SAM WEISMAN (Director) worked for ten years as an actor before making the transition to directing. He has earned directorial credits in film, television, and theatre. They include the feature films George of the Jungle (which received a British Academy Award nomination for Best Children’s Movie), The Out-Of-Towners (starring Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, and John Cleese), Bye-Bye Love, D2: The Mighty Ducks, and Dickie Roberts. He also was Co-Producer of DAD (starring Jack Lemmon, Olympia Dukakis, and Ted Danson). Mr. Weisman has directed or produced over 200 television episodes, for such shows as Family Ties, Moonlighting, L.A. Law, Seventh Heaven (Pilot Episode), The Single Guy, Law And Order, Monk, In Plain Sight, The Bernie Mac Show; and was the Co-Creator of NBC’s The Sing Off, serving as Executive Producer of the show for its entire run. His television work has received three Emmy Nominations, multiple Humanitas Awards, two Golden Globe Nominations, and a Golden Globe Award. He directed and produced the Pilot of the critically acclaimed series, Brooklyn Bridge, which was honored by TV Guide as one of the best television episodes of all time. Mr. Weisman’s theatre work has received much recognition, including multiple Drama-Logue and LA Weekly Awards, and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Best Director honors for the West Coast premieres of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal (starring Ian McShane and Penny Fuller) and Simon Gray’s The Common Pursuit (featuring Nathan Lane). Other West Coast theatre credits include James Lapine’s Table Settings, Moliere’s The Misanthrope at USC, and an acclaimed production of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child at South Coast Repertory Theatre. Mr. Weisman was also the director and co-creator of Lies and Legends: The Musical Stories Of Harry Chapin, which premiered in Chicago, and then played Off Broadway at the legendary Village Gate. The show went on to be a major hit in Toronto and Los Angeles, receiving a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award for Best Ensemble. Weisman also directed Michael Weller’s A Late Morning (in America) with Ronald Reagan at The Contemporary American Theatre Festival. At Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, he directed Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero, and the world premiere of John Kolvenbach’s Gizmo Love. A Graduate Of Deerfield Academy And Yale, Mr. Weisman Received An M.F.A. In Acting And Directing From Brandeis University’s Department of Theatre Arts, where he has returned to teach, and to direct productions of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Other Boston area work includes teaching and directing at the American Repertory Theatre’s Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, as well as playing Polonius in Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet. He has been elected three times to the East Coast Council of the Directors Guild of America, and is a voting member of the Directors’ Branch of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Mr. Weisman is thrilled to be working again with Lindsay Crouse and Mickey Solis who he directed in GSC’s production of The Effect. He dedicates his work in this production to his family: his wife, actress and therapist Constance McCashin; their son, Dan (and his wife Lizzie); and their daughter, Margaux (and her husband, Will).

Lindsay Crouse* (Dr. Lorna James) is an award-winning veteran of stage and screen. In the New York theater she spent seven years with the Circle Repertory Company, winning critics’ praise for her portrayal of Ophelia in Hamlet and Viola in Twelfth Night, and garnering an Obie Award for David Mamet’s Reunion. On Broadway she won a Theater World Award for her performance as Ruth in Pinter’s The Homecoming.

Featured on numerous television dramas, Lindsay has guest starred over the years on shows such as Hill Street Blues, Columbo, Murder She Wrote, Touched by an Angel, LA Law, NYPD Blue, ER, Frasier, Alias, CSI, and Law and Order SVU. She played three different characters on Law & Order, and spent a season on Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the infamous Maggie Walsh. She was nominated for an Emmy as Outstanding Performer in the Children’s Special, “Mother and Daughter,” and for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album, “The Complete Shakespeare Sonnets.”

For the last decade Lindsay has played a wide range of characters at the Gloucester Stage. She joined the cast of the riotous trilogy, The Norman Conquests, by Alan Ayckbourn, sharing with them Boston’s IRNE award for Best Ensemble, and she received an IRNE Best Actress nomination for her portrayal of Lettice in Peter Schaffer’s madcap comedy, Lettice and Lovage. On the dramatic side she played the doctor in the searing duet, Going to St. Ives, received raves for her portrayal of Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst, and won the Independent Critic’s Best Actress award for her performance as Daisy in Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy. Last year Lindsay was nominated for the IRNE’s Best Actress award for her portrayal of Kate in Dancing at Lughnasa, and shared with the wonderful cast a nomination for Best Ensemble.

Some of Lindsay’s best known films include All The President’s Men, Slapshot, House of Games, The Verdict, The Insider, Mr. Brooks, Indian in the Cupboard, Prince of the City, Daniel, and Places in the Heart, for which she received an Academy Award nomination.

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Brad Hall* (Dr. Toby Sealey)
Stage includes Practical Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, St. Nicholas Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre, Grange Court Theatre London, Huntington Hartford Theatre Los Angeles. Most recently: The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved with Tim Robbins at Town Hall, NY. In Television, Brad has written, performed, developed, composed music for, directed, created or produced many shows; among them SNL, Frasier, Brooklyn Bridge, The Single Guy, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Watching Ellie, Parks And Recreation and VEEP.

Brad has also written, produced and performed in motion pictures, often in happy partnership with Gary David Goldberg and Sam Weisman.

Brad attended Northwestern University and is a co-founder of the Practical Theatre Co. in Chicago. It was at the Practical Theatre that Brad first met Julia Louis-Dreyfus, with whom he has two sons.

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Susannah Hoffman* (Connie Hall) received an MFA in acting from the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. Her regional theater credits include Baby Doll in Baby Doll, Mary Debenham in Murder on the Orient Express (McCarter Theatre), Cherie in Bus Stop (CENTERSTAGE), Elizabeth in Heartless, Abigail in A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World (Contemporary American Theater Festival), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (ART), The Donkey Show (ART), Ophelia in Hamletmachine (ART Institute), The Little Tragedies (Moscow Art Theater), and Nina in The Seagull (Opera House Arts). Her New York credits include The Actress in insignificance, Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet/Mercutio/Prince/Balthasar in Empirical Rogue’s four-actor Romeo & Juliet, Morgan in Owned, Celine in … But the Next Morning, and Claire in L’Amour Fou. TV/Film: House of Cards, Spiderman 2, Invisible.

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Mickey Solis* (John) New York and Off Broadway credits include the American premiere of Ivan Viripaev’s Illusions at the Baryshnikov Arts Center; An Orestia with Classic Stage Company; God of Carnage at Engeman Theater; White People at Ensemble Studio Theatre; Night Over Taos at INTAR, directed by Estelle Parsons; The Master and Margarita at the Fisher Center; Beckett at 100 (at the 92nd St. Y with Alvin Epstein and Bill Camp; Error of Their Ways at HERE Arts Center; and Private Moments in Central Park directed by David Levine for Creative Time. Regionally he has worked at the Yale Repertory; American Repertory Theater; Dangerous Ground (Brooklyn); Triad Stage; Appalachian Summer Festival; New College Theater; Moscow Art Theater; Epic Theater; Shakespeare on the Sound; Kentucky Shakespeare Festival.

*Member of Actors Equity Association (AEA)

Maegan A. Conroy* (Stage Manager). Selected previous stage management credits include The Effect, A Measure of Normalcy (Gloucester Stage Company); Nina Simone: Four Women,The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberly,Tiny Beautiful Things, Cry It Out, The Heath, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Native Gardens, The Royale (Merrimack Repertory Theatre); Creditors, Ugly Lies the Bone, DibbleDance: Shoes On, Shoes Off, Private Lives, Julius Caesar (Shakespeare & Company); The Legend of Georgia McBride (Greater Boston Stage Company); Guards at the Taj (Central Square Theatre); Maegan received her BFA in Stage Management from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. She and her husband live with their dog in Lowell, MA. Maegan is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

J. Michael Griggs† (Set and Projection Design) has previously designed for GSC The Effect, Fences, and Auld lang Syne.  He has designed for The Manhattan Theatre Club, Actor’s Shakespeare Project, American Repertory Theater, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Trap Door Theatre and many others. He is a member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829.

Miranda Giurleo† (Costume Design). Previous Gloucester Stage credits include: Dancing at Lughnasa, True West, The Effect, Flight of the Monarch, Totalitarians, Lettice and Lovage, The New Electric Ballroom, Fighting Over Beverly, Ponies, Dear Liar, Our Son’s Wedding, The Heidi Chronicles, The Wind in the Willows, Calvin Berger; Other regional credits include: Native Gardens, The Royale, A Christmas Carol, Chill (Merrimack Repertory Theatre);  (Gloucester Stage Company); The Scottsboro Boys (IRNE Award for Outstanding Costume Design), School Girls, Allegiance (SpeakEasy Stage Company); The Convert, Matchless/The Happy Prince, Matt and Ben, Roots of Liberty (Central Square Theatre); Leftovers, Dry Land, Shockheaded Peter, She Kills Monsters, Love Person, Neighbors, GRIMM, The Good Negro, After the Quake (Company One); Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s 2nd Stage); Richard III, Measure for Measure, As You Like It, Two Gentlemen of Verona (Actor’s Shakespeare Project). Miranda has also designed and built costumes for the U.S.S. Constitution Museum’s original production Sailor’s Wives and Sailor’s Lives. She is currently on the faculty at Bridgewater State University where designs include: Gypsy, Young Frankenstein, Assassins, Pilgrims of the Night, The Foreigner, Conference of the Birds, ThreePenny Opera, and multiple immersive productions.

David Remedios† (Sound Design) has designed sound for GSC’s Out of the Mouths of Babes, The Effect, The Totalitarians, The Flick and An Ideal Husband. Recent credits include The Burdens (City Theatre, Pittsburgh); The Haunted Life, Slow Food, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, and Murder for Two (Merrimack Rep); Quack (Alley Theatre); Berta, Berta and A Late Morning (in America) with Ronald Reagan (Contemporary American Theater Festival). His work has also been heard regionally at Trinity Rep, 59E59, Geva, Huntington Theatre, Studio Theatre, Portland Stage, Theatre for a New Audience, Hartford Stage, CenterStage Baltimore, La Jolla Playhouse, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Cincinnati Playhouse, and American Repertory Theatre (50 productions); internationally at prominent arts festivals in Bogotá, Paris, Hong Kong and Edinburgh; and locally at many New England Area Theatres. David is Assistant Professor and Program Head of Sound Design at Boston University’s School of Theatre, and is a proud member of USA 829. remediossound.com.

Claudio Ragazzi (Composer). Film Composer and guitarist Claudio Ragazzi has been writing award winning music for film and television, scoring dozens of projects and performing with some of today’s most respected musicians at renowned concert halls in the world for the past twenty years. Claudio attended Berklee College of Music where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, a winner of the prestigious Duke Ellington Master’s Award, the Boston Music Awards and an EMMY. Claudio went on to compose music for feature films, documentaries and television as well as commercials and works for plays and ballets.

Claudio’s Movie Scores include Brad Anderson’s Next Stop Wonderland produced by Miramax, the music for the award winning film, The Blue Diner, collaboration with fellow film composer Mason Daring on the music for John Sayle’s Casa de los Babys, additional music for Something’s Gotta Give starring Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton and Keanu Reeves, additional music and solo guitar on Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro to name a few. Claudio has also scored dozens of TV productions for the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, Telemundo, Univision and PBS, including specials for American Experience, NOVA, Sesame Street, Arthur, and Postcards from Buster.

Claudio’s live performances include those at Carnegie Hall, The Hollywood Bowl, The Blue Note Jazz Club, The Lincoln Center and in Festivals all around the world. He has performed with some of today’s most influential and respected musicians, including Gary Burton, Yo-Yo Ma, Randy Brecker, Pablo Ziegler, Danilo Perez, Regina Carter, saxophone legends Joe Lovano, Branford Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, and Paquito D’Rivera to name a few. Claudio currently scores films, performs internationally with the Pablo Ziegler Quartet as well as with his own group and teaches Film Composition at the prestigious Berklee College of Music.

Jen Spirito (Assistant Stage Manager).

Russ Swift† (Lighting Design). GSC: Resident Lighting Designer for the past 12 years. Productions include: Cyrano, Bank Job, The Effect, The Rainmaker, Out of the Mouths of Babes, Sweet and Sad; Out of Sterno; The New Electric Ballroom; The Flick; Jacques Brel; Fences; Spring Awakening; North Shore Fish; Carnival; “Master Harold” . . . and the Boys; The Most Happy Fella; Fighting Over Beverley; Table Manners; Trying; The Breath of Life; Sins of the Mother; Billy Bishop Goes to War; Going to St. Ives; Dear Liar; The Belle of Amherst; Ponies; The Widow’s Blind Date; The Secret of Mme. Bonnard’s Bath; The Price; The Heidi Chronicles, Long Day’s Journey Into Night; My Old Lady; Spinning into Butter. Boston-area (select): The Hobbit (Wheelock Family Theatre); Scarlett Letter (Worcester Foothills); It’s All True (Lyric Stage Company of Boston); Rags (The Boston Conservatory); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, 2010 and 2012 Gala (Boston Arts Academy). Other: Mr. Swift has designed for Tri-Cities Opera, the Jewish Theatre of New England, the Publick Theatre, Chamber Theatre Productions, Boston Lyric Opera, the Worcester Forum Theatre, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, the Theatre of Newburyport, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Bristol Riverside Theatre, American Ensemble Theatre, Stephan Petronio Dance Company, the Caldwell Theatre, KewPee Corporation and the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. Mr. Swift has been on the faculty or staff at Northeastern University, Emerson College, Endicott College, Westfield State University, Eastern Connecticut State University, Salem State University, Community College of Rhode Island, and Groton School. He is currently the production manager for the Theatre Department at Boston College. Russ thanks his wife, Mayre, and daughter, Michaela.

Jenna Worden (Properties Design) is delighted to return for her third season with Gloucester Stage. Favorite GSC credits include Out of Sterno, The Flick, and The Totalitarians. In addition, Jenna has worked with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (Our American Hamlet), WGBH (A Christmas Celtic Sojourn), Childsplay AZ, and Phoenix Theatre. She recently signed on as Programs Coordinator of Brighter Boston, a non-profit partnership providing teenagers with professional internships in technical theatre and event production. Jenna earned both her BA in Theatre Studies and BSEd in History from Northern Arizona University.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA)

^†Represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE

Summer is the Time for Stretching

Feature on Brad Hall coming to Gloucester Stage for THE EFFECT
– The New York Times

In Gloucester Stage’s compelling ‘The Effect,’ love is the drug

A rave review from Globe theater critic Don Aucoin
– The Boston Globe

In Gloucester, Brad Hall is entering another stage

An interview with Brad Hall about performing in The Effect
– The Boston Globe

Summer theater picks

Globe theater critic Don Aucoin’s guide to summer productions includes The Effect.
– The Boston Globe

Love under the influence

“The intricacies of love and attraction have defied science for centuries. But in Gloucester Stage Company’s production of British playwright Lucy Prebble’s drama, this ageless mystery is examined in the midst of a drug-intervention experiment for depression.”
– The Gloucester Times

From previous productions:

“The irreducibility of love is the subject of “The Effect,” Lucy Prebble’s very clever — and ultimately more than clever — play…Ms. Prebble, the British author of “Enron,” has come up with an ingenious variation on one of the more common romantic formulas in fiction: Put two attractive people in an unfamiliar hothouse environment, and see what blooms.”

–Ben Brantley, New York Times Theatre Critic, on the 2016 Barrow Street Theater production of “The Effect”  |  Read full review here

“If our emotions are manipulated by chemicals, does that make them less real, less valid, less an expression of who we are? If a chemical causes us to lose our memory, what remains of our personality? Are we the sum total of our vital organs or does our brain harbour some extra element that gives us an identity?”

–Mark Fisher, The Guardian  |  Read full review here