Giddying. Wondrous.
— SF Chronicle

WORLD PREMIERE*

A Driving Beat

Oct 29-Nov 23, 2025

MVCPA Second Stage

By JORDAN RAMIREZ PUCKETT
Directed by JEFFREY LO

A mother with a history. An adopted son who wants one. Set to the teen’s hip-hop beat, their cross-country road trip is a voyage of discovery, identity, understanding, and the depths of love. Can a white mom and a brown son find common ground in their uncommon pasts? Sometimes it’s the journey, not the destination. This hit from TheatreWorks’ 2024 New Works Festival arrives at the MVCPA SecondStage bringing all of its beauty, poetry, and heart to TW’s mainstage season.

*World Premiere at Flint Repertory Theatre (Michael Lluberes, Producing Artistic Director; Nicole Samsel, Managing Director) and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley (Giovanna Sardelli, Artistic Director).

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Special Events & Accessible Performances

Join TheatreWorks for a pre-show discussion with TheatreWorks Artistic Director Giovanna Sardelli and an artist from the production. In this free event, peer behind the scenes and learn more about the process of bringing this production to life.
  • Thursday, October 30, 2025 @ 6:30 – 7:15 pm (in the lobby)
  • Wednesday, November 5, 2025 @ 7:30pm
  • Wednesday, November 12, 2025 @ 7:30pm
  • Wednesday, November 19, 2025 @ 7:30pm
  • Sunday, November 9, 2025 @ 2pm
  • Sunday, November 16, 2025 @ 2pm
  • Thursday, November 13, 2025 @ 7:30pm
  • Sunday, November 16, 2025 @ 2pm

Photos: Kevin Berne, 2024

Cast

RINABETH APOSTOL*

RINABETH APOSTOL (Ensemble) returns to HPV after appearing in the 2023 New Works Festival reading. TheatreWorks credits include The Four Immigrants, Red, and numerous festivals. 2024 projects include world premieres of God Will Do the Rest (Artists at Play/LATCo), The Newlywed Game (B Street), My Home on the Moon (SF Playhouse), and Cry It Out (CapStage). Other credits: American Conservatory Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Rep, California Shakespeare Theater, Magic Theatre, Marin Shakes, San Jose Stage, Arizona Theatre Co., East West Players, Skirball Center for the Arts, and Berkeley Rep Ground Floor, among others. Proud member AEA, SAG-AFTRA. For Mommy, Ninang Melly and Mama Beth. @rbdtwo | rinabeth.com 

JACQUELINE DE MURO*

JACQUELINE DE MURO (Bernice) appeared in TheatreWorks’ A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Joy Luck Club, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Into the Woods, and the NWF reading of HPV. Other favorite local productions include Hillbarn’s Anastasia, New Conservatory Theatre Company’s Ruthless!, Broadway by the Bay’s The King And I and Thoroughly Modern Millie, Palo Alto Players’ City Of Angels and The Baker’s Wife, Busbarn’s And The World Goes Round and Baby, 42nd Street Moon’s Grand Night For Singing, Ohlone Stage’s Man Of La Mancha, and Foothill Theatre’s South Pacific, for which she won a Bay Area Theatre Critics Award.

MICHAEL PATRICK GAFFNEY*

MICHAEL PATRICK GAFFNEY (Ensemble, U/S Mort) has been working as an actor in the Bay Area for almost 30 years, and is honored to be a part of this world premiere after appearing in the 2023 New Works Festival reading. Other regional theatre credits include: Center Rep, Shotgun Players, Aurora Theatre Company, San Jose Stage Co., Word for Word, Contra Costa Musical Theatre, and 42nd Street Moon. Michael has been a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association since 1997.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

CREATIVE TEAM

MIN KAHNG, Book, Music, & Lyrics

MIN KAHNG (Book, Music, & Lyrics) is an award-winning playwright, composer and lyricist whose previous works include The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga (Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award, Edgerton New Play Award, Theatre Bay Area Award), Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, GOLD: The Midas Musical, The Song of the Nightingale, and The Adventures of Honey & Leon. Kahng is a MacDowell Fellow, a Travis Bogard Fellow, and an alumnus of the Playwrights Foundation Resident Initiative, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, and Djerassi. He is also an NEA Grant Recipient, a Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist, a Richard Rodgers Award Finalist, and a Dramatists Guild committee member. minkahng.com

JEFFREY LO, Director

JEFFREY LO (Director) is a Filipino-American director and playwright, and TheatreWorks’ Associate Producer of Casting and Literary Management. Directing credits include TheatreWorks’ Miss Bennet, Tiger Style!,Little Shop of Horrors, The Language Archive, and The Santaland Diaries, as well as Vietgone and The Great Leap at Capital Stage, The Glass Menagerie and Chinglish at San Francisco Playhouse, and Bald Sisters and Between Riverside and Crazy at San Jose Stage Co. Awards include the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, the Arts Council Silicon Valley Emerging Artist Laureate, and Theatre Bay Area Director’s TITAN Award. Mr. Lo does work nationally promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in the arts. He is a graduate of the multicultural Arts Leadership Institute and a proud alumnus of the UC Irvine Drama Department. JeffreyWritesAPlay.com

WILLIAM LIBERATORE, Music Director & Orchestrations

WILLIAM LIBERATORE (Musical Director and Orchestrations) has conducted fifty TheatreWorks shows, including Fun Home, Sweeney Todd, Once on This Island (TBA Award), Little Women, Ragtime, and Pacific Overtures. He also conducted 35 shows as Musical Director at AMTSJ, and won Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for A Little Night Music, South Pacific, Damn Yankees (AMTSJ), Bat Boy: The Musical; Into the Woods; Emma; Caroline, or Change; The Light in the Piazza; The Four Immigrants; The Bridges of Madison County; and Ragtime (TheatreWorks). He is the director of the award-winning Gunn High School Choirs and the recipient of the 2023 Tall Tree Award as the Outstanding Professional in Palo Alto. 

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