TheatreWorks Will Take on FUN HOME in October

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley continues its 2018/ 2019 season with Fun Home, the Tony Award-winning Best Musical. Based on the blazingly honest graphic novel of MacArthur Genius Award winner Alison Bechdel, Fun Home explores Alison's loving, yet dysfunctional upbringing. Alison, the protagonist, contends with her past and present as she relives her childhood at the family-owned funeral home. Her growing understanding of her own sexuality and her grappling with unanswerable questions about her father make for a surprising, poignant theatrical experience. Told with enormous emotion and sensitivity, Fun Home's haunting yet amusing score by Jeanine Tesori with lyrics and book by Lisa Kron illuminates one of the most original musicals of its time. Directed by TheatreWorks Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley, Fun Home will be presented October 3 - October 28 (press opening: October 6) 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.

Fun Home premiered off-Broadway in 2013 at The Public Theater, where it was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize and won the Lucille Lortel Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Obie Award, and New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for "Best Musical." Its transfer to Broadway garnered five Tony Awards including "Best Musical," and the cast recording was nominated for a Grammy Award. Since then, Fun Home has received widespread popularity both regionally and nationally, with critics calling the musical "a rare beauty, extraordinary and heart-gripping," (The New York Times)"pure magical satisfaction," (Washington Post) and "one of the freshest and most authentic musicals," (Mercury News).

TheatreWorks has assembled an exciting cast for this musical. Moira Stone (Alison), Erin Kommor (Medium Alison), and Lila Gold (Small Alison) make their TheatreWorks debuts as Alison, the protagonist, at different stages in her life. Winner of the New York Innovative Theatre Award, Stone has performed onstage in New York, including a workshop at New Dramatists with Tony nominee Rachel Chavkin. Stone reprises the role of Alison, which she performed at Vermont Stage. Kommor was recently seen in a recurring role on NBC's musical television series "Rise." She has performed at regional theatres including Goodspeed Opera House, where she was in a reading of Stephen Schwartz's Snapshots, as well as at Bay Street Theater and Baltimore Center Stage. Gold has performed in American Conservatory Theater's Junior Cabaret and with Hillbarn Theatre.

James Lloyd Reynolds makes his TheatreWorks debut as Bruce, Alison's father. Lloyd Reynolds has performed Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, 59E59, and PS 122, and at regional theatres including Goodspeed Opera House, Yale Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage and Berkshire Theater. He has been seen in Warner Brother's Catwoman, as well as in guest starring roles on FOX, CBS, NBC, HBO, USA, Bravo, and FX. Crissy Guerrero also makes her TheatreWorks debut as Helen, Alison's mother. Guerrero has acted at regional theatres including The Old Globe Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and South Coast Repertory, and starred in HBO's documentary Americanos: Latino Life in the United States. She has appeared as a guest artist on "The Ellen Degeneres Show" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," and her voice can be heard on NBC's "Parks & Recreation," Nickelodeon's "Spongebob Squarepants," and Disney's "Handy Manny."

Jack Barrett and Dylan Kento Curtis share the role of Christian, Alison's older brother. Kento Curtis returns to TheatreWorks after performing as Young Aaron in last season's world premiere of Stephen Schwartz's The Prince of Egypt, and he has also been seen at San Jose Dance Theatre and Starstruck Theatre. Barrett has performed with San Francisco Playhouse and Hillbarn Theatre.

Billy Hutton and Oliver Copaken Yellin share the role of John, Alison's younger brother. Making his TheatreWorks debut, Hutton has performed with Foothill Music Theatre, Children's Music Theatre of San Jose, and Palo Alto Players. Returning to TheatreWorks after performing as Young Aaron in The Prince of Egypt, Yellin studied dance with Alvin Ailey and Ballet San Jose, and has performed at Children's Music Theatre of San Jose. Hutton has performed with Foothill Music Theatre, Children's Music Theatre of San Jose, and Palo Alto Players. Yellin studied dance with Alvin Ailey and Ballet San Jose, and has performed at Children's Music Theatre of San Jose. Ruth Keith makes her TheatreWorks debut as a swing for Small Alison. Keith has been seen as Tiny Tim in American Conservatory Theater's Christmas Carol, and has performed with their Young Conservatory.

Returning to TheatreWorks after playing Yocheved in The Prince of Egypt, Ayelet Firstenberg plays Joan, Alison's college girlfriend. Firstenberg has performed Off-Broadway and at regional theatres including American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Theatre of Yugen, and Custom Made Theatre. Michael Doppe rounds out the cast in his TheatreWorks debut. Doppe has been seen at theatres throughout the Bay Area, including San Jose Stage, Center Repertory Company, New Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Playhouse, 42nd Street Moon, Foothill Music Theatre, and Theatre Rhinoceros.

Jeanine Tesori (Music) is the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history. Along with Fun Home, she has written four other Broadway musicals: Caroline, or Change, Violet, Shrek the Musical, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Tesori has received five Tony Award nominations, winning (with Lisa Kron) 2015 Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Original Score, the first female team to win that award. She has also won three Drama Desk Awards, an Obie, two New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical, and two Lucille Lortel Awards.

Lisa Kron's (Book & Lyrics) major works include 2.5 Minute Ride, Well, and Fun Home, for which she won Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical, and shared Best Original Score and Best Musical with Jeanine Tesori. While Fun Home was receiving its premiere run at New York's The Public Theater, Kron was appearing on stage in Good Person of Szechwan at the same theatre.

Robert Kelley (Director) is TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's Founder and Artistic Director and has served as artistic head of the company since its inception in 1970. He has directed more than 175 TheatreWorks productions, including many world and regional premieres. In 2003 he was honored with the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC) Paine Knickerbocker Award for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2016 was awarded the Jerry Friedman Lifetime Achievement Award from the SFBATCC. He received SFBATCC Awards for Outstanding Direction for his productions of Into the Woods, Pacific Overtures, Rags, Sweeney Todd, Another Midsummer Night, Sunday in the Park with George, Jane Eyre, and Caroline, or Change.

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