Neil Pepe Artistic Director Jeffory Lawson Managing Director Mary McCann School Executive Director presents Ruby Bridges/Bailey Auberth Bercy SHE PERSISTED, Sonia Sotomayor/ Juno Jianzi Colón-Soto THE MUSICAL Dr. Virginia Apgar/ Sally Ride Script & Lyrics by Adam Tobin Amanda Corday Music by Deborah Wicks La Puma Naomi Amber Jaunai Adapted from the Book Written Harriet Tubman/ by Chelsea Clinton & Florence Griffith Joyner Illustrated by Alexandra Boiger Cynthia Nesbit Ms. Chan/Time Published by Philomel Books Heather Sawyer Music Supervision by Macy Schmidt production design & illustrations Directed & Choreographed Edward T. Morris by MK Lawson costume designer Rose Bisogno sound designer & mixing Cameron Hoffman video editing Janna Emig video & effects consultation Liminal Entertainment Technologies production stage manager Louis Markowitz This play was commissioned and first produced by Bay Area Children’s atlantic for kids Theatre during the 2018/2019 Season. artistic director She Persisted, The Musical is presented through special arrangement with Alison Beatty Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com She Persisted, The Musical will run for approximately 60 minutes with no intermission. BIOGRAPHIES AUBERTH BERCY (Ruby Bridges/Bailey) is a which won the Off Broadway Alliance Award for graduate from New World School of the Arts Best Family Show! She also played Pippa in College in Miami, FL. She is an actress who the premiere production of Twinkle Tames a has been seen Off-Broadway at The 24 Hour Dragon and Emma in Please Bring Balloons. Theatre Festival and The Broadway Bound Cynthia hails from Cincinnati, OH and moved Theatre Festival. Auberth is also a current to New York City after receiving her B.F.A. in member of The Flea Theater’s Resident Acting Musical Theater from Ball State University. Company The Bats. Also a stand up comedian Instagram: @CynthiaNesbit in New York, you may have seen her at YAAAS Comedy Festival and will take part in the 2020 HEATHER SAWYER (Ms. Chan/Time) is a Black Women in Comedy Festival, but more Swasian from Dallas, Texas and a graduate of than anything she’s very excited to be a part the Molloy College CAP21 BFA Program for of bringing She Persisted, The Musical to life! Musical Theatre. Heather has appeared as James in James and the Giant Peach, Scottie JIANZI COLÓN-SOTO (Sonia Sotomayor/Juno) in The Big One Oh! and Tatted Man in Last is a graduate of the Molloy College CAP21 Stop on Market Street, all with Atlantic for BFA Program. Recent credits: She Persisted Kids. She appeared Off-Broadway as Angel in (Atlantic Theatre Co.), The Giant Hoax (Theatre Revelation the Musical. In 2018, Heather was Row), The Waitress and the Robber (Seoul, S. in the New York Musical Festival song cycle, Korea) Lady Capulet (Barefoot Shakespeare Breaking Ground. Her favorite roles include: Co.), West Side Story (The Madison Theatre), MJ Clarke in Camp Eaglewood (dir. Marshall Troilus and Cressida (Under St. Marks Pailet), Tweedle Dee in Lost in Wonderland (dir. Theatre), The Wrong Box (Theatre for the Baayork Lee), and the Wolf in Into the Woods New City), Lysistrata Jones (Ophelia Theatre (dir. Travis Greisler). Not only is she an avid lover Group). www.jianzicolonsoto.com | @jiancoso of stories, Heather also loves thunderstorms, snow globes, overalls, and pupper-ronis. BLM. AMANDA CORDAY (Dr. Virginia Apgar/Sally Ride) Insist. Resist. Persist. @heathersawyer14 is thrilled to be a part of She Persisted, The theadventuresofheathersawyer.com Musical! She previously appeared as Aunt Sponge in the Atlantic for Kids production ADAM TOBIN (Script & Lyrics) is the writer and of Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, lyricist of She Persisted, The Musical, adapted as well as on Maude Night at the Upright from Chelsea Clinton’s children’s book for Bay Citizens Brigade Theater (UCB) with her Area Children’s Theatre. A Senior Lecturer sketch comedy team House Of Birds. You can teaching screenwriting and television at find her original characters and impressions Stanford University, Tobin created the television on YouTube, or see her in the Amazon TV mini- series “About a Girl” and “Best Friend’s Date” for series “Ladies of the Lake.” Amanda enjoys Viacom’s The-N network (now TeenNick), won fostering kittens in her spare time! Instagram: an Emmy for writing on Discovery Channel’s @amandacorday. “Cash Cab,” and worked in script development for Jim Henson Pictures and The National AMBER JAUNAI (Naomi) is a NY-based actor, Basketball Association. He has taught story deviser, and combatant. Credits include: seminars to DreamWorks Animation, Aardman Just Like Viola (New York Theater Workshop); Animation, and Blue Sky Studios. Tobin also Really Really Gorgeous (The Tank); Sincerity performed with Los Angeles Theatresports and Forever, Not My Monster!, and How Color the comedy group The But Franklies, and was a Brave…? (The Flea); Lava (Exponential founding member of the Stanford Improvisors. Festival); Kaspar (International Festival- He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford Sibiu); Polaroid Stories, An Octoroon, Hair, in English and an MFA from USC School of and Middletown (Pace University). TV: “New Cinematic Arts in Screenwriting. Amsterdam,” “Bull,” “Law and Order: SVU,” “In Pursuit.” Film: Coward, Also With You, The Girl DEBORAH WICKS LA PUMA (Music). A composer, in the Camera, Fuse and Match. She has also music director and orchestrator, Deborah Wicks developed work with Page 73 and Playhouse La Puma is one of the most produced Theater Creatures. BFA Acting, Pace University ’17. for Young Audiences artists working today. @amberjaunai With bestselling children’s author Mo Willems she has created Elephant and Piggie’s: We Are CYNTHIA NESBIT (Harriet Tubman/Florence in a Play (The Kennedy Center), and Naked Griffith Joyner) is immensely proud to be Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience a part of the cast of She Persisted, The (Seattle Children’s Theatre). Her many and Musical and to take the stage in her first diverse works with playwright Karen Zacarías production with Atlantic Theater Company! include Ella Enchanted (based on the book by She was last seen touring China as Zuma/ Gail Carson Levine), Olivério: A Brazilian Twist Mayor Goodway in Nickelodeon’s Paw Patrol (The Kennedy Center), Frida Libre (La Jolla Live! Race to the Rescue. Other Off-Broadway Playhouse), Looking for Roberto Clemente credits include: Interstellar Cinderella (Fairy (Imagination Stage) and Einstein Is a Dummy God Bot); A Band of Angels (Ella), a production (The Alliance Theatre). With playwright Doug Cooney, La Puma created Nobody’s Perfect (based Warner Brothers and DreamWorks. After working in on the book by Marlee Matlin), a bilingual musical in animation, Alexandra decided to pursue a lifelong English and American Sign Language, commissioned dream of becoming a children’s book illustrator. She by Very Special Arts and the Kennedy Center. Recent has illustrated many picture books, including She 2019 premieres include She Persisted, The Musical Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the (based on the book by Chelsea Clinton) with Adam World. Max and Marla was her debut as both author Tobin at Bay Area Children’s Theatre, and Don’t and illustrator. Alexandra now lives in Northern Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus: The Musical with Mo California with her husband and daughter. Willems at the Kennedy Center. Her adult works include the lyric opera Dakota Sky and the Mexican MK LAWSON (Director, Choreographer) is always folk musical Perdita (based on Shakespeare’s The grateful to be back working for Atlantic, having Winter’s Tale) with Kathleen Cahill; and Cornerstone directed the world premiere of The Big One-Oh! Theater Company’s Making Paradise: The West earlier this season. MK has choreographed 5 other Hollywood Musical. She received her MFA from projects for Atlantic for Kids, and directed last New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, her season’s Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach. Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, and As choreographer: award-winning productions she studied folk music with ethnomusicologist for Florida Rep, White Plains Performing Arts Alfredo López Mondragón. Her honors include the Center, Ocean State Theatre Company, and Sharon Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, an NEA New Playhouse; numerous productions and events for American Works Grant, two Parents’ Choice Awards, NYU. As director/choreographer: Brigadoon and The and a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Musical Secret Garden (NYU); upcoming immersive revival of Adaptation. A proud Mexican-American and “Navy The Drowsy Chaperone (Out of the Box Theatrics); new brat” who grew up in Brazil, Portugal and California, La musicals for the Fringe Festival, NY Children’s Theater Puma is a member of TYA USA/ASSITEJ, ASCAP and Festival, and Musical Theatre Factory. As Associate The Dramatists Guild. Mother to three daughters and Director/Choreographer: Rock of Ages (New World Mimi the Cat, La Puma lives in Southern California Stages), world premieres of Romy and Michele’s High with her PR agent and loving husband, Chris. School Reunion (5th Avenue), The Gentle Whisper of Trees (Westport Country Playhouse), Atlantis: a new CHELSEA CLINTON (Author). As vice chair of the Clinton musical (Virginia Rep), the new Duncan Sheik musical Foundation, Chelsea Clinton works alongside the Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. If you want to know more, Foundation’s leadership and partners to help create check out mklawson.com! economic opportunity, improve public health, and inspire civic engagement and service across the United MACY SCHMIDT (Music Supervisor) is an NYC-based States and around the world. In particular, Chelsea Music Director, Orchestrator, and Copyist. Most focuses on promoting early brain and language recently, she worked on the Broadway production of development through the Too Small to Fail initiative, TINA: The Tina Turner Musical. She spends much of and uplifting/empowering female entrepreneurs and her time on projects collaborating with contemporary women-led businesses around the world through musical theater artists on musicals in development.