The Creative Team

Native New Yorker Lori Rivera has been in love with music and theater since she was a small girl. Influenced by the great Musicals of Broadway and the sultry sounds of jazz, Ms. Rivera has sung with a capella giants, The Bobs and SoVoSo and has appeared on many stages throughout the San Fransisco Bay Area and beyond. She is Jeremy's Mom and David's wife and loves Joe's music.

JOE ORTIZ'S first book, The Village Baker (Ten Speed Press), was nominated for the prestigious Julia Child cookbook award. He has co-authored three other books, The Village Baker's Wife, Shakespeare on Golf and The Gardener's Table. His show, BREAD!—The Musical was performed in over 40 restaurants, theatres and jazz clubs throughout central California in 2001 and 2002.

GREG FRITSCH has worked for Pocket Opera of San Francisco, USF, UC Santa Cruz, and West Valley College in directing such productions as Emperor Norton, Orpheus in the Underworld, Lysistrata, The Servant of Two Masters, The Beggar's Rock Opera and Prometheus Bound. In 2009 he directed Sondheim's Company and Mozart's Magic Flute, and in 2010 will direct Chicago at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, Ca.

KATHRYN CHETKOVICH'S two full-length plays, Acts of Love (2007), and She Said, She Said (2009), premiered in New York. Her prose has appeared in Granta, ZYZZYVA and in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays.

MARSHALL OTWELL was pianist and musical director for Carmen McRae for eight years. He has performed and/or recorded with Ernestine Anderson, Freddie Hubbard, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Charlie Musselwhite, Ray Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Della Reese, Mel Tormé, and Sarah Vaughan, to name a few.

Smoke: Current Performances

Smoke: Music CD

Smoke: How the Tunes Came into Being