IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE

Lisa Peterson (Director), formerly Berkeley Rep’s associate director, returns to the Theatre, where she directed Culture Clash (Still) in America, The Good Book ( co-written with Denis O’Hare), Office Hour, Watch on the Rhine, It Can’t Happen Here, An Iliad (also co-written with Denis O’Hare), Mother Courage, and Antony & Cleopatra. She directed Lauren Yee’s The Great Leap at American Conservatory Theater last year. At Center Theatre Group, she recently directed Lynn Nottage’s Sweat as well as Culture Clash’s Chavez Ravine (2015 Ovation Award, Best Production), and Water and Power, among other plays. She co-wrote and directed An Iliad with Denis O’Hare (Broad Stage, New York Theatre Workshop, Obie and Lucille Lortel awards).

A two-time Obie Award-winner, she has directed world premieres by Tony Kushner, Beth Henley, Naomi Wallace, Chay Yew, Luis Alfaro, Fernanda Coppel, David Henry Hwang, Jose Rivera, Ellen McLaughlin, Lisa Ramirez, John Belluso, Caryl Churchill, Janusz Glowacki, Cheryl West, and many others.

She was associate director at La Jolla Playhouse for three years and resident director at Mark Taper Forum for 10 years. She is currently working on a new version of her musical adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, music by David Bucknam and Adam Gwon (premiered at NYTW 1990 and New York Stage and Film 2018); The Song of Rome with Denis O’Hare, commission for the McCarter Theater; and The Idea of Order with composer Todd Almond, commissioned by Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, and Seattle Rep.

Bennett S. Cohen (Adaptor) is a graduate of Yale University’s School of Drama and UC Berkeley. Cohen has worked in theatre, film, and television. His play American Music was chosen to be part of the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and has had numerous productions. His play Tequila was originally produced by the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco and has been published in West Coast Plays #8. Cohen has written extensively for film and television, working with such companies as Showtime, Paramount Television, Universal Television, and Fox International Productions, among others. He has adapted two novels for the screen, Jack Higgins’ WWII-era thriller Night of the Fox and Roderick Thorpe’s police drama Rainbow Drive. Most recently, Cohen wrote the feature film The Last Voyage of Zheng He.

Paul James Prendergast (Sound Designer) was the composer and sound designer on the 2016 production of It Can’t Happen Here and Roe at Berkeley Rep. His Broadway credits include All the Way and The Great Society. His regional credits include the Guthrie Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (25 productions), Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, American Repertory Theater, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Hartford Stage, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Geffen Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Kennedy Center, Alley Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, and American Conservatory Theater. He has also designed for theme parks, including Universal Studios, Disney, and Knott’s Berry Farm, and museums, including J. Paul Getty, Geffen Contemporary, and Autry Museum of Western Heritage. His dance credits include Diavolo Dance Theater, Momix, and Parsons Dance. Paul’s work as a singer/songwriter has appeared in films, on recordings, and in music venues nationwide.