2006-2007 Season: Rabbit Hole
Rabbit Hole marks playwright David Lindsay-Abaire’s fourth widely acclaimed play. It was nominated for three Drama League Awards and five Tony Awards, including Best Play. His play Fuddy Meers, which premiered in fall of 1999 at the Manhattan Theatre Club before being transferred to the Minetta Lane Theatre for a commercial run, has since received more than 300 productions around the country and is currently being developed into a motion picture. Kimberly Akimbo was commissioned by South Coast Rep and premiered there in 2001. It received the LA Drama Critics’ Circle Award for playwriting, three Garland Awards, and the 2001 Kesselring Prize. The play recently completed its sold-out New York run at Manhattan Theater Club where it was hailed as "The Comedy of the Year" by The New York Times. Mr. Lindsay-Abaire is currently adapting Kimberly Akimbo into a screenplay for Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks, SKG. His other plays include Snow Angel, How We Talk in South Boston, A Devil Inside, Dotting & Dashing and A Show of Hands, among others. Currently, he is working on the Broadway-bound musical Shrek: The Musical. He is also writing the screen adaptation of the novel, Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke for Newline Features. He co-wrote the animated feature Robots for Twentieth Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. Lindsay-Abaire has received awards from the Berrilla Kerr Foundation, the LeComte du Nuoy Fund, Mixed Blood Theater, Primary Stages, the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, and the South Carolina Playwrights Festival. He is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Juilliard School, as well as a proud member of New Dramatists, the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America.
Kirsten Brandt, (Director) is the resident director at San Jose Rep. Prior to joining the Rep, Brandt was the Artistic Director of Sledgehammer Theatre from 1999-2005 where she produced 23 productions, including nine world premieres and five west coast premieres. During her tenure, she directed 15 productions including: A Dream Play, Macbeth, A Knife in the Heart, Richard III, Furious Blood, Sweet Charity (Backstage West Garland Award); and she wrote and directed The Frankenstein Project and NU: Parts I &III. Her play Berzerkergang received a KPBS Patte Award for outstanding production in 2003. Other credits include: Hold Please, Christmas on Mars, Lobby Hero and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (San Diego Critic’s Circle Award) for The Old Globe; A Christmas Carol 1941 for San Diego REP; The Burning Deck for La Jolla Playhouse; Bird and the Waterfall in Vancouver BC; and The Laramie Project for Sierra Rep. Ms. Brandt has directed for UCSD’s MFA program, UCSC, The Fritz, Diversionary Theatre, Playwrights Project, New Dramatists, NYU Tisch School of Drama and ASK Theatre Projects. She studied playwrighting at the University of Birmingham, England and directing at UC San Diego and has trained with the SITI Company. She is the recipient of the San Diego Critic’s Circle Award for “Creative Achievement” in 2003.
James Breedlove (Jason) was last seen as Matthew Poncelet in the Solano College Theater production of Dead Man Walking, directed by George Maguire. He has appeared as the protagonist “Writer” in Woody Allen’s God (A Play) and has performed leading roles in several works of David Ives. James studies acting under Cliff Osmond and Anthony Fusco, as well as talented others at A.C.T. in San Francisco. He will graduate in June from Foothill High School in Pleasanton where he sings in the Chamber Choir. In all of his spare time, James enjoys writing; any physical exercise; performing the works of The Reduced Shakespeare Company with his 3-man acting troupe, California Remedial Arts Performers (C.R.A.P.) and running his own window-washing business, Wally Washers. James hopes to continue his acting journey at either USC or UCLA.
Andy Murray (Howie) appeared last season as Menelaus in Iphigenia at Aulis. Other Rep appearances include, Humpty Dumpty, The Matchmaker, Twelth Night and Two Gentlemen of Verona. His Bay Area work includes shows at A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, The California Shakespeare Theater, Marin Theatre Co., Magic Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz and San Francisco Shakespeare. Regional work includes Seattle Rep, Kansas City Rep and Baltimore Center Stage. Murray teaches at The Berkeley Rep School of Theatre and The California Shakespeare Theater.
Stacy Ross (Becca) was recently seen on the Rep stage in Iphigenia at Aulis, Hannah and Martin as Hannah Arendt, and in Major Barbara as the title character. Recently, she appeared in Three Sisters at Baltimore Center Stage, Frozen at Marin Theatre Co., in A.C.T’s The Rivals and in Marin Theatre Company’s Killer Joe. Other recent credits include: The Comedy of Errors and Henry IV, Parts I & II at California Shakespeare Theatre, Smell of the Kill at the Playhouse, Man of Destiny at the Aurora, Arms and the Man at California Shakespeare Theatre, The Gamester at A.C.T., and Book of Days at TheatreWorks. Ms. Ross’ regional credits include The Green Bird and Cloud Nine at Berkeley Rep; Spring Storm and Candida at Marin Theatre Company; Misalliance at Baltimore Center Stage; and As You Like It and Twelfth Night at San Francisco Shakespeare Festival.
Lynne Soffer (Nat) was last seen at San Jose Rep as the Italian speaking Costanza in Enchanted April and previously in the Rep’s Blithe Spirit and The Innocents. She has acted in productions with the American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory, San Francisco Opera, California Shakespeare Theatre, Sacramento Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, The Aurora, Word for Word, Campo Santo, Encore, PCPA Theaterfest, Alaska Repertory, Sherwood Shakespeare Festival, Acadia Repertory Theatre of Maine, and in New York City with the Direct Theatre and the 29th Street Project. She also teaches acting, speech and textwork and has served as dialect and/or text coach on over 160 theater productions around the country including 23 for the Rep and the World Premiere of The Laramie Project at the Denver Center and in NYC. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity, Theater Bay Area and is an Associate Artist at California Shakespeare Theater.
Jessa Watson makes her first appearance at San Jose Repertory Theatre as Izzy. Her regional credits include Under My Apron at MITF Off-Off Broadway; Jack O’Brien’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas at The Old Globe; Cabaret and A Christmas Carol at San Diego Rep; The Importance of Being Earnest (Gwendolen) in rep with Travesties (Gwendolen), for which she received a KPBS Pate Award and a San Diego Critic’s Circle Best Ensemble Award; Fuddy Meers (Heidi); As Bees in Honey Drown (Illya) and First Night (Meredith) at North Coast Rep; Richard III (Queen Elizabeth), The Devil’s River (Charlotte), for which she received a San Diego Playbill Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama, and Kelly Stewart’s Furious Blood (Clytemnestra) at Sledgehammer Theatre. She was Associate Artist at Sledgehammer Theatre 2000-2005 and Associate Artist at North Coast Repertory Theatre 1998-2002. Watson co-directed the world premiere of Kirsten Brandt’s Berserkergang with Michael Severance, as well as creating and directing NU: Part 2 for Sledgehammer Theatre and has directed for The Fritz Blitz and Traveling Lantern Theatre Companies. She was a founding Teaching Artist with the Sledgehammer Theatre Education Program, and a Teaching Artist with Playwrights Project from 2000-2004.