don't give up the ship

Written by Laura Neill

Directed by Joshua Glenn-Kayden

February 10-25, 2017

Boston Center for the Arts, Plaza Blackbox

When Diana, a middle-aged mother of two, wakes up as Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of the War of 1812, she suddenly commands much more of her life than she used to. Imagining that her daughters are warring lieutenants, her ex-husband is her four-year-old son, and her nurse Lizzie is her darling wife, Diana establishes an identity that is much closer to her true self than anyone expected.

Please Note:

This show runs approximately 90 minutes with one 10 min. intermission.

Special Events

*Post Show Social with a toast following the performance on Saturday, February 11th
*Cheap Date Night on Wednesday, February 15th and 22nd - half-price tickets when purchased in advance, online only
*Playwright's Night on Thursday, February 16th and 23nd - Buy-One-Get-One tickets when purchased in advance with code FITPW6
*Pay-What-You-Want performances ($6 min) on Friday, February 10th and the 2pm matinees on Saturday, February 18th and 25th

Show Dates and Times

February 10-25 , 2017
Wednesday & Thursday at 7:30pm
Fridays at 8pm
Saturdays at 8pm

Saturday 2/18 and 2/25 at 2pm

CLICK HERE for directions to Boston Center for the Arts.

Cast and Production Team

Diana - Alex Alexander
Lizzie - Hayley Spivey
Martha - Tonasia Jones
Olive - Louise Hamill
Jeff - Robert Cope

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Playwright - Laura Neill
Director - Joshua Glenn-Kayden
Dramaturg - Jessica Foster
Stage Manager - Vivian Yee
Asst. Stage Manager - Julia Fioravanti
Scenic Design - Madelynne Hays
Lighting Design - Harrison Pearse Burke
Costume Design - Elizabeth Rocha
Sound Design - Andrew Duncan Will
Asst. Sound Design - Matthew Goode
Prop Design - Kelly Smith and Julia Fioravanti
Choreography - Rachael MacAskill

Production Photos

Photos by Emma Young

Alex Alexander (Diana) is excited to be appearing in her first show with Fresh Ink Theatre Company. Though she is from the North Shore, Alex spent most of her adult life in San Francisco & acted with many companies there. She is also a part of a San Francisco Bay Area improv film group Barewitness. Locally she has worked with Salem Theatre Company, Mugford Street Players & Exiled Theatre. She has also performed at the Boston Theatre Marathon. Some favorite roles include Annie Sullivan from The Miracle Worker, Lizzie from The Rainmaker, Karen from Dinner with Friends, Marjorie from Extremities, Isabel from Romance In D, The Woman from Tennessee in the Summer and Bonfila from Slavs. Alex studied acting in San Francisco & London and has a BA in Theatre from Hamilton College. In addition to acting, Alex is passionate about holistic health, animals & travel.

Hayley Spivey (Lizzie) is a recent graduate from Boston University with a B.F.A in Theatre Arts.  Her studies focused in Playwriting, Dramaturgy, and Acting.  Her plays have been performed with Boston University’s School of Theatre and Anthem Theatre Company’s The Dare Project.  She currently works with Company One as a Dramaturg and Connectivity Fellow.  Her Company One credits include The T Party and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.  Her acting credits at Boston University include After the Fall, For Colored Girls…, and Big Love.

Tonasia Jones (Martha), is delighted to be making her debut with Fresh Ink!  Recent/favorite credits include Finish Line: Fall Workshop (Maria Stephanos) with Boston Theater Company, Every 28 Hours with Company One Theatre & The Theater Offensive, The Launch Prize: A Reading (Michelle) with Bridge Repertory Theater, and Mother Hicks (Alma) at Emerson Stage.  She has also recently directed in The One-Minute Play Festival at Boston Playwrights Theater.  She has a BFA acting degree from Emerson College (and has also trained at Shakespeare Theater Company in D.C.).  She is the Program Administrator at The Theater Offensive.  More at tjones.moonfruit.com.

Louise Hamill (Olive) was recently seen in Birds with Sleeping Weazel, It’s Not About My Mother, Distant Neighbors and 1 2 3 with Fresh Ink Theatre Company, Shiver: a Fairytale of Anxious Proportions and How May I Connect You? with Project: Project, and the Boston Theatre Marathon. She has also worked with The One-Minute Play Festival, Happy Medium Theatre, Heart and Dagger Productions, Boston Lyric Opera, and the Mill 6 Collaborative, among others. She is the Artistic Director and co-founder of Fresh Ink Theatre Company, which focuses on developing and producing new scripts with New England area playwrights, and co-founder of Project: Project, a troupe producing ensemble-created, original stories that combine scripted material with improvisation. Louise has a BA in Theatre from Connecticut College and studied at the British American Drama Academy.

Robert Cope (Jeff) is happy to work with Fresh Ink again. You may also have seen him in The Clytemnestraid (Agememnon,) or in the 2016 Mad Dash. Other local credits include; Hamlet (Claudius), Medea (Kreon), Crime and Punishment (Porfiry), The Normal Heart (Ben Weeks.), and Much Ado About Nothing (Don John).  Some of Robert's favorite past credits include: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (George), Never the Sinner (Clarence Darrow), Macbeth (Macbeth), Lonestar (Roy), and Measure for Measure (Vincentio). Robert received his MFA in Theatre from the University of Florida.

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Joshua Glenn-Kayden (Director) is the Artistic Associate at Company One Theatre and a Boston based director. Josh has directed for Open Theatre Project, the One Minute Play Festival, Fresh Ink Theatre, Artists Theater of Boston, Shotz Boston, and for Company One Theatre and the A.R.T. as part of the Boston Theater Marathon. Recent assistant directing credits include Dry Land, Edith Can Shoot Things And Hit Them, Shockheaded Peter, The Flick, and Splendor at Company One Theatre; and The Light Princess and Pirates Of Penzance at the A.R.T. Josh holds a B.A. in Drama where his directing credits included Tony Kushner’s Terminating, East Coast Ode To Howard Jarvis, and Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy. 

Jess Foster (Dramaturg) is a dramaturg, playwright and teacher. She is very excited to be making her debut with Fresh Ink Theater and is incredibly proud of the cast and grateful to have been in a room of smart, fun and compassionate people. Special thanks to Laura and Josh for letting her be part of this process!

Vivian Yee (Stage Manager) is a lady of many talents and interests, but she always feels most at home wearing her stage management hat. Favorite productions in various roles include: Shockheaded Peter (Company One), Priscilla Dreams The Answer (Fresh Ink Theatre Company), Blood Wedding (Northeastern University), Taming Of The Shrew (Actors' Shakespeare Project), Bobby Gould In Hell (Fortnight Collective), Molassacre (Northeastern University). Upcoming: peerless (Company One). She is a proud graduate of Northeastern University.

Julia Fioravanti (Asst. Stage Manager/Prop Design) is a recent graduate of Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens, TN. While at TWC Julia has acquired a wide variety of skills including acting, costume design, set design, directing, and stage managing. In the last few years she has found a love for the technical side of theatre and has focused on her stage managing and design work, completing an extensive capstone project in spring 2016 on the shows The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (acting, set design, costume design, light design) and Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (stage management, assistant director, costume design). 

Madelynne Hays (Sceneic Design) is an aspiring set and production designer local to the Boston area. Her credits so far include The Fourth Graders Present An Unnamed Love Suicide, The Shipment And The Lear, A Big Mess, They Shoot Horses Don’t They?, and Middletown (A.R.T. Institute). She has also acted as production designer on several short films produced by both RedTere Productions and RebMad Pictures. This is her debut production with Fresh Ink. Madie holds a BA from Harvard University.

Harrison Pearse Burke (Lighting Design) is a Boston-based lighting designer and the Associate Lighting Director of Boston Ballet. Recently from the west coast where he was the Assistant Lighting Designer at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Harrison is thrilled to be making his Fresh Ink debut. Locally, Harrison has worked with Boston Lyric Opera, the Huntington Theater Company, Company One, New Repertory Theatre, and Boston Midsummer Opera. Other credits include: the Guthrie Theatre, Florida Grand Opera, Hangar Theatre, Weston Playhouse, and Maine State Music Theatre. hpburke.com

Elizabeth Rocha (Costume Design) studied at Rhode Island School of Design and Boston’s Museum school before receiving her bachelor’s degree from Harvard’s Extension School. She was working as an illustrator when she accidentally stumbled into theater. Since then she has designed for Perseverance Theater, the Theater at Monmouth, Theatre on Fire, the Institute at the American Repertory Theater, Harvard College, Stoneham’s Young Company, the Contemporary Theater of Boston and the Prometheus Dance Company.

Andrew Duncan Will (Sound Design) Previous Fresh Ink designs: That Time The House Burned Down, It’s Not About My Mother, and The Clytemnestriad. Andrew has recently designed productions for Hasty Pudding, SpeakEasy Stage, Lyric Stage, Bad Habit Productions, Flotsam Productions, Gloucester Stage, Stoneham Theatre, Puppet Showplace Theater, Company One, New Rep, Fresh Ink, Boston Public Works, Commonwealth Shakespeare, The Poets' Theatre, and A.R.T. Institute. Andrew received an MFA in Sound Design from Boston University.

Matthew Good (Assistant Sound Design) is thrilled to be working on his first production with Fresh Ink! A recent graduate of Boston College, Matthew has been living and working in Boston for a little over two years, as a sound designer, as well as a sound board op and general audio engineer. Recent credits include: Hand to God (Speakeasy Stage, sound board op), Eight by Tenn (Zeitgeist, sound designer), Mourning Becomes Electra (Target Margin Theatre, sound designer/sound board op), A Man of No Importance (Bad Habit Productions, sound board op), and Dogfight (Speakeasy Stage, sound board op). Matthew would like to thank Andrew Will, as well as the Fresh Ink team for giving him this opportunity. He also would like to thank all the cast and crew for their hard work.

Kelly Smith (Prop Design) is a director, writer, and properties designer with a focus on fostering new work in Boston. This is her fourth collaboration with Fresh Ink Theatre. She has worked with Sleeping Weazel, Open Theatre Project, Maiden Phoenix Theatre Co., Brown Box Theatre Co., Hub Theatre Co., and Playwright’s Platform among others. She also designed props for PF Pictures’ Artificial Leaf, 2nd place winner of the GE Focus Forward Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Her full length play Raining Aluminum (finalist – Best Drama NH Theater Awards) premiered this summer with theatreKapow and she is directing the world premiere of Second Act Productions’ Sister Anonymous this spring at the BCA.

Rachael MacAskill (Choreography) makes her Fresh Ink debut. Recent choreography credits include Columbinus and Romeo and Juliet, both at Northeastern University, as well as previous work with Salem Theatre Company and Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. Rachael currently performs and trains with Salsa y Control Dance Company (Boston, MA) and Muevelo Dance Studio (Malden, MA).