Thank you for joining us! We’re so happy to celebrate this milestone with you!
TODAY’S PROGRAM
Introduction to World Builders Incubator
Presentation from the Writer
The Reading
A few final words
Please join us for an informal reception in the YBCA Lounge immediately following each reading.
Issue: Climate Change
Solution: Multiple Frontline Solutions
In this young adult fantasy novel, Lily ventures out into a desert filled with ancient gods to seek solutions for her drought-stricken city. What she finds is the lush world of cherished myths. This book turns dystopia on its head by reminding us that there is always a better way when we band together to create the possible.
Douglas Weissman is a Los Angeles native who has lived in Florence, Rome, Sydney, and San Francisco. He writes stories of friendship, of finding beauty in the grotesque, of finding magic in the mundane; stories about building bridges, about burning bridges, about growing trees, about turning trees into bridges, and the ways strangers find common ground. He can always be swayed by a good cookie or bad ice cream because even bad ice cream is pretty good.
Amy Kossow- Amy Kossow is a founding member of the Z Space Studio and is a Core Member of Word for Word Performing Arts Company. With Word for Word, Amy has adapted and directed award-winning productions based on stories by dozens of writers. She is a resident director and member of the Actors’ Reading Collective and a theater Curator at the 222 Theater in Healdsburg. Credits in the Bay Area include California Shakespeare Theatre and Magic Theatre among many others.
Lizzie Calogero (she/her) is an English-American actor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has worked extensively with companies around the Bay Area, including SF Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, San Jose Repertory, Center Rep, San Francisco Shakespeare Co, Woman’s Will, and many seasons with the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe, where she is a former Collective Member. Lizzie is drawn to theatre that creates community, stimulates empathy, and gives audiences a visceral experience of lives that are otherwise inaccessible to them. Her one-woman performance of Beowulf, translated by Maria Dahvana Headley, is currently in development. www.lizzie.calogero.us
Issue: Climate Change Adaptation
Solution: Mutual Aid
This beautiful play intertwines realism, surrealism, dance, multimedia, micro-algae, and a talking dog! During a life-threatening storm in New York, a coalition of Gen Z mutual aid activists band together with the leaders of a Boomer wealth distribution network to provide shelter for hundreds of stranded residents in Baltimore. This high-stakes drama highlights the tensions between philanthropy and activism, the challenges and impacts of collaborative action, and the deeply encoded interdependence that is the open path to our best potential.
This exciting new play will be produced in Baltimore in 2027!
Dr. Susan McCully is a queer feminist playwright and Associate Professor at UMBC. They founded the GrrlParts New Play Commissioning Program and served as Artistic Director for the GrrlParts Festival, cultivating feminist and queer voices in new play development. Beginning in 2013, their focus shifted to developing their own work, with productions including Leah’s Dybbuk, Voracious, and Girls on a Dirt Pile — which won Best Production of a New Play at KCACTF. RepStage commissioned and produced All She Must Possess in 2018 to wide critical acclaim. McCully’s play Merlin, is set for a Baltimore production in 2027
Rebecca Novick is a theater maker, writer, cultural strategist, and consultant based in Berkeley, California. Rebecca was the founder of Crowded Fire Theater Company and served as its artistic director for ten years. She then served as the associate artistic director at California Shakespeare Theater where she led a new arts engagement department. She believes art can strengthen our communities and invite us to imagine different futures. You can find her directing actors, facilitating community meetings, collaborating on new plays, and helping arts organizations dismantle outmoded ways of working. She’s a mother of teens, an evolving disability activist, an amateur gardener, and a lifelong science fiction fan.
Cassidy Brown was most recently seen at Berkeley Rep in All My Sons, where he previously appeared in Imaginary Comforts. He has appeared at TheatreWorks in Fallen Angels, Doubt, Distracted, The 39 Steps and at San Jose Rep in Game On. Other Bay Area credits include Center Rep in The Great Leap, Ella, The Underpants, and The 39 Steps; Aurora Theatre in Bosoms and Neglect and Safe House; Marin Shakespeare Company in Don Quixote and Othello, San Jose Stage in The 39 Steps, and SF Playhouse in You Mean to Do Me Harm and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Regionally he has appeared in multiple plays at both Capital Stage and Pacific Repertory Theatre. You can also hear him in over 200 episodes of his podcast All The Answers.
Rebecca Pingree (she/her) is a regular deviser and performer for Analog Theatre’s Mask Monday series (analogtheatre.org) and a long time member of PlayGround’s Acting Company. Recent credits include Josie Vitale in Tony ‘n Tina’s Wedding at the Presidio Theatre, Dromio in Comedy of Errors at Marin Shakespeare, and May in Anthony Clarvoe’s People Where They Are at San Jose Stage. Catch her onstage this summer in Hairspray at SF Playhouse, or offstage (whenever she can spare a minute) making masks and puppets at the Compound Gallery Studios in Emeryville.
Cathleen Riddley (she/her) is a multiple award-winning actor, most recently having been honored with the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award. She’s performed at most Bay Area theaters, including ACT, Aurora, TheatreWorks and Cal Shakes. She is an Artistic Associate at Marin Shakes, and a company member with Shotgun Players, ARC, and PlayGround. She is a certified ASL Interpreter, has an MA in Sociology from UPenn, and is passionate about social, language, and disability justice. As a human, she prides herself on having an open and welcoming heart, and deeply honors difference, diversity, creativity, and play.
Anna Marie Sharpe is a Black and Filipino actor, screenwriter, and teaching artist in the Bay Area. Theatre highlights include Nollywood Dreams (San Francisco Playhouse), Crumbs from the Table of Joy (Aurora Theatre Company), A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theatre). Film highlights include Sorry We’re Dead, and “The Best Time.” She makes her directorial debut in the short film, “For the Culture,” which is currently in post-production. Sharpe holds two degrees from UC Berkeley. IG: @_amarie3 (she/her)
Elissa Beth Stebbins (they/she) is a Bay Area based actor, teaching artist, producer, and maker. Recent acting credits include All My Sons (Berkeley Rep), Little Women, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Mrs. Christie, and Nan and the Lower Body (TheatreWorks), The Return (Golden Thread), Colonialism is Terrible, but Pho is Delicious (Aurora Theatre Company), Becky Nurse of Salem (Berkeley Rep), Kings, Kiss, The Village Bike, and Caught (Shotgun Players), and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. and You For Me For You (Crowded Fire Theatre), among others. Elissa is a co-founder and collective member of Analog Theatre, where they produce and devise physical theatre.
Pamela is an actor, writer, and director for theatre and film and President of Flown the Coop and Ghost Ranch Productions. She recently starred in the play The Empty Nesters in S.F. and L.A. and has adapted it for TV series and a feature film. She wrote and directed the feature film Shakti’s Retreat, and wrote a biopic about painter Georgia O’Keeffe, which was in development at Miramax, based a character she’s played on and off around the country for many years.
Extensive acting credits include Chicago’s “Buckets of Beckett” festival starring John Mahoney (New Mercury Theatre); Audrey in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS; Rebeck’s SPIKE HEELS; SEA MARKS (Royal George Theatre), “Principal Actress” Nom. – Joseph Jefferson Award; Brecht’s THE JEWISH WIFE & HANNAH FREE, (Victory Gardens, Actress of the Year); and Beckett’s one-woman HAPPY DAYS. She’s done numerous shows in th SF Bay area – Aurora Theatre, TheatreWorks, Magic…
Maryssa Wanlass (she/they) is an actor, director, and educator, whose work strides the worlds of classical theater and social justice activism. Acting credits include SF Shakes (As You Like It, Hamlet, and Winter’s Tale), CalShakes (As You Like It), San Jose Stage (Persuasion), Livermore Shakespeare Festival (As You Like It, Hamlet, Merry Wives of Windsor), Center REPertory Company (Sweat, Enchanted April, Witness for the Prosecution), Woman’s Will (Much Ado About Nothing, Good Person of Szechuan). They have directed professionally for SF Shakes, Utopia Theatre Project, PlayGroundSF, Shotz, and Advice to the Players. For the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Wanlass created a storytelling program for unhoused community members, and she is a company member of Red Ladder theater which delivers improv workshops to California’s incarcerated population.
Issue: Financial Literacy
Solution: The Rules of the Financial Avengers
This genre-bending, bawdy memoir is both heart-wrenching and hilarious! Our hero arrives in San Francisco in the ‘90s as an HIV-positive man with a mountain of “I’m going to die anyway” debt, and an iron-clad guarantee that his end is imminent — only to discover he’s going to live! In the face of oppressive forces, we witness the origin story of a unique hero — Captain of the Financial Avengers! This is an uplifting romp and solutions-filled rallying cry of “Financial freedom!” for anyone under the boot heel of the American Dream.
Tom Swift is Captain of the Financial Avengers, a Registered Investment Advisory firm in Oakland, CA, that he co-founded and co-owns with his sidekick, The Oracle. Financial Avengers just celebrated its 25th birthday.
Swift is a four-time PlayGround-SF Emerging Playwrights Award winner and a Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival winner. His short film, The Beginning, won the People’s Choice Award in the PlayGround Inaugural Film Festival, and was inspiration for a full-length play, A Marriage, which received a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award.
In his spare time, he makes mobiles and contemplates legacy & mortality.
Jon Tracy works internationally as an art and culture producer for theatre and film. A director, playwright, designer, educator, and facilitator, he is the recipient of awards from the Kennedy Center, North Bay Artys, Marquee Journalists, Ellys, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and Theatre Bay Area, and has also been honored with the Solano College Theatre Alumni Award. He is a grant recipient from Theatre Bay Area, Shotgun Players’ Bridging the Gap, SUI Generis, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He completed a five-year leadership position with TheatreFIRST, commissioning and developing the work of over fifty playwrights. Jon is currently the Artistic Director of Marin Shakespeare Company, a Company Member of both Shotgun Players and PlayGround, serves on the Advisory Board for San Miguel Playhouse, and is a proud member of SDC, the union for stage directors and choreographers. jontracyplays.com
Issue: Immigration
Solution: Pluralism
In this near-future dramedy TV pilot, a person’s country of origin is no longer a barrier to any kind of study, job, travel, or dream. When a rag-tag group of grad students are given an unexpected opportunity, they choose to document the stories of the last, pre-reform U.S. immigrants. Think: Community meets the Holocaust Project. At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, the show shines a light on a world that’s within our reach while also uplifting the harrowing experiences of present-day immigrants.
Esther is a bilingual Honduran playwright, screenwriter, actor, producer, and translator whose work exists to uplift the authentic experiences of U.S. immigrants, including her own. Journeying academically and professionally through Miami, Tulsa, Syracuse, and California. A graduate of Teatro Prometeo and BFA from Oral Roberts University. Her play “LatiNext” was a semi-finalist for the 30th Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She’s part of PlaygroundLA, selected thrice as “Best of”. Esther is a Playwriting and screenwriting MFA graduate of the University of California, Riverside. She works for social-justice-focused Black Voice News and is a board member and writer for World Builders Incubator.
Richard Perez (he/him) is a director, actor, educator, and playwright. He recently relocated to the Bay Area from Michigan where he has been a theatre professor for the last ten years.
Recent acting roles include Mando in How to Raise an American Son, Gabe in Dinner with Friends, and Nate in The Birds. Television appearances include Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Electric Dreams, and the recurring role of Councilman Ortiz, in season 2 of Boss. Richard also recently directed the award winning Clybourne Park for Masquers Playhouse, Human Error for Town Hall, and La Cucaracha for PlayGround’s San Francisco Free-Play Festival.
Andre Amarotico received his BA in Theatre at Stanford. He is an actor, collective member, and board president at the Tony Award winning San Francisco Mime Troupe. Selected credits include Marc in M Butterfly, (SF Playhouse) Harlan in McNeal (SJ Stage), Clark in Push/Pull (Central Works), Nick in The Last Goat (Central Works, BATCC nomination), John Wilkes Booth in Assassins (Hillbarn, BATCC nomination), Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (Throckmorton Theatre), Tony in Kate Hawley’s Remains to Be Seen (Jewel Theatre), Pecker in Panto in the Presidio (Presidio Theatre), and various roles in The 39 Steps (RVP, TBA nomination). andreamarotcio.com
L. Duarte (they, them) is known for their theatrical practice across the Bay, in Los Angeles and as far as Scotland where they had the opportunity to perform in The Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Dogs of War & Plastic Rose). L has worked all around the Bay Area for various theatre companies such as San Jose Stage Company, PacRep, Theatre Rhinoceros, Theatre of Yugen, and CentralWorks. L has been featured in several short films, commercials, industrials, and web series.
Duarte is a graduate of UCLA, UCSC, and has trained with A.C.T., Shakespeare & Co., & SITI Co.
Find a full range of their work on Casting Networks.
Leon Goertzen has worked at Capital Stage (The Chinese Lady), East West Players (My Tired Broke Ass Pontificating Slapstick Funk), Berkeley Repertory Theatre (U/S, Journey to the West), Will and Company (Three Musketeers) , Ferocious Lotus (Crane, Carnal, One Act Comedy Workshop, Rooted), Asian American Theater Company (Importance of Being Earnest, Rental Car, Walls, The Cure), Road Theatre Company (Importance of Being Earnest, Bang Bang You’re Dead), Cutting Ball Theater (Madame Ho, Carnal Prayer Mat), Aurora Theater Company (Global Age Project), and New Conservatory Theater (Fortune and Friends’ Eyes). Film credits include Quitters and Beauty and The Blade. Leon is a graduate of the School of Drama at UNC School of the Arts and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company, and Playground.
MISSING
Brian Rivera made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award winning revival of The King & I at Lincoln Center, playing The King of Siam on occasion. Years later, he officially played The King of Siam in the West End UK & Ireland Tour of The King and I. Some of his Bay Area credits include the US Premiere of The Orphan of Zhao at ACT (& La Jolla Playhouse), Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Yellowjackets, and California Shakespeare Theater’s American Night. Brian is a member of Campo Santo Theatre Company, in residence at The Magic Theatre. He is also a company member of Word for Word Theatre Company as well as a new Collective member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. He recently won the Charles Dean Award for Excellence in Bay Area Theatre Performance. Brian is a graduate of SFSU’s Drama Department, and is a proud member of AEA & SAG/AFTRA. Ars longa, vita brevis
Mary Ann Rodgers has had the privilege of being an actor and director in the Bay Area for many years. She’s worked with Central Works, Shotgun Players, SPARC Theater, Ross Valley Players, and more. She will direct the upcoming production of Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B by Kate Hamill at Ross Valley Players and act this summer in Marin Shakespeare Company’s Julius Caesar. A woman-centered horror film, This is Book Club, in which she is featured recently won Best Ensemble at the Chicago Frenzy Film Festival. Huge thanks always to her husband Malcolm and their daughter Thea.
Issue: Intergenerational trauma
Solution: Destigmatizing mental health care
This utterly delightful, hilarious, and touching screenplay follows a family who is sent to mandatory therapy. Think: Prince of Tides meets Kim’s Convenience. From the first absurd moments, these characters become friends that we’re rooting for while their path toward healing is gently lit with compassion and joy.
Mikee Loria (he/him) is a Fil-Am storyteller / actor based in SoCal. He is thrilled to hear Family Kwento out loud for the first time! Writing highlights: Son of a Kaiju (Best of the Best of Playground ’25 Season). Theatre highlights: Mateo from A Driving Beat (Flint Rep Theatre), Wolf from Wolf Play (Shotgun Players). Film/TV highlights: Gregory in Princeton’s in the Mix, Arnel in Nanay’s Lullaby. In the works, a family inspired Mahjong novel. Mikee is eager to continue telling stories that not only entertain, but also remind us of what it means to be human.
IG: @mikeeloria
Ely Sonny Orquiza is a 2023 YBCA 100 Honoree, inaugural Cali Catalyst Recipient, and two-time Theatre Bay Area Grant awardee. His body of work spans American Conservatory Theater, Magic Theatre, Center Theater Group, East West Players, Cal Performances, The Kennedy Center, and Theatre Rhinoceros, among many others. He is the originator of the Living Document of BIPOC Experiences in Bay Area Theatre and currently serves as Director of Education and Community at Magic Theatre.
Tasi Alabastro (he, him) is an award-winning multi-hyphenated artist based in San Jose, CA. Selected acting credits include The Play That Goes Wrong and Twelfth Night (San Francisco Playhouse), A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theatre), Every Brilliant Thing, Vietgone, and Stupid F*cking Bird (City Lights Theater Company), and Sisters Matsumoto (Center REPertory Company). Directing credits include the inaugural AAPI Playwright Festival at Contemporary Asian Theater Scene (CATS) and assistant director of Clyde’s at City Lights Theater Company. He is a senior company member of the Red Ladder Theatre Company, a nationally acclaimed, award-winning social justice theatre company.
Nicole Apostol Bruno is a Bay Area based actor. Favorite credits include: Scout in Sally and Tom (Marin Theatre); #13 in The Wolves (Marin Theatre); Mai in Cuckoo Edible Magic (SFBATCO); Celestia in The Truer History of the Chan Family (Eugenie Chan Theatre Projects); Sylvia in Bright Shining Sea (PlayGround SF); understudy performances in Richard II and Great Expectations (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Nicole holds a BFA from Southern Oregon University and is a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association.
Jacqueline De Muro has been a fixture in the San Francisco theatre and music scene for over 30 years. Favorite roles include Bloody Mary in South Pacific (BATCC award winner), Aldonza in Man of La Mancha, Shogun’s Mother in Pacific Overtures, Genevieve in The Baker’s Wife, Lady Thiang in The King and I, Charlotte in A Little Night Music, and originating the role of Bernice in Happy Pleasant Valley (BATCC award nominee). Most recently, Jacqueline appeared as Lita Encore in Ruthless! at the New Conservatory Theatre Center. Proud AEA union member.
Jed Parsario is based in Oakland, CA. Recent credits include Froggy (CenterREP), Disruption (San Francisco Mime Troupe) and, As You Like It (CalShakes). He’s been seen at A.C.T., Marin Shakespeare, and Z-Space.
Krystle Piamonte is a San Francisco-based artist. Theatre credits include work at Z Space, SF Playhouse, Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks, Bindlestiff Studio, 59E59 in collaboration with Artistic Stamp, and the radio play, THE FOREVER WAVE by Nicole Gluckstern. Screen credits include the award-winning short films BOUND 4 HEAVEN and MEDIAN. She is a 2x Theatre Bay Area Award Finalist for Outstanding Performance in a Principal Role in a Play and was named an MVP of Bay Area Theatre by KQED. Krystle is a Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director of The Chikahan Company and a company member of PlayGround SF.
Jomar Tagatac most recently appeared in Marin Theater’s production of The Cherry Orchard as Yephikhodov. Recent credits include A Christmas Carol (Center Rep), Writing Fragments Home (Hillbarn Theatre), and My Fair Lady (San Francisco Playhouse). His extensive work with San Francisco Playhouse includes The Glass Menagerie, Hold These Truths, and Art. At A.C.T., credits include Vietgone, The Headlands, and Big Data. Additional Bay Area credits span Marin Theater, CalShakes, TheatreWorks, and Oakland Theater Project. Jomar is a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow and recipient of multiple BATCC awards. He holds an MFA from American Conservatory Theater, where he currently serves as a board member.
Michelle is a Kalmyk/Pinay performance maker in the Bay Area for over 30 years. Michelle has roots as a performer but her most recent theatrical credits have been as a director. She’s directed the all female AAPI sketch comedy group Granny Cart Gangstas, in their holiday show XXXMAS – SUCK OUR MISTLETOES, Golden Thread and Z-Space’s co-production of PILGRIMAGE by Humaira Ghilzai and Bridgette Dutta Portman, SFBATCO’s, CUCKOO EDIBLE MAGIC by Reed Flores, Shotgun Player’s production of THIRTY-SIX by Leah Nanako Winkler which won the Will Glickman Award in 2025. Michelle is also a proud member of Shotgun Players’ artistic company and is currently an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco.
Donations
Imagine the possibilities!
Please help us speed the pace of progress with solutions-focused stories!
Your tax-deductible gift or pledge of any size will make a huge difference!
Use the giving form at the right for cards or make your check payable to: World Builders Incubator
If you prefer, paper donation forms and envelopes are available in the lobby.
Thank you!
Or make your check payable to: World Builders Incubator
If you prefer, paper donation forms and envelopes are available in the lobby.
A Special Thank YOu
Thank you to WBI’s incredible community of founding artists, donors, board members and advisors who made today and all of our work possible!
Special thanks to:
Paper Cranes Charitable Fund
Jane & Peter Loeb
Partners in Justice International
Tom Swift
The Financial Avengers
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Edith Ott
John Kikuchi & Debra Coggins
Brady Lea & David Gallagher
Lynn Mostoller & Kathryn McKnight
Jerome Gentes
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Thank you!
Introduction to World Builders Incubator
Presentation from the Writer
The Reading
A few final words
Please join us for an informal reception in the YBCA Lounge immediately following each reading.
A special thanks to the generous donors who made today and our founding work possible: The Paper Cranes Charitable Fund, Jane & Peter Loeb, The Financial Avengers, Tom Swift, Edith Ott, John & Debra Kikuchi, Brady Lea & David Gallagher, Lynn Mostoller & Kathy McKnight, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and our entire community of donors and advisors.
Thank you!
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