April 5 – May 11, 2025 | Roda Theatre
In This Program
- A Welcome from the Artistic and Managing Directors
- Social Justice Through Storytelling
- The Album and the Investigation
- Ostraum, The Holocaust, and the Thousand Year Reich
- Show Program: Here There Are Blueberries
- Artist Bios
- Making Theatre
- Print Edition
- More about Berkeley Rep
Welcome to Berkeley Rep
To ensure the best experience for everyone:
While always encouraged, masks are required inside the theatres during Sunday and Tuesday performances for the first three weeks of a show’s run.
Food and drink: Beverages in cans, cartons, or plastic cups with lids are welcome in the theatre during unmasked performances. Food is prohibited in the theatre during all performances.
Courtesy reminder: To avoid disruption to everyone, please turn off your cell phones, beeping watches, and electronic devices, and refrain from unwrapping cellophane wrappers during the performance. For the comfort of all patrons, please avoid wearing strongly scented personal products.
Photos: Photos may be taken in the theatre before and after the performance and during intermission. Photos and videos during the performance are strictly prohibited. Photos posted on social media must credit Berkeley Rep and the show’s designers.
Smoking and vaping: Berkeley Rep’s public spaces are smoke- and vape-free.
One of the joys of live theatre is the collective experience. Audience members respond to the show in many different ways. We invite you to join together and enjoy the show! If there is anything we can do to make your experience more enjoyable, please see a member of the house staff.
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From the Artistic Director
Welcome to Here There Are Blueberries.
Moisés Kaufman, Amanda Gronich, and Tectonic Theater (together and separately!) have significant history at Berkeley Rep, and I’m proud to welcome them back with this hugely important and vibrantly theatrical story.
Tectonic has always turned the notion of documentary theatre on its head, and in fact, prefer to refer to their work as investigative theatre. This distinction feels particularly important with this play, as a mystery needs to be solved of this album that has arrived on the desk of a curator at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. In some ways, Here There Are Blueberries functions as a detective story, but with an archivist as the protagonist. On the face of it, perhaps not the stuff of gripping drama, but such is the magic of Tectonic’s theatre-making!
Tectonic has always made evident the active task of storytelling, placing it at the center of the plays. At a time in which journalists in our country and elsewhere are facing attacks on the integrity of their process, I feel very fortunate to be sharing a play with our community that celebrates the rigorous investigation of the truth. Here There Are Blueberries invites each of us to contemplate the continuum of complacency/complicity/culpability (as Moisés has described it), and the need to wrestle with the fact that at different moments throughout history, we have each taken our place somewhere along that spectrum when faced with society’s greatest challenges. I hope that spending time immersed in this theatrical event gives us the courage to give voice to the stories of those who may not be able to tell their own, and to fight for truth, together.
Thank you for sharing in this with us.
Warmly,
Johanna Pfaelzer
Artistic Director
From the Managing Director
At its most powerful, theatre does not merely present a story— it demands that we reckon with it. Here There Are Blueberries is one such work: a haunting, deeply human exploration of complicity and conscience, of the unsettling ease with which ordinary people can become enmeshed in history’s darkest chapters.
When a mysterious album of photographs arrives at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, it sets off an astonishing investigation into the lives of Nazi officers and staff at Auschwitz — people who, in one moment, are complicit in unspeakable atrocities and, in the next, are eating blueberries, laughing in the sun. Created by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich of Tectonic Theater Project, this searing work of theatre forces us to confront the banality of evil and the moral responsibility of bearing witness. In presenting Here There Are Blueberries, Berkeley Rep continues its commitment to theatre that challenges, provokes, and deepens our understanding of the world and of humanity.
As we look ahead to the 2025/26 season, which begins in September, we invite you to join us for another year of ambitious storytelling — bold new works, reimagined classics, and theatrical experiences that catalyze conversation and build community. Subscribing ensures your place for the season’s hottest productions, while offering you the best prices, prime seats, free exchange privileges, priority access to special limited engagement events, and a host of other great benefits to make your theatergoing easy, flexible, and affordable.
To the thousands who have already subscribed, thank you! Your loyalty and enthusiasm sustain this theatre. Performances will sell out, so if you have not yet, subscribe today and do not miss a moment of the thrilling season ahead.
Thank you for joining us.
Enjoy the show!
Tom Parrish
Managing Director
Social Justice Through Storytelling
In Dialogue and East Bay Sanctuary Covenant
By Rebs Chan, In Dialogue Coordinator
Pictured above: Performers, Berkeley Rep staff, and the Amplifying Sanctuary Voices team after the ASV performance at Berkeley Rep.
Launched in Berkeley Rep’s 2021/22 season, In Dialogue is a programmatic initiative that places the capacity of our theatre-making skills and resources in service of the community, partnering with local social justice organizations such as Afro Urban Society, La Peña Cultural Center, and Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.
One of In Dialogue’s deepest partnerships is with East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC), a non-profit that provides legal services, community organizing, and transformative education to support low-income immigrants and people fleeing violence and persecution.
In Dialogue and EBSC first partnered on Berkeley Rep’s 2022 production of Sanctuary City. During the rehearsal process, EBSC spoke with the production’s actors and director, helping them understand the realities and legal questions that undocumented immigrants face. During performances, the Peet’s Theatre lobby featured the “Amplifying Sanctuary Voices” exhibit — a social justice installation uplifting the humanity of immigrants, refugees, and activists through stories and artwork from the EBSC community.
Then, following several smaller-scale engagements, Berkeley Rep reconnected with EBSC and the since-expanded Amplifying Sanctuary Voices (ASV) program — now a storytelling project centering the narratives of low-income immigrants and asylum seekers — and we embarked on our most expansive collaboration yet.
LEFT: The first ASV x In Dialogue storytelling workshop. RIGHT: Diego rehearsing his piece, “Becoming Estrella."
Beginning in August 2023, about fifteen immigrant storytellers worked with In Dialogue and Berkeley Rep’s School of Theatre to create original solo performances through a workshop series. The workshops used theatrical exercises to build the participants’ confidence, bravery, and vulnerability, creating a space where they felt empowered to bring their full selves.
In June 2024, four of the workshop participants — Crecen-cio, Marta, Irma, and Diego — performed their original pieces at the School of Theatre’s Bakery for an invited audience. Their performances used a combination of English, Spanish, and the Indigenous Mayan Mam language to explore Indigeneity, gender, sexuality, and more.
Speaking on the workshop and performance process, Marta said, “Ha sido un impacto muy grande porque la voz tiene poder. Sin la voz de nadie no podemos llegar, no podemos lograr algo que queremos. Nuestras metas o algo que queremos en la comunidad también. Yo sé que mi voz está haciendo un impacto en la comunidad Maya Mam especialmente en Oakland.”
LEFT: In Dialogue staff, School of Theatre teaching artists, the ASV team, and workshop participants at a storytelling workshop. RIGHT: Marta rehearsing her piece, “Esto es de donde soy,” with School of Theatre teaching artists and the ASV team.
“Because the voice has power, it has had a very big impact. Without anyone’s voice we can’t get there, we can’t achieve the things we want. Our goals or the thing we want in the community. I know that my voice is making an impact in the Maya Mam community, especially in Oakland.”
In Dialogue continues to collaborate with EBSC as we deve-lop programming in a moment when our most powerful political officials are attacking immigrant rights and promoting hateful, xenophobic rhetoric.
“It’s been a beautiful and evolving partnership. We’ve always felt really supported by the Berkeley Rep community.” said Lisa Hoffman, Co-Executive Director and Director of Development & Communications at EBSC. “The process has been so empowering for our narrator community.”
Storytelling rooted in activism is vital to creating a safer and more equitable society for our immigrant communities. Whether we’re collaborating on a workshop series, hosting a heritage night, or facilitating a panel conversation, In Dialogue creates space for all in our local community to feel included and celebrated.
The Album and The Investigation
by Drew Lichtenberg, Resident Dramaturg, Shakespeare Theatre Company
Germany, the 1920s. A revolution is happening in the theatre. It is led by director Erwin Piscator, dramaturg Bertolt Brecht, and many other collaborators, responding to a rising tide of authoritarianism. Instead of fictional characters, these theatre artists work with materials drawn from everyday life — photographs, newspapers, films.
Piscator and Brecht seek to connect the stage to the present day, to create a space for people to have a common experience of moral and political witnessing. They didn’t just want the stage to reflect reality. They wanted to move audiences, to provoke them, inspire them to change the world.
Over the last twenty-five years, no one has done more to bring the working methods of Brecht and Piscator into mainstream theatre practice than Moisés Kaufman. An acclaimed director, playwright, and filmmaker, Kaufman has led the Tectonic Theater Project since its founding in 1991. With his collaborators at Tectonic, he has created landmark works now recognized as modern classics: Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (1998), The Laramie Project (2000), I Am My Own Wife (2003).
In their content, these works are inspired by real life and focus on social justice, marginalized communities, and topical issues. Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde examines queer identity and the invention of the legal category of “homosexuality.” The Laramie Project looks at the fallout of a hate crime in small-town America — the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man. For I Am My Own Wife, playwright Doug Wright, working with Kaufman and Tectonic, conducted interviews with Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a German survivor of Nazi and Communist regimes who lived their life as a transgender woman.
These works, like tectonic plates, lie at the intersection of the personal and the political, the topical and the historical. They also happen to be among the most produced plays in America, at every level from professional stages to universities and even high schools. Kaufman & co. have shown that the political can also be popular.
Kaufman and Tectonic’s works also showcase the Piscator-Brecht method of composing works of powerful drama out of materials drawn from everyday life. Gross Indecency consists of trial transcripts and other writings. During The Laramie Project, Kaufman and Tectonic company members interviewed members of the Laramie community. And Doug Wright interviewed von Mahlsdorf, creating a one-person play that would win the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award.
For Tectonic, the specific materials used for creating theatre shift depending on the story being told. The results offer audiences around the country a means to process the unthinkable, which also happen to be the complex realities of our world.
For Here There Are Blueberries, co-authored with Amanda Gronich, Kaufman and company’s form and content have shifted yet again. The play centers on a mysterious album of photographs that a retired army colonel donated to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. in 2007. The photographs, as archivist Dr. Rebecca Erbelding recognized immediately, are of the Auschwitz concentration camp. What makes the album unique is that these photos do not focus on the victims, but instead the perpetrators. It documents the Nazis, male officers and female secretaries living their ordinary, everyday lives: lighting Christmas trees, spending time with their children and pets. Just a few kilometers away, in scenes not captured on camera, scenes of horrific suffering were unfolding.
The project began when Kaufman read about the album in a newspaper story and flew to Washington to speak to Dr. Erbelding. It would grow to encompass a trip to Auschwitz with his co-writer Amanda Gronich, their dramaturg Amy Seidel, and the Producer of the play Matt Joslyn, as well as hundreds of hours of interviews with historians and scholars.
In 1962, Erwin Piscator — the inventor of the epic, political, documentary mode — returned to post-World War II Germany. Many former Nazis had returned to civilian life, and discussion of people’s past lives was taboo. In 1965, he directed the premiere of Peter Weiss’s landmark play, The Investigation. It was based on the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, which Weiss attended, taking detailed notes, and accounts in the Frankfurter Zeitung. Though Germans had known about the Holocaust, Weiss’s play made them experience it with new eyes.
Here There Are Blueberries is strikingly similar. It, too, is inspired by newspaper accounts. It, too, asks the audience not to identify with individual Nazis, but to think in terms of a system that condemned countless others whose stories and images are not documented. As the play unfolds, we share the experience of the archivists. We are asked to see, to feel, to think, to piece together a detective story illuminating what human beings are capable of doing while living normal lives. Perhaps, after seeing the show, we will examine our own lives, or ponder our own society, in all its complexities.
Ostraum, The Holocaust,
and the Thousand Year Reich
From the Here There Are Blueberries Further Learning Guide
By Chase J. Padusniak
Photo: An assembly singing Nazi anthems, Poznań Poland.
When we look back now, the rise of Nazism seems like a forgone conclusion. In school, and even from our families for some, we hear about the quick rise and begrudging fall of Adolf Hitler and his genocidal movement, the undeniable bravery it took to defeat a hate-filled party imbued with historical necessity. But this is only true in retrospect. In reality, the rise of Nazism was a process filled with setbacks, serendipities, and unexpected turns. When we view the Third Reich as a foregone conclusion, one that required no apathy or complicity from everyday people, we misread, fall into Sontag’s false reality trap, as if the image were the thing, and as if lives and memories were static rather than dynamic.
In 1923, Adolf Hitler first attempted to take power by leading a putsch and a half-cocked rush to Berlin, modeled on Benito Mussolini’s famous March on Rome. It failed. While incarcerated, he finished writing his autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf, a work rife with the hate that would later characterize the regime. Hitler’s popularity among locals in Munich, including with the judge at his two trials, Georg Neithardt, led to few consequences despite this violent attempt to seize power. He began to believe that the democratic path, coupled with the tacit and explicit support of prominent professionals and leaders, would prove a better way. He was right. From the late 1920s onward, regular elections produced unstable governing coalitions. At the same time, Hitler’s party exploited this instability and continued its rise, tailoring its approach to individual voting blocs, including farmers suffering from falling prices and inflation, anticommunists, antisemites, and nationalists disturbed by defeat in World War I. In 1933, German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler, head of the largest party in parliament, chancellor. A career soldier and statesman, Hindenburg thought he could control the new leader. He was wrong.
Four weeks later, the Reichstag or parliament building burned. A young Dutch communist was blamed, though Hitler may have secretly ordered the arson. The shock to the nation allowed the Nazis to push for the suspension of most civil liberties. What we now think of as the Nazizeit, or Nazi Period, had begun. German professionals, by and large, submitted to the new project.
Acquiescence meant that a consolidation of power followed. In 1934, the Nazis purged prominent members of the Sturmabteiling (SA), which had previously acted as the party’s shock troops in beating Jews and other undesirables. Only four years later on the night of November 9-10, 1938, the Nazis led and allowed pogroms, property destruction, and the burning of synagogues. These events are now known as Kristallnacht. This attack on German Jews came long before there was an Auschwitz or extermination camps. And yet, the violent assault is a prelude to what we now know transpired. What could have taken the Nazis from these first steps to their so-called “Final Solution”?
Aktion T4, a concerted campaign of forced euthanasia for the disabled and chronically infirm inspired by early 20th-century American experiments in eugenics, furnishes a key precursor. Led by soldier and former philosophy student Philipp Bouhler and Hitler’s personal physician Karl Brandt, this program, which began in 1939, killed between 275,000-300,000 people in an effort to improve the Reich’s “racial hygiene.” As World War II began, the drive to clear out eastern territories grew, leading the chemist and SS functionary August Becker to design gas vans that could be used to kill large numbers of people quickly and efficiently with carbon monoxide. A means to “scientific” mass murder had finally been invented.
After 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, the Nazis accelerated this policy of “efficient” murder. If Hitler’s Reich was really to last one thousand years, it would need space, space to the East of what was then Germany, on which to settle and proliferate the Aryan race. They called this land Ostraum or “Eastern Space,” the land which, as Nazi economist and head of the Reichsbank Walther Funk put it, was “rich in raw materials and not yet opened up [to] Europe, [it] will be Europe’s promising colonial land.” The Nazis began removing the local population, especially its Jews, vastly overpopulating the existing forced labor camp system, and leading the authorities to build more and more.
Show Program
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Johanna Pfaelzer, Artistic Director | Tom Parrish, Managing Director
By Special Arrangement with
Tectonic Theater Project, Brian & Dayna Lee, and Sonia Friedman Productions
with
Bruce Roberts/Sue Vaccaro/Ricky Stevens | Linda B. Rubin | Gilbert & DeeDee Garcia | Kathy & Gene Bernstein | Botwin-Ignal/JJ Powell | Good Productions–Patty Baker | InStone Productions | Michael Lamon | Alex Robertson
presents
Tectonic Theater Project's
Here There Are Blueberries
Written by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich
Conceived and Directed by Moisés Kaufman
A co-production with La Jolla Playhouse
National tour sponsored by
Midnight Theatricals
and underwritten by
Michael P.N.A. Hormel, Kay & Bill Gurtin, Leatrice Wolf, and Judy & Michael Steinhardt
Scenic Design
Derek Mclane
Costume Design
Dede Ayite
Lighting Design
David Lander
Sound Design
Bobby Mcelver
Projection Design
David Bengali
Creative Producer
Matt Joslyn
Associate Director & Dramaturg
Amy Marie Seidel
Production Stage Manager
Jacob Russell
Production Manager
Ben Seibert
Casting
tbd casting co./ Stephanie Yankwitt, C.S.A.
Production General Manager
Evan Bernardin Productions / Hillel Friedman
Director of Marketing and Audience Development
Voleine Amilcar
Associate Producer – New Work
victor cervantes jr.
General Manager
Sara Danielsen
Director of Production
Audrey Hoo
Director of the School of Theatre
Anthony Jackson
Director of Development
Ari Lipsky
Associate Artistic Director
David Mendizábal
Director of Human Resources and Diversity
Modesta Tamayo
Director of Operations
Amanda Williams O’Steen
Devised by Scott Barrow, Amy Marie Seidel, Frances Uku, Grant James Varjas, and the Members of Tectonic Theater Project
Here There Are Blueberries was originally commissioned and developed by Tectonic Theater Project
Moisés Kaufman, Artistic Director & Matt Joslyn, Executive Director
Here There Are Blueberries is the winner of the 2021 Theater J Trish Vradenburg Jewish Play Prize
Adam Immerwahr, Artistic Director; David Lloyd Olson, Managing Director
This play had its first workshop production at Miami New Drama’s Colony Theater, Miami Beach, May, 2018
The playwrights and collaborating artists dedicate this production to the memory of their beloved friend and champion, Jeffrey Ressler
World premiere of Here There Are Blueberries produced in 2022 by La Jolla Playhouse, La Jolla, California
Christopher Ashley, Artistic Director & Debby Buchholz, Managing Director
SEASON PRESENTING SPONSORS
Anonymous
Stephen & Susan Chamberlin
Yogen & Peggy Dalal
Bruce Golden & Michelle Mercer
Jonathan Logan & John Piane
The Strauch Kulhanjian Family
Gail & Arne Wagner
SEASON SPONSORS
Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau
Wayne Jordan & Quinn Delaney
Gisele & Kenneth F. Miller
Jack & Betty Schafer
Kelli & Steffan Tomlinson
Steven and Linda Wolan
EXECUTIVE SPONSOR
Bill Falik & Diana Cohen
Len & Arlene Rosenberg
The Ira and Leonore Gershwin Philanthropic Fund – Jean Strunsky, Trustee
Scott & Sherry Haber
SPONSORS
Karen Galatz & Jon Wellinghoff
Steven & Linda Wolan
Ingrid D. Tauber Fund
ASSOCIATE SPONSORS
Edith Barschi & Robert Jackson
Angelos Kottas & Phyra McCandless
Jewish Family and Children’s Services
The Libitzky Family Foundation
Laura Graham
Panoramic Interests
CAST
(in order of appearance)
Scott Barrow
Karl Höcker & Others
Nemuna Ceesay
Charlotte Schünzel & Others
Delia Cunningham
Rebecca Erbelding & Others
Luke Forbes
Tilman Taube & Others
(through Thursday, April 10, 2025)
Noah Keyishian
Tilman Taub & Others
(as of Friday, April 11, 2025)
Barbara Pitts
Judy Cohen & Others
Jeanne Sakata
Melita Maschmann & Others
Marrick Smith
Rainer Höss & Others
Grant James Varjas
Peter Wirths & Others
UNDERSTUDIES
Sam Reeder
Understudy Karl, Rainer & Others
Jeanne Sakata
Understudy Judy Cohen & Others
Anna Shafer
Understudy Rebecca, Charlotte, Melita & Others
Understudies never substitute for listed performers unless a specific announcement or notice is made at the time of appearance.
The actors and stage managers on this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
This theatre operates under agreement with the League of Resident Theatres, Actors’ Equity Association (the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States), the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and United Scenic Artists.
The videotaping or making of electronic or other audio and/or visual recordings of this production and distributing recordings or streams in any medium, including the internet, is strictly prohibited, a violation of the author(s)’s rights, and actionable under United States copyright law.
Opening Night: April 9, 2025
Roda Theatre
Run time is approximately 90 minutes with no intermission
For This Production
Company Manager
Erica Miller
Assistant Stage Manager
Gillian Lelchuk
Intimacy Coordinator & Sensitivity Specialist
Ann C. James
Technical Director
Jackie Young
Lighting Director
Molly Tiede-Schroer
Associate Scenic Designer
Rochele Mac
Associate Costume Designer
Niaamar Felder
Associate Lighting Designer
Molly Tiede-Schroer
Associate Sound Designer
Salvador Zamora
Associate Projection Designers
Elizabeth Jane Barrett, Taylor Edelle Stuart
Systems Engineer
Peter Brucker
Lighting Programmer
Taylor Jensen
Projection Programmers
Luis Garcia, Jerran Kowalski
Projection and Sound Equipment provided by Sound Associates;
Lighting Equipment provided by PRG.
Deck Crew
Chris Russell
Wardrobe Crew
Siobhán Slater
Light Board Operator
Kenny Coté
Sound Show Crew
Angela Don (A1), Courtney Jean (A2), Camille Rassweiler (V1)
Medical Consultation for Berkeley Rep provided by
Mari Bell MPT (UCSF), Ed Blumenstock MD, Charissa Chaban DPT, Cindy J. Chang MD (UCSF), Christina Corey MD, Neil Claveria PT, Patricia I. Commer DPT, Kathy Fang MD PhD, Steven Fugaro MD, Anjali Gupta MD (Kaiser), Olivia Lang MD (Berkeley Pediatrics), Allen Ling PT, Liz Nguyen DPT, Desiree A. Unsworth DPT, Christina S. Wilmer OD, Eric Yabu DDS, and Katherine C. Yung MD
TECTONIC THEATER PROJECT
Moisés Kaufman, Artistic Director | Matt Joslyn, Executive Director
General Manager
Cary Bland Simpson
Chair of the Moment Work Institute
Leigh Fondakowski
Director of International Programs
Jeffrey LaHoste
Director of Development & Special Projects
Zena Hinds
Executive Assistant
Katie Wagner
Associate Producer
Ido Gal
Marketing Consultant
Nicole Dancel
Production General Management
Evan Bernardin Productions / Hillel Friedman
Production Management Consultant
Ben Seibert
Board of Directors Richard Sheehan (Chair), Alan Kornberg, Amy Stursberg (Co‑Vice Chairs), Gary Ressler (Treasurer), Jeffrey Lawhorn (Secretary), Deborah Barrera, Ruth Fisher, Michael Graziano, Mark Gude, John Hadity, Michael P.N.A. Hormel, Scott Johnson, Erika Kramer, Jeffrey LaHoste, George Slowik Jr., Lori Steinberg, Gretchen Tibbits, Aaron Walton, Timothy Wu, Kevin Jennings (Founding Chair)
The National Tour of Here There Are Blueberries is made possible through the generosity of:
And underwritten by MICHAEL P.N.A. HORMEL, KAY & BILL GURTIN,
LEATRICE WOLF, and JUDY & MICHAEL STEINHARDT
McCarter Theatre Center
January 24 – February 9
The Wallis Annenberg
March 13 – March 30
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
April 5 – May 11
The creation of Here There Are Blueberries was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Artist Bios
Scott Barrow
Karl Höcker & Others
Scott Barrow is a Company member of Tectonic Theater Project where he has been a devisor on Blueberries from the first residency at Miami New Drama, is a contributing author of the company’s book: Moment Work, teaches devising, and was part of the creative team on Broadway’s Tony Award-winning 33 Variations starring Jane Fonda, as well as Uncommon Sense, and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. Scott is the Artistic Director of Stages on the Sound where he champions unconventional classrooms and unpredictable productions.
Nemuna Ceesay
Charlotte Schünzel & Others
Nemuna Ceesay is a director/actor in NYC. Select Acting credits: New York Theatre Workshop (HTAB), Actors Theatre of Louisville (Loving and Loving), The Shed (Straight Line Crazy), Second Stage (Patience), Two River (Three Sisters), Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Select Directing credits: Playwrights Horizons (Amusements), 66th Obie Awards, Associate Director of A Strange Loop on Broadway. Artistic fellow at The Workshop: a fellowship centering the work of Jews of Color artists & culture-makers. MFA in acting: A.C.T. Visit www.nemunaceesay.com
pronouns: she/her
Delia Cunningham
Rebecca Erbelding & Others
Delia Cunningham can currently be seen portraying Nurse Carla in Before for Apple TV+ alongside Billy Crystal, and has also recurred on Paper Girls (Amazon) and City On Fire (Apple TV+). She recently made her off-Broadway debut in Someone Spectacular at Signature Center and toured with A View From The Bridge directed by Ivo van Hove. Delia is a graduate of Northwestern University.
Luke Forbes
Tilman Taube & Others
Luke Forbes was most recently featured as a guest star on CBS’s The Equalizer and recently wrapped a major recurring role on the Amazon original series Harlem. He has also recurred on S.W.A.T. and has guest starred many TV series including: This Is Us, Chicago PD, Atlanta, and House Of Cards. He can be seen opposite Channing Tatum in the feature film Dog and leading the critically acclaimed film, Crown Heights.
Noah Keyishian
Tilman Taub & Others
Off-Broadway: Franklinland (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Here There Are Blueberries (New York Theatre Workshop). Regional: The Lehman Trilogy (Maltz Jupiter Theatre); Fiddler on the Roof (Olney Theatre Center); Love All; (La Jolla Playhouse); Are You There? (44th Humana Festival); A Christmas Carol; Dracula (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Education: MFA UC San Diego
Barbara Pitts
Judy Cohen & Others
Barbara Pitts is an original actor/co-creator of The Laramie Project (BAM, Union Square, La Jolla, Berkeley Rep) and appears in HBO Film’s adaptation (shared Emmy Nomination, Best Adapted Screenplay). Recent theatre: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Mona Pirnot’s Baseball It Is and Chris O’Connor’s The Gentleman from Philly (Mile Square Theatre). TV: Person of Interest, Forever, Kidnapped, 30 Rock, One Life to Live, As the World Turns, Law & Order, L&O: SVU, and Comedy Central’s Pulp Comics.
Sam Reeder
u/s Karl, Rainer & Others
Sam is excited to be part of this wonderful company! A frequent actor with Tectonic Theater Project, he’s appeared in Here There are Blueberries at New York Theatre Workshop, and developmental showings of Treatment & Data and Gross Indecency. Favorite credits include: Hal in Henry IV (LiveArts), Actor 2 in Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville (Virginia Theater Festival), KJ in The Aliens, Panch/Olive’s Dad in 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Septimus in Arcadia.
Jeanne Sakata
Melita Maschmann, u/s Judy Cohen & Others
Off-Broadway: Do You Feel Anger? (Vineyard Theatre); Macbeth (The Public). Selected Regional: Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; The House of Bernarda Alba (CTG/Mark Taper Forum); Here There Are Blueberries (La Jolla Playhouse); Calligraphy (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley); Last of the Suns (Berkeley Rep); Red (East West Players; Theatre LA Ovation Award, Outstanding Lead Actress). Selected TV: Station 19, NCIS Hawai’i, NCIS Los Angeles, Magnum P.I., Hit Monkey, High School Musical. Playwright: Hold These Truths (Arena Stage, Pasadena Playhouse, Guthrie Theatre, and more; Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Solo Performance). jeannesakata.com, holdthesetruths.info
Anna Shafer
u/s Rebecca, Charlotte, Melita, & Others
Anna lives, works, and teaches in Washington, DC. Off-Broadway: Here There Are Blueberries at New York Theatre Workshop. DC Credits: Here There Are Blueberries at Shakespeare Theatre Company; Poetry For the People and This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing (Helen Hayes Award Winner for Outstanding Ensemble) at Theater Alliance; The Upstairs Department at Signature Theatre. National Players Tour 71. Education: American University.
Marrick Smith
Rainer Höss & Others
Marrick is a NYC-based actor and audio engineer. Broadway: Fun Home (OBC). National Tour: Dear Evan Hansen (OTC). Off-Broadway: Pretty Filthy, Wild Goose Dreams, (Public). TV: The Blacklist. Regional: Fiddler, Forum (MUNY) Beautiful (Paper Mill). Film/TV Scoring: Tuesday, The Screens, Macabre. Music Production: Kristen Plati, J. Riley Henderson, Sarah Morgan, and Sabrina Monique. FOH Mixing: Ed Palermo, Marc Lettieri, Jimmy Vivino, Kofi Baker, Lee Rittenour. Love to Kayleigh and Leia.
Grant James Varjas
Peter Wirths & Others
Off-Broadway: Here There Are Blueberries (New York Theatre Workshop), Twelve Dreams, The Common Pursuit (Roundabout), 33 To Nothing. Regional: Here There Are Blueberries (La Jolla Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre Company), The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Goodman Theatre), 33 Variations (Center Theatre Group). Film: The Laramie Project (HBO), Peter and Vandy, Territory. TV: Sex and the City, Law & Order: CI, Chicago P.D. Writer, deviser, company member at Tectonic Theater Project, and faculty member at its Moment Work Institute.
Moisés Kaufman
Co-Author, Conceiver, Director
Moisés Kaufman is a Tony and Emmy nominated director and playwright who received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2016. Broadway credits include Paradise Square (10 Tony Award nominations), Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams, The Heiress with Jessica Chastain, 33 Variations with Jane Fonda (wrote and directed, Tony nomination Best Play), and Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife (Tony Award). Other productions include: Pulitzer Prize finalist Here There Are Blueberries, Velour: A Drag Spectacular, Las Aventuras de Juan Planchard, Seven Deadly Sins (Drama Desk Award). He is the co-writer of The Laramie Project and the writer of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. He’s an Obie and Drama Desk award winner and a Guggenheim fellow.
Amanda Gronich
Co-Author
An Emmy-nominated, Pulitzer Prize finalist, Amanda became a lead series writer for National Geographic Television and Supervising Senior Writer at Hoff Productions, creating top-rated shows for networks including Discovery, WeTV, Animal Planet, TLC and Science Channel. With Tectonic Theater Project, Amanda directed the Toronto production of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and was a co-creator of The Laramie Project. A book about her story devising methods will be released by SIU Press.
Derek McLane
Scenic Designer
Broadway designs: Death Becomes Her, Purlie Victorious, MJ, Moulin Rouge! (Tony Award), A Soldier’s Play, The Price, Beautiful, Gigi, 33 Variations (Tony Award), How to Succeed in Business…, Follies, Anything Goes, Ragtime, The Pajama Game, I Am My Own Wife. Television 6 years Academy Awards (Emmy Award), 4 NBC Musicals, including Hairspray (Emmy Award). Awards: multiple Tony Awards, Emmy’s, Obie’s, Drama Desks, Lucille Lortel Awards, and Art Directors Guild Awards. Designed the 2024 Met Gala.
Dede Ayite
Costume Designer
Dede Ayite is a Tony Award-winning costume designer. Recent: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X at the Metropolitan Opera. Select Broadway: Our Town, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Tony Award), Hell’s Kitchen, Appropriate, Topdog/ Underdog, Slave Play. Select Off-Broadway: Merry Wives (Public), Buena Vista, Days of Wine and Roses (Atlantic). Select Regional: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage. Television: Netflix, Comedy Central. Awards: TDF/Kitty Leech Young Master Award, Obie, Drama Desk, Henry Hewes, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Theatre Bay Area, Audelco, Jeff awards.
David Lander
Lighting Designer
Broadway: Torch Song with Michael Urie, The Heiress with Jessica Chastain,
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams, 33 Variations with Jane Fonda, I Am My Own Wife with Jefferson Mays, all with Moises Kaufman, among other productions. Extensive Off-Broadway, regional theatre and international theatre, and opera. Awards: Two Tony Award nominations, Five Drama Desk Awards-One win, among many others.
Bobby McElver
Sound Designer
Off-Broadway: Hadestown (NYTW, Associate), After (The Public Theater), Red Speedo (NYTW, Associate). Recent: Here There Are Blueberries (NYTW, Shakespeare Theatre Co, La Jolla Playhouse), NOWISWHENWEARE (BAM, Walker, NYU Abu Dhabi), The Other Shore (On the Boards), Circular Dimensions: Microscape (Coachella). Company member of The Wooster Group (2011-2016). Frequent collaborator with Andrew Schneider. Professor at UC San Diego Theatre & Dance.
David Bengali
Projection Designer
Broadway: Water for Elephants (Tony and Outer Critics Noms), The Thanksgiving Play, 1776, Eureka Day. Off-Broadway / Regional: We Live In Cairo (A.R.T., New York Theatre Workshop); Here There Are Blueberries (NYTW, La Jolla, Shakespeare Theatre DC; Hewes and Helen Hayes Awards); Twilight: LA 1992 (Signature, A.R.T.; Hewes Award, Drama Desk Nom), Monsoon Wedding (Saint Anns), The Visitor (The Public; Lortel Nom), Walk On Through (MCC); Circle Jerk (Fake Friends; Obie Award); National Tours: Peter Pan, 1776, Rockin Road to Dublin.
Ann C. James
Intimacy Coordinator
Ann C. James debuted as the first Black Intimacy Coordinator on Broadway for Pass Over. Recently, her company Intimacy Coordinators of Color was awarded a Special Citation from the OBIE Awards. Broadway: Sunset Boulevard, A Wonderful World, Eureka Day, Lempicka, The Outsiders, Hamilton, Parade, Sweeney Todd, Heart Of Rock And Roll, Illinoise. Off-Broadway: 3 Summers Of Lincoln, Shit. Meet. Fan., Velour! A Drag Spectacular!, The Hippest Trip, Sunset Baby, Jonah, White Girl In Danger, How To Defend Yourself, The Comeuppance, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, My Broken Language, The Half-God Of Rainfall, Here There Are Blueberries, Life And Trust, The Lonely Few. Tour: Hamilton USA, UK, and AUS.
Amy Marie Seidel
Associate Director & Dramaturg
Amy Marie Seidel is a NYC-based theatre maker who has worked on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally. She is a company member at Tectonic, where, in addition to Blueberries, she has developed Seven Deadly Sins (Drama Desk) and Treatment & Data. Amy recently directed a reading of All The Frozen Ones by Stella Ferra (Starring Robert Sean Leonard). Additional assist/assoc director credits include: Paradise Square (Bway), The Great Gatsby (Bway) & Billie Jean (Development). www.amymarieseidel.com
pronouns: she/her/hers
tbd casting co./Stephanie Yankwitt, C.S.A.
Casting
Stephanie Yankwitt, tbd casting co., is the resident Casting Director for Tectonic Theater Project, where past productions include Here There Are Blueberries (La Jolla, STC, NYTW, National Tour), Velour: A Drag Spectacular (co-written by and starring Sasha Velour), and the upcoming Broadway revival of The Laramie Project. tbd co. is also the resident casting office for Soho Rep, where recent productions include Give Me Carmelita Tropicana (Branden Jacobs Jenkins), and the upcoming production of The Great Privation (Nia Akilah-Robinson), Soho Rep/Playwrights Horizons. @tbdcastingco.
Jacob Russell
Stage Manager
For Here There Are Blueberries: Production Stage Manager (NYTW) and Assistant Stage Manager (La Jolla Playhouse & Shakespeare Theatre Company). With Krymov Lab NYC: Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin: In Our Own Words (Under the Radar) and Big Trip (La MaMa), Velour: A Drag Spectacular (LJP), The Library (The Public Theater), Big 5-Oh Tour (Pilobolus). MFA: University California San Diego. For my grandfather, Bernie Halpern (1927-2022), who served as a cook in the Navy during WWII.
Gillian Lelchuk
Assistant Stage Manager
Gillian Lelchuk is thrilled to return to the Blueberries family for the third time! Off-Broadway: Here There Are Blueberries. Regional: Here There Are Blueberries (La Jolla Playhouse); Frozen (Olney Theatre Center); The Sound of Music (Musical Theatre West); A Midsummer Night's Dream, JAW New Play Festival 2023 (Portland Center Stage). Selected other work: Newsies (Theatre Lab); Dance Nation, In the Red and Brown Water (UCSD). MFA from UC San Diego.
EBP
Production General Manager
Evan Bernardin Productions has managed over one hundred productions in New York City, London, and the touring markets. New York credits include: Seven Deadly Sins (Drama Desk), Douglas Carter Beane's Fairycakes, The Great Gatsby: Immersive, Fatherland, Afterglow, and We Are The Tigers. Touring: On Your Feet!, Dreamworks' Madagascar, Million Dollar Quartet, Sony Pictures' Insidious: The Further You Fear, and the current concert tours of Avatar The Last Airbender and Spiderman Into The Spiderverse. Regionally: Velour: A Drag Spectacular at La Jolla Playhouse, Las Aventuras de Juan Planchard at Miami New Drama, and Reefer Madness in Los Angeles.
Jacqueline Deniz Young
Technical Director
Recent work includes Technical Designer for Signature Theatre, DC and Goodspeed, Rigging for Noli Timere, Interim Technical Director for Here There are Blueberries (NYTW), and opening the new Perelman PAC at the World Trade Center. Past technical direction includes work at Two River Theater, Studio Theatre (DC), and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Educational work, teaching, and mentoring, includes Rutgers University, MGSA, and Montclair State University. Jackie holds an MFA in Technical Design and Production from Yale School of Drama and a BFA in Technical Production from Montclair State University.
pronouns: she/her
Molly Tiede-Schroer
Lighting Director
Molly Tiede-Schroer has been with Blueberries since its 2022 stage debut at La Jolla Playhouse. A long-time Tectonic company member, they are thrilled to help share this important story nationwide. In-between her time on Blueberries, Molly works as a lighting designer, corporate/event lighting designer, and project manager. Their design credits include Off-Broadway, regional theatres, operas, and major events across the country, spanning diverse stages and environments. www.mollytiededesign.com
pronouns: they/she
Tectonic Theater Project
Producer
Since its founding in 1991 by Moisés Kaufman & Jeffrey LaHoste, Tectonic has created some of the most influential plays in the theatrical landscape, including Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, The Laramie Project, Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife, 33 Variations, and Seven Deadly Sins. Tectonic's newest play, Here There Are Blueberries, launched at La Jolla Playhouse and was a 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist. Other recent world premieres include Velour: A Drag Spectacular, which debuted at La Jolla Playhouse and Las Aventuras de Juan Planchard, which premiered at Miami New Drama. The company is based in New York City and guided by Moisés Kaufman and Matt Joslyn.
Brian & Dayna Lee
Producer
Founders of AF Creative Media, a three time Tony Award-winning production company. Broadway: Company (Tony Award), Moulin Rouge (Tony Award), Angels in America (Tony Award), Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, The Who’s Tommy, and Funny Girl. West End: Moulin Rouge. Off-Broadway: Here There Are Blueberries (New York Theatre Workshop) with Tectonic Theater Project. Upcoming: Giant starring John Lithgow and directed by Nicholas Hytner (West End April 2025), Becoming Eve (New York Theatre Workshop), Fiddler on the Roof (West End 2025 and UK Tour), Jerry Herman’s Mrs. Santa Claus (Goodspeed Opera House). In Development: Practical Magic, Nowhere
Boy, The Laramie Project. Additionally, Brian and Dayna run a popular Instagram blog called @artsfoodfamily with over 127k followers. Their greatest achievement to date has been their amazing children, Ella & Emmy and Ezra.
Sonia Friedman Productions
Producer
is an international production company responsible for some of the most successful theatre productions around the world. Since it was established in 2002, SFP has developed, initiated and produced over 220 new productions and has won 63 Olivier Awards, 48 Tonys, and 3 BAFTAs. Current and forthcoming productions include: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Global); The Book of Mormon (West End, UK and International tour); Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a co-production with Netflix (West End, Broadway); Mean Girls (West End). Visit soniafriedman.com for full details.
Bruce Roberts
Co-Producer
Thrilled to help bring Blueberries to a wider audience. For over 35 years, Bruce has Produced and Consulted on dozens of Broadway shows and National tours, including Having Our Say, Annie Warbucks, Magic On Broadway, and Solitary Confinement. As a producer of Industrial Shows, Bruce has partnered with companies such as AWS, Microsoft, and Marriott. Deepest love to his wife, Babette, and their two sons, Bennet and Brent. Thanks to R. Keiling, LCSW. BruceRoberts.net
Sue Vaccaro
Co-Producer
Tony Award-winner for Clybourne Park and three-time nominee for Producer of the Year. Her other theatre credits include New York New York on Broadway, the widely acclaimed revival of Smokey Joes’ Cafe in London, and Rue McLanahan’s final show My First Five Husbands. As a film Producer Sue won the New York Film Festival Award for Best Comedy for Ron & Laura Take Back America. She is Executive Producing the Broadway aimed play Mister Halston.
Ricky Stevens
Co-Producer
Ricky has worked in the theatre for over forty years, first appearing in a production of Damn Yankees with Vincent Price and Michelle Lee at age ten. He has been active on Broadway and Off-Broadway as a Producer, General Manager, Dramaturg, and investor relations specialist. Ricky has a Tony Award, multiple Tony and Drama Desk nominations, and the honor of having produced August Wilson’s final play Radio Golf. Ricky thanks his Mom & Dad for everything.
Linda B. Rubin
Co-Producer
8 Tony Award-winner for The Outsiders, Stereophonic, Leopoldstadt, Parade, The Lehman Trilogy, Company, Hadestown, and Angels in America. Other credits include Gutenberg: The Musical, The Who's Tommy, The Piano Lesson, and Network on Broadway. West End shows include: Hadestown, Standing at The Sky's Edge, Dear England, The Motive and The Cue, Dr Semmelweis, A Mirror and Get Up Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical and Mandela at The Young Vic. Devoted USHMM supporter/Rubin L.A. Lecture Series & Geffen Playhouse Board member.
Gilbert & DeeDee Garcia
Co-Producer
Gilbert and DeeDee are thrilled to be producing the 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist Here There Are Blueberries. The Garcias were Co-Producers on New York New York and proud to support Lin-Manuel Miranda and others. Gilbert is the Managing Partner of Garcia Hamilton & Associates, a $23 billion money management firm, and DeeDee is a retired Optometrist. They live in Houston, love live theatre and have raised four children—Andrew, Daniel, Benjamin and Julianna.
Kathy & Gene Bernstein
Co-Producer
Gene Bernstein is a semi-retired business executive who began his career teaching English Literature for 7 years at Notre Dame, before changing careers as part of the 3rd generation to run Northville Industries. Headquartered on Long Island, the company wholesales, stores, and commodity trades refined petroleum products, as well as managing Petro Terminal de Panama, a company that stores crude oil and transports it via a 91 mile pipeline across the isthmus of Panama in a joint venture with the government and a 3rd partner. He serves on the boards of Alfred University, The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 1st Tee Metropolitan New York, and several others.
Michael Lamon
Co-Producer
is a Tony Award®-winning producer and Purple Heart recipient. Broadway: Merrily We Roll Along (Tony), The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Tony nomination), SMASH, Operation Mincemeat. Concert: A Little Night Music with Cynthia Erivo, Conducted by Jonathan Tunick at Lincoln Center. Lead Producer of Figaro: An Original Musical (West End). Michael resides in NYC with his wife (@julia_lamon_soprano), and two children (Livia and Titus). @michael_l_lamon
Patty Baker
Co-Producer
Tony, DD, OCC, Peabody winner. Thanks to all of you who support live theatre, which entertains, enlightens, and engages. Thanks to my family, who do the same.
InStone Productions
Co-Producer
Dan Stone is a passionate producer who has spent the past decade helping to bring important stories to theatres on and off-Broadway. Dan, a Tony and Olivier Award-winner, received his BA in politics and social justice, from NYU. He is extremely particular with which shows he chooses to back, opting for ones that will help to implement change. Credits include Dear Evan Hansen, The Inheritance, The Prom, Parade, Some Like It Hot, How To Dance in Ohio, Standing on Ceremony, The Piano Lesson, The Wiz, and Cabaret, among others. Dan is proud, grateful, and humbled to be involved in this stunning and important piece.
Alexander Robertson
Co-Producer
is a multi-Tony Award®-nominated producer, actor, and creative. Select Broadway producing credits include GYPSY; Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club; Appropriate (2024 Tony Award® Best Revival of a Play); The Wiz; and A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical. He founded Emlex Entertainment and co-founded DMQR Productions, focusing on innovative storytelling and creative development. Upcoming: SMASH; BOOP!; The Show on the Roof; and Yasuke: The Legend of The Black Samurai. A-Robertson.com.
2 On the Aisle BDWY
Co-Producer
2 On the Aisle BDWY are Ellen Botwin and Howard Ignal, a married couple, whose credits as producers and investors include: Broadway: Cabaret, Sunset Blvd, Merrily We Roll Along, The Who's Tommy, Parade, Company, Funny Girl, Sidney Brustein; Upcoming: Regency Girls; Off-Broadway: Sweeney Todd; West End: The Producers, Dorian Gray, Starlight Express; International Tours: Hamilton, M.J. We are thrilled and honored to be involved in Blueberries and its exposure of
the banality of evil.
JJ Powell
Co-Producer
JJ Powell is CEO of Neptune Theatrical Productions. Hailing from a career in the legal industry, he has successfully produced hits including Merrily We Roll Along, Sunset Blvd., and Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club. JJ is an Olivier and Tony Award-winning producer. He is thrilled to be a part of the team of Here There are Blueberries which tells an important and poignant tale which merits and
warrants to be told far and wide across the globe.
Johanna Pfaelzer
Artistic Director
Johanna joined Berkeley Rep in 2019 as its fourth artistic director, following 12 years as artistic director of New York Stage and Film (NYSAF), a New York City-based developer of new works for theatre, film, and television. Johanna is proud to have developed work by notable established and early career writers like Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda; Goddess by Saheem Ali, Michael Thurber, and Jocelyn Bioh; The Humans by Stephen Karam; Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell; The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe; The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar; A 24-Decade History of Popular Music by Taylor Mac; The Homecoming Queen by Ngozi Anyanwu; The Great Leap by Lauren Yee; Doubt by John Patrick Shanley; The Fortress of Solitude by Michael Friedman and Itamar Moses; The Jacksonian by Beth Henley; and Green Day’s American Idiot. Johanna previously served as associate artistic director of American Conservatory Theater and is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Actors Theatre of Louisville Apprentice Program. She lives in Berkeley with her husband, Russell Champa, and their son, Jasper.
Tom Parrish
Managing Director
Tom has served as a theatre leader and arts administrator for over 20 years, with experience in organizations ranging from multivenue performing arts centers to major Tony Award-winning theatre companies. Prior to Berkeley Rep, he served as executive director of Trinity Repertory Company, Geva Theatre Center, and Merrimack Repertory Theatre and as associate managing director/ general manager of San Diego Repertory Theatre. His work has been recognized with a NAACP Theatre Award for Best Producer and “Forty Under 40” recognition in Providence, Rochester, the Merrimack Valley, and San Diego. He received his MBA/MA in Arts Administration from Southern Methodist University; BA in Theater Arts and Economics from Case Western Reserve University; attended the Commercial Theater Institute, National Theater Institute, and Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management; and is certified in Leading Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion by Northwestern University. He and his husband live in Berkeley.
Making Theatre
Meet the Artisans Who Build Our Shows
By Creative Director DC Scarpelli
For the past two shows in the Roda Theatre — Here There Are Blueberries and The Thing About Jellyfish — Berkeley Rep has been privileged to have Derek McLane’s set designs grace our stage.
Among his vast collection of credits and accolades, McLane has two Tony Awards — for 2020’s Moulin Rouge! and 2009’s 33 Variations, also by Moisés Kaufman. Kaufman is a frequent collaborator. McLane, a member of Tectonic Theater Project’s Company of Artists, has worked with him as both playwright (One Arm, 33 Variations, I Am My Own Wife, Juan Planchard, Here There Are Blueberries, and more) and director (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo..., The Heiress, and more). Often both at once.
“Derek has incredible dexterity at finding theatrical vocabularies that accommodate realism but also accommodate a number of other aesthetics that can pierce through the heart of the text.” — Moisés Kaufman
Experience more of McLane’s (and many more set designers’) extraordinary work in his book, Designing Broadway, written with Eila Mell.
Print Edition
