The Ensemble

Lita Schabra	                                 Rachel E. Zirkin
Tamerin Corn	                                 Rick Millman
Richard Gallegos	                         Liz Yao
Sharol Buck	                                 Bonnie Webster
Paulette "Charly" Southern	                 Sherri Smith
Len Sullivan	                                 John C. Hansen
Jason Bohner	                                 Jacob Zahniser
Angela Adams	                                 Melanie Maisey
K. M. Turner	                                 Marian E. Aucock
Joy E. Michener	                                 Elizabeth Rankin
Marsha A. Sprecher

Lighting Design	                                 Technical Support

Sheila Lopez	                                 Edie Catto
Greg Shraven



THE SERPENT, a ceremony created by the Open Theater under the direction of Joseph
Chaiken was first presented in 1968. The structure and words of the ceremony are by Jean-
Claude van Itallie. Of his work, van Itallie says:

'Theater is not electronic. Unlike movies and unlike television, it does require the live
presence of both audience and actors in a single space. This is the theater's uniquely
important advantage and function, its original religious function of bringing people
together in a community ceremony where the actors are in some sense priests or
celebrants, and the audience is drawn to participate with the actors in a kind of
eucharist.

Where this is the admitted function of theater the playwright's work is not so much to
'write a play" as to "construct a ceremony" which can be used by the actors to come
together with the audience."

This evening's production of THE SERPENT was directed by the student ensemble performing
it. UMBC Faculty member Sam McCready supervised the process.