Jessica Kubzansky (Director)

Co-Artistic Director of The Theatre @ Boston Court in Pasadena and an award-winning director working nationally. Previously at the Pasadena Playhouse: Pygmalion and Mauritius. Kubzansky was privileged to develop and direct the world premiere of Hold These Truths with Jeanne Sakata and Ryun Yu at East/West Players, subsequently at Chicago’s Silk Road, Seattle’s ACT Theatre, and Portland Center Stage. Recently: Orange by Aditi Kapil (South Coast Rep), The Secret Garden (Main Street Theatre Co), Stupid Fucking Bird (ACT Theatre, Seattle), Luis Alfaro’s Mojada, a Medea in Los Angeles (Boston Court/The Getty Villa), RII, her own three-person Richard II (Boston Court), Macbeth (Antaeus), Hamlet with Leo Marks (Theater 150), etc. Kubzansky does a great deal of new work, recent: NY premiere of Sheila Callaghan’s Everything You Touch (Rattlestick at The Cherry Lane), the world premieres of Stefanie Zadravec’s Colony Collapse, EYT, Michael Elyanow’s The Children, Jordan Harrison’s Futura, Laura Schellhardt’s Courting Vampires, Salamone/ McIntyre’s Gulls, Mickey Birnbaum’s Bleed Rail, Carlos Murillo’s Un nished American Highwayscape #9&32, Jean-Claude Van Itallie’s Light, Cody Henderson’s Cold/Tender (The Theatre @ Boston Court). Kubzansky received the LA Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatre. She is delighted to be back at the Pasadena Playhouse, where she previously directed both Pygmalion and Mauritius.

Jeanne Sakata (Playwright)

Jeanne is thrilled to be at the Pasadena Playhouse for the 10 year anniversary of Hold These Truths, which will also be produced in 2017- 18 at the Arena Stage in Washington DC, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, and New Century Theatre in South Hadley. Premiering at the East West Players in 2007, Hold These Truths has since had numerous productions with the Epic Theatre Ensemble (2013 Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance), Portland Center Stage, Seattle’s ACT Theatre, the Guthrie Theater, Perseverance Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory Company, People’s Light, Honolulu Theatre for Youth (Daniel Dae Kim, co-producer), terraNOVA Collective, Silk Road Rising, Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre, and Plays and Players.

As an actress, Jeanne has performed with The Public Theater, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Kennedy Center, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, Intiman Theatre, ACT Theatre (Seattle), ACT (San Francisco), Berkeley Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks, Portland Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Syracuse Stage, and Arizona Theatre Company. Screen credits include the internationally acclaimed indie lm Advantageous (US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Collaborative Vision, 2015 Sundance Film Festival; 2016 Film Independent Spirit Award Nomination) and guest appearances on Big Hero 6, Bravo’s True Fiction, Dr. Ken, NCIS Los Angeles, Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, Desperate Housewives, Presidio Med, ER, Threat Matrix, Line of Fire, American Family, John Ridley’s I Got You, and Sex and Marriage, a Justin Lin YOMYOMF YouTube series. Special honors: LA Ovation Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in Red at East West Players; Lee Melville Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Los Angeles Theatre Community from Playwrights’ Arena; Outstanding Artist Award from LA Asian Paci c American Friends of Theatre; and the establishment of the Jeanne Sakata Collection in the Library of Congress Playwrights Archive, Asian American Pacific Islander Collection. jeannesakata.com, holdthesetruths.info.

Phil Gold (Production Stage Manager)

Alyssa Escalante (Assistant Stage Manager)