Act 1, Scene 2

From page to stage in one night

8 pm, November 8 – 23, 2019

Experience the creation of an original play in real time with Un-Scripted Theater Company. Each performance features a different guest playwright who's brought us the first scene of an unfinished play. We'll perform their scene for you while reading it for the first time, then improvise the rest — starting from Act 1, Scene 2. Theater can't get any more live than this!

Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Nov. 8 - 23, 2019

Directed by Merrill Gruver and Clay Robeson.

Cast

Featured

Derek

Derek Cochran is enjoying his twentieth year performing improvisation in the Bay Area. Throughout those years, he was inspired by and fortunate enough to work with some of the most talented improvisers in the country. He credits his love of long form improvisation to his early instructors, Diane Rachel and Carol Hazenfield, for showing him that improv can go beyond a simple funny game and create a rich tapestry of all kinds of stories. Currently he is proud to work with the Un-Scripted Theater Company ensemble, where they allow him to obey the inscrutable exultation of his soul. He gives thanks to his family, his Treasure Island Pirate dogs, and to all the improvisers who he has worked with, been taught by, and failed spectacularly with; throughout the years.

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here." ~ The Tempest

Melissa

Melissa is a member of the Un-Scripted Theater Company artistic staff and co-founder of their weekly late-night improv comedy show DASH. She has performed, directed, and taught improv for 15 years in San Francisco, Boston, and New York. She is a former longtime cast member at ImprovBoston, appearing in their Nickelodeon Award-winning Family Show among many others, and has also appeared on the Upright Citizens Brigade and BATS stages.

Peter

Peter Chapman is an executive coach by day and improviser by night. He learned about improv at Stanford, which is also where he learned about being queer and his relationship with depression. A nerd at heart, he has directed shows such as Space Trip and Adventure Quest. When he’s not working, he can usually be found somewhere on the California coastline or cooking with a lot of butter.

Rachel

Rachel has been performing in improv theater officially since she was 13, and performing unofficially her entire life. While offstage, she enjoys knitting sweaters of variable quality, eating foods that include salted caramel, and watching corny true crime television shows from the 90s. Rachel will also be performing with Un-Scripted this summer. Unfortunately, Pluto the Shih Tzu (pictured) did not make it through auditions and will not be performing in any Un-Scripted shows.

Steven

Steven Anacker first caught the improv bug in the mid-‘90s as a member of Short Order Theater in New York City. In San Francisco, Steven has been lucky enough to play with the Leela Theatre, Secret Improv Society and BATS, as well as experimenting with new formats as a founding member of BoyGirlBoy, TwoXFour and the Improv Artists. Steven is thrilled to be a member of Un-Scripted Theater Company.

Susie

Susie Sargent discovered and fell in love with improv over 20 years ago and enjoys sharing her passion through training, teaching and performing. She has taught the skills of improvisation to students aged 3 – 80. Susie is an ensemble and staff member of Un-Scripted Theater Company and loves surprising the audience and creating rich and diverse characters. Her ideal evening at home is a dinner party with improvisors who are likely to break into interpretative dance at any moment.

Vanessa

Vanessa Speed is originally from New York but calls the Bay Area her forever home. She grew up participating in any musical that would have her, but didn't stray from scripted theater until 2009, when she began her improv training at Pan Theater. She originally thought that improv would lead her towards a career in stand-up comedy, before discovering her true love, theatrical improvisation, at the Un-Scripted Theater Company. She first performed with the company in 2011, and joined its ensemble in 2012. She enjoys bringing music, characters with unspoken histories, and dynamic relationships to her work. Her most recent improvisational efforts center around making up songs, games and stories for her young daughter.

Clay

Clay Robeson has been improvising for nearly 20 years now. Starting out in Boston he studied, then performed and taught with the Improv Asylum, the Improv Foundry and Third Grade Trick. Since returning to the West Coast, Clay has worked with the Jesters of Yes, been a producer for the San Francisco Improv Festival (2006 to 2009), and most importantly, a longtime member of Un-Scripted. When not making things up on stage, you can find him wandering the city taking photographs or working on a puppet sci-fi web drama. You can also see him walking away from the camera in two different scenes (about 7 seconds worth) in High School Musical 3.

In his copious spare time, he volunteers with City Grazing, a non-profit goat sanctuary out on Hunter's Point.

Playwrights

Featured

Elford Alley

Elford Alley is a playwright and novelist. Recently, his full-length play Ghosts was performed at the 2018 Capital Fringe Festival and his one act Learned Executioners was produced by The Navigators Theater in New York. He's excited for his work to be a part of Act One, Scene Two.

John Levine

John Levine’s plays have been presented in, among other places, New York, New Jersey, California, Missouri, Michigan, Rhode Island, Washington, Connecticut, and Alaska. International productions include Mexico, Canada, India, Australia, the Philippines and the U.K. His full-length play What We Know and What We Don’t Know About It was selected for development by Wordsmyth Theatre of Houston, Texas. His work has also been published in a number of anthologies. He wrote the screenplay for the short film "Human Resources" and co-wrote “A Movie Set,” screened recently at film festivals. He has worked for the past four years with Core Artist Ensemble of NYC at the Barrow Group. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, the Playwrights Lab, and Alma Theatre Playwrights Collective. More info at johnlevineplaywright.com.

Liana Emley

Liana grew up in Sacramento rollerblading the 'burbs and exploring the American River. Somehow that developed into a love of all things creative which led her to the Bay Area and into the open arms of theatre. She now spends her weekdays as the Marketing Manager for the Berkeley Humane East Bay Society (adopt a dog or cat!) and her weekends writing and exploring the East Bay with her husband, Nathan and their dog, Rusty.

Peter Heller

Paul Heller is an award-winning playwright based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In collaboration with actors, puppeteers, dancers, directors, and university professors, Paul has devised original plays that examine America’s shrinking rural culture, prison debt, opioid addiction, our current political divide, our identity as Americans, and our relationship with Mexico, Japan, China, and Vietnam.

Diana DiCostanzo

Diana DiCostanzo is an NYC-based actress, singer-songwriter, improvisor, and playwright. You can find her performing music around NYC from her album “Matters of the Heart” (iTunes & Spotify). Her heartfelt and humorous take on life’s experiences make up a large part of the art she creates. An alumni of Un-Scripted Theater Company, she is thrilled to be a third time playwright for this show after participating in 2011 (Kids and Dolls) and 2012 (You Look Like Lola). This show is near and dear to her heart as she was also able to produce, direct, and perform in the East Coast premiere in 2018 produced by Blank Book Ensemble in NYC! www.dianadicostanzo.com

Lynne Kaufman

Lynne is the author of twenty full-length plays, three novels and a dozen short stories. Three of her plays were produced at the Marsh, four premiered at the Magic, and her play "Sex Scandal” was produced by Un-Scripted Theatre Company. She has received numerous awards including the Glickman Award for Best New Play, Theatreworks' ‘Best New Play in California Award”, the Otis Guernsey Outstanding New Voice in American Theatre Award, and a Kennedy Center/NEA/ Fund for New American Plays Award. Her play “Fakes” premiered at Florida Studio Theatre and was optioned for film by 20th Century Fox. www.Lynnekaufman.com