The Prince Part 2

Mark Farrell* (Niccolo Machiavelli)
Brennan Pickman-Thoon* (Michelangelo Buonorroti)
Kevin Singer (Lorenzino de Medici/Battista della Palla)
Marah Sotelo (Zenobia Buondelmonte)
Michael Ray Wisely* (Leonardo da Vinci/Luigi Alamanni)

Writer/Director: Gary Graves
Stage Managers: Alandra Hileman, Louel Señores
Costume design: Tammy Berlin
Sound design: Gregory Scharpen

Production Sponsors: Michelle Barbour & Christian Baudry
Production Sponsor: Sophie & The Rheinheimer Family

*member Actors Equity Association

Gary Graves (writer/director) has been a resident playwright and company co-director at Central Works since 1998.  He has been a part of developing 81 world premiere productions with the company, many of which he has either written and/or directed.  Titles of plays he has written include:  Red Virgin, Richard the First (a trilogy), The Grand Inquisitor, Dracula Inquest, and most recently, The Last Goat.  He’s been working on The Prince Part 1 & Part 2 since he was a wee lad in grad school, back in 1986.  They say “Plays are not written—they’re re-written.”

Mark Farrell* (Niccolo Machiavelli) is pleased to return to Central Works for the third time, the first being in The Golden Era in 1996 (written and directed by Gary Graves). Mark has appeared in over 80 productions nationally and beyond. Credits: 1776 (American Conservatory Theatre); The 39 Steps, Rumors, Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Story (Center REP); Next To Normal (Arizona Theatre Company); MATILDA (CCMT); The Prince (Central Works, 2010); The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s Completely Hollywood: Abridged (Belgium/Holland Tour); Around The World In 80 Days (Laguna Playhouse/San Jose Rep/Center Rep); Putnam County Spelling Bee (San Jose Rep); Judgment At Nuremberg, A Doll’s House (Willows Theatre); The Crucible, Old Wicked Songs (Marin Theatre Company); The Fantsticks (BATCC award, SF Playhouse). Mark has been a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association for 25 years.

Brennan Pickman-Thoon* (Michelangelo Buonorroti) is honored to be a part of the final Central Works production. Selected credits: Bulrusher, Metamorphoses (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theater), Mother of the Maid (Marin Theatre), Annunciation, Home (Word For Word), Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Tempest (SF Shakes), The Gentleman Caller (NCTC), Timon of Athens (Cutting Ball Theater), and Hamlet (Marin Shakes). When not performing, Brennan is a faculty member at American Conservatory Theater and a teaching artist for SFArtsED. He also directs plays and musicals, with recent credits including Legally Blonde (Damato Performance School) and Sweeney Todd (Throckmorton Theater). He is the Resident Director at Damato Performance School. Brennan received the 2026 SFBATCC award for Actor in a Featured Role and the 2019 SFBATCC Award for Actor in a Principal Role. Proud member of AEA. Love to Mom, Dad, J, and E. For more, please visit brennanpickmanthoon.com.

Kevin Singer (Lorenzino de Medici/Battista della Palla) is an actor from Oakland with a love of fried chicken sandwiches. In the 15+ years since he moved to the Bay Area, he has worked with dozens of regional companies, including Magic Theatre, Center Repertory Theatre, and New Conservatory Theatre. Bay Area theatre-goers may have seen him recently as George in Shotgun Players’ production of Sunday in the Park with George or as Ross in their production of Edward Albee’s The Goat. He also played Monty in the regional premiere of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at 42nd Street Moon. Kevin is a board member at Korsa Musical Theater, the Bay Area’s premier musical theater training company. He graduated in 2013 from UC Berkeley, where he was awarded the David and Diana Menn Prize for Outstanding Creative Talent in the Performing Arts. When he’s not engaging in tomfoolery on stage, he works as a consultant for progressive candidates and causes.

Marah Sotelo (Zenobia Buondelmonte) is thrilled to make her Central Works debut with The Prince Part 2. Recent credits include Dot/Marie in Sunday in the Park with George at Shotgun Players, Maria Rainer in The Sound of Music at Berkeley Playhouse, and Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls: The Musical at Ray of Light Theatre. She has previously collaborated on new works such as Larry the Musical (World Premiere), The Trees, and Particle Fever. She is deeply grateful to the The Prince Parts 1&2 creative team for the opportunity to breathe life into this script and to Chris for his endless support. Follow her journey on Instagram: @marahsotelo

Michael Ray Wisely* (Leonardo da Vinci/Luigi Alamanni) is an award winning actor well known to Bay Area audiences with a career that spans over 3 decades.  Recent roles include: Prospero in The Tempest and Warwick in Saint Joan for PacRep in Carmel, Trucker/Dad/Teddy in FROGGY and Scrooge in A Christmas Carol at CenterRep, and Boss in Boss McGreedy right here at CentralWorks (BATCC  Nominee)  Off-Broadway, international, regional: 59e59 Theaters,NYC, Teatro Santa Ana, SMA, Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Repertory, Marin Theatre, Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks, Marin Shakes, SF Shakes, African American Shakes, and others.  Michael Ray is a proud member of the performing unions Actors Equity, SAG-AFTRA, and has performed in Film, TV, and Radio. What’s Next?: Two short films and a writing project. His performance is always dedicated to his late wife, director Wendy Wisely and child, Liv. michaelraywisely.com

 Click here  for Part 1 cast information

 Click here  for press on Part 1

Historical figures from which the characters in The Prince Part 2 are adapted are further down the page.

More production photos:

Michael Ray Wisely* as Leonardo da Vinci

Brennan Pickman-Thoon* as Michelangelo

Kevin Singer as Lorenzino de Medici

Kevin Singer and Marah Sotelo as Battista and Zenobia

Michael Ray Wisely* as Luigi

Mark Farrell* as Niccolo Machiavelli

Historical figures from Part 2:

Niccolò Machiavelli (Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli) (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian who lived during the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise The Prince (Il Principe), written around 1513 but not published until 1532, five years after his death. He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science.

Lorenzino (Lorenzo de’ Medici ll) (2 September 1492 – 4 May 1519), grandson of “Lorenzo the Magnificent” was the ruler of Florence from 1516 until his death in 1519. He was also Duke of Urbino during the same period. A scion of the Medici, his wealth and power saw his daughter Catherine de’ Medici become Queen Consort of France, while his recognised but illegitimate son, Alessandro de’ Medici, inherited his estate and became the first Duke of Florence. Machiavelli dedicated  The Prince to him, writing:
“If you will read it over and study it carefully, you will recognize in it my most earnest desire that you may achieve that summit of grandeur to which your happy destiny and your other capacities predestine you. And if from that summit Your Magnificence will occasionally glance down at these humble places, you will recognize how unjustly I suffer the bitter and sustained malignity of fortune.”

Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci) (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he has also become known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology. Leonardo is widely regarded as a genius who epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal,^[4] and his collective works contributed to the development of European art to an extent rivalled only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo.

Michelangelo (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect,^[2] and poet of the High Renaissance. He was born in the Republic of Florence but was mostly active in Rome from his 30s onwards. His work was inspired by models from classical antiquity and had a lasting influence on Western art. Michelangelo’s creative abilities and mastery in a range of artistic arenas define him as an archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and elder contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci. Given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences, Michelangelo is one of the best-documented artists of the 16th century.

Images and information are mostly taken from Wikipedia

 Click here  for more information about Part 1 characters

Want to learn more background on the place and time in which THE PRINCE is set?
From “murderous Machiavel” to patriot-diplomat: Historian Ada Palmer rereads Machiavelli’s “The Prince”, dropping him back into his world of papal warlords, collapsing city-states, and patriots desperate to preserve the independence of his Firenze against a very malignant Fortuna. CLICK HERE