I Was Most Alive with You
- Written and Directed by Craig Lucas
- Directed by Tyne Rafaeli
- Directed by Sabrina Dennison
Playwrights: Prayer for My Enemy, Small Tragedy, Three Postcards. Other plays: Missing Persons, Prelude to a Kiss, God’s Heart, The Dying Gaul, Stranger, The Singing Forest, Ode To Joy, among others. Libretti: The Light in the Piazza, Two Boys, Orpheus in Love, Amélie. Screenplays: Longtime Companion, The Secret Lives of Dentists, Reckless, Blue Window, Prelude to a Kiss, The Dying Gaul. Direction: The Light in the Piazza, This Thing of Darkness (coauthored with David Schulner), Saved Or Destroyed, Play Yourself, Ode to Joy; the films The Dying Gaul and Birds of America. Lucas has been a Pulitzer finalist, won three Obie awards, and received three Tony nominations. Recipient of Excellence in Literature Award from American Academy of Arts & Letters.
(Updated 8/20/18)
Playwrights debut. Dennison appeared in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s acclaimed 1989 film, Santa Sangre. Her professional acting experience continued via a US tour with the National Theatre of the Deaf where she played Gertrude in Ophelia. Dennison continued her tour at elementary schools with the Little Theatre of the Deaf. Dennison completed ASL translation for Yale University’s Twelfth Night. She took on the role of an ASL consultant at ArtsEmerson, Broadway Across America, Boston University School of Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, SpeakEasy, and the Boston Opera House. She also appeared in Aditi Brennan Kapil’s Love Person (IRNE nomination). Sabrina was the Director of Artistic Sign Language and ASL consultant for I Was Most Alive with You at Huntington.
(Updated 8/20/18)
New York premiere
KNOX
I want to see God. I don’t want any more signs. I want to see His face.
Ash has a blessed life, thankful every day for the gifts of his family, his addiction, and his son’s Deafness. But on one fateful day, everything’s taken from him. How can he see this unexpected test, that threatens to cast him and his loved ones into darkness, as the ultimate gift? Performed simultaneously in English and ASL by two casts, Craig Lucas’s sublime, stunning new play is a theatrical event not to be missed.
The play will be simultaneously performed in American Sign Language by a shadow cast of Deaf actors.
Featuring
Marianna Bassham
AstridTad Cooley
FarhadLisa Emery
PleasantMichael Gaston
AshRussell Harvard
KnoxLois Smith
CarlaGameela Wright
MariamaBeth Applebaum
AstridHarold Foxx
KnoxSeth Gore
AshAmelia Hensley
PleasantChristina Marie
CarlaAnthony Natale
FarhadAlexandria Wailes
MariamaPlaywrights debut. Regional: Our Town (dir. David Cromer), The Luck of the Irish, Becoming Cuba, I Was Most Alive with You (Huntington), and work with Actors’ Shakespeare Project, SpeakEasy, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Boston Playwrights’ Theater, and many others. Film: Rubberneck (dir. Alex Karpovsky), Moonrise Kingdom. TV: “Castle Rock,” “Olive Kitteridge.”
(Updated 8/20/18)
Playwrights debut. Regional: I Was Most Alive with You (Huntington), Act Normal (Senses Askew fest), Tribes (Philadelphia Theatre Co., City Theatre Co., Denver Center for the Performing Arts), Waiting for Trees (Kennedy Center), Soot and Spit (IRT Theatre Company), Hir (Barebones Productions). TV: Recurred as Marty on “Secrets and Lies” along with a number of independent films.
(Updated 8/20/18)
Playwrights: Marvin’s Room, The Monogamist, Marjorie Prime, For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday. Broadway: Six Degrees of Separation, Casa Valentina, The Women, Jackie, Burn This, others. Other Off-Broadway: A Funny Thing Happened… (MCC), A Kind of Alaska (Atlantic), Iron (MTC), and more. Recipient: Obie Award. Nominee: Lortel, Drama Desk. Film: Admissions, The Night Listener, Unfaithful. TV: “Louie,” “Damages,” Law & Orders,” “Jessica Jones” (Netflix). Currently on “Ozark” (Netflix).
(Updated 8/20/18)
Playwrights: Somewhere in the Pacific. Broadway: Lucky Guy, A Day in the Life of Joe Egg. Off-Broadway: The Taming of the Shrew, Othello, Henry V, Cripple of Inishmann, Lost in Yonkers. Films: First Reformed, Land of Steady Habits, Bridge of Spies, W, Inception, Body of Lies, Sugar, Hackers, Far From Heaven, Copland, The Crucible, The Wedding Banquet. TV: “Strange Angel,” “The Man in the High Castle,” “The Leftovers,” “Madam Secretary,” “The Good Wife,” “Damages.”
(Updated 8/20/18)
Broadway: Spring Awakening (Deaf West). NY/Regional: I Was Most Alive with You (Huntington), Sleeping Beauty Wakes (Deaf West, CTG), Our Town (Deaf West, Pasadena Playhouse), Edward Albee’s At Home At The Zoo (Deaf West, Wallis), Tribes (Barrow Street, CTG, La Jolla), The Who’s Tommy (Open Circle). Film: There Will Be Blood, The Hammer. TV: “Fargo,” “Switched at Birth.” “Odd Mom Out,” “Fringe,” “CSI: NY.” Harvard is also a founding member of Deaf Austin Theatre.
(Updated 8/20/18)
Playwrights: Jordan Harrison’s Marjorie Prime, Amy Herzog’s After the Revolution, Kate Fodor’s 100 Saints You Should Know. Other favorites: Broadway, Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending, and The Grapes of Wrath and Sam Shepard’s Buried Child (both from Steppenwolf); Off-Broadway, Horton Foote’s The Trip to the Bountiful and The Old Friends, Tony Kushner’s The Illusion, Sam Shepard’s Heartless, Annie Baker’s John (Signature) and Lily Thorne’s Peace for Mary Frances (New Group). Recent films: Marjorie Prime, Lady Bird.
(Updated 8/20/18)
Playwrights debut. Off-Broadway: Halcyon Days (A.R.T.); The Lower Depths, Time to Burn (Resonance Ensemble); Little Man (Ohio Theatre). Regional: I Was Most Alive with You (Huntington), A Streetcar Named Desire, You Can’t Take it With You (Northern Stage). Film: Tully, The Comedian, John Wick. TV: “She’s Gotta Have It,” “Blue Bloods,” “Homeland,” “Bull,” and “The Blacklist.” She studies ASL at the Sign Language Center of New York.
(Updated 8/20/18)
Playwrights debut. Recent credits: Louie Podlaski’s The Dusk Cages, Shaina Taub at Joe’s Pub, NYC Sign and Sing, New York Deaf Theatre’s Titus (Lavinia), ASL Rocky Horror (Janet Weiss), and National Theatre of the Deaf Tour (2015-16). Alumni of RIT with a BFA in Film/Animation/Stage (2010), Mercer County Performing Arts High School Dance Major (2005). Deaf Talent and advocate.
(Updated 8/20/18)
Playwrights debut. Regional: Deaf West and Pasadena Playhouse’s Our Town. Standup comedy performed most notably at Busboys & Poets, National Black Deaf Advocates conference, National Association of the Deaf, and Theatre of Note (Hollywood). He launched “The Harold Foxx Show,” an online entertainment and comedy brand, which has gained 80,000+ followers on various social media platforms. Film: Audism Unveiled. TV: “For My Woman,” “The Actor Whisperer.” Currently training with The Groundlings, LA.
(Updated 8/20/18)
Playwrights debut. Gore is a visual and Sign Language artist who creates socially-critiquing cartoons, published short stories in the Washingtonian and in anthologies, and is currently writing an auto-fictional book. This is his first time in a theatrical production. Gore is a seventh-generation Deaf, sign-language family member who specializes in coding-as-art, and he works for New York Deaf Theatre.
(Updated 8/20/18)
Broadway: Spring Awakening (Deaf West). Boston: I Was Most Alive with You (Huntington). Seattle: Skin, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Deaf Spotlight). LA: Spring Awakening (Deaf West), Our Town (Pasadena Playhouse), Broadway Dream (Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts). DC: Hamlecchino, The Lady Becomes Him, A Commedia Christmas Carol (Faction of Fools); Beertown, Peepshow (Dog & Pony DC); Noises Off (Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival).
(Updated 8/20/18)
Playwrights debut. Recent credits: Twelfth Night (Public Works); Maple and Vine, Titus (New York Deaf Theatre); ASL Rocky Horror Show and National Theatre of the Deaf Tour (2011-17). Christina is also a dog walker, tutor, and scientist. Graduated from RIT in Forensics. #DeafTalent
Playwrights debut. Broadway and Deaf West productions (ASL acting, consulting): Spring Awakening, Big River, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, and Pippin. NY/Regional: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, West Side Story, The Greatest Show on Earth. Film: How to Talk to a Person Who Can’t Hear. TV: “Switched at Birth” (Emmett’s Dad, ASL coach), co-star on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Michael Jackson’s London Tour (ASL coach to dancers).
(Updated 8/20/18)
Alexandria Wailes [she/her] is an award winning multi-hyphenated theatre maker. Directing: A Not So Quiet Nocturne, Deaf Broadway’s Once on This Island, Deaf Spotlight’s 2023 Short Play Festival. Acting: Broadway: for colored girls, Spring Awakening, Big River. Off-Broadway/Regional: for colored girls, I Was Most Alive with You, Oedipus, Our Town. TV: CW’s ‘The Flash’,‘Little America’, ‘High Maintenance’. DASL: Broadway: King Lear, Children of a Lesser God. Regional: Private Jones. www.alexandriawailes.com
Creative Team
Lewis Merkin
Associate Director of Artistic Sign LanguageArnulfo Maldonado
Scenic DesignDavid C. Woolard
Costume DesignAnnie Wiegand
Lighting DesignJane Shaw
Sound DesignAlex Basco Koch
Projection DesignDaniel Kluger
Original MusicDavid Anzuelo
Fight ConsultantBrett Anders
Production Stage ManagerAdele Nadine Traub
Assistant Stage ManagerArnulfo Maldonado is a New York City based set and costume designer. He is a recent Tony Award® Nominee for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for the Broadway production of Buena Vista Social Club (Schoenfeld Theatre, dir: Saheem Ali), as well as for A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson (Lyceum Theatre, dir: Stephen Brackett). In addition, Arnulfo received the 2020 Obie for Sustained Excellence in Set Design, as well as a Special Citation Obie as part of the Creative Team of the Pulitzer Prize winning A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson. Arnulfo is a recipient of a Princess Grace Fabergé Theater Award and a multiple Henry Hewes Design. Lortel Award, and Drama Desk nominee
Daniel Kluger is a composer, music producer, orchestrator and sound designer.
Known for his Tony, Grammy and Olivier nominated bluegrass orchestrations of the Broadway revival of OKLAHOMA!, Kluger’s musical work spans a range from electronic dance music, to neoclassical chamber composition, jazz and atmospheric synth soundscapes. He has created original scores for dozens of award-winning theater projects, films and podcasts.
Playwrights Horizons: Bella: An American Tall Tale. Other Off-Broadway: The Harvest (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater). Regional: The Merry Wives of Windsor (Two River Theater), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Theatre Under the Stars); 40 productions at Alley Theatre in Houston, TX.
I Was Most Alive with You is made possible by a generous grant from The Roy Cockrum Foundation. The mission of The Roy Cockrum Foundation is to award grants to support world-class performing arts projects in not-for-profit professional theaters throughout the United States. The Roy Cockrum Foundation enables theaters to reach beyond their normal scope of activities and undertake ambitious and creative productions.
Critic’s Pick!
"Craig Lucas’ I Was Most Alive with You is passionate and haunting. A marvel of polyphony, featuring standout performances."
Elegantly staged by Tyne Rafaeli (Sabrina Dennison directed the ASL portion) and superbly acted by an ensemble of hearing and Deaf actors.