A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER THE NORTH POOL

By Rajiv Joseph

Lucie Stern Theatre

March 9—April 3, 2011

World Premiere Winner of a 2010 Edgerton New American Play Award

The truth shifts constantly in this riveting cat-and-mouse thriller from Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph. What’s bothering the Vice Principal at Sheffield High, a suburban minefield of profiling and political correctness? What secrets trouble the transfer student from Syria, mysteries stashed in hidden lockers and cached on high-tech phones? As tension mounts, the semester reaches its final hour. And the time for revelation begins. Contains mature language.

*Visual Voice audio described performances 4/1 8pm, 4/2 8pm, 4/3 2pm

Groups of 8 or more save 15%! Contact Jonathan Amores at 650.463.7170 or at [email protected] for more information or to make a reservation.

For information on Student Matinees of this production, visit TheatreWorks for Schools.

"RIVETING... seamlessly staged... Mark it down as another good reason why Joseph has become one of the country's hottest-up-and-coming playwrights... Sandri and Poss deliver the goods like master chess players... keeps us swimming in suspense.” San Francisco Chronicle

"A SHARED TOUR-DE-FORCE... engrossing each step of the way... VIVID." Variety

“The complex, tightly constructed drama unspools in unexpected ways… REVELATORY… blessed…with a pair of superb actors.” SF Examiner

“ENGROSSING… deftly keeps us guessing… [Director Giovanna Sardelli] orchestrates the tug-of- war between the characters with great savvy… shimmers with meaning.” San Jose Mercury News

“This one has all the signs of a hit… POWERFUL, CHALLENGING and COMPELLING… Poss as Khadim is BRILLIANT, understated and utterly believable… Sandri is the perfect type for the long- suffering vice principal.” Palo Alto Weekly

"Joseph's dialog... is STUNNING, the characters fully developed and in the end our hearts would be broken, if we weren't a little awe-struck... MONSTER PERFORMANCES." SF Theater Blog

“This is where the arts can save us… A RARE GEM.” Stark Insider

“SUPERB… sterling production of a fascinating play.” Out & About Magazine

“TRANSFIXES… This is a play well worth seeing.” For All Events

“Taught, emotional and surprising at every turn… There wasn’t a nerve left unexposed in the entire house… Left the audience breathless at the end.” Daily Casserole

“[An] exceptionally satisfying evening of theatre from a young and promising playwright.” My Cultural Landscape

“[Playwright Rajiv Joseph’s] dialogue and characterizations are first rate... The set designed by Erik Flatmo…is utterly realistic.” San Mateo Daily Journal

ADAM POSS

(Khadim Asmaan) is reprising his role from TheatreWorks’ New Works Festival production of The North Pool. He is a native of Chicago where his theatre credits include Scorched at Silk Road Theatre Project, The Beats at 16th Street Theatre, three seasons of A Christmas Carol at The Goodman Theatre, and the world premiere of Antebellum written and directed by Robert O’Hara at Athenaeum Theatre. He is also a member of Erasing The Distance, an organization dedicated to education about mental illness through theatre. Regionally he has worked at Studio Theatre in Washington, DC in The History Boys. Television work includes the upcoming FOX drama The Chicago Code. Mr. Poss holds a BFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University and is a proud member of Actor’s Equity.

REMI SANDRI

(Dr. Danielson) is happy to be back at TheatreWorks where he appeared in Violet, Under Milkwood, and Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me. He has worked extensively in theatres throughout the country. Some favorite shows include The Kite Runner (Arizona Theatre Company, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Cleveland Playhouse); Journey to the West (Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre); Camelot, My Fair Lady, A Chorus Line, 1776 (Geva Theatre Center); Three Days of Rain, A Flea In Her Ear, Two Gentleman of Verona (San Jose Repertory Theatre); The Mystery of Irma Vep, The Foreigner (Cincinnati Playhouse); Timon of Athens, Laughter On The 23rd Floor, What The Butler Saw (Pacific Repertory Theatre); and 25 of Shakespeare’s 38 plays with Oregon, California, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Alabama, and Utah Shakespeare Festivals. Television credits include Law and Order, Deadline, and Conviction.For WNS. RAJIV JOSEPH

(Playwright) workshopped The North Pool in the 2009 TheatreWorks New Works Festival. His play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama, Outstanding New American Play from National Endowment for the Arts) will have its Broadway premiere in March 2011. His other New York productions include Gruesome Playground Injuries, All This Intimacy, and Animals Out of Paper (all at Second Stage Theatre); The Leopard and the Fox (adaptation, Alter Ego); and Huck & Holden (Cherry Lane Theatre). His play The Monster at the Door (Alley Theatre) will premiere this spring in Houston. He received his BA in Creative Writing from Miami University and his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal.

GIOVANNA SARDELLI

(Director) directed The North Pool in TheatreWorks’ New Works Festival and the world premieres of Rajiv Joseph’sAnimals Out of Paper (Joe A Callaway Award, Outstanding Director) and All This Intimacy (Second Stage Theatre); The Leopard and The Fox (Alter Ego); and Huck & Holden (Cherry Lane Theatre). She directed The Whipping Man (Old Globe Theatre) and World Premieres of Christopher Wall’s Dreams of the Washer King (Playwrights Realm), Lila Rose Kaplan’s Wildflower (Second Stage), Zoe Kazan’s Absalom (Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival) and Adriana Sevan’s Taking Flight (developed: Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, world premiere: Center Theatre Group). Ms. Sardelli received her MFA from the Graduate Acting Program at NYU and graduated from their Director’s Lab. She is on the faculty of the Graduate Acting Program and the Department of Dance at NYU.

TANYA FINKELSTEIN

(Costume Designer) works as both a lighting and costume designer. She designed the costumes for the developmental production of Fly By Night in TheatreWorks’ 2010 New Works Festival. At Magic Theatre she designed hair and makeup for Monkey Room. For Renegade Theatre Experiment she designed All This Intimacy (lights), Killer Joe (costumes), Bug (lights), A Clockwork Orange (costumes), and Right Place Right Time (co-costumed). Her most recent co-costume design was for EmSpace Dance (A Hand In Desire). As a founding member of Collective Theatre Productions she designed lights for The Empire Builders and costumes for No Exit. Ms. Finkelstein graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz receiving her BA in Theatre Arts (2006) and her Graduate Certificate (2007). She is also Renegade Theatre Experiment’s Production Manager and TheatreWorks’ Wardrobe Manager. ERIK FLATMO (Scenic Designer) recently designed TheatreWorks’ productions of Opus and Radio Golf. He has designed scenery for theatre and opera companies across the country, including Yale Repertory Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre (Florida), and American Conservatory Theater. Locally he has also worked with Magic Theatre, California Shakespeare Theatre, Marin Theatre Company and San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program. His work in dance involves collaborations with choreographers Joe Goode, Trajal Harrell, and Robert Moses. He holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and teaches set design at Stanford University. KIMBERLY MOHNE HILL

(Dialect Coach) has served as Dialect Coach on over 15 shows for TheatreWorks including Doubt, Theophilus North, Arcadia, Jane Eyre, Baby Taj, and Anna in the Tropics, to name a few. An Assistant Professor in Acting at Santa Clara University, she continues to teach, direct, and coach throughout the Bay Area. Ms. Hill recently directed reasons to be pretty and last year’s The Seafarer at San Jose Stage Company. She has published two books with Smith & Kraus: Scenes in Dialect for Young Actors and Monologues in Dialect for Young Actors. Volume II of both books is due out soon. YORK KENNEDY

(Lighting Designer) has designed for theatres across America and in Europe including Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, The Old Globe, Alley Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Yale Repertory Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Goodspeed Musicals, and the Whitney Museum in New York. Dance lighting designs include Malashock Dance, Brian Webb and Tracey Rhodes. Architectural lighting designs include the lighting for numerous themed environment, theme park, residential, retail, restaurant and museum projects internationally including the Sony Metreon Sendak Playspace in San Francisco, Warner Bros. Movie World in Madrid, Le Centre de Loisirs in Morocco, and The LEGO Racers 4D attraction in Germany, Denmark, England, and the USA. He is a graduate of California Institute for the Arts and the Yale School of Drama. LESLIE MARTINSON

(Casting Director) is TheatreWorks’ Associate Artist and Casting Director. She recently directed the West Coast Premiere of Superior Donuts for TheatreWorks, where her other directing credits include Theophilus North, If We Are Women, Brilliant Traces, The Boys Next Door, Interpreters, Stepping Out, and The Voice of the Prairie. A graduate of Occidental College, she has been a Watson Fellow, a member of Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, a member of the LaMaMa International Directing Symposium and has served on Theatre Bay Area’s Theatre Services Committee since 2002. In 2009 she was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship in Stage Direction from the Arts Council of Silicon Valley for artistic achievement and community impact. In addition to directing, she leads master classes and workshops for many Bay Area universities and theatre companies. REBECCA MUENCH

(Stage Manager) is in her eleventh season as a resident stage manager at TheatreWorks. During that time she has stage managed 42 productions including the world premieres of A Christmas Memory; Vanities: A New Musical; Baby Taj; A Little Princess; My Ántonia; Memphis; Legacy Codes; and Kept. Ms. Muench graduated from the University of Evansville in Indiana with a BS in technical theatre and a BA in literature, and is a proud member of Equity. VICKIE ROZELL

(Dramaturg) has been TheatreWorks’ resident dramaturg for nine seasons, working on over seventy productions including as co-director/dramaturg on Doubt, Arcadia, and Wrong for Each Other; associate director/dramaturg for To Kill a Mockingbird; Yellow Face; Caroline, or Change; M Butterfly; Into the Woods; Dolly West’s Kitchen; Shakespeare in Hollywood; Jane Eyre; Ragtime; Pacific Overtures; Side Show; and Floyd Collins among many others. She has directedPicnic, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Little Foxes, and Ladies of the Camellias (Palo Alto Players); W;t (Bus Barn Stage Company); Proof (City Lights Theatre Company); CTRL+ALT+ DELETE (Pear Avenue Theatre) and The Vagina Monologues (California Theatre), taught at Ohlone and Foothill Colleges, is a member of the West Coast Director’s Lab, has BAs in English and Psychology from Stanford University, and an MFA in directing from the University of California. ROBERT KELLEY

(Artistic Director) is a Bay Area native and Stanford University graduate. He founded TheatreWorks in 1970 and has been its Artistic Director ever since. He has directed over 150 TheatreWorks productions, including many world or regional premieres. He has received the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Paine Knickerbocker Award for lifetime achievement, BATCC Awards for Outstanding Direction for his productions of Into the Woods; Pacific Overtures; Rags; Sweeney Todd; Another Midsummer Night; Sunday in the Park with George; Jane Eyre; and Caroline, or Change; Bay Area Drama-Logue Awards for his direction of Ah, Wilderness! and Once in a Lifetime; Dean Goodman Choice Awards for Violet, Ragtime, Proof, Dolly West’s Kitchen, and Harold & Maude; and Back Stage West Garland Awards for his direction of Side Show and Sunday in the Park with George. He recently directed The 39 Steps, A Christmas Memory, The Light in the Piazza,and To Kill a Mockingbird. PHIL SANTORA

(Managing Director) is in his fourth season at TheatreWorks after spending four years as Managing Director of Northlight Theatre outside Chicago. Prior to working at Northlight, he was Managing Director of Georgia Shakespeare Festival (GSF) in Atlanta, as well as Development Director for Great Lakes Theatre Festival in Cleveland and George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He holds an MFA in Theater Administration from the Yale School of Drama and a BA in Drama from Duke University. Mr. Santora has served on the boards of the League of Chicago Theatres, the Atlanta Coalition of Theatres, and the executive committee of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT). He was named 2000’s Best Arts Administrator by Atlanta Magazine, received the Atlanta Arts and Business Council’s 1998 ABBY Award for Arts Administrator, and under his leadership GSF won the 1997 Managing for Excellence Award.