The MAP presents
TLAB HOSTS
THE INVENTION OF LOVE
by TOM STOPPARD
directed by ZACHARY ELKIND
with DAVID GREENSPAN
SAM BOLEN, ANNABEL CAPPER, JOSÉ ESPINOSA, LELAND FOWLER, ABRAR HAQUE, DANIEL LIU, YARON LOTAN, & SPENCER LUTVAK
production stage manager: REBECCA HANAI MALAMUD
set designer: BRIDGET LINDSAY
costume designer: ALYSSA KOROL
lighting designer: PAIGE SEBER
composer: JULIAN HORNIK
line producer: MAYA SHORE
assistant director: LAURIE BASHFORD
press: JOHN WYSZNIEWSKI / Everyman Agency
A.E. Housman, the poet and scholar at the heart of The Invention of Love, wrote two short collections of poetry and reams of textual criticism on ancient Greek and Latin verse before dying in 1936, respected in both his fields. That’s where this play begins, as Housman recalls the thrill of studying classics at Oxford in the shadow of an increasingly oppressive Victorian government intent on persecuting love between men. But The Invention of Love, exuberantly filled with classical scholarship and romantic poetry, doesn’t require its audience to know anything about either. The play is ultimately less interested in what Housman knew (which was considerable) than in what he didn’t know, and what perhaps none of us can ever know: what does it cost to be in love, or to be loved?
ANNABEL CAPPER * (Charon / Katharine) is a London-born, New York-based actor, director and producer working extensively in theater, TV, film, and voiceover across the UK and US. A LAMDA graduate mentored by Royal Shakespeare Company co-founder John Barton, she is the founder of Annabel Capper Presents, producing independent theatre and live events. Annabel is a company member of Bedlam and Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company, and a member of The Actors Studio Playwright Directors Unit. Favorite acting credits include The Price (West End, London) Pygmalion (Bedlam, NYC) New Amsterdam (NBC) and For Life (ABC). Directing highlights include Joe Orton: A Celebration starring Alec Baldwin and acclaimed Shakespeare workshops in UK high-security prisons, filmed by the BBC.
JOSÉ ESPINOSA * (Jackson) is an actor, writer and director based in Brooklyn. Broadway: Take Me Out (Tony Award Best Revival). Off-Broadway: Our Class (BAM and CSC; Lortel Award, Best Ensemble, Best Revival); Merchant of Venice (CSC); Fuente Ovejuna (TFANA), Redemption Story (ART/NY), Los Complicados (EST). Regional Theater: World premieres of Frankenstein (Shakespeare Theater DC) and Murder on the Links (Two River Theater). Yale Rep, Chester, Bread Loaf. Television: God of the Woods (Netflix/upcoming). Film: Hummingbird (upcoming). MFA Yale School of Drama. IG: @j.l_espinosa
LELAND FOWLER * (Jowett / Labouchere) Off-Broadway: Burn Book; The Tune Up (Lincoln Center & Little Island); Sally & Tom, Plays for the Plague Year, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Public); This Land Was Made (Vineyard); one in two (The New Group); Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Rattlestick); If Pretty Hurts, Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons); Measure for Measure (TFANA). Leland has also performed at Williamstown, Dorset Theatre Festival, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Westport Country Playhouse, McCarter Theatre Center, Yale Rep, and Alliance Theatre. TV/Film: "Blossoming Wasp;" “City on a Hill.” BA: Morehouse College; MFA: Yale School of Drama. Leland is a member of the Actor’s Center.
DAVID GREENSPAN * (AEH) has appeared in his plays Dead Mother, She Stoops to Comedy, Go Back to Where You Are, I’m Looking for Helen Twelvetrees, The Memory Motel; his solo plays The Argument, The Myopia; solo renditions: Barry Conners’ comedy The Patsy, Eugene O’Neill’s six-hour drama Strange Interlude, Gertrude Stein’s experimental Four Saints in Three Acts; premieres/revivals: notably Prince Faggot, Some Men, The Boys in the Band, Faust; solo plays: Joey Merlo’s On Set With Theda Bara, Mona Pirnot’s I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan, Jerry Lieblich’s without mirrors; honors include LORTEL, RUTHIE, eight OBIES.
ABRAR HAQUE * (Pater / Chamberlain) is a performer and writer based in New York City and raised in Portland, Oregon. NYC Credits: Public Obscenities (Drama Desk Award) at Soho Rep and Theatre for a New Audience; development work at Ma-Yi, Clubbed Thumb, The Public, Egg & Spoon. Regional Credits: Profile Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Artists Rep, Portland Shakes. B.A in Economics from UC Berkeley. @abrarhawk19
DANIEL LIU * (Pollard) is a graduate from the Yale School of Drama and Northwestern University. Previous theater credits include: Little Island’s Counterfeit Opera and Marriage of Figaro, directed by Dustin Wills, Burn Book, directed by Rory Pelsue, NAATCO’s Romeo and Juliet, directed by Dustin Wills and Hansol Jung, in a performance where the New York Times noted him as “an actor to keep an eye on,” Roundabout Theatre Company’s You Will Get Sick by Noah Diaz, directed by Sam Pinkleton, and Yale Repertory Theatre’s Girls, by Brendan Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz. Film credits include: The Devil Wears Prada 2, Human Theories and A24s Peaked (Upcoming). Daniel was also recently in Jim Cumming’s short Is Now a Good Time?, Sohrob Nayebaziz’s short Hot Seat, Isabel Perry and Adam Yates’ short Fishbowl and has also appeared on the hit series Search Party.
YARON LOTAN * (Housman) Select New York Theatre: You Don’t Have To Do Anything (HERE Arts Center), Dead Poets Society (Classic Stage Company). TV: Fleishman Is In Trouble, Dispatches From Elsewhere. Select Film: How To Be A Slut Without Dying (Upcoming), Didn’t Think I’d See You Here (Sundance 2024), Summer Solstice. Yaron is currently in post production for his feature film REFRACT0R. He wrote, produced, starred, and edited.
ZACHARY ELKIND (director) is a director based in New York. From 2019 – 2024, Zack was the Associate Artistic Director of Bedlam, where he directed Mary Stuart, Richard II, Hedda Gabler, and more. At Bedlam, he also curated the Do More: New Plays series of readings and workshops, through which he commissioned Talene Monahon’s The Good John Proctor for Bedlam’s world premiere production and developed work with Zora Howard, Julian Hornik, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Stefani Kuo, a.k. payne, Emily Breeze, Madison Fiedler, Renae Simone Jarrett, Sam Hamashima, and Eleanor Burgess. Other recent work: James Joyce's Exiles, If We Kiss, Richard II (The MAP); Anna Karenina, Hedda Gabler, Sparks Fly Upward (Bedlam); Richard II (Luna Stage); Jesus Christ Superstar, Les Misérables (Ghostlight); Macbeth (NYU Steinhardt). Zack has also worked with Page 73, the New Group, Symphony Space, Heartbeat Opera, BRIC, and Live from Lincoln Center. His feature film adaptation of Three Sisters is currently in post-production. www.zacharyelkind.com
SPENCER LUTVAK (Ruskin / Harris / Ellis) Select credits: A Funny Thing…New York City (Don), Three Sisters (Andrei), Mud (Henry/Lloyd), The Baltimore Waltz (Carl), Anna Karenina (Nikolai). Spencer is an actor, musician, dancer, and writer who has performed at La Mama, BEDLAM, Irondale, the Prototype Festival, and with David Dorfman Dance and Grant Jacoby & Dancers. Composer of the musical One Last Ride with Monica Flory. Graduate of Connecticut College and the National Theater Institute.
JULIAN HORNIK (Composer) is a composer/lyricist based in Brooklyn. Shows include Weekend with Mark Sonnenblick, Khiyon Hursey and David Cromer, and Assisted with Adam Chanler-Berat and Annie Tippe. He is a songwriter for the animated series Helluva Boss (soundtrack available from Atlantic Records). Alum of the Joe’s Pub Working Group, and recipient of the Jonathan Larson Grant.
ALYSSA KOROL (Costume Designer) is a costume designer, crafts artisan, and wardrobe manager who enjoys creating thought-provoking works to challenge societal expectations and invite new perspectives. She grew up in northern Vermont and is now based in the New York City area. Recent works include Exiles and If We Kiss (The Map), Entertaining Mr. Sloane (Annabel Capper Presents, 2024), We (Kevin Ray Works, 2024), and Richard II (The Map + Luna Stage, 2022). In her craft, Alyssa values innovative character exploration, complex world building, and lively collaboration, the context for bringing stories to life and making compelling art. Boston University MFA in Costume Design, 2018. (www.alyssakorol.com).
PAIGE SEBER (Lighting Designer) Paige Seber is a New York City based lighting designer for live performance. Credits include Titanique (Broadway, West End, Off-Broadway, International), Starstruck (Bucks County Playhouse), Come From Away & Jersey Boys (Paper Mill Playhouse), Crazy For You & All Shook Up (Goodspeed), Dilaria (DR2), Fowl Play (AMT Theater), Is Anyone Alive Out There? (Minetta Lane), Evita & Newsies (Muny), Ready. Set. Play! (Virgin Voyages), Road Kills & Cunnicularii & Cityscrape (Good Apples Collective). You can also watch Paige and her wife Izzy compete on The Amazing Race season 38 on Paramount+. seberlighting.com.
BRIDGET LINDSAY (Scenic Designer) Bridget Lindsay is a stage designer based in New York City. Recent theatre credits include Matilda, 39 Steps, Chicago, Snow Angel, Something Rotten (Ghostlight Theater), Escalation Time (Radicant Productions/ Studio 17), Game of Love and Chance (Chandak Productions/ TheaterLab), Urinetown, Pride and Prejudice,The Prom, She Kills Monsters (Columbia Grammar and Preparatory school) Peerless (Amherst University), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Gypsy,Assassins (Lee Strasberg Institute of Film and Theatre), and Today is my Birthday (Yale Repertory Theater). Bridget holds a BA in Theater Production and Design at Towson University and an MFA in Set Design at Yale School of Drama. Bridgetlindsay.com
REBECCA HANAI MALAMUD (Production Stage Manager) is originally from Tokyo and is a New York-based stage manager. Credits: Parsley (The SuperGeographics); Exiles and If We Kiss (The MAP Theater); Arcadia (Bedlam). University: Tender Rain (Syracuse Stage); Danny, King of the Basement (Syracuse Stage Children's Tour); Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (Syracuse Stage); Cymbeline; Our Dear Dead Drug Lord; Bright Half Life. Internationally, she has worked with Jermyn Street Theatre in London. Credits include Relatively Speaking, Footfalls & Rockaby, and The Tempest. Rebecca holds a BFA in Stage Management from Syracuse University.
MAYA SHORE (Line Producer) is a director for theatre and film based in New York City. Recent directing credits include The Norwegians (Producer’s Club), Dear Susie, (East Village Basement), and BITCHES (East Village Basement). Recent assisting credits include Othello (Bedlam), All Nighter (MCC), Berlindia! (The Tank Core Production), Fashion (Exponential Festival), and Margaret Cho’s Mommy, A One Woman Cho (New York Stage and Film). Maya was the 2024 recipient of the Dasha Amsterdam Epstein Fellowship at New York Stage and Film. Alongside directing, Maya is an Associate Production Manager for Libby J’Vera Production Management, recent productions include Marcel on the Train (Classic Stage Company), The Baker’s Wife (Classic Stage Company), and Are the Bennet Girls Ok? (Bedlam). B.A. Barnard College, Columbia University. @mayaeshore
Everyman Agency is a communications firm promoting complex ideas, mostly in the arts. Founded by John Wyszniewski, Everyman Agency builds awareness and provokes action for cultural organizations and individual artists by putting impactful storytelling, strategic thinking, and meaningful relationships at the heart of its work. Clients include Ars Nova, Axis Theatre Company, En Garde Arts, Lucille Lortel Theatre, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Rattlestick Theater, Target Margin Theater, and TheaterWorks Hartford, among others. www.everymanagency.com
Actors' Equity Association (AEA), founded in 1913, represents more than 50,000 actors and stage managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO, and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. The Equity emblem is our mark of excellence. www.actorsequity.org
*Equity Member appearing with permission of Actors’ Equity Association without benefit of an Equity contract in this Off-Off Broadway production. This is an Equity approved Showcase.
SPECIAL THANKS
Jordan Bellow, Will Champion, Rodd Cyrus, Daniel K. Isaac, Izabel Mar, Jeffrey Omura, Shaun Taylor-Corbett
TDF Costume Collection
Materials for the Arts
The Vail Elkind family
Alexa Lyons
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