In This Program

• A Welcome from the Artistic and Managing Directors
• Finding Home in Theatre: Berkeley Rep’s Partnership with Dorothy Day House
• Finding the Verse: Jacob Ming-Trent in His Own Words
• A Note on The Bard and Hip-Hop
• Show Program
• Print Edition
• More about Berkeley Rep

Finding Home in Theatre: Berkeley Rep’s Partnership with Dorothy Day House

By School of Theatre Marketing and Registrations Manager Ashley Lim

At Berkeley Rep, the power of community and storytelling are inseparable threads in our mission to form meaningful connections through art. Throughout the years, our partnerships with organizations such as the Formerly Incarcerated People’s Performance Project, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, and SF Jails have provided opportunities to serve under-resourced communities with workshops in storytelling, personal development, and communication. These programs not only develop practical skills, but give each participant the opportunity to tap into their creativity and dream beyond the limits of their circumstances. This fall, the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre welcomed a new organization to our campus: the Dorothy Day House.

Founded over 30 years ago in the spirit of Dorothy Day (a social activist who played a major role in the human services, civil rights, antiwar, women’s rights, and labor movements), the Dorothy Day House is a volunteer and donor-driven 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides shelter and services to facilitate ending homelessness. From drop-in shelter visits to laundry and meal services, among dozens of other short and long-term resources, the Dorothy Day House routinely reaches over 550 unhoused people in Berkeley every day — more than half the city’s total unhoused population.

Most recently, the Dorothy Day House partenered with the School of Theatre and In Dialogue to invite members of the unhoused community to free improv workshops. Led by Berkeley Rep teaching artists, these workshops offer a unique opportunity to build new bonds, fuel creativity, and allow each participant to envision themselves as impactful agents in their own story.

“Improv reminds us that we are more than our circumstances,” explains Berkeley Rep teaching artist, Diana Brown. “It gives people permission to try, fail, laugh, and try again — without judgment. When we improvise, we’re practicing trust, collaboration, and imagination in real time. This is true for all of us — especially for communities that carry a lot of pressure or instability. Those moments of play aren’t frivolous — they’re essential. They affirm that every person in the room is interesting, creative, and worthy of being seen.”

“The highlight of every session is getting to see our participants reconnect with their unique voice,” adds teaching artist and In-School Residency and Curriculum Supervisor Euan Ashley. “It’s something that looks different for everyone, but you can always feel the moment when their authentic self emerges.”

As we continue to learn from our partnerships and communities, we thank the Dorothy Day House for their efforts to facilitate this work, both on Berkeley Rep’s campus and throughout this city we call home. This work is just one step toward providing arts access to underserved communities. Stay tuned as we continue to unlock the transformative power of storytelling here on stage, and beyond!

Finding the Verse: Jacob Ming-Trent in His Own Words

Jacob Ming-Trent is an actor and writer who first appeared on the Berkeley Rep stage in Continental Divide: Mothers Against and Daughters of the Revolution directed by Tony Taccone. His semi-autobiographical play, How Shakespeare Saved My Life, reunites Jacob with Tony and Berkeley Rep audiences to share his journey as an artist and his love of language and music, from the Bard to Biggie. Let’s learn more about the man behind the work.

Who or what were your earliest theatrical inspirations?
I’d like to say my first theatrical inspirations were Anthony Hopkins or Ian McKellen, but really, they were Michael J. Fox and Eddie Murphy. Funny, smart, and brave!

What are your preshow rituals before getting on the stage? 
Before I step on a stage, I need quiet. Peace. Time for reflection. I need to be present.

Where is your favorite place to write? 
I can write anywhere: my living room, the coffee shop, my dressing room, or walking down the streets of Manhattan. I take notes on my phone every day. That’s writing.

Is there a location or place in the Bay Area where you find grounding or inspiration?
The Bay Area is beautiful. I love the Golden Gate Bridge; the view is amazing. Any place that makes me feel big and small at the same time I love.

Music plays such an important part in your work. If you could make a “Jacob Ming-Trent Playlist,” what songs would be on it?
“As” by Stevie Wonder. “La mamma morta” sung by Maria Callas. “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke. “Purple Rain” by Prince. “Paranoid Android” by Radiohead. “To Zion” by Lauryn Hill.  “A Love Supreme” by John Coltrane. “Juicy” by The Notorious B.I.G. “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy.

Who are your top five hip-hop artists of all time?
Chuck D, Lauryn Hill, Biggie, Tupac, and Wu-Tang Clan.

What hip-hop verse or lyric has stayed with you, something that continues to guide or challenge you?
“If you seek then you shall find that we all come from the Divine
You dig what I’m sayin? Now if you take heed to the words of wisdom
That are written on the walls of life then universally, we will stand
And divided we will fall ‘cause love conquers all
You understand what I’m sayin’?
This is a call to all you sleepin’ souls
Wake up and take control of your own cycle
And be on the lookout for those spirits tonight trying to steal your light
You know what I’m sayin’, look what’s inside yourself for
Peace, give thanks, live life and release, you dig me, you got me?”
— Public Enemy, “He Got Game”

Do you have a favorite Shakespeare line that has stayed with you?
“If I were in better shape, I would repent.” 
— Falstaff, Henry IV, Part I

What was the first Shakespeare play you ever read?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was the first Shakespeare play I performed in, and it was the first I stage managed.

What is your favorite Shakespeare play and why?
Henry IV. Why? Because I love Falstaff. He’s Shakespeare’s greatest character. He’s Shakespeare’s argument for how we should live. He’s beautifully flawed.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve received as an artist in this industry?
Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. The journey is the thing, because we never arrive.

What advice would you give to young artists who are trying to find their voices in a noisy world?
Love yourself. Don’t let anyone steal your joy. And remember every man, woman, and child has the right to contribute a verse.

What does success look like to you now, compared to when you were just starting out in the Bay in the early 2000s?
When I arrived in the Bay Area, I was twenty years old. I wanted recognition, I wanted money, I wanted awards, and a good New York Times review. Now, I want to strike a blow for humanity. I want to tell stories that have the potential to save lives.

A Note on The Bard and Hip-Hop

Jacob Ming-Trent’s How Shakespeare Saved My Life takes you on a reflective journey about the transformative power of language and storytelling on a person’s life, so Berkeley Rep asked award-winning writer, filmmaker, and hip-hop performance expert Kevin Coval to reflect on the relationship between hip-hop, theatre, and the daily occurrences connecting us together.

The Bard didn’t bring me to theatre. Shit, “theatre” didn’t bring me to theatre. I grew up following graffiti writers on the Red Line on the North Side of Chicago, chasing the vibrant, complex lettering they left on rooftops and water towers, billboards and abandoned buildings. The thrill of seeing these words, names, and characters in public was a treasure hunt and an all-city pass to meet “writers” from neighborhoods with superhero noms de plume. The city considered these scribes vandals but to me they were anonymous poets brightening a bleak Gotham.

On the Sabbath, we’d gather around my aunt’s Seder table to hear my relatives spin apocryphal tales. Here too, I was chasing language, a Chicago/Jewish vernacular where “I gotta guy” inferred a sort of main character interconnectedness that displayed one’s knowledge of the world and the people in it.

I’d see GQ, a masterful human beatbox, make a slew of music with no instrumentation other than his own body on the Green Line performing for change. The train would take me to Maxwell Street to hear the carny bark of shell game hustlers hiding a tiny red ball beneath the cracked carcasses of walnuts to alleviate bewildered suburbanites of a little bit of bread. The salesman in the wholesale shops down for a bargain and the outside portable stores of men dealing from a duffle bag bootleg anything. Each person had their own tonality and rhythm.

The train, the street, my aunt’s Seder table was where I fell in love with theatre and the theatre of the world.

Most of the art I gravitate toward is an elevation of the everyday. A platforming and pedestalizing of the mundane as magnificent or at least significant enough to share with someone who isn’t you. A skill and aesthetic that emerges from working people’s need to maintain and make it and make it up, but with language and story can be the sort of thrilling ride, akin to a trip on the L train, wherein, you never know exactly what’s around the bend.

In something like 2017, Black Thought, the esteemed emcee from Philadelphia’s The Roots crew, appeared on Funkmaster Flex’s Hot 97 radio show. His almost ten-minute “freestyle” stands as one of the most impressive pieces of theatre I’ve ever seen. The freestyle has different iterations and meanings over the years, everything from on-the-spot improvisation to a loose verse that has not appeared on an album or in public before and though, is clearly written, might be strung over beats that are familiar and not intended for said verse. The brilliance of this performance is, in part, because of its lack of theatricality, Black Thought is sitting at a mic next to the radio host, while his expert craftmanship is doing something the Bard entrusts actors with as well, a playful applique of language where the audience is captivated by the surprising and thrilling directions words can be taken, stretched, broken, emphasized, and sped in succession one after the other, like a roller coaster or a high wire acrobat balancing on the thin line between life and falling the fuck off.

The spectacle of Black Thought on the Funk Flex show is the epitome of Hip-Hop as theatre in its most simple and sparse terms: a human with language infusing meaning and style to relay to one another, or to an audience, that we are alive and awake in this moment and this moment can be fresh AF. This is what the Bard was on, too — some 

cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on. 
— Shakespeare’s The Tempest

Theatre and orality and storytelling can slap us out of our anesthetized state, and enliven us and keep us on our toes because adventure and pleasure can be derived from that ride of language performed at a high level, like when I’m on the train listening to the performer who demands our attention.

And for me, this demand is the insistence that the music lives all around us, in our everyday lives, in our communities and families and public spaces and sometimes it can be brought into a theatre, to remind us how beautiful the world is when we really listen.

KEVIN COVAL is an Emmy-nominated, award-winning writer, filmmaker, playwright, and author of over a dozen collections & anthologies including The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop and A People’s History of Chicago. His first full length feature film, Madina in the Summertime, is currently in postproduction and his next book, Taste of Chicago, is due out in the fall of 2026 with EM Press.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Johanna Pfaelzer, Artistic Director | Tom Parrish, Managing Director
In a co-production with Folger Theatre and Red Bull Theater

presents

How Shakespeare Saved My Life

Written and performed by Jacob Ming-Trent
Directed by Tony Taccone

Choreographer
Tiffany Rachelle Stewart

Scenic Design
Takeshi Kata

Costume Design
Danielle Preston

Lighting Design
Alan C. Edwards

Sound Design and Original Music
Jake Rodriguez

Projections Design
Alexander V. Nichols

Stage Manager
Sofie Miller*

Assistant Stage Manager
Paige Weissenburger

Director of Marketing and Audience Services
Voleine Amilcar

Associate Producer — New Work
victor cervantes jr.

General Manager
Sara Danielsen

Director of Production
Audrey Hoo

Director of the School of Theatre
Anthony Jackson

Director of Finance
Sam Linden

Director of Development
Ari Lipsky

Associate Artistic Director/Director of In Dialogue
David Mendizábal

Director of Human Resources and Diversity
Modesta Tamayo

Director of Operations
Amanda Williams O’steen

Originally commissioned and produced by Folger Theatre, Karen Ann Daniels, Artistic Director Red Bull Theater, Jesse Berger, Artistic Director.

WORLD PREMIERE

SEASON PRESENTING SPONSORS

Stephen & Susan Chamberlin
Yogen & Peggy Dalal
Bruce Golden & Michelle Mercer
Marcia Grand
Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau
Jonathan Logan & John Piane
Arjay R. and Frances F. Miller Foundation
The Strauch Kulhanjian Family
Gail & Arne Wagner

SEASON SPONSORS

The Hearst Foundations
Wayne Jordan & Quinn Delaney
Gisele & Kenneth F. Miller
Sudha Pennathur & Edward Messerly
Jack & Betty Schafer
Kelli & Steffan Tomlinson

LEAD SPONSORS

Len & Arlene Rosenberg

CAST

JACOB MING-TRENT* … Jacob

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

This theatre operates under agreement with the League of Resident Theatres, Actors’ Equity Association (the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States), the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and United Scenic Artists.

Opening Night: January 28, 2026
Peet’s Theatre

How Shakespeare Saved My Life will be performed without an intermission.

For This Production

Assistant Director … Elena Sanchez (Peter F. Sloss Artistic Fellow)
Assistant Scenic Designer … Kate Schaaf
Assistant Lighting Designer … Claire Chesne (Electrics Fellow)
Assistant Sound Designer … Riley Oberting (Harry Weininger Sound Fellow)
Script Production Assistant … Hannah Linaweaver
Deck Crew … Isaac Jacobs, Chris Russell (Automation)
Wardrobe Crew … Dieyla Diop, Caz Hiro, Linda Wu (Sub)
Lighting Programmer/Board Op … Desiree Alcocer
Projections Programmer … Ahren Buhmann
Sound Crew … Angela Don (A1), Courtney Jean (A2)

Scenic Fabrication by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Scenic & Paint Shops

Additional Scenery Fabricators … Austin Andrade, Cassidy Carlson, Cameron Edwards, Carl Martin, Troy McClendon, Drea Ronquillo
Additional Scenic Artists … Kenzie Bradley, Julie Ann Brown, Katie Holmes, Allie Kranyak, E Wayman-Murdock

Props Fabrication by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Properties Shop

Additional Prop Artisans … Cassidy Carlson, Jack Grable, Hanbyul Joo

Costumes Built by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Costume Shop

Additional Costume Technicians … Chris Weiland, James Calhoun (Costumes Fellow)

Lighting Services provided by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Lighting Department

Additional Lighting Technicians … Emma Buechner, Brittany Cobb, Angelina Costa, Kenneth Coté, Jack Grable, A. Chris Hartzell, Jacob Hill, Hannah Linaweaver, Margaret Linn, Charlie Mejia, Nori-Hayden Quist, Sarina Renteria, Taylor Rivers, C. Swan-Streepy, Matthew Sykes, Trinity Wicklund

Sound Services provided by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Sound and Video Department

Production Manager … Kali Grau
Assistant Production Manager … Alex Hamm (Production Management Fellow)
Company Manager … Ryan Duncan-Ayala
Assistant Company Manager … Katelin Shum (Company Management Fellow)

Medical Consultation for Berkeley Rep provided by
Mari Bell MPT (UCSF), Ed Blumenstock MD, Charissa Chaban DPT, Cindy J. Chang MD (UCSF), Christina Corey MD, Neil Claveria PT, Patricia I. Commer DPT, Kathy Fang MD PhD, Steven Fugaro MD, Anjali Gupta MD (Kaiser), Olivia Lang MD (Berkeley Pediatrics), Allen Ling PT, Liz Nguyen DPT, Desiree A. Unsworth DPT, Christina S. Wilmer OD, Eric Yabu DDS, and Katherine C. Yung MD

Jacob Ming-Trent ^*

Jacob, Playwright

Jacob is an actor of theatre, film, and television. His television credits include White Famous (Showtime, series regular), Watchmen (HBO, series regular), Ray Donovan (recurring), Feed the Beast (recurring), Only Murders in the Building, Wu-Tang: An American Saga, New Amsterdam, God Friended Me, High Maintenance, and more. He has appeared in films such as SuperFly, The Forty-YearOld Version, Snakes, R+J, The Possession of Hannah Grace, The Bygone, Julie Taymour’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Shallow Tale of a Writer... starring Steve Buscemi, Friendship starring Paul Rudd, and more. His Broadway credits include Gypsy (original cast), Shrek the Musical (original cast), and Hands on a Hardbody (original cast). His off-Broadway credits include The Harder They Come (Public Theater, Lortel nominee, AUDELCO nominee), Falstaff in Merry Wives (Public, Drama Desk nominee), Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night (Public), Father Comes Home from the Wars (Public, Lortel Award-winner, AUDELCO nominee), Mammon in The Alchemist (Red Bull Theater, Lortel nominee), Medea: Re-Versed (Red Bull, Lortel nominee), On the Levee (Lincoln Center Theater). He is the writer of Shake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret (Shakespeare & Company), Mac N Beth (PODS Productions), and How Shakespeare Saved My Life.

Tony Taccone

Director

Tony was raised by a large family of artists who believed that art is the highest calling of humankind. 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 remains 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.” Based on this insight, he made a long and lucky life for himself in the theatre. He’d like to thank the folks at Berkeley Rep for their continued great work, and the people of the Bay Area for being the best audience in the world.

Tiffany Rachelle Stewart

Choreographer

Tiffany is a choreographer, director, actress, and the Head of Physical Acting at NYU's New Studio on Broadway. She's thrilled to return to Berkeley Rep as a choreographer having performed here in 2014 as an actor in The House That Will Not Stand. Tiffany has directed and choreographed productions from coast to coast. She’s also acted in productions on Broadway, off-Broadway, and at the nation's top regional theatres. Tiffany’s been seen on television in Law & Order, Elsbeth, Blacklist, Law & Order SVU, Black Rose, All My Children, and Royal Pains, as well as in the film Hotel Pennsylvania. Tiffany received the award of Best Actress in a Drama at the New York Television Festival, a Lucille Lortel and an AUDELCO award. She holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. Tiffany’s most important role is as mother to Auggie, Hazel, & Ada. Big appreciation my hubs Tyler and to Berkeley Rep for fully supporting me as a working mother to young children, by making it possible for my babies to be here with me.

Takeshi Kata

Scenic Design

Takeshi is a theatrical set designer based out of Los Angeles. He has worked on over 150 productions nationally and internationally. In New York he has worked with Atlantic Theater, Second Stage, Vineyard Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Play Company, Barrow Street Theatre, and Rattlestick Theater. Regionally Takeshi has worked with Alley Theatre, American Players Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Cleveland Play House, Dallas Theater Center, Ford's Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Goodman, Hartford Stage, Kirk Douglas Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, The Old Globe, Resident Ensemble Players, South Coast Rep, Steppenwolf Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Yale Repertory Theatre. Takeshi has won an Obie and has been nominated for Drama Desk, Barrymore, and Ovation Awards. He is an Assistant Professor at USC School of Dramatic Arts.

Danielle Preston

Costume Design

Danielle is a costume designer based in Washington, DC. NYC credits include This Much I Know at 59E59. Recent regional credits include Studio Theatre, Folger Theatre, TheaterWorks Hartford, Everyman Theatre, Theater Alliance, Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre (DC), and Olney Theatre Center. Danielle received a 2024 Helen Hayes nomination in Costume Design for Agreste (Drylands) at Spooky Action Theater. She holds an MFA in costume design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829.

Alan C. Edwards

Lighting Design

Alan is a lighting designer for live performance. His work off-Broadway includes Sally & Tom (The Public); Sunset Baby, Fires in The Mirror [Lortelnom], Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (Signature NYC); Harry Clarke [Lortel Award] (Vineyard); Kill Move Paradise [Drama Desk nom] (National Black Theatre); Memnon, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night (Classical Theatre of Harlem); and Dakar 2000 (Manhattan Theatre Club). Regional work includes Harry Clarke (Berkeley Rep); Gatsby: An American Myth (Norton Award), Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (ART); Appropriate (Old Globe); and Beautiful (Asolo Rep). His work in dance includes In the Same Tongue (Dianne McIntyre); Chasing Magic, NYCC Artists at The Center '23 (Ayodele Casel); and Lifted by Christopher Rudd for American Ballet Theatre. alancedwards.com

Jake Rodriguez

Sound Design and Original Music Jake is a sound designer and composer working in theatre and based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His recent work at Berkeley Rep includes Mother of Exiles, The Reservoir, and Mother Road. Other regional theatre work: Don’t Eat the Mangos (Huntington Theatre); Between Two Knees (Perelman Performing Arts Center, Yale Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival); and Poor Yella Rednecks: Vietgone 2 (American Conservatory Theater). Rodriguez is the recipient of a 2004 Princess Grace Award and received an honorary MFA from ACT in 2021. Find sounds and music at soundcrack.net.

Alexander V. Nichols

Projections Design

Returning to Berkeley Rep for his 38th production, Mr. Nichols, a Bay Areanative, designs lighting, scenery, and projections for theatre, opera, music, and dance. His work has been presented on Broadway, off-Broadway and in opera houses, concert halls, theatres, warehouses, and vacant lots throughout the world. Recent projects include The Reservoir (Berkeley Rep), Chanel Dasilva’s Wabash And You (Joffrey Ballet), Fidelio (Lyric Opera of Chicago), and Yuri Possokhov’s Swan Lake (Hong Kong Ballet). Upcoming projects include a new work by Alonzo King and Esperanza Spalding (Lines Ballet), Nixon In China (Washington National Opera), and Dwight Rhoden’s Worlds Away (Royal Winnipeg Ballet).

Sofie Miller ^*

Stage Manager

Sofie is delighted to return for another season with Berkeley Rep. Recent productions include The Hills of California, the aves, The Matchbox Magic Flute, and Out of Character. 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, Presidio Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and California Shakespeare Theater. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Paige Weissenburger

Assistant Stage Manager

Paige is a multidisciplinary theatre artist who specializes in stage management. This is their second production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, after having worked on Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares in the fall of 2025. They enjoy working at many theatres across the Bay Area, including American Conservatory Theater, Golden Thread, Crowded Fire, Shotgun Players, and in the University of San Francisco's PASJ program. They are very excited to be back and continue working with the many wonderful artists at Berkeley Rep. Two of their current artistic outlets are collaging and stamp carving. PRONOUNS: THEY/THEM

Red Bull Theater

Co-Producers

Founded in 2003 with a production of Shakespeare’s Pericles, Red Bull Theater has been acclaimed by The New York Times as “a dynamic producer of classic plays” and by Time Out as “the most exciting classical theater in New York.” Red Bull serves adventurous theatregoers with off-Broadway productions, Revelation Readings, and the annual Short New Play Festival. The company offers outreach programs including Shakespeare In Schools bringing professional actors and teaching artists into public school classrooms, Bull Sessions, free post-play discussions with top scholars, and Classical Acting Intensives led by veteran theatre professionals. Over 20 seasons, Red Bull Theater has produced 25 off-Broadway productions and over 200 Revelation Readings of rarely seen classics, serving 5,000+ artists and providing quality artistic programming to over 200,000 theatregoers. The company’s unique programming has been recognized with Lortel, Drama Desk, Drama League, Calloway, Off-Broadway Alliance, and Obie nominations and Awards.

Folger Theatre

Co-Producers

The award-winning Folger Theatre in our nation’s capital bridges the arts and humanities through transformational performances and programming that speak inclusively to the human experience. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels, Folger Theatre continues its legacy through exciting interpretations and adaptations of Shakespeare and expands the classical canon through cultivating today’s artists and commissioning new work that is in dialogue with the concerns and issues of our time. Folger Theatre thrives both on its historical stage and in the community, engaging audiences wherever they happen to be. For more on Folger Theatre, please visit folger.edu/theatre.

Johanna Pfaelzer

Artistic Director

Johanna joined Berkeley Rep in 2019 as its fourth artistic director following 12 years as the artistic director of New York Stage and Film (NYSAF), a New York City-based organization dedicated to the development of new works for theatre, film, and television. Notable works developed under Johanna’s leadership at NYSAF include Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, The Humans by Stephen Karam, Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell, The Wolvesby Sarah DeLappe, The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music by Taylor Mac, The Homecoming Queen by Ngozi Anyanwu, The Great Leap by Lauren Yee, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, The Fortress of Solitude by Michael Friedman and Itamar Moses, The Jacksonian by Beth Henley, and Green Day’s American Idiot. In addition, Johanna has developed the work of many notable artists including Jocelyn Bioh, Zach Helm, Halley Feiffer, Billy Porter, Lucy Thurber, Duncan Sheik, V (formerly Eve Ensler), Steven Sater, Jaclyn Backhaus, Patricia Wettig, and Marcus Gardley. Since arriving at Berkeley Rep, Johanna has produced multiple world premieres as well as projects that have gone on to notable future productions including Swept Away, Galileo, Mexodus, and Cult of Love. She was formerly a producing director of Zena Group and served for five years as the associate artistic director of American Conservatory Theater. Johanna is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Actors Theatre ofLouisville apprentice program and has taught in the MFA theatre program at Columbia University School of the Arts. She lives in Berkeley with her husband Russell Champa and their son Jasper.

Tom Parrish

Managing Director

Tom has served as a theatre leader and arts administrator for over 20 years, with experience in organizations ranging from multivenue performing arts centers to major Tony Award-winning theatre companies. Prior to Berkeley Rep, he served as executive director of Trinity Repertory Company, Geva Theatre Center, and Merrimack Repertory Theatre and as associate managing director/ general manager of San Diego Repertory Theatre. His work has been recognized with a NAACP Theatre Award for Best Producer and “Forty Under 40” recognition in Providence, Rochester, the Merrimack Valley, and San Diego. He received his MBA/MA in arts administration from Southern Methodist University; BA in theater arts and economics from Case Western Reserve University; attended the Commercial Theater Institute, National Theater Institute, and Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management; and is certified in leading diversity, equity, and inclusion by Northwestern University. He and his husband live in Berkeley.

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