Mother Road

OCTAVIO SOLIS

Playwright

OCTAVIO SOLIS (Playwright) is a playwright and author whose works Mother Road, Quixote Nuevo, Se Llama Cristina, John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven, Ghosts of the River, Lydia, June in a Box, Lethe, Gibraltar, The Ballad of Pancho and Lucy, Bethlehem, Dreamlandia, El Otro, Man of the Flesh, Prospect, El Paso Blue, Santos & Santos, La Posada Mágica and Cloudlands (with music by Adam Gwon) have been mounted in theaters across the country such as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the California Shakespeare Theatre, the Center Theatre Group, Yale Repertory Theatre, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Magic Theatre, South Coast Repertory Theatre, El Teatro Campesino, Campo Santo, INTAR and Cornerstone Theatre. His short stories have been published in Zyzzyva, Catamaran, Huizache and the Chicago Quarterly Review. Solis has received numerous awards including the United States Artists Fellowship for 2011 and the 2014 Pen Center USA Award for Drama. His new book Retablos is published by City Lights Publishing.

BILL RAUCH

Director

BILL RAUCH (Director) previously directed Roe, Equivocation and A Community Carol at Arena Stage. His work as a theater director has been seen across the nation, from low-income community centers to Broadway stages with his Tony Award-winning production All the Way, as well as The Great Society. Bill is the inaugural artistic director of the Perelman Performing Arts Center, currently under construction at the World Trade Center in New York City. For the past 12 years he was artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and before that he co-founded the community-based Cornerstone Theater Company where he served as artistic director for 20 years. Bill is the proud recipient of a Helen Hayes Award. He dedicates his work on this production to the memory of his nephew Christopher.

CHRISTOPHER ACEBO

Set Designer

CHRISTOPHER ACEBO (Set Designer) previously designed the production of Equivocation for Arena Stage and has served as the associate artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 12 seasons designing over 30 productions. He recently directed American Mariachi at Arizona Theater Company and South Coast Rep. and Sweat at Profile Theater. His work has been seen on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning play All the Way, as well as at Center Theatre Group, Lincoln Center Theatre, Yale Rep., American Repertory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodman Theater, Kennedy Center and Portland Center Stage. Christopher was an ensemble member of the nationally acclaimed Cornerstone Theater Company from 2000-2006. Currently, he serves on the Oregon Arts Commission. He received his M.F.A. from the University of California, San Diego. Instagram @christopher.acebo Website: www.acebocreative.com

CAROLYN MAZUCA

Costume Designer

CAROLYN MAZUCA (Costume Designer) is a freelance costume designer based in Los Angeles. Her designs have most recently decorated productions of Mother Road (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Culture Clash (Still) in America (South Coast Repertory); and Mojada (St. Louis Repertory Theatre). Carolyn is the costume designer for upcoming productions of Culture Clash (Still) in America (Berkley Repertory Theatre) and Everything That Never Happened (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Carolyn also pursues costume work in the film and TV industry, working on productions such as Kids Baking Championship, My Dinner with Herv and Coop and Cami Ask the World. Currently, Carolyn is the costume designer of What?, a black and white silent film. Carolyn can’t wait to see what amazing future projects await her! www.carolynmazuca.com

PABLO SANTIAGO

Lighting Designer

PABLO SANTIAGO (Lighting Designer) is originally from Mexico and the winner of the Richard Sherwood Award and the Stage Raw Award and has multiple Ovation Award nominations. Recent highlights include: Pulitzer-winner Prism (Sao Paulo, LAO, Prototype Festival); Macbeth and Mother Road (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Place (BAM-LA PHIL-Beth Morrison Projects); Proving Up (ONE Festival/Opera Omaha and Miller Theater); Valley of the Heart and Zoot Suit (Mark Taper Forum); Threepenny Opera (Boston Lyric Opera); Destiny of Desire (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage); War of the Worlds (Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Industry); Breaking the Waves (OperaPhila and Prototype Festival); Pelleas et Melisande (Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra); Flight, Pagliacci and Madame Butterfly (Opera Omaha); On the Town (San Francisco Symphony); Skeleton Crew and The Cake (Geffen Playhouse). Instagram: @pablosdesign

PAUL JAMES PRENDERGAST

Original Music and Sound Design

PAUL JAMES PRENDERGAST (Original Music and Sound Design) previously designed Roe at Arena Stage. Broadway credits include: All the Way, The Great Society and Julius Caesar. Regional credits include: Oregon Shakespeare Festival (25 productions), Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Yale Rep, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Rep, Long Wharf, Geffen Playhouse, Playmakers Rep, Hartford Stage, Cal Shakes, Berkeley Rep, American Conservatory, American Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, Alley Theatre, Kennedy Center and is a former ensemble member of Cornerstone Theater Company. His commercial work includes extensive theme park and museum installations and multiple national tours with Diavolo Dance Theater. Paul’s awards include: Grammy and Drama Desk nominations, Broadway World, Ovation, Drama-Logue, Garland, Gregory, Footlight and Gypsy. His work as a singer/songwriter has appeared in films, on recordings and in music venues nationwide.

KAITLYN PIETRAS

Projection Designer

KAITLYN PIETRAS (Projection Designer) recently designed Gun & Powder at the Signature Theatre in D.C. New York credits include: A Fable (Cherry Lane Theatre); The Gin Baby (IRT Theatre, NYIT Award nomination); and Do Like the Kids Do, Shiner (IAMA Theatre Co.). Regional credits include: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Geffen Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, Artists Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage and Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Opera credits include: Lost Highway (Frankfurt Opera); A Trip to the Moon (LA Philharmonic, KOI Award nomination); and Young Caesar (LA Philharmonic). Instagram: @pxtstudio Website: pxtstudio.com

ANNE NESMITH

Wig Designer

ANNE NESMITH (Wig Designer)’s Arena Stage design credits include: Jubilee, Indecent, The Heiress, Nina Simone: Four Women, The Pajama Game, A Raisin in the Sun, Watch on the Rhine, Carousel, The Little Foxes, All the Way, Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof and Mother Courage and Her Children. Recent work includes: Pagliacci (Boston Lyric Opera); Ariadne Auf Naxos (Wolf Trap Opera); Le Nozze di Figaro (Nishinomiya, Japan); and Into the Woods (Ford's Theatre). Her designs have been seen at the Kennedy Center, Opera Philadelphia, Washington Ballet, Opera Boston and the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival. Anne was the resident wig/makeup designer for the Baltimore Opera and has created wigs for Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery programs, Investigation Discovery’s Ice Cold Killers, Maryland Public Television and the U.S. Army’s tour Spirit of America.

KAREEM FAHMY

Associate Director

KAREEM FAHMY (Associate Director) is a Canadian-born director and playwright of Egyptian descent. He has directed at The Atlantic, MCC, EST, Working Theater, New Dramatists, The Civilians, Geva Theatre, Portland Stage, Pioneer Theatre, Silk Road Rising, San Diego Rep and Berkeley Rep, among others. His plays include A Distinct Society, The Triumphant, Pareidolia, The In-Between and an adaptation of the acclaimed Egyptian novel The Yacoubian Building. Fellowships/Residencies: Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Phil Killian Directing Fellow), Sundance Theatre Lab, The O’Neill (National Directors Fellow), Second Stage (Van Lier Directing Fellow), Lincoln Center (Directors Lab) and New York Theater Workshop (Emerging Artist Fellow). Kareem is the co-founder of the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab at The Lark and of Maia Directors, a consulting group promoting Middle Eastern inclusion. MFA: Columbia University.

U. JONATHAN TOPPO

Fight Director

U. JONATHAN TOPPO (Fight Director) was recently in D.C. as fight director for The Folger’s production of Henry 4 Pt. 1 (as well as performing the roles of Northumberland and Glendower). He was last at Arena Stage for the 2016 production of Sweat. New York credits include: Sweat (Broadway - Studio 54); Sweat (The Public Theatre, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Fight Choreography); and Julius Caesar (Theatre for a New Audience, Drama Desk nominee for Outstanding Fight Choreography). Regional credits include: West Side Story (The Guthrie Theatre); Angels in America (Berkeley Repertory); Sweat (Dallas Theatre Center); Mojada (Portland Center Stage); and Pirates of Penzance (Portland Opera). He has been the resident fight director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival since 2008. www.ujonathantoppo.com

JACLYN MILLER

Movement Consultant

JACLYN MILLER (Movement Consultant) is excited to make her Arena Stage debut. Jaclyn has worked around the country as a movement director and/or choreographer for the past decade. Regional credits include: She Loves Me (South Coast Rep.); Hairspray, Twelfth Night, Roe (world premiere), Book of Will, Yeoman of the Guard, My Fair Lady, Fingersmith (world premiere), Shakespeare in Love (U.S. premiere) and Oklahoma! (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Cabaret and Music Man (Arizona Theatre Company); Julius Caesar, Mamma Mia!, Hunchback of Notre Dame and Taming of the Shrew (Idaho Shakespeare and Great Lakes Theater); The Cocoanuts - A Marx Brothers Musical (Guthrie Theatre); and Fun Home (Baltimore Center Stage). Other theaters include: Asolo Rep, Portland Opera, Ogunquit Playhouse, Gateway Playhouse, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Kirk Douglas, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Colony Theater and Parker Playhouse.

ANITA MAYNARD LOSH

Vocal Coach

ANITA MAYNARD LOSH (Vocal Coach) is the director of community engagement and senior artistic advisor at Arena Stage where she leads the theater’s education and outreach programs and serves on the artistic team. Now in her 16th season at Arena Stage, Anita has been involved in an artistic capacity on 40 Arena Stage productions; she directed the world premiere of Our War as part of the National Civil War Project, and has been an associate director, text director and vocal/dialect coach on multiple other productions. Anita trained and taught at the 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, where she directed 21 mainstage productions. Anita traveled extensively with the artist-in-schools program in Alaska, working primarily with indigenous populations within the context of traditional villages. 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 as part of the Shakespeare in Washington Festival. Her essay about the project was published in Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance, Palgrave MacMillan. She has coached dialects for the Kennedy Center, the Washington National Opera, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage and the Broadway revival of Ragtime. Anita directs and devises ensemble theater with Arena Stage’s Voices of Now program, primarily in partnership with the Wendt Center for Loss and Healing working with grieving teenagers to create and perform original autobiographical theater pieces exploring loss and stigma of grief. Anita has traveled with the Voices of Now program to India (2012, 2014), Croatia (2015, 2019) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2019), to collaborate with communities in devising original plays addressing social justice issues. amaynardlosh@arenastage.org

TY DEFOE

Original Movement Director

TY DEFOE (Original Movement Director) Coming soon.

CHERELLE GUYTON

Original Wig Designer

CHERELLE GUYTON (Original Wig Designer) Coming soon.

MICHA ESPINOSA

Original Voice and Text Coach

MICHA ESPINOSA (Original Voice and Text Coach) Coming soon.

KURT HALL

Stage Manager

KURT HALL (Stage Manager)’s Arena Stage credits include Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Right to be Forgotten, Jubilee, Indecent, The Great Society, The Pajama Game, Smart People, Carousel, Born for This, All the Way, Sweat, The Blood Quilt, Smokey Joe’s Café, Mother Courage and Her Children starring Kathleen Turner, Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life, Good People, Red Hot Patriot starring Kathleen Turner, The Normal Heart, Red, Ruined, every tongue confess starring Phylicia Rashad, Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies, Looped starring Valerie Harper, Next to Normal starring Alice Ripley, Awake and Sing! and The Goat. He has additional regional credits at the Kennedy Center, Roundabout Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage and Signature Theatre. Thanks to his family for all their support.

EMILY ANN MELLON

Assistant Stage Manager

EMILY ANN MELLON (Assistant Stage Manager)’s Arena Stage credits include: JQA, Kleptocracy, Indecent, Dave, Hold These Truths, The Pajama Game, A Raisin in the Sun, Watch on the Rhine, Moby Dick, The Year of Magical Thinking, Born for This, Disgraced, All the Way, Akeelah and the Bee, Destiny of Desire and Dear Evan Hansen. Selected D.M.V. credits include: Souvenir (Rep Stage); A Doll's House, Part 2 (Round House Theatre); Girlfriend (Signature Theatre); Wig Out! (Studio Theatre); and The School for Lies (Shakespeare Theatre Company). Additional regional credits include: The Niceties (Geva Theatre Center) and The Upstairs Concierge (Goodman Theatre). Television credits include: Good Day New York and Inside Edition. She gives all her love to her family for their constant support.