Playwright

REBECCA GILMAN is the author of Blue Surge, Spinning Into Butter, Boy Gets Girl, The American in Me, and The Glory of Living. Her plays have been produced at the Goodman Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, The Public Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Manhattan Class Company, as well as other theatres around the country and abroad. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Prince Prize for Commissioning New Work, the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, and the George Devine Award. Ms. Gilman was named a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Glory of Living, which received the American Theatre Critics Association’s Osborn Award, a Joseph Jefferson Citation, and an After Dark Award for New Work. In 2005, Ms. Gilman’s adaptation of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter will premiere at the Alliance Theatre, and her adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll House will premiere at the Goodman.

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Cast

VELINA BROWN* (Rhonda / Dr. Gilbert) is enjoying her Magic Theatre debut. Film credits include Sneakers, Nine Months, Metro, Mad City, Under Wraps, Ed TV, and Bee Season. TV: Party of Five, Shaughnessy, and Nash Bridges. Select stage credits include work with Denver Center Theatre, ACT, TheatreWorks, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Oregon Cabaret Theatre, Thick Description, and Word for Word. Ms. Brown is a collective member of the Obie Award-winning political musical theatre troupe — The San Francisco Mime Troupe. She has worked with the company for 12 years and tours with them nationally and internationally. Her next project is Crowns at TheatreWorks this April.
   

ANNE DARRAGH* (Erica / Dr. Stanton) had the pleasure of working with both Rebecca Gilman and Amy Glazer on The American in Me. She was last seen at the Magic in The Sex Habits of American Women (also directed by Amy Glazer). Other Magic productions include Ted Kaczynski Killed People with Bombs, Wyoming, A Common Vision, The Baltimore Waltz, and Speaking in Tongues. Her most recent performance was in Communicating Doors at Marin Theatre Company. She had the honor of playing Harper in the original Eureka Theatre production of Angels in America. Locally she has also performed with Berkeley Rep, Brava Theatre, Campo Santo, Encore Theatre, Theatre Rhinoceros, and San Jose Rep. Love to David, Elise, and Matty.
   

JOSEPH PARKS (Michael / Brian) is pleased to be making his Magic Theatre debut. Other theatre credits include: Miles in The Drawer Boy (Pacific Alliance Stage Company), Jimmy in Slay the Dragon (ACT), Jonathan in Wintertime (San Jose Rep), and Neil in Mysterious Skin (New Conservatory Theatre). He began acting at ACT’s Young Conservatory where he played the roles of Asa Potter in When They Speak of Rita and Galen Gray in Gray’s Anatomy. He recently graduated from San Francisco State University with a BA in Creative Writing and a minor in Theatre Theory.

   

BARBARA PITTS* (Dana) appeared last year in the Magic’s Drifting Elegant. She was in Berkeley Rep’s production of The Laramie Project and returns for Stories from Jonestown & The People’s Temple. As a writer/actor in the original company of The Laramie Project, she performed Off-Broadway, at LaJolla Playhouse, Denver Center, and Sundance Theatre Lab. Recent credits: Dorothy Parker in both her solo play Excuse My Dust and the short film You Were Perfectly Fine (2004 NY Film & Video Festival), belly: three shorts (New Georges, NYC), Crumbs from the Table of Joy (Triad Stage, NC), and Linda Ames Key’s Clowning the Bard. Film/TV credits include HBO’s film of The Laramie Project (shared Emmy nomination, Outstanding Writing), Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Comedy Central’s Pulp Comics.

   

MICHAEL RAY WISELY* (Roy / Gary) is pleased to return to the Magic in a Rebecca Gilman play. Credits include: A Christmas Carol (Center Rep); Fugitive Kind (Marin Theatre Company); On the 20th Century (American Musical Theatre); Love’s Labour’s Lost (SF Shakespeare Festival); Desire Under the Elms (San Jose Rep); The American in Me (Magic Theatre); as well as performances at San Jose Stage, Willows Theatre, Pacific Alliance, Shotgun Players, and others. Michael Ray has co-starred in TV movies and series, and currently is the host of Home Transformations, a weekly show on the DIY Network. He lives in Richmond with his wife Wendy and daughter, Olivia.

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AMY GLAZER has directed world and west coast premieres at the Magic including Rebecca Gilman’s Blue Surge and The American in Me, Steven Belber’s Drifting Elegant and Tape, and Barry Gifford’s Wyoming. Other credits include Life X 3, My Old Lady, The Music Lesson, Misalliance, Candida, Indiscretions (Marin Theatre Company); Stonewall Jackson’s House, Trust (Eureka Theatre); and Spinning Into Butter, Pride’s Crossing, An American Daughter, Conversations With My Father, Marvin's Room, Mrs. Klein (TheatreWorks). The recipient of Dean Goodman, Drama-Logue, and Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards and finalist for TCG’s 2003 Alan Schneider Director Award, Amy is an associate artist at Magic Theatre, heads the New Works Series at MTC, and is a theatre and film professor at San Jose State University. Her short film, Ball Lightning, recently premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival and this spring she begins production on the feature film adaptation of Drifting Elegant.

SABRINA KNIFFIN* (Stage Manager) Other credits include The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare Santa Cruz); Triptych, Dr. Faustus, The Lonesome West (Magic Theatre); Strangers in Paradox, Women Behind Bars (Theatre Rhinoceros); Dreams of the Salthorse (Encore Theatre); Medea (Shotgun Players); Every Inch a King, Mata Hari, The Wyrd Sisters (CentralWorks). She has also performed at the Edinburgh and San Francisco Fringe Festivals, most recently in The Family Tree, Winner Best of Fringe ’01.

J. B. WILSON+ (Set Design) has designed sets for the Magic since 1978. His extensive Bay Area credits include designs for ACT, Berkeley Rep, San Jose Rep, AMTSJ, Aurora, TheatreWorks, Artists Confronting AIDS, Marin Theatre Company, and the original Eureka Theatre. Nationally, Mr. Wilson’s designs have appeared on stages in New York City, Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Houston, Las Vegas, Princeton, Newark, Buffalo, Malibu, Louisville, Wichita, and elsewhere. Mr. Wilson is grateful to have been honored with many awards for his work. Mr. Wilson is a professor at San Francisco State University.

KURT LANDISMAN+ (Light Design) is pleased to return to Magic Theatre where he designed lighting for Triptych last season, which received the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for best lighting. He designed lighting for numerous new works at the Magic back in the 80’s, most notably the premieres of Sam Shepard’s True West and Fool for Love. His lighting designs have been seen at most Bay Area theatres, and has received numerous Bay Area Critics Circle and Drama-Logue Awards. Nationally, his designs have been seen in practically every state in the Union, as well as Off-Broadway in New York. Internationally his designs have been seen in Tokyo, Singapore, and Shanghai.

MAGGIE WHITAKER (Costume Design) is pleased to be designing at the Magic for the first time. Previous design credits include Life X 3, My Old Lady (Marin Theatre Company); Lobby Hero, The Shape of Things (Aurora Theatre); HMS Pinafore (Lamplighters); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Marin Shakespeare); The Coronation of Poppea, Hansel and Gretel, Albert Herring (San Francisco Conservatory of Music); Riot Grrl on Mars, Women in the Garden, Cosi Fan Tutti (Berkeley Opera); Tosca (North Bay Opera). She originally hails from central Florida, and has lived in the Bay Area for the last 6 years. She would like to thank her husband and friends for all their support.

DON SEAVER r2we3sq (Sound Design) started songwriting with a country/western band in Dallas in 1982. He has been composing and sound designing for theatre for the last 14 years. Most recently, he scored and performed in Sex & Mayhem at the New Conservatory Theatre with Donald Currie. Other credits: San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Marin Theatre Company, Theatre Rhinoceros, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Aurora Theatre, Encore Theatre, Exit Theatre, Phoenix II Theatre, Shotgun Players, and Genesius. He has also composed scores for cable TV, videogames, and ballet and is working on an opera about Leonard Bernstein. He has been nominated for several Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards and won in 1999 with his jazz score for Mere Mortals.

GRACE RASO (Properties) has been working in Bay Area Theatre since her graduation from Carnegie Mellon University in 2003. She was most recently the Props Artisan for Word for Word’s US Tour of Stories by Tobias Wolff, their 2004 Tour de France, and their Spring '04 School and Library Tour. Grace was Assistant Stage Manager for Anne Galjour’s Okra. She was Assistant Director to David Dower for Traveling Jewish Theatre’s Windows and Mirrors. Grace was Dramaturge for Word for Word’s The Fall River Axe Murders and their 2003 School and Library Tour. Grace is also Production Assistant at Lucasfilm, Ltd.

JON TRACY (Assistant Director) works as a director, producer, actor, instructor and light/set/sound/combat designer with such companies as ACT, Z Space, Woman’s Will, Solano Repertory Company, Oberlin Dance Collective, Foothill Theatre Company, Harbor Theatre, Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, New Conservatory Theatre, Willows Theatre, and Traveling Lantern Theatre Company. He is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Meritorious Achievement Award, a Sacramento Elly Award, a Bay Area Critics Circle nomination, and eight North Bay Arty Awards. He is the Artistic Director of Darkroom Productions, the North Bay’s lab for new art.

JILL MATICHAK HANDELSMAN (Executive Producer) has been a Magic Theatre supporter for many years. She and her late husband, Scott Handelsman, were drawn to the Magic’s mission and the opportunity to make a contribution to an organization with a rich history in the Bay Area that also plays a very special role in the national theatre landscape. Jill is a partner in the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP and a passionate theatregoer. Her other “producing” credits include Tape, Blue Surge, and Drifting Elegant at Magic Theatre and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the California Shakespeare Theater.

MARYANN (MISSY) KIRCHNER (Producer) joined the board of Magic Theatre in 2003, following many years on corporate, community, and academic boards in the Bay Area. Missy is delighted to be a part of the exciting work Artistic Director Chris Smith brings to local theatre. A former stockbroker, Missy currently writes fiction. Her other “producing” credits include her four children, Jason, Tim, Andrew, and Margaret.

* Member of Actors' Equity Association

AEA, founded in 1913, represents more than 45,000 actors and stage managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO, and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. The Equity emblem is our mark of excellence. ww.actorsequity.org.

+ Member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. United Scenic Artists represents the designers and scenic painters for the American Theatre.

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