Native Gardens

BLAKE ROBISON

Director

is Artistic Director of Cincinnati Playhouse, one of the largest regional theaters in the Midwest, where he directed the world premiere of Native Gardens last season. He is thrilled to continue his collaboration with Karen Zacarías, having produced the world premiere of her hit comedy The Book Club Play and directed her adaptation of Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents at Round House Theatre, where he served as producing artistic director from 2005–2012. Other credits include productions at The Guthrie, Milwaukee Repertory, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Folger Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory Company and Vermont Stage. As an adaptor, he created successful stage productions of Jay Parini’s The Last Station and Alice McDermott’s Charming Billy.

KAREN ZACARÍAS

Playwright

was recently hailed by American Theatre magazine as one of the most produced playwrights in the U.S.A. Her Arena Stage world premieres include Legacy of Light, The Book Club Play and Destiny of Desire. Other plays include Mariela in the Desert, and The Sins of Sor Juana, and adaptations of Just Like Us, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, Into the Beautiful North, Oliverio: A Brazilian Twist, Ella Enchanted: The Musical and others. She collaborated on the libretto for Sleepy Hollow and Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises for the Washington Ballet, and has written 10 TYA musicals with composer Deborah Wicks La Puma. Karen is one of the inaugural resident playwrights at Arena Stage, a core founder of the Latino Theatre Commons and founder of Young Playwrights’ Theater.

JOSEPH TILFORD

Set Designer

Off-Broadway credits include Sing Hallelujah and Around the World in 80 Days. Regional credits include Glass Menagerie (Denver Center); Night of the Iguana (Resident Ensemble Players); Pride and Prejudice, Native Gardens, One, Victoria Musica, Stone My Heart and Much Ado About Nothing (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Jar the Floor (The Old Globe); Twelfth Night, Ah, Wilderness! and The Lion in Winter (St. Louis Repertory); Black Star Line (Goodman); As You Like It (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); If We Are Women and The Last Adam(Syracuse Stage); and The Dayton Ballet and The Cincinnati Ballet. His design work has been exhibited at the Prague Quadrennial International Exhibit of Stage Design and in a solo retrospective exhibit for the 50th Anniversary of the United States Institute of Theatre Technology.

KARA HARMON

Costume Designer

Broadway credits include assistant costume designer for The Crucible, Magic Bird, First Date and Memphis. Regional theater credits include The Legend of Georgia McBride (Marin Theatre); The Mountaintop (Trinity Repertory); Barbecue (Geffen Playhouse); The Rape of Lucretia (Wolf Trap); Ethel and God of Carnage (Alliance Theatre); Seven Guitars (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Much Ado About Nothing and The Comedy of Errors (Oregon Shakespeare); Safehouse (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Clybourne Park and The Trip to Bountiful(Hangar Theatre); Dot (Vineyard Theatre); and Seven Guitars and Broke-ology (The Juilliard School). TV credits include assistant costume designer on Netflix’s Daredevil and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Kara received her M.F.A. from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. www.KaraHarmonDesign.com

XAVIER PIERCE

Lighting Designer

Off-Broadway credits include Yours Unfaithfully and A Day by the Sea (Mint Theatre). Regional credits include Smart People (Arena Stage); Harvey and Native Gardens (The Guthrie); Fences(California Shakespeare Theater, Long Wharf, McCarter Theatre); The Mountaintop (Playmakers Repertory, Triad Stage); Red and Common Enemy (Triad Stage); A Raisin in the Sun (Westport Country Playhouse); Two Trains Running(Two River Theatre, Arden Theatre Company); Intimate Apparel, Peter and the Starcatcher, Detroit ’67 and 4,000 Miles(Playmakers Repertory); Fly (Florida Studio Theatre); Shakespeare in Love (Oregon Shakespeare); and The Glass Menagerie (California Shakespeare Theater). National and international tour credits include Drumline Live! He received a Handy Award for Best Lighting, Thomas C. Fichandler Award for Excellence in Lighting, Marvin Sims Fellowship at the Kennedy Center and was an Allen Lee Hughes Lighting Design Fellow.

SCOTT W. EDWARDS

Sound Designer

theater credits include Nice Fish (American Repertory Theater, St. Ann’s Warehouse and West End); The Guthrie (120 productions since 1997); Seattle Repertory; San Jose Repertory; Children’s Theatre Company; Jungle Theater; Penumbra Theatre; Mixed Blood Theatre; Illusion Theater; Arizona Theatre Company; Ballet of the Dolls (founding member); Theater Mu; Eye of the Storm Theatre; Teatro Latino; and Minnesota Opera. Other credits include production manager and live sound engineer for A Prairie Home Companion. Awards include a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for The Kite Runner at San Jose Repertory, Star Tribune Outstanding Sound Designer for Pride and Prejudice and The Pirates of Penzance and a Helen Hayes Award nomination for You Can’t Take It With You at Arena Stage.

JANA LLYNN

Stage Manager

returns to Arena Stage where recent credits include The Originalist, Intelligence and Sweat. Broadway credits include The Drowsy Chaperone, Bridge & Tunnel, Company and The Moliere Comedies. Off-Broadway credits include SILENCE! The Musical, SHOUT! The Mod Musical, That Physics Show, Matt & Ben (starring Mindy Kaling), Dancing On Moonlight (starring André De Shields), Echoes of War (starring Frances Sternhagen), The Entertainer (starring Brian Murray and Jean Stapleton), The Shawl (director Sidney Lumet, starring Dianne Wiest), Beau Jest (three years Off-Broadway, director for Boston production), The Public, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Regional credits include Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Arkansas Repertory, Crossroads, Hartford Stage, Laguna Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Round House, Shakespeare Theatre Company and Studio Theatre. PSM for Pfizer-Brazil’s Viagra Launch.

RACHAEL DANIELLE ALBERT

Assistant Stage Manager

is thrilled to return to Arena Stage after working on A Raisin in the Sun, Watch on the Rhine, Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End and The City of Conversation. New York credits include The Roads to Home (Primary Stages); Maize & Blue on Broadway and The Last Word (New York Musical Theatre Festival); and Howards End. Regional credits include Bright Star (pre-Broadway, the Kennedy Center); Souvenir (New London Barn Playhouse); Up Here, Ether Dome and Peer Gynt (La Jolla Playhouse); Rich Girl (The Old Globe); and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Stage 773). She is a founding member of Ubuntu Theater Project. Rachael received her M.F.A. from University of California, San Diego, and B.F.A. from University of Michigan. Proud AEA member.

ANITA MAYNARD-LOSH

Vocal Coach

is in her 14th season at Arena Stage. She directed the world premiere of Our War and served as associate director on several productions, including Carousel, Oliver! and Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End. Anita trained and taught at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, was on the faculty at Webster University in St. Louis, headed the theater department at the University of Alaska Southeast and was the associate artistic director of Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska. The Alaska native-inspired production of Macbeth that Anita conceived and directed was performed in English and Tlingit at the National Museum of the American Indian in D.C. Through Arena Stage’s devised theater program, Voices of Now, Anita has collaborated on creating and directing original plays with communities in India and Croatia.

GUTHRIE THEATER

Co-Production

was founded by Sir Tyrone Guthrie in 1963 and is an American center for theater performance, production, education and professional training dedicated to producing the great works of dramatic literature and to cultivating the next generation of theater artists. Under Haj’s leadership, the Guthrie is guided by four core values: artistic excellence; community; diversity, equity and inclusion; and fiscal responsibility. The Guthrie produces a mix of classic and contemporary plays on three stages and continues to set a national standard for excellence in theatrical production and performance, serving nearly 400,000 patrons annually. In 2006, the Guthrie opened a new home, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Open to the public year-round, it houses three state-of-the-art stages, production facilities, classrooms, full-service restaurants and dramatic public lobbies. guthrietheater.org