Edward Chen

San Francisco Bay Area born, Edward Chen received a collegiate baseball scholarship and attended Cornell University where he discovered a passion for the performing arts. Starring in numerous roles in TV and film, Edward’s first love is theatre for its tight community, close collaboration with artists, and alive intimacy with audience. Lead roles at top theaters (Boston Court, East West Players, South Coast Rep) received praise from the LA Times, “Charismatic…a very human young man” and Backstage.com, “Holding fast to his every character, Chen takes not one false step onstage.” Today’s politically charged environment often blocks social dialogue, Edward believes theatre allows  actors to speak that dialogue, share truth, and cultivate new understanding.

Manny Fernandes

Manny has appeared in over a dozen productions at Cygnet. Favorites include: The Last Wife (San Diego Critics Circle nomination), Gypsy, True West (SDCC nomination), Fool for Love, Travesties, The Importance of Being Earnest, Assassins, Private Lives, A Christmas Carol, Mauritius, Communicating Doors, Escanaba in da Moonlight. Select local credits include Ring Round the Moon, Festival of Christmas, Chaps, Once, Camping with Henry and Tom (Lambs); The Secret Garden, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Big River, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men (SDCC Award), Golden Boy (SDCC Award), Simpatico (New Village Arts); Outside Mullingar, Death of a Salesman, A Christmas Carol, Cabaret (San Diego Rep); Anna in the Tropics (Moonlight); West Side Story (San Diego Musical Theatre); Extraordinary Chambers (Mo’olelo); Jeffrey, Boys in the Band, Never the Sinner, Fifth of July, Diversionary Theatre; Arcadia, Moon Over Buffalo, The Rivals (North Coast Rep). Love to his wife and kids.

Keiko Green

Keiko Green recently relocated from Seattle to begin her first year as an MFA Playwriting student at UCSD. She originated this role in the world premiere productions at the Denver Center of Performing Arts and the Seattle Repertory Theatre. Regional Theatre: As You Like It: Public Works, The Comparables (Seattle Rep); Stupid F#$%ing Bird, Dangerous Liaisons, A Christmas Carol, Bad Apples (ACT Theatre); All’s Well That Ends Well, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bring Down the House Pts. 1 & 2, Love’s Labours Lost, Othello (Seattle Shakespeare Company). TV/Film: “Grimm,” “Z Nation,” “C.O.G.” As a playwright, she was an honorable mention on the Kilroys List, a finalist for the Many Voices and Jerome Fellowships at the Playwrights Center, winner of Outstanding New Play at Seattle’s Gregory Awards, and selected for the Scratchpad Series at the Playwrights Realm. Training: BFA, NYU. www.keikogreen.com

Scott Keiji Takeda

Heather M. Brose

Heather’s recent PSM credits include: Pageant, A Behanding in Spokane, Little Shop of Horrors, Cabaret, It’s a Wonderful Life, Private Lives, Cygnet Theatre; Bad Hombres/Good Wives, Sweat, Actually, Vietgone, Hand to God, Disgraced, My Manana Comes, Uncanny Valley, Steal Heaven, RED, In the Heights, The Mountaintop, Clybourne Park, Tortilla Curtain, Doubt, Water & Power, San Diego REP; Million Dollar Quartet, Noises Off, FOC ’15-’17, Big Fish, American Rhythm, West Side Story, MIXTAPE, Smoke on the Mountain, Lamb’s Players Theatre; Alice Chan, La Jolla Playhouse; Salome and The Father, directed by Estelle Parsons for The Actors Studio starring Al Pacino and Dianne Wiest; and Stephen Sondheim’s 70^thBirthday Bash at the Hollywood Bowl. Proud member of Actor’s Equity Association.

Melanie Chen Cole

Melanie Chen Cole (Sound Design) is delighted to work at Cygnet Theatre again! Her work with the theatre include Pride & Prejudice, King Hedley II, Seven Guitars, and The Whale. Her recent credits include The Humans at San Diego Rep, White Pearl (U.S. premiere) at Studio Theatre, Noura and Tiny Beautiful Things at The Old Globe, the 2019 WOW Festival PDA and 2018 POP Tour Light Years Away at La Jolla Playhouse, Silent Sky at Tantrum Theatre/Ohio University, and Buzz (world premiere) and Romeo & Juliet at Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Other regional credits include Dallas Theater Center, PlayMakers Repertory Company,A Noise Within, and East West Players. Melanie holds an M.F.A. in Sound Design for Theatre & Dance from UC San Diego. www.melaniesound.com

Peter Herman

Cygnet Theatre: Costumes and Wig/Makeup Design for Shakespeare’s R&J, Hedwig and the Angry Inch.  Wigs/Makeup Design for The Virgin Trial, Rock of Ages, Pride and Prejudice, Angels in America, Marie and Rosetta, HIR, Spamalot, The Last Wife, Shockheaded Peter, On the 20^th Century, Bad Jews, Seven Guitars, King Hedley II, Gypsy, Stupid F**king Bird, The Rocky Horror Show, When the Rain Stops Falling, Hay Fever, The Vortex, Dogfight, My Fair Lady, Sons of the Prophet, Pageant, Fool for Love, True West, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Spring Awakening, Maple and Vine, The Importance of Being Earnest, Travesties, Company, Assassins, A Christmas Carol, Gem of the Ocean, Mistakes Were Made, Man of La Mancha, Dirty Blonde, Parade, A Behanding in Spokane, The Glass Menagerie, Little Shop of Horrors, Our Town, Cabaret, The Norman Conquests, Private Lives, Sweeney Todd.  Elsewhere: Peter has designed hair and wigs for over 300 productions, including the La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Rep, San Diego Opera and Disneyland.  Peter currently teaches wig and makeup at SDSU.

Minjoo Kim

Minjoo Kim is a lighting designer who is, such as an explorer, on a never-ending quest of understanding the perpetually fascinating facets of light. Her lighting design credits include Sensoria (New Renaissance Performing Art Company), Quiet No More (San Diego Women’s Chorus), Qulili (The Blind Spot), IDEAS-Cetacea (Calit2 Theater, Atkinson Hall), Crimson Girl (Dongsoong Art Center), Die or Not (Seoul Art Space Mullae), Mask on/off (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre).

She received MFA in theatrical lighting design from UCSD and a BA in Theatre and Film Design from Chung-Ang University in Seoul, Korea.

Yi-Chien Lee

Yi-Chien Lee is a San Diego based set designer originally born and raised in Taiwan. Selected design credits include Girlfriend (Diversionary), The Winter’s Tale (The Old Globe-Globe for All), Mission Incomplete (Young Stars, New Vision), Code: Cytus (Divertimento. Media), Truth or Dare (MOD Short Film), A Cigarette/How to eat A cow/Morning Glory (Tainaner Ensemble),  In Search of Beckett (Double Theatre), You tube (Dead-end Flower), Representation of the Cherry Orchard (Minister of Culture, Taiwan), A Cigarette/How to eat A cow/Morning Glory (Tainaner Ensemble), Everybody Black (UCSD), How to Defend Yourself, Mothers (New Play Festival). She received MFA from UCSD Theatre and Dance and BA from National Taiwan University. Her work for Moon drunk has been selected for Emerging Artist/Imagination Exhibit in 2019 Prague Quadrennial. yichienlee.com

Rob Lutfy

Rob is the Associate Artistic Director at Cygnet Theatre. Cygnet Theatre: The Last Five Years, The Virgin Trial, Pride and Prejudice, Marie and Rosetta, HIR, Every Brilliant Thing, The Wind and the Breeze, The Last Wife, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Shockheaded Peter, Bad Jews, Stupid F***ing Bird, When the Rain Stops Falling, Hay Fever, Sons of the Prophet, The Motherf**ker with the Hat. Elsewhere: Clown Play, NYC International Fringe Festival; The Gin Game, Anacostia Playhouse; The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Threshold Repertory; The Sunset Limited, 3M Productions; Time Stands Still, Collaborative Arts, Bodas de sangre, Grossmont College. He has worked on plays in development at The Kennedy Center, The O’Neill Theatre Center, Burning Coal Theatre, The Hub Theatre and The Rensing Center. He has assisted directors at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Folger Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center and Marin Theatre Company. He was the 2014-2015 National New Play Network Producer-in-Residence at Marin Theatre Company, and the 2012-2013 William R. Kenan, Jr. Directing Fellow at The John F. Kennedy Center. Rob is a graduate of the directing program under Gerald Freedman at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Blake McCarty

Blake McCarty is a director and designer, as well as the co-founder of Blindspot Collective, a theatre company devoted to transformative new work that cultivates and celebrates emerging artists, diverse audiences, and fresh ideas. Previous Cygnet productions: The Last Five Years, Rock of Ages, Angels in America, Spamalot, On the Twentieth Century, and The Rocky Horror Show. Upcoming: directing the touring production of Danny’s Story, a new play about transgender teens, and an artistic residency at the San Diego International Airport. Elsewhere as a designer: Light Years Away (La Jolla Playhouse); 33 1/3: House of Dreams, Evita, and Beachtown (San Diego Rep); This Beautiful City (Diversionary); Shadowlands, American Rhythm, and Oz (Lamb’s Players); Cloud Tectonics, Buddy, and Return to Forbidden Planet (New Village Arts); and Sunday in the Park with George (Ion). He holds a BFA in Film Production and an MA in Educational Theatre, both from New York University.

Shirley Pierson

For Cygnet: Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice, Angels in America Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, Hir, ShockHeaded Peter (San Diego Critics Circle – Craig Noel Outstanding Costume Design Award), Wind and the Breeze, Pageant, The Importance of Being Earnest, Travesties, Assassins, WCYG A Christmas Carol (’13, ’12), Parade (Craig Noel Outstanding Costume Design Award), Spring Awakening, Mistakes Were Made, Glass Menagerie, Little Shop of Horrors, Our Town, Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, Private Lives, It’s a Wonderful Life (‘09, ‘10, ‘11), History Boys, A Christmas Carol (’09).  Selected Regional and San Diego Theatre: The Pasadena Playhouse: The Fantasticks, The Old Globe: Tiny Beautiful Things, Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville, Rich Girl, Diversionary Theatre: The Moors, The Boy Who Danced on Air, Now or Later, Marry Me A Little, The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabbler, When Last We Flew, Pippin, Harmony Kansas, Next Fall, New Village Arts; Seascape, Into the Woods. Shirley received her MFA in Theatrical Design from San Diego State University. View her work at: shirleypiersondesigns.com.

Nichol Richardson

This is Nichol’s first time as a Properties Designer, however, her name is not unfamiliar here. She is also our Charge Artist and our Scenic. When she isn’t painting, she works as the Creative Director and Associate Artistic Director at Inspire School of Ballet. Nichol is self-taught artist who was formally trained by Carole Payette at Old Globe Theater. Some of her recent works include, Nutcracker, Alice in Wonderland, The Wind and the Breeze, Pride and Prejudice, The Old Man and The Old Moon, The Tempest, and now a Broadway headliner Almost Famous. When Nichol isn’t busy about the theater, or chasing round her four daughters, you can find her quietly at home with her husband writing and publishing her first ballet. Oh, And Mr. Richardson… Thank You is hardly sufficient. My Love, I’d be lost without you.

Lauren Yee

Lauren Yee is a playwright born and raised in San Francisco. She currently lives in New York City. Her CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND, with music by Dengue Fever and others, premiered at South Coast Rep, with subsequent productions at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Victory Gardens, City Theatre, Merrimack Rep, Signature Theatre, Portland Center Stage, and Jungle Theatre.

Her play THE GREAT LEAP has been produced at Denver Center, Seattle Rep, Atlantic Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Arts Club, InterAct Theatre, and Steppenwolf, with future productions at Long Wharf, Cygnet Theatre, and Asolo Rep/Miami New Drama.

Lauren Yee’s play KING OF THE YEES premiered at The Goodman Theatre and Center Theatre Group, followed by productions at ACT Theatre, Canada’s National Arts Centre, and Baltimore Center Stage. Other plays include CHING CHONG CHINAMAN (Pan Asian Rep, Mu Performing Arts), THE HATMAKER’S WIFE (Playwrights Realm, Moxie, PlayPenn), HOOKMAN (Encore, Company One), IN A WORD (Young Vic, SF Playhouse, Cleveland Public, Strawdog), SAMSARA (Victory Gardens), THE SONG OF SUMMER (Trinity Rep, Mixed Blood), and THE TIGER AMONG US (Mu).

She is the winner of the Doris Duke Artist Award, the Steinberg Playwright Award, the Horton Foote Prize, the Kesselring Prize, the ATCA/Steinberg Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters literature award, and the Francesca Primus Prize. She has been a finalist for the Edward M. Kennedy Prize and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her plays were the #1 and #2 plays on the 2017 Kilroys List.

Lauren is a Residency 5 playwright at Signature Theatre, New Dramatists member (class of 2025), Ma-Yi Writers’ Lab member, former Princeton University Hodder fellow, and Playwrights Realm alumni playwright. TV: PACHINKO (Apple), SOUNDTRACK (Netflix). Current commissions include Geffen Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Second Stage, South Coast Rep. BA: Yale. MFA: UCSD. www.laurenyee.com