Presented by The National Park Service and We Players

The National Park Service invited We Players to Alcatraz to draw attention to the diverse, embedded histories of the island and shape a vital, provocative, and socially relevant experience exploring the themes of incarceration, isolation, justice, and redemption.  At the root of these themes is a conversation about freedom. What is it to be free? How do we liberate ourselves both from persecution, in its many forms, and from cycles of vengeance that seek balance but will never achieve it?  Is freedom something that is granted to, or taken from us by society?  Or is it fundamentally more personal than that?

Ava Roy (Director/ Producer)

Lauren Dietrich (Producer)

Andrus Nichols (Director/ Graphic Designer) Andrus has worked and trained as an actor in NY and CT, and is an alumna of the Intensive Actor Training program at Shakespeare & Company (MA). Based in New York, she came to the Bay Area to play with WE during the Alcatraz residency. Through Andrus Graphics she offers: Flash websites, WordPress websites; business cards, post cards, stationery; resume lay-out, one sheets; show graphics, posters, flyers, programs; print and web advertising, e-blasts; and graphics for stickers, signage, teeshirts, etc.

Cara Rose DeFabio (Choreographer) Working to address issues of access and environment in both performance and design, Cara Rose believes in a soft focus across many fields. She is pleased to work on Iphigenia, her third We Players production, and honored to be making art in her hometown of San Francisco.
cara rose defabio

Alexander Kort (Composer, Electric Cello) Originally from North Carolina, Alexander Kort has been an active participant in Bay Area performing arts since landing in Oakland in 1996.  He composed music for two UC Berkeley Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Study productions:  Foe in 2003, and Measure for Measure in 2008.  He released a 10″ vinyl record with Walter Kitundu, who won a MacArthur fellowship in 2008.  He has played cello in Freeway Philharmonic concerts and was the double bass player in Jill Tracy’s Malcontent Orchestra.  A member of Subtle, who recently completed their 3 album contract with LEX/EMI records, Alex has also recorded with many local indie and punk, and hip-hop groups, including themselves, Cloudead, The Fleshies, Why?, Carta, and many  more.  He has released 2 solo albums, Mother of Pearl in 1999, and Friend or… (soundtrack to the play, Foe) in 2003.  He lives in Oakland with his wife and young son.

Ellen McLaughlin (Playwright) Other plays of Ellen’s include Days and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, Infinity’s House, Tongue of a Bird, The Trojan Women, Helen, The Persians and Oedipus. Her plays have been produced by The Actors’ Theater of Louisville, The Actors’ Gang (LA), Classic Stage Co. (NY), the Almeida Theater, London, the Public Theater (NY), The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and The Guthrie Theater, among many others. Grants and awards include: Great American Play Contest, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the NEA, the Writer’s Award from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, the Berilla Kerr Award, and the NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Grant. McLaughlin is also an actor. She has worked on and Off Broadway, and extensively in regional theater. She is most well known for having originated the part of the Angel in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, appearing in every U.S. production from its earliest workshops through its Broadway run.