Here’s “The Staircase’s” Creative Team

The Staircase, a world premiere playing on the Julianne Argyros Stage from Apr. 27-May 18, is in expert hands with a skilled creative team, many of whom you’ll recognize from previous SCR productions. Returning director Gaye Taylor Upchurch and SCR dramaturg and music director Mehanaokala Hind are on board to breathe life into this Hawaiian tale about holding on, letting go and the curious force that pulls us back home.

Upchurch previously directed The Staircase’s reading during the 2023 Pacific Playwrights Festival, as well as Of Good Stock in 2015. She has directed several world premieres, including Sanaz Toossi’s Wish You Were Here at Playwrights Horizons, Danny Tejera’s Toros at Second Stage Theater and Anna Ziegler’s The Last Match at The Old Globe and Roundabout Theatre, among many others. Her work has also been seen at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Two River Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Off-Broadway at Rattlestick Theater. She is a Drama League alum and a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Hind makes her SCR debut as the dramaturg and music director. She is a Kumu Hula (hula master) skilled in hula (dance) and oli (chant). She descends from the hula lineage of Kumu Hula Leina’ala Kalama Heine and earned the rank of Kumu Hula in 2009. She has been trained in mele oli (Hawaiian chant forms) from some of Hawai’i’s master chanters and earned an MA in Hawaiian Studies from the University of Hawai’i. Hind brings an impressive breadth and depth of relationships with Native Hawaiian communities, leaders, schools and organizations that makes her one of the pillars of her field. She is the Senior Advisor to the CEO at the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.

Rachel Hauck (Scenic Design) won a Tony Award for her set design of Hadestownand earned a Tony nomination for Good Night Oscar. She returns to SCR after designing the scenery for The Mad Woman in the Volvo, Mr. Marmalade, The Clean House and Sidney Bechet Killed A Man. Along with Hadestown and Good Night Oscar, her recent Broadway design work includes productions of How I Learned to Drive and Latin History for Morons. Hauck is a graduate of University High School in Irvine and UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television.

Sara Ryung Clement (Costume Design) also returns to SCR, where some of her past projects include costumes for Coleman ’72, A Shot Rang Out, Cambodian Rock Band, Little Black Shadows and A Doll’s House, Part 2. This spring, her designs include Fake It Until You Make It by Larissa FastHorse at Mark Taper Forum and Arena Stage and Julius Caesar at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in association with upstart crow collective. She is an assistant professor of set design at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and earned her MFA at Yale School of Drama.

Josh Epstein (Lighting Design) is another returning artist, whose credits at SCR include Galilee, 34, The Canadians and M. Butterfly. He has designed locally for Geffen Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse and Mark Taper Forum, and regionally for Guthrie Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, Arena Stage and Cincinnati Playhouse, among many others. He is an ensemble member at the IAMA Theatre Company and is on the faculty at Chapman University. He received his MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Noel Nicholas and UptownWorks (Sound Design) are a dynamic team of designers that creates collaboratively led by Nicholas, with co-design by Bailey Trierweiler and Daniela Hart. The team returns to SCR, having previously collaborated on avaaz and You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World! Select sound design highlights include Time Father at Geffen Playhouse, Antikoni at Native Voices, Which Way To The Stage at Signature Theatre DC and Fires in the Mirror at Baltimore Center Stage. Nicholas, Trierweiler and Hart all received their MFAs in Sound Design from the Yale School of Drama.