Molly Bell’s
HYSTERICAL
Written and performed by Molly Bell
Directed by Timothy Near
Musical Directed by William Liberatore
Saturday, August 10 @ 8pm
Friday, August 16 @ 8pm
Sunday, August 18 @ 3pm
Come ride the emotional rollercoaster that is the life of playwright, composer, and acclaimed performer Molly Bell–a madcap musical ride through the terrors and triumphs of a suburban mother with too much on her mind. Struggling to balance family, career, a mysterious illness, and lingering dreams, she embarks on a transformative journey that will stir the soul–and touch your heart.
CREATIVE TEAM
MOLLY BELL
(Writer/ Performer, she/her) was recently seen as Rona Lisa Peretti in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She also performed in TheatreWorks’ Snapshots, A Little Princess, Merrily We Roll Along, Memphis, and Floyd Collins. Other performance credits include Marin Theatre Company, Center Repertory Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, and American Musical Theatre of San Jose. She also created Real Housewives The Musical, and co-wrote the musical Becoming Britney with Daya Curley.
TIMOTHY NEAR
(Director, she/her) is an award-winning freelance director, three-time artistic director and Obie Award-winning actress. She has directed over 80 plays and musicals at theatres across the U.S. including La Jolla Playhouse, New York Public Theatre, The Guthrie, Berkeley Rep, Center REP, and the Mark Taper Forum. She was the first woman to direct at the Alliance Theatre and at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. In her 21 year tenure as artistic director of San Jose Rep, she produced over 120 plays and 20 world premieres. Twice as artistic director, she contributed to the campaign, design and completion of two mid-sized LORT theatres. In addition to an Obie Award for her performance in Still Live at the American Place Theatre in New York, she was a regular guest on “Sesame Street.”
WILLIAM LIBERATORE
(Music Director, he/him) is TheatreWorks’ Resident Musical Director and has worked as a Choir Director at Gunn High School for more than thirty years. Liberatore has music directed 50 shows at TheatreWorks, including the World Premieres of Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration, Pride and Prejudice, The Prince of Egypt, and The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga, as well as hit productions of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Little Shop of Horrors, Sense and Sensibility, Tuck Everlasting, Fun Home, Rags, The Life of the Party, Sweeney Todd, Once on This Island (TBA Award), Crowns, Ragtime, and Pacific Overtures. He has been a frequent recipient of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Direction.
CAST
RINABETH APOSTOL
RINABETH APOSTOL thoroughly enjoys her time with TheatreWorks - in The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga, Red and numerous New Works Festivals. She has also appeared in many new works onstage at American Conservatory Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, Seattle Rep, TheatreWorks, CalShakes, The Magic, Arizona Theater Company, East West Players, Skirball Center for the Arts, and Berkeley Rep Ground Floor, among others. 2022-2023 productions: Redwinged Blackbird (world premiere), Fun Home (42nd Street Moon), Monument (world premiere, Magic Theater), Smart People and The Chinese Lady (Capital Stage), South Pacific (Billings Symphony) and Hamlet (Marin Shakes). Offstage, you can hear her on Sirius XM/Marvel’s UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL Podcast as Gretchen Campbell. Upcoming: Bald Sisters and My Home On The Moon. Proud member AEA, SAG-AFTRA. @rbdtwo | rinabeth.com
LAWRENCE-MICHAEL C. ARIAS
LAWRENCE-MICHAEL C. ARIAS is honored to join this year’s New Works Festival. He was recently seen as “Mushnik” in Theatreworks’ Little Shop of Horrors. He also performed in M. Butterfly (Kurogo), Red (Red Guard), Batboy: The Musical (Roy/Mrs. Taylor, etc. at select performances for James Monroe Iglehart), Jane Eyre The Musical (Robert u/s), and Pacific Overtures [2001](British Admiral/Merchant). He originated the role of ‘Wong’ in Utah Shakespeare Festival’s world premiere of Gold Mountain. Other regional credits: National Asian Artists Project/Prospect Theatre’s staged concert of Gold Mountain (Wong). Other Bay Area credits: Hillbarn Theatre - The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Mitch Mahoney); Los Altos Stage Company - Yellow Face (HYH); Pintello Comedy Theatre - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Miles Gloriosus); Western Stage - Man of La Mancha (Sancho). Film: Protection Detail (Sonny).
LUCINDA HITCHCOCK CONE
LUCINDA HITCHCOCK CONE: TheatreWorks appearances include Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Tuck Everlasting, Outside Mullingar, Big River, The Clean House, Ragtime, and Cabaret. She appeared in the National Tour of Big River. Recently she appeared in Grand Horizons at San Jose Stage Co. where she also played Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman. Regional credits include productions at Hartford Stage, Arizona Theatre Company, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Geva Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Folger Theatre, ACT, Berkeley Rep., San Jose Rep., Sacramento Music Circus, Capital Stage, B Street Theatre, Aurora Theatre, AMTSJ, Marin Theatre Company, PCPA, and the Coconut Grove Playhouse. Lucinda received four SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle awards, and a Dramalogue award. Lucinda studied Mime with Etienne Decroux.
JACQUELINE DE MURO
JACQUELINE DE MURO has performed with TheatreWorks in A Little Night Music (Mrs Segstrom), Pacific Overtures (Shogun’s Mother), Joy Luck Club (Amah), Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Marta), and Into The Woods (Cinderella’s Mother). Most recently, she appeared in New Conservatory Theatre Center’s Encore. Other favorite local productions include Broadway by the Bay’s The King And I (Lady Thiang) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (Muzzy), Woodminster’s Flower Drum Song (Madame Liang), Palo Alto Players’ City Of Angels (Alaura/Carla) and The Baker’s Wife (Genevieve), Busbarn’s And The World Goes Round and Baby (Pam), 42nd Street Moon’s Grand Night For Singing and By Jupiter (Buria), Ohlone Stage’s Man Of La Mancha (Aldonza), and Foothill Theatre’s South Pacific (Bloody Mary), for which she won a Bay Area Theatre Critics Award.
MICHAEL PATRICK GAFFNEY
MICHAEL PATRICK GAFFNEY has been working as an actor in the Bay Area for the past 25 years and is very honored to be performing this summer with TheatreWorks! Last spring he played the role of the Interlocutor in The Scottsboro Boys with 42nd Street Moon. Other regional theatre companies Michael has worked with include: Center Rep, Shotgun Players, Aurora Theatre Company, San Jose Stage Company, Word for Word, and Contra Costa Musical Theatre. Michael has been a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association since 1997.
EMILY KURODA
EMILY KURODA worked at TheatreWorks (The Language Archive, Calligraphy), South Coast Rep (Tiger Style!, Fast Company, Our Town, Ballad of Yachiyo), New York Theatre Workshop (Endlings), Yale Rep (Today is My Birthday), Pan Asian (Brothers Paranormal), American Repertory Theater (Endlings), Page 73 (Today is My Birthday), Actors Theater of Louisville (we, the invisibles), Huntington Theater (Tiger Style!, Woman Warrior), Artists at Play (Two Mile Hollow), Alliance Theater (Tiger Style!), Sundance Theater Lab (Today is My Birthday, A Cage of Fireflies), East West Players (over 45 productions), Kirk Douglas, Mark Taper Forum, Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Singapore Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, The Doolittle, LATC, Zephyr, LA Women’s Shakespeare Company, and the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival. Selected TV: Mrs. Kim in Gilmore Girls, Baymax, All Rise, The Good Doctor, The Resident, Drop Dead Diva, Sequestered and Amazon’s The Power. Recent Films Strange World, Kimi, Porcupine, Take the 10, Party Boat, Red, Yellow Face and Sensei.
Program
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