Cancelina

About the Show

Alina Jay is a former tween star turned singer/actress. When she’s caught kissing her much-older married co-star, the internet turns on her. Now Alina’s team, led by her best friend-slash-assistant, Meg, must do whatever it takes to get Alina back on top. A comedy about fame, cancel culture, and the lengths we’ll go for redemption, CANCELINA asks who we really are when everything is stripped away. 

Content Warning

Some Flashing Lights/Strobe

References to Eating Disorders, Child Abuse, Mental Illness, Gun Violence, and Drug Use

Director's Note

Cancelina is a play about what it feels like to be consumed and spat back out by the internet.  It’s about, to quote one of the characters, “that never-discussed, never-exalted, and certainly never-exploited-for-money subject: FEMALE FRIENDSHIP.” And it’s about the actually important things that we’re distracted from when we’re sucked into the infinite scroll spiral of who has the hottest takes, who has the most clicks, and who has been (!!!) canceled.

Cancelina follows pop star Alina and her best friend Meg as they, and the rest of Alina’s team, try to get Alina back on top after she has been canceled for a tryst with her older, married co-star. It’s a darkly funny romp that deftly exposes the ways in which the internet, in sleek modern form, upholds the same tired values of capitalism and patriarchy. It shows us the double standard that young women face when they’re in the public eye. And perhaps most poignantly, it reveals the complexities of a friendship between two women who love each other deeply, but who each want a piece of what the other has.

As we move further into the internet age, where an untold number of anonymous people have the power to comment, cancel, and pass value judgements, this play feels especially urgent. As Meg and Alina learn, the validation that comes with being popular on the internet is incredibly seductive, but it comes at a price. Amidst the incessant churn of salacious headlines, Meg and Alina have to ask themselves how far they will go to get what they want, and whether it’s worth it if it might cost them their friendship.

The Cast

Alina: Audrey Freund

Internet / Gretchen Tannenbaum / Others: Rhiann Glaudini

Stacey: Ashleigh Kennealy

Internet / Skyler Dean / Others: Ricardo Lozano 

Meg: Mai Lan Nguyen

Internet / A Bill Maher Type / Others: Kenneth Ray

Nicole: Katelin Shum

Patti: Kennedy Tolson

Hailey: Katie Witteman

Understudies

The Creative Team

Assistant Director: Claire McNerney

Assistant Director: Brady Sugrue

Dramaturg: Haïa Bchiri

Apprentice Dramaturg: Tong Wu

Choreographer: Mia Van Deloo

Scenic Designer: Eleanor Williams

Associate Puppet Designer: Frank Seed

Costume Designer: Alina Bokovikova

Assistant Costume Designer: Lex Verdayes

Lighting Designer: Taylor Olson

Assistant Lighting Designer: Mawce Dunn

Assistant Lighting Designer: Stephaney Knapp

Sound Designer: Padra Crisafulli

Assistant Sound Designer: Ash Floyd

Assistant Sound Designer, A1: Kaileykielle Hoga

Production Stage Manager: Lily Fitzsimmons

Assistant Stage Manager: Avery Simonian

Assistant Stage Manager: Leah Mitchell

Production Assistant: Wesly Nahkarad

About the Playwright

Beth Hyland is a playwright and screenwriter based in Southern California. Her plays and musicals include SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA, FIRES, OHIO, SEAGULLS, KILLED A MAN (JOKING), GRIPPY SOCK VACATION, ALL-ONE! THE DR. BRONNER’S PLAY, CLEARING, FOR ANNIE, and RED BOWL AT THE JEFFS. Her play SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA is the 2024 recipient of Williamstown Theatre Festival’s L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award; her play FIRES, OHIO was the 2023 recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Prize and the Mark Twain Award for Comic Playwriting. Her plays have been produced and developed regionally at Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series, Goodman Theatre’s New Stages, Know Theatre, Provincetown Theatre, B Street Theatre, Oak Park Festival Theatre, and Octagon Theatre Bolton; in New York at Manhattan Theatre Club and The Hearth; and in Chicago at Rivendell Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, First Floor Theater, The Story Theatre, Bramble Theatre, Broken Nose Theatre, The Sound in collaboration with Joe Swanberg, and others. She is under commission by Williamstown Theatre Festival and Manhattan Theatre Club. Beth co-founded The Sound, an itinerant Chicago storefront theatre, with artistic director Rebeca Willingham. Her short film CLAMBAKE, directed by Sammy Zeisel, was an official selection of the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival and the Santa Monica Film Festival. She is currently a second-year playwriting MFA student at UC San Diego under the mentorship of Naomi Iizuka and Deborah Stein. 

About the Director

Allie Moss is a second-year MFA student originally from Columbus, Ohio. Prior to attending UCSD, she was based in San Francisco.  UC San Diego credits: Late: A Cowboy Song, Boxed, Orlando, and Romeo and Juliet. Bay Area directing credits include Far Away (A.C.T. MFA Program), Restoration Master Reset (Cutting Ball Theater), Cloud 9 and American Hero (Custom Made Theatre Co.), and Hookman (A.C.T. Young Conservatory). Allie also served as the literary manager and casting associate at American Conservatory Theater, where she dramaturged mainstage productions, co-produced A.C.T.'s annual New Strands Festival, cast mainstage shows, and taught audition prep classes for high school, undergraduate, and graduate acting students. Allie has a BA in Theater from Goucher College and is an associate member of SDC.