The Clean House
October 13 - November 8
Written by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Emma Griffin
“Cleaning is good for the soul – and so is laughter.”
Variety
“A delicate play for rough times.”
The Washington Post
The Story:
The path to true happiness might be messy.
Mathilde works as a maid but would rather spend her days coming up with the perfect joke. Lane wants her (and husband Charles') house tidy, but doesn't want to clean it herself. Virginia loves to clean – even her sister Lane's house. Charles falls out of love with Lane, and makes their lives a big mess. Just how much can they sweep under the rug?
The Experience:
Seemingly disconnected events converge in this whimsical, magical, very funny tale about stripping life clean to its essentials. How tidy is your house?
The Buzz:
A 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Performance Calendar
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | |||||||
| 13 | October | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | ||||||||
| 7:30 PM | 7:30 PM | 7:30 PM | 8:00 PM | 2:00 PM | |||||||||
| 8:00 PM | |||||||||||||
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | |||||||
| 2:00 PM | 6:00 PM | 7:30 PM | 7:30 PM | 8:00 PM | 4:00 PM | ||||||||
| 7:00 PM | 8:30 PM | ||||||||||||
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||||||
| 2:00 PM | 7:30 PM | 7:30 PM | 7:30 PM | 8:00 PM | 4:00 PM | ||||||||
| 7:00 PM | 8:30 PM | ||||||||||||
| 1 | November | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ||||||
* |
2:00 PM | 7:30 PM | 2:00 PM | ^ |
7:30 PM | 8:00 PM | 4:00 PM | ||||||
| 7:00 PM | 7:30 PM | 8:30 PM | |||||||||||
| 8 | |||||||||||||
| 2:00 PM | |||||||||||||
| 7:00 PM | *Audio-Description Performance November 1 @ 2:00 PM | ||||||||||||
| ^Sign-Interpretation Performance November 5 @7:30 PM | |||||||||||||
Plan your visit:
Running time: Approximately 2 hours, with one 20 minute intermission.
Prologue: a pre-show lecture is offered free of charge one hour prior to every performance. (An abbreviated Prologue is given 30 minutes prior to curtain on Opening Night.)
Special events and services during this production:
- Opening Night: October 17, 8:00PM
- Early Curtain Tuesday: October 20, 6:00PM
- Audio-Described performance: November 1, 2:00PM
- Sign-Interpreted performance: November 5, 7:30PM
- Sunday Salon: November 8, 2:00PM
An informal question and answer session with members of the cast will follow the matinee performance.
Dining & Entertainment
Click here to check out the Geva Café or look below for more options in the area!
Eros Restaurant |
The Trip Hammer Grill |
Siam Fine Thai Cuisine |
Tasteful Connections Catering |
The Little Theatre |
Palladio Restaurant |
Edibles Restaurant |
Pomodoro Grill & Wine Bar |
Golden Port |
Bios for The Clean House
ANNE-MARIE CUSSON (Lane) is delighted to return for a third production at Geva following Our Town and Inherit the Wind. Recent work includes Wasserstein’s Third at Riverside Theatre and repertory company member at Alabama Shakespeare Festival performing in Romeo & Juliet, The Count of Monte Cristo and Cymbeline. She has toured the U.S. as Truvy in Steel Magnolias and through Germany with A Christmas Carol. Regional roles include Lotty in Enchanted April, ‘Teacher’ in Defying Gravity, both Maggie and Kate in separate productions of Dancing At Lughnasa, Liz in Present Laughter and Josie in A Moon For The Misbegotten. In New York, she appeared opposite Richard Easton in The Mint Theatre’s Echoes of the War, over 100 performances of Arthur Schnitzler’s Far and Wide and Craig Lucas’ one-woman piece, Your Call is Important, with Circle East and regularly does new play readings. Ms. Cusson is a native of New Hampshire and a proud member of Actors’ Equity.
JUDITH DELGADO (Matilde’s Mother/Ana) is thrilled to be returning to Geva Theatre Center, where audiences last saw her as Sister Aloysius in Doubt and again, playing multiple roles, in 9 Parts of Desire. Her other regional credits include: The Good Body at Hartford Stage; The Mother in On the Eve of Friday Morning at the Shakespeare Theatre Center; Sonia in Sonia Flew at the Laguna Playhouse and Ofelia in Anna in the Tropics at Pittsburgh Public Theatre. Prior to returning to New York, Ms. Delgado spent several seasons in South Florida at the Coconut Grove Playhouse where she received a Carbonell (South Florida’s Tony) for Best Actress for her performance as Frida Kahlo in Goodbye, My Friduchita. She was a co-founder and principal actress for two nationally acclaimed theaters-The Whole Theatre Company and the New York Free Theatre, Inc. With the latter, she created and performed original, socially relevant plays on the streets of New York. At The Whole Theatre Company, Ms. Delgado appeared in over 20 plays, among her favorites: Uncle Vanya with Austin Pendleton and Waiting for Godot with Olympia Dukakis. Film credits include The Girl in the Park with Sigourney Weaver. Television credits include: “As the World Turns,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “OZ” (HBO), and “The Jury.”
LYNNE MCCOLLOUGH (Virginia) makes her Geva Theatre Center debut in The Clean House. Recent roles include: Esther in Steven Gridley’s Twelfth Labor at Columbia University; Mary in Adam Bock’s OBIE Award-winning The Thugs at SoHo Rep; the townswomen of Cayro, Georgia in Kate Moira Ryan’s adaptation of Dorothy Allison’s Cavedweller at New York Theater Workshop; and Jolene Palmer in Carson Kreitzer’s Self Defense (or, Death of Some Salesmen) at New Georges. In film she appears in The Missing Person, which premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival, in the short Music for People Who Can’t Go Home, and in the film Live Free or Die. Television credits include “The Brotherhood” on Showtime; “Without a Trace;” “Law & Order: SVU” and “Starved.”
TUCK MILLIGAN (Matilde’s Father/Charles) makes his Geva Theatre Center debut in The Clean House. Broadway credits include The First Breeze of Summer at the Signature Theatre Co., Gem of the Ocean, A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Herbal Bed, The Crucifer of Blood and Equus…the original one. Off-Broadway, Mr. Milligan appeared in Night Sky (Baruch P.A.C.), Stuff Happens (The Public Theater), Book of Days (Signature Theatre Co.), Everybody’s Ruby (The Public Theater) and The Grey Zone (MCC). Regional credits include Saint Joan (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); A Body of Water (Chester Theatre Co.); Not God (Luna Stage Co.); Orson’s Shadow (The New Rep); A Moon for the Misbegotten (Arena Stage); Of Mice and Men (Philadelphia Drama Guild); The Kentucky Cycle (Kennedy Center, Mark Taper Forum, Intiman Theatre) for which he received the Helen Hayes award; Romeo and Juliet (Seattle Rep); Blue Window (LA Drama Critics Circle Award – South Coast Rep); Big River and As You Like It (La Jolla Playhouse); and The Real Thing (Mark Taper Forum). Film credits include Kinsey, Company Man, Heaven’s Prisoners, Of Mice and Men and The Russia House. Television credits include “Canterbury’s Law,” “Rescue Me,” “Chappelle’s Show,” “Ed,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Law & Order: CI,” “OZ,” “ER,” “The X-Files,” “Picket Fences,” “Chicago Hope” and many more. Mr. Milligan appears as the Chief Executive of a Black Water-type subcontractor in the newly released Russell Crowe film State of Play.
TANIA SANTIAGO (Matilde) makes her regional theatre debut at Geva Theatre Center in The Clean House. Past shows include Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Plays/Days which she performed with the INTAR Theatre’s Actors’ Collective. She performed at the Public Theatre as part of the LAByrinth’s Theatre’s Master Class and has trained with highly regarded teacher’s Terry Schreiber and Mary Boyer of the T. Schreiber studio in NY. Recent film works include Franc Reyes’ The Ministers where she worked opposite John Leguizamo and the November 2009 release of Veronika Decides to Die where she worked opposite Sara Michelle Gellar. Special thanks to her family and friends for their love and support.
SARAH RUHL (Playwright) makes her Geva Theatre Center debut with The Clean House. Ms. Ruhl’s Plays include In the Next Room or the vibrator play (to be produced on Broadway this fall), The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 2005; The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play, a cycle (Pen American award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award for best new play); Melancholy Play; Demeter in the City (9 NAACP image award nominations), Eurydice; Orlando and Late: a cowboy song. Her plays have been produced at Lincoln Center Theater, Goodman Theatre, Playwrights’ Horizons, Second Stage, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Yale Repertory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Cornerstone Theater, The Wilma Theater, Madison Repertory Theater, and the Piven Theatre, among others. Her plays have also been produced internationally, and have been translated into Polish, Russian, Spanish, Norwegian, Korean, German and Arabic. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. In 2003, she was the recipient of the Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award and the Whiting Writers’ Award. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. She is a recent recipient of the PEN center award for a mid-career playwright.
EMMA GRIFFIN (Director) is delighted to return to Geva, where she directed Five Course Love and the ’06 and ’07 productions of A Christmas Carol. New York credits include work with companies such as Salt Theater, Target Margin Theater, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges and Tiny Mythic/HERE. Opera credits with the Opera Company of Philadelphia and Curtis Opera Theater. Regional work at Perseverance Theater, Syracuse Stage, Southern Rep, Actor’s Express, Virginia Stage, Williamstown Theater Festival. She is a frequent collaborator on new music/theatre pieces, and is current developing projects with composers Corey Dargel, Rachel Peters, Michael R. Jackson, Rory Stitt and the Newspeak Ensemble. Upcoming projects include The Rake’s Progress at the Curtis Opera Theater, Boom at Perseverance Theater, The Prairie Dog Operas with Coterie, and Paris Syndrome with the Ex.P Girls. She is Adjunct Faculty at New York University, where she teaches directing. www.emmagriffin.net
JO WINIARSKI (Set Designer) returns to Geva where previous credits include the Downstairs Cabaret Theatre production of Jay Johnson’s The Two and Only on the Nextstage. Off Broadway credits include Love, Loss and What I Wore; J.A.P. The Jewish American Princess of Comedy; I Love You Because and A Likely Story. Off Off Broadway credits include Stretch (New Georges), Gone (E59E59). Ms Winiarski was the Associate Broadway Designer for Rock of Ages, Jay Johnson's Two and Only, LoveMusik, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Regional work includes The Great American Trailer Park Musical (National Tour), Utah Shakespearean Festival, Alpine Theater Project and The Hangar. Television and Film work includes art direction for “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All (Emmy Award Nomination),” “The Real World Brooklyn,” and the 2009 NHL Awards. Ms. Winiarski is part-time faculty at Ramapo College and an adjunct professor at NYU.
JESSICA TREJOS (Costume Designer) makes her Geva Theatre Center debut and is a costume designer based in New York. Some of her recent projects include The Government Inspector for Perseverance Theatre; Stretch; for New GeorgesMisery for Syracuse Stage; Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda for the Juilliard Opera Center; and Wozzeck, Postcard from Morocco, and Le nozze di Figaro for the Curtis Opera Theatre. Her film work, in production and costume design, can be seen at theburg.tv and theallfornots.com.
RAQUEL DAVIS (Lighting Designer) is excited to be making her Geva Theatre Center debut. Recent credits include: King Lear (Soho Rep), End Days (Ensemble Studio Theatre), The Stranger (Here Arts Center), To Paint the Earth (NYMF), The Blue Bird (Urban Stages), Removable Parts (Here Arts Center, and tours) and Tales of the Lost Formicans (Fordham University). Ms. Davis is the resident designer for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and Cabaret Festivals in Waterford, CT. She began designing while at Middlebury College and received her M.F.A. from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. www.RaquelDavisDesigns.com
LINDSAY JONES (Sound Designer) returns to Geva Theatre Center where he most recently designed the world premieres of The House in Hydesville and Pride and Prejudice. Off-Broadway credits include The God of Hell, Dedication, In the Continuum, 1001, Something You Did, The Glass Cage, String of Pearls, Boy, O Jerusalem, Beautiful Thing and Closet Land. Regional theatre credits include McCarter Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Arena Stage, Goodman, Old Globe, Steppenwolf, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Guthrie, Hartford Stage, Chicago Shakespeare, Lookingglass, Yale Repertory, as well as many others. International credits include productions in Austria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Scotland and with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, England. Mr. Jones has received four Joseph Jefferson Awards and 14 nominations, an Ovation Award, LA Drama Critics Circle Award, two ASCAP Plus Awards, nominations for Barrymore, Austin Critics Circle and NAACP Theatre Awards and was the first sound designer to win the Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award. Recent TV/Film scoring work includes the pilot “Family Practice” for Sony Pictures/ Lifetime Television and “A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin” (2006 Academy Award winner, Best Documentary, Short Subject) for HBO Films.
JANINE WOCHNA (Stage Manager) is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, is delighted to return to Geva Theatre Center after serving as stage manager for Evie’s Waltz; ROOMS: a rock romance, The Piano Lesson, Bad Dates, Doubt and The Underpants, and assistant stage manager for Souvenir, Fences, Sweeney Todd, A Christmas Story, Menopause the Musical, Cabaret and A Christmas Carol. Regional theatre credits include The Rainmaker and Rounding Third, Tuesdays with Morrie, Broadway Bound, Sherlock Holmes and the West End Horror, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Middle Ages, My Three Angels, and A Dash of Rosemary (Florida Rep); Tea at Five with Kate Mulgrew, Leading Ladies (Ken Ludwig), Last Night of Ballyhoo, A Kiss for Cinderella, and Two Trains Running to name a few, as well as seven seasons as Production Stage Manager of the Next Stage Festival of New Plays (Cleveland Play House). Other regional credits include Crumbs from the Table of Joy (Indiana Rep), All the King’s Men (Arkansas Rep), Annie (Carousel Dinner Theatre), and Always...Patsy Cline and Forbidden Broadway (Hanna Cabaret). A proud member of Actors’ Equity Association since 1994, Ms. Wochna is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
KIRSTEN BRANNEN (Stage Manager) celebrates her ninth season with Geva Theatre Center, over which she has stage managed Souvenir, 3 Mo’ Divas; Fences; Sweeney Todd; A Christmas Story; Ella; Pride and Prejudice; Cabaret; Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure; Urinetown, the Musical; Our Town; Dial M for Murder; Inherit the Wind; Shear Madness; The Road Home: Remembering America; A Chorus Line; That Was Then; Broadway Bound; Camelot; Death of a Salesman; Biloxi Blues; 1776; 36 Views; Cookin’ at the Cookery; Convenience; Flyin’ West; Hibernatus Interruptus: A Festival of New Plays and A Christmas Carol 2001-2006. She was a stage manager for nine years at PCPA Theaterfest in Santa Maria, California. At PCPA, she served as the Production Stage Manager and taught the stage management curriculum. She was a stage manager for such productions as My Fair Lady, 42nd Street, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Gypsy, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Who’s Tommy and the World Premiere of The Daly News. Originally from Victor, she is very happy to again make her home in the Rochester area. Ms. Brannen is a graduate of Ithaca College and a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
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75 Woodbury Boulevard | Rochester, NY 14607
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Box Office: (585) 232.GEVA (4382)
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