PROGRAM: To the Moon by Beth Kander

TO THE MOON

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SUPPORT RESOURCES NATIONAL 24/7 National Hotline: 800-799-SAFE (7233) | thehotline.org For the past 25 years, The Hotline has worked tirelessly to shift power back to those affected by relationship abuse. They have answered more than 5.5 million calls, chats, and texts from survivors and their loved ones, advocated for policy change, forged lasting and meaningful partnerships, and shifted to best meet the evolving needs of survivors.

24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, the National Domestic Violence Hotline provides essential tools and support to help survivors of domestic violence so they can live their lives free of abuse. Contacts to The Hotline can expect highly-trained, expert advocates to offer free, confidential, and compassionate support, crisis intervention information, education, and referral services in over 200 languages.

PAGOSA SPRINGS, CO 24/7 Crisis Hotline: (970) 264-9075 | riseaboveviolence.org Rise Above Violence (Rise) is a private nonprofit organization located in Pagosa Springs, CO. Their primary mission is to assist victims of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, working to ensure victims rights are exercised and needs met.

Through the support of grants, donations, fund-raising efforts and volunteers, Rise provides immediate crisis intervention, court advocates, civil restraining orders assistance, emergency transportation to safe shelter (shelter provided by the SW Safehouse), information and referrals, and community education.

SAN LUIS VALLEY, CO 24/7 Help Line: (719) 589-2465 | slvtucasa.net Tu Casa’s mission is to empower and support healthy, violence-free lives and relationships for all children and adults in the San Luis Valley.

They provide crisis intervention, shelter services, and advocacy to victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and their non-offending family members / caregivers; empower the community to affect sustainable social change through awareness building and prevention education; and coordinate professional efforts to respond to interpersonal violence in a victimcentered manner.

A WORD ON “TO THE MOON” John DiAntonio

Producing Artistic Director

I was one of those kids who continually asked, "Why?" My family jokes that they thought I'd be a lawyer when I grew up. In my role at CRT, I find myself asking and answering that question on a daily basis. So why To The Moon and why now? The answer: the play, the playwright, and the artists.

THE PLAY: The first time I read To The Moon, I had my two-week-old son, Sebastian, on my lap. The violence of the play's stories juxtaposed with the innocent baby so close, I couldn't help but ponder how a person goes from A to Z. I believe that telling and seeing this powerful story will help to break that cycle of violence, which has increased during this pandemic.

THE PLAYWRIGHT: CRT produced the world premiere of Beth Kander's Hazardous Materials in 2019. I had so many engaging conversations with our patrons about that captivating show. Since then, we have commissioned a new play from Beth Kander. You'll be able to see that play workshopped in a future Headwaters New Play Festival. When the opportunity arose to collaborate with Beth on To The Moon, we had to jump at the chance.

THE ARTISTS: This pandemic has put nearly all theater artists out of work over the last year. Through the generosity of show sponsor David Katz, CRT was able to employ fifteen talented artists from around the country (and world) for this project.

Creede Repertory Theatre presents

a developmental workshop production of

TO THE MOON

by Beth Kander Director

Betty Hart Scenic Rendering Artist

Costume Design

Mikki Marvel

Elly Hunt

Sound Design & Composition

Katharine Horowitz

Dramaturgy

Video Editor

Stage Manager

Assistant Stage Manager

EDI Facilitation

Domestic Violence Support Team

Lynde Rosario Karen Schleifer* Brittni Shambaugh Addison Emily Diaz

Neil Truglio

Gabriella L. Howell

Ashley Wilson & Carmen Hubbs Rise Above Violence

MARCH 5TH & 6TH 2021

THE CAST

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PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTES Beth Kander

In my first draft of this note, I started to share my own survivor story. To compare where I was more than a decade ago to where I am today; to share a glimpse of my deeply personal perspective on this topic. But I think maybe it's enough for you to know that I have a story to share, even if you never know the details. To begin wondering how many other people in your life have a story you don't know. Then, hopefully, to realize that we shouldn't have to personalize an issue as terrible as domestic violence in order to care about it.

When a woman is victimized, we often see posts where wellintentioned people say things like "She was someone's daughter/mother/wife/sister." They're trying to remind us of the victim's humanity -- but the thing is, we shouldn't need that reminder. Lives have their own intrinsic value, regardless of who they are in relation to someone else. We should care about them because of their own humanity.

To the Moon isn't about "an issue," it's about humanity. It's about

people. The characters you'll meet in this play, who I hope you will find heartbreakingly human -- and the dozens of real survivors who inspired their creation. Yes, their lives were all touched by domestic violence. But that's just one of their many truths. The survivors who shared their stories for this piece are brave and quiet and fierce and mild and funny and as varied a community as you can imagine.

No survivor owes us their story, but when someone shares it, we do owe them our attention, our support, and our commitment to help make things better. The gift of theatre is that it allows so many of us to tell the stories we want to tell in a safer and more magical way; thank you to everyone who helped shape this piece, to our cast and crew and the inspiring CRT team for bringing it to such vivid life, to David Katz for commissioning and continuing to support this play, and to our audiences for being part of this hard but necessary conversation. Let's end these stories here, in our lifetimes.

CREATIVE TEAM & STAGE MANAGEMENT BETH KANDER – PLAYWRIGHT (she/her/hers) Beth Kander is a playwright and novelist with roots in the Midwest and Deep South. Playwriting honors include the Henry Award for Best New Play or Musical; Headwaters New Play Award (CRT); Equity Library Theatre Access Award; Ashland New Plays Festival; Eudora Welty New Play Awards; Charles M. Getchell New Play Award. In addition to playwriting, Beth is an acclaimed author whose dystopian trilogy Original Syn won a Foreword INDIES Award. Her ghost story 13 Jericho Lane was a Pitch Wars selection, and she has at least two new books coming out in the next two years. The granddaughter of immigrants, she is interested in the intersection of new ideas and identities with old stories, secrets, and legends. She holds an MSW from the University of Michigan and an MFA from Mississippi University for Women. Beth is represented

by Allison Hellegers at Stimola Literary Studio. She lives in Chicago with her favorite characters (her quirky little family). To learn more: www.bethkander.com.

BETTY HART – DIRECTOR (she/her/hers) Betty is elated to be helming Beth Kander’s powerful play To the Moon, her directorial debut at Creede Repertory Theatre. In 2020, Betty directed the Vintage Theatre production of the musical The Scottsboro Boys. She also directed the staged reading of Vroom Vroom by Josh Koenigsberg for Local Theater’s Local Lab. Additional Colorado directing credits include Crowns (Vintage Theatre Season Award for Outstanding Director, 2019), Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill for the Denver Center Garner Galleria. Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies, at the Aurora Fox Theatre, broke box office records and became the third highest selling show in the theatre’s history.

Betty will assistant direct the world premiere of a new immersive theatrical production called Theater of the Mind in collaboration with co-creators David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar and coproduced by the DCPA’s Off-Center. Betty is an associate artist for Local Theatre Company, based in Boulder, CO. MIKKI MARVEL - SCENIC RENDERING ARTIST (she/her/hers) Mikki is a scenic rendering artist based in Raleigh, NC. She is the Virtual Technical Director for both Women’s Theatre Festival in Raleigh, NC, and Impro Theatre in Los Angeles, CA, as well as the Virtual Production Manager of comedy and theatre troupe Pineapple-Shaped Lamps. The former Marketing & Communications Director of Theatre Raleigh, Mikki also provides targeted 1:1 marketing coaching for nonprofits and artists. As the founder of the Raleigh Community MeetUp Powered by Twitch, Mikki loves to share her streaming knowledge and experience with the public. For more information, please visit: http://www.mikkimarvel.com. To follow Mikki on Twitch, visit https://www.twitch.tv/mikkimarvel.

KATHARINE HOROWITZ - SOUND DESIGNER/COMPOSER (she/her/hers) Katharine is a theatrical sound designer and composer in Minneapolis, MN. She has designed critically acclaimed and award-winning shows for the Guthrie Theater, The Jungle Theater, History

Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Pillsbury House Theatre, Park Square Theatre, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Second City Theatricals, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, and many others.

Katharine is a professional member of the Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association, and a 2017 McKnight Theatre Artist Fellow at the Playwrights' Center. www.katsound.com.

ELLY HUNT - COSTUME DESIGNER (she/they) Elly is a costume designer, craftsperson and stitcher working in Southwestern Colorado, and now online. She was recently nominated for Broadwayworld Denver’s “Costume Design of the Decade” for her work on both Thingamajig Theatre’s Men on Boats and Creede Repertory Theatre’s Ripcord. Some of her other recent projects include costume design for The Thing That Made You, an independent film, and CRT’s Hansel or Gretel; teaching multiple children’s design camps for CRT; making masks, and custom-making a taco-themed wedding and honeymoon ensemble. To see more of her work, please visit ellyhuntcostumes.com.

LYNDE ROSARIO – DRAMATURG (she/her/hers) Lynde is Dramaturg and Literary Manager for the DCPA Theatre Company. Other affiliations include: Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, Curious Theatre Company, Athena Project, The Catamounts, Theatre Artibus, Local Theater Company, Letter of Marque Theatre Company, and The Anthropologists. Memberships: Board Member and VP of Regional Activity for The Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and Board Member for the National New Play Network.

NEIL TRUGLIO – VIDEO EDITOR (he/him/his) Neil Truglio is a theatre and film artist based in Denver, CO. His theatrical work has been seen across Denver, and his films have played at festivals across the globe, including Tribeca Film Festival, Dallas Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, and American Film Festival in Poland. Neil has worked locally with Curious Theatre, Arvada Center, and currently serves as the Artistic Director of Benchmark Theatre. A Creator and educator, Neil is the Education Director for SeriesFest, and the Denver Film Festival, adjunct faculty at the Colorado Film School, and a teaching artist with both the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and the Emerging Filmmakers Workshop. modestneil.com.

KAREN SCHLEIFER * - STAGE MANAGER (she/they) Karen is thrilled about her first production with Creede Repertory Theatre, Betty Hart and this important production of To the Moon! Favorite PSM/SM Credits include: BAY AREA: King Lear (using Unified Virtual Space) and As You Like It: a New Musical Adaptation* (The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival), Loot (Aurora Theatre), Scrooge In Love (42nd Street Moon); NEW YORK: Hello Again (Drama League), Fool for Love (Theatre for the New City); LOS ANGELES: Life Could Be A Dream (International City Theatre), Driving Miss Daisy (The Laguna Playhouse), Jews, Christians & Screwing Stalin* (Matrix Theatre), The Death & Life of Mary Jo Kopechne*, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally (Theatre Planners @ The Odyssey). Karen played “Kate” in theoriginal production of Annie on Broadway for 2 years! Graduate of SUNY Purchase with a BA in Literature / Production minor. AEA/SAG-AFTRA/SMA; www.curlykaren.com for all info! (*world premiere.)

DIRECTOR’S NOTES Betty Hart

To the Moon surprised me when I first read it. I, like

you, knew it was about domestic violence. I knew it was an issue in our country, but that’s about all I knew, sad to say. I, like far too many, had an “out of sight, out of mind” perspective about this. It isn’t that I trivialized it. I simply didn’t think about it at all. If I had thought about it, I would have presumed correctly that it disproportionately affects women of color and that more women experience this than men. I didn’t know that domestic violence is so pervasive that it affects children, men, people of all incomes, geographic locations, and that privilege is no preventative to this disease.

This play was written before the Pandemic. When I think about the pandemics of 2020, I think about Covid-19 and Racism. It never occurred to me that Covid-19 caused a rise in domestic violence, as people were trapped in their homes. Imagine the place where you should feel most safe becoming more dangerous as our country and world experienced lock downs. Imagine not having access to your friends and family, nor having the potential respite that going to work may have provided. That was the reality for some.

What surprised me most from Beth Kander’s moving play was that the characters felt familiar to me. They didn’t seem like the “other” that I had presumed survivors to be. They were my neighbors, friends, colleagues, or they could be because anyone could be a survivor. There wasn’t a “look” or a “type”. This could happen to anyone. I began to wonder what I could do to help. Could I ensure that anyone who knows me could ask for help or support and I wouldn’t ask questions like “How did you get into this situation?” or “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” or “Why did you stay?” I hope that instead, I could be an individual who would do what I can, be a true ally, and offer unwavering love and support.

You see, my hope is that this play will become a period piece—something that people will look back upon and say “once upon a time,” or “a long time ago, this was the way the world was.” Imagine that. That this play would become completely unnecessary in the future because domestic violence is a relic of our past. You and I can help make this hope a reality by no longer turning a blind eye because we aren’t in these situations. We can choose to care, to read and absorb the data, and to allow these stories to move us to make our communities safe.

Thank you for bearing witness of these stories. Thank you, Creede Repertory Theatre, for producing To the Moon. Beth, thank you for sharing these stories in a beautiful and nuanced way. To this exquisite cast and design team, I am grateful. And, to all the survivors, please know that you matter. Your strength is unimaginable. We are here for you. You are not alone. Together, we will make this world better.

GABRIELLA HOWELL – ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER (she/her/hers) Gaby is thrilled to be joining Creede Repertory Theatre as a member of the To the Moon team! She has spent her last two summers with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival as an ASM and wardrobe assistant for As You Like It: A New Musical Adaptation and as an ASM and props coordinator for King Lear. Other highlights of her past work include stage managing Urinetown at Berkeley Playhouse and Downton AirBnB (the 2019 Gala) for Lamplighters. Gaby currently serves as Props and Costumes Coordinator for SF Shakes.

DAVID KATZ – SPONSOR (he/him/his) David believes in the power of live theater. He was a long-time Board member (and sometimes Acting Managing Director) of American Theater Company in Chicago, an incubator for new work such as Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced, Stephen Karam’s The Humans, The Project(s) by PJ Paparelli and Josh Jaeger, and To the Moon. He’s currently a reader for Ashland New Plays Festival. David was inspired by his aunt Diane Silber-Cohen, whose abuser was her husband and a well-respected judge, to commission a play which shows that domestic abuse can happen to anyone. He looks forward to a full live production of To the Moon someday. David’s grateful to Beth, the CRT team, cast, and designers for their dedication to bring this version to a screen near you. If you’re moved by To the Moon please contribute time or money, as you’re able, to organizations that produce live theater or support abuse survivors.

CAST LAURA CHAVEZ (she/her/hers) Laura is a professional artist in the Denver metro theatre community. An actor, director, facilitator, and storyteller; she is passionate about telling the multi-dimensional stories that bring us closer to connection through the human experience. With a heart full of gratitude, she is humbled to make her Creede Reparatory Theatre debut by helping give a voice to the voiceless.

DIANA DRESSER * (she/her/hers) Diana is thrilled to be back at CRT, where she spent 17 seasons appearing in over 40 productions and directing and choreographing many others. Favorite CRT shows include August: Osage County, Bad Dates, The Memory of Water, Crazy For You, and Urinetown. Diana is based in Denver and has worked with the Denver Center Theatre Company on numerous productions including Anna Karenina, The Wild Party, Sweet & Lucky, All the Way, and Jackie and Me. Other credits include Buntport Theater, the Arvada Center, Curious Theatre, Theatre Aspen, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, and BETC, where recently she played Sugar in Tiny Beautiful Things. Diana also is a realtor, a corporate communications coach, and she works with incarcerated populations through the University of Denver’s Prison Arts Initiative.

RACHEL FOWLER * (she/her/hers) Rachel Fowler is an American living in London. Her recent film work includes Eddy & Sunny, There’s Someone at the Window, and Unclasped. She recently wrote and directed her first short

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT CRT? What a year it has been! Twelve months ago, Broadway dimmed its lights and theatres around the world, including CRT, rushed to reimagine performing arts in the time of a pandemic.

WE ARE FILLED WITH HOPE AND EXCITEMENT FOR SUMMER! CRT is collaborating with Silver Thread Public Health, community partners, and Actors’ Equity Association to plan a season that protects the health and wellness of our artists, students, and patrons.

We are planning a summer season of small-cast plays, cabarets, and more in various outdoor locations running from late June through early September. Details on shows, dates, and performance locations will be announced in the spring.

All traditional Education programs - including day camps, KID Show, and the Young Audience Outreach Tour – will be offered this summer! Details coming soon.

UNTIL THEN...

Check out the CRT Education Facebook Page for new online offerings, including Cozy Corner, Craft Time, and Season 2 of The Adventures of Sunny & Blue – something new every weekday!

The process of getting back onstage has been frustratingly slow, but we hope to be able to provide a safe space for artists and patrons to enjoy the artistry, passion, and excitement of creating theatre. You can help by wearing a mask, distancing, and following other safety protocols to help keep our community healthy and our theatre open.

Thank you for all your support through this difficult year.; we will see you soon!

All the best, John DiAntonio Producing Artistic Director

film, Stillness, for Nice and Naughty, an erotic/romance podcast created by Gabra Zackman and Emily Woo Zeller, and voiced Miranda Walker for Neil Gaiman's The Sandman Chronicles; both are available on Audible. She's an executive coach and Grief Recovery Specialist. Oh, the ocean is her happy place. Any ocean will do.

LYNNETTE R. FREEMAN * (she/her/hers) Lynnette is a Jamaican-African-American actress, dancer, writer, and teaching artist, coach, Voiceover Artist/Narrator raised in East Cleveland, OH, based in New York. Brown/Trinity MFA; Member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, The League of Professional Theatre Women, as well as a proud member of Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA. She has performed in theaters all over the US. Favorite previous roles have included Camae in The Mountaintop, God in An Act of God, Georgia Dawson in Travisville, Lydia Namandu in Human Rites, Letitia in On The Outs, Ruth in A Raisin in the Sun, Reheema Abu-Salaam in In A Daughter’s Eyes, Jenny/ Marge in Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, Esther Mills in Intimate Apparel, and Pretty Mbane in The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane. Lynnette believes in the divine healing power of storytelling. IG: LynnetteRFreeman.

KATHRYN GRODY * (she/her/hers) Memorable Off-Broadway: Fishing, Top Girls, Museum, 49 Years (with Estelle Parsons), Endgame (with Alvin Epstein), The Oak Tree, A Model Apartment, and her one woman shows A Mom’s Life and falling apart....together. Film: Harry and Walter Go To New York, My Bodyguard, The Lemon Sisters, Another Woman, Men with Guns, Limbo. TV: The Sunset Gang with Uta Hagen, Execution of Private Slovak with Martin Sheen. Nominated for a Drama Desk award for her threecharacter solo show, A Mom’s Life. Obies for The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Top Girls, all at the Public Theatre. Kathryn was recently seen as Gaby in Susan Miller’s 20th Century Blues at The Signature, in Anna Zeigler’s The Great Moment at Seattle Rep, last pre-pandemic fall, and in Nassim at City Center. She just completed five episodes of the first pandemic, socially distanced web series, The Building. She is on the board of Dances for a Variable Population and Downtown Women for Change, is a usual suspect with NYTW, and works with the International Rescue Committee.

DELIA KROPP (she/her/hers) Delia has acted professionally for over 40 years, making history as the first transgender actress to portray Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf in Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife. Other shows include Raggedy And by David Valdes Greenwood, and the musical The Civility of Albert Cashier by Jay Paul Deratany. As a director, she is rehearsing an online production of another Beth Kander play, Hazardous Materials, staged back in 2019 at Creede Rep. Delia is also an advocate-speaker for trans persons and performing artists. In 2018, she received the Leppen Leadership Award for services to the LGBT community. Her new initiative "Brave Conversations" looks at the significance of personal identity, and how to constructively talk about gender. Delia serves as Artistic Associate at About Face Theatre Company. On screen, she stars in the film Landlocked, coming to the Atlanta Film Festival and other online venues. Read more about her at www.therealdelia.com.

KAT PEÑA (she/her/hers) Kat Peña is a Dominican plant-mom from the Bronx. Some of her acting credits include: Yaz in Water by the Spoonful (Cahill Theater/Regional), Sullivan in Dracula (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Elvira: The Immigration Play (Collaboraction Theatre, Chicago), Big Green Theater (The Bushwick Starr), Escolastica in Eight Tales of Pedro (The Secret Theater), and Michelle in award-winning short comedy, Reina. Katpena.com.

KARIANA SANCHEZ (she/her/hers) Kariana Sanchez is a New York based actor, singer, dancer. Previous credits include Diana in All's Well That Ends Well, Vanessa in In the Heights, and Serena in Legally Blonde the Musical. She is also a co-host on The Bandwagon Effect Podcast, which is now streaming on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Kariana is thrilled to be a part of this production, and she would like to thank Creede Repertory Theatre for the opportunity to tell this story and her family and incredibly supportive partner for cheering her on. * Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

ADDITIONAL CREDITS

Song:

Why does CRT list personal pronouns? Learn more at

mypronouns.org.

“Arlanda” by Julie Kent

Program Photos: Michael Underwood Photography John Gary Brown

Need some distance?

EXPLORE CREEDE creede.com

STAFF JOHN DIANTONIO - PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR (he/him/his) John’s been with CRT since 2011 as an actor, director, playwright, fight director, videographer, and Associate Artistic Director. Some of his plays for CRT include: Kind of Red; Reading! And Other Superpowers; and Harry the Great. Favorite CRT acting credits include: Kind of Red, The Taming of the Shrew, Language of Trees, and William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead. Other acting credits include: The Game of Love and Chance, The Liar (Theatreworks), Cyrano (BETC), The 39 Steps (Lone Tree Arts Center), Is He Dead (Arvada Center), Othello, A Christmas Carol (Denver Center). John received his MFA from the National Theatre Conservatory and BA from Case Western Reserve University. John and Catlin got married in Creede’s little white church on the hill.

In December of 2018 they welcomed little Leo to the world followed in August 2020 by the newest member of their family – Baby Sebastian!

MORGAN M. MANFREDI - MANAGING DIRECTING (she/her/hers) Originally from Fresno, CA (where the raisins come from) she holds a BA in Theatre from CSU Sacramento and owes her career to the amazing visual and performing arts programs of Clovis Unified School District where she attended K-12. Morgan is an administrator, educator, and designer with a firm commitment to arts education and fostering empathy and cultural dialogue through theatre. She previously served as the Production Manager of American Family Theatre in Philadelphia, PA; the Company Manager and Associate General Manager of Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, PA; and most recently as the Associate General Manager at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ. She was a participant in Cohort 2 of TCG’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Institute, representing McCarter. Morgan met her husband Tyler while they were CRT company members together in 2011; the pair have a son named Duncan and a menagerie of furry critters.

BRITTNI SHAMBAUGH ADDISON EDUCATION DIRECTOR / EDI COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR (she/her/hers) Originally from Sneads Ferry, NC (home of the Shrimp Festival!), Brittni received her BA in Theatre from Wake Forest University and her MFA in Directing from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Brittni has had the pleasure of teaching, directing, and performing across the country, and is particularly passionate about creating and participating in programs that bring theatre into underserved populations. As an educator, she believes strongly in the power of Arts Integration and is focused on exploring the “why and how” rather than the “what.” She previously worked as the Education Associate at Cleveland Play House and the Artistic Associate at the Honolulu Theatre for Youth. Other notable credits include Players Theatre NYC, Great Lakes Theatre, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Public Theatre, Ensemble Theatre CLE, and Beck Center for the Arts. So much love to Lavour, Aria, Luna, Moody, and Dudley.

Information about

SUMMER DAY CAMPS and

THE KID SHOW

coming very soon!

JACOB BANNERMAN - DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION & FACILITIES (he/him/his) Jacob has worked on the production management teams at Music Theatre Wichita, Oklahoma City Ballet and the Texas Shakespeare Festival, and is looking forward to another summer at CRT. Other notable management teams Jacob has been a part of are Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Summertime Theatre in Beijing, China, The American Cancer Society and Atikokan Donald Rogert Canoe Base in Canada. Jacob holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Production and Stage Management from Oklahoma City University, where he met the love of his life, Emily. When he is not in the office, Jacob can be found playing D&D in the kitchen, or playing with his two dogs, Bonnie and Sheba.

JULIA MCCORVEY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR / EDI COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR (she/her/hers) Julia is originally from Lexington, Kentucky. After completing her Bachelor’s Degrees in Cognitive Studies and Spanish at Vanderbilt University, she stayed to receive a Master’s Degree in Theological Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School. As an artist, Julia was raised by opera singers and she plays violin, piano, viola, and cello. She believes in the power of the arts to give life to individuals and, through those impassioned artists, their communities. Outside of the office, Julia hikes, climbs, plays with her dog, and she serves on the Board of Directors for the Mineral County Chamber and the Advisory Board for the Rural Women-Led Business Fund.

KATE BERRY ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC

(she/her/hers)

DIRECTOR

/

INTERIM

MARKETING

MANAGER

This is Kate’s 11th season in the CRT acting company and her fourth as a full-time staff member, where she manages Audience Enrichment programming, and the Headwaters New Play Festival.

She is inspired by new play development and has appeared in several new play festivals around the country including CRT’s Headwaters Festival, Local Lab in Boulder, and Ashland New Plays Festival in Oregon. Colorado Credits: Arvada Center (The Lion in Winter, The Importance of Being Earnest, Blithe Spirit), Theatreworks (Wild Honey, The Seagull, Psycho Beach Party), Colorado Springs Fine Arts Theatre (Other Desert Cites), Colorado Shakespeare Festival (Twelfth Night), Lake Dillon Theatre Company (Dancing Lessons), and Curious Theatre Company (Charles Ives Take Me Home). Favorite roles at CRT include Elsa in The Road to Mecca, Eliza in The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, and Sherlock Holmes in Miss Holmes. Member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. EMILY DIAZ EDUCATION ASSOCIATE / TO THE MOON EDI FACILITATOR (she/her/hers) Emily is in her third year at CRT and 2nd year as Education Associate. You may have seen Emily at Creede School teaching drama to elementary and middle schoolers or on stage at CRT as a performer at the Summer 2020 Concerts, the father in Hansel or Gretel, and an ensemble member in It's a Wonderful Life. Emily also directed the Creede School production of The Great Big Holiday Bakeoff. Emily would like to thank her partner Jacob for his constant support and their two loving dogs Bonnie and Sheba for all the cuddles!

HOW “TO THE MOON” CAME TO BE

To the Moon was commissioned by the now-shuttered American Theatre Company of

Chicago as part of their 2017-2018 Season's Community Open Residency Experiment (CORE). While most CORE projects invited playwrights to submit work of their choice on any topic/theme, this was a specific call, sponsored by ATC board member David Katz in honor of his aunt who was a survivor of domestic abuse, for playwrights to submit proposals for the creation of a docu-drama about domestic abuse. Playwright Beth Kander was selected for her proposal, which included a plan to partner with a diverse Collaborative Council of artists to conduct both in-person interviews and collect anonymous surveys.

Over the course of the summer/fall of 2017 the survey yielded almost 200 responses and two dozen in-person or over-the-phone interviews with survivors were conducted by Beth and her team. The Collaborative Council (comprised of artists from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences, who spoke multiple languages) ensured better representation among a larger community of survivors. The goal was to bring an inclusive, intersectional approach to the creation of the piece from the beginning of the process through eventual production. This play and its writer owe a debt of gratitude to the Collaborative Council, which consisted of the following artists: Amanda Jane Long, Sallee Murphy, Arian Thigpen, and Allyce Torres. Many thanks for your artistry, advocacy, and partnership in laying the groundwork for this play.

THANK YOU FOR MAKING IT POSSIBLE! This production would not be possible without the generous contributions of CRT’s Sponsors and Donors. We are unbelievably grateful for your ongoing support. We say that this is ‘your theatre, always,’ because through thick and thin this community has stood by CRT – through fires, disasters, and even pandemics.

Now more than ever, when you donate to Creede Repertory Theatre, you make it possible for us to welcome our family back to a safe and healthy Creede in 2021.

If you would like to learn about sponsoring a show at CRT, please contact Julia McCorvey, Development Director, at julia@creederep.com or (719) 658-2540 x 231.