Coach Coach
by Bailey Williams
UTAH PREMIERE
April 6–20, 2025
Directed by Alicia Washington
A group of coaches – with the same credentials, but different specialties – gather for a weekend retreat. Some of them will leave as Platinum Practitioner Life Coaches with Dr. Meredith Martin’s Action Coach Academy for Thinking Coaches. Some of them will not.
This show contains adult language and themes, and the constant threat of physical and psychic violence. Discretion is advised.
STARRING
Laura Elise Chapman as Velma
McKalle Dahl as Margo
Nicole Finney as Patti
Kelsie Jepsen as Ann
Carol Madsen as Cornelia
Tracie Merrill-Wilson* as Dr. Meredith Martin
*member of the Actor’s Equity Association
PERFORMANCE DATES
Sunday, April 6 at 7:30pm
Friday, April 11 at 7:30pm
Saturday, April 12 at 4:00pm
Sunday, April 13 at 4:00pm
Friday, April 18 at 7:30pm
Saturday, April 19 at 7:30pm
Sunday, April 20 at 4:00pm
TICKET PRICES
$25 on or before April 6
$30 after April 6
$15 student tickets
(with valid ID at the door)
PRESS
Coach Coach Utah Premiere to be Presented at Good Company Theatre, Chloe Rabinowitz,
Broadway World Salt Lake City
Good Company Theatre – Coach Coach, Contact with Mary Dickson, PBS Utah (4/1/25 airdate)
Learn from the Best at Good Company’s “Coach Coach,’Susannah Whitman, Front Row Reviewers
Find Some Joy at Good Company’s Coach Coach, Maren Scriven, Utah Theatre Bloggers Association
“Coach Coach”: Self-Reflexivity, Late Capitalism, and the Theatre of Becoming, Keolanani Kinghorn, Rhetorical Review
CAST BIOS
Laura Elise Chapman (Velma). Laura’s a multidisciplinary artist based in SLC, fave roles include Maeve in Dance Nation (Voodoo Theatre Company) Hedwig/Yitzhak in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Rose in The Flick, and Sam in Safe (An Other Theater Company). Laura premiered 3 original works at The Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival: Thimble, The Funeral Potatehoes, and @ll times, all things, all places: a retelling of A Doll’s House set in modern day Utah. Follow @laurachipchap 4more!
McKalle Dahl (Margo) is excited to be back on stage at Good Company Theatre. Other Good Company credits include, The Christians and Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. McKalle has a degree in musical theatre from Weber State University and contributes to many other facets of theatre. Thank you to my family and friends for their continued support and to Good Company Theatre for giving me this opportunity.
Nicole Finney (Patti). Nicole is delighted to be back with Good Company! She graduated from Weber State University with a BA in theatre arts. Previous acting works include The Lion In Winter (Alais) with New World Shakespeare Company, Mother, Mother: The Many Mothers of Maude (Maude Adams) and Flying (Susan McCallan) at Pygmalion, The Christians (Wife Elizabeth), Appropriate (River), and Breaking the Shakespeare Code (Anna) at Good Company.
Kelsie Jepsen (Ann). Kelsie is excited to make her debut at GCT! Past Utah credits include: Saturday’s Voyeur Roadshow ’24 and ’21, SLACabaret ’22 (Debbie) and ’21 (Caren/Pioneer Lady), Saturday’s Voyeur ‘12 (Mormella), ‘11 (Carl Dwimmer), ‘09 (Lollypopper/Freebie Sister). Reefer Madness (Egyptian), School House Rock (The Grand), I Oughta Be in Pictures (Libby Tucker). Arty Awards for Saturday’s Voyeur – Carl Dwimmer and Lollypopper. Best Actress Award – Deseret News for I Oughta Be in Pictures. 2022 recipient Individual Artist Fellowship from Utah Arts and Museums.
Carol Madsen (Cornelia). Carol is a native of California, loves the sun, the Beech, and Theatre. She realized early in her youth that she was destined for the stage when, from on top of the kitchen table, she saying saying, “Mary had a Little Lamb,” and was roundly applauded by her supportive family.
Family still supports her, and she has found great personal growth and satisfaction in telling stories, particularly stories of men and women who are living, or have lived, different experiences than hers. This is how we grow.
Thank you, Good Company, for this gift of a role and this cast.
Tracie Merrill-Wilson* (Dr. Meredith Martin). Tracie is thrilled to be working with such an amazing company. A Jersey girl who calls Utah home, locally (& alphabetically) she has performed with the Grand, Pioneer Theatre Company, Plan B, Pygmalion, SLAC, SL Fringe Festival, and the U. An AEA member, she received her MFA from UT-Knoxville and a classical degree from Weber Douglas Academy in London. Thanks to Scott for being on Charlie-duty, dad for running lines, and to GCT!
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association
CREATIVE BIOS
Bailey Williams (Playwright) is a writer, performer, and producer based in Brooklyn.
She was a 2022 MacDowell Fellow for Fiction and a member of the 2021-2022 Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers Group and Ars Nova’s 2022-2023 Play Group. She is a New Georges affiliated artist and was a recipient of the 2022 Audrey Residency with Emma Horwitz. Her play, In the Basement, has been developed by Great Plains Theatre Conference (2023) and Portland Center Stage’s JAW Festival (2023). It received a UK production with Brooklyn Rep (dir. Charles Quittner, May 2023).
Past productions: Coach Coach, dir. Sarah Blush, Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks 2024. Two Sisters Find a Box of Lesbian Erotica in the Woods, written with Emma Horwitz, dir. Tara Elliott, The Exponential Festival in collaboration with New Georges, January 2024. Coach Coach, dir. Dara Malina, Clubbed Thumb’s Winterworks 2023. Events, dir. Sarah Blush, The Hearth at The Brick, December 2022; I thought I would die but I didn’t, dir. Sarah Blush, The Tank, May 2019; Buffalo Bailey’s Ranch for Gay Horses, Troubled Teen Girls and Other: a 90 Minute Timeshare Presentation, The Exponential Festival, January 2018.
MFA: Brooklyn College, Playwriting.
Alicia Washington (Director, Producer, Production Designer) is the founder of Good Company Theatre. She holds her BS in Musical Theatre from Weber State University and her MA in Creative Leadership from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is an Assistant (soccer) Coach in her non-theatre life.
Emma Olivia Thompson (Stage Manager) is honored to make her return to the (back) stage with Good Company Theatre. Emma previously worked with PussyCat Productions (Love Ann, Natural Shocks), SonderImmersive (Thank You Theobromine), La Musicia Lirica (Cosí Fan Tutti), Pinnacle Acting Company (The Importance of Being Earnest ), The Grand Theatre (West Side Story, Rocky Horror Picture Show, A View from the Bridge, and A Streetcar Named Desire) and Westminster College (The Vagina Monologues ’17-’20, Love and Information, The Christians, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona). Emma wants to thank her friends and family for keeping her spirits up while she recovered from her injury. Without them, Emma would not have made it back to the stage, a place she calls home.
Alina Cannon (Scenic Designer). Alina is excited to once again be designing for Good Company Theatre. She recently returned to Utah after completing her Master of Fine Arts in Scenic Design from West Virginia University, and holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Weber State University. Currently working with Pioneer Theatre Company as a Carpenter, she has previously worked as the Paint Charge for West Virginia Public Theatre, and Hope Repertory Theatre. Alina has received recognition in the past from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, as a national finalist in scenic design, and received The National Partners of the American Theatre Design Award (2020).
Previous works include Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (West Virginia Public Theatre), Fremont Jr. High is NOT Doing Oklahoma (Good Co.), The Misanthrope (WVU), Bright Star (WVU), and The House of Edgar Allan Poe (WSU).
Kristi Curtis (Fight Choreographer) is thankful to be able to support Good Company Theatre in this production! Kristi brings 10+ years of Directing, Choreography, and Fight directing experience having previously directed and choreographed shows throughout Northern Utah including most recently The Play That Goes Wrong at West Valley performing arts, Camelot (director/choreographer/fight director)for CPT and 1776 (choreographer) for which she won a Broadway World award for Best Choreographer. Kristi’s favorite acting credits include: HCT Sandy – Ancestor/Morticia Understudy (Addams Family), Miss Scarlet (Clue), Ida (See How They Run), Anne Bonny (Treasure Island), Mollie Ralston (The Mousetrap), Miss Adelaide (Guys & Dolls), and Charlotte (Cinderella); West Valley Arts – The Odd Couple: Female Version; Centerpoint Theatre – Elizabeth Proctor (The Crucible), Chava (Fiddler on the Roof); Good Company Theatre – Madame Du Polignac (Marie Antoinette). Other credits include: Choreographer (CPT) – You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, 1776, Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Children of Eden. She has a BS in Theatre Education from Weber State University. All my love to Josh, Carter, and Tristan.
Kyle Lawrence (Sound Designer). Kyle is a theater artist and educator from northern Utah, now based in Massachusetts. He is the composer and lyricist of multiple children’s musicals, and is currently the Education Director for the Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton, MA, leading their youth theater programs. Past work for Good Company Theatre includes composing music and/or sound effects for Man and Moon, Two Character Play, Ripped, The Jungle, and The Children.
Citlali Urquiza (Costume and Makeup Designer) is delighted to be costume designing again at Good Company Theatre. Her past credits with GCT include God Kinda Looks Like Tupac and Fremont Junior High Is Not Doing Oklahoma! She is a Weber State University graduate, having received her BA in Technical Theatre with an emphasis in Costume Design. She has previously designed Silent Sky, Red Days, and various other productions.
Austin Stephenson (Lighting Designer). Austin has been performing in every aspect of the live theatre experience over the last 13 years across the Wasatch Front. Light Design being his favorite role – he’s belated to return behind the stage after a brief hiatus. Good Company is always the Best Company, and he’d do something for every single show if it was logically feasible.
Sit back, laugh, and enjoy the Good Company of Coach Coach. Thanks for supporting local, independent theater in Ogden – the coolest place in Utah.
Camille Washington (Producer, Carpenter, Set Dresser) is the co-director of Good Company Theatre. She serves in numerous roles at GCT, including marketing manager, and grants manager. For this production, she cut and installed approximately one thousand linear feet of moulding, sourced and hanged the artworks, and took/edited all promotional photos, among other things. Camille holds her BA in Art History from the University of Utah, and her MA in Exhibition and Museum Studies from the San Francisco Art Institute.