Archduke Cast and Creatives 

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BUY TICKETS

Scott Coopwood
Jeremy Kahn
Luisa Sermol
Adam Shonkwiler
Stephen Stocking
Rajiv Joseph
Giovanna Sardelli
Fumiko Bielefeldt
Dawn Chang
Teddy Hulsker
Jeffrey Lo
Tim Mackabee
Randall K. Lum
Jonathan Rider
Emily Anderson Wolf
Robert Kelley Phil Santora

SCOTT COOPWOOD (Apis) Regional favorites include title roles in Hamlet, Macbeth, Cymbeline, King John, Edward III, and Cyrano De Bergerac. Other favorites: Othello, King Lear, Measure for Measure, Lonely Planet, The Scene, Take Me Out, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, The Seagull, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, Born Yesterday, Frost/Nixon, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, and Groundswell. Regional theatres: Arkansas Rep; Artists Rep; Capital Rep; San Jose Rep; Center Rep; Berkeley Rep; Capital Stage; the Utah, Colorado, Orlando, and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festivals; Arizona Theatre Co.; Sacramento Theatre Co.; Marin Theatre Co.; Portland Center Stage; Seattle Shakespeare Co.; Profile Theatre Project; Shotgun Players; SF Playhouse; Jewel Theatre Co.; and work with the Toronto, Windsor, and Oregon Symphony Orchestras.

JEREMY KAHN (Trifko) returns to TheatreWorks where he previously appeared in Peter and the Starcatcher as well as the New Works Festival readings of Laugh, The Disappearing Man, and Born in East Berlin. Other theatre work includes: Office Hour (Berkeley Rep/Long Wharf Theatre co-pro), Everything is Illuminated, Dry Powder, Wittenberg (Aurora Theatre Co.), peerless (Marin Theatre Co.), Bad Jews (Capital Stage), Tortilla Curtain (San Diego Rep), The Liar, Baskerville, It Shoulda Been You (Center Rep), Another Way Home (Magic Theatre), 1 2 3, Tigers Be Still, The Fantasticks (SF Playhouse), Red Velvet (Jewel Theatre Co.), and The Rover (Shotgun Players). Film/TV: Looking (HBO), Unleashed (Netflix), The Etruscan Smile, and Dirt. He holds a BFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University.

LUISA SERMOL (Sladjana) is delighted to make her TheatreWorks mainstage debut after appearing in the 2018 New Works Festival (They Promised Her the Moon). NY credits include Broadway: Roundabout– (Hamlet), Lincoln Center (Tennessee and His Women), Classic Stage Co. (Macbeth). Regional work includes: Portland Center Stage (A Midsummer Night’s Dream); Williamstown Theatre Festival (Romeo and Juliet, A Little Night Music, The Maids); and Artists Repertory Theatre (The Humans, Cuba Libre, The Goat, Sideman, Three Sisters, Master Class, Night of the Iguana). Recent Bay Area credits include: City Lights (The Siegel) and Hillbarn Theatre (Noises Off). Film/TV include: Grimm, Leverage, Zero Effect, and Insect Poetry. Ms. Sermol is a graduate of The Juilliard School, holds a MAT, and is proud to be a teaching artist.

ADAM SHONKWILER (Nedjelko) After appearing as John Birt in Frost/Nixon this winter, Mr. Shonkwiler is happy to return to the TheatreWorks main stage. Regional: Boy in Peter and the Starcatcher, Fun Home (Weston Playhouse), Red (Goodman Theatre), Mordred in Camelot (Goodspeed, TUTS), and Luke in Next Fall (San Jose Rep). National Tour: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind. Film/TV: The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, NBC’s The Playboy Club. He is a graduate of The School at Steppenwolf in Chicago and Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London, England. www.adamshonkwiler.com

STEPHEN STOCKING (Gavrilo) is happy to be making his TheatreWorks debut. His New York and regional credits include Rajiv Joseph’s Obie-winning play Describe the Night at Atlantic Theater Co. and Alley Theatre (Feliks); the World Premiere of Archduke at the Mark Taper Forum (Gavrilo); Great Expectations (Pip) at Portland Center Stage; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lysander) for Shakespeare Theatre Co. in DC and Macau, China; Flood in the Valley with Gung Ho Productions in Liangshan, Chengdu, and Beijing, China; the Aspen Ideas Festival with director Lonny Price; Every Good Girl Deserves Fun at Walkerspace. TV credits include: The Good Fight (CBS) and Z: The Beginning of Everything (Amazon). Mr. Stocking earned his MFA from NYU Graduate Acting. www.stephenstocking.com

RAJIV JOSEPH (Playwright) is the author of Broadway’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Pulitzer Prize finalist) and Obie Award-winning plays Guards at the Taj and Describe the Night. Other works include All This Intimacy, Animals Out of Paper, Gruesome Playground Injuries, The North Pool (TW World Premiere 2011), The Monster at the Door, The Lake Effect (TW 2015), and Mr. Wolf. He wrote the libretto for the opera Shalimar the Clown, as well as works for film and television. Mr. Joseph received his BA in Creative Writing from Miami University and his MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal and now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

GIOVANNA SARDELLI (Director) is TheatreWorks’ Director of New Works, and has directed Crimes of the Heart, The Velocity of Autumn, The North Pool, The Lake Effect, and Somewhere. She recently directed the World Premiere of Archduke (NWF 2016) at the Mark Taper Forum and Guards at the Taj for the Geffen Playhouse, which won the 2017 Ovation Award for Best Production of a Play. Off-Broadway World Premieres include Little Children Dream of God (Roundabout), Wildflower, Animals Out of Paper, and All This Intimacy (Second Stage). Her production of An Entomologist’s Love Story, which was part of the TW New Works Festival in 2014, had its World Premiere at SF Playhouse. Her regional credits include: Describe the Night (TW New Works Festival 2014; Alley Theatre), The Whipping Man (The Old Globe), and numerous shows at Dorset Theatre Festival, Cleveland Play House, and Barrington Stage Co. She recently directed the Regional Premiere of They Promised Her the Moon at The Old Globe, and will direct it for TW in March 2020.

FUMIKO BIELEFELDT (Costume Designer) feels as if this season marks the completion of a cycle of her work at TheatreWorks, which began in 1983 when Robert Kelley hired her as the Resident Costume Designer. She has designed over 60 productions (garnering over 25 awards) for TheatreWorks, including Tuck Everlasting; The Bridges of Madison County; Rags; Daddy Long Legs; Cyrano; Fallen Angels; Sweeney Todd; Silent Sky; Little Women; 33 Variations; Sense and Sensibility; The Light in the Piazza; Caroline, or Change; M Butterfly; and Emma. Ms. Bielefeldt has designed extensively throughout the Bay Area and regionally. She graduated from Waseda University (Tokyo) and studied costume design at Stanford under Douglas Russell. Design awards include: 2004 Barbara Bladen Porter Special Award, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, Dean Goodman Choice Awards, and Back Stage West Garland Award.

DAWN CHIANG (Lighting Designer) designed the lighting for TheatreWorks’ tokyo fish story. On Broadway, she designed lighting for Zoot Suit and was co-designer for Tango Pasion. Off-Broadway, she has designed for Roundabout Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club. She was resident lighting designer for New York City Opera, where her designs included A Little Night Music. Her designs for regional theatres include: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Denver Center Theatre Co., San Jose Rep, Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Arizona Theatre Co., Guthrie Theater, and Arena Stage. Awards include two Dramalogue Awards, two Syracuse Area Live Theater Awards, and nominations for the American Theatre Wing/Maharam Award, LA Drama Critics’ Award, and a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award.

TEDDY HULSKER (Sound Designer) is a San Francisco Bay Area born multidisciplinary theatre artist and program director of the artist ensemble Klanghaus. Specializing in sound and projection design, recent design credits include Yoga Play (SF Playhouse), Eureka Day (Aurora Theatre Co.), The Diary of Anne Frank (Center Rep) and In Case of Moon Disaster (Mugwumpin). He received the Landisman Fellowship for Emerging Designer in 2012, and was awarded Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for his sound design work on Warplay (New Conservatory Theatre Center), Jesus Christ Superstar (Ray of Light Theatre), and for his projection design on Sunday in the Park With George (SF Playhouse.) In addition to his theatre work Mr. Hulsker has created original installations and performances that have been seen and heard in San Francisco, Oakland, Berlin, New York, Detroit, and LA.

JEFFREY LO (Casting Director) directed TheatreWorks’ The Santaland Diaries, and wrote Waiting For Next, which was part of the 2017 New Works Festival. He was the assistant director for TW’s The Four Immigrants, Water by the Spoonful, and Superior Donuts. A graduate of UC Irvine, he is the recipient of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, Arts Council Silicon Valley’s Emerging Artist Laureate, and Theatre Bay Area’s Titan Award. Directing credits include Vietgone at Captial Stage, Between Riverside and Crazy at San Jose Stage, and Yellow Face and The Crucible at Los Altos Stage. In addition to his work as a playwright and director, he is an alumnus of the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute and works as an advocate and educator on issues of equity and diversity throughout the country. JeffreyWritesAPlay.com

TIM MACKABEE (Set Design) Broadway: The Elephant Man (starring Bradley Cooper), Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth (dir. Spike Lee). West End: The Elephant Man. Off-Broadway: Heathers The Musical, The Last Match (Roundabout Theatre); Vietgone, Important Hats of the Twentieth Century (Manhattan Theatre Club); Guards at the Taj (Lucille Lortel Award), Describe the Night, The Penitent, Our New Girl (Atlantic); Luce (LCT), Gigantic (Vineyard); Much Ado About Nothing (Public). TV: Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo (HBO); Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth (HBO); Gotham, Smash, The Today Show.  Education: North Carolina School of the Arts, Yale School of Drama. timothymackabeedesign.com, @timmackabeedesign.

RANDALL K. LUM (Stage Manager) has stage managed TheatreWorks’ Fun Home, Hold These Truths, Pride and Prejudice (New Works Festival), Finks, Skeleton Crew, Around the World in 80 Days, The Prince of Egypt, Constellations, Rags, Outside Mullingar, Confederates, The Velocity of Autumn, Jane Austen’s EMMA, The Country House, Fallen Angels, The Lake Effect, Peter and the Starcatcher, Time Stands Still, Other Desert Cities, Once on This Island, and Little Women. Other credits nclude: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Denver Center Theatre Co., La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, The Old Globe, American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Rep, California Shakespeare Theatre, Seattle Rep, Laguna Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, and 18 seasons and over 90 productions as Resident Stage Manager at South Coast Rep.

JONATHAN RIDER (Fight Director) has been choreographing fights nationally and internationally for over 20 years, with 12 productions at TheatreWorks, including: Cyrano, Around the World in 80 Days, The Prince of Eygpt, The Four Immigrants, Water by the Spoonful, and The Hound of the Baskervilles. For American Conservatory Theater, most recently, he has directed fights for Hamlet, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and The Orphan of Zhao, for which he received a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award. He was the Resident Fight Director for the San Francisco Opera for 12 years. He has also directed fights for Gran Teatro Del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain (Tristan and Isolde); Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy (Faniciulla Del West); and Sante Fe Opera (including Maometto II, Wozzeck, Tosca). Mr. Rider holds a BA from Santa Clara University.

EMILY ANDERSON WOLF (Assistant Stage Manager) has been Assistant Stage Manager for TheatreWorks’ Frost/Nixon, Fun Home, Finks, The Prince of Egypt, Rags, Crimes of the Heart, Jane Austen’s EMMA, Triangle, Fire on the Mountain, Peter and the Starcatcher, Sweeney Todd, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Little Women, Other Desert Cities, and Wild With Happy. She was also the Assistant Stage Manager for threesixty Entertainment’s First National Tour of Peter Pan; Journey to the West at the New York Musical Theatre Festival; and with American Musical Theatre of San Jose. Ms. Wolf also works as a stagehand throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and is a proud member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. She holds a BA in Theatre, Cum Laude from Mount Holyoke College.

ROBERT KELLEY (Artistic Director) is a Bay Area native and Stanford University graduate. He founded TheatreWorks in 1970 and has directed over 175 TheatreWorks productions, including many world and regional premieres. He has received the Silicon Valley Arts Council’s Legacy Laureate Award; the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Paine Knickerbocker Award and Jerry Friedman Award for Lifetime Achievement; BATCC Awards for Outstanding Direction for The Hound of the Baskervilles; Into the Woods; Pacific Overtures; Rags; Sweeney Todd; Another Midsummer Night; Sunday in the Park with George; Jane Eyre; and Caroline, or Change. He recently directed Marie and Rosetta, Tuck Everlasting, Fun Home, The Bridges of Madison County, Around the World in 80 Days, Constellations, Rags, and Daddy Long Legs (Theatre Bay Area Award for Outstanding Direction of a Musical, 2017).

PHIL SANTORA (Executive Director) joined TheatreWorks in 2007. He has served as Managing Director of Northlight Theatre (Chicago) and Georgia Shakespeare Festival (Atlanta), as well as Development Director for Great Lakes Theatre Festival (Cleveland) and George Street Playhouse (New Brunswick). He holds an MFA in Theatre Administration from the Yale School of Drama and a BA in Drama from Duke University. He has served as Vice President of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Board. Prior board service also includes the League of Chicago Theatres, Atlanta Coalition of Theatres, and the executive committee of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT). He was named 2000’s Best Arts Administrator by Atlanta Magazine and received the Atlanta Arts and Business Council’s 1998 ABBY Award for Arts Administrator.