The Creators
Michelle Carter
Playwright/Librettist
Michelle Carter is a two-time recipient of the PEN Center USA Award in Drama. She has also received the Susan Glaspell Award, the Ebell Playwright Prize, the PEN Center West Award, and the Backstage West Garland Award. Her plays have been performed in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, London, Moscow, and other far-flung locales. Music theater projects include DREAMSPIEL, a ukulele opera with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. She has published plays with Dramatic Publishing and a novel with Penguin Books.
Erika Chong Shuch
Director/Choreographer
Interested in expanding ideas around how performance is created and shared, Erika Chong Shuch’s work has been performed in city halls, theaters, industrial offices spaces, and food courts. Her original performance works have been supported and commissioned by Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, Intersection for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the deYoung Museum, Headlands Center for the Arts, Djerassi, Dancers’ Group, Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange/Corcoran Gallery/DC, and in Korea: Daejeon Metropolitan Company, Chang Mu Company, Mullae Art Space.
Erika has directed two award-winning projects for Shotgun Players—Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice (2015) and Jenny Schwartz’s God’s Ear (2010). She has also designed choreography for the company.
Janet Kutulas
Composer/Lyricist/Music Director
Janet Kutulas has been a Kitka singer and co-director since 1988. She has toured extensively with Kitka in the US as well as in Eastern Europe. As a composer/arranger for the group, she’s been the recipient of commissioning awards from the East Bay Fund for Artists, the NEA, the MAP and Creative Work Funds, New Music USA, and the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation. Previously she was a flutist with the California Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony, the Illinois Philharmonic, and was a founding member of the Earplay New Music Ensemble.
The Cast
Angel Adedokun
Kelly Atkins
Caitlin Tabancay Austin
Kristine Barrett
Briget Boyle
Shira Cion
Melanie Elms*
Juliana Graffagna
Erolina Kamburova
Rowena Richie
Travis Santell Rowland*
Sharon Shao
Michele Simon
Erin Mei-Ling Stuart*
Beth Wilmurt*
The Crew
Lenny Adler, Ivy Wrangler
Katie Basu, Stage Manager*
Kieran Beccia, Assistant Stage Manager*
Alina Bokovikova, Costume Designer
Michelle Carter, Playwright
Shira Cion, Kitka Executive Director / Performer
Ai Ebashi, Assistant Director
Bayla Jaffe, SM Student Assistant
Brooke Jennings, Costume Design Assistant
Gregory Kuhn, Sound Designer/Engineer†
Janet Kutulas, Composer/Lyricist/Music Director
Devon Labelle, Props Designer
Sarah Leonard, Dramaturg
Aurelia Moulin, Assistant Stage Manager*
Sean Riley, Set Designer
Erika Chong Shuch, Director/Choreographer‡
Caitlin Steinmann, Master Electrician
Allen Willner, Lighting Designer
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers. This Theatre operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
†Member of United Scenic Artists Local 829
‡Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), a national labor union representing stage directors and choreographers
The Sponsors
Production Sponsors
Anne Germanacos
Carolyn Jones
Kurz Family Foundation
Lynn MacDonald
The Lois E. and R. Duke Miller Family Foundation
Michael & Gretchen Schnitzer
Ragesh Tangri & Daralyn Durie
Tamara White
2018 Season Sponsors
Peet's Coffee & Tea
Carol Amyx & Donald Kaufman
Kitty Bosher
DeYoe Wealth Management
Craig & Kathy Moody
Guy Tiphane
Iron Shoes is generously supported by grants from the following funders.
East Bay Fund for Artists, Creative Work Fund, The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, The Tournesol Project
