The Syringa Tree Biographies Performers SHANNON KOOB (ELIZABETH, et al.) is thrilled to be making her Two River Theatre Company debut with this production of The Syringa Tree. Ms. Koob has previously performed the play at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, where she received a Cincinnati Entertainment Award for her performance. Last winter she had the pleasure of taking the play to Vienna, Austria. Shannon’s other regional credits include Picnic, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, Pierre (World Premiere by Jeffrey Hatcher), A Christmas Carol, and the world premiere of Inna Beginning. She’s also appeared in Karla at Long Wharf Theatre, You Never Can Tell at Yale Rep, How I Learned to Drive at Lizard Head Theatre Company, and The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare in Santa Fe. Shannon has appeared on “The Guiding Light” and in a number of commercials. She holds an MFA in acting from the National Theatre Conservatory. Production Artists PAMELA GIEN (PLAYWRIGHT) As both a writer and performer of The Syringa Tree, Pamela Gien won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, a Drama League Honor, a nomination for the John Gassner Playwriting Award, and the Obie for both Performance and Best Play 2001. A principal member of the American Repertory Theatre for four seasons, Pamela played Estrella in Life's a Dream, Annabella in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, and Sonya in the premiere of David Mamet's adaptation of Uncle Vanya, among others. She played Lavinia in Titus Andronicus for the Public Theatre's New York Shakespeare Festival, Alicia in Piano by Anna Deavere Smith and starred as Hannah Jelkes in Night of the Iguana at the LATC, for which she won a Drama-Logue Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatre. Random House has commissioned Pamela to write The Syringa Tree as a novel. She is writing the screenplay of The Syringa Tree, and has completed the screenplay for the upcoming film The Lily Field. The Syringa Tree is dedicated to her parents. MICHAEL EVAN HANEY (DIRECTOR) is the Associate Artistic Director for the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park where he has directed Bad Dates, A Picasso, the world premiere of Hiding Behind Comets, Proof, Drawer Boy, Irma Vep, A Christmas Carol and The Syringa Tree (also for the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and The English Theatre of Vienna). As the Artistic Director of Allenberry Playhouse in Pennsylvania, he directed over thirty plays including his own adaptation of Mark Twain's Adam & Eve Diaries. His regional work includes Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Mark Taper Forum, Sacramento Theatre Company, Passage Theatre, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Pacific Resident Theatre Company and The Washington Stage Guild. He began his career as an actor, appearing on Broadway in Elie Wiesel's Zalmen, Off-Broadway in Return to the River and The Jail Diary of Albee Sachs and with the Arena Stage, Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, Missouri Repertory Theatre and Baltimore's Center Stage. He played fourteen roles in the National Tour of Nicholas Nickleby. He is married to Amy Warner, whose one-woman pioneer play, As the Wind Rocks the Wagon, Mr. Haney directed for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Lincoln Center. NARELLE SISSONS (SCENIC DESIGNER) Broadway: All My Sons at The Roundabout. Off-Broadway: How I Learned To Drive, original production at The Century Center. Also, Stop Kiss, In The Blood, Kit Marlowe and Julius Caesar, The Erotica Project, Dutch Heart of Man at the Public Theater / NYSF. Our Lady of 121st Street and Jesus Hopped the A Train, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman at LAByrinth Center Stage, Donmar Warehouse, and West End, London. At Classic Stage Company: The Winter's Tale, Iphegenia and Other Daughters, Entertaining Mr. Sloane (Drama Desk nomination), Therese Raquin and The Misanthrope with Uma Thurman (American Theater Wing nomination). Collaborations with Lee Breuer include: Two Little Indians at HERE and The Doll House at St Anne's Warehouse and the Ibsen Festival, Oslo. Also in NYC, productions at: Minetta Lane, The Lucille Lortel, The Vineyard, Signature, Playwrights Horizons and NY Theatre Workshop. Favorite regional and international include: The Syringa Tree, Vienna, Austria; The Increased Difficulty of Concentration; London Fringe, Edinburgh festival 2001, also Williamstown Theatre Festival; As You Like It with Gwyneth Paltrow, ACT Seattle; SideMan (BackStage West Award), Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf. Current productions include Eyewitness Blues at NY Theatre Workshop in NYC. AARON BLACK (LIGHTING DESIGNER) Prior at TRTC: Miss Julie. New York credits include Dream on Monkey Mountain and Mother Courage (The Classical Theatre of Harlem); Mirandolina (Manhattan School of Music); Keith Reddin's Almost Blue (Flatiron Playhouse); Magic Flute directed by Robin Guarino (St. Michaels); Hamlet Machine and Cloud 9 (Loewe Theatre); The Waiting Room (Fifth Floor Theatre) and Soar Like an Eagle (Lion Theatre). Mr. Black has worked in regional theatre and opera companies throughout the US; has designed for various corporate trade shows and family entertainment parks and has worked in film and television including Art Director for The Primetime Television Special Shania Twain Up! Close and Personal. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. ELIZABETH EISLOEFFEL (COSTUME DESIGNER) is delighted to once again be a part of this creative team producing The Syringa Tree. She has designed costumes for the following productions at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis: Life (x) 3, Fully Committed, Day Trips, Dog Logic and Tom and Viv. She has designed costumes for productions at The Capital Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Vienna's English Theatre, Theatre Project Company, and St. Louis University. As an assistant designer she has worked for the New York Shakespeare Festival with Martin Pakledinaz, and the Sante Fe Opera with Michael Stennett. She has also worked as a technician for Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the Broadway costume house that produced Cats and Phantom of the Opera. Elizabeth is in her fifth season with the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis as Costume Shop Manager. She is an alumnus of Washington University in St. Louis and lives on a centennial farm in southern Illinois. CHUCK HATCHER (SOUND DESIGNER) is an Assistant Professor for the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati where he is the head of the BFA/MFA program in sound design. Chuck is happy to once again be a part of The Syringa Tree. Recent projects at CCM include Merrily We Roll Along, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Boys From Syracuse, Dracula: The Game of Love and The Laramie Project. Prior to joining CCM, he was a senior lecturer and resident sound designer for Cornell University in Ithaca, New York where he designed over 60 productions. Chuck's sound designs have also been heard at Studio Arena Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Summerfest at the University of Illinois, Hangar Theater, The Repertory Theater of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's Shelterhouse Theater, and Vienna's English Theater. He is a member of USA829/IATSE as a sound designer. MARCI GLOTZER (PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER) TRTC: The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Broadway: Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, Oklahoma!, Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera, Dirty Blonde, An Evening With Jerry Herman, State Fair and the annual star-studded Actors Fund Benefit Concerts. Off- Broadway and regional credits include Texts For Nothing, Jewtopia, An Experiment With An Air Pump, Lydie Breeze and the 92nd Street Y "Lyrics and Lyricists" series, as well as five years (and counting) with the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, MA. Marci is a proud member of Actors' Equity and the Stage Managers' Association.