An Accident

Lydia Stryk (Playwright) was born in DeKalb, Illinois, birthplace of barbed wire. She grew up between DeKalb and London, England, and as a child also lived in Japan where she studied Kabuki and performed on the stage, and in Iran. She later trained to be an actress at the Drama Centre, London--a career she pursued in New York for exactly one year before going back to school to study history, education and later, journalism. While interning at the weekly journal, The Nation, she wrote a play, coming full circle back to the theatre, but this time as a writer. She has a Ph.D. in Theatre from the Graduate Centre of the City University of New York. Her dissertation, "Acting Hysteria: An Analysis of the Actress and her Part" was in part an attempt to understand why her own short-lived experience acting the woman's part on stage felt pathological. She is the author of fifteen full-length plays including Monte Carlo, The House of Lily, The Glamour House, Lady Lay, Safe House, On Clarion, Ghost Mall and American Tet, and a few short ones, which have been seen at festivals across the country and produced at, among others, Denver Center Theatre, Perseverance Theatre, Alaska, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Victory Gardens, The Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and in Germany at Schauspiel Essen, Theaterhaus Stuttgart and the English Theater Berlin. She has been commissioned by Pittsburgh Public Theatre and Geva Theatre, Rochester and is the recipient of a Berrilla Kerr Playwright Award. She lives between Berlin and New York City. www.lydiastryk.com

Rob Melrose (Director) is the Artistic Director and co-founder of The Cutting Ball Theater where he has directed The Bald Soprano, Victims of Duty, Bone to Pick (world premiere), Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Hamletmachine, As You Like It, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Mayakovsky: A Tragedy, My Head Was a Sledgehammer, Roberto Zucco, The Vomit Talk of Ghosts (world premiere), The Sandalwood Box, Pickling, Ajax for Instance, Helen of Troy (world premiere) and Drowning Room (world premiere) and has translated No Exit, Woyzeck, Pelléas and Mélisande, The Bald Soprano and Ubu Roi. He has directed at The Guthrie Theater: Happy Days, Pen; The California Shakespeare Theater: Villains, Fools, and Lovers; Black Box Theater: The Creature, Actors’ Collective: Hedda Gabler; Alias Stage: Creditors; Crowded Fire: The Train Play; C.A.F.E.: Chain Reactions; Perishable Theatre: All Spoken by a Shining Creature (world premiere); Yale Summer Cabaret: Endgame, The Shawl; Princeton Summer Theater: Twelfth Night. As assistant director he has worked at The Public Theater / New York Shakespeare Festival: Hamlet (Oskar Eustis, director) Berkeley Repertory Theatre: The Pillowman (Les Waters, director) American Conservatory Theater: Indian Ink (Carey Perloff, director); The Guthrie Theater: Othello (Joe Dowling, director) Yale Repertory Theater: Twelfth Night (Mark Rucker, director) and as directing intern at The McCarter Theatre: The Glass Menagerie (Emily Mann, director). He has an M.F.A. in directing from the Yale School of Drama and a B.A. in English and Theater from Princeton University and is a recipient of the NEA / TCG Career Development Program for Directors. This Spring, he will be the Public Theater’s artist in residence at Stanford University.

cast

Arwen Anderson (Libby) is thrilled to return to Magic where she previously appeared in the world premieres of Mrs. Whitney, Expedition 6, and The Rules of Charity, as well as Theresa Rebeck's Mauritius. Favorite credits include Streetcar Named Desire (Marin Theatre Company); Lobby Hero and The Shape of Things (Aurora Theatre Company); T.I.C. Trenchcoat in Common (Encore Theatre Company); Skin (Climate Theatre & Encore Theatre Company); 4 Adverbs (Word for Word); 43 Plays for 43 Presidents (Rough & Tumble); Nickel & Dimed (TheatreWorks & Brava); I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change (Marines Memorial Theatre); Current Nobody (Just Theater); and Midsummer/4 (Central Works). She is also a professional aerialist and recently performed doubles trapeze with San Francisco's own beloved New Pickle Circus. Ms. Anderson graduated with degrees in Theatre and Psychology from Wesleyan University, performs locally as a singer/songwriter, and trains and teaches aerial silk and trapeze at the Circus Center of San Francisco.

Tim Kniffin (Anton) makes his Magic debut with An Accident. His credits include Paul in Permanent Collection and Cantwell in The Best Man (Best Production and Best Ensemble-Bay Area Critics Circle) at Aurora Theatre; Biff in Death Of A Salesman and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing/In The Mood at 6th Street Playhouse; Picasso in Picasso At The Lapin Agile at Knoxville's Clarence Brown Theatre; Brick in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at Theater Schmeater; Mitch in Streetcar Named Desire and John in Betrayal at Pacific Alliance; Gene in Side Man and Elyot in Private Lives at Spokane Interplayers Ensemble; and Antony Wilding in Enchanted April at The Cinnabar Theatre. Mr. Kniffin has also performed at Center Repertory, Marin Theatre Company, Seattle Repertory, Book-It Repertory, Tacoma Actors Guild, Seattle Shakespeare, Dallas Theatre Center, The Kennedy Center, Sonoma County Repertory Theatre, Porchlight, Playground and Drugie Studio (Wroclaw, Poland). He recently directed The Seafarer for Narrow Way Stage Company, and has just finished shooting for NBC's Trauma and the BBC's How To Make Your First Billion. Mr. Kniffin is a San Francisco native, a graduate of Sonoma State University (BA), and S.M.U.'s Meadows School of the Arts (MFA).

designers

Erik Flatmo (Set & Costume Designer) has designed scenery for many Magic productions including the recent premieres of Oedipus El Rey, American Hwangap, Evie’s Waltz and Octopus. Locally, his work has been seen at A.C.T., California Shakespeare Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Theatreworks, and San Jose Repertory Theatre. His regional credits include work at the Asolo Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, The Play Company, and Rattlestick Playwrights’ Theatre. His work in dance includes collaborations with choreographers Joe Goode, Trajal Harrell, and Robert Moses and has been presented at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, On the Boards (Seattle), many venues in New York City (Danspace Project, The Kitchen and Dance Theatre Workshop), and internationally at festivals in Poland, France, and Mexico. He has also designed scenery for San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program and San Jose Opera. Mr. Flatmo is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and teaches set design at Stanford University.

Sara Huddleston (Sound Designer) joined the Magic staff in March ‘07 as their Production Director and Resident Sound Designer. Recent Magic credits include The K of D, Evie’s Waltz, Tough Titty, Mauritius, Goldfish, Mrs. Whitney and Octopus (Encore Theatre Company/Magic Theatre). Other select Bay Area sound design credits include In On It and T.I.C. (Encore Theatre Company), The Shaker Chair (Encore Theatre Company/Shotgun Players), Macbeth (Shotgun Players), Volleygirls (A.C.T. Youth Conservatory), Three on a Party (Word for Word), and A Round Heeled Woman (Z Space). Sara is also proud to be the Resident Sound Designer for her friends at Encore Theatre Company.

York Kennedy (Lighting Designer) Mr. Kennedy’s designs have been seen in theatres across America and in Europe including Berkeley Rep, Seattle Repertory, American Conservatory Theatre, The Alley Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Yale Rep, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Goodspeed Musicals, and the Denver Center. Awards for theatrical lighting include the Dramalogue, San Diego Drama Critics Circle, Back Stage West Garland, Arizoni Theatre Award, and the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award. In the dance world, he has designed for Malashock Dance, Brian Webb, and Tracey Rhodes. As an architectural lighting designer he has designed both nationally and internationally numerous themed environments, theme park, residential, retail, restaurant, and museum projects including the Sony Metreon Sendak Playspace in San Francisco, Warner Bros. Movie World in Madrid, Le Centre de Loisirs in Morocco, and The LEGO Racers 4D attraction in Germany, Denmark, England, and the U.S. He is a graduate of the California Institute for the Arts and the Yale School of Drama.