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Return to Pure Confidence
Cast and Creative Team
 Carlyle Brown (Playwright) Dedicated to the idea that theatre can change the world, versatile theatre artist Carlyle Brown has devoted his talents as a writer, performer and Artistic Director of Carlyle Brown & Company to creating and producing original live performance works that challenge and celebrate the shared human experience.
As a writer and performer, Mr. Brown has explored topics as diverse as debunking Shakespeare to the struggle of minstrel show performers to the story of a black jockey in the Civil War Era. In The Fula from America, which Brown performed in FST’s Stage III series last season, he recounts his own journey of self-awareness and identity, exploring the meaning of being a hyphenated American. Most of his plays deal with the issue of identity, whether they pertain to race, ethnicity, culture or heritage. As included in the mission statement, these themes are explored through the Company’s productions as they strive to communicate and illuminate the search for “a collective consciousness” in their audiences.
Having produced such works as Buffalo Hair, The Little Tommy Parker Celebrated Colored Minstrel Show, The Beggar’s Strike, The Negro of Peter the Great, Talking Masks, and Pure Confidence, Carlyle and other company members create pieces through a process of ensemble and text work in a collaborative environment. Their original pieces have been staged at the Arena Stage, the Houston Grand Opera, the Children’s Theatre Company, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville.
Brown takes his role as a teacher seriously as well. His understanding of the power of vivid storytelling and passionate engagement is a skill he has sought to cultivate in the American Theatre through his involvement with other writers, actors and artists. From serving as an Artist-in-Residence at Ohio State University to fostering new writers as a teacher of expository writing at New York University, Brown’s work encompasses a wide spectrum of educational experiences and theatrical collaboration. For more information on Carlyle Brown visit his website at: www2.carlylebrownandcompany.org:8090/carlbrown/
 Kate Alexander (Director) Ms. Alexander is the Associate Director of FST. In this capacity, she ministers to the artistic needs of the theatre and its many community and state educational programs. On the FST stages some of the plays she has directed are Wit, Proof, Lobby Hero, Ten Unknowns, The Exonerated, Brooklyn Boy as well as the company developed pieces, the Playmakers and Under Six. . Ms. Alexander has created a vast Education and Touring Program for FST including the award-winning Write A Play program touching the lives of over 55,000 children annually in the US, Scotland Israel and Russia and serving as a model for theatres throughout the nation. Ms. Alexander has also pioneered an acting training method for children which serves as the foundation for the FST school, serving 600 children yearly. Ms. Alexander has also been a resident actress with Florida Studio Theatre for the past 20 years. Some of her leading roles were seen in the plays: The Goat, Filumena, Agnes of God, Master Class, Three Tall Women, The Play About the Baby, and most recently, Golda’s Balcony. Additionally Ms. Alexander has developed programs for the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and the Ringling School of Art and Design. Ms. Alexander has served on the Education Task Force and the Arts Advocacy Committee of the Sarasota Arts Council, the Non-Profit Resource Center and the steering committee for Embracing Our Differences, an international exhibit focused on acceptance. Ms. Alexander is the recipient of numerous acting, directing and public service awards, including FAER, She Knows Where’s She Going Award (Girls, Inc.), The Woman of Light Award (Westcoast Center for Human Development), and the Sarasota County Arts Leadership Award. Currently she has co- authored a book, The Animated Short which will be due out in March.
Cast
 Dean Bowden (Auctioneer/Clerk) Favorite roles elsewhere include John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Gary in Noises Off, Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing, Father Welsh in The Lonesome West, Frank in Boomtown, and Benny Southstreet in Guys and Dolls. Dean is the Fight and Character Director for the Sarasota Medieval Fair and will soon hit the road as a Knight with Noble Cause Productions, jousting his way across the country at renaissance festivals
 Barbara Bradshaw (Mattie) appeared in FST’s Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins. Florida Reparatory Theatre’s: Six Dance Lessons in Six Week s, Moon Over Buffalo, Maltz Jupiter Theatre: Deathtrap, Flat Rock Playhouse: Harps and Harmonicas, Grace and Glory, Foxfire: appeared with the Geva Theatre, The Alliance Theatre, The Caldwell Theatre, Coconut Grove Playhouse to name only a few. Barbara was honored with the Los Angeles Drama-Logue Award and two Carbonell Awards for Best Actress. It is a joy to be back!
 Melanna Gray (Caroline) Off-Broadway: Ominum-Gatherum. Regional: Darker Face of the Earth (Missouri Rep), Zora Neale Hurston (Tampa Bay Performing Arts), From the Mississippi Delta (American Stage), Omnium-Gatherum (Humana, Variety Arts-NYC, Unicorn-KC) Other roles include: Clytemnestra (Electra), Serafina (Painter of Dishonor), KT (Merrily We Roll Along). You may also have seen Melanna in “Firing Squad,” and “Camp”. Melanna received an MFA from UMKC and completed her undergraduate theatre studies at the University of Southern California.
 Gavin Lawrence (Simon Cato) Regional: Denver Center Theatre Co., Cincinnati Playhouse In The Park, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Guthrie Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company, and Center Stage among others. Film & TV: Yonondio, Joe Somebody, Justice, Listen; Macbeth, Wine in the Wilderness, Newton’s Apple, The Promise.Awards: Lorraine Hansberry Award (Cut Flowers), Distinguished Alumnus Award (HowardUniversity), Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Best New Script (Salt Fish and Bakes).
 Richard McWilliams (Col. Johnson) Broadway: Orpheus Descending. Off- Broadway: The Night Hank Williams Died, Macbeth, and 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. Regionally in The Retreat from Moscow (Performance Network), The Tempest (Great Lakes Theatre Festival), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Iowa Summer Rep), A Moon for the Misbegotten (Missouri Repertory Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (Geva Theatre), Camille (Actors Theatre of Louisville) and Desire Under the Elms (The Guthrie Theatre).
 Jeffrey Plunkett (Dewitt/Reporter) is pleased to return to FST where he appeared last season in Permanent Collection, and in The God of Isaac and The Gambol of Love in 1996. In New York, he has appearerd off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre with Mia Dillon and Joyce Van Patten, at the 78th Street Theatre Lab, and is a company member at Manhattan Theatre Source and Broad Horizon’s Theatre Company. Regionally, he has appeared at Syracuse Stage, Capitol Rep, GeVa, Chicago’s Body Politic, Pennsylvania Centre Stage, South Jersey Regional Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Pennsylvania Stage Company and the Metro Lyric Opera. Upcoming films - Firefly, Bloodmask, TV: All My Children, Deadline.
Stacy A. Blackburn (Production Stage Manager) is thrilled to be back with FST for the 2007-2008 season. Stacy holds an MFA in Stage Management from the Professional Theatre Training Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In recent years, her stage management jobs have taken her all over the East Coast and the Midwest, including seasons at Seven Angels Theatre in CT, Surflight Theatre in NJ, The New American Theatre in IL, and 11 seasons as the PSM for The Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Auburn, NY. Stacy spent a year as the technical director and professor of stage management at Bemidji State University in Northern Minnesota so she is especially glad to be wintering on the beaches of Florida. Some of her favorite past SM credits include Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Ragtime, and On the Verge.
Marcella Beckwith (Costume Designer) has worked internationally, most notably in Brazil, where she designed sets for various opera, ballet and theatre companies. Nationally, she has worked for The Goodman Theatre, The Washington Opera, Santa Fe Opera, as well as many other resident and university theatre companies. She’s currently a member of United Scenic Artists 829.
Jack MaGaw (Scenic Designer) works as a professional scenic designer and also teaches at The Theatre School of DePaul University in Chicago. Recent design credits include Carousel at Madison Repertory Theatre, Doubt for Peninsula Players, Fences at Court Theatre, Frozen at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Bus Stop at Writers’ Theatre and Two Trains Running for Pegasus Players for which he was awarded a Jeff Citation. He received Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for his designs of Fences and Bus Stop. Upcoming projects include Souvenir at Skylight Opera Theatre and Bad Dates at GEVA Theatre.
Martin E. Vreeland (Lighting Designer) With FST: Fiction, Around the World in 80 Days, The Play About the Baby, Ethel Waters: His Eye is on the Sparrow. Elsewhere: Anything Goes, 42nd Street, Singin’ in the Rain, Beauty & the Beast and Smokey Joe’s Cafe . World Premieres: 5 Bottles in a Six-Pack and Wonders Comes the 7th Day. Martin has also assisted on several Broadway productions including The Lion King, Voices in the Dark, Swing, and Grease.
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