges (Costume Design/Community Outreach Coordinator) is a city project manager, artist and educator who is skilled at working with public institutions and community organizations on projects of social, artistic, ecological and educational importance. She leads projects that provide people the opportunity to make personal and lasting connections with public and open spaces in their communities. Currently the Great River Passage Fellow for the City of St. Paul, Tillges was also the Senior Program Specialist for Chicago City Parks and Recreation, and was spent 9 years as the Associate Artistic Director of Chicago’s Red Moon Theatre, a puppet and performance company that created free public spectacles providing opportunities for public engagement, community building, and recognition of the possibility for change. She has an M.Ed. from Harvard University with a focus in Arts and Education.