Director: Maureen Payne-Hahner
Maureen Payne-Hahner is very pleased to bring this unique production of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen to Northwestern University. Other direction credits include: Assistant director: Kids These Days (Summer Cabaret at Yale 2008), Sweet Phoebe (Munich), Copenhagen (Munich, Vienna, and Zagreb), Two Conversations, Dark Pony, Litko, and Epilogue by David Mamet (Munich), The Countess (Chicago premiere).
She attended The School at Steppenwolf Theatre and is a proud ensemble member of The Gift Theatre Company, both in Chicago. New York credits include Naked Angels and The Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Maureen holds a BA in psychology with distinction.
Mansel David (Niels Bohr)
Born and brought up in Carmarthen, South Wales, Mansel gained a double BA honours degree in drama and English at the University of Bristol, before training as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and has worked as a professional actor in theatre, television and radio for over 30 years. London West End Theatre work has included plays by Tom Stoppard, Michael Frayn, Angela Huth, Royce Ryton and Ray Cooney, with stars such as Roger Rees, Felicity Kendal, Paul Eddington, Leslie Phillips, June Whitfield, Dame Celia Johnson and Sir Ralph Richardson.
Television work has included several situation comedies, such as "Yes, Prime Minister" with Sir Nigel Hawthorne, and "The Magnificent Evans" with Ronnie Barker. For most of the 1990s, Mansel worked as a founder-member of Pyramid Theatre Company, specializing in issue-based theatre and touring throughout the British Isles and Ireland; and also performed David Rowe's "A House of Leaves", a one-man show, based on the life and work of Wales' greatest poet, Dafydd Ap Gwilym, which toured throughout Wales in 1995 and later to Scotland, Ireland, California and Texas. Crummles, Mansel's own adaptation of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby as a solo dramatic reading, premiered with an American Tour in fall 2000, and has since toured to the United States annually, with a presentation Off Broadway in New York in December 2004, as well as visits to Canada and several European countries.
More recent London appearances have included 'Lord Grizzle' in Henry Fielding's Tom Thumb The Great, 'Mathias' in Leopold Lewis' The Bells, 'Davies' in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, and two of William Shakespeare's greatest comic creations: 'Bottom' in A Midsummer Night's Dream and 'Malvolio' in Twelfth Night. Mansel is proud to have been associated with this production since its inception and played 'Niels Bohr' in Munich, Vienna and Zagreb in 2006. Also proud to be a member of British Actors Equity Association.
Matthew Grayson (Werner Heisenberg)
Matthew Grayson recently joined the Northwestern faculty as an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science. He has a joint interest in engineering, science, and theater. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton University and spent seven years abroad under a Humboldt Fellowship at the Technische Universität München in Germany, where his scientific publications have contributed to the field of semiconductor physics. He currently leads the Quantum Interactions and Control Group in the EECS department.
His previous theatrical efforts include general manager of Princeton Summer Theater '97, and has directed and music-directed several other plays (Wait Until Dark, Our Town) and musicals (Little Shop of Horrors, Camelot). A baritone, Matthew Grayson has sung and acted in New York City, Washington DC, and Princeton, and in Munich has performed in both the English and German languages. He is proud to bring this particular production of Copenhagen to Northwestern two years after its premiere in Germany.
Alison Sandford MacKenzie (Margrethe Bohr)
Alison Sandford MacKenzie graduated in drama and French from Bristol University, England, and later trained at the Bridge Theatre Training Company in London. She is a member of British Actors Equity.
A peripatetic life because of her husband’s career has meant the chance to appear on stages, film and TV screens in many countries of Europe and South America. Roles played have ranged from one of the four-girl ensemble in Elvis - the Musical with Shakin' Stevens, to 'Bernarda Alba' in Llorca's The House of Bernarda Alba.
Alison played psychiatrist 'Frank' in Steven Dietz's Private Eyes, alongside Matthew Grayson, for the International Outcast Theatre Group, Munich and co-founded there the award-winning Entity Theatre Workshop, as well as singing Gilbert & Sullivan roles with the Munich Savoyards and featuring in English broadcasts for Bavarian Radio.
Most recently, in the UK, Alison has played 'Mme Dubonnet' in the musical play The Boyfriend, ‘Mme Arcati’ in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, and featured in The Strength of the System, a video installation by Szuper Gallery, Munich, as well as playing a leading role in the Sevenstreams Community Play Something in Common, directed by Canadian Varrick Grimes for Claque Theatre in Kent, UK. She is currently working with Jon Oram of Claque Theatre on a Community Play for Tunbridge Wells in Kent, UK.
Alison has been a part of this exciting production of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen since its inception in Munich in 2006. She is both thrilled and honored to have been invited to be a part of it again here at Northwestern.
