Real, imagined Berkeley celebrated in Berkeley Rep audio series ‘Place/Settings’
The East Bay company's audio series is grounded in specific sites in Berkeley, penned by writers with strong ties to the city
Lily Janiak January 8, 2021Updated: January 12, 2021, 5:47 pm
Playwright Philip Kan Gotanda is seen at Jewel Lake in Berkeley. Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle
When playwright Philip Kan Gotanda set out to write an audio short story about Jewel Lake for Berkeley Rep’s “Place/Settings,” the Tilden Nature Area reservoir lived only in his imagination. He had never been there before.
“I happened to be reading Berkeleyside at the moment,” he recalls, of getting approached by Berkeley Rep about the new series, whose first episode premieres Tuesday, Jan. 12. Gotanda was struck by an article on the Berkeley-centric nonprofit news site about the danger that the lake would dry — and what that would do to visitors’ memories of the lake.