SHORT CUTS
DIRECTORS' SHORTS LINEUP
The Short Cuts director series: 5-6 directors working with one repertory cast and set pieces creatively string together their distinct styles through a series of short play experiences that challenge the theatrical form.
SHORT CUTS DATES
Thursday, February 1 at 7pm
Friday, February 2 at 8pm
Saturday, February 3 at 8pm
Sunday, February 4 at 2pm
HELL IS OTHER ACTORS by Ezra Reaves
"Hell is Other Actors" by Ezra Reaves is a darkly comedic play that opens with Richard arriving in what appears to be a 1940s theater, discovering that he is in Hell. As he interacts with a bellboy and later meets fellow damned souls Ashley and Kathleen, they realize they are trapped in a perpetual performance of Sartre's "No Exit." The play cleverly explores the dynamics between the characters and the absurdity of eternal theatricality, mixing humor with existential themes.
Ezra Reaves - Playwright & Director
Ezra Reaves (they/he) is a professional actor, comedian, experimental theater writer, director and performer, and ensemble member of the Neo-Futurists. They joined the cast of the GLAAD-nominated television show 4400 on the CW in the role of "Farraday". They've toured nationally and internationally with The Neo-Futurists, performed over 150 shows as the lead character in the immersive show The Speakeasy and performed locally at SF Playhouse, Shotgun, ACT, NCTC, and Magic Theater. In NYC they have performed at LaMama Experimental Theater and PS122. As a comedian, Ezra has opened for Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk, John Hodgman, Paul F. Tompkins and even shared the stage with Michael Ian Black at SF Sketchfest. Ezra Reaves and writing partner Amy Langer co-founded Tarot & Palm Theatre and wrote and produced a sold-out extended-run of the critically-acclaimed immersive show "The Program." NEXT UP: Ezra will be Directing and Co-Producing Compton's Cafeteria Riot, an epic new immersive theatrical experience based on the historic 1966 riot for Transgender Rights!
CENTER PIECE by Lana Richards
"Center Piece" is a play for three individuals set in a theater or construction site. The characters engage in intense manual labor, questioning the nature of existence through riddles and existential dialogue, ultimately culminating in a chaotic celebration of despair, joy, and purity as they destroy their creation and soil the floor.
Lana Richards - Playwright & Director
Lana Richards (she/her) is a director focused on new work development, site specific work, and adaptation. She likes big plays about small things, the tender awkwardness of growing up, and stories that connect people to place. She has been in residence at Montalvo Arts Center, The Dragon’s Egg, Access Theater, and The Eugene O’Neill Theater Centerand is an alumna of Connecticut College where she studied theater and environmental studies. Training: SITI Company, The Michael Chekhov Association, Bread and Puppet, Complicite, and the National Theater Institute for Advanced Directing. Recent credits: Alice in Wonderland (Stage Manager, We Players) at Golden Gate Park & Montalvo, Please Don't Slow Me Down at Potrero Stage, Tips for Nervous Fliers at Potrero Stage, My Girl (co-developer) at Dixon Place, Arabella at Planet Connections Theater Festivity, Ithaca at The Electric Lodge, and Eurydice (Sarah Ruhl) at Connecticut College.
WELCOME TO THE PARTY by Eteya Trinidad
"Welcome to the Party" is a lively and free-spirited play set in a modern-day house party. As the characters, including the Host, Lover, and Gardener, navigate the chaos, they discuss the significance of mundane objects, share personal perspectives on life, and celebrate the joy found in unexpected moments, culminating in a shared experience with a pomegranate.
Eteya Trinidad - Playwright
Eteya Trinidad (she/her) is a writer and artist living in Portland, OR by way of San Francisco, CA. She was a member of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 PlayGround Writers Pool, where she was featured in both annual Best of PlayGround Festivals. Her first year, she won the Peoples' Choice Award for her short play, "La Planchada", and was awarded the June Anne Baker Prize. Eteya was also recognized as a finalist for the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival with her full-length, La Sirena. Her next play, a rowdy romantic comedy called Lizard Women, will be produced by Awesome Theatre in San Francisco in Fall 2023.
Claire Ganem - Director
Claire Ganem (she/her) is thrilled to be returning to Cutting Ball Theater after assistant directing Free For All back in 2019. Since then, her directing work has been featured at Magic Theatre, Z Space, Pianofight, Left Coast Theatre Company, The Pear Theatre, 3Girls Theatre, Town Hall Theatre, and Playground, where she is a current company member and ambassador. In her spare time, Claire enjoys teaching her students at UC Santa Cruz and baking extravagant cakes for her loved ones.
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AY-YO, EOS! by Justin Lopez
"AY-YO, EOS!" is a modern and vibrant play that reinterprets Greek mythology, focusing on the tumultuous love affair between EOS, the goddess of dawn, and Tithonus, a young prince of Troy. When EOS seeks eternal love for Tithonus, the unintended consequences of immortality lead to a tragic and despairing outcome, exploring themes of love, mortality, and divine intervention
Justin Lopez - Playwright
Justin (he/him) is a mixed-race, queer, Indigenous, Latino, and Asian actor, singer, writer, and boba-milk-tea enthusiast. Justin is most passionate about new works and loves finding true connection and humanity in each script. As an actor, he is based wherever the good theatre is, and has worked with theater companies like Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Marin Shakespeare Company, Primary Stages, Ground Floor Theatre, Teatro Chelsea, and the African American Shakespeare Company. As a writer, Justin creates work from his unique intersectional identity to examine contemporary issues. His plays have been performed at theaters around the country, and have been recognized by the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Ashland New Plays Festival, and other organizations focused on new works.
Daniel J. Eslick - Director
Daniel J. Eslick (he/him) is a versatile artist and educator specializing in film and theatre, currently residing in the Bay Area but with roots in Honolulu. Holding dual Bachelor of Arts degrees from UC Santa Cruz in Theatre and Film Production, as well as Critical Studies, and a Master of Fine Arts from East 15 Acting School, Daniel has an extensive background in performing and directing for various theatres, including those in the Bay Area and West End Theatres like the Bridewell Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe. After a year-long hiatus, he is thrilled to return to creative work with Cutting Ball Theatre. Daniel aims to focus on directing in the Bay Area, exploring a renewed connection to the region and seeking meaningful expressions about the world through his art. He expresses gratitude to Cutting Ball, his sister Victoria, and Patrick Dooley for revitalizing his artistic career and encourages continued support for Bay Area new works.
SHARON THE GHOST LIGHT by Anya Richkind
"Sharon the Ghost Light" is a unique play set in the audience's imagination, where they enter a dark theater with a ghost light on stage. The voice of a deceased investor, Sharon, urges the audience to turn off the light to find peace. As Sharon's wife, Anna, shares their story and attempts to turn off the light, the play takes an unexpected turn, blending reality and imagination in a powerful and introspective exploration of love, loss, and the desire for release.
Anya Richkind - Playwright
Anya is an empathetic, emotional, rationalizing, introverted, extroverted mystery unto herself, compelled by the relationship between the lonely, the mundane, and the extreme. Playwriting honors include winning Brooklyn College's Creative Writing Award and Himan Brown Award for Creative Writing and being a two-time finalist for the O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference. Anya's work has been produced by the Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival, Brooklyn College, Guild Hall, Corkscrew Theater Festival, The Barrow Group Theatre, Yale College, The New School for Drama, The Tank, and The American Conservatory Theater's Young Conservatory. Anya graduated with a BA from Yale University and an MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College. www.anyarichkind.com
Jax Blaska - Director
Jax Blaska (they/them) is a San Francisco-born-and-raised creative maker dedicated to transformational theatrical experiences. They make and support art that celebrates process, curiosity, and the unconventional, and incorporates interdisciplinary performance, nonlinear storytelling, immersive exploration, ritual, spectacle, and a healthy dose of the absurd. As a director, new-work collaborator, creative producer, and/or arts administrator, past and present collaborations include: Cutting Ball Theater, EyeZen Presents, Detour Dance, and FACT/SF. They hold a BA with honors from Yale University, and can occasionally be found performing as Nasturtium! the drag alien.
LOST IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE by Diane Sampson
"Lost in the Middle of Somewhere" unfolds in a quiet suburban neighborhood, where Roger and Glenn, both casually dressed men with backpacks, grapple with a bizarre and seemingly unending loop of strange occurrences and conversations. Their interactions, shaped by Roger's verbose nature and Glenn's preference for precision, navigate a series of absurd situations, culminating in a realization that they may be perpetually stuck in an inexplicable cycle, questioning the nature of their reality and the possibility of escape.
Diane Sampson - Playwright
Diane Sampson has an MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She is an alumna of PlayGround, one of the Bay Area’s leading playwright incubators, having spent 10 years in its selectively chosen writers’ pool and another as one of its Resident Playwrights. Her full-length plays include Naked (a PlayGround commission, staged reading in PG’s 2010 Best of PlayGround Festival) and The Greater Good (finalist, Memphis’ Playhouse on the Square’s New Plays Competition, 2018.) She has also written the book and lyrics for five musicals, including Oh, Progeny! (two Bay Area productions and a showcase at New York’s York Theatre), The Tale of Sleeping Cutie (San Francisco production in 2014) and Unsung: The Marie Dressler Musical, to be showcased in January, 2024 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Her short plays have been performed in venues as far afield as Seattle, Miami and London. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
Charles Lewis III - Director
Charles Lewis III (he/him), born and bred in San Francisco, has a deep affection for the city's artistic and passionate spirit. Known for his roles as an activist, journalist, and artist, he frequently expresses his views on social injustices in publications like the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, and the San Francisco Examiner. Despite occasional controversy as the resident theatre critic for 48 Hills, he is also involved in performing and directing, with credits in films like The Diary of a Teenage Girl, TV spots for the SF Giants and Golden State Warriors, and national pro-choice campaigns. His stage work spans musicals to modern dramas at venues like Berkeley Rep, Cal Shakes, BATCO, and indie spaces like PianoFight and EXIT Theatre. Charles is delighted to collaborate with Cutting Ball again, where he originated a role in founder Rob Melrose's fantasy musical Ozma of OZ. For more insights into his journalism, activism, or cinematic tastes, visit his website, TheThinkingMansIdiot.wordpress.com.
SHORT CUTS ACTORS
JESSICA DIM
Jessica Dim (she/her) is new to the professional theatre world, and last seen in CBT's Rossum’s Universal Robots, which was her first professional theatre experience. She lives in San Francisco.
RIVER BERMUDEZ SANDERS
River (they/them) is a multi-disciplinary Bay Area theatre artist who has worked in many capacities at companies around the Bay Area including Ray of Light, Palo Alto Players, Children’s Fairy Land, the Oakland Theatre Project, SPARC, Townhall Theatre, NCTC, and Theatre Rhinoceros. Recent work includes Ray of Light’s Rocky Horror (Phantom), and Hillbarn Conservatory’s Head Over Heels (Choreographer). Other credits include the first ever staged reading of Justin P. Lopez’ The Re-Education of Fernando Morales (Townhall Theatre, Director), and SFBATCO’s New Roots Theatre Festival (Assistant Production Manager). They are currently a Producing Fellow with PlayGround, a teaching artist with Hillbarn Conservatory, and an active member of Latinx Mafia. They are the author of an award-winning thesis that explores the ways Latiné theatre artists advocate for equity in the theatre industry. They are deeply invested in creating theatre that openly challenges white supremacy culture in content and process. BFA in Musical Theatre from Emerson College.
MELANIE MARSHALL
Melanie Marshall (she/her) has been a member of the Bay Area theatre scene for ten years. She is a long-time company member of Killing My Lobster, where she is a TBA Award nominated actor, writer, choreographer, and teacher. She has worked around the Bay with all sorts of companies, including Shotgun Players, Quantum Dragon, The Breadbox, Pop Culture Immersives, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Playground, and Bay Area Children’s Theatre. She is also a drag king, known for her work in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, and Friends drag parody shows at Oasis. Before moving to the Bay, Melanie performed across California, London, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has occasionally done film work, but doesn't think it's as enjoyable as live theatre. She is thrilled to be making her Cutting Ball debut.
DOM REFUERZO
Dom Refuerzo (they/he) is a Filipinx-American, queer artist new to the Bay Area. They have premiered their music compositions in Austria and across the so-called United States. More locally, he has sung with New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Chorus and AfterGlow Chorus. Recent theatre credits include Trixie in Tiny Fires by Aimee Suzara (Custom Made Theatre Co/CounterPulse) and Mads in Lizard Women by Eteya Trinidad (Awesome Theatre). They are elated to make their Cutting Ball debut and continue bringing new work to life! After this, you can catch him grabbing his third boba of the day. Much love and thanks to their family, friends, and partner for supporting their artistic journey in all of its chaos. IG: @mirasoulx