Lydia

The Creative Team

OCTAVIO SOLIS (PLAYWRIGHT)

is a playwright and director living in San Francisco. His works Lydia, Man of the Flesh, Prospect, El Paso Blue, Santos & Santos, La Posada Mágica, El Otro, Dreamlandia, The 7 Visions of Encarnacion, Bethlehem, and Gibraltar have been produced at Denver Center Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, New York Summer Play Festival, Dallas Theater Center, Magic Theatre, Intersection for the Arts, South Coast Repertory, San Diego Repertory Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, ShadowLight, Venture Theatre, Latino Chicago Theater Company, La Compania de Albuquerque, Teatro Vista, El Teatro Campesino, Undermain Theatre, Thick Description, Su Teatro, Campo Santo, and The Imua! Theatre Company. His collaborative works include Burning Dreams, co-written with Julie Hebert and Gina Leishman; Shiner, written with Erik Ehn; and Great Highway, written with Wendy Weiner. Solis is the recipient of the NEA 1995-97 Playwriting Fellowship, the Kennedy Center’s Roger L. Stevens Award, the Will Glickman Playwright Award, a production grant from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, the 1998 TCG/NEA Theatre Artists in Residence Grant, the 1998 McKnight Fellowship grant from the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, the 2003 National Latino Playwriting Award, the 2000–2001 National Theatre Artists Residency Grant from TCG, and the Pew Charitable Trust grant for Gibraltar at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Octavio is a member of the Dramatists Guild and New Dramatists. He is currently working on commissions for Yale Repertory Theatre and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
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JULIETTE CARILLO (DIRECTOR)

directed the world premiere of Lydia last year at Denver Center Theatre Company. Other collaborations with Octavio Solis include Lethe with Cornerstone Theater Company (of which she is an ensemble member) and El Paso Blue at Summer Play Festival in New York. She met Octavio when she was an Artistic Associate at South Coast Repertory, where she ran the Hispanic Playwrights Project for seven years. At South Coast Rep, she directed many plays by Latinos, including the west coast premiere of Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz and the world premiere of References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot by José Rivera. Other credits include the west coast premieres of Eduardo Machado’s The Cook at Seattle Repertory Theatre and Sam Shepard’s Eyes for Consuela at the Magic Theatre, as well as productions at Alliance Theatre, TheatreWorks, Laguna Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Mark Taper Forum’s New Work Festival. In New York, she has developed plays at New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, INTAR, and The Women’s Project. A graduate of Yale School of Drama, she is a recipient of several awards, including the NEA/TCG Directing Fellowship. She will be directing a production of Lydia at the Mark Taper Forum this spring.
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Chris Webb (Composer)

composed the music for the world premiere of Lydia at Denver Center Theatre Company last year. His other theatre credits include The Cook directed by Juliette Carrillo (Seattle Repertory Theatre); Sonia Flew (Laguna Beach Playhouse); Anna in the Tropics, Nostalgia, The Countess, Art (South Coast Repertory); As Vishnu Dreams (Cornerstone Theater Company); Sam Shepard’s Eyes for Consuela (Magic Theatre); as well as productions at Intersection for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Exit Theatre, Currican Theatre, Bard College, Fordham University, and the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. His original scores for film include a New York Times web feature on Cuba, A litter-a-tion (Best Film of the 48 Hour Film Festival, Honolulu), Townsend (MBox), Africa@Play (National Geographic Channel, ResFest Best Short Film Award), the Gen Art Film Festival, and Spiral, a short film by Juliette Carrillo.
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Andrew Boyce (SCENIC DESIGNER)

is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include The Three Sisters; Grace, or the Art of Climbing; and Peer Gynt. His other credits include The Who’s Tommy, Recess (Yale Summer Cabaret); The Ones That Flutter (Summer Play Festival, New York); Crave (Yale Cabaret); I Was Tom Cruise (New York International Fringe Festival); Bloody Mary (Third Man Productions); The Melting Pot (Metropolitan Playhouse); Whose Life Is It Anyways (St. Bart’s Players); Miss Julie, A Lie of the Mind, Twelfth Night (Williamstown Theatre Festival Workshop); The Pitchfork Disney and Anna Karenina (Middlebury College). Film credits include Whiskey School and Blackbird. He is the recipient of the Kennedy Center ACTF Award for Scenic Design (2003).
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AMANDA SEYMOUR (COSTUME Designer)

is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Good Egg and Baal. Her other credits include See What I Want to See, Three Sisters or the Dormouse’s Tale, Bondage (Yale Cabaret); 2 Rooms (Garage Theatre); L’incoronasione di Poppea, Gigantes Y Cabezudos, La Canterina (California State University Los Angeles); Fire Eater, L.A. Weekly Award nomination, and Betty’s Summer Vacation (Workshop 360); Tosca Jumps (Edgefest); and The Picture of Dorian Gray, Backstage Garland Award (Theatre at Boston Court). Amanda has also worked as a design assistant at Los Angeles Opera, Center Theatre Group, South Coast Repertory, and Santa Fe Opera.
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JESSE BELSKY (LIGHTING DESIGNER)

is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include the 2008 Carlotta Festival of New Plays, Baal, and Venus. He made his Yale Rep debut earlier this season on Rough Crossing. His other credits include Bone Songs, Bill Clinton Goes to the Bathroom, The Illusion, A Number, In the Cypher, An Evening of Cabaret, In the Meantime (Yale Cabaret); Plane Crazy (2005 New York Musical Theatre Festival); Dear Maudie (78th St. Theater Lab); and Clocks & Whistles (Origin Theater Company); as well as work on various projects in the commercial theatre, architectural lighting, and television. A graduate of Duke University, his work with THE BEST has been seen at numerous venues around New York City and in Brisbane, Australia.
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DAVID MOLINA (Sound Designer, Additional Music, and Arrangements)

is honored to have spent the last 15 years working, playing, and laughing with Chris Webb. Theatre credits include productions for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Marin Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, A Traveling Jewish Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Brava! Theatre, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Campo Santo, Intersection for the Arts, Thick House, Encore, Soap Stone, Teatro Jornalero, Sonoma State University and University of San Francisco. Installation, performance, and multimedia: productions for Drum Machine Museum (featuring Joan Jeanrenaud, Kronos Quartet, and Mark Pistel) and international showings and tours with Violeta Luna, Victor Cartagena, and Secos Y Mojados (2009 Creative Capital recipients). Film: Barry Gifford’s Ball Lightning; The Narc and Prospect by Octavio Solis,The Cause Collective’s Along the Way (Sundance Film Festival), and the films of Anna Geyer. Radio and television: 94.1 KPFA and KQED. His bands—Ghosts and Strings; Transient—can be heard on the Resting Bell, Dorog Records, Mun Discos, and NKR labels. www.restingbell.net
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matt cornish (PRODUCTION DRAMATURG)

is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama, where his credits include this season’s Man=Man, as well as Baal and Speaking Our Mind. At Yale Cabaret, his dramaturgy credits include The Five Fists of Science, In the Cypher: Slam, and Seven Deadly Sins; and he directed Blood Box: An Evening of Grand Guignol. Matt holds a BA in theatre, German, and philosophy from the University of Denver and is a recipient of the George Pierce Baker Memorial Scholarship at Yale.
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RICK SORDELET (Fight Director)

has staged 44 Broadway productions, including Disney’s The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, The Little Mermaid, and Aida. He has staged the fights for the opera Cyrano de Bergerac starring Placido Domingo at the Metropolitan Opera, The Royal Opera House, and the LaScala in Milan, Italy; and for over 40 first class productions on five continents. Film: The Game Plan starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson; Dan in Real Life starring Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche; and Hamlet starring Campbell Scott. He is the chief stunt coordinator for Guiding Light and staged the fights for First Jedi, a CD-ROM for George Lucas. Rick received the Lucille Lortel Award for Sustained Excellence in 2007. He teaches at Yale School of Drama, The New School for Drama, and The Neighborhood Playhouse. He is a company member of The Drama Dept., a board member of The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and the author of the play Buried Treasure. He is married to actress Kathleen Kelly and has three children: Kaelan, Christian, and Collin.
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BETH McGUIRE (VOICE/DIALECT COACH)

Ms. McGuire’s vocal and dialect coach credits include Off-Broadway productions of The Overwhelming directed by Max Stafford-Clark (Roundabout Theatre Company); The Black Eyed (New York Theatre Workshop); Five by Tenn directed by Michael Kahn (Manhattan Theatre Club); People Be Heard (Playwrights Horizons); Candida, Gas Light (The Roundtable Ensemble); Free Market (The Working Theatre); and Exit Cuckoo directed by May Adrales (Midtown International Theatre Festival). Workshop productions: In Darfur (The Public Theater). Regional: King Lear, The Mystery Plays, dance of the holy ghosts, Taming of the Shrew, All’s Well That Ends Well, Iphigenia at Aulis, Kingdom of Earth (Yale Repertory Theatre); Hamlet, Carnival, King John, The Glass Menagerie (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); The Cook (Hartford Stage); and Crimes of the Heart (The Cape Playhouse). Ms. McGuire is currently on faculty at Yale School of Drama. She is a member of VASTA (The Voice and Speech Trainers Association), Actors’ Equity, SAG and AFTRA, and is an actress with over 25 years of performance experience.
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TARA RUBIN CASTING (CASTING)

has been casting at Yale Rep since 2004. Broadway: Billy Elliot, Shrek, Guys and Dolls, The Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins, Jersey Boys, The Producers, Mamma Mia!, The Phantom of the Opera, The Country Girl, Young Frankenstein, The Farnsworth Invention, Rock ’n’ Roll, The History Boys (US casting), Les Misérables, Spamalot, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Pirate Queen, Good Vibrations, Bombay Dreams, Oklahoma!, Flower Drum Song, Imaginary Friends, Metamorphoses (New York casting). Lincoln Center Theater: Happiness (upcoming), The Frogs, Contact, Thou Shalt Not, A Man of No Importance, Anything Goes (concert). Off-Broadway: Second Stage Theatre. Regional: Williamstown Theatre Festival; La Jolla Playhouse (New York casting); Mame, Mister Roberts, The Sondheim Celebration, and Tennessee Williams Explored at The Kennedy Center. Film: The Producers: The Musical. Members, Casting Society of America.
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donald e. claxon (STAGE MANAGER)

is a third-year MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. At Yale Rep, he previously served as assistant stage manager on Happy Now? and A Woman of No Importance and as technical assistant stage manager on Richard II. His other stage management credits include The Ghost Sonata, Edward II (Yale School of Drama); Giulio Cesare in Egitto and Capuleti e I Montecchi (Glimmerglass Opera). Donald is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and plans to move to Chicago after graduation this spring.
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The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.