The Little Fellow (or The Queen of Tarts Tells All)
By Kate Hamill
Directed by Rob Lutfy
World Premiere
Oct 25 - Nov 19, 2023Low-priced Previews Oct 25 - Oct 28, 2023
Sharp • Historical • Saucy
The Little Fellow is a risqué comedic drama loosely based on the life and tell-all memoirs of the 19th century’s most famous courtesan – Harriette Wilson, also known as The Little Fellow. Since the age of thirteen, Harriet has navigated through the pitiless and glamorous world of the British regency’s demi-monde: eventually becoming the “top of the bottom” as the self-styled Queen of Tarts. Her defiance of social conventions and refusal to be a lady have attracted many patrons – included some of the country’s most distinguished and high-powered men. But Harriet wants to get out of the ‘business’… and she has a plan. A plan that may threaten her reputation, her business, and ultimately, her life – as she confronts the cost of winning in an unjust world.
“FASCINATING, FUNNY AND FIERCE” -San Diego Union-Tribune
Advisories: Mature humor, sexual content, mature & sexual themes, and depictions of violence. The production also contains smoke/haze effects and flashing lights.
This World Premiere received its first reading through the Bill and Judy Garrett Finish Line Commission.
Digital Program
Cast
Sofia Jean GomezSofia Jean Gomez
Julia and othersNY credits: “Angels in America:Parts I and II” Signature Theatre Company, “Call and Response” created and directed by Patricia McGregor at the Public Theatre, Page 73, New World Stages, Manhattan Theatre Club, New Georges, and Lake Lucille Chekhov. Regional: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Old Globe, Yale Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, CATF, SD Repertory, Goodman Theatre, Denver Center Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, McCarter Theatre Center, Arizona Theatre Company and many more. American Theatre Magazine – the “Actors Playwrights Love.” Yale School of Drama, MFA. ICOC Certified Intimacy Director/Educator, Director, and fierce dog mom.
Keiko GreenKeiko Green
HarrietKeiko Green is a performer, playwright, and screenwriter, based in Los Angeles and Seattle. Previously at Cygnet: Tina in Sharon and Connie in The Great Leap, a role that she originated at the Denver Center and Seattle Rep. Favorite past shows: As You Like It (Seattle Rep), Stupid F-ing Bird (ACT), Much Ado About Nothing (Seattle Shakespeare), God of Carnage (Backyard Renaissance). As a playwright, Keiko had two world premieres earlier this year in San Diego: Sharon at Cygnet and Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play at the Old Globe. As a screenwriter, she wrote on Hulu’s upcoming “Interior Chinatown.”
MJ SieberMJ Sieber
George Noel Hill, Lord of Berwick, Mr. Stockdale, Old Man, The Marquis of Worcester, Arthur Wellesley, & othersMJ is so damn happy to be returning to Cygnet after appearing as Vanya in Aaron Posner’s Life Sucks last year also directed by Mr. Lutfy. He returned to CA after a 20 year stint in Seattle. Some previous credits include: Glengarry Glen Ross, Outside Mullingar, Dry Powder, the world premiere of Mr. Dickens and his Carol (Seattle Rep); Stupid F***ing Bird, Oslo, The Crucible, The Lieutenant of Inishmore (ACT), Barefoot in the Park, Sleuth, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Village Theatre). Other highlights include: Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Benedick (Much Ado), Autolycus (Winters Tale), Merrick (Elephant Man), Stanley Yelnats (Holes – World Premiere) and as the Associate AD with New Century Theatre Co. He directed the west coast premiere of Annie Baker’s Pulitzer Prize winner The Flick. Recently he finished directing the short film Prepared (currently making the festival circuit), written by his way-out-of-his-league wife Keiko Green. mjsieber.com.
Sofia Jean Gomez
NY credits: “Angels in America:Parts I and II” Signature Theatre Company, “Call and Response” created and directed by Patricia McGregor at the Public Theatre, Page 73, New World Stages, Manhattan Theatre Club, New Georges, and Lake Lucille Chekhov. Regional: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Old Globe, Yale Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, CATF, SD Repertory, Goodman Theatre, Denver Center Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, McCarter Theatre Center, Arizona Theatre Company and many more. American Theatre Magazine – the “Actors Playwrights Love.” Yale School of Drama, MFA. ICOC Certified Intimacy Director/Educator, Director, and fierce dog mom.
Keiko Green
Keiko Green is a performer, playwright, and screenwriter, based in Los Angeles and Seattle. Previously at Cygnet: Tina in Sharon and Connie in The Great Leap, a role that she originated at the Denver Center and Seattle Rep. Favorite past shows: As You Like It (Seattle Rep), Stupid F-ing Bird (ACT), Much Ado About Nothing (Seattle Shakespeare), God of Carnage (Backyard Renaissance). As a playwright, Keiko had two world premieres earlier this year in San Diego: Sharon at Cygnet and Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play at the Old Globe. As a screenwriter, she wrote on Hulu’s upcoming “Interior Chinatown.”
MJ Sieber
MJ is so damn happy to be returning to Cygnet after appearing as Vanya in Aaron Posner’s Life Sucks last year also directed by Mr. Lutfy. He returned to CA after a 20 year stint in Seattle. Some previous credits include: Glengarry Glen Ross, Outside Mullingar, Dry Powder, the world premiere of Mr. Dickens and his Carol (Seattle Rep); Stupid F***ing Bird, Oslo, The Crucible, The Lieutenant of Inishmore (ACT), Barefoot in the Park, Sleuth, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Village Theatre). Other highlights include: Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Benedick (Much Ado), Autolycus (Winters Tale), Merrick (Elephant Man), Stanley Yelnats (Holes – World Premiere) and as the Associate AD with New Century Theatre Co. He directed the west coast premiere of Annie Baker’s Pulitzer Prize winner The Flick. Recently he finished directing the short film Prepared (currently making the festival circuit), written by his way-out-of-his-league wife Keiko Green. mjsieber.com.
Rachael VanWormerRachael VanWormer
Mary and othersRachael is the Associate Artistic Director of Write Out Loud. Other credits: Cygnet Theatre: Angels in America: Parts 1 & 2; When the Rain Stops Falling, The Vortex, Hay Fever, The Importance of Being Earnest, Travesties, Arcadia, The Matchmaker, The Little Foxes, Curse of the Starving Class; Curtis Theatre: The Revolutionists; Write Out Loud: The Yellow Wallpaper; PoeFest; Diversionary Theatre: Plot Points…Development; The Mystery of Love and Sex, Regrets Only, Birds of a Feather, Speech & Debate, Corpus Christi, Beautiful Thing; New Fortune: As You Like It; Henry V; La Jolla Playhouse: Froggy (workshop), #SuperShinySara; Lamb’s Players Theatre: Babette’s Feast, Ring Round the Moon, Silent Sky, Dinner With Marlene, An American Christmas; San Diego Rep: boom. North Coast Rep: Faded Glory, A Christmas Carol; PCPA TheaterFest: The Wizard of Oz, Lifeboat, The Reluctant Dragon; ion Theatre: Reason to be Pretty, In the Heat of the Night, bash: latterday plays, In a Dark Dark House.
Rachael VanWormer
Rachael is the Associate Artistic Director of Write Out Loud. Other credits: Cygnet Theatre: Angels in America: Parts 1 & 2; When the Rain Stops Falling, The Vortex, Hay Fever, The Importance of Being Earnest, Travesties, Arcadia, The Matchmaker, The Little Foxes, Curse of the Starving Class; Curtis Theatre: The Revolutionists; Write Out Loud: The Yellow Wallpaper; PoeFest; Diversionary Theatre: Plot Points…Development; The Mystery of Love and Sex, Regrets Only, Birds of a Feather, Speech & Debate, Corpus Christi, Beautiful Thing; New Fortune: As You Like It; Henry V; La Jolla Playhouse: Froggy (workshop), #SuperShinySara; Lamb’s Players Theatre: Babette’s Feast, Ring Round the Moon, Silent Sky, Dinner With Marlene, An American Christmas; San Diego Rep: boom. North Coast Rep: Faded Glory, A Christmas Carol; PCPA TheaterFest: The Wizard of Oz, Lifeboat, The Reluctant Dragon; ion Theatre: Reason to be Pretty, In the Heat of the Night, bash: latterday plays, In a Dark Dark House.
Creative Team
Kate Hamill
Rob Lutfy
Rob is the former Associate Artistic Director at Cygnet Theatre. Cygnet Theatre: Life Sucks, The Great Leap, The Last Five Years, The Virgin Trial, Pride and Prejudice, Marie and Rosetta, HIR, Every Brilliant Thing, The Wind and the Breeze, The Last Wife, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Shockheaded Peter, Bad Jews, Stupid F***ing Bird, When the Rain Stops Falling, Hay Fever, Sons of the Prophet, The Motherf**ker with the Hat. Elsewhere: Clown Play, NYC International Fringe Festival; The Gin Game, Anacostia Playhouse; The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Threshold Repertory; The Sunset Limited, 3M Productions; Time Stands Still, Collaborative Arts, Bodas de sangre, Grossmont College. He has worked on plays in development at The Kennedy Center, The O’Neill Theatre Center, Burning Coal Theatre, The Hub Theatre and The Rensing Center. He has assisted directors at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Folger Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center and Marin Theatre Company. He was the 2014-2015 National New Play Network Producer-in-Residence at Marin Theatre Company, and the 2012-2013 William R. Kenan, Jr. Directing Fellow at The John F. Kennedy Center. Rob is a graduate of the directing program under Gerald Freedman at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
October 2023