In This Program

• A Welcome from the Artistic and Managing Directors
• Bring the Magic of Berkeley Rep to Your Classroom
• Sense of Play: The Dramas of Jez Butterworth
• Blackpool in Context
• Show Program
• Print Edition
• More about Berkeley Rep

Bring the Magic of Berkeley Rep to Your Classroom

Did you know that Berkeley Rep offers in-school residency workshops for grades TK–12? Through ensemble building, creative play-making, and thrilling theatre activities, our in-school residency workshops encourage students to explore the transformative power of storytelling and apply their creative potential to fundamental skills and concepts both on stage and in the classroom.

Workshop Highlights:

STORY BUILDERS (Grades TK–5)

This workshop introduces students to theatre and helps develop literacy and communication skills in an artistic environment as students craft their own piece of theatre based on a storybook.

ACTING (Grades 5–12)

Help your students unlock their public speaking and collaboration skills through acting! Acting workshops are appropriate for both beginner students and more seasoned performers and may also be tailored to specific curricular texts or learning goals.

STAGE COMBAT (Grades 6-12)

Emphasizing safety and teamwork, students will learn from a professional fight choreographer and explore how to use stage combat as a storytelling technique. Bring safe theatrical combat to your next school production! 

"With diminishing local resources for performing arts education, the programs offered by Berkeley Rep are an invaluable asset to schools. We look forward to continuing to work with their visiting artists each year!”
—7th Grade Teacher, East Bay Montessori

Sense of Play

The Dramas of Jez Butterworth

By Kyle C. Frisina, Dramaturg

Playwright Jez Butterworth’s characters are out to convince us why they’re right, what needs to change, how the world ought to be. In Tony Award-winning plays like Jerusalem and The Ferryman, and acclaimed films like Black Mass and Ford v. Ferrari, his characters are always fighting to be heard; and the woman at the center of The Hills of California, the extraordinary Veronica Webb, is perhaps the crowning example of Butterworth’s persuasive art.

Butterworth himself is a convincing character. As an undistinguished secondary school student, he talked his way into Cambridge University and then into being allowed to do little else while enrolled but make theatre. Across his work, investment in the possibility of persuasion adds up to a stirring endorsement of human agency, even for characters in dire circumstances. For his part, Butterworth finds agency, as well as communion, in the act of making theatre.

“If I get this right, and I try hard enough, and I’m brave about it,” he says, “I’m going to be able to access something which is going to be of importance to the actors first of all, and then to the audience.”

The Hills of California — which draws from the writer’s own experience with the protracted death of a sister — is one of several plays by Butterworth to be inspired by history. His first play, the smash success Mojo (1995), was cued by the overlap between the criminal world and the world of pop music, telling the grisly, testosterone-fueled story of would-be Soho gangsters in the late 1950s who believe they’ve discovered the next Elvis Presley. Another pair of plays followed: The Night Heron (2002), set in the Cambridgeshire Fens, a marshy region in eastern England, and The Winterling (2006), which takes place in rural Devon. (The latter was heavily influenced by the playwright’s close friend and mentor Harold Pinter, whose work continues to inform Butterworth’s writing life.) Like The Hills of California, all three plays feature working class characters who are defiantly eloquent and filled with longing. They also showcase Butterworth’s lifelong interest in what links people to their social surroundings and to the natural world. Throughout his career, the British playwright has maintained close connections to American theatre with several of his plays, including Parlour Song (2008), receiving world premieres off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater.

As a dramatist, Butterworth remains best known for Jerusalem, his 2009 play featuring the audacious Johnny “Rooster” Byron. A myth-obsessed iconoclast raging against a changing world, Rooster hauls audiences with him as he protests his eviction from a rural wood set to be razed for new housing. Butterworth followed the riotous Jerusalem with a far more intimate work, the lyrical three-hander The River (2012), concerned in a different way with the delusions of myth. His final play to reach the stage before The Hills of California was The Ferryman (2017). The historical germ of that aching family tragedy, set in Northern Ireland, came from Butterworth’s wife, whose uncle was disappeared during the Troubles. Notably, The Ferryman marked an important shift in Butterworth’s writing from plays authored primarily for male actors to those featuring strong female leads.

While Butterworth rightly claims that you couldn’t “walk a character out of one play and stick them in another,” so dissimilar are his dramas, additional commonalities abound in his work. As audiences will encounter in The Hills of California, many of Butterworth’s plays contain alternating moments of horror and grace. The second act of an early play opens with a young man strung upside down by his feet, while several dramas feature characters who literally beg for their lives. Yet the same plays also include moments of care so tender they might break your heart, as when one character tells a friend being harassed for a crime he may not have committed:

“You’re a good man... I believe you... Do you believe me? Do you believe me as I believe you?”

Balancing such contradictory tones requires deft pacing, which Butterworth frequently handles by structuring his plays to unfold over just a day or two. The Hills of California is no exception, with the twist that the action of this play takes place in two periods: 1955 and 1976. As a result, we are forced to grapple with a vision of the past that is repeatedly revised by the present. At the same time, we must also revise our understanding of the present in light of new possible truths that emerge from the past. Butterworth believes audiences are up to the challenge: “The best thing that can happen,” he says, “is that the play plots against you. It hoodwinks you. My plays aren’t intent on making things clear.”

For all its continuity with Butterworth’s earlier work, The Hills of California also marks several departures. In the first place, it revolves entirely around women’s experiences. Together, Veronica Webb and her four daughters offer audiences a multi-dimensional portrait of the social and economic options available to women in the third quarter of the twentieth century. Importantly, Butterworth gives these characters generous space to demonstrate how their individual sensibilities may chafe at or thrive within these circumstances: indeed, each woman in Hills is more complex than the last.

Perhaps most distinct within Butterworth’s oeuvre is The Hills of California’s focus on how, for all their convincing powers, different characters can remain fundamentally far apart in their understanding of the same events. In fact, their particular gifts and burdens may not just enable but require this. The play asks what, for many of us, are destabilizing questions: is it possible to come to a common interpretation across generations and between siblings? And, even more radically, is common interpretation truly necessary to the work of living on together in a family? Without a shared understanding of the past, of course, we might fairly wonder what is left to us. As this utterly glorious play reveals, what’s left is the ongoing (and, in Butterworth’s hands, the highly theatrical) attempt to engage with and make space for one another anyway. If we come to realize, along with Veronica’s daughters, that this is the only available future, can we convince ourselves to make that future our own?

Blackpool in Context

by Sid Jepsen
Literary Associate, The Huntington Theatre

Above: As international stars, the Minneapolis-born Andrews Sisters performed at the Blackpool Opera House on August 26, 1951.

Blackpool, England is a seaside town 30 miles north of Liverpool, and is known as a once glamorous holiday and entertainment hub — a place where tourists flocked and filled its theatres, amusement parks, circuses, even zoos! Located on England’s northwest shore, Blackpool blossomed into a popular UK tourist destination following the opening of the town’s first railway station in 1846. By the late 1800s, hundreds of thousands of tourists were squeezing themselves into row upon row of loungers to take in the sea breeze and cramming into the many boarding houses that dotted the city streets — like Veronica Webb’s Seaview in Butterworth’s The Hills of California. At night, visitors walked the promenade; in 1879 it became the first city street to have electric lights. The end of the 19th century also featured Blackpool’s most notable skyline change — The Blackpool Tower. Inspired by the Eiffel Tower, and featuring a 360-degree observation deck, The Blackpool Tower genuinely offered a refreshed perspective on the seaside town.

Blackpool’s reputation as a destination for fun and escape only grew in the 20th century, and inspired would-be entertainers from around the world — including Walt Disney, who sent a research team to Blackpool in advance of opening his first theme park in California. While maintaining its reputation as an entertainment hub, early 1900s Blackpool saw an increase in gaudy commercialism. Similar to the heyday of American seaside escapes like New York’s Coney Island, the commodifying of Blackpool included site-specific souvenirs and seasonally popular funfair attractions. Blackpool’s popularity unintentionally rose during World War II. Due to the town’s location, Blackpool was not under threat of bombing during the war, and as a result it became a solace for those displaced. The seasonal flurry of Blackpool’s earlier decades was replaced with year-round visitation — boosting the area’s economy during a difficult time for the country at large. Blackpool’s popularity continued to grow following the war. Travel and traffic records were broken consistently, even bad weather and the train strikes of 1955 could not deter eager holiday-goers. With the growing abundance of cars in England, Blackpool’s entertainment scene grew louder and flashier than ever before, with stars like Connie Francis and Harry Belafonte touring to local theatres; the town even hosted a Royal Variety Show attended by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

The thrill of live entertainment could only flourish for so long after the advent of television. Public appetites changed in a way that transformed Blackpool; fewer people were interested in traveling to see entertainment when the best singers were performing on screens in their own living room. Even from a practical standpoint - Blackpool’s infrastructure, once meant to host those on summer holiday and which was later subjected to year-round, constant use - fell into ever-increasing disrepair. With new technological advances the globe became more accessible. When the English went on holiday in the 1960s and 70s, they began to set their sights abroad, and little by little, Blackpool faded into an echo of what used to be. Theatres shuttered, and the quaint boarding houses followed soon behind. Still home to a beautiful beach, Blackpool is now more known for its history than its present state. 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Johanna Pfaelzer, Artistic Director | Tom Parrish, Managing Director
In a co-production with The Huntington

presents

The Hills of California

Written by Jez Butterworth

Directed by Loretta Greco

Scenic Design
Andrew Boyce
And Se Hyun Oh

Costume Design
Jennifer Von Mayrhauser

Lighting Design
Russell H. Champa

Sound Design
David Van Tieghem

Hair, Wigs, & Makeup Design
J. Jared Janas

Dramaturg
Kyle C. Frisina

Choreographer
Misha Shields

Music Direction
Daniel Rodriguez

Voice & Dialect Coach
Ashleigh Reade

Fight & Intimacy Coordinator
Jesse Hinson

Casting
Janet Foster

Stage Manager (Through Nov 5)
Kevin Schlagle  *

Assistant Stage Manager (Through Nov 5)
Stage Manager (as of Nov 6)
Ashley Pitchford  *

Assistant Stage Manager
Sofie Miller  *

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

THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA had its world premiere at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London, on January 27, 2024, and its Broadway premiere at the Broadhurst Theatre, New York, on September 29, 2024, produced by Sonia Friedman Productions with Neal Street Productions.

WEST COAST PREMIERE

SEASON PRESENTING SPONSORS

Stephen & Susan Chamberlin
Yogen & Peggy Dalal
Marcia Grand
Bruce Golden & Michelle Mercer
Jonathan Logan & John Piane
The Strauch Kulhanjian Family
Gail & Arne Wagner

SEASON SPONSORS

Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau
Wayne Jordan & Quinn Delaney Jack & Betty Schafer
Gisele & Kenneth F. Miller The Hearst Foundations
Kelli & Steffan Tomlinson

ASSOCIATE SPONSORS

Lynne Charmichael
Pat & Merrill Shanks

CAST

(in order of appearance)

Karen Killeen * ... Jillian
Patrice Jean-Baptiste * ... Penny/Biddy
Lewis D. Wheeler * ... Mr. Potts/Luther St. John
Aimee Doherty * ... Ruby/Mrs. Smith
Chloé Kolbenheyer * ... Patty/Young Ruby
Jack Greenberg  ... Tony/Mr. Halliwell/Mr. Smith
Amanda Kristin Nichols * ... Gloria
Mike Masters * ... Bill/Joe Fogg/Dr. Rose
Kyle Cameron * ... Dennis/Jack Larkin
Allison Jean White * ... Veronica
Meghan Carey * ... Young Gloria
Nicole Mulready * ... Young Jillian
Kate Fitzgerald * ... Young Joan
Allison Jean White * ... Joan
Aimee Doherty * ... Dance Captain

UNDERSTUDIES

in alphabetical order

Annika Bolton ... Young Gloria, Young Joan
Lila Grace English ... Patty/Young Ruby, Young Jillian
Kate Fitzgerald * ... Jillian
Jack Greenberg ... Joe Fogg
Bridgette Hayes * ... Gloria, Ruby/Mrs. Smith, Veronica/Joan
Zach Kautter ... Tony/Mr. Halliwell/Mr. Smith
Yewande Odetoyinbo * ... Penny/Biddy
Michael Poignand * ... Mr. Potts/Luther St. John, Dennis/Jack Larkin, Bill/Dr. Rose

Understudies never substitute for listed performers unless a specific announcement or notice is made at the time of appearance.

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

This theatre operates under agreements 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: November 5, 2025
Roda Theatre

The Hills of California will be performed with one 15-minute intermission between Acts 1 and 2.

For This Production

Assistant Director ... Elena Sanchez (Peter F. Sloss Artistic Fellow)
Fight Captain ... Lewis D. Wheeler
Costume Design Assistant ... Kelly Baker
Hair, Wigs, & Makeup Associate ... Tony Lauro
Assistant Lighting Designers ... Claire Chesne (Electrics Fellow), Hope Debelius (Huntington Theatre Lighting Design Assistant)
Assistant Sound Designer ... Riley Oberting (Harry Weininger Sound Fellow)
Wardrobe Crew ... Karen Arriola, Caz Hiro, Dieyla Diop, Kamaile Alnas-Benson, Mika Rubinfield, Jessa Dunlap (Sub), Linda Wu (Sub)
Hair Team ... Vanessa Root-Fitzgerald, Erin Taylor
Lighting Programmer/Board Op ... Kenneth Coté
Sound Crew ... Angela Don (A1), Camille Rassweiler (A2)
Deck Crew ... Michael Boomer, Isaac Jacobs, Chris Russell (Automation), Emma Walz

Scenic Fabrication by The Huntington Scenic & Paint Shops

Additional Scenery Fabricators ... Berkeley Repertory Theatre Scenic & Paint Shops, Carl Martin, Cameron Edwards, Troy McClendon, Cassidy Carlson, Drea Ronquillo, Isaac Jacobs,
Isla Hofmann (Scenic Construction Fellow)
Additional Scenic Artists ... Courtney Sutherland (Scenic Art Fellow)

Props Fabrication by The Huntington Properties Shop

Additional Prop Artisans ... Berkeley Repertory Theatre Prop Shop, Hanbyul Joo, Sofie Miller, Amelia Reyes-Gomez (Properties Fellow)

Costumes Built by The Huntington Costume Shop

Additional Costume Technicians ... Berkeley Repertory Theatre Costume Shop, Chris Weiland, Malia Sittler, James Calhoun (Costumes Fellow)

Special Thanks to Helen Uffner Vintage Clothing LLC.

Lighting Services provided by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Lighting Department

Additional Lighting Technicians ... Emma Buechner, Brittany Cobb, Jack Grable, A. Chris Hartzell, Jacob Hill, Hannah Linaweaver, Margaret Linn, Charlie Mejia, Nora-Hayden Quist, Taylor Rivers, Matther Sykes, C. Swan-Streepy, Trinity Wickland
Additional Lighting Services provided by ... Desiree Alcocer, Sarina Renteria

Sound Services provided by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Sound and Video Department

Additional Sound Technicians ... Courtney Jean, Elliott Orr

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)
Company Management Assistant ... Bella Campos Hintzman

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 

Kyle Cameron *

Dennis/Jack Larkin

Kyle, a performer based in Brooklyn, is thrilled to be returning to the Bay Area having performed twice at SF Playhouse (Significant Other, TBA & SFCC Award-nominee; Trouble Cometh). New York credits include The Public Theater (Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp.), Manhattan Theatre Club (By the Water), and over 10 years with the 52nd Street Project. Regional credits include Denver Center (Henry Award-nominee), Studio Theatre, City Theatre, Capital Rep, and three international tours with Vancouver’s Green Thumb Theatre (Dora Mavor Moore Award). Screen appearances include Vampire (Sundance), FBI: Most Wanted, SVU, Blacklist, and Orange is the New Black. He is a proud alum of the NYU graduate acting program. PRONOUNS: HE/HIM

Meghan Carey *

Young Gloria

Meghan’s regional credits include Pinocchio (Commonwealth Lyric Theater) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Prague Shakespeare Company). Additional credits include the film Graduation Day (Five Hundred West Film) and Boston Conservatory’s Something Rotten. She is represented by DGRW. @meghancareyy. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Aimee Doherty *

Ruby/Mrs. Smith, Dance Captain

Aimee has appeared in The Huntington Theatre's Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, and A Little Night Music. Her additional regional theatre credits include Lyric Stage's productions of Hello Dolly!, Into the Woods (Elliot Norton Award for Best Actress), and On the Town (Elliot Norton Award for Best Actress), A Man of No Importance (SpeakEasy Stage), and Hairspray (Elliot Norton Award for Best Actress, Wheelock Family Theatre). aimeedoherty.net. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Kate Fitzgerald *

Young Joan, u/s Jillian

Kate is so excited to be making her Berkeley Rep debut! Regional credits include The Light in the Piazza (Huntington), The Crucible (Bay Street Theater), Peter Pan (North Shore Music Theatre), Jesus Christ Superstar (Coachella Valley Repertory), Double Helix (Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals, Bay Street Theater), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Lyric Stage), Pride and Prejudice (Barnstormers Theatre), The Children’s Hour (Gamm Theatre), and Josh Groban’s Harmony and Bridges Tour regional chorus. Kate earned a BFA in musical theatre from Boston Conservatory and is represented by ATB Talent. @katefiitz. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Jack Greenberg 

Tony/Mr. Halliwell/Mr. Smith, u/s Joe Fogg

Jack’s regional credits include John Proctor is the Villian (Huntington), Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company CSC2), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Newsies (Reagle Music Theatre), and The Soldier’s Tale (Brandeis University). Jack is a recent graduate of Boston University and trained at BADA's Oxford Program. jackgreenbergactor.com. PRONOUNS: HE/HIM

Patrice Jean-Baptiste *

Penny/Biddy

Patrice is a Haitian- American teacher, writer, and actor whose work includes two productions of Mfoniso Udofia's Ufot Family Cycle: The Grove (Huntington and Central Square), Her Portmanteau (Central Square), Trouble in Mind, Broke-ology (Lyric Stage), King Hedley II, The Taming of the Shrew, Coriolanus, Hamlet (Actors’ Shakespeare Project), and Henry V (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company). She is a graduate of Boston University's Bachelor of Arts program and Trinity Repertory's Theatre Arts Conservatory (MA). She is a pianist and an avid salsero. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Karen Killeen *

Jillian

Karen is an actor, singer, and director from Dublin, Ireland. She recently made her off-Broadway debut in The Dead, 1904 at Irish Repertory Theatre. A graduate of the MFA in acting program at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, her stage work includes Pride and Prejudice (Chautauqua Theater Company), Uncle Vanya, The Misanthrope, The Cherry Orchard, and A Midsummer Night's Dream (DGSD). On screen, she has appeared in Kin (AMC) and Taken Down (RTÉ). She is especially grateful to be part of this company and dedicates this work to her Mam and Malik James, RIP. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Chloé Kolbenheyer *

Patty/Young Ruby

Chloé is a New York-based actress and singer. Onstage credits include Night Fever: The Music of the Bee Gees (54 Below) and Lucy in Who’d Love Lucy? (The Tank). Her film/TV work includes Fireplace Ridge (Gemelli Films) and a cameo in What Would You Do? Season 14. She recently graduated Boston University with a BFA in acting. She is signed with Stewart Talent NY and Blue Ridge Entertainment. chloekolben.com. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Mike Masters *

Bill/Joe Fogg/Dr. Rose

Mike most recently was seen off-Broadway in Sump’n Like Wings at the Mint Theater. In NYC he’s also worked at Madison Square Garden, The Algonquin, and City Center among others, as well as across the country with the Alliance, The REV, Flat Rock Playhouse, and more. National tours include The 101 Dalmatians Musical, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, and I Say Tomato, You Say Shut Up! Mike has also been seen on-screen in The Resident, The Blacklist, Maniac, Madam Secretary, Blindspot, The Good Fight, Blue Bloods, House of Cards, Elementary, Mama Flora’s Family, and, of course, Law & Order.

Nicole Mulready *

Young Jillian

Nicole is an actor and playwright from Medfield, MA. Her regional credits include Frank & Bean: The Musical! (The WBUR Festival Kidstage) and Troilus and Cressida (Prague Shakespeare Company). University credits include I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire, Escape from Happiness, and The Convent. Original works include U Had 2 B There and Home for the Weekend. She holds a BFA in musical theatre with an emphasis on absurdist acting from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee. @nicolemulready. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER/HERS

Amanda Kristin Nichols *

Gloria

Amanda has appeared off-Broadway in Three Sisters (The Sheen Center). Her regional credits include Advice, Bad Books (Florida Studio Theatre, NNPN Rolling World Premiere), Noises Off! (Bucks County Playhouse), Let There Be Love, The Steel Man (Penguin Rep), The Last Night of Ballyhoo, and The Great Gatsby (Bay Street Theater).

Lewis D. Wheeler *

Mr. Potts/Luther St. John

Lewis is an actor, director, and co-founder of Harbor Stage Company on Cape Cod. Credits include The Huntington Theatre (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone), American Repertory Theater (No Man’s Land), SpeakEasy Stage (Cost of Living), New Repertory Theatre (Long Day’s Journey into Night), and Lyric Stage (A Number). He has appeared in over 70 productions at regional theatres including American Stage, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Central Square Theater, Gloucester Stage, Cape Rep, and Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. Film/TV credits include Don’t Look Up, Manchester by the Sea, Black Mass, The Company Men, City on a Hill, and Brotherhood. BA from Cornell University and MFA from American Film Institute. lewisdwheeler.com. PRONOUNS: HE/HIM

Allison Jean White *

Veronica/Joan

Allison is thrilled to return to Berkeley Rep where she was last seen in Heartbreak House. Based in New York, she has worked at Roundabout, City Center, Irish Rep, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and was in The 39 Steps national tour. Regional credits include Denver Center, ACT, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Seattle Rep, Arizona Theatre Company, Northern Stage, SF Playhouse, Magic Theatre, and WHAT. Screen credits include The Blacklist, The Slap, High Maintenance, and The Family Fang. Allison is a graduate of Brown University and the ACT MFA program. She dedicates this performance to two late and beloved acting teachers: Allen Savage and Melissa Smith.

Annika Bolton

u/s Young Gloria, Young Joan

Annika’s regional credits include Llorona or the Weeping Woman (Boston Center for the Arts), Soft Star (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), and How to Kill a Goat (Moonbox Productions, Boston New Works Festival). Boston University theatre credits include Richard III, Fucking A, and El Nogalar. She has appeared in the film Swipe Right for Danger (Verdi Films). PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Lila Grace English

u/s Patty/Young Ruby, Young Jillian

Lila is honored to be an understudy with the company of The Hills of California at The Huntington Theatre Company and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. University credits include The Skriker, Sense & Sensibility, and King Lear. She holds a BFA in acting from Boston University. lilagraceenglish.com. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Bridgette Hayes *

u/s Gloria, Ruby/Mrs. Smith, Veronica/Joan

Bridgette is a Boston-based actor, educator, and designer. She appeared off-Broadway in The Contrast (Mirror Repertory). Her Regional credits include Crumbs from the Table of Joy (Lyric Stage), Mr. Fullerton, Between the Sheets (Gloucester Stage), Everyday Life (Sleeping Weazel, Arts Emerson), Men on Boats (SpeakEasy Stage), Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol (Greater Boston Stage), Dog Paddle, Julius Caesar (Bridge Repertory Theater), An Octoroon (Company One, Arts Emerson), and Demon Dreams (Williamstown Theatre Festival). She holds a BFA in acting from Boston University, an MLA in dramatic arts from Harvard University, and a certificate of classical acting from LAMDA. She serves as the Assistant Chair of Theater for the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Zach Kautter

u/s Tony/Mr. Halliwell/Mr. Smith

Zach’s regional credits include Constellations (BCA Plaza Theatre). He received a BFA in acting from Boston University. He is the founder of PK Productions Inc., a non-profit dedicated to emerging artists. zachkautter.com. PRONOUNS: HE/HIM

Yewande Odetoyinbo *

u/s Penny/Biddy

Yewande has appeared in regional productions such as Fat Ham (Huntington), Waitress (Majestic Theater), FELA! (Olney Theatre Center, Round House Theatre), The Colored Museum (American Stage Company), Sister Act, The Light, Breath Imagination (Lyric Stage, IRNE Award-winner), The Wiz, Little Shop of Horrors (Lyric Stage, Front Porch Arts Collective), Fairview, Once on This Island, The View Upstairs (SpeakEasy Stage), Macbeth in Stride (ART), Passing Strange, Caroline or Change (Elliot Norton-nominee), Parade (Moonbox Productions), Hair (New Rep), Show Boat (Fiddlehead Theatre), The Sound of Music, Show Boat (Reagle Music Theatre), Finish Line, The Gay Agenda (Boston Theater Company), In the Heights, Seussical, Ragtime (Wheelock Family Theatre), and Fannie Lou Hamer: Speak On It! (Merrimack Repertory Theatre). PRONOUNS: ANY

Michael Poignand *

u/s Mr. Potts/Luther St. John, Dennis/Jack Larkin, Bill/Dr. Rose

Michael is a Boston-based actor and visual creative returning to the stage after many years on the art side of advertising & marketing. Off-Broadway credits include Speaking in Tongues (Theatre 54), Taming of the Shrew (Secret Theatre) Navy Pier (Theatre Row), Orange Flower Water (InProximity Theatre), Rush's Dream (HERE Arts Center), The Wind in the Willows (New Victory Theater). Regional credits include My Way (Fulton Opera House), South Pacific (Hangar Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Dragonslayers (Syracuse Stage). Boston area credits include The Christians (Apollinaire), Or (Maiden Phoenix), The Merry Way, and Comedy of Errors (Anthem Theatre). Michael attended Syracuse University’s musical theatre program. He recently completed his first 70.3 Ironman in Augusta, ME.

Jez Butterworth
Playwright

Jez was born in London in 1969 and studied English at St. John’s College, Cambridge. His first play, Mojo, won seven major awards, including the Olivier Award for Best Comedy. His other plays include The Night Heron, The Winterling, Parlour Song, Jerusalem, The River, and The Ferryman (nominated for nine Tony Awards and winning four, including Best Play 2019). His latest play, The Hills of California, was highly acclaimed on Broadway and in the West End.

Loretta Greco
Director

Loretta Greco is the Artistic Director of the Huntington and is thrilled to be in the Bay where she led Magic Theatre for twelve seasons. Her directing credits include New York Theatre Workshop, The Public, and ACT and productions such as Fool for Love, Oedipus El Rey (Magic), and Prayer for the French Republic (Huntington). Producing credits include multiple premieres by Luis Alfaro, Lloyd Suh, John Kolvenbach, and Taylor Mac. Among her cross-organizational collaborations are A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, The Brother/Sister Plays, and Sheparding America. Notable works developed under her leadership at Huntington include John Proctor is the Villain, first American productions of Leopoldstadt, The Lehman Trilogy, and Mfoniso Udofia’s Ufot Family Cycle, a nine-play epic produced over two years across Boston by 36 organizations in partnership.

Andrew Boyce
Co-Scenic Design

Andrew is thrilled to return to his home theatre, Berkeley Rep. Past productions include POTUS, A Doll’s House, Part 2, and Dana H. Andrew is a Chicago-based designer working in theatre, opera, dance, live events, and TV/film. He has credits on Broadway, off-Broadway, in London, and with most major regional theatres across the US. Selected opera credits include Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and Opera Omaha, among others. He received his MFA at the Yale School of Drama and is the Associate Professor of Design at Northwestern University. andrewboycedesign.com. PRONOUNS: HE/HIM

Se Hyun Oh
Co-Scenic Design

Se is a South Korean set designer based in NYC. His off-Broadway credits include Once Upon A Korean Time (Ma-Yi Theater, La MaMa Theatre) and The Unbelieving (The Civilians, 59E59 Theatres). PRONOUNS: HE/HIM

Jennifer von Mayrhauser
Costume Design

Jennifer has designed over 30 Broadway shows including Disgraced, Wit, Rabbit Hole, The Heidi Chronicles, Execution of Justice, Baby, Hay Fever, and Talley’s Folly. She has designed many off-Broadway shows including work at Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, and Circle Repertory Company. Most recently she designed The Night of the Iguana at Signature Theatre. She received an Obie for Sustained Excellence in Costume Design. She has also designed for film and television, including Law & Order (Emmy-nominee), The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Captain Ron, Lean on Me, and Mystic Pizza.

Russell H. Champa
Lighting Design

Russell's previous projects at Berkeley Rep include Wintertime, Becky Nurse, Dear Elizabeth, The Pillowman, and Eurydice. Upcoming projects include All My Sons at Berkeley Rep, Girls Chance Music at ACT,  and Pictures From Home at Marin Theatre. His work on Broadway includes China Doll (Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre); In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Lyceum Theatre/Lincoln Center Theater); Julia Sweeney’s God Said “Ha!” (Lyceum Theatre). New York credits include Playwrights Horizons, Theatre for a New Audience, The Public Theater, Second Stage Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, and New York Stage and Film. Regional credits include Old Globe, Steppenwolf, The Wilma, Trinity Rep, and Mark Taper Forum. His work for opera and dance includes The Dallas Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Odyssey Opera, and Pilobolus. Thanks J+J! PEACE. russellchampa.com

David Van Tieghem
Sound Design

David’s Broadway credits include Burn This, How I Learned to Drive, Doubt, Heisenberg, The Gin Game, The Big Knife, Reckless, Arcadia, The Normal Heart, The Crucible, A Behanding in Spokane, A Man for All Seasons, and Inherit the Wind. PRONOUNS: HE/HIM

J. Jared Janas
Hair, Wigs, & Makeup Design

Jared has over 30 years in the wig, hair, and makeup industry. His previous Huntington credits include The Light in the Piazza, The Art of Burning, Common Ground Revisited, The Bluest Eye, Indecent, and Man in the Ring. His Broadway credits include Dead Outlaw, John Proctor is the Villain, Glengarry Glen Ross, Buena Vista Social Club, Our Town, Once Upon a Mattress, Mary Jane, Prayer for the French Republic, Purlie Victorious, Good Night, Oscar, Sweeney Todd, Ohio State Murders, & Juliet, Kimberly Akimbo, Indecent, Sunset Boulevard, The Visit, The Real Thing, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, Motown, Peter and the Starcatcher, and Porgy and Bess. PRONOUNS: HE/HIM

Kyle C. Frisina
Dramaturg

Kyle is an Assistant Professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross. As Director of Play Development at Second Stage Theater, her producing and dramaturgy credits included How I Learned to Drive, Water by the Spoonful, Little Miss Sunshine, The Happiest Song Plays Last, The Substance of Fire, American Hero, The Tutors, and Mala Hierba. As Associate Producer and Dramaturg at New York Stage and Film, credits include work by Jocelyn Bioh, Michael Friedman, David Lindsay-Abaire, Beth Henley, Duncan Sheik, Regina Taylor, Gabriel Kahane, and Stephen Karam. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Misha Shields
Choreographer

Misha Shields is a choreographer working in the NY and Boston areas. She is a Chita Rivera Award-nominee for Best Choreography for her work in the off-Broadway production of Baghdaddy (St. Luke’s Theatre), and has won both an Elliot Norton Award for Best Choreography (K-I-S-S-I-N-G, Huntington) and a BroadwayWorld Central New York Award for Best Choreography for a Professional Production (Loch Ness, The REV). Credit highlights include Private Jones (Signature Theatre DC, Goodspeed), The Lehman Trilogy, Witch, I Was Most Alive With You, Yerma, Ripcord, A Doll’s House, Milk Like Sugar (Huntington), The Winter's Tale (Hartford Stage), Once (Bucks County Playhouse), and Wonderland (Atlantic Theater Company). mishashields.com. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Daniel Rodriguez
Music Direction

Daniel’s past work with The Huntington includes The Band’s Visit, Sunday in the Park with George, and A Little Night Music. Regional credits include Hello, Dolly!, Urinetown, Assassins, Preludes (Lyric Stage), Evita, An American in Paris, Oklahoma (Reagle Music Theater), A Christmas Carol (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), Kinky Boots, Little Shop of Horrors (North Shore Music Theatre), Guys and Dolls (Greater Boston Stage Company), Caroline or Change, Cabaret, The Wild Party (Moonbox Productions), Mr. Popper’s Penguins, In the Heights (Wheelock Family Theatre), The Lily’s Revenge, The Blue Flower (ART), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Front Porch Arts Collective), Jerry Springer: The Opera, and Drood (SpeakEasy Stage). PRONOUNS: HE/HIM

Ashleigh Reade
Dialect & Vocal Coach

Ashleigh is thrilled to be joining Berkeley Rep! A Boston native, Ashleigh is an Assistant Professor of Voice and Speech at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, where she teaches speech, accents, and vocal extremes. Ashleigh's presentation and public speaking clients include MIT, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Berklee College of Music, and WCBV. Recent coaching credits include The Light in the Pizza, The Hills of California, and Fun Home at The Huntington, Emma at Actors’ Shakespeare Project, The Anonymous Lover at Boston Lyric Opera, and Driving in Circles (Elliot Norton Award-winner for Best Solo Performance) at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Jesse Hinson
Fight & Intimacy Coordinator

Jesse is a Boston-based violence designer, intimacy choreographer, actor, and educator. His Huntington credits include The Light in the Piazza, The Triumph of Love, The Grove, Leopoldstadt, and Fat Ham. Additional regional credits include Pru Payne, Cost of Living, Casa Valentina (SpeakEasy Stage), Rx Machina (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre), The Minutes (Umbrella Arts), Anna Christie, The Little Foxes (Lyric Stage Company), and Bud, Not Buddy (Wheelock Family Theatre). PRONOUNS: HE/HIM

Janet Foster, CSA
Casting

Janet has been casting for over 35 years. At The Huntington, she recently worked on The Light in the Piazza, The Triumph of Love, The Grove, Sojourners, Leopoldstadt, Toni Stone, and The Band’s Visit. Eight years at American Conservatory Theater included working with directors Carey Perloff, Mark Lamos, Mark Rucker, Annie Kaufmann, Loretta Greco, and many more.

Kevin Schlagle *
Stage Manager

Kevin has worked on many productions in 16 seasons with The Huntington including The Light in the Piazza, Prayer for the French Republic, and Sunday in the Park with George. Other credits include American Repertory Theater, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Boston Lyric Opera.

Ashley Pitchford *
Assistant Stage Manager

Ashley’s work with The Huntington includes stage management for The Light in the Piazza, The Triumph of Love, Leopoldstadt, John Proctor is the Villain, The Heart Sellers, Fat Ham, Joy and Pandemic, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Our Daughters, Like Pillars, Teenage Dick, Witch, We All Fall Down, and Man in the Ring. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

Sofie Miller *
Assistant Stage Manager

Sofie is delighted to return for another season with Berkeley Rep. Recent productions include 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, and has stage managed concerts in NYC at Joe’s Pub and Urban Stages. Sofie holds a BA in theatre arts and post-graduate certificate in theater management from University of California, Santa Cruz. PRONOUNS: SHE/HER

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 Wolves by 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 of Louisville 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.

Huntington Theatre

Celebrating over 40 years of outstanding theatre, The Huntington is Boston, MA’s leading professional theatre company. On our stages and throughout our city, we share enduring and untold stories that spark the imagination of audiences and artists and amplify the voices in our community. Led by Artistic Director Loretta Greco and Executive Director Christopher Mannelli, The Huntington is committed to welcoming diverse audiences, provides life-changing opportunities for students through robust education and community programs, is a national leader in playwright and new play development, and serves the local arts community by operating The Huntington Calderwood/BCA. The Huntington reopened the historic Huntington Theatre in fall of 2022 after its transformational renovation and is currently in phase two of the project; the transformation of this storied venue will allow us to deepen our services to audiences, artists, and the community for generations to come. huntingtontheatre.org

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