was most recently seen on the small screen co-starring with John Lithgow on the NBC series “Trial & Error”. On television, Rodriguez is best known from her scene-stealing turn on the second season of NBC’s “Smash” as fan-favorite ‘Ana Vargas’. Other television credits include recurring roles on “Quantico, “Chasing Life” and guest starring roles on “Younger,” “The Mysteries of Laura,” “Married,” and “Gossip Girl”. On Broadway Rodriguez played Ilse in the critically acclaimed revival of Spring Awakening and headlined the original Broadway cast of First Date opposite Zachary Levi. Her extensive Broadway credits include original companies of The Addams Family, In the Heights, Spring Awakening, A Chorus Line (Revival) and Good Vibrations
Broadway: All My Sons, with Dianne Wiest and John Lithgow at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, Sacrilege with Ellen Burstyn at Belasco Theatre. Off Broadway: The Night Heron (Atlantic Theatre Company), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (National Actors Theatre), Psych (Playwrights Horizons), Baby Anger (Playwrights Horizons), The Waiting Room (Vineyard Theatre), Nothing Sacred (Atlantic Theatre Company) and ten years with Cucaracha Theatre.
Recent and upcoming films: “Wonderstruck”, A+, “Catfight”, “We Only Know So Much”, “Birdman”, “Delivery Man”, “Druid Peak”, “Hairbrained”, “Sex and the City”, “Reunion”, “RSO”, “Everybody’s Fine”, “The Good Heart”, “Edge of Darkness”. Television: “Gotham” (FOX), “Mohammad Ali’s Greatest Fight” (HBO Films), “The Comeback, Comeback” (HBO), “The War Next Door” (USA), “The Comeback” (HBO), “Californication” (Showtime); recurring roles on “House of Cards” (Netflix), “The Good Wife” (CBS), “Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter” (Adult Swim), “Damages” (F/X), “The Adventures of Pete and Pete” (Nickelodeon), “Cosby”, “CSI Miami” (CBS) and “Law & Order” (NBC).
Jenna Segal heads SegalNYC, which develops and produces theater, film and digital projects (Gatherer Entertainment) with a focus on the 35+ female audience. Ms. Segal was lead producer of the award winning musical GIGI (Kennedy Center, Broadway, Tony Awards). Other credits include: Les Liasons Dangereuses (Broadway); Small Mouth Sounds, What We’re Up Against (Off Broadway); and Black Dynamite (Film). Jenna is the Executive Producer of the short “Out on a Limb,” and the web series “Smart Cookin’,” “Morning Meds,” and “Hot Flash;” and Associate Producer on the web series “Lady Parts.” Jenna has been featured in Variety, The Star Ledger, The Bergen Record, and The Wall Street Journal as a new producer to watch. Jenna has three children and lives with her husband in New York City.
(Artistic Director of Monica Bill Barnes & Company, Choreographer, Performer) founded MBB&CO in 1997 with five solos that could be performed anywhere and one suitcase of costumes and props. Since then, her work has been performed in venues ranging from Upright Citizen’s Brigade to the BAM Opera House, and has been presented in more than 75 cities throughout the US. Recent company projects include Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, a show that combines radio and dance in collaboration with Ira Glass; The Museum Workout, a guided workout that travels 2 miles through The Metropolitan Museum of Art with curation by the author/visual artist Maira Kalman; and Happy Hour, the world’s only office party turned dance show (that we know of). Monica is thrilled to be partnering with the WP and NN for the company’s first off-Broadway show. After 20 years of performing all over the city and touring the country, it feels profoundly good to have the company in one place for an entire month.
(Associate Artistic Director of Monica Bill Barnes & Company, Performer) has worked with MBB&CO for 15 years, performing all over the world on stages ranging from public fountains and comedy clubs to Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House. She collaborated on all of the company’s current productions, and also served as Assistant Choreographer for productions at The Atlantic Theater, The Public Theater, and Yale Repertory Theater. Anna wears the grey suit in Happy Hour, the bronze dress in The Museum Workout, and her comfy jeans while managing many of the company’s day-to-day operations. She is proud and lucky to be a part of this team.
(Creative Producing Director of Monic Bill Barnes & Company, Performer) began working in theater as an audio script assistant to Anna Deveare Smith. He has created performances and toured productions throughout the world with the Obie Award winning Nature Theater of Oklahoma. He has created, produced, and performed in Happy Hour and The Museum Workout with MBB&CO. Some of his other favorite projects include producing This American Life Episode 528, “The Radio Drama Episode” live on stage at BAM, directing Rachel Bonds’s Michael & Edie, and working in Norway to create The Spiritual Life of Modern America, based on the experiences of foreigners traveling in America today.
(Scenic & Costume Design) has worked with MBB&CO on every company show since she first met Monica in 2001. She is also a Production Designer for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” where she does approximately 220 live shows a year. She has been nominated for an Emmy and an Art Department Guild award. Kelly was born in Bryan, TX and earned her MFA in set design at University of California San Diego. She lives in Queens with her husband and two amazing kiddos, who support her more than they know.
(Lighting Design) has designed with MBB&CO for more than a decade, and her collaboration with the company is central to her creative life. Recent theater includes Color Purple, Amelie, and Jitney (TONY nomination) on Broadway, Othello at NYTW, and Hamlet at the Barbican in London. Other designs include The Flick, The Ambassador, All The Way, and Machinal (TONY and Drama Desk nominations). Jane has a long-standing relationship with The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and is the Director of the Program in Theater at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University.
(Playwright) Rachel Bonds’ plays have been developed or produced by South Coast Rep, McCarter Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ars Nova, Roundabout Underground, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Studio Theatre, New York Stage & Film and SPACE on Ryder Farm, among others. She is an affiliated artist of New Georges, an Alum of EST’s Youngblood, Ars Nova’s Play Group and SPACE on Ryder Farm’s Working Farm; recipient of the 2014 Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville, the 2013 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award from Williamstown Theatre Festival and the 2015 Sky Cooper Prize from Marin Theatre Company. Commissions include Studio Theatre, South Coast Rep, Atlantic Theater Company, McCarter, Ars Nova/Manhattan Theatre Club and The Geffen. Bonds is a graduate of Brown University. RachelBonds.com
(Director) New York: A Life, Marjorie Prime (Lortel Nomination, Drama League Nomination); Detroit, Your Mother’s Copy of the Kama Sutra and Maple and Vine (Playwright’s Horizons); The Nether, Smokefall (MCC); Buzzer (The Public); Belleville (Lortel Nomination, NYTW, Yale Rep); You Got Older (Drama Desk Nomination, P73 Productions); The Muscles in Our Toes (Labyrinth Theater Company); Somewhere Fun, God’s Ear (New Georges and Vineyard Theater); Stunning, Slowgirl (LCT3). Regional: The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Smokefall (Goodman Theatre); And No More Shall We Part, You Better Sit Down: Tales from My Parents’ Divorce, Six Degrees of Separation (Williamstown Theater Festival); 100 Days (Z Space, The Know Theater); Belleville (Yale Rep, Steppenwolf). Artistic Associate and Founding Member of The Civilians, Sundance Program Associate, Clubbed Thumb Associate Artist and co-creator of the CT Directing Fellowship, New Georges Associate Artist, Artistic Council of Soho Rep, SDC Executive Board Member.OBIES (Directing and Sustained Excellence), the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Exceptional Creativity from Lincoln Center, the Alan Schneider Director Award and two Barrymore Awards.
(Composer) Married duo The Bengsons have appeared across the country and around the world at such venues as Joe’s Pub (NYC), NYU’s Skirball Center (NYC), MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA), On The Boards (Seattle), FlynnSpace (Burlington, VT), and the Market Theater (Johannesburg, South Africa). Their indie folk opera, Hundred Days (Z Space, San Francisco; Know Theatre, Cincinnati) was awarded the TBA Award for Best New Musical. They have had three singles featured on national television on “So You Think You Can Dance” (FOX). Most recently their music was featured in Anne Washburn and Rachel Chavkin’s Iphigenia in Aulis at Classic Stage Company. They are founding members of the Real Make Collective with Sonya Tayeh and Jo Lampert. Abigail Nessen Bengson has toured as a member of tUnE-yArDs, including an appearance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” Upcoming works include commissions with Ars Nova and New York Live Arts. Bengsons.com
(Ray) Broadway: Wicked (Elphaba), Spring Awakening (Original Cast). NYC and regional: Tick, Tick…Boom! (Keen Company), The Spongebob Musical (Sandy Cheeks, Broadway in Chicago), The Wildness (Ars Nova), Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (A.R.T.), Noir (NYSAF & NAMT), The Threepenny Opera (Atlantic Theater), LMNOP (Goodspeed). Television/Web: Bull (CBS), Creator of Glamour.com’s web shorts “It’s Not Okay, Cupid.” LaGuardia Arts High School and Vassar alum.
(Tom) Theater: Her Requiem, The Nether, Jacuzzi, Fly By Night, The Open House, The Hatmaker’s Wife, End Days, Circle Mirror Transformation, Body Awareness, Uncle Vanya, The Shaggs, After the Revolution, The Great God Pan, The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island, The Heidi Chronicles, Ragtime, The Common Pursuit, A Soldier’s Play, and a Nightingale Sang…, The Loman Family Picnic, Twelve Angry Men. Films: The Savages; Safe; Single White Female; The Messenger; Breaking Upwards; Love and Other Drugs. Television: The Muppet Show, Brooklyn Bridge, The Affair, High Maintenance, The Path.
(Ted Driscoll) Broadway: Our Mother’s Brief Affair, Wit. Off-Broadway: Of Good Stock (MTC), The Who and The What (LCT3), Belleville (NYTW), Somewhere Fun (Vineyard), Cradle and All (MTC), The Seagull (CSC with Dianne Wiest), That Pretty Pretty, Steve & Idi (Rattlestick), Smudge (WP Theater) Regional: Seminar with Jeff Goldblum, 33 Variations with Jane Fonda (Ahmanson), Scenes From Court Life, War, Elevada (Yale Rep). Greg was a Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School and has an MFA in acting from NYU.
(Jean) Broadway: It Shoulda Been You, Once, Sunday in the Park With George, Chicago, Assassins, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Ragtime. Off-Broadway: Taming Of The Shrew (Public Theatre), Wings (2ST), Music In The Air (Encores), Road Show (Public Theatre). Regional: McCarter Theatre, Kansas City Rep, The Huntington, The Citadel. Film & TV: You Must Be Joking, Sugar, Baby Mama, King of California, The Good Wife, Dirt, Law & Order, Veronica Mars, Bull, Submissions Only.
(Bobby/DJ) Broadway: The Farnsworth Invention, I’m Not Rappaport, Not About Nightingales, Mamma Mia, Picnic and Hedda Gabler. Off-Broadway: Insignificance, Dinner With Friends, Saturday Night, Outward Bound (Drama Desk Nom), You Never Can Tell and Black Snow. Film: Bridge of Spies, We the Animals, Brooklyn’s Finest, The Family Stone. Television: The Affair, The Good Wife, Veep, Damages, Blue Bloods, Elementary, Conviction, Sleepy Hollow. Love to Andrea always and ever.
(Carver) Theater credits include: peerless by Jiehae Park (Yale Rep), The Last Match (City Theatre Company), Rich Girl (The Old Globe), The Understudy (McCarter Theatre), Ed, Downloaded (Denver Center Theatre), Leslye Headland’s Bachelorette (Studio Theatre), Red (Asolo Rep & Maltz Jupiter Theatre), She Stoops To Conquer (Williamstown Theatre Festival) and various workshops with Ars Nova, LCT Directors’ Lab, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Sundance Theatre Lab. TV/Film credits include: Elementary, The Good Wife and The Mend. MFA: NYU Graduate Acting.
(Co-Producer) Ars Nova is committed to developing and producing theater, comedy and music artists in the early stages of their professional careers. Our unique development programs are designed to support outside-the-box thinking and cross-pollination to encourage innovative work. Dubbed by the New York Times as a “fertile incubator of offbeat theater,” Ars Nova blurs genres and subverts the status quo. With our feverish bounty of programming, we are the stomping ground and launching pad for visionary, adventurous artists of all stripes. By providing a safe environment where risk-taking and collaboration are paramount, Ars Nova gives voice to a new generation of artists and audiences, pushing the boundaries of live entertainment by nurturing creative ideas into smart, surprising new work.
Ars Nova was honored with a 2015 OBIE Award and a 2015 Special Citation from the New York Drama Critics’ Circle for their sustained quality and commitment to the development and production of new work. Notable past productions include: 2016 Best Musical winner Futurity, by César Alvarez with The Lisps; the critically-acclaimed world premiere of Small Mouth Sounds by Bess Wohl currently enjoying a commercial transfer; Time Out NY’s “Best of 2014,”Jacuzzi by The Debate Society; Drama Desk nominated Charlatan by Vinny DePonto and Josh Koenigsberg; the award-winning smash-hit Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 by Dave Malloy (Broadway transfer Fall 2016); Jollyship the Whiz-Bang by Nick Jones and Raja Azar; the world premiere of the 2009 season’s most-produced play boom by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb; Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle nominated From Up Here by Liz Flahive; audience favorite Dixie’s Tupperware Party by Kris Andersson; and star-makers At Least It’s Pink by Bridget Everett and Kenny Mellman; and Freestyle Love Supreme by Anthony Veneziale and Lin-Manuel Miranda. ArsNovaNYC.com
(Playwright) Zoe Sarnak Works include: Secret Soldiers (with Marsha Norman), Afterwords (Village Theatre Beta Series Production 2018, Playwrights Horizons-MTF lab), The Years Between (with Kirsten Guenther, T-Fellowship), Across the Great Divide (with Michele Lowe, Transport Group’s 20th Century Commission), Galileo (with Danny Strong, Michael Weiner and dir. Michael Mayer), Teddy & Max (with Brian Crawley), A Crossing (with Josh Bergasse, Barrington Stage Company commission) and musical short films Landed, Alma Mater, and Hold Your Peace. (with Emily Kaczmarek, New York Film Academy commissions). Awards include: 2018 Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist (with Emily Kaczmarek, winners to be announced), Davenport Songwriting contest winner, NY Stage & Film’s Founders Award finalist, Fred Ebb Award finalist, two time Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award Honoree, Women’s Project Lab Artist, SWAN song contest award. Residencies include: The Public Theater at Vineyards Arts, Goodspeed Writers Colony, Williamstown Theatre Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, McCarter Theater Residency, Prospect Theatre Company, Eugene O’Neill Artist Residency, and Rhinebeck Writers Retreat. Music featured: NY Times Live, Lilly Awards, Women of Note, Cutting Edge Composers and more. Education: Harvard University.
(Playwright & Lisa) Lisa Lampanelli shot her fifth stand-up special, “Back to the Drawing Board,” which premiered June 26, 2015 on EPIX and was nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award for “Best Comedy Album.” In the special, Comedy’s Lovable Queen of Mean showed off her radically different look after having lost more than 100 pounds. That weight loss, which she has maintained for over four years, inspired her to write Stuffed since, having been every size from 2 to 26, she has firsthand knowledge of the food and body-image struggle.
Lisa became a household name when she joined 17 other celebrities on the fifth season of NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice,” where she advanced to the final four in the competition, raising $130,000 for her chosen charity, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. She also starred as a regular on “Bounty Hunters,” CMT’s first-ever animated series, and recently stole the show on an episode of CBS’s “2 Broke Girls,” helmed by “Sex and The City” creator, Michael Patrick King. She also was recently accepted into and attended the Yale Summer Conservatory for Actors in New Haven, CT.
Lampanelli joined the ranks of comedy greats with her 2009 HBO comedy special, “Long Live the Queen,” and that same year, released her autobiography, Chocolate, Please: My Adventures in Food, Fat and Freaks (Harper Collins). Lisa was also a monthly writer for the Women column in Playboy Magazine and is a contributor to the blog for Kripalu, the world-renowned yoga and meditation retreat center.
Lisa’s rise to the top of the comedy food chain began in 2002 when she was the only female comedian invited to skewer Chevy Chase on the NY Friars Club Comedy Central Roast. She soon became known as the “Queen of the Roasts”, going on to lambaste such names as Pamela Anderson, Jeff Foxworthy, William Shatner, Flava Flav, David Hasselhoff and, most recently, Donald Trump. Due to her success as a roaster, in 2009, Lisa was asked to serve as Roastmaster for the highly rated Comedy Central Roast of friend and fellow comic, Larry the Cable Guy.
One of the few white comedians to perform on BET’s “Comic View,” Lisa has clearly cemented her huge crossover appeal. She went on to appear on Comedy Central’s “Last Laugh 2005” and her one-hour special that year, “Take It Like a Man,” was a hit with the comedy network yet again. The CD and the DVD of the same name hit #6 on the comedy charts. Then, in January 2007, Lisa’s second one-hour special, “Dirty Girl,” debuted on Comedy Central and Warner Bros. Records, and reached #4 on the charts. Soon thereafter, “Dirty Girl” was nominated for a Grammy Award for 2007’s “Best Comedy Album”.
Lisa appeared in the David Chase-directed feature film, “Not Fade Away.” She also appeared in “Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector” and had a featured role in “Delta Farce,” opposite Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy, and D.J. Quall. She also starred in the hilarious documentary, “The Aristocrats,” and played a more maternal version of herself in the Owen Wilson vehicle, “Drillbit Taylor.”
(Director) Upcoming Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Studio Theatre in association with New Neighborhood). Recent projects include Transfers by Lucy Thurber (New York Stage & Film); Much Ado About Nothing adapted with Kenneth Lin (Cal Shakes); Workshop of Suzanne Vega’s Lover, Beloved, An Evening with Carson McCullers with music by Vega and Duncan Sheik (Rattlestick and Rattlestick West LA); George Brant’s Grounded (Alley Theatre); Jen Silverman’s The Moors (Yale Rep); These Paper Bullets! Adapted from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing by Rolin Jones with music by Billie Joe Armstrong (Atlantic Theater Company, Geffen Playhouse, Yale Rep – Critics Pick Time Out NY, Best Production and Adaptation LA Sage Awards, Best of 2015 Time Out Los Angeles, Connecticut Critics Circle Award Best Production and Best Director); I Saw My Neighbor On The Train And I Didn’t Even Smile by Suzanne Heathcote (co-production New Neighborhood / Berkshire Theatre Festival); Elevada by Sheila Callaghan (Yale Rep); The Insurgents by Lucy Thurber (Labyrinth Theater Company); 3C by David Adjmi (Rattlestick/piece by piece/Rising Phoenix); Lucy Thurber’s Where We’re Born – The Hilltown Plays (Rattlestick); Rolin Jones’s The Jammer (Atlantic Theater Company) and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Atlantic and Yale Rep, Connecticut Critics Circle Award Outstanding Production of a Play); A Little Journey (Mint Theater Company, Drama Desk nomination Outstanding Revival of a Play); Other Desert Cities; August: Osage County; Red and Kenneth Lin’s Intelligence-Slave (Alley Theatre). Jackson is a founding member of New Neighborhood. She is the Director of Artistic Programming for Fuller Road Artist Residency and teaches directing at Yale College. BFA University of the Arts. MFA Yale School of Drama. Jackson is from Sugar Land, Texas.
(Stacey) Ann Harada originated the role of Christmas Eve in Avenue Q on Broadway and the West End. Other Broadway includes Cinderella, 9 to 5, M Butterfly, Seussical, Les Misérables (revival). Recent Off – Broadway includes Brooklynite (Vineyard Theatre) and Love, Loss, and What I Wore (Westside Theatre). Regionally: 42nd Street and Mamma Mia (MUNY), and God of Carnage (George Street Playhouse) FILM: Youth in Oregon, Sisters, Trouble, Admission, Hope Springs, and The Art of Getting By. TV: “The Jim Gaffigan Show,” “The Good Wife,” “SMASH,” “30 Rock,” “House of Cards,” “Master of None.”
(Katey) Zainab Jah’s Recent credits include: Maima, Eclipsed, Broadway; title role of Hamlet, (The Wilma Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo N Juliet (Classical Theatre of Harlem), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, (Atlantic Theater, NYC), Prudence The Convert, Josephine, Ruined, A Doll’s House ( Williamstown Theatre Festival), Helen of Troy, Trojan Women, (Classical Theatre of Harlem), In Darfur, (The Public Theatre /NYSF), Peter Sellars’ Children Of Herakles, ( European Tour). Film / TV credits: New York, I Love You (Short), “Law & Order SVU,” Outliving Emily (with Andre Braugher and Philicia Rashad), Along Came Love, with Vanessa Williams. Awards: Philadelphia Critcs’ Circle Best actress Award (Hamlet ) Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award Best Featured Actress (The Convert); San Francisco Bay Area Critics’ Circle – Outstanding Performance Female Featured Role (Ruined); and Best Featured Actress, Philadelphia Critics’ Circle Featured Actress Award (The Convert).
(Britney) Jessica is thrilled to be making her Off-Broadway debut in Stuffed! New York Theatre credits include: The Digger (La MaMa), The Blood Brothers (The Brick), The Quake (Ideal Glass), The Disembodied Soul and Buddy Becker’s Uncut Flick (NY Fringe). Web Series: “Down Dog and Carolers.” Jessica is a Yale graduate and a recent Rockwell scholar at ESPA/ Primary Stages. She is a member of the rock band My Dear Mycroft and the improv team The Jessica’s. Jessica is thrilled to be making her Off-Broadway debut in Stuffed!
(Performer) Monica Bill Barnes is a choreographer, performer, and the Artistic Director of Monica Bill Barnes & Company, a NYC based contemporary dance company. Barnes founded MBB&CO in 1997 with the mission to celebrate individuality, humor, and the innate theatricality of everyday life. The company creates full-length shows that tour the country’s biggest stages and tiniest rooms, bringing dance where it doesn’t belong. Her work has been performed in venues ranging from Upright Citizen’s Brigade to The BAM Opera House, and has been presented in more than 75 cities throughout the US. Current projects include a collaborative show with radio host Ira Glass that combines radio stories and dance, Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, a collaboration with author/visual artist Maira Kalman creating a guided Museum Workout, and Happy Hour, the world’s first-ever karaoke office party dance show featuring Barnes and her dancing partner, Anna Bass.
