1 Welcome to the 39th Annual BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL

A Window to the Soul: Getting Intimate with the Global in an Election Year At Georgetown University in 2009, then-Secretary Clinton was asked by an undergraduate playwright how she viewed the role of artists in helping to promote human rights and amplify policy. Her answer? “I think artists are one of our most effective tools in reaching beyond and through repressive regimes, in giving hope to people…I think that artists both individually and through their works can illustrate better than any speech I can give or any government policy we can promulgate that the spirit that lives within each of us, the right to think and dream and expand our boundaries, is not confined, no matter how hard they try, by any regime anywhere in the world. There is no way that you can deprive people from feeling those stirrings inside their soul.” To us, it was no coincidence that the question was posed by a fierce and passionate young playwright. Live story-making – playwriting - is a powerful and immediate artistic tool that reaches inside the intimacy of the human psyche to evoke insight, perspective, emotional connection and, ultimately, change. And that is why, at Playwrights Foundation, we remain deeply dedicated to advancing and amplifying diverse emerging voices. Each of the six plays of the #BAPF2016 festival reveal the many dangers that individuals and members of targeted groups face in their struggle to expand beyond boundaries imposed on them, and so doing tap our hearts and create a “window into the soul.” From many dots across the globe – and from points inside our imagination – Korea, Peru, Japan, an urban future, and a suburban Middle America, to the fantastical world of gaming, and the hedonistic world of Las Vegas, these six writers “illustrate the spirit that lives within each of us,…to think and dream and expand our boundaries.” At this #BAPF2016 – six vital plays will take shape, and those of you who have made the choice to be here are in for a meaningful and delightful ride. This year’s crop topples convention, defies definition, and most importantly, will find their way to our theaters and to the lives of thousands of audiences. You are a critical part of their journey to completion. So many of our past BAPF plays and playwrights have landed full productions all over the U.S. and the globe, in no small part due to the work we are doing here together: rebuilding and revolutionizing our theater, telling our stories, and revealing our very lives to us. Naturally, the festival would not be complete without some brainy fun. We invite you to all the festival has to offer: discussions on alternate theater forms, topical experts, parties, panels and catered lunches! We are so thrilled to share these six visionary works with you. –Amy Mueller, Artistic Director

1 FESTIVAL CALENDAR WEEKEND ONE WEEKEND TWO Friday, July 15 Friday, July 22 6:00pm Opening Night 6:30pm Cocktail Mixer – Reception Women in the Gaming Community 8:00pm Wild Goose Dreams 8:00pm Non-Player Character

Saturday, July 16 Saturday, July 23 12:00pm whisper fish 10:30am Pre-play Brunch with 2:30pm Lunch & Panel Playwright Sarah Sander Discussion – – Midwesterners and Playing with Form: their friends! Re-Envisioning the Theater Experience 12:00pm Sycamore

4:00pm Non-Player Character 2:00pm Lunch and Lecture – The Defectors’ 6:30pm Theater Professionals Dilemma: Minority Life Cocktail Party in South Korea

8:00pm Before Evening Comes 4:00pm Wild Goose Dreams

8:00pm Good, Better, Best, Bested Sunday, July 17 11:00am Theater Professionals Brunch & Panel Sunday, July 24 Conversation – Adventurous Season 2:00pm Before Evening Comes Planning 6:00pm whisper fish 2:00pm Good, Better, Best, Bested 8:30pm Closing Night Reception 6:00pm Sycamore

2 EVENT DETAILS

Lunch and Discussion/Demonstration – Playing with Form: Re-Envisioning the Theater Experience Saturday, July 16 at 2:30PM – Downstairs at the Shelton Theatre With Jon Bernson, E. Hunter Spreen, Sango Tajima, and others TBA Playwrights are thinking differently about how to design the theatrical experience, and are making work that pushes the boundaries of its traditional definitions. Join us for this conversation and showcase on the new frontiers of theater. A boxed lunch may be purchased for $10.00 a la carte (options by email on event registration). Cocktail Social Hour Saturday, July 16 at 6:30PM – Hotel Rex on Sutter Street Join the festival community for drinks, nosh and talk – wind down, network and continue the conversation over a drink (no-host bar) and hors d’oeuvres. There’s a lot to discuss and to celebrate at this year’s Festival! Theater Professionals Brunch and Panel Conversation – Adventurous Season Planning Sunday, July 17 at 11:00AM – Downstairs at the Shelton Theatre With Mina Morita, Jon Tracy, others TBA Even when we have the desire to produce artistically adventurous work, we often have to win over our organization’s decisionmakers. Join us in discussing some positive strategies for pitching projects and ideas that move the sector forward, over a light brunch and coffee prior to the day’s readings. Cocktail Mixer Meetup – Women in the Gaming Community Friday, July 22 at 6:30PM – Hotel Rex on Sutter Street No-host bar social mixer for anyone interested in tech culture, geeks, coders, gamers, and friends, immediately prior to the reading of Non-Player Character. Pre-play Brunch with Playwright Sarah Sander – Midwesterners and their friends! Saturday, July 23 at 10:30AM – Unscripted Theatre (across the hall from Custom Made Theatre) Please join us before the reading of Sycamore for brunch and informal conversation. What kind of hurdles exist in living a progressive lifestyle (and expressing that through your artistry) in a sometimes hostile environment? And how do we overcome them? Lunch and Lecture – The Defectors’ Dilemma: Minority Life in South Korea Saturday, July 23 at 2:00PM – Unscripted Theatre (across the hall from Custom Made Theatre) A conversation with Hannah B. Michell, internationally acclaimed scholar and novelist, and UC Berkeley lecturer on Korean Pop Culture and Asian American Cinema In this contextual special event prior to Wild Goose Dreams, Ms. Michell will be presenting her wide ranging research on contemporary South Korean family life and structure in relationship to its minorities: defectors, mixed-race individuals and those separated by war. In a culture which idealized the multi-generational family unit, where do those fragmented families belong? Box lunches provided by the internationally known Oakland Korean fusion restaurant FuseBOX. (Lunch is $10.00 and must be ordered in advance - options by email on event registration). Event Sponsor: Center for the Art of Translation Closing Night Reception Sunday July 24 at 8:30pm Join us for an evening of food, drink and good cheer as we celebrate the closing of the Festival.

3 Wild Goose Dreams By Hansol Jung Composer: Paul Castles Director: Christine Young Music Director: Jesse Sanchez Dramaturg: Andrew Kopke

Producing Sponsor:

Friday, July 15 at 8PM Saturday, July 23 at 4PM Cast Wayne Lee* Gook Minsung Melissa Locsin* Yoo Nanhee Randall Nakano* Chorus: Father Alex Hsu* Chorus: Man Christine Chu Chorus: Woman Isabel Anne To Chorus: Hyonjin Mia Tagano* Chorus: Wife AeJay​ ​Mitchell, ​Erica Richar​d​son​, Len​ ​Shaffer Choir James​ ​Tecuatl-Lee, Nicole​ ​Thordsen *appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association Rivianna Hyatt Assistant Director From the Playwright I have never written about Korea. I could never find a way to write Korean people in English. At Royal Court and I was encouraged to write in Korean, and then translate it back to English. I found a way to articulate a kind of language that straddled between the English vocabulary and Korean imagery. English rhythms of speech with Korean tempo of thought. And unwittingly this project began as an experiment to clash two things that don’t seem to belong together: North and South, Korean and English, noise and quiet, isolation and love. In that clash, I believe I re-discovered, and was touched by, the tiny but magnificent beauty of connection between two very lonely people. 4 Biographies Playwright Hansol Jung is a playwright and director from South Korea. Plays include Cardboard Piano (Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville), No More Sad Things (co-world premiere at Sideshow Theatre, Chicago and Boise Contemporary Theatre), Among the Dead (Ma-Yi Theatre), Wolf Play, and Wild Goose Dreams. Commissions include from Playwrights Horizons, the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant with Ma-Yi Theatre and a translation of Romeo and Juliet for Play On! at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She has had works developed at Lark, New York Theatre Workshop, MacDowell Colony, Royal Court, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Her plays have received the Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award (Among the Dead), Honorable Mention from the 2014 Arch and Bruce Brown Playwriting Competition (Cardboard Piano), and was named 2014 finalist for the Ruby Prize (No More Sad Things). She has translated over thirty English musicals into Korean, while working on several award winning musical theatre productions as director, lyricist and translator in Seoul, South Korea. Jung holds a Playwriting MFA from Yale School of Drama, and is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Theatre Writers Lab.

Composer Paul Castles is an internationally-working composer based in Brooklyn, New York and Sydney whose work has been produced and performed by the award-winning South Korean Theater Troupe Georipae (including The Fountain, winner of Best New Musical at the 6th Daegu International Musical Festival), Victorian Opera, Clare Cook Dance Theater, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Chronology Arts, and Three Act Theater, through writing partnerships with US-based playwright Hansol Jung, South African librettist Mkhululi Mabija, London-based lyricist-bookwriter Victoria Saxton, and Seoul-based lyricist- bookwriter Chae-kyung Lee. Paul is originally from Sydney, Australia. He is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program of the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University, and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. www.paulcastles.com

Director Director Christine Young’s bio can be found on page 20

Dramaturg Dramaturg Andrew Kopke’s bio can be found on page 20

Musical Director Music Director Jesse Sanchez’s bio can be found on page 20

5 whisper fish By Andrew Saito Director: Sango Tajima Dramaturg: Lydia Garcia

Producing Sponsor: Patricia Strong

Saturday, July 16 at 12PM Sunday, July 24 at 6PM Cast Aily Roper María Cesario Andrew Chung Delfino Brittany Frazier* Leoparda Tessa Koning-Martinez* Mother Superior John Lewis* Radio/Policeman/Glenn Miller/Andean Devils Ogie Zulueta* Radio/Policeman/Glenn Miller/Andean Devils *appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association

From the Playwright This play is very much an ode to Peru, where I spent nearly a year and heard about the large Japanese population in Lima. During World War II, 1800 Japanese Peruvians were deported to an internment camp in Crystal City, Texas. While in Peru I attended the syncretic indigenous-Catholic ceremonies of la Virgen Del Carmen, which feature many different comparzas, or troupes of masked dancers, performing in procession in honor of a statue of the Virgin Mary. One of the comparzas consists of Devils worshipping the virgin. The Afro-Peruvian culture also has a dance, el son Del Diablo, that features Devils. I found out that Peru is full of Devils because when the Spanish Catholics came and overthrew the Inca, catholic priests deemed any sort of indigenous dance or ritual or ceremony to be devil worship. The image of the devil, while originally negative, was appropriated into a symbol of power.

6 Biographies Playwright Andrew P. Saito’s plays include Krispy Kritters in the Scarlett Night and Mount Misery: A Comedy of Enhanced Interrogations, both produced at The Cutting Ball Theater while he was Andrew W. Mellon Resident Playwright. His play Stegosaurus (or) Three Cheers for Climate Change was produced at Faultline Theater. Saito was a Fulbright Scholar in Papua New Guinea, and holds an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, where he received an Iowa Arts Fellowship. He has collaborated with the Andean theatre company Kusiwasi, and the legendary Peruvian theatre collective Yuyachkani. He has been commissioned by Handful Players, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the National Performance Network, and has received grants from Theater Bay Area, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and developed work with Victory Gardens, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Crowded Fire, East West Players, the Playwrights Center of Minneapolis, Mu Performing Arts, Brava Theater, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Asian American Theatre Company, and Mixed Phoenix Theatre in New York. Saito is an alumnus member of Playwrights Foundation’s Resident Playwrights Initiative, PlayGround’s Writers Pool, and Just Theater’s Writer- Director Lab.

Director Sango Tajima is an Oakland-based artist who grew up internationally in the U.S, Japan, Tanzania, Trinidad & Tobago, and Thailand. In the Bay, she is a member of a political theatre collective The Bonfire Makers, co-founder of a new producing ensemble Dirty Hands, and Associate Artist of Ragged Wing Ensemble. After serving as the Artistic Direction Apprentice at Magic Theatre, she’s acted in various productions with Campo Santo, FaultLine Theater, Impact Theatre, Cutting Ball Theater, Ragged Wing Ensemble, and New Conservatory Theatre Center. She recently directed for the Playwrights Foundation’s FlashPlays 2015. BFA in Acting from the University of Michigan.

Dramaturg Lydia Garcia joined Marin Theatre Company as the Literary Manager and Resident Dramaturg in April 2016. Before becoming a member of the MTC team, she was the Resident Dramaturg at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where she dramaturged more than 20 plays in 8 seasons including the world premieres of Sean Graney’s The Yeomen of the Guard, Alexa Junge’s Fingersmith, Tracy Young and Oded Gross’s The Imaginary Invalid and The Servant of Two Masters, and Octavio Solis’s Quixote. Garcia is a current Executive Committee member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA). In addition to her dramaturgical work, she is a trained staff facilitator for issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity, and a proud member of the artEquity facilitator team led by Carmen Morgan. She is a graduate of Harvard University and the Yale School of Drama.

7 Non-Player Character By Walt McGough Director: Logan Ellis Dramaturg: Laura Brueckner

Producing Sponsor: Aaron Loeb & Kathy Roberts

Saturday, July 16 at at 4PM Friday, July 22 at 8PM Cast Christine Jamlig Aria/Katja Jeremy Kahn* Caspar/ Trent Bobak Bakhtiari* Feldrick Katie Ruben* Morwyn Kelly Crump* Naomi Jerek Hernandez Grant *appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association Rochelle Malter Production Assistant From the Playwright

Non-Player Character started as a reaction to the really awful online harassment faced by many women in the video games industry, but it’s also about what draws people to games in the first place. It’s about why gamers of all genders love and engage with the art form, and the potential for discovery and progress in something that’s usually written off as just a hobby. I’ve been an avid gamer all of my life, and this is a conversation that I’m thrilled to be having with a new group of artists and audience members.

8 Biographies Playwright Walt McGough is a Boston-based playwright (by way of Pittsburgh and Chicago). He was a finalist for the Dramatists Guild’s 2016 Lanford Wilson Award, and has held playwriting fellowships with both the Huntington and New Repertory Theatre Companies. His plays include Pattern Of Life (Independent Reviewers of New England Award for Best New Play), The Farm, Priscilla Dreams The Answer, Paper City Phoenix, Chalk, Dante Dies!! (And Then Things Get Weird), and The Haberdasher!. He has worked around the country for companies including The Lark, the Huntington, New Rep, the Kennedy Center, NNPN, Boston Playwrights, Fresh Ink, Sideshow, Tympanic, Orfeo Group, Chicago Dramatists, and Argos. In 2015, his play Advice For Astronauts was selected as the winner of the Milken Playwriting Prize for student theatre. A founding ensemble member of Chicago’s Sideshow Theatre Company, he serves on staff at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, and was previously the company manager at Chicago Dramatists. He holds a BA from the University of Virginia, and an MFA in playwriting from Boston University. Learn more at www.waltmcgough.com

Director Logan Ellis currently serves as the Producing Artistic Director of Theatre Battery and Literary Manager of Playwrights Foundation. Directing: The Little Mermaid (Marin Theatre Company), Water by the Spoonful (Dirty Hands), The Firefly Project(Magic Theatre), Year of the Rooster (Impact Theatre), dark play or stories for boys (Do It Live), Inay’s Wedding Dress, Nanay’s Lullaby (Bindlestiff Studio), Origins of Love (USF Mainstage), Chatroom, Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, Dog Sees God, Milk Like Sugar, A Maze (Theatre Battery). Former Artistic Direction Apprentice at Magic Theatre. BA, Drama from Ithaca College.

Dramaturg Laura Brueckner is a dramaturg specializing in new work development and digital dramaturgy. She is a proud resident artist at Crowded Fire Theater, where she has supported world premieres by stellar talents Lauren Gunderson, Christopher Chen, Dipika Guha, and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, among others. She also currently serves as research dramaturg for an OSF American Revolutions commission by Idris Goodwin, and as a contributing journalist for Theatre Bay Area and HowlRound; she holds a Ph.D. in dramaturgy from UC San Diego. She’s thrilled to return to BAPF this year.

9 Before Evening Comes By Philana Omorotionmwan Director: Jade King Carroll Dramaturg: Lisa Marie Rollins

Saturday, July 16 at 8PM Sunday, July 24 at 2PM Cast C Kelly Wright* Mary Rhonnie Washington* James Dimitri Woods Totome Akilah Walker* Noida *appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association Emile Lacheny Production Assistant From the Playwright I typically start from a place of questions when I write. For this play I asked myself: What does it mean to choose motherhood as a black woman in 21st century America? Can artistic expression offer the possibility of freedom from a life of bondage? I continue to explore these questions as I dive into my rewrites for the festival.

10 Biographies Playwright Philana Omorotionmwan is the daughter of a Louisiana mother and a Nigerian father. She first began writing plays under the mentorship of Cherríe Moraga at Stanford University, where she also dabbled in spoken word and earned a BA in English. Production of her short plays includes The Settlement (Ensemble Studio Theatre) and Black Boys Don’t Dance (Manhattan Theatre Source). In addition to being a Playground SF company playwright during the 2010-2011 season, Philana has studied poetry and playwriting at Naropa University, the Kennedy Center, and the Fine Arts Work Center. Her poems have been published in New Delta Review and African American Review. Philana is currently pursuing an MFA in Playwriting at Ohio University and is a member of Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.

Director Jade King Carroll has directed Having Our Say (Hartford Stage & Long Wharf Theatre) The Piano Lesson (McCarter Theatre); Sunset Baby (City Theater); Autumn’s Harvest (Lincoln Center Institute);Trouble in Mind (Two River Theater & Playmaker’s Rep); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Whipping Man (Portland Stage); A Raisin In The Sun (Juilliard & Perseverance); The Tempest (Chautauqua Theater Company); Black Girl, You’ve Been Gentrified(Joe’s Pub); Seven Guitars, The Persians, Splittin’ the Raft (People’s Light and Theatre & Point Park University); King Hedley (Portland Playhouse); Mr Chickee’s Funny Money (Atlantic Theater); Janice Underwater (Premiere Stages); The Etymology of Bird (CitiParks Summer Stages); The Piano Lesson (Cape Fear Regional Theater); alondra washere (The Wild Project); Cherry Smoke (Theatre Row); Sexon Sunday (Urban Stages); The History of Light, Samuel J&K, The Summer House (Passage Theatre); Spit (Intar); A Member of the Wedding (Tennessee Williams Theater Festival in Provincetown); Associate Director for The Gin Game (Broadway - 2015) and Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (Broadway - 2012). Jade served as the dramaturg for the seminal recording of the entire August Wilson Twentieth Century Cycle for National Public Radio.

Dramaturg Lisa Marie Rollins is a freelance director, playwright, and dramaturg. She dramatuged for Playwrights Foundation’s 2015 BAPF with Tearrance Chisholm’s Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies, and for Crowded Fire Theater on Dipika Guha’s world premiere Mechanics of Love. As a playwright she was a featured artist in Just Theater’s 2015-16 Play Lab where she developed her play Token. She has been a CALLALOO London Writing Fellow, and is an alumnus of the VONA Writing Workshop. She is currently a 2016 Writing Resident at the San Francisco Writers Grotto. She holds degrees from Claremont Graduate University and the University of California, Berkeley. She is Lecturer in the Race and Resistance Studies Dept at SFSU. She is currently developing her new play Token and finishing her first manuscript of poems. Look for her directing work fall 2016 on young jean lee’s The Shipment with Crowded Fire Theater.

11 Good, Better, Best, Bested By Jonathan Spector Director: M.Graham Smith Dramaturg: Julie McCormick

Sunday, July 17 at 2PM Saturday, July 23 at 8PM Cast Jomar Tagatac* Jordan/Muscle Guy/Card Snapper 1 Dan Hiatt* Statue Man/Centurion/ Francois/Colonel/Lieutenant Ben Ismail The Kid/The Waiter/Septimus/Henri/Grunt/ Private Isabel Ann To Su-Jin Marissa Keltie* Marla/Card Snapper 4 David Ari* Alan/Spiderman/Card Snapper 2 Jennifer Erdmann* Simone/Bikini Girl/Card Snapper 3/Charlotte *appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association Maddie Gaw Production Assistant From the Playwright One of the big questions the piece is wrestling with is: what is our responsibility to tragic events that don’t affect our lives directly? Las Vegas appealed to me as the ideal place to explore this question, as it’s an entire city built to encourage people to care only about their own pleasure in the present moment. The other appeal of Vegas is its particularly American form of cultural appropriation – you can ride in a Gondola at the Venetian, go to the top of the Eiffel tower at the Paris, and have dim sum served to you by waiters in cringe- inducing ‘Oriental’ costumes at the Imperial Palace. It’s a glorious and/or horrifying example of our country’s ability to consume and commodify culture from the entire world, and divorce it from any larger concerns.

12 Biographies Playwright Jonathan Spector’s plays including Good Better Best Bested, In From the Cold, FTW, Adult Swim, The World to Come, and The Vast Expanse have been produced and developed with Aurora Theater, San Francisco Playhouse, Playwrights Foundation, PlayGround, Just Theater, Stanford’s National Center for New Plays, Source Theater Festival (Washington DC), Something Marvelous Festival (Chicago) St. Bonaventure College (New York) and the University of San Francisco. This Is All I Need (co-created with Liz Lisle and Christopher White) was produced by Mugwumpin and named “Best of Theater” 2010 in SF Weekly and SF Bay Guardian. He’s been a two-time winner of Aurora Theater’s Global Age Prize, received PlayGround’s Emerging Playwright Award, Theatre Bay Area’s TITAN award, and been a finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, New Harmony Project, and LARK Playwrights’ week. He holds an MFA in playwriting from San Francisco State, is a Resident Playwright at Playwrights Foundation, and is currently under commission from Aurora Theater. He is also the Co-Artistic Director of Just Theater, where he has directed and/or produced many new plays by writers including Anne Washburn, Jason Grote, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Melissa James Gibson and Rob Handel.

Director M. Graham Smith is a San Francisco-based director, educator and producer. He is an O’Neill National Directing Fellow and an Oregon Shakespeare Festival FAIR Fellow. He’s directed at HERE in New York City, and in San Francisco at A.C.T., Aurora Theatre, Crowded Fire, Central Works, The EXIT Theatre, PlayGround, Brava, Playwrights Foundation, Cutting Ball Theater, Ray of Light, Berkeley Playhouse, Golden Thread, SF Opera, and New Conservatory Theater; Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor. He directed the West Coast Premiere of Jerry Springer: The Opera in SF and Truffaldino Says No at Shotgun Players, (Best Director, Bay Area Critics Circle). Recent credits: The Lady Onstage (Profile Theatre Portland OR), The Liar adapted by David Ives (Occidental College, Los Angeles as an Edgarton Foundation Fellow). He teaches at A.C.T.’s actor- training programs, and was producer of Aurora Theater’s international new play festival, The Global Age Project, for the last five years.

Dramaturg Julie McCormick has supported productions and workshops at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Crowded Fire Theatre, Just Theater, Theatre First, and Bay Area Children’s Theatre, including the world premieres productions of She Rode Horses Like the Stock Exchange, Fire Work, and Bad Kitty Onstage. While the literary associate at Berkeley Rep, Julie oversaw the theatre’s script submission program. Julie was the 2011-2012 Peter Sloss Literary/Dramaturgy Fellow at Berkeley Rep, and she holds a B.A. from Carleton College.

13 Sycamore By Sarah Sander Director: Jessica Holt Dramaturg: Mame Hunt

Sunday, July 17 at 6PM Saturday, July 23 at 12PM Cast Emily Radosevich Celia Aaron Kitchin Henry Julia McNeal* Louise Lawrence Radecker David Josh Schell John Carrie Paff* Jocelyn *appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association Sohee Yoon Production Assistant From the Playwright I’m exploring… hmmm… sibling rivalry, sexual fluidity and costumes – how we dress and what that says about us. Also, finding authenticity in the prescribed roles and expectations of the modern Midwest.

14 Biographies Playwright Sarah Sander is a Brooklyn-based playwright whose work has been developed/ produced by Columbia University, |the claque|, DC Arts Center, Florida Studio Theatre, Inkwell Theatre, Kennedy Center, Lark, NYSF, Page 73 Productions, the Public Theater, Project Y and Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival. She’s a New Georges Affiliated Artist and alumni of the Public Theater’s 2015 Emerging Writers Group, Dramatist Guild Fellowship and P73’s Interstate 73. Residencies: MacDowell, Millay and SPACE at Ryder Farm. Finalist: ATL’s Heideman Award, Clubbed Thumb’s Biennial Commission, Jerome Fellowship, Juilliard, Leah Ryan FEWW Prize, P73’s Playwriting Fellowship, Playwrights Realm Fellowship, Trustus Theatre Festival, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and Source Theater Festival. Nominations: Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, NTC’s Stavis Award and Williamstown’s Weissberger Award. MFA: University of Iowa.

Director Jessica Holt recently directed Significant Other by Joshua Harmon at Actor’s Express in Atlanta, Georgia. She is thrilled to return to the Bay Area, where she served as the Artistic Director of the Bay One Acts Festival and as an artistic associate at the Magic Theatre. Directing credits include: Bright Half Life, The Lily’s Revenge, Act 5 (Magic Theatre); We Are Proud To Present..., Why Torture Is Wrong… (Yale Summer Cabaret); Have I None (Yale Cabaret); The Seagull, Twelfth Night, The Children (Yale School of Drama); The Glass Menagerie (Boxcar Theatre). New play development at: Alliance Theatre, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, Theater Emory, Playwrights Foundation, Cutting Ball Theater, New Conservatory Theater Center, Piano Fight. Upcoming: Ugly Lies the Bone by Lindsey Ferrentino (Alliance Theatre). 2015-2016 Phil Kent Directing Fellow, Alliance Theatre. 2016 National Directors Fellowship. MFA: Yale School of Drama.

Dramaturg Mame Hunt has worked in new play development for a very long time. She has been an Associate Artist with the Sundance Theatre Lab since 2000. In the Bay Area, she was artistic director of the Magic Theatre 1993-98 and of the Bay Area Playwrights Festival 1991-95. She’s happy to be back.

15 BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL STAFF

Festival Producing Sponsors Center for the Art of Translation Patricia Strong Aaron Loeb & Kathy Roberts

Playwrights Foundation + Festival Staff Artistic & Executive Director Amy Mueller Administrative Director Mary Jo Price Artistic Associate & Festival Executive Producer Karen Altree Piemme Literary Manager Logan Ellis Literary Associate Andrew Kopke Literary Intern Rivanna Hyatt Casting Director Dena Martinez Social Media Manager Maggie Wilson Development Consultant Nancy Quinn Associates Administrative Assistant Michael Wise

Bay Area Playwrights Festival Production Manager Leanna Keyes Director of Artistic Process Jayne Wenger Festival Marketing Director Marcy Straw Press Agent David Hyry and Associates Associate Producer Patricia Morin Technical Director Andrew Custer Graphic Designer Rachel Finkelstein

Production Assistants + Festival Interns Lana Cosic, Maddie Gaw, Rivianna Hyatt, Emile Lacheny, Rochelle Malter, Seleba Ouattara, Sohee Yoon

16 BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL STAFF FESTIVAL STAFF

Festival Executive Producer Karen Altree Piemme is an accomplished director, actor, producer, dramaturg, workshop facilitator and acting instructor, specializing in social justice theatre and community access to the arts. Ms. Piemme is the Director of the Red Ladder Theatre Company, a nationally- acclaimed, award-winning company, which empowers marginalized populations in our community by helping them develop positive life-skills through the art form of improvisational theatre. Ms. Piemme spent 21 years with San Jose Repertory Theatre, where she was the Director of Outreach and Resident Dramaturg. Ms. Piemme also serves as the Associate Director for 2nd Stages at Dragon Productions Theatre Company, teaches in the Department of Television, Radio, Film and Theatre at San Jose State University, and serves on the Theatre Services Committee (the advisory council) for Theatre Bay Area. Technical Director/Lighting Designer Andrew Custer is excited to be coming back to the Playwrights Festival for his 5th year. His lighting design credits include Sail Away and The Boys From Syracuse with 42nd St. Moon, The Turn of the Screw with Dragon Productions and The Crucible with Foothill Theatre Conservatory. Andrew has also spent the last 10 years worked with TheatreWorks, and Opera San Jose as an electrician, carpenter and stagehand. Literary Manager Logan Ellis’ bio can be found on page 9. Graphic Designer Rachel Finkelstein was most recently Public Engagement Manager for Playwrights Foundation. She was graduated from Bard College in 2013 with a degree in Studio Arts and a Concentration in Mind, Brain, and Behavior, and comes from a background in marketing, design, and research. Rachel is a multi-disciplinary artist working primarily in sculpture and digital art. Publicist David Hyry & Associates has for the past many years represented hundreds of artists for thousands of performances at theaters ranging from the intimate Marsh and Magic theaters to the American Conservatory Theater and Palace of Fine Arts. David Hyry has specialized in the launching and positioning of performing artists, choreographers, composers, organizations and festivals with public relations, media planning, marketing, and advertising. DH&A has represented artists and organizations ranging from Bill Irwin, Spalding Gray, Rinde Eckert, Whoopi Goldberg, Diamanda Galas, Anne Bogart, Karole Armitage, La La La and Paul Dresher to George Coates Performance Works, Word for Word, BAM, Goethe Institut, Italian Cultural Institute, Alliance Française, and Teatro Di Roma. Production Manager Leanna Keyes is a freelance production manager currently working with The Cutting Ball Theater (Ondine, A Dreamplay) and 42nd Street Moon (Sail Away, Scrooge in Love!, The Boys from Syracuse, The Most Happy Fella). This is her second year with the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. When she’s

17 not production managing, she’s writing, painting, and constructing LED lighting systems. Find her at www.leannakeyes.com and @LeannaKeyes. Casting Director Dena Martinez has worked with Playwrights Foundation and the Speakeasy SF; she has cast for SF Playhouse (First Day of School, She Stoops to Comedy, Den of Thieves, The Fantasticks) the Jewish Theater of SF (Death of a Salesman, The Sisters Rosenswieg, Lost in Yonkers) and for Shotgun Players (Love is a Dream House in Lorin, This World in a Woman’s Hands). As an actor she has toured nationally with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Culture Clash, and El Teatro Campesino; with leading roles at Denver Center Theater Co, St Louis Rep, Marin Theater Co, Berkeley Rep, Word for Word, San Jose Rep, San Jose Stage, Capital Stage, Magic Theater, California Shakespeare Theater, Theatreworks, Pacific Rep and Shotgun Players. Assistant Producer Patricia Morin. Besides writing short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction books, Pat works as a psychotherapist with a Masters in both Counseling Psychology and Clinical Social Work. She created and facilitated the Literary Project, an after-school program that helps middle-school students interested in becoming authors learn about the different writing genres. Plays include Silence Interrupted (San Francisco Theater Pub, 2016) A Clean Well- Lighted Park Bench, Scheherazade (15 Festival, Playwrights’ Center, 2015), and The Gatekeeper (The Fringe of Marin, 2012), and is an Anthony & Derringer Award Finalist & Pushcart Nominee Award winner. Artistic Director Amy Mueller is an award-winning director and producer of original theater for over thirty years, and is a leader in the national new play development sector. Since taking the helm of Playwrights Foundation in 2001, she has transformed the scope of the organization into a national center for playwrights, focused on developing new work for the American stage through the discovery and support of contemporary playwrights, and has played a key role in accelerating the artistic and career growth of a diverse range of exceptional emerging playwrights, many of whom are now the most prominent in the field. In her role as head of PF, she has directed the development of dozens of successful plays including George Brant’s award-winning play Grounded, and has shepherded several hundred phenomenal new works such as Aaron Loeb’s Ideation, and Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop. Her directing credits include Berkeley Repertory Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, ACT Seattle, A.C.T. Arizona Theatre Company, Cutting Ball Theater, Crowded Fire Theater and many others. She is the mother of two beautiful children. Administrative Director Mary Jo Price is an enthusiastic arts administrator who prior to her position at Playwrights Foundation served as Director of Museum Experience at the Children’s Creativity Museum. In addition to her work at PF, she is the Operations Manager at Tandem, Partners in Early Learning, and the Managing Director at Anton’s Well Theater Company. She was one of the founding members of San Francisco’s Theatre Forte, where

18 in addition to her artistic contributions, she acted as Managing Director. She holds an M.F.A. in Performance from San Francisco State University. Development Consultant Nancy Quinn received her MBA in Arts Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1983. In 1988, she founded Quinn Associates, a Bay Area-based arts administration and fundraising consulting firm, in 1988, which over 25 years helped hundreds of small and mid-sized arts organizations with fundraising, planning, organizational development, and capacity-building. On its closing, Nancy has continued to serve the field as a writer, coach, and consultant under the auspices of Quinn Consulting. Marketing Consultant Marcy Straw maintains a consulting practice founded in 1990 providing interim leadership, project management, fundraising, strategy, marketing, event services to nonprofit organizations and artists; and career guidance for recording and touring artists. Previous roles include Executive Director for the UC Student Association, the Bay Area Leadership Foundation, and Deputy Director for Pacific Environment. Marcy has also led Bay Area arts icons Teatro ZinZanni and the Midsummer Mozart Festival. For six years she directed marketing for the California Shakespeare Theater and prior, for ODC Dance San Francisco. Marcy holds a B.S. in Business and an MBA from John F. Kennedy University. Director of Artistic Process Jayne Wenger is a director and dramaturg whose exclusive focus is on original material. She has developed the work of acclaimed playwrights nationwide. She is the past Artistic Director of Playwrights Foundation and Women’s Ensemble in New York. Current projects include Bear by Deke Weaver, The Blues is a Woman by Pamela Rose and Rose in America by Michelle Carter. She is an alumna of Djerassi Resident Artist Program; a frequent guest artist at The Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska, and has taught at ArtWorkshop International in Italy. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, LMDA, and the League of Professional Theater Women. Social Media Manager Maggie Wilson is an arts administrator, writer and social media consultant living in San Francisco. Along with being the Social Media Manager for the Playwrights Foundation she also works with FoolsFURY Theater Co., The Marsh and the California Shakespeare Theater. A playwright herself, you can catch her next produced monologue on August 25th at Thick House in partnership with 3Girls Theatre and NARAL. Maggie graduated from UC Berkeley in 2013 where she studied English and Theater. Learn more about her at www.MaggieWil5on.co. Administrative Assistant Michael Monteiro Wise is very happy to be working with Playwrights Foundation! His playwriting credits include, Waste-boy (Abbie Hoffman Festival, Puppy Tears Festival, Nothing Without A Company), Alice (Nothing Without a Company), All at Rest (PianoFight), Virginity Stealers

19 (Theater 150), The Butler’s Job (Act Up: Fight Aids Play Benefit),Salt and Pepper (Geopolis Theater), Chain Smoking (Theater 150’s Young Playwrights Contest winner). He has also been able to work for a variety of new works with theaters such as Victory Gardens Theater, The Hypocrites, The Building Stage, and Theatre Dybbuk.

Wild Goose Dreams Artistic Team Wild Goose Dreams Director Christine Young is an Associate Professor at University of San Francisco and a free-lance director specializing in new plays about social issues affecting women’s lives. From 2000-2006, she was Literary Manager and Artistic Associate at Playwrights Foundation. She has directed and taught for Tenderloin Opera Company, Crowded Fire, Lunatique Fantastique, Shotgun Players, California Shakespeare Theater, Magic Theatre, New Conservatory Theater, TheatreWorks, San Francisco Shakespeare, Golden Thread Productions and Just Theater. She curates Works by Women San Francisco (worksbywomensf.wordpress.com) a blog that spotlights the work of Bay Area women theater artists. She is a member of Theatre Bay Area’s Gender Parity Advisory Committee and serves on the board of WomenArts. Wild Goose Dreams Dramaturg Andrew Kopke is a recent transplant from New York, where he attended the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at S.U.N.Y Purchase, the British American Drama Academy, and Hunter College. Since his arrival in the Bay Area, he has had the pleasure of working with a number of local companies and nonprofits­ in the capacity of literary associate and dramaturg. Wild Goose Dreams Music Director Jesse Sanchez is an international conductor, performer, and educator. He most recently was appointed Resident Music Director at West Valley Light Opera in Saratoga CA where he has music directed Footloose, Dames at Sea, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Irene, and The Boyfriend. He has served as music director in the Santa Clara University Theatre and Dance Department and as Director of Instrumental and Choral Music at Westmont High School. As a professional musician, he has shared the stage with Terrell Stafford, Natalie Cole, Tower of Power, Brubeck Brothers, Paquito D’Rivera, Wayne Bergeron, and Steve Smith, among others.

Special Thanks 111 Minna Gallery, 42nd Street Moon; Stephanie Flores Outback, Sausalito; Nelson Julian, Spinnaker Restaurant, Sausalito.

Extra Special Thanks Custom Made Theatre Artistic Director Brian Katz and staff.

20 FESTIVAL PLAY SELECTION AND DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS

Each year through our Open Submission Process the Festival Literary Council selects six plays from approximately 500 submissions, reflecting the caliber, range and daring that is the hallmark of the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Select writers will also be considered for other PF programs by invitation. These opportunities include the Rough Readings Series and Producing Partnership and Commissioning programming. Bay Area based playwrights are eligible for the Resident Playwrights Initiative, and will be invited to apply upon review. During the development process, winning playwrights are paired with an artistic team comprised of a professional dramaturg, director, and actors. A pre-festival weekend retreat brings these teams together to share work, thoughts and feedback with other festival participants. Subsequently, each playwright engages in two weeks of rehearsal and two staged readings, each one separated by a week of rehearsals to incorporate rewrites and changes. Local and national producers, theater artists and the general public are invited to the festival to hear the plays, participate in special events, and meet the playwrights. Our 40th Anniversary Festival will be held in July 2017 at our home theater, Custom Made Theatre in San Francisco. The ​submission window will open this year on July 15th to coincide with the opening of #BAPF2016.

Festival Selection Committee 2016 Bay Area Playwrights Festival Literary Council Desdemona Chiang, Michael-Ann Connor, Logan Ellis, William Hodgson, Mame Hunt, Rivianna Hyatt, Duca Knez, Andrew Kopke, Amy Mueller, Doyle Ott, Carla Pantoja, Valerie Weak, Jayne Wenger.

Playwrights Foundation National Reading Committee Rotimi Agbabiaka, Marisa Andrews, Emily Atkinson, Pete Bakely, Krystal Banzon, Alex Benjamin, Katharine Chin, Kristin Clippard, Michele Crowley, Sheila Devitt, Amy Dorman, Regina Fields, Rachel Finkelstein, Dyan Flores, Leah Franqui, Brit Frazier, Gianna Gargiulo, Jonathan Green, Clifton Guterman, Jon Blake Hackler, Hilary King, Zachary Kopciak, Amy Kossow, Amber Kusching, Laura Lippman, Marina McClure, Erin Merritt, Paul Miller, Shannon Musgrave, Dave Osmundsen, Kevan Parmelee, MJ Price, Aily Roper, Dylan Russell, Cassy Sanders, Ashley Smiley, Fly Steffens, Susan Stuart, Adam Sussman, Natasha Thompson, Rebecca Udden, Michael Weems, Dusty Wilson, Jessica Zingher.

21 FUNDERS & DONORS

Season Sponsor Funders

Playwrights Foundation gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our family of sponsors, foundations, government agencies and community: The Bernard Osher Foundation, Center for the Art of Translation, Dramatists Guild Fund, Grants for the Arts/SF Hotel Tax Fund, The Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Kurz Family Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Phillis C. Wattis Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, St. Francis Foundation, Steinberg Charitable Trust, Tournesol Project, Zellerbach Family Foundation, and substantial multi-year support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the RHE Charitable Foundation.

The Playwrights Foundation Family of Individual Donors * denotes a current Playwrights Foundation trustee + denotes a Producing Sponsor for BAPF 2016

Strategic Leadership Circle Mighty Moms and Dads Markham Miller* David Goldman* and ($2000+) and Richard Martini Carol Dweck The Castilian Fund Andrew Rich* The Castilian Fund Carol & Ted Krumland and Michelle Leitzke Tournesol Project Kristin Leimkuhler and Jeff Wilk Ditka Reiner* Kathy Roberts and Aaron Loeb Toni Rembi and Arthur Rock Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Jennifer* and Will Sousae Nasser Sagheb* Absolute Angels Jody Snyder and Noel Littlejohns ($10,000+) Super Siblings Dr. Alan Stewart Center for The Art of ($1000+) Translation+ (Festival) Anonymous (1) Awesome Aunts and Uncles Saint Francis Foundation (Season) Kat and David Anderson ($500+) Linda Brewer Anonymous (2) Fantastic Fairy Godparents Wendy Buffet and Joel Kreisberg Joy Carlin ($5,000+) Kevin Causey and Cydney Payton Steven and Jessica Carroll Patricia Strong + Francis Fryscak* Judith Cohen and Malcolm Carol Dweck Carol and Ted Krumland Gissen Kathy Roberts and Aaron Loeb + Leonard Kurz Dean Francis Tournesol Project Kristin Leimkuhler and Jeffrey Steve Goldband and Ellen Konar Wilk Mark Heitner*

22 Jonathan Kaplan Mickey and Sally Bolmer Lucy Rudolph John Marx George Brant Scott Sugarman Chris Smith* and Sheri Matteo Ann and Kwan-Shei Chen Antigone Trimis Shawn and Gloria Newman Roberta D’Alois Miguel Ulloa Thomas Swift David Derose Gavin Witt Dave and Pat Usner Jeanne Drennan … and we are so grateful to our John Eichhorst Good Neighbor donors (up to Brad Erickson Close Cousins $100), who are too numerous ($250+) Susan Fairbrook to list. Joe Amato Rodney Farrow Alexander Barker Thomas and Mary Foote Anthony Bernier Stephanie Glick In-Kind 4th Street Bagel Jack and JoAnn Bertges Prince Gomolvilas Real Food Christine and Michael Carr Anne Hallinan Bette’s Oceanview Diner Anthony and Kate Clarvoe Paul Heller and Helen Goldsmith Costco Stacy Kray Joan Holden New York Bagels Marina Macklin Kenneth Kilen Peet’s Coffee C.J. Van Pelt Jack Libeu and Alice Schulman Philz Coffee Annette and Steve Williams Patricia Milton Safeway Alyosha Zim Rebecca Martinez Trader Joes Andrew Meisel Family Friends Pamela Merchant and Kirby Sack Acknowledgment represents all ($100+) Linda L. Parker gifts recorded to July 8, 2016 Anonymous (3) Milton Diaz Perez and Jayne Kristin Anundsen Wenger

23 ABOUT PLAYWRIGHTS FOUNDATION

Playwrights Foundation (PF) was founded in 1976 by Robert Woodruff, and is now widely recognized as one of the top play development labs in the country, and the only of its size and scope on the West Coast. PF fulfils an essential need in the cultural ecology of the Bay Area by providing a home for exceptional local and national emerging and mid-career playwrights. In doing so, we’ve earned a national reputation for introducing a truly diverse range of outstanding new voices to the American stage. Since its inception, PF has served nearly 500 writers at all levels of their careers, providing indispensable resources and support to develop their work, learn new skills, forge connections with producers, and engage audiences with their work. More than 80% of the artists that PF has supported have received subsequent productions of their work. Our program alumni include some of the most important voices in contemporary theater, including Sam Shepard, David Henry Hwang, Anna Deavere Smith, Philip Kan Gotanda, Paula Vogel, Naomi Iizuka, Marcus Gardley, Annie Baker, Katori Hall, George Brant, Peter Nachtrieb, and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, among many. Mission Our artistic purpose is to support and champion contemporary playwrights in the creation of new works, in order to sustain theater as a vital, dynamic art form. We seek to identify exceptional emerging artists across a broad spectrum of artistic and career positions, and support them in the inception and development of new plays that speak to and from an increasingly diverse society. Playwrights Foundation sustains a commitment to these playwrights, supplying them with the space and time to explore their ideas, untried experiments, and untested theories in an environment free from the pressures of the marketplace.

The Playwrights Foundation Family Board of Trustees Resident Playwrights Resident Playwrights Kevin Causey, President Class of 2019 Class of 2017 Ditka Reiner, Vice President Victoria Chong Der Jon Bernson Francis Fryscak, Secretary Patricia Cotter Dipika Guha Andrew Rich, Treasurer Min Kahng E. Hunter Spreen David Goldman Lisa Ramirez Jonathan Spector Mark Heitner Betty Shamieh Marcella McColl Michael Gene Sullivan Markham Miller Nasser Sagheb Jennifer Sousae Chris Smith

Photo credit Cover: Eddie Jackson (AEA) & Juliana Lustander in Tearrance Chisholm’s “Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies” at #BAPF2015, photo by Jim Norrena Page 23: Elizabeth Carter (AEA), Akilah Walker, Thom Green, Michael Wayne Turner, Ryan Vincent Anderson (AEA) in Kara Lee Corthron’s “Welcome to Fear City” at #BAPF2015, photo by Jim Norrena

24

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