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Living & Breathing

Marion Huber Theater

By Mando Alvarado
Directed by Rebecca Martínez

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Breathe more art into your life.

The impulsive purchase of some provocative art – a living Latino man who is paid to behave as a statue – shatters a multi-ethnic friend group by sparking questions of commodification, stereotypes, and complacency. While the validity of the artist’s vision might be up for debate, one thing is undeniable: the friendship between these three men is much more fragile than they had realized. Complex, darkly funny, and thought-provoking, this play by Mando Alvarado was read as a part of the 2019 Two River Theater Crossing Borders Festival.

This performance contains: Strong language, adult content and use of racial slurs.

If you have questions or would like more information, call the box office at 732.345.1400

WATCH

Official Trailer

Making Masterpieces with the Cast of Living & Breathing

Christopher M. Ramirez and Carlos Ibarra

this show is for you if...

  • You like having to think a little while you’re laughing
  • You think visual art has the ability to reflect life, and to spark important conversations about it
  • You’ve had those friendships where you may love them, but you sometimes wonder why you’re still friends at all.
  • You get that with the big issues of today, there’s no easy answers… and even the questions aren’t easy.

MEET THE ARTISTS

The Cast

Chris Gardner

CHRIS GARDNER’S (JEREMY) (HE/HIM) career has spanned theater, television, film, print, and radio. Hailing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Chris began his career in television on HBO’s “Oz” and NBC’s “Law & Order”. He then moved to L.A. where he racked up guest appearances on shows like, “Hart Of Dixie”, “Pretty Little Liars” and “NCIS”. His theater credits include Unbound (IAMA/Hudson Theater), The America Play (Theater @ Boston Court), Welcome To The White Room (Theater Of Note) *Sunset Baby (Odyssey Theater, *NAACP nomination). He is also an accomplished voice-over actor with credits including, “Star Trek: Into Darkness”, the animated feature “Jungle Shuffle”. Many video games including Batman: Arkham Asylum, World of Warcraft, Saint’s Row and Call Of Duty.

Carlos Ibarra

CARLOS IBARRA (RUBEN) (HE/HIM) is an actor, writer, director, and producer living in NYC. He is excited to be making his Two River Theater debut with this amazing cast. Off-Broadway: Stand Up TragedyObskeneSh*tholeFur Rag Blood Bone. He appeared in the regional and national tour production of Javier Malpica’s Our Dad is Atlantis. His TV credits include: The Good Cop(Netflix), Adam Ruins Everything (TBS), Dora the Explorer (Nickelodeon). Carlos’ film credits include: Rough Night, Run Carlos RunToday’s Special, and Botes al Amanecer. Carlos is also the founder of FutureSelf Media, a full fledged production company that specializes in commercial, documentary, and narrative content created by minority and diverse talent. Proud graduate of NYU’s Tisch School/ETW & Stella Adler.

Michael Markham

MICHAEL MARKHAM (TODD) (he/him) is excited to be making his Two River debut. New York credits: Macbeth (NYSF), Mother Courage And Her Children (NYSF), PlotonovRosemary & TimeM4MYou Are Now the Owner Of This SuitcaseShort Life Of TroubleThis Is The Only Thing That Has Ever Happened. Regional credits: A Little Night MusicHamletRomeo And Juliet. Michael is an award winning filmmaker with films like: The Decades of Mason CarrollPineconeFumesThe Call. Film and Television: Law and OrderBlack Card (HBO), Collected ThoughtsTautologyLast Girl Left. Michael is a graduate of the The Juilliard School. Thank you YHWH for making this happen, and K, C, H, & J for letting me do this.

Christopher M. Ramirez

CHRISTOPHER M. RAMIREZ Off Broadway: Touchstone in As You Like It (Shakespeare in the Park at the Public Theater). Regional: Living & Breathing (Two River Theater). The Old Globe: Hair, Thinking Shakespeare LOVE!, The Heart of Rock & Roll, Twelfth Night, Scrooge. Disney’s Freaky Friday (La Jolla Playhouse, Cleveland Play House, Alley Theatre), Quixote Nuevo (Denver Center), Lookingglass Alice(Baltimore Center Stage), Man of La Mancha (Barrington Stage Company), The Count of Monte Cristo (Pioneer Theatre Company), In the Heights, Fun Home (SpeakEasy Stage Company). Television: “Instinct” (CBS), “FBI” (CBS). Education: B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from Boston Conservatory and M.F.A. from Usd/The Old Globe. @c_rambrothaman on Instagram.

The Creatives

Playwright

Mando Alvarado
Mando Alvarado

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.

Director

Rebecca Martínez
Rebecca Martínez

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

Scenic Designer

Raul Abrego
Raul Abrego

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.

Costume Designer

Christopher Vergara
Christopher Vergara

CHRISTOPHER VERGARA (COSTUME DESIGNER) (he/him/él) Recent credits include Elian (Miami New Drama), Sugar Skull! A Dia de Los Muertos Musical (Rhythm of the Arts), Anna in the Tropics (Barrington); Windfall (Bay Street), A Number, The 17th Chapel, the bull-jean stories, Unfuckwithable (Drama League); A Survivor’s Odyssey, a live virtual opera (White Snake); Once (VinWonders, Vietnam);  References to Salvador Dali… (Juilliard); Macbeth (McCarter); Shadows (Connelly) In the Heights (Orlando Shakes); Kidnap Road (La Mama); The Golem of Havana (Miami New Drama); Texas in Paris (York); like the eagle (DASH); Kiss Me Kate, La Traviata, Pirates of Penzance (Brevard); Harlequinade, Walpurgisnacht, Majisimas (Ballets Trockadero). Broadway Associate credits include The Kite Runner, Once on this Island, The Color Purple, and Eclipsed. He is the Designer-in-Residence and guest lecturer at the University of Michigan. He is an alumnus of The Professional Internship Program of The Juilliard School and a member of IATSE-USA 829, Wingspace, and La Gente: The Latinx Theatre Network. christophervergara.com

 

Lighting Designer

Cat Tate Starmer
Cat Tate Starmer

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. 

Sound Design and Composition

Megumi Katayama
Megumi Katayama

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.

 

 

Fight Direction

UnkleDave’s Fight-House
UnkleDave’s Fight-House

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!

ED&I Facilitator

Artists Heal, Noelle Diane Johnson
Artists Heal, Noelle Diane Johnson

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

Associate Costume Designer

Matthew Eggers
Matthew Eggers

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!

Assistant Lighting Designer

Sarah Woods
Sarah Woods

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

Associate Sound Designer

Ben Scheff
Ben Scheff

Ben Scheff  is a sound designer and composer for theater, circus, and dance. Off-Broadway: Notes from NowKennedy: Bobby’s Last CrusadeOnly Humanand 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

Production Stage Manager

Genevieve Ortiz
Genevieve Ortiz

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) 

Assistant Stage Manager

Gracie Carleton
Gracie Carleton

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.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

This riveting, insightful show features an excellent cast. Gather your group and see it while you can.

—BROADWAYWORLD

Provocative.

—THEATERMANIA

Living & Breathing will make you think about a lot more than art.

—NJARTS.NET

Audacious story.

—NJARTS.NET

Alvarado has written a distinctive play and the four actors excel at depicting their roles.

—BROADWAYWORLD

(Christopher M.) Ramirez finds a genuinely compelling note to play.

—THEATERMANIA

PHOTOS

NEWS AND UPDATES

BEFORE PLAY WITH CARLOS IBARRA

HEALTH & SAFETY

Proof of vaccination is not required to attend a performance or event at Two River Theater. Currently, face masks are recommended, but no longer required, while inside the theater building.

READ FULL COVID-19 UPDATE

RESTAURANT PARTNER

Dates and tickets

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