THIS HOLIDAY SEASON, SHARE SIMPLE GIFTS Inspire hope, generate light, and empower storytelling for our community by investing in TheatreWorks. When you invest in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley during Season of Giving you support all the work we do in service to the Bay Area community, including: • Premiering brand new plays and musicals, like Pride and Prejudice, the Tony Award-winning Memphis, and the West End smash hit The Prince of Egypt. • Producing virtual content like the world premiere of Simple Gifts—conceived, crafted, and directed by TheatreWorks Artistic Director Tim Bond. • Developing new plays and musicals through our annual New Works Festival and Writers’ Retreat. • Introducing Bay Area students to playwriting through our Young Playwrights’ Project, and creating virtual education programs to nurture students’ creative learning during the pandemic. Visit www.theatreworks.org to give now, email giving@theatreworks.org, or call 650.463.7132$50 helps five Bay Area students see one of our mainstage productions. $100 provides 1 creative team with scripts during the New Works Festival! $250 sponsors 1 Bay Area student in our Young Playwright’s Progect. $500 covers the closed-captioning for a show to make our work more accessible. $1500 sends a teaching artist to kids at the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital. $3500 covers the cost of our Young Playwright’s Project. $6500 helps us film and edit future shows for our virtual stage. $10,000 commisions and developes a new school touring play! WHAT YOUR GIFT CAN DO“I hope Simple Gifts will bring joy and a sense of connection into your holiday season this year.”Welcome to TheatreWorks’ virtual, multicultural holiday celebration, Simple Gifts. This piece was born from interviews with eleven Bay Area performers who generously shared personal memories and family traditions from their winter holiday celebrations. Weaving these personal offerings with familiar and new songs, along with historical anecdotes about the holidays, we created a tapestry for you to enjoy. Perhaps a line from a song or a snippet of a story might trigger some of your own memories and recollections of experiences that hold meaning for you. As we all face the upcoming winter holiday season, beset with a spiking pandemic, confined to our homes and in a country divided, I feel a strong desire to explore the human gesture toward the joy that often fills the holidays. I suspect many of us are experiencing a much needed drive to bond with our families and friends as well as a desire to celebrate our unique take on the wonderfully varied manifestations of the winter holidays. Creativity, flexibility, and generosity are called upon in order to find happiness and gratitude with whatever has been thrown our way this year. Our capacities to connect and celebrate are attributes which help us in these endeavors. Theatre has always given me this outlet and I hope this production will help you rediscover your inner lights. As you might imagine, we also had to accommodate a troublesome character in our show - Sir Covid. In order to ensure everyone’s safety we had to film each performer individually on different days, then splice all of their work together to make a collage of the show – somewhat like a multi-faceted stained glass ornament where there are many separate colors that all somehow complement and contrast with each other to create a diverse, yet unified effect. A character who we sorely missed was you. We really missed having a live audience breathing as one, laughing and sharing energy back and forth. I wish to express my deep gratitude to all of the actors for sharing their personal stories with open and generous hearts. My hat’s off to Billy Liberatore who skillfully arranged over 14 songs, made rehearsal and final sound recordings to underscore the performers when they were singing, and created conductor videos for actors who sang choral pieces. And to Steve Muterspaugh, who filmed, edited, and stitched together this digital performance, I need to offer heartfelt thanks. Many others on our staff went above and beyond the call of duty as well. As they say, “it takes a village…” TheatreWorks is extremely fortunate to have the talents, skills, and dedication of these amazing company members. I hope that the music, memories, and traditions we celebrate in Simple Gifts will bring joy and a sense of connection into your holiday season this year. With light and peace, present Conceived, Crafted, and Directed by TIM BOND Musical Direction by WILLIAM LIBERATORE Video Production by STEPHEN MUTERSPAUGH Project Manager: TAYLOR MCQUESTEN Casting Director: JEFFREY LO Certified COVID Compliance Officer: STEVEN B. MANNSHARDT Scenic and Props Coordinator: CHRIS FITZER Costume Coordinator: JILL BOWERS Lighting Coordinator: STEVEN B. MANNSHARDT Additional Video Editing: KATHERINE HAMILTON TIM BOND, Artistic Director PHIL SANTORA, Executive Director PROUDLY SPONSORED BYVELINA BROWN DAVID CRANE MAYA GREENBERG MICHELLE JORDAN AMY LIZARDO BRYAN MUNAR SHARON RIETKERK ADAM J. SAUCEDO MAYA MICHAL SHERER WILL SPRINGHORN JR. MICHAEL GENE SULLIVAN Piano: WILLIAM LIBERATORE Drums: ARTIE STORCH Guitar: BRYAN MUNAR Trombone: TIM HIGGINS Simple Gifts was inspired by Voices of Christmas, original concept by Rubén Sierra and Colleen Carpenter Simmons.SONG LIST Simple Gifts – Full Cast Carol of the Bells – Velina Brown, Amy Lizardo, Bryan Munar, Sharon Rietkerk, Adam Saucedo, Maya Sherer, Michael Gene Sullivan, Will Springhorn Jr. I Am Light – Michelle Jordan First Prayer – Maya Greenberg Banu Choschech L’garesh – Maya Greenberg with David Crane and Maya Sherer I Am Light Reprise – Michelle Jordan Solstice Song – Velina Brown, Bryan Munar, Maya Sherer, Michael Gene Sullivan La Cancion Para Pedir Posada – Amy Lizardo and Adam Saucedo Kwanzaa Song – Michelle Jordan with Full Cast The Christmas Song – Velina Brown Caroling Medley – Velina Brown, Amy Lizardo, Bryan Munar, Sharon Rietkerk, Adam Saucedo, Michael Gene Sullivan Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Bryan Munar Second Prayer – Maya Sherer Ocho Kandelikas – Maya Sherer with Velina Brown, David Crane, Maya Greenberg, Amy Lizardo, Bryan Munar, Sharon Rietkerk, Adam Saucedo, Michael Gene Sullivan Silent Night – Amy Lizardo What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve – Sharon Rietkerk We Let It Be – Michelle Jordan with Full Cast Simple Gifts Reprise – Full Cast 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18ADAM J. SAUCEDO was last seen at TheatreWorks when he made his debut in Frost/Nixon. He was involved with Santa Clara University’s SCU Presents outreach show of Dr. Francisco Jimenez’s The Circuit in 2018, and was honored to join them a second time in 2019 for the adaptation of his second book, Breaking Through. Mr. Saucedo has worked with El Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista, and has performed throughout Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties. He is a graduate of Cal State Fullerton’s BFA musical theater program. As always, he thanks his family, mentors, and friends for their continued love and support. A special Thank You to his two grandparents. AMY LIZARDO has performed previously with TheatreWorks in the workshop of Once Upon A Rhyme (Cypher). Amy has worked regionally with Arena Stage in Mother Road (Mo), the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in La Comedia of Errors (Adriana) and Mother Road (Mo); American Conservatory Theatre in Men on Boats (Hawkins), A Christmas Carol (Mrs. Cratchet) and The Unfortunates (Handsome Carl); San Francisco Playhouse in Dogfight (Marcy) and The Rules (Meh); California Shakespeare Theatre in The Tempest (Ariel) and Quixote Nuevo (Juana); Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Party People (Clara). Amy received her MA in Theatre from San Jose State University. MAYA GREENBERG has performed with Los Altos Stage Company in Oslo (Yossi Beilin), and with Dragon Production Theatre Company in Macbeth (Banquo, Hecate). She also appeared on the Bench Project 7 in Her Wishes (Maggie). Before relocating from Israel to the Bay Area, Maya performed in Israel in Phaedra’s Love (Phadera) and toured festivals in Europe and the Lincoln Center NYC with The Cameri Theatre in Mithos (Clytemnestra). Her film and TV appearances include One-On-One, an Israeli women’s interviewing show (Host). Mrs. Greenberg earned her BA in Theatre and Acting from Tel-Aviv University.Next >