To the next 50 Years 13 · An interview with Lucas Hnath and Les Waters 19 · The program for A Doll’s House, Part 227 THE BERKELEY REP MAGAZINE 2018–19 · ISSUE 1 DO_program.indd 1 8/27/18 2:31 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. You’ll find classes, exhibits, lectures, restaurants, cafés, and shops all within walking distance. If you want to venture further, public transportation is close at hand. At St. Paul’s Towers, you can enjoy everything the East Bay has to offer, with total convenience. It’s 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. A not-for-profit community owned and operated by Covia. License No. 011400627 COA# 327 EPLG751-02C 8/16 DO_program.indd 2 8/24/18 4:32 PM IN THIS ISSUE BERKELEY REP PRESENTS A DOLL ’S HOUSE, PART 2 · 27 MEET THE CAST & CREW · 28 PROLOGUE Welcome to Berkeley Rep! A letter from the artistic director · 5 To ensure the best experience for everyone: A letter from the managing director · 6 You’re free to bring only beverages in cans, Late seating is not guaranteed. If you Engaging and Eclectic cartons, or cups with lids into the house. are seated late, please follow the house REPORTS manager’s instructions about where to sit. Celebrating our 50th: Food is prohibited in the house. If you leave during the performance, you A tale of three artistic directors · 10 in the East Bay Because, eww! will be reseated at an appropriate break. From Spain to Lebanon and Slovenia to Egypt, 22 countries inspire Hotel Shattuck’s new Please keep Berkeley Rep’s outdoor and This is live theatre, and we’re all in Mediterranean restaurant zino · 12 indoor spaces free of cigarette smoke, this together. Join with your fellow Oakland is the gateway to the East Bay with a little bit of everything to offer, e-cigarettes, and vaping. theatregoers, and remember that people To the next 50 years · 13 respond to the show in different ways. Connecting the classroom and the mainstage and St. Paul’s Towers gives you easy access to it all. An artistic, activist, and Phones that ring during the performance One of the joys of live theatre is the at Berkeley Rep · 14 are a total bummer. For everyone. collective experience! intellectual Life Plan Community, St. Paul’s Towers is known for convenient Ensure that phones and other electronic services, welcome comforts and security for the future. devices will not make noise. Video and/or Enjoy the show! FEATURES photographs of the performance are prohibited. The Origin Story · 18 “You have to want something” (right?) You’ll find classes, exhibits, lectures, restaurants, cafés, and shops all within An interview with Lucas Hnath and Les Waters · 19 walking distance. If you want to venture further, public transportation is Response plays · 21 CONNECT WITH US ONLINE! THE BERKELEY REP MAGAZINE close at hand. At St. Paul’s Towers, you can enjoy everything the East Bay has 2018–19 · ISSUE 1 The creation and impact of A Doll’s House · 23 facebook.com/ to offer, with total convenience. It’s urban community living at its best. berkeleyrep The Berkeley Rep Magazine is published at least seven times per season. CONTRIBUTORS @berkeleyrep For local advertising inquiries, please contact Pamela Get to know us and learn more about moving to St. Paul’s Towers. For Webster at 510 590-7091 or [email protected]. Donors to the Create Campaign · 35 @berkeleyrep Editor Writers Foundation, corporate, and in-kind sponsors · 38 information, or to schedule a visit, call 510-891-8542. Karen McKevitt Marcela Chacón vimeo.com/ Sarah Rose Leonard Individual donors to the Annual Fund · 39 Art Director Karen McKevitt berkeleyrep Nora Merecicky Julia Starr Michael Leibert Society · 41 Graphic Designer Emma Waldman berkeleyrep Kirsten Pribula ABOUT BERKELEY REP Visit our website berkeleyrep.org Contact Berkeley Rep Staff, board of trustees, We’re mobile! Box Office: 510 647-2949 Click berkeleyrep.org Groups (10+): 510 647-2918 Email [email protected] and sustaining advisors · 42 Download our free iPhone or Admin: 510 647-2900 Google Play app. School of Theatre: 510 647-2972 A not-for-profit community owned and operated by Covia. License No. 011400627 COA# 327 EPLG751-02C 8/16 2018–19 · ISSUE 1 · THE BERKELEY REP MAGAZINE · 3 DO_program.indd 3 8/24/18 4:32 PM September 2018 Volume 51, No. 1 Paul Heppner President Mike Hathaway Vice President Kajsa Puckett Vice President, Marketing & Business Development Genay Genereux Accounting & Office Manager “It’s so rare to find these kinds of Production artistic havens in the American Susan Peterson theatre, and I had no idea how Design & Production Director much I needed one right now until Jennifer Sugden I got to experience the Ground Assistant Production Manager Floor’s generosity, hospitality, and Ana Alvira, Stevie VanBronkhorst Production Artists and Graphic Designers artistic rigor.” Sales —EVREN ODCIKIN Amelia Heppner, Marilyn Kallins, Terri Reed San Francisco/Bay Area Account Executives Joey Chapman, Brieanna Hansen, APPLY FOR Ann Manning, Wendy Pedersen THE GROUND FLOOR’S Seattle Area Account Executives Carol Yip SUMMER RESIDENCY LAB! Sales Coordinator Marketing The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center Shaun Swick for the Creation and Development of Senior Designer & Digital Lead New Work encompasses all of Berkeley Ciara Caya Rep’s new play development activities. Marketing Coordinator Dedicated to supporting artists developing new work for the theatre, Encore Media Group The Ground Floor comprises year-round Corporate Office commissions, workshops, the East 425 North 85th Street Bay Writers’ Room, and a jam-packed Seattle, WA 98103 Summer Residency Lab. p 800.308.2898 | 206.443.0445 During the month-long Summer f 206.443.1246 Residency Lab, artists from far and wide [email protected] come to Berkeley to work on projects www.encoremediagroup.com in all stages of development—from the first moments of an idea to a production- Encore Arts Programs and Encore Stages are published monthly ready draft (and everything in between). by Encore Media Group to serve musical and theatrical events in the Puget Sound and San Francisco Bay Areas. All rights Local artists are encouraged to apply. reserved. ©2018 Encore Media Group. Reproduction without written permission is prohibited. The deadline to apply to the 2019 Summer Residency Lab is November 1. Visit berkeleyrep.org/groundfloor for more information. 4 · THE BERKELEY REP MAGAZINE · 2018–19 · ISSUE 1 DO_program.indd 4 8/27/18 2:33 PM PROLOGUE from the Artistic Director Fifty years. Four hundred and eight shows. Three theatres built. A school. Rehearsal halls, shops, and office space. Hundreds of employees. Thousands of audience members. Innumerable artists of every stripe...with wildly different aesthetic strategies but all trying to reveal the present, past, and future. Trying to blow their own minds. To expand the imagination of the community. To create fervent and fabulous conversation. About who we are and how we live. And how we might — even against all odds and armed only with our creativity — how we just might move forward. And so, with 50 years of history behind us, we welcome you to Berkeley Rep’s golden anniversary season. Featuring plays by a slew of brilliant young writers (Jackie Sibblies Drury, Marcus Gardley, Lucas Hnath), directors turned playwrights (Mary Zimmerman and Lisa Peterson), and a play without any words at all (by the clown/ auteur Geoff Sobelle). Plus John Leguizamo. Who loves nothing more than to break comic boundaries (even ones that don’t exist). With this group of artists leading the way, this season is bound to be a year-long celebration of theatrical possibility. And what better way to kick off the party than by bringing back the intrepid Les Waters, he of the big beard and big talent, who loves directing more than he loves to eat? A Doll’s House, Part 2 is right up his alley, a contemporary fantasy about what happened to Ibsen’s Nora after she famously slammed that door and walked out on her family in 1879. Now she’s come back, 15 years later, seeking to finalize her divorce but running head on into the ramifications of what she abandoned...her family, the law, and her freedom. The genius of the play is that the conversation between Nora and her former household manages to bridge the 140 years since she first appeared on stage. We are both back in time and in the present day. The questions are shock- ingly immediate. And the answers are complicated, humorous, and achingly raw. Les’ work is always beautiful, but he has the added advantage here of having worked with Lucas on many occasions. His understanding of the text and the inten- tions of the author are second to none. I always love seeing what he and his team of designers come up with, not to mention the paths he explores with his expert cast. So here we go. Play 409. Bring on the next 50 years. Sincerely, Tony Taccone thornwallproperties.com A LOCALLY OWNED AND INDEPENDENTLY OPERATED BERKELEY BUSINESS 2018–19 · ISSUE 1 · THE BERKELEY REP MAGAZINE · 5 DO_program.indd 5 8/24/18 4:32 PM PROLOGUE Proud to from the Managing Director Support Welcome to Berkeley Rep’s 50th anniversary Berkeley Rep season.