Dynamic RED BIKE Directed By Jeffrey Lo Comes To Center REP This February

Center Repertory Company will present Obie Award-winning Cuban American author Caridad Svich's compelling play Red Bike, which examines a crumbling American dream and the economic-social-cultural divide through the eyes of an 11-year-old growing up in small-town America.

Trying to determine how to belong in a divided country, a child fixes his hopes on a red bike that encompasses all the possibilities the world might have to offer. Directed by acclaimed Bay Area director Jeffrey Lo, Red Bike presents a wildly imaginative, physical, and poetic performance of highly choreographed theatrical storytelling. Captivating audiences across the country in its National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, San Diego Story deemed the poignant piece "exhilarating! A physically, compelling ride," and BroadwayWorld called it "energetic and imaginative."

Red Bike will perform February 4-25, 2023 at the Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr, Walnut Creek. For tickets ($45-$70) and more information, the public may visit LesherArtsCenter.org or call the box office at (925) 943-7469 (open Wed-Sun, 12:00pm-6:00pm).

Center Repertory Company offers Pay What You Can tickets (suggested price of $25) for the February 4 & 5 preview performances of Red Bike, increasing access to theatre and inviting audiences to see the show at whatever price they can afford. ASL interpretation for deaf and hard of hearing patrons is offered at the 2:30 pm performance on February 19.

Bay Area theatre veterans Adrienne Kaori Walters and Amy Lizardo star in this production. Starring in Center REP's Spring Awakening, Adrienne Kaori Walters has also performed at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, San Francisco Playhouse, Hillbarn Theatre, Shotgun Players, Aurora Theatre Company, City Lights Theatre Company, TheatreFIRST, Bay Area Musicals, Los Altos Stage Company, Broadway By the Bay, and Foothill Music Theatre. Debuting at Center REP, Amy Lizardo has also appeared onstage at American Conservatory Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, California Shakespeare Theater, San Francisco Playhouse, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and Z Space.

Caridad Svich (Writer) received a 2012 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theatre, a 2012 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and National New Play Network rolling world premiere for Guapa, and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based on Isabel Allende's novel. She has won the National Latino Playwriting Award (sponsored by Arizona Theatre Company) twice, including in the year 2013 for her play Spark. She has been short-listed for the PEN Award in Drama four times, including in the year 2012 for her play Magnificent Waste. Her works in English and Spanish have been seen at venues across the US and abroad, among them Arena Stage's Kogod Cradle Series, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 59E59, The Women's Project, Woodshed Collective @ McCarren Park Pool, Repertorio Espanol, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Lighthouse Poole UK, Teatro Mori (Chile), Artheater-Cologne (Germany), Ilkhom Theater (Uzbekistan), Teatro Espressivo (Costa Rica), Welsh Fargo Stage (Wales), Homotopia Festival UK, SummerWorks festival in Toronto, and Edinburgh Fringe Festival/UK. Key works in her repertoire include 12 Ophelias, Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart, The Booth Variations, Alchemy of Desire/Dead-Man's Blues, Any Place But Here, Archipelago, The Way of Water and JARMAN (all this maddening beauty). She has also adapted for the stage novels by Mario Vargas Llosa, Julia Alvarez, and Jose Leon Sanchez, and has radically reconfigured works from Wedekind, Euripides, Sophocles, and Shakespeare. Her works are published by TCG, Smith & Kraus, Playscripts, Broadway Play Publishing and more. Three collections of her works for live performance are published as follows: JARMAN (all this maddening beauty) and other plays (Intellect UK, 2016); Instructions for Breathing and other plays (Seagull Books UK, 2014); Blasted Heavens (Eyecorner Press, Denmark, 2012). She sustains a parallel career as a theatrical translator, chiefly of the dramatic work of Federico Garcia Lorca as well as works by Calderon de la Barca, Lope De Vega, Julio Cortazar, Victor Rascon Banda, Antonio Buero Vallejo and contemporary works from Mexico, Cuba and Spain. She is alumna playwright of New Dramatists. She has received fellowships from Harvard/Radcliffe, National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group, PEW Charitable Trust, and California Arts Council. She teaches creative writing and playwriting at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Primary Stages' Einhorn School of Performing Arts. She has taught playwriting at Bard College, Barnard College, Bennington College, Denison University, Ohio State University, ScriptWorks, University of California San Diego, and Yale School of Drama.

Jeffrey Lo (Director) is a Filipino-American playwright and director. He is the recipient of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, the Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley and Theatre Bay Area Director's TITAN Award. His plays have been produced and workshopped at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The BindleStiff Studio, City Lights Theater Company, and Custom Made Theatre Company. Directing credits include Little Shop of Horrors, The Language Archive, and The Santaland Diaries at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley; Hold These Truths and The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin at San Francisco Playhouse; Vietgone and The Great Leap at Capital Stage; Peter and the Starcatcher and Noises Off at Hillbarn Theatre; The Crucible, Yellow Face, and The Grapes of Wrath at Los Altos Stage Company; Uncle Vanya at the Pear Theatre (BATCC award for Best Production); and A Doll's House, Part 2 and Eurydice at Palo Alto Players (TBA Awards finalist for Best Direction). Lo has also worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, San Jose Repertory Theatre, and is a company member of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company and San Francisco Playground. In addition to his work in theatre he works as an educator and advocate for issues of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and has served as a grant panelist for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Silicon Valley Creates, and Theatre Bay Area. He is the Casting Director/Literary Manager at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.

Recently designing Center REP's Clue, Kelly James Tighe's (Scenic Designer) Off-Broadway and national tour credits include Martin Luther on Trial, Shadowlands, The Most Reluctant Convert, The Great Divorce, The Fantasticks, Almost Heaven, Movin' Out, Shear Madness, and Cats. His regional theatre credits include work at Paper Mill Playhouse, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, Center Repertory Company, SlowBurn Theater, Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, Sacramento Theatre Company, Gateway Playhouse, Broadway By the Bay, Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Diablo Theatre Company, and Ray of Light Theatre. Tighe's theatrical work is published in the textbook Scene Design and Stage Lighting and his work as an illustrator has been published in Mooseltoe: A Moose and a Dream. Awards and recognitions include San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, DramaLogue, and Shellie Awards.

Becky Bodurtha (Costume Designer) is a professional costume designer who serves as the resident costume designer for Vermont Shakespeare Festival. Her other design credits include productions at Potrero Stage, Wilma Theater, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, Cherry Lane Theatre, The Tank NYC, Prospect Theatre Company. Internationally, she has worked with Repertory Philippines, Movement for Humanity, and Africa's Hope for the Ubumuntu Festival in Kigali, Rwanda. She has also served as an assistant costume designer on Broadway as well as on feature film. Alongside her professional design work, Bodurtha has been an educator with 15 years of experience in teaching collaborative design and theatre making.

Aaron Spivey's (Lighting and Projection Designer) designs have been seen at many regional theatres including Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Pioneer Theatre Company, Broadway By the Bay, Children's Theater of Charlotte, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Syracuse Stage, Contra Costa Musical Theater, Theatre Aspen, and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. His off-Broadway credits include work with Fellowship for Performing Arts, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, 45th Street Theatre, and Amas Musical Theatre. Spivey has also served as the associate/assistant designer on 30 Broadway productions including: Long Day's Journey into Night, Something Rotten!, Disney's Aladdin, Motown, The Coast of Utopia, Catch Me if You Can, The Merchant of Venice, 9 to 5, Tarzan, Little Women, Grease, A Chorus Line, Lend Me a Tenor, and Collected Stories. Spivey has continued as the associate designer for Disney's Aladdin since 2013, creating productions in Tokyo, Japan; Hamburg, Germany; Sydney, Australia; London, England; Mexico City, Mexico; as well as two US tours.

William Thomas Hodgson (Movement Director) is an actor, director, and educator, based out of Oakland, CA. He is co-artistic director of the Oakland Theater Project. Regional credits include work with Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, La Jolla Playhouse, Mixed Blood Theatr, Shotgun Players, Berkeley Playhouse, and Oakland Theater Project.

Alyssa Tryon (Props Designer) is a theatre artist, props designer and educator, who acts as Resident Properties Designer for Center Repertory Company. Some of her previous work includes Clue and Native Gardens (Center REP), The Santa Experience (Lesher Center), Big Fish (SCP), Broadway at Music Circus 2019 Season, We Are The Tigers (Off-Broadway Premiere), Lewiston/Clarkston (Off-Broadway Premiere).

Christopher Sauceda is a sound designer, composer, producer and creative in all areas of sound. Chris resides with home company, Campo Santo.

Scott Reardon (Stage Manager) is a Bay Area native and member of Actor's Equity Association. Bay Reardon's theatre credits include Beach Blanket Babylon, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Musical Theatre West, 5-Star Theatricals, Fresno Grande Opera, PCPA Theatrefest, Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre, Oregon Cabaret Theatre, Presidio Theatre, Disney Cruise Line, and Nickelodeon. He won Actor's Equity Association's Roger Sturtevant Award.

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