Juliana Lustenader
Bay Area Actress and Singer-Songwriter
The Latest News
2017 : A Year of Directing
August 2017
The summer has been a whirlwind for Juliana. While performing in multiple concerts, staged readings and workshops over the summer, she has also signed up to direct a staged reading of Carson Beker's new play "The Sorrows" for Custom Made Theatre's New Work Development Program. This free reading will be on October 10th at the Gallery Cafe in San Francisco.
Juliana will also be directing the final show of the SF Olympians Festival this year - Mathew 33:6 - written by the founder of the festival Stuart Bousel. The reading will take place on October 21st at the Exit Theatre.
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Chess Wins 9 Awards at the 41st Annual BATCC Awards!
March 2017
Custom Made Theatre's production of Chess was nominated for 12 awards by the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. At the 41st Annual Awards, the theatre took home 9 of those 12 titles, including Best Ensemble, Musical Direction (Armando Fox), Choreography (Daunielle Rasmussen), Lead Actor in a Musical, (Chris Uzelac) Lead Actress in a Musical (Leah Shesky), Supporting Actor in a Musical (Alan Coyne), Supporting Actress in a Musical (Heather Orth), Best San Francisco Production, and Best Bay Area Production! Juliana is thrilled her cast and crew were awarded for the hard work and wonderful performances/designs. Want to see what Custom Made is doing now? Come see Juliana star as Lesly in their current show, The House of Yes.
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Custom Made Theatre Company Member and The House of Yes
November 2016
After performing in three shows with Custom Made Theatre Company over the last three years, Juliana Lustenader will be joining their ranks as one of their latest company members. Her past CMTC credits include Young Little Edie in Grey Gardens, Abigail in The Crucible, and The Global Television Hostess in Chess.
Juliana is also lined up for one of CMTC's upcoming productions, The House of Yes. She will play the role of Lesly in a cast of stellar local actors: Casey Robbins, Caitlin Evenson, Shelley Lynn Johnson, and Elliot Lieberman.
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New Show Announcement: Avenue Q
October 2016
New Conservatory Theatre Company has created a new Bay Area holiday tradition: Avenue Q! The show has been running during the last three holiday seasons and Juliana Lustenader will be joining this year's cast.
Juliana will be one of the puppeteers in the show, manipulating multiple outlandish characters, including Mrs. Thistletwat and a Bad Idea Bear. Performances begin December 2nd and will likely extend to the end of January. Juliana's cast will perform Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Grab your tickets before the sell out, like they have far in advance in previous years.
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Bar Spies is a hit for Theatre Pub's Pint-Sized Plays
August 2016
For this year's annual Pint-Sized Plays, Juliana joined the festival as a director for Alan Coyne's Bar Spies. Coyne's dramedy showcases Courtney Merrell and Andrew Chung's impressive drinking, spying and accent skills in PianoFight's popular bar.
Pint-Sized Plays perform on Mondays and Tuesdays through August 29th.
Juliana is no stranger to Theatre Pub's Pint-Sized Plays. Last year she wrote an infamous scene called To Be Blue which depicted two drunk 20-somethings debating the lyrics of Eiffel 65's one hit wonder "Blue".
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Theatre Around the Bay: Alan Coyne & Juliana Lustenader of "Bar Spies"
Juliana Lustenader Wins Best Feature Actress in a Musical!
April 2016
At the 40th Annual SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards Gala,, Juliana Lustenader was awarded "Best Featured Actress in a Musical" for her protrayal of Young Little Edie in Custom Made Theatre's Grey Gardens, the Musical.
Grey Gardens swept the acting categories as Heather Orth took home Best Principal Actress in a Musical and David Brown won for Best Principal Actor in a Musical. Custom Made walked away with many other awards for their 2014/2015 season, including the Pain Knickerbocker Award for excellence in theatre making.
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The San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle 2015 Nominees and Winners
SF BATCC Award Nomination: Best Featured Actress in a Musical
February 2016
Award season isn't over yet! The San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle has released their list of nominees from 2015 and Juliana is nominated for her protrayal of Young Little Edie in Custom Made Theatre's Grey Gardens, the Musical.
Grey Gardens was nominated for several categories; Best Choreography (Kim Saunders), Music Direction (David Brown), Costume Design (Brooke Jennings), Principal Actress in a Musical (Heather Orth), Principal Actor in a Musical (David Brown), Overall Production and more. The 40th annual awards gala will take place on March 28th at the beautiful Victoria Theatre.
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The San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle 40th Annual Awards Gala
TBA Award Nomination: Best Featured Female Actor in a Musical
September 2015
Juliana has been nominated by Theatre Bay Area for her portrayal of Young Little Edie in Custom Made Theatre Company's production of Grey Gardens, the Musical.
Custom Made's Grey Gardens was also nominated for Outstanding Direction (Stuart Bousel), Principal Female Actor (Heather Orth), Musical Direction (David Brown), Choreography (Kim Saunders), Lighting (William Campbell), Ensemble and Overall Production. The winners will be announced and celebrated at ACT's Geary Theatre on Monday, November 16th.
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To Be Blue: Bay Area Playwrighting Debut
August 2015
After years of performing throughout the Bay Area, Juliana is about to make her debut as a playwright in a local festival. Her short play To Be Blue will be staged for the first time in San Francisco Theatre Pub's fifth annual Pint-Sized Play Festival this August at Pianofight.
To Be Blue follows two tipsy bar patrons through their meandering analysis of the intelligable lyrics to Eiffel 65's one hit wonder "Blue". Details on the script can be found here.
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New Show Announcement: Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies
July 2015
Juliana has been cast in Tearrance Chrisholm's Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies, a new play that follows two black American teenagers as their wildly different lives melt into one terrifyingly familiar story.
The script will be read for the first time during the 38th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival, hosted by the Playwrights Foundation at Tides Theatre in San Francisco. The festival will include readings of seven new plays, beginning July 17th and ending July 26th.
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Grey Gardens is now a TBA Award Recommended Production!
June 2015
After a sold-out opening weekend and multiple rave reviews from audiences and newspapers alike, Grey Gardens has become the most recent Theatre Bay Area (TBA) recommended production for the organization's annual awards.
Local performers, designers and theatre-enthusiasts adjudicate Bay Area productions on behalf of TBA and only the most acclaimed shows are recommended for this new yet prestigious award. Grey Gardens joins the ranks shortly after announcing an extension! The show will now close on July 5th so everyone has a chance to see what the fuss is about!
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New Show Announcement: The Taming of the Shrew
May 2015
Once Grey Gardens has closed its doors, Juliana will be trekking to Mill Valley to start rehearsals for Curtain Theatre's production of The Taming of the Shrew.
Curtain Theatre is known for staging Shakespeare's finest plays in the beautifully serene setting of Mill Valley Park's outdoor stage, hidden among soaring redwoods. Not only will this be her debut with the company, but The Taming of the Shrew will be her first professional Shakespeare production in the Bay Area! Don't miss her portray Kate's sister, Bianca, this fall.
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New Show Announcement: The Breakout
April 2015
Juliana's latest project is a new musical, The Breakout: A Rock Opera, which will be performed as part of Berkeley Rep's third Musical Cafe Showcase at StageWerx Theatre on May 3rd.
The Musical Cafe Showcase is an afternoon of songs and scenes from new musicals by Northern California writers and composers. The Breakout, written by Chris Edgar and directed by Emily Marsh, will feature Juliana as Scara and Jesse Cortez from Yeast Nation as the leading role.
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Yeast Nation Original Cast Recording
March 2015
Ray of Light Theatre's cast of Yeast Nation will be the first cast to record the new musical's full score! The show was a hit at the Victoria Theatre last fall. Mark Holloman and Greg Kotis (Tony Award winning creators of Urinetown) worked one-on-one with the cast to workshop and perfect their absurd tale of how the world began.
The cast was reunited in early March to review the musical numbers. Juliana was very happy so see everyone again and extremely excited to record this wonderful music!
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New Show Announcement: Cinderella
November 2014
When she's not caroling with The Yuletide Carolers this holiday season, Juliana will be portraying the title role in Panto SF's Cinderella: A Family Holiday Panto at the Marines' Memorial Theatre.
This uproarious version of the classic fairy-tale features music, dance, comedy, cross dressing, and now added mice! Juliana can't wait to be a part of this San Francisco tradition, inspired by the British traditional panto performance style.
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Yeast Nation is a must see!
August 2014
Ray of Light Theatre's production of Yeast Nation has been selected as a must see show this Fall in the Bay Area by Sam Hurwitt at KQED.
The show was recommended alongside Water By The Spoonful at TheatreWorks, Rapture Blister Burn at Aurora Theatre Co., Party People at Berkeley Repretory Theatre and a handful more.
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New Show Announcement: Grey Gardens
August 2014
Juliana has been cast as Young Little Edie in Custom Made Theatre's musical production of Grey Gardens! She is very excited to work under the direction of Stuart Bousel for a second time, as well as sing side-by-side with her old classmate Nathan Brown and bay area musical legend Heather Orth.
The show runs May 14 - Jun 14th 2015 at the Gough St. Playhouse.
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Grey Garden, Slaughter House Five, and more set for Custom Made Theatre's 2014-15 Season
Yeast Nation Workshop is a Success
July 2014
Last week, Ray of Light Theatre presented a staged reading of their upcoming show Yeast Nation, and it was a hit!
The cast worked alongside the show's Tony award winning creators, Greg Kotis and Mark Holloman, for one week before presenting Yeast Nation in staged reading form for Ray of Light's early season subscribors. The crowd couldn't help but laugh with the actors and tap their feet to the catchy new score. Juliana had a great time during the workshop process and can't wait to full rehearsals to begin in August!
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Yeasts: Dawn of New Age on Earth…And in San Francisco Musical Theatre?