By Margaret Jordan
Meet “Joan’s” Creative Team
The creative team of Joan has been given the monumental task of building a world that stays true to the life and legend of Joan Rivers. Directed by SCR Artistic Director David Ivers, these artists have credits and qualifications that span the country and beyond. The world premiere of Joan runs Oct. 27-Nov. 24 on the Julianne Argyros Stage.
Daniel Goldstein is an award-winning, much-commissioned playwright who makes his SCR playwriting debut. He is the winner of the Kleban Prize for Most Promising Musical Theater Librettist. He wrote the book for and will direct the new musical Kane and Abel for Toho Theater, which will premiere at Theater Orb in Tokyo in January 2025. As the recipient of an inaugural Calderwood Commission from the Huntington Theatre Company, he wrote an original musical with Michael Friedman entitled Unknown Soldier, which had its world premiere at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. With a New York Voices commission from The Public Theater, he wrote a musical called Row with singer/songwriter Dawn Landes, about Tori Murden McClure, the first woman to row across the Atlantic. He has also adapted works and directed works on and Off-Broadway and around the world.
David Ivers is responsible for the overall artistic operation of the theatre, and the 2019-20 season was the first he programmed for SCR. He directed She Loves Meon the Segerstrom Stage in 2020, this past spring's world-premiere production of Prelude to a Kiss, The Musical and Pacific Playwrights Festival readings of Coleman ’72 in 2021 and A Million Tiny Pieces in 2022. You may have seen him onstage as John in Richard Greenberg’s world premiere of A Shot Rang Out. As part of his SCR tenure, he created the theatre’s Outside SCR program in partnership with Mission San Juan Capistrano. Before arriving at SCR, he was artistic director for Arizona Theatre Company, and prior to that, served more than 20 years as an actor and director at Utah Shakespeare Festival, with the last six as artistic director.
Larry Amoros (Script Supervisor) is an acclaimed ghostwriter and collaborator with an eclectic and diverse background. He has put three books on The New York Times Best Seller List since 2013: I Hate Everyone Starting with Me, with the late Joan Rivers; The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief and Manipulation, with Melissa Rivers; and Diary of a Mad Diva, which garnered Joan Rivers a posthumous 2015 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word album. He was part of the writing staff of “The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor” and in 2016, he served as Creative Producer/Head Writer of A Tribute to Joan Rivers at the Kennedy Center. He also worked on many TV series and specials, including HLN’s “The Joy Behar Show,” “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” and Barry Manilow’s Emmy Award winning PBS Special, Music & Passion.
Wilson Chin (Scenic Design) is making his SCR design debut. His designs on Broadway include Pass Over, Next Fall and Cost of Living, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and earned five Tony Award nominations. His Off-Broadway designs include Jonah at Roundabout Theatre Company, A Bright New Boise at Signature Theatre and The Thanksgiving Play at Playwrights Horizons. He also designed the current international tour of Annie, set to play Madison Square Garden this holiday season. His regional credits include The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical at La Jolla Playhouse and Signature Theatre and his opera credits include Turandot at Washington National Opera, among many others. He is a proud Eastern Region Board member of Local USA 829.
Kish Finnegan (Costume Design) returns to SCR, having previously designed SCR’s recent productions of The Old Man and the Old Moon, You’re a Good Man,Charlie Brown, Million Dollar Quartet and both iterations of American Mariachi. Her recent design credits include several world premieres, including the new musicalJustice at ATC, The Kite Runner at San Jose Repertory, The Tutor at The Village Theatre in Washington and a one-woman version of A Christmas Carol with Phoenix-based Childsplay. She began her career designing costumes for Team USA Synchronized Swimming and for aquatic shows in Las Vegas, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. She is the resident costume designer for Arizona Theatre Company.
Phillip Rosenberg (Lighting Design) is making his SCR design debut. His Broadway and West End credits include Mrs. Doubtfire, Pretty Woman, The Elephant Man, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and It’s Only a Play. His regional work has been seen at The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Guthrie Theater, Denver Center Theatre, Goodspeed Opera and Westport Country Playhouse.
Beth Lake (Sound Design) is also making her SCR design debut. Her Broadway credits include McNeal with Justin Ellington, Uncle Vanya with Mikhail Fiksel and Camelot with Marc Salzberg. Her Off-Broadway credits include The Play That Goes Wrong, The Wolves and Freud’s Last Session. Regionally, she has designed A Little Night Music at Pasadena Playhouse, Into the Woods at Guthrie Theater, A Thousand Splendid Suns at ACT, The Old Globe and Arena Stage and The Revolutionists at Gulfshore Playhouse, among many others. She was a Broadway associate for productions including The Cottage, for colored girls…, Pass Over and Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. She earned her MFA at UC Irvine.