Cast and Production Team - February 2009 Workshop
Cast
Linda Piccone (Emma), is happy to be working with such a talented and creative group. Linda has appeared in many South Bay theaters. Most recently, she was seen as Jack's mother in Into the Woods at Broadway by the Bay. She's performed with TheatreWorks, Foothill Music Theatre, Busbarn Stage Company, Palo Alto Players and Saratoga Drama Group.
* Michael Bond (Cy) has performed at regional theatres in the US and Canada. His credits go back to the late ’60s and include You Can’t Take It With You and Threepenny Opera in Chicago at the Goodman Theatre. He then appeared for 6 seasons at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada in over 15 productions including, Hamlet (Claudius), Macbeth (Porter) and The Three Sisters (Tusenbach). He worked for the several decades in LA doing TV, film and on stage, most notably playing Caliban in The Tempest with Anthony Hopkins at the Mark Taper Forum. The list goes on and on and happily includes working with this talented group of theatre people in Fountain of Youth. He is eco-friendly but drives in from Pacific Grove.
Giana Marie DeGeiso (Meghan) is pleased to be working with this company as well as Michael and R.C. Staab for the first time. Giana's San Francisco credits are: A New Brain with Custom Made Theatre and Ben Franklin in Paris with 42nd Street Moon and is excited to begin High Spirits with 42nd Street in March. Some other credits include Shelly in Bat Boy: The Musical and Lil in Last Summer at Bluefish Cove. She would like to thank her family for their undying love and support.
Isaac Benelli (Tristan) is a Bay Area local. He studied jazz voice and music at De Anza College and then Classical voice for three years at San Francisco State. In the last year he performed at AMTSJ (Beauty and the Beast) and City Lights Theater Company (Rapunzel). His favorite role performed to date has been Tony in West Side Story. He would like to thank, with all his heart, his wife Sarah and his son Julian. Without their support none of what he has accomplished would be possible.
*Danielle Thys (Ethelbert) is very pleased to be working again with director Mike Ward. She received critical acclaim in Scotland at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as producer/actor in a reprisal of her roles (Carson McCullers, Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion) for the SF Fringe Festival “Best Of” winner “The Way Light Strikes”. As a producer, writer & lead in the film “Open House”, Ms. Thys’ production company Pixotic, won Best Comedy at the National Film Challenge. Theatre credits include: Lane in Sarah Ruhl’s, “The Clean House” Cinnabar Theatre; Sharon in Octavio Solis’ “Gibraltar”, Thick House/San Jose Stage; “; Woman 2 “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” Nederlander SF Company; Bertha in Tennessee Williams’ “Fugitive Kind” MTC & Center Rep; and She in Albee’s “Counting the Ways”, directed by Mike Ward and winner of a Sold Out award at the SF Fringe. Ms. Thys is also a retro soul/funk vocalist and songwriter with her band Wicked Mercies and jazz singer with Randy Craig Ensemble. More information can be found on www.dthys.com
Sarah Aili (Young Emma) is delighted to work with this talented crew of folks in Fountain of Youth. Ms. Aili has appeared on stages around the Bay Area including Foothill Summer Theatre in The Pajama Game (Babe Williams), Broadway By the Bay in Little Shop of Horrors (Audrey) and has worked with TheatreWorks in Saint X, GreyGardens, and Merrily We Roll Along and with The Berkeley Repertoire Theatre in The Arabian Nights, Argonautika, and To the Lighthouse. She earned her B.F.A. with San Francisco State University and has trained with the San Francisco Academy for the Performing Arts, American Conservatory Theatre, Mills College, American Musical Theatre Art Institute and CalArts. www.sarahaili.com
Edward Hightower (Young Cy) is thrilled to be working with this splendid group of people. A sample platter of his local theatrical work: Custom Made Theatre’s Assassins (Booth), CTA/Crossroads’ She Loves Me (Kodaly), 42nd Street Moon’s It’s … Superman! (Max Mencken), Solano College Theatre ( Freddy/Philip, Noises Off; Frog, A Year With Frog & Toad), TheatreWorks, Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Edward’s regional credits include PCPA (Carl-Magnus, A Little Night Music; Bill Sykes, Oliver!)and Idaho Falls Arts Centre (Fagin, Oliver!). On film, Edward can be seen in An Uncommon Affair at Tooting Bec Common, Nashtastic, The Garden Perfect and The Couple ( http://watch.lumeralis.com/couple/) Edward traded his soul for a B.F.A. from The Boston Conservatory.
Mary Gibboney (Marie) works as a stage and commercial actress in Northern California. She most recently performed as Mrs. Murphy in Madeline’s Christmas produced by the California Theatre Center. Other recent credits include Hannah Ferguson in Palo Alto Player’s, Spitfire Grill, Mrs. Meers in Broadway By The Bay’s Thoroughly Modern Millie, Frauline Schneider with Berkeley’s Shotgun Players’ production of Cabaret, Margarethe in Town Hall Theatre’s Copenhagen and Juanita in Come Back To the Five and Dime… at the California Conservatory Theatre. She has also performed and directed in many other productions in San Jose, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, and San Francisco. She has worked off and on with the California Theatre Center for over 20 years.
Production Team
Mike Ward (Director) is a member of the Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers and he is an Alumnus of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and the Directors Lab West at Pasadena Playhouse. Mike’s credits include The End (which he created with Tony-winner George Furth): This is Not My Life (New Voices West/Magic Theatre and O’Neill Foundation); Blood Mirage/Revelations (O’Neill Foundation, w/Karen Grassle) Three Tall Women (Critics Circle Nomination); Counting the Ways (“Sold Out” Award, San Francisco Fringe Festival; “First Pick” by SF Bay Times); Wit; Ode to the Cupcake (Killing My Lobster); Albee’s Women (AD, Old Globe Theatre, working w/Edward Albee); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Audience Casting Director, Post Street Theatre); Blessing Her Heart (Fringe Marin, Critics Circle Festival Award, Best Direction); and 11 productions with TheatreWorks, most recently as Associate Director for Stephen Schwartz’ Snapshots and the regional theatre premiere of Grey Gardens. Mike assisted Elaine May on Moving Right Along (w/Marlo Thomas) at Magic Theatre, where he was an Artistic Associate. Thanks to Michael Sudol and Daniel Vojir.
Michael O'Dell, (Music Director/ Pianist/ Arranger), is a former Berklee College of Music student (jazz studies) and a graduate of Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music in Cleveland (Bachelor of Music Degree in composition). Michael has music directed, accompanied, arranged, conducted, and composed for a plethora of shows (musicals and cabarets) in the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Tampa areas. Among his favorites gigs: Ragtime, Sweeney Todd, On The Town, A Little Night Music, A New Brain, and Last Call (the new George Furth/Doug Katsaros musical) and the west coast premiere of Meshuggah-Nuns with Director/ Writer/ Composer Danny Goggin.
This past fall had the premiere of Michael and Christopher Bell's 10-minute musical comedy, An American Musical, at Center Stage NYC. www.blankcanvasmusic.com
* JP Hitesman (Stage Manager) is delighted to be involved with Fountain of Youth. JP recently joined the Bay Area theatre world following a stint in the Central Coast region of California. He has previously stage managed at Thick Description in San Francisco, PCPA Theaterfest in Santa Maria & Solvang, CA, at off-West End theatres in London, England, and at several theatres in his home state of Massachusetts. Other favorite theatrical pursuits include directing, writing, and sound design. When he's not at the theatre, you can find JP enjoying the outdoors or plotting his next travel adventure. JP holds a B.A. in theatre from Hampshire College, and is a proud member of Theatre Bay Area and Actors' Equity Association.
Caela Fujii, Production Designer, Fuji, Production Designer, has worked throughout the Bay Area as a designer and stage manager for various companies such as San Jose Stage Company, TeatroVision, Center Repertory Company, Magic Theatre, and TheatreWorks, where she spent three seasons as Properties Master. Caela holds degrees in Theatre and Cinema from the University of Southern California and currently serves as the Resident Costume Designer for The Harker School in San Jose.
Rover Spots, Lighting Designer, has been working actively in the San Francisco Bay Area theater community. During the last handful of years, he has worked on Bound + Gagged for Rumpus in the San Francisco Fringe Festival, Stage Frights with Hardcore Thrush Productions, Broadway With a Twist: A Tale of Love and Lust and Broadway with a Twist II: The Concert. He is currently the Technical Director for EastEnder's Repertory Company and has worked with them on their productions of Frozen, 100 Years of Queer Theatre and their upcoming festival of original works Pride Open. His most recent design was the lighting for 42nd Street Moon's Ben Franklin in Paris.
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