Premiere Production Photos

Thick House

San Francisco, October, 2011

Cast Members: Nick Allen, Bear Capron, Rogelio Landaverde, Paz Pardo, Claire Slattery, Michael Storm*, Juliet Strong, Maryssa Wanlass  (*AEA)

Photos by Lance Huntley

Stieglitz views O'Keeffe's drawings
Stieglitz views O'Keeffe's drawings
Stieglitz views O'Keeffe's drawings
Georgia arrives in Texas
Georgia and Ted Reid in Texas
Georgia photographed by Stieglitz at 291
The President's Wife and Dean's Wife interrogate Ted Reid
Georgia and Stieglitz reunited





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Kristin Walter (Director/Jane Eddy)

Having spent much of her professional life directing and working with youth, Kristin Walter is thrilled to be working with such an amazing groups of adults. A graduate of Santa Clara University, she co-founded Spirit Productions, for which she directed, musical directed and choreographed after-school plays for Bay Area elementary, middle and high schools. She toured the country for a year with the Missoula Children’s Theatre, directing 50-60 children each week in a production of Pinocchio, and both directed and taught for the California Theatre Center Summer Conservatory Program. A produced playwright, Kristin’s adaptations of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant and Mark Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County ran to sold-out houses at Off-Off Broadway’s Vital Theatre Company. As an actress, Kristin performed with the Bay Players, South Hills Players,Missoula Children’s Theatre, California Theatre Center, and as one fourth of the Bits and Pieces Cabaret which toured Montana and Idaho. She currently works as the Education Director of Peninsula Youth Theatre, where she runs the School of Performing Arts, the Outreach Program and the Stories on Stage Program, and for which she has directed over 30 shows, including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Once On This Island, and Schoolhouse Rock Live!. She would like to thank Sharmon and Joan for trusting her with this beautiful show and Chris and Max for their never-ending inspiration.

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Michael Temlin

Michael's Bay Area credits include the Padre in Man of La Mancha atPacific Alliance Stage Company, Cornelius in Hello, Dolly! (Dean Goodman Choice award) and Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum for the Mountain Play, Marvin/Sydney/Stu inCalifornia Suite at the California Conservatory Theater, Big River atAmerican Musical Theater of San Jose, Sweet Adeline and Dearest Enemy with 42nd Street Moon, Morris Bobrow's hit revue Party of One in San Francisco and on tour throughout California,Tea and Crumpets at the 450 Geary Studio, City of Angels (Shellie Award) andCandide with Diablo Light Opera Company, Once Upon a Mattress(where he played the wicked queen Aggravaine!) at San Francisco'sCalifornia Club, and numerous industrial musical revues. Michael also created the role of God for the off-off-Broadway premiere of The Perfect Daydream, an original musical comedy. Los Angeles audiences saw Michael in Promenade (LAVC Best Actor award), The Fantasticks, Equus, My Fair Lady and Camelot. He holds a degree in theater from Lehigh University, studies voice with Meg Mackay, moonlights as a technical writer, and is the proud owner of the world’s most handsome rottweiler, Titus.

www.michaeltemlin.com

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Kelly Balch

A native Tennessean, Kelly is very proud to be a part of this production. She was recently seen as Margery Pinchwife in The Country Wife for Foothill Drama Theatre and as Clarice in The Servant of Two Masters at Marin Shakespeare Company, where she also choreographed As You Like It. Kelly spent three years withCalifornia Theatre Center, performing the title roles in Cinderella,Puss in Boots, The Little Mermaid, and Pocahontas – and enjoyed touring extensively around the country. Favorite roles include Jessica in Communicating Doors and Ariel in The Tempest. Kelly has performed in the ballets The Nutcracker and Cinderella and danced in the outdoor drama Unto These Hills. When not onstage, Kelly enjoys photography and daydreaming.

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Solange Hilfinger-Pardo

Solange brings her performance skills to the stage from many avenues. She has studied modern dance since the age of six at theJudith Komoroske Studio and at DanceVisions with Laura Zweig. She sang with the Cantabile Children’s Choir for three years and currently studies voice with Janis Wilcox. As a violinist, she studies with Susan Freier and has played with the El Camino Youth Symphony. Her theatre training includes summer conservatories at the Peninsula Youth Theatre, California Theatre Center, and Camp Winnarainbow, Wavy Gravy’s clown camp. She appeared in the Peninsula Youth Theatre productions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Peter Pan. This production offers her the first opportunity to combine all of her passions: acting, singing, dancing, and playing a stringed instrument.

got water?Ensemble

Gabriellle Ault-Riche
Caitlin Berka
Caitlin Cameron
Ingrid Burrington
Sophie Delphis
Solange Hilfinger-Pardo
Paz Hilfinger-Pardo
Robyn Hansen
Nikki Hansen
Dan Hurst
Adam Magill
Claire Martin
Julia Renaud
Jenna Reback
Jeeyon Shim
Rachel Wolf
Brad Yule

Costume and Properties Design: Heather Swanson
Accompanist: Jeremy Erman

 

Interview with Sharmon Hilfinger in the Palo Alto Daily News, July 14, 1999.

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When asked what is the hardest part of writing a play, Palo Alto playwright Sharmon Hilfinger laughed, “Getting it produced.” So Hilfinger and her partners are self producing her new play “A History of Things That Never Happened” next month at the Magic Theater in San Francisco. The 17-year Palo Alto resident took a circuitous route to playwriting. She studied as an actress, receiving an under-graduate degree in theater at Illinois Wesleyan University in 1972. “But when I finished,” said Hilfinger, “I didn’t have a thick enough skin to pursue acting. So I abandoned theater.

“I got involved in the women-go-to-work movement, and went into business. This was in the 1970s, and I got to do ground breaking things in industry.

“I was hired as the first female claims adjuster at Aetna Life and Casualty. Married and had kids “I was in the first batch of female sales people at Harper and Row. I stayed close to publishing and went on to software publishing.”

“After a while I got married and had kids. I woke up one day and said, ‘What happened to theater? why didn’t I take the road less traveled?’

“I love the theater. I had a baby on my hands, so I didn’t think I would be able to follow the acting route with its 6 p.m. to midnight schedule. I’d never written a play, but I started writing one, and I’ve been doing that now for 13 years. I’ve written five plays. All have had public readings. ‘An Ideal Mother’ was produced by the Menlo Players Guild at Burgess Theater in 1992."‘A History Of Things That Never Happened’ is my second one to receive a full production.” Hilfinger thinks of her play as an “unromantic comedy,” although there is romance in it, and a lot of comedy.

“It is about a 50-year-old woman who revisits her romantic failures through the course of the play,” she said, “and comes to terms with them. Looking within. She learns that what she’s looking for in a man is something she needs to find in herself.” “A History Of Things That Never Happened” centers on a middle-aged man and woman who enter into a bi-coastal postcard correspondence of mistaken identities, which in turn fuels fantasies based in literary masterpieces.

Subplots involve their grown children, motorcycle construction, and the trials of young romance. When the two misguided correspondents finally meet, the play comes to a surprising conclusion.

HIlfinger’s production partners in this venture are local attorney Beverly Altschuler and Jordan Middle School drama teacher Jeanie K. Forte. Forte has a Ph.D. in Dramaturgy, and served as dramaturg on the project.

Sharmon Hilfinger putting on a boot
Palo Alto playwright 
Sharmon J.Hilfinger.

The three women comprise BootStrap Foundation Productions which is renting the Magic Theater in San Francisco in July and August.

They have raised $50,000 to stage the show professionally, and are looking for a little more money.

Opens July 14

BootStrap is producing Hilfinger’s play under an Actors Equity union contract, employing four equity actors, two non-equity actors, and an equity stage manager.

“We tried to produce the play down here on the Peninsula,” said Hilfinger,”but we found no stages available. Cubberley had only random spotty nights available. Lucie Stern had only after-noons available ‘in front of the curtain.’”

Nancy Madden

Ms. Madden was most recently seen in the West Coast previere of Mettle Theatre's Drunkin Grownups. For Mettle, she also played Clytemnestra in Iphegenia and Other Daughters. East Bay audiences have seen her in Light Up the Sky (Frances) and Rumors (Claire at California Conservatory Theatre and in The Cocktail Hour(Nina) at Playhouse West. Nancy can also be heard across the country on Shoestring Radio Theatre. She is a graduate of UC Davis and Penn State.

W. Francis Walters

Mr. Walters has worked extensively on the Regional Theatre circuit including stops at the Denver Center Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Old Globe Theatre (San Diego), Seattle Repertory Theatre, Asolo State Theatre (Sarasota), and Arizona Theatre Company. His Bay Area credits include work at The American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Aurora Theatre, Magic Theatre, California Shakespeare Festival, and San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. Most recently Mr. Walters appeared as "Argan" in the Cleveland Play House Production of Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid.

Alex Moggridge

Mr. Moggridge is about to enter his third year at A.C.T.'s MFA program. He last appeared in the conservatory production of Pericles here at the Magic. He has also been seen in MFA projects Il Campiello, Don't Trifle with Love, Threepenny Opera, and Miss Lulu Bett. Other San 
Francisco credits include the role of David Craig in Viaduct Theatre's award winning production ofObserve the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme. He will next be seen this September in A.C.T.'s mainstage production fo Threepenny Opera.

David Kazanjian

David is a Bay Area native who spent his formative years on the Peninsula. After taking a degree in Theatre, he spent another decade in regional theaters o fgreater and lesser renown plying his craft and eating a lot of pasta. Nos a resident of the East Bay, he divides his time between on-camera and voice-over work, his horses, and the glory of homeownership with nhis sweerheart, Torri.

And, occasionally, he gets to do a play.

Lisa Steindler

Ms. Steindler holds her M.F.A. in Acting from The American Conservatory Theatre and a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Vermont. She played the Angel in A.C.T.'s production of Angels in America and has performed numerous other roles including Grace in Judevine, Kate in The Taming of the Shrew, Rosalind in As You Like It, Sarah in The Lover, Rita in Educating Rita, and Margorie inExtreminites. Lisa is the Artistic Director of San Francisco's Encore Theatre Company where she played Jane in Constance Congdon's No Mercy, and Ann in Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead. Lisa directed the World Premiere of Lawrence Waddy'sEleanor in San Diego which is now embarking on a national tour.

Amanda Diaz

Ms. Diaz is originally from Orange County and will be beginning her third year in the Advanced Training program at A.C.T. this fall. She was recently seen as Celie in As You Like It at the Magic in the Advanced Training program's second year conservatory project. Favorite conservatory roles include: Nina in The Seagull, Angutias in The House of Bernardo Alba, and Gasparina in Il Campiello. Other credits include Juleit in Romeo and Juliet and Ophelia in Hamlet.