Artistic Collaborators
Lewis Carroll: Writer, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Mr. Carroll is the famous pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898) of Daresbury, Cheshire, England. A mathematical lecturer at Oxford University as well as a skilled logician, writer, photographer, and inventor of games and puzzles, Mr. Carroll (Dodgson) is best known throughout the world as the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. His other books include Phantasmagoria, The Hunting of the Snark and Rhyme and Reason.
Nilo Cruz: Adapter, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Mr. Cruz is a Cuban-born American playwright who won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in drama for his play Anna in the Tropics. His other plays include Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams, Dancing on Her Knees, Night Train to Bolina and Two Sisters and a Piano. His works have been staged at New York’s Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, South Coast Repertory, Florida Stage, New Theatre, Coconut Grove Playhouse and the Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis. Mr. Cruz is a former member of New Dramatists and holds an MFA from Brown University.
Gabriel García Márquez: Writer, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Gabriel García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, journalist, publisher, political activist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He has lived and worked all over the world and is widely credited with introducing the global public to magic realism, a literary genre in which magical elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting. García Márquez’ most famous novels include Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Love in the Time of Cholera, and One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Lighting, Set & Costume Designers
Emil Kapelush: Set, Puppet and Costume Designer
Set and Puppet Designer, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Set and Costume Designer, The Love of Three Oranges
Mr. Kapelush is an internationally acclaimed painter and graphic artist who has designed more than 180 productions in Russia, Europe, Asia and the United States. His awards include a Golden Mask (Russia’s version of a Tony Award) for Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Golden Mask nominations for Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Strindberg’s The Father, Checkhov’s Platonov and Gozzi’s Turandot. Mr. Kapelush also designed sets and costumes for The PlayGround’s production of Pluft, The Little Ghost.
Other Collaborators
Jim Hammond: Props, Puppet and Mask Master
Holding an MA in Puppet Arts Design from the University of Connecticut, the New York native has produced theatrical events and festivals as well as designed puppets, masks and props for such clients as New World Symphony, Broward Center for the Performing Arts and Florida Grand Opera. He enjoyed six years as part of the puppet department of the National Broadway Tour of The Lion King. In 2011 he opened Puppet Network, an entertainment consulting firm specializing in puppet arts.
Nick Kunstle: Videographer
A graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts, Mr. Kunstle is pursuing a lifelong fascination with color and light. In addition to his work with The PlayGround, he has served as the Lighting Associate for the Florida Grand Opera for the last two years and is their Lighting Director this season. He was also the lead lighting designer for the grand opening of the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina (ISES award for Best Technical Production). Mr. Kunstle’s previous PlayGround credits include Inanna and the Huluppu Tree.
María Teresa Alvarado: Videographer
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
María Teresa Alvarado was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and has vast experience in media and communications, having worked for such companies as Discovery Networks, HBO, Cinemax, TV Latina and The Playground Theatre in Venezuela, Miami and New York. She works as a print journalist as well as a videographer, copy writer, and producer and editor of trailers and television spots. Alvarado was also a juror for the final round of judging at the 2007 International Emmy Awards. Other experience includes Spanish-language proofreading and copy-editing, photography, videography and voiceover work.
