Culture Clash (Still) in America

Culture Clash has previously appeared at Berkeley Rep’s larger stages in The Birds, the world premiere of Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, and the world premiere of Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell. 2019 marks their 35th anniversary as a vital American theatre company with works ranging from satire to social realism and drama, with adaptations of Aristophanes’ The Birds, Peace, and Frogs aka Sapo to co-writing Frank Loesser’s long-lost musical, Señor Discretion Himself, based on a story by the late Budd Schulberg. In 2007 Water & Power won the LA Drama Critics Circle Award, and in 2016 they received a Best Production of the Year Ovation Award for their critically acclaimed play Chavez Ravine, remounted at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. In collaboration with the Long Beach Opera, Culture Clash premiered a remixed, reimagined, and refreshed adaptation of Fairy Queen by Henry Purcell, based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2017). In the spring of 2018, Culture Clash premiered Bordertown Now at the Pasadena Playhouse and remounted Culture Clash (Still) in America at the South Coast Rep in now blue Orange County! Founded in 1984 on May 5 (Cinco de Mayo) in San Francisco’s historic Mission District, Culture Clash is Richard Montoya, Ricardo Salinas, and Herbert Siguenza. This prolific group’s plays include American Night: The Ballad of Juan José (2010) for Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, Ore.). This play was selected to launch OSF’s “American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle,” along with other writers David Henry Hwang, Suzan-Lori Parks, Naomi Wallace, and Robert Schenkkan. Their work has been produced by the nation’s leading theatres including the Mark Taper Forum, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, La Jolla Playhouse, Huntington Theatre Company (Boston), Alley Theatre (Houston), South Coast Repertory, and Seattle Repertory Theatre, to name a few. Culture Clash’s site-specific theatre work weaves personal narratives culled from interviews bringing voices in from the margins of the U.S. to create an ongoing dramatic American tapestry. Culture Clash has three books of compilations: Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy, Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, and Oh Wild West: The California Plays with TCG Books and several books by Samuel French for Montoya’s three solo plays: Water & Power; American Night; and Palestine, New Mexico. New works include films based on their plays and a Broadway musical on the life of Ritchie Valens with music by Los Lobos and directed by Tony Taccone! Culture Clash (Still) in America marks their return to the Bay from which they were creatively born and caps a long and fruitful relationship with director Lisa Peterson and her team of amazing designers. Los Clasheros look forward to more years of making critical noise and infusing their work with social justice and searing satire. Which was the original intent on a corner in San Francisco’s Mission District with curator René Yañez in 1984! Órale!

Lisa, formerly Berkeley Rep’s associate director, returns to the Theatre, where she directed The Good Book (also co-written with Denis O’Hare), Office Hour, Watch on the Rhine, It Can’t Happen Here, The Madwoman in the Volvo, An Iliad (also co-written with Denis O’Hare), Mother Courage, The Fall, and Antony & Cleopatra. She directed Lauren Yee’s The Great Leap at American Conservatory Theater last year. At Center Theatre Group, she recently directed Lynn Nottage’s Sweat as well as Culture Clash’s Chavez Ravine (2015 Ovation Award, Best Production), Palestine, New Mexico, and Water & Power, among other plays. She co-wrote and directed An Iliad with Denis O’Hare (Broad Stage, New York Theatre Workshop, Obie and Lucille Lortel awards). A two-time Obie Award-winner, she has directed world premieres by Tony Kushner, Beth Henley, Naomi Wallace, Chay Yew, Luis Alfaro, Fernanda Coppel, David Henry Hwang, Stephen Belber, Jose Rivera, Ellen McLaughlin, Marlane Meyer, Philip Kan Gotanda, Lisa Ramirez, John Belluso, Caryl Churchill, Janusz Glowacki, Cheryl West, and many others at theatres including New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, Vineyard Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Primary Stages, Guthrie Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Repertory, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, the Alley, and McCarter Theatre Center. She was associate director at La Jolla Playhouse for three years and resident director at Mark Taper Forum for 10 years. She is currently working on a new version of her musical adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, music by David Bucknam and Adam Gwon (premiered at NYTW 1990 and New York Stage and Film 2018); The Song of Rome with Denis O’Hare, commission for the McCarter Theater; and The Idea of Order with composer Todd Almond, commissioned by Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, and Seattle Rep.

Christopher returns to Berkeley Rep where he previously designed Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell. On Broadway, he designed All the Way (2014 Tony Award, Best Play). His regional credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival (associate artistic director for 13 seasons) with world premieres of All the Way, Equivocation, Head Over Heels, Fingersmith, Mojada, and more than 30 other productions; The Clean House (Lincoln Center Theatre); Throne of Blood (Brooklyn Academy of Music); Zoot Suit, Electricidad, Chavez Ravine, Water & Power, and Living Out (Center Theatre Group); West Side Story (Guthrie Theater); and The Year to Come and Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell (La Jolla Playhouse). He has designed for Goodman Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, South Coast Rep, Denver Center Theatre, The Kennedy Center, and Arizona Theater Company, among others. He is on the Oregon Arts Commission and has served on the board of Theatre Communications Group. He earned his MFA from UC San Diego. acebocreative.com

Carolyn is a freelance costume designer based in Los Angeles. Her designs have most recently decorated productions of Mojada: A Madea in Los Angeles at St. Louis Repertory, Mother Road at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Culture Clash (Still) in America at South Coast Repertory, and Early Birds at Atwater Village Theatre. Carolyn is the costume designer for upcoming productions of Mother Road at Arena Stage and Everything That Never Happened at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Carolyn also pursues costume work in the film and TV industry, working on productions such as Kids Baking Championship, My Dinner with Hervé, and Coop and Cami Ask the World. Most recently, Carolyn is the costume designer of What?, a black and white silent film where a deaf actor, sick of agreeing to increasingly humiliating tasks just to get a role, decides to take matters into his own hands. Carolyn can’t wait to see what amazing future projects await her! carolynmazuca.com

Tom’s off-Broadway credits include The Exonerated (The Culture Project) and Tune in Festival (Park Avenue Armory). His other New York credits include Happy Days (The Flea Theater), Patience, Fortitude and Other Antidepressants (INTAR Theatre), Nada Que Declarar (Danspace Project), and Veils, Vestiges and the Aesthetics of Hidden Things (Ontological-Hysteric Theater). His regional theatre credits include The Constant Wife (Denver Center for the Performing Arts); Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Off the Rails (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Native Gardens (Pasadena Playhouse); Underneath the Lintel (Geffen Playhouse); They Don’t Talk Back, Guards at the Taj (La Jolla Playhouse); Vicuña (Center Theatre Group); and My Old Lady, Visions of Kerouac (Marin Theatre Company). His Los Angeles credits include Figaro ¡90210! (LA Opera); Vietgone, Animals Out of Paper (East West Players); and Café Vida, Seed, West Hollywood Musical (Cornerstone Theater Company). His awards include The Exonerated (Lucille Lortel Award, Unique Theatrical Experience), My Barking Dog (Los Angeles Drama Critics, Best Lighting Design), The House in Scarsdale (nominated, Best Projection Design, LA Drama Critics), Shiv (nominated, Best Projection Design, StageRaw), and Completeness (nominated, Best Lighting, Ovation Award). He is an assistant professor of design at the University of La Verne.

Paul returns to Berkeley Rep, where he previously composed music and designed sound for It Can’t Happen Here, Roe, and Watch on the Rhine. His productions with Culture Clash include Water & Power; Palestine, New Mexico; and Chavez Ravine. On Broadway, he received a Drama Desk nomination for All The Way. His regional theatre credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival (25 productions), La Jolla Playhouse, Guthrie Theater, American Conservatory Theater, American Repertory Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Long Wharf Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Geffen Playhouse, People’s Light, Hartford Stage, California Shakespeare Theater, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Alley Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Great Lakes Theater, and Arizona Theater Company. Paul is a former ensemble member of Cornerstone Theater Company. His theme park credits include Universal Studios, Disney, and Knott’s Berry Farm. His museums credits include J. Paul Getty, Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Autry National Center. His dance credits include Diavolo Dance Theatre, Momix, and Parsons Dance. His honors include a Grammy Award nomination, Broadway World, Ovation, Drama-Logue, Garland, Gregory, Footlight, and Gypsy awards. His work as a singer/songwriter has been featured in films, on recordings, and in music venues nationwide.

Dani is thrilled to be working at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Local credits include Testmatch, Her Portmanteau, Heisenberg, The Birthday Party, and A Thousand Splendid Suns (American Conservatory Theater); The Year of Magical Thinking, Detroit ‘67, and Dry Powder (Aurora Theatre Company). Other SM credits include A Thousand Splendid Suns (Arena Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre), Urinetown: The Musical (American Theatre of Actors), and the Bard Music Festival (Bard SummerScape). She has a BFA in stage management from Syracuse University.