®
from the desk of
loretta greco
WELCOME TO MAGIC! We are excited to ring in the new year with all of you and welcome you to the world premiere of Reel to Reel by our dear friend, John Kolvenbach. We are thrilled to have John’s work back on the Magic stage. I have no doubt that many of you will remember his writing — his breathtaking use of language and investigations of love and family first in our production of Goldfish (2009) and then our subsequent premieres of Mrs. Whitney (2009) and Sister Play (2015). I have always loved John for the humanity and simple authenticity of his theatrical voice. A respite from our deafening, hyper-politicized existence, John's worlds reveal a quiet, acutely-drawn and appropriately-awkward interior landscape of self. His absolutely one-of-kind language breathes life from the ridiculous to the sublime into the relationships he investigates, demonstrating the beauty and humility in contradiction, our need to be needed by others, the difficulties in manifesting that need, and our deep desire to connect in an increasingly disconnected world. Over the past decade, I've watched John's work grow more beautifully intimate. Reel to Reel is a testament to that growth as well as a departure in form for John. Within this work, he is exploring the intricate score that makes a relationship both endure and thrive. Through conjured and chronicled sound, the character of Maggie opens a window into the interior life of a 55-year long marriage, offering a peek at how a coupling evolves and a consideration of the quiet power that comes from finding the person who truly sees you. In addition to John’s happy homecoming, we’re thrilled to round out this Magic family experience by welcoming back Will Marchetti (Fool for Love’s original Old Man) and Carla Spindt (Aunt Dan and Lemon), who have a long history both with Magic and with each other (Frankie and Johnny). Similarly, Zoë Winters, led the cast of Mauritius, my first season here. Andrew Pastides played the young boy in Goldfish in 2009 and then returned with his formidable turn as Eddy in last year's revival of Fool. The shared history of company in tandem with John, returning for his fourth production in nine years, amplifies how steeped in Magic this production is. It is our great joy to share it with you. Looking ahead, we’re getting ready for our raucous world premiere of Jessica Hagedorn’s The Gangster of Love, a loving throwback to San Francisco in the 1970s, which is our final show of the season. Stay tuned for some exciting plans on the horizon. Thank you for being here and for all your support! We couldn't do what we do without you. Enjoy!
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Magic Theatre presents
The world premiere of
REEL TO REEL written and directed by John Kolvenbach
CAST Maggie 1 Zoë Winters* Walter 1 Andrew Pastides* Maggie 2 Carla Spindt* Walter 2 Will Marchetti*
Opening Night February 7, 2018 Season Producers John F. Marx and Nikki Beach Toni Rembe and Arthur Rock Clay Foundation West
Magic Theatre's production of Reel to Reel is dedicated, in loving memory, to Irvin Govan, our long-time friend and supporter.
CREATIVE TEAM Set & Projection Design Costume Design Lighting Design Foley Design Stage Manager Dramaturg Props Design Local Casting
Erik Flatmo** Meg Neville** Wen-Ling Liao** Sara Huddleston Julie Haber* Sonia Fernandez Tatjana Jessee Sonia Fernandez
Scenery engineered and built by Cal Shakes Scene Shop
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers. ** Member of United Scenic Artists local 829, which represents the designers and scenic painters for the American theatre. + Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC).
Adopt-a-Play Parents* Alan Stewart & Kathryn Kersey
*Adopt-a-Play parents help to welcome the cast and production team into the Magic community by hosting welcoming events from the first day of rehearsal through the final performance.
The video and/or sound recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited. This theatre operates under an agreement with Actor’s Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
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biographies JOHN KOLVENBACH
PLAYWRIGHT/ DIRECTOR
At Magic: Goldfish, directed by Loretta Greco, Mrs. Whitney, and Sister Play, both directed by the author. On the West End: Love Song (Olivier nomination, Best New Comedy, directed by John Crowley) and on an average day (with Woody Harrelson and Kyle MacLachlan, also directed by Mr. Crowley). At Steppenwolf: Love Song, directed by Austin Pendelton. Love Song has been produced over 50 times in the U.S., including New York, as well as in Zurich, Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington, Seoul and Rome. average day has been produced by Route 66 in Chicago and in Los Angeles as well as in Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, and Lisbon, among other places. Other plays include: Fabuloso, (Premiered at WHAT, subsequent productions in San Juan and Zurich, in Spanish and Swiss German), Bank Job (Amphibian Stages), and Marriage Play or Half ‘n Half ‘n Half (Merrimack Rep.)
WILL MARCHETTI*
WALTER 2
is pleased to return to Magic Theatre after many years. Will enjoyed several successful shows here in the past; Curse of the Starving Class, Sharon And Billy, Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, Moon For The Misbegotten, Geniuses, Crossdressing In The Depression, Poetamachia, Hitting For The Cycle and the original production of Sam Shepard’s Fool For Love. He’s very excited to be a part of Reel To Reel and to be reunited with his frequent co-actor in the Bay Area, Carla Spindt. Will has been a Bay Area-based actor since he was a young man at San Francisco Theatre Company in the 1950’s. Over the span of his career, he has performed in theatres all over the Bay Area including A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, San Jose Rep, Theatreworks, San Jose Stage, SF Playhouse, the Eureka Theatre, Magic Theatre, SF Playhouse, 4
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Aurora Theatre, Alter Theatre and Marin Shakespeare. Beyond local theatres, Will has acted in a number of regional theatres including Seattle Rep, the Huntington Theatre, Kansas City Rep, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, the Wilma Theatre, Yale Rep and New York Theatre Workshop. Will served as Artistic Director of Marin Theatre Company twice and most recently appeared there in August: Osage County last season. Will has won a number of Critics’ Circle awards and the Dean Goodman Lifetime Achievement Award as an actor. As a playwright, his plays have been produced at San Jose Stage, the Phoenix Theatre and the Shelton Theatre in San Francisco. He is grateful for his long career and the support of his family, including his wife Susan Brashear (Co-Director of Tamalpais High School’s acclaimed drama program (CTE), also a key player in early MTC days. Will is grateful to his family for their support over the years and to the many who keep coming back to watch him onstage.
ANDREW PASTIDES*
WALTER 1
Magic Theatre: Fool for Love, Goldfish. Other Theatres: Tribes (Denver Center), Half ‘n Half ‘n Half (Merrimack Rep), Love Song (59E59), Makeout Session (Barrow Group), The Glass Menagerie (Two River Theatre), The Chosen (The Cleveland Playhouse), Molly's Delicious (The Arizona Theatre Co.), Tartuffe (Two River Theatre), Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (Theatre Alliance). Television credits include: CBS's “Blue Bloods”, NBC's “Law and Order”, USA's “Suits”, and HBO's “Boardwalk Empire”. Film credits: Dish (Dir. Isabele Teitler), Home is Where the Heart Aches ( Dir. Julien Levi), Deja View (Dir. Phillip Van), Hank and Asha ( Dir. James Duff), Si Nos Dejan ( Dir. Celia RowlsonHall), The Audition and Gray Dog (Dir. Celia Rowlson-Hall), Mrs. Tenderfoot Takes a Lover ( Dir. Melissa Tomjanovich), Shadows and Lies (Dir. Jay Anania), Engagement (Dir. Stephanie Gibson), and MA (Dir. Celia Rowlson-Hall). Andrew is a graduate of The SCGSAH and The University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
CARLA SPINDT*
MAGGIE 2
is thrilled to return to her roots at Magic Theatre. She played Mom with Will Marchetti’s Dad in the Magic’s world premiere of Sharon and Billy and played Frankie to his Johnny in Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune. Carla also appeared in the Magic’s Private Scenes, Aunt Dan and Lemon, Temptation and Jacques and His Master. Other Bay Area performances include: Marin Theatre Company’s The Guardsman, The Price, Noises Off! and The Marriage of Bette and Boo; Theatreworks’ All My Sons; San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s Romeo and Juliet; San Jose Stage’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Aurora Theatre Company’s Trojan Women and Seascape. She also appeared with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and toured the Midwest and East Coast with Houston’s Alley Theatre. Carla is currently a guest-artist teacher/director at Tamalpais High School’s Conservatory Theatre Ensemble in Mill Valley and she teaches and directs throughout Napa, Solano, and Sonoma counties. She is a graduate of San Francisco State University, American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.) and UC Davis.
ZOË WINTERS*
MAGGIE 1
is so happy to be returning to Magic and near her hometown of Santa Cruz. Magic Theatre: Mauritius (dir. Loretta Greco). Kolvenbach Plays: Love Song (59E59, with Pastides), Half ‘n Half ‘n Half (Merrimack Rep, with Pastides). New York: The Last Match (Roundabout); The Harvest, 4000 Miles (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater); Shows for Days, 4000 Miles (Mitzi E. Newhouse/ Lincoln Center Theater); Small Mouth Sounds (Signature: Ars Nova Production); Red Speedo, Love and Information (New York Theatre Workshop); Much Ado About Nothing (Public’s Shakespeare in the Park); An Octoroon (Soho Rep);
Hater (Ohio Theatre). Regional: Westport Country Playhouse, The Old Globe, Paper Mill Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Alliance and Seattle Rep. Film: Gray Dog, In the Family, Under, Giant. TV: "Madam Secretary," “Elementary,” “Law & Order,” “Ugly Betty,” “Gossip Girl,” “Army Wives.” Training: B.F.A. SUNY Purchase. Member: NYTW Usual Suspects, LCT Angels Artists Committee, The Actors Center. For Mer and Dave and their 41-1/2 years.
ERIK FLATMO**
SCENIC DESIGNER
has designed scenery for many productions at Magic in a relationship spanning more than a decade, including Sister Play, written and directed by John Kolvenbach. His work at other theatre companies includes A.C.T., Asolo Repertory Theatre (Florida), Berkeley Rep, Cal Shakes, Center Rep, South Coast Rep, Theatreworks, The Old Globe and Yale Rep. He works regularly with choreographers Joe Goode and Trajal Harrell, and recently designed the set for an original LGBT Mass Requiem composed by Holcombe Waller. He holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and teaches set design at Stanford University.
WEN-LING LIAO**
LIGHTING DESIGNER
makes her Magic Theater debut with Reel to Reel. Her selected credits include Barbecue with San Francisco Playhouse, The Boy Who Danced on Air with Abingdon Theater Company, Chill with Merrimack Repertory Theater, Milk Like Sugar with Huntington Theatre Company, Sense and Sensibility with Dallas Theater Center, Precious Little, Marjorie Prime and Grounded with Nora Theater Company, Appropriate with SpeakEasy Stage Company, A Nice Indian Boy with East West Players and I and You with Marin Theatre Company. She earned her MFA from University of California, San Diego and BA from National Taiwan University. wenlingliao.com
SARA HUDDLESTON
FOLEY DESIGNER
Sara is pleased to return to Magic, where she most recently acted as Associate
Sound Designer for David Van Tieghem on the world premiere production of The Eva Trilogy. Previous Magic sound design credits include Grandeur, Fool for Love, Dogeaters, Fred’s Diner, Sister Play, And I And Silence, Every Five Minutes, Hir, Arlington, Terminus, Se Llama Cristina, Any Given Day, The Brothers Size, Mrs. Whitney, Goldfish, Evie’s Waltz, and The K of D. Other Bay Area sound design credits include: Octopus (Magic/Encore Theatre Company); Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley and Gem of the Ocean (Marin Theatre Company); Autobiography of a Terrorist (Golden Thread Productions); I Call My Brothers, 410 [Gone] and Invasion! (Crowded Fire), 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); and A Round Heeled Woman (Z Space).
JULIE HABER*
STAGE MANAGER
is delighted to return to Magic after stage managing last season's Fool For Love. Other Magic productions include Fred’s Diner; This Golden State, Part One: Delano; Arlington; Se Llama Cristina; Bruja; and Jesus in India. She has stage managed at many theatres around the country, including the Bay Area’s Berkeley Rep, A.C.T., Santa Cruz Shakespeare and the Jewel Theatre, and served as Company Stage Manager at South Coast Repertory for 20 years. She received her MFA from Yale School of Drama and has taught stage management at UC Irvine, UC San Diego, Cal Arts and Yale. Julie is proud to be celebrating 40 years as a member of Actors Equity Association.
JOHN MARX & NIKKI BEACH SEASON PRODUCERS
MEG NEVILLE**
COSTUME DESIGNER
Meg designed Baltimore Waltz at Magic Theatre last season. Recent credits include Blithe Spirit at the Guthrie, Imaginary Comforts at Berkeley Rep, the upcoming Heisenberg at A.C.T. and The Music Man at Arizona Theater Co.. Meg resides in the Bay Area and her credits include productions with Berkeley Rep, Cal Shakes, and Marin Theater Co., as well as Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Rep, the Kirk Douglas Theater, BAM, Atlantic Theater, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, Center Stage, Dallas Theater Center, and others.
SONIA FERNANDEZ DRAMATURG
is a scholar, translator, and dramaturg specializing in new work. Recent projects include: The Eva Trilogy by Barbara Hammond and Grandeur by Han Ong at Magic; The Shipment by Young Jean Lee at Crowded Fire; We Swim, We Talk, We Go to War by Mona Monsour at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Sonia is a longtime Resident Artist with Crowded Fire Theater. She received her AB in English from Princeton University and Master’s in Theater from San Francisco State; she is a PhD candidate at UC San Diego.
began coming to Magic in 1981 and have enjoyed its intensity and independence ever since. John joined the Magic Theatre board in 2009. In 1999, John co-founded Form4 Architecture, a SFbased firm that produces award-winning 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 Tír na nóg, Mauritius, Oedipus El Rey, The Lily’s Revenge, Bruja, Se Llama Cristina, and Buried Child. They find the behindthe-scenes access and relationships they have formed from producing to be unforgettable.
TONI REMBE
SEASON PRODUCER
is a past member of Magic Theatre's board of trustees, 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
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biographies 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.
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.
LORETTA GRECO+
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
is currently in her tenth 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 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
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Place, Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters, last season’s critically acclaimed revival of Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love, and Han Ong’s Grandeur. 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; Speed-thePlow, 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, Arena 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. Ms. Greco received her MFA from Catholic University and her BA from Loyola University, New Orleans, and is recipient of two Drama League Fellowships and a Princess Grace Award.
JAIMIE MAYER
MANAGING DIRECTOR
served on the board of Magic for four years prior to joining Magic’s leadership team last 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, a theatre, film, and event production company dedicated to developing and seeding new work, in 2007. Selected
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 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 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.
magic theatre 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.
Interested in becoming more involved with Magic? Email Magic Board Chair, Matt Sorgenfrei, at MattS@magictheatre.org to learn more about exciting opportunities with Magic's Board and committees.
*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 51ST 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 theater-goers, 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 and 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, Mfoniso Udofia, & 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, MaYi, The New Group, The Vineyard, INTAR, The Play Company, Playwrights Horizons, and The Public Theater have produced plays that originated at Magic within the past eight years.
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dramaturgy
THE SOUND
OF INTIMACY:
An interview with John Kolvenbach by Sonia Fernandez
Sonia Fernandez: How did you get started writing? John Kolvenbach: I wrote things when I was a kid, but I didn’t write plays. I didn't know about plays. I didn’t grow up going to plays. For instance, when I was in second grade I wrote a long comic book series about a scientist with 200-something installments. When I went to college, I took an acting class. We worked on Hurly Burly, a David Rabe play, which I thought was amazing and still think is amazing. It was the first time I had read a play and heard a voice in it. I was taken by it, but I still didn’t start writing. I went to graduate school to be an actor. I was there for three years. After graduation, we were looking to do the scenes that you show to agents. We couldn't find anything, and so I wrote something. I wrote it under a pen name: Steve Item. I didn’t admit to anyone that I had written it, but the response to the scene was very positive. People were like “Who is this Steve Item, what else has he written?” The response to my acting was not terribly positive. Then I wrote a play very quickly right after that. I wrote it in three weeks, and that was the beginning of the thing of writing plays. SF: Did you produce it? JK: Yeah. We did it in New York. Some friends of mine got together, and we read it in my living room. And then a guy’s great aunt died, and she left him 1,500 bucks. We rented a little theatre for a week. He did shows at 7 and we did our show at 9. It was super young person work, but people liked it and we made a little bit of money. It was a miracle. SF: You made back your 1,500? That is a miracle! JK: Yeah. So now we had like 2,300. SF: Wow. JK: Nobody got paid, so did we really make money? Then a couple months later, we put it on again. We did it for like a year… We were an accidental company. That was what got me going. I wrote another play after that.
John Kolvenbach on a break during Reel to Reel rehearsal. Photo by Julia Collins
The first one that was produced in a way that meant something was on an average day. It was already too expensive to self-produce in New York. So I was thinking I would write something that I could literally do in my own kitchen and bring an audience of six. So I wrote this really small, real-time kitchen play. Then, in a bit of dramatic irony, it ended up being done in a 750-seat theatre in the West End. The opposite of my intention but it was a good result, I think. SF: How did you start writing Reel to Reel? JK: We did Sister Play at the Magic in 2015. I was coming home and was thinking about parts of it that I liked. Where I had done some writing that was unlike what I had done before —specifically the scene between Lilly and William Casy in the first act. And I wanted to write about marriage and relationships, intimacy. I wanted to try to write a play that was both about intimacy and that was itself an intimacy. The watching of which would be an intimate experience. Somebody has an affair, or there’s a miscarriage or a child runs away from home. Those things are real and those things happen in people’s lives but I wanted to try to write a play that had none of those events
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dramaturgy
First rehearsal table reading of The Eva Trilogy with cast, creative team, staff, and guests. Photo by Ciera Eis.
Patrick Kelly Jones (William Casy), Jessi Campbell (Lilly) and Lisa Brescia (Anna) in Sister Play at Magic, 2015. Photo: Jennifer Reiley
in it. To take that writerly crutch away. I wanted to look at an actual relationship where all we saw were the smaller moments, of what it is to be with somebody. I started to think about the most intimate things in a relationship and to think about sound. And if you could make a play that was comprised of sound. Could you render a relationship in a way that was accurate and intimate? It occured to me that one of the characters would be a sound professional. The play opened up for me when I figured out that Maggie made these sound collages. In the play all the sound is made live —foley and music, made by the actors. The idea is that everything is from these two people, four actors playing two people and everything we experience is made by them. SF: There’s something about Maggie’s art that teaches us to listen. We are asked to listen in a different way. JK: I hope so. I try not to write topically but I do think that there is something about the current moment. No one is listening to anyone! And it’s either the technology where people are buried in their phones, or its the current political moment. It’s not an empathetic or listening moment. It’s a 10
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yelling and screaming, us and them moment, and so I try to write to make something that is the opposite of what I hate. [Laughter] And what I hate is this time right now. It’s a difficult time to be not anxious, to not be full of bile and conflict. One choice would be to write about that thing itself. Another choice would be to make something which is the opposite. Try to make an antidote. SF: Yesterday [in first rehearsal of Reel to Reel] you were talking about an artist, a writer, as innately a listener an eavesdropper... JK: Writers are spies! Eavesdroppers. Not only do I eavesdrop on the subway. I will change seats in a subway car to try to get close to a good conversation. [Laughter] Sometimes you become an eavesdropper on your own life. There’s a part of a writer that is always taking notes, a part of you is always working. There is a little bit of distance in most writers I know. They’re both participating and observing — sometimes they’re only observing. That makes writers difficult to live with. One of the things.
dramaturgy
I wanted to write about
marriage and relationships, intimacy. I wanted to try to write a play that was both about intimacy and that was itself an intimacy.
SF: Most writers work on the same kinds of questions over their whole careers. What would you say are your deepest curiosities? JK: I don't know if I can name them but they keep coming up over and over. I write about family a lot. Love. I write about what is between people. There are writers who write great plots. Mine are not plot-heavy. That’s not on purpose I wish I could write more plot but that’s not my talent — so I try to dive as deeply as I can into the stuff that obsesses me in my own life, which is How do you live. SF: With other people. JK: With other people. The difficult thing of other people and the difficult thing of yourself. In this case, it is about a 55-year marriage and about the rewards that come with sticking it out and the hurdles. It's also about what it is to lose someone — what it's like to be intimate. What is the tiny space between the end of your mouth and the beginning of someone’s ear. SF: What do you think it takes to sustain a relationship? Luck? JK: I dont know. I do think who you meet is luck. Then it’s up to you. In this play at least what works for them is that they accept each other almost because of their flaws. They see and acknowledge each other’s foibles and flaws and glory in them in a certain way. SF: Talk to me about directing your work. How did you get started directing? On our wall of playwrights in the lounge, you’re directly under Maria Irene Fornes. She also directed her work. JK: The first play that I directed was my first play. I directed because we didn’t have anyone else to do it. I did it by default. I’ve had experiences with both directing and not
directing, positive experiences both ways. When you have a talented director — when Loretta directed Goldfish here, that was glorious. You’re happy to give up the reigns and let her do her work and try to stay as quiet as possible, though I do not succeed in that. The act of writing is certainly different than the act of directing but the job is the same, it's a continuum. You’re looking to bring it into being. The difference now is that there are other contributors, other people that bring ideas, and you can make it better for that collaboration. I think it's a ridiculous privilege to have them bring their talent to bear on your stuff. That’s the biggest compliment that I can imagine. Writing is a little mysterious even to writers. I’m pretty sure that directing is practical: instinct and problem solving. Your instinct is important but most of the questions that you’re needing to answer are practical questions. There are certainly visionary directors — I don't know that I’m one of them. I think that directing is a long series of practical questions, which hopefully add up to something artful. SF: And you think of yourself as a writer first. JK: Yeah. As long as the director is someone that I trust, that’s not a hugely long list, I’m happy to not direct, but I love doing it. There’s something special about working here in that I get to deliver the whole thing. SF: Your plays are funny. In the past, you’ve said that your plays reveal the ridiculous. Do you still feel that way? JK: Yeah. I do feel that way. Occasionally I will write a punchline but I don’t set out to write comedy in that way. If it seems too much like a joke, we’ve stopped telling whatever story we were telling. I find the more invested I am, the funnier the writing comes out. I don’t know why that is. Part of the rewriting process, a small but essential part, is cleaning language up so that it can be funny.
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dramaturgy
It’s a difficult time to be not anxious,
to not be full of bile and conflict. One choice would be to write about that thing itself. Another choice would be to make something which is the opposite. Try to make an antidote. SF: For me the overtly funny moments in Reel to Reel are the most ridiculous. It’s the recognition of the ridiculous in ourselves that makes it hilarious. JK: Yes. I think that some of my plays are comedies but they don’t necessarily read funny on the page, but then, when you get them up, there is comedy and the other side of it too. SF: Both of the characters in Reel to Reel are artists, we’ve talked a bit in rehearsal about what it means to be an artist. I wonder if you have any thoughts about how to be an artist in the world — what it takes. JK: Oh god. What it takes to be an artist in the world? I know what works for me: doing a lot of mundane things that make the other parts of it possible. Literally — this so boring — but if I exercise, I get a decent amount of sleep and I write every single day whether I want to or not. And if you have a place that you can go that is yours — a room of one’s own — you can close the door and no one can get to you and whether you’re writing well or not, if you’re just there for however many hours every day... That’s what works. But importantly: I don’t know how you would continue to write plays if you never thought that they were going to get made. Working with the Magic over the last ten years and knowing that you are here to take a look at it when I have a readable draft is a large part of what gets plays written. Its inspiring and sometimes despairing, but you learn from seeing your work produced. I think most artists lose belief at some point. Some people never get it back. Most writers lose confidence many times throughout their life. It helps to have friends who I trust and can send plays to.
Andrew Pastides (Albert) and Rod Gnapp (Leo) in Goldfish at Magic, 2009. Photo: Jennifer Reiley
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But I guess I feel like the real process of writing for me is a lot of showing up and failing, and then suddenly you’re not failing anymore, and you’re onto something. But being patient enough to show up and fail. Show up and fail. Show up and fail. And be frustrated, be bored, procrastinate, go through a three-act play of self-loathing, get through all that stuff, and then start working.
dramaturgy
First day of rehearsal for Reel to Reel. Left to Right: Carla Spindt, Zoë Winters, John Kolvenbach, Loretta Greco, Andrew Pastides and Will Marchetti. Photo: Kate Leary
SF: Do you go to the theatre? What do you look for? JK: I follow individual writers. I see all the Annie Baker stuff. All Martin McDonagh’s stuff. He’s got a new one coming to the Atlantic this year. I see all the Jez Butterworth. Conor McPherson. I go to see Tracy Letts and Bruce Norris — other writers that I know. I’ll always see a Chekhov, whoever’s doing it. What do I look for? Do you see theatre outside of Magic?...What do you look for? SF: In rehearsal earlier, we were discussing the scene where audience members approach Maggie after her show — you said the only thing an artist actually wants to hear immediately after is that that work changed them….I believe that theatre can do that. That it can change you, and that it should, in some way. That’s what I look for. JK: Yeah. Easier said than done. But I believe that, for sure. That's why you keep doing it. You’re chasing that very ineffable thing all the time. And sometimes it's enough to get it for ten minutes of a play when you’re watching live actors change the air in a room somehow by some miracle of communion with the audience, that's what I’m looking for. I love to hear plays where there’s language. I like to hear the writer's voice, to be in the writers possession, to be owned by the writer. I love to feel that feeling. SF: I recently came across audience preview forms for Goldfish. Most of the comments were about the acting. Your writing calls for deep and nuanced acting. Can you talk about actors and the kind of acting that you write for?
JK: Gosh. I wish I could name it. There's a couple things — the actors that can do my stuff have a good ear. It needs to be sort of musical without being self conscious. They need to be able to improvise within a very defined form. Actors that — I mean Zoë Winters and Andrew Pastides I have worked with a ton and so it almost becomes instinct. They just know it. They already get it. The first time I worked with Andrew it was on Goldfish here. I have tried ever since then to not only get him in stuff that existed but also write for him. Same with Zoë. I’m certainly working with her voice in mind some of the time. JK: There are certain kinds of writing that allow the actor to elaborate, my writing doesn't work that way. You have to stay simple with it and alive and stay on top of it — and then it works. It wants to be as full as possible but within the music of the play and also it wants to be alive, connected to with the other person on stage. SF: Three out of four of our cast members are actors you’ve worked with before. JK: That’s the thing about this play. Carla and Will have worked together a million times over the years. They’ve played husbands and wives and lovers. Zoë and Andrew have worked together a million times over the years. We’ve got a lot of history. SF: It must be good to have your friends in the room with you for this.
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dramaturgy JK: It’s really interesting. In a way, the friendship is suspended during rehearsal because it wouldn't be useful. Then we go home at night — Andrew, Zoë and I are staying in the same apartment — we put the play away for a while and have our friendship. And so it is almost like we’re each working with another person.
WORKS BY JOHN KOLVENBACH
SF: Except that you can’t go home and vent… JK: That’s totally true. We try not to talk too much about the play but it's impossible not to. We just live it all the time. What I do when I’m going to work on a play — I brought my tennis racket. There is no chance I am ever going to pick it up or play any tennis. People are always like, “You’re in San Francisco it's going to be so much fun!” I could be in Cleveland or Phoenix or Toronto. The whole world is the work you’re doing. I love San Francisco but it doesn't matter that I’m here because that’s not what we’re doing here. It's such a privelege to give yourself completely to something. You have to remind yourself to eat and sleep because even when you’re not working part of you is thinking about it. You want the chance to let the rest of your life be completely irrelevant. SF: It's a gift. A luxury. JK: It's a huge luxury. SF: What’s it like to be back at Magic once again? JK: Magic, it's like having a whole home and a whole family that you only get to visit every couple of years! And then when you get there, you’re in the warm embrace of Magic Theatre. It's so good to be here and I’m so moved to be writing these stinkin’ plays and to know that I can send them to Loretta and that there’s a chance we’re going to get to bring them to life.
on an average day (2002) Gizmo Love (2006) Love Song (2006) Fabuloso (2008) Goldfish (2009) Mrs. Whitney (2009) Marriage Play (or Half ʻn Half ʻn Half) (2012) Bank Job (2013)
ON SOUND AND MEMORY Our history is a collection of sound sensations, experiences, emotions all uniting into an aural identity. It is this ocean of recollections, sound images, dreams, memories we share. —Stan Shaff, Composer Neuroscientists and Neuropsychologists have discovered that the part of the human brain that is responsible for storing our emotional memories is the same part of the brain that is responsible for processing our senses — the hippocampus in the temporal lobe. This is why the smell of freshly baked cookies might call up a memory for of a beloved friend or family member. Maybe you can see that person in front of you, in the kitchen. Maybe you briefly relive that experience from exposure to a scent. The same principle applies to sound and auditory memory.
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Sister Play (2014) Reel to Reel (2018)
magic theatre staff STAFF
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Artistic Director Loretta Greco Managing Director Jaimie Mayer Director of Development Gabrielle Chapple Associate Artistic Director Sonia Fernandez General Manager Cierra Cass Production Manager Camille Rohrlich Manager of Institutional Giving Ellen Abram Development Associate Leigh Rondon-Davis Marketing Associate Julia Collins Box Office Assistant Nina McMurtrie Front of House Manager Josh Orlando Production Associate Arashi Cesana PR Consultant Jonathan White Bookkeeper Richard Lane Season Apprentices Karina Fox, Ciera Eis, Kate Leary Development Volunteer Susan Boynton Administrative Volunteer Susie Lampert
Chair Matt Sorgenfrei Vice Chair John Marx Secretary Corky LaVallee Treasurer Bennett G. Young Trustees Loretta Greco, Artistic Director Kathryn Kersey Ian Atlas Jeremy Kotin Jaimie Mayer, Managing Director Alan Stewart
PRODUCTION PERSONNEL Assistant Director Ciera Eis Production Assistant Karina Fox Assistant Costume Designer Shelby-Lio Feeney Assistant Lighting Designer Victoria Langlands Master Electrician Brittany Mellerson Electricians Sara Saavedra, Josh van Eyken, Ruben Markowitz, Victoria Langlands, Liz Kreter-Killian Sound Engineer Michael Kelly Programmers Liz Kreter-Killian, Brittany Mellerson Light Board Operator Sara Saavedra Scenery engineered and built at Cal Shakes Scene Shop in Berkeley, CA Technical Director Steven Schmidt Assistant Technical Director Heidi Voelker Shop Foreman Charlotte Wheeler Master Carpenter Sam Sheldon Carpenters Hannah May, James Henderson Scenic Charge Ewa Muszynska Scenic Painters Anya Kazimierski, Zoe Gopnik-McManus
LITERARY COMMITTEE Sonia Fernandez, Hal Gelb, Karina Gutierrez, Sandra Hess, Molly Cecil Olis Krost, Kate Leary, Amanda Lee, Jack Miller, Patricia Reynoso, Leigh Rondon-Davis, Arthur Roth
DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Alex Corvin, Debbie Degutis, Sarah Nina Hayon, Kathryn Kersey, Jeremy Kotin, Matt Pagel, Joshua Reynolds, 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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sam shepard (1943-2017)
SAM SHEPARD WAS MYTHIC. Through his mind-bending and heart-breaking plays and prose, he bared his soul and swagger while traversing our primordial pasts. For five decades and change Sam has been in pursuit of the bones buried out back, of the visceral energy and emotional tension that makes us human. It’s hard to imagine a world without him. His restless, rhythmic, imagistic dialogue made actors kill to speak his words aloud—to explore the space Sam left around the words. Those early iconic performances of Gammon, Harris, Baker, Coyote, Sinise, and Malkovich cemented our hope that maybe, just maybe, we too could be a part of something as primal and true. The ravishing wilds of California from Homestead to Napa Valley indisputably evoked Sam’s imagination, producing a staggering cannon of 55 plays, 5 collections of prose and 50-plus film performances. Here, at the edge of the West, hanging off the San Francisco Bay, Sam wrote and premiered seven of his seminal works at Magic Theatre, including Buried Child (his Pulitzer Prize winner), True West, and, in 1983, (the same year he would be nominated for an Oscar) Fool for Love. His singular brand of muscularity was forever baked into our consciousness and the ferocious, visceral primacy of his texts ignited a new play fever that spread throughout the Bay and well beyond. With a natural intensity, he was an iconic, if reluctant, film star and his many roles portrayed him as a cool product of the West whom we believed could tame the frontier. We forged a friendship over what would be, unthinkably, the last five years of his life. Slumped in Magic’s audience, legs dangling over the theater seats in front of us, he argued vehemently with me over the ending of a play I was directing (not his). He attempted to explain the craft of hunting geese versus deer and encouraged me to read one of his favorite novels (I tried unsuccessfully, the book—not the hunting). Years later, over tea one afternoon in the East Village, he joyously recited Beckett and with misty eyes shared the humility he felt in making what would become Tongues, with his dear friend, Joe Chaiken. Sam refused to play wise sage. He remained beautifully broken from his first plays in ’64 to his last book of fiction published in 2017, combing the open road for visages of his lost father, the bygone West of his youth, and America’s forgotten promises. I last saw Sam in Healdsburg just before he would head home to Kentucky at the end of March. Over cups of coffee, Sam and his astounding sisters Sandy and Roxanne shared with my partner and me photos of his cherished ranch, the horses he missed dearly and the astounding beauty of that land. We discussed Diebenkorn’s work and Sam pondered the origin of the Beatles’ Blackbird. Before the afternoon was over, he dictated a dedication for Magic’s 50th, for Ed Harris to present. Sam asked to hear it out loud. Roxanne read it back patiently several times and with each pass Sam listened intently, making small, careful revisions. In spite of his declining health, he was profoundly himself. Curious. Searching, like the rest of us. Making sure that as the words hit the air, they were right. —Loretta Greco 18
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contributors
January 18, 2017–January 18, 2018 We gratefully acknowledge all those that support Magic Theatre with gifts to our Annual Fund, Benefit Fundraiser, and special projects.
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 Gabrielle Chapple at gabriellec@magictheatre.org.
PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE $100,000 +
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation San Francisco Arts Commission The Shubert Foundation
LEADERSHIP CIRCLE $50,000–$99,999
The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Mrs. Robert B. Mayer Toni Rembe and Arthur Rock San Francisco Grants for the Arts Venturous Theater Fund of Tides Foundation
SEASON PRODUCER $25,000–$49,999
Anonymous Clay Foundation West Gaia Fund John F. Marx and Nikki Beach
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER $10,000–$24,999
Ian Atlas and Renu Karir Valerie Barth Eugene and Neil Barth Larry S. Goldfarb Jill Matichak Handelsman Koret Foundation Jaimie Mayer National Endowment for the Arts The Bernard Osher Foundation Kenneth Rainin Foundation Matt Sorgenfrei and Evangeline Uribe The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust Zellerbach Family Foundation
PRODUCER
$5,000–$9,999 Michele and David Benjamin Michelle Branch Pamela Culp 20
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Sandra Hess Ken and Liselott Hitz Kathryn Kersey Courtland Lavallee and Donna Lavallee Matt Pagel and Corey Revilla William Bradley Rubenstein Les Silverman, In Memory of Irvin Govan Dr. Alan Stewart and Frank Kelly Wallis Foundation Bennett G. Young and Molly Young
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER $2,500–$4,999
Anonymous David and Karen Crommie Mike and Lea Ann Fleming Ed Harris Jeremy Kotin Suzanne Lampert Renee Linde Steve and Meredith Osborn Vicky Reich and David S. H. Rosenthal Elizabeth and William Shea The Tournesol Project of the Barth Foundation Dr. Debra Weese-Mayer Robert and Sharon Yoerg Lynne Zolli
PLAYWRIGHT'S ANGEL $1,000–$2,499
Anonymous Lisa Avallone and Mike Aguiar Susan Beech Stephen Bramfitt and Kelly Niland Karen Byrnes Patricia Callo Miriam Chall Katie Colendich Ms. Ruth Conroy Marilyn and Les Duman Stephen Durchslag Larry Eilenberg and Kathleen O'Hara Rebecca and Jim Eisen Elizabeth Erdos and Wayne Dejong Elizabeth Goldbaum
Lynn Ducken-Goldstein Betty Gottlieb Loretta Greco Kate Hartley and Michael Kass Betty Hoener Lorraine Honig Mame Hunt Pat Schultz Kilduff and Marshall Kilduff Linda and Robert Klett Sarah Kupferberg and Sydney Temple Martha Harriet Lawrie Karl and Ann Ludwig Taylor Mac Jennifer Mayer Jennifer McDougall The Mervyn L. Brenner Foundation Craig Moody Robert and Cristina Morris Gail Murphy and Patrick Murphy Nancy Baker, Ph.D. and Ms. Cathy Hauer National New Play Network Claire Noonan and Peter Landsberger Frances and John O'Sullivan Joy Ou Emily Scott Pottruck Daniel Raiffe Karen Rose Lois and Arthur Roth Michele and John Ruskin Judy and Wylie Sheldon Marjorie and Richard Smallwood Shirley and Michael Traynor Joanne and Alan Vidinsky Gerald Vurek Lisa Wade Julie Wainwright Toni K. Weingarten Peter Wiley Leigh Wolf Todd Yancey John Ziegler
NEW WORK ADVOCATE $500–$999
Jakruti Bhika H.Rollin and Susan Boynton
George and Marilyn Bray Eric Buric and Gail Buchbinder Lauren and Bryan Burlingame Lynne Carmichael Jeff Chartrand Kim and Stan Corfman Alexandra Corvin Katherine L. Crecelius Lisa Erdberg Saul and Gloria Feldman Joan Friedman Paula Golden Don Graulich Will Green Emily Groves Carolyn Hall Craig Hamburg Richard Hay Sandra Moll and Rick Holden Miriam John and William Wilson Amy Lauer Kelly Karla Kirkegaard Bruce Lawrence Walter Lehman Kathleen Leones Fred Lonsdale Mark Luevano Karen and Dennis May John G. McGehee Mr. John McIntosh Linda McPharlin and Nick Nichols Jo Ann and Rick McStravick Gary Metzner Roberta Mundie Nancy and Bill Newmeyer John OSullivan Barbara Paschke and David Volpendesta Tony Politopoulos Jennifer Raiser Deborah Robbins and Henry Navas Stephanie and Rick Rogers Gabbi Rose Marcia and Stephen Ruben Laurel Scheinman Susan D. Terris Nancy Tingley Elizabeth Werter Peregrine Whittlesey Janet and Art Wong
NEW WORK SUPPORTER
PATRON
Seth Ammerman Julie Armistead and Fred McNear Gwynn E. August Barbara Bardaro Lisa Bardaro Jon and Ellen Benjamin Leo Berry-Lawhorn Felix Braendel Steven A. Chase and Andrea Sanchez Ashley Child Terence Chu Jerry Current David Eilenberg Rob Eves and Marcine Engel Rodney Farrow David and Vicki Fleishhacker Kerry Francis and John Jimerson Douglas and Mary Fraser Gordon and Gini Griffin Rhonda Grossman and Bernardo Lopez Richard Horrigan Gisele Huff Jili Jiang Joanne Koltnow Jonathan Mayer Linda McKay Madeline McQuillan Kes Narbutas Jeanne Newman Marsha A. O'Bannon Margaret O'Brien-Strain Linda Parkes Regina Phelps Marcia and Robert Popper Jenny Prideaux Ellen Richard Mr. and Mrs. Chuck Riffle Murphy and Wayne Robins Karen Rosenak Pepi Ross Kristin Rothballer Dorothy Schimke Helen Scott Mark Shemtob Daniel da Silva Ruth Stein Florence K. Weese Julius Young Karen Zehring Julia and Frank Zwart
Anonymous Gregory Adams Patricia L. Akre Annette Ensley Robert Bergman Susan Bronstein Denise Brosseau Howard Brownstein and Janna Ullrey Betty Bullock Steven and Kelli Burrill Meagan S. Levitan and Dale Carlson George Chadwick Millie and Barry Chauser Judith E. Cohen and Malcolm Gissen Diane Darling Ellen Davis Debbie Degutis Paul Draper Geoff Dryvynsyde and Matt Porta Marie Earl and Peter Skinner Tim J. Emert Charles and Debby Feinstein Ms. Sonia Fernandez and Mr. Long Do Philip and Velia K. Frost Lynn Garney Rona Giffard Erin Gilley David Goldman Maryann Graulich Jessica Hagedorn George Hammond Julia Hansen Paul and Linda Rae Hardwick Mary Hedahl Ms. Adrienne Hirt and Mr. Jeff Rodman Tanya and Donald James Richard and Susan Kaplan Ann and Paul Karlstrom Ashok Katdare Leslie Kaye Heather M. Kitchen Richard and Victoria Larson Jan Laskowski Karen Laws and Dan Callaway Christopher Lee Jeffrey D. Livingston and Terri Chiu James Lord
$250–$499
$100–$249
Mr. Jonathan Luskin Ana Maria Martel Nancy McCormick Jonathan McCurdy Maeve Metzger John Miller Leslie Moldow and Len Bargellini Daniel Murphy Linda Murray Ann M. O'Connor and Edward Callen David Pasta Frances Phillips David Piel Wendy Porter Kim Regan Thomas Robinson Janice L. Roudebush and Francis DeRosa Gail Rubman Steven Sattler and Karyn DiGiorgio Peter Schmitz Bill Schwartz Craig Scott Delphia Scully Jill Siefert Faye and Dennis Siegler Christine and Lawrence Silver Paul Slee Pamela Smith Jeffrey Smyser Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Somkin Joan St. Laurent and Armar Archbold Judith Stein Michele D. and Richard J. Stratton Ms. Tara Sullivan and Mr. James Horan Nancy Tune Kimberley Turley Gerald and Deborah Van Atta Philip and Ruth Waddington Dr. James Weese and Mrs. Barbara Weese Carol Wolff Sam Woodard Sharon and Jerald Young Kat and Ron Zagoria Morris Zelditch
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TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW AT MAGICTHEATRE.ORG
NEW CONSERVATORY THEATRE CENTER
In Association with Season Producers: Norman Abramson & David Beery, Lowell Kimble Executive Producers: Jorge R. Hernández & Ron Jenkins, Ted Tucker, Curtis Wilhelm & Michael Glover Producers: Bennet Marks & Kim Harris Present
MAR 2 - APR 1, 2018 “SIDESPLITTINGLY FUNNY” THE NEW YORK TIMES
“GLEEFULLY BITCHY” ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
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