Chris J Handley, Executive Artistic Director

presents

2023 Maxim Mazumdar New Play Award Winner
World Premiere

BLACK BEAR ISLAND
BY KARISSA MURRELL MYERS

DIRECTED BY DANIEL F. LENDZIAN


Featuring
GABRIELLE NUNZIO     RUSSELL C. HOLT
ALEJANDRA SUTHERLAND     CONNOR RAPOSA
AYDEN HERREID     KATHLEEN ROONEY
KIRA WHITEHEAD     JARED EICHEL

Scenic Design
DANIEL ALLEN

Lighting/Sound Design
EMMA SCHIMMINGER

Costume Design
PINWHEEL PINWHEEL

Properties
JC HARTLOFF

Fight Coordinator
ANNA KREMPHOLTZ

Intimacy Coordinator
JESSICA HILLMAN-MCCORD

Technical Direction
EMMA SCHIMMINGER

Assistant Director
JASON FRANCEY

Assistant Stage Manager
MIKE BENOIT

Stage Manager
KIMBERLY NEISS

Season 45. Our 179th Production.
February 14 - March 8, 2025
February 19, Opening Night

The videotaping or making of electronic or other audio and/or visual recordings of this production, and distributing recordings or streams in any medium, including the internet, is strictly prohibited, a violation of the author’s rights, and actionable under United States Copyright Law.

DANIEL F. LENDZIAN
DIRECTOR

Daniel F. Lendzian, an Alleyway Instigator, directed Black Bear Island (2025), The Folks at Home (2024) and Burst (2022). This fall, he founded Play Practice, a drop-in class now in its third sold-out session. 

Recent directing credits include Khan!!! The Musical! (O'Connell & Company), while notable performances include Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors (Mina/Dr. Van Helsing, Irish Classical Theatre) and The Winter’s Tale (Leontes, Shakespeare in Delaware Park). He has worked with Starring Buffalo, Parallel 45 (MI), The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, North American Cultural Laboratory, Farm Arts Collective, The Seattle Children’s Theater, The ZACH Theater, FESTA Theater (Florence, Italy), Interlochen Shakespeare, The Winnipesaukee Playhouse, Weathervane Repertory Theater, and more. 

He is a member of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers and MICHA. He hosts Buffalo Rising’s WNY Soundstage podcast. He is an Assistant Professor and Head of Performance at Fredonia State University, teaching Shakespeare, Scene Study, Voice, Movement, and Text. DanLendzian.com

DANIEL ALLEN
SCENIC DESIGN

Selected recent designs: Room 1214 (New Light Theater/ 59E59 off- Broadway, World Premiere) The Witness Room (AMT, Off-Broadway), Postmortem (Mosaic), The Boy Who Loved Batman (The Straz, World Premiere), A Jumping off Point (The Jungle Theater), Radiant Vermin (5th Wall, Richmond Critics Award Winner- Best Play), The Lonely Planet (5th Wall, Richmond Critics Nominated- Outstanding Scenic Design), Torch Song (Richmond Triangle Players, Richmond Critics Nominated- Outstanding Scenic Design), Puffs, & The Addams Family (Cape Fear Regional, Broadway World Awards Nominated- Best Set Design of a Musical), The Bad in Each Other (The Tank NYC), Men On Boats (Pittsburgh Playhouse), Everybody (UARTS), The Cherry Orchard, The Connection (New School), Hello Dolly, Fiddler on the Roof, Into The Woods (Cocoa Village Playhouse- Season Designer since 2019). Selected Associate/ Assistant credits: Chicken & Biscuits (Broadway, Circle in the Square), Hadestown (Seoul, Korea), His Story (Dallas, World Premiere). USA Local 829. Instagram: @danj.allen. danielallendesign.com.

EMMA SCHIMMINGER
LIGHTING & SOUND DESIGN
ALLEYWAY PRODUCTION MANAGER & TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Emma is an Artie Award winning theatrical designer and technician, specializing in lighting design and production/stage management. She is a Buffalo native who moved back to the area after spending a decade working in New York City. While there, she worked as a freelance lighting designer and at several private secondary schools in Manhattan as a designer, stage manager, technical director and faculty member. Emma also took time to travel to London in order to achieve her Master’s degree, and is still looking for an opportunity to travel there again.

Upon returning to Buffalo, she became Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s Resident Lighting Designer and has designed lighting for several other local theatre companies. Most recently, she was the Production Manager at UB’s Center for the Arts. Artvoice Artie award winner for Outstanding Lighting Design 2014, 2004 . BA:  State University of New York at Buffalo; MA: Royal Central School Of Speech And Drama, University of London.

PINWHEEL
COSTUME DESIGN

(They/Them) is an accomplished Costume Shop Manager, Designer, and Drag Clown. Their work has been seen all over Broadway as a Fabric Dyer (Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, Hamilton, etc.), Film as a Wardrobe Supervisor (As They Made Us, Meet Cute), TV as a Costume Designer (RuPaul’s Drag Race, Dragula, LEGENDARY), and stages across the US in various Costume-Related capacities.

They held an Off-Broadway residency at “The Cell” from 2021-2022 for their show Unforgivable Emotional Carnivore. Lasting 6 years, Unforgivable, has been seen on stages throughout the NYC metro area.

They are committed to activism and community-focused aid for the LGBTQA+ community. They hold their BFA in Theatre Design & Technology from the University at Buffalo (2013), and their MFA in Costume Design & Technology from the University at Missouri Kansas-City (2016).

JC HARTLOFF
PROPERTIES

ANNA KREMPHOLTZ
FIGHT DIRECTION

Anna is excited for her first appearance with Alleyway. Buffalo theatre credits include TRIBES (Road Less Traveled Productions), ‘TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE, HAMLET, and DESIGN FOR LIVING (Irish Classical Theatre), MEDUSA UNDONE (Post-Industrial Productions), OLIVER! (Lancaster Opera House), DAYROOM (Kenan Center Taylor Theatre), and THE TEMPEST (Pared Down Productions). She is an Advanced Actor-Combatant with Fight Directors Canada, and splits her time between Buffalo and NYC as a fight director, intimacy coordinator, and scenic artist for theatre, film, and television. BFA, Niagara University.

JESSICA HILLMAN-MCCORD
INTIMACY DIRECTION

A Professor in the SUNY FREDONIA Department of Theatre and Dance, Jessica teaches Musical Theatre Styles, Musical Theatre History, Meisner and Acting I and II, among other courses. An Actors' Equity Association member, she has performed professionally on tour, in regional theatres across the country, and in new musicals in NYC. Her acting credits include Tess in a national tour of Crazy for You, and lead roles in shows such as Fiddler on the Roof, Cinderella and The Last Five Years. She has directed and / or choreographed musicals and plays at University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Denver, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Colorado Light Opera and the Fort Salem Theatre. For her production of Company she received a Meritorious Achievement Award in Direction from Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. At Fredonia she has directed The Great Comet of 1812, Hair, The Sound of Music, Urinetown, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Fuddy Meers, The Wolves, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Spring Awakening, among many others. She has published in journals including Studies in Musical Theatre, TDR: The Drama Review, and Theatre Survey. Her book, Echoes of the Holocaust on the American Musical Stage was published in Fall 2012. She is the editor of and contributor to iBroadway: Musical Theatre in the Digital Age, published in 2017 Palgrave Macmillan Press. Jessica is also an Intimacy Director, trained with Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE), and Intimacy Directors and Coordinators (IDC) with credits including Jewish Repertory Theatre and the Irish Classical Theatre Company in Buffalo, NY. 

JASON FRANCEY
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

MIKE BENOIT
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER

KIMBERLY NEISS
STAGE MANAGER

KIMBERLY NEISS (Production Stage Manager) is thrilled to be back with the Alleyway team and working on this incredible production. Kimberly has worked on several regional and world premiere productions, with some of her favorites including Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now (Off-Broadway), Kragtar! The American Monster Musical (Alleyway Theatre), The Life & Slimes of Marc Summers (Alleyway Theatre & Off-Broadway), The Aleph Complex (Alleyway Theatre), and Burst (Alleyway Theatre). Kimberly would like to thank the love of her life, Rob, her parents, Chris, Emma, and her family and friends for their continuous support.

producers circle
New York State Council on the Arts
Erie County
City of Buffalo
Cullen Foundation
The Shubert Foundation
Arts Services, Inc. of WNY

playwrights circle
Richard Lambert and the New Phoenix Theatre on the Park
M&T Bank

superstars
Anonymous

headliners
Anonymous
Dr. Samuel Goodloe, Jr.
Tom & Marilyn Handley
Maria Pendolino
David & Lora Sambora
Tom & Lee Ann Vogt

stars
Gail R. Arthurs
Dorie Drago
Jamey Quiram
Margaret & Bob Zak

troupers
Anonymous ( 8 )
Jeana Anastasi
Mary Rappl Bellanti
Drew Blum
Alissa Bornstein
Amy Burgmaier
Mary Charbonnet
Chris & Kristy Chilano
Steve & Kelly Copps
Diane &Tina DiBlasio
Jordan Feit
Alan Feller
Evalynn Ferraro
Janine Filippone
Abs Mac & Ian Fish
Fran & Tom
James & Cathy Gorlewski
Peter Hall & M.E. O’Leary
Chris J Handley
Mark Horowitz & Tom Staebell
Sue & Jerry Keppel
Paul Kochmanski
Theresa Quinn & Randall Kramer
Caitlin Littlefield
Issa Lopez
David Lundy
‍Natasha Marchewka
Jessica Marinelli
Sharon Martin
Robert Mazierski
Shazad Mustapha Mohammed
Kate Powers
Jennifer Read & Craig Colder
Brigid Reale
Tara Reimer
Pearl Rhein
David Roach
Maria & Alexander Rowan
Michael Russo
Sam Russo
Joey Schaljo
Charles Slisz
Deborah L. Spencer
Michael Starzynski
Lori Stilwell & Bob Anderson
Suzi Takahashi
Nikki Thomas
Isabella Tugman
Erikka J Veney
Tom Wilson
Edward & Michele Wright
Daniel Zak