THE COMPANY
 | Scott Barrow, Karl Höcker and others La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway: 33 Variations. Off-Broadway: Valhalla (dir. Christopher Ashley), Peter and the Starcatcher (NYTW), Embraceable Me (The Acorn), Dr. Knock (The Mint), Honky (Urban Stages). Regional: Arena Stage, Cincinnati Rep, GeVa, Hartford Stage, Arkansas Rep, Trinity Rep, Ahmanson, The Arden, Commonwealth Shakespeare, NJ Shakespeare, Shakespeare and Company, Studio Theatre, Martha's Vineyard Playhouse, New Rep, Olney, Portland Stage, The Wilma, etc. Also with Tectonic: The Laramie Project Cycle, Uncommon Sense and Treatment and Data (in development). Scott is an author on the company's book on their devising methodology, Moment Work, and a senior teacher with Tectonic. M.F.A. from Brandeis University. |
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Charles Browning, Peter Wirths and others La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway: How I Learned to Drive. Off-Broadway: In the Southern Breeze (Rattlestick), 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner Fairview (Soho Rep, TFANA, Berkeley Rep) Drama Desk nominee, Classical Theater of Harlem, Classic Stage Company; The Piano Lesson, Dreamgirls (Gallery Players). Regional: Virginia Stage Company, Arrow Rock Lyceum, Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare. TV: Hulu’s MONSTERLAND. Film: Atrabilious (upcoming). Education: Columbia University (M.F.A.), DePaul University. |
 | Dana Colagiovanni, Understudy La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. National Tour: Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol. Regional credits include: Almost, Maine, Nellie in Summer and Smoke, Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, Gabriella in Boeing Boeing, Vicki in The Full Monty, Katerina in The Taming of the Shrew, Tansy in The Nerd, Young Esme/Alice in Tom Stoppard's Rock 'N Roll, Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice, and Harper in Angels in America. Dana has been a part of Here There Are Blueberries development since 2018, and is always grateful to return to this material. |
 | Noah Keyishian, Understudy is a third-year M.F.A. acting candidate at UC San Diego. UC San Diego credits: Hells Canyon, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Twelfth Night, Prepared, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Theater credits: Are You There? (Humana Festival of New American Plays); Tell the Truth, A Christmas Carol, Dracula, The Brief History of Francois Le Chou Chou (Actors Theatre of Louisville); and Favors (Manhattan Repertory Theater). Film credits: Happy Yummy Chicken, That Thing I Had That One Time, Status-Driven, Sasquatch, Separation Celebration, Wax Lover’s Playlist. |
 | Sabrina Liu, Understudy La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Regional: Electra (National Women’s Theatre Festival). UC San Diego credits: Hells Canyon, Everybody, Twelfth Night, End Days, Town Hall. Education: UC San Diego M.F.A. candidate. |
 | Rosina Reynolds, Judy Cohen and others La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Local and regional actor and director. Selected regional credits include: Sea of Tranquility, Romeo and Juliet, Trojan Women, (The Old Globe); 33 Variations (TheatreWorks); Love in American Times (San Jose Rep); Steel Magnolias (La Mirada Theatre). San Diego Theatre: Favorites include Iron (Roustabouts Theatre); Angels in America, Hay Fever, The Vortex, The Glass Menagerie, Arcadia, Little Foxes, Copenhagen (Cygnet Theatre); Golda's Balcony (New Village Arts); Uncanny Valley, Doubt (San Diego Rep); Wit (North Coast Rep); Lettice & Lovage (Lambs Players Theatre); Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Renaissance Theatre Company). Director of over 30 productions. Founding Artistic Director of Chequamegon Children’s Theatre, now in its 35th year. |
 | Jeanne Sakata, Melita Maschmann and others La Jolla Playhouse: Blood Wedding. Off-Broadway: Do You Feel Anger? (Vineyard Theatre); Macbeth (The Public). Selected Regional: Calligraphy (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley); Romeo & Juiet: A Requiem, A Single Shard (People’s Light); The House of Bernarda Alba, King Richard II (Mark Taper Forum); The First Picture Show (Mark Taper Forum, American Conservatory Theatre); Last of the Suns (Berkeley Rep); Red (Intiman Theatre, East West Players; Theatre LA Ovation Award, Best Lead Actress). Selected TV: Station 19, NCIS Hawai’i, Magnum P.I., Hit Monkey, High School Musical: The Musical, NCIS Los Angeles. Playwright: Hold These Truths (Arena Stage, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Pasadena Playhouse, Guthrie Theatre, ACT Seattle and more; Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Solo Performance). JeanneSakata.com |
 | Elizabeth Stahlmann, Rebecca Erbelding and others La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Broadway: Slave Play. Regional: Slave Play (Center Theatre Group); Grounded (Westport Country Playhouse; CT Critics Circle Award); The Humans, The Cake (The Alley Theatre); The Acting Company (three national tours); The Guthrie Theater; Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. TV: City on a Hill, The Equalizer, Law & Order: SVU. Graduate of University of MN/Guthrie Theater (B.F.A.), Yale School of Drama (M.F.A.). |
 | Charlie Thurston, Rainer Höss and others La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Charlie is an actor and playwright who splits his time between NYC and Providence, RI, where he is a member of the resident acting company at Trinity Rep. Charlie is also a founding company member of The Williams Project – a living wage theatre company based in Seattle, WA. Other credits: A.R.T., Goodspeed Musicals, Fault Line Theatre, Cleveland Play House, The Arden, Baltimore Center Stage and more. Selected Film/TV credits: Life Itself, Dexter, Boston Stranger (2023), FinestKind (2023). He plays Roland in the HBOMax series Julia. Education: M.F.A. Brown University/Trinity Rep. |
 | Frances Uku, Charlotte Schünzel and others La Jolla Playhouse: Debut! Regional: Debut! Other theatre credits: Richard II and Macbeth (Independent Shakespeare Company), and workshops of new plays with Tectonic Theater Project and LAByrinth Theater Company. TV sitcoms: Girlfriends, Little America. Host of World Music on LinkTV. Training: M.F.A. from the A.R.T. Institute at Harvard, improv at The Second City Conservatory. francesuku.com. For Jools. |
 | Grant James Varjas, Tilman Taube and others La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Off-Broadway: Twelve Dreams (Lincoln Center); The Common Pursuit (Roundabout Theatre); 33 to Nothing (Wild Project). Regional: The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Goodman Theatre), 33 Variations (CTG Ahmanson Theatre). Film: The Laramie Project (HBO). Television: Sex and the City, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Chicago P.D. Tectonic Theater Project Company member and Senior Teaching Artist. |
Amanda Gronich, Co-Author has devoted her career to bringing non-fiction stories to the stage and screen. An Emmy-nominated scriptwriter, she created dozens of hours of top-rated series and specials for diverse broadcast networks, including Discovery Channel, History Channel and Science Channel. Over a ten-year career in television, she worked as a lead series writer for National Geographic Television and became the Supervising Senior Writer at Hoff Productions. Prior to this, Ms. Gronich was a charter member of Tectonic Theater Project, where she directed the company's Toronto production of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and was one of the group of artists who traveled to Wyoming and co-created The Laramie Project, later made into an HBO film. Currently, she works as a playwright and a script development consultant in theater and documentary television. She also teaches interview-based storytelling as a Lead Teaching Artist at the Moment Work Institute, using techniques she developed as an Adjunct Lecturer at the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre, City College New York. She is at work founding a non-fiction play development institute. In addition, a book about her original play-devising methods will be released by SIU Press. |
Moisés Kaufman, Co-Author/Director Broadway credits include Paradise Square (10 Tony nominations), the recent revival of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song, Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams, as well as the Playhouse-developed productions of 33 Variations with Jane Fonda (writer/director; Tony Award nomination for Best Play, Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award) and Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife (Obie Award, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Award nominations). West End: Gross Indecency (writer/director, Gielgud Theatre); I Am My Own Wife (Duke of York's Theatre); This Is How It Goes by Neil LaBute (Donmar Warehouse). Off-Broadway/Regional: One Arm by Tennessee Williams (Tectonic Theater Project/The New Group); The Laramie Project (writer/director; Theater in the Square, Drama Desk nomination); The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later (writer/director; Alice Tully Hall); Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (writer/director; Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play and the Joe A. Callaway Award for Direction); Macbeth with Liev Schreiber (Delacorte Theater); Master Class with Rita Moreno (Berkeley Repertory Theatre). Opera: El Gato Con Botas (New Victory Theater). Film/TV: The Laramie Project (HBO; two Emmy nominations for writing and directing, Opening Night Selection at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, National Board of Review Award, the Humanitas Prize); The L Word. Mr. Kaufman is the Artistic Director of Tectonic Theater Project and a Guggenheim Fellow in Playwriting and an Obie Award winner. |
Derek McLane, Scenic Design La Jolla Playhouse: 33 Variations, Harmony. Broadway designs include: MJ, The Michael Jackson Musical, Moulin Rouge! (Tony Award), Soldier’s Play, American Son, Parisian Woman, Beautiful, Follies, Anything Goes, Bengal Tiger…, Million Dollar Quartet, Ragtime, 33 Variations (Tony Award), Little Women, How to Succeed…, The Pajama Game, I Am My Own Wife, Ragtime. He designed the Academy Awards six times as well as four live musicals for television. Winner of multiple Obie, Lucille Lortel, Art Director’s Guild, Emmy, Drama Desk and Tony Awards. |
Dede Ayite, Costume Design is a two-time Tony Award-nominated costume designer whose Broadway credits include American Buffalo, How I Learned to Drive, A Soldier’s Play, Slave Play, American Son, Chicken & Biscuits and Children of a Lesser God. Select Off-Broadway credits include Richard III, Merry Wives (The Public Theater); Seven Deadly Sins (Tectonic); Secret Life of Bees, Marie and Rosetta (Atlantic); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Signature); Nollywood Dreams, BLKS, School Girls… (MCC); Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons); The Royale (Lincoln Center); Toni Stone (Roundabout). Regionally, Ayite’s work has appeared at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf, Arena Stage and more. She has worked in television with Netflix, Comedy Central and FOX Shortcoms. Ayite earned her M.F.A. at the Yale School of Drama and has received an Obie, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Theatre Bay Area, and Jeff Award. |
David Lander, Lighting Design La Jolla Playhouse: Ether Dome, Tallest Tree in the Forest, His Girl Friday, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Nightingale, 33 Variations, Restoration and I Am My Own Wife. Broadway: Torch Song, The Heiress, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Drama Desk Award; Tony and Outer Critics nominations), 33 Variations (Tony and Outer Critics nominations), I Am My Own Wife (Drama Desk and Outer Critics nominations), Dirty Blonde (Drama Desk nomination), Golden Child, among others. Off-Broadway: Too Much Sun, Fran’s Bed, Modern Orthodox, among many others. Regional: Ahmanson Theatre, Alley Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Kennedy Center, Mark Taper Forum, The Old Globe, among others. |
Bobby McElver, Sound Design is a sound designer for theatre and dance. A former company member of The Wooster Group, he has toured internationally for over a decade and presented works in many major cities around the world. Additional artistic collaborators include Andrew Schneider, Faye Driscoll, New York City Players, Kaki King, and Tina Satter (Half Straddle). Off-Broadway: AFTER (The Public Theater); Thank You For Coming: PLAY (BAM, Jacob’s Pillow). He has recently joined the faculty in the department of Theatre & Dance at UC San Diego. |
David Bengali, Projection Design La Jolla Playhouse: Bhangin' It. Elsewhere: Twilight, Los Angeles: 1992 (Signature; Drama Desk Award nom.); The Visitor (The Public Theater; Lortel nom.) 1776, We Live in Cairo (A.R.T.); Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical (Seaview; Drama League nom.); Bollywood Kitchen (Geffen Playhouse); Circle Jerk (Fake Friends; Drama League nom.); Einstein’s Dreams (59E59; Drama Desk nom); Girls (Yale Rep); The Great Leap (Atlantic Theater Co.); Frankenstein (Dallas Theater Center); The Temple Bombing (Alliance Theatre); Uncommon Sense (Tectonic Theater Project); In the Moment (The Kennedy Center/Ephrat Asherie Dance); Rockin' Road to Dublin (National Tour). Proud member: USA-829. |
Amy Marie Seidel, Devisor/Associate Director/Dramaturg (she/her/hers) is proud to be making her La Jolla Playhouse debut. She is a Company Member at Tectonic Theater Project, where she has traveled the world to research and create new works of theater. She has developed numerous Tectonic productions, including Here There Are Blueberries, Seven Deadly Sins, Treatment & Data, Three Hotels and Laramie: A Legacy. Select credits outside of Tectonic: Paradise Square on Broadway (Assistant Director), Eternal Flamer! at the Fresh Fruit Festival (Director), A Sacred Song of Thebes at Irondale (Director) and Theater J's Annual Benefit (Director). This one is for Dad. www.amymarieseidel.com |
TBD Casting Co. Stephanie Yankwitt CSA, Casting Theatre highlights include The Coast Starlight by Keith Bunin at La Jolla Playhouse, Zora Howard's Stew at Page 73 Productions and Jackie Sibblies Drury's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fairview for Soho Rep. Currently, their work is represented in NYC with a production of Will Eno's GNIT at Theatre for a New Audience, as well as an Off Broadway production of Mrs. Warren's Profession. Upcoming work includes a podcast of original short plays for the Broadway Podcast Network and a production of a new play by Lauren Yee for La Jolla Playhouse. Stephanie and Margaret are both CSA Members who sit on the Equity in Entertainment Committee. |
Lora K. Powell, Stage Manager La Jolla Playhouse: to the yellow house. Other credits include national tours of Blithe Spirit (w/Angela Lansbury), Wicked, and the LA/SF productions of An Act of God (w/Sean Hayes). Broadway: Chicago, The Life, Annie Get Your Gun. Pantages Theatre: The Lion King, The Producers, Wicked. Ahmanson Theatre (Center Theatre Group): Amélie, Harmony, The Scottsboro Boys, Backbeat, Seminar, Follies. Other credits: David Mamet’s The Christopher Boy’s Reunion, Bill Irwin’s On Beckett, Parfumerie, Maurice Hines’ Tappin’ Thru Life, Satchmo at the Waldorf and Carrie The Killer Musical Experience. Ms. Powell is a current faculty member at UC San Diego where she teaches stage management in the department of Theatre & Dance. |
Jacob Russell, Assistant Stage Manager La Jolla Playhouse: to the yellow house, Kiss My Aztec!, The Who’s Tommy benefit concert. Other Theatre, Dance, and Film credits include Pilobolus’s Big FIVE-OH tour (PSM), Dave Harris’s Cat Sitter (1st AD/OSF), Temporary Occupant (Clubbed Thumb), David Mamet’s The Christopher Boy’s Reunion (Odyssey Theatre), Lisa D’Amour’s Mad Moon (NOLA Project), This Random World (Actors Theatre of Louisville), The Essential Straight and Narrow (New Ohio Theatre), The Library (Public Theater), Sarah Flood in Salem Mass (Flea Theater). Education: M.F.A. from UCSD. For my grandfather, Bernie Halpern (1927-2022), who served as a cook in the Navy during WWII. |
Gillian Lelchuk, Stage Management Assistant Selected Credits: La Jolla Playhouse: Debut. Regional: Word Up (The Old Globe, SM). Washington, DC/Baltimore: 2018 Kennedy Center Honors (Kennedy Center, PA); Daddy Long Legs (Monumental Theatre Company, SM); Putin on Ice (Single Carrot Theatre, ASM). UC San Diego: Men on Boats (PSM), In the Red and Brown Water (PSM), Letters from Cuba (ASM). Johns Hopkins University: Company (SM), The Mousetrap (SM), Is He Dead? (ASM). M.F.A. from UC San Diego, expected March 2023. |
Jared Halsell, Stage Management Assistant is a stage manager originally from Ione, CA. Prior to moving to San Diego, he attended Folsom Lake College where he also worked at The Harris Center for the Arts (formerly Three Stages) as a stage technician from 2011 to 2016. Select regional and educational credits include Stage Management Intern on Almost Famous: The Musical (The Old Globe); PSM on The Who’s Tommy (Falcon’s Eye Theatre); Promithes, Promithes, Nonna Kills the President, Napoli, Meladi Thive and Her Words of Comfort (UC San Diego). Education: B.A. Theatre Arts SDSU 2019, Third Year Stage Management M.F.A. Candidate UCSD, expected 2023. |
Tectonic Theater Project Based in New York City and guided by founder and artistic director Moisés Kaufman, Tectonic Theater Project develops new plays using the company’s trademarked theater-making method, Moment Work, and through a rigorous process of research and collaboration in a laboratory environment. Since its founding in 1991, the company has created and staged over 20 plays and musicals, including Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, The Laramie Project, Doug Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife and the Tony Award-winning 33 Variations. |