The only reason to write is from love.
— Stephen Sondheim
A towering giant of musical theatre, Stephen Sondheim chronicled the loves and losses, breakdowns and breakthroughs of human relationships in a wealth of unforgettable musicals, from Into the Woods and A Little Night Music to Follies, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, Company—and many more. With brilliant wit, exquisite melodies, and astonishing lyrics, he became TheatreWorks’ most-produced composer of all time. In this revelatory world-premiere revue, his profound understanding of the human heart takes center stage once again.
Photos: Kevin Berne, 2024
Artistic Director Giovanna Sardelli hosts a discussion with director Robert Kelley and scenic designer Wilson Chin. In this special free event, peer behind the scenes and learn more about the process of bringing Being Alive: a Sondheim Celebration to life.
GEORGE: Sleiman is excited to be making his debut at TheatreWorks! Notable roles include Roger Davis in Rent at Berkeley Playhouse, Juniper in the premier of The Trees at Z Below, Charlie Price in Kinky Boots at Throckmorton Theatre, Gabe Goodman in Next to Normal at Pacifica Spindrift Players, Nino Quincampoix in Amelie at Masquers Playhouse, and Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show at Marin Musical Theatre Company. Getting to work on this world premiere revue has allowed him to be so ingrained in the process and learn so much from everyone involved! The show is a beautiful love letter to all of our relationships in life and to theatre itself and he’s so excited to bring it to life!
Instagram:@sleimanalahmadieh
BEN: Noel is appearing at TheatreWorks for the ninth time, having previously appeared as Father in Ragtime, Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility, Nathan Harris in Rags, Pirelli in Sweeney Todd, Neville in The Secret Garden, as well as Merrily We Roll Along, A Little Princess, and Jane Eyre the musical. noelanthonyescobar.com
SALLY: Solona is honored to be making her debut at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Solona has been doing musical theatre since kindergarten and hopes to do it forever! You may have seen Sol in other projects around the Bay Area, such as Joanne in Rent at Hillbarn Theatre and Berkeley Playhouse, Ariel in The Little Mermaid with Sunnyvale Community Players, Sandy Cheeks in The Spongebob Musical with Palo Alto Players, Amelie in Amelie with Masquers Playhouse, and
Ti Moune in Once on This Island with Plethos Productions. Sol is so grateful to be alive in this moment, with this cast, and to share her love of Sondheim’s brilliance with you! @solonstage
GENE: Nick (he/him) is thrilled to join TheatreWorks’ production of Being Alive. Mr. Nakashima was last seen as Orin Scrivello, DDS, in Little Shop of Horrors. Some of the many productions in which he had important parts include, The Pajama Game, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Irma La Duce, and The Golden Apple at 42nd St. Moon and Ragtime, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue, and A Little Night Music at TheatreWorks. Other regional credits include Next to Normal, Suds, and Me and My Girl at Jewel Theatre, Children of Eden and Beauty and the Beast at AMTSJ, and Jesus Christ Superstar, The Producers, and La Cage aux Folles at Woodminster.
LENA: Anne is thrilled to be making her TheatreWorks debut! Broadway: A Tale of Two Cities, Les Misérables. National Tours: Kinky Boots, Billy Elliot, Mamma Mia!, Ragtime. Off Broadway: Carrie (Standby Margaret, MCC), Sweeney Todd (Standby Mrs. Lovett, Barrow Street). Selected Regional: Murder on the Orient Express (Helen Hubbard), The Prom (Dee Dee), Sweeney Todd (Mrs. Lovett), Sting’s The Last Ship (Peggy) and Women in Jeopardy! (Mary) at Pioneer Theatre; Next to Normal (Diana, Fulton Theatre); Sister Act (Mother Superior, Pittsburgh CLO); Passion (Fosca, Pegasus Players). Television: Mr. Robot (USA) and Iron Fist (Marvel). International performances in Mexico, Canada, Japan. Tolpegin has a BS from Northwestern University. Proud wife of actor Blake Stadnik, Tolpegin is originally from San Francisco. AnneTolpegin.com
HELEN: Melissa is thrilled to be back at TheatreWorks where she recently appeared as Evelyn Nesbit in Ragtime, and also appeared in Sense and Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice and Tinyard Hill (SFBATCC nomination) as well as New Works Festivals and galas. Ms. WolfKlain tapped around the country on the first national tours of 42nd Street (Ethel) and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (u/s Judy). She just played Bea in a sold-out run of Something Rotten at Hillbarn. Other Hillbarn credits include Sally Bowles in Cabaret and Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. Recent credits: Adelaide in Guys & Dolls and Val in A Chorus Line (SF Playhouse), the Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods (Mountain Play), and Mary in Merrily We Roll Along (42nd Street Moon). Up next: Patsy in Always…Patsy Cline at Hillbarn. Instagram: @melissawolfklain
STEPHEN SONDHEIM (Music & Lyrics) wrote the music and lyrics for Saturday Night (1954), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), The Frogs (1974), Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987), Assassins (1991), Passion (1994), and Road Show (2008) as well as lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959) and Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965) and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Revues of his work include Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), Marry Me a Little (1981), You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983), Putting it Together (1993/99), and Sondheim on Sondheim (2010). He composed the scores of the films Stavisky (1974) and Reds (1981), and songs for Dick Tracy (1990) and TV’s Evening Primrose (1966). His collected lyrics with attendant essays were published in two volumes: Finishing the Hat (2010) and Look, I Made A Hat (2011). In 2010, Broadway’s Henry Miller’s Theatre was renamed The Stephen Sondheim Theatre in his honor; in 2019, London’s Queens Theatre was renamed the Sondheim.
ROBERT KELLEY (Director, Co-Conceiver, and Artistic Director Emeritus) founded TheatreWorks in 1970 and retired in 2020 after directing over 175 company productions, including many world premieres and 18 Stephen Sondheim shows. A Bay Area native and Stanford graduate, he has received an Avenidas Lifetimes of Achievement Award, the Silicon Valley Arts Council’s Legacy Laureate Award, the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Paine Knickerbocker Award and Jerry Friedman Award for Lifetime Achievement, BATCC Awards for Outstanding Direction for The Hound of the Baskervilles; Into the Woods; Pacific Overtures; Rags; Sweeney Todd; Another Midsummer Night; Sunday in the Park with George; Jane Eyre; and Caroline, or Change; and a Theatre Bay Area Award for Outstanding Direction of a Musical for Daddy Long Legs. He most recently directed TheatreWorks’ productions of Sense and Sensibility and Ragtime.
WILLIAM LIBERATORE (Musical Director & Co-Conceiver, Piano) is TheatreWorks’ Resident Musical Director and has conducted 50 shows, including Little Shop of Horrors, Tuck Everlasting, Fun Home, Sweeney Todd, Once on This Island (TBA Award), Little Women, Ragtime, and Pacific Overtures. He was Musical Director at American Musical Theatre of San Jose, conducting 35 shows. He has won Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for A Little Night Music, South Pacific, Damn Yankees (AMTSJ), and 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.
LYRE ALSTON (Wig Design, he/him/she/her) is a costume, wig, hair, and makeup designer and artisan from the San Francisco Bay Area, who previously designed wigs for TheatreWorks’ production of Fannie. Additional credits include California Shakespeare Theater, American Conservatory Theater, New Conservatory Theatre Center of San Francisco, Marin Theatre Co., Chabot Theater, Shotgun Players, Berkeley Playhouse, and Cal State East Bay Theater, among others.
FUMIKO BIELEFELDT (Costume Design) has designed over 60 productions (garnering over 25 awards) for TheatreWorks, including Little Shop of Horrors, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Archduke, Tuck Everlasting, The Bridges of Madison County, Rags, Daddy Long Legs, Cyrano, Fallen Angels, Sweeney Todd, Silent Sky, Little Women, 33 Variations, The Light in the Piazza, Caroline, or Change, M. Butterfly, and Emma, among others. She has designed extensively throughout the Bay Area and regionally. She holds a BA in Economics from Waseda University (Tokyo) and studied costume design at Stanford. Design awards include: 2004 Barbara Bladen Porter Special Award, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, Dean Goodman Choice Awards, and Back Stage West Garland Award.
CLIFF CARUTHERS (Sound Design) is a West Coast based sound designer and composer with over 75 production credits at TheatreWorks, where he served as resident sound designer from 2002 to 2009. Highlights include Pacific Overtures, Merrily We Roll Along, Arcadia, The Clean House, The Loudest Man on Earth and many others. Other highlights include Born with Teeth for OSF (now playing), Pictures from Home for Alley Theatre, Frankenstein: Playing With Fire for Guthrie Theater, Caucasian Chalk Circle for American Conservatory Theater, TRAGEDY: A Tragedy for Berkeley Rep, Sweat for Center Repertory Co., Julius Caesar for The Acting Company, Man in Love for Kansas City Rep, Lasso of Truth for Marin Theatre Co., Detroit for Aurora Theatre Co., American Night for California Shakespeare Theater, Bug for San Francisco Playhouse, Ubu Roi for The 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 San Francisco State University.
WILSON CHIN (Scenic Design) designed TheatreWorks productions of Ragtime, The Bridges of Madison County, tokyo fish story, and The Lake Effect. Broadway/National Tours: Cost of Living, Pass Over (Drama Desk and Lortel Award nominations), Next Fall, Annie. Recent world premieres: The Hunter S. Thompson Musical (La Jolla Playhouse), Anne of Green Gables (Goodspeed Musicals), Jonah (Roundabout Theatre Company), Space Dogs (MCC, Lortel Award nomination), The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons), Teenage Dick (Public Theatre), My Mañana Comes (Playwrights Realm). Opera designs include Turandot (Washington National Opera), Lucia di Lammermoor (Lyric Opera of Chicago) and Eine Florentinische Tragodie/Gianni Schicchi (Canadian Opera, Dora Award winner). Film/TV design includes Pass Over (directed by Spike Lee), Game Theory with Bomani Jones (HBO) and Blindspot (NBC). @wilsonchindesign
PAMILA Z. GRAY (Lighting Design) designed TheatreWorks productions of A Distinct Society, Nan and the Lower Body, Ragtime, Tuck Everlasting, Bridges of Madison County, Confederates, Cyrano, Once on This Island, Sense and Sensibility, The Light in the Piazza, Tinyard Hill, Baby Taj, My Ántonia, Kept, and A Civil War Christmas, among others. Her work on Bingo! The Musical was seen in Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, and the Bay Area’s Center REP. Her designs have also been seen in Los Angeles, Portland, Sacramento, Houston, Dallas, and Washington, DC. She has won 7 Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards including her TheatreWorks designs for Grey Gardens, Floyd Collins, Cabaret, and Almost September, which also garnered a Bay Area Drama-Logue Award. She has won four Dean Goodman Awards, including both Ragtime and The Cripple of Inishmaan at TW. Ms. Gray is a graduate of Northwestern University.
LAURA HICKS (Assistant Stage Manager) is a Bay Area Stage Manager originally from Alabama. In the Bay Area, she has been a Stage Manager for TheatreWorks New Works Festival, Arora Theatre’s 1984, and ASM for TheatreWorks’ Steel Magnolias and Tiger Style! She was the Resident Stage Manager with Red Mountain Theatre in Birmingham for several years, where she was the stage manager for Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Holiday Spectacular, and their Performing Ensemble program. Additional Stage Manager credits include Die Fledermaus (Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera), You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Virginia Repertory Theatre), 1776 (Virginia Repertory Theatre), The Velveteen Rabbit (Virginia Repertory Theatre), Glory Denied (Opera Birmingham), and The Tragedy of Carmen (Opera Birmingham). Assistant Stage Manager credits include Dreamgirls (Virginia Repertory Theatre), Dreamgirls (Red Mountain Theatre), Elixir of Love (Opera Birmingham), Fiddler on the Roof (Red Mountain Theatre), Beauty and the Beast (Red Mountain Theatre), and The Nutcracker (Alabama Ballet).
JEFFREY LO (Casting) is TheatreWorks’ Associate Producer of Casting and Literary Management, and directed TheatreWorks’ productions of Tiger Style! Little Shop of Horrors, The Language Archive and The Santaland Diaries. A Filipino-American director and playwright, his additional directing credits include Vietgone and The Great Leap at Capital Stage, The Glass Menagerie, Chinglish, The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin, and Hold These Truths at San Francisco Playhouse, as well as Bald Sisters and Between Riverside and Crazy at San Jose Stage Company. He is the recipient of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, the Arts Council Silicon Valley Emerging Artist Laureate, and Theatre Bay Area Director’s TITAN Award. In addition, Mr. Lo does work nationally promoting equity, diversity, inclusion, and access in the arts. JeffreyWritesAPlay.com
RANDALL K. LUM (Stage Manager) recently stage managed Center Rep’s The Legend Of Georgia McBride and Every Brilliant Thing. Selected TheatreWorks credits include Queen, How I Learned What I Learned, Steel Magnolias, In Every Generation, Nan and the Lower Body, They Promised Her The Moon, Pride and Prejudice, The 39 Steps, Archduke, Fun Home, Hold These Truths, Finks, Skeleton Crew, Around the World in 80 Days, The Prince of Egypt, Constellations, Rags, Outside Mullingar, Confederates, Fallen Angels, The Lake Effect, Peter and the Starcatcher, Other Desert Cities, and Once on This Island. Other companies: Oregon and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals, Denver Center Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, The Old Globe, American Conservatory Theater, California Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley and Seattle Repertory Theatres, Laguna and Pasadena Playhouses, and South Coast Rep.
JUDITH NIHEI (Artist Counselor) is a San Francisco-based licensed psychotherapist in private practice. She has been a theatre director, dramaturg, writer, actor, and administrator. A founding member of Seattle’s Northwest Asian American Theatre, she returned home to work with San Francisco’s Asian American Theatre Company and began a long career in improv with The Committee. 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. She continues her improv career as one of The Bad Aunties.
ALEX PEREZ (Choreographer and Associate Director) began his association with TheatreWorks as a kid working backstage on productions of Oliver! and The Wizard of Oz, and performed in Strider and Romeo and Juliet. As a choreographer, TheatreWorks highlights include Tuck Everlasting, Little Women, Grey Gardens, Merrily We Roll Along, Violet, and Sunday in the Park with George. Perez has also worked as a performer, director, and choreographer for such companies as The Old Globe Theatre, American Musical Theare of San Jose, Broadway by the Bay, San Jose Stage Company, Bus Barn, Hillbarn, and Palo Alto Players. He received the Bay Area Theatre Critics Award for Best Direction for the BBBay production of Miss Saigon. He earned his MFA degree from The Old Globe.
AMANDA PULCINI (Intimacy Coordinator) returns to TheatreWorks after having worked on Queen earlier this year. Recently, her intimacy direction was seen in San Francisco at The Speakeasy: Age of Scofflaws. Film/TV credits include Wilder Than Her, Here She Comes, Places of Worship, Gary Screams for You, and Chaaya. 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, BFA from Shenandoah Conservatory, and is a Certified Intimacy Coordinator through Intimacy Directors and Coordinators. AmandaPulcini.com
ARTIE STORCH (Drums) An active Bay Area freelance musician who enjoys performing in many diverse styles, Artie Storch is a regular extra percussionist for the San Francisco Symphony, Symphony San Jose, Opera San Jose and other orchestras. In the pop realm, he has performed with The Who, Metallica, Weird Al Yankovic and Andrea Bocelli, and is a frequent player in Bay Area musical theatre. As principal percussionist for The Skywalker Symphony, his recording credits include playing drums and/or percussion for numerous movies and video games. Artie is the Percussion Director for the California Youth Symphony, and is on the faculty of Chabot College.
ALEX PEREZ (Choreographer and Associate Director) began his association with TheatreWorks as a kid working backstage on productions of Oliver! and The Wizard of Oz, and performed in Strider and Romeo and Juliet. As a choreographer, TheatreWorks highlights include Tuck Everlasting, Little Women, Grey Gardens, Merrily We Roll Along, Violet, and Sunday in the Park with George. Perez has also worked as a performer, director, and choreographer for such companies as The Old Globe Theatre, American Musical Theare of San Jose, Broadway by the Bay, San Jose Stage Company, Bus Barn, Hillbarn, and Palo Alto Players. He received the Bay Area Theatre Critics Award for Best Direction for the BBBay production of Miss Saigon. He earned his MFA degree from The Old Globe.
AMANDA PULCINI (Intimacy Coordinator) returns to TheatreWorks after having worked on Queen earlier this year. Recently, her intimacy direction was seen in San Francisco at The Speakeasy: Age of Scofflaws. Film/TV credits include Wilder Than Her, Here She Comes, Places of Worship, Gary Screams for You, and Chaaya. 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, BFA from Shenandoah Conservatory, and is a Certified Intimacy Coordinator through Intimacy Directors and Coordinators. AmandaPulcini.com