DECEMBER 2019—JANUARY 2020
PLUS Reflections from Summer Lab ambassadors Program note from playwright Sarah Ruhl Witch hunts then and now
REBECCA NURSE OF SALEM PAGE 10
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IN THIS ISSUE From the artistic director · 5
8
From the managing director · 6 Reflections from Summer Lab ambassadors, The Ground Floor’s secret weapons · 8
FEATURES Becky Nurse of Salem origin story · 10 Program note from the playwright · 12 Witch hunts then and now: When panic and politics collide · 14
BERKELEY REP PRESENTS Becky Nurse of Salem · 19 Who’s Who · 20 10
CONTRIBUTORS
THE BERKELEY REP MAGAZINE
Foundation, corporate, and in-kind sponsors · 28
2019–20 · ISSUE 3
Individual donors to the Annual Fund · 29
The Berkeley Rep Magazine is published at least seven times per season.
Michael Leibert Society · 30
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ABOUT BERKELEY REP
Editor Karen McKevitt
Staff, board of trustees, and sustaining advisors · 33
Graphic Designers Cheshire Isaacs Haly Roy Writers Katie Craddock Madeleine Oldham Sarah Ruhl
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F A M I LY
Nurse of Salem its world premiere production! My first window into the extraordinary imagination of this beloved artist was Berkeley Rep’s production of Eurydice, right here in the Peet’s Theatre in 2004. The elevator doors opened, the water poured down, a room was constructed out of string, and I was completely hooked. I recently went back to the program from that production and was amused to read Tony Taccone’s description of Sarah as a “young artist of great talent.” Which, of course, she was. How prescient of Tony and Berkeley Rep’s team to have made this a creative home for an artist who would go on to be lauded with Pulitzer nominations and a MacArthur award, in addition to productions across the country and around the world. I am now the happy beneficiary of this relationship which has been tended over many years and multiple projects. Berkeley Rep has been there with Sarah through plays ranging from Eurydice to In the Next Room... to Dear Elizabeth, among others. In fact, Becky Nurse of Salem is the result of a commission from Berkeley Rep, and was developed in our Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab. This kind of long-standing engagement between an artist and a company is deeply satisfying. The inherent risks of building something new from the ground up are mitigated by a foundation of mutual trust, knowledge, and respect; and the shared successes are all the sweeter. And whether you know it or not, your presence here tonight makes you a key player in this dynamic. You will be Becky Nurse of Salem’s first audiences. Your collective responses will impact Sarah’s continued understanding of and ongoing process with this story. I can imagine no greater partner for Sarah, director Anne Kauffman, this cast, and creative team than the audiences of Berkeley Rep. Thank you for being our partners in bringing new stories into the world.
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WHAT A PRIVILEGE to give Sarah Ruhl’s Becky
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us! And even more so to have her here with Anne Kauffman and this wonderful team of artists who are helping us bring this new play to life for the first time. This piece, commissioned by The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work, has been in the works for at least three years... and as is so often the case with something new and previously unimagined, it has come to us in its own sweet time and with its own set of challenges. We always love taking on the responsibility for and the opportunity to dig deeply into and support a play or musical at this most critical moment in its development. The first day of rehearsals comes long after the seed of the idea has turned into a script, words have been put to paper, pruned, honed, expanded, reframed, tossed, reconceived, and finally put in front of a team of collaborators who are given a chance to bring their own unique contributions to the storytelling. First rehearsal comes weeks, sometimes even months, after the director and writer have selected actors who have been brought to them by casting directors who may have seen the first, second, or even third draft of a script that will keep evolving until the production opens. Once we start rehearsals, roles that start out deep and meaty may be cut. Minor roles may become critical. Entire scenes will come and go. Locations may change. The stove in a kitchen may have simply been set decoration until a note from the rehearsal hall indicates that soup is actually being cooked. Costumes built and fitted may no longer be necessary when a character is written out of a scene; the program may already be at the printer when the noted intermission is found to be unnecessary…the variables seem to be endless. It’s just not the same as producing a play that has been written and “tested,” in a sense, in other theatres and where the unknowns are somewhat more contained. That is why it takes a certain kind of theatre and a special team of theatre-makers to create a welcoming home for new work. To be a home for new work means having the capacity to accommodate the unexpected: changes, reversals, quick turnarounds, and an ability to cold-heartedly walk away, with good nature, from that special project so near and dear to your artisan heart that was cut from a scene in the third preview. Making new work sometimes means waste...wasted time, wasted money…because making a creative anything requires the ability to wipe something away and start anew. Making art isn’t linear. And yet, there are few things more satisfying for this company — from our box office staff to our carpenters to our artistic team, for all of us — than helping a playwright turn words into action. We take enormous pride in helping to midwife these precious creations into being. We love that over all these many years, really for now 51 years, you and audiences that came before you have helped us create the welcoming home that assures a playwright the best, most open-hearted reception that they could expect anywhere in the country. It’s always a grand adventure. Best regards,
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FROM THE MANAGING DIRECTOR
2019/20
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REFLECTIONS FROM SUMMER LAB AMBASSADORS, THE GROUND FLOOR’S SECRET WEAPONS* *metaphorically speaking; we are pacifists
BY K ATIE CR ADDOCK The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work invites artists to make new theatre of all kinds, at every stage of development, at our bustling Summer Residency Lab each year. The Lab runs for four weeks and usually contains between 15 and 20 projects. Our ambassador program invites aspiring theatre-makers to join us at the Lab, delving into the world of new play development through intensive, hands-on experience. True to their unusual title, ambassadors serve as liaisons between Berkeley Rep staff and artists and are integral to crafting a welcoming, fun space to generate new work. No two days (indeed, hours) at the Lab are the same, so we asked a few alumni to share favorite memories as glimpses into their ambassadorships. Leah Mesh-Ferguson · 2017 Ambassador In the middle of getting a degree in theatre that stuck to the canon and (a few) contemporary plays, the Summer Lab blew my mind. New plays were being written! By people from all over the country and about all kinds of things and not all of them were being conceived for a classic proscenium stage! I remember sitting on one of Berkeley Rep’s sunny balconies with the manager of The Ground Floor. I told her that I loved working in theatre, but wasn’t quite sure where I fit in. She said, “Leah, I think you’re a company manager. Just something to think about.” One year later, every time I passed that balcony as the Company Management Fellow at Berkeley Rep, I would remember feeling the sun on my face and contemplating a position I’d never heard of before. Now, as the company manager of a large off-Broadway theatre, I thank my lucky stars for perceptive mentors, sunny balconies, and a push to explore new avenues. 8 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 9 –2 0 · I S S U E 3
Alina Whatley · 2018 Ambassador A favorite memory has to be meeting my all-time creative hero Sarah Ruhl and discovering that she is exactly as smart and kind and interesting as her writing makes her seem. I met so many incredible theatre professionals who each had taken a different path to get where they were, which was exactly what a young, panicking new graduate needed. Attending Ambassador Hours (educational sessions tailored to us) and getting to be in the offices of a working theatre simultaneously broadened my horizons and allowed me to focus my energy when it came to my career. Niara Robinson · 2019 Ambassador I loved watching the Young Writers of Color Collective’s staged readings at the Lab. The writers were very talented and had such distinct voices; I felt I got to know them a little through their pieces and by speaking with them when they
haun n, and S il Bengso -Ferguson) a ig b A r, Mesh nche arah Ga (photo by Leah stami, S leine Ro r Residency Lab e d a M ay, me Sophia R nd Floor’s Sum u to right te, left during The Gro si o p p O meeting Bengson
er Lab r Summ und Floo ro G 16 0 ng the 2 ion duri ic discuss st a si u th n en z have a lain-Cru ileana B L d n a , So , Alyssa Stanton Soon He n sa u S ght left to ri Above,
joined us for dinner. I was really impressed when I heard about their yearlong program, and was thrilled to support them as an audience member. This is an essential part of the Summer Lab program — it is always beneficial to hear from underrepresented voices, and to support youth with an interest in theatre-making. The Summer Lab stays true to its objective, giving artists no matter the age the space, time, and resources to create. (To learn more about the Young Writers of Color Collective, visit berkeleyrep.org/school/ywocc.asp.) Andy Jacobson · 2018 Ambassador Our nightly communal dinners at the Summer Lab fell somewhere between a family gathering, networking event, and warm celebration of the day’s work, all spread across five lively tables filled with artists, ambassadors, and staff. As ambassadors, we had the best of both worlds — we shared responsibility for cultivating the space and enjoyed the fruits of our labor. Each night, we shared tales from rehearsal, read each other’s astrology signs, and bonded across the dinner table amidst an exceptionally deep sense of community. The ambassador program is steeped in artistry, education, and a healthy dose of friendship that I’ll cherish for many years. Madeleine Rostami · 2017 Ambassador The sense of kinship I built with my cohort of ambassadors is one of my favorite takeaways; I’m still friends with many of them. This idea of community and family in art-making also extended to the Summer Lab staff and artists — as we celebrat-
ed the joyous end to the Lab at our goodbye party, I remember the delight of reminiscing about all the projects. The Ground Floor helps create a new canon of American plays, and being an ambassador was a hands-on lesson in what it means to seed the field with work that will challenge and invigorate and entertain. My summer as an ambassador made me certain I wanted to engage with new work in my career, and I am so grateful for that artistic community in which I could grow and learn. Julianna Yonis · 2018 Ambassador The ambassador program introduced me to the most generous, collaborative, and creative theatre-makers and friends. My favorite memory is of the ambassadors and staff crowding into the kitchen to help with some dishes from one of our nightly dinners. Someone turned on music, and a dish-washing dance party began — there was ballet with a serving spoon, step-touching to and from the dish cabinet, and all of us giggled late into the night. It’s a small memory that captures the heart of The Ground Floor: a group of people who support each other and who always fill the mundane moments with laughter. Ambassadors have gone on to opportunities at theatres across the country, including year-long fellowships and other positions here at Berkeley Rep. If you are, or you know, a curious and resourceful early career theatre-maker, please encourage them to apply to be an ambassador at the 2020 Lab! For more info, visit berkeleyrep.org/groundfloor (click “Summer Residency Lab,” then “Ambassador”)
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Y K C BENURSE OF SALEM
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SARAH RUHL AND BERKELEY REP GO WAY BACK. We first
produced Sarah’s work in 2004, when Les Waters directed her stunning Eurydice. Sarah has transported us from that Greek underworld to provincial Russia (Three Sisters), midcentury New England and Brazil (Dear Elizabeth), Neverland (For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday), and more. Becky Nurse of Salem marks Sarah’s sixth production at Berkeley Rep and her second commission. The first was In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), which had its world premiere here in 2009 and went on to Broadway that same year. As Madeleine Oldham, director of The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work, explains, “We had a fantastic time working with Sarah on that commission and were eager to offer her another. When the timing was right, she took us up on it — in 2015, Sarah reached out and said she had an idea.” From there, the path to this production was rather speedy (for the world of theatrical development, at least). We invited Sarah to The Ground Floor’s Summer Residency Lab in 2018 to work on the commission; shortly before her residency began, she emailed Madeleine the first draft of Becky Nurse — and then five subsequent drafts, all on the same day! She spent a week writing at the Lab, bookended by cold readings (staff and artists, unrehearsed, gathered around a small table to read the drafts aloud). Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer is a longtime admirer of Sarah’s writing, and knew Berkeley Rep was one of Sarah’s artistic homes when she came aboard. She was delighted to learn of the commission, and that Sarah’s play might even be ready for her inaugural season. While Johanna and Sarah hadn’t worked together before, they knew each other socially; Johanna’s husband Russell Champa has frequently served as lighting designer on Sarah’s plays (now including Becky Nurse). Johanna was thrilled to discover that Anne Kauffman, a dear friend and treasured collaborator, was available to direct. “The kismet of these two insanely busy artists having their schedules align in the season felt fated — and this was reinforced when days later, a slot opened up in New York Stage and Film’s summer Powerhouse season, where I would be finishing up my tenure as artistic director. And Sarah was available for it, which was shocking and delightful. And it just so happened Madeleine was already going to be visiting Powerhouse that week, so all of us — Sarah, Anne, Madeleine, and I — had the opportunity to be in a room together working on this play. By the end of the week, we felt ready to launch it together,” Johanna enthuses. In yet another strange twist of fate, it so happened that the Powerhouse reading fell on July 19, the day in 1692 that Rebecca Nurse and four other women convicted of witchcraft
were hanged at Gallows Hill. As you’ll read in Sarah’s program note, five women — including Sarah, Johanna, and New York Stage and Film’s Director of Production Anne Harrigan, a descendant of Rebecca Nurse — gathered the morning of the reading to mark the occasion with a ritual. In a way, that coincidence feels analogous to both Sarah’s body of work and the birth of Becky Nurse. This play came to be from solid, comprehensible sources like Sarah’s rigorous attention to American history and its ties to current events, and her deep critical engagement with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible… but ultimately leaves room, out of respect, for the inexplicable.
The ritual completed on July 19 in commemoration of the women hung at Gallows Hill the same day in 1692. Top, left to right Bryn Weiler, Polly Noonan, Anne Harrigan, Johanna Pfaelzer, and Sarah Ruhl (photos by Caroline Englander) 2 0 1 9 –2 0 · I S S U E 3 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 1 1
H K C O L B E TH L . T N U H G N HA H C T I W
PROGRAM NOTE FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT BY SAR AH RUHL
I had not approached the witchcraft out of nowhere, or from purely social or political considerations. My own marriage of twelve years was teetering and I knew more than I wished to know about where the blame lay. That John Proctor the sinner might overturn his paralyzing personal guilt and become the most forthright voice against the madness around him was a reassurance to me, and, I suppose, an inspiration: it demonstrated that a clear moral outcry could still spring even from an ambiguously unblemished soul. Moving crabwise across the profusion of evidence, I sensed that I had at last found something of myself in it, and a play began to accumulate around this man.” (My italics, Arthur Miller, The New Yorker)
OFTEN, A PLAYWRIGHT HAS
both a public way into a play, and a private way into a play. Ostensibly, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible was about McCarthyism and the blacklist. But privately it was about his guilt at wanting to sleep with Marilyn Monroe. This bit of truth was passed on to me by the brilliant playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. We were talking about The Crucible over a glass of wine at a retreat in Princeton. I was explaining to Branden that I’d recently experienced some rage after seeing a production of The Crucible. My rage had nothing to do with it being a masterpiece or not a masterpiece — I think it is a masterpiece — but instead with how I felt the whole concept of witchery was redirected toward girls’ desires for older married men which felt like a massive historical imposition. “Oh,” said Branden, “didn’t you know that Arthur Miller wanted to get with Marilyn Monroe when he wrote that play and he felt guilty about it because he was married and she was young?” I did not. But watching the brilliant documentary Rebecca Miller made about her father, and reading Timebends (Miller’s biography), I saw that indeed, Miller struggled with his feelings for the younger Marilyn Monroe during the writing of The Crucible. Of course, the play was also very much a parable for McCarthyism, for his friend Elia Kazan’s betrayal — but the heat of the play is the lust of John Proctor for Abigail Williams. Miller said that he saw a painting of the trials in Salem — of Abigail Williams reaching her hand to John Proctor — and found a passage about her hand having a burning sensation when it touched Proctor. That was his way in. The real Abigail Williams was 11. Miller made her 17 in the play. The real John Proctor was a tavern keeper, aged 60. Miller made him an upright farmer, age 35. The real Abigail Williams never turned to prostitution;
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Miller writes in a footnote “Echoes down the corridor” that legends say Abigail grew up to be a whore in Boston. There is no evidence for that line of thinking, nor is there any evidence that she and John Proctor knew each other from the witch trials. Playwrights deserve the creative liberty to enter their plays with all of their emotional heat and history. I do not begrudge anyone a love story, real or fictional. After all, as my friend Ezra (the self-proclaimed maker of the best falafel in the Western world) once told me, every good story has to contain a love story. I suppose what strikes me as fundamentally dishonest about The Crucible is the mixture of fact and fiction; the copious historical notes, unusually embedded in the stage directions, lead us to believe we are watching actual history unfold. But we are watching what we always watch on stage — a psychic drama from the mind of a complicated individual relating their psyche to humankind’s larger collective unconscious. That The Crucible is done at almost every high school, and is in fact the way American girls and boys understand the history of Salem, added to my frustration. I thought — all those bonnets — all those Goodys — and really, Arthur Miller wanted to have sex with Marilyn Monroe. I thought: all those women witches died, but John Proctor was the hero of the story. I thought: no one to this day knows why the girls engaged in mass hysteria, but it probably was not the lust of one duplicitous 11-year-old for one middle-aged barkeep. For all of these logical reasons, I thought I would end up writing my own historical drama about the Salem witch trials but every time I tried to dip my toe in the 17th century my pen came back and told me to stay in my own era. Perhaps because I felt too dwarfed by the long shadow cast by the mastery of Arthur Miller. Or perhaps I wanted to stay in the present moment because I have been undone and fascinated by the language of the witch hunt used by Donald Trump from his campaign in which he whipped crowds into a frenzy, yelling “Lock her Up!” with the crowds often replying, “Hang the bitch!” to his time in office when he’s used the term “witch hunt” hundreds of times, describing himself as the victim. Not since the burning of witches in Europe was the
G N A H ! P U R HE WITCH ! H C T I B HER UP K C LO ITCH! B E H T G T.LOCK N U H H C NG THE A iconography of witchery used with such base hypocrisy and to such effect. Although most contemporary historians have dismissed the rye bread explanation for the symptoms of hysteria in Salem as sheer folly and conspiracy, we do know that rye was rare in the new world, and was shipped from Europe, often moldering on the long journey. And we do know that Tituba fed rye bread mixed with urine to the girls, trying to get to the bottom of their maladies. It would be ironic if the “cure” for witchcraft was actually a biological deepening and intensifying of the girls’ symptoms, which would have subsided on their own after St. Anthony’s fire left their bodies. Most contemporary historians eschew a biological explanation, preferring explanations of post-traumatic stress from the American-Indian wars, property disputes, and the like. I don’t know that we’ll ever know why those girls accused their elders of witchcraft. But what we do know is that the accusations were not a function of the lust Abigail Williams had for John Proctor. Speaking of Tituba and the Indian-American wars, I think the historical characters of Tituba and “John Indian” deserve their own investigations at the center of two new plays (and two contemporary novels have already been written about Tituba). Apparently Tituba was possibly not from Barbados, but instead from South America, a member of the Arawak tribe. The magic she was asked to do was not from Barbados, but was instead European witchcraft already known to the white women who asked her to perform it. The othering of Tituba throughout the ages, and the great mystery surrounding her own desires and intentions, deserve investigation. I thought that story was not mine to write. A note on the opioid crisis. Massachusetts is one of 10 states with the highest casualties for opioid overdoses in America. There were 28 deaths per 100,000 people in Massachusetts in 2017; 64,000 people died of opioid overdoses in 2016 across the country, more than died in automobile accidents. It is the largest preventable cause of death for people between the ages of 18 and 35. This cluster has created what some call a lost generation, flooding the foster-care system with their children. The greatest increase in opioid deaths was accounted for by synthetic opioids like fentanyl. In a bizarre karmic loop, or bitter irony, the 19th-century opi-
um trade with China that destroyed many Chinese citizens greatly enriched Boston. The money from the 19th-century opium trade even helped to finance cultural institutions like the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Even in 19th-century Boston, doctors like Dr. Fitch Edward Oliver warned against the dangers of opium, particularly for women: “Doomed, often, to a life of disappointment, and, it may be, of physical and mental inaction, and in the smaller and more remote towns…deprived of all wholesome social diversion, it is not strange that nervous depression, with all its concomitant evils, should sometimes follow, — opium being discreetly selected as the safest and most agreeable remedy.” The current cultural attention afforded to the opioid crisis, which disproportionally affects white Americans, is in stark contrast to the lack of attention, empathy, and resources directed toward public health crises that feature fewer white faces on posters. While some patients are able to manage long-term opioid usage for chronic pain without developing an opioid use disorder, the incredibly addictive potential of the medicine is now clear to the medical community, and companies like Purdue Pharma are now being held accountable.
CO NTIN U E D O N PAG E 17
PROCTOR I will ma you are! ke you famous for the whore ABIGAIL (grabs hi m) Never! I moment siknow you, John — y your wife nging secret hallou are this elujahs t will hang hat ! PROCTOR (throws h er down) You mad, murderous bitch!
— Screenpl ay, The C rucible, Arthur Mi ller
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Top, 1876 illustration of a courtroom during the Salem witch trials (Public Domain) Bottom, Seattle womens March-Jan 2017-18 by ShebleyCL (Creative Commons)
WITCH HUNTS
AND
BY MADELEINE OLDHAM
WHEN PANIC AND POLITICS COLLIDE
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THIS COMBATIVE SPARK FLICKERED THROUGHOUT THE NORTHEASTERN SETTLEMENTS, BUT NOWHERE DID IT CATCH FIRE THE WAY IT DID IN SALEM.” IN COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND, it was commonly accepted that
the devil had the power to possess people, and that this reasonably explained all sorts of undesirable behavior. “Spectral evidence,” which consisted of things like visions and hallucinations, held the same weight in court as something tangibly proven. This meant a person could describe a dream where someone confessed to misdeeds — with no grounding in fact or real world experience — and that the content of this dream counted as much as a fingerprint or dna match does today. The law at that time had not yet adopted the premise that people were innocent until proven guilty; rather, it assumed the opposite, and the burden fell on accused people to establish their innocence. So when a person felt they had been wronged in some way, the temptation of finger-pointing could be hard to resist. It was much more difficult to refute an allegation than to make one, and thus, humans being human, accusations flew. This combative spark flickered throughout the northeastern settlements, but nowhere did it catch fire the way it did in Salem. Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690s consisted of two separate geographical areas: Salem Town and Salem Village. Already from the nomenclature, one has a glimpse of how this story unfolds. Wealthier, economy-driven Salem Town experienced friction with the less affluent farming community of Salem Village. Salem Village itself divided into east and west. A fraught history ensued, filled with regular tussles over property lines, political and religious agency, and competing agendas. People regularly took each other to trial over all things great and small, and the courts enjoyed a robust position as arbiter of everything from falling asleep in church and hair-pulling to more serious crimes. Public opinion would embrace nothing less than model citizenry. Strict religious doctrine governed everyday life, and promoted a climate of conformity that perceived even a small deviation as a threat. And so when two young girls, ages 9 and 11, began to display unexplainable physical and vocal outbursts seemingly out of nowhere, it was cause for great alarm. When the town doctor couldn’t identify a medical cause, he declared the root of the problem to be supernatural, saying the girls were bewitched. The courts got involved, pressuring the girls into offering names upon which they could place blame, and the worms leapt out of the can. For reasons one can only speculate about, the girls accused three individuals: Sarah Good, an unapologetic woman whose circumstances required her to beg charity from others for her survival; Sarah Osborne, who “fell” from society after her husband died and she made the unimaginable decisions: 1) to marry an immigrant and 2) to try and keep the family property for herself instead of handing it directly over to her sons; and Tituba, about whom little is known other than that she
was a slave who may or may not have been born in Barbados. These women all shared in common that they did not go to church, and lived on the outskirts of “polite” society. When Tituba’s claims of innocence were relentlessly rejected, she attempted to deflect scrutiny by accusing other women of witchcraft. This was likely an act of desperation: of the three women’s positions, as a slave hers was the most vulnerable. Following these allegations, more girls experienced fits of violent contortions and complained of pinching sensations, which led to more accusations, and the situation snowballed out of control. No longer confined to women perceived as outsiders, the indictments spread to honorable members of the community, and motivations of revenge and envy seamlessly entered into the chaos. One of the most shocking developments transpired when a frail, elderly pillar of the community named Rebecca Nurse was counted among the accused. The pious Nurse had a previously unblemished reputation for kindness and service, and to include her name on the list of potential witches caused a great stir. Many people risked their own safety by signing a petition to defend her, and she was originally found innocent. But public outcry demanded a second look, specifically at one particular statement, and when asked about it, Nurse failed to hear the question and therefore did not reply. Her silence was interpreted as guilt and she received a death sentence. The trials lasted just under a year and a half, and the frenzy saw over 200 people accused and 19 hanged. But it didn’t take long for the tide of public opinion to shift: only four years later, Massachusetts announced a day of respect to fast and wrestle with the trials’ legacy. Over the next few years, calls for absolutions, apologies, and reparations flooded in, and within 10 years, the Massachusetts General Court deemed the whole affair illegal, rendering it a shameful episode in their jurisdiction’s past. But Salem wasn’t the only mass panic that swept American history away on a tide of hysteria. Fast forward about 250 years, and we find ourselves in the 1950s. The fear has changed shape: it no longer belongs to the devil, but rather to communism. Having already experienced the first “red scare” from 1917 to 1920 when communism entered the world stage as a perceived threat to democracy, the groundwork had been laid for a second one. Some American politicians saw communist ideology as representing chaos and anarchy, and fomented an urgent need to quash the influence of this dangerous radicalism. A narrative tying communism to extremism and inevitable violent revolution gained momentum. The government established the House Un-American Activities Committee (huac) as early as 1938. Whispers of Russian infiltration blossomed into full-on terror when news of Soviet atomic bomb testing reached the public in 1949. The intention to flush out
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LISTEN TO THESE FEATURES AND HEAR EXTENDED INTERVIEWS ON REPISODES: THE BERKELEY REP PODCAST AT SOUNDCLOUD.COM/BERKELEYREP communists from the American midst was shaped to feel like a life or death situation. This ferreting-out of potential traitors started in politics, but spread very quickly to other arenas. The huac named the famous “Hollywood Ten,” a group of suspected communists whom the film industry subsequently blacklisted, and, as happened in Salem, a wildfire ignited. Soon over 300 artists lost their ability to work because their names appeared on a list of people no one would hire. Arthur Miller watched this happening, picked up his pen and wielded it as a weapon, and wrote The Crucible in response. The Crucible showcases the allegorical powers of theatre in glorious fashion: simply by writing it during the height of the anti-communist fervor, Miller highlighted a parallel between the Salem witch trials and what was going on in the contemporary world outside it. Not surprisingly, after writing the play, Miller drew the suspicions of the huac. He was summoned to appear in a hearing and refused to name names, earning him a prison sentence and a place on the blacklist. His conviction was appealed and overturned, but the firsthand experience of such grievous injustice never left him. There is perhaps no more prominent symbol of this zealous anti-communist quest, often referred to as a witch hunt, than Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy’s name is often used interchangeably with the huac, but in fact his influence ran parallel to the committee — he had no affiliation with it other than an ideological one, and its activities operated completely separately from McCarthy’s pursuits. Miller offers a vivid description of looking back on McCarthy’s legacy in an article he wrote for The New Yorker in 1996: “… films of Senator Joseph McCarthy are rather unsettling — if you remember the fear he once spread. Buzzing his truculent sidewalk brawler’s snarl through the hairs in his nose, squinting through his cat’s eyes and sneering like a villain, he comes across now as nearly comical, a self-aware performer keeping a straight face as he does his juicy threat-schtick.” McCarthy employed shameless tactics of character assassination, smear campaigning, and defamation to previously unheard of extents. He zealously attacked his opponents with no regard for facts and flagrantly invented lies. Once again, accusation implied guilt rather than innocence. Compromise was for the weak, might was right, the loudest voice wins,
and if you say something enough times it defines what’s true. McCarthy had an uncanny ability to tap into populist anxieties and divert them into promoting his vision of fear-mongering governance, which then secured fierce allegiances despite his completely unprincipled practices. And all of this vigorously fueled an epic partisan divide. Sound familiar? A key link in the chain connecting Joseph McCarthy to Donald Trump, the famous lawyer Roy Cohn was a virtuoso of unscrupulous but brilliant strategy. (Tony Kushner fascinatingly depicts this same Cohn in Angels in America.) Cohn represented both McCarthy and Trump during the course of his career, and undoubtedly infused each of them with a deep understanding of how to manipulate the system and how to win at all costs. Trump’s recent attempts at portraying himself as the victim of a witch hunt display all the hallmarks of a Cohn-endorsed design, from deflection and distraction to brazen admission and previously unthinkable taunts. He is resolutely determined to strong-arm everyone and remain the last man standing. Which brings us to a question: amidst all of this bluster, showmanship, ruthlessness, and megalomania, where are the women? Have we left them behind in Salem? Enter Sarah Ruhl, who has astutely addressed this question in Becky Nurse of Salem. We like to hold up the uncomplicated heroes who bravely stand up in the face of injustice, but in this case we’ve laid the credit at the feet of the John Proctors and the Arthur Millers of the world, using the stories of the hanged women to do that. Sarah Ruhl offers some balance back into that equation, reminding us of the women’s legacy and re-centering the story to focus on a hero who continues their narrative in a complex, contemporary, and deeply human way. As we find ourselves in the middle of a profoundly chaotic moment in our country’s history, Becky Nurse throws us a lifeline where integrity and straightforwardness still exist. Maybe we don’t need to muscle our way out of it — perhaps we can find a different, quieter, less flashy but more sensible way through it instead. One could argue that our nation is teetering on the edge of another episode of mass hysteria: fantasies about the threat of immigration smolder all over the country. It remains to be seen whether we will fan the flames and invite a conflagration, or whether we can smother the sparks. Maybe this time, instead of persecuting innocent people, we will choose love over fear and as the Witch says, use our power for good.
AS WE FIND OURSELVES IN THE MIDDLE OF A PROFOUNDLY CHAOTIC MOMENT... BECKY NURSE THROWS US A LIFELINE WHERE INTEGRITY AND STRAIGHTFORWARDNESS STILL EXIST.” 1 6 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 9 –2 0 · I S S U E 3
P U R E H K C LO TCH! W I B E H T E H K C O L . T N HU THE BIT G N HA HUNT.L H C T I W ! HANG P U R E H H C T I !W PROGRAM NOTE FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT CO NTIN U E D FROM PAG E 13
As for the ergotism theory about Salem — ergot derives from a fungus that grows on rye. The condition was also called St. Anthony’s fire, named for St. Anthony, who was pursued by the hallucinations of the devil in the desert and resisted. Acute and chronic ergotism create convulsions, pain in the extremities, and delusions. lsd was originally synthesized from ergot, and medications derived from ergot are used to treat migraines and Parkinson’s disease. I don’t wish to add to conspiracy theories by writing this play, nor do I want to ignore a biological explanation for hysteria. But it continues to fascinate me that the same substance that was found on moldy rye bread, capable of causing hallucinations, was also used in the old world by midwives to stop excessive bleeding in childbirth — and both midwives and drug-induced hallucinations were frowned upon by the church, as pointed out by Michael Pollan in his book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. Now, if we are to insist on fact, it should be noted that Gallows Hill does indeed appear to be at the site overlooking a Walgreens in Salem, not the Dunkin’ Donuts. Some townspeople and amateur sleuths claimed the original site was now a Dunkin’ Donuts, but the Walgreens was designated in 2016 as the most probable site of the executions. Much of the evidence was wiped away in an attempt to forget, and one of the few historical sites still preserved is Rebecca Nurse’s homestead, in Danvers. I did a reading of this play on July 19th in Poughkeepsie at New York Stage and Film, and a descendant of Rebecca Nurse who worked at the theatre wanted to mark the day; July 19th in 1692 was the day Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, and three other women were hung.
Nurse said, before she died, “Oh, Lord, help me! It is false! I am clear. For my life now lies in your hands.” On July 19th, before the reading, we did a ritual at a very large tree — the tree had the largest self-supporting branch in the United States. I cannot tell you what we did around that tree. Today, August 19th, is the day that John Proctor was hung. John Proctor, also an innocent victim, became the cultural symbol of the witch trials (rather than the large group of women put to death) because of the outsized success of Arthur Miller at turning Proctor into a tragic hero. Arthur Miller once lived down the street from me. Maybe we heard the same fog horns from the water in Brooklyn Heights while thinking about witches. There is a public way into a play and a private way in, like a worm turning over the earth. Earthworms are blind. So are writers, often, and especially when in the midst of writing. Often a playwright will never know their own private way into a play. Sometimes the playwright knows and keeps it secret. Sometimes the playwright does not know while writing but realizes with some embarrassment on the first preview and blushes. Sometimes the playwright does not know while writing but realizes 10 years later, and, like the great Arthur Miller, writes about it in a very thick memoir. Let playwrights have their secrets, their private lusts, their compulsions — but do let us free Abigail Williams from her manufactured lust for John Proctor. When John Proctor says “It is a whore!” and the “it” is a child called Abigail, let us consider that the real historical child was not an “it” and not a whore. As for my own private reason for writing this particular play, I either don’t know or I will never tell. — Sarah Ruhl, August 19th, 2019, Provincetown, Massachusetts
Sarah Ruhl lighting candles for the group’s personal ritual. (photo by Caroline Englander)
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THE MISSIONARIES OF MAYHEM RETURN!
(STILL) IN AMERICA WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY CULTURE CLASH RICHARD MONTOYA, RICARDO SALINAS, AND HERBERT SIGUENZA DIRECTED BY LISA PETERSON PEET’S THEATRE · STARTS FEB 20
SEASON SPONSORS
PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
BECKY NURSE OF SALEM BY
CAST
SARAH RUHL
Stan Owen Campbell Shape Shifter Rod Gnapp
DIREC TED BY
Gail Naian González Norvind
ANNE KAUFFMAN
Witch Ruibo Qian Becky Nurse Pamela Reed
DECEM B ER 12, 2019 –JANUARY 26, 2020 PEE T ’ S THE ATRE · M AIN SE A SON
Bob Adrian Roberts Shelby Elissa Beth Stebbins
This show has a 15-minute intermission.
PRODUCTION STAFF
Becky Nurse of Salem is made possible thanks to the generous support of SEASON SPONSORS Bruce Golden & Michelle Mercer Jack & Betty Schafer Michael & Sue Steinberg The Strauch Kulhanjian Family
Scenic Design Louisa Thompson Costume Design Meg Neville Lighting Design Russell H. Champa Sound Design Mikaal Sulaiman Music Daniel Kluger
BERKELEY REP PRESENTS
BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE
JOHANNA PFAELZER, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR · SUSAN MEDAK, MANAGING DIRECTOR
Dramaturg Madeleine Oldham Casting Amy Potozkin, csa Telsey + Company
SPONSORS Robin & Rich Edwards Scott & Sherry Haber Sandra & Ross McCandless A S S O CIAT E S P O N S O R S Shelley & Jonathan Bagg Tracy & Mark Ferron Joan Sarnat & David Hoffman Pat & Merrill Shanks This production has been supported in part by the Mosse Artistic Development Fund. Special thanks to the Partners of Becky Nurse of Salem.
William Cantler, csa Karyn Casl, csa Production Stage Manager Michael Suenkel Assistant Stage Manager Sofie Miller The actors and stage managers are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. Commissioned by Berkeley Rep and developed in The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work. Developed with the support of New York Stage and Film & Vassar’s Powerhouse Season, Summer 2019.
Affiliations The director is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent national labor union. The Scenic, Costume, Lighting, and Sound Designers in lort Theatres are represented by United Scenic Artists Local usa-829, iatse.
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WHO’S WHO
OWEN CAMPBELL S TA N
Owen is an actor and arts organizer from Brooklyn, NY. This is Owen’s Berkeley Rep debut. Past New York productions include Hangmen (Atlantic Theater) and Indian Summer (Playwrights Horizons). Selected past film work includes The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Super Dark Times, and As You Are. Owen has recurred on FX’s The Americans and hbo’s Boardwalk Empire, among other television series. He is a founding member of the Zoo City art collective and co-director of 999 [Triple Nine], an organization which temporarily converts unused industrial spaces into donation-based studio and rehearsal space. He is a Gemini.
ROD GNAPP
SHAPE SHIFTER
Rod is happy to return to Berkeley Rep, where he has appeared in Mad Forest, How I Learned to Drive, Pentecost, and many others. A veteran of Bay Area stages, Rod recently appeared in Visible From Four States with the Magic Theatre, Sweat at American Conservatory Theater, and Seared at the San Francisco Playhouse. Theatre credits also include work at California Shakespeare Theater, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Aurora Theatre Company, TheatreWorks, Word for Word, the Huntington Theatre Company, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Virginia Playhouse, and Pittsburgh Public Theater. Rod can be seen in the Miller brothers’ independent feature film Touching Home with Ed Harris. He can also be seen in Valley of the Heart’s Delight, Calendar Confloption (Pixar), and Back to the Streets of San Francisco and heard in Cars 3. He is the recipient of many San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards and is a graduate of the act Master of Fine Arts Program. He is an Aries.
NAIAN GONZÁLEZ NORVIND GAIL
Berkeley Rep debut. Naian made her New York stage debut off Broadway in Her Requiem (lct3). Her other theatre credits include Illyria (The Public Theater) and How To Transcend a Happy Marriage (Lincoln Center Theatre). She co-wrote and stars in Leona (Winner Best Actress ficm). Her other film and TV credits include Cubby, South Mountain, Rebel in the Rye, Everybody’s 2 0 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 9 –2 0 · I S S U E 3
Got Somebody…Not Me (Winner Best Actress Guanajuato Film Festival), Chicago Med, Gotham (recurring guest star), The Devil You Know (hbo), Blue Bloods, Cronica de Castas, Pacientes (once TV). Education/ Training: Sorbonne University, Major: Literature, Minor: Film; London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art. She is in Aquarius.
RUIBO QIAN WITCH
Ruibo is making her Berkeley Rep debut. New York and regional credits include Bull in a China Shop (Lincoln Center Theater), Fucking A (Signature Theatre), Tiger Style! (Huntington Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre), Henry IV Part I (Pearl Theatre Company), Water by the Spoonful (The Old Globe), The Great Leap (American Conservatory Theater), and The Nether and Significant Other (San Francisco Playhouse). Film and television credits include Manchester by the Sea, Black Mirror, Mozart in the Jungle, High Maintenance, New Amsterdam, The Sinner, Living with Yourself, Broad City, and Jessica Jones. Ruibo holds a bfa from Boston University and an mfa from New York University’s Tisch Graduate Acting Program. She is a proud recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship. She is a Capricorn. ruiboqian.com
PAMELA REED
BECKY NURSE
Pamela is a veteran actor of theatre, film, and television. On and off-Broadway credits include Fools, Standing on My Knees, Getting Out (Drama Desk Award), Curse of the Starving Class (Drama Desk nomination), Aunt Dan and Lemon, Fen, Sorrows of Stephen, All’s Well That Ends Well, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, world premiere of Ezra Pound’s translation of Sophocles’ Elektra, and the National Broadway tour of The Humans. Regional theatre includes Old Times, Curse of the Starving Class, and The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (American Conservatory Theater); Other Desert Cities and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (A Contemporary Theatre, Seattle); and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Gregory Award, Best Actress), Luna Gale (Gregory Award, Best Actress), and A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Seattle Repertory Theatre). Notable film and TV roles include Kindergarten Cop, The Long Riders, Bean, Junior, Melvin & Howard, The Best of Times, Cadillac Man, Passed Away, Proof of Life, The Right Stuff, Tanner 88 (Cable Ace Award, Best Actress), Grand, ncis: LA, and Parks and Rec. Pamela has received the Obie for Sustained Excellence of Performance.
ADRIAN ROBERTS BOB
Adrian is thrilled to be working at Berkeley Rep again where he was last seen as Commander Osembenga in Ruined by Lynn Nottage, directed by Liesl Tommy. His most recent Bay Area credits are the title role of Macbeth at African American Shakespeare Company and Chaucer Mosely in Urban Retreat at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Other Bay Area credits include Steve Daniels in A Lesson from Aloes at Z Space, James T in Barbecue at SF Playhouse, Willie in Master Harold and the Boys and Gabriel in Breakfast with Mugabi at Aurora Theatre Company, Claudius in Hamlet and King Basillio in Life Is a Dream at Cal Shakes, Martin Luther King Jr. in Mountaintop at TheaterWorks, Disciple Ufot in Runboyrun and Charles Boyd in Pen/Man/Ship at the Magic Theatre, and Gabriel/Troy in Fences at Marin Theatre Company. Adrian’s regional credits include three seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Booster in Jitney at American Stage, and Ken in the Playboy of the West Indies at Lincoln Center, among others. He has been seen in television shows such as Scrubs, Criminal Minds, and Brothers & Sisters. Adrian is a graduate of act’s mfa program.
ELISSA BETH STEBBINS SHELBY
Elissa is delighted to make her Berkeley Rep main stage debut, after performing in The Ground Floor reading of Watch Me. Recent regional credits include Kings, Kiss, The Village Bike, and Caught (Shotgun Players); In Braunau (San Francisco Playhouse Sandbox Series); Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. and You For Me For You (Crowded Fire Theatre); The Little Prince (Marin Theatre Company); and Minneola Twins (Cutting Ball), among others. She is a tba Award winner, and a Titan grant recipient. Elissa graduated from Santa Clara University, and has continued training with Shakespeare and Company, and Atelier Matteo Destro. She is an Aquarius.
SARAH RUHL
P L AY W R I G H T
Becky Nurse of Salem marks Sarah’s sixth production at Berkeley Rep; previous productions at Berkeley Rep include For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday, the West Coast premiere of Eurydice, the world premiere of In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), an adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, and the West Coast premiere of Dear Elizabeth. In the Next Room went on to Broadway, playing at Lyceum Theatre. Sarah’s other
plays include The Oldest Boy, The Clean House, Passion Play, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Melancholy Play, Orlando, Late: a cowboy song, and Stage Kiss. Her plays have been seen off Broadway at Women’s Project Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage Theatre, and Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. Her select regional credits include Yale Repertory Theatre and the Goodman Theatre. Sarah received the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Whiting Award, the Lilly Award, a pen Award, and the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award. She has been a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. Her book of essays, 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write, was a New York Times notable book of the year. She teaches at Yale school of drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family.
ANNE KAUFFMAN DIREC TOR
Anne is a New York-based freelance director. She is the artistic director of New York City Center’s Encores! Off-Center. Her recent credits include Fire in My Mouth (New York Philharmonic), Hundred Days (New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival, La Jolla Playhouse), The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova), Mary Jane (nytw & Yale Rep), A Life (Playwrights Horizons), The Nether (mcc), The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Goodman Theatre), Belleville (Steppenwolf Theatre, nytw). She is a nytw Usual Suspect, a resident director at Roundabout Theatre, a founding member of The Civilians, a board member and associate artist with Clubbed Thumb, is on the Stage Directors and Choreog-
raphers Society Executive Board and a trustee of sdcf. Anne’s awards include three Obie Awards, the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Exceptional Creativity from Lincoln Center, the Alan Schneider Director Award, two Barrymore Awards, a Lucille Lortel Award, and a Lilly Award.
LOUISA THOMPSON
SCENIC DESIGNER
Louisa was the scenic designer for Berkeley Rep’s production of Red. New York City credits: Playwrights Horizons, Elevator Repair Service, Soho Repertory Theatre, The Play Company, Target Margin Theater, Clubbed Thumb, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Theatreworks usa, The Foundry Theater Company, mcc Theatre. Regional credits: Alliance Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Arden Theatre, Bard Summerscape, McCarter Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, La Jolla Playhouse, The Children’s Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Geva Theatre, Triad Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre. mfa from Yale School of Drama. Associate Professor at Hunter College New York.
MEG NEVILLE
COSTUME DESIGNER
Meg’s Berkeley Rep productions include Imaginary Comforts; It Can’t Happen Here; Hand to God; One Man, Two Guvnors; Party People; Macbeth; Pericles; The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide…; Ghost Light; Eurydice. Regional credits include The Great Leap and Heisenberg at American Con-
servatory Theater, The Music Man at Arizona Theater Company, Blithe Spirit and The Cocoanuts at the Guthrie Theater, and Taming of the Shrew, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and The Cocoanuts at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, as well as shows at California Shakespeare Theater, the Magic Theatre, Joe Goode Performance Group, Marin Theatre Company, South Coast Rep, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, Center Stage Baltimore, Second Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Atlantic Theater Company, bam, New York Stage and Film. She resides in Marin with her family. megneville.com
RUSSELL H. CHAMPA
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Previous projects at Berkeley Rep include The Pillowman, Eurydice, and Dear Elizabeth, among others. Upcoming and recent projects include Wakey Wakey (American Conservatory Theater), Macbeth (California Shakespeare Theater), About Alice (Theatre for a New Audience), Romeo and Juliet (Huntington Stage Company), Everest (Kansas City Opera), and Thresh|Hold (Pilobolus). Broadway credits include China Doll (Gerald Schoenfeld Theater), In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) (Lyceum Theatre/Lincoln Center Theater), and Julia Sweeney’s God Said “Ha!” (Lyceum Theatre). New York work includes Playwrights Horizons, Lincoln Center Theater, The Public Theater, Second Stage, Manhattan Theatre Club, mcc, Julliard, and New York Stage and Film. Regional work includes Steppenwolf, The Old Globe, The Wilma, Trinity Rep, Mark Taper Forum, and The Kennedy Center.
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WHO’S WHO
MIKAAL SULAIMAN
SOUND DESIGNER
Mikaal’s previous Berkeley Rep credits include White Noise. Off-Broadway: Continuity (Manhattan Theatre Club); Passage, Fairview (Soho Rep; Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominations); Recent Alien Abductions, Time’s Journey Through a Room (Play Co.); Meet Vera Stark (Signature Theatre); Blue Ridge (Atlantic Theatre); The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons); Rags Parkland (Ars Nova; Drama Desk Award nomination); Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova); Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (New York Theatre Workshop); Master (Foundry Theatre Co.); Skittles: The Broadway Musical. Regional: Berkeley Rep (Fairview), Alley Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Trinity Rep, Pig Iron, Arden Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Early Morning Opera. mikaal.com
DANIEL KLUGER MUSIC
Broadway: Oklahoma! (2019 Tony nomination, Orchestrations), The Sound Inside, Seawall / A Life, revival of Marvin’s Room, world premiere of Significant Other. Off Broadway: premieres of Sunday, I Was Most Alive With You, Animal, The Village Bike, Man From Nebraska, Tribes, and Women or Nothing. Daniel has produced scores for many off-Broadway theatres including Lincoln Center, Roundabout Theatre Company, Atlantic Theater Company, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard Theatre. danielkluger.com
MADELEINE OLDHAM
R E S I D E N T D R A M AT U R G/ D I R E C T O R , T H E G R O U N D F LO O R
Madeleine is the director of The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work and the Theatre’s resident dramaturg. She oversees commissioning and new play development, and dramaturged the world premiere productions of Fairview, Aubergine, The House that will not Stand, Passing Strange, and In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), among others. As literary manager and associate dramaturg at Center Stage in Baltimore, she produced the First Look reading series and headed up its young audience initiative. Before moving to Baltimore, she was the literary manager at Seattle Children’s Theatre, where she oversaw an extensive commissioning program. She also acted as assistant and interim literary manager at Intiman Theatre in Seattle. Madeleine served for four years on the executive committee of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and has also worked with act (Seattle), Austin Scriptworks, Crowded Fire, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, the Kennedy Center, New Dramatists, Playwrights Center, and Portland Center Stage.
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AMY POTOZKIN
D I R E C T O R O F C A S T I N G/ A R T I S T I C A S S O C I AT E
Amy begins her 30th season with Berkeley Rep. Through the years she has also had the pleasure of casting plays for act (Seattle), Arizona Theatre Company, Aurora Theatre Company, B Street Theatre, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Dallas Theater Center, Marin Theatre Company, the Marsh, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Social Impact Productions Inc., and Traveling Jewish Theatre. She worked on various independent films, including Conceiving Ada, starring Tilda Swinton; The 8th Year of the Emergency by Maureen Towey; Haiku Tunnel and Love & Taxes, both by Josh Kornbluth; and Beyond Redemption by Britta Sjogren. Amy received her mfa from Brandeis University, where she was also an artist in residence. She has been an audition coach to hundreds of actors and a presentation/communication coach to many businesspeople. She taught acting at Mills College and audition technique at Berkeley Rep’s School of Theatre, and has led workshops at numerous other venues in the Bay Area. Amy is a member of csa, the Casting Society of America, and received an Artios Award for Excellence in Casting for Angels in America.
TELSEY + COMPANY CASTING
Broadway/Tours: West Side Story, Tina, The Sound Inside, Linda Vista, Beetlejuice, Oklahoma!, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mean Girls, Frozen, Come From Away, Waitress, Hamilton, Wicked, My Fair Lady, Once on This Island, Hello, Dolly!, Anastasia. Off Broadway: Atlantic Theater Company, Classic Stage Company, mcc Theater, New Group, Park Avenue Armory, Second Stage Theatre. Film: The Kitchen, Mary Poppins Returns, Ben Is Back, The Greatest Showman, Into the Woods, Rachel Getting Married. TV: Tales of the City, Fosse/Verdon, NOS4A2, This Is Us, ncis: New Orleans, One Day at a Time, Rent, commercials. telseyandco.com
MICHAEL SUENKEL
P R O D U C T I O N S TAG E M A N AG E R
Michael began his association with Berkeley Rep as the stage management intern for the 1984–85 season and is now in his 26th season as production stage manager. He has also worked with the Huntington Theatre (Boston), The Public Theater and New Victory Theatre (New York), La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theatre, and many others. Internationally he has stage managed shows in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Among his favorite Berkeley Rep productions are Angels in America, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, Eurydice, Endgame, The Beaux’ Stratagem, and Mad Forest.
SOFIE MILLER
A S S I S TA N T S TAG E M A N AG E R
Sofie is grateful to be in her seventh season with Berkeley Rep. Favorite productions include Angels in America, Kiss My Aztec, Imaginary Comforts, Roe, Party People, Latin History for Morons, and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. Sofie has also worked regionally with Aurora Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theater, Magic Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and California Shakespeare Theater, and has stage managed concerts in nyc at Joe’s Pub and Urban Stages. Sofie holds a BA in Theater Arts and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Theater Management from University of California, Santa Cruz.
JOHANNA PFAELZER
ARTISTIC DIREC TOR
Johanna is delighted to join Berkeley Rep, and honored to serve as its fourth artistic director. She recently spent 12 years as the artistic director of New York Stage and Film (nysaf), a New York City–based organization dedicated to the development of new works for theatre, film, and television. nysaf is known for providing a rigorous and nurturing environment for writers, directors, and other artists to realize work that has gone on to production at the highest levels of the profession. Notable works that were developed under Johanna’s leadership include the 2016 Tony Award winners Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and The Humans by Stephen Karam, The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe, Junk and The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music by Taylor Mac, Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell, The Homecoming Queen by Ngozi Anyanwu, The Great Leap by Lauren Yee, John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer- and Tony Award–winning Doubt, The Fortress of Solitude by Michael Friedman and Itamar Moses, The Jacksonian by Beth Henley, and Green Day’s American Idiot.
SUSAN MEDAK
M A N AG I N G D I R E C T O R
Susan has served as Berkeley Rep’s managing director since 1990, leading the administration and operations of the Theatre. She has served as president of the League of Resident Theatres (lort) and treasurer of Theatre Communications Group (tcg), organizations that represent the interests of nonprofit theatres across the nation. Susan chaired panels for the Massachusetts Arts Council and has also served on program panels for Arts Midwest, the Joyce Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Closer to home, she is the founding chair of the Berkeley Arts in Education Steering Committee for Berkeley Unified School District and the Berkeley Cultural Trust, and served on the board of the Downtown Berkeley Association. Susan serves on the faculty of Yale School of Drama and is a member of the International Women’s Forum and the Mont Blanc La-
dies’ Literary Guild and Trekking Society. She was awarded the 2012 Benjamin Ide Wheeler Medal by the Berkeley Community Fund and the 2017 Visionary Leadership Award by tcg. During her time in Berkeley, Susan has been instrumental in the construction of the Roda Theatre, the Nevo Education Center, the renovation of the Peet’s Theatre, and in the acquisition of the Harrison Street campus. She also worked with three consecutive mayors to help create Berkeley’s Downtown Arts District.
THERESA VON KLUG
G E N E R A L M A N AG E R
Theresa is excited to begin her fifth season at Berkeley Rep. Previously, she had over 20 years of experience in the New York not-for-profit performing arts sector where she has planned and executed events for dance, theatre, music, television, and film. Her previous positions include the interim general manager for The Public Theater; general manager/line producer for Theatre for a New Audience, where she opened its new state-of-the-art theatre in Brooklyn and filmed a major motion picture of the inaugural production of Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, released June 2015; production manager at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and New York City Center, including the famous Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert; and field representative/lead negotiator for the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers. She holds a MS in Labor Relations and Human Resources Management from Baruch College.
AUDREY HOO
P R O D U C T I O N M A N AG E R
Audrey fell in love with the wild people and power of storytelling in theatre when she was 18 and has never looked back. With over 20 years of experience in production management, Audrey has worked with a wide range of international artists across all performance arts genres such as Paul Simon, Elaine Stritch, William Kentridge, Sam Mendes, Catherine Martin, and Bill T. Jones, and with institutions such as bam, Esplanade Singapore, La Jolla Playhouse, and American Conservatory Theater. Always loving a new story to tell and another “impossible” technical puzzle to solve, Audrey is grateful to be part of the Berkeley Rep family and is particularly proud to work alongside the immensely talented and dedicated production staff and artisans. Audrey holds a mfa in Technical Direction from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
diverse playwrights. According to Michelle and Bruce, “There’s never been a more vital time in our lives when the power of theatre to transform, compel, inspire, and energize has been more necessary. We are honored to be Season Sponsors, and especially proud to do so during Johanna Pfaelzer’s first year as artistic director.”
JACK & BETTY SCHAFER
SEASON SPONSORS
Betty and Jack are proud to support Berkeley Rep. Jack is a sustaining advisor of the Theatre, having served on the board for many years, and is now on the board of San Francisco Opera. He is an emeritus board chair of the San Francisco Art Institute and the Oxbow School. In San Francisco, Betty is involved with Wise Aging, a program for adults addressing the challenges of growing older. They have three daughters and eight grandchildren.
BRUCE GOLDEN & MICHELLE MERCER
MICHAEL & SUE STEINBERG
Michelle and Bruce have been ardent supporters of Berkeley Rep since 1993, when they moved with two young children in tow to Berkeley. Their favorite evenings at Berkeley Rep were usually the discussion nights, where often friends would join them for an early dinner, an evening of great theatre, followed by a lively discussion with members of the cast. Over the past 25+ years, Michelle and Bruce have recognized Berkeley Rep’s almost singular role in the Bay Area in promoting courageous new works and nurturing innovative,
Michael and Sue have been interested in the arts since they met and enjoy music, ballet, and live theatre. Michael, who recently retired as chairman and chief executive officer of Macy’s West, served on Berkeley Rep’s board of trustees from 1999 to 2006 and currently serves on the board of directors of the Jewish Museum. Sue serves on the board of the World of Children. The Steinbergs have always enjoyed regional theatre and are delighted to sponsor Berkeley Rep this season.
SEASON SPONSORS
SEASON SPONSORS
Proud Supporter of Berkeley Rep
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THE STRAUCH KULHANJIAN FAMILY SEASON SPONSORS
Roger Strauch has served on the Berkeley Rep board of trustees for the last 22 years and as an executive officer, including president. He is chair of The Roda Group (rodagroup.com), a high technology venture development company based in Berkeley. Roda incubated the search engine Ask.com, now located in Oakland and Cool systems (gameready.com), a medical technology company recently acquired by Avanos Medical. He is currently on the board of three cleantech companies, including a carbon capture company, Inventys (inventysinc. com), in which Roda is a major investor. Roger has served on the board of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute for 20 years and as an executive officer, including chair. He leads the Mosse Art Restitution Project which searches for family art illegally confiscated during Germany’s Third Reich. He is a board member of the Northside Center, a mental health services agency based in Harlem, NY and a member of UC Berkeley Engineering Dean’s college advisory board. His wife, Julie Kulhanjian, is an attending physician at Benioff ucsf Children’s Hospital, Oakland. They have three adult children.
An Unexpected Perfect Merger
Thornwall Properties Joins The Grubb Co. “We are proud to join a company that truly cares about neighborhoods and provides extraordinary attention to detail. Both companies have deep roots in the communities they serve, and we both care, first and foremost, about those long-standing connections.” Mary Canavan, Broker Thornwall Properties
GRUBBCO.COM
ROBIN & RICH EDWARDS SPONSORS
Robin and Rich have been strong supporters of Berkeley Rep for more than 20 years when they started serving on the gala committee (on which they continue to serve). Rich was co-chair of the Narsai Toast for five years. Robin retired from active law practice as a partner of Dentons US llp at the end of 2011 and joined Berkeley Rep’s board in early 2012. Rich retired in 1998 as a senior partner of San Francisco’s Robertson Stephens & Co., a high-tech-focused investment bank, and became a professional photographer. Both Rich and Robin have been very active as board members and fundraisers for numerous Bay Area nonprofit organizations. They now spend about half the year traveling the world by sea.
SCOTT AND SHERRY HABER SPONSORS
Scott and Sherry are thrilled to sponsor Becky Nurse of Salem. Scott and Sherry have been interested in the arts as long as they can remember, including choral and instrumental music, dance, and live theatre. Scott recently retired as a corporate law partner at Latham and Watkins llp. He served on Berkeley Rep’s board of trustees from 2005 through 2014 and rejoined the board in 2016. Sherry teaches LaBlast dance classes and has volunteered for the Hillsborough, Burlingame, and Pinewood Schools. It is with great pleasure that the Habers are able to support Berkeley Rep and exceptional regional theatre.
SANDRA & ROSS MCCANDLESS SPONSORS
Sandra is a long-standing Berkeley Rep board member who has served as co-chair of the corporate committee and as a member of the executive and compliance committees. Sandra is a partner of the law firm Dentons where she practices employment law and acts as a liaison 2 0 1 9 –2 0 · I S S U E 3 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 5
WHO’S WHO
for clients with international operations in managing their global business needs. She is also a neutral arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association. Sandra has been named one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times. She is also a leader of the American Bar Association, the largest professional services organization in the world, and has served on its board of governors and chair of its finance committee. Ross teaches science and mathematics at Mount Diablo High School and is an avid dancer and birdwatcher. The McCandless’ love of theatre dates back to Sandra and Ross’ joint performance at Harvard College in William Saroyan’s Hello Out There. Their daughter Phyra McCandless, son-in-law Angelos Kottas, and granddaughter Hyonia are also enthusiastic members of the Berkeley Rep family.
THE MOSSE FOUNDATION For over 20 years, the Mosse Foundation has been promoting an open and tolerant society through grants to organizations that advance the arts and education in their communities. Named after Hilde Mosse, a child psychiatrist whose family — owners of the Berliner Tageblatt, Germany’s leading progressive newspaper in the early 1900’s — fled the country shortly after Hitler assumed power. Dr. Mosse played a key
Additional staff Costume shop Nelly Flores Milena Geary Alea Gonzales Sophie Hood Deck crew Gabriel Holman Isaac Jacobs Dialect coach Jessica Berman Electricians Richard Fong Ann Christine Hartzell Jacqueline Holm Camille Kelly Mi Le Melissa Ramirez Orly Raveh Corey Schaeffer Caitlin Steinmann Matthew James Sykes Fight consultant Dave Maier Intimacy consultant Maya Herbsman Props Kate Fitt Erin Gallagher Noah Kramer Garner Takahashi Morris Elyse Schrock Samantha Visbal
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role in founding the Lafargue Clinic in Harlem, which specialized in the treatment of African Americans with psychiatric illness. The Mosse Foundation honors Dr. Mosse’s legacy by supporting people and organizations that are brave and creative in their energetic and tenacious efforts to promote artistic innovation and nourishment, as well as those focused on lifting fellow human beings who are unfairly disadvantaged by forces of nature or culture. The Mosse Foundation is overseen by Hilde’s nephews, Hans Strauch, principal architect of hds Architecture, and Roger Strauch, who has served on the Berkeley Rep Board for over 20 years. Through a grant made to Berkeley Rep, the Mosse Artistic Development Fund was established to support the development of new plays.
BART
SEASON SPONSOR
Bay Area Rapid Transit (bart) is the backbone of the Bay Area transit network and serves more than 100 million passengers annually. bart’s all-electric trains make it one of the greenest and most energy-efficient transit systems in the world. Visit bart.gov/bartable to learn more about great destinations and events that are easy to get to on bart (like Berkeley Rep!). At bart. gov/bartable, you can find discounts, enter sweepstakes offering fantastic prizes, and Puppetry consultants Valerie & Michael Nelson of Magical Moonshine Theatre Scene shop Jennifer Costley Jean Hritz Isaac Jacobs Carl Martin Sean Miller Henry Perkins Scenic artists Chrissy Curl Lassen Hines Serena Yau Sound Sarah Jacquez Courtney Jean Cecilia Pappalardo Annemarie Scerra Wardrobe Eric Hiro Anna Slotterback Medical consultation for Berkeley Rep provided by Agi E. Ban DC, John Carrigg MD, Cindy J. Chang MD, Christina Corey MD, Neil Claveria PT, Patricia I. Commer DPT, Brenton Dowdy DPT, Kathy Fang MD PhD, Steven Fugaro MD, Whitney R. Johnson DDS, Olivia Lang MD, Allen Ling PT, and Christina S. Wilmer OD.
find unique and exciting things to do just a bart ride away. While you’re there, be sure to sign up for bartable This Week, a free, weekly email filled with the latest and greatest bartable fun!
PEET’S COFFEE
SEASON SPONSOR
Peet’s Coffee is proud to be the exclusive coffee of Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the namesake of Berkeley Rep’s state-ofthe-art Peet’s Theatre. In 1966, Alfred Peet opened his first store on Vine and Walnut in Berkeley and Peet’s has been committed to the community ever since. Supporting Berkeley Rep’s high artistic standards and diverse programming is an extension of this mission. As the pioneer of the craft coffee movement in America, Peet’s is dedicated to smallbatch roasting, superior quality beans, freshness, and a darker roasting style that produces a rich, flavorful cup. Peet’s is locally roasted in the first leed® Gold certified roaster in the nation.
WELLS FARGO
SEASON SPONSOR
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Wells Fargo is proud to support the award-winning Berkeley Repertory Theatre as a season sponsor for the last 14 years because of its dedication to artistic excellence and community engagement. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance. The bank is committed to building better every day to meet our customers’ financial goals. For more information, please visit wellsfargo.com.
8 PERFORMANCES ONLY — GET YOUR TICKETS NOW! Gary Wilmes, Laurena Allan, Scott Shepherd, and Annie McNamara in Gatz (photo by Paula Court)
GATZ CREATED AND PERFORMED BY ELEVATOR REPAIR SERVICE TEXT: THE GREAT GATSBY BY F. SCOTT FITZGERALD DIRECTED BY JOHN COLLINS SPECIAL PRESENTATION · RODA THEATRE STARTS FEB 13
SEASON SPONSORS
THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS
We thank the many institutional partners who enrich our community by championing Berkeley Rep’s artistic and community outreach programs. We gratefully recognize these donors to Berkeley Rep, who made their gifts between August 2018 and October 2019.
FOUNDATION AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORTERS G IF T S O F $2 5,0 0 0 –49,9 9 9 Anonymous The Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Philanthropic Fund Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Walter & Elise Haas Fund S
G IF T S O F $ 10 0,0 0 0 A N D A B OV E The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation The Shubert Foundation G IF T S O F $50,0 0 0 –9 9,9 9 9 Edgerton Foundation Jonathan Logan Family Foundation S Koret Foundation S The Bernard Osher Foundation The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust Woodlawn Foundation S
G IF T S O F $5,0 0 0 –9,9 9 9 Anonymous (2) The Reva and David Logan Foundation Kenneth Rainin Foundation Reinhold Foundation
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G IF T S O F $ 1,0 0 0 –4,9 9 9 Joyce & William Brantman Foundation Civic Foundation S Davis/Dauray Family Fund Karl & Alice Ruppenthal Foundation for the Arts rhe Charitable Foundation S
G IF T S O F $ 10,0 0 0 –24,9 9 9 Berkeley Civic Arts Program California Arts Council S jec Foundation Miranda Lux Foundation S Ramsay Family Foundation S
CORPORATE SPONSORS SEASON SPONSORS
SPONSORS The Andreason Group at Morgan Stanley Charles Schwab + Co., Inc. Mechanics Bank Wealth Management The Morrison & Foerster Foundation S CO R P O R AT E PA R T N E R S Armanino llp Deloitte hdr Remodeling S Panoramic Interests Schoenberg Family Law Group
E XECU TIV E S P O N S O R S
American Express
We are grateful for the many companies that matched their employees’ contributions to Berkeley Rep. Find out if your company matches gifts and amplify your impact.
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PE R FO R M A N CE S P O N S O R S Bayer S BluesCruise.com First Republic Bank Gallagher Risk Management Services Is your company a corporate sponsor? Berkeley Rep’s Corporate Partnership program offers excellent opportunities to network, entertain clients, reward employees, increase visibility, and support the arts and arts education in the community. For details visit berkeleyrep.org/ support or call Daria Hepps at 510 647-2904.
IN-KIND SPONSORS E XECU TIV E S P O N S O R S
Hotel Shattuck Plaza is the official hotel of Berkeley Rep.
SPONSORS Aurora Catering Farella Braun + Martell llp Hugh Groman Catering Latham & Watkins llp Mayer Brown llp Revival Bar + Kitchen Rhoades Planning Group Semifreddi’s
PA R T N E R S Angeline’s Louisiana Kitchen Ann’s Catering Autumn Press Babette at bampfa Bobby G’s Pizzeria César Comal Copain Wines Donkey & Goat Winery Drake’s Brewing Company
Eureka! Fonda Gather Restaurant Hafner Vineyard La Note ocho Candy Picante zino
SPECIAL PROJECTS SUPPORTERS We gratefully recognize the generous individuals and institutions who supported special projects, including The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work, from September 2018 to November 2019. LE A D S U PP O R T E R S Barbara Bass Bakar Bruce Golden & Michelle Mercer Louise L. Gund Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau Peet’s Coffee Michael & Sue Steinberg
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S U PP O R T E R S Anonymous Edgerton Foundation Kerry Francis & John Jimerson Suzanne LaFetra Collier National Endowment for the Arts Stewart & Rachelle Owen Cynthia & William Schaff Jean & Michael Strunsky Sheila Taccone The Tournesol Project Gail & Arne Wagner Felicia Woytak & Steven Rasmussen CO N T RIB U TO R S Anonymous (2) Shelley & Jonathan Bagg Robin & Rich Edwards Linda Jo Fitz
David & Vicki Fleishhacker Jill & Steve Fugaro Ruth Hennigar Jack Klingelhofer Dugan & Philippe Lamoise Sandra & Ross McCandless Susan Medak & Gregory Murphy Steven & Patrece Mills Jane & Bill Neilson Shanna O’Hare & John Davis Peter Pervere & Georgia Cassel Marjorie Randolph David S. H. Rosenthal & Vicky Reich Patricia Sakai & Richard Shapiro Joan Sarnat & David Hoffman Patricia & Merrill Shanks Robert L. Sockolov and Audrey Sockolov Foundation Barry Lawson Williams & Lalita Tademy Linda & Steven Wolan
LEGEND
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School of Theatre donor
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in-kind gift
M
matching gift
SPONSOR CIRCLE SEASON SPONSORS Bruce Golden & Michelle Mercer Jack & Betty Schafer Michael & Sue Steinberg The Strauch Kulhanjian Family LE A D S P O N S O R S Barbara Bass Bakar S Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau Casey Keller / Peet’s Coffee Ken & Gisele Miller S Stewart & Rachelle Owen Mary Ruth Quinn & Scott Shenker Kelli & Steffan Tomlinson E XECU TIV E S P O N S O R S Anonymous Edward D. Baker Susan Chamberlin Bill Falik & Diana Cohen Kerry Francis & John Jimerson Wayne Jordan & Quinn Delaney Jean & Michael Strunsky Gail & Arne Wagner
SPONSORS Maria Cardamone & Paul Matthews David & Vicki Cox Anne & Anuj Dhanda Robin & Rich Edwards David & Vicki Fleishhacker Paul Friedman & Diane Manley Jill & Steve Fugaro Karen Galatz & Jon Wellinghoff Richard Grand Foundation Paul Haahr & Susan Karp Scott & Sherry Haber Jerry & Julie Kline Jack Klingelhofer Michael H. Kossman Suzanne LaFetra Collier Ken Lamb Sandra & Ross McCandless Marianne Mills Pam & Mitch Nichter Norman & Janet Pease Leonard X & Arlene B. Rosenberg Jack & Valerie Rowe Patricia Sakai & Richard Shapiro Ed & Liliane Schneider Laura & Nicholas Severino M Stephen & Cindy Snow Barry Lawson Williams & Lalita Tademy
Linda & Steven Wolan Felicia Woytak & Steven Rasmussen A S S O CIAT E S P O N S O R S Anonymous (2) Shelley & Jonathan Bagg Edith Barschi Neil & Gene Barth Valerie Barth Michelle Branch & Dale Cook Rena Bransten Brook & Shawn Byers Lynne Carmichael Cindy Chang, MD & Christopher Hudson K John Dains Paul Daniels, in honor of Peter Yonka Narsai & Venus David K Cynthia A. Farner Tracy & Mark Ferron Kevin & Noelle Gibbs M Steven Goldin James C. Hormel & Michael P. Nguyen, in honor of Rita Moreno Ms. Wendy E. Jordan Fred Karren, in memory of Beth Karren Seymour Kaufman &
Kerstin Edgerton Rosalind & Sung-Hou Kim Leonard Merrill Kurz Eileen & Hank Lewis S Dugan & Philippe Lamoise Susan & Moses Libitzky Helen M. Marcus in memory of David J. Williamson Phyra McCandless & Angelos Kottas Martin & Janis McNair Ed Messerly & Sudha Pennathur Steven & Patrece Mills M Peter Pervere & Georgia Cassel Barbara L. Peterson Gary & Noni Robinson Jaimie Sanford & Ted Storey Joan Sarnat & David Hoffman Cynthia & William Schaff Pat & Merrill Shanks Shirlen Fund, in memory of Shirley & Philip Schild Vickie Soulier Foundation Lisa Taylor Dave & Cindy Trummer M Susan West S Wendy Williams Martin & Margaret Zankel
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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE PA R T N E R S Anonymous Tarang & Hirni Amin Berit Ashla & Aron Cramer Judy Avery Ed Brakeman Jennifer Chaiken & Sam Hamilton Constance Crawford David Deutscher Thomas W. Edwards & Rebecca Parlette-Edwards William Espey & Margaret Hart Edwards Nancy & Jerry Falk Lily Fan Karen Grove & Julian Cortella Ms. Teresa Burns Gunther & Dr. Andrew Gunther Richard & Lois Halliday K Earl & Bonnie Hamlin Lynda & Dr. J. Pearce Hurley Kathleen & Chris Jackson Barbara E. Jones, in memory of William E. Jones Duke & Daisy Kiehn Tony Kushner Dixon Long Peter & Melanie Maier Dale & Don Marshall Sumner & Hermine Marshall Charles Marston & Rosa Luevano Susan Medak & Greg Murphy Helen & John Meyer Pure Dana Fund Sue Reinhold & Deborah Newbrun David S. H. Rosenthal & Vicky Reich Beth & David Sawi Linda & Nathan Schultz Emily Shanks Ed & Ellen Smith Audrey & Bob Sockolov
Sheila Wishek Barbara & Howard Wollner B E N E FAC TO R S Anonymous (4) Norman Abramson, in memory of David Beery Martha & Bruce Atwater Nina Auerbach Anne M. Baele Linda & Mike Baker Michelle L. Barbour Eugene Borstel & Sandy Silva Re Re Boylan & Jeff Freedman Broitman-Basri Foundation Ben Brown & Louise Rankin Don & Carol Anne Brown Tracy Brown & Greg Holland Italo & Susan Calpestri Ronnie Caplane Terrence & Deborah Carlin K Leslie Chatham & Sunny St. Pierre Betsey & Ken Cheitlin Barbara & Rodgin Cohen Julie & Darren Cooke Karen & David Crommie Ed Cullen & Ann O’Connor Dr. Jim Cuthbertson Barbara & Tim Daniels Corinne & Mike Doyle James Emery & P. Irving Merle & Michael Fajans Lisa & Dave Finer Thomas & Sharon Francis Lisa Franzel & Rod Mickels Herb & Marianne Friedman Mary & Stan Friedman Dennis & Susan Johann Gilardi Daniel & Hilary B. Goldstine Nelson Goodman Robert & Judith Greber Garrett Gruener & Amy Slater
Migsy & Jim Hamasaki Bob & Linda Harris Vera & David Hartford Dan & Shawna Hartman Brotsky Ruth Hennigar Bonnie & Tom Herman Richard N. Hill & Nancy Lundeen Elaine Hitchcock Deirdre & Chris Hockett Bill Hofmann & Robbie Welling M James C. Hormel & Michael P. Nguyen, in honor of Rita Moreno Hilary & Tom Hoynes Paula Hughmanick & Steven Berger Marilyn & Michael Jensen-Akula Bill & Lisa Kelly Stephen F. Kispersky Jean Knox, in memory of John T. Knox Wanda Kownacki Woof Kurtzman & Liz Hertz Jane & Mike Larkin, in memory of Lynn & Gerald Ungar Randy Laroche & David Laudon Louise Laufersweiler & Warren Sharp Nancy & George Leitmann, in memory of Helen Barber Sidne Long & Hank Delevati Elsie Mallonee Rebecca Martinez Henning Mathew & Michelle Deane M Erin McCune Miles & Mary Ellen McKey Kirk McKusick & Eric Allman Stephanie Mendel Toby Mickelson & Donald Brody Andy & June Monach Ronald Morrison Jerry Mosher Barbara & Michael Novogradac
We are pleased to recognize first-time donors to Berkeley Rep, whose names appear in italics.
Carol J. Ormond Linda & Gregory Orr Janet & Clyde Ostler Judy O’Young, MD & Gregg Hauser Sandi & Dick Pantages Malcolm & Ann Plant Linda & Eric Protiva Teresa L. Remillard M Bill Reuter & Ruth Major Audrey & Paul Richards, in honor of Barbara Peterson Carla & David Riemer Sheli & Burt Rosenberg, in honor of Len & Arlene Rosenberg Joe Ruck & Donna Ito Monica Salusky & John K. Sutherland Jeane & Roger Samuelsen Dan Scharlin & Sara Katz Danny Scher Jackie Schmidt-Posner & Barry Posner Neal Shorstein, MD & Christopher Doane Valerie Sopher Sally & Joel Spivack Karen Stevenson & Bill McClave Deborah Taylor Barrera Alison Teeman & Michael Yovino-Young Beth Weissman Elizabeth Werter & Henry Trevor Barry Lawson Williams & Lalita Tademy Patricia & Jeffrey Williams William C. Wilson II Sam & Joyce Zanze Mark Zitter & Jessica Nutik Zitter Jane & Mark Zuercher
THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS
We thank the generous individuals in our community who help Berkeley Rep produce adventurous, thought-provoking, and thrilling theatre and bring arts education to thousands of young people every year. We gratefully recognize these donors to Berkeley Rep, who made their gifts between June 2018 and October 2019. To make your gift and join this distinguished group, visit berkeleyrep.org/give or call 510 647-2906.
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THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS
CH A M PIO N S
Anonymous (5) · George & Marcia Argyris, in honor of Tony Taccone · Naomi Auerbach & Ted Landau · Leslie & Jack Batson · David & Stephanie Beach · Don & Gerry Beers M · Caroline Beverstock · Naomi Black M · Marc Blakeman M · Linda Brandenburger · Eric Brink & Gayle Vassar M · Don Campbell & Family M · Lea Chang · Terin Christensen · Richard & Linnea Christiani · Andrea Clay & Collin Smikle · Robert Council & Ann Parks-Council · John & Izzie Crane M · Lori & Michael Crowley · Richard & Anita Davis · Francine & Beppe Di Palma · Karen & David Dolder · Susan English & Michael Kalkstein · Paul Feigenbaum & Judy Kemeny · Ben & Mary Feinberg · Martin & Barbara Fishman · James & Jessica Fleming · Dean Francis · Donald & Dava Freed · Chris R. Frostad M · Kelli M. Frostad · Marjorie Ginsburg & Howard Slyter · Mrs. Gale K. Gottlieb · Mary & Nicholas Graves · Anne & Peter Griffes · Thomas & Elizabeth Henry · Christina Herdell, in memory of Vaughn & Ardis Herdell · Don & Janice Holve · The Hornthal Family, in honor of Susie Medak · Christopher Killian & Carole Ungvarsky · Lynn Eve Komaromi, in honor of the Berkeley Rep Staff · Janet Kornegay & Dan Sykes · Susilpa Lakireddy · Kevin & Claudine Lally · Helen E. Land · Sherrill Lavagnino & Scott McKinney · Andrew Leavitt & Catherine Lewis · Glennis Lees & Michael Glazeski · Ellen & Barry Levine · Jennifer S. Lindsay · Marcia C. Linn · Mark & Roberta Linsky · Jay & Eileen Love · Lois & Gary
Marcus, in memory of Ruth Weiland, Mose & Selma Marcus · Charlotte & Adolph Martinelli · Janet & Michael McCutcheon · Joanne Medak & Peter Katsaros · Ruth Medak · Dan Miller · Geri Monheimer, in honor of Tony Taccone · Scott Montgomery & Marc Rand · Brian & Britt-Marie Morris · Daniel Murphy · Piermaria Oddone & Barbara Saarni Oddone · Judith & Richard Oken · Lynette Pang & Michael Man · Gerane Wharton Park · Bob & MaryJane Pauley · David & Mary Ramos · Helen Richardson · Maxine Risley, in memory of James Risley · John & Jody Roberts · The Rockridge Fund at the East Bay Community Foundation · Galen Rosenberg & Denise Barnett · Boyard & Anne Rowe · Dace P. Rutland · Lisa Salomon · Dr. David Schulz M · Teddy & Bruce Schwab · Andrew & Marva Seidl · Brenda Buckhold Shank, M.D., Ph.D. · Kim Silva · Beryl & Ivor Silver · David & Lori Simpson · Amrita Singhal & Michael Tubach · Cherida Collins Smith · Alice & Scott So · Gary & Jana Stein · Monroe W. Strickberger · Susan Terris · Sam Test · Henry Timnick · William van Dyk & Margi Sullivan · Sarah Van Roo · Robert & Sheila Weisblatt · Wendy Willrich · Charles Wolfram & Peter Wolfram · Sally Woolsey
A DVO C AT E S
Anonymous (13) · Abbey Alkon & Jonathan Leonard · Dr. & Mrs. Francis Barham · Richard & Kathi Berman · James A. Biondi · Steve Bischoff · Patti Bittenbender ·
Beverly Blatt & David Filipek · Bob & Barbara Brandriff · Peter Brock · Jerome & Marguerite Buttrick · Robert & Margaret Cant · Laura Chenel · Ciara Cox & Margaret Wu · Pam & Mike Crane · Jill & Evan Custer · Kathleen Damron · Bill DeHart · Harry & Susan Dennis · Kathy Down & Greg Kelly · Nancy Drooker & Alix Sabin · Linda Drucker · Burton Peek Edwards · Sue J. Estey · Brigitte & Louis Fisher · Linda Jo Fitz · Daniel Friedland & Azlynda Alim M · David Gaskin & Phillip McPherson · Karl & Kathleen Geier · Linda Joy Graham · Rico & Maya Green · Sheldon & Judy Greene, in honor of Tony Taccone · Don & Becky Grether · Irene & Robert Hepps · Howard Hertz & Jean Krois · Peter Hobe & Christina Crowley · Jeff Hoel · Mr. & Mrs. Harold M. Isbell · Anne & Douglas Jensen · Mr. & Mrs. C. D. Jensen · Peter & Barbara Jensen · Bill Jetton · Ann L. Johnson · Corrina Jones · Reese & Margaret Jones · Claudia & Daly Jordan-Koch · Kaarel Kaljot · Helmut H. Kapczynski & Colleen Neff · Beth & Tim Kientzle M · Peggy Kivel · Susan Kolb · Ken & Monica Kulander · Carol P. LaPlant · Barbara & Thomas Lasinski · Deborah Lewis & Martin H. Myers · Marcia C. Linn · Tom Lockard & Alix Marduel · Richard Lonergan & Marilyn Manning · Jane & Bob Lurie · Gerry & Kathy MacClelland · Bruce Maigatter & Pamela Partlow · Naomi & Bruce Mann · Sue & Phil Marineau · M. Mathews & K. Soriano · Karen & John McGuinn · Brian McRee · Barbara Meislin & Stuart Kaplan · Diane C. Miller · Jeff Miner ·
Daryoush Mortazavi & Caroline Razavi · Patricia Motzkin & Richard Feldman · Aki & Emi Nakao · Ron Nakayama · Luella Noles & Jeung Hyung · Judy Ogle · Suzette S. Olson · Brian D. Parsons · Lauri Paul & Mark Hamilton · Bob & Toni Peckham, in honor of Robert M. Peckham, Jr. · Jack & Charmaine Pesso · Regina Phelps · James F. Pine M · F. Anthony Placzek · Roxann R. Preston · Kathleen Quenneville & Diane Allen · Leslie & Mark Ragsdale · Danielle Rebischung · Todd & Susan Ringoen · Mrs. William C. Robison · Deborah Dashow Ruth, in memory of Leo P. Ruth · Barbara Sahm & Steven Winkel · Mitzi Sales & John Argue · Dorothy R. Saxe · Dale & Liz Schenk · Joyce Schnobrich · Libby Seifel & Pierre Capeder · Sarah E. Shaver · Steve & Susan Shortell · Arlene & Matthew Sirott · Carra Sleight · Suzanne Slyman · Jerry & Dick Smallwood · George & Camilla Smith · Sigrid Snider · LJ Strunsky & James Steinle · Gary Sullivan & Timothy Lynn · Drew & Margo Tammen · Fred & Kathleen Taylor · Nancy E. Thomas · Pate & Judy Thomson · Karen Tiedemann & Geoff Piller · Rick Trautner · Mike & Ellen Turbow · Larry Vales M · Mr. Leon Van Steen · Lisa Wade · Louise & Larry Walker · Mr. & Mrs. William Webster · Robert T. Weston · Ron & Anita Wornick · Moe & Becky Wright · Stan Zaks
We gratefully recognize the following donors whose contributions were received from October 1, 2019 to October 29, 2019.
S U PP O R T E R S
CO N T RIB U TO R S
Michael & Denise Coyne · Dorothy & Michael Herman
Anonymous (2) · Janet Shohara McCutcheon · Liz Varnhagen
FRIE N D S
Donald Brown · Harry Chomsky & Amy Apel · Mark de Souza · Steven Gotanda · Ashok Katdare · John Koerber
Members of this Society, which is named in honor of Founding Director Michael W. Leibert, have designated Berkeley Rep in their estate plans. Unless the donor specifies otherwise, planned gifts become a part of Berkeley Rep’s board-designated endowment funds, where they will provide the financial stability that enables Berkeley Rep to maintain the highest standards of artistic excellence, support new work, and serve the community with innovative education and outreach programs, year after year. For more information on becoming a member, visit our website at berkeleyrep.org/mls or contact Daria Hepps at 510 647-2904 or dhepps@berkeleyrep.org.
Sustaining members as of November 2019:
Anonymous (8) Norman Abramson & David Beery Sam Ambler Carl W. Arnoult & Aurora Pan Ken & Joni Avery Nancy Axelrod Edith Barschi Neil & Gene Barth Susan & Barry Baskin Linda Brandenburger Broitman-Basri Family Bruce Carlton & Richard G. McCall Stephen K. Cassidy Paula Champagne & David Watson Terin Christensen Sofia Close Christina Crowley Andrew Daly & Jody Taylor Narsai & Venus David M. Laina Dicker Thalia Dorwick Rich & Robin Edwards Thomas W. Edwards & Rebecca Parlette-Edwards Bill & Susan Epstein William Espey & Margaret Hart Edwards Bill Falik & Diana Cohen Dr. Stephen E. Follansbee & Dr. Richard A. Wolitz Kerry Francis Dr. Harvey & Deana Freedman Joseph & Antonia Friedman Paul T. Friedman 3 0 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 9 –2 0 · I S S U E 3
Dr. John Frykman Laura K. Fujii David Gaskin & Phillip McPherson Marjorie Ginsburg & Howard Slyter Mary & Nicholas Graves Elizabeth Greene Sheldon & Judy Greene Don & Becky Grether Richard & Lois Halliday Julie & Paul Harkness Linda & Bob Harris Fred Hartwick Ruth Hennigar Daria Hepps Douglas J. Hill Hoskins/Frame Family Trust Lynda & Dr. J. Pearce Hurley Robin C. Johnson Janice Kelly & D. Carlos Kaslow Bonnie McPherson Killip Lynn Eve Komaromi Michael H. Kossman Scott & Kathy Law Dot Lofstrom Helen M. Marcus Dale & Don Marshall Sumner & Hermine Marshall Rebecca Martinez Sarah McArthur LeValley Suzanne & Charles McCulloch John G. McGehee Miles & Mary Ellen McKey Margaret D. & Winton McKibben Ruth Medak Susan Medak & Greg Murphy
Stephanie Mendel Toni Mester Shirley & Joe Nedham Theresa Nelson & Bernard Smits Pam & Mitch Nichter Sheldeen G. Osborne Sharon Ott Amy Pearl Parodi Barbara L. Peterson Regina Phelps Margaret Phillips Marjorie Randolph Gregg Richardson Bonnie Ring Living Trust Tom Roberts David Rovno Tracie E. Rowson Deborah Dashow Ruth Patricia Sakai & Richard Shapiro Brenda Buckhold Shank,M.D., Ph.D. Emily Shanks Kevin Shoemaker Valerie Sopher Michael & Sue Steinberg Dr. Douglas & Anne Stewart Jean Strunsky Mary, Andrew & Duncan Susskind Henry Timnick Guy Tiphane Phillip & Melody Trapp Janis Kate Turner Gail & Arne Wagner Dorothy Walker Barry & Holly Walter Weil Family Trust — Weil Family
Susan West Karen & Henry Work Anders Yang, JD Martin & Margaret Zankel
Gifts received by Berkeley Rep:
Anonymous Estate of Suzanne Adams Estate of Helen Barber Estate of Fritzi Benesch Estate of Carole B. Berg Estate of Nelly Berteaux Estate of Jill Bryans Estate of Paula Carrell Estate of Nancy Croley Estate of Carol & John Field Estate of Rudolph Glauser Estate of Audrey J. Lasson Estate of Zandra Faye LeDuff Estate of Ines R. Lewandowitz Estate of John E. & Helen A. Manning Estate of Richard Markell Estate of Timothy A. Patterson Estate of Gladys Perez-Mendez Estate of Margaret Purvine Estate of Leigh & Ivy Robinson Estate of Stephen C. Schaefer, in honor of Jean and Jack Knox Estate of Peter Sloss Estate of Harry Weininger Estate of Grace Williams
THE BEST TIME TO GIVE IS NOW. As a nonprofit theatre, Berkeley Rep relies on contributions from theatregoers like you to make these stories possible. Ticket sales cover only 65% of the cost of producing world premiere productions like the one you are seeing today. Will you play your part?
OUR STORIES. OUR THEATRE.
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OTHER WAYS TO GIVE THIS SEASON BECOME A MONTHLY DONOR
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MAKE A STOCK GIFT
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GIVE THROUGH YOUR IRA
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GIVE THROUGH YOUR DONOR ADVISED FUND
Recommend Berkeley Rep as the grant recipient from your donor-advised fund.
REQUEST AN EMPLOYER MATCH
Find out if your company will match your contribution and amplify your impact. Visit berkeleyrep.org/support to find out more.
MAKING THEATRE
SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE!
R O F S U JOIN
Dianne Wiest in the Yale Repertory Theatre production of Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days P H OTO BY J OA N M A R C U S
Suzan-Lori Parks
Culture Clash (Herbert Siguenza, Richard Montoya, and Ric Salinas)
Jocelyn Bioh
Lisa Peterson
John Logan
Michael Mayer
Our season continues with four Berkeley Rep–style comedies and a major new musical. See the shows you want to see and enjoy subscriber-only benefits including priority seating, lower prices, free ticket exchanges, and more.
CULTURE CLASH (STILL) IN AMERICA
HAPPY DAYS
The missionaries of mayhem are back with their unique, badass brand of Chicano satire!
Academy Award® winner Dianne Wiest plays Winnie in Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece.
SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY
SWEPT AWAY
M AR 19–M AY 3
A biting comedy by Jocelyn Bioh that tackles issues of beauty and self-worth that face teenage girls across the globe. Winner of the 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play.
BE A SUBSCRIBER. BE A REP.
SUBSCRIBE TODAY FOR THE BEST SEATS AT THE BEST PRICES! PLUS, GET THESE GREAT PERKS...
THE REMAINING 2019–20 SUBSCRIPTION SEASON FEB 20–APR 5
The Avett Brothers
M AY 26–JUL 5
JUN 14–JUL 26
A new musical featuring the music and lyrics of The Avett Brothers, starring John Gallagher, Jr. and Stark Sands.
DISCOUNTED PRICES GUARANTEED SEATS FREE TICKET EXCHANGES BENEFITS FOR FRIENDS DISCOUNTS ON CLASSES AND SO MUCH MORE
CALL 510 647-2949 CLICK BERKELEYREP.ORG
SEASON SPONSORS
STAFF AND BOARD ARTISTIC
ELECTRICS
Director of Casting & Artistic Associate Amy Potozkin Director, The Ground Floor/ Resident Dramaturg Madeleine Oldham Literary Manager Sarah Rose Leonard Artistic Associate Katie Craddock Artists under Commission Todd Almond · Christina Anderson · Lisa Peterson · Sarah Ruhl · Tori Sampson · Joe Waechter
Master Electrician Frederick C. Geffken Assistant Master Electrician Sarina Renteria Production Electrician Kenneth Coté
PRODUCTION Production Manager Audrey Hoo Associate Production Manager Zoey Russo Company Manager Morgan Steele
STAGE MANAGEMENT Production Stage Manager Michael Suenkel Stage Managers Lisa Iacucci · Kelly Montgomery · Libby Unsworth · Chris Waters Assistant Stage Managers Chiquita Lu · Sofie Miller · Megan McClintock · Leslie M. Radin Production Assistants Tait Adams · James McGregor · Sofie Miller
STAGE OPERATIONS Stage Supervisor Julia Englehorn
PROPERTIES Properties Supervisor Jillian A. Green Associate Properties Supervisor Amelia Burke-Holt Props Artisan Dara Ly
SCENE SHOP Technical Director Jim Smith Associate Technical Director Matt Rohner Shop Foreman Sam McKnight Master Carpenter Jamaica Montgomery-Glenn Carpenters Patrick Keene · Read Tuddenham
SOUND & VIDEO Sound & Video Supervisor Lane Elms Sound Engineers Angela Don Michael Kelly Associate Sound & Video Supervisor Chase Nichter
ADMINISTRATION Finance Director Jared Hammond Associate General Manager Amanda Williams O’Steen Executive Assistant Kate Horton Bookkeeper Kristine Taylor Associate Finance Director Eric Ipsen Payroll Administrator Katie Riemann CRM Project Manager Destiny Askin
DEVELOPMENT Director of Development Lynn Eve Komaromi Associate Director of Development Daria Hepps Director of Individual Giving Laura Fichtenberg Stewardship Officer Woof Kurtzman Institutional Giving Manager Julie McCormick Special Events Manager Abbey Bay McSweeney Individual Giving Manager Kelsey Scott Grant & Communications Coordinator Maddie Gaw Development Coordinators Nina Feliciano · Alix Josefski Development Database Coordinator Jane Voytek
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Senior Marketing Manager Seth Macari Communications & Digital SCENIC ART Content Director Karen McKevitt Charge Scenic Artist Lisa Lázár Director of Public Relations Tim Etheridge COSTUMES Audience Development & Group Sales Manager Costume Director Arielle Rubin Maggi Yule Resident Costume Design Associate Webmaster Christina Cone Cody Von Ruden Video & Multimedia Producer Tailor Benjamin Michel Kathy Kellner Griffith Program Advertising Draper Pamela Webster Star Rabinowitz Front of House Director First Hand Kelly Kelley Janet Conery Front of House Manager Wardrobe Supervisor Debra Selman Barbara Blair
House Managers Jerry Chirip · Margret Collette · Aleta George · Aaron Higareda · Matisse Michalski · Angelica Phung · Tuesday Ray · Megan Rossoni · Debra Selman · Sienna Sherman Lead Concessionaires Nina Gorham · Johnny Lloyd · Nichelle Pete Concessionaires Herman Angulo · Jessica Bates · Katie Braninburg · Si Mon’ Emmett · Michelle Hernandez · Evan Lester · Mikayla McLaurin · Suleekho Muse · James Oh · Win Wallace · Marissa Wolden Ticket Services Manager Dora Daniels Box Office Supervisor Julie Gotsch Subscription Manager Laurie Barnes Box Office Lead Alina Whatley Box Office Agents Chelbi Dickens · Topher Hester · Oliver Kampman · Victoria Phelps · Timothy Quirus · Alina Whatley
OPERATIONS Facilities Director Mark Morrisette Facilities Manager Ashley Mills Building Engineer Thomas Tran Building Technician Kevin Pan Facilities Assistants Lemont Adams · Theresa Drumgoole · Sophie Li · Guy Nado · Jesus Rodriguez · LeRoy Thomas
Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer
Managing Director Susan Medak
General Manager Theresa Von Klug
Teaching Artists Miriam Ani · Martha Brigham · Nicole Apostol Bruno · Michael Curry · Allysa Evans · Adrian Gebhart · Clara Kamunde · Rebecca Longworth · Caitlyn Louchard · Dave Maier · Carla Pantoja · Slater Penny · Radhika Rao · Joyful Raven · Lindsey Schmeltzer · Kimiya Shokri · Zoe Swenson-Graham · Gabriel Vergez · Joshua Waterstone · Elena Wright Teen Core Council Milo Bailey · Simon Bhuller-Riordan · Fidela Bisseret Martinez · Eleanor Boes · Bianca Carmango · Lilly-Karin Dandenell · Scarlette De Beauvior · Dina Fukunaga · Maera Klein · Malia Lee · Tatiana Lira · Grace Nelligan Zohar Naaman · Alex Pansino · Roan Pearl · Madeleine Riskin-Kutz · Jade Rogers · Avelina Rivezzo-Weber · Sarah Schecter Docent Co-Chairs Matty Bloom, Content Joy Lancaster, Recruitment Selma Meyerowitz, Off-Sites and Procedures Becky Nurse of Salem Docents Joy Lancaster, Lead Docent Joy Williams, Assistant Lead Dee Kursh · Jodi Grigas · Judith O’Rourke · Rhea Rubin · Jim Krampf · Alice Galoob
2019–20 BERKELEY REP FELLOWSHIPS
Bret C. Harte Directing Fellow Nailah Harper-Malveaux Company Management Fellow Reagan O’Malley Costume Fellow Anthony Fiore Development Fellow Samuel Levit Education Fellow BERKELEY REP SCHOOL OF THEATRE Zandra Starks Director of the School of Theatre Graphic Design Fellow Rachel Hull Haly Roy Associate Director Harry Weininger Sound Fellow MaryBeth Cavanaugh Jamie Tippett Associate Director Lighting/Electrics Fellow Anthony Jackson Hannah Solomon Education Communications and Marketing/Digital Partnerships Manager Communications Fellow Marcela Chacón Katherine Gunn Data and Tessitura Analyst Peter F. Sloss Literary/ Katie Riemann Dramaturgy Fellow Community Programs Administrator Charlie Dubach-Reinhold Modesta Tamayo Production Management Fellow Education Youth Associate Kali Grau Si Mon’ Emmett Properties Fellow Faculty Del Hanson Bobby August Jr. · Erica Blue · Scenic Art Fellow Jon Burnett · Rebecca Castelli · Samantha (Sam) Welsing Eugenie Chan · Iu-Hui Chua · Jiwon Chung · Sally Clawson · Scenic Construction Fellow Deborah Eubanks · Susan Garner · Kathryn Bosch Christine Germain · Nancy Gold · Stage Management Fellow Gary Graves · Marvin Greene · Elizabeth Kamla Susan-Jane Harrison · Gendell Hing-Hernández · Melissa Hillman · William Hodgson · Andrew Hurteau · Anthony Jackson · Kasey Klem · Krista Knight · Julian López-Morillas · Dave Maier · Reid McCann · Patricia Miller · Alex Moggridge · Edward Morgan · Jack Nicolaus · Slater Penney · Greg Pierotti · Lisa Anne Porter · Diane Rachel · Rolf Saxon · Elyse Shafarman · Arje Shaw · Joyful Simpson · Cleavon Smith · M. Graham Smith · Elizabeth Vega · James Wagner · Dan Wolf
BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Gail Wagner Vice Presidents Bruce Golden Stewart Owen Felicia Woytak Treasurer Henning Mathew Secretary Leonard X Rosenberg Chair, Governance Committee Stewart Owen Chair, Audit Committee Kerry L. Francis Board Members Berit Ashla Carrie Avery Edward D. Baker David Cox Anne Nemer Dhanda Lauren Edgerton Robin Edwards Jill Fugaro Karen Galatz Steven Goldin Scott Haber Casey Keller Michael Kossman Jonathan C. Logan Sandra R. McCandless Susan Medak Sudha Pennathur Johanna Pfaelzer Laura Severino Richard Shapiro Roger Strauch Jean Z. Strunsky Kelli Tomlinson Steven C. Wolan Past Presidents Helen C. Barber A. George Battle Carole B. Berg Robert W. Burt Shih-Tso Chen Narsai M. David Thalia Dorwick, PhD Nicholas M. Graves Richard F. Hoskins Jean Knox Robert M. Oliver Stewart Owen Marjorie Randolph Harlan M. Richter Richard A. Rubin Edwin C. Shiver Roger Strauch Martin Zankel Sustaining Advisors Rena Bransten Diana Cohen William T. Espey William Falik David Fleishhacker Paul T. Friedman Nicholas M. Graves David Hoffman Richard F. Hoskins Dale Rogers Marshall Helen Meyer Dugan Moore Peter Pervere Marjorie Randolph Patricia Sakai Jack Schafer William Schaff Emily Shanks Michael Steinberg Michael Strunsky Martin Zankel
Founding Director
Michael W. Leibert Producing Director, 1968–83
2 0 1 9 –2 0 · I S S U E 3 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 3 3
MAKING THEATRE
FACE TIME
The mannequins in Becky Nurse of Salem have distinctive facial features and poses — but they didn’t arrive at Berkeley Rep that way. Our props and costumes team collaborated to turn these fashion mannequins into townspeople. Here props artisan Dara Ly sculpts the Free Form™ air (epoxy putty) she added to the mannequin’s face, using images of ordinary people as a guide. P H OTO BY C H E S H I R E I S A AC S
3 4 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 9 –2 0 · I S S U E 3
2019/20 SEASON
ON SALE NOW
ER T A E H T Y R O T A V R ERICAN CONSE
AT AM Photo by Cheshire Isaacs
Wakey, Wakey by Will Eno Directed by Anne Kauffman Starring two-time Emmy Award winner Tony Hale (from Veep, Arrested Development, and Toy Story 4)
JAN 23–FEB 16
A.C.T.’s Geary Theater An intimate comedy about love and life that provides a labyrinth of experiences for an unsuspecting audience. “Glowingly dark, profoundly moving” The New York Times
Toni Stone by Lydia R. Diamond Directed by Tony Award winner Pam MacKinnon Choreographed by Camille A. Brown A coproduction with Arena Stage
MAR 5–29
A.C.T.’s Geary Theater They said she couldn’t, so she did: the unforgettable true story of a trailblazing Bay Area athlete «««« Time Out New York "Mesmerizing" New York Theatre Guide
PREMIERE WEST COAST
TICKETS ON SALE NOW AT ACT-SF.ORG @ACTSanFrancisco
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