The Forever Wave, Cast and Crew bios

CAST

Roy Conboy standing in a room full of people in the background. He is an older man with long white hair wearing a dark suit, grey shirt, and a brightly decorated red tie

Roy Conboy (he/him; El Capitán, Mariner Two, Mister Kincaid, King of Strawberry Hill, Old Bill, Ohlone Grandfather, Karl Maldorf) is a Latino/Irish/Indigenous writer and teacher who’s poetic plays have been seen on the edges of the mainstream theatre nationwide. His poetry has been seen in Green Hills, Literary Lantern, Orphic Lute, Third Estate’s Quaranzine, Freshwater Literary Journal, and featured on Latinx Lit Magazine’s podcast. His poetic radio drama Hue can be heard online at Barewire Theatre Company. He recently retired from 35 years of teaching, including three decades as the head of the San Francisco State University playwriting program where he created multiple programs that gave thousands of students of diverse ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds a place to find and raise their voices.

Jerikka Gamboa, a young woman with long dark hair and a medium complexion stands outdoors in a sunny field and smiles at the camera

Jerikka Gamboa (she/her; Fifth Drowned, Isabel Flores, Neighbor Two, Feral Three, Hyacinth Galang, Scraper Kid Five, Watcher Five, Siren of Nautical Hall) is thrilled to be a part of The Forever Wave’s amazing journey. Jerikka is based in the East Bay and is from Hayward, CA. She is currently finishing finishing her Masters’ thesis on Asian representation on Broadway at San Francisco State University. She has been in works such as Twelfth Night and Dealing Dreams and hopes to do screen work as well as be a theatre educator in the future.

Aaliyah Gilliard, a young Black woman with long, dark hair and hot pink streaks, wearing a star of glittery eye makeup and a rainbow-striped tank top and several silver chains.

Aaliyah Gilliard (she/they; Soraya Broussard, Girl One, Woman One, Neighbor One, Feral Two, Ohlone Voice Four, Barfly One, Child) is an actress who is completing their BA in Theatrical Arts at San Francisco State University. They have performed as Titania and Hippolyta in A Midsummer’s Night Dream for the Spring 2022 season. Aaliyah has worked on Marisol (Angel), Fringe Festival, and has credits from upcoming short films. They also worked on The Wiz at Riverside City College (Munchkin/Ensemble). Aaliyah has been acting since they were thirteen years old and has been performing and competing ever since. They are incredibly grateful for the opportunities they have been given and thanks their many friends, loving and doting boyfriend Danny, and cat ‘Midnight’ for all the laughs, love, and support.

Black and white closeup of Peter Griggs, a man with very close-cropped dark hair, smiling at the camera

Peter Griggs’ (he/him; First Drowned, Mariner Three, Jax, Sister Precious Little, Ohlone Voice One, Barfly Two, Dr. Hashemi) work includes collaborations with Boathouse Productions and EmSpace Dance theater. He recently performed at Shotgun player’s Eurydice with the Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project. He is founder of the Burning Monk Collective which has produced two (and now three) of his original works Subrosa and Killer Queen, which premiered at Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory in early 2010. In 2011 another run of Killer Queen was produced as a site-specific work in San Francisco and in Los Angeles, and received a GLAAD nomination for outstanding Los Angeles Theatre. He also is a Drag Performer who goes by the name of U-Phoria Glitter-Mascara.

Nathaniel Justiniano, a man with dark hair, a full beard with some grey hairs in it, and brown eyes, wearing a black cotton shirt and smiling at the camera

Based in Boston, Nathaniel Justiniano (he/him+; Narrator Two) is a queer, Cali-Rican theater artist. He is the founding Artistic Director of Naked Empire Bouffon Company, which began in San Francisco in 2009 with an activist mission to devise hilarious, cutting, and visually-provocative satires to catalyze urgent discourse, becoming North America’s premier bouffon company. As an actor, he’s worked with Shakespeare Orange County, Son of Semele Ensemble, Cornerstone Theater Company, The Dell’Arte Company, Thrillpeddlers, We Players, and Cutting Ball Theater. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Comedic Performance at Emerson College and he has served as the Director of Physical Comedy for the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival, Movement Designer at UC Berkeley, core faculty of the SF Clown Conservatory, and guest faculty at the Juilliard School. Instagram: @nathanieljustiniano

Closeup of Julia Letzel, a young white woman with short blond hair and long dark eyelashes

Julia Letzel (she/her; Fourth Drowned, Carolyn Tsongas, Feral One, Alina Kruschev, Gemma Baxter, Scraper Kid Four, Watcher Four) is a Brooklyn and Bay Area Artist and Scholar. She currently teaches Voiceover and is completing her Master’s Degree at SFSU. Her area of study is in Theatre as an effective tool to teach sex education.

Mia Paschal, a Black woman with short dark hair looks straight at the camera, wearing a green sweater and a black leather jacket

Mia Paschal (she/her; Calliope Carter, Girl Two, Woman Two, Missus Kincaides, Ohlone Voice Three, Maggy McCarthy, Barfly Three, Mama) is an actress and playwright who moved to San Francisco from Milan, Italy. Along with ensemble theater and film work, she has written and performed four award-winning solo shows, and her poetry has been published in The Copenhagen Review. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Oakland Museum of California have commissioned her to write and perform site-specific works, and recently the city of Kiel, Germany commissioned a virtual reality installation about Covid quarantine. Mia is currently writing a play about Denmark and the transatlantic slave trade. https://miapaschal.weebly.com

Krystle Piamonte, a young Asian woman with short dark hair and a black tank top smiling at the camera

Krystle Piamonte (she/her; Sixth Drowned, Grace Han, Neighbor Three, Feral Four, Ahn Nguyen, Scraper Kid One, Watcher One, Barfly Four) is a Bay Area-based stage and screen actor. Theatre credits include productions and readings with Z Space, SF Playhouse, Ferocious Lotus, Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks, TheatreFirst, and Bindlestiff Studio. Screen credits include the award-winning short films “Bound 4 Heaven” and “Median”. She is a 2x Theatre Bay Area Award Finalist for Outstanding Performance in a Principal Role in a Play. Krystle is a Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of The Chikahan Company and a company member of PlayGround in San Francisco. www.krystlepiamonte.com

Edna, a young woman with a shaved head and brown eyes, earing a red t-short and denim jacket, smiling at the camera

Edna Mira Raia (she/her; Third Drowned, Jaz, Señora Hernandez, Ohlone Voice Two, Scraper Kid Three, Watcher Three, Ra’ja, Yasmine,) is an award winning comedic writer and performer. She is a graduate of Second City Chicago’s improv conservatory program, which built onto her clown and mime training from the late Flying Actor Studio. Edna is a producer, director, teacher and sound designer. She is represented by Johnson Talent Agency. Find her performing in San Francisco with the drag troupe, Palace of Trash, and the improv troupe, Cirque Oui Et. See her in the horror anthology Sinphony and in her YouTube series, “Tater Sprouts.” Instagram: @potatoesmashedcomedy

Megan Trout (she/her; Narrator One) is a narrator, voiceover and theater artist in the Bay Area. She narrates audiobooks with Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, Blackstone, Podium, Tantor Media and Bee Audio. Megan is an artistic company member of the Shotgun Players (Berkeley, CA) and has worked with the following Bay Area theater companies: Aurora Theatre Company, Central Works, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Word For Word, Marin Theater Company, The Magic Theatre, Just Theater and The O’Neill Foundation. Megan has trained with Voice One, Real Voice LA, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Moscow Art Theatre School and holds a degree in Theater Arts from San Francisco State University. https://www.megantrout.com

Lluis Valls a middle-aged man with a salt-and-pepper beard wearing a black and white tyvek suit printed on in large black letters that appear to be randomly chosen text

Lluis Valls (he/him; Luis Mendoza, Mariner One, Alexi Tsongas, Mister Kincaide, Alfonzo, Scraper Kid Two, Watcher Two, Valtteri Lahti) is a theatre maker based in San Francisco. He has been a member of Theatre of Yugen since 1993, was Co-Artistic Director from 2001-8 and is currently director of Kyogen Training. He is a founding member of the local Clowns on a Stick, and the international troupe Theatre Nohgaku. He has toured to Europe, Asia and throughout the US.

CREW

Cliff Caruthers, a white man with long brown hair and a beard, wearing thick, black-rimmed glasses and a white sweatshirt, looks at the camera

SOUND DESIGNER: Cliff Caruthers (he/him) is an award-winning Bay Area based sound designer and composer with over 20 years experience in the field. He has created music and soundscapes for over 300 productions near and far, including Frankenstein at Guthrie Theatre, 1984 at Alley Theatre, Caucasian Chalk Circle for American Conservatory Theater, TRAGEDY: A Tragedy for Berkeley Repertory Theater, Man in Love for Kansas City Rep, and A Clean House for TheatreWorks. In 2007 his work on Fighter Airplanes for Cutting Ball Theater was featured at the Prague Quadrennial. His work on Earth: A Primer, was featured at the Experimental Gameplay Worship at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in 2015. Cliff is co-curator of the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, and currently serves as Trustee to the Western Region Board of United Scenic Artists Local 829.

PLAYWRIGHT, DIRECTOR: A veteran of the underground arts, Nicole Gluckstern (she/her) has worked variously as a performer, lighting designer/technician, stage manager, producer, publicist, tour support, dramaturg, and critic. An award-winning arts journalist her byline has appeared in many publications, and she’s a co-founder of Substrate Arts, a cooperative arts publication. She’s the co-creator of Bikes to Books, a hyper-local literary history bicycle tour and mapping project and IncivilitySF/Subversion, a Trump-era showcase and development series of radical and politically-engaged performance.

Patrick Simms, a Black man with a grey goatee looks at the camera as a cat in a cat bed watches from behind him

AUDIO ENGINEER (& Happy DuBois): Patrick Simms (he/him) is a musician, writer, theater tech, audio engineer and Executive Director for People In Plazas summer, outdoor noontime concerts in downtown San Francisco. He is also the station manager for KACR LP – Alameda 96.1fm.