La Jolla Playhouse Sets Cast, Creatives for 2017 POP Tour of #SuperShinySara
By: BWW News Desk Feb. 16, 2017
Commissioned by The Playhouse, this world-premiere play for young audiences will also have four public performances on March 25 & 26, 2017 at 1:00pm and 3:00pm in The Playhouse's Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.
The cast features Amanda Arbues as "Maya Blackwood"/"Bella Blackthorn," Jyl Kaneshiro (Alice Chan, 2016 POP Tour) as "Francesca Ramirez"/"@ShoppyGoddess", Shaun Tuazon as "Rez Darkwood"/"@PoshPrince," and Rachael VanWormer, an alumna of The Playhouse's Young Performers Summer Conservatory, as "Sara Lee Darkwood."
The creative team includes Wesley Middleton, playwright; Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, director; Sean Fanning, scenic designer; Desiree Hatfield-Buckley, costume designer; Melanie Chen, Sound Designer; Shirley Fishman, dramaturg; and Kendra Stockton, stage manager.
#SuperShinySara centers on Sara, an excellent storyteller and a pretty good older sister. Still, her life is nothing compared to the glamorous world of her idol, @ShoppyGoddess - a teenage fashion mogul and megastar on social media. Sara longs to escape into the fabulous online world of photos, fame and followers. But when a magical event transports her right into the social media feed itself, she discovers that having a super shiny life may not be so perfect after all. Exploring themes of authenticity, deceit, friendship and redemption, this imaginative new play reveals how empowering it can be to create your own story and take pride in who you are.
"For thirty amazing years, the POP Tour has taken timely ideas and topics that resonate with young minds and activates them in ways that are accessible and often ingenious. This year's POP Tour continues that great tradition by cleverly exploring the lessons to be learned when you rely on social media for a sense of identity and self-worth," said Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley.
Introduced in 1987, the POP Tour travels throughout the county, touring schools, libraries and community centers. The set, costumes and props are designed to fit into a 16-foot truck and, in just 60 minutes, can be unloaded, placed in any space and be ready for children to experience. Prior to each performance, a Playhouse teaching artist visits each school to engage students in an interactive workshop to explore issues and themes at the core of the play. The Playhouse also provides schools with a standards-based engagement guide that enables educators to integrate the play into their existing curriculum. After each performance, the cast and crew conduct a question and answer session with the audience.
La Jolla Playhouse offers the Adopt-A-School program which provides funding for POP Tour performances at schools that could not otherwise afford it. With the help of the theatre's Education Committee, Playhouse Board members Judy Smith and Barbara ZoBell created the Adopt-A-School program for those who love theatre and feel no child should be without its transformative power. For more information, contact Samantha Wilson at swilson@ljp.org.
Tickets ($9 for children 12 and under; $12 for adults) to the public performances on March 25 & 26 are now on sale at LaJollaPlayhouse.org. For more information about booking the POP Tour for a school performance, contact Paola Kubelis at pkubelis@ljp.org.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Wesley Middleton loves writing plays for young audiences. She first caught the bug over 20 years ago in a class taught by the incredible Theatre-for-Young Audiences (TYA) playwright Suzan Zeder. Her play Tomato Plant Girl was developed and premiered by Metro Theater Company with UT/Austin and Idaho Theater for Youth, and went on to be produced around the United States by companies including Childsplay (Tempe, AZ,) Geva Theatre (Rochester, NY), and Imagination Stage (Bethesda, MD). Her other TYA plays include Degas' Little Dancer, developed and produced by Zach Scott Theater's Project Interact and later by The Alliance (Atlanta, GA) and Unsorted, commissioned and produced by Metro Theater Company (St. Louis, MO). She has worked in many areas of theatre, as a teaching artist (ACT and Intiman Theatres, Seattle), festival director (Seattle Fringe Festival), and producing director (Ripe Time Theatre Company, NYC). In 2014, after receiving her MFA in Television Writing and Production at Long Island University Brooklyn, she moved to Los Angeles, where she continues to love writing plays for young audiences and looks forward to writing for television one day as well.
Delicia Turner Sonnenberg is the founding Artistic Director of MOXIE Theatre, where she has directed many acclaimed productions. Recently named Director of the Year by the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle, she has directed for San Diego Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Cygnet Theatre Company, Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company, New Village Arts, Diversionary Theatre, ion theatre company, and Playwrights Project. Her honors include Theatre Communications Group's New Generations Program fellowship, San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Awards, Patte Awards, a Women's International Center Living Legacy Award, Van Lier Fund fellowship (Second Stage Theatre), and the New York Drama League's Directors Project.
Amanda Arbues ("Maya Darkwood"/"Bella Blackthorn") was most recently seen as DiAna Morales in A Chorus Line. Regional: The Long Road Today/El Largo Camino De Hoy (South Coast Repertory), To The Quick (La Jolla Playhouse DNA New Work Series). Last year, her one-woman show, La Adelita Americana, premiered at Theatre Row on 42nd Street in New York City. Amanda has a B.F.A. from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and M.F.A. from Cal State Fullerton. www.amandaarbues.com
Jyl Kaneshiro ("Francesca Ramirez"/"@ShoppyGoddess") is thrilled to be back on the road with the POP Tour after having been in the cast of the 2016 POP Tour, Alice Chan. Last seen at Moxie Theatre in Peerless and brownsville song (b-side for tray). Some previous credits include Precious Little (Innermission Productions), El Henry (La Jolla Playhouse/San Diego REPertory), The Car Plays (La Jolla Playhouse/Moving Arts), Red Planet Respite and Derbywise (Circle Circle Dot Dot), Wait Until Dark (NCRT), Bronze (Sledgehammer), Golden Child (Chinese Pirate Productions), Fool for Love (Fritz Theatre), Tea (AART). Co-founder of the San Diego Asian American Repertory Theatre.
Shaun Tuazon ("Rez Darkwood"/"@PoshPrince") includes these in his memorable credits: West Side Story (Lamb's Players Theatre); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Intrepid Theatre Company); Rent (San Diego Musical Theatre); Zanna, Don't! (San Diego Premiere); Deconstruction of a Drag Queen (Craig Noel Award Nomination, Circle Circle dot dot); In the Heights (Cabrillo Music Theatre); as well as productions with New Village Arts, Diversionary Theatre, The Old Globe, Breakthrough Workshop Theatre, Circle Circle dot dot, ion theatre and San Diego Asian American Repertory Theatre. He holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from SDSU. www.ShaunTuazon.com
Rachael VanWormer ("Sara Lee Darkwood") is an actor, teaching artist, and playwright. As an actor she has worked with Cygnet Theatre, Lamb's Players Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, North Coast Repertory Theatre, Diversionary Theatre, ion Theatre, New Village Arts, Moxie Theatre and others. She teaches with Arts for Learning San Diego, North Coast Rep Theatre School and Playwrights Project. Workshops and festival productions of her original plays have been seen most recently at Cygnet Theatre as part of the Finish Line Commission, as well as at the Playwrights Project and the Fritz Theatre.
The Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is internationally-renowned for creating some of the most exciting and adventurous work in American theatre, through its new play development initiatives, its innovative Without Walls series, artist residencies and commissions. Currently led by Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg, The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and reborn in 1983 under the artistic leadership of Des McAnuff, La Jolla Playhouse has had 28 productions transfer to Broadway, garnering 35 Tony Awards, among them Jersey Boys, Memphis, The Who's Tommy, Big River, as well as Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays and the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, both fostered as part of The Playhouse's Page To Stage Program. Visit LaJollaPlayhouse.org.
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