07/08 main season:
wishful drinking
Carrie Fisher, Creator / Performer
Tony Taccone, Director
Alexander V. Nichols, Scenic, Lighting & Projection Design
Christina Wright, Costume Design
Heather Bradley, Sound Coordinator
Billy Philadelphia, Piano Recording
Nicole Dickerson, Stage Manager
carrie fisher
(Creator / Performer) has been a compelling force in the film industry since her feature film debut opposite Warren Beatty in the 1975 hit Shampoo. The daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, she became a cultural icon when she played Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy. Her star-studded career includes roles in countless films such as Austin Powers, The Blues Brothers, The Burbs, Charlie’s Angels, Garbo Talks, Hannah and her Sisters, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, The Man with One Red Shoe, Scream 3, This is My Life, When Harry Met Sally and Wonderland. Her next films, Fanboys, White Lightnin’ and the remake of The Women, will be released this year. In 1987, Fisher’s book, Postcards from the Edge, leapt onto the New York Times’ bestseller list and netted her the Los Angeles Pen Award for Best First Novel. Three more bestsellers followed: Delusions of Grandma, Surrender the Pink and The Best Awful. Fisher turned Postcards into a screenplay for the hit film starring Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep, and is currently adapting The Best Awful for HBO with producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks. Her writing has also appeared in Details, Harper’s Bazaar, the New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Vogue and many other major publications. Fisher hosted her own show on the Oxygen network, Conversations from the Edge. Her television credits range all the way from Laverne and Shirley to Sex in the City, with recent appearances on popular programs such as 30 Rock and Weeds. Her experiences with addiction and bipolar disorder—and her willingness to speak honestly about them—have made her a sought-after speaker and respected advocate for these communities.
tony taccone
(Director) is in his 11th year as artistic director of Berkeley Rep, where he has staged more than 35 shows, including the world premieres of The Convict’s Return, Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell, The First 100 Years, Geni(us), Ravenshead and Virgin Molly. He commissioned Tony Kushner’s renowned Angels in America, codirected its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum and has collaborated with Kushner on six projects. Their latest piece, Brundibar, featured designs by beloved children’s author Maurice Sendak. It debuted at Berkeley Rep and then traveled to New Haven and New York, where it sold out its run and was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards. Tony recently made his Broadway debut with Bridge & Tunnel, which was universally lauded by the critics and won a Tony Award for its star, Sarah Jones. He also staged the show’s record-breaking off-Broadway run, workshopped it for Broadway at Berkeley Rep and directed Sarah’s previous hit, Surface Transit. In 2004, his production of David Edgar’s Continental Divide transferred to the Barbican in London after playing the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse and England’s Birmingham Rep. His other regional credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre and San Francisco’s Eureka Theatre, where he served six years as artistic director.
alexander v. nichols
(Scenic, Lighting & Projection Designer) returns to Berkeley Rep, having most recently provided the lighting and video design for Taking Over. Other Berkeley Rep designs include Continental Divide, Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, Fêtes de la Nuit, Mother Courage, Surface Transit and Zorro in Hell, among others. He has also worked at American Conservatory Theater, Alley Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Boston Ballet, California Shakespeare Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Huntington Theatre Company, the Kronos Quartet, National Theater of Taiwan, ODC/SF, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, as well as on projects with Rinde Eckert. Alexander has served as resident designer for the Hartford Ballet, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company and Pennsylvania Ballet, and has been the lighting director for American Ballet Theater. His dance credits include designs for choreographers Christopher d’Amboise, Ann Carlson, Val Caniparoli, Jean Grand-Maitre, Bill T. Jones, Mark Morris, Mikko Nissinen, Kevin O’Day, Kirk Peterson, Stephen Petronio, Dwight Rhoden, Michael Smuin and Brenda Way.
christina wright
(Costume Designer) was born in Los Angeles, and studied post-modern theatre and criticism at Occidental College. She has designed costumes for the world premiere of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s Monsters of Grace, international productions of Bill Viola’s Memoria and Quintet of the Astonished and most recently, for Culture Clash’s The Birds at the Getty Villa and James Joyce’s The Dead at Open Fist Theatre Company. Christina’s other favorite productions include Jodi Long’s Surfing DNA at East/West Players, Jan Munroe’s Notes: On Performance at Wallenboyd Theatre, David Schweizer’s Transformations, and The Mystery of Irma Vep and Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Tiffany Theater. For the past eight years, Christina has also designed and created costumes and props for the Native Voices new works series at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage.
nicole dickerson *
(Stage Manager) returns to Berkeley Rep, having served as stage manager for 9 Parts of Desire, Master Class and The Guys. Her most recent Bay Area project was American Conservatory Theater’s production of A Christmas Carol. Other local credits include ‘BOT, The Hopper Collection and 3F, 4F at Magic Theatre; Colossus of Rhodes, For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again and The Little Foxes at A.C.T.; Displaced and Frozen at Marin Theatre Company; and King Lear, Man and Superman, and The Merchant of Venice at Cal Shakes. She also recently served as the lighting supervisor and stage manager for the US tour of Stories by Tobias Wolff with Word for Word, and assistant stage manager and production coordinator for Word for Word’s Tour de France 2004—2006 in Paris.
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
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