New York City used to be a party town, but 1986 finds everyone paralyzed with fear of AIDS. Everyone, that is, except BJ Rosenthal, who’s determined to keep the party going. When an ex-lover becomes ill, BJ is forced to face the nightmare enveloping him and redefine his life. Based on the celebrated novel of its time and set to a soaring pop score pulsating with joy and heart wrenching melodies, Eighty-Sixed unearths an epidemic that shook the world to reveal a community’s ferocious fight to reclaim its future.
SAM SALMOND (COMPOSER & LYRICIST; he/him/his) is a Jonathan Larson Award-winning composer, lyricist, and bookwriter. Among many projects in development, Sam has written music and lyrics for an adaptation of Eighty-Sixed. His musical Mother, Me and the Monsters (a Boston Globe Critic’s Pick) was produced at Barrington Stage. His children’s show, The Dot, is currently on a Multi-Year national tour. He wrote book and lyrics for Cage Match, created Uncool: the Party, an immersive night of rock ‘n roll, games, stories, and dancing, is currently working on an original musical, The Homefront, the score to Creature, and an original musical for Penn State’s Musical Theater BFA program. Sam’s work has been featured at Lincoln Center, Ars Nova, Symphony Space, and venues all around the country. He has been a resident writer at Goodspeed Opera House, the Johny Mercer Colony, and more. He is a 2017 Dramatists Guild Fellow, a 2018 SPACE on Ryder Farm resident, and an alumnus of NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.
JEREMY J. KING (BOOK WRITER; he/him/his) grew up on the Jersey Shore and graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a degree in Theatre Arts. He lived an actor’s life for several years before transitioning to writing. As a novelist, Jeremy has released three young adult titles with Bold Strokes Books (In Stone, Night Creatures, and Dark Rites), which have been listed in Advocate’s “Top 10 Books for Young LGBT Folks and Anyone Who Wants to Understand Them,” recommended by the American Library Association’s GLBT Round Table, and nominated for the Rainbow Award in fantasy. His dramatic work includes the librettos for Eighty-Sixed and Creature, as well as other works for the stage and screen. Jeremy is a 2018 Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow, Affiliated Artist with Musical Theatre Factory, and a 2018 Resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm.
KEVIN NEWBURY (DIRECTOR; he/him/his) has directed over 70 original theatre, opera, and film projects. Recent world premiere highlights include Fellow Travelers (“One of the Best Classical Music Events of 2016” by The New York Times), The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (2019 GRAMMY Award Winner), Kansas City Choir Boy (starring Courtney Love: NYC, Boston, LA and Miami), Doubt (Minnesota Opera, PBS’ Great Performances), Bel Canto (Lyric Opera of Chicago, PBS’ Great Performances), Oscar (Santa Fe Opera and Opera Philadelphia), the Pulitzer Prize-winning Life Is A Dream (Santa Fe Opera), The Good Swimmer (BAM Next Wave Festival), and The Ninth Hour at Met Live Arts. Kevin’s production of Virginia for the Wexford Opera Festival won the 2010 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Opera Production. His long association with the work of Leonard Bernstein includes directing Candide with the Philadelphia Orchestra (starring Bradley Cooper) and Bernstein’s MASS 6 times.
RAJA FEATHER KELLY (CHOREOGRAPHER) is an Obie-winning choreographer, a director, the artistic director of the feath3r theory, and a Creative Associate at The Juilliard School. In 2020, Kelly made his directorial debut at New York City’s Second Stage Theatre with We’re Gonna Die. Since 2016, Raja has choreographed extensively for Off-Broadway theatre in New York City, most notably for Signature Theatre, Soho Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, and Playwrights Horizons Frequent collaborators include: Lileana Blain-Cruz, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Sarah Benson, and Lila Neugebauer. Other theatre credits include choreography for Skittles Commercial: The Musical (Town Hall), The Chronicles of Cardigan and Khente (SohoRep), Everyday Afroplay (JACK), GURLS (Princeton University, Yale Repertory Theatre), Electric Lucifer (The Kitchen), Lempicka (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The House That Will Not Stand (New York Theatre Workshop), Fireflies (Atlantic Theatre Company), If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons, nominated for the 2019 Lucille Lortel Award and the 2019 Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Choreography), The Good Swimmer (BAM), and Faust (Opera Omaha). Most recent work: Fairview (SDCF Joe A. Callaway Award finalist for choreography; Soho Rep, Berkeley Rep, TFANA, and winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), A Strange Loop (Obie Award winner and SDCF Callaway finalist for choreography; Playwrights Horizons, winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama).
STEVEN CUEVAS (MUSIC DIRECTOR & MUSIC SUPERVISOR; he/him) is a NYC-based music director, musician, orchestrator, and arranger. Earlier this season, he was the orchestrator of the world premiere of Gold Mountain at the Utah Shakespeare Festival and the music director/co-orchestrator of Macbeth in Stride at A.R.T. Steven served as music director of CollaborAzian’s all-Asian virtual production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, which raised over $25K for Stop AAPI Hate. Broadway: Moulin Rouge!, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Once On This Island, Anastasia, Kinky Boots. Off-Broadway: Little Shop of Horrors, I Spy a Spy, We Are The Tigers, Trip of Love, Closer Than Ever. Tours: Once On This Island, Kinky Boots, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Spring Awakening, My Fair Lady (Singapore). Recordings: Once On This Island, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Monstersongs. Chair of Local 802 AFM Diversity Committee. Proud member: AEA, Recording Academy, Filipino American community. @StevenMCuevas
YI-CHIEN LEE (SCENIC DESIGNER; she/her) is excited to return to Diversionary with Eighty-Sixed. Set design credits include Girlfriend, A Kind of Weather (Diversionary Theatre), Life Sucks, Water by the Spoonful, The Great Leap (Cygnet Theatre), The Great Khan (San Diego Repertory Theatre), Mother of the Maid (Moxie Theatre), King of the Yees (Sierra Madre Playhouse), BURN (STR Network), TURN AROUND, About Chia-Yi (Our Theatre, The 13th Grassstraw Festival), Play (Tainaner Ensemble), Seek Beckett (Double Theatre), Mission Incomplete (New Vision Play Festival), CODE: CYTUS 2.0 (Divertimento Media, Shanghai), The Winter’s Tale- Globe for all (Old Globe). Her work for Moon Drunk was selected for the Emerging Artist/Imagination Exhibit in the 2019 Prague Quadrennial, and Un-Tongue was exhibited at The 28th Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre. portfolio: yichienlee.com
DEVARIO SIMMONS (COSTUME DESIGNER; he/him) is an American Costume Designer of staged productions. His design credits include Between the Bars, TUMACHO, Thoughts of a Colored Man, The Merchant of Venice, In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play, Man of La Mancha, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Other credits include three seasons of AMC’s television show TURN, the 2nd National Touring production of the Broadway hit In the Heights and two seasons of the PBS television series Mercy Street. He is currently the Associate Costume Designer for all productions of Come From Away worldwide and Assistant Professor of Costume Design at Ithaca College. He received his MFA in Costume Design from Virginia Commonwealth University.
JOEL BRITT (LIGHTING DESIGNER; he/him) is a San Diego-based freelance designer, whose design portfolio includes theatre, dance, opera, and musical theatre, as well as installation lighting. Recent designs include American Buffalo, The Dazzle, No Way Back, Roosevelt: Charge the Bear, A Raisin in the Sun, Strange Men, The Taming of the Shrew(d), Angels in America, Vieux Carré (Co-Designer), Peter and the Starcatcher, and Rent. He has also worked as an assistant in regional theater, on Broadway, and on national tours including Hamilton, Come From Away, Ain’t Too Proud, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, and The Band’s Visit. Joel received his MFA in Lighting Design from the University of California, San Diego and his BFA in Design and Technical Theater from Texas State San Marcos. Joel has also received honors from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for his work on Rent and was nominated for an Austin Critics Table award for his work on Somebody Called.
ALYSSA KANE (PROPS DESIGNER; she/her) is extremely proud to be working with Diversionary once again. She is a queer woman who works as a scenic and props designer throughout San Diego. Recent projects include The Great Khan (SD Rep), Love Song (Scripps Ranch Theatre), Sapience (Moxie), Azul (Diversionary), and The Aristocats (Classical Academy). Alyssa is an operational board member at Scripps Ranch Theatre. By day she works at the San Diego River Park Foundation. She is also a performer and founding member of a burlesque and variety troupe in Southeast Alaska. www.AlyssaKaneScenicDesign.com
EVAN EASON (SOUND DESIGNER; he/him) is thrilled to be working with Diversionary Theatre for the first time. Some of his previous sound design work includes: Beehive: The 60’s Musical (New Village Arts), Pick Me Last (La Jolla Playhouse), Good Trouble (Blindspot Collective), Emily Drivers Great Race Through Time and Space (La Jolla Playhouse), Project Fairytale (New Village Arts), 2019 Final Draft New Play Festival (New Village Arts). Evan has also worked as an associate and/or assistant sound designer on the following productions: The Women’s Project (Clubbed Thumb), The Humans (San Diego Repertory), Twelfth Night (USD/The Old Globe), Aubergine (San Diego Repertory), and Avenue Q (New Village Arts). He has had experience as the Sound Engineer at the San Diego Repertory Theatre for three years and now is working at The Old Globe as the Assistant to the Sound Director.
LLOYD KIKOLER (ORCHESTRATOR; he/him) is a New York City-based orchestrator, producer and multi-instrumentalist. His credits include: Little Black Book (Broadway Records), Cleopatra (Chelsea Music Hall), Dog Man: The Musical (TheaterWorks USA), Earthrise (The Kennedy Center) and many more.
CHRIS BELL (ASSOCIATE CHOREOGRAPHER; he/him) (@chrisbelldances), NYC by way of SAT. MFA (Case Western Reserve), BS Dance (Lamar), and because he likes camping and the beach BS Geology. He currently makes work with Raja Feather Kelly & the feath3r theory and is a frequent collaborator with (and former choreographic assistant to) Mark Dendy. Recent Projects: The Kill One Race (TF3T/Playwrights Horizons), ‘The Met Gala’ (Rachael Chavkin, Raja Feather Kelly), and Mute Swan, a collaboration with Theater in Quarantine written by Pulitzer-prize finalist Madeleine George. As an Educator, he works for Roundabout Theatre Company, Marquis Studios and TADA! Youth Theaters. His company, chrisbelldances (CBD), has presented work in 6 states and 4 out of 5 boroughs in NYC including evening length works at Dixon Place and Gibney Dance Center. CBD was the first dance company in residence at the Cherry Grove Community House and Theater, America’s oldest continuously operating LGBTQIA+ theater. During the pandemic, CBD worked with local organizations like The Queensboro Dance Festival to present free dance events in outdoor spaces in outer borough neighborhoods.
PATRICK MARION (ASSOCIATE MUSIC DIRECTOR; he/him) is thrilled to be back at Diversionary again! Select credits: Diversionary Theatre: Hedwig And The Angry Inch, The Loneliest Girl In The World; Cygnet Theatre: La Cage Aux Folles, The Last Five Years (SD Critics Circle Nominee), Rock Of Ages, Shockheaded Peter (SD Critics Circle Nominee), The Rocky Horror Show, A Christmas Carol, Company, Assassins; LPT (associate artist): Million Dollar Quartet, Oz, West Side Story, Les Miserables, miXtape; Welk Resorts Theatre: Nunsense.