Photo Flash: Theatreworks Silicon Valley Presents NATIVE GARDENS

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley continues its 2018/19 season with Native Gardens, a cutting-edge suburban comedy from America's hottest new playwright and National Latino Playwriting Award winner, Karen Zacarías. When an up-and-coming Latino couple purchases a home in a sought-after neighborhood beside the prize-winning garden of a prominent Washington D.C. family, conflicts over fences and flora spiral into an uproarious clash of cultures, exposing both couples' notions of race, taste, class, and privilege. Directed by Amy Gonzalez (Sunset and Margaritas, Anna in the Tropics), Native Gardens will be presented August 22 - September 16, 2018 (press opening: August 25) at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View. For tickets ($40-$100) and more information the public may visit TheatreWorks.org or call (650) 463-1960.

Developed in The Old Globe's Powers New Voices Festival, Native Gardens received its world premiere in 2016 at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, starring Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba. Since its world premiere, Native Gardens has gone on to play in many of the nation's leading regional theatres including The Guthrie Theater, Arena Stage, Victory Gardens, The Old Globe, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and Trinity Repertory Company. Critics have hailed the comedy as "a fun and furious battle of the neighbors" (Denver Post), "Perceptive. Hopeful. A true breath of comic fresh air!" (DC Theatre Scene), and lauded its "sharp, witty writing, lots of laughs, a sense of currency and immediacy." (Minnesota Post)

Jackson Davis and Amy Resnick play Frank and Virginia Butley, a well-established D.C. couple with a prize-worthy Rose Garden. Davis returns to TheatreWorks where he has starred in many productions, most recently in 33 Variations. Recently seen in the world premiere of Lynne Kaufman's Two Minds at The Marsh San Francisco, Davis has also performed at American Conservatory Theater, Marin Theatre Company, San Francisco Playhouse, Pacific Repertory Theatre, Magic Theater, San Jose Repertory Theatre, San Jose Stage Company, and Z Space. Resnick returns to TheatreWorks, where she was last seen in Yellow Face. Appearing in the national tours for The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, Resnick has appeared on regional stages across the country, including Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, San Francisco Playhouse, Magic Theater, South Coast Repertory Theatre, Arizona Repertory Theatre, ALLIANCE THEATRE, and San Jose Repertory Theatre. She was also featured in Embassy Films' The Sure Thing, and Josh Kornbluth's films Love & Taxes and Haiku Tunnel, as well as in recurring and guest roles on CBS, NBC, ABC, Showtime, and 20th Century Fox.

Michael Evans Lopez and Marlene Martinez play the new neighbors-young Latinx couple Pablo and Tania Del Valle. Making his TheatreWorks debut, Evans Lopez has performed regionally with La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, Portland Center Stage, and New York Fringe, as well as acting in guest roles in Comedy Central's "Reno 911!," 20th Century Fox's "America's Most Wanted," and NBC's "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien." Making her TheatreWorks debut, Martinez has performed in the national tour of Mamma Mia!, and at regional theatres including South Coast Repertory Theatre and Arena Theatre.

Amy Gonzalez (Director) is returning to TheatreWorks to direct Native Gardens, where she previously helmed Sunset and Margaritas, Anna in the Tropics, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, The Legacy Codes, Psychopathia Sexualis, Moon Over Buffalo, Voir Dire, Broken Eggs, Our Lady of the Tortilla, and New Business. She has directed productions for the Denver Center Theatre Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, New Mexico Repertory Theatre, El Teatro Campesino, Teatro Visión, Eureka Theatre, and other companies. She's taught at Foothill College and Portland State University. Gonzalez is the recipient of an NEA/TCG Director Fellowship and holds an MFA in Directing from University of Washington in Seattle.

Karen Zacarías' (Playwright) award-winning plays include The Book Club Play, Just Like Us (adapted from the book by Helen Thorpe), Legacy of Light, Mariela in the Desert, the Helen Hayes Award-winning play The Sins of Sor Juana, the Edgerton New Play Award winner Destiny of Desire and the adaptation of Julia Alvarez's How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Her musical Chasing George Washington premiered at The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, followed by a national tour, and was then adapted into a book by Scholastic with a foreword by First Lady Michelle Obama. She is currently working on the adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence for Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among other commissions. Zacarías is a core founder of the Latino Theatre Commons, a national network that strives to update the American narrative to including the stories of Latinos.

With some 100,000 patrons per year, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has captured a national reputation for artistic innovation and integrity, often presenting Bay Area theatregoers with their first look at acclaimed musicals, comedies, and dramas, directed by award-winning local and guest directors, and performed by professional actors cast locally and from across the country.

Photo Credit: Kevin Berne