Who’s Who

MARI JOY ASIADO

(Understudy) Born and raised in Manila, Joy came to Utah to train under the BYU Acting program where she is currently a senior. Her recent credits include Lark in the premiere of MESTIZA or MIXED (Plan-B Theatre), #7 in The Wolves (BYU ADP), and O.G. Howland in Men on Boats (Concordia College, MN). She also loves acting for film, having been involved in numerous student productions and commercials. When she isn’t on stage, Joy enjoys eating pho, taking photos, dancing with friends, and taking care of her many plants. Her performances are largely dedicated to her sisters and other women of color who paved the way for her to be on stage. Maraming salamat.

ARCHELAUS CRISANTO*

(Understudy) is an actor/ director/filmmaker and storyteller, and an Oregon transplant to Utah as well as a proud Filipino immigrant American. Equally at home on stage and screen - Archie will next be seen in the next installment of the popular horror franchise V/H/S on Shudder (V/H/S’99). Some of Archie’s stage credits include Trevor in The Play That Goes Wrong (Pioneer Theatre Company), Speed in The Odd Couple (Hale Center Orem), Macbeth in Macbeth, Claudius in Hamlet, Theseus/Oberon A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Don Armado in Love’s Labor’s Lost. (Grassroots Shakespeare). Archie loves cooking (and eating) Filipino food, obscure 60’s soul covers, and boxing. Archie is honored to make his debut on SLAC’s stage and is a member of AEA.

OLIVIA CUSTODIO

(Understudy) has appeared on the SLAC stage in #SLACabaret 2021, Saturday’s Voyeur, Streetlight Woodpecker, Art Dog, I’ll Eat You Last, and numerous readings. Most recently she served as head writer of the 2022 SLACabaret: Down the Rabbit Hole. She holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and a Masters in Music from the University of Utah. You may have seen her elsewhere in town as The Lady of the Lake in Spamalot (Grand Theatre), Ana in Burn (Sackerson), and on KUER as a part of Plan B’s Radio Hour. Much love to her family, Trevor, and Steve Yockey for writing the insane plays she always dreamed of seeing onstage. www.oliviacustodio.com

LILY HYE SOO DIXON

(The Naif) is excited to be back at SLAC. Her previous work includes Alicia in Mercury and Amanda in 4000 Miles. Additional credits include PG Anon, Singing to the Brine Shrimp, Radio Hour Episode 13: Troll and (IN)DIVISIBLE at Plan-B Theatre. Hye Soo graduated with her BFA in Classical Acting from Southern Utah University. She currently teaches theatre and loves hanging out with her amazing son and their dog Chewie.

TITO LIVAS* (The Messenger) is looking forward to sharing the stage with this amazing cast and crew. Other past SLAC shows: Mercury, Saturday’s Voyeur, Romeo and Juliet In a Bar, and Climbing with Tigers. At Pioneer Theatre he just finished playing the role of Eugene in Fireflies and he’s also been in PTC’s staged readings of In the Heights and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He’s been a principal singer for Princess Cruise Lines debuting a brand new show by Wicked creator Stephen Schwartz called The Secret Silk, and has performed with Holland America, the Idaho

Shakespeare Festival, the National Theater for Children, Walt Disney World, Utah Opera, and The Public Theatre in NYC. He can be seen on Hallmark and Lifetime in several films, most recently the Sister Swap films, and Picture Perfect Holiday.

ROBERT SCOTT

SMITH* (The Raconteur) is the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory, Assistant Professor and Area Head of the BFA Actor Training Program at the University of Utah. As a professional actor, NYC credits include Kreutzer Sonata (United Solo Festival), Keeping Ishmael (Workshop); Pericles (SLANT); SLC acting credits include Gold Mountain (Utah Shakespeare Festival); Mary Stuart, The Crucible and Two Henrys (PTC); Saturday’s Voyeur, Climbing with Tigers, Rapture Blister Burn, Good People, Charm (World Premiere), Swimming in the Shallows, Six Years, Big Love, Batboy: The Musical and Gross Indecency (Salt Lake Acting Company); A Streetcar Named Desire, Our Town (The Grand Theatre); and Ice Front (World Premiere), Kreutzer Sonata (World Premiere) and Bash (Plan-B). Film credits include AESOP (Episodic Series), Kill The Babysitter (UK FrightFest 2020), Jewtah, Wildlife (Official Selection Cannes Métrage Selection 2015) Blessing, and Animae.

SHAWN FRANCIS SAUNDERS

(Understudy/Director) studied theatre at UVU and filmmaking at Avrec Art House (RIP). This will be their first time on stage since October 2018 when they played Hamlet for the Grassroots Shakespeare Company production of the play. Film directing credits include: The Wreath, Deep Blue City, and Davey Foundation grantee Nothing New Under the Sun. Shawn is super excited to be a part of their first production with Salt Lake Acting Company. Special thanks to Topher Rasmussen for all his love and support.

CASSANDRA

STOKES-WYLIE* (The Convert) was last seen on SLAC’s stage in the New Play Sounding Series reading of this play. Recent SLAC credits include Sarah in Death of a Driver, Karla in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City, a variety of characters in Saturday’s Voyeur 2017, Alyson Moss in Harbur Gate and Tanya in Bull Shark Attack. Other favorite theater credits include: In a Tilted Place (various characters - IRT Theatre), The Fairy Queen with A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helena - dell’Arte Opera Ensemble at Classic Stage Company ); In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Mrs. Givings - Pygmalion Productions); Pride And Prejudice (Ensemble, understudy Elizabeth & Caroline Bingley - The Milwaukee Rep); The Exit Interview (various characters - SLAC); The Crucible (Elizabeth Proctor - The Grand Theatre); Cheat (Roxy - Pygmalion Productions); The Cherry Orchard (Ensemble, understudy Lyuba Ranevsky - The Milwaukee Rep), and The Turn of the Screw (Governess - Utah Theatre Artists). She directed two short films for SLAC’s Digital Shorts : Bleep and Dial-A-Laugh and has helped develop new plays in SLAC’s New Play Sounding Series and Playwrights’ Lab, as well as Pioneer Theatre Company’s Play-by-Play reading series. She holds a BFA from the University of Utah’s Actor Training Program and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association. STEVE YOCKEY (Playwright) is a Los Angeles-based writer with work produced throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. His plays Bellwether, Pluto, Afterlife, Octopus, Large Animal Games, CARTOON, Subculture, Very Still & Hard to See, Blackberry Winter, The Thrush & The Woodpecker, The Fisherman’s Wife, Wolves, Disassembly, and Niagara Falls & Other Plays are published and licensed by Samuel French/Concord Theatricals.

His newest play Sleeping Giant premiered at the Assembly Rooms in the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Steve holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He was a Co-Executive Producer on the television series Supernatural and is the Emmy-nominated creator and showrunner of HBO Max’s breakout darkly comedic thriller The Flight Attendant. He is also the creator and showrunner of HBO Max’s upcoming Dead Boy Detectives, an adaptation of the cult DC/Vertigo comic book. EMILIO CASILLAS (Director) is a theatre maker from sunny San Diego and received his BFA in Theatre Production and Design from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, where he is the Director of Production. Emilio also serves as the Artistic Director of the Classical Greek Theatre Festival, the resident stage manager for the Davis Arts Council, and was Festival Director of the Great Salt Lake Fringe in 2016. Recent directing credits include the premiere of Larry West’s Punxsutawney, The Christians and Man and Moon with Good Co. Theatre, Perdida at the Grand Theatre, Prometheus Bound with the Classical Greek Theatre Festival, an opera double bill for Opera Contempo and NEXT Ensemble, and an Opera Scenes concert with La Musica Lirica, an opera training program in Italy. As assistant director, Emilio has worked on Larry West’s adaptation of Titus Andronicus, A Streetcar Named Desire at the Grand Theatre, and Utah Opera’s productions of The Long Walk, Gianni Schicchi, Pagliacci, The Little Prince, and Silent Night. Recent scenic design credits include La Bohème, L’elisir d’amore, and A Little Night Music for Westminster Opera Studio as well as The Christians and Eurydice at Good Co. Theatre. Up next, Emilio will be directing a staged concert with Utah Opera’s Resident Artists. JESSICA GREENBERG** (Lighting Design). Jessica is thrilled to be back for at SLAC for another production. Previous SLAC credits include Mr. Perfect, Stupid F*ing Bird, Bull Shark Attack, Surely Goodness and Mercy, The Cake, form of a girl unknown, Alabaster, and Egress. New York designs include productions with La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, The Adjusted Realists, A.R.T. New York, 59E59, Flux Theatre Ensemble, and Epic Theatre Ensemble Education Programs. Locally, she frequently works with SLC companies SB Dance & Plan B Theatre, and she recently did a series of architecture projection mapping art installations at The Monarch in Ogden. Jessica serves as Associate Professor of Theatre at Weber State University and is a member of USA 829. Awards include the Design Arts Utah Juror’s Award and the WSU Outstanding Mentor Award. www.jessicagreenberg.com HALEE RASMUSSEN (Scenic Design) is delighted to be a part of this project and working with SLAC again. She received her BFA from the University of Utah’s Performing Arts and Design Program with a double emphasis in technical direction and set design. She is currently the Assistant Technical Director and Scenic Charge Artist for the UofU Department of Theatre, and a resident set designer for The Grand Theatre. Other design credits include Lyric Opera Ensemble, Plan B Theatre Company, Salt Lake Shakespeare Company, Alligator Press Productions, and Lagoon Entertainment; with assistant design credits from Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Theatre Company, and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. BETT SHOUSE (Costume Designer) Bett received their MFA in Costume Design from Utah State University. They most recently designed As You Like It for Westminster College. Their other Costume Design credits include Mamma Mia!, Shockheaded Peter, Light Up the Sky, and Sideways Stories from Wayside School. They also serve as Wardrobe here at SLAC. CYNTHIA L. KEHR REES** (Sound Design) has greatly enjoyed having the opportunity to work with this wonderful collection of artists and individuals as part of the creative team for Sleeping Giant. Previously Ms. Rees worked as

the Sound Designer on the team that Salt Lake Acting Company assembled for their production of Steve Yockey’s Mercury. Other collaborations with Salt Lake Acting Company include Winter, Course 86B in the Catalogue, Charm, Angels in America Part 1: Millennium Approaches, Skin in Flames, and Madagascar. Other theatres where you may have heard Ms. Rees’ work locally include Utah Musical Theatre, Park City Egyptian Theatre Company, and The Grand Theatre. Her regional design credits include designs for Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The National Theatre in Washington D.C., and Seaside Music Theatre. Cynthia received a BFA in Theatrical Design and Technology from Otterbein College, and an MFA in Sound Design from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. Ms. Rees is a member of USA local 829 designers union. ERIK REICHERT (Props Designer) is excited to be working on Sleeping Giant as the properties designer. Previous shows include Sleeping giant, Passing Strange, Egress, Elephant & Piggie, and Four Women Talking About The Man Under The Sheet. He also designed the sets for Elephant & Piggie, Stags Leap, The Wolves, The Dance and the Railroad, and A Dolls House pt.2 and was the asst. set designer on form of a girl unknown. He currently works as the Construction Supervisor at SLAC. MICHAEL FRANCIS (Projection Designer) Michael Francis is an actor, director, musician, and visual artist. Apart from his contributions to the stage, Michael’s work spans discipline and genre ranging from devised installations to game design. A staunch advocate of arts education, he teaches acting in his private studio and as a visiting instructor around the United States. MWDFrancis.com

ADRIANA LEMKE (Intimacy/Fight Director) is an SLC based theatre-artist and movement professional. Previous Salt Lake Acting

Company productions as fight director and/ or intimacy director include Sleeping giant,

Surely Goodness & Mercy, The Wolves, and HIR. Most recently, she was intimacy director for Head Over Heels (The Grand

Theatre) and Man and the Moon (Good

Company Theatre). Other fight direction credits include At the Bottom (Pinnacle

Acting Company), Ion (The Classical Greek

Theatre Festival), Twelfth Night (Salt Lake

Shakespeare) Julius Caesar (UofU), and

Hamlet (Sun Valley Shakespeare).

SARAH SHIPPOBOTHAM (Dialect

Coach) is an actor, dialect coach, intimacy consultant, and Professor in Acting, and

Dialects at the University of Utah. Sarah trained as an actor at The Welsh College of Music and Drama in Wales and as a

Voice and Dialect Coach at The Central

School of Speech and Drama in London.

Acting credits in Utah include: Abe in

Sleeping giant; Sîan in the award-winning

Can I Say Yes to that Dress? at the Great

Salt Lake Fringe; Eleanor Duchess ofGloucester in Henry VI parts 2 and 3;

The Duchess of York in Richard III, and

The Abbess in The Comedy of Errors for

The Utah Shakespeare Festival; Mrs.

Shears/Mrs. Gascoyne in The Curious

Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Free

Newspaper Woman/Ensemble in King

Charles III for Pioneer Theatre Company; and The Syringa Tree, an award-winning one-woman show, playing 20 different characters. Dialect/Voice coaching credits include eighteen seasons with the Shaw

Festival (Canada), over 25 shows for the

Pioneer Theatre Company, and shows for Salt Lake Acting Company, including

Passing Strange. 2011/12 Sarah spent 7 months in New Zealand working as a

Dialect Coach on The Hobbit films.

KENNY RICHES (Video Director) was born in Toyota City, Japan; raised in Salt

Lake City, Utah; and currently resides in Miami, Florida. His 2015 feature film,

The Strongest Man, premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival, and his latest feature film, A Name Without A Place, will 16

be released summer 2021. His producer credits include My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To (2020, Tribeca Film Festival), and Sanzaru (2020, Slamdance Film Festival). He co-founded The David Ross Fetzer Foundation (The Davey Foundation), a grant-giving organization for filmmakers founded in memory of David Fetzer. He is a partner in the film production company, Dualist. DANNY BORBA (Assistant Stage Manager) is excited to assistant stage manage for the first time at Salt Lake Acting Company. He is a recent graduate of the Actor Training Program at the U. He was last seen in Sleeping giant at SLAC and in the Ensemble of Elf The Musical at Pioneer Theatre. Past credits also include Henry V/King of France in Henry V and the musical Songs for a New World (University of Utah). He has also recently been working on the TV show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. He is represented by Talent Management Group in Utah. He thanks his family and friends and God for their ongoing support. JENNIE SANT* (Production Stage Manager/Production Manager) Has been at Salt Lake Acting Company for over 10 years. During that decade she has stage managed over 30 shows, including NPSS readings and SLAC’s Playwrights Lab. She is pleased to be working on Sleeping Giant. Previous shows include Sleeping giant, Passing Strange, Egress, Elephant & Piggie’s “We are in a Play!”, SLACabaret 2021, and Alabaster. Upcoming shows include Hairy & Sherri. Other credits include Gold Mountain (Golden Spike 150), Thriller (Odyssey Dance Company), Wonderland and Princess Wendy (The Petite Palace), Annie (COPA Theatre), Next To Normal, Les Misérables, The Producers, Paint Your Wagon, Doubt, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Foreigner, and Vertical Hour (Pioneer Theatre Company). She has also worked for Salt Lake Shakespeare and Utah Contemporary Theatre. CYNTHIA FLEMING (Executive Artistic Director) has been on the administrative staff at Salt Lake Acting Company since 1998. During this time, she has overseen

multiple departments including Marketing, Communications, Development, Production, and Audience Services. In 2015, Cynthia was named to her current role as Executive Artistic Director. Prior to arriving at Salt Lake Acting Company, Cynthia performed in the Broadway, National, and International companies of the original run of A Chorus Line, directed by Michael Bennett. Cynthia remains a working artist in the theatre and continues to direct and choreograph works both at SLAC and elsewhere. Those credits include SLACabaret 2021, Silent Dancer, Saturday’s Voyeur (16 years as Choreographer, 7 as Director/Choreographer), Bat Boy, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, as well as guest directing the MFA Playwrights’ Workshop—a partnership with the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival, Stanford University, and the National New Play Network. She has also served as a visiting professor for the University of Utah’s Musical Theatre program. Outside of her theatre-related pursuits, Cynthia is a member of the Women’s Democratic Club of Utah, as well as 100 Women Who Care SLC. Cynthia is proud to serve SLAC and its mission to engage and enrich the community through brave, contemporary theatre.

SALT LAKE ACTING COMPANY

(SLAC)’s mission is to engage and enrich the community through brave, contemporary theatre. Founded in 1970 by Edward Gryska, SLAC is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 professional theatre dedicated to producing, commissioning, and developing new works and to supporting a community of professional artists. SLAC has been nationally recognized by the Shubert Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Edgerton Foundation, among others. SLAC operates under an SPT Actors Equity Association contract and is a proud member of the National New Play Network (a national alliance of nonprofit professional theatres that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays). For more information, visit SaltLakeActingCompany.org.

ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION

(“Equity”), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional Actors and Stage Managers. Equity fosters the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors’ Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. #EquityWorks

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

** Lighting and Sound Designers are represented by United Scenic Artists Local USA 829 of the IATSE.