Underground Railway Theater "On the Road"

Have you ever wondered about the people who portray the characters in our nationally touring shows? Who is Harriet Tubman this season? Who will play the role of the Firebird? Who will be the evil Mrs. DP puppet? Check out our season line-up and learn about the extraordinary people who are touring with URT this season!

How Do You Spell Hope?

Ozzie Carnan, Jr. - Frederick Douglas, Peter Hamill, Mr. Washington
Ozzie Carnan, Jr. has, over the past 15 years, appeared in numerous plays, independent films, and commercials across the country. He finds credits typical and trite, so for those interested, anyone is welcome to check out his website on geocities. His loves are the theatre, laughter, art, and the small things in everyday life. He is happy to continue his work with Underground Railway Theatre, and hopes to stay connected with them throughout his career.

Debra Wise - Martha Gonzalez, Sophia Auld, Mrs. DP
A founding member of the company 25 years ago, Debra Wise has served as Artistic Director since 1998. She has been involved in the collaborative creation of over twenty new works for the company, serving as principle performer, director, playwright, and/or dramaturge.

Currently, Ms. Wise is working on A State of Grace, a play for actors and puppets inspired by the writings of Grace Paley. Examples of past productions Ms. Wise has written, directed, and performed for the company include Washed-Up Middle-Aged Women, based on interviews with scores of women in mid-life; and Alice's Adventures Underground - an extravagant adaptation of Lewis Carroll's books which re-casts the protagonist as an adult in order to explore dynamics of aging, parenting, and dreams. Examples of other productions in which she took a leading creative role include URT's repertoire of award-winning puppet theater works that tour nationally for performances with major symphony orchestras, including Stravinsky's The Firebird and a newly-commissioned adaptation of Shakespeare's Tempest; The Christopher Columbus Follies and InTOXICating, two "eco-cabarets" about environmental justice, which won awards from the national and New England Regional Environmental Protection Agencies, and which toured to over 150 venues nationally and in Europe; and How Do You Spell Hope?, a puppet-and-actor production that explores literacy through the stories of three people who had to overcome great odds to learn to read. Ms. Wise served as dramaturge for playwright Melinda Lopez, and created one of the two major roles for Hope's first national tour.

Ms. Wise has helped URT develop a reputation as a company that specializes in the creation of theater in non-traditional venues. In 2000 she wrote and directed Aging Puzzle for the Boston Museum of Science, a play based on interviews with older people and with scientists studying aging. In 2001 she helped launch Art InterACTions, a continuing program which has placed URT in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts as a resident theater company, using performance to engage family audiences in exploring visual art. In 2003-2004, she wrote and directed the Living Ideas Series, with free performances at the new Mary Baker Eddy Library.

For six years, Ms. Wise was Artistic Co-Director of and a principle performer in the Women on Top Theater Festival, co-produced with Centastage Performance Group and The Nora Theatre Company. She won a Top Ten citation for solo performance from the Boston Globe for her performance of Deborah Fortson's Spackling.

Ms. Wise has also appeared as an actor with other theater companies. In New York, this has included work at the Public Theatre and the Ark, where she created original works with Julie Taymor and Elizabeth Swados. In Boston area theaters, she has been featured at the Sugan Theatre (Trust), and in Stoppard's The Real Thing at New Rep.

Ms. Wise has led residencies in over thirty public schools, enabling students to create their own performances. She is the Theater Specialist for the Art Works for Schools Program, a collaboration between Harvard's Project Zero, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, URT, and several Massachusetts public schools. Art Works for Schools offers both classroom teachers and arts educators techniques for using theater and visual art to teach high level thinking skills across the curriculum. She has been on the faculty of Harvard Graduate School of Education's Summer Institute for four years, and was selected as keynote speaker and workshop leader for the 2001 Arts Connections Fine Arts Summer Institute at the University of Arizona.

William Ley - Assistant Stage Manager
This is Will's third season with Underground Railway Theatre. He had a wonderful experience with Are You Ready My Sister? last year and is having an equally good time with How Do You Spell Hope? this year. In addition to touring this season, Will hopes to be part of Teach for America, teaching students in urban school systems.

Are You Ready My Sister?

Alisa D. Miles - Harriet Tubman
This is Alisa's first season with Underground Railway Theater portraying Harriett Tubman in "Are You Ready My Sister?" She was in The Sunshine Boys with Dick and Jimmy Van Patten at Foothills Theatre in Worcester. She also appeared as "Mrs. Fezziwig" in Trinity Rep's Boston version of "A Christmas Carol," featuring Stacy Keach. Prior to that, she was seen in Ain't Misbehavin' at Huntington Theatre in Boston. She has been featured in jazz festivals around the world including the Tri-C Jazz Festival in Cleveland, OH; the Phoenix Jazz Festival in Kobe, Japan and, most recently, the Istanbul (Turkey) Jazz Festival with the group "AudioFact." She was a regular performer with the Berklee Rainbow Big Band and performed with the group in fall 2002 at the Hollywood Bowl for "Autumn Eve-A Tribute to Woody Herman," which is scheduled to be broadcast on PBS. Regional theatre credits include The World Goes 'Round, The Wiz, A…My Name Is Alice and Little Shop of Horrors. Ms. Miles is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and is on faculty there for the Summer Performance Program. Thanks for everything, Ms. Bradley!

Charlotte Dore - Quaker Woman
This is Charlotte's eighth season touring with "Are You Ready My Sister" for Underground Railway Theater. Charlotte has been a member of American Actors Equity for over 5 years and has been acting all her life. Throughout this time she has played roles as diverse as a singing cow to Cecily Cardew (Importance of Being Earnest). Her favorite (non- touring) stage shows have been Hobson's choice and Godspell. Charlotte is also a puppeteer and founded Rosalita's Puppets in 1993. Since then she has been performing her original brand of marionette shows at birthday parties, festivals and more recently, libraries. Charlotte has been involved in a variety of museum theatre projects and is currently working at Boston's Museum of Science. Charlotte is proud to be a member of Urban Improv a theatre group working with Boston's inner city schools. In January 2001 she appeared on WGBH in the teen show "Re-Action" this show won a Boston Emmy. Charlotte is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. When not performing in educational theatre, Charlotte is busy entertaining adults in corporate and public murder mysteries and theme events with Comedy Theatre productions.

Firebird/Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, and Carnival of the Animals

Andrew Periele - Resident Puppeteer
Andrew Periale is in his second season with URT and has been a professional puppeteer for over twenty years. Recent projects include Beo/Wulf (a play combining the ancient tale of Beowulf with a modern tale inspired by Ubu Roi, for which he was an author and puppet designer), and The Visit (Friedrich Duerrenmatt's classic work for which Mr. Periale did a critically acclaimed translation and adaptation for Philadelphia's Mum Puppettheatre). Periale, before the formation of his own company, Perry Alley Theatre, performed with the Pandemonium Puppet Company (the last two years, as performance company manager and lead puppeteer). He has taught at the Institute of Professional Puppetry Arts, at the University of Maine and the University of Rhode Island, and has led workshops and residencies for diverse groups. He has worked extensively as an actor and puppeteer, including five summers at the Deckhouse Cabaret Theater, the Portland Stage Company, Shoestring Theater and the Boston Arts Group. Andrew is editor of Puppetry International magazine. He studied with Philippe Genty at the International Institute of Puppetry (France) and performed at the World Puppetry Festival there. He has done graduate work at the University of Graz (Austria). He has a BA in Theater and an MA in German. Andrew's latest solo performance is "Chinese Take-Out Theatre", developed while in residence at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. It was invited to the International Festival of Puppet Theater in NY in September, 1998.

Perry Alley Theatre, now in its nineteenth season, is a touring theatre company headed by Periale and his wife Bonnie. Their recent work has been funded by The Jim Henson Foundation, the Puppeteers of America, NH State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts (the last for their work in producing Puppetry International magazine). In 1998, they were invited to direct an ensemble in an original production at the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. They have performed at the Smithsonian Institution, the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta and at National and Regional Puppetry Festivals. They are also the designers of the nationally distributed VELCRO Puppet Playhouse. They have been featured artists on New Hampshire Public Television. They have received two UNIMA Citations for Excellence in the Art of Puppetry, and are Emmy Award nominees.

Will Cabell - Puppeteer
Will worked as Technical Director and performer for Underground Railway Theater from 1996 - 2001, touring and acting in such shows as "Are You Ready, My Sister?", Intoxicating: An Eco-Cabaret, The Carnival of the Animals, The Firebird, Till Eulenspeigel's Merry Pranks, and Creation of the World. In The Tempest, commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in spring of 2002, Will manipulates the nearly life-size shadow puppets and vocalizes for a range of characters, from Caliban to Ferdinand. As part of the creative team that developed URT's Alice's Adventures Underground, he juggled the role of Lewis Carroll with technical direction and design for the piece, which premiered at the B.C.A. in June, 1998. Will's unique arched staging device used in Alice was awarded, with designer David Fichter, the 1998 IRNE (Independent Reviewer's of New England) award for design excellence. In fall of 2001, Will again teamed up with David Fichter to create a set based on pop-up books for "How Do You Spell Hope?", URT's touring production concerning literacy. His regional credits include: Basement on the Hill Stage's productions of Manet's The Shawl and A Life in the Theatre and Advice To The Players' Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer's Nights Dream. Will is a sometime musician, dabbles in the screen arts, and has been a longtime company member of the Barnstormers Summer Theatre in Tamworth. NH., where he has performed over 200 roles.