Jackie Robinson’s powerhouse contribution to the game he loved, and to the American civil-rights movement, are well-chronicled in Steven Dietz’s play for youth, Jackie and Me, opening on the IRT’s Upperstage January 11, 2013. This exciting play illuminates Jackie Robinson’s courage and dignity in the face of cruel racial prejudice. Jackie and Me will have you on the edge of your seat while rooting for the man who changed the face of the game. Tickets are $25-$55 and vary by show and seat selection.
For tickets and more information, call the IRT ticket office (317) 635-5252 or visit irtlive.com.
About Jackie and Me…
Joey Stoshack needed to learn how to control his temper and not give in to bullies. When he needed to write a school report and picked Jackie Robinson as his topic, he found the answer. Joey had an amazing skill; he could travel back in time. Holding onto a baseball card from 1947, he travelled back to meet one of the most influential baseball players in history. There he was in Branch Rickey’s office on the day Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Only now Joey was an African American boy and soon found himself facing the same taunts that Jackie Robinson had endured. With Jackie as his role-model, Joey learned to face bullies without losing control and stooping to their level. This tale of an American icon brings to life the struggles and courage it took for Jackie Robinson to become the baseball player and man of courage that he was and an example for us all.
Jackie and Me Show Times
- Friday, January 11, 7 p.m. (Opening Night)
- Saturday, January 12, 3 p.m. & 6 p.m.
- Friday, January 18, 7 p.m.
- Saturday, January 19, 3 p.m. & 6 p.m.
- Monday, January 21, 10 a.m.
- Friday, January 25, 7 p.m.
- Saturday, January 26, 3 p.m. & 6 p.m.
- Friday, February 1, 7 p.m.
- Saturday, February 2, 3 p.m. & 6 p.m.
- Saturday, February 9, 3 p.m. & 6 p.m.
- Saturday, February 16, 3 p.m. & 6 p.m.
The Cast
Ryan Artzberger Dad, Dixie Walker, Ben Chapman, et al.
Ryan’s IRT credits include A Christmas Carol, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Miracle Worker, God of Carnage, Julius Caesar, Fire in the Garden, Holes, Romeo and Juliet, The Heavens Are Hung in Black, Rabbit Hole, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, Iron Kisses, Tuesdays with Morrie, Our Town, Death of a Salesman, Inherit the Wind, He Held Me Grand, Macbeth, and The Herbal Bed. Next he will be seen in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ryan is a member of Heartland Actors Repertory Theatre where he has appeared in Othello, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice, and In a Dark Dark House. Regional credits include Reasons to Be Pretty at the Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., and at the Phoenix Theatre here in Indianapolis; The Arabian Nights at Berkeley Rep and Kansas City Rep; Argonautika at the Lookingglass; Silk and Pericles at the Goodman Theatre; Pericles, Cyrano, and many others at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.; Hamlet, The Sea Gull, and The Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare Santa Cruz; Romeo and Juliet at Great Lakes Theater Festival; The Beauty Queen of Leenane at the Denver Center; and As You Like It at New Jersey Shakespeare and Playmakers Rep. Ryan is a graduate of Ohio University and the Juilliard School.
Jennifer Johansen Mom, Mrs. Herskowitz, et al.
Jen was seen at the IRT last fall in the Going Solo series in The Syringa Tree. Other IRT appearances include Portia in Julius Caesar, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, and Viola in Twelfth Night, as well as Holes, The Giver, The Ladies Man, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2005), Most Valuable Player, and five seasons of A Christmas Carol,. Next she will be seen in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. With Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, Jen received a Leading Actress Award for her performance in Time Stands Still. She has played Veronica Novak in God of Carnage, Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, and Past and Future in A Christmas Carol at the Human Race Theatre in Dayton. She is a member of ShadowApe Theatre Company, is a certified yoga instructor, has trained with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, is a Creative Renewal Fellow 2011, and recently completed a month-long Shakespeare intensive at RADA.
Rob Johansen Flip, Leo Durocher, Pee Wee Reese, et al.
Last year was a wonderfully diverse one for Rob. After appearing in Julius Caesar and A Christmas Carol at the IRT, Rob continued his directing career with The Visit at Franklin College and The Miser at Wabash College. While rehearsing those shows at night, Rob spent his days choreographing the breakfast scene in the IRT’s The Miracle Worker. Rob spent the start of this season at Syracuse Stage performing in Moby Dick, and most recently he was in the ensemble of the Phoenix Theatre’s Christmas show where he acted as well as wrote a sketch for the show. This summer Rob and his wonderful wife, Jen, plan to resurrect ShadowApe Theatre Company with a remount of ShadowApe’s adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House at the Indy Fringe. This is Rob’s 18th season acting with the IRT.
Joseph Mervis Joey Stoshack
Joseph made his professional debut at the IRT in 2009 as Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird. Joseph recently performed as Young George and Pete Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life and Peter Cratchit, Boy Scrooge, and Turkey Boy in A Christmas Carol at Beef & Boards. Other credits include 13 the Musical, Alice in Wonderland, Charlotte’s Web, and Evita. Joseph will appear in the upcoming film From Ashes which will be released in spring 2013. He is 13 years old and in the eighth grade at Sycamore School.
Robert Neal Branch Rickey, Eddie Stanky, Babe Ruth, et al.
Robert was seen last season in the IRT’s Going Solo series as James Beard in the world premiere of James Still’s I Love to Eat, a role he reprised for the 2012 Beard Foundation Awards at Lincoln Center in New York City. This is Robert’s 12th season with the IRT in such shows as A Christmas Carol, The Miracle Worker, Holes, Becky’s New Car, Romeo and Juliet, The Heavens are Hung in Black, Interpreting William, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, King Lear, Inherit the Wind, Arcadia, and As You Like It. Other local theatres include Heartland Actor’s Repertor Theatre, ShadowApe Theatre, Indy Fringe, and the Phoenix Theatre, and he has performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Indianapolis Early Music Festival. Regional theatre credits include Syracuse Stage, the Blackstone Theatre, the Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, American Players Theatre, Pennsylvania Center Stage, the Oklahoma and Kentucky Shakespeare festivals, and the Brown County Playhouse, as well as the English American Theatre Festival in Dusseldorf, Germany. Robert’s training is from Penn State (M.F.A.) and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
Beethovan Oden Jackie Robinson
Beethovan is making his IRT debut in Steven Deitz’s Jackie and Me. He is a native of Oakland, California, who resides in New York City. Beethovan is a graduate of Cornish College of the Arts (B.F.A in acting) and Southern Methodist University (M.F.A in acting). Regional credits include The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity at Aurora Theatre Company, My Children! My Africa! at Victory Gardens Theatre, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 at Dallas Theater Center, Anna in the Tropics at Seattle Rep, Our Town at Colorado Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and Othello at Southern Methodist University Margo Jones Theatre.
Lanise Antoine Shelley Ms. Levitt, Rachel Robinson, et al.
Lanise is making her debut at the IRT in Steven Deitz’s Jackie and Me. At the American Repertory Theater she has played Imani in Tough Titty, Hymen in As You Like It, Mother in Beckett Shorts, and Hoffman in Nutcracker Turbo. As a resident company member at Milwaukee Repertory Theater for five years she appeared in The Night Is a Child, … Young Lady from Rwanda, The Crucible, Eurydice, King Lear, Gem of the Ocean, The Glass Menagerie, Intimate Apparel, Lady Windermere’s Fan, Yes, No (Maybe So), You Can’t Take It with You, and I Just Stopped By to See the Man. Other regional credits include Portia in Julius Caesar and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Cry the Beloved Country and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings at Book-It Repertory Theatre, Shock Brigade: Women in Combat at Baba Yaga, the Black Sci-Fi Festival at Seattle Rep, and a workshop of The Convert at the Goodman Theatre. Lanise studied at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford England, earned her B.F.A. from Cornish College of the Arts, and recently received an M.F.A. from the ART/MXAT Institute at Harvard University.
Brett Wainscott Bobby Fuller, Ant, et al.
Brett is making his IRT debut in Steven Deitz’s Jackie and Me. He has been in several Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre productions, including The Wizard of Oz, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Evita, and three Jr. Civic shows. His favorite role has been Mike Teevee in Willy Wonka (2011). When not at the theatre, Brett is an 8th grader at Fall Creek Valley Middle School. He enjoys club soccer at FC Pride, piano, trumpet, and Tae Kwon Do.
The Creative Team
Steven Dietz Playwright
IRT audiences have seen Steven Dietz’s Dracula, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, and Becky’s New Car. One of America’s most widely produced and published contemporary playwrights, Steven has had more than 30 plays produced at over 100 regional theatres, as well as Off Broadway and around the world (in seven languages). He is a two-time winner of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, and he has received the PEN USA West Award, the Yomuiri Shimbun Award, and the Edgar
Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Other widely produced plays include Last of the Boys (Pulitzer and Steinberg Award nominations), Inventing Van Gogh, God’s Country, Private Eyes, The Nina Variations, Trust, Rocket Man, and Halcyon Days. Stage adaptations include Honus and Me (from Dan Gutman), Force of Nature (from Goethe), and Over the Moon (from P. G. Wodehouse). Steven teaches playwriting at the University of Texas.
Dan Gutman Author
Dan Gutman has written 105 books, both fiction and non-fiction. His best-known work is his Baseball Card Adventures series, which started with Honus & Me (1997). Each book in the series revolves around a boy traveling back in time to meet a baseball legend; Jackie & Me (1999) was the second in a series of eleven so far. The original story, Honus & Me, was made into a Turner Network Television move entitled The Winning Season, starring Matthew Modine. Gutman has written more than 40 books in three My Weird School series for beginning readers. His latest books are the New York Times best-selling The Genius Files series. Gutman lives in Haddonfield, New Jersey with his wife and two children.
Courtney Sale Director
Courney is an Austin based director with a strong interest in new plays. As co-founder of the Duplicates, she has directed The Poison Squad, The Fictional Life of Historical Oddities, and september play. Other selected credits include 360 (round dance) by Steven Dietz at the University of Texas; The Zoo Story at Secondhand Theatre; Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls and The Scandal! (Nominee for NY Innovative Theater Award) at Management; The Chalk Boy at Company of Angels; and A Bright Room Called Day at Strike Anywhere. Her work has been recognized in American Theatre, the Austin Chronicle, and Dramatists Magazine. She earned her B.F.A. at Cornish College of the Arts and her M.F.A. at the University of Texas at Austin. She has taught at UT Austin, Seattle Children’s Museum, and Summer at Cornish, and currently teaches at Temple College.
Robert M. Koharchik Scenic Designer
Robert has designed more than 25 productions for the IRT, including all four Going Solo Festivals, as well as The Miracle Worker (2012 and 2000), Holes, Crime and Punishment, To Kill a Mockingbird (2009), Looking Over the President’s Shoulder (2008), Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Pride and Prejudice, The Turn of the Screw, The Lion in Winter, Art, Blithe Spirit, Romeo and Juliet (2004), Cyrano, and James Still’s And Then They Came for Me (1996), which he subsequently designed for George Street Playhouse in New Jersey and again for Geva Theatre in Rochester, New York. Robert works locally with the Indianapolis Civic Theatre and the Lilly Theatre at the Children’s Museum; and his regional credits include Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Weston Playhouse, Geva Theatre, and American Players Theatre. A 2000 & 2011 Arts Council–Lilly Endowment Creative Renewal Fellow, Robert holds an M.F.A. in set design from Boston University and a B.S. in theatre from Ball State. He teaches theatre design at Butler University.
Alison Heryer Costume Designer
Alison is a costume designer for theatre, film, and print. Her stage credits include The Bluest Eye, The Fall to Earth, A Lesson before Dying, Orange Flower Water, Things Being What They Are, and World Set Free at Steppenwolf Theatre; Pippin and The Whipping Man at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; RENT and Doubt at ZACH Theatre; Six Characters in Search of an Author with the Hypocrites; The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, Trojan Women, The Idiot, and 410 [Gone] at UT Austin; Twilight Orchard and Seagull with Redmoon Theater; and Red Scare at Second City. In 2010, she received the Austin Critics Table Award for Costume Design and Michael Philippi Award for Emerging Artist. Alison is faculty in the Fiber program at Kansas City Art Institute.
Betsy Cooprider-Bernstein Lighting Designer
This is Betsy’s 33rd production at the IRT, including Julius Caesar, Mary’s Wedding, Love Letters, The Giver, Macbeth, The Power of One, Romeo and Juliet (2004), The Miracle Worker (2000), Candida, and 10 seasons as associate lighting designer for A Christmas Carol. She has also designed many productions for the Indianapolis Opera, most recently Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Todd Mack Reischman Sound Designer
This season marks Todd’s 11th as resident sound designer at the IRT, where he has designed nearly 60 productions. His original music has been heard in Macbeth, This Wonderful Life, The Piano Lesson, and To Kill a Mockingbird, among others. In his copious spare time Todd plays with several local rock and blues bands and operates LostSound recording studio.
Richard J Roberts Dramaturg
As resident dramaturg for 15 of his 23 seasons with the IRT, Richard joins playwrights, directors, actors, and audiences in exploring the context and meaning of plays old and new. He has also been a dramaturg for the New Harmony Project and the Bonderman Symposium. He has directed the IRT’s productions of The Night Watcher, Neat, Pretty Fire, The Giver, The Power of One, and Twelfth Night, as well as the three most recent editions of A Christmas Carol. Other directing credits include the Phoenix Theatre, Edyvean Repertory Theatre, Indianapolis Civic Theatre, and Butler University. Next he directs The Musical of Musicals for Actors Theatre of Indiana and Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad at Anderson University. He was editor-in-chief of Arts Indiana magazine and has taught theatre courses at Butler and IUPUI. He studied music at DePauw University and theatre at Indiana University. In 2003 he was awarded a Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis.
Delia Neylon Stage Manager
At the IRT, Delia has worked as a stage manager on Fire in the Garden, The Year of Magical Thinking, and This Wonderful Life; prior to that she was a production assistant for two seasons at the IRT. She has stage managed at the Phoenix Theatre (A Very Phoenix Xmas 6). She has been an assistant stage manager for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Company (Twelfth Night and Cyrano de Bergerac) and for ShadowApe Theatre Company (Gorey Stories and The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer). She has also worked closely with Dance Kaleidoscope and stage managed Lysistrata for the Sapphire Theatre Company. Delia holds a B.A. in theatre from the University of Indianapolis.
The IRT celebrates its 41st season. Founded in 1972, the IRT is the largest and leading fully professional not-for-profit theatre in the state and has grown into one of the leading regional theatres in the country. The IRT continues to be one of the top-flight cultural institutions in the city and state, providing experiences that engage, surprise, challenge and entertain.
