3...2...1...Blast off 9 · The complicated history of Haitian restaveks 19 · The program for The Last Tiger in Haiti 25
THE BERKELEY REP M AGA ZINE 2 016 –17 · I S S U E 2
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M E E T T H E C A ST & C R E W · 26
BE R K E L E Y R E P P R E S E N T S THE LAST TIGE R IN HAITI · 2 5
P ROL O G U E
CON T R I BU T OR S
A letter from the artistic director · 5
Foundation, corporate, and in-kind sponsors · 33
A letter from the managing director · 7
Individual donors to the Annual Fund · 34 Michael Leibert Society · 36
R E P ORT S 9
3...2...1...Blast off · 9
A BOU T BE R K E L E Y R E P
Berkeley Rep remembers Leigh and Ivy Robinson · 11
Staff, board of trustees, and sustaining advisors · 37
Dive deeper with a docent · 13 Wrap-up: The Ground Floor’s 2016 Summer Residency Lab · 14
FYI Everything you need to know about our box office, seating policies, and more · 38
F E AT U R E S 16
The Origin Story · 16 Telling stories · 16 “Born of no one, belonged to no one:” The complicated history of Haitian restaveks · 19 Krik? Krak! · 23
19
T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E 201 6–17 · I S S U E 2 The Berkeley Rep Magazine is published at least seven times per season.
Editor Karen McKevitt
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Katy Owen in Kneehigh’s 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips (photo by Steve Tanner)
7 1 – 6 1 20 E H T R E V O C S I D
N O S A SE
ROE 946: THE AMAZING STORY OF ADOLPHUS TIPS
By Lisa Loomer Directed by Bill Rauch A co-production with Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Arena Stage Limited Season · Roda Theatre World premiere production · Mar 3–Apr 2, 2017
KNEEHIGH IS BACK!
Adapted by Michael Morpurgo and Emma Rice Directed by Emma Rice In association with Kneehigh and Birmingham Repertory Theatre Main Season · Roda Theatre American premiere · Dec 2, 2016–Jan 15, 2017
HAND TO GOD
BROADWAY SMASH HIT
By Robert Askins Directed by David Ivers Main Season · Peet’s Theatre West Coast premiere · Feb 3–Mar 19, 2017
MONSOON WEDDING
WORLD PREMIERE MUSICAL
Book by Sabrina Dhawan Music by Vishal Bhardwaj Lyrics by Susan Birkenhead Directed by Mira Nair Main Season · Roda Theatre World premiere · May 5–Jun 25, 2017
AN OCTOROON
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Directed by Eric Ting Limited Season · Peet’s Theatre West Coast premiere · Jun 23–Jul 23, 2017
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Which ones are your personal favorites? What is it about those particular tales that you love so much? Do they confirm your worldview, provide some comic relief or dramatic insight? Maybe you feel better after the telling, as if the story itself is a healthy tonic, allowing you to re-visit a wound without experiencing the pain. Or maybe that’s the point: to relive the pain to warn yourself of dangers past and still present. And what happens when you tell the same story over
many years? Does the story change? Do the details become fuzzy? Do you alter or adapt the narrative to accommodate your audience or your self-image? Or maybe the way a story morphs over time is simply a matter of aging: we alter the way we tell it as our needs and desires shift…so that a story acts as a barometer of our internal lives. Which begs the question: where does the truth lie? I’ve told some stories so many times that I’ve lost any sense of the original version. These questions are at the heart of The Last Tiger in Haiti, the provocative new play by Jeff Augustin. Mining the rich tradition of Haitian culture, Jeff introduces us to Krik Krak, the opening salutation that begins the telling of folktales in Haiti. From there we embark on a journey full of dramatic surprises. Set in the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Hanna, we watch as a cluster of young people try to survive by the simple act of telling stories to each other. Which stories they choose and how they perform them takes on enormous significance, and we begin to understand that storytelling, in this context, is a matter of survival. Mr. Augustin, however, is not solely interested in eliciting empathy for people in dire straits. As the play progresses, different perspectives on these stories come to light, and questions emerge about the larger nature of truth and justice. To illuminate this mysterious landscape, we’ve brought in director Josh Brody, who has been with the project since its inception at our developmental lab, The Ground Floor. Shortly after the lab, our friends at La Jolla Playhouse expressed interest in continuing to develop the play. Last year we decided to combine our efforts. The result is this co-production, first seen in an exciting production at the Playhouse this past July. It is our great pleasure to welcome the creative team to Berkeley and to share with you our collective passion for the play. We hope you find your own story within the story.
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Otober 2016 Volume 49, No. 2
MEET US IN THE BAR! Join us for signature cocktails, wines, craft beer, and delectable treats. Open before and after the show, and during intermission
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P ROL OG U E from the Managing Director
Storytelling is at the very core of what Berkeley
Rep is all about. We are acutely aware of being part of a tradition that goes back to stories told around the first campfires. Our human impulse to relate, to explain, to make real, and to make sense of our world through storytelling is the connective tissue that makes what we do in the Peet’s Theatre and the Roda Theatre, night after night, part of a larger tradition. But there is something more that motivates us. As a nonprofit theatre, we find ourselves again and again reaching out to new writers and producing stories that may have been on the edges of other stories in the past, or stories that never occurred to us before. Three seasons ago playwright Marcus Gardley, in The House that will not Stand, unearthed a story about free women of color in 1836 New Orleans, where black Creole women entered into common-law marriages with rich white men. That same season Nina Raine’s Tribes introduced audiences to a deaf man finding his place in a world where everyone needs to be heard. Last season’s Disgraced, by Ayad Akhtar, followed Amir as his carefully constructed life of cultural assimilation came crashing down. And now we welcome you to our campfire again for The Last Tiger in Haiti, Jeff Augustin’s gripping story about a group of modern-day restavek children. By continuously seeding new plays like The Last Tiger in Haiti and discovering new writers through The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work, we introduce stories that aren’t necessarily on the front pages, but need to find a foothold in the public consciousness. After all, history changes our narratives. Characters on the edge of some stories become the central characters a century later. Seemingly insignificant moments in one narrative become defining moments when the stories are retold for new generations. It is easy to understand why we were drawn to The Last Tiger in Haiti. It’s a story about storytelling. It’s also a story that many of us have never heard before. Thank you, Jeff Augustin, for sharing this grand tradition and this powerful story with us. Warmly,
Susan Medak
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R E P ORT
3...2...1...Blast off A launching pad for the next generation of young American playwrights of color BY R EG G IE D. W H I T E Kayla Hansen, Marie Wilson, Alona Clark, Cleavon Smith (lead teaching artist), Reggie D. White, Luis Calva, Malik Sims, Camilla Dwyer, and Gabe Varlack
For me, few other words in the English lan-
guage have more power to stop people cold in their tracks than the word “how.” Deep burning questions about solving economic crises, ending systematic racial policies of police brutality, or figuring out how to make the landscape of American theatre more diverse—it can make a fairly straightforward question feel like a 1,000-mile-long journey. Well, they say that the journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step. For me, that first step was the one out of my seat after I performed in a student matinee of Party People here at Berkeley Rep two years ago. Getting to share that show eight times a week with packed houses of Berkeley Rep patrons and subscribers was incredible —but sharing that piece with high school students, who are essentially the living legacy of the work done by the Black Panthers, was utterly life changing. What struck me most about the questions and responses to the revolutionary piece penned by universes and helmed by Liesl Tommy was the fact that many of the students didn’t recognize that this was theatre. They knew about Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, and even August Wilson and Lorraine Hansberry, but this unique brand of visceral storytelling about a subject so immediately relevant left them at a loss for words. A few weeks before we opened the show, we were incredibly fortunate that Ericka Huggins, a core member of the Black Panther Party and founder of its New Haven chapter, agreed to have lunch with the Party People cast and crew. She talked to us for well over an hour about things we knew and things we didn’t: about her husband’s murder at ucla by a member of the US Organization and the fbi’s involvement, and about her personal moments of quiet reflection while in a jail cell.
After sitting at that table in utter awe of her bravery, heart, and wisdom, I asked the biggest three-letter question I knew how to ask: “How?” How did they know what to do, to seismically change the landscape of not only their communities but the entire world. Her answer was simple. She looked me square in my teary eyes and said, “I didn’t want them to write ‘She Talked About It’ on my gravestone.” Then she flashed me a knowing smile and went on to answer more questions. That sentence kept ringing in my ears...that sentence still echoes in my consciousness today. So, fast forward to that first step I took out of my chair after that student matinee—I did not want them to write “He Talked About It” on my gravestone either. So, I put all of my brainpower toward tackling that three-letter question. How do we open the doors of theatre for young people of color by showing them that their lives, their stories are essential to the growth and continuing relevance of this art form we love so much? How do we show young people of color in this country that theatre is not just about the continuing presentation of stories about the straight, white, cis-gendered male hegemony? The answers to those questions were not immediately available, and there weren’t many high-profile examples of other people’s answers to those questions, so I had to take a few more steps on that 1,000-mile journey and create something. That something was the Young Writers of Color Collective (or YWoCC). YWoCC aims to permanently alter the American theatre landscape by infusing it with young writers who will hone their skills as playwrights and as artists-activists. They will do so through a yearlong playwriting apprenticeship here at Berkeley CO N TIN U E D O N N E X T PAG E 2 0 1 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 9
CO N TIN U E D FRO M PR E VI O U S PAG E
Rep, which culminates with a presentation of their work during The Ground Floor’s Summer Residency Lab, and will embrace that anointing by creating work that speaks to them and their world, opening the doors of theatre to those who never saw themselves as theatregoers or theatre makers. And as is true with any big moment of change in history, it’s never accomplished alone. It is the product of much collaboration. Many thanks are due to Madeleine Oldham and to the entire Berkeley Rep staff for believing in this project and to the Bay Area high school teachers and principals who encouraged their students to apply. The first cycle of YWoCC (the first of very many, we hope) will begin this fall, just as I begin performances in The Last Tiger in Haiti, and I have no idea how far the ripples of this project will reach. Who knows? Next summer, the next Jeff Augustin, or Marcus Gardley, or Julia Cho, or Lin-Manuel Miranda may come out of the program. What I do know is that Berkeley Rep has, with the launching of this project, taken some significant steps towards revolutionizing the landscape of the American theatre by creating a generation of artists who believe that their lives matter, their stories matter, and the world will be better for having seen and heard them. And now, still with many, many more miles to go, there are seven more very important steps that are now part of the journey, the first YWoCC participants: Camilla, Kayla, Alona, Marie, Malik, Gabe, and Luis. I can’t wait for them to change your life the way they’ve already changed mine.
Reggie D. White and Berkeley Rep are participants in the Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships, funded by the William & Eva Fox Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group, which has made YWoCC possible. 1 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 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2
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Berkeley Rep remembers Leigh and Ivy Robinson B Y J U L I A S TA R R
Theatre in the Bay Area has so greatly benefit-
ed from the humble generosity of local aficionados Leigh and Ivy Robinson, who passed away in 2016 and 2015, respectively. To help the tradition of live theatre continue to thrive beyond their own lifetimes, the Robinsons took a unique step in 2013 by creating the Charles Dean Award, an annual recognition of an extraordinary Bay Area actor. Accompanied by a $10,000 check, the award gives dedicated actors a financial boost that can help them pay down a mortgage, buy a new car, or save for retirement. The award is given at Theatre Bay Area’s annual award ceremony and is administered by Berkeley Rep. After its initial creation through a gift made in their lifetimes, the Robinsons ensured the award’s longevity for another 25 years by naming it in their estate and joining Berkeley Rep’s Michael Leibert Society of dedicated supporters who have made planned gifts to the Theatre. Infamous for their 10,000+-word holiday newsletters detailing their every adventure and fascination, Ivy and Leigh lived life to the fullest, actively and wholeheartedly engaging with anything that brought joy to the people closest to them and the community at large. Like their newsletters, theatre was a way for them to reconnect with friends. Avid travelers and opera-lovers, they invited friends on trips to see productions of Wagner’s four “Ring” operas around the world (and ultimately saw the opera 14 times). A bit closer to their home in El Cerrito, they made a ritual out of going to Berkeley Rep, always buying two pairs of tickets so that they could bring friends, and always eating at Picante restaurant beforehand.
When Leigh’s health was failing and their niece Deborah offered to give him a list of movies and TV shows to watch in the comfort of his own home, he stopped her before she could name one title, saying it was not the same. Nothing could compete with live theatre for the Robinsons, as they drew inspiration from the captivating relationship between the actor and the audience. To quote Deborah, “For Leigh and Ivy, it was always about giving.” An entrepreneurial couple without children, the Robinsons unfailingly supported nonprofits over the course of their lives, never once seeking recognition. Managing Director Susan Medak said, “The Robinsons thought of philanthropy as a means of sustaining something that they loved, as opposed to a strategic means of affecting change.” Their philanthropy was in many ways informed by passion and a desire to help others discover the cultural experiences that defined their relationship. After spending their lives travelling the world (on a strict budget in the early years of their marriage), they donated funds to Hosteling International to allow young people to explore the world on the cheap. Making an incredible impact through her gentle warmth and leadership, Ivy’s volunteer hours with youth homes numbered in the thousands. As lovers of everything from the opera to new plays, they gave generously to many theatres in the Bay Area and never failed to see a show, even if it was rumored to be bad. The Robinsons left a legacy through their philanthropy that is marked by its breadth and ardent intentionality. CO N TIN U E D O N N E X T PAG E 2 0 1 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 1 1
CO N TIN U E D FRO M PR E VI O U S PAG E
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With two of their greatest loves being the East Bay and the performing arts, the Robinsons had supported Berkeley Rep consistently since the mid-’80s. They admired both the Theatre’s commitment to producing daring work that highlights a diverse array of human experiences and those actors who chose to continue telling stories to Bay Area audiences rather than moving to potentially more lucrative careers in New York and Los Angeles. The Robinsons asked for the Charles Dean Award’s certificate to include a quote from President Theodore Delano Roosevelt: “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.” The Charles Dean Award reflects their deep appreciation for hard work that benefits the broader community—something that has, since their meeting in San Francisco in 1963, been central to their relationship. Seven months after their 50th wedding anniversary, Ivy passed in early 2015. After her passing, Leigh continued to operate their businesses (including renting out Airstream trailers in wilderness areas of Northern California to share his love for the California pines) and even trained for the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles aids/Lifecycle bicycle ride. However, he was only able to finish the first day of the ride due to a scheduled surgery for his failing pancreas. Leigh passed in June of 2016. The Robinsons’ warm spirits are no doubt missed by those close to them and the communities they loved, but their legacy lives on through their deeply meaningful philanthropic efforts.
Michael Leibert Society members are loyal patrons who are leaving a lasting impact on Berkeley Rep, the local community, and the American theatrical canon. Learn how you can make great theatre a part of your legacy by visiting berkeleyrep.org/plannedgiving or contacting Daria Hepps at 510 6472904 or dhepps@berkeleyrep.org. 1 2 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2
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Selma Meyerowitz gives a pre-show talk
Dive deeper with a docent BY KAREN MCKEVITT
To inspire you to dive deeper into the worlds of
the plays at Berkeley Rep like The Last Tiger in Haiti, we provide a bevy of creative content from the in-depth articles in this magazine and behind-the-scenes videos on our website to the fun and informative facts mounted on the bathroom stall doors. Some of our more dynamic activities are those provided by our docents. Now in its 10th year, our volunteer docent program includes free pre-show talks, post-show discussions, and even off-site presentations at libraries, senior residences, and community centers around the East Bay. “We’re always striving to engage our audience in a dialogue of ideas,” says Managing Director Susan Medak. “Our docents consistently create fascinating talks and moderate lively discussions where everyone has a chance to be heard.” Eager audience members gather at Berkeley Rep at 7pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the pre-show talk and discover the context for the world of the play; learn something about the playwright, director, actors, and other members of the creative team; and take away a few things to think about as they watch the play. Each talk includes plenty of time for questions and answers. “We hope audiences leave the pre-show talk with an enhanced interest in the play and that they get excited about
seeing it,” says Selma Meyerowitz, who’s been part of the docent program since 2007. After each matinee, audience members gather for the post-show discussion, where they get to talk about what they’ve just seen. “The most rewarding part of the post-show discussions is we get to hear what the audience thinks,” says Selma. “People want to talk, and we’re constantly posing questions. If we get opposite opinions, all the better.” “The mood of each show’s discussion For more information changes based on the about docent events, visit type of production as berkeleyrep.org/events. well as the tenor of its content,” adds Matty If you’d like to join the docent Bloom, who has been program, email part of the docent docents@berkeleyrep.org. program since 2011. “Disgraced [from our 2015–16 season] resulted in a very high audience discussion turnout, where the audience’s need to debrief together was palpable. For a delightfully entertaining show like Treasure Island, discussions were much lighter. There’s always something for everyone at docent post-show discussions, since it’s a time for people to say or ask about whatever’s on their mind.” 2 0 1 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 1 3
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R E P ORT
Wrap-up: The Ground Floor’s 2016 Summer Residency Lab
Top Amy Staats’ Eddie and Dave, Dipika Guha’s The Art of Gaman, and universes’ UniSon Bottom Kitka and Erika Chong Shuch’s Iron Shoes, and Lileana Blain-Cruz and Susan Soon He Stanton’s Intimacy
BY MADELEINE OLDHAM
The Ground Floor sent 18 projects out into the world after the 2016 Summer Residency Lab, a record high number. While we are already hard at work planning the 2017 Summer Residency Lab, we thought it would be a good time to take a look back at what went on this past summer. Poetry received some extra love this summer, with three projects exploring it in different ways. Powerhouse ensemble universes continued constructing their work in progress about the unpublished poetry of August Wilson. Lisa Peterson and Todd Almond furthered their collaboration on The Idea of Order, a musical inspired by the work of Wallace Stevens. (This project began in 2013’s Summer Lab, and has since evolved into a three-way co-commission among Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, and Seattle Rep.) And poet Josh Lefkowitz told a long-form story by performing his own work, using individual poems as building blocks to evoke a larger narrative. The storytelling among this group of artists reached around the world. Kitka brought their exploration of Eastern European vocal traditions to a collaboration with choreographer Erika Chong Shuch. Dipika Guha shared the story of Tomomi, a Japanese woman whose arrival in America coincides with the first wave of West Coast Japanese internment. Joining us from London’s Royal Court, director Chris Campbell worked with Mia Chung on the very beginnings of a play about translation. And Lauren Yee dove into the world of the 1960s Cambodian rock-and-roll scene on the eve of the Khmer Rouge’s reign and subsequent genocide. 1 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 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2
Other artists investigated the lives of public figures. Amy Staats posed the question of what really happened the night of the 1996 mtv Video Music Awards between David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen. The relationship between Anaïs Nin and her father featured in Jen Silverman’s play with music. Eisa Davis used Harlem Renaissance artists as a loose jumping-off place to explore how and if black women can escape the performance of themselves. Playing with form proved of interest to Lileana BlainCruz and Susan Soon He Stanton, who began to make a site-specific, interactive piece about what intimacy means to us today. Photographs served as the starting point for Aaron Landsman’s nonlinear experiment about memory. And themes of great import featured prominently in plays by Megan Cohen (does the American Dream have a dark side?), James Magruder (can a person really change?), Josh Kornbluth (how do we make peace with our own mortality?), Erin Edens (can we ever really cope with loss?), Joe Waechter (where are the connecting points between sexuality, masculinity, and sport?), and Tori Sampson (what does the tension between body and soul look like?). You know—small stuff. Some projects have clear next steps already lined up, while others are enjoying some digestion and reflection time. We look forward to following the development of all of these juicy ideas, and can’t wait to see some of them eventually come to life in full-fledged productions.
In 2013, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor received
an application to our Summer Residency Lab from playwright Jeff Augustin. The proposed project was titled, Krik? Krak! or The Last Tiger in Haiti. Jeff hadn’t written anything yet at that point— the play only existed as an idea, but he knew he wanted to create something about the intersection between storytelling and abuse. We jumped at the chance to work with him, and invited him to spend two weeks with us as he started to build the world of this play. He wrote enough pages to approximate a first act, and we had a very informal reading at the end of Jeff’s residency. Few of those original pages survived to the next draft, but they served as a springboard for the story to emerge. La Jolla Playhouse then invited Jeff and this project to be part of their dna New Work Series. They held the first public reading of the play, and got so excited about it that they requested to produce the show after only a first draft, which is very rare. (Normally a play takes a few drafts for it to grow into its skin and feel ready for a full rehearsal process.) La Jolla reached out to Berkeley Rep, and we agreed that a world premiere co-production was a happy plan indeed. The play ran in La Jolla during the summer of 2016, and the title was streamlined to The Last Tiger in Haiti. Much was learned during that process, and the show went back into rehearsal for two weeks in Berkeley immediately preceding its run in the Peet’s Theatre. Jeff and director Joshua Kahan Brody made some adjustments and refinements based on what they gleaned from their time in La Jolla, and the play has continued to bloom and deepen. Shortly before it opened in Berkeley, the script won the Rella Lossy Playwriting Award, and hopefully this beautiful play’s journey is only just beginning.
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 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2
TELLING
Over a lunch break during rehearsals in San Diego playwright Jeff Augustin and director Joshua Kahan Brody sat down for a conversation with La Jolla Playhouse’s director of new play development Gabriel Greene. Jeff, what was your inspiration for writing The Last Tiger in Haiti? JA: I became fascinated with the “Krik? Krak!” traditional form of Haitian storytelling. And also, the question of how we use stories to heal ourselves—not as a single person, but how do we tell stories as a group to heal ourselves? As a storyteller and an audience member, what are our obligations to each other? What is happening between us?
Was “Krik? Krak!” storytelling something you grew up with? What are some of the rituals or gestures of those kinds of stories? JA: I’m just going back from my experience at home [growing up in Miami], so I don’t know if it’s Haitian, or if it was just my mom trying to entertain us as children. We’d sit on the floor, or in a circle. We would light candles, though I’m pretty
Joshua Kahan Brody and Jeff Augustin at the first day of rehearsals at La Jolla Playhouse P H OTO BY J I M C A R M O DY
STORIES
sure that was just my mom being like, “Let’s make this fun!” We would take turns performing, grabbing random objects and getting creative in telling these stories. It was family time. For me, storytelling is home. Even if you’re not in your house, not with your family, it feels very home-like, very comfortable. JKB: Largely, I think that people try to heal and find love through the ways in which we tell our story. I have always loved the thought that within your family, storytelling was a very real, though non-physical, way of creating a home. So storytelling was your way in to the play? JA: My initial impulse was to write about abuse. The initial idea, that I pitched to Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab, was about these three kids in Orlando who all came from these abusive homes, and were friends in high school. They’d tell all these violent folklores and they would put their parents— or whoever their abuser was—as the villain; it became this form of escape for them. Then, 30 years later, one of them reunites the group because he has just killed his former abusers, and now he wants the other children to do it too. In Berkeley, I wrote 45 pages of this original idea. Then I
heard it aloud with a group of actors—including Reggie White, who is in our cast—and what I’d written felt very forced. And now your play ends up connecting those same questions about storytelling and healing to the subject of Haitian restaveks. How did you get there? JA: I happened to read this article in the New York Times about restaveks, and I wondered why no one is talking about this. I asked my mom and she said, “There was no reason to tell you because no one in our family was a restavek; it’s not something we partook in.” You know, it was like asking about one of many things that can exist in a country. I realized later that this story really wanted to be set in Haiti, and the restaveks were still on my mind. I was thinking about escape, about never being allowed to be children. Earlier we talked about storytelling as a very comfortable kind of thing—a way to affirm or celebrate the home—but then there’s also this idea of storytelling as an escape; that one way of escaping a harsh reality is to tell a different story. CO N TIN U E D O N N E X T PAG E 2 0 1 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 1 7
Jeff Augustin and Joshua Kahan Brody at the first day of rehearsals at La Jolla Playhouse P H OTO BY J I M C A R M O DY
For me, storytelling is home. Even if you’re not in your house, not with your family, it feels very home-like, very comfortable. —P L AY W R IG H T J E F F AUG U S T I N
How do we continue to love people who have broken us? It’s a big, beautiful question to ask in the world and also one that is being asked in the play. —DIR EC TOR JOSH UA K A H A N BRODY
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JA: I think “escape” is about “creating what I wish my life was.” These kids want a real sense of home and family, so for that to be a reality they have to create it in another form. I’m also interested in how we love people who abuse us. It’s easy to assume, “Oh, you were abused, you must hate this person.” But it’s a complicated web, especially since they’re kids. “You bring me anxiety and fear, but at the same time I want you to love me and I need that love.” JKB: You learn what you learn based on your environment. How do you receive love if what you’re getting from a parent in your childhood is physical, emotional, and sexual abuse? How do we deal with the hole that that leaves? How do we continue to love people who have broken us? It’s a big, beautiful question to ask in the world and also one that is being asked in the play. You two met during grad school at UC San Diego several years back, and have been friends and collaborators ever since. What makes your collaborative process work so well? JKB: Jeff writes these beautiful things that are poetic and muscular and sensual. There is violence in it but also a stillness. Our collaboration is based mostly from the fact that I really trust Jeff. It’s a very easy way of working. It’s not that it’s without conflict or disagreement, but there is a basis of a lot of trust and love. JA: It’s mutual. I feel that I can bring in a scene or try something and I trust that whatever he’ll say will open me up, free me. 1 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 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2
Are there things by which you feel bound? JA: Back when I first started thinking about this play, I was reading a book of essays by Edwidge Danticat called Create Dangerously. Her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, was about Haitian women, and in the book the mother repeatedly tests her daughter’s virginity. A lot of people in the Haitian community were in an uproar: “this is going to represent all Haitians!” So in this book of essays, Edwidge went into this spiral—asking herself, what right does she have to tell these Haitian stories, because she left when she was 12. I started thinking: what right do I have to tell these stories? I don’t fear critics as much as I fear other Haitians watching the show. I’m always worried that I’m not getting something right. How do you reconcile being a writer of Haitian descent who feels a gravitational pull towards Haiti in your work, and also that worry about whether your stories will be perceived as authentic? JA: I’ve come to the conclusion that I am talking about a very particular experience; I’m talking about Haitian lives the way I experienced it growing up. So if someone else’s experience is different than my childhood, I just remind myself that I’m not here to represent Haiti; I am not the Haitian playwright. It’s not my job to be that. Everyone has a different life, they might see something different. Also, I call my mom for advice about everything: “Mom, does this make sense, can I do this?” [laughs]
“Born of no one, belonged to no one:” The complicated history of Haitian restaveks BY SARAH ROSE LEONARD
The characters in Jeff Augustin’s The Last Tiger in Haiti live in an unstable, frightening world. They are restaveks: child domestic servants, whose status amounts to slavery in many cases. Currently, restaveks number around 300,000–500,000 and largely reside in the slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. The conditions of their servitude are wrapped up in the complex existence of Haiti itself. CO N TIN U E D O N N E X T PAG E
Judeline (12) brings water from the well. She goes to school, but can only do her homework once she has finished all of the household chores. She is not allowed at the table and so sits on the step to study. P H OTO BY V L A D S O K H I N , CO U R T E S Y O F T H E R E S TAV EK F R EED O M F O U N DAT I O N
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Portraits of restavek children at one of the schools in Port-au-Prince P H OTO BY V L A D S O K H I N , CO U R T E S Y O F T H E R E S TAV EK F R EED O M F O U N DAT I O N
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Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world due to a long, nearly continual history of economic and political instability. In 1492, Spain colonized Hispaniola, the island that today is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Within 25 years, the native peoples of the island were almost entirely eliminated, and in 1502 the Spanish imported slaves from West and Central Africa, giving the land its African population. In 1697, the Spanish kept the Dominican Republic and ceded the other half of the island to France, and the colony of Saint-Domingue was born. Forestry and sugar production industries soared in the newly formed colony and money poured in, but of course, none went to the slaves. Tensions rose continuously, and in 1791 the slaves rebelled and fought to kick out the French. They declared independence in 1804, and the rebellion became the only slave uprising in history to end with the foundation of a new country: Haiti. The uprising is celebrated in Haitian culture to this day. Sadly, Haiti became a creditor nation almost immediately following the revolution. In 1825 the new Haitian government agreed to pay France 150 million francs to compensate them for their “losses” from the uprising. That payment—which was only possible thanks to loans from European banks—represented ten times the country’s national revenue. In exchange, France agreed to officially recognize Haiti as an independent nation. By the end of the 19th century, around 80 percent of
national revenue was devoted to paying debts. Haiti only finished paying off the money owed to France in 1947. This debt continuously crippled their already financially fragile nation. The U.S. had been eyeing Haiti as a potential location for a naval base in the Caribbean since the mid-1800s. But it wasn’t the only one. By the early 1900s, European powers were vying for control over the region. Haiti was closely tied to France, thanks to the recurring payments, and Germany was also establishing economic ties. The U.S. feared that Haiti’s instability would make it easy for another country to attack, so in 1915, the U.S. invaded first, claiming to be there as a stabilizing force that would ease civil unrest. The U.S. positioned itself as a parental-type figure, but its actions revealed an underbelly of self-interest. One of its first moves was shifting Haiti’s financial reserves to the U.S. and rewriting the constitution to give foreigners land rights on the island. Haitian writer Edwidge Danticat notes, “During the nineteen years of the U.S. occupation, fifteen thousand Haitians were killed. Any resistance to the centralized, U.S.-installed puppet governments was crushed, and a gendarmerie —a combination of army and police, modeled after an occupation force — was created to replace the Marines after they left. Although U.S. troops officially pulled out of Haiti in 1934, the United States exerted some control over Haiti’s finances until 1947.” Many argue that America’s interventionism in Haiti still has not ended.
A slum in Port-au-Prince
Edeline (14) washing clothes for a family of 13, while one of her bosses looks on
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This unstable financial situation birthed political turmoil. centuries and restaveks are officially illegal, little has been From 1957 to 1986 Haiti was ruled by two terrifying and corrupt done to stop the practice. In 2003 the government passed dictators: François “Papa Doc” and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” an act that outlawed placement of children into restavek serDuvalier. Both father and son employed an armed militia to vice and “all forms of abuse, violence, abusive or degrading violently punish dissenters, and they stole millions of dollars treatment against children.” However, the act fails to outline from local and foreign sources alike. Loans acquired during the any specific legal ramifications and only vaguely alludes to Duvalier time period were estimated to account for approxithe possibility of judicial action. Former President Jean-Bermately 40 percent of the country’s trand Aristide has said that the debt. These funds were used for restavek practice is “so ingrained Even though Haiti has been a free various fraudulent schemes; the Duin Haiti that too many people do valiers were known for appropriating nation for centuries and restaveks are not even know they are breaking much-needed foreign aid money. All officially illegal, little has been done the law.” major social institutions—including The word restavek comes to stop the practice. political parties, peasant cooperfrom Creole and French, meaning atives, student associations, and “to stay with.” Restavek children workers’ unions—were crushed or infiltrated during the dictacome from poor families in the country who send their chiltorships. An estimated 30,000 people were killed during Papa dren to live with wealthier families in the city. Yet, the move Doc’s rule. Since then, Haiti has been controlled by various is more appropriately described as from “poor” to “less poor” military dictatorships and democratically elected presidents. than “poor” to “affluent.” Truly wealthy Haitians don’t have Yet even presidents chosen by a democratic process have been restaveks; they have the money to pay a maid. A restavek’s host formally accused of crimes. Years of brutality and oppression family is often only slightly better off than the birth family. The have scarred the political system, and Haiti is still finding its expectation is that this small class bump will make all the differway as a democratic nation. ence in the world by providing an education; the agreement is This history serves as a backdrop for the restavek practhat the host family will cover the cost of sending the restavek tice. Slavery and exploitation are deeply rooted in the history child to school. That hope doesn’t always materialize, as many of the country. Even though Haiti has been a free nation for restaveks are expected to prioritize their work in the home first. CO N TIN U E D O N N E X T PAG E Children at a refugee camp in Pétion-Ville, just outside Port-au-Prince
Students in Restavek Freedom’s child advocacy program
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Students in Restavek Freedom’s child advocacy program receive their new backpacks and school supplies
Robenson, a Restavek Freedom Child Advocate, works with one of his students during their regular meetings
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A typical day for a restavek may include 10–14 hours More recently, middlemen (koutye, or “intermediary,” in of housework. They begin their day rising before their host Creole) have cropped up to seek out restaveks. Middlemen family, and go to sleep after them. Many sleep in an imcan go into the countryside, find a desperate family, and sell provised tent outside the main house. During the day they their child for U.S. $50. The process is transparent and genercook, clean, wash clothes, clean out chamber pots, and run ally acceptable in Haitian society. A major reason the restavek errands. Restaveks are frequently tasked with fetching water practice has become so common is the lack of alternatives for a every day as more than two-thirds of Haitians do not have growing number of orphans. According to a 2004 study, a mapotable water. Some restaveks are expected to walk the host jority of restavek placements occurred within one year of the parents’ children to and from school—regardless of whether death of another household member, usually a parent. This bethey themselves are allowed to enter the school’s doors. The came especially true after the devastating 2010 earthquake that labor of restaveks is arduous, and an abusive host family can killed 300,000 people and left 2.3 million homeless. Orphaned make the work even harder. There and homeless children became easy is a widespread culture of physiprey for traffickers. The international humanitarian cal, emotional, and sexual abuse There are many organizations community has galvanized around that focus on stopping the abuse in these households. A former restavek, Jean-Robert Cadet, wrote and freeing children from their this cause, and today the various an autobiography entitled Restavec servitude, but most groups working schools and nonprofits that are about his experience and reported on the ground create what the U.N. dedicated to improving the restavek calls “pockets of change.” The U.N. that his “maman” wouldn’t let him speak unless spoken to, or even situation have many success stories. also believes that the underlying smile or laugh in her presence. economic causes of the phenomShe made him scratch her feet enon make it unclear how any as she drifted off to sleep and kicked him if he fell asleep, anti-restavek organizations or anti-trafficking laws will be ensaying, “You’re going to scratch my feet until I fall asleep if I forced, and whether they will improve the situation for children. have to kick your head off, you son of a whore.” She beat him However, on an individual basis, change does happen. Former if he didn’t perform his tasks correctly and never missed an restaveks have spoken or written about their experience, bringopportunity to insult him. As a result, Cadet suffered great ing personalized attention to the issue. Jean-Robert Cadet’s emotional and physical trauma in his developmental years. moving, starkly written autobiography in particular has received Without love and time to play, most restaveks’ cognitive designificant global attention. The international humanitarian velopment falls behind. Children are often subject to sexual community has galvanized around this cause, and today the abuse by the male head of house, and girls can be used as various schools and nonprofits that are dedicated to improving concubines for the host family’s teenage boys. Because of the restavek situation have many success stories. They believe this trend, restavek girls are nicknamed “la pou sa,” meaning that even if the restavek practice shows no sign of slowing “there for that.” down, every restavek child freed is one fewer child enslaved. 2 2 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2
Krik? Krak! BY GABRIEL GREENE
Storytelling is a central part of Haitian culture. All
over the country, once night has fallen, families gather in their homes to share favorite folklores. When they are ready to start, the storyteller says “Krik,” an invitation to the assembled to hear the story. “Krak,” the others say, ready to listen. The rules having been established, the stories proceed. The tales that follow have been passed down from generation to generation through the oral tradition, preserving the narrative traditions brought over from Africa by their ancestors, and forging an ongoing familial bond. But the stories aren’t passively received; the teller actively engages the listeners, who form a call-and-response type of chorus. Haiti is a country full of contrasts and contradictions, and their folklores are similarly varied. Reality and the supernatural co-exist. Elements of Christianity and Voodoo —both of which are practiced in Haiti, often by the same people—make their way into the stories. Though the primary function of the folklores is entertainment, the stories are also used to instill values and moral instruction. In her collection of Haitian folktales, Liliane Nérette Louis writes, “When I did something wrong during the day, my mother would wait until evening. Then, in a beautiful folktale, she would convey her message about my wrongdoing.”
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KNEEHIGH RETURNS!
Don’t miss the latest theatrical creation from the company behind The Wild Bride and Tristan & Yseult!
“A wonderfully life-affirming piece of theatre... touchingly and gloriously imaginative” —THE TIMES OF LONDON
Adapted by Michael Morpurgo and Emma Rice Directed by Emma Rice In association with Kneehigh and Birmingham Repertory Theatre
STARTS DEC 2 · RODA THEATRE
SPONSOR
The cast of 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips PHOTO BY STEVE TANNER
Mechanics Bank Wealth Management SEASON SPONSORS
Berkeley Repertory Theatre, in a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse, presents the world premiere production of
B E RKE LE Y RE PE RTO RY TH E ATRE TO NY TACCO N E , MICHAEL LEIB ERT ARTIS TIC D IREC TO R SUSAN M E DAK , M ANAGIN G D IREC TO R
CAST
By Jeff Augustin Directed by Joshua Kahan Brody
Rose Brittany Bellizeare Max Andy Lucien
OC TOB ER 14– NOVEM B ER 27, 2016 PEE T ’ S THE ATRE · M AIN SE A SON
Emmanuel Clinton Roane Laurie Jasmine St. Clair
The Last Tiger in Haiti is made possible thanks to the generous support of
Joseph Reggie D. White
SEASON SPONSORS
Jack & Betty Schafer Michael & Sue Steinberg The Strauch Kulhanjian Family
PRODUC TION S TAFF Scenic Design Takeshi Kata Costume Design Dede Ayite Lighting Design Alexander V. Nichols Sound Design Nicholas Drashner
LE A D S P O N S O R S
Hair & Wig Design Cookie Jordan
Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau
Dialect Coach Chantal Jean-Pierre
SPONSORS
Karen Galatz & Jon Wellinghoff Jack Klingelhofer
Dramaturgs Madeleine Oldham Gabriel Greene Casting Telsey + Company
A S S O CIAT E S P O N S O R S
Dale & Don Marshall Barbara L. Peterson Emily Shanks Wendy Williams
The San Francisco Foundation The San Francisco Foundation’s Rella Lossy Playwright Award honors the memory of the late Rella Lossy (1934–1996), a lifelong lover and champion of the American theatre and playwriting.
Stage Manager Christine D’Amore The actors and stage manager are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. The Last Tiger in Haiti was developed with support from The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work and the 2050 Fellowship Program at New York Theatre Workshop. The Last Tiger in Haiti was developed in part at Playwrights Horizons (New York, NY) during Jeff Augustin’s tenure as Shank Playwright in Residence.
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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BE R K E L E Y R E P P R E S E N T S Brittany Bellizeare ROSE
Brittany is making her Berkeley Rep debut. She has appeared as Camae in The Mountaintop (Northern Stage), Ruby in Seven Guitars (Two River Theatre), in the educational touring show Sunjata Kamalenya (McCarter Theatre), and the one-act musical Archy & Mehitabel (the Yard). She has participated in various festivals in New York City including the New York International Fringe Festival and 48 Hours in Harlem, and she has performed at the Cell, Gallery Players in Brooklyn, and the Public Theater. Her television credits include Eye Candy (mtv), The Knick (Cinemax), Facing Trauma (Discovery Health), and Carol’s Daughter— Do It Yourself (hsn). Brittany received her mfa from the New School for Drama and her BS in Mathematics from Spelman College. Visit brittanybellizeare.com.
Andy Lucien MAX
Andy is making his Berkeley Rep debut. He appeared off Broadway in The Qualms (Playwrights Horizons), City of Conversation (Lincoln Center), and The Last Seder (Theater Three at the Mint). He also appeared in Cry Old Kingdom and 27 Ways I Didn’t Say Hi to Laurence Fishburne (Humana Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville), Clybourne Park (Dorset Theatre Festival/Barrington Stage), dna New Work Series (La Jolla Playhouse), and Revenge of a King (Grahamstown, South Africa). Andy’s television credits include Elementary, Token the Webseries, and BE the Webseries, and he has appeared in the film Seven Lovers. For Karen.
Clinton Roane EMMANUEL
Clinton is making his Berkeley Rep debut. He has appeared on Broadway and in London in The Scottsboro Boys. His regional credits include Five Guys Named Moe (Arena Stage, Cleveland Play House), The Scottsboro Boys (Philadelphia Theatre Company— Barrymore Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, the Old Globe, American Conservatory Theater, Ahmanson Theater), Hello! My Baby (Goodspeed Musicals), My One and Only (the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire), 26 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2
profiles
Dreamgirls (North Shore Music Theatre), and Radio City Christmas Spectacular (Radio City Music Hall). Clinton received his training at cap21 and his bfa from Howard University. Visit clintonroane.com.
Jasmine St. Clair L AU R I E
Jasmine is making her Berkeley Rep debut. She has appeared at La Jolla Playhouse in Sideways; Skylight Theatre in Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea; and UC San Diego in Little Children Dream of God (Sula), Cry Old Kingdom (Judith), and In the Red and Brown Water (Shun). She has appeared on television in Shameless and in the film Daddy and Me (Tasha). Jasmine received her mfa from UC San Diego.
Reggie D. White JOSEPH
Reggie appeared in Party People at Berkeley Rep and is the Theatre’s tcg Artist-in-Residence, heading up the Young Writers of Color Collective. He appeared off Broadway in Troll, I & You, For the Last Time, The Snow Queen, and Dogsbody. His regional credits include I & You (Merrimack Repertory Theatre), Hundred Days (Z Space), Crime & Punishment (San Jose Repertory Theatre), and The Last Election (San Francisco Mime Troupe). Reggie is the recipient of the Theatre Bay Area titan Award, as well as the rhe Foundation’s Artistic Fellowship. He received his education at Cal State Hayward and Atlantic Theater School.
Jeff Augustin P L AY W R I G H T
Jeff’s play Little Children Dream of God received its world premiere at the Roundabout Underground, where he was the inaugural Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence. His plays have also been produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville (Cry Old Kingdom, Humana 2013; That High Lonesome Sound, Humana Apprentice Anthology 2015), and Western Washington University (Corktown). His work has been developed at Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, American Conservatory Theater, and Seattle Rep. Jeff was the Shank Playwright-in-Residence at Playwrights Horizons. He is an alumni of the New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellowship and a member of the Rita Goldberg Playwrights Workshop at the Lark and the Working Farm at space on Ryder Farm. Jeff is currently under commission
from the Roundabout Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. He received his BA from Boston College and his mfa from UC San Diego.
Joshua Kahan Brody DIREC TOR
Joshua’s recent directing work includes The Last Tiger in Haiti (La Jolla Playhouse); King of the Yees at New Stages (Goodman Theatre); True Believer (TheaterLab, New York); Fourteen Flights (Award for Excellence in Directing, New York International Fringe Festival); Pericles and Medea (University Of Missouri, Kansas City); Titus Andronicus, Little Children Dream of God, The Dybbuk, The Santa Barbarians, and A Man, His Wife, and His Hat (UC San Diego). He has developed work all over the country including at Atlantic Theater Company, New York Theatre Workshop, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Playwrights Foundation (San Francisco), Playwrights Horizons, and South Coast Repertory. He is co-founder of the Trip, a San Diego-based performance group, for which he recently directed Three Plays in a Tattoo Shop. In 2017 he will be directing King of the Yees at the Goodman Theatre and Center Theatre Group. Joshua is the recipient of a 2015 Princess Grace Award and received his mfa from the UC San Diego Department of Theatre & Dance and his BA from Yale University.
Takeshi Kata
SCENIC DESIGNER
Takeshi’s New York credits include Through a Glass Darkly, Storefront Church, and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Atlantic Theater Company); and Adding Machine (the Minetta Lane Theatre). He has designed work around the country at Boston Court, Alley Theatre, American Players Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Geffen Playhouse, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, the Kirk Douglas Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, the Old Globe, Steppenwolf Theatre, and Yale Repertory Theatre. Takeshi has won an Obie Award and has been nominated for Drama Desk, Ovation, and Barrymore awards. He is an assistant professor at usc, School of Dramatic Arts.
Dede Ayite
COSTUME DESIGNER
Dede’s off-Broadway credits include Marie & Rosetta (Atlantic Theater Company), The Royale (Lincoln Center Theater), Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout Theatre Company), brownsville song (b-side for tray) (lct3), and ToasT, Urban Retreat, and Manahatta (the Public Theater). Select regional credits include The Wiz (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Detroit ’67 (Center Stage/Detroit Public Theatre), Between Riverside and Crazy (Studio Theatre), The Blood Quilt (Arena Stage), Marie Antoinette (Steppenwolf Theatre, 2015 Jeff Award recipient), Stagger Lee (Dallas Theater Center),
The CA Lyons Project (Alliance Theatre), Five Guys Named Moe (Arena Stage/Cleveland Play House), A Raisin in the Sun (California Shakespeare Theater), The Piano Lesson (Yale Repertory Theatre), and The Music Man in Concert (Two Rivers, New Jersey Performing Arts Center). Dede received her mfa from Yale School of Drama.
Alexander V. Nichols LIGHTING DESIGNER
Alex has designed more than 30 productions for Berkeley Rep. His Broadway credits include Wishful Drinking, Hugh Jackman— Back On Broadway, and Nice Work If You Can Get It. His off-Broadway productions include In Masks Outrageous and Austere, Los Big Names, Horizon, Bridge & Tunnel, Taking Over, Through the Night, and In the Wake. Alex has worked at regional theatres throughout the country, including American Conservatory Theater, Mark Taper Forum, National Theatre of Taiwan, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and La Jolla Playhouse, among others. His dance credits include resident designer for Pennsylvania Ballet, Hartford Ballet, and American Repertory Ballet; lighting supervisor for American Ballet Theatre; and resident visual designer for the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company since 1989. His designs are in the permanent repertory of San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Hubbard Street Dance, Hong Kong Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, odc/sf, and the Royal Winnipeg Bal-
let. Alex’s other projects include the museum installation Circle of Memory, a collaboration with Eleanor Coppola, presented in Stockholm, Sweden, and the video and visual design for Life: A Journey Through Time, a collaboration with Frans Lanting and Philip Glass, presented at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
Nicholas Drashner SOUND DESIGNER
Nicholas is thrilled to be working with Berkeley Rep and La Jolla Playhouse. His ljp credits include Kingdom City, The Astronaut Farmworker, Suzette Who Set to Sea, and A Lonely Boy’s Guide to Survival (and Werewolves). He is currently assistant professor of sound design in the School of Theatre and Dance at Kent State University. Nicholas received his mfa in Sound Design for Theatre and Dance from University of California, San Diego. Visit drashner.com.
Chantal Jean-Pierre D I A L E C T C OAC H
Chantal is thrilled to work with La Jolla Playhouse and Berkeley Rep on such an amazing story. A few of her coaching credits include Roundabout Theatre Company (Little Children Dream of God), Here Art Center (Last Day), McCarter Theatre (Sunjata Kamalenya), George Street Playhouse (39 Steps), Playwrights Realm (Five Second Chances), Classical Theater of Harlem (Romeo & Juliet and Dream on Monkey Mountain), Minetta Lane Theatre (Thunder Knocking at the Door), and Red Carpet Theater (For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf ). Chantal is also a professional actress; visit chantaljean-pierre.com for more about her acting career.
Madeleine Oldham
Cookie Jordan
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
Cookie’s Broadway credits include Eclipsed, Side Show, After Midnight, Fela, and A View from the Bridge. Off-Broadway credits include Familiar, Eclipsed, Hir, Cloud Nine, Skeleton Crew, Gloria, Liquid Plain, Hurt Village, and An Octoroon. Cookie has also designed for Side Show (Kennedy Center and La Jolla Playhouse), Fela (national tour and European tour), and Dirty Dancing and Flash Dance (national tour). Cookie is the makeup designer for nbc’s The Wiz Live.
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 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
HAIR & WIG DESIGNER
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BE R K E L E Y R E P P R E S E N T S 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.
Gabriel Greene D R A M AT U R G
Gabriel joined La Jolla Playhouse’s artistic staff in 2007 and currently serves as its director of new play development. In addition to curating and producing the annual DNA New Work Series (at which The Last Tiger in Haiti received its first public reading), he has dramaturged over 20 new plays and musicals for the Playhouse, including world premieres by Ayad Akhtar, Kirsten Greenidge, Darrell Hammond, U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, Quiara Algeria Hudes and Erin McKeown, Kristen Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez, Des McAnuff and the Flaming Lips, Herbert Siguenza, Michael Benjamin Washington, and Sheri Wilner. His adaptation of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps novels (co-written and directed by Tom Salamon) recently premiered at the Vaults (London). With Alex Levy, he co-created Safe at Home, an immersive play that will receive its world premiere at Mixed Blood Theatre in 2017. Gabriel is a graduate of University of Michigan and Trinity College, Dublin.
Telsey + Company CASTING
La Jolla Playhouse: Hollywood, Guards at the Taj, Blueprints to Freedom, Come From Away, Chasing the Song, Hands on a Hardbody, Blood and Gifts, Glengarry Glen Ross, Milk Like Sugar, Little Miss Sunshine, Limelight, Bonnie & Clyde, 33 Variations and Memphis, among others. Broadway and tour credits include Paramour, Tuck Everlasting, Waitress, American Psycho, Fiddler on the Roof, The Color Purple, On Your Feet!, Hamilton, Something Rotten!, An American in Paris, Finding Neverland, The King and I, Kinky Boots, Wicked, If/Then, The Sound of Music, Newsies, Motown, and Rock of Ages. Off-Broadway and regional credits include Atlantic Theater Company, MCC, Signature Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Stage and Film, the Old Globe, Paper Mill Playhouse, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. Telsey + Company has cast for the films Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Tallulah, The Intern, and Into the Woods, and TV shows including The Family, Grease Live!, The Wiz Live!, and Flesh and Bone. 2 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 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2
profiles
Christine D’Amore S TAG E M A N AG E R
Christine’s New York City credits include the Public Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, and the Signature Theatre. At the Encores! series at New York City Center she worked on God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; Runaways; Do I Hear a Waltz?; 1776; Cabin in the Sky; Zorba; Paint Your Wagon; Lady, Be Good; Pump Boys and Dinettes; Faust; tick, tick…boom!; and A Bed and A Chair. Her Broadway credits include The Color Purple and Les Misérables. Christine has worked regionally at Westport Country Playhouse and Hartford Stage.
La Jolla Playhouse CO -PRODUCER
The Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is internationally-renowned for creating some of the most exciting and adventurous work in American theatre, through its new play development initiatives, its innovative Without Walls series, artist commissions, and residencies, including BD Wong, Daniel Beatty, and Kirsten Greenidge. Currently led by Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg, the Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, and Mel Ferrer, and reborn in 1983 under the artistic leadership of Des McAnuff. La Jolla Playhouse has had 26 productions transfer to Broadway, garnering 35 Tony Awards, among them Jersey Boys, Memphis, The Who’s Tommy, Big River, the upcoming Come From Away, as well as Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays and the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, both fostered as part of the Playhouse’s Page To Stage Program. Visit LaJollaPlayhouse.org.
Tony Taccone
MICHAEL LEIBERT ARTISTIC DIREC TOR
During Tony’s tenure as artistic director of Berkeley Rep, the Tony Award–winning nonprofit has earned a reputation as an international leader in innovative theatre. In those 19 years, Berkeley Rep has presented more than 70 world, American, and West Coast premieres and sent 23 shows to New York, two to London, and one to Hong Kong. Tony has staged more than 40 plays in Berkeley, including new work from Julia Cho, John Leguizamo, Culture Clash, Rinde Eckert, David Edgar, Danny Hoch, Geoff Hoyle, Itamar Moses, and Lemony Snicket. He directed the shows that transferred to London, Continental Divide and Tiny Kushner, and two that landed on Broadway as well: Bridge & Tunnel and Wishful Drinking. Prior to working at Berkeley Rep, Tony served as artistic director of Eureka Theatre, which produced the American premieres of plays by Dario Fo, Caryl Churchill, and David Edgar before focusing on a new generation of American writers. While at the Eureka, Tony commissioned Tony Kushner’s
legendary Angels in America and co-directed its world premiere. He has collaborated with Kushner on eight plays at Berkeley Rep, including The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. Tony’s regional credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage, Center Theatre Group, the Eureka Theatre, the Guthrie Theater, the Huntington Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Public Theater, and Seattle Repertory Theatre. As a playwright, he debuted Ghost Light, Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup, and Game On, written with Dan Hoyle. In 2012, Tony received the Margo Jones Award for “demonstrating a significant impact, understanding, and affirmation of playwriting, with a commitment to the living theatre.”
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, 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, Susan serves on the board of the Downtown Berkeley Association (dba). She is the founding chair of the Berkeley Arts in Education Steering Committee for Berkeley Unified School District and the Berkeley Cultural Trust. She was awarded the 2012 Benjamin Ide Wheeler Medal by the Berkeley Community Fund. Susan serves on the faculty of Yale School of Drama and is a proud member of the Mont Blanc Ladies’ Literary Guild and Trekking Society. 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 both the Osher Studio and the Harrison Street campus.
Theresa Von Klug
G E N E R A L M A N AG E R
Before joining Berkeley Rep, Theresa 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-ofthe-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.
Peter Dean
P R O D U C T I O N M A N AG E R
Peter began his Berkeley Rep career in 2014, and since then some his favorite productions include Party People, X’s and O’s (A Football Love Story), and Aubergine. Previously, he served as production manager at the Public Theater, where favorite works include Here Lies Love, Father Comes Home from the War Parts 1–3, Mobile Shakespeare, and The Tempest as well as musical collaborations with Sting, the Roots, and the Eagles. Peter also helped Alex Timbers develop Rocky the Musical, The Last Goodbye, and the cult classic Dance Dance Revolution the Musical. Other favorites include working with Edward Albee to remount The Sandbox and The American Dream at their original home at the Cherry Lane Theatre, working on Little Flower of East Orange directed by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, and being a part of the development team for The Ride, an interactive four-mile traveling performance in the heart of Times Square. Regionally Peter has worked with the Huntington Theatre Company, American Repertory Theater, Commonwealth Shakespeare, Trinity Rep, Hasty Pudding Theatricals, Colorado Ballet, Central City Opera, and the Denver Center Theatre Company. Peter is a graduate of Otterbein University.
Amy Potozkin, csa
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
This is Amy’s 27th season at 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. Amy cast roles for various independent films, including Conceiving Ada, starring Tilda Swinton; 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. Amy 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. Prior to working at Berkeley Rep, she was an intern at Playwrights Horizons in New York. Amy is a member of csa, the Casting Society of America, and was nominated for Artios Awards for Excellence in Casting for The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures and One Man, Two Guvnors.
KATHIE LONGINOTTI REALTOR® and Berkeley Rep Subscriber
510.981.3032 www.AtHomeEastBay.com
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BE R K E L E Y R E P PRESENTS profiles Michael Suenkel
P R O D U C T I O N S TAG E M A N AG E R
t: e n en B s y e l r e b Mis m e
P t a s a Christm
BERKELEY REP GIFT CERTIFICATES BECAUSE WE THINK THE HOLIDAYS NEED MORE DRAMA. Easy to buy, easy to use. Stop by the box office or visit berkeleyrep.org/giftcert Gift certificates can only be redeemed for show tickets
Michael began his association with Berkeley Rep as the stage management intern for the 1984–85 season and is now in his 23rd year as production stage manager. Some of his favorite shows include 36 Views, Endgame, Eurydice, Hydriotaphia, and Mad Forest. He has also worked with the Barbican in London, the Huntington Theatre Company, the Juste Pour Rire Festival in Montreal, La Jolla Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public Theater, the Public Theater and Second Stage Theater in New York, and Yale Repertory Theatre. For the Magic Theatre, he stage managed Albert Takazauckas’ Breaking the Code and Sam Shepard’s The Late Henry Moss.
Jack & Betty Schafer SEASON SPONSORS
Betty and Jack are proud to support Berkeley Rep. Jack just rotated off the Theatre’s board and is now on the boards of San Francisco Opera and the Straus Historical Society. He is an emeritus trustee of the San Francisco Art Institute and the Oxbow School. Betty is on the board of EarthJustice, the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, and Sponsors of Educational Opportunity. In San Francisco, she is engaged in the launch of “Wise Aging,” a program for adults addressing the challenges of growing older. They have three daughters and eight grandchildren.
Michael & Sue Steinberg SEASON SPONSORS
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.
The Strauch Kulhanjian Family SEASON SPONSORS
Roger Strauch is a former president of Berkeley Rep’s board of trustees and is currently vice president of the board. He is chairman of the Roda Group (rodagroup.com), a venture-development company based in Berkeley, focused on cleantech investments, best known for launching Ask.com and for being an early investor in TerraVia (Nasdaq: TVIA, terravia.com), a next-generation food, nutrition, and specialty ingredients company that harnesses the power of algae. Roger is chairman of the board of CoolSystems, a 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 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2
medical technology company, and chairman of the board of trustees for the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. He is a member of the UC Berkeley Engineering Dean’s college advisory board; a member of the board of Northside Center, a mental-health services agency based in Harlem, New York City; and a co-founder of the William Saroyan Program in Armenian Studies at Cal. Roger also leads the Mosse Art Restitution Project, which searches for family art illegally confiscated during Germany’s Third Reich. His wife, Julie A. Kulhanjian, is an attending physician at Oakland Children’s Hospital. They have three college-age children.
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Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau LEAD SPONSORS
Warren and Frances are avid watchers of live theatre, which includes Berkeley Rep and an annual pilgrimage to London’s West End. Having loved Berkeley Rep for years, they are thrilled to sign on as sponsors of The Last Tiger in Haiti. They are very proud of the cutting-edge exceptional theatre that Berkeley Rep continuously produces. Frances’ day job is as professor of physics and dean of mathematical and physical sciences at UC Berkeley, and Warren is a machinist and welder at 5th Street Machine Arts.
Karen Galatz & Jon Wellinghoff SPONSORS
Jon and Karen are proud supporters of Berkeley Rep. Karen is a member of the company’s board of trustees, and Jon has been helping the Theatre advance its green initiatives in all its buildings. They are particularly pleased to sponsor The Last Tiger in Haiti both for its powerful use of storytelling and because the play was developed in The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work. Former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Agency, Jon is chief policy officer for SolarCity, the nation’s largest provider of energy services, headquartered in San Mateo. Among its primary services, the company designs, finances, and installs solar power systems. Karen is an award-winning journalist and writer. Look for her blog W[h]ines of the Middle Ages. Long-time residents of Nevada and Washington, D.C., they now happily call Berkeley home. Jon and Karen have two children.
Jack Klingelhofer SPONSOR
Jack is the founder and former owner of an information technology company located in the East Bay since 1981, and he is pleased that its success has allowed him to contribute to his other passion, the East Bay arts scene. As a long-term subscriber, Jack is excited to support the creative excellence at Berkeley Rep, whose performances have meant so much to him over the years.
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The GRUBB Co. R E A L T O R S
GRUBBCO.COM
Bring your school to Berkeley Rep or bring Berkeley Rep to your school. With highly subsidized tickets and workshops available now. (High school, middle school and elementary)
berkeleyrep.org/outreach
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BE R K E L E Y R E P P R E S E N T S The San Francisco Foundation: Rella Lossy Playwright Award
Wells Fargo
The San Francisco Foundation’s Rella Lossy Playwright Award honors the memory of the late Rella Lossy (1934–1996), a lifelong lover and champion of the American theatre and playwriting. Dr. Frank Lossy endowed this award in honor of his late wife, Rella, who published several plays, served as the theatre editor of the Bay Area Review, and was a founding member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. She was also an actress, published poet, and great supporter of the arts in Bay Area. The award is given annually to one emerging playwright and their world premiere play. One half of the $5,000 award is given to the playwright and the second covers production costs of the play. Find out more at sff.org.
As a top corporate philanthropist in the Bay Area (according to the S.F. Business Times), Wells Fargo recognizes Berkeley Repertory Theatre for its leadership in supporting the performing arts and its programs. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance. Talk to a Wells Fargo banker today to see how we can help you become more financially successful.
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 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 salutes Berkeley Rep for its dedication to the highest artistic standards and diverse programming. Peet’s is honored to support Berkeley Rep’s renovation with the new, state-of-the-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 Berkeley community ever since. As the pioneer of the craft coffee movement in America, Peet’s is dedicated to small-batch 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.
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profiles
SEASON SPONSOR
Additional staff Assistant costume designer Desiree Hatfield-Buckley Deck crew James McGregor Caitlin Steinmann Fight consultant Danielle O’Dea Production assistant Sofie Miller Props Amelia Burke-Holt Dara Ly Samantha Visbal Rebecca Willis Scene shop Ross Copeland Jennifer Costley Noah Lange Carl Martin Baz Wenger Scenic artists Lassen Hines Anna McGahey Stage carpenter Gabriel Holman Wardrobe/wigs Eva Herndon Medical consultation for Berkeley Rep provided by Cindy J. Chang MD, ucsf Assoc. Clinical Professor and Steven Fugaro, MD.
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’s Annual Fund, who made their gifts between July 2015 and September 2016.
G IF T S O F $ 10 0,0 0 0 A N D A B OV E The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation The Shubert Foundation G IF T S O F $50,0 0 0 –9 9,9 9 9 Edgerton Foundation The Reva and David Logan Foundation National Endowment for the Arts The Bernard Osher Foundation The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust
BE R K E L E Y R E P T H A N K S
G IF T S O F $2 5,0 0 0 –49,9 9 9 Anonymous BayTree Fund The Frank H. & Eva B. Buck Foundation The Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Philanthropic Fund Wallis Foundation Woodlawn Foundation
Institutional Partners
G IF T S O F $5,0 0 0 –9,9 9 9 Anonymous Berkeley Civic Arts Program Distracted Globe Foundation Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Ramsay Family Foundation G IF T S O F $ 1,0 0 0 –4,9 9 9 Joyce & William Brantman Foundation Civic Foundation jec Foundation twanda Foundation
COR P OR AT E S P ON S OR S SEASON SPONSORS
G I F T S O F $ 10 0,0 0 0 A N D A B OV E
SPONSORS
G I F T S O F $ 3,0 0 0 – 5,9 9 9
Mechanics Bank Wealth Management The Morrison & Foerster Foundation
Bayer Gallagher Risk Management Services Macy’s
CO R P O R AT E PA R T N E R S
G I F T S O F $ 6,0 0 0 –11,9 9 9
E XECU TIV E S P O N S O R S
G I F T S O F $ 2 5,0 0 0 –49,9 9 9
PE R FO R M A N CE S P O N S O R S
G I F T S O F $ 12 ,0 0 0 –2 4 ,9 9 9
Armanino llp City National Bank Deloitte Panoramic Interests Schoenberg Family Law Group
B U S IN E S S M E M B E R S
G I F T S O F $ 1, 5 0 0 –2 ,9 9 9
Aspiriant Wealth Management McCutcheon Construction Oliver & Company Perforce Foundation
American Express 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.
I N-K I N D S P ON S OR S
act Catering Almare Gelato Italiano Angeline’s Louisiana Kitchen Aurora Catering Autumn Press Bare Snacks Bistro Liaison Bogatin, Corman & Gold brk Cancun Comal Domaine Carneros by Taittinger Donkey & Goat Winery Drake’s Brewing Company East Bay Spice Company Eureka! five Folie à Deux Gecko Gecko
Hafner Vineyard Hugh Groman Catering & Greenleaf Platters Jazzcaffè La Mediterranee La Note Latham & Watkins llp Match Vineyards Mayer Brown llp Pathos Organic Greek Kitchen Phil’s Sliders Picante PiQ Platano Salvadoran Cuisine Quady Winery Revival Bar + Kitchen Robert Meyer’s Mangia Nosh Catering St. George Spirits
Suya African Carribbean Grill Sweet Adeline Tigerlily Venus Restaurant Whole Foods Market Hotel Shattuck Plaza is the official hotel of Berkeley Rep. Pro-bono legal services are generously provided by Latham & Watkins llp and Mayer Brown llp
M AT C H I NG G I F T S The following companies have matched their employees’ contributions to Berkeley Rep. Please contact your company’s HR office to find out if your company matches gifts. Adobe Systems Inc. · Advent Software · American Express · Apple · Applied Materials · Argo Group · at&t · Bank of America · BlackRock · Bristol Myers Squibb · Charles Schwab & Co, Inc · Chevron Corporation · Clorox · Constellation Energy · Dolby · Gap · Genentech · Google · ibm Corporation · John Wiley & Sons, Inc. · kla Tencor · Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory · Macy’s Inc. · Matson Navigation Company · Microsoft · Morrison & Foerster · norcal Mutual Insurance Company · Nvidia · Oracle Corporation · Salesforce.com · Shell Oil · Sidley Austin llp, San Francisco · Synopsys · The Walt Disney Company · Union Bank, The Private Bank · visa u.s.a., Inc. 2 0 1 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 3 3
BE R K E L E Y R E P THANKS
Donors to the Annual Fund
We thank the many 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’s Annual Fund, who made their gifts between July 2015 and September 2016. To make your gift and join this distinguished group, visit berkeleyrep.org/give or call 510 647-2906.
S P ON S OR C I RC L E SEASON SPONSORS
Sheli & Burt Rosenberg, in honor of Len & Arlene Rosenberg Jack & Valerie Rowe Jean & Michael Strunsky Guy Tiphane Gail & Arne Wagner
$ 10 0,0 0 0 +
Jack & Betty Schafer Michael & Sue Steinberg The Strauch Kulhanjian Family
LE A D S P O N S O R S $ 5 0,0 0 0 – 9 9,9 9 9
Barbara & Rodgin Cohen Martha Ehmann Conte Bruce Golden & Michelle Mercer Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau Wayne Jordan & Quinn Delaney Jonathan Logan Jane Marvin/Peet’s Coffee Mary Ruth Quinn & Scott Shenker
E XECU TIV E S P O N S O R S $ 2 5,0 0 0 –49,9 9 9
Edward D. Baker Rena Bransten Susan Chamberlin John & Stephanie Dains Bill Falik & Diana Cohen Kerry Francis & John Jimerson Pam & Mitch Nichter Stewart & Rachelle Owen Marjorie Randolph
SPONSORS $ 12 ,0 0 0 –2 4 ,9 9 9
Anonymous (2) Barbara & Gerson Bakar Carole B. Berg Maria Cardamone & Paul Matthews David & Vicki Cox Thalia Dorwick Robin & Rich Edwards David & Vicki Fleishhacker Paul Friedman & Diane Manley Karen Galatz & Jon Wellinghoff Paul Haahr & Susan Karp Scott & Sherry Haber Jack Klingelhofer Dixon Long Sandra & Ross McCandless Dugan Moore Leonard X & Arlene B. Rosenberg Joan Sarnat & David Hoffman Liliane & Ed Schneider
Janis Turner Felicia Woytak & Steven Rasmussen
A S S O CIAT E S P O N S O R S $ 6,0 0 0 – 11,9 9 9
Anonymous (3) Shelley & Jonathan Bagg Edith Barschi Neil & Gene Barth Valerie Barth & Peter Wiley Lynne Carmichael Daniel Cohn & Lynn Brinton Julie & Darren Cooke Robert Council & Ann Parks-Council Daryl Dichek & Kenneth Smith, in memory of Shirley D. Schild William Espey & Margaret Hart Edwards Tracy & Mark Ferron John & Carol Field, in honor of Marjorie Randolph Virginia & Timothy Foo Jill & Steve Fugaro Mary & Nicholas Graves Doug & Leni Herst, in honor of Susie Medak Hitz Foundation Ms. Wendy E. Jordan
Wanda Kownacki Ted & Carole Krumland Zandra Faye LeDuff Nancy & George Leitmann, in memory of Helen Barber Peter & Melanie Maier, in honor of Jill Fugaro Dale & Don Marshall Martin & Janis McNair Helen & John Meyer / Meyer Sound Steven & Patrece Mills M Mary Ann Peoples, in memory of Lou Peoples Peter Pervere & Georgia Cassel Barbara L. Peterson Sue Reinhold & Deborah Newbrun Pat Rougeau Cynthia & William Schaff Emily Shanks M Pat & Merrill Shanks Karen Stevenson & Bill McClave Lisa & Jim Taylor Wendy Williams Linda & Steven Wolan Martin & Margaret Zankel
A R T I S T IC DI R E C T OR’ S C I RC L E PA R T N E R S
$ 3,0 0 0 – 5,9 9 9
Anonymous (6) Stephen Belford & Bobby Minkler Becky & Jeff Bleich Cynthia & David Bogolub Brook & Shawn Byers Ronnie Caplane Jennifer Chaiken & Sam Hamilton Constance Crawford Karen & David Crommie Lois M. De Domenico Delia Fleishhacker Ehrlich Nancy & Jerry Falk Frannie Fleishhacker Ms. Teresa Burns Gunther & Dr. Andrew Gunther Richard & Lois Halliday Earl & Bonnie Hamlin Vera & David Hartford Richard N. Hill & Nancy Lundeen Renee Hilpert K James C. Hormel & Michael P. Nguyen, in honor of Rita Moreno Lynda & Dr. J. Pearce Hurley Kathleen & Chris Jackson Seymour Kaufman & Kerstin Edgerton Duke & Daisy Kiehn Rosalind & Sung-Hou Kim Louise Laufersweiler & Warren Sharp Tom Lockard & Alix Marduel Helen Marcus & David Williamson Phyra McCandless & Angelos Kottas M Miles & Mary Ellen McKey Susan Medak & Greg Murphy, in honor of Marcia Smolens Toby Mickelson & Donald Brody Eddie & Amy Orton Janet & Clyde Ostler Sandi & Dick Pantages Pease Family Fund Kermit & Janet Perlmutter David S. H. Rosenthal & Vicky Reich Patricia Sakai & Richard Shapiro
Beth & David Sawi Stephen Schoen & Margot Fraser Linda & Nathan Schultz Beryl & Ivor Silver Ed & Ellen Smith Audrey & Bob Sockolov Vickie Soulier Deborah Taylor Pamela Gay Walker/ Ghost Ranch Productions Patricia & Jeffrey Williams Steven Winkel & Barbara Sahm Sheila Wishek Sally Woolsey
B E N E FAC TO R S
$ 1, 5 0 0 –2 ,9 9 9
Anonymous (6) Mel Adamson K Pat Angell, in memory of Gene Angell Martha & Bruce Atwater Naomi Auerbach & Ted Landau Nina Auerbach Linda & Mike Baker Michelle L. Barbour Leslie & Jack Batson Don & Gerry Beers David Beery & Norman Abramson Barbara Bernstein K Annikka Berridge Caroline Beverstock BluesCruise.com Brian Bock & Susan Rosin Caroline Booth Bernard Boudreaux Linda Brandenburger Broitman-Basri Family Don & Carol Anne Brown Katherine S. Burcham M Don Campbell & Family Leslie Chatham & Kathie Weston Betsey & Ken Cheitlin, in honor of Melvin & Hella Cheitlin Ed Cullen & Ann O’Connor James Cuthbertson Meredith Daane M Barbara & Tim Daniels M
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Richard & Anita Davis Ilana DeBare & Sam Schuchat Francine & Beppe Di Palma Corinne & Mike Doyle Susan English & Michael Kalkstein Bill & Susan Epstein, in honor of Marge Randolph Merle & Michael Fajans Cynthia A. Farner Lisa & Dave Finer Ann & Shawn Fischer Hecht Linda Jo Fitz Patrick Flannery James & Jessica Fleming Jacques Fortier Thomas & Sharon Francis Lisa Franzel & Rod Mickels Donald & Dava Freed Herb & Marianne Friedman Christopher R. Frostad M James Gala Dennis & Susan Johann Gilardi Marjorie Ginsburg & Howard Slyter Daniel & Hilary B. Goldstine Nelson Goodman, in memory of Marilyn Goodman Robert & Judith Greber William James Gregory Anne & Peter Griffes Garrett Gruener & Amy Slater Migsy & Jim Hamasaki Bob & Linda Harris Ruth Hennigar Christina Herdell, in memory of Vaughn & Ardis Herdell Howard Hertz & Jean Krois Elaine Hitchcock Bill Hofmann & Robbie Welling M The Hornthal Family Foundation, in honor of Susie Medak’s leadership Paula Hughmanick & Steven Berger George & Leslie Hume Marilyn Jensen-Akula Beth & Fred Karren Doug & Cessna Kaye
Bill & Lisa Kelly Stephen F. Kispersky Jean & Jack Knox Lynn Eve Komaromi, in honor of the Berkeley Rep Staff John Kouns & Anne Baele Kouns Woof Kurtzman & Liz Hertz Helen E. Land Robert Lane & Tom Cantrell Randy Laroche & David Laudon Sherrill Lavagnino & Scott McKinney Andrew Leavitt & Catherine Lewis Ellen & Barry Levine Jennifer S. Lindsay Vonnie Madigan The Madison Family K Elsie Mallonee Naomi & Bruce Mann Lois & Gary Marcus Sumner & Hermine Marshall Charlotte & Adolph Martinelli Rebecca Martinez Erin McCune Kirk McKusick & Eric Allman Dan Miller Andy & June Monach Scott Montgomery & Marc Rand Jerry Mosher Marvin & Neva Moskowitz Daniel Murphy Judith & Richard Oken Sheldeen Osborne Judy O’Young, MD & Gregg Hauser Gerane Wharton Park Bob & MaryJane Pauley Tom & Kathy Pendleton David & Bobbie Pratt Linda Protiva Andrew Raskopf & David Gunderman Bill Reuter & Ruth Major Matt Pagel & Corey Revilla John & Jody Roberts Leigh Robinson Deborah Romer & William Tucker Boyard & Anne Rowe Lisa Salomon & Scott Forrest
Monica Salusky & John K. Sutherland Jeane & Roger Samuelsen Stephen C. Schaefer Jackie & Paul Schaeffer Dan Scharlin & Sara Katz Joyce & Jim Schnobrich Neal Shorstein, MD & Christopher Doane, in honor of Gail Wagner, MD Edie Silber & Steve Bomse Dave & Lori Simpson Margaret Skornia Cherida Collins Smith Sherry & David Smith Alice & Scott So Valerie Sopher David G. Steele Gary & Jana Stein Stephen Stublarec & Debra S. Belaga Duncan Susskind K Alison Teeman & Michael Yovino-Young Susan Terris Samuel Test Michael Tubach & Amrita Singhal William van Dyk & Margi Sullivan Jonathan & Kiyo Weiss Beth Weissman Wendy Willrich Charles & Nancy Wolfram Sam & Joyce Zanze Mark Zitter & Jessica Nutik Zitter Jane & Mark Zuercher
LEGEND K in-kind gift M matching gift We are pleased to recognize first-time donors to Berkeley Rep, whose names appear in italics.
BE R K E L E Y R E P T H A N K S
Donors to the Annual Fund
CH A M PIO N S
$ 1,0 0 0 –1, 49 9
Anonymous (5) · Tracy Achorn · Abbey Alkon & Jonathan Leonard · Gertrude E. Allen, in memory of Robert Allen · Roy & Judith Alper · Elisabeth Andreason & Melissa Allen · Marcia & George Argyris · Ross E. Armstrong · Patti Bittenbender · Eric Brink & Gayle Vassar M · Davis Carniglia & Mary-Claire Baker · Paula Carrell · Stan & Stephanie Casper · Ed & Lisa Chilton · Patty & Geoff Chin · Roberta Christianson, in memory of Bea · John & Izzie Crane M · Mike & Pam Crane · Abby & Ross Davisson · Harry & Susan Dennis · Robert Deutsch · Paul Feigenbaum & Judy Kemeny · Dean Francis · Judith & Alex Glass · Glennis Lees & Michael Glazeski · Kim Golden & Jean Suda in honor of Bruce Golden & Michelle Mercer · Tim & Mary Haifley · Ann Harriman, in memory of Malcolm White · Dan & Shawna Hartman Brotsky M · Mr. & Mrs. Harold M. Isbell · Randall Johnson · Barbara E. Jones, in memory of William E. Jones · Corrina Jones · Dennis Kaump · Marilyn Kecso · Christopher Killian & Carole Ungvarsky · Janet Kornegay & Dan Sykes · Ms. Sidne S. Long · John E. Matthews · Susan & J. Patterson McBaine · Brian & Britt-Marie Morris · Margo Murray · Claire Noonan & Peter Landsberger · Lynette Pang & Michael Man · Regina Phelps · Gary F. Pokorny · Kent Rasmussen & Celia Ramsay · Charles Rice · Helen Richardson · Maxine Risley, in memory of James Risley · Horacio &
We gratefully recognize the following members of the Annual Fund whose contributions were received from August to September 2016: S U PP O R T E R S
$ 2 5 0 –49 9
Ann Bauman · Amy & Michael Gerbus · Lucia & John Gilbert · Laura Richardson
CO N T RIB U TO R S
$ 15 0 –2 49
Arash Afrakhteh · Evalyn Baron and Peter Yonka · Laurie Hill · Bill Lokke · Fiona McCrea · Tracie E. Rowson · Payam Saadai in honor of Seth Mickenberg & Alfredo Silva · Ann Willoughby · Sandra Woliver
Angela Rodriguez · Rosov Consulting · Deborah Dashow Ruth, in memory of Leo P. Ruth · Teddy & Bruce Schwab · Seiger Family Foundation · Brenda Buckhold Shank, M.D., Ph.D. · Monroe W. Strickberger · Pate & Judy Thomson · Prof. Jeremy Thorner & Dr. Carol Mimura · Alistair & Nellie Thornton · Sallie Weissinger
A DVO C AT E S
$500–999
Anonymous (18) · Anonymous, in honor of Ruth & George Staten · Fred & Kathleen Allen · Robert & Evelyn Apte · Steven & Barbara Aumer-Vail · Todd & Diane Baker · Celia Bakke · Steven Beckendorf & Cynthia Hill · Richard & Kathy Berman · Robert Berman & Jane Ginsburg · Steve Bischoff · The Blackman Family · Gun Bolin · Ellen Brackman & Deborah Randolph · Diane Brett · Craig Broscow M · Dr. Paula Campbell · Robert & Margaret Cant · Bruce Carlton · John Carr · Kim & Dawn Chase · Laura Chenel · Karen Clayton & Stephen Clayton · Chris & Martie Conner · Sharon & Ed Cushman · Jill & Evan Custer · Robert & Loni Dantzler · Pat & Steve Davis · Jacqueline Desoer · Anita C. Eblé · Roger & Jane Emanuel · Joseph & Judith Epstein · Gini Erck & David Petta · Michael Evanhoe · James Finefrock & Harriet Hamlin · Brigitte & Louis Fisher · Martin & Barbara Fishman · Midge Fox K · Harvey & Deana Freedman · David Gaskin & Phillip
FRIE N D S
$ 75 –149
Anonymous (3) · Anonymous in honor of Seth Mickenberg & Alfredo Silva · Susan & Jerry Angel · Cathy Brown · Cristina Campbell & Tim DeWolf · Emmanuel Candes · Harry Chomsky & Amy Apel · Kevin Criner in honor of Seth Mickenberg & Alfredo Silva · Jennifer & Allan Daly · Bill & Kathy Failing · James Fox in honor of Seth Mickenberg & Alfredo Silva · Juraj & Elisabeth Hostynek, in honor of Andrej Hostynek · Marisita & Tu Jarvis · Pauline Jue · Rebecca Katz · Jon & Barbara Kenney · Kathleen Lopes in honor of Albert M. Bendich · Larry & Nancy Ludgus · Mary L. McDonald · Jamie Miller, in memory of Helene Sabin · Georgia Schreiber · Pat & Gregg Schwinn · Fred Winslow & Barbara Baratta · James & Celia Kelly · Dennis Weiss
PAT RO N S
$ 1 –74
Anonymous (14) · Anonymous in honor of Seth Mickenberg & Alfredo Silva · Gary & Kay
McPherson · Tim Geoghegan · Barry & Erica Goode · Jane Gottesman & Geoffrey Biddle · Gene Gottfried · Priscilla Green, in honor of Maya & Rico Green · Don & Becky Grether · Ken & Karen Harley · Janet Harris · Geoffrey & Marin-Shawn Haynes · Irene & Robert Hepps · Dixie Hersh · Fran Hildebrand · Alex Ingersoll & Martin Tannenbaum · Pam & Ted Johann M · Charles & Laurie Kahn · Patricia Kaplan · Pat Kelly & Jennifer Doebler · Kimberly J. Kenley-Salarpi · Beth & Tim Kientzle M · Sue Fisher King · Jack & Birthe Kirsch · Susan Klee & David Stoloff · Jeff Klingman & Deborah Sedberry · Judith Knoll · Joan & David Komaromi · Natalie Lagorio · Jane & Michael Larkin · David & Mari Lee · Henry Lerner · Renee M. Linde · Mark & Roberta Linsky · Dottie Lofstrom · Bruce Maigatter & Pamela Partlow · Joan & Roger Mann · Sue & Phil Marineau · Caroline McCall & Eric Martin · Daniel & Beverlee McFadden · Brian McRee · Ruth Medak · Jamie Miller, in memory of Helene Sabin · Marlene & Stephen Miller · Jeff Miner · Geri Monheimer · James & Katherine Moule · James Musbach · Ron Nakayama · Greg Neukirchner · Jeanne E. Newman · Pier & Barbara Oddone, in memory of Michael Leibert · Judy Ogle · Peggy O’Neill · Carol J. Ormond · Nancy Park · Brian D. Parsons · James Pawlak · Kyle Peacock · P. David Pearson · Bob & Toni Peckham, in honor of Robert M. Peckham, Jr. · Paul & Suzanne Peterson · Anne Petrowsky · James F. Pine M · F. Anthony
Placzek · Malcolm & Ann Plant · Charles Pollack & Joanna Cooper · Susie & Eric Poncelet · Timothy & Marilyn Potter · Roxann R. Preston · Rich Price · Laurel & Gerald Przybylski · Lois & Dan Purkett · Kathleen Quenneville · David & Mary Ramos · Sheldon & Catherine Ramsay · Paul & Margaret Robbins · Rick & Stephanie Rogers · Dorothy R. Saxe · Joyce & Kenneth Scheidig · Bob & Gloria Schiller · Mark Schoenrock & Claudia Fenelon · Dr. David Schulz M · Cynthia Sears · Steve & Susan Shortell · William & Martha Slavin · Carra Sleight · Suzanne Slyman · Jerry & Dick Smallwood · Sigrid Snider · Louis & Bonnie Spiesberger · Robert & Naomi Stamper · Herbert Steierman · Annie Stenzel · Lynn M. & A. Justin Sterling · Dr. & Mrs. Joseph Terdiman · Tracy Thompson · Karen Tiedemann & Geoff Piller · Mike & Ellen Turbow · Dean Ujihara · Sharon Ulrich & Marlowe Ng · Mark Valentine & Stacy Leier-Valentine · Gerald & Ruth Vurek · Adrian Walker · Louise & Larry Walker · Buddy & Jodi Warner · Dena & Wayne Watson-Lamprey · Mike Weinberger & Julianne Lindemann · Harvey & Rhona Weinstein · William R. Weir · Robert & Sheila Weisblatt · Dr. Ben & Mrs. Carolyn Werner · Elizabeth Werter & Henry Trevor · Robert T. Weston · Sharon & Kenneth Wilson · Fred Winslow & Barbara Baratta · Laura & Ernest Winslow · Margaret Wu & Ciara Cox · Lee Yearley & Sally Gressens · Sandra Yuen & Lawrence Shore
Anderson · David & Vivian Auslander · Sharon Babot · Mark Bailie & Dr. Barbara Mercer · Ms. Janet Baker · Jeff & Kat Bandy · Helen Barbato · Robin Barrett · Audrey M. Berger · Adriane & Barry Bosworth · Richard Brabham in memory of Thomas Harrison · Nora Campanella · Rowena Catoc · Leatrice Chang · Jerry Chin · Nancy S. Clancy · Linda Cogozzo & Donald Moyer · Darlene B. Comstedt · John Connelly & Fiona Grigg · Jeanne M. Cox · Lori Crowley · Patrick Delaney · Virginia Duplessis · Steve & Sharon Edelman · Alexandra Elliott · Roger & Jane Emanuel · Joann Fazio · Morris & Debra Flaum · The Freedmans · Linda Fried & Jim Helman · Barbara Geisler · Joseph Giammarco & Claire Kelm · Linda Gilbert · Glennis Lees & Michael Glazeski · Dr. M. Beth Gong · Mio Nishi Good · Jane Gottesman & Geoffrey Biddle · William M. Greif · Gary Grossman · Pamela Haenke-Clark · Francis Hall · Darcy C. Hay · Marilyn & Seymour Hertz · Ann Humphrey · Sandy Jaffe · Elizabeth Kaplan · Maureen Kelly · Bob and Debbie Kessler · Robert Kinosian · Ruth Kitchin · Christine A.
Klem · Lori R. Klumb · Susan & David Lederman · Carrie Lindemuth · Jennifer Little · Diana Lyster · Alan M. Marcum · Paul Mariano · Mary S. Martinson · Kathy Mattingly · Catherine McLane · Paula McNally · Margaret & Steve Michel · Blythe Mickelson · Bruce & Sandi Miller · Diane Mintz · Elisabeth A. Moulthrop · Robin Olivier · Mirian Olsen in honor of Seth Mickenberg & Alredo Silva · Lawrence Organ · Christina Orth · Ed R. Oswalt · Anne Brooks Pfister · Laurel & Gerald Przybylski · Alexis Rhorer · Karen & Jeff Richardson · The Rev. Dr. Bonnie Ring · Bobbe Rockoff · Jon Rolnick & Lisa Maslow · Ron Rosenbaum & Loretta Kane · Nancy Rowland · Lael R. Rubin · Larry E. Ruff · William Ryan · Samuel Salkin · Martha Sellers · John Sullivan · Jennifer Vertrees M · Richard Walsh · Julie & Jerry Yaffee · Irene Yen
2 0 1 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 35
BE R K E L E Y R E P T H A N K S Donors to the Annual Fund Society members as of September 2016:
Anonymous (6) Norman Abramson & David Beery Sam Ambler Carl W. Arnoult & Aurora Pan Ken & Joni Avery Nancy Axelrod Edith Barschi Neil & Gene Barth Susan & Barry Baskin Carole B. Berg Linda Brandenburger Broitman-Basri Family Bruce Carlton & Richard G. McCall Stephen K. Cassidy Paula Champagne & David Watson Andrew Daly & Jody Taylor M. Laina Dicker Thalia Dorwick Rich & Robin Edwards
Thomas W. Edwards & Rebecca Parlette-Edwards Bill & Susan Epstein William Espey & Margaret Hart Edwards Carol & John Field Dr. Stephen E. Follansbee & Dr. Richard A. Wolitz Kerry Francis Dr. Harvey & Deana Freedman Joseph & Antonia Friedman Paul T. Friedman Dr. John Frykman Laura K. Fujii David Gaskin & Phillip McPherson Marjorie Ginsburg & Howard Slyter Mary & Nicholas Graves Elizabeth Greene Jon & Becky Grether Richard & Lois Halliday Julie & Paul Harkness Linda & Bob Harris Fred Hartwick
Ruth Hennigar Douglas J. Hill Hoskins/Frame Family Trust Lynda & Dr. J. Pearce Hurley Robin C. Johnson Lynn Eve Komaromi Bonnie McPherson Killip Scott & Kathy Law Zandra Faye LeDuff Ines R. Lewandowitz Dot Lofstrom Dale & Don Marshall Sumner & Hermine Marshall Rebecca Martinez Suzanne & Charles McCulloch John G. McGehee Miles & Mary Ellen McKey Margaret D. & Winton McKibben Susan Medak & Greg Murphy Stephanie Mendel Toni Mester Shirley & Joe Nedham
Pam & Mitch Nichter Sheldeen G. Osborne Sharon Ott Amy Pearl Parodi Barbara L. Peterson Regina Phelps Margaret Phillips Marjorie Randolph Bonnie Ring Living Trust Tom Roberts David Rovno Tracie E. Rowson Deborah Dashow Ruth Patricia Sakai & Richard Shapiro Betty & Jack Schafer Brenda Buckhold Shank, M.D., Ph.D. Kevin Shoemaker Valerie Sopher Michael & Sue Steinberg Dr. Douglas & Anne Stewart Jean Strunsky Henry Timnick Guy Tiphane Phillip & Melody Trapp
Janis Kate Turner Dorothy Walker Weil Family Trust— Weil Family Karen & Henry Work Martin & Margaret Zankel
Gifts received by Berkeley Rep:
Estate of Suzanne Adams Estate of Helen Barber Estate of Fritzi Benesch Estate of Nelly Berteaux Estate of Jill Bryans Estate of Nancy Croley Estate of John E. & Helen A. Manning Estate of Richard Markell Estate of Gladys Perez-Mendez Estate of Margaret Purvine Estate of Leigh & Ivy Robinson Estate of Peter Sloss Estate of Harry Weininger Estate of Grace Williams
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 endowment, 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, in perpetuity. 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.
Since 1968, our community has helped us give voice to our greatest artists.
Don’t remain silent—become a Friend of Berkeley Rep, and support artistic innovation for generations to come.
Large or small, your gift matters. berkeleyrep.org/give 510 647-2906
Berkeley Rep’s beginnings at a storefront on College Ave in 1968.
3 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 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2
BOA R D OF T RU ST E E S
BE R K E L E Y R E P STA F F Michael Leibert Artistic Director Tony Taccone
Managing Director Susan Medak
General Manager Theresa Von Klug ARTISTIC Director of Casting & Artistic Associate Amy Potozkin Director, The Ground Floor/ Resident Dramaturg Madeleine Oldham Literary Manager Sarah Rose Leonard Artistic Associate Katie Craddock Associate Director Lisa Peterson Associate Artist Liesl Tommy TCG Artist-in-Residence Reggie D. White Artists under Commission Todd Almond · Christina Anderson Guillermo Calderon · Jackie Sibblies Drury · Dave Malloy · Lisa Peterson · Sarah Ruhl · Tori Sampson · Joe Waechter P R ODUC T ION Production Manager Peter Dean Associate Production Manager Amanda Williams O’Steen Company Manager Jean-Paul Gressieux Production Driver Johnny Van Chang S TAG E M A NAG E M E N T Production Stage Manager Michael Suenkel Stage Managers Leslie M. Radin · Karen Szpaller · Julie Haber · Kimberly Mark Webb Production Assistants Amanda Mason · Sofie Miller · Betsy Norton S TA G E OP E R AT ION S Stage Supervisor Julia Englehorn P R OP E R T I E S Properties Supervisor Jillian A. Green Associate Properties Supervisor Gretta Grazier Properties Artisan Viqui Peralta S C E N E S HOP Technical Director Jim Smith Assistant Technical Director Matt Rohner Shop Foreman Sam McKnight Master Carpenter Jamaica Montgomery-Glenn Carpenters Patrick Keene · Read Tuddenham SCENIC ART Charge Scenic Artist Lisa Lázár COSTUMES Costume Director Maggi Yule Associate Costume Director/ Hair and Makeup Supervisor Amy Bobeda
Draper Alex Zeek Tailor Kathy Kellner Griffith First Hand Janet Conery Wardrobe Supervisor Barbara Blair ELECTRICS Master Electrician Frederick C. Geffken Production Electricians Christine Cochrane · Kenneth Coté S OU N D A N D V I DE O Sound Supervisor James Ballen Sound Engineers Angela Don · Annemarie Scerra Video Supervisor Alex Marshall A DM I N I S T R AT ION Controller Suzanne Pettigrew Associate General Manager/ Human Resources Manager David Lorenc Associate Managing Director/ Manager, The Ground Floor Sarah Williams Executive Assistant Kate Gorman Bookkeeper Kristine Taylor Human Resources Administrator Rhonda Scott Associate Controller Eric Ipsen Director of Technology Gustav Davila Systems & Applications Director Diana Amezquita Tessitura User Interaction Administrator Destiny Askin Systems Assistant Debra Wong DE V E L OPM E N T Director of Development Lynn Eve Komaromi Associate Director of Development Daria Hepps Director of Individual Giving Laura Fichtenberg Director of Special Events Julie Cervetto Individual Giving Manager Joanna Taber Institutional Giving Manager Cindy Cesca Yoshiyama Special Events Coordinator Lauren Shorofsky Development Database Coordinator Jane Voytek Development Associate Kelsey Scott Executive Assistant Jennie Goldfarb B OX OF F I C E Interim Director of Box Office Operations Richard Rubio Subscription Manager Laurie Barnes
Box Office Supervisor Julie Gotsch Box Office Agents Carmen Darling · Faith Darling · Jordan Don · Katherine Gunn · Eliza Oakley · Anna Slotterback M A R K E T I NG & C OM M U N I C AT ION S Director of Marketing, Communications, and Patron Engagement Polly Winograd Ikonen Director of Public Relations Tim Etheridge Marketing Director Peter Yonka Art Director Nora Merecicky Communications & Digital Content Director Karen McKevitt Audience Development Manager Samanta Cubias Webmaster Christina Cone Video & Multimedia Producer Joel Dockendorf Program Advertising Pamela Webster Front of House Director Kelly Kelley Senior House Manager Debra Selman House Managers Jessica Charles · Steven Coambs · Aleta George · Mary Cait Hogan · Ayanna Makalani · Sarah Mosby · Tuesday Ray · David Rogers Lead Concessionaires Steven Coambs · Sarah Mosby Concessionaires Jessica Bates · Evelyn Carmack · Alex Clark · Alisha Erlich · Lorenz Gonzalez · Nina Gorham · Daron Jennings · Benjamin Ortiz · Anya Prinz · Sandy Valois
Christine Germain · Nancy Gold · Gary Graves · Marvin Greene · Susan-Jane Harrison · Gendell Hing-Hernández · Andrew Hurteau · Krista Knight · Julian López-Morillas · Dave Maier · JanLee Marshall · Reid McCann · Patricia Miller · Alex Moggridge · Edward Morgan · Jack Nicolaus · Slater Penney · Greg Pierotti · Marty Pistone · Lisa Anne Porter · Diane Rachel · Rolf Saxon · Elyse Shafarman · Arje Shaw · Joyful Simpson · M. Graham Smith · Elizabeth Vega · James Wagner Jan and Howard Oringer Teaching Artists Erica Blue · Carmen Bush · Khalia Davis · Amber Flame · Safiya Fredericks · Gendell Hing-Hernández · Dave Maier · Marilet Martinez · Michelle Navarette · Jack Nicolaus · Carla Pantoja · Marcelo Pereira · Radhika Rao · Salim Razawi · Lindsey Schmelzter · Teddy Spencer · Simon Trumble · Elena Wright · Patricia Wright · Michelle Wyman Teen Core Council Neo Barnes · Abram Blitz · Bridey Caramagno · Carmela Catoc · Uma Channer · Fiona Deane-Grundman · Lucy Curran · Tess DeLucchi · Devin Elias · Adin Gilman-Cohen · Alecia Harger · Kyla Harger · Joi Mabrey · Krysia Olszewska · Maya Simon · Chloe Smith · Isabelle Smith Docent Co-Chairs Matty Bloom, Content Joy Lancaster, Recruitment Selma Meyerowitz, Off-Sites and Procedures The Last Tiger in Haiti Docents Richard Lingua, Lead Docent Joy Lancaster, Co-Lead Monica Fox · Helen Gerken · Dale Marshall · Thomas Sponsler · Catherine Warren
2016–17 B E R K E L E Y R E P FELLOWSHIPS Bret C. Harte Directing Fellow Chika Ike Company Management Fellow Morgan Steele OP E R AT ION S Costume Fellow Facilities Director Kennedy Warner Mark Morrisette Development/Fundraising Fellow Facilities Coordinator Julia Starr Andrew Susskind Education Fellow Building Engineer Michael Curry Thomas Tran Graphic Design Fellow Maintenance Technician Cynthia Peñaloza Johnny Van Chang Harry Weininger Sound Fellow Facilities Assistants Mariah Brougher Theresa Drumgoolie · Sophie Li · Lighting/Electrics Fellow Alex Maciel · Carlos Mendoza · Jesus Rodriguez · Diego Ruiz · LeRoy Thomas Josh Hemmo Marketing/Digital Communications Fellow BERKELEY REP Lauren Goldfarb S C HO OL OF T H E AT R E Peter F. Sloss Literary/ Director of the School of Theatre Dramaturgy Fellow Rachel Hull Ankita Raturi Associate Director Production Management Fellow MaryBeth Cavanaugh Zoey Russo Program Manager, Training and Properties Fellow Community Programs Noah Kramer Anthony Jackson Scenic Art Fellow Registrar Yoshi Asai Katie Riemann Community Programs Administrator Scenic Construction Fellow Lauren Williams Modesta Tamayo Stage Management Fellow Faculty Bobby August Jr. · Erica Blue · Rebecca Laura Baucom Castelli · Eugenie Chan · Jiwon Chung · Sally Clawson · Laura Derry · Alexandra Diamond · Deborah Eubanks · Maria Frangos · Susan Garner · 2 0 1 6 –1 7 · I S S U E 2 · T H E
President Stewart Owen Vice Presidents Carrie Avery Roger A. Strauch Jean Z. Strunsky Treasurer Emily Shanks Secretary Leonard X Rosenberg Chair, Trustees Committee Jill Fugaro Chair, Audit Committee Kerry L. Francis Board Members Edward D. Baker Bernard Boudreaux David Cox Amar Doshi Robin Edwards Lisa Finer Paul T. Friedman Karen Galatz Bruce Golden Scott Haber David Hoffman Susan Karp Jonathan C. Logan Jane Marvin Sandra R. McCandless Susan Medak Pamela Nichter Richard M. Shapiro Tony Taccone Gail Wagner Felicia Woytak 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 Marjorie Randolph Harlan M. Richter Richard A. Rubin Edwin C. Shiver Roger A. Strauch Martin Zankel Sustaining Advisors Carole B. Berg Rena Bransten Diana J. Cohen Thalia Dorwick, PhD William T. Espey William Falik John Field David Fleishhacker Nicholas M. Graves Richard F. Hoskins Carole Krumland Dale Rogers Marshall Helen Meyer Dugan Moore Mary Ann Peoples Peter Pervere Marjorie Randolph Pat Rougeau Patricia Sakai Jack Schafer William Schaff Michael Steinberg Michael Strunsky Martin Zankel
F OU N DI NG DI R E C T OR Michael W. Leibert Producing Director, 1968–83 B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 3 7
FYI Connect with us online!
Theatre info
Considerations
Visit our website berkeleyrep.org You can buy tickets and plan your visit, watch video, sign up for classes, donate to the Theatre, and explore Berkeley Rep.
Emergency exits Please note the nearest exit. In an emergency, walk—do not run —to the nearest exit.
No food or glassware in the house Beverages in cans or cups with lids are allowed.
Accessibility Both theatres offer wheelchair seating and special services for those with vision or hearing loss. Assistive listening devices are available at no charge. Scripts are available in the box office.
No smoking or vaping Smoking and the use of e-cigarettes is prohibited by law on Berkeley Rep’s property.
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@berkeleyrep
@berkeleyrep
vimeo.com/ berkeleyrep
We’re mobile! Download our free iPhone or Google Play app — or visit our mobile site —to buy tickets, read the buzz, watch video, and plan your visit.
Tickets/box office Box office hours: noon–7pm, Tue–Sun Call 510 647-2949 Click berkeleyrep.org anytime Fax: 510 647-2975 Under 30? Half-price advance tickets! For anyone under the age of 30, based on availability. Proof of age required. Some restrictions apply. Senior/student rush Full-time students and seniors 65+ save $10 on sections A and B. One ticket per ID, one hour before showtime. Proof of eligibility required. Subject to availability. Group tickets Bring 10–14 people and save $5 per ticket; bring 15 or more and save 20%. And we waive the service charge. Entourage tickets If you can bring at least 10 people, we’ll give you a code for 20% off tickets to up to five performance dates. Learn more at berkeleyrep.org/entourage. Student matinee Tickets are just $10 each. Learn more at berkeleyrep.org/studentmatinees. Sorry, we can’t give refunds or offer retroactive discounts.
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Educators Bring the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre to your school or community with free and lowcost workshops for teens and youth. Bring your class to one of our daytime matinees reserved for students. Click berkeleyrep.org/school for more info. Treat yourself to a subscription with the discount for pre-K–12 educators.
Ticket exchange Subscribers may exchange their tickets for another performance of the same show— for free (no fees)! Online or by phone. Nonsubscribers may also exchange their tickets, but an exchange fee and reasonable restrictions will apply, by phone or in person only. All exchanges can be made until 7pm the day preceding the scheduled performance. All exchanges are made on a seat-available basis.
Request information To request mailings or change your address, write to Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA 94704; call 510 647-2949; email info@berkeleyrep.org; or click berkeleyrep.org/joinourlist. If you use Gmail, Yahoo, or other online email accounts, please authorize patronreply@ berkeleyrep.org.
Please keep perfume to a minimum Many patrons are sensitive to the use of perfumes and other scents. Phones / electronics / recordings Please make sure your cell phone or watch alarm will not beep. Use of recording equipment or taking of photographs in the theatre is strictly prohibited. Please do not touch the set or props You are welcome to take a closer look, but please don’t step onto the stage. Bringing youth to the Theatre Many Berkeley Rep productions are recommended for students high school age and above. Please inquire before bringing young children to the theatre. All attendees must be ticketed: please, no babes in arms. No re-entry If you leave during the performance, we may not be able to reseat you until an appropriate break. You may watch the remainder of the act on a lobby or bar screen.
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Beverley Calvo, joined in 2011
Living
LARGER Moving to a smaller apartment meant giving up a lot. Or so Beverley thought. But she found out smaller meant smarter. When Beverley moved to St. Paul’s Towers, the East Bay’s most appealing Life Plan Community, she realized that minimizing meant maximizing. She could do more, enjoy more, and found our spacious, maintenance-free apartment homes to be a perfect fit. With wonderfully prepared menu options, Wi-Fi, and an expanding choice of amenities, Beverley has the freedom to explore her newest love—acting. See why 94% of our residents highly recommend living here. To learn more, or for your personal visit, please call 510.891.8542.
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