Café Utopia's first run has completed. Come back for when we announce the tour in 2025.
Café Utopia mixes comedy and chaos as workers fight for justice amid hilariously absurd challenges. At Café Utopia, becoming your best self is the goal — until things begin to spiral out of control. This new 90-minute comedy is based on real stories from people on the frontlines of today’s unionization movement.
Check out the Brilliant Cast of Café Utopia!
Left to Right: Sergio Mauritz Ang, Julia Atwood, Kathleen Mary Carthy, Al Piper, Louis Reyes McWillliams and Nayib Felix*
*All actors appearing courtesy of Actor's Equity Association
*All actors appearing courtesy of Actor's Equity Association
Café Utopia seems like the perfect place to work: flexible hours, great benefits, free juice! But when mysterious pamphlets begin to appear, and key equipment breaks down, the staff start to question whether the renowned health food chain is truly all it seems. Preparing for a visit from the company’s reclusive CEO, the employees’ find their skills and endurance pushed to the limit as they compete to prove their total dedication…to the juice.
Genevieve Kingston - Playwright
Gwen holds BAs in theater and linguistics from UC Berkeley, and an MFA in acting from Brown University/Trinity Repertory Theater. Her work has been performed at FaultLine Theater, White Heron, HB Studio, Culture*Park, La Mama, and The Flea, and featured in The New York Times' Modern Love column. Her memoir, Did I Ever Tell You? was an Oprah Daily Most Anticipated Book of 2024, and a New York Times Editor's Pick. Previous projects with Notch include Anna Karenina: a riff, Wild Home, DICK, and FIT. |
Amazon and Starbucks are the behemoths of the 21st Century, much like Big Steel and Big Auto were at the beginning of the 20th Century. Now, as then, mass strikes herald a labor uprising that may shape the working person's future for decades to come. Café Utopia engages the individuals and organizations behind the current unionization movement in the creation of an original dystopian comedy that speaks to this urgent moment in America.
Cafe Utopia Stage Production Team
Left to Right Top Row: Director: Ashley Teague, Associate Director: BT Hayes, Producer: Charles Jackson Jr. , Associate Producer: Savannah Ritz,
Left to Right Bottom Row: Community Engagement Associate: Bria Dinkins, Scenic and Costume Designer: Calypso Michelet, Documentarian: Abby Schroering, Lighting Designer: Megan Lang
Left to Right Bottom Row: Community Engagement Associate: Bria Dinkins, Scenic and Costume Designer: Calypso Michelet, Documentarian: Abby Schroering, Lighting Designer: Megan Lang
Special Thanks to the following companies who have donated wine and snacks during our run!
This project is made possible in part with funds from the JKW Foundation, Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation, and Creative Engagement, a regrant program(s) supported by the funding agency Howard Gilman and administered by LMCC.