Baby Shower Katie
Theodore and Adele Shank Theatre | May 2-17
Written by Beth Hyland | Directed by Aysan Celik
About the Show
Rebecca desperately wants to have a child; her best friend Hannah can’t imagine anything worse. Over the course of four different baby showers for mutual friends all named Katie, Rebecca and Hannah grapple with their unspoken wishes and fears about motherhood–and everything else. BABY SHOWER KATIE is an antic, irreverent, and deeply felt exploration of women’s choices and the baby shower industrial complex.
Content Warning
Baby Shower Katie contains depiction and discussion of pregnancy loss, infertility, addiction, and disordered eating.
Rebecca: Bailey Lee
Hannah: Emjay Williams
Katies: Sydney Prebe
Dr. Almond: Andrea Caban
Understudies
U/S Rebecca: Holly Van Puyvelde
U/S Hannah: Sophia Dagestino
U/S Katies: Katie Witteman
U/S Dr. Almond: Aysan Celik
Creative and Stage Management Team
Director: Aysan Celik
Assistant Director: Aiden McCormick
Dramaturg: Emma Baker
Costume Designer: Maricela Alaniz
Lighting Designer: Taylor Olson
Sound Designer: Nataly Ceniceros
Scenic Designer: Ruolin Zhao
Faculty EDI Rep: Robert Brill
Production Stage Manager: Lily Fitzsimmons
Assistant Stage Manager: Madison Emi Novitski
Assistant Stage Manager: Robin Castillo
Production Assistant: Colby Koo
Production Assistant: McKenna Ruby
Stage Management Sub: Tess Twomey
Dramaturg: Emma Baker
Costume Designer: Maricela Alaniz
Lighting Designer: Taylor Olson
Sound Designer: Nataly Ceniceros
Scenic Designer: Ruolin Zhao
Faculty EDI Rep: Robert Brill
Production Stage Manager: Lily Fitzsimmons
Assistant Stage Manager: Madison Emi Novitski
Assistant Stage Manager: Robin Castillo
Production Assistant: Colby Koo
Production Assistant: McKenna Ruby
Stage Management Sub: Tess Twomey
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 third-year playwriting MFA student at UC San Diego under the mentorship of Naomi Iizuka and Deborah Stein. BA: Kenyon College. Representation: Jamie Kaye-Phillips, Paradigm. bethhyland.com
About the Director
Professor Aysan Celik (she/hers) has worked as an actor and theater-maker for over 25 years. She has originated roles in world premieres of plays, created cutting-edge experimental performances with her collaborators, researched and performed interview-based documentary theater, and inhabited a variety of classical and contemporary roles Off Broadway, at U.S. regional theaters, and on international tours. Aysan is an Associate Artist with the Obie Award-winning New York theater company The Civilians, and is a founding member of Theater Mitu, who was recently awarded a 2025 Obie Award for innovation in the field. Before joining the UC San Diego community, Aysan was a professor at New York University Abu Dhabi for 10 years, where she had the privilege of working with students from over 116 countries. She is a graduate of UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and the American Repertory Theater Institute at Harvard University.