Hughie

Frank Wood

Night Clerk

Frank Wood (Night Clerk) won the Tony Award and the Drama League Award for Side Man. He went on to play the role of “Gene” on London’s West End and in Australia. Frank was last seen on Broadway in Clybourne Park. Off-Broadway, he was in MCC’s production of The Nether at The Lucille Lortel Theatre, and played “Roy Cohn” in the Signature Theatre Company’s revival of Angels in America.

Wood’s additional Broadway credits include: August: Osage County; Born Yesterday; Hollywood Arms and he has been seen Off-Broadway in the original productions of Spring Awakening at The Atlantic Theatre, Sam Shepard’s The God of Hell, Soho Rep, Playwrights Horizons, Minetta Lane Theatre and CSC. He has been seen on film in Gold, Changeling, Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Dan in Real Life, Thirteen Days, Pollock, People I Know, In America, Down to You, Royal Tennenbaums, Greetings from Tim Buckley, and The Missing Person.

Frank’s Television credits include: The Newsroom, The Good Wife, Modern Family, Elementary, Blue Bloods, The Knick, Girls, Flight of the Conchords, Grey’s Anatomy, Sopranos, and Law & Order: SVU. Frank Wood has performed regionally at The Goodman Theatre; ACT; Long Wharf Theatre; Hartford Stage; Williamstown Theatre Fest.; McCarter Theatre; Cincinnati Playhouse; Arena Stage, DC; Mark Taper Forum, LA. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University (BA) and NYU Graduate Acting Program (MFA).

Forest Whitaker

Erie Smith

Forest Whitaker (Erie Smith) is an actor, producer and director who has won an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and BAFTA for his portrayal of Dictator Idi Amin in Taylor Hackford’s The Last King of Scotland, and has appeared in over fifty films that have collectively grossed over $2 billion. Whitaker studied opera and drama in college and his first big-screen break-out performance was in Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Over the next thirty years he worked with the greatest directors of our time, appearing in critically acclaimed films that include Oliver Stone’s Platoon, Clint Eastwood’s Bird (for which Whitaker won the Best Actor Award at Cannes), Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money (opposite Paul Newman), Robert Altman’s Ready to Wear, Wayne Wang’s Smoke, Barry Levinson’s Good Morning Vietnam, Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game, Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, David Fincher's Panic Room, Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are, Denzel Washington’s The Great Debaters, and Lee Daniels’ The Butler.

As a director, Mr. Whitaker’s work includes HBO’s Strapped, Waiting to Exhale, Hope Floats, and First Daughter. Most recently Mr. Whitaker won critical acclaim for his performance in Antoine Fuqua’s Southpaw, with upcoming film projects that include Star Wars: Rogue One.

Eugene O'Neill

Author

Born in New York City on October 16, 1888, Eugene O'Neill was the first great American playwright. His father was James O'Neill, the famous dramatic actor, and during his early years O'Neill often traveled with his parents. Beyond the Hoizon (1920), the first of his plays to reach Broadway, won a Pulitzer Prize (he eventually won four) and opened the way for serious theatre in this country. In 1936 he became the only American playwright ever awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

His major works include: The Emperor Jones (1920), The Hairy Ape (1922), Desire Under the Elms (1924), The Great God Brown (1926), Strange Interlude (1928) Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), Ah, Wilderness! (1933), A Moon for the Misbegotten (1957), Hughie (1964), A Touch of the Poet (1967), and what most authorities consider his two greatest plays: The Iceman Cometh (1964) and Long Day's Journey into Night (completed in 1941 but unproduced until three years after his death on November 27, 1953).

Michael Grandage

Director

Michael is Artistic Director of the Michael Grandage Company in London. He was Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse (2002-12) and Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres (2000-05).

For MGC: Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Peter and Alice and Privates on Parade as part of the season at the Noël Coward Theatre, Dawn French: 30 Million Minutes (national tour and West End run at the Vaudeville Theatre later this year) and the forthcoming feature film Genius.

At the Donmar: Richard II, Luise Miller, King Lear, Red (also Broadway and LA), Hamlet (also Elsinore and New York), Ivanov, Twelfth Night, The Chalk Garden, Don Juan in Soho, Frost/Nixon (also Gielgud, New York and USA Tour), Othello, The Wild Duck, Guys and Dolls, Grand Hotel, After Miss Julie, Caligula, Merrily We Roll Along and Passion Play.

At Sheffield: he directed numerous productions including Don Carlos, which also transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in London.

Opera includes: The Marriage of Figaro and Billy Budd (Glyndebourne), Don Giovanni (Metropolitan Opera) and Madame Butterfly (Houston).

Awards include: Tony, Olivier, Evening Standard, Critics’ Circle, TMA, South Bank and Drama Desk Awards. He has also been awarded Honorary Doctorates by both Sheffield University and Sheffield Hallam University and is President of Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. He was appointed CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2011. His book, A Decade at the Donmar, was published in 2012 by Constable and Robinson.

Christopher Oram

Set & Costume Designer

Theatre includes: Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Cripple of Inishmaan (also NYC), Peter and Alice and Privates on Parade (MGC/West End), Macbeth (Manchester International Festival & Armoury NYC), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Rogers/NYC), Company (Sheffield Crucible), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, A Streetcar Named Desire, Othello, Grand Hotel, World Music, Red, King Lear, Passion, Parade and Frost/Nixon (Donmar Warehouse), Hamlet, Madame de Sade, Twelfth Night and Ivanov (Donmar/Wyndham’s), Man and Superman, Summerfolk, Danton’s Death, Stuff Happens, Power and The Marriage Play/Finding the Sun (NT), Backbeat (Glasgow Citizens), Evita (Adelphi & NYC), Guys and Dolls (Piccadilly), King Lear/The Seagull (RSC/world tour), Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies (RSC Stratford/London/NYC) and A Damsel in Distress (Chichester). Recipient of the Tony, Olivier, Evening Standard, Critics’ Circle, Garland, Falstaff and Ovation awards for his work in both the UK and the USA.

Neil Austin

Lighting Designer

Theatre includes: Bend it Like Beckham, Shakespeare in Love, Henry V, Betty Blue Eyes, The Children’s Hour, Dealer’s Choice, No Man’s Land and A Life in the Theatre (West End), Our Country’s Good, 3 Days in the Country, Rules for Living, Dara, The Silver Tassie, Liolà, The Children of the Sun, Port, She Stoops to Conquer, The Cherry Orchard, Women Beware Women, The White Guard, London Assurance (NT), Henry IV, The Night Alive, The Weir, Julius Caesar, Spelling Bee, King Lear, Passion, The Prince of Homburg, Red, Life is a Dream, A Streetcar Named Desire, Hamlet, Madame de Sade, Twelfth Night, Piaf, Parade, John Gabriel Borkman, Don Juan in Soho, The Cryptogram, Frost/Nixon, The Wild Duck, The Cosmonaut’s Last Message..., Pirandello’s Henry IV, World Music, After Miss Julie, Caligula (Donmar Warehouse), Birdland, The Faith Machine, Tusk Tusk, Flesh Wound, Trust (Royal Court), Josephine and I (Bush), Kenneth Branagh’s Macbeth (Manchester International Festival and New York), A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Evita, Red, Hamlet, The Seafarer and Frost/Nixon (Broadway). He is the recipient of the 2011 Laurence Olivier Award for The White Guard at the National Theatre and the 2010 Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Red at the Golden Theatre on Broadway.

Adam Cork

Composer

Adam Cork has written mainly for the stage, incorporating sound design within his work to create integrated music and sound scores embracing instrumental music, electronic music and song for many celebrated productions. Adam’s musical London Road, co-written with Alecky Blythe, won the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical in 2011. He also received an Olivier Award in 2011 for King Lear (Donmar Warehouse), the Evening Standard ‘Best Design’ Award 2011 for Anna Christie and King Lear (Donmar), and a Tony Award in 2010 for his music and sound score for Red (Donmar/Broadway). In 2010 Adam received a Tony Award nomination for ‘Best Score’ (Music and Lyrics) for Enron (Headlong/West End/Broadway). Also on Broadway, his sound design for Macbeth (2008) was nominated for a Tony Award and his music for Frost/Nixon (2007) was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.

Other theatre includes: Phèdre (NT), Photograph 51, Henry V, Peter and Alice (MGC/Noël Coward), The Tempest (RSC), Richard II, Othello, The Chalk Garden, Creditors, The Wild Duck, Caligula (Donmar Warehouse), Hamlet (also Broadway), Ivanov (Donmar/Wyndham’s), No Man’s Land (Duke of York’s), Don Carlos (Gielgud/Sheffield), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Late Henry Moss (Almeida), Faustus and Paradise Lost (Headlong).

Screen work includes: London Road, Genius, The Hollow Crown: Richard II, Macbeth and Frances Tuesday.

Radio scores include: The Luneberg Variation and The Colonel-Bird.