R.U.R Rossum's Universal Robots
“ A fantastic melodrama in three acts & epilogue”
Written by Karel Capek
Directed by Matt Reckeweg
Featuring
Made Key as Helena
Matthew Sparacino as Domin
Paige O'Malley as Dr. Gall
Andrew Quilpa as Alquist
Shaquille Stewart as Busman
Scott Whalen as Radius
Emilia Pazniokas as Sulla
PLACE: An island factory. The Central Office of Rossum’s Universal Robots.
TIME: The future, as imagined in the early part of the 20th Century
Produced by
Kerry McGee
Production Management
Keith Hock
Stage Management
Makenzi Wentela
Fight Choreography
Robert Pike
Intimacy Coordinator
Emily Sucher
Set Design
Matt Reckeweg
Lighting Design
Jason Aufdem-Brinke
Assistant Lighting Designer
Madi Wentela
Technical Direction
Jaimee Fricklas
Costume Design
Lee Gerstenhaber
Sound Design
Mike Winch
Music Composer
Amy K Bormet
Dramaturgy
Keith Hock
Graphic Design
Todd Hilgert
Photographer
Sam Reilly
Artistic Director
Kerry McGee
Managing Director
Rachel Dixon
Marketing Lead
Gabby Wolfe
Bookkeeper
Conor Cahill
Box Office Manager
Keith Hock
Literary Director
Keith Hock
Grant Writer
Reid Sharkey
R.U.R is performed at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, on the ancestral land of the Piscataway and Anacostan people.
A Note from the Dramaturg
At the beginning of the 20th century the Industrial Revolution had reached its apotheosis. While improvements in technology over the following century have since improved efficiency many times over, by the 1920s the core principles of mechanization, mass production, and interchangeability were established, and despite their best efforts our Captains of Industry have not significantly innovated beyond them. Reducing the manufacturing process to a series of discrete tasks performed on an assembly line by workers trained in only one step in the process dramatically increased output, with the added bonus of obviating the need for expensive craftsmen in favor of cheap and plentiful unskilled laborers.
The obvious next step in this process would be the mechanization, homogenization, and interchangeability of the workers on the assembly line, as well. The machines could run 24/7, but inefficient human bodies require rest, food, and wages, all of which drain away precious revenue.
Capek’s play takes this obvious next step and explores the consequences, intended and otherwise, of replacing the world’s workforce with hyper-efficient mechanical slaves. Unsurprisingly, chief among those consequences is the end of the world, but Capek is much more interested in what happens to the people in charge as their dreams are realized and they discover the long-term impact of their ceaseless drive for efficiency and profits. When they learn that the genie they released isn’t interested in going back in the bottle, after all. As Busman primly informs the others in Act 3, management doesn’t determine output, demand does.
-Keith Hock
A Note from the Director
Rossum’s Universal Robots: the original robot apocalypse story. A sci-fi melodrama before the genre existed.
Like an episode of the Twilight Zone, RUR presents an alternate reality- a future on the cusp of eliminating the need for labor. The group of creators responsible for this dream of utopia, and its eventual unraveling, are forced to reckon with their own complicity in the demise of humanity.
The story explores the depth of human loss in true melodrama fashion. The heightened emotions, secret actions and eventual revelations all culminate in the confrontation of existential threat. Like in most science-fiction, the ending leaves us with more questions than answers. As the self liberated robots inherit a new existential threat, the audience is asked to consider the very nature of creation.
Stylistically, we’ve looked to early sci-fi and all of its influences- noir, thriller, fantasy, melodrama, and through borrowing from these old styles we remind ourselves that the themes and fears RUR presents have been around a long time. All of the current discourse around contemporary robotics, particularly AI, can be found in this century old script. The vision of the future that we as contemporary artists imagine is inherently informed by the future artists imagined a century ago.
And so we bring to life this vision of the future, imagined by the past, articulated for our present.
-Matt Reckeweg
Bios
JASON AUFDEM-BRINKE (Lighting Designer) he/him
Jason is a We Happy Few Company Member and Resident Lighting Designer. Select WHF designs include: Kill The Ripper, La Llorona, Desdemona, Lovers Vows, Macbeth, The Tempest, Hamlet. Recent designs elsewhere Twelfth Night (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company), echo (Georgetown University Dance Company), Masters of the Fighterverse (Flying V), Elvis’ Birthday Fightclub (Astro Pop Events).
Upcoming designs include: John Proctor is the Villain (Catholic University)
AMY BORMET (Music Composer) she/her
As a performer and music director, Amy tours the US, Europe, South America, and Asia. Amy was an artist-in-residence for Betty Carter Jazz Ahead, and a Mary Lou Williams Emerging Artist at the John F. Kennedy Center. As an advocate for women musicians, Amy created, directs, and finances the Washington Women in Jazz Festival. Her latest project AmyAna, co-led with drummer Ana Barreiro, toured Brazil, and won a Jazz Roads grant to tour the US. Amy is the chair of the alumni board at University of Michigan School of Music, Theater, and Dance where she studied with Geri Allen and Ellen Rowe, and a proud graduate of DC’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Howard University. As a composer, Bormet works with the interplay between what is written and what is imagined in the music. Through mediums of collaborative storytelling in film and theater, crafting lyrics and melodies as a singer/songwriter, or improvising with others, she invites her collaborators and audience to expand their space for expressive possibility.
JAIMEE FRICKLAS (Technical Director) she/they
Jaimee Moved to DC in '23 from NYC and has since enjoyed the theatre community that has been found. Received an MFA in Advanced Theatre from Central School for Speech and Drama in London in 2019 and worked the Edinburgh Fringe that same summer. Got a BA in Scenic Design from Willamette University, and has since interned and overhired as a carpenter and lighting technician at The Public Theatre, the VIneyard Theatre, HERE Arts Centre, The New Ohio Theatre, The Riverside Church and theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and many others. In 2022 Got the opportunity to design and build an escape room at Exit Escape in NYC
LEE GERSTENHABER (Costume Designer) she/her
Lee Gerstenhaber is an interdisciplinary theatre artist who has been acting and designing for live performance in the Greater Washington region for over a decade. Upon graduating from The University of Maryland with a BA in Theatre, a collective of UMD colleagues and Lee founded Pointless Theatre Co., an ensemble based troupe focused on blending live art mediums. For the past couple years Lee has had the pleasure of focusing on her puppetry with Puppet Co. Playhouse, a children’s puppet theatre based in Glen Echo, MD. Lee uses the term interdisciplinary, because in addition to performance work, she also has a focus in costume design which she has employed for local theatre and fringe shows as well as for roaming immersive performers within corporate events inside The District. Lee is honored to revisit her costuming passion alongside We Happy Few. Long live humanity, down with the robots! www.itsnotyouitslee.com
KEITH HOCK (Production Manager/Dramaturg/Literary Director) he/him
Keith has been a company member since 2012, working as a production manager, technical director, board operator, and rehearsal stage manager for the first few years before taking on the roles of Box Office Manager and Literary Director. He writes the company blog and has served as dramaturge for CHALK, Henry V, Dog in the Manger, Pericles, Macbeth, Treasure Island, Lovers' Vows, Iphigenia, and Rossum’s Universal Robots. Keith is a librarian at The George Washington University.
MADE KEY (Helena) we/they
DMV born and raised. UMD alum. We've had the pleasure to perform in collaboration with Pointless, Flying V, Discovery at the Smithsonian, Constellation, Roundhouse, Imagination, DC Metro Tap Roots, and now We Happy Few! It is an honor and privilege to work and play with artistic comrades old and new. Thank you for choosing to share space and time with us.
KERRY MCGEE (Producer) she/her
Kerry is the Artistic Director and Marketing Director for WHF. Kerry has directed La Llorona, Desdemona: A Play About A Handkerchief, Lovers' Vows, Treasure Island, Hamlet Project: A Rock 'n' Roll Mixtape, Henry V and Chalk for WHF and acted in The Adventure of the Norwood Builder, Pericles, Dracula, A Midnight Dreary, and The Winter's Tale. Additionally, Kerry has directed and adapted the Loveday Brooke series for WHF, written Iphigenia, and has designed the packages for the Sherlock and Poe audio experiences. Other DC credits: Visions of Love (Pointless Theatre), Peepshow; Beertown; Toast (dog & pony dc), and Love's LaBeers Lost (LiveArtDC). Kerry worked in Richmond for many years, where she received awards for her work on A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. Kerry received her MFA in Theatre Pedagogy from VCU.
PAIGE O'MALLEY (Dr. Gall) she/her
Paige O'Malley is both a Company member and a Board member of We Happy Few DC. You might recognize her from last Fall's production of Kill the Ripper! She's also performed in numerous other WHF shows over the years including: Hamlet Project, Frankenstein, Treasure Island, & Desdemona: A Play about a Handkerchief. In addition, Paige has voiced roles in all of the WHF & Literary Adventure Society Audio Plays for at-home download, which highlight writers like Poe, Pirkis, & Conan Doyle. Paige has a degree in Creative Arts Therapy from New York University. She currently works as a puppeteer for the DC Public School system with her signature puppet, Scribbles! For more on Paige’s work and life visit: www.paigeomalley.com
EMILIA PAZNIOKAS (Sulla) she/her
Emilia Pazniokas is an Artistic Associate with We Happy Few. She has worked in a variety of roles with WHF since 2018, including assistant director for Macbeth and Desdemona: A Play about a Handkerchief, producer and actor for the WHF audio detective plays, and co-director for Iphigenia. Emilia works in arts education in DC, and recently produced the Turnaround Arts Student Showcase at the Kennedy Center. Emilia sings with the group Six Degree Singers, and she is a graduate of Kenyon College.
ROBERT PIKE (Fight Choreographer) he/him/his
Robert Pike is an Artistic Associate with We Happy Few and is pleased to make his fight choreography debut with RUR! He has been seen as an actor fighting onstage on DC stages including Rorschach Theatre (company member), Washington National Opera, and Brave Spirits among others. He has trained as an actor-combatant within the Society of American Fight Directors curriculum in certifications taught by Casey Kaleba of Tooth and Claw Combat Arts (out of Roundhouse Theatre) and Robb Hunter at the Noble Blades Stage Combat Troupe. Education; Catholic University of America, BA in Drama and Psychology; Georgetown University, MA in English Literature. www.robert-pike.com
ANDREW QUILPA (Alquist) he/him
Andrew Quilpa is an actor, writer, and voice over artist and happy to make his We Happy Few mainstage debut. Most recently seen in The Puppet Co.'s production of The Wizard of Oz. Select credits include: Allan Stevens' Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Witch Wartsmith's Halloween Spooktacular, Beauty and the Beast (The Puppet Co.); Love Like Tuesday, Missed Connections, (Faction of Fools Theatre Company), Night of the Living Dead (Rorschach Theatre), Art (The Coil Project), Fantastagirl and the Math Monster (Adventure Theatre MTC). Recent voice credits include The Peacock Spirit in Shaman (Feminist Fairytales podcast), Old Joe and Bates in Loveday Brooke in The Mystery of the Black Bag (We Happy Few), and several characters in Flying V Theatre's Paperless Pulp podcast series, Vox Elysium. Andrew is a company member of Faction of Fools Theatre Company and serves as current artistic director of The COIL Project. Check out their December show, Strange Tales VI: The Strangest Holiday Special (N)ever!, also at Capitol Hill Arts workshop. On social media @android.quilpa (Instagram). andrewquilpa.com
MATT RECKEWEG (Director/Set Designer) they/them
Matt Reckeweg is a queer theatre director and teaching artist based in Washington, D.C. As a founder of a Pointless Theatre, Matt served as Co-Artistic Director for thirteen years making significant contributions to the arts community, creating innovative original work that blends puppetry, dance, music, and visual arts. With Pointless, Matt directed Visions of Love, Rite of Spring, .dot:: a rotoplastic ballet, Hugo Ball: a dada adventure, Doctor Caligari, Gimme a Band: the Carmen Miranda Story (co-direction), Minnie the Moocher, Canterbury, and Sleeping Beauty: a puppet ballet. As a teaching artist, Matt has worked with hundreds of students across the DMV at such theaters as Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, Atlas Performing Arts, and Dance Place. This is Matt’s first production with We Happy Few and they thank the company for the trust and support given throughout the process.
MATTHEW SPARACINO (Harry Domin/Primus) he/him
Matthew is thrilled to be back onstage with We Happy Few, where he last appeared as Agamemnon in Iphigenia. Other select credits include The Rainmaker, Secret Things, The Farnsworth Invention [HHA nomination - Best Ensemble in a Play] and Lobby Hero (1st Stage); Suddenly Last Summer, A Misanthrope, and Illyria (Avant Bard); Six Degrees of Separation (Keegan); Richard II, Dracula, and Merchant of Venice (Chesapeake Shakespeare); The Winter’s Tale and Antony & Cleopatra (Folger); and Fever/Dream (Woolly Mammoth). A UMD graduate and DMV native, Matt is also a proud company member of Pointless Theatre, with whom he has collaborated on roughly a dozen productions including .d0t:: , Doctor Caligari, Hugo Ball, Canterbury and A Very Pointless Holiday Spectacular. He is so grateful to be back with many of those old friends for this production of RUR, both onstage and off.
SHAQUILLE STEWART (Busman) he/him
Shaquille Stewart. At once Rapt and Focused. Previous credits include Merry Wives of Windsor(Falstaff, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company), Something Moving(Ford's Theatre), Do You Feel Anger(Howie, Theatre Alliance), Macbeth(Banquo, PG Shakespeare) The Codeswitch(playwright, Sisters Freehold) The Screening(playwright, FPCT) Othello(Othello, National Players Tour 69) Shaq serves as the Executive Director of Silver Spring Stage and has helped to produce several productions for the surrounding community. Theatre is the mirror of our condition, but you knew that.
EMILY SUCHER (Intimacy Coordinator) they/she
Emily Sucher is a certified intimacy director with Intimacy Directors & Coordinators (IDC).They have had 35+ intimacy direction and consultation credits in the regional DMV theatre scene, intimacy coordinated for several local films, and earned a Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Choreography in a Play (2023). Emily is a proud member of IDC's very first cohort of intimacy directors (live performance) and has trained with various other theatrical intimacy programs in the U.S. and Canada. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Emily is also an actor, educator, and clinical skills instructor for several medical schools in the area. www.emily-sucher.com @emilysucher
MAKENZI WENTELA (Stage Manager) she/her
Makenzi is a technician and educator who works in the DMV area, and is a Michigan Technological University graduate with a BS in Theatre and Entertainment Technology, and minors in Art and Performance. Her previous shows as a stage manager with We Happy Few are Desdemona: A Play About a Play About a Handkerchief (2022), La Llorona (2022), Iphigenia (2023), and Kill the Ripper (2023). Kenzi also works with the Discovery Theatre and has stage managed Seasons of Light (2022/23), Lions of Industry: Mothers of Invention (2024), and Mother Earth and Me (2024).
SCOTT WHALEN (Radius) they/them
MICHAEL WINCH he/him
Mike Winch is a sound designer based in Washington DC. He is a company member of Pointless Theatre Co., and Solas Nua. MFA David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, four time Helen Hayes nominee.
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