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All Mankind Has Lost Its Reason
Saturday, November 2, 2024 @ 7:30 PM
PLAYWRIGHTS' THEATRE OF EAST HAMPTON PRESENTS A CONCERT STAGING OF A NEW PLAY WITH MUSIC
All Mankind Has Lost Its Reason
by Mark Singer
All Mankind Has Lost Its Reason is a drama written by Mark Singer which tells the story of Weimar Germany from the end of World War I through the rise of Hitler, following the lives of three friends as they experience the key political and cultural events of the era. The show includes over 20 songs from the period, performed by a cast of eight, and is illustrated by a series of projected images that show the events, art and personalities of an era that bears a startling resemblance to our own. Musical director, Julia Mendelsohn.
The Cast
DARCY DUNN
Darcy Dunn (Ada Baumann) sings chamber opera, classical music, and new works in NYC, and is a founding member and featured performer of the Magic Circle Opera, as well as a graduate of Magic Circle training under Maestro Ray Evans Harrell. She has performed leading roles with Chelsea Opera, Bronx Opera, Encompass Opera, Opera Manhattan, and Downtown Music Productions, and has been a featured soloist at the Windham Chamber Music Festival. With her husband, Mark Singer, and pianist/musical director Julia Mendelsohn, Darcy helped create the Catskill Mountain Foundation’s “Mountaintop Celebration of Song” in Hunter, NY, where their original productions included A Little Bit in Love, Weill’d About You, They’re Playing Your Song, Ain’t We Got Fun Headliners & One-Liners, in which she was featured in a performance at LTV in May 2024. In 2022 Darcy founded, with fellow musicians, Elizabeth Rodgers, Mary Wooten and Marshall Coid, The Moss Ensemble, a quartet of piano, cello, violin and voice, which performed at LTV Studios on September 23, 2024. darcywdunn.com
EMMA GREEN
Emma Green is an NYC-based actor and singer with a diverse range of experience. Her credits include touring with Disney Cruise Lines as Princess Ariel in Disney Dreams and Anastasia in Twice Charmed. Off-Broadway, she performed in The Importance of Being Earnestly LGBTQ+, and regionally, she appeared in Awesomer and Awesomer at the Legacy Theatre and The Picture of Dorian Gray at The Gene Frankel Theatre. Emma is passionate about bringing historical narratives to light, and this is her third reading centered on World War II, a story she believes is crucial to tell. For more, visit emma-green.com.
STEPHEN KALPIN
Stephen Kalpin (Worker 3) is thrilled to be making his New York theatre debut! Stephen is an actor, playwright, and director based in Harlem, NYC. Prior to living in New York, he studied English, Writing, and Acting at Central Connecticut State University, and performed regionally with several theatre companies in New England, including Gloucester Stage, Valley Shakespeare Festival, and New Zenith Theatre Co. Recent professional credits include Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lane/Merriman in The Importance of Being Earnest, Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, and Hugo in Tuck Everlasting. Stephen thanks you wholeheartedly for supporting new theatre, and for being a part of this important piece.
MYCHAL LEVERAGE
Mychal Leverage (Wilhelm Lehman) is running on very little sleep and recently got a haircut. He is an alumnus of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, New York. Tours: Little Women (Professor Bhaer). Off-Broadway: Sleepy Hollow the Musical (Ichabod Crane). Regional: Daddy Long Legs (Jervis), Shrek the Musical (Shrek), The Addams Family (Gomez Addams), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Monty), and the Arizona state debut of Nice Work If You Can Get It (Jimmy Winter). When he's not acting, singing, or writing the Great American Play, he can be found playing Magic: the Gathering, reading high fantasy, or fluffing his laundry for the hundredth time this week. He lives in New Jersey with his lovely wife, Heidi, and their dog, Atticus Finch. "Here's to the crazy ones." mychalleverage.com // @MychalLeverage
JULIA MENDELSOHN
Julia Mendelsohn (Musical Director) is a pianist, arranger, and vocal coach, living and working in NYC. Ms. Mendelsohn entertained at the Museum of Art in Manhattan for over thirty years, playing her original arrangements of Broadway songs, jazz standards, and classical music. She has played for such luminaries as Bill Clinton, Kofi Anan, and Estee Lauder, and has performed throughout the U.S. and Asia. Julia is the Musical Director of the Berkshire Summer Music Festival and has MD'd dozens of shows throughout her career. Her voice students have originated roles in numerous Broadway shows and have appeared on American Idol, The X Factor, Glee, and Disney's Next Big Thing. Ms. Mendelsohn was a staple on the cabaret circuit in NYC for years, where she honed her skill at arranging songs; after meeting Mark and Darcy, she found the perfect combination of voices to work with. Besides that, it is a ridiculous amount of fun. Despite their obvious similarities, Julia is not related to the renowned periodontist Julia Mendelshon. She is married to the writer Colin Paolo, and they have a son, Connor Paolo, who is an actor.
JAMES PARKS
James Parks (Karl von Graf) Selected NY Credits: Love, Actually? (Colin Firth), Cyberbabies (Toby Khan), Grand Theft Musical (Ernest Roseglass) National Tour: The Sound of Music (Herr Zeller, u/s Max Detweiler) Film: Pumpkin Spiced Musical (Sam) Best Role: Proud father of two. Quack. Happy to return to LTV after performing here last spring in Headliners & One-Liners. Thank you for supporting live theater! BM: Peabody Institute MM: NYU www.TheJamesParks.com @TheJamesParks
GINA-SIMONE PEMBERTON
Gina-Simone Pemberton (Worker 2) is a NYC stage and screen actor and singer. She was recently seen as Rose in August Wilson’s Fences, and as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. Some of her other credits include OFF-BROADWAY: Trilogy ll (Gladys), Treasure Island Musical (Meg). REGIONAL: Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Diva), High School Musical (Taylor), and Little Shop of Horrors (Crystal), Why Do Fools Fall In Love (Sally). Gina-Simone currently sings with the Jerriese Johnson Gospel choir at Middle Collegiate Church, and is a human rights activist. “And I Found The Theater, and I Found My Home” -Audra McDonald
Ginasimonepemberton.com, IG: @ginasimonepemberton
Ginasimonepemberton.com, IG: @ginasimonepemberton
EVELINA PRISTOVŠEK
Evelina Pristovšek is a Slovenian multi-skilled performer who graduated from American Musical And Dramatic Academy in New York. She recently performed as Yvette in a play Clue (WV), the girl in a musical Once (MA), and starred in Chat Pile’s music video MASC. Latest appearances in NYC: (plays) Breaking Chains, The Art Of Training a Goldfish, Mary Cassatt: My Sex Is My Art Is My Life; (tv&film) The Flash Marriage With My Boss, Rick&Ronald, Mike … Evelina released an original music album First Evening on Spotify, played classical piano pieces at Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana and performed in a choral choir of Music Academy Ljubljana. @evelina_slovenia
MARK SINGER
Mark Singer (Author, Victor Breidenbach) is an actor, singer and writer. Roles include Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, Jack Boyle in Juno and the Paycock, Otto Frank in Diary of Anne Frank and the Toreador in Carmen. Musical theater includes The Cradle Will Rock, Pins and Needles, Rapunzarella White, and Giovanni the Fearless, He has produced and been featured in numerous musical revues and plays for the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, NY, where he, his wife Darcy Dunn and musical director Julia Mendelsohn created the Mountaintop Celebration of Song. A staged reading of his play A Milonga for Gabriel Isaacs, co-written with John McCaffrey, was produced by LTV in 2023, as was his musical revue (co-written with Julia Mendelsohn), Headliners & One-Liners (May 2024). Mark is featured in the film Maternity Leave, scheduled for release in 2025. He is currently Founding Managing Partner for Acquisitions and Strategy at FINN Partners PR.
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