In This Program

• Show Program
• The Gentle Absurdity of Comedy
• Love in the Time of Social Media
• The Company
• Constructing Reality
• Spotlight on Play On Shakespeare
• Print Edition
• More about A.C.T.

Cast

Sophia Alawi*, Stevie Allen
Grips

Molly Hager*
Megan

Seth Hanson*
Christian

A.J. Holmes*
Jeff

Ashley D. Kelley*
Nina/Tanya

John-Michael Lyles*
Dominic/Evan

Ana Yi Puig*
Samantha

Jason Veasey*
Byron

Kuhoo Verma*
Jenny

Understudies

Sleiman Alahmadieh*†
Dominic/Evan, Byron, Grip

Sophia Alawi*
Jenny, Nina/Tanya

Stevie Allen
Megan, Samantha

Roeen Nooran
Jeff, Christian, Grip

Stage Management

Christopher R. Munnell*
Production Stage Manager

Julia Formanek*
Assistant Stage Manager

Nick Carvalho*
Assistant Stage Manager 

Creative Team

Jason Ardizzone-West
Scenic Designer

Sarita Fellows
Costume Designer

Russell H. Champa
Lighting Designer

Jessica Paz
Sound Designer

Gaby Alter
Orchestration & Arrangement

Jane Cardona
Music Director

Joy Meads
Dramaturg

The Telsey Office / Lindsay Levine, CSA
Casting

Lee Ann Dowd
A.C.T. Casting

Rickens Anantua
Associate Choreographer

Daniel Feyer
Associate Music Director

A.C.T. Producing Team

Andy Chan Donald
Associate Artistic Director

Louisa Liska
Director of General Management & Operations

Amy Dalba
General Manager

Martin Barron
Director of Production

The Band

Jane Cardona
Keyboard 1/ Conductor

Daniel Feyer
Keyboard 2

Christina Walton
Violin

Mike Smith
Guitar

Ami Nashimoto
Cello

Kendra Kop
Bass

John Doing
Drums

Songs

Nobody Loves You
I Just Want To Be Loved
Nobody Loves You (Reprise)
You’re Incredibly Real
Just Wait A Bit More (“I Just Want To Be Loved” Reprise)
Come On In
So Much To Hate
The Twitter Song
The Minefield Tango
It Feels Good
Love Is An Act
Crush Ceremony
Finally
It Feels Good (Reprise)
Love Triangle
Final Crush Ceremony
I Don’t Care What Anybody Thinks
You Let Me In (“Come On In” Reprise)
Finale (“The Twitter Song” Reprise)

Setting

The not-too-distant present

This production is made possible by

Season Presenters

Kathleen Donohue and David Sze; Robina Riccitiello

Company Sponsors

The Marymor Family Fund

Executive Producers

Kevin and Celeste Ford
Kirke and Nancy Sawyer Hasson
John Little and Heather Stallings Little
Nola Yee

Producers

John and Terry Levin Family Foundation
Beverly and Loring Wyllie

Associate Producers

Richard N. Hill and Nancy Lundeen
Lee and Carolyn Snowberg

Benefactors

David Jones and Joe D’Alessandro

Foundation Support

Official Hotel Partner

Pam: I’d like to begin by asking both of you what was the original inspiration, the original spark for this musical?

Itamar: I literally remember where we were, Gaby. We were in a Thai restaurant. It’s not there anymore, I think it’s a bank now, but it was on the second floor of a building on 7th Avenue in Park Slope. So you and I were having dinner there, and we were thinking of doing a show together, and I remember pitching this idea I’d had: “Maybe it could be about reality TV.”

Pam: And what year was this?

Gaby: 2006 or 2007.

Pam: What were the popular shows on in the moment?

Itamar: Back then, I think it was mainly The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, Survivor, and The Real World.

Gaby: There was also Big Brother.

Pam: So 2006, you have an idea. Gaby, when did you know what it would sound like?

Gaby: I tend to write things that are more pop influenced, and I like to try different genres of pop. We figured that because it was about a reality show that it would have that kind of score, as opposed to a more traditional one. Once we got in a room together, we found more details of how it would sound based on the lyrics and the characters’ voices, and the overall tone of the comedy, which is sort of silly and precise at the same time.

Pam: Who was the first character who popped onto the page?

Itamar: We knew early on that there were reality TV types that we would play around with, and that’s where Samantha and Megan and Christian started to come from. Those were probably the first among the contestants and then we knew we wanted a guy who we would follow through the story who was more like us. Jeff is sort of the avatar for me and Gaby, who’s like, “Well, I’m skeptical about these shows and I can look down on them and see how they’re manipulating people.” But we knew from the very beginning that we wanted the arc to be about a guy who thinks he’s above it…and then realizes he isn’t.

Pam: It is such fertile source material, because these dating shows do carve out these archetypes. If you audition, you’re already performing the self you want portrayed on the show, then the producers grab that.

Itamar: And, if you think about those archetypes—the wild girl, the shy guy, whatever—you realize that they’re actually very old. You can find them in commedia del arte. Or ancient Greek plays. Theater and storytelling have always trafficked in these sort of archetypes.

Pam: How in the intervening years, as the world has changed, how has the musical continued to evolve? I’m most struck by the preponderance of millions, maybe even billions of people “performing self” on social media these days, and I wonder how that has crept into this show for you?

Gaby: In some ways it just changes the context of the show and heightens the points we were trying to make. Originally, Itamar and I were talking about this question of why do people want to be watched? And that’s gotten even more exaggerated in the era of social media.

Itamar: Think about what the landscape was in 2007 or 2008, which was when we were writing the first draft. I think 2007 was the year I joined Facebook. Instagram launched in 2010. There was no TikTok. There was no Snapchat. And the landscape of reality TV was more limited and it was a little bit more niche and so at the time, we thought the show was functioning as a warning, in a way.

As a result of that, I think there was more distance between the show and the audience. But now, social media has proliferated, and merged with reality TV: people go on The Bachelor and then having been on The Bachelor becomes their career. They go on subsequent shows like Bachelor in Paradise, and then they’re on Instagram, they have a podcast, they’re influencers.

Gaby: In 2007, there was some internet dating, right? But then that really crescendoed.

Itamar: That’s right. I think Tinder exploded right after we first premiered this show. It is the gamification of all romance. And that also speaks to the themes of the show.

Pam: This musical has a company of eight actors—not a big musical, but also not a tiny musical. Can you talk about the fun of thinking through double casting? It feels very specific—sometimes the double casting is a really awesome stretch for an actor, and sometimes it’s sort of like, “Oh, it’s a repetition of core.” And I wondered how you approach this in writing it.

Itamar: Doubling and tripling is a thing that we (as an audience) accept in plays and musicals, but I think it generally works better if it’s also part of a conscious aesthetic choice. It does have a financial advantage—it’s cheaper to make the cast smaller—but if you’re going to do that, I always like it to make sense. So you find ways for it to say something about how certain characters or similar, or different, or maybe special in a certain way because they don’t double.

In Nobody Loves You in particular, it maybe also connects to this idea of the performance of self. But we didn’t go into it thinking, “We’ll use doubling to make this subtle meta theatrical point about performing personality.” It was just a practical consideration that ends up leading to certain fun echoes and jokes and maybe thematic resonance.

Pam: You talked a little bit, Gaby, about this being a pop score that plays in different genres. I wonder if, in thinking about for instance Dominic and Evan, played by the same actor, does doubling affect composing?

Gaby: I wouldn’t say the doubling affects it. I think it’s more about the characters and how you want to portray them musically. Dominic is a “bro,” so his sound is kind of basic, straight-ahead rock. And then Evan is a gay man and kind of flamboyant, so I wanted his music to be more light and fun and upbeat. I usually just start out on instinct, and see if it works.

Pam: The two of you are both from the Bay Area, you both went to Berkeley High. How does having grown up in the Bay Area influence your artistic voice?

Gaby: I would say there’s sort of a gentle absurdity to our comedy, which plausibly comes from the Bay Area. There’s a place for goofiness in the Bay without being mean. A famous example is The Lonely Island, who like us are Gen X graduates of Berkeley High.

Itamar: I think that’s right, there’s definitely a Bay Area comic voice of which The Lonely Island—Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone, all of whom we went to high school with—is probably the most famous example. It seems to be characterized by a combination of intelligence and silliness and, like Gaby said, a lack of mean-spiritedness.

Gaby: And we’re both kids of academics. The main character in Nobody Loves You, Jeff, is an academic. I remember when we were starting this show, I was like, “How is the general public going to relate to this guy? He’s a PhD student.”

Itamar: Right and then the trick is that, while Jeff takes that very seriously, the show doesn’t. Because no one takes academia less seriously than the children of academics.

Gaby: That’s right.

Pam: And what does it mean to have this show produced at A.C.T.?

Itamar: It’s thrilling. I’m actually really excited and sort of moved by it because yes, it’s one of the major theaters near where I grew up and where I saw many of the seminal formative things.

Pam: And what were those, do you remember?

Itamar: I started really getting into theater in high school—I started thinking more about being a playwright and so that was when I started seeing everything at Berkeley Rep and A.C.T. But specifically, I remember seeing A.C.T.’s production of Angels in America [1994] and it was literally the next day that I started writing my first play. I mean, I’d read Angels in America, and I was interested in it, but I went to see it, and I was like, “I have to try to do this.” So it’s sort of the production that arguably pushed me over the edge into becoming a playwright, literally in the theater where we’re going to be doing this.

I also saw A.C.T.’s Arcadia and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and more. And it was my first job in the theater the summer before my senior year of college. I was a TA in the Young Conservatory and read scripts in the literary office. I took BART into the city every day to go to the office on Grant Street. So I have a lot of very formative A.C.T. memories. Top that, Gaby.

Gaby: I can’t.

[laughter]

Gaby: But let’s see…in my twenties and late teens, my friends and I would write rock musicals together and self-produce them. We performed them at La Val’s Subterranean Theater—this little blackbox theater underneath a pizza parlor in North Berkeley. And that’s where I started doing musicals in 1993, so this is amazing. We did that for, I don’t know, ten years, before I moved to New York. A couple of times we performed in San Francisco in smaller spaces. But I mean, this is hard to believe that we’re actually doing our musical here at A.C.T.

Pam: Well, I’m thrilled that we’re doing this show. I’m thrilled that we get to be in the rehearsal hall together and build it. It’s not a world premiere, but there is so much to explore here. I think it’s best of both worlds: it’s new, but I think everyone agrees that we know how it works. So we have the creative space to try things, to stretch a bit, but there’s a clear roadmap.

Itamar: Exactly.

Gaby: Right, that’s right. Sturdy.

Pam: It’s a sturdy new musical.

Nobody Loves You is about a reality dating show, but also about the online milieu engulfing it, from the skyrocketing social media fame of its contestants to the viral tweets of its fandom. The contestants know romantic relationships are internet catnip—whatever impulse once drove us to buy tabloids about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s rollercoaster romance now swells the follower count for reality TV stars willing to showcase their relationships online. A cynic (or perhaps a realist) might assume these folks pair up to gain followers and thereby a shot at a lucrative influencing career. But what about the rest of us? If we don’t have influencer aspirations, what’s driving us to post about our love lives—and is it helping or hurting them?

As of 2021, more than half of American couples met online. In that sense, posting about each other might feel like a natural progression, and a romantic way to shout from the figurative rooftops proclaiming your besottedness. Posting can be a way of demonstrating you’re proud to be with each other. A 2019 Pew survey found 48% of 18- to 29-year-old social media users say social media is “very or somewhat important for them in showing how much they care about their partner.” When photos came out of President Obama leaning halfway off a boat to snap the perfect shot of Michelle Obama on his phone, people melted; he was labeled an “Instagram husband” (complimentary). People have been performing romantic relationships in public since long before social media (see: weddings). It’s human to crave “positive reinforcement from others,” says therapist Suzette Bray. “Broadcasting our connections makes us feel more accepted and secure in our social lives.”

Then why do we sometimes cringe at a gushy anniversary post? Perhaps it’s a sense that attention-seeking behavior is fundamentally at odds with true intimacy and care. To be someone’s “intimate” is necessarily hierarchical; it’s a privileged bond unlike farther-flung relationships. If intimacy is definitionally private, when a moment is shared widely, it’s no longer intimate.

Posting also complicates our intentions. Even if the initial impulse was to express gratitude or admiration, when a wider circle of friends and acquaintances (or even strangers) starts hitting “like,” the lines blur. After all, if wider attention wasn’t the goal, why not leave a handwritten card with the same message on their nightstand? If every candlelit dinner, bouquet of flowers, or sofa snuggle gets posted, the experiences can be tainted by a creeping sense that they only happened in the first place because they’re photogenic.

Then there’s the question of presence. While it can be wonderful to have a record of special moments, when we focus on getting that perfect shot, we aren’t savoring the experience to the fullest, researchers at Princeton, U.T. Austin, and Stanford found. By recording, we distract ourselves from the experience and forget details more easily. Similarly, a Yale study found taking photos to share on social media changes our perspective—we remember the moment as if we were an external observer, with less intense emotion.

Finding and nurturing love has always taken bravery and humility. Doing so in the wilderness of online dating is no exception. Once you’ve found each other, deciding how much to share about your relationship online is a balancing act between desires to share joy and to preserve intimacy. And as Nobody Loves You reminds us, what we consume is always curated. Even when someone claims to be sharing their raw, unfiltered, messy truth, we cannot possibly have a full picture of who they are and what they’re up to; at best, it’s an incomplete highlight reel that tees up unfair comparison. Once in a while, we might be better off stashing our phones, ignoring everybody else’s relationships, and soaking up the quiet, ephemeral details of our own.

MOLLY HAGER* (Megan) was an original cast member of Waitress on Broadway, cult hit Heathers: The Musical (New World Stages), and Michael R. Jackson’s White Girl in Danger (2nd Stage). Hager also played a singing ghost in the New York premiere of Duncan Sheik’s Whisper House (59e59), and a Mahjong enthusiast in A Walk on the Moon right here at A.C.T.! Onscreen, she most recently played Virginia Rider on the limited series Five Days at Memorial on Apple TV+. Thanks to Lasher Group & Nicolosi. For Bob and the donkeys. (she/her)

SETH HANSON* (Christian) is a New Mexican-born performer based in the Bay Area. He has performed at several theaters worldwide, such as Panto in the Presidio, Berkeley Playhouse, Ray of Light Theatre, Albuquerque Little Theatre, and Berlin Opera Academy. Credits include Kinky Boots (Charlie), Peter Pan (Swing, US Peter), Spring Awakening (Melchior), A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder (Monty), Legally Blonde (Warner), Little Women (Laurie), and operatic roles, such as Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Monostatos). Seth is a San Francisco Conservatory of Music graduate under Grammy winning baritone Matthew Worth. @sethrhansontenor (he/him)

A.J. HOLMES* (Jeff) is thrilled to make his A.C.T. debut! A native Californian, A.J. spent years playing Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon — on Broadway, London’s West End, Australia, and on tour in the U.S. and Canada (including many months at The Orpheum in San Francisco). On Broadway, A.J. also understudied the role of Buddy in Kimberly Akimbo. Off-Broadway, A.J. wrote and starred in his one-man musical Yeah, But Not Right Now. On tour, A.J. played Dr. Frank in Young Frankenstein, a role he returned to at La Mirada Theatre. On TV, A.J. can be seen on Fosse/Verdon and heard on Season 21 of South Park. As a composer, A.J. has written several musicals, including collaborations with StarKid Productions such as Twisted and A Very Potter Musical. A lover of musical improv, he is a cast member in Shitzprobe! The Improvised Broadway Musical. A.J. is one half of the legendary musical comedy duo 2/3rds of a Threesome. He is repped by BRS/GAGE, and was schooled by University of Michigan. aj-holmes.com

ASHLEY D. KELLEY* (Nina/Tanya) has appeared on Broadway in Shucked (Theatre World Award) and the National Tour of The Play That Goes Wrong. Her Off-Broadway credits include Eve’s Song (Public Theater) and Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons/Lucille Lortel nomination). Regionally, she appeared in An Act of God (Bucks County Playhouse) and The Wiz (Dorothy/Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Her film and TV credits include Home Team (Netflix), Insatiable (Netflix), Ghosts (CBS), Law & Order (NBC), Luke Cage (Netflix), Bull (CBS), Chicago P.D. (NBC), and the NBC pilot of Hungry. PROUD New Yorker! Temple University graduate. Grateful to God! @AshleyDKelley.

JOHN-MICHAEL LYLES* (Dominic/Evan) has originated two Broadway roles: Thought 3 in A Strange Loop (Obie–winning) and Eli in The Heart of Rock & Roll. Off-Broadway credits include Safety Not Guaranteed (BAM), Sweeney Todd and The Flick (Barrow Street), This Ain’t No Disco (Atlantic), Brooklynite (Vineyard), Big River and 1776 (Encores!). Regional credits include The Secret Garden (Center Theatre Group), Bliss (5th Avenue), Art of Falling (Second City), Choir Boy (The Guthrie). TV & film credits include The Other Two, Chicago PD, NCIS: New Orleans, and Blind. He composed additional music for We’re Gonna Die (Second Stage Theater). john-michaellyles.com @johnmichael_lyles

ANA YI PUIG* (Samantha) is overjoyed to be making her A.C.T. debut! Television credits include Goosebumps (Disney+, Hulu), Gossip Girl (Max), FBI: International, Bull, and Jade Armor. Puig has starred in the Netflix feature Senior Year, as well as the upcoming Hulu film Swiped. Other regional credits include Spring Awakening at Theatre Under the Stars and Mamma Mia at Ivoryton Playhouse. She is a proud alumni of Texas State’s BFA Musical Theatre Program and the 2022 Disney Television Discovers: Talent Showcase. Endless gratitude to her family, friends, CGF, Authentic, Jake, and this extraordinary company. For Mimo. @anayipuig (she/her)

JASON VEASEY* (Byron) is best known for creating the role of “Thought 5” in the Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical A Strange Loop. Veasey recently starred as “Billy/Reggie” in Soho Rep’s The Fires. Veasey is recognized for his multi-season arc as “Jonathan” on the hit Hulu series Only Murders in the Building, which garnered him a 2024 SAG Award nomination. TV: Little Voice (Apple), Chicago Fire (NBC), High Maintenance (HBO), Flatbush Misdemeanors (Showtime), Betty (HBO), Dash & Lily (Netflix), and the Hulu pilot Olga Dies Dreaming. Film: I’m Not Him, Home Free, and the upcoming Friendship (alongside Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson). Follow him on socials: @Veaseyville

KUHOO VERMA* (Jenny) is a New Delhi–born, New York–based artist who revels in works made for diverse audiences. You can see her on screen as the lead of Plan B, streaming on Hulu, as well as in Murder Mystery 2 (Netflix), The Big Sick, and Space Cadet (Amazon). She previously starred in Dave Malloy’s Octet at the Signature Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble). She frequently workshops new musicals and has sung operas in venues around Europe. @therealkuhoo

SLEIMAN ALAHMADIEH* (u/s Dominic/Evan, Byron, Grip) is a Lebanese actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer based in the Bay Area. He is thrilled to make his A.C.T. debut with this incredible and talented team! He recently starred as Michael Darling in the panto Peter Pan at the Presidio Theatre. Some of his regional credits include George in TheatreWorks’ Sondheim revue Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration directed by Robert Kelley; Roger in Berkeley Playhouse’s production of RENT; Juniper in the premiere of The Trees at Zbelow; and Charlie Price in Kinky Boots at Throckmorton theatre. Alahmadieh is also a dance instructor at Rae Studios. He is grateful to his family, friends, and Bay Area community who have loved and supported him throughout his artistic journey. (he/him) @sleimanalahmadieh

SOPHIA ALAWI* (Grip; u/s Jenny, Nina/Tanya) is thrilled to be making her A.C.T. debut. She is a Moroccan American actress who won the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award for Featured Actress – Musical in 2019 for Groundhog Day The Musical and was named one of “Five Standout Performances” in 2019 by the Houston Chronicle for the role of Wendla in Spring Awakening. Television credits include Law & Order: SVU. New York credits include We Live In Cairo (New York Theater Workshop). Regional credits include EVITA, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and Groundhog Day The Musical (San Francisco Playhouse), She Loves Me, Merrily We Roll Along, Fun Home (42nd Street Moon), The Sound of Music (Hillbarn Theatre), Spring Awakening (Theater Under The Stars), and In the Heights (Playhouse on Park). Alawi also writes music and screenplays. Currently she is developing a short film that you can learn more about and support at sophiaalawi.com/lioness.

STEVIE ALLEN (Grip; u/s Megan, Samantha) is an NYC and NorCal–based actor, writer, and creative. Nobody Loves You marks their A.C.T. debut, and they are overjoyed to work with such an unbelievably talented team! Recent credits include A Trip to the Moon (dir. Jason Aguirre), Ghost Quartet (dir. E Gomez), and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (1st National Tour, dir. Jen Wineman). They are a proud member of Ring of Keys, and a CAP21/Molloy University graduate (2024). To Jasper, Willow, Madi, Luke, and especially Mom—all the love in the world. stevieeallen.com (they/she) @stevieeallen

ROEEN NOORAN (u/s Jeff, Christian, Grip) is making his A.C.T. debut with Nobody Loves You. You may recognize him from a few other musicals in the Bay Area such as ensemble/swing in Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Shotgun Players), Emmett Forrest in Legally Blonde (Ray of Light Theatre), or Brad Majors in the 2023 production of The Rocky Horror Show (Oasis). Nooran is just as excited about this show as the drunkest audience member and knows you’ll have nothing short of a blast! (he/him) IG @roeennooran

ITAMAR MOSES (Book and Lyrics) is the Tony Award-winning author of the plays Outrage, Bach at Leipzig, The Four of Us, Celebrity Row, Back Back Back, Completeness, and The Ally, the short play collection Love/Stories and the musicals Fortress of Solitude, The Band’s Visit, Dead Outlaw, and An American Tail. Other awards for his work include Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle, Obie, and Drama Desk awards. Television includes Men of A Certain Age, Boardwalk Empire, and The Affair. He is a proud member of the Dramatists’ Guild and the Writer’s Guild of America.

GABY ALTER (Music and Lyrics) is the recipient of a Jonathan Larson Grant and theater awards from ASCAP and the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics’ Circle. His musicals include Band Geeks (Goodspeed, MTI), and songs for the revue Stars of David (Off-Broadway, national tour.) Alter’s works have been produced at Second Stage and The Old Globe theaters, and performed at Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, Barrington Stage Company, and NAMT’s New Works Festival. He and Itamar wrote the song “The Frigate That Flies” for the Disney feature The Pirate Fairy. Alter performs his own pop music as Yes Gabriel. gabyalter.com @gabyalter

STEPH PAUL (Choreographer) is a NY based director/choreographer who weaves together her lived experience as a first-gen Haitian-American, body percussionist, dancer, and athlete to build community and teams through art. Recent credits include directing Martyna Majok’s Sanctuary City (Steppenwolf Theatre), co-directing and movement directing Liliana Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself (New York Theatre Workshop), and choreographing Jeff Augustin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (Manhattan Theatre Club). Paul is a Princess Grace Award- winner, Helen Hayes Award-winner, NYTW Usual Suspect, and proud SDC member. She was selected for the inaugural Theatrely 31 cohort and is a fan of curating playlists and watching all of the sports. stephpaul.com

PAM MACKINNON (Director) started with A.C.T. in the 2018/19 Season as the theater’s fourth artistic director. She is a Tony, Drama Desk, Joe A. Callaway, and two-time Obie Award-winning director, having directed upwards of 80 productions around the country, off Broadway, and on Broadway. Her Broadway credits include Amélie, A New Musical (featuring Phillipa Soo), Beau Willimon’s The Parisian Woman (with Uma Thurman), David Mamet’s China Doll (with Al Pacino), Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles (with Elisabeth Moss), Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance (with Glenn Close and John Lithgow), Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Direction of a Play), and Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park (Tony Award nomination and Obie Award for Best Direction of a Play). Her most recent credits include world premieres of Craig Lucas’s A Whynot Christmas Carol and Kate Attwell’s Big Data (A.C.T.), Bruce Norris’s Downstate (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, London’s National Theatre, Playwrights Horizons ; Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Direction, and The Joe A. Callaway Award for Direction), Lydia R. Diamond’s Toni Stone (Roundabout Theatre Company, A.C.T., and Arena Stage), Kate Attwell’s Testmatch (A.C.T.), Edward Albee’s Seascape (A.C.T.), Christopher Chen’s Communion and The Headlands (A.C.T.), and María Irene Fornés’s Fefu and Her Friends (A.C.T.). She has been recognized as among the 25 Most Influential San Franciscans of 2020 by San Francisco Magazine, along with Jennifer Bielstein. Pam is the most recent past president of SDC, the national union representing stage directors and choreographers. (she/her) 

JASON ARDIZZONE-WEST (Scenic Designer) is an Emmy Award–winning set and production designer whose work spans live theater, television/film, concerts, dance, architecture, and more. Notable projects include: Redwood (Broadway), Jesus Christ Superstar Live (Emmy award), shadow/land (The Public Theater - Lucille Lortel nomination), Wedding Band (Theatre For A New Audience - Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Audelco nominations), Monsoon Wedding (St Ann’s Warehouse), The Bluest Eye (The Huntington Theater - Elliot Norton nomination), Blue Man Group (national tour), Phish (Madison Square Garden), Dua Lipa (global tour), Florence + The Machine’s Dance Fever Tour (global tour), Hikaru Utada’s Science Fiction Tour (Japan & Asia tour - Amazon Prime).
jawstudiony.com @jasonardizzonewest

SARITA FELLOWS (Costume Designer) had the pleasure of designing A.C.T.’s Fefu and Her Friends, Top Girls, and Her Portmanteau. Her more recent works include projects such as Death of a Salesman, Broadway; Safety Not Guaranteed, BAM; Elyria, Atlantic Theater Co; Theater of the Mind, Denver Center of Performing Arts; Blues for An Alabama Sky, Guthrie Theater; Sojourners and The Grove, Huntington Theater; The Ally, Public Theater; She Loves Me, Longwharf Theater; December, The Alley. In the dance world, Sarita has worked with choreographers such as Liz Lerman and Edisa Weeks. Awards: nomination for Outstanding Costume Design Elliot Norton Award (2024), Costumes Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design (The National Black Theater Festival 2022), Lily Award (2020).

RUSSELL H. CHAMPA (Lighting Designer) previously at A.C.T. A Whynot Christmas Carol, Big Data, Fefu and Her Friends, Wakey Wakey, The Hard Problem, The Unfortunates, Let There Be Love, Maple and Vine, Blackbird, and Waiting for Godot. Current and recent projects include As You Like It (CalShakes), The Lifespan of a Fact (Aurora Theater), The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (The Dallas Opera), Wintertime and Becky Nurse of Salem (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Everest (Lyric Opera of Kansas City), and Thresh|Hold (Pilobolus). Broadway credits include China Doll (Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre), In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Lyceum Theatre/Lincoln Center Theater), and Julia Sweeney’s God Said “Ha!” (Lyceum Theatre). New York: Playwrights Horizons, Theater For A New Audience, The Public Theater, Second Stage Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, and New York Stage and Film. Regional: Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Wilma Theater, Trinity Repertory Company, The Mark Taper Forum, and The Kennedy Center. Thanks J and J! PEACE. russellchampa.com

JESSICA PAZ (Sound Designer) is a multi-award–winning Sound Designer. She has collaborated on the Broadway productions of Hadestown (Tony and Drama Desk Award, Best Sound Design of a Musical); A Beautiful Noise; Dear Evan Hansen; Bandstand; Disaster! The Musical; The Assembled Parties; and FELA! (Tony award, Best Sound Design of a Musical). Off Broadway/Regional Sound Designs include Little Shop of Horrors (Westside Theater). Twelfth Night, Othello, Miss You Like Hell, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and As You Like It (The Public Theater); Ugly Lies The Bone (Roundabout); A Sucker Emcee, and The Muscles In Our Toes (LAByrinth); The King’s Whore (Starcatcher Productions); Becoming Dr. Ruth (Westside Theater); Looking for the Pony (Vital Theater Co.); Women Beware Women (Red Bull Theater); Stretch – A Fantasia (New Georges). Regional credits include Water For Elephants (Alliance Theater; SUZI Award); Kiss My Aztec (Berkeley Rep, CT Critics Circle Award). A proud member of IATSE Local 829; and Co-Chair of the board of the Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association (TSDCA).

JANE CARDONA (Music Director) is a music director, pianist, and copyist living in Queens, NY. They were most recently the Music Director for the Six US Tour. They were the pianist in, and a co-orchestrator of, Heather Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova, directed by Lee Sunday Evans, for which they received a Lucille Lortel Award. Their Broadway conducting credits include Moulin Rouge, Six, Jagged Little Pill, Head Over Heels, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Broadway keyboard credits include Beetlejuice the Musical. Pre-Broadway transcription credits include The Outsiders and Moulin Rouge. (they/them)

JOY MEADS (Dramaturg) a native of Oakland, is director of dramaturgy and new works at American Conservatory Theater. A.C.T. credits include Big Data, Hippest Trip – The Soul Train Musical, Poor Yella Rednecks: Vietgone 2, The Headlands, Fefu and Her Friends, Communion, Testmatch, Wakey, Wakey, Sweat, Men on Boats, Edward Albee’s Seascape, Her Portmanteau, The Great Leap, and Rhinoceros. Prior to A.C.T., she was literary manager/artistic engagement strategist at Center Theatre Group. CTG credits include Archduke, Good Grief, Appropriate, Forever, Marjorie Prime (2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist), A Parallelogram, The Royale, and Sleep (also: Brooklyn Academy of Music and Yale Repertory Theatre). Previously, Meads was literary manager at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and associate artistic director at California Shakespeare Theater. Meads is a co-founder of The Kilroys. (she/her)

THE TELSEY OFFICE / LINDSAY LEVINE, CSA (Casting) With offices in both New York and Los Angeles, The Telsey Office casts for theater, film, television, and commercials. The Telsey Office is dedicated to creating safe, equitable, and anti-racist spaces through collaboration, artistry, heart, accountability, and advocacy. thetelseyoffice.com

LEEANN DOWD (A.C.T. Casting) is a Bay Area–based artist, producer, and creative facilitator. She has worked with A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Center Repertory Company, California Shakespeare Theater, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Shotgun Players, Theatre Bay Area, Lower Bottom Playaz, and TheatreFIRST. In her role as Artistic Producer at Cal Shakes, she is most proud to have supported projects that expand an understanding of “classical theater” to include epic stories of the global majority, including: black odyssey by Marcus Gardley, Quixote Nuevo by Octavio Solis, and House of Joy by Madhuri Shekar. LeeAnnDowd.com (she/her)

RICKENS ANANTUA (Associate Choreographer) is an NYC based artist. His work ranges from being a Playlist Performer for Carnival Cruise Lines to playing Aaron Burr in the musical comedy Spamilton. He’s also made an appearance on America’s Got Talent (Season 16). He recently appeared in Paper Mill Playhouse’s Spring ‘24 production of Gun & Powder. His current work is as a wedding singer for Elan Artists. He is very excited to take on his first Associate Choreographer role and branching out into new forms of creative expression. Thank you A.C.T.!!!! @rickensduh_

DANIEL FEYER (Associate Music Director) served as Music Director for A.C.T.’s A Christmas Carol and Associate M.D. for A Little Night Music. He was Music Associate for Hamilton, playing and/or conducting nearly 200 performances on tour, and a local keyboardist for Wicked and Company. Feyer has music-directed at Center Repertory Company, Berkeley Playhouse (TBA award for Ragtime), and Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, among others. His many off-Broadway credits include Evil Dead: The Musical, Working, and The Underclassman (Drama Desk nom for orchestration). A San Francisco native, Feyer has won the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament a record nine times. 

CHRISTOPHER R. MUNNELL* (Production Stage Manager) is excited and incredibly grateful to debut here at A.C.T. Munnell has lived in NYC since 2003, where he attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Most recently, he was the Production Stage Manager for the Tony award-winning musical Sufjan Steven’s Illinoise on Broadway, directed by Justin Peck. Other Broadway credits include Funny Girl, Head Over Heels, Michael Moore: The Terms of My Surrender, An American In Paris, and War Horse. His other select New York credits include Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular, Soundtrack of America at The Shed, and Monkey: Journey to the West for Lincoln Center Festival.

JULIA FORMANEK* (Assistant Stage Manager) is a Bay Area–based stage manager and is happy to return to A.C.T. after previously working on Private Lives, A Strange Loop, and Hippest Trip – A Soul Train Musical. Other credits include: A Strange Loop (Center Theatre Group); Mexodus, Let The Right One In, Cambodian Rock Band, Goddess (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Sleeping Beauty: Panto in The Presidio, Magic Lamp (Presidio Theatre); Romeo y Juliet, House of Joy, Everybody (California Shakespeare Theater); and The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberly, Oslo, Marjorie Prime, and Shakespeare In Love (Marin Theatre Company). Julia has a BA in Theatre Production from Beloit College. (she/her)

NICK CARVALHO* (Assistant Stage Manager) is a Bay Area stage manager and this is his A.C.T. debut. Carvalho is the stage manager for Sara Porkalob’s Dragon Cycle and has stage managed Dragon Lady with Geffen Playhouse, Marin Theatre, and Center Repertory Company. Other regional credits: Torch Song, Bees and Honey, Where Did We Sit on the Bus?, Justice, and Dunsinane (Marin Theatre); Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play) (Magic Theatre); Twelfth Night (Marin Shakespeare Company); and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s New Works Festival. Carvalho is the Production Manager of El Campanil Theatre and serves on the Technical Theater Advisory Board at Diablo Valley College. Love to Emma. (he/him)

Since Nobody Loves You’s first production 13 years ago, the “always-on” nature of personal performance has saturated all facets of American life, parallel to the rise of social media personalities and influencers. This production of Nobody Loves You seizes on a decade-long explosion of reality TV dating shows and their global domination, satirically needling the phenomenon and our obsession with it.

2002

• The Bachelor airs its first season on ABC

2003

• The Bachelorette airs its first season

2012

• The Bachelor season 15 is watched by 9.87M viewers
• Nobody Loves You has its original World Premiere at The Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, California in May.

2013

• Nobody Loves You premieres in New York, produced by Second Stage Theater, in June. After the off-Broadway hit, the authors decide to hold off on licensing rights, despite being approached by several U.S. theaters, to continue developing the work.

2014

• The Bachelor in Paradise begins

2015

• Love Island launches in the UK

2017

• Itamar Moses and Gaby Alter make an exception to grant Horizon Theater in Atlanta the right to produce Nobody Loves You; the writers use the opportunity to rewrite and renew their commitment to developing the show.

2018

• Love Island expands to Australia, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden

2019

• Viewers spend an average of 1.1 million minutes per month watching reality dating shows

2020

• Love is Blind drops its first season on Netflix

2021

• Itamar Moses approaches Pam MacKinnon, who has directed six productions of Moses’s plays, about directing Nobody Loves You.

2023

• Viewers spend an average of 4.3 million minutes per month watching reality dating shows (a 300% increase over a 4-year period)
• The Golden Bachelor premieres, and is one of the most-watched premieres in franchise history
• Moses, Alter, and MacKinnon lead a NYC–based script workshop in June, coming away with two new songs.

2024

• Love Island reaches production milestone of 25 franchise shows in 25 different countries
• Love is Blind launches Love Is Blind: Habibi, its 9th franchise production in its 8th language (Arabic)
• Designer Jason Ardizzone-West joins the project in January, and choreographer Steph Paul joins in March.
• A 3-week developmental workshop takes place in May in New York, yielding significant casting, movement, and music composition progress.

2025

• Nobody Loves You opens at American Conservatory Theater, running Feb 28–Mar 30!

A.C.T. has a long history of producing Shakespeare, including traditional stagings, modern re-imaginations, and most recently, translations by contemporary playwrights. For many years, A.C.T. MFA students toured Shakespeare productions to local schools in a beloved program called “Will on Wheels.” After the MFA Program wrapped in 2022, some of the schools served by that program no longer had theater on campus. In 2023, former A.C.T. Director of Community Connections Shannon R. Davis and then President of Play On Shakespeare Lue Douthit hatched a new idea…touring schools with a translated Shakespeare production performed by professional actors.

Last year we launched the A.C.T. OUT Tour, which reimagines classic tales in, with, and for our local communities. Much more than a school tour, this initiative brings world-class actors into informal performance settings and allows audiences to get up close and personal with a no-frills, bare-bones, honest, and modern performance of a classic story. After kicking off the A.C.T. OUT Tour with public performances in the Rueff at the Strand Theater, students from 19 schools experienced our March 2024 performance of Measure for Measure. Here’s what we heard from some of the high schoolers:

“I liked how interactive it was; 10/10 would see again.”

“For someone that isn’t a very big Shakespeare fan I was really shocked at how much I liked this performance.”

“I loved the interpretation of the play...Being a young queer person, it made me really happy to see queer representation shown so openly on stage.”

Seeing the play in translation likely had something to do with its success. Often, it takes 15–20 minutes for audience members’ ears to adjust to Shakespearean language, during which time they may lose important exposition and character information. Play On translations allow everyone to drop in and understand the story more quickly. Instead of students checking out and assuming that Shakespeare is not for them, they realize the show is funny (or tragic, or both) and begin to lean in. When they get the jokes, they don’t check out, and when they can follow the story, entire worlds open up to them.

The playwrights who translate for Play On Shakespeare are neither paraphrasing language nor adapting the plays. They are tasked with matching Shakespeare’s linguistic rigor as they approach the text, preserving rhyme, rhythm, metaphor, meter, imagery, symbolism, rhetoric, and the structure that the Bard so brilliantly created. The playwrights often replace thee/thou pronouns, verb constructions like “didst” and “wouldst,” and other words that are not in common use. The sometimes outdated jokes are revised to make sense in the language we use today. They don’t cut anything, they don’t change the period or setting, and they don’t fix problems in the plays. In our experience, some audience members can’t tell the difference between the translation and the original, and other audience members appreciate the makeover. Others look down on the very idea of translating the original text and, according to The New York Times, see it as “a kind of literary vandalism.”

Recently, the A.C.T. Education and Community Programs team got to dive deep into this conversation about Shakespeare in translation at the 2025 Shakespeare Theater Association Conference, where we were invited to remount our production of Measure for Measure and sit on various panels with colleagues from Play On Shakespeare. Together we encountered both enthusiasts and skeptics, and many people who shared how surprised they were that they loved our production. It’s worth noting that people who experience Shakespeare in other languages and countries are almost always experiencing a translation, and those translations are updated and modernized regularly. In this way, the English-speaking world is catching up with the rest of the world. For 21st-century audiences to appreciate something that resonated with 16th-century audiences, a fresh coat of paint can make the colors shine brightly again.

This spring, San Francisco audiences have the opportunity to judge for themselves. First up, the A.C.T. OUT Tour kicks off with public performances in the Rueff at the Strand Theater, presenting Julius Caesar, and opening on the Ides of March. Julius Caesar contains some of the most memorable language in Shakespeare, not to mention detailed characterizations, deep explorations of human relationships, and issues that feel all too familiar in today’s political climate. Shishir Kurup’s translation preserves all of Shakespeare’s magnificent rhetoric while making obscure humor and historical references more accessible.

Coming up in April, The Acting Company presents The Comedy of Errors, the quintessential madcap comedy, on the mainstage at the Toni Rembe Theater. The translation by Christina Anderson maintains all we love about Shakespeare’s language even as it updates the wordplay, breathing new life into the double (and triple) entendres.

Come for the comedy, come for the tragedy, or come to engage in a conversation about translating the work of William Shakespeare. We hope to hear from you, and we hope to see you there. After all, wherever you find yourself in the debate, you are welcome to “Play On!”

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