In The MainStage Theater
Dial "M" for Murder
A Diabolical Thriller
by Frederick Knott
directed by Preston Lane
September 4 – 25, 2011
Don't pick up the phone.
Tony Wendice has devised the perfect crime. With a lot of planning, a solid alibi and a bit of blackmail, he’s sure to make a fortune. All he has to do is kill his wife. But when his scheme goes disastrously wrong, he finds himself in a suspenseful game of cat and mouse to stay one step ahead of a determined police detective and a suspicious mystery writer out to uncover the truth. Can he still get away with murder? It’s an unexpected glimpse into the mind of a vengeful killer and the race to save his desperate victim.
"Spectacular in its understatement and breathtaking in its ability to provoke the imagination, Dial "M" for Murder is another master work in Triad Stage's opus."
–Lynn Jessup, Classical Voice of North Carolina Read the full review
"Preston Lane...submerges his audience into a sinister world of perplexities and suspense."
–Lenise Willis, YES! Weekly Read the full review
Running time: 2 hours and 45 minutes, including two ten-minute intermissions.
Sponsored by |
Production Sponsors  |
This production is part of |
CastMargot Wendice
Max Halliday
Tony Wendice
Captain Lesgate
Inspector Hubbard
Thompson/Police/Radio Announcer
Pendleton/Williams
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Creative TeamDirector
Scenic Designer
Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Composer/Sound Designer
Projection Designer
Dramaturg
Dialect Coach
Resident Fight Director
Casting Director
Stage Manager
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Biographies
Cast
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Letitia Lange* (Margot Wendice) Triad Stage debut. Off-Broadway: The Master Builder (Irish Repertory Theatre), The Power of Darkness (The Mint Theater). Regional/Local: The 39 Steps (Florida Studio Theatre); The Glass Menagerie (Two River Theater Company); Doubt (TheaterWorks, Hartford); A Doll’s House, Hamlet (New Harmony Theatre); The Real Thing (Arden Theatre Company); The Tempest, King Lear, Lovers (Lantern Theater Company); Murder on the Nile (Dorset Theatre Festival). Film/TV: Guiding Light, All’s Faire (www.allsfaire.tv). Education: MFA, Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts; BA, Pennsylvania State University. |
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Fletcher McTaggart* (Max Halliday) Triad Stage debut. Recent credits include: The Crucible (Barrington Stage Company), Contact (Asolo Repertory Theatre), Dial “M” for Murder (Pioneer Theatre Company), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Richard III (Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival), Rocket City (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Biography (The Pearl Theatre Company), Homefront (La MaMa), Rose Rage (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), As You Like It (The Acting Company), MacBeth and The Taming of the Shrew (Utah Shakespearean Festival). TV credits include: Law & Order, Six Degrees, Sex in the City, As the World Turns and Guiding Light. Fletcher has a BFA from Ithaca College and a MFA from George Washington University. |
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Bjorn Thorstad* (Tony Wendice) Triad Stage debut. Off-Broadway: The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall, Clean. New York: The Drama League; Lincoln Center Director’s Lab; The Fringe and Midtown International Theatre Festivals. Regional: Ten Little Indians, Pride & Prejudice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Yellow Leaf (Pioneer Theatre Company) and Luminosity (Playmakers Repertory Theatre). National Tour: Scooby-Doo in Stagefright. Film: Running Funny, Junior Creative and Hysterical Psycho. Bjorn is Producing Artistic Director of New York City-based theatre company, Stage 13 (www.stage-13.com) and a member of The People’s Improv Theatre of New York. |
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Josh Foldy* (Captain Lesgate) Triad Stage: Billy Bishop Goes to War, A Christmas Carol, Doubt. Off-Broadway: Nature of Mutation (Urban Stages) and Security (The Drilling Company). Regional: Guthrie Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Perseverance Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Virginia Stage Company, Caldwell Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Players Theatre Columbus, Idaho Repertory, Playwrights Center, Alaskan Shakespeare Theatre, Pillsbury House Theatre, New Theatre. Television: As the World Turns. Josh is a member of the theatre faculty at UNCG. Education: Northern Kentucky University, Yale School of Drama. |
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Andrew Boyer* (Inspector Hubbard) was last seen on Broadway in Gypsy, starring Patti LuPone and directed by Arthur Laurents. Other New York credits include: the 2000 Broadway revival of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man, directed by Susan Stroman, King Lear with Hal Holbrook at the Roundabout Theatre. National tours: Disney’s Beauty & the Beast and the National Actors Theatre Production of The Odd Couple with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. Regional: Mrs. Warren’s Profession with Elizabeth Ashley, Fagin in Oliver!, Alfie Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Cap’n Andy in Show Boat and Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. |
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Tony Scarsella (Thompson/Police/Radio Announcer) is a third year MFA Actor at UNCG. Previous credits include the Radio Announcer in Triad Stage’s Providence Gap, Roy Cohn in UNCG’s Angels in America, George Spelvin in Theatre 232’s The Actor’s Nightmare, Prospero in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Olney Center National Players Tour), The Music Man and Footloose (Jenny Wiley Theatre). Other UNCG credits include: Orpheus Descending, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Alice. |
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Patrick Ball (Pendleton/Williams) Triad Stage debut. Regional/Local: The Lost Colony (dir. Robert Richmond), Cyclops: A Rock Opera with Psittacus Productions at The Lost Colony Cabaret. Film/TV: Heaven in Stereo (1016 Productions); Importance of Being Honest, Break a Home a House (Blu Films); Denouement, The Grey Brothers (UNCSA). Educational: Orpheus Descending, The Waiting Room, Balm in Gilead, Angels in America: Part I (UNCG). |
Creative Team
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Preston Lane (Director) is in his 11th season at Triad Stage where he has directed over 30 productions. Preston is the recipient of the 2008 Betty Cone Medal of the Arts and is in his fourth year as the Artistic Partner for Theatre for An Appalachian Summer Festival. He was formerly Artistic Associate at the Dallas Theater Center, where his productions included the US premiere of Inexpressible Island (Dallas Observer Best of Dallas Awards: Best Director, Best Production) and The Night of the Iguana (Dallas Morning News:2002 Top Ten Theatre List). As a playwright, his adaptations have been produced at Triad Stage, Dallas Theater Center and Sonoma Rep. His work with musician Laurelyn Dossett includes Brother Wolf (Triad Stage, An Appalachian Summer Festival, The Human Race Theatre Company and St. Olaf College), Beautiful Star (Triad Stage and WaterTower Theatre), Bloody Blackbeard and Providence Gap. Brother Wolf, Beautiful Star and Ghosts are published by Playscripts Inc. He has taught at UNCG, NC A&T, UNCSA, Greensboro College, SMU, and the Professional Actors Workshop at the Dallas Theater Center. He is an alumnus of the Drama League of New York’s Director’s Project. A native of Boone, NC, Preston received his BFA from NCSA and his MFA from the Yale School of Drama. He blogs about theater at http://thislittleworld-triadstage.typepad.com/this-little-world/ |
| Anya Klepikov (Scenic Designer) Triad Stage: set for The Glass Menagerie, set and costumes for The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead. Anya is a frequent collaborator of director Mike Donahue: Brand, Rent, Tommy, Big Love, Recess, The Animals, God is a DJ, Electronic City, OPERA America’s Emerging Director-Designer Showcase, and the upcoming Moscow, Cheryomushki (Chicago Opera Theatre). Recent work: Hydrogen Jukebox (Fort Worth Opera Festival), Rake’s Progress (Princeton Festival). Regionally, her costumes for A Woman of No Importance (Yale Repertory Theatre) won the Connecticut Critics’ Circle Award for Outstanding Costume Design, 2008. Anya was featured in Live Design Magazine’s “The Kids Are Alright: Young Designers to Watch”, 2010. BA, University of Chicago; MFA, Yale School of Drama. www.anyaproductiondesign.com | |
| K. April Soroko (Costume Designer) Triad Stage: Suddenly Last Summer, Mirandolina, Angel Street, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Debunked, Dracula, Hedda Gabler, Driving Miss Daisy. Off Broadway: The White Marriage (Playwrights Horizons). Regional: Orfeo ed Euridice (Opera Festival of New Jersey); Manifest (Portland Stage Company); Othello, Twelfth Night, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest (NC Shakes); Beehive: The 60’s Musical, The 39 Steps, Race and The Savannah Disputation (Florida Studio Theatre). Education: MFA, Yale School of Drama. Other: Assistant Professor of Scenic Design, University of Miami – Coral Gables, FL. | |
| Norman Coates(Lighting Designer) Triad Stage: The Glass Menagerie; Around the World in 80 Days; The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead; Mrs. Warren’s Profession; The Caretaker; “Master Harold”…and the boys; A Moon for the Misbegotten. Broadway: The News and Prince of Central Park. Off-Broadway: Here Are Ladies, Diversions and Delights, Blood Knot and Limbo Tales (Villager Award). Tours: The Who’s Tommy, Camelot with Richard Harris and Encounter 500. Regional: Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, American Stage Festival, NC Shakespeare Festival, PlayMakers Repertory, Burt Reynolds’ Jupiter Theatre, The Hirschfield Theatre, North Carolina Theatre, The Princeton Festival, Greensboro Opera, Opera Carolina, Piedmont Opera, Virginia Opera, Fort Worth Opera. Norman is the Founder and Director of the Winston-Salem Light Project, in its fourth year of creating public art events in light, www.lightproject.org. He is the Director of Lighting at the UNC School of the Arts and a member of United Scenic Artists. | |
| David E. Smith (Composer/Sound Designer) is director of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts theatre sound design program. David spent eight years with the Royal National Theatre in London, England. Triad Stage: Masquerade, A Christmas Carol, The Glass Menagerie, Providence Gap, Picnic, Oleanna, Tartuffe, Ghosts, The Night of the Iguana, Bloody Blackbeard, The Little Foxes, Tobacco Road, Beautiful Star, The Diary of Anne Frank, A Streetcar Named Desire and Dracula. Regional: Arena Stage, North Shore Music Theatre, Trinity Repertory Theatre, Alliance Theatre. Local: Paper Lantern Theatre Company and Little Theatre of Winston-Salem. | |
| Bill McCord (Projection Designer) is the Production Manager of the Hanesbrands Theatre in Winston-Salem. Bill taught Cinematography and Technical Theatre at the NC School of the Arts for 11 years. He has over 25 years of film production experience on features, commercials, music videos, concerts, documentaries and industrials. He has worked with numerous Academy Award®-nominated cinematographers on features and commercials, including the 1991 Oscar® winner, JFK. Other credits include: O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Double Jeopardy; Crazy in Alabama; Primary Colors; Lolita; Dead Man Walking; Interview with the Vampire; The Pelican Brief; Miller’s Crossing; Wild at Heart; concert documentaries of U2 and The Police; as well as commercials for Levi’s, Coke, Burger King, Budweiser, Ford, Datsun, Chevy and IBM. He holds a BFA from UNC School of the Arts and a MA from the University of New Orleans. Member of IATSE since 1983. | |
| Bryan Conger (Dramaturg) is the Artistic Associate at Triad Stage. Triad Stage: Billy Bishop Goes to War (Director); Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You (Director, Theatre 232); A Christmas Carol, Around the World in 80 Days and Ghosts (Assistant Director). UNCG: Oklahoma!, Balm in Gilead and Blind Date. Indiana University Northwest (IUN): Fashion; Or Life in New York. Other: Souvenir, Burial at Thebes, Kiss Me Kate, Little Shop of Horrors, Gypsy, Always…Patsy Cline. Education: MFA, UNCG. | |
| Megan A. Persinger (Dialect Coach) Triad Stage debut. Regional/Local: Oklahoma!, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, As It Is In Heaven, 1776, Waiting for the Parade (UNCSA); Cabaret, Dracula, Psycho Beach Party (VCU); Edwin Drood (Appomatox Regional Governor’s School). Film/TV: The Devil is an Ass. Education: MFA, Virginia Commonwealth University, Guest Artist Instructor at UNCSA. | |
| Jim Wren (Resident Fight Director) has staged the violence for over a dozen Triad Stage productions including the battles in Bloody Blackbeard, the fantastical fights in Brother Wolf, and the general behavior of the Lesters in Tobacco Road. Education: MFA, University of Florida. Jim is Performance Program Coordinator for the UNCG Department of Theatre, and is a two time recipient of the Kennedy Center Gold Medallion for Excellence. | |
| Cindi Rush (Casting Director) New York: Silence! The Musical, My Mother’s Jewish Lesbian Wiccan Wedding(NYMF Winner 2010), Jay Alan Zimmerman’s Incredibly Deaf Musical, Bonnie and Clyde, Rooms, Jacques Brel, Six Dance Lessons, The Thing About Men, Urinetown, The Hurricane Katrina Comedy Festival.Regional: Penguin Rep, Triad Stage, Act II Playhouse, Arena Stage, Goodman, Humanafest. Film: Ghoul, The Woman (Top 9 Sundance 2011), In the Family, Offspring,Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door, Headspace.Tours: “Barney”, “Curious George”, “Kidz Bop”.Consultant for National Alliance for Musical Theatre (2004-08), Consultant for NYU Graduate Program for Musical Theatre Writing. | |
| Bree Sherry* (Stage Manager) Triad Stage: Masquerade, Steel Magnolias, The Sunset Limited. New York: Fringe Festival 2010; American Gypsy (Kraine Theatre with Magic Mouth Theatre); My Sweet Charlie (Abingdon Theatre with LXP Productions); Hollow (Dixon Place). Regional: The Cocoanuts, Smokey Joe’s Café, Chicago, Two Gentlemen of Verona: The Musical (Seaside Music Theater); Cinderella, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hairspray (North Shore Music Theatre); The Servant of Two Masters, Rough Crossing (Yale Repertory Theatre). Education: BA in Technical Production and Design from Elon University, MFA in Stage Management from Yale University, School of Drama. |
*Member of Actors Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
