NEXT AT CARNEGIE STAGE
Follow the trail… if you dare. BREADCRUMBS, the haunting, lyrical play by Jennifer Haley, comes to Carnegie Stage for a limited engagement.
A poetic story about the relationship between two complicated women. Alida is a reclusive fiction writer who has been diagnosed with dementia. She begrudgingly must depend upon Beth, a troubled young caregiver who offers to help Alida complete her autobiography. Together they delve into the dark woods of Alida's past, unearthing a tragedy that shatters their notions of language, loneliness, and essential self.
Directed by Ingrid Sonnichsen, and reuniting Carnegie Stage favorites Erika Cuenca and Virginia Wall Gruenert.
CREDITS
Playwright - Jennifer Haley
Director - Ingrid Sonnichsen
Stage Manager - Caroline Hall
Set Design - Stephanie Mayer Staley
Lighting Design - Juliette Louste
Orginal Music and Sound Design - Iris Thorarins
Video and Projection Design - Owen Hindley
Alida - Virginia Wall Gruenert*
Beth - Erika Cuenca*
Produced by:
Wall Stageworks, Pittsburgh
Hans H. Gruenert
ViVa Holding ehf - Iceland
Juliette Louste
The Team
Virginia Wall Gruenert - Alida
Virginia is co-founder and Executive Artistic Director of off the WALL and Viva Holding, Iceland. A native of New York City, Virginia grew up in New Jersey and is a graduate of Syracuse University’s Drama Department. She has studied acting, voice, and movement in both New York and London (National Theater, Bristol Old Vic), and in Los Angeles with the legendary Stella Adler.
Her play Shaken & Stirred was the first play ever produced by off the WALL (2007). A relative newcomer to southwestern PA at the time, Ginny initially played all four roles. She subsequently rewrote Shaken & Stirred for four actors, and the play had a successful run at Theater 54 in New York City in October of 2011. Her full-length play Without Ruth had its world premiere with off the WALL in May 2013. This play was adapted to the one-woman solo piece, Mother Lode, that ran in repertory at off the WALL in 2016, had its New York City premiere in February of 2018 at Urban Stages, and its international premiere at Tjarnarbio Theatre, Reykjavik, in 2023.
Acting credits - NYC: Tin Church (The Chain Theater), What Kind of Woman (Nancy Manocherian’s the cell), Shaken & Stirred (Theater 54), ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Perry St. Theatre), Camelot Revisited (Theater for the New City). Syracuse Stage: Ah, Wilderness!, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Kennedy’s Children, among others. off the WALL: Shaken & Stirred (Various), Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Martha), Season’s Greetings…! (Jocelyn), Agnes of God (Martha Livingstone), ‘night, Mother (Thelma), The House of Yes (Mrs. Pascal), The Other Place (Julianna), Well (Ann), Ghosts (Mrs. Alving), Byhalia, MS (Celeste), What Kind of Woman (Nora). Virginia is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., The League of Professional Theatre Women, International Center for Women Playwrights, and Actors’ Equity Association.
Erika Cuenca - Beth
Erika Cuenca is the Associate Artistic Director for off the WALL and the General Manager for Carnegie Stage. Some of Erika's favorite local performance credits include: Gloria (Hatch Arts Collective); Travesties (PICT); The Diary of Anne Frank, L'Hotel (Pittsburgh Public Theater); Tigers Be Still, Opus (City Theatre); August: Osage County, A View From the Bridge, (Playhouse REP); Closer, The Red Shoes (Quantum); Lebensraum, Mazel (JTOP); Hoard, The Carols (Co- Director/Producer), World Builders, Byhalia, Mississippi, 4.48 Psychosis, Scared of Sarah, Or,, A Feminine Ending, Gruesome Playground Injuries, The Other Place, How I Learned to Drive, Agnes of God, Stop Kiss, Shaken and Stirred (off the WALL Productions). Erika is a graduate of Point Park's Conservatory of Performing Arts and a member of Actors' Equity Association.