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SAN DIEGO (June 13, 2019)—For the third consecutive year, The Old Globe will participate in the George L. Stevens Senior Center’s annual Juneteenth Celebration by presenting an original work developed through The Old Globe’s arts engagement program coLAB: The Ruby in Us, with book and music written by Karen Ann Daniels, Director of the Mobile Unit at New York’s Public Theater. Music for the piece was composed by Brandon Cerquedo, and language for the performance was collaboratively evolved in a workshop setting at the Center with the senior community that hosts the annual celebration. Award-winning director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (Skeleton Crew at the Globe, Globe Classical Directing Fellow) returns to helm this wonderful program alongside lauded jazz musician, musical theatre favorite, and The Ruby in Us music director Leonard Patton.
The Juneteenth Celebration event on June 19 begins at 11:00 a.m. and ends at 2:00 p.m. A shortened preview of Daniels’s The Ruby in Us will take place as part of the event at 1:00 p.m. RSVP is required to this presentation by calling (619) 266-2066. Lunch is provided and is priced at $13.00 a plate. Three full presentations of the piece will take place: on Friday, June 21 at 7:00 p.m. and on Saturday, June 22 at 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. at the Fourth District Seniors Resource Center at 570 S. 65th Street, San Diego, CA 92114. There is a suggested donation of $20.00. All proceeds go directly to the Fourth District Seniors Resource Center.
The Ruby in Us, is about the life of Ruby Bridges, an American activist who, at age six, was the youngest of a group of African American students to integrate schools in the American South. Ruby made history during this battle for school integration in 1960, becoming a symbol of the civil rights movement. But what value does it have for her—and us—50 years later?
The cast includes Bryan Barbarin as Minister and Coryphe, Yolanda Marie Franklin as Adult Ruby, Joy Yvonne Jones as Mama, Jake Millgard in various roles, Victor Morris as Papa, Erika Beth Phillips as Barbara Henry, and Alexandra Slade as Young Ruby.
The presentation will feature a live chorus with community members of the Fourth District Seniors Resource Center alongside professional singers and actors.
“The Ruby in Us is the most ambitious project we have created through coLAB,” shared Freedome Bradley-Ballentine, Director of Arts Engagement of The Old Globe. “We are constantly asking ourselves, ‘How are we making theatre matter to more people?’ We have done several projects with our Fourth District family, but none like this. The musical is the most complex form of the modern theatre, and it’s what our partners wanted. I couldn’t be prouder to go on this journey with our friends and partners at the Fourth District Seniors Resource Center. We have worked with each other on this project and created a story that others in the community will love. It connects our shared history and empowers us to continue to fight for what is right today. Karen Ann Daniels has crafted a powerful book with participants from the Fourth District and created a terrific score with Brandon Cerquedo. Delicia Turner Sonnenberg delicately guides this production with music direction by the gifted Leonard Patton. All of San Diego is welcomed to this very limited engagement that is set to benefit the George L. Stevens Senior Center.”
Karen Ann Daniels (Book, Music, and Lyrics) currently lives in New York City, where she is the Director of the Mobile Unit for The Public Theater. Before moving to New York she was Associate Director of Arts Engagement at The Old Globe, where she managed the Globe’s arts engagement programs and community partnerships, being instrumental in piloting and implementing key programs such as Globe for All (the annual tour of free plays across San Diego), coLAB (devising original performances with the community), Community Voices (playwriting for new writers), and Reflecting Shakespeare (teaching Shakespeare in corrections) across communities. Prior to joining the Globe, she was a teaching artist and director with Studio East’s ArtsReach program, as well as a private voice and acting coach. Daniels is an accomplished actor, vocalist, and musician. She holds a B.A. in Art History from UCLA, an M.F.A. in Musical Theatre from San Diego State University, and a certificate in Shakespeare from the British American Drama Academy.
Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (Director) is a founder and the former Artistic Director of MOXIE Theatre. She directed Skeleton Crew for The Old Globe and Romeo and Juliet for The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. She was a 2019 Classical Directing Fellow in The Old Globe Classical Directing Fellowship, led by the Globe’s Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. Her work has also been seen at San Diego Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego State University, Cygnet Theatre Company, New Village Arts, Diversionary Theatre, and Playwrights Project. Her honors include Theatre Communications Group’s New Generations Program grant, San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Awards, Women’s International Center Living Legacy Award, Van Lier Fund fellowship (Second Stage Theatre), and New York Drama League’s Directors Project. She is married to designer Jerry Sonnenberg and is the proud mama to August and Zoë.
Since 2002, the Fourth District Seniors Resource Center (FDSRC) has worked to enhance and embrace the quality of life for its “seasoned ambassadors” by providing a wholesome and safe environment for them to thrive in, while assisting them to live more independently and proactively. It provides quality services to its district’s lower-to-moderate-income seniors and their families through a variety of resources. FDSRC does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, or political opinion or affiliation. The new George L. Stevens Senior Center was formally opened in March 2006. The building itself is LEED certified, which means it is environmentally friendly, and green in materials and in all aspects of the facility’s maintenance. This allows the center to sell its energy back to the gas and electric company, which becomes a source that helps the organization sustain itself.
The Old Globe created coLAB workshops as part of its continued effort to make theatre matter to more people, expanding our work in service to the public good. This arts engagement program involves a collaborative art-making process between community members and artists, uniting storytelling and playmaking. The goal is to develop original pieces and showcase them in established community festivals.
Arts Engagement Programs Manager Katherine Harroff (Producer) manages the free AXIS performing-arts series, the Community Voices program, and the coLAB workshops, and she has been a solid figure in this production, overseeing partner relations, casting, tone, and rehearsals.
coLAB is supported by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation. Financial support is provided by The City of San Diego.
CALENDAR: Ken Ludwig’s The Gods of Comedy (5/11–6/16), What You Are (5/30–6/30), AXIS: San Diego’s Gods of Comedy (6/15), As You Like It (6/16–7/21), AXIS: Make Music San Diego (6/21), The Tale of Despereaux (7/6–8/11), Steve Martin’s The Underpants (7/27–8/25), Romeo and Juliet (8/11–9/15), Almost Famous (9/13–10/20), AXIS: Mexican Independence Day Celebration (9/14), Noura (9/20–10/20), 2019 Globe Gala (9/21), Globe for All Tour: The Winter’s Tale (10/29–11/17), M.F.A.: Twelfth Night (11/2–10), AXIS: Day of the Dead (11/3), Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (11/3–12/29), Ebenezer Scrooge’s BIG San Diego Christmas Show (11/23–12/24), August Wilson’s Jitney (1/18/2020-2/23), Hurricane Diane (2/8–3/8), Little Women (3/14–4/19), Faceless (3/28–4/26), The Gardens of Anuncia (5/8–6/14), What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (5/28–6/28).
PHOTO EDITORS: Digital images of The Old Globe’s productions are available at www.theoldglobe.org/press-room.
The Tony Award–winning The Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional not-for-profit regional theatres. Now in its 85th year, the Globe is San Diego’s flagship performing arts institution, and it serves a vibrant community with theatre as a public good. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 16 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages, including its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people annually attend Globe productions and participate in the theatre’s artistic and arts engagement programs. Its nationally prominent Arts Engagement Department provides an array of participatory programs that make theatre matter to more people in neighborhoods throughout the region. Humanities programs at the Globe and around the city broaden the community’s understanding of theatre art in all its forms. The Globe also boasts a range of new play development programs with professional and community-based writers, as well as the renowned The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Numerous world premieres—such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Bright Star, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,and Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!—have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.
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Advance interviews are available with director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg and the creative team; Director of Arts Engagement Freedome Bradley-Ballentine; and Arts Engagement Programs Manager Katherine Harroff.
Please contact Alejandra Enciso-Dardashti to arrange at aenciso@TheOldGlobe.org or (619) 238-0043 x2356.
CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES
Yolanda Marie Franklin (Adult Ruby) is honored to be a part of telling the compelling life story of Ruby Bridges. Franklin is an advocate of projects about the African American experience. She is an award-winning actress and director, and working on plays by August Wilson, Ifa Bayeza, Ntozake Shange, and Michael Henry Brown has led her to the collaboration of writing a one-woman show, Ten Chain Links from Judge, about Oney Judge. She plans to tour her play in 2020. Franklin will be performing in Ring Round the Moon at Lamb’s Players Theatre this fall.
Joy Yvonne Jones (Mama), originally from Houston, attended Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and went on to study at University of Minnesota in the Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program. Jones first discovered her passion for acting at the age of 10, when she was given the role of Harriet Tubman in the black history program at her church. She believes that every story has a purpose, and as an actress, she is responsible for giving it breath. Her most recent credits include Hall in Men on Boats (New Village Arts), Saartjie Baartman in Voyeurs de Venus (MOXIE Theatre), and Jane in Pride and Prejudice (Cygnet Theatre Company). She has also been a teaching artist at Neal Hamil Centre in Houston and worked with Texas Shakespeare Festival for several seasons.
Jake Millgard (Various Roles) is proud to call The Old Globe his second home. He has been in over 10 productions at The Old Globe, and he received his M.F.A. from The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. He is so excited to be a part of this production and to get the opportunity to be around the wonderful people of the Fourth District. jakemillgard.com.
Victor Morris (Papa) has worked at La Jolla Playhouse, MOXIE Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The 5th Avenue Theatre, Intiman Theatre, and Seattle Repertory Theatre. His film credits include Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle, Gus Van Sant’s Restless, Ernest R. Dickerson’s Surviving the Game, Matthew Carnahan’s Black Circle Boys, His television credits include “American Vandal,” “Criminal Minds,” “Grimm,” and “Leverage.” He is also currently in the San Diego Opera ensemble.
Erika Beth Phillips (Barbara Henry) has worked as an actor in London, in New York, throughout the U.S., and here in San Diego. For The Old Globe, she serves as Arts Engagement Programs Manager, co-directing the Pam Farr Summer Shakespeare Studioand leading Reflecting Shakespeare, a rehabilitative performance program for incarcerated men and women in San Diego and Imperial Counties. Phillips loves to sing and will miss raising her voice in the alto section with the fine ladies of the Fourth District Seniors Resource Center.
Alexandra Slade (Little Ruby) is so thrilled and grateful to be making her coLAB debut. Her recent credits include BLISS (or Emily Post Is Dead!) (MOXIE Theatre), The Legend of Georgia McBride (Cygnet Theatre Company), Good People (Scripps Ranch Theatre), Ragtime (San Diego Musical Theatre), Oklahoma! (New Village Arts), Spring Awakening (The Barn Stage Company), and Bare: A Pop Opera (Diversionary Theatre).
Brandon Cerquedo (Additional Music) is a music composer, music producer, and musician based in San Diego and Los Angeles. His compositions range from classical pieces to jazz to electronic to experimental compositions and everything in between. His love for music started at an early age, and he picked up an interest in composition at the age of 13. He has had the pleasure of working with prestigious theatres such as The Old Globe and Intrepid Theatre Company, and organizations like the Jacobs Center and San Diego Symphony.
Leonard Patton (Music Director and Choral Arrangements) has worked as a professional singer, musician, actor, and composer in San Diego for many years and has been a familiar face in many Lamb’s Players Theatre productions, including San Diego’s longest-running original musical mixtape; Hello, Dolly!; Godspell; Boomers; Festival of Christmas; and Pump Boys and Dinettes. Patton holds the first master’s degree in Jazz Studies from San Diego State University as a vocalist. He is currently working with two-time Grammy Award–winning producer Kamau Kenyatta on a new recording project. On August 8, 2019, Patton and his group will make their second Guinness World Record attempt for the most concerts in 24 hours, all to garner attention for his new not-for-profit, Jazz Vocal Workshop.
Mayté Martínez (Costume Design) is a native-born San Diegan. She graduated with associate degrees in Theatre Arts Acting, Technical, as well as Humanities and Fine Art from Grossmont College, with an emphasis in Costume Design. She is now enrolled at San Diego State University, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Costume Design. This is her second time working at The Old Globe with the Department of Arts Engagement’s coLAB, previously working on costumes for the coLAB production of La Visita de la Abuela. She intends to pursue a master’s degree in Theatre Arts.
Mandisa Reed (Stage Manager) is a freelance stage manager based in Southern California. She is a proud HBCU alumna of both Dillard University in New Orleans, where she earned her bachelor’s degree, and UC San Diego, where she earned an M.F.A. in Stage Management. She is proud to be a part of celebrating Juneteenth with a wonderful cast and creative team.
