Meet The Playwrights of The Bench Project

Tom Bruett - Bench, Slightly Left

Tom Bruett is a director, producer, playwright and lyricist living in San Francisco, As a playwright, Tom's work has been produced at the Player's Theatre, NJ Rep, ReGroup Theatre, the Megatroyd Festival, and PianoFight among others. His short play, Fear Sells, was a finalist for the 2011 Heideman Award. This past summer, Tom was selected to be part of the prestigious Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project. Since moving to the Bay Area, Tom has spent a season as producer for the Developmental Reading Series at PCSF, served as a dramaturg for Playground, and was on the Literary Selection Committee for Playwrights Foundation. Currently Tom is the FutureWorks Fellow at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, CA. For more information, check out www.TomBruett.com.

Lisa Kang - A Simple Life
Lisa Kang has been involved in Bay Area theater as a writer and actor for several years. Her work was chosen to be presented at Theater Bay Area's Playwright's Showcase and has been given staged readings at City Lights Theater Company, Calaveras Repertory Theater, and the Asian American Theater Company, where she is a participating New Works Incubator playwright.

Victor Vazquez - Against Which
Victor Vazquez is a graduate from UC Irvine, where he emphasized in creative writing and directing (honors). He currently works in downtown Los Angeles for Center Theatre Group, coordinating efforts for the Education & Community Partnerships Department.

Lance Gardener - Helium

Information Regarding Book Donation for The Bench Project

Book Donation Instructions:
-Bring your children's book directly to our show on June 30th for free admission!
-All good-conditioned books are welcome. Multicultural books and books from kindergarten to 2nd grade are highly desired.
-If you do not have a children's book to donate - you can also donate $5 for admission that will be used for purchasing books!
-If you would like to continue donating after the show, look out for donation bins located throughout the East Bay. For drop off locations, check out their website a twww.ebcbp.org.
-You can directly donate to their main office on 3612 Webster Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3-6pm.

The East Bay Children’s Book Project was founded to help build literacy by putting books into the hands of children who have little or no access to them. Books are picked up and given directly to children in need by teachers, social workers, health care professionals, community outreach groups, housing authority employees, and police officers. Some are used by schools, daycare and community centers, homeless shelters, and hospitals to create libraries at their sites. The East Bay Children’s Book Project has given out over 675,000 free books since opening its doors in May 2005.

Meet The Directors of The Bench Project:

Tasi Alabastro - Against Which

Tasi Alabastro is an actor, filmmaker, and member of Square Marden. He is making his stage directorial debut with The Bench Project. As an actor, he's played an Amazonian Forest Devil, a banjo p[laying catfish, a muppet version of himself and a robot. Tasi is also a proud member of the Red Ladder Theatre Company.




Jonathan Amores - A Simple Life
Jonathan Amores is a proud Bay Area Native. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where he received a BA in Theater and Performance Studies and a BA in Mass Communications and was the producer of Theatre Rice! Modern Asian American Theatre. He considers his recent crowning achievements to be directing Pumpkin Fiesta! The Musical at a local elementary school for the Palo Alto Children's Theatre. Jonathan currently works in the marketing department of TheatreWorks and is the associate producer of The New Play Development Factory.




Jeffrey Lo - Helium and Bench, Slightly Left
Jeffrey Lo is the founding artistic director of The 06 Ensemble. Recently named the 2012 Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley, Jeffrey’s recent credits include writing and directing A Kind of Sad Love Story and Barcelona Love Song with The Ensemble as well as serving as the assistant director for Superior Donuts, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Pitmen Painters, Wheelhouse, and Time Stands Still (Upcoming) at TheatreWorks, The Language Archive at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and The Last Romance at The San Jose Repertory Theatre. He also just finished up work producing the first annual New Play Development Factory which highlighted and developed three new works written by local Bay Area playwrights. He is also a resident artist with both The BindleStiff Studio in San Francisco and Dragon Productions Theater in Palo Alto.

Next Up: The Bench Project

What's next for us here at The 06 Ensemble involves a partnership with the awesome group The East Bay Children's Book Project. We will be performing a night of 4 short plays by four great playwright's (three local Bay Area playwrights, one based in Los Angeles) with admission to the performance being a children's book (preferably appropriate for children in kindgarden or the first grade) to donate to a child in need. We will be performing on June 30th at 8 PM at the Dragon Productions Theatre in Palo Alto.

Here is the lineup of plays and directors:

A Simple Life by Lisa Kang

Directed by Jonathan Amores

Helium by Lance Gardner

Directed by Jeffrey Lo

Bench, Slightly Left by Tom Bruett

Directed by Jeffrey Lo

Against Which by Victor Vazquez

Directed by Tasi Alabastro

Stay tuned for more info on each play and our production team! Hope to see you on June 30th.

For more information on The East Bay Children's Book Project:
http://www.eastbaychildrensbookproject.org/

We're Announcing Our Next Project on Tuesday!

We're announcing our upcoming project on Tuesday but here are a few details you may want to know.

June 30th at 8 PM

One Night Only

Oh and here's a hint...