Performances Magazine San Diego | La Jolla Playhouse, February 2025
3 SUMMERS OF
P1 Program
Cast, performances, who’s who, director’s notes, donors and more.
4 In the Wings
February concerts presented by the San Diego Symphony; What the Constitution Means to Me (a past production is pictured) at North Coast Rep; Broadway’s Wicked at the Civic Theatre; Empty Ride at The Old Globe; and more.
8 Feature:
A La Jolla Playhouse
World Premiere
La Jolla Playhouse presents the world-premiere musical, 3 Summers of Lincoln, focused on the last three summers of Abraham Lincoln’s life.
13 Dining
Our favorite food and drink finds for February, including Barra Oliba, Flora Kitchen + Bar, Communion, Tortuga and Em Coffee House.
24 Parting Thought
Performances’ program platform for theater shows and concerts can be accessed from any digital device
“SO MUCH HAPPENED before Dorothy dropped in…” The film inspired by the musical Wicked made a big splash across the globe this winter, and San Diego fans have a chance to see the production that inspired it when Wicked returns to the San Diego Civic Theatre, Feb. 5-March 2. It’s presented by Broadway San Diego as part of the outfit’s 47th anniversary season, dedicated to bringing Broadway’s biggest and most recent hits to the city. The “untold true story of the Witches of Oz” (namely Elphaba and Glinda) has won three Tony Awards, seven Drama Desk Awards and 10 Outer Critics Circle Awards; and the original cast album won a Grammy Award for “Best Musical Theater Album.” In total, the original Broadway production of Wicked has been nominated for at least one award every year since its opening in 2003, winning 33 of 64 nominations. 1100 Third Ave., downtown, broadwaysd.com
The national tour of Wicked. Opposite: Lauren Samuels and Austen Danielle Bohmer in Wicked.
JOAN MARCUS
CLASSICAL TO JAZZ
TAKE YOUR PICK of February concerts at Jacobs Music Center, particularly the Jacobs Masterworks concerts presented by the San Diego Symphony
On Feb. 8-9, Rafael Payare conducts the Symphony in an evening of Strauss, Walton and Brahms—with guest Chi-Yuan Chen on viola. Conductor and composer Michael Tilson Thomas makes his San Diego Symphony debut Feb. 15-16, opening with his own Street Song for Symphonic Brass; followed by Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, featuring pianist Parker Van Ostrand; and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1. Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä joins the Symphony Feb. 28-March 1—performing works by Sibelius, including Tapiola and Symphony No. 5; and Beethoven, whose Emperor concerto will be performed by Finnish pianist Paavali Jumppanen. sandiegosymphony.org And don’t miss the annual San Diego Jazz Party, Feb. 21-23, at the Hilton San Diego in Del Mar, showcasing 20 top jazz performance artists from across the globe. sdjp.org
Must-See Local Shows
CATCH TWO premieres at The Old Globe in February: the San Diego premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ comic drama, Appropriate, Jan. 25-Feb. 23; and the Old Globe-commissioned world premiere of Keiko Green’s poignant and funny play, Empty Ride, Feb. 8-March 2. The latter centers on a painter in Paris, who finds herself driving her ailing father’s taxi cab back in her small hometown in Japan following the devastating 2011 tsunami. theoldglobe.org Cygnet Theatre presents Jon Robin Baitz’s critically acclaimed play, Other Desert Cities, Feb. 5-March 2 at Old Town Theatre. Painful family secrets resurface when novelist Brooke Wyeth returns home to Palm Springs after a six-year absence to visit her parents, and announces the imminent publication of her tell-all memoir. cygnettheatre.com North Coast Rep brings us the Tonynominated and Pulitzer Prize finalist, What the Constitution Means to Me, by playwright Heidi Schreck, Feb. 26-March 23. northcoastrep.org
THEATER
From below left: Rafael Payare; Paavali Jumppanen; a past production of What The Constitution Means to Me.
In celebration of his 80th birthday, this four-disc deluxe box set spans more than five decades of Michael Tilson Thomas’ compositional career.
The collection features 18 works (from premiere recordings to remastered archival recordings available for the first time) and an extensive booklet containing composer’s notes, original essays,
proceeds from
All
GRACE: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas will be donated to brain cancer research at UCSF Brain Tumor Center.
History in the Making
La Jolla Playhouse Delivers the World-Premiere Musical, 3 Summers of Lincoln by
MOST PEOPLE THINK they know the basics about historical giant Abraham Lincoln— born in a log cabin; became a lawyer and then the 16th President; freed the slaves; won the Civil War against the Confederacy; was assassinated. What most don’t know is that Lincoln was at times deeply conflicted over the best way to prosecute the war and rebuild the nation in the aftermath. Over three summers during his presidency, Lincoln met with abolitionist Frederick Douglass in conversations that shaped his position on ending slavery and uniting the country after the Civil War. Those meetings are the subject of 3 Summers of Lincoln, a new musical premiering at the La Jolla Playhouse on Feb. 18. With a book by Joe DiPietro and directed by
Christopher Ashley, 3 Summers of Lincoln is the sixth La Jolla Playhouse collaboration between the two, including the hit shows Babbitt, Diana and Memphis. Composer Crystal Monee Hall and lyricist Daniel J. Watts complete the multi-award-winning creative team. The musical’s original score blends gospel music, R&B, powerhouse anthems and Broadway.
“[The musical] is really about what it takes to move someone from careful and lawyerly, and a real politician who thinks about what’s possible; towards someone who’s capable of really bold action,” explains Ashley, who is also the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse. “It’s also really exciting to work with an extraordinary emerging composer, Crystal Monee Hall. Her score is muscular and surprising and tuneful and really emotional.”
Heading the cast as Lincoln will be stage and screen
STEPHANIE SAAD
“A triumph of storytelling, illuminating the enduring impact of the Constitution on our society, and it does so with wit, intelligence, and emotional depth.”
— THE GUARDIAN
actor Ivan Hernandez, who has appeared on Broadway in Dear Evan Hansen. Quentin Earl Darrington—who was in Broadway’s MJ: The Musical and Once On This Island—fills the role of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. In other leading roles are Broadway veterans Carmen Cusack (Bright Star and Flying Over Sunset), who portrays Mary Todd Lincoln; and Eric Anderson (The Great Gatsby, Waitress, Kinky Boots) as Union General George B. McClellan.
DiPietro says the origins of the show date back to the pandemic lockdown. “Two producers contacted me with a vague notion about writing a musical about Lincoln,” he says. “We had no idea how long the theater world would be shut down, but I thought, ‘What an intriguing idea.’ It has its challenges, of course. The only person there are more books written about than Lincoln is Jesus. His shortened life was so eventful and consequential, you could write a thousand stories about him and not repeat yourself.”
Enter Doris Kearns
FEB 26-MAR 23
An emotionally charged theatrical event exploring the U.S. Constitution’s profound significance in contemporary America. Crafted by playwright Heidi Schreck, it is a deeply personal and introspective journey blending storytelling, humor, and political insight.
Clockwise from far left: Daniel J. Watts, Crystal Monee Hall, Ivan Hernandez, Carmen Cusack and Quentin Earl Darrington.
“A lot of his own cabinet was against the Emancipation Proclamation, but Lincoln believed that if ending slavery was a moral imperative to end this war, that would tell soldiers what they were fighting for.”— Joe DiPetro
Goodwin, the worldrenowned presidential historian, public speaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning best-selling author. Over a series of Zoom conversations with Goodwin and reading books she recommended, DiPietro was able to narrow his focus on Lincoln to the last three summers of his life. “How do we take this history and not cover too much ground, and how is it relevant today? That was my challenge,” says DiPietro. “Focusing on this period gave me a structure, and the themes of those summers were very clear, from /CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
Joe DiPietro
Shen
Yun Means
“The
Beauty of Divine Beings Dancing”
I’ve reviewed about 4,000 shows. None can compare to what I saw tonight.”
—Richard
Connema, theatre critic “
“Exquisitely beautiful! An extraordinary experience for us and the children.”
—Cate
Blanchett, Academy Award-winning actress
“It is breathtaking! I am walking away deeply inspired and profoundly moved!”
—Rita Cosby, Emmy Award-winning journalist
The gong resounds. The curtain rises. A world of wonder unfolds before your eyes. Majestic dynasties and celestial realms come alive. Timeless tales of love, humor, heroism, and faith are vividly brought to life on stage.
Embark on an extraordinary journey through 5,000 years of Chinese culture— nearly lost undesr communist rule. Join 10 million people worldwide to witness the beauty and wonder of China untainted by communism. Experience a cultural revival with Shen Yun!
The Artistic Director's Circle Season Sponsors
Roberta C. Baade Charitable Fund
Denise and Lon Bevers
Theodor S. and Audrey S. Geisel Fund
Kay and Bill Gurtin
Jeanne L. Herberger, Ph.D.
Joan and Irwin Jacobs
Sheri L. Jamieson
La Atalaya Fund
Rebecca Moores Foundation
Jordan Ressler Charitable Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
Weston Anson, Melissa and Michael Bartell, Gail and Ralph Bryan, Brian and Silvija Devine, The Estate of Pauline Foster, Hanna and Mark Gleiberman, Lynn Gorguze and Scott Peters, Debby and Hal Jacobs, Veronica and Miguel Leff, Esq., Perlmeter Family Foundation, Maryanne and Irwin Pfister, Karen and Jeff Silberman, Les J Silver and Andrea Rothschild-Silver, The Stockdale Family, Molli Wagner, Peggy Ann Wallace, Mandell Weiss Charitable Trust
3 SUMMERS OF LINCOLN
PRODUCTION SPONSORS
Michael and Melissa Bartell · Kay and Bill Gurtin · Sheri L. Jamieson · Veronica and Miguel Leff · Becky Moores Recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award
Laurents/Hatcher Foundation
La Jolla Playhouse’s 2024/2025 subscription season is dedicated to Joan Jacobs.
Laurents / Hatcher Foundation
A MESSAGE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Dear Friends,
As someone fascinated by history, it’s not surprising that my last couple of shows at the Playhouse have looked back in order to see the present: the emergence of Hunter S. Thompson’s Gonzo journalism as precursor to our own subjective media bubbles; the complacency, xenophobia and materialism in George F. Babbitt’s time as a reflection of our own era.
This idea of the past as prologue is front and center in the world premiere of 3 Summers of Lincoln. How did a country that literally split in two in the 19th century return from the brink –and how can the people who ended that schism inform what we do today?
Fittingly, this production approaches the story of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and the Civil War from both period and modern sensibilities. Crystal Monee Hall’s gorgeous score blends historical musical forms with a compellingly contemporary sound. Joe DiPietro’s book, along with his and Daniel Watts’s lyrics, integrates language from both then and now. Daniel and his co-choreographer Jon Rua are devising propulsive movement that spans from the 1860s to a modern and visceral physical vocabulary.
Although Lincoln and the Civil War are incredibly complicated subjects, this stellar creative team has hit upon a unique way to narrow the focus. During three critical summers, two extraordinary minds challenged each other to reach greater heights, end slavery and reunite a country. By restricting its scope exclusively to the Union side – which had more than enough conflict and strife to deal with inside its own house – 3 Summers of Lincoln allows for a more complex and nuanced view of our history. It’s also a reminder not to become overwhelmed by the enormity of our societal dysfunction, but to take action to make the world a better place in whatever ways we can.
CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY
THE RICH FAMILY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
La Jolla Playhouse acknowledges the land on which our theatres sit as the unceded territory of the KUMEYAAY NATION. Today, the Kumeyaay people continue to maintain their political sovereignty and cultural traditions as vital members of the San Diego community. Their contributions to our region are tremendous and we thank them for their stewardship.
Christopher Ashley
The Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse
Debby Buchholz
Managing Director of La Jolla Playhouse
3 SUMMERS OF LINCOLN
BOOK BY JOE DiPIETRO
LYRICS BY
DANIEL J. WATTS and JOE DiPIETRO
MUSIC BY CRYSTAL MONEE HALL
CHOREOGRAPHY BY JON RUA and DANIEL J. WATTS
DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY
FEATURING
ERIC ANDERSON*, VAN ANGELO, DESHAWN TRAVIS BOWENS*, CALVIN L’MONT COOPER*, CARMEN CUSACK*,
GENO CARR*, QUENTIN EARL DARRINGTON*, ALAMAN DIADHIOU*, MICHAEL SAMARIE GEORGE*, MICHAEL ALLAN HAGGERTY*, IVAN HERNANDEZ*, FERNELL HOGAN*, JANA KRUMHOLTZ*, BETS MALONE*, JOHN-ANDREW MORRISON*, MAGIC MOSLEY*, KENT OVERSHOWN*, NOAH RIVERA*, NAOMI TIANA RODGERS*, EVAN RUGGIERO*, NATHAN SALSTONE*, SAYCON SENGBLOH*, JAXON SMITH, JOHNATHAN TANNER*, BLAKE ZELESNIKAR*
SCENIC DESIGN
COSTUME DESIGN
LIGHTING DESIGN
SOUND DESIGN
PROJECTION DESIGN
HAIR AND WIG DESIGN
MUSIC SUPERVISOR
MUSIC DIRECTOR
ORCHESTRATOR
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
ASSOCIATE CHOREOGRAPHER
SENSITIVITY SPECIALIST
CASTING
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS
DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION
GENERAL MANAGER
ARTISTIC PRODUCING DIRECTOR
DEREK McLANE
TONI-LESLIE JAMES
AMANDA ZIEVE
JONATHAN DEANS, MIKE TRACEY
DAVID BENGALI, HANA S. KIM
MATTHEW ARMENTROUT
WILKIE FERGUSON
VICTORIA THEODORE
MICHAEL THURBER
KEVIN S. McALLISTER
NASHA HARRIS SANTIAGO
ANN C. JAMES
THE TELSEY OFFICE, RACHEL HOFFMAN, csa and JACOLE KITCHEN
JAMES LATUS*
MONÉT THIBOU*, ALEXA BURN*
BECCA DUHAIME
RYAN MEISHEID
ERIC KEEN-LOUIE
THE CAST
(in order of appearance)
Telegraph Tap Dancer Evan Ruggiero*
General George B. McClellan .................................................................................................................. Eric Anderson*
Swings Van Angelo, DeShawn Travis Bowens* Michael Samarie George*, Michael Allan Haggerty*, Jaxon Smith
3 Summers of Lincoln is performed with one intermission.
UNDERSTUDIES
General George B. McClellan
Geno Carr*
Lewis Douglass Alaman Diadhiou*
Mary Todd Lincoln Bets Malone*
Frederick Douglass/William Slade Kent Overshown*
Postmaster General Blair Noah Rivera*
Elizabeth Keckley Naomi Tiana Rodgers*
Private Putnam Johnathan Tanner*
Understudies are never substituted for listed roles unless a specific announcement is made at the time of the performance.
Associate Music Director/Music Assistant
Assistant Director
Associate Scenic Designer
Associate Costume Designer
Associate Lighting Designer
Associate Sound Designers
Jeremy Jacobs
Allie Moss‡
Rochele Mac
Travis Chinick
Brandon Rosen
Maggie Schlusser, Stephen Jensen
Associate Projection Designer and Animator Stivo Arnoczy
Assistant Lighting Designers
Hannah Beerfas, Jessica Ann Drayton
Scenic Design Assistants Erica Hemminger, Tony Dibernardo
Stage Management Resident Alina Novotny‡
Production Assistant Joseff Paz
Script Assistant Beonica Bullard
Stage Management Intern Isabelle Louis
Scenic Design Resident
Eleanor Williams‡
Dialect Coach Andrea Caban
Dance Captain Michael Samarie George*
Additional Tap Improvisation Alaman Diadhiou, Evan Ruggiero
People & Culture Consultants Cornerstone Consulting HR
ADDITIONAL STAFF
MUSICAL NUMBERS
NINETY DAY WAR Company THIS IMPOSSIBLE POSITION Abraham HERE I AM Frederick SENT BY GOD.......................................... McClellan, Ensemble 4 MILES FROM RICHMOND Putnam, Frederick, Rosetta, Lewis, McClellan, Ensemble
NOTHING WITHOUT US Frederick, Lewis, Rosetta PUTNAM'S SONG ........................................................... Putnam THE CALLING Miss Ava, Mary, Elizabeth BEHIND THE DOOR Elizabeth, Mary THAT'S WHAT HE SAID ....... Frederick, William, 5 Reverends IN EACH LETTER Mary, Elizabeth, Ensemble ANTIETAM Abraham, McClellan, Ensemble A COUNTRY BETTER THAN THIS................................. Abraham, Frederick, Company
POUNDING ON THE ROCK Frederick, Lewis, Ensemble THE BLOOD Abraham, Gun Dealer, Soldiers POUNDING ON THE ROCK (reprise) Frederick, Lewis, Soldiers IN EACH LETTER (reprise) Lewis HERE I AM (reprise) Rosetta, Frederick THE MEETING Abraham, Frederick THE BLOOD (reprise) ...................................... Rosetta, Frederick
SCARLETT THE HARLOT Soldiers IN EACH LETTER (reprise 2) Mary, Soldiers, Abraham SENT (BACK) BY GOD ............................. McClellan, Ensemble BRING ME MORE Elizabeth THE MEETING (reprise) Frederick HERE I AM (reprise 2) .................................. Abraham, Frederick MARCHING TOWARDS GEORGIA William, Abraham, McClellan, Soldiers A RADICAL SHOUTS "NOW!" ....................................... Abraham A COUNTRY BETTER THAN THIS (reprise)......................Company
ORCHESTRA
Conductor/Keyboard 2
Keyboard 1
Wilkie Ferguson
Victoria Theodore
Percussion John Davis
Guitar 1 Vince Cooper
Guitar 2 PJ Bovee
Electric Bass/Contractor
Violin/Viola
Michael Pearce
Healy Henderson
Cello Erica Erenyi
MUSIC STAFF
Keyboard Programmer
Ableton Programmer
Music Preparation
Taylor Williams
Timothy Hanson
Bauerfeld
ERIC ANDERSON, General George B. McClellan made his La Jolla Playhouse debut as Captain Hook in Fly. On Broadway, he most recently originated the role of Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby. Before that, he starred for two years as Harold Zidler in the Broadway production of Moulin Rouge!. Following his New York City debut 15 years ago in South Pacific at Lincoln Center, Eric has originated roles on Broadway in Waitress, Pretty Woman, Kinky Boots, Rocky, The Last Ship, and Soul Doctor, for which he earned a Drama Desk Best Actor nomination. Regionally, his west coast credits include: Ragtime (Moonlight Stage), Bed & Sofa (Cygnet Theatre), The Wild Party (Blank Theatre Company), and OthE.L.O. (Troubadour Theater Company). He’s appeared on film in The Greatest Showman and Waitress: Live on Broadway TV credits include: Elementary, The Good Wife, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Alias and Live from Lincoln Center. Eric won two San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Awards, and was the recipient of the inaugural Joel Hirschhorn Award from the L.A. Drama Critics Circle for outstanding achievement in musical theatre. He is Jessica Rush’s husband, and Elliot’s dad. Instagram: @egroove
VAN ANGELO (they/them), Swing
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Regional: Tootsie, Beautiful, Something Rotten, Memphis (Moonlight); Catch Me If You Can (SDMT); Seussical (Candlelight Pavilion); West Side Story, Tarzan, Hairspray (Performance Riverside); The View UpStairs (Desert Rose Playhouse); Hairspray (Palm Canyon Theatre). Concert: Bernstein’s MASS, Ein Deutsches Requiem, Beethoven 9, Rachmaninoff‘s The Bells (Philadelphia Orchestra); Rouse’s Requiem (NY Philharmonic); Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses (Boston Symphony Orchestra). Theme Park: Vocalist for Legoland California Resort. Education: M.F.A. in Musical Theatre from SDSU, B.M. in Music Education from Westminster Choir College. “Till there’s no one left who has ever known us apart.”
DESHAWN TRAVIS BOWENS (he/him), Swing
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Off Broadway: DogMan, Carnegie Hall. National Tours: Mean Girls. Regional: Summerstock (Goodspeed), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Maine State), Guys and Dolls (Asolo Repertory Theatre), Honeymoon in Vegas (Marriott Theatre), Frozen (Fulton). TV/Film: Two Many Christmases (BET plus), Harlem (Amazon Studios). Education: B.F.A. Music Theatre from Elon University. Many thanks to God, cast and creative team of 3 Summers of Lincoln and HCKR. For Mom. @deshawnbowens
GENO CARR, Postmaster General Blair/Ensemble/ Understudy: General George B. McClellan
La Jolla Playhouse: Come From Away, Love All Broadway: Come From Away. Off Broadway: Bush Wars. National Tours: Come From Away, Grease, Buddy Holly Story, Phantom. Favorite Regional: Allegiance, Henry VI, Grinch (The Old Globe); Ragtime (Moonlight); The Producers, The Full Monty (Merry-GoRound Playhouse); The Foreigner, Spelling Bee (Lamb’s Players); Next to Normal (SDMT); Little Shop of Horrors, Parade, Assassins (Cygnet Theatre); The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Maine Shakespeare Festival). Education: M.F.A., Acting/Directing, Sarah Lawrence College; Dual B.A., Music and Theatre, Hartwick College. Awesome Wife, Son, and Mini Goldendoodle: Nancy, Elliott, and Ozzie.
CALVIN L'MONT COOPER (she/he/they), Ensemble
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut! Broadway: Mrs. Doubtfire. National Tours: Finding Neverland Regional: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Goodman), Singin' in the Rain (Ogunquit), Guys and Dolls (Muny), Kiss Me Kate (Barrington). Other credits: La Traviata (The Met), Radio City Christmas Spectacular (Radio City).
CARMEN CUSACK, Mary Todd Lincoln
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Cusack recently starred on Broadway in James Lapine’s Flying Over Sunset, earning a second Tony® Award nomination in as many Broadway shows. She was previously nominated for her acclaimed lead performance in Bright Star. She recurred opposite Janet McTeer and Elizabeth Olsen in the series Sorry for Your Loss, and she was featured opposite Tom Hanks in TriStar's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and in MGM’s American Fiction. She starred as Julia Sugarbaker in the world premiere adaptation of Designing Women at TheatreSquared and as Lynn Gardner in MCC’s Off-Broadway revival of Carrie. Additional credits include Annie McDougan in First Wives Club and Dot in Sunday in the Park with George in Chicago, Nellie Forbush in the first national tour of Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of South Pacific, and Elphaba in the first national tour of Wicked. West End credits include Fantine in Les Misérables, Rose in The Secret Garden, and Kim in Personals She toured the UK as Christine in Phantom of the Opera and as Eva Cassidy in Over the Rainbow She studied opera at the University of North Texas, which gave her its first honorary baccalaureate degree in 2018.
QUENTIN EARL DARRINGTON,
Frederick Douglass was most recently seen as Don Cornelius in the world premiere of the high-energy, Broadwaybound new musical Soul Train, following his electric and transformative dual role as Rob/Joe Jackson in the Broadway mega-hit MJ: The Musical, which he originated. A GRAMMY® Award-nominated performer, his Broadway credits also include: Agwe in the Tony® Award-winning revival of Once on This Island, Coalhouse Walker Jr. in Ragtime (revival), and Old Deuteronomy in Cats (revival). God’s blessing on Q’s life has taken him across the globe; performing, teaching, and serving in 46 US states, Canada, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Russia, New Zealand, and Africa. National Tours: Memphis, The Color Purple, The Lion King, Ragtime. TV: Blue Bloods, NCIS: NOLA, The Blacklist, Elementary, Madam Secretary, The Good Fight and The Code. M.F.A., University of Central Florida; B.F.A., University of South Florida. Love God, Serve God… Love People, Serve People. Philippians 3:12-14
ALAMAN DIADHIOU, Telegraph Tap Dancer/ Ensemble/Understudy: Lewis Douglass
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. National Tours: MJ/Michael Standby in MJ: the Musical. OffBroadway: Young Jelly in Jelly’s Last Jam (NY City Center). Regional: Twist in Twist (Pasadena Playhouse). Film/TV: Damian in High Potential (ABC). Education: Yale College ‘23, Comparative Literature (B.A.). Alaman is a singer, dancer, songwriter, and entertainer from Leimert Park, Los Angeles. Trained at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, Alaman is a 2019 Presidential Scholar in the Arts (Tap Dance). Alaman aspires to be the world’s premier live performer, carrying the traditions of the legendary artists who precede him while innovating with his own voice.
MICHAEL SAMARIE GEORGE, Swing
is a dynamic multicultural artist, choreographer, director, actor, singer, dancer and producer. With an unwavering passion for pushing artistic boundaries, she approaches her work with deep gratitude and love. Michael's impressive credits span both Broadway and television, showcasing her versatile talents and commitment to her craft. As she embraces new opportunities she remains grateful to her entire family and team for their unwavering support on this creative journey. @michaelsamarie
MICHAEL ALLAN HAGGERTY, Swing
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. National Tour: Frozen Regional credits include Unsinkable Molly Brown (The MUNY); Anastasia (Bucks County Playhouse); Jersey Boys (North Shore Music Theater). Boston Conservatory alumni. Huge thanks to Dave at Daniel Hoff!
IVAN HERNANDEZ, President Abraham Lincoln
Broadway credits include Larry Murphy in Dear Evan Hansen and Billy Flynn in Chicago. Other NY credits: Signor Naccarelli in The Light in the Piazza at City Center, The Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods at the Delacorte Theatre, Sal in The Capeman (Delacorte), Mitch in Yank! at the York Theatre and Fred in Romantic Poetry at MTC. Audiences also know him as Franklyn from the Max series And Just Like That... and Andrés in the Netflix series Never Have I Ever. Other TV credits include The Rookie, Claws, Criminal Minds, NCIS, Mom, Scandal, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Devious Maids and Law and Order: SVU. Much love to Tine, Emma and Hannah.
FERNELL HOGAN (he/him), Ensemble
Fernell is excited to be making his La Jolla Debut in 3 Summers of Lincoln! He was most recently seen playing Martin in the Tony® Award-winning Best Musical Kimberly Akimbo on Broadway, where he originated the role. Other credits include: Broadway: The Prom. National Tour: Mean Girls. Off-Broadway: Kimberly Akimbo. TV/Film: Mean Girls the Movie, Law & Order: SVU. Fernell is endlessly thankful for the support of his family and friends throughout his journey. Big thanks to Creative Talent Company, Nicolosi, and Telsey! @fernellhogan
JANA KRUMHOLTZ, Ensemble
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut! This past season, Jana was in Macbeth at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, as well as Dance Captain. She has performed live with Billie Eilish at Coachella, Beyoncé, The Jonas Brothers on the VMAs, SNL, The Tonight Show. She was a dancer on the hit show Lip Sync Battle for five seasons. Jana wrote, directed and produced her one-woman show that premiered at Hollywood Fringe where she was selected to perform in LA Women’s Theatre Festival. Proud member of TheGrit by Jon Rua. Founder of Return To Dance. Forever for Rose, Ben, Mom, Dad, Jon and Jet.
BETS MALONE, Miss Ava/Ensemble/ Understudy: Mary Todd Lincoln La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. International: 42nd Street, Fame. Off-Broadway: The Marvelous Wonderettes. Regional: Into the Woods, Ragtime, Next to Normal, Fun Home, Victor/Victoria, Sweeney Todd, The Andrews Brothers, 1776, Seussical, The Rocky Horror Show, Children of Eden, Fiddler on the Roof, Titanic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (The Old Globe, 12 years). Voiceover: Barbie as the Island Princess, Scooby Doo and The Musical of the Vampire, What’s Wrong with Ruth
JOHN-ANDREW MORRISON, William Slade
La Jolla Playhouse: Dogeaters. Broadway: A Strange Loop (Tony® Award nomination). OffBroadway: A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons; Lucille Lortel and OBIE Awards), Blues for an Alabama Sky (KEEN Company; Outer Critics Circle honoree), Malvolio (Classical Theater of Harlem; Audelco Award nomination). Regional: A Christmas Carol (Hartford Stage), A Strange Loop (ACT and CTG Los Angeles), Marley (Baltimore Center Stage). Upcoming: John-Andrew will play Medea in Medea of the Laundromat by H.M. Koutoukas, presented by La MaMa and The Lucille Lortel Theater. Education: B.A. Theatre Arts from Brandeis University. M.F.A. from UC San Diego. John-Andrew is a member of The Actors Center. He dedicates this and every piece to his mother.
MAGIC MOSLEY (they/them), Lewis Douglass/ Ensemble
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Regional: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (California Center for the Arts); Kinky Boots (3D Theatricals); Sister Act (Candlelight Pavilion). Workshops: The Band’s Visit (German Translation Workshop); Witnesses: A New Musical (California Center for the Arts). Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines: Grease, Hairspray, The Wizard of Oz This performance is dedicated to my grandmother Rose, born Juneteenth. “Dream Until Your Dreams Come True.”
KENT OVERSHOWN (he/they), Ensemble/ Understudy: Frederick Douglass & William Slade La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. NY Theatre: Ragtime, Titanic, Promenade (City Center Encores!). National Tours: Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Book of Mormon (Jumamosi Tour), The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Memphis. Regional: Little Shop of Horrors (A.C.T. of Connecticut), The Music Man (Goodspeed), Sister Act (Walnut Street/Riverside Theatre), Smokey Joe’s Café (STAGES St. Louis), Camelot (Two River Theatre), Miss Saigon (Casa Mañana), Rent (Westchester Broadway Theatre), The MUNY (seasons 2007–2010). Concert: Bernstein: Mass (Philadelphia Orchestra). Education: B.F.A. from the University of Michigan. Immense love to Jeremy & Fam. Endless thanks to Rachel & HCKR.
NOAH RIVERA, Ensemble/
Understudy: Postmaster General Blair
is a current member of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, singing with the legend himself, Frankie Valli. Broadway: Wicked (Tin Man), In the Heights (Sonny), Shrek the Musical (White Rabbit, OBC).
Vegas: Hairspray (OVC), Scream’d: World Premiere (Choreographer). Noah was awarded Best Actor in a Musical by both StageSceneLA and LA Theater Bites for his portrayal of Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys. TV: CSI: Vegas, General Hospital, The Wade Robson Project (MTV), The Tonight Show, Good Morning America and others. Thanks to Rua, DWatts, LJP, Telsey Casting, House of Representatives, Rotbart Management, and loved ones. For Alora & Eliana. @MrNoahRivera
NAOMI TIANA RODGERS, Rosetta Douglass/
Understudy: Elizabeth Keckley
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. National Tour: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Frozen. Regional: Legally Blonde (Arts Center of Coastal Carolina).
Education: AMDA NY. Thank you to La Jolla Playhouse, Telsey, and Daniel Hoff Agency for continuing to believe in me to heal the world with my Art. @naomiprincessrodgers. Jeremiah 29:11
EVAN RUGGIERO (he/him), Telegraph Tap Dancer/Gun Dealer/Ensemble
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Evan is a graduate of Montclair State University, B.F.A. Musical Theatre. In 2018 he received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Actor in a Musical and was awarded a Clive Barnes Award in Theatre for his portrayal of Tom Jones in NYC’s off-Broadway hit Bastard Jones. Evan has had the honor of performing at Carnegie Hall and at the 90th Oscars. He has performed for many notable individuals such as Ellen DeGeneres, President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Most recently, Evan performed alongside GRAMMY® Award-winning artist Jason Mraz. Theatre credits include: Camelot (Sir Dinadan, The Muny), Beauty and the Beast (Beast, Olney Theatre Center), The Wizard of Oz (Tin Man), Toxic Avenger (Melvin, Pittsburgh CLO) and Baby (Danny, NYC off-Broadway). Social media: @Lord_Pegleg.
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2023 revival, cast album), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (original Broadway cast). Off-Broadway: Titanic (NY City Center Encores). Regional World Premiere: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (The Old Globe); Knoxville (Asolo Rep, Cast Album). Graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. @nathan_salstone
SAYCON SENGBLOH, Elizabeth Keckley
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway: Eclipsed (Tony® Award nomination, Drama Desk Award).
FELA!, Wicked, Hair, The Color Purple, Elton John & Tim Rice’s AIDA, Motown the Musical, Holler
If Ya Hear Me. National Tours: Rent, AIDA, FELA! (Nigeria). Off-Broadway: Secret Life of Bees (Atlantic), Hurt Village (Signature). Regional: The Color Purple premiere (Alliance Theatre); Once on This Island (Paper Mill), Soweto! Soweto! (Freddie Hendricks: Youth Ensemble of Atlanta). TV: The Wonder Years (ABC), Delilah (OWN), In the Dark (CW), and Scandal (ABC). Film: Respect (MGM), Doubleplay (Amazon Prime). Board of Directors: LEAD Monrovia Football Academy. Education: Agnes Scott College.
JAXON SMITH (he/him), Swing
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Regional: Tootsie (Moonlight); Miracle on 34th Street: A Live Musical Radio Play (New Village Arts); Fiddler on the Roof, The Addams Family (San Diego Musical Theatre); Darkness Falls (Sea World). Education: SDSCPA.
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Off-Broadway: Emote: The Musical. Off-Off-Broadway: You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. Regional: The Nutty Professor and Disney’s Newsies (Hale Center Theatre); Godspell (BYU). Dance Credits: Colbie Caillat, Kristen Chenoweth, David Archuleta, Red Bull TV, U.S. National Ballroom Championships (5x Finalist). 2x Violinist at Carnegie Hall (NYC). Education: B.F.A. from BYU, LINK Class 6. BIG Thank You to Mom, Dad, Loved ones, Telsey, CTG, and God! johnathan-tanner.com @johnathan.tanner
BLAKE ZELESNIKAR, Ensemble
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. National Tours: Mean Girls, Phantom of the Opera, An American in Paris, Flashdance. Regional: Bull Durham (Theater Raleigh); The Nutty Professor (Ogunquit); Jerome Robbins' Broadway (TUTS); Oklahoma! (PCLO). Excited and honored to be a part of this inspirational production. Thank you to my wife Jessica Lee Goldyn for her endless love and support!
JOE DiPIETRO, Librettist, Co-Lyricist
DiPietro is thrilled to be returning to La Jolla Playhouse. He has won two Tony® Awards, a Drama Desk Award and three Outer Critics Circle Awards. His other new musicals include the Broadway-bound Sinatra and the Tom Jones-infused What's New, Pussycat?. Among his many other shows: Babbitt (La Jolla Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre Company); Memphis (2010 Tony® Award for Best Musical); Nice Work If You Can Get It (10 Tony® nominations); All Shook Up; Diana (Netflix); The Toxic Avenger (OCC Award - Best off-Broadway Musical); Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (Off-Broadway Alliance Award - Best Musical) and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (the longest-running musical revue in off-Broadway history). His plays include the much-produced comedies Over the River and Through the Woods and The Last Romance, as well as the new comic thriller, An Old-Fashioned Family Murder.
CRYSTAL MONEE HALL, Composer is a singer/songwriter, composer/lyricist and vocal director/ arranger/producer based in NYC. Recent credits include Goddess (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), ALLSWELL the Movie (Dir. Ben Snyder), Choir Boy (Philadelphia Theatre Company), Darius De Haas’ You Send Me: The Songs and Soul of Sam Cooke (92Y Lyrics and Lyricists), Where We Dwell (New York City Center), Ayodele Casel’s Chasing Magic (American Repertory Theater), Walker (CW network), “A Beautiful Noise” (Gospel Arrangement, Biden/Harris Campaign), Ben Platt: Live from Radio City Music Hall (Netflix), PBS Kids (Donkey Hodie, Nature Cat, Alma’s Way), Sesame Street, Black Ink Crew (VH1), HBO’s High Maintenance, Kristin Chenoweth’s For the Girls (Nederlander Theater), Stars on Stage: Brandon Victor Dixon (Westport Playhouse Theater/ PBS), Cynthia Erivo: Live from Lincoln Center (PBS), Mickey Hart (The Grateful Dead), RENT (Nederlander Theater), Thomas Rhett, Renée Elise Goldsberry, John Legend, Patti Austin, Oleta Adams, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Ke$ha and Roy Ayers. She is the recipient of The Lilly Awards’ 2021 “Go Write a Musical” Award, and the Black Theatre Coalition’s inaugural Composer Fellowship Award in 2022. www.crystalmoneehall.com; @crystalmonee
DANIEL J. WATTS, Co-Lyricist, Co-Choreographer is a Tony® and Emmy® Award-nominated multidisciplinary artist. He has performed in 10 Broadway shows including: Tina (Ike Turner, Tony® Award nominee), Freestyle Love Supreme, Hamilton, After Midnight, Motown, Ghost, In the Heights, Memphis, The Little Mermaid, The Color Purple. Off-Broadway: The Refuge Plays (Roundabout), Richard III (Delacorte), The Last of the Love Letters (Atlantic), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature), Whorl Inside a Loop (2ST). TV: The Chi (Paramount +); Werewolf By Night (Disney+); The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon); The Last OG (TBS); Penguin, Vinyl, The Deuce, Boardwalk Empire (HBO); Blindspot, Blue Bloods (CBS); Broad City (Comedy Central). Original Work: Daniel J. Watts’ The Jam: Only Child 2020 Public Theatre Under the Radar Festival and has also streamed as part of the Signature Theater (DC) 2020/21 season. TED talk “To Accomplish Great Things, You Need to Let Paint Dry” appears at go.Ted.com/danieljwatts. Artist in residence at ASU Gammage, contributing artist for Armstrong Now with The Louis Armstrong House, and NYU Tisch New Studio adjunct professor. www.wattswords.com IG/Twitter: @dwattswords
CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY, Director
(See Mr. Ashley’s bio on page 12)
JON RUA, Co-Choreographer
Jon is the choreographer of Dance Sequences for Floyd Collins and an Associate Choreographer for BOOP!; both musicals open on Broadway this Spring 2025. Other credits include: The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, PHISH’s “Send in the Clones,” numbers for Broadway’s SpongeBob SquarePants, The Cher Show, SpongeBob Musical Live on Nick, Isn’t It Romantic, Macbeth and Rent (OSF), West Side Story (Milwaukee Rep), Godspell (PCLO), The Hombres (Two River), Jesus Christ Superstar and Aida (Muny), Coheed & Cambria (“Old Flames”), Lawrence (“More”) and the New York Lotto. As an actor, Jon is an original cast member of the award-winning musicals Hamilton, SpongeBob, Hands on a Hardbody and In the Heights. On the screen, he has appeared in Smile 2, Blacklist, Blue Bloods, Law & Order, Fall to Rise and First Reformed. As a writer, his new play First Gen is currently in development with La Jolla Playhouse, and his explorative short film Unknown was selected for the New York Latino Film Festival. All is done to honor each day I have on this earth, for my mother, family, and my Jana.
DEREK McLANE, Scenic Designer
Broadway: Death Becomes Her, MJ: The Musical, Moulin Rouge!, Purlie Victorious, A Soldier’s Play, American Son, The Parisian Woman, The Price, Noises Off, Fully Committed, Beautiful, Gigi, Anything Goes, The Heiress, The Best Man, Follies, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Million Dollar Quartet, Ragtime, 33 Variations, The Pajama Game, I Am My Own Wife. Off-Broadway: Here There Are Blueberries; Black No More; Merrily We Roll Along; The True; Jerry Springer the Opera; If I Forget; The Whirligig; Into the Woods; Love, Love, Love; Sweet Charity; Evening at the Talk House; Two Gentlemen of Verona; Buried Child; The Spoils; Sticks and Bones; The Last Five Years; A Lie of the Mind; Ruined; Hurlyburly. Television: He designed the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 Academy Awards, 2024 SAG Awards, 2024 Met Gala as well as the NBC LIVE! Musicals The Wiz and Hairspray, and others. Awards: Winner of 1997 and 2004 OBIE Awards, 2004, 2005, 2007 Lortel Awards, 2009 and 2021 Tony® Awards, 2011 and 2021 Drama Desk Awards, 2015, 2016 Art Directors Guild Awards, 2014 and 2017 Emmy® Awards.
TONI-LESLIE JAMES, Costume Designer
La Jolla Playhouse: Redwood, The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, Come From Away, Glengarry Glen Ross, Milk Like Sugar. Broadway: Birthday Candles; Paradise Square; Thoughts of a Colored Man; Bernhardt/Hamlet; Come From Away; Jitney; Amazing Grace; Lucky Guy; The Scottsboro Boys; Finian’s Rainbow; Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; King Hedley II; One Mo’ Time; The Wild Party; Marie Christine; Footloose; The Tempest; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Angels in America; Chronicle of a Death Foretold; Jelly’s Last Jam and The Old Man and the Pool. Awards: four Tony® Award nominations, Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award and two Hewes Design Awards.
AMANDA ZIEVE, Lighting Designer
is thrilled to be back at La Jolla Playhouse after designing Velour: A Drag Spectacular, The Ballad of Johnny and June, The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical and Put Your House in Order. Other recent designs include: The Who's Tommy (Broadway/Goodman); Cabaret (Goodspeed); Into the Woods, Billy Elliot, Titanic (Signature Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors (South Coast Rep); Deceived, I Hate Hamlet (Maltz Jupiter); Sweeney Todd, Roof of the World (KC Rep). Her Playhouse Associate credits include: Fly, Escape to Margaritaville, Hollywood, and Hunchback of Notre Dame. Other San Diego credits include: Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson - Apt. 2B, English, Crime and Punishment - A Comedy, Dial M for Murder, Hair, Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big San Diego Christmas Show, Tiny Beautiful Things, Barefoot in the Park, Native Gardens, The Wanderers and Rich Girl (The Old Globe); Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Evita, Cabaret, Rock of Ages (Cygnet). amandazieve.com
JONATHAN DEANS, Sound Designer recently worked on Redwood, Buena Vista Social Club, The Lonely Few, Hippest Trip/The Soul Train Musical, Ain’t No Mo’ and productions worldwide, including sixteen productions with Cirque du Soleil. His ability to create immersive soundscapes focusing on the book and performance has earned him a reputation as one of the leading sound designers in the entertainment industry. He is known for his innovations and attention to detail, elevating the music and audience's experience. www.designingsound.com
MIKE TRACEY, Sound Designer has had the pleasure of working on multiple theatrical shows, national tours, and special events. Select designs include: The Lonely Few, Dreamgirls (national tour), F#%king Up Everything, Newsies (regional), Jersey Boys (regional), West Side Story (regional), Spamalot (regional), Always Patsy Cline (regional) and Million Dollar Quartet (regional). Select associate designer work includes: Buena Vista Social Club, Some Like It Hot, Waitress, Jagged Little Pill (Australia and US Tour), Mean Girls, Springsteen on Broadway, Cabaret. Other select projects include Redwood, The Outsiders, Here Lies Love. mtsounddesign.com
DAVID BENGALI, Projection Designer
La Jolla Playhouse: Here There Are Blueberries, Bhangin' It Broadway: Water for Elephants (Tony and Outer Critics Circle Award noms.), Eureka Day, The Thanksgiving Play, 1776. OffBroadway and Regional: We Live In Cairo (A.R.T., NYTW), Here There Are Blueberries (Tectonic Theatre Project; Hewes and Helen Hayes Awards), Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (Signature, A.R.T.; Hewes Award, Drama Desk nom.), Without You (New World Stages), Monsoon Wedding (Saint Ann’s), The Visitor (The Public; Lortel Award nom.), Walk on Through (MCC); Circle Jerk (Fake Friends; Obie Award, Drama League nom.), Einstein's Dreams (59E59, Drama Desk nom), as well as designs at Geffen Playhouse, Yale Rep, Alliance Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center and others; National Tours: Peter Pan, 1776, Rockin’ Road to Dublin
HANA S. KIM (she/her), Projection Designer
Broadway: The Outsiders (Tony® Award), Redwood, The Old Man and the Pool, Summer 1976. Off-Broadway/New York: The Harder They Come (The Public Theater), The Visitor (The Public Theater, Lucile Lortel Award nomination), Eve's Song (The Public Theater), Everything Rises (BAM), Magdalene (Prototype Festival). New music/opera: L’Orfeo (Santa Fe Opera), Sweet Land (The Industry), The Anonymous Lover (LA Opera). Regional: Redwood, SUMO (La Jolla Playhouse), Ants (Geffen Playhouse), OSF, Magic Theatre, A.C.T., among others. Awards: Princess Grace Award, Sherwood Award from CTG, Helen Hayes Award, LA Drama Critics Circle Distinguished Achievement Award, among others. www.hananow.com
MATTHEW ARMENTROUT, Wig & Hair Design
Broadway: Redwood, A Wonderful World, The Mother Play, Paradise Square (Drama Desk Award nominee), Birthday Candles, Flying Over Sunset, Bernhardt/Hamlet, The Sound Inside. OffBroadway: The Gardens of Anuncia (LCT), Dear World (NYCC Encores!), Suffs (The Public), The Visitor (The Public), Merrily We Roll Along (Roundabout), Othello (NYSF). National Tour: Jitney. Regional: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (The Goodman Theatre), Gatsby (A.R.T.), A Transparent Musical (Center Theatre Group), Ava: The Secret Conversations (Geffen Playhouse), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Yale Rep), Bliss! (The 5th Avenue). Television: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Emmy® Award nominee).
WILKIE FERGUSON, Music Supervisor/Conductor
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut! Broadway: The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, Motown the Musical, Wonderland. Tours: In the Heights, Hairspray, Dreamgirls. Off-Broadway/Regional: Fetch Clay, Make Man (Kirk Douglas Theatre); Cotton Club Parade (Encores). Musical Director credits include: Slow Burn Theatre (Carbonell Award nomination); Musical Theatre West; 5 Star Theatricals; Moonlight Amphitheatre; Boys’ Choir of Harlem. Composer/ Orchestrator: Show Way (Kennedy Center); Parrotheads (Netflix Jimmy Buffett documentary); Take On Me (Prospect Theatre). Morehouse College; Eastman School of Music. Instagram, Facebook: @wilkieferguson, @takeonmemusical
VICTORIA THEODORE, Music Director
La Jolla Playhouse: Summer: The Donna Summer Musical Broadway: Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, Freestyle Love Supreme. Composer: new musicals MARIAN and Co-Founders. Film: Tick, Tick...Boom!, CODA, 20 Feet from Stardom. TV: Arsenio Hall Show. Tours: Beyoncé Formation Tour, Stevie Wonder multiple tours, "Live At Last" DVD. Arrangements and Orchestrations for Beyoncé, Chloe x Halle, “America the Beautiful” (Super Bowl 2019), “National Anthem” (NFL 2020). Stanford & Oberlin graduate. Co-founder, EnSpirits band. Polyglot. Victoriatheodore.com
MICHAEL THURBER, Orchestrator is a Drama Desk Award-nominated composer, lyricist and orchestrator. Thurber made his international debut with his score for Antony and Cleopatra, a co-production between the RSC and The Public Theater. His musical GODDESS will make its premiere this spring at The Public Theater in NYC. Thurber was the 2020 recipient of the Bryan Gallace Fellowship grant via SPACE@Ryder Farm. He was the bassist on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He has performed with Chris Thile, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, Mavis Staples, David Byrne, Lawrence, Louis Cato, and many more. He studied at Juilliard and the Interlochen Arts Academy.
KEVIN S. McALLISTER (he/him), Associate Director
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Assistant Director: national tours of Come From Away. Assistant Director Fellow: Broadway company of Come From Away. Regional: Director: Come From Away (Theatre Aspen); The World Goes 'Round (Olney Theatre Center); Little Shop of Horrors (Ford's Theatre), Cinderella (ArtsCentric/ Baltimore Center Stage). Director of Curated Programming and BIPOC Artist Advocate at Olney Theatre Center. Artistic Director and Co-Founder of ArtsCentric, a Baltimore-based performing arts organization. 10-time Helen Hayes Award nominee, two-time winner. Love to Cedric and Lola.
NASHA HARRIS SANTIAGO, Associate Choreographer
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway: Hell’s Kitchen, A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical. Regional: I, Too, Sing America (San Francisco Bay Area Theater Company). @nasha415
ANN C. JAMES, Sensitivity Specialist
debuted as the first Black Intimacy Coordinator on Broadway for Pass Over. Recently, her company Intimacy Coordinators of Color was awarded a Special Citation from the OBIE Awards. Broadway: John Proctor Is the Villain, Sunset Boulevard, A Wonderful World, Eureka Day, Lempicka, The Outsiders, Hamilton, Parade, Sweeney Todd, Heart of Rock and Roll, Illinoise. Off-Broadway: Shit. Meet. Fan., The Hippest Trip, Sunset Baby, Jonah, White Girl in Danger, How to Defend Yourself, The Comeuppance, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, My Broken Language, The Half-God of Rainfall, Here There Are Blueberries, Life and Trust, The Lonely Few. Tour: Hamilton USA, UK and AUS.
THE TELSEY OFFICE, RACHEL HOFFMAN, CSA, Casting
With offices in both New York and Los Angeles, The Telsey Office casts for theatre, film, television and commercials. The Telsey Office is dedicated to creating safe, equitable and antiracist spaces through collaboration, artistry, heart, accountability and advocacy.
JAMES LATUS, Production Stage Manager
Broadway: The Collaboration, The Kite Runner, The Tony® Awardwinning revival of Oklahoma!, True West, Farinelli and the King, Time and the Conways, Indecent, August Wilson’s Jitney, All the Way, A Time to Kill, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Clybourne Park, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Elaine Stritch At Liberty, Stones in His Pockets, Bells Are Ringing, The Capeman. Off-Broadway: The Great American Trailer Park Musical, They Wrote That?, The Persians, productions at The Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, The Delacorte in Central Park, Theatre for a New Audience. Numerous regional productions including The Old Globe and Arena Stage.
MONÉT THIBOU, Assistant Stage Manager
La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway credits: Moulin Rouge!, Uncle Vanya, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Death of a Salesman, Mr. Saturday Night. Off-Broadway: In the Amazon Warehouse, Black Odyssey, Morning Sun, All the Natalie Portmans, The Wrong Man, Happy Talk, Clueless the Musical, The True. Regional: Oh Happy Day (Baltimore Center Stage). Education: B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.
Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. The theatre operates under an agreement between League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association.
The Director is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.
This theatre operates under an agreement between League of Resident Theatres and United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE.
ALEXA BURN (she/her), Assistant Stage Manager
La Jolla Playhouse: Your Local Theater Presents..., Derecho, Primary Trust. Select credits include Clyde’s (ASM) at the Denver Center, The Royale (SM) at American Players Theatre, Bald Sisters (SM) at San Jose Stage, Intimate Apparel (ASM), The Three Musketeers (ASM), Chicken and Biscuits (ASM), The Great Leap (ASM), Grand Horizons (ASM), Hood (ASM) at the Asolo Repertory Theatre, and The Code (SM) at American Conservatory Theatre SF. Alexa was also a stage manager at the Disneyland Resort for many years, working with the Disneyland Band, Dapper Dans, and many more.
ALINA NOVOTNY (she/her), Stage Management Resident La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Regional: Murder on the Orient Express (The Old Globe), Meet Us Quickly with Your Mercy (Flyaway Productions), If I Were You (Merola Opera). Education: M.F.A. from UC San Diego.
This theatre operates under an agreement between La Jolla Playhouse and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 122.
La Jolla Playhouse is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for the nonprofit professional theatre.
UC San Diego M.F.A. Candidates in residence at La Jolla Playhouse.
Talkback Tuesdays – February 25 and March 4 after the 7:30pm shows
Participate in a lively discussion with performers and Playhouse staff members immediately following these performances.
Access
Performance – Saturday, March 8 at 2pm
A select Saturday matinee of each show is designated as a relaxed performance, and live American Sign Language interpretation and closed captioning is available for those who are Deaf or hard of hearing.
Audio description for those who are blind or have low vision is available upon request with prior notice. Find more info at lajollaplayhouse.org/access.
Discovery Sunday – March 16 after the 1pm show
Join special guest speakers post-performance as they engage audience members in a moderated discussion exploring the themes in the play.
PLAYHOUSE LEADERSHIP
CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY (he/him), The Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse has served as La Jolla Playhouse’s Artistic Director since 2007. During his tenure, he directed the world premieres of Come From Away, The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, Babbitt, Diana: The Musical, Memphis, Escape to Margaritaville, The Squirrels, A Dram of Drummhicit, Restoration and Chasing the As You Like It, His Girl Friday, Glengarry Glen Ross, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Freaky Friday and Xanadu. He also spearheaded the Playhouse’s Without Walls (WOW) initiative, the DNA New Work Series and the Resident Theatre program. Mr. Ashley recently directed Come From Away for AppleTV+ and for Netflix. Other screen credits include the and Lucky Stiff, and the American Playhouse production of Blown Sideways Through Life for PBS. Mr. Ashley’s Broadway credits include Come From Away (Tony and Outer Critics Circle Awards), Diana: The Musical, Escape to Margaritaville, Memphis (Tony Award nomination), Xanadu, Leap of Faith (Drama Desk Award nomination), All Shook Up and The Rocky Horror Show (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award nominations). He also helmed productions of Come From Away in London (Olivier Award nomination), Toronto, Australia and on national tour. Other national tours include Escape to Margaritaville, Memphis, Xanadu, All Shook Up and Seussical: The Musical. Additional New York stage credits include Blown Sideways Through Life, Jeffrey (Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards), The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Valhalla (Lucille Lortel Award nomination), Regrets Only, Wonder of the World, Communicating Doors, Bunny Bunny, The Night Hank Williams Died and Fires in the Mirror (Lucille Lortel Award), among others. Mr. Ashley is the recipient of the Mr. Abbott Award, Princess Grace Award, Drama League Director Fellowship and an NEA/TCG Director Fellowship.
DEBBY BUCHHOLZ (she/her), Managing Director of La Jolla Playhouse joined the Playhouse in 2002, serving first as General Manager before becoming Managing Director. She is President of the League of Resident Theaters (LORT) and a member of its Executive Committee. She is a recipient of a San Diego Women Who Mean Business Award from The San Diego Business Journal. Prior to joining La Jolla Playhouse, she served as Counsel to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. She was a faculty member of the Smithsonian Institution’s program on Legal Problems of Museum Administration. Prior to The Kennedy Center, she served as a corporate attorney in New York City and Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of UC San Diego and Harvard Law School. Ms. Buchholz and her husband, noted author and White House economic policy advisor Todd Buchholz, live in Solana Beach and are the proud parents of Victoria, Katherine and Alexia.
ERIC KEEN-LOUIE (he/him),
DES McANUFF (he/him), Director Emeritus is a two-time Tony Award-winning director and served as La Jolla Playhouse’s Artistic Director from 1983 through 1994, and from 2001 through April 2007 where he staged over 30 productions of classics, new plays and musicals. Under his leadership, the Playhouse garnered the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. He is also the former Artistic Director of Canada’s Stratford Festival and co-founder of Broadway’s Dodgers. Broadway: Ain’t Too Proud, Summer, Doctor Zhivago, Jesus Christ Superstar, Guys and Dolls, Aaron Sorkin’s The Farnsworth Invention, Jersey Boys (Tony and Olivier Awards: Best Musical), Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays (Tony Award: Best Special Theatrical Event), Dracula the Musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Who’s Tommy (Tony and Olivier Awards: Best Director), A Walk in the Woods, Big River (Tony Awards: Best Director, Best Musical). Selected New York: Fetch Clay, Make Man (NYTW); multiple productions at The Public and BAM. Stratford highlights: A Word or Two, Caesar and Cleopatra, The Tempest (all with Christopher Plummer), Twelfth Night (with Brian Dennehy). Opera: Faust (The Met, ENO). TV: 700 Sundays (HBO). Film: Cousin Bette (director, with Jessica Lange), The Iron Giant (producer, BAFTA Award) and Quills (executive producer). He has an honorary doctorate from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), and in 2012, he was awarded Canada’s Governor Generals National Arts Center Award and the Order of Canada. His new version of The Who’s Tommy recently opened on Broadway in March, 2024.
Artistic Producing Director joined the Playhouse in 2018 as Producing Director, before becoming Executive Producer in 2021. He previously worked at The Old Globe (Associate Producer and Associate Artistic Director) and The Public Theater (Assistant to the Associate Producer and Director of Special Projects). He assisted Broadway producer Margo Lion on Hairspray and Caroline, or Change. He is a graduate of Columbia University where he received his M.F.A. in Theatre Management & Producing as a Dean’s Fellow and New York University where he earned a B.A. in Dramatic Literature. He serves as Vice President on the National Alliance of Musical Theatre’s Board of Directors. He is a proud third-generation Chinese-American and is married to Anthony Keen-Louie, a local mediator and Associate Ombuds at UC Santa Cruz.
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE
is a place where artists and audiences come together to create what’s new and next in the American theatre, from Tony Award-winning productions, to imaginative programs for young audiences, to interactive experiences outside our theatre walls. Founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, the Playhouse is currently led by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse, and Managing Director Debby Buchholz. The Playhouse is internationally renowned for the development of new works, including mounting 120 world premieres, commissioning more than 70 new works, and sending 37 productions to Broadway – among them the hit musical Come From Away – garnering a total of 42 Tony Awards, as well as the 1993 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.
VALUES STATEMENT
Welcome to La Jolla Playhouse, where we believe that stories enhance the human experience, instill empathy and help us see the world in new ways. We respect all races, ethnicities, cultures, physical/cognitive abilities, ages, genders and identities, and endeavor to be an anti-racist and accessible organization that removes barriers to engagement. As a community of life-long learners who celebrate the spirit of play, we innovate and collaborate to bring theatre to life.
We practice empathy by listening, challenging our assumptions and staying open to all perspectives.
We respect and recognize the complexities of all lived experiences, identities and cultural backgrounds. We honor the Kumeyaay Nation, the original caretakers of the land on which our theaters sit. We will fight against anti-blackness, the many forms of racism directed at BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and all types of discrimination and harassment, to be a more inclusive space where everyone feels welcome onstage and off.
We work with our community to identify, understand and address ways to make our theatre more equitable and accessible.
We infuse the spirit of play into everything we do, sparking creativity, fun and life-long learning.
We innovate and take risks to propel theatre as an art form and as a pathway toward fostering belonging and enhancing human connection.
We collaborate by prioritizing inclusive practices from which diverse voices, talents and ideas can strengthen engagement and creative thinking.
We vow to grow and embrace these values. When we falter, we will hold ourselves accountable through transparent communication, measurable outcomes, self-reflection and humility. With great joy and a strong sense of responsibility, we commit to these values in every aspect of our work.
MISSION STATEMENT
La Jolla Playhouse advances theatre as an art form, telling stories that inspire empathy and create a dialogue toward a more just future. With our intrepid spirit and eclectic, artist-driven approach we will continue to cultivate a local, national and global following with an insatiable appetite for audacious work. We provide unfettered creative opportunities for a community of artists of all backgrounds and abilities. We are committed to being a permanent safe harbor for unsafe and surprising work, offering a glimpse of the new and the next in American theatre.
MAKE THE WORLD BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT
A conversation between 3 Summers of Lincoln ’s creative team (composer Crystal Monee Hall, book writer/co-lyricist Joe DiPietro, co-lyricist/co-choreographer Daniel J. Watts and co-choreographer Jon Rua) and Director of Artistic Development Gabriel Greene.
GG: Crystal, you’ve talked about the fundamental challenge that you faced when you were approached to write the music for this show: “what does Abraham Lincoln sing like?” How did you approach the answer through your songs?
CMH: I thought about the time period. I thought about my own origin story. I grew up in Richmond, Virginia. I always call myself a little old church girl from the South, which is where I learned how to sing in the choir stand, watching my mama on Sunday mornings. And I thought about all of the types of music that my life was steeped in, which are the fundamental art forms of America. It’s American folk music: spirituals of enslaved people, the blues, field hollers, gospel music – it was the cross-section of all these things. And I like to write all kinds of music, but they’re always infused with all of those elements because those elements are so much a part of who I am.
This story presented a really beautiful opportunity to start where I feel American music starts, to bring these sounds into the “now” without making them feel caricatured. Being able to tell this universal but very American story – this very Black American story – through those particular musical art forms is really important to me.
GG: The first song that you wrote for the show was the opening number, “Ninety Day War.” Why did you tackle that song first?
CMH: Because I’m a crazy person. Who writes the opening first? Nobody. But yes, it was “Ninety Day War.” But the funny thing is it’s not the current version of “Ninety Day War.” It was a cool idea, but it was the wrong idea. [Daniel and Joe] were like, “it doesn’t feel like war.” I was like, “Okay, you want war?” And that’s how we got the present version of “Ninety Day War.” And the first version ultimately became the song “The Meeting.”
GG: Joe, on the first day of rehearsal, you talked about how there was no shortage of ink spilled about Lincoln.
JD: Yes, right. I mean, next to Jesus, Lincoln is maybe the most-written about person in history.
GG: With so many other stories having been told, how did you all decide on this specific, unique angle of attack?
JD: I’ve read a lot about Lincoln, and I’ve seen the movies and plays, and there is always a kind of hero worship about him. I wondered if we could do a show about Lincoln that makes him real and complicated – and that also shows that the fight for progress can actually be an invigorating, exciting thing.
We’ve all worked very hard to make sure that this show is, first and foremost, a rollicking, exciting, modern musical. You’re going to care about these people, you’re going to care about what they do. And like I did when I started researching this, you’re also going to learn about the other people who haven’t gotten as much attention, and how they were part of this incredible story. Can we write a show that no one’s seen, so when you see it, you’re going to be like, “Oh, well, that makes sense, and how come I didn’t know this?” That’s why I think it was important that the show is also about the abolitionists, like Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Keckley, who were absolutely vital in the fight for freedom. It’s also very much about Mary Todd Lincoln, who really was sort of the first modern political wife, who actually had opinions. Our impulse was, “can we write a story about this man who we all think we know, and be more honest about Honest Abe?"
DW: When I came on board, Joe had written a beautiful outline that did exactly what he’s saying, which is highlighting all these different voices around Lincoln, specifically voices that we haven’t heard. I didn’t know who Elizabeth Keckley was [at that point]. But getting to hear and give space to a lot of these Black voices gives greater context to the idea of “Lincoln freed the slaves.” No, Lincoln contributed to the action that made way for the slaves to be emancipated. We’re not doing a white savior show. We’re telling history, and including more building blocks to how this thing got built.
GG: Turning to the choreography of the piece, there’s two very distinct but amazing flavors of movement. There’s this idea of the telegraph machine – which was this relatively new technology that found its full utility during the Civil War –that the transmission of those messages is shown through tap dance. And then there’s a separate vocabulary for the other choreography in the show.
JR: When I heard the music and read the script, I thought, “finally, something that represents what the American landscape really is.” The transformation and the encapsulation of all the emotions felt so active; it felt like I’d never heard it before. It gave me a capsule in which to have this cathartic experience and try my best to create physical behavior and write movement. That’s why I don’t really call it “choreography.” I believe that we’re writing movement, a physical language that speaks to and creates an environment for what’s in the lyrics and the book. When I think about the movement, I always ask, “What is the character? What is the circumstance? What is the intent?” I’m really not thinking about, “What’s the best movement?” I’m thinking, “What’s the truth? What’s the real movement?” And if it ain’t going to make you feel anything, I don’t want to do it.
GG: It strikes me that each of you, because of where you’re from, have encountered the artifacts and the residue from the Civil War in ways that people who grew up elsewhere simply never do. This story has, in some sense, taken up space in you long before now.
JR: As someone who grew up in an impoverished, suburban inner city in New Jersey, I don't feel like I knew at the time what the true magnitude of [the Civil War] was. We're sitting in the classroom looking at the textbook, and there was no nuance to it. It was just, “the answer for the test is this.” That's all we knew. As I grew older, I started thinking, “damn, they just talked about this stuff like it was the textbook.” I never got the insight that this musical gives.
DW: I grew up in North Carolina, where I had the best US history teacher. She taught us about the Civil War…and she was also a Confederate sympathizer. So I had a complicated relationship with this period for
years, because I loved what she taught me but I was conflicted by how she taught it to me. To be a part of something like this, to tell this story in a way it’s never been told before, at a time when this story needs to be re-examined – it’s just a blessing.
CMH: Growing up in Richmond, our field trips were to Monument Avenue. I mean, it was the capital of the Confederacy. It felt as though I was meant to believe that the Confederacy was all some glorious legacy, something to be proud of. It was not. Why were Confederate generals, the staunch racists, the slave owners, up on these grand pedestals and monuments in the middle of my city? I was positively beaming with pride around the spirit and tenacity and overcoming nature of my ancestors, but they weren't the ones on the pedestals. Wasn’t my very existence and presence evidence that the Confederates were in fact on the wrong side of history? It was a skewed lens through which to learn this history, my history. I mean, by all means, tell it – but tell it all, and tell the truth.
I’m proud to be a part of telling a story that engages with this historical moment in a truthful way, and from an interesting and complex perspective. Our story isn’t interested in the simplicity of good versus bad, or North versus South; this show gives no voice at all to the Confederacy. It asks how people with differing perspectives manage to unify our efforts to make the world better than we found it.
The 3 Summers of Lincoln creative team (L-R): Jon Rua, Daniel J. Watts, Crystal Monee Hall, Joe DiPietro and Christopher Ashley; photo by Samantha Laurent.
How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Help Win the Civil War
By Christopher Klein
early 150 years before the advent of texts, tweets and e-mail, President Abraham Lincoln became the first “wired president” by embracing the original electronic messaging technology—the telegraph. The 16th president may be remembered for his soaring oratory that stirred the Union, but the nearly 1,000 bite-sized telegrams that he wrote during his presidency helped win the Civil War by projecting presidential power in unprecedented fashion.
The federal government had been slow to adopt the telegraph after Samuel Morse’s first successful test message in 1844. Prior to the Civil War, federal employees who had to send a telegram from the nation’s capital needed to wait in line with the rest of the public at the city’s central telegraph office. After the war’s outbreak, the newly created U.S. Military Telegraph Corps undertook the dangerous work of laying more than 15,000 miles of telegraph wire across battlefields that transmitted news nearly instantaneously from the front lines to a telegraph office that had been established inside the old library of the War Department building adjacent to the White House in March 1862.
Lincoln, who had a keen interest in technology and remains the only American president with a patent, spent more of his presidency in the War Department’s telegraph office than anywhere else outside of the White House, writes Tom Wheeler in Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails:
How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War. As a president who craved knowledge, he trod a well-worn path across the executive mansion’s lawn to the War Department to monitor the latest intelligence arriving in dots and dashes.
David Homer Bates, one of the four original members of the U.S. Military Telegraph Corps, recounted in Lincoln in the Telegraph Room that several times a day, Lincoln sat down at a telegraph office desk near a window overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue and read through the fresh stack of incoming telegrams, which he called “lightning messages.” As telegraph keys chattered, he peered over the shoulders of the operators who scribbled down the incoming messages converted from Morse Code. He visited the office nearly every night before turning in and slept there on a cot during pivotal battles.
According to Wheeler, Lincoln sent barely more than one telegram a month in the first year of his presidency, but that changed as he grew increasingly frustrated with the war’s plodding progress. He wielded the nascent technology to take greater control of the war effort after sending a flurry of telegrams on May 24, 1862, that directed his generals to move at once against the forces of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
The telegraph allowed the president to act as a true commander-in-chief by issuing commands to his generals and directing the movement of forces in nearly real time. For the first time, a national leader could have virtual battlefront conversations with his military officers. The paucity of interstate telegraph lines in the South precluded Confederate President Jefferson Davis from doing the same.
Lincoln wasn’t shy about stepping in and asserting his thoughts on telegrams that weren’t even addressed to him. “The telegraph was both his Big Ear, to eavesdrop on what was going on in the field, and his Long Arm for projecting his leadership now informed by the newly garnered information,” Wheeler writes. When General Ulysses S. Grant rejected General Henry Halleck’s suggestion to remove troops from the siege of Petersburg in 1864, the president lent this support after reading their communications: “Hold on with a bull-dog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.”
To Lincoln, the telegraph office was not just a 19th-century command center, but a sanctuary from the throngs who descended upon the White House every day in search of jobs and favors. “I come here to escape my persecutors,” Lincoln quipped to telegraph operator Albert B. Chandler. Telling homespun tales and cracking jokes, the president befriended the office’s telegraph operators. “He would there relax from the strain and care ever present at the White House, and while waiting for fresh dispatches, or while they were being deciphered, would make running comments, or tell his inimitable stories,” Bates wrote. When news of Grant’s capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi, arrived by wire in 1863, Lincoln flouted regulations and bought beer for the operators, drinking a sudsy toast with the general’s telegram in his hand.
On April 8, 1865, Lincoln himself telegraphed the office from City Point, Virginia, with news of Grant’s capture of Richmond. A week later, the telegraph office broke the devastating news of Lincoln’s assassination to the nation as it tapped out the message that Secretary of War Edwin Stanton wrote from the president’s deathbed across the street from Ford’s Theatre: “Abraham Lincoln died this morning at 22 minutes after Seven.” n
In November, 1861, just days after President Abraham Lincoln removed John C. Frémont from his command of the Department of the West, Frederick Douglass wrote an editorial in his newspaper. Douglass’ Monthly was not the first publication edited by the most photographed Black man in the world. Fourteen years earlier, The North Star appeared in Rochester, New York, widening the gap between Douglass and the white abolitionists (such as William Lloyd Garrison) with whom he was initially allied. Back then, the radical independence of Black men like Douglass was more controversial among Garrison’s allies than the North Star’s bold declaration: “Right is of no Sex – Truth is of No Color – God is the Father of Us All, and We Are All Brethren.” Likewise, in 1861, as Douglass wrote a blistering editorial about the emancipatory possibilities of the Civil War, the prospect of enslaved people influencing the political trajectory of the fragile Union was almost as incendiary as the military declaration that prompted Frémont’s expulsion.
In August, 1861, Frémont declared martial law in Missouri, a border state in the midst of secession. This declaration confiscated all property held by those bearing arms against the Federal government, including enslaved people, who would be free. Those white “masters” who continued to bear arms against the government, Frémont concluded, were subject to capital punishment. The declaration put the Lincoln administration on the defensive as it struggled to assure Union supporters in slaveholding states that the North did not intend to make Black emancipation the goal of the War. For radical abolitionists like Douglass, however, Frémont’s declaration confirmed what they had been preaching for thirty years – that emancipation would not be granted; it must be taken. “Governments act from necessity,” he told his readers in November, 1861. “They move only as they are moved upon. Our government is no exception to this rule. It cannot determine what shall be the character of events.” Black people, both enslaved and free, would determine the War’s outcome with or without the anti-slavery support of Abraham Lincoln.
Frederick Douglass spent a lifetime articulating the central role that African Americans played in the slaveholding republic while denouncing the inhumanity of “holding property in man.” Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in 1818, Douglass was enslaved in Maryland until his
early twenties, became an international voice for radical abolition by his thirties, and published three genre-defining autobiographies, translated into multiple languages, by the time he died in 1895. In a multi-faceted public career that spanned three continents and various intellectual genres, Douglass published his first book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845) at a time when most slaveholding states forbade teaching Black people, enslaved and free, how to read and write. From the North Star (1847 – 1851), through his various Monthlies (1851 – 1859) and the New National Era (1870 – 1874), Douglass shaped the nineteenth century Black press, a vehicle for Black radical culture and politics that started with New York City’s Freedom’s Journal in 1827.
While hundreds of formerly enslaved men and women published slave narratives between the end of the American Revolution and the start of the Civil War, Douglass’ lyrical style and talent for storytelling transformed the nineteenth century American literary canon by insisting that the stories of the enslaved must be told, in all their violently beautiful complexity.
Despite ideological differences between Douglass and his Black abolitionist contemporaries – over the viability of armed slave revolt, the annexation of Santo Domingo, and the trustworthiness of the Republican Party – the Sage of Anacostia remains one of the most beloved icons of African American history, a symbol of both the country’s greatest crimes and its most noble aspirations. Douglass’ challenge to white leaders of the time, while significant, should not overshadow his iconic role in Black culture. Frederick Douglass – ambassador to Haiti, vice presidential nominee, Recorder of Deeds, Union Army recruiter, and Father –inspired those who were told (and continue to be told) that our stories don’t matter, that our histories are best left as footnotes to history rather than the defining event. n
Kerri Greenidge is Associate Professor in History, and in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora at Tufts University, where she also co-directs the African American Trail Project and Tufts’ Slavery, Colonialism, and Their Legacies Project. Greenidge is the author of Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter (2019) and The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in An American Family (2022), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the J. Anthony Lukas Award.
Join us for our 2025 WOW Festival, featuring four action-packed days of theatre, dance, music, puppetry, spectacle events and more!
BOARD SPOTLIGHT
WHY I SUPPORT THE PLAYHOUSE
There is nothing quite like the community I have found at La Jolla Playhouse. From the artists to the staff, the energy at the Playhouse is amazing. Over the past two decades, I have had the distinct privilege to watch as this theatre has evolved into one of the most revered regional theatres in the country.
I have been a long-time supporter of the Playhouse and first served as the Gala chair back in 1999 before I was on the Board of Trustees. Since then, I have chaired more than 20 Galas! My love of the Playhouse extends beyond my work here and runs deep within my family. Hal, Lindsey, Connor, and I have always been, and will always be, proud to support La Jolla Playhouse as it continues to create the new and the next in American theatre.
Thanks to the dedication and incredible collaboration between our staff and patrons, the Playhouse continues to be a haven for incubating innovative new work – welcoming artists from around the corner and around the globe, to create relevant and internationally-acclaimed productions. I am happy to be back and serve as the Chair of the 2025 Gala in honor of our beloved Joan Jacobs. Thank you for joining us tonight for 3 Summers of Lincoln and I hope you enjoy the show!
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
SHERI L. JAMIESON
Chair
DENISE BEVERS
First Vice-Chair
MICHAEL FLASTER
Second Vice-Chair
ANNIE ELLIS
Secretary
SCOTT M. STANTON, Mintz
Treasurer
TRUSTEES
Weston Anson
Christopher Ashley**
Susan Gembrowski Baker**
Michael Bartell
David Brenner
Sanford Burham Prebys
Ralph Bryan*
Debby Buchholz**
Randy Camp
Robert Caplan
Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek
Lisa Casey
Ann Cathcart Chaplin
Qualcomm
Randall Clark*, Sempra
Mary Coleman**
Stephan Coleman, PNC Bank
Doug Dawson
Edward A. Dennis, Ph.D.
Susan Dubé
Hal Dunning
Emily Einhorn
Ray Flores**
Judy Garrett
Justin Gleiberman
Lynn E. Gorguze
Luke Gulley, Show Imaging, Inc.
Kay Gurtin
Clark Guy
Bank of America Private Bank
Dean Haas
Osborn L. Hurston, US Bank
Debby Jacobs
Pradeep K. Khosla, Ph.D.**
Chancellor, UC San Diego
Veronica Leff
Bena Leslie**
Lynelle Lynch*
Margret McBride*
Lorne Polger
Byron Pollitt
Karen A. Quiñones
David I. Reynoso**
Becky Robbins
Phillip Rudolph
Robin Rusinko
Shane Shelley, Morrison Foerster
Karen Silberman
Delicia Turner Sonnenberg**
Suzi Sterner**, UC San Diego
Marjorie Mae Treger**
Erin Trenda, Cooley, LLP
Mary Walshok, Ph.D.
Barbara ZoBell
HONORARY TRUSTEES
Peter Cowhey, Ph.D.
Ivan Gayler
John Goodman
Jeanne Jones
Julie Potiker
Steven M. Strauss*
Geri Ann Warnke*
Gary Wollberg*
Robert Wright, Esq. Wright, L’Estrange & Ergastolo
EMERITUS TRUSTEES
Rita Bronowski (1917-2010)
David Copley (1952-2012)
Ted Cranston (1940-2012)
Milton Fredman (1920-2005)
Ewart W. Goodwin, Jr.* (1938- 2019)
Joel Holliday* (1939-2022)
Joan Jacobs (1933-2024)
Marian Jones Longstreth (1906-1997)
Hughes Potiker (1925-2005)
Sheila Potiker (1930-2011)
Jeffrey Ressler* (1943-2022)
Ellen Revelle (1910-2009)
Roger Revelle (1909-1991)
Willard P. VanderLaan, M.D.* (1917-2012)
Arthur Wagner, Ph.D. (1923-2015)
Mandell Weiss (1891-1993)
1947 FOUNDERS
Mel Ferrer
Dorothy McGuire
Gregory Peck
*Past Chair of the Board **Ex-Officio
List as of August 2024
Photo Credits: (Top row) Christopher Ashley and Debby Buchholz; Trustee Shane Shelley and guests. (Bottom row) Hal Dunning, Jacole Kitchen, Playwright Eliana Theologides Rodriguez, Debby Jacobs, Dean Haas, Denise Bevers and Kay Gurtin; Trustees Marjorie Mae Treger, Karen Quiñones, Mary Coleman, Phil Rudolph, Robin Rusinko and Bena Leslie
3 SUMMERS OF LINCOLN PRODUCTION SPONSORS
Michael and Melissa Bartell
Kay and Bill Gurtin
Sheri L. Jamieson
Veronica and Miguel Leff, Esq
Becky Moores
Edgerton Foundation
With our love of the visual and performing arts, we are honored to support the performance of 3 Summers of Lincoln. This world-premiere musical, a collaboration with Joe DiPietro and Christopher Ashley, is the latest in a long line of adventuresome musical theatre that is the hallmark of the La Jolla Playhouse.
We are thrilled to support 3 Summers of Lincoln at LJP. This remarkable story aligns perfectly with our passion for transformative theatre that educates and inspires. Exuberant music and dance highlights the bond, conflict and shared vision of two great leaders: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. As Douglass said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress,” a truth that resonates as deeply today as it did in their time. We hope 3 Summers will serve as a poignant reminder of how collaboration and courage can shape the future of a nation. We are excited to support Chris Ashley's brilliance and be part of this production’s journey and message.
I am always thrilled to support the work of Christopher Ashley, and this world-premiere musical is no exception. 3 Summers of Lincoln explores the powerful relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, highlighting how their unlikely friendship helped unite a fractured nation. The depth and authenticity that Chris and the entire creative team bring to this production will inspire each of us to embrace new friendships and find our own voices.
As lifelong, passionate theatre-goers, it is an honor to have the opportunity to champion new work for the stage and help nurture ideas into fully staged productions. This season, we are thrilled to be production sponsors for 3 Summers of Lincoln and in doing so, support La Jolla Playhouse in its exciting effort to “create what’s new and next in American theatre.”
I have always been a proud supporter of La Jolla Playhouse and I deeply admire their commitment to developing new work. 3 Summers of Lincoln, directed by our beloved Christopher Ashley, is a striking and deeply moving musical that follows the story of an unlikely friendship, and how that friendship helped shape the nation we live in today. I feel honored to help bring this production to life.
This play is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, which gives world premieres extra funds for an extended rehearsal time. The program rewards excellent scripts in the hope that with a more polished performance, they will join the American canon of frequently produced plays.
3 SUMMERS OF LINCOLN PRODUCTION SPONSORS
At Show Imaging we believe in the power of storytelling. We continue to strive towards our mission: to be a solutions driven community of creators, who aim to authentically enrich people’s lives by producing world class experiences, inclusive of all. We are proud to support La Jolla Playhouse in its work to tell impactful and important stories, believing that artists and their stories have the power to change the world.
The arts matter as an important driver of social connection and to local economies. That’s why Bank of America is excited to once again join our longtime partner La Jolla Playhouse as a sponsor of 3 Summers of Lincoln, a story of the enduring power of collaboration and mutual understanding. We look forward to the show!
La Cuisine Custom Catering is extremely proud to sponsor the inspirational story of 3 Summers of Lincoln. It is our honor and privilege to support La Jolla Playhouse and the magic of the stage, where every performance is a journey and every act a step toward enriching our community. We applaud the power of storytelling and this wonderful new production.
ARTIST SPONSORS
Denise and Lon Bevers – Quentin Earl Darrington • Julie and Lowell Potiker – Ivan Hernandez • Peggy Ann Wallace – Joe DiPietro
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE FOUNDATION & GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
$100,000 +
$50,000 - $99,999
Laurents / Hatcher Foundation
Mandell Weiss Charitable Trust
$25,000 - $49,999
California Arts Council
National Endowment for the Arts: Creative Forces
William Hall Tippett and Ruth Rathell Tippett Foundation
$10,000 - $24,999
David C. Copley Foundation
County of San Diego
Dutch Culture USA
Peggy and Robert Matthews Foundation
Performing Arts Fund NL
Price Philanthropies
San Diego Scottish Rite
Community Foundation
Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation
$5,000 - $9,999
Thomas C. Ackerman Foundation
Charles and Ruth Billingsley Foundation
City of Carlsbad’s Cultural Arts Office
Goodwin Family Memorial Trust
National Alliance for Musical Theatre
John and Marcia Price Family Foundation
Sutherland Foundation
$1,000 - $4,999
Samuel I. and John Henry Fox Foundation
Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
Netherland-America Foundation
Arthur and Jeanette Pratt Memorial Fund
Creative West
$250 - $999
Actors' Equity Foundation
In-Kind
Gary Sinise Foundation
List as of January 2025
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE: ANNUAL SUPPORT FROM INDIVIDUALS
THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR'S CIRCLE - $100,000 AND ABOVE
Roberta C. Baade Charitable Fund
Denise and Lon Bevers
Theodor S. and Audrey S. Geisel Fund
Kay and Bill Gurtin
Jeanne L. Herberger, Ph.D.
Joan and Irwin Jacobs
Sheri L. Jamieson
La Atalaya Fund
Rebecca Moores Foundation
Jordan Ressler Charitable Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
SEASON SPONSORS -
$50,000+
Anonymous
Weston Anson
Melissa and Michael Bartell
Gail and Ralph Bryan
Brian and Silvija Devine
Estate of Pauline Foster
Hanna and Mark Gleiberman
Lynn Gorguze and Scott Peters
Debby and Hal Jacobs
Perlmeter Family Foundation
Veronica and Miguel Leff, Esq.
Maryanne and Irwin Pfister
Karen and Jeff Silberman
Les J Silver and Andrea Rothschild-Silver
The Stockdale Family
Molli Wagner
Peggy Ann Wallace
PLAYWRIGHTS CIRCLE -
$25,000+
Christopher Ashley and Ranjit Bahadur
Stern Leichter Foundation
The Paula Marie Black Endowment for Women's Voices in the Art of Theatre
Susan E. Dubé
Hal and Hilary Dunning
Dwight Hare and Stephanie Bergsma
Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs
Jeff and Annie Jacobs
Jeff and Carolyn Levin
Lynelle and William Lynch
Margret and Nevins McBride
Teresa and Byron Pollitt
Julie and Lowell Potiker Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
Robin and Larry Rusinko
Pamela J. Wagner and Hans Tegebo
Philip and
Margarita Wilkinson
LEADERSHIP CIRCLE$15,000+
Anonymous
Tony and Margaret Acampora
Debby and Todd Buchholz
Randy Camp and Susan Tousi
Lisa and David Casey
Amy Corton and Carl Eibl
Doug Dawson
Drs. Edward and Martha Dennis
Daniel and Emily Einhorn
Annie and Charles Ellis
Sonali and Eric Fain
Michael and Susanna Flaster
Bill and Judy Garrett
Wendy Gillespie
Justin Gleiberman
Dean J. Haas
Stacy Brackon Jacobs
Jay Jeffcoat
Lorne Polger and Lori Weiner
Brian and Paula Powers
Jeannie and Gerry Ranglas
Becky Lynne Robbins
Charitable Fund
Colette and Ivor Royston
Dawn and Phil Rudolph
Swanna and Alan Saltiel, Dan Cameron Family Foundation
Karen and Stuart Tanz
Greta and Steve Treadgold
Mary Lindenstein Walshok, Ph.D.
DIRECTORS CIRCLE -
$10,000+
Gary and Barbara Blake Family Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
Holly McGrath, Highland Partners Charitable Fund
Pamela B. Burkholz
Mary and Adam Cherry, Big Blue Sky Foundation
Randall and Michael Clark
Jendy Dennis Endowment Fund
Robin and Leo Eisenberg Family
Dan and Phyllis Epstein
Jan and Helane Fronek
Mrs. Ewart (Chip) Goodwin
Adam and Amy Jacobs
Sherry and Larry Kline, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation
Andrew and Mackenzie Linville, Linville Family Foundation
Christy and Alan Molasky
Karen Quiñones, The Quiñones Family Trust
Don and Stacy Rosenberg
Lynn Schenk
Joseph Schuman
Linda J and Jeffrey M Shohet
Barbara ZoBell
CELEBRATION CIRCLE -
$5,000+
Anonymous
Dede and Mike Alpert
Mrs. Valerie Ewell Armstrong and Mr. Sam Armstrong
Rick and Donna Baldridge
Joan and Jeremy Berg
Julie and George Bronstein, The ARJ Fund of The San Diego Foundation
Christa Burke
Robert Caplan and Carol Randolph
Dr. Marilyn R. Carlson
Pamela and Edward Carnot
Maureen and Lawrence Cavaiola
Gary and Marlene Cohen
Nina and Bob Doede
Doris and Peter Ellsworth, Legler Benbough Fund, San Diego Foundation
The Fredman Family
Dennis Field and Douglas Galt
Drs. Bessie and Ron Floyd
Maria Frase
Fuson Family Fund at Schwab Charitable
David Newman and Samantha
Goldstein, The Jasada Foundation
Beth Goodman
Carrie and Jim Greenstein
Starr and John Grundy
David and Claire Guggenheim
Judith and Chris Hamilton
Ivy Hanson, Hanson Family
Charity Fund
Gerald and Ingrid Hoffmeister Fund, The San Diego Foundation
Rosanne and Joel* Holliday
George and Maryka Hoover
Gail and Doug Hutcheson
Jess Jacobs and Bryan Keller
Marguerite Jackson Dill
Gina and Kent Johnson
Kathy and Rob Jones
Michael H. Kossman
Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth Labowe, Labowe Family Foundation
Sheila and Jeffrey Lipinsky and Family
Barbara Loonin
Leslye and Scott Lyons
Michael and Catherina Madani
Patsy and David Marino
Tiffany Medina and Bruce Weisman
Brian and Tracy Melekian
Daphne Muchnic
Steve and Jerri Nagelberg
Wendy Nash
Grant and Aradhna Oliphant, Prebys Foundation
Susan C. Parker
Bernard Paul and Maria Sardina
Susan Polis Schutz and Dr. Stephen Schutz
Judy Robbins
Laleh Roudi
Rick Sandstrom and Sandy Timmons
Jay and Julie Sarno
Tim and Emily Scott
Gad and Suzan Shaanan
Dawn and Ira Smalberg
Iris and Matthew Strauss
Elizabeth and Joseph Taft
Revocable Trust
David and Tina Thomas
Linda Rankin and Rod Whitlow
Steven Strauss and Lise Wilson
Richard Winkler
Michael and Lisa Witz
Debbie S. Zeligson
Diane and Robert Zeps
ACTORS CIRCLE - $2,500+
Joni and Miles Benickes
Liz Bernal and Suzanne LaTour
Steve L. Black and Kristen Richards-Black
Cindy and Steve Blumkin
Barbara L. Borden
Michele Braatz
Loyce R. Bruce
John and Nancy Jo Cappetta
Gary and Lynette Cederquist
Carol and Jeff Chang
Diane Clarke
Stanley Cohen and
Mark Whitacre
Marilyn Colby and Evans Family Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
Peter Cowhey and Margaret McKeown
Stacy Cromidas and Ruth Gilbert
Elaine S. Darwin
Ana De Vedia
Karen B. Dow
Mark and Jenny Dowling
Dr. Robert and Mrs. Ann Dynes
Paula Fitzgerald and Chris Nielsen
Marjorie Fox
Dr. Benjamin and Sue Frishberg
Joyce M Gattas, Ph.D.
Joseph and Barbara Giammona
Norm and Pat Gillespie
Jim Gilmore
Kimberly and Jeffrey Goldman
Beverly Goodman
Bernard and Judith Greenspan
Julie Hall, Oklahoma City Community Foundation
Koji and Angela Fukumura
Nishma and John Held
Richard Heyman and Anne Daigle
Col. Michael and Diana Hill
Claudia Baranowski and Tom Horvath
Dr. Warren and Karen Kessler
Shirley King and Arthur Olson
Amy and Bill Koman
Ms. Gale M. Krause, in memory of Jim Krause
Linda Lenhard and Mark Kritchevsky
Helen and Sig Kupka
Samara and Paul Larson
Dr. K.B Lim and Linda Lee Lim Foundation
Lori and Joe Mahler
Edna and Daniel Maneval
Holley and Robert Martens, Sandstone Foundation
Dennis A. McConnell
Alice Mitchell
Ilene Mittman, in memory of Dr. Charles Mittman
Kelly and Mike Moore
Judith B. Morgan
Gregg and Cindy
Motsenbocker
Arlene and Louis Navias
Mark C. Niblack, MD
Dr. Walter Olsen and Dr. Zdenka Fronek
Claudia Prescott
Dr. William and Marisa Rastetter
True Life Center
Dr. Joseph and Carol Sabatini
Scarano Family Foundation at The San Diego Foundation
Neil R. Senturia and Barbara Bry
Richard Shapiro and Marsha Janger
Maureen Elizabeth Sheehan
Alan and Esther Siman
Dr. Ed and Evelyn Singer
Dr. Robert Singer, in memory of Judith Harris
Susan and Gerald Slavet
Dr. Doris Trauner and Mr. Richard Stanford
Erin Trenda
Dean Ujihara Charitable Fund
Jim and Kathy Waring
Jill and Bruno Wolfenzon
Gary L. Wollberg and Dr. Yumi Miyamoto
Howard and Christy Zatkin
Howard and Judy Ziment
Emma and Leo Zuckerman
INNER CIRCLE -
$1,000+
Anonymous
Hon. Louise De Carl Adler
Ahern Capital, LLC
Philip Anderson and Verónica Valdés
Lynell Antrim
Sharon Ashley
Stephen Miller Baird,MD and Carol Davidson Baird
Lisa Celia Balderston
Ginger and Ken Baldwin
Judith Bambace and Brian Trotier
Alisa and David Barba, Barba Charitable Fund
Robert Barile
Barbara Young Beebe
Chad Benefield, Marilyn and William Young Foundation
Jane and Michael Benton
Carolyn and Giovanni Bertussi
Larry and Cindy Bloch
Nina and Tony Borwick
Paige Bosacki Santos
The Boyd-Rawlings Family
Tatiana and David Brenner
Johanna Brody
Elizabeth Brummitt and Robert Mellott
Anita Busquets and William Ladd
Cheryl and Greg Carlson
Cathy and Michael Casteel
Kyle Chan and Cathy Swindlehurst
Kay Chandler
Katherine and Dane Chapin
Steven and Adina Chinowsky
Janet and Maarten Chrispeels
Sue Lasbury, in memory of John C. Cochran
Wayne Saville and Laura Colban
Anonymous
Mireille Barnard
Brett and Jennifer Dickinson
Dr. Kim E. Barrett
Janet and Larry Pollack
Dr. Julie Prazich and
Dr. Sara Rosenthal
Daniel E. Collins and Nancy Shimamoto
Christopher Cook
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE: ANNUAL SUPPORT FROM
Coral Courts Donor Advised Fund, Corinna Cotsen and Lee Rosenbaum
Nancy Cunningham
Maile and Brett D'Arcy
Gerral and Anne David
Denise and Gary David
Wally and Linda Dieckmann
Dr. Ralph B. Dilley and Brian Danielson
Jacqueline and Stanley Drosch
Bob Duffield
W. Byron and Pamela Dunn
Gail Ebner and Tom Stockfisch
Toby Eisenberg
Jennifer and Kurt Eve
Karen and Steven Feitelberg
Dieter Fischer's Mercedes Service, Inc.
Jennifer Flack
Ray Flores
Dr. Laurie Forrest
Susan Forsburg and Lisa Churchill
Catherine R. Friedman
Valerie and Gregory Frost
Fran and Nick Frost
Anne and Mark Smith
Ira and Cheryl Gaines
Steven and Cheryl Garfin
Tom and Carolina Gildred
GlobalStar
Fred and Lisa Goldberg
Drs. Tom and Cindy Goodman, in honor of Whitney Goodman
The Lloyd Gorcey Charitable Foundation, Inc. in memory of Lloyd Gorcey
Judi Gottschalk
Grant Gurtin
Clark and Savonia Guy
Kendall Hall, Fred Jones
Family Foundation
Jeff and Joel Harms
Dr. Carol A. Harter and
Mr. William D. Smith
Thomas Harvey and Bonnie Drolet
Tom and Lynn Hawkins
Marcia Hazan and Mark Cammell
Jamie Henson and Robert Houskeeper
Dr. Peter and
Mrs. Megan Hoagland
Ray and Kate Hong
Mark and Frances Huettinger
Robert and Pat Hughes
Aaron and Susan Huniu
Osborn and Dea Hurston
Hilary and Selwyn Isakow
Nora Jaffe
Operating Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
Neil and Vivien Joebchen
Wendy Johnson
Dario and Dan Jones
Lewis and Patricia Judd
Pradeep Khosla and Thespine Kavoulakis
Angela and Matt Kilman
Cynthia King and John Graul
Anne M and Richard C Kruse
Gautam and Anjali Lalani
Chuck Laughlin
Mick and Sherrie Laver
Tracey Lazarus
Dixon and Pat Lee
Michael Lee and Katharine Cline
Pamela Hamilton Lester
Rebecca Le Vasseur
Gerald and Ann Lipschitz
Eliezer and Diana Lombrozo
Sally and Luis Maizel
David Marchesani, CFA
Jasna Markovac and Gary Miller
Valorie McClelland
Wallace McCloskey
Bill and Mim McKenzie
Rob McManus
Sandy and Jesse Morgan
Greg and Andrea Moser
Ann L. Mound
Chandra Mukerji
Stephen Cary Nagler
Ann Nathan
Lyn Nelson
Robert C. Nelson and Jean Fujisaki
Xuan and Robert Northrop
Kyomi O'Connor
Susan Padula
F. Richard Pappas
Drs. Kim Kerr and Paul Pearigen
Dr. William and Beth Penny
Wendy S. Pincus
William Pitts and Mary Sophos
Adele Rabin
Jennifer and Tom Ranglas
Edward Richard, in memory of Warren P Kendrick-Richard
Russ and Marty Ries
Dr. Stephen and Cheryl Rockwood
Andrea and Brett Roggenkamp
Bingo and Gino Roncelli
David A. Roth and Toni D. Wolinsky
Joy Rottenstein
Oliver Ryder
Kristine and Denis Salmon
Beverly Sanborn, in memory of Warren Sanborn
Scott Sandel and James Marich
Herb Schnall, in memory of Ann Schnall
Todd R. Schultz
Teresa Shaffer
Tom Shapiro and Madeleine Grynsztejn, in honor of Flossie Cohen
Mitchell and Elizabeth Siegler
Debbie and Dr. Darren Sigal
Rod and Dolores Smith
Marion So
John and Lynn Spafford
CENTER STAGE CLUB - $500 AND UP
Dale and Mark Steele
Cynthia Stroum, The Stroum
Family Foundation
Michael and Pamela Swartout
Judy Sweet
Al and Stephanie Tarkington
Marie Tartar and
Steve Eilenberg
John and Gail Tauscher
Place D. Tegland
Tom Templeton and Mary Ena Erlenborn
Janet Toon
Ray Lee and Teresa Trucchi
Karim Valji
Matthew and Diana Valji
Cynthia Walk
Denise Walsh
Lisa Walters-Hoffert
Bobbi Warren
Sharon Weremiuk
Graydon and Dorothy Wetzler
Joyce H. Williams
Wayne Wilson
Philip and Claire Wise
Elaine Wolfe
Barry and Barb Zemel
Helene and Allan Ziman Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
Karen and Sidney Zisook
Barry and Barb Zemel
Helene and Allan Ziman Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
Anonymous • Sharon and Terry Allen • Robin Allgren, MD PhD • Sheila Amend • Barbara Arledge • Robert Baizer and Diane Jacobs Baizer • Gil and Annabelle Balaoing • Francis and Diane Bardsley • Gerlinde and Greg Beuerlein • Patricia Bloodgood and Chris Cleveland • Cherisse Brantz • Jaron Brooks • Jeanne Burton • Tonya Carlos • Chris Cheever, in memory of Andy Thomas • June Chocheles • Lorraine Chuman and Stephen Mikolajczyk • Bowers Jewelers • Denis M. Crane, in memory of Rilla Crane • Bob Cunningham • Marcus and Ann De Barros • Don and Julie DeMent • Ronald L Diepenbrock • Heather Dietsch • Kim and A.T. Ditty • Eric and Kristine Doan • Rosalyn and Tim Dong • Beth and Stephen Doyne • Anne and Chris Duhaime, in honor of Rebecca Duhaime • James and Marti Eisenberg • Barbara and Eric Emont • Deborah and J Faulkner • Jason Feinstein • Debra Fields • Beth Fischer • Gregory and Monica Foerster • Robert and Mona Freels • Judith and William Friedel • Shannon-Frink Family Gift Fund • Aruna and Sabodh Garg • Hortense Gerardo • Bonnie Gibbs • Martha and Bill Gilmer • Russell H Ginns • Drs. Charles and Nancy Girvin • Mayor Todd Gloria • M J Gorman • Stephen and Karen Gray • Ed Greulich • Pat and Pepper Guevara • Bettina Hahn Osborne • Dr. Jeffrey Hall and Fern Platt • Elsa and Keith Hall • Cynthia Hamilton • Margo Hebald • Sarah Herr • Strait Hicklin • Bryan Hill • Robert and Carla Hoblit • Christopher Hoff • Linda Howard • Hughes Family Foundation, in honor of Robin and Larry Rusinko • Beth Hulsart and Stephen L'Heureux • Randy and Carrol Jackson •Mark Johnson • David and Susan Kabakoff • Brian Kearns • Jill and Michael Kelly • Rick and Beth Kent • Laura Killmer • Jerry and Martha Krasne • Mike Krupp • Drs. Janice and Matt Kurth • Patti Lamm and Sheldon Newhouse • Richard Leib and Sharon Rosen Leib Family Fund of JCF • Zita Liebermensch • Alejandro and Oleysa Lombrozo • Susan and Peter Mallory • Jeanne Maltese •Madonna Maxwell Omens • Carol Mazzetti • Maggi McKerrow, in memory of Judie McDonald • David and Patricia Meyers • Nathan Meyers • Norma and Scott Miller • Evelyn Mishuck • Robert and JoAnn Mogg • Helga S. Moore • Dr. and Mrs. Robert B Moore, in honor of Sheri L Jamieson • Story Ann Moreno • Laura Morkan • David Morris • Susan Muha • Esther R. Nahama • Barbara and Donald Niemann • Nico and Caroline Nierenberg • Phyllis and Jerrold Olefsky • Eric and Benedicte Otterson • Beatrice E. Pardo • Drs. Genevieve and Kelly Parsons • Pamela Partlow and Bruce Maigatter • Ms. Virginia S. Patch • Ken Pecus • Sheila and Ken Poggenburg • Marc Poland and Ellie Werner • Shirin Poustchi and Reza Ghajaripanah • Laura and Mike Ravine • Sanjiv Nanda and Urmi Ray • Carla and Rudolph Rehm • Margaret Riel and Hugh Mehan • Patrick Ritto • Mark and Lia Robinson • Jodyne Roseman • Mary Ruiz • Bill and Dorian Sailer • Barbara and Guy Shaw • Emily and Lia Shen •Marshall and Leslie Sigesmund • Beverly and Howard Silldorf • Elizabeth Simmons and Sekhar Chivukula • Leslie Simon • Drs. Ron and Marilyn Simon • Barbara Slater • Linda Small • Mark and Elaine Smith • Annie So• Norman and Judith Solomon • Gary and Susan Spoto • Scott M. Stanton • Charles Stephens and Eric Meijer • Dr. Nancy Stewart, in memory of Dr. Charles Stewart • Jefferson Stone • Lisa Noelle Stone and Matthew A. Lab • Stephen and Patricia Sulivan • Carol and Mark Tager • Jennifer E Tillman • William Tong and Marilyn Newhoff • Twardowski Family • John Venekamp and Clifford Schireson • Joseph Viery and Steve Cusato • Ruth Passow Warburg • Dr. Ruth S. Waterman • Ted Scott and Joan Weber • Jennie Jackson Werner • Jean M Wilkinson • LeAnn and Sam Williams • Susan and Jock Wright • Brendan and Kaye Wynne • Susan Yee • Steven and Cindy Zisser
Reflects giving to Annual Fund, Gala Underwriting and Paddle Raises from 10/1/23 – 1/17/25. We apologize for any errors or accidental omissions. Please contact the Individual Giving Office at (858) 550-1070 x134 if you would like to change your listing.
IN LOVING MEMORY Jordan Ressler, 1981-2004
A Film and Theatre graduate from Cornell University, Jordan was an adventurer with a passion for the arts. Here at La Jolla Playhouse, he served as an assistant to Des McAnuff on Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays and was the script supervisor for Jersey Boys
The Jordan Ressler Charitable Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation was established by his parents, Vivien and Jeffrey Ressler, to honor their son and his love of theatre and film.
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE CORPORATE CIRCLE
Astra
29, 2025
IN CELEBRATION OF THE EXTRAORDINARY
Joan Jacobs
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE'S EXTRAORDINARY PLANNED GIVING DONOR COMMUNITY
Planning to Make a Difference
You can perpetuate your love of theatre through a legacy gift to support the ongoing programs of La Jolla Playhouse. Members of The Revelle Legacy Society believe strongly in La Jolla Playhouse’s mission. Through bequests in wills and trusts, beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance and other estate-planning vehicles, they have included the Playhouse in their estate planning. Make a legacy gift to La Jolla Playhouse and join a group of philanthropists who are planning for the future of the theatre you love.
For more information about making a legacy gift to La Jolla Playhouse, please contact Renee Conrad, Planned Giving Officer, at rconrad@ljp.org or (858) 228-3083.
Anonymous
Paula and Ted Adams
Christopher Ashley
Scott Aylward
Roberta C. Baade and George F. Yee*
Quaintance Bartlett*
Roger S. Benson*
Gary and Barbara Blake Family
Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
Cynthia Bolker
Ralph° and Gail Bryan
Pamela B. Burkholz
Robert Caplan and Carol Randolph
Leslie J. Cohen*
Ted Cranston°*
Robert William Cunningham
Doug Dawson
Armando de Peralta, Sr.*
Jendy Dennis* Endowment Fund
Grace Marie Duhamel*
Suzanne Figi*
Pauline Foster*
Lisa Gerardo
Ewart* “Chip” and Sherrilyn Goodwin
David and Claire Guggenheim
Kay and Bill Gurtin
Dean J. Haas
Professor Marc and Mr. James Harden
Dwight Hare and Stephanie Bergsma
Denise J Harris
Diana Jillie Hill
Joel*° and Rosanne Holliday
Bob Jacobs
Joan* and Irwin Jacobs
Jay Jeffcoat
Charmaine°* and Maury* Kaplan
Olga Khitarishvili
Bill and Linda Kolb
Dr. Gloria C.L. Ma*
Josephine R. MacConnell*
Mandell Weiss Charitable Trust
Valorie McClelland
Maggi McKerrow
Paul Miller
Stephen Cary Nagler
Teresa Nugent*
John O’Dea
Bernard Paul
Margaret F. Peninger*
Dr. Julie Prazich and Dr. Sara Rosenthal
Jennette Pyne
Karen Quiñones
Jeffrey°* and Vivien Ressler
Ellen* and Roger* Revelle
Michael S. Rosenberg
Warren Sanborn*
Ruth Shepherd*
Dale and Mark Steele
Mickey Stern*
Steven Strauss° and Lise Wilson
Willard°* and Eileen* VanderLaan
Tammy Vaught
Arthur* and Molli Wagner
Peggy Ann Wallace
Geri Ann Warnke° and Joseph F. Kennedy, M.D.*
Mandell Weiss*
Dr. Steve and Lynne Wheeler
Richard Winkler
Gary L. Wollberg° and Dr. Yumi Miyamoto
Liza Zinola
*Deceased Revelle
Legacy Society Members
ºPast Chair of La Jolla Playhouse Board
List as of December 10, 2024
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT SUPPORTERS!
They are a passionate group committed to strengthening the vitality of communities through arts lear ning opportunities and celebrating diverse voices throughout San Diego.
We a re deeply grateful to a ll w ho have joi ned t he Com mu nit y Lea rni ng Ci rcle w it h a gif t of $10,00 0 a nd more:
Melissa and Michael Bartell
Denise and Lon Bevers
Wendy Gillespie
Hanna and Mark Gleiberman
Rebecca Moores
Perlmeter Family Foundation
Maryanne and Irwin Pfister
Jordan Ressler Charitable Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation
Robin and Larry Rusinko
Swanna and Alan Saltiel, Dan Cameron Family Foundation
Joseph Schuman
Karen and Jeff Silberman
Peggy Ann Wallace
Barbara ZoBell
We a lso t ha nk a ddit iona l suppor ter s w ho have ma de gif t s of $5,00 0 a nd more to sust a i n essent ia l progra m mi ng for ou r com mu nit y:
Margaret and Tony Acampora
Lawrence and Maureen Cavaiola
Ingrid and Jerry Hoffmeister
Barbara Loonin
Leslye and Scott Lyons
Elizabeth and Joseph Taft Revocable Trust
LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS
Lead Supporters: California Arts Council | National Endowment for the Arts | Prebys Foundation | San Diego Foundation
Community Programs
The Playhouse partners with members of local affinity groups to create productions for, by, with and in the communities we serve. In addition, we provide creative opportunities for artistic development and growth for various community groups.
In-School Programs
The Playhouse partners with school districts across San Diego County to place professional teaching artists in schools for intensive artist residencies aimed at providing young people with meaningful opportunities to learn about theatre. Through the Kennedy Center’s Partner in Education program, the San Diego County Office of Education and LJP team up to provide professional development for educators on how to enhance their existing lessons with theatre strategies.
JumpStart Theatre This three-year program provides curriculum and mentorship for a team of middle school teachers to produce musicals in their schools for the first time. After three years, the school receives continued support to maintain a viable theatre program. Supported by the Peggy and Roberts Matthews Foundation and the Sutherland Foundation.
Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour Each year, the Playhouse commissions a new play that addresses real concerns of today’s youth and brings a professional production to schools and community centers across San Diego County. Supported by US Bank.
Residencies and Partnerships
• UCSD MFA Residencies: 3rd-year UCSD MFA students participate in a residency within the Playhouse’s 6-show season.
• Resident Theatre Company: The Playhouse annually provides an artistic home and resources to a local theatre without a permanent space of their own.
• Good Neighbor Partnerships: The Playhouse offers opportunities to artists, theatre companies and collectives to use our spaces and resources for special projects that may not be possible without outside support.
Spotlight On Playhouse teaching artists lead classes for adults on Improv, Musical Theatre, Acting and Technical Theatre.
Student Matinees Special student matinees of selected mainstage productions are offered throughout the school year. An online engagement guide, pre- or post-show workshops, and a post-show talkback provides a deeper understanding on how a new play is uniquely developed with Playhouse staff. Supported by California Arts Council.
Young Performers’ Conservatory & Junior Conservatory (YPC) Summer intensive programs that guide young artists in the process of creating theatre and that prepares performers college theatre programs; and Tech Theatre, which introduces young people to the various aspects of technical theatre. Supported by the Jordan Ressler Endowment Fund, and the Roberto Quiñones, Jr. Scholarship Fund.
For more information on La Jolla Playhouse’s Learning & Engagement Programs, please email learningandengagement@ljp.org and view our free resources for educators and families on our website.
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE: TECH THEATRE SUMMER INTENSIVE FOR EDUCATORS
Save the Dates! July 21–25, 2025
For more info, email: learningandengagement@ljp.org
Come to the Tony® Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse for a fun filled and action packed week of professional learning intensive in technical theatre. These opportunities offer hands-on activities for the new theatre teacher who needs additional support to safely teach tech theatre as a course or the veteran theatre teacher who wants to reacquaint themselves with tech theatre best practices. Your experiences will be facilitated by veteran high school Theatre teachers as well as professionals working in the field of technical theatre.
Direct from Broadway, this “wildly entertaining” (The Guardian) play celebrates courage, community and the indomitable spirit of women.
This breathtaking new musical about one precious heart is an enlightening, edge-of-your-seat ride on a powerful wave of emotion.
The ultimate corporate Cinderella story – a sharp and hilarious adaptation of the iconic 1988 film featuring an exhilarating original score by the legendary Cyndi Lauper.
BROADWAY HIT PLAY
WORLD-PREMIERE MUSICAL
WORLD-PREMIERE MUSICAL
Get ready for six vibrant, surprising and refreshing shows from some of the brightest American creative teams — stories to transport you to worlds that feel like an escape from the everyday. This season features not one, but two world-premiere musicals directed by our very own Tony Award-winning Artistic Director, Christopher Ashley.
PLAY
Both laugh-out-loud funny and delicately tender, this delightful new play delves into the quirky, messy and magical moments of growing up.
When three mysterious men begin appearing in their new home, Ty and Nora’s preparations for parenthood begin to collapse.
A delicious new play about the early life of an endlessly fascinating character – Julia Child, a girl from Pasadena – and her path from failure to success.
WORLD-PREMIERE PLAY
WORLD-PREMIERE
WORLD-PREMIERE PLAY
PLAYHOUSE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
The Playhouse Leadership Council (PLC) is a passionate and engaged group of civic leaders, advocates and professionals whose mission is to create a welcoming environment for new audiences. PLC members work throughout San Diego to introduce new audiences to every production and ensure that their first experience at the Playhouse is a memorable one. PLC connects a more diverse group of people the to the Playhouse and aspires to enrich and enhance the lives of all San Diegans through theatre.
GET INVOLVED! If you live, work or interact with a community you think should experience the Playhouse, contact Leadership Council at community@ljp.org
PATRON SERVICES
ACCESSIBILITY
Designated wheelchair-accessible seating is available and accessible parking is provided by UC San Diego in the Theatre District Parking Structure. Wheelchair seat locations are available for wheelchair users and a companion. Additionally, a golf cart is available to assist patrons with accessibility needs to and from the drop-off location. You may pull into the Passenger/Ride Share Drop-Off area and a greeter will assist you. The Playhouse offers assisted listening devices free of charge at the Patron Information Booth for any patron who would like amplified sound (subject to availability). Please provide a credit card or ID for temporary deposit.
CHILDREN under the age of 6 are not permitted in the theatre during performances unless otherwise posted. Unaccompanied minors ages 12 and under are not permitted in the theatre. Out of respect for fellow audience members and the performers, babes in arms are not permitted in the theatre during performances.
CONCESSIONS AND DINING
Start your night off right with bar and concessions service from James' Place: serving beer, wine, sodas and individually-wrapped snacks. Additionally, James’ Place provides dining service starting at 5:00pm before evening performances.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
Please visit lajollaplayhouse.org/ healthandsafety for our latest policy updates.
LATE SEATING
Should you arrive late for any performance or need to leave your seat during the performance, you may be asked to wait in the lobby until an appropriate moment. To minimize any disturbance to actors or other patrons, you may stand or be seated in the first available location by House Management even if not your assigned location. Please be advised that some performances may not allow for late seating or return to your assigned seat.
PARKING
For the latest parking information, please go to lajollaplayhouse.org/parking
PATRON SERVICES is located in the lobby or courtyard of each theatre. A volunteer is available to distribute assisted listening devices and answer questions.
PHOTOGRAPHY/RECORDING DEVICES
Photography and video or audio recording of performances is strictly prohibited.
PLEASE SILENCE or turn off all electronic devices, including cell phones and watches, before the performance.
SAFETY IN THE THEATRE DISTRICT
La Jolla Playhouse is constantly working with UC San Diego Police Department and Transportation and Parking Services to maintain a safe and secure environment in the parking lots. Patrons are welcome to use the UC San Diego escort service by contacting UC San Diego Community Service Officers (CSOs) at (858) 534-9255 (WALK). Further questions regarding security, please contact UC San Diego Police at (858) 534-4357 (HELP).
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE
STAFF
ARTISTIC
Artistic Producing Director Eric Keen-Louie
Director of Artistic Development Gabriel Greene*
Director of Experiences and Activations Mia Fiorella*
Associate Producer Amy Ashton
Executive Assistant to Christopher Ashley Rick VanNoy*
Director Emeritus Des McAnuff
Directing Fellow Kat Yen
Artistic Interns Lula Britos, Natasha Gomez
Commissioned Artists Todd Almond, Jeff Augustin, Sam Chanse, Fernanda Coppel, Mike Lew, Rehana Lew Mirza, Martyna Majok, Mona Mansour, Jess McLeod, MILCK, Lisa Peterson, Theresa Rebeck, Harrison David Rivers, Claudia Shear, Christopher Shinn, Octavio Solis, Jonathan Spector, Benjamin Velez, Keith Wallace, Cheryl L. West, Kristina Wong, Lauren Yee
Artist-in-Residence Maria Patrice Amon
LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT
Director of Learning Bridget Cavaiola Stone
Director of Arts Engagement and In-House Casting Jacole Kitchen
Assistant House Managers Simonne Darbonne, Emily Klemmetsen, Gaby Mackie, Amy Marquez, Maria Torpey, Olivia Newell
Audience Concierges Emerson Clarke, Sara Delgado, Chris Ferreria, Sashank Kanchustambam, Olivia Newell, Sam Lebedev, Kaite Lopes, Angela Park, Teya Searles, Avery Simonian, Emmett Torpey
ASL Volunteer Esther Shen
PHILANTHROPY
Director of Philanthropy Keely Daximillion
Deputy Director of Philanthropy
Rebecca Pierce Goodman
Assistant Director, Philanthropy Operations
Tony Dixon*
Individual Giving Manager Taylor Lehmkuhl
Special Events Manager Haleigh Stewart
Corporate Relations Manager
Katie Wallace
Planned Giving Officer Renee Conrad
Grants Specialist Dylan Gervais
Donor Relations Coordinator Kayla Alperson
Special Events Coordinator Gabriella Johnson
Philanthropy Coordinator Anna Stanton
Events Assistant Justin Valine
Special Events Intern Trey Rosemond
Philanthropy Intern Janessa Whitlock
Debby Buchholz*
Managing Director of La Jolla Playhouse
PRODUCTION
Director of Production Becca Duhaime
Production Manager Annette Nixon
Assistant Production Manager Julian Diaz
Production Office Manager Topaz Cooks
Resident Stage Manager Alexa Burn
Production Management Intern Haley Hughes
SCENE SHOP
Technical Director Jared Roberts
Associate Technical Director Kyle Pollitt
Head Carpenter Michael Harris
Scenery Specialist David Weiner*
Scenery Supervisor Jonathan Gilmer
Shop Foreman Christopher Chauvet
Carpenters Justin Allen, Jacob Becker, Christopher Bridges, Michael Brodsky, Philip Comer, Keegan Graham, David Johnson, Phillip T. Jones, Mark Murphy, Heather Rawolle, Nicholas Savage, Elias Solis
Welders Melony Picart, Ava Roethe, Diego Sierra, Wally Wallace
Riggers Jesse Byrd, Marcus Laskey, Jesse Setterberg, Antonio Valenzuela
Charge Artist Jennifer Imbler
Lead Scenic Artist Melissa Nalbach
Scenic Artists Alyssa Armstrong, Caroline Kvaas, Zornitsa Lefterova, Samantha Leon, Marie Mateo
Stitchers Laura Kozak, Sonya Levin, Sadie Rothenberg, Susan Sachs, Faith Steenbergen
ELECTRICS
Production Electrician Kristyn Kennedy*
Electricians Michelle Aguilar, Jasmyne Birdsong, Alex Cluff, Sandra Navarro, Jenner Price, Nick Shelton
SOUND/VIDEO
Production Sound & Video Dan Barsky
Video Engineer Erin Teachman
Head Audio Daniel Silva
Assistant Head Audio Mae Le
Sound/Video Technicians Kelly Allen, Nathan Kunce, Alfredo Madrigal, Jessica Muckenfuss, David Silva, Colin Stokes
3 SUMMERS OF LINCOLN CREW
Production Carpenter Michael Brodsky
Automation Nicholas Savage
Deck Carpenters Elias Solis, Alyssa Armstrong
Fly Person Marcus Laskey
Deck Swing Diego Serra
Prop Runner (Lead) Arlene Baneulos
Prop Runner Del Hanson
Wardrobe Supervisor Junior Bergman
Dressers Anna Campbell, Raven Winter, Miranda Sieber, Christi Cecil-Stewart
Wig & Make Up Supervisor Kim Parker
Wig Run Crew Rachel Gallenberger
Wig Swing Ali Reyes
Light Board Operator Jasmyne Birdsong
Head Spot Operator Michelle Aguilar
Spot Operator Alex Cluff
Moving Light Programmer B Yamashita
Sound Engineer Stephen Jenson
A2 Mae Le
A2 Swing Camille Houze
Video Operator Sarah Rad
Electrics Swing Nicholas Shelton
February Food Finds
From a New Spanish Bistro to Dinner with a View to Vietnamese Coffee All Day / by SARAH
DAOUST
/
Get an authentic taste
of Spain’s Basque, Galician and Catalonian regions at Little Italy’s newest culinary destination: Barra Oliba, owned by Eduardo Bustamante (Crudo Cevicheria) and Ernesto Casillas (Zibaris Hospitality Group), with the kitchen overseen by chef Joshua
Mayhew. The elegant Spanish bistro (and seed-oil-free restaurant) serves up locally sourced seafood using Japanese techniques, Mediterranean rice dishes, signature tapas and small plates, and desserts; along with wines from acclaimed Spanish and French regions, sangria,
Dinner plates at Barra Oliba in Little Italy
beer and a Spanish spritz. 1980 Kettner Blvd., #30, Little Italy, 619.310.5110, barraoliba.com
North Park debuts a new all-day bistro serving brunch and dinner, Flora Kitchen + Bar, by owners and husband-and-wife team Nino Cusimano and Ocean Mohamadi. Feast on brunch dishes like the zucchini-blossom frittata, shakshuka eggs, matcha waffles and green chilaquiles. Return for dinner and try the sous vide duck, pork-skewer tacos and crispy wagyu meatballs. Dine on the umbrella-shaded sidewalk patio or inside the inviting urban space warmed by comfy banquette seating,
whimsical artwork along the walls, greenery, and a striking bar with blackand-white patterned bar stools. 3021 University Ave., North Park, 619.228.9570, floranorthpark.com
Mission Hills welcomes a European-inspired cafe and modern pintxo bar, Paradis, now open in the iconic Sasan building. The quaint eatery by restaurateur Jacquee Renna Downing offers baked goods, small plates and tasty sippers all day. Stop by in the morning for stracciatella toast and the seasonal matcha latte; and in the afternoon and evening for the Forbidden Fruit Spritz or The Eleventh Hour craft cocktail;
along with a selection of gourmet tapas, pintxos, salads, and desserts like the seasonal fruit tart. 901 W. Washington St., Mission Hills, paradissd.com
Nestled on the eighth floor of the Sasan building, Jacquee Renna Downing also has opened an elegant rooftop restaurant with
sweeping views of Mission Hills: Communion. Featuring a glass enclosed-dining room and heated patio, Communion focuses on global cuisine with local ingredients—serving up plates by executive chef Mike Moritz, such as linguini and clams, coconut-milk-poached
Elegant dining with a view at Communion; butterfly palmier cookies at Paradis.
local seabass, roasted pork rack and dry-aged duck breast; plus desserts like quince vacherin and vanilla-bean-basque cheesecake; and craft cocktails to wash it all down. 901 W. Washington St., Mission Hills, 619.606.5568, dinecommunionsd.com
Mira Mesa brings us Em Coffee House, an allday, locally owned coffee shop serving VietnameseAmerican coffee drinks, phin drip and espressobased beverages—using a blend of Vietnamesegrown arabica and robusta beans—inside a rusticmod space. “Em,” a term of affection in Vietnamese similar to “darling” or “sweetheart,” is founder Nick Truong’s ode to Vietnamese coffee culture. The menu offers ceremonial matcha, cold-brew teas, milk teas, signature
cream coffees such as the tiramisu-inspired Em White Truffle-Misu, and more. 8945 Mira Mesa Blvd., Mira Mesa, emcoffeehouse.com
Popular local ramen chain Tajima—founded by chef Isamu Morikizono in 2001—has opened a new location in Crown Point. Step inside the bright, mod, 2,000-square-foot casual eatery—where you’ll find devotees slurping Tajima’s famous ramen bowls, including spicy sesame ramen, vegan ramen and tonkotsu. Fans also love dishes like the karaage bowl, pork-chashu fried rice, chicken katsu buns, Brussels-sprout tempura and pork gyoza; plus Japanese and local craft beers, wine and sake. Tajima has also opened a commissary kitchen next door. 3782 Ingraham St.,
Crown Point, 858.203.3674, tajimaramen.com
Specializing in Mexican brunch, specifically their famous chilaquiles, Cocina 35 has opened its fifth and newest location (with four other locales in San Diego) at Coronado Ferry Landing. Brunch comes with sides of San Diego Bay and downtown skyline views, thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows and a large open deck. On
the menu: five kinds of “Chilaquiles Especiales,” sampler plates, omelets, scrambles, pancakes and Cajeta toast. For lunch, try the cochinita pibil torta, hard-shell tacos and tortilla soup. 1201 First St., #115, Coronado, 619.996.3035, cocina35.com
Located within steps of Petco Park, Omni San Diego debuts a baseballinspired restaurant and bar, Ace Porter. Grab a seat on the patio facing the San Diego Convention Center, on a comfy couch inside, or around the Ushaped bar; and relax with a cocktail and a bite. The baseball-inspired menu features “Designated Hitters” like fried pickles, mac ‘n’ cheese balls, birria sliders and crispy chicken oysters; “Fields of Green” salads; “On Deck” focaccia dishes; “In the Glove” burgers and bao bun tacos; and “Clubhouse” entrees. 675 L St., downtown, 619.231.6664
Shrimp ceviche at Tortuga; the tonkotsu ramen bowl at Tajima.
Another new dining destination at Omni San Diego is located six floors up: Tortuga. Overlooking the Convention Center—with panoramas of San Diego Bay and the Coronado Bridge just beyond—the indoor/outdoor rooftop pool bar and restaurant serves coastal, Baja-influenced California cuisine that pays homage to executive chef Wenceslao Zavala’s roots in Rosarito, Mexico. Start with a refreshing libation like the Pontoque Paloma with Casamigos blanco tequila, Aperol, jalapeño and grapefruit juice (created in celebration of Omni’s new Pontoque Resort in Punta de Mita, Mexico). On the food menu: ceviche, poke bowls, burgers, salads and grilled fish tacos. We also love menu standouts like the smoked tuna sliders, “catch of the day” fish burger, and the crab tostada. To further satiate seafood cravings, go for the Tortuga Tower loaded with shrimp, oysters, and a “chef’s catch” salad. Add a side of sparkling pool and bay views, and life is good. 675 L St., sixth floor, downtown, 619.231.6664
In the Gaslamp Quarter, chef JoJo Ruiz is at it again, dreaming up new dishes for Pendry San Diego’s flagship restaurant, Lionfish Modern Coastal Cuisine. Ruiz has
Home of La Jolla Music Society
THE CONRAD Sensational Spring
From
DINING
refreshed the food menu with creations like the Ibérico Pork Secreto with Spanish chorizo, Navy beans, braised market greens and mustard demi; Peking duck with scallion pancakes; whole roasted truffle chicken with truffle butter; panroasted Alaskan halibut; the Geisha sushi roll with albacore, avocado, serrano pepper, spicy tuna and crunchy garlic; new vegan dishes; and more. 435 Fifth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter, 619.738.7200, lionfishsd.com
Weekend brunch is now served at Marisi, La Jolla’s charming outpost known for its refined coastal Italian cuisine. Choose from several new savory and sweet dishes,
Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yefim Bronfman, Pablo Ferrández
Ballet Folklórico de México Wynton Marsalis
Twyla Tharp Dance Company
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
Sheku Kanneh-Mason & Isata Kanneh-Mason
The decadent French toast with vanilla-whipped cream and Vermont maple syrup at Marisi.
ranging from shareable starters to handmade pasta dishes to brunch favorites. Menu standouts include the French toast with vanilla-whipped cream and Vermont maple syrup; “Eggs in Purgatory” with pomodoro, parmigiano reggiano, basil and sourdough toast; bucatini carbonara with Winfield Farms bacon; and the EPLT Sandwich: fried egg, crispy prosciutto, shredded lettuce and tomato marmalade. 1044 Wall St., La Jolla, 858.401.6787, marisilajolla.com
A La Jolla favorite for elegant California cuisine and prime ocean views, George’s at the Cove has debuted a snacks menu by executive chef Masa Kojima—available exclusively in the bar area of the restaurant’s Ocean Terrace. Snack on house-made potato chips; La Brújula tinned sardines and mussels with whipped herb crème fraiche and house-made crackers; grilled cheese with caramelized onions on focaccia; and boquarones, aka fresh anchovies with herb crème fraiche, cucumber, radish and crackers. 1250 Prospect St., La Jolla, 858.454.4244, georgesatthecove.com
CONT’D. FROM PAGE 10
writing the Emancipation Proclamation and meetings with Douglass.”
Consulting with Goodwin, Di Pietro says, helped establish not just facts about Lincoln but also attitudes. “Doris would say, ‘You’re not working on Lincoln; you’re working with him,’ and I found that to be true.”
“Musicals have always dealt with history, and they are often set in the past,” DiPietro continues. “People are always interested in history. There’s Ragtime, Memphis… the Performances Magazine • 3QtrPgVrt 4.1875” x 8.5625” • February 2025
What made Lincoln a good subject for a musical? DiPietro points out there have been several plays and movies about Lincoln; as well as a miniseries. “It’s well-trod territory. I had to consider what a musical about him would sound like—not campy, but relevant and serious.” DiPietro says the musical 1776 was one of his personal favorites, and the success of Hamilton “proved you could take historical figures and bring them to life with very distinct musical idioms. I thought I could write a draft with characters that are the precipice of their emotions so they have something to sing about. I love a great challenge, to take big swings in my work.
Christopher Ashley
list goes on.”
3 Summers of Lincoln presents the problems facing the 16th president. “It’s Lincoln trying to figure out how to end a Civil War and unite a divided country and also end slavery,” DiPietro says. “There was no compromising with him. He knew slavery was horrible and also believed it was on the way out. But the South relied on it for their economy. How he guided the nation through that was a remarkable test of his willpower, his intellect.”
As the musical develops, the audience will see the huge obstacles Lincoln had to overcome to make his dreams a reality. “Act I is Lincoln trying to figure out how to bring moral authority to the war,” says DiPietro. “A lot of his own cabinet was against the Emancipation Proclamation. But Lincoln believed that if ending slavery was a moral imperative to end this war, that would tell soldiers what they were fighting for.”
DiPietro says Frederick
Douglass was at first a vocal critic of Lincoln in the press, because he believed Lincoln was not working fast enough to end slavery. In Act II of 3 Summers of Lincoln, Douglass and Lincoln meet and develop a respect for each other, recognizing each other’s greatness. “Act III is how the end of the war plays out,” Di Pietro says. “Douglass helped turn Lincoln from a scholarly, methodical, president into more of a revolutionary. The effect Douglass had on Lincoln is the crux of the show.”
SWAN LAKE, Act II
Choreography: Elizabeth Wistrich, after Lev Ivanov • Music: Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Program also includes: Black Swan Pas de Deux and Elizabeth Wistrich’s premiere of ‘The Seasons’ to Alexander Glazunov’s score
March 8 & 9
Balboa Theatre
March 12
California Center for the Arts, Escondido
Current politics in the U.S. make the themes of Lincoln’s presidency even more relevant. “Lincoln was presiding over what was a very divided country,” DiPietro says. “We are clearly very divided at this time—echoes of Lincoln’s times seem very prescient. I was writing this show when there was the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. It was not a big stretch to say this is a divided nation, the blue states have a very different view of how we should conduct ourselves than the red states. Violence came to the surface on Jan. 6.
“Racism, anti-Semitism, white nationalism is still so prevalent in our country, and there is scary rhetoric
Photo by Chelsea Penyak
that has promoted racism even at the level of our government. There is injustice and systemic racism put in place in this country that puts certain marginalized groups down. It’s not a big leap to say the issues of the Civil War are still bubbling on the surface and come to the forefront in a way that’s very concerning, especially with the right wing now being back in power in Washington.”
In 3 Summers of Lincoln, DiPietro says, audiences will see the development of Lincoln and Douglass’ relationship and how it affected the Civil War. “You have to fight the moral fight. History will always bend toward you if you are on the right side,” DiPietro says. “For example, we remember Lincoln, not his Vice President, Andrew Johnson, who set back the country a lot after Lincoln’s death. An assassin’s bullet altered history, and not for the better. Who knows what Lincoln would have done with the next four years. The show ends with the last time he and Douglass met. We end with a sign of hope—but you also have to fight.”
The world-premiere musical runs Feb. 18-March 23 at La Jolla Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Theatre. For tickets and more info, visit lajollaplayhouse.org
reprogrammed !
Performances Magazine unveils a digital program platform for shows and concerts
DROP DOWN MENU Table of app contents.
REGISTER
Stay arts-engaged, access past programs.
THE ESSENTIALS
Acts, scenes, synopses, repertory and notes.
CONTRIBUTORS
Donors and sponsors who make it all possible—you!
NO RUSTLING PAGES, no killing trees . . . the digital Performances program platform has proved to be one of the more enduring recent theater innovations.
The touchless platform provides the programs for 20 Southern California performing-arts organizations, from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Ahmanson Theatre to San Diego Opera, where the app made its debut.
Among a variety of features, it provides cast and player bios, donor and season updates, and numerous
other arts-centric features.
Audiences receive a link and a code word that instantly activate the app; QR codes are posted, too.
Screens go dark when curtains go up and return when house lights come back on.
Updates—such as repertory changes, understudy substitutions and significant new donations —can be made right up to showtime, no inserts necessary.
Other plusses include video and audio streams, translations and expanded biographies.
SEARCH
Find whatever it is you want to know—easily.
SIGN IN
Link to your performing-arts companies and venues.
THE PLAYERS
Bios and background for cast, crew and creators.
WHAT’S ON
What’s coming at a glance and ticket information.
For those who consider printed programs to be keepsakes, a limited number, as well as commemorative issues for special events, continue to be produced. Collectibles!
Meanwhile, there is less deforestation, consumption of petroleum inks and programs headed for landfills.
For the ecologically minded, the platform gets a standing ovation.
The digital Performances is but one more reason for audience excitement. Activate your link and enjoy the shows. —CALEB
