BRIAN MURRAY (Actor 1) began his career in London performing in the West End prior to joining the Royal Shakespeare Company where his roles included Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cassio in Othello, and Edgar in Peter Brook’s King Lear, which would mark his New York debut. His most recent appearance was the hugely successful evening Beckett/Albee with his frequent co-star Marian Seldes. Recently he starred off-Broadway in Scattergood and the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, for which he received a Tony Award and a Drama Desk nomination, and Hobson’s Choice at the Atlantic Theatre Company. Last season, he starred in Edward Albee’s The Play About the Baby, The Butterfly Collection at Playwrights Horizon and Uncle Vanya with Sir Derek Jacobi and Ms. Linney. He starred in the revival of Finian’s Rainbow and played Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Duke in Measure for Measure in repertory at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, directed by Sir Peter Hall. Mr. Murray starred in the new play, Spread Eagle at the WPA Theatre, and for Lincoln Center he appeared as Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night with Helen Hunt and as Ben Hubbard in The Little Foxes opposite Stockard Channing, for which he received a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award nomination. In recent New York theatre seasons, he has played James Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey into Night and the title role in DA, both at the Irish Repertory Theatre; Archie in The Entertainer and Ed in Entertaining Mr. Sloane, both at the Classic Stage Company; John Tarleton in Misalliance and Dr. Rice in Molly Sweeney, both at the Roundabout Theatre; and Reverend Harry Henderson in Lincoln Center Theatre’s Racing Demon. He also starred in the premiere of Mud River Stone at Playwrights Horizon. Before that, he played nine roles in the acclaimed Travels with My Aunt at Minetta Lane (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards). His other Broadway credits include A Small Family Business, Noises Off (Drama Desk Award), Black Comedy, Da, Sleuth, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tony Award nominee and Broadway debut) and All in Good Time. Other off-Broadway credits include Ashes (Obie Award), The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, The Arcata Promise and The Knack. For the New York Shakespeare Festival, he starred as Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Claudius in Hamlet, opposite Kevin Kline. Regional credits include The Doctor’s Dilemma, Artichoke, Equus, Terra Nova, The Philanthropist, The Winter’s Tale, The Recruiting Officer, The Purging, Barbarians, and Alfred Uhry’s Egardo Mine at Hartford Stage. On Broadway, he has directed The Circle with Rex Harrison, The Show Off, Blithe Spirit with Richard Chamberlin, Hay Fever with Rosemary Harris, A Place Without Doors, Waltz of the Toreadors and Arsenic and Old Lace with Jean Stapleton, among others, as well as numerous Off-Broadway and regional productions. His films include Bob Roberts and City Hall. Appearances on television include The Investigation, Illusions, the PBS series Liberty, the NYSF production of Hamlet and the Lincoln Center Production of Twelfth Night. For television, he directed The Chinese Prime Minister. He can be heard as Long John Silver in Disney’s animated film, Treasure Planet.
HARRIET HARRIS (Actress 1) can currently be seen appearing as Felicia Tillman on Desperate Housewives and in the film Monster-in-Law. She is the recipient of the 2002 Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Mrs. Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie. Other Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include: the Man Who Came To Dinner with Nathan Lane (also filmed for PBS), The Crucible, Man and Superman (all for the Roundabout Theatre); Hamlet opposite Kevin Kline, Macbeth with Raul Julia, both for the New York Shakespeare Festival; Julius Caesar, Jeffrey (Drama Desk nomination), Bella, Belle of Byelorusia (Drama Desk nomination), Innocence Crusade, Christmas on Mars, and most recently, Rude Entertainment. Regional credits include Tartuffe, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Month in the Country. Film credits include Memento, Nurse Betty, Romeo and Juliet, Quiz Show, Show and Tell, Addams Family Values, and Dotty Gets Spanked. TV credits include It’s All Relative, Frasier (recurring as agent Bebe Glazer), Six Feet Under, The Beast, Union Square, The Five Mrs. Buchanans, Ally McBeal, Ellen, and The X-Files.
MICHAEL J. MCDONALD (Actor 2) was born and raised in Orange County, California. He has been one of the stars of "Mad TV" for the past seven seasons, and has guest starred on many television shows, including "Seinfeld," "Ellen," "Just Shoot Me," and "NewsRadio." He has also had a recurring role on "Scrubs." Film credits include brief appearances in all three "Austin Powers" films.
STEPHNIE WEIR (Actress 2) is an alumna of The Improv Olympic in Chicago, where she studied and performed improvisation for many years. She joined The Second City mainstage cast in 1998. There she wrote and performed three revues—The Psychopath Not Taken, Second City 4.0 & Promise Keepers, Losers, Weepers. Stephnie then made the move to Hollywood when she was hired to join the cast of Fox’s MAD TV. She has just completed her fifth season on the show. This Christmas, she can be seen in the movie remake of “Fun With Dick and Jane.” Stephnie continues to perform at The Improv Olympic in Hollywood. She and her husband, Robert Dassie have a two-person improv show called “WeirDass,” which she is most proud of and has performed in Chicago, LA, New York, Charleston, and Edinburgh, Scotland.
JEREMY WEBB (Actor 3) has just completed a run of Shaw’s Misalliance at the Old Globe Theatre. Off-Broadway: This season’s Signature Theatre Company revival of Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz (The Third Man), Tabletop (Drama Desk Award), Three O’Clock in Brooklyn, Summer ’69. Workshops: Bill Finn’s the Royal Family of Broadway (dir. Jerry Zaks), Dance of the Vampires, Tom Jones, Monica! The Musical (Manhattan Theatre Club). Regional: Long Wharf, McCarter, NY Stage and Film, Westport Playhouse, Cape Playhouse, Walnut Street Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Indiana Repertory, Milwaukee Repertory, Great Lakes Theatre Festival and others. Film: Love Walked In. TV: Law & Order (Guest star), Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Guiding Light. Training: Drama School, North Carolina School of the Arts.
PRENTISS BENJAMIN (Actress 3) is absolutely thrilled and delighted to be appearing at the Cape Playhouse. She recently appeared Off-Broadway in How to Build A Better Tulip with Lois Nettleton at the Acorn Theatre. Regionally, she has worked at The Alley Theatre (in a workshop production of Ken Ludwig’s Leading Ladies) in addition to the Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and The Fulton Opera House. Past productions include Romeo and Juliet, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Rouge Atomique. She just completed work on her first independent film, Hard Four, and in October will be appearing at PTNJ in the premiere production of Sunrise at Monticello. Prentiss is an accomplished ballet dancer, having trained and performed extensively in Los Angeles, where she is from. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, and a proud member Actor’s Equity. Love to her family and Chris. Thank you to Evans Haile for this opportunity.
JAMES BRENNAN (Director) In the last few months, Jim has created productions of Call Me Madam at the Goodspeed Opera House. On Your Toes and Noises Off at the Cape Playhouse on Cape Cod, and a She Loves Me at the Paper Mill Playhouse. He has also directed the paper Mill’s productions of Noises Off, Sound of Music, and Crazy For You (which was televised on PBS) as well as a Where’s Charley? in Wichita, a 42nd Street and a Hello Dolly! in Sacramento, C4Us in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Westchester, and Wichita, and She Loves Me in Philadelphia and Maine, as well as the Broadway concert revivals of Cole Porter’s Jubilee and Jerome Kern’s Sally. He has, over the years, in various Stock and Dinner Theatres, directed and choreographed productions of Chicago, Cabaret, The Merry Widow, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Bells Are Ringing, George M, The Apple Tree, Kiss Me Kate, and High Button Shoes. As an actor, he appeared on Broadway in Good News, Rodgers and Hart, So Long 174th Street, I Love My Wife, Little Me, 42nd Street, Singin’ in the Rain, Me and My Girl, Crazy For You, and Camelot. He has performed Noel Coward’s Private Lives at the Alley Theatre in Houston; My Fair Lady in Philadelphia, Sacramento, Wichita, and Winnipeg; Camelot in San Diego, Sacramento Philadelphia, and the Paper Mill Playhouse; 1776 in Sacramento, Rochester, Philadelphia (receiving a Barrymore Award for his John Adams) and a Devil in Damn Yankees in Sacramento. When he’s been directing for a stretch of time, he misses acting...and vice versa.
RICHARD CHAMBERS (Set Designer) has designed scenery throughout the Northeast for companies such as The Pittsburgh Public Theatre, StageWest, North Shore Music Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, The American Stage Festival and Shakespeare and Company, as well as the Buffalo Philharmonic, The Portland Symphony and the Virginia Symphony. He has designed premiers by playwrights such as Derek Walcott, Russ Lees and Kate Snodgrass. Last fall, he designed the New York premier of Ronan Noone’s The Lepers of Baile Baiste and will design the Off-Broadway premier of Mr. Noone’s The Blowin’ of Baile Gall in September. This is his eleventh season designing for the Cape Playhouse.
Richard holds an MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where he studied with Oliver Smith and John Conklin. For many years he worked with Herbert Senn and Helen Pond on a variety of projects. He is the recipient of two Elliot Norton Awards and three Independent Reviewers of New England Awards, is a member of United Scenic Artists local 829, has been a professor of scene design at New York University, Ithaca College and Boston University and currently teaches at Suffolk University.
MARGARET E. WEEDON (Costume Designer) is returning to the Cape Playhouse for her third year, having previously designed The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife and Da. Weedon designs regionally while working full time at Carelli Costumes in New York. Other professional credits include Driving Miss Daisy, Always...Patsy Cline, and Around the World in 80 Days at the Utah Shakespeare Festival; Hannah and Martin for Epic Theatre Center; Man of La Mancha at the Union Country Arts Center; Twelfth Night, MacBeth, and Taming of the Shrew for Baltimore Shakespeare Festival; and As You Like It and The Doll’s House at The Catholic University of America. Weedon holds an MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of Design.
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 Armenian dance group, Sayat Nova Dance Company of Boston (North American Tour). Education: Carnegie Mellon School of Drama ’04.