The Kron Repertory
February 9th – March 19th, 2017
Presented for the first time in Rotating Repertory*
By Lisa Kron
Directed by Kym Pappas and Rosina Reynolds
*In Repertory means that 2.5 MINUTE RIDE and WELL will be presented in alternating performances on the Diversionary Mainstage Wednesday through Sunday. We encourage you to see BOTH shows by using Code 2Shows and get a discount when ordering!
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Production Sponsors: Rob Granat & Al Mazur
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Returning to San Diego for the first time since its celebrated World Premiere, this inventive solo show is a roller coaster adventure through the playwright’s family album, focusing on her relationship with her Father, a Holocaust survivor. Swirling through three disparate yet strikingly resonant experiences of a trip to Auschwitz, a Brooklyn wedding and an annual outing to an Ohio Amusement Park, a disarming story emerges about the ties that bind a family and a compelling portrait of a honorable man.
This pioneering Broadway comedy begins as a reverent study of the playwright’s chronically ill Mom and her extraordinary ability to heal a racially divided community despite her inability to make herself well. But when the playwright’s carefully crafted characters start having opinions of their own, theatrical hell breaks loose threatening to unravel the entire story. This uproariously funny and magical memoir reveals how we heal ourselves is not always the best medicine for those we love.
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Matt M. Morrow, Executive Artistic Director
2.5 Minute Ride was Lisa Kron’s breakout hit and put her on the professional theatre map in the late 90’s when it had its World Premiere at La Jolla Playhouse. Her writing is not only heartbreakingly hilarious, it also slyly inventive, taking the audience on an emotional journey of self reflection. She digs deep into her relationship with her father in an effort to recognize her own place and purpose in the world. In the writing of 2.5 Lisa begins to break new ground in how she shatters and then reassembles the theatrical form. It is surprising, thought provoking, moving, and very, very funny.
WELL takes a hard, uncompromising look at the relationship dynamic between Mother and Daughter. Building on what she began in 2.5 MINUTE RIDE, Lisa again explores the perimeters of the theatrical form, exploding it and reassembling it right before the audience’s eyes. Its an astonishing feat of writing.This fantastic play broke new ground when it transferred to Broadway in 2006. Not only was it written by a women, which no other new play on Broadway was that year, (or most years for that matter), it also featured a Lesbian protagonist that didn’t die a horrible death. In many ways, WELL paved the way for FUN HOME’s transfer to Broadway last year.
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Lisa Kron has been writing and performing theater since coming to New York from Michigan in 1984. Her work has been widely produced in New York, regionally, and internationally.
Her plays include the musical Fun Home, a musical written with composer Jeanine Tesori and based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel; The Ver**zon Play, which premiered 2012 Humana Festival; In The Wake which received Lortel and GLAAD Media Award nominations, was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, named a “Best Play of 2010” by TimeOut and Backstage, and was included in the Best Plays Theater Yearbook 2010-2011; Well, which premiered at the Public Theater, was named a “Best Play of 2004” by the New York Times, the Associated Press, the Newark Star Ledger, Backstage, and the Advocate, included in the Best Plays Theater Yearbook of 2003-2004, and moved to Broadway where both she and Jayne Houdyshell received Tony nominations for their performances. 2.5 Minute Ride, which had its New York premiere at the Public Theater, received OBIE, L.A. Drama-Logue, New York Press, and GLAAD Media Awards, and continues to be performed by Lisa and others all over the world; 101 Humiliating Stories, which received a Drama Desk nomination for its PS122 premiere andwas a part of Lincoln Center’s 1993 “Serious Fun!” performance series.
Lisa is a founding member of the legendary OBIE and Bessie Award-winning collaborative theater company The Five Lesbian Brothers whose plays, Oedipus at Palm Springs, Brave Smiles, Brides of the Moon and The Secretaries have all been produced by their theatrical home, New York Theater Workshop, and have been performed widely throughout the country both by the Brothers and by other companies. Their plays are published by T.C.G. in the anthology, “Five Lesbian Brothers/Four Plays” and also by Samuel French.
Lisa has received playwriting fellowships from the Lortel and Guggenheim Foundations, Sundance Theater Lab, the Lark Play Development Center, and the MacDowell Colony, the Cal Arts/Alpert Award, a Helen Merrill Award, and grants from the Creative Capital Foundation and New York Foundation for the Arts. She was a resident playwright at the American Voices New Play Initiative at Arena Stage.
As an actor, Lisa’s professional career as began in 1983 when Michael Kahn chose her as member of the ANTA Company, which toured three plays in rep for a season. Since then she has acted in her own plays and the plays of the Five Lesbian Brothers, and also seen in such productions as the Foundry’s Good Person of Szechwan at LaMama, The Normal Heart at the Public Theater, Spain at M.C.C., and The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, at NYTW.
Lisa has hosted and emceed benefits, galas, variety nights, rent parties, talent shows, pig roasts, bingo nights, awards ceremonies, bar mitzvahs, brisses and birthday parties too numerous to mention. Lisa is a member of Actors Equity and serves on the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America.
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2.5 MINUTE RIDE
Shana Wride*: (Lisa) seen at Diversionary in Baby with the Bathwater, The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, Next Fall and A Late Snow. Other acting credits include- Faded Glory and Broken Glass (North Coast Repertory Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Intrepid Theatre); Private Lives (Cygnet Theatre); Women Who Steal, A Christmas Carol, Suds, Working, Six Women with Brain Death (San Diego Repertory Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare Festival Los Angeles); Indoor/Outdoor (The Colony Theatre); Macbeth, Fen, Wooden Breeks, Measure for Measure (Open Fist Theatre); Heidi Chronicles and Lips Together, Teeth Apart (Gaslamp Theatre); Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Love’s Labor’s Lost (Idaho Shakespeare Festival); New, Shadowy Waters, No Time Like The Present (Sledgehammer Theatre). Directing credits include: The Whale, Mistakes Were Made (Cygnet Theatre), Walter Cronkite is Dead (San Diego Repertory Theatre), Boys & Girls and Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins (Diversionary Theatre), Or (Moxie Theatre) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Compass Theatre). She co-hosted the nationally syndicated radio show, “Women Aloud” with actor/comedienne Mo Gaffney.
Well
Adam Cuppy (D) is honored, truly honored, to be back at Diversionary. Previously for Diversionary: A Civil War Christmas; As an Associate Artist for Next Stage Rep: Joe Sutter in The Spitfire Grill, Jeffrey Hatcher in Mrs. Mannerly, Henry Harry in Brilliant Traces, Emil in Three Viewings, Jim (the gentleman caller) in The Glass Menagerie. Elsewhere: The Belle’s Stratagem, Room Service and The History of Dr. Faustus (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie (ArtAttack Theatre). adamcuppy.com.
Samantha Ginn (Lisa) Is thrilled to be back at Diversionary! Other Diversionary credits include Scrooge in Rouge and Senor Phil’s Casa del Haha. Samantha graduated from Sonoma State University with her Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre Arts. Some acting credits include: When It Comes (The Old Globe Creative Catalyst), The Weir, Sylvia, The Miss Firecracker Contest, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Much Ado About Nothing (New Village Arts), She-Rantulas from Outer Space in 3D! (New York Fringe Festival), The Car Plays (La Jolla Playhouse), Trouble in Mind, Hickorydickory (San Diego Critics Circle Award), Coming Attractions (Moxie Theatre), Edgar and Annabel/Far Away (ion theatre), Seminar, Dog Sees God (InnerMission Productions), and The Warrior’s Duet (Circle Circle dot dot). Recent artistic endeavors include writing for Bedrooms and Boyfriends at the San Diego Fringe Festival and teaching her acting class, Monday Night Live! (with Kids Act), which is geared for young adults with special needs to create their own sketch comedy show.
ANNIE HINTON * (Ann) Diversionary Theatre, Civil War Christmas. Regional: Old Globe Theatre, The Hostage (Jack O’Brien); Seattle Repertory Theatre, Our Town (Dan Sullivan); A Contemporary Theatre; Empty Space Theatre; Seattle Children’s Theatre; and New Mexico Rep. Local: Ion Theatre, Grey Gardens; San Diego Rep, The Clean House; Cygnet Theatre, Book of Liz, A Christmas Carol, Private Lives; North Coast Rep, Importance of Being Earnest, Travesties, Glorious. Film/TV: Bring It On; 29th & Gay; The Jenni Project (Disney); Veronica Mars and many others. MFA University of Washington. For my darling daughter, Maddie, “she is like an amazing star to me…..”
Cashaé Monya (B) is pleased to back at Diversionary after spending last holiday season on this stage in Civil War Christmas. Recent credits include: Miss You Like Hell and Memphis (The La Jolla Playhouse); Ruthless!, Our Lady of Kiebho, Trouble in Mind, Crumbs From the Table of Joy, Counterweight: The Elevator Love Play and The Bluest Eye (Moxie Theatre); Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill and Chicago: Speakeasy Caberet (Ion Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors and Our Town (Cygnet Theatre); You Can’t Take it With You and The Glory Man (Lamb’s Players). Upcoming: The Revolutionists (Moxie). “All my love to the favorites, Grandmie & Matthew!”
Durwood Murray (C) Diversionary, A Civil War Christmas; New Village Arts, To Kill A Mockingbird, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Of Mice and Men; Ion, The Little Flower of East Orange. Thank you to The Usual Suspects, and The Corporation. I can’t do this without you all.
Tiffany Tang (A) Tiffany was last seen on the Diversionary stage as The Extra in Amazons and Their Men and could not imagine returning with a more fantastic group of talent. Local theatre credits include Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet (Intrepid); Longview TX, The Vagina Monologues (InnerMission); Derbywise, Invasion (Circle Circle dot dot); Lifestages: Reflections, S.R.O. (Playwrights Project); A Shayna Maidel, Almost Maine (Carlsbad Playreaders). NYC credits include New York Theatre Workshop, Cry Havoc, Jaxx Theatricals and Gallery Players. Recent film credits include Thane of East County, A Life Lived (Frazzled Man Productions); Reality Bytes (GrooveKo). Tiffany is the author of Creepy Little Death Poems. BA: Mount Holyoke College MFA: Actors Studio Drama School. For my mum.
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Rosina Reynolds (Director, 2.5 Minute Ride)Diversionary Theatre: 2.5 Minute Ride; Marriage Bed; Happy Endings are Extra; Twilight of the Golds; Beautiful Thing; Wrinkles; Another American; Asking and Telling; Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde; Breaking The Code; Lot’s Daughters. North Coast Repertory Theatre: The Cocktail Hour; Fallen Angels; Broken Glass; Glorious; Don’t Dress For Dinner; Relatively Speaking; Importance of Being Earnest; Travesties; An American Daughter; The Sum of Us; Blithe Spirit; Corpse; Rough Crossing; Chekov in Yalta. San Diego Repertory Theatre: Bad Dates. Cygnet Theatre: Atwater, Fixin’ to Die. Renaissance Theatre: Caretaker (San Diego Critics Circle Award). Compass Theatre: Three Days of Rain. Fritz Theatre: Vigil. Gaslamp Quarter Theatre: Marvin’s Room. Founding Artistic Director of Chequamegon Children’s Theatre in Wisconsin, now in our 29th season.
Kym Pappas (Director, Well) is the Co-Artistic Director of InnerMission Productions. Kym developed the Charles K. Nichols Internship Program at OnStage Playhouse and has served as its director since 2006. Directing credits include the San Diego Premieres of The Kid Thing by Sarah Gubbins (MOXIE Theatre), Seminar by Theresa Rebeck,Fat Pig by Neil Labute, Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead by Burt V. Royal, and the World Premiere of Disappearing Act by Delia Knight. She directed and developed an original theatre piece, ONE with the L.E.T Youth Crew and the San Diego Domestic Violence Council. She is a member of the Pasadena Playhouse Directors Lab West and she studied at the American Conservatory Theatre.
Sean Fanning (Scenic Design) is a Southern California-based scenic designer with a career spanning over fifty productions on local stages. Previously for Diversionary: The Mystery of Love and Sex, The Boy Who Danced on Air, Now or Later, Birds of a Feather, Pippin, and Harmony, Kansas. Elsewhere: Full Gallop, the Globe for All tours of Measure for Measure & All’s Well That Ends Well, A Doll’s House, Kingdom, and Plaid Tidings (The Old Globe); My Manana Comes (Marin Theatre Company); Manifest Destinitis, The Oldest Boy, Everybody’s Talkin’, Honky, In the Heights, and Walter Cronkite is Dead (San Diego Repertory Theatre); Equivocation (Lamb’s Players Theatre) Seven Guitars, King Hedley II, Gypsy, Hay Fever, The Vortex, Dogfight, The Whale, Sons of the Prophet, Pageant (Cygnet Theatre Company); Brownsville Song (b-side for tray), A Raisin in the Sun (Moxie Theatre); and The Imrov at Harrah’s and Menopause the Musical (Harrah’s Las Vegas). Sean holds an M.F.A. in Scenic Design from San Diego State University. See more of his work at www.seanfanningdesigns.com.
Kate Bishop (Costume Designer) Kate is thrilled to be back at Diversionary for another great adventure. Her previous shows at this theatre were Amazons and Their Men, Baby With The Bathwater and Boys & Girls. Other recent San Diego productions include Moxie Theatre’s Eternally Bad and New Village Arts’ Lord of the Flies, Wait Until Dark and Plaid Tidings. Prior to that, Kate lived in LA, where she was resident costume designer for Invertigo Dance Theatre (favorites include After It Happened, Give Me Wings) and Independent Shakespeare Company in Griffith Park (favorites include She Stoops To Conquer, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing). She also designed some movies nobody saw, TV shows on channels you didn’t know you had, and a terrible music video for a pop icon she wishes wasn’t still available on YouTube. She loves Joe, Baz, & DD. A big thank you to Kat Stallons. You know why. For more of her work, find her on Facebook: Kate Bishop Costume Design.
Curtis Mueller (Lighting Designer) returns to Diversionary having designed Lizard Boy, Manhandled, Now or Later, A Civil War Christmas, Amazons and Their Men, Man Clan, and A New Brain. Select local credits include: Gutenberg! The Musical (Backyard Renaissance); End of The Rainbow, Quality of Life, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, I Hate Hamlet, All My Sons, Macbeth (Intrepid Theatre Company); Big River, The 1940s Radio Hour, Seascape (NewVillage Arts); Chess in concert, Next to Normal, Spring Awakening (Cabaret at the Merc Summer Series). Curtis has also worked extensively with Coronado School of The Arts, CYT San Diego, and CAST Productions. Curtis holds a BFA in Lighting Design from California Institute of The Arts.
Melanie Chen (Sound Designer) is thrilled be back at Diversionary! She is a San Diego based freelance sound designer who has designed over 70 productions in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Recent regional credits include: An Iliad (New Village Arts); Marjorie Prime, Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The Cocktail Hour (North Coast Repertory Theatre); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Old Globe/ USD MFA Program); Native Son (UC San Diego MFA Program); Seven Guitars, King Hedley II (Cygnet Theatre). Melanie just returned from working on a large scale immersive installation version of Peter Pan with Broadway Asia in Beijing as the Sound Design Associate. Coming up, she will work with New Village Arts on their production of Awake and Sing and North Coast Repertory Theatre’s An Illusion. Melanie holds an M.F.A. in Sound Design for Theatre & Dance from UC San Diego. Visit www.melaniesound.com for more information.
Bonnie Durben (Property Master) Diversionary Theatre: The Mystery of Love and Sex, The Boy Who Danced on Air, Now or Later, She-Rantulas, Baby With The Bathwater, A New Brain and Amazons and Their Men. Mira Costa Theatre; These Shining Lights, Romeo and Juliet, Seven, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Urinetown. Moonlight Theatre Productions; Sister Act, Peter Pan, Titanic, Addams Family, Music Man, Shrek, All Shook Up and Big
Fish. Intrepid Theatre: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, Quality of Life , Hamlet, and I Hate Hamlet.Member of the Society of Property Artisans and Managers.
Monica Perfetto (Resident Stage Manager, Stage Manager for Well) is grateful to call Diversionary home as both Production Coordinator and Resident Stage Manager. Monica has a BA in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies from the University of San Diego. At Diversionary: The Boy Who Danced on Air, Now or Later, In the Va Va Voom Room, A Civil War Christmas, Bright Half Life, and A New Brain. Elsewhere: RENT (Southwestern College), Annie(California Youth Conservatory), Much Ado About Nothing, I Hate Hamlet, All My Sons, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream the Musical (Intrepid). As Production Assistant/ Assistant Stage Manager: Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Fox on the Fairway, Side by Side, Chapter Two (North Coast Repertory Theatre), and The Two Gentleman of Verona (The Old Globe/USD MFA Program).
James Ramirez (Stage Manager, 2.5 Minute Ride) is making his Diversionary Theatre debut with 2.5 Minute Ride. Elsewhere: My Mañana Comes, Outside Mullingar, and Rapture, Blister, Burn (San Diego Repertory); Lost in the Pines (Magnetic North Theatre Co); Lettice and Lovage (Scripps Ranch Theatre); A Discourse of Wonders on the Invisible World (Moxie Theatre); Vinegar Tom, A Little Night Music (San Diego State University) and various concert series’ for Mainly Mozart.
Abigail Viton (Assistant Stage Manager, Well)
Scott Amiotte (Master Carpenter)
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WELL and 2.5 Minute Ride play in roating repertory February 9th – March 19th on the Diversionary Theatre Mainstage. Performances run Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm.
| Low Cost Previews | Thursday, February 9th – Thursday, February 16th
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| First Fridays
To say thank you to those that serve, Diversionary offers complimentary tickets to Active Duty, Veterans and their families. Email Cara@Diversionary.org for more information. |
Friday, February 10th at 8pm (WELL) |
| Opening Night
Pre-and post show festivities – celebrate with the cast and company sponsored by our Events Partners, Chi Extraordinary Kitchen and Plumeria Vegetarian.
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Friday, February 17th at 8pm (2.5 MINUTE RIDE)
and Saturday, February 18th at 8pm (WELL) |
| Industry Night
Theatre Professionals enjoy a special discount to our only Monday evening performance! |
Monday, February 27th at 7pm (WELL)
and Monday, March 6th at 7pm (2.5 MINUTE RIDE) |
| Designer Spotlight
Join us in Fritz’s Lounge before the show to meet the Design Team, see a display of the concepts used in producing the show and hear the influences and process involved. Hosted hors d’oeuvres round out a fun pre-show experience! The party starts at 6pm before the 7pm performance. |
Thursday, February 23rd at 6pm |
| Director Happy Hour
Join Directors Kym Pappas and Rosina Reynolds in Fritz’s Lounge for hosted hors d’oeuvres and a chance to chat before the show! Pre Show reception at 6pm, performance at 7pm.
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Thursday, March 2nd at 6pm (WELL) and Thursday, March 9th at 6pm (2.5 MINUTE RIDE) |
| Backstage Thursdays : Next Act
Next Act is your opportunity to mix and mingle with the stars of the upcoming show: BALLAST! They’ll be available to answer questions about the production, and you’ll benefit from complimentary appetizers! Join us starting at 6pm before the 7pm show. |
Thursday, March 16th at 6pm |
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Lisa Kron’s Website
Press Release
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“If you’re an avid, open-minded theatergoer or theater-lover, you owe it to yourself to see both these fascinating plays.”
-The Times of San Diego
“Celebrates the power of laughter… a model example of the autobiographical show at its unaffected best.”
– Variety
“This glorious and funny new play opens doors of insight and emotion that no other play in New York is opening. I fell in love with WELL.”
– The New York Times
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