Joe Schmoe Saves the World Audience Guide

INDEX 3 Time
and
1 Writer Place
and
Director 4 People
of Joe
Schmoe

6 Real
Life
Events

About the Writer

Brett Ryback is an actor, composer/

lyricist, and playwright based in LA. He is the
2016 recipient of the ASCAP Foundation’s Cole
Porter Award. His plays and musicals include:
Liberty Inn: The Musical (Ovation nominations
Best Book, Best Music/Lyrics); Darling (Weston
Playhouse New Musical Award, Featured on NBC’s
The Apprentice); The Tavern Keeper’s Daughter
(Best Musical, Pasadena Weekly); and Just a
Little Critter Musical (Commission and Premiere
by Milwaukee’s First Stage children’s theatre). His plays Weïrd
(Winner, Tennessee Williams One-Act Competition) and A Roz By Any
Other Name are both published in The Best American Short Plays
2007-2008.

His musical Quit India was a finalist for the Richard Rodgers
award, and his songs have been featured at Barrington Stages in
William Finn’s “Ridiculously Talented…” concert series. He scored
the short film 30 Nights (Official selection for Chicago Comedy
Film Festival and Broad Humor Festival) and he wrote, directed,
and scored the parody trailer of ARGO! The Musical, which reached
over 3,000 hits in two days and was featured on the coveted home-
page of FunnyorDie. His musical Joe Schmoe Saves the World was
selected for the ASCAP/Dreamworks Musical Theatre Workshop lead
by Stephen Schwartz, the NAMT Festival of New Musicals, and re-
ceived development at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He was
invited two years in a row to participate in the Johnny Mercer
Writers Colony at Goodspeed to develop his latest
project Passing Through.

He originated the role of Marcus Off-Broadway in Murder for Two
at Second Stage and New World Stages. Recent TV/Film appearances
include: Mom, Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, House, Hail,
Caesar!, and the Lifetime movie The Assistant. Regional the-
atre credits include: The History Boys (Ahmanson); The Lieutenant
of Inishmore (Mark Taper Forum); and the world premieres of The
Prince of Atlantis, Dr. Cerberus (South Coast Rep), and Upright
Grand (Theatreworks, Palo Alto).
He teaches musical theatre at the
University of Southern California.

1

2

About the Director

Christian Barillas is an actor and

director based in Los Angeles. Stage credits as an
actor include: Amadeus, Peter & The Starcatcher, A Christmas
Carol, and The Motherfu**er with the Hat (LADCC nomination)
at South Coast Repertory; Twelfth Night (dir. Darko
Tresnjak) and Pride & Prejudice at Oregon Shakespeare
Festival; Romeo & Juliet and Richard III at Utah Shakespeare
Festval; A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings at Center
Theatre Group; Cornerstone’s As You Like It (dir. Bill
Rauch) at Pasadena Playhouse; Romeo & Juliet at A Noise
Within; Macbeth at Antaeus; Sonia Flew at Laguna Playhouse, and others.

New works include the development of Octavio Solis’ Lydia at Perry Mansfield Fes-
tival with subsequent productions at Denver Center (World Premiere, Henry Award)
and Yale Repertory Theatre, a play the New York Times called “fresh, penetrating,
often blissful.” At SCR, he participated in development workshops for The Italian
Straw Hat and Nilo Cruz’s adaptation of Life Is A Dream (dir. Kate Whoriskey). He
also helped develop the play The Contest, followed up by a production at the Ed-
inburgh Fringe Festival.

On television, Christian is perhaps most recognizable as Ronaldo on Modern Fami-
ly, where he recurs opposite Nathan Lane. Other credits include The Bridge (re-
curring), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Without a Trace, and the pilots for ABC Fami-
ly’s Bunheads and CBS’ Jim Gaffigan Show, in which he was a series regular. Film
highlights include indie Best Night Ever and Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths.

Since 2012, Christian has been directing and developing Brett Ryback’s stage
musical Joe Schmoe Saves the World. He directed its first staged reading host-
ed by the Geffen Playhouse (2015), the presentation for 2016’s ASCAP/Dreamworks
Workshop at the Wallis Annenberg Center, and its development workshop at Oregon
Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Lab. Barillas received his M.F.A. from UCLA’s
School of Theater, Film, and Television and has a B.A. in Journalism and Me-
dia from UNC. He is part of the Adjunct Faculty of Theater at East LA College,
and taught acting as well as voice and speech to undergraduate theater majors at
UCLA. He was a teaching artist for Oregon Shakespeare Festival, A Noise Within,
Utah Shakespeare Festival, and Reprise Theatre Company’s outreach programs. www.
christianbarillas.com.

Ahmadinejad Mohamed Asmaa Mahfouz Joe Schmoe
posts a vlog Saves the
wins an Bouazizi, a calling on the Protests begin
Egyptian people World in Iran, known
Iranian Tunisian begins
to protest as the
election many street “Day of Rage”

consider to be vendor,

fraudulent. 20 June, self- 14 January, 11 February,
2009 immolates.
2011 2011

12 June, Neda 17 December, 14 February,
2009 Agha-Soltan 2010 Ben Ali 18 January, 2011
is killed steps down as 2011

while President of Hosni Mumbarak 13 February,
protesting. Tunisia. resigns as 2011

TIME President of

Egypt

PLACE The Middle Governmental changes
East saw many Civil War
uprisings Protests
throughout the
Arab Spring,
which include:

3

4

Asmaa Mahfouz is an

Egyptian youth leader and

revolutionary. On January

18, 2011, Mahfouz released

a vlog inviting the Egyptian

people to protest with her,

and shamed them for suffering
too long under an oppressive regime.

Her vlog went viral, and she is

MBoohuaazmiezdi credited with bringing many to the
Egyptian Protests in Tahrir Square,
was a young which marks the start of the
Egyptian Revolution.

Tunisan man.

As the breadwinner for a Mahfouz was
family of 6, Bouazizi one of the
dropped out of school to five
support his family full
time as a street vendor. recipients of
the Sakharov

On the morning of December 17, Prize for
2010, Bouazizi was accosted by Freedom of Thought
officials who demanded a bribe. When along with
Bouazizi could not pay, the officials Mohammed Bouazizi
confiscated his wares. Bouazizi
posthumously.

attempted to complain to the governor

and reclaim his wares. When the

governor’s office refused to see him,

Bouazizi doused himself in paint

thinner and set himself on fire.

Bouazizi survived his burns for 18 more days. His
self-immolation was seen by many as an act of dis-
sent against government corruption.

The protests in the
days following
became so intense
that Tunisian
President Ben Ali
visited Bouazizi
in the hospital.

The opposition continued, however, and Ben Ali
stepped down a month later. Bouazizi’s death,
whether an act of martyrdom or the suicide of a
broken man, unified many against the corruption and
oppression of Ben Ali’s government and many like it.

Neda Agha-Soltan 5

was an Iranian woman MAahhmmadoiudnejad
who’s murder has been
referred to as was the
“probably the most wit- President of Iran
nessed death in human from 2005 to 2013.
history” (Time, 2009). Ahmadinejad’s
tenure is widely
On June 20, 2009, controversial and
Agha-Soltan, a musician, his reelection in
was attending a protest 2009 was seen by
following the disputed many to
election of Mahmoud be fraudulent.
Ahmadinejad when she was
fatally shot. Ahmadinejad’s
regime was lam-
Although there is disagreement on the identity of basted for its
the shooter, many believe the killer to be a member conservaticism,
of the Basij (a paramilitary group associated with corruption, and
the Iranian government). assault on civil
liberties.
Videos of Agha-Soltan’s death quickly The outcomes of
went viral. Her murder became his Presidency
emblematic of the struggle are still
against oppression for the highly debated.
Iranian people.

6 REAL LIFE
EVENTS
The Arab Spring

was a period from 2010
to 2012, where the Arab
World saw a rash of
political uprisings. These
took the form of protests,
civil disobedience, and

war. The Middle East is
still feeling the

effects of these
years today.

The The Jasmine
Iranian Revolution can be
Election
of 2009 saw considered the

the reelection beginning of the Arab
of incumbent
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Spring. Following the
This win was con-
sidered by many to be death of Mohamed Bouazizi,
fradulent and led to a
wave of both peace- many Tunisians demonstrated
ful and violent
demonstrations. against government

corruption and oppression,

culminating in the

ousting of Tunisian

Tahrir Squ are President Ben Ali.

is a public square in
Cairo, Egypt. It has

served as the center for

many political demon-
strations throughout

recent history,

including the 2011
Egyptian Revolution.

The “Day of Rage”

was a succession of protests
in Iran beginning February 14, 2011.
Demonstrators cited the 2009 Iranian
election fraud, along with the
Ahmadinejad regime’s abuse of their
civil liberties as reasons for the
period of civil disobedience.

CAST

Aaron
Ricciardi Lyon

Mary Beth Gloria
Black

Meadow Afarin
Nguy

PRODUCTION Scott Joe
Van Wye
Richard Musical
Baskin Jr. Director

Reuben Projection
Lucas Designer

Jennie Projection
Fischer Assistant

MacKenzie Lighting
Van Tassel Designer

INDIANA

UNIVERSITY

SUMMER
THEATRE

CONTINUED

VOCALISTS Dominic Assistant to
Pagliaro the Director

Jimmy Danielle Dennis Assistant to
Hogan McKnight Rendleman Musical Director

Brian Michelle Trish Stage
Kress Zink Hausmann Manager

Elizabeth Assistant
Allen
Stage Manager