In This Program

• A Welcome from the Artistic and Managing Directors
• The Next Generation of Theatregoers and Leaders
• For the Love of the Fight: Mixed Martial Arts in The Monsters
• From The Ground Floor’s Summer Residency Lab to the Mainstage: An Interview with Ngozi Anyanwu
• Show Program
• Artist Bios
• Making Theatre: Fight Choreography
• Print Edition
• More about Berkeley Rep

The Next Generation of Theatregoers and Leaders

By Karina Lipe, 2025/26 Season Education Fellow

As we move through the second half of our season, Berkeley Rep’s School of Theatre stays busy as ever. This includes our Teen Council, fast at work as they prepare for some exciting future events.

Berkeley Rep’s Teen Council is a leadership-based program that works to cultivate the next generation of theatre audiences and professionals by offering opportunities for teens to engage with Berkeley Rep’s various departments and shows. Teen Council is made up of 10-16 students from around the Bay Area who are eager to engage their peers through theatre arts. The Council is responsible for planning and executing “Teen Night” for each of the shows in Berkeley Rep’s season — a unique event by teens, for teens.

During Teen Nights, the Council hosts a viewing of a current mainstage show, organizes advocacy based on the show’s content, and features behind-the-scenes interviews with the world-class artists involved in the production. Teen Council members receive free admission to all of our shows and other teen programs as well as receiving exclusive access to Berkeley Rep’s leadership staff panel, who share their experience and insights on how students can continue working in theatre as they transition out of high school.

In April, members of our Teen Council will attend Arts Advocacy Day in Sacramento. Here, they’ll get the opportunity to raise awareness and advocate for the arts, as well as participate in discussions with state lawmakers, peer organizations, and other change-makers throughout the state of California.

“Arts Advocacy Day was an incredibly empowering experience. It’s a vital way of connecting working artists to change-makers who care about the arts but haven’t had any exposure or knowledge of the field. Through Arts Advocacy Day, people can put faces to names around who is affected by certain legislation regarding the arts and gain new connections to support their votes on beneficial changes towards California artistic communities,” says 2024/25 season Education Fellow, Mondara Ixchel.

“Teen Council has grown into a space where teens don’t just respond to theatre, they help lead it,” says AeJay Antonis Marquis Mitchell, School of Theatre’s Education Programs Associate. “Over time, I’ve watched their curiosity sharpen into confidence and their questions reshape our practices. Their presence has expanded how Berkeley Rep listens, programs, and imagines community, reminding us that youth leadership should not be symbolic. It’s essential in shaping theatre’s now, not just its tomorrow.”

The theatre industry is constantly changing, and with that, new audiences are being introduced to Berkeley Rep’s groundbreaking storytelling. If you know a teen who is passionate about theatre, interested in fostering community, or looking to grow their leadership skills, encourage them to head to BerkeleyRep.org/TeenCouncil to apply for next year’s cohort and get involved! 

For the Love of the Fight: Mixed Martial Arts in The Monsters

by Yasmin Eubanks

But why MMA? 

Mixed martial arts is a full contact sport that combines multiple martial arts disciplines including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, judo, and more. Mixed martial artists train tirelessly, learning the moves and strategies of these disciplines to formulate an individual style that uniquely suits each athlete. In addition to the extremely technical martial arts movements required, MMA training also requires athletes to learn endurance, control, discipline, trust, and awareness — much like an actor. MMA is not just about unleashing brutal techniques on an opponent — it requires constant negotiation between aggression and restraint, the same skills that BIG and LIL use both inside and outside of the cage.

MMA was once viewed as a fringe and “brutal blood sport without rules.”¹ Its roots can be traced back to ancient Greece with a version of hand-to-hand combat called the pankration, meaning “all power,” where savage contests of kicking, hitting, and strangling were allowed.² However, modern MMA is more directly related to Brazilian “vale tudo” competitions that developed in the early twentieth century and involved full-contact combat sports with minimal rules.³ These early contests and competitions laid the groundwork for the popular sport we see on television today. MMA, as we now know it, gained international visibility in the 1990s with the emergence of televised competitions that brought different fighting styles together for competition. With the addition of strict rules and regulations, MMA has gradually turned into one of the world’s fastest growing sports of the modern world, with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) becoming the leading promoter of MMA events. Unlike boxing, which limits strikes to the head and body, or wrestling which prioritizes position over exhaustive defeat, MMA combines multiple disciplines to create an exciting, entertaining, and competitive matchup of styles. This blending of disciplines requires a precise, intentional physical awareness that goes beyond competition and into performance.

The play’s characters move from athletic practices to a deeper awareness of body, self, and relationships. For BIG and LIL, MMA becomes a ritualistic representation of their inner battles and the fight for their relationship. When choreographed for the stage, rather than simply mimicking real fights, MMA is about translating physical action into emotional catharsis and storytelling. This fight choreography requires intentional collaboration between the director and the fight choreographer as well as intense training for the actors tasked with balancing intricate choreography, pacing, precision, and emotional storytelling. The combat you see in the play becomes a physical expression of effort, intimacy, and vulnerability between siblings rather than the mainstream image of brutality that MMA often carries. As a practice rooted in emotional exposure, MMA shapes the dramatic world of The Monsters and allows the characters to fight as a practice of reconciliation and survival. In this world, fighting is a tool for healing and connection.  
References

From The Ground Floor’s Summer Residency Lab to the Mainstage

An Interview with Playwright and Actor Ngozi Anyanwu

Playwright Ngozi Anyanwu has lived with this story in more ways than one. After writing the play, shaping its early life as a director (including directing the world premiere production for Manhattan Theatre Club and Two River Theater), and now stepping into the work as an actor, Anyanwu brings a rare, full-circle relationship to the piece. In this conversation, Associate Producer of New Work victor cervantes jr. sits down with the actor and playwright of this production to discuss how the story has evolved across those roles, what it’s like to inhabit the world she first imagined, and what it means to bring the play to Berkeley Rep.

victor cervantes jr.: In the script, the play is titled The Monsters: a sibling love story. You often write about siblings, but I’m curious — what specifically drew you to telling this brother–sister story?

Ngozi Anyanwu: I’m interested in intimacy in a familial way. I have always written attempts at love stories, or rather, at healing stories. I remember writing Good Grief and writing the brother-sister scene and thinking that I would love to write a whole play that is around this relationship. I think it might be my niche. I know there are big political things happening in the world — I think the way I engage politically is by humanizing people, and that starts at home. I’m interested in how people are actually living through these moments. A lot of the time, they’re not thinking about the big picture. They’re thinking about their room, their backyard, their sibling. I’m always trying to make sure people feel seen.

vcj: So much of these two characters are defined by their physicality and the restrictions the world imposes on them because of it. There is a moment in the play where BIG talks about not being understood or seen as human. What are you hoping people will take away from BIG and LIL?

NA: When I got out of undergrad, the writers we were really talking about were August Wilson, Lynn Nottage, and Suzan-Lori Parks. I loved their work, but I didn’t always see a place for myself in it. I write things I’m personally moving through, and I hope someone else might pick it up. This play is me saying, “I believe you. I don’t feel sorry for you. I think you’re beautiful. I think you’re necessary. I think you’re wonderful.”

Ngozi Anyanwu. continued: My brother, who inspired BIG, and I are really close. We don’t talk all the time, but some of our most intimate conversations happen between us, and a lot of those conversations break my heart. I was trying to make sure he felt seen and trying to create a marker for men like him, and for actors like him in the larger theatre world.

vcj: What you’re describing is one of the reasons we were drawn to the story and invited you to develop The Monsters through Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab in 2024. What does it feel like returning to a place that was part of the play’s development?

NA: Ground Floor was really about testing. It was short and intense, and it gave me space to just try things and not know. I could throw stuff at the wall, generate new writing, and ask a lot of questions about what the play actually wanted. People were just like, “What do you need?” and I could say, “I need this, I need that,” and then try it. That kind of room is rare. It helped me move forward with the piece feeling a lot clearer and a lot more confident about what it is. I’ve also known Johanna for a really long time. She’s one of the people who kind of started my New York playwriting career, so being at Berkeley always hits that way.

vcj: We are so grateful to have you at Berkeley Rep and for all your additions to the American theatrical canon. In that vein, what does that mean for this play, and for all your plays, to be known as “American plays?”

NA: It took me until maybe my third play to call myself a playwright. The turning point happened at my former university where I returned for a production of my play, Good Grief. They opened a brand-new theatre where my play would be the inaugural production — in a place where, at one point, I hadn’t been included in an actors showcase because of the lack of roles for me. A place where I was told, “We can’t just do a Black play for you.” And now I was being asked to show up and say, “This is theatre. This is what you’re supposed to aspire to.”

At that time, I was in the library reading Greek theatre, discovering August Wilson, discovering Suzan-Lori Parks. And now I know Suzan-Lori Parks. I know Wilsonites. That’s what it feels like. It feels like family albums, like markers of time. Good Grief was one of those markers. I self-produced it. Then I won a contest. Then I had a career. And now it’s part of the American theatre. That definition is and should be constantly evolving.   

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

in a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse
presents

The Monsters

By Ngozi Anyanwu
Directed by Tamilla Woodard

Choreographer
Adesola Osakalumi

Scenic Design
Nina Ball

Costume Design
Celeste Jennings

Lighting Design
Reza Behjat

Sound Design
Bailey Trierweiler & UpTown-Works

Casting
Karina Fox

Mixed Martial Arts Consultant
Sijara Eubanks

Stage Manager
Kristy Bodall*

Assistant Stage Manager
Lucas Bryce Dixon

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

West Cost Premiere

The world premiere production of The Monsters was originally produced by Two River Theater and Manhattan Theatre Club
Justin Waldman, Artistic Director / Nora DeVeau-Rosen, Managing Director
Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director / Chris Jennings, Executive Director

The Monsters was originally commissioned by Two River Theater
John Dias, Artistic Director / Michael Hurst, Managing Director

The Monsters was developed with the support of New York Stage and Film.
Developed with support from The Ground Floor at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Berkeley, CA.

SEASON PRESENTING SPONSORS

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

SEASON SPONSORS

The Hearst Foundations
Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau
Wayne Jordan & Quinn Delaney
Jack & Betty Schafer
Kelli & Steffan Tomlinson

LEAD SPONSOR

Sutter Health

ASSOCIATE SPONSORS

Edith Barschi & Robert Jackson
Cindy J. Chang, MD & Christopher Hudson
Phyra McCandless & Angelos Kottas

CAST

In alphabetical order

NGOZI ANYANWU * … LIL
SULLIVAN JONES * … BIG

UNDERSTUDIES

JAMAL JAMES * … BIG
CAROL J. MCKENITH … LIL

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.

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: April 2, 2026
Peet's Theatre

The Monsters will be played without an intermission.

For This Production

Assistant Director … Elena Sanchez (Peter F. Sloss Artistic Fellow)
Fight Consultant … Chelsea Pace
Assistant Lighting Designer … Claire Chesne (Electrics Fellow)
Assistant Sound Designer … Riley Oberting (Harry Weininger Sound Fellow)
Production Assistant … Todd Loyd
Deck Crew … Jack Grable, Hannah Linaweaver, Chris Russell, Gabriel Holman (Sub), Siobhán Slater (Sub)
Wardrobe Crew … Raegina Joyner, Mika Rubinfeld, Linda Wu (Sub)
Lighting Programmer/Board Op … Desiree Alcocer
Sound Crew/A1 … Angela Don, Conor Fortner

Scenic Fabrication by La Jolla Playhouse and Berkeley Repertory Theatre Scenic & Paint Shops

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

Props Fabrication by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Properties Shop

Additional Prop Artisans … Cassidy Carlson, Hanbyul Joo, Sofie Miller

Costumes Built by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Costume Shop

Additional Costume Technicians … Chris Weiland (First Hand/Stitcher)
Costume Shop Assistants … Mika Rubinfeld, Trinity Wicklund

Lighting Services provided by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Lighting Department

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

Sound Services provided by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Sound and Video Department

Additional Sound Technicians … Courtney Jean

Production Manager … Kali Grau
Assistant Production Manager … Alex Hamm (Production Management Fellow)
Company Manager … Ryan Duncan-Ayala
Assistant Company Managers … Bella Campos Hintzman, 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

Ngozi Anyanwu ^*

LIL, Playwright

Ngozi is a multihyphenate storyteller coming fresh from her professional directing debut with The Monsters' world premiere at Two River Theater in conjunction with Manhattan Theatre Club in 2025. Her previous plays include Leroy and Lucy (Steppenwolf; Jeffrey award nominated), The Last of the Love Letters (Atlantic Theater), Good Grief (Vineyard Theatre, Center Theatre Group; NYT Critic’s Pick), and The Homecoming Queen (Atlantic Theatre; sold-out world premiere run and a NYT Critic’s Pick). Good Grief was on the Kilroys List 2016, a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award, and a Humanitas Award-winner. Her play Nike… (Kilroys List 2017) was workshopped at The New Black Fest with The Lark, The Strand Festival with ACT, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and New York Stage and Film. Ngozi has been commissioned by NYU, The Old Globe, Two River Theater, Atlantic Theater, and Steppenwolf. She has received residencies from LCT3, National Black Theatre, SPACE on Ryder Farm, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, The New Harmony Project, New York Stage and Film, and Page 73. She earned her BA at Point Park University and received her MFA in acting from UC San Diego.

Sullivan Jones ^*

BIG

Sullivan is an actor known for his work across television, film, and theatre. In television, Sullivan has appeared in award-winning series such as The Gilded Age (HBO), Atlanta (FX), Interior Chinatown (Hulu), Harlem (Amazon), Elsbeth (CBS), and the Netflix series Halston, among others. On stage, Sullivan made his Broadway debut in the 13-time Tony-nominated Slave Play, and has appeared in regional stage productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Denver Center, Baltimore Center Stage, Berkeley Rep, Long Wharf Theatre, TheatreWorks, and the African-American Shakespeare Company, among others. In film, Sullivan recently starred as Muhammad Ali in the feature film Big George Foreman for Sony. In addition to his on-camera work, Sullivan has narrated award-winning audiobooks and voiced characters for major videogames.

Jamal James ^*

u/s BIG

Jamal is thrilled to be working at Berkeley Rep for the first time understudying this beautiful new work! A recent transplant to LA, he is a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. Ravenous for all things storytelling, he has acted and toured all over the country (and sometimes outside of it!). Some of his favorite stage credits include The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare & Company); The Royale (Kitchen Theatre Company, Geva Theatre, American Players Theatre); Hamlet, Love’s Labour's Lost (American Players Theatre); A Case for the Existence of God (Forward Theater Company); The Color Purple (National Broadway tour); Beauty and the Beast, Violet: The Musical (Barter Theatre). His TV credits include Gotham, Blue Bloods, City on a Hill, and FBI: Most Wanted. Grateful to God, his friends and family, and to all who have hearts to care for others. TheJamalJames.com

Carol J. McKenith

u/s LIL

Carol is a dynamic actor and creative force known for her compelling character work across television, film, and stage. A proud Jersey Girl from Englewood, she brings authenticity, strength, and emotional depth to every role she portrays while expanding her voice behind the camera. Her television credits include Chicago Med (NBC), Outer Banks (Netflix), BMF (Starz), Gotham Knights (CW), and Saturdays (Disney), among others. On stage, she passionately embraced the work of August Wilson, portraying Dussie Mae in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, where she showcased her command of language and boldness within Wilson’s celebrated work. One of her proudest screen achievements is her role as Willie Mae in MGM's historical drama Till, a project that deepened her passion for civil rights storytelling and culturally resonant narratives. Beyond acting, she channels her artistic vision into photography and interior design, expressing creativity both on and off screen.

Tamilla Woodard

Director

Tamilla is a resident director at Yale Repertory Theatre, Chair of the Acting Program at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, and the co-founder of the site-specific international partnership, PopUP Theatrics. Recent credits include Zora Neale Hurston’s world-premiere musical SPUNK at Yale Rep. Tamilla has directed at theatres nationally and internationally, including at WP Theater, Alliance Theatre, the Guthrie, Baltimore Center Stage, American Conservatory Theater, Folger Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, and Clubbed Thumb, among others. Represented in film and other media by the concert film Weightless by Bay Area’s own The Kilbanes. Tamilla is a proud board member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, previously named one of 50 Women to Watch on Broadway, 
and is a recipient of the Josephine Abady Award from the League of Professional 
Theatre Women.

Adesola Osakalumi

Choreographer

Adesola's choreography credits include Skeleton Crew (Broadway, Manhattan Theatre Club); Akinola (Guggenheim); Sweetwater (National Black Theatre); The Wash (New Federal Theatre); Cullud Wattah, Coal Country, Othello (Public Theater); Leroy and Lucy (Steppenwolf); The Grove (Huntington Theatre); Syncing Ink (Victoria Theater); runboyrun, Eyewitness Blues (NYTW); Good Grief (Vineyard); Jam on the Groove (City Center & Minetta Lane); School of Rock (2003 film). He is the recipient of a Bessie Award and a Drama Desk nominee.

Nina Ball

Scenic Design

Nina is a scenic designer, visual artist, and educator based here in the Bay Area. Her credits include American Conservatory Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Repertory, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, TheatreWorks, California Shakespeare Theater, People's Light, Shotgun Players, and San Francisco Playhouse, among many others. Notable productions include the West Coast premiere of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Shotgun Players (SFBACC Award nominee), Romeo and Juliet, and How I Learned What I Learned at OSF. Other awards include TBA awards for Blasted at Shotgun Players and The Nether at SF Playhouse. Her affiliations include Scenic Design Faculty, Stanford University; Company Member, Shotgun Players; Artistic Associate, Marin Shakespeare Company; United Scenic Artists Local 829.

Celeste Jennings

Costume Design

Celeste is a passionate playwright and costume designer. Recent and upcoming designs include Fun Home (Huntington Theatre), As You Like It (Folger Theatre), Memnon (The Classical Theatre of Harlem), Minority (Women’s Project & Colt Coeur), Furlough’s Paradise (Geffen Playhouse), and Appropriate (The Old Globe). She’s a current Terrance McNally Fellow with Rattlestick Theatre and recently developed her play Potliqka. Her plays ‘Bov Water and Citrus were produced at Northern Stage and she developed a play with music, Contentious Woman (Relentless Award Honorable Mention) with PlayCo. Jennings holds an MFA in costume design from NYU Tish School of the Arts.

Reza Behjat

Lighting Design

Reza is an Obie Award-winning lighting designer and theatre artist based in New York. His previous work at Berkeley Rep includes English and Mother of Exiles. Broadway credits include English (Atlantic/Roundabout). His off-Broadway design credits include Atlantic Theater, BAM, Signature Theatre, Public Theater, The New Group, MCC, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, Audible, Page 73, Flea, Red Bull Theater, Ars Nova, and more. He has worked with regional theatres such as Guthrie Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Old Globe, Milwaukee Rep, Seattle Rep, Hudson Valley Shakespeare, Wilma Theater, Arizona Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Geva Theatre, Long Wharf, and Alabama Shakespeare, among others. He is the recipient of Obie Awards in Design for English and Wish You Were Here, a Knight of Illumination Award for Nina Simone: Four Women, and a nominee for Drama Desk, Henry Hewes, and Jeff Awards.

Bailey Trierweiler & UpTownWorks

Sound Design

UptownWorks is a collaborative design team specializing in theatre, film, podcasts, installations, and other media. UptownWorks has worked with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe, Geffen Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Roundhouse Theatre, Goodman Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Indianapolis Repertory Theater, Geva Theatre, NYTW, AMT, The Lortel, Ensemble Studio Theater, DCPA, Berkshire Theatre Group, Miami New Drama, Hartford Stage, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, INTAR, WP Theater, Barrington Stage, National Black Theatre, Classic Stage Company, Studio and Signature Theatres DC. This design was led by Bailey Trierweiler (btsounddesign.com), Daniela Hart (uptownworksnyc.com), and Noel Nichols (noelnicholsdesign.com).

Karina Fox

Casting

Karina has been working as a casting director, producer, and director in the Bay Area since 2017. Now on her fourth season at Berkeley Rep, Karina has worked on the casting of over a dozen mainstage shows as well as The Ground Floor's Summer Residency Lab. Before joining Berkeley Rep in 2022, she was at Magic Theatre serving as the producing and casting director. Previous Magic Theatre casting credits include The Kind Ones, Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play), The Resting Place, and the Virgin Play Series (2018-2022).

Kristy Bodall ^*

Stage Manager

Kristy is a NYC-based stage manager and producer. Stage management credits include Mother of Exiles (Berkeley Rep), The Beastiary (Ars Nova), The Keep Going Songs (LCT3), Paris (Atlantic), The Maturation of an Inconvenient Negro (Cherry Lane), Ghost Quartet (NYTW), Material Witness (La MaMa), The Exalted (BAM); with Clubbed Thumb: Deep Blue Sound, Spindle Shuttle Needle, King Philip’s Head Is Still On That Pike Just Down The Road, Plano; with Pipeline Theatre Company: Playing Hot, Folk Wandering, Beardo, The Gray Man, Clown Bar; developmental work with the Public Theater, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, Center Theatre Group, and Fresh Ground Pepper.

Lucas Bryce Dixon 

Assistant Stage Manager

Lucas' credits include Clyde’s (Berkeley Rep); Our Town, Hello, Dolly, Urinetown: The Musical, The Play that Goes Wrong, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Lyric Stage of Boston); Toni Stone, John Proctor is the Villain, The Band’s Visit, Fat Ham, The Lehman Trilogy, Clyde’s, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Common Ground Revisited, The Bluest Eye, Hurricane Diane, Yerma (The Huntington); Heroes of the Fourth Turning, BLKS (SpeakEasy Stage Company); Hair, Oliver!, Trayf, and Nixon’s Nixon (New Repertory Theatre).

La Jolla Playhouse

Co-Producer

La Jolla Playhouse is a place where artists and audiences come together to create what’s new and next in the American theatre, from Tony Award-winning productions, to imaginative programs for young audiences, to interactive experiences outside our theatre walls. Founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, and Mel Ferrer, the Playhouse is currently led by Tony Award-winner Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse, and Managing Director Debby Buchholz. The Playhouse is internationally renowned for the development of new plays and musicals, including mounting 120 world premieres, commissioning 70 new works, and sending 37 productions to Broadway, garnering a total of 42 Tony Awards, as well as the 1993 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. lajollaplayhouse.org

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.

Making Theatre: Fight Choreography

By DC Scarpelli

Fight choreography and its related disciplines go by many names: fight direction, stage combat, swordmastery, and even violence design. It has existed for as long as performance has existed and in every performance tradition and medium, from ancient, shamanistic ritual to big-screen spectacle. There are hundreds of styles and aesthetics available to the fight choreographer to meet the dramatic requirements of the on stage moment, and, traditionally, they all serve one purpose: to create the illusion of violence and danger without putting the performers at risk. This is especially important for a fight-centered production like The Monsters.

While performance traditions in Asian cultures from Japan to Indonesia to India saw many martial art forms integrated into theatrical work, violence in ancient Greek drama was usually kept off stage — audiences saw only the aftermath. The earliest examples of on stage combat in our tradition can be found in ancient Roman comedies and subsequent medieval and Renaissance traditions like the Commedia Dell’ Arte, where stylized, stock characterizations and staging were the standard.

The advent of modern fight choreography is often traced to Elizabethan England. “Fencing masters” like actor and director Richard Tarlton of Shakespeare’s King’s Men brought new levels of urgency, robustness, grace, and realism to physical staging, just as his contemporaries — not just Shakespeare but action-oriented playwrights like Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson — were bringing similar qualities to dramatic text. The discipline has continued to evolve in that direction ever since.

“I’m interested in showing the grace and movement poetry that exists in the world of MMA while abstracting, bending & twisting it. Paying homage to the violence while turning it inside out.”
— Adesola Osakalumi, Choreographer, The Monsters

Recent depictions of hand-to-hand stage combat range in subject matter from 2012’s Rocky the Musical, (music and lyrics by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, book by Thomas Meehan and Sylvester Stallone), based on the 1976 film, to Marco Ramirez’s 2013 The Royale, which examines race relations in the boxing rings of the Jim Crow era, to Joy Wilkinson’s 2018 The Sweet Science of Bruising, which depicts women’s liberation through boxing in Victorian England.

MMA’s diverse origins — from Asian, European, African, and American martial arts — pose a unique challenge for the fight choreographer.

Fight choreography requires a deep read of the emotional, historical, and textual context of the fight(s) within the show, as well as knowledge of combat physiology, spatial relationships between the actors and the geometry of the stage and set. The primary concern is safety — accommodating the physical needs and limitations of the actors while also understanding the emotional place that both the characters and the actors will be in when the fight takes place. Based on those factors, a fight design is mapped out and the fight itself is realized in rehearsal through training and repetition. At some point in this rehearsal conversation, the fight crystallizes into a set series of steps and movements — choreography. The challenge: keep the dynamism and apparent spontaneity of the fight while making it repeatable in a safe and sustainable way for every performance in a run.

In the hands of award-winning, self-described “rhythmic storyteller” Adesola Osakalumi, the balance between grace and brutality, between dance and combat, continues to be struck beautifully in The Monsters.    

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