F E R O C I O U S L O T U S T H E A T R E C O M P A N Y

presents the world premiere of Two Mile Hollow by Leah Nanako Winkler directed by Lily Tung Crystal

Cast Michelle Talgarow as Blythe, a white woman Karen Offereins as Mary, her white daughter Greg Ayers as Joshua, her white stepson Sean Fenton* as Christopher, her other white stepson Rinabeth Apostol* as Charlotte, Christopher’s assistant

* These actors and stage managers appear with the special permission of Actors’ Equity Association.

Two Mile Hollow is one hour and 55 minutes, including one intermission.

Potrero Stage | 1695 18th St, , CA June 23 – July 15, 2018

Presented in partnership with Intersection for the Arts, as part of the INTER- SECT SF series, funded by Grants for the Arts

A simultaneous world premiere with First Floor Theater (Chicago), Artists at Play (Los Angeles), and Mixed Blood Theatre/Theater Mu (Minneapolis) Creative Team Randy Wong-Westbrooke Set Designer Kathleen Qiu Costume Designer Kevin August Landesman Lighting Designer Michael Kelly Sound Designer Devin LaBelle Props Designer Carla Pantoja Fight Choreographer Rinabeth Apostol Dance Choreographer/ Fight Captain Min Kahng Song Composer Eric Crystal Song Orchestration

Production Team Benjamin Shiu Stage Manager Cindy Cesca Yoshiyama Managing Director Sunshine Lampitoc Smith General Manager Annie Wang Dramaturg/Photography/ Graphic Design Matt Sykes Production Manager Nicole Meñez Assistant Director Alex Trono Assistant Stage Manager Csende Balogh Assistant Stage Manager Ryan Short Master Carpenter Leon Goertzen Casting Director May Liang Literary Manager Jaisette Herrera Marketing/Social Media Stephanie Crowley Public Relations

We are so grateful to the following production sponsors who made this show possible: Ranee Lan Nate Chang & Jennifer Tye Ray Kelly & David Peck Rita Tung Letter from the Artistic Director While curating our fHERocious New Play Readings in 2016, a play came across our desks that made us stop in our tracks. We loved its irreverence, its boldness, and how we saw all the ways in which we, as people of color, were often viewed in American society. And it was funny. We chose to present a reading of Leah Nanako Winkler’s Two Mile Hollow in November of that year (the same week as another big event you might recall), and it was an audience favorite. Not only did people love it for its fierce comedy, but audiences also saw Winkler’s deep comment on race, class, and privilege in America. It was the perfect parody during that national moment, when our identity as Americans was being questioned more than ever before. When asked what prompted her to write Two Mile Hollow, Winkler says: “Once on a Youngblood writers retreat, a few of us noticed that a certain NYC theater’s new season consisted solely of what we deemed ‘white people by the water’ plays. I remember laughing about it at the time, but then I started to wonder how deeply these overblown narratives were ingrained in my brain...Why does this one dominant perspective keep getting produced over and over? How do these narratives affect representation on the stage? How does representation affect culture? Hopes and dreams?” How and why, indeed. Like Winkler, we at Ferocious Lotus, are working to subvert that “one dominant perspective.” We invite you to be surprised and delighted as you experience the comedic themes and satirical tropes that weave through Two Mile Hollow. But we also ask you to question the assumptions we all make of each other based on race, gender, and class. How do those assumptions affect the “other”? Whose stories get told…or not told, as the case may be? What is the true American story? The answer is dichotomous. We have a shared history as Americans. And yet each of our stories is as disparate and unique as the histories from which we come. What narratives are thrust upon us? And which narratives can we claim as our own? As Americans we continue to grapple with this tension. And as art- ists we continue to write our own stories and that of the nation’s to be richer, more inclusive, more empathetic. As the recent winner of the Yale Drama Series Award, among other accolades, Winkler’s star is rising in the American theatre world. As she puts her own mark on and creates a new narrative in our national canon, we’re thrilled to be the first company to bring her fierce, insightful work to the Bay Area. Have fun, laugh, and enjoy! And thank you for joining us at Two Mile Hollow.

Lily Tung Crystal Founding Artistic Director Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company The Company Rinabeth Apostol* (Charlotte/Fight Captain/Choreogra- pher) is happy to work with some of her favorite artists in this production! Recent projects: world premieres of we, the invisibles (Humana Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville), Madame Ho (Eugenie Chan), The Four Immigrants (TBA Outstanding Featured Actress - Musical nominee; The- atreWorks), A Thousand Splendid Suns (A.C.T.), and peerless (BATCC Principal Actress - Play; MTC). She originated prin- cipal roles in Monstress (A.C.T.), The Kite Runner (San Jose Rep, Arizona Theatre Company), The Cable Car Nymphoma- niac (FOGG), FireWork (TheatreFIRST), FIRST (PlayGround), Imelda: A New Musical (EWP). Select credits: Dogeaters (Magic), Othello (MTC), Aliens with Extraordinary Skills (B Street Theatre),Of Mice and Men (SJ Rep), Avenue Q (San Jose Stage), Red (TheatreWorks); plus collaborations with Berkeley Rep, Playwrights Foundation, Crowded Fire, NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, and The Groundlings.

Greg Ayers (Joshua) is happy to be working with Ferocious Lotus again after appearing in Crane. He has also worked at San Francisco Playhouse, SHN, Aurora Theatre, PCPA, and Denny’s (For a day. When he was 17. But when in the mid- dle of the lunch rush, a middle-aged man started calling an elderly woman nasty names because he thought she had cut him in line to get a table—Greg knew that this was not the job for him.) Greg would like to respond to all the people in his life who have ever said “Huh. You don’t LOOK Asian” with “Well, YOU don’t look like an asshole, yet here we are.”

Sean Fenton* (Christopher) was most recently seen at The- atreWorks Silicon Valley in The Bridges of Madison County (Paolo) and Min Kahng’s The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga (Fred). Other favorite roles include: Song Lil- ing in M. Butterfly (SFBATCC Award finalist; Custom Made Theatre), The Old Man of the Moon in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (TBA Award winner; Bay Area Children’s Theatre), Ladahlord inPasek & Paul’s James and the Giant Peach (Bay Area Children’s Theatre & Shanghai Children’s Art Theatre), Xiao Hai in The Song of the Nightingale(Altare - na Playhouse), Linus in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Willows Theatre), and Sammy in Blood Brothers (Altarena Playhouse). Sean is a graduate of Stanford Uni- versity and a board member for Crowded Fire Theater.

* Member, Actors’ Equity Association, the labor union representing American actors and stage managers in the theatre Karen Offereins (Mary) is excited to be making her Fero- cious Lotus debut. She was last seen in Cutting Ball’s Oe- none and has performed with PlayGround, Word for Word, Playwrights Foundation, Shotgun Players, SF Theater Pub, SF Playhouse, Custom Made Theatre, AtmosTheatre, and Theatreworks.

Michelle Talgarow (Blythe) is half Kalmyk and Filipino. She is excited to work, once again, with the Ferocious Lotus gang. She was in their co-production, with Impact Theatre, of MUTT by Christopher Chen. Michelle is a proud company member of Shotgun Players and is one of the coordinators for their Champagne Staged Reading Series. She is also a company member of the performance collective Mugwump- in. She has strong roots at the EXIT Theatre in SF, where two of her murals can be seen. Besides performing, Michelle is also a director and has been fortunate to have worked with many other local companies: The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Central Works, Cutting Ball Theatre, Magic Theatre, and Bindlestiff Studios.

Leah Nanako Winkler (Playwright) is a playwright from Kamakura, Japan and Lexington, Kentucky. Aside from Two Mile Hollow, her plays include Kentucky (Kilroys List, world premiere Page 73/ EST), God Said This (2018 Humana Fes- tival, upcoming at Primary Stages in 2019) and Hot Asian Doctor Husband (world premiere upcoming at Theater Mu). She is the 2017-2019 Jerome Fellow at the Lark, the inau- gural recipient of the Mark O’Donnell Prize from the Actors Fund and Playwrights Horizons, and an early recipients of the Audible commission for emerging playwrights. Most re- cently, Leah won the 2019 Yale Drama Series Prize. She currently writes for A24’s Untitled Ramy Youseff Project upcoming on Hulu. @leahnanako

Lily Tung Crystal* (Director) is the founding artistic di- rector of Ferocious Lotus. She’s grateful to be working with this talented group of artists and to have the support of the Bay Area theatre community. Lily was nominated for a Theatre Bay Area Award for her direction of Chinglish at Palo Alto Players in 2015 and recently directed the one-act Revelation for Those Women Productions. This fall, she’ll be helming the Bay Area premiere of the musical Allegiance at CCCT. Lily is also an award-winning actor/singer who’s worked with theatres across the country, including Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, Crowded Fire, Magic Theatre, Mountain Play, New World Stag- es, PlayGround, Playwrights Foundation, Portland Center Stage, Ragged Wing, SF Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, Those Women Productions, and Woodminster. She does on-camera work and appeared in the Danny Boyle film Steve Jobs. Lily is a Titan Award winner and a 2016 YBCA 100 honoree, named a “creative pioneer making the provocations that will shape the future of culture.” She’d like to thank Mom, Eric, and Cole for always supporting her dream and making it possible. www.lilytungcrystal.com Csende Balogh (Assistant Stage Manager) is a Year 12 (grade 11) student at Dis- covery College in Hong Kong. Born in New York, she moved to HK at the age of 6 months, and has lived there since with her parents and brothers. Csende became interested in drama by performing in school plays. Stage roles turned to stagehand jobs assisting with both primary and secondary school productions. Two Mile Hol- low is her first work experience outside of a school theatre. She is honored and excited to contribute, learn, and be a part of this amazing and inspiring theatre company.

Eric Crystal (Song Orchestration) is a saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who has been a mainstay of the Bay Area music scene for over 25 years and part of the Boz Scaggs touring band since 2002. He has been featured on the legendary musician’s albums, including his upcoming release Out of The Blues, on which Crystal played and arranged horns. He has also performed or recorded with Michael McDonald, Huey Lewis, Toto, Bob Weir, Arturo Sandoval, Omar Sosa, Clark Terry, and Vijay Iyer, among others. Crystal has also created his own critically-ac- claimed projects, including his solo album Dark Matter. For over a decade, he was a musician, composer and musical director for the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Ear- lier in his career, he was named one of the top 10 Rising Star Soprano Saxophone players in the renowned Downbeat Annual Critics Poll.

Leon Goertzen* (Casting Director) has worked at theaters in the and Los Angeles, including East West Players, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Will and Company, Magic Theatre, Asian American Theater Company, San Francis- co Mime Troupe, Road Theatre Company, Cutting Ball Theater, PlayGround, Aurora Theater Company, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Conservatory Theatre, and New Conservatory Theater. Film credits include Quitters (with Kieran Culkin and Mira Sorvino) and Beauty and The Blade. Leon is a graduate of UNC School of the Arts, a member of Actors’ Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild, and a company member of Ferocious Lotus and Theatre Lunatico.

Min Kahng (Song Composer) is an award-winning Bay Area playwright and com- poser whose world premiere works include The Four Immigrants: An American Musi- cal Manga (recipient of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for Original Music and Original Script, the Theatre Bay Area Award for Outstanding Original Musical, the Edgerton New Play Award, and a NAMT Production Grant), The Song of the Nightingale, Inside Out & Back Again, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Bad Kitty On Stage!, and Tales of Olympus. Kahng also wrote the NEA-funded project Story Explorers, an original musical for young audiences with autism. He received the 2014 Titan Award for Playwrights and was recognized in American Theatre magazine as one of “9 Musical Theatre Writers You Should Know.” Kahng is a resident playwright at Playwrights Foundation and a proud member of the Dra- matists Guild. www.minkahng.com

Michael Kelly (Sound Designer) started designing for Bay Area theater in 2012. He heads the audio department at Cal Shakes, and is the resident sound designer at Contra Costa Civic Theatre, where he contributed toIn The Heights, Secret in the Wings, The Mountaintop (BroadwayWorld SF winner) and The Foreigner (TBA final- ist). Highlights from 2017-18: Bay Area Children’s Theatre (The Night Fairy, Judy Moody, Inside Out and Back Again), Saint Mary’s College (…and Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi), and Town Hall Theatre (Woman In Mind, Sense and Sensibility). Oth- er Bay Area audio work includes The Strand, Berkeley Rep, Zellerbach Playhouse, Lorraine Hansberry, Brava, Magic Theatre, Southern Exposure, and the premiere of the Glickman Award-winning musical Love Sick in Berkeley and Mountain View. Instagram: @spy_hapa

Devon LaBelle (Props Designer) is a multidisciplinary artist who focuses on vivid visual and special effects components. She has fueled over 100 Bay Area produc- tions with the physical artifacts that make them work. Devon is a resident artist with Crowded Fire Theater and Shotgun Players. She is the props shop coordinator at San Francisco State University. Check out her blog to see what she makes: giveherprops.wordpress.com.

Kevin August Landesman (Lighting Designer) is a Bay Area-based lighting, set, and projection designer for opera, dance, and theatre. He is also the production manager and lighting director for Philip Glass’ Days and Nights Festival, resident designer and theatre operations manager for Bay Area Children’s Theatre, and the technical director for Hidden Valley Music Seminars. He has designed for local com- panies such as West Bay Opera, Mark Foehringer Dance Company, Ray of Light, 42nd Street Moon, West Edge Opera, Golden Thread Productions, Shotgun Players, Pacific Coast Repertory Theatre, PlayGround, The Refuge, and African-American Shakespeare Company.

Nikki Meñez (Assistant Director) is a director, choreographer, and performer, as well as a Bay Area native. She is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz where she received degrees in environmental studies and theater arts. Nicole works at New Conserva- tory Theatre Center as the program manager for YouthAware Educational Theatre, at Custom Made Theater Company as their associate artistic director, at Faultline Theatre as an associate artist, and at PianoFight as a creative company member. Directing credits include How To Be a White Man by Luna Malbroux & Jennifer Lew- is (FaultLine Theater) andThe Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (Actors Ensemble of Berkeley).

Carla Pantoja (Fight Choreographer) is a certified stage combat instructor with Dueling Arts International and a founding member of the local chapter, Dueling Arts San Francisco. This production is Carla’s first collaboration with Ferocious Lo- tus and she is thrilled to be able to work on this piece with such talented artists. She teaches stage combat through California Shakespeare Theater and San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, where she is also a resident artist. Carla is a fight director and created fights for local theater companies such as Cal Shakes, SF Shakes, Crowded Fire, and Shotgun Players, to name a few.

Kathleen Qiu (Costume Designer) is excited to be making her Ferocious Lotus debut with Two Mile Hollow! You can see some of her other work right now at Quan- tum Dragon (Universal Robots). Previous credits include work with Foothill College (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Dragon Productions (Insignificance, Cirque Exotique du Monde), Pear Theatre (Enemy of the People), Custom Made Theatre Co (The House of Yes, How I Learned to Drive), the SF Playhouse (You Mean to Do Me Harm), and Palo Alto Players (The Graduate). She would like to thank the production team and her family and friends for their continued support.

Benjamin Shiu (Stage Manager) is a Bay Area stage manager, and recently was the stage manager for Bay Area Children’s Theatre’s Judy Moody & Stink and Inside Out & Back Again. Earlier this year he was the stage manager for Crowded Fire Theater’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. He is a resident artist at Crowded Fire Theater and Golden Thread Productions where he has stage managed many shows. Benjamin is a graduate of SFSU’s spring 2016 class with a BA in Drama and is amazed that it’s been two years since graduation. This is his second time working with Ferocious Lotus, and he’s proud to be part of the team.

Sunshine Lampitoc Smith (General Manager) has worked at Z Space (SF), the Or- egon Shakespeare Festival, Signature Theatre Company (NYC), and Ma-Yi Theater Company (NYC). Select producing credits: Pen Knife by Christopher Richards (The Pretenders/Caborca Theatre, NYC),Swansong by Patrick Page, and Madagascar by J.T. Rogers (Summer Play Festival for Emerging Playwrights, NYC), multiple pro- ductions with the Lodestone Theater Ensemble (Los Angeles). She earned her MFA in Theatre Management & Producing at Columbia University School of the Arts.

Matt Sykes (Production Manager) is a freelance production manager and elec- trician. Local production management credits include Director Series and Timon of Athens (Cutting Ball Theater Company). Prior to moving to the Bay Area in late 2017, he was the production management intern, and then fellow, at Baltimore Center Stage, and the assistant production manager at The Finger Lakes Musical Theater Festival. This is his first production with Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company.

Alex Trono (Assistant Stage Manager) is thrilled to be on the Two Mile Hollow team. This is his first production with Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company. A San Francisco native-turned-Oakland local, Alex spends most of his time as associate artistic director of Gritty City Repertory, where he has been assistant director for the past two seasons. Alex thanks Lily and Ben for this opportunity to work with FeroLo.

Annie Wang (Dramaturg/Graphic Designer) is a multidisciplinary artist-scholar exploring race, gender, and citizenship in the arts through new play development for underrepresented voices, radical Shakespearean dramaturgy, and digital story- telling. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Dramaturgy at Columbia University School of the Arts. Thanks to Lily, Leah, and her Ferocious & Udacious families. This work, as with all things, is dedicated to her parents. http://wang-annie.com

Randy Wong-Westbrooke (Set Designer) is a scenic designer born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Driven by their own identity as a multiple minority person and desire to bring unheard voices from around the world to various audi- ences, they seek opportunities to work with diverse creative teams to tell relevant, impactful, and intersectional stories. Locally they have designed sets with Custom Made Theatre, Faultline, The Breadbox, Brava, TheatreFIRST, Contra Costa Civic Theatre, Los Altos Stage Company, Shotgun Players, Cutting Ball, the ACT M.F.A. Program, and more. They are also part of the OSF FAIR and USITT Gateway Co- horts. http://rwwestbrooke.com

Cindy Cesca Yoshiyama (Managing Director) has worked in philanthropy and nonprofit development over the last decade, supporting education and the arts/ theatre in the Bay Area. She is currently the director of development for an educa- tional institution in San Francisco. Cindy has spent several years as a theatre pro- ducer and is passionate about creating pathways to equity, diversity, and inclusion in the performing arts. Company Lily Tung Crystal Founding Artistic Director/ Actor/Director Cindy Cesca Yoshiyama Managing Director Sunshine Lampitoc Smith General Manager Leon Geortzen Co-Founder/Casting Director/ Actor May Liang Literary Manager/Director Annie Wang Dramaturg/Webmaster Rinabeth Apostol Actor Christopher Chen Playwright Will Dao Actor Jeffrey Lo Director/Playwright Ken Savage Director Ogie Zulueta Actor Advisory Board Mekhala Chatterjee Philip Kan Gotanda Diane Takei Gotanda Lauren Gunderson David Henry Hwang Mina Morita Christine Wang Morris Brad Rubenstein Susan Shay Nonoko Sato Anu Menon M. Graham Smith Our Mission Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company is a San Francisco Bay Area-based theatre group whose mission is to give voice to artists with diverse and international perspec- tives. We promote, even more than diversity, reality—the reality that our neigh- borhoods comprise people of all races, cultures and backgrounds, and that theatre should represent that reality.

We present new plays and musicals, as well as re-imagined established works, pri- marily employing the nation’s top professional Asian American theatre artists. We also offer opportunities for support, training, networking, and mentorship.

By promoting “reality,” our goal is to affect change in the theatre. We take risks to create socially-relevant work that is quintessentially Asian American, yet also universal. The playwrights we collaborate with are redefining a fresh, new para- digm–one that is more global and cutting edge, essentially changing the perception of what it means to be Asian or Asian American in the world today. Our Supporters Production Sponsors ($1,000+) Ferocious Friends ($20-99) Ranee Lan El Beh Ray Kelly & David Peck Timothy Bishop Nate Chang & Jennifer Tye Lynnette Brawer Rita Tung Martine Broeders Eugenie Chan Patrons ($500-999) Nairun & Catherine Chen David Lei Michael Cheng Annette Molinaro Lisa Crystal Nonoko Sato William Dao David Tsao Rob Dario Marc Engel Benefactors ($250-499) Jennifer Fong Charles Belov Stan Goertzen Rebecca Chan Dani Hayes Elaine Chiu Leslie Ishii Daniel Dreilinger Mary Leong Michael Koeppel Joyce Liu-Countryman Christine Morris Rachel Lu Randy & Shirlene Nakano Olga Mandrussow Emily Newfield Jen & Mike McCune Scott Silverman Amy Mueller Valerie Takahama Eric Newman Guy Tiphane Sarah Ordody Amy Prosser Sustainers ($100-249) Rob Reece Cheng-Ling Chen Gail Reimer Tiffany Cothran Sherrie Rosenberg Ronald Dritz Dani Ross Any Gollnick Susan Shay Philip & Diane Gotanda MC Stockl Carol Lashof Deborah Wade Siri Louie Celia Wang Paik Swan Low Torange Yeghiazarian Anu Menon Kathie Yoshiyama Jerome Michaels Melissa Young Jackie Mow Karen Pak Oppenheimer Miyoko Sakatani Randy Tamura Rosemary Wall Lauren Williams If you would like to support our work, please donate at www.ferociouslotus.org/donate, drop your gift in our lobby donation box, or call us at (415) 322-0859. Please make checks out to Intersection for the Arts. Thank you! Special Thanks Golden Thread Productions Yusuke Soi Miriam Swords Kalk Crowded Fire Theater Company Palo Alto Players SAV Marketing Solutions Gregory Condes Wines Tasi Alabastro California Shakespeare Theater Theatre Bay Area Jim Kleinmann Dragon Productions Theatre Company Randy Rollison & the Staff at Intersection for the Arts Community Partners Those Women Productions Golden Thread Productions PlayGround SF Kearny Street Workshop Asian American Theater Company Crowded Fire Theater Shotgun Players Oakland Asian Cultural Center The Curran API Cultural Center Ragged Wing Ensemble Playwrights Foundation

Show Ambassadors Sheila Devitt Debra Gerardi Christine Morris Gail Fenton Lauren Gunderson Susan Shay Krystyna Finlayson Brooke Kerpelman Celia Wang Bob Kadoyama Jennifer & Michael McCune

Two Mile Hollow is an Equity-approved project, presented in partnership with In- tersection for the Arts as part of the INTERSECT SF Series, funded by Grants for the Arts, and as part of PlayGround’s Potrero Stage Presenting Program. Additional funding by Zellerbach Family Foundation and CA$H, a grants program of Theatre Bay Area, in partnership with Dancers’ Group.

POTRERO STAGE is a 99-seat state-of-the-art performance space located in the heart of San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, operated by PlayGround, and serving as home to some of the Bay Area’s leading new play developers and producers, including PlayGround, Crowded Fire, Golden Thread, and Playwrights Foundation, among others. For more information or to inquire about rentals, email [email protected] or call (415) 992-6677. http://potrerostage.org