SAN FRANCISCO, CA (December, 8 2022) — San Francisco Playhouse presents the World Premiere of Cashed Out by Native American playwright Claude Jackson, Jr. Cashed Out shares the story of three generations of women who live on the Gila River Indian Community Reservation in Arizona, illuminating their battles and triumphs fighting addiction and upholding the traditions of their tribe. As Rocky seeks her big break at the casino and tries to live up to her legacy, her family struggles to cope with the ups and downs of her gambling addiction. This frank and touching play was commissioned by San Francisco Playhouse and received enthusiastic audience response when streamed online in a 2020 developmental reading in the Playhouse’s Zoomlet series. Cashed Out was also featured in the 2019 Native Voices at the Autry short play festival, where it won the Excellence in Playwriting Award. Playwright Jackson is an attorney and director of his tribe’s public defender’s office, as well as a screenwriter and film director. Directed by Tara Moses, Cashed Out will perform January 26 – February 25, 2023 (opening night: February 1) at San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post Street. For tickets ($15-$100) and more information, the public may visit sfplayhouse.org or call the box office at 415-677-9596.
Director Tara Moses (she/her) helms an outstanding cast of acclaimed actors of Native American and Indigenous descent. Award-winning actor Rainbow Dickerson (she/her) makes her San Francisco Playhouse debut starring as Rocky Camu, a headstrong woman who struggles with a gambling addiction. Featured in Netflix’s upcoming live action adaptation of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” Dickerson’s work in the feature film BEANS earned her a Vancouver Film Critics Award and TIFF Rising Star and a nomination by Quebec Cinema for the Prix Iris Revelation of the Year Award. An alumnus of the ABC Disney Discovers Program, Dickerson’s credits also include NBC TV’s “Gone” and “Chicago Fire” as well as Cinemax/ HBO’s “Banshee.” Onstage, she appeared in Broadway’s August Osage County, and regionally at theatres including Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Latino Theatre Company, Mixed Blood Theatre, and many others. Hailing from Virginia and Nonthaburi, she currently resides on unceded Gabrielino Tongva lands, and is of Thai, Rappahannock, and European descent.
Returning to San Francisco Playhouse where she recently performed in Water by the Spoonful, award-winning actor and playwright Lisa Ramirez (she/her) plays Virginia Camu, Rocky’s absent mother. Ramirez’s Off-Broadway credits include Cherry Lane Theatre, Vineyard Theatre, Atlantic Theatre Company, Working Theater, Rattlestick Theater, and Signature Theatre Company. She has performed at regional theatres including Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Marin Theatre Company, PlayMakers Repertory Company, and Oakland Theater Project. Her plays include Exit Cuckoo (nanny in motherland), Art of Memory, Pas de Deux (lost my shoe), To the Bone, Down Here Below, In the Mountains, More than Grapes, sAiNt jOaN (burn/burn/burn), Book of Sand (a fairytale), and All Fall Down. Lisa is the associate artistic director at Oakland Theater Project. She has received Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for her performances in Love and Anger and Buried Child. Her TV credits include roles on HBO’s “The Flight Attendant” and FOX’s “Almost Family.”
Sheila Tousey (she/her) makes her Playhouse debut as Nancy “Nan” Camu, Rocky’s reliable aunt who serves as a mother figure. Tousey is a writer, director, and actress. She has performed at theatres including The Public Theater, Signature Theater, Magic Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Guthrie Theater. She was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for her performance in Broadway’s In the Summer House at Lincoln Center Theatre, is a company member at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and will be performing in M.K. Nagle’s On the Far End at the Roundhouse Theater in the spring. Her film and TV credits include 20th Century Studios’ Ravenous, PBS Pictures’ Skinwalkers, TriStar Pictures/ Sony Pictures’ Thunderheart, MGM’s Lord of Illusions, NBC TV’s “Law & Order,” NBC TV’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” and FOX TV’s “The X-Files.”
Matt Kizer (he/him) makes his Playhouse debut as Buddy, Rocky’s father. A proud member of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, Kizer is the Artistic Director of Native Writers’ Theater, which is a member of PlayGround SF’s 2022 Innovator Incubator cohort. Kizer has performed onstage with American Repertory Theater, Eugen O’Neill Foundation, Marin Theatre Company, American Musical Theatre of San Jose, and Mountain Play Association. He performed in concert at the American Museum of Natural History and at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park.
Louisa Kizer (she/her) makes her Playhouse debut as Maya, Rocky’s daughter. She most recently performed in a staged reading of Little Drummer Girl with Native Writers’ Theater. She studies vocal music at Marin School of the Arts and has danced with Marin Dance Theater, where she was a featured performer in their holiday ballet Sophie and the Enchanted Toy Shop. Louisa is an alum of Alter Theater’s Native Youth Acting Camp.
Chingwe Padraig Sullivan (they/she/he/nákum) makes their Playhouse debut as Levi Tashquinth, a close family friend to the Camus. Sullivan is a two-spirit Indigenous actor (Shinnecock and Montaukett nations), in their third year at the Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company MFA Acting Program. Sullivan’s professional credits include performances with Trinity Repertory Company; South Dakota Shakespeare Festival; Southwest Shakespeare Company, Anthem Theatre Company, and Also Known as Theatre.
Cashed Out features scenic design by Tanya Orellana, lighting design by Mike Oesch, sound design by Ed Littlefield, props design by Samantha Alexa, and costume design by Carolyn Mazuca with assistant costume design by Caitlyn Manfre. Elizabeth Newton serves as stage manager, with Fawn Schrader as a non-equity assistant stage manager.
Tara Moses (Director) (she/her) is a citizen of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma of Mvskoke descent, a director, award-winning playwright, the Artistic Director of Red Eagle Soaring, and co-Founder of Groundwater Arts. Her work as a director has been seen with New Repertory Theatre (Boston, MA); South Dakota Shakespeare Festival (Vermillon, SD); Oglala Lakota Art Space (Kyle, SD); Brown University /Trinity Repertory Company (Providence, RI); Manton Avenue Project (Providence, RI); Princeton University (Princeton, NJ); American Indian Community House (New York, NY); Red Eagle Soaring (Seattle, WA); ACT Theatre (Seattle, WA); Arena Stage (Washington, D.C.); Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program (New Haven, CT); Safe Harbors Indigenous Collective (New York, NY); telatúlsa (Tulsa, OK); Oklahoma Indigenous Theatre Company (Edmond, OK); Serenbe Playhouse (Chattahoochee Hills, GA); Imagination Stage (Bethesda, MD); and Amerinda Inc (New York, NY). She is a Participant in New York Stage and Film’s inaugural NYSAF NEXUS project; a Cultural Capital Fellow with First Peoples Fund; fellow with the Intercultural Leadership Institute; member of DirectorsLabChicago; member of the Directors Lab at Lincoln Center; recipient of the Thomas C. Fichandler Award; associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society; and Dramatists Guild member. She is from the Muscogee Creek Reservation, holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Tulsa, and is an MFA Directing Candidate at Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company.
Claude Jackson, Jr. (Playwright) (he/him) is an attorney and currently the Director of his tribe’s public defender’s office. Five of his plays were featured in previous Native Voices at the Autry Short Play Festivals, including his play Cashed Out, which won the 2019 festival. Jackson, alongside his brother Roberto, wrote, produced, and directed the feature film In Circles, which is streaming on Amazon Prime and other outlets. Jackson recently acted in Cornerstone Theatre Company and Arizona State University’s production of Native Nation as well as Arizona State University’s production of Indian School.
About San Francisco Playhouse
Founded by Bill English and Susi Damilano in 2003, San Francisco Playhouse has been described by The New York Times as “a company that stages some of the most consistently high-quality work around” and deemed “ever adventurous” by The Mercury News. Located in the heart of the Union Square Theater District, San Francisco Playhouse is the city’s premier Off-Broadway company, an intimate alternative to the larger more traditional Union Square theater fare. The Playhouse provides audiences the opportunity to experience professional theater with top-notch actors and world-class design in a setting where they are close to the action. The company has received multiple awards for overall productions, acting, and design, including the SF Weekly Best Theatre Award and the Bay Guardian’s Best Off-Broadway Theatre Award, as well as three consecutive Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for Best Entire Production in the Bay Area. KQED/NPR recently described the company: “San Francisco Playhouse is one of the few theaters in the Bay Area that has a mission that actually shows up on stage. Artistic director Bill English’s commitment to empathy as a guiding philosophical and aesthetic force is admirable and by living that mission, fascinating things happen onstage.” The Playhouse is committed to providing a creative home and inspiring environment where actors, directors, writers, designers, and theater lovers converge to create and experience dramatic works that celebrate the human spirit.
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:
WHAT: San Francisco Playhouse presents the World Premiere of Cashed Out by Native American playwright Claude Jackson, Jr. Cashed Out shares the story of three generations of women who live on the Gila River Indian Community reservation in Arizona, illuminating their battles and triumphs fighting addiction and upholding the traditions of their tribe. This frank and touching play was commissioned by San Francisco Playhouse and received enthusiastic audience response when streamed online in a 2020 developmental reading in the Playhouse’s Zoomlet series. Playwright Jackson is an attorney and director of his tribe’s public defender’s office, as well as a screenwriter and film director.
WHEN: Previews: Thursday, January 26 – Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Opening: Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Closes: Saturday, February 25, 2023
SHOWS: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays: 7pm
Fridays & Saturdays: 3pm & 8pm
Sundays: 2pm & 7pm
WHERE: San Francisco Playhouse (450 Post Street, San Francisco)
TICKETS: For tickets ($15-$100) or more information, the public may visit sfplayhouse.org or call the box office at 415-677-9596.