JESSE JAMES KEITEL
Christine Jorgensen
An actress, writer, and advocate, Jesse has been pivotal in moving the needle for the LGBTQ+ community’s timely representation in Hollywood. From her groundbreaking casting in David E. Kelley’s Big Sky on ABC, to her daring performance as Ruthie in the reboot of Queer as Folk and more recently making history as the first openly trans woman in Star Trek as Captain Angel in "Strange New Worlds." She first broke onto the scene with her heartbreaking performance in the BAFTA and Student Academy Award-winning Miller and Son. Soon after, Vogue named her one of the “Rising Stars Poised to Dominate in 2022” and she was awarded the Human Rights Campaign Equality Award that same year. Last winter, she made her Off-Broadway debut playing Christine Jorgensen in The Christine Jorgensen Show's world premiere. Up next you can see her in the forthcoming Amazon series Obsession. Jesse James Keitel’s work has captured hearts, pushed boundaries, and helped pave the way for trans representation in television.
MARK NADLER
Myles Bell, Co-Composer, Music Director
Mark Nadler (Myles Bell, Co-Composer and Music Director) originated the role of Myles Bell at The Fresh Fruit Festival and then went on to play the role at 59 E. 59th St. Theaters. Other recent favorites are Cosme McMoon in “Souvenir” and Eugene in in the international hit “Gaby Deslys” for which Mark was nominated for France’s prestigious Trophée de la Théâtre Musicale. For his work in cabarets and concert halls, Mark is the recipient of eight awards from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets, three Backstage Bistros, two New York Nightlife Awards, and two Broadway World Awards. Additionally, he was awarded two Bay Area Outer Critics’ Circle Awards. He has been a soloist with major orchestras, playing everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Philadelphia’s 14,000 seat amphitheater at The Mann Center. His off Broadway show, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, was honored with a New York Nightlife Award, a Drama Desk nomination and a nomination for Australia’s highest performing arts honor, the Helpmann Award. www.MarkNadler.com
www.MarkNadler.com
CREATIVE TEAM
-
Michael Barakiva (Director) is an Armenian/Israeli American director and writer who currently serves as Artistic Director of Cleveland Play House. He is thrilled for the opportunity to return to The Christine Jorgensen Show, after directing the world premiere last year. His work has been seen at Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Syracuse Stage, and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, as well as the Hangar Theatre, where he served as artistic director. Michael is also an award-winning young adult novelist whose third book, Keepers of the Stones and Stars, a multi-POV queer protagonist contemporary epic fantasy, is now on bookshelves (FSG, Macmillan).
-
Donald Steven Olson has an international career as a playwright, novelist, and travel and garden writer. His plays have been seen in New York, London, Rome, Amsterdam, Pittsburgh, and Portland, Oregon, as well as on a number of virtual stages. Oscar & Walt, about the 1882 meeting of literary lions Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman, won the 2019 Best Full-Length Play award from ALAP/City of West Hollywood Pride Reading Festival and received its world premiere in Rome, followed by a staged reading at The National Arts Club in New York and a critically acclaimed production with Kinetic Theatre Company in Pittsburgh in 2021. His play TRANSITION: The Christine Jorgensen Collection was given a virtual production in November 2022 by Transformation Theatre of Maryland. London-based Joffre Books recently reissued e-book editions of three of Donald’s groundbreaking novels and his collection of ghost stories. Over the years, Donald has written dozens of travel guides to destinations in Europe and North America and authored two acclaimed guides to west coast gardens.
www.donaldstevenolson.com -
Riw Rakkulchon is a Set & Costume Designer, Animator and Chef from Bangkok, Thailand. He/They has worked at Yale Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, The Old Globe, Drury Lane Theatre, Asolo Rep, The Acting Company, 59E59, Edinburgh Fringe, Primary Stages, Hartford Stage, The Public Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music amongst others. Broadway Associate Set Design: Pass Over, &Juliet, Parade. He/They also works with designers Wilson Chin, Riccardo Hernandez, Jason Ardizzone-West, Donyale Werle, Santo Loquasto, Dane Laffrey, Clint Ramos and Walt Spangler. Board member of WithAll, a non-profit Organization on a fight to end eating disorders. IG: @riwrdesign. B.F.A. Ithaca College, M.F.A Yale School of Drama (Donald & Zorca Oenslager Fellowship Award in Design Recipient). Connecticut Critics Circle Award - Best Set Design - 2023. Member of United Scenic Artist 829.
-
Suzanne Chesney is a Brooklyn-based costume designer whose career spans 20 years of work in theater and television. She is a member artist at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, where she has designed numerous premiere productions including Travisville by William Jackson Harper, Spill by Leigh Fondakowski, Isaac’s Eye by Lucas Hnath, and Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler. Recent credits include In Every Generation at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Steel Magnolias at Pittsburgh Public Theatre, and The Play that Goes Wrong at Syracuse Stage.
www.SuzanneChesney.com -
Calvin Anderson (he/they) is a lighting designer and production manager. They have a strong pull towards the devised, the radical, and the risky, while leaning towards heart and trust. Career highlights include Body as Site of Faith and Protest (waheedworks/NYC), Late Night Snacks 2019 (Bearded Ladies Cabaret/Philadelphia), Oscar at the Crown (The Neon Coven/NYC), and Orchid Receipt Service (Mirror/Fire Productions/NYC). Calvin is a member of Wingspace and USA829.
-
Jacqueline Herter is the resident sound designer and audio engineer for the Department of Drama and Syracuse Stage, Central New York’s premier professional theater, and the professional theater in residence at Syracuse University. She has designed for Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Studio Arena, Geva, Round House, Virginia Stage, and the Hangar Theater, among others. Some of her favorite productions are Next to Normal, The Overwhelming, Caroline, or Change, The Miracle Worker, Radio Golf, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Red Noses, The Real Thing, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, M. Butterfly, A Raisin in the Sun, A Lesson Before Dying, Frozen, Copenhagen, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Driving Miss Daisy, and Big River. B.A., State University College at Geneseo.
-
Broadway: Beetlejuice the Musical. Other assistant/associate credits include: Hairspray national tour, Oliver at New York City Center, The Griswolds Broadway Vacation at 5th Avenue, Virgin Voyages’ A Ship Show, Beetlejuice on Norwegian Cruise Line, How to Load a Musket at 59E59, and SoftPower at the Public Theater. Select directing/choreography credits include: You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown at Forestburgh Playhouse, Derailed at Theatre Now, Urinetown Off-Broadway (choreographer), Starblasters at Manhattan School of Music (choreographer), Guys and Dolls at Syracuse University, and Urinetown at Manhattan School of Music. Film/TV: SC7NARIO on BroadwayHD
-
Most recently, ADHT was the Lead Producer on the World Premiere production ofThe Christine Jorgensen Show at 59e59 theaters. Previous credits include Associate Producer with Audible Theater of Eric Bogosian’s Drinking in America with Andre Royo, directed by Mark Armstrong, and the world premiere opera A Marvelous Order by Judd Greenstein, Tracy K. Smith, and Joshua Frankel. In 2019, ADHT co-presented the US premiere of The King’s Speech. Previous tours included The Woman in Black, the National Theater’s An Inspector Calls directed by Stephen Daldry, Private Peaceful by Simon Reade, and Sancho by and starring Paterson Joseph, among many others. Andy is a two-time TONY Award winner (Spring Awakening -World Premiere; Hair- Broadway Revival), and was the first Executive Director of St. Ann’s Warehouse as well as ED of the Public Theater and MD at Atlantic Theater Company. Andrew D Hamingson, Producer; Amanda Cooper/ALC Management, General Manager; White Ivy LLC, Bookkeeping.
-
With offices in both New York and Los Angeles, The Telsey Office casts for theater, film, television, and commercials. The Telsey Office is dedicated to creating safe, equitable, and anti-racist spaces through collaboration, artistry, heart, accountability, and advocacy.
-
Lucky Stiff (they/he) is a trans/nonbinary director, writer, and performer working in Chicago and New York. Their work in new play and musical development and nightclub culture-inspired performance art has been featured at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Blue Man Group Chicago, Boy Friday Dance Company, and the McKittrick Hotel (home of Sleep No More) among many others.
-
Nat Kelley DiMario is a Brooklyn-based queer and trans multidisciplinary theater artist, stage manager, and storyteller. Recent NYC: Into the Woods (Broadway 2022), backstroke boys (Fault Line Theatre), Lewberger & the Wizard of Friendship (Theatre Row), No Good Things Dwell in the Flesh (ART/NY), *mark (Theatre 315), Thelma & Louise & the Time Machine (Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival). Nat is an alum of Fordham University and the Juilliard Professional Apprentice Program. www.natkelleydimario.com @natdimario
This production is a part of SubletSeries@HERE: a curated rental program. The Christine Jorgensen Show was first produced at 59e59 Theaters, a coproduction between ADH Theatricals, LLC and wild project productions.
A NOTE FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT
Seventy years ago, when Christine Jorgensen returned from Denmark following her gender reassignment surgery (back then it was called a “sex-change operation”), she became the world’s first internationally recognized transgender celebrity. Americans in the repressed and repressive 1950s had never encountered anyone like her, and their fascination fed headlines for years to come and led to a notable public career. Christine occupies a unique niche in history. She didn’t start the sexual revolution, but as she said, she gave it a swift kick in the pants. Much has changed over the past seventy years, but Christine’s story, her accomplishments, and her legacy remain as timely today as they were back in 1953 when she stepped off that SAS plane at Idlewild (now JFK Airport) and walked straight into the pages of history.
Everyone involved with this show has been extraordinary, but I’d like to give special thanks to Andy Hamingson for his unwavering enthusiasm and professional guidance as producer, and to Mark Nadler, who has been on (key)board since the idea for this show first woke me up in the middle.