Up Next for Kate in 2010 -March and April Kate heads to Berkeley, California for
a World Premiere click
the theatre link below for more info!
 Concerning
Strange Devices from the Distant WestWRITTEN BY NAOMI IIZUKA
DIRECTED BY LES WATERS
MAIN SEASON | RODA THEATRE
FEBRUARY 26–APRIL
11, 2010
WORLD PREMIERETHE PLAYThe month of March is devoted
to a sexy and intriguing new script in the Roda Theatre. Well before the digital age, the camera selected, filtered and obscured
the truth—even as it promised to provide an authentic look at distant lands. Naomi Iizuka explores the intersection
of art and authenticity in a haunting play commissioned by Berkeley Rep:Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West.
Taking its title from a treatise on photography translated into Japanese, the play shifts between the present and the 1880s
when a weird new technology first seized the world in freeze frame. Cameras capture images of geishas, monks and shrines and
send them to the future in a flash—where we continue to seek meaning through lenses of exoticism and xenophobia. The
intricate parts of this world premiere nestle together like a delicate puzzle…or erotic glimpses of an enigmatic tattoo.
Expose yourself to the mystery of Strange Devices. THE PLAYERSNaomi Iizuka’s plays have been seen at major theatres
in Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. Berkeley Rep also presented the
world premiere of her 36 Views before it played off Broadway. Les Waters, our associate artistic director, won an Obie Award for Big
Love. His shows have ranked among the 10 best plays of 2007 in Time, 2006 in the New York Times and
2005 in TimeOut New York. THE BUZZ“Brash,
tender, and metaphysical by turns, her writing is pervaded with the sense of melancholy beauty that the Japanese call mono
no aware—the knowledge that all things change.”—Village Voice
MAY will bring Kate to The Folger Theatre in DC for two nights, performing a workshop of one of her lifelong dreams---a
one-woman show entitled HAMLET: ABOUT MY BRAINS Monday, May 17 and 24 These performances will be the first
glimpses of a work in progress, Shakespeare's Hamlet arranged by Kate into a tornado of a script for one actor. Stay
tuned for more information on what promises to be a Hamlet that will blow not only his mind, but YOURS!
2009 NEWS and EVENTS
Kate is the proud recipient of the Barrymore
Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for her role as Eleanor/Esme in Tom Stoppard's "Rock & Roll" at the Wilma Theatre!
The Barrymores are awards that celebrate excellence in Philadelphia Theatre and Kate is thrilled to have such a personally
memorable role receive this special recognition.
Kate was back at Woolly Mammoth, this
time playing a chinese translator, a french cook's assistant, an alcoholic blue-collar german dreamer who loves to polka and
the angry shopaholic mistress of the German Chancellor!
FULL
CIRCLE
by Charles L. Mee (Big
Love)
directed by
Michael Rohd (Artistic Director, Portland's Sojourn Theatre)
SEPT---Kate
was in NYC with director Alex Harvey developing a two- woman Henry
V. For any of you who know Kate or have seen her work, you can't help but have some idea how exciting this project
is for her. Multiple roles, cross gender casting AND Shakespeare?...kind of like gazelles for a hungry lion.
AUGUST--- Found Kate teaching for the fifth time
her graduate level CLOWN CLASS at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, VA. It's a 3 credit course focusing on on-your-feet exploration
of the history of comedy, the practice and mastering of physical skills, and understanding the mind and philosophy of a clown.
In other words, students learn to enter a room oblivious of a banana peel, how to trip safely over it and then talk about
why that old chestnut is still hilarious.
 JULY--- Kate experienced a saturated 10
days in Oregon at Portland Center Stage acting in JAW WEST, a playwrights festival that presented 6 plays, all of them
new works by up and coming as well as established playwrights. She made alot of new friends, is a new fan of about 50 actors
and was fortunate enough to work on two plays, one with director Les Waters from Berkeley Rep and author Naomi Iizuka on her
beautiful and atmospheric "Concerning Strange Devices From The Distant West" (Kate's next full production!) and also in the
brilliantly funny and heartbreaking "On The Nature Of Dust", working with playwright Stephanie Timm and Playwright's Horizons'
Adam Greenfield as director. The logo of the festival was WE PLAY ROUGH and Kate did play very rough and thus spent the rest
of July sleeping when not setting off fireworks.
OTHER NEWS AND RECENT HISTORY
| Rock&Roll Philly style!!! |
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| just part of the incredible Rock & Roll team including THE PLAYWRIGHT -what an amazing day |
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