Meet the Outside SCR Cast

With indie folk music, The Old Man and The Old Moon by PigPen Theatre Co. takes you on an epic adventure across land, sea and sky–all in the name of love. Directed by SCR Associate Artistic Director Kim Martin-Cotten, the Outside SCR production of The Old Man and The Old Moon runs July 20-Aug. 11 at Mission San Juan Capistrano

And as you embark on that journey, you may recognize several members of The Old Man and The Old Moon cast from previous SCR productions.

Led by Jess Andrews and Tommy Beck, who play the Old Woman and the Old Man, five of the seven-member cast are SCR veterans.

Andrews returns to SCR after playing Alexandra in The Little Foxes and River in Appropriate during the theatre’s 2023 Voices of America rotating repertory. Her other regional credits include stops at Berkeley Repertory, Kansas City Repertory, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, Great River Shakespeare Festival and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Beck is familiar to SCR audiences through his performances as Young Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. His regional stops include Jewel Theatre Company, Marin Theatre, Kansas City Actors Theatre, Aurora Theatre, TheatreWorks, California Shakespeare Theater and City Lights Theatre Company, among others.

Huntington Beach native Armando Gutierrez (Captain/Perry/Others) returns to Outside SCR two summers after playing Carl Perkins in Million Dollar Quartet. He’s appeared off-Broadway at Theater 555, Atlantic Theatre Company and Minetta Lane Theatre, along with regional stops at Cincinnati Playhouse, Florida Rep, Paper Mill Playhouse and Chance Theater. A talented musician over several instruments, Gutierrez’s band, Saddlemen, released their debut album in 2019.

Alex Lydon (Mabell/Others) makes his SCR debut after previous regional stops at TheatreSquared, Alley Theatre, Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, Center Repertory Company and People’s Light). He acted in five different productions of Cambodian Rock Band by Lauren Yee.

Matt MacNelly returns to SCR in the roles of Matheson and others. He was the music director for the SCR production of Cambodian Rock Band and served as an understudy for the 2022 Outside SCR production of Million Dollar Quartet. His regional credits include Ensemble Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse and the Trip Theater. A musician and producer, MacNelly has played guitar and written original music since he was 14.

Ana Marcu makes her SCR debut as Llewellyn and others. She has appeared off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons and Theatre 80, among others. Marcu’s regional credits include Syracuse Stage, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Theatre Aspen, California Center for the Arts, Escondido, Arizona Theatre Company, Great River Shakespeare Festival and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She also featured in the Japan Tour of Disney on Classic and in the film My Hero.

Joe Ngo (Cookie/Others) returns to SCR after debuting in Cambodian Rock Band. He appeared in subsequent productions at La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Alley Theatre, ACT Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Arena Stage and Signature Theatre. Ngo received a Helen Hayes Award for his appearance at Arena Stage and an Obie Award for his Signature Theatre performance. His other regional credits include ACT Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Studio Theatre and Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Ngo’s piece Words, Words was produced as a part of Leviathan Labs’ Living Room Series and BarnArts Collective’s BarnFest in New York.

Along with that journey and the indie-folk music, The Old Man and The Old Moon features ingenious staging that transform this tall tale into a thrilling theatrical event like no other. The Old Man who keeps the moon filled with light wakes up one morning to find his wife has gone, lured away by a mysterious melody.  In his quest to find her, he encounters colorful characters, gets caught in an apocalyptic storm and is swallowed by a giant fish.  Can he find her before the moon runs out of light and the world plunges into darkness?