The Cast

ROSLYN ALEXANDER is delighted to be in her sixth James Sherman play directed by Dennis Zacek, having worked in their first collaboration, God of Isaac.  She has toured coast to coast with Jim’s Beau Jest, which culminated in a two year engagement Off Broadway.  Roslyn was cast by Mike Nichols for the first National Company of Prisoner of 2nd Ave. and won a Jeff Award for Best Actress in Wings at Wisdom Bridge Theatre.  Her Chicago credits include, among others, The Family Gold at Victory Gardens, Endgame and The Importance of Being Earnest at Court Theatre, Steel Magnolias at the Royal George, Taking Care at Steppenwolf, Morning’s at Seven at Drury Lane Water Tower, Kimberly Akimbo at A Red Orchard, and most recently, How I Became An Interesting Person at Chicago Dramatists, and End of the Tour at 16th Street Theatre.  She has made countless commercials, many feature films and episodes for TV, and dramatized 10 novels for Recorded Books of New York.  She was on WFMT, Chicago’s Fine Arts station for several ears reading and interpreting classic literature.

JANET ULRICH BROOKS makes her Victory Gardens debut with Jacob and Jack.  She was most recently seen in A True History of the Johnstown Flood at Goodman Theatre. A Company Member of TimeLine Theatre, she has appeared in Not Enough Air (Jeff Nomination, Actress in a Principal Role), Weekend (Jeff Nomination, Actress in a Supporting Role), Tesla’s Letters, Paradise Lost, Lillian & A Man For All Seasons.  Other Chicago credits include: Golda’s Balcony (Jeff Award non-equity wing, Outstanding Solo Performance) and Still Life at Pegasus Players; Richard III, A Lie of the Mind (Jeff Nomination, non-equity wing, Actress in Supporting Role), Marathon 33 (Jeff Award, non-equity wing, Ensemble) with Strawdog Theatre Co; Huck Finn with Steppenwolf for Young Adults; Seagull and The Doctor’s Dilemma at Writers’ Theatre, and work with Collaboraction’s Sketchbook.. Films: Betty Ann Waters with Hilary Swank and Polish Bar with Judd Hirsch and Richard Belzer, both due out this year.  Janet was the first recipient of the Ed See Outstanding Theatre Alumnus Award from the University of Central Missouri.

DANIEL CANTOR is delighted to return to Victory Gardens, where he was last seen in James Sherman’s Relatively Close.  Other Chicago credits: Rabbit Hole at Goodman Theater, Comedy of Errors at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Return to Haifa at Next Theater. Off-Broadway: Things You Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight at Promenade Theater, Tuesdays With Morrie at Minetta Lane, Strictly Personal at Soho Playhouse, and Picasso in the national production Picasso At The Lapin Agile.  Regional: The American Conservatory Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep., Cleveland Play House, Studio Theater (D.C.), Hartford TheaterWorks, Playhouse Theater (Delaware), Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Barrington Stage Festival, Arkansas Rep., Worcester Foothills Theater, Mill Mountain Theater, National Shakespeare Company.  Television: “Law and Order,” “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” ”Law and Order: CI,” “Conviction,” ”Sopranos,” “As the World Turns,” “Loving,” and the Korean smash hit, “Asphalt Man.” Film: “The Auteur Theory,”  (Showtime) “Alchemy,” (ABC) and numerous independent films.  Daniel teaches acting at Northwestern University.

ANDREW KELTZ is thrilled to be back at VG and part of this world premiere play.  He was last seen here as Kai in The Snow Queen.  Other Chicago credits include Yeast Nation with American Theater Company, Big Ben's Fantastical Odyssey at Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fiddler on the Roof, Bowery Boys, Aladdin, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Marriott Theatre, The Boys from Syracuse at Drury Lane Theatre, How Can You Run With a Shell on Your Back? at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The American Plan, Children of Eden, The Waa-Mu Show and Was at Northwestern University.  Many thanks to friends and family, and thanks to the whole Victory Gardens team.

LAURA SCHEINBAUM is thrilled to be returning to Victory Gardens, where she was last seen in Claudia Allen’s I Sailed with Magellan.  National Tour: Ragtime (Little Girl) at The Oriental; Regional: Fiddler on the Roof (Chava) at Marriott Theatre, The Wild Duck (Hedvig) at Court Theatre, Carousel (Louise) co-produced at Court Theatre and Long Wharf Theatre, Mary Zimmerman’s Pericles at The Goodman, The Diary of Anne Frank (Anne) at Apple Tree Theatre, The Pyrates (Meliflua) at Defiant Theatre; TV: Early Edition (CBS), What About Joan? (ABC). She is a proud graduate of Northwestern University.  Much love to her family, including her soon-to-be husband, Keith.

CRAIG SPIDLE Steppenwolf Theatre: The Tempest.  Marriott Lincolnshire: Fiddler On The Roof.  Goodman:  Passion Play, Oedipus Complex, Pericles, Beard of Avon, Black Star Line, Black Stone, As You Like It.  Northlight: The Immigrant, Over the Tavern, Experiment with an Air Pump.  Court: Life’s a Dream, The Little Foxes, Nora, Desire Under the Elms, The Cherry Orchard.  Drury Lane Oak Brook: Ten Little Indians, Fiddler on the Roof (Tevye), The Man Who Came to Dinner (Sheridan Whiteside).  Regional Theatres: Arizona Theatre Company, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Music Theatre North (New York), Huntington (Boston), Freedom (Philadelphia), Public (Pittsburgh), American Players (Spring Green, WI).  Off-Broadway: The Cherry Lane.  Television: Early Edition, America’s Most Wanted.  Film: Road to Perdition, The Untouchables, The Color of Money, The Wakening.  Mr. Spidle has done voice-overs, commercials, and industrials.  He currently teaches at Columbia College in Chicago and is very pleased to once again work with Dennis Zacek.

JAMES SHERMAN (Playwright) is the author of Magic Time, The God of Isaac, Mr. 80%, The Escape Artist, Beau Jest, This Old Man Came Rolling Home, Jest A Second!, Romance in D, From Door to Door, The Old Man’s Friend, Affluenza!, Half and Half, and Relatively Close. All of the plays except Magic Time premiered at Victory Gardens under the direction of Dennis Zacek.
Jacob and Jack is the 13th play that James has premiered at Victory Gardens since his first collaboration with Dennis Zacek in 1985. Ten of the plays have been published and they have been produced all across the United States and in many countries around the world. In 2006, Sherman directed the movie of Beau Jest starring Lainie Kazan, Seymour Cassel, and Robyn Cohen. The movie was screened at film festivals in the U.S. in Miami; San Diego; Palm Beach; Washington, D.C.; Charlotte; Houston; Salt Lake City; Detroit; Honolulu; and Fairfax. The movie was also screened at international festivals in Vancouver, Tel Aviv, and Dusseldorf. Sherman currently teaches at Columbia College and DePaul University. He has been the recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Yaddo. Jacob and Jack, won this year’s Festival of New Jewish Plays in La Jolla, CA. marking the fourth time that Sherman has won this award.

DENNIS ZACEK (Director, Artistic Director) has held the position of artistic director for 30 years, and recently accepted the Actor’s Equity Association’s (AEA) Spirit Recognition Award. The Spirit Award is given to institutions that “have made non-traditional casting a way of life.” He also received the 2005 Jeff Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chicago Equity Theatre. He, his wife Marcelle McVay, and the theater are co-recipients of the 2001 Tony Award® for Outstanding Regional Theatre. He is also the recipient of the 2004 Artistic Leadership Award from the League of Chicago Theatres. Mr. Zacek and Ms. McVay received the 1999 Rosetta Lenoire Award from Actors’ Equity and the 1998 Sidney R. Yates Arts Advocacy Award from the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation. He has directed more than 250 productions in his career, including, most recently, the Chicago premiere of Blackbird by David Harrower, the world premiere of Jeffrey Sweet’s Class Dismissed, James Sherman’s Relatively Close, the Midwest premiere of A Park in Our House by Nilo Cruz, the world premieres of Cynical Weathers by Douglas Post, Denmark by Charles Smith, the inaugural production at Victory Gardens’ new home at the Biograph, Symmetry by David Field, The Family Gold by Annie Reiner, Affluenza! and The Old Man’s Friend by James Sherman, Unspoken Prayers by Claudia Allen, The Action Against Sol Schumann and Flyovers by Jeffrey Sweet, and others. Additional projects include Marisha Chamberlain’s Scheherazade (National Winner of the FDG/CBS competition), John Olive’s Clara’s Play (production and direction award, Academy of Theater Artists and Friends), and James Sherman’s Mr. 80% (direction award, Academy of Theater Artists and Friends). Mr. Zacek directed Arthur Cantor’s production of James Sherman’s Beau Jest at the Lambs Theater in New York, where it holds the record as the longest-running show in the history of the theater. Other New York credits include Lonnie Carter’s The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy, presented by Woody King’s New Federal Theater, and Charles Smith’s Jelly Belly, which was produced by the New Federal Theater. Mr. Zacek is a professor emeritus of Loyola University and was included in 2005 in Utne magazine’s first-ever list of “Artists Who Will Shake the World.”

MARY GRISWOLD (Scenic Design) has previously designed three James Sherman plays for Victory Gardens, Half and Half, The Old Man’s Friend and her favorite, Affluenza!. A recent Chicago credit has been Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, a Musical with Chamber Opera Chicago. She is proud to have served as a national and regional officer of United Scenic Artists, Local 829. Please visit her website marygriswold.net.

CAROL J. BLANCHARD (Costume Design) is thrilled to be returning to Victory Gardens Theater, where her work was seen in Love Person, Four Places, Hanging Fire and I Sailed with Magellan. She has designed for companies such as Cleveland Symphony’s Blossom Opera’s Falstaff, Skylight Opera’s La Traviata, La Boheme, The Barber of Seville, and The Marriage of Figaro, New York’s Hillman Opera’s Hansel and Gretel, Shakespeare in the Park’s Much Ado About Nothing, and A Winter’s Tale, First Stage Childrens’ Theatre’s Seussical and, The Sleeping Beauty, Karamu Theatre’s Devil Mas and Hamlet Jones, and the Champlain Shakespeare Festival’s Love’s Labours Lost and The Importance of Being Earnest. Her Chicago credits include Goodman Theatre/Silk Road Theatre’s Yohen, Drury Lane’s Barefoot in the Park and Of Thee I Sing, Porchlight Music Theatre’s Sweeney Todd, Pacific Overtures and Once on This Island, Appletree Theatre’s Wings and Match, PTAP’s 7 Doors and Einstein’s Dreams and The Silk Road Theatre Project’s Caravaggio, Merchant On Venice and Pangs of the Messiah. She has been honored with a Joseph Jefferson Award for Costume Design and an After Dark Award for her collaboration in the Silk Road Theatre’s Golden Child. She is a Professor Emeritus of Design at The State University of New York.

JESSE KLUG (Lighting Design) Victory Gardens credits include: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Blackbird, Big Blue Nail, Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams. National Tour of The Screwtape Letters. Off Broadway: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity at 2nd Stage, The Screwtape Letters at Westside Theatre, Romulus at Guggenheim Museum, The Hourglass at NYMTF. Regional: Mark’s Gospel (FPA), Ragtime, Cabaret, Miss Saigon (Jeff Nomination), Sweet Charity (Jeff Nomination) at Drury Lane, Fiddler on the Roof, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Nunsense at Marriott Lincolnshire, Aladdin, Mid Summer Nights Dream, How can you Run with a Shell on your Back at Chicago Shakespeare, Yeast Nation, Distracted, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Jeff Award) at American Theatre Company, Oh Coward at Writers Theatre, Our Lady of the Underpass, Eliot a Solder’s Fugue, Blind Mouth Singing with Teatro Vista, Forever Plaid, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Noble Fool, High Fidelity, K of D, On an Average Day with Route 66, Three Sisters with Strawdog (After Dark Award), Driving Miss Daisy, Voice of Good Hope with Boars Head Theatre, Respect at Cuillo Center, Chicago Tap Theatre with Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. Resident Lighting Designer for Drury Lane Oakbrook, Route 66, and Chicago Tap Theatre. JesseKlugLightingDesign.com.

SCOTT MILLER (Sound Design) selected design credits include The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Three Tall Women, Mountain, Criminal Hearts, The Gin Game, The Winning Streak, as resident Sound Designer for Apple Tree Theater. He was also the Resident Sound Designer for the Theater for Young Audiences program at Apple Tree Theater and the credits include The Cay, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Will The Circle Be Unbroken, The Number Of The Stars, The Outsiders, Let The Circle Be Unbroken, The Devils Arithmetic, And They Came For Me. Scott has also held the position of resident sound designer for Lake Forest College where his design credits include The Unseen Hand, On The Verge, Rocky Horror Show, The Plough and the Stars. Other Credits include Arcadia at Loyola University’s Mullady Theater, The Lonesome West and Falsettoland at Niles North High School.

GRANT SABIN (Prop Designer) primarily works as a set designer in Chicago, but also acts as the charge scenic artist at Pegasus Players Theatre. He has had the great opportunity to teach scenic painting for Northwestern University’s Cherubs Program. He’s a company member and resident set designer for Dog and Pony Theatre designing their past productions of God’s Ear, Ape, Mr. Marmalade (Jeff Award Nominee), Dead City, Osama the Hero, and Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake). He’s a graduate of Columbia College with a BFA in theatre design where he was awarded the 2005 Michael Merritt scholarship for collaboration in theatre design. Recent set design credits include: Sweet Tea, About Face; Garage Rep, Steppenwolf; It’s A Wonderful Life, American Blues Theatre; Lucinda’s Bed, Chicago Dramatists; Assistant Set Design for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Chicago Shakespeare; Whiff of Anarchy, The Seldoms; The U.N. Inspector, Next Theatre; Forbidden Broadway, Royal George; Dashiell Hamlet, Hound of the Baskervilles, The Juniper Tree, City Lit; Augusta, ATC; A Prayer for My Daughter, The 4 –H Club & Cowboy Mouth, Mary Arrchie; Crossing California, Lifeline Theatre; Faster, Thief River, The Side Project; Blasted, The Sea Horse (Jeff Award Nominee), A Red Orchid Theatre; Leaving Iowa, Royal George Theatre and The Overture Center, WI; and The Gift, Chicago Ballet. grantsabindesign.com.

JEFF MCLAREN (Assistant Director) is currently a marketing associate at Victory Gardens and is thrilled to join Dennis for Jacob and Jack. He is a company member of Wishbone Theatre Collective. Recent directing credits include the original play Spandex in association with DCA Theater’s INCUBATOR Series, Eric Levitz’s Without Parachutes at the Kennedy Center, and Neena Beber’s Italian Sojourn which he assistant directed with Wendy Goldberg at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Acting credits include a principal role in the original play The Decameron Project, performed in Edinburgh, Scotland at the Fringe Festival. Jeff earned a BA in Performing Arts from Clemson University.

REBECCA GREEN (Production Stage Manager) returns to Victory Gardens where her credits include Love Person and Jest a Second. Chicago credits also include assistant stage manager for Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Short Shakespeare! The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It, Troilus and Cressida, The Winter’s Tale, Measure for Measure, and production stage manager for The Wizard of Oz, Shakespeare’s R & J, and Pericles at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Menopause the Musical at Apollo Theatre; The Guys at Lakeshore Theatre; Over the Tavern at Mercury Theatre; the Ovations! Concert Series at Auditorium Theater; How I Learned to Drive, Master Class, and Cowgirls at Northlight Theater; Warp!, E.R./Emergency Room, and Bleacher Bums at Stuart Gordon’s Organic Theatre; Love Letters, Other People’s Money, and I Hate Hamlet at Royal George Theatre. New York credits include: Eric Bogosian’s Drinking In America, A Girl’s Guide to Chaos, and Abingdon Square at American Place Theatre. Love you Ruby, Stanley, Susan and Lee.