Sarah McKereghan (Playwright) is again thrilled to be working at the EXIT Theatre, a place that she likes to think of as the heart and soul of innovative theatre in San Francisco. She is a writer, actor, director and co-artistic director of RIPE Theatre, which is currently in residence at the EXIT and her play, Ambivalent Geneses, premiered at the 2005 DIVAfest. She has studied with Bay Area companies such as A.C.T., the California Shakespeare Festival and the Playwright’s Foundation. Although Shakespeare was her first passion, Sarah discovered her love for writing and performing original scripts while getting a degree in Theatre Arts at Humboldt State University. She has worked with other local companies- Upon These Boards, Combined Artform Entertainment, and Last Planet Theatre Company. Sarah hopes that through developing and producing new and imaginative work she can bring theatre to a whole new audience.

Laura Ellen Smith (Director) since finishing her MFA at UC Davis and moving to SF, has spent a lot of time focusing on directing, producing and supporting new works. She spent five years as producing director for Playwrights Center of SF and has been volunteer coordinator for the SF Fringe Festival and EXIT Theatre for six years. She directed and produced new plays with her colleagues at Pass The Hat Productions and served for several years on the literary committee at Magic Theatre.

Carol Flanagan (Rosemary) is happy to be back at the EXIT Theatreplex where she so enjoys working. Past EXIT performances include: The Rape Poems, Dimly Perceived Threats to the System, QUEENS! and Fingers and T.O.E.S. both as part of the SF Fringe and the staged reading of The Women at the very first DIVAfest!

Alyssa Harvey (Jane) has been living in the Bay Area for more than six years. She has performed with various Bay Area improv groups, including BATS Improv School’s The Sunday Players and with The Un-Scripted Theater Company. Alyssa’s most recent performance was in Scott McMorrow’s play Sueno as part of the Bay One-Act Festival in San Francisco in January of this year. She is thrilled and humbled to be a DIVA.

Peter Q. Parish (Set Design and Construction) is proud to be designing in the DIVAfest again, after designing for Sarah McKereghan’s Ambivalent Geneses last year. Peter is the Technical Director and all around handy man for RIPE Theatre. He is also artistic director and co-founder of California Artists for Education (CAFE), a guest artist at Redwood High School and a part time
drama and stagecraft teacher at Sir Francis Drake High School in Marin County. As an artist, Peter wears many hats: fool, sculptor, actor/performer, director, set designer, puppeteer, mask maker, website designer, videographer, and father.

Liz Roddy (Stage Manager, Light/Sound Board Operator) has worked as technician and stage manager for the EXIT Theatre for two years of the SF Fringe Festival, the DIVAfest for Sarah McKereghan’s Ambivalent Geneses, the Labor Fest, and Steven Karwoski’s Adventures of a Substitute Teacher. Liz is a member of RIPE Theatre and just finished their show, Arrhythmica” which she stage managed and designed the sound.

Cheryl Smith (Lauren) is thrilled to be back at the DIVAfest after appearing here in 2003 - what a great place to work! She most recently performed Crucifixion, an original play written specifically for her and 10 others by Terrence McNally. She has worked with The EXIT Theatre, New Conservatory Theatre (where she received the Dean Goodman Choice Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Supporting Role), Last Planet Theatre, Berkeley Rep, TheatreWorks, and Ambit Theatre which took her to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Leslie Waggoner (Brenna) was last seen in playing Anybodys in West Side Story with AMTSJ, as well as at the Dean Lesher Center in Walnut Creek. She has worked extensively in the Bay Area with such companies as Shakespeare Santa Cruz, SF Shakes, Willows Theatre, AMTSJ, Magic Theatre, Solano Repertory, A.C.T., and Drakroom Productions. Favorite roles include: Jackie-O in The House of Yes, Lavinia in Titus Andronicus, Jessica in This is Our Youth, Sylvia in Sylvia, Annelle in Steel Magnolias, and Joanna in Home Free. Love and thanks to Mom, Dad, and Grandma.

Valerie Weak (Meg) has previously been seen on EXIT stages as Mere UBU in UBU Roi for the Absurdist Series, and in the Best of Fringe ‘98’s Groping for Justice: The Bob Packwood Story. More recent work includes Golden Thread’s ReOrient Festival of New Middle Eastern Plays, and Ursula in Much Ado about Nothing for San Francisco Shakespeare’s Free Shakespeare in the Park. Other favorite roles include Claire in Proof for Pacific Alliance in Rohnert Park and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Shakespeare at Stinson/Shakespeare a Firenze. Ms. Weak has trained in New York with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, and also teaches theater classes for youth.

EXIT Theatre (Producer) is a 23-year-old theater dedicated to helping artists develop their craft by providing opportunities to perform and by building an audience for that performance. We commission and produce plays, provide production support and low cost rentals at our four stage theatreplex, host theaters-in-residence, and produce the annual San Francisco Fringe Festival and DIVAfest.

EXIT Theatre and DIVAfest 2006 are supported by the Rockfeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund, San Francisco’s Hotel Tax Fund Grant for the Arts, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the San Francisco Art Commission Cultural Equity Grants Program, the Mary Wohlford Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Fund, the Bernard Osher Foundation, San Francisco’s Voluntary Arts Contribution Fund, the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, the Damatists Guild Fund, the Puffin Foundation, Individual Contributions and other donors.