Interplay Jewish Theatre
Cleveland, Ohio
presents a staged reading of

House, Divided

by Larry Loebell

Meet the playwright, cast and staff of House, Divided...

Luke Brett (Young Doug) is currently studying theatre at Baldwin Wallace College. Credits: Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice and Andy Paris, Jedadiah Schultz and Russel Henderson in The Laramie Project at Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory; Bill Sykes in Oliver!, Darry in The Outsiders, Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, Mr. Bennet (understudy) in the North American premiere of Miss Elizabeth Bennet, Doc in Tennessee William's Confessional and the Gravedigger in Hamlet at BW. He is beyond excited to be a part of this project and would like to thank his priceless parents for their neverending love and support.

Noah Budin (Lou Goldstein) is a singer, songwriter, recording artist, performer, actor, storyteller, educator and program director. In addition to recording CDs of original music and performing concerts around the country, Noah is the full-time Assistant Director of Activities for Stone Gardens, the Assisted Living Residence at the Menorah Park Center for Senior Living in Beachwood, OH where he facilitates, implements and runs entertainment and educational programs for senior adults. Noah was also a member of the cast of Cleveland’s longest running hit show Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding at the Hanna Theater for over one and a half years and played the role of Lazar Wolf in Cain Park’s highly acclaimed production of Fiddler on the Roof. Recently, Noah has appeared as Bellomy in The Fantasticks, Speed in The Odd Couple, Ira in Brooklyn Boy, and Donny Dubrow in American Buffalo. In the 1980’s and 90’s Noah was a member of the Chicago based a capella music and comedy group “Four Guys Standing Around Singing.” Noah has released two CDs of original music, "Hallelujah Land: Songs of Faith and Freedom" and "Metaphor." Check out his website www.noahbudin.com.

Eric Thomas Fancher (Paul Goldstein) Credits: Steven in the Ohio Premiere of The Texas Chainsaw Musical at Blank Canvas Theatre; Frid in A Little Night Music at FPAC; Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf in Into the Woods at Tri-C West; Charlie Brown in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown and Luke in Altar Boyz at TrueNorth Cultural Arts; Bill Calhoun/Lucentio in Kiss Me, Kate at Solon Center for the Arts; Frog in A Year With Frog and Toad, Patrick Dennis in Mame, Kenickie in Grease and Brad in The Rocky Horror Show at Cassidy Theatre; Dakin in the Cleveland Premiere of The History Boys and Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank at the Beck Center For the Arts; Francis Bacon in the Regional Premiere, and revival of William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead, Michael Cassio in Othello: The Moor of Venice and the Prince of France in Love’s Labour’s Lost with the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival. He would like to thank Fred for the opportunity to work with such a talented company of actors, as well as Sarah for being wonderful.

Dan Folino (Oren Goldstein) After a two year residency at the Barter Theatre in Virginia, Dan has come home to Cleveland. While at Barter, he performed in eleven full scale productions, two mini productions and two national tours. Some of his favorites include The Blue Sky Boys (Galileo and The Red Baron), Where Trouble Sleeps (adapted from the novel by Clide Edgerton by Catherine Bush), The Full Monty (Jerry), Civil War Voices (Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain) and the world premier of Richard Alfierri's Revolutions (Nick Greenburg). Cleveland audiences may remember him from Evil Dead: The Musical (Ash), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Hedwig), Sweeney Todd (Sweeney), Jekyll and Hyde (Jekyll/Hyde), Disney's Beauty and the Beast (Beast), The History Boys (Irwin), and Evita (Che). While not performing in theatre, he fronts the band vanityCrash, who's next album will drop this summer. You can catch Dan later this year in the regional premier of Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson (Andrew Jackson) at the Beck Center. Love to Crystal.

Charles Kartali (Doug Goldstein) REGIONAL: American Stage, Aspen Theatre in the Park, BoarsHead, Cleveland Play House, Cleveland Public Theatre, Dobama Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, Mandel JCC, Shadowland, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Syracuse Stage, among others. RECENT CREDITS: Mr. Lockhart in The Seafarer at Dobama, Bursar/Cardinal Barberini in Galileo at the Cleveland Play House, The Old Man in A Christmas Story at Syracuse Stage and Vet in The Book of Grace at Cleveland Public Theatre. SELECT CLEVELAND CREDITS: The Man in Bill W. and Dr. Bob, The Old Man in A Christmas Story, Christopher Trumbo in Trumbo (with Robert Vaughn) and Mitch Albom in Tuesdays With Morrie at Cleveland Play House; Shmuel Berger in Pangs of the Messiah and Eric Weiss in Brooklyn Boy at the Mandel Jewish Community Center; Victor in The Price and Johnny in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune at Ensemble Theatre; Herr Gottfried Swetts in A Bright Room Called Day at Cleveland Public Theatre and Ross in The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? and Chas in The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek at Dobama Theatre. FILM & TELEVISION: High Spirits and Lost Subs. ASIDES: Part-time Lecturer, Case Western Reserve University; Company Member, Generous Company; Finalist Judge, Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition (2001-present); Guest Artist, WordBRIDGE Playwrights Lab (1996-present); Fusion Fest, CPH (2006-11); Artistic Associate, Ensemble Theatre (2002-03) and Victory Gardens Readers Theatre. AFFILIATIONS: Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Larry Loebell (Playwright) is a Philadelphia playwright, screen writer, dramaturg, and teacher. His most recent play, The Shanghai Kaddish, has had readings at NJ Rep in Long Branch, new Jersey, at Azuka Theater in Philadelphia and as part of the Id Theater development project in NYC. His previous play, House, Divided was nominated for a “Best New Play” Barrymore Award after its premiere production at InterAct Theater Company. His other produced full-length plays include Girl Science, which will premiere at Arcadia University Theater, La Tempestad, which premiered Off-Off Broadway at the OHIO THTR in New York, produced by The Resonance Ensemble, The Ballad of John Wesley Reed, which was produced by Theatre Catalyst in Philadelphia, and Pride of the Lion. Published full length plays include La Tempestad in the anthology Playing With Canons: Explosive New Works from Literature by America’s Indie Playwrights, NYT Books, Girl Science, by IndieTheaterNow, and Pride of the Lion, published by Playscripts.com. Published short plays in regular production include Angie and Arnie Sanguine, But Who’s Counting, and Just Before the War Between the Plates, all published by Playscripts.Com. Monologues and scenes from his plays have been published by Applause Books, Smith and Krauss Books, and Playscripts. He has been awarded four Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowships in Playwriting, an EST/Sloan Science Foundation grant for his play Girl Science, and he was awarded a new play commission for House, Divided from the National Council for Jewish Culture. He has written film documentaries on historical and scientific subjects, and has also written (and received Emmy recognition) for work on the children’s television show Rugrats. He is the writer of a biographical play about Thomas Paine, which had its world première during Paine’s 272nd birthday celebration in 2009 in his home town of Thetford, England. Since 2006, he has written and seasonally revised Living News, a living-newspaper-style play which performs four times daily during the school year as part of the permanent exhibit at the National Constitution Center. He also wrote the monologues spoken by the signers of the Constitution which National Constitution Center visitors can hear on their iPod tour of Signers Hall. Larry teaches playwriting and dramaturgy at Arcadia University in Glenside, PA, and film history at University of the Arts where he is an Adjunct Full Professor.

Jacqi Loewy (Stage Directions/Newscaster) is on the full-time faculty and Director of Theatre at Notre Dame College. Acting and/or directing credits include The Cleveland Play House, Cleveland Public Theatre, Playhouse Square, Kenley Players, Ensemble, Dobama, True North, Solon Center for the Arts, Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, Weathervane, Charenton, Mercury Sumer Stock, The Eldred Theatre at CASE and (many moons ago) Broadway. You may have seen her locally in Always, Patsy Cline (Hanna Theatre), Shear Madness (Allen Theatre), Safety (Dobama), Mame (Mercury), Six Degrees of Separation, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Charenton) or South Pacific and Man of La Mancha for the late, great John Kenley. Jacqi has recently completed a commissioned play, Legally Addicted, to begin touring for Fairmount Center for the Arts. Her play Ten Cents A Dance was produced by True North. She is also responsible for the production of Both Sides of the Family and Mr. Lewis Rules: Stories from the Juvenile Justice System. An active (and longtime) member of SAG, AFTRA and AEA, Jacqi is represented by The Talent Group and has appeared in numerous commercials and feature films, most notably The Clearing with Robert Redford and Helen Mirren. She is grateful for a life filled with work she loves, including Interplay and Fred Sternfeld!

Faye Sholiton (Producer) In 2005, Faye Sholiton chaired “Halle-lujah” – a celebration of the history of the JCC Halle Theatre, as the final curtain was descending. In 2011, she founded Interplay to revive Jewish theatre in Cleveland. The company stages engaging, entertaining works that explore the world through a Jewish lens. As a playwright, she has developed her own work at the Cleveland Play House since 1996; and at Dobama Theatre since 2009. Her full-length plays have been read and performed more than 40 times throughout the U.S., and in London. She has received four Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist grants and dozens of regional and national playwriting awards. Scenes from The Interview, V-E Day, All Things Being Equal, and Telling Lives appear in anthologies. She writes extensively about theater and has served as dramaturg on many area productions. Since 2009, she serves as Ohio Regional Representative to the Dramatists Guild. Her work was seen recently at Dobama (Fear of the Marketplace and Telling Lives, both in workshop productions). Her play A Brief History of Mah Jongg appears in March at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. Visit www.fayesplays.com for Interplay Jewish Theatre updates.

Fred Sternfeld (Director) is delighted to return to Interplay Jewish Theatre after having directed their staged reading of Comparing Books last fall. Fred most recently directed The Fantasticks at TrueNorth Cultural Arts and The Bluest Eye at Karamu House Theatre. Fred is widely represented on Northeast Ohio stages through diverse projects, garnering numerous honors and awards, including the award-winning productions of A Little Night Music at Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory, Baby at TrueNorth Cultural Arts, Yellowman at Karamu Performing Arts Theatre, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at Beck Center and Ragtime, the musical for the Arts & Culture program at the Cleveland Jewish Community Center. He has served as Artistic Director at Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory, Lakewood Little Theatre - Beck Center for the Arts and the Cleveland, Seattle & Dallas Jewish Community Centers. Other selected credits: Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver! & The Sound of Music at Cain Park; Company, Les Miserables: School Edition, Children of Eden, Into the Woods, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Eat (It's Not About Food) and The Odd Couple at FPAC; The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife & The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek at Dobama Theatre; A Shayna Maidel, Jolson and Company, Man of La Mancha, Modern Orthodox, Rags, From Door to Door, South Pacific, The God of Isaac, Beau Jest, Crossing Delancey, The Twilight of the Golds, The Immigrant & Conversations With My Father for the Cleveland JCC; Bad Seed at Ensemble Theatre; Amadeus at Willoughby Fine Arts; Table Settings, Isn’t It Romantic, The Diary of Anne Frank & Broadway Bound at JCC Center Stage in Seattle; Peter Pan (1987 & 2008), On the Town, Of Mice and Men, La Cage aux Folles, Saturday Night, Foxfire, Noises Off, Children of a Lesser God & The Importance of Being Earnest at Beck Center; Proof at GLTG and All My Sons & Enter Laughing at the Dallas JCC. Upcoming: Gruesome Playground Injuries for Ensemble Theatre in April of 2012. For pictures and reviews for any of the shows listed here you can go to this link.

Luke Wehner (Young Lou) most recently appeared as Henrik in A Little Night Music at Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory. Previous credits include Sweeney in Sweeney Todd: Student Edition, Roger in Rent, Solyony in The Three Sisters, Hale in The Crucible, Jack in Into the Woods, and Abel in Children of Eden and various roles in Eat - It's Not About Food. As director, Luke has collaborated with Olivia Fine on Jesus Christ Superstar, and Playing in Sand - an original piece re-imagining John Gardner's Grendel for the stage. Luke would like to thank Anna Bradley, Sean Szaller, A, B, and M. For Mom.