Empty Ride Cast and Creatives Announcement

The Old Globe
announces the full cast and creative team
for the Globe-commissioned world premiere of
Empty Ride,
by San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award-winning
playwright Keiko Green,
directed by Sivan Battat.

Performances begin February 8 and run through March 2, 2025,
with the opening on Thursday, Feb. 13.

Tickets available at TheOldGlobe.org

PHOTO EDITORS: Photos of the Globe’s production of Empty Ride can be found here.

SAN DIEGO (January 14, 2025) – The Old Globe is pleased to announce the full cast and creative team for the Globe-commissioned world premiere of Empty Ride by San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award-winning playwright Keiko Green (The Old Globe’s Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play). Sivan Battat (Playwrights Horizons’ In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot) directs this funny and poignant story that explores the uncanny ways that love can transcend loss. Performances begin February 8 and run through March 2, 2025, with the opening on Thursday, Feb. 13 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center in San Diego’s Balboa Park. Tickets are available at TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE (234-5623), and in person at The Old Globe’s Box Office in Balboa Park (1363 Old Globe Way).

Empty Ride is a major new American play that first launched in the 2024 Powers New Voices Festival at The Old Globe. Kisa, a painter in Paris, returns to her small Japanese hometown after the 2011 tsunami to help her ailing father by driving his taxi cab. But as she navigates the winding streets and transports her eccentric passengers, she is haunted by the supernatural remnants of what the floodwaters left behind. 

“Keiko Green is one of the most exciting playwrights bursting onto the American scene right now, and her newest play Empty Ride is a stunner in all the best ways,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “From the moment I read it I knew the Globe should produce it. Keiko transports us to a part of Japan that few outside that country know, and there she immerses us in a story that’s funny, touching, and immensely powerful. It’s an honor to bring it to life, especially under the guidance of Sivan Battat, a brilliant director who, like Keiko, is on a meteoric rise. The cast coming to San Diego to produce this play is top-notch and will bring to the Globe a memorable and special evening.”

The cast of Empty Ride includes Michele Selene Ang as Kisa (Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why), Major Curda as Toru (Broadway’s The Little Mermaid), Jojo Gonzalez as Isamu (Off-Broadway’s The Romance of Magno Rubio – Obie Award), Jully Lee as Sachiko (Broadway’s KPOP), and David Rosenberg as Alex (Broadway’s Death of a Salesman).

Empty Ride understudies include Stephanie Hinck, Justin Lang, Susane Lee, and Akoni Steinmann.

Also joining Green and Battat as part of the creative team are Adam Rigg (Scenic Design); Izumi Inaba (Costume Design); Mextly Couzin (Lighting Design); Avi Amon (Original Music and Sound Design); Caparelliotis Casting (Casting); and Chandra R.M. Anthenill (Production Stage Manager).

Ticket prices for Empty Ride start at $31. Performances for the four-week limited engagement run February 8 – March 2, 2025, with the official press opening at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13. Visit TheOldGlobe.org for tickets, a full schedule, and additional information.

Opening Night post-show receptions for the cast and donors are held in Hattox Hall, located in the Karen and Donald Cohn Education Center.

Empty Ride is supported by Lead Production Sponsor Paula and Brian Powers and the Laurents / Hatcher Foundation. Additional financial support for The Old Globe is provided by The City of San Diego. The Theodor and Audrey Geisel Fund provides leadership support for The Old Globe’s year-round activities..

Bios and photos of all participants can be found at TheOldGlobe.org/Press-Room.

The Tony Award–winning The Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional nonprofit regional theatres. Now in its 90th year, the Globe is San Diego’s flagship performing arts institution, and it serves a vibrant community by creating theatre that lives beyond the stage. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Audrey S. Geisel Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 16 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages. The company’s Summer Shakespeare Festival is internationally renowned, and in 2024 the Globe completed the Shakespeare canon with Edelstein’s landmark production Henry 6. More than 250,000 people annually attend Globe productions and participate in the theatre’s artistic and arts engagement programs. Its nationally prominent Arts Engagement Department provides an array of participatory programs that make theatre matter to more people in neighborhoods throughout the region. Humanities programs at the Globe and around the city broaden the community’s understanding of theatre art in all its forms. The Globe also boasts a range of new play development programs with professional and community-based writers, as well as the renowned The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Numerous world premieres—such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Bright Star, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!—have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.

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