NATIVE GARDENS to Tour to 4 Community Partner Venues

The Globe is happy to announce that the Globe for All Tour will continue to bring shows to the community in 2018, with support provided by Theatre Forward's Advancing Strong Theatre grant program. Following the Globe engagement of Karen Zacarías's hilarious comedy directed by Edward Torres, Native Gardens will travel June 28 through July 1 to four of our community partner venues for free performances in South Bay, Lemon Grove, Otay Mesa, and Oceanside. Developed in the 2017 Powers New Voices Festival, it runs through June 24 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and then hits the road!

Young power couple Pablo and Tania get their piece of the American dream when they purchase an upscale house in a historic neighborhood. But a disagreement with their next-door neighbors Virginia and Frank over the property line that separates their backyards soon spirals into an all-out war of taste, class, and gardening. The hedgerow becomes the site of a Culture Clash and friendly neighbors turn into flower-flinging enemies in this West Coast premiere.

The cast includes Kimberli Flores (Marvel/Netflix's "Daredevil," Pulse at Guthrie Theater) as Tania Del Valle, Eddie Martinez (member of Chicago's Teatro Vista, Fade Off Broadway) as Pablo Del Valle, Mark Pinter (Globe's Red Velvet, Macbeth, Othello, and more) as Frank Butley, and Shana Wride (Much Ado About Nothing, Faded Glory, 2.5 Minute Ride) as Virginia Butley, as well as local San Diego actors Jose Balistrieri (Gardener) and Alexander Guzman (Gardener).

The creative team includes Collette Pollard (Scenic Design), Jennifer Brawn Gittings (Costume Design), Mikhail Fiksel (Sound Design), Caparelliotis Casting (Casting), and Marie Jahelka (Production Stage Manager).

The Globe for All touring program, the Globe's cornerstone arts engagement initiative, was launched in 2014 by Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and has since brought free professional theatre twice a year to over 7,300 diverse, multigenerational people in communities throughout San Diego, offering workshops, community meals, and talkbacks. The Native Gardens Globe for All Tour performances will take place at Hilltop Middle School/South Bay Community Center on Thursday, June 28; at Lemon Grove Academy/Lemon Grove Branch Library/Lemon Grove Historical Society on Friday, June 29; at the Otay Mesa-Nestor Branch Library on Saturday, June 30; and at the Oceanside Public Library in their Civic Center Community Rooms on Sunday, July 1. Tour performances are by invitation only from the community partner organizations.

The Globe for All Tour of Native Gardens recently received Theatre Forward's Advancing Strong Theatre grant through a program initiative focused on funding and promoting greater access and opportunity in the American theatre. Theatre Forward is an association of institutional not-for-profit theatres located in 19 cities across the country devoted to advancing the American theatre and its communities. Advancing Strong Theatre seeks to accelerate change in the areas of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) by providing the resources for recipients to explore, initiate, or deepen collaborative relationships with those from a group currently underrepresented in the activities of the theatre as audience members or participants in other programs. With this support, the Globe is working with community partners in four neighborhoods with significant Latinx populations to provide free Globe for All Tours and additional arts engagement programs.

Through a highly competitive independent grant-making process, Theatre Forward awarded Dallas Theater Center, Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, The Old Globe, and Seattle Repertory Theatre grants of $50,000 each for artistic projects that advance each theatre's holistic plans for achieving equity, diversity, and inclusion. Recipients were chosen from among the 19 eligible Theatre Forward member theatres. Advancing Strong Theatre aims to launch or strengthen new models and practices to address critical EDI issues.

The Globe's EDI/Latinx initiative will expand its reach and deepen connections throughout San Diego County. Currently, 33 percent of County residents are Latinx, but this population generally comprises only 7 percent of the Globe's audiences. This outreach begins with Native Gardens, followed by tours of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in November 2018 and a fall 2019 Shakespeare tour. A rich array of free arts engagement programs will also be offered, including Behind the Curtain (workshops that provide a hands-on introduction to the technical side of theatre); Community Voices (beginners' playwriting workshops), coLAB (community-based theatre projects created by residents and artists), Breaking Bread (community dinners), and other activities.

"It's a special pleasure for the Globe to bring this funny and smart play to San Diego audiences," said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. "Native Gardens is being produced in theatres nationwide, and the reasons are clear. It's a play that's about the special character of American cities, where people from many backgrounds live cheek-by-jowl and come together to make urban cultures that are rich, diverse, and highly energetic. Karen Zacarías finds hilarity in, of all things, a property dispute, and she shows us in warm and witty terms how good neighbors can overcome just about any difference. Eddie Torres and his ace cast are going to deliver a memorable night of theatre to Balboa Park as well as to our neighbors around the county."

Native Gardens at the Globe is supported in part through a gift from Production Sponsor Elaine Lipinsky Family Foundation. Financial support is provided by The City of San Diego.

The Native Gardens Globe for All Tour is supported by The City of Chula Vista Performing and Visual Arts Grant, The Ann Davies Fund for Teaching Artists, and Theatre Forward.

The Tony Award-winning Old Globe is one of the country's leading professional regional theatres and has stood as San Diego's flagship arts institution for over 80 years. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 15 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages: the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the 600-seat Old Globe Theatre and the 250-seat Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, both part of The Old Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and the 605-seat outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, home of its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people attend Globe productions annually and participate in the theatre's artistic and arts engagement programs. Numerous world premieres such as the 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Meteor Shower, Bright Star, Allegiance, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and the annual holiday musical Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.

Thursday, June 28; dinner starts at 5:15 p.m., performance starts at 6:15 p.m.

Hilltop Middle School; South Bay Community Center

44 East J Street, Chula Vista, 91910

· Hilltop Middle School is a two-year middle school serving grades 7 and 8. Hilltop was opened in 1959 and became a middle school in September 1993. Named a California Distinguished School in 2001, Hilltop now serves over 1,000 students in a variety of programs including ELD classes for english learners, the foreign language and global studies magnet, health for adolescents, technology lab, an orchestra program, AVID, an extensive special education program, Accelerated Reader four days a week, credit recovery offerings, the Academic Enrichment Center (AEC) for mandatory homework, and many electives. Staff supports student mastery of both academic standards and life skills, which promote good decision-making, social skills, healthy choices, and responsibility. Students in the Sweetwater Union High School District are expected to master state and district standards, which will prepare them to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Friday, June 29; dinner starts at 5:15 p.m., performance starts at 6:15 p.m.

Lemon Grove Academy/Lemon Grove Branch Library/Lemon Grove Historical Society

3171 School Lane, Lemon Grove, 91945

· Lemon Grove Library is a branch of the San Diego County Library system and, as such, is committed to enriching the lives of the people of Lemon Grove. Its mission is to inform, educate, inspire, and entertain.

· The mantra of Lemon Grove Academy (LGA) is "Keeping It RE2AL," which stands for "Relationships, Expectations for Excellence, and Accelerate Learning." LGA's mission is to help young adolescents explore the questions "Who am I?" "What do I aspire to be?" and "What is the path to achieve these goals?" It enables students to become aware of both the real-world applications of their learning and the ability to positively contribute to society.

· The Lemon Grove Historical Society is located at the H. Lee House, a city-owned historic site maintained and operated by the Lemon Grove Historical Society. The Society preserves and shares the history of Lemon Grove within the context of regional, state, and national history; fosters interest in historical studies and the arts and humanities; and manages programs and buildings that advance this mission. It is governed by a seven-member board and is the leading cultural institution in Lemon Grove. The Society operates the Parsonage Museum and the H. Lee House Cultural Center, both in beautiful Civic Center Park in midtown Lemon Grove. The not-for-profit Society offers a paid membership; distributes a quarterly newsletter; presents free public history lectures from September to June; and offers chamber music, jazz, plays, art exhibits, and more.

Saturday, June 30; lunch starts at 12:00 noon, performance starts at 1:00 p.m.

San Diego Public Library - Otay Mesa-Nestor Branch

3003 Coronado Avenue, San Diego, 92154

· The new Otay Mesa-Nestor Branch Library extends the mission of the facility beyond that of merely a home for books. It embraces the notion of a place, which is an important resource and anchor for the community. The new entrance brings visitors off the street and down into the library and aligns its axis with a new outdoor courtyard. The courtyard-which is visible from the existing library, its new addition, and the street-is both an extension of the interior space for community events and a quiet place for reflection and reading. The new 5,000-square-foot addition houses the community meeting and media rooms. It has a place of prominence at the corner of the site, where a 20-foot-tall structural glass wall gives a glimpse of the main community room to the public from the street. The use of teak hardwood and stone floors, coupled with the scale of the room, further reinforces the building as an anchor for the neighborhood.

Sunday, July 1; lunch starts at 12:00 noon, performance starts at 1:00 p.m.

Oceanside Public Library, Civic Center Community Rooms

· 330 North Coast Highway, Oceanside, 92054

· The Oceanside Public Library is the cultural heart of Oceanside, empowering the community by promoting literacy, information access, civic engagement, cultural inclusiveness, and openness to new ideas. The mission of the Oceanside Public Library is to engage, inform, connect, and inspire. The Library recently collaborated with the Globe on The Big Read-a National Endowment for the Arts grant program where an entire community comes together around one book. The book chosen, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, begins with a troupe of actors performing Shakespeare in post-apocalyptic America. The Globe created a Bard Basics curriculum for Traveling Symphony workshops at four Oceanside locations, culminating at the Annual Oceanside Days of Art, which featured sonnet karaoke on one of their stages. This helped build and deepen authentic relationships in Oceanside, resulting in the Globe's returning to the Oceanside Library for future tours.

Tour performances are by invitation only from the community partner organizations.

CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES

Jose Balistrieri (Gardener) is excited to fulfill his dream of performing at The Old Globe. He received his bachelor of fine arts from University of California, Santa Cruz. His credits include Anibal de la Luna in Cloud Tectonics (New Village Arts), Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost and Jerry Goss in Bug (UCSC), and Ned Weeks in The Normal Heart and Leonardo in Blood Wedding (MiraCosta College).

Kimberli Flores (Tania Del Valle) is excited to be making her Old Globe debut. Her television and film credits include season 3 of Marvel/Netflix's "Daredevil," NBC's "Chicago P.D.," and Shine directed by Anthony Nardolillo (fall 2018). Her theatre credits include Pulse directed by Marcela Lorca (Guthrie Theater), Uncle Vanya directed by Kate Burton, Pericles directed by Rob Clare, The Time of Your Life directed by Andrew Borba, and The Servant of Two Masters directed by Andrew Robinson (USC). She received her M.F.A. from USC, class of 2015.

Alexander Guzman (Gardener) is pleased to be making his Old Globe debut. A native San Diego actor, he recently appeared in Bachelorette with Backyard Renaissance Theatre Company. His favorite acting credits include Homos, or Everyone in America (Diversionary Theatre), Awake and Sing (New Village Arts), The Normal Heart and Lydia (ion theatre company), La Posada Magica (Hispanic Arts Theatre), The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (Scripps Ranch Theatre), Seminar and The Taming of the Shrew (InnerMission Productions), The Lion in Winter (Moonlight Stage Productions), Enron (MOXIE Theatre), and Angels in America Parts I and II (Palomar College). alexanderxguzman.com.

Eddie Martinez (Pablo Del Valle) is an ensemble member of Chicago's Teatro Vista, where he has been seen in Parachute Men, Fade, and In the Time of the Butterflies, among others. His other select credits include Fade (Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company, Cherry Lane Theatre, and TheaterWorks), As You Like It (Denver Center), Big Lake Big City and Cascabel (Lookingglass Theatre Company), Our Lady of 121st Street (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), and Romeo y Julieta (Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Mr. Martinez's television and film credits include "Sense8" (Netflix), "Sirens" (USA Network), "Chicago Fire" (NBC), and The Dilemma (Universal Pictures).

Mark Pinter (Frank Butley) is thrilled to return to The Old Globe, where he was last seen in Red Velvet in 2017, Macbeth in 2016, Othello and The Two Gentlemen of Verona in 2014, and Hamlet and Charley's Aunt in 1977. His Off Broadway credits include the 2015 revival of Rothschild & Sons (York Theatre Company), My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon (Hypothetical Theatre Company), and Three on the Couch (Soho Rep.). Regionally he has been seen in Book of Days (Arena Stage), Clybourne Park, Manifest Destinitis, and Richard Montoya's Federal Jazz Project (San Diego Repertory Theatre), The Price (Northern Stage), The Sound of Music (Syracuse Stage), West Side Story (Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera),Victor/Victoria (North Shore Music Theatre), Equus (Arizona Theatre Company), The Lion in Winter and Melinda Lopez's Becoming Cuba (North Coast Repertory Theatre), and Anna Ziegler's Another Way Home (Magic Theatre). His television credits include "Reverie," "Grace and Frankie," "Mad Men," "NCIS: Los Angeles," "Cold Case," "Law & Order," "All My Children," and "Another World." Mr. Pinter narrated The Driver Is Red, the critically acclaimed animated documentary short that played the Sundance Film Festival and is now enjoying success on the festival circuit. His other films include Other People's Money, Vanilla Sky, The Eden Myth, Season of Youth, and Play. He received his M.F.A. from Hilberry Theatre/Wayne State University. Proud member, AEA. markpinter.net, @markiepinter on Twitter.

Shana Wride (Virginia Butley) recently won the 2017 San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award for her solo performance in 2.5 Minute Ride at Diversionary Theatre. Her credits include work as a theatre actor and director for Diversionary Theatre, Cygnet Theatre Company, North Coast Repertory Theatre, Intrepid Theatre Company, MOXIE Theatre, Compass Theatre, The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, The Colony Theatre Company, Open Fist Theatre Company, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Gaslamp Quarter Theatre, and Sledgehammer Theatre. In Los Angeles, she co-hosted the nationally syndicated radio show "Women Aloud" with actor/comedienne Mo Gaffney.

Karen Zacarías (Playwright) was recently hailed by American Theatre magazine as one of the most produced playwrights in the U.S. Her musical comedy Destiny of Desire is currently playing at Oregon Shakespeare Festival after runs at Goodman Theatre and South Coast Repertory. Her play Native Gardens is slated for more than 15 productions, including Guthrie Theater, Arena Stage, Trinity Repertory Company, South Coast Repertory, Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company, Florida Studio Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Intiman Theatre, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Geva Theatre Center, Syracuse Stage, and others. She is proud to be Arena Stage's first resident playwright. Her other plays include Mariela in the Desert, Legacy of Light, The Book Club Play, The Sins of Sor Juana, and the adaptations of Just Like Us, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, Into the Beautiful North, OLIVÉRio: A Brazilian Twist, and Ella Enchanted the Musical, plus many more. She collaborated on the libretto for Sleepy Hollow and Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises for The Washington Ballet at The Kennedy Center, and she has written 10 theatre-for-young-audience musicals with composer Deborah Wicks La Puma. Her plays have been produced at The Kennedy Center, Goodman Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Guthrie Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Round House Theatre, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Center, Dallas Theater Center, and many more. Ms. Zacarías is a core founder of the Latinx Theatre Commons, a national network that strives to update the American narrative to including the stories of Latinos. She is the founder of Young Playwrights' Theater, an award-winning theatre company that teaches playwriting in local public schools in Washington, DC. She lives in DC with her husband and three children.

Edward Torres (Director) returns to The Old Globe after directing the critically acclaimed California premiere of Water by the Spoonful as well as the 2017 Powers New Voices Festival reading of What You Are. Most recently he directed the California premiere of The Happiest Song Plays Last (Center Theatre Group/The Los Angeles Theatre Center, also at Goodman Theatre in Chicago), Eric Aviles's Where You From? What You Be About? (Downtown Art), the world premiere musical La Canción (Repertorio Español; Latin ACE Award for Best Musical, Artistas de Teatro Independiente Award for Best Director), Macbeth (The Public Theater's Mobile Shakespeare Unit), Mosque Alert (Silk Road Rising), White Tie Ball by Martín Zimmerman (Teatro Vista), and How Long Will I Cry?: Voices of Youth Violence (Steppenwolf for Young Adults). He directed the world premiere of Kristoffer Diaz's The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Victory Gardens Theater, produced in association with Teatro Vista), which was named Best Play of 2009 by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and Time Out Chicago; was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and earned Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best Production - Play and Best Director - Play. He also directed subsequent productions to critical acclaim at Off Broadway's Second Stage (2011 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, Obie Award for Best New American Play) and at Geffen Playhouse. He serves as an Assistant Professor of the Practice in Theater at Wesleyan University, and Artistic Director Emeritus at Teatro Vista. As an actor you can see him this fall in Downstate by Bruce Norris in a co-production with Steppenwolf Theatre Company and London's National Theatre.

Collette Pollard (Scenic Design) is thrilled to make her debut at The Old Globe with Native Gardens. Her regional credits include Sense and Sensibility, Hannah and the Dread Gazebo, and Great Expectations (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), How I Learned to Drive (Cleveland Play House, Syracuse Stage), Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Santa Cruz Shakespeare), The Oldest Boy (Marin Theatre Company), and Geller Girls, Good People, and The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (ALLIANCE THEATRE). Her Chicago credits include The Wolves, The Happiest Song Plays Last, Fish Men, and Stoop Stories (Goodman Theatre), 42nd Street (Drury Lane Theatre), Hir, The Fundamentals, Between Riverside and Crazy, Head of Passes, 1984, and To Kill a Mockingbird (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Chicago Voices (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Thaddeus and Slocum and In the Garden (Lookingglass Theatre Company), and Smart People, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Hunter and The Bear, and Arcadia (Writers Theatre). Ms. Pollard is a company member at The House Theatre of Chicago, where she has designed 20-plus productions, including Death and Harry Houdini, The Nutcracker, The Hammer Trinity, Rose and the Rime, and The Sparrow, all of which were remounted at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami. She is an Artistic Associate at TimeLine Theatre Company. Ms. Pollard is the recipient of several Joseph Jefferson Awards, and she has joined the faculty of University of Illinois at Chicago as an Associate Professor of Design at the School of Theatre and Music.

Jennifer Brawn Gittings (Costume Design) is delighted to be back at The Old Globe, having previously designed Skeleton Crew and Knowing Cairo. Her selected local credits include The Grift and El Henry (La Jolla Playhouse), Evita, Into the Beautiful North, Manifest Destinitis, The Oldest Boy, Venus in Fur, Clybourne Park, The Who's Tommy, In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), The Threepenny Opera, Don Quixote, and Intimate Apparel (San Diego Repertory Theatre), and The Legend of Georgia McBride, Animal Crackers, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show, and Dirty Blonde (Cygnet Theatre Company). Her other San Diego credits include designs for North Coast Repertory Theatre, New Village Arts, Diversionary Theatre, ion theatre company, and MOXIE Theatre. Regionally, Ms. Gittings has designed for A Noise Within, Crossroads Theatre Company, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and The Western Stage, among others. Her accolades include four Craig Noel Awards, the 2015 FringeNYC Award for Overall Excellence in Costume Design, a Patté Award, and the NAACP Theatre Award. In 2014, her work was selected to appear in the traveling curated museum exhibit Bewitching. In addition to her theatrical work, Ms. Gittings teaches fashion illustration at San Diego Art Institute and creates custom costumes and couture for private clients, themed events, parties, and red-carpet galas through her company LEO DUO. She holds an M.F.A. from Rutgers University and a B.A. from UCLA. icostumedesign.com, leoduo.com.

Mikhail Fiksel (Sound Design) is delighted to be back at The Old Globe, where he previously designed The Old Man and The Old Moon and Water by the Spoonful. Based in New York City and Chicago, his other recent work includes projects with PigPen Theatre Co., Writers Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Goodman Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Playwrights Horizons, Brooklyn Academy Of Music, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Pearl Theatre Company, The Play Company, Victory Gardens Theater, Albany Park Theater Project, American Conservatory Theater, Dallas Theater Center, The Flea Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, and Second Stage Theatre. He has designed internationally for TukkersConnexion (Arnhem, Holland), International Festival of Londrina (Londrina, Brazil), and Festival d'Automne (Paris, France). His recent film composition credits include Glitch, The Wise Kids, and In Memoriam. He has received multiple Lucille Lortel and Joseph Jefferson Awards and was honored with the Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award. He is a proud member of the Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association. mikhailfiksel.com.

Marie Jahelka (Production Stage Manager) previously worked on The Old Globe's The Wanderers, Powers New Voices Festival (2016-2018), Red Velvet, Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Somewhere, The Last Romance, The Whipping Man, Romeo y Julieta, Back Back Back, Opus, The American Plan, In This Corner, and Oscar and the Pink Lady. Her regional credits include Hollywood, Ether Dome, Miss You Like Hell, and The Tall Girls (La Jolla Playhouse), Evita and Violet (San Diego Repertory Theatre), Dogfight, My Fair Lady, True West, Fool for Love, Spring Awakening, Company, Shakespeare's R&J, Assassins, Mistakes Were Made, Parade, Cabaret, and Love Song (Cygnet Theatre Company), The Full Monty (San Diego Musical Theatre), miXtape (Lamb's Players Theatre), The Amish Project (Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company), and This Wonderful Life (North Coast Repertory Theatre). She received her B.A. in Theatre Arts from University of San Diego.

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