Our Story
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THE PORCH ON WINDY HILL is a collaboration sprung from quarantine. In the
‘Covid-spring’ of 2021, Sherry came up with the idea for this 3-actor play, wound around an American family’s cultural and generational divisions, isolation, self- examination and the hope of re-union, with music as the catalyst. The collaborator/actor/musicians came to mind in mere minutes—Lisa, Morgan and David; within days, this team quite literally “zoomed” into action (in keeping with the methods of the last many months) and we began to write. The Ivoryton Playhouse provided all-important elements to the creative process: encouragement and a deadline. Artistic Director, Jacqui Hubbard, offered a full production—in six months’ time—a bold gamble on our small, yet-to-be-written, family drama with traditional American “Old Time” songs. The Virus’ summer ebb finally allowed the four of us to work together—actually, rather than “virtually”. We began to meet, discuss, shape, re-think, re-write and re-hearse pretty much simultaneously. THE PORCH ON WINDY HILL opened in Connecticut on September 23rd, 2021. |
The Team
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Lisa Helmi Johanson she/her (Co-Writer, Actor) is a multi-hyphenate who has a passion for developing new works, authentic storytelling, and intentionality in representation as a means to further the work of racial justice and social equity. Broadway: Potus, Or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive; Tours: Into the Woods, Avenue Q; Off Broadway: Avenue Q, Einstein’s Dreams (OG), Rescue Rue (OG), Three Sisters, Women Beware Women, Soft Butter (Ars Nova AntFest). Select Regional: The Chinese Lady (Milwaukee Rep; Best Actress in a Play, Broadwayworld), Anything Goes (Arena Stage), Vietgone (Denver Center), Amadeus (Syracuse Stage), The Drowning Girls (Drama League, NYC). TV/Film: Law and Order: SVU, A Holiday Spectacular (Hallmark); Her first co-written piece, Kim Loo Gets a Redo, was selected for the 2021 Ice Factory Festival at the New Ohio Theater who subsequently produced The Porch on Windy Hill as part of their Now In Process series. Lisa and her husband are close to launching a sitcom podcast called Preschool in which she co-directs, acts, and sound designs. Her greatest joy is her Junho and Jake. May I tirelessly strive to better the world, that it may be worthy of your light.
For the lives lost in Atlanta and the ones that continue with more fear than before. Lisa is repped by The Katz Company and HCKR. More at www.lisahelmijohanson.com and on IG: @hurricanehelmi |
Sherry Lutken (Co-Writer/Director) directed the premiere of The Porch onWindy Hill at The Ivoryton Playhouse. Off-Broadway and Regional directing
and choreography credits include:The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Million
Dollar Quartet, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Hank Williams: Lost Highway,
Stand By Your Man, Stars in Your Eyes, Almost Heaven, Hopscotch and
Anything Goes. In 2009 she directed the first Regional production of Ring
of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash at North Carolina’s Flat Rock
Playhouse. She has directed many subsequent productions around the US,
as well as internationally — at Vienna’s English Theatre and The
Deutsches Theater in Munich. As Associate Director of the critically acclaimed Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie, Sherry has set productions of the musical in Chicago (Joseph Jefferson Award nomination: Best Musical Revue), Washington D.C. (Helen Hayes Award nomination: Best Musical), Florida,Pennsylvania, and its first National UK Tour.
and choreography credits include:The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Million
Dollar Quartet, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Hank Williams: Lost Highway,
Stand By Your Man, Stars in Your Eyes, Almost Heaven, Hopscotch and
Anything Goes. In 2009 she directed the first Regional production of Ring
of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash at North Carolina’s Flat Rock
Playhouse. She has directed many subsequent productions around the US,
as well as internationally — at Vienna’s English Theatre and The
Deutsches Theater in Munich. As Associate Director of the critically acclaimed Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie, Sherry has set productions of the musical in Chicago (Joseph Jefferson Award nomination: Best Musical Revue), Washington D.C. (Helen Hayes Award nomination: Best Musical), Florida,Pennsylvania, and its first National UK Tour.
David M. Lutken (Co-writer/Performer/Music Director) is an award-winning actor. Credits include — Broadway: Inherit the Wind; Ring of Fire; The Civil War, and The WillRogers Follies. He sang the role of The Balladeer in Benjamin Britten’s opera Paul Bunyan at Lincoln Center. Off-Broadway: Woody Sez; Southern Comfort; Stars in
Your Eyes; Winter Man; The Portable Pioneer and Prairie Show. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Cooper Union, The 92nd St. Y, and The Ryman Auditorium, on NPR, VOA, the BBC, ORF (Austria), Polskie Radio Troika (Warsaw), and The Louisiana Hayride.
David is the creator of the critically acclaimed Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie, (Edinburgh Fringe Critic’s Pick, Brighton Festival Argus Angel Award, London
Evening Standard Best Musical nominee, Joseph Jefferson, Helen Hayes, NY Outer Critics’ Circle, Off-Broadway Alliance, and NY Drama League Best Musical nominations) He and his company have toured Great Britain, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and across the US.
Your Eyes; Winter Man; The Portable Pioneer and Prairie Show. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Cooper Union, The 92nd St. Y, and The Ryman Auditorium, on NPR, VOA, the BBC, ORF (Austria), Polskie Radio Troika (Warsaw), and The Louisiana Hayride.
David is the creator of the critically acclaimed Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie, (Edinburgh Fringe Critic’s Pick, Brighton Festival Argus Angel Award, London
Evening Standard Best Musical nominee, Joseph Jefferson, Helen Hayes, NY Outer Critics’ Circle, Off-Broadway Alliance, and NY Drama League Best Musical nominations) He and his company have toured Great Britain, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and across the US.
Morgan Morse (Co-writer/Performer) is an actor, musician, and writer originally from Ansonia, Connecticut. Selected credits include: Southern Comfort at the Public Theater in NYC, The Porch on Windy Hill, Once, Godspell, South Pacific and Stand By Your Man at the Ivoryton Playhouse, Once at the Cape Playhouse, Hootenanny the Musicale at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and Ring of Fire everywhere from Houston, TX to Vienna, Austria. During the eventful year that was 2020, he started making comedy and music videos online, and developed a following on Tiktok on Instagram. He also writes and performs original music, and you can find links to his various endeavors here: linktr.ee/themorsecoda
