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FRONT STAGE+

CAST LIST & CREATIVE TEAM-

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES+

Sandra Delgado* (La Havana Madrid/Playwright) is a Colombian-Chicagoan writer, performer and producer who creates joyful spaces of connection for all. Hailed as “her own brand of triple threat” (New City Chicago), she is best known for La Havana Madrid, her hit play with music which enjoyed sold-out runs at Steppenwolf and Goodman Theatres in Chicago, and in a co-production with her artistic homes, Teatro Vista and Collaboraction. A respected veteran of the stage, her acting highlights include work at Steppenwolf and Goodman Theatres in Chicago and The Public Theater in New York. Awards include a United States Artist Fellowship, NALAC Grant, Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Literature, 3Arts Award, Joyce Award, TCG Resident Actor Fellowship, and the 2017 Latina Professional of the Year Award from the Chicago Latino Network. She serves her city as a board member of the Chicago Public Library and is one of the women honored in Kerry James Marshall’s largest public mural, Rushmore, at the Chicago Cultural Center. Her audioplay, if you belong to me as I belong to you, is on Audible as part of a collaboration with the Oscar winning film, Women Talking and her new musical, The Boys and the Nuns, is in development with the Latiné Musical Theatre Lab in NY and Cal State Fullerton. This August, she makes her debut at the legendary Joe’s Pub in NYC with her music project, The Sandra Delgado Experience. sandradelgado.net; @yosoysandradelgado

Eduardo Enrikez* (Henry) is excited to return to SCR in La Havana Madrid. He previously graced the stages of SCR in A Christmas Carol, American Mariachi and Destiny of Desire. He was in the original London West End production of the musical, On Your Feet, the story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan (London Coliseum); he reprised his role as Emilio in a production at the Moonlight Amphitheatre where he just finished The Wedding Singer. His other West End/European credits include The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged, Eating Raoul, Time Square Angel, Saturday Night Fever and Hair. His regional credits include The Wedding Singer; Destiny of Desire; American Mariachi; Miss Saigon; Sweet Charity; Cabaret; Blood Brothers; Is This Any Way to Start a Marriage; Ragtime; The Musical of Musicals, The Musical!; Love Songs—A Musical; Bat Boy, The Musical; Hercules On Normandie and Schoolhouse Rock. His film and television credits include Sin Frontera, Stigma, Emilio, Jornada al norte, Dog Tags, Immigrant, Infertile Hearts, “The Bridge,” “Locked up Abroad” and “Bluff.” He wrote the musical ILCAHUILIA (to forgive) where it just recently had a reading in New York and Los Angeles. @eduardoenrikez.

Maria Jimena Gastelum* (Maria) (she/her) was born in San Diego and raised in Tijuana, Mexico, where she began acting at the Centro de Artes Escénicas (Center for the Scenic Arts) in musical productions such as Annie in the roles of Mrs. Pugh/Connie Boylan and The Wizard of Oz as Glinda, the Good Witch presented at Centro Cultural Tijuana (Tijuana Cultural Centre). She then collaborated with non-profit theatre company CAMAFEO, that fundraises for causes in her hometown; she performed the roles of Tiger Lily/Mrs. Darling in their production of Peter Pan. She worked in the Netflix production of “Selena: The Series” in the episode “Astrodome” credited as Boutique Employee. She recently graduated from The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute (LSTFI) where she was enrolled in the Associate of Occupational Studies in Acting program. She recently appeared as Frankie in LSTFI’s production of Sam Shepard’s Icarus’s Mother directed by Mashka Wolffe, as June-Adele Taylor in Southern Girls by Sheri Bailey & Dura Temple presented at the Hudson Backstage Theatre and directed by Zadia Ife.

Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel* (Myrna) is thrilled to be making her SCR debut returning to the role of Myrna, which she originated in the world premiere of Sandra Delgado’s La Havana Madrid. Her selected Chicago credits include Measure for Measure (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Fen, The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice and Electra (Court Theatre), The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (Goodman Theatre); Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Lookingglass Theatre Company); Lela & Co. (Steep Theatre Company; Jeff Award, Performer in a Principal Role) and The Abuelas, Hope: Part II of a Mexican Trilogy and i put the fear of mexico in ‘em at Teatro Vista, where she serves as an ensemble member and Artistic Producer. Film credits include Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Rounding. On television she appeared in “Fargo,” “Chicago Med,” “The Chi” and “Empire.” She dedicates her performance to the loving memory of Myrna Salazar. For more information visit cruzgonzalezcadel.com | IG: @cruzgcadel. 

Luis Herrera* (Carlos) is thrilled be making his West Coast debut with SCR! Off-Broadway he appeared in Aloha Boricua (Puerto Rican Traveling Theater) and regionally in Guys and Dolls (ACT), Rent (ACT), Man of La Mancha (Plaza Theatricals), Sweeney Todd (Park Playhouse), In The Heights (Paramount Theater) and Once on this Island (Porchlight Music Theatre). Herrera has also worked with New Jersey Performing Arts Center, New York City Gay Men’s Chorus and Revolución Latina. Represented by Pantera/Murphy The Agency. Follow his journey @luisherreraofficial

Roberto Antonio Martin* (Tony) is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts acting conservatory. His most notable credits include Mauricio in ABC’s “Grownish,” Brian Torres in ABC’s “For the People,” Fish in the Arizona Theatre Company’s production of The Royale and Eme in the 2Rythms Theatre production of Blu. When not on stage as a thespian, he is in training as a black belt in mixed martial arts. He would like to thank his Mom, Mercedes Martin, girlfriend Mallory McMahon and manager at Endorse Management Group. Additional professional credits listed at bertoantonio.com

Marlene Martinez (Maruja) is thrilled to be back at SCR after previously appearing as Ilona in the production of She Loves Me. She also had the pleasure of performing in the Pacific Playwrights Festival concert reading of Prelude to a Kiss and as Mrs. Popper in the Theatre for Young Audiences’ production of Mr. Popper’s Penguins. Her favorite credits include the Broadway national tour of Mamma Mia!, West Side Story (Anita, La Mirada Theatre), and Native Gardens (Tania, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley). You can listen to her as The Astonishing Catalina in the upcoming Rock, Paper, Scissors animated comedy on Nickelodeon. Her film credits include Grandma and A Single Man. She received her BFA in Musical Theatre from Cal State Fullerton @marlenevmartinez (IG)

Tristan Turner* (Carpacho) (he/him/his) is an alumni of UC Irvine’s Graduate Acting Program, and is excited to make his debut with SCR. Past credits include Pru Payne (world premiere) with Arizona Theatre Company, Twelfth Night at Utah Shakespeare Festival, The Addams Family with 5-Star Theatricals, and In The Heights at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Thanks for coming!

Nestor Gonzalez (Percussion), Carol Macpherson (Trombone), Roberto Marin (Bass), Carlos Ordiano (Keyboard), Jorge Ordiano (Percussion).

Creative Team

Cheryl Lynn Bruce (Director) is a Chicago-based actor and director who has performed on numerous regional stages as well as in Europe and Mexico. She originated the role of Elizabeth Sandry for Steppenwolf’s Tony Award-winner The Grapes of Wrath (Cort Theatre, National Theatre (UK), La Jolla Playhouse.) Bruce helped develop and directed Sandra Delgado’s La Havana Madrid premiere (Steppenwolf Theatre 1700) and subsequent productions (Goodman Theatre, The Miracle Center, Navy Pier Lake Stage, The Den Theatre). Most recently, she directed Written by Phillis (Quintessence Theatre) and The House of the Negro Insane (Contemporary American Theatre Festival, The National Black Theatre Festival). Last year, she helped develop and directed Yemandja featuring Angelique Kidjo (Mass MOCA, Broad Stage, Cal Performance at Berkeley, Kennedy Center). Her directing credits include Pipeline (Victory Gardens Theatre); SPUNK and From the Mississippi Delta (Congo Square Theatre); and the streamed readings of The Wedding Band (Quintessence Theatre) and The Agitators (Remy Bumppo Theatre). 

Roberto “Carpacho” Marin (Music Director) is a Chicago-based musician (bass, vocals, guitar, percussion) originally from Medellin, Colombia. He led the band for productions of La Havana Madrid at Steppenwolf, Goodman, and Den Theatres and at Navy Pier in Chicago. Marin and his band, Carpacho y Su Super Combo, performed for the inaugurations of three Chicago Mayors. Other notable Chicagoland performances include Chicago SummerDance, Taste of Chicago, El Gran Festival Colombiano, Sangria Fest, and Latino Film Festival. Performances outside the Chicagoland area include Brat Fest (Madison WI), Fiesta Hispanic Casa de la Amistad (South Bend, IN), Flower Ball (Atlanta, GA), Ibero-American Cultural Festival (Holguin, Cuba), and at various universities throughout the Midwest. He and his band have accompanied the Chicago Children’s Choir (Canto Latino) and have performed alongside El Gran Combo, Andy Montanez, Oscar de Leon, Jose Feliciano, Eddy Santiago, Grupo Niche, La Sonora Tropical, Jerry Galante, and the Monkeys. carpachosupercombo.com

Efren Delgadillo, Jr. (Scenic Design) (he/him) is designing his seventh production with SCR. Recent projects include Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (Mark Taper Forum), I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Seattle Repertory), In the Upper Room (Denver Center), Quixote Nuevo (Denver Center), Scene With Cranes (Cal Arts Center for New Performance), and many more notable regional works. Delgadillo has received a Henry award, LA Weekly awards for both production design and lighting design and has been nominated for Ovation and Barrymore Awards. He is an Assistant Professor and Head of Scenic Design at UC Irvine. efrendelgadillojr.com ig:efren.delgadillo.jr

Carolyn Mazuca (Costume Design) is a freelance costume designer based in Los Angeles. Her designs most recently have decorated productions of Two Noble Kinsmen at Kingsmen Shakespeare Company and Nice Fish at Interact Theatre Company. This past year, she had the opportunity to assist award-winning designer Julie Weiss at Oregon Shakespeare Festival on Destiny of Desire, in addition to being featured as a showcase designer at the 2018 Latinx Theatre Commons in Chicago. Mazuca is the costume designer for the upcoming production of Mother Road at OSF. Her work also extends into the film and television industry in LA. She has been a part of such productions as “Coop and Cami Ask the World,” “The Mindy Project,” “Only You” and My Dinner with Herve. She earned a BFA in costume design from Carnegie Mellon University. She can’t wait to see what amazing future projects await her!

Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz (Lighting Design) is a professor at the University of California, Irvine, where he is the head of the lighting design program. He has designed for various regional theatres such as Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Syracuse Stage and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. He is delighted to return to Outside SCR for the third season. He has designed productions at SCR since 1994, including Million Dollar Quartet, American Mariachi, A Shot Rang Out, Outside Mullingar, The Whipping Man, Long Road Today/El Largo Camino de Hoy, La Posada Mágica, Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, Doubt—a parable, My Wandering Boy, and many others. His recent designs include Little Mermaid at Syracuse Stage, Alma at the Kirk Douglas Theatre for CTG, Gem of the Ocean at TheaterWorks; Twelfth Night and African Company Presents: Richard III, along with producing a new Community-Engaged Play All the Towns a Stage: A Winona Story for the Great River Shakespeare Festival (where he is a Co-Associate Artistic Director) and many shows with Cornerstone Theater Company. He is a member of the United Scenic Artists, Local 829/International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. His complete design portfolio can be found at lradesigns.com. Alcaraz is an associate artist and the resident lighting designer at SCR.

Jeff Polunas (Sound Design) (he/they) is thrilled to be designing for his 14th consecutive year collaborating with SCR after last season’s Million Dollar Quartet. Polunas is the Assistant Professor of Sound and Projections at Kent State University. He received his MFA in sound design from UC Irvine and has designed more than 150 productions during his career, including She Loves Me, Shakespeare in Love, The Sisters Rosensweig, Venus in Fur, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, Ella Enchanted, Flora & Ulysses and Between Us Chickens (SCR); A Winter’s Tale (Great River Shakespeare Festival); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Antaeus Theatre Company); A Doll’s House, Part 2, Silent Sky, Fences, Abigail/1702, A Walk in the Woods and Uncanny Valley (International City Theatre); Passion Play, Seminar and A Bright New Boise (Chance Theater); The Full Monty, Peter Pan, The Wedding Singer and The Producers (Summer Repertory Theatre); and Company, Much Ado About Nothing and The Importance of Being Earnest (PCPA Theaterfest). He received Scenie Awards (StageSceneLA) for Sound Design in 2015 and 2017 and has been nominated for NAACP, Stage Raw and Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival awards.

Cristian Amigo (Original Music and Arrangements) is a composer, musician, sound artist/designer, and educator. His awards include a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (music composition), a Senior Fulbright Scholar/Artist Fellowship (Bolivia), and the Van Lier Fellowship from Meet the Composer. He earned his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from UCLA. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Oxford Press) contains an entry on his work. Amigo is a sound faculty member in the Experience Design and Production Program at the CalArts School of Theater and is currently an artist-in-residence at INTAR Latino Theater in New York City. His geo-mapped music piece Lives of the New Kind of Saints was a featured American design at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial (PQ23). Other recent productions include the world premiere of Octavio Solis’ Scenes With Cranes at REDCAT in LA, José Rivera’s References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot at CSULA, and Tara Ricasa’s The Goddess of Lost Things at the Bocón Theater Festival of New Works in San Diego. Upcoming projects include theater/music/sound projects with the Theater for the New City (New York City) and MoCA (LA).

Jonny Martinez (Choreographer) is a Latinx choreographer, director and writer born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. Credits include The Buddy Holly Story (American Blues Theater), Murder Ballad, Carrie (Bailiwick Chicago); The View Upstairs (Circle Theatre) and the regional premieres of Tonya & Nancy The Rock Opera (Underscore Theatre), Firebrand Theatre’s inaugural production of Lizzie; Scottsboro Boys (Beck Center) and Be More Chill (Playhouse Square Cleveland). Most recently, he provided reimagined choreography for South Bend Civic’s West Side Story featuring the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. Martinez served as associate artistic director for Firebrand Theatre, producing Queen of the Mist, starring Barabara Robertson and productions Always, Patsy Cline and the Jeff Award winner for Best Musical, Caroline, or Change. He is currently collaborating with Sandra Delgado and Michael McBride on their new musical, The Boys & the Nuns, receiving a workshop produced by California State and Latine Musical Theatre Lab. For television and film, he assisted Emmy nominated Dewayne Perkins, the writer and star of The Blackening (Lionsgate) in theatres June 16.

Kathryn Davies (Stage Manager) previously stage-managed Million Dollar Quartet, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Velveteen Rabbit, Poor Yella Rednecks, Sugar Plum Fairy, Orange, The Roommate, All the Way, Red, Vietgone, The Whipping Man, Tartuffe, Reunion, Trudy and Max in Love, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Sight Unseen, Topdog/Underdog, In the Next Room or the vibrator play, Doctor Cerberus, Ordinary Days and Our Mother’s Brief Affair—all at SCR. Her favorite credits include The Wars at the Grand Theatre; Dividing the Estate at Dallas Theater Center; La Bohème at Tulsa Opera; The Mystery of Irma Vep at The Old Globe; Les Contes D’Hoffmann at Hawaii Opera Theatre; Of Mice and Men at Neptune Theatre; Skylight at Tarragon Theatre; To Kill a Mockingbird at Citadel Theatre; and The Designated Mourner at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Davies also worked as head theatre manager at the Toronto International, Dubai International, AFI, TCM and Los Angeles film festivals.

Natalie Figaredo (Assistant Stage Manager) is a production stage manager whose credits include the first national tour of My Fair Lady. Regional credits include Staged, Island of the Blue Lagoon, (Laguna Playhouse) avaaz, Snow White, A Shot Rang Out, American Mariachi, Poor Yella Rednecks, Amos and Boris, Little Black Shadows, Junie B Jones Is Not A Crook, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Yoga Play, Mr. Poppers Penguins, Orange, Going to a Place Where You Already Are, A Year With Frog and Toad (South Coast Repertory), The Cake (Geffen Playhouse), The Cake (Echo Theater Company), With Love and a Major Organ (Boston Court) and What You Are, Twelfth Night (The Old Globe). She is a graduate of CSULB and The London Academy Of Music And Dramatic Art.

David Ivers (Artistic Director) is responsible for the overall artistic operation of the theatre. The 2019-20 season was the first he programmed for SCR and during that season, he directed She Loves Me. In addition, he directed the 2021 Pacific Playwrights Festival reading of Coleman ’72 by Charlie Oh and the 2022 reading of Spenser Davis’ A Million Tiny Pieces. He opened last season as John in Richard Greenberg’s world premiere of A Shot Rang Out and created the theatre’s Outside SCR program in partnership with Mission San Juan Capistrano. Prior to his appointment as Artistic Director, he directed the SCR-Berkeley Repertory Theatre co-production of One Man, Two Guvnors. Before arriving to SCR in his current capacity, Ivers was artistic director for Arizona Theatre Company and, before that, served more than 20 years as an actor and director at Utah Shakespeare Festival, with the last six as artistic director. He was a resident artist at Denver Center for the Performing Arts for a decade, acting in and/or directing more than 40 plays, and has helmed productions at many of the nation’s leading regional theatres, including the Guthrie Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and South Coast Repertory. Ivers’ early career included serving as associate artistic director of Portland Repertory Theatre and appearing in productions at some of the nation’s top regional theatres, including Portland Center Stage and the Oregon, Alabama and Idaho Shakespeare festivals. He has taught at the University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Southern Utah University and Southern Oregon University. He earned his BA from Southern Oregon University and his MFA from the University of Minnesota.

Paula Tomei (Managing Director) is responsible for the overall administration of SCR. She has been managing director since 1994 and a member of SCR’s staff since 1979. She is a past president of the board of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for theatre. In addition, she served as treasurer of TCG, vice president of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and as a member of the LORT Negotiating Committee for industry-wide union agreements. She represents SCR at national conferences of TCG and LORT and served as a theatre panelist and site visitor for the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council. Her teaching background includes a graduate class in non-profit management at UC Irvine (UCI) and as a guest lecturer in the graduate school of business at Stanford. She was appointed by the chancellor to UCI’s Community Arts Council and serves on the Dean’s Leadership Society Executive Committee for the School of Social Sciences at UCI. She is also on the board of Arts Orange County, the county-wide arts council, and the board of the Nicholas Endowment. She graduated from UCI with a degree in economics and pursued an additional course of study in theatre and dance. In March 2017, she received the Mayor’s Award from the City of Costa Mesa for her contributions to the arts community. In 2018, she received the Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award from Arts Orange County. In 2019, she was awarded UCI’s Distinguished Alumna in the School of Social Sciences at the Lauds & Laurels Celebration.

Martin Benson (Founding Artistic Director), co-founder of SCR, has directed nearly one-fourth of SCR’s productions including the 2020 production of Outside Mullingar. In 2008, he and David Emmes received the Margo Jones Award for their lifetime commitment to theatre excellence and fostering the art and craft of American playwriting. They also accepted SCR’s 1988 Tony Award for Outstanding Resident Professional Theatre and won the 1995 Theatre LA Ovation Award for Lifetime Achievement. Benson has received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Achievement in Directing an unparalleled seven times for George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara, Misalliance and Heartbreak House; John Millington Synge’s Playboy of the Western World; Arthur Miller’s The Crucible; Sally Nemeth’s Holy Days; and the world premiere of Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit, which he also directed at Seattle Repertory Theatre and Houston’s Alley Theatre. He has directed American classics such as A Streetcar Named Desire, and has distinguished himself in staging contemporary work including the critically acclaimed California premiere of William Nicholson’s Shadowlands. He directed revivals of Beth Henley’s Abundance and Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful; and Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale and Rest (world premiere); The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez; and The Roommate by Jen Silverman (West Coast premiere). Benson received his BA in theatre from San Francisco State University.

David Emmes (Founding Artistic Director) is co-founder of South Coast Repertory. He received the Margo Jones Award for his lifetime commitment to theatre excellence and to fostering the art of American playwriting. In addition, he has received numerous awards for productions he has directed during his SCR career. He directed the world premieres of Amy Freed’s Safe in Hell, The Beard of Avon and Freedomland; Thomas Babe’s Great Day in the Morning; Keith Reddin’s Rum and Coke and But Not for Me; and Neal Bell’s Cold Sweat; the American premieres of Terry Johnson’s Unsuitable for Adults; and Joe Penhall’s Dumb Show; and the Southland premiere of Top Girls (at SCR and the Westwood Playhouse). Other productions he has directed include Red, New England, Arcadia, The Importance of Being Earnest, Woman in Mind and You Never Can Tell, which he restaged for the Singapore Festival of Arts. He has served as a theatre panelist and onsite evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as a panelist for the California Arts Council. After attending Orange Coast College, he received his BA and MA from San Francisco State University and his PhD from USC.

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