Sanctuary City

MARTYNA MAJOK

Playwright

Martyna Majok (Playwright) was born in Bytom, Poland and raised in Jersey and Chicago. She was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Cost of Living, which debuted this fall on Broadway. Other plays include Sanctuary City, Queens, and Ironbound, which have been produced across American and international stages. Awards include the Academy of Arts and Letters’ Benjamin Hadley Danks Award for Exceptional Playwriting; the Hull-Warriner Award; the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Play; the Greenfield Prize, as the first female recipient in drama; the Champions of Change Award from the NYC Mayor’s Office; the Francesca Primus Prize; two Jane Chambers Playwriting Awards; the Lanford Wilson Prize; the Lilly Award’s Stacey Mindich Prize; Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award; Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play from the Helen Hayes Awards; Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award; ANPF Women’s Invitational Prize; David Calicchio Prize; Global Age Project Prize; NYTW 2050 Fellowship; NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting; and Merage Foundation Fellowship for The American Dream. Martyna studied at Yale School of Drama, Juilliard, University of Chicago, and Jersey public schools. She was a 2012-2013 NNPN playwright-in-residence, the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center, and a 2018-2019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. Martyna is currently writing a musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby, with music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett, and developing TV and film for HBO, Plan B, and Pastel. she/her

DAVID MENDIZÁBAL

Original Director

David Mendizábal (Original Director), they/he, is a director, designer, one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of the OBIE Award-winning The Movement Theatre Company, and Associate Artistic Director of The Sol Project. New York credits include: Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members (Soho Rep/Sol Project), Then They Forgot About the Rest(INTAR), and Tell Hector I Miss Him (Atlantic). Regional credits include: Mushroom (People's Light), Sanctuary City(Berkeley Rep), This Bitter Earth (TheaterWorks Hartford), Don’t Eat the Mangos (Magic Theatre), and On The Grounds of Belonging (Long Wharf). David is a 2021 Princess Grace Award Honoraria Recipient in Theater. They are an alumnus of Soho Rep Project Number One, Ars Nova Vision Residency, Drama League Directors Project, artEquity, and TCG Leadership U. Instagram: @its_daveed | www.davidmendizabal.com

CARA HINH

Associate Director/Transfer Director

Cara Hinh (Associate Director/Transfer Director) is an Indiana-born queer, fat, mixed Viet theatre maker currently based in Brooklyn. They rejoice in work that speaks to the complicated and messy intersectionalities of holding a multiplicity of cultures and identities. Prior, Cara has been a Drama League Hangar Fellow, part of the Roundabout Directors Group, a Directing Apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville, SDC Observer on Hadestown, and a Learning Fellow at Baltimore Center Stage. she/they carahinh.com

DAVID ISRAEL REYNOSO

Set and Costume Designer

David Israel Reynoso (Set and Costume Designer) is an internationally renowned scenic, costume, and exhibit designer, as well as the Obie Award-winning costume designer of Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More (Boston, New York, and Shanghai). His celebrated theatrical designs have been featured at The Finnish National Ballet, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, American Conservatory Theater, Portland Center Stage, American Repertory Theater, Arena Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, among many others. He is the founder of OPTIKA MODERNA and the creator of Portaleza (2020), Las Quinceañeras (2019), and Waking La Llorona (2017). Reynoso’s scope of work extends beyond theatre/film to include designs for globally recognized theme parks as well as companies such as Meow Wolf and the San Diego Museum of Us. Reynoso is the recipient of the Creative Catalyst Grant of the San Diego Foundation, an Elliot Norton Award, and multiple Craig Noel, IRNE, and BroadwayWorld award nominations. More at davidreynoso.com.

CHA SEE

Lighting Designer

Cha See (Lighting Designer)’s Arena Stage credit includes the world premiere of Change Agent. D.C. credits include the world premiere of What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, American Repertory Theater). Her New York credits include You Will Get Sick (Roundabout Theatre), One in Two (The New Group), What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Brooklyn Academy of Music, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, The Movement Theatre Company), Soft (MCC), Exception to the Rule (Roundabout Underground), The Fever (Audible Theater). Regional credits include the world premiere of On the Grounds of Belonging (Long Wharf Theatre) and the world premiere of America v 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of the American Negro (Barrington Stage Company), The Great Leap (Portland Center Stage), and Sanctuary City (Berkeley Rep). Upcoming: Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons), (pray) (Ars Nova), As You Like It (La Jolla Playhouse), and You Do You (Audible Theater). Training: MFA, NYU Tisch. Instagram: @seethruuu www.seelightingdesign.com 

FAN ZHANG

Sound Designer

Fan Zhang (Sound Designer) is a sound designer and composer based in New York. Her recent design and original music credits include At the Wedding (Lincoln Center Theater), Snow in Midsummer (Classic Stage), A Kid Like Rishi (Origin Theatre), New Golden Age (59E59), Paris (Atlantic Theater), Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (Second Stage & WP), Pumpgirl (Irish Rep), Suicide Forest (Ma-Yi & ART), Molly Sweeney (Theatre Row), Round Table (59E59), Behind the Sheet (Ensemble Studio), The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Transport Group), Scissoring (INTAR), Three Girls Never Learnt the Way Home (Cherry Lane), Tania in the Getaway Van (The Flea). Selected regional: The Great Leap (Portland Center Stage), White Noise and Pipeline (Studio Theatre, D.C.), Seven Guitars (Yale Rep), Redeem (Cincinnati Ballet), The Revolutionists (Pittsburgh City Theatre), Red Maple (Capital Rep). Training: MFA, Yale School of Drama. fanzhangsound.com

ERICA JENSEN, C.S.A.; CALLERI JENSEN DAVIS

Casting Director

Erica Jensen, C.S.A., Calleri Jensen Davis (Casting Director) is one third of the Artios Award-winning Calleri Jensen Davis (with James Calleri and Paul Davis). Erica’s theatre casting credits include shows for Actors Theatre of Louisville, Classic Stage Company, Rattlestick Theater, City Theater, McCarter Theatre, People’s Light and Theatre, Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and The Flea Theater. Broadway credits include Thoughts of a Colored Man, For Colored Girls… (2022), Fool for Love, Hughie, A Raisin in the Sun, Of Mice and Men, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. TV credits include Queens, Love Life, Dickinson, Lipstick Jungle, and The Path.

JOSEPH PINZON

Local Casting Director

Joseph Pinzon (Local Casting) is the founder and creative producer of the contemporary circus company Short Round Productions and its award-winning show Filament. With over 25 years of performing experience, he has worked internationally with renowned companies such as Cirque Éloize, Compagnia Finzi Pasca, Cirque du Soleil, and The 7 Fingers. He holds an MS in Arts Leadership from USC, a BA in Psychology from UCLA, and graduated from the National Circus School in Montreal with a specialization in aerial techniques. He was the casting and resident director for Chamäleon Productions (Berlin) and Constellation Immersive (CAA’s experiential affiliate). He is also a member of the Creative & Independent Producer Alliance and a founding board member of the American Circus Alliance. You can see him causing chaos on season 6 of Nailed It! on Netflix, where (spoiler alert) he is a part of the series’ first three-way tie.

ELISA GUTHERTZ

Stage Manager

Elisa Guthertz (Stage Manager) most recently stage managed Sanctuary City at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. She stage managed Toni Stone at Arena Stage and American Conservatory Theater. Some of her other A.C.T. credits include Rhinoceros, Seascape, Sweat, and Hamlet. She has also worked on many shows for Berkeley Repertory Theatre including the ripple, the wave that carried me home, The Normal Heart, Cloud Tectonics, and Suddenly Last Summer. Other credits: A Thousand Splendid Suns at A.C.T., The Old Globe, and Theatre Calgary; Big Love at Long Wharf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, and Brooklyn Academy of Music; The Vagina Monologues with Eve Ensler at Alcazar Theater; and The Good Body with Eve Ensler at the Booth Theatre on Broadway. 

BECKY REED

Assistant Stage Manager

Becky Reed (Assistant Stage Manager) is thrilled to be joining the company of Sanctuary City, her first show at Arena Stage. DC-area credits include P.Nokio (Imagination Stage); P.Y.G., The Effect, and No Sisters (Studio Theatre); Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Signature Theatre); The Cerulean Time Capsule (Kennedy Center TYA); Copenhagen, Everything is Illuminated, and Becoming Dr. Ruth (Theater J); Marjorie Prime and I and You (Olney Theatre Center); and many others; as well as Assistant Stage Management roles with various DC-area theaters. Tour credits include Elephant & Piggie’s We Are in a Play and Me… Jane with the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences. Regional credits include The Resident Ensemble Players, Baltimore Center Stage, and Playhouse on the Square. Becky is a graduate of Auburn University.

BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE

Berkeley Repertory Theatre has grown from a storefront stage to an international leader in innovative theatre. Known for its ambition, relevance, and excellence, as well as its adventurous audience, the nonprofit has provided a welcoming home for emerging and established artists since 1968. Over 5.5 million people have enjoyed nearly 500 shows at Berkeley Rep, which have gone on to win six Tony Awards, seven Obie Awards, nine Drama Desk Awards, one Grammy Award, one Pulitzer Prize, and many other honors. Berkeley Rep received the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 1997. To formalize, enhance, and expand the processes by which Berkeley Rep makes theatre, The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work was launched in 2012. The Berkeley Rep School of Theatre engages and educates some 20,000 people a year and helps build the audiences of tomorrow with its nationally recognized teen programs. Berkeley Rep’s bustling facilities—which also include the 400-seat Peet’s Theatre, the 600-seat Roda Theatre, and a spacious campus in West Berkeley—are helping revitalize a renowned city.