DEATH OF A DRIVER

by Will Snider directed by Charlotte Northeast

October 28 - November 20, 2022

Run Time: 90 minutes, no intermission

Honorary Producers: Carol Beam, Lisa Wershaw & Steve Engelmyer

A young and ambitious engineer moves to Kenya to build a critical highway and improve the country’s infrastructure with help from a local insider. But national politics and tribal feuds make the road to a more equitable society very bumpy. What are the unanticipated consequences of America’s well-intentioned meddling in another country’s affairs?

Death of a Driver Company

Cast

Akeem Davis* - Kennedy

Hannah Gold* - Sarah
*denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association

Production Team

Charlotte Northeast - Director

Tom Helmer* - Stage Manager

Marie Laster - Scenic Designer

Asaki Kuruma - Costume Designer

Drew Billiau - Lighting Designer

Larry Fowler - Sound Designer

Kelly Palmer - Props Manager

Marie Laster is a scenic designer born and raised in Philly. Scenic design credits include Robin Hood (Pittsburgh Public Theater), Reverie (Azuka Theatre), Wrong River (Flint Repertory Theatre), Settlements (InterAct Theatre), TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever (Theatre Horizon), Untitled (Inis Nua Theatre), A Boy and His Soul (Kitchen Theatre). Marie received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Philadelphia University and enjoys channeling her creative energy through the scenic design process. www.marielasterdesign.com  

Asaki Kuruma is so excited to be back at InterAct! Originally from Japan, Asaki is a multi-disciplinary artist who has been working professionally with many theater companies and artists in the Philadelphia area. Costume design credit: 72 Miles to Go..., Man of God (InterAct Theatre), Backing Track (Arden Theatre), The Taming!, Pericles (Shakespeare in Clark Park), Marisol (Arcadia University), Kissing the Witches (Ursinus College), The Scar Test, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Villanova Theatre), Boycott Esther (Azuka Theater), Las Mujeres (Power Street Theatre Company), Romeo & Juliet (Lantern Theater Company), Tiger Style! (Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists), Romeo & Juliet, Complete History of America, Abridged, Measure for Measure (Commonwealth Classic Theatre Co). Asaki is also a Resident Artist at Power Street Theatre https://www.powerstreettheatre.com. MA -Villanova University. Next up: House of Desires at Villanova Theatre."

Drew Billiau is a freelance lighting designer based in the Philadelphia area. Recent designs include Travesties for Lantern Theater, Rigoletto for Opera Philadelphia, Extreme Home Makeover for Theater Exile, Sunset 0639 Hours for BalletX and the gallery lighting for Blood Moon at The Fabric and Textile Workshop. Drew has designed numerous shows for such companies as Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Jacobs’ Pillow, New York Theater Workshop, The Joyce, Vail International Dance Festival, Opera Philadelphia, Vancouver Opera, BalletX, Pennsylvania Ballet, Wilma Theater, Portland Ballet, Lucidity Suitcase, New Paradise Laboratories, Theater Exile, 1812 Productions and The Lantern Theater. Art installation designs include – The Electric Street, Electric Toronto, Electric Philadelphia, Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens and the Los Angeles Ice Cream Museum. Drew is currently the Director of Design & Technology at Opera Philadelphia and an Associate Designer with the corporate/industrial lighting firm Fine Design Associates, inc.

Larry D. Fowler, Jr. is a Philadelphia based theater sound designer, radio imaging producer, and music producer whose work spans 20+ years. Theater companies Larry has designed for include Wilma Theater, Azuka Theater (Current Board Member), Interact Theater, Theater Horizon, People’s Light, Theater Exile, The Lantern Theatre, Denver Center, Trinity Rep, Rennie Harris Puremovement (DJ-Rome And Jewels), ELeon Dance, Danse4Nia, and Khaleah London Dance. He is a 3-time Barrymore Award nominee for his work on Blood Wedding (Wilma Theater, 2017), Peter and the Starcatcher (Theater Horizon, 2018), and Hype Man (Interact Theater, 2018). In broadcast radio, Larry has been an in-studio producer and board operator for Radio One, Inc. in Philadelphia and is currently an imaging producer, voice over talent, and content editor for Healthcare Now Radio.com. He is also an  Adjunct Associate Professor at The University of the Arts.

Harbour Edney (they/he) is a Lighting Technician who recently relocated here from Pittsburgh, PA. Since moving to town they have worked with companies like PlayPenn, Lightning Rod Special (FringeArts), The Bearded Ladies and The Neighborhood House. They received their BFA in Lighting Technology from Point Park University in 2018 and particularly enjoy working with new and devised work. Harbour is thrilled to be joining InterAct this season and is a technician and designer for hire www.hmedneydesign.com

John Kolbinski (Audio Engineer) Past Sound Design Work: The Winter Wonderettes (Hampton Arts, The American Theatre); Always…Patsy Cline, Civil War Voices, The Winter Wonderettes, Baskerville, Souvenir, The Gift, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, (Walnut); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare in Clark Park); Basic Witches (Robert Hager); Behold Her (FringeArts/Half Key Theatre Co); Mort (New Paradise Laboratories); Every Brilliant Thing (Arden). Sound Supervisor at Arden Theatre Company and Chautauqua Theater Company. Audio Engineer at InterAct Theatre Company, Azuka Theatre and Lantern Theater Company. Sound Systems Designer, InterAct’s Drake Theater. 

Andrew Beal is a 22-23 Season Apprentice at InterAct Theatre Company. He is a playwright, sketch writer (FST Mainstage), and performer. He is originally from North Carolina and is a graduate of UNC Greensboro.

Talk Back at InterAct

INTRODUCING: Speaker Saturdays

Following our Saturday matinees, join Producing Artistic Director Seth Rozin & Literary Manager Charlotte Martin with an expert speaker in a moderated conversation digging into the themes of DEATH OF A DRIVER.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 5 - Will Snider, DEATH OF A DRIVER Playwright

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 12 - Marie Laster, DEATH OF A DRIVER Set Designer

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 19 - Charlotte Northeast, DEATH OF DRIVER Director

Speaker Sundays

Following our Sunday matinees, join Producing Artistic Director Seth Rozin & Literary Manager Charlotte Martin with an expert speaker in a moderated conversation digging into the themes of DEATH OF A DRIVER.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 6 - Dr. Ifetayo M. Flannery, Professor of Africology and African American Studies at Temple University.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13 - Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, Professor in the department of Africology at Temple University.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 20 - Dr. Nah Dove, Professor of Africology and African American Studies at Temple University.

Audience Discussions

Discussions occur after every Wednesday and Thursday night performance during the run, facilitated by a representative of InterAct Theatre.

Wednesday, November 9

Thursday, November 10

Wednesday, November 16

Thursday, November 17

Please note: We strongly recommend reserving your seat for this dress rehearsal. All attendees must adhere to InterAct’s COVID-Safety Policies: masks are required at all times in the theatre.

A look into the artist’s world!

A Note from the Playwright

“No one has a right to work in a place where their family doesn’t deal directly with the consequences of the work they do.”

I paraphrase words delivered by one of my college professors, Mahmood Mamdani, an anthropologist critical of foreign aid in his home country of Uganda. I listened to him, loved his writing and lectures, and immediately upon graduating violated his rule. For three years I worked for a non-profit in Kenya and Ethiopia issuing microloans of seed and fertilizer to subsistence farmers. We measured harvests to determine our impact. We ran longitudinal household surveys to assess our effect on health and education. I believed then, and still do, that a good deal of development work is flawed and ineffective, but I felt our methods were different, we were different, I was different. Was I?

My language back then was the language of management consultants, of tech entrepreneurs, of MBA programs. This language reinforced a reflexive anti-government stance, a belief that solutions to socio-economic problems happened far from polling stations, in places that looked more like boardrooms. Electoral politics was a sideshow, a competition between elites, which mattered little to the material conditions of the subsistence farmers I hoped to help even as it dominated their conversations. So if the national government could barely run an agricultural extension program, that was okay - we would. And once farmers earned more to feed and educate their kids, a better political life would follow. Or would it?

In his book The Anti-Politics Machine, anthropologist James Ferguson criticizes development work for preserving the status quo. The more effective foreign-led work is, the more it “helps,” the more it sustains the political status quo. A bad government takes credit for good work.

But part of me finds this argument too easy, a case for inertia, for ignoring pressing problems because they should be solved by local politics and therefore not solving them. When you work in a place far from home, you may have less at stake, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have an impact, good or bad, and often both. The asymmetric exchange of resources, ideas, languages, and people won’t end, even if some wish it would (and not just xenophobic conservatives - the left has its own cultural nativists eager to police the borders of difference). When you try to change the world, you always risk changing it for the worse. Does that mean you shouldn’t try?

Death of a Driver is much more than the dramatization of questions about my early professional life. This is the story of two people who want to change the world, even as the world changes them, and I can think of no better place to see this show. For 35 seasons, InterAct has produced new plays that stage the beauty and brutality of being human, and I'm proud my work is part of this legacy. Thank you to Seth, Charlotte, Akeem, Hannah, and the rest of the team for bringing Death of a Driver to life. Come see it.

~Will Snider

Set Design Inspiration

Costumes Inspiration