Room Service Program


Welcome! Please refrain from bringing food and/or drinks into the theatre during the performance. Thank you, and enjoy the show!

Room Service Square Production Poster

Room Service

by John Murray and Allen Boretz

View the cast list, production team, and additional program information below.

UTA Department of Theatre Arts and Dance

presents

Room Service

by John Murray and Allen Boretz

ROOM SERVICE is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection.

Dramatists Play Service

 

Cast

U.S. Senator Blake, Owner of the White Way Hotel

Aldrin Smalji

Gregory Wagner, Regional Hotel Supervisor

Kal Tshibangu

Understudy: David Akinmade

Joseph Gribble, Hotel Manager

Tyler Chamberlain

Understudy: Ryan Barfield

Dr. Glass, Hotel Physician

Bee Falcone

Understudy: Ryan Barfield

Hilda Manney, Assistant to the Hotel Manager

Jennifer Martinez

Understudy: Kate Thompson

Sasha Smirnoff, Russian Hotel Waiter

Claire Dunne

Understudy: Kate Thompson

Simon Jenkins, The Backer’s Agent

Maalik Meneimneh

Understudy: Ryan Barfield

Bank Messenger

Kate Thompson
Understudy: Darina Hayes

Timothy Hogarth, Collection Agency Manager

Malik DShawn

Understudy: Ryan Barfield

Gordon Miller, Theatrical Producer

Kimberly Turner

Understudy: Claire Dunne

Faker Englund, Assistant to the Producer

Noelle Molina

Understudy: Kate Thompson

Harry Binion, The Play Director

Faith Beene

Understudy: Kate Thompson

Leo Davis, The Young Playwright

Johnny Ford

Understudy: Ryan Barfield

Christine Marlowe, an Aspiring Actress

Bella Cantanelli

Understudy: Kate Thompson

Russian Language Consultant

Darina Hayes

Hotel Detective #1

Ryan Barfield

Hotel Detective #2

David Akinmade

 

Cast Bios

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Aldrin Smajli

U.S. Senator Blake, Owner of the White Way Hotel

Read Bio

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Kal Tshibangu

Regional Hotel Supervisor, Gregory Wagner

Read Bio

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Tyler Chamberlain

Joseph Gribble, Manager of the White Way Hotel

Read Bio

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Bee Falcone

Dr. Glass, Physician at the White Way Hotel

Read Bio

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Jennifer Martinez

Hilda Manney, Assistant to the Hotel Manager

Read Bio

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Claire Dunne

Russian Hotel Waiter Sasha Smirnoff and Understudy for Gordon Miller

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Maalik Meneimneh

The Backer's Agent, Simon Jenkins

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Kate Thompson

Bank Messenger and Understudy for Hilda Manney, Waiter, Harry Binion, Faker Englund, and Christine Marlowe

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Malik DShawn

Timothy Hogarth, Man from Collection Agency

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Kimberly Turner

Gordon Miller, Theatrical Producer

Read Bio

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Noelle Molina

Faker Englund, Assistant to the Producer

Read Bio

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Faith Beene

Harry Binion, The Play Director

Read Bio

-

Johnny Ford

Young Playwright Leo Davis

Read Bio

-

Bella Cantanelli

Christine Marlowe, an Aspiring Actress

Read Bio

-

Darina Hayes

Russian Language Consultant, Understudy for Bank Messenger

Read Bio

-

Ryan Barfield

Hotel Detective No. 1, Understudy for Joseph Gribble, Dr. Glass, Timothy Hogarth, and Leo Davis

Read Bio

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David Akinmade

Hotel Detective No. 2, Understudy for Gregory Wagner

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Designers and Production Team

Director

Sebastian Trainor

Scenic Design

DJ Badon

Lighting Design

Phillip Schroeder

Costume Design

Phillip Schroeder

Sound Design

Bill Eickenloff

Music Supervisor

Anne Healy

Properties Design

DJ Badon

Booth Stage Manager

Heather Schmitt

Deck Stage Manager

Laz Jarrell

Assistant Stage Managers

Jasmine Suarez

Ash Wilson

Assistant Director

Faith Beene**

Assistant Scenic Design

Trevor Berryhill

Assistant Lighting Design

Solo Gallegos

  

**Assistant Director participation is supported by the University of Texas at Arlington Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program.

Designers and Production Team Bios

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DJ Badon

Scenic Design, Properties Design

Read Bio

-

Phillip Schroeder

Costume Design, Lighting Design

Read Bio

-

Bill Eicknloff

Sound Design

Read Bio

-

Anne Healy

Music Supervisor

Read Bio

-

Trevor Berryhill

Assistant Scenic Design

Read Bio

-

Sebastian Trainor

Director

Read Bio

-

Faith Beene

Assistant Director

Read Bio

-

Heather Schmitt

Booth Stage Manager

Read Bio

-

Laz Jarrell

Deck Stage Manager

Read Bio

-

Ash Wilson

Assistant Stage Manager

Read Bio

Crew Members

Lighting Board Operator

Cody warren

Sound Board Operator

Sean Monroe

Wardrobe Crew

Leesa Raquel

Gecamrie Duffie

Julia Hall

Madison Jackson

Backstage Crew

Jaden Piper

Gisela Garcia

Callie Taylor

Ushers

Nora Casasola

Clarissa Cortez

About the Production

Read more about this production of Room Service.

“In Russia money means nothing” - Sasha Smirnoff, Waiter at the White Way Hotel, Room Service 

Would-be theatrical producer Gordon Miller has found what could be The Great American Play. He and his company have been holed up for weeks at the White Way Hotel in Times Square while they rehearse the wonderful play-with-a-message and while the producer hunts desperately for financial backers for the production. Miller hasn’t been able to make any payments on his company’s hotel bill since they started work on their show. At the beginning of the story you’re about to see, this bill comes to a total of $1,200. This may not sound like a lot in 2024, but Room Service premiered in 1937, the midst of the Great Depression. In its own era that $1,200 represents the bottom-line total for ten double-occupancy hotel rooms in Manhattan, for over two weeks, plus three meals a day, every day, for twenty-five people. It is reasonable to think of the running tab as being somewhere around $100,000 in our world. That’s what Miller is on the hook for when Room Service begins.

But the producer has no worries about this bill because he believes so deeply in the power of Godspeed, the show he is producing. It’s a pageant of American history as seen through the eyes of an ignorant immigrant coal miner. This play is going to bring a revolution, change the world, and be a huge success at the same time. Miller is certain of it. He believes similarly in the talents of Christine Marlowe, a promising young actress with whom he is romantically involved, who plays one of the key roles in Godspeed. And besides . . . Miller has a financial “understanding” with the hotel’s manager, who happens to be his brother-in-law. Things will work out.

Real trouble arrives, though, when an accountant from the hotel’s board of directors turns up unexpectedly to inspect the hotel’s books. When the executive finds the unpaid $100,000 bill it is certain that heads will roll and that the producer and his entire company will be evicted. Eviction wouldn’t actually be an irreparable catastrophe . . . except . . . on this particular day Miller finally has a guaranteed backer coming to meet him at the hotel to deliver a check for (the 1937 equivalent of) over a million dollars. All Miller’s problems are solved. Indeed, the whole nation’s economic problems will be solved! But the backer is coming tomorrow -- and the hotel executive is determined to get these show people out of his building right. this. damn. minute. Farce ensues as a desperate Miller and company deploy endlessly renewed deceptions -- including phony measles, bogus tapeworm, and counterfeit suicide -- to hang on to their hotel room for long enough to meet their backer and receive the check.

When staging Room Service today, in 2024, the real challenge is to find some way to recapture the truly subversive vitality of the 1937 original. In that year Room Service was a runaway success -- yet it was one in which the play’s Communist co-authors had deliberately embedded pro-Labor, pro-Russian, and anti-government motifs to be considered by a nation struggling through the hard days and economic failures of the Great Depression. The work is an example of how political and social themes are sometimes hidden in plain sight for American audiences. Or, at least they were in plain sight for audiences of 1937, who were much more attuned to clues in the lingo, dress codes, and gestures of their own era that we are, nearly ninety years later.

To make the play’s subversive undertones more legible for contemporary 2024 audiences, this UTA production has cast women as the play’s three producers. In the 1937 world of Room Service, though, these women must disguise themselves as men to be taken seriously in business, politics, and public life. In other words: to get anything done in their world they must change their gender, becoming Gordon Miller, Harry Binion, and Faker Englund. (In historical fact, many American women of the early 20th century spent the majority of their lives passing as men for precisely these reasons.)

The most dominant theme in Room Service is the idea that “influence in the world comes only from total commitment to the cause.” No step is too far; no behavior is too exaggerated; no sacrifice is too great for the good of the Greater Good. Godspeed, the socially-conscious play that Miller, Binion, and Englund are producing, is going to change the world. It will surely launch the long-awaited General Strike. Soon after, the American working class will achieve control of the means of production, thereby coming to receive reasonable remuneration for their labor. But most important of all: the New World Order that Godspeed creates will be a liberation for all womankind.

Sources

McGilligan, Patrick and Paul Buhle. Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.

Murray, John and Allen Boretz. Room Service: A Comedy in three Acts. New York: Random House, 1937.

Segrave, Kerry. Masquerading in Male AttireWomen Passing as Men in America. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2018.

 

UT Arlington respectfully acknowledges the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes upon whose historical homelands this university is located. We recognize the historical presence of the Caddo Nation and other Tribal Nations in the region.

Thank You

A special thanks to the following individuals for supporting this production:

Our ASL Interpreters for Sunday Matinee

 

We would also like to thank the following individuals for their generous donations to the UT Arlington Department of Theatre Arts and Dance:

Archibald Foundation Scholarship

Shalyn Clark & Al Clark

JoAnne Harris Endowed Scholarship for the Theatre Arts

Jeff Johnson

Timothy R. Morris

Dr. Charles S. Proctor Endowment

Professors Emeritus Richard Slaughter & Nita Scheble Cox Endowed Scholarship for Theatre Arts

 

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About the Department

The University of Texas at Arlington Department of Theatre Arts and Dance provides students with an extensive education in the theatrical profession. It is through broad practical experience and an equally extensive theoretical application of the art and craft of the stage that students learn the primary components that comprise the theatrical event. The application of these components, in a series of classroom and public performances, ensures a challenging educational environment for the theatre arts student.

Audience Reminders

No food, drinks or smoking in the theatre.

Please turn off all electronic devices that light up or make sounds. Please do not text, take pictures or videos during the performance.

Keep the aisles clear and remain in your seats during the performance.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!

 

Copyright Notice

In accordance with U.S. copyright laws, the recording of this production by any means, including audio, video, or photography, is strictly prohibited. This measure is in place to protect the intellectual property rights of the creators and performers. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

Room Service is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection