In This Program

• A Welcome from the Artistic and Managing Directors
• By Teens, For Teens: Berkeley Rep’s Teen Leadership Council
• Living Forward: A Conversation with Bess Wohl
• The Personal is Political: Let’s Talk About Consciousness Raising Groups
• Show Program
• Artist Bios
• Print Edition
• More about Berkeley Rep

By Teens, For Teens:

Keeping Up Berkeley Rep’s Teen Leadership Council

by Ashley Lim, School of Theatre’s Marketing and Registration Manager

Think back to your high school experience—by the time you were ready to graduate, had you ever stood on a Tony-award winning theatre company’s stage, met actors, directors, and designers from across the globe, or advocated for arts education at the state capital? For Berkeley Rep Teen Leadership Council members, the answer is yes.  

According to our oral history passed to the incoming council members at the start of each season, Teen Leadership Council was originally created by a group of high schoolers who simply loved theatre and spent their free afternoons hanging out at the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre. Allegedly, it started as a pizza party—then a bigger pizza party, then a pizza party that came with tickets to Berkeley Rep’s shows, and thus their most popular flagship program, Teen Night, was born. Today, Teen Night is much more than a pizza party; it’s an opportunity for high schoolers to find community with other teens from across the Bay Area, ask questions of the amazing artists who volunteer their time to speak at a Teen Night interview, and access Berkeley Rep’s world-class shows for only $10.

Though the programming has evolved, the core dream and mission of Teen Leadership Council has always remained the same: to expand access to the arts through Berkeley Rep shows, engage with teens across the Bay Area, and advocate for issues affecting teens on the local, state, and national level. “Teen Leadership Council members leave Berkeley Rep with real leadership training,” explains Anthony Jackson, director of the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre. “They learn how to ask hard questions, what it means to hold the values of rigor, joy, and radical inclusivity, and how impactful it can be to speak up for what’s right. Years from now, when they are running organizations and casting votes, they are the ones who will make sure the arts have a seat at the table.” 

This season, Teen Leadership Council is continuing its legacy with a variety of programming for high schoolers across the Bay Area. From Teen Nights to karaoke nights, and even a podcast where members interview working artists, these student leaders continue to exemplify the incredible impact that is only possible when you invest in community, amplify young voices, and create a safe space for young people to engage with ambitious, complex, and relevant art on Berkeley Rep’s stage and beyond.  

To keep up with all Teen Leadership Council programs and get involved, head to berkeleyrep.org/teencouncil

Living Forward:

A Coversation with Bess Wohl

Berkeley Rep’s Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer speaks with the 2026 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning playwright Bess Wohl about motherhood, how conflict and joy can power political change, and the ways her play Liberation made her braver. Here are excerpts from their conversation.

Johanna Pfaelzer: When you talk about Liberation, where do you begin? 

Bess Wohl: I tend to talk about it through the lens of the mother-daughter relationship at the heart of it. It’s a woman searching for answers about her mother’s life and traveling back and forth in time to better understand her own. 

While there are elements that were derived from my own autobiography, it’s not an autobiographical play. It feels real, but actually this is a work of fiction and imagination that is also rooted in historical events that are true. 

JP: The women in your play don’t agree with each other or even necessarily share an understanding of what liberation means. What was interesting to you about exploring the idea that solidarity among women doesn’t require agreement? 

BW: Liberation means something different to each of the characters. And what it means changes for each of them over the course of the play. It was really important for me to be able to show those disagreements without having them destroy the solidarity between the women.

Every movement has conflict, right? That’s just part of any effort to change things. There is going to be a lot of diversity of opinions around it. But often, I think with women, people see that conflict as catfighting, or the idea that women just can’t get along, we can’t get anything done, we argue with each other. It’s stereotyped as a fault rather than a thing that actually can be productive. 

So, it was important for me to show how conflict can be productive, and how we can continue to have solidarity in spite of conflict, or even because of conflict sometimes. 

JP: There’s also so much joy and humor among these women.

BW: There’s so much comedy in this show, and in Whitney White’s production especially. We were lucky enough to have Gloria Steinem come see the show in New York, and when Gloria came, everyone was very serious with Gloria, like, “Thank you for your service, you’re so amazing,” all the things that she probably heard every day of her life. 

And she kept saying to us, “It was fun! It was fun!” That was the way she talked about the movement. She said it over and over: it was fun. 

It made us start to think about how much joy can power political change. And how much chemistry and friendship can power a movement. Part of the reason these women keep coming back into this room is because they’re having a good time together. Sometimes that’s even more powerful than whatever your mission statement is. That level of friendship and chemistry is activism or can lead to some really great activism. 

JP: We’ve talked about the complicated response people can have when a work is described directly as “feminist.” Why do you think the notion of feminism can still be frightening or off-putting to some people? 

BW: That question is part of why I wrote the play, right? Why does it feel, after all this time, that we still live in a world that hates women? Or that we still are fighting for basic rights for women? What is so dangerous about giving women equal rights? It doesn’t seem like a radical idea to me, and yet it’s not what’s happening in our country. And in the world. 

I think there’s just so much deep, deep misogyny baked into our culture and our daily life, that we don’t even see it. It’s like the goldfish not seeing the water that they are swimming in. 

But I also don’t want to ignore that the second wave of feminism had a lot of missteps, and people who were not included, and things that could have been done differently. While the play celebrates the incredible progress that indisputably has been made, it’s also holding the mistakes and the failures and the questions of what could have been achieved if things had been a little different. Who was left out? Whose voices weren’t heard? And what was the cost of that? 

I think one of the mistakes we make when we talk about feminism is that we talk about it as a woman’s issue, and it’s not. It’s an everybody issue. It takes a whole society to advance the idea that everybody is equal. Women can’t do it alone. 

JP: I would love to talk about the relationship between motherhood and your work. How has being a mother changed what is possible for you as an artist? 

BW: I think about that all the time, because there’s no way I could have written this play if I wasn’t a mother myself. There’s just no way I would have been attuned to all of these things in this way. 

Even though, just from a time perspective, being a parent is not additive to my artistic practice, from a human perspective, from a life experience perspective, I can’t imagine what my writing would be like if I didn’t have kids. I don’t know what I would write about, really. I’m sure that I would find other things to write about, and I would have a lot more time, and I would be in better shape and go to the gym. (laughs)There’s an alternate universe out there. 

JP: And what do you hope your daughters see while watching you work? 

BW: I have a lot of pride in being able to share my identity as a person who works with my kids. I hope desperately that it’s inspiring for them. I have three daughters, and they say that more than kids absorb what you say, they absorb what you do. 

My hope is that the fact that I’m willing to put myself out there, sometimes succeed, sometimes fail, and learn something in the process all the time, hopefully, is an example to them. 

I just feel like it’s so important for girls, particularly, to see their moms using their voice, whatever that means. And sometimes, honestly, the moments when I fail at things are my favorite moments to share with them, because it’s like, look, this didn’t go well, and we’re gonna pick ourselves up tomorrow and try again. 

JP: You and I grew up in the shadow of the second wave, and I often had the sense that some of those women, including my mom at times, felt disappointed by what they saw as our generation’s lack of activism. Where have you carried forward your mother’s vision and ambition, and where have you had to find your own path? 

BW: I myself felt really unsure and conflicted about whether to have children, whether it was possible to have children and have a professional life, whether to learn to cook, how to approach anything around the domestic sphere, whether to decorate my living room. I was really against all of that. 

And it’s been an evolution to try to understand what my relationship to it is. There were times when it felt like, gosh, is learning to cook letting my mom down in some way? But somebody needs to eat dinner, do you know what I mean? I also need to figure this out. 

My mother never taught me any of it, because she would say, “Don’t go in the kitchen, because you’ll never get out of it again.” 

For me, it’s been a process of figuring out how to navigate that stuff, and how to find some kind of path through it that felt like my own. And that’s really, in a way, also Lizzie’s journey in the play. Margie, playing her mom, says, “Don’t be so caught up on not becoming your mother that you forget to become yourself.” 

I think that’s really the process of becoming an adult. When do you stop just being reactive to whatever your upbringing was, or whatever your parents said or didn’t say, and figure out what you want on your own terms? Not just living in response but living forward. 

JP: How has the play changed you? 

BW: There is this quote from the Dalai Lama that I always think about when I’m making work. I’m probably going to mangle it, but the essence of it is that the beauty of a work of art can be perceived by the transformation that the artist went through in the making of it. What makes a work of art beautiful is how the artist was transformed by making it. 

I’m always looking for that in myself when I’m making anything. How is this thing that I’m making an opportunity for transformation, both for myself and for the people who experience it? 

For me, Liberation has made me braver. I have to say, honestly, it really has. When I started this, the play felt so personal, and it felt so vulnerable, that I thought, I don’t know how I’m going to put this into the world, and I don’t know what will happen to me if it’s not received the way I hope it will be. 

I had to get to a place, personally, where I felt like, I’m going to put this into the world, and I’m going to survive whatever happens next. 

And then having it meet the world in the way that it did, and having other people come to the conversation, I think it’s just made me braver about sharing things that are vulnerable, and that are personal, and that feel a little bit frightening. 

Watching the actors who’ve inhabited these roles, seeing what Whitney’s done with the play, and seeing how much bravery it takes to do the play as an actor, and how much Whitney has poured of her own self into this play, those examples have inspired me deeply and made me braver. 

Just watching the characters navigate their own lives and take risks in their own lives makes me braver every time I see it now.  

The Personal is Political:

Let’s Talk About Consciousness Raising Groups

by Nylarose Moore,
Berkeley Rep’s Peter F. Sloss Artistic Fellow 

“Everything we have to know, have to prove, we can get from the realities of our own lives,” exclaimed Kathie Sarachild at the 1968 National Women’s Liberation Conference, during her presentation, “Program for Feminist Consciousness-Raising.” She prompted women across the country to adopt the practice as a means of mobilizing women for social change. Consciousness raising (CR) is the act of increasing one’s knowledge and understanding of social, systemic, and political issues through personal storytelling and group discussion. Formed throughout the 1970s in gyms, churches, basements, and living rooms, CR groups gave women a space to share their experiences of the oppressive realities of the patriarchy, and verbalize feelings that had previously been dismissed. A primary advantage of CR was its open nature: the groups did not require an academic degree, specific financial standing, or professional credentials, welcoming women from all backgrounds into an intentionally leaderless and non-hierarchical structure to build sisterhood and foster solidarity. 

Consciousness raising drew directly from the civil rights movement’s practice of “telling it like it is,” a phrase popularized by activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who dedicated her life to calling out the injustices Black Americans faced. In one of her speeches, Hamer exclaimed, “This probably don’t sound too good to everybody. But if I can’t tell the truth—just tell me to sit down—because I have to tell it like it is.” By sharing personal stories often centered on marriage, sex, and domestic labor, women began to recognize that their individual struggles were not personal failures, but systematic products of patriarchy.

Groups used their shared experiences to deconstruct beauty standards and bodily shame, sometimes by having meetings completely nude. In “About the Mirror Activity,” Barbara Susan, a radical feminist, shares, “In our consciousness-raising group, we decided to take off our clothes and look at ourselves and each other. We discovered that none of us looked like the women in the magazines, but that each of us was beautiful in her own way. Removing our clothes was an act of liberation from the standards of beauty that had been imposed on us by men.” The act of being completely nude in a room full of likeminded women allowed for discoveries about bodily autonomy, sex, and reproductive rights to arise. This process enabled activists and writers to write foundational essays that expressed women’s oppression and mapped out strategies for social change. These manifestos and articles would sometimes be published in magazines such as Ms., The Feminist Art Journal, and Off Our Backs. Judy Brady Syfers’s essay “I Want a Wife” catalogs the absurdly unequal demands of domestic labor, and translates women’s private, secluded frustration into a shared political critique. This act of unveiling (literally and figuratively) transformed personal vulnerability into political power, exposing the roots of structural inequality and laying the groundwork for Second Wave feminism. 

Despite the popularity of CR, it was not accepted amongst all women’s liberation groups. Instead of challenging systemic structures of oppression, CR risked becoming therapy circles that prioritized individual success over collective action. Sharing personal experiences didn’t seem like it was moving the needle; therefore, many believed this practice undermined the political, revolutionary heart of the movement. As larger, action-oriented organizations like the National Organization for Women and National Black Feminist Organization gained traction, their focused local activism began drawing members away, causing CR groups to gradually disband. However, the CR groups of the 70s created a foundational basis for the emergence of affinity groups, online networks, hashtags, and peer circles across social and working communities to continue affecting change. 

In Liberation, Bess Wohl takes the framework that the National Women’s Liberation Conference laid out for consciousness raising and highlights how the simple act of speaking the truth in a small room can shatter social isolation and lead to incremental, systemic change. Through the work of consciousness-raising groups and the academic critiques that occurred in them, women turned shared personal stories into an intellectual movement, forever shifting gender inequality from a personal burden to a public institutional fight.   

“It was… a method of radical organizing tested by other revolutions. We were applying to women and to ourselves as women’s liberation organizers the practice a number of us had learned as organizers in the civil rights movement in the south in the early 1960s.” 

— Kathie Sarachild

Sources:

Fannie Lou Hamer, The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell It Like It Is (University Press of Mississippi, 2011).

Carol Hanisch, “Women’s Liberation Consciousness-Raising: Then and Now,” On The Issues Magazine (2010).

Camila Lobo, “Consciousness-Raising,” PoliticalConcepts (2026).

Debra Michals, “Consciousness Raising,” in The Sage Encyclopedia of Education and Gender, eds. Elizabeth E. Blair et al. (SAGE Publications, Inc., 2025).

Linda Napikoski, “Feminist Consciousness-Raising Groups,” ThoughtCo (2019).

Sarah Rebell, “The real history behind Liberation on Broadway,” New York Theatre Guide (2025).

Reuel Schiller, “The Civil Rights Movement You Haven’t Heard of,” Jotwell (2021).

Beth Stevens, “Playwright Bess Wohl Reveals the Naked Truth in Liberation on Broadway,” Broadway Across America (2025).

Leslie B. Tanner, Voices from Women’s Liberation, Signet Book (1971).

Mark Joseph Walmsley, “Tell It Like It Isn’t: SNCC and the Media, 1960–1965,” Journal of American Studies 48, no. 1 (2014), p. 291–308.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Johanna Pfaelzer, Artistic Director | Tom Parrish, Managing Director

in a co-production with Geffen Playhouse, Studio Theatre, and American Repertory Theater

presents

Liberation

by

Bess Wohl

Directed by

Whitney White

Scenic Design
David Zinn 

Costume Design
Qween Jean

Lighting Design
Cha See

Sound Design
Palmer Hefferan  

Wigs & Hair Design
Nikiya Mathis

Casting
C12 Casting
Jillian Cimini, CSA

Voice & Dialect Coach
Gigi Buffington

Intimacy Coordinator
Kelsey Rainwater

Associate Director
Annabel Heacock

Stage Manager
Andie Leigh Burns*

Assistant Stage Manager
Kathleen Rose Gallardo*

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

Associate Artistic Director/Director of In Dialogue
David Mendizábal

Director of Human Resources and Diversity
Modesta Tamayo

Director of Operations
Amanda Williams O’Steen

Director of Development
Autumn Woish

West Coast Premiere

Original Broadway production produced by Daryl Roth, Eva Price, and Rachel Sussman. 

Originally produced and developed by the Roundabout Theatre Company at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre in New York City on January 31–April 6, 2025.

Originally developed with support from the Hermitage Artist Retreat (Sarasota County, Florida), Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO.

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

Pete's Coffee
The Shubert Foundation

SEASON SPONSORS

Crankstart 
Jerome & Thao Dodson 
Wayne Jordan & Quinn Delaney
Helen & John Meyer
Sudha Pennathur & Edward Messerly
John & Valerie Rowe
Jack & Betty Schafer

William + Flora Hewlett Foundation

SPONSORS

Pat & Merrill Shanks

CAST

(in alphabetical order)

Felicia Curry* … Celeste

Britt Faulkner* … Dora

Katie Lowes* … Lizzie

Irene Sofia Lucio* … Isidora

Gunnar Manchester* … Bill

Mary Gordon Murray* … Margie

Veronica Otim* … Joanne

Evelyn Spahr* … Susan

UNDERSTUDIES

Rolanda D. Bell … Celeste, Joanne

Nancy Carlin* … Isidora, Margie

Rachel Clausen* … Dora, Lizzie, Susan

Jeremy Kahn* … Bill

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

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

Musicians in this production are members of Musicians Union Local 6, American Federation of Musicians.

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: October 28, 2026

Roda Theatre

For This Production

Assistant Director … Emiliano Cáceres Manzano (Bret C. Harte Artistic Fellow)

Associate Scenic Designer … Teresa L. Williams

Associate Costume Designer … Emily Keebler

Associate Lighting Designer … Bev Fremin

Assistant Lighting Designer … Ollie Harbin (Electrics Fellow)

Associate Sound Designer … Jeffrey Salerno

Assistant Sound Designer … Caro Yeung (Harry Weininger Sound Fellow)

Associate Hair and Wigs Designer … Mary Lee

Production Assistant (NY) … Betty Schneider

Deck Crew … Hannah Linaweaver, Siobhán Slater, Emma Walz

Wardrobe Crew … Dieyla Diop, Liza Montoya, 
Kamaile Alnas-Benson (Sub), Linda Wu (Sub)

Wigs and Hair Crew … Katrice Hughes, Letzy Lugo, Karen Arriola (Sub)

Production Electrician/Board Op … Kenneth Coté

Sound Crew … Angela Don (A1), Courtney Jean (A2)

Scenic Fabrication by Daedalus and ShowMotion, Inc.

Additional Scenery Fabricators … Austin Andrade, Cassidy Carlson, Isaac Jacobs, Carl Martin, Troy McClendon, Jen McFarlane, Drea Ronquillo

Additional Scenic Artists … Kenzie Bradley, Katie Holmes, Courtney Sutherland, E Wayman-Murdock

Props Fabrication by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Properties Shop

Additional Prop Artisans … Hanbyul Joo, Sofie Miller

Costumes Built by Carmen Gee Studios

Special Thanks to Arel Studios

Additional Costume Technicians … Celestine Cervantes, Vinnie Loucks, Sky NYC Textile and Surface Design

Lighting Services provided by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Lighting Department

Additional Lighting Technicians … Grace Marie Yum Alexander, Ash Brown, Claire Chesne, Brittany Cobb, Kenneth Cote, Kaylee Geffken, Jack Grable, A. Chris Hartzell, Jacob Hill, 
Courtney Jean, Brittany Johnson, Hannah Linaweaver, 
Margaret Linn, Todd Loyd, Charlie Mejia, Zoya Nanale, 
Kathleen Parsons, Nori-Hayden Quist, Sarina Renteria, 
Riley Richardson, C. Swan-Streepy, 
Matthew Sykes, Trinity Wicklund

Sound Services provided by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Sound and Video Department

Additional Sound Technicians … Courtney Jean, Elliott Orr, Camille Rassweiler, Ellie Stalcup

Production Manager … Kali Grau

Production Management Associate (NY) … Alex Duncker


Production Management Assistant (NY) … Liz Coulter

Assistant Production Manager … Olivia Lehnert (Production Management Fellow)

Company Manager … Ryan Duncan-Ayala

Assistant Company Manager (NY) … David Rhea

Assistant Company Manager … Lexa Ornes (Company Management Fellow)

Additional Casting … Karina Fox

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

Rolanda D. Bell

U/S Celeste, Joanne
Rolanda is excited to return to Berkeley Rep where she appeared in POTUS as well as at The Ground Floor 2023 to present. She is a West Oakland native who began her creative journey at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011. She recently appeared in Primary Trust (TheatreWorks). Additional credits include Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire Theater, African American Shakespeare Company, Aurora, ACT, Bay Area Children's Theater, and Oakland Theater Project (founding company member). Screen credits include All Day and a Night (Netflix), Blindspotting (original film), Erica Campbell’s music video "Positive," and deleted scenes of Pixar’s animated film Lightyear. She is a SAG-AFTRA union member and represented by JE Talent. @rolandadene

Nancy Carlin^*

U/S Isidora, Margie
Nancy is happy to return to Berkeley Repertory Theatre where she appeared in The Pillowman, Hedda Gabler, and Kabuki Medea. She has performed and directed extensively in regional theatres, including the American Conservatory Theater, California Shakespeare Theater, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Recent roles include Amanda in The Glass Menagerie (Center REP), Ma in Torch Song (Marin Theatre), and Ouiser in Steel Magnolias (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley). She holds a BA in comparative literature from Brown University and an MFA in acting from ACT. Her film credits include Eleanor Coppola’s Love is Love is Love and Jon Jost’s Frameup. nancycarlin.com

Rachel Clausen^*

U/S Dora, Lizzie, Susan
Rachel is so happy to make her Berkeley Rep debut! Favorite credits include Vienna (Sankhoff & Hein; TheatreWorks SV), The Bridge (Patricia Cotter & The Kilbanes; TheatreWorks SV), YAGA (Marin Theatre), Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (Pioneer Theatre Company), Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage (Dave Malloy; Trinity Rep), Fun Home (Korsa Musical Theatre), Scabmuggers (The Freight), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Elm Shakespeare Company), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Camden Shakespeare Festival). Rachel earned a BA from Muhlenberg College and an MFA from Brown/Trinity Rep. She is also a Provisional Registered Drama Therapist. Deep gratitude and love to Eric and Jamie. @rccolaaaaaaa

Felicia Curry^*

Celeste
Felicia recently appeared in the world premiere of CrazySexyCool: The TLC Musical (Arena Stage). On Broadway, she appeared in the Tony-nominated revival of Into the Woods; Off-Broadway, starred in Queens Girl in the World (Abingdon Theatre), Fabulation (Billie Holiday Theatre), and Bowl EP (National Black Theatre, Vineyard Theatre; 2026 Obie Award, Lucille Lortel nom., one of TheaterMania’s Top 10 Performances). She is the proud recipient of a Helen Hayes Award, Connecticut Critics Circle Award, Berkshire Theatre Critics Award, and Anderson-Hopkins Award for her regional theatre work. Her film & TV credits include Hell House LLC: Lineage and WETA Arts on PBS (Emmy-winning host). @thefeliciacurry

Britt Faulkner^*

Dora
Britt is thrilled to be making her Berkeley Rep debut! She was a part of the original Broadway cast of Liberation this past fall. She has appeared Off-Broadway at Ars Nova and The Public Theater, and regionally at American Repertory Theater, Berkshire Theatre Group, Geva Theatre, and Trinity Rep. Her film & TV credits include FBI, The Good Wife, Invasion, WeCrashed, Kaleidoscope, and Irrational Man. She received her MFA from Brown/Trinity Rep. @my.name.is.britt

Jeremy Kahn^*

U/S Bill
Jeremy returns to Berkeley Rep where he previously appeared in Office Hour, a co-production with Long Wharf Theatre. Select regional credits include Noises Off (Pittsburgh Public Theater); Big Data [U/S], A Christmas Carol, and Gloria (ACT); Tiger Style!, Archduke, and Peter and the Starcatcher (TheatreWorks SV); peerless (Marin Theatre Company); Another Way Home (Magic Theatre); Wittenberg, Dry Powder, and Everything is Illuminated (Aurora Theatre Company); and The Hombres and Bad Jews (Capital Stage). His screen credits include Looking (HBO), Love is Love is Love (American Zoetrope), and several releases of the NBA 2K video game franchise. ActorJeremyKahn.com

Katie Lowes^*

Lizzie
Katie is best known for playing Quinn Perkins on ABC's Scandal, Rachel on Netflix's Inventing Anna, and Jill on The Hunting Wives. Television credits include Grey's Anatomy and This Is Us; film credits include Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Super 8, Wreck-It Ralph, Vivo, and Zootopia. She made her Broadway debut as Dawn in Waitress. She is the co-founder of IAMA Theatre Company in Los Angeles, developing new work for 19 seasons. She hosts the podcast Katie's Crib and guest hosts Kelly & Mark. She lives in LA with husband Adam and children Albee and Vera. She received her BFA from the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. This one’s for Vera.

Irene Sofia Lucio^*

Isidora
Irene recently starred in Disruption Off-Broadway as well as the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Liberation, originating the role of “Isidora” in its Off-Broadway and Broadway runs. Irene also originated the role of “Patricia” in Jeremy O’Harris’s Slave Play, through its runs Off-Broadway, Broadway, on the West End, and in Los Angeles. A regular of the New York theatre scene, Irene has worked with The Public Theater, MCC, New York Theatre Workshop, Second Stage, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Irene is a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, with degrees from Princeton and Yale School of Drama.

Gunnar Manchester^*

Bill
Gunnar is a Brooklyn-based, New England-born actor and musician, and is thrilled to be making his Berkeley Rep debut. Select credits include Girl, Interrupted (Public Theater), Macbeth in Stride (BAM, Yale Rep), Safety Not Guaranteed (Signature Theatre), and Octet (Hudson Valley Shakespeare). Other credits include Huntington Theatre Company, Trinity Repertory, The Gamm Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Actor’s Shakespeare Project, and the Wilbury Group. He is a graduate of the Brown University MFA Training Program, where he was a recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Graduate Fellowship in theatre arts. More at gunnarmanchester.com

Mary Gordon Murray^*

Margie
Mary has appeared in ten Broadway shows, including Little Me (Tony nom. for Best Actress), Into the Woods as the Baker’s Wife, Footloose, Three Tall Women, Grease, Coastal Disturbances, The Robber Bridegroom, and Hands on a Hardbody. She was Fraulein Schneider in the national tour of Cabaret, and received the Drama-Logue Award for The Most Happy Fella at the Doolittle Theatre in Los Angeles. Mary has guest starred in over 30 episodic television shows, was Laura Bush in Showtime’s DC: 9/11, and spent 6 years as Becky Lee on ABC’s One Life to Live. She is on faculty at AMDA, Los Angeles.

Veronica Otim^*

Joanne
Veronica has appeared on Broadway in Redwood and & Juliet (original casts), as well as Jagged Little Pill. Her regional credits include Rent as Joanne (Bucks County Playhouse), The Hunchback of Notre Dame as Esmeralda (Houston Broadway Theatre), and the North American premiere of & Juliet. She received her BM from the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Performing Arts. All glory to God, and endless gratitude to the entire creative team, A&R, and Solstice Talent. @veronicaotim

Evelyn Spahr^*

Susan
Evelyn is a proud Ecuadorian American, born and raised in the Bronx, who is drawn to stories about ordinary people navigating extraordinary circumstances. Most recently, she understudied Amber Gray and Emily Davis in Tartuffe at New York Theatre Workshop, opposite Matthew Broderick and David Cross. Other credits include Light Shining in Buckinghamshire at New York Theatre Workshop, directed by Rachel Chavkin, Henry V and Cry It Out at Hartford Stage, and Richard III at Shakespeare Theatre Company. She holds a BFA from New York University.

Bess Wohl 

Playwright
Bess is a playwright and filmmaker whose plays have been produced on and Off-Broadway, regionally, and internationally. Wohl received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best New Play for her most recent play Liberation. She will return to Broadway this Spring with the Broadway debut of her play Small Mouth Sounds, starring Julia Roberts, Paul Rudd, and Sarah Paulson.Her other plays include Grand Horizons (Broadway; Tony nom.), Barcelona (West End), Camp Siegfried, Make Believe, Continuity, American Hero, Touched, In, Cats Talk Back, and the original musical Pretty Filthy. Her plays have been recognized with a variety of awards; among them the GLAAD Media Award, the Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner, the Drama Desk, the Drama League, and the Outer Critics' Circle. Bess’ film Baby Ruby premiered at TIFF in 2022 starring Noémie Merlant and Kit Harrington and was released by Magnolia Pictures. She has developed multiple TV and film projects and wrote for the Apple series Extrapolations. She is an alumna of Ars Nova’s PlayGroup, an Associate Artist with The Civilians, and the current Judith Champion fellow at Manhattan Theatre Club. She earned her BA at Harvard and her MFA at the Yale School of Drama.

Whitney White 

Director
Whitney is a two-time Tony Award-nominee and an Obie and Lilly Award-winning writer and performer. Her Broadway credits include Schoolgirls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, Liberation, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, and The Last Five Years. Her Off-Broadway credits include Macbeth in Stride (BAM), Walden (Second Stage), Jordans (The Public), Saturday Church (NYTW), Soft (MCC), On Sugarland (NYTW; Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk noms.), Semblance (NYTW), Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (WP Theater, Second Stage), What to Send Up When It Goes Down (The Movement Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth, ART, The Public), and For All the Women Who Thought They Were Mad (Soho Rep). International credits include All Is But Fantasy (Royal Shakespeare Company) and The Secret Life of Bees (The Almeida). Her TV credits include I’m a Virgo (Staff Writer; Amazon Studios). She has received the Herb Alpert Award, Jerome Fellowship, Susan Stroman Directing Award, and was included in Variety's 10 Broadway Stars to Watch. She is a part of the Rolex Arts Initiative. She received her MFA in acting from Brown University/Trinity Rep and her BA from Northwestern University.

David Zinn 

Scenic Design
David is delighted to return to the Bay Area, where his previous work includes Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Amelie, Girlfriend, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), and Mother Courage at Berkeley Rep; and The Wizard Of Oz at ACT. David's recent credits in New York include Becky Shaw, Prince Faggot, and Stereophonic, as well as the upcoming Awake and Sing! revival and Purple Rain. He also designed sets and costumes for Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are, both in NY and London. He has received Tony, Obie, Drama Desk, and Hewes Awards for his work.

Qween Jean 

Costume Design
Qween is a proud Haitian storyteller and human rights activist committed to protecting all humanity. She is honored to create the costumes for Liberation; an ongoing mission to unite our collective power! Recent design credits include Saturday Church, Oh Happy Day, Swamp Dwellers, Wedding Band, Macbeth in Stride, Walden, Amen Corner, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball! She founded Black Trans Liberation, an organization that provides weekly fellowship, food, groceries, and housing resources for the TGNC community. She is the author of Revolution of Love: A Year of Black Trans Liberation. She is the recipient of an AUDELCO Award, Obie Award, Henry Hewes Award, and a finalist for NYC David Prize. She received her MFA from NYU Tisch. “NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL.”

Cha See 

Lighting Design
Cha made history as the first Filipino lighting designer on Broadway with Oh, Mary! and Liberation. Her recent highlights include Oh, Mary! (West End), The Disappear (Audible), The Monsters (Two River, MTC), Trophy Boys (MCC), Josh Sharp: Ta-Da! (Greenwich Theatre), Hold Me in the Water (Playwrights Horizons), You Will Get Sick (Roundabout), The Whoopi Monologues (Lincoln Center), and Pepper Slit (East Village Basement). Upcoming work includes the Oh, Mary! national tour, ANON (MCC), Particle Fever (La Jolla Playhouse), The Notebook (Theatre Group Asia), and Xtravaganza (Baltimore Center Stage). Her honors include the 2026 Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in Design and an Obie Citation for Wet Brain at Playwrights Horizons, as well as the 2026 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for The Unknown at Studio Seaview. seelightingdesign.com | @seethruuu

Palmer Hefferan 

Sound Design
Palmer is a Tony Award-nominated sound designer and composer for live performance. She has designed over 100 productions on stages across the US and is the recipient of a 2019 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Sound Design. Her Broadway credits include Liberation (Jones Theatre), John Proctor is the Villain (Booth Theatre; Tony nom.), Alex Edelman: Just For Us (Hudson Theatre), Grand Horizons (2ST), The Skin of Our Teeth (Lincoln Center; Tony nom.), and The Lifespan of a Fact (Studio 54). palmerhefferan.com

Nikiya Mathis 

Wigs & Hair Design
Nikiya made history as the first wig designer honored with a Tony Award for Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. Her Broadway wig design credits include School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Imaginary Invalid, Jaja's African Hair Braiding, Purpose, Death of A Salesman, Once Upon a One More Time, Topdog/Underdog, and The Heart of Rock and Roll. Upcoming Broadway design work includes Warriors. As an actress, she has recurred on TV shows including Snowfall and Power Book III: Raising Kanan. @nikiyamathis | @our_black_tresses

C12 Casting, Jillian Cimini, CSA 

Casting
Jillian's select theatre credits include The Great Gatsby, & Juliet, Yellow Face, Swept Away, Jonah, I Need That, The Wanderers, Almost Famous, the bandaged place, Jagged Little Pill (tour), …what the end will be, Exception to the Rule, Caroline, or Change, The Ferryman, Groundhog Day, Fun Home, Matilda, Cabaret, American Idiot, and Spring Awakening. 

Gigi Buffington 

Voice & Dialect Coach
Gigi’s Broadway credits include Fear Of 13, Bug, Liberation, John Proctor is the Villain (& The Royal Court), Good Night and Good Luck, Cult of Love, Eureka Day, Romeo + Juliet, Stereophonic (and US tour), The Outsiders (and US tour), JOB, Mother Play, Prayer for the French Republic, Grey House, Between Riverside and Crazy, Cost of Living, The Minutes, Clyde’s, Slave Play (Remount), Pass Over, Linda Vista, Straight White Men. Her Off-Broadway credits include The Saviors, Birthright, Indian Princesses, Tartuffe, Meet the Cartozians, Caroline, Trophy Boys, Jonah, Stereophonic, King James, Camp Siegfried, Downstate, Evanston Salt Cost’s Climbing, Corsicana, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Catch as Catch Can, On Sugarland, The Thin Place, and Mary Page Marlowe. She has worked eight seasons at Steppenwolf and is an arts professor at Tisch, NYU.

Kelsey Rainwater 

Intimacy Coordinator
Kelsey’s most recent work was seen on Broadway in Liberation, The Last Five Years, and Hell's Kitchen. Her Off-Broadway works include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Antigone (This Play I Read in High School), Jordans, and Goddess at The Public Theater. Some of her other credits include Furlough’s Paradise, Wish You Were Here, Falcon Girls, and Choir Boy at Yale REP; and Between Two Knees at McCarter Theatre Center. Her TV and film credits include Baby Ruby (written and directed by Bess Wohl) and The Artist and The Green Veil (written and directed by Aram Rappaport).

Annabel Heacock 

Associate Director
Annabel is a Brooklyn-based director and producer. Their Broadway credits include Liberation (Associate Director), and Off-Broadway credits include The Beastiary (AD; Ars Nova), As I Was, Not As I Am (WP Theater), Liberation (AD; Roundabout). Regional credits include 2.5 Minute Ride, Tender Age, Cock (AD; Studio Theatre). Annabel is the company producer for sweat variant, working at the intersection of dance, theatre, and visual art. They have developed new work with Fresh Ground Pepper, Moxie Arts NY, La MaMa Puppet Festival, The Brick, The Tank, and 24 Hour Plays, among others. They are a member of New Georges Jam and SDC. annabelheacock.com

Andie Leigh Burns^* 

Stage Manager
Andie is thrilled to make her Berkeley Rep and returning with Liberation. Her New York credits include Liberation, Stereophonic, and A Strange Loop (Broadway); and The Wild Party (New York City Center Encores!). Off-Broadway credits include Indian Princesses (Atlantic Theater Company), Stereophonic and Corsicana (Playwrights Horizons), Business Ideas (Clubbed Thumb), White Girl in Danger (Second Stage), A Raisin in the Sun (The Public Theater). Regional credits include Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Spoleto Festival USA, and Southern Colorado Repertory Theatre. She received her BFA from Millikin University. Love to Mother Dearest and the village it took to get me here. @andieleighburns

Kathleen Rose Gallardo^* 

Assistant Stage Manager
Kathleen's Broadway credits include BOOP! The Musical and Here Lies Love. Her Off-Broadway credits include Titanique, The Play That Goes Wrong, and Stranger Sings. Regional credits include The Lunchbox (Berkeley Rep), Kiss My Aztec (Hartford Stage), The Wanderer (Paper Mill), and Anastasia (WPPAC). Thank you to the entire Liberation team! Lots of love to my family and friends. 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 theatre 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.

Roundabout Theatre Company 

World Premiere Producer
Roundabout Theatre Company, founded in 1965, is the New York not-for-profit institution that celebrates the power of theatre by spotlighting classics from the past, cultivating new works of the present, and educating minds for the future. Across its five theatres, on Broadway and off, Roundabout produces a mix of revivals and world premieres. Its educational initiatives impact over 30,000 students, educators, and community members annually. roundabouttheatre.org 

Geffen Playhouse

Co-Producer
Geffen Playhouse has been a hub of the Los Angeles theatre scene since opening its doors in 1995. Noted for its intimacy and celebrated for its world-renowned mix of classic and contemporary plays, provocative new works and second productions, the not-for-profit organization continues to present a body of work that has garnered national recognition. Named in honor of entertainment mogul and philanthropist David Geffen, who made the initial donation to the theatre, the company was founded by Gilbert Cates and is currently helmed by Executive Director/CEO Gil Cates, Jr., Artistic Director Tarell Alvin McCraney and Board Chair Mary Ann Cloyd. Proudly associated with UCLA, the Geffen welcomes an audience of more than 130,000 each year, and maintains extensive education and community engagement programs, designed to involve underserved young people and the community at large in the arts. geffenplayhouse.org

Studio Theatre  

Co-Producer
Studio Theatre in Washington, DC is a national leader in the production of contemporary plays. Over 48 years and more than 425 productions, Studio has remained committed to core distinguishing characteristics: deliberately intimate spaces; excellence in acting and design; and seasons that feature many of the most significant playwrights of our time. Studio also incubates and develops new work, nurtures the next generation of arts leaders, and proactively engages with its community through a wide array of initiatives. Studio’s location, rich history, unique venues, and commitment to artistry have made it a regional landmark, where audiences find the best that contemporary theatre has to offer. 

American Repertory Theater 

Co-Producer 
American Repertory Theater at Harvard University produces groundbreaking work to catalyze dialogue and transformation. A.R.T. is a Tony Award-winning creative hub, developing and launching productions seen on Broadway, across the US, and around the world, including Real Women Have Curves, Jagged Little Pill, Waitress, …Great Comet, All the Way, The Glass Menagerie, Pippin, Once, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, 1776, Life of Pi, and Two Strangers (Carry a Cake...). A.R.T. plays a central role at Harvard, catalyzing discourse, interdisciplinary collaboration, and creative exchange and builds community with audiences, artists, students, staff, and neighbors across Greater Boston. In 2027, A.R.T. will welcome audiences to its new home in Boston, the Goel Center for Creativity & Performance.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Co-Producer
Berkeley Repertory Theatre has grown from a storefront stage to an international leader in innovative theatre and has provided a welcoming home for emerging and established artists since 1968. Berkeley Rep’s shows have won eight Tony Awards, nine Obie Awards, fourteen Drama Desk Awards, one Grammy Award, one Pulitzer Prize, and many other honors. Berkeley Rep received the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 1997. The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work was launched in 2012. Berkeley Rep’s School of Theatre helps build the audiences of tomorrow. Learn more at  berkeleyrep.org.

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