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Home , Light board operator, Long Wharf Theatre, South Coast Repertory

SC 56th Season • 530th Production JULIANNE ARGYROS / SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 20, 2019

David Ivers Paula Tomei ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MANAGING DIRECTOR

David Emmes & Martin Benson FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTORS

presents THE CANADIANS

by Adam Bock

Lauren Helpern Denitsa Bliznakova Josh Epstein Cricket S Myers SCENIC DESIGN DESIGN LIGHTING DESIGN SOUND DESIGN

Yee Eun Nam Andy Knight Joanne DeNaut, csa Jenny Jacobs PROJECTIONS DRAMATURG CASTING STAGE MANAGER

Directed by Jaime Castañeda

Susan Shieldkret & David Dull Sarah J. McElroy Honorary Producer Honorary Producer

THE CANADIANS was commissioned by and workshopped and developed in the 2019 Pacific Playwrights Festival. This is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award.

The Canadians • South Coast Repertory • P1 CAST OF CHARACTERS Bobby/Trish/Andy/White Rabbit/A Man on Deck Nine ...... Corey Brill Brendan ...... Daniel Chung Beth/Little Harry/Wally/A Man on Deck Nine ...... Corey Dorris Johnny/Mayor Claudette/Oliver/Indian Princess A Man on Deck Nine...... Linda Gehringer Gordy ...... Kyle T. Hester

LENGTH Approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes with no intermission.

PRODUCTION STAFF Assistant Stage Manager ...... Nicki Heskin Dialect Coach ...... Philip D. Thompson Assistant to the Scenic Designer ...... Mauri Smith Costume Design Assistant ...... Erik Lawrence Interns ...... Janette Braggs, Teiya Dyke Light Board Operator ...... Sean Deuel Sound Board Operator ...... Aaron Centeno Video Operator ...... Abraham Lopez Dressers ...... Josie Austin, Rebecca Clayton Wig Assistant ...... Kristi D’Arrigo Additional Costume Staff ...... Lalena Hutton, Tessa Oberle, Emily Wilson

The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Please refrain from unwrapping candy or making other noises that may disturb surrounding patrons and the actors. Videotaping and/or recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited. Electronic devices should be turned off or set to non-audible mode during the performance. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the theatre.

Photos may be taken before and after the show, and during intermission, but not during the performance. Show your appreciation for the play by using the hashtag #CanadiansSCR and tagging the designers listed on P1.

Media Partner

P2 • South Coast Repertory • The Canadians The World According to Bock by Andy Knight

modest New York apartment, the actual business of this office—the The Canadians, Bock’s South where a middle-aged gay man business of surveillance, interrogation Coast Repertory commission, brings sits on his Eames sofa and re- and, perhaps, even torture. Suddenly, audiences to Port Alison, Manitoba, flects on his life and failed rela- those conversations about pens feel where a young man named Gordy tionships. A nondescript recep- strangely macabre. But the swift com- navigates life in a small town. It’s a Ation area, where a woman—who seems edy—for Bock’s plays rarely exceed 90 new setting for the playwright, but not born to be a receptionist—answers minutes—leaves little room for reflec- unfamiliar territory. “I am a Canadian the phone with “Northeast Office.” A tion as it hurtles toward its unsettling who has lived in the U.S. for most of church basement, where members of finish. Only after the show ends, can my adult life,” Bock says. “I love the ex- a 12-step program gather before their an audience begin to unpack what perience of exploring a new world, but morning meeting. A high-rise office they’ve just witnessed. also knowing another one. It’s a bit like building, where temps work on a case “I always have a moment,” being gay—learning to be comfortable for “dumb lawyers saying dumb things Bock said in an interview with Adam in many different environments, hope- to other dumb lawyers about dumb Greenfield, associate artistic director fully learning from them all.” things stupid people did.” These are at Playwrights Horizons (where much With his plays, Bock shows just the worlds that playwright Adam Bock of Bock’s work has been produced), how important that learning is—for constructs in his plays. “this moment that suddenly shifts the they reliably prove that no world is en- At first, they seem entirely fa- whole play. Because I think that in tirely as it seems. miliar, even tedious. Take that North- our lives, I mean, we’re all wandering east Office, for example, the setting of along thinking ‘Oh this is going great.’ Bock’s dark The Receptionist, And then suddenly you get hit by a car. which premiered at Manhattan The- Or someone tells you the truth, by atre Club in 2007. There, Beverly—the mistake.” receptionist—sits at her desk and, for In many of Bock’s plays, most of the play, routes phone calls, these shifts are big, shocking guards her good pens (that are fre- events—akin to getting hit by a quently stolen) and manages the love car. The sudden threat of dan- lives of her friend Cheryl Lynn and her ger in The Receptionist, for colleague Lorraine. The play shows its example. Or in Bock’s A Life, audience the workaday world in all its which premiered at Playwrights mundane, fluorescent glory. But Bock, Horizons in 2016, the play’s who spent some time as a receptionist protagonist, Nate Martin (the himself, knows that world is also inher- middle-aged gay man on the ently funny. With his clipped, matter- Eames sofa)—spoiler alert— of-fact and often disjointed dialogue, abruptly drops dead of a heart the playwright delights his audience attack only halfway through with Beverly’s nine-to-five woes. “I the play. These are overt twists, came in yesterday,” she tells Mr. Dart ones that irrevocably change from the Central Office, “and there the world for the characters and were five jams in the copier. Five! Five! the audience. But some of Bock’s Someone just left it like that. Can you? shifts are subtler, though no less It was probably Lorraine.” impactful. In his most recent play, But then, late in the play, in Before the Meeting, which premiered the same breath that Beverly laments at Williamstown Theatre Festival this about her husband’s extravagant tea- summer, Bock uses a character’s sim- cup collection, Bock rips away the ple truth—revealed in a long mono- comfortable world that the audience logue—to thrust the world into a new, has grown accustomed to and reveals sharper focus.

The Canadians • South Coast Repertory • P3 Artist Biographies

Corey Brill Performance with Josh Zuckerman; and received an LA Bobby/Trish/Andy/White Rabbit/A Stage Alliance Ovation Award nomination for Best Pro- Man on Deck Nine duction in the 2016-17 theatre season. He is a member of the digital theatre company, TeamStarkid (StarKid Pro- appeared at SCR previously as Kit ductions), which just celebrated its 10th anniversary and Marlowe in Shakespeare in Love, whose highest-rated production has 23 million views on David in Office Hour, Josh in Of YouTube. Off-Broadway, he appeared in Trail to Oregon Good Stock, Rufus in Five Mile and his LA theatre credits include The Guy Who Didn’t Lake, a fetus in Noah Haidle’s Like Musicals. His film and television credits include “Sta- Smokefall and as Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. He tion 19,” “Futureman,” “The Grinder” and Disney’s “Stuck is always thrilled to be back. His Broadway credits include in the Middle.” He earned his MFA at The Juilliard School. Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (understudy) and the first national tour Linda Gehringer of the Sam Mendes/Rob Marshall production of Cabaret. Johnny/Mayor Claudette/Oliver/ He has performed at regional around the coun- Indian Princess/A Man on Deck try including The Kennedy Center for the Performing Nine Arts, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Repertory The- atre, The Old Globe, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hart- appeared at SCR previously in The ford Stage, , Chalk Repertory Theatre, Roommate, Going to a Place where Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company and Antaeus Theatre you Already Are and How to Write Company. His television and film appearances include a New Book for the Bible, for which “Chicago P.D.,” “You’re the Worst,” “Scorpion,” “The she received a Los Angeles Critics Circle nomina- Walking Dead,” “Perception,” “CSI: Miami” and HBO’s tion. She also appeared in the world premieres of The The Normal Heart. He earned his BFA from Otterbein Parisian Woman; The Language Archive; The Piano College and MFA from UC-San Diego. Teacher; A Naked Girl on the Appian Way; Getting Frankie Married—and Afterwards; Hold Please; But Daniel Chung Not for Me; and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, a Brendan role she repeated in its New York premiere at the Atlantic Theatre Company. Her other SCR credits include Circle returns to SCR and The Canadi- Mirror Transformation; Doubt, a parable; Hamlet; The ans after appearing in the play’s Retreat from Moscow; A Delicate Balance; All My Sons; NewSCRipts and Pacific Playwrights Relatively Speaking; The Last Night of Ballyhoo; Arca- Festival readings. He was in the co- dia; and Good as New. She has played leading roles in production of Office Hour at Long theatres across the country, most recently in the world Wharf Theatre and Berkeley Rep- premiere of the one-woman show, Lady in Denmark, ertory Theatre, directed by Lisa Peterson. He is a UCLA at Chicago’s ; the world premieres of alumnus with a BA in psychology. He is a member of Vicuña at Kirk Douglas Theatre; The Comparables at Faultline Theater in . Seattle Repertory Theatre; and I Saw My Neighbor on the Train and I Didn’t Even Smile and Cat on a Hot Corey Dorris Tin Roof at Berkshire Theatre Festival; Surf Report at La Beth/Little Harry/Wally/A Man on Jolla Playhouse; The Women and Since Africa at The Old Deck Nine Globe; and The Crowd You’re In With (Jeff Award nomi- nation) at Goodman Theatre. Her recent television cred- is making his first appearance in an its include “S.W.A.T.,” “Fear the Walking Dead,” “Grey’s SCR production; he was in the 2019 Anatomy,” “Perry Mason” (HBO) and recurring roles on Pacific Playwrights Festival reading “Touch” and “Justified.” Her other television work in- of Unlikable Heroine by Melissa cludes “NCIS,” “Raising Hope,” “Weeds,” “Gilmore Girls,” Ross. This is his first stage play since “Without a Trace,” “Cold Case,” “Ally McBeal,” “Frasier” Rogue Machine Theatre’s Dutch Masters (2016), for and “The West Wing” and the films Into the Storm, Kreep which he won a Stage Raw Award for Best Two-Person and As Good As It Gets.

P4 • South Coast Repertory • The Canadians Kyle T. Hester atre) and The Royal Society of Antarctica by Mat Smart Gordy (Portland Center Stage, JAW Festival). Castañeda spent four seasons at the La Jolla Playhouse as associate artistic last appeared at SCR in the Pacific director and five seasons with the Atlantic Theater Com- Playwrights Festival reading of The pany as artistic associate. He is the recipient of a Drama Canadians and he is so happy to League Fellowship and a Princess Grace Award, and be a part of this play again! His re- holds an MFA in directing from the University of Texas, cent theatre credits include Wild Austin. Goose Dreams (La Jolla Playhouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet (Santa Cruz Lauren Helpern (Scenic Design) is happy to return to Shakespeare), King Lear (Harold Clurman Laboratory SCR, where she previously designed Curve of Depar- Theatre), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (A ture. Her work has been seen in numerous southern Noise Within) and Death and Cockroaches (Chalk Rep- California productions including Seize the King, At the ertory Theatre). He received his MFA from UC-San Diego Old Place and Tiger Style! (La Jolla Playhouse); Skin- and BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the tight and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Arts. kylehesteractor.com Gynecologic Oncology Unit… (Geffen Playhouse); and Always...Patsy Cline (Coronet Theatre, Los Angeles). Playwright, Director and Designers Based in New York City, she has designed many critically acclaimed productions including 4000 Miles at Lincoln Center (Lucille Lortel Award), the Pulitzer Prize-winner Adam Bock (Playwright) is best known for Before at LCT3, Bad Jews at Roundabout Theatre the Meeting, A Life, A Small Fire, The Receptionist, The Company and Bug at Barrow Street (Obie Award). Re- Drunken City, The Thugs and Swimming in the Shal- gionally, she has worked at Ford’s Theatre, Arizona The- lows. He writes both comedy and drama, blending atre Company, Pioneer Theatre Company, Huntington whimsical surrealism with dark and painful explorations Stage Company, Portland Center Stage, Bucks County of character. Jesse Green, co-chief theatre critic for The Playhouse, Cleveland Play House, Chautauqua Theatre New York Times, says Bock’s Before the Meeting is Company and Anchorage Opera, among others. She de- a “knockout premiere … [with character stories that] signed the national tour of American Girl Live! and sev- balance heart and humor.” Bock has had more than 15 eral productions for Blue Man Group. She is a produc- plays produced at prestigious theatres including Man- tion designer on the web series “Janice Gunter: Ghost hattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep., Hunter” (on WhoHaHa) and art-directed several other Second Stage Uptown, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, projects. She has designed benefits, events and installa- Clubbed Thumb, , Tricycle The- tions for a diverse group of clients. Her work can be seen atre (London) and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. at laurenhelpern.com. He has received an Obie Award, Bay Area Theatre Critics Award, Clauder Prize, Will Glickman Award, Heideman Denitsa Bliznakova (Costume Design) is happy to Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship; and he has been return to SCR, where she previously designed the cos- nominated for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle tumes for The Sisters Rosensweig, Amos & Boris and awards. He has been a resident playwright at New Dra- Orange. Her theatre design work has been seen nation- matists and an artistic associate at Shotgun Players and wide at venues including Geffen Playhouse, Mark Taper Encore Theatre. Forum, The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, Denver Cen- ter for the Performing Arts, Kennedy Center for the Per- Jaime Castañeda (Director) has directed The Lucki- forming Arts, Cleveland Play House, A Noise Within, Bos- est by Melissa Ross, Seize the King by Will Power, At the ton Court Pasadena, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Old Place by Rachel Bonds, Guards at the Taj by Rajiv the Falcon Theatre. Bliznakova’s work for opera includes Joseph (La Jolla Playhouse), Vietgone by Qui Nguyen Carmen at Los Angeles Opera and Murder in the Cathe- (American Conservatory Theater), The Royale by Marco dral at San Diego Opera. Her costume design and stylist Ramirez (American Theater Company), The Elaborate credits for other media include films and music videos. Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz (Dallas The- Her work has been nominated for an LA Stage Alliance ater Center), Chimichangas and Zoloft by Fernanda Ovation Award for Outstanding Costume Design and a Coppel (Atlantic Theater Company), The Motherf**ker Colorado Theatre Guild Henry Award. She is a profes- with the Hat by (Kitchen Dog The- sor in the School of Theatre, Television and Film at San ater), How We Got On by Idris Goodwin (Cleveland Play Diego State University and is the head of the MFA design House), Welcome to Arroyo’s by Kristoffer Diaz (The Old and technology program there. Bliznakova is an alumna Globe), Red Light Winter by Adam Rapp (Perseverance of Parsons School of Design and Brandeis University. Her Theatre), Tiger Style! by Mike Lew (Eugene O’Neill The- work may be viewed at Denitsa.com.

The Canadians • South Coast Repertory • P5 Josh Epstein (Lighting Design) has designed light- the Fold); the Los Angeles Theatre (Carrie); The Montal- ing at many of the top regional theatres in the country. bán Theatre (I Only Have Eyes); The Wallis Annenberg His recent productions include Little Shop of Horrors Center for the Performing Arts (Blues in the Night); (Pasadena Playhouse), The Legend of Georgia McBride and Geffen Playhouse (The Untranslatable Secrets of (Geffen Playhouse), Indecent (), Romeo and Nikki Corona, Play Dead, Wrecks, Some Girls). She has Juliet () and The Humans (Geva Theatre earned 22 Ovation Award nominations and won the Ruth Center). His work has also been seen at the Mark Taper Morley Award from the League of Professional Theatre Forum, Goodman Theatre, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Trin- Women. cricketsmyers.com ity Repertory Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Kansas City Repertory, , Alliance Theatre, Yee Eun Nam (Projections) is a Los Angeles-based Actors Theatre of Louisville, PlayMakers Repertory Com- scenic and projection designer for opera, theatre and any pany, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Paper Mill form for live performances. Her recent regional theatre Playhouse. In addition, Epstein is an ensemble member design works include Black Super Hero Magic Mama at IAMA Theatre Company (Los Angeles) and on faculty (Geffen Playhouse), Sweat (Mark Taper Forum), Border- at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. He town Now (Pasadena Playhouse) and Citizen: An Ameri- is an LA Ovation Award winner, a Knight of Illumination can Lyric (Kirk Douglas Theatre, Fountain Theatre). Her nominee and a Helen Hayes Award nominee. He was a other theatre design works include Joy Luck Club (Si- recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program erra Madre Playhouse), Hannah and The Dread Gazebo for Designers and currently serves on the Eugene O’Neill (Fountain Theatre), Mountain Top (Garry Marshall The- Playwrights Conference Artistic Council. Epstein received atre), SAPO (Getty Villa) and Mother of Henry, Members his MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of Only, Dementia, A Mexican Trilogy: An American Lyric the Arts. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three (Latino Theater Company). Her opera and music theatre daughters. joshepsteindesign.com design works include Then I Stood Up: A Civil Rights Cycle (LA Opera Connects), Notorious RBG in Song (Skirball Cricket S Myers (Sound Design) is thrilled to return Cultural Center), Venus and Adonis/Savitri (New Cam- to SCR after designing Photograph 51; Sweeney Todd: erata Opera, NYC), Backwards from Winter (Center for The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Kings; A Doll’s House, Contemporary Opera, NYC), Cruzar la Cara de la Luna Part 2; The Siegel; Red; Mr. Wolf; Zealot; Trudy and (The Soraya, LA), Lohengrin (New World Center) and A Max in Love; 4000 Miles; The Fantasticks; The Parisian Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tales of Hoffmann, Cru- Woman; ; Elemeno Pea; The Trip to Boun- cible and L’enfant et les sortilèges (Miami Music Festival, tiful; and Three Days of Rain. On Broadway, she earned Miami). Her upcoming projects include Sisters in Law a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award for (Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts), Auber- her design of Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger at the Bagh- gine (South Coast Repertory), And Then They Came For dad Zoo. Regionally, she designed at the Ahmanson Me (MainStreet Theatre). She earned her BFA in metal Theatre (50th Anniversary Celebration, Sunshine Boys); craft at Seoul National University and her MFA in theatre Mark Taper Forum (Bent, Steward of Christendom, Joe design at UCLA. View her portfolio: yeeeunnam.com Turner’s Come and Gone, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, The Lieutenant of Inishmore); La Jolla Playhouse Andy Knight (Dramaturg) is South Coast Repertory’s (The Squirrels, Guards at the Taj, Sideways, The Night- literary manager. At SCR, his dramaturgy credits include ingale); Kansas City Repertory Theatre (Sex with Strang- the world premieres of Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock ers); Kirk Douglas Theatre (Mutthouse, Endgame, Twist Band; Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone; Catherine Trieschmann’s Your Dickens); Pasadena Playhouse (Stoneface, Above Theatre for Young Audiences play, OZ 2.5; and the west

OCT 19–NOV 16

SCR.org by Julia Cho directed by Lisa Peterson (714) 708-5555 In this poetic tale of love, loss and healing, a meal is sometimes more than just food. Age 14 & above. Contains adult language.

P6 • South Coast Repertory • The Canadians coast premieres of Karen Zacarías’ Destiny of Desire; and Sarah Burgess’ Kings. His other recent credits include the world premiere of Carla Ching’s The Two Kids That Blow Sh*t Up with Artists at Play. Before SCR, Knight Honorary Producers worked at Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Susan Shieldkret & David Dull step into the Jenny Jacobs (Stage Manager) is from Orange, Calif., spotlight for the first time as Individual Honorary and received her BA from California State University, Producers with their sponsorship of the world Long Beach, and MFA from the University of California, premiere of The Canadians. As members of Play- Irvine. Her past credits include Hairspray and Three wrights Circle, they previously have underwritten Musketeers (Palos Verde Performing Arts); Plaid Tidings the world premieres of Sheepdog earlier this year (Laguna Playhouse); The Sound of Music, Hello Dolly, and Little Black Shadows in 2018. First Nights Altar Boyz and All Shook Up (3-D Theatricals); Peter subscribers on both the Segerstrom and Julianne Pan, Noises Off and Kings at South Coast Repertory; Argryos stages, they began attending shows at and Titus Andronicus, Reefer Madness, A Midsummer SCR in 2003 and have been Platinum Circle do- Night’s Dream, Anything Goes, Urinetown, The Tempest nors since 2016. Susan is a trustee of the theatre and The Cider House Rules. For the past nine years, she and serves currently on the Gala and Platinum has been touring with Menopause the Musical across Circle committees. the U.S. and Canada. She teaches and mentors theatre students at East Los Angeles College and has taught at Sarah J. McElroy makes her debut as an Indi- Cal State, Long Beach. She has been a proud member of vidual Honorary Producer with her sponsorship Actors Equity Association for the last 10 years. of the world premiere of The Canadians, having previously underwritten the world premieres of Nicki Heskin (Assistant Stage Manager) is thrilled to The Parisian Woman, Five Mile Lake and Mr. join SCR for The Canadians; she previously served as Wolf as a member of Playwrights Circle. She is a ASM for Catch Me if You Can ( West) First Nights subscriber on the Segerstrom Stage and Jesus Christ Superstar (Lewis Family Playhouse). and has been a Platinum Circle donor since 2016. Heskin’s selected production stage management credits She is a member of SCR’s Board of Trustees and include Into the Woods, CATS, Sondheim on Sondheim, is currently chairing the Golden Circle Commit- Music Man (Lewis Family Playhouse), 33 Variations tee and served on the Gala Committee. (Ophelia’s Jump Productions) and Frontier Feats of Wonder stunt show (Knott’s Berry Farm). Her theatrical directing credits include Bad Jews (Ophelia’s Jump Pro- Family Playhouse and the producer of In the Heights, Se- ductions), Baby with the Bathwater (Chino Community ussical and Miracle on 34th Street. Theatre), Circle Mirror Transformation and Gidion’s Knot (Women’s Theatre Workshop). Her assistant-direct- David Ivers (Artistic Director) is responsible for the ing credits include Parade, 42nd Street (3-D Theatricals), overall artistic operation of the theatre. He started at In the Next Room (Ophelia’s Jump Productions), Music SCR this past March and the 2019-20 season is the first Man (Grove Theatre), The Underpants and Five Door that he has programmed here. Prior to SCR, he was ar- Farce (Chino Community Theatre). In 2018-19, she tistic director for Arizona Theatre Company and, before served as interim producer for Broadway at the Gardens that, served more than 20 years as an actor and director and Rancho Cucamonga Community Theatre at Lewis at Utah Shakespeare Festival, with the last six as artistic

Judith Viorst’s NOV 8–24

based on the book by Judith Viorst book & lyrics by Judith Viorst music by Shelly Markham directed by Kari Hayter This delightful musical can put a smile on SCR.org • (714) 708-5555 the crabbiest of faces. Ages 4+

The Canadians • South Coast Repertory • P7 director. He was a resident artist at Denver Center The- productions. In 2008, he and David Emmes received atre Company for a decade, acting in and/or directing the Margo Jones Award for their lifetime commitment more than 40 plays and has helmed productions at many to theatre excellence and fostering the art and craft of of the nation’s leading regional theatres including the American playwriting. They also accepted SCR’s 1988 Guthrie Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Tony Award for Outstanding Resident Professional The- Repertory Theatre and South Coast Repertory. His early atre and won the 1995 Theatre LA Ovation Award for career included serving as associate artistic director of Lifetime Achievement. Benson has received the Los Portland Repertory Theatre and he appeared in produc- Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished tions at some of the nation’s top regional theatres in- Achievement in Directing an unparalleled seven times cluding Portland Center Stage and the Oregon, Alabama for George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara, Misalliance and Idaho Shakespeare festivals. He taught at the Univer- and Heartbreak House; John Millington Synge’s Play- sity of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Southern Utah boy of the Western World; ’s ; University and Southern Oregon University. He earned Sally Nemeth’s Holy Days; and the world premiere of his BA from Southern Oregon University and his MFA ’s Pulitzer Prize-winning , which he from the University of Minnesota. also directed at Seattle Repertory Theatre and Houston’s . He has directed American classics such as Paula Tomei (Managing Director) is responsible for A Streetcar Named Desire and has distinguished himself the overall administration of SCR. She has been manag- in staging contemporary work including the critically ing director since 1994 and a member of SCR’s staff since acclaimed California premiere of William Nicholson’s 1979. She is a past president of the board of Theatre Shadowlands. He directed revivals of Beth Henley’s Communications Group (TCG), the national service Abundance and ’s The Trip to Bountiful; organization for theatre. In addition, she served as trea- and Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale and Rest (world pre- surer of TCG, vice president of the League of Resident miere); The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez; and The Theatres (LORT) and as a member of the LORT Negoti- Roommate by Jen Silverman (west coast premiere). Ben- ating Committee for industry-wide union agreements. son received his BA in theatre from San Francisco State She represents SCR at national conferences of TCG University. and LORT and served as a theatre panelist and site visi- tor for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and David Emmes (Founding Artistic Director) is co- the California Arts Council. Her teaching background founder of South Coast Repertory. He received the includes a graduate class in non-profit management at Margo Jones Award for his lifetime commitment to UC Irvine (UCI) and as a guest lecturer in the graduate theatre excellence and to fostering the art of American school of business at Stanford. She was appointed by playwriting. In addition, he has received numerous the chancellor to UCI’s Community Arts Council, serves awards for productions he has directed during his SCR on the Dean’s Leadership Society Executive Committee career. He directed the world premieres of ’s for the School of Social Sciences at UCI and is a member Safe in Hell, The Beard of Avon and Freedomland; of the College of Arts Dean’s Task Force for California Thomas Babe’s Great Day in the Morning; Keith Red- State University, Fullerton. She is also on the board of din’s Rum and Coke and But Not for Me; and Neal Bell’s Arts Orange County, the county-wide arts council, and Cold Sweat; the American premieres of Terry Johnson’s the board of the Nicholas Endowment. She graduated Unsuitable for Adults; and Joe Penhall’s Dumb Show; from UCI with a degree in economics and pursued an and the Southland premiere of Top Girls (at SCR and additional course of study in theatre and dance. In March the Westwood Playhouse). Other productions he has 2017, she received the Mayor’s Award from the City of directed include Red, New England, Arcadia, The Im- Costa Mesa for her contributions to the arts community. portance of Being Earnest, Woman in Mind and You In 2018, she received the Helena Modjeska Cultural Leg- Never Can Tell, which he restaged for the Singapore acy Award from Arts Orange County. In May 2019, she Festival of Arts. He has served as a theatre panelist and was awarded UCI’s Distinguished Alumna in the School onsite evaluator for the National Endowment for the of Social Sciences at the Lauds & Laurels Celebration. Arts, as well as a panelist for the California Arts Council. After attending College, he received his Martin Benson (Founding Artistic Director), co- BA and MA from San Francisco State University and his founder of SCR, has directed nearly one-fourth of SCR’s PhD from USC.

The Actors and Stage Managers em- The Scenic, Costume, Lighting and The Director is a member of the Soci- ployed in this production are members Sound Designers in LORT theatres ety of Stage Directors and Choreogra- of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union are represented by United Scenic phers, Inc., an independent national of Professional Actors and Stage Manag- Artists Local USA-829, IATSE. labor union. ers in the United States.

P8 • South Coast Repertory • The Canadians