Alabaster by Audrey Cefaly

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Carolina Actors Studio Theatre (CAST), in association with Actors Collaborative Theatre (ACT) is pleased to announce our 2025 production, “ALABASTER,” , by Audrey Cefaly.  ALABASTER is a Pulitzer-nominated, Kilroys-listed, all-female darkly comic Southern drama and winner of the Calicchio Prize.  After a tornado barrels through town leaving nothing but death and destruction, only June and her pet goat Weezy and Weezy’s dying mother Bib, live to tell the tale. When a prominent photographer visits to take pictures of June's scars, both are forced to reconcile the pain of loss and recovery. ALABASTER explores the meaning and purpose of art and the struggle of the lost and tortured souls that seek to create it.

Performances will be held at the Mint Museum, (2730 Randolph Road, Charlotte, North Carolina 28207) in the Van Every Theatre on February 27th – March 16th, 2025

Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door. Details coming soon

Cynthia Farbman Harris-- Alice

 Cynthia is thrilled to be working with CAST again where she last appeared as Margie Walsh in Good People.Additional CAST productions include Dr. Katherine Brandt 33 Variations, Maria Callas Master Class (MTA Nomination), Mrs. Kendall The Elephant Man (MTA Nomination) and Dr. Martha Livingstone Agnes of God, (Best Actress in a Drama MTA). Other roles include Olivia Largo Sex with Strangers, Marianne Constellations,  Merteuil Les Liaisons Dangerous, Fosca Passion and Dr. Emma Brookner The Normal Heart. Cynthia is also actively involved in the Charlotte opera community where she is the soprano soloist for The Charlotte Music Club’s Messiah Concert. Her opera credits include Gilda Rigoletto (Mozart), (“an exquisite ‘Caro nome,’” - Washington Post), Queen of the Night Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), Countess Almaviva Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) and Sylva The Gypsy Princess (Kalman). 

Debbie Swanson -- Bib

Debbie moved to the Charlotte area in 2018 for a "day job" in corporate Marketing. Locally she has worked with Three Bones Theatre in Ugly Lies The Bone and the Queen City New Play Initiative. She has been performing since the seventies, however, as her first role was a school girl in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at the Des Moines Playhouse. Her background is Musical Theatre and she has sung and danced in most of the classics, but playing Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret was a "Bucket List" role for her.  Formerly from the Minneapolis area, other notable productions include The Dixie Swim Club and The Laramie Project with the Lyric Arts Theatre, as well as A Christmas Carolwith the Guthrie Theatre. 

Zoe Matney -- June

Zoe is delighted to be making her CAST debut in Alabaster for 2025! She has a BA in Dramatic Arts from UNC Chapel Hill and has intensive training from Actors Group of Winston Salem. Zoe’s most recent credits include Clue with Piedmont Players, She Kills Monsters, and The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon with Lee Street Theatre. Zoe has also recently worked with UNCSA on many of their short films 

Kelly Mizell --Weezy

Kelly is thrilled to be back home in Charlotte, and in her first performance with CAST!   She spent her early career touring the US with the Alpha Omega Players (Texas), Children’s Theatre of Charlotte’s Tarradiddle Players and the Birmingham Children’s Theatre.  When in NC, she enjoyed performing with Charlotte Rep, Lees McRea Summer Rep, and Cape Fear Regional Theatre.  After earning her MFA in Acting at Harvard/ART and the Moscow Art Theatre School, Kelly taught voice and Shakespeare at NYU’s CAP 21 program. In 2002, she moved back home to Charlotte to teach, act and direct at UNCC.  In 2015 she left UNCC to join her talented stunt action designer husband, Richard Ryan, filming Vikings in Ireland. Some of Kelly’s theatre role highlights include: Phaedra, American Repertory Theatre,  Invierno, American Shakespeare Collective, Inherit the Wind, She Loves Me, Rumors, Cape Fear Regional Theatre, Bug, The Exit Interview, Actors Theatre of Charlotte, Barbecue, Theatre Raleigh.  While performing in Theatre Charlotte’s production of Brighton Beach Memoirs, she was signed by JTA Talent’s Judy Simpson Cook and has had numerous roles in film productions since. Her most recent production was playing a Scottish hotel manager opposite Ethan Hawke in The Good Lord Birdwith Showtime and the title role in a short film, Listen To Mother for Hoi Polloi Productions, shot in the UK during the pandemic. Other film roles include The Exorcism (formerly the Georgetown Project), Miramax and Loggerheads, LaSalle Holland Productions. 

Michael Simmons, Director

Dee Abdullah & Jean-Claud Caton, Assistant Directors

Dave Meeter, Lighting Design Design

Christy Edney, Sound Design 

Tim Baxter Ferguson, Set Design

Sophie Carlick, Costume Design

Breeze Pleasant & Ciel Davis, Make Up Crew

Tom Hollis, Prop Mastery & Scenery

Tim Beany, Technical Director

Lauren Dunlap, Marketing & Website Design

Christine Hull & Thom Tonetti, Run Crew & Volunteers

Do you have experience or want to learn more about behind the scenes of live, performing arts? CAST needs you! CAST has both volunteer and paid staff positions available for our production of Alabaster. We are looking for Stage Managers, Assistant Director, Run Crew, Lighting and Sound techs, Ushers, Makeup artist, Costume Designers, Set Builders and more! Please submit all inquiries to Info@nccast.net with you name, contact number and  area of interest.

"it moved me to tears, more than once....two hours of Bechdel Test bliss" --Artswave

"It's easy to see why theaters from Oregon to Illinois to Texas are all lining up to stage this new play....Ms. Cefaly rips your heart out of your chest, shatters it, then mends it." --Florida Weekly

"You'll laugh, cry, and everything in between." -- Broadway World

"It's a play that will grab you from its first moments, and hold fast 'till its healing conclusion.” -- The Column

"…a nuanced, darkly comedic play … that examines how people cope with trauma and what recovery can look and feel like."-- Chicago Tribune