Out of Character digital program

 

Welcome to the world premiere of Out of Character!

 

Helping a group of artists make something from scratch is one of my favorite parts of my job. Actually, it’s one of my favorite things in the world. The moment when that newly created piece of art — representing the collaboration between a writer, a director, a group of performers (one performer, in this case), and a team of designers – meets an audience for the first time is thrilling. So I feel very lucky to have Ari’el Stachel, Tony Taccone, and their gang in the building. As many of you know, Ari is a Berkeley kid, and while his story has universal relevance, it is also specifically rooted here in the Bay Area, so it feels particularly appropriate that it be brought to life here at Berkeley Rep. And I am delighted to welcome back Tony and ensure that this theatre can continue to be a creative home for him.

 

Out of Character has been developed over the last two years under the auspices of The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work. Ari and Tony and Madeleine Oldham (who has worn two hats as both sound designer and dramaturg) have worked through multiple iterations of Ari’s story to arrive at the version you are witnessing today. Frankly, “witnessing” is too passive a word for what you bring to this experience. The first audiences for any new work are instrumental in its development. Your responses to the play will inform the next round of changes that Ari will make, will help to sharpen the focus, the characters, the storytelling. So that over time, Out of Character will become something we have all had a hand in shaping in some way.

 

It feels appropriate that this world premiere will overlap with the 2023 Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab, now in its 11th year! For three weeks in July and August, more than 100 artists from around the Bay Area and across the country will come together to develop new theatrical work. They will arrive with projects at all different points along their developmental trajectories, with different needs, different processes, different desired outcomes. But each piece and artist will receive focused time, support specifically crafted to their expressed needs, and the opportunity to share in the community that is fostered when artists fill every room in our Harrison Street campus, eat dinner together every night, observe each other’s rehearsals, and share collectively in the delight and vulnerability of crafting something entirely new. There will be opportunities for the public to engage with the artists and work of the Summer Residency Lab, from salons on Tuesdays July 11, 18, 25, and August 2, all at 7pm to work-in-progress presentations throughout the Lab. For the most up-to-date information on the Residency Lab, including invitations to public performances, log in to your account or join our email list then check “The Ground Floor—New Plays” checkbox.

 

Thank you for joining us in bringing Out of Character into the world.

 

Warmly,

Johanna Pfaelzer

Artistic Director

 

The 2022/23 season comes to its exciting conclusion with the world premiere of Ari’el Stachel’s Out of Character. Before he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (The Band’s Visit), Ari grew up in Berkeley, an Israeli American of Yemeni Jewish descent. Then came 9/11. Desperate to avoid taunts and threats at school, Ari hid his Middle Eastern background – setting off a years-long journey of trying on different identities, code-switching, and navigating debilitating anxiety. Now a successful stage and screen actor, Ari comes home to Berkeley to tell his story in this new solo show. Out of Character explores the intersections of race, mental health, and survival in a way that’s raw, authentic, and entertaining. We are also thrilled to welcome back for the first time since his departure former Berkeley Rep artistic director Tony Taccone to direct this play, which he has worked on with Ari for years through the Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work.

 

Thank you for being a part of this incredible season, which has featured bold theatricality, captivating stories, memorable performances, and a range of voices that we hope spoke to you in a deep and personal way. We began in November with Emma Rice’s wildly inventive, reimagined Wuthering Heights. Then Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s took the stage, performing to sold-out houses and winning multiple Elliot Norton Awards in Boston when it transferred to our partner, Huntington Theatre Company. Lauren Yee’s much-anticipated Cambodian Rock Band rocked the Roda stage with enthusiastic and many repeat audiences. After a very successful run, we were delighted when Sanaz Toossi’s English won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Most recently, the beautifully suspenseful thriller, Let the Right One In, by the world-class team that created Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, helped welcome and cultivate the next generation of theatregoers. Audiences enjoyed additional special events such as Jerrod Carmichael’s new comedy act and David Strathairn’s tour-de-force performance in Remember This: The Lesson Jan Karski. It is wonderful to see the return of audiences and the sold-out shows we were accustomed to in the pre-pandemic era. There is really great energy and momentum at your theatre right now, and that is due in no small part to your patronage and charitable support. 

 

While this season is ending, I hope you will join us to experience the electricity, the anticipation, and the delight in store in 2023/24. Thank you to the thousands of subscribers who have already signed up for next season. Returning to a full seven-show lineup, and featuring both local California stories and shows that reach to Broadway and beyond, we will begin with Selina Fillinger’s gleefully feminist satire, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, followed by Berkeley native Eisa Davis’ lyrical coming-of-age story, Bulrusher; the West Coast premiere of David Cale’s funny and wicked thriller, Harry Clarke; Leslye Headland’s ruthless comedy, Cult of Love; the West Coast premiere of Lloyd Suh’s breathtaking epic immigration drama, The Far Country; the dazzling world premiere Broadway-aimed new musical, Galileo; and Octavio Solis’ Mother Road, a 21st-century sequel to John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Featuring a balanced mix of comedy, drama, and music, the new season will continue to remind us all of the awesome power of live performance.

 

A subscription is the best way to experience all the magic, wonder, and joy ahead. Subscription packages are available now, with prices beginning at only $31 per ticket. The most affordable, flexible, and popular is our Full Season package, which guarantees your seats to all seven shows well before performances and seating sections sell out, which they certainly will. Or you can purchase a Choose Your Own package of four or more shows and curate your own Berkeley Rep experience. You will not want to miss this fantastic season. 

 

From all of us at Berkeley Rep, best wishes for a fun and safe summer. See you in the fall! 

 

 

Tom Parrish
Managing Director

 

“The way I talk really fluctuates depending on who I’m talking to. I know it’s human...we all speak a little differently at a meeting than we do with our partners. But – I have taken on different identities. Like. In real life. In an extreme way.”  

– Ari’el Stachel, Out of Character 

 

Ari’el Stachel has been playing characters since he can remember. What started as a game of childlike wonder, imitating accents, and playing make believe quickly became both an escape and a search – an escape from the feelings of otherness and a search for a sense of belonging in world that did not necessarily recognize his brownness. Ari’el’s crisis of identity paralleled a growing struggle with mental health and anxiety that he kept hidden, creating a deeper isolation from his friends, his family, and his sense of self. Like many MENASA (Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian) people in the United States, his world changed on September 11, 2001, when he first saw brown faces that reflected the cultural heritage of his father and himself on television. The xenophobia and anti-Arab hate rhetoric that resulted from these tragic events shifted something deep in Ari’el, amplifying his sense of shame of his own identity and led him to don other cultures like characters.  

 

Growing up in the Bay Area, he frequently visited Berkeley Rep, which introduced him to a world where playing characters was key. In 2003, he saw Sarah Jones’ Surface Transit (also directed by Tony Taccone), which ignited Ari’el’s commitment to be an actor on the quest to tell his story. In Out of Character, his first professional solo show, Ari’el inhabits over 40 people from his past. Like Sarah Jones and many other notable solo performers, Ari’el snaps in and out of these various characters, diverse in their gender, age, ethnicity, and race, by embodying their physicality, mannerisms, linguistic rhythms, language, and swag. The chameleonic requirements of solo performance demand that an actor assume the identities of those not their own, a skill that in some ways Ari’el has been rehearsing for most of his life. What began as a defense mechanism became his passion, developing artistic craft around inhabiting characters and bringing his own lived experience to meet the lived experiences of the roles he steps into. 

 

Over the last few years, the country, and our theatrical field, have been interrogating our relationship to race, culture, and the need for greater representation. We have recognized that there is great harm in erasure and appropriation, yet as an artist (particularly a solo performer) the task is often to step into the lived experience of another being. An arguably transgressive act that can simultaneously be used as a tool for creating empathy, understanding, and healing. When theatre engages in rigorous inquiry about the stories and lives placed front and center, and the ways in which we can tell these stories while honoring the many layers of both truth and make believe inherent to our profession, we have the opportunity to highlight the complexity of identity.  

 

With Out of Character, Ari’el conjures up the many versions of himself that he has played throughout his life and reckons with both the privilege of being able to play others and the pain of recognizing that it was because in his own skin he was often invisible. Through the mere act of telling his own story, Ari’el provides not only a pathway for his own healing but reflects a truth that many of us experience when the reality of our identity does not fit inside of a strict social binary. His journey tonight honors a need for greater representation on our stages, while reminding us that this work is more complex, vulnerable, and deeply personal.  

 

– David Mendizábal  

 

Photo of David Mendizábal by Brandon Nick

 

Developed at our 2021 Summer Residency Lab, Ari’el Stachel’s Out of Character is the latest play to rise from The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work to our main stage.  

 

Beginning as the seed of an idea, Out of Character was developed over four years and a series of workshops. During one of the developmental workshops in April 2023, we sat down with playwright and performer Ari’el Stachel and former Berkeley Rep artistic director and the show’s director Tony Taccone to discuss their artistic collaboration, process, and the show’s themes.  

 

Can you talk about your goals for this workshop and how your process is different this time around from the previous times you worked on it? 

 

Tony Taccone: Well, we staged it. That was a huge goal. To get it up on its feet because we had never done that before. 

 

Ari’el Stachel: No, we hadn’t, but the truth is I was dying to put it up for you when we first met and you did not let me for years, which was painful.  

 

TT: Do you understand why now? 

 

AS: Yes, I do. 

 

TT: And why is that?  

 

AS: Because no one cares if the story isn’t right. 

 

TT: Yeah. But there’s another thing. Because you’re the performer, your experience of the story is different when you’re performing than when you’re writing. And so, the energy that you are experiencing as a performer is not commensurate with what’s going on in the script. It is not a way to evaluate the script because you’re feeling good. As a performer you’re like, “This is great. We’re up. We’re doing it. It’s awesome.” Then when you look at the script as the writer it’s like, “Oh!” 

 

AS: Exactly. 

 

TT: I think that’s been a huge journey for you as a writer.  

 

AS: It has been the journey of a lifetime. It’s also been the hardest experience I’ve ever had in my life. I did not think it was going to be this hard. 

 

TT: Nobody would ever do anything if they ever understood how hard things were going to be. 

 

AS: At first, I was just like, “I want to get on stage. I want to perform these characters. It’s my hometown, bang, bang.” But what I learned so far, is the task at hand is really to figure things out inside and articulate it first in a way that makes sense to you, and then in a way that is entertaining, and funny, and that is endlessly challenging, and difficult.  

 

TT: I never have had any concerns about you as a performer. That part is a given. I don’t want to jump the gun. I don’t want to start nuancing the performance before we understand what the requirements are of the storytelling. If you skip that step, the theatre gods are very unforgiving. 

 

AS: Honestly, I’m really grateful it turned out to be this curveball in my life.   

 

TT: What part about writing was the hardest for you? 

 

AS: First, it was about identifying the thing that I actually wanted to talk about. There are so many layers to it. For example, right now I’m sweating a little bit. I remember meeting you at our first meeting and I was like, “Oh, I sweat all the time,” and you were laughing your ass off. I was like, “Oh, this is funny.” I’d hidden it for so long and only experienced it as something that was really painful. I had no idea that there was comic possibility inside of it. 

 

TT: Human failure is hilarious. 

 

AS: I remember being like, “I’m not going to talk about that. I’m only going to talk about the things that I solved already.” I think there’s a spiritual readiness that I had to get to, because what’ s interesting to me, is not necessarily interesting to other people — 

 

TT: Or it’s not interesting on stage. That’s a different thing.  

 

AS: Exactly. That’s what’s been helpful about this week of development. Realizing all these wonderful things that felt so good performing, that I thought would be so witty and quirky, were boring. 

 

TT: Give me an example of something that you thought was going to be gold that is not gold. 

 

AS: There’s these memories that you’ve lived through that feel really important to you but ultimately don’t serve the story. It’s the attachment to these moments, to these experiences that feel really special and important to me, but when you release that, it gives you an abundance of new dramatic possibilities. What I think is funny, is on some level, people are like, “Oh, you’re writing about your life. It shouldn’t be that hard.” I don’t know what the other side is, so I won’t say it’s harder, but it’s very challenging because how do you select and identify moments in your life worthy of being on stage? 

 

TT: Yeah, there you go. 

 

AS: It’s this fine line of, are we doing therapy or are we doing drama? You’ve been pushing me to make sure I’m on the other side of the line, which is drama and comedy. 

 

TT: Amy Freed, the writer, always says that being a writer is like being on a dig. You’re digging trying to find out what you want to write about. It’s like you’re digging to the ground, and then you hit a root, and you just follow the root to see where it’s going. That's been an accurate description of me watching you do that. 

 

Could you talk a little bit more about how your collaboration began? How did you know Tony was the right director for this project? And what attracted you to Ari’el’s story? 

 

AS: Tony had become a legend in the Bay Area for doing these solo shows, which all went to Broadway. And so I knew that he was the best guy to do it. But what has been so rewarding is that it wasn’t just because of his brand. It was actually because of his substance. He actually saw the play based on the very first draft that I wasn’t able to see for three years myself.  

 

TT: When you first came to me, I said, “I’m not going to do a solo show, but...” 

 

AS: “I’ll read a draft.” 

 

TT: “I’ll actually hear your story.” 

 

AS: Yeah! 

 

TT: We met, and I said, “So, what do you got? What are you interested in talking about?” The fact that you grew up in the Bay Area, which I’d spent so much time in, plus the fact that you were trafficking in issues about identity, such as taking on different identities, and passing for Black, that was a huge... That was like, okay, well there’s theatrical gold in there. That was a compelling hook. 

 

The other thing was your struggles with anxiety. My stepson has severe ADHD. I love this kid, but I watched him suffer with something I did not understand. It’s like, I see the suffering, but I don’t have the antenna or the life experience to know how to help. Me trying to understand his struggle has been a compelling motivation for me on this project, because every generation has its own burdens, its own challenges, its own obstacles. This is such a pervasive issue now because, obviously, you have many people suffering or coming out of suffering from some form of anxiety. There are all kinds of reasons that people give as to why: It’s climate change, it’s my mother, my father. Everybody’s got a reason, but nobody really knows how to deal with it. That part, I was very connected to that part of your story. 

 

Now, then how to marry those two stories, identity and anxiety, has been the job of the piece and it’s complicated because the timelines are different. How do we tell a coherent story that builds in a dramatic fashion, while telling oppositional narratives? That’s interesting. 

 

What do you feel like is the heart of the show? What is the one thing that you center your work and edits to make sure they’re all supporting the core of the story itself? 

 

AS: Ultimately, what it boils down to is finding a way to make peace with who you are. That’s what we arrive to in a much messier way than the character at the heart of the play wants it to be and grappling very seriously with this thing that, as you said, is generational, which I haven’t really considered that as much because it’s just been my experience as a human being. Dealing with this force that is going through myself, but I think so many other people in my generation, to be alive in the complications of it. And then as you said, there’s another track, which is I think an experience that many Americans are now having, which is how do you reconcile with mixed race identity and what that means? I think it’s about finding a way to make peace with the cards that you were dealt. 

 

TT: Yeah. I think that’s a great answer, and I feel like the only thing I would maybe add to that is... You’re watching somebody desperately try on different answers to the question of how they’re going to relieve themself from anxiety. 

 

AS: Yes. 

 

TT: The answers get more and more preposterous as the character gets more and more desperate, until finally he is able to recognize what you call “making peace with” but recognize that this is a deep part of himself and that it may morph into something else. It may recede, it may at times even feel like it’s not around, but it’s there. It’s a part of you. How are you going to not just make peace with that, but respect it and then find a way to understand its behavior enough so that you can have a healthy relationship with that? Which most of the time would translate to controlling it, but it’s about relaxing enough to let it go through you and let something else emerge. 

 

AS: Yep. 

 

TT: That’s hard because that’s a life process. And so, that’s what the piece is about. 

Home to a lush history of legendary solo performers, stand-up comedians, experimental artists, and the earliest days of the careers of now-celebrities, the Bay Area is a place where great artists have developed and told their most personal stories. This tradition is alive and well today as stages large and small host open mics, touring solo acts, and theatrical auto-dramas. As a Bay Area theatregoer, you may be familiar with The Moth, a popular podcast for storytelling that hosts monthly events across the street at Freight & Salvage and San Francisco’s Public Works, where audience members are invited to prepare a five-minute story connected to a one-word theme. Or, you may have caught Bill Irwin’s wonderfully physical and theatrical On Beckett at American Conservatory Theater this past fall, or the moving and inspiring Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski performed by David Strathairn on our stage in December. Or, you may be familiar with Berkeley Rep’s significant history of solo performance, including works by Anna Deavere Smith, John Leguizamo, and Sarah Jones, the creator of one show that inspired a young Ari’el Stachel to make one of his own.

 

In 1977, Anna Deavere Smith enrolled in ACT’s now-defunct MFA program, beginning what would be a long and storied relationship with the Bay Area. Known for her documentary style solo performances, Smith begins her process by conducting interviews and, using those transcripts, creates a piece of theatre rooted in real people. Her earliest projects included a one-woman play based on an interview with Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the first African-American student to integrate the University of Georgia, but she soon moved from the single character interview format to multiple characters with her 1988 project On the Road: Voices of Bay Area Women in Theater in which she portrayed 23 living women. This blending of the theatrical, personal, political, and academic continued to anchor Smith’s work and define her signature style. In 1996, Smith returned to the Bay Area to perform her nationally acclaimed smash-hit Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. Curated from the interviews with about 300 people on the subject of the 1992 Los Angeles uprising following the acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King, Smith portrayed characters including LAPD chief Daryl Gates, an anonymous juror on the Rodney King police trial, victims and instigators of the riots, actor Charlton Heston, and other residents of Los Angeles. By pulling dialogue from the interviews of characters connected and dis-connected from the events and knitting them together into one cohesive performance, Smith created a complex, fully fleshed-out look at one explosive event from a variety of perspectives. 

 

While Anna Deavere Smith found her characters through external interviews, another legendary solo performers with ties to the Bay Area found his by looking internally. John Leguizamo’s career began doing stand-up comedy using autobiographical content, developing and honing skills that would eventually result in his first major solo show, Mambo Mouth, and follow-up works including Spic-O-Rama and Freak. Leguizamo found a home for his particular brand of work in the Bay Area performing in San Francisco’s Theatre on the Square, The Warfield, and, of course, Berkeley Rep. In 2010, Leguizamo joined Berkeley Rep’s Fireworks summer festival, where he premiered Klass Klown (later renamed Ghetto Klown), an autobiographical piece filled with stories and characters spanning Leguizamo’s childhood in Queens through his earliest days as a struggling theatre actor to anecdotes from major motion picture sets. His 2016 hit solo show Latin History for Morons covers an epic 3,000 years of Latin American history and premiered at Berkeley Rep before making it to Broadway and Netflix. Lively and comedic, Leguizamo’s confessional storytelling builds on his autobiographical work from the ’90s which, as one profile put it, “dealt candidly with Hispanic identity in American culture through the lens of his own life experiences.” From material about growing up as a Latino in Queens to Latin history at large, Leguizamo’s work is grounded in his personal experiences– sometimes stopping there and sometimes using them to present centuries of history.

 

Seated beside solo performances that center documentary or autobiographical characters are works that feature wholly original characters like those created by Sarah Jones. Jones’ first solo performance, Surface Transit, staged at Berkeley Rep in 2003 by Tony Taccone, featured eight character-driven monologues based on poems by Jones, and included characters such as a young, Russian immigrant struggling to mother a child after being widowed, an elderly Jewish grandmother with a blind spot to her own biases, and a Black English actress in a very personal audition. Using her chameleon-like acting powers to encompass characters of different ages, races, and genders, Jones’ performance style was influenced by another Bay Area solo performance favorite Whoopi Goldberg, who she cites as a major source of inspiration. Jones continued to employ many of the same techniques in her 9/11-themed solo performance piece, Waking the American Dream, commissioned by the National Immigration Forum, which would become the basis for her smash hit Bridge & Tunnel. Developed and performed at Berkeley Rep in between successful off-Broadway and Broadway bows, Bridge & Tunnel captivated Bay Area audiences, including a young Ari’el Stachel. 

 

When Ari’el Stachel was 12 he watched Jones play over a dozen characters of different races in an exploration of New York City’s melting pot population. Comprised of a series of monologues, Bridge & Tunnel jumped from character to character as Jones morphed into a Pakistani accountant, a Chinese mother, and a young Latina. Looking back, Stachel considers watching that show the very first moment in which he knew he had to create a solo show of his own. Now, 18 years later, he returns to the place his dream began to do a show of his own, complete with the same director, Tony Taccone. Stachel’s Out of Character continues the rich tradition of solo performance at Berkeley Rep. A mono-drama centered on themes of identity and belonging, Stachel examines how he has played himself and other people while growing up and navigating a post-9/11 America. Joining the Berkeley Rep lineage of solo performers, including Anna Deavere Smith, John Leguizamo, Rita Moreno, Danny Hoch, and others, Stachel leans on his influences while pushing the form into new territory to explore a brand new character: himself. 

Tony Taccone was raised by a large a family of artists who believed that “art is the highest calling of mankind.” His dad was Italian and his mom Puerto Rican, which made for a lot of very loud Sunday dinners.

He was heavily influenced by the counter-culture movement of the 1960’s, developing a rambunctious political perspective and a love for rock n’ roll that remain strong to this day. He toyed with the idea of becoming an archeologist, until he discovered that he’d have to take courses in statistics. He met a group of actors at a bar, and thought, “Hey, these people are really fun.” Acting on this insight, he made a long and lucky life for himself in the theatre. He is thrilled to be back at Berkeley Rep.

Afsoon Pajoufar is a New York-based designer of stage and environment for plays, operas, and other live performances. Recent works include Fuente Ovejuna (Theatre for a New Audience), Molière’s Dom Juan (Fisher Center at Bard SummerScape 2022), English (Studio Theatre), Lady M (HeartBeat Opera), MƆɹNIŊ[MORNING//MOURNING] (PROTOTYPE), Mad Forest (Theatre for a New Audience and Fisher Center at Bard), Word.Sound.Power (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Paper Pianos (EMPAC), Will You Come with Me (The Play Company), ICONS/IDOLS: IN THE PURPLE ROOM (New Ohio Theatre), s.i.n.s.o.f.u.s (Harvard University), and The Silence (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Internationally, her work has taken her to Alte Münze (Berlin) and Schauspiel Köln (Cologne). She is a proud member of USA829. afsoonpajoufar.com

Maggi is happy to be working at Berkeley Rep, where she has been the costume director for many years. Before Out Of Character, she designed The Guys and Latin History for Morons. Other Bay Area credits include Sisters Matsumoto and Mamma Mia (Shellie Award winner) at CenterREP; Frog & Toad, Pinkalicious, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Ivy and Bean, and many others at BACT. She also designed The Great Divide and By and By for Shotgun Players; Pygmalion, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, It’s a Wonderful Life, Proof, and Sly Fox at Town Hall Theatre; The Chairs, Wilder Times, and Wittenberg for Aurora Theatre; as well as shows for TheatreFirst and Altarena Playhouse. Her work has received both TBA and Shellie Award nominations.  

In theatre, Mr. Nichols designed the video for Broadway to Oz - Hugh Jackman’s 2015 Australian Arena tour. His Broadway credits include the scenic, lighting, and projection design for Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking, lighting design for John Leguizamo’s Latin History for Morons, projection designs for Hugh Jackman – Back on Broadway, and Nice Work If You Can Get It. Off Broadway credits include Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (set/lighting/video), In Masks Outrageous and Austere (lighting), In the Wake (lighting/video), Through the Night (set/lighting/video), Danny Hoch’s Taking Over (lighting/video), Sarah Jones’ Bridge & Tunnel (lighting), Los Big Names (scenic/lighting/projection), and Horizon (scenic and lighting). Additional theatre credits include production designs for Mark Taper Forum, Guthrie Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage, Huntington Theatre, Seattle Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, the National Theater of Taiwan, and the Alley Theatre.

Madeleine Oldham is a sound designer based in Oakland, CA. She has designed sound for theatres around the country, including ACT, Portland Center Stage, Kansas City Rep, Marin Theatre Company, Crowded Fire, and more. You can hear her on KALX radio as DJ Madame X. Madeleine believes that stories hold power for both good and evil, and it’s up to us to keep this knowledge close and use it well. She also understands that the best sport is ice hockey, and wiener dogs are the embodiment of joy. 

Amanda Spooner (she/her/hers) Berkeley Repertory Theatre debut. Broadway: Indecent, Sing Street. Off-Broadway: Corsicana, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday, An Octoroon, Everybody, The Lucky Ones, 10 Out of 12, Marie Antoinette. New York: The Glory of the World, The Broken Ear Setlist: Songs from Ohio, countless musicals and plays in development. Bay Area native, now based in New York. Member of Playwrights Horizons and Signature (NYC) artistic advisory boards. MFA: Yale School of Drama, BA: San Francisco State, AA: Las Positas College. Ithaca College faculty. Mother. @Year of the Stage Manager on Facebook.

Sofie (she/her) is ecstatic to be in her 10th season with Berkeley Rep. Favorite productions include Angels in America, Kiss My Aztec, Imaginary Comforts, Latin History for Morons, Roe, Party People, and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. Sofie has also worked regionally with Aurora Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theater, Magic Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and California Shakespeare Theater, and has stage managed concerts in NYC at Joe’s Pub and Urban Stages. Sofie holds a BA in Theater Arts and Post-Graduate Certificate in Theater Management from University of California, Santa Cruz.

Fight Choreographer
Danielle O’Dea

 

Vocal Coach
Wynde Vastine/Transformative Voice

 

Assistant Director 
Maria Arreola (Peter F. Sloss Artistic Fellow)

 

Set Drafting Assistant
Sarah Beth Hall

 

Set Model Assistant 
Ant Ma

 

Lighting Assistant
Tiffany Hernandez Alberto (Lighting Fellow)

 

Sound Assistant
Ariana Cardoza (Harry Weininger Sound Fellow)

 

Production Assistant/Assistant Production Manager
Florence Gill (Production Management Fellow) 

 

Projections Programmer 
Ahren Buhmann

 

Deck Crew
Chris Russell

 

Automation
Isaac Jacobs 

 

Light Board Operator 
Desiree Alcocer

 

Followspot Operator
Jack Grable

 

A1
Akari Izumi

 

COVID Safety Manager
Kathleen Parsons 

 

Scene Shop
Adam Clay · Carl Martin · Sean Miller · Maggie Wentworth 

 

Scenic Art
Neena Holzman · Maya Matthews · Adeline Smith 

 

Props
Garner Takahashi Keene · Brittany Watkins · Kristina Fosmire (Properties Fellow)  

 

Lighting
Amy Abad · Lauren Chang· Brittany Cobb · Zaid Dawsari · Elle Ghini · Jack Grable · Chris Hartzell · Caleb Knopp · Keanu Marquez · Charlie Mejia · Riley Richardson · Taylor Rivers · Noah Rojas-Domke · C. Swan-Streepy · Kira Wefers

 

Sound
Courtney Jean · Camille Rassweiler

Assistant Production Manager/Assistant Company Manager  
Emily Zhou (Company Management Fellow) 

 

Medical consultation for Berkeley Rep provided by Agi E. Ban DC, John Carrigg MD, Cindy J. Chang MD, Christina Corey MD, Neil Claveria PT, Patricia I. Commer DPT, Kathy Fang MD PhD, Steven Fugaro MD, Olivia Lang MD, Allen Ling PT, Christina S. Wilmer OD, and Katherine C. Yung, MD

 

Ari’el was featured in Olivia Wilde’s Warner Brother’s Don’t Worry Darling, opposite Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, and Chris Pine. Previously, Ari’el was seen in A24’s production of Zola, directed by Janicza Bravo. He can also be found recurring on NBC’s Law & Order: SVU. Other TV credits include Showtime’s Billions, Netflix’s Jessica Jones, and CBS’ Blue Bloods. He received the 2018 Tony Award for his role in The Band’s Visit on Broadway. His previous performance of this role at The Atlantic Theatre Company also garnered him 2017 Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.

 

Photo by Sergio Pasquariello

Steve is a retired real estate developer, and Susan a retired architect. Their main focus now is the Chamberlin Education Foundation, which focuses on K-12 education issues in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. Susan has been a season ticket holder for over 25 years.

Michelle and Bruce have been ardent supporters of Berkeley Rep since 1993, when they moved with two young children in tow to Berkeley. Their favorite evenings at Berkeley Rep were usually the discussion nights, where often friends would join them for an early dinner, an evening of great theatre, followed by a lively discussion with members of the cast. Over the past 30+ years, Michelle and Bruce have recognized Berkeley Rep’s almost singular role in the Bay Area in promoting courageous new works and nurturing innovative, diverse playwrights. According to Michelle and Bruce, “There’s never been a more vital time in our lives when the power of theatre to transform, compel, inspire, and energize has been more necessary.”

Warren and Frances are avid watchers of live theatre, which includes Berkeley Rep and an annual pilgrimage (when COVID allows) to London's West End. Having loved Berkeley Rep for years, they are thrilled to sign on as 2021/22 season sponsors. They are very proud of the cutting edge, exceptional theatre that Berkeley Rep continuously produces. Frances' day job is as Professor of Physics at UC Berkeley and Warren is a Machinist and Welder at 5th Street Machine Arts.

Betty and Jack are proud to support Berkeley Rep. Jack is a sustaining advisor of the Theatre, having served on the board for many years, and is now on the board of San Francisco Opera. He is an emeritus board chair of the San Francisco Art Institute and the Oxbow School. In San Francisco, Betty is involved with Wise Aging, a program for adults addressing the challenges of growing older. She serves on several non-profit boards. They have three daughters and eight grandchildren.

Roger Strauch is chair of The Roda Group. He has served on Berkeley Rep’s Board of Trustees for over twenty years, often as an executive member. Roger is an engineer, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist. He has helped build technology companies that have had public stock offerings or have been sold to global industry leaders. Currently, Roger focuses on the development of several enterprises whose products and services will mitigate the negative impact of industry on global climate change and human health. Roger serves on the boards of the Chart Industries (NYSE:GTLS); Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI); Northside Center in Harlem, NYC, a mental health service agency; and UC Berkeley's College of Engineering. He is the leader of the Mosse Art Restitution Project, a major international effort to restitute stolen art from his great step family during the Third Reich. Roger and his wife, Dr. Julie Kulhanjian, a retired pediatric infectious disease physician, have three adult children. Roger and Julie divide their time between Piedmont, CA and Martha’s Vineyard.

Gail has been a Berkeley Rep trustee for 11 years and previously served as board president. She retired from Kaiser in San Leandro where she was a hematologist and oncologist. She is the founder of Tiba Foundation (tibafoundation.org), an organization investing in community healthcare in an underprivileged district of western Kenya, in partnership with Matibabu. Arne is a retired lawyer. In his retirement, he teaches and tutors high school math part-time, and serves as treasurer for Tiba Foundation. Gail and Arne have been attending the Theatre since they were students in 1972.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is the backbone of the Bay Area transit network serving five counties throughout the region. BART’s all-electric trains make it one of the greenest and most energy-efficient transit systems in the world. We encourage our riders to visit bart.gov/welcomeback as the region continues to reopen as we safely welcome you back. To learn more about great destinations and events that are easy to get to on BART (like Berkeley Rep!), visit bart.gov/bartable. At BARTable, you can find discounts, enter sweepstakes offering fantastic prizes, and find unique and exciting things to do just a BART ride away. While you’re there, be sure to sign up for BARTable This Week, a free, weekly email filled with the latest and greatest BARTable fun!

Peet’s Coffee is proud to be the exclusive coffee of Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the namesake of Berkeley Rep’s state-of-the-art Peet’s Theatre. In 1966, Alfred Peet opened his first store on Vine and Walnut in Berkeley and Peet’s has been committed to the community ever since. Supporting Berkeley Rep’s high artistic standards and diverse programming is an extension of this mission. As the pioneer of the craft coffee movement in America, Peet’s is dedicated to smallbatch roasting, superior quality beans, freshness, and a darker roasting style that produces a rich, flavorful cup. Peet’s is locally roasted in the first LEED® Gold certified roaster in the nation.

Anne and Anuj are thrilled to sponsor Out of Character and support Berkeley Rep, their favorite theatre in the Bay Area. Anne is a member of the board of Berkeley Rep. She dedicates her time to increasing educational equity and is a talent fellow for Rocketship Public Schools and a board member of OneGoal Bay Area. Anuj is EVP and CIO of Albertson’s Safeway. Prior to their move to the East Bay, both Anne and Anuj supported various arts organizations, including serving on the board of the Mattress Factory museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, PA.

Chris and Neal are very pleased to help support this production of Out of Character, an exciting new play by Ari’el Stachel. Chris is a new member of the Berkeley Rep board of trustees and a passionate life-long supporter of live theatre in the Bay Area. Neal is a cataract surgeon and volunteer with Seva Foundation, working with local communities around the world to develop self-sustaining programs that preserve and restore sight.

Artistic Director
Johanna Pfaelzer

 

Managing Director
Tom Parrish

 

ARTISTIC

 

Associate Artistic Director
David Mendizábal

 

Associate Casting Director & Artistic Associate
Karina Fox

 

Artists Under Commission
Todd Almond
Christina Anderson
Rafael Casal
Daveed Diggs
Dipika Guha
Richard Montoya
Nico Muhly
Lisa Peterson
Sarah Ruhl
Tori Sampson
Jack Thorne
Joe Waechter

 

GENERAL MANAGEMENT AND COMPANY MANAGEMENT

 

General Manager
Sara Danielsen

 

Company Manager
Peter Orkiszewski

 

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

 

Director of Production
Audrey Hoo

 

Associate Production Manager
Kali Grau

 

STAGE OPERATIONS

 

Stage Supervisor
Julia Englehorn

 

Associate Stage Supervisor
Gabriel Holman

 

Head Stage Technician
James McGregor

 

PROPERTIES

 

Properties Supervisor
Jillian A. Green

 

Associate Properties Supervisor
Amelia Burke-Holt

 

Properties Artisan
Lisa Mei Ling Fong

 

SCENE SHOP

 

Co-Technical Directors
Jim Smith
Matt Rohner

 

Head Carpenter
Read Tuddenham

 

Scene Shop Supervisor
Patrick Keene

 

Draftsperson
Grant Vocks

 

Scenic Carpenters
Faye Joseph
August Lewallen

 

SCENIC ART

 

Charge Scenic Artist
Lisa Lázár

 

COSTUMES

 

Costume Director
Maggi Yule

 

Draper
Star Rabinowitz

 

Wardrobe Supervisor
Barbara Blair

 

Resident Design Associate
Kiara Montgomery

 

ELECTRICS

 

Lighting Supervisor
Frederick C. Geffken

 

Associate Lighting Supervisor
Sarina Renteria

 

Senior Production Electrician
Kenneth Coté

 

Production Electrician
Desiree Alcocer

 

SOUND AND VIDEO

 

Sound and Video Supervisor
Lane Elms

 

Associate Sound and Video Supervisor
Chase Nichter

 

Senior Sound Engineer
Angela Don

 

Sound Engineer
Akari Izumi

 

ADMINISTRATION

 

Finance Director
Jared Hammond

 

Associate Managing Director
Sunshine Deffner

 

Executive Assistant
Kate Horton

 

Associate Finance Director
Katie Riemann

 

Bookkeeper
Alanna McFall

 

Payroll Administrator
Jennifer Light

 

Director of Human Resources and Diversity
Modesta Tamayo

 

DEVELOPMENT

 

Director of Development
Ari Lipsky

 

Associate Director of Development
Laura Fichtenberg

 

Philanthropy Officer
Andrew Maguire

 

Individual Giving Manager
Marcela Chacón

 

Special Events Manager
Elaina Guyett

 

Institutional Grants Manager
Kelsey Scott

 

Interim Institutional Gifts Manager
Cassie Newman

 

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

 

Director of Marketing and Communications
Voleine Amilcar

 

Marketing Consultant
Colleen Flanigan

 

Public Relations Consultant
Kevin Kopjak

 

Communications and Digital Content Director
Karen McKevitt

 

Creative Director
DC Scarpelli

 

Video and Multimedia Content Creator
Calvin Ngu

 

Audience Development Manager
Lindsey Abbott

 

Marketing Associate
Beatriz Hernandez

 

OPERATIONS

 

Director of Operations
Amanda Williams-O’Steen

 

CRM Project Manager
Destiny Askin

 

Web and Database Specialist
Christina Cone

 

Building Manager
Nicole Peña

 

Facilities Director
Mark Morrisette

 

Facilities Manager
Adam Johnson

 

Building Engineers
Kevin Pan | Thomas Tran

 

Building Technician
Jesus Rodriguez

 

Facilities Assistants
Darrel De La Rosa | Theresa Drumgoole | Wendi Lau | Sophie Li

 

PATRON SERVICES

 

Front of House Director
Kelly Kelley

 

Patron Services Supervisors
Maddi Gjovik | Nina Gorham

 

Patron Experience Representatives
Emma Allen-Landwehr | Jessica Bates | Alicia Battle | Megan Bedig | Victoria Broach | Phoenyx Butts | Matthew Canter | Rachel Cole | Steven Cole | Julian Dion | Fillomena Franchina | Jasmine Guillot | Matthew Hayden | Latasha Hayes | Amir Heibl | Armando Herrera | Joelle Joyner-Wong | Caitlyn Lee | Jennifer Light | Leigh Nelson | Maura Oliverira | Angela Phung | Tuesday Ray | Anna Riggin | Alana Scott | Debra Selman | Sloane Sim | Isaiah Valencia | Anna Vorobyeva

 

Director of Ticketing and Sales
Derik Cowan

 

Subscription Manager
Laurie Barnes

 

Box Office Supervisor
Gianna Francesca Vescio

 

Box Office Agents
pan ellington | Mikee Loria | Alanna McFall | Cassidy Milano | Dom Refuerzo | Christy Spence

 

BERKELEY REP SCHOOL OF THEATRE

 

Director of the School of Theatre
Anthony Jackson

 

Associate Director
Dylan Russell

 

Director of Classes and Summer Programs
MaryBeth Cavanaugh

 

Curriculum and Educational Programs Manager
Si Mon’ Emmett

 

Classes and Communications Administrator
Ashley Lim

 

Teaching Artists
Bobby August Jr. | L.M. Bogad | Diana Brown | Nicole Bruno | Catherine Castellanos | Rebecca Castelli | Kate Cherry | Iu-Hui Chua· Jiwon Chung | Robin Dolan | Lura Dolas | Jim Edgar | Bob Ernst | Deb Eubanks | Todd Fortier | Maria Frangos | Adrian Gebhart | Nancy Gold | Gary Graves | Marvin Greene | Ben Hartley | Ramon Higuera | William Thomas Hodgson | Katya Davida | Jennifer LeBlanc | Jasmine Lew | Dave Maier | Carolyn McCandlish | Annie Obermeyer | Brennan Pickman-Thoon | Lisa Porter | Hans Probst | Kenneth Ransom | Kimiya Shokri | Joyful Simpson | James Wagner | Tracy Ward | Farin Zahedi

 

Docent Program

 

Docent Chairs
Matty Bloom | Joy Lancaster | Selma Meyerowitz

 

Docents
Ted Bagaman | Michelle Barbour | Beth Cohen | Miles Drawdy | Alice Galoob | Randi Helly | Muriel Kaplan | Ellen Kaufman | Jim Krampf | Dee Kursh | Richard Lingua | Mark Liss | Judith O’Rourke | Thomas Sponsler | Joan Sullivan | Susan Wansewicz | Linda Williams

 

2022/23 BERKELEY REP FELLOWSHIPS

 

Bret C. Harte Artistic Fellow
Katie Stevenson

 

Company Management Fellow
Emily Zhou

 

Costumes Fellow
Violet Clemons

 

Education Fellow
Elizabeth Woolford

 

Harry Weininger Sound Fellow
Ariana Cardoza

 

Lighting Fellow
Tiffany Hernandez Alberto

 

Marketing Fellow
Caroline Mae Woodson

 

Multimedia Content Fellow
Muriel Steinke

 

Peter F. Sloss Artistic Fellow
Maria Arreola

 

Production Management Fellow
Flo Gill

 

Properties Fellow
Kristina Fosmire

 

Scenic Art Fellow
Kenzie Bradley

 

Scenic Construction Fellow
Seraphim Blount

 

Stage Management Fellow
Calvin Friedman

President
Emily Shanks

 

Vice Presidents
Chuck Fanning
Bruce Golden
Sudha Pennathur

 

Treasurer
William T. Espey

 

Secretary
Scott Haber

 

Chair, Governance Committee
Anne Nemer Dhanda

 

Chair, Audit Committee
Steven C. Wolan

 

Board Members
Edward D. Baker
Susan Chamberlin
David Cox
Christopher Doane
Sandra Eggers
Kerry L. Francis
Steven Goldin
Jonathan C. Logan
Melanie Maier
Henning Mathew
Juan Oldham
Tom Parrish
Johanna Pfaelzer
Allan Smith
Sherry Smith
Gail Wagner
Brian Watt

 

Past Presidents
Helen C. Barber
A. George Battle
Carole B. Berg
Robert W. Burt
Shih-Tso Chen
Narsai M. David
Thalia Dorwick, PhD
Nicholas M. Graves
Richard F. Hoskins
Jean Knox
Robert M. Oliver
Stewart Owen
Marjorie Randolph
Harlan M. Richter
Richard A. Rubin
Edwin C. Shiver
Roger A. Strauch
Gail Wagner
Martin Zankel

 

Sustaining Advisors
Rena Bransten
Diana Cohen
Robin Edwards
William Falik
David Fleishhacker
Paul T. Friedman
Jill Fugaro
Karen Galatz
David Hoffman
Richard F. Hoskins
Dugan Lamoise
Sandra R. McCandless
Helen Meyer
Peter Pervere
Marjorie Randolph
Leonard X Rosenberg
Patricia Sakai
Jack Schafer
William Schaff
Richard M. Shapiro
Michael Steinberg
Roger A. Strauch
Jean Z. Strunsky
Michael S. Strunsky
Felicia Woytak
Martin Zankel

 

Founding Director
Michael W. Leibert
Producing Director, 1968–83