Giddying. Wondrous.
— SF Chronicle

WORLD PREMIERE*

A Driving Beat

Oct 29-Nov 23, 2025

MVCPA SecondStage

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 @ 6:15 – 6:45 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

Jon Viktor Corpuz
JON VIKTOR CORPUZ*

JON VIKTOR CORPUZ (Mateo) is making his TheatreWorks debut! Notable theatre credits include Hamilton (John Laurens/Philip Hamilton, 1st National), the 2015 Broadway revival of The King and I at Lincoln Center Theater (Prince Chulalongkorn—Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical), The Radio City Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (dir. Julie Taymor) at Theatre for a New Audience. Film and television credits include Sanzaru, High Maintenance (HBO), The Detour (TBS), and Manifest (NBC). Other: BARS Workshop at The Public Theater, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU. Corpuz is also a photographer and writer, and is currently a staff member at the International Center of Photography in NYC. @jonviktorcorpuz


LEE ANN PAYNE*

LEE ANN PAYNE (Diane) performed on TheatreWorks’ mainstage in Emma and Josephine and at the New Works Festival in A Driving Beat and Norman Rockwell’s America. Payne also appeared off-Broadway (NYMT) in the original cast of The Snow Queen. She has worked with professional theatres throughout the Bay Area: 42nd Street Moon, San Francisco Playhouse, and Jewel Theatre. Payne earned her MFA in Musical Theatre from San Diego State University and is honored to have received a SFBATCC nomination for her choreography in TheatreWorks’ production of Spelling Bee. Lee Ann is the CFO of Montalvo Arts Center.

LIVIA GOMEZ DEMARCHI*

LIVIA GOMES DEMARCHI (Reina) is thrilled to be making her TheatreWorks debut! Recent credits: Jane/Le-le-wa’-you in Manahatta at the Aurora Theatre Company and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing at SF Shakes (both directed by Shannon R. Davis). Other credits: Miri in Sapience (Playground SF and at the San Diego Rep Latinx Festival), the World Premiere of Ghosts of Bogotá (AlterTheater), Tania in Native Gardens (Center REP), Olivia/Maria in Twelfth Night (Perspective Theater) and Belmira in the original production of The River Bride (AlterTheater). Other theaters: A.C.T., San Francisco Playhouse, The Magic, BRAVA, and Shotgun Players. She holds a BA in Theater and Performance Studies from UC Berkeley. To my familia!

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

CREATIVE TEAM

JORDAN RAMIREZ PUCKETT, Playwright

JORDAN RAMIREZ PUCKETT, they/them (Playwright) is a Chicanx writer born and raised in San Jose. Their plays include A Sapphic Family Christmas, Transitional Love Stories, Huelga, En Las Sombras, To Saints and Stars, A Driving Beat, Las Pajaritas, Restore, and Inevitable. These works have been produced and/or developed by Abingdon Theatre Company, Creede Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company, Playwrights Foundation, Playwrights Realm, San Diego Repertory Theatre, and San Francisco Playhouse, among others. They were named a finalist for the prestigious Yale Drama Series Prize and are a recent graduate of the Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. Jordan is currently a fellow of the WP Theater Lab in New York. Find them @puckettplays on Instagram and at jordanramirezpuckett.com.

JEFFREY LO, Director

JEFFREY LO, he/him (Director) is a Filipino-American director and playwright, and TheatreWorks’ Associate Producer of Casting and Literary Management. Directing credits include TheatreWorks’ HPV, Miss Bennet, Tiger Style!, Little Shop of Horrors and The Language Archive, as well as The Glass Menagerie, Chinglish and The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin at San Francisco Playhouse, Vietgone, The Great Leap and Hold These Truths at Capital Stage, and Bald Sisters and Between Riverside and Crazy at San Jose Stage. As a playwright, his play WRITING FRAGMENTS HOME had its world premiere at Hillbarn Theatre. 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

CHRISTOPHER FITZER, Scenic Design

CHRISTOPHER FITZER, he/him (Scenic Design) is an award–winning freelance scenic designer in the Bay Area and the Properties Director for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. At TheatreWorks, he has designed King James, Mrs. Christie, Little Shop of Horrors, It’s a Wonderful Life, They Promised Her the Moon, Marie & Rosetta, and The Santaland Diaries. His other design credits include productions at American Conservatory Theater, Center REP, San Francisco Playhouse, Aspen Opera Theater, World Literature Today’s Puterbaugh Festival, Capital Stage, Sacramento Music Circus, San Jose Stage Company, Hillbarn Theatre, Woodminster Summer Musicals, Oklahoma City Theatre Company, Flat Rock Playhouse, Oakland Theater Project, Los Altos Stage Company, The Douglas Morrisson Theatre, Palo Alto Players, and Foothill Music Theatre. He holds a B.F.A. in Theatrical Design from the University of Oklahoma. ChristopherFitzer.com

LISA MISAKO CLAYBAUGH, Costume Design

LISA MISAKO CLAYBAUGH (Costume Design) has more than 30 years’ experience in costumes. Her work was last seen in Los Altos Stage’s Cyrano, Silicon Valley Shakepeare’s Richard III, and Hillbarn Theatre’s Plaza Suite. Lisa is based in the SF Bay Area and by day is the Assistant Costumer at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. She also designs for many other theaters including Musical Theatre Works, Palo Alto Players, Capital Stage, West Valley Light Opera, and Sunnyvale Community Players. She holds degrees in Dance and German Translation from Rutgers University. She is grateful for the support of her family, especially Marc, Aidan, and Xander.

STEVEN B. MANNSHARDT, Lighting Design

STEVEN B. MANNSHARDT (Lighting Design) has designed the lighting for over 100 productions at TheatreWorks during the past 30 years, having won numerous awards for his design work. His regional design credits include Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven; ACT Theatre in Seattle; American Repertory Theater in Cambridge; Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo; Magic Theatre in San Francisco; and Pasadena Playhouse. Mr. Mannshardt taught lighting design at Santa Rosa Junior College for 14 years and currently teaches lighting design, stage management, scenic art, and production at San José State University. Mr. Mannshardt also runs an international charity helping to support the educational and career needs of impoverished children and adults in Nepal. www.wwep.org

JUDITH NIHEI, Artist Counselor

JUDITH NIHEI (Artist Counselor) is a San Francisco-based licensed psychotherapist in private practice. She consults for schools, nonprofits and community-based organizations, facilitating the incorporation of stress-reduction and cultural humility as an integral part of trauma-informed services. Clients have included Edgewood Center for Children and Families, Japanese Community Youth Council, and Theatre Communications Group, Inc. As a director, dramaturg, writer, actor, and administrator, she worked with Asian American theatre companies in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, as well as The Seattle Rep, Cornish College of the Arts, Hillbarn Theatre, and BRAVA. She began her career in improv with The Committee and currently performs as one of The Bad Aunties.

CLIFF CARUTHERS, Sound Design

CLIFF CARUTHERS, he/him (Sound Design) is a West Coast based sound designer and composer with over 75 TheatreWorks credits, where he was resident sound designer from 2002 to 2009. Highlights include Pacific Overtures, Merrily We Roll Along, Arcadia, The Clean House, and The Loudest Man on Earth. Credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Alley Theatre, Guthrie Theater, American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Center REP, The Acting Company, Kansas City Rep, Marin Theatre, Aurora Theatre Company, California Shakespeare Theater, San Francisco Playhouse, and Cutting Ball Theater. Mr. Caruthers is co-curator and technical director of the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, is a proud member of United Scenic Artists, and teaches sound design at Stanford.

CARLOS AGUIRRE, Beat Maker

CARLOS AGUIRRE (Beat Maker) (actor, musician, vocal percussionist, educator) has been performing and educating in the Bay Area for over 25 years. He has shared the stage with The Roots, Erykah Badu, Black Eyed Peas, Mary J. Blige, Jam Master Jay, L.L. Cool J and has recently been guest starring with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award–winning show Freestyle Love Supreme. He is also currently producing his original rap and beatbox adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart as well as recording and releasing new music. Aguirre shares his experience by teaching at various schools and at-risk environments throughout the Bay Area.

AMANDA PULCINI, Intimacy Coordinator

AMANDA PULCINI (Intimacy Coordinator) previously worked on TheatreWorks’ productions of HPV, Being Alive, Queen, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley and Mrs. Christie. Her intimacy coordination in film/TV includes Wilder Than Her, Here She Comes, Places of Worship, Glory/Us, Gary Screams for You, and Chaaya. Her intimacy direction in live performance includes Company, Cabaret, Heathers, Eurydice––to name a few. Amanda loves to bring workshops on intimacy and consent–forward practices to institutions across the country, encouraging creative and respectful workplaces within the industry. She holds an MFA from DePaul University. Certified Intimacy Coordinator and certified Intimacy Director through IDC. Represented by United Talent Agency. AmandaPulcini.com

NICK CARVALHO, Stage Manager

NICK CARVALHO (Stage Manager) is a Bay Area stage manager, and this is his first show with TheatreWorks after working on A Driving Beat during the 2024 TheatreWorks New Works Festival. Carvalho is the stage manager for Sara Porkalob’s Dragon Cycle and stage managed Dragon Lady with Geffen Playhouse, Marin Theatre, and Center REP. Other regional credits: Nobody Loves You (A.C.T.); Eureka Day, Torch Song, Bees and Honey, Where Did We Sit on the Bus?, Justice, and Dunsinane (Marin Theatre); Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play) (Magic Theatre); Twelfth Night (Marin Shakespeare Company). Carvalho is the Production Manager of El Campanil Theatre and serves on the Technical Theater Advisory Board at Diablo Valley College. Love to Emma.

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