Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill

CAPE PLAYHOUSE PREMIER!

Dates: July 14 – 24, evening performances only, 8pm
Style: Musical
Run Time: 90 minutes
Ages: 13 and up
(There is no official rating system for live theatre. We invite you to use your own judgment. Parental discretion is advised for this production.)

Show Summary

Written by Lanie Robertson.
“Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com

The time is 1959. The place is a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie Holiday’s last performances. More than a dozen musical numbers are interlaced with salty, humorous reminiscences to project a riveting portrait of the lady and her music.

View the digital program for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, built exclusively for The Cape Playhouse by Marquee Digital.

https://www.marquee.digital/lady-day

Rema Webb

Rema most recently appeared with the NJ Symphony Orchestra and also in her one-woman-show titled “Billie & Me”. Other one-woman shoes include: “To Ella & Judy With Love“ ( a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald & Judy Garland; “Speak on It: The Fannie Lou Hamer Story “; and “Children Will Listen”. Recent TV Credits: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Central Park, Murphy Brown reboot. Broadway Credits: Escape to Margaritaville, The Color Purple, Violet, The Lion King, The Book of Mormon, & Ragtime. Off-Broadway & Regional credits: Unmasked, Footloose, Disney’s Hercules, Little Shop of Horrors, The Cradle Will Rock, The Colored Museum, A New Brain, You’re Standing In My Way: A New Song Cycle, Being Alive. Rema's life work is Teaching and Mentoring. She is the Founder/Executive of On Broadway Performing Arts Training Program. On Broadway provides year- acting, singing, dance classes to young people ages 6 to 16.

Gary Mitchell, Jr.

As a pianist, concert maestro, and actor, Gary regularly collaborates with renowned singers, instrumentalists, artists, and ensembles, ranging from opera to musical theatre, classical, sacred, jazz, and gospel. Recently, Gary debuted as Noah “Horse” T. Simmons in The Full Monty at The Clink Theatre, Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia. Prior, he debuted (music director and pianist) as Jimmy Powers in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, at Portland Stage Theatre. Mitchell also portrayed Jasbo Brown in Porgy and Bess at The Royal Danish Opera House-Copenhagen. He has collaborated and performed with MTV and Steinway International. Previously, Gary was a bass vocalist at Houston Grand Opera and Artist-in-Residence at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church-Houston, and now serves as Director of Music and Arts Administration at First AME Church: Bethel-Harlem.

Shariffa Ali
Director

Shariffa Chelimo Ali is a Kenyan born, New York based creative leader committed to working with an open-heart at the intersection of the performing arts and humanitarianism.
As a theater director and academic, Shariffa moves her audiences to engage with timely issues touching upon Black, Afropolitan, and African-American identities. Shariffa has directed and lectured at colleges where her productions have brought many “firsts” to campuses: “first all-female cast and creative team” for her production of Zimbabwean born Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed at Princeton University; “first all-black ensemble with a director of color” for her production of Dominique Morisseau’s Detroit67; “best attended show” for her production of We are Proud to Present... at Yale University.
Shariffa worked at the Public Theater in New York, where she served in numerous capacities often piloting new roles that serve her interest in curating radical spaces of hospitality, equity, inclusion, diversity and promoting anti-racism throughout the institution.
‍2019 marked Shariffa’s New York Off-Broadway directorial debut, in which she brought South African writer Yaël Farber’s Mies Julie to audiences at Classic Stage Theatre. Shariffa’s Regional Theatre credits include acclaimed writer Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play at Pittsburgh Public Theatre followed by a world premiere of Karen Zacarias’ The Copper Children at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as well as Lynn Nottage’s gripping work on the illicit ivory trade Mlima’s Tale at St Louis Repertory Theatre.
Shariffa’s forthcoming VR (Virtual Reality) project Atomu took home top honors for best VR project at the inaugural Digital Lab Africa Competition and is scheduled and made its debut at the Sundance International Film Festival in 2020. Atomu which draws from ancient Kikuyu mythology touching on themes LGBTQ rights has since received global interest, development and incubation at the Sundance institute, Utah, Royal National Theatre, UK and POV Spark.
‍In addition to her work as a theatre director, Shariffa maintains her commitment to activism as a community organizer. She has lead diversity and inclusion workshops with Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts and has participated in workshops with a particular interest in the intersections of Arts and Social Justice lead by Arts Equity and EMC arts.
As advisory committee member of Africa’sOut! founded by renowned Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu, Shariffa provided critical support and leadership for this initiative geared towards advancing radical change through the power of art and activism, particularly supporting artists, initiatives and institutions from Africa and its Diaspora that celebrate freedom of creative expression.
Shariffa is a graduate of the University of Cape Town’s select Theater and Performance division and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) degree...And perhaps the thing that she is most proud of, is that she was featured in the New York Times Gentleman’s style section for her great taste in fashion.

Adrian Alea
Creative consultant

Adrian A. Alea is a creative producer and director in commercial and non-profit industries of Theater, Live Events, Music Videos, and Film. As the Creative Associate of New York City Center’s Encores!, he creative produced the “Inside The Revival” digital series on The Life (Billy Porter), The Tap Dance Kid (Dulé Hill), and Into the Woods (Laura Benanti). As a co-founder of Alialea Productions, Adrian produced short films "Ash Land" and "You Go Girl” with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival–official selections at the Academy Award qualifying Pan African Film Festival, BronzeLens Film Festival, and Brooklyn Film Festival. In December, Adrian will be the Associate Director for NBC’s Annie Live! starring Taraji P. Henson and Harry Connick Jr. Previously, he was a Management Associate for Jennifer Lopez and Benny Medina (All I Have Las Vegas Residency; “Ain’t Your Mama” music video).

Recent: Hercules (Assoc. Dir; Disney Theatricals, Public Theater), Up, Up, and Away (Dir; Fordham University), Henry VIIItranslated by Caridad Svich (Dir; Play On, CSC), Fucking A (Dir; Yale University), The Palacios Sisters radionovela by Cristina Garcia (Dir; Brava Theater Center), The Spanking Machine by Marga Gomez (Dir; Brava Theater Center, Syracuse Stage)

Education: Columbia University (BA); Northwestern University (M.S.)

LANIE ROBERTSON (Playwright) Lanie Robertson writes about iconic artists and the societal issues they faced in Nasty Little Secrets, The Insanity of Mary Girard, Back County Crimes, and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, which was produced on Broadway in 2014. His plays are widely produced nationally and internationally. He’s a member of the Dramatists Guild, Writers Guild, East; and the Societe des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques.

GAIL BALDONI (Costume Designer) NYC credits include My Fair Lady at The New York Philharmonic, Wonderful Town at New York City Opera and an Emmy nomination for NBC’s Another World. Film work: Mermaids, starring Cher and The Boy in the Bathtub. Numerous shows for Papermill Playhouse, The Goodspeed Opera, The Ahmanson Theater, North Shore Music Theatre, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, The Boston Ballet and The Cleveland Playhouse. 13 Off-Broadway shows to date. Other favorite projects include the Rockettes’ Christmas Show, Disney on Ice and The Ringling Bros. Circus. Gail is currently teaching at SUNY Purchase in the Conservatory of Dance Department. 21 Cape Playhouse productions including: South Pacific, Spelling Bee and Gypsy.

JARON HERMANSEN (Lighting Design) Jaron is Salt Lake City based lighting & projection designer, among his credits are: Clue, Altar Boyz, Steel Magnolias, Art, RED, The Foreigner, Murder for Two (The Cape Playhouse, MA). The Music Man, Wizard of Oz, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Fiddler on the Roof (Sundance Eccles Theater, UT). Eleemosynary (The Brooks, CA). The King’s Men, Private Ear, Hedda Gabler, The Weird Play (Rose Wagner, UT). Bride of Frankenstein, Sonder, A Streetcar Named Desire (Found Spaces, UT). THE BRIDGE (Kingsbury Hall, UT). Jaron sits on the Board of Directors for the United States Institute of Theater Technology Intermountain Desert Region, Jaron is a lecturer at Utah Valley University, and is a nominee of the USITT Young Professionals Rising Star award.

JAY SHEEHAN (Sound Designer) Two-time Emmy nominated and award winning, self-declared ‘diverse media’ technologist, Jay Sheehan has been involved with recording and mixing audio for artists, film, television, and the web, as well as providing live sound and mastering since 1995. He holds a degree in Music Production and Engineering from Berklee College of Music. Projects, including "Hit and Run History" series and "Runner", have aired on RIPBS, WGBH online, and Amazon Prime. These projects have taken him across North America, Chile, Argentina, as well as to the Falkland Islands and Cape Horn. He has also won two sound design awards for his film mixing. He splits his time providing sound and video production services in New England with his own company Garrett Audio, Beachpoint Mastering, and Cape Cod Sound School; as well as Director of IT at Cape Cod Community Media Center; freelance engineer for Cultural Center of Cape Cod, Music Room Cape Cod, and Cotuit Center for the Arts. He is also a Board member and Technical Consultant for the Woods Hole Film Festival.

MARK PRALL (Percussion) Mark is a summa cum laude graduate of Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey where he studied with the late Laurence Jacobs majoring in Percussion Performance. He has studied drum set with jazz greats Andrew Cyrille and Freddie Waits in New York. He has performed with the Queens Symphony, the Goldman Band (Lincoln Center), the New Jersey Chamber Music Society and the Hoboken Chamber Orchestra (Principal Percussionist). He is currently the principal timpanist with the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, the Plymouth Philharmonic, the Chatham Chorale and the Falmouth Chorale. He was also the principal percussionist for the former Simon Sinfonietta. He is an active performer in chamber and theatre productions throughout Cape Cod. He has appeared as a soloist with the Cape Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions performing on timpani as well as xylophone. Mark maintains a private teaching studio and has directed many student percussion ensembles throughout Cape Cod.

SHAWN PRYBY (Stage Manager) Welcome back, everyone! Nationally: Hello, Dolly! Starring Carol Channing, The Pointer Sisters’ Ain’t Misbehavin’, Jesus Christ Superstar starring Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson, Regionally: Man Of La Mancha, The Boy From Oz, South Pacific, It Shoulda Been You, The Drowsy Chaperone, Mamma Mia, Sister Act (Stages St. Louis), La Cage Aux Folles, Miss Saigon (North Shore Music Theatre), Barnum (Mercury Theatre), Hats! Starring Melissa Manchester (Royal George), Elf, Spamalot, Carousel, West Side Story, Guys And Dolls (Musical Theatre West), A Little Night Music (Festival Theatre), 110 In The Shade(Light Opera Works).

DANIEL WHITING (Set Designer) Daniel Whiting is a Technical Director, Production Manager, Artistic Director, Set Designer, and Production Designer based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. He worked as the Technical Director for Utah Valley University’s Theatre Program for four years, and during that time, he won national recognition for his scenic design and technical direction of Next to Normal and Vincent in Brixton respectively. He has worked with Tuacahn Center for the Performing Arts, Utah Repertory Theater Company, The Neil Simon Festival, The Egyptian Theater, The Sundance Eccles Theater, Radical Hospitality Company, Waterford Theater, The Echo Theater Company, The Cape Playhouse, BYU TV, AMC, and HBO. He is a founding member and former Artistic Director of the Grassroots Shakespeare Company which is Utah’s leading scholarly Shakespeare studies organization and touring theater company. He is a part owner, founder and former Production Manager and Scenic designer of Sackerson Theater Company.

MARQUEE DIGITAL (Digital Program) Marquee Digital is a New York-based tech startup innovating the theatre industry with ground-breaking digital program solutions. The Marquee is a theatrical program for the 21st century, employing contactless, eco-friendly, and ADA-compliant technology to create an interactive and highly intuitive experience for audience members. With a client roster that spans both coasts of the Continental U.S., Marquee Digital aims to enter the West End market in Spring of 2022.