Cast and Crew

PLAYWRIGHT

Philip Kan Gotanda is a leading American playwright and filmmaker.  Mr. Gotanda’s works have been produced at AATC, American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Campo Santo/Intersection for the Arts, East West Players, Manhattan Theatre Club, Mark Taper Forum, Missouri Rep, New York Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Horizons, Robey Theatre Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and South Coast Repertory.  Mr. Gotanda has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, NEA Fellowship, and Rockefeller Playwriting Award.  His films include “Life Tastes Good,” starring Tamlyn Tomita.

DIRECTOR

Matthew Graham Smith is the founder and Artistic Director of Precarious Theatre, San Francisco’s critically acclaimed ensemble theatre company.  He is a core member of the Dell’arte company, a group focusing on classical and emerging physical theater forms.

He’s honored to work with AATC again after leading workshops of Duy Nguyen’s BLOOD IS THICK and creating movement sequences for FAYETTE-NAM.  He has directed at the Walnut Theater in Philadelphia and the HERE American Living Room series in New York City.  In San Francisco he has directed at the Yerba Buena Garden’s Festival, Bay Area Playwright’s Festival, the A.C.T.’s Masters program, Aurora Theatre, The EXIT Theatre, Playground, and New Conservatory Theatre, where his Kiss of the Spiderwoman was nominated for Best Overall Drama 2006 by the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.  This November he will direct part of the Me, Myself and I series at BRAVA, where he is also directing 4 staged readings paired with food and wine for Precarious Theatre’s Kitchen Series.

An accomplished educator, Graham has taught at A.C.T.’s Master of Fine Arts program & Summer Training Congress & Studio ACT in San Francisco, Assumption University in Bangkok, and the Barcelona Meisner Program in Barcelona, Spain (www.meisner.es).  His teaching incorporates principals from many different physical disciplines and traditions from around the world in the service of training a dynamic physical actor.

STAGE MANAGER

Jocelyn Thompson received her BFA from Howard University, Washington DC.  She is currently serving a 2008-2009 Internship at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.  Jocelyn is a member of Educational Theatre Association.

CAST (in Alphabetical Order)

Rich Bianco (TRUMAN) is one of the lead dancers with Diavolo Dance Theatre under Artistic Director Jacques Heim. He is a graduate of The Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theater (2000) and has worked with School Director Daniel Stein and the school co-founders Joan Schirle and Michael Fields on various projects.  Winner of the Fringe First Award with The Shoestring Players at the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland (1994), he was the Mask and Movement Choreographer for a series of Mountain Dew commercials using Mad Magazine’s Spy vs. Spy characters–the first time those characters were permitted to be played by actors.

Daniel Bruno (PERCUSSIONIST) is a company member of Berkeley’s Shotgun Players.  An actor/musician, he won a BATCC award for composing the original score for Shotgun’s 2001 production of “Iphigenia in Aulis”.  Bruno also won a Dean Goodman Choice Award in 2003 for playing Robert Mayo in Eugene O’Neill’s “Beyond the Horizon” at the Tao House.

Will Dao (PICK) attended Oberlin College (’02: BA in Theater and East Asian Studies), NYU Tisch School of the Arts (CAP 21), and Bloomingdale School of Music to train as an actor.  He originated roles in three musicals including “And the Earth Moved”, “The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen,” and “Some Call it Magic.”  He received a 2000 Irene Ryan Foundation Acting Scholarship nomination for his portrayal of Song Liling in David Henry Hwang’s “M. Butterfly.”  He was also a finalist in SinoTelevision “Chinese Pop Star.”

Michael Uy Kelly (BACKWARDS SOLDIER) was last seen earlier this year as the Thief in Ian Walker’s “Meadowland” at San Francisco’s Phoenix Theater.

Thomas Pang (CIGARETTE GIRL/DRUMMER BOY) graduated from the San Francisco School of the Arts with Theatre Honours.  He is currently taking a break from his studies at the Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program at the University of Minnesota. He is a four-time English-Speaking Union Shakespeare Competitor.

Anthony Julius Williams (GORAM) received his BA at Yale and his MA from City University of New York; he is in the process of finishing his MFA with John F. Kennedy University.  His stage credits include: Donald Margulies’ “The Model Apartment” (A Traveling Jewish Theater) and Erika Schuch’s “After All” (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts).  He is the director of GuyWriters Literary Program.

CREW (in Alphabetical Order)

Cathie Anderson (LIGHTING) was the lighting designer for the Richmond Ermet AIDS Foundation’s “Help is on the Way XV” at the Herbst Theater as well as its “All You Need is Love” gala at the Post Street Theater.  Her recent stage credits include the US premiere of the Australian play “Holding the Man” at the New Conservatory Theater and the acclaimed Ray of Light staging of “Batboy, The Musical,” voted one of the Top Ten 2005 theatrical productions by the San Francisco Guardian.

Bruce Thierry Cheung (SET) is a designer for the award-winning Studio Daniel Libeskind. Bruce received the Dean’s Collaboration Grant at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where he is completing his MFA.  He designed the set for AATC’s production of Aurorae Khoo’s “Fayette-Nam” in 2009.

Sofia Fong (SCENIC PAINTER)

Elijah Guo (PROP MASTER) first collaborated with Matthew Graham Smith as Prop Master for the staged reading of Jen Silverman’s “Crane Story” at the 2008 Bay Area Playwrights Festival.  His original musical, “The True Story of Aladdin,” was produced by Ariel Dance Productions (San Jose, CA) in March 2009.  He is currently a student at UC Berkeley majoring in Theater & Performance and English.

Aaron Niles (MASTER CARPENTER) graduated with a BA in Architecture from UC Berkeley.  Also an actor, Aaron appeared in the UCB premiere of Michael Golamco’s “Achievers.”

Margaret Whitaker (COSTUME) had her work featured most recently in Marin Theatre Company’s “Life x 3″ and the film “Red Ice.”  She is currently on the faculty of the Academy of Art in San Francisco.  Margaret designed the world premiere of Lila Rose Kaplan’s “Wildflower” at UCSD.

VIDEO TRAILER CINEMATOGRAPHY TEAM: Huy Vu, Hoan Doan, Alan Chang