Around the World in 80 Days - Biographies

MATTHEW ARKIN (Phileas Fogg) has appeared on Broadway in Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, and he made his Broadway debut as Lucas in Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor, a role he continued on national tour. Other New York credits include Gabe in Donald Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize winning Dinner with Friends (Drama Desk nomination, Drama League Honoree), Ben Hecht in MTC’s Moonlight and Magnolias, Mike in Richard Dresser’s Rounding Third, Charles Busch’s Off-Broadway comedy hit You Should Be So Lucky, OY!, The King of Carpets and The Roadblock. Regional Theater: Rounding Third at Chicago’s Northlight Theatre, Talley’s Folly at The Bay Street Theatre, Guys and Dolls at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theater, Sheer Boredom at The George Street Playhouse, A Thousand Clowns at American Stage Company, Lost in Yonkers and Little Footsteps, both at Pennsylvania Stage Company, Two Rooms and True West, both at Hartford Theaterworks, East Coast Art’s Theater’s Self Defense, The Hartman Theater Company’s Joan of Lorraine, and Sight Unseen at the Hermosa Beach Civic Theater.  Film credits include the recent indie “Second Best,” the upcoming “Counting Sheep” and “The Curse,” as well as “Death to Smoochy,” “Liar, Liar,” “North,” “An Unmarried Woman,” and “Chu Chu and the Philly Flash.”  Matthew appeared in recurring roles as Dr. Thompkins on the hit FX drama “Rescue Me” and as Legal Aid Attorney Paul Bernard on A&E’s “100 Centre Street.”  Other television credits include the PBS pilot “Copshop,” “Hack,” “The Education of Max Bickford,” “Ed,” “Law and Order,” “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” “The Street,” “Simple Justice” for PBS, “Law and Order - SVU,” “Kojak,” “The Defection of Simas Kudirka” and “All My Children.”

BRAD DEPLANCHE (Passepartout) Cape Playhouse audiences may remember Brad from last season’s comic thriller The Mystery of Irma Vep. Most recently he played Passepartout in Around the World in 80 Days (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival), Trinculo in The Tempest (Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis), Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Orlando Shakespeare Festival), and eleven characters in A Tuna Christmas (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Off-Broadway credits include roles with Classic Stage Company, Theatre at St. Clement’s and Dodger Endemol Theatricals. Other regional theatres include: South Coast Repertory, American Conservatory Theatre, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, Clarence Brown Theatre Company, Seattle Shakespeare Company, and the Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley. Brad won a regional theatre award for his role as Passepartout when Around the World in 80 Days made its east coast theatre debut in 2003 for the Orlando Shakespeare Festival. He lives in New York City and holds an MFA from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. 

AYSAN ÇELIK (Aouda) Off Broadway: Turn of the Screw, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Murder by Poe and Richard III (Theater Row – Acting Company tour); Pericles (Red Bull – Culture Project). Other NYC includes: The Belle’s Stratagem (Prospect Theater); Attempts on Her Life and Hypatia (SoHo Rep); Canard, Canard, Goose? and Paris Commune (The Civilians); Phoenician Women (Synapse), Antony & Clepatra (Queen’s Company). Regional: La Jolla Playhouse, American Repertory Theater, Sundance, Mark Taper Forum, The Barbican, Assoc Artist, The Civilians. Founding member Theater Mitu. Upcoming: independent film Capers and Theater Mitu’s premiere of Arahisak and Opheliamachine (Jan 2005). UCLA Theater; ART Institute at Harvard.

ARNIE BURTON (Gauthier Ralph/British Consul/Director of Police/Priest/Sir Francis/Judge Obadiah/ Chinese Broker/Ship Clerk/Bunsby/Proctor/Engineer/Mudge/ Clerk/Speedy/Ship Engineer/Train Clerk) Broadway: Amadeus. Off-Broadway: Mere Mortals, The Last Sunday in June, The Baltimore Waltz. Also The Venetian Twins, King Lear, Ghosts, The Cherry Orchard at the Pearl Theatre. Other Off-Broadway appearances include Primary Stages, The Rattlestick, Circle Rep and E.S.T. Regional: The Seagull, Santaland Diaries, and Taming of the Shrew at the Old Globe. L.A. premier of All in the Timing at the Geffen Playhouse. Eugene’s Home at Berkshire Theatre Fest, Frozen at Rep. Theatre of St. Louis. Also the Alley Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Co., Studio Arena, A.T.L. and Berkeley Rep, among others. TV appearances include “Frasier,” “Hope & Faith,” “Caroline in the City,” “Sister Sister,” among others. Movies: “Igby Goes Down” and the upcoming “Game 6.”

ERIC HISSOM (Detective Fix and others) first appeared on the Cape Playhouse stage last season in The Mystery of Irma Vep, and is thrilled to be back this season.  He has on MFA from Florida State and since 1998 he has been an Associate Artist at the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival where he teaches, directs, acts and serves as director of the new play development program, PlayFest.  His regional acting credits include Actors' Theatre of Louisville, the Meadowbrook in Detroit, the Asolo in Sarasota, the Arden in Philadelphia, and many others.  His film and television credits include a recent episode of “One Tree Hill” and the feature film “Out of Time” (now out on DVD!)

BRADLEY DEAN WHITE (Foley Artist) was in the original world-premiere of Around the World in 80 Days at the Utah Shakespearean Festival where he has worked for three seasons. Other credits include performances with The Shakespeare Theatre of D.C. (Cyrano), Nebraska Repertory Theatre (Proof), Illinois Shakespeare Festival (Taming of the Shrew, The Three Musketeers, King John), Pennsylvania Centre Stage (Little Shop of Horrors, The Real Inspector Hound), Missouri Repertory Theatre, Circle X Theatre and The Actor's Shakespeare Company of New Jersey where he recently played Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. This year he contributed sketch comedy to NPR's The Next Big Thing. He received his MFA from Penn State where he has also served as a visiting assistant professor of acting for BFA students. He currently lives in New York and teaches music to pre-schoolers. Whyte is also singer/songwriter and fond collector of musical instruments.

RUSSELL TREYZ (Director) Previous Cape Playhouse: The Lion in Winter, The Cocktail Hour, The Best Man, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Da, Inherit the Wind, and The Mystery of Irma Vep (Cape Playhouse, Dennis, MA). Off Broadway in New York: The Guardsman, A Will of his Own, and George Kelly’s Daisy Mayme (The Pearl Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing, and A Winter’s Tale (West End Theatre Company). Recent regional directing credits: The Tempest (Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis), Cymbeline, A Penzance, and A Servant of Two Masters (Utah Shakespeare Festival), Cyrano de Bergerac, Trapezium—a new play by NY Times puzzle writer Henry Rathvon, and A Christmas Carol (Orlando Shakespeare Festival), Richard III (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival), and Romeo and Juliet (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival). Regional theater: Proposals (Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, Hilton Head, SC). As author/director, he collaborated with songwriter, Harry Chapin on the Broadway musical, Cottonpatch Gospel. Other NYC directorial credits include: American Place Theater, Playwrights Horizons, and La MaMa E.T.C. Regional credits include: Goodspeed Opera and Actors Theater. A graduate of Princeton University and Yale School of Drama, he received a Drama Desk Award.

BOB PHILLIPS (Set Designer) designed last season’s production of The Mystery of Irma Vep at the Playhouse. Bob celebrates his eleventh season as Resident Designer for the Orlando Shakespeare Festival, where he has designed over 50 productions. Bob recently completed The Taming of the Shrew and As You Like It for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and his tenth season for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival where he also designed Around the World in 80 Days for director Russell Treyz. For the Arden in Philadelphia, his designs include Picasso..., All My Sons, and Café Puttanesca, a new musical. Bob’s extensive work in New York includes companies such as Circle Rep, Playwrights’ Horizons, Pan Asian Rep and Primary Stages. His television designs include Another World, Search for Tomorrow, and Sesame Street, where he designed 18 seasons. Bob has received the Outer Critics Circle, Villager, Madison, and Lillian Stoates Awards for his stage work, and four Emmys for his television designs. Assistant to Mr. Phillips: David Lepore.

LISA ZINNI (Costume Designer) For Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival she designed last season’s Man of La Mancha, Hamlet (‘02), Charley’s Aunt, All’s Well, Moon for the Misbegotten, Comedy Of Errors, Midsummer (‘94). She recently designed Free Style Love Supreme for Arts Nova in NYC, and Armless for The NY International Fringe Festival. Her Bristol Riverside Theatre credits include Hamlet, Tête à Tête, A Little Night Music, The Dresser and Evita. Hyde in the Shadows (Fictitious Theatre Co.) Cloud 9, Women of Troy  (Broad Horizons Theatre Co.) Wizard of Oz, Cinderella, Littlest Angel, James and the Giant Peach (PA Youth Theatre), Platonocov (Chekhov Now Festival). Assistant Costume Designer for the Broadway, National tours, Toronto, and London Companies of RENT. Associate Designer for RENT Italy, produced by Pavarotti, and the French language production of RENT in Montreal. Assistant designer for the cult hit Shockheaded Peter. She has worked as a Design Assistant for NY Shakespeare Festival, Classic Stage Company, MCC, and the Roundabout Theatre. BA DeSales University, MFA Penn State University.

JESSE LOWENSTEIN(Lighting Designer) Off Broadway: Streptococci: A Love Story, Heavenly Bliss & Lady in a Box (Cherry Lane Theater). Off-off Broadway: I Vermin, The Hollywood Success Story (NYC Fringe ’03); Runaways (Developing Artists, Center Stage NY). Regional: Sweet Charity, Children of Eden, Grease, Mother Posture, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (John Harms Center for the Arts). Other projects include Electronic Ensembles, Turntables as Ensemble Instruments, A Celebration of the Theremin, Nyabinghi Spirit, Mizik Racine and Trade Winds of Trinidad (Lincoln Center Summer Festival 2000). Repertory Lighting Designer for the Armenian dance group, Sayat Nova Dance Company of Boston (North American Tour). Education: Carnegie Mellon School of Drama ’04.