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Friday, February 26 at 5:00 p.m.–
Friday, March 19, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. PT
Tune in to a virtual reading of award-winning writer and director Laurel Ollstein's new script Pandora, presented in partnership with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. This theatrical retelling of the first human female to appear in Greek mythology asks: What if a woman was suddenly created and dropped into the middle of the world now? Someone with no preconceived notions of anything—like beauty, love, or violence? And what if the rest of humanity and the gods could suddenly see the world through those clear eyes? English closed captions available.
About Theatreworks Silicon Valley
Led by artistic director Tim Bond and executive director Phil Santora, the Palo Alto-based theater company serves more than 100,000 patrons per year and has captured a national reputation for artistic innovation and integrity, often presenting Bay Area theatergoers with their first look at acclaimed musicals, comedies, and dramas. In June 2019, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley received the Regional Theatre Tony Award, the highest honor bestowed on an American theater not on Broadway. Since its founding in 1970, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has become one of the nation's leaders in cultivating and producing new musicals and plays, developing and premiering 70 works by new and veteran artists and 173 regional premieres. The company's New Works Festival and Writers' Retreat programs attract authors and composers of national stature (Rajiv Joseph, Stephen Schwartz, Beth Henley, Paul Gordon, Marsha Norman, Henry Krieger, Duncan Sheik, Jules Feiffer, Joe DiPietro, and Andrew Lippa, among many others), providing an artistic home in which America's theater artists can create new works. In addition, the company has developed scores of works which have gone on to regional, Off-Broadway, Broadway and West End productions.
The Cast
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Kacie Rogers* (Pandora)
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Eden Malyn* (Dynah)
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Bernardo Cubría* (Zeus | Po)
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Neimah Djourabchi* (Epi)
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Mary Beth Fisher* (Hes | Professor)
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Romi Dias* (Phro)
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Katherine Hamilton (Stage Directions)
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The Creative Team
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Laurel is a playwright/director based in Los Angeles whose produced plays include They Promised Her the Moon, Laughter, Hope and a Sock in the Eye, CHEESE; Esther's Moustache, OPA! the Musical, Dorothy Parker Is in the Bath, The Dark Ages, Bias Cut, and Showing Our Age. They Promised Her the Moon had a critically acclaimed West Coast premiere production at The Old Globe theater in San Diego, directed by Giovanna Sardelli, and a Northern California premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Ms. Ollstein has written commissions for the Getty Villa Museum, About Productions, New Jersey Repertory, and Playwrights' Arena, and developed plays with The Actors' Gang and Cornerstone Theatre Company. Laurel is a recipient of Ovation, Garland, and LA Weekly Theater awards, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and California Arts Council. She directs playwriting programs and writing and arts education in schools, and creates plays on social justice themes. She has been a faculty member with CalArts, UCLA, USC, Loyola Marymount, and Otis College of Art and Design. laurelollstein.com
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Besides Sardelli's well-received productions with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, where she is Artistic Associate and Director of New Works, she has directed and developed plays around the country, including many off-Broadway productions over the past decade. She directed the two most recent productions of Laurel Ollstein's play They Promised Her The Moon (The Old Globe and TheatreWorks). Sardelli's other directing credits include Rajiv Joseph's first professional production, Huck & Holden (Cherry Lane), as well as the world premieres of The North Pool (TheatreWorks), and Animals Out of Paper (Second Stage), for which she was awarded the Joe A. Callaway Award for Best Direction, and the recent production of the Obie Award-winning play Describe The Night at Atlantic Theatre. Her West Coast premiere of Mathew Lopez' The Whipping Man for The Old Globe theater won her an NAACP nomination for Best Director and her production of Rajiv Joseph's Guards at the Taj for the Geffen Theatre won the 2016 Ovation Award for Best Production of a Play. Sardelli holds an MFA in acting from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and taught in NYU's graduate acting program as well as its dance department. Before being invited to train at NYU's prestigious Director's Lab program, prior to becoming a director, Sardelli worked as a professional actress for a decade in television and theater.
Taylor has worked internationally since 2004 as a stage manager, production manager, master electrician, properties designer, sound technician, and stuntwoman. From theater to film, music and live events, credits include SF Sketchfest (assistant technical director), Cal Shakes (master electrician), Legion A/V (head of lighting), Playfaire Productions (swordswoman), The Independent SF (lighting designer), Highlander Films (production assistant), ACT, Center REP, Cabrillo Stage, Hillbarn Theatre, the Magic Theatre, and many more. She also trains mêlée weapons at Davenriche European Martial Arts School under master swordsman Sir Steaphen Fick, and looks forward to returning as tour manager of Evan Rachel Wood and Zane Carney's band, EVAN+ZANE.
*The Actors and Stage Manager employed in this production are members of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.