R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE

D. W. Jacobs is a playwright, director, actor, teacher and producer. He studied science, mathematics, photography and international relations in high school, shifting to political geography at U.C.S.B. In 1968, he took his first acting class and heard Buckminster Fuller speak. His brother, Steve, invited him to the College of Creative Studies, saying, "You’ve got to come and listen to this guy talk." Jacobs began writing scripts at Cal Arts in classes taught by Alexander Mackendrick. He co-founded San Diego Rep in 1976 with Sam Woodhouse, serving as Artistic Director for twenty years. He resigned in 1997 to put more focus on independent creative projects, including his play R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE (world premiere at San Diego Rep, March 31, 2000, with Ron Campbell as Bucky.) The Foghouse production played in San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle. In 2005, MEMOIRES (et Mysteres) DE L’UNIVERS played in Montreal, produced by Theatre Alambic and Theatre Denise-Pelletier, translated by Maryse Pelletier. In 2008, Joe Spano played Bucky for the Rubicon Theatre Company in association with Z Space Studio, with tour dates in the Western States. Portland Center Stage production was produced the play in late 2008 with Doug Tompos as Bucky. Arena Stage (Washington, D.C.) produced it in 2010, with Rick Foucheux as Bucky. Jacobs is now working on scripts for theater, film and digital video. With a commission from Z Space Studio, he wrote a stage adaptation of Bellamy’s utopian novel Looking Backward. As an actor, he’s played Joe in The Time of Your Life, Claudius in Hamlet, Howard in Mac Wellman’s A Murder of Crows (produced and directed by Darla Cash), Senator Bob in the world premiere of Mac Wellman’s 7 Blowjobs, Andrew in Chuck Mee’s Limonade Tous Les Jours, and most recently, Salter in Caryl Churchill’s A Number. With Scott Feldsher, he co-wrote and co-directed The Whole World is Watching, an adaptation of the Oedipus trilogy as TV talk show. D. W. Jacobs is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographer’s Society, the Dramatists Guild of America, and the National Theatre Conference.

David Cuthbert lit the Tony Award-winning 700 Sundays on Broadway as well as the national and international tours. His work has been seen at Arena Stage, Asolo Rep, Opera San Jose, Indiana Rep, South Coast Rep, The Group at Strasberg, PCPA Theaterfest, The Magic Theatre, A Contemporary Theater, The Intiman, Syracuse Stage, Arizona Theater Company, 7 Stages and PS122. For San Jose Rep he designed Secret Order (scenery and projections), This Wonderful Life (projections and lights), As You Like It (scenery and projections), Groundswell and The Kite Runner. He has been a frequent collaborator at San Diego Rep, where he designed sets, lights and projections for Women Who Steal, A Christmas Carol 1941 and Boom. He was a resident artist at Sledgehammer Theatre, where he designed lights, sets and projections for over a dozen productions. He is the Theater Arts Department Chair and a Professor of Design at UC Santa Cruz.

Over the last 44 years Darla Cash’s work has been seen at Arena Stage, Intiman Theatre, Old Globe Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Rubicon Theatre, Brown Field Gallery, Long Wharf Theatre and Portland Center Stage, among others. She lives and practices medicine on the Big Island.

A.R.T.: R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE. Jim Findlay works across specialties as a designer, director, performer and creator with a constellation of theater, performance and music groups. He was a founding member and primary collaborator in both the Collapsable Giraffe and Accinosco/Cynthia Hopkins, as well as being an associate member of The Wooster Group since 1994 and a frequent collaborator with Ridge Theater since 2001. Individual credits include set and video designs for Stew’s Brooklyn Omnibus (BAM) and Making It (St Ann’s Warehouse); How Can You Stay in the House All Day... (BAM and U.S. tour) and Rescuing the Princess (Lyon Opera Ballet) by Ralph Lemon; D.W. Jacobs’ R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE at Arena Stage and the A.R.T., DJ Spooky’s Terra Nova (BAM and world tour); Steel Hammer by Julia Wolfe (Carnegie Hall and U.S. tour); and Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island at the Vineyard Theater. Findlay’s awards include the Henry Hewes Design Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Princess Grace Awards in 1999 and 2010, Obie Awards in 2001 and 2008 and Bessie Awards in 1999 and 2008.

Luis Perez was born in Mexico City and has spent his life studying pre-Columbian instruments and the living music traditions of Mexico. He composes by combining pre-Hispanic instruments with electronics. His 1981 solo release, Ipan in Xiktli Metxli (In the Navel of the Moon), established him as a forerunner in the field. In 1982, he was invited to participate in the first Symposium of Mexican Music organized by UCLA’s Dept. of Musicology, and he has lectured there yearly on Mesoamerican music. He was commissioned by Mexico’s Ministry of Education to compose for Programa de Castellanizacion, the national program to teach Spanish to indigenous groups. He has toured the American continent, collaborating with artists Jackson Browne, Andreas Vollenweider, Ian Underwood, Kitaro and Jon Anderson; composers James Horner and Hans Zimmer; and companies Cirque du Soleil and DreamWorks. His first North American solo CD, Tales of Astral Travelers, was released in 1998, and he won the California Arts Council’s Fellowship Award in 2000 for Sanctuary of Butterflies. In addition, Perez has worked on the Genesis Award-winning documentaries Pipe Dreams: Oil vs. Arctic Wildlife Refuge, Death of a Thousand Wolves, Coyote Walking, Wild Horses: Homeless on the Range, Hogs: Factories Calling Corp. Injustice and Elephant Abuse.

A.R.T.: 119 productions, including R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Myster) OF THE UNIVERSE (R. Buckminster Fuller), Cabaret (Fraulein Schneider), Endgame (Clov), The Seagull (Dorn), Oliver Twist (also at Theatre for a New Audience and Berkeley Repertory Theatre), The Birthday Party (Stanley), Highway Ulysses (Ulysses), Uncle Vanya (Vanya), Marat/Sade (Marquis de Sade), Richard II (Richard). Broadway: Jackie: An American Life (23 roles). Off-Broadway: Johan Padan (Johan), Big Time (Ted).  Tours with the Company across the U.S., with residencies in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and throughout Europe, Canada, Israel, Taiwan, Japan and Moscow, and has recently been performing Julius Caesar in France. Other: I Am My Own Wife, Boston TheatreWorks; Approaching Moomtaj, New Repertory Theatre; Twelfth Night and The Tempest, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co.; London’s Battersea Arts Center; five productions at Houston’s Alley Theatre, including Our Town (Dr. Gibbs, directed by José Quintero); and many theatres throughout the U.S. Awards: 1994 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, 2000 and 2004 IRNE Awards for Best Actor, 1997 Los Angeles DramaLogue Award (for title role of Shlemiel the First). Television: Julie Taymor’s film Fool’s Fire (PBS American Playhouse), "Unsolved Mysteries," "Del and Alex" (Alex, A&E Network). Film: Mystic River (directed by Clint Eastwood), The Pink Panther II. He is on the faculty of the A.R.T. Institute, teaches acting at Harvard University and Emerson College, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

As the Production Stage Manager with the Actors’ Shakespeare Project (where she is also the Manager of Artistic Operations), Adele Traub has worked on Timon of Athens, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Duchess of Malfi, Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Henry V, Love’s Labour’s Lost (both productions), The Winter’s Tale, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, King Lear (both in Boston and at LaMama in NYC), Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure and Richard III. Other stage manager credits include It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues, Capital Repertory Theatre, Albany; Man of LaMancha and 1776, Lyric Stage; La Clemenza di Tito, Opera Boston; Two Wives in India and The Salt Girl at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre; Seven Rabbits on a Pole, Stoneham Theatre; Living Room in Africa and Dinner With Friends, Gloucester Stage Company; Life x 3, The Vineyard Playhouse; The Order of Things, CentaStage; Point of Departure, Huntington Theatre Company; and Kindertransport, New Repertory Theatre (Assistant Stage Manager). During her four years as Production Stage Manager at The Boston Conservatory, she worked on more than 40 productions with the Musical Theater, Dance, Opera and Orchestra departments. She received her B.A. from Brandeis University.

A.R.T: thirty productions in fifteen years at A.R.T. as Artistic Coordinator/​​Resident Stage Manager. Broadway: Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Misery, It’s Only a Play, The Glass Menagerie. Off-Broadway: Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven; The Hard Problem, Pride’s Crossing, Lincoln Center; Much Ado About Nothing, NYSF/​Delacorte; The Total Bent, Public Theater; Parable of the Sower, Public Theater Under the Radar Festival; Oliver Twist, TFNA. For Esch, Tommy, Jeremy, and Jan.