Who's Who in Nan and the Lower Body

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JEFFREY BRIAN ADAMS
CHRISTOPHER DAFTSIOS
LISA RAMIREZ
ELISSA BETH STEBBINS
JESSICA DICKEY
GIOVANNA SARDELLI
NINA BALL
CATHLEEN EDWARDS
PAMILA Z. GRAY
MAYA HERBSMAN
JEFFREY LO
RANDALL K. LUM
JUDITH NIHEI
GEORGE PSARRAS
JANE SHAW
HEATHER STERLING
TIM BOND
PHIL SANTORA

JEFFREY BRIAN ADAMS (Ted) is honored to be making his TheatreWorks debut. Regional credits include the world premiere of A Walk on the Moon at American Conservatory Theater, The Last Five Years at ACT, SF Playhouse productions of She Loves Me, City of Angels, Dogfight, Promises, Promises, and Into the Woods; San Jose Stage productions of Mamma Mia, Death of a Salesman, and The Addams Family; West Side Story, and Spelling Bee at Hillbarn Theatre. New York credits include Happily After Ever at 59E59 Theaters, Women and Wallace at Theatre Row; Animals at the 2012 NYC Fringe Festival. Adams holds his MFA from The New School for Drama, and is a proud member of Actor’s Equity and a BATCC Award recipient.

CHRISTOPHER DAFTSIOS (Dr. Pap) is thrilled to be making his TheatreWorks debut. Off Broadway credits include Angry Young Man (Urban Stages), In Bed With Roy Cohn (Theatre Row) My Big Gay Italian Midlife Crisis (Anne L. Bernstein Theatre), A Flea in Her Ear (John Houseman Studio Theatre) and Island of the Blue Dolphins (Town Hall). Regional Theatre: Guild Hall, New Jersey Rep, Forestburgh Playhouse, Luna Stage, Shadowland Theatre, New Century Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, The Theatre Building (Chicago), Gilbert Theatre and Pendragon Theatre. Film and Television: The Equalizer, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Conviction, Law & Order, Royal Pains, A Haunting, Family Secrets, Upcode (series regular), Incident at Chekhov Creek (David Strathairn). Chrstopher dedicates this performance to his father, Athanasios Constantine Daftsios, for his tireless efforts in chemical analysis and his boundless love for his wife and children. We miss you, Dad.

LISA RAMIREZ (Mache) is an award-winning actor and playwright who is happy to be making her TheatreWorks debut. Off-Broadway credits include the Cherry Lane Theatre, the Vineyard Theatre, Atlantic Theatre Company, the Working Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and the Signature Theatre Company. Regional credits include PlayMakers Repertory Company, Berkeley Rep, SF Playhouse, the Magic Theater, Marin Theatre Company, and the Oakland Theater Project, where she serves as Associate Artistic Director. She has written over ten plays that have been produced in New York, North Carolina, Oakland, and Ireland.

ELISSA BETH STEBBINS (Nan) has performed at TheatreWorks in several New Works Festival readings, as well two TheatreWorks Education school tours. Recent regional credits include Becky Nurse of Salem (Berkeley Rep), Kings, Kiss, The Village Bike, and Caught (Shotgun Players), In Braunau (San Francisco Playhouse Sandbox Series), Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., and You For Me For You for which she won a Theatre Bay Area award (Crowded Fire Theatre), The Little Prince (Marin Theater Company), and Minneola Twins (Cutting Ball). She is a co-founder of Analog Theatre where she devises physical theatre, and is also a teaching artist. Elissa earned her BA with honors from Santa Clara University, has continued training with Shakespeare and Company as well as Atelier Matteo Destro, and is a lifelong student.

JESSICA DICKEY (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright whose writing was hailed by the New York Times as having “freshness, economy, cheeky vulgarity, with a fine measure of poetic insight”, and New Yorker magazine as “funny, smart, deep and sad”. In addition to writing for the Apple TV show Physical, Jessie is currently developing a show with ABC, produced by the Academy Award winner Tom McCarthy (Spotlight). She is developing a feature with Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe) and Susanna Fogel (Book Smart) about an all-female British stunt group. She is also developing a TV show with Ginnifer Goodwin (Once Upon A Time) about ghosts. Jessie is most known for her award-winning play The Amish Project, which premiered Off-Broadway at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and has been produced around the world. Other plays include The Convent, which premiered Off-Broadway in a co-production with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Rising Phoenix and WeatherVane, The Rembrandt, which had a sold out run at Steppenwolf starring John Mahoney, and Charles Ives Take Me Home and Row After Row, which both premiered Off-Broadway in New York and have been produced around the country. Jessie is co-writing a book with her sister, due out in 2023 (Pilgrim Press), and is a proud member of New Dramatists. www.jessicadickey.com

GIOVANNA SARDELLI (Director, she/her) is TheatreWorks’ Artistic Associate and Director of New Works. TheatreWorks directing credits include It’s a Wonderful Life, They Promised Her the Moon, Archduke, Crimes of the Heart, The North Pool, and Somewhere. She directed Describe the Night (Obie Award Best New Play, TW New Works Festival 2014) at Atlantic Theater Co., the World Premiere of Archduke (TW NWF 2016) at Mark Taper Forum, and her production of An Entomologist’s Love Story (TW NWF 2014) had its World Premiere at San Francisco Playhouse. She has directed and developed plays around the country. Sardelli holds an MFA in Acting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and was named the 2019 Alumna of the Year for the University Nevada, Las Vegas College of Fine Arts. Check out her newly released Marvel podcast Squirrel Girl and the Unbeatable Radio Show!

NINA BALL (Scenic Design) is an award winning scenic designer whose work has been seen at American Conservatory Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, California Shakespeare Theater, Shotgun Players, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre Co., Aurora Theatre Co., Center Repertory Theatre, UC Berkeley TDPS, TheatreFIRST, The Cutting Ball Theater, San Jose Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Mime Troupe, and Z Space, among many others. She has been a company member at Shotgun Players since 2009 and TheatreFIRST since 2018. Ball is also a production designer and has worked on numerous film, TV, and commercial productions. She recently joined the faculty of Stanford University as the full-time scenic design lecturer and is also a lecturer at UC Berkeley, where she teaches Design for Performance in the Theatre Dance and Performance Studies department.

CATHLEEN EDWARDS (Costume Design) is now in her 16th season at TheatreWorks, where her previous shows include It’s a Wonderful Life, The 39 Steps (2019), Frost/Nixon, Crimes of the Heart, Somewhere, Grey Gardens, Triangle, Once on This Island, The Elephant Man, and more. She is well-established in the Bay Area, having designed for many of the regional theatres. When not designing for the live stage she works in film, television, and commercials. Among her awards are two Dramalogue and two Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards. A member of both United Scenic Artists and Theatrical Wardrobe Unions, she strongly believes in guiding those who are learning their craft, preparing them for careers and enabling them to pass this knowledge on to future generations.

PAMILA Z. GRAY (Lighting Design) designed TheatreWorks productions of 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.

MAYA HERBSMAN (Intimacy Coordinator/Production EDI Consultant) is a Middle Eastern Ohlone Land based intimacy director, director, arts administrator, and educator. Maya has been the first intimacy professional at theaters across Northern California including Berkeley Rep, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Golden Thread Productions, Z Space, Cutting Ball Theater, Crowded Fire Theater, and more. Her work has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, J Magazine, and HowlRound. She is currently on faculty at Berkeley Rep, American Conservatory Theater, The Urban School of San Francisco, and is a recurring guest lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University. She holds a BA from Wesleyan University in Theater, with the Rachel Henderson Memorial Prize in Directing.

JEFFREY LO (Casting Director) directed TheatreWorks’ productions of 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, Hold These Truths at San Francisco Playhouse, and Between Riverside and Crazy at San Jose Stage Co. 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 to his work on stage, 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

RANDALL K. LUM (Stage Manager) was recently the associate director of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Stanford University and production stage manager on for Old Vic’s production of A Christmas Carol. Selected TheatreWorks  credits include Sense and Sensibility, 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, The Velocity of Autumn, Jane Austen’s Emma, The Country House, Fallen Angels, The Lake Effect, Peter and the Starcatcher, Time Stands Still, 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 Theatre, Berkeley and Seattle Repertory Theatres, Laguna and Pasadena Playhouses, and South Coast Repertory.

JUDITH NIHEI (Artist Counselor) is a San Francisco Japantown native, and has spent many years in theatre as a director, dramaturg, writer, and administrator.  A founding member of Seattle’s Northwest Asian American Theatre, she returned to work with San Francisco’s Asian American Theatre Co. and joined the historic improv group, The Committee.  A licensed psychotherapist in private practice, Judi consults for schools and community-based organizations, facilitating the incorporation of stress-reduction and cultural humility as an integral part of trauma-informed services.  In 2021 her worlds converged, when she was one of four healers invited to support the Theatre Communications Group Rising Stars of Color.

GEORGE PSARRAS (Dialect Coach) is always happy to return to TheatreWorks where he has worked as an actor in both the New Works Festival (Father/Daughter, Born In East Berlin) as well as main stage productions (Finks, Water By The Spoonful, Anna In The Tropics). Mr. Psarras has also acted locally with City Lights Theater Company (Silent Sky, Ideation, Amadeus) as well as San Jose Stage (The Humans, Between Riverside and Crazy). Mr. Psarras is a proud Greek and has even played one on television on General Hospital and The Last Ship. His voice is also featured in Disney/Pixar’s Onward. He can be seen in the upcoming indie comedy Tapawingo, alongside his twin brother Paul and starring Jon Heder. georgepsarras.com

JANE SHAW (Sound Design) previously designed TheatreWorks’ It’s a Wonderful Life and They Promised Her the Moon. New York: Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Theatre for a New Audience, Mint Theater, Second Stage, National Black Theatre, Repertorio Español, New York Theatre Workshop, Cherry Lane Theatre, and Bedlam. Regional: Guthrie Theater, The Huntington, The Alley, Hartford Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Cleveland Play House, Two River Theater, Asolo Rep, American Conservatory Theater, American Repertory Theater, Northern Stage. Awards: Drama Desk, Connecticut Critics Circle, Henry Award, Bessie Award, Meet the Composer Grant, National Endowment for the Arts-Theatre Communications Group Career Development Grant recipient. Member: United Scenic Artists 829, Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association. Training: Harvard University, Yale School of Drama. Ms. Shaw was born and raised in Kansas and lives in Brooklyn.

HEATHER STERLING (Wig Design) has been designing wigs and makeup for theatrical productions for the past 20 years. Recent designs include La Traviata, El Amor Brujo/El Tabarro, and Cruzar la Cara de la Luna for Opera Santa Barbara; The Enchanted Pig, Hansel and Gretel, and La Clemenza di Tito for San Francisco Conservatory of Music; Radamisto for Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale; and Dido and Aeneas for Opera San José. Upcoming productions are The Marriage of Figaro at OSJ; Tosca, La Scala di Seti, An American Dream, and Die Walkure “The Valkyrie” for OSB. She is also a theatrical makeup educator at SFCM and assistant director at Studio 10 Dance in San Jose. This is her first production with TheatreWorks and feels immense gratitude to be working on this important and relevant production.

TIM BOND (Artistic Director) joined TheatreWorks as Artistic Director in July 2020. He is a nationally-known director and educator with past leadership roles as Producing Artistic Director at Syracuse Stage, Associate Artistic Director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Artistic Director at Seattle Group Theatre, and tenured full Professor and Head of the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Washington School of Drama. Over the last 37 years Tim has directed at many theatres including the Market Theatre, Baxter Theatre Centre, Guthrie Theater, Seattle Rep, Milwaukee Rep, The Wilma Theater, Arena Stage, GEVA Theatre Center, Cleveland Play House, Indiana Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, PCPA, Arizona Theatre Co., Portland Center Stage, Dallas Theater Center, A Contemporary Theatre, Empty Space Theatre, Paul Robeson Theatre, and Seattle Children’s Theatre. He is the recipient two Backstage West Garland Awards, two Syracuse Area Live Theatre (SALT) Awards, and a Dallas-Fort Worth Critics Forum Award.

PHIL SANTORA (Management Consultant) joined TheatreWorks in 2007. He has served as Managing Director of Northlight Theatre (Chicago) and Georgia Shakespeare Festival (Atlanta), as well as Development Director for Great Lakes Theatre Festival (Cleveland) and George Street Playhouse (New Brunswick). He holds an MFA in Theatre Administration from the Yale School of Drama and a BA in Drama from Duke University. He has served as Vice President of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Board. Prior board service includes the League of Chicago Theatres, Atlanta Coalition of Theatres, and the executive committee of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT). He was named 2000’s Best Arts Administrator by Atlanta Magazine and received the Atlanta Arts and Business Council’s 1998 ABBY Award for Arts Administrator.