Orlando Digital Playbill

Director
Ka-Ling Cheung

Scenic & Props Coordination by
Morgan Southwell 

Lighting & Sound Design by
John Salutz

Costume Coordination by
Meghan O’Beirne

Intimacy Direction by
Emily Rellis

Production Stage Management by
Penny White

 

 

ORLANDO was commissioned by Joyce Piven and was first produced at the Piven Theater Workshop, directed by Joyce Piven. It was subsequently produced at the Actor’s Gang in Los Angeles, produced by Tim Robins, and directed by Joyce Piven. It was produced in New York at Classic Stage Company, produced by Brian Kullick, directed by Rebecca Taichman.

 

CONTENT NOTE : Orlando contains themes surrounding gender and gender identity; sexual desires; cross dressing and physical violence. 

DIRECTOR’S NOTE:

Boys wear blue. Girls wear pink. Boys play with trucks. Girls play with dolls. Men must be the breadwinner. Women must marry and raise children. These are just some of the gender expectations that society has put upon us, no matter where we are from or what century we live in. Since the beginning of time, if you are a man, you are expected to be strong and masculine. If you are a woman, you are expected to be docile and feminine. But what if you are a boy and you want to wear pink? What if you are a girl and want to play with trucks? (Even as I write this, I realize I’ve been ingrained to refer to boys before girls.)

Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando, adapted from Virginia Woolf’s novel, is more than a fantastical romp through time—it is an intimate meditation on identity, self-expression, and the constraints imposed by society. To truly understand Orlando, we must look to Woolf herself.

Virginia Woolf was a writer who defied convention. Born in 1882 into an intellectual household, she was acutely aware of the restrictions placed on women in literature and society. A central voice in the Bloomsbury Group, she challenged traditional forms of storytelling and explored themes of gender, time, and consciousness in ways that were radical for her era. She also lived outside societal norms in her personal life, forging a deep and transformative relationship with Vita Sackville-West, the woman who inspired Orlando.

Woolf wrote Orlando as both an homage to Vita and a rebellion against the rigidity of gender roles. Orlando, beginning as a young nobleman in Elizabethan England and later awakening as a woman, moves through centuries of shifting social structures. As a man, Orlando enjoys the freedom to write, travel, and engage in politics without question. As a woman, those same liberties are questioned or stripped away. Experiencing firsthand the privileges of masculinity and the limitations imposed upon women. But Orlando does more than critique outdated conventions—it celebrates the resilience of selfhood against societal constraints. The play invites us to laugh at the rigidity of norms that have dictated who we are allowed to be, and to instead embrace a more fluid, authentic way of living. It reminds us that identity is not bound by time or tradition.

The world today continues to wrestle with questions of gender identity, freedom of expression, and the societal structures that dictate belonging. I hope this production encourages you to question, to dream, to embrace, and to fight for a world where identity is limitless.

- Ka-Ling Cheung, Director 

 

 

CAST

 

 

 

TEAM

 

 

PRODUCTION STAFF

Production Director	Hannah Mason
Assistant to the Director	Madeline Brown
Deck Stage Managers	Faith Bruschini, Rooster Siegel
Voice & Speech Coordinator	Craig Dolezel
Costume Assistant & Wardrobe Supervisor	Lou Kaminski
“The Moment” Composers	Colette Buechler-Neimeyer, Addison Clover
Production Photographer	Carol Rosegg
Poster Design	Katie Meade
Chair, Department of Theatre Arts	Jill Stevenson
Assistant Chair for Production Pedagogy, Dept. of Theatre Arts	Lori Ann Zepp
Operations Director, VPA	Katie Meade
Technical Director	Rob Dutiel
Assistant Technical Director	Courtney Ross
Theatre Technician	Millie Cowan
Assistant Operations Director, VPA	Gabriella Gonzalez
Administrative Coordinator	Maya Barbon
Costume Design Faculty	Vanessa Leuck
Lighting Design Faculty	Ray Recht
Stage Management Faculty	Lori Ann Zepp
Special Thanks to	Steve Rosenberg, New York Live Arts, Gregory English, Tricia Navigato, Emmy Boisvert

New York Live Arts Staff
Production Coordinator - Kiara Brown
Lightboard Operator — Ryan Clark
Sound Board Operator — Hanry Mayr
Deck - Viz
Stagehands - Ben Demarest, Cassie Dietrich, Eli Medina