Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre Reveals Cast and Creative Team of BAKED! THE MUSICAL

Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre has revealed the cast and production team of the developmental production of Baked! The Musical, written by Jord Liu and Deepak Kumar onstage September 7 through October 8. This contemporary all-new, all-Asian musical, centers habitual overachiever Jane Huang as she and her best friends build the greatest drug empire ever run by high schoolers to help pay for her college tuition. Baked! first made an impact on Chicago audiences in a completely sold out run at the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival in 2020, and more recently has been developed at FaultLine Theatre in San Francisco, and at the 34th Annual Festival of New Musicals in New York.

"I feel so proud and lucky to be seeing Baked! produced by Theo this year (and honestly to writing theatre at all!)," said co-writer Jord Liu. "This is the first time we've ever had designers in the room thinking about things like sets, costumes, and lights, and I'm excited to see all the beautiful things I know they're planning."

Leading the production is Grace Dolezal-Ng (she/her; Director), Shanna VanDerwerker (she/her; Choreographer), Tyler Miles (they/them; Music Director), and Katherine Elise (she/they; Assistant Music Director) with Noel Streacker (he/him; Percussionist). The design team includes Mara Ishihara Zinky (she/her; Scenic Designer), Josiah Croegart (he/him; Lighting Designer), Steph Taylor (she/her; Costume Designer), Isa Noe (they/them; Properties Designer), and Matthew R. Chase (he/him; Sound Designer). The production staff also includes Lexie Wiley (they/she; Stage Manager), Isaac Mandel (he/him; Audio Engineer), Max Donovan Mclean (he/him; Technical Director), and Jackson Mikkelsen (he/him; Production Electrician).

The cast features Sunnie Eraso (she/her; Jane), Devon Hayakawa (any; Kasey), Mariel Saavedra (she/her; Yunzhou), Nick Joe (he/him; Mingli), Reilly Oh (he/him; Z), Joy Campbell (she/her; Ensemble/understudy Jane & Kasey), Maiko Terazawa (she/her; Ensemble/understudy Yunzhou), Peter Ruger (he/him; Ensemble/understudy Mingli), RJ Silva (he/him; Ensemble/understudy Z), and Bryce Ancil (he/him; Ensemble/Swing).

"I am over the moon(cake) to bring Baked! back to Chicago, the city where our little show first grew up," said co-writer Deepak Kumar. "The opportunity to develop this show with Theo and be a small part of this exceptional season is a true joy and delight! I can't wait to share all our hard work with the Chicago community!"

Tickets can be purchased online at theo-u.com/Baked or via phone at 773-939-4101. All tickets for Baked! The Musical are $40. Box office hours are Wednesday-Sunday 12 p.m.-5 p.m. Theo continues to offer its one stop dinner and a show experience, offering a pre-fixed dinner menu before most performances courtesy of Evanston's Koi for an additional $33.

In addition to single tickets, Baked! The Musical is also available as an add-on for a full season subscription offering including a trio of Sondheim shows, Assassins, Sondheim Tribute Review, and A Little Night Music. To learn more about Subscription offerings visit theo-u.com/season-23-24. All performances take place at Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre located at 721 Howard Street in Evanston.

Theo is excited to be in community partnership with Evanston ASPA for this production. Evanston ASPA is dedicated to increasing the visibility and representation of the local Asian, South Asian, Pacific Islander American (ASPA) community. Evanston ASPA is working to change this through civic engagement, community building, accessible programming, and city-wide events with a focus on history, arts and culture. For the performance of Baked! The Musical on October 6, 50% of that evening's ticket sales will be donated to Evanston ASPA and audiences are invited to attend a talkback following the performance with a panel of representatives from both Evanston ASPA and the show's production team.

Theo is also partnering with the League of Chicago Theatres for an industry night at Baked! The Musical. Members of the Chicago Theatre community are invited to purchase $15 discounted tickets for a special networking event & industry performance on Thursday, October 5 at 7:30pm using code INDUSTRY15. To purchase tickets visit theo-u.com/Baked.

Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre is grateful to the following supporters of this production:

Baked! The Musical is partially supported by a 2023 Saints Grant courtesy of The Saints, Volunteers for the Performing Arts.

This project is partially supported by a grant from the Evanston Arts Council, a city agency supported by the City of Evanston, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

ABOUT BAKED! THE MUSICAL

Baked! The Musical is a hilarious and touching all-Asian show about family, friendship, and failure. When she doesn't receive the scholarship for her dream school, habitual overachiever Jane Huang, with the help of her best friend, builds the greatest drug empire ever run by high schoolers. Kept in the dark are Jane's parents, whose inability to cope with their daughter leaving for college while maintaining a profit at their struggling Chinese bakery, drives them to pry and potentially unravel Jane's web of lies.

ABOUT THE WRITING TEAM

Deepak Kumar (he/him) is a playwright, lyricist, and composer who lives in the Internet. His shows have been produced with the O'Neill Theatre Center (NPC '22), the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival of New Musicals (NAMT '22), the National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO), Musical Theatre Factory, PACE University, Faultline Theater (SF), Underscore Theatre, and Shotgun Players. He is a MacDowell Colony fellow and a Musical Theatre Factory Maker (Cohort III). He has commissions from Audible and Arena Stage. When Deepak is not writing plays and musicals, he spends his time as a computing researcher.

Jord Liu (she/her) is a theater maker and musician based in San Francisco, CA. Jord's first show, "Baked! The Musical," (co-created with Deepak Kumar) premiered at the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival 2020, where it won awards for Best Lyrics, Best Lead, Best Supporting, and Best Ensemble. Since then, the show has been accepted into RAVE 2020, NYMF 2020, and most recently NAMT 2022. She is a Eugene O'Neill NMTC Semifinalist, as well as a resident with SFBATCO's 2022 Creator's Lab. Her work has been produced by theaters in NYC, Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco.

ABOUT THEO UBIQUE

Theo was founded in 1997 by Artistic Director Fred Anzevino. Productions were first staged at the Heartland Studio Theatre, and from 2004 to May 2018, at No Exit Café, where the company began focusing on musicals and revues, reigniting the cabaret theatre trend in Chicago. The company moved to the Howard Street Theatre, a venue owned and developed for Theo by the City of Evanston, in fall of 2018. Theo has produced more than 60 shows and won 68 Jeff Awards, having received 173 nominations. Learn more at www.theo-u.com

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