The Shipment by VIA MEDIA / BAYSTAGES

RUGDEALEREXP OMEDIANGANGS EWRITHEREVEAL OWNERSHIPSASS TAINMENTPREAC MINSTRELCONFRO GBIRDMAGICALN BY YOUNG JEAN LEE DIRECTED BY MINA MORITA AND LISA MARIE ROLLINS

NEW RELEASES

I’M GETTING MY ACT TOGETHER | RE-ISSUE

RED EYE OF LOVE | STUDIO CAST

ROTHSCHILD & SONS | OFF-BROADWAY

CHENOWETH | THE ART OF ELEGANCE

THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM | REVIVAL

DISASTER! | ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST

Cryer & Ford’s feminist Off-Broadway hit about a 40-something divorceé trying to re-launch her music career. ( masterworksbroadway.com)

Kristen (with an assist from Dave Koz) caresses songbook classics like “Someone to Watch Over Me” and “Skylark.” ( concordmusicgroup.com )

Girl-meats-boy love story by composer Sam Davis set in the world’s largest meat store. Kelli O’Hara leads the cast to slaughter. ( sh-k-boom.com )

Lortel winner Steven Pasquale is a gentleman by day and hard-hearted bandit by night with Leslie Kritzer & Off-Broadway cast. ( sh-k-boom.com )

Robert Cuccioli leads a re-imagined one-act staging of The Rothschilds, Bock & Harnick’s final original collaboration. ( jayrecords.com )

Seth Rudetsky’s stars in his Tony-nominated spoof of the ‘70s with Faith Prince, Rachel York and many more. ( broadwayrecords.com )

Z SPACE & Word for Word present

ALL AUNT HAGAR’S CHILDREN NOV 16 - DEC 11 ZSPACE.ORG

By Edward P. Jones

Set in 1950's Washington DC, this Noir tale spotlights a Korean War vet who sets out to solve a murder and becomes entangled in a web of family history. Directed by Stephanie Hunt; Assistant Director Margo Hall.

Z SPACE FUNDRAISING GALA

Thursday, Dec. 1st with a special appearance by Edward P. Jones with Belva Davis

FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR In 2011, Crowded Fire introduced Young Jean Lee to the Bay Area with her much-lauded Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, a hilarious and uncomfortable dissection of Asian stereotypes. Today, we are excited to present an equally extraordinary and unusual evening of theatre with The Shipment. Employing her signature provocative style of comedy, Lee aims to expose and eviscerate the unimaginative plots and stereotypes confining black entertainers on our stages throughout history and to this very day. Never in my life have I been so profoundly affected by the development of a production. Testaments from our cast and creative team suggest that I am not alone in this. It is with humility that I thank all of them for their generous vulnerability and bravery throughout this process. I would be remiss if I did not also honor the incredible process of co-directing this piece with Lisa Marie Rollins. We have served as witness, confidant, guide, and cross-examiner for each other. What you see tonight is equal parts her vision and mine. W.E.B. Du Bois described "a peculiar sensation, this doubleconsciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness ... two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." Over one hundred years later, this quote resonated in the rehearsal room as the cast wrestled with and tore apart their own “peculiar sensations” of being forced to embody careless, simplistic representations on our stages and screens. All cultures crave "complex characters" that reveal some essential truth about the human condition; these "stories" are usually born from the uniqueness of specific situations that show our capacity for joy, or the strength that comes from multivalent ways of transcending pain.

1695 Eighteenth Street, C101 Annex San Francisco, CA 94107 415.523.0034 info@crowdedfire.org crowdedfire.org Mina Morita

artistic director

Tiffany Cothran

managing director

Stephanie Alyson Henderson

production manager

Edith Borrebach

patron services manager

Milena Thompson intern

The work has been equally gut-wrenching and filled with wonder. It has been disconcerting at times. Above all else, it has been liberating. We’re excited to get unsettled WITH you. This evening is an invitation to self-interrogation as you sit next to someone who may agree or disagree with your view. We invite you to laugh at familiar stereotypes, and then consider how they leave the mind and heart of audience and performer unfulfilled. In this critical moment of questioning and upheaval, we all are cast in a role. At Crowded Fire we choose to subvert cultural and artistic norms with revolutionary content and theatrical form. In choosing to spend your evening with us, you are participating in that act.

crowdedfiretheater

Welcome to the fire! @crowdedfire crowdedfire

Mina Morita artistic director

2016.09 • BAYSTAGES.COM

cftheater

A THEATRE OF FEARLESSNESS

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Young Jean Lee has an unconventional approach to creating her experimental works. She starts with a question: “What’s the last play in the world I would ever want to write.” Then she forces herself to write it. By doing this Lee can challenge herself, and out of her discomfort, she creates work that is irreverent, unorthodox, structurally innovative, provocative and fearless. Lee explains her theatrical imperative in the Journal of Performance and Art as such: “I’m obsessed with unsettling complacency, both in myself and in my audiences, because I think that contradiction and uncertainty bring us closer to the truth than pat ideologies. My aesthetic strategy is to use disorientation and unpredictability to overcome people’s (including my own) resistance to facing challenging and discomfiting problems.” In a later interview in American Theatre, she goes further in defining the complacency she wishes to unsettle: “I don’t like it when people think that they know everything and they’re right and they are satisfied with themselves. One of the things I believe in most is self-critique and selfawareness. So every show is a challenge to myself.” Certainly, Lee is not satisfied with resting on her many laurels. Following the impulse to upset the status quo both in her audiences and in her art making, Lee takes huge risks with each project. She shifts between subject, genre, and form, sometimes even within the same play. Her oeuvre includes a sharply comic and historically inaccurate play about the English Romantic poets Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Byron (The Appeal, 2004), a solo performance with music about depression and death (We’re Gonna Die, 2011), a play that offers an evangelical church service (Church, 2007), a dialogue-less movement piece with six naked female performers (Untitled Feminist Show, 2011), a deconstructed Shakespeare adaptation (Lear, 2010), and several distinct identity-politics plays that explode the form (Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven in 2006, Straight White Men in 2014 and The Shipment in 2009). And so Young Jean Lee’s work is continuously evolving. She functions as a writer, director and producer and occasional performer. She holds the creative control over all aspects of her shows, which allows an unusual level of flexibility and experimentation. She casts her shows before beginning to write and utilizes her performers as collaborators in the writing process. Lee is known to interview her performers and use that as source material for her writing. At times, she does improv exercises with the actors. She writes and brings back the work to try and retry with the feedback of her team. This imbues her work with a sense of play. Play that is self-aware, but also joyful and fearless. And at its best, that is what play is. - Sonia Fernandez

a division of Caselli Partners LLC 2

BAYSTAGES.COM • 2016.09

PRODUCTION SPONSORS

CROWDED F I RE T HE AT E R pres e n t s by Young

LUIS TAMAYO + DAVID THOMPSON

Jean Lee

CAST

PATRICIA SAKAI + RICHARD SHAPIRO

Nkechi Emeruwa William Hartfield • Howard Johnson Jr. Paul Loper • Nican Robinson • Conor Ross Michael Wayne Turner III •

CREATIVE TEAM

Co-Director.................................................................. Mina Morita ♦ Co-Director.........................................................Lisa Marie Rollins ♦ Dramaturg............................................................ Sonia Fernandez ♦ Scenic Design........................................................ Deanna L. Zibello Costume Design..................................... Keiko Shimosato Carreiro ♦ Lighting Design....................................................... Heather Basarab Sound Design........................................................ Hannah Birch Carl Props Design............................................................ Devon LaBelle ♦ Choreography.......................................................... Rami Margron ♦ Fight Direction..............................................................Carla Pantoja Music Direction..............................................................Sean Fenton

PROJECT SUPPORT THE PHYLLIS C. WATTIS FOUNDATION phylliscwattisfoundation.org THE ZELLERBACH FAMILY FOUNDATION zff.org

PRODUCTION TEAM

Stage Manager...................................................... M. Sohaa Smith ♦ Assitant Stage Manager.............................................. Benjamin Shiu Production Assistant.......................................... Milena Thompson ♦ Production Manager........................ Stephanie Alyson Henderson ♦ Set Construction............................................................ Beckett Finn Master Electrician..................................................... Sarina Renteria Electrician......................................................................Brad Hopper Sound Consultant............................................................. Matt Stines ♦ Crowded Fire Theater Resident Artist SPECIAL THANKS: Sara Huddleston | Magic Theatre, Cheshire Isaacs | CheshireDave Creative, Maggi Yule | Berkeley Repertory Theatre, St. Mary’s College Department of Performing Arts, Eugene Palmer | UC Berkeley Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, Lighting Department | Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Susan Shay, Conservatory Theatre Ensemble | Tamalpais High School, and Crowded Fire Resident Artists. The Shipment was co-commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University (world premiere October 2008) and The Kitchen (New York premiere January 2008). Additional development support was provided by the Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, the Jerome Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, the Tobin Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), a state agency. Residency support was provided by Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Collapsable Hole, IRT Theater, The MacDowell Colony, New Dramatists, Orchard Project and Yaddo. The Shipment was also made possible by a grant from the Ford Foundation and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Ensemble Theatre Collaboration Grant Program. “Dark Center Of The Universe” Used by Permission of Sony/ATV Harmony

Crowded Fire Theater is part of the Thick House Presenting Program. The Thick House is surrounded by live/ work studios. Please show consideration for our neighbors by maintaining quiet when you are outside the building and as you enter and leave.

Performances:

September 22 to October 15, 2016

Thick House, 1695 Eighteenth Street, San Francisco 94107

The performance runs approximately 90 minutes. There will be no intermission. Please note the location of all exits. Please turn off your cell phones. Photography, videotaping or other recording of this production is strictly prohibited. Please feel free to enjoy your concessions purchases in the theater. 2016.09 • BAYSTAGES.COM

Artwork by Aaron De La Cruz, commissioned by Curran

BOOK & MUSIC BY

RICHARD O’BRIEN PRESENTS

THE

ROCKY HORROR SHOW

DIRECTED BY

MARO GUEVARA MUSIC DIRECTION BY

DAVID MÖSCHLER CHOREOGRAPHY BY

LESLIE WAGGONER

OCTOBER 27 TH - NOVEMBER 5 TH

VICTORIA THEATRE | RAYOFLIGHTTHEATRE.COM

image: adam tolbert

A CONVERSATION WITH CO-DIRECTORS MINA MORITA + LISA MARIE ROLLINS

LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS CO-DIRECTING PROCESS. LMR: The process of co-direction and its deeply collaborative framework has helped me grow as an artist. We have to constantly articulate what we think out loud to one another. It’s been extraordinary to have someone with whom to share the process. MM: Yes. This has been a true collaboration and requires more effort in all of the right ways. There is a rigor that I am experiencing in co-directing, because you can't be lazy and assume anything about any moment, you have to fully defend or express your idea or viewpoint. HAVE THERE BEEN ANY SURPRISES? MM: We didn’t know what to expect. We did know that we wanted to ensure we were absolutely unified in our vision and approach to the piece. Knowing that setting that tone was key, we did a lot of work together leading up to rehearsal to be sure we were on the same page. In the end, I’m proud of the culture we’ve created in the rehearsal room. The play lends itself to this kind of collaboration. LMR: Yes, for sure. Mina and I dove into the piece knowing that Young Jean Lee’s initial development of the play was a deep collaborative process. Our work together built upon that process conceptually. For example, it felt important to interrogate why a Korean woman wrote a “Black play.” We dug into that. We had conversations with her where she shared how critical mutual creation with black actors was to the formation of the work. So the “why” is important, and also as significant is the “how.” Ultimately, the cross-racial collaboration that created THE SHIPMENT, the process of deep listening, of revision and specificity are huge parts of why this has been so rewarding. MM: This process has been so remarkable and satisfying. It really speaks to why we’re doing theatre at all. SO WHY ARE WE DOING THEATRE AT ALL? OR RATHER, HOW DOES THIS PLAY ILLUSTRATE WHY WE SHOULD DO THEATRE? MM: I think it’s to shake us out of our complacency. It’s about self-interrogation. Realizing our own framework and how we live, trying to encourage us to reach out beyond what is comfortable, and to understand and hear - truly hear - other people. We need to be shaken up. LMR: It makes me think about the way art is deeply connected to shaping culture. The challenge of diving back into the painful images and representations of Black Americans that people have seen since early theatre in the US - those images, while they shift and change and take on new, modernized “looks,” the caricatures don’t transform really at all. EACH [CARICATURE OR STEREOTYPE] LIES ON TOP OF WHAT CAME BEFORE. LMR: Absolutely, and when we’re thinking about how they all work in concert - art and politics and what’s happening in our day-to-day lived experiences - the brilliance of this piece is that it’s a culture shifter. 2016.09 • BAYSTAGES.COM

RESIDENT ARTISTS

Laura Brueckner Sonia Fernandez Devon LaBelle Michele Apriña Leavy Rami Margron Amanda Melton Lawrence Radecker Lisa Marie Rollins Keiko Shimosato Carreiro M. Sohaa Smith Adeline Smith

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Steven Collier, president Tina Brier, vp/secretary Graham Gockley, treasurer Jennifer Devere Brody Sean Fenton Peter Glazer Emily Rosenthal

WE’RE TALKING ABOUT AFRICAN AMERICAN BODIES IN PERFORMANCE. HUNDREDS OF YEARS OF SEEING. LMR: In multiple forms - not just on stage, but before moving pictures, theatre was the way these images were transferred across the nation. IN SOME WAYS, THE PLAY IS ABOUT THEATRE. WE’RE ALL THEATRE MAKERS, WOMEN OF COLOR - IT SPEAKS TO US ON A PERSONAL LEVEL. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR OWN CONNECTIONS TO IT? LMR: One thing that I’ve noticed about all my work - my poetry, my playwriting, my directing, dramaturgy work, my teaching/academic thought work - it is always centered around the body. Growing up as a black girl body in all white spaces, my body felt out of place all the time, no matter whether I was in school, in church, or even sometimes in my own home. That body had to manipulate itself or re-construct itself in order to survive. It’s reflective in so much of my work. MM: For me, I feel like in some ways I’ve been spending my life circling around finding my way here. I didn’t start here. I was in a primarily white community and choosing to very much assimilate. Although, within my family I knew that we were outliers. We were an artist family, from Asia. An immigrant family... and I didn’t want to identify with that. I spent some time running from my own identity. Then, I finally started working on narratives written by my Asian Pacific Islander community. It was an amazing experience - to be with my people, to be delving freely into these hard conversations. All of these things are now on fire for me. I can no longer turn away. I’m not afraid anymore to say what needs to be said. SO THIS PLAY HAS ARRIVED AT THE RIGHT TIME. MM: It did. IT’S SO COMPLICATED BECAUSE WE TALK ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY BUT IT’S REALLY ALL OF US. WHEN THE CHARACTERS IN THE SKETCH SAY “I’M WHITE” “NO YOU’RE NOT, YOU’RE BLACK” IT’S REALLY PROFOUND. IN THE PLAY IT’S FUNNY, BUT IT GETS AT SOMETHING DEEP. LMR: Isn’t that the truth. Silence is a mother fucker. Silence leads to denial as far as I’m concerned. If people can’t even look at us and acknowledge who we are - that colorblind “I don’t see race’ thing --It’s a form of denial. That to me is violence, damage. Then we do it to ourselves because we think that’s the way it’s supposed to be. WHAT DO YOU WANT THE AUDIENCE TO TAKE AWAY?

PROUD MEMBER OF

MM: I hope there’s a realization that culture is created. That everything is a convention of some kind. That we have choices ahead of us after we walk out the door about what we support and what we don’t. And at the very least I hope they’ll have a conversation. And maybe a year from now they’ll be watching that movie, or playing that video game, or watching that theatre piece and suddenly realize - “Ooooh!” LMR: I think of it as the process of learning. Something happens and we go away to think about it, and we are able to attach it to lived things or concrete moments. That’s when we have that light bulb moment where the connections are made. Similarly to Mina, I hope people will go away - and whatever the timeline - the piece will change them. MM: This sounds crazy but the Bay Area … by doing this here, hopefully it shifts people’s thinking and there’s less fear about having these conversations. Because we can have this conversation and it can be artistic and innovative and engaging. I’m proud to know that our organization is leading the charge on this. - Sonia Fernandez 6

BAYSTAGES.COM • 2016.09

EMERUWA

HARTFIELD

JOHNSON

LOPER

ROBINSON

ROSS

TURNER

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES NKECHI EMERUWA (Mama, Drug

Dealer Mama, Video Ho, Grandma from Heaven, Singer 1, Thomasina) is an actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist and painter. She pronounces her name nnnKAY-chee and is delighted to be in her first production with Crowded Fire! Film credits include About Cherry (Stephen Elliott, director), 99% (Celik Kayalar, director) and Jujuluv (Lisbon Okafor, director). Nkechi has enjoyed performing on stage in Rose in America (AlterTheater), The Call and Walk Like a Man (Theatre Rhinoceros), Baden Powell Wars and Unheard of World (foolsFURY), and The Big Friendly Giant and Seussical (Berkeley Playhouse). Other productions include Abigail The Salem Witch Trials Rock Opera, In Our Own Words, Metamorphoses, BibleNOT, Trucker Rhapsody, The Vagina Monologues and Farewell to a Cannibal Rage, as well as improvisational theatre and sketch comedy with Oui Be Negroes. Nkechi has a BS from Stanford University and is pursuing an MFA in theatre-performance making from C.I.I.S. She is a proud member of Theatre Bay Area and SAG-AFTRA. nkechi.com/news

WILLIAM HARTFIELD (Dancer 2,

Sidekick Michael, Crackhead John, Bad Cop 2, Sashay, Omar, U/S: Rapper Omar) is delighted to be making his Crowded Fire debut. An up and coming actor emerging from the Fusion Theatre program under the tutelage of Michael Torres at Laney College, he is thrilled to be pursuing a theatre and social science degree. William is also an Ubuntu Theater Project ensemble member where he has

acted in numerous productions including The Brothers Size, Dance of the Holy Ghosts, The Gospel of Lovingkindness and Waiting for Lefty, as well as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. Most recently he participated in a reading of Lucia Berlin at Z Space.

HOWARD JOHNSON JR. (Stand-

Up Comedian, Grandpa Joe, Paul the Extreme, Bad Cop 1, Thomas) is a Bay Area actor, comedian and teaching artist, last seen in the African-American Shakespeare Company's production of Xtigone. Howard began performing standup comedy as a student at the University of Minnesota, becoming a regular at the Monday open mic night at the ACME Comedy Club and opening for comedians Adam Ferrara and Louie Anderson. Comedians he has opened for in the Bay Area have been Katt Williams, Paul Mooney and Luenell Campbell. His comedy is a mixture of storytelling, satire, and impersonations of the people he sees in everyday life. Howard is happy to be making his first appearance with Crowded Fire.

PAUL LOPER (Stagehand 1) is

thrilled to be part of this important show. In concerts to performance art to community-based projects, Paul has worked in nineteen countries over forty years. His collaborative, multi-epistemological Chormmunity workshops, which deepen a group’s self-understanding and creative access, have been conducted in health, education, business and social justice settings. He danced with Twyla Tharp, the American Dance Machine, Ron Field, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, ISO

(formerly Momix), in two Olympic Games opening ceremonies, and has created one- or twoman shows in Seattle, Paris and London. Local work includes San Francisco Playhouse, Cutting Ball Theater, Diablo Theatre Company, Broadway By the Bay, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, Thrillpeddlers, Ragged Wing Ensemble, Berkeley Playhouse. Next up is Rainbow Logic at CounterPulse.

NICAN ROBINSON (Dancer 1,

Drug Dealer Desmond, Record Company Executive, Singer 2, Desmond) is a dance and theatre enthusiast and is very excited to be in his first production with Crowded Fire. He most recently was an ensemble member in the wildly successful Broadwayscale musical Cuba Libre (Artist Repertory Theatre), where he also assisted esteemed choreographer, Maija Garcia (Chi-Raq, Fela!) in teaching the entire cast Rueda de Casino, a form of Cuban salsa. He recently relocated from New York to his hometown, Oakland, where he has been busy, appearing in the Best of PlayGround Festival (PlayGround), Abominable (PlayGround) and Hunting Love (Local Dystopia). Nican is a proud Golden Bear alumnus from the University of California, Berkeley. @ nicanrobinson

CONOR ROSS (Stagehand 2)

is beyond thrilled to be joining Crowded Fire for his first project with a professional theatre company! An aspiring dramaturg and playwright, Conor has worked on and offstage throughout his college career. Favorite roles include Chris in Killer Joe (Nomadic 2016.09 • BAYSTAGES.COM

Theatre and Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society), Paul/Pig in A Mouthful of Birds (Nomadic Theatre and Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies) and Davey in Sick (Nomadic Theatre). He as also seen his own work, Beyond and Testimonies, devised and performed at Georgetown University. Conor recently received his bachelor's of arts in physics and theatre/performance studies from Georgetown. Many thanks to his family, Mina, Tiffany and the cast for the amazing opportunity to get in the room.

MAURICE ANDRÉ SAN-CHEZ

(U/S: Sidekick Michael, Crackhead John, Bad Cop 2, Sashay, Michael) is ecstatic to be working with Crowded Fire in this masterful piece. He was most recently seen in Bridges (world premiere), The Addams Family and Hairspray at the Berkeley Playhouse. Favorite credits include Earthworm in the Pasek and Paul's James and the Giant Peach (China and CA Tour), Five Little Monkeys and Knuffle Bunny (Bay Area Children’s Theatre), Flash Plays (Playwrights Foundation), Kendall Parker in Yellow (New Conservatory Theatre Center) and Carrie (Ray of Light Theatre). Andre is a teaching artist, director, stage manager and will soon be a credentialed high school biology teacher! "Much love to Dad, Stephanie, Olivia, Charlie, Walter, Andrew and Joey!"

MICHAEL WAYNE TURNER III

(Rapper Omar, Singer 3, Michael) is an award-winning actor and poet with a background in modern contemporary dance. He has worked with Russell Simmons, Youth Speaks and Stan Latham (HBO’s Brave New Voices). Michael recently toured as an actor/spoken word artist/dancer in Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s reincarnation of Word Becomes Flesh, hailed by the Washington Post as a “theoretical theatrical smack down.” He is locally known for his work as the lead actor in Campo Santo’s world premiere of Chasing Mehserle by Chinaka Hodge. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that 8

BAYSTAGES.COM • 2016.09

his performance had “a magnetic deep-dyed earnestness and almost otherworldly innocence" and "Turner keeps the central action engaging.” Michael is a regular with the African-American Shakespeare Company and Playwrights Foundation. He has also worked with American Conservatory Theater and Intersection for the Arts. Michael has presented as a performing poet in over fifty cities throughout the US including New York, Chicago and Baton Rouge.

YOUNG JEAN LEE (Playwright) is

a writer, director and filmmaker who has been called “the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation” by the New York Times and “one of the best experimental playwrights in America” by Time Out New York. She has written and directed ten shows in New York with Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, and toured her work to over thirty cities around the world. She is currently under commission from Lincoln Center Theater and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and has written a screenplay commission for Plan B/Paramount Pictures. Her first short film, Here Come the Girls, was presented at the Locarno International Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival and BAMcinemaFest. She is currently a resident artist with The Wooster Group and is completing her second short film, A Meaning Full Life, starring Paul Lazar, Wallace Shawn and Kate Valk. Last year, she released her debut album, We’re Gonna Die, with her band, Future Wife. Lee is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two OBIE Awards, a Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Doris Duke Pe r f o r m i n g A r t i s t Aw a r d , a Doris Duke Artist Residency, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant, and the ZKB Patronage Prize of the Zürcher Theater Spektakel. youngjeanlee.org

MINA MORITA (Co-Director, Artistic Director) previously served as the artistic associate at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and helped

found its center for the creation and development of new work, The Ground Floor. She directed in the Fireworks Festival, served as assistant director to Tony Taccone for Tony Kushner’s The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide... and to Les Waters for Sarah Ruhl’s Tonynominated In The Next Room…. In 2012, Mina worked with Anna Deavere Smith as the artistic coordinator for On Grace. Mina has directed at several Bay Area theatre companies including Shotgun Players, the University of California, Berkeley and Just Theatre, and has developed work at American Conservatory Theater, Campo Santo, Aurora Theatre Company and Playwrights Foundation. Mina serves on the Zellerbach Family Foundation’s Community Arts Panel, previously served as board president of Shotgun Players, and is one of the founders of Bay Area Children's Theatre. She holds a degree from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and attended the 2014 Lincoln Center Director's Lab. In 2014, Mina received the TBA Award for Outstanding Direction of a Musical and was recognized as a TBA 40@40 in 2016 for her impact on Bay Area theatre. In 2015, Mina was honored to share her story on TEDx, and this year, she was chosen as one of the YBCA100, for "asking questions and making provocations that will shape the future of culture."

LISA MARIE ROLLINS (Co-Director) is a playwright, freelance director and dramaturg. Most recently she directed a staged reading of Tearrance Chisholm’s Br’er Cotton (Playwrights Foundation) and was assistant director and dramaturg for Blackademics by Idris Goodwin (Crowded Fire Theater). She is the director of All Atheists are Muslim by Zahra Noorbakhsh and coproduced A History of the Body by Aimee Suzara. Lisa Marie performed her acclaimed solo play, Ungrateful Daughter: One Black Girl’s Story of Being Adopted by a White Family… That Aren’t Celebrities, in the New York International Fringe Theater Festival, the Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival, the Atlanta

Black Theater Festival, the San Francisco Theater Festival, at StageWerx, Tell it on Tuesday, The Marsh (Berkeley and San Francisco) and at universities and academic conferences across the US. She is a Callaloo Journal London Writing Fellow and an alumni in Poetry of VONA Writing Workshop, and was poet in residence at June Jordan’s Poetry for the People at the University of California, Berkeley. Her writing is published in Eye to the Telescope, Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out, River, Blood, Corn Literary Journal, Line/Break, As/ Us Literary Journal, the Pacific Review, the Lost Daughters, the Huffington Post and others. Currently, she is finishing her new manuscript of poems, Compass, and her new play, Token, with Just Theater’s New Play Lab. She is adjunct professor in the Race and Resistance Studies Department in the School of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University.

HEATHER BASARAB (Lighting

Designer) has designed several Crowded Fire shows, including ‘Maid and Slow Falling Bird. She is delighted to return! Additional recent projects include Portrait and Z in the inaugural season of SFDanceworks, Change (Fogbeast), Dogsbody with Erik Ehn's national Soulography Project (La Mama, New York), Breakfast with Mugabe and Little Erik (Aurora Theatre), Hamlet (Shotgun Players), Tough (Chris Black Dance) and A Dreamplay at Cutting Ball Theater where she is an associate artist. Favorite designs include Birdhouse Factory (Cirque Mechanique) and Wonderboy and Drowsy (Joe Goode Performance Group). Her design for Drowsy was awarded an Isadora Duncan Dance Award and she holds a BA in theatre design from the University of California, Los Angeles.

HANNAH BIRCH CARL (Sound Designer) has composed sound

and music all over the Bay Area. Most recently she has worked with Shotgun Players, Center REPertory Company, Aurora Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, Town Hall Theatre Company, and has had the joy of being an artist invited to work at Berkeley Repertory Theatre's The Ground Floor. This year she helped develop Home Invasion, a site-specific play by Christopher Chen. She also co-runs Klanghaus, a monthly performance art event with Theodore JH Hulsker. "Shout out to Pino for being so beautiful."

KEIKO SHIMOSATO CARREIRO

(Costume Designer) has been a performer, designer and director for the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe from 1987 to the present. As their resident designer, she has realized critically acclaimed costumes, sets, props and puppets for over twenty shows which have toured nationally and internationally. She was nominated for the TBA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design for The Braggart Soldier (Custom Made Theatre Co.) and the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Kokoro (Theatre of Yugen). Keiko was featured in American Theatre magazine as an innovative designer for 410[GONE] with Crowded Fire Theatre. "Happy to be a part of this bold project."

SEAN FENTON (Music Director)

is a theatre artist and arts researcher based in Oakland and San Francisco and a board member for Crowded Fire Theater. Favorite music supervisor credits include Manzi: The Adventures of Young Cesar Chavez and the world premiere of Ivy + Bean: The Musical (Bay Area Children's Theatre) and the national tours of Tomie dePaola's Strega Nona and The Magic School Bus Live! The Climate Challenge (BACT and Maximum Entertainment). As an actor, Sean has performed with TheatreWorks, Broadway By the 2016.09 • BAYSTAGES.COM

UP NEXT AT CROWDED FIRE: 2016 MATCHBOX READING SERIES

Bindlestiff Studio 185 Sixth Street, San Francisco

The Matchbox @ Crowded Fire actively supports the creation of high quality contemporary theater through commissions, in-house workshops, and this annual public reading series. Readings are free and open to the public.

THE STRANGER

November 16 • 7:00 p.m. Betty Shamieh, playwright Evren Odcikin, director

IPAP & CUCARACHA

November 17 • 7:00 p.m. Matthew Keuter, playwright Sonia Fernandez, director

HANDS UP: 7 PLAYWRIGHTS, 7 TESTAMENTS

November 18 • 7:00 p.m. Nathan James Nathan Yungerberg Idris Goodwin Nambi Kelley Glenn Gordon Dennis Allen II Eric Holmes, playwrights Lisa Marie Rollins, director

A CROWDED FIRE COMMISSION

November 19 • 2:00 p.m. Christopher Chen, playwright Mina Morita, director 2017 Season Release Party to follow the November 19 reading!

PetER ANd presents

ThE

sT r

caTcHEr EXPERIENCE THE NEVERLAND YOU NEVER KNEW

SEPTEMBER 22 TO

OCTOBER 16

Bay and Custom Made Theatre Co. He received a TBA Award for his performance in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (BACT), directed by Mina Morita. He is proud to be part of this production and sends his love to this entire, amazing team.

SONIA FERNANDEZ (Dramaturg)

is a scholar, translator and dramaturg specializing in new work. Recent production dramaturgy projects include the world premiere of runboyrun by Mfoniso Udofia and Bright Half Life by Tanya Barfield at the Magic Theatre where she is the associate artistic director. Recent new play development includes workshop reading of Madame Ho by Eugenie Chan. A PhD candidate at the University of California, San Diego, Soniaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research focuses on audience experience of racial humor. She received an AB in English from Princeton and a master's from San Francisco State University. She is a proud and longtime resident artist with Crowded Fire.

D E VO N L A B E L L E ( P r o p s

Designer) is a multidisciplinary artist with an emphasis on vivid visual and special effects components. In eight short seasons she has fueled over ninety Bay Area productions with the physical artifacts that make them work. Devon is a resident artist with Crowded Fire and is thankful for her continued work with the company. "Love to Sam, Jo and Roscoe." giveherprops. wordpress.com

RAMI

BERKELEYPLAYHOUSE.ORG

2640 COLLEGE AVENUE

MARGRON

(Choreographer) is an actor, dancer and resident artist with Crowded Fire. She has choreographed and created movement direction for shows at many Bay Area theatre companies, most recently You Never Can Tell (California Shakespeare Theater). Favorite choreography credits include And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi (Cutting Ball Theater), Learn to Be Latina 10

BAYSTAGES.COM â&#x20AC;˘ 2016.09

(Impact Theatre), and Hair (Willows Theatre Company). She is trained in roughly twenty styles of dance as well as circus and physical theatre. She is a member of the Haitian dance company Rara Tou Limen and she teaches at Rhythm & Motion at ODC Dance Commons.

C A R L A PA N TOJA ( F i g h t

Director) is a certified stage combat instructor with Dueling Arts International and a founding member of the local chapter, Dueling Arts San Francisco. Fight creations for Crowded Fire include Truck Stop and Blackademics from last season and date back to Forever Never Comes in 2010. Recent local fight credits include The Tempest (California Shakespeare Theater) Romeo and Juliet (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival) and August: Osage County (Contra Costa Civic Theatre). Carla is also a resident artist with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and a company member of PlayGround. Thanks to her family for babysitting her four year old and six month old!

BENJAMIN SHIU (Assistant

Stage Manager) is a graduate of San Francisco State University's spring 2016 class with a BA in drama, and recently worked with the Crowded Fire team on I Call My Brothers as an assistant stage manager. He is eager to continue exploring stage management and wishes to thank Crowded Fire for the opportunity to work with them again on The Shipment. His previous credits include being on set crew for Chinglish (Palo Alto Players) and front of the house management for Crane (Ferocious Lotus).

M. SOHAA SMITH ( St a g e

Manager) has been a part of Crowded Fire since 2012 with credits for Good Goods, Invasion!, The Hundred Flowers Project, 410[GONE], The Taming, She Rode Horses Like the Stock Exchange, The Late Wedding,

Blackademics and Mechanics of Love. Other stage management credits around the Bay Area include The Great Big Also! (Mugwumpin), A Lie of the Mind (Boxcar Theatre), The River Bride and A Man, His Wife and His Hat (AlterTheater), and Dreamplay (Cutting Ball Theater). She also assistant stage managed ROMP (LEVYdance).

DEANNA L. ZIBELLO (Scenic

Designer) is an award-winning scenic designer. Favorite designs include Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train (Azeotrope), Milkmilklemonade (Impact Theatre) and Artifacts of Consequence (The Satori Group). Previous Crowded Fire credits include Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them and Mechanics of Love. Deanna holds an MFA in scenic design from the University of Washington School of Drama and teaches at Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga. "Love and thanks to Charles, who makes it all possible." deannazibello.com

TIFFANY COTHRAN (Managing

Director) has served as Crowded Fire’s managing director since 2008, leading the administrative operations in collaboration with the Crowded Fire artistic director. She is a hands-on problemsolving manager, focused on maximizing the financial and operational systems of the company while implementing strategic and meaningful growth. Tiffany is passionate about theatre as a catalyst for conversation and social change. An arts education advocate, Tiffany previously served as the associate director of education and outreach at TheatreWorks. In addition to wearing many hats at Crowded Fire, Tiffany also proudly wears her Mom hat.

“Everything goes to the theatre!” has been uttered more than once by her children. In recognition of this truth, Tiffany thanks Jack, Abby, and Kieran for their sacrifice and support.

ABOUT CROWDED FIRE

EDITH BORREBACH (Patron

Crowded Fire Theater (CFT) serves as an indispensable home for new play production on the West Coast. CFT develops and produces a diversity of plays compelling in language, vision, and structure.

Services Manager) comes to Crowded Fire after working in social justice in the international non-profit sector for nearly a decade. Edie has a deep appreciation for contemporary theatre, especially as it relates to her community in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco. More than just a friendly face at the door, Edie hopes to enhance C r o w d e d F i r e ’s a u d i e n c e engagement through dynamic outreach and communication. She is excited to see what new roads Crowded Fire will forge as one of the fastest growing indie theatre companies in the Bay Area.

S T E P H A N I E A LY S O N HENDERSON ( P r o d u c t i o n

Manager) has called Crowded Fire home for over five years. She has a bachelor’s degree in theatre and performance studies from the University of California, Berkeley where she started her career in stage management. She has freelanced as a stage manager and production manager throughout the Bay Area for both theatre and dance. Stephanie is interested in challenging, important, thought-provoking theatre. She enjoys problem-solving, facilitating and supporting the brilliant artists and technicians she works with on a daily basis. When not working, you may find her catching Pokémon, singing karaoke, or doing some sort of craft project while her cat tries to sit on it.

All images and/or content provided by Crowded Fire Theater staff, contractors and/or creative artists unless otherwise credited. Opinions expressed by contractors, contributors and/or creative artists do not necessarily reflect the views of Crowded Fire Theater or VIA MEDIA. Photo credits are included as provided.

A COMMITMENT TO NEW PLAYS

A COMMITMENT TO DIVERSE VOICES We deeply believe in the power of supporting work by a body of playwrights whose plays give visibility to all communities. We are committed to actively participate in the creation of a contemporary theatrical cannon that more accurately reflects the world in which we live. A COMMITMENT TO ARTISTS CFT provides a rich home for our ensemble of Resident Artists made up of top Bay Area actors, designers, dramaturgs, technicians, and directors. This ensemble, with its wealth of interests and ideas, as well as the dedication and talent of its members, represents one of the company’s most significant strengths.

2016 SEASON SPONSORS

KARENA FIORENZA INGERSOLL + EMRYS INGERSOLL DUGAN MOORE | G. TIPHANE

GENERAL OPERATING SUPPORT

RHE Charitable Foundation

CFT MEMBERS

CFT Memberships are donations that start as low as $25. Members receive fantastic perks ranging from listings in our program to discounted tickets to behind-the-scenes access to our work. (List: November 2015-August 2016)

VISIONARIES [$2,500+]

Anonymous • Steven Collier • Karena Fiorenza Ingersoll + Emrys Ingersoll Dugan Moore • Luis Tamayo + David Thompson • G Tiphane

SPONSORS [$1,000+]

Tina Brier + David Shapiro • Peter Glazer • Graham Gockley • Burton + Carol Goldfield Naomi Janowitz + Andrew Lazarus • Thomas, Susan + Chelsea Looy • Patricia Sakai + Richard Shapiro Andrew Sullivan + Becka Robbins • Pepi Ross • Brad Rubenstein

COMMISSIONERS [$500+]

Emily Rosenthal • Paul Blaney • Jennifer Burden • Natalie Balfour + John Cove • Kerstin Firmin + Steven Love Jill Matichak • Deborah Taylor • Joe Mallon + Sue Trowbridge

INNOVATORS [$250+]

Julie Baum • Jenny Caughey + Charles Haletky • Darryl Chiang • Long Do + Sonia Fernandez • Morgan Forsey Bill Galeher + Madeleine Oldham • Connie Garrison • Sarah Gopher-Stevens • Bethany Herron • Carolyn Jones Nancy Olson • Eleanor Reinholdt • Elizabeth + Steven Rosenberg • Tolbert + Garrison Familia

STRENGTHENERS [$100+]

Sofia Ahmad + John Atwood • Aj Baker • Sue Behr • Chas Belov • Scott Bowhay • Jennifer Brody • Stephen Buchner • Ann Chen • Harriet Chessman + Bryan Wolf • Rob Cook • Bill Cosden + • M'Liss Greenlee • Jack + Melinda Cothran • Emily Fassler • Sean Fenton • Karyn Goldberg Boltz • Keith Goldstein • Lauren Gunderson • Juanita Harte Gary Horowitz • The Jacob Family • Krista Lane • Michele Leavy • Amanda Melton • Leslie Miller • Natasha Morita Yuma Morita • Shirlene + Randy Nakano • Patricia Radecker • Nancy Ross-Madnick • Kathy Rucker • Eric Ting Dawn Troupe-Masi • Margaret Whitaker

SUSTAINERS [$25+]

Brent Albert • Beth Anderson • Anonymous • Vivian Auslander • Elizabeth Benedict • Amy Bobeda • Brady Brophy-Hilton • Eugenie Chan Adam Chanzit • Christopher Chen • Jeri Lynn Cohen • Susie Coliver + Robert Herman • Emon Elboudwarej • Adrian Elfenbaum + JoAnne Winter • Mitchell Evan • Judith Feins + Richard London • John Glazer • Paul Heller + Helen Goldsmith • Amelia + Jarrod Green • Anne Hallinan • Barbara Hebert • Barbara Herbert • Susan Holdstein • Sam Houston • Izumi Ide-Chiba • Richard Louis James • Robert C. Jones Melpomene Katakalos • Lynn Eve Komaromi • Linda Mackinson • George Maguire • Nina Meehan • Kim Merkin • Everett + Julia Moore Mina Morita • Amy Mueller • Kathy Nicholson • David Nugent • Evren Odcikin • Lachlan Philpott • Amy Potozkin • Mark Punzal Arjunan Rajeswaran • Ginny Reed • Ulla Reilly • Robin Roth • Andrew Saito • Chad Sanada • Rob Seitelman • Susan Shay • Annie Smart Lily Tung Crystal • Heather Williams • Marissa Wolf • Viviana Wolinsky • Roger Wykle • Mike Zimmerman

TREMENDOUS THANKS TO OUR CURRENT MEMBERS! 12

BAYSTAGES.COM • 2016.09

CITY LIGHTS THEATER COMPANY

Tix & info: cltc.org, 408-295-4200

529 South Second St. San Jose, CA 95112

THE CUSTOM MADE THEATRE CO.

PRESENTS THE SAN FRANCISCO PREMIERE OF

by Gina Gionfriddo Three old friends explore the complexities of the women’s liberation movement with intimacy and acerbic wit, hilariously and painfully exploring the concept of trying out that life you rejected.

DIRECTED BY LEAH ABRAMS 11.17.16 to 12.17.16 • CUSTOMMADE.ORG 415.798.2682

NOW FEATURED OR COMING SOON TO

WAITING FOR GODOT | DRAGON PRODUCTIONS THEATRE COMPANY

NOW THROUGH 10.02.16 | 650.493.2006 • dragonproductions.net | REDWOOD CITY

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS | RAY OF LIGHT THEATRE

NOW THROUGH 10.08.16 | rayoflighttheatre.com | SAN FRANCISCO

CHESS | THE CUSTOM MADE THEATRE CO.

NOW THROUGH 10.15.16 | 415.798.2682 • custommade.org | SAN FRANCISCO

THE SHIPMENT | CROWDED FIRE THEATER

NOW THROUGH 10.15.16 | 415.523.0034 • crowdedfire.org | SAN FRANCISCO

PETER AND THE STARCATCHER | BERKELEY PLAYHOUSE

NOW THROUGH 10.16.16 | 510.845.8542 • berkeleyplayhouse.org | Berkeley

OTHER DESERT CITIES | CITY LIGHTS THEATER COMPANY NOW THROUGH 10.23.16 | 408.295.4200 • cltc.org | San Jose

SEARED | SAN FRANCISCO PLAYHOUSE

9.27.16 • 11.12.16 | 415.677.9596 • sfplayhouse.org | SAN FRANCISCO

WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT | SAN JOSE STAGE COMPANY 9.28.1 6 • 10.23.1 6 | 408.283.7142 • thestage.org | San Jose

THE FANTASTICKS | OMG, I LOVE THAT SHOW PRODUCTIONS

10.07.16 • 10.30.16 | 925.943.7469 • omgilovethatshow.com | Walnut Creek

SHUDDER | THE BREADBOX

10.28.16 • 11.19.16 | 415.931.1094 • breadboxtheatre.org | SAN FRANCISCO

MAJOR BARBARA | PEAR THEATRE

10.28.16 • 11.20.16 | 650.254.1148 • thepear.org | Mountain View

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST | BROADWAY BY THE BAY

11.4.16 • 11.20.16 | 650.579.5565 • broadwaybythebay.org | REDWOOD CITY

ADVERTISE @ BAYSTAGES.COM • 415.552.8040