®
from the desk of
loretta greco
WELCOME TO MAGIC AND OUR 50 TH YEAR! Founded in 1967, Magic has managed to keep its scrappy edge while continuing to lead American theater in developing and producing groundbreaking plays and playwrights. After a pair of wonderful legacy revivals, we return now to the thing we do—pushing the boundaries of the new—with the glorious Grandeur, a world premiere from Han Ong, followed by our upcoming season of four groundbreaking premieres. Grandeur imagines a meeting between an ambitious young journalist and the shapeshifting music legend, Gil Scott-Heron. This play is inspired by the largess of a culturebending artist: Scott-Heron is widely considered to be the “Godfather of Modern Hip-Hop.” There is nothing more moving to me than second chances. With Grandeur, playwright Han Ong makes a reprise of his own here at Magic, where he made his professional debut in 1992 with Reasons to Live. Like the inspiration that Richard Diebenkorn drew from the master Henri Matisse, Han has doggedly trailed and lovingly reassembled another artist of color’s rise and fall, evoking perspective on some of life’s larger questions. It is a moving and provocative pairing. Gil Scott-Heron’s second act gives us the opportunity to reconsider the many pieces of a man. Enjoy! As we draw Magic’s 2016–17 season to a close, I am thrilled to announce our 2017-18 season. We begin with Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music. Ever since we produced The Lily’s Revenge in 2010 and premiered Hir in 2014, it has been my dream to bring this show to San Francisco. Two years ago, I sat with Carole Shorenstein Hays, as she dreamt of re-opening her splendid Curran Theatre, to see if there might be a way for us to do it together. Producing Taylor takes a village, and it is our great honor to stand by the Curran and Stanford Live along with the storied New York producer of the event, Pomegranate Arts, to bring Taylor and his Pulitzer Prize-finalist production to San Francisco. Magic subscribers will receive a ticket to one of the six-hour chapters to be performed at the newly renovated Curran. Next up we introduce Magic audiences to Barbara Hammond with The Eva Trilogy, a three-play exploration of what it means to grow up female, Catholic, and ‘chaste’ in late 20th century Ireland. For our third show, we are delighted to welcome back John Kolvenbach (Goldfish, Mrs. Whitney and Sister Play) with his aural love story that explores the moments that bind a couple and shape a meaningful lifetime together. And finally, Jessica Hagedorn (Dogeaters) returns with The Gangster of Love, an adaptation of her novel. Set in San Francisco during the turbulent 1970s, Gangster follows the coming of age of an artist, where the lure of music and popular culture collide with the pull of family. Now is the time to re-subscribe. If you like what you experience here today, or if you are excited about our next season, please talk to Kelli, our Patron Services Manager, about the various affordable and flexible ways of joining our Magic family as a subscriber. You don’t want to miss out! On behalf of the entire Magic staff and board and this year's dynamic crop of playwrights, I want to thank you and hope you will join us for our 51st season of bold new work. See you at the theatre!
Magic Theatre presents
GRANDEUR by Han Ong
directed by Loretta Greco+ Opening Night June 7, 2017
CAST Gil Scott-Heron Carl Lumbly*
Season Producers John F. Marx & Nikki Beach Toni Rembe & Arthur Rock Buffy & George Miller Producer Brad Rubenstein Producer—Magic/Laney College Collaboration Toni K. Weingarten
Steve Barron Rafael Jordan* Miss Julie Safiya Fredericks*
CREATIVE TEAM Set & Projection Design Hana S. Kim** Costume Design Alex Jaeger** Lighting Design Ray Oppenheimer Sound Design Sara Huddleston Stage Manager Kevin Johnson* Dramaturg Sonia Fernandez Director of Production Sara Huddleston Props Design Jacquelyn Scott Local Casting Sonia Fernandez Scenery engineered and built by Rooster Productions, LLC
This is a work of fiction. Characters and situations are either the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. All poetry and lyrics attributed to Gil Scott-Heron were written by the author, in the style of Mr. Scott-Heron. Recent improvements to Magic's lighting equipment, used in this production, were supported by San Francisco's Voluntary Arts Contribution Fund. The VACF allows San Francisco property tax payers to add a contribution to their annual tax bill, or anyone at all to make a donation online, in benefit of the arts. Visit http:// www.sfgfta.org/ for more information.
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers. ** M ember of United Scenic Artists local 829, which represents the designers and scenic painters for the American theatre. + Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC). The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited. This theatre operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
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biographies HAN ONG
PLAYWRIGHT
is a novelist and playwright. His work was last seen at Magic in 1992, with the world premiere of Reasons to Live. Reason to Live. Half. No Reason. His novels are Fixer Chao (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2001), which was named a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year and cited as a new immigrant classic by the New York Times, and The Disinherited (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2004), nominated for a Lambda Book Award. Among Ongʼs more than three dozen plays are The L.A. Plays (1990), The Chang Fragments (1996), Middle Finger (1997), and The Suitcase Trilogy (1992–97). They have been widely produced in the US in such venues as the Public Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, the Mark Taper Forum, and the American Repertory Theater, as well as abroad, at Londonʼs Almeida Theater. Ong is one of the youngest recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, awarded to him in 1997, when he was 29. He has also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Born in the Philippines to Chinese parents, he immigrated to the US with his family as a teenager. He lives in New York City. He has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University and Long Island University and has taught playwriting for several years at New Yorkʼs 92nd Street Y.
LORETTA GRECO +
DIRECTOR/ ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
is currently in her ninth season as Magic Theatre’s Artistic Director, where she has proudly developed and premiered Taylor Mac’s Hir; Luis Alfaro’s Oedipus El Rey, Bruja, and This Golden State: Part 1: Delano; Polly Pen and Victor Lodato’s Arlington; Linda McLean’s Every Five Minutes; Sharr White’s Annapurna; Lloyd Suh’s American Hwangap and Jesus In India; Anna Zeigler’s Another Way Home; and Octavio Solis’s Se Llama Cristina; and shepherded the American premieres of Penelope Skinner’s Fred’s Diner, Linda McLean’s Any 4
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Given Day, and Mark O’Rowe’s Terminus, among many others. Ms. Greco’s directing credits at Magic include Theresa Rebeck’s Mauritius, Luis Alfaro’s Oedipus el Rey, Liz Duffy Adams’ Or,, Sharr White’s The Other Place, Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters, and this season’s critically acclaimed revival of Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love. Ms. Greco’s New York directing premieres include: Tracey Scott Wilson’s The Story (Kesselring), Ruben Santiago Hudson’s Lackawanna Blues (Obie), and Nilo Cruz’s Two Sisters and a Piano (Kesselring) at NYSF/Public Theater; Katherine Walat’s Victoria Martin Math Team Queen, Karen Hartman’s Gum, Toni Press Coffman’s Touch, and Rinne Groff’s Inky at Women’s Project; Emily Mann’s Meshugah at Naked Angels; Laura Cahill’s Mercy at The Vineyard Theatre; and Nilo Cruz’s A Park in Our House at New York Theatre Workshop. Regional directing credits include Life is a Dream at California Shakespeare Theater; Speedthe-Plow, Blackbird, Lackawanna Blues, and The Realistic Joneses at American Conservatory Theater; Romeo and Juliet and Stop Kiss at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; and productions at La Jolla Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, McCarter Theatre Center, Long Wharf Theatre, Studio Theater, Intiman Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Area Stage, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and Playmakers Repertory Company. She directed the national tour of Emily Mann’s Having Our Say as well as the international premiere at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa. Greco has developed work with dozens of writers at Sundance, The O’Neill, South Coast Repertory, The Mark Taper Forum, New Harmony, New York Stage and Film, The Cherry Lane, New Dramatists, and The Public. Prior to her Magic post, she served as Producing Artistic Director of New York’s Women’s Project, where she produced the work of Lisa D’Amour, Katie Pearl, Dierdre Murray, Diane Paulus, Karen Hartman, Lynn Nottage, Tanya Barfield, and Rinne Groff. As the Associate Director/ Resident Producer at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, Ms. Greco conceived and launched their Second Stage-OnStage Festival of New Work, where she commissioned and produced the work of Doug Wright, Jane Anderson, Nilo Cruz,
Adrienne Kennedy, and Joyce Carol Oates, among others. Ms. Greco received her MFA from Catholic University, and her BA from Loyola University, New Orleans. She is recipient of two Drama League Fellowships and a Princess Grace Award.
SAFIYA FREDERICKS *
MISS JULIE
was seen last fall in Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem at A.C.T. and received a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Nomination for her role in Aubergine at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Other local credits include Much Ado About Nothing at California Shakespeare Theater, Once on This Island at Theatreworks, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and the Witch in Into the Woods at SF Playhouse (BATCC nominee), Blackademics at Crowded Fire, It’s a Bird..Plane..Its Superman! at 42nd St. Moon, Merry Wives of Windsor at African-American Shakespeare Company, and the title role in Antigone at San Jose Repertory Theatre. Past favorites include The Civilians production of In the Footprint at ArtsEmerson Boston and By Hands Unknown at the New York Fringe Festival. Film work includes the female lead in Black Gold: America is Still the Place alongside Mike Colter, and the short film With Children, currently making festival rounds. She studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and the University of California Irvine. She is honored to be making her Magic Theatre debut.
RAFAEL JORDAN *
STEVE BARRON
was previously seen at Magic in runboyrun and Dogeaters, and is thrilled to return with Grandeur. New York Credits: Caesar and Cleopatra (Resonance Theatre, Off-Broadway), Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Metropolitan Playhouse, Obie Award season), I Feel Your Pain (a Performa NYC commission, created by Liz Magic Laser), Thunder Above, Deeps Below (Second Generation, World Premiere, by Lark Fellow Recipient A. Rey Pamatmat). Bay Area credits: Love and Information, A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory
Theatre); King Lear, The Tempest (California Shakespeare Theatre); American Buffalo (Aurora Theatre Company, Theatre Bay Area Best Ensemble Acting, Theatre Critics Circle Best Production); The Liar (Livermore Shakespeare Festival). Regional Credits: King Charles III (Tour: ACT, Seattle Rep, Shakespeare Theatre of DC), 365 Days/365 Plays, The Open Road Anthology by Rolin Jones, Michael Jon Garces, Kia Corthron, A.Rey Pamatmat, Constance Congdon (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Film: Me, You and the Road (C&I Productions), Best Laid Plans (Messyhouse Productions), Othello the Web Series (www.ReadySetGoTheatre. com). Rafael is a graduate of the MFA program at ACT.
CARL LUMBLY *
GIL SCOTT-HERON
is excited to return to Magic Theatre after his debut here in Mark O’Rowe’s Terminus in 2013. For the stage, Carl Lumbly most recently starred as Ira Aldridge in the San Francisco Playhouse’s production of Red Velvet, which ran through June 25, 2016. Lumbly was nominated for a San Francisco Bay Theatre Critics Circle award for his 2015 performance in Between Riverside and Crazy at ACT. Earlier in 2015, he starred as Alfred in Let There Be Love at ACT and as Leo Price in the San Francisco Playhouse’s premiere of Tree. In 2014, he starred as Chester Kimmich in John Patrick Shanley’s Storefront Church at the San Francisco Playhouse and as Troy in August Wilson’s Fences at the Marin Theatre Company. In 2013, Lumbly starred in Regina Taylor’s off-Broadway play stop. reset. Also in 2013, he starred in the San Francisco Playhouse’s West Coast Premiere of The Motherf**ker with the Hat. He starred in the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s 2012 production of Blue/Orange. Lumbly was featured in the San Francisco Playhouse’s 2010 production of Cormac McCarthy’s Sunset Limited. In 2007, he won a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for his starring role in the San Francisco production of Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train. Lumbly’s extensive resume includes five seasons on ABC’s Alias.
KEVIN JOHNSON * STAGE MANAGER
returns for his seventh production at Magic, having previously stage-managed Buried Child, Dogeaters, Every Five Minutes, Hir, Nogales, and The Other Place. Locally, he has stage-managed more than 20 world premiere productions for companies such as Aurora Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Marin Theatre Company, and many others. He also has stage-managed music and dance productions, including Oakland Symphony, Pacific Mozart Ensemble, San Francisco Jazz Festival (with Bobby McFerrin), International Russian Music Festival, and Dave Brubeck’s final album of his choral music, Brubeck and American Poets.
HANA S. KIM **
SCENIC AND PROJECTION DESIGNER
has designed sets and projection for Magic’s Dogeaters, and projections for Every Five Minutes and The Other Place. Recent design credits include: set and projection for Next To Normal, directed by Nancy Keystone (East West Players); projection for Wonderful Town, directed by Davide Lee (Los Angeles Opera); set and projection for White Snake directed by Natsu Onoda Power (Baltimore Center Stage); projection for Fallujah directed by Andreas Mitisek (New York City Opera); projection for Collective Rage directed by Lindsay Allbaugh (Theater@BostonCourt); and projection for City of Conversation, directed by Michael Wilson (Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts). She is a recipient of Princess Grace Award in Theater Design. Her designs have won Stage Raw Awards, StageSceneLA Awards, and Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Awards. Her designs also received nominations from the Ovation Awards, Theater Bay Area Awards, and Helen Hayes Award.
ALEX JAEGER **
COSTUME DESIGNER
At Magic: Mauritius, Goldfish, Mrs. Whitney, Oedipus El Rey, What We’re Up Against, Or,, Bruja, Annapurna, Se Llama Christina, Every Five Minutes, Buried Child, This Golden State, Sister Play, A Lie of the Mind, Fred’s Diner. A.C.T: The Hard Problem, Major Barbara, Venus in Fur, Arcadia, Once in a Lifetime, Maple and Vine, The Homecoming, Speed the Plow,
Rock N Roll. Guthrie Theatre: Mr. Burns; Public Theater: Two Sisters and a Piano; Mark Taper Forum: A Parallelogram, Other Desert Cities; California Shakespeare Festival: Life Is A Dream. Many productions for Oregon Shakespeare Festival and other regional theaters. For more information go to www.alexjaegerdesign.com
RAY OPPENHEIMER LIGHTING DESIGNER
is excited to be back at the Magic Theatre for Grandeur. His designs have been seen in Dogeaters, Bad Jews, pen/man/ship, and Territories at Magic Theatre in the past. He has also designed for Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire, Mugwumpin, Center Rep, David Herrera Dance Co, West Edge Opera, and Debutantes and Vagabonds. Ray is currently completing his MFA at San Francisco State University.
SARA HUDDLESTON
SOUND DESIGNER/DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION
joined Magic staff in March ’07. For Magic, selected designs include Fool for Love, Dogeaters, Fred’s Diner, Sister Play, A Lie of the Mind, And I And Silence, pen/man/ ship, Every Five Minutes, Hir, Arlington, Terminus, Se Llama Cristina, Any Given Day, What We’re Up Against, Or,, The Brothers Size, An Accident, Mrs. Whitney, Goldfish, Mauritius, Evie’s Waltz, The K of D, and Octopus (Magic/Encore Theatre Company). Further Bay Area sound design credits include Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley and Gem of the Ocean (Marin Theatre Company), In On It and T.I.C (Encore Theatre Company); The Shaker Chair (Encore Theatre Company/ Shotgun Players); Macbeth (Shotgun Players); Three on a Party (Word for Word); A Round Heeled Woman (Z Space); I Call My Brothers, Invasion! and 410 [Gone] (Crowded Fire), Autobiography of a Terrorist (Golden Thread Productions). Ms. Huddleston received a B.F.A from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.
SONIA FERNANDEZ
DRAMATURG/ ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
is a scholar, translator, and dramaturg specializing in new work. Recent production dramaturgy projects include: Fool for Love by Sam Shepard, Bright Half Life by Tanya Barfield and runboyrun by Mfoniso Udofia with Magic, and MAGIC THE ATRE
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biographies The Shipment by Young Jean Lee with Crowded Fire. She has worked with various Bay Area theater companies including Aurora, Playwrights Foundation, Brava, Cutting Ball, PlayGround and Crowded Fire, where she is a long-time company member. Sonia received her A.B. in English from Princeton University and Master’s in Theater from San Francisco State; she is a PhD candidate at UC San Diego.
ROOSTER PRODUCTIONS, LLC SCENIC CONSTRUCTION
is a small employee-owned scene shop located in Berkeley, California. Rooster provides each client with hands-on, dedicated service and creative, effective technical solutions to ensure complete realization of their designs. Rooster’s team consists of experienced multi-disciplinary project managers, scenic carpenters, welders, sculptors and painters who have a deep appreciation of the possibilities of construction materials. Rooster’s approach to scenic construction provides creative solutions that are as budget-sensitive as they are spectacular, and can be delivered as envisioned. Over the past few years, Rooster’s theatrical client roster has rapidly grown to include many companies ranging from Fremont Opera and Oakland School for the Arts to American Conservatory Theatre, Contra Costa Musical Theatre, and the recent hit production of Home Street Home at Z Space.
CLAY FOUNDATION WEST SEASON PRODUCER
Clay Foundation - West is a small charitable foundation that provides grants to a variety of organizations that work to enrich the lives of those in their communities, particularly theaters. Its President, Buffington Clay Miller, has attended Magic Theatre productions for a number of years and appreciates the ability of terrific actors, directors, set designers and all to bring plays to life on the stage and engage their audiences. She has in the past served on the Boards of Directors of several theaters, an art museum, and several educational institutions, utilizing her business skills in financial management, strategic planning and business development.
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JOHN MARX & NIKKI BEACH
SEASON PRODUCER began coming to Magic in 1981 and have enjoyed its intensity and independence ever since. John joined the Magic Theatre board in 2009 and currently serves as chair. In 1999, John co-founded Form4 Architecture, a SF-based firm which produces awardwinning architecture ranging from a 2,000 square-foot penthouse in SF to a 4 million square-foot IT Campus in Pune, India. Other projects include the headquarters for Netflix, nVidia, and Vmware. Recently, a monograph of John’s work, entitled Wandering the
Garden of Technology and Passion, was published by Balcony Press. Nikki Beach
makes model trees for architects worldwide. John and Nikki are honored to have been producers of Tina nOg, Mauritius, Oedipus
El Rey, The Lily’s Revenge, Bruja, Se Llama Cristina, and Buried Child. They find the behind-the-scenes access and relationships they have formed from producing to be unforgettable.
TONI REMBE
SEASON PRODUCER
is past president and a member of the Emeritus Advisory Board of the American Conservatory Theater and a member of TCG’s National Council for the American Theatre. She is a retired partner at the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and president of the van Loben Sels-RembeRock Foundation, a private foundation specializing in social justice and related legal services. She is a member of the board and a former president of the Commonwealth Club of California and a former board chair of the Presidio Graduate School, and has served on the boards of other nonprofit organizations and public companies.
BRAD RUBENSTEIN PRODUCER
is the founder of Red Sand Media Partners, which invests and produces theatre on and off-Broadway (most recently Allegiance, starring George Takei, on Broadway). At Magic, he has helped produce a number of shows, including Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters and Taylor Mac’s extravaganzas Hir and The Lily’s Revenge. In previous years he has served as chairman of the New York Festival of Song. By day, he works with high-tech
start-ups, coaches project teams around the globe, and causes countless other bits of mischief....
JAIMIE MAYER
MANAGING DIRECTOR
served on the Board of Magic for the past four years prior to joining Magic’s leadership this season. Mayer was the Producing Director of COAL, a musical designed to catalyze and spark individuals and communities to find their voices in the climate change movement. She founded Don't Eat The Pictures Productions in 2007, a theatre, film, and event production company dedicated to developing and seeding new work. Select theatre producing credits include the Broadway production of [title of show], Love Song by John Kolvenbach (59E59), The Boy in The Bathroom by Michael Lluberes (45th Street Theater/New York Musical Theatre Festival Award for Most Promising New Musical), and Love Kills by Kyle Jarrow (45th Street Theater). Mayer’s film work has premiered at Sundance Film Festival, on PBS, and Showtime. While serving as the Park Avenue Armory’s first Special Projects Manager, Mayer created both their education and artist residency programs. She has held the position of Managing Director and Producer at terraNOVA Collective, Associate Producer at both The New York Musical Theater Festival and Women's Expressive Theater, and as the Artistic Associate at The Women's Project. Mayer has worked at The Public Theater, Classic Stage Company, and The Long Wharf Theatre, among others. Commercially, she has worked as a Producing Associate on the Broadway production of Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark as well as for Mandy Patinkin In Concert, and with The Araca Group on multiple Broadway productions including Wicked, The Wedding Singer, and 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. In the philanthropic realm, Mayer runs JAM Consulting, working with philanthropists in their 20s and 30s looking to create their philanthropic footprint, with families trying to integrate the next generation, and with non-profits cultivating individuals in their 20s and 30s. She has worked with a number of individuals, foundations, and non-profits in the United States, Canada, and Israel including
magic theatre University of South Florida, Slingshot, Reboot, America-Israel Cultural Foundation, and the EcoHealth Alliance. Mayer is Vice-Chair of The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Vice President of The Mayer-Rothschild Foundation, and served as the President and Founder of The Buddy Fund for Justice through the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors for five years. She was the final Chair of the Council on Foundations Film Festival and the Film and Video Festival and Film and Video Task Force, and is a frequent public speaker on philanthropy. Mayer holds an MFA in Theatre Management and Producing from Columbia University's School of The Arts and a BA in Theatre from Connecticut College. She is the Vice Chair of Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP), sits on the Emerge and Education Committees of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Chicago, and the National Leadership Council of USA Artists.
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association. AEA, founded in 1913, represents more than 45,000 actors and stage managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO, and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performance arts unions. The Equity emblem is our mark of excellence. www.actorsequity.org. +Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC) **Member of United Scenic Artists local 829. United Scenic Artists represents the designers and scenic painters for the American theatre.
NOW IN ITS 50TH YEAR
of continuous operation, Magic Theatre is dedicated to creative risk: we cultivate new plays, playwrights, and audiences and produce bold, entertaining, and ideologically robust plays that ask substantive questions about, and reflect the rich diversity of, the world in which we live. Magic believes that demonstrating faith in a writer’s vision by providing a safe, rigorous, and innovative artistic home, where a full body of work can be imagined, developed, and produced, allows writers to thrive. We believe that, by adding vanguard voices to the canon and expanding access to new theatergoers, we ensure the future vibrancy of the American theatre. Since the company’s founding in 1967 by regional theatre pioneer John Lion, Magic has embodied San Francisco’s innovative spirit by providing an artistic home to some of the most visionary writers in American theatre. From prolific poet-playwright Michael McClure’s 22 works written for Magic, classics of Beat counterculture staged in collaboration with Lion, to scholar Martin Esslin’s indelible influence on the field as the first resident dramaturg at an American theatre company, Magic’s early years established the company as one of the most important centers for the creation and performance of new American plays. Sam Shepard’s decade-long playwright residency at Magic cemented the company’s legacy as a preeminent new play theatre. Between 1974–1984, Shepard developed and premiered a body of work at Magic that changed the face of American drama, including his seminal family plays Buried Child (Pulitzer Prize, 1979), True West, and Fool for Love. Since Artistic Director Loretta Greco assumed leadership of Magic in 2008, the theatre has produced 19 world premieres and nurtured a new cohort of exceptional playwrights. Indelibly shaped by the example Shepard provides, Magic remains a national leader in new play development through Greco’s commitment to a core group of writers as they each build a groundbreaking body of work. These writers include Octavio Solis, Lloyd Suh, Taylor Mac, Linda McLean,
Jessica Hagedorn, Sharr White, John Kolvenbach, Christina Anderson, Joshua Harmon, & Luis Alfaro, to name a few. Magic plays have a profound impact across the American theatre landscape. Under Greco’s leadership, Magic world premieres have entered the canon of American plays, enjoying subsequent productions at theatres across the country and around the world. In the last decade, Magic premieres have been seen in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Ashland, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Seattle, Dallas, Austin, Pasadena, Winnipeg, Portland, Washington, D.C., Tucson, Minneapolis, Vancouver, Williamstown, Edmonton, Nashville, Boulder, Omaha, Tampa, Hartford, Houston, San Diego, and Sydney, Australia, as well as in translation in Seoul, South Korea and Manila, the Philippines. In New York alone, Ma-Yi, The New Group, The Vineyard, INTAR, The Play Company, and Playwrights Horizons have produced plays that originated at Magic within the past eight years.
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dramaturgy
Han Ong. Photo by Adam Levonian.
FULL OF TALK: AN INTERVIEW WITH HAN ONG by Sonia Fernandez
Magic produced your Reasons to Live. Reason to Live. Half. No Reason in 1992. I understand this was your first professional production. What has it been like to be back 25 years later? Not to put too fine a point on it, but I love shit like this: circularity. Is it Buddhist? Is it Aztec? It was a time of transition for the Magic in 1992, as I recall. I knew Loretta way, way back, when she was at the McCarter in Princeton, NJ. Then I got reintroduced to her when she was among those helping shepherd Dogeaters from book to stage, sometime during that process—early 2000s. And then, when Jessica [Hagedorn] introduced Grandeur to Loretta in 2015, we got re-reintroduced. It has been a lovely process so far. When did you know you were a writer? Because I was sickly, I stayed indoors and discovered books. My reading was a passion that led very shortly into wanting to write. I made my own books—this was seven, eight—by stapling loose pages of a sci-fi novel. I wrote the kinds of stories I was reading at the time: Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys. More Nancy Drew than Hardy Boys. Also the plots of re-runs of Hollywood B-movies: undersea adventures, outer space adventures. At 11, I was the ‘poetry editor’ of my private school paper. I put that in quotation marks because I didn’t know anything about poetry or being an editor. I liked the title. It confirmed my high opinion of my own writing.
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dramaturgy Can you talk about growing up in Manila? The thing to emphasize is that we were middle-class. Upper-middle. That will come into play when we come to America and plunge several rungs down the economic ladder into the lower class. We still retained that middle-class bearing, that middle-class sense of invulnerability, if you will. One of the well-known facts about me is that I am a high school dropout, and though this is absolutely true— I have a GED and no college degree—that should come with an asterisk, which is that: prior to coming to America and dropping out of high school, I was sent to private school in Manila, where I learned English, formal Chinese (Mandarin) and formal Tagalog, and so all that I’ve managed to accomplish with my writing career was founded on conventional middle-class protections. I had privilege. I acknowledge privilege. When did you come to the U.S.? What were the circumstances? The Philippines was an American colony during the Second World War. As with colonial peoples like the Indians with Britain, Filipinos have a long history of migration to the—I want to say ‘motherland’ but that word doesn’t really apply to the U.S. It is more accurate to call it ‘dreamland’, where one goes because that’s where the better life is, per American indoctrination. So my parents ALWAYS had their eyes America-ward. It just took about a decade between applying and being accepted to immigrate. The paradox is that we became poorer, because a lifetime of savings in Filipino pesos translated into paltry dollars. But the dream has always been that we would make it back up the ladder again—that we, our parents’ children, would make this happen by Asian hard work, Asian diligence, and Asian scholastic excellence. So in that sense, my dropping out of high school was a big blow to that dream. I was the black sheep. I was always the black sheep. Coming to America solidified my sense of individuality, that I was entirely different from anyone in my family. Within four years of having come to America, I was living on my own and completely estranged from my family. Are you still estranged from your family? Yes.
Because I was sickly, I stayed indoors and discovered books. My reading was a passion that led very shortly into wanting to write. I made my own books—this was seven, eight—by stapling loose pages of a sci-fi novel. I wrote the kinds of stories I was reading at the time: Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys. More Nancy Drew than Hardy Boys. 10
MAGIC THE ATRE
Sonia Fernandez, Han Ong and Loretta Greco on the first day of rehearsal. Photo by Corinne Hastings.
Let’s talk about why you write plays. How did you start? What keeps you going? I read and I snuck into movies—The Godfather, Tess by Roman Polanski, Blow Out by Brian de Palma. I was not allowed to see these movies... So the dream was always, because of these twin loves, to be a novelist and a film director. We were not a family who went to the theater. We were not a culture who patronized the theater. Now fast forward to my American immigration: getting published was taking forever, and I had heard that a local Los Angeles theater company was sponsoring a young playwrights group and so I sent in my stuff and got accepted and began writing for the stage—my love of film and my previous exposure to dramatic dialogue came in handy. The theater allowed us to watch all of its productions for free. This was how I saw Harold Pinter, Oscar Wilde, Nikolai Gogol, Chekhov. This was the Los Angeles Theater Center in downtown L.A. This was where I first saw Carl Lumbly on stage in Steve Carter’s Eden. This is a very fond memory of mine. The play and Carl touched me very, very much. I think people took me seriously right away as a playwright because I was serious in affect and Dickensian in background (what with the dropping out of high school). I then got a job at the Mark Taper Forum, the ‘big’ theater in Los Angeles, and was taken up by the literary department (where I moonlighted as a script reader) and I got to see Taper plays for free, thus continuing my education: Genet, Beckett, Albee, Kushner. I was working at the Taper at the time of the premiere of Angels in America. So I met everyone, and once again, my aura of being an Oliver Twist (I was in my mid20s but I looked like I was 13), got me taken up, taken as seriously as you could take somebody like that. I continued to write, got better. I began to have early success. By 24, I had three simultaneous productions in the Bay Area, including one at the Magic. By 25, I was being produced by Robert Brustein at A.R.T. and then later that same year, I was being produced by the then-scrappy Almeida Theatre in London. At 25, I was being interviewed by Jessica Hagedorn for Bomb Magazine and I was also written up in Vogue. By 29, I had gotten two things: a MacArthur Fellowship, and I had also gotten
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Gil Scott-Heron at The Royal Festival Hall in London, 2010 Photo by David Pearson / Alamy Stock Photo
dramaturgy burnt out. My love for dramatic writing was, I guess it would be accurate to call it, ‘shallow’. It was never my original dream. And I wasn’t ready for all that early success. So I got off that horse. A living still needed to be made, so I taught. Teaching not only paid the rent, but being around students whose love for the theater far eclipsed mine was a kind of re-vivification of my love for the theater, for what I could do in the form: because my students not only loved the theater but LOVED the theater, I learned to love it too. And then I got enamored of dramatic writing for serial television: The Wire, a Canadian show called Slings and Arrows. And I began to write plays again, I began to fall in love with talk-talk-talk. All in all, I took off maybe 15, 16 years from playwriting. But I have quickly added to my body of work since coming back. Grandeur is one of three full-lengths finished in 2014. I have since written two more full-lengths and am storing up material for a new one. In the gap between writing plays you weren’t only teaching, you were doing other writing. In 2001 your first novel, Fixer Chao, made a big splash. Now you’re firmly established as both playwright and novelist. How do you think of yourself? I wonder what other secret identity can be assumed. Being a film director is the other original dream, but who knows? Maybe I’m too old for it by this point. That’s all I think about: what else? And hopefully, I can continue to be productive in both fields in which I’ve already established myself. I think I’m only getting better, which is not all that unusual a track for an artist: to age and to excel at the same moment. You know who got really good as he got older—good in unexpected ways? Matisse. It would be nice to be Matisse. Hilary Spurling’s two-volume biography of Matisse has been a source of great inspiration and solace for me in the last two, three years. What other writers, artists or works have inspired you? I LOVE the painter Agnes Martin—there was a retrospective of her work at the Guggenheim this past winter in NYC—I am not generally a fan of museums, but I dragged my ass out to closing day, and boy was I glad. I love Louise Nevelson, who I reference in the opening stage directions for Grandeur. I love the documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman. His most recent film In Jackson Heights and the film before that, At Berkeley—I saw them both in a trancelike state. They were each about three hours long, give or take maybe 30 minutes—but they ended far too soon for me. I love the Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu. I love Chekhov. Chekhov and Beckett are the two playwrights I love most—nobody even comes close, not Shakespeare. There are many writers who I love, writers are my favorite people. I am currently reading Bleak House by Charles Dickens because someone has enthused about it, and also Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. What are your influences? I’m not sure. This is a young man’s game, as Gil Scott-Heron says in Grandeur. Then, your influences are closer to the skin. Now, at the advanced age of 49, I’ve killed all mine and they exist so deep down they can no longer help me or hurt me—it’s all just me rolling that rock up that incline by myself. As I said, I love Chekhov and Beckett. But do I write like Chekhov? That would be the day! Do I write like Beckett? Why even try? Even though I’m pretty sure I tried as a young man. I did what you do when you start out—you copy. When I sat down to write Grandeur there were no blueprints—there was Gil, there was Steve Barron, there was a pipe at the end. That was all that held. Chekhov was not in the room when I wrote Grandeur. Beckett, not a peep. Even Gil was a hostage to my desire to write about Gil—he didn’t hinder, but I can’t say I felt Gil’s ghost smiling over my shoulder. So, let’s talk about Grandeur. Why Gil Scott-Heron? When I came back to playwriting, Grandeur was among the first plays that I wrote. I was moved by Gil Scott-Heron. I didn’t know a lot. I knew just enough to embark on the play. One of the things that I do when I teach playwriting is that I assign obituaries. I teach a class called “Everyone is a Play.” Everybody in class reads a week’s worth of obituaries in the New York Times 14
MAGIC THE ATRE
Teaching not only paid the rent, but being around students whose love for the theater far eclipsed mine was a kind of re-vivification of my love for the theater, for what I could do in the form: because my students not only loved the theater but LOVED the theater, I learned to love it too. and we bring the one obituary that speaks to us into class. We all pitch our obituaries. At the end of it, we choose two and everybody writes a play based on one or the other. There are two ways to go— sometimes people choose the obituaries of really famous people, and so the obituaries are really long and really detailed. The other way to go is to choose an obscure obituary—you get your own territory to mark. Now Gil Scott-Heron straddles the line between one and the other in that he was a man of vast accomplishment but by the time you got to him at his death then there’s that thing of Gil Scott-Heron, who? So you kind of get to make him your own in a way. When I decided I was going to write about Gil Scott-Heron it was because he was a forgotten man. It was also because my memory of him was revived by a few articles on the occasion of the release of his first album in 16 years, being that I’m such a lover of obituaries and this was prior to his passing away and the articles read like unwitting obituaries. There was an aura of commemorating of somebody who time had forgotten even though it’s not as innocent sounding as that—people who are of great accomplishment who we don’t know—that neglect is always for me is a willful, step-by-step planning that leads to that, time has passed you by, but also champions that could revive your name are not around or choose to cast their vote for it’s usually Bob Dylan or John Lennon. Its one or the other. We talked about your mixed feelings about the play in the context of the world we live in. About the current moment, yes. About the play itself, I keep reminding myself of the courage of my convictions. The convictions are right. The convictions being that the portraiture is in full. Respect is paid to the wizardry, to the joy, as well as the real bottom of tragedy that is in the story. That is the conviction, now I have to have the courage of that conviction. Sometimes when a play of yours is produced or a book of yours come out you either luck into meeting the zeitgeist exactly at the moment when the book should be coming out or sometimes there is a friction there that is less definitively right. That’s the thing. You cannot control the scheduling. What do you mean when you say “the current moment”? Our current winter in America? Yes it’s just that there are clearer villains in the lives of colored folks than colored folk themselves. Even though it’s true that we can all be our own worst enemy. We can sabotage ourselves. There are endless ways to do that. It’s just right now...the burden of villainy is so clear.
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dramaturgy
Chekhov was not in the room when I wrote Grandeur. Beckett, not a peep. Even Gil was a hostage to my desire to write about Gil—he didn’t hinder, but I can’t say I felt Gil’s ghost smiling over my shoulder. Julie confronts Steve Barron, the journalist, about Gil Scott-Heron being another Bob Dylan and Steve depicting him a black man with an addiction. How would you respond to that charge being leveled at you?
BY HAN ONG 1990
The L.A. Plays
In a Lonely Country
A Short List of Alternate Places
1991
Symposium in Manila
1992
Cornerstore Geography
1992
Bachelor Rat
1992
Reasons to Live. Reason to Live. Half. No Reason.
1992
Widescreen Version of the World
1992 Woyzeck (adaptation) 1993
The Stranded in the World (short story)
1993
This is, as the play calls him, “the full Heron.” This is not an invention to discredit him or to diminish his status as a giant. It is part of the same ball of yarn.
Swoony Planet (Part One of The Suitcase Trilogy)
1994
Airport Music (with Jessica Hagedorn)
1995
Play of Father & Junior
You’ve talked about Gil Scott-Heron as a forgotten man— what does he mean to you?
1995
Autodidacts (Part Two of The Suitcase Trilogy)
1996
The Chang Fragments
I felt like there was a play there in that sadness. There are a lot of sad subjects; there is not always a play there. Like that exercise I do with my playwriting students where the first part of the class is called “Everybody is a Play” and by the middle of the class it’s called “Is Everybody a Play?” What makes him a play is that he’s full of talk; he loves to talk. One of the things young writers run into, some characters you put them on stage and they don’t want to talk. Gil was just very talkative. In my head, he was very talkative. He loves to talk whether he’s making jokes at the interviewer, or at his own expense. When he talks about “I’m not going to accede to the fact that I was the groundwork for this… [hip-hop] generation whose entire philosophy is about material success. I’m not guilty. Don’t blame me for that.” My ideal is to approximate that grandiloquent talk, a talk full of wordplay, cognizant of motifs it has dropped and will pick up again. A musician’s sense of language. The way he talks it’s that thing that the way words sit inside his mouth gave the impression of enjoying that. When you get a character like that, that’s gold. What do you want to see when you go to the theatre? Aliveness.
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WORKS
MAGIC THE ATRE
1997
Middle Finger
1997
Virgin (Part Three of The Suitcase Trilogy)
2001 Watcher 2001
Fixer Chao (novel)
2004 The Disinherited (novel) 2009 Burden of Dreams (short story) 2013
Dream (short story)
2014
Chairs and a Long Table
2016
Marshall Levitow (short story)
gil scott-heron BIOGRAPHY Gil Scott-Heron was an American poet, novelist, polemicist, soul and jazz musician, and self-identified “bluesologist.” Frequently praised as “The Godfather of Modern Hip-Hop,” Scott-Heron influenced early pioneers like Public Enemy as well as contemporary stars like Kanye West. Scott-Heron is perhaps best known for his satirical spoken-word poem, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” Born in Chicago in 1949 to a librarian/singer and a Jamaican-born soccer player, he was raised by his grandmother in Jackson, Tennessee until the age of 12. After her death Scott-Heron moved with his mother to The Bronx, where he won a scholarship to the prestigious Fieldston School. At 19 he took a year off from Lincoln University to write his first novel, The Vulture, which was published when he was 21 years old alongside a book of poetry, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. In 1970 he recorded his first LP, of the same name. Though he never finished his undergraduate degree, Scott-Heron was admitted to the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, from which he received an M.A. in Creative Writing in 1972. Scott-Heron taught Creative Writing at Federal City College in Washington, D.C. for several years, while advancing his music career. Over the next two decades he continued to be a prolific writer, musician and performer, publishing two novels and three books of poetry, and recording fourteen albums. His music fused poetry and jazz, soul and spoken word. It spoke vibrantly of the era with incisive commentary and trenchant wit. He tackled topics of apartheid, addiction, poverty, racism and love. His poetic critiques continue to resonate. Scott-Heron struggled with drug addiction, which hindered his production. After a 16-year hiatus from recording, he released a final album, I’m New Here, in 2010 to critical acclaim. He died on May 27, 2011 at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City. His memoir, The Last Holiday, was published posthumously in 2012.
MUSIC
WRITING
1971 Small Talk at 125th and Lenox 1971 Pieces of a Man 1972 Free Will 1974 Winter in America 1975 The First Minute of a New Day 1975 From South Africa to South Carolina 1976 It’s Your World 1977 Bridges 1978 Secrets 1980 1980 1980 Real Eyes 1981 Reflections 1982 Moving Target 1994 Spirits 2010 I’m New Here 2011 We’re New Here 2014 Nothing New
1970 The Vulture 1970 Small Talk at 125th and Lenox: A Collection of Black Poems 1972 The Nigger Factory 1990 So Far, So Good 2001 Now and Then: The Poems of Gil Scott-Heron 2012 The Last Holiday: A Memoir
BY GIL SCOTT-HERON
BY GIL SCOTT-HERON
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Join us in Ashland - August 2017 Oregon Shakespeare Festival • Thursday, August 17th - Sunday, August 20 You're invited to join Artistic Director Loretta Greco, Managing Director Jaimie Mayer and special guest artists for an unforgettable insider’s weekend in Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Our 2017 trip includes 3 nights at the beautiful Ashland Springs Hotel, 6 amazing performances, and 2 exclusive dinners!
Plays include: Plays include:
• Hannah and the Dread Gazebo • Hannah and the Dread Gazebo • Henry IV, Part One • Henry IV, Part One • Henry IV, Part Two • Henry IV, Part Two • Julius Caesar • Julius Caesar • Shakespeare in Love • Shakespeare in Love • Unison Optional add-on: • Daedalus Optional add-on: • UniSon • Daedalus
Reserve Now! To reserve your place, or for more information, contact:
osf@magictheatre.org or call:
415.263.9055
magic theatre staff STAFF
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Artistic Director Loretta Greco Managing Director Jaimie Mayer Director of Production Sara Huddleston General Manager Cierra Cass Associate Artistic Director Sonia Fernandez Manager of Institutional Giving Ellen Abram Patron Services Manager Kelli Crump Development Associate Leigh Rondon-Davis Producer in Residence Logan Ellis Marketing Consultant Jonathan White Bookkeeper Richard Lane Season Apprentices Arashi Cesana, Katja Gottlieb-Stier, Megan Gray, Corinne Hastings, Adam Levonian Development Volunteer Susan Boynton Administrative Volunteer Susie Lampert
Chair John Marx Vice Chair Ian Atlas Secretary Matt Sorgenfrei Treasurer Bennett G. Young Trustees Loretta Greco, Artistic Director Kathryn Kersey Pat Schultz Kilduff Jeremy Kotin Corky LaVallee Jaimie Mayer, Managing Director Alan Stewart
PRODUCTION PERSONNEL Assistant Director Megan Gray Production Assistant /Run Crew Adam Levonian Assistant Scenic Designer Eunnym Cho Assistant Costume Designers Alix Feinsod & Ellen Howes Assistant Props Designer Tatjana Jessee Assistant Lighting Designer Isaiah Leeper Master Electrician Charles Clear Light Board Programmer Sara Saavedra Light Board Operator Sara Saavedra Electricians Gab Baisas, Erik C, Renae Davison, Mark Mensch, Sara Saavedra Scenery engineered and built at Rooster Productions, LLC in Berkeley, CA Managing Director Frédéric O. Boulay Director of Operations Adam Pugielli Shop Manager Tyler Barnhart Project Manager Matthew Olwell Scenic Charge Artist Ewa Muszynska Rooster Team Eric Jordan, Will Katzman, John McMillin
LITERARY COMMITTEE Hal Gelb, Karina Gutierrez, Sandra Hess, Amanda Lee, Jack Miller, Patricia Reynoso, MJ Roberts, Leigh RondonDavis, Conor Ross, Arthur Roth, Kenneth Watkins
DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Debbie Degutis, Sarah Nina Hayon, Pat Schultz Kilduff, Whitney Krause, Matt Pagel, Alan Stewart, Leigh Wolf
MAGIC ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP John Lion (1967–1991) Harvey Seifter (1991–1992) Larry Eilenberg (1992–1993) Mame Hunt (1993–1998) Larry Eilenberg (1998–2003) Chris Smith (2003–2008) Loretta Greco (2008–Present) The following individuals have generously provided for Magic Theatre in their estate plans: C. Edwin Baker, Martha Heasley Cox, Bob Lemon, Mike Mellor, Mary Moffatt, Julia Sommer, Bert Steinberg, Alan Stewart, Toni K. Weingarten
Magic Theatre is generously supported by:
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contributors PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE $100,000 OR MORE The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Leigh Robinson The Shubert Foundation
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP CIRCLE $50,000–99,999
Anonymous The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation Mrs. Robert B. Mayer Kenneth Rainin Foundation Toni Rembe & Arthur Rock San Francisco Grants for the Arts
LEADERSHIP CIRCLE $25,000–49,999
Gaia Fund Larry S. Goldfarb John F. Marx & Nikki Beach
DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE $15,000–24,999
Jaimie Mayer The Bernard Osher Foundation Matt Sorgenfrei & Evangeline Uribe The Tournesol Project Venturous Theatre Fund Dr. Debra Weese-Mayer
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER $10,000–14,999
Hotel Del Sol Ian Atlas & Renu Karir The Fleishhacker Foundation Jill Matichak Handelsman Courtland & Donna LaVallee Buffington Clay Miller & George Miller National Endowment for the Arts National New Play Network The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust Dr. Alan Stewart & Frank Kelly Bennett G. & Molly Young
PRODUCER
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May 1, 2016–May 10, 2017 We gratefully acknowledge all those that support Magic Theatre with gifts to our Annual Fund, Benefit Fundraiser, and special projects. Ken & Liselott Hitz The Stanley S. Langendorf Foundation Peter Martin Bradley Rubenstein Eva Strnad & Doug Sherman Wallis Foundation Ken & Ruth Wilcox
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER $2,500–4,999 Anonymous (2) The Mervyn L. Brenner Foundation Ed Harris Estate of Martha Heasley Cox Suzanne Lampert Claire Noonan & Peter Landsberger Frances & John O’Sullivan Matt Pagel & Corey Revilla Vicky Reich & David S. H. Rosenthal Irvin Govan & Les Silverman
ANGEL
$1,250–2,499 Susan Beech Bryan & Lauren Burlingame Katie Colendich Larry Eilenberg & Kathleen O’Hara Mike & Lea Ann Fleming Loretta Greco Martha Harriet Lawrie Betty Hoener Miriam John & William Wilson Pat Schultz Kilduff & Marshall Kilduff Sarah Kupferberg & Sydney Temple Caroline & Jim Labe Renee Linde Carl Lumbly Jennifer McDougall Robert & Cristina Morris Stephanie & Rick Rogers Lois & Arthur Roth Michele & John Ruskin Elizabeth & William Shea Judy & Wylie Sheldon Jennifer Heyneman Sousae Toni K. Weingarten Todd Yancey
$5,000–9,999
PATRON
Valerie Barth & Peter Wiley Michele & David Benjamin Pamela Culp David & Karen Crommie Rebecca & Jim Eisen
Robin Amadon Nancy Baker & Cathy Hauer Lisa Bardaro H. Rollin & Susan Boynton
MAGIC THE ATRE
$600–1,249
Stephen Bramfitt & Kelly Niland Michelle Branch Gail & Eric Buchbinder Carol & Tom Burkhart Patricia Callo Lynne Carmichael Center for Cultural Innovation Miriam Chall Steven A. Chase & Andrea Sanchez Ilene Danse Stephen Durchslag Elizabeth Erdos & Wayne Dejong Lynn Ducken-Goldstein Rodney Farrow Paula Golden David Goldman Kate Hartley & Michael Kass Keith Kappmeyer Karla Kirkegaard Linda & Robert Klett Jeremy Kotin Gyöngy Laky & Thomas Layton Kathleen Leones Taylor Mac Karen & Dennis May Jennifer Mayer John G. McGehee Jo Ann & Rick McStravick Gail & Patrick Murphy Jeanne Newman Bill & Nancy Newmeyer Margaret O’Brien-Strain Rosalind Okun Daniel Raiffe Karen Rose Stephen & Marcia Ruben Brian Saliman Marjorie & Richard Smallwood Philip & Ruth Waddington Nick Waddington Lisa Wade Davi Weisberger & Michael Harrington Leigh Wolf Janet & Art Wong Robert & Sharon Yoerg John Ziegler
CONTRIBUTOR $300–599
Seth Ammerman Julie Armistead Gwynn E. August Noel Blos Felix Braendel
Robin Brasso George & Marilyn Bray Karen Byrnes Jeff Chartrand Terence & Raphaela Chu Mary Claugus Alex Corvin Keith Dawson & John Larson Debbie Degutis Marilyn & Les Duman Saul & Gloria Feldman David & Vicki Fleishhacker Kerry Francis & John Jimerson Joan Friedman Elizabeth Goldbaum Will Green Gordon & Gini Griffin Emily Groves Jessica Hagedorn Carolyn Hall Craig Hamburg Richard Hay Richard Horrigan Julian Hultgren Tanya & Donald James Amy Lauer Kelly Bruce Lawrence Karen Laws & Dan Callaway Walter Lehman Teressa Lippert Fred Lonsdale Gail & Jim Lopes Paik Swan Low Karl & Ann Ludwig Mark Luevano Jonathan McCurdy Linda McPharlin & Nick Nichols Gary Metzner Jack & Mary Ellen Morton June Oberdorfer Ann M. O’Connor & Edward Callen Barbara Paschke & David Volpendesta Regina Phelps Tony Politopoulos Wendy Porter Deborah Robbins & Henry Navas Murphy & Wayne Robins Mary Ann Rodgers Laurel Scheinman Dorothy Schimke Peter Schmitz Helen Scott Judith Silverman Judith Ciani Smith
Jeffrey Smyser Susan Terris Nancy Tingley Nancy Tune Mark Vermeulen Christian & Lynne von Bogdandy Gerald Vurek Florence K. Weese Peregrine Whittlesey Ronna Widrow Julia & Frank Zwart
Madeline McQuillian David Mendelson Maeve Metzger Ann Moen & Dean Pichotto Roberta Mundie Jennifer Raiser Kim Regan Kristen Rothballer Gail Rubman Chris Shadix Christine & Lawrence Silver Pamela Smith Paul Slee Joan St. Laurent & Amar Archbold Judith Stein Michele D. & Richard J. Stratton Maureen & Craig Sullivan Bill Tiedeman Carol Wolff Sam Woodward Sharon & Jerald Young Morris Zelditch Roy Zitting
SUPPORTER $150–299
Patricia L. Akre Barbara Bardaro Jon & Ellen Benjamin Robert Bergman Leo Berry-Lawhorn James Breckenridge Mark Breimhorst Susan Bronstein Donna Brorby Betty Bullock Howard Brownstein & Janna Ullrey Shelley & Merrill Burns G. Steven & Kelli Burrill George Chadwick Lisa & Matthew Chanoff Robert Coverdell Jerry Current Daniel da Silva Marie Earl & Peter Skinner David Eilenberg Rob Eves Elizabeth Foster & Michael Harris Douglas & Mary Fraser Rhonda Grossman & Bernardo Lopez Julia Hansen Paul & Linda Rae Hardwick John Harrison Michaele James Jili Jiang Richard & Susan Kaplan Kathryn Kersey Joanne Koltnow Todd Lamb Jan Laskowski Meagan S. Levitan & Dale Carlson Sukey Lilienthal & David Roe Barry & Carol Livingston Jeffrey D. Livingston & Terri Chiu Ana Maria Martel Nancy McCormick
MATCHING GIFT PROGRAM Adobe • Apple • AT&T • Bank of America Foundation • Chevron • Climateworks • Clorox • Disney • Deloitte • Federated Department Stores • Genentech • Google • IBM Corporation • Macy’s / Bloomingdale’s • Microsoft Matching Gifts Program • Morgan Stanley • Salesforce.com Foundation • John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
We strive for accurate donor listings. If you have a correction or question, or would like to find out more about ways to support Magic Theatre, please contact us at legacy@magictheatre.org
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Special Thanks Jeremy Kotin Susie Lampert Metro Printing Susan Boynton
Donations of goods and services make a difference at Magic Theatre! By helping us reduce costs, you can help Magic contribute more resources to enhancing artistic programming.
Adopt-a-Play Parents Corky & Donna LaVallee Kathryn Kersey
Wishlist of needed items to make Magic: • Full sized refrigerator • Lightly used tablets/laptops • Airline miles & hotel stays • Playwright/actor housing • Video camera
• Light/sound board • Dolly hand truck • Storage units • Company car
NEW CONSERVATORY THEATRE CENTER PRESENTS
From a writer on ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder and HBO’s Looking “An extremely prolific talent” —HUFFINGTON POST
Two young men. A battle rages in the distance. Game on.
WORLD PREMIERE
by JC LEE
directed by BEN RANDLE
JUN 2 – JUL 2, 2017 BUY TICKETS AT NCTCSF.ORG BOX OFFICE: 415.861.8972 25 VAN NESS AVE AT MARKET ST
You are an artist You see the true beauty in creative expression. You strive to elevate our culture. You believe the arts make our community and the world a richer place. For your dedication and your passion, we salute you. Union Bank® is proud to sponsor the 2017-2018 Magic Theatre Season. Congratulations to all the participants in tonight’s performance! unionbank.com
Eva Strnad Vice President Mortgage Consultant NMLS ID #765201 415-765-2620 eva.strnad@unionbank.com
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