Lisa Quoresimo, UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance Ph.D. candidate, is currently appearing in the West Coast premiere of “An Octoroon” now at Berkeley Rep. The production will play through July 29. The production recently received a positive review in the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Taking Dion Boucicault’s once-popular 1859 melodrama, contemporary playwright Branden Jacob-Jenkins adapts the work to ask questions not only about the portrayal of race in America but also about the inadequate means we have for such portrayals.

Quoresimo makes her Berkeley Repertory Theatre debut with this production. She has most recently been seen music directing “The Events” at Shotgun Players, and playing Masha in “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” and Dolly Levi in “Hello, Dolly!” She has written and directed several musicals, including “Siddhartha the Bright Path” (with Emily Klion and Danny Duncan), which have been produced across the country and internationally. She served for many years as the artistic director of the Kairos Theatre in New York City, trained at Circle in the Square, and taught on the faculties of NYU and the Manhattan School of Music.