The Story
When a powerful invention lands in the hands of impulsive Phineas Hamm on his 30th birthday, he's faced with the possibility of altering his reality with the single pull of a lever. What happens when desires and abandon trump resilience and loyalty? An exploration of tempting fortunes and their immediate outcomes, Phineas is a sideshow whirlwind of folly, danger and the missteps of youth. (Not intended for young audiences. We'd rather not supply the missteps.)
The Director/Playwright
Hailing from the home of Cole Porter and the world’s largest amateur circus (Peru, Indiana), Rachel McGinnis has been a practitioner of all things theatrical for over twenty years. Upon graduating from Northwestern University with a double major in writing and theatre, she moved to Los Angeles, where she performed in everything from sketch comedy shows at the Powerhouse to films and TV shows, including a brief regular stint on Zoe, Duncan Jack & Jane and appearances on Felicity, She’s All That, Mad About You, and more. She left the film scene for the opportunity to join the editorial staff of Bon Appétit magazine, where she gained 15 pounds that were never again lost. She then journeyed back to the Midwest--some say for the cheese, but she maintains it was for a graduate degree in Art Education at Indiana University. The time between grad school and Austin was mostly a blur for her, but somewhere in there she was ever-so-briefly the Props Coordinator for The Jenny Jones Show and the resident House Manager for The Goodman Theatre in Chicago, where she had the pleasure of meeting and working with her childhood hero Carol Burnett. Since moving to Austin, Rachel has been seen on stage with Tutto, Austin Playhouse, The City Theatre, Palindrome, Pollyanna, and many other companies in more than 20 productions. She Co-Directed The Adventures of Iris and Momo, which was Paper Moon Rep’s first show (and the company’s first B. Iden Payne Award). She’s been a 4-time nominee for the B. Iden Paynes and was proud to take home an award for her performance in The Laramie Project and a cast performance award for The Dudleys. She’s also received nominations for her work by The Austin Critic’s Table and The Austin Examiner. When she’s not in a theatre, she’s a Realtor (her other passion). Come see her about a house. Or a play. Either meeting is bound to be productive and great fun.
The Designers
Originally from Finland, Ia is an award-winning scenic and costume designer whose work in the past 18 years has been for both stage and screen. She is the Resident Production Designer for Pollyanna Theatre Company, which she has been with for the past ten years (including such shows as The Tempest, Just Bee, Pattern Nation, Ducks vs. Squirrels: Battle For The Park, etc). Some of her past work has also been with Breaking String Theatre (Flying and Uncle Vanya), Naughty Austin Productions (Psycho Beach Party, When Pigs Fly, Pageant), HBMG (The Love Sonatas), Faster Than The Speed Of Light at the Salvage Vanguard, and some 70+ other productions. Some of her previous film work can be seen in The Two Bobs, The King, Idiocracy, The Ringer, Man From Orlando, and The Association. Her commercial projects have included World Wildlife Fund, Maidenform, HEB, etc. She also fills her workdays as an interior designer for retail and hospitality and as a storyboard artist and illustrator for films, publishing companies, and clothing manufacturers. Ia loves her work and it shows. She has been nominated for quite a few B.Iden Payne Awards, and has been the lucky recipient of five of them...and is always on the hunt for the next project.
Megan Reilly | Lighting Designer
Previous designs seen in Austin include: B. Beaver Animation (Rude Mechanicals), Riddley Walker (Trouble Puppet), Carousel (Mary Moody Northen Theater / St. Ed's), Murder Ballad Murder Mystery (2010 B. Iden Payne award for Outstanding Lighting Design), Black Snow (Austin Critics' Table 2009-2010 nomination and 2009 B. Iden Payne nomination) and Ophelia (2009 B. Iden Payne award; Tutto Theatre Company), Biography of Physical Sensations and Mister Z Loves Company (Rubber Rep), Guest by Courtesy and A Brief Narrative of an Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits (Salvage Vanguard), Orestes and Transformations (Cambiare Productions), Trouble in Tahiti (Butler Opera Center), Well Suited (Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company), The King & I (Forklift Danceworks), Portrait, (David Mark Cohen New Works Festival), Minus Tide (Bayou Radio Theatre), Flesh and the Desert (UT Austin). Megan is a member of Divergence Vocal Theater (Houston) and has created lighting and multimedia designs for their site-specific opera Autumn Spectre and the original work Selkie, A Sea Tale. Her work has also been seen with Lakes Region Summer Theatre (Meredith, NH), The University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH), The Actor’s Collective, New Conservatory Theatre, the San Francisco Fringe Festival and the EXIT Theatre (all in San Francisco), the 2007 Prague Quadrennial, First Night Austin and the Fusebox Festival. Megan received international recognition for her design-driven work in Transformations and Portrait.
Rachel McGinnis | Costume Designer
You already know about this lady, but to let you know about her art...Her tech specialty at NU was Costume Design, and, in addition to painting, sculpture, and design courses, she served as lead designer for the Danceworks mainstage production in ’98. She and her husband Dave were the production designers for Paper Moon Rep’s first show, The Adventures of Iris and Momo, and she designed costumes. For her Master’s at IU, she studied fine art, including textile design, ceramics, printmaking and drawing. She has also taken art courses through The Art Institute of Chicago at the summer OxBow residency, which is truly God’s gift to artistic humans. Despite all of this, her husband Dave is still the better artist, but he’s blessed with no inclination to sew.
The Dramaturg
Elizabeth Cobbe
Bio Coming Soon
The Choreographer
Kaitlyn Moise | Ballet Austin
Kaitlyn received her professional dance training from North Carolina School of the Arts. While there she studied with Melissa Hayden, Kee Juan Han, Fanchon Cordell, Christine Spizzo, Dayna Fox, Frank Smith, Warren Conover, and many others. At NCSA she performed in The Nutcracker, Raymonda, The Snow Queen, Orpheus and the Underworld, and many workshops. She has studied and performed in numerous ballets with several companies including North Carolina Dance Theatre, Virginia School of the Arts, Carolina Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Ballet Ascoli Piceno (Italy) and most recently Ballet Austin where she was a trainee for a year before completing her Communications degree at St. Edward’s University in May 2011. Her theater credits include SummerStock Austin’s Sweet Charity, Mary Moody Northen Theatre’s Carousel, Zilker Theatre’s Production of Footloose and Georgetown Palace Theater’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Currently she teaches at Ballet Austin’s Butler Community School.
The Cast
See below.
We had some spectacular actors audition for us last week, and we are feeling awfully thankful to be surrounded by so many talented people. We’ll be announcing the cast for Phineas after our Dark Monday Fair fundraiser...check this site in the coming week for a cast list.
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