Berkeley Rep: Head of Passes

Discover our 2015–16 season 16 · Shining a light on Tarell Alvin McCraney 20 · The program for Head of Passes 25

THE BERKELEY REP M AGA ZINE 2 014 –15 · I S S U E 6

Elizabeth “Libby” Clark, joined in 2009

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BE R K E L E Y R E P P R E S E N T S HEAD OF PAS S E S · 2 5

M E E T T H E C A ST & C R E W · 26

P ROL O G U E

CON T R I BU T OR S

A letter from the artistic director · 5

Foundation, corporate, and in-kind sponsors · 33

A letter from the managing director · 7

Individual donors to the Annual Fund · 34 Michael Leibert Society · 36

R E P ORT 9

Making a splash: The secrets to showcasing water onstage · 9 Meet the architects: The masterminds behind the Thrust Stage’s renovation · 11 Being their best selves: Story Builders helps young students around the Bay Area · 13 The Ground Floor selects 14 projects for its Summer Residency Lab · 15

11

Discover our 2015–16 season · 16

A BOU T BE R K E L E Y R E P Staff, board of trustees, and sustaining advisors · 37 FYI Everything you need to know about our box office, gift shop, seating policies, and more · 38

F E AT U R E S The Head of Passes: A turbulent geography · 18 Shining a light on Tarell Alvin McCraney · 20

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T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E 201 4 –15 · I S S U E 6 The Berkeley Rep Magazine is published at least seven times per season.

Editor Karen McKevitt

For local advertising inquiries, please contact Ellen Felker at 510 548-0725 or efelker@berkeleyrep.org.

Art Director Nora Merecicky

Cover: Cheryl Lynn Bruce P H OTO BY M I C H A EL B R O S I LO W

Graphic Designer Sarah Jacczak

Writers Amy Bobeda Lexi Diamond Lynn Eve Komaromi Julie McCormick Kashara Robinson

Contact Berkeley Rep Box Office: 510 647-2949 Groups (10+): 510 647-2918 Admin: 510 647-2900 School of Theatre: 510 647-2972 Click berkeleyrep.org Email info@berkeleyrep.org

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P ROL OG U E from the Artistic Director

Tragedy is the end of narrative. I’m not talking

about fictional tragedy, the stories we make up to describe terrible events. I’m talking about the experience itself, the encounter with an unexplained loss so painful as to send us into endless grief. The kind of loss that provokes the most obvious and most profound question: Why? Why did it happen?

Why him, why her, why them, why me, why us????? Posing the question implies that there is an answer, and the eternal lack of an answer forces us to live in a different way: without a story that sufficiently explains why, without a narrative that makes sense, without a way for us to create meaning….

It seems to me that that moment, the moment we come face to face with tragedy, is the place where faith resides. Not religious faith, necessarily, but faith in anything that allows us to keep living, something that provides either distraction or comfort or meaning. Something that quiets the mind, stills the body, and fills the spirit. The options are many, from God to family to art to commerce to sports to alcohol…. We are very creative/destructive when it comes to figuring out ways to survive the next day. And in the same way that tragedy marks us, so does our choice of faith. Who we choose to become in this life is defined by the way we seek solace from suffering.

Which brings us to Head of Passes, the newest play from the astonishingly gifted Tarell Alvin McCraney. Never short on ambition, Tarell has written a play about faith for people of every persuasion, from those adhering to orthodox religious principles to fervent atheists. Set in Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi River, the story is focused on an elderly African American woman named Shelah Reynolds, whose powerful life force is centered on her love for her family and her unshakeable belief in God. Her religion resides comfortably at the core of her being, providing guidance and solace and humor as she moves through the challenges of running a business and supporting her children.

But in the blink of an eye, Shelah’s world is completely upended. A torrential wave of natural and unnatural events is unleashed upon her, with little to no explanation. As the chrysalis of her tragedy unfolds, we watch her struggle to redefine her life. A life without common understanding. A life without a narrative. Beyond rational thought and overrun with feeling. Shelah Reynolds is thrust into a world she does not know. And she pulls us along with her. She invites us into the arms of our own suffering. Into the wellspring of what lies beyond us. Into the arms of faith.

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Coldwell Banker Berkeley

April 2015 Volume 47, No. 6

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Encore Arts Programs is published monthly by Encore Media Group to serve musical and theatrical events in the Puget Sound and San Francisco Bay Areas. All rights reserved. ©2015 Encore Media Group. Reproduction without written permission is prohibited.

P ROL OG U E from the Managing Director

In my neighborhood, everything is in bloom.

Perennials have re-seeded and are just now showing their greenery. All those bulbs I planted last year are beginning to poke through the soil. There’s a reason, beyond the sheer beauty, that I revel in a spring garden. I love the daily reminder that my investment of past effort is so richly rewarded with vivid growth!

Spring is a time for growth and bloom at Berkeley Rep too, as evidenced by that wondrous moment every year when our magnificent wisteria transforms the Narsai M. David Courtyard. Spring is also the time of year when our fellows, the 15 young theatre practitioners whom we have collectively mentored since last August, start their own annual ritual. They start blooming too. They land jobs at theatres from Southern California to New York, and several end up working here at Berkeley Rep. Some will go on to creative jobs in other fields. This year is no different. We’ll be sending this year’s crop of fellows off to run small theatres and to be staff members at larger companies.

And we’re proud of them all. We’ve been doing this for a long time, and we can look across our field with great delight at the impact our investment has reaped in artists, artisans, and administrators working in theatres across this country.

But this is also a time of year when people make individual choices that are about growth and transition. We have two staff members in particular who have set this spring as a moment to make profound change. Karen Racanelli, who has been our general manager for almost 20 years, has decided that it is time to take on a new challenge, which for her will mean working to expand Hershey Felder’s already prodigious artistic empire! Although our audience members may not realize her impact, all of us at Berkeley Rep will feel her loss even as we wish her well. Kitty Muntzel, who has draped almost every woman’s costume on our stage for 25 years, has decided that it is time to put away her shears and start learning some new skills. Kitty’s career in our costume shop has brought accolades from colleagues, from designers, and from actors who have worn her clothes throughout more than two decades on our stages.

Berkeley Rep is, at its core, about people. If we are good, it is because our people are good. We take enormous pride in the quality of our staff and in the value that they all place on learning, teaching, and doing. All that learning, all that teaching is in the service of producing high-quality theatre. And it is an honor to produce that work for all of you.

Warmly,

Susan Medak

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EXPLORE Learn acting, movement, improv, and more in interactive classes and electives.

PERFORM Showcase the final piece on a Berkeley Rep stage.

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R E P ORT

Rain and flood effects in Dear Elizabeth with actors Mary Beth Fisher and Tom Nelis; scenic design by Annie Smart P H OTO CO U R T E S Y O F K E V I N B ER N E .CO M

Making a splash: The secrets to showcasing water onstage

BY AMY BOBEDA

The human body is composed of roughly 60 percent water. As a necessary life force, good old H20 can bring us both comfort and fear. We need water to survive, yet it can drown us in seconds. At Berkeley Rep, water has proved quite a dramatic scene partner. Sometimes water portrays a character, other times a mood or feeling. In Head of Passes, is the rain just a representation of the Mississippi Delta climate or is it the hand of God incurring wrath upon the protagonist?

In Pericles, Prince of Tyre, the storm drives the prince off course, rewriting his tale. Water serves as an emotional memory of ocean tides in Sarah Ruhl’s Dear Elizabeth. No matter the story, water can play quite a role on Berkeley Rep’s stages.

Water needs special consideration and extra rehearsal time.

Before it can touch an actor, stage water is chemically treated to prevent mold and bacteria growth, in turn creating a corrosive environment for the scenery’s steel framing. And at Berkeley Rep, our scene shop artisans carefully plan the ways we can reuse and recycle the water in our productions.

Faking the natural effects of rain or flooding requires extensive research and development. In the early days of Hollywood, artists would portray rain with milk, because the translucent white liquid would read on film, and actual water wouldn’t. In theatre, we can use actual water, but like all things onstage, it’s more complicated than simply turning on a hose.

The last time Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage received a shower was in the 2013 production of Mark Wing-Davey’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre. The storm scene featured actress Anita Carey spraying down the prince’s boat with a fire hose—a simple and effective moment fueled by some serious engineering.

The stage was designed like a giant wooden shower. Each segment of flooring was individually waterproofed, and then caulked to the next when installed, creating waterproof floor seams. This prevented leaks that could cause structural damage to the stage’s subfloor. The stage itself had a small incline, encouraging water to drain in the same direction, much like a gym shower. The minimalist set design allowed for the use of a tarp backdrop, which kept water from reaching beyond the sliding door hidden behind the tarp—but just to be safe, the crew rolled towels under the sliding door each night to stop any leaks from traveling upstage. A tank lived beneath the stage, and water cycled through the drainage system onstage, filtered back into the tank, and pumped through the hose— eight times a week.

Pericles also gave the costume department a wet and wild ride. The designer’s vision of both timeless and contemporary clothing left some leeway in the storm scene, but after the pressurized dousing, they learned that vintage military CO N TIN U E D O N N E X T PAG E 2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 9

Anita Carey douses David Barlow and Evan Zes in Pericles, Prince of Tyre; scenic design by Peter Ksander and Douglas Stein P H OTO CO U R T E S Y O F K E V I N B ER N E .CO M

We’d like the Head of Passes set to be a surprise, but here’s a peek at the construction of the hydraulic cylinder and the steel frame that’s the stage left platform. Pictured: Scenic Construction Fellow Will Gering P H OTO S BY N O R A M ER EC I C K Y

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rain slickers are not always waterproof. Actors were provided insulated underclothes and warm, dry costumes to change into immediately after the storm.

Another recent work of water, Dear Elizabeth provided entirely different challenges for the production staff. To accompany the imagery of Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell’s poetry, there was a system of rivers and tides onstage, creating an upstage downpour and a downstage rising tide.

The mechanics behind the downpour were rather simple.

The top of the set featured a trough, similar to a gutter. Before the show, the crew would turn on one of two tanks that fed the trough from the trap room. The gutter would fill to the brim, and then they’d turn it off. When the stage manager called the cue, they would turn the pump on, and the trough would overfill, spilling over onto the stage, just like an overflowing bathtub.

A Plexiglas lip was installed at the front of the stage to prevent water from flowing into the audience. Just behind the Plexiglas was another trough beneath a grate that was painted to match the floorboards. When cued, the second tank would turn on and push the water 25 feet straight up from beneath the stage, creating the effect of a rising tide. For the audience, the visual was both startling and beautiful, as sound and projections transported them to the seashore, yet the set remained grounded in the characters’ respective homes.

The scene shop artisans had to ensure there wasn’t any water damage to the three-walled set. The flooring was built of marine-grade plywood to prevent swelling and buckling.

The walls had twice as many load-bearing studs as usual, and a pond liner was set between the show floor and the actual stage to prevent water damage.

Unlike in Pericles, the actors in Dear Elizabeth hardly got wet. We provided duplicates of their shoes and Elizabeth Bishop’s handbag, but for the most part they remained dry.

Dear Elizabeth and Pericles have prepared our production departments for the waterworks of Head of Passes. Despite the fact that this is the last show to grace the Thrust Stage before this year’s renovation, no one has thrown caution to the wind.

The furniture has waterproof liners beneath the upholstery.

The costumes are machine washable. A drying rack for rugs has been set up in the Roda for use between shows. Without giving away too much story, or theatre magic: it will rain, it will pour, and the earth will move—we hope it moves you too.

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Donn Logan and Marcy Wong, chief architects of Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage renovation P H OTO BY N O R A M ER EC I C K Y

Meet the architects The masterminds behind the Thrust Stage’s renovation B Y LY N N E V E K O M A R O M I

If you’re an avid patron of the arts in Berkeley, it’s likely you’ve experienced the architecture of Donn Logan and Marcy Wong. They have designed a number of local performance venues including those of our neighbors Freight & Salvage and the Jazzschool (now called California Jazz Conservatory), and they’ve led the renovations of the Crowden School and Zellerbach Hall’s mezzanine café and lobby.

So when it came time to begin planning the renovation of Berkeley Rep’s signature Thrust Stage, it was only natural to bring this husband/wife team on board.

“Donn and Marcy have been involved with Berkeley Rep for over 25 years,” says Managing Director Susie Medak. “We have a shorthand with them that means we don’t have to explain everything. Donn has volunteered his time as a member of our facilities committee for as long as I’ve been here, and he understands the dynamic of how we make choices.”

Donn was the chief architect of the Roda Theatre and designed the 600-seat proscenium house to be in relationship to the Thrust Stage. “Keeping the brick façade consistent and uniting the two theatres with a central courtyard was important,” he says. “And now with the renovation of the Thrust, the new box office is an opportu-

“It’s been fantastic working with Donn and Marcy to reimagine how the Thrust can be upgraded to serve the needs of today’s audiences and artists.”

— SU SIE M E DA K, M A NAG ING DIR EC TOR

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Marcy and Donn review the plans amidst construction of the new box office P H OTO BY N O R A M ER EC I C K Y

nity to both create a focus and identity for Berkeley Rep that also has the practical advantage of patron way-finding and circulation.”

Marcy continues, “Our aim is to refresh the Theatre’s public spaces, and upgrade the technical aspects including lighting and acoustical. What will be most noticeable to patrons will be the visual improvements, like new finishes and lighting in the Theatre’s public spaces. But what will have greater impact are the acoustical improvements, which will make the space much more pleasant. Patrons won’t be specifically aware of all the reasons that the environment feels better.”

Meyer Sound’s Constellation Acoustic System will bring the Thrust Stage up to the 21st century with state-of-the-art sound technology and design. It will give sound designers nearly unlimited range in creating specific environments to help advance a play’s narrative. And for audiences, the system will provide an unparalleled level of audibility and clarity, no matter the seat location.

As Susie says, “It’s been fantastic working with Donn and Marcy to reimagine how the Thrust can be upgraded to serve the needs of today’s audiences and artists.”

The first phase of renovation was completed last year by transforming the space that was most recently the costume shop into a bar where patrons can enjoy cocktails, light bites, and refreshments before, during, and after a performance. Now construction is underway for the expanded box office, which will unite the Thrust and the Roda with its central location in the courtyard. Come June, the Thrust will undergo its makeover, reopening in late winter/early spring of 2016.

Originally designed by the late Gene Angell, who was also the architect for the neighboring Aurora Theatre, the Thrust Stage is heralded for its intimacy. But after 35 years of wear and tear, the theatre is in need of attention. “The ‘bones’ of the place will remain the same,” assures Marcy. “Just a ‘face lift’ is happening.”

The Thrust Stage renovation project is being funded through contributions to the Create Campaign, Berkeley Rep’s $50 million comprehensive campaign which also funds the development of its Harrison Street campus into a center for new work and supports the Annual Fund through 2017.

To make a gift in support of Berkeley Rep’s plans, visit berkeleyrep.org/create 1 2 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6

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Teaching artist Elena Wright leads students in a Target Story Builders workshop at Anna Yates Elementary P H OTO BY C H E S H I R E I S A AC S

Being their best selves Story Builders helps young students around the Bay Area

BY KASHARA ROBINSON

“Once upon a time Anansi the Spider was walking, walking, walking through the forest when something caught his eye.” On any given day, you may hear these same words ringing down the halls of Bay Area elementary schools. Imagine a classroom of first graders circled around as one student crouches low, pretending to be a moss-covered rock along Anansi’s path. What you see is Story Builders in action!

Story Builders, one of the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre’s most popular K–12 programs, is an interactive elementary school workshop that uses the fundamentals of theatre to explore literature. Students practice critical thinking, selfexpression, and communication skills as they bring stories and universal themes to life with the help of a professional teaching artist.

Although students and their teacher can experience the workshop in a one-hour visit, the demand for longer residencies continues to increase yearly. Thanks to partnerships between the School of Theatre and outside organizations, many classrooms are diving into storytelling on a deeper level due to an ongoing commitment to support residencies within local schools. This year, for example, Berkeley Public Schools Fund is granting at least one 10-hour residency in each of the 11 public elementary schools in Berkeley, while Target underwrote 10 10hour workshops this fall for schools in Oakland and Emeryville.

Some schools, such as Marshall Elementary in San Francisco and Olinda Elementary pta, directly arrange multiple residencies for their teachers.

What makes these collaborations so impactful is the ability to provide the more in-depth engagement that comes with multiple visits per class. So what is it like to be in the classroom, unlocking the Story Builders curriculum with a rambunctious group of first graders over the course of several weeks?

Who better to ask than the teaching artists themselves? Berkeley Rep Teaching Artist Elena Wright paints the picture: As a teaching artist, what is the benefit of conducting a multiple-hour residency compared to a single onehour workshop?

With a residency, we actually get to work on risk-taking, team-building, and repetition of skills that we establish in the beginning. Just like anything, the more time we can invest, the further we can go.

Over the course of time, what skills do you see the students developing?

Each class and each child is different. Sometimes, it’s the shy kids who get to find their voice. Their confidence grows as CO N TIN U E D O N N E X T PAG E 2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 1 3

they take bigger risks, and they are rewarded for it. Sometimes it’s the student that the teacher warns me about at the beginning of class who may have behavioral issues that ends up learning how to focus all that energy into a character and ends up being a model performer. Or it may be that the entire class learns how to share focus and problem-solve as a group. There are so many mental muscles being used: text analysis, imagination, memorization, teamwork, taking risks, reading comprehension, and ultimately, integrating all of those skills into one focused, committed performance.

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What is your favorite Story Builders book to teach?

My usual response would be Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock because there is a satisfying amount of repetition—all the characters get tricked, and the kids get to say “KPOM” and fall down. Repeatedly. Now we have a new story, Lucha Libre, that I love teaching for many of the same reasons. It’s very theatrical. The kids get to play over-the-top characters, there is some trickery and secrets, and they get to pretend to have a wrestling match. Hard to beat that one!

What do students most respond to in the workshop curriculum?

Just like adults, they respond to subversive elements and the darker side of things. Characters that lie, fight, and don’t behave the way they’re supposed to. They love getting to embody those characters, and I love letting them in a safe environment. There is always a lesson in those stories that the kids easily relate to.

Students from Shu Ren International School reimagine Backstage Cat with teaching artist Elena Wright P H OTO BY N O R A M ER EC I C K Y

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“This was a great opportunity for the kids to express themselves in a very fun way. I think it developed confidence in most students [and] was a great way to teach story elements.”

—A DR I E N N E W I L L I A M S, L AU R E L E L E M E N TA RY

E MG

Do you have a memorable example of a moment of impact with a student?

There’s almost always one “problem” student in every group—the kid who’s too loud, acts out, is the class clown, or wants attention all the time—and almost without fail, that kid is the one with the “gift.” That student is the one who has all the ingredients of a skilled performer. Most of their classroom career they are told “no,” or that they are “too much.” Once that student finds a place where those things could be seen as gifts that not everyone naturally has, they often become fearless leaders who help guide the group to a strong performance. This happens frequently.

Is theatre important in the classroom?

The most important thing people get out of theatre is compassion. Theatre involves taking risks, being vulnerable, and putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.

There are lots of characters with “bad” qualities. Kids learn to have compassion not only for the characters they play, but also for their fellow classmates and for themselves. It’s practicing the delicate art of being human in difficult circumstances, and kids get to practice being their best selves.

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2014 Summer Residency Lab artists P H OTO BY N O R A M ER EC I C K Y

The Ground Floor selects 14 projects for its Summer Residency Lab

BY JULIE MCCORMICK

The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the

Creation and Development of New Work is thrilled to announce the 14 projects it has selected for the fourth Summer Residency Lab. As the umbrella for all new play activity, The Ground Floor seeks to enhance and expand the processes by which Berkeley Rep makes theatre. This includes supporting our numerous commissioned artists and developing shows for the season, as well as The Ground Floor’s flagship program, the Summer Residency Lab. By inviting diversely talented artists to work on new projects at any stage of the creative process, the lab promotes vital crosspollination among artists and champions the spirit of innovation inherent to Berkeley and the Bay Area.

This June, some of the nation’s most prominent and promising writers, directors, designers, and composers will unite at the Theatre’s campus in West Berkeley. Dozens more local and

out-of-town actors and directors will join the lab, bringing the number of participating artists close to 100.

“We are incredibly excited about this year’s Summer Lab artists,” says Madeleine Oldham, director of The Ground Floor and resident dramaturg at Berkeley Rep. “From commissioned artists and returning friends to brand new faces, we feel as though we’re living up to our promise to ourselves to build as diverse and rigorous a creative atmosphere as possible.

Playwrights, designers, musicians, directors, actors, and solo performers will come together in a rare opportunity to imagine alongside each other. In the world of our incubator, a salsa nightclub act about an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro can grow alongside a multidisciplinary adaptation of a Murakami story, or a play that explores international adoption with puppets. Now in the fourth year of the Summer Lab, we feel as though we’re hitting our stride.”

2015 SUMMER RESIDENC Y L AB ARTIST S César Alvarez and Lucas Hnath: Castro

Hansol Jung: Wolf Play

Christopher Chen and Mei Ann Teo: Passage

Sean Christopher Lewis and Jennifer Fawcett: Ghost Story

Julia Cho and Liesl Tommy: Aubergine

Anaïs Mitchell: Hadestown

Jackie Sibblies Drury: Untitled

Peter Sinn Nachtrieb and Danny Scheie: A House Tour of the Infamous Porter Family Mansion with Tour Guide Weston Ludlow Londonderry

Anne Galjour: The Alligator Ball Rinne Groff: Fire in Dreamland

Annie Smart: The Summer Play

Eric Hoff, Will Davis, and SK Kerastas: Color Guard (working title) Jamie Hook: Rules to Follow in Cloud Engineering Naomi Iizuka and Rachel Dickstein: Sleep

To learn more about the Summer Lab and this year’s projects, visit our website at berkeleyrep.org/summerlab

DISCOVER THE

2SUBSCRIPTION 15–16 Amélie

SEASON

Book by Craig Lucas · Music by Daniel Messé Lyrics by Nathan Tysen & Daniel Messé Musical direction by Kimberly Grigsby Choreographed by Sam Pinkleton Directed by Pam MacKinnon Limited Season · Roda Theatre Aug 2015 · World premiere

The Hypocrites’ Pirates of Penzance

Book by W. S. Gilbert · Music by Arthur Sullivan Directed and adapted by Sean Graney Co-adapted by Kevin O’Donnell Co-directed by Thrisa Hodits Music direction by Andra Velis Simon Limited Season · Osher Studio · Oct 2015

Join the party in our new Osher Studio on Center Street with a delightfully immersive, lovingly loopy, and fantastically eccentric 80-minute take—think banjos, beach balls, and guitars— on Gilbert and Sullivan’s preposterous, topsy-turvy world. Frederic was mistakenly apprenticed as a young boy to a band of sentimental pirates. Now 21, he falls head-over-heels for the Major-General’s daughter and forswears the buccaneer’s life forever, or so he thinks. This buoyant, award-winning Pirates of Penzance by Chicago theatre rebels The Hypocrites is “spirited, affectionate, and nearly irresistible,” says the Boston Globe.

Matt Kahler as the Major-General in The Hypocrites’ Pirates of Penzance P H OTO BY E VA N H A N OV ER

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Amélie captured our hearts in the five-time Academy Award–nominated film. Now she comes to the stage in an inventive and captivating new musical directed by Tony Award winner Pam MacKinnon (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and penned by Craig Lucas (Prelude to a Kiss), with a stirring score by Daniel Messé (of the acclaimed band Hem) and lyrics by Nathan Tysen (The Burnt Part Boys) and Messé. Embark on a mesmerizing journey with inquisitive and charmingly shy Amélie as she turns the streets of Montmartre into a world of her own imagining, while secretly orchestrating moments of joy for those around her. After discovering a mysterious photo album and meeting a handsome stranger, she realizes that helping others is easier than concocting a romantic story of her own.

After seeing the world through the magical and enchanted eyes of Amélie, you’ll never look at life the same way again.

The world premiere of Amélie, Mary Zimmerman’s Treasure Island, the Pulitzer Prize–winning Disgraced, a thrilling Macbeth, a fantastical Pirates of Penzance, and more—your adventure awaits!

PLUS ONE MORE PLAY TO BE ANNOUNCED! FOR MORE INFO, CLICK BERKELEYREP.ORG

Disgraced

By Ayad Akhtar Directed by Kimberly Senior Main Season · Roda Theatre Nov 2015 · West Coast premiere

“Bristles with wit and intelligence…”

Amir Kapoor is living the American Dream—an upper East Side apartment, Italian suits, and the — N E W YO R K T I M E S promise of becoming partner at the law firm. But when he and his wife Emily, an artist influenced by Islamic imagery, host a dinner party for their friends and colleagues, lies and deception threaten to shatter Amir’s carefully constructed life of cultural assimilation. Playwright Ayad Akhtar won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for this engrossing and combustible drama that probes the complexity of identity, the place of faith in today’s world, and the hidden prejudices still alive in liberal society.

Director Kimberly Senior comes to Berkeley Rep to stage the provocative play that she shepherded from Chicago to London to its triumphant run on Broadway.

Aubergine

By Julia Cho Directed by Liesl Tommy Main Season · Thrust Stage Feb 2016 · World premiere

An estranged son, a father who’s ill, a visiting uncle carrying their memories in tow, a woman without an appetite, and a refugee from a forgotten country—they all prove potent ingredients in this bittersweet and moving meditation on family, forgiveness, and the things that nourish us. When language fails, when the past fades, the perfect meal transcends time and culture and says more than words ever can. Julia Cho’s plays have garnered critical praise from New York to Los Angeles. Now she pairs with Obie Award–winning director Liesl Tommy (Ruined and Party People) on the elegant, poignant, and lyrical Aubergine.

Julia Cho

P H OTO BY J E N N I E WA R R E N

Treasure Island

Written by Robert Louis Stevenson Adapted and directed by Mary Zimmerman Main Season · Thrust Stage Apr 2016 Mary Zimmerman has mesmerized audiences with her exquisite adaptations of classic tales from the spellbinding Arabian Nights to the hypnotic White Snake. This spring the Tony Award–winning director takes us aboard the Hispaniola for a heart-pounding voyage filled with tales of swashbuckling gentlemen o’ fortune, a malicious mutiny led by infamous Long John Silver, and a deadly quest for fabled buried booty. Caught in the middle is cabin boy Jim Hawkins, who must find uncommon courage as he faces a murderous plot and navigates the ambiguous tides of morality.

Sail to Treasure Island with Mary Zimmerman for another visually tantalizing and exhilarating adventure.

Macbeth

By William Shakespeare Directed by Daniel Sullivan Main Season · Roda Theatre Feb 2016

Tony and Obie Award–winning director Daniel Sullivan— dubbed the go-to guy for Shakespeare—helms a thrilling new production of the bard’s murderous play about the lust for power and the fickleness of fate. Driven by an evil prophesy and his scheming wife, Macbeth kills the king and claims his crown, thus beginning a moral descent into a reign of terror.

The New York Times has called Daniel Sullivan’s Shakespeare in the Park productions “absolutely splendid” and rendered with “passion, expertise and uncommon intelligence.” We can’t wait to reveal who will play the notorious couple—stay tuned!

Amy Kim Waschke and Christopher Livingston in Mary Zimmerman’s The White Snake P H OTO CO U R T E S Y O F M EL LO PI X .CO M

SEASON SPONSORS

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BY LEXI DIAMOND

LOUISIANA

New Orleans

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In southernmost Louisiana, where the three passages of the Mississippi River join the Gulf of Mexico, lies a stretch of ever-shifting wetlands called the Head of Passes. It is here, in this stormy and mysterious region, that this story takes place.

On a map, the area looks like strange lace: a system of rivers, swamps, and marshes coil off from the three main rivers of the Mississippi, weaving in and out of one another to reveal the occasional landmass. Only 10 percent of what little land that does poke through the labyrinth of channels is dense enough for human use; the rest is sand, silt, and clay that shifts constantly

with the movement of the waters. As a result, the region is very isolated, and though it lies just 75 miles south of New Orleans, only a single, solitary road stretches down from the bustling home of Mardi Gras to the “toe” of the bootshaped state.

The shape of the coastline is vulnerable to the many turbulent currents that converge at the Head of Passes. Those currents are unpredictable, crashing in from different directions at varying speeds. Since the 1930s, nearly 2,000 square miles of the coast of Louisiana has been swallowed up into the Gulf; that’s an area nearly the size of Delaware. More erodes every day, and it is estimated that Louisiana loses an acre of land every 33 minutes.

The wetlands break up surging flood waters and hurricanes like speed bumps, and as they disappear, they can no longer provide the protection they once did for the land to the north.

When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, it came through the Head of Passes first, devastating the area and turning vast stretches of wetland into open water.

Those landmasses that once served as blockades to oncoming storms were devoured by the onslaught, leading to the devastation of levees and floodwalls further inland and allowing tens of billions of gallons of water to spill into New Orleans. Katrina was the largest and third strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in the United States, with winds up to 175 miles per hour, and a storm surge 20 feet high. Roughly 100,000 homes in the region were destroyed, and the final death toll came to 1,863. Some communities affected by the storm are still recovering from its destruction to this day.

Despite the remote and volatile nature of the Head of Passes, there are still some who make their homes there.

They take gravel roads that stretch out from the highway to sporadic communities of houses, many of which belong to families who have lived in Louisiana for generations. They make their way to work on the ports, docks, and barges that sparsely line the swampy coasts.

They adjust their way of life to the fluctuation of the bayou, and fortify their homes after each storm as they await the next.

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SHINING A LIGHT ON

TARELL ALVIN MCCRANEY

BY JULIE MCCORMICK

Playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney’s star is on the rise, and for good reason. With a master’s in playwriting from Yale, he is an ensemble member at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, a resident playwright at New Dramatists, and at the tender age of 33 won a MacArthur “Genius” Award. His writing celebrates the vulnerability and imperfection of the human condition with an ear for music and an eye for physical poetry. This intuitive grasp of the geography of the human heart has sent him and his plays all over the globe, to theatres like the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court, and the Public Theater. Before rehearsals started in Berkeley, Tarell took some time to speak with Literary Associate Julie McCormick about the journey of Head of Passes and his own voyages as a playwright.

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“It is a story about someone’s personal faith, and how they use it as an aperture or a guide to try and understand the many, many, sometimes fraught, sometimes beautiful, often chaotic events of our lives.”

Julie McCormick: How much would you say the piece has changed and grown since its first production at Steppenwolf? What feels different to you now?

Tarell Alvin McCraney: I feel like it’s gotten deeper. And it’s easy to say that a lot has changed, though if people saw both productions they would only notice the changes incrementally. But for us, I think the production has gotten deeper and more focused.

Has your thinking about the piece changed at all after having seen it with an audience?

Absolutely. The idea of opening up the dialogue about a person’s personal faith was and is always the main focus of the piece. And then trying to find ways to make sure that visceral conversation was open to everybody in the audience, believers and non.

Do you think that everyone has a relationship with faith?

I think people have a relationship in that everyone either believes in belief or doesn’t. I think there are people who choose to say that they don’t know, but there’s still a sort of relationship with the notion of faith. We’re all trying to make sense of the world we live in. And sometimes, we turn to the word “faith” as the sort of coin, or short answer, for that question. But, everyone has a relationship to trying to figure out the chaos of our world.

You said that part of your initial impetus in creating this piece was examining the nature of faith—can you say a little bit more about where this piece came from for you?

The piece was a commission by Steppenwolf. Tina Landau asked if I was interested in the Book of Job. And I said, generally, yes. But specifically, I don’t know what I’m interested in, I just know that I am interested in it. And then we spent two weeks with a cast just reading the Book of Job out loud and then trying to decipher its makeup. When we walked away from it, my takeaway, again, was that it is a story about someone’s personal faith, and how they use it as an aperture or a guide to try and understand the many, many, sometimes fraught, sometimes beautiful, often chaotic events of our lives. Of human existence. Period. Not just our lives, but other people’s lives.

And what is that struggle? To maintain an ability to not know all the answers, but also to try not to abandon the notion of life. To really stay in it, to figure out what you know, and what you don’t know, and what you never will know. Trying to find some balance in that, I think. We look at people’s lives every day. There’s a woman on TV every other day saying she’s lost her whole family or her home or her child is now fighting for isis or they just lost their children because someone thought they were gay, and then earthquakes open up and swallow people’s livelihoods….

There are moments of our lives where these things come out of nowhere, that we absolutely don’t understand and can’t quite find palpable and reasonable answers for. We look at the lives of our friends and think: why does that keep happening to that person? Or, how could all of this rain down on one person’s life? And I don’t have any answers to that. But I thought, and think—this is why we tell stories. I think we all have bouts of confusion and moments of disillusionment, and need to tell these stories to each other in order to find some commonality, some semblance of peace.

Could you say a little bit about the location, Head of Passes? Is that a spot you were familiar with before starting this play?

Yeah, I was familiar with it and became more familiar as I embarked on the project. I remember during Hurricane Katrina, someone said—it was someone from San Francisco— they said, why are those people living there? They know it’s below sea level. Why would they elect to live there?

And I remember the person from New Orleans saying back to the person in San Francisco, you live on a fault line. You live in a place that countless times you been told it’s coming, but still you choose to live there, right? And I don’t live in either of those places, so I’m not on anybody’s side, but I think that question is important when we talk about where we set our hopes and our dreams, where we build our livelihoods.

We tend to think that we are putting them in the most secure place that we can, and then of course, the Mississippi shifts, and then our lives shift forever. Irrevocably. And I think that’s an important lesson for all of us. We all think that we’re living in Topeka, Kansas where nothing can kind of go wrong, until a CO N TIN U E D O N N E X T PAG E 2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 1

tornado whips around and we land in Oz. It was important for me to set this in a place where there is natural beauty, but also that could shift and disappear at any time.

I think there is a sense of understanding—I’m from Miami, we never underestimate or overestimate the threat of a hurricane. It’s gonna do damage. What damage that is we don’t know, so there’s no need to over-prepare. There are things we cannot control. There are some times the wind will come in. No matter how much you board it up, there are still winds strong enough that can come in and rip your roof apart at the right angle. And you just know and live with that. It was important for me to set this family in a place where they are aware on a larger—I guess the word would be “natural, ” level of the way the world can work and wants to work sometimes.

“We look at the lives of our friends and think: why does that keep happening to that person? Or, how could all of this rain down on one person’s life?

And I don’t have any answers to that. But I thought, and think—this is why we tell stories.”

Have you always written for theatre, or have you written in other forms?

Always. Always for theatre.

Did you always know that you wanted to be a playwright, or were you attracted to the form itself?

I was an actor and a performer in the theatre all my life. So I’ve always written and created work for the theatre as I went along. I began to write only, solely, when I became about 24, 25. But up until that time I was also acting and directing.

Why do you think you were drawn so strongly to the theatre?

That’s always been a hard question to answer. I don’t really know. I know that it was an outlet early on, and that I took to it fairly swiftly. Not to say that I was good at it very early on— sometimes I don’t know if I’m good at it still—but, it’s just a process that I engaged with in a way that felt natural.

Where did you first encounter it?

Through school. After-school programs. Church.

Do you think that your experience as an actor and a director influences your writing at all?

Absolutely. I think other writers, a lot of whom I admire, come from a place of poetry and literary focus first. I don’t come from that background; I come from a performative background. If people are looking for long stage directions, for example, they get very upset because I don’t have any.

I think most actors, or at least the ones I’ve encountered, see the work on the page and know what to do next. My hope is that they will feel a collaborative invitation from the piece.

Can you talk about your process of working with director Tina Landau, and how your relationship with her has shaped this play?

Tina and I have now collaborated on about six different projects. And we have probably one of the easiest working relationships I’ve ever encountered. I can’t say the same for her—she’s had other collaborators that she’s worked as easily with—but being this early in my career and to have a partner as facile and focused as Tina is incredible. We speak a very sim-

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Tina Landau and Tarell Alvin McCraney in rehearsal P H OTO BY J O EL M O O R M A N

ilar language; we come to the theatre in very similar ways although we come from vastly different backgrounds. Greatly to our benefit, I think we both have been open and experimental in trying to figure out what this play wants and needs. And you only can thank God for those kinds of small miracles. Because you can easily try to stay open to the process, and then everyone ends up on different sides of the field. We stayed open to the process and what we were looking for, and then ended up at the very same spot, if not away from each other by two feet.

So it’s just been a fantastic way to work and Berkeley’s been so generous in allowing us the time and space to do that.

That sounds like a very special relationship with Tina, and very rare.

I think so. Again, I can’t compare it to anything because I was lucky enough to find it fairly early on, but I find it special.

There is one stage direction in Head of Passes that I wanted to ask you about. It says that the play is set in “the distant present.” What does that mean to you?

Well, rarely do you tell stories from the future. And if you do tell a story about the future, you have to tell it from something that’s already happened. Our consciousness doesn’t exist in the forward; it exists in the now and the telling of the past.

So the point of storytelling in the theatre is always going to be from a place of, this story’s already happened. Or it’s happening just now, and it’s present but it’s distant. It’s not exactly today, it’s not exactly right here right now. We’re always in the theatre watching a story being told to us. And it’s just again another invitation to allow that distance to be there, but also for every-

body to know that there are actors in the room with you telling you this story. And that’s equally as important as the story.

What’s some of the theatre that you enjoy the most? Who are the companies or playwrights that you find inspiring?

Um, dance. I like dance more than anything. Not to say that I don’t like theatre; I love theatre, I love watching theatre.

I love watching great actors. But more than anything, I’m constantly inspired by dance.

Why do you think that is?

It has a vulnerability to it that is easily achieved, that we are always striving for in the talking theatre. And I just find that fascinating.

Do you think you would write for dance at all?

I try to all the time, but it’s a really difficult form to write for.

Are there any companies you particularly like?

Everything. I see a lot. Most recently I saw Kyle Abraham’s piece in LA. I thought that was incredible.

What’s up next for you after this piece? Do you have anything else coming down the pike?

Nope!

(Laughter). No. Are you feeling good about that?

I’m very excited about that.

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“Gut-busting!” —HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

N E X T AT B E R K E L E Y R E P

On e man,

twoos

guvn r by

richard bean starts

may 8

Based on The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni With songs by Grant Olding

directed by

david ivers SPONSOR

Mechanics Bank Wealth Management SEASON SPONSORS

Berkeley Repertory Theatre, in a coproduction with the Public Theater, presents the West Coast premiere of

B E RKE LE Y RE PE RTO RY TH E ATRE TO NY TACCO N E , MICHAEL LEIB ERT ARTIS TIC D IREC TO R SUSAN M E DAK , M ANAGIN G D IREC TO R

CAST

BY

Tarell Alvin McCraney

Aubrey Francois Battiste

D IREC TE D BY

Shelah Cheryl Lynn Bruce

Tina Landau

Crier Jonathan Burke Dr. Anderson James Carpenter

APRIL 10 – M AY 24, 2015 TH RUS T S TAG E · M AIN S E A SO N

Spencer Brian Tyree Henry The Angel Sullivan Jones Cookie Nikkole Salter

Head of Passes is made possible thanks to the generous support of

Mae Kimberly Scott Creaker Michael A. Shepperd

SEASON SPONSORS

Jack & Betty Schafer The Strauch Kulhanjian Family

PRODUC TION S TAFF E XECU TIV E S P O N S O R S

Kerry Francis & John Jimerson SPONSORS

Paul T. Friedman & Diane Manley A S S O CIAT E S P O N S O R S

Valerie Barth & Peter Wiley Stephanie Mendel Kaye Rosso

Scenic Design Costume Design Lighting Design Sound Design Casting

G.W. Skip Mercier Toni-Leslie James Scott Zielinski Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen Amy Potozkin, csa Tara Rubin, csa Stage Manager Leslie M. Radin

Head of Passes was commissioned by and its world premiere was presented at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago, IL; Martha Lavey, Artistic Director and David Hawkanson, Executive Director.

The actors and stage manager are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Partial support of open captioning is provided by Theatre Development Fund.

Affiliations The director is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent national labor union. The Scenic, Costume, Lighting, and Sound Designers in lort Theatres are represented by United Scenic Artists Local usa-829, iatse.

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BE R K E L E Y R E P P R E S E N T S Francois Battiste AU B R E Y

Francois has been seen on Broadway in Bronx Bombers (Circle in the Square), Prelude to a Kiss (Roundabout Theatre Company), and Magic/ Bird (Longacre Theatre).

His off-Broadway credits include Detroit ’67 (the Public Theater), Broke-ology (Lincoln Center), The Good Negro (the Public, Obie Award, Lortel nomination), The Merchant of Venice and The Winter’s Tale (New York Shakespeare Festival at the Delacorte), 10 Things To Do Before I Die (Second Stage Theatre), and Bronx Bombers (Primary Stages). Francois has also appeared in shows at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Sundance, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Lookingglass, and Dallas Theater Center. His TV and film credits include hbo’s The Normal Heart, Person of Interest, The Good Wife, Are We There Yet?, Men in Black III, You Bury Your Own, Delivering the Goods, and One Week. Francois received a BS from Illinois State University and trained at bada in Oxford and the Juilliard School.

Cheryl Lynn Bruce SHELAH

Cheryl Lynn premiered in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Head of Passes (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Marcus Gardley’s The Gospel of Lovingkindness (Victory Gardens Theater), and her performances in Danai Gurira’s The Convert (McCarter Theatre Center, the Goodman Theatre, the Kirk Douglas Theatre) earned Joseph Jefferson and Ovation Award nominations and an naacp Theatre Award in Los Angeles.

Cheryl made her professional debut in Death and the King’s Horseman, directed by Nobel laureate author Wole Soyinka. Her Goodman credits include The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove; Each One As She May; Cry, the Beloved Country; All’s Well That Ends Well; Black Star Line; and Seneca’s Trojan Women. Other Chicago credits include The Great Fire and RACE (Lookingglass); Everyman, Intimate Apparel, and Nomathemba (Steppenwolf); The Grapes of Wrath (Steppenwolf, Cort Theatre, National Theatre U.K., La Jolla Playhouse); The Snow Queen, The Voice of Good Hope, and Eurydice (Victory Gardens); and Flyin’ West (Court). Her work in Northlight Theatre’s production of From the Mississippi Delta (Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, Circle in the Square Theatre) won Helen Hayes, Joseph Jefferson, and Connecticut Critics Circle Awards. Regional credits include Harriet Jacobs and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone 26 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6

profiles

(Kansas City Repertory Theatre), Gem of the Ocean (Ensemble Theatre Company), and The Story (Milwaukee Repertory Theater).

Her film and television credits include Prison Break; There Are No Children Here; Separate But Equal; To Sir, with Love II; Stranger Than Fiction; Daughters of the Dust; and The Fugitive.

A member of Teatro Vista, Chicago’s premier Latino theatre company, Cheryl Lynn will co-develop and direct La Habana, a musical tribute to the vibrant hub Latin Caribbean immigrants flocked to in Chicago during the 1960s and ’70s.

Jonathan Burke CRIER

Jonathan is thrilled to make his Berkeley Rep debut. He was most recently seen as David Heard in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy at the Studio Theatre.

His national tour credits include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Zebulun; u/s Judah; u/s Joseph), Mary Poppins, A Christmas Story: The Musical, and Cats (Mungojerrie). Jonathan was seen off Broadway in the world premiere of Langston in Harlem (Junior Addict) at Urban Stages, as well as in Jazz A La Carte at the Apollo Theater.

Regionally, some of his work includes Amazing Grace (Tyler) at Goodspeed Musicals, Hairspray (Seaweed) at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Rent (Angel) at the Hangar Theatre, The Wiz at Center Stage in Baltimore, and Dreamgirls at Portland Center Stage. He has been seen on television dancing on the TV Land Awards and on video in The Broadway Warm-Up. Jonathan holds a bfa from Ithaca College.

James Carpenter DR. ANDERSON

James last appeared at Berkeley Rep in Pericles, Prince of Tyre and has performed in over 30 productions at the Theatre during his 12-year tenure as an associate artist. His other Bay Area credits include American Conservatory Theater, Aurora Theatre Company, Cutting Ball Theater, Magic Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and TheatreWorks. He is currently in his 12th season as an associate artist with California Shakespeare Theater. His other regional credits include work at Arizona Theatre Company, the Huntington Theatre Company, Intiman Theatre, the Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Yale Repertory Theatre. He is the recipient of the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle’s Barbara Bladen

Porter award for excellence in the arts (and its Lifetime Achievement Award) and in 2010 was named a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow. James’ film and TV credits include Nash Bridges, Metro, and The Rainmaker, and the independent projects Presque Isle, Singing, and The Sunflower Boy.

Brian Tyree Henry SPENCER

Brian appeared in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s trilogy The Brother/ Sister Plays at McCarter Theatre Center, and The Brother/Sister Plays: The Brothers Size at the Public Theater, the Studio Theatre, and the Alley Theatre. He also appeared at the Public in The Fortress of Solitude and the Public/New York Shakespeare Festival in Romeo and Juliet and Talk About Race. Brian’s Broadway credits include The Book of Mormon, and other regional credits include A Civil War Christmas at Long Wharf Theatre. He has appeared in film and on TV in Boardwalk Empire, The Knick, Puerto Ricans in Paris, The Good Wife, and Law & Order. Brian has been nominated for a Helen Hayes Award and received his mfa from Yale School of Drama in 2007.

Sullivan Jones THE ANGEL

Sullivan most recently appeared in Center Stage’s production of One Night In Miami as Cassius Clay—a role which he originated at Los Angeles’ Rouge Machine Theater (LA Drama Critics’ Award and naacp Award). His other regional credits include Clementine in the Lower Nine at TheatreWorks (Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award nomination), Twelfth Night and Cinderella at African-American Shakespeare Company, and Intimate Apparel and References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot at AlterTheater. His TV and film credits include Parks and Recreation (nbc) and Stanistan (usa).

Sullivan is a recipient of the 2012 Princess Grace Award in Theater, and studied acting at Brown University and the ucla School of Theater, Film and Television.

Nikkole Salter

Kimberly Scott

Michael A. Shepperd

This is Obie Award– winning actress and playwright Nikkole Salter’s debut performance at Berkeley Rep. Her off-Broadway credits include Tough Titty (the Paradise Factory), Inked Baby (Playwrights Horizons), and In the Continuum (Primary Stages). Nikkole’s regional credits include Stick Fly (Arena Stage/the Huntington Theatre Company), Gee’s Bend (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Kansas City Repertory Theatre), Luck of the Irish (the Huntington), The Old Settler (Luna Stage), Jitney (the Studio Theatre), and In the Continuum (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Yale Repertory Theatre; Philadelphia Theatre Company; the Kirk Douglas Theatre; the Goodman Theatre; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh; the Market Theatre, South Africa; and Baxter Theatre Centre, South Africa). Her film and television credits include Pride & Glory, The Architect, and The Unit, and the voice of Rockstar Game’s “Midnight Club: Los Angeles” character, Laticia.

Nikkole is a graduate of Howard University and nyu’s Graduate Acting Program. Please visit nikkolesalter.com.

Head of Passes marks Kimberly’s Berkeley Rep debut. She most recently played Anne in the world premiere of Familiar by Danai Gurira at Yale Repertory Theatre. She also appeared at Yale in Death of a Salesman as Linda Loman and as Molly Cunningham in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations on Broadway). Kimberly spent five seasons at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, playing Mama Nadi in Ruined, Mistress Quickly in Henry IV, Part 2, and creating roles in American Night: The Ballad of Juan José by Culture Clash, Party People by universes, and The Liquid Plain by Naomi Wallace, all part of American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle. Her off-Broadway credits include Mabou Mines’ Lear and The Gospel at Colonus (Gorky Art Theatre, Moscow). Her screen credits include Love and Other Drugs, Flatliners, and The Abyss, as well as many television credits. Kimberly returns to osf in June to be in the world premiere of Sweat by Lynn Nottage.

Michael is currently the co-artistic director of LA’s multi-award-winning Celebration Theatre (celebrationtheatre. com), where his producing, directing, and acting credits include The Color Purple, Four, The Women of Brewster Place, Take Me Out, Coffee Will Make You Black, [title of show], and numerous others in his nine years with the company. Other Los Angeles credits include Choir Boy (Headmaster), Master Harold and the Boys (Sam, naacp Theatre Award for lead actor), Steel (John Henry, Ovation Award for lead actor), and Intimate Apparel (George, naacp Theatre Award for Supporting Actor).

Michael’s Broadway, off-Broadway, and other credits include Cathy Rigby is Peter Pan (Starkey); Little Shop of Horrors (Audrey Two); Caroline, or Change (Bus/Dryer); and Five Guys Named Moe (Big Moe). He has appeared on TV in ncis, Wizards of Waverly Place, Hot in Cleveland, Up All Night, Monk, Criminal Minds, and a bunch more. Michael is also an accomplished voice-over artist.

COOKIE

MAE

CREAKER

Extraordinary Performance.

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Debra Dryden Leslie Easterday Gini Erck Debi Fitzgerrell Jennie A. Flanigan Wendy Gardner Ferrari Toni Hanna Nancy Hinkley Maureen Kennedy

Jack McPhail Denise Milburn Bob & Carolyn Nelson Nancy Noman Sandy Patel-Hilferty Amy Robeson Ira & Carol Serkes Geri Stern Diane Verducci

1625 Shattuck Avenue | Berkeley, CA 94709 | 510.982.4400 1900 Mountain Boulevard | Oakland, CA 94611 | 510.339.6460

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BE R K E L E Y R E P P R E S E N T S Tarell Alvin McCraney P L AY W R I G H T

Tarell’s plays include The Brothers Size, In the Red and Brown Water, and Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet. His other plays include Choir Boy and Wig Out!. He is the recipient of the Whiting Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, the Evening Standard Award, the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award, the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the Windham Campbell Award, a 2013 MacArthur “Genius” Grant, and a Doris Duke Artist Award. Tarell is a graduate from the New World School of the Arts, the Theatre School at DePaul University, and the Yale School of Drama. He is an ensemble member at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, a resident playwright at New Dramatists, and a member of Teo Castellanos/D-Projects in Miami.

Tina Landau DIREC TOR

Tina is a writer and director and an ensemble member at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where her directing credits include Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Head of Passes and The Brother/ Sister Plays, as well as The Wheel, Hot L Baltimore, The Tempest, The Time of Your Life (also at Seattle Repertory Theatre and American Conservatory Theater), The Diary of Anne Frank, The Cherry Orchard, Space (also writer, Mark Taper Forum and the Public Theater), and Charles Mee’s Berlin Circle and Time to Burn. Her New York credits include Bill Irwin/ David Shiner’s Old Hats (also act) and Mee’s Big Love and Iphigenia 2.0 (all Signature Theatre Company), Paula Vogel’s A Civil War Christmas (New York Theatre Workshop), McCraney’s Wig Out! (Vineyard Theatre) and In the Red and Brown Water (Public Theater), and Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts and the musical Bells Are Ringing on Broadway. Her writing includes Space as well as Floyd Collins (bookwriter/director, Playwrights Horizons), Dream True (lyricist/ bookwriter/director, Vineyard Theatre), and Beauty (writer/director, La Jolla Playhouse).

Tina teaches regularly and has co-authored, with Anne Bogart, The Viewpoints Book.

G.W. Skip Mercier SCENIC DESIGNER

Most recently in the Bay Area, G.W. Mercier designed the sets and costumes for Old Hats

by Bill Irwin and David Shiner at American Conservatory Theater. On Broadway he designed the sets and costumes for Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass by Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, receiving a Tony Award nomination for scenery and two Drama Desk Award nominations for scenery and costumes. Off Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre, his work on Dream True by Tina Landau and Ricky Ian Gordon and Bed and Sofa by Polly Penn and Lawrence Klavan procured him two additional Drama Desk nominations for scenery. Regionally he was 2 8 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6

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honored with the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life at act directed by Tina Landau. He also received the Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award for Outstanding Talent and Vision in Design.

He worked on dozens of play premieres in New York, including Dead Man’s Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl at Playwrights Horizons, directed by Anne Bogart; Urban Zulu Mambo by Regina Taylor at Signature Theatre Company; Miracle Brothers

by Kirsten Childs, directed by Tina Landau; and Eli’s Comin’, the work of Laura Nyro conceived and directed by Diane Paulus, at Vineyard Theatre, where he is a resident artist.

Toni-Leslie James

COSTUME DESIGNER

Toni-Leslie’s Broadway credits include 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: Millennium Approaches & Perestroika; Chronicle of a Death Foretold; and Jelly’s Last Jam. She has received a Tony nomination, three Drama Desk nominations, four Lucille Lortel nominations, a Hewes Design Award and four additional nominations, a Connecticut Critics Circle Award, an Irene Sharaff Young Masters Award, and the 2009 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Costume Design. Toni-Leslie is head of design at Virginia Commonwealth University. (In memory of our beloved son, Jett Gerald Higham, 3/15/1995– 7/2/2013.)

Scott Zielinski

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Scott’s Berkeley Rep credits include designs for An Iliad, Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, Our Town, Ghosts, and The Fall. His New York credits include Topdog/Underdog (Broadway), Atlantic Theater Company, Classic Stage Company, Lincoln Center Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Joseph Papp Public Theater, Signature Theatre Company, and Theatre for a New Audience, among others. Regionally he has designed at most theatres throughout the U.S. Internationally he has designed in Adelaide, Amsterdam, Avignon, Berlin, Bregenz, Edinburgh, Fukuoka, Gennevilliers, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Linz, London, Lyon, Melbourne, Orleans, Oslo, Ottawa, Paris, Reykjavik, Rouen, St. Gallen, Singapore, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna, Vilnius, and Zurich.

His dance and opera credits include American Ballet Theater, Bregenzer Festspiele, Boston Ballet, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Canadian Opera Company, Centre National de la Danse Paris, English National Opera, Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera, Kennedy Center, Lithuanian National Opera, National Ballet of Canada, De Nederlandse Opera, New York City Opera, Royal Opera House London, San Fran-

cisco Ballet, San Francisco Opera, and Spoleto Festival, among others. Visit scottzielinski.com.

Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen SOUND DESIGNERS

Rob and Michael composed music and designed sound for Berkeley Rep’s productions of Red Hot Patriot, No Man’s Land, and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, and designed sound for Comedy on the Bridge/Brundibar.

Their Broadway credits include music composition and sound for Waiting for Godot & No Man’s Land, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Miracle Worker, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and sound for Larry David’s Fish in the Dark, This Is Our Youth, Of Mice and Men, Superior Donuts, reasons to be pretty, A Year with Frog and Toad, King Hedley II, Buried Child, The Song of Jacob Zulu, and The Grapes of Wrath. Their off-Broadway credits include music and sound for Sticks and Bones, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, and Marvin’s Room; sound for Jitney and The Pain and the Itch; and music direction and sound for Ruined. Rob and Michael have created music and sound at many of America’s resident theatres (often with Steppenwolf Theatre Company) and at several international venues. Please visit milbomusic.com.

Amy Potozkin, csa

CASTING DIREC TOR/ A R T I S T I C A S S O C I AT E

This is Amy’s 25th season at Berkeley Rep. Through the years she has also had the pleasure of casting plays for act (Seattle), Arizona Theatre Company, Aurora Theatre Company, B Street Theatre, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Dallas Theater Center, Marin Theatre Company, the Marsh, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Social Impact Productions Inc., and Traveling Jewish Theatre. Amy cast roles for various indie films, including Conceiving Ada, starring Tilda Swinton; Haiku Tunnel and Love & Taxes, both by Josh Kornbluth; and Beyond Redemption by Britta Sjogren. Amy received her mfa from Brandeis University, where she was also an artist in residence. She has been a coach to hundreds of actors, has taught acting at Mills College and audition technique at Berkeley Rep’s School of Theatre, and has led workshops at numerous s other venues in the Bay Area. Prior to working at Berkeley Rep, she was an intern at Playwrights Horizons in New York. Amy is a member of csa, the Casting Society of America.

Tara Rubin, csa CASTING

Tara has been casting at Yale Rep since 2004.

Her upcoming Broadway projects include Bullets Over Broadway and Aladdin, and past Broadway productions include A Time To Kill; Big Fish; The Heiress; One Man, Two Guvnors (U.S. casting); Ghost; How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Promises, Promises; A Little Night Music; Billy Elliot; Shrek;

Guys and Dolls; The Farnsworth Invention; Young Frankenstein; The Little Mermaid; Mary Poppins; Les Misérables; Spamalot; Jersey Boys; The 25th Annual Putman County Spelling Bee; The Producers; Mamma Mia!; The Phantom of the Opera; and Contact. She has cast for the off-Broadway shows Love, Loss, and What I Wore and Old Jews Telling Jokes. Tara has also worked for the Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, the Old Globe, Westport Country Playhouse, and Bucks County Playhouse. Her film work includes Lucky Stiff and The Producers.

Leslie M. Radin

S TAG E M A N AG E R

Leslie is very pleased to be back at Berkeley Rep after most recently stage managing Troublemaker, or the Freakin’ Kick-A Adventures of Bradley Boatright and assistant stage managing An Audience with Meow Meow, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, and Chinglish (both here and at the Hong Kong Arts Festival). She started at Berkeley Rep as the stage management intern in 2003 and has also worked at American Conservatory Theater, Aurora Theatre Company, Center Rep, and the New Victory Theater in New York, where she traveled with Berkeley Rep’s production of Brundibar/ But the Giraffe. Her favorite past productions include In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), Passing Strange, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Pillowman, and The Secret in the Wings.

F O FTH JULY

*

A bittersweet portrait of the Woodstock generation at the precise moment they realize the fireworks ended yesterday.

The Public Theater CO -PRODUCER

The Public Theater is the only theater in New York that produces Shakespeare, classics, musicals, contemporary and experimental pieces in equal measure. The Public continues the work of its founder, Joe Papp, by acting as an advocate for theater as an essential cultural force and leading and framing dialogue on some of the most important issues of our day. The Public’s wide range of programming includes free Shakespeare in the Park, new and experimental stagings, and a range of artist and audience development initiatives including Public Forum, Mobile Unit, Public Studio, and Public Works.

The Public is the recipient of 42 Tony Awards, 164 Obies, 45 Drama Desk Awards, 36 Lortel Awards, 28 Outer Critics Circle Awards, and four Pulitzer Prizes. Visit publictheater.org.

BY LANFORD WILSON DIRECTED BY TOM ROSS STARTS APRIL 17

510.843.4822

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Tony Taccone

D I R E C T O R /M I C H A E L L E I B E R T ARTISTIC DIREC TOR

During Tony’s tenure as artistic director of Berkeley Rep, the Tony Award–winning nonprofit has earned a reputation as an international leader in innovative theatre. In those 18 years, Berkeley Rep has presented more than 70 world, American, and West Coast premieres and sent 23 shows to New York, two to London, and one to Hong Kong. Tony has staged more than 35 plays in Berkeley, including new work from Culture Clash, Rinde Eckert, David Edgar, Danny Hoch, Geoff Hoyle, Quincy Long, Itamar Moses, and Lemony Snicket. He directed shows that transferred to London, Continental Divide and Tiny 2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 9

BE R K E L E Y R E P P R E S E N T S Kushner, and two that landed on Broadway as well: Bridge & Tunnel and Wishful Drinking. Prior to working at Berkeley Rep, Tony served as artistic director of Eureka Theatre, which produced the American premieres of plays by Dario Fo, Caryl Churchill, and David Edgar before focusing on a new generation of American writers. While at the Eureka, Tony commissioned Tony Kushner’s legendary Angels in America and co-directed its world premiere. He has collaborated with Kushner on eight plays at Berkeley Rep, including last season’s The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. Tony’s regional credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage, Center Theatre Group, the Eureka Theatre, the Guthrie Theater, the Huntington Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Public Theater, and Seattle Repertory Theatre.

As a playwright, he debuted Ghost Light, Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup, and Game On, written with Dan Hoyle. In 2012, Tony received the Margo Jones Award for “demonstrating a significant impact, understanding, and affirmation of playwriting, with a commitment to the living theatre.”

Susan Medak

M A N AG I N G D I R E C T O R

Susan has served as Berkeley Rep’s managing director since 1990, leading the administration and operations of the Theatre. She has served as president of the League of Resident Theatres (lort) and treasurer of Theatre Communications Group, organizations that represent the interests of nonprofit theatres across the nation. Susan chaired two panels for the Massachusetts Arts Council and has also served on program panels for Arts Midwest, the Joyce Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Closer to home, Susan chairs the Downtown Berkeley Association (dba). She is the founding chair of the Berkeley Arts in Education Steering Committee for Berkeley Unified School District and the Berkeley Cultural Trust. She was awarded the 2012 Benjamin Ide Wheeler Medal by the Berkeley Community Fund. Susan serves on the faculty of Yale School of Drama and is a proud member of the Mont Blanc Ladies’ Literary Guild and Trekking Society. She lives in Berkeley with her husband.

Karen Racanelli

G E N E R A L M A N AG E R

Karen joined Berkeley Rep in 1993 as education director. Under her supervision, Berkeley Rep’s programs for education provided live theatre for more than 20,000 students annually. In 1995, she became general manager, and since then has overseen the day-to-day operations of the Theatre. She has represented the League of Resident Theatres during negotiations with both Actors’ Equity Association and the union of stage directors and choreog3 0 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6

profiles

raphers. Prior to her tenure at Berkeley Rep, Karen worked for Theatre Bay Area as director of theatre services and as an independent producer at several Bay Area theatre companies. She has served on the boards of Climate Theater, Overtone Theatre Company, Park Day School, and the Julia Morgan Center. Karen is married to arts attorney MJ Bogatin.

Liesl Tommy

A S S O C I AT E D I R E C T O R

Liesl is Berkeley Rep’s associate director and helmed the acclaimed productions of Party People and Ruined. She directed the premieres of Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre Company), Party People by universes (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), The White Man—A Complex Declaration of Love

by Joan Rang (DanskDansk Theatre, Denmark), Peggy Picket Sees the Face of God by Roland Schimmelpfennig (Luminato Festival/Canadian Stage Toronto), Eclipsed by Danai Gurira (Yale Repertory Theatre, Woolly Mammoth), The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson (the Public Theater, Dallas Theater Center), A History of Light by Eisa Davis (Contemporary American Theatre Festival), Angela’s Mixtape

by Eisa Davis (Synchronicity Performance Group, New Georges), and Bus and Family Ties (Play Company for the Romania Kiss Me! Festival). Other credits include American Buffalo, Les Misérables, Hamlet, A Raisin in the Sun, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, as well as a four-city tour of Ruined. She has also worked at California Shakespeare Theater, the Huntington Theatre Company, Center Stage in Baltimore, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, and Sundance East Africa on Manda Island in Kenya, among others. Liesl serves as a program associate at Sundance Institute Theatre Program and as an artist trustee with the Sundance Institute’s board of trustees, and she facilitated the inaugural Sundance East Africa Theatre Director’s Lab in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Liesl has earned an Obie Award, a Lillian Hellman Award, and the Alan Schneider Award for directing, the inaugural Susan Stroman Directing Award from the Vineyard Theatre, the nea/tcg Directors Grant, and the New York Theatre Workshop Casting/Directing Fellowship. She has taught or guest directed at Yale Repertory Theatre, Juilliard, NYU, and Brown University. Liesl is an alum of Trinity Rep Conservatory and a native of Cape Town, South Africa.

Madeleine Oldham

R E S I D E N T D R A M AT U R G/ D I R E C T O R , T H E G R O U N D F LO O R

Madeleine is the director of The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work and the Theatre’s resident dramaturg. She oversees commissioning and new play development, and dramaturged the world premiere productions of The House

that will not Stand, Passing Strange, and In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), among others.

As literary manager and associate dramaturg at Center Stage in Baltimore, she produced the First Look reading series and headed up its young audience initiative. Before moving to Baltimore, she was the literary manager at Seattle Children’s Theatre, where she oversaw an extensive commissioning program. She also acted as assistant and interim literary manager at Intiman Theatre in Seattle. Madeleine served for four years on the executive committee of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and has also worked with act (Seattle), Austin Scriptworks, Crowded Fire, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, the Kennedy Center, New Dramatists, Playwrights Center, and Portland Center Stage.

Michael Suenkel

P R O D U C T I O N S TAG E M A N AG E R

Michael began his association with Berkeley Rep as the stage management intern for the 1984–85 season and is now in his 21st year as production stage manager. Some of his favorite shows include 36 Views, Endgame, Eurydice, Hydriotaphia, and Mad Forest. He has also worked with the Barbican in London, the Huntington Theatre Company, the Juste Pour Rire Festival in Montreal, La Jolla Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public Theater, the Public Theater and Second Stage Theater in New York, and Yale Repertory Theatre. For the Magic Theatre, he stage managed Albert Takazauckas’ Breaking the Code and Sam Shepard’s The Late Henry Moss.

Jack & Betty Schafer SEASON SPONSORS

Betty and Jack are proud to support Berkeley Rep. Jack, one of the Theatre’s trustees, also sits on the boards of San Francisco Opera and the Straus Historical Society. He is vice-chair of the Oxbow School in Napa and an emeritus trustee of the San Francisco Art Institute, where he served as board chair. Betty, a retired life coach, has resumed her earlier career as a nonfiction writer and poet. She serves on the boards of Brandeis Hillel Day School, Coro Foundation, Earthjustice, and Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (seo).

The Strauch Kulhanjian Family SEASON SPONSORS

Roger Strauch is a former president of Berkeley Rep’s board of trustees and is currently chair of the trustees committee. He is chairman of the Roda Group (rodagroup. com), a venture-development company based in Berkeley focused on cleantech investments, best known for launching Ask.com and for being the largest investor in Solazyme, a renewable oil and bio-products company (Nasdaq: szym, solazyme.com). Roger is chairman of the board of CoolSystems, a medical technology company, and a member of the UC

Berkeley Engineering Dean’s college advisory board. He is chairman of the board of trustees for the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute; a member of the board of Northside Center, a mental-health services agency based in Harlem, New York City; and a co-founder of the William Saroyan Program in Armenian Studies at Cal. His wife, Julie A. Kulhanjian, is an attending physician at Oakland Children’s Hospital. They have three children.

Kerry Francis & John Jimerson EXECUTIVE SPONSORS

Kerry and John are excited to support Head of Passes. John is the learning and development manager at Chevron’s Richmond refinery and has enjoyed the thought-provoking plays produced by Berkeley Rep. Kerry is a member of Berkeley Rep’s board of trustees, a partner at Deloitte fas llp, and a graduate of UC Berkeley.

bart

SEASON SPONSOR

Bay Area Rapid Transit (bart) is a 104-mile, automated rapid-transit system that serves more than 100 million passengers annually. bart is the backbone of the Bay Area transit network with trains traveling up to 80 mph to connect 26 cities located throughout Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties and the Bay Area’s two largest airports bart’s all-electric trains make it one of the greenest and most energy-efficient systems in the world with close to 70 percent of its all-electrical power coming from hydro, solar, and wind sources. Many new projects are underway to expand bart, allowing it to serve even more communities and continue to offer an ecofriendly alternative to cars. The Oakland Airport Connector opened last fall. For more info, visit bart.gov.

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kpix

MEDIA SPONSOR

kpix 5 shares a commitment with cbs News to original reporting. “Our mission is to bring you compelling, local enterprise journalism,” emphasized kpix/kbcw President and General Manager Bruno Cohen. “And just like Berkeley Rep, we’re passionate about great storytelling. We strive to showcase unique stories that reflect the Bay Area’s innovative spirit, incredible diversity, and rich culture as well as its challenges.” Sister station kbcw 44 Cable 12 airs the region’s only half-hour newscast at 10pm. Produced by the kpix 5 newsroom, “Bay Area NightBeat” offers viewers a fresh perspective on current events along with a lively—and often provocative—look at what the Bay Area is saying and sharing online and in social media. Both stations are committed to supporting valuable community organizations such as Berkeley Rep, and are proud to serve as season media sponsors.

GRUBBCO.COM

Wells Fargo

SEASON SPONSOR

As the top corporate giver to San Francisco Bay Area nonprofits (according to the SF Business Times), Wells Fargo recognizes 2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 3 1

Take the Theatre home with you!

The Hoag Theatre Store is better than ever, featuring our new hoodie with earbuds and exclusive items from our staff artisans.

Wonderful gifts for you and the theatre-lovers in your life!

BE R K E L E Y R E P PRESENTS profiles Berkeley Rep for its leadership in supporting the performing arts and its programs. As the oldest and largest financial services company headquartered in California, Wells Fargo has top financial professionals providing business banking, investments, brokerage, trust, mortgage, insurance, commercial and consumer finance, and much more. Talk to a Wells Fargo banker today to see how we can help you become more financially successful.

Additional staff Deck crew Gabriel Holman Matt Reynolds Electrics Melina Cohen-Bramwell Alex Marshall Kelly Kunaniec William Poulin Andrea J. Schwartz Caitlin Steinmann Molly Stewart-Cohn Micah J. Stieglitz Thomas Weaver Lauren Wright Production assistant Amanda Warner Props Ashley Nguyen Rebecca Willis Scene shop Ross Copeland Patrick Keene Noah Kramer Noah Lange Heather Lentz Alex Marshall Ben Sandberg Colin Suemnicht Read Tuddenham Sound engineer Xochitl De Faria Stage carpenter Kourtney Snow Wardrobe Eva Herndon Leandra Watson

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We thank the many institutional partners who enrich our community by championing Berkeley Rep’s artistic and community outreach programs.

We gratefully recognize these donors to Berkeley Rep’s Annual Fund, who made their gifts between January 2014 and February 2015.

BE R K E L E Y R E P T H A N K S

G IF T S O F $ 10 0,0 0 0 A N D A B OV E The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation The James Irvine Foundation The Shubert Foundation The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust

G IF T S O F $2 5,0 0 0 –49,9 9 9 Anonymous The Ira and Leonore Gershwin Philanthropic Fund Wallis Foundation Woodlawn Foundation

G IF T S O F $50,0 0 0 –9 9,9 9 9 Akonadi Foundation The Bernard Osher Foundation National Endowment for the Arts

G IF T S O F $ 10,0 0 0 –24,9 9 9 Koret Foundation Kenneth Rainin Foundation Sierra Health Foundation

COR P OR AT E S P ON S OR S SEASON SPONSORS

G I F T S O F $ 10 0,0 0 0 A N D A B OV E

SPONSORS

G I F T S O F $ 12 ,0 0 0 –2 4 ,9 9 9

hsbc Private Bank Mechanics Bank Wealth Management The Morrison & Foerster Foundation Union Bank CO R P O R AT E PA R T N E R S

G I F T S O F $ 6,0 0 0 –11,9 9 9

LE A D S P O N S O R

G I F T S O F $ 5 0,0 0 0 – 9 9,9 9 9

American Express E XECU TIV E S P O N S O R S

G I F T S O F $ 2 5,0 0 0 –49,9 9 9

Armanino llp City National Bank Deloitte LG Wealth Management llc Meyer Sound Oliver & Company Pacific Office Automation Panoramic Interests Peet’s Coffee & Tea Schoenberg Family Law Group ubs U.S. Bank

Institutional Partners

G IF T S O F $5,0 0 0 –9,9 9 9 Anonymous Berkeley Civic Arts Program Distracted Globe Foundation East Bay Community Foundation Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Ramsay Family Foundation G IF T S O F $750 –4,9 9 9 Alameda County Arts Commission/artsfund Joyce & William Brantman Foundation Civic Foundation The Entrekin Foundation jec Foundation The Ida and William Rosenthal Foundation PE R FO R M A N CE S P O N S O R S

G I F T S O F $ 3,0 0 0 – 5,9 9 9

4U Sports Bayer Gallagher Risk Management Services Macy’s B U S IN E S S M E M B E R S

G I F T S O F $ 1, 5 0 0 –2 ,9 9 9

Bank of the West BluesCruise.com CH A M PI O N

G I F T S O F $ 1,0 0 0 –1, 49 9

Cooperative Center Federal Credit Union

Is your company a Corporate Sponsor? Berkeley Rep’s Corporate Partnership program offers excellent opportunities to network, entertain clients, reward employees, increase visibility, and support the arts and arts education in the community.

For details visit berkeleyrep.org or call Daria Hepps at 510 647-2904.

I N-K I N D S P ON S OR S M AT C H I NG G I F T S act Catering Angeline’s Louisiana Kitchen Aurora Catering Autumn Press Belli Osteria Bistro Liaison Bogatin, Corman & Gold C.G. Di Arie Vineyard & Winery Café Clem Comal Cyprus Dashe Cellars Domaine Carneros by Taittinger Donkey & Goat Winery East Bay Spice Company etc Catering Eureka!

Farm League Design & Management Group five Gather Restaurant

Grace Street Catering Greene Radovsky Maloney Share & Hennigh llp Hafner Vineyard Hotel Shattuck Plaza Hugh Groman Catering & Greenleaf Platters Jazzcaffè Kevin Berne Images La Mediterranee La Note Latham & Watkins, llp Match Vineyards Pathos Organic Greek Kitchen Patricia Motzkin Architecture Phil’s Sliders Picante PiQ Pyramid Alehouse Quady Winery Revival Bar + Kitchen

Ricola usa The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco Shalleck Collaborative St. George Spirits Sweet Adeline TigerLily Tres Agaves Venus Restaurant Zut! on 4th Hotel Shattuck Plaza is the official hotel of Berkeley Rep. Pro-bono legal services are generously provided by Latham & Watkins, llp.

The following companies have matched their employees’ contributions to Berkeley Rep. Please contact your company’s HR office to find out if your company matches gifts.

Adobe Systems Inc. · Advent Software · Alexander & Baldwin · American Express · Apple · Argonaut Group, Inc. · at&t · Bank of America · Bechtel Corporation · BlackRock · Bristol Myers Squibb · Charles Schwab & Co, Inc · Chevron Corporation · Clorox · Constellation Energy · Dolby Laboratories · Franklin Templeton · Gap · Google · Hewlett Packard · ibm Corporation · JD Fine and Company · John Wiley & Sons, Inc. · Johnson & Johnson · kla Tencor · Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory · Lexis-Nexis · Macy’s Inc.· Matson Navigation Company · Microsoft · Morrison & Foerster · Motorola Mobility · mrw & Associates llc · norcal Mutual Insurance Company · Oracle Corporation · Perforce · Ruppenthal Foundation for the Arts · Salesforce.com · The Doctors Company · The Walt Disney Company · visa u.s.a., Inc. · Willis Lease Finance Corporation

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BE R K E L E Y R E P THANKS

Donors to the Annual Fund

We thank the many individuals in our community who help Berkeley Rep produce adventurous, thought-provoking, and thrilling theatre and bring arts education to thousands of young people every year. We gratefully recognize these donors to Berkeley Rep’s Annual Fund, who made their gifts between January 2014 and February 2015.

To make your gift and join this distinguished group, visit berkeleyrep.org/give or call 510 647-2906.

S P ON S OR C I RC L E SEASON SPONSORS

$ 10 0,0 0 0 +

Jack & Betty Schafer The Strauch Kulhanjian Family

LE A D S P O N S O R S

$ 5 0,0 0 0 – 9 9,9 9 9

Martha Ehmann Conte Bruce Golden & Michelle Mercer Mary & Nicholas Graves Wayne Jordan & Quinn Delaney John & Helen Meyer Stewart & Rachelle Owen Mary Ruth Quinn & Scott Shenker Steve Silberstein

E XECU TIV E S P O N S O R S

$ 2 5,0 0 0 –49,9 9 9

Edward D. Baker Rena Bransten John & Stephanie Dains Bill Falik & Diana Cohen Kerry Francis & John Jimerson M Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau Pam & Mitch Nichter Marjorie Randolph Dr. & Mrs. Philip D. Schild

Michael & Sue Steinberg Jean & Michael Strunsky Guy Tiphane Gail & Arne Wagner Barry Lawson Williams & Lalita Tademy

SPONSORS

$ 12 ,0 0 0 –2 4 ,9 9 9

Anonymous (2) Barbara & Gerson Bakar David & Vicki Cox Thalia Dorwick Robin & Rich Edwards David & Vicki Fleishhacker Paul Friedman & Diane Manley M Scott & Sherry Haber Jack Klingelhofer Susan & Moses Libitzky Sandra & Ross McCandless Dugan Moore Leonard & Arlene Rosenberg Sheli Rosenberg, in honor of Leonard X Rosenberg Joan Sarnat & David Hoffman Liliane & Ed Schneider Norah & Norman Stone Felicia Woytak & Steve Rasmussen

A S S O CIAT E S P O N S O R S

$ 6,0 0 0 – 11,9 9 9

Anonymous (3) Shelley & Jonathan Bagg Edith Barschi Neil & Gene Barth Valerie Barth & Peter Wiley M Stephen Belford & Bobby Minkler Carole B. Berg K Lynne Carmichael Susan Chamberlin Daniel Cohn & Lynn Brinton Robert Council & Ann Parks-Council Oz Erickson & Rina Alcalay William Espey & Margaret Hart Edwards John & Carol Field, in honor of Marjorie Randolph Linda Jo Fitz Virginia & Timothy Foo Jill & Steve Fugaro Carol A. Giles Paul Haahr & Susan Karp Doug & Leni Herst, in honor of Susie Medak Hitz Foundation Christopher Hudson & Cindy J. Chang, MD Ms. Wendy E. Jordan

Seymour Kaufman & Kerstin Edgerton Wanda Kownacki Ted & Carole Krumland Zandra Faye LeDuff Dixon Long Dale & Don Marshall Martin & Janis McNair Steven & Patrece Mills Mary Ann & Lou Peoples Peter Pervere & Georgia Cassel Barbara L. Peterson Kaye Rosso Pat Rougeau Patricia Sakai & Richard Shapiro Cynthia & William Schaff Emily Shanks M Pat & Merrill Shanks Karen Stevenson & Bill McClave Jacqueline & Stephen Swire Wendy Williams Sheila Wishek Steven & Linda Wolan Martin & Margaret Zankel

A R T I S T IC DI R E C T OR’ S C I RC L E PA R T N E R S

$ 3,0 0 0 – 5,9 9 9

Anonymous (5) Linda R. Ach Cynthia & David Bogolub Caroline Booth Kim Boston K Jim Butler Brook & Shawn Byers C. William Byrne Jennifer Chaiken & Sam Hamilton Constance Crawford Karen & David Crommie Lois M. De Domenico Delia Fleishhacker Ehrlich Nancy & Jerry Falk Richard & Lois Halliday Earl & Bonnie Hamlin Vera & David Hartford James C. Hormel & Michael P. Nguyen Lynda & Dr. J. Pearce Hurley Kathleen & Chris Jackson Ashok Janah Duke & Daisy Kiehn Christopher & Clare Lee Peter & Melanie Maier Charlotte & Adolph Martinelli The McBaine Family Phyra McCandless & Angelos Kottas Miles & Mary Ellen McKey Michele & John McNellis Susan Medak & Greg Murphy, in honor of Marcia Smolens Eddie & Amy Orton Janet Ostler Sandi & Dick Pantages Pease Family Fund Kermit & Janet Perlmutter Ivy & Leigh Robinson David S. H. Rosenthal & Vicky Reich Riva Rubnitz Beth & David Sawi Stephen C. Schaefer Stephen Schoen & Margot Fraser Linda & Nathan Schultz Beryl & Ivor Silver Lisa & Jim Taylor James & Lisa White Patricia & Jeffrey Williams Sally Woolsey Alan & Judy Zafran

B E N E FAC TO R S

$ 1, 5 0 0 –2 ,9 9 9

Anonymous (8) Anonymous, in memory of Vaughn &

Ardis Herdell Martha & Bruce Atwater Nina Auerbach Linda & Mike Baker Michelle L. Barbour David Beery & Norman Abramson BluesCruise.com Annikka Berridge Brian Bock and Susan Rosin Linda Brandenburger Broitman-Basri Family Drs. Don & Carol Anne Brown Katherine S. Burcham M Kerry Tepperman Campbell Ronnie Caplane Stephen K. Cassidy & Rebecca L. Powlan Paula Champagne & David Watson Andrew Combs Julie Harkness Cooke Penny Cooper & Rena Rosenwasser Thomas & Suellen Cox Ed Cullen & Ann O’Connor James Cuthbertson Richard & Anita Davis Ira Dearing Ilana DeBare & Sam Schuchat Francine & Beppe Di Palma Daryl Dichek & Kenneth Smith, in memory of Shirley D. Schild Jerome & Thao Dodson Ben Douglas Becky Draper Merle & Michael Fajans Cynthia A. Farner Tracy & Mark Ferron Lisa & Dave Finer Patrick Flannery Thomas & Sharon Francis Herb & Marianne Friedman Don & Janie Friend, in honor of Bill & Candy Falik James Gala Karl & Kathleen Geier Dennis & Susan Johann Gilardi Marjorie Ginsburg & Howard Slyter Daniel & Hilary B. Goldstine Bob Goodman Phyllis & Eugene Gottfried Mrs. Gale K. Gottlieb Robert & Judith Greber William James Gregory Garrett Gruener & Amy Slater Ms. Teresa Burns Gunther & Dr. Andrew Gunther Migsy & Jim Hamasaki

3 4 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6

Bob & Linda Harris Ann & Shawn Fischer Hecht Ruth Hennigar Tom & Bonnie Herman Howard Hertz & Jean Krois Richard N. Hill & Nancy Lundeen Sue Hoch K Bill Hofmann & Robbie Welling M The Hornthal Family Foundation Rick Hoskins & Lynne Frame Paula Hughmanick & Steven Berger George & Leslie Hume Mr. & Mrs. Harold M. Isbell Beth & Fred Karren Doug & Cessna Kaye Rosalind & Sung-Hou Kim Jean & Jack Knox Lynn Eve Komaromi, in honor of the Berkeley Rep Staff Michael Kossman & Luis Orrico John Kouns & Anne Baele Kouns Helen E. Land Robert Lane & Tom Cantrell William & Adair Langston Randy Laroche & David Laudon Louise Laufersweiler & Warren Sharp Sherrill Lavagnino & Scott McKinney Andrew Leavitt & Catherine Lewis Ellen & Barry Levine Bonnie Levinson & Dr. Donald Kay Jennifer S. Lindsay Tom Lockard & Alix Marduel Vonnie Madigan Elsie Mallonee Joan & Roger Mann Naomi & Bruce Mann Helen Marcus & David Williamson Lois & Gary Marcus Michael Margolis Sumner & Hermine Marshall Rebecca Martinez Jill Matichak Erin McCune & Nicholas Virene Janet & Michael McCutcheon Steven McGlocklin Karen & John McGuinn Kirk McKusick & Eric Allman Michele & John McNellis Toby Mickelson & Donald Brody Roger & Satomi Miles Dan Miller Karen Miller Andy & June Monach Scott Montgomery & Marc Rand Marvin & Neva Moskowitz Shanna O’Hare & John Davis

Judith & Richard Oken Steve Olsen Judy O’Young, MD & Gregg Hauser Matt Pagel & Corey Revilla Bob & MaryJane Pauley Tom & Kathy Pendleton Gladys Perez-Mendez Michael A. Petonic & Veronica A. Watson David & Bobbie Pratt Carol Quimby-Bonan Andrew Raskopf & David Gunderman Elizabeth Ratner Sue Reinhold & Deborah Newbrun Bill Reuter & Ruth Major James & Maxine Risley John & Jody Roberts Carole Robinson & Zane O. Gresham Horacio Rodriguez Deborah Romer & William Tucker Marc Roth Boyard & Anne Rowe Enid & Alan Rubin Lisa Salomon & Scott Forrest Monica Salusky & John K. Sutherland Jeane & Roger Samuelsen Jackie & Paul Schaeffer Joyce & Jim Schnobrich Mark Shusterman, M.D. Edie Silber & Steve Bomse Amrita Singhal & Michael Tubach Kae Skeels Sherry & David Smith Stephen & Cindy Snow Audrey & Bob Sockolov Jacques Soenens Vickie Soulier Jennifer Heyneman Sousae & William Sousae David G. Steele Stephen Stublarec & Debra S. Belaga Gayle Tapscott K Andrew & Jody Taylor Deborah Taylor Alison Teeman & Michael Yovino-Young Susan & David Terris Ama Torrance & David Davies Bernard & Denise Tyson Pamela Gay Walker/ Ghost Ranch Productions Buddy & Jodi Warner Jonathan & Kiyo Weiss Beth Weissman Charles & Nancy Wolfram Ron & Anita Wornick Sam & Joyce Zanze Jane & Mark Zuercher

LEGEND K in-kind gift M matching gift We are pleased to recognize first-time donors to Berkeley Rep, whose names appear in italics.

BE R K E L E Y R E P T H A N K S

Donors to the Annual Fund

CH A M PIO N S

$ 1,0 0 0 –1, 49 9

Anonymous (7) · Pat Angell, in memory of Gene Angell · Naomi Auerbach & Ted Landau · Don & Gerry Beers M · Robert & Wendy Bergman · Patti Bittenbender · Daniel Boggan Jr · Harry Bremond & Peggy Forbes · Fred Brown & Barbara Kong Brown · Barbara & Robert Budnitz · Dan & Allyn Carl · Dr. S. Davis Carniglia & Ms. M. Claire Baker · Paula Carrell · Stan & Stephanie Casper · Naveen Chandra & James Lengel · Leslie Chatham & Kathie Weston · Ed & Lisa Chilton · Patty & Geoff Chin · Terin Christensen · Ralph & Rebecca Clark · Earl T. Cohen & Heidi M. Shale · Phyllis Coring K · Barbara & Tim Daniels M · Alecia A. DeCoudreaux · Harry & Susan Dennis · Ivan & Sarah Diamond · Corinne & Mike Doyle · Debra Engel, in honor of Barry Williams & Lalita Tademy · Susan English & Michael Kalkstein · Bill & Susan Epstein, in honor of Marge Randolph · Paul Feigenbaum & Judy Kemeny · Frannie Fleishhacker · Lisa Franzel & Rod Mickels · Donald & Dava Freed · Christopher R. Frostad M · Judith & Alex Glass · Robert Goldstein & Anna Mantell · Diana Grand & Jon Holman · Douglas Hardman & Karla Martin · Ann Harriman, in memory of Malcolm White · Elaine Hitchcock · Barry & Jackie Hoffner · Herrick and Elaine Jackson, The Connemara Fund · Ken & Judith Johnson · Randall Johnson· Barbara E. Jones, in memory of William E. Jones · Barbara Jones & Massey J. Bambara M · Thomas Jones · Tom & Mary Anne Jorde, in honor of Pat Sakai & Dick Shapiro · Steve K. Kispersky · Suzanne LaFetra · Linda Laskowski · Joe W. Laymon · Nancy & George Leitmann, in memory of Helen Barber · Erma Lindeman · R. Jay & Eileen Love · J.E. Luckett · Meg Manske · John E. Matthews · Laura McCrea & Robert Ragucci · John G. McGehee · Dennis & Eloise Middleton · David L. Monroe · Jerry Mosher · Timothy Muller · Margo Murray · Paul Newacheck · Claire Noonan & Peter Landsberger · Pier & Barbara Oddone, in memory of Michael Leibert · Sheldeen Osborne · Richard Ostreicher &

We gratefully recognize the following members of the Annual Fund whose contributions were received in February 2015 S U PP O R T E R S

$ 2 5 0 –49 9

Anonymous · Nancy Blachman & David desJardins · Priscilla K. Cooper & John Bartley · Rose Ann Critchfield & Stephen Cohn · Brett D’Ambrosio · Sheilah & Harry Fish · Caroline McCall & Eric Martin · Eric Peterson · Anne & Nathan Petrowsky · Dr. David Schulz M · Robert Visser M · Mark Whatley & Danuta Zaroda M

CO N T RIB U TO R S

$ 15 0 –2 49

Phyllis Bail · David & Eva Bradford · Sue Cork · Mr. & Mrs. Stefan Dasho · William & Andrea Foley · Charles Howard, in memory of the Howard Family · James & Celia Kelly · Kimberly J. Kenley-Salarpi · Sheila Keppel · Elaine Lee · Fiona McCrea · Juanita Peterson · Diane Schreiber & Bryan McElderry M · Peter M. Schwartz & Laura Scott · Helaine & Marc Schweitzer · Phoebe Watts · Kim Rohrer K · Helen Wu

Robert Sleasman · Lynette Pang & Michael Man · Gerane Wharton Park · Gregory C. Potts · Kenneth & Frances Reid · Charles R. Rice · Edward & Jeanette Roach · Rob & Eileen Ruby · Mitzi Sales & John Argue · John Sanger · Seiger Family Foundation · Neal Shorstein, MD & Christopher Doane · Ann Shulman & Stephen Colwell · Dave & Lori Simpson · Ed & Ellen Smith · Sigrid Snider · Douglas Sovern & Sara Newmann · John St. Dennis & Roy Anati · Gary & Jana Stein · Annie Stenzel · Tim Stevenson & David Lincoln King · Michael Tilson Thomas & Joshua Robison · Pate & Judy Thomson · Deborah & Bob Van Nest · Wendy Willrich · Lee Yearley & Sally Gressens

A DVO C AT E S

$500–999

Anonymous (23) · Denny Abrams · Daphne Allen K · Gertrude & Robert Allen · Peggy & Don Alter · Robert & Evelyn Apte · Shellye L. Archambeau & Clarence Scott · Ross E. Armstrong · Jerry & Seda Arnold · Gay & Alan Auerbach · Mary Bailey · Todd & Diane Baker · Celia Bakke · David & Christine Balabanian · Leslie & Jack Batson · Jonathan Berk & Rebecca Schwartz · Richard & Kathy Berman · Robert Berman & Jane Ginsburg · Caroline Beverstock · Steve Bischoff · Jill Bryans · Wendy Buchen · Rike & Klaus Burmeister · Alex Byron & Nicole Maguire · Don Campbell and Family · Kawika Campbell · Dr. Paula Campbell · Doug Carlston & Kathy Williams · Bruce Carlton · Carolle J. Carter & Jess Kitchens · Kim & Dawn Chase · Carol T. Christ · Karen Clayton & Stephen Clayton · Dennis Cohen & Deborah Robison · Leonard & Roberta Cohn · Ruth Conroy · Robert & Blair Cooter · Philip Crawford · Meredith Daane · Robert & Loni Dantzler · Pat & Steve Davis · Abby & Ross Davisson · Noah & Sandra Doyle · Drs. Nancy Ebbert & Adam Rochmes · Jeanene E. Ebert M · Anita C. Eblé · Burton Peek Edwards & Lynne Dal Poggetto · Roger & Jane Emanuel · Meredith & Harry Endsley M · Gini Erck & David Petta · Michael Evanhoe · Nancy H. Ferguson · James Finefrock &

FRIE N D S

$ 75 –149

Anonymous (9) · Nancy Abercrombie · Roy Andrewson · Laurie Barkin · Chuck & Judy Barnett · Christopher Blum · Robin & Edward Blum · Barbara Boyington · Esta Brand · Craig Broscow · Jacquelyn Brown & Ken Prochnow · Jennifer Burden · Ryan Coombs & Cynthia Der · Harley Cooper · Edith Davidson · Kate & Vincent Deschamps · Dana Dillard · Shelley & Elliot Fineman · Joseph Furnish · Alison Gopnik & Alby Raysmith · Michael Green · Alan Hencky · Adrienne & Don Hillebrandt · Mui Ho · Charlton Holland · Kristen & Todd Jones · Anthony & Elaine La Russa · Marie Elaine Lee · Robert McIntosh · Sandra Miyahara · Robert & Mia Morrill · Mary O’Shea, in memory of Jim O’Shea · Matthew C. Petrik · Steven Potter · Maria Powell · Marcee Samberg · James Sawdy · Lois Schonberger · Jan Schreiber · Lynn Seppala · Anne Shuford · Lucinda Sikes · Carol Stanek · Iris Stone · Tyrone Sturdivant · Barbara Surian · Varda Treibach-Heck · Julayne Virgil · William Weisman · Norma Wynn, in honor of James F. Wynn · Suzanne & Richard Zulch

PAT RO N S

$ 1 –74

Anonymous (20) · Dimitri Afanasyev · Judith & Louis Alley · Bianca Anderson, in honor of Rosa Antoine · Kirk Andrus · Robert Aude · Janet Babb · Deborah & Prabin Badhia · Erin Badillo · Zachary Baker · Genie Barry & Jido Cooper · Leight Barry · Lauren K. Beal · Phyllis Beals ·

Harriet Hamlin · Brigitte & Louis Fisher · Jim & Cathy Fisher · Martin & Barbara Fishman · Robert Fleri, in memory of Carole S. Pfeffer · Michael & Victoria Flora · Stephen Follansbee & Richard Wolitz · Jacques Fortier · Dean Francis · Nancy H. Francis · Stuart & Joyce Freedman · Kate & Ted Freeland · Daniel Friedland & Azlynda Alim · Paul & Marilyn Gardner · Tim Geoghegan · Paul Gill & Stephanie D’Arnall · Susan & Jon Golovin · Jane Gottesman & Geoffrey Biddle · Linda Graham · Dan Granoff · Sheldon & Judy Greene · Don & Becky Grether · Dan & Linda Guerra · John G. Guthrie · Janet Harris · Robert L. Harris & Glenda Newell-Harris · Dan & Shawna Hartman Brotsky · Geoffrey & Marin-Shawn Haynes · Daria Hepps · Irene & Robert Hepps · Wilbur & Carolyn Ross Hobbs · Judith Holland · Steven Horwitz K · Morgan Hough · Olivia & Thacher Hurd Fund · Mr. & Mrs. Edwin Ives · Marc & Lisa Jones · Helmut H. Kapczynski & Colleen Neff · Marjorie & Robert Kaplan, in honor of Thalia Dorwick · Patricia Kaplan · Dennis Kaump · Natasha Khoruzhenko & Olegs Pimenovs · Christopher Killian & Carole Ungvarsky · Mary S. Kimball · Beverly Phillips Kivel · Joan & David Komaromi · Janet Kornegay and Dan Sykes · Jennifer Kuenster & George Miers · Charles Kuglen · Larry & Ruth Kurmel · Woof Kurtzman & Liz Hertz · Henry & Natalie Lagorio · Thomas LaQueur · Mr. & Mrs. Richard Larsen · Glennis Lees & Michael Glazeski · John Leys · Ray Lifchez · Renee M. Linde · Mark & Roberta Linsky · Dottie Lofstrom · Judy MacDonald Johnston · Bruce Maigatter & Pamela Partlow · Sue & Phil Marineau · Sarah McArthur & Michael LeValley · Betsy McDaniel · Marie S. McEnnis · Sean McKenna · Ash McNeely · Ruth Medak · Mary & Gene Metz · Aliza and Peter Metzner K · Caryl & Peter Mezey · Geri Monheimer · Rex Morgan & Greg Reniere · Brian & Britt-Marie Morris · Ronald Morrison · Patricia Motzkin & Richard Feldman · Moule Family Fund · Lance Nagel · Ron Nakayama · Kris Carpenter Negulescu, in memory of Maxine Carpenter ·

Jeanne E. Newman · Marlowe Ng & Sharon Ulrich · Hung Nguyen · Judy Ogle · Carol J. Ormond · Mary Papenfuss & Roland Cline · Nancy Park · P. David & Mary Alyce Pearson · Lewis Perry · James F. Pine M · F. Anthony Placzek · Malcolm & Ann Plant · John & Anja Plowright · Gary F. Pokorny · Charles Pollack & Joanna Cooper · Susie & Eric Poncelet · Roxann R. Preston · Paula Pretlow · Dan & Lois Purkett · Kathleen Quenneville · Chuck & Kati Quibell · David & Mary Ramos · Sheldon & Catherine Ramsay · Ian Reinhard · Helen Richardson · Paul & Margaret Robbins · Joan Roebuck · Roberta Romberg · Galen Rosenberg & Denise Barnett · Marie Rosenblatt · Jirayr & Meline Roubinian · Deborah Dashow Ruth, in memory of Leo P. Ruth · June & Bob Safran · Dorothy R. Sax · Laurel Scheinman · Bob & Gloria Schiller · Mark Schoenrock & Claudia Fenelon · Teddy & Bruce Schwab · John & Lucille Serwa · Brenda Buckhold Shank, M.D., Ph.D. · Steve & Susan Shortell · William & Martha Slavin · Carra Sleight · Suzanne Slyman · Jerry & Dick Smallwood · Cherida Collins Smith · Mark Smith & Pam Callowa · Alice & Scott So · Christina Spaulding · Louis & Bonnie Spiesberger · Robert & Naomi Stamper · Ms. Joelle Steefel · Herbert Steierman · Lynn M. & A. Justin Sterling · Monroe W. Strickberger · Shayla Su M · Ellen Sussman & Neal Rothman · Nancy & Fred Teichert · Jeff & Catherine Thermond · Prof.

Jeremy Thorner & Dr. Carol Mimura, in memory of James Toshiaki Mimura · Karen Tiedemann & Geoff Piller · Janet Traub · William van Dyk & Margi Sullivan · Gerald & Ruth Vurek · Scott Wachter & Barbara Malina · Jon K. Wactor · Louise & Larry Walker · Kate Walsh & Dan Serpico · Dena & Wayne Watson Lamprey · William R. Weir · Sallie Weissinger · Dr. Ben & Mrs. Carolyn Werner · Elizabeth Werter & Henry Trevor · Diane & Scott Wieser · Oliver Williamson · Fred Winslow & Barbara Baratta K · Carol Katigbak Wong · Margaret Wu & Ciara Cox · Sandra Yuen & Lawrence Shore

Lis Bensley · Bonnie Bichkoff · Anya Binsacca · Tim & Beth Bishop · Kathleen Bliss · Elliot Block · Kathryn Blystone · Kent Bossange · Diane & Jim Breivis · Barbara Bridwell · Mary Broderick · Mary & Peter Brooks · Hilary Brown · Susan Brubaker · Elizabeth Bryant · Patricia Buddress · Carolyn Burgess · Helen Cagampang · Kimberley Caldewey, in honor of Marjorie Caldewey · Kerry Campbell-Price · Douglas Carruth · Arlyn Christopherson · Illene Colby · Barry & Mary Collins · Clemencia Colmenares · Patricia & Stephen Cook · Karen Coulter · Jack Covington · Mary E. Craig · Margaret Crayton · Deborah Cunningham · Cindi Darling · Susan Dent · April Diaz · Caryn Dickman & Peggy Kiss · Sacha Dorgeloh & Brian Beaumont-Nesbitt · Gary Downing · Mary Jane Elliott · Susan Ferreyra · Matthew Finch · Abi and Edward Fitzgerald · Gregory Ford · Nancy Fox · William Frazer · Mic Friedberg · Nick Fylstra · Marian Gade · Alexander & Alice Gailas · Anne Garratt · Pamela Gee · Joseph C. George · Kimberley Gilles · Dave W. Green · Marilyn Griego · Barbara Hall · Larry Hanover · Diane Harmon · Kathleen Hartman · Dana Haviland · Gretchen Hayes · Stephen Headley · Michele & Carl Heisler · Alisa Highfill · Denise Hodges · Barry & Kris Hovis · Candace Hyde-Wang · Nicole Jackson · Denise Sherer Jacobson · Mark Jarrett · Jacqueline Johnson · Jane Kadner · Carole Kennemer · Marlene & Ilan Keret · Robert Kessler · Yoojin Koh · Eric Kritz · Linda & Al Leck · Anita Leimone · Duane Lemke · Sue Londerville ·

Kristine Maltrud · Melissa Mangini · Susan Mann · Denis Martin · Patricia McCabe · Paul Medved · Malcom Mickens · Karl and Renee Molineux · Nurit Mussen · Christopher Nassopoulos · Tim O’Brien · Maryl Olivera · Bill Olmsted · Jim Olson · Carlos Oroza · Shaylah Padgett-Weibel · Nancy B Pakter · Peter Peacock · Ruth A. Pease · Marshall Platt & Elana Reinin · Carolyn Pometta, LCSW · Edgar Powell · Susan Price · Gloria Randriakoto · Nancy Reichert · Christine Ritter · Bonnie Roditti · Gail Rossiter · Roberta Roth · Nancy Rutledge · Sepehr Sadighpour · Leslie Salmon-Zhu · Sherry Sank · James Saunders · Karen Schieve · Judith & Peter Schumacher, in honor of Jessica Broitman · Robert & Beverly Sereda · Sally Seymour · Rachel Sheinbein · Martin Shenk · Wendy Silvani · Helen Simon · Benjamin Sisson · Geraldine Smith · Maggie R. Smith · Elaine Sobel · James Sowers · Tiffany Sprague · Kim Stephens · Catherine Stern · Kathryn Stout · Miriam Swernoff · William & Deborah Tarran · Ernestine Tayabas-Kim · Joseph & Jone Taylor · David Thompson · Ann Tingley · Dana Tom & Nancy Kawakita · Phyllis Toomire · Cynthia Towle · Zalak Trivedi · Stephen Van Meter · Natalie Van Osdol · Maritza Jackson-Sandoval · Julia and Shel Waggener · Annalisa Wallace · Karen Warren · Barbara Wiggin · Khin Swe Win · Jessica Wolfe-Taylor · Roxy Wolosenko · Jon & Elizabeth Worden · Janet Yelner · Margaret Zabel · Mary Zeppa

2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 35

BE R K E L E Y R E P T H A N K S

BE R K E L E Y R E P T H A N K S

Michael Leibert Society Members

Sustaining members as of February 2015:

Anonymous (6) Norman Abramson & David Beery Sam Ambler Carl W. Arnoult & Aurora Pan Ken & Joni Avery Nancy Axelrod Edith Barschi Neil & Gene Barth Carole B. Berg Linda Brandenburger Broitman-Basri Family Jill Bryans Bruce Carlton & Richard G. McCall Stephen K. Cassidy Andrew Daly & Jody Taylor M. Laina Dicker Thalia Dorwick Rich & Robin Edwards Bill & Susan Epstein William Espey & Margaret Hart Edwards Carol & John Field Dr. Stephen E. Follansbee & Dr. Richard A. Wolitz Kerry Francis

Donors to the Annual Fund

Dr. Harvey & Deana Freedman Joseph & Antonia Friedman Paul T. Friedman Dr. John Frykman Laura K. Fujii David Gaskin & Phillip McPherson Marjorie Ginsburg & Howard Slyter Mary & Nicholas Graves Elizabeth Greene Jon & Becky Grether Richard & Lois Halliday Linda & Bob Harris Fred Hartwick Ruth Hennigar Douglas J. Hill Hoskins/Frame Family Trust Lynda & Dr. J. Pearce Hurley Robin C. Johnson Lynn Eve Komaromi Bonnie McPherson Killip Scott & Kathy Law Zandra Faye LeDuff Ines R. Lewandowitz Dot Lofstrom Dale & Don Marshall Sumner & Hermine Marshall

Rebecca Martinez Suzanne & Charles McCulloch John G. McGehee Miles & Mary Ellen McKey Margaret D. & Winton McKibben Susan Medak & Greg Murphy Stephanie Mendel Toni Mester Shirley & Joe Nedham Pam & Mitch Nichter Sheldeen G. Osborne Sharon Ott Amy Pearl Parodi Gladys Perez-Mendez Barbara Peterson Regina Phelps Margaret Phillips Marjorie Randolph Bonnie Ring Living Trust Tom Roberts Tracie E. Rowson Deborah Dashow Ruth Patricia Sakai & Richard Shapiro Betty & Jack Schafer Brenda Buckhold Shank, M.D., Ph.D. Valerie Sopher

Michael & Sue Steinberg Dr. Douglas & Anne Stewart Jean Strunsky Henry Timnick Phillip & Melody Trapp Janis Kate Turner Dorothy Walker Weil Family Trust—Weil Family Karen & Henry Work Martin & Margaret Zankel

Gifts received by Berkeley Rep:

Estate of Suzanne Adams Estate of Helen Barber Estate of Fritzi Benesch Estate of Nelly Berteaux Estate of Nancy Croley Estate of John E. & Helen A. Manning Estate of Richard Markell Estate of Margaret Purvine Estate of Peter Sloss Estate of Harry Weininger Estate of Grace Williams

Members of this Society, which is named in honor of Founding Director Michael W. Leibert, have designated Berkeley Rep in their estate plans. Unless the donor specifies otherwise, planned gifts become a part of Berkeley Rep’s endowment, where they will provide the financial stability that enables Berkeley Rep to maintain the highest standards of artistic excellence, support new work, and serve the community with innovative education and outreach programs, year after year, in perpetuity.

For more information on becoming a member, visit our website at berkeleyrep.org or contact Daria Hepps at 510 647-2904 or dhepps@berkeleyrep.org.

Make great theatre part of your legacy.

Visit berkeleyrep.org/plannedgiving or call 510 647-2904 3 6 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6

Petronia Paley and Harriett D. Foy (background) in The House that will not Stand P H OTO CO U R T E S Y O F K E V I N B ER N E .CO M

BOA R D OF T RU ST E E S

BE R K E L E Y R E P STA F F Michael Leibert Artistic Director Tony Taccone

Managing Director Susan Medak

General Manager Karen Racanelli ARTISTIC Associate Director Liesl Tommy Artistic Associate & Casting Director Amy Potozkin Director, The Ground Floor/ Resident Dramaturg Madeleine Oldham Literary Associate Julie McCormick Ground Floor Visiting Artistic Associate Sara Kerastas Artists under Commission David Adjmi · Todd Almond · Christina Anderson · Glen Berger · Julia Cho · Jackie Sibblies Drury · Rinne Groff · Dave Malloy · Lisa Peterson P R ODUC T ION Production Manager Peter Dean Associate Production Manager Amanda Williams O’Steen Company Manager Jean-Paul Gressieux S TAG E M A NAG E M E N T Production Stage Manager Michael Suenkel Stage Managers Leslie M. Radin · Karen Szpaller · Kimberly Mark Webb Production Assistants Sofie Miller · Amanda Warner S TA G E OP E R AT ION S Stage Supervisor Julia Englehorn P R OP E R T I E S Properties Supervisor Jillian A. Green Associate Properties Supervisor Gretta Grazier Properties Artisan Viqui Peralta S C E N E S HOP Technical Director Jim Smith Associate Technical Director Colin Babcock Shop Foreman Sam McKnight Master Carpenter E.T. Hazzard Carpenter Jamaica Montgomery-Glenn SCENIC ART Charge Scenic Artist Lisa Lázár COSTUMES Costume Director Maggi Yule Associate Costume Director Amy Bobeda Draper Kitty Muntzel Tailor Kathy Kellner Griffith

First Hand Janet Conery Wardrobe Supervisor Barbara Blair ELECTRICS Master Electrician Frederick C. Geffken Production Electricians Christine Cochrane Kenneth Coté SOUND Sound Supervisor James Ballen Sound Engineer Angela Don A DM I N I S T R AT ION Controller Suzanne Pettigrew Director of Technology Gustav Davila Associate Managing Director/ Manager, The Ground Floor Sarah Williams Executive Assistant Andrew Susskind Bookkeeper Kristine Taylor Associate General Manager/ Human Resources Manager David Lorenc Payroll Administrator Valerie St. Louis Human Resources Consultant Laurel Leichter Database Manager Diana Amezquita Systems Assistant Debra Wong Management Fellow Chiara Klein DE V E L OPM E N T Director of Development Lynn Eve Komaromi Associate Director of Development Daria Hepps Director of Individual Giving Laura Fichtenberg Campaign Manager Libbie Hodas Institutional Grants Manager Bethany Herron Special Events Manager Lily Yang Individual Giving Associate Joanna Taber Development Database Coordinator Jane Voytek Donor Relations Associate Kelsey Hogan Development Associate Beryl Baker B OX OF F I C E Ticket Services Director Destiny Askin Subscription Manager Laurie Barnes Ticket Services Supervisors Samanta Cubias · Richard Rubio

Box Office Agents Nathan Brown · Christina Cone · Molly Conway · Julie Gotsch · Eliza Oakley · Amanda Warner · Crystal Whybark M A R K E T I NG & C OM M U N I C AT ION S Interim Director of Marketing & Communications Peter Yonka Director of Public Relations Voleine Amilcar Art Director Nora Merecicky Communications Manager Karen McKevitt Audience Development Manager Sarah Nowicki Webmaster Christina Cone Program Advertising Ellen Felker Patron Services Manager Katrena Jackson House Manager Debra Selman Assistant House Managers Natalie Bulkley · Aleta George · Tuesday Ray · Ayanna Makalani · Mary Cait Hogan · Anthony Miller · Sarah Mosby · Seandale Turner Concessions Supervisor Hugh Dunaway Concessionaires Jessica Bates · Natalie Bulkley · Samantha Burse · Steve Coambs · Emerald Geter · Devon Labelle · Kelvyn Mitchell · Benjamin Ortiz · Jenny Ortiz · Alonso Suarez

Graves · Marvin Greene · Gendell Hing-Hernández · Andrew Hurteau · Ben Johnson · Rebecca Kemper · Dave Maier · Patricia Miller · Diane Rachel · Christian Roman · Rolf Saxon · Elyse Shafarman · Rebecca Stockley Jan and Howard Oringer Teaching Artists Bobby August, Jr. · Jessica Bates · Erica Blue · Amber Flame · Gendell Hing-Hernández · Chrissy Hoffman · Ben Johnson · Ariella Katz Suchow · Dave Maier · Marilet Martinez · Michelle Navarette · Sarita Ocon · Carla Pantoja · Radhika Rao · Patrick Russell · Tommy Shepherd · Teddy Spencer · Elena Wright · Patricia Wright Teacher Advisory Council Molly Aaronson-Gelb · Julie Boe · Amy Crawford · Beth Daly · Jan Hunter · Marianne Philipp · Richard Silberg · John Warren · Jordan Winer Teen Core Council Asè Bakari · Bridey Bethards · Abram Blitz · Charlotte Dubach-Reinhold · Carson Earnest · Jet Harper · David Kaus · Eleanor Maples · Eli MillerLeonard · Alexander Panagos · Samuel Shain · Maya Simon · Chloe Smith · Ella Zalon Docent Committee Thalia Dorwick, Chair Matty Bloom, Core Content Nancy Fenton, Procedures Selma Meyerowitz, Off-site contact & Recruitment Head of Passes Docents Matty Bloom, Lead Docent Francine Austin · Michelle Barbour · Carole Breen · Helen Gerken · Dale Marshall · Rebecca Woolis

2014–1 5 B E R K E L E Y R E P FELLOWSHIPS OP E R AT ION S Bret C. Harte Young Facilities Director Director Fellow Mark Morrisette Adam L. Sussman Facilities Manager Company/Theatre Lauren Shorofsky Management Fellow Faith Nelson Building Engineer Thomas Tran Costume Fellow Andrea Phillips Maintenance Technician Johnny Van Chang Development Fellow Haley Bierman Facilities Assistants Sophie Li · Carlos Mendoza · Jesus Education Fellow Rodriguez · LeRoy Thomas Rachel Eisner Graphic Design Fellow BERKELEY REP Sarah Jacczak S C HO OL OF T H E AT R E Harry Weininger Sound Fellow Director of the School of Theatre Annemarie Scerra Rachel L. Fink Lighting / Electrics Fellow Associate Director Sarina Renteria MaryBeth Cavanaugh Marketing & Community Programs Manager Communications Fellow Benjamin Hanna Billy McEntee Communications and Community Peter F. Sloss Literary/ Partnerships Manager Dramaturgy Fellow Kashara Robinson Lexi Diamond Registrar Production Management Fellow Katie Riemann Margaret Clement Community Programs Administrator Properties Fellow Modesta Tamayo Amelia Burke-Holt Faculty Scenic Art Fellow Alva Ackley · Susan-Jane Harrison · Anna McGahey Bobby August Jr. · Erica Blue · Patric Scenic Construction Fellow Cambra · Rebecca Castelli · Jiwon Will Gering Chung · Sally Clawson · Laura Derry · Stage Management Fellow Deborah Eubanks · Maria Frangos · Christine Germain · Nancy Gold · Gary Brad Hopper

President Thalia Dorwick, PhD Vice President Jill Fugaro Vice President Stewart Owen Treasurer Emily Shanks Secretary Leonard X Rosenberg.

Chair, Trustees Committee Roger A. Strauch Chair, Audit Committee William T. Espey Immediate Past President Marjorie Randolph Board Members Carrie Avery Edward D. Baker Martha Ehmann Conte David Cox Robin Edwards William Falik Lisa Finer David Fleishhacker Kerry L. Francis Paul T. Friedman Bruce Golden Nicholas M. Graves David Hoffman Sandra R. McCandless Susan Medak Helen Meyer Pamela Nichter Jack Schafer Richard M. Shapiro Jean Z. Strunsky Tony Taccone Gail Wagner Felicia Woytak Past Presidents Helen C. Barber A. George Battle Carole B. Berg Robert W. Burt Shih-Tso Chen Narsai M. David Nicholas M. Graves Richard F. Hoskins Jean Knox Robert M. Oliver Harlan M. Richter Richard A. Rubin Edwin C. Shiver Roger A. Strauch Warren Widener Martin Zankel Sustaining Advisors Carole B. Berg Rena Bransten Diana J. Cohen William T. Espey John Field Scott Haber Richard F. Hoskins Carole Krumland Dale Rogers Marshall Dugan Moore Mary Ann Peoples Peter Pervere Pat Rougeau Patricia Sakai Michael Steinberg Michael Strunsky Martin Zankel

F OU N DI NG DI R E C T OR Michael W. Leibert Producing Director, 1968–83

2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 3 7

FYI

Latecomers

Please arrive on time. Late seating is not guaranteed.

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Considerations

Visit our website berkeleyrep.org You can buy tickets and plan your visit, watch video, sign up for classes, donate to the Theatre, and explore Berkeley Rep.

Emergency exits Please note the nearest exit. In an emergency, walk—do not run —to the nearest exit.

No food or glassware in the house Beverages in cans or cups with lids are allowed.

Accessibility Both theatres offer wheelchair seating and special services for those with vision or hearing loss. Assistive listening devices are available at no charge in both theatre lobbies. Scripts are available in the box office.

Open captioning is available for at least one performance of every season production.

No smoking The use of e-cigarettes is prohibited in Berkeley Rep’s buildings and courtyard.

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Tickets/box office

Educators

Box office hours: noon–7pm, Tue–Sun Call 510 647-2949 Click berkeleyrep.org anytime Fax: 510 647-2975

Bring Berkeley Rep to your school! Call the School of Theatre at 510 647-2972 about free and low-cost workshops for elementary, middle, and high schools. Call Sarah Nowicki at 510 647-2918 for $10 student-matinee tickets. Call the box office at 510 647-2949 about discounted subscriptions for preschool and K–12 educators.

Under 30? Half-price advance tickets!

For anyone under the age of 30, based on availability. Proof of age required. Some restrictions apply.

Senior/student rush Full-time students and seniors 65+ save $10 on sections A and B. One ticket per ID, one hour before showtime. Proof of eligibility required. Subject to availability.

Group tickets Bring 10–14 people and save $5 per ticket; bring 15 or more and save 20%. And we waive the service charge.

Entourage tickets If you can bring at least 10 people, we’ll give you a code for 20% off tickets to up to five performance dates. Learn more at berkeleyrep.org/entourage.

Student matinee Tickets are just $10 each. Learn more at berkeleyrep.org/studentmatinees.

For group, Entourage, and student matinee tickets, please call us at 510 647-2918.

Sorry, we can’t give refunds or offer retroactive discounts.

3 8 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 2 0 1 4 –1 5 · I S S U E 6

Theatre store Berkeley Rep merchandise and show-related books are available in the Hoag Theatre Store in the Roda Theatre.

Please keep perfume to a minimum Many patrons are sensitive to the use of perfumes and other scents.

Phones / electronics / recordings Please make sure your cell phone or watch alarm will not beep. Use of recording equipment or taking of photographs in the theatre is strictly prohibited.

Please do not touch the set or props You are welcome to take a closer look, but please don’t step onto the stage.

No children under 7 Many Berkeley Rep productions are unsuitable for young children. Please inquire before bringing children to the Theatre.

No babes in arms.

Theatre maps stage

T H RU S T

Ticket exchange Only subscribers may exchange their tickets for another performance of the same show.

Exchanges can be made online until midnight (or 7pm by phone) the day preceding the scheduled performance. Exchanges are made on a seat-available basis.

stage

seating sections:

• premium • a • b stage

RO DA

Request information To request mailings or change your address, write to Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA 94704; call 510 647-2949; email info@berkeleyrep.org; or click berkeleyrep.org/joinourlist. If you use Gmail, Yahoo, or other online email accounts, please authorize patronreply@ berkeleyrep.org.

stage stage

seating sections:

• premium • a • b stage

Get the full Berkeley Rep experience Enjoy free concessions goodies Tour backstage Meet the artists

Give to the Annual Fund today! berkeleyrep.org/give · 510 647-2906

Steven Sapp and the cast of Party People PHOTO COURTESY OF KEVINBERNE.COM

COMING SOON: Leave your mark on Berkeley Rep’s soon-to-be renovated Thrust Stage.

Be a star $1,000 Place your name in our constellation of supporters in the Thrust lobby.

Take a seat $3,000 Name a refurbished seat in the Thrust. $5,000 Name two refurbished seats in the Thrust.

Dedicate a courtyard square $10,000+ Place your personal dedication on a square in the Narsai M. David Courtyard.

VISIT BERKELEYREP.ORG/CREATE Architectural design: Marcy Wong | Donn Logan Architects

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