With special permission from author Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, the New Repertory Theatre presents an exclusive, dramatic reading from Big Girl, starring Regine Vital.
Refreshments available while supplies last.
This program is presented by WFPL as part of One Book, One Watertown 2023.
CAST
REGINE VITAL (she/her/hers) is a theatre artist, administrator, educator, scholar, and storyteller from Somerville, MA. As an actor, director, dramaturg, and coach, she has worked with several Boston area theatre companies, including The Huntington, Actor’s Shakespeare Project, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, ArtsEmerson, Company One, Central Square Theatre, Boston University School of Theatre, Moonbox Productions, HUB Theatre Company, Fresh Ink Theatre, and Flat Earth Theatre. She teaches performance studies, composition, literature, and public speaking at the college level; text and performance to high schoolers; and has taught continuing adult education classes in literature. She is a board member of Playable Theatre and TC2 Theatre Company; she is also a frequent collaborator with Green Door Labs on the interactive theatre-game production, Club Drosselmeyer. Currently, she is the Manager of Curriculum and Instruction in The Huntington’s Education department and a part-time instructor at Boston area universities. Regine holds degrees from Boston University, UMass Boston, and studied Shakespeare at King’s College, London and Shakespeare’s Globe. When she isn’t telling stories on stage or talking too much about Shakespeare, Regine loves a good book, a good show, a good dance, and a great chat with great friends. Merde, folks! ;)
MARIA HENDRICKS. EMC (she, her/s) is a polyglot artist/activist and resident artist at New Repertory Theatre. Most recently, you may have seen her as Dr. Van Helsing in Dracula at the Umbrella Center for the Arts or as Mother in the musical Passing Strange with Moonbox Productions, which earned Maria an Elliot Norton Award Nomination!
OFF BROADWAY: Six Nights in the Black Belt (Ruby Sales), Negro Ensemble Co.; 6 Nights (Church Soloist) Theatre at St. Clements. REGIONAL: Celebrating Native Joy: The Oklahoma Cycle-Oglala Lakota Arts in South Dakota; Lifespan of a Fact (Emily Penrose)-Vermont Stage; Kennedy Center-First Peoples Fund workshop series; Listen to Sipu (Sipu)-New Repertory Theatre; The Arboretum Experience (Nana Helen et. al)-A.R.T./American Repertory Theater; I Am This Place (Alsoomse et. al)-Plays in Place; Nunsense (Sister Hubert)-The Palace Theatre of NH; Dead Mans Cel Phone(Carlota)-Saco River Theatre; Caroline, or Change (Radio 1)-Moonbox Productions/BCA; Between Riverside & Crazy (Church Lady)-Virginia Repertory Theatre; Clean House (Matilde)-Threshold Stage Co. of Maine; Sister Act (Delores) Actorsingers of NH; La Llorona (Title Role)-Fresh Ink Theatre World Premiere.
Maria is also an Audio-Describer, most recently working AD on Wife of Willesden, Life of Pi as well as Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 at the A.R.T in addition to audio-description for films. Follow her at @mariahendricks888
DIRECTOR
LOIS ROACH is a writer, award-winning producer and stage director. Her screenplay, Waking Up, was a semifinalist for the 2021 New York Women in Film & Television Writers Lab. She is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies at Wellesley College. Lois has produced a series of programs for the Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket, which address the role of women in the 2020 U.S. Election; the impact of racism on the health care response to Covid-19; and the importance of Juneteenth for Boston’s Black community and its allies in the antislavery movement. Her play Living On... is under agreement with Concord Theatricals and has been performed around the country. Other plays, Mothers of Gods, Mothers of War and The Emancipation of Mandy and Miz Ellie, were premiered at the Boston Center for Arts. As a stage director, Lois received the IRNE Best Director Award for the Lyric Stage production of The Old Settler which also received the IRNE Award for Best Production and the Elliot Norton Award for Best Production (Small Theater). In addition to the New Rep, Lois has worked with the Lyric Stage Company, the Black Folks Theatre Company, Company One Theatre, the Opera Providence, RI, Our Place Theatre’s African American Theatre Festival and the Wellesley Rep Theater. Company One Theatre established The Lois Roach Theatre Community Award, which has been presented to individuals in recognition of outstanding commitment to the Boston theatre community. As the former Director of Public Affairs for WBZ-TV and Radio, Lois won an Emmy award for spots written and produced about AIDS. She was the coordinating producer for public service campaigns such as Stop the Violence and Time to Care. For 16 years, she was a live event producer with First Night Boston.