Meet The Cast of NOVEMBER

Our upcoming production of November opens on February 22. We've assembled a great cast for this show with a mix of Forst Inn favorites and new faces.

Leading off the cast as the embattled Commander In Chief, Charles Smith, is Jeremy Pelegrin. Jeremy has a challenging task ahead of him filling the shoes of Nathan Lane, who originated the role on Broadway back in 2008. Jeremy returns to the Forst Inn after appearing in 2018’s Hello Again and Putnam County Spelling Bee. In the Green Bay area, Jeremy has enjoyed performing with Daddy D Productions, Birder Players, St. Norbert Music Theatre, Theatre Z, and Evergreen Productions, where he was last seen in the title role of Lombardi. Jeremy earned his Theatre Arts degree from UW Stevens Point and went on to perform at dinner theaters and theme parks around the country. His Florida credits include Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Mark II Dinner Theatre and The Golden Apple. Some of Jeremy’s favorite roles have been in They’re Playing Our Song (Vernon), Into the Woods (Jack), You’re a Good Man...(Charlie Brown), The Baltimore Waltz (Carl), Annie (Rooster), and Monty Python’s Spamalot (Sir Galahad). 

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Filling the role of Charles' intrepid sidekick, Archer, is Forst Inn favorite Sean Stalvey. Sean was in our first production, “The Glass Menagerie”, and played the lead in “The 39 Steps”. Sean began his interest in theatre in high school and with the Peter Quince Performing Company, playing Flute and Piccolo in the pit orchestras. He started to pursue theatre on-stage at UW-Manitowoc, where he earned the 2018 UW-Manitowoc Fine Arts in Theatre Award. Having graduated with an Associate of Arts and Science Degree at UW-Manitowoc, Sean is currently a student at UW-Green Bay pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Theatre. In his free time, Sean enjoys astronomy and watching movies.

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Laurie Conrad is a new face at The Forst and is playing the determined speech writer, Bernstein. Laurie is a recent transplant from Madison, Wisconsin and now resides on the shores of Lake Michigan.  She is elated to be with The Forst Inn. Laurie is affiliated with The Collective Writers Group and The Wisconsin Screenwriters Forum.  Laurie is an avid writer, and heads the Cool City Writers Group at the Lester Public Library in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Laurie has performed with the Isadoora Theatre Company and Third Avenue Playhouse.

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Margi Diny plays "The Turkey Gal"...we'll let you imagine what that means. Margi is well-known to audiences in the Green Bay Area and beyond, having performed onstage for several years. She particularly enjoys acting and volunteering at the Forst, where she played Agnes in “I do, I do!”, Mickey in The Odd Couple female version, and other roles. You may have even seen her bussing tables or seating patrons. When not helping at the Forst, Margi is a commercial actor, appearing on billboards, print ads, and film. She also keeps busy playing the violin with the Civic Symphony of Green Bay and for weddings and other events.

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Rounding out the cast in the peculiar but exciting role of Dwight Grackle is Kana Coonce. Kana was recently seen on the Forst Inn Stage in a number of productions including Mistletoe Musings, Black Patent Leather Shoes and The 39 Steps. When it comes to biographical details, Kana leans toward whimsy and tends to leave all summary to outside and mystical forces. For this particular show and character, that would probably mean that you'll need to look to the Native American spirit world to learn anything useful about Kana's experiences or plans.

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The show itself was written by David Mamet in 2008 and was well received by the reviewers in New York. It depicts one day in the life of a beleaguered American commander-in-chief. It's November in a Presidential election year, and incumbent Charles Smith's chances for reelection are looking grim. Approval ratings are down, his money's running out, and nuclear war might be imminent. Though his staff has thrown in the towel and his wife has begun to prepare for her post-White House life, Chuck isn't ready to give up just yet. Amidst the biggest fight of his political career, the President has to find time to pardon a couple of turkeys — saving them from the slaughter before Thanksgiving — and this simple PR event inspires Smith to risk it all in an attempt to win back public support. With Mamet's characteristic no-holds-barred style, November is a scathingly hilarious take on the state of American politics (today, yesterday, forever) and the lengths to which people will go to win.

We have kept the time frame the same rather than attempting to update it. The setting is the final days of a fictional presidential candidate and this lovable commander in chief bears no resemblance to any of our recent occupants of the office. Rather, Charles Smith is created as a broad representative of politicians writ large...with an extreme nod to the way that the exigencies of politics can cause them all to lose sight of their more serious and idealistic values. Mamet takes a shot at just about everyone on both sides of the aisle and manages to offend just about everyone along the way. You should be able to see all your least favorite politicians in his desperate antics, but also some of the lovable traits of your favorite politicians as well.
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The show is definitely rated R, with Mamet's usual employment of adult jokes and liberal use of words that start with "f". 

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"This is satire with a scorpion's sting" - Variety
"A professional skeptic and an inspired word jockey, David Mamet can lay claim to the same connoisseurship of human folly as H. L. Mencken, who once observed that, in America, 'only the man who was born with a petrified diaphragm can fail to laugh himself to sleep every night.' Mamet's new Oval Office satire, November... is a hilarious demonstration of the fact that we live in an age of equality: all classes are criminal... Broadway comedy is generally a testament to Twain's maxim that honesty is 'the best of all the lost arts.' On the boulevard, laughter is meant to distract, not galvanize, to enchant, not disenchant. Into this weak hand, David Mamet has dealt an ace." - John Lahr, The New Yorker
"Ferociously original... and crisply performed, [November] rollicks from one politically incorrect punch line to the next." – San Francisco Chronicle
"Vaudeville meets current events... David Mamet just couldn't resist the bully pulpit of satire." – San Jose Mercury News
"Remarkable... one of the most profoundly laugh-out-loud plays that I have seen in many years." – BeyondChron.org
"The big, explosive laughter that starts early in David Mamet's November is of a kind I haven't heard in decades." – The Village Voice
"November gets my vote! Like an expert marksman in a shooting gallery, the playwright takes aim at just about every hot-button issue of the day, scoring a bull's eye every time." –Backstage East
"Sublime! One of the first breezy and intelligent comedies of substance we've seen in a long time" – The Villager
"Extremely funny" – The New York Times