A Skull in Connemara

January 25–March 04

A Skull in Connemara
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by BJ Jones

In a flyspeck of a town in Ireland’s fabled West, four lonely, lovable misfits dig for the truth—and get so much more. This sidesplitting yarn conjures a macabre mystery packed with merriment, mayhem, and might-be murder that is as full of twists as a shillelagh and as haunting as a whistle in a graveyard.

Digital Dramaturgy

Cast

Jordan Brown*
Mairtin Hanlon

Barbara Kingsley*
Maryjohnny Rafferty

Si Osborne*
Mick Dowd

Richard Thieriot*
Thomas Hanlon

Baltimore Center Stage: A Skull in Connemara. Broadway & Broadway Tour— August: Osage County. National/Regional Tours— Ah, Wilderness!; Great Expectations; The Miser; Gertrude Stein and a Companion. Regional—Guthrie: Jane Eyre, Romeo and Juliet, The Night of the Iguana, Once in a Lifetime, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Death of a Salesman, The Front Page; Repertory Theatre of St. Louis: You Can’t Take It with You; Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park: You Can’t Take it with You; Arizona Theatre Company: Molly’s Delicious; Two River Theatre: Melissa Arctic; Theatre de la Jeune Lune: The Miser, Tartuffe; Illusion Theater: Three Viewings; Park Square: August: Osage County, Panic, Retreat From Moscow, The Waltz of the Torreadors; Jungle Theater: Tamarack, The Glass Menagerie, The House of Blue Leaves, Tennessee Williams One-Acts, Old Times, Gertrude Stein and a Companion; Ten Thousand Things: Twelfth Night, The Good Person of Szechwan, King Lear, The Furies, Cymbeline, The Tempest, Measure for Measure, The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Film/TV—Lumpy, Ticket Out, Feeding Randy, Deer Hill Road, Older than America, A Simple Plan, The Straight Story, Sweet Land, Overnight Delivery, Herman USA, Here On Earth. Other Professional—Playwriting: Living In The Blue Zone, Proof of Me by Degree; Teaching: University of Minnesota, Dept. of Theatre & Dance since 1998. Awards— 2011 MSAB Artist Initiative Grant (Playwriting); Twin Cities Kudos Award (Acting) for Tartuffe (Dorine).

Baltimore Center Stage: A Skull in Connemara. Regional—Intiman Theatre, ACT Seattle, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Great Lakes Shakespeare, Cleveland Playhouse, Ahmanson Theatre LA, Chanhassen Theatre, Northlight Theatre, American Players Theatre. Chicago—Credits include National Jewish Theater, Wisdom Bridge Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Next Theatre, Illinois Theatre Center, Halstead Street Theater, Remy-Bumppo Theatre, Famous Door Theatre, Remains Theatre, Apple Tree Theatre, Red Orchid Theatre. Favorite roles include Frank in Faith Healer at Steppenwolf and Heisenberg in Copenhagen for both 1900 Productions and Illinois Theatre Center. Film/TV— Steel City, Joint-Body, Early Edition, Brewster Place, The Untouchables, The Beast. Other professional—Director, credits include True West, A Prayer for My Daughter, Northwest Highway.

Creative Team

BJ Jones
Director

Todd Rosenthal
Scenic Designer

David Burdick
Costume Designer

Michelle Habeck
Lighting Designer

Andre Pluess
Sound Designer

Kellie Mecleary
Dramaturg

Lewis Shaw
Fight Choreographer

Gillian Lane-Plescia
Dialect Consultant

Stephanie Klapper
Casting Director

Captain Kate Murphy*
Stage Manager

Matthew Melchiorre*
Assistant Stage Manager

Laura Smith*
Assistant Stage Manager

Baltimore Center Stage: Animal Crackers. BJ Jones is in his 16th season as Artistic Director of Northlight Theatre where he commissioned and directed the world premieres of Stella & Lou, The Outgoing Tide (Jeff Nomination, Best Director), Better Late, and Rounding Third, as well as productions of Grey Gardens, The Price (Jeff Nomination, Best Director), A Skull in Connemara, The Cripple of Inishmaan, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. He has guided the world premieres of The Last Five Years, The Gamester, and Studs Terkel’s ‘The Good War’. From Second City to Shakespeare, BJ has directed Pitmen Painters (Jeff Nomination, Best Director, Timeline), A Number (Next), 100 Saints You Should Know (Steppenwolf), The Dresser (Body Politic). Regional: Glengarry Glen Ross (Suzie Bass Nominee, Best Director, Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre),Enchanted April (Asolo Theatre), and productions at Cherry Lane Theatre NY, Galway Arts Festival, Baltimore Center Stage, The Asolo, and Utah Shakespeare Festival. As a performer, Mr. Jones is a two-time Jeff Award winner and has appeared at Northlight, Goodman, Steppenwolf, Court, and other theatres throughout Chicago. Film/TV credits include The Fugitive, Body Double, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Early Edition, Cupid, and Turks, among others.

Baltimore Center Stage: X’s and O’s, A Skull in Connemara, Death and the Maiden. Broadway—August Osage County (Tony Award), The Motherfucker with the Hat (Tony Award nom., Outer Critics Circle nom.), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Tony Award Best Revival), Of Mice and Men, This is Our Youth, Fish in the Dark. Off Broadway—Barrow Street Theater: Red Light Winter; Lincoln Center: Domesticated; Playwrights Horizons: Qualms; Manhattan Theater Club: Close Up Space; St. Ann’s Warehouse: Nice Fish. Set designer for 6 years for the Big Apple Circus. International—August Osage County (National Theatre, London, Sydney Theater, Australia); The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Theatre Royal, Ireland). Regional—Steppenwolf, Goodman, Lookingglass, Guthrie, Alliance, Mark Taper Forum, ART, La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Alley, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Awards—Laurence Olivier, Helen Hayes, Ovation, Back Stage Garland, Joseph Jefferson, Michael Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration. Professional –Professor, Northwestern University. Education— Graduate, Yale Drama.

Baltimore Center Stage: Lookingglass Alice, Next to Normal; Amadeus; Twelfth Night; dance of the holy ghosts; Animal Crackers; …Edgar Allan Poe; The Mountaintop; An Enemy of the People; The Whipping Man; A Skull in Connemara; The Rivals; Snow Falling on Cedars; Working it Out; Cyrano; Caroline, or Change; Hearts; Things of Dry Hours; Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Elmina’s Kitchen; Picnic; a.m. Sunday; The Rainmaker; Blithe Spirit; and many others. Regional—Everyman Theatre: Sweat, Dancing at Lughnasa, Intimate Apparel, Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Revolutionists, The Book of Joseph, Dot, Los Ostros, An Inspector Calls, Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, Ruined, Ghosts, Blithe Spirit; Walnut Street/Totem Pole: The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Moon Over Buffalo. Opera—Cincinnati: Don Giovanni; Boston Lyric: I Puritani; Tulsa: Tosca, The Barber of Seville, Carmen, Fidelio. Dance—BAM: FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance; Dayton Contemporary Dance: Lyric Fire (world premiere, dir/choreographer Dianne McIntyre). Other—Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: Holiday Spectacular.

Baltimore Center Stage: Jazz, Marley, Amadeus, dance of the holy ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Whipping Man, A Skull in Connemara, Let There Be Love, Things of Dry Hours, Elmina’s Kitchen. Broadway—Thoroughly Modern Millie (Slide Artist); The Boy from Oz, King Hedley, Movin’ Out, Thoroughly Modern Millie, King Hedley II Associated & Assistant Lighting Designer). Off Broadway—Fifty Words, MCC Theatre. Regional—The Guthrie, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Goodman, Alliance Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Minneapolis Children’s Theatre, The Zach, Kansas City Repertory, Penumbra, Arizona Theatre Company, Writer’s Theatre, Lookingglass, and others. Opera—Austin Lyric Opera: Elixir of Love, The Masked Ball; Julie Taymor’s Grendel, New York (Associate Lighting Designer). Awards—NEATCG Career Development Grant for Design, The University of Texas Faculty Fine Arts Award. Professional—Michelle heads the lighting design program at the University of Texas at Austin.

Baltimore Center Stage: Stones in His Pockets, The Skull in Connemara. Broadway— Metamorphoses; I Am My Own Wife; 33 Variations; Lincoln Center: The Clean House. Regional—Kansas City Rep, Arena Stage: Indecent; Arena Stage: Smart People, Equivocation, The Passion Play Trilogy, Legacy of Light, 33 Variations, Smart People, Metamorphoses, Arabian Nights; Goodman; Steppenwolf; Chicago Shakespeare; Lookingglass Theatre (where he is an associate artist); Oregon and California Shakespeare Festivals; The Guthrie Theatre; McCarter Theater; Berkeley Repertory Theater; American Conservatory Theater; Seattle Repertory; La Jolla Playhouse; Center Theater Group. Film—score for The Business of Being Born. Awards—multiple Joseph Jefferson Awards/Citations, an LA Ovation Award, Barrymore Award, Drama Critics Circle Award, and Drama Desk/Lortel nominations for composition and sound design.

Baltimore Center Stage: An Enemy of the People, Mud Blue Sky. Kellie holds a Master’s Degree in Performance Studies from New York University and a BA in English and Theater from Goucher College. Other Center Stage credits include Production Dramaturg for Mud Blue Sky, An Enemy of the People, A Skull in Connemara, American Buffalo, and co-producer of the Pub Lab Series. Other Baltimore credits: BROS: Murdercastle; Single Carrot Theatre: Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?, Milk Milk Lemonade. Previously New York based, she has worked as a dramaturg, director, critic, producer, administrator, and stage manager with various organizations including Brave New World Repertory Company, Pipeline Theater Company, WOW Café Theater, Manhattan Theater Source, and Vital Theater. Her writing has been published through Cerise Press and OffOffOnline.com.

Baltimore Center Stage: Bus Stop, A Skull in Connemara, Gleam, The Rivals, Crime & Punishment, Snow Falling on Cedars. Broadway—Addams Family, Life in Theatre, Shrek, Pirate Queen, Aida, Scarlet Pimpernel, Tarzan. International—West End: Royal Family. Regional—Ben-Hur Live, Metropolitan Opera, Baltimore Opera, Washington Opera, Folger Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre. Fight Direction—Everyman Theatre: Private Lives, All My Sons, Mystery of Irma Vep, Filthy Rich, Much Ado About Nothing. Baltimore Opera—Romeo et Juliette, Otello, Elektra, Aida; Studio Theatre: Frozen, Mojo; Rep Stage: Bach at Leipzig, Lonesome West, Swan; Globe Theatre, London (Workshop Season); Shakespeare Theatre: Taming of the Shrew; over 40 episodes of America’s Most Wanted. Film/TV—Killer Joe, Death Games. Other Professional—Weapons and Specialty Prop Design; Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors and on faculty for the Opera Studio at University of Maryland, College Park.

Baltimore Center Stage: The Whipping Man, The Skull in Connemara, The Homecoming, The Importance of Being Ernest, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, Things of Dry Hours, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Hay Fever, The Voysey Inheritance, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Elmina’s Kitchen, Sweeney Todd, Mary Stuart, Peter Pan, Blithe Spirit, A Raisin in the Sun, An Ideal Husband. Broadway—Roundabout: The Philanthropist. Off Broadway—NYTW, Public, Classic Stage Co., Cherry Lane, Clurman, Madison Square Garden, Acting Company, Roundabout, George Street Playhouse. International—Banff Centre (Canada). Regional—Alley; Arena Stage; Actors Theatre of Louisville; Barrington Stage Co.; Bay Street; Goodman; Guthrie; Hartford Stage; Huntington; Long Wharf; NJ Shakespeare Fest; McCarter; Milwaukee Rep; Seattle Rep; Steppenwolf; Trinity Rep; Yale Rep. Professional—Faculty, The Juilliard School.

Baltimore Center Stage: That Face, The White Snake, The Secret Garden, Herzog Festival (4000 Miles and After the Revolution), It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Next to Normal, Vanya and Sonia…, Stones in His Pockets, dance of the holy ghosts, …Poe, The Whipping Man, A Skull in Connemara. Selected credits include: Broadway—Bronx Bombers; A Christmas Story, The Musical; Dividing the Estate; Bells Are Ringing; It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues. Off Broadway—Daniel’s Husband; That Golden Girls Show!; Fade; Exit Strategy; The Roads to Home; Informed Consent; The Winter’s Tale; The Glass Menagerie; Billy Porter’s While I Yet Live; The Model Apartment; Emotional Creature; Karen O’s Stop the Virgens!. Regional—Many theaters including: Asolo, Canadian Stage Company; Cincinnati Playhouse, Capital Rep, Ford’s Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival; Kansas City Rep, Milwaukee Rep, Berkeley Rep, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Company, Old Globe Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. Film/TV—Another Dance With Death; Poor Behavior; Stag; Alice Jacobs is Dead, Roberta, Feast of the Goat; Sidewalk Stories. TV—Lazytown. Member—Casting Society of America and League of Professional Theatre Women.

Baltimore Center Stage: One Night in Miami…, Next to Normal, Animal Crackers, Mud Blue Sky, The Mountaintop, …Edgar Allan Poe, A Skull in Connemara, American Buffalo, Crime & Punishment, Let There Be Love, The Santaland Diaries, The Importance of Being Earnest, Things of Dry Hours, Trouble in Mind, Three Sisters, Radio Golf, The Murder of Isaac, Once on This Island, King Lear. Regional—Trinity Rep: Boeing-Boeing; Actors Theatre of Louisville: All Hail Hurricane Gordo*, The Clean House, Moot the Messenger*, Dracula, The Ruby Sunrise*, Tall Grass Gothic*, The Drawer Boy, Amadeus, As You Like It (*premieres at the Humana Festival of New American Plays); Contemporary American Theater Festival: The Overwhelming, Pig Farm; Totem Pole Playhouse: Over 75 productions through 13 summer stock seasons. Film/TV—Route 30, Route 30 Too!, The Father and the Bear, Next Food Network Star. Professional—Director of Stage Management at Virginia Tech University. Proud Actors Equity and ASCAP Member. For Whitney – with love and gratitude.

Baltimore Center Stage– Into the Woods, Assistant Stage Manger: The Whipping Man, A Skull in Connemara. Broadway—The Light in the Piazza, Coram Boy, Hamlet, Curtains, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Wicked, The Lion King, All Shook Up, The Frogs. Off Broadway—A.R. Gurney’s Black Tie dir. Mark Lamos, Happy Now?, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment…, A.R. Gurney’s Buffalo Gal dir. Mark Lamos, White Chocolate, Open Heart, The Architecture of Loss (Primary Stages). Other New York—Show Boat In Concert (Carnegie Hall). Regional—Twelfth Night, or What You Will dir. Mark Lamos; Suddenly Last Summer; Lips Together, Teeth Apart dir. Mark Lamos; Beyond Therapy; The Diary of Anne Frank; Beckett’s Happy Day’s dir. Mark Lamos; She Loves Me dir. Mark Lamos; That Championship Season dir. Mark Lamos; Tick, Tick, Boom!; Around the World in 80 Days; A Holiday Garland; The Pavilion (Westport Country Playhouse); Honk! (Two River Theater Company).

Baltimore Center Stage: Detroit ’67, As You Like It; 4000 Miles; After the Revolution; It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play; Amadeus; Wild with Happy; Twelfth Night; Stones in His Pockets; dance of the holy ghosts; Clybourne Park; Beneatha’s Place; The Mountaintop; Bus Stop; An Enemy of the People; The Whipping Man; Gleam; The Rivals; Snow Falling on Cedars; Cyrano; Working it Out; Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Regional—Shakespeare Theater Company: Salome; Contemporary American Theater Festival: World Builders; Everyman: Pygmalion, Shipwrecked, The Exonerated, Rabbit Hole, Doubt, Gem of the Ocean, And a Nightingale Sang, The School for Scandal, A Number, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Yellowman; Woolly Mammoth: Gruesome Playground Injuries, House of Gold, The Unmentionables, Vigils, After Ashley; Folger: Measure for Measure, Olney Theatre: Stuff Happens; Theater Alliance: Headsman’s Holiday, Pangea.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association

In the Press

For all other press related information please go to our Press Room

Reviews

““…quickly paced, darkly funny, and largely unsentimental…””— DC Theatre Scene

““A Skull in Connemara is a smashing success of a dark and dreary comedy with poignant moments of sobering reality sliding between the skulls.””— MD Theatre Guide

In the News

11.04.11: The Baltimore Sun — The art of cracking skulls
02.03.12: The Baltimore Sun — 'A Skull in Connemara' gets smashing production at Center Stage
02.15.12: City Paper — Riveting production inspires laughter and rumination in equal parts
02.07.12: Broadway World Baltimore — A SKULL IN CONNEMARA Digs Up Dark Humor at Centerstage
02.03.12: DC Theatre Scene — A Skull in Connemara
02.02.12: MD Theatre Guide — A Skull in Connemara at CENTERSTAGE

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