Aubrey Saverino, Fran Gercke Lead San Diego Repertory Theatre's In the Wake

San Diego Repertory Theatre's In the Wake opens today as the fifth production of the company's 36th season.

SD Rep describes the show as: "Written by Obie Award-winning playwright Lisa Kron, and directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, In the Wake is a new play laced with incisive humor and surprising revelations about the assumptions of comfort and privilege that lie at the heart of the American character. An epic tale set in the turbulent Bush years of 2000 to 2005, In the Wake asks us individually and collectively to look for the blind spots that mask us from ourselves."

Previews for In the Wake begin Sat., Feb. 11, 2012. Opening night is Fri., Feb. 17, 2012 and runs through March 4, 2012 in the Lyceum Space.

The Story
It's Thanksgiving of 2000 and the presidential election still has not been decided. Ellen, an intelligent and politically-obsessed freelance writer, insists that her friends don't realize how bad the situation really is. Ellen is 100 percent sure about everything: her ideals, her politics, her friends. No one – not her adoring boyfriend Danny, her new lover Amy, or her worldly wise and weary friend Judy – can make Ellen see the blind spot at the center of her own politics and emotional life.

About the Cast
Aubrey Saverino (Ellen) returns for her second role at San Diego REP, She was most recently seen The REP's production of In The Next Room or the vibrator play, for which she earned a San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Award nomination. Also in San Diego she has appeared in King Lear (nominee for a San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Award), Twelfth Night, and The Madness of King George and Coriolanus at The Old Globe. In Los Angeles she has appeared in Romeo and Juliet (El Portal Theatre); An Impending Rupture of the Belly (Furious Theatre Company); Nicholas Nickleby (The Production Company); Inventing Van Gogh, and The Imaginary Cuckold (The Chance Theater), among others.

Fran Gercke (Danny) returns in his fourth production with San Diego REP, previously appearing in In The Next Room or the vibrator play, Proof and Merchant of Venice. Gercke is a co-founder of New Village Arts and a resident artist with Cygnet Theatre. His local credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Number (Cygnet Theatre); Ring Round the Moon (Moonlight Theatre); Hurlyburly (ion theatre); True West, Three Sisters, Crimes of the Heart, A Lie of the Mind, Orphans, The Waverly Gallery (New Village Arts); and A Life in the Theatre at North Coast Repertory Theatre. Regionally, Gercke has appeared in the Virginia Shakespeare Festival and with National Players.

JoAnne Glover (Kayla) is the founder and managing director of MOXIE Theatre. Her San Diego credits include Dead Man's Cell Phone, Our Town, Or, The Norman Conquests, The Receptionist, Summer and Smoke, Expecting Isabel, Drink Me, Rabbit Hole, Bleeding Kansas, The Listener, Bluebonnet Court, Devil Dog Six, WET, Miss Witherspoon, Dog Act, Limonades Tous les Jours, Pulp, Kimberly Akimbo, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hamlet, Stop Kiss, and Othello. In addition to her work as an award-winning actress, she has worked as a producer in New York and L.A.

Deanna Driscoll (Laurie) was most recently seen on the REP stage as Officer Randy Osteen in last season's hit Superior Donuts. An award-winning actress, she has also been seen at ion theatre in the role of Frankie in Frankie and Johnny at The Claire de Lune. Some of her favorite roles include Haley in Bad Dates, Grace in Bus Stop, Eve Ensler in The Good Body, Regan in King Lear, and the Old Woman in The Chairs, just to name a few. Along with numerous television and film credits, Driscoll received her professional training at National Shakespeare Conservatory in New York City, and is honored to run the Drama Department at High Tech Middle School in Point Loma.

Stephanie Dunnam (Judy) is a stage and screen actress, whose last appearance at San Diego REP was in Blue Window. Other roles include Metamorphoses (Zach Theatre); The Skin of Our Teeth (Stage West); True West (Insight America); American Daughter (Theatre Works); One Flea Spare (Ruth B. Shannon Performing Arts Center); Miracle (The Old Globe); The Sisters Rosensweig (National Tour); Lost Highway (Mark Taper Forum, The Old Globe); The Importance of Being Earnest (Dallas Theater Center); The Heidi Chronicles (National Tour); and Holiday (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Dunnam's notable film and television credits are "Beyond the Farthest Star," "1000 Heroes," "Mistral's Daughter," "The Practice," "ER," "Frasier," "Home Improvement," "Magnum P.I.," "Murder She Wrote," and "Dynasty."

More Articles by This Author...