Broadway and the West End applauded this intensely clear-sighted and compassionate play about a love affair. Kyra is surprised to see the son of her former lover in the doorway of her chilly London flat. He hopes she will reconcile with his distraught, now widowed, father. Is the gap between them unbridgeable, or can they resurrect their relationship?
Bill Peters directs this deeply compassionate and clear-sighted play at Potrero Stage, featuring Lana Palmer as Kyra Hollis, Bruce Avery as Tom Sergeant and Tyler Aguallo as Edward Sergeant.
“Luminously beautiful and wildly truthful… a fascinating play [that] tears at the heart” — The New York Post
“Absolutely splendid” — The New York Times
CREATIVE & PRODUCTION TEAM
DIRECTOR: Bill Peters
STAGE MANAGER: Vanessa Hill
SCENIC DESIGN: Torben Torp-Smith
LIGHTING DESIGN: Ray Oppenheimer
SOUND DESIGN: Lana Palmer
CAST
KYRA: Lana Palmer
TOM: Bruce Avery
EDWARD: Tyler Aguallo
January 8 – 18, 2020 | Potrero Stage, San Francisco, CA
Every family has its mythologies: Amy and Ruthie share one they have tried to forget. When the sisters return to their family cabin to decide its fate, they begin a moving, lyrical journey through memory and omission, love and grief, lost and found, and the overwhelming power of family history.
CREATIVE & PRODUCTION TEAM
DIRECTOR: Bruce Avery STAGE MANAGER: Vanessa Hill LIGHTING DESIGN: Ray Oppenheimer SOUND DESIGN: Lana Palmer ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER: Matt Avery
CAST
EMMA ATTWOOD
Emma is an actor, writer and artist. Working between London and California, Emma recently relocated to San Francisco. A graduate of the University of Cambridge, Emma has performed in the UK at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Ovalhouse, The Yard Theatre, and Whitechapel Gallery, amongst others. Emma is a co-founder of ‘Write Her, Direct Her’, a UK collective that promotes women in film and theatre. Most recently Emma appeared in Prydain, part of the SF Olympians Festival at the Exit Theatre. In Fall 2019 Emma was awarded a Theatre Bay Area Creates Grant to develop her play The Lady and the Unicorn.
RACHAEL RICHMAN
Rachael Richman is an actor, writer, and theatre-maker. Bay Area highlights include: Dulcinea in Man of La Mancha with Custom Made Theatre (Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Principal Actress), The Speakeasy at the Palace Theatre (Charlotte), A Noh Christmas Carol at Theatre of Yugen (Christmas Ghosts), Buck and Bill in Above Ground Theatre Festival (Buck), and most recently Custom Made’s Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Some New York and international credits include: The Public Theatre, HERE Arts Center, La Mama, The Whitney Museum, Flea Theatre, New Dramatists, PS 122, BEAT Festival/Brooklyn Navy Yard, Hudson Opera, Bristol Valley Theatre, and the Art Monastery Project.
CREATIVE TEAM
LANA PALMER, Playwright
Lana Palmer is a Canadian-born, San Francisco-based theatre and filmmaker. Her recent directing credits include The North Pool and Red for Bread & Butter Theatre, The How and the Why (Dragon Theatre), staged readings of Middletown (Actors Ensemble of Berkeley) and Uncanny Valley (Town Hall Theatre Company).
She is also a prolific sound designer; in 2019 she completed projects with Kansas City Rep, San Jose Stage, Aurora Theatre, SF Playhouse, Los Altos Stage, and Town Hall Theatre. As a composer, her music is heard on over 100 television series airing worldwide.
She holds a BFA in Film Production and BA in Film Studies from the University of Regina, and a Graduate Certificate in Audio Post-Production from Fanshawe College. She is an alumna of the UCLA Professional Programs in Screenwriting and Television Writing, the RIFF Talent Lab, and the Canada Games National Artist Program. Lana is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA, AEA, and the Dramatists Guild. Lana became a U.S. citizen in September 2019. Funeral Game is her first full-length play.
BRUCE AVERY, Director
Bruce Avery is a Bay Area actor and director. He is the Artistic Director of Bread & Butter Theatre, and a professor of Theatre Arts at San Francisco State University. His PhD is from UC Santa Cruz, where he also worked as Dramaturge for Shakespeare Santa Cruz. His recent directing credits include Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Much Ado About Nothing, and Venus in Fur at SFSU, along with As You Like It, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Bread & Butter Theatre. Recent acting credits include Red and The North Pool (Bread & Butter Theatre), the Bay Area premiere of Sam Shepard’s Particle of Dread (Anton’s Well) and Dennis Shepard in The Laramie Project (SFSU). His favorite Shakespeare roles include Gravedigger and Polonius in Hamlet, Old Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, and Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Up next, he will direct the world premiere of Funeral Game, opening January 10 at Potrero Stage.
In March 2018 I returned to PianoFight for another round of The Music/Scene, an immersive event that fuses theatre and indie music performances. In this round, I directed playwright Gabriel Lief Bellman’s script Flo.
THE CAST:
FLO: Janice Rumschlag
SEYMOUR: John Ferreira
MARSHA: Khela Campos
JANE: Kaitlyn Ortega
The Music/Scene was produced by Sara Judge and Megan Cohen at PianoFight in San Francisco, CA. The show opened March 5th, 2018.
In March 2018, I will direct John Logan’s RED for Bread & Butter Theatre.
THE PLAY:
Master abstract expressionist Mark Rothko has just landed the biggest commission in the history of modern art, a series of murals for New York’s famed Four Seasons Restaurant. In the two fascinating years that follow, Rothko works feverishly with his young assistant, Ken, in his studio on the Bowery. But when Ken gains the confidence to challenge him, Rothko faces the agonizing possibility that his crowning achievement could also become his undoing. Raw and provocative, RED is a searing portrait of an artist’s ambition and vulnerability as he tries to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting.
Red was nominated seven Tony Awards, winning the 2010 Tony for Best Play.
Runs March 23-31st at the Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco
BRUCE AVERY, Director
