Living & Breathing

MANDO ALVARADO (PLAYWRIGHT) is an award-winning playwright/screenwriter from Pharr, Texas. He is currently a Co-EP on IRON MIKE for HULU and was a Consulting Producer on WASHINGTON BLACK for HULU. He’s written on BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR, VIDA, GREENLEAF, and was a Co-Producer for SEVEN SECONDS. His plays have been produced Off-Broadway, The Kennedy Center, and at the Victory Gardens. His first feature film, Cruzando, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Michael Ray Escamilla is available on DVD and was distributed by Vanguard Cinema. He is a member of Rising Phoenix Rep, alum of INTAR’s Hispanic-Playwright-in-Residence Laboratory, and a graduate of The University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

REBECCA MARTINEZ (DIRECTOR) (SHE/HER) is an award-winning director and choreographer and the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater. Upcoming projects include: Sancocho (WP Theater), a musical adaptation of The Comedy of Errors (The Public Theater’s Mobile Unit). Recent projects: Los Complicados (EST Marathon), Randy’s Dandy Coaster Castle (Egg & Spoon Collective), Songs About Trains (Working Theater and Radical Evolution), Somewhere Over the Border (Syracuse Stage and Geva Theatre). Rebecca has developed new work with The Public Theater, Amas Musical Theater, the O’Neill, Latinx Playwrights Circle, the Sol Project, NAMT, INTAR, Working Theater, The Playwrights Realm, among others. Affiliations: Sojourn Theatre Ensemble, 2021 TCG Rising Leaders of Color; Sol Project Collective, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, INTAR’s Unit52, New Georges Affiliated Artist, WP Lab, Drama League Directing Fellow, member of SDC. Awards: Colorado Henry Award for Directing; four Portland, Oregon Drammy Awards; Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists. Rebecca is originally from Colorado with deep ancestral roots in the Southwest. rebeccamartinez.org

Raul Abrego is a set designer for opera, theater, film, and television. He has designed for the Juilliard Opera Center, the Spoleto Opera Festival in Italy, and the Manhattan School of Music. Recent credits include La Ruta by Ed Cardona for the Working Theater (recipient of the Belle Geddes Design Enhancement Grant); Lucy Loves Me by Migdalia Cruz at INTAR; Cosi Fan Tutte at the Manhattan School of Music, directed by Dona Vaughn; Kithless in Paradise (Lion Theatre); La Barberia (New World Stages); Underneathmybed by Florencia Lozano and Post No Bills by Mando Alvarado (Rattlestick). Raul is a two time HOLA Award winner. He received his BFA from Webster University and MFA from Brandeis University.

Christopher Vergara (Costume Designer) (he/him/él) is a queer Latino activist, educator, and designer for theater, dance, opera, and live events. His work focuses on culturally responsive design, storytelling, and social justice.  Select credits include Franklinland (Ensemble Theater); twenty50 (Theatre Squared); Fabulation (Billie Holiday Theatre); you don’t have to do anything (HERE Arts); American Mariachi (Alley Theater); Espejos: Clean (Studio Theater DC); Living & Breathing (Two River); How to Melt ICE (Boundless Theater); El Otro Oz (TheaterWorksUSA); Anna in the Tropics, Elián (Miami New Drama); Detroit ’67, Eight Nights (Detroit Public Theater); Party People (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Anna in the Tropics (Barrington Stage); Survivor’s Odyssey, a virtual live opera (White Snake); Windfall (Bay Street); Once (VinWonders, Vietnam); Macbeth (Lewis Center); In the Heights (Orlando Shakes); Golem of Havana, Kidnap Road (La MaMa); Kiss Me Kate, La Traviata (Brevard); Harlequinade, Majisimas (Les Ballets Trockadero). Select Broadway Associate credits include Here Lies Love, The Kite Runner, Once on this Island, The Color Purple, and Eclipsed. Select Film/TV credits include Six by Sondheim, Notes from the Field, and Let Me Down Easy (HBO), That Damn Michael Che (HBOMax). (He is a proud member of IATSE USA 829, Design Action, Wingspace, La Gente: Latinx Theatre Network. Follow at @cavergaradesign and visit christophervergara.com.

Cat Tate Starmer (Lighting Designer) Off-Broadway: Georgia Mertching is Dead, White People (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Hold These Truths, MacBeth, Richard III (Epic Theatre Ensemble); American Jornalero (Working Theatre); Recent Regional designs include Living and Breathing (Two River Theatre), A Christmas Carol, 1984 (LDI Design Achievement Award), The Winter’s Tale, Murder on the Orient Express (Alley Theatre); Hurricane Diane, They Promised Her the Moon (Old Globe); Steel Magnolias, Frankenstein (LIT Design Award) (Guthrie Theatre); Hold These Truths (Theatreworks: Silicon Valley, Guthrie Theatre, Playmakers Rep); Buzz (Alabama Shakespeare Theatre) and The People Next Door (Yale Rep). Cat has been a guest lecturer and designer at Yale, Juilliard, Fordham, Barnard, Princeton, Brown, and Bard College. Cat designed the architectural lighting for Plaza 33, a pedestrian plaza near Penn Station in NYC and received two Lumen awards and a SOURCE Award for her work with Focus Lighting. She is a professor at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts. MFA: Yale School of Drama. 

MEGUMI KATAYAMA (SOUND DESIGN & COMPOSITION) is a NY-based designer. Her recent credits include Two River: Living and Breathing. New York: Regretfully, So the Birds Are (Playwrights Horizons), The Nosebleed (Lincoln Center LCT3), For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow Is Enuf (The Public), The Life (City Center Encores!), Our Brother’s Son (Signature), Generation Rise (Ping Chong and Company/New Victory), The Gett (Rattlestick). Regional: Arena Stage, Everyman Theatre, Alley Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Kansas City Rep, CTG, Berkley Rep, Virginia Stage Company, Dorset Theatre Festival, Chautauqua Theater Company, Skylight Music Theatre, and more. MFA Yale School of Drama. Member of IATSE USA 829.

UNKLEDAVE’S FIGHT HOUSE (FIGHT DIRECTION) is a team of fight/
intimacy coordinators comprised of LGBTQ theater makers. Two River credits: Hombres; El
Coqui Espectacular & The Bottle of Doom; Theo; Raisin In The Sun, Be More Chill; Seven
Guitars, King Hedley ll. Broadway: Ain’t No Mo; Kimberly Akimbo; Girl From The North Country;
Tuck Everlasting; Escape To Margaritaville; The Great Society ; An American In Paris; Disgraced.
Off-Broadway: Merrily We Roll Along (NYTW) ; On Sugarland (NYTW) ; soft (MCC) ; Halfway
Bitches Go Straight To Heaven (Labyrinth/Atlantic, Drama Desk Nom.); Oedipus El Rey (The
Public)(Drama Desk Nom.) Film: Poor Behavior; Emoticon. TV: AnnieLive!

Noelle Diane Johnson (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary Artist and Artist Advocate based in Philadelphia, PA. As a freelance artist, Noelle has worked as an actor, director, choreographer, model, performer, and intimacy director. Noelle is the Founder and owner of Artists Heal®, a company designed to create healing and care spaces for collaborative art-making while centering and providing resources for marginalized artists and vulnerable communities. She maintains a deep commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility work helping organizations and institutions implement DEI&A Strategy and Facilitation using the wisdom of theatre and storytelling, healing, and boundary practice. Noelle holds a BA in Theatre from Temple Univerity and currently pursuing a dual Master’s in Theatre and DEI Strategy from Villanova University, and is an adjunct at Rowan University. IG: @noelledianejohnson/ artistsheal.org

Matthew Eggers (Associate Costume Designer) is a theater designer currently working as a BFA candidate at the University of Michigan for Theater Design and Production. U-M: Moscow X6(CD), Hair (ACD), Forward Facing (ACD), Animal Farm (CD), Once On This Island (CD), Funny Girl (ACD); Broadway: The Kite Runner (CDA); Regional: Anna in the Tropics (ACD – Barrington Stage Co.). They are thrilled to work with Christopher again as well as with the amazing costume shop at Two River Theater. Go Blue!

Sarah Woods (Assistant Lighting Designer) (she/her) Sarah is a lighting designer for live performance and film. Recent design credits include La bohème (Opera Theater Rutgers), Space Traders and Jimmy Naughton & Friends in Concert (Williamstown Theatre Festival). She is a proud graduate of Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Excited to be here! woodslighting.com

Ben Scheff  is a sound designer and composer for theater, circus, and dance. Off-Broadway: Notes from Now, Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade, Only Human, and Red Roses, Green Gold. Touring credits include: Twas the Night Before… by Cirque du Soleil, Stars Above by Hideaway Circus, A Midsummer Night’s Circus and Carnival! by Circus Smirkus. Recent regional theater credits include Noises Off and Mamma Mia! Skylight Music Theater, Matt & Ben, Penobscot Theater, Hurricane Diane, The Huntington Theater. Associate/Assistant Design: 59E59, The Director’s Company, Roundabout Theater Company, Cherry Lane Theater, Primary Stages, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theater Workshop, Playwright’s Realm, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Rep, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Designer and student design mentor at Dartmouth College. Ben is a proud member IATSE Local USA 829 – United Scenic Artists. www.scheffsound.com

Genevieve Ortiz (Production Stage Manager) Off-Broadway: Daphne(LCT3/Lincoln Center Theatre); Toros (Second Stage); Catch As Catch Can (Playwrights Horizons); Patience (Second Stage); Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members (Soho Rep); 7 Minutes (Waterwell); What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Playwrights Horizons, BAM, Woolly Mammoth, A.R.T.); Hercules (The Public); Is God Is (Soho Rep); Regional: Living and Breathing (Two River Theater); The Christians (Baltimore Center Stage) 

Gracie Carleton (she/her) (ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER) is thrilled to be back at Two River working on this classic musical! Gracie was here in the winter with Living & Breathing and is a New York based Stage Manager. NYC: English (Atlantic Theatre Company); Which Way to the Stage (MCC); The Cotillion (New Georges / The Movement Theatre Company); Big Shot(CBE). Regional: The Tempest (Bread Loaf, VT); Living & Breathing (Two River Theater); Whitelisted, The Fifth Domain (CATF, WV); The Chinese Lady, I Am My Own Wife, Pride & Prejudice, On the Grounds of Belonging, Miller, Mississippi (Long Wharf Theatre, CT). Thank you E. Sara for roping me in, and  James for always supporting me.