Twisted Melodies

March 17–April 23

Twisted Melodies
Written and performed by Kelvin Roston, Jr.
Directed by Derrick Sanders
In association with Congo Square Theatre

A MUSICAL HOMAGE TO A SOULFUL LEGEND

This powerful one-man show is based on the life of ’70s soul singer and composer Donny Hathaway, perhaps best known for his duets with Roberta Flack. Twisted Melodies is an immersive and crushing play about the brilliant musician’s compelling inner struggle. Torn between the muses that inspire him and the mental illness that torments him, Hathaway evaluates the choices in his life in a gripping performance by Kelvin Roston, Jr.

“Roston is totally convincing as Hathaway.”—Chicago Tribune

Content Advisory: A one-man show based on the genius and mental decline of Donny Hathaway contains adult content and themes of suicide, and may be most suitable for theatergoers in middle school and up.

Approximate runtime is 1 hour and 40 minutes. There is no intermission.

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Kramon & Graham PA

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Cast

Kelvin Roston, Jr.*
Playwright, Music Director, Donny Hathaway

Creative Team

Derrick Sanders
Director

Courtney O’Neill
Scenic Designer

Dede Ayite
Costume Designer

Alan C. Edwards
Lighting Designer

Mike Tutaj
Projection Designer

Christopher M. LaPorte
Sound Designer

Hana S. Sharif
Production Dramaturg

Wendell Etherly
Dramaturg

Gavin Witt
Dramaturg

Deanie Vallone
Dramaturg

Tiffany Fulson
Assistant Director

Katrina Herrmann*
Stage Manager

Anthony O. Bullock*
Assistant Stage Manager

Baltimore Center Stage: My America Too, Clybourne Park, Beneatha’s Place, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Off Broadway—Signature: King Hedley II. Regional—Kennedy Center: August Wilson’s 20th Century Cycle: Seven Guitars, King Hedley II; Cincinnati Playhouse: Gee’s Bend (Acclaim Awards: Best Director, Outstanding Production); Virginia Stage Co: Fences, Radio Golf; Barebones: Jesus Hopped the A Train; Lincoln Center Theater: Sanctified; Chicago Children’s Theatre: Bud, Not Buddy, Jackie and Me (world premiere); American Theatre Co: Topdog/Underdog; True Colors: Jitney, Stick Fly; Minneapolis Children’s Theater: Five Fingers of Funk (world premiere); Congo Square: Elmina’s Kitchen (Midwest premiere); Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Black Theatre Alliance Awards, Best Production and Direction); Seven Guitars (Jeff Awards, Best Production and Direction), Deep Azure (world premiere), The House That Jack Built, Ali (Black Theatre Alliance Award); Kuntu Rep: A Cryin’ Shame; ETA Creative Arts Theatre Co.: Why Black Men Play Basketball. Other Professional—Congo Square Founding Artistic Director; Assistant Director: Broadway/Goodman/Mark Taper/Huntington: Gem Ocean, and Broadway/Goodman: Radio Golf.

Baltimore Center Stage: debut. Regional—Arena Stage: Moby Dick; Virginia Stage: The Mountaintop; Round House: Fetch Clay Make Man; Alliance Theatre: Moby Dick; Milwaukee Rep: The Amish Project, Song Man Dance Man; Steppenwolf: The Burials, The Compass, Life and Limb, Of Mice and Men; Chicago Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; Lookingglass: Moby Dick, The Little Prince; Marin Theatre: Fetch Clay Make Man; Writers Theatre: Julius Caesar; South Coast: Moby Dick; The Hypocrites: Wit, Oedipus, The Bald Soprano, Mud (Jeff Award); Chicago Children’s Theatre: Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money, Bud, not Buddy; Court Theatre: Waiting for Godot; Gift Theatre: Grapes of Wrath, Good for Otto, Bethany, Dirty, Cloud 9; Kansas City Rep: When I Come to Die. Associate Designer—Fish in the Dark (Broadway), This is Our Youth (Broadway). Education/Awards—MFA: Northwestern University; BFA: DePaul University; 2017 Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award; 2013 USITT Scene Design Award. Professional—Adjunct Faculty: DePaul University, Northwestern University. courtneyoneill.com.

Baltimore Center Stage: Twisted Melodies, Detroit ’67. Broadway—Children of a Lesser God. Off-Broadway—credits include MCC: School Girls; Playwrights Horizons: Mankind, Bella: An American Tall Tale; Signature: Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train; Lincoln Center: The Royale; Atlantic: Tell Hector I Miss Him, Marie and Rosetta; Roundabout: Ugly Lies the Bone; LCT3: brownsville song [b-side for tray]; The Public: Twelfth Night, ToasT, Urban Retreat, Manahatta; Cherry Lane: Nollywood Dreams; Harlem Stage: Holding It Down. Regional credits include—Denver Center, California Shakespeare Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Berkshire Theatre Group, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Signature Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Cleveland Play House. Television—Comedy Central, Fox Shortcoms (FOX Network) and COPPER Project (Improv Everywhere/BBC America). Awards—Helen Hayes, Theatre Bay Area, Jeff Awards, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nomination, 2 Audelco Award nominations. Education—MFA: Yale School of Drama.

Baltimore Center Stage: debut. Broadway—Associate Lighting Designer: The Testament of Mary. Off-Broadway—Theatre Row: Son of a Gun. Other New York—Classical Theatre of Harlem: The First Noel, Macbeth, Fit for a Queen; Harlem Stage: Holding It Down; Urban Stages: Illmatic; National Black Theatre: Kill Move Paradise, Dead & Breathing, Carnaval; CTH and NBT: Dutchman. Regional—Guthrie: We Are Proud to Present; Cleveland Play House: The Mountaintop; Dallas Theater Center: The Tempest, The Mountaintop, Stagger Lee; OSF: Fingersmith; Berkshire Theatre Group: Constellations, Deathtrap, The Mystery of Irma Vep; Yale Rep: The Piano Lesson, A Delicate Balance. Opera & Dance: Madison Opera: Acis and Galatea; Tri-Cities Opera: Carmen, The Marriage of Figaro; Simpson Opera: Suor Angelica, Curlew River; Syracuse Opera: Madam Butterfly; Madiba and The Black Iris (w/ Jeremy McQueen). Awards—Audelco (CTH: Macbeth). Education—MFA: Yale School of Drama. alancedwards.com.

Baltimore Center Stage: debut. Based in Chicago, Mr. Tutaj has been designing projections for theater and live performance for over 15 years. Off-Broadway—MCC Theatre: Ride the Cyclone; EnGarde Arts: Wilderness; York Theater Tomorrow Morning. Regional—Goodman, Steppenwolf, Court Theatre, Lookingglass, Writers Theatre, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Second City, Paramount Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre, Marriott Theatre, TimeLine Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Indiana Rep, Alliance Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, South Coast Rep, Syracuse Stage, Virginia Stage, Children’s Theatre Company, City Theatre Company, Theatre Squared. Professional— Artistic Associate with TimeLine Theatre Company; served as adjunct faculty at Columbia College Chicago. miketutaj.com

Baltimore Center Stage Associate Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif is a director, playwright, and producer. She served as Associate Artistic Director, Director of New Play Development, and Artistic Producer at Hartford Stage; recently as Program Manager of the ArtsEmerson Ambassador Program; and as Developmental Producer/Tour Manager of Progress Theatre’s musical The Burnin’. Hana also served as co-founder and Artistic Director of Nasir Productions, which brings theater to underserved communities. Her directing credits include: Baltimore Center Stage: The Christians, Les Liaisons Dangereuses; Pride & Prejudice (DCArts: Best Director/Best New Play); Regional: Sense & Sensibility, The Whipping Man, Gem of the Ocean (six CCC nominations), Gee’s Bend (CCC Award Best Ensemble, two nominations), Next Stop Africa, Cassie, The Drum, and IFdentity. Hana has directed numerous developmental workshops, including Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder’s The Chat and Chew Supper Club, Janine Nabers’ A Swell in the Ground, and Marcus Gardley’s The House That Will Not Stand. Her plays include All the Women I Used to Be, The Rise and Fall of Day, and The Sprott Cycle Trilogy. Hana is the recipient of the 2009–10 Aetna New Voices Fellowship and Theatre Communications Group (TCG) New Generations Fellowship. She serves on the board of directors for the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and the Sprott Foundation.

Director of Dramaturgy and Associate Director Gavin Witt came to Baltimore Center Stage in 2003, after nearly 15 years in Chicago as an actor, director, dramaturg, translator, and teacher—and co-founder of the classically based greasy joan & co theater. Among his translations and adaptations are a half-dozen Shakespeare plays, including a Jeff-nominated version of Pericles and the BCS production of As You Like It; Jeff-nominated translations of Beaumarchais’ The Barber of Seville and Ionesco’s Macbett; and the BCS adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance. A graduate of Yale and the University of Chicago, he is currently on the Humanities faculty at Peabody Conservatory, having previously taught at the University of Chicago, DePaul, and Towson; has served on the advisory boards of several theaters; and spent more than a decade as a regional vice president of LMDA, the national association of dramaturgs, before recently joining its board.

Baltimore Center Stage: The Christians, Twisted Melodies. Regional—University of Illinois at Chicago: Passing Strange The Musical, As You Like It, Clybourne Park, The Bluest Eye; Madison Street Theatre: In My Head; Journeyman Company/Gallery 37: Cats, Thirteen The Musical, The Wiz; Oregon Shakespeare Company: Sense and Sensibility; Pegasus Theatre Chicago: Shakin the Mess Out of Misery. Director credits—UIC: The Angry Brigade, A Woman’s World, and an original adaptation of Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman. Professional—Teaching artist at Steppenwolf, Timeline Theatre, and Northlight Theatre; Program Director at TimeLine South and August Wilson Monologue Competition Outreach Chicago. Education—BFA: University of Illinois at Chicago (Theatre Performance); Arcadia University for Global Studies in London, England.

Baltimore Center Stage: debut. Broadway—Next Fall, after being the original PSM for the production Off Broadway. Other Off Broadway— Barrow Street Theatre: The Flick; Playwrights Horizons: The Flick, The Whale, The Big Meal, Completeness, The Shaggs : Philosophy of the World, Kin, The Burnt Part Boys, Circle Mirror Transformation; Manhattan Theatre Club: Close Up Space; The Public: In the Wake. Tours—Theaterworks USA: Anne of Green Gables, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. Regional—Chicago Children’s Theatre: The Hundred Dresses, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane; Steppenwolf: Mary Page Marlowe, Spare Change, Lady Madeline; Theater Wit: Naperville; American Theater Company: Kill Floor, The Royale, Sons of the Prophet; TimeLine Theatre: Juno; Light Opera Works: Cole Porter’s Greatest Hits, Gershwin’s Greatest Hits; Oak Park Festival Theatre: Twelfth Night. Other—During the holidays, she works for Santa Claus at Macy’s.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association

In the Press

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Reviews

“Brilliant portrayal gives Twisted Melodies soul.”— The Baltimore Sun

“Kelvin Roston, as Donny Hathaway, knocks it out the park.”— DC Theatre Scene

“Beautiful, heartbreaking, and powerful.”— DC Theatre Scene

“A dynamic, powerful performance by Kelvin Roston Jr.”— MD Theatre Guide

In the News

03.22.17: The Baltimore Sun—Center Stage play probes troubled mind of Donny Hathaway
03.26.17: DC Metro Theatre Arts—Review: ‘Twisted Melodies’ at Baltimore Center Stage
03.27.17: DC Theatre Scene—Donny Hathaway’s life in Twisted Melodies at Baltimore Center Stage (review)
03.30.17: The Baltimore Sun—Theater review: Brilliant portrayal gives 'Twisted Melodies' soul

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