The Custom Made Theatre Co. presents
Steve Yockey’s
theTHRUSH & the
WOODPECKER a revenge play
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR 2016-2017 SEASON 533 Sutter Street San Francisco, CA 94102 415.798.2682 info@custommade.org custommade.org
STAFF Brian Katz
Subscriptions start at just $99 for six shows and include choice seats, free concessions, unlimited changes and discounts on additional tickets!
SEP 2016 • CHESS
lyrics by Tim Rice music by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus former members of ABBA Politics and sport frame a love triangle with hits “One Night in Bangkok” and “I Know Him So Well” in a score of both classical tones and Euro-pop energy.
artistic director
Leah S. Abrams executive director
Eden Neuendorf company manager
Beth Hall production manager
Paul Stout facilities manager
Gabriel A. Ross casting director
Stuart Bousel director of new works
Adam L. Sussman literary manager
Cat Howser resident stage manager
Brooke Jennings resident costume designer
Maxx Kurzunski resident lighting designer
Ryan Lee Short resident sound designer
Jon Bailey resident fight choreographer
Liz Ryder resident composer
Perry Aliado resident dramaturge
OCT 2016 RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN
by Gina Gionfriddo (San Francisco Premiere) 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.
JAN 2017 BELLEVILLE
by Amy Herzog (Bay Area Premiere) Two young Americans have the perfect ex-pat life in Paris, but when Abby finds Zack at home when he’s supposed to be at work the questions that follow shake up their seemingly perfect marriage.
FEB 2017 ISAAC’S EYE
by Lucas Hnath (Bay Area Premiere) A hilarious and poignant exploration of love, greatness and the nature of truth that playfully combines contemporary language, historical fact, deadpan humor and scientific inquiry.
APR 2017 THE HOUSE OF YES by Wendy MacLeod
Marty comes home for Thanksgiving with his fiancé Lesly, which is not taken well by his jealous twin sister, Jackie-O, as this dark comedy of seductions starts to spin out of control.
MAY 2017 KURT VONNEGUT’S MOTHER NIGHT adapted by Brian Katz (World Premiere)
This metafictional tale is that of Nazi propagandists, duplicitous spies, bumbling white supremacists and a timeless love affair: a “nation of two” that rejects all nationalism and borders. @CustomMadeSF
custommade.org/subscribe
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
T HE CUSTOM MA DE T HE AT RE C O. pres e n t s
a revenge play by
Steve Yockey
CAST [ IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE ]
•
Brenda Hendriks........................................................... Stacy Ross Noah Hendriks............................................................... Adam Magill Róisín Danner..................................................... Fontana Butterfield
CREATIVE TEAM
Director.....................................................................................Tracy Ward Stage Manager........................................................................Beth Hall ♦ Scenic Designer.................................................................. Dan Bilodeau Costume Designer..................................................................Kitty Torres Sound Designer...................................................................... Liz Ryder ♦ Lighting Designer..............................................................Cassie Barnes Props Designer......................................................................Grisel Torres Fight Choreographer............................................................ Jon Bailey ♦ Technical Director............................................................Kyle Langdon ♦ Assistant Director...................................................................Rory Garcia Video Technician..........................................................Maxx Kurzunski ♦ Animation Design............................................................. David Goodwin
• Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers. ♦ Member, The Custom Made Theatre Co.
The Thrush & the Woodpecker is produced at Custom Made Theatre Co. as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. Other partnering theatres are Actor’s Express in Atlanta and Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas. nnpn.org
Animations made possible by Kitchen Dog Theater and John M. Flores.
Performances:
August 4 to 20, 2016 Custom Made Theatre, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
The play is performed without an intermission. Please turn off your cell phones. Videotaping or other recording of this production is strictly prohibited. 2016.08 • BAYSTAGES.COM
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Sheri Abrams Leah S. Abrams Linda Ayres-Frederick Serge Bakalian Phil Bartenetti Norman Berman Nancy Cooper Frank Barbara Janney Brian Katz Marsha Katz Mel Katz Brandy Leggett-Petricka Daunielle Rasmussen Yvonne Steffen
COMPANY MEMBERS Perry Aliado Terry Bamberger Lewis Campbell Stefin Collins Ashley Cowan AJ Davenport Jennifer Dean Giana DeGeiso Danielle Doyle Mark Eisman Stephanie Ann Foster Justin Gillman Ryan Hayes Eric Johnson Shelley Lynn Johnson Tavis Kammet Catherine “Cat” Luedtke Brian Martin Eden Neuendorf Fred Pitts Eric Rice Gabriel A. Ross Jessica Jade Rudholm Kim Saunders Rona Siddiqui Dave Sikula Paul Stout Richard Wenzel Teri Whipple
BUTTERFIELD
MAGILL
ROSS
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES FONTANA BUTTERFIELD (Róisín
Danner) is making her Custom Made debut, and she is incredibly honored to be a part of the magic. Recent roles include Christine Patterson, in One Man, Two Guvnors (Berkeley Repertory Theatre and South Coast Rep), Alexandra del Lago in Sweet Bird of Youth (Tides Theatre), Mrs. Marchmont in An Ideal Husband (Marin Shakespeare Company) and God's Plot, The Three Musketeers, The Forest War, King Lear, The Miser and Cyrano de Bergerac (Shotgun Players). At Killing My Lobster, Fontana appeared in the sketch shows For The Very First Time and Goal!!!! and the award-winning comedic plays Hunter Gatherers and Multiplex. Fontana is also an improviser, currently performing with the improv trio, The Right Now. A San Francisco native, Fontana graduated from San Francisco State University with a theatre degree. She further trained in the Meisner technique at Laura Henry Studio in Santa Monica and currently teaches Meisner and improv at various acting schools. Fontana is the proud founder of Yeah, I Said Feminist: A Theater Salon.
ADAM MAGILL (Noah Hendriks)
is making his Custom Made debut. Bay Area credits include Macbeth (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Stupid Fucking Bird (San Francisco Playhouse), The Whale (Marin Theatre Company), The Mousetrap (Shotgun Players) and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (City Lights Theatre Company). He is a graduate of the Foothill Theater Conservatory. 2
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STACY ROSS (Brenda Hendriks) ●
is pleased to join Custom Made for this production and to work with Tracy Ward again. A Bay Area actor, she was last seen as Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing (California Shakespeare Theater). Recent work includes Between Riverside and Crazy (American Conservatory Theater), Gideon’s Knot (Aurora Theatre Company) and the world premiere of Bauer (San Francisco Playhouse), which also ran at 59E59 in New York. Other work includes Berkeley Rep, Marin Theatre Company, the late San Jose Repertory Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage and Arizona Theatre Company. She is a member of PlayGround, Symmetry Theatre, and Actors' Equity Association.
STEVE YOCKEY (Playwright) is
a Los Angeles-based writer with work produced throughout the US, Europe and Asia. His plays include Afterlife, Octopus, The Fisherman’s Wife and Niagara Falls & Other Plays. The Thrush & The Woodpecker is a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere with productions at Actor's Express, Kitchen Dog, and Custom Made Theatre Co. Steve holds an MFA in dramatic writing from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. He currently contributes issues to the Zenescope comic book series Grimm Tales of Terror and writes for HBO’s The Brink.
TRACY WARD (Director) is an
award-winning freelance director based in the Bay Area and focuses
on new works for the American theatre. Her next project is Snow Queen at Marin Theatre Company in December. Recent work includes Arctic Requiem (Z Below) and The Dragon Play - noted on two Top Ten lists in the Bay Area - and What Every Girl Should Know (Impact Theatre). Other credits include work at Aurora Theatre Company, AlterTheater, Shotgun Players, Encore Theater Company and ODC Theater. She is a proud company member of PlayGround. tracyward.org
JON BAILEY (Fight Choreographer)
is the resident fight choreographer at Custom Made. He has been designing fight choreography since 2003. Favorite fights at Custom Made include Superior Donuts, Mr. Marmalade and St. Joan of the Stockyards. Jon's work has also been seen at DivaFest, MultiEthnic Theatre Company, FaultLine Theatre, Dark Room Productions, The Breadbox, and his alma mater, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts.
CASSIE BARNES (Lighting Designer)
has been involved in technical theatre for the last ten years, but it was under the instruction of Joan Arhelger at San Francisco State University that her passion for lighting design was born. After graduating from San Francisco State University, where she studied women and gender studies and theatre arts, she began her freelance career. Cassie designs lighting across the greater Bay Area for a variety of companies including Golden Thread Productions, The Breadbox, Bay
Area Children's Theatre, 99 Stock Productions, Wiley West Productions and Thunderbird Theatre Company. Although she got her start in theatre productions, she has expanded her career to include dance, which has led her to work with Applegate Dance Company, Bayer Ballet, Ledoh with Salt Farm, Joe Orrach and Meredith Webster.
worked as technical director for Peninsula Youth Theatre and Renegade Theatre Experiment. He also worked as a carpenter at Palo Alto Children’s Theatre, Opera San José, Long Lake Camp for the Arts, Palo Alto Players and Broadway By the Bay. Kyle graduated from Santa Clara University with a BA in theatre arts and US history.
DAN BILODEAU (Scenic Designer)
LIZ RYDER (Sound Designer)
is an associate professor and chair of theatre and dance at the University of Maine. He holds a BA in theatre from Clark University and an MFA in theatre design from Brandeis University. His design work has been seen in professional theaters throughout New England including the Sandra Feinstein Gamm Theater, the Lewiston Public Theater, the Theater at Monmouth, the Portland Stage Company, and the Penobscot Theater. He has worked nationally on dozens of corporate theatre events for companies including State Farm Insurance, Pfizer and IBM, and has been a guest artist at the University of Rhode Island, Providence College and Boston College. He is currently the resident scenic designer at the Theater at Monmouth, where he has designed over twenty-five plays including eleven by William Shakespeare.
BETH HALL (Stage Manager)
has been stage managing in the Bay Area for just about two years. In addition to Custom Made, where she also serves as production manager, Beth has been lucky enough to work with such companies as StageWrite, FaultLine Theater, San Francisco Playhouse and many others. Recent credits include the New York-bound Sam and Dede (Custom Made), Monsters, Schemes, and Wild Dreams (StageWrite) and Stegosaurus (FaultLine Theater).
KYLE LANGDON (Technical
Director) is the technical director for the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. Before joining the Festival, Kyle has
is a seasoned sound designer, composer and singer-songwriter based in Sacramento and San Francisco. She has worked with various Bay Area theatre companies including Marin Theatre Company, New Conservatory Theatre Center, The EXIT, Phoenix Theatre, Masquers Playhouse, and has created sound design for numerous productions at Custom Made including In Love and Warcraft, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five and The Crucible. She received the 2015 TBA Award for Outstanding Sound Design for The Pillowman (Bigger than a Breadbox Theatre Co.) and a 2013 San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Excellence in Theater Award for her sound design for Eurydice (Custom Made). lizrydersound.com
GRISEL TORRES (Props Designer)
is a theatre artist and facilitator from the Bay Area. She graduated from San Francisco State University in 2013, where she studied lighting design under the guidance of Joan Arhelger. Props design is a new endeavor for Grisel, and she is having an invigorating time making things with her hands and paint brushes. The Thrush and the Woodpecker is her third production with Custom Made, having previously served as stage manager, and she is grateful for such artful opportunities. She is currently the company manager at foolsFURY Theater, and in the last year has also worked with Circo Zero/Keith Hennessy, PUSH Dance Company and Golden Thread Productions. Enjoy the show! grisel-torres. squarespace.com 2016.08 • BAYSTAGES.COM
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KITTY TORRES (Costume Designer)
has had the pleasure of working with Custom Made before under the guidance of Brooke Jennings and is beyond elated that she can be a guest costumer for The Thrush and the Woodpecker. She has enjoyed the experience of working with Tracy and all of the cast and crew on this beautiful, unabashed, and thoughtful piece. She looks forward to performing in FORKING! at PianoFight in August and future projects as a designer. She thanks the staff at Custom Made and each and every person who has come out for this show.
NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK
(NNPN) is the country’s alliance of non-profit professional theaters dedicated to the development, production and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has supported more than 200 productions nationwide through its innovative National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere program, which provides playwright and production support for new works at its member theaters. Additional programs - its annual national conference, National Showcase of New Plays, MFA Playwrights Workshop, the NNPN Annual Commission and Smith Prize for Political Theater, its residencies for playwrights, producers and directors, and the organization’s member accessed collaboration, festival and travel banks and online information sessions - have helped cement the Network’s position as a vital force in the new play landscape. NNPN also strives to pioneer, implement, and disseminate ideas and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and playwrights. Its most recent project, the New Play Exchange
(newplayexchange.org) is changing the way playwrights share their work and others discover it. NNPN’s thirty core and more than seventy-five associate members - along with the more than 250 affiliated artists who are its alumni, the thousands of artists and artisans employed annually by its member theaters, and the hundreds of thousands of audience members who see its supported works each year - are creating the new American theatre. nnpn.org
world premieres of Sam and Dede, Of Serpents and Sea Spray, The Braggart Soldier and Little Brother as well as Bay Area premieres like Kurt Vonnegut’s SlaughterhouseFive and Red Light Winter. Leah manages Custom Made’s New York programming. Upcoming Custom Made directing projects include Gina Gionfriddo’s Rapture, Blister, Burn and Sam and Dede, or My Dinner with André the Giant at NYC’s OffBroadway 59E59.
ACTORS' EQUITY ASSOCIATION
BRIAN KATZ (Artistic Director) is
(Equity) was founded in 1913 and is the US labor union that represents more than 50,000 actors and stage managers. Equity seeks to foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. actorsequity.org #EquityWorks
LEAH S. ABRAMS (Executive
Director) is co-founder of the Custom Made Theatre Co. Directing projects for the company include the world premiere of Gino DiIorio’s Sam and Dede, or My Dinner with Andre the Giant, the Bay Area premiere of Catherine Trieschmann's How the World Began, Wendy Kesselman's adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank, Lee Blessing's Two Rooms, Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, Mark Eisman’s Sightlines (New York) and a dozen Beckett shorts including Krapp’s Last Tape, Rockaby, Come and Go and Catastrophe. Having produced all of Custom Made’s shows these last nearly 20 years, she is especially proud of the company’s
the co-founder of the award-winning Custom Made Theatre Co. For the company, he has directed over thirty productions including Edward Albee’s The Play About the Baby (San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle's Excellence in Theatre Award for overall production, 2012) and the similarly nominated This is Our Youth (also nominated for direction). Other recent projects include Will Eno’s Middletown, Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day (SFBATCC nominee for direction ), Next to Normal (SFBATCC nominee for overall production), and the regional premieres of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer and Red Light Winter among many others. His adaptation of Candide has been presented in both San Francisco and New York. Brian has worked at California Shakespeare Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Goodman Theatre and Killing My Lobster. He is an alumnus of Clark University (Distinguished Young Alumni Award, 2006). Next up, he is ecstatic to be directing a new revival of the legendary musical Chess, which will open Custom Made’s 2016/2017 season.
● Members of Actors’ Equity Association. This theater operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
All images and/or content provided by The Custom Made Theatre Co. 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 The Custom Made Theatre Co. or VIA MEDIA. Photo credits are included as provided.
Program designed and published by VIA MEDIA • 415.552.8040 • advertise@via.media © Copyright 2016 • VIA MEDIA, a division of Caselli Partners LLC • All Rights Reserved 4
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DONORS FOUNDATIONS + GOVERNMENT
Amazon Smile Foundation • Fleishhacker Foundation The Kenneth Rainin Foundation • San Francisco Grants for the Arts Zellerbach Family Foundation CORPORATIONS
Action Sprout • Apple Matching Fund • Charles Schwab Matching Fund Google Grants • Third Workplace • Workday ANGELS [$2,500+]
Anonymous • Sheri Abrams + Norman Berman • Brian Dice Marsha + Mel Katz • William + Ruth Isenberg • Jay Yamada BENEFACTORS [$1,000+] Joe Belanoff + Katherine Blenko • Andrea + Peter Klein • Frank Levinson • Fred Pitts ASSOCIATES [$500+]
Chuck Bailey • Monica Cappucini • Bruce Coleman • Catz + Jean Forsman • Catherine Johnson Marci Ring • Margaret Sheehan • Brett & Randi Singer • Ron Talbot
ADVOCATES [$250+] Linda Ayres-Frederick • Scott Baker • Terry Bamberger • Susan Cronholm • Krystyna Finlayson • Sharon Fish • Armando Fox Nancy Frank • Jeannette Harris • Barbara Janney • Brandy Leggett Petricka • Barry Lynch • Marten Mejstrik • Bert Mittler Danielle Moskowitz • Sarah Phykitt • Dave Sikula • Scott Sublett • Sue Valentine
PATRONS [$100+]
Leah Abrams • Janice + Roger Anderman • Ashrafa Anik • Aj Baker • Carole Bennett • Stuart Bousel • Kim Bromley • Wayne Bryan Diane Carlson • James Caughman • Mark Dietrich • Laura Domingo • Betsyann Duval • Crystelle Egan • Robert Estes • Lea Ann Fleming Chris Hannafan • Stanley Hartzell • William Heap • Karen Hollenbeck • Bren Johnson • Eric Johnson • Brian Katz • Siobhan King Jude Knab • Dan Kurtz • Donna Lavallee • John Lehnert • Eula Loftin • Thomas Lustenader • Barry Lynch + Dennis Blanchard Gail Macgowan • Jennifer Marks • Mary Jo Price • Harry Rabin • David Raymond • Glenn Reid • Eleanor Reinholdt • Cary Cronholm Rose Robert Rudholm • Barbara Scrafford • William Senkus • Kirk Shimano • Jeunee Simon • Robert Stumpf • Joan Sullivan • Leslie Sullivan Patrick Walsh • Renee Ward • Alison Wong
DONORS [$25+] Leanna Ampola • Jamie Antonazzo • Jeremy Barcan • Mary Bellack • Thomas Bertken • Virginia Blanco • Rachel Bublitz • Lynnette Campbell Deb Cardenas • Jake & Anne Carlson • Gary Carr • Christie Chew • Pat Chun-Spielberg • Melissa Clason • Stephen Coffin • Ariel Craft Scott Cunningham • A J Davenport • David Davison • Gino DiIorio • Tina + Richard Dinitz • Danielle Doyle • Susan Dunn • Elyse Eisner • Deb Elitzur Evelina Elwood • Maria Esteve • Jane Field • Justin Gillman • Jane Gorsi • David Grabstald • Elizabeth Groenewegen • Carey Groom Stanley Hartzman + Joan Rost • Barbara Hebert • Albert Heller • Lawrence Helman • Melissa Hillman • Bruce Huston • Stanley Hutter • Bob Jaffe Hass James • Alyssa Jenkins • Shelley Johnson • Eli Katz • Scott Kirker • Joanne Koltnow • Kristi Kuhnen • Alexandra Kutik • Marc Larby • Robert Leach William Leben • Kelly Lee • Sandy Levitan • Margaret Levitt • Carlo Lindsey • Rebecca Longworth • Ernie Lowenstein • Carl Lucania • Liz Lucero Catherine Luedtke • Michael Lushington • Gail Macgowan • Kathryn Malone • Mara Matsumura • Tim May • Pat McKelvey • Randy McMullen Pidge Meade • Joseph Mersol • Cynthia Metcalfe • Henry Milich • Evelyne Mobbs • Cheri Murrell • Judy Nakaso • Eden Neuendorf • Lisa-Marie Newton Pat Nims • Paul Nocero • Royi Noiman • Alan Olejniczak • Evelyn Jean Pine • Jim Preston • Clare Prowse • Madeline Puccioni • Matt Quinonez Dorothea Rastegar • Nina Fojaco Reed • Kelly Rinehart • Kathleen Rivera • Chris Robbins • Deborah L Robbins • Gabriel Ross • Geoff Rubio Susan Rutberg • George Santori • Richard Sargent • Kim Saunders • Lisa Semeraro • Andrew Sexton • Madhuri Shekar • Randall Shields • Michael Shipley David Sklar • Kathleen Slobin • Glenna Snyder • Leo Stutzin • Agata Sulczynski • Adam Sussman • Adrian Tiller • Alastar Wade • Kathleen Walker Barbara Sonner Weissman • Richard Wenzel • Elizabeth Werter • Teri Whipple • Michael Williams • Daniel Wilson • Joseph Yee • Virginia Yee
THANK YOU!
SAN FRANCISCO PLAYHOUSE 450 Post Street, San Francisco 415.677.9596 • sfplayhouse.org
Through September 17, 2016
CITY LIGHTS THEATER COMPANY 529 South Second Street, San Jose 408.295.4200 • cltc.org
Through August 21, 2016
DRAGON PRODUCTIONS THEATRE COMPANY 2120 Broadway Street, Redwood City 650.493.2006 • dragonproductions.net
Through August 21, 2016
THE BREADBOX EXIT Stage Left, 156 Eddy Street, San Francisco 415.931.1094 • breadboxtheatre.org
Through August 20, 2016
THE CUSTOM MADE THEATRE CO. 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco 415.798.2682 • custommade.org
Through August 20, 2016
AND
SILICON VALLEY SHAKESPEARE Sanborn Park, 16055 Sanborn Road, Saratoga svshakespeare.org
In Repertory Through September 4, 2016