The Marriage of Bette and Boo

Christopher Durang (The Idiots Karamazov) is the author of The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award, Dramatists Guild Award), Baby with the Bathwater, and Media Amok, all presented at the American Repertory Theater; as well as A History of the American Film (Tony nomination), The Actor's Nightmare, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You (Obie Award), Beyond Therapy, Laughing Wild, Durang/Durang (an evening of six plays including a Tennassee Williams parody For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls), Sex and Longing, and Betty's Summer Vacation (Drama Desk nomination). As a performer, Mr. Durang appeared in Laughing Wild in Los Angeles, shared an acting ensemble Obie for The Marriage of Bette and Boo in New York, and with John Augustine and Sherry Anderson has performed his cabaret Chris Durang and Dawne in numerous venues, winning a 1996 Bistro Award. He co-wrote with Sigourney Weaver and performed in the Brecht–Weill parody Das Lusitania Songspiel, appeared with Julie Andrews in the Sondheim review Putting It Together, and in Call Me Madam. His films include The Secret of My Success, Mr. North, The Butcher's Wife, Housesitter, The Cowboy Way, The Object of My Affection, and The Out-of-Towners. For television Mr. Durang wrote for the Carol Burnett special "Carol and Robin and Whoopi and Carl" and for the PBS series Trying Times. He has written several screenplays and two sitcom pilots. Mr. Durang has an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, is the winner of numerous scholarship and grants, and had his plays published by Grove Press and Smith & Kraus. Since 1994 he and Marsha Norman have co-chaired the Playwrighting Program at the Juilliard School.

Associate Director of the American Repertory Theater and the A.R.T./ MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training, and Head Of Directing for Theater, Dance and Media at Harvard University.  His directorial work with the A.R.T. has included The Onion Cellar with The Dresden Dolls, Donnie Darko (adaptor/director/sound designer), Beckett’s Endgame, Adam Rapp's Nocturne, Suzan Lori Parks' The America Play, Adrienne Kennedy's The Ohio State Murders, Büchner's Woyzeck, Sam Shepard's Buried Child, and Christopher Durang’s Marriage of Bette and Boo (also at NYU and Harvard University). A.R.T. Institute: A Bright New Boise, The Flu Season, The 4th Graders Present An Unnamed Love-Suicide, Beckett Shorts: (Not I, Footfalls, Play, Rough For Radio II, Breath, Come and Go), Donnie Darko. Other: Hang Ong's The Chang Fragments and Martin Crimp's The Treatment at The Joseph Papp Public Theater; Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits at Theater Neumarkt in Zurich; Jose Rivera's Marisol at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival; Mac Wellman's Hyacinth Macaw at Primary Stages in New York; Instant Girl's On the Run at Dance Theater Workshop; Mac Wellman's The Land of Fog and Whistles at the Whitney Museum Biennial; Neena Beber's The Living Goddess at The Magic Theater; Erin Cressida Wilson's Cross Dressing in the Depression at Soho Rep; and Quincy Long's Whole Hearted at the Mark Taper Forum's Taper Too in Los Angeles. His adaptations include Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits (Zurich), Phoebe's Got Three Sisters (Cucaracha Theater in New York) and O'Neill's The Great God Brown at NYU and Harvard University.  He's currently working with ArtsEmerson on his adaptation of Don Delillo's short story, "Hammer & Sickle" for the stage. Mr. Stern has taught at the Yale School of Drama, New York University, and Columbia University. He currently teaches at Harvard University, Harvard's Extension School, and A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training.

Set designer Molly Hughes (The Ohio State Murders) designed last season's The Marriage of Bette and Boo. She received her MFA from NYU's design program, which is where she first worked with director Marcus Stern. Her other work includes Salt, written by Migdalia Cruz and directed by Loretta Greco, and Ask for Becky Whiteworth, a feature film directed by William Nunez.

Costume designer Karen Eister's designs at the American Repertory Theater prior to The Marriage of Bette and Boo include An Evening of Beckett, Beckett Trio, Macbeth; the A.R.T. New Stages productions of Silence, Cunning, Exile, The Lost Boys, Claptrap, Two by Korder, and Mrs. Sorkin Presents … ; and for the A.R.T. New Stages premiere and 1987 mainstage production of The Day Room. Ms. Eister earned her MFA in design at New York University. After several years of freelancing for television, fashion, and theater, she returned to Cambridge, where she has been cutting and draping costumes for the A.R.T.

Lighting Designer John Ambrosone has designed over thirty productions for the American Repertory Theater, including Lysistrata, Absolution, Marat/Sade, Othello, Animals and Plants, Mother Courage (2001 Elliot Norton Design Award), The Doctor's Dilemma, Three Farces and a Funeral, Nocturne, Ivanov, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The King Stag, Boston Marriage, Charlie in the House of Rue, Valparaiso, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, How I Learned to Drive, Nobody Dies on Friday, Man and Superman, The Old Neighborhood, When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable), Alice in Bed, Slaughter City, and Buried Child. On Broadway he designed The Old Neighborhood. Work in resident theaters includes the Alley Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, the Coconut Grove Playhouse, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Walnut Street Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, and Arena Stage. Mr. Ambrosone also has designed in Singapore, Moscow, Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, Mexico, Germany, and France.

John Huntington, the sound designer for The Marriage of Bette and Boo, is also an author and control systems consultant who has collaborated with Marcus Stern for nearly ten years, on such projects as The Marriage of Bette and Boo at New York University, The Chang Fragments at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, Instant Girl at Dance Theatre Workshop, The Hyacinth Macaw at Primary Stages, Cross Dressing in the Depression at Soho Rep, Silence, Cunning, Exile at Seattle Rep, and The Treatment (co-design) at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Mr. Huntington teaches sound design at NYU and is also systems consultant with the show-control company Thoughtful Designs. His book, Control Systems for Live Entertainment, is published by Focal Press.