Who's Who in In Every Generation

Buy Tickets

MICHAEL CHAMPLIN
CINDY GOLDFIELD
OLIVIA NICOLE HOFFMAN
SARAH LO
LUISA SERMOL
BRIAN LEVI
MELISSA MEI JONES
LISA MORESE
ALI VITERBI
MICHAEL BARAKIVA
NINA BALL
BEATRICE BASSO
SUZANNE CHESNEY
DEREK A. GRAHAM
NICOLE HELFER
MAYA HERBSMAN
RASEAN DAVONTÉ JOHNSON
KURT LANDISMAN
JEFFREY LO
RANDALL K. LUM
JUDITH NIHEI
SHARATH PATEL
PENNY PENDLETON
RONEET ALIZA RAHAMIN
HEATHER STERLING
EMILY ANDERSON WOLF
TIM BOND
DEBBIE CHINN

MICHAEL CHAMPLIN (Davide Levi) has performed once previously with TheatreWorks as an Understudy in Pitmen Painters (George/Lyon). Mr. Champlin received a 2022 SFBATCC award for Principal Performance - Drama (300+ seats) for his performance in A Doll’s House, Pt. 2 (Torvald) at Palo Alto Players. He recently appeared at Los Altos Stage Company in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Roger) and Thom Pain (based on nothing) (Thom). He has performed throughout the Bay Area for the past 15 years as both an actor and director at multiple theater companies. He is currently the Education Director at Los Altos Stage Company.

CINDY GOLDFIELD (Valeria Levi) was last seen at TheatreWorks in Another Midsummer Night, where she wore a drum machine as a skirt. Regional credits include work at American Conservatory Theater (including 17 seasons of A Christmas Carol and most recently, Fefu and Her Friends), CenterREP, San Jose Rep, Broadway by the Bay, Marin Theatre Company, and 42nd Street Moon. New York credits: D’Arcy Drollinger’s Project: Lohan, and Mr. Irresistible, at La MaMa E.T.C. Goldfield also works extensively in cabaret, collaborating with Scrumbly Koldewyn (Goldfield & Koldewyn) and David Aaron Brown (One Night Stand.) In addition to her performing credits and awards, Goldfield has two Theatre Bay Area awards for Best Direction (Trog! and Once) and next, is directing tick, tick...Boom! for the New Conservatory Theater Center.

OLIVIA NICOLE HOFFMAN (Yael) is thrilled to be making her TheatreWorks debut. Regional credits: The Wolves (#7) at TheaterWorks Hartford receiving a Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Best Ensemble and Third (Emily), Oklahoma! (u/s Ado Annie/ Aunt Eller/ Ensemble) at Goodspeed Opera House, Romeo and Juliet (u/s Lady Capulet/ Ensemble) at Hartford Stage, Angels in America (the Angel) at Playhouse on Park, and Two Gentlemen of Verona (u/s Julia/ Ensemble) at Commonwealth Shakespeare Co. Film/TV: Two Tickets To Paradise (Hallmark), Magnum P.I. (CBS) and The Cobblestone Corridor (PBS/CPTV). Upcoming film: Suspension. Olivia earned her BFA from Emerson College and her MA from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Love to her family and Diego. Thanks to JLC Entertainment Group.tiktok: @itsmeoliviahoffman

SARAH LO (Devorah (Dev) Levi-Katz) is elated to return to the Bay Area where she grew up, and to make her TheatreWorks debut! Regional credits include Today is My Birthday (Yale Repertory Theatre). Chicago credits include Murder on the Orient Express (Mary Debenham) and South Pacific (Liat) at Drury Lane Oakbrook, In Every Generation (Devorah) and Cambodian Rock Band (u/s Neary/Sothea) at Victory Gardens Theatre, Deck the Hallmark (Courtney, 2021) at The Second City, Mlima’s Tale (Ensemble) at Griffin Theatre, and M. Butterfly (Kurogo dancer) at Court Theatre. TV/Film credits include The Chair (Netflix), Candyman (Monkeypaw/Universal), Chicago Med (NBC), Utopia (Amazon), Christmas Again (Disney Channel), and Station Eleven (HBOMax). Sarah is a proud graduate of the School at Steppenwolf and the University of Chicago. She is represented by Gray Talent Group. Enjoy the show!

LUISA SERMOL (Paola Levi) is delighted to return to TheatreWorks after It’s a Wonderful Life (Lana Sherwood), They Promised Her the Moon (Helena, et al), and Archduke (Sladjana). New York credits include Broadway: Roundabout Theatre Co. (Hamlet), Lincoln Center (Tennessee and His Women), Classic Stage Co. (Macbeth). Regional work includes Portland Center Stage (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Williamstown Theatre Festival (Romeo and Juliet, A Little Night Music, The Maids), Artists Repertory Theatre (The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, The Humans, Cuba Libre, The Goat, Sideman, Three Sisters, Master Class, The Night of the Iguana). Other Bay Area credits: City Lights (The Siegel), Hillbarn Theatre (Noises Off, It’s Only a Play). Film/TV include: Grimm, Leverage, Zero Effect, Insect Poetry. A graduate of The Juilliard School, she holds an MAT, is a teaching artist, and is a founding member of the Actors’ Reading Collective (ARC).

BRIAN LEVI (Understudy for Davide Levi) Most recent credits include San Francisco Shakespeare’s Hamlet (U/S Claudius), The Square Root of a Sonnet with Bay Area Drama Company in San Jose (Eddington), Beckett’s Embers with Anton’s Well in Berkeley (Henry), Below Sycamore with The Shelton Theatre in San Francisco (Hezacate), Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at the Altarena Playhouse in Alameda (Vanya), and A View from the Bridge at The Pear (Alfieri). Brian has performed all over the Bay with theatres such as Custom Made, The Shelton, SF Fringe, Golden Thread, Playwrights’ Foundation, PlayGround, Hillbarn, and The Dragon. Brian is a long-time, award-winning TBA member and acted continuously while at Rice, including productions with the RSC. He thanks his family and community at ZA Studio in San Francisco for support.

MELISSA MEI JONES (Understudy for Devorah (Dev) Levi-Katz) is delighted to join TheatreWorks for the first time! Recent credits include Silicon Valley Shakespeare’s Sense and Sensibility (Fanny Dashwood), City Lights Theater Company’s Vietgone (Huong, others), and Palo Alto Players’ Men on Boats (William Dunn). Other credits: 17 seasons with Silicon Valley Shakespeare, including The White Snake (White Snake), Hamlet (Gertrude), and The Comedy of Errors (Dromio of Syracuse); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Judy) at The Pear Theatre; The Revolutionists (Charlotte Corday) with Dragon Productions; How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Miss Jones) and Flower Drum Song (Helen Chao) at West Valley Light Opera; and roles in Into the Woods at Los Altos Stage Company and She Loves Me at South Bay Musical Theatre, where she can be seen this May in Singin’ in the Rain as Lina Lamont.

LISA MORSE (Understudy for Yael Levi-Katz, Paola Levi, and Valeria Levi) is a performer whose local credits include: Marin Theatre Co., Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Symmetry Theatre Co., Just Theatre, PlayGround. Regional Theatre: Missouri Rep, The Kennedy Center, Old Castle Theatre Co, Boston Playwrights Theatre, Stoneham Theatre, The Depot Theatre. Off Broadway: Lincoln Center, CSC, and P.S. 122. Favorite roles include Mom in Down a Little Dirt Road, Miss Finknagle in the film adaptation of Miss Finknagle Succumbs to Chaos, Woman in The Other Place, Nora in A Doll’s House, Lala in The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Hellena in The Rover. Lisa has studied with Uta Hagen, Gene Saks, David Shiner, and Joseph Chaikin.

ALI VITERBI (Playwright) is a playwright, television writer, and educator from San Diego. In Every Generation was a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere production, premiering at Victory Gardens Theater in 2022. Ali’s work has been developed and/or commissioned by Geffen Playhouse, The Kennedy Center/ NNPN, La Jolla Playhouse, Round House Theatre, San Diego REP, HERE Arts Center, The Barrow Group, and North Coast Repertory Theatre, among others. Ali won the 2019 National Jewish Playwriting Contest and has developed projects in TV. She was a member of the Geffen Playhouse Writers’ Room, and she was the associate artistic director of the annual San Diego Jewish Arts Festival. Ali received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.F.A. in Playwriting from UC San Diego.

MICHAEL BARAKIVA (Director) is an Armenian/Israeli-American director, writer, and producer who splits his time between Hell’s Kitchen, NYC and Mexico. He is the Founder and Creative Director of Novel Readings (www.novelreadings.com), a company that uses the performance of text to produce social justice events and develop writers’ work, and served as the Artistic Director of the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY (2015-2020). Michael has directed new and classical works all over the country and world. His novels, One Many Guy and Hold My Hand, have received numerous LGBTQ+ and YA awards. His third book, These Precious Stones, will be published in May 2024. He is a graduate of Vassar College and the Juilliard School, where he studied as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Directing. For Haim Bar-Akiva, 1930-2022. www.michaelbarakiva.com

NINA BALL (Scenic Design) recently designed TheatreWorks’ production of Nan and the Lower Body. She 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., among many others. Ball is also a production designer and has worked on numerous film, TV, and commercial productions. She is the Scenic Design Core Lecturer at Stanford University, a long time company member at Shotgun Players, and a member of United Scenic Artist Union 829.

BEATRICE BASSO (Italian Consultant, she/her) is an interdisciplinary theater artist from Italy, moving between performing, writing, and curating. Recently, Basso performed at Cygnet Theatre, made a piece for The Front Gallery, workshopped The Aurelia Diaries with Novel Readings and consulted for the Oscar-nominated Pixar film Luca. Her translations have been produced by American Conservatory Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Santa Cruz Shakespeare. Basso was A.C.T.’s Director of New Work and instigated Práctica, a platform for artists across the Tijuana-San Diego border. She is the Creative Director of San Diego’s Italian Cultural Center, lectures in the Department of Theatre & Dance at UCSD, and holds degrees from the University of Padova and the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance.

SUZANNE CHESNEY (Costume Design) is a Brooklyn based costume designer with two decades of experience in theatre and television. Suzanne’s artistic home is at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, where she has designed numerous world premieres including Photograph 51 by Anna Zeigler, Isaac’s Eye by Lucas Hnath, and most recently Travisville by William Jackson Harper directed by Steve Broadnax. Regional credits include Next to Normal, To Kill A Mockingbird, Blithe Spirit, and Turn of the Screw at Syracuse Stage; Clybourne Park, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Humans, The Glass Menagerie, Between Riverside and Crazy at Pittsburgh Public Theatre; Third, Degage, Chicago and A Christmas Carol at The Hangar Theatre. www.SuzanneChesney.com

DEREK A. GRAHAM (Composer) is excited to work with TheatreWorks for the very first time! Recent composer credits: Toni Stone (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre/Alliance Theatre); Protocol (Portland Center Stage); The Chinese Lady (Artists Repertory Theatre). Works in sound design: Detroit ’67 (Baldwin Wallace University Theatre); I Shall Not Be Moved/Your Negro Tour Guide (Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati); Kill Move Paradise (Dobama Theatre). BA: Music at Elizabeth City State University. MFA: Sound Design at Ohio University. Co-founder of Life By Design Media & Production with spouse and life-partner, Jessica.

NICOLE HELFER (Movement Consultant) is an award-winning choreographer, director, and performing artist who has worked with many well-known bay area theatre companies such as San Francisco Playhouse, 42nd Street Moon, Broadway By the Bay, Center REP, Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Ray of Light, Mountain Play, Lamplighters Music Theatre, and Pacific Coast Repertory Theatre. Most notable choreography work includes Indecent, Follies, Cabaret (SFBATCC Award), Twelfth Night (SFBATCC Award), She Loves Me (SFBATCC Award), West Side Story (TBA Award), and In the Heights (TBA Award). Nicole holds a BA from San Francisco State University along with a teaching credential and currently teaches at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts.

MAYA HERBSMAN (Intimacy Coordinator) is an award-winning Middle Eastern Ohlone Land based intimacy professional 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, San Francisco Opera and more. Her work has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, J Magazine, and HowlRound. She is currently on faculty at American Conservatory Theater, The Urban School of San Francisco, and Stanford University. Recent TheatreWorks credits include Sense and Sensibility, Ragtime, and Nan and the Lower Body.

RASEAN DAVONTÉ JOHNSON (Projection Design) is delighted to work with TheatreWorks. A Chicago-based video artist and theatrical designer, he has had the opportunity to work regionally with institutions such as The NY Philharmonic, The Public Theatre, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, The Olney Theatre Center, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, Portland Playhouse, Portland Opera,Yale Opera, Toledo Opera, The Opera Theatre of Yale College, Folks Operetta, Manual Cinema, and internationally with the The Edinburgh Fridge Festival (Scotland), Ningbo Song and Dance Theatre (China) and B-Floor Theatre (Thailand). Additionally his video and installation work has been seen at the Bay Street Theatre, Yale Art Gallery, and the Logan Center for the Arts. MFA in stage design, Yale University School of Drama. raseandavontejohnson.com

KURT LANDISMAN (Lighting Design) is pleased to return to TheatreWorks to light this production of In Every Generation. Previously he designed Lighting for The Joy Luck Club, Once on This Island, and The Heidi Chronicles, which received the BATCC Award for Best Lighting Design. His designs have been seen throughout the Bay Area, represented at American Conservatory Theater, San Jose Rep, San Francisco Opera, Berkeley Rep, Marin Theatre Co., Center Rep, Magic Theatre, and many others. His work has been seen in New York with the World Premiere of Sam Shepard’s Fool For Love. He has designed for productions throughout the US, as well as productions in Tokyo, Singapore, and Shanghai. His designs have received 22 Bay Area Critics Circle Awards. Kurt is delighted to be collaborating again with Director Michael Barakiva.

JEFFREY LO (Casting Director) is TheatreWorks’ Casting Director and Literary Manager, and has previously directed TheatreWorks’ productions of 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 Paper Dreams of Harry Chin and Hold These Truths at San Francisco Playhouse, 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 to his work on stage, Mr. Lo does work nationally promoting equity, diversity, inclusion, and access 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 Nan and the Lower Body, 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-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.

SHARATH PATEL (Sound Design) is an Oregon based designer who works internationally focusing on experimental, commercial, academic, political and socially conscious theatre. Recent designs: A.C.T., The Alley Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Portland Center Stage, Alliance Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Indiana Rep, Artists Rep, Asolo Rep, American Rep, Seattle Rep, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cal Shakes, Alabama Shakes, Seattle Children’s Theatre. Additional work in New York City, San Francisco, L.A., D.C., Boston, Norfolk, Raleigh, Aspen, India, France, England, Germany, Romania, Vietnam. Affiliations: USA829 IATSE, Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association, Arts Envoy for the U.S. Department of State, National Respondent for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, Resident Artists at Artists Rep. BFA: Ohio University. MFA: Yale School of Drama. sharathpatel.com

PENNY PENDLETON (Assistant Stage Manager) is grateful for this wonderful production and everyone involved! Penny trained in Stage Management at the Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts. Recent Stage Management credits include Panto in the Presidio: Sleeping Beauty (Presidio Theatre), Oklahoma! - North American Tour, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Astronomy Bizarre (Orpheum Theatre), Nigella Lawson’s Cook, Eat, Repeat (Sydney Goldstein Theatre), Sense and Sensibility (TheatreWorks), A Christmas Carol (Golden Gate Theatre). XOXO, P²

RONEET ALIZA RAHAMIN (Assistant Director / Judaic Consultant) is a theatre artist native to the Bay Area. Some directing credits include: The Thanksgiving Play - City Lights Theater Company, Twelfth Night - Palo Alto Players, Fully Committed - Los Altos Stage Company, and Macbeth - Dragon Productions Theatre Company, which she also produced. Consulting credits include Oslo - Los Altos Stage Company and multiple productions of The Diary of Anne Frank. Ms. Rahamim was a TBA Award recipient in 2017 for her performance as Anne Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank with Palo Alto Players. She is a resident artist with Golden Thread Productions. www.Roneet.com

HEATHER STERLING (Hair and Wig Design) has been designing wigs and makeup for theatrical productions for the past 20 years. Recent designs include Nan and the Lower Body for TheatreWorks; La Scala di Seta. Tosca, and La Traviata for Opera Santa Barbara; Une Education Manquee/Le Docteur Miracle, The Enchanted Pig, and La Clemenza di Tito for San Francisco Conservatory of Music; Madame Butterfly for The Atlanta Opera; and The Marriage of Figaro for Opera San José. Upcoming productions are The Consul and L’enfant et les sortileges for SFCM, 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.

EMILY ANDERSON WOLF (Assistant Stage Manager) has been the Assistant Stage Manager for TheatreWorks’ Little Shop of Horrors, Archduke, Frost/Nixon, Fun Home, Crimes of the Heart, Jane Austen’s Emma, Triangle, Fire on the Mountain, Peter and the Starcatcher, Sweeney Todd, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Little Women, and Other Desert Cities. She was also the Assistant Stage Manager for threesixty Entertainment’s First National Tour of Peter Pan; Journey to the West at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and with American Musical Theatre of San Jose. Ms. Wolf also works as a stagehand throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and is a proud member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. She holds a BA in Theatre, Cum Laude from Mount Holyoke College.

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.

DEBBIE CHINN (Executive Director, she/her) joined TheatreWorks as Executive Director in November 2022. Over the past 30 years, Debbie has held C-suite leadership positions at Anna Deavere Smith Projects, Opera Parallèle, Carmel Bach Festival, California Shakespeare Theater, Baltimore’s Center Stage, and Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey. Debbie is a board member of Playwrights Foundation, San Francisco Community Music Center, the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, and is on the Advisory Council and on the EDI Committee of West Edge Opera. She most recently served as Board Chair of Theatre Bay Area. On a national level, she has been appointed to the Leadership Council of the National Small Business Association.Her book, Dancing in Their Light, published March 2022, chronicles her family’s historical connection to the missionaries of China and of the pioneering impact her family of immigrants have made to advance the fields of research, science, medicine, academia, engineering, arts, humanities, and culinary hospitality in the United States. Debbie is currently the creative consultant for writer William Kinsolving on the development of his new musical, That Week With The Bachs, which will be presented at the Spacious Grace Festival in the nave of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco in February 2023. debbiechinn.com