Director

GIOVANNA SARDELLI

GIOVANNA SARDELLI (she/her) Besides Sardelli’s well-received productions with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, where she is the Artistic Director, she has directed and developed plays around the country, including many off-Broadway productions. Sardelli’s directing credits include many collaborations with Matthew Lopez and Rajiv Joseph, including the production of Joseph’s Obie Award-winning play Describe The Night at Atlantic Theatre, and her production of Joseph’s Guards at the Taj for the Geffen Theatre which won the 2016 Ovation Award for Best Production of a Play. She recently directed the Marvel podcast Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show! which you can check out anywhere you listen to podcasts. Sardelli holds an MFA in Acting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and taught in NYU’s Graduate Acting Program and Dance Department for over a decade. Before being invited to train at NYU’s prestigious Director’s Lab program, Sardelli worked as a professional actress for a decade. In 2019, she was named the Alumna of the Year for the University Nevada, Las Vegas College of Fine Arts.

Dramaturg

JEANNIE BARROGA

Jeannie Barroga (she/her), Lifetime Member-Dramatists Guild, is a North Bay native and a nationally produced playwright whose works are archived at Stanford Green Library Special Collections. Having served as both Artistic Directors and literary managers for local theaters, she writes on social justice, art and women. Awards (selected): the Gerbode/Hewlett Foundations grant for Buffalo’ed (Buffalo Soldiers 1899); the NEA Access to Artistic Excellence Grant for Walls (Maya Lin); and the Arty for Best Original Production for Banyan (allegory post 9-1-1). She has directed at LaMama’s New York and is produced at: TheatreWorks, Bindlestiff, Brava, El Teatro Campesino, Pan Asian New York, Mark Taper Forum, at Amherst, in Seattle, Honolulu and elsewhere. She has plays published by Amherst Press, Routledge Press, and more. Her 2021 book, TURN RIGHT AT THE WATER BUFFALO, is published by Regent Press, Berkeley. Projects TBA: Keakalehua Playwrights readings (ongoing); Bindlestiff workshop; Hawai’i project 2024.

Production Assistant 

GRACE ORTEGA

Grace Ortega (she/her) is excited to be the Production Assistant for Nan! This is her first year with BAPF and is excited to be a part of this wonderful community of artists. She has previously worked as a Production Assistant on California Shakespeare Theater’s (CalShakes) productions of Romeo y Juliet (2022) and The Winter’s Tale (2021). Born and raised in East Los Angeles, she moved to the Bay Area for college and never left after falling in love with the Bay. Grace earned her BA in Theater Arts: Tech and Design from California State University – East Bay.

Lynie Abadilla (she/her) is a performer and storyteller born and raised in the bay area. She is on a mission to fearlessly tell stories that need to be heard and has a fascination with capturing moments of reimagined nostalgia. Abadilla is a member of the all-female and non-binary Asian American sketch comedy troupe Granny Cart Gangstas and long-time artist with the epicenter for Filipinx American performing arts, Bindlestiff Studio. Abadilla was a production assistant/performer in SAMMAY Productions first iteration of A RITUAL FOR THRIVATION at ChoreoFest 2021. She last appeared on stage playing the roles of Rose, Batibat, and Calag in Chikahan Company’s inaugural new work premiere of THE ACT OF CARE. She also played the role of Bethany in TheatreFirst’s production of BALIKBAYAN BOX.

ehulani hope kāne (she/her)

ehulani kāne is a hawaiian,
a mother
and
a grandmother.

her middle name is
“hope”.

she is actor, artist,
activist and teacher.

the island of Molokai
is her home.

ehulani has performed
or taught in the arts,
on the West Coast
and in the Hawaiian Islands,
for more than 50 years.

she recognizes
that creativity and imagination
fuel her heart;
inspiring her
continued service
to her craft.

Alyssa McCullough (she/her) is thrilled to be in her first show with the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She grew up performing in plays with American Youth Shakespeare, including in Macbeth (Lady Macbeth) and Twelfth Night (Viola), before taking classes at the University of Toronto and UC Berkeley. She first read Love and Information at U of T, and then performed in a reading of it at Berkeley. She recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Political Economy and a minor in Theater and Performance Studies. In her free time she enjoys reading, baking, gardening, and playing water polo.

San Francisco native Judith Nihei (she/her) has been a director, dramaturg, writer, actor and theatre administrator. A founding member of Seattle’s Northwest Asian American Theatre, she returned home to help build the Asian American Theatre Company and support its mission to develop Asian Pacific Islander American theatre canon. As an improvisor, she has been a member of The Committee and The National Theatre of the Deranged. As a licensed psychotherapist in private practice, she consults for schools, non-profits and community-based organizations, facilitating the incorporation of stress-reduction and cultural humility as an integral part of trauma-informed services. Clients have included Edgewood Center for Children and Families, Japanese Community Youth Council, and Theatre Communications Group, Inc., and TheatreWorks, Inc. She continues to improv as one of The Bad Aunties.

Eiko Moon-Yamamoto (she/they) is a multi-hyphenate artist born in Tokyo with roots in Seoul and Hawaii. Recent credits: Cymbeline (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival), Clue, Follies, Tiny Beautiful Things (San Francisco Playhouse), Sleeping Beauty (Presidio Theatre), world premiere of Downtown Crossing (Company One), Disenchanted! (3Below) and M’Lynn in Steel