2020 FEBRUARY—APRIL (STILL) IN AMERICA PAGE 21 PLUS Culture Clash on being chroniclers, clowns, and collaborators · New artist housing · Citizen Rep takes action CC.program.emg.v2.indd 1 2/6/20 4:40 PM Engaging and eclectic in the East Bay. Oakland is the gateway to the East Bay with a little bit of everything to offer, and St. Paul’s Towers gives you easy access to it all. An artistic, activist, and intellectual Life Plan Community, St. Paul’s Towers is known for convenient services, welcome comforts and security for the future. With classes, exhibits, lectures, restaurants, shops and public transportation within walking distance, St. Paul’s Towers is urban community living at its best. Get to know us and learn more about moving to St. Paul’s Towers. For information, or to schedule a visit, call 510.891.8542. 100 Bay Place, Oakland, CA 94610 www.covia.org/st-pauls-towers A not-for-profit community owned and operated by Covia. License No. 011400627 COA# 327 Untitled-3CC.program.emg.v2.indd 1 2 12/11/192/6/20 12:50 4:40 PMPM WELCOME TO BERKELEY REP! To ensure the best experience for everyone: 16 Food and drink: Beverages in cans, cartons, or plastic cups with lids are welcome in the house. Food is prohibited. Phones that make noise during the performance are disruptive to everyone. Ensure phones and electronic devices are turned off during the performance. Photography: Audience members may take photos in the theatre before and after the performance, and during intermission. Photos and video during the performance are not permitted. Photos posted on social media must credit the show’s designers. Late seating is not guaranteed. If you arrive late, the house manager will provide instructions about seating. If you leave during the performance, you will be IN THIS ISSUE 10 reseated at an appropriate break. From the artistic director · 5 Smoking/Vaping: Berkeley Rep’s public From the managing director · 6 spaces are smoke- and vape-free. Citizen Rep takes action · 8 One of the joys of live theatre is the “A building of exuberant repose:” collective experience. Remember Berkeley Rep breaks ground that people respond in different ways, on artist housing · 10 Engaging and eclectic and we invite you to join with other audience members and enjoy the show! FEATURES in the East Bay. Culture Clash (Still) in America origin story · 12 CONNECT WITH BERKELEY REP Chronicling comics: Investigating Oakland is the gateway to the East Bay with a little bit of everything to offer, American lives with Culture Clash · 12 Box Office: 510 647-2949 and St. Paul’s Towers gives you easy access to it all. An artistic, activist, and Groups (10+): 510 647-2918 “Equal-opportunity offenders:” Admin: 510 647-2900 Getting to know Culture Clash · 16 intellectual Life Plan Community, St. Paul’s Towers is known for convenient School of Theatre: 510 647-2972 Culture Clash in an East Bay context & services, welcome comforts and security for the future. Click berkeleyrep.org Telegraph Avenue rhyme · 18 8 Email [email protected] We’re mobile! With classes, exhibits, lectures, restaurants, shops and public transportation Download our free iPhone or Android app. BERKELEY REP PRESENTS within walking distance, St. Paul’s Towers is urban community living at its Share with us @berkeleyrep Culture Clash (Still) in America · 21 best. Who’s Who · 22 Get to know us and learn more about moving to St. Paul’s Towers. For information, or to schedule a visit, call 510.891.8542. THE BERKELEY REP MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTORS 2019–20 · ISSUE 4 Foundation, corporate, and The Berkeley Rep Magazine is published at least in-kind sponsors · 29 seven times per season. Individual donors to the Annual Fund · 30 For local advertising inquiries, please contact Pamela Webster at 510 590-7091 or pwebster@ Michael Leibert Society · 32 berkeleyrep.org. Editor Karen McKevitt ABOUT BERKELEY REP Graphic Designers Staff, board of trustees, and Cheshire Isaacs Haly Roy sustaining advisors · 33 100 Bay Place, Oakland, CA 94610 Writers Katie Craddock www.covia.org/st-pauls-towers Charlie Dubach-Reinhold Sarah Rose Leonard Karen McKevitt A not-for-profit community owned and operated by Covia. License No. 011400627 COA# 327 Richard Montoya 2019–20 · ISSUE 4 · THE BERKELEY REP MAGAZINE · 3 Untitled-3CC.program.emg.v2.indd 1 2 12/11/192/6/20 12:50 4:40 PMPM CC.program.emg.v2.indd 3 2/6/20 4:40 PM February—April 2020 | Volume 15, No. 5 PAUL HEPPNER President Trust is Earned MIKE HATHAWAY Senior Vice President KAJSA PUCKETT Vice President, Serving our community for 53 years Sales & Marketing GENAY GENEREUX Accounting & Office Manager Production SUSAN PETERSON Vice President, Production JENNIFER SUGDEN Assistant Production Manager ANA ALVIRA, STEVIE VAN BRONKHORST Production Artists and Graphic Designers FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC THE FROM Sales 1960 Mountain Blvd. 3070 Claremont Ave. 1656 Shattuck Ave. 100 Grand Ave. #112 MARILYN KALLINS, TERRI REED Oakland, CA 94611 Berkeley, CA 94705 Berkeley, CA 94709 Oakland, CA 94612 San Francisco/Bay Area Account Executives 510.339.0400 510.652.2133 510.848.1950 510.339.4200 BRIEANNA HANSEN, SHERRI JARVEY, VISIT GRUBBCO.COM & FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA ANN MANNING Seattle Area Account Executives CAROL YIP Sales Coordinator Marketing SHAUN SWICK Brand & Creative Manager NEW ARRIVALS THIS SPRING CIARA CAYA Marketing Coordinator FOR HIM: Agave • Georg Roth • Majestic • Stitchnote • Ted Baker Encore Media Group FOR HER: 425 North 85th Street • Seattle, WA 98103 Byron Lars Beauty Mark • Cambio • Ecru 800.308.2898 • 206.443.0445 Elana Kattan • Equestrian • Georg Roth • MAC [email protected] Majestic • Minnie Rose • Only Hearts • Repeat Rosemunde • White + Warren encoremediagroup.com ACCESSORIES: Dupatta Designs • Goody Goody • Konplott Encore Arts Programs and Encore Stages are published Leaders in Leather • Millianna • Theia monthly by Encore Media Group to serve performing arts events in the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Seattle Area. All rights reserved. ©2019 Encore Media Group. ACCESSORIES SALE MARCH 1st - 31st Reproduction without written permission is prohibited. see website for details 2928 College Avenue Berkeley • 510.529.4774 Personal Pizazz www.personalpizazz.biz • Tues-Sat 10-7 Sun 12-6 For Clothing That Fits Your Style 4 · THE BERKELEY REP MAGAZINE · 2019–20 · ISSUE 4 CC.program.emg.v2.indd 4 2/6/20 4:40 PM WHAT A DELIGHT to welcome Culture Clash back to the Bay! As I was programming this season, my first at this beautiful theatre, I wanted to Proud to make sure the work we are sharing together includes artists like Jocelyn Bioh, Suzan-Lori Support Parks, and The Avett Brothers, who are new to Berkeley Rep (and in the case of the Avetts, Berkeley Rep new to theatre entirely!). It was equally important to me to honor the deep relation- ships that Berkeley Rep has forged over the last 50 years with artists including Mark Wing-Davey, Michael Mayer, and Sarah Ruhl. Lisa Peterson is part of that grand extended family, but also someone with whom I have had the privilege of collaborating Personal attention many times during my decades at New York Stage and Film. She was thoughtful litigation one of the people I reached out to as I was planning this first season, final resolution and she told me of the work Culture Clash was doing to update their seminal piece Culture Clash in AmeriCCa for these complicated times. Our goal is to preserve our LAW FAMILY It’s no surprise, really, that we turn to our clowns to help us make client’s dignity and humanity. sense of the world as it spins ever more rapidly in ways we struggle to understand. Sixteenth-century Italians had commedia dell’arte’s Arlecchino and Pantalone sending up their societal and political structures; Lear had his Fool to illuminate for him the absurdities of FA M I LYLAW G R OUP, P. C . his behavior; and we have Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah and Tina Fey to whom we turn for escape, information, and entertainment. 575 Market Street, Suite 4000 Culture Clash sits within that grand tradition of satirists whose San Francisco, CA 94105 415.834.1120 work allows us to see ourselves, our community, our country in new www.sflg.com ways. And while Richard and Ric and Herbert are lauded all over the country, they also are so specifically Californian, their work born from the histories and the people of the Central Valley, the East Bay, the CONNECT Mission District. They have been making work all along this coast for decades, and I am proud to welcome them back to Berkeley Rep. Buckle up!! Warmly, FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ARTISTIC THE FROM Johanna Pfaelzer Find us everywhere @berkeleyrep 2019–20 · ISSUE 4 · THE BERKELEY REP MAGAZINE · 5 CC.program.emg.v2.indd 5 2/6/20 4:40 PM FROM THE MANAGING DIRECTOR MANAGING THE FROM RICHARD MONTOYA CAME TO VISIT with us weeks before he and his colleagues, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza, officially returned to Berkeley with Culture Clash (Still) in America, an update of Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, which we premiered in 2002. The world is certainly a different place than it was 18 years ago. Our relationship to our neighbors on the Southern border has taken a profound turn. Our national policy has moved increasingly toward isolationism with a particular antipathy to immigrants from the South. Ironically (or not!) here in California, the percentage of residents identifying as Latinx has continued to grow. When I first arrived here from Chicago, one of the aspects of living in California that was so new and so fascinating to me was this state’s relationship to our Mexican and southern neighbors.