Murder on the Orient Express

David is pleased to begin the 2023-2024 season in, well, the same way he began the 2022-2023 season, playing Colonel Arbuthnot in Murder on the Orient Express! Here’s to reaching our final destination this time around! Audiences may recognize David from his recent turns as Scrooge in CBT’s A Christmas Carol, and as Ed in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. David first became a CBT Company member in the Fall of 2000, performing in The Woman in Black, and has appeared now in over 60 CBT productions including Hamlet; King Charles III;  The Santaland Diaries; The 39 Steps; The Trip to Bountiful; Noises Off; Kiss Me, Kate; Fuddy Meers; It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play; Moonlight and Magnolias; The Merry Wives of Windsor; Amadeus; Copenhagen; Major Barbara; A Flea in Her Ear; Stones in His Pockets; ‘ART’; The Rainmaker; and The Glass Menagerie among others. Regional: Playmaker’s Repertory; The Mark Taper Forum; Hollywood Actors’ Theatre; The iO Theatre Chicago; and Chicago TheatreWorks. Film: David recently finished filming a Feature-Length film, Angel of Light, which was shot and produced here in Knoxville, soon to be making the festival rounds.  He has also appeared in Light from Light; Something, Anything; Prison Break-In; The Heart is Deceitful; Gina: An Actress, Age 29; Borrowers and Lenders; Killing Steve; and The Sleep Seeker.  TV: Women of the Movement (ABC); Snapped; Fatal Attraction; Storm of Suspicion; Vengeance; Unsolved Mysteries; and It’s A Miracle.  David is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA. He is married to his beautiful wife, Jill; is father to his favorite “productions” of all-time, Devin and Caroline; and is step-father to fabulous Abby and Ethan Flowers! davidbrianalley.com

Rachael is thrilled to be back on the Clarence Brown Theatre stage. Her previous roles include Tilly in She Kills Monsters, Catherine Donohue in These Shining Lives, and Edith in Blithe Spirit.  Rachael sends her gratitude to all the faculty at UT. And her love to her friends and family, who have shown their continued support throughout the years.  

Guthrie is a recent graduate from UT, and he is very excited to be a part of the remount of this show. He hopes you enjoy!

Ten years ago this August, Katie made her CBT debut as Brooke/Vicki in Noises Off. She is honored to be a member of this distinguished resident company of actors, designers, artisans, and technicians. Katie began teaching at UTK in 2018, joined the full-time faculty in 2020, and is now Assistant Professor of Theatre and Head of Acting. Select CBT acting roles include: Spamalot (Lady of the Lake); The 39 Steps (Annabella / Pamela / Margaret); Outside Mullingar (Rosemary); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Judy); and Blithe Spirit (Elvira) among many. Other stage credits include multiple seasons at the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespeare Festival (Lady Macbeth, Emilia, and Maria among others) and Asolo Rep; the Resident Acting Company (NYC); TACT / The Actors’ Company Theatre (NYC); NY International Fringe Festival; and a long list of regional theaters across the country. Katie holds an M.F.A. in acting from Florida State University / Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a graduate certificate in vocology from the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at Lamar University. Katie is a proud union member: Actors’ Equity Association since 2010, SAG-AFTRA, and UCW-CWA.

Rachel grew up on the western slope of Colorado - a place that more resembles Mars than anything John Denver sang about. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Musical Theatre from Colorado Mesa University before beginning a decade long journey away from and back to acting (there was a yurt, questionable hair choices, and a lot of pie). She earned her MFA in acting from UTK in May of this year. You may have seen her as Judy in Trouble in Mind, Agnes in She Kills Monsters, or Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol.  You can find out more at racheldarden.com. Hi Boomer!

Jed has taught acting and the Alexander Technique at UTK since 2005. Jed has appeared in many roles at the CBT, most recently in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He has also acted at Wheelhouse Theatre Co; The New York Shakespeare Festival; Roundabout Theatre; The Acting Company; Signature Theatre; Arena Stage; Syracuse Stage; etc. Prior to UT, he was founding faculty of the New York Shakespeare Festival Shakespeare Lab and of the Actors Center. He taught at NYU Tisch School of the Arts; Stella Adler Studio; Playwright’s Horizons Theatre School; Fordham University, etc. He is an AmSAT* certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, trained in New York and London. He taught as a guest artist at Chautauqua Theatre Company, Yale School of Drama, Playmaker’s Repertory Theatre, Great River Shakespeare Festival, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  He has an MFA from the NYU Graduate Acting Program.  *American Society of the Alexander Technique

Armando was a member of the repertory acting company at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for over twenty years, where his roles included Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, Don Quixote in Don Quixote, Julius Caesar in Julius Caesar, Garcia Lorca in Lorca in a Green Dress, and Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge. He has originated characters in over a dozen world premieres including new works by Pulitzer Prize winners Nilo Cruz, Robert Schenkkan, and Frank Galati. He has appeared in productions at Seattle Repertory Theater, Yale Repertory Theater, the Guthrie Theater, the Folger Theater, the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, The Old Globe, and South Coast Repertory. His numerous audiobook titles include Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving, and Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Tyler is a junior undergrad student at UT and is very excited to return in this year’s production of Murder on the Orient Express. Tyler’s previous Clarence Brown credits include the previous year’s Murder on the Orient Express, A Christmas Carol, and Hair. He recently played Sir Toby in a production of Twelfth Night with All Campus Theatre and Grumio in Tennessee Stage Company’s Taming of the Shrew. He is currently majoring in Cinema Studies and English, while also minoring in Theatre.  

Broadway: The Three Sisters, Philadelphia Here I Come, Oedipus Rex (with John Cullum); There’s One In Every Marriage, First Monday In October (with Henry Fonda); and The Suicide (with Derek Jacobi). Off-Broadway: Zinnia (Drama Desk nomination); Moliere In Spite Of Himself, The Lady’s Not For Burning, Little Eyolf, and The Old Ones. Regional Theatre: MacBeth, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Cymbaline, Love’s Labour’s Lost, As You Like It, The Sea Gull, A Doll’s House, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Pygmalion, Les Liaisons Dangereuse, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf (directed by Edward Albee); Death of A Salesman, Amy’s View, The Retreat from Moscow, Otherwise Engaged (with Dick Cavett); Present Laughter (with Louis Jourdan); Collected Stories, Enchanted April, among many others. Television: Fame (NBC); Another World (NBC); The Garden (CBC); MacBeth (PBS); Happy Endings (NBC); Matlock, Max Headroom, and Nightingales, among others. At CBT: The Glass Menagerie, The Road To Mecca, Trojan Women, The Dresser (with John Cullum), Arsenic and Old Lace, Major Barbara, All My Sons, The Music Man, Moonlight and Magnolias, Fuddy Meers, 4000 Miles, The Trip To Bountiful, Outside Mullingar, The Crucible, The Madwoman of Chaillot, Blithe Spirit and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, among many others.

J.D. is thrilled to be returning to the CBT mainstage for Murder on the Orient Express! He is in his fourth year here at the University of Tennessee and is double majoring in theatre and history. J.D. made his CBT debut in Hair as Steve, and most recently played Ren McCormack in the WordPlayer's production of Footloose. He would like to thank God and the director John Sipes for blessing him with this opportunity and his parents for their constant support.  

Born and raised in Queens, NY, Michael earned his MFA in Theatre at UT this past spring. His most recent roles at the Clarence Brown Theatre include Bob Cratchit and Old Joe in A Christmas Carol, Eddie Fenton in Trouble in Mind, and Margaret Mead in Hair. At Flying Anvil Theatre (RIP), Greg in A Kid Like Jake. Additionally, Michael has served as voice coach for She Kills Monsters and ACT's production of Twelfth Night. Michael is in the process of joining Actors' Equity Association, and he thanks you for your support of the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike.

This is John’s second show at the Clarence Brown Theatre. He was most recently at American Players Theater (Godot, Endgame, Exit the King and Player in R&G Are Dead) and spent over 20 years at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival playing roles like Don Armado, Berowne, Leontes, Caliban, and Falstaff. He appeared at the Utah Shakespearean Festival as Shylock, Prospero and Marc in Art. Other theaters include Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Intiman Theater, Geva Theater, Sacramento Theater Company, Tacoma Actor’s Guild, and Seattle Children’s Theater. John has a MFA from Wayne State University and a BFA from Montana State University.

Christine is honored to be back in the theatre with you all. At the CBT: Sheila in Hair, She Kills Monsters, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Ruth in Blithe Spirit, and Ghost of Christmas Past, Belle, and Mrs. Cratchit in the last three A Christmas Carol. She comes from Los Angeles, where she won an Ovation Award for her performance in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Now finished with her MFA she is on to New York! Find her @sage_ism She would like to thank her mother for being her strongest support.